(no subject)
Spring is in the air. It's been peaking above 10C (and sometimes 15C!) these past few days, and I can smell the sunlight on the pavement and the frozen ground rotting and becoming fertile. The plums are coming--one tree in front of my school even has some blooms!
I'm actually asleep on my feet, but halfway through an episode of Skeptically Speaking. Podcasts. Can't stop.
I'm actually asleep on my feet, but halfway through an episode of Skeptically Speaking. Podcasts. Can't stop.
Reading
First, there came the Kindle. Then, there came the ebooks. Then, for I am a giant nerd and it really was inevitable, came A Song of Ice and Fire.
It's a rare thing for me to get so thoroughly book-hooked that I put off things like eating. I didn't read much at all until 8th grade, when I discovered Garth Nix's Sabriel and read through a math quiz (and I like math) because I needed to know what was up with Mogget. Since then, it's only been Naomi Novik's Temeraire series that has actually kept me from doing life things. I think Erin wants to have some words with George RR Martin.
This has made me ask, what do I like in books, particularly, what do I like in fantasy books?
It's a rare thing for me to get so thoroughly book-hooked that I put off things like eating. I didn't read much at all until 8th grade, when I discovered Garth Nix's Sabriel and read through a math quiz (and I like math) because I needed to know what was up with Mogget. Since then, it's only been Naomi Novik's Temeraire series that has actually kept me from doing life things. I think Erin wants to have some words with George RR Martin.
This has made me ask, what do I like in books, particularly, what do I like in fantasy books?
( Collapse )
Part of why I love the Song of Ice and Fire series is because it does all this--the world is believable, anyone could be a hero or villain depending on your point of view, and there are girls with swords, girls with dreams, girls with romances, and girls with hella political clout. It's a complicated book, I suppose, and how seemlessly it flows together despite the large cast and complex world is part of why I'm glued to my Kindle, awestruck under my blankets.
(no subject)
I've been planning on doing lots of reading and writing this coming summer. It's like exactly what I'm doing right this very minute, except without deadlines and graduate or don't graduate consequences.
Caaaaaaaapstooooooooones.
Writing the not-honors paper has been hard because I have SO. MUCH. RESEARCH. I want to do a great big paper--and I want to cite all the stuff I found!--but that's next to impossible in 15-20 pages. So now it's narrow and theoretical and hard. Also, my advisor will probably not get feedback to me before I give her a final, considering I gave her no time to read. Still, I compulsively refresh my email waiting for her to acknowledge my slacker self.
Everyone else is done and liberated. I tend to procrastinate and turn things in a little at the last possible minute, but I get to keep my college experience for a little longer I guess. One last hurrah for Lauren the 20-page paper in a day machine.
The five hour energy drink keeps mocking me from my shelf.
Caaaaaaaapstooooooooones.
Writing the not-honors paper has been hard because I have SO. MUCH. RESEARCH. I want to do a great big paper--and I want to cite all the stuff I found!--but that's next to impossible in 15-20 pages. So now it's narrow and theoretical and hard. Also, my advisor will probably not get feedback to me before I give her a final, considering I gave her no time to read. Still, I compulsively refresh my email waiting for her to acknowledge my slacker self.
Everyone else is done and liberated. I tend to procrastinate and turn things in a little at the last possible minute, but I get to keep my college experience for a little longer I guess. One last hurrah for Lauren the 20-page paper in a day machine.
The five hour energy drink keeps mocking me from my shelf.
(no subject)
It's absolutely gorgeous in Portland in the spring, and the blue sky and flowers everywhere make the world seem limitless. I want to work in a nursery again--it's impossible to be sad. It can be boring, but it's impossible to be sad.
Erin and I had some excellent break days--bus hopping, clothes shopping (!), and yarn-groping across northeast, and going to our usual haunts in southwest. Like everyone else, we want a little house on the east side with a garden and clever kitchen implements and hippie neighbors. The general consensus is that no one will hire anyone else right now.
I don't think I want to leave. I want to immerse myself in the green and the sunshine and never be cold in decreasing daylight again. Maybe three autumns in a row was a bad plan. If I could just run a small house and garden with an unlimited budget, that would be my heaven right now.
So nervous about JET. I know my app made it to Tokyo, but things could still go wrong. (Please don't). What if I'm an alternate, or rejected? There's nothing in Portland but other people who really, really want to be here. I think I might want to become a social studies teacher after JET. Teach world history, civics, maybe other social sciences if I'm lucky.
I want a prolonged sunbreak in the weather of my life, just because the clouds have sucked so much.
Erin and I had some excellent break days--bus hopping, clothes shopping (!), and yarn-groping across northeast, and going to our usual haunts in southwest. Like everyone else, we want a little house on the east side with a garden and clever kitchen implements and hippie neighbors. The general consensus is that no one will hire anyone else right now.
I don't think I want to leave. I want to immerse myself in the green and the sunshine and never be cold in decreasing daylight again. Maybe three autumns in a row was a bad plan. If I could just run a small house and garden with an unlimited budget, that would be my heaven right now.
So nervous about JET. I know my app made it to Tokyo, but things could still go wrong. (Please don't). What if I'm an alternate, or rejected? There's nothing in Portland but other people who really, really want to be here. I think I might want to become a social studies teacher after JET. Teach world history, civics, maybe other social sciences if I'm lucky.
I want a prolonged sunbreak in the weather of my life, just because the clouds have sucked so much.
(no subject)
The days are getting longer, the air is getting warmer, and sometimes I can feel sunlight on my skin. Could it be an early spring in Minnesota, where it is always winter but never Christmas?
The JET interview happened, and while the panel succeeded in surprising me with questions, they did not succeed in making me lose my cool. I also didn't sleep the night before because I was so nervous.
I have mixed feelings about the city of Chicago. On the one hand, CITY! On the other...it's pretty gross. The twin cities are way prettier, and Seattle and Portland even more so.
I might be in Portland for spring break (the 15th on) to look for summer jobs if JET works out.
The JET interview happened, and while the panel succeeded in surprising me with questions, they did not succeed in making me lose my cool. I also didn't sleep the night before because I was so nervous.
I have mixed feelings about the city of Chicago. On the one hand, CITY! On the other...it's pretty gross. The twin cities are way prettier, and Seattle and Portland even more so.
I might be in Portland for spring break (the 15th on) to look for summer jobs if JET works out.
(no subject)
I watch House because it's funny and it's the last place I expect to find the White Guy Saves Africa from Genocide and/or Child Soldiers trope.
And then there's episode three of season six. In. Which. That. Happens.
If you are white and well-off and have a guilty conscience, you too can shape the destinies of hundreds of thousands of people in a country your ancestors fucked over and your economic policies continue to fuck over!
Because you care!
There are enough silly Cause Movies propping up this trope. Et tu, House? Et tu?
And then there's episode three of season six. In. Which. That. Happens.
If you are white and well-off and have a guilty conscience, you too can shape the destinies of hundreds of thousands of people in a country your ancestors fucked over and your economic policies continue to fuck over!
Because you care!
There are enough silly Cause Movies propping up this trope. Et tu, House? Et tu?
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annoyed
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check me out
so, um...
...who's still around?
What were your New Year celebrations like? Where will you be through this January, and where do you want to be at the start of the next one?
What were your New Year celebrations like? Where will you be through this January, and where do you want to be at the start of the next one?
so, posting
I'm kinda alive, but my honors project is hovering in my not-too-distant future and casting a pall over my existence...mostly because the other honors candidates are way, way ahead of me. I think. Who am I kidding? I'm excited to write it, even if I am in over my head.
I also withdrew from a class, which is something I never thought I would do, but was also entirely necessary. There have been other unexpected but necessary things. Sometimes you never realize how far deep you've been until something brings you to the surface.
Erin and I have been engaged for one year now, with five months of study abroad and almost two years of living together. We're still absolutely baffled about where, when, and how to tie the knot--we want family and friends to be there, but we also want some sort of paperwork and a meaningful location. Not a lot of options that allow all of them.
Also, the Temeraire series is crack cocaine.
I also withdrew from a class, which is something I never thought I would do, but was also entirely necessary. There have been other unexpected but necessary things. Sometimes you never realize how far deep you've been until something brings you to the surface.
Erin and I have been engaged for one year now, with five months of study abroad and almost two years of living together. We're still absolutely baffled about where, when, and how to tie the knot--we want family and friends to be there, but we also want some sort of paperwork and a meaningful location. Not a lot of options that allow all of them.
Also, the Temeraire series is crack cocaine.