The net is really like having one of the best encyclopedias in the word at your elbow, not counting a friendly sort of librairian, named Google, who is willing to run around and bring back the information for you. Want some details on 17th century church clocks? It’s in the British Museum. Seeking to see if my church tower is really feasible as a design? Well here is a similar one.

Countless material, too much to mention: how did people cope before the Net and Google?

I am busy revising chapter two. There are parts that will need cleaning, tidying, cutting, but this chapter is falling into place, and I am counting that it will give me the voice and impetus to move on through to the first draft of chapter three. And then four…

But not today. Today I must prepare for Kim’s party. Her 9th birthday was actually last Saturday but we’re doing a thing for friends and so forth tomorrow. I have put my foot down—I hope to some effect—saying, no, you are not inviting all your class when we agreed on three people (not counting the other three who will be coming, and Emiline and Nadja. But hopefully the latter will be able to help me stay calm). Then off to prepare party games to occupy them. Wrap pressies and prizes. (Mum, your packet and letter both arrived OK). Do some shopping. Tidy, clean and put everything away where small grubby hands can’t grab at it. Rent a couple of videos just in case. So all this means that I probably won’t be able to work over the weekend either… We’ll see.

Ludivine hired some DVDs for Kim last weekend. While there is not much to say about Dragonheart—which was a nice thought, playing up to Kim’s dragon obsession—except that there was a good story in there somewhere struggling to get out, and that I never realised that a smirking CGI dragon could be so annoying for something that didn’t exist.
The real treat was Shaolin Soccer. Words fail me to describe this. Football leaves me indifferent, whether playing, watching or overhearing dolts raving on about it. This film was basically The Full Monty (thanks to Ludivine for pointing this out), as Kung Fu footballers instead of strippers. It was completely unbelievable, hilarious (just when you thought that it couldn’t go farther, it did), kitsch, full of wonderful CGI and terrible costumes and make up (the girl’s shaved head? She looked like an extra from Star Trek). We all loved it.
. . . . .
Just finished Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters, this was the best so far: the most accomplished, written, referential, the most complete. I also demolished Strata and Dark Side of the Sun. What was interesting in these two was that the idea of the Discworld was hovering there (in space?) before he started work on the series. I also read The Colour of Magic, Witches Abroad and Equal Rites. I am currently reading Lords and Ladies. And greatly enjoying it. Keep my self occupied while waiting for the executioner.

Someone remarked that there is a convention in teenage slash movies that the kids, when they get into the mysterious house in the woods, will always split up. This is strange for two reasons—everything about the world that they live in is otherwise identical to ours, except that while they are usually the ideal demographic, we have to understand that they have never seen a teenage slash movie, nor even heard of such a thing, and thus have never learnt that they should never separate. The other strange point is that no director has thus far (as far as I know) played with our expectations on this point, kept the crowd together, and managed to slash them all anyway…

Anyway, these obscure references were brought on by going to see Séance last night (‘Kôrei’ for the purists).

There were some wonderful creepy moments when the goose pimples rippled over your skin. But the central premise of the story was so disappointing—surely, like for slash pics, people have seen enough films to know that you call the police, the ambulance, anyone. You do not try to turn things to your advantage, nor cover up. The attempts to establish the motivation for not doing this were not credible either. While they said the words, there was nothing in their characters or past actions to support that. That said, I liked the film making, the rather dowdy acting, the creepy effects, but not the story. Shame.