Updatory

So I'm sitting here working through some rather dull changes to the code of the website, and listening to an ambient music selection. And suddenly this voice says "Grand Piano!", right in my ear. Thanks, Mike Oldfield.

I got a bag. It's big - looks around the 160, 170 litre mark, navy, has wheels, and looks like it'll do the trick reasonably nicely. It'll hold the armour, and some clothes, and that's all I'll need for the weekend.

If anyone lent me some Anita Blake books, would they like to claim them? Books 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8 are sitting on the shelves at home, and nobody in the house will admit to having bought them. If nobody claims them, they'll be given away or sold or something.

And a question: Does anyone know of decent steampunk-ish fantasy stories - either published-on-paper or someplace on the web? I'm currently reading Tad Williams' War of the Flowers, and it's rather good. I want more.

Quote

Here in work, a couple of days ago.

"Spoon? You are not a true Jedi."
"Oh, I am. Just not when the jar's that big."

Dull Tasks

I need to figure out how to focus my mind more on dull tasks. At the moment, I'm working on replacing image urls in files across the website, and it's dull as ditchwater. It took me a good chunk of the morning and afternoon to work the problems out of the process, and that was interesting enough, but it's done now. So I'm staring down the maw of two days or more of very very dull work. It's not really something that can be automated, either, since some images will need it and others won't, and it's not really clear even to me which ones should and shouldn't change. So the clever use of regexp and other such arcana is denied me. Ambient music helps. But still, I find my mind drifting off in various odd directions, few of which have anything to do with the job in hand. And I do need to concentrate.

Any tricks you use to maintain focus?