A few thoughts for Monday morning...

* Sherlock, series 3. ( (A thirteen-word review under the cut, no spoilers.) )

* However. There is always fandom. A lovely meditation on a key question from "The Sign of Three," ( (question under the cut) )

Sky on Fire, what_alchemy, Sherlock/John, Mrs Hudson/Margaret, a tag for "unrequited love," general audience, 1800 words
After John’s wedding, Sherlock catches an overnight train to Scotland.

This story satisfies on so many levels: there's the back story for Mrs Hudson, of course, but also the kind of rounding out of themes raised in canon that's only possible when you begin to take minor characters and their problems seriously. It's also an oblique critique of observation and deduction as problem-solving, which I appreciated.

* Finally, I'm upset about something in RL right now and feeling like there's no one to call to talk about it. I need to remember that 1) that's probably not true, and 2) even if it is, I can take steps to remedy this situation. Just typing this here to remind myself.

...and one request

Folks, I may need to buy a new laptop, and I'm woefully ignorant about these things. Two questions for you: 1) Have you have success with any relatively inexpensive laptops? or 2) Could you help me formulate some criteria or questions to ask as I start to shop? What should I be looking for?

I currently have a seven-year old Dell Inspiron, and I'm assuming I need to replace it with a laptop rather than a Chromebook or tablet. I have relatively modest computing needs--Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Photoshop, mostly--but I type for several hours a day, often without internet access. I travel a lot and would like to be able to work for a few hours without plugging in. I also need to hook up to a digital projector. (Is that even an issue?)

Thanks for whatever insight you can provide!