Miscellaneous diversions

[triskellian]

I'm reading Oryx and Crake. Not now, because I'm at work, but generally. I've only read a very little bit of it so far, but I'm excited about the rest. I'm also reading Bill Bryson's Troublesome Words. It's just a usage dictionary, but his writing is so much fun, and I'm interested in words, so I'm enjoying that, too. I love his travel writing, but his language and linguistics is much more 'my sort of thing'. It's just a shame there's not more of it. I read Mother Tongue on holiday in Dijon earlier in the year, and now I want to read more like it. Fun and work and study all rolled into one! I'm lucky it's possible for them all to overlap, I guess, but I wish it happened more often.

As you can see, being at work at the moment doesn't mean I'm doing work. There is hardly anyone in - term's over, so no students, and my colleagues are on holidays and at conferences and in meetings. The other girl in the office is playing Tetris, so I'm not too worried about LJing.

Computer updates from yesterday: Quark (the DTP software, nothing to do with elementary particles or cheese) still won't work, so I'm using my laptop for that, and my desktop for everything else. Why the crashing program couldn't be one that doesn't require a large screen, I have no idea. It hardly seems fair ;-)

I've discovered that the world of cartoon 'dollz' is scarily addictive. I might be getting carried away making them, and I'm trying to think of something else to do with the damn things once I've made them. There's only so many LJ icons a girl can use.

Still wallowing in post-Buffy blues. I'm watching series 3, which is currently showing one episode a day on Sky (although I missed Lover's Walk, which I'm rather gutted about), forming plots to acquire all the DVDs without spending a fortune, and after speculating with secretrebel the other day about what all the characters do after the show finishes, I now want to write fanfic.

Tonight I'm hoping to christen my new Mah Jong set, and tomorrow to christen the newly arrived first series of Six Feet Under. Hooray!

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Tonight I'm hoping to christen my new Mah Jong set

Ooh - come over and play Mah Jong [sp?] sometime ! Dawn and I have a lovely set which we never get to use. I've almost forgotten the rules, in fact.

(My main memory of the games I played in the past being Jez and I pulling mock-oriental faces and shouting Rrrrrrrotus ! at the appropriate points !)

[triskellian]

Ooh - come over and play Mah Jong [sp?] sometime !
Gladly! It's one of my favourite games, and I don't get to play it often enough.

Dawn and I have a lovely set which we never get to use. I've almost forgotten the rules, in fact.
If your set is the pretty brocade box on top of the bookcase in the living room, I've noticed it before and meant to mention it! My set is probably the same if the boxes are anything to go by.

(My main memory of the games I played in the past being Jez and I pulling mock-oriental faces and shouting Rrrrrrrotus ! at the appropriate points !)
Ah, well you're behind the times, then. The joke thing all the cool Mah Jong (no, I've no real idea how it's spelt either) players are doing is now is singing 'ho, ho, ho, green dragon' to the tune of 'ho, ho, ho green giant'. I'm reliably informed that you just need to say 'green dragon' to kauket to make her collapse into hysterics. Or something ;-)

[ealuscerwen.livejournal.com]

When reading Bill Bryson on language and linguistics, please remember that his work is in some parts both unscholarly and wrong. He perpetuates various fallacies that were disproved many years before he wrote his books.

On another note, can I recommend Words in Time by Geoffrey Hughes? It's a fun read and very interesting.

[triskellian]

Damnit! I shall burn all of his books immediately ;-) Or take him with a pinch of salt. Something like that. It's good to know, though - thanks!

Thanks also for the recommendation. I'll look it up.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I have Buffy seasons 1, 2, 3 and 5 on DVD (plus Angel 1 and 2, though you may be less interested in those) - and I plan to fill in the gaps as and when I can. You can certainly borrow some of them if you like!

Thanks!

[triskellian]

I'm actually more interested in the Angel, because I haven't seen much of it and would like to. The Buffy I'm going to get hold of for myself - it's more a question of wanting to have it than to watch it ;-)

Re: Thanks!

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

Quite so - the reason why I leapfrogged Season 4 in my own campaign of acquisition is that I'd seen most of it, and hardly any of 5. When I do get hold of Season 4, it won't be out of a burning need to actually watch any of the episodes (though a Restless viewing can surely never go amiss), but just because there's a completism issue by this stage!

I might be popping down to Oxford this weekend, if you're about and would like some early Angel.

Re: Thanks!

[triskellian]

Oh! Yes please! Are you going to the party I'm going to on Saturday? And will you have toxicbunny with you? Not that I want to borrow her, but it would be good to see her ;-)