In which I express frustration with technology

We finished watching season one of the British Being Human. I'm not entirely certain why people like this show. Or thought it needed a remake. The first 4 episodes (maybe 3 1/2) of 6 were not particularly enjoyable. George (the werewolf) is probably the standout character. Annie (the ghost) wasn't that great (barring her brief tenure as poltergeist) and mostly suffered from being far too predictable in her plotting. The killer was X? Gee, I didn't see that coming two seconds after she was introduced... Mitchell (the vampire) suffers from some predictable plotting as well. They do have good chemistry, but I'm in no hurry to see season 2.

So. For some time our receiver has been slowly dying. There's a short that causes the center channel to just stop working. Which makes hearing dialog difficult. Ran into a nice sale at Amazon and picked up a new one that has apparently just arrived. Which means I now get to pull the tv out, yank out the old receiver try to sort out what's plugged into where and then get everything plugged into the new receiver. And hope it all works. I am not expecting to enjoy this process.

However it will be a cakewalk compared to replacing our computer. It's also slowly dying and in need of an upgrade. I suspect we'll stick with Apple, but I'm really not looking forward to getting everything working again. Mostly as I need to transfer all the music and so on over to the new computer. I'm sure it will go well.

There needs to be a way that this just happens. That doesn't involve paying teenagers to come do it for you. I am looking forward to the fact that apparently the new receiver auto adjusts the speakers for you. That will be nice. Assuming I can figure out how to make it all work.

Finished up Emily Strange: Dark Times. It wasn't quite as good as the first one, but it wasn't horrible either. Some nice quirky humor.

M is currently performing in Mulan as a background singer. It's a little ridiculous the lengths they're going to for a grade school musical, but they do a good job. The costumes and set are all really nice and there are only a few things that remind you it's a grade school. Not convinced it's worth the money they've required for it (we had to pay so she could be in it and pay to go see it and make her costume and...) but she has had fun. I think it's starting to wear on her a little, but that's not surprising. So good job M!

Jungle's gonna get you man

First, the amusing thing about the quiz below, is that I've not read any Susan Cooper. So I've no idea if that's accurate or not. I shall have to remedy this situation. Always interesting stumbling on something new.

Secondly, I have finished The Lost City of Z, by David Grann. Absolutely brilliant book. There's nothing like a good adventure tale for summer reading. And this one was all true. It's amazing what people went through to discover new things and to follow their obsessions. Percy Fawcett was convinced there was a lost civilization deep in the Amazon jungle. He vanished along with his son and his son's friend while searching for it. David Grann, a journalist, became intrigued by the story and ended up journeying to the Amazon himself to see if he could discover what happened. Truly fascinating stuff. Cannibals, spies, rivals, adventure, romance this book has it all - just like the Princess Bride, well ok, there's not really any romance. Maybe a little. If you ever thought you wanted to go visit the Amazon, this book will either cement that desire, or cure you of it.

Also read Emily the Strange: Lost Days. Another great little young adult book. Emily has amnesia. In fact she doesn't know her name is Emily. It might be Earwig. Or Molly. She also doesn't know why she's in the town of Blackrock. Or why it's so beige. Her life is truly a mysterious thing. Fortunately she has a slingshot, some helpful black cats and some pretty decent sleuthing skills. She's going to need them to make sense of her life and the town she's found herself in. Recommended.

For grins and chuckles I threw Sly Cooper in the PS2 the other day. Game is still good and oddly, surprisingly challenging.