Varia

Today was a remarkably nice day; I was able to venture outside in my windbreaker, rather than my heavy coat. (Having no classes on Friday, I chose to stay home.) I wandered over to the local Borders; scuttlebutt had it that Borders has been terribly slow in putting The Sharing Knife: Horizon on the shelves, but I wanted to check for myself. Rumor confirmed: I bought nothing there today.

Instead, I paid a visit to Amazon. Along with Horizon, I ordered The Vorkosigan Companion, C. J. Cherryh's Regenesis, and Terry Pratchett's Nation, and - delving into the To-Buy list - Roger Lass, Old English: A Historical Linguistic Companion; J. E. Lendon, Empire of Honour (on the art of governance in ancient Rome, recommended by noted economist and sometime LMB listie Brad deLong); Anthony Shadid, Night Draws Near (on Iraq under American occupation, recommended by oilhistorian); and In the Shadow of the Law, a novel by (of all people) Kermit Roosevelt.

Meanwhile, I finally finished that game of Civ IV - which, as it turned out, was only a Large game, not a Huge one, but in any case took a total of about 19 hours of game time, spread over eleven days. I won a Domination victory, but not by a high score.

In other news, Sven Bianchi has really scrmessed up, and I expect major fireworks next week. (I've decided that Faye's behavior is actually utterly consistent; thoroughly irrational, but, given her particular hangups, consistent.)