Books

Another Beginning

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So, here we are, a week into the new year. I don’t do resolutions, I know myself well enough to know that’s pointless. I have, however, decided to pick a theme. Basically an idea, or motivator of sorts, to keep in mind and use to guide my decisions this year. Theme for this year is Just Do It (to steal from Nike). This year the idea is to be more active in my pursuits, to take action to get where I want to be.

In that light, I’ve made some related decisions in what I want to do this year, both long term things that I want to start this year, as well as things I want to accomplish. Most of the stuff I can’t, or rather won’t, talk about just yet. But I hope to provide further updates soon.

I also have some stuff that I will talk about. First of that being this blog. It took way longer than expected to fix the image issue I was having. This was mostly my own problem because I let it lie for too long while it, in the end, turned out to be a relatively simple fix. After it got fixed I did one of the photo posts I said I would and then left it again. Putting pics together for the August photo post was annoying the crap out of me, so I just sorta stopped.

To prevent shit like that from making me stop blogging again, I’m not scheduling anything anymore. No more ‘I’m going to do this on a weekly basis’ or ‘every month I’m gonna…’ or even non-committal shit like ‘I plan to regularly…’ I’m not planning anything any more in regards to the blog. I still have a lot of things in my head that I wanna post, but I’m just gonna do whatever comes up, whenever I want to. There’s already enough shit in life that you have to do, I don’t want this blog to be one of those things. After all, I have this website to have fun with and to make a record of who I am and what I like. If it becomes a chore, it’ll loose all life it has.

 

Something else I think I haven’t mentioned here yet is Milo. Milo is my new cat, whom I got from the shelter on October 22. He’s a young boy of almost two (in March) and he’s almost the complete opposite of Monkey. He’s playful, and active and a bit of a talker. Monkey only makes a noise when he really wants to go outside and I don’t respond fast enough. Milo opens his mouth a lot more, and when he does the most adorable little shriek comes out. It’s almost like a friggin’ baby bird going meeeeep! The shelter named him Bo, which is stupid, so I renamed him. But, in keeping with tradition I kept (most of) his shelter name as part of his name.

So, without further ado, meet Milo Beauregard Gibbs:

My cat

Monkey and Milo are getting along pretty well. Milo wants to play with Monk but he’s not really into that. They do chase each other around (in mostly good fun), though. This usually starts with Milo approaching Monkey to sniff at him or invite him to play and then Monkey does this hissy fit kinda thing where he yowls a bit and waves his paw around. Milo the backs off a bit and seconds later they’ll be chasing each other around the house.

He also loves feather teasers, so much so, even, that the one I had is almost dead already. So I bought three new ones right away to get a bit of a supply. And today the laser pointer I ordered came in. Tried it on him, he went insane for it 😀

In comparison, Monkey ignored it and pointedly reminded me that he knows I’m the one controlling the toys so he’s not gonna waste his energy on that, thank you very much. (related sidenote: Monkey has very expressive eyes).

Tomorrow Milo gets to go outside for the first time since I got him. I kept him inside a little longer than I normally would because of New Year’s and the fireworks and such. I hope he likes it, he tends to still be a little skittish with loud noises or big/tall objects/people although he’s progressed heaps in that since he came. The first week he would hide under the bed every time I walked through the house. He still runs when he gets spooked, but now he almost right away comes back out from wherever he runs to, to check out what happened.

In short, he’s a cool cat 😀

 

Other stuff… eh… Work is going well I guess. I applied for a trainer/coach position within my department, got through the initial interview with flying colors and got to do an assessment. I felt pretty good about that, the tests were easy and the talk with the counselor about work and ambitions and what type of person I was went well too, at least I thought so. The role play situation went less well. Both because I hate role play situations, and because I found the set-up they had for it not relevant to what actually goes on at my job. All in all, I had a good feeling about it.

The result came in a week later, and I got a negative result. They thought I would not be suitable for the position because, in a nut shell, I ‘m not social enough, and that’s not fixable… Right. I was fuming for two days. There’s a core of truth in the report. Yes, I am an introvert, I told him so, but that does not mean I’m antisocial, it just means that interaction with people costs energy (versus giving me energy). I know this of myself so I take precautions. This is the reason I don’t work on Wednesdays so I have a day in the middle to recharge. Also, social interaction has been difficult for me in the past. I used to be more shy but this is something I’ve learned to overcome for a large part. Especially since I started working at my current job I’ve learned so much about interacting with people and have grown so much in that regard.

So, back to the report, I felt as if it were a snap shop of me three years ago, give or take. I discussed it with my supervisor and some other people later on, and they all were surprised by it. They saw the core of truth that was in there, but the extent of it…

Regardless of that, though, the assessment is final so it meant I was out of the application procedure. So I’m still doing what I did before, and that’s not a bad thing either. I love writing so the e-mail and letter thing is a good job for me to have. I’m doing a lot of letters these days, more so than e-mail, and I’m really enjoying that. However, I will be looking for opportunities to move forward or at least expand my skill set. For the moment still preferably within the same company.

 

I think this is more than long enough for a first blog of 2012. I hope to do a post to catch up on my booklist and 101 list. Booklist definitely because I failed my target so very much I think it might be the lowest in years. The 101 list… Meh, I think it needs revising first. I’m having second thoughts on a lot of the goals and I think the sheer amount of them, even keeping in mind the long time one has for it (1001 days) it might be too many things for a person with an attention span like mine.

Queen’s Day 2011

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For my home town, Parentville, Queen’s Day is not only that, but also the day that the town playgrounds are officially opened again after the yearly maintenance. Since this is a prime opportunity to hang out with my family, I usually spend this day in Parentville. This year was a bit of a disappointment. There’s always a small parade trough town before the opening takes place. The parade consists of a wagon carrying the smaller kids while the older kids ride bikes after it and often followed by a contingent of adolescents and adults as well. Now, Parentville is quite a small town, but there were so very few kids this year (especially on the wagon) it was kinda sad to see. Partly this may have been the weather (even though there was sunshine, the wind was cold) but it seems participation in this town ritual is going down every year anyway. I didn’t even bother taking my proper camera with me, electing instead to just go with my phone. I video’d the arrival of the parade, the playing of the anthem and the opening so didn’t get a lot of pictures. I took some of my parents, and had my aunt shoot me and my parents together. Later in the afternoon Mom and I took a quick stroll around the flea market that followed the opening. This was well populated, both in kids selling their stuff as well as adults and other kids walking/running around and talking and occasionally buying stuff. I bought a couple books from the Famous Five series for 50 cents apiece, so good bargain.

 

Book Club: 2011-02a // The Dispossessed

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The first of the February books was Ursula LeGuin’s The Dispossessed. I have read LeGuin before, but that was mostly the fantasy side of her (Earthsea series) although I do recall having read a book with short story sci-fi stuff too. Reading the back blurb I was immediately intrigued.

Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action.  He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life.  Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Urras, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.

I learned, from the Book Club Blog, that this book is part of the Hainish Cycle, a number of books LeGuin wrote featuring the same worlds. The different books are, as I read it, focusing on different planets and people and stuff, but the link between them is the world  of Hain. They are also named in this book, but very much in the background. Wikipedia tells me that this book, in-book chronologically speaking, is the first (although not the first in publishing order), so it’s a nice introduction. I will definitely be reading more books in this series.

Review

The book starts when Shevek starts his journey from Anarres to Urras. From that moment on, the book alternates chapters taking place in the present with Shevek on Urras with chapters detailing Shevek’s past and how he came to be where he is now, and who he is now. I tend to find this switching annoying, however in this book I really liked it. The alternating chapters gave each other a deeper meaning by providing a backstory to what is happening to Shevek in the present as he recalls certain times or events.

Shevek comes from the world Anarres, which is the moon of the planet Urras. The Anarresti left Urras about 200 years ago after an uprising against the economic and socio-political structure of the world at that time (patriarchal, capitalist). Founded as a world of anarchists, where there are no laws, everyone is equal and the guiding principle is to do what is best for all. After 200 years though, anarchism has evolved into a form of communism, where any form of ‘egoising’ is admonished. Personal property, for example, is virtually non-existant, and instead of saying ‘my book’ they would say ‘the book that I am using’. Shevek, and a small group of friends he collects through the years, begin to realise that the idealised anarcho-communism of their world is, in places, turning into an oligarchy, where the work placement committee is deciding what is best for the planet, and they don’t like to be defied. So, instead of posting people where they are best skilled for, dissidents get far out postings where they can be kept ‘harmless’.

Shevek, as a brilliant physicist who far surpasses any other scientist on Anarres, gets restless. After being exposed to Urrasti scientific ideas, he starts communicating with the homeplanet, and eventually realises he must go there. As the first Anarresti to leave the planet since his people came, he is both applauded (by his friends) and greatly reviled for doing this.

While growing up, Anarresti children learn that Urras is an immoral place, with an extravagant lifestyle and strict capitalism. When Shevek arrives, he is ushered to the University that invited him, shown to his fancy room, and introduced to the scientists he’s been corresponding with.

For a while everything is well, but then Shevek grows restless. Everything he’s being shown is so very nice. Everyone is cordial, he gets shown around all the pretty things. However, he never gets to see the people outside the University without supervision. And as he starts to realise this, he also realises he is being used. And instead of the universal theory he is developing benefitting everyone, they want to use it for themselves, to make a profit and to keep the other nations (and worlds) under control.

Shevek manages to escape from the University, and as he meets and interacts with the middle and lower classes he learns of their problems, and becomes, almost by accident, a frontman for their resistance and the core of people that want to follow the ideals of Odo, the founder of the Anarres way of life.

After a bloody rebellion, he learns there is no way that he can bring the change he wanted to these people, and he finds a safe haven in the Terran Embassy. As they prepare to bring him home, a Hainish crewman on the ship decides to go down to the planet with Shevek. To meet his people and learn of his world.

The book is, in terms of sci-fi, a softer version. Especially in the chapters taking place on Anarres, where the technology level is much lower in daily life due to scarcity of many resources. I liked how the sci-fi nature of the world building was subdued, it really let the intellectual exploration of all these different ideas (socio-economic systems, political systems, higher physics) come to the forefront. I found it to be a great book that really got me thinking. I’d been taught these systems in school, however, this was pretty rudimentary and dealt more with how these systems should be, ideally. I enjoyed the exploration on how these societies could develop and how the system would evolve.

Bottom Line

I LOVED this book! This is the type of book that I enjoy greatly, especially in sci-fi and fantasy settings, where a culture that is (mostly) alien to us (being your everyday reader) gets an in-depth exploration.  Other examples of this are Robert J. Sawyer’s Neanderthal Parallax trilogy (of which I, regretfully, have so far only read the first book: Hominids) and Ken Macleod’s Learning the World.

Links

Book Club Blog Review/Discussion

In Short

Pro: A thinking book.

Con: Not so much in the story itself, but it would have been nice to have it mentioned in the lists of other works and so, that this is part of a series of sorts.

ISBN: 9780061054884

Books, Food, Friends, Games

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Early February the author Sarah Monette held a memorial book sale for her cat to benefit the veterinary hospital he was treated at. Among the books offered were ten sets of her 4-book fantasy series Doctrine of Labyrinths. I had the first part already, but the second part is out of print, and, if I remember correctly, the fourth part too. So when I read she was gonna offer them, and for only 35 dollars, I knew I had to get one. So I set my alarm for the day of the sale so I would be online and ready when she would post the sale. And it worked, I got lucky and ended up being the fourth person to speak out for a set. Within ten, twenty minutes, all ten sets were gone, so I was damn lucky.

Anyway, long story short, yesterday when I got home there was a note from the postal service indicating they had twice tried to deliver me a package and found no one home. I could pick it up at the post office the next day.

Today, Nienke asked if I wanted to join her in making homemade pizza for lunch, to which there is really only one answer: yes! Except a quick stop at the store was needed fore some additional ingredients. Since the post office is in the store, this was an excellent way to kill two birds with one stone. So we picked up some meat for my pizza and some mozzarella and my package at the check out. As expected, it were the books.

So, I am now the proud owner of a complete set of Doctrine of Labyrinths, and I’ll finally be able to continue the adventures of Felix and Mildmay.

After I sufficiently drooled over my pretty new arrivals, and shared this through Twitter and Facebook :D, Nienke and I finally got around to making pizza. I went for a home made Hawai’i type thing with tomato paste, corn, regular cheese, lots of ham and pineapple, grated cheese and mozzarella. Nienke had similar, but replace ham and pineapple with tuna (ewwwwwww :D)

*unrelated sidenote, since I’m re-watching Atlantis, I <3 McKay*

Pizza turned out to be really tasty, so instead of eating half and saving the other half for breakfast, I ate it all. I felt rather stuffed, but it was delicious.

Eva called, in the morning, to see if I wanted to hang out, maybe play a game, and of course I agreed. Since I was planning on cooking for me and Nienke anyway, I invited Eva to join us. When Eva showed up, however, she surprised me by informing that Mellien was coming too. Fortunately, I made stir fry which is easy to expand when you get more people than planned. Nienke left us shortly after since she had a visitor of her own forthcoming. Eva, Mellien and I went to play Munchkin. It’s been quite a while since I last played, so I had to re-read the rules for a bit, but I quickly got back into it. Mellien had never played it before, and for Eva it was a long time too.

Within a round or two, three, they mostly figured it out, and it went very well for a first time. Eva won by gloriously defeating Level 4 Harpies. We were mostly really nice to each other during the game, not a lot of hindering and pestering took place. And, as the game master of the evening, Eva bribed me with a cookie (for a level) and I nagged myself (for a level) 😀

Mid-game

My cards at the end-game

Mellien’s final monster, it ate all her cards 😀

Eva’s final monster, Level 4 Harpies

The winner with her level markers

Book Club: 2011-01a // The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

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Finished my first Book Club book, albeit a little late (and I haven’t even started on Dust yet, fortunately I’ve read it before). This first book was N.K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

Synopsis

The book is about (and narrated by) Yeine Darr, the still fresh ruler of the small country Darre, up north. Her Arameri mother ran away from her homeland; and her father, the king of the world; when she was young to marry a non-Arameri. So Yeine, although raised Darre, is also half Arameri. And as the book starts, her mother has recently been murdered and she has received a summons from her grandfather to come to the capital city of Sky.

Once there, she learns that her grandfather, Dekarta, is getting older, and has designated her his third heir besides her two cousins. Over the next days, Yeine strives to learn more about the circumstances of her mother’s death, since she is convinced one of the Arameri family has done the deed, or at least ordered it done.

While working on this, Yeine meets that which allows the Arameri to rule the world: captive gods, used as tools and weapons after they were conquered by their brother/uncle, Bright Itempas. The gods want to be free, and they convince Yeine to help them pull this off. When Yeine learns that her purpose is not to be a true contender for the throne but instead a sacrifice necessary to transfer the power, and that the gods have been using her for longer than she thought, matters get complicated.

Review (there will be spoilers but I’ll try not to go overboard)

I’m a bit in two minds about it. It has intriguing world building,with the many, many small(er) lands overruled by Sky only because they have the captive gods to do their bidding and thus force them to behave. I also liked that, despite worshipping of Itempas becoming mandatory, the different lands keep their culture. Too bad we were not really exposed to any of it, not even the cultures of Darre and Sky, beyond superficial glimpses here and there. Although we do see more of Sky, than of Darre.

Darre is a matriarchal society, with a strong warrior culture, and men are protected as prize horses. Of Sky we only see what is going on there, the actual lands surrounding it, hardly even mentioned. The city, however, is Arameri only. The only people allowed there (overnight, anyways) are family members. And that means that down to the last servant, everyone has Arameri blood. The level of purebloodedness is indicated by a marking on the forehead. And in turn, that marking determines how much control the person has over the captive gods. To be in Sky, at night, without a mark is very dangerous.

Yeine gets a fullblood mark, even though she technically is a halfblood. This makes her power over the gods almost absolute, only Dekarta can overrule her. At least, that’s the plan. Except that by the time she gets the marking she has already agreed to assist the gods, and her marking has been neutralised by them. The gods have agreed not to harm her.

I found the idea of a god killing his sister and enslave his brother and his children into human captivity refreshing. I don’t think I’ve read something like this before. It also made the desire of these entities to be free again, and how far they would go for it, much more believable. After all, they are gods, they made the universe, they were free to take whatever form they choose, and now they’re stuck on a planet, in a shape that is more or less unchangeable, and that for centuries.

The characterisations of  the captive Nahadoth and Sieh were well done, they really became people to me, with a history and feelings and good qualities and flaws; as did Yeine. With the other characters, however, I felt this much less. While I get that not every character can be as well fleshed out, it was disappointing that most of the often used secondary characters felt like cardboard to me. Viraine was okay, but Scimina… She’s Yeine main rival for the throne, yet she never becomes more than the standard villain-because-we-need-one. What drives her, and her treatment of Nahadoth, is never made clear. Relad was very promising in the beginning, but got neglected later on, which made his sudden semi-importance near the end come out of the blue.

Then Yeine herself. While we get a good idea of her personality and her appearance, the way her culture has influenced her versus how things are in Sky gets glossed over. I presume this has a lot to do with her mother’s influence on her, who was after all the heir to Sky untill she ran off, but Yeine shows remarkably little cultural surprise to how basic things work in Sky. Even something as seeing men being treated as something other than a show horse, to be kept at home and safe, should have taken some adjustment after growing up in a culture like hers.

For me the biggest turn-off however, for at least the first half of the book, was the jumpy narrative. The story is told as a big flashback, but is often interspersed with short bits of Yeine in the present just talking. Most of this are loose remarks, disjointed comments, and often she will later remember or forget something she mentioned earlier. These bits were terribly off putting at first as they interrupt the flow of the story, and their purpose is unclear. All it did for me was annoy me. Halfway through, though, when we learn that Yeine is sharing her body with the soul remains of the goddess Enefa, things change a bit, and for the better. From that point on, the interruptions become more and more internal dialogue between Yeine and the soul of Enefa, and they start to frame the story better.

In the last few chapters, as the end ceremony takes place and, of course, nothing goes as planned, it all finally fell into place. The pace of the plot picked up, and when Yeine died and became the goddess Enefa… That for me felt as the beginning of a story. It sort of worked as the ending, but it somehow made the rest of the story very trivial and more a too long prologue. The other bits that happened, with Kurue and Viraine, felt a bit like Jemisin pulled a rabbit from her hat. Viraine… it was to be expected that he would do something, that he had something to hide was pretty clear throughout the book, but Kurue came out of nowhere.

Bottom Line

I liked the book, even though the narrative threw me off. It was because of that mostly that it took me way longer than normal to finish the book. I’m interested in the sequel, but as I read that this has a different heroine, I’m not sure I will actually pick it up. I want to know more about Yeine’s adventures as a goddess, and more about Naha & Sieh. The review at Jawas Read, Too, gave the book a 7, and that’s a grade I think is quite fitting.

Links

Book Club Blog Review/Discussion

N.K. Jemisin’s website

In Short

Pro: Nahadoth & Sieh. You should read the book just for them.

Con: Jumpy narrative, not always very cohesive, and sometimes slow-moving.

ISBN: 9780316043915

Time

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I need more time. Or maybe just better time management…

The puppets are feeling sorry for themselves since they’re still only just a body with a head (although I have made George a leg to go with his solitary arm, and I attached said arm).

My Book Club books are also feeling neglected. I haven’t finished The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms yet (although I’m far enough in that I can finish that tonight) and haven’t even started on Chill. Saving grace on that is that I’ve read it before so I should be able to do a post about it and discuss along a bit.

My blog is lonesome since I’ve only been doing the regular theme posts of late (weekly four, P365) and not very much personal blogging or one of the other varieties of theme blogs I have going on.

On the up side, I’m no longer sick, I’ve a reasonably uncluttered house these days and Monkey’s paw is as good as better. That counts for something right? 😀

It’ll right itself next month, I expect. New years usually start of a bit rough 😀

Weekly Four: week 3

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I’m grateful for my new storage containers, I <3 organizing 😀

I’m happy I’m renewing my interest in other non-computer things beside reading. Not just crafts, but also board games. Now to harass more people into playing with me.

The one downside of living in Smalltownia, there’s not a lot of recreational things beyond the basics. So, in reference to the previous point, something like a game club you won’t find here.

I learned forgetting the book you’re reading, and enjoying very much, at your parents is not smart 😀

Books 2010 // Runemarks

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Finished Joanne Harris’ Runemarks yesterday, definitely a recommended book for teens and adults alike. Despite the teenage protagonist, the book does not read as a young book. The magic/religious system, utilising Norse mythology, is complex in nature (and not just because Norse mythology can be quite complex to those not familiar with it), but Harris manages to explain and describe it clearly, without lecturing.

Maddy, the main character, is a likable heroine. Slightly the stereotypical ‘regular girl who’s an outcast in her society discovers she isn’t what she thought she was’ but well pulled off. It helps that, as the book starts, Maddy already knows she not like everyone else. Saves us from having to go through a whole forced discovery.

The character progress Maddy makes develops from the story and is plausible within the book’s system. The secondary characters are mostly well fleshed out, with multiple character traits, and personal development. I especially like how Harris’ portrayed Loki. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Trickster, and prefer the slightly more soft portrayal here, where he works for himself, but is capable of forming relationships and attachments beyond that me-me-me drive.

The story starts off 500 years after Ragnarók* with 14 year old Maddy using her magical talent to fix a problem. The people around town are aware Maddy is different, she was born with a rune birthmark, or as the townsfolk call it: a ruinmark. They have some fleeting knowledge that she has abilities no one else has, but are mostly in denial of it. Maddy tries her best to fit in, but knows she never will.

The only person she feels comfortable with is One-Eye, a traveler she met as a young girl. He comes by every summer, and teaches her about the old days, the stories of the Gods, and the things she can do. The summer of her 14th year though, everything changes. Starting with One-Eye who is late in showing up, it leads to Maddy using her power to open a portal to the World Below. Which then, as Maddy has been seen by a village boy, leads to a whole host of people getting involved. All with their own goals, everyone ends up trying to stop everyone else.

First person to get involved is Sugar-and-Sack, a goblin. He shows her around World Below, leading to Maddy meeting Loki. And from there the action really starts. Because one thing is for sure, as long as you’re with Loki, you’re in for one hell of a ride, for better or for worse.

*In Norse mythology, Ragnarók is the final battle between the Gods, the end of the world.

In Short

Pro: Well fleshed out characters, very interesting world-building,

Con: For the scope of the story, it seemed to happen in too short a period of time

ISBN: 9780552555753