Damn machines
So, the computers are still giving me hell.
The main PC went away again, and I got to pay 70 quid for the priviliege of having someone else reinstall the original system.  What was wrong with it?  No one seemed to know but reinstalling seemed to fix it.
Could have done that for free at home though, mumble grumble.

The poor virus-ridden laptop, on the other hand, attracted one of those bugs that's disables the anti-virus program (which is just insulting, if you ask me) so being smart, I reinstalled the whole system, reinstalled the programs, got my files back on, then diligently got anti-virus updates daily to stop it from happening again.... so of course something really nasty got in and really fucked everything up.
Bloody internet.  I spend half an hour doing some 'ahem' research, then I get an unknown virus report, then the antivirus program stops working, then when I try to drag the last couple of weeks worth of files onto a disk in a desperate file save I can't touch anything as the whole thing is well and truly destroyed.
Oh joy.

Which, naturally, pissed me off enough to finally give Linux a go.
Wiped the hard drives, then spent 3 hours installing Red Hat 9. 
So far it's more a testement to my own lack of savvy than anything else.  The word & spreadsheet programs are fine (if a bit slow), there are a nice lot of desktop games included (yay!  more excuses not to work) but can I get online?  Can I bog roll.  Mozilla seems to be under the misapprehension that I'm connected to something, when in fact there's not even a bloody modem cable plugged in.  And despite scouring the books and searching the menus, and attempting to tell the thing that, yes, actually I do have a working modem, and here it is, and it's plugged in now so please use it to dial up my ISP, cheers; it still refuses to cooperate.
and is it me or is all this 'mount floppy' malarkey just a tad disturbing... :->
 
 
H&N
So H&N just went to the printers on Friday.  (I know, just a little bit later than expected!)  I forgot what time of year we're in (ie. family biz explosion time - blue assed flies or what.)
Must remember to update the website again.

BFS
Oh we're having a fun time on the BFS committee at the mo! 
There's a fiction/art showcasey 2005 calandar thing that's in the midst of production, with a some nicely sized names involved.  All being well, it should be launched at Fcon in September.
And we're just narrowing down the stories from June's short story comp, ready to to send the shortlist to our final judge.
And Prism & DH are having a shift around in editors, content & frequency which should be officially announced in September.

Renting in Reading
My god the property market has changed up here.  I remember when you could get a decent 2 bed furnished flat for something like £550 a month; now, with all the spanking new developments that keep popping up, you're looking at £1000 a month.  Grief.  You might as well buy one and get a mortgage.  Of course these are all 'riverside' developments, bang smack in the town centre.  River in most cases being a grotty overpolluted canal thing (I think it's an offshoot of the Kennet, but it could be a spit of the Thames)

And it's not as if the local Lettings Agents are any better for the higher fees.  Truth is, services are, for the most part, getting worse.  They don't communicate with you at all (regardless of whether you're the landlord or the tenant) and usually they rush new tenancies through so fast they haven't sent in cleaners or maintenance chappies to fix the mess from the last tenants. 

Not naming names as we deal quite heavily with about 7 of the main agents in town and mum'd kill me!

Babylon 5: Crusade
Yes, you too can see Sheriff Buck as a space captain (which is better than seeing Hercules as a space captain!)
Starting from the 28th July, the Scifi channel are now showing the 13 eppys of B5: Crusade on Wednesday nights at 9pm. 
(Which, since I missed it when they allegedly showed it on C4 years and years ago, is nice.)

Naturally I will be recording each episode (minus ads) to add to my to collection of obscure scifi series that no one else admits to watching.  (Mutant X, Andromeda, Highlander: Raven, Seaquest... step on up!)

And just when is American Gothic going to come out on DVD, ey?  I'm missing the 1st episode (which, happens with every series I record, bizarrely.)