scattered

[jazzfish]

The real problem with being sick is that it's entirely thrown me off my running. I was doing alright for the first week of April. Now I can't even take a deep breath without coughing, or even stand at my desk for several hours without getting light-headed and needing to sit down for a bit. Makes it hard to keep up any kind of pace.

It's been pretty bright out lately, which is nice even if I'm still coming to terms with the sun being up at seven PM. I just got used to it being dark at four-thirty and now they have to go and change it on me. Stupid seasons.

Media... dug into The Cloud Roads a couple of days ago. Even in my somewhat muzzy-headed state it's quite enjoyable. On advice/praise from a wide variety of people including daghain, silmaril, everyone at LG&M, and my friend Kosh from junior high, we watched the first episode of The Wire a couple of weeks ago. I immediately ordered the complete series DVDs. This looks like exactly the kind of in-depth storytelling I'm looking for.

The last of the immigration paperwork is off to the immigration lawyer, so there's that. Now we just wait for some amount of time which will probably be less than a year, and we're permanent residents and can start the much more involved citizenship process.

---

101 in 1001 update (the list)

Completed:

27) See a concert by an artist I'm unfamiliar with. Veronica Falls, 2013-03-22

28) See a concert by an artist I've listened to for at least five years. Tylan, formerly of Girlyman, 2013-03-17

68) Clear the top of the dresser and pick up that one corner of the bedroom. 2013-04-04

69) Reduce the Last Two Lousy Boxes to a single Last Lousy Box. 2013-03-24

In progress:

17) Stay in touch with Maureen. Begin 2013-04-05, ongoing.

18) Inbox Zero (nothing in the mailbox that wants a response). Flag count: 18.

35) Write, revise, & submit "Blood on Her Hands and a Stone at Her Throat." Halfway plotted.

47) Play or purge all the unplayed boardgames in my collection, except for Italia. (6/13) Played Code 777, a deduction game.

67) Clean the office. Stacked more things into fewer piles. Why is this task such a challenge?

86) Write that one thing I think about writing once a week or so. Started.

90) Read or purge everything currently on the To Be Read shelf. (10/25) Read The Praxis, vol. 1 of Walter Jon Williams's space opera trilogy. Abandoned Vellum by Hal Duncan, as the amazing prologue was not indicative of the rest of the book.

Comments

[shanaqui]

Abandoned Vellum by Hal Duncan, as the amazing prologue was not indicative of the rest of the book.

And Hal Duncan turns out to be kind of a jerk anyway.

Hope you feel better soon.

[jazzfish]

I try not to let 'Author is a jerk' be a reason to not read books, but it does make it easier to put them down. What's he done, if you don't mind?

[shanaqui]

I don't like giving money to people I think are jerks, so. And it was his response to Thatcher's death: this tweet and this. That he's entitled to detest Thatcher I would never dispute -- his blog post is passionate and I found it very powerful up to this point:

...there is a part of me that hopes fervently that in her descent into senility, her loss of comprehension, that confusion terrified her. There is a part of me that wants her to have died in mortal terror at the chaos of her memories, that iron will the spineless sycophants are now praising broken, her whole personality smashed to the incomprehension of a frightened child.

At which point I found it sickening, and wondered if Hal Duncan has ever sat beside someone's deathbed when they were in that state, and if so, how he could be so sick as to wish it upon anyone.

[jazzfish]

I don't like giving money to people I think are jerks, so.

A reasonable attitude! I'm still trying to figure out for myself how far I'm comfortable taking that. (Roman Polanski: hell no, Scott Card: no but it helps that I haven't liked anything he's written in well over a decade and I would probably not like Ender's Game on a reread; eBear: yes.)

And, yeah. That's kinda horrific. Understandably so in light of the rest of the post, but horrific nonetheless.

[shanaqui]

Yeah, I haven't yet figured out where my firm lines are. I still buy Robin Hobb's books after several of her rants.

Yeah, I can understand the way he feels but at the same time, really? I've sat by someone's deathbed as their brain was eaten up by cancer, and I would not wish it on anyone, ever, no matter what.

[rbandrews]

I reread Ender's Game a year or so ago, I actually liked it more.

[thanate]

Funny, I tried to read Vellum on the rec of an ex lj friend who thought it was the most glorious thing ever & completely failed to get into the vaguely lovecraftian set-up. What did it turn into?

(also I'm guessing that between the sick & in-laws I shouldn't wait up for beta feedback? No worries if so, just I'm working on Pilgrims to sub while S&S is open.)

[jazzfish]

heh. You know, it might be your kind of thing. There's a multiverse, and there are god-like beings who have sort of organised themselves along 'angel' and 'demon' lines, and they're re-enacting ancient myths (not, as near as I can tell, on purpose): specifically, the first half is the Sumerian myth of Inanna's descent to the underworld, and the second half is Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound. The vaguely-Lovecraftian setup is almost totally irrelevant, except that the MC's three friends, or alternate versions of them, turn up in the other stories.

It seems like it ought to be my type of thing as well, and (apart from disappointment at being cheated by the intro) I'm not entirely sure why it wasn't. Lack of investment in the characters he chose to focus on for the second half, I think.

And, yeah, I'm hoping to get commentary back to you this weekend. In-laws leave on Sunday morning and with any luck the resident cough will be gone by then as well.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Ordering The Wire DVD set: Ah, yes, I should get on that myself.

Immigration: Good luck and hope it's shorter rather than longer.

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

Congrats on getting immigration paperwork done! The permanent residency application is a lot of work. The citizenship process is actually easier (or so it seems - I'm in the middle of filling stuff out but got sidetracked doing US taxes and haven't gotten back to it - others have told me the same, though). You can't apply until you've been here 4 years, with half credit (I think - a reduced amount, anyway) for time before you're a permanent resident and you need to be able to list of all your trips out of the country, so if you're not already doing that, start a list now before you've completely lost track of trips before now.

Anyway, overall, applying for citizenship seems to involve more waiting (both before and after you're eligible to apply) but less effort. I'll let you know if I find out otherwise when we actually finish the process.