Ten random ephemera for Thursday

[tamaranth]

1. It's autumn, all right. I do actually like early autumn a great deal -- something about the light -- but I prefer to have summer immediately prior.

2. It's getting chilly, especially after ridiculously early nightfall. I put the heating on last night. (Shiva very happy.)

3. Via woolymonkey, what the Romans may have done for us -- messed up potential HIV resistance in the Roman Empire. Possibly using cats.

4. Chrome v. flashy and pretty fast (I'm not noticing slowness, anyway) but there are some oddities. Like scrolling-and-selecting, which doesn't behave as I'd expect (i.e. usefully) and has a nasty tendency to select random stuff from elsewhere on the page.

5. In other browser news, there is a new version of Flock. This one logs me out, randomly, from LJ several times a day. STOPPIT.

6. Skool hols are over in the borough! My lunchtime swim was oddly peaceful, and it took me a while to work out why.

7. I am trying to have a very productive week (and succeeding in several areas) but prolonged typing still makes my left thumb-joint hurt. A lot.

8. Off to Kew this evening to celebrate my friend M's birthday and bitch about her sister.

9. Have been flicking through online reviews of Stephenie* Meyer's The Host. Am dismayed to see so many Amazon (and other) reviewers hailing the brilliant prose, originality of concept, depth of characterisation: also, phrases like "the first love triangle involving only two bodies" (manifest bollocks) and "SF is downplayed in favor of more thought-provoking issues like the resiliency of humanity, overcoming cultural barriers, interspecies prejudice, and so forth". [FX: toothgrinding]. I did enjoy the book, but not for the aforementioned virtues.

10. Post-conversation with major_clanger t'other day, does anyone have useful resources about communes / communities set up in the late 1940s by ex-servicemen? I was intrigued to note that Othona, at Bradwell (next to St Cedd's chapel, built ~650AD from the bricks of the Roman fort), was set up in 1946 by an ex-RAF chaplain.

I have been spelling it wrong all this time: there is no 'a'

Comments

[ajshepherd.livejournal.com]

Yes, my central heating kicked in last night just before I went to bed, and it came on a bit this morning just before I got up. That was the first time it had done that in months!

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I have been spelling it wrong all this time: there is no 'a'

I didn't like to say.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Have amended my post to match your improved subject line. Much more better!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

whyever not?

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Meyer's catchment area is mid-teens, remember, and they will be reading The Host from a position of (mostly) genre ignorance. Best friend's daughter (aged 17) adores it because to her it seems so fresh -- she's a bright girl but she hasn't read much sf.

[ladymoonray.livejournal.com]

I hope M is OK and you celebrated her birthday appropriately.

Our heating is on the thermostat (which actually works, thanks to you) and it keeps coming on even though it's only set at 19 degrees. Eek.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I've been told off a lot for correction, so I'm trying to bite my tongue more often.