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sarea
Am taking a few minutes out of my hellish work day to think about something other than work. Just a few minutes.
This weekend I actually tidied up a bit. Changed my bedsheets and everything. I'm hoping that this next weekend, I'll actually clean and do my taxes, and maybe then I'll actually be able to write something. Does that ever happen to you, where if everything around you is neat, it unclutters your mind? I'm wondering if that's been my problem with writing lately. (Wouldn't it be nice to have a definite answer for writer's block?)
How good were the basketball games this weekend? I probably would have gotten more cleaning done if GA Tech and Duke had just blown out their opponents instead of letting it come down to the wire like that. But I kept thinking, "Just a minute longer ... I'm going to watch a minute longer, and then I'll get up and clean." Only, of course, the "minute longer" was when the games were over.
In order to stop myself from going beyond this week's reading assignment for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
literocracy, I finished three books this weekend, and started another one. Oh, nothing too impressive, so don't goggle at the number. They were: Slowness by Milan Kundera, The Princess Diaries 5: Princess in Pink by Meg Cabot, Love and Other Four-Letter Words by Carolyn Mackler, and Why Girls Are Weird by Pamela Ribon.
Slowness: Really enjoyed this one, though I had to be in the mood to read it. The language was gorgeous and the concepts tickled my brain.
The Princess Diaries 5: Princess in Pink: God I love these books. So fun. I am completely :O over Tina/Boris!!!!!! I cannot even believe what a bitch Lilly was. Michael still = Best Boyfriend Ever. Though I have to say I thought the conclusion was a bit too pat, what w/ the city granting all busboys health benefits, etc. Plus it seemed to veer off toward a different direction after a certain point in the book. Like, I thought Meg was going somewhere, and then she changed her mind and made it totally different. Or maybe I'm on the crack. The whole Prom thing was a bit disappointing. And I'm glad that Baby Boy Thermopolis (you knew it was going to be a boy) has been born at last. These books should come out every 6 months!!
Love and Other Four-Letter Words: This was okay. Pretty much your typical run-of-the-mill coming-of-age story.
Why Girls Are Weird: This is the one I've started but haven't finished. I'm not really into it so far. I don't like the way Ribon's portrayed the online world, and it doesn't make any sense. Like, where would this chick post her stories, exactly? And why would anyone be looking at it randomly? Please. And I know these are just mechanics and not the point of the story, but they bother me and I'm not sure I can get past it. Plus, at the moment, I don't like the heroine or any of the peripheral characters all that much.
And finally, Alias: The Frame
Well, blah.
That wasn't a very good follow up to a great episode last week, particularly the last scene from the last episode. So, okay, the net is that no one knows about Lauren, still. And I find it hard to believe that Jack would buy into the coverup, given that what made him suspicious in the first place had nothing to do w/ any of that. He heard her repeat Sark's line word for word, for God's sake. Of course, that's circumstantial at best, but Spy Daddy ought to know better, trust his instincts, etc.
The more they make Syd moon over Vaughn, the less sympathetic I am to her plight. What the hell happened to the Syd who raked Vaughn over the coals when she came back? Who is this doormat??????? I'm desperately hoping that this is the final straw, that this will be the thing to make her snap back into the strong person we know she is and push Vaughn aside once and for all -- at least until he can apologize for what he's done and BLEED. Do they not realize that he has a lot of making up to do??? Why are they making Syd pine after him and compromise herself over him??? That seriously irks me.
Not to mention -- where did this thing of him wanting to separate from Lauren come from, anyway? We have been given NO INDICATION that he's been so unhappy in his marriage that he's wanted to leave. In fact, we've been shown quite the opposite -- that even though he obviously still cares for Syd, he also loves his wife. And now, out of the blue, because it's convenient for the plot, he suddenly wants to separate?? PUH-LEASE.
The character I'm starting to like more and more is Lauren. She's taken over for Syd right now in terms of someone I identify with. Seeing her parents has made it understandable as to how Lauren turned out the way she did -- and even her revealing that she believes the Covenant cause is just (whatever that cause is) is a great way to build her character. Lauren's mum probably brought her into the Covenant fold! (Am hoping that Mrs. Reed does not have more intimate knowledge of Sark. *shudder*) Syd, on the other hand, is totally losing me. I just cannot be in the place she's at. The whole Vaughn thing is even undermining what I believe she's capable of in the field.
I'm glad Lauren couldn't shoot her father -- not only does it show that there are some lines she won't cross, but it also allows the heart she grew last week to not be contradicted (though I still thought it was stupid). And at the end, did I feel sorry for Syd because Vaughn did the predictable Boy Scout thing? Nope. I knew it was coming. My only thought was, Go Sark and Lauren for playing 'em so well.
Am feeling for Sloane. Am worried about his impending execution, even though there's no way it'll actually happen. And even though he's probably in on the whole thing, I can't help but feel like he's being unjustly accused. Could it be that he is unjustly accused? They're so good at playing me re: Sloane.
Have no idea WTF is going on w/ the Covenant or who Djimon Hounsou is or anything wrt the plot.
Am still hoping Sark is playing them all.
Also, I have discovered the guilty pleasure of Bonnie Bell cosmetics. I don't know whether to apply it or eat it.
This weekend I actually tidied up a bit. Changed my bedsheets and everything. I'm hoping that this next weekend, I'll actually clean and do my taxes, and maybe then I'll actually be able to write something. Does that ever happen to you, where if everything around you is neat, it unclutters your mind? I'm wondering if that's been my problem with writing lately. (Wouldn't it be nice to have a definite answer for writer's block?)
How good were the basketball games this weekend? I probably would have gotten more cleaning done if GA Tech and Duke had just blown out their opponents instead of letting it come down to the wire like that. But I kept thinking, "Just a minute longer ... I'm going to watch a minute longer, and then I'll get up and clean." Only, of course, the "minute longer" was when the games were over.
In order to stop myself from going beyond this week's reading assignment for
literocracy, I finished three books this weekend, and started another one. Oh, nothing too impressive, so don't goggle at the number. They were: Slowness by Milan Kundera, The Princess Diaries 5: Princess in Pink by Meg Cabot, Love and Other Four-Letter Words by Carolyn Mackler, and Why Girls Are Weird by Pamela Ribon. Slowness: Really enjoyed this one, though I had to be in the mood to read it. The language was gorgeous and the concepts tickled my brain.
The Princess Diaries 5: Princess in Pink: God I love these books. So fun. I am completely :O over Tina/Boris!!!!!! I cannot even believe what a bitch Lilly was. Michael still = Best Boyfriend Ever. Though I have to say I thought the conclusion was a bit too pat, what w/ the city granting all busboys health benefits, etc. Plus it seemed to veer off toward a different direction after a certain point in the book. Like, I thought Meg was going somewhere, and then she changed her mind and made it totally different. Or maybe I'm on the crack. The whole Prom thing was a bit disappointing. And I'm glad that Baby Boy Thermopolis (you knew it was going to be a boy) has been born at last. These books should come out every 6 months!!
Love and Other Four-Letter Words: This was okay. Pretty much your typical run-of-the-mill coming-of-age story.
Why Girls Are Weird: This is the one I've started but haven't finished. I'm not really into it so far. I don't like the way Ribon's portrayed the online world, and it doesn't make any sense. Like, where would this chick post her stories, exactly? And why would anyone be looking at it randomly? Please. And I know these are just mechanics and not the point of the story, but they bother me and I'm not sure I can get past it. Plus, at the moment, I don't like the heroine or any of the peripheral characters all that much.
And finally, Alias: The Frame
Well, blah.
That wasn't a very good follow up to a great episode last week, particularly the last scene from the last episode. So, okay, the net is that no one knows about Lauren, still. And I find it hard to believe that Jack would buy into the coverup, given that what made him suspicious in the first place had nothing to do w/ any of that. He heard her repeat Sark's line word for word, for God's sake. Of course, that's circumstantial at best, but Spy Daddy ought to know better, trust his instincts, etc.
The more they make Syd moon over Vaughn, the less sympathetic I am to her plight. What the hell happened to the Syd who raked Vaughn over the coals when she came back? Who is this doormat??????? I'm desperately hoping that this is the final straw, that this will be the thing to make her snap back into the strong person we know she is and push Vaughn aside once and for all -- at least until he can apologize for what he's done and BLEED. Do they not realize that he has a lot of making up to do??? Why are they making Syd pine after him and compromise herself over him??? That seriously irks me.
Not to mention -- where did this thing of him wanting to separate from Lauren come from, anyway? We have been given NO INDICATION that he's been so unhappy in his marriage that he's wanted to leave. In fact, we've been shown quite the opposite -- that even though he obviously still cares for Syd, he also loves his wife. And now, out of the blue, because it's convenient for the plot, he suddenly wants to separate?? PUH-LEASE.
The character I'm starting to like more and more is Lauren. She's taken over for Syd right now in terms of someone I identify with. Seeing her parents has made it understandable as to how Lauren turned out the way she did -- and even her revealing that she believes the Covenant cause is just (whatever that cause is) is a great way to build her character. Lauren's mum probably brought her into the Covenant fold! (Am hoping that Mrs. Reed does not have more intimate knowledge of Sark. *shudder*) Syd, on the other hand, is totally losing me. I just cannot be in the place she's at. The whole Vaughn thing is even undermining what I believe she's capable of in the field.
I'm glad Lauren couldn't shoot her father -- not only does it show that there are some lines she won't cross, but it also allows the heart she grew last week to not be contradicted (though I still thought it was stupid). And at the end, did I feel sorry for Syd because Vaughn did the predictable Boy Scout thing? Nope. I knew it was coming. My only thought was, Go Sark and Lauren for playing 'em so well.
Am feeling for Sloane. Am worried about his impending execution, even though there's no way it'll actually happen. And even though he's probably in on the whole thing, I can't help but feel like he's being unjustly accused. Could it be that he is unjustly accused? They're so good at playing me re: Sloane.
Have no idea WTF is going on w/ the Covenant or who Djimon Hounsou is or anything wrt the plot.
Am still hoping Sark is playing them all.
Also, I have discovered the guilty pleasure of Bonnie Bell cosmetics. I don't know whether to apply it or eat it.
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-29 11:18 pm (UTC)From personal experience, I can confirm that many, many random people come across online journals. And I'm quite glad that chapter of my life is closed.
--Adrith, recovering online journalist
no subject
Date: 2004-03-29 11:29 pm (UTC)Just out of curiosity, did the 5th Princess Diaries book just come out there? Cuz it came out here last year, but that was the British edition. Or was it early this year? Something like that.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-29 11:44 pm (UTC)I guess partially why the book has bothered me so far is that a RL friend of mine quizzed me about my online activities after she read the book, and I just got the sense that she didn't 'get it' at all. She seemed to have the impression that you can't "know" a person by who they claim to be online, because the girl in the book was just making shit up.
I tried to explain about LJ and how it would be tedious to come up with a whole online personality, and yes, for the most part, I think the people I talk to online are who they say they are, etc. But yeah, I don't think she really understood it, and it's hard enough trying to convince people that the Internet isn't solely populated w/ freaks without having a book encourage that kind of thinking.
I fear this book only perpetuates that kind of cluelessness in people who aren't online. Then again, I'm only a few chapters in, so I'm making a lot of assumptions. I'll be able to talk more intelligently about it after I've read the whole thing and can speak from a place of actual knowledge. <g>
no subject
Date: 2004-03-29 11:47 pm (UTC)When I went to that chat w/ Meg Cabot, she explained the whole deal of why the British editions get printed and distributed first, etc., and that sometimes they're even different from the U.S. versions! It's made me v. tempted to go to amazon.co.uk, I can tell you that. :D
no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 12:30 am (UTC)I guess that you could kind of say that diarist.net is a loose sort of community .. originally, the thing that held the OLJ community together is a mailing list called diary-l. I think it's still kicking around somewhere, though it's big and unwieldy - much like the DracoGinnyFanFic list ;) Eventually, you'd make a friend or two on the list, and then through their list of links you'd pick up other reads.
Having said that .. yeah. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts once you're finished the book. (I do own a copy myself, and - get this - my husband read it. I think he was looking for insight into his nutter wife. ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 03:20 am (UTC)i've started, but not finished it...
when you're part of something like this...then it is hard to get what this girl is doing...
or maybe it is just me...i don't make up shit..and i think it would be so difficult to make up a whole other life when mines is weird enough :p
*shrugs* i dunno
anyways, hope you're well :)
*mwah*
no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 04:08 am (UTC)I had the worst case of writer's block last week and ironically enough I had disassembled my office to work on taxes, creating a horrid mess.
I heard a lady, the feng shui diva (http://www.fengshuidiva.com), on the radio talking about clutter and how it does mess with your energy just like standing water collects scum. Well, it made sense, if you go for that kind of thing (hey, what's not to lose?).
I de-cluttered the office this morning and no writer's block. Odd, that. Maybe it's just the power of suggestion, or maybe there's merit to your theory. Hmmmm...
no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 04:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 05:49 am (UTC)I think there's totally merit to that theory! Whenever I un-clutter my desk, and I have everything around me neat and orderly, my writer's block completely disappears. I just feel more "open" and able to create.
However, as I am naturally quite lazy, the vicious cycle of it getting all messy and cluttered repeats.
Whether it's power of suggestion or not, I'm going to do whatever the crazy muse tells me to. *g*
no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 08:57 pm (UTC)Well, I put it to the test and sat down to a messy desk this morning. I did not write but played around on the internet for - er, too long.
I cleaned the aforementioned desk. Then I wrote 1000 words in an hour. *shrugs* Yes, there is much merit to this, but the pack rats in me is fighting the muse. ;o)