Some of the stories sound distinctly urban-mythical though. Even in a decompression chamber, does any engineer really design a toilet which fatally disembowels you by sucking your insides out if you work the levers in the wrong order? Couldn't you just have an airlock built into the plumbing, or just use a chemical toilet?

Easy reading, would work well as commute reading, but not particularly worth seeking out.

Listening/Reading
Slogged my way through Baudolino by Umberto Eco, partly as audiobook, partly as a paper book. Long medieval shaggy dog story. During one of the sacks of Constantinople, the traveller Baudolino tells his long and increasingly unbelievable life story to politician Niketas, culminating in his trip to the mythical empire of Prester John.

Has some good medieval touches including a fascination with theology, and found myself chuckling out loud at some of the wittier bits. Found it dragging more and more towards the end though. The pace seems to slow down the further you get from the manic beginning as the travellers hang around with nothing much happening.

Ultimately, some amusing touches but not really worth the effort.

Next up on the listening front is another TTC course: Age of Pericles. Went a bit crazy with the relief at finishing Baudolino and bought five more: Modern British Drama, Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age , Rise and Fall of Soviet Communism: A History of 20th-Century Russia, Biological Anthropology: An Evolutionary Perspective, Story of Human Language. That lot should last me a while.

What I'm Reading 3
The Smoking Diaries by Simon Gray. Sixty-five-year-old, chainsmoking former alcoholic playwright keeps a diary, reminiscing about his childhood and musing on the present. Interesting because it's very well written and acutely observed. He seems to be pretty honest about his own flaws and vanity, though of course that may just be that he's good at giving the appearance of vanity.

It's quite charming to have him discuss the joy of discovering the Internet for the first time. He complains about money problems a lot, but according to Wikipedia he is married to a Rothschild, which you'd think would take the edge off poverty.

An interesting read. I'll be looking out for the sequel.

What I Will Be Reading
The latest Thomas Covenant Fatal Revenant is out now, as is The Merchant's War, the new Merchant Princes book. Will be reading them when Amazon decide to get around to delivering them.

Me
Still wrestling with this tricky project at work. Deadline is very tight, but the business have bought a lot of trade publicity which would make it embarrassing and expensive to be late.

There might be a bit of schedule chicken going on between my back end work and the outside company doing the front end. I'm pretty confident I can get my bit live on time though, so hopefully if it is delayed they'll take the fall.

There was some minor drama last week with shouting and storming out of meetings and such.

Me 2
Grandmother seems to be stabilized a bit: they sent her home, and she's going to have outpatient treatment for a bit. Will see what happens.

Watching
Why did nobody tell me that Boondocks Series 2 has started? Good as ever.

Have also been watching the moderately amusing Sarah Silverman Progam. The funniest bits are actually from her gay-bors Brian and Steve. Would be better with less Sarah Silverman in it.

For some reason I'm still watching Heroes. Not sure why. I think because my fellow UKians are a lot further behind and haven't yet worked out that he just keeps repeating the same plots, so they're quite keen on it. Oh look. Sylar has escaped and is on the loose again! Wow, do you think a cheerleader can have a high-school relationship with a dorkish outsider?

Web
Designing the DVD cover for Robinson Crusoe on Mars.

What if Google had to design for Google?

Economics: Gender discrimination lowers output a lot.