Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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The last adventure of the year

The forecast says rain and possibly snow for tomorrow, and I am boarding a train early in the morning to go to Asti, the provincial capital, in what promises to be the last adventure of this year – braving weather and public transport to meet some people for a writing job.
One more little step to a better 2020, hopefully.

So I am taking along book to read on the train, Kay Kenyon’s At the Table of Wolves, plus pens and a notebook to take notes during my meeting, plus a pocketful of coins for hot drinks machines along the way.

As it usually happens when public transport is involved, I’ll spend most of the day waiting for trains and buses, but that’s part of the game. I’ll keep warm and read a book about Nazis and superheroes – could be much worse, and I like Kay Kenyon’s writing, a lot.

Of course this unexpected last trip of the year will provide me with the opportunity of spending Christmas and New Year’s Day in bed with a cold – but when one is trying to make a living writing, this is part of risks of the trade.

And really, it’s sort of fun.


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Michael Moorcock at 80

Today is the 80th birthday of British writer Michael Moorcock, and it seems right to write a post about him and his books and the pleasure, insight and fun, and inspiration they have provided me these last 40 years.
This will not be a critical assessment or whatever, but just a personal patchwork of strange memories. I’ll also list a few of my favorite books of his, but no more than a dozen.

Let’s begin.

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Change in perspective

Last night my PC monitor died. So I went to my father’s den – a room we now use as storage – and retrieved another monitor: as an old PC user, I go by the mantra “always salvage the old hardware.” So in about half an hour I had the new monitor up and running. No sweat.

And it’s been a nice step forward – the old monitor was small and cramped, and it had been going progressively darker for months. Not a great problem when writing is concerned, but all my images and covers where someway off. The “new” monitor is an LCD widescreen thing that feels like I’m in the middle of a wide open field. Great.

On the other hand, this will cost me two days of work.
For some mysterious reason, any time I update my system – be it changing the monitor, or updating my Linux OS to the next version – for two days I suffer from working paralysis. Or maybe I should call it Update Related Laziness.
I start toying around, uploading silly new software and dis-installing old one, I try this and that, and basically waste two days playing with the new stuff.
I think it’s a little like breaking in a new pair of shoes: before you take them on a hike, you need to soften and “own” them.
Or maybe it’s just me.

So, let’s get ready for another 36 hours of meaningless doodling.
Stuff like playing Reversi while listening to a podcast.
I wonder what new graphic design software I can try, today…


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1300 Mondays

In the opening chapter of his The Doorstep Mile(that once again, is highly recommended) adventurer Alastair Humphreys writes:

I have fewer than 2000 Mondays left to live. I want to make the most of them, not just tick them off.

This gave me pause.
How many Mondays do I have left?, I wondered.
I made some quick calculation, based on my family data.
Both my grandfathers died in their early seventies.
My father died at seventy-six.
On my mother’s side we tend to be more long lived – we usually get in our ’90s if cancer does not get at us earlier.
I am 52, so… how many Mondays?

Less than 1300 is a good estimate.
What am I going to do with them?

Humphreys’ idea, presented in his book, is to try and do something that makes me happy. Even something small.
Something that does not drastically change my life overtime, but that in due time will make me able to enjoy a lot more those 1300 Mondays, and all the other days.

I am working on it.
Now I have a deadline.


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Insomnia Movies: a Night with Dr Anton Phibes, part 2

For reasons beyond fathoming, Robert Fuest’s 1972 Dr Phibes Rises Again was distributed with the title of Frustration, thus severing any connection with the previous entry in this short-lived franchise. But it was not frustration that caused me to watch this movie right after the first one, but plain old insomnia.

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