Children of God | Amazon.comThe Sparrow | Amazon.com
In a twist, I actually feel the need to write something here rather than just post my photos. A couple of friends had been discussing The Sparrow & Children of God in of me. While the stories sounded dark & disturbing; they also were described as being very well done. Having now read the books, I would describe the experience as having eaten a meal by my favorite chef who does an exquisite job of preparing the food, only to find out after I’d eaten the meal that every dish I’d eaten contained an ingredient that my digestive system cannot tolerate. Maybe it was good experience, once, but it’s definitely not something I’d be eager to repeat.

Deadline by Mira Grant | Amazon.comI’m not much of a horror fan[ref]Particularly not of modern horror which mostly seems to be slasher flicks[/ref], as generally most horror involves the world being completely fubared with no hope of ever fixing it. And I prefer my entertainment to contain some glimmer of hope. Occasionally though I run across something so good and so dark that it just knocks my socks off.

Feed was one of those and from friends of mine, I’d heard that Deadline was just as good too. When it first started I wasn’t sure if it was going to live up to it’s hype. But it has, it really has in many ways. I really like the …. coping mechanism Shaun has. But the big thing that really got me? The thing that’s got me feeling a need to talk about the book here when I’ve not even gotten halfway through yet? That’s a massive spoiler that I’ll only mention after the cut. Before the cut, I’ll just say it’s the end of chapter 9 where we find out where the reservoir conditions really mean.

Right so if you’ve already read the book or don’t mind spoilers, feel free to continue past this point. Otherwise stop now, you’ve been warned. (more…)

Books & Headspaces

Sometimes it really surprises me how much my enjoyment of a book is linked to my current headspace. For example, I read The Magicians a year or so ago and I recall really liking it. But this time around, I hated it. Well in truth the book was ok; what really I hated the main character. This read around he just totally rubbed me the wrong way.[ref]Whiny, rich kid who’s incredibly smart, gifted with magic and always unhappy because it’s just not good enough.[/ref] Then there was Blood and Honey. I don’t know for sure that it’s something that would normally be to my taste; but when I read it, I was in something of an angry mood[ref]A stressed Coffee Bear is an angry Coffee Bear.[/ref] Or we could look at the Dresden Files which over all has been a great source of entertainment of late; unfortunately too a great source, as it’s been keeping me waaaaay too late into the morning as I read each volume.[ref]My sleeping schedule currently hates Mr. Butcher.[/ref]

Other Notes

  • I hadn’t realized how much a pair of worn out shoes were affecting my general feeling of well being. At least, I hadn’t until I finally bought some new ones. Good lord, I totally should have bought new shoes sooner.
  • Speaking of things I should have done sooner, I went in to the doctor’s office today and got some antibiotics for the sinus infection that’s been wiping the floor with my system.
  • I’ve been working on the new theme for this site, and I’ve got a rough prototype worked out for the home page. But I just don’t like it much. It’s not god awful, but it’s also not good enough. So I’ll probably be ditching the current redesign I was thinking about and try another approach.

2011 was the year I tried out Project365. It was fun, but also rather brutal. I liked some of the photos I ended up postings, but some were not up to the artistic standards I set for myself[ref]Not that I have specific guidelines for those standards, I just know some of the photos I posted weren’t up to them.[/ref]. These are most of the photos I was pleased with[ref]A few were left out of this list since they seemed so similar to others that I did include[/ref]: Day 355: Lightbulb, Day 348: And What Do We Have Here?Day 339: Painted Fire, Day 338: the Intarwebs, Day 319: Dwindled Dawn, Day 318: Orion on the Rise, Day 316: Aim for the Moon, Day 299: A Person Needs a Little Madness, Day 290: Darkness Shall Be The Light, Day 272: In Loving Memory, Day 257: Lost in the Couch, Day 238, Day 207: Little Bit of Sunshine, Day 193, Day 188, Day 171, Day 148: Nom Noms, Day 146: Daylight’s End, Day 141, Day 133, Day 105, Day 085, Day 084: Turtles all the way down, Day 074, Day 065, Day 060, Day 050, Day 046, Day 033, Day 028, Day 026 & Day 012[ref]Huh, I knew I’d posted some photos I liked but I didn’t remember quite this many. Guess doing a recap post can be good for ye ol’ ego.[/ref].

It was also the year I set a goal of reading 150 books and according to GoodReads I exceeded it by a good margin[ref]Including graphic novels, I went through 214 books in 2011[/ref]. 2011 was a time of much DIY madness and more than a little stress.

Unfortunately 2012 so far doesn’t look to be letting up with the stress, though we’ll see how that goes as the year goes on. One thing that really didn’t help with the stress was getting all butterfingered on Christmas day. Of course that incident is part of the reason that I decided to not continue with a second year of Project365. Still I don’t want to give up photography entirely, so this year it’ll be Project52[ref]One new photo posted every week.[/ref].