Sneaky Sound System performing at Spinout
It’s been a while since I went anywhere–near on a year actually–and I decided it was high time I had a holiday. And if I could work some actual work in with it to justify the trip to myself and the tax office, so much the better. As it turns out, my ebook cover artist, Richard Stansfield lives in Sydney, and we’re currently working on a cover for a standalone version of Screens, so visiting made perfect sense, especially as I was also able to drop by The Bookshop to sign some copies of The Secret of Talmor Manor for them. I’ve also spent the last few days hanging out with Matt Akersten of SameSame, who I’ve been corresponding with–keep an eye out for my review of the Scissor Sister’s concert and my entry for Q in their ongoing Gay-to-Z features, and ended up heading to Daywash, one of the big dance parties on the gay calendar. More importantly, I got to see Sneaky Sound system perform live, and if you haven’t heard Miss Connie remix herself, I recommend checking her out.
This Sydney trip is also my attempt to find out once and for all if I can survive without a PC. I’m currently running around with my HTC Sensation phone and my Asus eee pad transformer (with docking station), so essentially a touch screen netbook running an Android Operating system. I’m happy to leech wifi where I can, use apps to make blog posts, read and respond to emails, and even keep writing my next novel. Frankly, I bought the tablet because it was lighter than my laptop, had better battery life, and promised the excitement of being one day able to sign ebooks and manage esales if need be. I’ll keep you all posted on my progress, but so far it’s been brilliant for procrastination and reading and working in the QANTAS lounge, and not so good for the writing, largely because I’ve yet to find a decent MS Office app for Android that lets me use the Track Changes function I need for getting edits back to my long suffering editor. Polaris Office, the default is too basic, Olive Office was too slow, and Documents To Go refused to download when I needed it. Frankly, until something better comes along, I’m going to have to seriously consider refurbishing my laptop–for you geeks out there, it’s running Vista.
Anyway, it’s nearly 4:30 AM and the Scissor Sister’s videos are nearly uploaded. Happy Big Gay Weekend everyone, and I’ll see you on the dancefloor if you’re in Sydney!
