Sick and Tired, but OH LOOK, HERALDS
I don't get sick often. I blame 22 years' loyalty to the ten second rule and my parents' having instilled me with good eating habits, plus my own inability to stay inactive for very long. The grand result is that most things that "go around" tend to brush right off of me, or cause little more than a minor inconvenience that I'm more than capable of dealing with myself without so much as breaking stride.
That's most things.
Every couple years or so, I get hit with something big, and then I'm basically bedridden for two days at least, usually longer, unable to do much of anything apart from feeling sorry for myself and reading whatever I can get my hands on. The summer I was fifteen I read through my parents' entire collection of Robert Heinlein paperbacks while delirious with fever, and I'm still not entirely sure what I read and what I imagined.
I won't bore everyone with details, but I'm currently lying on my parents' couch, laptop on my lap and a couple of pillows behind me. I'm feeling better than I was four hours ago, but I'm also feeling a bit worse as I was six hours ago, so all told I'd say that the whole thing is getting ridiculous and I want to be done so I can get on with my life.
I'm also restless and irritable from immobility, and the feeling of some sort of need to shift in some sort of dramatic manner. Usually when this happens I get a haircut, but my hair's pretty short at the moment apart from a ponytail that I'm not cutting until February, at least. I kinda want my hair long again, all one length.
A friend lent me a hardcover three-in-one copy of The Last Herald-Mage (Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise, and Magic's Price) by Mercedes Lackey, which kept me well occupied until earlier this evening. I'd read a goodly number of the other Valdemar books, and I'm both a listener and singer of the accompanying filk songs, including the one entitled Magic's Price. Yes, it is a HUGE spoiler for the book, but I still enjoyed it. It was a bit trippy though, knowing that all the other Herald-Mages would be dead sooner or later (although I admit, I did forget until it snuck up on me), and waiting for Stefen to show up. Even trippier was the sequence where Stefen gives Vanyel a focus-stone as a present before they-- ahem-- bond. All that could go through my mind was the verse of the song:
They fought the dark ones back although they came on wave by wave
No trace they found of Vanyel nor of his Companion brave
They only found the focus-stone, the gift of Stefen's hand
Now blackened, burned and cracked by the power that saved the land
The end, though no surprise, was still moving, with a nice little epilogue about Stefen. I rather like Stefen. Vanyel's dark broodiness irritates me, another aspect that didn't come through in the song. I'd previously known Stefen as little more than a plot-device, giving Vanyel an audience for his proclaiming his intent to hold off an entire army until the cavalry can show up, plus being the one to carry the message that Vanyel needs help NOW. This makes sense, seeing as how we learn in the book the song was written by Stefen himself as a memorial of sorts afterwards. I also had no idea from the song that Vanyel and Stefen were a couple, and I wasn't sure how comfortable I'd be with reading about it when my friend happened to mention it. I surprised myself though, and found myself wondering which of them was on top. (I'm still not sure, although I suspect it was usually Stefen.)
That's most things.
Every couple years or so, I get hit with something big, and then I'm basically bedridden for two days at least, usually longer, unable to do much of anything apart from feeling sorry for myself and reading whatever I can get my hands on. The summer I was fifteen I read through my parents' entire collection of Robert Heinlein paperbacks while delirious with fever, and I'm still not entirely sure what I read and what I imagined.
I won't bore everyone with details, but I'm currently lying on my parents' couch, laptop on my lap and a couple of pillows behind me. I'm feeling better than I was four hours ago, but I'm also feeling a bit worse as I was six hours ago, so all told I'd say that the whole thing is getting ridiculous and I want to be done so I can get on with my life.
I'm also restless and irritable from immobility, and the feeling of some sort of need to shift in some sort of dramatic manner. Usually when this happens I get a haircut, but my hair's pretty short at the moment apart from a ponytail that I'm not cutting until February, at least. I kinda want my hair long again, all one length.
A friend lent me a hardcover three-in-one copy of The Last Herald-Mage (Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise, and Magic's Price) by Mercedes Lackey, which kept me well occupied until earlier this evening. I'd read a goodly number of the other Valdemar books, and I'm both a listener and singer of the accompanying filk songs, including the one entitled Magic's Price. Yes, it is a HUGE spoiler for the book, but I still enjoyed it. It was a bit trippy though, knowing that all the other Herald-Mages would be dead sooner or later (although I admit, I did forget until it snuck up on me), and waiting for Stefen to show up. Even trippier was the sequence where Stefen gives Vanyel a focus-stone as a present before they-- ahem-- bond. All that could go through my mind was the verse of the song:
They fought the dark ones back although they came on wave by wave
No trace they found of Vanyel nor of his Companion brave
They only found the focus-stone, the gift of Stefen's hand
Now blackened, burned and cracked by the power that saved the land
The end, though no surprise, was still moving, with a nice little epilogue about Stefen. I rather like Stefen. Vanyel's dark broodiness irritates me, another aspect that didn't come through in the song. I'd previously known Stefen as little more than a plot-device, giving Vanyel an audience for his proclaiming his intent to hold off an entire army until the cavalry can show up, plus being the one to carry the message that Vanyel needs help NOW. This makes sense, seeing as how we learn in the book the song was written by Stefen himself as a memorial of sorts afterwards. I also had no idea from the song that Vanyel and Stefen were a couple, and I wasn't sure how comfortable I'd be with reading about it when my friend happened to mention it. I surprised myself though, and found myself wondering which of them was on top. (I'm still not sure, although I suspect it was usually Stefen.)