The vault is cold; bring a jacket

Amaurotic: A. "Affected with amaurosis."

OED that is not helpful.

Amaurosis: "Partial or total loss of sight arising from disease of the optic nerve, usually without external change in the eye."

Now we're getting somewhere.

B. "Applied to an extreme type of hereditary imbecility, with the symptoms of amaurosis."

I guess it sounds smarter than "near-sighted." or "idiotic."

Now I'm reading "Let the Right One in" by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Swedish vampire novel because, well, why not. Not the sort of vampire that has lately taken over the world of urban fantasy and filled it with shiny hair, the creak of leather, and sexy smirks. This one is creepy and sometimes smelly and kills innocent people. This is almost getting back to Bram Stoker's Dracula character. Only it looks like Eli the vampire might be making a friend in a really disturbing yet sweet turn. I'm enjoying the book but it's not a novel for those who are easily squicked.

One week to go

Talaria - Winged sandals, like those worn by Hermes.
According to the OED the word comes from the Latin tālāris which means, "things pertaining to the ankles." That's fairly specific.

My Great-grandmother is the young woman on the far right.

I have to get a hair-cut for my sister's wedding today, or at least soon. It's coming up fast. I also have to go to the library because I finished a number of books in the last couple of days.

The Swallows of Kabul was poetic, I'll give it that, and it fulfilled the author's intent to show the stark horror of the Taliban and radical Islam. However, I'm not sure it told a very good story. To go into a few of the problems I had with the story part of the book, (which should hold up on it's own, outside of the setting, description, and prose,) if Zunaira weren't so beautiful, would Atiq have had such a change of heart? He is seeing another woman as a human being for the first time in decades but does this extend to other, more common people? Would a less attractive woman have had such a profound effect on him? What if she had actually been guilty? He's been leading up to something but he still doesn't seem to have any sympathy for his dying wife. Atiq is the only character that is followed for the entire book but rather than being an active participant in the unfolding events he is only caught up in the actions of others. This sort of negates any change that comes over him. Or maybe that's the point although it doesn't really work for me. In the end nobody is really changed and the story just peters out. I felt like I read half a book. Also, where the hell did Zunaira go?

I also read DeKok and the Dead Harlequin by Baantjer and Silk by Alessandro Baricco. The DeKok book is a neat little mystery that kept me entertained. I knew that the one, obvious clue in the murdered man's past that the detectives overlooked was going to be the key to the crime and that bugged me a bit but otherwise it was a fun book.

Silk is incredibly short but is probably the most passionless lust-based almost romance ever committed to paper. The chapters are short; there are 65 in a 132 page book. Some are a couple of pages and some are no more than a few sentences. The characters are never developed, certain phrases are repeated over and over, and the whole thing is surprisingly emotionless. The only character who shows any real feeling is the main character's wife and she has a very small part. Herve is a buyer of silk eggs in mid-19th century France. During a silkworm epidemic his town sends him to Japan to illegally obtain eggs. Hara Kei is the man he negotiates with in Japan. Hara Kei has a mistress with "non-oriental eyes in the face of a girl." (This phrase is repeated several times.) Herve sees her maybe a grand total of five times on his four or so trips to Japan. Herve and the mistress never talk, never really meet, and never develop any real connection with each other and yet the author tries to present this as some almost-consuming romance. It's very strange. I get what Baricco is trying to do with the repetition of phrase; it's a short book and the phrases are a sort of short-hand for description in order to elicit emotion and set up atmosphere. However, that could also have been done with better writing. It wasn't a terrible book, I enjoyed reading it, but I'm glad I got it out of the library.

I read the DeKok book and Silk at work while posted at places where I was allowed to read and I wonder if I would have been as interested if I hadn't been just killing the time until five o'clock.

I'm giving up on Wizard's First Rule. The writing is juvenile and the set-up between good and evil too simplistic. The idea that righteous anger can be used as a force for good weirds me out a bit. There's no need for compassion on the side of the heroes because the bad guy and those who follow him are beyond redemption. I haven't been fond of characters with "designated hero" and "designated villain" status since I was a preteen. There are too many other books I'm interested in reading.

Hopefully tomorrow I shall have a pretty dress

Ecdysiast - A striptease artist.

I know I was reading an Alan Dean Foster book but which one and what was going on? H.L. Mencken is credited with creating it from the word ecdysis, meaning "The shedding of an outer integument or layer of skin, as by insects, crustaceans, and snakes; molting." (www.thefreedictionary.com) So strippers are like cicadas, huh? According to the striptease article on wikipedia Mencken coined the term after the stripper Gypsy Rose Lee asked for a more dignified name for her job. I can't tell if he was joking or not. Maybe I shouldn't have put a picture of my grandma next to this entry. She was most definitely not an ecdysiast.

I have to go to the dry cleaners tomorrow to pick up my (hopefully) hemmed dress. Then off to buy a few sundries to go with it.

I finished U is for Undertow. I felt the book was much more low-key than the others in the series. There was more focus on the story unraveling in the past and present of the characters involved in the kidnapping drama. Kinsey still has quite a bit to do but she shares the story with everyone else. The ending was surprisingly funny in a way. Almost anti-climactic but in a good way. A refreshing change from dramatic hardened killers making desperate last stands. Not that I don't enjoy those endings, too. It's just nice to see something different.

I am really tired. Tomorrow I'll continue with Khadra and Baantjer.

I have a post-it note with words I don't know on my keyboard ledge

Tenebrific - According to thefreedictionary.com it's an adjective meaning -
1. serving to obscure or darken and 2. gloomy; dark.
Synonyms: tenebrious, tenebrous.

So, there you go, tenebrific.

I plotted the beginning of a book out in my head during work today; then I fantasized about all the accolades I would receive because it would be clever and imaginative and have well-crafted characters and then I went to lunch. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was tasty. Maybe, if I ever become not lazy, I'll write that book. Or maybe I'll make it a short story.

Still scanning old pictures. I tried scanning some color photos but they came out pink. I'll have to figure that out later. Still reading The Swallows of Kabul. People speak in (well-crafted) monologues in this book and it skirts the line between poetic and heavy-handed.

Origins of the Specious amused me by quoting someone I know and U is for Undertow filled in some more of the main character's family history which I've found surprisingly interesting. I may give up on Wizard's First Rule due to lack of interest. 700 pages to go and I've already re-newed it once. There are so many other interesting books out there but I'll give it another 50 pages or so; see if it catches my (fleeting) attention.

Watching Castle now. Haven't watched any TV in a while so onward! Catch-up time on Hulu!

Lazy Sunday not quite

So yesterday I started scanning old family photos and I'm continuing that project today. Say hi to my grandparents! This morning I went to an interesting forum on women's voices before church and we talked heard about how NDI has been working to create programs to teach women in traditionally male-dominated countries how to take on leadership roles. Then we discussed how we still have a lot to do in our own country. There was a nice sermon in church about loving your enemies and we also got to see George Washington's family Bible.

I'm reading Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language which has not turned out to be as interesting as I'd hoped. There are a lot of interesting stories and anecdotes but less in depth discussion then I like. Good for a bit of light reading though which is good because I'm also reading Yasmina Khadra's The Swallows of Kabul. It's a short novel that takes place in Afghanistan during the reign of the Taliban. Depressing, yes, but the language is poetic. The narrative follows two men; a jailer who married a woman out of gratitude for saving him during the war with the Soviets and a young man who married his progressive wife out of love. Their individual mindsets are being explored as they both start to feel the effects of the degrading and terrifying treatment the population is facing. Almost daily public executions, beggars everywhere, little food, stifling heat, buildings in ruin, men casually using whips to clear their way, and the demeaning burqa all combine to paint a scream-worthy picture. By the way, spell-checker does not like the word burqa, as it shouldn't. I can't imagine this story will end well.

I am also reading a mystery by A.C. Baantjer, a Dutch writer, called DeKok and the Dead Harlequin. I've read a couple of his other novels and they're fun and not too challenging. How could I not read DeKok and the Geese of Death? I've just started and so far an accountant has announced that he wants to commit the perfect crime and he wants DeKok to give him advice on how to do it. DeKok is bewildered and trying to make him understand that he doesn't care how a crime is committed because he doesn't want them committed at all. Anyway, no matter what it will be interesting.

I like you but I don't want to hear about your plumbing problems

It really felt like the beginning of spring today and now they say it'll snow Tuesday. I'd say Nature needs to stop jerking us around but I don't want to make Her angry.

Today could have been frustrating, they keep giving me the same post at work, but I managed to cheer myself up by talking to the young woman who works in the cafe. She's very talkative and friendly.

I finished reading an Eyewitness travel guide on Bali & Lombok. I enjoy that series, along with the Insight guides and the Culture Shock series. They give information on people and customs that allow you to get an idea of the inhabitants and not just the architecture. Also, there are lots of pictures.

I also finished reading Journey to the Centre of the Earth. While, when you think about it, not a lot of stuff happens on the trek, Verne still makes it interesting and exciting. The narrative manages to convey that claustrophobic feeling of being practically entombed within in the depths, with miles and miles of heavy rock sitting heavily over your body. The despair Axel feels when lost carries over from the prose, giving you a taste of the desolation of being utterly alone in the dark so far from everything you are familiar with. You feel the fury of the storm and the wonders of things you've only read about in books coming to life before you. All of the scenes leave the reader realizing how small and fragile the characters are, how helpless against the implacable planet (practically a character itself) and that makes their determination to survive and continue that much more awesome. It's a great adventure.

I tried to watch a supernatural horror movie called deadline the other day. I got about an hour in and had to stop. Stuff was finally happening but it was so boring. There were too many coincidences. The main character lost a baby when her insanely jealous boyfriend tried to drown her in a tub and then she goes to a house for quiet to write her book and it just happens that the same situation had played out there? And who would leave a mentally fragile woman alone in a strange house the day her murderous boyfriend gets out of jail? When will scriptwriters learn that just showing a person talking a few pills from a prescription bottle doesn't mean they don't have to show those psychiatric disorders as well? Taking a couple of pills doesn't automatically equal batshit. Why doesn't my spell-checker recognize the word batshit? It's a perfectly good synonym for crazy-as-fuck. Anyway. It was more a supernatural domestic drama than it was a horror flick. Maybe it got better in the last half hour but honestly I was bored. I couldn't even be bothered to read a book while finishing it. That's pretty bad. You want better horror films? Try Session 9, Below, Paranormal Activity (the night scenes anyway), Dead End, Death Row (stupid but fun), Legend of Hell House, The Ring, The Orphanage, Ju-on 2, or the Evil Dead series. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is out on Netflix; that's next to watch. That was such a good series.

I've painted my nails silver because

Oh, today was a slow day. We had a couple of school tours and they were mostly well behaved, although the chaperones for the first group spent more time talking to each other than watching the kids. I am not your babysitter, people. And why does the spell-checker not like the plural form of chaperone? Wait, it doesn't even like the word in singular form! What's up with that? It keeps trying to correct it to 'chaperon'. Huh, looks like Wikipedia isn't even sure. I suppose I could go grab a print dictionary but I'm far too tired and lazy.

Well, I finished reading The Real Life of Sebastien Knight and can I say, awesome? Yes, I can. I think Nabokov is one of my new favorite authors along with Jane Austen and Batya Gur. Anyway, the whole book is written in first person by the half-brother of the titular character. Knight, who had been a moderately successful author, just died and his brother is trying to write a biography about him. He does this in a sort of looping, dream-like way, interspersed with stories of how he came by certain pieces of information, vignettes of people Knight knew, and passages from the books he wrote. The brother's reminiscences are almost hazy somehow; they are woven into the backdrop created by other people's recollections recounted second-hand. He has his rose-tinted glasses firmly in place during the majority of the book and it's easy at times to get sucked into viewing his brother as nostalgically as he does. We don't get a first-hand account of Knight until near the end of the book and when we do it's a little jarring. Finally we hear about him in someone else's words, someone not caught up in his intimate affairs, rather than getting them filtered through his brother. The ending reinforces the disconnected relationship between the two characters and the feeling that the portrait painted throughout the book has less to do with reality and more to do with a young man who misses his brother.

Now I'm reading Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne because I wanted an adventure story. Verne's books are filled with a kind of wide-eyed wonder at the natural and man-made phenomena that surrounds us and it's refreshing to read about the excitement that comes from discovery by people who really have a desire to know. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was like that as well. For the main character of Journey, Axel, it's more than just a physical trial; it's obviously a spiritual one as well. It is his own coming-of-age story. Once he's proven his ability to literally go to the depths with his uncle for their science and curiosity, he'll be worthy of marrying the girl he loves. Oh, and he also doesn't want to look like a big coward. That's a large part of why he went as well. Because once your sweetheart has said, "Wow, that sure sounds like fun. I'd totally go if society wasn't constantly telling me that as a woman I have all the endurance of a newborn babe. I bet I'd look wicked in climbing gear." you can't not go. And I bet she would look wicked, too.

Books and wedding preparations

Last fitting for my sister's wedding dress this morning and I practiced lacing it up. She looks beautiful in it. Then home to finish painting the table letters. She's got everything so well organized I said we should go into business together. I'd deal with the people and she could keep track of everything and we'd both deal with vendors. However dealing with the suppliers is not high on her list of things to do. People are obnoxious little bastards apparently; they try to squeeze money out of people getting married and they don't return calls or they don't deliver on time. Well, it can be a fall-back plan.

I'm reading Nabokov and Jules Verne. I'm also trying to read Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule and he does not come off favorably in comparison. Not saying he's bad, mind you, just saying his writing seems very childish after a chapter of The Real Life of Sebastien Knight. U is for Undertow is a little too low-key for me but it's not bad and I'm only half-way through. Gail Carriger's Soulless I ended up putting down after the first 134 pages. It was touted as being supernatural steampunk and while the supernatural is there the steampunk isn't. Oh, and it's actually a romance in disguise. The speech she uses is jarringly anachronistic ("Gee", says the Scottish 19th century werewolf? I don't think so) and for any character she picks one joke and then beats it to death. The main character has a social disadvantage because of her large nose and tan skin inherited from her dead, Italian father. But she has a smoking figure. The American is constantly disparaged by the heroine as being American uncouth. Her friend wears silly hats. And on and on. The mystery takes a back seat to the fact that the heroine and the werewolf are physically attracted to each other and after they make-out in a public street that aspect takes over. It's not all bad, she has an interesting take on werewolves and vampires and I liked the secondary werewolf character Professor Lyall but not enough to wade through self-absorbed people sucking face. So, back to the classics. I'm almost done with Sebastien Knight.

I had today off

I didn't do much today. However, my grandfather died. I'm glad I got the chance to tell him about completing my master's degree. My diploma came in the mail yesterday. I wish I could have shown it to him. I know he was proud.

Nothing really happened today

But I'm trying to write here more often so I'm doing an entry anyway.

Still reading U is for Undertow and watching The Dead Zone. Am I supposed to be impressed when the high level executive calls in security to escort the minor annoyance out of his office? It's supposed to show power, right? Personally I've never needed armed intervention to win my own arguments so why is it a mark of status to be able to call in the guards? Once you make money you no longer need to be intelligent?

Wow, I'm tired and that probably makes no sense. I did something entirely new at my internship today and I'm not sure if I actually did it right so either next week I'll get kudos or have to complete the task all over again. I think for the most part it went well but there are sure to be certain issues that need ironing out.

I have left over fries for tomorrow and that's a nice thought.

Playing Dark Fall 3: Lost Souls. Atmospheric and creepy but lacking in content. I've decided that the main character is having some sort of hallucination after OD-ing on vodka and clozapine. It's much more non-intuitive than the other games in the series, but the sound effects are really rather disturbing. Well, these things can be hit or miss.

Work was incredibly slow. Tuesdays are generally not busy but I think a lot of people were freaked by the thought of more bad weather. Time dragged. Went up to sneak a peek at the new exhibit. One half will be new and interesting and the other half is filled with art that shouldn't have been let out of the 1970's. I anticipate being bored of it about half a day after it opens.

New art installation, very colorful though apparently not quite done yet.

Tomorrow is my internship day and hopefully I won't be sent into the card catalogs again. How did anyone ever find anything? And if you're going to create a See Also card, why not just put the information on that card along with the reference to the alternative name? The people who make those cards up know what the future searchers are looking for; just cut out that middle step. You're already using an extra card.

Watching The Dead Zone on Netflix. Fun concept that doesn't quite do it for me but entertaining nonetheless. I find the main character a bit too passive but he has other good qualities so eh. Sort of reminds me of Millennium only the main character in that had credentials and less dramatic visions. That was a great show. I love the episode where the four demons are sitting around the coffee shop talking about the souls they've corrupted and the one demon relates some story about a network censor he pushed to rampage. The demon appeared to the guy as a little dancing demon baby thing and after the murders/suicide he dances around the crime scene, only nobody can see him but Frank. Who has this great moment where he discretely checks around him, "anyone else notice this thing? Just me? Okay." John from The Dead Zone would've made sure everyone noticed him seeing the invisible dancing demon and it would be 'dramatic' rather than just funny. But still. Good show.