Urgan Shows Up, Does the Thing

[Mistr]

My local library is small, but it is connected to a good county library system. Once you get signed up, it is easy to request books. It takes 2-3 days for the books to show up at my convenient local branch.

 

I was introduced to this system by a librarian at a small local library in St. Paul. The building was gorgeous but small. It was a Carnegie library. The staff knew that they didn't have room for an extensive selection of anything. I was looking something up and a librarian asked me what I wanted. The location function on the system was down, which was probably a good thing. I told him the title. He smoothly said "We will have that here for you by Thursday". Obviously if I was interested enough to look it up, I wanted to see the book and they would get it for me.

 

I hope you have something similar in your area.

[Kishi]

2 hours ago, Urgan said:

I find I am fairly gender agnostic when it comes to book voices, but if I'm going to bias it's toward a male perspective, because I like men. Le gasp. Nothing wrong with a female lead, but these days they have to convince me they're normal human beings and not Sassy Female Protagonist #58. There are plenty of Generic Male Protagonists floating around to balance the Force. Second only to failure to fully command the language is the literary crime of boredom. 

 

Well, it's not necessarily the voice so much as that it's a quirk of Butcher's writing style. One of the things he talks about when he breaks down his style is a need for characters to be larger than life. This exaggeration can be physical, mental, or emotional, and what that translated to in a lot of his early work was a lot of exaggerated descriptions of beautiful women, which was concurrent with the Male Gaze.

 

Mind, I don't think this is necessarily Butcher's fault so much as the character, as his female characters are plenty smart with lots of agency. I just know that this has been a sticking point for some of my female friends before and I felt like I didn't want you to just walk into this blind.

[Urgan]

4 minutes ago, Kishi said:

 

Well, it's not necessarily the voice so much as that it's a quirk of Butcher's writing style. One of the things he talks about when he breaks down his style is a need for characters to be larger than life. This exaggeration can be physical, mental, or emotional, and what that translated to in a lot of his early work was a lot of exaggerated descriptions of beautiful women, which was concurrent with the Male Gaze.

 

Mind, I don't think this is necessarily Butcher's fault so much as the character, as his female characters are plenty smart with lots of agency. I just know that this has been a sticking point for some of my female friends before and I felt like I didn't want you to just walk into this blind.

 

Oh, that. Well, there's a line between it being a very useful way to characterize (especially if the character is eventually going to grow up or otherwise pivot on that perspective over the course of the story) and it being just obnoxious beyond all repair (anybody trying to shorthand your way through describing a particularly immature preteen boy, raise your hand....). You quickly develop a very specific opinion about the guy, such as fervently hoping he dies soon. It's one of those things that becomes a problem when there's either no reason for it to be front and center or a lack of decent counterbalancing feature to keep me invested, like another prominent character/POV for example. Because then I'm just bored after having picked out a half dozen issues with the book inside of 50 pages. You know how it is with bad writers using shorthand everywhere to get around having to do any heavy lifting with the old noodle. And then to say nothing of historical accounts. 

 

Not being glib about it, I appreciate you considering your audience with a recommendation. I think the closest equivalent for me would be things that get me emotionally attached and then just dash my feelings all to bits just for the power trip of having been able to do so--it makes me blindingly angry. Most books don't do that, it's mostly a tv show thing, but nevertheless it can show up. Game of Thrones seems like it would be a golden example of this. I like the political drama. There's dragons. There's lot of badass people doing badass things. And then....there's all the rape and torture* and things happening because of adaptation issues and WHY. I know all the characters I'll grow attached to will end up dead, that's just how it always is so I avoid. Graphic depictions of such instantly make me reevaluate how much I am willing to continue putting up with out of a story. It may not be a badly crafted book, I just might not be able to take it. That's more on me than on the author or the story, you know? Which is why I try to give a reason for putting a book down if I feel it was a matter of "this book just isn't for me" rather than the author being incompetent.

 

 

*Which sounds kind of dumb and hypocritical because I have read oh so many books with Bad Things Happening in them (and am sort of writing about it myself to an extent), but the way they're handled is everything. The line between "accurate accounting of a time period" and torture pr0n is individual and fussy to try to define without essentially writing a dissertation that nobody in their right mind wants to read.

[Kishi]

7 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Oh, that. Well, there's a line between it being a very useful way to characterize (especially if the character is eventually going to grow up or otherwise pivot on that perspective over the course of the story) and it being just obnoxious beyond all repair (anybody trying to shorthand your way through describing a particularly immature preteen boy, raise your hand....). You quickly develop a very specific opinion about the guy, such as fervently hoping he dies soon. It's one of those things that becomes a problem when there's either no reason for it to be front and center or a lack of decent counterbalancing feature to keep me invested, like another prominent character/POV for example. Because then I'm just bored after having picked out a half dozen issues with the book inside of 50 pages. You know how it is with bad writers using shorthand everywhere to get around having to do any heavy lifting with the old noodle. And then to say nothing of historical accounts. 

 

Not being glib about it, I appreciate you considering your audience with a recommendation. I think the closest equivalent for me would be things that get me emotionally attached and then just dash my feelings all to bits just for the power trip of having been able to do so--it makes me blindingly angry. Most books don't do that, it's mostly a tv show thing, but nevertheless it can show up. Game of Thrones seems like it would be a golden example of this. I like the political drama. There's dragons. There's lot of badass people doing badass things. And then....there's all the rape and torture* and things happening because of adaptation issues and WHY. I know all the characters I'll grow attached to will end up dead, that's just how it always is so I avoid. Graphic depictions of such instantly make me reevaluate how much I am willing to continue putting up with out of a story. It may not be a badly crafted book, I just might not be able to take it. That's more on me than on the author or the story, you know? Which is why I try to give a reason for putting a book down if I feel it was a matter of "this book just isn't for me" rather than the author being incompetent.

 

Oh, I dig where you're coming from with that. And it's not that bad. I remember going back to read from the beginning after not having picked it up in a while but having had people tell me what they didn't like, and reading it again I was like, "... y'all." But no, like, even though Dresden does remark on female beauty, it's not salacious or anything like that. Obviously, everyone has their own line that they draw, and yours is your own. I just never want to assume that I know where someone's line is.

 

For me, I found that the counterbalancing feature was the sense of all of his characters as being people. Nobody's there just to be eye candy or to give Dresden an opportunity to show how smart or awesome he is. In fact, they tend to call him out on his attitudes a lot, and when you factor in that lots of things tend to go wrong for him, you find he never really becomes unbearable. He actually becomes relatable and believable, and when he does grow and change it feels right.

 

But that's just me and where my line is. I can totally get behind, say, not being in on Game of Thrones. It's boring when you can chart a person's death based on when they say, "We'll talk about this when I return." And while there is something to deconstructing the tropes, it can definitely feel exploitative too, which I'm not about at all.

[Urgan]

8/13/2019

Could be a Theme

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice

Giri

Clean shower

Clean toilet

Clean sinks

Dust 

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Courage

Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 3/8

Iaido Review - 1/4

Buki Waza Review - 2/4

 

Benevolence

Love

Keep in Touch - 2/8

9:00 Dinner - 3/8

Cat grooming - 1/4

Cat Box Care - 4/12

 

Politeness

Rēsetsu

Too Many Curses - 3

 

Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 1/4

 

Honesty and Loyalty

Shinjitsu for Me

33 Unread Books - 22

Lingodeer Time - 7/15

Story Outline - 2/4

 

Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 9/28

 

Honor

Sotsugyu Already

Create tests for Customers, Orders, Operations, IP, Finance, Reporting, and Admin

 

Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Sort through dish towels

Sort out the pantry

Round up all donatable electronics

Drive away donations

 

Self-Restraint

Exhibiting Yokusē

Home - Good

Work - Failed slightly less than preceding days

Gym - NA

Dojo - NA

 

So. Tuesday felt the most like a normal day in what has felt like an eternity, which in actual time is 1.5 days. There's a new project coming down and it's absolutely soul-crushing. On the plus side, I made arrangements with the two continuing series that I wasn't sure about. I checked synopses of the books I have read and read the synopsis of the last book I own, and have concluded that I got all the good I expect to get out of the series. The arc concluded well and the other books are just keeping on for keeping on's sake. -3 books in my library instantly. The other series....well.

 

Okay, get this. Modesitt Jr. has written a universe called The Corean Chronicles. The first 3 are one trilogy, the next 3 are the second, and....you get the idea. There's a third trilogy in this universe. I have read the first two books. Not interested in the 3rd. The second trilogy is supposed to be essentially a plot and/or character clone of the first. I'm going to take a look at book 4 (at some point, possibly this weekend) and pass judgment then.

 

Got another book in the mail, Finity's End, because I am hopeless. 53 unread books, 22 left until we're down to weekly book goals. Whee. Three cheers for actually looking a thing in the eye and realizing the reason you've been avoiding it is you don't want to read it. 

 

Also did the seeming impossible and added to my story outline. Doing Things during the week? The end is nigh.

[Urgan]

17 hours ago, Kishi said:

 

Oh, I dig where you're coming from with that. And it's not that bad. I remember going back to read from the beginning after not having picked it up in a while but having had people tell me what they didn't like, and reading it again I was like, "... y'all." But no, like, even though Dresden does remark on female beauty, it's not salacious or anything like that. Obviously, everyone has their own line that they draw, and yours is your own. I just never want to assume that I know where someone's line is.

 

For me, I found that the counterbalancing feature was the sense of all of his characters as being people. Nobody's there just to be eye candy or to give Dresden an opportunity to show how smart or awesome he is. In fact, they tend to call him out on his attitudes a lot, and when you factor in that lots of things tend to go wrong for him, you find he never really becomes unbearable. He actually becomes relatable and believable, and when he does grow and change it feels right.

 

But that's just me and where my line is. I can totally get behind, say, not being in on Game of Thrones. It's boring when you can chart a person's death based on when they say, "We'll talk about this when I return." And while there is something to deconstructing the tropes, it can definitely feel exploitative too, which I'm not about at all.

 

It's both an amusing and frustrating experience to explore where people's "red lines" are in media, even close friends can drive you up the wall. There's no real accounting for taste. A lot of my rejections stem simply from the character/author "voice" being unappealing. How to quantify that?

[miss_marissa]

Haven't been round these parts in quite a while so I thought I'd drop in. Congrats on the bench PR!

[Urgan]

8/14/2019

What do we say to productivity?

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice

Giri

Clean shower

Clean toilet

Clean sinks

Dust 

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Courage

Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 4/8

Iaido Review - 1/4

Buki Waza Review - 2/4

 

Benevolence

Love

Keep in Touch - 3/8

9:00 Dinner - 3/8

Cat grooming - 1/4

Cat Box Care - 4/12

 

Politeness

Rēsetsu

Too Many Curses - 3

 

Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 1/4

 

Honesty and Loyalty

Shinjitsu for Me

33 Unread Books - 22

Lingodeer Time - 8/15

Story Outline - 2/4

 

Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 10/28

 

Honor

Sotsugyu Already

Create tests for Customers, Orders, Operations, IP, Finance, Reporting, and Admin

 

Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Sort through dish towels

Sort out the pantry

Round up all donatable electronics

Drive away donations

 

Self-Restraint

Exhibiting Yokusē

Home - I spent a little while reliving the magic of the day

Work - There was a good large amount of snark required to get through the day

Gym - NA

Dojo - NA

 

Wednesday was a day swallowed whole by meetings saying we're going to do things that we are not doing right now because we're not ready but get ready. Neat. Barely managed to get anything meaningful done. I just treaded water in the gym with some rack pulls for 5s and we practiced jo kata I and II and half of our bokken techniques in the dojo and we finally decided the 24" iaito is going to have to do it for now or my training is going to really suffer in the meanwhile. My parents are having car-related issues, which is half having inadvertently bought a lemon a few years ago and someone being allergic to car maintenance. When the two collide, it is a golden time. They're trying to find a permanent solution to at least half of that problem list. 

 

Despite all of the chaos, I have managed to keep up Japanese practice and of all things I have written more in the outline than strictly required. Yay that.

[Mistr]

I love your Nope gif.

[Urgan]

8/15/2019

Post-work feels

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice

Giri

Clean shower

Clean toilet

Clean sinks

Dust 

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Courage

Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 4/8

Iaido Review - 2/4

Buki Waza Review - 2/4

 

Benevolence

Love

Keep in Touch - 4/8

9:00 Dinner - 4/8

Cat grooming - 1/4

Cat Box Care - 4/12

 

Politeness

Rēsetsu

Too Many Curses - 5

 

Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 1/4

 

Honesty and Loyalty

Shinjitsu for Me

33 Unread Books - 22

Lingodeer Time - 9/15

Story Outline - 2/4

 

Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 11/28

 

Honor

Sotsugyu Already

Create tests for Customers, Orders, Operations, IP, Finance, Reporting, and Admin

 

Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Sort through dish towels

Sort out the pantry

Round up all donatable electronics

Drive away donations

 

Self-Restraint

Exhibiting Yokusē

Home - A+

Work - Lol no.

Gym - NA

Dojo - NA

 

Thursday. Huh. Hmm. Well. I finished one of the short stories within Cherryh's Alternate Realities. Short being 150-180 pages. I didn't have to run like a screaming banshee between umpteen meetings? The one extra meeting was physically painful to endure, mind you, but it was just the one and did not run to the feared 5:30 duration. Just an hour and fifteen minutes of Does Not Apply to Me In Any Way Whatsoever and the last 10-ish minutes included two points of contribution. Exceeded my expectations in that respect, TBPH. My evening nap sometimes throws me for this loop where I forget what day or time it is. Sometimes I think it's late-late at night, sometimes morning and time to get up for a new day. Today it was both. Wheeeeeeeee. Made dinner on time, tried to practice iaido, my new iaito is really, really hard to draw and I'm not sure if it's a feature of being brand new or badly made. So. Yeah. Reviewed the first three kata quickly anyhow. I figured to finish Alternate Realities Friday and start on the next big thing same day. RIP 400-pagers, you are an endangered species.

[Kishi]

Good Lord. I hate it when I have a meeting that's even 5 minutes; having an hour would drive me up the wall, especially if it didn't apply to me.

[Urgan]

46 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Good Lord. I hate it when I have a meeting that's even 5 minutes; having an hour would drive me up the wall, especially if it didn't apply to me.

 

Qa ShOuLd AtTeNd.

 

They're talking about breaking meetings up by project, which would multiply the meetings I would be expected to attend. Assuming I would attend, because it's ludicrous. At some point you protest, even if you are the lowest form of life.

[Urgan]

8/16/2019 - 8/18/2019

Getting through August like

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice

Giri

Clean shower

Clean toilet

Clean sinks

Dust 

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Courage

Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 4/8

Iaido Review - 2/4

Buki Waza Review - 2/4

 

Benevolence

Love

Keep in Touch - 4/8

9:00 Dinner - 4/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

Cat Box Care - 5/12

 

Politeness

Rēsetsu

Too Many Curses - 7

 

Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 2/4

 

Honesty and Loyalty

Shinjitsu for Me

34 Unread Books - 20

Lingodeer Time - 10/20

Story Outline - 2/4

 

Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 13/28

 

Honor

Sotsugyu Already

Create tests for Customers, Orders, Operations, IP, Finance, Reporting, and Admin

 

Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Sort through dish towels

Sort out the pantry

Round up all donatable electronics

Drive away donations

 

Self-Restraint

Exhibiting Yokusē

Home - A+

Work - Lol no.

Gym - NA

Dojo - NA

 

Got another book in the mail*, as it was under 600 pages it increments the number of books for me to read. No matter, I finished the second and final story (of interest to me) in Alternate Realities then began working on Snow White and the Seven Samurai (Holt). Friday wasn't so bad, being as the number of meetings were 1 and only 1, the usual morning affair.

 

Saturday was 5s on squats and deads, RIP my lower half. Finished Snow White. It was an amusing little ride, but Holt's developing a very pronounced pattern. Okay if you don't mind that. Did some kanji, too. I may have engaged in some psych-ops to get the kitchen faucet sprayer holder fixed by way of group text. 

 

Sunday was bathroom cleaning, toilet and lamp repair, and husband trying out the new grill he bought (now with cover!!). I've been working on my outline a lot more than the mandatory minimum, which is delightful. I am not hopeful on keeping my Sotsugyu goal of creating automated tests anytime soon because there's two infrastructure upgrades incoming and they appear to be trying to take place simultaneously, so. Depending on a meeting this afternoon, I may be striking that goal for now.

 

 

*this is the book that came in the box with the leaking body wash that miraculously survived on the other side of the box, God knows Amazon had nothing to do with it arriving safely. 

[Urgan]

8/19/2019 + 8/20/2019

Drive-by Incidents

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice

Giri

Dust 

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Courage

Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 5/8

Iaido Review - 2/4

Buki Waza Review - 3/4

 

Benevolence

Love

Keep in Touch - 5/8

9:00 Dinner - 5/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

Cat Box Care - 6/12

 

Politeness

Rēsetsu

Too Many Curses - 9

 

Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 2/4

 

Honesty and Loyalty

Shinjitsu for Me

34 Unread Books - 19

Lingodeer Time - 12/20

Story Outline - 3/4

 

Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 15/28

 

Honor

Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Sort out the pantry

Round up all donatable electronics

Drive away donations

 

Self-Restraint

Exhibiting Yokusē

Home - Surprisingly well, I did not complain even though Monday was not great

Work - Okay enough given how Change is ever afoot

Gym - 100%

Dojo - A+

 

Monday was the unveiling of reorganization of our teams, which was fantastic and celebrated as one celebrates a hanging. In concert with this, we got loaded up with goals not directly related to our actual work, which was also applauded with enthusiasm. * coughs * One of which is a super optimistic idea that automated testing will be worked on amongst two upgrades, but okay. Gym was okay, just putting in work. Dojo featured shihonage....hanmi hantachi waza style. Confirmed with Sensei that my iaito was really, really ill-fitted with its saya and got that exchanged out--yay I can draw it with my right hand now! Then I went home and set up my new laptop, read entirely too much Finity's End and outline things. I've been really booking it on outline construction, specifically some heavy emotional scenes, which makes it real easy to fall asleep lolwhy.

 

Woke up with sinus hell, stayed home. Slept about 6-7 hours' worth of daylight. Read through most of the rest of it. I decided the India history book I'd been reading at the gym wasn't really doing it for me, skimmed it a bit, and called it a life. It's staying on my shelf as a reference, it's a solid book the material is just not terribly engaging. Hand of Isis (Jo Graham) is up next. More outline work. Doubled up on Aikido technique review since I was so excited by laptop shenanigans on Monday night.

[Kishi]

History books are like that. I'm a big fan of Homo Sapiens by Yuval Harari, as he does a really good overview of human history that manages to be brief and engaging.

[Urgan]

6 minutes ago, Kishi said:

History books are like that. I'm a big fan of Homo Sapiens by Yuval Harari, as he does a really good overview of human history that manages to be brief and engaging.

 

Once you get past the discussion of Indian religious philosophy (which feels more like the hair-splitting difference between denominations from this elevation LBR--you really need a whole book and a hefty amount of patience for philosophy for that), by broad strokes vast the majority of Indian history can be summarized thusly:

Assume some people gathered roughly in the same ballpark as the Indus river, we'll call them Indians. Why not

Invaders happen

Invaders play duck duck goose where "duck" is good ruler and "goose" is bad ruler (The most violent game of Duck Duck Goose ever, that is)

Invader dynasty collapses under the weight of its own stupidity

Indians sigh, sweep up the broken remnants

Return to "Assume..."

 

Spoiler, most of the invader kings were jerks. Shocking that rapists and pillagers all across a continent wouldn't be nice once they hit Indian soil. One funny bit you'll discover on skimming the long list of invader kings is the Muslim rulers mostly did sorta alright until they tried to implement a strict interpretation of sharia (try the old converting or die routine pretty any percentage of India), at which point the proverbial goose hits the oven. Like, almost comically fast the dynasty topples the moment someone gets uppity with sharia. Humanity is a delight. 

[Urgan]

8/21/2019 + 8/22/2019

An inside look at our office

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice

Giri

Dust 

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Courage

Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 5/8

Iaido Review - 2/4

Buki Waza Review - 3/4

 

Benevolence

Love

Keep in Touch - 5/8

9:00 Dinner - 6/8

Cat grooming - 2/4

Cat Box Care - 7/12

 

Politeness

Rēsetsu

Too Many Curses - 9

 

Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 2/4

 

Honesty and Loyalty

Shinjitsu for Me

34 Unread Books - 18

Lingodeer Time - 14/20

Story Outline - 3/4

 

Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 17/28

 

Honor

Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Sort out the pantry

Round up all donatable electronics

Drive away donations

 

Self-Restraint

Exhibiting Yokusē

Home - I did explain the general work environment at parents' house, but other than that did okay

Work - lol

Gym - 100%

Dojo - Did pretty well here

 

Wednesday was normal--got a morning squat PR at 207.5lbs. Kumitachi happened at the dojo, which was badly needed. 

 

Thursday I was late to work, beat it across town, and arrived to discover the A/C was broken at the office. So I took my happy butt home and worked there. There's a meeting that tests my patience and sanity and I just couldn't bear the thought of having to do so while sweating buckets in work clothes. Finished Finity's End, which was amazing as is everything Cherryh does. Checked out two books and decided to attack Living with Ghosts (Kari Sperring), since it's the last 400 pager lying around. The Accidental Sorcerer (K.E. Mills) is a borderline experience. I'm not convinced of the main character (the "fresh off being fired" router where you are treated to the slow-moving trainwreck of the MC screwing up just seems like a waste of my time. So I skipped that part), but the part where you meet the characters MC will be interacting with for much/most of the book are amusing, so I'll read to the point where the cast converges and we'll see what comes of that. Wheeeeee.

[Urgan]

17 minutes ago, Urgan said:

Checked out two books and decided to attack Living with Ghosts (Kari Sperring), since it's the last 400 pager lying around. The Accidental Sorcerer (K.E. Mills) is a borderline experience. I'm not convinced of the main character (the "fresh off being fired" router where you are treated to the slow-moving trainwreck of the MC screwing up just seems like a waste of my time. So I skipped that part), but the part where you meet the characters MC will be interacting with for much/most of the book are amusing, so I'll read to the point where the cast converges and we'll see what comes of that. Wheeeeee. nope.

 

Goodreads confirmed my fears (MC is annoying, the dynamic I'd hoped for won't be happening...there went all hope, right down the well). Goodbye Accidental Sorcerer, goodbye Witches, Incorporated. The count is down to 47 total books, 16 before it's wise to reduce my ambitions to weekly book conquest. Unless I found more poor fit lit where I stupidly bought sequels before sampling the first book, that is..... 

[Mistr]

Your office sounds like the inspiration for Dilbert. Nice that the A/C died and you had a solid reason to work from home.

 

Also good that you got a iaito you can draw. 

[Urgan]

13 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Your office sounds like the inspiration for Dilbert. Nice that the A/C died and you had a solid reason to work from home.

 

I think my prior work thought of Dilbert as one of those office management workshop manual things. 

 

I know, right? It's at a point where the worst offender makes jokes about himself re: the yakety yak. They had to move the meeting back an hour to have a hope of leaving the office at a reasonable time. 

 

18 minutes ago, Mistr said:

Also good that you got a iaito you can draw. 

 

Have you ever been gaslighted by a sword? That was me for a few minutes trying to draw the old one.

[Urgan]

8/23/2019 - 8/25/2019

Rock the Dragon

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice

Giri

Dust 

Mop floor

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Courage

Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 5/8

Iaido Review - 3/4

Buki Waza Review - 3/4

 

Benevolence

Love

Keep in Touch - 6/8

9:00 Dinner - 6/8

Cat grooming - 3/4

Cat Box Care - 8/12

 

Politeness

Rēsetsu

Too Many Curses - 10

 

Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 3/4

 

Honesty and Loyalty

Shinjitsu for Me

34 Unread Books - 9

Lingodeer Time - 15/20

Story Outline - 3/4

 

Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 17/28

 

Honor

Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Sort out the pantry

Round up all donatable electronics

Drive away donations

 

Self-Restraint

Exhibiting Yokusē

Home - Gud

Work - Better

Gym - I think I pass, might have been some gossip on Saturday

Dojo - NA

 

Friday was a blur. Did some heavy presses. Survived work. Ditched some old electronic components. Got home and did some damage to Living with Ghosts, but not nearly as much as I wanted due to pure exhaustion overcoming a hazy interest in it. 

 

Saturday. Whoa, Saturday. Well, first there was a 5lb squat PR of 225lbs. That's right, TwO pLaTeS. Then I folded up my tent and boogied on out, ain't no way I was doing any good if I proceeded to deadlifts after that. See Insta for The Struggle. Then Living with Ghosts grabbed me by the emotions, pushed me down, and beat me to bits. And I loved it. The ending really hurt. A real surprise given, as a Goodreads reviewer mentioned, the super generic cover. This may be the time to reiterate how much good this is doing for my story outline. If you think Ghosts is a good time (ba dum tssh) then you might also like Shadow of the Lion, which this book reminded me of hardcore, right down to the pivotal character being a whore in a big European(-esque) city, activating ancient power to save said city. There's a lot of water in both?? It's been a hot minute since I read Shadow, so. Oh and don't be scared of Mercedes Lackey's name being on the cover, I promise they didn't let her actually write anything because it would have taken trice the time to dissect, rearrange, and stitch up her part into the whole. (Mercedes Lackey is my counterexample to ANYONE thinking they cannot get published--her story concepts are good, the execution is just. not. good. 90% of the time) Oh and then I proceeded to obliterate 7 books from my queue in the small hours of the morning. And discovered cat barf in the office chair. Love you, too, Maggy.

 

Sunday was slow. I traded full-scale mopping for cat barf seek-and-destroy, which was a rather worthy endeavor. It was a cat care kind of day. Also eliminated another book that surprised me. On Her Majesty's Occult Service (a combination of Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue) is written by Charles Stross, who does amazing work. And it's probably an amazing book, the computing references liberally studded in the few pages I did read were a hoot. I just got a headache slogging through it. The idea of a soul-sucking (literally!) government job working to clean up paranormal incidents for the British government sounds good, but sometimes reading about a soul-sucking job just isn't as fun as it sounds?? So I switched to Dragonworld (Byron Preiss), which is a simple story that could be accurately described as a kind of anti-Romeo and Juliet, in that the death of kids starts a war rather than ends it. It's a case of mistaking the Other Guys for the killers (spoiler: it's called Dragonworld) and everybody is more than happy to give war a go even though neither group has experience at it. Also, just look at this cover:

 

It's a story meant for kids like The Hobbit is meant for kids, but an 8 year old child (which got him first, the plummet to the ground or the jaws of a dragon?) dies inside 10 pages and another couple kids a bit older not long after that, so. You know. But there are illustrations inside and they are really pretty. They were done by the same guy who animated The Hobbit, so that comparison is not idle. 

[Urgan]

8/26/2019

What is even happening now

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice

Giri

Dust 

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Courage

Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 6/8

Iaido Review - 3/4

Buki Waza Review - 3/4

 

Benevolence

Love

Keep in Touch - 6/8

9:00 Dinner - 6/8

Cat grooming - 3/4

Cat Box Care - 8/12

 

Politeness

Rēsetsu

Too Many Curses - 10

 

Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 3/4

 

Honesty and Loyalty

Shinjitsu for Me

34 Unread Books - 9

Lingodeer Time - 16/20

Story Outline - 3/4

 

Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 18/28

 

Honor

Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Drive away donations

 

Self-Restraint

Exhibiting Yokusē

Home - The usual venting

Work - Surprisingly well considering the chaos that is currently this office 

Gym - 100%

Dojo - Limited the whining to pivoting-related things

 

A smol .5lb bench 2RM PR of 106lbs, got chewed out for getting to work "late," all the rain happened, kotegaeshi and sankyo hanmi handachi waza style. Tore up some Dragonworld over the course of the day, I am 336 of 545 pages in as of Sunday evening. Still managed to barely do some Japanese practice around the edges. Woof. I have a 5 day weekend coming up, though.....

[Urgan]

8/27/2019

 

 Just Dragon Things

武士道   (ぶしどう)

Justice

Giri

Dust 

Clean kitchen table

Clean kitchen counters

 

Courage

Crying in the Dojo

Technique Review - 6/8

Iaido Review - 3/4

Buki Waza Review - 4/4

 

Benevolence

Love

Keep in Touch - 6/8

9:00 Dinner - 7/8

Cat grooming - 3/4

Cat Box Care - 9/12

 

Politeness

Rēsetsu

Too Many Curses - 10

 

Do 道

Drawing Japanese Characters - 3/4

 

Honesty and Loyalty

Shinjitsu for Me

34 Unread Books - 7

Lingodeer Time - 17/20

Story Outline - 3/4

 

Matomo for Thee

Say (Only) What You Mean - 19/28

 

Honor

Battle With Meiyo and Humanity

Drive away donations

 

Self-Restraint

Exhibiting Yokusē

Home - gud

Work - Okay? I wasn't bleeding everywhere at least...

Gym - NA

Dojo - NA

 

So I finished Dragonworld. The characters were all complete dunderheads until page 510 of a 545 page book, but other than that it was a good little read. Keep in mind it's a children's book from 1979, so dumb character behavior is kind of required, isn't it? Dropped the other Modesitt Jr books because I just couldn't get excited to put them in the proverbial bullpen. That puts us down to 34 books in the collection left, 7 on the shortlist before my expectations need to change (one of which is book 3 in a 4 book series...grumble...), aka 91% of my library is now read. I'm thinking holding around 10 unread books is an acceptable level of maintain, so I always have options. And no waiting on books to arrive.... #theimportantthingsinlife

[Kishi]

On ‎8‎/‎26‎/‎2019 at 12:05 PM, Urgan said:

If you think Ghosts is a good time (ba dum tssh) then you might also like Shadow of the Lion, which this book reminded me of hardcore, right down to the pivotal character being a whore in a big European(-esque) city, activating ancient power to save said city.

 

Haven't read Ghosts but have read Shadow of the Lion. Liked it a great deal. I hate to say it, but I read it because Mercedes Lackey's name was on the cover; at one point, I did like her, and I do like some of her concepts. Never quite figured out why I wasn't inclined to go back... maybe I don't like her as much as I thought?

 

Anyway, glad to hear the project continues apace!

[Urgan]

7 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Haven't read Ghosts but have read Shadow of the Lion. Liked it a great deal. I hate to say it, but I read it because Mercedes Lackey's name was on the cover; at one point, I did like her, and I do like some of her concepts. Never quite figured out why I wasn't inclined to go back... maybe I don't like her as much as I thought?

 

I arrived at the book because of her name as well. I'd read a few of her books and let me tell you, the disappointment of her attempts to convert concepts to reality is a sight to behold. Like the Hindenburg carrying a semi full of dumpsters that are on fire. 

 

Interesting thing I noticed a few days ago. I have Jim Butcher's Furies of Calderon on my shelf. Have you read it?