The Medici

So I just finished watching a PBS documentary series on YouTube called The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance. (If you click the link, pay attention to the episode numbers. The first one's on the bottom.)

I rather liked this documentary. Scenes were enacted by live action actors. A lot of the actions were mimed since I suppose they felt the actors speaking might take away from the scene? Sometimes it was unintentionally amusing but it wasn't all silly, and the actors were quite good at facial expressions. Pictured above is the actor who played my favorite Medici: Còsimo di Giovanni degli Mèdici. Not for his funny hat. Though that is awesome. But because, of all the Medici, he seemed the smartest. He was the first of the Medici line and patron to many artists such as Donatello, as well as the brilliant architect and inventor of linear perspective Brunelleschi.

Most importantly, though, he didn't get too big for his breeches. He was a shrewd political mind, who managed to make the city love rather than fear him. I'm not sure if the documentary watered it down, though, or if he really was the least violent of the Medici. But it seemed that way. This isn't to say he was a fluffy bunny. But he didn't slaughter whole towns as an example to others.

Book Clubs and Botticelli

I'm going out to my book club today and I'll probably be too tired to write about how that went after I get back. So I thought I'd mention that I was watching a documentary on the Medicis the other night and it talked about how Botticelli did some of his most famous work, The Birth of Venus and the Primavera under their patronage. But after the death of Lorenzo de Medici he went fanatically Christian under the new regime and burned many of the mythologically themed paintings in his possession. I find it heart-breaking to think we've lost such fine art without even knowing what we've lost. I hold out a hopeful fantasy that Boticelli, in order to seem like he was going along with the new regime, pretended to burn some of his paintings but really kept all of them hidden away and perhaps someday we'll find them. But, yes, I know how unlikely that is.

In any event, at least we still have what was kept safe by the Medicis.

Confounded Politics and Drinking Songs

These kids are singing a national anthem. But for what nation? To be honest I'm not sure myself. I found it on this site. It didn't sound American....

So I made a comment about the British monarchy feeling relatively secure that it would never be read by anyone actually British. But I was WRONG! So let that be a lesson to me and everyone else. The British monarchy is always watching. No, just kidding. (Or am I? Better get our little tin hats.) This just brings home that one should always remember the Internet is a public forum. I like to think I'm pretty good about this and you will see nary an embarrassing photograph or embarrassing incident that I do not feel comfortable allowing all the world to see. I'm probably more paranoid than I need to be concerning most things. But as we've seen, even I slip up a little.

So, in the spirit of fairness, I shall poke fun at both the US national anthem and the British one. But just so no one feels singled out, I'm of the opinion that most national anthems are pretty silly (or disturbing) when you get right down to it.

Now the first on our list is God Save the Queen, but don't worry, I poke fun at the Star Spangled Banner next. God Save the Queen is a very pretty tune, and we even stole it for my favorite patriotic song My Country Tis of Thee. But when I examined the words I had to crack up at that lines "Confound their politics/ Frustrate their knavish tricks." I don't know. I suppose I've lived too long in a country where the national anthem is about blowing things up. But I also find it ambiguous whose doing the confounding or frustrating. God, the Queen, the British people, or all of the above? All of these options seem rather amusing. And how are we confounding them? A well written treaty is a very admirable thing, but seems a bit odd to sing about in an anthem since I generally see anthems as something to stir up national pride. This is basically like saying, "We confuse people. Yeah!" Or perhaps they're using Jedi Mind Tricks? The idea of diplomacy in an anthem isn't bad, but there's just something about it that seems so uniquely British.



God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!

O Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies
And make them fall;
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all!

Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign;
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice,
God save the Queen!

Okay, but fair's, fair. Our anthem is to the tune of an old British drinking song, is ridiculously long (only the first stanza is usually sung), and it is nearly impossible to sing well without really good range (and drunk people sang this?). And as previously mentioned, is basically about blowing things up. And yes, it's obviously about the flag too. We're very happy the flag is still there. What's that? What about all those dead soldiers? Oh, never mind that, hooray for the flag!



O! say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave

Sorcery and Cecelia: Book Review

This section does NOT contain spoilers or killer tableware.

Yesterday I finished reading Sorcery and Cecelia, and I ardently adored it! On a random side note, though, it seems I cannot hear the name Cecelia without thinking of this song, so it's been stuck in my head for weeks. Rather annoying as I don't know all the words. But I just thought I'd pass on the disease to someone else if they click the link.

This epistolary novel is a correspondence between two cousins: Cecelia Rushton (a.k.a. Cecy) and Katherine Talgarth (a.k.a Kate). Kate is in London for the Season while Cecelia is left to languish in boredom at home. Or so she thinks until both cousins are unexpectedly drawn into a vicious intrigue among three powerful wizards concerning a chocolate pot that can mean the difference between life and death.

Now, I've always loved Jane Austen and I've always loved fantasy, but before this book putting them together seemed as dubious to me as chocolate and onions. As I said before, the first few pages threw me off with their off-handed mention of wizards and the many names similar to Jane Austen's books. But I felt the novel soon took on it's own unique voice which is usually my primary concern whenever I read any type of Jane Austen spinoff. Though it helped immensely that this boook did not feature any actual Austen characters, particularly Mr. Darcy. The trouble with such spinoffs is it feels like all their possibilities have been played out to the fullest already and then some.

I was also relieved to find the language to be believable for regency times, but not too reminscient of Austen. A series of Jane Austen mysteries I've read before were enjoyable but often had the problem of stealing lines straight from Austen's novels. Rather than seeming like a clever homage, it got to be so common that it usually made it seem like the author couldn't think of any other regency turn of phrase.

The language in Sorcery and Cecelia, on the other hand, was either well researched or the authors at least read more than just Austen's books from that time period. There were many phrases I didn't recognize or was tempted to look up later, which is why I enjoyed Austen's books in the first place. I love being immersed in the language of a different time and Sorcery and Cecelia does this immensely well in my opinion. Regency scholars might disagree, but for the average layman like myself, the language was perfectly believable.

As for the fantasy element, I was admittedly skeptical of the idea of an enchanted chocolate pot but Wrede and Stevermer manged not to make it as ludicrous as it sounds and by the end I took it seriously enough. I suppose I could say it's the type of fantasy I've always preferred, character oriented and not epic. No orks invading the rectory. But I feel like the Regency romance aspect was only nicely flavored by the fantasy and not the other way around. I probably still would have liked the story even without the fantasy element, as amusing as it was, but I wouldn't without the regency element. Maybe that's just me.

As for the romance, I loved it. Parts of it were slightly perdictable but in a charming way and not an annoying one. I suspect this is when you know who likes who, but you're not sure how they'll get together and that's what makes it worth reading. It made me feel warm and gooey inside just like a good Austen book.

Now for a few spoilers and dangerous tea accesories. BEWARE!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I mean it! This will be like reading the book's tea leaves! Go now if you don't won't to be spoiled. Yeah, that's right, you who haven't read the book, shoo! This is a huge spoiler!

*

*

*

*

Okay, okay, so when Cecelia finally breaks the chocolate pot, I thought that was a bit too easy. The men really WERE being stupid if that's all that needed doing. But at least she got into a lot of trouble for it like getting sick and then trapped in the garden which led to kissing James Tarleton. So it's all good.

Health Care

Well, I try not to be too political on this blog, but the comments character limitations won't let me reply with everything I've written (see comments on Monarchy and Mosquitoes for full debate). So here's a blog post dedicated to my thoughts on health care.

For anyone curious why we're talking about health care, I'm referring to this post on Ælfhere's blog. So most of this is addressed to him, but I don't mind anyone else reading it.

I would like to preface this with the fact that I'm really not usually a very argumentative person, and sincerely respect your responses even if I may not entirely agree. The only reason I continue to hold my point is because you have thus far responded in a perfectly civilized manner (such a rare thing on the Internet) and I truly appreciate that. Also, before you get too fed up with me, I'd love to know how you found my blog. Like I said, I never imagined people I didn't know read it.

Thank you for your thoughts. You've certainly answered my challenge, though, from your description, I feel it sounds like the monarchy is just something Britain is stuck with since breaking down the system now would be more trouble than it's worth. I know countries that ceased having monarchies ages ago obviously don't have to share properties with the disposed parties. I've visited castles in Europe that belong entirely to the government, but understandably it would be an ugly battle if Britain tried to take everything away. Though, I'm curious what is the current function of the crown jewels? Are they just for the royalty to wear? Admittedly it would be ridiculous for the prime minister to wear them (rather amusing image, though). But once again, I would just imagine they'd be on display in some museum. Still, I do acknowledge that many governments, mine included, spend a lot of money on maintaining the look of government. That is always what I imagined the monarchy were for, and it would seem silly for present day Britain to revolt against the monarcy since it's no longer telling them what to do.

But just as I seem ill-informed concerning the intricacies of your monarchy, you seem ill-informed concerning our health care system. Here is my argument with all my sources which you're free to check for accuracy. The percentage of uninsured Americans in 2008 according to our Census Bureau is 15.4 percent. (http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/hlthin08/hlth08asc.html) So, broadly speaking, yes, "most Americans can get it." (Whether they can keep it is an entirely different matter). I suppose it's relative whether you consider 46.3 million uninsured people to be worrisome or not. I see that the current population of the United Kingdom is about 61,113,205 (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uk.html). So that would be about 75% of the UK.

Here is the actual proposed health care bill: http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090714/aahca.pdf

It's VERY long but I challenge you to find ANY mention of "death doctors" under ANY name. The binoculars button is a word search if that helps. I don't know what you read, but the bill does NOT cover abortion (I have my own feelings about this but they are irrelevant to this debate). Most importantly, the bill does NOT require people to have government run health care. I admittedly don't know a lot about your NHS, but I don't think this is the same. The public health care would be ONE option only. All current health care companies would continue to run. Everyone who already has health care would be unaffected unless they chose to change. Health care simply wouldn't have the monopoly they currently have. The health care companies have the strangely conflicting argument that govenment health care won't be as good but that they also can't possibly hope to compete with it if people have a choice.

If the bill's too long, here's the president's speech where he summarizes what is and is NOT in the bill: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/09/obama-health-care-speech_n_281265.html

I have also run into the stereotype of the health obsessed American before. I find it hilarious my nation, a nation with one of the world's highest obesity rates, home to McDonalds, is often stereotyped as obsessed with health. I promise you I'm not (luckily nor am I obese). I don't need to be the world's healthiest human. As for dental care, the thought never crossed my mind. I'm not sure I've ever had dental insurance and many people don't. Most my dental care consisted of being a guinea pig for a bunch of university students learning how to be dentists because that's the cheapest thing to do here. Dental and eye care are often separate insurances. One may have basic health insurance and not have these covered. I confess to not having even bothered to check if they'll give us dental or eye care. All I want to know is that I won't go bankrupt if I break a leg or develop some condition. But MOST importantly, I also want the peace of mind that I can get insurance if I have a pre-exisiting condition. I have a friend with epilepsy whose health insurance has run out and she recently lost her job (as many Americans in this economy have). And here's the story of a man who would HAPPILY pay for health care if they would only sell it to him, but they won't because he has a disease. They won't even just charge him more. They just won't sell it to him:



I could go on longer, but this is already probably trying your patience. If you've gotten this far, thank you very much.

Sushi!

I will be meeting people and getting sushi today. Not sure when I'll get back so just thought I'd make an early post.

Monarchy and Mosquitoes

What do the two have in common? Mostly they're both on my mind recently. I was savaged by a mosquito recently that even bit the bottom of my foot! And I watched a documentary on the House of Windsor last night. But I think there is slightly more of a link between the two. As far as I can tell, they have similar leeching qualities. Now, I've no personal problem with monarchies, particularly as I've never lived under one myself. I rather enjoy reading about their eccentricities from a safe distance. But it continues to baffle me that perfectly reasonable people continue to foot the bill for what is basically a trumped up mascot for their country who has no real political power. I suppose we pay celebreties more than they deserve, but at least that's not tax dollars.

But I'm a reasonable person. Honestly, it wouldn't bother me to live somewhere like Britain because I don't believe the queen would have any more power over me there than she does here. I doubt anyone reading my blog feels any ardent attachment to monarchy, but if they do, I'd love to hear any reasoning behind keeping them in power, other than to watch their overpriced human drama.

9 : Movie Review

Normally I'm not a fan of the star system for rating anything because I feel everyone assigns different meaning to numbers of stars and I generally err on the side of giving too many stars to anything I don't like. But I think 9 is firmly two stars. Out of ten possible stars. And those two only exist because visually the movie was dark but beautiful. But the story is nowhere near equal to the imagery.

What was the problem? It didn't have a point! You watch it, and think it's working up to a point. But it's not. It's just depressing with a fake light at the end of the tunnel. In the end, everything is the fault of the main character, but they act like that's okay. The characters who are supposed to be closed-minded and "wrong" actually were right all along. Things would have been better if the main character had never met them. Except it's as if the movie doesn't realize this? My recommendation is not to see this movie. Or if you must, wait and see it for free. I was happy to spend time with my sister and out of the house, but otherwise this was not worth the price of admission. The trailer is right when they said "We had such potential, such promise, but we squandered our gifts." That's this movie in a nutshell, potential to be dazzling with it's breathtaking CGI squandered on a lame story.

9 - 9 - 09

My sister and I are going to see the movie 9 today. I thought I'd blog before we leave in case we get back late.

The Babes in the Woods: Book Review

No, not the horrible children's story but rather my book club book. I know some people seem to prefer my spoiler reviews, but I just don't feel right giving the spoilers of a mystery story. Still, I'll endeavor to give a more engaging review than the non-spoiler ones usually are.

The story itself is in a series of novels focusing on Chief Inspector Wexford, a British police officer in a town called Kingsmarkham. In this tale Wexford is told of some missing children and their babysitter, believed to be drowned in a flood that has swept the area. Wexford doesn't believe the children have drowned, but the more he looks into it, the more twisted and bizarre the case becomes. The house was left in perfect order before the parents arrived home, no forced entry, the beds made, a the children's coats are even missing, as if they and their babysitter only left for an outing. Except none of them ever returned.

I admit the book didn't seem too promising to me at first, but I feel it got better. It starts with some crazy religious ceremony in the woods. Of course, I knew that had to be part of the mystery, but I didn't feel invested in it, crazy religious ceremonies not being my primary area of interest. Still, I perked up when I found the book takes place in Britain (something I might have guessed from the name "Wexford" but didn't") and the author is British herself. I tend to favor the British style of writing over the American. Maybe I'm just a snob that way, but I just prefer their turn of phrase to ours.

Flipping through the book, I had also glimpsed a line something like "Please, find my darling children!" which seemed a bit over the top to me. But I soon learned that the character who utters that line is a bit over the top herself, which made me feel considerably better about it. The religious thing, as I expected, served a purpose, but I couldn't really guess exactly what until very near the end.

The main character, Chief Inspector Wexford, was okay. He wasn't exactly as much of a personality as Holmes, but he wasn't a complete camera. However, sometimes I would get a little disoriented when the author would change character perspectives, particulalrly if it was a different police officer because they tended to think similarly to Wexford. In addition to that, I felt that his family life was often a plot device to help him figure out the mystery, but perhaps his family are better developed in the other books. It's a very old series that's been around since the 60s, but this book is new (from 2002) and the writing didn't seem dated, so the author has adapted well enough to the times. Otherwise, Wexford was at least a believable and credible main character, very human, a rock surrounded by rather crazy suspects.

As for the actual mystery, I did manage to guess some aspects of it, but it was a bit like a game of clue where you might know it's Colonel Mustard, but you don't necessarily know if it was in the drawing room with the candlestick or in the parlor with the knife. And you may never know what his motive was in the first place. Luckily, unlike Clue, I did eventually get a motive, but it was admittedly not exactly what I was expecting, though I had narrowed down the suspect before they named the person. Actually, in a way, I was both right and wrong about who was responsible for the crime. At the same time it wasn't out of the blue. There were clues that could have helped you guess at everything. The mystery just had so many facets that you weren't likely to guess all of them.

So, I did like it enough to stay up later than even I usually do to finish it. Do I recommend it? Well, if my review intrigued you, I'd say try reading to the part with the first meeting with the parents of the missing children. If you're not interested by then, you probably won't be later.

Oh, and if you do read this book, do NOT read the summary first. It reveals something that doesn't happen until 1/3rd of the way through the book and pretty much eliminated several possibilities for me right off the bat.

Well, that's all for now. If you got this far, I hope it wasn't just because someone tied you to a chair with your eyelids taped open. Thanks for reading!

Dream Journal #4

I had a dream that I and some other nerdfighters went to John's house to help him demolish his moldy basement walls. I was apparently very good at demolishing walls in my dream, but this may have had something to do with the fact that they were far flimsier than real walls. There were also walls behind the walls. Then John painted the new walls green and put jungle themed wallpaper on them.

Lazy Sunday

I spent most the day reading my book club book, so not much exciting news from me, but it did make me think about how unrealistic I find some aspects of crime drama. In the book I'm reading the investigator tracks down a boy a thirty year old woman got in a fight with when she was a teenager. The boy is otherwise completely unrelated to the case. Of course, it conveniently leads to a possible clue, but it just seems so unlikely that they would follow-up on some school-aged quarrel.

I find the same thing in all the crime shows I enjoy watching. They always seem to have an inordinate amount of time on their hands (unless the plot calls for them not to), and they also seem to have enough money to buy high-tech equipment like flashy holograms for their departments. I guess we know where all the tax money goes in these fictional worlds.

Associations

I've been reading my book club book, which isn't turning out to be so bad, but I came across a pretty strange association for it. While searching the book cover online I noticed a Wikipedia article on the actual original children's story. I encourage anyone to look it up if they ever want to be appalled at how terrible some stories can be. It's up there with The Little Match Girl for everyone's favorite pointlessly depressing stories. It's like the original Series of Unfortunate Events before they invented humor. But the funny thing is that it was illustrated by Randolph Caldecott. The very man that the Caldecott Medal is named for.

Too many books...

Okay, there can ever really be too many books, but when I read for pleasure, I like to read one book at a time. Sometimes I read quickly and sometimes slowly. It depends on how I feel about the story and not the difficulty. I hate feeling like I have to rush through anything. But I seem to have bitten off more than I can chew and they're all a bit time sensitive. Currently, I'm trying to read:

Because I heard Hank Green review it ages ago and heard good things about it from a friend of mine. Patricia C. Wrede is also a fond and nostalgic memory from my childhood because of Dealing with Dragons. I've actually started this book and quite like it. You can't argue with the elegance of and Austen-esque style. At first the mentions of magic bugged me since they seem out of place, and I'm still not sure how I'll feel about it. A lot of the names: Elizabeth, Charlotte, Fitzwilliam, and Georgina (not exactly like Georgiana but remarkably close), are also stolen striaght from Pride and Prejudice which also threw me off a little at first. At first, I wasn't sure if they meant the same characters or not, though now I'm pretty certain they don't. But I'll withhold judgment on those things until I get a little farther. Anyway, given a choice, I'd probably just continue with this book but there are two others I really need to finish soon as well. Still, this one is also on hold for someone else, so it's due back the 18th.

I've been trying to read the fourth Percy Jackson for months and already got side-tracked by Nation and had to return this to the library (or have my kind sister do it since I was out of town) and check it out all over again. I was listening to the audio but one of the character's voices really annoyed me and she's already an annoying character so I decided to switch to text. I still have a sneaking suspicion it won't be my favorite Percy Jackson book, but I still want to find out what happens. It's due back to the library on the 24th and I also can't renew it.

This book is for the book club I signed up for. I like mystery, but I haven't read any straight mystery for a long time, and this isn't the kind of thing I'd usually choose on my own. Of course, I haven't really started it yet. I'll try to just think of it like a CSI episode. I hope to one day write some mystery stories, so it'll be good to study the genre. But you'll notice this is the only adult book on the list. I read a lot of adult fantasy and sci-fi, sure, but I often have trouble with adult books in other genres. I always feel like they take themselves too seriously. All the same, I have to finish this the soonest since the book club's on the 16th.

Wow

People amaze me sometimes. Not always in a good way.

Words in August

I wrote 3,704 words in August for my newest novel. It's fascinating, but the research slows me down a bit. I can research beforehand, but I'm not the type of person who really knows what I'm going to write before I sit down and do it. One little detail can mean a half hour of research. I suppose I could also just mark spots to research as I write but I hate leaving blanks.

So...

...I never put up pictures of my visit to Denison so here are some.



These are the awesome friends I went to visit and Denison's best residential house, though sadly stripped of its rightful title as the Honors House.



Nope, not a postcard. This is actually a picture of the campus.



The best English professor I ever had lies here.



Also, surprisingly not a postcard but an actual picture of the village of Granville



Yes, that is actually a bowl at the bottom so doggies can have water too.

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...