Snippets from my life

[cjsmith]

Went to the fabric store the other day. I had run out of white muslin for a project I'm doing. Found some purple and blue paisley fabric that would look good with jeans, which doomed me to about an hour at the patterns table deciding which "basic shirt" would NOT have the problems the green one has. Step one: I am now at least a size sixteen. My, that fabric is pretty though, and at only four bucks a yard I almost don't mind the cost of a new pattern.

Signed last-day paperwork at my old job yesterday, then went out to lunch with the team. Glanced at the check with my unused vacation in it. How the bleep did I wind up with that much vacation? Wow. I guess the only big trips I took were before I'd accrued any vacation, so those were all unpaid time off... Still. Wow.

This morning, scrambled eggs with some onion and bacon cut up and thrown in, with the leftover bacon strips just to eat. MMMMMMMMM. Wish I'd had a bell pepper, and I coulda gone lighter on the onion, but hey, MMMMMMMMM. Filling too. I'm only now getting around to thinking I could use some lunch.

My library is woefully undersupplied with technical books. Also woefully inadequate is their supply of "A Feast for Crows". I suppose that'll keep me focused on technical stuff pretty paisley shirts for a little while. :-)

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Also woefully inadequate is their supply of "A Feast for Crows".

I'm tempted to throw mine in a box and let you borrow it for a while. Who knows when I'll get around to reading it. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

No need - I can wait, and I probably should. I just thought of it because today I finished A Storm of Swords. Man, that book was long.

[callyperry.livejournal.com]

If you start feeling they're not long enough, just try reading them out loud. I'm most of the way through A Feast for Crows, reading them to Elaine.

I'd read the first three to myself before I started this project. Whenever we'd get to a new character, Elaine would ask did I like them? She found some of my answers hard to believe at first, in particular that I did like Jaime and the Hound, and didn't like Cat.

On the other topical topic, the first word my father ever heard me say was "bake", an attempt at "bacon". It was decades before I realized that was why he always shortened it like that. My mother heard an earlier word, "Good." Are you detecting a common theme?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh man, out loud must take ages!

I liked Cat in the beginning, then didn't like her, then started to think she was only pathetic. At this point in the series, sadly, I'm not sure anything's left that isn't simply pathetic to me. I've lost a lot of my caring about most of the characters and most of the situation. :-/ I still want to see what happens with Bran, though, and what happens at the Wall.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Man, that book was long.

Disturbing too, in the sense of "Gee, it looks like Martin isn't afraid to do anything in this story." I love the series so far, but a lot of what happened in that volume was certainly unexpected. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I actually started getting tired of all that. Oh look, something else is completely fucked up, YAWN. I'd like to hear how the story goes from this point, but I'm not sure there's anything left I give a hoot about... at least not eleven hundred pages of hoot. I might rather read the Cliff Notes of the rest of the series.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I can understand that. There are still enough characters I'm interested in (but unfortunately are not in Feast) to continue it: Jon, Bran, Dany. And I do want to know what's going on north of the Wall and what's going to happen when winter really does come.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Jon, Bran, and Dany aren't in Feast? Dang, I may just give up entirely. I'd like to know what winter's like and what will happen at the Wall, but do I really need to spend seven hours of my life not finding out?

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

He had to split up and pull some stuff out of Feast or it would have been way too long and still not finished, so A Dance with Dragons, according to his web site, is already half finished and will revisit the north and overseas.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I wish he'd choose to condense it a little instead. OK, a lot. To my taste, all of these books could use some of that, particularly Storm. Eleven hundred pages takes me eleven hours and I'm not sure it was a good trade. Perhaps I'm just picky.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I think the one reason (other than the concern for the characters already mentioned) I'm still with the series is I like Martin's style. For a large, sweeping epic, he's good with the details painting a vivid picture and while I don't read as quicky as you do anymore (Storm took me well over the time you quoted) it doesn't seem to bog down to me. Of course, the main comparisons I have made are to Tolkien, who painted a wonderful world and story, but sometimes must be trudged through, or to Neal Stephenson (try Cryptonomicon sometime). :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I agree that the inclusion of detail is good and in places masterful. That may be why I'm interested in reading Feast.

Yeah, Cryptonomicon was a trudgefest, and (now I'm giving away points in a game of "I Never") I didn't get through Tolkien at all, books or film. I also put down Dune on something like page ten. I don't usually stop in the middle of a book, which is why these two examples stand out for me. But sometimes my sanity returns and I realize that if only I'd put down this trudgefest there's so much LIVING I could go do!

I think what I'm missing here, taking this as an epic, is something to care about. With Tolkien, I hear you care what happens to that ring and to the protagonists. I no longer believe *anyone* will make even a halfway decent king, so I'm not really cheering for anyone to win that struggle any more. I no longer believe anyone will even be able to stop the endless warring and killing and starving and maiming and burning and plundering and looting, unless "anyone" is winter itself. It has turned into a big pile of "wow these people are savages; wipe 'em all out and start over". I'm interested to see what happens, I'm curious to see what Martin will do with these characters, but I don't strongly want any particular outcome (including survival of the race).

Slightly bummed that A Feast for Crows doesn't have the "crows". :)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

It has turned into a big pile of "wow these people are savages; wipe 'em all out and start over".

*giggle*

Slightly bummed that A Feast for Crows doesn't have the "crows". :)

You and probably the vast majority of the fantasy-reading Western World. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Guess I'm just a cynic! And yeah, me and everyone else, on the crows.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Guess I'm just a cynic!

Nothing wrong with that. I'm usually rather cynical myself and can definitely see where you'd get the reaction you had with the series after Storm. It's hard to want to care about any characters when you're afraid Martin might just kill the next one(s) off too. I'm still holding out hope that we're going to end up with some sort of unification or confrontation between Jon and Dany before the end.

And I want the crows, too, dagnabit! :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

s/afraid Martin might/merely waiting for Martin to/ :-)

He does have creative ways for them to die. Killed by WHOM? Killed by WHAT? I never would have guessed some of those.

I want to see Dany's dragons grow up. Dracarys!

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

One of the most creative (and amusing in a twisted sense) deaths was toward the end of Storms, IIRC.

I want to see Dany's dragons grow up.

Now that you mention it, that's another thing I've been hanging on for as well. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Near the very end? That was one I was waiting for, although I didn't figure out how it would happen. The comment about gold was particularly good.

Give those dragons a few years and Dany to wield them, and the only humans left on her continent will be her bloodriders. Hmm, dragonfire could be a great weapon against the Others, no? (Which reminds me: if the Others are a threat to the world, as has been stated, why does only one continent seem to know or care? Maybe Feast answers this. Or not.)

I seriously wonder what those dragons will do when they hit the Seven Kingdoms. Galvanize everyone that's left against a common foe? :-)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that one - the gold comment cracked me up.

I'm not sure the Others are an issue elsewhere in the world - maybe Westeros is like the Eurcentric view of history of earth from a similar period.

As I understand it, Westeros has seen dragons before. Didn't the Targaryens (Aegon) conquer it riding a dragon? I don't see much chance at the moment for galvanization, but that may be what he's working toward with Jon. A Jon and the Watch face-off vs. Dany and her dragons. Or perhaps Jon will need Dany's dragons to finally take care of the Others.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Good point: maybe the Others don't threaten the world, just Westeros, and Westeros calls itself the world.

True, they've seen dragons before. If nothing else there are all those skulls and the history of the Targaryens. I was extrapolating from a comment made when, I think, Dany was considering an army of Unsullied: she'd be coming in from overseas with an army of at best foreigners and at worst slaves, and the people would have no love for that. If she comes in and melts all the lords' castles (or armies) to slag with dragons, she's the enemy of all of 'em. I suppose she wouldn't have to melt them all. Just one would make a good demo.

I like the (Jon + Dany's dragons) vs. (Others + wights) scenario. It's been made very obvious that fire is both necessary and sufficient with the wights, and we could imagine that the name "dragonglass" for obsidian Other-killer stuff is another big hint.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Yeah I thought the obsidian showing up was a big telegraph.

[wooddragon.livejournal.com]

Bacon bacon bacon! Mmmmmm, bacon!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I loves me some bacon.