1. I have such a bad cold! WINTER WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME. But at least it is not pig flu!

2. I have a paper due tomorrow (probably. It is unclear. Other things which are unclear: how long the paper should be, what the paper should be about. The professor is sorta flaky). I should be writing that. But I am not. See point 1.

3. YULETIDE JESUS CHRIST YULETIDE WHY IS IT SO SOON AND WHAT AM I GOING TO WRITE?

4. I am totally addicted to the Plants vs. Zombies video game. It even comes with a music video! Zombies should not be this cute.

5. so much to do drowning ahhhh.

6. Now I am eating chocolate-chip-banana-bread and it is awesome.

7. Oh and also people got me snowflakes and that is awesome! I want to send some to people but I can't figure out how. Was it a temporary thing that I missed?

mood: busy music: "there's a zombie on your lawn"

wrdnrd/wrdnrd is looking for good blogs about class.

tags: class

Dear anonymice,

Thank you so much for the snowflake cookies! I think I discovered them somewhere between the forty-third and forty-forth consecutive reinstall of Ubuntu, and they vastly improved my outlook on Linux, netbooks, and life.

Love,

--m.

tags: technology: tool of the devil

Yesterday, in a bookstore, I picked up Yuki Yoshihara's Butterflies and Flowers, the new Shojo Beat series Viz has been pushing as a "gateway to josei" for shojo readers. It opens with the protagonist in a job interview, being questioned by the man who will clearly become the love interest.

"Are you a virgin?" he asks her.

She stammers and blushes and thinks, "That's not the kind of question you expect in a job interview," and she answers and I think the interview may proceed on its intrusive way from there, but I don't know for sure, because I closed the book and put it back on the shelf and walked away.

TIP 1: Sexual harassment is not an optimal route to romance.

TIP 2: Sexual harassment as a precursor to romance is not an enticing subject for light reading.

tags: a: authors poc, a:yoshihara yuki, sequential art, sequential art: manga, sequential art: manga: josei, sequential art: manga: shojo

My gmail, which is set to reflect the local weather, is currently depicting large snowflakes and fluffy white piles. My actual window to the outside is currently depicting some sort of horrible ice-sleet-rain. Gmail seems to think this is cute. You are Wrong, gmail. Deeply, terribly wrong.

You may recall that last year, I ingeniously managed to avoid dealing with winter by fleeing to the Arabian peninsula. That, pared with the long-lasting fall this year, mean that I pretty much have not had to deal with temperatures in the thirties for nearly two years. I find that I did not miss it! Like, at all.

GO AWAY WINTER. NO ONE LIKES YOU ANYWAY.

mood: cold

42. Diana Abu-Jaber, Origin

Abu-Jaber is totally my new favorite author. She has an amazing, vivid way of describing things, particularly places, which I adore. In this book, the setting is Syracuse, New York in the middle of winter, and everything about that is so exactly described: the particular blues and white of winter light, early twilights, lead-colored skies, too much wind, the look of snow falling in the early morning, black ice on the streets, the feelings of isolation, claustrophobia, and loneliness that winter often inspires, cold air in your lungs.

The plot is about Lena, who works as a fingerprint examiner in a police office. There's a case involving a dead baby that the medical examiner ruled to be SIDS, but which the mother swears was a murder, saying that she heard footsteps in her empty house just before finding that her baby had died. Meanwhile, Lena has been doing research into her own past: she was adopted at three, and has only strange, vague memories of the time before that- rain forests, monkeys, a plane crash- and no one seems to know if these memories are real, metaphorical, or just a three-year-old's daydreams.

Everything eventually turns out to be connected, of course, but the revelations still surprised me. This novel is completely different in voice from everything else Abu-Jaber has written; it's almost a thriller, with a tense, brooding tone that fits perfectly with the mysteries and the cold winter. Highly recommended.

Crossposted to 50books_poc

mood: busy music: "Poor Man's Grey" Matthew Good tags: bookblogging

I have been insanely busy for the last week. Also my apartment had no water this morning. HELLO DECEMBER HOW ARE YOU.

( BPAL reviews: Bayou, Black Lotus, Bien Loin D'Ici )

mood: cheerful tags: bpal

41. Alaya Dawn Johnson, Racing the Dark

The first book in a YA trilogy set in a Polynesia-inspired world (with elements from several other cultures; I recognized a few Japanese things in particular), it's a bit hard to describe the plot, because it's very episodic and involves many, many twists and turns. The main character is Lana, who grows up on an idyllic rural island before finding out that she is destined for something big. Her attempts to escape that destiny start off the plot. The other main character is Kohaku, a young man from an urban center who has come to Lana's island to teach and do anthropological research. Back home, he lives with his deaf sister, Emea. Other important figures include a scary floating death spirit, a man who is half water-spirit, a fortune-teller, healer, and witch who knows more than she's telling, and a young man from a nomadic tribe who does not believe in the magic used by the rest of the characters.

This book involves a lot of mature topics (including abortion, suicide, murder, prostitution, and torture, to name a few), which I know isn't unusual for YA books, but the sheer number of "bad" things surprised me. Despite all that, it's not really a depressing book. Everything is handled with the seriousness and weight they deserve, but they're not dwelt on. In general, I found the book to be very fast-moving and entertaining. The writing is not the most beautiful, but man, does Johnson do plot well. This book is very much a page-turner, and it gripped me and didn't let go. I can't wait for the sequel to come out!

Crossposted to 50books_poc

mood: busy tags: bookblogging

Because if I wasn't writing this post, I would be doing schoolwork that's due tomorrow, and that would be silly. Note: all of these movies are available on Netflix.

1. Jodhaa Akbar (2008) Lavish historical epic about Akbar the Great, one of the first Mughal Emperors (who were Muslim), and his Hindu wife, Jodhaa. The plot is not too complex (mainly 'people can learn to work together across religions, yay!') (although the evil mother-in-law is AWESOME), but come on, the point is the incredible costumes and sets. You should totally watch this video to see what I mean; the subtitles are in Chinese, but they're just singing about how Akbar is an awesome king and now everyone is happy. This movie is so pretty.

2. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) This movie is kind of cheesy. It is soooo 90s. But it is funny and happy and whole-heartedly sweet. Simran and Raj are Indians living in England; Simran is engaged to a boy she's never met, but when she and Raj meet during a Eurorail vacation, they fall in love. Complications ensure! There is a subplot involving people lost in Switzerland and cow-bell souvenirs. Simran's dad has the best crazy eyes I have ever seen. Simran's mom is super sweet and has several amazing scenes.

3. Omkara (2006) EVERYONE: WATCH THIS MOVIE IMMEDIATELY. A retelling of Othello in modern, rural India. The Iago-parallel is the most terrifying version of Iago I have ever seen. He is so calm and yet intense, so subtly evil that I wanted to hide my eyes whenever he was on screen. Every review of this movie mentions how fantastic this actor is, but seriously, there is a very, very good reason for all the love. Also, the cinematography in this movie in amazing. Particularly the last shot- not to spoil it (though who doesn't know how Othello ends), but the framing of Dolly (Desdemona) and Omkara (Othello) is fantastic.

mood: busy music: "The Hunt" Niyaz tags: movies