One of the best films I saw this year was Master and Commander, directed by Peter Weir and staring Russell Crowe. After seeing it I quickly did a search on Amazon and found that the story was based on the novel 'Far Side of the World,' the 10th of 20 novels written by 'Patrick O'Brian.'
Now I have some fiction to sink my teeth into, something I have not done for quite a while. O'Brain (it's a pen name, but no matter) is an absolutely smashing prose writer. When he's in a groove, it is amazing to see. It's a bit like Jane Austin for men, even though O'Brian started the books in the late 1960's and 70's. The naval terminology can be overwhelming, but it's not crucial to know a jib from a mizzen to follow along. And the characters! Aubrey and Martin are beyond compare, and I'm being introduced to more - such as Diana Villiers - as I go along.
At the moment I'm only in book two, Post Captain, and I foresee a long period of good reading ahead. I'm happy to recommend the series to anyone who likes historical fiction but finds it hard to find good material.
My move to Mac has been very happy except for two issues - gaming and blogging. For websurfing and multimedia, a Mac is of course a terrific machine. Games on the Mac platform are often ports of games made for the larger PC market and that means a Mac gamer will have to wait for the port. I'm not a heavy gamer by any means but I am very happy that the Mac port of Civilization 4 is finally here. Well, my copy isn't here quite yet - but it has been ordered and ought to be here soon. The blogging issue is more complicated. I'm not fond of writing my posts in a browser window. This goes back to when I was first blogging and I lost one or two large posts into the ether. After that I moved to w.bloggar - a great little app that let me compose on my desktop and then click send when all was said and done. I have not been able to recreate that experience on my Mac, and not for a lack of trying! I looked at Marsedit , but that forces you to compse while staring at a bunch of HMT...
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