I finished reading Elizabeth Peter’s Lord of the Silent. I really like how she’s altered the relationship between Ramses and Ameila to be more open and more like they’re equals rather than just mother and child; however the more I see Sethos in his new relationship to the Emersons, the less I like it. It just feels a bit cheesy and make Sethos less of an interesting character. Also, while I had fun reading this book; it’s definately not one of her better works. The plot felt fairly contrived, rather than flowing smoothly like most of her earlier books did. Still, overall it was a fun read; so I’ll give it 3.75 points out of 5.

Next up, I’m reading Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the 20th Century. I was in B&N the other night browsing their Sci/Fi-Fantasy selections, saying to myself that it was all schlock, when I stopped by the Orson Scott Card shelf to see if his latest Alvin the Maker book was in paperback yet (if it was, it wasn’t on the shelf) and noticed this Masterpieces book. When I saw that Mr. Card was the editor; it immediately peeked my interest as I’ve enjoyed his own work for many years now and I was curious to see who he’d pick for a collection titled Masterpieces. Then I looked over the cover and saw the top 6 names that had been choosen: Asimov, Clarke, Gibson, Heinlein, Le Guin and Pohl. All authors I’ve read and enjoyed, so I knew I’d end up buying the boo (though I made Ariesna wait a bit for me to read the first story in the book. Not very nice of me I suppose, but she’d gone wondering off looking at all the translated manga first; so I figured turn about is fair play. 🙂

Sidenote: While I was double-checking that I’d gotten the link to Mr. Card’s site correct; I noticed that apparently an Ender’s Game movie is in production! Hopefully, Hollywood won’t totally destroy it. For more details, go here.

As usual, I stayed up later than I really should have last night and it was making it hard to concentrate on the defects I’ve been testing this morning. I checked my IM list and all my break-buddies* are out of the office today. I said to hell heck with this and trotted over to the Terrapin. I knew they’d been doing good business but usually my timing it better and all the customers already have their coffee and are sitting down drinking it, rather than standing 10 deep in line waiting to get served. I finally get up the counter and order my regular, the Grand Canyon (2 shots of espresso, steamed milk, a dash of chocolate syrup and a a dash of mango syrup). I had to wait a few minutes to get my drink and as I’m standing there; I can feel myself relax as I’m inhaling that wonderful fragerence of fresh coffee. Ahhhh, life (with caffeine) is good. 🙂

After a few minutes, –mostly spent avoiding the 3 year old running around playing with a straw while her mom was yakking away on the phone– my Grand Canyon was ready and I went back to work. At first I was slowly sipping the coffee, trying to make it last, but before I knew it I was taking full swallows and now I’m reduced to licking the remains out of the cup. *sigh*

Oh well, at least I no longer feel like I’m going to fall asleep over my keyboard and should be able to get some real work done. Speaking of which, it’s time I got back to it.

* Break-Buddy -ies: (noun) A co-worker who you are willing to spend time talking to or just hanging around with during your coffee and/or smoke breaks.

Which gives you a better buzz of energy, caffeine or sugar?

Sugar will quickly give me a burst of energy; but when it’s over, I usually end up feeling totally drained. Caffeine takes longer to give me any energy but the extra energy lasts longer and I don’t crash as hard once the caffeine has worn off. So it seems like a combination of the two would be best, but if I drink say a can of Pepsi; the sugar far outweighs the caffeine and that gives me a quicker harder burst of energy with a corresponding harder crash once the sugar’s burned off.