affable-lurking

A tit in a tree in the snow. It’s a bluetit I think.

Not that I watch my visitor stats obsessively or anything, but after appearing first on diamond geezer’s (alphabetically ordered) sites-wot-link-here list yesterday, I thought I’d see if the link sent any traffic in my direction.  Google Analytics claims at least 13 people clicked though to me, some of those that visited even went back and read some stuff that isn’t on the first page.

*wave* Hello new people if you’re still reading.

Right, I’m off to watch the eclipse.

I’ve been tagged by Ben to list six random things about myself. Here goes.

1. My superpower is the ability to detect minute quantities of cucumber from large distances. It is rarely of use to anyone.
2. I bake terrible cakes.
3. The last book I read was The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I finished it on the train on the way home tonight.
4. My dog is named Pointless, I had a cat named mincemeat.
5. I plan to win an Ignoble Prize someday for my research.
6. I can do this:
   

I tag anyone else that wants to do this.

Had to happen eventually, though he looked set to last forever, Clarke is no more.

I first discovered the writing of Arthur C. Clarke (or as Viz once memorably renamed him, “The Arthur of Space-1999, Author See Clarke”) in the early 1990s at the local library. I started with 2010 (2001 was on loan), thoroughly enjoyed it and skipped back to 2001 (making sense of 2010 in the process) as soon as it was available.

Then though the Rama series, various collaborations and short stories. He is one author I can come back to any time. I always end up reading one of his books on a flight. Shame about 3001 though, that really was no fitting end to the odyssey series.

Not really a writer’s writer, more an engineer with a gift for story telling. Sadly missed.