Furthermore: January 2006

January 26, 2006

The Book of Gold

The Book of Gold is the name used by the librarian in Gene Wolfe’s New Sun books to describe the magical book encountered in childhood that opens up the great world within books for a particular child.

It was also a short-lived Gene Wolfe fanzine, published twice in 1989 by a chap called Jeremy Crampton in the USA. Both editions are largely concerned with the Soldier of the Mist series, although they touch on other works.

Jeremy was also good enough to make copies of Castle of the Otter available when it was pretty much unobtainable outside the US, for which I am very grateful - I still have my copy, even though I have the more recent, expanded version too.

Why am I telling you this. Mainly, I’m telling Google. I’ve responded to a couple of requests for copies from the Urth mailing list, but I don’t read it much anymore, so if anyone else wants a copy, they can contact me here, and I’ll send them one.

January 22, 2006

Another quote from my daughter

Okay, so I said I wouldn’t do this, but I thought this was great. L and I have been playing at swordfights with rolled-up tablemats. I’ve been killed several times over and I decide to rise from the dead and fight as a zombie.

“What’s a zombie, daddy?”

“It’s a dead body that comes back to life again.”

“Jesus was a zombie, wasn’t he daddy?”

January 20, 2006

Going to the Gym

I tried out Keeping in Shape on Mill Road on Monday evening. It’s a fairly small gym that runs circuit training sessions. Rates are not too bad - about �25 a month for one session a week + access at weekends. Users (on the night I went) were a mix of men and women of various ages. Dave (who runs the gym) seemed to know his group pretty well, and spent time with me to make sure I was using the right weights etc.

I enjoyed it, and I need something to help keep me fit while I’m not running, so I think I’ll sign up from next week.

January 11, 2006

Ugly

Sorry the site is currently looking very ugly (if it still is). I’m just in the process of upgrading to a 3 column stylesheet, and I’m kind of doing it by trial and error. I’ve looked at Erik Heels Movable Type braindump and basically copied the stylesheet from bluerobot.com.

So far the basic design is working, but I need to put back all the Furthermore specific styles, or think of updates that I like better. I have been meaning to get a proper banner for instance.

Update: It’s now looking pretty good, once I understood which stylesheet elements affected which bits of the main template. You should be seeing delicious links and blogroll on the right now.

January 8, 2006

Out of the mouths of babes

Well, I’ve waited 4 years, I figure I’m entitled to one post of amusing things my daughter has said. This won’t become a habit, I promise.

L - I don’t believe in god, but I do believe in fairies. Fairies are real aren’t they daddy?

Me - umm.

L - I know fairies are real, because there’s the tooth fairy.

Checkmate. I did win one over Christmas though:

L - Even if I don’t get anything from Father Christmas, I’ll still get the presents under the tree won’t I daddy?

Me - (thinking quickly) I think Father Christmas takes them to give to the good children.

L - (considers whether to cry)

Me - (quickly) but you’ve been a good girl haven’t you? So I’m sure you’ll get presents.

L - Oh yes.