Daily Reading (30 July 2015)

[nanila]

What have you been reading today? Everything counts, from a novel-length fic to the labels on your washing!

Comments

[nanila]

Forms, lots of forms.

A bit of the Sally Ride biography, and some of the new issue of Nature.

[miss_s_b]

F-list, twitter, Hugo ballot

[nanila]

Well done. I aspire to the first two!

[sunflowerinrain]

Georges Simenon "Mon ami Maigret", in a huge book of seven Maigret novels which I must finish and return to the library. Good thing they don't do fines!

[nanila]

I remember reading and enjoying Maigret as a teenager. I've forgotten all of them - I should re-read!

[davidgillon]

'Penric's Demon', the new Lois McMaster Bujold novella, and some revision of the RYA's 'VHF Radio (including GMDSS)', which doesn't have quite as good a plot as the Bujold.

(And catching up on a week's worth of Dreamwidth)

[nanila]

That sounds like a great day's reading. Looking forward to the LMB at some point in the next, oh, five years. ;)

[weaverbird]

Twitter, my file of Dell correspondence because OMFG not another problem with this laptop, a couple chapters of Dune (a bedtime re-read).

[nanila]

*shakes fist at laptop*

Well done!

[chickenfeet]

Rereading William Spaven's "Memoirs of a seafaring man". Almost certainly the only book written by an ordinary sailor who served in the RN in the mid 18th century.

[nanila]

Sounds fascinating. Any good tidbits?

[chickenfeet]

It's very matter of fact. Spavens was a disabled seaman. He had lost a leg and wrote the memoir to supplement his pension. He assumes, almost certainly correctly, that his readers will have little or no idea about how the navy works so he explains all the routine stuff; who does what, how watches are kept, what the rations were and how they were cooked, how a battle was fought at sea. There are a few juicy court martial details and some oddities like which yard arm someone was hanged from (it depended on rank). And so on.

[ironed_orchid]

That sounds really great.

[chickenfeet]

It really is. It's the only memoir of it's time written by a foremast Jack.

[nanila]

I very much like the sound of this; thanks for elaborating. I shall endeavour to pick it up.

[ironed_orchid]

A bunch of social media notifications which popped up when I turned on my phone after a 12 hour flight.

Some social media (fb/twitter), and some boarding passes.

[nanila]

How exciting. :) Hope you're getting some good rest and kitty cuddles after you travels.

[ironed_orchid]

Current status: in bed with a kitty.

[fred_mouse]

work documents/reports. On the plus side, I've made progress in turning the current one into a single coherent narrative. On the minus - I missed so many details on the first look see on this topic that I feel like I'm starting from scratch.

[nanila]

Oof. Good luck!

[azurelunatic]

I finished the bugzilla quips list and added a few that were missing! I also merged my IRC logs from the old work computer into the new work computer and read through some of those in search of the source of a quote about an orange bucket. Not found, so I think it was said before my coming.

[nanila]

Woo hoo, go you!