Well, not too far beyond, we hope.
(ETA: Postponed to Sept. 26 due to cloud / bad weather in France.)
Folks, just a quick word: this week has become unusually disrupted due to other work that’s going on in-house, so I’m going to have to postpone the chapter posting until just after the 27th. Unfortunately the chapter’s just not ready to go up yet, the in-house crisis won’t allow any work on any other projects until the weekend — when we’re due to be at the Discworld convention in Birmingham — and even then opportunities for work will be understandably spotty until Wednesday.
(sigh) I’m so sorry about this. Life this month just has not been going to plan. More shortly, however.
It was a charming convention. I look forward to coming back some time (with Peter, this time).
Stockholm is a city I look forward to visiting again when I have more time. The light here is very special. (The dark, not so special. Or maybe it is, but I’m a little set against it at the moment, as last night I got off the T-bana / Metro on the wrong side of the square at Odenplan, and (having set off confidently in the wrong direction) spent the next three-quarters of an hour (a) walking around in the dark and the rain (b) while trying to read the city map (c) and trying not to look like I was reading the city map in the dark, in the rain (d) while being ten blocks from where I should have been. No matter: I backtracked and found where I should have been.)
(It’s funny today. Last night, not so funny. But eighteen or twenty-four hours puts everything in perspective.)
Meanwhile, preparatory to heading back to my hotel, I find myself sitting in Gamla stan / the Old Town… in an Irish bar. They just happened to have (a) whiskey and (b) a ton of open outlets in the front of the place where I was able to plug in the computer and the phone. 
Home tomorrow. Which is good, as I miss the computers, and the cats. And the husband. (Feorag, also NB: you have fans up here, and Fluff is kindly spoken of.) But in the meantime — thanks to all the Stocon folk for a memorable weekend. (And the cookbooks are brilliant, guys. Thanks again.)
Spent a super day amongst the Swedes. No more to say about that at the moment, except that I’m about to go back to the hotel and fall over. (NB: Sweden looks a lot like Ireland when it’s raining. But you knew that.)
So here I am. Missing Peter (inevitable), enjoying the weather (hot, sunny, a touch humid), and working (also inevitable: Vasa is going to have to wait for the next trip, I’m afraid).
The eclipse passed without notice in most parts of the city, I think. (But at only — what, 30%-ish totality? — this is forgivable. I think I noticed things getting a little dim this morning, but there was some cloud cover passing through at the time, and people no doubt attributed the change of lighting to that.)
Meanwhile I am holed up in a comfortable bar/restaurant called the Järntorgs Pumpen, finishing work on the film outline and watching other, more normal people sitting out in the sun in front of the restaurant and enjoying themselves. Having had a nice cool tuna salad, I then started a cyberskulk (i.e., a hunt for powerpoints / outlets) and was delighted to find outlets to charge up both computer and cellphone just a table away. (Future visitors, NB: it’s the table for four inside the window on the left as you face the restaurant from the square: the outlets are between the table and the front door.)
Here’s the view from where I’m working:
(Dublin readers: imagine my surprise to find a bar/restaurant called “The Temple Bar” just around the corner. To my surprise, the menu was mostly Greek. Go figure.)
PASADENA, Calif.–Bars abound in spiral galaxies today, but this was not always the case. A group of 16 astronomers, led by Kartik Sheth of NASA’s Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, has found that bars tripled in number over the past seven billion years…
So what’s the cause? Gentrification, or looser liquor licensing laws? You decide.
(with a tip of the hat to The Quantum Pontiff)
Sheesh. Unusual for me. But here’s the info. (The path of totality has also been Google Mapped.)
Stockholm will only be getting a partial — I estimate 35–40%-ish coverage from the diagram — but that’s still more than I’d have seen at home in Ireland. What great timing!
Here’s a magic phrase, though:
The path of totality crosses the Great Wall of China before sunset.
OMG SOMEBODY GET PICTUREZ!!
Here’s another 2008 convention gig I thought I’d post about here, since it hasn’t been mentioned on the blog previously, and this seems like a good way to get the word out.
The nice people at Con*Stellation 27 have asked me to come be their Guest of Honor in Hunstville AL over the weekend of October 17–19. Peter will be attending as well as a Special Guest to do assorted panel work, discourse on edged (and other) weaponry, and generally be his usual affable self (and I imagine there may be some testing of the local beers as well). If any of you are located in the area and feel inclined to drop by, we’d love to see you.
Below is the map for those of you who want or need to know where the hotel is. (Also, here’s a link to the master appearances-and-signings list for 2008–2009 for those interested.)
View Larger Map
There’s been no mention of this on the blog recently, so I thought I’d drop in a note about it now: I’ll be the Guest of Honor at StoCon ‘08 from the 1st through the 3rd of August. The convention venue is the Kulturhuset in Skarpnäck, a suburb of Stockholm (you can get there easily on the Metro: it’s about a 20–minute ride). If any of you are located locally, it’d be super to see you!
This is going to be a lot of fun, as while I’ve been to a lot of other cities in Europe, I’ve never yet made it up to any part of Scandinavia — and it’ll be super to be able to be there in the summertime.
(For those of Peter’s Swedish fans who might be wondering — unfortunately he won’t be able to make it: he presently has a work commitment that will be keeping him home.)
Here’s a Google map of where the convention will be.
View Larger Map