Status-Q

It’s important to keep variety in one’s life, I feel, and not get caught up in too much of a repetitive daily routine.

Take today, for example. I drove out to a nearby village, had a pleasant lunch with my wife and mother-in-law, and then, a little later in the afternoon, a lion peed on me.

This is not something that I would normally expect on a quiet Sunday afternoon, but life would probably be very dull if it didn’t happen from time to time.

He was, I admit, the other side of a fence. We looked each other in the eye, we both purred some suitable greetings, and we seemed to be getting on rather well. But then, as he turned to go, he lifted his tail, and his range and aim were good. I turned fast, but not quite fast enough to stop a little from going down my neck.

I shall continue to assert that he intended this as a mark of great friendship and respect…

Well, as regular readers will know, Rose’s first novel, The Blackstone Key, launches today. She’s written academic books before, but this is her first work of fiction, and is the start of what will be at least a trilogy.

It’s the nearest we’re likely to come (or indeed, have any desire to come!) to announcing the birth of a first child, so we’re quite excited. Mother and baby (1.8lbs , ISBN 978-1847441331) doing well so far!

If you, or anyone you know, is interested in historical adventures, this should be on a bookstore shelf near you in the next day or so, or you can get it from Amazon or RoseMelikan.com. The US publisher has described it as “Jane Austen meets Agatha Christie”, which is good, because it might sound pretentious if I had said it. 🙂

Amazon are also taking orders for the sequel, which will be out in about 11 months’ time.

Exciting stuff – The Blackstone Key is not officially launched yet – that happens on Thursday – but Amazon have a few in stock and have shipped some to people who pre-ordered. Laura, who ordered hers ages ago, is the first person we know who has actually received a purchased copy.

There’s even a nice first review from somebody:

…With strong characterisation that keeps revealing new facets to the characters and an intriguing spy mystery, the author holds the reader throughout, right up to the thrilling conclusion on the dangerous streets of London.

In days of yore, the seasons were well-defined by the agricultural and ecclesiastical calendar. For most of us now, however, the progress of the year is marked by other milestones. One day, I’ve decided, I’d like to write a coffee-table book with photographs, about what indicates changing seasons in the modern world. They’re different for all of us, and they don’t have to be limited to four.

For me, in Cambridge, the first real change occurs when I can ride a bicycle without wearing gloves.

A little later, the punts start appearing on the river, and then the hearts of the colleges descend into silence as exams approach. Female undergraduates wear sleeveless dresses.

Post-exam balls lead us into high summer, as our undergraduates are replaced with language students, who spend a few months here learning English and learning to cycle on the left.

Then, after a while, you find that the walk to a college dinner is something you do in the dark, and before long, you need to wear gloves again when you’re cycling home.

What defines the changing seasons for you?

I’m not sure whether Adobe is seriously wanting to get into web-based software as a service, or whether they just want to demonstrate the potential of Flash, but Photoshop Express is pretty cute.

“The footsteps grew louder, and now Mary could make out the dim figure of a man advancing towards her. What was he doing on that lonely stretch of road on a dark, inclement night? It seemed impossible that he was an innocent traveller, however much she wished he might be. His tread was too cautious, almost furtive, and he was carrying something… it looked like an unlighted lantern. Surely an honest man would not choose to travel in the dark?”

The UK edition of Rose’s novel, The Blackstone Key, hits the shelves on Thursday.

To follow on from my last post, it occurred to me that I could probably run IE on my Linux machine using WINE, which would save me having to run the whole of Windows. A friend had mentioned doing this, but I presumed it would be quite complicated. My Windows VM is currently “installing Security Update 64 of 97”, so I thought I’d look around while I was waiting.

It turns out to be very easy now to get IE5, 5.5 and 6 going, thanks to a script called IEs4Linux.

On Ubuntu, you need a couple of packages from the Universe repository first:

sudo aptitude install cabextract wine


(More detailed info here)

Then you can just follow the instructions on the IEs4Linux page.

This post was made with IE6 running on my Linux machine. Good. It works. Now I can go back to Firefox.

Regular readers will know that I’m a Mac user, but I do have a copy of Windows on my machine as well, which I can run using Parallels. Generally, the only time I fire it up is to check that web sites I’ve created using standards-compliant browsers also work under Internet Explorer. Generally, they don’t, and I have to start inserting nasty hacks to get around the bugs in IE. Anyone who does web design will know this process only too well.

It struck me tonight just how ironic it is that the only reason I ever need to run Windows is because it’s broken!