What should my resolution be?

     MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM TEA KETTLE

     There is a whistling noise in the house, only at night.  It sounds like my old red tea kettle did that didn't really whisper but did make a noise.  I think to myself have I been making tea and do I need to check the stove top?  Living in a different house every year or so for the last 8 or so years has me more forgiving on odd quirks (I still don't know how safe radiators are) and different designs.  Like making the bathroom door only fully open from inside when you wedge yourself into a corner between the toilet and the shower.  Or why everyone uses shower water at the exact same time you took your off-time shower.  Every oven I cook in has its own quirks and for sure the current gas stove and oven has the most to get used to.  In return my kitchen is never cold because the upstairs hot-water pipe is right in the middle of my kitchen and will burn you when on.

     Kindle update!  I have yet to do anything more with it.  I'm terrified to bring it out without a case or something, I'm really thinking about a sock, to cover the fancy screen.  Unfortunately (what, no! Never!!) I'm still going through my physical books.  Two came in from the library today!  Psycho, oh, maybe you saw the Hitchcock film?  Yea, that one.  And FINALLY The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle who is most well known for his story The Last Unicorn.  This book was ordered nearly two months ago and it hadn't been returned until this week.  I feel like it wasn't that long ago I was unicorn obsessed.  Maybe like 15 years?! ohGODnoway.  Yea, wow, my (so long ago!) childhood fascination with unicorns and their magical powers and even more amazing was that they were fantasy and if they could be real (yea, I dare you to explain medieval theology to a seven year-old) then anything could be real.  And Hobbits!  And umm, I dunno, what did I believe in as a child?  Umm.. Santa Claus?  Sure.  Let's go there.

     Tomorrow is New Years Eve.  As is tradition since everyone was a kid I should name a resolution or two.  I want to simplify my life but most of the sites I've been looking at for ideas give vague useful suggestions with nothing that I can put into practice.  Own one car per family.  Done.  Eat mostly at home.  Done and double done.  Make meals ahead of time.  Err, my freezer barely fits a bag of milk buns and some frozen blackberries.  And I share it with, not including Tad, three others right now.  Wake up an hour earlier and exercise.  I wake up around 4:30 AM four days a week.  Yea, I don't think so.  One thing I really want to get back into is growing my own herbs or veggies.  I don't know when I can start here in the North.  The light lasts much less time than I thought.  Yea, what's up with Winter.  Sucks. 

     Back on track.  Veggie garden.  I would like to grow at least 3 herbs and two veggies.  Sound ambitious?  I hope not.  I miss being able to harvest ingredients watch as I neglect them.  Just something green.  Or a cat.  a green cat?  Sure.  Green cat for my resolution.

     Or maybe I'll make my resolution an easier one.  I will not start new tasks (not new books though!) before finishing any older, similar tasks.  I picked up some baby alpaca yarn to knit but I still have an unfinished pillowcase to embroider.  Bad pillowcase.  Finish yourself!  I haven't been really inspired to work on that at all.  I need more thread to finish the interior stitching I'm doing and I need a central design for the main piece.  There's the real reason I haven't worked on it.  I need a design.  I'll have to start looking.  But not today... Not today.  Good night everyone and enjoy the New Years with friends and loved ones.  jaa.

Day after Christmas is lame

     I had not only an amazing Christmas (I did not close Christmas eve for once) but made amazing food!

     In ode to Tad's new worry about his cholesterol levels this is a no cholesterol (ok, very little in the whip cream) chocolate olive-oil cake.  And let me tell you it is DELICIOUS!!!  I cooled it out of the pan then sliced neatly in half and filled with sliced strawberries and whip cream.  A little powdered sugar on top and voila!  New delicious foods. 

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Chocolate Olive-oil cake

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/8 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup cold water

Oven preheated to 350 degrees F.  Mix all dry ingredients (flour to salt) then add wet ingredients until well combined and smooth.  Pour into a oiled and floured cake tin or 9x9 baking dish and bake for 30 mins or until baked dry in the middle.  Remove and cool in pan for 10 mins then on a cooling rack before decorating.

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     I got a new Kindle Touch from Santa for Christmas!  So far I have almost thrown it at a wall when it wouldn't connect to the computer than have read free books on it in between the two other books I'm reading.  I do love to use the touch dictionary when I'm uncertain of a word.  I wonder if I can get the Oxford English dictionary as my standard?  I'm sure that one will cost much more than this free American Heritage version.  I'm more than halfway complete reading The Island of Doctor Moreau on my KTouch.  KT?  Touch is an iPod product... hmm.. I need a term for it.  But yes I'm finishing off my sci-fi novels on my sci-fi device!  Nothing finished yet.  May go see a movie tonight, we'll see.  Jaa.

Holidays are here

     Happy holidays.  Still working retail and still losing all holiday sleep over it.  I moved up to the Cosmetics Specialist and no, I don't wear make up.  That's kind of the best part.  So what have I been doing the last 6 months or so?  I don't know, reading, cooking and exploring NYC mostly.  Volunteered at a Target library makeover event months upon months ago.  Didn't get to meet Oprah which sucks because we were hoping to get apartments or something when she did a show.  Oh well.

     I did, on the other hand get through quite a few novels.  I'm currently reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.  Instead of a deep insightful commentary on my last list of books I will for now give names and authors.  Want me to comment, anyone who exists on the internet?  Leave me a comment and BAM, I'll write some insightful commentary.

     Since June I have read:

*Who Goes There by John W. Campbell
*Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
Farenheit 451 by ray Bradbury
*City by Clifford D. Simak
*Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
*Kim by Rudyard Kipling
*Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
How to Make Friends and Oppress People by Vic Darkwood
Auschwitz Report by Primo Levi
*Time Traders by Andre Norton
Flow My Tears by Philip K Dick
The Penultimate Truth by Philip K Dick
Vulcan's Hammer by Philip K Dick
*A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Basho
*More Than Human byTheodore Sturgeon
*The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
*Periodic Table by Primo Levi
Night and Horses and the Desert edited by Robert Irwin
*Sophie's Choice by William Styron
Noctournes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro
*The Trial of Socrates by I. F. Stone
*84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee by Robert van Gulik
Group Theory in the Bedroom and Other Mathematical Diversions by Brian Hayes
*The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann von Goethe
*A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi
*If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

Plus a few I think I'm missing....  The starred items are on the 501 list. 

     So yeah, I don't only read 501 books but sometimes I really enjoy them.  Also, this list is not in order.  I tried a few other novels, Kazuo Ishiguro's most recent novel Never Let Me Go and an international 'best seller' The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordiano but both were so insipid I was ready to burst.  Prime Numbers made me pretty much go like this: ARRRGGG!!!  It's all angsty lameness.  Oh well.

     It is Xmas time now.  Here is our current Christmas decoration status.

     We sent around 40 Christmas cards and still have a few more to go out.  Updating addresses is pretty time consuming but we're about done.  We have a few in return here from family members and a postcard from Hawai'i.  The coup de gras (our false star) is a friend's graduation announcement!  Hooray for that!!!!  Now that I am writing this list out I really want to complain and comment about some of these books.  Maybe I will.

     Happy holidays.  Kai out.

501 books count: 91 (Will I make 100 by Jan 1st?!)

Spring weather sprung itself finally

     I had a wonderful weekend without work.  I visited the family and got to see Anna's campus up in Vermont.  Train rides are so much less hassle than airplanes.  Just get there on time and have a ticket.  We had plenty of space to store our luggage (the infamous Mickey Mouse bag), time for me to read and take a nap on Tad and no security to go through.  Security is so stupid at airports anyways, since if they are determined enough I'm sure they will get through.  We drove through the mountains to get up to Bennington and it increased my desire to go hiking this summer.  I've actually started to dig up information now so I know what I'm looking into.

     I picked up a book that I recognized from when I was looking up information about through-hiking the Appalachian Trail (no I don't think Tad or I will ever do this) called A Walk in the Woods.  While it had some interesting stuff it wasn't that great and I finished up in about three hours.  Very quick. 

     Spring has finally hit us.  I can wear a short sleeved shirt without shivering and the trees have burst delightfully into bloom!  Tad and I are planning to go to a hanami festival this weekend and I want to take pictures there.  I'll take some, I swear.  Really.

     Humm, what else has happened?  OH!  I did in fact finish Walden but I didn't bring it on the train up to Albany.  While that was probably a better environment for the novel I only had twenty-something pages left to read.  I have less that 200 pages remaining between two other books.  I will have gotten through my longest book (597 pages) to date by tomorrow I believe.  What should I say about Walden?  I can see many of Thoreau's points and agree sometimes with his disgust with society.  The many problems he saw then have only gotten worse and more convoluted since.  I also find a resounding appeal to his absolute love of nature.  He really comes through as very superior and arrogant though especially when touting his peculiarities.  Ever listen to some artist or musician who is 'avant garde'?  They become so into their own ways since they can't reconcile themselves with society at large that they actually begin to demean the very audience they are trying to garner.  I'm sure everyone had that friend who was so sure of themselves that, well, everyone is obviously wrong.  Such a childish viewpoint.  The love for his land was admirable if not a bit silly.  It was moving and I think a base to encourage outdoor exploring that should be nature to everyone in this country.

     Supposedly we are getting the internet in the apartment tomorrow.  Good, I don't mind having all this time to read and relax but there are times when I want to listen to something or check a fact or just check my emails.  Annoying. 

     Ah, one last thing.  A new vocab word: tocsin- a warning bell or alarm.

Happy Spring Religious Week Everyone

     This weekend Tad and I head to Albany to visit extended in-laws.  I'm impatient for the break because I will be working eight-hour days all week before this.  I get off next Monday though and I believe I close Tuesday.  I've been reading more and more this past week finishing another two books (ok just children books but still) and have made significant progress through one of the densest books I've started so far.  A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century is just under 600 pages long and filled with tiny print and details galore.  I have finally, after about a month and a half of on-and-off reading have reached the halfway point.  Usually a thicker book like this makes me give up but I am bearing through it gamely.  I've gotten through the three hundred pages of background story to the actual main area, the life of Enguerrard IV de Coucy.  I can't guarantee I spelled his name correctly since I don't have the book in front of me.  It's a good read filled with lots of significant details of the life and events of the 1300s.  It has been fun to read even if at times, to double check what I'm reading I only get through fifteen pages in an hour.

     I am sad that all my books end.  As silly as it sounds I really enjoy being led through the author's eyes and following their stories.  I also get distracted by a new story far, far too easily.  I'm mostly through Thoreau's Walden but it has a time and a place to be read.  How incongruous to read about forsaking culture and embracing nature on a bus in NYC! 

     This post is really very helter-skelter.  I miss studying mathematics.  I want a book on group theory (sorry Britt, I do want to learn it) and a text on either partial-differentials past what I learned in class or a good book on vector groups and tensors.  I feel limited by my surroundings and my lack of academic connections.  When Tad graduates this semester I will look into going back even just for night courses to finish up and all.  I miss stretching my mind.  I want to join in on volunteering activities and work with people on new and more expanding ground than I have now.  I feel my lack of movement forward.  I am under a blanket and cannot get out quite yet.  I also want a pet, a little kitty meowing and needing my attention.  Ahh, to know my limits and break them, that is what I want to start looking into now.  It may be the wrong holiday to start focusing on resolutions but I am anyways. 

     My next post will be a bit more organized and hopefully full of fun photos of the family together and hanging out.  Maybe I'll have finished Walden by then as well.  We'll see.

     To show you what I've been doing recently all I have to say is that I finished another book.  ::sigh:: I am currently working through three books? ::thinking:: yea, three, that I am rotating between.  I devoured Poul Anderson's Brainwave from 1954.  Ohh, it was so good.  The book was about the theory that there has been an inhibitor wave that has slowed down electromagnetic impulses around the earth for the past few million years.  We have finally come out of the pulse and our brains speed up.  Everyone becomes more intelligent, both man and the animals.  Normally intelligent humans become superhuman and adapt the best they can by searching for new goals and end up building a spaceship capable of faster-than-light travel.  Many people can't take the change and either suicide or go insane.  Cults rise and fall quickly and the best is how animals gain near-human intelligence.  They can fear death, they can understand what is happening around them but are still sheep or dogs or monkeys.  It's a short read of about 150ish pages but definitely worth the effort of trying to find it.  I checked six library systems and ten used book shops before hoarding all my effort on the Brooklyn library system.

     Tad and I are going to stay in our apartment for probably six months.  We're gonna try and live here in NYC but it can be hard.  I really love the tiny Chinese bakery on the corner since I get, for 80 cents, a cup of sweet milk tea for work or just to wake you up.  I need to start looking into volunteering opportunities.  I've been thinking of needing to do something constructive with my time here.  I'm looking into foodbanks and I guess the girl scouts as always.  I do love them.

501 books count: 63 hm... I seem to be miscounting somewhere, I'll check it out for next time...

...Make that four books

     Work work work.  It's been killing me.  The best part about work (besides the fact that I make money and can pay bills) is that it takes an average of 40-50 minutes to get to or from work.  I get to read a lot and listen to podcasts.  In the the last two weeks I have started four? books ::quick counting:: yea, four.  I finished two, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Seven Years in Tibet, both of which are borrowed from the library.

     The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was great and not entirely what I expected.  A lot of people love to chat about whether Frank Baum was really writing a political essay about the Populist movement but I don't know.  I didn't see anything except about how small children look good in green dresses and such.  Until I look into this I will say that it sounds like a hoax.

     Seven Years in Tibet was wonderful.  I don't read a lot of travelogues or biographies.  This is actually one of the reasons I'm reading all 501 books if I can because I like the books I like and have bad luck choosing new genres at times.  It is the story of an independent Tibet from an outsider's view.  Heinrich Harrer's obvious love for both the Dalai Lama and Tibet itself comes through and really pulls you.  He makes his way over a period of months through the Himalayas to Tibet from an internment camp in India and meets all levels of life out on the Tibetan Plateau.  Starting with the nomads in the north to the nobles in Lhasa we are introduced to life before the Chinese invaded and learn not only their indigenous culture but their religious life.  That he was there until the first exodus of the Dalai Lama means that we get to see the full circle of life, from him fleeing into Tibet to him leaving before the Red Army.  I really want to see the movie now and the beautiful country it once was.

     Last week Tad and I went out to a stand-up routine.  I had the day off and we were both restless.  The weather was turning bad but we still decided to head into the city down to the Lowe East Side.  We stopped off at Pomme Frites, a place that serves Belgian fries with many, many types of flavored mayos.  What is Belgian fries, I hear you cry?  Potato wedges double deep-fried, it seems.  Nothing amazing but still really good.  We picked roasted eggplant mayo and got a large, meant for one hungry person.  It really fed both of us and stuffed us up.

     Remember, this is only meant for one hungry person.  It's huge!!!  The mayo was great but definitely salty after a while.  By the end of the dish we were pacing ourselves to make it through.  Very cute place, though, and even better than all of this it was hailing outside.  just tiny snow pellets frozen solid in chucks no bigger than a pencil's eraser.  This is the devastation outside following this horrific hailstorm.

     One last thing.  We have maybe found a place to live semi-permanently as we put down a deposit and we'll see tomorrow.  I'll get the chance to update everyone afterwards.  We'll see.  Cross your fingers.

     End result: 74.5/100  Huge servings, amazing varieties but a bit heavy on the grease after a while.

Pomme Frites (Fries)
123 2nd Ave (Between 7th Ave and St. Marks Place)
NY, NY 10003

501 books count: 61

Hm, actually I read two books

     I finished The Green Child fairly quickly, you know, with only ten pages left.  The last ten pages summed up the entire book.  Looking back at the story it seems a progression of scenes that are more and more Utopian.  The first is rural England in a small town village.  Remember that idyllic England was exactly those small, isolated areas filled with good people and calm serenity.  In fact it is not since people are lazy and stupid there as elsewhere.  The second scene is closer to perfect, a small independent country in South America.  The people are portrayed as inherently idle and simplistic.  Agrarian living is seen as a perfect society and a benevolent dictatorship (the protagonist) rules them towards a better living.  The final setting is in 'the green child's' homeland underground.  It is an isolated group of humans who seem to be more, well, more verdant.  I railed about the green child a bit in my last blog but it holds a bit more context now, having seen the society she originated in.

     The ideal society has no fear of death, no hardship and no variations.  There is one race and a strict caste system and all are complacent with it.  Even Olivero, our hero, enjoys it after rejecting his knowledge of the outside world.  There a five tiers to the caste which act more as levels of maturity which can be breached as wished.  The lowest is the level of youth and pleasure where casual sex and idleness are encouraged.  Above that is unskilled and skilled laborers who harvest their dull food supply and craft crystals which is the closest they have to art.  As with all Utopian novels the deeper influences of the author are pressed into the reader through the emphasis or neglect of all the variables of life.  It's not really fun to list but read a few Utopian novels and you can easily pick out what I'm talking about.

     While I was waiting to finish The Green Child I went back to the library and grabbed a few more books.  Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Asimov's I, Robot among others.  I have been trying to read I, Robot for years.  UCF lost their copy about eight times and the Orlando system didn't ever have it in stock.  I could have paid for it but I already own too many books (haha, I don't think so really) and try not to buy anything I cannot pick up elsewhere.  Actually, it was in the search of I, Robot that lead me to reading The Foundation Trilogy also by Asimov.  I, Robot lived up to the airs surrounding it.  While a series of short stories it brought up ingenious scenarios and consequences that I think has been the fuel and fodder of animatronics and the imagination ever since.  Someday I will work my way through the rest of the Robot Chronicles as homage to one of the foundations (hah) of the science fiction universe as we know it.

     Also, I didn't post on St. Patrick's Day since I was pretty sleep deprived and I would have just written a post like this: co uyfe]]\h efwh uen nwefjb ewfi  eufeb ef ef  grr re jyhgfx  we3544g.... et cetera.  If you celebrated it then horay! If not well it was a Thursday.  I work til next Wed I think so I might not update until then although I have a speech contest to talk about.  I didn't compete, mind you, just observed.

501 books count:  59

     Japan was trashed by a both a severe earthquake and a tsunami on its Northern coast.  I haven't been writing about it since it seemed like bad luck since until yesterday or so one of Tad's friends was missing.  To write about the tragedy without knowledge of her status seemed to just beg for the worst ending.  She has been found and if you watch the Today Show she actually was on it, Canon Purdy.  I had been worried about how she was even though I don't know her well.  The catastrophe was bad enough without adding personal tragedy to it.  I am thankful that she was ok as she was in Minamisanriku which was one of the small coastal towns that was flattened.

     As for the housing search, we may only need a place now for the next month while family is in town for a wedding.  We could move and stay here for however long we wish.  It's not an ideal house because it has a twin bed and some of the appliances aren't great but it's a safe neighborhood, I know I can get to work and Tad to school.  We're still looking and considering but until Tad has some sort of job it is very hard to be anything but cautious. 

     I have finally gotten a library card and have already consumed a few books.  I added to my collection Mary Poppins and am working through a 1930s scifi called The Green Child by Herbert Read.  It has been a dull book so far and I'm two out of three sections complete.  Read loves utopias and there is a definitely a slant against American Indians as lazy and stupid.  The books is also written in a drawn out, dull style from the 1800s. I'll talk more tomorrow or the next day when I have finished this book.

     For now this is everything, there's a lot going on and spring is just around the corner.  Soon I'll have pics and we'll do crazy things.  Also, tomorrow is St Patrick's Day, so enjoy your beer.

501 books count: 57

A Slow Day

     Since I have nothing else to do today I am watching Julie and Julia.  Ok, who cares if it is about blogging and cooking and maybe even what I originally wanted to do with this blog.  What?  No, not the cooking and Julia Child's BFF on the interwebs and all.  Just something cool like that.  Lobster killer.  Only, if you've seen the movie or read the book (I have yet to) they were in Queens and I in Brooklyn.  Also, they have actually jobs.  Oh, and I'm not obsessed with my blog, I just do it in my free time.

     I finished the book Three Men in a Boat and it was just as good the last page as the first.  I once again suggest you read it.  Hum de dum.  My mind is all over the place today.  Worst part is, of course, that I really have nothing better to do but looking for a nicer job or apartment.  I have done some of these very, very essential tasks this morning already.  Well, looking into it.  Started, really.

     What I should do today is clean the apartment now that my sister-in-law and her friend have left for school.  I also picked up the tiniest apples in existence.  They were called Lady Apples.

The large apple is a normal Gala apple and the small ones are obviously the adorable Lady Apples.  I need some amazing cheese to go with amazing tiny apples.

     I should review this brunch place everyone went to yesterday here in Brooklyn.  The Farm On Adderley is a bus and about five blocks walking from us here and we went out for a last bang before Anna and her friend went back for school.  Brunch was amazing and everyone had different dish.  I had the Farmer's Breakfast which was scrambled eggs on top of steamed swiss chard on top of home fries.  Anna had poached eggs over fried trout with salad greens and hollandaise sauce.  Each meal was delicious and a good mixture of breakfast foods.  It was so packed with people that it must be worthwhile, although we got there just before the real rush behind us.  I will be going there again when I have another occasion, perhaps for dinner.  Want a rating? I would say A.  9? Three thumbs up?  Hmm, I will have to think of a rating system if I keep going out to eat.

501 books count: 56

Three Men in a Boat

     These men are not the butcher, baker and candlestick-maker.  Three Men in a Boat (to Say Nothing of the Dog) is a short novel from 1889 written by Jerome K. Jerome about the adventures of three young Victorians boating down the Thames.  It is filled with hilarious anecdotes, picturesque scenes from the British countryside and bumbling about.  It actually has a scene that no matter the context is one of the most hilarious things I can imagine: trying to open a tin can without a can opener.  I have seen this in real life so I know how truly amazing this gets.  First you try a small knife if available.  It breaks.  Then a stone to smash it about and crack it open.  This dents the can until it is a misshapen horror but does not break it open.  So then you get frustrated and irrational.  A log?  Throwing it against the side of your car?  Driving over it in your car? All these and more can occur and every time it will end poorly.  Log smashes someone in the head.  Scratch and dent your car.  Blow a tire.  And still the can does not open.

     I haven't finished the novel yet despite only being 135 pages it is rather wordy and I am really only reading it on the trip in and out of the city.  When I finish it I will glorify it some more.  If you like silly British incompetence I suggest reading this.  Either way, I suggest reading this book.  It really will make you snicker.

     What have I seen in NYC recently?  It is fashion week you know.  I saw this dress in a window on Grand St. down near Chinatown.  I swear it came directly out of my childhood.

     Hmm.. what else has happened?  I met up with one of our groomsmen (and Tad's dear college friend) Mike yesterday for Japanese.  It was a nice place near his work up in Midtown called Ise that had fairly cheap items for a Japanese restaurant.  They did a hot pot filled with veggies and tofu but a real Japanese place is not somewhere to go for a vegetarian.  I thought there was daikon radish in the dish and it was fishcake.  Ick.  My stomach was pretty upset last night even if I didn't swallow any of it.  Psychosomatic or not I was still feeling pretty queasy.

     OH!  People have been asking to see what our current living space is like.  I took a couple of pictures.  Remember we're only living here until we find some real housing.

     That's right, say hi Tad!  Not much but it's fine for a month or two, very spacious of just two people.

err... I guess this would have been a hiatus?

     I kept telling myself I should write but the next thing I know is it has been six months.  Tad was gone and back and gone and back since then, having completed the Hong Kong trip and also having completed a semester.  I've missed at least three major holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas) and have read a good number of books and overfilling another bookshelf.  I've been using the Project Gutenberg library for access to some of the more well known texts and have added to my belt Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Hounds of the Baskervilles and working through A Thousand and One Nights slowly.  I may even join up with LibriVox and read some aloud.  We'll see.
     Over the Christmas hols I gave myself bronchitis and spent a good day reading the Seventies sci-fi To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Phillip Jose Farmer.  If you don't mind some trippy counter-culture meta stuff this is good.  It's the first of the Riverworld series and won a Hugo in 1972.  Aliens landed on Earth in 2002? and most all humans were killed in 2008 for defense reasons.  Everyone is resurrected in a "Riverworld" that stretches across the planet and is some sort of experiment/social melange.  Our protagonist is Sir Richard Francis Burton and although not a 'good' guy he is a man who is trying to get out of this bizarre place.  I suggest reading it if you don't mind Phillip K. Dick and the like.  I hope to get the second of the series soon.
     Speaking of Phillip K. Dick I tried to get an anthology for Tad for Christmas just to discover they have never made such a thing!  I mean, how dare they!  I have anthologies for Harlan Ellison and have read parts of Roger Zelazny's short story collections but this well known prolific author is a no show.  How sad. 

     501 books count: 54

The Thrilling Conclusion of The Crystal World

     So, with all the foreshadow the world around, with all the delightful plot developments (none of which really seem to draw you in or even really concern you), how possibly could this amazing book end?  By a general discussion about how the world is changing, like hiding the fact that Florida has been crystallized or how it was slowly going to overtake us all.  There had been blatant signs pointing out that being crystallized was amazing and a communing with God or something along that lines, like it doesn't kill you but unifies you.  Well, our main character with his weak personality becomes partially crystallized and nope, nothing except that rubies and gems hold in themselves light which seems to be time and melts the crystals for a short period of time.  Good to know but nothing amazing.  I don't understand why this one was considered an amazing book but I suppose I'm not on the board of 501 Books to Read because I certainly would not have picked it. 

     In the end, I was more disappointed than not, that's for sure.  It was hard to get through because the main character was petty and fickle with his love choices and then he leaves both of them to go wandering and keeps bumbling into situations and never are explained or even resolved.  So be it.  Good bye boring book, I've read you and am already trying to forget having done so.

      Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles are short, maybe 5-10 page stories time-lining our colonization of Mars and the effects of Martians and being interplanetary colonists have on both sides of the water.  It was started as random short stories in the 1940's and 1950's.  They were then compiled from their various magazines into a single short book with added original compositions to flesh out and complete them all.  It is a classic and in the sense of being an original and in the sense of being antiquated.  For example: in the year 2010 there is a census that put 10,000 people on Venus let alone Mars, if I remember correctly.  Tada.  It's the classic belief in space travel being the shaping drive of science for the next 50 years and a swift exponential increase of technology to match our ambitions to breach outwards into the last place we can look, beyond this planet.  If you enjoy sci-fi this is the most basic need and dream of the sci-fi.  It has more than just a classic that simply has plot.  This follows the rule of Nietzsche and the abyss of space and aliens looks back onto the human race.  This interacting relationship between man, the dream, and the Other makes even the oddest stories the best.  If I were to vote on this I say two thumbs up and a Irish jig.

Summer fun

     I need an impetus.  A goad, a driving force, an actuator for my morale and will.  It seems that an overwhelming fugue is easy to stumble into but tougher than molasses to completely lose.  Aarrg, existence, how I loath thee.  In this last lonely spiral of mine I quickly derailed the whole thing by following my one constant obsession: books.  I just read, in the last few hours, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert E. Heinlein also famous for another novel, Starship Troopers.  It was a cult novel, which I did a commentary about as one of my first blogs and it stands for good reason.  The main character, Valentine Michael Smith, is deliberately made into a messiah (actually commented that he is the incarnated Archangel Michael of biblical lore) who promotes sexual polyamory.  Of course, he has a superhuman POV and everything he does just proves his perfection beyond any human comprehension.  Randomly throughout the book Heinlein goes on rants expressing the views he really wishes you to hold and they slowly change throughout to inoculate you slowly into holding what seem as moral-shattering mores into acceptable if not quaint or sophisticated (depending how you internalize the whole situation I feel) cultural ideas.

     The basic plot is we tried to go to Mars, went a second time and found a human baby born from the first expedition who had been raised by Martians.  He returns to Earth naive yet more intelligent than us all.  He also is super rich and then he gets an ornery Yanky on his side and he starts a religion and is martyred.  Basic synopsis, sorry if you wanted to read it but it there wasn't anything even remotely resembling a plot twist nor was there any actual drama it's all smoothed over and then it asks calmly why you weren't panicking.  Even his gory death wasn't at all emotionally captivating so I really hope it wasn't meant to be.

     It was a good read, from a literature standpoint and not just as a soap box for these morally degenerate beliefs.  Oh, did I mention cannibalism?  Yea, they also hold cannibalism as awesome and it's how you 'grok' a person completely.  Yea, that's right, "grok," some mystic term that is so complicated that there's no even vague description comprehensible in English.  In the end I can only offer up my enthusiasm that this book wasn't a bad read but was very bad at pushing its religious beliefs since it mostly focused on deriding mostly Western religion and I kept poking in with the Buddhist teachings and valuing them against that.   It just didn't hold water, I'm sorry, it was nothing but a huge excuse to indulge in your own saturnalia.

     I also read a few other books in the last month and I will get myself through those, including next time commenting on the end of The Crystal World, which as a preview, did exactly what it promised, nothing.  I'll give some more details and all that since for now I'm out of my funk.  Let's hope it holds.

Apology

     Well that book a week deal isn't going to work how I planned.  I'm still elbows deep into The Crystal World although it has yet to distinguish itself as either a modern novel or a sci-fi.  In fact it has, a good 120 pages into the 210 page book, yet to do anything but foreshadow itself directly.  While the ambiance has yet to inspire anything beyond a vague stirring of mysticism and unease the book shatters any real tension by stating the tension and literary devices.  If I was an English major I would write an essay just based on the direct quotes from the book.  'The weather foreshadows' blah blah blah, 'the light reflects' more blah blah blah.  Geez, there's nothing for the reader to do except read, no thinking necessary. 

     I'll finish up this week I hope and give a full report on the matter.  Let's hope the quality picks up quickly because it's a chore to work through.

     Went river tubing yesterday.  Unlike any other day in the last two weeks it was rainy and cool.  Of course it was.  It was chilly but tons of fun even if the route was less than a mile.  Kelly Springs has a nice swimming hole and the water was crisp and clear.  I'm glad I didn't bring my camera though, it would have been soaked.  Next time I will though.  We need pictures of that glorious day.

Revenge of the Slow Days

     Well Tad's back and summer has officially hit Florida.  You can tell because last night as I was driving to the airport to pick up my adorable husband it was drenching everything around in that strong, Florida rain we get.  Not two miles west of me it was dry as a bone.  Turns out while I was dancing to music in the cell phone lot near the International Airport back at the apartment there was a tornado watch from the fury of the storm.  Ah Florida, how I missed your fickle weather patterns.

    Why is this the 'slow days' you might well ask.  Truth is now that Tad's here waking up is set nearer to noon than dawn and it involves a lot of silly videos rather than adventuring.  Not that I am complaining at all.  I only dawdle in bed when I have a giant cuddle-Tad pillow anyways.  I made banana bread although it didn't rise quite as nicely as I had hoped.  Oh well.  I have to stop off for blueberries (on sale finally) and prepare a classic Tad dish: coffee cake.  We don't even drink coffee but it's the only thing I put blueberries in, so there it is.  Blueberries for Tad.

     At the lab we have determined the graduate students don't hear us unworthy undergrads.  We say 'don't use the new copper tubing we have plenty in the other lab' and they hear 'please, cut and fit the new copper tubing so we don't have to worry about having spent 50 bucks on it, haha!'  I'll show off my awesome powerpoint skills next time we have a group meeting again, it's absolutely awesome, bullet points and test!  Let me tell you...

     Despite the inebriation of the declaration, I am planning to read one book a week, from my list if possible.  I am currently working on a sixties sci-fi the Crystal World by J.G. Ballard.  It seems to be set in Africa and has the feel so far of a turn-of-the-century novel rather than the existential and questing sixties sci-fi feel.  I am only 35 pages in though.  We shall see.

Liquor

     I have decided to read a book every week until I have finished off at least some of the 501 list.  Isn't that awesome.  Also, I have drunk wayyyyy too much tonight.  I feel very open and refreshed.  Also numb, feeling that is, not like emotional and all.  I have read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles which was taken from a series of short stories in 1949 and 1950 into a series of perceptions staring from 1999 to 2026.  I suppose most people don't care about the science of it all but I do.  I see the canals of Mars made their impact felt since there is a dying Martian race.  The impact of humanity of a foreign race and the impact of that race on us, that was the main focus of this book.  I love it; it has this dream-like quality built into itself that I thrive on.  I feel like I'm reading the Redwall series again in middle school and Dad and Sis are playing Donkey Kong Country just in the other room.  This is the nostalgia I feel.  I feel that nostalgia a lot though, reading to music that embodies the novel/author in my head by the music played.

     Also, Tad comes home Tuesday!  This will be the first time I will see him in  months or so.  Oh how I miss him.  Come home soon, Tad, I dream of you.

     I also noticed a lack of females in this sci-fi again!  I should start noting that so I can keep track and maybe write a paper on it some day.  I bet no one reads sci-fi like I do!!!  I miss Tad.  He'll be home soon, right? Tuesday is too far away.  That's right!  Tuesday Tad comes home.  What a good job that is.  I like Tuesdays, or should I say  Tadsdays?  I dunno.  Feeling a little odder, so might get some more hard liquor to succor this detachment and displacement.  Maybe a better analysis tomorrow, after the schnapps has worn off...

501 books count: 48

Spring Break in the Big Apple

     Well first off, for the scarf: it is done and complete. Gara now has it and if she wishes there will be pictures with her. I was trying to start the hat using purl stitches but when I do them they end up so very very tight! Not a good thing. So I have to take some time and get that figured out. Oh well, not quite yet.

     I just finished visiting my sister up near the Canadian border and that was wonderful. It's been almost a year since I saw her so even our little time together was great. Although I saw more movies in the last four days than in the last year I think. District 9, Princess and the Frog, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Zombieland, most of the Accused, some of Silence of the Lambs, hmm... missing one.. oh! and the Hurt Locker. I had already seen two of those but still, that is a lot of movies. Also I finally saw the amazing Wegmann's and it is worth its glory. That is definitely the largest grocery store I have ever seen. Great prices too. I'll actually check NYC doesn't have one sitting around here because that was a great deal.

     Now, however, I am in the cultural capital of America, New York New York. The only thing I know we have planned is a vegetarian Dim Sum this Saturday. I can't wait! Today I think we are going to the Met for some artsyness.

     I will be updating for the next couple of days because to get here I took a 7 and a half hour train ride across New York state. Which was horrible and I was surrounded by drunk businessmen. When did I enter Japan?!?! I lives through that with only a tiny half bottle of water and three granola bars. Which I want more of, btw, for the flight home. I finished off another book though, while I was stalled in random parts of upper New York. So tomorrow I give a synopsis of The Inverted World and maybe in a few days, when I finish it I will talk about the Foundation Trilogy by Assimov. Or just about NYC.

Quick Update for Vday

     I am horribly busy these days.  Work most nights and the others I am driving myself bonkers with homework problems.  Test tomorrow but I have a good two hours of studying done and another three hours to keep going.  The scarf is almost done!  Hurrah!  I have one more stripe and then the end and that will be it.  I hope to finish it tonight after work while listening to some amazing podcasts.  Tad should be getting a Valentine's Day box with his present and lots of baked goods tomorrow or the subsequent day.  I have started three separate books but none of which are close to being finished. 

     I did listen to a BBC audio drama of The Laxian Key one of the many books to be read on the 501 list.  It was done in a Hitchhiker's Guide style though so since the story was only produced in the Sci-Fi 'zines of the 50's and 60's I don't know if I will ever be able to read it.  Alas.  ::sigh::  That's really all that's going on.  In a day or so I will update the scarf pics and maybe I'll have finished a book.  You know, maybe.  Until then enjoy the cold weather!

The awaited Ringworld review

     School starts tomorrow and I finally got some stuff for classes.  Took my sweet time, geez.  Raided the Good Will and found some great deals.   For 40 dollars we got a new book The Fig Eater which I vaguely remember at some point getting praise or not.  Tad got three new pairs of pants, two dress shirts, a casual shirt, plus a new suit jacket.  I got two fashionable jackets a new pair of work pants, a nice pair of slacks, a skirt and a nice shirt.  I need a new pair of shoes to match some of my nice clothes.  I'll probably go back and get another nice slacks and dig through their blouses.  It was a great haul though.

     Finished Ringworld finally.  Turns out that I only had about another five minutes left in the recording so it was a bit of a downer.  Good book, most definitely.  None of the characters really draw you in but you can identify both good and bad points of most of them.  They all have at least one point uncovered about them that opens their characters up except the main one, Louis Wu.  He doesn't change at all but you still like him so that's good.  The plot has a great twist in it and it fits drama rules: everything later used in the story is there to begin with.  It definitely twists things to let them be seen in a different light so it kept the story interesting.

     I'm trying to unravel a twisted yarn ball that is mohair and some crinkle thread.  I want to make a scarf Amy made on Ravelry with it for Sibly but it's a mess.  I will have to spend hours on it but nothing good is ever easy.  I hope to have it done for her birthday in March.  We'll see.  We'll see.