Just spent an hour

trying to download a library audiobook via OneClickDigital, Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Terror, only to find that neither the manager for the computer nor the Android application could transfer or otherwise download the files necessary, and in the end I had to do it manually, unzipping .mp3 files and transferring them to the root area of the phone's system and then playing through the normal Music application that comes with Android rather than the OneClickDigital one. Not sure what the problem was, or whether this, being an out-of-copyright book (although perhaps the recording is not), it worked rather than a more recent book which is sure to have Digital Rights Management. At least I finally got it onto the device and where I could listen to it; it'll be nice to have at work or tomorrow when I'm doing some housework. Of course, I was doing this instead of doing the game notes, and although we are not playing I should really do them. I think I'll get up early tomorrow and do them, or at least get a substantial start on them. In the meantime I have requested a book for a friend from the Interlibrary Loan Department of the public library (that's two under my name now that I have pending, one for me, one for him), caught up with the news, listened to some music, and generally had a quiet evening. Tomorrow is cleaning the guys' house, watching Suddenly, Last Summer with them (based on the Tennessee Williams' play), and hopefully working on my house a bit, as well, because I'm afraid it really needs a good straightening up. I have stuff everywhere, from laundry, to recyclables, to stuff that needs to be just thrown away. It's not conducive to doing anything productive, and I have game notes and two book reviews still waiting to be done. Anyway, have a good night. I'm going to turn in for the night. Hope your weekend is going well.

It should be of no surprise

that I fell asleep for awhile. Then YKWIA called and we had a great talk for over an hour. So now for a bit of blogging before bed. Here are some stories I've been following:

Standoff in Alabama Ends in Boy’s Rescue and Kidnapper’s Death
FBI: Bombs found in Alabama kidnapper's bunker

Yay! I'm so glad that he's freed. I wish him and his family well. Thank goodness he made it through this, and just in time for his sixth birthday.

Brain infection, not scarlet fever, may have caused Mary Ingalls' blindness

The Real Richard III: 3D reconstruction and linguistic research reveal English king’s face, voice

Astronomers finally crack mystery of solar system’s strange ‘ribbon of energy’

New York Times Revises Ed Koch Obit To Include AIDS

and then there's this--not news, but something that I saw on Facebook, proving the folks at BBCAmerica have a sense of humour:

Speaking of the Superbowl, did you see this?

San Francisco, Baltimore libraries place friendly wager on Super Bowl -- so I guess it'll be Poe that's recited. I do love 'The Raven'. :)

Okay, good night!

Why would you take stairs?

And by that I mean off a building and abscond with them? I know. Because you can.

Poe House vandalized while closed during transition

The historic Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in Baltimore, which lost its longtime curator and was shuttered in September amid an operational reorganization, has in the last month been defaced by graffiti and robbed of its wooden front steps, according to those involved in the museum's revitalization.

Reading

'The Black Cat' by Edgar Allan Poe. I haven't read that one in years. I forgot how totally creepy it was, but then it is Poe, and he is a master at the genre, and a huge inspiration for HP Lovecraft as well. They both had a very good sense of showing the small leap from sanity to madness.

This is wonderful

A 1953 animated short of Edgar Allan Poe's 'Tell-Tale Heart' as narrated by James Mason:


Enjoy!