Non-fiction for the win...

You know what's fun? Non-fiction reading.

Seriously.

Recently, I've been working on a short story that has required some research on my part and I've been browsing sections of the library that I never had before. And, on a whim, I picked up some non-fiction at random off the shelves and took them home.

It's actually a blast! Right now I'm reading Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America and actually seriously enjoying it. Sure, I'd read bits of Moby Dick and such writers as Jack London and loved the idea of "iron men in wooden boats", but actually reading a history of the whaling industry is interesting. It's amazing how much one seemingly small thing can affect the entirety of an economy.

Also read The Science of Sherlock Holmes (ZOMG! 19th century forensic science!), a book on first-aid care for birds (I don't even have a bird) and have a history of the China's Forbidden City next on the list.

Seriously, such research, when it is not required of me and is simply done for my own entertainment, is fun stuff.

So it's Lent now...

... and I gave up movies/television/internet videos. And yes, I've been whining about it occasionally.

The thing is, it scares me how much shying away from them makes me realize how addicted I was. And I don't even have television per se, which means I'm not chillin' in front of the tube all the time. Mostly it's movies and shows on the internet that I watch. And I miss them.

But it feels good to give them up. It feels good to give up their brain-cell-eating, time-wasting influences and instead focus on a little suffering.

And yet... it feels like I'm making up for it by spending more time on teh interwebz... More time to review on YWS?

Why so serious?

I've been reading Atlas Shrugged lately, and have also been running across several other works that just seem to evoke the same feeling: passionate, intellectual seriousness.

Seriously, what is wrong with levity occasionally? Is it okay to just be silly sometimes and not care what others think? Isn't it okay to get something completely wrong and not have people look down on you for it? Isn't it okay to have something that is light for the sole purpose of levity?

In Atlas Shrugged especially is this feeling. It's like no one can lighten up, even when they are happy. They are all so intensely serious about everything they are doing. There is no happy nonsense of a happy couple whispering fluff to each other during a movie. It is all very. serious. business. It is only ever about the other person's intellectual worth and heavy sexual tension that borders on master/slave roles. Seriously, people, lighten up.

Does there have to be a hidden meaning to everything? Can't I just enjoy something for the sake of enjoying it? The composer guy in Atlas Shrugged (his name escapes me), says that he likes Dagny and appreciates her love for his music because it is intellectual. She likes it with her head, not her heart. What's wrong with liking something with your heart? Why do things need to be intellectual all the time?

I'm not saying that we should through intellectualism out the window, but is it so necessary to have in every aspect of your life? Can't you just love someone and do something for them just to do it, rather than having to put heavy. psychological. meaning. into everything? Dagny makes dinner for Galt and makes a huge deal out of it. Why doesn't she just make the meal and be done with it? I like it when people like the food I make, but I don't meditate on my role as provider.

Am I thinking about this too much? I think that they are thinking about it too much. Isn't it okay to not think sometimes, just do?

Lemme just say that when I find the right guy for me, we will both be okay with silliness once in a while, with holding hands and singing undignified songs, with watching stupid videos and laughing at them, with making the wrong decisions sometimes and not being condemned for 'not thinking'.

Nights are right...

If it was feasible to become completely nocturnal, I think I would do it.

Aaaand... That's really all I have to say beyond the fact that I'm still snowed in and it is still snowing outside. Now, if it were snowing inside, I would have more to say.

I'm blind... I'm blind...

Oh Em Friggin' Gee. Seriously, I'm watching Chronicles of Riddick right now (after having been slightly obsessed with Pitch Black a few weeks ago) and the first invasion scene is seriously attempting to give me a seizure. What is with the flashing lights? I'm not photosensitive, but omirah, that is some annoying flashing. Can't we maintain a constant light source for more than three seconds?

Sure, in the first movie there was a lot of dark and moving lights and whatnot, but at least it was fairly constant and not trying to watch a shadow puppet show in front of a strobe light. Geez, people...

Rest in peace, Dr. Larzelere...

My grandfather passed away last Tuesday and his funeral was today. He was 94 and had been ill, so his passing wasn't a surprise and all of his family was able to see him before he died. I think he was at peace, as was his family. He was a pretty awesome guy and the more I find out about him, the more I wish I could have known him even more. You rocked, Grandpa.

Feeling loved on my birthday...

Today is my birthday and while it's not a bad day exactly, circumstances are not going exactly the way I would have picked if I had the choice (ex. my mom's out of town with my sickly grandfather, my dad's working, my siblings are all shipped off to school or friends' houses and I'm in class from 9-7 today). And yet... I feel so loved today.

Seriously, this day that I started out feeling rather whiny and sorry for myself since things were seeming to be turning out so lonely today. And then the flood of calls came in from my friend (who called me like five times when normally we talk about once a week or so over the phone) and my aunt invited me to dinner later tonight. Then I happen to go on my Facebook for the first time in months and there's a slew of people wishing me a happy birthday on there. I even got a text from a friend I hadn't talked to in a long time wishing me a happy birthday. I feel just so loved today!

I'm sorry that I started the day feeling lonely. Turns out that people really care about me. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy. *snugs the world*

Tell me what's the matter...

Why is it that fictional characters seem to be budding psychologists/psychiatrists who not only seem to have incredibly insight into others' troubles and motives, and not only are correct, but can also wax eloquently about it at the drop of a hat?

Two works that brought this to my attention were 1) House and 2) Fruits Basket.

1) House: Everyone seems to be so insightful in this series. I mean, it's like every patient House has ever treated seems to have some psychological truth to discover about him. Seriously, it gets distracting. Sure, part of compelling story and character development is having characters confront their flaws and whatnot, but sometimes the audience can figure it out for themselves, people.

Now, to be sure, I love the show and its writing, but sometimes people don't reach epiphanies about others, you know? Or they don't tell them about it, you know? Sometimes just a change in behavior is proof enough of a revelation. Show, not tell, peeps. It's a pretty basic rule.

2) Fruits Basket: Not quite as bad about characters preaching to one another, but that's mainly because we have the benefit of inner dialogue here. In fact, the series handles it fairly well with the use of inner dialogue. It does seems like Touhru has a unearthly amount of insight, but she's not always telling other characters about their own problems. She's usually just thinking it to herself.

Like I said, not generally as bad, but there are times in both series (mostly House, but both have their moments) that it feels like they can't let the reader/watcher figure out a character's woes and what they need to do to be fixed on their own. It's like the audience must be told everything rather than drawing their own conclusions.

Fruits Basket is actually really good about keeping even its ridiculous amounts of exposition about character's mental issues rather low-key (maybe just the show's context makes it possible?). I guess the reason it strikes me as an example is in contrast to House. Seriously, I enjoy probing Greg's psyche as much as the writer, but I do like to be able to realize some things for myself. The character is complex enough and Hugh Laurie is competent enough of an actor (understatement, much?) that we can just watch him and undertand struggles and growth. We don't need everything verbally spelled out for us.

Yeah, this would be an example of when "show, don't tell" should be taken as law occasionally.

Ah, nostalgia...

Nowadays, I tend to prefer fantasy and science fiction, but still enjoy other genres. However, as a little kid, I was a strict fantasy buff. There was little that could persuade me to read anything that didn't involve some kind of magic (unless it had horses... I read a lot of horse books). One of my favorite series was The Unicorn Chronicles by Bruce Coville.

Looking back now, it was a fairly generic story about a girl that is drawn into a magic land, but I loved it then and it still resides in a fond place in my heart, padded heavily with nostalgia. However, even as a kid, there were two things that drove me crazy about the Chronicles.

1) When I first found and fell in love with the series, there were only two published and that was all that had been out for several years even when I picked it up.

I waited impatiently for many years before nearly giving up on the series, only to have the third and fourth books come out very recently. Cue geek out on my part and a feeling of betrayal. It's like it was waiting for me to forget about it before it would rear up again. I beat it in terms of patience, but now that I am older, I am not able to view the new books with as much pleasure as I did the old ones. It feels rather sad actually.

2) Even as a kid, reading through them time after time and considering them the bee's knees, similarities between the Chronicles and other series were sometimes quite obvious. The first two remain mostly untarnished under the protection of my nostalgia goggles, but it was really glaring in to my older self in the recently-read third book (including, but not limited to, a scene of going underground with goblin-like creatures, seemingly taken straight out of The Hobbit.)

Yet, all in all, I still view them with a great deal of happy nostalgia. It was these books on tape that introduced me to the wonders of a full-cast recording (two words: Eh-pick!). I still luffs them, despite all their flaws.  Those flaws just happen to drive me batty.

...in SPACE!

Meme. (I use TV Tropes as a reference far too often.)

Yeah, apparently it's pronounced "meem", though I always pronounced it "mem" (with a short 'e'). The thought behind it is "gene" and "genetic" (since it is "meme" and "memetic"). But I still call it "mem". It just looks better to me.

Attention span? What attention span?

So, I had a topic I was super excited about talking about... and I forgot it. Yeah... I'm kind of annoyed with myself for not writing it down before I forgot it.

I'm feeling much better today and as such, my brain is jumping from one topic to another faster than you can say... Well, I'm not sure what you could say that would be comparable to how fast my mind is jumping from one topic to another. And the worst part is that every new thing my brain settles on for however fractional a second, I want to talk about it, but then my mind is skipping ahead of my mouth again. No attention span whatso-- ooh, a butterfly...

Chance or theft...

I'm sick. Been sick for a while and will probably be sick for a while yet. I hate colds. And ear infections. I hate those too.

Anyway, while sick, I was watching Escaflowne the movie after having finished the series recently. Escaflowne was actually the first anime movie I ever watched, methinks, quite a few years ago. I recently watched the series to see what exactly it was that I remembered and even ended up buying one of the soundtracks for the series and the movie soundtrack. The movie soundtrack especially is fantastic and I found out that the same composer who did the music for the series and movie also wrote the music for "Cowboy Bebop", which I am currently watching and which I have heard rave reviews about for its music. Yes indeed.

While watching the movie with my soundtrack in mind, I noticed something. One of the songs (track 23 - Final Vision) sounds a lot like the music from Nausicaa and a bit from Castle in the Sky. And it actually plays while the floating fortress disintegrates, playing similar to the music when the castle collapses in Castle in the Sky. Coinkydink? Inspiration? It was interesting.