The Weekend

So, in terms of achieving goals, this was a very productive weekend! I feel like I've cheated slightly, since all I had to do to get some of them done was buy stuff, but still...

After leaving uni on Friday evening I bought a laptop! I've been thinking about getting one for a long time, something portable that I could write on basically, but also something that had a bit of power under the hood so that I could run some other creative programs as well (Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements mostly). While I was originally leaning towards a Dell machine, in the end I decided to go with this lovely little number; the Dell machine would have been another £200 without a warranty, and the only thing it really offered was a slightly more powerful processor and a slightly smaller screen. 14.1" is portable enough for my needs.

The money I saved on the laptop then meant that I could indulge another of my "purchase" goals, and on Saturday I picked up a Scrabble set and dictionary. Of course, for the rest of the weekend my family said they were too busy to play, so I haven't played with it yet...

On Sunday I used a mud mask on my face (goal 82, one out of thirty-two), which made my face feel incredibly smooth on Monday. Bit stubbly now, so can't feel it as much, but my skin is actually quite clear.

Let's see, over the weekend I finished "The Player Of Games," and picked up "No Country for Old Men" in a charity shop for the bargain price of £1.25. I finished that on the train this morning, and in my morning invigilation I started reading "Wuthering Heights." Am only four or five chapters in, but it's pretty good so far.

"No Country for Old Men" was a good read. I really liked the style in which it was written. The dialogue was good, and the way that that was set out (without punctuation, and at times with really clipped sentences) added to the whole mood of the book. I didn't see the film when it was at the cinema a few months ago, but I think that I'll catch it sooner or later on DVD.

I've read "The Player Of Games" before, but it was just a complete joy to re-read. Everything about the far-future universe (well, depending on your definition of "far" I guess) that the Culture live in makes for interesting reading, and sometimes understanding the motivations of these people whose lives are so far removed from our own makes you stop and think about what kind of world you live in now - just as the titular character struggles to understand the 'barbaric' society that he travels to in order to play their great game.

I'm going to start a separate page to keep track of the books and films, and I'll put a link to that in the sidebar. Might be going to the cinema tomorrow night with a friend, but the choice is quite narrow ("Iron Man" or "Speed Racer", neither of which have had the reviews I think they were hoping for). Looking forward to Indiana Jones in a week or so, but it's still "The Dark Knight" that I'm most looking forward to this summer...

Oh, and I started writing some flash fiction! When will I post some? Soon, very soon I hope...