The night before

Tomorrow, or rather tonight at midnight, is the kick-off for NaNoWriMo, the mad writing marathon for word masochists. I am ready.
To cleanse my brain and generally have a good time before 30 days of HELL, Mrs Rasmussen and I are going to a concert tonight with the American jazz guitar genius Bill Frisell, at Edinburgh's Usher Hall.

Dudes and Kaukasians

Mrs Rasmussen and I went into town yesterday, when the weather was nice and warm and not rainy at all. We have been told that we can borrow money to buy a house, but not this particular house because of its location. The area is close to some of the more rough areas in Edinburgh, and the money lenders seem to have changed their minds. In this we can learn that it takes approximately 2 months for money lenders to change their minds.
Anyway, we bought Wonder Boys and The Big Lebowski on DVD and saw both films when we got home. We had invited S and R, one American and one Canadian, to watch Lebowski with us, while slurping away White Russians. There is no doubt. This is the funniest film ever. Not even the Life Aquatic comes close.
Oh, we also bought the paperback version of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, a 1000-page monster about 19th century British magicians.

Writing marathon

November is the month for NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, which is kind of a marathon race for writers. If you volunteer to participate, you will have to write 50,000 words in 30 days.
The idea comes from the mind of an American - what else - writer, who started the craze in 1999 with 21 participants. Last year the event had exploded to 42,000, and let me just predict wildly here that this year it is going to be even bigger.
I am going to be a part of it in 2005, and I will attempt to write a pulp fantasy novel before 30 November. If I don't make it, call me a loser. A wimp. If it is not totally crap, I might even let you read it.
NaNoWriMo also collects money to build libraries in development countries, and this year the funds go to children's libraries in Laos. So, if you are not writing, you can donate instead. Click on the NaNoWriMo picture and do it. NOW!

A few days of rain

People sometimes think it rains all the time in Edinburgh. It does not, really, and when it rains it usually lasts only a short time. Well, the last days have been an exception to that, because it rained pretty much all day yesterday, and all in all it has been a very wet week. I have been wearing my full-body anti-rain gear cycling to work most of the last seven mornings.
The kids start school today after their half-term break, and Mrs Rasmussen is off on her break this week. It is all very uncoordinated. I am working, looking forward to my next holiday, which is in February 2006. Weee.
Our house deal still has to come through. Nothing is new here either.

Life of a mind

Matthias has started another blog, Lifelike. Good stuff if you are heavily into gaming and teenage brains.
Sofie writes her Livejournal on a daily basis. Read it at your own peril.

Planzo planning

Are you still planning your calendar and ToDo lists in Outlook or other similar software on a PC? Man, that's soooo last century. Now we have the interweb. We can do it online.
Check out the splendid and free calendar site Planzo. My calendar is here, but you will not be able to see much unless you are added to my list of special people.

Me, myself, I

Ahem...

Sorry for not having updated the blog for so long. My attention has been on other things.
House update: the people that wanted to buy the house instead of us withdrew their offer, and we were offered the house. Great. Except we are still waiting to get an answer from the mortgage people on whether we can borrow the money or not.
You think it's hard if your name is Turkey and you want to join the EU? Pfff. You think Soviet bureaucracy was bad? HA! I laugh in your direction. Try applying for a mortgage in Scotland if you are a foreigner. Then you will see both bureau and cracy click into action.
Life update: we are still alive.
Weather update: rain.
What tarot card I am update: The Fool.