Falldog

Just been rattling ideas around for a stab at a novel. I appear to have plotted The Da Vinci Code in Space! Back to the drawing board…

Look what I’ve just found! It’s called, marvellously, Delicious Monster, and it will catalogue all your books, CDs and DVDs through the power of barcodes and put it all on your Mac. I particularly like the barcode-reading thing. I’ve often thought about trying to catalogue all my CDs, but the idea of typing everything in has always put me off.

However, there is the nagging fear that, just as the Gracenote CD database that iTunes uses doesn’t cover anything slightly off the beaten track, Delicious Monster will be just as flawed. It’s got to be worth a go, though.

Although, now I come to think of it… Am I actually bothered about huge lists of my stuff any more? I know I was, once – but I couldn’t tell you now exactly why I was. Hmm. I mean, exactly what use would it be, really? I pretty much know what CDs I’ve got (I couldn’t reel off a list now, but you know what I mean), what DVDs I’ve got, and books are just something to create a tantalising jumble on any available shelf. I’m a bugger for buying three books and reading only one, leaving the other two to languish, forgotten, just waiting to be stumbled upon and – only possibly – finally read.

Anyway, even when caught in the wilder throes of fandom, I was never one of those who revelled in lists. (I’d rather get shot of Schott. O ho ho.) I’ve certainly used others’ lists while on the hunt for things – mainly Pet Shop Boys CDs – but then one of the pleasures of rooting round record fairs, books shops, music shops and the like is stumbling on something you never knew existed. And working from a list kind of removes that thrill of discovery and spontaneity.

And I think that’s probably why I’m less than keen on cataloguing all my possessions. I’m sure that, like the books, there are one or two CDs I’ve forgotten I own. They’re just waiting in the loft to be rediscovered and enjoyed anew. It seems a bit unfair to drag them into the light now, catalogue them and then more spitefully forget about them as anything other than words on a list.

I’d be a terrible librarian.

Sorry I’ve been quiet.

“200 million people have already stopped writing their blogs.”

I’m not one of them, it’s just been a ‘blah’ week.

Anyway, the above news story is full of nonsense:

Gartner has made 10 predictions, including stating that Vista will be the last major release of Windows and PCs will halve in cost by 2010.

Gartner analyst Daryl Plummer said the reason for the levelling off in blogging was due to the fact that most people who would ever start a web blog had already done so.

Well, think about what you’re saying. First of all, a million and one bloggers, commentators and experts have stated that Vista will turn out to be the last major release of Windows. So, great prediction there!

Also, if PCs are going to fall in cost so radically – presumably due, in part, to an ever-widening international sales base, particularly in developing countries – doesn’t it follow that more people will have them, and an equal proportion of those new owners will become bloggers, thereby continuing to fuel the growth in blog-starters? Maybe I’m missing something.

I’m no Cassandra (not on weekdays, anyway), but even I can see that you, Daryl, sir, are being paid to spout rubbish. At least I have the good grace to do it for nothing.

Order Numbers(s): 00xxxxx0/P

Qty	Description
1	The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess [Wii]
1	Nintendo Wii Console [Wii]

We are pleased to advise that your order, 00xxxxx0/P, has been despatched via your chosen delivery method and will be with you shortly!

I’ve been wittering on at increasing volume to anyone who’ll listen about this, but always with the low-level worry (despite an email from Game suggesting they’d almost certainly be able to guarantee me a console) that I wouldn’t actually get a Wii on launch day. And last night - THIS!

I’m stupidly excited.

“Your blog is very serious,” Neil said to me today.

I don’t think I ever intended it to be, but this week it’s certainly turned out that way. CNET have announced this evening that James Kim has been found dead. And, just so my subconscious can really ram yesterday’s point home to me, I feel more than a little sad – for him, and what he must have gone through, and for the family who survive him.

I promise the next post will be a marked change of tone.

“I worry that The Office relies so much on getting laughs from people caught in awkward and embarrassing situations that it might start to get old.”

Says the man who wrote Frasier!

The internet is an odd place. I’ve idly been following the story of the MySpace murder in Wired, which comes on the heels of one or two stories of still-updated MySpace pages living on as memorials to their deceased owners. I’ve looked at them as oddities. Particularly the latter have seemed morbid, a gruesome extension of the brazen ‘must be seen to have as many “friends” as possible’ scrabble on that website. When a person is alive, the cloying sentimentality of the ‘friends’ that flock to their page is bad enough; in death, it becomes downright creepy. (more…)