So. Fourteen boxes packed so far. Books in boxes take up far more space than books on shelves. The plan is to pack at least two boxes a night until only the dregs are left.

Sometime in the next few months Nizzibet and I will be moving out of this house. The exact timeline isn’t, well, exact. PassedAwayMother’s house still needs to be sold. Another residence needs to be purchased.

Right now my concentration is on packing up or getting rid of stuff. When we moved back here from Portland four years ago we moved 168 boxes of books and videos. Give or take. We have, of course, acquired more books and videos since then. I did a purge of videos last summer. That made a small impact.

The plan right now is to pack up all the books I want to keep. Pack up all the books I know the Nizz wants to keep. I’m pulling out any duplicates I find as I go along. Maybe we can get a little in trade at one of the used book stores. I’m recycling computer books written before the millenium.

Besides the books, we’ve got a lot of furniture that needs to go away. J-Dogg will take some of it. He and TwoM are moving into a house next month. I don’t imagine he’s going to take much unfortunately. Wherever we move it’s likely to be pretty small. We’re not likely to put the effort into a yard sale. It’s not a lot of fun and we’re too likely to get rained on.

I’m going to offer a few items through Freecycle. See how much of a hassle it is. Giving away stuff can be fun.

I’m currently reading The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson. Nizzibet found me a paperback copy for Christmas. I downloaded the novel sometime last year but had never started reading. Somehow a stack of loose pages is less attractive than the same story bound up beneath a snazzy cover. The novel is infamous for being brilliant and awful in equal degrees. It’s considered brilliant for the imagination behind the setting, awful for the prose style and florid romanticism. So far it’s living up to its reputation.

Even if I’d been unaware of the critical opinion of The Night Land I would have been expecting a bit of a slog. I’ve already read his other three novels – The Boats of the Glen Carrig has little plot and wooden characters; The Ghost Pirates is slow and repetitive and The House on the Borderland is clunky. None of Hodgson’s novels are easy for the general reader. They all display a brilliant imagination hobbled by great gobs of clunky prose, meandering plots and wooden characters. Hodgson’s best work is in his short stories – the most famous being The Voice in the Night if only because it was filmed as Attack of the Mushroom People.

Anyway – I’m only able to take The Night Land a few pages at a time but I am enjoying the thing. Hard for me to recommend to anyone else though. For a taste of the setting see The Night Land site. I understand that Hodgson published an edited, streamlined version of the novel as The Dream of X. I’ll have to see if I can find a copy someday.

It’s snowing out. Probably bad news for someone. I haven’t checked the news yet. One of the techs at work sent me an article Friday about an impending superstorm that was supposed to be hitting Mid America this week. Friday night we had rain that became a wettish snow that was gone by noon on Saturday.

At the moment (6:30 am) the snow is coming down with enthusiasm. I’ll probaby use the excuse that I need to return movies to go out in it later.

No. Of course not. That would be silly.

However, it’s a bad idea to put wolves in charge of sheep and to ask someone who only rides in limosines whether the subway is in good shape.

In other words, if the Administration says that Social Security is in trouble, you might want to consider that they are lying. Lying. Lying.

Because they are.

And if you don’t believe me, start doing some research.

There are bad movies and there are bad movies. How bad you think a movie is depends on your expectations for the movie. This weekend I’ve watched The Truth About Cats and Dogs and Shatter Dead.

Cats and Dogs – Honestly, I don’t expect much from comedies. Too often “comedy” springs out of stupid people doing stupid things. I tend to avoid comedies for just that reason. I get enough of stupid people in real life (being one of them) that I’d rather avoid them in my entertainment. Fortunately, The Truth About Cats and Dogs is about smart people acting stupidly. And regular, not so smart, people acting on their feelings. In other words, the people in the movie act like real people. It’s now one of my five favorite “romantic comedies”.

(I’m guessing on five favorites. I’m more a fan of monster movies than of romantic comedies. Do Grosse Point Blank or Bed of Roses count as Romantic Comedies? One concerns the redemption of a conscienceless hit man, the other is occasionally amusing rather than funny.)

Anyway.

The Truth About Cats and Dogs. Funny movie about smart people acting stupidly.

Shatter Dead. Movie made by smart people with no budget and a little too much ego. In other words – it would have been better if they’d known what they were doing but if they’d known that they probably never would have released the video. Entertaining if you can suspend your disbelief (and the expectations you’re likely to have in a movie with more than a $1.98 budget).

Unfortunately I can’t find the review that originally sparked my interest in this film. I’m pretty sure it came from one of the the B-Masters but I don’t know which one.

Lovesettlement has put up a new poem (11/24/04 entry) to be revised. Very charming and just a little creepy – so of course I find it delightful. I tend to like his narrative poems the best. I’m sure that’s because I get them more quickly than a sound or a mood poem. They don’t require that I think. I’ve no objection to think, y’understand, I like thinking. Thinking just isn’t automatic. (And here’s the dare – how many times do you think during the day. By “think” I mean do more than make a choice between A, B and C. I mean – take in a new concept; really look at the world from someone else’s point of view (which usually means asking questions) or examine an issue (concept, story, theory, poem) with new perspective/information (which also usually requires asking questions).

Leif Jones has a website. And it looks cool. Bastard.

It’s not that there’s nothing to say it’s that I’m having a hard time saying it. There’s this inertia that’s got me in a grip and I just can’t be bothered to push out of it. I’m not complaining. I know that sooner or later I’ll make the effort and be way too busy again. I’m not depressed. I’m not tired. I don’t think I’m resting either.

I’ve got a new gallery at Kaijuphile.com. It’s not as fancy as my Epilogue gallery but, given that I just wanted a place to post giant monster illustrations, it works for me.

Nizzibet got word that her DamnedFather and EvilStepMonster have shuffled off this mortal coil. DamnedFather had Lou Gehrig’s Disease topped off with pneumonia back in 1998. EvilStepMonster got whacked by breast cancer this July. We got the news in bits and pieces from Friday to Monday as Nizz played back and forth telephone with a lawyer in Dallas. The only reason we heard at all is due to the vagaries of Texas law. ESM’s will had left all her property to relatives. Her relatives. She and DF had join ownership of a house. DF died without a will. Apparently, in Texas, spouses don’t get automatic ownership of their deceased partners property. ESM’s will didn’t cover DF’s half of the house. DF’s heirs needed to be located before ESM’s heirs could get their share of the house. A lawyer had to track down Nizzibet and her brothers.

It’s a windfall. We’re not expecting much. Not knowing where in Dallas the house is located we can’t guess on its worth. Once it’s sold the money will be split in half and then in thirds. Useful but probably not luxuriously so. The biggest prize here is that Nizzibet gets a little completion on her childhood. Right now her body is dealing with it by having a bad case of the flu.

We’ll be busy eating this weekend. The GamingPoet will be here for dinner tomorrow, we go to BigSister’s on Friday and JayDogg, TwoM, ShrinkingR and LittleM will be here on Saturday.

Cheers!

Lovecraftian critters found via an image search on Google. This link is here mainly so I can find them again. Find them and be annoyed. Be annoyed because they are quite, quite good.

I was going to natter on about my Amazon wishlist wasn’t I?

I’m sure I’ll get to specific items sooner or later. Today I’ll just fuss over the inadequacy of Amazon’s recommend system. Specifically the excess of recommended books of erotica. Yes, a lot of the books on my wish list features art and photography of naked women. There’s not the variety I’d like but that’s mainly because erotica tends to have a mainstream and the mainstream is always easier to find than the backwaters.

What’s fun is watching what recommends are added based on my own additions to wishlist. I added Coming of Age to the list and suddenly I start getting suggestions for English school boy porn. Thanks, I guess. A little odd though. Why these books now? I’ve got Sally Mann and Jock Sturges on the list but I’m not being recommended Lolita (either as a novel or a film).

Not that I’m terribly interested in any version of Lolita. I know it’s a classic and all but I just don’t get into the whole March/December lust-ups. I thought it was kinda creepy even between Buffy and Angel/Spike. Teenagers are like kittens – pretty, maybe a little cuddly but definitely creatures of another species and not for mating.

Why am I not recommended the latest dinosaur books? Sasquatch? Obscure horror novels? Most of what is suggested are DVDs, CDs and art books.