A place where I can write irrelevant anecdotes that make me sound like a pretentious git.
In the google quotes widget today, I discovered this…
Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first woman she meets and then teams up with three complete strangers to kill again. - Rick Polito, Marin Independent Journal’s TV listing for “The Wizard of Oz”.
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/23877.html
Well, it took me some months but I finally plowed through ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ by Gabriel García Márquez, the novel which won the Columbian author the Nobel Prize. Touted as one of the greatest reads of the twentieth century, I feel so-so about it. It has to be said that there is some absolutely beautiful uses of imagery and language, and for that reason alone it perhaps is worth several weeks of attention, but I think I could have benefitted from a ‘literary perspective’ - that is, some guidance as too what importance the book has from a variety of perspectives, like the book studies one did when going through high school or university.
However, I’m glad I read it, the plot is driving enough to keep the individual going. The novel centres around the history of the ‘fictional’ town of Macondo located somewhere in northern South America (most probably modern day Columbia), and is told through the lives of successive generations of the Buendia family, whose struggles and triumphs reflect the struggles and triumphs of, presumably, the Columbian people. Sometimes it can be hard to say - I myself have little knowledge of the history of Columbia and its people, so I can’t really comment on whether it is a giant metaphor for their history.
In a nutshell, the strengths of the book can be defined by its absolutely beautiful use of language, and Márquez’s depiction of the ordinary and extra-ordinary (for instance, one character is astonished by ice) and vice versa (no one blinks an eye when a Buendia simply ‘ascends into heaven’). One weakness, rather an annoyance, is the constant repetition of similar names for different characters, occasionally I found it hard to figure out who the author was referring too, though I’m sure there is a point behind the deliberate repetition of names (history repeating itself?).
All in all, 3 stars.
Rating: 
Pet hate: The use of acronyms in articles without explanation of what the acronym means.
Yeah, WTF is with that?
Yes, wordpress is being annoying.
I was having a problem with publishing new posts after upgrading to the latest wordpress. I would write a post, hit publish, and the post.php would appear, BLANK. No real explanation was given. I did notice that the post I had selected to publish turned up as a draft. Trying to turn these ‘drafts’ into ‘published’ articled did the exact same thing.
After a bit of an extensive search for this problem, I came across a solution on this wordpress forum discussion. I thought I’d repost what solution worked for me (indeed it was one written in the preceding link, but I’ll summarise). It seems to be either a) a database problem or b) a plugin problem. Try the following (** though I take no responsibility if you suddenley destroy your wordpress install and/or database **)
1. Back up your wordpress database before doing anything. I repeat…BACKUP.
2. Hopefully, you are using phpmysqlAdmin (it make this easier). Locate your wp_settings table.
3. Find an entry called active_plugin field, with a value similar to “a:1:{s:5:./././././././././././././././././././././tmp/upl52653.jpg” or something.
4. Delete it.
5. Get out, save, and try make a post.
Not a great explanation, but read through this forum post
Former Brisbane based band The Zebras seem to have recorded a few new tunes. And what tunes they are! As far as I can see (and read), they’re off a new EP. You can check out the songs “Make It Stop”, “A Day on Black Mountain Road” and “Push Our Way to the Front” at their myspace page by clicking here!. Impressive.
They’re also swinging by London in a few weeks, and playing with two other interesting bands. Je Suis Animal are Norwegians with a great sound, and Red Pony Clock from San Diego, California, who employ a mariachi sound.
There is nothing like a bit of Boris on a Monday morning.
And while searching for the Boris song, I came across this HILARIOUS japanese guy adding death-growl vocals to some electro-metal song. He is so funneh.
