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Dec. 8th, 2010 07:19 pmBusy week. Spent today learning a new financial system, which I can add to a long list of financial database systems to my repertoire. This one like all the others seems to be Oracle based, making me wonder if Oracle has a monopoly on financial databases. Get to go back on Friday and Monday to resume training. It's a complex system - which means it will fail massively, causing much chaos in its wake, until we get used to it.
People can be irritating. We don't agree on anything. We whine incessantly when we don't get our own way. And we stubbornly adhere to our convictions, no matter how wrong we are. And no, I'm just talking about fandom - sigh, I wish. I'm actually talking about work.
Got "Advair" - which doesn't appear to be doing much of anything outside of leaving behind a bad taste in my mouth whenever I take it. But to be fair - have only taken two dosages. Doc did not prescribe antibotics this round - because I don't have bronchitis or pneumonia - just a bit of irritation. Which I'm guessing is good news, since I hate anti-biotics. Bad news, since when I did have bronchitis - the anti-boitics got rid of it rather quickly. Also got more codeine laced cough syrup.
Finished Storm of Swords last night, finally. Great book by the way. Just incredibly long.
1563 pages with small type. But it was quite amazing. Each character was in a new place and drastically changed by the end of it. Considering he had 10 points of view, that's an accomplishment.
He also states something in the end that I thought rather interesting:" If bricks aren't well made, the wall falls down." Good analogy for writing. If you do not lay down good bricks for your story, it will fall apart. While it is possible to lay a wall of loosely laid bricks and not have it fall down, the bricks themselves must be sturdy and mortar as well. Having built a wall of handmade bricks and mortar - I know this from experience. Same is true with stories. While the writer doesn't necessarily need to know where his tale is headed, he does need to know his characters and stay true to them - his characters are his bricks, his world (particularly in fantasy) is bricks. If you don't, your story will fall apart no matter how much motar you use to cement it into place. Okay maybe I took that analogy too far?
Another interesting bit about Storm, it may be the only epic fantasy novel I've read that is not sexist or misogynistic and written by a man. Granted I haven't read that many. And I tend to be fairly tolerant, all things considered. But...in this novel the women are strong. But not unrealistically so. They are permitted to be as multifaceted and in as many shapes and sizes as the men. By making the women realistic and fully fledged characters - not sexist stereotypes or fantasy, Martin is able to comment on the power-play between genders, and how women are treated in a world based on physical power and prowess - and dominated by men. Yet, the women are not quelled, they are not meek. Catelyn Stark, Ayra Stark, Daenarys Storm Born, Cersei Lannister, Ygritt, Melisandra, and Sansa Stark are anything but weak. They have power of their own. Ayra for example kills a man, she's a child of twelve and a survivor. I'm rather impressed, because I've read so many fantasy and science fiction novels that do not do this. Tolkien (sigh), CS Lewis (ugh), Terry Brooks (groans), Stephen Donaldson (groan)....the women fantasy writers are obviously better than the men at this. But it is rare to find a popular male fantasy writer who does it this well. Also issues of minority and race are handled well here.
My only quibble? He spends a lot of time giving me nitty-gritty details on gore and violence...which I could do without. Too much detail. Little less may have made the book move faster and resonate more for me emotionally. But that's clearly a subjective thing.
Last night - I bought The Hunger Games for my Kindle for $8. Am currently finishing up Side Jobs. After Xmas, I may pick up Feast of Crows by Martin - but no rush, considering he's still working on it's sequel.
Okay off to make dinner. And watch tv. And hopefully get off my butt and buy Xmas gifts via Amazon.
People can be irritating. We don't agree on anything. We whine incessantly when we don't get our own way. And we stubbornly adhere to our convictions, no matter how wrong we are. And no, I'm just talking about fandom - sigh, I wish. I'm actually talking about work.
Got "Advair" - which doesn't appear to be doing much of anything outside of leaving behind a bad taste in my mouth whenever I take it. But to be fair - have only taken two dosages. Doc did not prescribe antibotics this round - because I don't have bronchitis or pneumonia - just a bit of irritation. Which I'm guessing is good news, since I hate anti-biotics. Bad news, since when I did have bronchitis - the anti-boitics got rid of it rather quickly. Also got more codeine laced cough syrup.
Finished Storm of Swords last night, finally. Great book by the way. Just incredibly long.
1563 pages with small type. But it was quite amazing. Each character was in a new place and drastically changed by the end of it. Considering he had 10 points of view, that's an accomplishment.
He also states something in the end that I thought rather interesting:" If bricks aren't well made, the wall falls down." Good analogy for writing. If you do not lay down good bricks for your story, it will fall apart. While it is possible to lay a wall of loosely laid bricks and not have it fall down, the bricks themselves must be sturdy and mortar as well. Having built a wall of handmade bricks and mortar - I know this from experience. Same is true with stories. While the writer doesn't necessarily need to know where his tale is headed, he does need to know his characters and stay true to them - his characters are his bricks, his world (particularly in fantasy) is bricks. If you don't, your story will fall apart no matter how much motar you use to cement it into place. Okay maybe I took that analogy too far?
Another interesting bit about Storm, it may be the only epic fantasy novel I've read that is not sexist or misogynistic and written by a man. Granted I haven't read that many. And I tend to be fairly tolerant, all things considered. But...in this novel the women are strong. But not unrealistically so. They are permitted to be as multifaceted and in as many shapes and sizes as the men. By making the women realistic and fully fledged characters - not sexist stereotypes or fantasy, Martin is able to comment on the power-play between genders, and how women are treated in a world based on physical power and prowess - and dominated by men. Yet, the women are not quelled, they are not meek. Catelyn Stark, Ayra Stark, Daenarys Storm Born, Cersei Lannister, Ygritt, Melisandra, and Sansa Stark are anything but weak. They have power of their own. Ayra for example kills a man, she's a child of twelve and a survivor. I'm rather impressed, because I've read so many fantasy and science fiction novels that do not do this. Tolkien (sigh), CS Lewis (ugh), Terry Brooks (groans), Stephen Donaldson (groan)....the women fantasy writers are obviously better than the men at this. But it is rare to find a popular male fantasy writer who does it this well. Also issues of minority and race are handled well here.
My only quibble? He spends a lot of time giving me nitty-gritty details on gore and violence...which I could do without. Too much detail. Little less may have made the book move faster and resonate more for me emotionally. But that's clearly a subjective thing.
Last night - I bought The Hunger Games for my Kindle for $8. Am currently finishing up Side Jobs. After Xmas, I may pick up Feast of Crows by Martin - but no rush, considering he's still working on it's sequel.
Okay off to make dinner. And watch tv. And hopefully get off my butt and buy Xmas gifts via Amazon.