A Book Review and Exciting News!Last night I finished reading Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett. It's the story of Johnny Maxwell who finds that the aliens in his shoot-them-up computer game have surrendered and now he's sucked into the game, not to save mankind, but in order to save the aliens from mankind.
This was a great quick read. A different style than Pratchett's Discworld, mostly in the lack of much description. It's 80% dialogue or internal monolgue but good dialogue/monologue because it's Pratchett. And the other 20% has plenty of action with fighting against or to defend aliens for anyone who finds the idea of dialogue boring. There's also some of Johnny's life in the real world during the Gulf War and while his parents are getting divorced looked at with Pratchett's brilliant satirical eye. I wish I'd checked out the other two books in the trilogy before I left Ann Arbor because none of them were in the library here. But they probably wouldn't have fit in my suitcase anyway.
Yesterday was my brother Curtis's birthday, and it would be good to say that's why I did not post yesterday, but actually the truth is I was just feeling lazy. So I'm thinking I need to start up another post or be punished deal. Just for the duration of my break (from today-May24th) to be absolutely clear and not on days where it would be physically impossible (i.e. I am on a plane with no internet access), but I think I also need a new one other than not reading the fanfiction my sister wanted me to read all that time ago. Sorry Chrissy, but it's no fun if that's always my punishment. So if any of my friends can think of some good punishments, that'd be great. That's what friends are for, after all, right?
However, here are some ground rules of the punishments:
1.) They cannot have the possibility of resulting in me getting arrested (i.e. public nudity, ect).
2.) Come to that, no nudity of any kind. Not that I think any of you are all that keen on that, but I just thought I'd put that out there just in case.
3.) They cannot result in me being made physically ill, injured, or killed (such as having to eat any questionable items.)
4.) This cannot result in punishing anyone but me.
5.) My hair stays the same length and color it is now (yeah, I know what some of you were thinking...)
6.) It has to actually be possible for me to do. Like...buying a million dollar house or going sky diving are not things I have the resources for. In fact, if it requires more than 5 dollars, it's not really something I have the resources for...So nothing that requires more than $5.
7.) Cannot have any possible negative effects my professional life (as dyeing my skin blue would).
I dunno, maybe punishments with all those rules are no fun. If that's the case, I'll just do the fanfiction thing again. As a matter of fact, even if I do get other punishments, I'll just throw the fanfiction thing on the pile. Because I'm a good sister. Of course, really it'll be mostly hypothetical because as long as I have motivation to post, I can post. Now if I get more than one punishment I could alternate, like (this week if I don't post every day, I'll...) Or I could just volunteer to do all of them at once. We'll see. Either way, any punishment that fits all those rules will be honored if I do not post.
However, just so I don't shaft you guys with a lame post with just a link or funny picture I found on the web but did not create myself (as I have done in the past), I'll state that my posts must be ONE (but not all) of the following:
1.) At least 500 words written by me on any subject (or on several subjects).
OR
2.) Must include current news about myself, as well as at least one fact about myself. You may all think, that's not hard Cherie, anyone can say "Woke up today, ate, did stuff, went to bed. And I like cheese." But not me! First of all with how much I like to sleep the "woke up" part might not be true. Second, I hate writing things that are lame. Which is why I often don't write in this blog at all if I feel my life has been particularly lame and I often have a hard time talking about myself (as much as I love myself and as much as I like to talk).
OR
3.) Must include some form of art that I have created such at a drawn picture or photo taken by me because creating any kind of art is not something I do without motivation anymore (sorry Ponce). A video blog would also count as art, but unfortunately I'm very unlikely to produce one of those. Honestly if I do one of those I should get a prize. Or maybe that could be a punishment... But it'd be more like a challenge. Really I've always wanted to do video blogs, but I'm rarely in places I'd be comfortable doing them. For instance, currently I'm at my Dad's house where I'm NEVER alone and would definitely be marked as insane if I started talking animatedly to a camera.
Okay, now while my posts only have to comply to one of the three following things they must always include a picture of some kind like the book cover on this post (although I am not responsible for if the picture later has some sort of glitch that causes it to disappear but if this happens I must be able to either provide the picture again or describe what it looked like). AND a new and amazing feature: I will ALWAYS answer any question anyone asks me. However, I do not promise correct answers and stupid questions will get stupid answers. I also only have to answer any given question once. For example, if someone asks the same question, such as "Is your hair long?," to which I would respond "Yes" or possibly "Yes in comparison to average but no in comparison to Rapunzel," I would then NEVER have to answer that question again on this blog. Unlike real life.
And now for today's breaking news!
Today I went through the invites I've gotten on YouTube. There were seven of them and all but one of these people had been suspended from YouTube. I added the one that had not been suspended. Of course, I didn't just add him because he was the only one left. I added him because it turns out he might have had a legitimate reason for adding me whereas the others most likely did not.
Friends of the Week: Sarah, Dejah, and Brian (who now know their Harry Potter Houses.)
5 comments:
Okay the best "punishment" I can come up with from all that post is to have you go out somewhere new (to you) and ask a stranger to take a pic of you when you're there and then blog about it. As you're a homebody, this may be an actual punishment, but it would also force you to go out more, which you said you need to do.
I wish my life wasn't so spastic right now, so I could keep such an involved blog, but oh well. Sucks to be me with my week off and still having to go down to UM 4 days out of 5. Stupid meetings...Oh, and I've done the math, I'm spending about $10 a day commuting right now. They're starting formal discussions about that railway they're debating about building from one town past mine to Ann Arbor, but I'm sure construction on that won't start until after I've sold the house. Damn Michigan government. It's nice and warm here though! You're missing the best time to be in the state! Okay, my computer keeps having problems displaying buttons, so I'll just sign this because I can't write my name in :( Dejah
I thank you very much for getting into the spirit of the thing and I think I could follow all of that punishment except for handing my camera to a stranger since that could easily result in costing me far more than $5 when they run away with it. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
I want to be fair in the sense that I would actually do the punishment if it came down to it and I'm afraid I would never hand my expensive digital camera to someone I didn't know (part of the reason I've go lots of pictures of France be very few feature me since I was always alone). But I will do everything else in your punishment and I could probably even get a picture of myself regardless.
Oh, and to add your name to the title just click the "Name/URL" bubble instead of the anonymous bubble.
The previous punishment makes a somewhat non-adventurous girl go an an adventure. In the same way, this one makes a somewhat introverted girl go meet someone.
Here's how it works: You pick someone and interview them. It could be a complete stranger, it could be someone you don't really know in the department, it may be the guy you say "hi" to at work, but you don't know anything about him. It can't be anyone you'd think of as friend, though.
You need to tell us what you learned about them. This is not meant to be a stupid teen magazine interview--we don't need to know their favorite color and the number of pets they have. You need to tell us a little about this person's long term goals, what's most important to them and a little about what sort of person they are. Perhaps you could think of it as a character sketch.
Since you'll be writing some of this online, you should get their permission first. You can even tell them you are working on an interviewing project for your blog. This can be confidential (you can use a fake name) but you need to include a relevant picture you took yourself. In order to get this person to share with you, you may need to tell them a bit more about yourself.
In short, you need to make a friend.
Okay, let's do an easier version of what Tim suggests: ask somebody you sort of know (a classmate? somebody in your department?) for lunch/tea/dinner/a walk or whatever. The report doesn't have to be super duper detailed. Just tell us how it went.
Personally I'm kinda obsessed about inviting people for lunch/dinner. I've been forced to slow down lately since it's kinda hard to get the meal and the house ready when the baby might start howling and fussing anytime.
Thanks Mag! As I've said to Tim though I think the problem with all of these punishments is that they'd actually be good for me. But I appreciate that all my friends mean so well.
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