26 posts tagged “books”
Rain, rain, go away
come again another day
I want to go out and play,
and have a yarn crawl tomorrow.
to be perfectly honest, I'm surprised that I'm not napping right now. I felt tired enough for it - today was a long day. Today was field trip day.
It almost wasn't - the idea was that if it was raining when we came to school, we would cancel the field trip to the camp and just have classes. Well, the morning was gray and hazy (and so was the afternoon...) but it didn't start until we were on our way. It drizzled on and off the whole day, and wasn't really pouring until we got back. Now it's very loud, occasionally thundering and flashing outside my window, so I have both my glass doors closed.
It's not really a camp - we went to a place called Kanghwado, an island out near Gimpo. We ended up at this place called Oktokki Space Center, and it was cute. It's a huge building with a large garden out back that had statues of dinosaurs, and inside it's an astronomy and rocketry museum. It was really interesting, and I'd like to go back there sometime. I had an idea - I'd like to do a bike trip that way. You can get there via bus, but if I was on a bus, I couldn't stop to take pictures and explore like I want to... It was beautiful, in it's own way - there were muddy tidal flats like at home, next to rice fields that extended back to the mountains that were obscured by fog, and the same skyscraper apartments that define Korea stuck in the middle. There were even the same white egrets as home, poking about in the paddies for bugs and such. Whenever I travel, I'm always struck by how different so many places are from each other, but mostly by how much the same everything is. The trees here look like the ones at home - we passed a field surrounded by a wall of trees covered with kudzu that almost made me laugh. The tide was out, as were the shallow boats.
I've been struck a lot recently with the desire to learn more Korean - to be able to communicate with the people here, moreso than the broken fragments of preschool commands, and perhaps be less alone. That's not accurate, I suppose. I tell myself that it was my choice to be alone, and it's true; but it's also true that I am in a place where it is very easy for me to be alone, where I am alone by default, and it's not a choice at all. I feel like there is a difference in nuance there, but I am not sure how to describe it.
I took pictures at the space center, and I want to edit them before I put them up - I'd like to get some of that done during my break. I think the ones that I want to edit, but don't have the skills for yet, I will put in an Endnote notebook with my thoughts for fixing them, and go back to them later.
When I came home, I finished reading a book I've been working on for a while, Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Robin gave it to me a bit ago - it's the first of Gaiman's novels that I've ever read, though I have read some of his short stories. It was wonderful and tricky and full of the kinds of allusions to other things that I love. When I first started it, I wasn't sure that I was going to like it, but I got sucked into it. I definitely need to read more of his work now. He's an author that I have always been interested in, but had only just gotten around to reading.
An amazing book is one you know that you will *have* to reread again, before you have finished it through once. This is an amazing book.
I learned some new words today, too, at the museum.
taeyang = Sun. The sun is also called hae-nim, which is interesting. I'm not sure exactly what the nuance of the first part is - I think the common word for the sun, as opposed to taeyang, the scientific word. But the -nim ending is what you use when you are referring to a person, kind of like the japanese -san. I guess it's kind of like saying "Mr. Sun" in English.
eoknyeon = light year. I learned this from reading an exhibit about how far away things were from us.
chigu = Earth.
uju = space, as in, outer space.
sajajari = Leo, the constellation, or the zodiac sign. there was an activity the kids did where they made necklaces with each of their signs, and I got one. You got a little picture with a diagram of your constellation on it, and put dots of glow-in-the-dark glue on the dots marking the stars, and then put it in a little plastic case on a string. They let us teachers do it too.
Now, to get ready for the yarn crawl tomorrow, and also do some emails and budgeting and cleaning up. Oh, and figuring out what I am giving to my swap partner. I have a list of ideas, and a $25 budget.
Here I am drinking my peach nectar (love this stuff, tho I like Japanese Peach Water better) and chilling, and I thought I would post something real quick, since I'm in between things at the moment.
I did a lot of reading last night (read: was up til 8 this morning), and I can never have too many books on my blog. I was going to watch a movie (Twilight, again) but then I realized the copy I have is crappy and recorded in the theater, so I went looking for a DVD rip, which is out. Love to Axxo and his support of us piratey types. While that was dling, I figured I'd read some Fables, since I haven't in a while. I got thru quite a few issues, including an Animal Farm-esque stroyline and the most recent, 'Storybook Love' in which Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf finally hook up - sort of. I went to read the next issue tonight and have to re-dl it. Grrr.
After I was stalled on Fables, I started the second volume of the Tir Alainn trilogy, Shadows and Light, and finished
The shirt is now about 34 cm... less than 10 to go before I can switch needles!! I can't wait,
Okay, off we go.
Well I thought I would get here and write a blog post whilst waiting for my steak to finish cooking in the oven, and post some pics of stuff that I thought would be fun to share and have been meaning to post, but then I realized my camera battery is mysteriously dead, so it’s charging now. Breaking things into categories is easiest, I suppose.
Plans for next year (and by that I mean, after September): I looked up CELTA courses last night for a few hours, and Thailand and Vietnam seem to be the main places to go. Vietnam sounds cool (and is $100 cheaper), but I have no huge desire to go there, and I would love to see Thailand. Unfortunately none of the schedules for the classes look super-amazing – the earliest one that I could do without getting out of my contract early starts in late September. The others start the first week or so of October. This is good if I want to work here a few extra weeks/go travel around Thailand a bit before starting. But it does also mean I will get home later in the year.
A couple of friends have mentioned they would possibly be able to look after Gizmo for me, so that should be fine. My project for this week, I think, will be to dive into the wonderful world of recruiting again and see what jobs are available in … hmm. How long will I be home for? I don’t want to inconvenience the cat-sitter for longer than necessary, so maybe 3 weeks? Anyway, need to look into getting another contract, as well as decide for certain which CELTA course to take (almost certain it will be Thailand, probably Bangkok. The Chiang Mai one is out in the wilderness, although there is a package where you have room and board for $2400 provided. Still think I might like Bangkok better, me being a city girl.
So yeah – looking for a job again. Should be easier this time around, since I’m already here. I think. Here’s hoping.
Knitting: So here’s where my camera would have come in. Never fear, pictures will be posted, as they are necessary (and I have to put some on Rav too.) I have … 3 projects I’m working on right now. (I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s only 3.)
-- The Shawl: It’s
about 50 cm deep now. Yay. I just
started the 3rd ball of the sparkly stuff, and my plan for the moment
is to finish all the sparkle stuff, and crochet or knit on a lace border with
the rest of the non-sparkly stuff.
-- The Shirt: Well, I did a fair bit of knitting the other
night at Feast to keep my hands busy and stop me from just walking out (they
were talking till 10:15 PM OMG and I wanted to get home before midnight. Didn’t happen.-sigh-) I’m on my third set of skeins, and have
realized omg I have a ton of this stuff.
(I bought 20balls just to be sure I would have enough.) The last time I checked, the shirt was about
25cm done, but I can’t remember if I’ve done more on it since then. Oh well.
The point is, it’s getting there!! Soon I will be able to start the
ribbing for the bodice, and if there’s anything more stimulating than
stockinette, it’s 1x1 ribbing. Woohoo, good times.
I’m trying not to think how bored I got with the ribbed scarf I made. It's SOOO SOFT, tho. Silk/cotton, gotta love it.
-- My most recent project, the ‘Tank Top Enabler’: This is a lace shrug I found on Knitty.com, ‘cause
I like my tank tops and I want to be able to wear them without having people stare
at me. So I’m making this shawl, and we’ll
see how it goes. I was working on it tonight for a bit before cooking dinner –
it’s marked as a ‘piquant’ (difficult) pattern in Knitty’s archive, but I did
the Argosy scarf, and that was too, so I think I shall be okay. I’ve only gotten about 15 rows into it, ‘cause
I’ve had to pull it out, restart, figure out the decreases, etc. I think I am going to be okay for the moment,
though. This will def. need to be blocked when finished.
And there was a huge sale at yarn.com so I went shopping for stuff for projects next year. I think I have at least 4 things planned, not counting whatever I just decide to do with the stash I already have. That will be my last yarn purchase for a while, I think - I probably want a new computer before September, so I should be saving for that.
Stuff I do while knitting: I can’t work on anything too complex while I’m knitting, especially if I have to read subtitles- I still haven’t quite gotten the habit of not looking at what I’m doing, probably cause I’m working with double-stranded stuff and don’t want to accidentally split it. Anyway – I’ve finished the drama I’d been watching recently, Romantic Princess. Despite the usual annoyances with plot holes, it was pretty fun. I totally was wrong about the main guy not really being attractive – he definitely grew on me (especially after that swimming scene). One thing that surprised me about this drama – actual kissing. Srsly. After watching Hana Yori Dango and Devil Beside You, this show was way more explicit (though not to be compared the Korean HYD where there’s a ‘bedroom aftermath’ scene.) Once I got into the show, I really enjoyed both lead characters, and they’re interesting strong characters, especially Xiao Mai.
Last night I watched a movie I’d never seen but have been hearing about for a while – 10 Things I Hate About You. I’ve been on a bit of a 90s teen movie kick anyway, but this was surprisingly good. I felt like it could have been a lil more fleshed out, story-wise. But it was a great, witty movie with lots of quirks (guidance counselor who’s writing a romance novel? White rastas?), and I’m a fan of Julia Stiles (Save the Last Dance – need to watch that again…) and of course, Heath Ledger is just yummy. I hadn’t heard his accent before, but it’s adorable.
What next? Hmm... have several TV shows I need to catch up on – have yet to see the new Who special cause I haven’t watched S4 yet. Maybe I will get started on that. Or all those like 5 other shows. We’ll see.
I’ve been reading here and there lately – some vampire novels and started (finally) Oku no Hosomichi the other day. I think I’m about halfway through it, but it’s one of those books that will probably bear re-reading. I especially want to go back and write down some of my thoughts on the haiku. And Anand reminded me, I really should write that post about why I chose this name for my blog. I need to get started on that translation too, before I forget all the Japanese I ever knew. At least I have the stuff printed out and in my house – that’s a step. I’d like to get enough into it to see if I should bring one of my dictionaries back with me – my grammar ones especially.
The rest of the time: there’s work. Which is fine as usual. I made one of my 7-year old boys cry the other day, on accident (not that I was sorry about it, mind you. ) Before you think I’m a horrible person – Korean children have this annoying habit of molesting foreign teachers. It’s not just my kids – it seems to be some sort of epidemic. It’s really annoying, because it stems from rudeness/disrespect – many Korean children are not taught that it’s rude to stare or point at foreigners, and several of my kids seem to think it’s funny to be disrespectful to me, not only verbally, but also touching me. I always get onto them about it, cause they wouldn’t dare do it to a Korean teacher, but it’s still really annoying. Anyway – I was in my afternoon class on Friday, and one of the boys, Reo, grabbed my ass with both hands. He only comes up to a bit higher than my waist, and my first response when someone does something like that is to backhand them. Thankfully I didn’t, but I spun around and grabbed his wrist so fast that one of my nails caught the side of his next and scratched him a bit. I don’t think it hurt him very much, probably just mostly surprised him, and he started crying a bit. Hopefully he won’t do that again.
Friday was also Teacher’s Day, a pretty important holiday here. Well, for us it was anyway. We didn’t get the day off, but we did get lots of flowers and chocolate. A couple parents brought cake, so we had 2 cakes, and 2 large boxes of fruit as well. And we got a bonus, which was nice. Donald and I went to Costco with Debbie and her kids that night, and I have stocked my freezer with meat, so I will almost def. not need anymore till I leave, I think, unless I start eating a lot more of it. Of course, I will have to go back for cheese, but that’s understandable. Next year I really need to get my own card. That reminds me – I need to go grocery shopping for normal-ish stuff tomorrow. I didn’t find maple syrup there, sadly (add that to my list of stuff to bring back with me), but I did get chicken broth, so I can try to make risotto again. Sweetness!
Like my awesome vase for the flowers? Yes, you too can own this awesome 1.5liter coke bottle vase....
Maybe I’ve not mentioned this before, but I like making (iced) tea, and since I have like 8 different kinds, I usually mix 2 together and see how it goes. Tonight’s mix is some Ahmad Black Mango and some Celestial Seasonings Peppermint. I like it. It’s a very light mix, and the mango comes after the peppermint but doesn’t get overwhelmed by it. I think I might do that again sometime. That mango is amazing! I’m running out tho – might have to traipse back to Itaewon.
Ah! Music! Well, I’ve
been feeling a little bored with my music lately – I haven’t gotten anything
new for a while. So I found a torrent
from November, some ranking list, and picked a bunch of songs I thought looked
interesting, as well as the new Fray and Three Days Grace albums. Haven’t listened to the latter yet, but the
former is… well. The Fray takes some
sinking in. I’ve been enjoying quite a
few of the others though – Rihanna’s ‘Disturbia’ which sounds like it could be
the theme for some upbeat version of the Silent Hill movies or something… well,
maybe more Resident Evil? Something set in a city. More towards psychothriller
and such. I was intrigued to see a new
OAR song, ‘Shattered’, which I like.
Always enjoy Nickelback’s singles – stop cringing, okay? There’s a few more, but I think my favorite
one is by someone I’d never heard of before.
It’s called ‘Shake it’ by Metro Station.
Dance-poppy, and addictive like whoa.
And on the other end of the scale is ‘Addicted’ by a band called Saving
Abel. The latter two are below for your
listening pleasure, but be warned that ‘Addicted’ is probably NSFW.
Hmm. 12:30 am. I should… go to bed, I guess? Wanna try out the camera first. And damn, I was going to finish that email to Julie tonight. -sigh-
I suck at Nablopomo. -shrugs- Sorry. I mean, it's not that I don't have interesting things happen to me all the time, just that I don't think about blogging about them everyday. I'm usually busy, you know, experiencing them. Also, it's been something like 2 weeks since I had a night home by myself/got home before 9pm. So, when I did have time, I just wanted to chill and not have to worry about being under pressure to do something like blog.
That being said, lots of fun/interesting things have happened. Where to start? The most recent are easiest to remember. Or perhaps to group them into categories. Here goes:
Knitting: I've been working on my dragon shawl, mostly. I'm just starting the third repeat of the pattern, so I have a ways to go. Still, I like how it's turning out. I would take pictures, but it's hard to see very well. I did a swatch the other day for the tunic I'm going to make, and will probably take that to SnB to work on this week. Yummy, silk/cotton blend in a nice light green. I finished my cowl as well, and am pleased with it, despite having to rip out the bind off and redo it. It's very awesome, and I'm supposed to take pictures at some point. I got into trading stuff on ravelry, and now have a hand-dyed skein of alpaca and a skein of blue/green sock yarn. I also bought some really nice alpaca to make a pair of fingerless gloves with - the new Sourwood Mountain pattern from Knitty. Unfortunately I need to learn cables before I can do it - it's supposed to be fairly difficult. However, the weather has taken a turn for the worse, so I'm sure I will be able to get them done and still have time to wear them a bit. If not - well, there's always next winter.
TV/Books: Did i mention I finished Hana Yori Dango, both seasons? I was happy with the ending, for the most part. Of course, now the Korean drama that's a copy of it is all over the place here - they even have F4 fajitas at On the Border. Let me tell you, Hanazawa Rui's Korean counterpart is not as attractive, especially when drawn with an oversized head on a shrimp's body. But in general, the whole Korean cast is not as attractive. Especially Korean-Makino. She's supposed to be cute, but... no.
Since then I've vague cravings to watch the last season of Doctor Who that I never got around to, but I've been watching another drama, Taiwanese, Romantic Princess. The lead guy is growing on me, and the lead girl, Xiao Mai, is beautiful as well as really sweet. But she's also naive as fuck and kinda annoying at times. She tends to do things without thinking (like getting engaged to play a prank on someone she doesnt like. I know, right?) It hasn't annoyed me enough to stop watching, so I'll keep going. I also watched the pilot for a an American drama called Damages that Jon was pestering me about. Still haven't gotten to True Blood. (shh... don't tell him).
I got a book from BookMooch a few weeks back, and picked it up last night. I liked it so much that I finished it
I've been working on another audiobook as well, when I'm knitting at home, or jsut when I don't feel like listening to music. I'm continuing with the Sword of Truth series. I always liked Stone of Tears, though there are some parts in the middle that drag a bit, and I'm about halfway through it right now. I still haven't decided if I will listen to the books I haven't read yet on audio, or read them first. I guess it depends.
Okay folks, that's pretty much not it at all, but I'm zonked. More later. In the meantime, here's a song I've been liking lately.
Well, i have finally finished the legwarmers! Yay! The first one came out a bit wonky, cause I wasn't sure exactly how many stitches to cast on. I did a few less for the second one, and also taught myself to do it in the round, so that made things a bit more interesting. Here, look see?
,
I first read Phantom of the Opera when I was in high school, I believe. I remember being surprised that it was a book - I only knew it from the musical that I had grown up with. It is from the same era as other classics - Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and others. I really love Victorian literature, second only to my love of fantasy. So now I am working my way through that as well. I will probably be doing a lot of reading and knitting next month while I am fasting. We'll see home much I get done.
Lastly, I am almost done with my first audiobook. Well, technically, I did start listening to Twilight while I was
This book is one of my favorite, and I have read it several times. But still, listening to the book is different than reading it. For one thing, the guy who's reading it annoys me at times. His choice for the voices is not necessarily what I had imagined. Though I imagine that I will also have that issue when I start watching the tv show Legend of the Seeker. The series only finished being written a year or two ago, and I had put off finishing it, just not having had the time to reread them all. But now, with the audiobooks, I can listen to them while knitting. I'm not coordinated enough to knit and watch TV at the same time, but I can listen to books. It's also good for when I don't particularly feel like listening to music. At the moment I have about two hours left, and then I will start Stone of Tears.
I've been knitting for most of the past week, and while I have made significant progress on the scarf, I'm wanting a break. So I think tonight is going to be a watch TV or read or perhaps do some watercolor night. Also, my wrist is starting to bother me.
Note that this did not stop me from buying yarn this evening at Gangnam. Well, to be fair, I bought some on Thursday, and I went back with a new SnB friend looking for the same colorway, cause I really liked it and I decided I didn't want to mix two different ones. I got my colorway. and some cute light green ribbon-y stuff that I think I wanna try to make a shawl out of. And the ajuma who runs the place gave me another ball and my needles for free, which was pretty sweet. She does stuff like that though - She gave me a free ball the other night too.
I have Kraft Mac now! I met Robin in Itaewon for lunch today and we went to this place called Macaroni Market. Their macaroni was decent, but I really have been just craving the cheap stuff, so she took me to a little shop that sells foreign food and I got a box of mac and cheese. The place was way overpriced, but that's to be expected. My box was roughly $3.50. They had Captain Crunch, but it was $12 for the big box and I was like, um, no. Yes, I'm serious. But as Robin said, why charge less than what people will pay? And yes, people will pay that here, to get American foods, especially if they don't have access to the base.
I ended up reading another Night World book last night/this morning before bed. I'm perfectly cognizant that, while I mock my sister for her reading tastes (bad yaoi and how to raise pigeons), my own are just as bad. But that's the huge difference - I recognize that I read bad stuff, and read it precisely for that reason. Also, I like to flatter myself that, while most of it is completely fluff (both types of metaphorically) there are some good parts. So this is what I was reading:
Morgead and Jez are awesomely funny. For one thing, Morgead gets angry really easily, and he has an abandonment complex cause his mom left him when he was 12 and he has really pretty green eyes that Smith (the author) is always comparing to emeralds. Not the most inventive image, I know. Oh! And floppy black emo hair that's always getting in his eyes. But she does come up with cool - a train as a white dragon. Anyway, my favorite part of the book has to be Morgead in one of his "Excited States" (minds out the gutter, please). Here's an excerpt:
~~~~
Spoiler: At this point Jez has been staked and is trying to die peacefully. Morgead takes umbridge at this.
And then, through the mist and the gold and the warmth and the peace, came a voice that wasn't gentle at all. That was roaring in sheer outrage and fury.
"DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME, JEZEBEL! DON'T YOU DARE! Or I'll follow you to the next world and KILL you."
Suddenly, in the pretty gold mist, she could see something else. The only thing in the universe that wasn't golden.
It was a silver cord.
"You come back and you do it right now," Morgead bellowed in her ears and in her mind. "Right now! Do you hear me?"
The peace was shattered. Nothing seemed quite so warm and wonderful anymore, and she knew that once Morgead got into one of his Excited States, he wouldn't stop yelling until he got what he wanted.
There's some more here but I don't feel like typing it all...
Jez whispered, "I told you never to call me Jezebel."
Then she fainted.
Aw, isn't that so cute and angsty and 17 and you wanna just cuddle him? -pets- It's okay, Morgead, I have red hair too, just like Jez.
Anyways - time for tv. or more reading. Robin gave me a copy of American Gods and lord knows people have been telling me to read that for forever. Still feel like water-coloring tho...
I've been knitting so much the last few days that I got a little bored with it, so tonight I decided to do some reading instead. I've started Fast Food Nation again, but I really just wanted some fluff, so I dug out one of my pdf files...
The thing I love about romance novels is that they are never really titled aptly. This one, for example - the title references 3 vampire sisters, Rowan, Kestrel, and Jade. But they aren't really the focus of the book. The book is more focused on Mary-Lynette, who is a human and discovers that the girls are vampires and then ends up being soulmates with their brother Ash. It's one of my favorite Night World stories for a few reasons - Mary-Lynette is an awesome character. She loves books and wants to be an astronomer. And then, of course, her soulmate is a hard-partying badboy vampire who's done horrible things but will try to be better just for her. Who wouldn't love that? -smirk- But my favorite thing about her is that she thinks. She considers being a vampire, and she thinks she would love it, love seeing stars and living forever... But then she realizes that's not what she really wants, and she can't do it . It's nice to see a character in a universe that has made-vampires make that choice.
Despite that reading makes me happy, I'm still, as I said, mildly disgruntled. My computer refuses to load ravelry (perhaps in retaliation for last weekend), and several other pages. I can see any pictures on facebook, and my internet connection is crazy slow. sort of. I mean, it's slow with some things and fine with others and generally just all around frustrating. I'm dling some rars of my previously-uploaded books at the moment and it's going to take 4 hours to get 200 MB it says. No, I'm not using dialup. This is seriously ridiculous. Hopefully it will actually work and not do that annoying thing that this service tends to do where it just stops in the middle for no apparent reason. I'm not sure if the problem is with the internet or my computer, but I'm too lazy to take my computer to McDonald's to try it on the wireless at the moment. Tho I definitely could use some caffeine...
Now I'm not really sure what to do. I'm meeting Robin in Itaewon tomorrow for lunch at a new macaroni restaurant and then we're going to an SnB. I thought about reading another book but I'm kinda sleepy. Eating dinner could be an option too but I don't feel like it. -yawn- And since I have a four-day weekend I might as well sleep as much as I can...
I feel like I have been marginally productive lately. Firstly
I FINALLY FINISHED THAT GOD-DAMN SCARF!!!
I'm really proud of it actually, but by the time I got to the end I was just so tired of it, and I wanted it to be over. The pattern was fine - helluva lot better than some others I've done. But there were these stitches on the sides and they just weren't working and I was so annoyed with the way that they looked that I put off blocking the scarf, because I wanted to try to fix it first. With some help from fellow Ravelers (I spend way too much time on Ravelry )
I finally just washed it and stretched it out to dry, and I liked it a lot better afterwards. I like this pattern and might do it again at some point but I will definitely drop those side stitches. But I learned a new stitch, cast-on, and bind-off, so it was worth it. But you don't really wanna hear me babble about technical stuff, I'm sure. So here's the pics -
Since I finished that, I've started a new one! Supposed to be my grandmother's Christmas present... but I have decided to make these Christmas/birthday/winter holiday season presents. I hope Argosy (the name of the pattern) won't take me as long. It's a bit tricky, and definitely more complex/interesting, but I started it the other night around 4 am and it's zipping along. Let's see if my momentum keeps up.
I had some spare time today, and I decided to do some reading, and get started on my list of books to read this year. Naturally, I started with the shortest one, my the first volume of Fables that Nick got for me for Christmas. Spoilers/rants below the image.
There's a few things about comic books that I'm always uncomfortable with. One, I have the same issue with comic books as with manga and animation - if I don't like the drawing style, I can't make myself go through it, regardless of the content. This one is fine - the style isn't my favorite, but I can deal with it. Part of the reason I don't read comics is because I always feel like I'm supposed to put a lot of effort into looking at the panels, with all the details and such, and I really don't do that when I'm reading. When I'm reading, I want to find out what's going on in the story, and I'm more likely to follow the words than anything else. For that reason I prefer to read prose - I don't feel guilty for not looking at the pictures, and the description is already inherent - I can imagine it however I like. But then, I rarely fully picture things in my mind, even when I'm dreaming. Also, that removes immediately the possibility of an offensive drawing style.
One thing though that still bothers me is the annoying habit in comics of bolding/italicizing. I realize it's for emphasis, since comics are a primarily visual medium. Prose is too, but I tend to think of that more as a
mental medium. That's not the right way to describe it, exactly, and I'm sure it make me sound like a snobby holier-than-thou (haha, Aslan) book reader, but I'm going to blame it on the recurring wave of general sleepiness I've had all day. But regarding the formatting, it annoys me because it interrupts the flow of my reading for an unnecessary reason. Sure, I know that's the point, but I'm a smart girl. I've had enough experience reading that I know when characters are emphsizing things through context. With comics there is so much more information than I need, yet I still feel bad about only glancing at a scene that probably took hours to put together.
But then, I feel better knowing that this is one of those books where I will go back and reread it and discover new things in the art and the story.
But more on that later, when I feel like typing. Other than that, nothing really new. I have to write two scripts for the end of year performances this weekend; I haven't done my nails in ages and they're chipping like crazy; Gizmo appears to have gone more psycho than usual, crying loudly enough that I could hear her two floors down when I left tonight; I finally got my boxes of stuff from home but there are things missing, annoyingly; I haven't finished that gauntlet yet, but am still working on it; and tonight I went to Itaewon for the second time this week, bought a phone and had quesadillas for dinner;
So, back to what I was really posting about. This picture I took tonight in Itaewon. I was walking down the hill looking for a place to eat, and spotted the Mexican place, and then next to it is this stairway down into a club. And I read the sign and almost laughed out loud, and the people who walked past me must have thought I was strange, a foreign girl standing on the sidewalk grinning like an idiot outside a trannie club. But here's the picture, because I just had to have it in my collection.
Which reminds me, I need to write that letter to my okaasan. And email Bullock-sensei. And catch up on my email. And dammit, I will get those photographs edited sooner or later. I'm going to go knit now, and see if I can't finish this gauntlet, finally.
Lots of things happened, so here goes -
- Thursday - took a long nap till midnight, then stayed up playing AoE and reading the last of the Primes novels till 8 am on Friday
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Friday - woke up late and got to the Baha'i meeting as it was ending around 430 pm. Met a bunch of Baha'is and found out about feasts and study circles. Went to meet Tim for dinner, met his recently arrived teacher friend Christina. She's pretty cool.
- Saturday - wandered around Dongdaemun and found yarn. Dongdaemun Shopping Town = awesome. It's five floors of craftiness. Bought a wallet from a street vendor, wandered around town some more, then met Tim again for dinner and norebang with his Korean friend. Yay for shabu-shabu.
- Sunday - went up to Hyehwa to meet the Stitch-n-Bitch group. That was lots of fun, and it was good to be around people who can help me with my knitting. I learned what k2tog means! Then went to Itaewon for Indian food with Kate, a new friend from SnB and got hit on by sketchy Indian dude. Started watching Elfen Lied.
- Today - finished sewing lining into green knit bag.
Looked for knitting patterns online to keep from napping, then read a Dark-Hunter book. Got box from Mamaw and had PB and J for dinner. Cleaned up my apartment. FINALLY shaved my legs, now that i have my razor back.
