Yes! I have TONS of free time now! It's a crazy, weird feeling. Yet amazingly, I'm able to fill it up with a whole bunch of stuff going on. Too much! How do I do this to myself?
It's not entirely true. Yes, there's a lot going on -- mostly stuff having to do with unpacking boxes and organizing furniture -- but there have also been plenty of TV watching nights. Those fill up fast when I'm watching all three CSI shows, a bit of V, a touch of Survivor (for whatever reason) and a bit of Biggest Loser (to feel good about m'self)...yeah. Sloth is the NEW homework!
So yeah. Time to haul that treadmill back downstairs and get back to exercising. Or maybe just wii fit, which almost counts as exercise. It'll be nice to actually do some of that without a GIGANTIC PICTURE WINDOW through which the neighbors get to watch me doing yoga poses and running in place.
I went for a rousing D&D session at T-Rav's place last Saturday. We finally got a chance to try out 4th Edition, and it exceeded every expectation. Absolutely awesome. Thanks to Lars for driving me down, and to T-Rav, Lundo and Amy for playing.
Lars drove me back to Benson on Saturday night. Then on Sunday, I woke up and drove back to the cities for my new nephew's baptism. Sunday night we drove back to Benson. Know what? That's four trips to or from the cities in two days. Know what else? It wasn't bad at all. So to all ye bold heroes with qualms about the drive to Benson, COME VISIT ME! IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL! ;^)
I signed up for NaNoWriMo again, but I think I'm giving up. I just don't have the motivation that I had last year, when I was completely insane. My new motivation is to hit level 80 in WoW before the baby comes. We'll see how that goes.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
The New House
Kerry, Gwennerpants and I (as well as the bun in the oven) have moved into a new house, which we are in the midst of purchasing. The sellers were kind enough to give us an immediate move-in agreement, which is super awesome. We LOVE the place.
Lemme give you the rundown. It's in a very new development of our new town, and it was built in 2002. When we moved in, there were kids playing football in the yard, and one of our neighbors came over and brought us a plate of cookies. This neighborhood feels like Utopia to me. From my driveway, a sidewalk stretches to infinity. Apparently I'm supposed to stock up on candy, because ALL the kiddies are gonna be coming our way on All Hallow's Eve, and I should expect over 200 trick-or-treaters.
The house itself is huge, compared to our previous digs. It's got over 3,000 finished square feet, an attached 2-car garage, and much unlike our last house, a kitchen that's big enough to open both the dishwasher and the refrigerator at the same time. The basement is all finished, and there are two huge family rooms down there, both with fireplaces. The lot is also twice as big as our old lot, and there are swingsets as far as the eye can see.
For whatever reason, my wifey is bringing the hammer down on the basement decor, and not letting me "geek it up". Apparently she wants to hang out down there as well or something. Oh well, the term "man-cave" is stupid anyway. Sorry, Voltron III poster, I guess I have to hang you up in the kid room and pretend my 3-year-old is the one that digs your lion-combining awesomeness. I managed to sneak a sword onto the fireplace mantle, though. We'll see how long it lasts. Perhaps I'll just need to pull out all the goodies for D&D sessions.
Work is going great so far. I love it. I have never had a job where I actually enjoy going to work in the morning. It's amazing.
The first part of the final book of the Wheel of Time came out this week, and I picked it up off of audible.com, because I have too many other books to read and had credits available. During my commute (LOL less than 5 minutes now) I listened to the forward, where the new author, Brandon Sanderson (one of my new favorites, because of his incredible Mistborn series) talks about the Wheel of Time's influence on him, and especially its author, the amazing Robert Jordan. Sanderson talks about Jordan's death and the shock of it all, and of being chosen to complete the series. Honestly, that forward choked me up. I'm excited for the book. If anyone can pull it off, it's Brandon Sanderson.
I'm so thankful that Terry Goodkind wasn't chosen. He would have had Rand ranting about the evils of communism for entire chapters. I'm also thankful that George R. R. Martin wasn't chosen, because honestly he's not going to be around much longer and probably wouldn't have finished it. I want GRRM to keep working on his OWN series, which has a bazillion fans chomping at the bit.
Lemme give you the rundown. It's in a very new development of our new town, and it was built in 2002. When we moved in, there were kids playing football in the yard, and one of our neighbors came over and brought us a plate of cookies. This neighborhood feels like Utopia to me. From my driveway, a sidewalk stretches to infinity. Apparently I'm supposed to stock up on candy, because ALL the kiddies are gonna be coming our way on All Hallow's Eve, and I should expect over 200 trick-or-treaters.
The house itself is huge, compared to our previous digs. It's got over 3,000 finished square feet, an attached 2-car garage, and much unlike our last house, a kitchen that's big enough to open both the dishwasher and the refrigerator at the same time. The basement is all finished, and there are two huge family rooms down there, both with fireplaces. The lot is also twice as big as our old lot, and there are swingsets as far as the eye can see.
For whatever reason, my wifey is bringing the hammer down on the basement decor, and not letting me "geek it up". Apparently she wants to hang out down there as well or something. Oh well, the term "man-cave" is stupid anyway. Sorry, Voltron III poster, I guess I have to hang you up in the kid room and pretend my 3-year-old is the one that digs your lion-combining awesomeness. I managed to sneak a sword onto the fireplace mantle, though. We'll see how long it lasts. Perhaps I'll just need to pull out all the goodies for D&D sessions.
Work is going great so far. I love it. I have never had a job where I actually enjoy going to work in the morning. It's amazing.
The first part of the final book of the Wheel of Time came out this week, and I picked it up off of audible.com, because I have too many other books to read and had credits available. During my commute (LOL less than 5 minutes now) I listened to the forward, where the new author, Brandon Sanderson (one of my new favorites, because of his incredible Mistborn series) talks about the Wheel of Time's influence on him, and especially its author, the amazing Robert Jordan. Sanderson talks about Jordan's death and the shock of it all, and of being chosen to complete the series. Honestly, that forward choked me up. I'm excited for the book. If anyone can pull it off, it's Brandon Sanderson.
I'm so thankful that Terry Goodkind wasn't chosen. He would have had Rand ranting about the evils of communism for entire chapters. I'm also thankful that George R. R. Martin wasn't chosen, because honestly he's not going to be around much longer and probably wouldn't have finished it. I want GRRM to keep working on his OWN series, which has a bazillion fans chomping at the bit.
Week update
Gads, it's been a hectic one. There's hardly been time to breathe around this joint. First off, work is in super uber turbo mode, because mortgage rates are ridiculously low these days. Anyway, that's work. Work is work. And it's worky.
Beyond that, school is school. And schooly. I had a presentation to give on monday, about dangerous children's products. It went well, and I'm glad it's over. Then, yesterday, I took the day off to do my second Land Use midterm. The awful thing took me 14 hours to complete.
See, I dispise take-home tests. A lot of people think they're better, more fun, easier...whatever. They're always more difficult. They're always more of a pain. The reason behind this is simple: When the whole class has the opportunity to take the thing home, the professor invariably makes it take a lot longer than a two-hour in-class exam. (See above 14-hour comment). Second, there are always uber lame gunners who will go completely overboard on a take-home exam, so the curve is hosed anyway. In the immortal words of my good friend Kristian, "D's get degrees". I'm sure he's never had a D in his whole life, but considering the apathy that's taken over our fourth-year-law-student brains, it seems like a good set of words to live by.
Speaking of Kristian, we (Kerry, Gwen and I, although Gwen was sleeping) went over to Kristian and Megan's house on Saturday night for the "Great American Light Beer Blind Taste Test". It was a lot of fun. We tasted and rated such wonderful beers as Mich Golden Light, Miller Lite, Coors Light, Bud Light, Stroh's Light, etc. There were 8 beers in all. I think that Kristian is secretly a salesman for Mich Golden Light. I like beer. I like them all. I'll just state once and for all, for the record, that Miller Lite is my Domestic Pilsner of choice, simply because it doesn't give me a headache or gas. A taste test revealed (unsurprisingly) that there were other beers that I liked the taste of better. It was a fun time, and something that we're going to repeat with some Domestic Heavies.
I started listening to the audio version of the first book of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, because he's doing the last book (well, now 3 books) of the Wheel of Time. I gotta say, this guy can write. The premise, in a nutshell, is that 1000 years ago there was a prophesied hero that would rise up and conquer the dark lord, but unlike a billion other epic fantasies, this prophesied hero lost. The bad guy took control, and now the land is a place where ash falls from the sky and flowers don't bloom. So far, it's a heist book, and the main characters aren't the typical fantasy cut-outs...they're a gang of theives. There's no epic quest, there's an epic job. However, the real selling point for me is how effing cool the magic system is in this book. That's all I'll say on that. You'll have to read it to find out. ;)
Beyond that, school is school. And schooly. I had a presentation to give on monday, about dangerous children's products. It went well, and I'm glad it's over. Then, yesterday, I took the day off to do my second Land Use midterm. The awful thing took me 14 hours to complete.
See, I dispise take-home tests. A lot of people think they're better, more fun, easier...whatever. They're always more difficult. They're always more of a pain. The reason behind this is simple: When the whole class has the opportunity to take the thing home, the professor invariably makes it take a lot longer than a two-hour in-class exam. (See above 14-hour comment). Second, there are always uber lame gunners who will go completely overboard on a take-home exam, so the curve is hosed anyway. In the immortal words of my good friend Kristian, "D's get degrees". I'm sure he's never had a D in his whole life, but considering the apathy that's taken over our fourth-year-law-student brains, it seems like a good set of words to live by.
Speaking of Kristian, we (Kerry, Gwen and I, although Gwen was sleeping) went over to Kristian and Megan's house on Saturday night for the "Great American Light Beer Blind Taste Test". It was a lot of fun. We tasted and rated such wonderful beers as Mich Golden Light, Miller Lite, Coors Light, Bud Light, Stroh's Light, etc. There were 8 beers in all. I think that Kristian is secretly a salesman for Mich Golden Light. I like beer. I like them all. I'll just state once and for all, for the record, that Miller Lite is my Domestic Pilsner of choice, simply because it doesn't give me a headache or gas. A taste test revealed (unsurprisingly) that there were other beers that I liked the taste of better. It was a fun time, and something that we're going to repeat with some Domestic Heavies.
I started listening to the audio version of the first book of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, because he's doing the last book (well, now 3 books) of the Wheel of Time. I gotta say, this guy can write. The premise, in a nutshell, is that 1000 years ago there was a prophesied hero that would rise up and conquer the dark lord, but unlike a billion other epic fantasies, this prophesied hero lost. The bad guy took control, and now the land is a place where ash falls from the sky and flowers don't bloom. So far, it's a heist book, and the main characters aren't the typical fantasy cut-outs...they're a gang of theives. There's no epic quest, there's an epic job. However, the real selling point for me is how effing cool the magic system is in this book. That's all I'll say on that. You'll have to read it to find out. ;)
Home again, home again
Well, we made it back. The week in Grand Cayman was fantastic, but all good things must end, and therefore the vacation did as well. I've already touched on some highlights, but I'll go through it again, just to be concise. ;^)
We flew out way too early in the morning, but the flight went well and was fairly uneventful. Eventually we reached our destination, the one-runway airport in George Town, Grand Cayman. The process of going through customs was long, because there were three airplaines that had landed in close proximity. Still, the weather was amazing and our tired spirits were high.
After customs, we hopped in a taxi to our hotel. The driving is on the left side of the road, which threw us all for a loop. Guaranteed, if we were to have tried driving, we'd all be dead by now. As it stands, we're all just almost dead, due to automatically looking the wrong direction for oncoming traffic when crossing the street.
Our hotel was awesome. The rooms were beautiful, the service was excellent, and the beach was spectacular. I've been in a lot of very nice hotels in my life, and this ranks right up there. Not the best I've been in, but very very nice. (Lah de dah, right? Don't get me wrong there, this hotel was fantastic).
We spent most of our days at the beach drinking, but there were a couple of days that were too windy for beach-sitting, which made perfect days for exploring George Town and the aforementioned trek down the Mastic Trail.
On day two, we went to a bar down the beach for supper. (There aren't all-inclusive places in G.C., which makes for a lot of expense, but also lets you really get to know the town and check out a bunch of cool and different things). This is the bar mentione a bit ago in my post during the vacation. A funny exchange here involved Kristian, who was fairly soused on Bushmill's.
Kristian: Do you like Irish Whiskey?
Irish Guy: Faugh! No way!
Kristian: What?? Seriously?
Irish Guy: Well, do you like Budweiser?
Kristian: Well...no.
Irish Guy: There you go. *lifts high his bottle of Budweiser*
We took a cruise on a pirate ship, and it was amazing. I had too much to drink. This is not surprising, since it was open bar all night and georgeous. I channelled my inner pirate, and although it made the morning less than ideal, due to ample amounts of vitamin B-12 I was able to avoid too terrible a hangover.
The sun takes a lot out of you, and we ended up going to bed (falling asleep usually, not passing out) around 10:30 (9:30 Central). Too funny. Of course we'd wake up around 7:00 am every day (6:00 Central) so it all evens out.
The flight back also went smoothly, although we cut it a little close in Atlanta. We made the final boarding call, however. I was a little self-conscious about reading a Forgotten Realms genre novel on the plane, until I noticed that the row ahead of me went, in order, Guy reading a Star Wars book, Girl reading Twilight, Girl reading Fellowship of the Ring. I felt right at home, and hoisted Waterdeep with pride.
So now we're home. We missed our girl, and she missed us. It was super fun to see her squeal with delight when we walked through the door.
Now my agendas (other than school, of course) are a) finding somewhere to buy Caybrew and Tortuga Rum in the U.S., and b) gearing up for the Flock of Kobolds party on Saturday.
We flew out way too early in the morning, but the flight went well and was fairly uneventful. Eventually we reached our destination, the one-runway airport in George Town, Grand Cayman. The process of going through customs was long, because there were three airplaines that had landed in close proximity. Still, the weather was amazing and our tired spirits were high.
After customs, we hopped in a taxi to our hotel. The driving is on the left side of the road, which threw us all for a loop. Guaranteed, if we were to have tried driving, we'd all be dead by now. As it stands, we're all just almost dead, due to automatically looking the wrong direction for oncoming traffic when crossing the street.
Our hotel was awesome. The rooms were beautiful, the service was excellent, and the beach was spectacular. I've been in a lot of very nice hotels in my life, and this ranks right up there. Not the best I've been in, but very very nice. (Lah de dah, right? Don't get me wrong there, this hotel was fantastic).
We spent most of our days at the beach drinking, but there were a couple of days that were too windy for beach-sitting, which made perfect days for exploring George Town and the aforementioned trek down the Mastic Trail.
On day two, we went to a bar down the beach for supper. (There aren't all-inclusive places in G.C., which makes for a lot of expense, but also lets you really get to know the town and check out a bunch of cool and different things). This is the bar mentione a bit ago in my post during the vacation. A funny exchange here involved Kristian, who was fairly soused on Bushmill's.
Kristian: Do you like Irish Whiskey?
Irish Guy: Faugh! No way!
Kristian: What?? Seriously?
Irish Guy: Well, do you like Budweiser?
Kristian: Well...no.
Irish Guy: There you go. *lifts high his bottle of Budweiser*
We took a cruise on a pirate ship, and it was amazing. I had too much to drink. This is not surprising, since it was open bar all night and georgeous. I channelled my inner pirate, and although it made the morning less than ideal, due to ample amounts of vitamin B-12 I was able to avoid too terrible a hangover.
The sun takes a lot out of you, and we ended up going to bed (falling asleep usually, not passing out) around 10:30 (9:30 Central). Too funny. Of course we'd wake up around 7:00 am every day (6:00 Central) so it all evens out.
The flight back also went smoothly, although we cut it a little close in Atlanta. We made the final boarding call, however. I was a little self-conscious about reading a Forgotten Realms genre novel on the plane, until I noticed that the row ahead of me went, in order, Guy reading a Star Wars book, Girl reading Twilight, Girl reading Fellowship of the Ring. I felt right at home, and hoisted Waterdeep with pride.
So now we're home. We missed our girl, and she missed us. It was super fun to see her squeal with delight when we walked through the door.
Now my agendas (other than school, of course) are a) finding somewhere to buy Caybrew and Tortuga Rum in the U.S., and b) gearing up for the Flock of Kobolds party on Saturday.
Nerding!
I adore Half Price Books. I just discovered this store for the first time, and it's freaking awesome. I walked into the store, specifically looking for an item of nerdery (in other words, an item so powerful that it makes the bearer an instant nerd.) I perused the shelves of paperbacks, and there it was: The second book of the avatar series. Yep. A D&D genre novel.
I'm going on vacation later, and I've learned in the past that taking giant bomber 1000 page epic books isn't the best idea. Gripping, yes, but when I'm on vacation, soaking up the rays of Grand Cayman, I actually want to read something that's completely mindless. Therefore, I'm getting some cheezy 300 page paperbacks, and it's going to be freaking awesome.
I just started the third book of the Emberverse series (also known as the Dies the Fire series) by S. M. Stirling. These books are so freaking full of win. I know that the idea of all modern technology suddenly stopping and everyone having to revert to medieval processes is a little far fetched, but you have to admit that it's a belief at the very core of every D&D player. Admit it: You'd like to see what would happen if suddenly everyone had to use bows and swords and horses and the like. This book series properly displays the absolute chaos that would occur. I recommend it highly, and will lend the novels on a first-come, first serve basis.
I'm playing some D&D on Friday night. WOOHOO Here comes super-nerd, flying into the sunset! Hooray! I can't wait.
Last but not least, after successfully beating both Mega Man and Castlevania 2 last week, I downloaded Castlevania 3 (a game that I remember from my youth but have never completed). It's not nearly as good as Castlevania 2, because it reverts back to the style of Castlevania 1 (level, boss, level, boss, etc. instead of the free form of CV2.) I'm a sucker for things Castlevania, though, and I'm enjoying it. It's also the debut of Alucard in a video game, and he goes on to pwn in Symphony of the Night, another fantastic installment of the series.
I'm going on vacation later, and I've learned in the past that taking giant bomber 1000 page epic books isn't the best idea. Gripping, yes, but when I'm on vacation, soaking up the rays of Grand Cayman, I actually want to read something that's completely mindless. Therefore, I'm getting some cheezy 300 page paperbacks, and it's going to be freaking awesome.
I just started the third book of the Emberverse series (also known as the Dies the Fire series) by S. M. Stirling. These books are so freaking full of win. I know that the idea of all modern technology suddenly stopping and everyone having to revert to medieval processes is a little far fetched, but you have to admit that it's a belief at the very core of every D&D player. Admit it: You'd like to see what would happen if suddenly everyone had to use bows and swords and horses and the like. This book series properly displays the absolute chaos that would occur. I recommend it highly, and will lend the novels on a first-come, first serve basis.
I'm playing some D&D on Friday night. WOOHOO Here comes super-nerd, flying into the sunset! Hooray! I can't wait.
Last but not least, after successfully beating both Mega Man and Castlevania 2 last week, I downloaded Castlevania 3 (a game that I remember from my youth but have never completed). It's not nearly as good as Castlevania 2, because it reverts back to the style of Castlevania 1 (level, boss, level, boss, etc. instead of the free form of CV2.) I'm a sucker for things Castlevania, though, and I'm enjoying it. It's also the debut of Alucard in a video game, and he goes on to pwn in Symphony of the Night, another fantastic installment of the series.
What up, player?
I have ONE final left tomorrow, and studying for it is getting old. I've got such a complete and total lack of motivation for school right now that powering through my studying is becoming a real chore. I can only imagine how hard it's going to be in May, when the sun is shining and the birds are chirping and it's my last set of finals ever. (Besides the dreaded Bar Exam, of course.)
One good thing about next semester is that I've successfully registered for classes that are basically fluff. So that rules. I'm excited for some good old fashioned slackin'. Coming from a guy whose current semester allowed him sufficient time to write a novel in a month, saying that I have fluff classes next semester is saying a lot. Hopefully it's actually true. Heh.
On a totally different note, my friend Lukas was interviewed on NPR yesterday, regarding the mortgage industry. If you didn't get a chance to check out the interview, here it is. It's very interesting and informative, and it (*gasp!* I know that this next sentence will be shocking) actually makes me happy about my current job. I don't have to do any cross-selling, nor do I get any incentives for getting someone into a product that they don't need. Woot for credit unions. (I still don't bank here, though, because I don't poop where I eat. LOL.)
During my finals week, my limited spare time has been spent sneaking snippets of the Twilight series. I'm forced to admit that I really liked the first book. It's the teen girl in me, as previously discussed. The second is equally gripping, although for much different reasons. Most of it is kind of irritating me, honestly. Vampires rule, werewolves drool.
On the subject of the undead and lycanthropy, it's freakin' D&D time on Friday! WOOOOHOOOO! I'm super excited for that shizzle. I've got quite the crew coming over to throw down. I've since moved my keg of porter into the basement, so it's a nice temperature and easily accessable by players that want to get rowdy. (Taking that sentence out of context would be funny for the use of the word "player". Like "playah!" Yeeuh. Unfortunately IN context it denotes a player of the lovely game of Dungeons and Dragons. Aww yeeuh, thugg life.)
One good thing about next semester is that I've successfully registered for classes that are basically fluff. So that rules. I'm excited for some good old fashioned slackin'. Coming from a guy whose current semester allowed him sufficient time to write a novel in a month, saying that I have fluff classes next semester is saying a lot. Hopefully it's actually true. Heh.
On a totally different note, my friend Lukas was interviewed on NPR yesterday, regarding the mortgage industry. If you didn't get a chance to check out the interview, here it is. It's very interesting and informative, and it (*gasp!* I know that this next sentence will be shocking) actually makes me happy about my current job. I don't have to do any cross-selling, nor do I get any incentives for getting someone into a product that they don't need. Woot for credit unions. (I still don't bank here, though, because I don't poop where I eat. LOL.)
During my finals week, my limited spare time has been spent sneaking snippets of the Twilight series. I'm forced to admit that I really liked the first book. It's the teen girl in me, as previously discussed. The second is equally gripping, although for much different reasons. Most of it is kind of irritating me, honestly. Vampires rule, werewolves drool.
On the subject of the undead and lycanthropy, it's freakin' D&D time on Friday! WOOOOHOOOO! I'm super excited for that shizzle. I've got quite the crew coming over to throw down. I've since moved my keg of porter into the basement, so it's a nice temperature and easily accessable by players that want to get rowdy. (Taking that sentence out of context would be funny for the use of the word "player". Like "playah!" Yeeuh. Unfortunately IN context it denotes a player of the lovely game of Dungeons and Dragons. Aww yeeuh, thugg life.)
The world is a vampire
OK, I'll admit it. I started reading Twilight. There are a number of reasons behind this move. First, I like to keep abreast of the pulse of the nation's young readers. Harry Potter is still a hero of mine. Next, I've been told by several people, all of whom I greatly respect, that it's a very good book. Also, there's a movie now, and I really would rather read the book before seeing it. (Not to mention the fact that the time spent reading the book will allow the gushing teenage girls to clear the heck out of the freaking movie theather and allow me to enjoy the film sans cell phones and giggling.) Last and certainly not least, I love vampires. I think they make for dang cool characters.
The story behind my reading it is actually kind of funny as well. I went to Target and saw it on the shelf, and meekly asked my wife if I could purchase the book. She agreed, reluctantly. I was in the middle of a different book (World Without End by Ken Follett) and writing my own novel, so Kerry figured that I wouldn't get to Twilight for a while. (A week, as it turns out. Anywho...) So, Kerry picked it up. She was on to the second book in the series by the next day, and is now reading the third. I respect her opinion more than anyone else's, so yeah. I started reading it. (Funny, I had made up my mind to read it before she picked it up, and I purchased it for myself. Whatever. Hee hee.)
I'm only a couple hundred pages in at the moment, and I must say that it's a very good story so far. This goes back to me liking vampires. I'm forced to admit that I'm also a sucker for high school melodrama, so here I am, enjoying a book that's really intended for girls that are half my age. I shouldn't even put that sentence on the Internet, sheesh, people might get the wrong idea.
Back to World Without End, the other book that I just finished. This is the sequel to Pillars of the Earth, and it's more of the same. Pillars of the Earth is a thousand page bomber about building a cathedral in medieval England. They way that Follett writes these is kind of roller-coaster style, with each chapter ending with a new catastrophe. After 50 catastrophes it honestly starts getting more than a little old. I don't know why I read the sequel, but I did.
Still, there's something about the way that he writes that makes even a 1000-page brick read rather quickly. It's good writing. It just makes you feel so bad for these people and all of their stupidity and catastrophes.
The second book can stand alone, as it takes place a few hundred years later. It's the same town, and this time we have the added bonus catastrophe of the freakin' plague. Good times.
The story behind my reading it is actually kind of funny as well. I went to Target and saw it on the shelf, and meekly asked my wife if I could purchase the book. She agreed, reluctantly. I was in the middle of a different book (World Without End by Ken Follett) and writing my own novel, so Kerry figured that I wouldn't get to Twilight for a while. (A week, as it turns out. Anywho...) So, Kerry picked it up. She was on to the second book in the series by the next day, and is now reading the third. I respect her opinion more than anyone else's, so yeah. I started reading it. (Funny, I had made up my mind to read it before she picked it up, and I purchased it for myself. Whatever. Hee hee.)
I'm only a couple hundred pages in at the moment, and I must say that it's a very good story so far. This goes back to me liking vampires. I'm forced to admit that I'm also a sucker for high school melodrama, so here I am, enjoying a book that's really intended for girls that are half my age. I shouldn't even put that sentence on the Internet, sheesh, people might get the wrong idea.
Back to World Without End, the other book that I just finished. This is the sequel to Pillars of the Earth, and it's more of the same. Pillars of the Earth is a thousand page bomber about building a cathedral in medieval England. They way that Follett writes these is kind of roller-coaster style, with each chapter ending with a new catastrophe. After 50 catastrophes it honestly starts getting more than a little old. I don't know why I read the sequel, but I did.
Still, there's something about the way that he writes that makes even a 1000-page brick read rather quickly. It's good writing. It just makes you feel so bad for these people and all of their stupidity and catastrophes.
The second book can stand alone, as it takes place a few hundred years later. It's the same town, and this time we have the added bonus catastrophe of the freakin' plague. Good times.
Wowzers, I'm tired.
I am bone tired, but I finally got the paper done yesterday. I had stayed up until 1:00 on monday night writing the dang thing, and then I woke up at 5:45 the next morning to continue working. I was done as done is gonna get at about noon yesterday, and turned it in last night. I wish I would have gotten more sleep last night -- I went to bed decently early, but my daughter decided that she wanted to wake up at 5:30 this morning. Sweet. So yeah...I'm a tad weary this morning.
On the upside, if any of you want to know anything about the legality of gestational surrogacy contracts, just talk to me. I'll pretend to know what I'm talking about. Stupid paper.
Last night I watched the sneak peeks of "Legend of the Seeker" that were available on iTunes. I was disappointed, but I'll still watch it. When I've invested so much time into reading a book series, I don't like to see a screen representation completely change the story. I understand taking some liberties and whatnot, but from the relatively small amount that I've seen, it looks like they're really gonna change this one. (Umm, no magic of Orden mentioned at all? Kahlan has the Book of Counted Shadows? Richard doesn't know Zedd all that well? What?)
Sorry, I burst into a bit of nerdery there. Like I said, I'll still watch it. Part of my problem with the sneak peek things was that one of them was hosted by Lucy Lawless, and I couldn't help but laugh my arse off every time she came on the screen. Poor thing, she's got nothing better to do. Oh well. Visually, the show was pretty cool. ***slight spoiler*** However, they changed Darken Rahl's hair color to brown, (which makes him look just like Richard...ooh teh foreshadoweeng!) ***/slight spoiler***
The thing that really bugged me was when Terry Goodkind himself came on the screen and said that this story "has become a tale for every generation". What? Don't fluff yourself so much, dude -- the last three books rrrrrrrrrrrrrrreally sucked. And you're ugly. OK that was low.
After billions of recommendations from friends, I finally picked up American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It's excellent so far. Very cool concept.
On the upside, if any of you want to know anything about the legality of gestational surrogacy contracts, just talk to me. I'll pretend to know what I'm talking about. Stupid paper.
Last night I watched the sneak peeks of "Legend of the Seeker" that were available on iTunes. I was disappointed, but I'll still watch it. When I've invested so much time into reading a book series, I don't like to see a screen representation completely change the story. I understand taking some liberties and whatnot, but from the relatively small amount that I've seen, it looks like they're really gonna change this one. (Umm, no magic of Orden mentioned at all? Kahlan has the Book of Counted Shadows? Richard doesn't know Zedd all that well? What?)
Sorry, I burst into a bit of nerdery there. Like I said, I'll still watch it. Part of my problem with the sneak peek things was that one of them was hosted by Lucy Lawless, and I couldn't help but laugh my arse off every time she came on the screen. Poor thing, she's got nothing better to do. Oh well. Visually, the show was pretty cool. ***slight spoiler*** However, they changed Darken Rahl's hair color to brown, (which makes him look just like Richard...ooh teh foreshadoweeng!) ***/slight spoiler***
The thing that really bugged me was when Terry Goodkind himself came on the screen and said that this story "has become a tale for every generation". What? Don't fluff yourself so much, dude -- the last three books rrrrrrrrrrrrrrreally sucked. And you're ugly. OK that was low.
After billions of recommendations from friends, I finally picked up American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It's excellent so far. Very cool concept.
I'm old!
They're married! Rhyno and Meghan tied the knot this weekend in a beautiful ceremony and a superfun reception. I was successful in most of my best-manly duties, and gave what I thought was a pretty darn good speech. The day was a lot of fun, and I offer sincere congratulations to both of them. Have fun in Cabo.
Yesterday was the anniversary of my birth. I am now officially 32. Funny, I don't feel a day older than 31. Har har har. It was a pretty low-key day, as the mornings after big weddings usually are. I took my tux back, did some hanging out with my parents, racked my mead, played some video games, read some more geek book, and watched most of a movie with Kerry. It was nice.
Kerry got me a kegging system! This means, ladies and gentlemen, that I will have my own homebrew on tap at my house. That is sofa king cool. No more running upstairs for beer during D&D sessions. Oh no! Just reach over to yon tap and fill thy frothing mug with ale! My lovely wifey also got me a Flogging Molly T-Shirt, because she rules.
Yesterday afternoon, our 2nd realtor came over after having done a market analysis. It was like night and day compared to the first lady that came (see previous post). The news was much more to our favor, and this lady really has her stuff together. The last chick seems to have been doing exactly what I thought: Trying to get a quick, small payment now rather than wait out the winter. Well, good luck to her in her endeavors, she won't be selling our house.
It sucks to be back at work, because the weekend went by like lightning. That's always the problem with a power-packed weekend. So, here goes. Time to work.
Yesterday was the anniversary of my birth. I am now officially 32. Funny, I don't feel a day older than 31. Har har har. It was a pretty low-key day, as the mornings after big weddings usually are. I took my tux back, did some hanging out with my parents, racked my mead, played some video games, read some more geek book, and watched most of a movie with Kerry. It was nice.
Kerry got me a kegging system! This means, ladies and gentlemen, that I will have my own homebrew on tap at my house. That is sofa king cool. No more running upstairs for beer during D&D sessions. Oh no! Just reach over to yon tap and fill thy frothing mug with ale! My lovely wifey also got me a Flogging Molly T-Shirt, because she rules.
Yesterday afternoon, our 2nd realtor came over after having done a market analysis. It was like night and day compared to the first lady that came (see previous post). The news was much more to our favor, and this lady really has her stuff together. The last chick seems to have been doing exactly what I thought: Trying to get a quick, small payment now rather than wait out the winter. Well, good luck to her in her endeavors, she won't be selling our house.
It sucks to be back at work, because the weekend went by like lightning. That's always the problem with a power-packed weekend. So, here goes. Time to work.
Fancy dinners and Star Wars elitism
Kerry and I had a nice dinner last night, in celebration of our seven-year anniversary. We went to Bacio, an Italian restaurant near Ridgedale, and stuffed ourselves silly. It’s amazing how much I now appreciate going out for a nice dinner with just my wife, after having a kid. Don’t get me wrong, I love Gwennerz to pieces and love spending time with her, but it’s very nice to take a break every once in a while. Anyway, if you want a nice dinner I recommend the place, the food was excellent.
In my hasty weekend update I forgot to mention that Kerry and I took Friday off to go see the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum. It was really neat, but we weren’t able to spend as much time there as I had thought we would. That’s fine -- I got to see everything I wanted to see. Perhaps I’m a bad person, but I started feeling a little bit elitist about the whole thing. I liken it to the feeling that a person who went and saw Jerry Garcia play with the Grateful Dead 120 times must feel when he sees a 13-year-old kid wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt. Kind of a “Move over kid, and let me see Chewbacca…I was there, man, I saw it live” thing. I mean, there was a kid – about six years old, I’d say -- listening to his grandmother tell him about the Millennium Falcon. She was saying, “Ooh, this is the space station from the movie,”. GRRRRRR DOUBLE-FAULT! Now this kid (who wasn’t even there, mannn!) is being poisoned by the drivel coming out of the mouth of his ignorant grandmother (who also wasn’t there). Sorry for the rant, these things are dear to me.
Also -- and this is a note to parents everywhere – I am taking a picture of Darth Vader. I am not taking a picture of your kid. Your kid doesn’t know better, but you do. Kindly remove your kid from my Darth Vader shot, otherwise it will completely ruin my ability to capture the look of scorn and hope of redemption from his glossy visage.
One last gripe -- the Omni Theater showed a movie with the Star Wars exhibit. This movie was called "Special Effects". It was from freaking 1996 or so. It showed the filming of "new scenes for the Star Wars movies" and "a new blockbuster called Independence Day" and movie magic from freaking "Kazaam" starring Shaq. Seriously people, that stuff is over a decade old. Science changes in that time...especially the science of special effects. Come on, Science Museum. You can do better.
Keeping on the subject of being a dork, I was in Borders the other day and simply could not resist picking up a copy of “Shadowdale” by…some author. It’s a Forgotten Realms book. Yeah…I’m a dork who occasionally dips really deep into the murky pool of genre novels, but D&D books are good clean fun that can’t be replicated by…well, by better writers, really. Back off, man. I love it. Yes, I’ll lend it to you when I’m finished. ;^)
Last but not least, I got me a cork for my bunghole. That is seriously funny to me. So…maybe some mead will be made tonight. We’ll see.
In my hasty weekend update I forgot to mention that Kerry and I took Friday off to go see the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum. It was really neat, but we weren’t able to spend as much time there as I had thought we would. That’s fine -- I got to see everything I wanted to see. Perhaps I’m a bad person, but I started feeling a little bit elitist about the whole thing. I liken it to the feeling that a person who went and saw Jerry Garcia play with the Grateful Dead 120 times must feel when he sees a 13-year-old kid wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt. Kind of a “Move over kid, and let me see Chewbacca…I was there, man, I saw it live” thing. I mean, there was a kid – about six years old, I’d say -- listening to his grandmother tell him about the Millennium Falcon. She was saying, “Ooh, this is the space station from the movie,”. GRRRRRR DOUBLE-FAULT! Now this kid (who wasn’t even there, mannn!) is being poisoned by the drivel coming out of the mouth of his ignorant grandmother (who also wasn’t there). Sorry for the rant, these things are dear to me.
Also -- and this is a note to parents everywhere – I am taking a picture of Darth Vader. I am not taking a picture of your kid. Your kid doesn’t know better, but you do. Kindly remove your kid from my Darth Vader shot, otherwise it will completely ruin my ability to capture the look of scorn and hope of redemption from his glossy visage.
One last gripe -- the Omni Theater showed a movie with the Star Wars exhibit. This movie was called "Special Effects". It was from freaking 1996 or so. It showed the filming of "new scenes for the Star Wars movies" and "a new blockbuster called Independence Day" and movie magic from freaking "Kazaam" starring Shaq. Seriously people, that stuff is over a decade old. Science changes in that time...especially the science of special effects. Come on, Science Museum. You can do better.
Keeping on the subject of being a dork, I was in Borders the other day and simply could not resist picking up a copy of “Shadowdale” by…some author. It’s a Forgotten Realms book. Yeah…I’m a dork who occasionally dips really deep into the murky pool of genre novels, but D&D books are good clean fun that can’t be replicated by…well, by better writers, really. Back off, man. I love it. Yes, I’ll lend it to you when I’m finished. ;^)
Last but not least, I got me a cork for my bunghole. That is seriously funny to me. So…maybe some mead will be made tonight. We’ll see.
Saturday!
I have no class today, and that's just a billion kinds of awesome. It's been a nice relaxing day so far, with a trip to a nature center in Bloomington and a target run. Now I'm bopping between playing WoW and reading more Confessor.
The more I read (as I knew would happen) the more I loathe this book. This is the way of every single Goodkind novel past about #5 in the series. Why can't he write a book that I just enjoy the whole way through? It escapes me. I always like them (enough to go on to the next book, at least) when I finish them -- the endings are much better than the rest of the crap written on the pages. I swear, I could abridge this one into a 20 page short story just by taking out the unnecessary crap. This makes me read the books incredibly slowly, as I have no motivation to continue with the story at all. So anyway, I'm only a little over 1/2 done.
This is my version of the thought pattern that Goodkind must have had when deciding what to write about:
"Hmm, I need to do something original. I know! I'll make Kahlan be separated from Richard! Crap, did that already. I know! I'll fill pages with dialogue about life being important! Crap, did that alread. I know! I'll have Nicci get raped some more! Oh crap. Did that already too. Short chapters with Rachel being chased? Aww crap, did that already too. Um...OH! I'll mention what a bunch of brutes the Imperial Order is! Crap. Did that already. Hmm...what to do, what to do?
"I know!!! I'll just throw all of that crap in there and make it a book about football."
Yep. That's what he did.
Sigh.
Thoughts on writers
I finished the fourth book of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, and I was thoroughly impressed. There are only four books to the series thus far, unfortunately, so now I’m forced to chomp at the bit waiting for the next one. In the interim, I’m stuck with Terry Goodkind.
Here’s the deal with Terry Goodkind. Actually, there are several “deals” with T.G., and I’ll probably rant about it for a while. Heh. I started reading this series when I was in college. It wasn’t the first epic fantasy series that I’d ever read, but it was my favorite at the time. The books were fantastic, engaging, and interesting. That changed drastically, unfortunately.
I’ve stuck with the series, because I feel like I’ve invested a good portion of my life to finding out how this saga ends. The series has become something terrible, though. There are little things that annoy me about it, and big things that annoy me about it. For example, he tends to write tons and tons of one-sentence paragraphs in a feeble attempt at suspense. This is a relatively “little thing” in the grand scheme of things, but it’s still annoying.
The result looks like this.
See how dumb that was? There was no reason for that sentence to hang there like that. It’s stupid. Oh well. I recognize the difference between being a critical guy that writes a blog and being a huge bestselling author. It’s not going to stop me from making fun of the guy.
One BIG problem with what these books have become is that he keeps rehashing all of the same old crap. He has multi-page sections of people giving a speech about how life is your own and about how evil the “Imperial Order” (giant antagonist army) is and blah blah blah. The problem is that we’re now at the eleventh book in the series, and these rants have taken place before, almost verbatim, at least 7 times. YEAH DUDE! WE’VE READ THAT ALREADY. Another big problem is that the plot of every one of his books is the same: The main characters get separated from each other, something horrible happens, Richard has to find out some new way to use his magic to make everything better. AGAIN, ALREADY READ THAT ELEVEN TIMES.
At this point he spends a full third of the books talking about the crap that happened in the last books. I understand the necessity of doing that, just in case someone is stupid enough to have started on book eleven. T.G. could do it more concisely. Robert Jordan packs all of that into a prologue. Granted, R.J.’s prologues became enormous monstrosities by his last book of the Wheel of Time. Time will tell if the surrogate author chosen to finish that series continues that crap. R.I.P., Mr. Jordan. You were my favorite. ANYWAY…
I guess the point of this is that if you like epic fantasy and haven’t read any George R.R. Martin, you owe it to yourself to pick up A Game Of Thrones and prepare yourself for a whole lot of awesome. It is hands down the best fantasy series I’ve ever read, so far.
Here’s the deal with Terry Goodkind. Actually, there are several “deals” with T.G., and I’ll probably rant about it for a while. Heh. I started reading this series when I was in college. It wasn’t the first epic fantasy series that I’d ever read, but it was my favorite at the time. The books were fantastic, engaging, and interesting. That changed drastically, unfortunately.
I’ve stuck with the series, because I feel like I’ve invested a good portion of my life to finding out how this saga ends. The series has become something terrible, though. There are little things that annoy me about it, and big things that annoy me about it. For example, he tends to write tons and tons of one-sentence paragraphs in a feeble attempt at suspense. This is a relatively “little thing” in the grand scheme of things, but it’s still annoying.
The result looks like this.
See how dumb that was? There was no reason for that sentence to hang there like that. It’s stupid. Oh well. I recognize the difference between being a critical guy that writes a blog and being a huge bestselling author. It’s not going to stop me from making fun of the guy.
One BIG problem with what these books have become is that he keeps rehashing all of the same old crap. He has multi-page sections of people giving a speech about how life is your own and about how evil the “Imperial Order” (giant antagonist army) is and blah blah blah. The problem is that we’re now at the eleventh book in the series, and these rants have taken place before, almost verbatim, at least 7 times. YEAH DUDE! WE’VE READ THAT ALREADY. Another big problem is that the plot of every one of his books is the same: The main characters get separated from each other, something horrible happens, Richard has to find out some new way to use his magic to make everything better. AGAIN, ALREADY READ THAT ELEVEN TIMES.
At this point he spends a full third of the books talking about the crap that happened in the last books. I understand the necessity of doing that, just in case someone is stupid enough to have started on book eleven. T.G. could do it more concisely. Robert Jordan packs all of that into a prologue. Granted, R.J.’s prologues became enormous monstrosities by his last book of the Wheel of Time. Time will tell if the surrogate author chosen to finish that series continues that crap. R.I.P., Mr. Jordan. You were my favorite. ANYWAY…
I guess the point of this is that if you like epic fantasy and haven’t read any George R.R. Martin, you owe it to yourself to pick up A Game Of Thrones and prepare yourself for a whole lot of awesome. It is hands down the best fantasy series I’ve ever read, so far.
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