I suppose this already IS the mainland
I considered trying to save it, at least for partial credit. I had given serious thought to heading out to the San Juans for a long weekend at the end of March, which would give me "Back to the mainland!" on the return, but got snowed out. After a fairly long week mid-month, I turned left at the ferry on the walk home and spent a relaxed evening strolling around "art walk night" on Bainbridge Island. And of course I could always turn to the new circuit of Quel'Danas quest dailies in Warcraft, which would have been good for "Back from the Outland!"
The truth, though, is that - for various reasons - I didn't end up going to the Hong Kong International Film Festival over the March/April transition, as I'd tentatively planned, so I didn't get the planned side trip to the mainland. Ah well. Time to give up on it for the month, and get back onto the First Lines horse in May.
Meanwhile, what has been going on in April: well, Tax Day, of course, and the joy of watching the professional tax preparer herself get mildly confused with some of the odd things my employer does with our paperwork. Work itself has been busy building toward a big deadline, so I've been wiped more often than usual, but I've been playing with getting more light during the day while switching from full lights to candles more often at night, with fairly good results so far. I also spent the past week carefully not doing the aforementioned Dailies in WOW, which cut back on both my elixir-making funds and my shot at hitting Exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive this week (remember when hitting Exalted with a faction meant something?). On balance I find I'm not at all upset by that.
Speaking of high finance, new computer at home: I finally traded in the aging mac tower for a spiffy, new macbook this month as a belated birthday present for myself. On the one hand, the trade-in process pretty much consisted of one of those "how many computer store employees does it take to process one trade-in?" comedy sketches, but the numbers still turned out notably better than I'd budgeted for in the bargain, so that worked out well.
I got to see a preview of The Life Before Her Eyes, the new Uma Thurman film. Lots of artistic cinematography. No, more than you're thinking. Lots of artistic cinematography. Whole lots. One might even say "unrelentingly" artistic cinematography. As in perhaps curling up in a ball and sobbing "by all that's holy, won't somebody make the recurring motifs stop." Worse, while you might expect some note of human triumph or hopefulness from the movie's setup, all of this ultimately ends up serving the sort of bleakness one might expect from Ambrose Bierce at his most misanthropic. It'll leave its mark - but then, so will hitting your head repeatedly with a brick, and I'm not sure that's exactly what you want in something that leaves its mark.
(Some very good performances from the actors, I must note, especially those playing the teens.)
It's actually been snowing here in Seattle a couple times in the past few days. That barely makes sense in the January/February timeframe, but at this point it's just plain unnatural. Today was sunny, though, so I took the opportunity to get out and enjoy it. April was a pretty unscheduled month for weekends, but the next month or so is already scheduled to include Cirque, KT Tunstall, Heloise and Abelard, and, oh yes, a few films here and there.
The truth, though, is that - for various reasons - I didn't end up going to the Hong Kong International Film Festival over the March/April transition, as I'd tentatively planned, so I didn't get the planned side trip to the mainland. Ah well. Time to give up on it for the month, and get back onto the First Lines horse in May.
Meanwhile, what has been going on in April: well, Tax Day, of course, and the joy of watching the professional tax preparer herself get mildly confused with some of the odd things my employer does with our paperwork. Work itself has been busy building toward a big deadline, so I've been wiped more often than usual, but I've been playing with getting more light during the day while switching from full lights to candles more often at night, with fairly good results so far. I also spent the past week carefully not doing the aforementioned Dailies in WOW, which cut back on both my elixir-making funds and my shot at hitting Exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive this week (remember when hitting Exalted with a faction meant something?). On balance I find I'm not at all upset by that.
Speaking of high finance, new computer at home: I finally traded in the aging mac tower for a spiffy, new macbook this month as a belated birthday present for myself. On the one hand, the trade-in process pretty much consisted of one of those "how many computer store employees does it take to process one trade-in?" comedy sketches, but the numbers still turned out notably better than I'd budgeted for in the bargain, so that worked out well.
I got to see a preview of The Life Before Her Eyes, the new Uma Thurman film. Lots of artistic cinematography. No, more than you're thinking. Lots of artistic cinematography. Whole lots. One might even say "unrelentingly" artistic cinematography. As in perhaps curling up in a ball and sobbing "by all that's holy, won't somebody make the recurring motifs stop." Worse, while you might expect some note of human triumph or hopefulness from the movie's setup, all of this ultimately ends up serving the sort of bleakness one might expect from Ambrose Bierce at his most misanthropic. It'll leave its mark - but then, so will hitting your head repeatedly with a brick, and I'm not sure that's exactly what you want in something that leaves its mark.
(Some very good performances from the actors, I must note, especially those playing the teens.)
It's actually been snowing here in Seattle a couple times in the past few days. That barely makes sense in the January/February timeframe, but at this point it's just plain unnatural. Today was sunny, though, so I took the opportunity to get out and enjoy it. April was a pretty unscheduled month for weekends, but the next month or so is already scheduled to include Cirque, KT Tunstall, Heloise and Abelard, and, oh yes, a few films here and there.