Back in Austria

for the holidays. Contrary to Lausanne, where temperatures haven't dipped below zero during the day yet (and try to tell people that, no, you haven't seen any snow yet in Switzerland), here in Kaltenleutgeben we have minus 7 Celsius, and heavy snowfall.

 Pretty, although I still prefer tropical islands. Brrr.

New toy: Netbook

I decided to buy myself an early Christmas present: An Asus Eee 1005HA netbook. My old Dell Inspiron still runs fine, but can not really do the portable thing any more: it's hinge is broken, and the battery lasts about twenty minutes or so.

I am quite happy with the Eee. It has an 11.6 inch screen, and a full size keyboard, so typing is ok. The shift-keys are a bit small, but nothing you can't get used to. What is really awesome is the battery-life, which easily surpasses nine hours. Nine! Of course, it is not the fastest machine in the world, but more than powerful enough for browsing or writing, which is all I use it for.

Last but not least, it only weighs one and a half kilos, so it won't break my back when I lug it around.

Here it is, in all its glory, with a dog-skull for scale:

State of the novel

Ahem.
Since the posting below, I've written about 5000 additional words. Problem is, I somehow ran out of plot at about 21 000 words.
Since I couldn't get the motivation up to write on the novel (and I don't have the mad productive skillz of Stephanie, who wrote more than 50k words in a month without even trying), I also didn't blog, because that makes sense. or not. Anyway, I might have a faint idea on how to proceed, so I will resume writing soon - especially since my sister assures me that it is brilliant. Of course, she would say that, since Christmas is around the corner. Maybe I should ask her again after she's got her present...

Whatever the state of the novel, blogging will resume henceforth. Be prepared.