An occasional journal
Posts tagged admin2 reading
111111
Oct 11th 2015
Admin1 is reading Rough Country by John Sandford. Admin2 is reading The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne. We scored 9 on the Guardian Weekend quiz, and are witnessing Witnesses, a creepy French crime serial.
Leaf Pattern
Oct 9th 2015
Admin1 is reading Buried Prey by John Sandford. Admin2 is reading Bad Things by Michael Marshall.
Vila i frid Keith
Cloud of the Day: Fumulus
Oct 8th 2015
A mushroom cloud from Ferrybridge power station in the far distance.
Admin2 is reading The Intruders by Michael Marshall.
All Clear
Oct 2nd 2015
Not a cloud in the sky after the morning fog cleared. It was almost our sunniest October day since the solar panels started, and on Oct 1 we passed the total for 2014.
We watched Mission to Mars which was unmitigated shite. [Admin1: This is perhaps the worst film I've ever seen. It really was gobsmackingly awful, a real car-crash of unbelievably bad direction (and it's Brian de Palma!), appalling acting and scripting, clichéd plotting, feeble effects and terrible music (Morricone!). I kept thinking: This can't possibly get worse. But it did. How the hell did it ever get made?]
Admin2 is reading Pulse by Julian Barnes, which was slow and thready.
Moonrise
Sep 30th 2015
After Bloody Monday, Orange Wednesday. We had our best September ever, solar panels wise.
Admin1 is reading Crashing Heaven by Al Robertson (well-written and impressively imaginative; an auspicious debut). Admin2 is reading The Martian by Andy Weir which had a predictable plot but a good pace and pleasant voice.
Spots
Sep 27th 2015
Sunspots seen through morning fog. Despite the spots, today the solar panels passed the 2013 total of 1419.971kWh.
Admin2 is reading Cracken at Critical by Brian W Aldiss which was cracking. We scored 6.5 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
Balls
Sep 25th 2015
Clouds at lunchtime on an otherwise sunny day, when the solar panels passed the earnings in 2014, previously our best year.
Admin2 is now reading The Last Breath by Denise Mina and Admin1 is reading Firstborn by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter.
Admin1 watched the first couple of episodes of Orphan Black, series 3, and got somewhat lost; a re-watch of the first two series is probably needed to catch up with the convoluted plot.
Ledgers
Sep 24th 2015
Scaffolding planks. They are called ledgers and side-on they look a lot like books.
Admin1 is reading The Last Breath by Denise Mina (well-written and involving, but it would have helped to have read previous books in the series). Admin2 is reading Talking It Over by Julian Barnes. Yakity yak don’t get your lover back.
Web Site
Sep 22nd 2015
Admin2 is reading Coral: A Pessimist in Paradise by Steve Jones. We rewatched The Secret State. Plus ca change plus c’est le meme chose.
Half Moon
Sep 21st 2015
Admin1 is reading Oblivion by Arnaldur Indriðason. Admin2 is reading Birthdays for the Dead by Stuart MacBride. Eurgh.
Critter of the Day: Vanessa atalanta
Sep 20th 2015
This Red Admiral has clearly been in the wars.
Admin1 is reading Mixing with Murder by Ann Granger (another silly book, with idiots and ludicrous coincidences). Admin2 is reading It’s a Battlefield by Graham Greene. We scored 9 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
Weather of the Day: Autumnal
Sep 17th 2015
Admin1 is reading The Day Is Dark by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (a daft book, a prime example of both an idiot plot and its subsidiary, the second-order idiot plot, in which not only are the protagonists all idiots, so is the rest of society). Admin2 is reading Oblivion by Arnaldur Indriðason
105
Sep 15th 2015
A bright ending to a dull day with clouds that look like numbers. Yesterday — 14 Sep — we passed the 2012 solar panel total; that point was reached on 22 Oct in 2013 and 5 Oct in 2014.
Admin1 is rewatching The Fall.
Admin2 is reading Sweet Caress by William Boyd, which was disappointing to be honest, like a creative writing exercise cobbled together from random photographs.
Kaffee des Tages: Bellarom Espresso; not bad considering we got 1.2kg for £6.99
Beklagar din förlust Dave
Buddleia, Butterfly, Bee
Sep 10th 2015
A lovely sunny day brings the insects out.
Kaffi dagsins: Ethiopian Kochere Yirgacheffe; woody with a fruity aftertaste and yummy.
Admin1 is reading Midnight Fugue by Reginald Hill (frivolous and uninvolving, with irritating neologisms; Hill isn’t as funny as he thinks he is). Admin2 is reading The Day Is Dark by Yrsa Sigurdardottir.
Fruit of the Day: Tomatoes
Sep 8th 2015
It’s been dull and overcast today so here are some bright tomatoes from the garden.
Admin1 is rewatching Wallander (the Branagh ones).
Admin2 is reading A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson (second Second World War book in a row, which was rather anxietal: brilliant but harrowing).
Welcome to the Brudenell
Sep 6th 2015
Admin2′s birthday outing to New Woman, Bilgepump and Cuz. And our best September sunshine day ever: 8.38kWh.
Admin1 is reading The Crow Trap by Anne Cleeves (elaborate and ambitiously constructed, but overlong and a bit confusing). Admin2 is reading The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton. We scored five on the Guardian Weekend quiz. Oh dear.
Admin1 stayed at home and watched Dark City, and was interested to find that his original opinion (in Matrix 132, Jul/Aug 1998) was if anything intensified, despite the good reputation the film now has:
I was telling a friend about Dark City. “Think forties films,” I said, “dark mean streets, homburgs, crisp and witty dialogue, femmes fatales, plots to die for. Dark City has none of them. Well, apart from the homburgs. And the rain.” All style and no substance, the film reminded me of nothing so much as a routine Dr Who story, with its daft aliens, dull dialogue, plot holes you could drive the Nostromo through, and absolute refusal to follow up on the existential terror of its premise of reality-altering technology (see Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven or any number of Dick books for infinitely better treatments). It was just an excuse for second-rate special FX.
Strange Webcam Grab!
Sep 5th 2015
This mystery visitor from the skies appeared on our weathercam this afternoon. We searched the garden for craters but found nothing out of the ordinary.
We watched The Manchurian Candidate remake. Admin1 is reading The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu. Admin2 is reading The Murder of Harriet Krohn by Karin Fossum.
Cloud of the Day: Rubber Duck
Sep 1st 2015
Admin1 is reading Night Frost by RD Wingfield (unpleasant, unfunny and deeply misogynistic; DI Frost is reminiscent of Nobby Nobbs, but without the rakish charm and healthy lifestyle). Admin2 is reading Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson.