I'm on course this week, learning the basics of programming SharePoint. The course is in West London, in the Hammersmith/Olympia area.

Currently I'm reading on the tube: Clay Shirkey's "Here comes everybody". This is the kind of non-fiction book that I like to read. Full of insight without challenging my existing prejudices in favour of the internets. Loads of pithy comments and techno-optimism. Recommended reading if you're interested in social networks and what they are good for, or mind-expanding geek books. My next book will be volume 2 of Charles Stross's "Family trade" pulp fantasy pot-boiler. That page's writer seems to share my view of Stross: he somehow manages to make unapealing-seeming premises wickedly good.

Then back to Les Miserables (unabridged). I have bashed through the first six or ten chapters of Les Mis, all about a bishop who seems to be a minor character at best, before my attention wandered to HCE. By the time that I get going on that, I'll be back in Aberdeen. Next week is the last week of that adventure, according to plan.

In Open source, I'm fixing some of my Delphi code formatter code so that it can be used on the Free Pascal compiler. The request comes from a guy in Siberia. Those Russians and their communistic free software ;) I've had that project up for almost ten years, which is scary in a way but also pleasing that it has active users who submit bug reports and code. Now more so than when Delphi/Pascal was actually relevant.

I'm also occasionally working on some c# code to work with rdf:foaf data. Social networking again. I might post more on that later, when something is viable. The code for both of these are on SourceForge if you want it.

I haven't been posting on LJ much lately. I haven't even had time to play Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. Mort if far ahead. But I have been on the Wii fit – it's easier than graphing your own weight with an excel spreadsheet.

We saw Iron Man last night, I dragged mort along as well. It was more deft than your average Marvel Superhero movie - it hit the right notes without seeming cheesy, which seems a common pitfall of movies that put comic-book action and drama on the screen.

I could write a small essay on how it's a story of masculinity, or at least the myths of it: Tony Stark, whataman – he has loads of money, loads of talent, wit, power, fast cars and other big toys, hot chicks falling over him, and no parents to answer to. He does what he wants when he wants. He's blunt and sarcastic, he doesn't have to please anyone. He drinks far too much, sleeps around and lets people down, not out of malice but because he doesn't care about anybody. Himself included. I'd call him misogynistic, only he doesn't treat his male friends so well either. In short, he's a grown-up boy writ large.

So what happens? He goes away, come back changed (standard hero story), gets a heart (literally) and conscience, becomes a hard man (again literally, it's a comic), shoots few vilains dead and rights some of the wrongs that he is responsible for. Finally he defeats his older alpha male rival, who has become corrupt and bigger and stronger but more brutish than him; by using his cunning and the power of his new heart (close enough to literally). And commits to a woman who has been loyal to him despite his behaviour.

So, who's at the pub (The Constitution, 42 St Pancras Way, NW1 0QT) on Thursday night?