2011 was a pretty good year overall, I would say. I can’t really remember much from the first half of the year, if I’m being perfectly honest, nothing too exciting to report there other than losing some weight. Yay.

However! The last half was pretty great: new job, new doll (in celebration of new job), news that favorite band (Garbage) are recording a new album, saw Hanson twice even if one of the shows was meh, and I’m sure there is something I’m forgetting.

In terms of goals for this year, I’d like to finish the weight lose goal I started last year. Not that much further to go, but we all know how lazy I am. Speaking of being lazy, I would like to finish that stupid book I started writing God knows how long ago. That’d be nice!

I’m saving up for a new apartment which puts my England vacation savings on a bit of a hold. But I look forward to picking out dishes and a couch. Exciting times. I haven’t picked which area of the city I want to live in as of yet, although I would prefer to be near the light rail. Not having to drive to work would be awesome. Not that my commute is all that long now.

Anyway, this year I want to read more books, go to some concerts, build up my nest egg and other boring stuff. Oh, I also want to go to Disneyland. That’s not so boring!

As of now I’m on the third episode of season two and still enjoying the show. I tried not to get too used to Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor since I already knew in advance he was only going to around for that first season. Even so, he was a good Doc.

But I think what I love best is the Dalek voice acting. And finally getting all those Doctor Who jokes. But the Daleks! Oh my god, that voice gets me every time.

I still have that Torchwood disc Payal sent me ages ago that I never got around to watching. All of sudden I am feeling a lot more motivated to do so! I’m just not sure if I should dig it up now or wait until I finish my Doctor Who streaming. It might not matter in the big scheme of things but I like to plan out my procrastination. Makes me feel like I’m doing something.

The first two books were a bit slow and showed some of the cracks in Hobb’s approach to the story: because we only see things through Fitz’s eyes, she had to contrive a bunch of opportunities for him to be spying or hear second-hand info. Fact is, most of the action and plot politics don’t really involve him; he’s just a spectator. The biggest issue for me, however, is that what we know, Fitz knows. Therefore if I can figure out what the undercurrent is in regards to Prince Dutiful’s engagement and why the Fool desires to preserve the dragons in the world, why can’t Fitz?

It isn’t until the fifty percent mark in “Fool’s Fate” that Fitz or Chade finally get a clue. It should not have taken that long. It should not have taken that long for the concluding book to start moving towards a climax. The first half is spent in drudgery of watching Thick complain about sea sickness and Fitz moan about his lot in life. The man is almost forty: what one could excuse in a twenty year old is just plain annoying in a man whose children are on the verge of becoming parents themselves.

Powerful moments are ruined by the ending. Burrich’s saving of his son Swift was wonderfully written, but his sacrifice seemed only needed so that Fitz could finally get his Molly. Who, almost twenty years later, he still thinks of as “Molly with her red skirts”. My god, man, get over it! They didn’t even have a real relationship.

Oh yes and the Fool’s fate. Fitz reverses it, nullifying any impact it originally had on the reader, and ultimately his true fate is never known because Fitz is too concerned, once again, with Molly.

If Hobb had had the courage to actually make the Fool female, now that would have been a nice twist. If one could call it a twist with all the hints she dropped. But it felt like in the end she didn’t want to do anything to shake Fitz’s world too much. So make the Fool disappear, give him Molly back (but with Burrich out of the picture), and everyone live happily ever after. Except the Fool. Oh and Kettricken.

I find it a bit of double standard that Kettricken, whose six month marriage was arranged, and didn’t really have a true love with her husband until near the end, remains a devoted widow until the end of her days. But Molly, who was with her husband for sixteen years and raised seven (!) children with him is able to move on within a short frame of time. It’s actually quite disgusting how eager Fitz was when Burrich died.

Frankly, it was one of the most disappointing books (and by extension trilogies) I’ve ever read.

The issue comes down to moving the setting back to Earth. This was the correct thing to do, it really was, but as a result the previous plot I had etched out doesn’t fly anymore. I have very vague ideas of what is going on and what will happen but so far I’m just rambling.

There is a character named Laura Salkin although that might change. She’ll probably kill someone named Payal for revenge.

A character I thought I was going to kill off might actually survive until the end. We’ll see.

I am having issues tackling the issue of magic use, specifically how to describe it. During the course of writing any scene involving it I became painfully aware of my Wheel of Time obsession and lack of any other fantasy reading aside from Song of Ice and Fire in recent years. I grapple with how to write about someone using air to pin someone down without sounding like bad Aes Sedai fanfiction.

There are a lot of points where logic just plains fails, but thankfully I recognize that and can fix in revision.

Having said all that, when I do finish this strange outline Nik and Kate will suffer and read it, I’ll edit, then Laura and Jan will get the actual official first draft. One could argue I might love one set of friends more than other based on this division. I’ll let you come to your own conclusions regarding that.

Towers of Midnight

It’s been almost a week since I got the book and after the initial excitement of getting Moiraine back, I have to say the book wasn’t really anything to write home about.

Rand: Zen Buddha Rand is very…distant. At least crazy Rand was someone you could relate to and feel something about what he was or wasn’t doing right. New Rand is so untouchable and “perfect” it can be a bit boring. Thankfully he is barely in this book otherwise it would have been overkill.

Nynaeve: Another character barely in the book. Her Aes Sedai test lacked the emotional investment we had with Moiraine’s in New Spring. First off, Nynaeve’s took too long: we didn’t need to see her go through that many trials especially since it was the same motif over and over. With Moiraine we saw her as Accepted struggling to practice the weaves and doubt her abilities. Nynaeve had no such struggle or any doubts. It felt like Nynaeve’s Accepted Test Redux. She didn’t follow the rules or seem to learn anything from it. If the only point was to show her telling the Aes Sedai how wrong they were for doing things a certain way, I would have preferred her test being done off screen. Waste of paper.

Egwene: Egwene is Egwene and seems back to her old self. Whatever good she did in the previous book in readers’ eyes is pretty much negated by her returning to the norm.

Perrin: This was a Perrin novel and it didn’t need to be. Far too much time was spent on his training with Hopper and his inner confusion. His confronting the Whitecloaks and finally doing away with that part of his past was a very nice touch indeed, he seems to have finally obtained an adult relationship with his teenage wife, and he has found balance with the wolf inside him. But it still took way too long to get there. Not to mention he suffers from the same “this is my playground!” as Egwene when it comes to the World of Dreams. They both need a wake-up call.

Elayne: I have tried to like Elayne. She is going to be a part of Moiraine’s life thanks to Thom (and well, being Moiraine’s niece and all) and she reminded me of a young (albeit annoying) Moiraine. However, she frankly disturbed me in the novel. Her power hungry nature has come out and she has all the makings of a future tyrant, if a well-intentioned one. She has roped the Kin in to be her personal channeling service, arm wrestles to make the Band of the Red Hand Andor’s own personal army, her eyes light up at the thought of being the only nation with dragons, and she only seems to want Cairhien to solidify her throne in Andor and to act as a buffer for any bad guys.

Even if I wasn’t a Moiraine fan I would still dislike Elayne as Queen of Cairhien. I was willing to accept it once I realized how late in the book Moiraine returns to the fold, but after reading Elayne’s ideas about the country and its people I have changed my mind. Moiraine needs to be queen to save them from the redhead.

Mat: Even though it was slow going at first by the end I actually became a Mat fan. Of course as it turns out those last Mat chapters were written by the late Jordan so I wonder if I’ll still like Mat when I read Sanderson’s take on him next book. For me the kicker was him finally seeing Moiraine as a human being and realizing he didn’t hate her after all. His whole banter with her was just awesome and wonderfully written. Good job, RJ!

Moiraine: She’s back and she’s naked. Not really much to say. I hope she cuts back on the smiling. Freaky.

Thom: I already ranted on Moiraine’s World about Thom, but I’m going to do so again!

Thom the Gleeman

I am honestly baffled at his whole hesitation. Not just with the marriage proposal but even before when she just wanted to hold hands. He has been mooning over her letter for probably close to a year, made it clear that he was going with or without Mat even though that meant certain death, was eager as a beaver to get going once Mat agreed, dug high and low for any information on the Tower of Ghenjei and the Eelfinn and Aelfinn, according Perrin he smelled “excited” when Mat said they were going to go to the Tower, scolds his hands and burns his clothes digging her out of steam blanket, runs himself half to death carrying her around, and then HESITATES when she wants to hold hands.

Now, I can see how he might have fallen in love with the idea of Moiraine and having the real thing is something else all together. Except, after Moiraine offers up her grand sacrifice Thom no longer seems to care about her channeling abilities and declares he’ll marry her then and there. So if deep down you didn’t care, why all this drama? Moiraine is just as guilty: he said he wouldn’t rob her of anything but then she has to double check. Both of them are drama queens and deserve each other.

Other points: Galad becoming human was interesting, his falling in love at first sight tiring. I get so tired of characters doing that. I’m starting to think it a Damodred trait because Morgase seems to at least wait a few months. Speaking of, her reunions with her three children were so anti-climatic. Galad didn’t seem all that moved, but it is Galad. Gawyn who has spent Lord knows how many books obsessing over his mother’s death…we don’t even get his point-of-view. It might as well have been off-screen. Elayne! Elayne seemed more concerned with whether or not her mother not being dead would be an issue with her own hold on the crown. God forbid Elayne has to give up her power! Mat had a more emotional experience with Moiraine than these three with their formally dead mother.

The Black Tower plot bored me. Tarna being turned is sad, but we saw her from the point-of-view of characters I couldn’t care less about. I couldn’t make myself read them all the way to be honest.

Tuon is a bitch and I hate her.

Oh, Aviendha. Her vision of the future is, well, not a very emotional issue for me as some others. I hate the Seanchan but I also hate the Aiel. So do I want to see the Seanchan take over the world? No. But do I like the idea of the Aiel finally get the smack handed to them? YES. Also, it was nice how Elayne’s granddaughter isn’t some OH MY GOD awesome beauty.

Olver. Um. I saw nothing of anything really important in his part of the novel. It didn’t break my heart in the least and he seems like an annoying ten year old kid. Just like always. So he wants revenge on his family’s killers? How is this some shocking revelation? I was hoping he died, to be honest.

Lan is not happy

Lan’s scenes were the most painful and awkward writing I have ever read in the Wheel of Time series.

In the end I’d probably give this book seven out of ten stars, and most of that is because of Mat and Moiraine. It’s right down there with The Path of Daggers and Crossroads of Twilight. Lots of things happen that I just don’t care about and all the good stuff is saved until the very, very end.

I’ve been a fan for thirteen years, five studio albums, one Christmas album, two live albums…well you get the point. But it wasn’t until September 14th that I would see them perform in person. Was I excited? Ha! Understatement of the year.

There were two opening acts: You Hang Up and Rocket to the Moon. You Hang Up need a bit more *umph* I feel, but they haven’t been together long so I’m sure they’ll fix that soon enough. Also, the bassist has this “why am I here look” on his face which is a little off putting. Rocket to the Moon was interesting, and I don’t mean that in a bad way in the least. Looking at their videos on Youtube I expected a very scenester/emo/hipster/lookatmelookatme kind of band. The lead singer, however, has gotten a haircut and although his jeans showed off just how much he doesn’t seem to eat, it was surprisingly fairly typical melodic rock. However at this point I was just ready for Hanson to come on the stage.

Taylor Hanson at Mesa Arts Center

Hanson came on about nine and the show lasted a good two hours. When they first came out onto the stage there was a brief moment where my inner thirteen year old went “oh my god I’m seeing Hanson” but she quickly went back to the ethers. To be honest I am still surprised at how non-strange it was to see them in person for the first time after so many years. I suppose all those live DVDs helped make the transition easy. What wasn’t easy was learning how to let go and just enjoy the experience. Not that long into the show the band went into “If Only” and Taylor demanded everyone jump. I was in the fourth row which meant I was in danger of getting singled out for not joining the jumping so at one point I did so (after noticing another fan get pointed at and realizing, yes, they can see you).

Oh yes, did I not mention my seat? The diagram on the venue’s site made it seem a bit of a distance and up on a ledge. Isaac could have thrown his pick at me with accuracy. I lucked out better than I realized when I had bought the tickets. Others in my row had the same surprise.

Anyway! By the end of the show I had learned to just forget about whoever was around me and just sing along and clap when Taylor demanded and just have fun. Which isn’t hard when they seemed to be playing most of my favorite songs! When Isaac started strumming the cords for “Hand In Hand” I about died inside and decided then and there that is my all time favorite Hanson song EVER. I had been hoping against hope they would play that and they did. Happiness. There were no covers unless you want to count the Jackson 5 instrumental they did when introducing the band in the middle of the set. Which was also awesome as Taylor tried to do a few steps. Taylor is very animated if you cannot tell.

Ah, Taylor. During the acoustic set Taylor seemed to have some sort of brain fart on the lyrics. The crowd seemed confused, unsure if this was another one of his attempts to have us sing the words for him, but by the smile on Isaac’s face Taylor’s silence wasn’t planned. The guys have great banter and now I sound like a fangirl, but if I am to convince Kate to go see them live I must try and recall it all! At one point Zac mocked all the “I love you” shouts being directed towards them, comparing it to some sort of competition between the shouters. Taylor then offered to sell Zac for $5000 (he later dropped the price to a cool four grand); he also announced he has been to all the Hanson shows. Zac chimed in he had been to most, and gave a look that said “my brother is stupid but I love him”. Isaac had his own rambling moment at the end of which he acknowledge he had lost whatever original point he had had.

They just come across as a very down to earth group of guys who love what they do. Taylor, is well, Taylor and jumping up and down and seems high on life, Zac is on danger of breaking into a drum solo at any given moment, and Isaac during one song–I want to say “Give A Little”–was rocking out so hard his gelled hair came unglued.

All in all I left convinced that I couldn’t let this be my last show. Next tour I’m hoping to catch them more than once which will probably entail a California road trip. Heck, at one point in the show it seemed like a very reasonable expenditure to fly to New England and join Kate at a show. Although I admit I was mostly motivated by the knowledge that they would be hitting the east coast before the west and I am impatient. But I’m sure I’d enjoy Kate’s company too!

And yes there were male fans! One such fan pointed out that he was the one who wanted to come the concert not his girlfriend.

So now the set list while my memory is fresh:

Waiting For This (Melody)
Make It Out Alive
If Only
And I Waited
Where’s The Love
Runaway Run
Hey
Carry You There
Kiss Me When You Come Home
Penny And Me
A Song To Sing
Been There Before
Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’
Voice In The Chorus
Hand In Hand
This Time Around
A Minute Without You
MMMBop
Give A Little
Lost Without Each Other
Crazy Beautiful (Encore)

I do not like bugs. At all.

Sunday morning I was getting ready to head to work, putting crap in the purse grabbing the lunchbox, and saw something brown crawling along the bedspread. My first thought was cricket except this cricket had a curved tail. Awesome! A scorpion on my bed! I called dad over and he trapped it in a glass (he later told me he tried to kill it by drowning it in bleach but it just wouldn’t die. He eventually put it in the garbage disposal.) and I went off to work.

That night it was very hard for me to fall asleep. I kept checking and rechecking my bed and in fact didn’t fall asleep until one am. This happened the following night as well. Absolutely petrified to get under the covers. This is worse than the time a giant moth was in my room and we never found its body. I really do not like bugs.

In less buggy news, I am in love with orange soda. I like working with IPB skins. So I thought, orange soda theme. Oh yeah. Anyway I haven’t actually made much progress on it yet, probably because I discovered orange is very…orange. But hopefully on next day off I’ll be able to focus on it.

Hi, I'm orange

Case in point, here is a gem from 2002, which would be near the sites genesis. Although thankfully the actual first layout is filled with X’s.

Moiraine and Thom...love bubble?

Back then, whatever the header image was I made sure the site matched. So all that lovely orange-red font/scrollbar/links would change. How exciting! I was surprised to discover how much more personal site updates were back then. Another aspect I blocked out, I guess.

My god that banner! I suppose back then everyone had ugly websites so I can forgive myself, but I can remember being so damn proud of my Paint Shop Pro 7 “skills”. Ah, the good ol’ days.

The most recent and functioning site snapshot in the Archive is from 2005.

How pale and...there.

I don’t have anything really against this layout. I think it does highlight how static the front page was for a good long time. Not to mention, the actual site description at some point vanished. Which reminded me Kate was suppose to help with that!

Anyway, after a brief break I started up my workout routine again only this time in the high intensity. Eh, yeah, needless to say my body is very tired. But it feels so good to be back to exercising. That’s about all I have to say about that.

But WOT! Oh WOT! Sweet has once again graced us with a wonderful cover, although at least you can tell who’s who unlike most works. Except his ever changing vision of bodybuilding Rand. But there is a comment over on Dragonmount that I just love to pieces!

Well, none of the characters look like the love child of Fabio and Timothy Dalton, posing for a romance novel. That’s a start. Also it doesn’t appear that any of the characters are in the middle of busting out The Robot on the dance floor. That’s good. He seems to have grown the characters from hobbit to normal human size, also an improvement. No impossible arm angles that remind me of things I drew in 4th grade.

I think secretly Darryl K. Sweet is a true genius artist. How does the man manage to create art, from scratch, that perfectly captures the awkwardness of a live photo shoot featuring models that have absolutely no idea how to look good for the camera? I would have to go through a lot of trouble finding people off the street, dressing them in funny clothes, and telling them to pose for me in some strange scene, in order to perfectly capture that “I have no idea what to do with my hands, eyes or face” look. Sweet can just draw it up freehand. I mean check out the Ben Kingsley/Captain Picard looking guy guarding the back of the line. I can almost hear the artistic director on the photo shoot telling him “Ok, we need this to be a candid shot, do NOT look at the camera!”. I can almost see in real motion Mr. Kingsley-Picard trying his damnedest not to look at the camera, and failing.

I never would have thought to make the Tower of Ghenjei out of that blue river rock I have on my back porch, but it looks pretty classy. I like how the roots of all three of the prominent trees in the background look like the legs of overweight women straddling camels headed in the same direction. And evidently Thom lately finds himself opting for a gleeman’s cloak with a European cut.

CK

I am very, very excited about this next book. But I swear on the baby Jesus there better not be a Moiraine cliffhanger. I do not even know what I would do.

Anyway, my writing. Thing of it is, since this past Wednesday I’ve been sick. I had an upset stomach Wednesday night, Thursday I came home with a fever, spent Friday feeling sorry for myself, Saturday trying to recover and now I just wish I could breathe normally. So it is doubtful I’ll make the deadline, although I will still try my best, but in all honesty this is the first time I’ve been able to sit at a computer without getting blurry eyed after five minutes.

Oh and also: I finally watched the pilot of Battle Star and wow, EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE NOW! Amazing how that works! I am not like Kate and reading up on everything because while she seeks out spoilers I hide from them, so I was clueless on so much but looking up would have revealed too much. Anyway, now I know.