Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Welcome to the 21st Century (or 2.0th Century)
I've finally signed up for Delicious and Goodreads. I've added a Delicious linkroll and a Goodreads shelf to my blog, so that's fun. I'm still exploring the functionalities of both, but in the meantime, what's 2.0 technology without networking? So, you can find me on Delicious at becca130. Goodreads is a little trickier since they didn't give me the option of choosing an account name and you can't search for me by name without getting a thousand hits, so just let me know in the comments if you use it and I'll friend you!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Poor Showing
As in, I've made a poor showing when it comes to reading this month. It's the 29th of January (best day e-ver) and I've read a whopping two books. Yep, just two. I'm well into two others and I've read nearly the equivalent of a full book for school, but still...I've only finished two books. (ETA: It's now actually February 1st an I did manage to finish a third book last month. w00t.)
I pretty much agreed with a bunch of friends who read Hero by Perry Moore: the superheroes are all painfully exact ripoffs of the most well-known comic book heroes (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, you get the idea); the superhero storyline (the central plot, I suppose) is predictable and not terribly interesting; the romantic storyline seems forced; and, yet, despite all that, this is a great father-son story. And I'm a sucker for a great father-son story. Their relationship is so authentic (and relatable) to me, a depiction of familial love that really captures how complicated it can be. Hal loves Thom, so he makes a lot of sacrifices; Thom loves Hal, so he feels incredibly guilty about those sacrifices; Hal and Thom love each other so much and recognize that, at the time the book starts, they really only have each other, so they both fear rejection from the other if their deepest secrets are revealed; etc. The fact that they love each other is not forced on you, but is evident in such real ways, most especially in how that very positive emotion can actually be the source of strife between them. Hal Creed is a really gut-wrenching character and his own son recognizes it and reacts with myriad feelings you might expect: gratitude, embarrassment, guilt, sadness, anger, confusion.
By the way, if you're looking for more great fathers in fiction (and by great, I mean the characters are multi-dimensional and interesting, not necessarily that the men themselves are people you'll admire and enjoy), try Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee (one of my favorite books of all time, it explores concepts of language, family, and identity and the interplay between the three) and You Must Remember This by Joyce Carol Oates.
The second book I read this year was Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. I'll start with the concession that the plot was just a little weak, in a way that I attribute to the fact that Graceling is Cashore's first novel. There are occasional holes, jumps, and tenuous links, but I think that style will be ironed out and strengthened in her next novel. My other objection to the plot was the late entrance of the villain; it was as though the climax of the book happened at the wrong time. Like most fantasy novels I've read, Graceling has an action-adventure plot and it definitely plays second-fiddle to the characters. Who I love. I tend to prefer character-driven novels to plot-driven ones (as you might imagine if you are familiar with my love of romance novels, since the plots of those are often pretty darn similar).
There are many things I enjoyed about Graceling, but I'll just go ahead and tell you a little about Katsa, the main character, and I think you'll see why I enjoyed this book so much. Katsa does not want to get married or have children. Cashore makes this pretty clear early on, so I of course thought, "oh, well she must hate children." Nope, she likes them well enough. "Oh, well, then she must be troubled. Women in novels only ever don't want to have children because they were abused or because they have low self-esteem and don't want their kids to be like them. Considering Katsa's a killer, I guess that's mildly understandable." Nope, her childhood wasn't perfect, but nobody's is. "Oh, oh no...Cashore didn't use any of the other conventions to make Katsa change her mind and start popping them out, so she's going to go...there...to the place where Katsa falls in love and then, oh my gosh, just can't wait to start reproducing because that's what women do when they fall in love. No. No. No!" Nope, Katsa falls in love. They don't get married. They don't have kids. They're cool. Can there please be more female leads like this? Please?
I pretty much agreed with a bunch of friends who read Hero by Perry Moore: the superheroes are all painfully exact ripoffs of the most well-known comic book heroes (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, you get the idea); the superhero storyline (the central plot, I suppose) is predictable and not terribly interesting; the romantic storyline seems forced; and, yet, despite all that, this is a great father-son story. And I'm a sucker for a great father-son story. Their relationship is so authentic (and relatable) to me, a depiction of familial love that really captures how complicated it can be. Hal loves Thom, so he makes a lot of sacrifices; Thom loves Hal, so he feels incredibly guilty about those sacrifices; Hal and Thom love each other so much and recognize that, at the time the book starts, they really only have each other, so they both fear rejection from the other if their deepest secrets are revealed; etc. The fact that they love each other is not forced on you, but is evident in such real ways, most especially in how that very positive emotion can actually be the source of strife between them. Hal Creed is a really gut-wrenching character and his own son recognizes it and reacts with myriad feelings you might expect: gratitude, embarrassment, guilt, sadness, anger, confusion.
By the way, if you're looking for more great fathers in fiction (and by great, I mean the characters are multi-dimensional and interesting, not necessarily that the men themselves are people you'll admire and enjoy), try Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee (one of my favorite books of all time, it explores concepts of language, family, and identity and the interplay between the three) and You Must Remember This by Joyce Carol Oates.
The second book I read this year was Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. I'll start with the concession that the plot was just a little weak, in a way that I attribute to the fact that Graceling is Cashore's first novel. There are occasional holes, jumps, and tenuous links, but I think that style will be ironed out and strengthened in her next novel. My other objection to the plot was the late entrance of the villain; it was as though the climax of the book happened at the wrong time. Like most fantasy novels I've read, Graceling has an action-adventure plot and it definitely plays second-fiddle to the characters. Who I love. I tend to prefer character-driven novels to plot-driven ones (as you might imagine if you are familiar with my love of romance novels, since the plots of those are often pretty darn similar).
There are many things I enjoyed about Graceling, but I'll just go ahead and tell you a little about Katsa, the main character, and I think you'll see why I enjoyed this book so much. Katsa does not want to get married or have children. Cashore makes this pretty clear early on, so I of course thought, "oh, well she must hate children." Nope, she likes them well enough. "Oh, well, then she must be troubled. Women in novels only ever don't want to have children because they were abused or because they have low self-esteem and don't want their kids to be like them. Considering Katsa's a killer, I guess that's mildly understandable." Nope, her childhood wasn't perfect, but nobody's is. "Oh, oh no...Cashore didn't use any of the other conventions to make Katsa change her mind and start popping them out, so she's going to go...there...to the place where Katsa falls in love and then, oh my gosh, just can't wait to start reproducing because that's what women do when they fall in love. No. No. No!" Nope, Katsa falls in love. They don't get married. They don't have kids. They're cool. Can there please be more female leads like this? Please?
Friday, January 30, 2009
Fail!
One of my many resolutions meant to increase my well-being this semester o' craziness is to be in bed by 11 every night (reading, etc. is okay, but I want to be physically in the bed by 11; also, I've already failed at this many times) and to set my alarm for 8am any day that I don't actually have to be up at a specific time. So, imagine my surprise when, after being up for about half an hour this morning, I saw that my computer clock read "7:29am." Apparently, while setting my alarm last night, I also reset the clock. This is why I should not go to bed too late.
This isn't the first time recently I've gotten lost in time, either. The first time was a bit more mysterious, but it also caused me to lose sleep. Why don't these gaps in the space-time continuum allow me to lose an hour of work or class or something? I really like sleep.
The day we left Boston, we set the alarm for 6am and planned to be out the door by 6:30. The alarm on Pat's phone went off, I went upstairs, brushed my teeth, got dressed, finished packing and then looked at my phone. Which said 3:59am. What? Pat's phone, though, said 6:30am. His Blackberry was our tie-breaker, confirming that it was, indeed, 4am. Pat's phone, like mine, gets its time directly from AT&T towers, it's not set manually. So, I have no idea how it ended up 2.5 hours off, but I never really got back to sleep that day. It was awful.
This isn't the first time recently I've gotten lost in time, either. The first time was a bit more mysterious, but it also caused me to lose sleep. Why don't these gaps in the space-time continuum allow me to lose an hour of work or class or something? I really like sleep.
The day we left Boston, we set the alarm for 6am and planned to be out the door by 6:30. The alarm on Pat's phone went off, I went upstairs, brushed my teeth, got dressed, finished packing and then looked at my phone. Which said 3:59am. What? Pat's phone, though, said 6:30am. His Blackberry was our tie-breaker, confirming that it was, indeed, 4am. Pat's phone, like mine, gets its time directly from AT&T towers, it's not set manually. So, I have no idea how it ended up 2.5 hours off, but I never really got back to sleep that day. It was awful.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
OMG, Downloaded
Spoilers for BSG Season 2 ahead!
We watched a few more episodes of season 2 Friday night (just two more to go, then on to season 3! I wish I'd caught on to this show earlier so that I'd be caught up to the episodes that are currently airing. I'd probably go a little crazy waiting a week between episodes, but at least I wouldn't have to be so diligent in avoiding any news about BSG. But, clearly, I digress.).
Anyway, the show had been kinda lackluster for me since Black Market, which was horrible. I actually like that BSG addresses the fact that the fact there are only 50,000 humans left doesn't mean that suddenly we can all just get along. When faced with sudden, unexpected genocide, you don't get to hand-pick 50,000 saints to bring with you on a mission for the survival of the species. I just thought this episode addressed the issue in a heavy-handed, awkward way that didn't fit with the flow of the show at all. It was a totally stand-alone episode that did nothing to advance the overall story arcs and mythology of the show. Unless you count the fact that suddenly Lee has a troubled past and a relationship with a prostitute. Because the end of the human race, a dead brother, feelings for the dead brother's fiancée, a difficult relationship with his father, and being used as the rope in tug o' war between the Admiral and the President isn't angsty enough.
The episodes between Black Market and Downloaded were certainly up to par with BSG's usual writing and acting standards, but I just didn't love where the plot was going. Scar was a good episode, but I hate Kat; I hate Lee and Dee (the fact that their names rhyme makes me hate them more!); and I hate that they killed Billy. Mind you, I don't hate Lee and Dee because I loved Dee and Billy (and definitely not because I want Starbuck and Lee to get together, more on that later). I just think that a) it totally came out of nowhere and b) they have no chemistry.
But, with Downloaded, they reeled me back in, hook, line, and sinker. This episode was made of awesomeness. Here are the highlights:
We watched a few more episodes of season 2 Friday night (just two more to go, then on to season 3! I wish I'd caught on to this show earlier so that I'd be caught up to the episodes that are currently airing. I'd probably go a little crazy waiting a week between episodes, but at least I wouldn't have to be so diligent in avoiding any news about BSG. But, clearly, I digress.).
Anyway, the show had been kinda lackluster for me since Black Market, which was horrible. I actually like that BSG addresses the fact that the fact there are only 50,000 humans left doesn't mean that suddenly we can all just get along. When faced with sudden, unexpected genocide, you don't get to hand-pick 50,000 saints to bring with you on a mission for the survival of the species. I just thought this episode addressed the issue in a heavy-handed, awkward way that didn't fit with the flow of the show at all. It was a totally stand-alone episode that did nothing to advance the overall story arcs and mythology of the show. Unless you count the fact that suddenly Lee has a troubled past and a relationship with a prostitute. Because the end of the human race, a dead brother, feelings for the dead brother's fiancée, a difficult relationship with his father, and being used as the rope in tug o' war between the Admiral and the President isn't angsty enough.
The episodes between Black Market and Downloaded were certainly up to par with BSG's usual writing and acting standards, but I just didn't love where the plot was going. Scar was a good episode, but I hate Kat; I hate Lee and Dee (the fact that their names rhyme makes me hate them more!); and I hate that they killed Billy. Mind you, I don't hate Lee and Dee because I loved Dee and Billy (and definitely not because I want Starbuck and Lee to get together, more on that later). I just think that a) it totally came out of nowhere and b) they have no chemistry.
But, with Downloaded, they reeled me back in, hook, line, and sinker. This episode was made of awesomeness. Here are the highlights:
- The return of The Hotness. Uh, I mean Anders. The return of Anders. While I must admit that after the one episode (or was it two?) they had together, I had a hard time buying the mind-frakking lurve Starbuck has for Anders, there is no denying that they do have boatloads of chemistry. Yum! I'm looking forward to their reunion and I'm guessing that eventually I will buy into the deeper layers of their relationship. (So you see I am not a Lee/Starbuck shipper. In fact, I think a Lee/Starbuck pairing is icky. She was engaged to his brother and his dad clearly thinks of her as a daughter. Furthermore, I like the depiction of their friendship and I appreciate when men and women have non-sexual relationships on television. Because in real life we actually are capable of that, folks.)
- The return of Caprica as a setting. The return of Anders also means a return to some of the storylines I found most fascinating in the first season regarding life on Caprica after the attacks. I think the human resistance and the Cylon colonization are great stories to tell and add more dimensions to the "Colonial Fleet versus the Cylons" narrative.
- The revelation that, just as the "good guys" aren't all good, the "bad guys" aren't all bad.
- The return of Sharon 1. I find Sharon 1 to be a really sympathetic character. Imagine living your whole life as one of the good guys only to find out you don't really have "a whole life" (most of your memories are fake) and you are one of the bad guys. One of the bad guys you actually hate. Talk about inner conflict and self-loathing. I had wondered what happened to her after she got shot, whether she was close enough to download and if the process of downloading triggered a part of her programming that made her go, "sweet, I'm a cylon and I totally shot Adama" or if she woke up like "frak, I'm surrounded by cylons. I frakking hate cylons! Dammit, I am a cylon. This sucks." Thank you BSG showrunners for addressing my concerns!
- The demonstration that Tricia Helfer can act. Head Six just totally sucks.
- Head Gaius!!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Bulleted List
Quick recap of a good week:
- Received many wonderful things in the mail (and one textbook, not wonderful): necklace for wedding, rehearsal dinner shoes, GAP cardigan (in wild rose), beautiful birthday gift from Pat's mom, and an invitation to Michelle and Ian's wedding!
- Conducted official Sesame Street business, which made me feel really important.
- Got exciting loot at Half-Price Books, both in really good condition: a hardcover edition of Avalon High by Meg Cabot, so now I'm ready to stalk her at TLA, and the second book in Van Reid's Moosepath League series. The Van Reid books are hard to track down, so that was especially exciting.
- Had many good phone conversations with friends.
- Got lots of wedding stuff done.
- Had a successful program at work (A New Year, A New You: Get Organized, 16 attendees).
- Actually made plans for next week's trip to Boston and those plans include seeing a BU/BC hockey game!
- And best of all, spent lots of QT with friends: Fiesta Bowl victory and frozen custard with Al and O on Monday; Labyrinth and pizza with blue cheese on it that I actually ate at the Mitschkes' on Tuesday; spicy peanut noodles and lots of conversation with Kate on Friday; and then today a very lucrative trip to San Antonio with Al and O (who were exceptionally gracious about me being the third wheel multiple times this week) followed by veggie chili and three episodes of Buffy with the ladies. I'm pleased to announced that I did enjoy Buffy and am now going to try to make it through the series. After I get caught up on BSG, that is.
Friday, January 9, 2009
I am a terrible geek.
Not only did I enjoy the first Star Wars prequel, I'm also really freakin' excited for this: http://movies.yahoo.com/photos/movie-stills/gallery/1360/transformers-revenge-of-the-fallen-stills.
OMG Cool cars that turn into robots and beat the crap out of each other. People who do not like this movie are a mystery to me. And please spare me the whole "weak plot, bad actors whatever whatever" thing. Cool cars that turn into robots and beat the crap out of each other. Focus, people.
Hopefully my newfound love of BSG will help me out in the eyes of those who think my geek cred has seriously slipped today.
OMG Cool cars that turn into robots and beat the crap out of each other. People who do not like this movie are a mystery to me. And please spare me the whole "weak plot, bad actors whatever whatever" thing. Cool cars that turn into robots and beat the crap out of each other. Focus, people.
Hopefully my newfound love of BSG will help me out in the eyes of those who think my geek cred has seriously slipped today.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Psych returns!
And to celebrate, EW lists their ten favorite things about Psych. I'd switch out The Adventures of Little Gus & Shawn for the tender, loving bromance between Gus and Shawn. The cartoon just isn't that funny. The bromance is.
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