very cool model

ganked from percyprune, a very cool modeling job featuring an armoured bulldozer. Yes, a bulldozer. :-)

is there any chance...

That LJ is working on a way to filter Twitter postings out of one's friend list? I really find them tiresome.

vexing...

...of the first two discs of a series that Netflix delivered today, of course it was the first one that had the unplayable disc.

...and of course the DVR had erased the ep of another series that I had half-watched over breakfast and then, virtuously, paused so as to not be later for work than I was already, thinking I could finish it tonight.

...and of course, when playing with the cat, one of us knocked over the tupperware still filled with the vinegary water that the sauerkraut had been in (and why is it that they always sell sauerkraut in *much* larger quantities than any one person would ever want to eat? I *want* some, I like it, I just don't want a metric ton...)

*sigh* And so to bed...

50books: another satisfying journey

11/50: Dark Voyage by Alan Furst. I've commented before on Furst's spy novels. Whenever I'm in Borders and looking for a good read but not sure where to turn, I look for Alan Furst. He's an excellent novelist, capable of writing what seems like effortless prose with briefly introduced but very evocative characters. It's not just the subject matter (the world of espionage, covert operations, and diplomacy just before or during World War Two) that gives his stories their film noir flavour; he has the knack that noir directors do of conveying atmospherics sparely and movingly. While his stories don't generally feature whodunits or complex, revolving plots, they do tell the story of one or two ordinary people finding themselves in the most difficult and dangerous places--life right in the midst of war--and somehow coming to terms with what they find they must do. Furst studies his period and its details exactingly and conveys a whole world in a few brief pages. I'd say I love his writing, but that seems to overblown, too expansive for his understated, quietly dramatic tales.

If you like period pieces, if you enjoy a good adventure story told without unbelieveable heroics or improbable luck, where regular people (a alittle good, a little bad) have to make tough decisions about principles and survival, try Alan Furst.