Book Reviews - Amended

Just in case you're wondering what's happened to my book reviews, I've broken the one big entry into seperate ones for each book I've read. That way, "BOOK REVIEW" will get a massive citation in the label cloud and my favourite authors will also get noted...

Any comments that had been left will stay with the first book review post...

Gamer-scores and Wife-points

I used to play lots of N64 when I was in college. I was pretty good at Mario Kart and Mario 64 and Wetrix and Bust A Move. Quite enjoyed them too. I was never much good at the shoot 'em ups though. I could never get the hang of the way they worked: couldn't find my way around; couldn't move in a straight line, or around a corner, or through a door, as required; couldn't aim; couldn't shoot; certainly couldn't select, prime and fire a weapon under pressure...

Anyway. I don't play anymore. I skipped the whole PS2 thing and it looked like I was going to similarly avoid Wii and x360.

Until Conor got Kororinpa (Wii) and Hexec (x360). Not that I'm proving a threat to anyone's gamer score or anything, but how much fun are these games??? It's a shoddy truth, but these days I can't wait for the baby to go for his nap, so's I can spend an hour or two playing. My biggest daily dilemma is now which game to play: should I spend an hour on each? Or play them on alternate days? What if the baby wakes up early and I miss out?

Apparently, I was getting a lot of wife-points from Conor's mates for letting him play so much. Does my new-found obsession increase these points or nullify them? Do I care? I'm having too much fun!

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

...and Goldilocks ran off into the woods and was never seen again...
Jack Spratt and Mary Mary are called in to investigate to disappearance of Goldilocks and uncover an unlikely conspiracy involving Quang-Tech, SommeWorld, the Gingerbread Man (is he a cake or a biscuit?), Dorian Gray, Virginia Kreeper and extreme cucumbers.

Euro 2007

How close was that?!
We nearly got null-points.
I wish we had.

What monkey let that tone deaf foundling sing for our country?
She was out of tune and off-key for the whole miserable experience.

At least she didn't make me cringe like the UK entry (or she did, but in a different way). Christ almighty, what was that about?!

The winning song didn't quite capture my imagination like last year's epic Lordi, but you gotta love Serbia's strategy: excellent singing and beauty. The issue was that they couldn't find both in one package, but that wasn't a problem. Enter stage-left, one short-arsed, chubby songstress in a man's suit and runners, with an amazing singing voice and five tall, slender, fabulously attractive women in tailored suits and high-heels, who may or may not be able to sing, but frankly no-one cares. Obvious? Hey, it worked...

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

Who murdered Humpty Dumpty?
Jack Spratt and Mary Mary of the NCD (Nursery Crime Division) investigate suspected fowl play in the death of Reading's most ovoid figure, while trying to fend off the encroachment of Friedland Chimes... one of the greatest literary detectives since Sherlock himself...

QuizFarm revisited

Just coz it's Friday night and Con's busy playing with his x360 (on-line live - God bless brodband!), I went to play on QuizFarm.com
'Which religion is right for you?' caught my attention first. Apparently, I ought to be a Satanist!

You scored as Satanism. Your beliefs most closely resemble those of Satanism! Before you scream, do a bit of research on it. To be a Satanist, you don't actually have to believe in Satan. Satanism generally focuses upon the spiritual advancement of the self, rather than upon submission to a deity or a set of moral codes. Do some research if you immediately think of the satanic cult stereotype. Your beliefs may also resemble those of earth-based religions such as paganism. Satanism 79% agnosticism 75% Buddhism 75% Islam 63% Hinduism 63% Paganism 54% atheism 46% Christianity 42% Judaism 42% Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com

Coming as a bit of a surprise to me, I discover that I'm a High School Geek. I didn't think my Nerd credentials rated so highly. Also, I found this quiz a little tricky - should I have answered as if I were still in school, or as if I were in college or as I am now? I made a call and answered as me now - but there were definitely a few throwback questions...

You scored as Geek/Nerd. Haha! ok. go computer geeks! Geek/Nerd 60% Loner 53% Punk 53% Goth 47% Emo Kid 40% Prep 40% Hot 33% Jock 33% Stoner 27% "Ghetto" 0% What Highschool Clique Do You Belong To? created with QuizFarm.com

I tried a couple of other ones too: I'm a Fire Demon; I'm Monica from Friends; and my inner animal is a monkey.

Gold, Silver or Bronze?

Back when I was a carefree DINK (double-income-no-kids) I always swore there were certain things I would never do if I ever had children. No soothers, no sleeping in my bed, no talking about nappy contents.

How quickly my notions fell asunder!

So having been fairly warned, read on at your peril. Baby poo is gross. And there appears to be an unending supply of it. It pours from my childs butt like some perverse fountain of stench. Changing nappies is a thankless and pointless task - I'm only going to have to do it again in 20 minutes...

Anyway, I think I've done fairly well to have held onto that particular rant until 3 months into baby #2... and I've also kept it quite tame, so I think I deserve a medal.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

I loved this. It had just the right measure of fantasy, reality, terror, creepy, weird and wonderful. London will never be the same for me.

So, what have I been doing?

OK - I know it's been several months since there's been any insomniac blogger action. I was incredibly busy in work for the last few months before I finished up and went on maternity leave in November.

Baby boy number two was born at 8.26p.m. on Wednesday 29th November. He ended up being an emergency cesarean section and I had to have a general anaesthetic too, which was pretty awful. It took me weeks to get back to some semblence of normality after all that, but now (3 months later!) I actually feel like a human being again and I'm really enjoying being Mommy to my two wonderful boys.

I had my first night out with my husband since the new baby was born this week. I'd always wanted to see Dave Matthews playing live and the fabulous Conor had got tickets to his first ever Irish concert. We went with Gerry and Ursula and had a brilliant night. Mind you, I'm not sure which I enjoyed most - the gig, or having a night out with Con...

Anyhoo - now I've got broadband at home and very little excuse for not blogging more regularly, so I will make more of an effort to stay on-line while I'm not in work.

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett

Yet another installment from the Discworld franchise. And great as always. Tiffany Aching, the Nac Mac Feegle, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg along with the usual cast of villagers and misfits try to get the seasons back on track and battle the Wintersmith.