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Been a rough and tumble week, the highlight was the Moth Grandslam that a friend invited me to on Wed night. She was one of the finalists. The Moth is a story telling slam, you get up on stage, tell a five minute story, and random audience member judges rate it. The grand slam is ten people who have won the last ten Moths. I loved it, but I'm not sure the competition quite worked. It has rules apparently and the judges ignored the rules in order to pick the funniest story. Which I found sort of... But the stories were wonderful. The theme was stepping outside of your comfort zone...which I've been struggling to do more and more lately.
Last night my toilet almost overflooded. It was 11 PM. I was panicking. Tomorrow I will hunt down a plunger, in case it happens again. Although what I did last night was use a pan to empty it of water and tossed the water down the kitchen sink and in the tub. The sink worked better -- even though further away. It worked, never flooded onto the floor and finally flushed clean. Grateful. Very very grateful. It's moments like that - that make me grateful I have a working toilet. I could not live without a toilet.
On FB, my uncle told a tale about getting his first mammogram, apparently he had a lump in his breast.
After going through my aunt's breast cancer scare, he wisely had it checked out. It was rather funny.
He's six foot. The screener was five foot. She had to stand on a stool to fit his uncooperating boob into the scanner. He okay. Turned out to be a false alarm.
Reading Meme
1. What I just finished reading?
Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs -- this is the last book in her series to date. It's not quite as well paced as the last two, but the character development is better, as are the antagonists or challenge. Also she has a unique take on fairy tales and the fae, which I rather enjoyed -- references heavily the folklore that came from Germany, Wales and Ireland. Apparently the author has a background in German history and fairy tales.
I don't think Briggs is as good as Andrews, or rather I didn't enjoy her writing and stories as much as I did Andrews Kate Daniels series. Andrews was wittier. But it really is just a matter of personal taste. My mother, for example, doesn't like urban fantasy -- anything in the horror genre or encroaching it turns her off. She finds it unbelievable and silly. I don't know why. I love the metaphors, so it works for me. I think metaphorically, and that may well be the difference? (shrugs)
2. What I am reading now?
Still reading Hamilton - this will take a while, it's too big to cart around with me on my commute and the words are too small to read on subways anyhow without reading glasses (not conducive to subways), and I have to be in the mood to read it at night. I'm not generally speaking a fan of historical biographies or history texts in general. I find the writing to be a bit on the dry side and overly stiff and formal, as if I'm listening to a lecture by some old English Prof in a monotone.
Academic writing never has appealed to me. Not that reading, writing and editing Contracts, technical statements of work for construction and environmental engineering projects, financial reports, technical proposals, and cost proposals for a living is easier. Actually it is worse. Ironic that. I read dryer text at work. It would have been much easier reading and critiquing and editing Hamilton or some historical text. Although that may explain why I don't want to read non-fiction on my commute.
A lot of my co-workers don't read at all. Work is enough for them. They'll read the newspaper, but that's about it.
The newspapers have been surprising lately. All the NY newspapers, including the conservative ones, are ripping apart Donald Trump on a daily basis. It's as if the entire NY media, regardless of where you fall politically, has decided Trump is insane and it must ensure that everyone knows this immediately. (Not that I disagree, just not sure it's doing any good.)
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle - also will take a while. It's hard to read. He doesn't write directly about things, he sort of writes around them. I have to read the sentence or paragraph two or three times to figure out what he's trying to say. Because it's not a book for the mind but the spirit, which is all very well and good, except the mind is reading the book not the spirit, and the mind has to communicate it to the spirit somehow.
I keep wondering if I'm doing it wrong -- because I can stay in the moment for about ...an hour or two, until whammo, I'm worrying about how to resolve such and such. Also still having issues with compulsive habits -- which according to Tolle arise from a state of deep unconsciousness or maybe it is ordinary unconsciousness? Anyhow I went online today to read reviews, and read a somewhat helpful one which said, while the book is good in places, it's flawed in that Tolle seems to state that this is all easy, and just came to him out of the blue, when in reality it comes from Buddhism and Hindu philosophy and has been taught and studied for centuries. Also it is not easy or obvious and people spend years of practice in meditation, yoga, etc to get there. It's an on-going thing. Tolle, according to the reviewer has oversimplified it and may be confusing people.
Except I'm not sure I want to wade through translated philosophical texts. I'll stick with Power of Now for now.
Anyhow - this is why I'm not a huge fan of self-help books. Somewhere in the middle of the book, I start wondering about the guru and lose the text. It works up to a point then just stops. I don't think I've ever finished a self-help book. No wait, I have. I read the Four Agreements, but it was admittedly short.
What I'm Reading next?
Outside of the books above? Either a book of Briggs short stories about supporting characters in her series. Or the October Daye series that someone on my flist or lj recommended a while back (which is a bit dicey because to date I haven't liked any of the books that my flist or lj has directly recommended to me. Sorry about that flist. Not your fault. But when it comes time to review it -- I worry that I'll piss the person off. How do you tell a friend that you didn't like the book they loved?? Book clubs are interesting experiences in that way as well -- every once and a while the club will love a book that I hated or hate a book that I loved, it's especially troubling when you are the only one that hated it.)
I try to review all the books I read mainly so I can remember them or keep track of them. IF I don't I'll forget about the book in a week or two.
Considering reading the Spymaster series. I crave a romance novel right now. What can I say, it's that time of month.
Last night my toilet almost overflooded. It was 11 PM. I was panicking. Tomorrow I will hunt down a plunger, in case it happens again. Although what I did last night was use a pan to empty it of water and tossed the water down the kitchen sink and in the tub. The sink worked better -- even though further away. It worked, never flooded onto the floor and finally flushed clean. Grateful. Very very grateful. It's moments like that - that make me grateful I have a working toilet. I could not live without a toilet.
On FB, my uncle told a tale about getting his first mammogram, apparently he had a lump in his breast.
After going through my aunt's breast cancer scare, he wisely had it checked out. It was rather funny.
He's six foot. The screener was five foot. She had to stand on a stool to fit his uncooperating boob into the scanner. He okay. Turned out to be a false alarm.
Reading Meme
1. What I just finished reading?
Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs -- this is the last book in her series to date. It's not quite as well paced as the last two, but the character development is better, as are the antagonists or challenge. Also she has a unique take on fairy tales and the fae, which I rather enjoyed -- references heavily the folklore that came from Germany, Wales and Ireland. Apparently the author has a background in German history and fairy tales.
I don't think Briggs is as good as Andrews, or rather I didn't enjoy her writing and stories as much as I did Andrews Kate Daniels series. Andrews was wittier. But it really is just a matter of personal taste. My mother, for example, doesn't like urban fantasy -- anything in the horror genre or encroaching it turns her off. She finds it unbelievable and silly. I don't know why. I love the metaphors, so it works for me. I think metaphorically, and that may well be the difference? (shrugs)
2. What I am reading now?
Still reading Hamilton - this will take a while, it's too big to cart around with me on my commute and the words are too small to read on subways anyhow without reading glasses (not conducive to subways), and I have to be in the mood to read it at night. I'm not generally speaking a fan of historical biographies or history texts in general. I find the writing to be a bit on the dry side and overly stiff and formal, as if I'm listening to a lecture by some old English Prof in a monotone.
Academic writing never has appealed to me. Not that reading, writing and editing Contracts, technical statements of work for construction and environmental engineering projects, financial reports, technical proposals, and cost proposals for a living is easier. Actually it is worse. Ironic that. I read dryer text at work. It would have been much easier reading and critiquing and editing Hamilton or some historical text. Although that may explain why I don't want to read non-fiction on my commute.
A lot of my co-workers don't read at all. Work is enough for them. They'll read the newspaper, but that's about it.
The newspapers have been surprising lately. All the NY newspapers, including the conservative ones, are ripping apart Donald Trump on a daily basis. It's as if the entire NY media, regardless of where you fall politically, has decided Trump is insane and it must ensure that everyone knows this immediately. (Not that I disagree, just not sure it's doing any good.)
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle - also will take a while. It's hard to read. He doesn't write directly about things, he sort of writes around them. I have to read the sentence or paragraph two or three times to figure out what he's trying to say. Because it's not a book for the mind but the spirit, which is all very well and good, except the mind is reading the book not the spirit, and the mind has to communicate it to the spirit somehow.
I keep wondering if I'm doing it wrong -- because I can stay in the moment for about ...an hour or two, until whammo, I'm worrying about how to resolve such and such. Also still having issues with compulsive habits -- which according to Tolle arise from a state of deep unconsciousness or maybe it is ordinary unconsciousness? Anyhow I went online today to read reviews, and read a somewhat helpful one which said, while the book is good in places, it's flawed in that Tolle seems to state that this is all easy, and just came to him out of the blue, when in reality it comes from Buddhism and Hindu philosophy and has been taught and studied for centuries. Also it is not easy or obvious and people spend years of practice in meditation, yoga, etc to get there. It's an on-going thing. Tolle, according to the reviewer has oversimplified it and may be confusing people.
Except I'm not sure I want to wade through translated philosophical texts. I'll stick with Power of Now for now.
Anyhow - this is why I'm not a huge fan of self-help books. Somewhere in the middle of the book, I start wondering about the guru and lose the text. It works up to a point then just stops. I don't think I've ever finished a self-help book. No wait, I have. I read the Four Agreements, but it was admittedly short.
What I'm Reading next?
Outside of the books above? Either a book of Briggs short stories about supporting characters in her series. Or the October Daye series that someone on my flist or lj recommended a while back (which is a bit dicey because to date I haven't liked any of the books that my flist or lj has directly recommended to me. Sorry about that flist. Not your fault. But when it comes time to review it -- I worry that I'll piss the person off. How do you tell a friend that you didn't like the book they loved?? Book clubs are interesting experiences in that way as well -- every once and a while the club will love a book that I hated or hate a book that I loved, it's especially troubling when you are the only one that hated it.)
I try to review all the books I read mainly so I can remember them or keep track of them. IF I don't I'll forget about the book in a week or two.
Considering reading the Spymaster series. I crave a romance novel right now. What can I say, it's that time of month.