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Laptop is awake. For now. I took it down to the computer shop and the guy checked my power supply and battery, found nothing wrong, tried turning it on, and it worked. Diagnosis: Magic. Hey, at least he didn't charge me.

I still think that whatever is wrong with my computer is still wrong with it. But at least now I can back up my photos and whatnot. And not have to shell out hundreds of bucks for a new one.

Book post

I'm currently reading The Alexiad which, while a pretty interesting account of medieval history, is not what you might call a fast read, owing in part to the lack of paragraph breaks.

So I decided I wanted a quick read that I could finish over Christmas break. I grabbed Orbit One from our collection of pulp style slim science fiction books. The cover didn't draw me in but the proclamation in the front blurb of "DEATH FROM THE FOURTH DIMENSION" had me pretty interested.

First off, the title has almost nothing to do with the story. And the story, while a pretty good idea, is not exactly well written. There is a creative use of metaphor. Example: "His thoughts went out in circles and then went back to his plough like a boomerang, a mental boomerang." There are an overabundance of ellipses, question marks, and exclamation marks. The author also has a tendency to repeat, tell again, write the same thing three times. So the prose is really distracting. And I found the ending lacking - there was no respect for the prime directive, I tell you what. I didn't mind reading the book, but I'm sure there are better ways to spend 144 pages.

Also, for the record, the front blurb lies. The fourth dimension is not involved. Just... no.