bleah

It's been so long since I updated, I don't know where to start.

Let's get the Thanksgiving stuff out of the way first: much family, much food, much fun, and then I was tired. And then I basically wasted the rest of the 4-day weekend. And now I'm back at work. Urgh.

Yesterday my mom and I hung out at her place. We had intended to go see a movie but we couldn't agree on one. I wanted light and fluffy like James Bond; she wanted heavy and "cultural" like the Motown thing. We decided to compromise on Harry Potter. We even picked a theater and showtime, but when it came time to leave, we were like, "whine, we're too tired to sit through a whole movie." So we didn't go. Wow, are we lame. ;) We did eventually go to Circuit City and Home Depot, where we bought rechargeable batteries, a battery charger, and weather-stripping. On the way home, we said, "wow, was that the lamest most pointless errand excursion ever?" 'Cause we could have just walked two blocks from mom's place to the nearby hardware store and gotten all that stuff there. Man, we were lame. ;)

I put weather-stripping on a couple of the windows in my apartment. It gets VERY drafty on account of not having storm windows (how can any house in New England get away with not having storms? I ask you) and then I get annoyed at the thought of how much extra I'm probably paying for heat. Plus the fact that, you know, it's COLD. Even with the heat on. So I put it on a couple of windows and then realized that I didn't buy nearly enough of the damn stuff. Well, any more will have to wait till I get back from Japan.

Which, by the way, it's exactly one week from today that we leave. Augh! ( dithering about the trip )

Mom gave me some of the leftover turkey from Thanksgiving to give to Bini. He hasn't had turkey, certainly in the two years he's been with me, don't know about before that. I put some of it in his dish and he sniffed it, looked at me, sniffed it, looked at me, meowed plaintively, sniffed it again. Then I tried going about my business to show him I didn't care, and he just sat there next to his dish watching me move around the apartment. But this morning the turkey was all gone, so I'm assuming he eventually got over his fear of it. LOL! Crazy kitty.

More later.

book reviews

Books I have read recently

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett -- the latest in the Discworld series, focusing on Sam Vimes, his history and character. Very interesting and fun stuff. I found it much more engaging than the last few, although probably not as "funny." PTerry seems to be veering into more serious stuff, waxing philosophical and like that. Not that I mind, but it makes for very different reading than the first several books in the series. Still, this one was good. Go read it.

Tricky Business by Dave Barry -- his second novel. I love Dave Barry, and his first novel Big Trouble remains one of my favorite non-sci-fi novels (I've read it about four times already), but I'm sad to say that his second attempt doesn't succeed as well. Sure, it's an interesting story with some interesting characters and some nicely surprising plot twists, but it lacks that certain something, that spark of complete wackiness that yet somehow seems to make perfect sense in Barry's capable hands. Also? *Serious* ick potential, people. There are a few moments here that will just make you go "Ewww!!!" and want to skip to the next section -- moments where, if it were a movie, you'd be averting your eyes and telling your neighbor "Tell me when it's over!" So, in conclusion: if you must read a Dave Barry novel, make it Big Trouble. If you REALLY love that book and MUST have more, read Tricky Business, but don't expect as much from it. Alas.

Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer -- science fiction. This is a fascinating book, not exactly about time-travel but about time displacement. The premise is that a scientific experiment unexpectedly causes all human beings to experience two minutes of their lives from twenty years in the future. In other words, for two minutes, every person on earth has their consciousness "flash forward" twenty years. ( more plot summary, with some spoilage )

A large amount of science is bandied about, mainly in the area of quantum physics, and I'm not in a position to say how much of it is "real" (currently accepted science) vs. how much was made up by the author, but I will say that the reader should be prepared to use his/her brain during the reading of this book. The science isn't so esoteric that you need a physics degree to understand it -- the author does a pretty good job of making it comprehensible -- but it *is* complicated, and necessary to the plot so you really shouldn't skim it.

Eventually, the plot skips forward to the time of the visions, to show the resolution of the various plot threads. This part of the story does suffer to a certain extent from the problem that's so endemic in sci-fi these days -- namely, taking a long time to set up the scenario and then having to wrap it all up in just a few pages. However, it's less egregious in this case than in many others (the works of Neal Stephenson come to mind). The plot is resolved in a satisfying manner, with enough ambiguity to let the reader apply his/her own interpretations, but not so much that the reader is left frustrated going "but then what happened?"

The story raises very interesting questions such as: do humans have free will? is the future fixed or mutable? what is the effect of human observation on quantum (i.e. unresolved) situations? why is the desire to know the future so prevalent in the human psyche, and what would be the effects if we really could? And so forth. (In some cases the author's answers to the questions strike me as a bit naive or optimistic, but that's open to interpretation, obviously.) The story is marred by a few instances of poor proofreading (a "their" that should be "there," a "you're" that should be "your") and a few of clunky/awkward/poorly-constructed prose, but overall I found it a fascinating read and would recommend it to anyone interested in the genre. It will almost certainly keep you guessing; the climactic denouement of the B-storyline vibrates with tension and had me literally yelling aloud at the characters; the science involved is very engaging and will give you plenty to muse about in bed late at night; and the resolution, as I mentioned above, is satisfying.

That's it for now! I've been trying to get through the hardcovers on my "to be read" pile, so that I can take the paperbacks on my trip and spare my back/shoulders some grief. So, maybe I'll have more reviews later. :)

nuts! ;)

At lunchtime today I spent far longer than usual wandering around the grocery store. I thought I was going to buy some cans/jars of nuts for the plane, but then I got stumped by the eternal nut question: salted, or no?

Now, with the almonds that would be easy: unsalted, obviously. With cashews, there was a "lightly salted" option that looked good. But the peanuts! Augh! Salted peanuts, or no?? I must have stood there staring and dithering for like ten minutes. Finally I decided not to buy any nuts until I'd had more time to ponder this all-important question.

Then I came back to the office and got a teeny packet of salted peanuts from the vending machine, as an experiment. Yum, they are good. Unsalted? Ew! That would be icky, wouldn't it? Heh. I guess I've made my decision.

Now on to the next dilemma. Take nuts on the plane in their original cans/jars? Transfer them into plastic bags? Mix several kinds of nuts together in one bag? one jar? Just buy a jar of mixed nuts? Augh! And people wonder why I say that I suck at packing for long trips. ;)

Oh, I also picked up a couple packages of dried cranberries. I LOVE those things. And I had a coupon, so, yay. They are great for traveling, because they're sweet but have nutritional value, and you can just grab a few if you're in a rush or snarf half the bag if you're extra hungry. ;)

In peripherally related news, tomorrow night is dress rehearsal for our choir concert. (We perform here in the Boston area on Sunday night, before leaving for Tokyo on Monday morning.) The reason this is peripherally related is that it poses another food-related problem. The rehearsal starts at 6pm (which means I'll probably have to leave work at 5 or 5:15) and goes till at least 9, maybe 9:30, maybe even later. I'll need to either eat extra beforehand or bring something snackable -- or both. I was thinking of trying to construct an actual sandwich, but now I think that's probably overly optimistic. ;) I'll probably just buy a jar of peanuts. ;) LOL. I need help.