Simon » Other http://owls-count.net I am me Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:31:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Books 2011 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/books-2011 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/books-2011#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 10:32:12 +0000 Simon http://owls-count.net/?p=1442 Somehow I managed to read 134 books in 2011. I guess this may be related to how little running I did, especially in the second half of the year. I signed up for a Goodreads account recently and I am putting ratings there at this time. (I may start adding reviews at some point.)

Favourite Book of the Year
I was about to follow my usual tradition and select several books in this section and then I realised that from my favourites I could pick one.

  • The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan: Percy returns. I have liked Riordan’s other books, but there was just that something extra special when Percy returned in the second part of this new series.

Other Really Good Books

  • City of Thieves by David Benioff. Set during the siege of Leningrad. Lev and Kolya are arrested and given an alternative to being executed: Find a dozen eggs.
  • Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld. Steampunk and engineered animals creations combine in an impressive alternate story of the start of WWI.
  • Snuff by Terry Pratchett. New Discworld! :)

Surprises of the year
These are not the best books I read this year, but impressive when I did not expect it.

  • Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. Steven’s little brother is diagnosed with leukaemia. The author takes this and makes a really funny book, that still pays respect to the horror of having a seriously ill relative.
  • Room by by Emma Donoghue. Told from the PoV of five year old Jack, as his mum tells him that the room he has lived in his whole life is a prison.

Favourite Cover
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher.
Half Brother, by Kenneth Oppel, would have been the best if they had taken a hint from Michael Grant’s Gone series and had much less text on the cover.

Twicrap Award for Worst Book
Honored Enemy by Raymond E. Feist. Magacian was really good; the author kept writing and this was where I gave up on reading his work.

Question I will be pondering for a while
Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry. Aka the zombie book. Only I cannot work out why this is being marketed this way, as the zombies are reasonably unimportant and must be putting off a lot of potential readers.

]]> http://owls-count.net/blog/other/books-2011/feed 0 BBC: Frozen Planet http://owls-count.net/blog/other/bbc-frozen-planet http://owls-count.net/blog/other/bbc-frozen-planet#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:03:58 +0000 Simon http://owls-count.net/?p=1409 I watched the BBC’s Frozen Planet recently and it reminded me just how good the BBC are at making such programmes. The seven episodes took the viewer on a tour of the polar regions. The team went to great lengths in the filming and the episodes showed some of the methods they used to film in such remote locations.

In the lab we now have OU Frozen Planet Poster on display.

A couple of related links:

]]> http://owls-count.net/blog/other/bbc-frozen-planet/feed 2 2011 Weeks 45 and 46 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-weeks-45-and-46 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-weeks-45-and-46#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:50:02 +0000 Simon http://owls-count.net/?p=1366 A cooking day – vegetable thai curry and bread!

Life and happenings

  • I went off and visited my nephew and my parents last weekend. There was orienteering and roast pheasant.
  • Work has been quieter these last two weeks – mainly due to there being no time spent in the server room.
  • I finished my 111th book of the year on 11/11/11. Sadly it was not at 11am.

Books

  • Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. Thirteen year old Steven thinks that the most annoying thing in life is his little brother Jeffrey. Then Jeffrey is diagnosed with leukemia and Steven is forced to re-evaluate his life. A good read.
  • Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel. In seventies Canada, the scientist parents of a teenage boy adopt a chimpanzee to see if they can teach him language. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this.
  • I also read Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry; The Monstrumologist: Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey; and The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
]]> http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-weeks-45-and-46/feed 0 2011 Weeks 42, 43, and 44 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-weeks-42-43-and-44 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-weeks-42-43-and-44#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:09:46 +0000 Simon http://owls-count.net/?p=1275 I’ve been a bit busy these last few weeks.

Life and happenings

  • The Sirens 2012 website went live on the first of the month. The theme is tales retold.
  • The new cluster has been keeping me busy at work. Or, rather, one node has. The problem child node has consumed lots of time in diagnosing and fixing.
  • During these three weeks I have also had a good Thai meal out with friends and my parents visited for a curry.

Links

Books

  • Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan. The first book has: Three new arrivals at Camp Half-Blood, ancient enemies awakening, a missing hero, and a quest. The second sees the return of Percy. While I like Riordan’s non-Percy books there is just something extra special about Percy.
  • Snuff by Terry Pratchett. Goblins and poo. Vimes is out to the country estate, for a holiday, but even out in the country there is crime!
  • I also read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
]]> http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-weeks-42-43-and-44/feed 0 2011 Week 41 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-41 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-41#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:20:16 +0000 Simon http://owls-count.net/?p=1264 ‘I have a tortoise in the garden.’ (Ilya Gavrik in Spooks.)

Life and happenings

  • The Ocelot has bounded onto my netbook and work desktop. My first impressions are positive – especially the kubuntu-low-fat-settings package, which aims to reduce memory and processor usages on older machines.

Links

Books

  • Young Sherlock Holmes: Fire Storm by Andrew Lane. This time young Sherlock travels to Edinburgh to help a friend who is on the run from a dangerous criminal. I like how the author is taking the series forward, working towards explaining the endpoint that is the adult Sherlock becomes.
  • I also read Dance on My Grave by Aidan Chambers.
]]> http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-41/feed 0 2011 Weeks 39 and 40 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-weeks-39-and-40 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-weeks-39-and-40#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:37:22 +0000 Simon http://owls-count.net/?p=1255 This covers two weeks as I have been too busy to post recently.

Life and happenings

  • Last weekend I took Friday off work and visited family. This weekend I watched TV.
  • Our new cluster turned up in work and I also have a new desktop.
  • With the Rugby World Cup being in New Zealand all the games are on early in the morning. I have really struggled to get excited with the tournament thus far, though that is also because of how badly England have played.

Link

Books

  • Goliath by Scott Westerfeld. The final part of the trilogy. A rather good end.
  • Ranger’s Apprentice: The Lost Stories by John Flanagan. Short stories which answer some of the questions the author has been asked over the years.
]]> http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-weeks-39-and-40/feed 0 2011 Week 38 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-38 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-38#comments Sun, 25 Sep 2011 17:10:10 +0000 Simon http://owls-count.net/?p=1237 Still busy and getting busier.

Life and happenings

  • In work, the code I have been working on for a while appears to be close to finished. Just in time for our new cluster to arrive next week.
  • There was a lack of exercise this week. :(
  • I do wonder if some new websites/services give any thought to a business model. There was one that I noticed generating some good press recently and the only way for them to make money is to charge for the service, but that is not being suggested at the beginning.

Links

Books

  • Spook’s: I Am Grimalkin by Joseph Delaney. That takes me to 100 books for the year!
]]> http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-38/feed 0 2011 Week 37 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-37 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-37#comments Sun, 18 Sep 2011 15:08:10 +0000 Simon http://owls-count.net/?p=1230 Busy, busy bee.

Life and happenings

  • Lancashire! :)
  • The Rugby World Cup is on. One impressive win for Ireland, over an Australian side who still do not seem to realise the value of a good pack of forwards. Beyond that there has been little excitement.
  • I managed one run this week. The good news is that I seem to be injury free. Now I just have to build up again.

Links

Books

  • Being busy has meant that I have only read one book this week: Lies by Michael Grant.
]]> http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-37/feed 0 2011 Week 36 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-36 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-36#comments Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:46:04 +0000 Simon http://owls-count.net/?p=1225 A short post this time, as I’m a bit busy.

Life and happenings

  • My parents visited over the weekend and we went to London for a couple of orienteering races. More on those at some point.
  • I have a new phone. It is one of these fancy new ones where making phone calls seems to be an auxiliary feature. Maybe, soon, I’ll work out how to use the phone.
  • The rugby world cup has started, but I’ve yet to see much of the action. Based on the reports of how England played that seems to have been a bonus.
  • Also, the last round of county cricket matches started today. Lancashire and Hampshire to win. Please.
]]> http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-36/feed 0 2011 Week 35 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-35 http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-35#comments Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:31:38 +0000 Simon http://owls-count.net/?p=1210 Athletics on the TV! :)

Life and happenings

  • I spent much of the week trying to get rid of the remains of the cold I had. Monday was a public holiday and I took Tuesday off work. I decided against exercise until the cold has fully cleared.
  • There was athletics on the TV – the World Championships. Sadly the coverage was on Channel Four, who did not make a particularly good job of it. Replacing the main presenter helped, but several of the people commentating were annoying.
  • Continuing with poor TV coverage – ITV completely failed to have the Vuelta a España on live yesterday and their web feed kept cutting out.

Books

  • Ranger’s Apprentice 7 to 10: Erak’s Ransom, The Kings of Clonmel, Halt’s Peril, and The Emperor of Nihon-Ja by John Flanagan. I rather enjoy this series, though there are quite a few problems/issues with the books.
]]> http://owls-count.net/blog/other/2011-week-35/feed 0