New Fridge!
I think I've mentioned before that the fridge in my apartment has been struggling to keep things cold for a while, especially when it gets warm out. I told my landlord about it a few weeks ago, but didn't hear anything.
Well, I have an old high school friend coming to visit me in about a week, and earlier this week I realized that mid-August was a likely time for it to get hot again, and the period when he's visiting was about the worst time for it. So I called my landlord and asked if he could get a new fridge in here in a couple of weeks. And he obliged quickly, and this morning the fridge was delivered.
It's a lot nicer than the old one, even beyond the fact that it just seems to work. It's deeper, and somewhat more spacious, and the racks are spaced more conveniently for the sorts of things I store in there (especially drinks). Its door also opens on the other side, which is more convenient since that's the side where the counter where I usually do stuff in the kitchen is located. And, it's got those funky transparent shelves and drawers so I can see where things are more easily. It's nice.
But mainly, of course, it works. It doesn't seem to be on all the time, which will probably save me electricity, too.
Wednesday I went over to Subrata's and we got in a 3-player game of North American Rails. It was a pretty close game, with the lead changing hands a couple of times, but I ended up winning it, which surprised me as much as anyone as I felt pretty doomed after the first ten turns or so. As always seems to be the case, the Mayfair rail games seem to be a hit with this gaming crowd, and 'll probably bring Australian Rails or Nippon Rails next week.
The last couple of nights I've mainly spent reading and watching TV. For instance, I managed to dig up the last few issues I was missing of John Byrne's run on West Coast Avengers from a few years ago. It's pretty mediocre stuff; Byrne has really become a second-rate writer since he stopped doing his Next Men comic. His characters' speech patterns are stilted, his plots are byzantine and often seem pointless (soulless might be a better word), and his artwork has seemingly gotten more and more generic as the years have passed. (Look at the bland stuff he's done - both writing- and art-wise on Wonder Woman and Spider-Man lately.)
But, I was curious about the books, and they came pretty cheaply. So I don't feel too badly about it. I can always turn around and sell 'em.
This is easily the best episode of the series so far, and it feels like a first episode. (It feels a lot like the first few Babylon 5 episodes, actually.) It's relevant to the series - the crew finally finds a planet with some relationship to the Drakh plague - and the main characters' personalities are much more vivid than previously. It seems clear now that this episode has a lot of set-up for the series overall, whereas the earlier episodes ended up being, well, set-up for the set-up.
So, maybe the series will pick up from here - for the few episodes it has remaining.
Oh, and it also had some pretty cool special effects, with the extensive rendering of an ancient alien city.
I've been cruising along pretty well, I think. Slowly building readers, and although I'm missing more days than I was way back when I started, a lot of that is circumstantial, and I still write as often as I can whenever I feel that I have something to say. I've developed a few good correspondences with my readers, and gotten good suggestions, feedback and encouragement.
And, I have no plans to stop anytime soon!
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