New reads.

Oh dear. What has happened? Has the owner of this nefarious page slipped into a time warp and failed to show up for a week? Has he been fired from his job? (Hint: he did not have one.) Has he broken up with his girlfriend? (Hint: he did not have one.) Has he been fighting crime and aliens from outer space?

Well, not exactly.

Here is, however, something to distract you. My very brilliant friends got me a book voucher, which I promptly went out to spend. Here is what I got:

I’ve never read Andreas Maier before, but Klausen sure sounds good!

While I was at the bookstore yesterday, the security guards were busy apprehending someone I can only presume to be a shoplifter. He went, NOOO, PLEASE, NOOO, PLEASE, PLEASE, as his face was planted on the ground. One of the security guards seemed to say that the guy had smacked him earlier.

For me though, it was really super-exciting. Not that I would want to see more of this all the time. But it just goes to show you how really mundane my life is.

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Before Gloomsday 2011

We’re about a month away from this year’s Gloomsday! [Update, 19 Aug: Not anymore!] Here are a few thoughts on it as we march into this most miserable of occasions with our feet heavy and our sighs even heavier. Another Gloomsday, another year older, after all. I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.

I’ll probably update this post as the days go along. [Update: And I did!]

[Update, 19 Aug] Plenty of minor updates today, including a new note to introduce the presents section (regarding what you can do with it now that we all agree it’s quite useless), a list of stuff I’ve been planning/doing, the posters series, and some other stuff.

Scheming Celebrations

I think I will celebrate this year. I didn’t last year (technically, though my great friends did try to do something out of concern over something else). I don’t think I did the year before. But this year, I shall plonk down some ducats (yes, yes, I’ve been studying) for… something. I’m not sure quite what yet. There’s always The Lion King, if I can find really good company. I could of course just catch any other show, but the truth is there aren’t that many shows on Gloomsday plus-minus one. The company’s also an issue, but I suspect that it will be for all of the celebration possibilities.

There’s also the prospect of really good food. I’m in the mood for something European or something Chinese. Of course, all of this, being a month away, isn’t likely to stay quite as constant come the day itself, but it’s probably as safe a bet as we’ll get as far as plans can go.

Another possibility is that of an activity of some sort. Like going to a museum and having a picnic! However, no one would take me seriously if I invited them to a museum for Gloomsday, and very few people here are interested in picnics. In that case, nothing quite strikes me as being great celebratory (or gloomy) material, so this won’t do until I get a better idea.

But whatever it is, I think having a bit of spending power will be good in preparation for this. I haven’t actually deliberately celebrated in some two, three, maybe four or five years. And if I’m going to do it, I’d better do it proper. Importantly, it’s never about what’s being spent and what’s being given. I just want it to be about people.

The Birthday Present Paradox

[Update, 19 Aug] Actually, now that I’ve shown how paradoxical it is to try to fetch me a present in this sort of knowing manner, this section is useless. Let’s turn it into a section for present suggestions for other people. [/Update]

I generally don’t ask for presents. The truth is, I don’t really worry or care about the idea of getting presents. The best policy for most people, actually, is not to give me anything at all. I find that most of the time, it just leads to awkward situations. But people sometimes insist (very violently), and people often ask questions (what should I get for you and all that), and just in case you feel extremely charitable, here are some considerations that will save us both embarrassment. They will probably show you why presents are a bad idea and help you figure out some form of recourse. My most common advice to anyone who asks is to donate. There are a few causes I’m partial to, so you should donate to Child’s Play, UNICEF, or the WWF if you are thus inclined. It’s really just the way I like my presents.

See, the first thing I’ll tell you is: Don’t get me books unless you are very sure what you’re doing. My room contains some 400 books and I’m not that keen on adding to it carelessly. Also, my queue is tremendous. I still have books from two Gloomsdays ago. That’s not a good sign at all.

That said, there are books that you can consider, including:

• The Sylph Editions Cahiers
• The new Julio Cortázar
• The letters of Sammy Beckett
• [Update] And if you’re super rich: this.
• [Double update] And if not, this should do too.

And if you love me very, very much (how likely is that?) and want to express it through books, your task will be to locate a book I read very long ago but have since failed to locate again. I want to add it to my library, and also re-read it several times. That book is Julio Cortázar’s The Winners.

But there’s a problem here, see?

Here lies the birthday paradox. I like for people to think up something on their own and let their thoughtfulness and the surprise win me over. That’s the point of a present. But it’s nearly impossible because in the things I love, I would be picky, and in the things I don’t love, well, you know. And now that I’ve told you what books I could possibly want, I don’t want you to give them to me any longer. Isn’t it all just very clever?

Furthermore, don’t buy me soft toys unless you happen to be the girl I am interested in (and you’re probably not), at which point you can probably buy me anything as long as it doesn’t kill me. Don’t buy me anything music-related because I probably already have it if I wanted it. Don’t bother with the things on my other post because those things are expensive and in general I would feel bad to receive them. I also want to buy them for myself to feel like I fulfilled some kind of wish. There are generic possibilities. Tickets to a show are good because it means spending time with people, provided you can find a good one. I like theatre, dance, and music. Food is also good because we can share. I like things like cakes and pies and tarts. With fruit or chocolate. Or both. Generic gifts are easy on you, easy for me, and actually have the potential to offer more than what they tend to stand for literally. (I.e. going to a show provides the opportunity to spend time together; food is one of the most social of activities.) That would be wonderful. You can of course surprise me with a really thoughtful gift, and that would be great, but I should say that surprises don’t always work out the way you and I want to imagine that they would.

But really, the best immediate present you can give me is company. Like I said, I’m not big on the idea of receiving presents. It’s just too rare that I receive something I will remember and love for the rest of my life, and in general too much trouble for others, I think. Well, if you’re confident, please take the plunge.

[Update, 19 Aug] Meanwhile, apart from those books, another great suggestion as a present you can get for someone you love is a print from The Working Proof, which contributes 15% off of every sale to organisations such as Doctors Without Borders. [/Update]

Reading Habits

Generally, when it comes to this time of the year, my most basic indulgence is to read a book I really want to read. You know, the book that you’ve put aside all year because you want to save it for a special day. (Okay, I may be the only person who does that.) I don’t know what to read this year! I do have plenty of excellent books that I am eager to complete, but let’s just call it an embarrassment of riches. I have a Saramago, a Peixoto, some Camus, an Abe, and a Vila-Matas among a crowd of other literature, for example, and it’s hard enough choosing from these few as it is: I’m not about to take my actual full queue into consideration. Right now, the Vila-Matas (Never Any End to Paris) seems most likely. But things could change in three weeks! Hard to tell, these things.

Pre-Thoughts

Last year, I was ready for adventure. It did turn out to be a year of some adventure, for which I’m very happy. Many things changed. This year, like it or not, adventure has come looking for me. A new and very different school term begins, people are “moving onto the next phase of life” (oh come on, it really is only one phase and that is life with all of its constant change), so I’m not actually in search of adventure. I do feel a little old and a little strange. I think I used to think–being quite the fatal sort of bloke, as you might know–that 25 would be a great age to live to. Now I think 40 is a good age to live to. We’ll see. More thoughts to come.

Said more thoughts: Today (9 Aug going into 10 Aug) I updated this in bits, mostly pointing out the crucial paradox of the birthday present that struck me as the main reason I feel strange about birthday presents after a conversation. (Thanks, Chrissy!) I hope this saves a lot of money for a lot of people. I also realise that I feel really good about Gloomsday this year (thus the self-initiated celebrations) for reasons I can’t really pinpoint. I think it has a lot to do with the events of the past three years leading to a profound inability to celebrate things and to have fun. I also realise it may have to do with the feeling that I owe the people who have stuck with me in those same years a lot. Maybe I see it as a bit of “giving back”. Or, to continue this pretend-high brow psychoanalysis, it might also have to do with the removal of importance from one relationship and the reinvestment of importance into all of those that I’ve despite my best efforts overlooked these years. Whatever it is, I think there hasn’t been a Gloomsday like this for a long while, and I’m going to give every effort to make sure that these people are not under-rewarded (no, it’s not really the word I was looking for, but I was about to say “under-compensated”, which sounds worse) and overlooked anymore. It’s not a Gloomsday about me, despite all logic and sense. It’s a Gloomsday about all you brilliant people out there.

Doing Stuff

[Update, 19 Aug] Well, that’s a sort of unfair way of labelling it, since this section was started on 19 Aug. Since I last wrote, I’ve started to try to arrange meetings with about four or five different groups of people. I’ve also made a couple of contests for people to participate in. I have a mind to go out and get some gifts for my classmates because I’m having class on the night of my birthday. And, yeah, that’s how it’s been going. I’m not sure how successful this will be (we’re only a couple of weeks away!), but let’s keep our fingers crossed.

I also designed a set of posters for fun. They’re below. Exercises in amateur design.

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Next week.

School begins next week. We battle anew.

It was a sobering feeling logging into IVLE again today. Those months sure went by quickly.

The prospect of returning to school is more than a little intimidating, mostly because it’s a whole new experience for me. I do sometimes imagine myself dying in a blaze of metaphorical fire, which is a more positive thought than it may at first seem. I mean, hey, better that than dying like a cigarette being stubbed out, right?

Brand new experience, brand new people, brand new subject matter (well, in a sense), brand new timings, brand new places, brand new brand new’s.

It doesn’t help that many of the uncertain things that I had to contend with at the start of the summer break are still uncertain. And more things have since cropped up, things that I’m not exactly at liberty to write about publicly, I think. (Well, it’s nothing serious, just slightly personal.)

I tried to take fewer classes so as to help with the adjustment to the new environment and all, but I do still get the feeling I’ll have a lot to do. Not to mention that I hope I manage all right.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested, there’s a Borders clearance sale at Expo this Friday through the weekend. I suppose it might be their very last one with the way things are going. I might drop by just to say farewell. I don’t have the money nor the space for too many new books.

(The library’s somewhere in the vicinity of 400 books, and my room’s not all that big.)

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Things that might interest you.

Or might not! Who knows! That’s half the fun.

There is a new Lykke Li album. There is also a new R.E.M. album arriving soon. And recently, I’ve really been enjoying the new PJ Harvey album, Let England Shake.

Things are slowly falling into place, in some way. My FYP, which I’ve yet to describe to you, I know, is coming together, though it’ll be a pretty close finish. My other subjects look a bit tough, but also enjoyable in their own ways.

There is finally the feeling that I’m closing things out, that this is really the final semester. It feels… odd, I guess, but I guess in a way (that is, hopefully the only way in which I can say it without looking silly) I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. I mean, I was half-expecting it to surprise me. But no surprises.

I’m planning overseas trips. Plenty of them. Well, okay, so that’s a lie. Not many of them, but at least more than I normally go for in a single year. (Three, if all goes well.) Fingers crossed!

I’m starting to make headway with my humongous book queue. [Click here for a reminder.] I’m reading Le Clézio. It is my first exposure to his work. My friends all comment on the back cover thus: Who is that dashing chap there? Well, okay, not in the same words, but to the same effect. He was/is a rather dashing bloke, and a marvellous writer to boot. (I’m reading Fever.)

I’m tempted to buy a couple of other books but I’m really strapped for cash (due to said planned overseas trips) and more importantly find it embarrassing to have to explain my enormous reading queue to my parents. Why are you buying so many books? they exclaim. I don’t mind them asking because, seriously, I ask myself the same thing every now and then.

Okay, I’ll tough it out for a month or so first and then get those two or three, plus three others I want to preorder, when it feels right. Then I think I’m done with book puchases till the end of the year. (I swear!)

It’s nice to be blogging again. But it’s time to go back to work.

Have a great weekend ahead.

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Book Queue

The majority of people who ask me about the books that I own tend to ask me how my library looks like. I suspect this is because they don’t really know how my ever-increasing collection actually fills up space. How much space does it actually take up? Is it a big mess, as all well-used literary libraries apparently should be? stacks and stacks of books with that lovely musky old-book smell? Well, unfortunately, they’re usually disappointed to find that it doesn’t take up as much space as they had initially envisioned, and also that it’s all quite tidy. (That’s not to say that I have a lot of space though; it still takes up more space than I should by right be able to afford.)

However, I’m not going to show you how my library looks like today. Instead, I’m going to tackle a different question, one that very few people ask:  How does my book queue look like?

Well, here it is:

Well, it’s not exactly entirely my book queue. The right-most stack of five books are books that I’m reading now. My queue is made up of the other three stacks.

I counted forty-five. Together with those that I’m reading now, it makes fifty. And actually, I loaned one book to a friend without having read it (Wolf Hall), so it’s actually fifty-one. I find it a lightly worrying number. I’ll never get through this properly. Something new will come in again before I reach the halfway mark, I’m sure.

It’s a slightly eclectic mix, I think? It’s mostly in English, though you’ll spy a couple of Chinese books, and even one in Japanese. Most of it is fiction or poetry, although there are at least three non-fiction books (Men in White, Hatfield’s Herbal and Henrietta Lacks) that I can think of off the top of my head. Oh the 北岛 book I’m not reading yet is non-fiction too. Some are newly released books, some are less recent; some are brand new, some are second- or third-hand; some are absolutely new to me, some are rereads (new purchases, usually); and so on. There’s an art book and a comic book in there. There’s also literary criticism and books of interviews.

Okay, I guess I should spend less time blogging and more time reading. Until next time.

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Bad Form

Oh look, it’s only two weeks into the new year and I’m already lagging behind on updating this site by a mile. This is just one of those things where taking a break has a long-term detrimental effect.

So, let’s run through a quick list of what has been happening:

I’ve been at my FYP. Getting simple things to work has proven to be remarkably difficult. Sure, it’s entirely computational, and maybe that suggests something of a less unpredictable nature (as compared to wet-lab projects), but it’s very hard to get anything to behave. Meanwhile, I vaguely remember promising to write about it here, which I will eventually. Maybe when I have more interesting things to show you. I’m not sure if there’s some non-disclosure rule, so I’ll think about that a bit too.

I have a presentation for this on Monday. Hope it goes well.

I’ve made an application to continue studying after graduation. I hope it works out. Fingers crossed. One or two other applications to come.

I fell sick on Wednesday. Been recovering since, but it’s taking longer than I would’ve liked. Of course, it tends to take longer than you would like. (I’m presuming you don’t like getting sick.) Nothing serious, just a heavy bout of flu and a bad sore throat. For a couple of hours, I thought I would be running a temperature too, but that didn’t materialise, thankfully.

Rather confusing days, these, so my moods have been on the good ol’ up-and-down in the past week or thereabouts. Not exactly welcome, but I guess I’m dealing with it better than I usually do.

My poetry club has got going. It’s looking a little bare now. I’m trying to see where it will end up in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed and all that. Our first poem is Rimbaud’s “Le buffet“. It is a lovely poem.

I have a couple of book/reading resolutions for this year. I’ve already started on one of them, which is to reread Rayuela/Hopscotch. I also want to reread 《灵山》 and compare it with the english translation (Soul Mountain), which I’ve never read before. I never knew how Chinese-to-English translations would look in a literary text. It just never occurred to me to find out, despite knowing both languages. I want to do more poetry this year. So the poetry club’s a good thing for me in that way too. Those are the major projects. The other small promises are stuff I’ve in my waiting list or already have ordered, like the complete Your Face Tomorrow.

Finally, I think I’m beginning to have ideas on what to work on next. Early days, early days.

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Christmas Gift Suggestions 2010

As usual, not quite a Christmas gift guide, but some handy suggestions that might prove invaluable with a month or so to go. Also, there are links in case you can’t see them. So… look carefully.

Books

I’ve read quite a few books this year and here are some picks that I think will please the book-lovers among your friends and family:

• The Implacable Order of Things, by José Luis Peixoto

Poetic, elegiac, and wonderfully ironic, this absurdist novel tells the tale of a really odd cast of characters in their search for lasting meaning. Characters include the devil, a giant, and a pair of twins conjoined at the pinky.

• The Ruined Map, by Kōbō Abe

I’ve always described this as an existentialist’s Chandler novel; a masterwork by one of Japan’s–and the world’s–greatest writers. A private investigator is asked to locate a vanished man, but soon gets more than he bargained for when the assignment begins to challenge his sense of identity.

• Travel, by Yuichi Yokoyama

Here’s manga with a difference: Yuichi Yokoyama’s stylish volume follows three passengers on a train and in its exquisite, wordless beauty, looks for the patterns and arrangements in all things big and small. It just might change the way you look at the world.

• Mourning Diary, by Roland Barthes

For the continental philosophy lover, here we find one of the greatest thinkers of our time trying to deal with the loss of his mother. What’s striking is watching the process of how Barthes attempts to invent a new language–a new structure–to describe his loss and indeed his mourning.

• Scrapbook, by Henri Cartier-Bresson

And one suggestion for the photography book collector. This delightful and fairly gigantic volume is sure to be welcome on anyone’s coffeetable.

All links here lead to The Book Depository, which has free shipping internationally. Don’t forget that they have a Christmas ten-percent voucher thing going too.

Music

No links here because I don’t know any particularly convenient places to get these. Major record stores, as they are called, will surely do.

Here’s some more recent music that I’ve enjoyed this year (meaning, they may or may not have been released this year):

• Station to Station, by David Bowie

The rerelease of this classic album was certainly welcome, and I really enjoyed listening to it all over again. Comes with a fairly excellent concert recording too.

• Emotion & Commotion, by Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck’s latest studio album has an eagle with a guitar for a cover. Apart from that it comes with a nice variety of excellent songs featuring the guitarist at his best.

• Contra, by Vampire Weekend

A delight through and through, Contra is sweet and catchy and really something to savour.

• The Age of Adz, by Sufjan Stevens

It takes a while to warm up to it, and I think some sections of the album are really love-it-or-hate-it bits, and most of all, a lot has been said about its final 25-minute track, “Impossible Soul”, but there are some gloriously odd and engaging parts in here that to me make it worth the price of admission.

• Halcyon Digest, by Deerhunter

A bittersweet album framed by dreamy guitar, Deerhunter delivers an emotionally engaging album full of surprises, invention, and melancholy. It’s an album that’ll leave you excited for music, for art, and even for life.

• Lisbon, by the Walkmen

This tribute to Lisbon is as sunny as you’d expect, yet the music also conceals a waiting dejection. The Walkmen take control of their music, slipping into moments of drama rarely and preserving the album’s elegance and diffuse beauty.

• Clapton, by Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton takes on a crazily diverse range of music in this album and somehow manages to make it work as a whole. I suppose it is the measure of a musician who has thrived on blending all sorts of influences and genres in his lengthy career. I’m not too keen on a couple of the tracks, but many of the rest–especially the blues numbers–surprised me, eschewing overindulgence for masterful restraint.

Of interest, the Beatles are now on iTunes. And there is also this lovely 40th anniversary edition of All Things Must Pass for the George Harrison fan.

Gaming

Having discovered GOG.com, I suppose I should make a plug for two games I have such fond memories of:

• Baldur’s Gate 2
• Planescape: Torment

These are games that every RPG fan will treasure. I’ve spent more time re-playing Baldur’s Gate 2 than any other game. It is a masterpiece in roleplaying game design and is quite an experience. And Planescape: Torment is simply one of the most wonderfully designed games I’ve ever come across. It marries an exquisite story with an intriguing setting and some exquisite RPG design. I completed it again recently and was struck by how whimsical it was: all things and choices can have big effects, small effects, or none at all, but it’s usually quite unpredictable.

Don’t forget that Steam has a Thanksgiving sale ongoing right now, and will probably have a crazy Christmas sale up too. One game I have to plug here is The Witcher. Also an RPG, of course, and I suppose that says something about my life as a gamer.

Other than those two services, here are the games that have taken up the majority of my time on my PS3:

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
• NBA 2K11
• Uncharted 2
• Yakuza 3
• God of War 3

Arts Events

Hey, tickets to the Singapore Fringe Festival should be up for sale already, and I’m sure they would be appreciated by any ahem culture vulture. Events include the Necessary Stage’s “Model Citizens”.

There also appears to be a Russell Watson show. Or if local music is more to your tastes (or those of whoever you’re gifting tickets to), then there will be a Kit Chan show too.

Otherwise, there’s Titus Andronicus in Cantonese; an Edward Lam production feature 李心洁; and this very interesting dance performance that you’ll just have to click to find out about in less ambiguous terms.

Random Links

Cat Socrates is having nice little Christmas bundles.

Lumadessa prints are lovely, and now with more owls, though I don’t know if you can get them to ship to where you are in time.

Finally, MollaSpace has some pretty cool products (though I’ve never used the shop before, so pinch of salt and all that).

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25

Here is a semi-accurate list of books I’ve read or re-read this semester (in more or less chronological order):

1. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
2. Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolaño
3. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
4. The Ruined Map by Kōbō Abe
5. Contempt by Alberto Moravia
6. The Museum of Eterna’s Novel (The First Good Novel) by Macedonio Fernández
7. A Woman Alone & Other Plays by Franca Rame and Dario Fo
8. Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
9. Seeing by José Saramago
10. A Heart so White by Javier Marías
11. Silas Marner by George Eliot
12. Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss
13. In the Castle of my Skin by George Lamming
14. Mythologies by Roland Barthes
15. Stories and Texts for Nothing by Samuel Beckett
16. Crick Crack, Monkey by Merle Hodge
17. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
18. The Outsider by Albert Camus
19. Crabwalk by Günter Grass
20. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
21. Mourning Diary by Roland Barthes
22. Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes by Tamar Yellin
23. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
24. Tinkers by Paul Harding
25. Collected Poems by Philip Larkin

I might have missed a book or two out, but that’s mostly it. I’ll do one more before the semester is up.

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Trickle, Flood

Happening Things, Things Happening

Things are happening. Little events, miniature milestones, they get put behind me one by one as the deadlines start to clear. Yet, time also runs along very happily with no intention of letting me catch up. I’m sure this paradoxical visage of the passing of the days is a familiar one to most and one that I’m sure I’ve mentioned more than a few times in the brief history of this blog, but so there.

This Week, And The Next

I’m to prepare for about three presentations in the coming weeks. That’s normally work enough, but I also have a paper to write and I need to get started on some FYP things as well as one of my essays. Oh and a test. I have a test on Friday. It is the one postponed from two weeks ago. And I have other personal things to worry about. One this week, and one the next, in fact. It’s all not looking very kind, but that’s the way it goes.

Reading

I have to read. I really do. For one thing, I realise I got the order muddled up and read my texts out of order. Now I have to read Midnight’s Children, which is by no means a short book, very quickly to make sure that I know (somewhat) what’s being said in the lectures.

I also have a huge waiting list again. I’ve recently purchased a few books, and I’ve also received some as presents. Most recently, yesterday I received two from my sister, including Soseki’s I Am A Cat.

I think it may very well be that I will have no space left for reading books not related to work. Or maybe I might be able to squeeze in something before the semester ends. I’m not sure, but not entirely optimistic. If so, I want to be able to do a book that isn’t so short, just to end the semester with a bang or something.

It will of course have a lot to do with what happens in the next few weeks, which I imagine will be rather testing on my moods, and moods tend to dictate my book choices.

Slides

Right! Back to making some slides! By the time you next hear from me, more of these milestones will have passed, and we’ll be closer to some other frightening dates, but till then!

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Reading, and other things.

I’ve never been a fast reader. I know quite a few who read a lot faster than I do. This semester, though, I basically don’t have much of a choice. So I’ve been going at a reasonable speed, trying to stay ahead of things, and it’s holding up so far. The task is made a little more difficult by the fact that I don’t actually have a very good textual memory, in that I find it very hard to place details in the books that I read. Quiz me about it a bit after and I’d already have forgotten–twice.

Still, I hope I cope.

I’m currently on Coetzee’s Disgrace. I’m just about to finish it actually. Then I’ll go about doing the presentation thing that we’re supposed to do in the tutorials. I will probably talk about animals.

Meanwhile, I think I will take a bit of a break from reading my texts and do some other book next, just for personal reading pleasure. I’ll figure out what that is soon.

On the topic of enjoying myself, I shall take myself to the pictures in the weekend, I hope, and catch a movie or something. Or maybe I should go loan some movie. I was thinking either an Ingmar Bergman or a David Lynch picture. I haven’t done a David Lynch film for a long time. I want to watch his most recent film, Inland Empire, so I might consider going to look for that.

On a side note, I might go to the PC Show/IT Show/PC Fair/IT Fair/Whateveryoucallit this weekend. I’m not looking for very much though it’s nice to drop by once in a while. I could do with a hard drive just to fill up the slot I have to spare. I could pick up a monitor because mine seems to be having a bit of a problem, though I don’t think that’s too great of a worry right now and that’s a few hundred dollars I don’t quite want to spend right now. Then there’s the issue of my speakers but I don’t think you can get very good deals on speakers at these events anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. In the end, it’s more of an excuse to actually go out and buy something, really.

Right, time to polish off Disgrace.