Herewith, one of those meme things…

Four jobs you’ve had in your life:
1. Apprentice chef
2. Assistant car mechanic
3. Policy & research officer (It’s a government job. No-one knows what it means)
4. Web designer

Four movies you could watch over and over (Interestingly, this has nothing to do with quality. It’s another kind of thing. There are crap movies you can love, and crap movies that are infintely rewatchable):
1. When Harry Met Sally
2. My Neighbour Totoro
3. Uncle Buck
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark

Four places you’ve lived (I’ll be 42 on Monday. I’ve lived a few places):
1. Old Manse Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland
2. Parkerville, Western Australia
3. Second Avenue, Mt Lawley, Western Australia
4. Yosemite Avenue, Oakland, California

Four TV shows you love to watch (I copied this from Margo, but she was right – love to watch? TV shows? Love? ):
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Spicks and Specks
3. Yes Minister
4. something else?

Four places you’ve been on holiday:
1. San Francisco
2. New York
3. London
4. Paris

Four websites you visit daily:
1. www.locusmag.com
2. www.news.com.au
3. www.scifi.com
4. www.guardian.co.uk

Four of your favorite foods:
1. My mother’s trifle
2. Apple crumble
3. Steak
4. Sushi

Four places you’d rather be:
1. Margaret River
2. Tasmania
3. New Zealand
4. California

Herewith, one of those meme things…

Four jobs you’ve had in your life:
1. Apprentice chef
2. Assistant car mechanic
3. Policy & research officer (It’s a government job. No-one knows what it means)
4. Web designer

Four movies you could watch over and over (Interestingly, this has nothing to do with quality. It’s another kind of thing. There are crap movies you can love, and crap movies that are infintely rewatchable):
1. When Harry Met Sally
2. My Neighbour Totoro
3. Uncle Buck
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark

Four places you’ve lived (I’ll be 42 on Monday. I’ve lived a few places):
1. Old Manse Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland
2. Parkerville, Western Australia
3. Second Avenue, Mt Lawley, Western Australia
4. Yosemite Avenue, Oakland, California

Four TV shows you love to watch (I copied this from Margo, but she was right – love to watch? TV shows? Love? ):
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Spicks and Specks
3. Yes Minister
4. something else?

Four places you’ve been on holiday:
1. San Francisco
2. New York
3. London
4. Paris

Four websites you visit daily:
1. www.locusmag.com
2. www.news.com.au
3. www.scifi.com
4. www.guardian.co.uk

Four of your favorite foods:
1. My mother’s trifle
2. Apple crumble
3. Steak
4. Sushi

Four places you’d rather be:
1. Margaret River
2. Tasmania
3. New Zealand
4. California

A few quick links:

• Lucius Shepard reviews King Kong, in Everybody Loves-a Da Big Monkey. I liked the movie, but still managed to agree with pretty much everything he says.
• via Sean Williams, the Onion AV Club nominates the Least Essential Albums of 2005.

A few quick links:

• Lucius Shepard reviews King Kong, in Everybody Loves-a Da Big Monkey. I liked the movie, but still managed to agree with pretty much everything he says.
• via Sean Williams, the Onion AV Club nominates the Least Essential Albums of 2005.

I spend most of the year reading short fiction. I enjoy it. This wasn’t always the case. Probably four years ago I was reading selected collections, the main year’s bests, the occasional issue of a magazine, and a lot of novels. These days I read all the magazines, the online sites, print anthologies and collections, and every other ‘published’ story I can get my hands on. The thing that has suffered the most, in this otherwise enjoyable exchange, is time spent reading novels. Where I once read over a 100 novels each year, I’m probably reading closer to 50 these days. There’s not a lot I can do about that, but as we move towards finalising the annual Locus recommended reading list, I’m reading a last few 2005 novels before doing my write up.

So far the book that’s impressed me most is Paul Park’s A Princess of Roumania. I’m halfway through it, and think it’s terrific so far. Makes me very happy that a galley of The Tourmaline happened to show up here the week before Christmas. I need to read some novellas shortly, but I think I can sneek the second Park book in. I should add that nothing Park had written before had really prepared me for Princess. I’ll post more when I’m done, but it looks like it’s going to be very special.

Speaking of recommended reading, CHARLES would normally be traveling to Perth about now, so we could spend some time down at the beach finishing up the list. I’m really sad he won’t be making it this year. Not only am I a lot less involved with the list, but I won’t see him, which I really enjoy. And, even though we’ll both be in Brisbane and Los Angeles this year, they’re both work events, so I won’t see that much of him. sigh.