grinninfoole

Spotted on trovia 's LJ.  "List fifteen of your favorite characters from different fandoms, and ask people to spot patterns in your choices, if they're so inclined."  Once I got thinking about it, they kept coming, but I'll stop at 21, because I have to meet someone.

1) Elim Garak (Star Trek Deep Space Nine)
2) Parker (Leverage)
3) Cliff Steele (Doom Patrol)
4) Toshiko Sato (Torchwood)
5) Josiah Bartlet (West Wing)
6) Lee Adama (Battlestar Galactica)
7) The Doctor (Splendid chap, all of them) Dr. Who
8) Uncle Iroh (Avatar The Last Airbender)
9) Sam Axe (Burn Notice)
10) Hurley (Lost)
11) Veronica Mars 
12) Mr. Spock
13) Walter Bishop (Fringe)
14) Triana Orpheus (Venture Brothers)
15) Kaylee (Firefly)
16) Elan (Order Of The Stick)
17) Trinity (the Matrix)
18) Inigo Montoya (the Princess Bride)
19) Sam Vimes (Discworld)
20) Tyrion Lannister (Song of Fire & Ice)
21) Lisbeth Salander

(I can't pick one for Babylon 5; how did I choose between Ivanova, Garibaldi, Franklin, G'kar and Vir?)

Here are lyrics from a dozen songs that have been in my head recently.  If you feel moved to do so, you may write to me identifying the songs, and I'll post an update giving you credit for your musical erudition.

I'm working on more involved post about the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but it was busy at the store today, so for now, this:

( Twelve snatches of song )

In case I lack the oomph to get around to it before then, happy holidays to you all, my friends.

The rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.


( Giving it up for Andee )

I must admit, I'm curious to see what any of you might have to say.  Post your answers in my comments, if you like.


1. Your Middle Name:
2. Age:
3. Single or Taken:
4. Favorite Movie:
5. Favorite Song or Album:
6. Favorite Band/Artist:
7. Dirty or Clean:
8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:
9. Do we know each other outside of LJ?
10. What's your philosophy on life?
11. Is the bottle half-full or half-empty?
12. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
13. What is your favorite memory of us?
14. What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
15. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
16. You can have three wishes (for yourself, so forget all the 'world peace etc' malarky) - what are they?
17. Can we get together and make a cake?
18. Which country is your spiritual home?
19. What is your big weakness?
20. Do you think I'm a good person?
21. What was your best/favorite subject at school?
22. Describe your accent
23. If you could change anything about me, would you?
24. What do you wear to sleep?
25. Trousers or skirts?
26. Cigarettes or alcohol?
27. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together? (If you have no idea, just say something crazy, it'll entertain me!)
28. Will you repost this so I can fill it out for you?

sundart asked me some questions last month.

My answers are below the cut.  If you'd like me to ask you some questions, just ask me to do so in the comments below.

( Important information about my favorite subject )

One of my goals this year was to read 50 books.  I think I made it, but I'm not sure, as I haven't kept track this year and I'm trying to remember everything I read.  Let's see, looking over my LJ, I see that I have read the following:

I started the year by reading Christopher Paolini's regrettable Eragon, and Mark Smylie's excellent Artesia books (Artesia, Artesia Afield and Artesia Afire).  Also, I took part in a reading of Richard III, so I think that counts, too.

More recently,  I read the Undercover Economist, Pattern Recognition (by William Gibson), The Tipping Point, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Black Dossier, and Cloud Atlas (which was absolutely terrific), Boarding The Enterprise (a collection of essays about Star Trek) and The Other Wind by Ursula LeGuin (what a great capper to the Earthsea stories).


Earlier this year, I read a book called, I think, Voice of the Beast that L&E were chucking--a forgettable fantasy novel.  I read Red Lightning and Mammoth by John Varley.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Queen & Country: Private Wars and Gentlemen's Game by Greg Rucka.  The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery.  A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss.    Back in June, I read Coraline by Neil Gaiman, and a more charmingly creepy children's book is hard to imagine.

Back in April I read the first three Temeraire books by Naomi Novik (His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade and Black Powder War), Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things story collection and The Measure of All Things , all of which were just excellent. 


That's 30 odd books that I bothered to write down here in my LJ or that I read recently enough to remember/still have lying around.  I can't document it, but I feel in my heart that I must have read another 20 books worth at the store this year.  Actually, I made note of a few comics in my LJ as I went this year:

Miki Falls by Mark Crilley
Nothing Better by Tyler Page
Escapists, by Brian K. Vaughan
Order of the Stick: Start of Darkness
Macedonia by Harvey Pekar

In addition, I read a great many comics in periodical form.  I mean, I read the whole World War Hulk thing as it came out (not that it was that great), so that's a book right there, and there are a number of other series that I read as they come out, such as Ex Machina, Powers, New Avengers, Speak of the Devil,  Usagi Yojimbo, Countdown, and more.  (Note that I read some of them for fun and some because I work in a comic book store and it's a good idea to keep up on things.)  Also, there were several graphic novels that I read, too.  Wire Mothers by Jim Ottaviani, for example, which was another fine history of science comic, and he did another about illusions and magic (I forget the title).  I can't recall them all.  But I think there's enough that I can check off the 50 Book Challenge for 2007 with a clear conscience.

So, that's one thing I got done this year.

In terms of writing a book, I didn't do so well.  I did complete a piece of fan fiction that was about 15000 words, and wrote a couple of smaller pieces, too, including a few reviews for the Modern Myths blog.  It's more than I wrote the previous year, so I shall congratulate myself for progress made, and set my sights higher for 2008.  I hope that the writing workshop that I have joined on Wednesdays will continue to help.

I haven't made much time for reading these past two months, but I have made my way through a few good books.

The currently extant Temeraire books, His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade and Black Powder War.  In brief, they posit a world in which dragons are real, but which is otherwise the same as ours.  The protagonist is Captain William Laurence of the Royal Navy during the wars with Napoleon.  After his frigate captures a French ship with a dragon egg aboard, he winds up becoming a dragon rider, and having many interesting adventures.  These books are fun, quick reads.  Author Naomi Novik has a good feel for the period, and creates characters who are, as best as I can tell, true to the 18th century in thoughts, customs and manners, and yet sympathetic to modern readers and differ logically from the actual period because of their fantastical circumstances.  I would recommend them to anyone.

The Measure of All Things, by Ken Alder.  This book won the 2003 Davis Award from the History of Science Society for books directed to a general readership.  It's not as prestigious as the Sarton medal, but it's still a big deal, and a great start if one is looking for good books in the history of science.  This book is focuses on Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre and Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain, two astronomers from the French Academie des Sciences who, in 1789, embarked on an expedition to measure very precisely the distance along the meridian through Paris to allow the Academy to establish the proper length for the meter, which was to be the basis for the new metric system.  It's a very well written book.  Alder explains complicated things simply and clearly, paces his story well, and breaks out from a well-researched history of a few particular people at a particular time (Delambre went north, Mechain south, and it took them seven years to finish their task, only partly because of the Revolution.)  Alder also considers more general issues of measurement, such as: why we measure things in the way that we do, the ways that measurements not only subdivide our world, but embody our social contracts and our sense of justice; how do we understand error--what it is, how we deal with it and what our response to it says about who we are; and also, some insight on the way the savants of ancien regime became the professional scientists of our own era.  I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone who thinks they would enjoy it, but, in particular,  gfishshould read this book, and professor Hanson should use it if she ever again teaches her class on history and money. 

When I was younger, from when I learned to read into my mid twenties, I read a lot.  Science Fiction and fantasy mostly, but I read a fair bit of history, some science fact, and other fiction, too.  I noticed last week that I don't read much prose anymore.  I read a lot of the stuff that comes into the store, of course, and unlike omnia_mutantur I consider comics to be real reading, but I just don't consume books the way I once did.  In part, as I have aged, I have become pickier, and I just don't enjoy what I used to enjoy.  (I notice this trend in movies, too.  I probably would have liked XMen 3 more when I was 20 than I do now at 36, though I don't think I would have loved it.) 

Also, I have more going on in my life, and I spend more time with people I love, especiallymillari .  And, I find that I am increasingly more interested in my own stories than in other peoples'.

That said, though, I do want to be someone who keeps reading, who keeps engaging with someone else's ideas and perspectives, so I'm making a point of reading at least ten prose books this year.  So far, I can only think of one such book that I have read, The Translator, which I discussed in a post last week.  So...

1) The Translator, by John Crowley.

I'm working on/about to start:

2) Historical Understanding, a collection of essays by Louis Mink.  He's a tremendous thinker, though I still have read little by him, and I don't think many people know who he is.

3) Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake, though it seems that I should actually have gotten out Titus Groan, since the jacket blurb says that Gormenghast is a sequel.  (Albeit the main character is only 7 years old when book two starts, so what the hell happens in book 1?)

4) Mother Night, by Kurt Vonnegut.  Actually, Millari will be reading this to me.  I look forward to it.

Eventually, I shall start 5) The Dark Tower by Stephen King.  I enjoyed the first six, so I look forward to the finale.

I welcome suggestions, too.


On the graphic front, I just got around to reading Craig Thompson's haunting reminiscence about teenage alienation and romance, Blankets.  It's really good, though full of unresolved pain (the character's, if not the author's.)

but I bit on Syd's LJ, so...

"We think we know each other through our blogs, when really there's little that we know about each other sometimes. I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you."