On calling someone English

Wow, I totally suck at understanding people with accents over the phone. I just made an ass of myself trying to book a trip to Europe by having to go "huh?" "pardon?" quite a few times. I think I rely on watching a person speak as part of the whole hearing experience a lot of the time. I've always found it easier to understand someone when I can see them talking...maybe this is another reason that I don't especially enjoy calling people on the phone!

Anyway, I have booked my trip to Europe for this summer. Haven't actually paid anything yet, but I'm at least moving in the right direction. Woohoo!

Now...if only I had some of that chocolate M. sent to me yesterday...too bad I left it all at home!

Larry, Moe, & ....

Curly!

And this is what I look like without glasses.

Had some time on my hands, decided to see how this hairstyle behaves curled...not too bad. Still working on reading Cryptonomicon...its really long!

Rearranging

So, yesterday I promised myself that I would clean up the main room in my apartment, and for once I kept the promise. I put on the soundtrack to Across the Universe and got to it. First task was to clean up the mess from pulling everything off my wall and reorganizing it which occurred earlier in the week. Then, I thought, what else can I do with this space, so it ended up in more of a reorganization than a clean. The ugly blue chair thing that folds into a bed is now hidden in the closet, the table is up against the wall, and the chest that was in the closet is out as a cat perch under the window. I think I'll have to find something better to cover it over, but for now tis covered with a pretty sheet. The results:

And here is my tiny Christmas tree, given to me in college by Auntie C. Thanks!

Here's a close up on part of the wall...if you didn't know already, I have issue with white walls, this is my cheap solution. Some are my photos, others are calendars, copies of book covers, etc. I'm having some problems with the photo paper curling, but hope that with a bit more double sided tape, things will stay in place better.

And here is a close up on the blanket currently in progress. I put the blue and white one on hold because I think that this one will be a Christmas present, although it's so pretty that I am tempted to keep it for myself! This is about 3 days in...maybe about 10 hours total?

Life

My car is still broken, cost for parts: round $400

My computer doesn't always work right, its probably the hardware...or maybe the software...I've already had it "fixed" once and its two years old....cost of new computer: several hundred $

Sarah J. probably wants to book our trip to Europe this summer soon. Cost: $2000 for the tour. Another $1000 for the plane.

It's going on Christmas and presents are needed, cost: another several hundred probably.

Being Sarah: pricey

P&C and the Top 100 Novels

So, today on the way home I suddenly realized that I was nearly out of toilet paper and if I didn't go to the store, things would not be good. Having just been to the gym, I was not really feeling like stopping and I was already nearly home, so weggies was feeling just too far. Then I remembered the P&C. I've been driving by it on my way home for a year and a half now and I hadn't yet been in because from the outside it looks awfully sketch. But, in the interest of going new places (and in having toilet paper) I stopped....and was pleasantly surprised. It was bright and clean. Now I know that I can run in there for emergencies, but I'll not be likely to give up wegs!

On to the Top 100 Novels. For some reason, I decided to look up a list of the top 100 novels yesterday. I found several and printed off three just to see how I rated. My poorest is 9 out of 100 on "The Board's List" from the Modern Library. Next was 15 out of 100 on Time's top 100. Finally, best score was 19 out of 100 on "The Reader's List" from the Modern Library. I guess I have some reading to do! Most surprising Top 100 was Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash on Time's list. I didn't realize that novel was so well known and respected.

Excellent Progress

The blanket grows steadily...actually, its pretty much all I've done this weekend aside from a very tasty dinner out with H. and D. and a trip to see their new house. I'm pleased with the way the project is coming...nice and warm and fuzzy!

Best Haircut Ever

Ok, so I guess it really pays off to actually go to a salon and pay good money for haircuts and eyebrow waxing.

Love it! Love CityStyles too! A big thanks to scarletlily for finally making me go there. Today Jemima cut my hair instead of Michaela who hurt her arm this week, and though both were great, I think I might go back to Jemima next time. I like actually feel hip or something.

A New Look

Decided to go a little more dramatic on the look, like? Actually, I started a different blog and liked that setup better, so I just replicated it here. Now, if I'm going to continue with the other one, I guess I'll have to change it....hmmm.

Tonight I went to JoAnn Fabric in Triphammer Mall, which I've never been to before and let me say, that place is in need of help. It was REALLY sketch. They def had a lot of fabric, good for my quiliting friend A., but as I don't have a sewing machine, I fell back upon yarn. I discovered a pattern book for "24 hour afghans." HA! 24 hours? I doubt I'll finish so fast, but I picked one out, and got yarn, and started! Woot! The yarn selection was a bit dissapointing, but I managed to find some stuff that'll work. Now to see if I have the stamina to get through the project. At least now that its winter, its nice to be working on things like blankets.

In other news, I want to dye my hair red...it means I'm bored. Crap. Will I give in this season? I should probably wait until after the holidays? My mom thinks its silly to color hair at my age...but I probably will again. Goals for this weekend include Le Gym, some Christmas Shopping, and apparently not going out for drinks...awesome. I guess now I'll be looking for something to do tomorrow evening. Maybe there is a cool band playing somewhere. But, oh yeah, Ithaca forgot what rock bands were didn't they? Ooo...but maybe Castaways has something good this weekend. We shall see.

Are you happy now that I posted? :-)

November

There were totally some snow flurries today. I guess that means its heading on towards winter. I can't say that I am totally ready. Summer and fall just slipped by me. Now that the nights are longer and earlier, there will be an immense amount of time freed up for more reading! I just recently finished off The Assistant by Malamud. I found this one at one of Ithaca's delightful quirks, the massive book sale that the friends of the library hold twice a year. It's the kind of booksale that puts other sales at local libraries to shame. If you haven't been, imagine a warehouse full of books with attendants constantly restocking shelves for two weeks. People come on the first days with empty boxes to cart away their finds. They wait in line for hours to get it. It's insane...it's Ithaca.

Anyway, The Assistant was decent, but did not really live up to its cover which proclaimed "Not to be missed!" I could have missed it, I would have been fine. I read a review by one reader on facebook's "i-read" which summed up the book as having dropped the reader at the end. I totally agree. We are led into the story, get somewhat attached to the characters and then its over. The writer decided that was good, he was finished, and sent us off into the world once more. Still, the book was worth the small sum that I paid for it.

Next up are the host of books currently populating the bedroom floor, including Vol1 of the Absolute Sandman, The Cryptonomicon, and Medea.

In other news, my car is still not fixed, sigh, wrong parts again. My friend's menagerie of pets continues to grow. And other things...

The Birthday

The office baby has now turned 23...and still remains the office baby. Honestly, I find it hilarious every time someone re-realizes how young I am. I guess I'm just grown-up for my age? Or maybe at this point in life age lines are just starting to soften and blur. Twas a good birthday weekend and I got lots of cool stuff from family and friends including this:

Swanky, isn't it? I discovered The Sandman about four years ago in a DIY Scifi class in college. The class was run as a typical lecture/discussion format for a few weeks and then we all broke out into small groups to study an area of science fiction that we were interested in. One group looked at science fiction in comics and used an issue of The Sandman in their final presentation. I'm not sure that they actually cited who the writer had been, but I remembered the storyline and a while later when I found out that Neil Gaiman (the writer) had done a series of comics, I set out to read it. Lo and behold, a few issues in, I came across the issue from the scifi class again. Instant love!

If you haven't read anything by Neil Gaiman, I highly recommend it. My first venture into his work was coincidentally enough also in that DIY Scifi class, which I think may have been the best class I took at IC. (That and a more traditional format scifi class with the same professor, kathryn, who was one of the best teachers I encountered there). Gaiman has a way with weaving together all sorts of old myths and modern day that never ceases to fascinate. For the class, we read American Gods, as I was in the group taking a peek into the role that religion plays in science fiction novels. Although I don't consider myself to be very religious, its fascinating to see how religions morph in the hands of scifi writers.

The Legacy of Gird...

...was not a great book. I feel a little let down by Elizabeth Moon with this one. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading (and rereading) many of her other fic, but this book was not that exciting. I think one of the major flaws in the book is that though a normal length, the action takes place over one man's lifetime. Too much going on with too many jump gaps to accelerate through unimportant bits of time. Also, some of the important moments that occur in the book come out of nowhere and happen too quickly to grasp what just happened. Other things that happen are awfully convenient to propelling the story line forward. For example, the Gods play an active role in the book, but did they simply latch onto Gird to further their ends or did they choose him beforehand to get change rolling? Not enough explanation. Many of the characters are necessarily thin because of the number of them and the limited time to go into depth because of the stretched out nature of the tale. In the end, this book just took too long to read for the benefit reaped. Hopefully on to better tales.

ok, so, I'm getting flack for not updating, so I'm updating. See, are you happy now?

The past month can very nicely be rounded up as insane...and well, October is shaping up to be just a hair less! Why you may ask? Well, lets see September was gala month at the museum which meant a whole lot of planning, replanning, making items, remaking items, dealing with fun people, dealing with difficult people, and topping it off with five hours of fancy dress, silent auction, good tapas, and dancing. Plus, I had the added mental insanity of being offered a new position a goodly distance from Ithaca and the challenge of deciding whether or not to leave PRI behind for new adventures. Well...after a great deal of thought (and tears, cause that's how I tend to deal with stress) most of you will probably be glad to hear that I'll be remaining an ithaca chick. If you haven't already heard the whole story and want to be filled in, gimme a ring.

On to October. Membership brochure, annual fund mailing, grants due, gala cleanup....thank god for helpful interns! I confess that I stayed until 7 tonight cause I'm behind where I want to be. zoinks!

But, I'm still getting some time in for reading amongst the crazy. Since last posting, I think I've read Dune Messiah, Persuasion by Jane Austen, The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery, and Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. Let's see Dune Messiah was better this time around, Persuasion was really enjoyable which was surprising because I wasn't sure I'd like reading Jane Austen, The Blue Castle is an all time favorite...I've probably read it a dozen times by now, Slaughterhouse 5 was okay but I much preferred Cat's Cradle. I'm really interested to see how well or terribly this book translated to screen when I get the movie version of it on netflix. The time travel in it is actually similar to the time travel in Time Traveler's Wife. Def very different from a man in a time machine!

Dune

Amidst a busy time in work and life (our boss just left the organization! zoinks!) I managed to finish my rereading of Dune and make a trip to see my best, doublegknits, out in Michigan. Both were fantastic. I have met numerous people who never touch a book again once they have read it, but I am very much not one of these people. I'll read books many times and always enjoy. I think that this was my third reading of Dune, in prep for reading the rest of the series which I have only managed to get through once quite a few years ago. Now that I am reading the series again with a much older viewpoint, I'm getting a lot more out of it and catching/remembering things that I've forgotten. For example, I didn't remember the part in Dune about the Bene Gesserit sisterhood wanting to create the Kwisatz Haderach in part to create Jihad across the universe which would mix stagnant bloodlines. I guess I missed that in the greater storyline. For those of you to whom that sentence was gobbledygook, sorry, but do consider reading the book. It's a fascinating mix of politics, religion, technology (and anti-technology), addiction, and culture. If you are willing to get totally geeked up on the Dune universe, you now have the option of reading all six originals, two three-book prequels, and a seventh to the original series. Maybe a few more, I'm not entierly sure. If you make it through all (the new stuff is quite excellent) you'll have such a fuller understanding of the universe and the storylines. Learn why the Harkonnen family and the Atreides family are at odds, how the Fremen originated on Arrakis, what happened to the Earth, why thinking machines are so hated...

Anyway, a few favorite quotes from Dune:

"If you rely only on your eyes, your other senses weaken"

"A leader, you see, is one of the things that distinguishes a mob from a people. He maintains the level of individuals. Too few individuals and a people reverts to a mob."

"When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movement becomes headlong - faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thought of obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late."

"Worry saps the strength"

"The Guild navigators, gifted with limited prescience, had made the fatal decision: they'd chosen always the clear, safe course that leads ever downward into stagnation."

"The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it."

Zoinks! It looks like I've been rather remiss in updating my blog. Oh well. Let's play a little catch up. So, I was on vacation to the wonderful state of New Hampshire for a week with the 'rents and my brother. It was nice and relaxing and good to be away from the crazy museum life. Plus, I got to go kayaking which I absolutely love to do.

Kayaking took place on Squam (sp?) lake and it was a beautiful day. The lake is large, but has a number of small islands and not too many motorboats, so it was very kayak friendly. That evening, my parents had two of their friends who'd joined us for kayaking come over where we had dinner and drinks. Three bottles of Ithaca wine later, the elders were definitely tipsy, if not downright drunk. Most amusing.

Here is a pic of our campsite at Russell Pond Campground. It's one of our favorites because it's away from noisy roads and has a nice little pond to swim and kayak around in.

We also were often visited by this little chipmunk. He got very bold by the end of our stay and almost climbed up onto our chairs a couple of times. We also had a red squirrel visit often and he actually tried to get into a plastic container of trail mix left out on the picnic table one day. It was quite funny to watch.

The lake. This was taken from the kayak.

In addition to kayaking and swimming, my father and I climed a mountain. Breathtaking views...pics of which are on his camera. Will post if I can get my hands on them. And I spent a good deal of time reading. By the end of the week, I finished Salt: A World History by Kurlansky and Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut. Salt was interesting, I definitely enjoyed some parts of the book more than others (some of the beginning portions can get a bit repetitive...i.e. these people made salt...and so did these people...and these...) but I got a few interesting tidbits out of it. For example, in older times, soldiers were often paid in salt, from which comes the expression "worth his salt" and in the 1700s and 1800s some royalty used to have parties down in salt mines. The salt was carved into spectacular and ornate ballrooms and dining rooms. Cool huh?

Cat's Cradle was a quick read (about 5 or 6 hours one day) and it was great. Scary, but great. Read it, think about it, and wonder if science is really going in good directions.

So...its been a busy few days. This weekend, instead of sitting around twiddling my thumbs as can happen, I was out and about for the most part. Friday night I saw Hairspray with two friends. The movie turned out to be a good surprise. Although, I must say that while John Travolta was funny in his role, it was more of a "I'm laughing because John Travolta as a woman is ridiculous" than "I'm laughing because this movie is genuinely funny and well written." In other words, for the integrity of the play, I don't think he should have been cast in it, but forgetting anything other than the experience of the movie, it was amusing.

Saturday, one of the most gorgeous days ever, was spent with a visit to the farmer's market (more lovely flowers) and helping out with a party for Light In Winter, an organization that I am now a board member for. I was, probably by far, the youngest person at the party, but it was still mostly fun. The party was hosted at the home of two local big philanthropists and it was certainly impressive. They have a lakeview and some lakefront property, all that a girl could want. The owners also had four birds which were a delight. Ever since I've met my friend H. and her five birds, I've learned to appreciate these guys as pets. I never ever thought I'd be interested in getting a bird, but maybe someday.

And Sunday was the Grassroots festival. I never managed to locate A., but still had a fab time. Thoroughly enjoyed the set by The Duhks, the main reason I decided to head over to the fairgrounds on Sunday. The hippies were out in full force at the festival with all their long skirts, batik sundresses, bralessness, and long loose hair. Twas rather amusing.

I also managed to finish SnowCrash after the festival. It wasn't a super favorite, but it definitely was worth the read. The first sequence is really well written and throws you into the novel well, but then the novel slows down, get a little heavy handed, and mixed up chronologically for a bit. For example, Stephenson takes a while to explain what avatars are, which may have been necessary in 1992, but for me in 2007 seemed annoying. I prefer Gibson who throws you into the tech landscape and expects you to figure it out. The novel speeds up again though and gets into some interesting ideas : i.e. viruses as ideas and religions. Stephenson also makes use of an ancient Sumerian myth featuring Enki, Inanna, and others which was a thread in the Book of All Hours. I was surprised to encounter the myth again so shortly after having discovered it for the first time with Hal Duncan. I don't actually have SnowCrash with me, or I'd write a bit more, but I'm writing on my lunch break at work as my computer at home is crashing on me and I don't really feel like paying to have it fixed again!

Flowers

This weekend the parental units came for a visit, its been a few months since they were up to Ithaca, so they finally got to see Maverick on his own turf. He was his usually charming self, so I think the parents fell in love more than ever, but I made sure they didn't try to take the little guy home with them. Anyway, the weekend was a full one. We made a stop by the farmer's market where I got these:


This bouquet of loveliness (enough for two vases) cost $10. That's it! I love the farmer's market. Here are some more shots of some of the lilies in the bouquets.

After the farmer's market, my dad and I took a turn around the lake in my parent's new kayak. It's always enjoyable to be out on the water, however, I think I prefer to have my own boat than to go in tandem. I like to be able to have more control over where I am going than I do when there is someone else in the back of the boat. We paddled out past the Cornell sailboat docks and discovered that all of their little racing craft are named after the callsigns in Top Gun. There was a Maverick boat and a Goose boat and Viper and Jester and Iceman.

In the evening, we went to see Hair at the Hanger theatre. I thouroughly enjoyed the show and recommend seeing it to everyone. IY was great and the three main leads were fantastic. The theatre was turned into a theatre in the round for the performance which was quite unique.

We spent Sunday wandering around town and discovered this house :http://www.warrenhomes.com/index.cfm?action=detailed_listing&mls=123725&menu=0. Now, if only I had $350,000.

Snow Crash

So...last Friday, about halfway through the day, I began to get chills and thought I might be coming down with something. Turns out I was right and had a fever by the time I made my way home from the office at 5. Needless to say, the weekend was left largely to eating saltines and lounging around wishing it were cooler outside. I finally made an emergency emergence on Saturday for some grocery shopping to replenish my empty refridgerator. By the time Sunday rolled around, I was bored of the telly and GASP! out of things that I wanted to read! So, feeling better, I made my way to Barnes & Noble. A mistake for people trying to save some cash. But, I thought perhaps I'd browse and pick out on or two.

I left with five books. I couldn't help myself. Wandering through the ailes I came face to face with Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It's a book I've been looking for idly for about four years. Obviously I had to get that one. It's going well, although so far I prefer The Diamond Age, which I read earlier this year. I also emerged with Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel C. Dennett (these three were a buy two get one free deal!) and Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. This last will necessitate a complete rereading of the Dune series because I can barely remember what happened in the last few books of the series. A daunting task, considering there are six of them, but I shall prevail!

The Truth and Of Love and other Demons

Two fast reads, the first, The Truth, from Terry Pratchett, a growing favorite of mine, and the second, Of Love and other Demons, from Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Pratchett's novel was another fun and sometimes biting romp through Discworld, where dwarves, reformed vampires, and regular folk attempt to uncover the truth, or at least the interesting bits, and inform the citizens through Ankh-Morpork's first newspaper. Highly enjoyable. If you haven't discovered this writer yet, what are you waiting for?

Of Love and other Demons was my second encounter with Garcia Marquez and I actually enjoyed this second read more than the first (Love in the Time of Cholera which was also great). Demons was sweet and very creepy all at the same time. Was the young girl really possessed? Nearly impossible to tell and as impossible to accept all the cruelties committed by the other characters whose behaviors were often more demonic that that of the "possessed." An insight into how inhuman people become when faced with someone they believe is not human.

Ink: The Book of All Hours

The second installment of Hal Duncan's Book of All Hours was unfortunately a letdown. The first and much of the second had so much promise, I really wanted to like it, and I did enjoy most of the books, but it really never delivered a full story. The characters, scenes, themes, were all intriguing, but they never really came together into a coherent whole. What really did each section of the two books (four in all) have to do with each other? There is no cohesive storyline, just a lot of interesting imagery and snippets of lives that never seem to come to an understandable whole.

I did really love a number of the characters, however, I felt that some lacked depth because of the way that we were constantly moving from one version of a character to another through the different folds (worlds) of the Vellum. We get to know surface info on a dozen different Phree/Anna/Inannas, but never really get to know any of them. Another intriguing portion of the book is when it's revealed that the seven central characters are supposedly different aspects of one soul. For me, this did not work. And, I do wonder why only one portion of this soul was portrayed by a woman and why the woman's role in the soul was a stereotypically male role, the fighter.

Duncan is a really interesting writer and a lot of the text really lives, but I had a difficult time understanding the final point of the story, if there was one. I would have liked more information on the portion of the novel where the angels are attempting to create God, this seemed really interesting but I needed more to get it.

Still, it was worth the read for the style and ideas. Reminiscent of some cyberpunk I've read. Perhaps if I return for a second read I'll understand it more as I did with Gibson's Neuromancer.

The Book of All Hours : Vellum

One review of this novel by Hal Duncan calls the writing style "kaleidoscopic" and the analogy is apt. But being kaleidoscopic, I am left at the end still wondering what is going on and if the rotating scenes will finally resolve into an understandable whole. The second installment, Ink, has a major task ahead of itself, many of the scenes in the first novel hang together only because of a common cast of characters. But, how the discovery of Kur by one aspect of Jack Carter fits into another scene with the interrogation of seemingly mad Jack "Flash" Carter fits into another scene where Jack is something akin to a proto-human traveling an empty trashed landscape of worlds remains to be seen. I found the novel incredibly intriguing and definitely intend to read the second, but I am left with more of a sense or feeling of what happened in Vellum than an actual understanding. Duncan unabashedly breaks all rules of linearity, jumps from third person to first person back to third and then to another character's first, the present occurs before the past or in the future or beside it.

Interesting is the use of myth and legend that anchors this novel to our world although it is most definitely not set in it, or at least most of the novel is not set in our plane of existence. His use of characters like Prometheus, Inanna, Satan, Metatron, Jack Flash, Guy Fox... reminds me of much of Neil Gaiman's work, especially American Gods. That novel drew from a different pantheon of gods than Vellum does.

Most nagging question after reading this novel: How are Guy Reynard who is sometimes called Reynard Carter related to Jack Carter? When they appear together they are always separate and do not share the Carter name, but when apart the line between them blurs. Is this because in some of the realities within the book they are the same person? What is the reason for Guy's shifting name towards and away from Carter?