![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatHad a lovely dinner of filet mignon marinated in red wine, green beans and carrots, Avanti pinot noir with dinner, and a pomegrante martini prior, with Jaques Torres Chocolates for desert.
Been thinking about New Year's Resolutions. I'm not very good at them. Can't even remember what my resolutions were last year. Suppose I could look it up, assuming I did it. But that would require work - I suck at tagging or indexing. I keep track of a million things at work, but am a bit on the absent-minded side of the bench in my personal life.
But I'm still pondering them. Spent five minutes trying to come up with a few during the evening vespers service at my church - we had a five minute meditation period. My mind was annoyingly blank.
1. Write creatively...it makes me less irritable. But to do this, have to stop writing on LJ so often, which appears to be making me more irritable. Livejournal is odd. It used to be very busy, but alas has changed. There's a smattering of folks still posting on my flist, but most, alas, have gone the way of the dodo. I keep meaning to defriend everyone who hasn't posted in a blue moon, but what would be the point? It's not like they are cluttering the reading list or anything. They are either not online or merely lurking. Life taking precedence to the time-consuming practice of blogging. Blogging isn't for everyone. I took to it like a cat to cream. Some people dabbled but never seemed happy with the format.
LJ...I have a love/hate relationship with. I love just rambling and blogging, I love writing about everything and anything, with relatively no editing and saying what I please. BUT I hate worrying over the reactions to said blogging, which being me, I do, and makes me insanely self-conscious about my writing and results in a creative writing block of epic proportions. Some people don't worry about such things, I envy these people. Want to trade gene pools? And yes, you'd think the worrying would stop the lj posting not the creative writing that never gets published...but no! It's the opposite. I want readers. Creative writing of stories = no readers. LJ blogging =readers. I also think it's because I get just enough encouragement to keep me going on lj, and not quite enough to keep me going with the creative endeavor either from the lj crowd or anyone else. I'm told that I'm a good writer, but not told I'm a good storyteller. I'd rather be a good storyteller. But I wonder over people's taste. IT's annoyingly subjective.
The last response I got to my story sort of gave me another epic writer's block. "You write beautifully, but your story isn't interesting to me, re-write it again and make it into a page turner, then maybe." Sigh.
2. Stress...need to find a way to relieve it. Lj is not working or not consistently. Thinking maybe Tai Chi. I've found a place in my area...that I might be able to try. It says it can relieve stress. Will call for an appointment. Only $29, so not bad. Yoga scares me, I'm like the Tin-man when it comes to Yoga. Have decided stress is the cause of all my problems: irritability, frustration, anxiety, depression, weight gain, and inability to motivate.
3. Social life - church appears to be working. But need more. Maybe pick a few meetups and do a few things? I need to stop letting work exhaustion get in the way. Need to go out to dinner with groups even if it means staying up too late. And plays. And other activities.
4. Work...try to keep it out of my personal life and not take it home with me. Hard to do. I still have nightmares about unemployment. I fear it. So kill myself to do well at my job, always half-afraid of losing it. And afraid of failing and never advancing. Hard to understand unless you've been unemployed a lot or laid-off a lot. It can be debilitating. Eats away at one's self-esteem, confidence. You always feel as if no matter what you do, it just is NOT good enough. That there's something wrong with you. That you are lacking in some way. You know in your heart this is not true, but it is hard to fight against that self-doubt. But I must. I have to learn how to build a life outside of a job, how to leave the job behind me and not worry too much about it.
5. Social Action/Justice/Volunteer Work - it's important to me to contribute to society. So I need to find a way of doing it. Stop making excuses. Do more somehow. This means going to Weaving the Fabric of Diversity meetings more and getting more involved and not let work exhaustion get in the way.
6. Weight loss and Exercise...sigh. Weight Watchers didn't work - no time to track it and I kept forgetting. Too much to keep track of already. But it did make me aware of what I was eating and how to change it. I've stopped doing starches at meals. Now need to cut back on drinking alcohol. Bad habit. That's the big one. Also need to find an exercise that I enjoy - that helps with stress and weight loss and makes you happier.
I'd like to start running again or jogging, but don't have the ability yet. Maybe Tai Chi is a start and then move towards...Fitness Collective, although that is more expensive and more strenuous. Did manage to lose 15 pounds and keep 15 pounds off, I know it is relatively nothing...but it is a start, right?
7. Read more watch less. Read a lot of silly stuff this year. Can't remember 90% of it. Which may be why I read it - so it wouldn't take up memory space. But reading does help.
I watch too much tv, I think.
If I can find a way to control the stress...I think I will have accomplished something. The anxiety I felt this year was almost crippling. I was literally sick before both plane flights, a first. I'm rarely sick before flights - but I let anxiety get the better of me.
And anxiety kept me from advancing career wise, as well as going to numerous meetup groups and social functions. It's hurting me. I need to find a way to fight back. To control it.
Therapists don't help (been there done that), this is something you have to do yourself.
Find a way to reduce stress. To let it roll over you. Not worry over the uncontrollables and the unknowable variables.
Also I get so angry at things I can't do anything about. Like the frigging heat in my building and political crap. Irritability. And yes, part of it is due to perimenopause, but a lot of it is stress related. Writer's bloq is stress related. If I can find a way to diminish the stress - without alcohol (which also helps with the tremor by the way - does away with it completely) and/or chocolate...I'll be ahead of the game.
So my main or number one NEW YEAR's Resolution? Find a way to safely de-stress in a heathly manner that furthers my life, not diminishes it.
Year-End Stuff
1. Favorite/Notable TV Shows of 2012
1.Breaking Bad (although S5 did not live up to S4 and S3) - still the watching of Walter Whites slide into moral depravity, the excuses and rationalizations he makes along the way is reminiscent of a modern day Macbeth, with Skyler White doing a pitch perfect Lady MacBeth.
2. Mad Men - Women found their way, but often with great moral sacrifice.
3. True Blood ( I found it better than most did, loved Tara and loved Bill/Eric)
4. Game of Thrones (not as good as S1, but still better than book 2)
5. Justified (not as good as last year, but notable)
6. Revenge (fun soap...if convoluted)
7. Vamp Diaries (favorite guilty pleasure and rather haunting in some ways, it's a show I should hate but find myself eating up like creamy fudge...unable to get enough.)
8. The Good Wife (best procedural)
9. Doctor Who (best romantic pairings/married couples - Amy/Rory and Dr. Song/Dr. Who)
10. Big Bang Theory - funniest comedy
11. Once Upon a Time (show that I keep wishing was better than it is, but does have great female characters and relationships.)
12. Walking Dead (surprised me, it really took off in 2012...and the Governor and Michonne were nice additions, even if Michonne reminded me a bit too much of the First Slayer.)
13. Grey's Anatomy...which seems to get better in the latter seasons, also kick-ass female relationships that surpass the Alison Bechdel test.
Note: neither Downton Abbey nor Merlin has aired in the US yet. And I have not seen Homeland so can't comment on it.
2. Favorite Movies
1. Lincoln
2. Brave - animated film
3. Les Miserables
4. Life of Pi
5. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Daniel Craig version)
6. Skyfall
7. Hunger Games
8. The Avengers (Cabin in the Woods was trippy, but I couldn't watch it - and almost left twice (couldn't watch Alien or Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Scanners or most of the movies referenced in the flick either), slasher/torture films and me are unmixy things. I like psychological horror better.)
Have not seen Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Chronicle, Spiderman, or Argo.
3. Favorite Books or Notable books... read a lot this year, but can only think of 6 that are memorable or noteworthy.
1. * 50 shades of grey - yes I know, but it was a witty if at times overt send-up of the contemporary boddice ripper/BDSM romance novel, and an unintentionally hilarious send-up, poking fun at the Twilight romance, fanfic porn, and rewriting classic romance tropes.
Hilarious in places, particularly if you have spent any time in a fandom or reading romantic fanfic. Best bit was the two lead characters debating a BDSM contract by email, and never signing it or following through on it. And the writer made delicious fun of net-speak or net-cursing - with over-use of words like holy crap - which anyone who has been on a fan discussion forum or facebook has seen done to death (yes, people, we fans overuse certain words and EL James wittily underlines it). Mind-numbingly dull in others. A mixed bag. And definitely not to everyone's tastes. If you loved Twilight, you probably hated this because it did "gently" make fun of you. And if you've never read fanfic, been on a fan forum, or read an erotic BDSM novel or contemporary bodice ripper - the humor most likely will leap over your head.
2. The People of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shinai Bnai...amazing novel, that still haunts me, after reading it over six months ago. It's a story told from the points of view of three different women, all serving their time in the Israeli Armed Forces. We get their stories from the period before their service, during, and immediately after. A book that depicts the price of violence, how it permeates society, and the boredom of it.
3.Under the Skin by Michael Faber - a disturbing allegorical novel about being human that reminds me a great deal of George Orwell, Rod Sterling and Kafka amongst others. To say too much, gives it away. It's about Isely, an odd woman, who picks up "hunky" male hitch-hikers. The book is split between Isely and the hitchhiker's pov and says some very interesting things about gender politics and what it means to be human and to be an animal. What she does with them...is the horror story. Beautifully written, if horrifically so. It stays with you long after you've read it. Perhaps the most disturbing and horrifying book that I've read.
4. Feast of Crows by George RR Martin - Martin's books are grim but they do stay with you and his characters get under your skin, burrow beneath it and take up residence there.
I vividly see Bree journeying through the Forest...with her rag-tale crew only to run abreast of her own worst nightmares. And then there's the twins, Cersei and Jamie drifting further apart, on a mutual course of mutual destruction. You know, without quite being told, that they will undoubtedly be the deaths of each other. It doesn't happen here...but you can't help but wonder. Martin plays with the difficult human emotions and choices, and his books read like a parable of our difficult times - stating quite clearly the price of war, of sustained violence, of power for power's sake...of putting oneself above all others.
There are no good guys or bad guys in Martin's tale...just human beings struggling to find their way and making crazy choices.
5. Flowers From the Storm by Laurie Kinsale - very odd romance novel. It's about a man who suffers a severe stroke back in the 1800s, before such things were understood.
He is nursed back to health by a Quaker, who becomes his reluctant advocate. Flawed though it is, it does say some interesting things about religious devotion, classism, power, and
faith along with the strength of the human spirit.
6.A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison - also flawed, but an interesting supernatural thriller about racism. The main plot is about a bunch of humans who decide to rid their world of supernatural beings, by creating a devolution virus. It's about power and fear of losing control. Uneven at times...but also interesting, as are the developing and at times twisty relationships.
ETA: And of course I forgot Fault in Our Stars by John Green which was by far the best romance novel that I read and the most memorable novel I've read in the last two years. Not the fault of the book, just the fault in me. Brain is wonky.
Can't include Cold Days by Butcher - haven't finished it yet. It's good, but way too much action and exposition. Every five minutes Butcher has Harry explaining something or other to the reader. Yes, yes, I want to tell Butcher, I get that you think women and men converse differently but this rant is unnecessary - where is your editor? Taking a nap? And people tell me I need to tighten up my writing. Also the long discourse on boating and water is sleep-inducing. Enuf exposition - get to the bloody point. He's not very good at relationship dialogue, is he? He keeps trying to avoid it. I think the writer is getting tired. The last two books weren't as good as Changes or the one's before Changes.
Looking forward to in 2013?
I don't know. I'm weirdly spontaneous. My mind changes as does my mood. There are things that looked interesting in the lengthy section of previews before Lincoln, but they are just trailers. At times I feel overwhelmed by our culture - there's too much of it.
TV? I'd like to try Homeland, and am curious about the finale season of Dexter...also the returns of SMASH, Justified, Bunheads, Dowton Abbey, Doctor Who, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones. Mixed feelings about Whedon's "SHEILD" which feels like another war story and I'm sick of those. Am admittedly more curious about Julie Benze playing a sheriff in the sy-fy thriller serial Defiance. Also, anticipating Gaiman's American Gods, assuming it ever comes about.
Books? Eh. Nothing really coming up outside of Kim Harrison's Ever After and Dance of Dragons which I haven't gotten to yet - because I like to read George RR Martin slowly...so that I can fully digest his characters and let them burrow their way into my head. In my queue are "Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie", Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Bleak House by Charles Dickens, North and South by Elizabeth Gatskill, White Forest by Adam McCombre, amongst others.
Movies? Catching Fire (I liked this book in some respects better than Hunger Games, more disturbing and better satire). Beautiful Creatures - just for the marvelously campy Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons. The Hobbit - Part II - mainly because it will most likely be better than the first one, although will have giant spiders which I can do without. Wish the spiders were more fake looking than the eagles. Jackson is better at creating monsters for some reason and insects, than pretty birds. OZ...because it looks interesting. The Lone Ranger - for Johnny Depp. And Iron Man 3...because awesome trailer. Ditto for Man of Steel and the fact that I like Christopher Nolan films...which makes no sense I know.
But...I'm mainly looking forward to having more vacation time - 16 days instead of just 11, I think. Which means I can book a trip that is not around my parents or immediate family for the first time in twelve years. Yes, it has been that long. The downside of having your parents live a long ways from you - is all your vacations are to see them. Just don't know where I want to go...or who with. More time away from work. I want to focus more on my personal/private life this year and less on career which appears to be thankless and cold.
It's not worth me investing as much energy as I have. Need to invest less and care less. And focus energy on something or someone else.
Tonight? For the moment is really all we've got...tomorrow is miles away and out of our control, as is yesterday. So tonight - I've opted for a warm apartment and Audra McDonald et al singing Marvin Hamlish songs on PBS...with cocktails and ice cream over the cold, St. John The Divine Cathedrale and Judy Collins singing Mozart on the upper West Side. This says a lot about me, doesn't it? ;-)
Been thinking about New Year's Resolutions. I'm not very good at them. Can't even remember what my resolutions were last year. Suppose I could look it up, assuming I did it. But that would require work - I suck at tagging or indexing. I keep track of a million things at work, but am a bit on the absent-minded side of the bench in my personal life.
But I'm still pondering them. Spent five minutes trying to come up with a few during the evening vespers service at my church - we had a five minute meditation period. My mind was annoyingly blank.
1. Write creatively...it makes me less irritable. But to do this, have to stop writing on LJ so often, which appears to be making me more irritable. Livejournal is odd. It used to be very busy, but alas has changed. There's a smattering of folks still posting on my flist, but most, alas, have gone the way of the dodo. I keep meaning to defriend everyone who hasn't posted in a blue moon, but what would be the point? It's not like they are cluttering the reading list or anything. They are either not online or merely lurking. Life taking precedence to the time-consuming practice of blogging. Blogging isn't for everyone. I took to it like a cat to cream. Some people dabbled but never seemed happy with the format.
LJ...I have a love/hate relationship with. I love just rambling and blogging, I love writing about everything and anything, with relatively no editing and saying what I please. BUT I hate worrying over the reactions to said blogging, which being me, I do, and makes me insanely self-conscious about my writing and results in a creative writing block of epic proportions. Some people don't worry about such things, I envy these people. Want to trade gene pools? And yes, you'd think the worrying would stop the lj posting not the creative writing that never gets published...but no! It's the opposite. I want readers. Creative writing of stories = no readers. LJ blogging =readers. I also think it's because I get just enough encouragement to keep me going on lj, and not quite enough to keep me going with the creative endeavor either from the lj crowd or anyone else. I'm told that I'm a good writer, but not told I'm a good storyteller. I'd rather be a good storyteller. But I wonder over people's taste. IT's annoyingly subjective.
The last response I got to my story sort of gave me another epic writer's block. "You write beautifully, but your story isn't interesting to me, re-write it again and make it into a page turner, then maybe." Sigh.
2. Stress...need to find a way to relieve it. Lj is not working or not consistently. Thinking maybe Tai Chi. I've found a place in my area...that I might be able to try. It says it can relieve stress. Will call for an appointment. Only $29, so not bad. Yoga scares me, I'm like the Tin-man when it comes to Yoga. Have decided stress is the cause of all my problems: irritability, frustration, anxiety, depression, weight gain, and inability to motivate.
3. Social life - church appears to be working. But need more. Maybe pick a few meetups and do a few things? I need to stop letting work exhaustion get in the way. Need to go out to dinner with groups even if it means staying up too late. And plays. And other activities.
4. Work...try to keep it out of my personal life and not take it home with me. Hard to do. I still have nightmares about unemployment. I fear it. So kill myself to do well at my job, always half-afraid of losing it. And afraid of failing and never advancing. Hard to understand unless you've been unemployed a lot or laid-off a lot. It can be debilitating. Eats away at one's self-esteem, confidence. You always feel as if no matter what you do, it just is NOT good enough. That there's something wrong with you. That you are lacking in some way. You know in your heart this is not true, but it is hard to fight against that self-doubt. But I must. I have to learn how to build a life outside of a job, how to leave the job behind me and not worry too much about it.
5. Social Action/Justice/Volunteer Work - it's important to me to contribute to society. So I need to find a way of doing it. Stop making excuses. Do more somehow. This means going to Weaving the Fabric of Diversity meetings more and getting more involved and not let work exhaustion get in the way.
6. Weight loss and Exercise...sigh. Weight Watchers didn't work - no time to track it and I kept forgetting. Too much to keep track of already. But it did make me aware of what I was eating and how to change it. I've stopped doing starches at meals. Now need to cut back on drinking alcohol. Bad habit. That's the big one. Also need to find an exercise that I enjoy - that helps with stress and weight loss and makes you happier.
I'd like to start running again or jogging, but don't have the ability yet. Maybe Tai Chi is a start and then move towards...Fitness Collective, although that is more expensive and more strenuous. Did manage to lose 15 pounds and keep 15 pounds off, I know it is relatively nothing...but it is a start, right?
7. Read more watch less. Read a lot of silly stuff this year. Can't remember 90% of it. Which may be why I read it - so it wouldn't take up memory space. But reading does help.
I watch too much tv, I think.
If I can find a way to control the stress...I think I will have accomplished something. The anxiety I felt this year was almost crippling. I was literally sick before both plane flights, a first. I'm rarely sick before flights - but I let anxiety get the better of me.
And anxiety kept me from advancing career wise, as well as going to numerous meetup groups and social functions. It's hurting me. I need to find a way to fight back. To control it.
Therapists don't help (been there done that), this is something you have to do yourself.
Find a way to reduce stress. To let it roll over you. Not worry over the uncontrollables and the unknowable variables.
Also I get so angry at things I can't do anything about. Like the frigging heat in my building and political crap. Irritability. And yes, part of it is due to perimenopause, but a lot of it is stress related. Writer's bloq is stress related. If I can find a way to diminish the stress - without alcohol (which also helps with the tremor by the way - does away with it completely) and/or chocolate...I'll be ahead of the game.
So my main or number one NEW YEAR's Resolution? Find a way to safely de-stress in a heathly manner that furthers my life, not diminishes it.
Year-End Stuff
1. Favorite/Notable TV Shows of 2012
1.Breaking Bad (although S5 did not live up to S4 and S3) - still the watching of Walter Whites slide into moral depravity, the excuses and rationalizations he makes along the way is reminiscent of a modern day Macbeth, with Skyler White doing a pitch perfect Lady MacBeth.
2. Mad Men - Women found their way, but often with great moral sacrifice.
3. True Blood ( I found it better than most did, loved Tara and loved Bill/Eric)
4. Game of Thrones (not as good as S1, but still better than book 2)
5. Justified (not as good as last year, but notable)
6. Revenge (fun soap...if convoluted)
7. Vamp Diaries (favorite guilty pleasure and rather haunting in some ways, it's a show I should hate but find myself eating up like creamy fudge...unable to get enough.)
8. The Good Wife (best procedural)
9. Doctor Who (best romantic pairings/married couples - Amy/Rory and Dr. Song/Dr. Who)
10. Big Bang Theory - funniest comedy
11. Once Upon a Time (show that I keep wishing was better than it is, but does have great female characters and relationships.)
12. Walking Dead (surprised me, it really took off in 2012...and the Governor and Michonne were nice additions, even if Michonne reminded me a bit too much of the First Slayer.)
13. Grey's Anatomy...which seems to get better in the latter seasons, also kick-ass female relationships that surpass the Alison Bechdel test.
Note: neither Downton Abbey nor Merlin has aired in the US yet. And I have not seen Homeland so can't comment on it.
2. Favorite Movies
1. Lincoln
2. Brave - animated film
3. Les Miserables
4. Life of Pi
5. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Daniel Craig version)
6. Skyfall
7. Hunger Games
8. The Avengers (Cabin in the Woods was trippy, but I couldn't watch it - and almost left twice (couldn't watch Alien or Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Scanners or most of the movies referenced in the flick either), slasher/torture films and me are unmixy things. I like psychological horror better.)
Have not seen Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Chronicle, Spiderman, or Argo.
3. Favorite Books or Notable books... read a lot this year, but can only think of 6 that are memorable or noteworthy.
1. * 50 shades of grey - yes I know, but it was a witty if at times overt send-up of the contemporary boddice ripper/BDSM romance novel, and an unintentionally hilarious send-up, poking fun at the Twilight romance, fanfic porn, and rewriting classic romance tropes.
Hilarious in places, particularly if you have spent any time in a fandom or reading romantic fanfic. Best bit was the two lead characters debating a BDSM contract by email, and never signing it or following through on it. And the writer made delicious fun of net-speak or net-cursing - with over-use of words like holy crap - which anyone who has been on a fan discussion forum or facebook has seen done to death (yes, people, we fans overuse certain words and EL James wittily underlines it). Mind-numbingly dull in others. A mixed bag. And definitely not to everyone's tastes. If you loved Twilight, you probably hated this because it did "gently" make fun of you. And if you've never read fanfic, been on a fan forum, or read an erotic BDSM novel or contemporary bodice ripper - the humor most likely will leap over your head.
2. The People of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shinai Bnai...amazing novel, that still haunts me, after reading it over six months ago. It's a story told from the points of view of three different women, all serving their time in the Israeli Armed Forces. We get their stories from the period before their service, during, and immediately after. A book that depicts the price of violence, how it permeates society, and the boredom of it.
3.Under the Skin by Michael Faber - a disturbing allegorical novel about being human that reminds me a great deal of George Orwell, Rod Sterling and Kafka amongst others. To say too much, gives it away. It's about Isely, an odd woman, who picks up "hunky" male hitch-hikers. The book is split between Isely and the hitchhiker's pov and says some very interesting things about gender politics and what it means to be human and to be an animal. What she does with them...is the horror story. Beautifully written, if horrifically so. It stays with you long after you've read it. Perhaps the most disturbing and horrifying book that I've read.
4. Feast of Crows by George RR Martin - Martin's books are grim but they do stay with you and his characters get under your skin, burrow beneath it and take up residence there.
I vividly see Bree journeying through the Forest...with her rag-tale crew only to run abreast of her own worst nightmares. And then there's the twins, Cersei and Jamie drifting further apart, on a mutual course of mutual destruction. You know, without quite being told, that they will undoubtedly be the deaths of each other. It doesn't happen here...but you can't help but wonder. Martin plays with the difficult human emotions and choices, and his books read like a parable of our difficult times - stating quite clearly the price of war, of sustained violence, of power for power's sake...of putting oneself above all others.
There are no good guys or bad guys in Martin's tale...just human beings struggling to find their way and making crazy choices.
5. Flowers From the Storm by Laurie Kinsale - very odd romance novel. It's about a man who suffers a severe stroke back in the 1800s, before such things were understood.
He is nursed back to health by a Quaker, who becomes his reluctant advocate. Flawed though it is, it does say some interesting things about religious devotion, classism, power, and
faith along with the strength of the human spirit.
6.A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison - also flawed, but an interesting supernatural thriller about racism. The main plot is about a bunch of humans who decide to rid their world of supernatural beings, by creating a devolution virus. It's about power and fear of losing control. Uneven at times...but also interesting, as are the developing and at times twisty relationships.
ETA: And of course I forgot Fault in Our Stars by John Green which was by far the best romance novel that I read and the most memorable novel I've read in the last two years. Not the fault of the book, just the fault in me. Brain is wonky.
Can't include Cold Days by Butcher - haven't finished it yet. It's good, but way too much action and exposition. Every five minutes Butcher has Harry explaining something or other to the reader. Yes, yes, I want to tell Butcher, I get that you think women and men converse differently but this rant is unnecessary - where is your editor? Taking a nap? And people tell me I need to tighten up my writing. Also the long discourse on boating and water is sleep-inducing. Enuf exposition - get to the bloody point. He's not very good at relationship dialogue, is he? He keeps trying to avoid it. I think the writer is getting tired. The last two books weren't as good as Changes or the one's before Changes.
Looking forward to in 2013?
I don't know. I'm weirdly spontaneous. My mind changes as does my mood. There are things that looked interesting in the lengthy section of previews before Lincoln, but they are just trailers. At times I feel overwhelmed by our culture - there's too much of it.
TV? I'd like to try Homeland, and am curious about the finale season of Dexter...also the returns of SMASH, Justified, Bunheads, Dowton Abbey, Doctor Who, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones. Mixed feelings about Whedon's "SHEILD" which feels like another war story and I'm sick of those. Am admittedly more curious about Julie Benze playing a sheriff in the sy-fy thriller serial Defiance. Also, anticipating Gaiman's American Gods, assuming it ever comes about.
Books? Eh. Nothing really coming up outside of Kim Harrison's Ever After and Dance of Dragons which I haven't gotten to yet - because I like to read George RR Martin slowly...so that I can fully digest his characters and let them burrow their way into my head. In my queue are "Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie", Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Bleak House by Charles Dickens, North and South by Elizabeth Gatskill, White Forest by Adam McCombre, amongst others.
Movies? Catching Fire (I liked this book in some respects better than Hunger Games, more disturbing and better satire). Beautiful Creatures - just for the marvelously campy Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons. The Hobbit - Part II - mainly because it will most likely be better than the first one, although will have giant spiders which I can do without. Wish the spiders were more fake looking than the eagles. Jackson is better at creating monsters for some reason and insects, than pretty birds. OZ...because it looks interesting. The Lone Ranger - for Johnny Depp. And Iron Man 3...because awesome trailer. Ditto for Man of Steel and the fact that I like Christopher Nolan films...which makes no sense I know.
But...I'm mainly looking forward to having more vacation time - 16 days instead of just 11, I think. Which means I can book a trip that is not around my parents or immediate family for the first time in twelve years. Yes, it has been that long. The downside of having your parents live a long ways from you - is all your vacations are to see them. Just don't know where I want to go...or who with. More time away from work. I want to focus more on my personal/private life this year and less on career which appears to be thankless and cold.
It's not worth me investing as much energy as I have. Need to invest less and care less. And focus energy on something or someone else.
Tonight? For the moment is really all we've got...tomorrow is miles away and out of our control, as is yesterday. So tonight - I've opted for a warm apartment and Audra McDonald et al singing Marvin Hamlish songs on PBS...with cocktails and ice cream over the cold, St. John The Divine Cathedrale and Judy Collins singing Mozart on the upper West Side. This says a lot about me, doesn't it? ;-)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 02:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 05:13 am (UTC)Which is weird, because I do remember the plot of that one better than others...just forgot to list it in the post above.