I is for Identification
Not ID: that which establishes the identity of a person; but: to identify with. I finished the first book of Rachel Caine’s Outcast Season series yesterday and started the second one, and I find myself surprised to find that I am identifying more with the ex-Djinn (this is urban fantasy, roll with it) protagonist Cassiel than I do with Joanne, the human protagonist of the original Weather Warden series that Outcast Season has spun off from. Is that weird? I think that may be a little weird. But the thing is, while I like Joanne – and liked the glimpse of her we got in Undone (OS#1) through Cassiel’s eyes – she’s just too girly for me, I think. Joanne refers to shoe brands and car models that mean about as much to me as they probably would to Cassiel. Perhaps because more things have to be explained about Cassiel’s perspective on the world (whereas the reader is already assumed to have a common starting point with Jo?) as having been an “Old Djinn” who’d never even bothered before to take on a human shaped body, it’s easier to get inside her head. At any rate, I like her logic, and I like her developing relationships with the Rocha family. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of this series.
H (I knew I’d think of something later on) is also for HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! My brother is celebrating his 30th today. Yaaaaay! That’s 30 whole years I’ve managed to go without “accidentally” shoving him off a cliff. Our parents raised us right. Seriously, I love my little bro and think he’s all kinds of awesome (it probably helps that we have more in common than apparently looking rather alike). We’ve celebrated once this evening, and are doing so again at the weekend. I hope the weather is going to comply, since it’s supposed to be a barbeque…
H is for Help, I Can’t Think of Anything!
I’ll probably come up with a really excellent topic for the letter H in a day or two, but right now I can’t think of a thing. Well, maybe I’ll be inspired while I’m writing, you never know! And if I do think of something in a few days time, I can always slot it in as the next “extra day” entry.
Well, since I don’t have anything specific to talk about for this, I might as well have a ramble on about life in general. I’ve been over on goodreads.com updating my booklist. Rather annoyingly, since it’s only been three weeks (and where did that time go?!) I have a gap of about a week where I can’t remember what I was reading, but I’m sure I read something. At least one more book, in fact, because I remember thinking that I’d had another one to count into May’s total right on the last day or two of the month. Maybe I can ask my Mum or brother if I mentioned reading any book in particular around that time. It was definitely something I finished, too. Hmm. And probably something I had on my Palm already, not something recently loaded on, since I know which ones of those I’ve read. Gah, frustrating! Did I re-read something on a whim, which is why it’s not sticking in my head as something new? I don’t know!
In terms of reading, I think I need to make an effort to finish some of the eight (!) books I’m part way through right now. That’s just too many. I bet I can finish at least one before I go to bed tonight. I’m more than half way through several, or they’re not that long to start with. Or I could read one more of the short stories in the David Weber anthology. The doorsteppers will necessarily take a bit longer, but I keep putting off reading them in favour of other books. I need to start treating them like I am my knitting: no more casting on new projects / starting new books until I’ve finished the ones I have on the go already. And talking of knitting, if I listen to more audiobooks (including finishing the one I have in progress), I can do the both at the same time!
Book club beginnings
(Or, Non-alphabetical Post The First)
I’ve just got back from the first meeting of the new book club I was invited to, and I had lots of fun. Hooray! There were just five of us to start with, though some others might come along later on. So far, we have a tentative name, and we each suggested a book and drew them in random order which means that we’re reading Fight Club first! I probably wouldn’t have got around to reading it otherwise, so I’m glad about that, because I think I will enjoy it. Now I just have to track a copy down…
B is for Books
Books… I love books. I’m sure I’ve mentioned that before. I love reading books (obviously), and owning books – this last is becoming more of a problem since I have less than no shelf space left. However, my reading does tend to be within a fairly narrow group of genres: sci-fi, space opera, fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal, and historical (romance). Or any combination thereof. I did try the seasonal reading challenges on Goodreads with the intention of broadening my reading somewhat, but I just ended up fitting the books I already wanted to read to the challenges for the most part. Now, I’m doing the 144 Books in a Year challenge, but that has no restrictions whatsoever apart from a minimum length.
So, recommend me some books? Anyone? Also, one of the girls at KnitJam tonight invited me to come along and join a book group that they’re starting up through the library where she works. She said they want some people to come along who aren’t staff so they don’t end up talking shop all night. So yay, that should be fun!
Today’s prompt is: What’s your favourite poem? (And if you don’t have one, why?)
Actually… I don’t really have one. Mainly because I don’t actually read much poetry. Whenever I do, I like just about everything I do read, so why I don’t read more I don’t know. I do really like a lot of the Shakespeare sonnets, and I’m rather fond of “Kubla Khan” by Coleridge; partly for it’s lyricism and partly because it’s nuts!
- In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
- A stately pleasure-dome decree:
- Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
- Through caverns measureless to man
- Down to a sunless sea.
Marvellous!
On the second day of Christmas…
… my brother brought to me:
- Some non-drowsy Sudafed
- And a packet of Panadol Extraaaaa.
Ahh, sweet relief! I’d just run out of painkillers, and I was very glad I didn’t have to drag myself down to the chemist to get some more! Thanks, M :-)
Thanks to those, I’m feeling somewhat more with it this evening, although I am having a bit of a catch-22 with having a tight chest: I need to take my inhalers, but every time I try, I have a coughing fit. Bah.
So anyway, I haven’t really done anything productive again today: I don’t want to germ-ify any of my knitting, and I don’t really feel like reading or watching telly. What I have done, though, is used my new MP3 player. It’s both adorable (so ickle!) and clever, and it has a speaker in the back so I don’t have to wear headphones (which I also don’t feel like doing). So it’s been podcasts for me, and in a moment I think I’ll go and listen to an audio book. Although I’m a bit worried I’ll doze off or zone out while I’m listening. I’ll try not to, though.
Project 365 #7, Days 45-51: 23rd – 29th Feb
Still catching up! Here’s the rest of February: days 45 to 51 of my Project 365 photos. If you want to see all the photos so far, click on the Project 365 category link, or check out the Project 365 folder in the photo album.
On to the pics (click them for the full sized versions):
SP11 Package #3 – at last!
Due to mania, server crash and my sieve-like memory, I hadn’t posted my final SP11 package squee-ing. So here it is now. I did mention on 3rd December that I’d received it, but that was as far as I got. (In that post I also mentioned that I’d been delayed in sending my final package out to my spoilee. Well, it’s still here – my money situation has meant I haven’t been able to find the postage yet. But it belatedly occurred to me that some virtual gifts were possible, and I’m putting a bit of cash by each week to send the non-virtual things! Also, I said that I had a new design for this site. As you can see, that’s not in place yet either. Hopefully soon, though!)
Anyway! Even though the package arrived at the beginning of December, it was all Christmas themed and wrapped. Hee!
Not that I let that put me off opening everything right then, of course. I did think very briefly about saving it all for Christmas, but… nah. So what was inside all that shiny wrapping paper? The best SP package ever, that’s what!
Song of Ice and Fire
This is a series by George R R Martin that I’ve been meaning to read for ages and ages. I’m pretty certain that somewhere (although I can’t find it at the moment) I have Book 3, Vol. 2. I certainly have a strong memory of the cover. I can’t find any record of having sold it on Amazon, or mooched it away, so I must still have it. It might be in a box at Mum’s house. But I’ll have to see if I can retrieve it, because I just got the first two books (A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) in a two-for-one volume from Fictionwise. I had some money sitting in my Micropay account there, you see. Mmmm, instant book gratification! I love it.
Oh, and talking of instant books which are downloadable, there are a couple of authors now making their work available online. I haven’t read any of it myself yet, but I have downloaded the first two books of The Dances of Gods from Mayer Alan Brenner’s site, and I think I’m going to enjoy them. I found him via Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review. The other author is Lewis Shiner, and he’s making his short stories and articles available on his site.
And back to the Song of Ice and Fire series, I did the ‘House Sorting’ meme…
Dinner Time!
Yes, I know I said I’d be more interesting when I got back from the shops, but that was before I was starving to death!!!! So I’m going to whip up some dinner (hmm, pasta?) and start uploading and editing photos while I’m eating.
However! What I will do is take requests for Harry Potter themed things. For example, house scarves (either style), leg / wrist / arm-warmers, socks, hats, bags, mp3-player / phone cosies, little knitted bookmarks…. anything you can think of, really. And here’s the thing: I unfortunately can’t afford to give away the materials, but I can give away my time. Therefore, I’m thinking that the price of these things can be split roughly 50/50 (depends on the item) between defraying the cost of the yarn, and donating to my charity. Does that sound reasonable? What I can produce will be limited because I’m intending to use yarn that I already had ‘in stock’ for making these things to sell. Prices will range from, say, £3.50 plus p&p for the smallest things, to £20-25 for a scarf. If you’re interested, drop me a comment.
PS – I’m a complete idiot. I made a text post from my phone while I was out, but I did it in the wrong format so it didn’t post to my LJ anyway. Duh.
Going Out!
Alright then, I’m actually going. I’ve worked it out: I’m going to keep posting over on my LJ: soulstar.livejournal.com. And just to make sure that I don’t get automatically booted from the ‘thon for not updating on this site, my friend H will post links to the LJ post(s) that I text in. Phew! I hope that’s ok with the moderating people.
When I come back, I shall be able to get properly settled into this thing. It’s a bit silly that I’m nearly 4 hours in and I don’t feel like I’ve started properly! So, as well as the knitting and uploading photos, I’m going to:
- Take requests for Harry Potter themed knitted goods (yes, it will cost you, this is for charity you know!)
- Write out and put up a couple of patterns, again for HP stuff.
- Tell you some more about my charity and my reasons for choosing it.
- Get on Trillian and maybe Skype and see who I can find to natter to!
- Make a contribution or two to Fandom Helps.
Off I go then. See you shortly!
Ravelry
I just found out, via the Posh Knitters group, that if you’re waiting for your Ravelry invite you can now check your status in the queue on their site. So I did! And….
“Found you!
* You signed up on June 3, 2007
* You are #6286 on the list.
* 72 people are ahead of you in line.
* 12965 people are behind you in line.
* 32% of the list has been invited so far”
Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! Only 72 people in front of me! Soon! Soon I can go and play ;-)
(But for now, I’m off to continue reading That Potter Book. I’m trying to take it slowly and savour the thing…)
-
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
Currently
ø WIP(s) Of The Week:
- Clapotis
- Menace jumper
ø Knitting:Progress bars are
ø Listening to:
- Kerrang Radio
Powered By RightNowChallenging Myself:
Knit Counters
Social & KALs
Books
Listed At
Updated GBlogs
This is my blogchalk:
United Kingdom, East Sussex, St Leonards-on-sea, English, Lou, Female, 31-35.Subscribe
-
