Monkeyshines

Category: Idle Thoughts

  • Cats I Have Known – Ghengis

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    James
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    Ghengis was the son of our neighbour’s cat, Nursie, one of a litter of four. He had one sister, Kylie, a pretty tabby who proved to be a ruthless predator, and two ginger brothers, who moved together to a new home. Ghengis was the boldest of the kittens, the first to climb out of the…

  • Present Tense Book Review – Akira: Part 3

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    James
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    (Part Two of this Present Tense Book Review.) Volumes 5 of Akira has already been thrown into the arena of one of my book battles, where I rather obliquely discussed its merits with rather tortuous metaphors. I finished Volume 6 some time ago, and then completely forgot that I needed to write up my thoughts.…

  • Feline Book Review: Binky the Space Cat

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    Binky
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    My hoomins often seem to be almost as interested in ‘books’ as me, which I have never really understood until now. In fact, I have only just worked out what a book is, now that one of my hoomins has bought Binky the Space Cat for me. A lady hoomin called Ashley Spires has evidently…

  • Book Battle 4: The Hare with Amber Eyes vs The World of Yesterday

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    James
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    When I’m off on my travels, I like to read books that are set in my destination. And ordinarily I read fiction, as real pastos (pron: past-ohs) aren’t really my cup of tea. However, in an effort to combat my long-standing antipathy towards History (in the sense of the school subject, rather than the past…

  • MASAMB XXI, in Vienna

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    James
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    I was pleased to be invited to present some of my work at the MASAMB conference in Vienna recently (11-12th April 2011). My talk was titled “Quantifying the effect of evolution and genomic alignment on de novo RNA gene prediction”. I have a similarly themed manuscript in preparation, so won’t go into detail here. But…

  • Book Battle 3: Akira Book 5 vs Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction

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    James
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    After allowing weapons in the previous battle, it only seems natural for these books to properly tool themselves up. I’ve written about the first 4 Akira books before (part one, part two); they’re written by Katsuhiro Otomo, and volume 5 is the penultimate book in the series. Adrian Mole and the WMD is, clearly, the…

  • Links

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    James
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    Many websites and blogs have lists of links somewhere, but I haven’t got one in the menu bar here, because I think they’re often not much use if there’s no context. So I’ll take this opportunity to gives ‘props’ or ‘shout-outs’, or whatever the kids say these days, to some of my favourite sites. Firstly…

  • Book Battle 2: The Girl Who Played with Fire vs One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

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    James
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    I rather enjoyed my first book battle, so thought I’d stage another bout, with my latest reads, which don’t have much in common other than unfeasibly long titles. If you’ve been living in a popular-trend-proof room for the last few years, The Girl Who… is a thriller by Stieg Larsson, the sequel to The Girl…

  • Cats Rodents I Have Known – Katie

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    James
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    Katie came into my life when my friend Jane brought her along when we got a house together. She was a cute, friendly hamster, named after the eponymous heroine of What Katy Did. Her tenure overlapped with that of Binky, but fortunately his predatory instincts begin and end with a catnip mouse. He showed curiosity…

  • Cats Rodents I Have Known – Madison J. Holdsworth

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    James
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    I remember, quite vividly, carrying home a little gerbil from the pet shop in New Eltham (now long gone) in a rather flimsy little cardboard box. As a voracious reader of Dick King-Smith’s books, I decided to name him after the eponymous parrot in Harry’s Mad, whose full name was Madison. I have grown up…