Two Weeks to go...

So two weeks to go until the wedding, and I think that everything is coming together.

Just finished putting together all of the Orders of Service, approx 90 copies.

This has proved to an adequate reason to purchase both a long handled stapler and a guillotine.

Not one of those namby-pamby roller cutters which can only manage to cut stacks of less than three sheets but, rather, an honest to goodness hinged blade model. Which of course is illegal (or at least against the demands of the BSI number) to use without the guard, except that the guard is shipped unfitted with stern instructions that it should be fitted before any cutting is attempted. So guess what I did...

I still possess all of my fingers.

Although in the end, after figuring ink, paper and card costs as well as time it may not have been much cheaper than paying for them too be professionally printed, we did at least retain creative control and they look exactly as we wanted them and fit with the style used for the invitations

Then we attacked the table plan, although we managed to avoid having a seating plan, we do have a set number of tables and a set number of people per table. Some printing magic and spray mount later and we have, IMHO, a very professional looking table plan.

The checklist is being whittled down, i wonder what i have forgotten. Or I suppose that should be those things that I don't realize that I should have thought of. To paraphrase the White House, know unknowns vs unknown unknowns.

My Speech is the next thing that I think I ought to be planning.

Also playing with adding some new user pics.

The Atrocity Archives

A tentative attempt at a Review.

Or my thoughts on:

The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross.

Ace Books US, Pbk, 2006

With a foreword by Ken 'Hen according to Amazon' MacLeod.

I first encountered Charles Stross's Leatherman and sorcery-wielding hero Bob Howard (for ubergeek values of hero) via the free download of The Concrete Jungle. This convinced me that I needed to read more of his exploits and prompted me to buy the book. (Score one for the free download = real sales, 'try before you buy' strategy)

Lovecraft, Deighton and Stephenson are name-checked in the acknowledgements and this gives some indication of the atmosphere of the novels. But the two stories that make up the volume are more than the nexus of three interesting influences.

This is an occult spy thriller filled with office politics. A book that shows us mindless bureaucracy, empire building with a small 'e' in terms of jockeying for middle management position and its associated backbiting.

Stross draws out the absurdity of it all by putting it in the context of compromising the secret war against the tentacles from beyond the stars.  Let us not forget that we live in the land of the Rural Payments Agency and its cups of sick in filing cabinets and sex in the stationary cupboard. To truly reflect the process of government in Whitehall today, it just needs a sprinkling of temps in the admin positions.

Some of the set-ups in the novel triggered a half memory of a scene from Brazil where audio typists, who whilst wittering away in the most banal fashion, are typing transcripts of awful interrogations.

Bob is clever, resourceful and entirely believable but thankfully not quite an occult James Bond. He has some great allies and some greater enemies to fight.

Both stories are cracking reads, and I'd heartily recommend them.

I am now just waiting for the next one...