(no subject)

Somehow my 'seventeen books in six days' has been reshaped into 'eighteen books in six days with two days off for Conflux in the middle.' Today's Conflux was a meeting with the hotel and tomorrow's will be a visit by Nicole. Neither occupy the whole day, but the end of teaching has left me so very tired and I don't want to push myself.

You should greatly desire this too. Why? Because when I have energy I think of interesting things to say. I write novel. I ring my family and annoy them (I have a special talent at this aspect of my life).

When I don't have energy I watch curious and interesting DVDs. Right now it's a Beatles' concert c 1964. Technically it's research for novel, but the truth is I won't be using it in my fiction - I just feel in the mood. I think it's because the members of the group jump up and down with mad enthusiasm and even Ringo looks as if life is joyous. I want to drain their energy from them, vampire-like. (Me, reading vampire novels while I watch and listen, surely not? Just because I wanted to compare Twilight to Kitty and the Midnight Hour...)

In other news, my lounge room has reached epic levels of confusion. I might have to tidy it a little, to the gentle rhythm of ye-ye music.

In still other news, I still can't access my food history blog. I have Conflux News for it, so hang on there till the server gets replaced with a bigger one (which is apparently one cause of the problem).

ETA: I ran out of sixties so I went back a decade: Flash Gordon (1950s version). This week is turning out to involve a great deal of minor time travel.

Conflux and food and food history blog - enough updates to sink anyone into somnolence

Food history blog

You wanted my disorderly mind to post news in an orderly fashion? That was a faint hope and now it is gone. Besides, minds need exercising and doing things backwards is entertaining. I always read Locus backwards, for instance and find it *immensely* entertaining.

My other blog is still down. I'll post a major Conflux food update when the Food History blog is running again, but it might take a week or so. The owner is being rather clever and, faced with giant problems (my personal favourite was the biggest spam attack in the history of my personal universe) is turning a potential catastrophe into a major equipment update. This means there won't be posts from most 451 bloggers until it's done (as I read it) but at the other end the whole system will be way more robust and everyone will be happy.

If Steve is doing so much to turn a big bad into something good then it's incumbent upon me to put some effort in, too. I can't afford major equipment, so I think I'll do some sort of competition. I have cool prizes - not big, but cool. There will most certainly be a book involved. It will concern things Medieval. It will have recipes. If I can find it, that is.

Conflux banquet

The big Conflux news of today is that we have a price for the banquet. The minute we also have a booking form online I'll link to it.

Karen and I met wtih the chef today and we sorted out bunches of things. We sorted out the price, which is cheaper than it was going to be by a significant margin without the quality of the meal being brought low (though we've had to lose the beef dish - sorry K.). We also refined the menu and it's exceptionally yummy.

We're still lacking a final drinks list, but the Conflux committee is meeting on 6 July to sort that out. If anyone reading this still has outstanding drinks tests, please, please get them to me in the next few days. I may not be able to blog them immediately (thus delaying your rise to fame) but I can include your results in the final test. Anything not with me by 2 July (since there is shopping involved in this testing business) will just be left off, alas.

Other things

One more book down. Twilight was a lot of fun, though I did get a bit tired of descriptions of male perfection. I think that's the last in this unexpected series of vampire books, unless one pounces on me in a dark alley. I might have to draw names out of a hat to see what book I start next.