I have been listening to a little new music of late, much of it highlighted to me by the ever curious and interesting James Bradley. In addition to getting me reading fascinating books about the Third Golden Age of Television, he pointed out this recording of Ola Gjiello’s choral works to me a few weeks ago. Floating, ethereal and gorgeous, it’s been the perfect start to more than a few stressful days, and has made focussing on work a lot easier. I’m almost sorry I bought this one on iTiunes, as I may need the SACD. Beautiful, and recommended.

I was struck down by a virus in the second half of last week. I’m still not over it, but in the interests of perpetuating myths about the evolution of manflu, I just wanted to let you all know that I feel pretty lousy but have come to work anyway. This is mostly because I have a paper that I’m overdue on and have to finish, and there was no way I was going to get it done at home. Yesterday both daughters were home sick too and, while they behaved well, it was pretty much your standard cavalcade of not-fun.

So, what has been happening? Well, for a start this site seems to be the target of malicious or mischievous attention. It’s been brought down three times in the past month or two, and I get constant “File Change Warnings” from WordPress. This ate up time that I don’t really have, guttingIf and reinstalling WordPress, hardening security etc. Frustratingly, I’m not sure it’s helped. If this continues I may need to just flush WordPress altogether and move to another problem, which I think will cause issues with the podcast. We shall see, though. In further “I don’t really have time for this” news, both the Wii and the girl’s computer had operating problems. sigh. Oh, and the replacement iPad 2.0 died, so I spent a chunk of Friday evening restoring content to iPad 2.3, wihch is far fiddlier than it ought to be.

There were some good things, though. On Saturday morning I recorded the next episode of the Coode Street Podcast with Gary and special guests Ellen Klages and Andy Duncan. We had a fun conversation, and beforehand Gary, Ellen and I spent a bit of time discussing London holiday plans. The podcast will go live this coming weekend. I then went with the family to the local mall. This was a mistake, as I was mostly miserable and sick. Sunday I did very little, and the same for Monday. I spent too much time watching TV, including the latest Ashes Test,  a rewatch of The West Wing (always great!), the first episode of Primeval (Connie Willis loves this, but…), and the latest ep of The Newsroom (it’s not The West Wing, but it’s ok).

I am reading, though not as much as I should. I’ve started Sofia Samatar’s quite lovely A Stranger in Olondria, which I’m reading as prep for a possible podcast, as well as Brett Martin’s Difficult Men, a terrific book about recent TV recommended to me by James Bradley, a pile of magazines and Kate Bernheimer’s new anthology. Oh, and I’m trying out some new sound gear for the office, daydreaming about redecorating, drafting some cover text for Reach for Infinity, and a few other things. Busy times. Sometimes I think I need an intern.

Plans for this week? Well, find a hotel for London, catch-up on Asimov’s and Analog (both are on my too read pile), work on the structure for Best of the Year 8, chase up stories for Subterranean 2, and send out reminders to the Fearsome Magic contributors. Somewhere in there I also need to decide on a bunch of other details, but that’s enough for this update. Onwards into the week!