I’ve started reading Century Rain, by Alastair Reynolds. It’s the only Reynolds novel that I haven’t read before, apart from his new one called The Prefect.
Here is a short reading update:
- Century Rain p290/532
- Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson p310/794
- Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson P150/926
I’m finally starting to get out of a very stressful situation, which is one fo the reasons why I have concentrated on posting about other matters.
I still have a bunch of book reviews to finish. From Judas Unchained and The Night’s Dawn Trilogy from Peter F. Hamilton to Look to Windward and The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks. Also, Gone by Jonathan Kellerman, Next by Michael Crichton, Cobweb and Zodiac by Neal Stephenson.
On top of that, I have a few new movie reviews as well, including the latest Pirates movie as well as 28 Weeks Later and a few others.
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Zooomr is down for the time being. They are in the process of changing servers so some or all of the pictures hosted on Zooomr are no longer available. Hopefully, this is something temporary. It’s a bit frustrating, but there is nothing the users can do about it right now. I hope it will be resolved soon. The last time they tried updating to the next version, it took them a few weeks to go back to the old one because of some issues I am not really aware of. Good luck to Kristopher to get things up and running soon!
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The heat is up in Taipei. It’s hot (32-37°C inside) and humid. I’ve spent a few days without air-con and it’s hell. The strange thing is that you get used to it after a while, once your body temperature adjusts. However, it does make you sleepy.
For the last two weeks, my wife and I always got ready to sweat when we left our apartment. It is very humid. And by the time I get to the train station, by t-shirt is soaked. The short sleeved shirt that I got for my birthday is coming in handy, it wicks away sweat and dries quickly. I’ll have to get some pants made out of the similar fabric in a few days, because my jeans are not cutting it in the heat.
I’ve found some more hours to round up my teaching schedule for the next few months. It will force me back into a regular morning routine, something that I have been struggling with since we moved to Taipei.
Another thing we had to get used to is the bugs. Giant cockroaches scuttering around oustide and inside apartment buildings, but not inside the apartment itself. I have seen quite large specimens on my walks back from the train station. They are everywhere.
On Sunday, I was in Beitou taking pictures for my article for Discover Taipei. I saw a giant dragonfly, must have had an 8″ wingspan. For a moment, I thought it was out of Jurassic Park.
I’ve started using the tripod for some shots. It works out pretty well, but I do need a cable release to stop shaking the camera when I press the capture button. In fact, I wouldn’t mind getting a sturdier tripod, that doesn’t shake at all. I’ve taken some great shots of the Taipei Public Library, Branch of Beitou, which I will post as soon as Zooomr is back up and running.
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Big Brother UK 8 has started and I am looking forward to it. It’s quite entertaining, a lot more than BBAU. Then again, both shows have a different feel. I’ve read that Doctor Who might get cancelled after it’s fourth season. (That’s not really true, since Doctor Who is one of the most longest running TV shows, but you get what I mean.) I have read that Russel Davies plans to axe the series after it’s next season in 2008.
Now that is just plain stupid. It’s a great series that needs to continue. It gets 8 million viewers every Saturday night and countless more in other countries of the Commonwealth, like Canada. (CBC is carrying it because they participated in the development of the series in some fashion.)
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This weekend, I plan on really relaxing. It has been a while since my mind has been at peace, a long while. It’s never good to be under a lot of stress for long periods of time. It has happened to me over the last few years, and I thought our move to Taiwan would be good to resolve some of those issues. However, in the last few month a new stress has appeared in our lives. It is drawing to an end though, hopefully.
To me relaxing involves a lot of writing. As I have mentioned before, there are a few things that I have shelved over the past few weeks because of things happening in our lives. I plan to return to them in the following days. I have got about 35 paperblogs to post as well, as well as some art. I have completed two new pieces that I will post. Both have been created using Fabet-Castell inking pens (1mm, 2mm, 3mm, 5mm, 8mm) and Tombow ABT Dual tipped pens. One is on a paper slightly smaller than A5 and one is on B4 (10″x14″). I plan on getting a bigger pad as well, so that I can put even more details into it. The smaller pieces is called Cellular Machinery and the larger one is called Cellular War. They are in a series.
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memoirs on a rainy day 