Season of Mists

Yesterday I read the graphic novel The Sandman: Season of Mists written by Neil Gaiman. The story revolved around Morpheus, Lord of Dreams, who thousands of years ago condemned a woman to Hell after she rejected him. Convinced by the rest of his immortal family, The Endless, that this was wrong, Morpheus travels to Hell to rescue her. However, Lucifer has not forgotten how Morpheus humiliated him in the past and is preparing his revenge. It was a really good story.

Last night I was watching The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan, in which Batman (played by Christian Bale) has to fight against master criminal The Joker (Heath Ledger). It is a really good and complex superhero movie, with plenty of spectacular action, and brilliant performances, especially from Ledger. I remember watching it at the cinema when it was out last year.

After the movie I went on to the computer and was up until about half past four in the morning writing. I’ve pretty much finished the story, but I want to rewrite the last part because, after I’ve thought about it, I’m not really happy about it.

Today was another really bright and sunny day. I went along to my parent’s house as usual for a Sunday and we had a barbecue. Which was hamburgers, sausages, chicken legs and salad followed by strawberries dipped in melted chocolate and beer. It was really nice. We always like having barbecues but the weather is very rarely nice enough to allow us to have them. We didn’t have any at all last year. It was also nice enough to just sit out in the garden.

When I got back I listened to the final episode of Voices From the Grave, which this week told the story of a parson who takes over a new parish in a small English village and promptly bans a violent annual fighting game, much to the horror of the villagers. The decision also enrages evil ancient forces which demand a blood sacrifice. It was a pretty good one. That has been a good series actually.

A Murder of Quality

Last night I was up late reading again and didn’t get to bed until about five in the morning.

Today the weather is really hot and sunny. I headed out to go to the comic book store, but the buses had all been diverted due to a march, so I pretty much had to walk up, and I saw some pretty good comics, but I didn’t buy anything there. Instead I walked back to the main shopping street and bought another couple of The Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman (the ones I bought were Season of Mists and Fables & Reflections). I’m collecting them at the moment and I think there really great. I walked home and stopped off to get my groceries for the coming week. When I got back I was taking out my rubbish and I was just putting it out when the bag split, but luckily I managed to clean everything up quickly.

This afternoon I am listening to A Murder of Quality on the radio, an adaptation of a John le Carre novel. The stroy revolves around regular le Carre character George Smiley as he investigates a murder at an exclusive English public shool. Unlike most le Carre books this was a “whodunnit” detective story rather than a spy thriller, but it’s still good.

The Start of the Weekend

Last night I was listening to a pretty good Sherlock Holmes story on the radio. I’ve always liked those stories and they work great on radio. I also watched a very funny episode of The Big Bang Theory. After I finished reading Demon Seed I started reading The English Civil War: A People’s History by Diane Purkiss. It’s pretty interesting focussing on the lives of various people who were affected by it, and also on the books, papers, pamphlets, song and poems and so on that were written and were popular during the time.

I also did some more writing which went quite well.

Today was very hot and sunny, and it was another very quiet and dull day at work. However I did manage to leave work early. I’m kind of glad that it’s the weekend now.

Demon Seed

Last night I finished reading the novel Demon Seed by Dean Koontz. The story involves recently divorced Susan Harris who lives in a large mansion which is almost completely automated and protected by a complex network of security cameras and surveillance devices. However her ex-husband, a computer scientist, has recently developed Adam Two, a powerful supercomputer which has it’s own conciousness and is self-aware. The supercomputer, which re-names itself Proteus, hacks into Susan’s house computer and, after watching her on the security cameras instantly becomes obsessed with her and sets about imprisoning her in the house. Terrorised by a psychotic, sex-obsessed computer, Susan soon realises the full extent of the computer’s horrific plan. The book was originally written in 1973 and a successful film adaptation was released in 1977 starring Julie Christie. However Koontz re-wrote the book in 1997, originally to take into account the fact that computer technology had changed such a lot since 1973, but he decided he was unhappy with the original novel and completely re-wrote it, shifting the viewpoint from Susan to the computer. I’ve not read the original version but I have seen the film and that was pretty good. Obviously computer technology has changed such a lot since 1997 that some aspects and references are already quite dated. On the whole it was a pretty good book, it’s also very short which is probably why I managed to read it so quickly, but the ending is a bit abrupt.

I was also watching the final episode of season two of The Wire. Apparently the next season is going to be shown in three weeks time. I really love that show and I’ll probably start collecting the DVD sets soon.

Today was another really quiet day at work and pretty dull. I was very happy to get back home. At least it will be the weekend soon.

Work and Writing

Last night was really quiet again. I watched the penultimate episode of the second season of The Wire which was really good. The season finishes tonight.

I was also writing more of the story about the enchanted map-maker. It features more from the supernatural creatures that were in the previous story that I wrote, although in this story quite a lot of it take place in their realms and there’s a lot more about them and they’re relationships with each other (they are all powerful immortal creatures and so frequently bored and liven things up for themselves by tormenting each other)

It was another really quiet and kind of depressing day at work. It was one of those days where I didn’t know what they wanted me to be doing or even where they wanted me to be. Also, due to the work running out, I ended up being put on to a completely different job about an hour before I left, which was pretty annoying. I was really happy to get back home!

Neverwhere

Last night was pretty quiet. I wrote some more of my story and I watched the latest episode of The Wire, which was really good, and listened to another radio adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes story.

It was a very quiet and dull day at work today and I was feeling kind of tired. There wasn’t much work in, presumably due to it being the day after a bank holiday, presumably.

I finished reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. The story revolves around a young man named Richard Mayhew who lives in London in an ordinary flat, has an ordinary job in an office and a glamorous fiancee. One night he encounters an injured young woman, named Door, on the streets. He helps her recover and shortly afterwards discover that he has become invisible to everyone around him, and even his oldest friends don’t seem to recognise him. He ends up discovering a secret subterranean city called London Below in the sewers, tunnels and underground stations beneath the city, populated by “people who slipped through the cracks”, along with monsters, angels, vampires, knights and people who can talk to rats. It’s a very imaginative and an endlessly entertaining book, full of action, adventure and humour. I remember watching the BBC TV version back in 1996.

Quiet Times

Last night was pretty quiet. I was writing some more of my story and reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I just started reading that novel on Saturday evening and I’m already well over halfway through it. I have been really loving it so far. I also listened to the latest episode of Voices From the Grave on the radio. This episode involved an unhappily married woman who becomes increasingly obsessed with an old Victorian mental hospital and the ghosts which are reputed to occupy it. It was a pretty good episode.

Today I was back at work, and things were back to normal, although I was working on the new computer system which I was trained on last week. It was pretty dull however, because I got in pretty early, I also managed to leave early. This evening I’ll be writing more of my story, reading more Neverwhere and watching the latest episode of The Wire.

Radio and Books

Last night I spent a lot of time listening to radio verisons of old episodes of Dad’s Army. I was also reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which so far is really good. I remember watching the TV miniseries when it was first shown back in 1996. I also started writing a new story about a mapmaker whose works have the power to trap people in their own bizarre worlds.

Today I went along to my parent’s house as usual. My mum had come back from her holiday in Spain with her friend from Australia. Also it is my Dad’s birthday tomorrow so we all had a kind of special party lunch of pizza slices, roast chicken, pork pies and quiche so that was nice.

Also things will be back to normal at work this next week with no more training courses.

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

Last night I was listening to a couple of episodes of Sherlock Holmes on the radio which were pretty good.

Today I went out pretty early to get my groceries for the week. I also managed to get a copy of the book Demon Seed by Dean Koontz in the bargain basement book rack, so I was pretty pleased with that. When I got back I listened to a radio adaptation of A Call for the Dead based on John le Carre’s debut novel. The story revolves around spy George Smiley who is called in when an agent who Smiley had been recruiting is found dead, apparently having commited suicide. When he investigates however, Smiley quickly finds out that the situation is more complex then it appears.

Mostly I was reading Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon, which I have now finished. Basically, while he was working as a newspaper reporter, David Simon spent the whole of 1988 following the Homicide Unit of the Baltimore Police Department, and the book is Simon’s account of what he saw and heard as he followed the detectives from the crime scenes, to the interrogation rooms, to the morgue, to canvassing witnesses, and to the courtrooms. The book details the process of the criminal investigations in great detail, but it also details the constant joking, insults and banter that the detectives use amongst themselves in the station, cars and bars. It is a fascinating book, managing to be suspenseful, gripping, tragic, heartbreaking and also full of very dark humour. I’ve never really liked true crime books but it is recommended to anyone who likes a good crime thriller or a police procedural. It was adapted as a TV series in the ’90s called Homicide: Life on the Streets.

Last Training Day

Last night was pretty quiet. I was listening to an adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes story called “The Red-Headed League” on the radio. It was one of a number of Sherlock Holmes stories that I had on tape years ago. I wish I knew where the tapes are now, but I probably threw them out years ago.

Today I went along to the Roxburghe Hotel for the half day “Dealing with Change” training course for work. It started with an hour and a half talk about change in the workplace, how it affects people, and how different people deal with change. Then there was a coffee break for a few minutes and then we played a series of games and puzzles for the second hour and a half (which included making models out of Play-Doh). That was fun.

It finished at one in the afternoon and I had a half day booked off from work, so that was basically me free to do what I wanted. I headed up to the Filmhouse cinema to collect the Film Festival tickets that I booked a few weeks ago, so that went well. After that I did some shopping. I got a book called Churchill’s Triumph by Michael Dobbs for my Dad’s birthday present. It’s a kind of historical, political thriller and I know that Dad’s read a few others in the series. I also got the book Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman for myself. I got a birthday card for Dad and some wrapping paper. Then I went over to a hotel bar and had a club sandwich and a pint of beer for my lunch. So it was a pretty successful day!