one day a tortoise will learn how to fly

Bah, I don't feel like doing any more Latin excercises. So to the internet I go to waste time and complain.

Although, I did find out that Wheelock's has a pronunciations for all their book's vocab. That is a beautiful thing.

Today is just awesome. I woke up cold! Cold, I say. I had to get a blanket! Yay, fall is coming. Fall, for the brief nano-second that it is here, is one of the best parts about living in Northeast Ohio. Summer, on the other hand, not so much. My part of Ohio used to be marshland and it shows it's swampy roots when it is summer time. The humidity is usually near 80% and the lake bugs always add a special charm. But the produce is good and Lake Erie is beautiful, even when it's buggy and in general I love it. Just not when it's 95 and the humidity is near 100%. But today is gorgeous out! Blue skies and breezy and very cool. The tree tops in places are starting to turn.

So I started ordering seeds for the garden I plan on planting at my duplex and for the one I'm making a friend plant behind her apartment next spring. I want to try my hand at gardening before I set myself firmly on the course of an urban farm. I'm also trying to convince another neighbor to let me have a chicken coup in her backyard as my landlord gave a vehement no. She said she'd think about it but promised me plantain empanadas in exchange for my grandmother's enchilada recipe.

My brother dropped off the first batch of apple cider from our favorite orchard. They don't pasteurize, which I think is actually illegal?, but it's sooooooo good.

Lastly, I jus realized that there is approximately a month and half between me and the new Drizzt book. I have a sickness, I can't stop, don't judge. Although, I'm pretty sure that despite my hope that it will not be worse than the others that preceded it, it's the first that Salvatore is writing explicitly in the 4e Realms...the Realms in which all good drow are now apparently white skinned. This will be special, I'm sure.

So, I've never really read anything by Mr. Sanderson. I tried Elantris and Mistborn but never finished because my copies disappeared. Dunno where or why, but there you have it.

I'm only about one hundred and fifty pages into this thousand page monster, but I can't help but wonder, has Mr. Sanderson watched an inordinate amount of anime? Because so far, this is like reading and epic fantasy version of an unholy combination of Saint Seiya and The Vision of Escaflowne...and maybe some Power Rangers thrown in for good measure.

I guess I'm mentioning this because this is the first time a mainstream work of fiction has read like this to me. I've read a few books, most notably Guillermo del Toro's The Strain and Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series* and have thought, "Hmmm, this will be better as a movie, I think." In fact, I posit that these two particular titles were probably written with a movie in mind. But I've never read something and thought "Huh, this needs to be an anime. In fact, I think this writer WANTS to have an anime based off of their book."

Lest you think that I think this is a bad thing, I don't. I loved, loved both the Percy Jackson series and The Strain, I just thought that they read more like a movie than a novel. I don't have an opinion on Mr. Sanderson's book yet, but wanted to get this out there, mainly because I haven't been reading much lately, and thus have had nothing to talk about with anyone.

I picked up his book because all the older sci-fic/fantasy patrons at work are reading it and I wanted to read a title that they had actually heard of for once. So I'm looking forward to reading this with them*. None of them, with one exception and he comes to my manga and anime program religiously with his daughters, is very familiar with anime. So it will be interesting to see what they say. I really don't have point, more musing, but has anyone else read stuff lately and been like, "This is an anime/manga in novel form?"




*The actual movie made from the Percy Jackson series shall be ignored. I've already ranted and raved about why it sucked and will not get angry any more, though I still cannot understand how the producers screwed up adapting The Lightning Thief for the screen. Riordan pretty much tailor wrote that book to be a movie.


*It was funny. There were like six copies of this sitting on the holds shelf on release date and I knew exactly who they were for. I love this part of my job.

I've given up and totally started to try and use the Dreamwidth account I signed up for ages ago...mainly because I'm a lurker and commenter and I want to continue to interact with the interesting peeps on my flist. But I'm pouty face because I have no actual content to add to the DW account, mosly because I'm a flake and get distracted much too easily. Maybe I'll post a picture of my cat so it doesn't look so desolate? Ah well.

So I just rewatched The Nightmare Before Christmas and have only one real thought: What do the turkeys of Thanksgiving Town do to get ready for Thanksgiving? Do they make lots of pies and then eat those pies in an effort to be as plump as possible for the big day? Or do Indians and Pilgrims, all rosy-cheeked and not at all plagued by starvation, smallpox and racial tensions, do they fatten up the turkeys and grow corn and squash and make stuffing? I have burning desire to KNOW.


It seems to me that Tim Burton missed out on making a truly DARK, GRIM, and UNCOMFORTABLE film  Not to mention subversive, which I think all of his work tends to be. Just saying, underneath that pumpkin-pie flavored facade of happy, fat, yummy delight, Thanksgiving Town's rife with horror and dread.

 This is my first Tales game...and so far:

I've been accosted by Elvis. Who sang me a song about how he was going to beat my ass with most of the town's constabulary as back up singers.

I've learned how to bake bread. Apparently, the treats I make help heal my party. (Okay this isn't that weird for a JPRG but I am still amazed that a bagel with lox heals me while ham sandwhiches are apparently magical. Just saying.)
 
Shirley has been kidnapped five times and counting.

Otters have also broken into a song and dance routine for my entertainment.

I've wrecked a submarine. The previous submarine, which I did not wreck, was piloted by an otter and was in turn attacked by a sea goat. Which was really a worm.

The end of the world is still nigh, but I'm heading back to town to bake more bread. Just saying.


....I also wish Chloe were the main character. Spunky girl knights are my downfall.

Save your libraries, America. You need them.


From a Library Journal article about the devastating cuts to libraries: "Libraries are essential to our democracy...'in our opposition to censorship, our defense of privacy as a condition of intellectual freedom, our support of sharing as a fundamental process of scholarly inquiry, and out underlying belief that access to information should not be predicated on an individual's ability to pay.'"

Libraries are one of the few government funded institutions that actually work the way they are supposed. If your local library does not support the values listed in the quote above, they are not doing their job, and you need to oust their board of directors.

I have acquired, through a crazy relative, a cannister of Matcha and a "tea ceremony set"...I've never used Matcha...anyone have any advice?

This article pisses me off.

Hahahahahaaha, the effing assumptions of this article!  And the way it's even framed! What an effing crock.

First, my SO and I, we talk about everything, ALL the time. We are notoriously bad about sitting through movies and TV shows together because we gab at each other constantly. Secondly, from the get go, if we fight, we talk about it. It might not be right away (I have a very bad temper) but no more than a day goes by before one of us broaches the issues...because yanno, we're adults and we value our relationship. We have to work at this constantly. It is something we have tried to make habit, but we still have to work and we both work at being actively together, not just in the same room, although sometimes that is A-okay, too.  And I love how the study shows that the man sleeps better with his woman at his side but the women doesn't and somehow, this better night's sleep is sooooo important for the dude that the lady needs to check her shit and learn to like it. Whatever. I sleep in a separate room because Ryan and I are together almost constantly. We share so many of the same thoughts and hobbies and experiences and anyone that knows us knows that it is almost impossible to get one without the other. So that little bit of alone time, with my own thoughts, in my own room? That's effing important to MY mental health and Ryan uses his space to be messy and play video games that I have no interest in playing or watching. We both need it. And we are touchy-feely couple and we do get cuddle time. I can't speak for couples who have kids, these actually might be legitimate issues. I don't know, but I don't plan on having kids, so again, the assumptions of this article just piss me off.

So in conclusion because my very stable, very good, long-lasting relationship (been together since high school, it's been ten years) does not meet a sort of heteronormative relationship standard, it's DOOMED, DOOMED I say. Despite all evidence to the contrary.

ETA: at least the commenters all seem to think my relationship is healthy and that the author of the article needs to GTFO. Not that I need validation from others or anything, but the looks of horror that I get when I tell people we sleep in separate rooms really, really make me mad. And Ryan's mom just found out we have no intention of "giving her grandkids" so things have been really rough around here. I was talking about maybe adopting if I want a child and the freak out from THAT is still burns, so yeah. Grumpy Katie is BITCHY NOW.

::BAWLS:: I am so effing stuck in Suikoden III.

That's it, just getting my pain and angst out there.