preraphaelitepunk.com

I know — nothing for ages, and now I won’t shut up. Meh.

1. How the hell, in a 600-sq-ft (55 m^2, I think, or thereabouts) flat in which almost everything is black or dark blue or dark red, do I keep losing the shockingly bright white power cord for recharging Fenric the iPod?

2. The advantage of not blogging for yonks is that I’ve had time to do more reading. It all started with the cookbook (ExtraVeganZa) and Antonia Fraser history book (Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King) my parents gave me for Xmas. After that, I had to reread Fraser’s biography of Marie Antoinette. Then an odd segue to all my Amy Tan books, read in reverse sequence from newest to oldest. Then my old 20th-century Chinese literature books from college, then the collection of imperial fairy tales I brought back from Beijing in 1988. Thence on to both my Anne Fadiman books, and then all the Dune prequels in chronological order (not order of publication — thus, the Butlerian Jihad storyline before the young Leto storyline), then a brief stopover to (ahem) read the newest in the Shopaholic series. Currently, I’m on Asimov’s Foundation series again, of which I’ve unfortunately only got three of the seven.

Obviously, most of this has involved rereading, and fiction at that — history books tend to take me a bit longer. Still, since the new year I’ve probably gone through almost 30 books. It’s not nearly a record, even for me, and I know that even my best record is probably pretty shabby compared to others’, but it’s been a while since I’ve kept quite that pace (esp. considering that I got little reading done at the convention, and none on the plane there or back — I was so wiped out that I fell asleep on the return plane before it even left the runway). I’ve missed that. So, in addition to returning this blog to a more regularly scheduled program, I want to keep reading either at least one brand-new book a week, or revisit at least two old favorite books.

Hey, what else am I going to do? I have to have something to blog about, and there are only so many times I can watch my “Firefly” DVDs and blab about them. (Which reminds me: Nathan Fillion has a new show coming to Fox! The commercial I saw last night didn’t seem all that exciting — apparently the premise is a cross-country drag race? — but Tim Minnear is a coproducer, so maybe it’ll be okay. And, hey, at least Captain Tight Pants has work. :)

Still here — I’ve just been a bit freaked out with stress since, um, well, before Xmas, actually. January was spent almost entirely in hide mode, trying to forget about the “special” new project at work that was supposed to take three or four hours but has instead eaten large chunks of my time since late November. (The week of our winter meeting, during which I clocked up close to 30 hours of over time and did damage to my feet that I still haven’t recovered from, was actually the least stressful week of January.) There are still nights that I jolt awake at 4:00 and lie there, knowing I’m not rested enough to go ahead and get up but that it’ll take forever for me to get back to sleep so I really should just get up anyway, but it’s slightly less common now.

Anyway, that was by way of being an apology for slacking off so much, for so long. I’ll try to do better, even when I have nothing of particular import to say. Right now, I’ve got an Amy’s rice-crust spinach pizza (vegan!) in the oven, and am just taking a few minutes to pass along a couple of comments of varying consequence.

Firstly, Stephen Fry (!!!) was on “Bones” last Wednesday, and apparently will be reprising the role of Dr. Wyatt again this week. So, between 8:00 and 9:00 this Wednesday, you know what I’ll be doing. :)

Secondly, Nigel has added to the long string of surprising things he’s eaten: I came home to discover that he’d found the emergency ramen left over from my trip to Dallas, and had eaten two entire packs (sans seasoning packets). I’m not sure how to account for this in his daily caloric intake. Still, it’s not the oddest thing he’s eaten: he’s been known to steal vacuum packs of tofu and rip them open, devouring the contents; he also ate half a pound of raw cornmeal (polenta grind).

Hmm. Not the most brilliant blog entry, but it’ll do for the moment. I think my pizza is probably ready.