Sunday Miscellany
Not a whole lot to say, actually, but I’m trying to get back into the habit of posting regularly again. As far as the Internet dating/socializing goes, I’ve found a site that looks like it might be a good fit for me — veggie-oriented, international, and not obscenely expensive membership. It also allows you to look for people just as friends or penpals in addition to dates or serious relationships, which is ideal because I find the whole flesh-market approach at other sites to be really quite scary indeed. (I suppose the veg*n equivalent of a meat market would be . . . seitan market? Perhaps a tofu pup or melon market? Hmm.) Anyway, the idea is just to maybe meet some people outside of work — delightful as my work friends are, of course; no slight is intended toward them — and expand my circle of friends/acquaintances. If one of the people I meet happens to be a guy who seems interesting, and who happens to find me interesting as well, then that would be a pleasant bonus.
At the moment, I’ve just got a temporary photo up as my ID, but Cindy has kindly agreed to take an actual, proper photo of me on Monday. This, of course, means that my hair will of course explode into a giant fuzzball, or decide to collapse into some sort of flat, stringy mess more appropriate to a zombie fresh from the grave, but whatever. Many thanks to Cindy for consenting to help with this.
Other than that, there’s not a whole lot to report. We’ve got a Green Team (formerly known as the Recycling Action Committee) lunch meeting coming up this week, which means I’ve got to get off my posterior and actually write a draft or two of our next newsletter article — something I’ve been meaning to do for weeks now.
I also got my copy of the last Harry Potter book, and finished it Friday. The good thing is that it arrived from the U.K. several days earlier than they’d estimated. Unfortunately, I’d accidentally ordered the children’s cover instead of the adult cover, so it doesn’t match the rest of my collection; I also forgot to bring it home from the office the first day, so there was a slight delay before I got a chance to read it. Overall, I’d give it a B, maybe a B minus; my tolerance for Harry’s adolescent whining has dropped significantly over time, and the weird pacing in the first half of the book got on my nerves a bit. I’m okay with the ending and the deaths, but I would like to point out a couple of minor, general things (no specific spoilers, because my mom reads this and she’s making her way through the series for the first time right now; if anyone wishes to comment with spoilers, please e-mail me directly through the contact link):
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For some reason, WordPress is acting up today and keeps repeatedly jumping to the top of the post entry form when the paragraph gets longer than two lines, and it hides whatever it is I’m typing. Most annoying. I’m trying to keep an eye out for typos, but if I’ve missed any, that’s probably why: I’m typing blindly, for the most part. If this keeps up, I’ll have to revert to composing offline and then pasting text into the posting screen.
I want to know what you thought of the Prince’s Tale chapter. Did you like it or did you find it melodramatic or too cheesy or what? i am insanely curious to know what someone who’s always been in love with Snape thinks….
July 29th, 2007 | #
In general, a bit cheesy — I don’t want to go into particulars, lest I spoil the book for my mom, but I found myself rolling my eyes and saying aloud, “Oh, just get over it, man!” on a couple of occasions. Of course, Snape has always seemed to have issues with letting go and moving on, so I guess it’s in character for him.
If I’d been in charge (as, of course, I should be, over everything), Hogwarts would’ve had a counselor — a counselelf? — available to help students and staff sort out their angst and tribulations and so on. Visits would’ve been mandatory, at least for some characters. If necessary, medicinal potions might’ve been administered to help people get over themselves.
Might just be my mood at the moment, though. I’ll reread the book in a few weeks and see whether it still vaguely irritates me.
July 29th, 2007 | #
Whoa! Spoiler alert needed; some of us are sllllooow readers!
July 30th, 2007 | #
Eeep! Sorry — I was trying to be very general and nonspoilery, but apparently I’m not terribly good at that. I should’ve followed my first impulse to put all HP discussion on a linked but separate page. My sincere apologies!
July 30th, 2007 | #
I must be missing something - I’m not sure what we spoiled. I’m sorry, though, if we did.
I actually didn’t find much annoying, really - and I thought the Prince’s Tale chapter was really quite sweet. But I’m basically a die-hard romantic at heart, so sometimes whether it’s realistic or not I’m going to find it wonderful. I really liked it. :)
August 1st, 2007 | #