Punishment # Who Can Remember?

So I decided to make apple pie this time. I have extra top and bottom pie crusts and a sinking sensation that with this track record, I may need them. Although, you're all still free to offer me alternative punishents. But if I do a food punishment, it's probably going to be a pie since I feed them to my sister. It'd be wasteful to make something she didn't want.

I didn't quite get the lattice crust woven right, but it got pretty quickly demolished when we cut it anyway.

Waaaay Too Much Time...

Rational Mind: Cherie, did you play Twilight Princess today?

Why yes I did.

Rational Mind: All day?

Um....

Rational Mind: Wait, do you have some sort of mental disorder where you can't leave a puzzle unsolved?

Omigosh, yes!

Rational Mind: But...didn't you already play this game before and solve every one of the puzzles already?

Um...yes.

Rational Mind: So shouldn't you, like, remember?

I'm forgetful okay!

Bloodhound: Book Review

Same as always, initial thoughts contain no spoilers or sneezing dogs.

In this sequel Beka is a first year Dog (city guard), but she is trying to strike out on her own and find her own partner instead of just being a third in the great team of Goodwin and Tunstall. Unfortunately for Beka (but much to the amusement of her friends) she has one bad partner after another until the last one finally dumps her. Partnerless again, Beka gets drawn into a project to ferret out a nefarious conterfieter before the entire city crumbles under inflation and riots. Her investigation leads her and her friend Goodwind to Port Cayne where the conterfieter has the local government under control.

I liked this book at least as much as the previous one which is the type of thing you want from a sequel. Pierce said she was concerned conterfieting wouldn't be exciting enough. Admittedly my summary probably doesn't do it justice. I promise there's just as much action and fighting as in the previous, one. After all, she's still dealing with criminals. And unlike our dear Rogue Rosto, these are the type of criminals that don't mind going down as long as they pull you down with them.

* * * * *

Okay, now for spoilers and Achoo.

I continued to enjoy the development of all the characters. I was disappointed that Beka didn't get to spend more time in Corus (with Rosto), but I still thought Port Cayne was interesting, particularly Sir Lionel of Trebond. Alanna always did say there was insanity in her family. You finally get to see that she wasn't joking. I also didn't mention it in the last review but Pounce is clearly the same cat as Faithful. I did think that Pounce's decision not to help Beka this time was a bit of a plot device, but at least she didn't kill him. I hate it when they kill characters for a plot device. Though I was sad about Slapper. He was both wonderful and revolting all at once but at least he went out epically. I also LOVED the ghosts in the pigeons arguing with each other. That was hilarious.

Achoo was a cute dog but I thought Pierce spent a bit too much talking about her training. Speaking of dogs, I knew Dale was going to be a cad from the get go which made it hard for me to enjoy the romance part. I did, however, like the fact that Rosto got jealous. Sadly it looks like he still has a bit of growing before he has a chance with Beka. But I think he's still ten times the man Dale will ever be. Rosto saved Beka, after all, and he filled her room with flowers while she was recovering. Dale didn't even visit right away when Beka could have died and then he only did it to break up with her! What an undigested whump. Still, I also liked that Pierce didn't make Dale an actual villain. He was just a lame guy. I appreciated that Beka still kept the jewelry Dale gave her. I related to that.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the third book in this series, Mastiff, said to be released 2010. Beka is a character who's easy to admire. I've never understood her fear of public speaking considering she can so easily kick the snot out of people. But I suppose those are two different things. I'll probably still think it's a good series if, like Keladry, she never gets together with anyone. But I'm still cheering for Rosto. Even if his name does sound a little like some kind of nut. Give me an R. Give me an O. Give me an S. T. O. Rooooosto!

Terrier: Book Review

I read this book ages ago and kept meaning to do a YouTube review but never quite got around to it. I still hope to do that but thought I should probably get my thoughts down in text before I forget them.

Okay, general synopsis first with no spoilers or police brutality. But no worries, spoilers and being knocked about a bit with a baton follows (for all of you who like that sort of thing...).

First of all I loved both the Beka Cooper books books. They're at least on par with the Trickster duology as my favorite Tamora Pierce books. Although, I suppose Beka's a lot more like Keladry than Aly.

Beka Cooper, the distant ancestress of our beloved George Cooper, is saved from a life in the streets by the provost when she impresses him with her criminal hunting skills at the ripe young age of eight. As a teen Beka enters training to become one of the provost's guards, known in her time as the Dogs. But to be a true Dog, she must first survive being a puppy....

Now for the spoilers...

I have a theory that some authors choose to go back in time in their series in order to reignite enthusiasm in the older books. Prequels are a way to get fresh blood excited with a shiny new book without making them go back and read the others first.

Quite, frankly, if this was Pierce's plan, I think it was brilliantly executed. I don't know enough about the sales of the book to comment on that, but I know if I hadn't already read the other books, I'd want to read them now. Plus, I really love the cover art.

Anyway, let's focus on the story. I was interested that the book was in diary form and admittedly a little skeptical because both the books are tomes. It's hard to imagine any diary being thick enough to this story, and as far as I can recall, Beka only every mentions getting a new diary at the end, so that shoots down the possibility of multiple ones.

But aside from that, there were no major inconsistencies, and when I read the diary I found the voice to be 100% believable. This is high praise from me because, while I've liked other books in diary form, I often find points in them where I feel there's more description than belongs in a real diary. As a writer I understand the temptation, but it usually takes me out of the story if I'm faced with long passages of dialog or too much detail. Beka, however, is writing her diary for the detail. She says it's a memory exercise for her police training, so I never really felt like anything she put in was too much since she presents herself as such a keen learner and observer from the beginning. Also, there are points in the diary where it reminds me forcibly that it is a diary. If Beka's tired, her writing gets sloppy and trails off, if she's a little drunk, her writing's a little drunk.

I also appreciated all of the characterization. Even if I didn't like a character, I found them all to be believable. Beka's sister, for example, got on my nerves, but I understood why they acted like they did. I just wanted to slap them every now and then and yell at them about all that Beka did. Still, I quite liked most the characters. My favorite character is Rosto, and it is my hope that he and Beka will end up together. I understand and entirely respect the reasons she blows him off now. But I'm hoping that he eventually grows up a little and proves himself worthy. Plus how cool would it be for the past Rogue to be related to the future one? Although, I'm not entirely sure how Beka is related to George or if she has children. At first I thought she was his great great many times grandmother, but rereading the prologue, it didn't actually say that. She's known as Beka Cooper which may mean she never married. Of course, one doesn't have to marry to have kids. Also, even if she married Rosto, I don't see her changing her name to Beka the Piper. So that's another thing that might be evidence that she does get with Rosto. Hooray!

Okay, okay, enough of my fangirly romance. There was a plot, which was also a mystery and I enjoyed that. I caght onto the mystery of the Shadow Snake's identity a bit ahead of time, but I was like Beka in that I didn't quite want to believe it. Also, when Beka's friend (pretty sure it was Verene) dies, it wasn't like a random ensign on Star Trek but also wasn't an important enough character to make me too upset. So I thought that struck a good balance. Beka's magic powers are a really good fit as well. I think they're more in holding with most Pierce characters who have very limited powers, but find ways to use them to their best advantage. It's kinda like "I hear pigeons...I mean dead people." Plus, I like pigeons.

Well, guess I remembered more than I thought. I was gonna do both books today but I think I'll review Bloodhound tomorrow.

Fail!

This is the second time in a five day period that I've forgotten to post in my blog! Not only does this mean I'll have to do a punishment (making my sister another pie), but I'm beginning to seriously worry about my memory. I'm also wondering how I ever managed to remember to go to work or class if I can't remember to do one measly blog post! What if my brian is slowly disentigrating? What if I have mad cow disease and my mind's turning to swiss cheese? Worse, what if I have rampant hypochondria?

Nation

I figure I should review this book before I forget about it. So I finished this book a few days ago. I was slow to get around to it even though I love Terry Pratchett because it wasn't Discworld and I had been told it was a little dark. Sometimes I don't mind dark, but I hadn't been in the mood for it. Still, I knew the darkest Pratchett would have humor and light, so I finally went for it.

I'm glad I did.

First I'll give a run through of the story and what I thought without spoilers. And then I'll do a spoilers version.

NO spoilers or tree-octopi

In a parallel world much like Earth, a terrible plague hits 19th century England, killing the king (along with 138 of his successors). While they race to crown the next king before any other country can lay claim to their throne, halfway across the world, a tsunami strikes a small island, known to the inhabitants as Nation. Only one boy is left alive on his once thriving island, and he must pick up the pieces of his destroyed world while fate ties these two seemingly unrelated disasters and shows how sometimes you can go so far from home that you come back again.

SPOILERS and tree-octopi

I won't lie, some of the darkness I had been trying to avoid in this book scratched open fresh wounds. But in the end I think it helped me a lot to think about life and loss. At the same time there were still parts that made me laugh or smile. My favorite humorous line was "It was like a Jane Austen novel with less clothes."

Despite the incredible circumstances of the story, I found the main characters to be very real and human. Mau, is just about to attend the ceremony to make him a man when the wave hits and everyone he has ever known or loved dies. I deeply admired his spirit as he pulled himself out of grief and fought many real and metaphorical (often both) battles with the god of death, Locaha. His cry of "Does not happen!" embodied his determination and strong will. At the same time, he is a boy who was never proclaimed a man and he's haunted (literally) by the voices of his granfathers. I might not have suffered nearly as much as Mau, but I could relate to his feelings of loss. And what recent graduate into this economy doesn't feel a bit lost at sea? Mau did all the things required of him to become a man, but when he returned home, there was no one to declare him one. A bit like having the degree but not yet achieving the profession.

I also understood Emintrude (Daphne) reinventing herself after she is shipwrecked on the island. For Mau she's a reason to stay alive, a pale-skinned "ghost girl." It's an irresistable romantic set-up (hence the above mentioned Austen reference), except that I knew Pratchett too well to have high hopes of anything coming of it. Still, Daphne is much more compelling as an individual character than a romantic interest. Plus they're both probably only about thirteen. So I respected Pratchett's decision even if I was a bit disappointed by it.

Oh, and there weren't nearly enough tree-octopi. You can't just have tree-octopi and not use them. One of them should have eaten at least one mutineer. Some cute little pet in the epilogue doesn't count. I want blood!

At the same time, aside from the failure of the romance (and lack of lethal tree-octopi action), the ending was entirely satisfying to me. The going far enough to come home again is a beautiful concept, but despite being home again, I feel I haven't yet done the journey to earn it. That image only made me feel that I have so much farther to go. Instead, what really spoke to me about the ending was that it essentially said the world can seem to end. But life still goes on.

Dream Journal #3

I dreamed that I took an airplane to France but on the way I was supposed to take care of this guy named Greg. But I got distracted by another man on the plane flirting with me (how well my subconscious knows me) and I lost track of Greg and we all thought he was kidnapped. I also lost my luggage. But I did get to see my French host mother in my dream and we spoke French. My sister was also with me and I asked her Greg's last name and she said it was Elizabeth.

If I were to interpret this dream, I'd say that Greg could be the anthropomorphic personification of a computer I gave the same name. And possibly I was speaking French since I sang in Chinese and I've always suspected my brain keeps all the foreign languages I learn in one place. I'd also love to go to France again with my sister and I miss my host mother who was an awesome lady. But the rest is a complete mystery to me.

Karaoke

Do I like punishment? I would seem so. Actually, I really do have that pathetic of a memory. But I also believe that variety is the spice of life. And I haven't done a YouTube video in quiet some time. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone and do Sarah's karaoke punishment. It's not less punishing than the pie. I just wanted to do something different. I've promised my sister that next time will be food again, but she's had enough pie for now.

I decided to sing Reflection from Mulan in Chinese so that there would at least be some educational merit to this endeavor. If nothing else, it'll teach anyone who does speak Chinese just how bad at it someone can be. For an actually good, professional, version of this song (incidentally sung by a girl with the same last name as me) click here.

To see me suffer, just click the video below:

Is the Pen Mightier?

Okay a funny (and awesome) t-shirt image to talk about a very serious question. I believe there are many instances in diplomacy and politics where the pen is more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction. This is because things written by a pen can cause us to use or not use said weapons. But that is NOT the issue I want to address.

As a fiction writer, I wish to address whether the power of fiction can be used for evil, and if it is, is that the writer's fault? Normally I would say no because I believe people are ultimately responsible for their own actions regardless of what they've read or heard. But my own novel deals with a case of deep psychological trauma. I believe that people who go through such trauma may not always be able to make sound personal decisions and could be more easily influenced by a work of fiction they might identify with. I won't give the exact example from my novel but I will give a different one. Neil Gaiman has previously said in interviews that he did not write a story about the dreams of an unborn fetus eventually perishing because he was afraid it might be used as a reason that a rape victim should not get an abortion which was not his intent.

However, as much as I love Neil Gaiman, I would have to disagree with this reasoning. I feel that even though some girls deciding whether or not to get an abortion might be traumatized, and undoubtedly Neil Gaiman has much higher stock with young girls than I'm likely to ever have, ultimately the girl will make the decision on how she feels. How she feels may be influenced by outside sources. But unless she's forced or corerced, which Gaiman would not be responsible for, how she feels about such a story would be dependent on whether the idea of the baby not having a future bothered her. I will NOT debate the rights and wrongs of abortion in this blog. If you want to talk to me about what I think concerning that, you're free to email. But I WILL say that I believe a girl could be traumatized by either decision because how an abortion affects someone will depend entirely on what they believe. I think if a story was enough to influence a girl in such a situation, then it's probably just influencing her towards the decision she was already inclined towards. Inevitably someone could say something similar or even worse to her with the actual intent of controlling her decision, but the decision is still hers to make. Far better to have considered all the pros and cons and know that she will be secure in her decision no matter what people say to her than trying to protect her from all the psychological ramifications of her decision.

All that being said, I understand Gaiman's decision entirely because of the fear of that one letter, the one that says "I did this because of your story, and it hurt me." It's the same letter I currenly fear due to the situation in my story. Once again, it's an entirely different situation in my novel, and in my defense, it was not my intent to imply the interpretation a few of my beta readers took from the passage in my novel. I would also argue that if one pays attention to the fantasy elements, the actual occurances aren't even possible. My story is written like it is purely for literary reasons and not as a psychological guide. But like the abortion example, my novel has possible real-life analogies. Both situations also beg the same question about whether or not fiction writers have power over their readers and if there are ways for them to abuse that power. I would really like to hear what you all think, and the few beta readers I have contacted can answer me by email more specifically.

Lastly, I don't want you all worrying that your opinion will make me compromise how I truly think I should act. It merely helps me to look at the situation in ways I may not have considered.

How to be a Horrible Older Sister

Lesson #1 - Consistently forget your brother's birthdays. Sigh... My lil' bro Dennis turned 8 on August 18th. I'll get him a present (most likely consisting of legos) when I see him next, and conversations with him usually consist of a lot of the answer "I don't know," but I still wish I had remembered to call him that day. Anyway, I thought about putting a picture of him up, but he generally hates having pictures of him. So here's a really short little lego movie he did.

One More Time...

It's hard to know when or if I'll be moving but this is the last planned vacation at least for the summer. I'll be visiting my friends Brian and Becky in Ohio from today to August 19th, so as always, no post punishments since I probably won't be posting everyday.

Dream Journal #2

NOT my artwork. Picture found here.

Last night I had another dream that illustrates the strangeness of my mind. I was in a gray and black cityscape on the tops of skyscrapers, and I would jump down from the rooftops and float down. I had these dresses that acted a bit like Mary Poppins' umbrella. But then the city filled with these severed heads and that meant I didn't feel comfortable jumping from the rooftops anymore.

Full Speed Ahead Scottie?

Actually, this is another computer from the Computer History Museum in Palo Alto. Yeah, yeah, I guess it wasn't so bad... Anyway, this cracked me up because it looks so much like a computer counsel from the original Star Trek except for the telephone. If there had been a telephone, though, you know it would have been Uhura's job to answer it.

Another Novel Written

This picture was found here.

I hesitate to say "finished" since I associate that with a completely polished work. But I wrote an ending to the first draft of my children's novel yesterday--at 77, 577 words and 127 word-processed pages.

I'm not really happy with the ending, but I can't currently think of a better one. I'm also going to give it some time before I consider changing it because there are often many things I'm not happy with immediately after I finish a book. This happens to many authors, as I understand, and led some of them to try to burn or destroy what is later hailed as their best work. So I'll wait until I can look at it a bit more objectively.

So, currently, I'll concentrate on editing my fantasy novel and writing my next book. Editing, as I've said before, is far less satisfying than writing. It always feels like this endless, bottomless maw. I can't give you editing updates because, while I do go chapter by chapter, I can't say I've finished editing a chapter just because I've read over it once. Though, I suppose I could start keeping track of how many times I do read over them.... Okay, so currently just finished editing Chapter 3 for the second full read-through of my novel after most my beta-reader comments.

And I think I'll probably start editing my children's novel after I finish editing my fantasy. So hopefully by January. But if any of you are really excited and want to sign up as beta-readers now, feel free to do so in the comments of by email. And no worries to the beta-readers who still haven't finished my fantasy novel. I won't expect you to read all my books just because you read one.

Official Bathroom Elephants?

Back again. This time I was staying with my relatives in Palo Alto and did a little sightseeing in San Francisco. While at my relative's house I noticed this picture which I'm beginning to wonder if it's following me as it was the same picture in the bathroom of the friends I just visited.

My sister dragged me...er...I mean suggested we go to the computer history museum in Palo Alto. I'm afraid I couldn't be as excited as her, but there were a couple things of interest to me. First a bit of library nerdiness through government documents, the first census machine.

Unfortunately it's only a reproduction since they no longer have the original but still kinda cool.

Then Chrissy was very kind to let me see the Lords of the Samurai exhibit at the Asian Art Museum even though she wanted to go to the Exploratorium and we didn't have time to do both. But I think we both saw some cool things and now we're ready to be Lords of the Samurai.

In case you're wondering, this is NOT a comfortable hat, cool as it looks.

Pie!

Yes, here is my second punishment pie (or rather pies). Significantly less cool than last time but oh well. I had too many ingredients for just one, so the pie on the left is an afterthought pie consisting of all the rest of the berries I could scrounge around the house. Maybe it could count as amnesty from another punishment? Nah... It's probably not good enough to qualify.

And here's why they're less cool. I tried to be lazy and cheat on the lattice crust by buying dough for the top but it turned out to be the wrong kind of dough and I had to take it off before it burned.

However, no one pie-jacked this time. Anyway tomorrow I'm going to Palo Alto to visit relatives there, so just a reminder that out of town vacations aren't punishable offenses.

One Little Palm Tree

Today I went out to run a bunch of errands and reaffirmed the need to recharge the batteries for my camera when I saw a shaggy little palm tree on the way, surrounded by deciduous trees, crying because he was all alone. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that tree, but here's a couple similar ones.

Oh, and my word count for July for all who're curious was 5,141 words, which proves once again that more time does not necessarily result in higher productivity.

I'm Back!

I have returned from my trip to Santa Barbara. Why did I go to Santa Barbara? Was it to shop on the famous State Street? No. Was it to see the beach with its misty mountain views and lines of palm trees? No. Was it to walk in the mountains that tower over the city? No. Was it to make fun of what would appear to be the country's smallest airport? No, not even that. Though I did see all of those things, and they were quite nice, I went to Santa Barbara to see my fabulous friends Tim and Mag. I'm also kinda lame about pictures, but here are some I took at the zoo.

Check out the happy family! So cute! I noticed while looking at this picture just now that there's an American flag flying almost perfectly in the wind in the background to the left. Yes, Tim is living the American Dream. A beautiful Asian wife and a half-Asian baby.

Oh, no! The strange lady stole the pretty baby! Why am I making a goofy face? That's a kidnapper face.

Okay, okay, no worries. I gave her back.

Check out this crazy fish! Braaaaaaiinsss....

I will continue to update daily while I'm at home, but I have at least two trips out of town coming up (August 7th-9th and August 14th-19th). So I will not be blogging during those times either but will NOT have to make pies because of it. Just so that's clear. I sill have to make another pie, though...