joy and shadows

Finally, we're home for a weekend.

The weather was crappy, so I was able to sit home without guilt. It's nice when that happens, because then husband isn't a pest about going outside and doing things. We're starting to get a taste of fall with the weather - it's always sad to be reminded that summer is almost over. Never mind that it's starting to be dark when we wake up. :P

Friday night was the Giants game. Eli Manning did NOT look all that great, but he did manage to get his shit together enough for one touchdown drive. About halfway through the third quarter, they put in Jared Lorenzen, who throws like a cannon and is about the size of a tank. I don't know how this kid ever gets sacked, he's so big (but he did get sacked twice.) I'm very fond of this guy and I'd love to see him get the backup position.

Had some confusion on Sat. about the time of my haircut/color - thought it was at 1:30, and it was at 11:30. The salon is really close by, so I was able to scurry down there and be a redhead again. Good thing too, b/c there aren't any afternoons this week where they're open and I'm free, so it would have meant waiting until we get home from Scotland. That night, we went to my aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary party. My parents were up from Florida for the occasion, and all I'm going to say about it is that I'm actually happier when I don't see them, because seeing them just reminds me of how hurt I still am over the whole move and how much I wish they hadn't gone and how much I miss them, and it is embarrassing to cry through the dessert end of the party.

We watched the F1 race on Sunday, and someone at Ferrari is going to get it, because a badly-timed call into the pits cost Schumacher second place (and by virtue of that, the lead, because Massa would have been under team orders to let him by.) Now he's two more points down rather than four points up. Later on I went out to Joann's to get material for Yoshi the Diva Bount's cosplay, and I had just about given up hope of finding a purple material I liked when there was some lovely sateen... for $8.99/yd. Oh well, thank goodness for coupons and gift cards. Husband made something like coq-au-vin for dinner, and it was much tasty, and I read the latest Bleach chapter and watched some Mushishi and it was a nice day.

Countdown to Scotland: four days.

Fake because this meme isn't circulating right now, although I've seen ones like it.

Post a comment and I'll post a song that reminds me of you (well, if I can think of one.)

Responses will be posted tomorrow b/c uploading from home is a chore, and that's where my CD collection is.

OMG this is totallie going to joss Sailor Moon.

Astronomers debating whether Pluto is a planet

Every summer, I get a chance to catch up on my reading. Here are the book reviews, from my pile to yours, in no particular order.

The Memory-Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

I can honestly say that I bought this book in Maine for lack of anything else to read. It was being hailed as the "beach read of the summer," and if that isn't warning bells, I don't know what is. The story centers around a doctor and his wife (circa 1950) who have twins in the middle of a blizzard, and the girl twin has Down syndrome. The doctor tells his wife the
girl died, and the nurse is supposed to take the girl to a home, but she runs off with the baby instead. The book is a character piece, a dreamy slow work full of misty emotional passages about how this Affects Everyone, and I found myself terrifically bored after a while. Maybe you have to be a mother.

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword by Ruth Benedict

This book is a cultural anthropological study of the Japanese post-WWII that was commissioned by the US government in order to better understand how to deal with the Japanese. The author writes without an agenda - there's no effort to rationalize how the Japanese behave, only "this is how it is." Particularly revealing are the sections on hierarchy and how the Japanese armies were absolutely boggled to find out that the people they were conquering weren't happy about it, and also the sections concerning the intricate and burdensome networks of obligations that the Japanese person must spend his/her life paying back - to one's parents, to one's peers, to one's teachers, to the emperor, etc (on, giri, gimu, ko, and so on.) I won't say we don't have similar feelings in the West, but they do not affect the American to nearly the same degree. It's pretty rare that my husband swipes a book from me, but he got his paws on this one before I was even done with it, and that says a lot.

Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling

Since I enjoyed the Tamir trilogy by Flewelling, I thought I'd try this trilogy, which is set hundreds of years afterwards. There's some medieval skulduggery and a lot of magical hand-waving, but the main thrust of this trilogy seems to be the blossoming romance between Alec and Seregil. Flewelling isn't the best at writing romance, and I've been around the fandoms too long to really want to read three books' worth of gay men wibbling like teenyboppers over First Love. Misty Lackey didn't break me in to the whole notion of homosexuality by writing seme/uke stereotypes, so I didn't bother moving backwards in my perceptions, and I won't be finishing this one.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Heartbreaking. Written in the hardlined Asian tradition of taking no prisoners where tragedy is concerned. The passages about how young Chinese girls had their feet bound made me nauseated, and yet the "golden lilies" were a ticket to a better future. The protagonist rises, her friend falls, and it's hard to call the ending happy. You all watch anime, you know what I mean.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

buttercup0222 introduced me to Neil Gaiman, and this book was supposed to be really really good, so I figured it'd make a good cruise read. All I can say is, FANTASTIC. Devoured this in three days, interspersed with my PADI manual. Intriguing concept: immigrants bring the ideas of their gods with them to America, and the gods manifest, but then the people believe in new things and stop believing in the old gods, and the old gods are left to make their own way. The book centers around a war between the old gods and the new gods (like media and electronics) and who's really driving the war and for what purpose. I'd say this was my recommended read of the summer, but I'd have to declare it a tie with the next entry.

Neuromancer by William Gibson

I'd understood that this book was a classic of the cyberpunk genre before picking it up, but I had no idea how revolutionary it was until I'd gotten about a quarter of the way through it and then checked the publication date - 1984. When the Internet was still a beepy thing that you might access with your phone line and boxy modem, if you had even heard of things like Prodigy. Neuromancer is complex and multilayered, and years ahead of its time, and you have to wonder how long it's going to be before people do start "jacking in" to the Internet the way the protagonist Case does. I'll probably have to reread the ending again because I don't quite understand the full relationship between 3Jane, Linda Lee, Molly, Wintermute, and Neuromancer, but it'll be a pleasure rather than a chore.

Red Azalea by Anchee Min

Anchee Min grew up in Communist China and wrote this autobiography after emigrating to the US. She starts out as an idealistic student who has memorized the propagandist operas of Comrade Jiang Ching and the sayings of Mao, and ends up finding the rot in the core of the regime. I was amazed by her descriptions of the people singing the highest praises of Chairman Mao even while his programs starved them to death - it was as if they'd traded one emperor for another. Some animals are more equal than others, as George Orwell wrote, and this book illustrates it in short, poignant, and often awkward prose.

Still have a couple books left to read, like Fateful Harvest, which my intern gave to me. I'm somewhat reluctant to read it because I'll probably feel like part of the problem afterwards, since I work for big chemical companies, but I feel like I should. Still, Fast Food Nation didn't do much for my appetite, so this might just further my current fantasy of selling it all and running a dive boat in the Caribbean. Ah well, they can't all be fun reads. :)

I'm writing this entry from on board the Explorer of the Seas, a gargantuan cruise ship. Husband and I are on a 9-day cruise to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, San Juan, and then Haiti. We haven't actually arrived anywhere yet - it's a 2.5-day sail to the first port of call - but it's been fun so far! So, this is why I haven't been answering mails or commenting, not at $0.50/minute.

See you when I get back!

It's a good thing that I REALLY want to do the PADI scuba course on the cruise, because they said you had to buy your own mask and snorkel, and when we went out to Hunterdon Scuba to buy one, the bill came to...

$300.00

That's almost as much as the damn COURSE.

Bad: Intern asked to go home again at 2:30. I let her have it. Have now enlisted boss's help to explain this whole revolutionary concept of JOB to her dazzled little head.

Bad part 2: Exploded a tube in the microwave apparatus again. O_O

Good: Joel from Raytheon invited husband and myself for a site tour of Raytheon on our way up to Maine. Would be a great move for him, and I wouldn't be too sad about moving to New England.

Good: We lost, but the softball game tonight was still fun.

Weird: Three of my coworkers are also taking cruises in August.

Hooray for: beers and hot wings after softball games! And also hearing other ppl's drunk stories. I only (plan to) have one so I have to live vicariously. Living vicariously also means you don't have run-ins with law enforcement.

Why is it that so many Sailor Moon cosplayers (specifically Usagi/Serena cosplayers) seem to have an undue amount of icons with their own face in 'em, usually photoshopped to look wistful/dreamy/whatever? Is there something about Usagi that attracts the narcissist, or are these folks (consciously or not) attempting to emulate the storied Madame Kou? From my (limited) memory of Sailor Moon, Usagi isn't the brightest bulb on the string, but I don't know whether the character is considered to have an unduly high opinion of herself.

Probably has more to do with the whole "star of the show" type deal you get in shoujo, but what's often conveniently forgotten is that the the chickie with the Super Duper Attack can't do jack shit without her supporting cast to beat up the bad guy to start.

Off to Montreal in a couple of hours.

I canNOT afford to be leaving work for any length of time, but I'm trying very hard to concentrate on VACATION and not so hard on OMG SO MUCH SHIT TO DO AND HAVE TO TRAIN INTERN AND STUFFS.

With any luck, the Frenchman in the Spider-Man outfit dancing the Robot will be around again this year, because one of the great regrets of my life is not getting a photo of that the last time. It was one of those things you cannot describe to your friends, because they will never believe you.

My fingers and toesies are painted a close approximation of the rosso scuderia color of a F1 Ferrari, the sunscreen is packed, and once again, it's time to pretend I'm stylish.

Onward!

I. FUCKING. HATE. IRONING. HAKAMA.

HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE.

That is all.