(no subject)
I keep collecting news-related links, or well anything really that's not entertainment-oriented, and keep meaning to post them, and then never get around to it. So here's an attempt to get back on that train: Hey, look, we invaded Pakistan [also].
reading:
recently finished:
DW Jones, Howl's Moving Castle. Howl is a vain, commitment-phobic dandy = love.
Sherrilyn Kenyon's Seize the Night, a freebie picked up at the SK booth at Dragon*Con. Meh. Overripe, terribly melodramatic, and boring. I started skimming about ten pages into it and then skimmed through the end.
I am tired of being tired/energyless. The cold-whatever has migrated to the "making me sound like a chain-smoker" stage. Have been chewing Sootherbs (vit-c! echinacea! zinc!) and metholyptus Halls, but no effect yet. Remembered I had an unfinished bottle of amoxicillin from earlier this year so I've been taking those.
Stupid old computer: sometimes it will actually run Photoshop (and while other programs are also running! oh my!), and other times, like this week, it won't. At all. Even with literally everything else closed, it simply hangs up after popping up the main window and freezes. On the other hand, I have collected a ton of D*C photo links; still have yet to find the staffer in the good Joker costume from the Yule Ball, but did find a single shot of the Riddler guy I made an attempt to stalk for a picture outside the Marriott. Looks like it was taken around the same time? with the same group, anyway, as the one you got, frozenemerald. High on my list of things to do for next year: acquire a camera that actually takes the picture when you press the button, instead of four or five seconds later, so all you get is the sidewalk and the wall and possibly the person's foot as they move on.
liqthemoon has a lovely vintage cream wool hat in her etsy shop. If only I could wear hats without looking stupid in them.
Finally caught up on the last two episodes ("The New Girl," "Maidenform") of Mad Men last night. Man, but this really is the absolute best thing on tv right now, and possibly in the top ten for best ever. See also: Jon Hamm at the end, looking at himself in the mirror, and the pullback that closes the episode on his reflection in the other mirror. YES. Then, on the opposite end of the spectrum: I also watched the season two premiere of Gossip Girl (O SHAME OF MY FLESH), which is irritating and slimy and nastily amoral and boring, and yet the low-rent Valmont/Merteuil knock-off Chuck/Blair love-hate relationship is cracktastic, but that's not news to anyone watching it.
I think I'm going to be extravagant and not only take a hot shower but a hot bath as well.
reading:
- Catherynne Valente's The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden. If you, like me, have a surefire retold/reinvented myth/folklore/fairy tales kink, this is the book for you. The prose is very baroque, sometimes purple (although not as baroque/ornate as Angela Carter's Bloody Chamber, which was like baroque on speed, without being purple), but it suits the work well enough that it's not too bothersome. The world-building is wonderful (thinking particularly of Al-a-Nur), the tales are deeply engaging, and I'm really enjoying the nested tales structure. [oyceter's more in-depth review, with links to others]
- Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. I'm liking it, but I think I would be enjoying it more if I didn't feel so blasted guilty about paying cover price for it. Seriously.
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. After a year hiatus, I felt it was time for a series re-read.
- Lampedusa's The Leopard. Much more cynical than the movie, unless I'm reading it incorrectly.
recently finished:
DW Jones, Howl's Moving Castle. Howl is a vain, commitment-phobic dandy = love.
Sherrilyn Kenyon's Seize the Night, a freebie picked up at the SK booth at Dragon*Con. Meh. Overripe, terribly melodramatic, and boring. I started skimming about ten pages into it and then skimmed through the end.
I am tired of being tired/energyless. The cold-whatever has migrated to the "making me sound like a chain-smoker" stage. Have been chewing Sootherbs (vit-c! echinacea! zinc!) and metholyptus Halls, but no effect yet. Remembered I had an unfinished bottle of amoxicillin from earlier this year so I've been taking those.
Stupid old computer: sometimes it will actually run Photoshop (and while other programs are also running! oh my!), and other times, like this week, it won't. At all. Even with literally everything else closed, it simply hangs up after popping up the main window and freezes. On the other hand, I have collected a ton of D*C photo links; still have yet to find the staffer in the good Joker costume from the Yule Ball, but did find a single shot of the Riddler guy I made an attempt to stalk for a picture outside the Marriott. Looks like it was taken around the same time? with the same group, anyway, as the one you got, frozenemerald. High on my list of things to do for next year: acquire a camera that actually takes the picture when you press the button, instead of four or five seconds later, so all you get is the sidewalk and the wall and possibly the person's foot as they move on.
liqthemoon has a lovely vintage cream wool hat in her etsy shop. If only I could wear hats without looking stupid in them.
Finally caught up on the last two episodes ("The New Girl," "Maidenform") of Mad Men last night. Man, but this really is the absolute best thing on tv right now, and possibly in the top ten for best ever. See also: Jon Hamm at the end, looking at himself in the mirror, and the pullback that closes the episode on his reflection in the other mirror. YES. Then, on the opposite end of the spectrum: I also watched the season two premiere of Gossip Girl (O SHAME OF MY FLESH), which is irritating and slimy and nastily amoral and boring, and yet the low-rent Valmont/Merteuil knock-off Chuck/Blair love-hate relationship is cracktastic, but that's not news to anyone watching it.
I think I'm going to be extravagant and not only take a hot shower but a hot bath as well.