(no subject)
Well, I didn't do it all yesterday, but I have made my way through most of yesterday's to-do list, so that's good. I still need to do more dishes - hazards of cooking fairly often - but I feel pretty good about things. I do wish that the weekend was longer, but what can you do? And we're going to look at houses tomorrow night, so I'm kind of excited for that.
I just finished my yoga for the day, so all that's really left for today is some reading in Japanese. I think I'll try to translate a page of Read or Die, since I'm not really feeling my current primary manga. It's a fantasy with a feudal system and a lot of the language relating to the government and all that is very hard for me to understand. They whip out all the archaic words and structures, and I'm just needing something a bit easier. I have been doing very well with studying my words, so that makes me happy, even though I often feel that my progress is very slow at increasing my actual vocabulary size. I did have a happy moment yesterday when a word that I learned from my manga was in Read or Die and was integral to me understanding the sentence. I wish I saw more crossover like that because it's very heartening.
I did manage to finish Wuthering Heights yesterday. I ended up giving it three stars. I didn't like the narrative choice of having the housekeeper telling the story, so that took away from it for me. I really hate that style across the board, so that's no surprise. Heathcliff, despite my sympathy for him as a child, was really a terrible human being, and for a while it was hard to watch his machinations. I was glad for the ending, but it was too little, too late at that point. I didn't hate it, but it definitely didn't come near to being a favorite either. I would like to know more of what Emily's thought processes were while writing the book, even though most of the time I'm not terribly concerned about authorial intentions, but I'm probably not ambitious enough to try and seek out the information myself.
With that finished, I'm down to a more reasonable number of books. For nonfiction, I'm reading Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks. I'm kind of surprised by how very academic it is, and I'm not sure why. I have a vague feeling that I read part of something else by bell hooks some time ago (Feminism is for Everyone?), and it was lighter tonally, but I never finished it, so it's not documented anywhere. I'm still early on, so the the introductory premises are still being delved into. I hope it gets a little more absorbing because I'm kind of struggling with it at present.
I'm also back to reading Lords of Grass and Thunder by Curt Benjamin. It's a book I've had laying around forever, and is a Mongolian-based fantasy. I'm enjoying it a lot, but I took a break while I was sick and while my back was hurt because I wanted something less complicated. I'm glad to be back at it, though. I would like to make more progress on it tonight, but I'm also really tired, so I might turn my attention to TV for the night. I'm probably tired because I stayed up late reading the book, so I guess that's natural consequences for me.
My parents visited today, which was good. Haven't seen them since Christmas, so this absolves me of the need to go visit them for a few weeks more. There was a lot of political talk, which was pretty tiring. They're on the anti-Trump side, but it's still disheartening to even listen to others talking about it. And they also brought up that they're updating their wills and gave me some instructions re: absolutely not letting my brother have their house. Which. Duh. I wouldn't recognize the man if I saw him on the street. It's been probably 15 years since we had any contact, and even that was minimal. Why the hell would I give him anything? And either way, they're both in decent health to my knowledge, so I'm not going to think about it too much. I am glad for the wills being updated so there will be written instructions, though.
And now, off to do my Japanese! :)
I just finished my yoga for the day, so all that's really left for today is some reading in Japanese. I think I'll try to translate a page of Read or Die, since I'm not really feeling my current primary manga. It's a fantasy with a feudal system and a lot of the language relating to the government and all that is very hard for me to understand. They whip out all the archaic words and structures, and I'm just needing something a bit easier. I have been doing very well with studying my words, so that makes me happy, even though I often feel that my progress is very slow at increasing my actual vocabulary size. I did have a happy moment yesterday when a word that I learned from my manga was in Read or Die and was integral to me understanding the sentence. I wish I saw more crossover like that because it's very heartening.
I did manage to finish Wuthering Heights yesterday. I ended up giving it three stars. I didn't like the narrative choice of having the housekeeper telling the story, so that took away from it for me. I really hate that style across the board, so that's no surprise. Heathcliff, despite my sympathy for him as a child, was really a terrible human being, and for a while it was hard to watch his machinations. I was glad for the ending, but it was too little, too late at that point. I didn't hate it, but it definitely didn't come near to being a favorite either. I would like to know more of what Emily's thought processes were while writing the book, even though most of the time I'm not terribly concerned about authorial intentions, but I'm probably not ambitious enough to try and seek out the information myself.
With that finished, I'm down to a more reasonable number of books. For nonfiction, I'm reading Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks. I'm kind of surprised by how very academic it is, and I'm not sure why. I have a vague feeling that I read part of something else by bell hooks some time ago (Feminism is for Everyone?), and it was lighter tonally, but I never finished it, so it's not documented anywhere. I'm still early on, so the the introductory premises are still being delved into. I hope it gets a little more absorbing because I'm kind of struggling with it at present.
I'm also back to reading Lords of Grass and Thunder by Curt Benjamin. It's a book I've had laying around forever, and is a Mongolian-based fantasy. I'm enjoying it a lot, but I took a break while I was sick and while my back was hurt because I wanted something less complicated. I'm glad to be back at it, though. I would like to make more progress on it tonight, but I'm also really tired, so I might turn my attention to TV for the night. I'm probably tired because I stayed up late reading the book, so I guess that's natural consequences for me.
My parents visited today, which was good. Haven't seen them since Christmas, so this absolves me of the need to go visit them for a few weeks more. There was a lot of political talk, which was pretty tiring. They're on the anti-Trump side, but it's still disheartening to even listen to others talking about it. And they also brought up that they're updating their wills and gave me some instructions re: absolutely not letting my brother have their house. Which. Duh. I wouldn't recognize the man if I saw him on the street. It's been probably 15 years since we had any contact, and even that was minimal. Why the hell would I give him anything? And either way, they're both in decent health to my knowledge, so I'm not going to think about it too much. I am glad for the wills being updated so there will be written instructions, though.
And now, off to do my Japanese! :)