annathepiper | Saturday evening stuff (Reply)

spazzkat is over tonight playing Halo II with

solarbird, and I'm in theory editing Chapter 10 of Faerie Blood; I've actually made some progress on that today, and am having a considerable bit of fun working on the dream sequence therein. But in the meantime...

+0: It is a decidedly strange feeling to have eaten half of one of Jet City Pizza's smallest pizzas, only to still be hungry afterward. Not very hungry, but just enough to feel a little empty still, as if I still have room for dessert. I've had a glass of chocolate milk since as I felt like my system needed something milk-related, and that's soothed things a bit, but I still don't feel overly full. And I guess that's probably a good thing, if I want to continue this slow weight loss thing.

boudiccathered says that my metabolism will adjust if I keep off the caffeine; I hope so. So far I actually like the various subtle side effects that I've experienced so far in the drastic caffeine cutback, and if nothing else it's actually kind of good to be in a position to make myself have to take my time savoring a soda because I know it's the only one I'll have in a day--rather than just gulping it down blindly.

+1: Went out briefly to the Lake Forest Park Town Centre to deposit me some rent and to pick up stuff at the Rite Aid. I mention this mostly because of the oddity of it being mid-December and startlingly warm, bright, and sunny this afternoon. I had on my sweatshirt and coat as per usual when going out this time of year, but by the time I got home again, I was actually sweating. And so far it's been a surprisingly warm winter in general. Lots of warm, lots of fog. The gray and cloudy days are still outnumbering the sunny ones, but the temperature's been quite high.

(I hope this trend changes soon--the constant winter rain in Seattle is often annoying, but we do actually need the water.)

Anyway, it was nice to get out for the walk. And nice to shuck $24 of change into the savings account.

+/-2: I am making some progress on The Three Musketeers. I'm still not liking these characters very much--at about 260 pages in, there's a lot less swordplay and swashbuckling than I'd like, and a lot more "young upstart d'Artagnan is of course the smartest, cleverest guy in France despite being such a puppy" mileage. He's still reading to me like a powertwink MUSH character. I mean, sure, the incredibly talented young hero is a staple of literature, but there are ways to portray the character to make him not seem stupid, and I don't see them being implemented here.

And some of the scenes with Porthos, Aramis, and Athos are almost... farcical. These guys are supposed to be the best of the musketeers, and yet, I've mostly seen them follow d'Artagnan around and babble about how he's obviously the smart one so he should get to be the leader, complain to each other about how they have no money, and talk a lot of talk about how they're gentlemen and men of their word and such--and then turn around and do annoying, ungentlemanly things. Like, say, Athos locking himself in the cellar of an inn and wrecking the place because the innkeeper has the audacity to ask him to... pay his stupid bill. The one time I actually perked up reading about any of these characters was when Athos told d'Artagnan his story in the midst of a drunken haze--his story was actually genuinely dark and disturbing, and for that brief span of pages I was actually interested in one of the musketeers. Porthos, though, is an idiot, and I wanted to smack Aramis around after seeing how fast he bailed on his alleged desire to be a priest when he found out that the girl he's fawning over didn't actually abandon him.

I dunno. Maybe I'm reading this book with the wrong attitude? Maybe I'm supposed to be taking it as farce, because it certainly reads like it. :) But I'm still not liking these characters very much.

solarbird says it is because they're all French. *snort*

But I'm not bailing yet. I'm interested just enough in the actual intrigue parts of the plot to keep up with it; it takes a LOT to make me actually bail on a book without finishing it.

+/-3: Last, but not least, a quizzie...

You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?