Undome Telcontar

watched the first two now. i loved a study in pink, especially since i guessed right who it was. the second one seemed to be trying to recreate conan doyle's predeliction for oriental mystery, but didn't seem all that interesting to me. onto the great game now, should be good. then after this; last night's castle!

edit: wrong episode title.

Hopefully it isn't as boring as Serenity.

...

wat

ugh

yeah, i need to read/reread that series before the book 12 trilogy comes out.

zen and the art of motorcycle maintenace- i can't believe how long this is taking. i started it at the end of december sometime and i'm only now just over half way through. i can't just keep going for 7 hours or whatever at a time, though. i can blitz the story sections, and then get bogged down in the philosophy sections, which means i can only read for about 15 minutes at a time, then i have to take a break and digest. what it's saying so far makes pretty much complete sense though.

that's my favourite too, a line i've had in my head for weeks/months now... i'm not sure i want to sully it by writing a potentially weak story from it. i'll probably give it a go at some point, but first i have like 4 other stories to start/finish. physics degree = not conducive to creative writing.

how so?

The daddy's little girl one is so creepy that it makes me squirm. My favorite is the moldy bread one because I can totally picture it.

that was pretty much the idea for both of them. excellent.

thanks dex! it took a lot of rewriting to get the creepy factor (i don't really have a line as far as these things go, so i can't judge very well) and keep it within the 3 sentence limit.

It's been eight years that the strings have been pulling on me from heights unknown, eight years since i felt human, or had any purpose or objective. Dear whoever's listening, for christmas this year I'd like a name, just a name. Is that unreasonable?

thanks, but i'm not so sure. to me, it's not so much the opening lines as the entire story.

Two huge dark eyes stared adoringly up at me, the last of her tears silently merging with the rivulets of blood running from her hairline, and dripping down on to the pale bluish swell of her right breast, as beautiful as the rest of her. As I gazed down in wonder, I could hardly believe she had finally reached fifteen today; it seemed only yesterday I had held her in my arms, tiny and so fragile, in the delivery room. Now she'd always be fifteen, always my little girl, she could stay protected from the horrors of the world in this room, here with me.

here's what i'm managed to come up with so far:

I thought it had ended, but no; that imperfect cadence drew me back. Back into a wretched symphony of lives broken and dreams crushed beneath broken brickwork and flickering neon.

Just once, he thought bitterly, as he pulled a tin of baked beans out of the cupboard and flicked through the bread for a slice without green on. Just once, i'd like to think of a comeback to that bitch the same goddamn week.

He stood alone at the edge of the world, and gazed out into vast nothingness. Could steal inside a man's mind, that empty black; take his soul, reduce him to madness or worse. But he was no longer mere man.

"It's alright! I'm here for you. Just hold on, I can't hurry this!"

wish i could come up with something good, but i don't have time, i have multiple assignments to be doing.

edit: goddammit forgot formatting

just finished law of nines, and it was awesome. or at least, the second half was. i had semi-flashbacks to wizard's first rule sometimes, there were strong parallels in a lot of places. but yeah. really good, definitely worth picking up if you like wizard's first rule.

i think i may have felt some moisture down in the depths of my stony heart, yeah.

oh, and i was over halfway through law of nines before i stopped to play co-op 'splosion man earlier, and yet still nothing massive had really happened. it seems as though it's all about to kick off, but i'm not sure goodkind's nailed the pacing of a fish-out-of-water story. there seems to have been too much time wasted on whether his visitor was telling the truth or not about being from the gifted world- hasn't been too much thrilling, yet. :/

started terry goodkind- the law of nines about an hour ago. i like it so far, it's almost gaiman-y in the way it flows as a fish out of water story. it's definitely goodkindesque in its descriptions and epistemological conversations, though.

just finished the graveyard book. as i said on twitter/facebook; brilliant read- beautiful, ethereal, and bittersweet, just like a good gaiman book should be.

read the first three charlaine harris books last week. think i'm going to do the graveyard book if i can aquire it successfully.

hah, i was just reading this after whedonesque tweeted it.

but this is fox with a well-written, well-acted show. we all know from firefly what they do with those. be grateful it's made it past its first season. i can't see a movie happening considering that in most people's eyes, T4 tanked.

still, summer glau has run back to joss for at least 2 episodes, so i'm happy.

finished midnight sun, it was pretty interesting, as i'd hoped. odd how i didn't mind reading from edward's perspective, but didn't particularly enjoy reading jacob's point of view in full moon. i don't think i ever really liked jacob that much.

i also figured out why the last two books didn't affect me: the characters- especially the peripheral ones- were becoming more and more two-dimensional, reminding me that the books feel like they were written only for the target audience, and not the author herself. so i cared less and less about all but the most major characters, and even those i wasn't bothered about, because i could then feel the happy ending was coming, where i hadn't been sure before. keep the audience onside, you know. get more sales out of them.

but anyway, onto bigger and better things. i have sandman, but i'm not sure if i want to start with a big comic book series. i think i'll start with neverwhere, then sandman, then AG/AB. even after that there's still about 25 more to read- i downloaded his entire works, i think. still, at least i have stardust down already, that's a start.

ok, finished all four published ones now. other than the general post-happy-ending contentment, i don't really feel anything towards the last two books at all. i'm not sure why, really. which i'm pretty sure puts them in the "bad book" category- if they haven't really engendered any lasting feeling, they haven't really succeded as books, i think.

initially i was slightly disappointed at the happy ending, but now i think sad endings are overrated in terms of artistic integrity- the apparent consensus that you have to kill off a bunch of people and put conditions on the future in order to keep it gritty and realistic, which in turn elevates artistic merit, seems flawed to me.

but, i'm going to read the final draft of midnight sun- it came with the download anyway, and the concept intrigues me. after that, it's on to neil ****ing gaiman. anyone know which one i should read first of his? i have everything, i think.

*checks* yes, i do! seriously though, i'll read pretty much anything i can get my hands on. it's the only way to stop running out of reading material...

i'm nearly two thirds of the way through new moon now, i'm enjoying this one more than the first. well, enjoying isn't quite the right word- depressed, anxious, heartbroken... they all fit. meyer can write emotions well, i'll give her that, it's just a shame she can't write suspense and mystery well. at all. predicting plot twists 80 pages before they happen has lost its entertainment value.

also: why is the advert at the bottom of the page for BSN nutrition, featuring a picture of forest griffin kicking what looks like rampage jackson in the face? has someone talked about UFC further up the page?

stephanie meyer- twilight. yes, i caved. i did the same thing for harry potter (after resisting for a good 3 or 4 years) and that was a good decision. this one... i'm not so sure. i'm up to where she's talking to edward in biology for the first time, and so far i'm slightly disappointed; the way she goes on about not fitting in, sarcasm and dressing in black makes it clear it was written for 14-year-olds, and i'm pretty sure i already know why edward is so rigid and gripping the table. so while it's an easy 5 or 6 hour read, it also feels slightly hollow.

edit: finished, not too bad. a little too predictable in places, and some passages place it firmly in the 14-year-old girl niche, but it wasn't as terrible as it seems from the movie trailers and fans. there were a few funny bits and possibly even an emotional part or two.

and done.

about time too. you could see that federer had gotten over the nerves he seemed to have at the beginning of the final set, roddick was tiring, and federer was just waiting for his opportunity.

roddick is still to be congratulated though. not many could have kept going that long after an entire tournament.

i like federer a lot, he puts a lot of work and thought into his game- even helping design his own equipment, doesn't become all emotional at silly times, and doesn't shout/grunt/screech a lot.

my own laziness

the fact that nice k-names are all related to ****ing jesus. that's ****ing. jesus. obv. not actually sexing up jesus, since it would be pretty hard to screw a mythical being.

then you say "sup?", returning the burden of conversation starting to it's rightful place.