Books, Books, Books

Sat down and read all of the recently released Lord Sunday in one sitting. Last book in the series and it manages to put a new spin on what's been happening in the previous six books to the point I think I have to reread them. The Keys to the Kingdom series is pretty young adult and the books are pretty thin- it's one of those series I'd love to see rewritten as doorstops for a more adult audience.

And before that I read The Steel Remains which was on a blog post about all of the remake movies they're doing this year and next and what they could be making from books instead. Apparently there is going to be a new Highlander movie and that's my childhood so when the blogger said "make steel remains instead" I had to see what was so special about the book that it beats out my beloved Highlander. And as much as I love Highlander I'd rather see Ringil hacking things up on screen right now.

The Cobb County Library Book Sale yielded up an almost complete set of hardcover Vampire Chronicles (only need two more) and I've been rereading Interview with the Vampire. It's the book that besides the Narnia books owned my childhood. And its funny- there's moments I remember almost word for word in it, then there's parts I can never recall- like Babette. I always forget who she is. Louis is still very emo. I wish Vampire Lestat had been one of the other hardcovers I'd picked up- I'm almost done with Interview already and ready for Lestat to start behaving badly.

Clive Barker's Abarat series was supposed to have the third book out last summer (also the original release date for Lord Sunday before it was moved back) but I'm beginning to suspect it's never going to come out.

And I picked up but did not start rereading the first book in the Bloody Jack series. I read the first five in three days when I checked them out of the library a few years ago- Jack is actually Jackie whose family dies of plague (i think?) and she joins the Royal Navy while passing for a boy, fights pirates, becomes a horseman, gets sent to a boarding/charm school for young ladies, joins a whaling ship, falls in love with another sailor, ect, ect. Crazy nautical awesomesauce.



Look at the second to last job title in the subtitle of the novel. I'm pretty sure when I read to book five I'd only gotten to the soldier/sailor part. Now she's a mermaid. Or she was book before this.

MERMAID.

And I thought the book where she's a horseman was going to be badass.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

Curse of the ADD knitter

Having seen Jean's post about knitting I feel the need to blog about it too.

I have come to realize over the last few weeks of knitting that I am hardcore ADD about it. I have at least ten projects going at the moment, and I sort of move between them depending on what I'm interested in working on at the moment. Give me something I'm inspired with and I'll work on it day and night and get it done in three days.

Give me something I am not so inspired with and it will sit in my knitting crate for a year.

And lately (much to Mom's horror) I have been frogging those uninspiring things. Frogging is where you pull the needles out of the project, then rewind all the yarn out of it, then do something else with the yarn. I used to be afraid of doing that because of all the hardwork I'd put in. Now I'm just like, urg, I can use that yarn on something else. Or I want the needles back.

Which is nice. It saves yarn. And Mom makes this face like :O only so much better. You can tell she wants to take whatever I'm frogging away from me.

Anyway, long story short, I have two shawls going at the moment, a pair of gloves in sock weight yarn (oh god all of those tiny little stitches), a pair of gloves with cables, at least two scarves... And I have a pair of gloves to finish for one of my WriMos.

And then today, knowing all of that, I found a pattern for fingerless gloves where you embroider words on the knuckles and it made me think of one of the sailors in Master and Commander who has "HOLD FAST" tattooed on his knuckles. I go to look at the yarn, see there's some I have in my stash already, but they're in some gloves from two years ago that I have never worn or finished. When I get home those things are getting frogged. Now if I only knew how to embroider so I can do little ships and Here There Be Monsters things all over the rest of the gloves...

I can't believe I am going to admit this but...

I watched Bachelor this season. You know, On the Wings of Love.

God, this is so embarrassing.

Anyway. It's reality tv which doesn't mean it's reality. Which some people can't seem to understand. It's all cut and pasted and high drama.

For instance there were several commercials this season with Tinley in them crying and telling Jake, the Bachelor, that she's pregnant. Only *gasp* she had previously told him that she hadn't had sex with anyone since her ex-husband some impossible-baby-making time in the past.

Only it was never in the show. Seriously, she's not pregnant.

Who knows what it was, originally, but once it's added to the commercials and everyone is all OMG about it it cranks up viewers which is all that reality tv wants.

Now, on to the Rozlyn scandal. *Heavy Sarcasm* on the "scandal" part.

Supposedly the contestant Rozlyn got into a relationship with one of the producers and she was thrown off the show for it. You know, since she's supposed to be there for Jake. Only, where's the pics? Where's the footage? Oh gosh, there isn't any. All there is are what the other contestants saw.

Granted, I don't know any of these people so I have no idea who's lying, but...

Women are catty. Especially when they're in a group together. And that's what you have in the Bachelor house. And worse they're competing for Jake and that's a pretty good reason to back stab one of their own.

Part of what bothers me about what the girls have to say is a lot of it's over the top. Apparently Rozlyn and the Producer were making out on some stairs. And then another girl says she was Rozlyn's roommate and one night Rozlyn never showed up to sleep. And another girl says that Rozlyn was crawling around in short shorts telling the girls that if they saw the Producer they should tell him to come up and "tuck her in".

If you're carrying on a clandestine relationship when you're supposed to be fighting for the attention of another guy wouldn't you be a little more... clandestine about it?

And seriously, crawling around in short shorts?

Anyway, apparently I'm being naive about this, and sure, I'm totally willing to say it's possible the whole thing is true. I'm just saying it's funny there's no facts, no proof. And that there's a seemingly endless supply of sites online refuting the whole story as made up by The Bachelor to get more drama and attention for the show.

Anyway, whatever. Reality tv. It's crazy stuff.

Part of the reason I wanted to spend half an hour blogging about it is something else, another article I read online. Don't Confuse Them With Facts. I was going to blog about how good that article was before all of this, but hey.

In completely separate news I couldn't find any Bay Rum at the store so I've decided to make my own. Should be ready in two weeks.

Blah

Sort of stuck in writer's block. Even for blogging.

School isn't going well. In one class I keep having to change seats because mine is constantly taken. I started in seat a, for instance, then someone took it so I moved to seat b, which was then taken, so I moved to seat c... This happens every class. For two months now.

In latin we're learning very differently from how my latin 1 professor taught us which is causing problems.

My art history professor can't get things right. He seriously told us the Roman Empire began in year 0.

I didn't say anything because I'm sure I'd say it wrong- but the next class he'd gotten the dates right, so I guess someone did.

I have hit this stupid diet and excersize plateau. Work more = nothing happens. It's frustrating on a level only writer's block can compare to.

Saw this. Was instantly eaten up with envy.

Hrm

Things I learned yesterday:

-Watched Legion and Book of Eli. Book of Eli is a better movie, but I liked it less than Legion.

-Apparently I can't tell Paul Bettany apart from Jude Law.

-I guessed the plot twist in Book of Eli the first time I saw an ad for it. And I was right.

-The last thing you want to do is get in a wing fight with an archangel. Wings count as bladed weapons AND armor.

-Something went terribly wrong with the Superbowl ads.

-An iPod battery can become so empty it won't charge. Because it's empty and the iPod wants to boot, but the battery is empty. Repeat x10,000.

-The new Clash of the Titans looks so good I would sell a kidney to go see it right now.

Still Ghostwriting for Shakespeare

I had this crazy dream this morning that a lost Shakespeare play had been found. It was called "To Wit" and was about... This young man who was getting married and took all of his friends out to his country estate for revelry before the wedding. They were going to hunt for a week, and drink, and boast about things, and then the bride would show up with her family and friends, and the play would end with a wedding. Only the friends of the bride were going to marry the friends of the groom, and the play was much funnier than it sounds.

Part of the reason it was a 'lost' play was that Shakespeare had written it in secret and had half the men played by women, and half the women played by men. Most of the boasting and jokes had to do with gender roles and sexism.

I remember in the first part, once they'd all just arrived at the country estate two of the men, Gracen and... this guy who's name I can't recall, they get drunk and start boasting about how they're both such good hunters they don't have to stalk their prey, they just hide so well it comes to them. And Kiera Knightly was playing Gracen and I think Karl Urban was playing the guy who's name I can't remember. And they wind up in the yard of the estate, pointing to trees and barrels saying they could hide behind them so well no one would ever find them. At one point Gracen is hiding behind a lone wagon wheel he's propped up in the middle of a field and it's after dusk and they're drunk and the other guy can't find him in the dark so he wins the boast off...

It was the most hilarious thing I had ever seen.

And then Nikki started crying and hopping up and down on the bed wanting breakfast and you have no idea how furious I am I did not get to see the rest of the play.