My icon is embarrassingly applicable to this post.
Kay guys, I'm leaving for Rome tomorrow morning so I won't be online for about two weeks (!)
Man, my parents are always like this. They're like "Nah, we'll figure something out" every time I ask them what our plans are for the holidays. So I though, hey, if we're going it won't be a long trip, right, maybe to Belgium for a few days? WRONG.
*one week ago*
Mom: We're going to Italy. Chose your destination now. Rome (and Florence) or Venice.
Me + Bro: Bu-
Mom: No other choice.
Me: FINE. Rome. Please tell me we're not staying long.
Mom: Oh sure, only a week or five days.
*a few days later*
Mom and dad: OMG, so much to see in Rome, we must go for THREE WEEKS.
Me + Bro: This is never going to end well.
So I managed to haggle it down because I also have to do a performance with my string quartet on the 18th and I cannot miss that. And if you're wondering, we're going by car and we're camping. Tomorrow is going to be driving only. My parents told me I can only bring two books. I told them that three is the minimum and they're not going to be small either. So I suppose I'm bringing Watership Down (never read it before but people rave about it, also in RL. Well, at least they told me the movie scared them shitless when they were kids), Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (because the book is huge, heh) and The Count of Monte Cristo (I was halfway when I kinda dumped it because Maximillian and Valentine's romance is SO BORING, OMG. Man, even the guy who wrote the introduction thinks so. I believe "Vapid and verbose just about sums it up" are his exact words. So maybe I'll get past that and get to the exciting parts, like I don't know, the Count actually doing something again.)
Anyway, I've got my reservations about going to Italy. I feel rather uncomfortable, especially because I don't speak the language, I suppose. Also because my parents planned this one week in advance. Also because my parents always dress like tourists, like really badly. Why do I feel like something is going to go horribly wrong? On the other hand, I'm pretty excited about seeing all the cultural hotspots and getting ripped off, no doubt.
Oh, and I heard that it's going to be boiling there, like 33 degrees? I can't even survive in 25. D: (I blame my dad, for not handing me his survive-in-the-desert genes.) But then again, that's in the Netherlands, where summers are notoriously humid. So maybe Italy will be dryer. In which case my eyes are out of luck, because they get irritated by dry weather (I know this because my eyes turned red every. single. night. when I went to Tuscany with my orchestra). I never win, guys. XD
Not much going on 'cept that. My mother still nags how I should study for my driver's license (Which I'm doing, really!), multiple times a day. I'm learning how to cook things we eat a lot (pasta, including ender839 's amazing pasta salad, different kinds of khoresht, rice, hutspot, etc) Also, I made a key lime pie and a carrot cake. And man, the carrot cake was great, even if I say so myself. Pfff, I'm so going to make that one again. Here's the recipe I used.
And I also read seven Dresden Files books, 3-9. Also some other books.
I heard from quite a few people that books 1 and 2 aren't really worth it and that you don't miss much if you read some summaries and start with three. Which is true. I read the Dresden books in about a week or more, they're seriously fast reads.
Anyway, they're pretty funny, I think the most memorable passage in that respect is the beginning in book 6, where Harry and Thomas are on the run from purple monkey demons. I mean, they're funny in a totally pulpy and cracky way, don't expect high literature here.
Anyway, in case you don't know, they're urban fantasy/mystery novels, in which Harry Dresden, the main character (it's 1st person POV) has to solve mysteries/save lives. For what it's worth, Jim Butcher's world is nicely put together, his werewolves, wizards, faeries and vampires, they all have pretty interesting cultures. Also, Thomas Raith > many tween vampires. His wizeassery was quite hilarious and sparkly. Harry himself is okay, though he's kinda dumb sometimes, and often sexist. I'm guessing a lot of that is done on purpose, by Butcher, but I bet that a lot of it isn't done on purpose, which is a shame (and therefore really noticeable because I don't tend to be a person who keeps an eye out for sexism), but the sexism did spoil the fun. :[ (On the other hand, Murphy is a pretty kickass female character)
I also read The Assassins of Tamurin (rec by haremstress ) which was fun. Weird to have a fantasy version of China populated by redheads, but the characters were cool.
And I also read Perdido Street Station (by China Mieville). WOW. It was an amazing book. The world he came up with was amazingly put together, I especially liked the non-human races, for not being boring catpeople or something like that (no, he has bugpeople, cactuspeople, frogpeople and birdpeople and they're really really awesome). CM's vocabulary is quite unique, very interesting word use, though I guess that some people will find it pompous at times.
Oh, and some of the creatures, especially the otherwordly huge Weaver and the slakemoths, were awesome. I loved how they thought and how Mieville wrote the Weaver's dialogue, this neverending flow of words. And the slakemoths were just plain icky but the descriptions were mesmerizing. A+, Mieville, A+
Man, my parents are always like this. They're like "Nah, we'll figure something out" every time I ask them what our plans are for the holidays. So I though, hey, if we're going it won't be a long trip, right, maybe to Belgium for a few days? WRONG.
*one week ago*
Mom: We're going to Italy. Chose your destination now. Rome (and Florence) or Venice.
Me + Bro: Bu-
Mom: No other choice.
Me: FINE. Rome. Please tell me we're not staying long.
Mom: Oh sure, only a week or five days.
*a few days later*
Mom and dad: OMG, so much to see in Rome, we must go for THREE WEEKS.
Me + Bro: This is never going to end well.
So I managed to haggle it down because I also have to do a performance with my string quartet on the 18th and I cannot miss that. And if you're wondering, we're going by car and we're camping. Tomorrow is going to be driving only. My parents told me I can only bring two books. I told them that three is the minimum and they're not going to be small either. So I suppose I'm bringing Watership Down (never read it before but people rave about it, also in RL. Well, at least they told me the movie scared them shitless when they were kids), Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (because the book is huge, heh) and The Count of Monte Cristo (I was halfway when I kinda dumped it because Maximillian and Valentine's romance is SO BORING, OMG. Man, even the guy who wrote the introduction thinks so. I believe "Vapid and verbose just about sums it up" are his exact words. So maybe I'll get past that and get to the exciting parts, like I don't know, the Count actually doing something again.)
Anyway, I've got my reservations about going to Italy. I feel rather uncomfortable, especially because I don't speak the language, I suppose. Also because my parents planned this one week in advance. Also because my parents always dress like tourists, like really badly. Why do I feel like something is going to go horribly wrong? On the other hand, I'm pretty excited about seeing all the cultural hotspots and getting ripped off, no doubt.
Oh, and I heard that it's going to be boiling there, like 33 degrees? I can't even survive in 25. D: (I blame my dad, for not handing me his survive-in-the-desert genes.) But then again, that's in the Netherlands, where summers are notoriously humid. So maybe Italy will be dryer. In which case my eyes are out of luck, because they get irritated by dry weather (I know this because my eyes turned red every. single. night. when I went to Tuscany with my orchestra). I never win, guys. XD
Not much going on 'cept that. My mother still nags how I should study for my driver's license (Which I'm doing, really!), multiple times a day. I'm learning how to cook things we eat a lot (pasta, including ender839 's amazing pasta salad, different kinds of khoresht, rice, hutspot, etc) Also, I made a key lime pie and a carrot cake. And man, the carrot cake was great, even if I say so myself. Pfff, I'm so going to make that one again. Here's the recipe I used.
And I also read seven Dresden Files books, 3-9. Also some other books.
I heard from quite a few people that books 1 and 2 aren't really worth it and that you don't miss much if you read some summaries and start with three. Which is true. I read the Dresden books in about a week or more, they're seriously fast reads.
Anyway, they're pretty funny, I think the most memorable passage in that respect is the beginning in book 6, where Harry and Thomas are on the run from purple monkey demons. I mean, they're funny in a totally pulpy and cracky way, don't expect high literature here.
Anyway, in case you don't know, they're urban fantasy/mystery novels, in which Harry Dresden, the main character (it's 1st person POV) has to solve mysteries/save lives. For what it's worth, Jim Butcher's world is nicely put together, his werewolves, wizards, faeries and vampires, they all have pretty interesting cultures. Also, Thomas Raith > many tween vampires. His wizeassery was quite hilarious and sparkly. Harry himself is okay, though he's kinda dumb sometimes, and often sexist. I'm guessing a lot of that is done on purpose, by Butcher, but I bet that a lot of it isn't done on purpose, which is a shame (and therefore really noticeable because I don't tend to be a person who keeps an eye out for sexism), but the sexism did spoil the fun. :[ (On the other hand, Murphy is a pretty kickass female character)
I also read The Assassins of Tamurin (rec by haremstress ) which was fun. Weird to have a fantasy version of China populated by redheads, but the characters were cool.
And I also read Perdido Street Station (by China Mieville). WOW. It was an amazing book. The world he came up with was amazingly put together, I especially liked the non-human races, for not being boring catpeople or something like that (no, he has bugpeople, cactuspeople, frogpeople and birdpeople and they're really really awesome). CM's vocabulary is quite unique, very interesting word use, though I guess that some people will find it pompous at times.
Oh, and some of the creatures, especially the otherwordly huge Weaver and the slakemoths, were awesome. I loved how they thought and how Mieville wrote the Weaver's dialogue, this neverending flow of words. And the slakemoths were just plain icky but the descriptions were mesmerizing. A+, Mieville, A+