Rivendell achieved!
Oct. 28th, 2005 03:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperI wound up getting a bit of extra mileage today doing more walking in Bellevue than I expected--so it works out to get me a mile already on my way to Lothlórien! Yay!
My entire purpose for going to Bellevue, chatting with a recruiter at an agency I hadn't worked with before, was pleasant. Had a nice chat with the lady about my work history and various skills and where I wanted to go in terms of a career path, and she told me about their agency and how they work, and we were both amused to discover we were from the same section of the country (I'm from Kentucky, she was from Tennessee). Whether or not she'll get me a position remains to be seen, but I did rather like the personal touch of wanting to chat with me face to face, not to mention that she actually asked me for professional references. So far no other agency in the area has done that, which gives a good impression of these folks being more willing to learn about a particular contractor and find the best sorts of contracts for that person. We'll see how it all goes.
On the way, on a rather slow bus ride from Kenmore to Bellevue and back again, I read Gone With the Nerd by Vicki Lewis Thompson. Or, I should say, I mostly skimmed it. I was expecting a fluff read, but this went from my "fluff" category straight into "stupid", so I couldn't stand to read it in depth.
Sigh. I did enjoy Ms. Thompson's previous "nerd" romances, but the reason this one torked me off was that instead of taking traditional nerd stereotypes and demonstrating that a nerd can in fact be sexy, this one demonstrated that our author has a much less secure grasp on how to make a female nerd come across as sexy than she does a male one. The schtick of this book is supposed to be that a bombshell actress wants to break out of her traditional sexy-babe roles and play a brilliant chemist, so she asks her nerdy (and sekritly hot) lawyer to go away with her for a weekend and help her try to get into character for her meaty science-geek role. The actress chick is allegedly up against the likes of Jodie Foster and other A-list actresses to get this part, too.
All very well and good for a concept, except that the movie's actual concept is idiotic: the brilliant chemist chick is supposedly working on a formula for a pill that's a combination weight-loss drug and sexual stimulant and some other laughable purposes that I can't even remember right now. Moreover, the glimpses of script that our hero and heroine are reading while struggling not to tear each other's clothes off don't help. Especially when the dialogue emphasizes over and over that the heroine of the movie is nerdy because she's "flat-chested", and there's no sign of the character actually demonstrating any thought processes aside from "Oh gosh, I know I'm supposed to be a brilliant scientist and all, but I just can't resist my Neanderthal of a bodyguard who keeps calling me 'baby doll' despite the fact that I've told him I DON'T LIKE IT".
Um, Ms. Thompson? First of all, if you want a reader to believe that your actress heroine is trying to break into A-list roles and compete with the likes of Jodie Foster, for gods' sake, don't give her a script for a movie called The Billion-Dollar Pill and then proceed to show the reader nothing but cliched, trite snippets of scenes that point out that the movie is actually all about sex. Hells bells, those scenes would get ruthlessly slashed out of a romance novel by any good editor. Ms. Foster would be laughing her ass off if a script of this nature got anywhere near her.
Second, I got news: not all nerdy chicks are flat-chested. I'm direct proof. And if you want to convince your readers that your bombshell actress heroine's character is supposed to be a brilliant scientist, SHOW HER DOING SOME SCIENCE rather than having your script snippets go on and on about the (lack of) size of her tits. And then show her love interest actually realize "Well gosh, she has a brain... and I like that," rather than smarmily wondering why on the gods' green earth he's attracted to this "bony" chick with no tits.
Ms. Thompson, you did a fairly decent (if fluffy) job of making nerdy, thinking men sexy in previous books. Why couldn't you do the same for a woman?
Also, the book's cover art sucks. The previous covers had some charming, cartoon-y art; this one looks like a self-help book cover, except in lurid red, with a picture of a rumpled dark-haired guy in glasses trying to achieve the "sexy professor" look in the cover. Not an improvement.
I will not be buying any more of Ms. Thompson's books. And I'm going to have to read some high lit-ra-cher next just to clear my brain out after inflicting that mess on it.
Friday miles: 3.7 (walking)
Miles out of Hobbiton: 459
Miles to Rivendell: ZERO! Hi, Elrond! Where's the DSL? You don't have any? Screw it, I'm going to go visit Galadriel. She's cuter, anyway, and I hear that Mirror she's got has an Internet connection.
Miles out of Rivendell: 1
Miles to Lothlórien: 461
My entire purpose for going to Bellevue, chatting with a recruiter at an agency I hadn't worked with before, was pleasant. Had a nice chat with the lady about my work history and various skills and where I wanted to go in terms of a career path, and she told me about their agency and how they work, and we were both amused to discover we were from the same section of the country (I'm from Kentucky, she was from Tennessee). Whether or not she'll get me a position remains to be seen, but I did rather like the personal touch of wanting to chat with me face to face, not to mention that she actually asked me for professional references. So far no other agency in the area has done that, which gives a good impression of these folks being more willing to learn about a particular contractor and find the best sorts of contracts for that person. We'll see how it all goes.
On the way, on a rather slow bus ride from Kenmore to Bellevue and back again, I read Gone With the Nerd by Vicki Lewis Thompson. Or, I should say, I mostly skimmed it. I was expecting a fluff read, but this went from my "fluff" category straight into "stupid", so I couldn't stand to read it in depth.
Sigh. I did enjoy Ms. Thompson's previous "nerd" romances, but the reason this one torked me off was that instead of taking traditional nerd stereotypes and demonstrating that a nerd can in fact be sexy, this one demonstrated that our author has a much less secure grasp on how to make a female nerd come across as sexy than she does a male one. The schtick of this book is supposed to be that a bombshell actress wants to break out of her traditional sexy-babe roles and play a brilliant chemist, so she asks her nerdy (and sekritly hot) lawyer to go away with her for a weekend and help her try to get into character for her meaty science-geek role. The actress chick is allegedly up against the likes of Jodie Foster and other A-list actresses to get this part, too.
All very well and good for a concept, except that the movie's actual concept is idiotic: the brilliant chemist chick is supposedly working on a formula for a pill that's a combination weight-loss drug and sexual stimulant and some other laughable purposes that I can't even remember right now. Moreover, the glimpses of script that our hero and heroine are reading while struggling not to tear each other's clothes off don't help. Especially when the dialogue emphasizes over and over that the heroine of the movie is nerdy because she's "flat-chested", and there's no sign of the character actually demonstrating any thought processes aside from "Oh gosh, I know I'm supposed to be a brilliant scientist and all, but I just can't resist my Neanderthal of a bodyguard who keeps calling me 'baby doll' despite the fact that I've told him I DON'T LIKE IT".
Um, Ms. Thompson? First of all, if you want a reader to believe that your actress heroine is trying to break into A-list roles and compete with the likes of Jodie Foster, for gods' sake, don't give her a script for a movie called The Billion-Dollar Pill and then proceed to show the reader nothing but cliched, trite snippets of scenes that point out that the movie is actually all about sex. Hells bells, those scenes would get ruthlessly slashed out of a romance novel by any good editor. Ms. Foster would be laughing her ass off if a script of this nature got anywhere near her.
Second, I got news: not all nerdy chicks are flat-chested. I'm direct proof. And if you want to convince your readers that your bombshell actress heroine's character is supposed to be a brilliant scientist, SHOW HER DOING SOME SCIENCE rather than having your script snippets go on and on about the (lack of) size of her tits. And then show her love interest actually realize "Well gosh, she has a brain... and I like that," rather than smarmily wondering why on the gods' green earth he's attracted to this "bony" chick with no tits.
Ms. Thompson, you did a fairly decent (if fluffy) job of making nerdy, thinking men sexy in previous books. Why couldn't you do the same for a woman?
Also, the book's cover art sucks. The previous covers had some charming, cartoon-y art; this one looks like a self-help book cover, except in lurid red, with a picture of a rumpled dark-haired guy in glasses trying to achieve the "sexy professor" look in the cover. Not an improvement.
I will not be buying any more of Ms. Thompson's books. And I'm going to have to read some high lit-ra-cher next just to clear my brain out after inflicting that mess on it.
Friday miles: 3.7 (walking)
Miles out of Hobbiton: 459
Miles to Rivendell: ZERO! Hi, Elrond! Where's the DSL? You don't have any? Screw it, I'm going to go visit Galadriel. She's cuter, anyway, and I hear that Mirror she's got has an Internet connection.
Miles out of Rivendell: 1
Miles to Lothlórien: 461
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-28 10:31 pm (UTC)I wouldn't trust it, though. Connection's a little flaky. I hear some people get totally unsolicited downloads from very strange places, and you don't even want to know what kind of weird spam comes through.
*grin*
no subject
Date: 2005-10-28 11:06 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-10-29 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-29 12:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-29 12:45 am (UTC)But there are plenty of other forms of exercise. For example, you could buy a couple of small, cheap dumbbells and a copy of Weightlifting for Dummies, and do free weights. It's worked for me before.
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Date: 2005-10-29 03:11 am (UTC)Don't forget to send me a postcard! :wave:
*is silly*
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Date: 2005-10-29 06:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-29 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-29 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-29 04:39 pm (UTC)I have been walking a lot more recently. I even made the change from 7am alarm time to 6:30am alarm time recently so that I could get a couple hours of coffee-guzzling, walking-around-bumping-into-walls time in (my usual wake up routine y'know) and still have time to walk to my job at Pike Place Market 3 days a week. It's 1/2 mile from my home so if I walk home too I've got a mile a day.
The result of this (and other activities) is that the belt I used to buckle in the first hole I now buckle in the third. Yeah, I'm sure the belt stretched some, but I don't think it has stretched that much.
Being Hobbit, I'd kind of like to check out the Eowyn Challenge. Would you be so kind as to post the link again? I foolishly didn't bookmark it when you first mentioned it.
ciao for now...
HH
no subject
Date: 2005-10-29 04:53 pm (UTC)I'll be happy to post the link again. It is http://www.eowynchallenge.net.