I suspect it may prove a boon to humankind if someone developed a device - possibly USB connectible - that would detect the intoxicification of the computer user, and correspondingly deactivate all the "post" buttons on the internet until said user became frustrated and went off to, say, play Scrabble with those alternative rules that mean you can only put down words you've invented, as long as you can provide a coherent and believable definition for them.

Just sayin'.

hic

It's just gone 11:30 and I've only just put the coffee on.

Nothing good will come of today.

All my good intentions are undone by the matrimonial habits of my friends.

So sure, we're building a house, and it will be splendid despite the lack of turrets, secret passages and shiny black bricks. You wait. But that doesn't mean we can't go to Moscow next year for a friend's wedding, right? RIGHT?

They're dropping with alarming frequency: David Eddings dies.

It's been a long time since I desperately read an Eddings series in a week. It's been a long time since I argued with my best friend over marrying Garion or Sparhawk. It's been a really long time since I first picked up a little volume called Pawn of Prophecy and looked at the cover and said, "...eh, why not?" little knowing that this was going to change my reading habits forever.

David Eddings mightn't have been the best fantasy author who ever set pen to paper. He was sort of facile and rather predictable and certainly frothy. But he introduced me to modern fantasy, to fantasy as a current and breathing genre, and therefore as something that I could write. He showed me that it didn't have to be Serious (like Tolkien) but could be Fun. He launched me into it.

Not to mention that if it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have frolicked my way into alt.fan.eddings, and the experiences and friendships I garnered from that group. That was my first internet community, my first internet friends, my first internet meetup, and it was all just plain brilliant.

So thanks, Mr Eddings. You gave - or rather, helped me discover - a lot. Cheers.