Dinosaurs with Laser-Guns

I finished rereading Cloud Atlas today, and it's proved itself to be as good as I remember. Always slightly risky to read books you really loved as a teenager. I don't think I was as aware of the depth and the overarching themes of the various section the first time around, but the things I did remember — the way it moves through different times and styles and how the language changes to fit each story — are still just as great. When do you get two different flavours of speculative futuristic sci-fi, historical fiction from different periods, and contemporary stories (one of them a detective story/thriller) in the same novel? It's almost everything I love in one delicious bundle.

I'd also forgotten most of the stories' endings, which was nice. (Oh man, the end of the Orison of Sonmi. ;_; I don't even know why that surprised me, it was pretty obvious.)

I really need to read more of David Mtchell's work.

Next I'm reading Geschichte einer Liebe, a non-fiction book about the love affair between Adele Schopenhauer (who was the sister of an apparently famous philosopher who I have never heard of, because I am poorly read XD) and Sibylle Mertens (who according to wiki was an archaeologist! Awesome.) And neither of them have English wiki pages; sorry guys.

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On Sunday my dad and I went to see The Surreal House at the Barbican. I recommend it! I didn't necessarily like or relate to all the pieces, but it was interesting and thought-provoking and taught me a bit about the surrealist movement. My favourite was a piano suspended from the ceiling. I don't really want to describe it further because that would probably be spoilers in case anyone who reads this does go see the exhibition.

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We made an offer for Flat 2 from my last entry, by the way! Maybe possibly hopefully finally a place to live!

Train to Paris tomorrow evening. Shall I pack now or tomorrow? Maybe I'll just make a pile of clothes now.


PS: Just some links to myself so I remember to have a look at them later/when I get back from Paris
http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/19/robotics-industries-association-were-creating-jobs-helping-the-economy/
http://www.youtube.com/abbrobotics
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_arm_tutorial.shtml

I should tidy my room, really, but I think I'll just sit around blowing my nose a lot and writing a blog entry.

I arranged a fair number of flat viewings last week, and all but one of them got cancelled or postponed (usually when I had already travelled up to London), and the one we did see was crap. It's been a really irritating week. But we found a lot of nice ones online this weekend, so let's hope next week is more productive. We might move to Canary Wharf and take the river bus in the mornings. Sure, the tube might be quicker, but river bus!

Hey, look what Tim got me as a present:



Awesome, right? XD There's a whole series of them. (Though statistics totally has the nicest cover art.) It's pretty good, actually. I haven't gone through the last few chapters yet, but it's been a nice review of the stuff I learned in school.

Speaking of manga, I read the first five volumes of Otomen* this weekend. It's all about boys who secretly like girly things, (and vice versa, though I guess there's only one girl) and Being Accepted For Yourself and doing cliché stories in amusing ways and it's generally the most adorable thing I have ever read. Also there is a girl/boy love story, obvs, and they keep being equally badass and either saving the day together or saving each other in equal measure. (Which does end up with people getting kicked in the face a lot, admittedly.) And it makes me happy about everything.

I have run out of things to talk about! Oh yeah, we went to see the Evangelion films last weekend! Have I really not blogged since before then? Sheesh. Anyway, they were badass in so many ways. The artwork and design were amazing, and it was a lot more emotionally engaging than I remember the series being: some bits were actually pretty uncomfortable to watch. I rather want to re-watch the series now, to see some more of the in-between bits, and to remember what my problem with it was. I remember waiting the entire the time for things to be explained that never were, and I didn't really get that from the films (though there's one - or two? - films left still). Either I was being dumb or they really tightened up the writing. Maybe both.

God, the battles were so badass. Especially on the big screeeeen. Most enjoyable night I have spent in a cinema for ages.


PS: I just watched the latest Doctor Who episode. I think the pacing was a bit off again, but aaaaaah, the end was SO SAD. ;____;


*Which is a pun on otome ("maiden, young lady"), and the English word men. And it's spelled 乙男 in kanji, which is otome 乙女 with the kanji for woman 女 replaced with the one for man 男. I love Japanese for punning.