Prepping for a housewarming party tomorrow night. No time for blogging. But! I got a new writing desk! I love it! Every time I see it I grin. And Pier1 almost didn't have one for me. I saved up for it and then they said "Oh, we sold our last one. But maybe the store two hours away has one..." Anyway, the story ends happily. Now I have a desk here instead of a big blank space in the living room labelled "desk" now I can focus on cleaning up the actual office.

Or maybe I'll just avoid going in there.

Books: Started another short story in what I'd like to make into a series. Sadly, it sort of lost its way. So I'm letting it sit on the back burner for a bit. It's getting kind of crowded back there.

I saw "The Island" on Wednesday. The movie, that is. And really - it's not half bad if you ignore the dumb dream-sequence opening. Of course, I'm a pretty forgiving science fiction film fan. But I thought it was pretty good. The cheese in the opening was plausible if you already knew the details of the premise. Someone forgot the obvious - the audience doesn't know yet.

Anyway, if they let me edit the film I would have changed the ending, too. It was a little too happily-ever-after for me. But I can see why they did it. With all the intense chase scenes, they weren't trying to make another Gattaca. It was supposed to be summer fun. The underlying concepts were a little too heavy for that, but the marketers really tried to sell it as pretty people running for their lives.

But it's going to join Underworld on my list of most underrated sci-fi movies.

From Wikipedia, significant aniversaries:

August 10: Independence Day in Ecuador, International Biodiesel Day

* 1792 - French Revolution: Insurrectionists stormed the Tuileries Palace, effectively ending the French monarchy until it was restored in 1814.
* 1809 - History of Ecuador: After nearly three centuries of Spanish rule, the first cry for independence was heard in Quito.
* 1846 - Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the Congress of the United States.
* 1920 - Representatives of Sultan Mehmed VI signed the Treaty of Sèvres, recognizing the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I.
* 1990 - The Magellan space probe reached Venus.

And it's my birthday too! Thanks for all the well-wishes. I've had a good day and that's about all I want when I'm my age.

Books: Wrote a short story today. It's getting mixed reviews from readers so far. It sounds like I still have trouble constructing a "short story plot" instead of a "novel plot." I've got character development this time, but probably not enough context. I don't know, I'm going to put it in a drawer for a few days and come back to it when I'm not so close to it. Then I'll likely try to sell it. By then I won't be as emotionally attatched, either (hopefully).