Month: April 2025
Does anybody have an LSI MegaRAID SAS 9280-8e with old firmware?
(April 30, 2025)(Different card depicted for illustrative purposes.) [Edit: Oops! I originally called the card 2108-8e, but it’s really called 9280-8e — 2108 is apparently what it’s called in BIOS, but not the actual model name.] Some months back, my MegaRAID card (used for this) died, and I bought a new old one. But it came with … Continue reading Does anybody have an LSI MegaRAID SAS 9280-8e with old firmware?
The Making of a Kitchen Clock: A Photo Essay
(April 29, 2025)I used to have a all-in-one computer on this kitchen bench, because I thought it would be useful to use to look up recipes and stuff. But I never used it, so half a year ago I downsized to the two boxes you see above. The one to the right has an Emacs-based music player, … Continue reading The Making of a Kitchen Clock: A Photo Essay
Book Club 2025: The Books of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
(April 28, 2025)I discovered that they’d published a complete, illustrated version of the Earthsea cycle a couple weeks ago. I’m not overly fond of omnibus editions, but this is illustrated by Charles Vess, and I love his artwork, so I thought that this might be a good time to re-read these books. Because of course I’ve read … Continue reading Book Club 2025: The Books of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Is it a good sign when a screen does this?
(April 28, 2025)Random Comics
(April 27, 2025)Yes indeed, I’ve read some comics over the past few weeks. It’s taken a while for me to get through this Iznogoud omnibus. I’ve read all these stories as a child (in translation), of course, and… er… I wasn’t a big fan then, so I’m not sure why I bought this now. In French. I … Continue reading Random Comics
Anita de Caro
(April 26, 2025)Book Club 2025: The Paris Review #13
(April 26, 2025)This is from 1956, when the Paris Review was still being published in Paris. It was a much slimmer affair back then — just 140 very thin pages. The longest piece here is “Letters From An American Prisoner” by James Blake. It’s a series of letters from Blake (who was incarcerated at the time) to … Continue reading Book Club 2025: The Paris Review #13
Dorothy Parker on money
(April 25, 2025)Rock Show
(April 23, 2025)The Tilda Swinton Checklist
(April 22, 2025)After a pretty random decision to see all films Tilda Swinton had appeared in, and a basic run-through and then a mopping-up weekend, and then doing a Swinton week every summer every since, I’ve basically seen all the Swinton films that are kinda available. (In some form or other.) This post is a place-holder article … Continue reading The Tilda Swinton Checklist
OpenLibrary, LibraryThing, Books and Emacs
(April 22, 2025)A commenter on my previous post about this stuff suggested using LibraryThing to deduplicate editions, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m using Amy Hempel as the test case, because she’s only published a handful of books. Or as OpenLibrary says: 27. Let’s have a look at, say, the collection from 2006: The … Continue reading OpenLibrary, LibraryThing, Books and Emacs
Comics Daze
(April 21, 2025)It feels like it’s been months since I last read some comics, but I see that it was just two weeks ago. Time doesn’t fly!? Anyway: Comics day. And for music today: Music from 1996 only. 1996 was a good year, I think. Vinicius Cantuária: Sol Na Cara 13:23: The Test No. 68 by Blaise … Continue reading Comics Daze
Book Club 2025: Løvens gap by Anne Holt and Berit Reiss-Andersen
(April 20, 2025)OK, I’ve respected the Norwegian ancient tradition of reading mysteries all Easter long, but this is the last one (even if there’s one more day to go). But I’m ending this Easter on a really strong book. It’s 400 pages long, and there’s not a single boring paragraph in here. Holt was a minister of … Continue reading Book Club 2025: Løvens gap by Anne Holt and Berit Reiss-Andersen
New Products For Men
(April 20, 2025)These could be the most original originals I’ve ever seen
(April 19, 2025)Book Club 2025: On the Other Hand, Death by Richard Stevenson
(April 18, 2025)I read a book by Stevenson many, many years ago, and then I didn’t read any more of his books. So either that book was just awful, or I just plain forgot? In any case, I bought this book four years ago, and then forgot to read it. This book is quite good! Much better … Continue reading Book Club 2025: On the Other Hand, Death by Richard Stevenson
Book Club 2025: The Paris Review #122
(April 18, 2025)I finished this book today (I’ve been reading it over the past few weeks), and that means that I can tell you my story about American customer service! A few years back I ran out of new issues of The Paris Review to read, and as I was in the US at the time, I … Continue reading Book Club 2025: The Paris Review #122
Book Club 2025: A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh
(April 17, 2025)I stumbled across this while doing some testing of the “missed books” command in bookiez.el. It’s one of those “… and FAMOUS DEAD AUTHOR” books, so I assumed it was going to be totally awful. But I saw that it had positive reviews, so I gave it a shot. It’s pretty bad. I mean, it’s … Continue reading Book Club 2025: A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh
Perplexingly Book-Learned Emacs
(April 17, 2025)As I was whining yesterday, it’s perplexingly difficult to find a (semi-)programmatic way of determining whether an author has written a new book. Or even manually in some cases. The best advice is, like, “Follow them on Goodreads” or something? (To recap those two previous posts for those who hate clicking links — there’s plenty … Continue reading Perplexingly Book-Learned Emacs
Book Club 2025: Djevelkysset by Unni Lindell
(April 16, 2025)The week of mysteries continues… Lindell is one of the most successful mystery writers in Norway, and reading this, it’s both obvious and a bit confusing why this is the case. At the same time. The story is told in extremely short scenes — if this was a TV series, it would be one of … Continue reading Book Club 2025: Djevelkysset by Unni Lindell
Do Lists Of Published Works Exist?
(April 16, 2025)tl;dr: Does anybody know of a site/API where I can find a list of books published by an author? Before you answer “just use Wikipedia/Goodreads/Amazon/openlibrary”, read on… After tinkering with my bookiez.el package today, I naturally started to want to buy more books. I was thinking about implementing something that would alert me when authors … Continue reading Do Lists Of Published Works Exist?
A Book Tracking Package for Emacs
(April 15, 2025)In 2013, I got tired of rooting through the book cases every time I bought a new book (to see whether I already had it, because who can remember those things). So I bought an ISBN bar scanner, and whipped up some basic code in Emacs to keep track of what I’d bought. I’ve used … Continue reading A Book Tracking Package for Emacs
Book Club 2025: 1222 by Anne Holt
(April 14, 2025)Easter is mystery book time in Norway. It’s been speculated that it all started because people went off to do skiing in the mountains, and they needed some light reading for the evenings (or when they were snowed in), but I guess it’s just One Of Those Things: A thing happens randomly, and then it … Continue reading Book Club 2025: 1222 by Anne Holt
Everything Is Bad Now pt LVII: PG Tips
(April 13, 2025)For years I’ve been looking for a good “standard” tea. You know, just something you can drink in the morning while you’re too tired to make any decisions, or brew tea properly. But I’ve been doing all these various weird fancy teas, and I like them all. Mostly TGW, who has amusing teas like the … Continue reading Everything Is Bad Now pt LVII: PG Tips
20th Century Man
(April 12, 2025)The Best Albums of 2012
(April 10, 2025)Oh, I forgot I was doing this “best of” blog series based on which albums I’ve listened the most to per year, but I found this in my drafts, so you’re welcome, I guess. Cat Power Sun Deerhoof Breakup Song Django Django Django Django Fort Romeau Kingdoms Leila U&I Maria & The Mirrors Gemini Enjoy … Continue reading The Best Albums of 2012
Book Club 2025: The Rays Of Light That Did Not Illumine by Jandek
(April 9, 2025)I’m reading a big fantasy omnibus, and as is my wont when doing that, I’m reading separate short, short books in between the novels in the omnibus. Because reading several novels in a row in an omnibus is just oddly offputting to me. (But I have no problems reading several novels from the same author … Continue reading Book Club 2025: The Rays Of Light That Did Not Illumine by Jandek
Identify This Song
(April 9, 2025)Some years ago I was digitising a bunch of old tapes. On a mixtape from 1995, I found this track: (It starts pretty loud; perhaps turn the volume down first.) It’s a kinda wild trip hop like thing? With the Amen break? I was thinking perhaps Nicolette… Or… well, it sounds very familiar, but… Shazam … Continue reading Identify This Song
Book Club 2025: A City of Strangers by Robert Barnard
(April 8, 2025)I wanted to read something entertaining today, so I first tried a new, well-reviewed mystery book, gave up, and then went with yet another old Barnard mystery. It’s pretty entertaining! The only annoyance this time around was that Barnard was so strongly hinting at one specific character as being the guilty one — by making … Continue reading Book Club 2025: A City of Strangers by Robert Barnard
Book Club 2025: Nothing Ever Happens Here by Seraphina Nova Glass
(April 8, 2025)The main mystery here is how I ended up with this book. I have no recollection of why I bought it, but perhaps I saw some glowing reviews and gave it a shot? I’m always on the lookout for some well-written mysteries. I mean, just the name — Seraphina Nova Glass — should have been … Continue reading Book Club 2025: Nothing Ever Happens Here by Seraphina Nova Glass
German Musician Autobiography Vibes
(April 5, 2025)Book Club 2025: FIRE!! edited by Wallace Thurman
(April 4, 2025)Some years back, I watched a movie set during the Harlem Renaissance, and the characters were putting together this literary magazine called FIRE!!. So naturally I wanted to read it… and it turns out that somebody (in 1982) did a facsimile edition of this 1926 magazine. So for today’s book club reading, we don’t have … Continue reading Book Club 2025: FIRE!! edited by Wallace Thurman
Comics Daze
(April 4, 2025)I’ve got to read more comics! But perhaps not for as many hours as usual, because I’ve got some errands to run. Juana Molina: Son 13:19: Land of Mirrors by María Medem (Drawn & Quarterly) Wow, the artwork is really attractive… and reminds me of a thing I’ve idly wondered about: Right, Sunday by Oliver … Continue reading Comics Daze
Random Comics
(April 3, 2025)Here’s some comics (and stuff) I’ve read over the past few weeks. Perhaps a month? Galago (the Swedish comics magazine) is quarterly now, so the issues are thick and nice. I was especially impressed by this piece by My Palm. It’s not all comics! It’s not very political, but there’s a couple things about Gaza … Continue reading Random Comics
Book Club 2025: Penric’s Labors by Lois McMaster Bujold
(April 2, 2025)A new book in mass-market paperback format — you don’t see that often these days, do you? Or perhaps you do, and it’s just me that never stumbles onto these paperbacks any more. Anyway, this book collects three novellas, all around 150 pages long, and all previously published separately as e-books. It’s an interesting way … Continue reading Book Club 2025: Penric’s Labors by Lois McMaster Bujold
The best music for walking home at night is…
(April 1, 2025)… definitely this: That is, The Ballad of Shirley Collins soundtrack, which I was listening to tonight. It’s perfect.