Why I love Compiz Fusion

Once the bling wears off, once you tire of cubed desktops, writing fire on the screen and windows sliding out from each others' way, really, Compiz Fusion boils down to one thing:
Four times the Doctor Who lovin', baby! That's right, four real-time views of the Doctor and Rose's adventures. Amazingly, I can follow the audio, though it seems to bother the cat quite a bit. Even on my single-core Athlon 64 the playback is very good, which is a tribute to Compiz at this early stage. The real-time reflections on the bottom are of course cool, as well.

The Smart Way to Get The Deathly Hallows

Though maybe not the most fun way. Selina and I napped in evening, so she didn't make it in line to a Barnes and Noble for the pre-sale bash. Instead, at 12:01 AM she strolled down to the local Top Foods and picked it up for the same price. She stayed up all night to read the entire tome and is now dozing the day away with a contented, the-story-came-to-a-proper-ending smile on her face.

I've just never gotten into the books. I've read the first 1.5 and tried again before the third movie came out. I'll get to all of them eventually...

Finished Night Soldiers - my very first Bulgarian spy novel

Just finished this. Picked it up at our church book sale for 25 cents - one of those great buys you can only get through a book. It's the story of a Bulgarian who becomes a spy before and during WW2. This is Furst's playfield - apparently all of his books (eight or so now) deal with such characters during that time. Furst is obviously a thorough historian. I can imagine him combing over diaries and dusty archives, writing down transcriptions of coerced USSR confessions to serve as inspiration for his characters. Beautiful descriptions of Paris before the war and the Slavic states during the end of the fighting. The best part is when it turns out the secret code was the nursery rhyme he told his daughter. Kinda obvious when you think about it.

I also picked up his The Polish Officer, which I'll start as soon as I satiate my sci-fi craving and finish The Golden Compass.