I need to take some photographs of small things. Can anyone in Cambridge lend me a hand? I just can't seem to get the focus right, or I'm moving the camera, or something. I know some of you are dab hands at this sort of thing...

Glasses-wearers of my flist -- if you're going to be at Saturday's games, and you have one of those little screwdrivers for adjusting your glasses, can you bring it? I need to unscrew some very small screws.

Thanks!

Some of you will recall that we are attempting to clear space in the flat. I have now updated the list of available books, adding new ones and removing the ones which are taken. Would you like one? Speak up. Priority will go to people who don't already have some, of course.

By the way, if I have books or stuff that are promised to you, I will be around most of the day if you want to just drop by.

raggedy_man, whollyrandom: 7ish?

Today is part of the big therapeutic cleaning. That means that a) if we have stuff of yours, we will be trying to return it to you shortly, and b) would you like some stuff? There are books, and Allison will be posting soon about clothes and things. In the meantime, point your eyes here, where we will be adding to the list of books which, love them though we may, we simply cannot store in our home, especially given that I'm about to move a whole new load of books in from the office. Would you like one? Call dibs!

Well, that's that: went and paid homage to the pro-Vice-Chancellor and got my PhD. Took me long enough, but it's all done now. Now for whatever comes next.

I have too much crap. I am going to throw some of this crap away unless anyone happens to want it -- mainly just magazines and junk. Anybody want a stack of old Fortean Timeses? How about a slightly smaller stack of old Wargames Illustrateds? All yours if you want 'em; otherwise they're going in the bin.

Another thing I need for the Mortals games: I need photographs of the sky or of a British town skyline -- just houses, nothing fancy. Link me to some images? Basically, I want to project a sky scene on the screen to reinforce the impression of being outdoors. Daytime, sunset, and night will all be useful. Post links in comments and I'll follow them up. Many thanks.

Sunday's Requiem game is set in a library, so if you have some appropriate set-dressing for that, it would be very neat to have.

Props needed for this month's Mortals game:

"Things you might find in a garden."

ETA: not "tell me what you might find in a garden". I know what you might find in a garden. I'm saying "bring things you might find in a garden".

OK, so for tomorrow I need some cables to hook up the projector -- in particular, need me a 15-pin display cable, with the pinny part at both ends. That's yer technical term right there. Anybody got one I can borrow?

Do you think it would be within the realm of medical science to implant a device in Zack Snyder's brain such that, when he decided to film something in slow motion and let his soundtrack slobber all over it, he would just die instead?

Now that I'm back I seem to have a lot to say:

- got turned down for another JRF. And a regular job. This happens to me all the time, by the way. I just don't like to talk about it. I know that it is part of the process. I know that. I still feel like shit. I'm not asking for sympathy; I just have to get it out and I don't want to wake Allison.

- IHUM deadline is the end of next week. Why do they always put all the stuff I could teach in one term and a ton of shit I can't possibly teach in the other one? Oh well.

- I am so close to being done. I was supposed to be done three weeks ago, but still. So close.

Yeah, yeah. Anyway, here's three months of books!

November

The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine. Was fine until it started to get into all that crazy nonsense about trade balances.

The Hermit of Peking by Hugh Trevor-Roper. Edmund Backhouse: pretty crazy. This book: not quite crazy enough.

December

Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson. Interesting.

Accidental Journey by Mark Lynton. A few interesting facts, a load of fucking lies, maybe. Ah well, it was 50 cents.

Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney. Good! Weird!

Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson. "Classic"? Really?

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny. Can you believe I'd never read one of these?

The Book of Vice by Peter Sagal. Good. Shallow, but made me realize some things about my own thinking on the subject. Some excellent phrases.

January

Gorgias by Plato. The usual.

Mutant Chronicles by Matt Forbeck. Look, fuck off, OK? It was 50 cents, and that's a part of my childhood. Plus I read the Plato first, which is like eating my vegetables.

Tamburlaine Must Die by Louise Welsh. Eh ... slight.

Land of Unreason by L. Sprague De Camp and Fletcher Pratt. Slight but humorous.

The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester. Not as profound as he would have liked it to be.

Phew! Talk about a load off.