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[PBP] C is for Colours

Saturday, August 2, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

A cursory Google search on colour meanings and how to incorporate them in your practice as Pagan will give you thousands of results. The meanings are often similar, but never quite 100% the same. This is because, like almost everything, the meaning behind a colour is an interpretation. Due to how we’re wired, and in which culture we’re raised, some interpretations will overlap or be the same. And so,  over time, these interpretations become fact. Become dogma.

In the beginning of my journey, I would compile pages and pages of correspondences. Lists of colours, animals, herbs, moon phases, trees, rocks, you name it I probably had a list. And that list would tell me the meaning, and how I could best use it within my practice. In actual practice, I hardly ever used those lists. And as I’ve grown I’ve come to realise that many of these correspondences are not so set in stone. Especially for things like colours the vibe it gives you is much more important. That vibe may very well match a listed meaning, but it can also be drastically different. And that is okay.

I am predominantly a visual person. Colours, therefore, are especially important to me. I fall for vibrancy and rich colours. And I enjoy seeing the millions of gradients and tones one can find in nature (especially autumn). This means, for my practice, that I associate colours with nature-related things first, and from that come the vibes I get. And some differ depending on context. Light blue, for exampe, is both a deadly cold and a pleasant summer breeze, depending on context-colours and the shade of light blue. All this to say that the below list is what I associate each colour with.

White Snow and ice, winter. Silence. Crispy coldness. Clean, cleansing, purifying. Solidifying (water turns to snow).
Black Darkness. Enclosure, holding securely. Hiding, keeping things hidden, safe. But also, keeping others/other things out.
Grey Overcast, stormy weather, hard rain. Desolation, emptiness, nothingness, the void.
Brown Earth, ground. Steadfast, unmovable. But when it does move, destructive potential. Loving parent, comfort, nurturing, healing.
Yellow Sun. Heat. A tendency to overdo warmth and turn it into oppression.
Yellow-Orange Sun. Summer. Fruit. Fresh summer-warmth.
Orange Loud. Attention seeking. Passionate about things.
Red Enduring warmth. Embrace, hug. Enduring love (for family, friends, partner, random people, aka all forms of love).
Dark Red Blood. Life. Strength. Power.
Rose Delicate. Old. Tenderness. Old love (people from the past). Romance.
Pink New love. Passion, lust.
Lilac Early summer. Flowery. Fleeting. Temporary things.
Purple Stature, elegance, grace. Sophistication, intelligence, wisdom. Learning, teaching, seeking.
Dark Blue Lakes, seas. Expansive, go with the flow, you can’t go against it anyway. Deep sea, hidden, secrets.
Blue Rushing rivers and waterfalls: temperamental, quick, deceptive.
Light Blue Light skies, summer rain. Refreshing, cool.
Blue-Grey Winter skies, icy cold, can turn dangerous quickly.
Blue-Green Tropical shallow oceans. Calm, clear, relaxing. opening up.
Light Green Early spring. Young, new, fresh. Not yet fully grown, child or child-like.
Green Spring. Youth, growing up. Growth, evolving. Discovery, journey, travel.
Dark Green Deep, old, forest. History, looking back.
Posted in: General, Pagan Blog Project Tagged: List, Me, Pagan Blog Project, Paganism

[PBP] Intro + Index

Friday, July 4, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

The Pagan Blog Project is a way to reflect and share your beliefs and insights and so on. Officially you start in January and do each letter of the alphabet twice to precisely fill up each week. Since I’m lazy and not good with schedules, I’m only doing one letter every two weeks.

The list here is my current list of topics, but they might be subject to change if in any given week the mood strikes me to write about something else.

  • A is for Altar
  • B is for Bast
  • C is for Colours
  • D is for Divination
  • E is for Eostre and other Holidays
  • F is for Fall
  • G is for Gaia
  • H is for Holy Spaces
  • I is for Intuition
  • J is for Journey
  • K is for ‘Karma’
  • L is for Labyrinths
  • M is for Meditation, Mandala’s and Music
  • N is for North
  • O is for Offerings
  • P is for Polytheist
  • Q is for Quietness
  • R is for Ritual
  • S is for Spring and Summer
  • T is for Teachings and Tales
  • U is for Unlearning
  • V is for Voice
  • W is for Winter
  • X is for…
  • Y is for ‘Yin-Yang’
  • Z is for Zodiac

 

Posted in: General, Pagan Blog Project Tagged: Intro, List, Me, Pagan Blog Project, Paganism

Blog About Me [12/52] Ten Books I Love

Monday, September 16, 2013 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I have read so many books in my life, it’s hard to narrow them down to just ten that I love. In the end, the books (or series) listed here are ones that have influenced me, or those that just make me feel good, or just have this undefinable thing. Also, they’re in no particular order.

Toekomsttrilogie, Thea BeckmanThe Future Trilogy by Thea Beckman: Kinderen van Moeder Aarde, Het Helse Paradijs & Het Gulden Vlies van Thule.

I read these while in elementary school. I read a lot of more fantastic books and historical ones, so when I first picked up Kinderen van Moeder Aarde (Children of Mother Earth), it seemed like the perfect book. I had experience with Thea Beckman’s historical books which I really liked, and this had fantasy and scifi stuff in it. So I took it home from the libary, and I think I finished it in one day. I became near obsessed with it. Went back to the library at my first opportunity and got the other two parts Het Helse Paradijs (The Hellish Paradise) and Het Gulden Vlies van Thule (The Golden Fleece of Thule). I copied the map, wrote down things from the books to create a reference for myself to this world Thea had created and I spent so much time in my head creating more stories and exploring the world. I would periodically borrow them from the library again, to reread them. These books really jump started my interest in world building and cartography.

I haven’t read them in a good number of years now, not since I stopped having a library membership. Weirdly enough, I only added the books to my permanent collection about a year and a half  ago.  They’re currently on my to be (re-)read pile. I estimate I’ll get around to them sometime next year 😀

 

Discworld ShelfThe Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.

I was first introduced to the Discworld series in my first year of High School. I started out, if I remember correctly, with a Dutch translation of Witches Abroad, which I really liked. Over the next few years I read more Dutch Discworld, and even bought a few. However, it wasn’t until I’d started reading in English and picked up my first original Discworld, that I truly fell in love with the series. I started reading them all in English, including those I’d already read in Dutch. And I started collecting the books. Terry manages to do something that, I find, is a tricky thing to do. He writes “funny books” that are so multi layered with references to so many things and manages to tell very serious stories through this. His main characters are some of the best I’ve seen. And the ever evolving nature of the world of Discworld is a joy to experience.

 

Belgariad/Malloreon, David EddingsThe Belgariad/Malloreon series by David Eddings.

This series really cemented my love of more traditional fantasy. I read them in Dutch first, starting in the first year of High School, like with Discworld, including the companion novels about Belgarath and Polgara. I bought English versions of the companion novels some years ago and really enjoyed rereading them. I managed to snag a complete collection of both the Belgariad and the Malloreon in a second hand book shop a year or two ago and jumped on it right away.

Fortunately, upon rereading, I still loved them as I did before. The base story is a quintessential one in Fantasy: peasant boy finds out he is descendant from an old line of kings and needs to reclaim his heritage and defeat the big evil. The way in which it was dressed up, though, really did it for me. There’s prophecy and wizards and fascinating other party members and tertiary characters, and a cool magic system, old gods, powerful women and so on. In the second series, the Malloreon, the story repeats itself. And the books get some crap for that. Except that’s a major part of the overall theme. The base concept behind the whole series is that history basically keeps repeating itself until we can finally make the universe right again. The second series therefore has many parallels with the first, and I think that makes it a better series.

 The Giver, Lois LowryThe Giver by Lois Lowry.

Another book I first read in elementary school. My first experience with more dystopian elements and more scifi than fantasy. It made such an impression on me that I kept looking for the book for years, on and off. I remembered parts of the plot and then I’d think, “I wanna re-read it.” But I could never remember the title or the author. So it was years before I used The Google to try and find it. And then I found it, and I was ecstatic 😀

The bits I kept remembering over the years were things I wouldn’t right away associate with a children’s book, which technically it is. A very rigid control of society. Everyone does things exactly like this, and no deviations are accepted. Those that deviate, or can no longer contribute to society are killed off. Of course that is done in a perfectly sterile manner, with a ceremony and all, but the effect is the same. And I was appalled by that, and it opened for me the doors to dystopian fiction, especially featuring children or teens. That’s probably why The Hunger Games resonated with me as they did.

 

Articles of the Federation, Keith R.A. DeCandidoArticles of the Federation, by Keith R.A. DeCandido.

I read a lot of tie in fiction, books written about, and taking place in, universes from other properties. Mainly movies and TV shows. One of the bigger properties I read in, is Star Trek. The expanded universe of Star Trek spans so much space and time, and goes so much deeper than can be shown in just the shows and movies. Articles of the Federation is on my most loved Star Trek books because it tells the story of background characters, the ordinary people of the Federation. It details a year in the office of Federation president Baco and how she deals with all the crap going on. Diplomatic ouvertures, threats of war, the press, all in a context of the Star Trek future. I’ve heard it described as a cross between the West Wing and Star Trek.

 

Little Women, Lousia May AlcottLittle Women by Louisa May Alcott

I’ve read this book so many times. I always wanted to be Jo, when I was a kid, because she was tough, and a writer and got to do her own thing in a time where that wasn’t generally allowed. I also watched the various movies repeatedly, and the cartoon series that was made of it and this all became this awesome amalgamation in my head. Historical time period, costumes, and awesome actors/cartoons to represent the characters.

 

 

Dinotopia, James GurneyDinotopia by James Gurney

Oh! The illustrations! I looooove worldbuilding so very much, and the illustrations bring alive the world of Dinotopia so much. It’s a historical fantasy thing, where people in the past get stranded on this deserted island. Only it’s not so deserted as first thought. There live people there, in harmony with intelligent dinosaurs. And they have this whole pretty advanced society with even a dinosaur assisted military of sorts. I still have to get my hands on some of the additional books, and a proper copy of this in English.

 

Rowan, Henk KroesveldRowan, een verhaal uit de middeleeuwen, by Henk Kroesveld

One of the better historical youth books I’ve read. It tells the story of thirteen year old Rowan who needs to leave his home town for a while after an altercation with the bailiff. When he comes back again, he finds his home locked up, the plague is active in his town. He has to leave again, and find his own way in the world and he does this, among other things, by becoming a healer and learning about herbs and such.

 

Tigana, Guy Gavriel KayTigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

A glorious fantasy novel about memory, and music and how history is written by the victors. After a devastating war, the losing side gets erased from the history books. The magic-wielding tyrant makes it impossible for the name of the losing province to ever be said, and even remembering it. In this way, the people slowly forget their own history. Only a small group of rebels manages to precariously hold on to their past and sets out to reverse the spell.

 

Vrijheid als Prijs, Catherine ChristianVrijheid als prijs by Catherine Christian

Another historical novel. The first I read about Roman times. It tells the story of rich young lady Clyta, her sort of foster brother Flavius and the slave they get for their combined 10th and 12th birthday, Hillarion. It chronicles the lives of these three as Clyta and Flavius get married and Flavius goes into the military. It’s been a while since I read it, so I’m not sure anymore how, but Flavius dies, and Hillarion ends up being sold, and Clyta falls onto poor time. Hillarion eventually becomes a gladiator, also gets married, and finally manages to buy his freedom and settles on a small farm. In the mean time Clyta has gotten herself sold into slavery causing Hillarion to work and buy her free as well. Late in life, finally, he and Clyta reunite and life out their lives on his small farm.

 

Posted in: Blog About Me, General, Photos Tagged: Blog Prompts, Books, Dystopia, Fantasy, History, List, Literature, Me, Scifi, Star Trek

Blog About Me [11/52] Some of My Favourite Things

Monday, September 2, 2013 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I love many things. And my favourite things change often. However, have here a few of my enduring favourite things, and a few current favourite things (that might end up being enduring favourites 😀 )

Books

There is nothing material that I love more than books. Books are my friends, my escape, my dreams, my refuge, my calm in the storm and my storm in the calm. Without books, I cannot be.

Words

Not actually material, but words are what shapes my world. I love many other forms of expression, colours, music, but words are my preferred form and through them, I am.

Texture

I’m a very tactile person. I always have this need to touch things, to experience them, and in that, few things delight me more than all the different textures of the world. I marvel how two things that are basically the same, can feel so different. How my one cat has a more coarse feeling fur and the other feels silky smooth. How minor things can completely change how something feels. One stroke of paint on a canvas can feel completely different, even though made with the same brush and the same paint. But the paint may be slightly thicker, or it might be in a slightly different direction.

Postcards

On to slightly more mundane things. I love postcards. Both to keep and look at, or frame and hang, and to send to people. They’re the perfect size to let someone know you’re thinking of them, and in choosing which card to send, you give thought to the person and who they are. I always try my best to find cards that really fit a person. I have a small pile of cards that I particularly love. Once moved, I will be able to hang these so I can look at them more

Hoodies

I love to take my bigger hoodie and put it on, especially when it’s slightly colder, and to just let myself disappear in it. Hoodies are warm, and comfortable and protective. They’re the embodiment of hugs.

Cheesecake

This is the pinnacle of deliciousness 🙂

Posted in: Blog About Me, General Tagged: Blog Prompts, Books, Comfort, Communication, Food, Good Things, List, Me, Thoughts, Words, Writing

Blog About Me [5/52] Ten Songs I Love

Monday, July 15, 2013 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

In no particular order, these are all songs that move me deeply. Mainly through the lyrics, but they would obviously not be the same without the music.

Fort Atlantic – Let Your Heart Hold Fast

Defying Gravity from Wicked, as sung by Chris Colfer on Glee

Omnia – The Raven

I See The Light from Tangled, sung by Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi

Lene Marlin – Flown Away

Leonard Cohen – Anthem

Evanescence – Imaginary

Omnia – Old Man Tree

Empty Chairs at Empty Tables from Les Misérables as sung by Eddie Redmayne in the 2013 movie

Ronan Keating – I Hope You Dance

 

Posted in: Blog About Me, General Tagged: Blog Prompts, List, Me, Music, Videos

Blog About Me [2/52] Ten Random Facts

Monday, June 24, 2013 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I’m hoping that at the end of these 52 blog posts about myself, the one who reads them, has an idea who I am, where I’m from, where I’m going and what I like. Like friends getting to know each other, but then slightly more one sided. Plus, for me it will be fun to read this again in five years time and see how I’ve changed 🙂

So to start off, 10 little facts about me.

  1. I’ve been wearing glasses since I was eight years old. When we went to pick up my first pair of glasses, my mom took me to the cinema afterwards to see Disney’s Aladdin. I was amazed, it had never been so sharp before 😀
  2.  The first movie I saw in the cinema, that I can remember, was The Rescuers Down Under in 1990.
  3. I think these movies kicked off my life long love of Disney movies. I’m still a huge fan of them, and animated movies in general.
  4. My current favourite song is I See the Light from the movie Tangled.
  5. I love playing board games, the more components and actions the better. Current favourite: Elder Sign.
  6. I want to get a tattoo in the near future, and am not much worried about the pain and such. However, the idea of getting my ears pierced freaks me out so I never had that done.
  7. I’m taking singing lessons, which I really enjoy. I’ve learned so much since I started.
  8. I love Say Yes to the Dress
  9. If it weren’t for the size of my house (small!) I would get a couple more cats. I love cats.
  10. I can’t live without books.

This small entry is all for this week, but I can’t always write entire novels 😛

Posted in: Blog About Me, General Tagged: Blog Prompts, List, Me, Random

Blog About Me [1/52] Intro

Monday, June 17, 2013 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I’ve always been blogging as a way to record my life, memories, thoughts, things done and so on. And I also always end up with months at a time where I barely blog (or not at all). I can’t quite put my finger on it why this is so, but I don’t like it. If I keep missing months, how am I then supposed to create a semi-cohesive biography. Which is, after all, what this kind of personal blog entails. So, in that light, I’ve called in the help of yet another blog prompt 😀

This one is of the blog about yourself variety. And I hope posting one of these things every week will be an impetus to blog more other stuff as well. But I also know myself well, so I’ve written many of these posts in advance, so as to not get caught unawares and end up with no post when its due to start off another hiatus.

Having said that, have a recent photo of me to start off. This is my fancy new hair: green gecko, inspired by this photo, and done at Kinki Kappers in Groningen.

My Kinki Hair

Now, over the next 51 weeks, I will publish posts about me and my life, accompanied often, I aim, by photos. There’s a category for these posts, but this first post also serves as a table of contents with links to the rest.

  1. Intro
  2. Ten random facts
  3. Where do I blog
  4. What am I afraid of
  5. Ten songs I love
  6. My five senses, right now
  7. Some things that annoy me
  8. What’s always in my pocket / bag
  9. My worst habits
  10. My best physical features
  11. Some of my favourite things
  12. Ten books I love
  13. My earliest memory
  14. What if I won the lottery
  15. Timeline of my day
  16. Personality tests
  17. My most proud moment
  18. What does my blog name mean
  19. Five favourite video games
  20. What was/is a difficult time in my life
  21. Five favourite foods
  22. Best thing to happen to me this year
  23. My dream job
  24. My favourite childhood books
  25. My pets
  26. An old photo
  27. My favourite recipe
  28. What am I looking forward to
  29. Where have I travelled, where do I want to go
  30. Three confessions
  31. Five favourite drinks
  32. Celebrity crushes
  33. Ten favourite TV shows
  34. My favourite outfit
  35. Three colours
  36. Something I miss
  37. My family
  38. My spiritual leanings
  39. Ten favourite movies
  40. The last thing to make me laugh
  41. Five favourite blogs
  42. Who do I want to meet
  43. My impossible dreams
  44. Five favourite board games
  45. Favourite things I used to do in my childhood
  46. Which book/show am I currently reading/watching
  47. Ten favourite pieces of art
  48. What do I regret
  49. Five favourite poems
  50. Where/who was I, 5 years ago
  51. Where/who am I, now
  52. Where/who am I, 5 years in the future
Posted in: Blog About Me, General, Photos Tagged: Blog Prompts, Intro, List, Me, Photos

Around the Internet IV

Tuesday, June 5, 2012 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

L. Weingarten has a photography series called “Series of Questions“. They’re photos of gender-variant/gender non-conforming people posing with questions they’ve been asked. Questions that are often intrusive, accusing or otherwise meant to make the person justify themselves to others.

The mission statement says:

This ongoing body of work explores the power dynamics inherent in the questions asked of transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, and gender-variant people.

Many documentary photographic projects that deal with trans issues exploit the genders of their subjects, pointing to an “otherness” or inappropriately exoticizing their bodies. A Series of Questions seeks instead to make visible the transphobia and gender-baiting that can become part of everyday interactions and lives, forming a fuller picture of the various lived experiences. In so doing, this work contrasts with the dehumanizing approaches that predominate the images made of transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, and gender-variant people, which often focus solely on their gender or trans status, or use them to further a specific point about social construction and gender.

The subjects hold signs depicting questions that each has had posed to them personally— some by strangers, others by loved ones, friends, or colleagues. Presented on white wooden boards, the questions are turned on the viewer, shifting the dynamics under which they were originally asked, and prompting the viewer to cast a reflective, self-critical eye upon themself, revealing how invasive this frame of reference can be.

 

 

The Genderbread Person. An infographic that tries (and does a damn good job) to explain all the variety in gender identity, gender expression, biological sex and sexual attraction. Should be required teaching in sex ed and related courses. Hell, should be required reading for everyone.

 

 

 

The Strangers. A very creepy short horror/suspense story about Strangers and the subway. I couldn’t stop reading once I started.

Tanah Lot, Bali

Ten amazing real-world locations that seem to come straight from a fantasy (right, Tanah Lot, Bali).

Cards Against Humanity, a party card game for horrible people. Everyone has a number of cards, and one player begins by playing a black card with a question. The others answer the question with one of their cards (blind). They get then shuffled and are read out loud by the starting player who picks a favourite. The player who played that card gets a point. Then the next player plays a question card and so on. The questions and answers are not suitable for children. The game itself is sold out, but can be downloaded in pdf format to print yourself.

 

Ending on a lighter note: 50 amazingly achievable things to do before you die 🙂

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Fiction, Games, Gender, Link Dump, List, Photography, Photos, Printables, Reading

101 in 1001 Update

Sunday, January 2, 2011 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

The first 7,5 months of my 101 in 1001 project are over, time to balance things and see, so far, what’s been accomplished, what got fucked up and what is in progress.

Things Done:

  • 4. Start automated savings.
  • 10. Identify something I’m grateful for, something that made me happy, something that made me angry or sad and something I learned each week.
  • 36. Create new icons for the LJ from my own graphics/photos.
  • 37. Update the blog at least twice a month outside update posts on the book list, this list or the weekly four.
  • 41. Get a new theme for the blog.
  • 44. Get a new mood theme for the LJ.
  • 46. Attend BlizzCon. I’m never gonna be able to physically go within the time frame of this list, so I’m opting for a virtual ticket.
  • 47. Get Cataclysm in pre-order.
  • 50. Go to Castlefest 2010, and more of these things in the years after.
  • 72. Sleep under the stars.
  • 91. Inspire someone else to create a 101 list.
  • 96. Replace my current phone with a fancier smartphone when my current contract is up.

On the whole not very many things finished. This is partly because quite a good number of goals are long(er) term ones so they end up being In Progress for quite a while. Also, I’ve not been actively working on the list for the last two or three months due to being otherwise occupied and, especially in November, being down and not interested in doing much about it.

The blog things done were pretty easy, but some of it (the LJ related stuff) turned out to be pointless only days after doing them 😀

Things in Progress:

  • 1. Finish transforming the attic from mess into usable space. Working on it, about halfway done with this.
  • 2. Finish the garden.  Working on it? The plans are made, it’s just a matter of waiting for the right season to do things.
  • 6. Loose weight, not a specific goal for a specific date, I have a number in my head but don’t wanna pin that to a date, as long as it doesn’t go up.  This is going very well.
  • 15. Do a Picture-a-Day series in 2011, doesn’t matter what, just one photo a day of something that piques my interest, except one shot of myself a month. Afterwards, make it into a little photobook. Started!
  • 25. Buy a pretty colouring book and finish it. Try to do this as neatly as possible too (my fine motor skills could do with some training). Working on it. Turns out I already have some pretty colouring books, about ancient Rome and Egypt and such. I started with the Rome one, but am taking this slowly.
  • 26. Read 8 currently owned but unread books per year (4 for 2010), where owned but unread is being defined as books I’ve had for 6 months or more and still haven’t read. Working on it
  • 28. Get caught up with the various tv shows I watch/have always wanted to watch. Working on it.
  • 29. Watch 26 movies I’ve never seen before starting with each letter of the alphabet (new releases in the cinema don’t count). Working on it.
  • 31. Watch 2 owned but unwatched DVDs per month until I have actually seen every DVD I own. This can nicely be combined with the alphabet thing :D . Working on it: Juno, The Merchant of Venice, A Christmas Carol.
  • 33. Post reviews of the books and movies I read/watch on my LJ at least once every 2 months. Working on it, not yet considering it done, since I don’t always feel in the mood to review. It hasn’t become a habit yet.
  • 38. Pay back the parents for the laptop. Working on it.
  • 39. Sort and file my GMail inbox. Working on it.
  • 40. Find a better way to manage all my logins and stuff. Working on it.
  • 43. Sort my bookmarks, and sort additional ones on a monthly basis. Working on it.
  • 45. Level all my current WoW toons plus the Worgen to 80. Working on it.
  • 51. Visit at least 3 museums or other type of exhibition or cultural event a year, no matter how large or small. Working on it.
  • 60. Send random cards to friends and family. Working on it. I’ve collected pretty cards :D
  • 62. Make a list of 100 things that make me happy, in no particular order. Taking this slow. Working on it.
  • 92. Get my tattoo. Working on it. Design/Idea has been 90% finalized. Now to find a tattoo artist.

The attic has turned into the Land of the Forgotten as autumn became winter. It’s too cold up there now to be there for any decent stretch of time. Plus, with it being dark early, the little light I have up there is insufficient. Will finish that probably around March or so, when spring is coming and Daylight Savings is back on. Same goes for the garden, the tiling I want to do will have to wait until the ground is no longer frozen.

Weight loss is going great. I’ve lost 16 kilos (35.2 lbs) since June, yay me! The rest are more long term things that are in progress, but I can’t really mark them as done until either all has been read/seen/written/done or it has become a habit.

Things That Did Not Quite Go as Planned:

  • 16. Finish scrapping 2008 in 2010. Then scrap 2009 and 2010 in 2011, and 2011 in 2012 while trying to stay up to date with scrapping 2012 itself so when 2013 comes around, finishing it should not take more than a month or so before sending it off to the printer.
  • 27. Read 4 owned but unread non-fiction books per year (2 for 2010).

Failed at scrapping. Not done yet with 2008, in fact I still have about a third of the year to do :S I strive to get that done as soon as possible in this year, so I can at least try my hardest to get the rest done according to plan. I will probably use a lot of templates and stuff for either 2009 or 2010. Probably 2010 as there were less standout things that need their own pages, and more Life-in-General pics.

The reading of non-fiction was a total failure this year. I tried, halfheartedly, to read a couple quick ones, just for the list, but that didn’t work. However, I’m determined to do better next year. After all, I have so many non-fiction books too, reading some of ’em should not be that hard 😀

Posted in: General Tagged: 101 in 1001, List

Booklist: 2010

Sunday, January 2, 2011 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Oh, wow, I haven’t posted a booklist update since July, heh, bad me 😀 At least I’m speedier with this overview, the 2009 list didn’t get made until March this year. As per ususal I didn’t make my (unofficial) goal of 60, but I got one closer than last year. So I will valiantly set it for 60 again, and am convinced coming year I WILL make it! The book clubs I signed up for will make it easier, since that’s already 24 books. So, without further ado:

My favourites for this year, in the order as they appeared on the list:

  • Sarah Monette – Mélusine
  • Joris Luyendijk – Het zijn net mensen {They’re just like people}
  • Louisa May Alcott – Little Women
  • Erika Mailman – The Witch’s Trinity
  • David & Leigh Eddings – The Belgariad & Malloreon

The ones I liked least:

  • Karen Chance – Basically, after the first book I started enjoying the series less and less with each following book. I still have the fourth one to read, and I will do that, but I’m glad I borrowed books 2-4 instead of buying them myself.
  • Jeff Lindsay – Bit the same, I have the first two Dexter books and I liked those, then I borrowed part three and I’m just losing interest in it, it’s not pulling me in anymore. I haven’t even finished part three yet and it’s been lying around the house for six months or so now.

Special mentions

The Belgariad & Malloreon gets a special mention. This was the series that got me well and truly hooked on epic fantasy and made that genre my First Love Forever in terms of books. I’d been reading fantasy and sci-fi type books before, but then without truly realising they were that. When I started reading The Belgariad at age 12 or so, it got me hooked. I wanted to be Garion so badly!

I read them in translation back then, but decided this year I wanted to read them again, and this time in the original. Since I hate how the omnibus volumes look, I decided to hit the second hand book stores to get all the single volumes. I got lucky with that, as I found a complete Belgariad in one store, and a complete Malloreon in the other, and both sets in good condition too.

I started reading them in November, and decided I would go right through, all ten in a row, and I found on rereading that I still love them just as much as I did when I first laid eyes on them as a wee 12-year-old. These books get a lot of crap for being repetitive and cliched and such. And while I’ll go with it for the cliches, I disagree in terms of the repetitiveness. Not that there isn’t repetition, but what so many reviewers seem to miss is that, for these series at least, the repetition (see what I did there 😛 ) serves a purpose and fits thematically in the book.

Sure, I’ll give that Eddings probably wrote the Malloreon from a commercial point of view, and that they chose a slightly easy path for it, but they did find a nice way to explain that in-world. The point being that, since the event that split the universe and caused the two Purposes to exist (this will only make sense if you’ve read the books, BTW), the world can’t move forward. Everyone continuously cycles through the same things, different people, different locations but similar enough that, when you pay attention, you see the repeats. Garion and consorts realise this about halfway through their quest in the Malloreon. The new people that come along on the Malloreon quest are thematically similar to those that were on the Belgariad quest but couldn’t come for this one. In the same vein, certain situations they go through or people they meet have a direct counterpart in the first quest. And unless the Purposes are finally united again, everyone is doomed to continue repeating itself.

So, bottom line, I don’t mind the repetition in these books very much. In fact, it gives me a moment to go back and relive a certain moment from a previous book too when something is similar. And it’s nice to see if I can spot the repeat even when the characters don’t.

The List:

2010
1. Sarah Monette – Mélusine
2. Naomi Novik – Throne of Jade
3. Naomi Novik – Black Powder War
4. Kat Richardson – Greywalker

5. John Scalzi – The Android’s Dream
6. Paulien Cornelisse – Taal is zeg maar echt mijn ding {Language is, like, my thing} [Dutch]
7. P.C. & Kristin Cast – Betrayed
8. P.C. & Kristin Cast – Chosen
9. Naomi Novik – Empire of Ivory
10. Joris Luyendijk – Het zijn net mensen {They’re just like people} [Dutch]
11. P.C. & Kristin Cast – Untamed

12. P.C. & Kristin Cast – Hunted
13. P.C. & Kristin Cast – Tempted
14: Louisa May Alcott – Little Women

15: Louisa May Alcott – Little Men
16: Louisa May Alcott – Jo’s Boys
17. Brent Weeks – The Way of Shadows

18. Star Trek: The Next Generation – Resistance (J.M. Dillard)
19. Brent Weeks – Shadows’s Edge

20. Ryan Sohmer & Lar DeSouza – Looking For Group Volume 1
21. Ryan Sohmer & Lar DeSouza – Looking For Group Volume 2
22. Brent Weeks – Beyond the Shadows
23. Preeta Samarasan – Evening is the Whole Day
24. Jeff Lindsay – Dearly Devoted Dexter

25. Terry Pratchett – Unseen Academicals
26. Bert Benson – Euro 5 antwoordt niet {Euro 5. Not answering} <A sci-fi series from my childhood, I recently stumbled across a second hand store that had almost the entire series. I only read maybe two or three of them back then, so am really enjoying the newness of most of these>
27. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Dreiging van de H-Mannen {Euro 5. Threat of the H-men}
28. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Duivels van de diepzee {Euro 5. Demons of the Deep Sea}
29. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Slaven uit de ruimte {Euro 5. Slaves from Space}
30. Bert Benson – Euro 5. De Monsters van Dr. Einling {Euro 5. The Monsters of Dr. Einling}
31. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Op drift in de tijd {Euro 5. Adrift in Time}
32. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Machten uit het heelal {Euro 5. Powers from the Universe}
33. Karen Chance – Touch the Dark [reread, in preparation for reading parts 2-4 which I borrowed from a friend]

34. Karen Chance – Claimed by Shadow

35. Erika Mailman – The Witch’s Trinity
36. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Ruimteschip Freya uit de koers {Euro 5. Spaceship Freya off course}
37. Michael White – Equinox
38. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Contact met Atlantis {Euro 5. Contact with Atlantis}
39. Star Trek: S.C.E. – Have Tech, Will Travel (SCE Omnibus 1)

40. Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book

41. Karen Chance – Embrace the Night
42. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Groot alarm voor Sectie 5 {Euro 5. Red Alert for Section 5}
43. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Paniek op de Noordpool {Euro 5. Panic on the North Pole}
44. David & Leigh Eddings – Pawn of Prophecy
45. David & Leigh Eddings – Queen of Sorcery

46. David & Leigh Eddings – Magician’s Gambit
47. David & Leigh Eddings – Castle of Wizardry
48. David & Leigh Eddings – Enchanter’s Endgame
49. David & Leigh Eddings – Guardians of the West
50. David & Leigh Eddings – King of the Murgos
51. David & Leigh Eddings – Demon Lord of Karanda
52. David & Leigh Eddings – Sorceress of Darshiva
53. David & Leigh Eddings – Seeress of Kell
54. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Het Geweld  van de zwarte orca’s {Euro 5. The Violence of the Black Orca’s}

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