Subject lines are trapped in the ice
Jan. 10th, 2018 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bironic
Reading
I finally tried Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and I loved it. First, it fit the need for a novel and an easy read during this week of post-snow hell commutes. Second, it was more relatable and moving than anticipated. Plowed through the whole thing in two days.
Should I read Carry On next? I didn't have feelings about Simon and Baz like I had about Cath, but then, before starting Fangirl I didn't think I would have feelings about Cath, either.
Plenty of--maybe too many--other contenders for To Read Next, although none of them seem quite right at the moment. I combed my bookshelves this weekend and compiled a list of things I own and haven't read. It shouldn't have been long, not after I did a major cull a couple of years back when I decided to switch from "collector" to "curator" mode, leaving only books I (a) have read and liked or (b) truly want to / intend to read. Yet the list somehow topped 85? It's weird, it doesn't look like there are that many unread books on the shelves. And only 20 of them are SF/F.
Watching
Kubo and the Two Strings: engrossing story, good score, beauuuuuutiful animation, but super bizarre to discover that it was indeed an American production and not dubbed in English over the original Japanese, because how else on Earth can you justify the casting? White American, English and South African actors as the five main Japanese characters? Why am I hearing Ralph Fiennes while looking at this face? I mean, Charlize Theron stole the movie as the monkey, but those were some seriously questionable choices. Did enjoy the George Takei cameo.
Star Trek: Discovery: I still have no idea what this show is; it seems to change every two or three episodes. Since the pilot, which I loved, it has been alternately entertaining, infuriating and tedious. I don't identify with, adore or find myself fascinated by any of the characters so far, which is probably the main reason I keep taking breaks in the middle of episodes. I did enjoy the latest one and the time loop one, because time loops, and I gasped aloud during a certain moment this week, so some stuff is clearly working. Just not sure I'd still be watching if it weren't Star Trek. It's nice to see so many friends passionate about it on Twitter, though. I would read their Burnham/Lorca d/s fic.
Vidding
Puttering away at the Festivid(s) and auction vid. In more important news, someone asked me to beta one of their Festivids, and it is AMAZING. [Extensive flailing redacted.] If it's not in my top five recs for this round, then we will have experienced a true bounty of excellent vids.
Doing
Battling the messy streets and sidewalks. We've barely had a thaw after clawing our way out of the city's third-longest recorded stretch of days below freezing. It's taking around 90 minutes to get to and from work, which is, by the way, four miles from my house, which saps energy and mood. Something weird was going on as well earlier this week where I kept falling asleep an hour or more early at night, having odd dreams and still waking up tired.
But: a couple of those dreams were good, such as the one where I was about to have sex with Jeff Goldblum. (TMI? Something about how, while we were both lounging in bed, he announced he had overcome his ennui and impotence for the first time in a while, I magically produced a condom, and then circumstances kept intervening.) And it was announced today that some things I wrote at work last year won awards in a national competition. That felt good for a while, until it started to also feel sad that I rely on that kind of external validation to gauge the quality of my work. But there it is.
How are you all faring?
I finally tried Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and I loved it. First, it fit the need for a novel and an easy read during this week of post-snow hell commutes. Second, it was more relatable and moving than anticipated. Plowed through the whole thing in two days.
Should I read Carry On next? I didn't have feelings about Simon and Baz like I had about Cath, but then, before starting Fangirl I didn't think I would have feelings about Cath, either.
Plenty of--maybe too many--other contenders for To Read Next, although none of them seem quite right at the moment. I combed my bookshelves this weekend and compiled a list of things I own and haven't read. It shouldn't have been long, not after I did a major cull a couple of years back when I decided to switch from "collector" to "curator" mode, leaving only books I (a) have read and liked or (b) truly want to / intend to read. Yet the list somehow topped 85? It's weird, it doesn't look like there are that many unread books on the shelves. And only 20 of them are SF/F.
Watching
Kubo and the Two Strings: engrossing story, good score, beauuuuuutiful animation, but super bizarre to discover that it was indeed an American production and not dubbed in English over the original Japanese, because how else on Earth can you justify the casting? White American, English and South African actors as the five main Japanese characters? Why am I hearing Ralph Fiennes while looking at this face? I mean, Charlize Theron stole the movie as the monkey, but those were some seriously questionable choices. Did enjoy the George Takei cameo.
Star Trek: Discovery: I still have no idea what this show is; it seems to change every two or three episodes. Since the pilot, which I loved, it has been alternately entertaining, infuriating and tedious. I don't identify with, adore or find myself fascinated by any of the characters so far, which is probably the main reason I keep taking breaks in the middle of episodes. I did enjoy the latest one and the time loop one, because time loops, and I gasped aloud during a certain moment this week, so some stuff is clearly working. Just not sure I'd still be watching if it weren't Star Trek. It's nice to see so many friends passionate about it on Twitter, though. I would read their Burnham/Lorca d/s fic.
Vidding
Puttering away at the Festivid(s) and auction vid. In more important news, someone asked me to beta one of their Festivids, and it is AMAZING. [Extensive flailing redacted.] If it's not in my top five recs for this round, then we will have experienced a true bounty of excellent vids.
Doing
Battling the messy streets and sidewalks. We've barely had a thaw after clawing our way out of the city's third-longest recorded stretch of days below freezing. It's taking around 90 minutes to get to and from work, which is, by the way, four miles from my house, which saps energy and mood. Something weird was going on as well earlier this week where I kept falling asleep an hour or more early at night, having odd dreams and still waking up tired.
But: a couple of those dreams were good, such as the one where I was about to have sex with Jeff Goldblum. (TMI? Something about how, while we were both lounging in bed, he announced he had overcome his ennui and impotence for the first time in a while, I magically produced a condom, and then circumstances kept intervening.) And it was announced today that some things I wrote at work last year won awards in a national competition. That felt good for a while, until it started to also feel sad that I rely on that kind of external validation to gauge the quality of my work. But there it is.
How are you all faring?
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no subject
Date: Jan. 11th, 2018 03:12 am (UTC)The weather down here is ridiculously mild after a spate of rain.
Congrats on the award stuff! I also rely on external validation, and it's hard; but you might as well enjoy the validation when it comes. *support support*
no subject
Date: Jan. 11th, 2018 03:34 am (UTC)Forgive me if you already know this! So, it's a YA book about a girl in Nebraska going off to her freshman year of college, growing apart from her twin sister, navigating loneliness and social anxiety, doing well in classes but trying to fill the social and emotional voids by posting chapters of her popular
Harry PotterSimon Snow fanfic, making a few good friends somewhat despite herself, worrying about her bipolar dad who is now living alone, struggling with whether she wants to or can be a traditional fiction writer as opposed to [/in addition to; it's a professor in the story who sets them in opposition] a fanfic author, and being obtuse about a couple of boys in her life, although thankfully not to a preposterous extent.I didn't really know anything about the plot other than that it involved a fanfic writer. I ended up having no problems with Rowell's depiction of the practice or her explanations of its personal benefits, probably because, as she says in her author's note, she is an avid fic reader.
And even though I'm ~15 years out of college, the story took me right back there in a sympathetic way. I wasn't exactly like Cath in a number of ways, but a lot of her characterization still sounded terribly familiar. And it wasn't only through identification that the story worked for me; there were several passages that made me cry, for example, that had to do with maternal abandonment, not a thing I've personally experienced; and I loved Rowell's depiction of a girl keeping herself tightly leashed around a crush lest she betray her feelings or find herself unable to stop touching him once she started.
no subject
Date: Jan. 11th, 2018 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 11th, 2018 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 11th, 2018 03:50 am (UTC)Oh, I know that one! *keep those hands back, Selki!*
no subject
Date: Jan. 11th, 2018 02:47 pm (UTC)