Caught In The Whirlwind
Jason
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Posts by Jason
[50 in 365] Book 2 – The Subtle Knife – Completed
01569 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
Ok…I'm VERY behind schedule right now. I just finished my second book, The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman.
Overall, I was pretty happy with this book, but I definitely think that The Golden Compass was better. As one of the commenters who responded to my review of that book said, The Subtle Knife doesn't really leave as much to the imagination as the first book in the series did. One of the things I really liked about The Golden Compass was that the author didn't really feel the need to explain the world to the reader in a forced manner as many science fiction/fantasy books do. However, this book seems like it was almost entirely explanation.
I have a feeling the author was setting up necessary exposition in order for the conclusion to make sense. The multiple layers of meaning were also evident, more-so in this book than in the previous one. The allusions to the religious overtones were even more evident in this book than in the first one, keeping things interesting with the promise of deeper meaning. I'm looking forward to reading the third book which is next on my list. A post on that one is forthcoming, probably tomorrow.
I need to step up the pace here if I want to have any hope of finishing 50 books this year. I'm doubtful if I can make up the difference at this point without reading some childrens books thrown in there.
QotD: Super Bowl 2008
01570 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
Are you watching the Super Bowl today? Who are you watching it with, and which team do you want to win?
I'm going over to my parents this evening to watch the game since they have an HDTV and I do not. It's also more fun to watch the game with other people.
As far as who wins, I really don't care either way. I think the patriots are probably going to win but you never know with these things. I'm going to be rooting for the scores myself. I'm in the mikeportnoy.com super bowl numbers pool, so I'm hoping that the end of quarter scores wind up being:
1st Quarter: New England 0, New York 9
2nd Quarter: New England 7, New York 8
3rd Quarter: New England 5, New York 0
Final Score: New England 1, New York 2
I don't see myself having much of a chance on the final score, but the first quarter might be promising…somehow. We'll see I guess.
Culture QotD: Walk & Chew Gum
01572 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
What talent do you most wish you had?
I think I answered this one before but I might as well answer it again the same way as I did the first time it came up. I wish I could draw. Well, I can sorta handle drawing boxy things, like buildings, walls, boxes, etc. But as soon as it gets complex and organic looking I'm totally lost. I wish I could though because it seems like a fun/rewarding thing to do.
I've resigned myself to enjoying the creativity of others though.
This Post Had a Title but It Blew Away
01572 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
Yesterday could be described only as dreary. It was the kind of day where you wake up, look out the window and just get depressed because everything looks so gray. Even the clouds felt like they were pressing in, crowding out everything else. It was very…blah. And very windy. VERY Windy. when I was shoveling the snow off of my porch I just had to push it over the stairs and the wind would pick it up and carry it at least to my neighbors yard. Kinda lost track of it after that.
The weather was made up for though by the fact that Wassy came over last night and we hung out a bit, playing some Guitar Hero and listening to music (Nevermore and Nightwish, specifically) while she worked on one of her drawings (which is turning out very nicely).
It was a fun time, and I learned that I apparently make a pretty good cup of tea which is nice because it was the first time I brewed a cup for somebody else. Or made anything for a person other than myself for that matter. I don't trust my cooking ability enough to subject other people to my food. But the tea turned out pretty well, so I hear.
The only real down point of the evening was the fact that my apartment was freezing again due to the high speed cold winds blowing at my wall. I should get thicker curtains for the windows. I think that would really help keep the cold out.
Time For Music Maybe?
01572 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
I've got what looks to be a backlog of stuff to talk about that I should have mentioned earlier in the week, but as you might be able to tell, I didn't. So the next couple posts are going to be me catching up.
Earlier in the week I came to the conclusion that I wanted to try a new hobby because the stuff that I traditionally enjoyed doing with my free time wasn't really interesting me anymore, aside from video games and wandering around, wasting time on the internet. I kinda felt that I was wasting my free time (moreso on the countless hours spent just visiting internet forums and not as much on the video games) and that I could spend that time doing something a little more productive.
I keep telling myself that I'd like to learn how to play some kind of instrument and I think I should stop thinking about it and actually do something about it. So I've been toying with the idea of picking up a decent, but still affordably priced entry level MIDI Controller/keyboard thingy for myself that I can hook up to my MacBook and mess around with. I think it might be fun to learn. I had toyed with the idea of a guitar as well, but I dunno. I think I'll give the electronic stuff a shot and if that doesn't keep me interested, try guitar out.
I just feel like I haven't learned anything new in quite some time and I'm too boring as it is since I don't really have any hobbies aside from video games. Don't get me wrong, games are fun, but they don't offer the feeling of personal fulfillment that I'm looking for.
QotD: Staying Organized
01574 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
How do you stay organized?
Submitted by devillibrarian.
I don't.
Oh, I make attempts at it. Vague promises of putting things away and organizing my life. Attempts at keeping lists, schedules, calendars. But in the end the result is always the same: a giant pile of disorganized stuff.
If something's important that I need to remember, I generally write it down which helps me remember even if I lose the sheet of paper it was written on. I use my blackberry to remind me of appointments, otherwise I'd never remember that I had made a haircut last week or need to go to the dentist.
My apartment is generally a mess unless there's company coming over in which case it ranges from almost a mess to sorta clean. Right now, it's sorta clean. Almost. Except for one area.
Belated Weekend Post
01576 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
I probably should have posted this yesterday but I wasn't feeling terribly motivated to do any writing. But you're going to be getting it today so…deal with it! Anyway, I went over to my friends place on Saturday to hang out. We watched Robot Chicken, some MST3K Then Wassy made some strawberry daiquiris with an awful lot of rum. Then, we did the only thing we could do while we were a bit tipsy…played trivial pursuit. Yes, I know we're freaks. I also know that the game gets about 100x more interesting when there's some type of drinking involved.
I was also over there to watch the new Dream Theater video on MTV2. I'm not a huge fan of music videos honestly, but this time I was interested. The video (at the right) was done in a very stylistically cool way, with some great animation.
It also follows the story of the song pretty well. Except for the vampire spaceship thing…that's kinda weird. But overall I was pretty happy with the end result.
I wasn't really happy about having the listen to what passes for "metal" these days though. Ugh, I really hate screaming vocals. REALLY hate them. The video was on about an hour into the show and was almost the first one without entire screamed vocals (Skid Row was #1)
Project Lose Weight – Week 2
01577 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
This week, I was honestly surprised at my chart due to a couple factors. First of all, I ate out quite a bit this week due to parents asking me to go out, friends coming over and me not having enough time to make anything before class. I also cut back on my exercise a little more than I would have liked because my wrist has been killing me over the course of the week.
So I'm a little shocked that I was still going generally downward. I think that large downward spike towards the beginning of the week was a fluke and the no-change between friday and saturday was a result of my non-exercisingness.
Life QotD: Bath Time!
01580 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
How often do your pets get a bath? Is a fun experience, or something you (and they) dread?
My pets get a bath all day, every day.
Considering the fact that my pets are fish, they also tend to enjoy the water which is really handy. In fact, you could say that they couldn't live without it!
I do change their water every week and give the tank a good scrub though.
The Stowaway Sock
01580 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
Wassy came over last night for some mid week type stuff. She normally comes over Wednesdays so we do stuff that we enjoy and that her husband doesn't (anime stuff, listening to various musics, etc). We had been trying to decide all day what we were going to do for dinner because we wanted to go someplace that wasn't Applebee's. We ended up deciding on Teddy's which is a Teddy Roosevelt themed local place. Pretty good food too. I haven't been there in a long time, but I think I'll be back sooner.
Anyway, while we were waiting for our food, I shifted my feet under the table and stepped on something soft. I looked down, thinking it was a napkin or something and as it turned out, it was a sock. Specifically, it was one of my socks. I guess it stowed away in the leg of my pants and I didn't notice until just then. I think it was trying to escape. That was probably the most random thing that happened during the night.
Well, that was second to the conversation about if somebody gets married, divorced and then re-marries the same person, does their "years married" counter start again at 1 or does it continue where they left off? I'm of the opinion that if the re-marriage happened within a short period of time after the divorce, it would carry over, but anything after saying…4-5 years you'd be starting again at 1.
We returned to my place for some Guitar Hero co-op action trying to restore my save file back to it's original state after it got horribly corrupted last week, and then we listened to some music. Oceansize mostly, because I recently rediscovered the CD after not listening to it for quite some time.
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