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...

ARGH!

I was wrong. I was wrong. I will have to make my sister another pie. But not for another week. There isn't even an excuse. Once again, just sheer stupidity and procrastination gang up on each other. I will be staying with my friends Tim and Mag and I will not have to blog. That's right. I will be spending time with real people so I do not need to spend time with the computer. I MIGHT blog. But I do not have to blog for this period of time. I decided this is because the purpose of the blog was so I wouldn't isolate myself from other people, and so while I'm visiting my friends, this purpose is moot.

But keep an eye out for August 4th when I have to blog again.

I'm Not Making Another Pie

I've been hard up for blog material lately, but today I bought some empty bottles for my toiletries since I'll be doing a lot of traveling. I may have bought more than I needed, but the Legend of Zelda fan girl in me can't resist an empty bottle.

20q.net

If you need something to waste time one, here's a website that plays 20 questions with you. The classic 20q couldn't guess when I was thinking of a monkey, but the People 20q did guess when I thought of Colin Firth. However, it could not guess Neil Gaiman. Shame. So I remained to be impressed. The picture above is a toy from what I'm guessing is the same company. Though why anyone would want to buy a toy for something they could do for free either online or with another bored person is beyond me.

Interesting Legend I Found

I saw a book in the bookstore called Pope Joan. Apparently there's a medieval legend of a female Pope that to this day people aren't sure if it was true or not. The book said it was soon to be a major motion picture. Sadly, failed to mention the movie was in German. Looks cool though. I'd like to see it if they get some subtitles.

Also, on a cool sidenote, the guy who plays Faramir from Lord of the Rings is in this film.

Doughnuts and Economics

I had a craving for doughnuts today so my sister and I went down to the grocery store to get some because I've never seen a doughnut shop around here. My sister lives near a really ritzy mall that seems to have everything else. But to be honest, I only ever see doughnut shops in economically depressed or, in the very least, slightly sketchy areas. Why is that? And before you say that's because rich people won't eat fried dough, there are TWO pretzel stands in the mall.

I Want This Shirt

In case you can't read it, the Scarecrow's saying "Brains!" Run, Dorothy, run! I found this by clicking on a gmail ad. Sometimes it's uncanny how well those things know me...

If you're interested, and have more money than me, you can buy the shirt here.

Lost in Austen Review

I finally managed to get Lost in Austen from the library a few days ago but hadn't gotten around to reviewing it. I sent my thoughts to a friend though so, for the spoilers review, it'll be exactly what I told her because I'm lazy that way.

But first!

NON-Spoilers Review (This review does not contain pride, prejudice, or spoilers)

The premise of this British TV series was a modern woman got sucked into the story of Pride and Prejudice and her presence throws off the entire plot. She even discovers that some of the villains aren't as bad as she thought and some of the good characters aren't as perfect as she imagined. I had a good time watching it even if a few aspects did bug me. If you're looking for a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, and you're able to turn off the little voice that says "That's not how it's supposed to go!", this could be a fun watch. This show even made me like Mr. Wickham. So if you're curious to see how that could happen, I recommend it. It's a nice imaginary frolic through Austen's regency England, but don't expect anything profoundly deep.

Spoilers Review

I liked it but I wasn't nuts about the ending. I felt really bad for Charlotte and that was never resolved. Going to Africa is arguably better than life with Mr. Collins but she seemed to believe that she had been abandoned by her one friend. Plus I never can completely buy a time travel romance where a modern person stays in the past. I can't imagine that they wouldn't quickly regret this decision with the lack of indoor plumbing, medicine, and as we saw in this one, toothpaste and brushes. But, still, I did find it amusing. One of my favorite phrases in French translates as "I passed a good moment." I think that defines this movie well.

Happy Birthday to Me!

When I was 16 or 17 people who run those guess your age booths at fairs always got my age wrong. They always thought I was older. One of them told me I looked 24. Today I am 24. Here's hoping I don't now look like I'm 32...

My mom made me some very pretty hairsticks (pictured above) and cooked me lots of yummy food. So I am a well-fed and nicely accessorized birthday girl.

Hilarious

I spotted this display in the Whole Foods by my house. This brand name is awesome. What an apple? Ask a yeti!

Harry Potter and the
Obnoxious Bike-Tire-Puncturing Plant

The following review DOES contain SPOILERS and non-verbal spells.

So my sister and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince last night. I will address that far more pleasant part of our escapade first. So, we had a pleasant ride to the theater because we went at night so it wasn't the unbearably oppressive 101 degrees it has been in the day. It's possible it got as cool as 80 degrees which was very nice. I also got to see a very quick trailer to Percy Jackson which was awesome. I'm really hyped to see that.

Now, a review of Harry Potter:

I would like to establish that I did enjoy this film. The trouble is I always complain more in reviews than remark on positive things.

That being said, none of the Harry Potter movies have been able to include everything from the books, nor would I want them to. But ever since the fourth film I've had the sense that they're very disjointed visual cliff-notes versions of the books. This film did not improve on that. The pacing is so off at times that I can often be completely unaware how much time is supposed to have passed from one scene to the next. I was frequently confused and wondered if I'd missed something vital whenever I would look away from the screen for a few seconds to glare at someone on their cell phone. (By the way, I officially hate anyone who cannot sit through an entire movie without using their cell phone and wish I had X-Men super powers to short circuit any phone opened within several feet of me. Yes, even those expensive iPhones. Especially the expensive iPhones. Would serve them right...). Anyway, the point is, the pacing was off.

The characters, however, were all right on the spot. With the exception of strange nameless twins brought in (possibly to replace the Patils?), I loved all the characters, both big and small. Snape, of course, is always great, which was particulalry important in this film. Got to love pwning Harry too. Snape just flicks his wand and Harry goes flying. Brilliant. Though I wish they'd had the "Don't all me a coward!" line.

Even Dumbledore was great, though. That's saying something for me because, while I liked Micheal Gambon's performance in the third film, his portrayals of Dumbledore in the fourth and fifth film struck entirely the wrong cord. He was alternatingly too aggressive or too weak. But in this film, ala Goldilocks, he was just right. A shame it's the one where he dies. But at least he finally got it right. Maybe someone just needed to tell him Dumbledore was gay a long time ago. Perhaps that was the breakthrough he needed.

As for Harry, I found him to be a bit funnier in this one than the last two ones. Not that he's been without humor but I felt like I laughed out loud more in this one than I have in a while. I found his comment about Aragog's pincers and subsequent miming to be particularly amusing. I think they wasted a bit of time on having him flirt with a waitress, and that part seemed a little off and unnecessary. But otherwise Harry was fine.

I've never cared much for Hermione's character but I feel Emma Watson's acting has improved immensely. At least, I didn't have to watch her amazing dancing eyebrows this time. I even found myself enjoying several Hermione bits. I was actually really looking forward to the bird scene and was very glad they kept it in but I do wish more of the birds had actually hit Ron....

Speaking of Ron, he was also right on the money for how he was in the book. Which means he continues to be a disappointment to me as a character. Ron was my favorite character for the first four books, one I even related to. But he started going drastically downhill the last three books to the point where, even though I don't like Hermione, I think she deserves better. Why? He's insecure, jealous, and possessive. Besides that, he and Hermione don't share any common interests. Yes, there is the possibility that they can balance each other's personalities--Hermione giving Ron some sense and Ron making her relax more. But I always felt that Hermione became more relaxed over time on her own and didn't really need Ron. Anyway, we won't go too far down that road. I'll just say I'm NOT a Harry/Hermione shipper either. I just got really annoyed with Ron in the end.

Lavendar was perfect. Breathing on the window. Priceless.

So getting away from that controversial topic, I will also say Horace Slughorn was great. My sister felt he was even better than in the book, but I felt he was just as good. The armchair thing was well-done.

I was disappointed about them skipping the end battle in exchange for using their wands for what looked like lighters at a rock concert. Strange as well that Aragog got a funeral and Dumbledore didn't. I also wish the waitress scene could have been exchanged for Merope Gaunt's scene. But overall I had a good time and all the really important things were there.

------

Now for the adventure that commenced after the movie. Preceeding the movie we had pushed our bikes over a place without sidewalk. It was dark and we couldn't see well and ended up pushing our bikes through the sticker bushes of doom! My sister had encountered these many times before but we couldn't see them in the dark. They flattened the tires on both our bikes and we had to walk two miles home at 2AM.



GAH! Crush! Kill! Destroy!

Parasol

My sister bought a couple parasols from the Renaissance Festival and gave the one pictured above to me. Some of my friends may find this hard to believe, but I don't often like being singled out of a crowd for being weird. But for the parasol I'll make an exception.

Ghost Month

I had forgotten to mention previously that while July is my birthday month (on the 20th for anyone interested) it's also Ghost Month in Taiwan. I suppose it sounds scary, but I felt it to be very beautiful. I did NOT make the video above, but I felt it was a pretty good description. Still, it can't replace being there, surrounded by vats of paper money, watching the ashes float up towards the heavens like so much black snow. I do not personally believe in ghosts, or think they would need money, but I think this is a beautiful way to remember.

Heat

Time to start worrying about this: http://www.medicinenet.com/heat_exhaustion/article.htm. Didn't actually have any of these symptoms but definitely felt overheated today.

California Pizza

Before I left Michigan someone asked me if there were California Pizza Kitchens in California. I didn't know at the time but now I do. The one pictured above is only a block and a half away from where I live.

Lost in Austen

My friend Amber recommended this show to me. It looks fun, but I wasn't able to find the whole thing on YouTube, despite the misleading title of the clip below. Just a lot of clips which are almost the whole thing but with bits missing. I'd prefer to watch it all together, so I was going to get it from the library today, but it was checked out before I left the house (I couldn't put a hold on it because it's too new). But I'll keep trying.

Dexter

No spoilers or blood spatter.

I know I already reviewed the book, but after watching all of the first 2 seasons on DVD, I officially like the Dexter television show a lot better.

So the basic gist, if you didn''t read the book review, is that Dexter is a blood splatter analyst by day, but by night he's a serial killer--of serial killers. He only kills other killers. The first season closely follows the first book but the second deviates greatly. I enjoyed both.

First of all, Dexter's a far more likable character in the TV show. In my opinion, in the show he's more like a very unconventional superhero whereas in the book, he really does just seem psycho most of the time. They created a more likable Dexter by making a lot more people matter to him. By doing this, they also improve the character development of all the people around Dexter because we get to see them from the perspective of someone who cares about them. Then we see the characters in situations Dexter doesn't know about which additionally expands on their facets.

The appeal of Dexter's character, which is far better utilized in the show, is that he holds a dark mirror to ourselves. All while he claims not to understand other people, his normal thoughts, amusingly, are often the wrong thoughts we don't share with others. Clever, funny, but still deeply thoughtful, I highly recommend it if you're not too squeamish.

Naturing

I went out on a bike trail with my sister today in search of harlequin bugs. Here's one pictured above. My sister took this pic and not today. She got good pics today too but I'm too lazy to transfer them to my computer right now. All I got were some lame pictures of wild turkeys. I mean. The wild turkeys were cool but they really didn't want to be photographed.

Truth or Fail

I've been enjoying these YouTube games. Probably just shows how easily amused I am and that I currently have too much free time on my hands. But if you're the same, you may enjoy them too!

I did really well at this one.



I was kinda spectacularly bad at this one.

Punishment: Cherie Makes a Pie

Gloria

Here's another character sketch I did of the main character from my novel. As always it's not exactly what I think she looks like. I imagine her face being a little fuller, her eyes and mouth a bit smaller, and her nose a bit more pert. But I quite like the picture and it's a good general gist. You may be wondering why I didn't just make the adjustments I mentioned but he reason I'm a writer and not a visual artist is I've never had the patience it takes to make my pictures as perfect as I want them to be.

Still, it's nice to be complimented and two little girls in the airport shyly sidled up to me while I was drawing (before I colored) and said they liked my picture. Then two people on the plane said the same. Always nice, even though I've known enough real artists to know I'm not one. Maybe I should draw in public more often, though. It's a great ego boost.

I Really Don't Want to Make a Pie

Gah! Why is it so hard? Why? Blog. Blog once a day. I could have written anything. I could have even just copped out and posted a picture.

But I forgot.

The frustrating part is I didn't even completely forget, and I have no good excuse. I remembered at some point of the day. Had a blog all planned. I meant to do it during the day and that didn't happen. Then I spent the evening watching Dexter with my sister. Not a bad pastime. I completely enjoyed it. I just wish at some point I'd made a freakin' blog post!

Anyway, I know you guys don't all read this far so here's the deal. I NEED a punishment. Otherwise, I have to do my sister's punishment which is to make a pie for her. I hate making food. Even though I'd probably get some of said pie, I hate the idea of making it. So please, if you love me at all, you will all think of alternative punishments that don't involve cooking! I will choose only one as mentioned before. If you're all clever meanies and just give me more cooking punishments, I'll just do the pie because, as mentioned above, at least I might get some. Or in the very least, someone nearby can and will enjoy it.

But I really don't want to make a pie.

Some of you might be thinking, Cherie, you're in a rough spot right now. You can't be expected to blog everyday.

And you'd be wrong. The blogging keeps me connected. Staying connected keeps me sane. I can't let this slide for now even if it is hard. And so far I've blogged on far harder days, so there's really no excuse. If you feel bad about thinking up punishments, just know that I really hate making my own food, so almost anything else will seem like a breeze by comparison. You'd really be doing me a service.

A Little Brother At Work

I go on a plane today to go back to Sacramento, but I hope my little brothers always know I love them. I am, of course, responsible for consistently reminding them. So, that, at least, unlike so many other things in my life, is in my control.

Independence Peaches

This is a peach tree I found in my father's garden, a small scrubby thing, more a shrub than a tree, with branches bowing under the weight of the peaches. Yet still it thrives.

My father's garden has never ceased to amaze me. Every time I explore it, I find something new. Usually something edible. Quite impressive since, outwardly, it just looks like a small, dry patch of land with a few random patches of green, usually around the fence. My father was good at plants but not so much at landscaping.

Today is Independence Day. I don't feel much like celebrating. But I do know my father loved it in this country. He was pragmatic, so mostly he loved this country for what it could give him. I think that's the same reason that, when I was younger, and I would mention being Asian, my father would always correct me and say "You are American." I think he just wanted to be sure I knew I was entitled to the same things as everyone else.

I have trouble with simple patriotism because I think the things I am often asked to be proud of are more ideals than realities. Yes, my dad had a good life here. But he still faced racism and the standard rudeness of the ignorant. I find myself wishing I'd told more people off when I knew they were being rude to him on purpose and because they thought he wouldn't understand. Of course, if it was any kind of customer service situation, my dad generally got them back one hundred fold in the end. They'd eventually give him anything just to get him out of the store. Funny, yes, but one of the things I always admired about my dad was his persistence.

Still, my dad also thought it was beautiful here. It's been a long time since I've really looked at the world around me, but lately I've been appreciating the mountains in the horizon more, as well as the small and simple things right in front of me, like peaches.

January 28 1954 - July 3 2009

Darkly Dreaming Dexter: Book Review

The following review does NOT contain, egg, dairy, nuts, or spoilers.

My sister recently became very interested in Dexter, a TV show on Showtime. She doesn't watch TV but happened to see the DVDs in the bookstore. Following this most literary discovery of a TV show, she decided to read the novels they're based on as well. Since I haven't had much opportunity to go out recently, I asked her to leave the first one with me to read.

I knew the premise going in. A serial killer who kills serial killers. The idea reminded me vaguely of one of my favorite mangas, Death Note. Except I got the impression that, to some extent, at least, Dexter was meant to be more likable to the non-serial killing reader than Light Yagami. At the same time, he's also not exactly a crime-fighting vigilante. The book is written from Dexter's perspective and he's portrayed by himself as an emotionless person who is compelled to kill due to a traumatic experience as a child. Still, he does feel a deep fondness for his foster family, and thus lives by a code of killing laid out for him by his foster father.

I don't entirely buy this premise because I don't think one event, no matter how traumatic, can turn you into a serial killer. Otherwise, every single holocaust surviver would have been a serial killer. I don't think it's 100% nature, either though. I think it's a mix of a person's natural predisposition and the way they're nurtured. Still, I do think the theory is interesting. It posits a situation where people do not have control over their need to be killers, but they do, at least in Dexter's case, have control over who they kill.

The style of writing is quite good as contemporary American fiction goes. I wouldn't call it poetry, but I wouldn't call it Dan Brown bad either. My sister was annoyed by the frequent alliteration with the letter D, but that didn't really bother me. All in all, the major plot point struck a sour note with me, and I felt a couple major issues weren't entirely resolved at the end, but it was still intriguing and well-written enough for me to be interested in reading the next one.

A Use for Twitter

I am not the type of person who communicates well in 140 characters or less. I'm just not. But for the well-meaning friends and family who have chosen to follow me on this new devil contrivance, I thought I ought to think of some useful content to give them. So, voila! I announce here the launch of my Twitter Daily Word Count! This will keep all those people who feel they need to know everything about me up to date on my most exciting news: how many words I write in my current novel per day.

For anyone who hasn't been keeping up (truly blasphemous!) my current novel is a children's book about the tooth fairy. For about a decade I've kept a word log of all my novels. It's a way of measuring my progress in some quantitative way. I try to write about 500 words per day. When I don't succeed, I seriously stop and record everything I wrote before the 11:59 marker and then I often continue after midnight to complete the quota, but I don't count it for the previous day. Therefore, if I don't write 500 words before 11:59, I have not completed the day and usually feel a bit annoyed with myself. It probably sounds stupid and overly literal, but I find the strictness helps motivate me to at least get a certain amount done by a certain time.

I think all this attention to numbers which are generally unimportant is a way for me to cope with the inability to measure quality. Anyway, I find it helps me feel psychologically that I'm getting things done. So now I'll just share that word log with the world! (The world being my mom and the two friends who have, to their vast misfortune, chosen to follow someone as boring as me). All my standard word log entries feature the number of words, the date, and the time I finished. This will note my daily progress, but since I often finish around 11:59PM, the actual tweet may not be officially the same day. Just putting that out there. These otherwise unexciting numbers will also give you some small insight into my psyche. On the days I write 500 words or more I feel, if not happier, at least more accomplished and productive.

Of course, I'll still post the monthly counts here in my blog. Speaking of that, the monthly count for June is 7,944 words! Not great, but better than I've been doing. And I'm almost to the end of the novel with a current grand total of 69,817 words.

But you'll have to tune into my Twitter for my daily counts! Why? Am I trying to force you to follow me? No. As a matter of fact I wouldn't blame the friends that do follow me if they abandoned ship now. As tantalizing as I'm sure the prospect of word counts is.

I'm doing this because I feel sorry for Twitter and its utter uselessness in my life. At least as far as communication goes. Is Twitter useless to everyone? It seems not. I'll acknowledge it has uses. I'm subscribed to a job posting feed that's quite useful. But for me using it to talk to you, this is as good as it gets. For everything else I still refer you to this blog (which now even has a handy feed to my YouTube channel on the sidebar!)

Anyway, thank you all for your interest.

The Titan's Curse: Audiobook Review

So, as promised, here's my Titan's Curse review. I am breaking through the over-idle sludge that my brain has become. Anyway, it's funny because reviewing children's audiobooks used to be part of my job. Now I'm just doing it. Not like it wasn't always fun. But reviewing audiobooks is sometimes difficult, because unless the reader or company has done something spectacularly bad or good, there's not much to say other than what you would put in a normal book review. The reader Jesse Bernstien did all right, but I do have a few bones to pick with him.

First, though, the story itself. This will be a NON-spoilers review because I don't think anyone reading my blog has read the books. So, this third book starts a bit in the middle of things, so it took me a bit for me to catch up. But once I did I wasn't too confused. There are several new characters, none of them as likeable as the already established character. Percy has both a new friend and a new rival in the same person, and because you see this rival from Percy's eyes, it's hard to like her as much as Percy. Unless, you didn't like Percy. But I do. He's likeable enough. I did have sympathy for Percy's rival but never a great deal of liking.

The other new characters are still on notice in my opinion. Only one achieved a full story arc, the rest I'm still waiting to see what happens. Once again I guessed the god parent of the two new undertermined half-bloods long before the story revealed it. But I will NOT say who, of course. That would be a spoiler. (Another big sorry to my sister for my initial slip with Percy). However, I will say I didn't get as many clues from the writing this time. It was more a literary hunch that was deepened by a fan picture I saw of one of the characrters. There was nothing obvious in the picture to give it away, but something about the way the character was drawn did it for me. And that's all I'll say. Here's the picture for anyone curious who isn't afraid it might spoil them.

My favorite part of this book was the role Dionysus got to play. A small but integral one. I have to confess, Dionysus, the real Dionysus from Greek myth, is one of my favorite gods. Yep, I've never touched alcohol and my favorite god is the god of wine. Weird I know. But Dionysus is also the god of insanity which I've always found intriguing. Anyway, for most of the Percy Jackson books Dionysus is shafted and portrayed as pretty useless. But he actually got to do something in this book and show why you shouldn't mess with him. So that made me happy.

Once again I felt some things that happened in the real world, particularly toward the end, were too unbelievable for me, but I did think the character development by itself was quite good. I liked Annabeth's family. Probably the major beef I have with this book is that it's unresolved at the end. It's true the series has a running thread which remains unresolved, presuably until the end of the series, but this one was more so. I wouldn't exactly call it a cliff-hanger, but I always feel like stories like this are just interesting space fillers to the next story. They're dependent stories. Whether they're good or not depends on the events of the rest of the series. So I have to withhold judgement about the end of this book.

However, I don't have to withhold judgement on Jesse Bernstien's reading. Mostly it was fine. No qualms with any of the major characters which is the first thing one looks for in an audio version. He also does both genders all right which is another important feature. But I had a huge problem with how he portrayed Dionysus and Luke's voices. Dionysus sounds like Homer Simpson, which almost ruined his moment of glory for me, and Luke sounds like some kind of deranged surfer dude. Bernstien also has some weird fixation with making a lot of periphial characters sound mentally challenged. It might be because I already read the first two books and formulated certain voices in my head, but once again, not all the voices were off. The only other problem I had was Annabeth's step-mothe,r who is described as Asian. But--and this is important-- she is NOT described as having an Asian accent. Just because you look Asian, doesn't mean you sound Asian. Or, more specifically, a non-Asian's impression of Asian. Usually I'm not overly sensitive about these things. Quite the opposite actually. I generally roll my eyes when people make a big deal out of it. I have to admit it's not like it was over-the-top. It just felt unecessary and rubbed me the wrong way.

Well, that's all I have to say about it. Hope it was interesting.

Last Minute Post

10 minutes to midnight and I realize no post! I had wanted to do a book review of the 3rd Percy Jackson which I finished recently but that will have to wait. For now, here's a great interview with Neil Gaiman and his girlfriend Amanda Palmer. Yes, they're both in a bathtub.

When Life Gets Dark

Get Pratchett. This is a fan film made about one of Pratchett's most well-known characters. It was shown at a convention that Pratchett attended and ultimately posits what would happen if said character were ever to meet his maker....

Run Rincewind Run! (Part 1 of 2)


Run Rincewind Run! (Part 2 of 2)

我 愛 你 爸 爸

My Little Brother's Computer

I'm currently on my little brother's computer due once again to flaky internet. So just a short post before they want it back. My little brothers currently have a fascination with Pirates of the Carribean. I know because they've been watching all three movies non-stop since I got here. Mostly the older one. Although, I saw Curtis skip one of the mushy scenes. Guess he's not yet old enough for Keira Knightly to be interesting.

Even More Metaphorical Jars...

Yesterday I talked about a hypothetical ideas jar and my opinion of the usefulness of such a thing. My friend Brian commented by referring me to a different metaphorical jar--that of a possible online tip jar for literature. The article Brian referred me to is here, but this is by no means the first time I've heard this idea.

I have to say that I'm firmly on team skeptical. It's not that I'm completely against the idea. Obviously, as a trained librarian, I believe you should be able to read books for free. Clearly, libraries also haven't killed the book during the course of their existence, so the ability to read something for free isn't the primary issue. I just don't see this business working, at least not for people like me, and there are many reasons for this:

1.) Marketing. For this sort of model to work for beginning authors, they would need some way to market their work. If you're reading this blog, you're probably computer savvy enough to know that you can't just putting up a random website in the abyss of cyberspace if you want people to notice you. If I started serializing a novel on this blog, for instance, I'd probably get nothing unless one of you was feeling particularly generous.

I actually did try to sell my artwork online once from my own website. It admittedly wasn't every well set up, but I never even had any inquiries. The authors in the article Brian found are also already established fantasy authors and, therefore, probably would not need to work as hard at marketing themselves in this sort of endeavor. They may even have agents helping them or a core group of fans following them. Some writers, like Scott Sigler, might even have the necessary background in marketing, or just innate skills, that allow them to know the best and most effective ways to promote their work.

I am not one of these people. It has always been my plan to send my work to an agent. The idea that the agent would have a percentage of my earnings has never bothered me because, if they are doing their job properly, I believe they completely deserve that money for a task I do not desire and am not personally equipped to do. If they're not doing their job properly, they'll suffer more than me. As long as they aren't a complete criminal and run off with all my money or more than was agreed to, I will probably love my agent, or in the very least, appreciate them immensely. I believe an agent is necessary for any writer who just wants to be a writer and not a businessperson. And I know there are plenty of those out there. J.K. Rowling is a very prominent example of an author who looked for an agent first because she said that the marketing always sounded like a lot of trouble to her. But really nearly every successful author I've personally read has an agent, so I take that as a sign. It doesn't mean every successful author needs an agent. Not everyone needs them or wants them. But all successful authors do need SOMEONE marketing them, whether that's themselves or a mommy and daddy who own their own publishing company (*cough*cough*Christopher Paolini*cough*).

2. Computer literacy. Those who are reading this blog are all privileged in computer literacy. This is not the case for everyone. It's also not just old people, contrary to common belief. Working in the library, I encountered people of all ages who struggled with computers. Certainly, it is often older people, but there are plenty of others who have, for whatever reason, not had the inclination or the resources to educate themselves in computer use. I do not believe this is a generational problem, instead simply a case of people all being different. Are these people all stupid? No. Do they read? Yes. There are also plenty more who may be able to operate a computer but would never do it for anything outside absolutely necessary tasks. I could probably go on for ages about my theories on the social and economic reasons for this, but that would be another argument. Here it's enough to say that computer literacy is not yet universal enough for me to view online publishing as viably lucrative. Could it be in the future? Maybe. When? Heck if I know. One of my favorite authors and people in general, John Green, predicts the face of publishing will change in the next ten years. I can't say I feel as certain of this, but maybe I'm just too old fashioned at heart.

3. Donations. When you get right down to it, I'm probably the worst person to talk about the economics of donations, particularly those for artistic endeavors, because I don't donate to the arts. I mean, about four years ago, I dropped a handful of change into the violin case of a small string orchestra playing in the metro in Paris. That's my only donation to the arts in recent memory. I rationalize this by the fact that I don't have a lot of money myself. Could I still donate a little. Yeah. But when I do donate to others, it tends to be for things like food or medicine. This is not because I don't believe that art is important. Okay, maybe some days I waver on that, but as an artist myself, I have to believe that what I am doing is important and not just something that makes me happy. But when it comes right down to it, if I was in need, food would be the first thing I'd want.

Now, you'll probably say that's mostly what the artists you donate to are going to spend it on. Feeding themselves and whatnot so they can continue to do art. Yes, but the other part is my own personal preferences. The idea of anyone giving me anything like charity has always chaffed at me. And the idea of people donating money to support my writing would probably never be one I'll be comfortable with (though I'd consider it if I honestly thought it would work. I just don't). This feeling is probably because I have such a tumultuous relationship with the utility of my craft. I feel if art is turned into a charity, that is devaluing it. I'm not saying money is everything, but it's the standard tool by which we value goods. Some art may be priceless, but that usually just means people would pay a heck of a lot of money for it if the museum would just give it to them.... Many of you are probably going to disagree and think that's horrible. You might be right, but hear me out. Yes, I believe in libraries, but libraries buy books. If they're any kind of charity, it's one to the people, and not the authors. If art is important, why shouldn't we expect people to pay for it? I won't debate a fair price here, but look at it this way. Would you expect a farmer to run on donations only? Would you expect a computer engineer to run on donations only? A mechanic? A teacher? A carpenter? If art is as important to life as these things, shouldn't artists be able to work in the same economic world?

Of course, if art's not as important, a lot of us are going to have to reevaluate our lives....

Anyway, you can probably tell this is a subject I've thought about a lot. I have plenty more thoughts on it that I'd be happy to share if any of you have questions about what I've already said. But I'd also love to hear your thoughts on it. Leave them in comments or email, whatever your preference. Oh, and Brian, you never answered my first question!

Ideas

Yet another random picture from the nature reserve near my sister.

The internet is working. For now. My step-mother has very kindly humored me twice already and restarted the devil machine. The restart seems to boot the router into recognizing my computer again. I want to learn this process myself so I don't have to pester her every time. Although, ideally, it doesn't happen again, but that seems like it may be too optimistic. Hopefully it works for at least as long as it did last time which was roughly 24 hours. In any event, before my internet stopped working yesterday, I meant to post about this article from China Miéville about ideas that I found while reading Neil Gaiman's blog.

Essentially Miéville thinks it would be great if we had some online forum in which to share ideas we're not equipped to do justice ourselves.

Hank Green recently had a similar idea which he sorta took from a former high profile vlogger named Zefrank. Except Zefrank seemed to think we should go out and accomplish all our good ideas, I agree with Hank and Miéville that sometimes we're not the right people for the job.

On one hand I would LOVE it if people would go out and accomplish my ideas that I do not have the time or resources to do (like a GOOD film version of Ella Enchanted that actually stays true to the tone of the novel or a quasi-fictional biography of a famous book, like Machivelli's The Prince, and how it's affected people through history). This also might work better for giant coorporations, particularly film companies and maybe publishers and other distributors of creative work. It could be like a giant suggestion box and people could toss ideas they want to see at these companies and then these companies can decide which ideas seem the most popular (thus earning them the most money).

On the other hand, this is a situation where the givers aren't as useful to the process as the takers, and I see myself as primarily a giver in this type of situation. I have plenty of ideas to give, but the idea of taking another person's idea holds no appeal to me. It's also just not necessary. I barely enough time or inclination to accomplish the ideas I CAN accomplish. I guess I have met people who ask writers and artists where they get their ideas. These people puzzle me. A life where you don't have at least ten perfectly viable ideas for your own particular craft simmering somewhere in the back of your mind is completely unfathomable to me. I also get really annoyed (and know I'm not the only one) when people begin any conversation with the words "You should write..."

Excuse me? I should write? What about YOU should write? You thought of it! Why are you dumping the work on me? I should write my own ideas! Plus, using another person's idea for me is usually about as appealing as wearing someone else's underwear. Of course, I've been inspired by things people have said before. And sometimes I respond better when people jokingly say I should do something but clearly don't think I will. But there has honestly been only TWO times someone actually seriously said "You should write..." and I agreed with them and wrote it. In both instances this was only because the idea was already banging around in my head anyway, so it wasn't really their idea, just their suggestion that I write down my own idea.

But everybody's different. I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. Would you actually want to take other people's ideas from something like a giant spare ideas jar?

Shoddy Internet

Busy day and, of course, the internet decides to flake out on me. The internet is really the one thing keeping me going right now, so this is a little like having my air supply cut off. Sigh... And it just seems to be my computer too. I can get it to run on wired internet but the wired internet's in a really inconvenient place. Once again proving that if you can rely on one thing in life, it's for computers to be unreliable.

Rough Day

But there's really not much else related to that subject that I feel like putting in so public a forum right now. That may change in the future since I usually hate being cagey. I realize mostly only my friends read this blog, so I'd be happy to talk to any one of you individually. It doesn't have to be about what I'm going through. Most the time I think it's better if it's not. I may actively avoid it at times and hope no one thinks I'm crass for just wanting to talk about things that make me happy (usually my writing). Or I may just ask about you. But I'll never be upset if you ask. It helps to talk to people, period.

Having said that, as Monty Python would say, now for something completely different.

Here is a nice but completely unrelated picture, since the stubborn video doesn't allow you to embed it and we must have something to look at. This is a tree at the end of the nature reserve near my sister's apartment.

I was cruising the internet for Neil Gaiman news, as I am sometimes wont to do, and came across this reading of a short story he wrote called "Feminine Endings." (click the link in "Feminine Endings" and scroll down past the article, and click on that title in the video cue).

It's always worth hearing Neil Gaiman read. That man could read the phone book and it would sound good. But what interested me in particular about this reading was he seemed confident no one would have heard the story and said it wasn't published in any of his short story anthologies. Well, this is true but, being a dutiful reader of his blog, I signed up to get a "love letter" from Neil Gaiman (who in their right mind wouldn't, even if everyone does get the same letter?) and it was this story that I recieved in my inbox. Easily one of the best non-personal emails I've ever recieved. It is also in an anthology, though not one of his. It was put in: Four Letter Word, an anthology of fictional love letters written by several different authors. Anyway, it was great to hear him read it even though I had already read it contrary to his statement. I have one of those annoying personalities where I have to point out mistakes like this even though I know knowing this little fact that wasn't even worth it to the author to remember identifies me as a complete nerd and quite possibly a bit like the creepy character in the story he reads. I'm not stalking you, Neil, I promise! That's not me outside your window!

Happy Father's Day

To all the fathers starting with my own. Today I drew the above card for my father. And, yes, I know my hand writing still looks like a five year old's, especially when I write in print. Anyway, I feel an explanation of the picture is in order. I know my dad used to want to be a pilot. So that explains the plane. As for the turtle, when I was a little kid, I once asked my father some standard child question which was either "what is you favorite animal?" or "if you could be any animal, what animal would it be?" My father said it would be a turtle. I still have enough kid in me to know the important distinction between those two questions, but either way it's stuck with me for this long that my father had a penchant for turtles (or, in the very least, it was his idea of the best answer at the time). It's funny the little things we remember.

Horatio

I don't draw very much anymore, so it's worth noting when I do even if not everyone will get the reference. Any one of the beta-readers who've read far enough in my novel knows my character Horatio. He was devilishly tricky to draw and, as per usual, he's not exactly how I see him in my head. But there's definitely a Horatio-ish essence to his face and I wasn't satisfied until I at least got the expression right, which was one of the hardest things. I based it off the below picture of Hugh Dancy which, except for the curly hair, looks almost exactly like the Horatio I see in my head. Despite the fact that I actually envisioned Horatio as unconventionally attractive whereas Hugh most defintely fits many conventions of attractiveness. In a dreamcast film of my novel, Hugh Dancy would play Horatio and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films) would play the Prince, whose picture I put up yesterday. The only trouble is the disparity in their ages because they're supposed to be around the same age in my book. Not like I'm ever likely to have to worry about a film adaptation, and I'm quite lucky if I do.

Character Portrait

I saw some lizards today. I frustrated my little brothers because I'm incapable of waking before noon. But I didn't do anything that I think would make a good blog post. So here's a portrait I sketched back in high school of one of my novel's characters. He's younger in this picture than I currently imagine him, but that may have something to do with me having been younger at the time. He looks about the age in this picture that I probably was when I drew him (I'm guessing about 16). Now I see him as being around 21. Otherwise the expression of his face is very accurate to what I imagine if not all the features (his lips are a bit fuller than I see them in my head and a few other lines on his face don't quite match up). There's also definitely some artistic flaws that bug me in this picture, but I won't go into them because I've always been of the philosophy that pointing out a flaw in your own work to someone either forces them to comment on something they already saw or (far worse) brings something they didn't see to their attention. This way it only bugs me.

I already emailed this to some of the people reading my novel, but I messed up on the email with the picture attached, so after some deliberation, decided these are friends who loved me enough to read my novel and therefore probably wouldn't bite me if I sent them a follow-up email with the correct subject. The trouble was I forgot to attach the picture to the second email but it IS attached to the FIRST email with the WRONG subject. I decided NOT to send a third email. And now it's pictured above for people who don't like confusing emails.

Just so everyone understands the full scope of my incompetence.

The Sea of Monsters: Book Review

I finished the second Percy Jackson book yesterday. Unemployment is good for catching up on reading at least. So brief non-spoilers summary. Percy starts getting dreams that his friend Grover is in trouble, and he and his friend Annabeth have to find the mythical Sea of Monsters to rescue him. This book is like a contemporary sequel to/highlights version of the Odyssey which I thought was rather clever. I laughed more in this book as well and I started to really love that all the heroes in these books are dyslexic (there's a reason for this which I also find amusing but reasonably credible).

I would highly recommend this book to a parent looking for biliotherapy for a dyslexic child, or to a deslexic child if they might be interested in the subject matter. I'm personally getting to really like the characters even if I find some of the situations less than credible. I'm not talking about the Greek gods either. Once again, I won't give any spoilers, but just some things Percy claimed to have done when he used to think he was normal and some aspects of his mother's personality didn't sit right with me. With crossovers between fantasy and the modern world, I think writers sometimes walk a fine line of credibility. The reason being, the real world, in my opinion, should still feel like the real world, but when some writers mix in fantasy, they think they can get away with the real world seeming less real. Unfortunately, when the real world doesn't follow its own rules, you've just created two fantasy worlds instead of one, and the real world is pretty lame as a fantasy world. I think Riordan sometimes falls into this trap, but not terminally so. Just enough for me to notice from time to time. Still, since this second book took place more in the alternate mythical world, I think it was easier for me to accept all the happenings.

Anyway, to sum things up, it's a good fast read that I highly recommend, but start with the first book The Lightning Thief!

Weapons and Little Brothers

The trouble with chronicling my life, is even when I'm productive, that doesn't always make for that great reading material. I did manage to do some writing today. I'm nearing the end of the children's novel I'm currently writing. It's very exciting to me, but since I don't wish to share the story quite yet, I feel like it's not that exciting for others to hear about. I also did a little job searching today, but even I don't want to think about that...

You're probably thinking that, as a writer, I should be able to make anything interesting. It's possible that's true. But there's a reason I write fantasy. I have great admiration for writers like John Green who can consistently make the real world compelling. I think every good story is based on humanity's core values. But I just think those values are better represented with action, magic, dragons, fairies, and whatnot.

Anyway, because of that, I'll just be an annoying older sister and talk about my little brothers instead. Above is a picture of one of their many self-designed weapons. It's a sword (whittled from wood or bamboo) with a duct tape scabbard. It even has a little tassle as you can see. Today I also saw a bayonet they had crafted to put on one of their toy guns. Even though it is a little disturbing, I've yet to see them walking around with any type of injury from these weapons, so I have to admit I'm actually quite proud of them. The design skill put into them is really incredible. They've also got several crossbows and spears, all made from some combination of wood, duct tape, and yarn. I can't get out of them where they got the idea, though. They don't watch TV or movies. I suppose they could have stumbled across pictures on the internet, but their inititive in actually creating these things is impressive regardless.

CSI Cherie

I was watching the above linked episode of CSI last night, and they determined that a man was left-handed because he wore his watch on the right wrist. I find this distinction puzzling since I am left-handed and I wear my watch on my left wrist. Of course, I'm willing to accept I may be a confused leftie. After all, it did take me several years to understand the difference between the right and left handed desks in school. I generally mimic the habits of those around me and don't think about how they're different for me.