No One Ever Said I Had to Make Sense

daemonnoire — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:47:32 GMT

We spent about a month before Adam's business trip with no clear date on when he was going to leave. Now I get to spent the next week (or more) with no clear date on when he's coming home. Wee....

Ask the Person Who: Grew Up in a Haunted House: This post has me thinking, and looking back, I've never actually written down my experiences with ghosts. So in the spirit of the month, here's some of my more obvious ghost encounters.

One Easter, my parents and I drove up to visit with some of my dad's extended family up in Oklahoma. One of my favorite cousins was there, and it was kind of fun to hang out with her, since I didn't get to see her that often. Jam was a few years younger than me, and we were both sort of Purple Sheep in the family. One day, Mom and Dad took the two of us out antiquing with them. Like many small towns, the antique stores were mostly in the old homes that used to be the heart of the town. One store in particular was a maze of shelves, display cases, and jumbled junk. It honestly looked like someone had inherited a house from a hoarder and decided that it would be easier to slap price tags on the whole mess, rather than trying to clean it out. The downstairs was one big open space, though there might have been other rooms that I couldn't see.

Upstairs, there were six rooms, with three rooms on each side of the building and a hallway in the middle. The first three rooms all had open doors leading into each other, with the doors to the hallway blocked by junk. All three were brightly lit by the street facing windows, and generally seemed no more or less weird than any other room in an old antique store. The hallway didn't have any lights but since the shop was on a corner, the two rooms facing the front of the building plus the window at the end of the hall gave enough light that you could see fairly well. I wandered through the first room but it was slightly darker than the rooms on the side of the building, so I didn't spend much time in there. The second room had no windows at all, and the light from the hallway didn't do much to illuminate the room. It was a little creepy so I just looked in the doorway and didn't bother going in.

I looked down the hall and noticed that light didn't reach all the way to the end, but there was one more room. I figured there probably wouldn't be much to see, but I was curious (this is usually the point where, if my life were a movie, the audience would be yelling at the screen). I felt the weird creepiness of the second room growing stronger, but I put it off as nerves about the darkness and kept going. There was a bunch of junk at the dark end of the hall, but it wasn't actually blocking the door to the last room. I looked inside.

In the space of a few seconds, I took in the almost completely dark room. It was crammed wall to wall with junk, the mass crowding up close to the door, and well above the height of my head. I looked up and back and there, behind the wall of stuff, was A Thing.

It was more of a darker shadow than an actual shape. A formless place where there was slightly less light than there should have been. Something which most people would not have seen, or ignored as a trick of the light. Hell, most people probably wouldn't have even come this far down the hallway, unless they were particularly brave or stupid (I'll let y'all hash out which one I was). But I had gone that far, and I had seen it. And It knew that I had seen It. And It was Not Happy.

The darker space spread out like a dark cloak and it lunged over the top of the pile at me. At the same time I felt a deep resonance inside telling me quite clearly to get the fuck out. I turned and got the fuck out.

I didn't really run. More like walked very briskly back through the maze and out of the shop. I remember passing my Dad on my way back out, and I know that Jam hadn't been far behind me, but I don't actually remember passing her. A few minutes later, though, she joined me out in front of the shop. We stood there for a little bit before she said "Ghost in the last room?"

"Yup."

She never actually said that she saw it. But knowing Jam, if she had seen me doing my very best to not look like I was running the fuck away from something, she would've have gone to see what it was. Which just goes to show that this particular brand of insanity clearly runs down my father's side.

Herman Cain to rape victims- Those instances are miniscule, No exceptions,: In other news, Michelle Bachmann is off celebrating her new Not The Craziest GOP Candidate status.

2011 Book Review

daemonnoire — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:35:01 GMT

A18. Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs

Random point of interest: I actually started reading a physical copy of Spider Bones towards the start of the year, but had so much trouble finding time to sit down with a physical book that I took it back to the library. When I spotted the audio version on the shelf a month later, I snatched it up.

Spider Bones is probably one of the more complex plots that I have yet read from Kathy Reichs. And that's not necessarily a good thing. I can't really say that it's the most complex of all the books (having not yet read them all), but it has to be pretty high up there. Once again, Reichs managed to shoehorn Ryan into the story, though slightly more plausibly this time. And much like all of the other Bones books, there is a LOT of background information. Things about the Vietnam war, Hawaiian history and tourist destinations, complex analysis of everything from gang politics to unusual sexual practices. Sadly, I am beginning to get the feeling that underneath all of that interesting information is a collection of characters that I am either not particularly fond of or actively dislike.

A19. My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares

I picked this book up because hey, past lives! One True Pairing! History from a commoner's perspective! It hit a lot of my usual high points for good stories, so I figured it couldn't be truly terrible.

And it's not. For the most part, the book is actually quite good. There are several occasions where I wanted to smack the main male character, but that's fairly common for me with OTP style stories. It's not a terribly original premise, but Brashares' handling of the mechanics of it are well done. I was quite annoyed by the book's ending, but since it turns out that this is planned to be the first in a trilogy, I think I can hold off on my opinion of the annoying abrupt ending until I have a chance to read the next one.

A20-22. Mistborn: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

When I first noted that I was reading Elantris, I had several people tell me that Mistborn was vastly superior, and that I should have read them first. I pointed out that the reason I tend to read books in the order that authors wrote them is that I enjoy seeing their progression from book to book. It also saves me the heartache of reading a vastly superior later book, and discovering that the earlier works aren't nearly as sophisticated. Which is why I'm glad I read Elantris first. I don't think I could have enjoyed it quite as much after having read Mistborn.

Mistborn is the sort of fantasy story that if you just accept the magic as it is explained to you, it works really well. If you examine it too much, you will spend more time trying to work out the mechanics of it than you will enjoying the books. The magic system is so unique and well developed that I have had to shut down the part of my brain that wants to analyze and pick at the threads of the magic until they make sense. Fortunately, the Mistborn series also contains a lot of great political intrigue, some really interesting alternate history, and a lot of quite funny dialog. Sanderson continues to suffer from a version of The Smurfette Principle (Warning: TV Tropes link) throughout the books, making any other supporting females evil, vapid, or love interests.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this series. Unlike many trilogies, each book is quite self contained and ends well enough that if the series had ended at one book, or even just two, it would still be a fully realized and resolved overarching plot. As it seems Sanderson plans to write a fourth Mistborn book, I hope he continues in that vein.

A23. Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay

I'd like to start by noting that there is an element to audiobooks that physical books can't provide, which doesn't make them superior, but does make for some wonderfully humorous moments that wouldn't come across the same in the physical book. In one of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, it was the reader who actually spoke very rapidly while doing Diantha's voice, making the statement "Johan's an asshole" truly hilarious. In this book, the reader does an excellent job of portraying the cheerfully British voice of Doakes' communication device, making me giggle every time he said "motherfucker."

Dexter by Design does a decent job of picking up all the major threads of the previous Dexter books and running with them. Which is kind of the problem. The book contains some great moments of introspection (and cursing) by dear Deborah, but that's about all the character development we get. The same jokes (the traffic, the food, Angel "no relation" blahblahblah), the same character dynamics, the same shock value murder resolved by Dexter getting tangled up in a messily public way, the same rescue from the Big Bad by someone other than Dexter. Frankly, I'm beginning to think that the reason I like the kids so much in this series is that they're the only ones who seem to be making actual character progression over the course of the series. The Dexter books aren't bad, but I'm probably going to start having to view them as candy reading.

A24. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

I am quite thrilled that Brandon Sanderson is a very prolific writer. Otherwise I might have to take my list of "Things to Make George R.R. Martin Write The Song of Ice and Fire Faster" and apply them to this series. Much like his previous books, the Way of Kings contains a fully realized, well developed, intricate and unique magic system. And damnit, I want to know more about it. Sanderson shows his progress as an author by having three (three!) major female characters who have important roles in the story. Sure, two of them are related to the king, but hey, at least they're not incidental characters. As a bonus, the dynamics of the gender roles make women very important to the smooth operation of the political system, which is always nice.

2011 Book Review

daemonnoire — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:29:25 GMT

A1. Carrie by Stephen King

I've decided I'm going to work my way through Stephen King's books in the order that he wrote them, starting with his debut novel, Carrie.

One of my concerns upon starting this project is that I tend to use my audio books to help me fall asleep. And since I once had a doctor suggest that reading Stephen King's books right before bed might be the cause of my nightmares, I was a little concerned. I figured Carrie wouldn't be much of a problem, since most of the "horror" aspects don't show up until the very end.

It has been several years since I last read Carrie. The last time was for my Banned Book Review project, something I remember only because I was recently going back through those. The review from there still stands. Not nearly as polished as his later works, but still powerful. The motivations of various characters seem a little odd thirty-five years later, something that should always be taken into account when reading older books. Then again, there are some authors who need to spend more time reading older books to avoid the trap of applying modern attitudes to historical situations.

A2-5. The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris

The inspiration for the True Blood series, the Southern Vampire Mysteries are nonetheless not quite the same as the TV series. True, the first three books roughly follow the plots of the first three seasons, and the characters are similar in both, but there are several pretty significant differences. Without getting into too many spoilers, let's just say that the TV show takes several liberties with the character relationships. I thought this was actually a logical change in the case of Season 1's Big Bad, since it seemed awfully weird to me that Sookie had apparently known Big Bad for quite a long time and just never noticed that the Big Bad was Fucking Evil.

I do wonder how season three is going to handle the events of Dead to the World, considering some of the things which happened to Important Character X on the TV show.

A6. 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Back to the Stephen King novels. Unlike Carrie, 'Salem's Lot hits you up with the horror right off the bat. No pun intended. At first I tried to avoid listening to the book at night before bed, but then figured what the hell, it's not like my nightmares are all that predictable anyways. Also unlike Carrie, 'Salem's lot doesn't suffer as much from the "moral motivation" tarnish. I had several "Thank Bob for feminism" moments while listening to Carrie, and only one or two while listening to 'Salem's Lot. I think because Carrie focuses mostly on high school age girls, whereas 'Salem's Lot is mostly men. I do appreciate King's classic take on the vampire genre, though I did wonder at the exponential growth of vampires. It seemed like everyone who was bitten turned, which should make for a lot more vampires in the world.

A7. Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

Joke's on my doctor, y'all. After getting through two Stephen King novels nightmare free, I get halfway through the fluffy vampire novel and have a nightmare. After listening to Dead to the World, I was beginning to wonder if Sookie Stackhouse was going to become Anita Blake and sleep with every man who crossed her path. So it was nice to have a whole book where Sookie sleeps with absolutely no one, though she does suffer from "Everyone thinks I'm sexy" Mary-Sueism. This, incidentally, is lampshaded in Dead to the World rather well. Warning: Link goes to TV Tropes. And since this book deals mostly with the shifter side of things, it did answer a question I'd been pondering about Harris' assertion that only the first born is a shifter. As it turns out, only the first born of any *pairing* is a shifter. There's still the question of whether or not it's only the woman's first born and how exactly that effects the gene pool. Given how Definitely Dead is heading, it may answer that question eventually.

daemonnoire — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:38:05 GMT

2010 Book Review (at last)

24. Harvard's Secret Court by William Wright

A non-fiction account of a 1920's hunt for homosexuals at Harvard. Wright does an amazing job of personalizing the plight of the young men who were caught up by the Secret Court, as well as putting the culture and norms of the time into terms that are easy for the reader to understand. Wright clearly did a lot of research looking to discover everything possible about the Secret Court, and even went so far as to interview the families of some of the young men who had been ostracized by the school officials who carried it out. Wright also explores some of the possible motivations for homophobia in society, presenting his analysis in a thoughtful and non-judgmental manner.

25 and 26. Changeless and Blameless by Gail Carriger

I pick these two up as part of my honeymoon reading and started in on Changeless a couple of days before the wedding. I should know better than to do things like that with books I like. I wound up polishing them both off much too quickly. One of the reasons I would like an electronic reader: The ability to pack more than two books.

Much like Soulless, I adored both of these books for their wit, subtle commentary on Victorian social norms, and naturally, the supernatural elements. I do find the exploration of the Soulless to be very interesting, as well as the "science" of the supernaturals. And of course, I love any book with phrases such as "There are knees positively everywhere!"

27. The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory

The Queen's Fool is told from the point of view of the fictional character of Hannah, a Jewish girl who is posing as Christian in Mary Tudor's England. I liked the extra element of danger in this one, where Hannah is threatened no matter which Queen wins out in the plotting, being neither Catholic nor Protestant. I found Hannah's gift of foresight a little off putting, though. None of Gregory's other novels have a supernatural element, and while I can accept the addition of a fictional character into a historical novel, I'm not willing to accept that fictional character having the true gift of foretelling. I also found Gregory's portrayal of the Queens somewhat off-putting. Elizabeth often came across as grasping, greedy, and deliberately malicious. Mary often came across as weak willed, desperate, and something of a pious twit. The history was good, and mostly accurate. But after The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance, The Queen's Fool is quite disappointing.

A10-20. The Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan

Part of the reason that the physical books side of this list is a lot shorter than I anticipated upon starting this project is that I listened to the Wheel of Time audio books at every chance. So where I would normally read books while walking to work, on my lunch break, or before bed, I instead listened to these books. And now, after three months of nothing but Wheel of Time, they've kind of blurred together. I do recall, however, that right around the end of September, whichever book I was listening to was up to EIGHT Instances of Naked, where a woman was stripped naked for torture, humiliation, punishment, or tillilation. After that, I just stopped counting in the other books. Listening to all of them in a row like that was very useful in that I didn't have any difficulties following the various story lines as they jumped from character to character. I am also probably going to piss off a lot of Robert Jordan fans with this admission, but I have to say it: I rather prefer Brandon Sanderson's take on the world. Gathering Storm was so much better than all of the other books. I think that part of it is that Sanderson has his end goal and is trying to pack a hell of a lot of story into just three more books. Jordan seemed to be intending to write forever. Sanderson's portrayal of women is a lot better, making me suddenly understand why everyone loves Egwene, why people respect Nynaeve despite her faults, and why people are willing to support Elaine as queen.

Brandon Sanderson is going to be at ConDFW, by the way. I am very tempted to go simply so I can thank him for reducing the Instances of Naked in the Wheel of Time series.

So! That's 2010! I'm going to try to be better about posting 2011, though I'm not off to the greatest of starts.

This entry has been cross posted to my Wordpress account. You can comment here, or there.

daemonnoire — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:34:31 GMT

How To Make a Renaissance Tube Dress (AKA, a simple chemise)

The instructions listed below make for a very full chemise that falls about mid calf on a woman of average height. So it's One Size Fits Most. If you are much smaller or much larger than "average," the advice in the Taking Your Measure section will help you work out how much fabric and elastic you need for your own chemise.

You will need:

2 2/3 yards 45 inch[1] cotton[2] fabric
1 1/3 yards 1/4" Elastic
1 yard 1/2" Elastic
Matching thread

Measure 2/3 of a yard of the fabric for your sleeves. Cut this off and lay it aside. Cut the remaining fabric into two equal pieces, perpendicular to the fold. Iron out the folds, then pin right sides together and stitch along the selvage.

Black dotted line is your stitching. At this point, you can either iron the seams flat, or use a zigzag stitch between the stitching and the edge of the fabric to reinforce the seams. You should now have a large tube of fabric. Fold the bottom hem up twice about a quarter of an inch. This puts your raw bottom edge into a fold of fabric, and reduces fraying. I use an iron to help keep the hem nice and straight during this process. Straight stitch along the fold.

Now for the hard part! Use your iron to fold your top edge down once, about a quarter of an inch. Fold and iron it again about an inch and a half. I like to run a single straight stitch along the top edge of the fold (purple in image below), because I feel it helps keep the ruffle nice and neat, but you can skip this if you like. Run a straight stitch 1" up from your bottom edge, all the way around. Run another straight stitch along the bottom edge of your fold, leaving a two inch gap. This is your elastic pocket.

Run your 1/2" elastic through this pocket, gathering the fabric as your go. I like to use a large safety pin on one end of the elastic to help me work it through the pocket, while I use another safety pin to hold the other end in place outside the pocket. Make sure your elastic doesn't turn as you run it through! Put your dress on and pull the elastic so that it is snug, but not too tight. Stitch the elastic at this point. Push the ends up into the elastic pocket, and stitch the pocket shut. Turn your dress right side out, and you're halfway there.

Take your sleeve piece and cut it along the fold. Fold one piece right sides together so that your selvage and the recent cut make your seam. Pin and stitch this together. Again, you can either iron this open, or run a zigzag along the seam. You should now have a long narrow tube. Fold one edge edge down once, about a quarter of an inch. Fold it down again about an inch. Decorative stitch is still optional. Run a single stitch about a half inch up from your bottom fold. Run another single stitch at the fold, leaving a two inch gap for the elastic. Put the sleeve on, snug the elastic to your wrist[3], sew the elastic, and close up your pocket. Do the same for the other end, snugging the elastic to just above your bicep. Do all of this for the other piece of fabric, turn right side out, and you'll have two sleeves. Almost done!

Match the seam of one sleeve at the bicep end to a side seam at the top of the dress. Run two inches of straight stitching through both pieces, between the top of the elastic pocket and the decorative stitching. You'll want to go back and forth over this two or three times to make sure it's attached well.

Notes:

[1] This can be done with a 60" fabric, but it makes for a *very* full chemise. Generally, you'll want about twice as much fabric at your width as you are around the chest just below your armpits. If you are smaller than 42" at your widest point (or 57" for 60" fabric), you can make a much snugger chemise using only one panel and simply giving your chemise a back or side side seam. Bear in mind that 45" fabric can run anywhere from 42 to 46 inches.

[2] A chemise is usually made of an absorbent fabric such as cotton or linen because it's intended to soak up sweat and keep your bodice or corset clean. Feel free to use a fancier fabric if you like.

[3] If you tend to push your sleeves up, you'll want to make the elastic at your wrists a little looser.

Taking Your Measure:

I buy most of my elastics in pre-packaged lengths and measure it out as I need it. But your general formula goes like this:

1/4" elastic: ((wrist measurement+2")+(bicep measurement+2")) x 2
1/2" elastic: upper torso measurement+4"

You can tighten or loosen your elastic as needed.

For your fabric measurement, see the image below:

This length gives you a nice full chemise, which will be about to the top of most boots. Lengthen or shorten as you like. Ankle length works for longer dresses, or hip length makes for a nice shirt. Take the blue measurement, add 3", multiply that number by two. This is the body of your dress. Add to that number the green measurement, plus 6". This gives you a nice puffy sleeve. So:

Fabric: (body + 3") x 2) + (arm + 6")

It's usually best to round up to the nearest quarter or third yard, so as not to confuse your poor cutting table attendant too much.

The finished chemise for my wedding dress! The dress part is just one piece, since I didn't want to add too much bulk under the corset, and made of cotton flannel, since we're going to be outside for the ceremony.

daemonnoire — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:36:40 GMT

Wee, it's been a while... Not that I've stopped reading.

22. Changes by Jim Butcher

This book hits the ground running on page one and never lets up. Even down to the very last page it is full of twists, turns, life changeling revelations, and the ever popular "oh holy fuck" explosions. If you have never read any of the previous Dresden Files books, this is not the place to start. If there is a single book in the previous 12 which is not called out somehow in this one, I can't think of it. Sadly, there is no necromancied dinosaur. It's hard to top that, admittedly, but Jim Butcher sure as hell throws everything else at you in the attempt. An excellent book, and if the next book doesn't come out on the promised release date, I may hurt someone.

23. Mission of Honor by David Weber

Part of my delay in updating this list is that it took me so damn long to get through this book. I love the mythos, I love the characters, I love the political wrangling and the battles. But there have been a lot of strategy heavy books this year, and I'm getting a little burned out.

In discussing this book with a friend, he asked if it included more battles than the previous few novels. And I am sad to say that I think it actually has fewer. Which helped with the strategy burnout, but I really wanted to see a confrontation between the two groups that Weber was leading up to at the end, and was really disappointed to not get it. It ended at a good place, but it felt as if the Big Climactic Event happened in the middle of the book, and everything else was just one long drawn out dénouement.

A7 and A8. The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn, by Robert Jordan

Instead of reading about Honor Harrington, I spent a lot of time listening to the Wheel of Time books instead. I probably look less weird walking across campus, since I'm listening to my phone instead of reading a book.

Based on the book I'm currently listening to, these are probably the last books in which the female main characters do mostly sensible things for mostly sensible reasons. Also, I am tempted to go back through and count the instances of "naked female" verses the instances of "naked male." Thus far the instances of naked female mostly involve trials of worth or offers of sex, while instances of naked male involve men startled out of their beds for battle.

A9. The Narrows, by Michael Connelly

I'm pretty sure I've read this book before, but unfortunately, while I enjoy Michael Connelly's books in reading them, I tend to blank them out when I'm done.

The Narrows is not a mystery novel with any real surprises. Connelly tends to bring the antagonist's view point into the story early on in order to create tension, and while that makes for some interesting storytelling, it doesn't make for a real page turner. This book is especially guilty of this, as Connelly makes it quite clear right from the start exactly who the antagonist is, leaving most of the "mystery" in what really should have been a minor subplot. It also occasionally frustrated me that while I could picture the locations the characters were moving through quite easily, it was as if the characters themselves were hard angled silhouettes moving through the set dressing. All outlines, but little detail. Not a bad book, but Connelly has certainly done better.

daemonnoire — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 04:10:47 GMT

To many people, I don't exist. It's okay, I'm used to it. But sometimes I wonder if the list is ever going to get long enough that I'll disappear completely. Like that scene in Back to the Future, where Marty is about to fade away because his parents haven't met, I wonder if someday enough people will declare that I don't exist to cause me to actually fade from existence.

I do not exist as a bisexual woman. Now that I am engaged to a man, I'm declared heterosexual. If I had fallen in love with a woman, I would be declared homosexual. And all that stuff before? Never mind that. Clearly, it was just youthful experimenting.

I do not exist as a fan of video games, comic books, or other traditionally geeky pursuits. I am only allowed to enjoy "girly" games, read manga, and I must make my choice about what laptop to buy based on the colors it comes in.

And now, I do not exist as a young feminist.

I have never stood for another woman's right to choose. Never mind all those hours escorting at the local Planned Parenthood. I have never worked to ensure women's voices are heard. Never mind the work I've done helping young women register to vote. I have never spoken up to point out a friend's sexism. Never mind the people in my life who have come to rethink their privileges and have stood to declare themselves feminist, too. My work as an abuse survival counselor, an advocate for accurate sexual education, a participant in charity fund raising? All that is worthless, because I am not really a young feminist.

Anyone who claims that young feminist don't exist clearly hasn't bothered going out to look for young feminists. We're out here. We may not be shouting in the streets, but my generation doesn't need to be. We can make our voices heard online just as loudly, and often more clearly than any protest rally ever did. The online communities that some older feminists have dismissed as unproductive has spread word of women in need, shed light on injustices, and caused major corporations to rethink the way they present their products to women.

It seems to me that what the previous generation of feminists wants to see from the younger generation is the sort of grand gestures and great strides that they themselves made. But young feminists don't need to fight those battles. They have been fought, and won. Right now, what I see young feminists focusing on is taking that hard won ground and pushing it just a little further forward. Just a little further out. The previous generation made great leaps and bounds of progress. My generation is all about holding the very long line in this battle for equality, and pushing it forward a little at a time.

I am a young feminist. I am here, even if some people refuse to believe in me. I believe in myself, and the feminists of my generation. And I am not going to fade away.

daemonnoire — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:00:30 GMT

Etsy
daemonnoire

daemonnoire — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:20:45 GMT

21. Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain

When I first picked up this book, for some strange reason, I thought it was a fictional murder mystery. As it turns out, Bourdain has written a couple of murder mysteries, but this was not one of them. It was an interesting read, and it really made me want to read Kitchen Confidential. I was aware of Bourdain as a chef who went to weird places and ate weird foods for the joy of eating them, but I never really understood what Kitchen Confidential was about until now. There is a chapter in here on the sorts of things that every person should know how to do in the kitchen, and why he feels that it's important that our society move towards not just viewing cooking as cool, but viewing not being able to cook as not cool. If it weren't such a long section, I would quote the whole thing for truth. In fact, after I read it, I made Adam listen to me read it aloud.

A6. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

One of my major complaints about this series is how Jordan has some pretty sensible characters do some pretty stupid things later on in the books. Adam thinks that part of my problem is that I sort of skimmed over the fact that the characters are so young. But really, I think my problem lies in how Jordan has taken the attitudes and habits of *modern* teenagers and plopped them down into a quasi medieval society, where 17 means that you are an adult, and you survival depends on you acting like one. I also probably approached the books with the mental expectation that hey, these kids were about my age, and therefore should be mentally and emotionally as mature as me. Seen from this end of the "mostly adult" spectrum, I can step away from that somewhat. I still think that the characters occasionally act like twits for no reason, but it's less annoying.

All of the above to say this: I didn't absolutely hate this book when I first read it, and I still don't absolutely hate it now. I realized while listening that there were several things I missed the first time around, and it helped to fill in those blanks. Hopefully listening to them back to back will give me a better perspective on the actions of characters in later books, and it will make more sense. Jordan does do an admirable job of establishing early on where some of the later plots come from, and his ability to talk about the politics and history of his world without coming across as lecturing is admirable.

daemonnoire — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:40:22 GMT

AHA! I realized why I had Frankenstein numbered as 3, and Outlander as 1. Number 2 was supposed to be Under The Dome. Wee.

18. Under The Dome, by Stephen King

A lot of people made fun of this book when it was first announced as being just like the plot of a Simpson's episode. Stephen King, however, doesn't give the reader long to dwell on the comparison. Within the first few pages, it is clear that this is definitely not Springfield. King has a knack for the "trapped and going mad" scenario. After rushing the reader into the bubble, he gives them time to get to know the characters, to like them or hate them as they will. And then he lets them all spiral down into madness. The dome is the only really supernatural thing about the story until the very end. Everything else that happens beneath it is driven by purely human motivations, those dark undercurrents of vice which King does so well.

19. A Mighty Fortress by David Weber

Books like this are why I could never read a hundred books in a single year. This makes the third heavy weight book I've read this year, and at 690 pages, it's by far the smallest of the three. As with "By Heresies Distressed," Weber suffers from the over use of the word "fact," and the tendency to wander down tangents about bore sizes, cannon ranges, and the efficiencies of various types of sail. "A Mighty Fortress," however, has the benefit of actual progress within the over arcing story, so it's easier to ignore those things. The "faith in The Church verses faith in God" theme is heavy in this one, and there are some deeply moving sermons on the subject of "God is good. Man, not always so much." And as usual, the fights are quite spectacular, once the technical stuff is done with.

I had a book in line for immediately after this one about the battle of Gettysburg, but I needed a break from battle tactics.

20. Blockade Billy by Stephen King

While checking the length of Under the Dome on Amazon, I saw this book in the "Other Titles By This Author" section. I immediately went and looked it up on the library website, and then stopped by to check it out after work. Despite being a fairly small book, it actually took me a while to finish. It's what I get for having a life outside of books. There's a lot of baseball terms thrown around in this book, and with only very basic knowledge of baseball slang, I found myself occasionally not always sure what the players were doing. But the underlying story comes through loud and clear. Included in this volume is the short story "Morality," which is... weird. And that's saying something for Stephen King. There's nothing supernatural or alien. It's all people doing stuff and reacting in ways that are... weird. It's hard to explain. I liked Blockade Billy. Morality, not so much. It's entirely possible that my feeling is due to a bias I hold which I'm reluctant to reveal for fear of spoiling the story. So there's that.

daemonnoire — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:21:17 GMT

15. White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison

Once again, a pretty typical Rachael Morgan book. A little better than #8, mostly because it actually dealt with a lot of the angst that bogged down "The Outlaw Demon Wails." Although, I really felt like the resolution of the Kisten subplot was a little too rushed. I wanted a more... kick ass resolution. It wrapped up so close to the end of the book that I was thinking Harrison was going to have this particular subplot hang in for another book, but then she wrapped in all up in a neat little bow. A logical bow, considering all the previous elements, but not nearly as emotionally satisfying as I wanted. Which I suppose was part of the point.

16. Black Magic Sanction, by Kim Harrison

The last Rachel Morgan book until 2011. Aren't y'all grateful? Each of the Rachel Morgan books explores an aspect of Harrison's supernatural world. Despite being a whole series about a witch, this is the first book that actually explores the witchy aspects of this world. The laws, social structures, and some of the very real consequences of pissing off a witch. Or a whole slew of them in positions of authority. It's a rather refreshing change from the repeated delves in the vampiric world and you get a lot of background which helps explain the actions and motivations of several of the main characters. Fair warning: This book contains the death of a much beloved character and if you've read the other books, it will make you fucking cry.

17. By Heresies Distressed, by David Weber

It had been frequently pointed out that David Weber's novels would be a lot shorter if he would cut out all of the passages which go like this "Well, this ship was very powerful with X number of cannons, with balls of Y diameter, which could shoot Z distance, and that's cool and all, but this OTHER ship has X+5 cannons, which shoot balls of Y-5 diameter z+15 distance, and here's all the math to explain why this scene I'm about to describe where the bad dudes get slaughtered is TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME." And it usually is totally fucking awesome. BUT! I am personally of the opinion that Weber's novels would ALSO be a lot shorter if he would remove the word "fact" from his vocabulary. "In fact," "the fact that," "despite the fact" all have to go as well. I noticed this while reading an Honor Harrington novel where a character mentally describes something to herself using "the fact that" and the thing she was describing is something that the character really shouldn't have to think of as a "fact." It would simply BE. Now, every time I read a Weber novel, FACT jumps out at me and does a little booty dance. Sometimes as often as six times per page. And now that I've told you that, it will happen to you, too. MUHAHAHAHA.

The book was decent enough, by the way. A little bland, and one of those "I'm writing this novel because I need to get some narrative out of the way to get to the next novel, which will be much cooler" novels, but not bad. I'm already halfway through the next one.

A5. New Spring by Robert Jordan

New Spring came out after I gave up on the Wheel of Time books, so I'd never read it. But since Adam has all of the books on MP3, I figured I'd give them another go. It was shorter than I expected, and there were a lot of elements of "Huh. So that's why that happened." Which is kind of the point of a prequel. I liked learning more about Lan's culture, but as usual, Robert Jordan makes his central female character an annoying, childish bitch, completely ignoring all previous appearances of the character. Sure, the character in question is only 22 in this book, but she's also living in an age where 22 is (theoretically) very mature. We're not talking fresh outta college kiddos, we're talking about a culture where 17 is the age at which a young woman becomes marriageable, and 18 is considered too old to enter in Aes Sedai training. This is probably something I'll mention in further books, especially when I get to the book which caused me to stop reading them in the first place. I'm sure you're all looking forward to it.

daemonnoire — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:19:02 GMT

14. The Journals of Eleanor Druse by Eleanor Druse

The university has a function on the library website which allows you to save books to a "bookbag." This one's been in the bookbag for a while. Also, the lettering on the cover glows in the dark. I didn't actually notice this until I finished the book.

This book was not actually written by Stephen King. The real author is a man named Richard Dooling. It is, however, a tie in novel with the Kingdom Hospital miniseries. Which if you haven't watched, you really should. This book basically sets the stage for the miniseries, filling in the background of how Eleanor gets involved in the investigation of the paranormal goings on, and explains so much more about why the main neurosurgeon works to thwart Eleanor in the miniseries (besides being a jackass). There isn't a whole lot of the ghost story in this, and if you read it alone without watching the miniseries, you won't get any kind of resolution. But it's a pretty decent read, if not exactly written in the journal style that the cover claims.

daemonnoire — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:27:46 GMT

13. Bite Me by Christopher Moore

This book is... pretty absurd. And given Christopher Moore's other novels, that's saying something. Bite Me is the third in a series of novels about vampires, and it suffers a bit from "typing up loose ends" syndrome. There are a few things which I feel were a little too rushed, some plot lines which were tied off in a way I felt was out of character, new characters thrown in which didn't get the full Christopher Moore treatment, and the narration of Abby Normal via Angsty Blog Post were really annoying and sometimes hard to plow through. Fortunately, Moore packs more funny things into a single page than most authors put in a whole humor novel, so while I didn't find Abby's style of narration particularly amusing, I did find the things she was narrating amusing. It's a decent book. It's not his best book, but Moore at his worst is still pretty damn funny.

daemonnoire — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:52:39 GMT

12. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kid

I spent most of this book craving honey. Of course, I was reading this while sick, so it's possible the many descriptions of how good for the body honey can be had me wishing the honey would help me.

The story, on the surface, is about a young girl who runs away from an abusive father and finds happiness on a bee farm. But much like the title implies, there are a lot of secret undercurrents to the story which can be hard to pin down. The book does deal with some of the racial tensions of the era in which it is set (1960s South Carolina), but doesn't go into much depth. It even ignores some of the more likely reactions that other white characters should have had to the main character hanging around with Persons of Color. There were a few scenes with the Male Love Interest where I was fully expecting something really horrible to happen, because surely the White Male Establishment wasn't just going to ignore what was going on. Were they? Yup, they certainly were. There are also some hints of Magical Negro in the women who dispense healing and faith to the main character, but seem to have very little depth themselves. It is beautiful, it is touching, and sometimes I wished that the author had spent a little less time describing the scenery and more time exploring the relationships of her characters. It's not a bad book, and I understand why lots of people loved it. The Mother/Child relationships are quite moving, and the lessons which the main character learns are good ones. But there are a lot of parts of this book which seemed to be viewed through the bee keeper's veil, completely oblivious to the fact that the cloud of bees she is walking through are actually wasps.

daemonnoire — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:32:08 GMT

8. The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison

Aaand... this is why I need to be better about reviewing my books right after I finish them. I had completely forgotten that I read this book until I went to review book 10 and realized that I couldn't remember why I'd picked up book 10 in the first place. Oh yeah! I was looking for this book! I'm a little behind in The Hollows books, but I'm working on it. This was a pretty typical Rachael Morgan book, which is to say a good bit of book candy. The characters which make the series great were all in attendance, and the plot clipped along nicely. Kim Harrison writes witty dialog and does a great job of making a huge mess of her main characters' lives, and then neatly resolving everything in the end, though not always in the way you'd expect. If you're looking for something new to read in the Urban Fantasy genre, I highly recommend this series.

9. Soulless by Gail Carriger

I read this book like it was on fire. If I had picked this book up on a Friday afternoon instead of a Thursday, I probably would have finished it in a single day. I'm currently watching Doctor Who while I workout, but the morning after I picked this up, I decided to read instead. It's been a while since I have so throughly enjoyed a book. It was like reading Jane Austen with Vampires, something that one Amazon reviewer marked as a bad thing, but which was a definite plus in my opinion. It's slightly less flowery than Jane Austen, for those who aren't fond of the style, and there is a great deal more nudity than Our Jane would dare, but it's no romance novel. Oh, there are a couple of awkward moments, and one scene at the very end which more delicate readers will probably skim. But all in all, it's funny, clever, and absolutely fabulous. Some of the Victorian social strictures as described were a tad over the top, but I think I can forgive a little exaggeration in a book with supernatural critters.

10. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kid

I was originally looking for book 8 (as mentioned above), hoping that I could find the next few books in that series as well. No luck, just the one was on the shelf. So I look around at the surrounding shelves to see if anything else would catch my eye. And there was "The Secret Life of Bees." Since that book is on my "To Read" list, I picked it up, along with this one. I originally intend to read "The Secret Life of Bees" first, but "The Mermaid Chair" was on top of the pile when I grabbed my next book to read. From the very beginning, I completely understood why this book was so popular with women's book clubs. I imagine that its story of rediscovering oneself after long years in the routine of marriage echoed strongly with a lot of women. It's beautiful, a whimsical, and heart breaking. Not surprisingly, it turns out that Lifetime made a movie based on this book, which may give y'all an idea of the sort of story this is. Read it anyways.

11. My Own Kind of Freedom by Steven Brust

I am generally not a fan of fanfic. It is very rare that a fanfic author can quite capture the same tone of the original, and many, many authors have a terrible habit of cramming sexin' into the story where sexin' is uncalled for (or even specifically in opposition to canon). And don't get me started on fanfic whose number one sin is the terrible writing and dialog. This story, however, is well beyond the level of fanfic. Yes, it is set in the Firefly universe. Yes, it uses all of the characters who live and love aboard the Serenity. But with a little tweaking and a rubber stamp of approval from Joss, this could easily be an official novel in the Firefly continuity. I, like a few other reviewers, take some issue with one of the major driving plot points, but I think the author does a good job getting everyone and everything to fit neatly between the TV series and the movie. The tone is sometimes a little forced, but otherwise captures the sort of irreverently obvious conversational style of the characters which can only be described as Whedonesque. Besides the above mentioned plot point, my only complaint is that the book wasn't quite long enough. But I suppose that's rather Whedonesque too, isn't it?

A4. First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher

A review I read of this book complained that new readers were "tossed into a complex plot without any explanation of the considerable backstory." Clearly, this is a reviewer who wants a chapter long summary of the five books that went before this one. And to those sorts of people, I say "Read the other damn books, they're awesome." There is enough exposition of the backstory to remind readers who have faithfully read all of the previous books, but not so much that it bogs down the flow of the story. What it does not do is explain what happened in all the previous books, which I personally am usually grateful for in a story. I hate books that spend half the story reminding readers how the previous story went. First Lord's Fury is packed chock full of action, adventure, intrigue, and fighting. Lots, and lots of fighting. I can't really complain about the amount of fighting because it is, after all, the last book and the culmination of the battle of Hope and Light against Destruction and Darkness. I can, however, complain about the occasional moments of "Really? Did you just have your character invent a common battle tactic in our word and call it amazing in yours?" Those are fairly infrequent, though, so aren't really a negative. I think every author does it sometimes, especially when having theoretically "primitive" cultures fighting against an enemy of astounding odds. The witty banter is sometimes a little excessive, but still enjoyable.

daemonnoire — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:20:54 GMT

I mentioned a while back that I haven't been posting bento pictures because they're kinda bland these days. Lately, it's been either leftovers, or variations of this:

Baby carrots, tomatoes, and lettuce wraps with turkey and celery inside. A pretty filling lunch that comes out to about 150 calories. I usually eat one of my stash snacks in the afternoon, making my total "day" calories anywhere from 200 to 250, depending on what snack I choose.

This is the newest bento in the set, and it has a dessert that I made for Christmas. Which should tell you something about how long it's been since I've taken pictures of my bentos. Corn, wild rice, fish, and a chocolate pudding dessert with whipped topping. Tasty, not on my food plan.

Showing off my newest bento box, whose story I have never told, now that I think about it. I'll have to get on that.

Acorn squash, steak with mushrooms, apricot bread from the local farmers market, and mashed potatoes. Eat local, it's tasty.

Couscous, fish, corn. Boring.

Carrots, pickles, manchego, pumpkin seeds. Corn, spinach, and crawfish boudin. Yum.

A slightly fancy salad, using the bento in my icon. Mixed greens in the bottom, walnuts, golden rasins, papaya, goat cheese, and raspberry vinegarette in the top.

Toss all the stuff from the top onto the stuff in the bottom, and you have a tasty salad. I'm pretty sure this is goat cheese I made myself, which dates this bento to around the start of faire.

Another salad bento, with goat cheese and vinegarette. Mac n' goat cheese. Walnuts, carrots, and... soynut butter? I think?

Green beans, potatoes, steak. Again, boring.

After this dismal showing, you can see why I stopped taking pictures. I've been considering ways to make the diet food a little more interesting, but I need time to experiment. If I come up with anything truly interesting, I'll post it.

2010 Book Reviews

daemonnoire — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 18:00:23 GMT

Apparently, my book numbering system went awry somewhere. My notes indicate that An Echo in the Bone is #1, and the second Frankenstein book is #3. I think I may have missed a book. S'what I get for putting it off. Whatev. Let's just pretend Frankenstein in #1, m'kay?

2. An Echo in the Bone (Outlander Series) by Diana Gabaldon

One of our grad students spotted me reading this and commented that she didn't like that last two books. After a bit of talking to her, I think I understood why. There's not as much sex in the later books in the series. Which is a negative, as far as romance novels go. But these aren't romance novels. Not really. When I worked in the used bookstore, we used to call these "incidental romances." Sure, there was a romance in there. And usually, some sex. But they were just minor notes in an otherwise complex plot. As the Outlander series progressed, the "romance" aspects of Gabaldon's books got more and more incidental. Sure there's a few steamy scenes, but to be honest, the tonsillectomy was described in far more loving detail than any of the sex scenes. Since said tonsillectomy was being performed on an 8 year old in 1779, I really appreciated the detail which indicated the degree of research Gabaldon put in. There were a few times where the plot consistency skips (a character will talk about something with someone, and then during a convenient plot moment, completely forget that they already knew about the subject at hand), but for the most part it's fairly impressive how Gabaldon manages to keep all the twisting threads of plot together.

This is a series I've recommended to a lot of women, and rarely had them respond negatively to it. Usually, they complain that it's too long, or too complicated, which I don't see as being negatives.

3-5 Deadly Décisions, Fatal Voyage, Grave Secrets, by Kathy Reichs

The TV series "Bones" is based on the novels of Kathy Reichs. But make no mistake, this is not your made for TV Bones. She's older, with an ex-husband, a college age daughter, and struggles with alcoholism. Reichs has stated in interviews that the Temperance of the TV show is a much younger Bones. Reading these books reminds me that I really should stop reading authors I like back to back. Having the plots of each novel close enough to remember really brings out the flaws in an author's style. Kathy Reichs, for instance, bends over backwards to bring Detective Ryan into the picture. In Grave Secrets, she bent the story so far that I actually said "Really? Really?" out loud. Fortunately, I was walking and reading at the time, so most of the people who heard me probably thought I was weird enough already. That said, the books are really, really good. The science is interesting and explained both in scientific terms and in terms which can be understood by the layman (usually Detective Ryan). She even has the science occasionally mislead the investigation, going against the CSI tendency of having science always provide the exact evidence needed to solve the case.

6. Makers by Cory Doctorow

Makers is one of Cory Doctorow's spins into a technological dystopias. It is set in an all too plausible near future where technology has become so disposable that advanced electronics are literally piling up in trash heaps around the country. And our two heroes are diving in, creating new and wonderful things out of the trash. They are accompanied by an intrepid reporter turned full time blogger, who is telling their story to the world. Makers is much like your typical Doctorow novel in that it sometimes spins off into some seriously weird and wacky whatifs. And those whatifs are occasionally hard to follow. You may come away in the end wondering what the point of the whole thing is. And in the case of makers, that sort of is the point. It's just life. It's two crazy guys, coming up with wild and wonderful things, and sharing them with the world. Rather like Doctorow does, actually.

There is really one off putting part of this book, though. Smack in the middle of the book, there is a surprisingly long and explicit sex scene. There were no sexual interactions prior to that, and most of the other sexual interactions after that were described in terms of the two characters leaving or entering a room together, so it felt pretty out of place.

7. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Like Makers, I downloaded Little Brother via my Android Word Player ap, which has a Creative Commons library. I think I need to go out and actually buy a copy of this book, though, because it is amazing. The future in which this book is set is not only plausible, but frighteningly so. I now understand why many people in the Bush years found this book so compelling. Some of the actions committed by the government in this book echoed just a little too loudly with some of the things that our government actually did. Oh, sure, they did it to foreign guys, terrorists, Not Us. But they did them, all the same. The methods used by the kids to try and circumvent the government were interesting to read about, and much like the Kathy Reichs science, were described in a way that was easy to understand by techies and norms alike.

A1. Bone Harvest by Mary Logue

This was actually a very good story, despite the constant irritation of "Girl Cop, OMG" moments. I felt that the amount was a little excessive for a story set in 2002, even if it was in a small town in Wisconsin. This is definitely a "soft" mystery. Despite the terrible 1952 murder that serves as the driving force behind the attacks happening in 2002, there's really not a whole lot of grit to the story. The characters were mostly interesting, the mystery wasn't too complex, and the author does a very good job of painting the scene for the reader. There are a lot of characters, though, and the author jumps from scene to scene, which sometimes left me wondering which murder suspect she was talking about at the time. I wouldn't turn my nose up at any other books in this series, but I probably won't hunt them down, either.

A2. The Society by Michael Palmer

This book also suffered from "OMG Girl Cop!" Two books in a row on the subject, and you'll understand why I switched the another genre in my audio books. The story in this one was just convoluted enough to keep the reader (or in my case, the listener) guessing, but eventually, it really only came down to one possible suspect, and I felt that the main male protagonist was particularly blind for not realizing it. The author even has him spend a good bit of time suspecting the other person in a similar position of trust, and just blindly ignore that all of the signs which point to Person of Interest A also point to Person of Interest B. Also, while I generally like Michael Palmer's work, he really needs to work on his female characters.

A3. Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore

If you've never read any of Christopher Moore's work, you're missing out. He's a really greater author who writes about the lives of perfectly ordinary people caught up in absurdly supernatural situations. Island of the Sequined Love Nun is no exception. The main male character may be a shlub, an alcoholic, and a womanizer, but he's our hero, damnit, and he's the only one we've got. The misadventures of Our Hero, his trusty sidekick, and his trusty sidekick's talking pet bat are entertaining, poignant, and above all hilarious.

daemonnoire — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:29:11 GMT

Hi. My name is Jenni. And I have a chronic health problem. Actually, I have several chronic health problems, but I could spend a thousand words talking about all of the ways in which my body is broken, or I could spend a thousand words discussing what is keeping those problems at bay. Suffice to say that I was a generally healthy child, who got lots of exercise, was feed a more nutritious diet than most of my peers, and one day collapsed during PE because I couldn't breathe.

Hi. My name is Jenni. And I have health insurance. I am among the fortunate. When I had my very first asthma attack, my mother had a good job in medical records which provided health insurance benefits and allowed me to see an excellent doctor. He diagnosed me, wrote a prescription, and my parents were able to buy medications which would help me in case of future attacks. As time passed and my asthma grew more severe, I was able to see other excellent doctors who each in their turn prescribed me new and better medications, this time designed to prevent attacks before they happened. I spent a lot of time in doctors' offices, but never saw the inside of an ER until I had an anaphylactic reaction at the age of 21. Again, I was among the fortunate. I was attending college and still on my parents' insurance. The following year I was able to cope with the fallout of that reaction (increased asthma attacks, dizziness, and pneumonia) because the college I was attending had a decent clinic on campus geared towards providing lower cost health care for its students. After graduation, I was allowed to stay on my mother's insurance for a time, but was eventually forced off by her insurance company. I qualified for COBRA continuation health coverage and while I was paying more than I could afford each month for it, I was able to stay on my most important medications until I found a job whose benefits package included a good insurance plan.

I am lucky. Damned lucky. As much as I complain about how badly broken I am right now, I understand that if my mother had worked somewhere without insurance, I would not be nearly as healthy as I am today. If it weren't for COBRA, I might not have been able to afford the medications I needed for those months until I found a good job. If I hadn't found a job with insurance when I did, I would have been forced to choose between paying for my rent, or paying for my health insurance. Actually, after I was hired, I did decide to choose my rent over my health insurance. It was either that or not eat and I couldn't afford my medications anyways. If I had found a job, but it didn't have health insurance, I might have been able to afford paying for my insurance, but maybe only some of my medications. Or neither. I love my job, so I don't have to worry about looking for a different one and hoping that it will provide me with benefits, rather than be stuck doing something I hate so that I can afford my medications. Even if I decided for whatever reason to leave this job for a different one, I would run the risk that I would be denied coverage due to my pre-existing condition. I still run that risk with my current insurance, but I am fortunate that it is a very small risk. With all of this luck, I can expect to live a mostly normal life. Probably shorter than 90% of asthmatics, but still longer than if I hadn't had any health insurance at all.

Imagine my life without health insurance. Imagine my family's life. Without the doctor's visits and prescription medications, I might have been forced to rely on over the counter medications. Assuming that my parents could afford them. My parents would have been weighed down by the cost associated with keeping me healthy. They might have had to choose between putting food on the table for all three of their children and buying medicine for the one. Without proper care, the course of my decline would have been much steeper. There would have been no doctor to suggest allergies as an additional factor in my asthma, no one to suggest that I might be allergic to foods as well, no one to help with preventative health care. I likely would have gone to the emergency room sooner, leaving my parents dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills that they could ill afford. Or I might have been among that truly unlucky percentage who dies from a completely treatable chronic health problem. All because my parents didn't have health insurance.

My parents are not lazy. They are good people, who through determination and hard work made better lives for themselves and their family. My mother was lucky in that she chose to work in a profession that provided health insurance. My father was rarely that lucky. He never finished college, so he worked what jobs he could get based on his skills in construction and car repair. Without my mother's good fortune, my parents would have very likely not been able to afford to have a chronically sick child. They would not have been able to afford to move into a nicer house in a better school district, to better provide for their two youngest children after the eldest went off to college. Sure, Mom could have found a different job, so that they could have health insurance for me. But what if she couldn't? It's not like jobs with health insurance are laying around on the ground, just waiting for someone to come by and pick them up. My family was lucky. They had determination and an opportunity to hook that determination to something which they could use to pull themselves up.

Not everyone is that lucky.

I keep hearing people talk about the health care bill as if it is passing out drugs and money to people who are sitting around on their asses eating bonbons, watching Oprah, and popping out kids. I'm cynical enough to admit that yeah, there's probably a few people out there who will be getting some unearned and undeserved benefit from this bill. But I am not so cynical that I can let that microscopic percentage overshadow the benefit to the vast majority of people who are just as hard working, just as determined, and just as driven as I am. Just not as lucky.

It is all well and good to tell a man that if he keeps swimming, he'll get to shore eventually. But if he's in the middle of an ocean, then he is still going to drown eventually. And if you are giving this advice from the comfort of the boat you are lucky enough to be rowing, then maybe you need to rethink your reluctance to reach out and offer up a hand.

daemonnoire — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:16:46 GMT

0. Frankenstein: City of Night, Dean Koontz
1. Frankenstein: Dead and Alive, Dean Koontz

City of Night is Book Zero because I technically started it in 2009, and was about halfway through when 2010 rolled around. I picked up this one and the first book last year when I discovered that the third book was in the Best Seller Collection in the library. I realized that I had never read the second one, and despite my clear recall of the "eating live baby mice" scene from the first book, couldn't remember much else about it. So I plowed through the first two, and picked up the third, simply for the sake of completion.

My major problem with Dean Koontz books is that they always seem to be either Stephen King knockoffs, or be really spectacular right up until the last ten pages, where the whole mess gets wrapped up with a disappointing ending. This series has a lot of promise, but damned if I don't get the feeling that Koontz is just hoping the snappy one liners, interesting titular character, and occasional gore will cover up how damned SHALLOW all the other characterization is. In fact, the only reason that the female lead isn't a complete cardboard cutout is *because* she is female. Therefore mushing all the traits of your average Rouge Cop with the Protective Mother/Sister trope gives her at least that one extra dimension. Despite all claims on the author's part, there is absolutely NO chemistry between the female lead and the male lead. Their supposed sexual tension and banter reads more like a couple of good friends who are totally comfortable trying to break each other with sex jokes. There wasn't even an "innocent flirting" aspect. There was just no spark at all.

There were way too many instances of "oh, and by the way, it just so happens I have this HANDY MACHINE/HELPER. You might even call it a GOD MACHINE/HELPER." The creepy bug thing in the third book is an excellent example of this. The HANDY HELPER which saved the Big Bad for a few more chapters was based on something which the author made absolutely no mention of in any of the previous books. Something that the Big Bad, if he was truly the genius he thought he was, would have made better advance plans for than a HANDY HELPER which would be defeated by mere rain.

When I was done with the third book, I told Adam that if it hadn't been a library book, I probably would have chucked it out the window of the car. I knew it was going to end terribly, that the climax would be disappointingly pat and tidy, and that everything would be wrapped up in the last ten pages of the book, just like all of Koontz's previous novels. And yet, for some reason, I keep reading. I think I'm going to swear off Koontz books from here on out, unless it has "Odd" in the title. At least the Odd Thomas series uses the last twenty pages to wrap up the books.

daemonnoire — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:44:30 GMT

My Etsy shop has been updated with some of the new pieces. Go check them out. Watch this space (or that one) for more updates coming soon.

daemonnoire — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:19:50 GMT

Pictures from last week's protest

The MSC and Rudder tower were blocked off on all sides. This picture was taken right before I met the girl who had to walk all the way around this whole mess to get to the doors I had just passed. Evidently, I'd managed to slip by some guards and hadn't realized it.

University Police was scattered around, some hanging out in the crowd, some sitting off to the side. This guy was stationed some distance away. I think his assignment was "Ride like hell for backup if shit goes down."

This was taken fairly early on in the protest. There were a few hundred people, most of whom had signs of some kind. Don't be fooled, not everyone down there is protesters. Lots of them are reporters and curiosity seekers.

They had a quick prayer, which I didn't really pay attention to. I imagine it contained all of the usual rhetoric. The USA is God's country, our founding fathers wanted a Christian nation, God save us from the non-believers, etc.

And then everyone said the pledge of allegiance. This was followed by a pledge of allegiance to the state flag, which I didn't even know we had. I'm a bad Texan.

Not as bad as this lady, though. This is the one who didn't know the tune to Texas, Our Texas and compared Obama to Santa Anna.

One last shot of the crowd. There were quite a few people carrying flags and homemade signs. Some looked suspiciously professional, though.

Wingnut Bingo Card item 1: Death panels.

Lots of Republican groups had set up booths, apparently for recruitment of their fellow conservatives. The Brazos Valley Tea Party had a booth and was selling snacks. I think the irony of using Ben Franklin's "Join or Die" cartoon to advocate for political division is probably lost on these people.

There was a lot of stuff invoking the Texas War for Independence, like this "Come and Take It" flag. There was also a guy with a "Don't Tread On Me" flag, but I didn't get a picture of it.

This dude had a whole cart full of signs. He would pick one up, carry it around for a while, and then switch it for another one. Teddy got a good rant on film from this guy. Note the mini "Don't Tread on Me" flag stuck on top.

The above mentioned cart full of signs. I wouldn't actually call this guy a wingnut. He was just generally nutty.

Yet another sign.

And here's the other side of that one. Wingnut Bingo Item number 2: Nazi symbols.

I thought I'd managed to catch this lady pulling the Nazi symbols off, but apparently just missed it. When Teddy talked to the guy later, he complained about how his kids had made the sign, and they'd been forced to take the symbols off. He said that people were "making [him] out to be racist." Doin' just fine on yer own, sir.

More signs. There was a general theme of "Leave Texas Alone!"

This one's mostly here to point out that there was a whole slew of people here protesting socialism who probably had no problem cashing in their Social Security checks.

Some of the signs were considerably less professional looking.

Wingnut Bingo Card Item 3: "I'm Christian, conservative, and I'm carrying a gun. Be scared."

Some of the signs were very detailed. I'm sure that there's someone out there more willing than I am to pick this one apart. But it does have Wingnut Bingo Item 4: "Taxpayer money for abortions, OH NOES!"

This one was actually kinda clever, though the picture didn't look much like the dog he had with him. There were lots of people who had their dogs with them. Bets on how many of them cleaned up after said dogs?

Another dog guy, this one with a piece of paper with the words "The Constitution" printed on it, and a plastic sword sticking out of his back. Gotta give him props for originality.

I think this might have been a stab at the Aggie Honor Code, but it's hard to tell. They forgot step 4, though. "Profit."

These people, on the other hand, were REALLY Aggie themed. The dude was even wearing an Aggie hat. Dear Mr. Pres: Not all Aggies are this wacky.

They were very proud to have 8 Aggies in their family. She asked about my Aggie ring, and made a comment about us sharing "Aggie Values." I'm pretty sure if I'd popped off with "I'm an Aggie, bisexual, and pagan" she'd have decided very quickly that I wasn't a "real" Aggie.

This was one of the few black people actively participating in the protest. Everyone else I saw was either a reporter, or a bystander. I think she caught me taking this picture, and didn't look too happy about it.

The Young Conservatives of Texas showed up, dressed to thrill. In the background of this one, you can see some of the people who just came to gawk. These kids later had all sorts of funny counter protest signs. plinko has several of them here.

Me: "Oh! Healthcare draft! I get it." Teddy: "Yeah, lots of people were confused, so they had to clarify their signs."

Why yes, that is the Grim Reaper. Death promotes Death Panels, because they give him more work, see?

There were several reporters who came up to talk to these guys and interview them. The goofy costumes sure helped us to take them seriously.

I'm sure there's a logic to this which goes beyond "The French Suck!" But I can't imagine that this guy has actually done any research into the French Healthcare system.

And last but by no means least: Wingnut BINGO!

Yup, you're reading that right. It's a genuine birther, homemade t-shirt and all. Teddy also got some film of this guy's truly stunning rant on why Obama clearly wasn't a natural born citizen of the US.

daemonnoire — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:35:40 GMT

Just days before our first closing date, all of my bento stuff got packed up. And then, when that fell through, I spent a month making bentos that looked a lot like this. I didn't take pictures of most of them, because frankly, they were boring and kinda depressed me. This one turned out fairly pretty, though, and towards the end of all that, I thought y'all might find it amusing to see the lows I'd been brought to by the glories of our home buying trauma.

On the left, mini tomatoes. On the right, sandwich rollups, using some flower picks that for some reason didn't make it into the box.

This was the day after I got my Kitchenaid mixer. I know, because those are the very first cookies I made in it. Oatmeal, cranberry, walnut, using a variation of the recipe found on the Quaker Oats container. I don't remember what the stew was, but I do recall it being quite tasty. My boring, boring carrots are made more boring next to the ossimness of teeny, teeny gummi bears!

It's... A sandwich. I threw this one together one morning while my coffee brewed. Dried mango and more gummi bears on the right (get used to those, I used them a lot).

One night I wasn't feeling well and was napping when Adam came home. Instead of waking me and asking about dinner, he was an ossim boyfriend and went into the kitchen to whip me up some spring rolls. There were two left over, that fit perfectly in my Fit N'Fresh. Wrapping them in lettuce keeps them moist overnight. I removed a layer of the lettuce so that the spring rolls would be visible, but there was lettuce all the way around. Chocolate chunk cookies up top, cheese, crackers, and some walnuts in the bottom.

More gummi bears, surrounded by dried apple slices, some crackers, a small container of goat cheese, and a spear of olives in a foil cup to keep them from getting the crackers wet. On the right, goat cheese and bacon mashed potatoes, which were all Adam's idea and completely and utterly tasty. Wilted spinach. And a slow cooked pork roast marinated over night in blueberry pepper mint jam from Lady Mac. And yes, it tasted just as good as it sounds.

Thanks to the wonder of leftovers, my habit of keeping small things in the pantry, and the fabulous design of this particular box, this one also went together while my coffee brewed. Edamame and more of the blueberry pork roast on the left. Anchovy stuffed olives, gummi bears, dried mango, triscuits, and goat cheese on the right.

The Ugly Truth (I Watched It So You Don't Have To)

daemonnoire — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:16:56 GMT

Stereotypical controlling female meets stereotypical misogynistic male. Madcap adventure ensues. She changes herself to try to catch her ideal male, only to discover that underneath the polished exterior, he's just as big a jerk as the other dude. Other dude turns out to really be a nice guy beneath the rough exterior, loves her for who she really is, and thus is the Right Man For Her.

First off, this movie is very crude. If it weren't for the happy sappy ending, this wouldn't dare call itself a chick flick. The three ladies I saw it with are all far from wilting flowers of femininity, and we all agreed that it was rather crude. There's lots of cussing, plenty of "chicks are manipulative bitches, guys just want the poon," and the vibrating panties clip on YouTube which got passed around is just one of the many painful sex antics the female lead is put through.

I have several problems with this movie, but lets start with the one that brings out the eye twitch. The premise of the movie is that Uptight Female is a producer of a morning news show. Asshole Male is brought on to spice things up, since the married couple who are the main news anchors just aren't pulling in the ratings any more. Now, at separate times prior to the arrival of the Asshole Male, both halves of the married couple express their dissatisfaction with the lack of sex in their marriage. The wife even makes her remark directly to the husband. Enter AM, who explains that their problem has to do with the fact that the wife is now making better money than the husband. Her success threatens his masculinity. She won't "let him be a man." Once the husband is "allowed" to be a man, their relationship improves.

The whole problem with this is that it puts the blame for the relationship problems all on the woman. The woman as the gatekeeper is in the wrong. Even in the solution, there is still an implied subservience by the husband in that he needs her permission to "be a man." The wife a one point throws out the classic "What was I supposed to do, turn down the money?" Of course not! We'd never suggest that! No, no, no, no, no. Yes.

What the husband really needs to feel like a man? To dominate his wife sexually. To be the aggressor. There are a couple of background moments where the couple is seen carrying on, happy as can be with this new sexual dynamic. But in reality, if the husband had pulled his head out of his ass, listened to his wife complaining about the lack of sex in their relationship, and realized that hey, she's not denying him a damn thing, then maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't have had their little dry spell in the first place. Yeah, he needed to be a man. But not because *she* wouldn't let him. Nope. He couldn't be a man because *he* wouldn't let *himself*.

Next up, we have the Ideal Man. He's cute, he's smart, he's successful, and apparently, he's put off by a woman calling him up to ask him out on a date. He loves that Uptight Female "doesn't criticize" him, he puts up with some seriously manipulative bullshit (all orchestrated by AM, I'll get to that later), and at one point comments that he likes her because he can't figure her out, whereas he's been able to figure out most of his girlfriends pretty easily. The movie glosses over the fact that he can't figure her out because it's not really her. She's a puppet whose strings are being pulled by AM.

Asshole Male has Heart of Gold Syndrome. Somewhere underneath that rugged exterior, there's a hopeless romantic who just wants to be loved. But he's been hurt. A string of Evil Women have broken his heart by lying, cheating, and manipulating him. So what does he do? He teaches an honest and upfront woman how to lie, cheat, and manipulate. Also, Asshole Male insists that women shouldn't "criticize" men because men can't learn anything new. They will never change, so women should change how *they* behave instead. I think that the only way the writers could have crowbarred any more sexist stereotypes into this movie is if they gave Uptight Female a gay friend for AM to be homophobic of.

Finally, there's Uptight Female. Why, she's so uptight, that she doesn't even masturbate! The horror! Won't it be funny when she uses a vibrator for the first time? Wouldn't it be even funnier if she was in public? And someone else was controlling it? And that someone else was a clueless, innocent little boy? And Asshole Male noticed the boy playing with the controller and didn't fucking bother to take it away because it's more fun to watch a woman get humiliated in public due to having no control over her body? Oh, the laughs! Also, in order to snag the man who meets her very high expectations, she must lower herself to someone else's. UF spends the first few minutes of the movie being a strong (if somewhat neurotic) woman, and then spends the rest of the movie running around like a twit trying to be someone she's not, even to the point of allowing herself to be fed caviar even though she a) hates being "fed like a toddler," and b) can't stand caviar. Right up to the end, where we get our Moral of the Movie.

The Moral of the Movie: Be yourself. Except when you're trying to catch a guy. Unless the guy is a guy you're not actually trying to catch. Guys are all assholes and jerks. Especially the ones who don't *act* like assholes and jerks. Except that sometimes, a guy who acts like an asshole is really trying to protect his squishy nougat center. So while you shouldn't try to change a guy, you should definitely give a guy a chance, even if he's a jerk because maybe, just maybe, he might really be a nice guy after all.

daemonnoire — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:31:46 GMT

Okay, I lied. This is probably going to be three posts.

I'm forcing y'all to look at this one, because it is ossim. I made it for a bentochallenge and I'm rather proud of it.

On the left, I have a lunar lander made of shrimp, pork, and colored pasta. My little astronaut is made of veggie "cheddar", with details drawn in with a food color pen. The flag is apple (the most challenging apple carving I've done to date, lemme tell ya), and the pole is another piece of pasta dyed with cherry juice. In the background is havarti cheese on a bed of rice noodles. I poked holes in it with a straw to simulate swiss cheese. This was Adam's idea, and people really liked it.

On the right is a tribute to this protest button. The helmet is carved from an apple, and the peace sign and yin yang are both plum. A bed of lettuce makes the petals of the flowers, and I used oregano from my garden to make the stems. Cranberries fill in the back and provide contrast for the oregano.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Pork Wellington. And yes, it really is as tasty as it looks. It's not terribly hard to do, either. I left the mustard out, obviously, but didn't think to use a substitute until later. A little horseradish would have really made this dish. I'm quite proud of how it turned out, regardless. Edemame and cheese fill out the main dish, and a spinach and mushroom salad fill in the smaller side. Sadly, my little penguin bottle broke this time around. I think I screwed his head on too tight.

Sorry about the poor quality, the lighting wasn't that great. Target and HEB are now carrying nifty sandwich cutters. The double heart shaped cutter made this sandwich fit perfectly in this box. I was a little worried that it wouldn't cut a normal sandwich evenly, but there's soy cheese, turkey, and some lettuce on this one, and it came out just fine. I have a couple of others, and I look forward to doing fun things with them in the future. The top side car has applesauce, and the bottom one has a piece of herb covered cheese, some Triscuits, a tomato, and a handful of wasabi peas to fill it out.

Herbed goat cheese, some dried mango slices, edemame, some cherries, and walnut pieces to fill in the dish. The main dish is a shrimp and crab pasta that I threw together. The ricotta salatta didn't melt very well, but I think with some experimenting, this could be a really tasty sauce.

daemonnoire — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:26:39 GMT

It's a bento backlog! I'm going to break this up into two posts, because they're overwhelming enough as it is.

Chicken and mushroom ceasar salad, with my own personal ceasar dressing. I make it by pouring olive oil and anchovies into the mini food processor, and then adding stuff until it tastes good. This one had some sheep cheese in it. Soynuts, half a peach, and some celery in the snack container.

Cheese, rice noodles, dried papaya, and some tomatoes going a little wrinkly. Herbed fish and peas in the main dish.

A sliced apple and some chicken stir fry. It's hard to see, but there are rice noodles under there somewhere, I promise.

Hey look, it's a non-bento bento! The veggie sushi was being stubborn about fitting into any other container, so I squeezed a set into this one. One browning apple shows why I really should dip my apples before packing them, and a handful of dried mixed berries. I completely forgot the soy and wasabi on this one. It made me sad.

Edamame, dried papaya, a container of sunflower seeds, and a spear of anchovy stuffed olives. The spear is part of a new set I bought, which are sea themed. This one is a little pink crab. I really need to learn to turn those things so they show up in pictures. The main dish is a bed of roasted squash and zucchini and a piece of herbed chicken.

Adam's sausage and rice, more edemame, more olives on a flower spear (also new), some cherries, some dried berries, yummy cheese, and the one tomato that my tomato plant has produced so far! Bask in its teeny glory.