Poor Matt Webb. His server hard disk died on him, leaving him trying to recover the data he could, and thus we are bereft of Interconnected. He is, however documenting the recovery and keeping a weblog of sorts over at a blogspot site. And on it there’s a marvellous description of the magic to be found in physics classes. It’s a wonderful piece of writing: inspirational and yet clearly by someone clued in to, and geared up by, what they’re writing. Sometimes Webb posts things I barely understand; sometimes he posts things that make me doubt his grip on reality. This, though, is neither; it’s wonderful.

And as I read his writing, I remembered something: I want to write a book. I just have no idea how. (Or where to begin. Or how to construct a story without needing to research every detail to death).

So, like, I said: I spent New Year in Glasgow. Very pleasant it was, too; a longish period of time with just two of us, living normally, in our own space. Lovely. Being a holiday period (especially so up here in Scotchland), most of our time was spent idly, either watching dramatic moving pictures or eating because, well, eating is good. I also, as espoused below, discovered the joys of free wireless. Anyhow, I wanted to start posting more frequently to this thing, and there’s so much to say about this wonderful holiday… but not in full. So, like countless other webloggers, I’m using a big fat list post to substitute for any real content.

What we saw:

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Zoolander
Heist
American Psycho
Half of The Rules of Attraction (bad)
Half of The Breakfast Club (good)
Eddie Izzard’s Circle
Almost Famous
Minority Report
Wonder Boys
American Splendour

What we ate:

Pizza.
Turkey Dhanya & homemade Naan bread.
Turkey Enchiladas.
Tom’s Expansive Spaghetti Bolognese.
Lamb in Black Bean and Green Pepper sauce.
Lots of breakfasts; spiced scrambled eggs, fried eggs, sausages, hash browns, etcetera.
Chicken breasts marinaded in white wine and ginger, in a mushroom and peppercorn sauce, served with basil-seasoned Penne and a caramelised-red-onion-and-pepper garnish. (My own concoction).
The best steak of our lives, along with duck pate, feta and spinach salad, raspberry cranakin and lemon and ginger tarte.
Lots of beer.

What we did:

Went to the cinema a lot.
Went out to drink a fair bit, and found the Glasgow bar that I’d be happy to call home (that wasn’t Nicensleazy).
Went shopping for each other in the sales.
Read the books we gave each other for Christmas.
Cooked for one another, with another, in the nearest we could make to a home when you’re living out of suitcases.
Went out for a marvellous dinner on New Year’s Eve, saw 2004 in standing in a busy lane with one or two hundred other happy people, all out for the evening in a secluded little lane.
Lusted after white goods. And clothing, for that matter.
Slept, dozed, lay in. Slept in the most comfortable sofabed ever, a bed that lay in a bay window, with fairy lights above it.
Visited a record shop that can only be described as Championship Vinyl (and nabbed a Jose Feliciano LP for a quid).

Some pictures to illustrate:
(poor quality down to digital camera not having much battery and so having to use cameraphone)

I’m sitting in a cafe in Glasgow, wirelessly hooked up for free via my Powerbook, and I think I’m in the future. Really. The future; I sit down, buy my Coke, open the laptop and the world is at my fingertips. I couldn’t have dreamed of this three years ago, let alone ten.

New Year was fantastic. Dinner with a loved one, all sorts of culinary experiments, and watching the King return. My camera was low on batteries, but my t610 wasn’t, so I have lots of grimy mophos that might scatter my New Year post.

Life is good. Now that I am unemployed again, I have a big list of things to do, all of which I am going to try and acheive. I’ll explain them in more detail when I’m home. One of them is to get into the habit of posting again, and I’m going to, as it will make sure I get on with the plans in hand. They involve music, writing, teaching, making. Getting my hands in gear again.

Like I said: life is good. I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch for a while, world; I don’t know if anyone reads this thing, and I never have. When I redesigned and moved to this new domain, I promised I would make infovore something worthwhile, interesting. I’m not sure I’ve fulfilled that, but I’m beginning to understand more about the way I write, the way I think, and the ways to turn this into something exciting.

And that’s before I mention the nefarious, top-secret plans…

That was a lovely long weekend away from work, then; three days off, and the lovely presence of the girlfriend to boot. We ate tons, drank too, went to the cinema (Love Actually is 50% of a really good movie, and 50% of a terrible one; Aurelia was the bomb, though), played a lot of backgammon (wonderful game), failed to teach her to play Halo (wonderful game too, but requires lots of thumb co-ordination; still, a valiant effort was made), and went for a walk.

And what a lovely walk it was; smallish photos here – if you want it larger, I might oblige later.

I am still here, I promise. There’s a bit of linking going on in that sidebar, and I’m working on other projects. I haven’t flown away anywhere:

But work tires me out, and spare time is consumed with job applications and books and other people and having fun. I’m doing quite well, really; enjoying the time I have. I’ve just bought a lovely bike (bargain, too) and am now getting out and about, thus helping Project: Fitness and also Project: Mental Health. It’s lovely to ride a bike that isn’t a rusty gate but something akin to precision engineering, whisper-quiet as it purrs up and down hills, paths and roads. It’s hopefully going to see some pleasant weekend use, this year. When I was out on Sunday, there was a plane overhead making beautiful vapour trails. By the time I had the camera out, it had passed a little and wasn’t so hot, but you get the idea. Sunday was, as the photo shows, a glorious day.

Anyhow, there are things afoot, and I shall have something worthwhile to post soon, I hope. I’ve kind-of lost track of what to put in this big column; coming up with short pieces is no trouble, it seems.