Boo

I guess everyone's forgotten me, it's so long since I updated this thing. That's okay. I've probably forgotten you, too.

I've quickly read through the last few entries. My "new" job is now my ex-job, and has been for a long time. I now have another new job, and I've been there quite some time already so it's not really new at all.  It can be challenging sometimes, but also fun. I'd retire tomorrow if I could afford that, but wouldn't everyone. To be fair, I suspect that when I do eventually retire in a few years time that I'll genuinely miss my job role, and it really can be fun sometimes. I have a new colleague who's over-enthusiastic and full of bright ideas, which is all a bit exhausting. And irritating. Hopefully she'll calm down as the weeks tick by and she gradually learns that nobody gets promoted from this role so she might as well cool it with the career climbing. Jump through all the hoops you want, there's nowhere better to land, not in this role and in this place of employment.

I also re-read my previous scepticism about the (then unscreened) TV series of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I've now seen Season One - I had to import it on DVD from America - and loved it. I'm looking forward to Season Two when it's finally available.

I've not added much to my AO3 site. One day, perhaps. Would anyone want to read that old stuff, though? Time has moved on.

Has anyone watched The Strain? While it sticks closely to familiar vampire tropes in many ways, it's entirely contemporary, and I like the new-style monsters. Their forked tongues, being so huge, would have surely distort their human hosts necks though. I mean, just where are they hiding those things when they're not flinging them towards their victims?  Hogwarts' caretaker as the van Helsing-type character is wonderfully grouchy.

The Ship is interesting, too. Illness has annihilated most people, and those who survive are either ill or desperately trying to survive. Meanwhile, one lone American navy ship gives itself the task of saving the world - of course. It's macho patriotic nonsense, but fun.

My love affair with YouTube continues unabated. I love that anyone can have a go at being a film maker, even using amateur kit. I've a few channels that I enjoy. I still enjoy the cottage core fantasy, but figure that most of it's faked, and that those who have bought land and live in remote and rural idylls are also loaded in order to afford their banks of solar panels, 4-wheel drives, their endless supply of quality DIY tools and lumber for their various building projects, food, health care, good outdoor clothing, new boots etc. The list goes on. It has to, as every video demands a new adventure of one sort or another.

Right now I'm re-reading Poppy Z Brite's Lost Souls. I've not read it for many years. It reminds me of being a teenager. Sure the plot has holes, but it's an engaging read. Before this book I read Crime and Punishment, not the classic of that title but a saga about a family of London gangsters. I've already forgotten the author's name. It's not one I'll read again but it was okay, if a bit long-winded sometimes.