1. The Lego I ordered still hasn't arrived. To wait two weeks for an internet order seems pretty poor to me, don't you agree? "Great Customer Service is a top priority for the LEGO Company" apparently - a good start would be replying to emails I sent asking what's going on...Very disappointing that my favourite toy company should be so rubbish.

2. Two recent LPs I've bought seem to demonstrate the growing acceptability of prog rock. Squarepusher's new one goes the whole hog, being a concept album based on a dream he had, features lots of very fancy bass-work and vocoders, and is at times pure 1973 jazz-fusion (albeit of the more attractive wayward end- take note spoombung, and even comes with a free poster. Meanwhile Max Tundra's Parallax Error Beheads You tones down the glitching fast samples, adds complex arrangements and finishes with a track that sounds like Caravan, I kid you not. I suppose, being an old punk of sorts, I should be appalled - thing is both albums are great.

3. Just finished watching "The Wire - Season Three". It's becoming a cliché to say how brilliant this series is, but I suppose clichés become clichés for a reason, and if the rest of television wasn't so simplistic, unrealistic rubbish in comparison to "The Wire" then the cliché would never have started in the first place. Despite coming late to "The Wire" we've always felt ahead of the crowd, being long time fans of of "the Wire"'s predecessor "Homicide: Life on the Streets" despite the wayward scheduling it recieved in the UK. I'm pleased to report that HMV are doing the "Homicide" boxes for £20 each. Time to get the last three series, I think.

4. Reading a third book by Barbara Vine, "The House of Stairs" - It really is some of the best-written stuff I've read anywhere, let alone within the confines of genre fiction. Thing is, I've never read any Ruth Rendel mysteries, will I like them too?

5. Lost Robots are up and practicing again - with a new energy despite our increasing average age (42, we worked it out at the last practice). New material is sounding funkier and spacier - which can't be bad. The album comes back from the pressing plant in a few days...very exciting.

6. For my solo gig on the 28th November, I've elected to do a song set of some of my old songs - I'm practicing quietly after the kids have gone to bed. I seem to have developed a new singing voice.

7. I really, really want to see The Baader Meinhoff Complex, and not just because I share my birthday with Ulrike Meinhoff. Circumstances suggest I'm more likely to buy the DVD when it comes out though.

8. The local shopping arcade has got its xmas decs up, and I was surprised that I wasn't annoyed by the unseemly earliness of it, but in fact felt a smidgeon Christmassy. Of course this will be our first Christmas with our own family, and yes, we're really looking forward to it. Plus I'll have stopped work, hurrah!

Poll #1296557
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Are you feeling Christmassy yet?

Do you ever feel Christmassy?

As an atheist, should I even be allowed to feel Christmassy?