See what I mean?

Day 2, and I already forgot to write in my "daily" blog.

Currently reading: Leaps in the Dark: the making of scientific reputations by John Waller. Waller writes critical re-evaluations of the legends of science, and gives a great perspective on the people involved in scientific breakthroughs. Fascinating stuff.

12/9

An issue I've got with daily blogging is that my best time to write is in the 20 minutes or so between when my bus drops me off and when my shift starts. But at that point, what do I write about? The stuff I did yesterday is, literally, yesterday's news.

Ah well.

Yesterday was heavy rains, flooding and some landslides. The blue line was stopped entirely because a sinkhole opened up. The Columbia River turned to blood. Born-and-raised Oregonians started carrying umbrellas. It's the end times.

I made it to work, stared at a computer for eight hours. Got an unexpected ride home thanks to the end times. Watched TV, ate dinner, helped calm the 5 year old down from the trauma of her toothpaste being too peppermint-y. Went to bed.

Currently reading: The Man Who Tasted Shapes by Richard E Cytowic. A bit dry, but fairly interesting. A precursor to Oliver Sacks.

NaNoWriMo

So I signed up for NaNoWriMo! Fifty thousand words in thirty days.

If I'm as good at that as I am at keeping up with blogging, I should have a whole 10 words written by November 30th!

If you'd like to follow along, I am Lindz L on their site. Happy writing!

Oops

It's picture day at school work and I'm wearing the Cardigan of Shame thanks to an unexpectedly transparent blouse.

Boo.

Recuperating

Friday I went to my parents' with partner and kids. The kids were armed with water balloons and squirt guns. We didn't stand a chance.

We played with some small firecrackers - sparklers, snakes, smoke bombs. It was great fun until E managed to inhale a crazy amount of smoke from a smoke bomb. I didn't see how she managed to do it, but she got enough in that she was hacking and spitting and almost dry heaving from coughing so hard :( Once she felt better we had a brief conversation about "remember this feeling if you ever want to try smoking cigarettes".

For the actual holiday, I woke up introverted and N woke up sick. I read aloud to him from The White Devil (Justin Evans) and lounged.

Sunday we rallied, wandered downtown into Powell's, then around Hawthorne, where I purchased an adorable tie. Game time we spent at the Blue Room, watched the USA kick some ass at football.

Holiday weekend: successful.

Snippets - June 4

It's no good -- not a bit of good," I said. "Once she knows how to read there's only one thing you can teach her to believe in -- and that is herself.

~ from "A Society" by Virginia Woolf (from the collection Monday or Tuesday)

Book Review #1: Lullabies from Hell (The Gory Magic of Hideshi Hino)

Lullabies from Hell, Dark Horse Manga, 2006

Hideshi Hino writes a solid horror story. Lullabies from Hell, which I picked up based solely on its name, collects four of these.

It begins with the author himself, endowed with the ability to cause the death of anyone he wants by writing it (reminding me of Death Note). The story is horrifying in so many ways, from the abusive, deranged mother, to the seriously screwed narrator, to the cringe-inducing methods he comes up with to dispatch those who wronged him. And how many have wronged him.

A twist on Rosemary's Baby follows, again with layers upon layer of horror. What would you do in her shoes? What about the father? Is a monster less horrifying when everyone has one, or more?

The third and longest story is where it fell apart for me, but it still pulses like a recurring nightmare. Fortunately it's followed up by my favorite of the lot, "Zoroku's Strange Disease." Check out this intro!

Once upon a time, in a far off land, there was a mysterious swamp where animals that were about to die always gathered.

People called it the swamp of slumber, and no one went near.

Chilling. I want to explore it.

The stories might be a wee bit predictable - they reminded me a lot of the old Creepy archives - but they still hit with a visceral punch, thanks in no small part to Hino's startling artwork. I've heard of them described as "cartoonish" but I find that makes the horror all the more effective. It's like seeing Mickey Mouse tear Minnie's head off. Not to mention there are pieces I don't want to see true-to-life. I don't need to see a perfect imitation of Zoroku's pustules erupting, no thank you indeed.

For horror and gore fans, this manga is well worth picking up.

Snippets - May 13

He looked at me; I must say I like it better when they look at you; a lot of the time people seem to be scared of finding out that other people have real faces, as though if you looked at a stranger clearly and honestly and with both eyes you might find yourself learning something you didn't actually want to know.

Shirley Jackson in Come Along with Me

Snippets - May 11

It still seems infinitely mysterious to me that there are some of us who have built not a life but a self, based largely on our hunger for what are a series of scratches on a piece of paper.

Anna Quindlen in How Reading Changed My Life

Makers by Cory Doctorow

When you get on the road, you meet people, have intense experiences with them -- like going to war or touring with a band. You fall in love a thousand times. And then you leave all those people behind. You get off a plane, turn some strangers into best friends, get on a plane and forget them until you come back into town, and then you take it all back up again.

If you want to survive this, you've got to love that. You've got to get off a plane, meet people, fall in love with them, treasure every moment, and know that moments are all you have. Then you get on a plane again and you know how soon it will end. It's like starting to say your summer-camp goodbyes before you've even unpacked your duffel bag. You've got to embrace -- or at least forget -- that every gig will end in a day or two.

from Makers by Cory Doctorow (c.2009)