Lately all that I seem to do is complain about time or my lack of it. Weekends rush by and I never seem to get done what I want to get done. Then I try to find time to relax when I am not stressing out over trying to get things done. The phrase vicious cycle might apply.
Since Tuesday I managed to do the following:
During an hour of quiet time, I made some more progress on the novel The Amber Spyglass. After for what for me seemed like too long of an absence, Iorek king of the bears has surfaced again in the story. He was missed by me and I am eager to see him take a larger role as he joins Will in the search for Lyra. Some more interaction with the icy Miss Coulter would also be nice and with four hundred pages left in the book, I have no doubt that that will happen at some time.
I watched eight episodes of the anime series Coyote Ragtime Show only to discover that Netflix does not have the third disc that has episodes nine through twelve on it. Sigh. Maybe I should have done more preliminary reading before I rented the series and was left hanging. It was not the best series that I have ever seen, but not being able to see the end did anger me slightly. I can see why there were some comparisons to Cowboy Bebop, but at the same time, I liked the characters in Cowboy Bebop more than any of the cast of Coyote Ragtime.
Well over a month since Christmas ended, I finally took the tree down this Wednesday. The tree itself was very dry, but didn’t create that big of a mess as I lowered it over the deck to the ground below. Then in the midst of a winter whiteout, I walked the tree across the street into the woods in the hope that no one saw me do said act. As far as I know where I left the tree is property where no one lives so an abandoned tree should not cause any problems. Plus I am hoping that it stays buried until spring and then as everything around it starts to turn green it will slowly decay and rot back into the ground. My primary reason for disposing of the tree in such a way is that from what I understand there is no tree pickup service where I live and I was not about to stuff a tree with loose needles into the trunk of my car to be carried elsewhere.
The five part series How Art Made the World filled my head with a variety of theories that almost overwhelmed me. It was the most information that has been sent my way in a long time. Where else would I encounter Gilgamesh, Trajan’s Column and Aboriginal paintings in the same conversation? Yes, there was a theme tying those three elements together, but it was connection that I never would have made on my own. All three of those things are forms of storytelling to an illiterate audience and in a way a true precursor to modern film making.
I agree with other reviews that said that the three episodes on disc one were more compelling than the two on the second disc, but overall I really liked the series and was amazed at all of ways that art shapes society. Episode one started with paintings found inside the caves at Altamira and ended with hilltop sanctuary in Turkey called Göbekli Tepe. The cave paintings were known to me, but the site in Turkey was a Middle Eastern version of Stonehenge so to speak, but without any astronomical connection as far as I understand. I could be wrong on that last point though.
Having almost reached the end of the mutant crossover event The Messiah Complex, I am ready to abandon every title involved. I like Mike Carey and adore the art of Chris Bachalo, but the two of them can not keep me reading X-Men. Plus from what I have seen online, Bachalo is leaving soon. Besides if I need some Carey writing in my life, I can always dive into his Vertigo book Crossing Midnight. Then over in X-Factor, Peter David has made me care about his cast of characters, but they are getting lost in the bigger picture that Marvel is shoving down the throats of their audience. I find it to be very off-putting, which is not their intention I suspect.
I sampled the first two albums by The Killers and am amazed that such good music came from an American band. Yes, I like The Shins, but their sound is so mild compared to the force and impact of The Killers. The songs Smile Like You Mean It and Read My Mind are both in heavy rotation for me.
]]>Sometimes my weekends are anything but relaxing and that is what happened to me over the past three days. Naturally not all of it was bad, but I do not like being on the go all of the time. Yes, it was nice that I managed to sell some books that I will never read again for some fast cash, but I also need my time to think. My mind becomes muddled when I don't have a moment or two to sort through what has happened to me through the course of a day. I seriously need to organize my thoughts or I start to feel irritable and annoyed with anything and everything around me. I have no idea if this feeling is unique to me or not, but that is the best way that I can describe how my mind functions.
I made a small of progress in the third installment of His Dark Materials trilogy, but I suspect that this book will take me more time than the first two. The first had the initial excitement of the story and the second was a shorter. Now that I am nearing the end, the excitement has started to wane and the overall length of the book far surpasses the first two in the series.
]]>I am proud of myself, because despite the fact that bitter cold has descended on the state and will linger for the next few days, I have managed to finish reading my first book of the year and kept a steady regimen of exercise going this month, both of which were goals of mine for this year. Having finished Pullman's The Subtle Knife, I am not sure if I want to continue right into the third part of the trilogy or not. I enjoyed both the first and second books, but part of me would like to switch gears into terms of pleasure reading.