Music

I recently found a CD full of MP3's that a friend gave me whilst I was in England a few years ago. On it I found a bunch of songs by groups I hadn't thought about in a while. With the new songs stuck in my head, I ran out and bought the Lost Prophets' The Fake Sound of Progress and Start Something, both of which kick ass.

Next on the "to be acquired" list is Alien Ant Farm's Anthology album.

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Update: Apparently not as Ill Nĩno have a new album. I'll have to get Anthology later (when I can find it in a record shop, as there hasn't been a copy in any of the places I've looked).

Manga

I've recently (i.e. since my last post on manga) purchased a whole bunch of new manga books. Today I got The One I Love by CLAMP (Tokyopop's translation of わたし の すきなひと), which is a great little book.

I've also got a whole bunch of Viz Media books including Koko wa Greenwood (or Here is Greenwood in English), Maison Ikkoku books 1-5 (with 6-10 on order) and Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (Viz, and everyone else, call it Hana-Kimi).

I've bought so many books whilst here in Canberra that I'm going to have to get them shipped when I leave (as opposed to taking them as checked luggage on my flight home).

It seems that Western comics in the manga style are becoming popular. So much so that Tokyopop are publishing an Australian artist's book! I can't wait to see if The Dreaming is as good as it looks.

PS: The Japanese input mode on Emacs (which I used to type the hiragana above) is shit-hot. Much easier than trying to use the Japanese Kana Palette or any other input method I've tried.

New Books

Numbers, Groups and Codes (2nd ed.) by J. F. Humphreys (University of Liverpool) and M. Y. Prest (University of Manchester)
A Gentle Introduction to Category Theory - the calculational approach by Maarten M Fokkinga
Latin: First Year by Robert J. Henle
Latin Grammar by Robert J. Henle

I seem to be racking up more and more mathematical reading material. I just bought a copy of Numbers, Groups and Codes from the Co-op Bookshop and have found the first few sections surprisingly readable. I hope that the rest of the book is as good as what I've read so far.

Another mathematical work near the top of my "to read" pile is A Gentle Introduction to Category Theory (and, at some point, his Ph.D. thesis - Law and Order in Algorithmics).

I also picked up (also from the Co-op) Latin: First Year and Latin Grammar. Along with Types and Programming Languages, Concepts, Techniques and Models of Computer Programming, Practicle Common Lisp and the assorted other and papers (especially the various Haskell papers I want to read), I've got more than enough to keep me studying for most of next year).