Why is it that now that I have a job and next to no free time, people are randomly popping in and asking me to do editing things for money? Couldn't they have filled in, I don't know, the year-long gap where I had no income at all? That would've been nice. Not that I'm complaining about the abundance now, but it would have!

I nearly ran over a dog about an hour ago. Four of them were running around, barking like mad, and one took a sharp left into the street. I stopped, felt my wheel hit something, and I think I screamed for a good ten seconds. The dog was okay, though; it ran back to a lawn nearby, and someone standing nearby called that he was all right. Scared the everliving fuck out of me, though. People seriously need to control their pets.

Wedding planning continues, as Dre and I try to stay on top of this so it doesn't bury us. Our wedding party has been asked, we have our budget now, and we drew up a preliminary guest list. I need to do more address gathering. A lot more address gathering. We'll see how things pan out... I hope people don't give me a hard time if they don't end up invited; we don't have even half of the money spent on an average wedding.

Now to cut my nails and reread Edgar Huntly.

Tags: engagement

There's going to be a lot of wedding thoughts going through this journal over the next while, I think. Ah well. I am starting early!

Dre and I are tentatively thinking June 2011, on a Saturday, as a wedding date. It would be ideal, since he'll have school then and a number of guests probably will be, too - not to mention the number of people we'd probably be asking to fly/drive in. So during break would be great. On the downside, it turns out June is the most popular/expensive month and Saturday is the most popular/expensive day, so in that sense, things could get ugly.

Need to call parents and ask them if they're willing to put money in and if so, how much. We REALLY can't afford much on our own. Once a budget is figured out, can start with some very early planning and ideas as to what is reasonable for maximum awesomeness.

Guest lists are going to be a pain in the ass. I'm so afraid I'm going to forget somebody I really want to come or have to cut people out I also really want to come. Both will probably happen. And there is family. Oh, the family.

Tags: engagement

A couple of life-changingish events happened recently, so I'd better document it here for posterity (and let people know what's going on!).

1. I got a job after a year of unemployment. It doesn't pay very well (10/hour), and it's part time, but I like it. I'm converting/editing textbooks into word documents so students can use their computers to read them. I've had it for about a month now, and I'm slowly working my way out of completely broke and into mostly poor. Taking that job at McDonald's for one day might have spurred it on...

2. Yesterday, Dre asked me to marry him. I said yes.

Edit: Oh, and here's a picture of the ring, just uploaded: http://bacon.sandwich.net/engagement/ardring.JPG

Tags: engagement

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. 1999.

I've been told by dreol, Harry Potter nut and English major that he is, that Chamber of Secrets is the weakest of the seven novels in the series. It certainly seems to be his least favorite; he says he thinks it's because it's less connected with the overarching story and the rest of the novels than the others.

He may be right, but it was still a fun read. And Chamber of Secrets isn't unconnected - not in the least. There was at least one gun on the mantle that comes out in book six (or I assume so; I made the connection with the movie - I haven't yet read book six). If there's one thing Ms. Rowling can do right, I would have to say it's setting everything up... even this early, even in the second book that can get mired in a pile of seven (which by all rights should be less important than the first for VAST FORESHADOWING), I found myself spotting... well, not quite hints and clues, but things - items, people - that would come into play much, much later. And I haven't even read the rest of the series; this is just from my incomplete movie knowledge. So there's something there. Book 2 might not be as connected, but it doesn't lack connection.

Past that, Harry Potter continues to be escapist fiction of the best sort. Rowling does a decent job re-explaining Hogwarts and some of the events and revelations that took place in the first novel - I'm assuming she doesn't continue to do this, once she realizes how rabid her fanbase is and how much they tend to remember, but she does manage quite well. Harry has a personality but not too much of one; his two friends fulfill their roles as sidekick and brain very well. And seriously, I don't mean any of those things in a bad way, as I like Harry, Ron, and Hermoine. But it's good for escapist fiction - you have to be able to substitute yourself for them, in those roles. If I were in junior high school, I'd be gobbling Harry Potter up just for that. Snape's still my favorite character, but huge surprise there. And I'd more or less forgotten about the second movie (more proof that it's not as connected, perhaps?), so part of the Big Twist at the end came as a surprise.

( Oh, and I went on a hilarious side track at one point, which I'll put down as a spoiler: )

Rowling does goof in a few places - careless mistakes, like confusing "ancestor" with "descendant" at one point and making a dialectical botch in Lucius' Malfoy's speech at another. But these are minor things that are easy to skip over, and overall, I've found the novel enjoyable, quick, and fun.

Next: Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, by Julie Powell

Tags: novels, reviews

Rushdie, Salman. The Enchantress of Florence. 2008.

I picked up The Enchantress of Florence when on vacation with dreol at Rehoboth Beach, Deleware. While I'm a pretty huge Rushdie fan (I've read Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Satanic Verses, in that order), I wasn't intending on picking up a book while there - but there were so many bookstores and the cover was so pretty. And it had Florence, and an enchantress, and it was taking place during the Renaissance, and it was also about India (because Rushdie is almost always about India), and there was nothing not to make the book a fun story. So I picked it up.

It took me some time to get to the book and even more time to finish it, but over the past few days, I read voraciously. Rushdie's always had a grip on language that I've been extremely jealous about - this book is no exception, and I would have been delighted to read it if only to see how he strings his words and sentences together. But there is more to it, of course. Enchantress reminds me of an old-style and grown up fairy tale, where crazy (often unfair) things happen and characters assume that magic exists. Also, there's sex! (That's the grown up part.) Characters are surprisingly rounded within their fairy tale capacities, and I like them, but I found myself not getting too attached - probably also because of the feeling of old-style fairy tales combined with power struggles from Back In The Day. Get too attached, and I'd be devastated or disappointed.

Enchantress seems fractured and almost confused, but the whole story is woven together by the end. Stories are told inside of stories. There are about five or six major subjects discussed; I found the most predominating one also the one that seems barely touched on for the first third of the novel - that of what a woman has to do in order to make her place in a world dominated by men. Mind, this woman's also an enchantress... well, probably an enchantress... magic's a funny thing. But it helps. Sometimes.

Rushdie's done his research concerning the Renaissance, Florence, India, Akbar, Machiavelli, women... he even put a bibliography in the back of the book. It's apparently his most researched book thus far, and it shows - at the same time, he's completely unafraid of tossing details aside to insert more magic and make way for his story. That makes for some good reading. At least on my end.

Next (which I've already finished): Harry Potter and the Chmaber of Secrets, by J. K. Rowling

Tags: novels, reviews

I turned in four applications today. It would have been five, but the fifth position was already filled. As I not-entirely-joked earlier today, "If I ever somehow managed to go back and see how many of these things I've sent out, I'd probably crawl into a depressive hole and never come out again." An average of two applications a day for months and no turn out does not do wonders for my spirit.

There's an open interview process at Family Video right down the street this evening, so hopefully I'll make a good showing there and maybe even get a job. I hope, I hope. I've never been so nervous about a grunt job interview before. But I want it so much more than fast food work! And yes, I did put in that application, too. (Just wait, when I finally do a job - IF I finally do get a job - it'll be a minimum wage thing, and then I'll actually get one of those receptionist/secretary/clerical work positions that I want the very next week, and I'll feel all guilty about leaving the job that I wanted so much for MONTHS.)

Need to prep for ACen - we'll be driving up to Chicago tomorrow for it. Honestly, we don't have enough money to go, but not going will put everyone else in the hole, so... we're going! On the bright side, I'm so nervous about job stuff that I can't afford the nerves to lose over ACen!

Why is it that restaurants / malls / companies go ahead and make websites... WITHOUT PUTTING UP THEIR HOURS OF OPERATION? Seriously, you'd think it would be the most obvious, most asked for question, but no.

ARGH, frustrating.

In other news, I have a facebook thing, which I don't want traced backwards to my lj particularly much - like one couldn't cross reference and find it easily enough, but just the same. I got it for event planning. (bremathon kept pestering me into it because we're planning on going to the Printer's Row Lit Fest together.) Regardless, it's there, so if peoples want to hook up or whatever, that's fine. It looks good for pictures and inane quiz/test things, so that's what I'll use it for. But not the twitter feature so much. I am not a fan of the twitter.

In other news, there's a fast food place in the mall that's hiring now, so I'll probably end up working there. Part time, probably shitty hours, definitely minimum wage... but any money is money, even if it can't support me. Apologies in advance for any roleplaying gigs this messes up.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. 1997.

The original title (I'm sure all of you know) is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which makes a lot of sense, since the sorcerer's stone does in the novel is what the philosopher's stone was always said to do. (Just check wikipedia!) But I read the American version, and that's what they changed it to. Speaking of, it's utterly impossible to buy the UK version of the Harry Potter series over here. I don't know why, but they're trying to do it over in textbook rental, and they can't.

Yes, there's a class on J. K. Rowling - and therefore Harry Potter - coming up next year. I've been given permission to sit in and participate, though not for credit. I have plenty of motive to read these books.... and you thought I was reading it purely for fun, ha ha!

Regardless, Sorcerer's Stone *was* fun. Extremely fun. I was a little worried, going in, that I wouldn't gain much by reading the first Harry Potter novel. I'd already seen the movie, and the entire series has been spoiled up and down (and right and left) for me. Fortunately, the book read easily and had a few fun gems that aren't in the movie, so it wasn't so bad. And there are plenty of things that I picked up simply because the series has been spoiled - hints that she knew what was going to happen all along - so I enjoyed the first novel for that aspect.

Rowling generally does an excellent job with description, providing enough to give an impression but not bogging down her text - something I think is particularly important in children's literature, because goodness knows I would drop a book in an instant as a child when confronted with page to page description (I'm looking at YOU, Tolkien). She doesn't talk down, though, assuming kids can handle difficult concepts and puzzling mysteries as well as any adult. Where she seems to have trouble is action scenes. In the first book, at least, she frequently looks away from the action or has another character describe it instead of describing herself.

But I didn't find myself minding much, because I was still entertained by everything else. And man, if I didn't watch that first Harry Potter movie, that twist at the end would have been killer. But, as I said in the previous paragraph, it's clear Rowling knew what was going to happen all along. She is a master of the gun on the mantle.

I get the feeling that I'll gain more insight into the Potterverse in the later books, when they (frankly) get so unwieldy that they're nearly impossible to make into a decent movie. (Personally, I really dislike whichever movie it was with the goblet thing... augh, that one was awful; I trust the book is way better as it wouldn't have far to go.) But we'll see, as I intend to read the rest of the series at points over the summer! For now, though, a break and something I picked up at Rehoboth last summer.

Next: The Enchantress of Florence, by Salman Rushdie

Tags: novels, reviews

Shikibu, Murasaki. The Tale of Genji. 1021. Ed. and Trans. Kencho Suematsu. 1900.

-or-

The Story Of How Genji Accumulates A Harem And Tries To Keep It That Way

Yeah, so, this book took me forever to finish reading! Almost a month! (I think; I didn't check before opening this window to write the review, and now I'm too lazy to go back.) It's not because I didn't enjoy reading it - I certainly did, as courtly love always amuses me - but it's written in such a style as to seem like a series of interconnected short stories of vignettes, so that each chapter stood alone while still being connected. That doesn't make for speedy reading, for me; instead, I'm inclined to read one section and then put the book down before starting on the next one, as it's all started and wrapped up in the same part.

The translation, on the other hand, hardly got in the way. I read an abridged version, and given the amount of time it took me to finish this novel, I'm glad I did. It was easy to follow, and the footnotes were comprehensible, so I never had to conduct my own research to look up references or figure out what was going on. I never felt as though I was missing large chunks of the story... and the one time I would have missed something that was vital to the plots the novel was following, a footnote explained it all very well. So no complaints there whatsoever.

On to the story itself. The Tale of Genji can be summed up as I suggested in my joke title, really. Genji LOVES the womens, and I mean LOVES them - in a courtly, almost appropriate manner, anyway. He's a nice enough guy, but that's his one failing, and he does a lot of stupid things because he's taken by this girl or that. I do like that he's not infinitely suave, and he doesn't get away with everything... and that sympathy can be had, and I think is intended, for characters such as his cold wife (who is understandably upset about the whole sleeping around thing).

My favorite chapter is probably one of the earlier ones, where a bunch of Genji's (male) friends get together and talk about how difficult it is to find the perfect woman, what qualities she should have, and how their various relationships went wrong (all of which, btw, were labeled by them as the woman's fault, not theirs - despite that their own behavior was pretty bad). I found it extremely funny, and I think that the whole book was worth reading just for that chapter.

All in all, this was a pretty good read (though as I said before, I'm glad I got the abridged version; I can't imagine how long it would have taken me to get through the whole freaking thing). It gave me some laughs, Genji was a deeper character than I expected (though to be fair I wasn't expecting much), and it was full of neat little ancient Japanese quirks. So good times were to be had on my end. Your mileage may vary.

Next: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J. K. Rowling

Tags: novels, reviews

Moore, Christopher. Fluke; Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings. 2003.

I picked up Fluke at dreol's insistence, as after my response to Lamb (the other Christopher Moore book I read), he was positive I'd really, really like it. Well, I did! Fluke successfully avoids all of the problems I had with Lamb, and while it isn't as funny - some parts of Lamb were VERY funny - I didn't feel like Moore was trying to be. And, y'know, I'm cool with that. A good story is a good story. The funny doesn't have to roll out in massive quantities, or I'd wonder how I ever survived as an English major for so long. (Which isn't to say I don't find things funny. I find A LOT of things funny. But authors frequently don't shoot for the funny, and I have fun anyway.)

What I ended up with was a twisty, surprisingly tight novel, which started slow and built up to relatively epic proportions - but a small kind of epic, still centered on the initial four protagonists. Speaking of, I immediately liked all four of the protagonists, which was GOOD. No Mary Sues off the bat. That alone can ruin a story for me. (Lamb had that problem, but this isn't a review about that particular novel.) The writing style was light and fun, and it made me giggle once in a while without my feeling like I had to.

Unfortunately, I can't really say anything about the plot of Fluke, since it is at turns a mystery novel, and I don't want to give stuff away! So I won't. (And I don't really feel like going all analysis crazy, since yeah.) If you decide to read this book, also read the author's notes and conservation information at the end; they're pretty comprehensive but also short, and I think they're worthwhile. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a fun book that's not what they were expecting - also, to anyone who wants to think a little about it, but not too hard.

I was going to have a mini rant about Moore's wikipedia page to go along with this review, but apparently what I was about to rant about was taken down. Way to go, wikipedia. ;P So instead, I'll add this as an alternate side note: rowyn2001 is in the process of reading Fluke and, last we talked about it, was wondering if it's satire. Having finished the novel, I have to say, "Almost definitely not."

Next: The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu

Tags: novels, reviews