Path: Welcome
Welcome
“Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That's because 90% of everything is crud.”
Theodore Sturgeon
- This is the start page of Thomas Lauer's website. I am a writer, traveller, programmer, a big lover of rhythmic noises and perhaps — to quote one of my favourite purveyors of rhythmic noise — very slightly mad. Despite (or because of) this and despite the fact that Ted Sturgeon was right and 90% of everything is indeed crud I am in general a rather cheerful creature… or so I delude myself into thinking:-).
- Feel free to browse the site as it has grown quite a bit, indeed grows all the time: many pages are still incomplete or even missing (well, it's all a work in progress). Or have a look at the Frequently Asked Questions or the Misc section where you'll find all the things I could not elegantly put elsewhere (like a Biography and some Photographs).
- Things do change pretty regularly here (so long as I am not on a trip, that is), so perhaps you may want to come back every now and then, to check what has changed in the different sections (there are separate Index and Map pages for each section). While travelling I do send regular updates from the road: if you're interested in receiving these emails, see the Newsletter page where you can subscribe. Actual examples of what I've sent during earlier trips can be found in the Travel section.
- If you look for any of the old stuff that used to be on thomaslauer.com: all that should be somewhere in the different sections of the site shown left and explained below.
- Note: If you surf with an older version of Internet Explorer and any of my webpages, or some graphics, look weird, please update to the latest version.
Or even better: get a decent browser*, such as Firefox or Opera.
* I'm not normally a Microsoft basher, but the way they keep ignoring Web standards is a complete disgrace.
So what about the other five sections?
- Almost everything to do with literature and books, in either writing or reading mode, is in the Books section.
- The reading side: reviews of books I've read, list of books I should read, general remarks…
- Writing the stuff: theory and practice of writing novels — nice idea but not yet online, sorry
- My own books: some information about the books I've written over the years
- The Travel pages contain a few tales about our travels and information about the destinations we like most. And of course some wathmoutering pictures.
- Assorted bits and pieces about a few countries and places we've been to, though not as many as I would like to see (this is true in two senses)
- The Computer section will grow (some time in the future…) out of my long and fruitful connection with PCs. No, I am not joking: I do love these machines, probably because I somehow always succeed in coaxing the blasted things to do what I want — not what they want. So I thought I might share some of the things I do and, perhaps more importantly, don't do.
- Music is, for the time being, mostly a list of my ever growing MP3 collection and a few words on the players I have. The hints and tips on how to MP3ify a whole CD/LP collection are almost complete now, so have a look.
- All the albums I have on my players: a very long and very boring list (mostly online to enable me to check stuff when I am on the road)
- The hardware: a few words about the actual players I use
- How to convert to MP3 and/or WMA: some notes about MP3/WMA and hints on how to convert a batch of CDs
- DIY deals with a few things I do when I don't write books, travel, play with computers or listen to music…
And a disclaimer (no website can be complete without one)
The stuff in these wonderful pages is Copyright 2006-09 et cetera by Thomas Lauer; commercial use without proper permission is bound to make me deeply unhappy (but see the Contact page for details about how to contact me or, even better, my agent and perhaps make me more merry in the process).
A tiny number of pages on this site may contain small doses of satire and/or parody; other entries may seem to be a tad on the cynical side. The problem with me (well, one problem, at least) is that I can take very few things seriously. Some birth defect, perhaps, or a genetic mix-up.
And given the state our wonderful world is in, being a cynic seems to be a(n en)viable way of life, for some at least. (No, I do not believe that things were better in the good ol' days; I believe they are pretty much as good or bad today as they were a couple of millennia ago: nothing new under the sun and all that. But let's not dwell on these matters here and now, as this discussion is bound to degrade into a boring philosophical argument.)
Anyway, people allergic to sarcasm, satire or other forms of loose writing should perhaps get out their goggles before indiscriminately clicking their way through this site. You have been warned.
If you should decide, after much careful deliberation and many a sleepless night, to make use of any information you found on these pages or if you download or install any of the software I mention you do so with the understanding that you are completely on your own: my responsibility is nil, null, zero, zilch, nothing, 0x00. I give many links to external websites, all of them in good faith; however, as I have no control over the content of these sites, you are, once again, completely on your own. I also can not guarantee that anything I say or do actually works. Or even makes sense.
(Sorry for that bit of stupidity but there are people out there who need their daily fix of legalese.)
$updated from: Welcome.htxt Thu 27 Apr 2017 10:06:48 thomasl (By Thomas Lauer)$