Blahblahblah.
Finished: Year's Best SF 6, (short story collection) (reread)
Started: Ender in Exile, by Orson Scott Card
As a short story collection, YBSF is a mixed bag, but I usually find this particular series has a higher proportion of good ones. I still think my favorite story in the collection is David Langford's "Different Kinds of Darkness", although Ted Chiang's "Seventy-Two Letters", Michael F. Flynn's "Built Upon the Sands of Time", and Greg Egan's "Oracle" were also especially enjoyable (although I think Oracle would have been better if he actually explicitly made it about Alan Turing and C.S. Lewis, instead of people who were just meant to represent them... the story involves multiple universes, after all, so even if some details needed to be 'wrong', that's okay, and I just think it would have been a little more powerful, though I suppose there's the potential for disrespect and bad feelings when you use real people).
Finished: The Exile Kiss, by George Alec Effinger
Started: Tatja Grimm's World, by Vernor Vinge
Exile Kiss is the third (and final complete) novel in the Budayeen/Marid Audran universe, semi-cyberpunk set in the Middle East. It's also unfortunately I think the weakest. I still enjoyed it, but not quite as much, and the character of Marid is growing slowly more unlikeable (though I think that's part of the point). Oh, he still has his cool and charming moments, but on the whole I liked him better in the first book. Plotlines seemed to be brought up and dropped for no good purpose (although it's possible Effinger had a longer-term plan than he was able to put into practice), and some things were set up for no other reason than because it was necessary to be that way for the ending to go the way it did, but otherwise didn't make any sense. Otherwise, it sort of meandered, sometimes very pleasantly so, but definitely not as strong. I'll still probably track down the collection Budayeen Nights (short stories, many set in the same world) eventually though.
Still been playing a lot of L4D2. Still dealing with some annoying achievements that should be simple but are proving impossible for me to get in the right position and the right time AND pull off without screwing up. :P. Ah well. I did manage to get one I didn't expect... Tank Burger (kill a Tank using only a melee weapon), because it still counts if you only hit a tank once with a sword and then make it to the end of the mission without firing on it or killing it (I guess because it auto-dies at mission end).
And since Gyros shouldn't go without comment (even somewhat mediocre Gyros) last week was the Taste of the Danforth, and as was tradition, I went. However, I went somewhat later than the times I usually went, and I don't know if it was that or if it was just exceptionally busy this year, but it was crazy.
Waited 10 minutes in one line before I realized I had accidentally cut, that what I thought was the beginning of the line (and was about the same as where lines began when I went in previous years) was actually near the end, and the line was way way back. (It was hard to distinguish between the line and the group of people walking by it). So I abandoned that line and went on for another. Found another one, basically I was in a line between two places. One, I quickly learned, was even more messed up. The line began at a reasonable spot, but apparently you had to get TICKETS for the line, and the lineup for that was somewhere way somewhere else. Of course, there were no visible signs or anything and usually you'd had to be waiting for at least 10 minutes before you were informed of that fact. So I sort of casually tried to go to the other, which didn't seem to have a super long line but it moved super slow (because it was both wide and long). Wound up waiting in that line for about an hour to get 1 gyro. And it was a rush gyro, not even all that great, not a super amount of sauce or anything. Too many people for too few benefit (story of my life in the world). Anyway, it was enough to make a vow. Never again. Not for Gyros, or even Taste of the Danforth in spirit, but for going down there and doing it the hard way. See, there are actually places that sell Gyros on the street I walk down to GET to the Taste of the Danforth, and from now on, I'm just doing that and saying screw the crowds. I may have made a similar observation in previous years, but this time it's officially a vow.
In other news... I don't think there is any other news for me. Despite my distaste for crowds, right now I expect I'll be going to FanExpo Canada in 2 weeks, although it's possible my social anxiety issues will kill it at the last minute. Summer Glau, James Marsters, Tamoh Pennikett and Dean Stockwell. And Adrian Alphona, Runaways artist. I'm even a little tempted to see if I can get a sketch (maybe my long wanted Undead!Zombie!Chase!With!Lasers!), though shyness will probably prevent it - in previous years I've not managed to even talk to artists, which I know is ridiculous, but such is life, or mine, anyway.
Started: Ender in Exile, by Orson Scott Card
As a short story collection, YBSF is a mixed bag, but I usually find this particular series has a higher proportion of good ones. I still think my favorite story in the collection is David Langford's "Different Kinds of Darkness", although Ted Chiang's "Seventy-Two Letters", Michael F. Flynn's "Built Upon the Sands of Time", and Greg Egan's "Oracle" were also especially enjoyable (although I think Oracle would have been better if he actually explicitly made it about Alan Turing and C.S. Lewis, instead of people who were just meant to represent them... the story involves multiple universes, after all, so even if some details needed to be 'wrong', that's okay, and I just think it would have been a little more powerful, though I suppose there's the potential for disrespect and bad feelings when you use real people).
Finished: The Exile Kiss, by George Alec Effinger
Started: Tatja Grimm's World, by Vernor Vinge
Exile Kiss is the third (and final complete) novel in the Budayeen/Marid Audran universe, semi-cyberpunk set in the Middle East. It's also unfortunately I think the weakest. I still enjoyed it, but not quite as much, and the character of Marid is growing slowly more unlikeable (though I think that's part of the point). Oh, he still has his cool and charming moments, but on the whole I liked him better in the first book. Plotlines seemed to be brought up and dropped for no good purpose (although it's possible Effinger had a longer-term plan than he was able to put into practice), and some things were set up for no other reason than because it was necessary to be that way for the ending to go the way it did, but otherwise didn't make any sense. Otherwise, it sort of meandered, sometimes very pleasantly so, but definitely not as strong. I'll still probably track down the collection Budayeen Nights (short stories, many set in the same world) eventually though.
Still been playing a lot of L4D2. Still dealing with some annoying achievements that should be simple but are proving impossible for me to get in the right position and the right time AND pull off without screwing up. :P. Ah well. I did manage to get one I didn't expect... Tank Burger (kill a Tank using only a melee weapon), because it still counts if you only hit a tank once with a sword and then make it to the end of the mission without firing on it or killing it (I guess because it auto-dies at mission end).
And since Gyros shouldn't go without comment (even somewhat mediocre Gyros) last week was the Taste of the Danforth, and as was tradition, I went. However, I went somewhat later than the times I usually went, and I don't know if it was that or if it was just exceptionally busy this year, but it was crazy.
Waited 10 minutes in one line before I realized I had accidentally cut, that what I thought was the beginning of the line (and was about the same as where lines began when I went in previous years) was actually near the end, and the line was way way back. (It was hard to distinguish between the line and the group of people walking by it). So I abandoned that line and went on for another. Found another one, basically I was in a line between two places. One, I quickly learned, was even more messed up. The line began at a reasonable spot, but apparently you had to get TICKETS for the line, and the lineup for that was somewhere way somewhere else. Of course, there were no visible signs or anything and usually you'd had to be waiting for at least 10 minutes before you were informed of that fact. So I sort of casually tried to go to the other, which didn't seem to have a super long line but it moved super slow (because it was both wide and long). Wound up waiting in that line for about an hour to get 1 gyro. And it was a rush gyro, not even all that great, not a super amount of sauce or anything. Too many people for too few benefit (story of my life in the world). Anyway, it was enough to make a vow. Never again. Not for Gyros, or even Taste of the Danforth in spirit, but for going down there and doing it the hard way. See, there are actually places that sell Gyros on the street I walk down to GET to the Taste of the Danforth, and from now on, I'm just doing that and saying screw the crowds. I may have made a similar observation in previous years, but this time it's officially a vow.
In other news... I don't think there is any other news for me. Despite my distaste for crowds, right now I expect I'll be going to FanExpo Canada in 2 weeks, although it's possible my social anxiety issues will kill it at the last minute. Summer Glau, James Marsters, Tamoh Pennikett and Dean Stockwell. And Adrian Alphona, Runaways artist. I'm even a little tempted to see if I can get a sketch (maybe my long wanted Undead!Zombie!Chase!With!Lasers!), though shyness will probably prevent it - in previous years I've not managed to even talk to artists, which I know is ridiculous, but such is life, or mine, anyway.