"The Boiling Rock" -- Zuko gives a pep talk:
Zuko: You're going to fail, and fail, and fail and fail and fail and FAIL and fail, but you have to keep trying! You can't be afraid of failure! Even though you'll fail!
Aw. *tousles* Idiot.
(The sad thing is, that depressing-ass philosophy is actually his greatest strength. For all the whiny, mo-fo does not give up. It's kind of scary. See: infiltrating the Northern Water Tribe, season 1. *brr*)
Edit: Spoilers of utmost mildness in comments.
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I wrote a ballad!
I actually sat down for two hours and finished something! (After Avatar, of course. I could watch "The Firebending Masters" a thousand more times and still keep grinning at the grinny bits. Tams, you still rock.)
It is a very stupid ballad, but it's meant to make the characters listening to it laugh, so that's not dreadful.
Now if I could keep doing things like that, I might actually finish a project...
(EDIT: very mild Avatar spoilers in comments ^__^)
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*blink*
The "Western Air Temple" is on TV. Right now.
Well whaddaya know.
AND THE FINALE IS THIS WEEKEND.
These people are crazy. No ads, no nothing? Just, the entire last umpteen episodes this week with no warning? And the DVD of unaired stuff on the shelves of Best Buy since last week?
*watches Avatar and is pacified*
*even though I've seen it so many times by now I can recite it*
"WHY AM I SO BAD AT BEING GOOD?"
*loves*
Just got back from NC. Wedding was... emotional. Sleepy now. Kept waking up at 3 am -- there were automatic heat lamps in my bathroom. I woke up to the lights on and thought that burglars had infiltrated. Then when I noticed I still had my money, I thought maybe The Gentlemen had infiltrated. *brr*
Note to self -- no more going directly to work after 6am flights. *conks out*
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| 2008-07-11 12:43 |
| (no subject) |
| Public |
| movies |
Oh dear. And I was kind of looking forward to this one.
EDIT: I just realized that this entire review -- of "Wall-E" by Pixar -- that I've linked to is a spoiler, more or less. It slipped my mind because it's a professional reviewer who's paid not to spoil, and what's contained within, I already knew, but I'd rather not have had this much info myself.
What Wall-E Gets Wrong About Obesity and the Environment
( Wall-E issues )
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| 2008-07-10 12:32 |
| random follow-up bookpost |
| Public |
| books |
All righty then.
( The Explosionist )
And "Lopsided." I think comparisons to David Sedaris are entirely warranted.
( Lopsided: How Having Breast Cancer Can Be Extremely Distracting )
Now for Halting State! *cracks knuckles*
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| 2008-07-10 10:42 |
| This is a problem |
| Public |
| wary |
| politics |
A quite, quite serious problem.
Obama and FISA?
So now what?
(I'm really getting quite tired of this voting-for-the-lesser-of-two-evils business. I wonder if it would be effective to dye myself blonde*** and thereby blend in more easily into Icelandic society when I flee and infiltrate? I like hot springs and snow...and the name "Sydneysdattir"...)
I need to read up on this.
(Note: It's the both of them supporting this, McC and O. Which doesn't really help me.)
(Note 2: Hmmm, interesting analysis. Comments also interesting.)
***Yeah, I'm thinking "no"
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| 2008-07-09 18:00 |
| totally random fabness |
| Public |
 impressed |
The righteous fury here is glorious to behold. And I think I might be a little turned on. Which really, really troubles me. ~___^
Seriously, it just gets better and better. Read along!
The Intarwebs Killed Classical Music?
Note: Sarcasm tags ON:
"Oh, INTERNETS! Look what you did! How could you? What were you thinking?
In the history of serial killers, no one can begin to compete with you, O Dreaded Internet. Why, you've killed: Literature, Art, the Record Industry, social interaction, decency, copyright, marriage, the Publishing Industry, Our Children's Innocence, and possibly God. You must get up very early in the morning.
And now, you've added Classical Music to your body count.
Fantastic.
*buys more Catherynne Valente books*
*encourages all and sundry to buy Catherynne Valente books*
*which I would have done anyway, really*
Seriously though -- I think I tend towards the snobby, a little bit. Does that make me a hypocrite, now? Because I LOL'd. ^^
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| 2008-07-09 11:06 |
| (no subject) |
| Public |
The sad thing here is that what makes me happy about this is the fact that it's closed up, not hyphenated.
"Fanboy" enters the official dictionary of the U.S. publishing industry"
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| 2008-07-09 10:26 |
| (no subject) |
| Public |
 nervous |
JESUS CHRIST
LOOK. I'm already horrified that I work a profession that will barely let me leave the CITY I'm in, let alone the state, let alone the country -- wilt thou take this from me also?
Although... none of the major jobs I've worked at have even considered letting us telecommute WITHIN the country (too many reads to do, too much last-minute stuff, systems not set up...). Maybe this will encourage the jackasses corporations who DON'T employ copyediting to pick up some. Most of them think it's an expendable job anyway. (I saw an its/it's error AND "compared to" on a subway ad today, and I'm told the ads in Spanish are FAR worse. *is petulant* If I weren't being terrified on a daily basis, I'd just be glad that someone is keeping track of what's allowed to be done to the English language.)
Actually I should blame this guy for my mood. ^____^ Everybody predicting doom, nobody prophesying how to ride it out. WHY did I not learn plumbing in high school... *pays off credit cards*
I can sew. Anybody need a dress? Buttons repaired? Need to learn to darn...
If we have a depression and everyone is broke from sea to shining sea, they'll have to start forgiving student loans, won't they?
^_____________________________^
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Creepy crawlies are plaguing my life.
( I was gonna say insects, but there was a spider involved. *is prim* ^__^ )
In further life news... I'm starting to wonder if maybe confessing my exorbitant book purchases publicly will encourage me, via shame, to quit DOING that. When I was in college it was a point of pride among Lit/Law majors -- people would walk in, sort of smile/scowl contemptuously and say "Come on, have you actually READ all of those?" and in general we could all quite proudly go "Yes!" (And flip them off.) My collecting is outstripping my pride! I have enough to last me the rest of the year, at least...
(Enough books, I mean. Pride I dunno.)
So okay, shame: Yesterday, I bought:
The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson
Infoquake by David Louis Edelson
1491 by Charles C Mann
Halting State by Charles Stross
Lopsided by Meredith Norton
We will not mention the boxed DVD set(s). In my defense, they were marked down to $16.99 from $48 bucks for July 4th weekend. C'MON, IT WAS VERONICA MARS. And, um, other stuff...
I am being good though!!! -- I am waiting for the latest Jacqueline Carey, Jim Butcher, Graham Joyce, Simon Green, and Charles Stross in paperback. "Eternity Watch" does not count, since the Night Watch series is all in paperback anyway.*** I mean, I'm still waiting for it, but since the only other option is learning to read Russian it's not like I have a choice and doesn't speak so much to my moral fiber. ^___^ OkayandI'vesortofput thelatestKushielonorderatthelibrary.
(The Charles Stross is going to be a hard wait as I've already skimmed the first page: the suicidal ramblings of a pleasurebot drunk on battery acid...) Speaking of which, I think hard SF might be the last genre in which the use of first person does not send me screaming away, or at least give me pause for a few seconds. In a lot of genres (outside of YA, and barring real talent) it seems to be the first indicator of an oncoming huge, whiny, self-indulgent extravaganza (not always, of course, but I have prejudices). With SF, sometimes, the material is so esoteric and inherently distancing that the first-person becomes a crucial bridge.
Finished The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly last night.
I do quite well with things entitled "The Book Of [Something]," it seems. The Book of Joe, The Book of Joby, The Book of the Dun Cow... ^___^ (Look 'em up! Especially "Joe.")
Anyway, loved "Lost Things," not least because one of my fondest wishes is to someday be able to write a proper trickster. (The Crooked Man is more psychopathic serial killer than loveable Anansi or patron/caretaker Raven, though.) Loved the corruption and melding of fairy tales, the restoration of their original menace. Plus coming-of-age is generally fun, and Connolly has a lovely, deceptively simple writing voice, although I think bookshops who choose to put this one in the YA section are grossly mistaken (I got mine in SF/Fantasy where it belongs). I might gush more if all my gushing had not been done for me by all the "Connolly is the best thing since the wheel and fire!" blurbs on the book jacket, which always set you up for disappointment. Maaaaaaaybe the best thing since Laughing Cow cheese triangles. Which is no small praise, really.
One of the more disconcerting things about the book (the physical book, not the story within), which also turned out to be one of the cooler things about it: Around the last third of the paperback is reprints of all the fairy tales used in the book, some of which I'd never heard of before ("The Tale of the Three Surgeons"???), with author commentary and a bit of background on why he chose each one. (Essentially, dude has written me a midterm.) Disconcerting because you don't expect the end of the story to happen and you're budgeting your mental time for about 70 more pages with these characters you care about.
Am a couple chapters into "The Explosionist" (a YA), and not loving the writing style. Lots of telling and not showing when it comes to the main character's emotions, which is extremely stilted, especially in first-person. "I felt shy." "I became frightened." "I was fond of him." That the writer comes from a nonfiction background is quite clear. (And I don't buy that the younger intended audience justifies the too-direct style, either -- Gail Carson Levine's writing is poetry incarnate and her audience is in middle school. And have we DISCUSSED "The Book Thief"? Jesus.)
The premise, though, is quite fascinating -- there is a spate of suicide bombings going on in 1930s Edinburgh, in a world where Napoleon won at Waterloo and Scotland broke from the U.K. around the same time. There's some interesting political theory going on considering it's aimed at 15-year-olds. And girls doing math and physics! But I wouldn't be surprised if I got distracted midway.
Addendum: Speaking of books for girls, I think I love this woman.
*** Someone explain to me why series I like -- and have bought from six to nine installments of -- in paperback are now suddenly busting out with the hardcovers? Are they aware that this does not match? Are they trying to trigger OCD in addition to my random miserliness?
(Don't explain for real, I'm aware of the bottom-line of the business. But venting is psychologically sound practice. It's true!)
#### LOL! I just remembered that it was 6AM. So I slept with the light AND the sun on. For 1/2 hour. Ah well.
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| 2008-07-08 12:02 |
| (no subject) |
| Public |
Updated my bio (that is to say...finally wrote one ^__^).
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| 2008-07-07 16:59 |
| Small copyeditor joys... |
| Public |
 productive |
I just stopped us from saying that Gwyneth Paltrow wore a certain charming frock in April of 3008.
WHAT?!
^_______^
Hey, one time a friend of mine CALLED ME UP so we could gloat about her catching "pubic" -- meaning "public" -- in Final Proof.
We're weird. You knew that. ;-)
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| 2008-07-02 13:37 |
| Yep, I'm a Scalzi fangirl (for today ^_^) |
| Public |
Obama is a POLITICIAN. Don't pretend you didn't know
We've indulged in idealism games QUITE ENOUGH for my comfort, thank you. Let us cynically remember, for a moment, that the man is trying to WIN. The WHOLE country.
Lay it on the line for me, Scalzi. ~__^ "There's No Actual Office for 'President of the Left.'"
ALSO:
Food for thought: Afghan journalist under death sentence for reading about women's rights
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| 2008-07-02 12:15 |
| Will I be compromising my moral principles... |
| Public |
| technology |
...if I encourage a non-comp-savvy friend to get a Mac?
Because for all my decades-long hatred of the Apple brand and the cult surrounding it, and my annoyance with the tyranny of iTunes (once I buy the song it's MINE, dammit, and I should be able to move it to as many subsequent computers as I choose (*buys and rips CDs FOREVER*), and my sad pity for Creative (who are really the ones responsible for inventing the guts of the iPod, for all the [lack of] credit and recognition they get *loves on her Zen Vision*), and my continued conviction that sticking a laptop in a manila envelope is STUPID, and not a selling point...
For all the ire I harbor, so close and comfortable I'm not even aware of it anymore...
For all my hate...I think I hate Windows Vista more.
*shielding head from lightning strike*
OS X is a really good OS (as I have just been reminded, as I've just engaged "force quit" on MS Word on my work machine, and have had my entire computer NOT CRASH, but continue working in an efficient fashion with no control-alt-delete bullshit...). Each program operates within its own little sphere and does not eff up all this others -- this is BRILLIANT).
In publishing, for the most part, you use Macs, and so I've (we've? I assume) always had access to both platforms (which I do like having) so she should know how to use it. And like I said, not very computer savvy at all, and so it's likely she'll be doing nothing but e-mailing and word processing. (She's still on a Windows 98, 8GB Compaq from 2001, and still has about an 80 percent empty hard drive. Only reason she even needs a new 'puter is it takes her half an hour to connect to the Internet, which is a chip issue, I think. I don't even know if she CAN upgrade to high-speed. And if her files are mostly Word 2000 files, they should transfer over, right? I'm still using Word 2000 on XP and haven't run into any transfer problems.)
So she's calling me in panic on my cell (which never happens, as getting me on my cell is...uh... an iffy proposition at the best of times, shall we say...) telling me I must choose her a new computer.
I think I may tell her to get a Mac. Treason! *is exhilarated*
Now...desktop or notebook? ^_______^
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| 2008-07-01 19:09 |
| Dustin Diamond has a twin! |
| Public |
Do you know, people like this actually frighten me? It's like...I dunno, like their reality is so divorced from common, accepted reality and they believe in it so wholeheartedly that it's dangerous.
I don't know if I mean fear, literally -- but I find this sort of thing so off-putting and agitating that it releases similar chemicals in my brain and body. And yet... I CANNOT LOOK AWAY.
(Well, "listen" away, I suppose.)
I have known people like this. (I have been threatened with marriage by at least one... but he wasn't this bad! That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I sincerely don't think Mr. "You're not a beautiful woman, but you have a beautiful soul, and I think you can help me a lot in my life," Mr. "You're going to die in Ivory Coast" was quite on this guy's level!)
Asshole of the moment award
(For a second I thought it was a call this poor woman had received herself. Apparently it's just something circulating.)
Aiyahh -- These are not men who think of women as people, let alone equals. Errant children at best, mentally deficient or inanimate lifestyle accessories at worst.
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The more I hear about this movie -- including all the reasons it ostensibly sucks -- the more I want to see it.
I apparently have a "hidden" masochistic streak about a mile and a half wide. DAMN YOU JACQUELINE CAREY
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Fascinating and scary blog:
http://www.jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/
He's also written a novel, but I'm not keen to read it, as I'm sure his message will overwhelm his craft. I'd rather just read the straight up message in his blog.
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| 2008-06-29 03:59 |
| Way to blow our tax dollars out your rear, guys! |
| Public |
| disgusted |
Why did they need a study to determine this?
w00t!! Study Shows Black People Don't All Think in Psychic Monolithic Lockstep
Oh my god, are they SURE???? Well who knew? They better do another backup study on whites and Asians and Latinos just to check! Well, whew, at least we can rest assured the peoples of Nunavut and Oceania are still operating on a Borglike hive mind... wait, what?
*seppuku*
(Oh wait, it's USA Today, that really progressive and intelligent newspaper that felt the need to reassure us that Koreans WERE HUMAN after VA Tech.)
(I need to be on the Internet less.)
(I definitely need to never read comments boards on this sort of crap again.)
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 |
| 2008-06-27 10:35 |
| (no subject) |
| Public |
|
Got home last night to the sight of seven cats hiding under the car in the backyard. Seven at a time! That made me nervous. Were they planning something? A group dream, perhaps? Waiting for the other 993 to show? A long time ago, when the area was less built up, we had packs of feral dogs (yup, feral freaking dog packs in NYC) -- have we got a kitty nation starting up this time?
(Actually, I became obsessed with the idea that they would be run over in the morning, although in retrospect that was very silly. About five of them seemed to be kittens. Well, cattish adolescents, anyway. Smallish and gawky, but not teeny. I shooed them all humanely; tabbies, calicoes, and one black -- the two big ones fled into the empty lot behind the house, leaving all the kiddoes to cower behind the tires!! Bad adults. If you're running a kitty academy the kitty parents should sue you.)
(Don't judge me, I've gotten home at 11pm all week. Fell asleep on a dude in the train this morning. Gross. Sorry, anonymous dude.)
I wish cats did not cause my body to mimic chronic flu symptoms. I miss kitties.
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