Weirdoes. Indoors. Hiking by myself. Historyish.
Old people are weird, man. Since when does Whoopi Goldberg have a morning radio talk show? She had Jackie Collins on, talking about a new book featuring an old character and the mature problems she faces, like a daughter who is on the Internet. All I could think was, well how? Is she a camgirl? Does she have a MySpace? Use Google to research her schoolwork?
And then when I was getting on the elevator in my building, an older (but not that old!) woman in the elevator asked about my smallish box, "Amazon - is that a computer?" Er, no, it's two books. Yikes!
I was going to go running even though I was a bit late this morning, but when my iPod decided to go on strike, I realized it was a sign from the universe that it was not to be. Instead, I walked up to my roof (~3:47), took a moment to enjoy the view, then took the elevator to the first floor and walked up to my floor (2:10). Even though I walked, I was out of breath I'm afraid, but I did manage to walk up properly, instead of bouncing on my toes like I usually do. I'm thinking there's a lot more of this in my future.
I had to stop in B&N yesterday, as there was a book I wanted for this weekend, but omg they have so many treats, it's a minor miracle I walked out without bulging bags. I thought I'd gone through all the local hiking guides, but Trails.com pointed me to this one, which lists how to get to the trail head from the train!! I am ridiculously excited about being able to get to hikes by myself, esp. since there's only one appropriate speed hike on Sunday; then again, last time I went hiking by myself, I got lost in the Utah desert and was quite convinced I'd be eaten by a griffin or something.
I was 15 pages into my book about Napoleonic era spies when I realized I didn't really want to spend 400 pages of dense, academic prose on that topic. I realized recently that I have all sorts of categories of books that I need filled at any given moment - there's the book for the subway, the book for before bed, the book for running, and the book for trains/planes (i.e. long rides) - and they make terrible substitutes. Unfortunately, I'm almost done with my current trains&planes book until my next African wildlife book comes in. *sighs*
I think the most entertaining part of the spy book was that when I was reading it in the car on the way to hiking, my cousin looked at the pages and said, "Ew, you're reading history?" and I got to explain that when she was older, she'd find herself enjoying reading it for fun :)
In yet another happy coincidence, I happened to be reading through the 163x books at the same time that I was listening to Robert Greenberg's lectures on Monteverdi and the development of opera. It gave a certain perspective to Mary Simpson. Unfortunately, after having read/re-read all the books and 3 of the Gazettes, it seems to me the series is declining rapidly. The problem is quality control: the original conceit was interesting and the multi-author format added all sorts of fresh perspectives, but every time some author added a cute little fillip, it gave future writers more crap to explain away until the foundation wasn't very sound. Then again, I might just be negative about it bc I was VERY disappointed with the last one I read: I liked The Galileo Affair a lot, so I could understand why The Cannon Law, by the same authors with the same characters, was so unbelievable and so silly. Also, the best thing about the Gazettes was "Other People's Money" - it's good to hear that they have economists in Mannington, WV (and they totally deserve time in the books) but doesn't Mannington have any lawyers? I guess if through a freak space-time accident, NYC 2007 were transplanted to Germany of 1631, we'd be overrun pretty quickly.
And then when I was getting on the elevator in my building, an older (but not that old!) woman in the elevator asked about my smallish box, "Amazon - is that a computer?" Er, no, it's two books. Yikes!
I was going to go running even though I was a bit late this morning, but when my iPod decided to go on strike, I realized it was a sign from the universe that it was not to be. Instead, I walked up to my roof (~3:47), took a moment to enjoy the view, then took the elevator to the first floor and walked up to my floor (2:10). Even though I walked, I was out of breath I'm afraid, but I did manage to walk up properly, instead of bouncing on my toes like I usually do. I'm thinking there's a lot more of this in my future.
I had to stop in B&N yesterday, as there was a book I wanted for this weekend, but omg they have so many treats, it's a minor miracle I walked out without bulging bags. I thought I'd gone through all the local hiking guides, but Trails.com pointed me to this one, which lists how to get to the trail head from the train!! I am ridiculously excited about being able to get to hikes by myself, esp. since there's only one appropriate speed hike on Sunday; then again, last time I went hiking by myself, I got lost in the Utah desert and was quite convinced I'd be eaten by a griffin or something.
I was 15 pages into my book about Napoleonic era spies when I realized I didn't really want to spend 400 pages of dense, academic prose on that topic. I realized recently that I have all sorts of categories of books that I need filled at any given moment - there's the book for the subway, the book for before bed, the book for running, and the book for trains/planes (i.e. long rides) - and they make terrible substitutes. Unfortunately, I'm almost done with my current trains&planes book until my next African wildlife book comes in. *sighs*
I think the most entertaining part of the spy book was that when I was reading it in the car on the way to hiking, my cousin looked at the pages and said, "Ew, you're reading history?" and I got to explain that when she was older, she'd find herself enjoying reading it for fun :)
In yet another happy coincidence, I happened to be reading through the 163x books at the same time that I was listening to Robert Greenberg's lectures on Monteverdi and the development of opera. It gave a certain perspective to Mary Simpson. Unfortunately, after having read/re-read all the books and 3 of the Gazettes, it seems to me the series is declining rapidly. The problem is quality control: the original conceit was interesting and the multi-author format added all sorts of fresh perspectives, but every time some author added a cute little fillip, it gave future writers more crap to explain away until the foundation wasn't very sound. Then again, I might just be negative about it bc I was VERY disappointed with the last one I read: I liked The Galileo Affair a lot, so I could understand why The Cannon Law, by the same authors with the same characters, was so unbelievable and so silly. Also, the best thing about the Gazettes was "Other People's Money" - it's good to hear that they have economists in Mannington, WV (and they totally deserve time in the books) but doesn't Mannington have any lawyers? I guess if through a freak space-time accident, NYC 2007 were transplanted to Germany of 1631, we'd be overrun pretty quickly.