Distract Me
Jul. 18th, 2007 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dexfarkinFor the love of God, distract me...
Happy birthday to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mitai, who turned *mumble* yesterday.
What? I ain't suicidual.
***
Flat, drained, depressed. Yup, it's certainly the pre-DexCon crash. Interesting phenom that any roommate or Jenna can attest to. About three-four weeks leading up to DexCon every year, I crash hard. It's the inbetween stage of high stress-getting stuff done and the actuality of it happening; that strange little valley in the middle of last minute and too late, where I have lots of things to get done that I can't do now, and anything I haven't done yet that should have been is already too late. Also, I know my personal life is about to be wiped away for a week, which is a good thing in general, but somewhat exhausting. I should write one of those psych books; the 7 Stages of DexCon. Stage One: Denial...
***
Really serious about the distraction thing here...
***
I've been monstering through fiction again for the first time in ages. Over the last year, I've really been locked mostly into non-fiction, mainly history and media theory. However, a stack of new stuff showed up at my house (and is stacked haphazardly in the living room) which has been mined for new material.
Finished Where Is Joe Merchant by Jimmey Buffet. Yes, that Jimmey Buffet. Stop laughing. It's not high literature, but it's a surprisingly decent book. Basic plot is a charter seaplane pilot out of the Keys, who's ex-girlfriend shows up looking for her brother, an Elvis-like former rock star named Joe Merchant. The interesting parts are the small operator seaplane flight descriptions, and the madness of the world between the Keys and the small Carrib islands in the region. It's pulp, with a nice touch of authentic experience about the region.
Finally read Darkly Dreaming Dexter and it turns out I was right. It does suck. The schtick just doesn't work for me, and I've never been a big fan of the CSI style of foresnic thriller. It's too smug in displaying the cleverness of the character, and I really can't believe the psychosis long enough to get into the story at all.
Rereading Kavalier and Clay, which I haven't read since it first came it. Forgot how easy it was to get lost in the flow of Chabon's narrative, far more than his other oft-overrated work.
Pre-ordered Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis and Spook Country by William Gibson. Based on the first chapter, I think CLV will be gloriously bizarre, make you laugh with sick entertainment, and be a pretty hack job in terms of the writing. Again, the first chapter exposes Ellis' comic book writing style pretty obviously, and he'll need to get past that to make a solid voice as a novelist. Gibson I fully expect to be brilliant, as he's one of the few writers that has gotten better with every single book. Pattern Recognition was easily his finest novel, and I'm curious to see how SC builds stylistically on where he's been going.
Happy birthday to
mitai, who turned *mumble* yesterday.What? I ain't suicidual.
***
Flat, drained, depressed. Yup, it's certainly the pre-DexCon crash. Interesting phenom that any roommate or Jenna can attest to. About three-four weeks leading up to DexCon every year, I crash hard. It's the inbetween stage of high stress-getting stuff done and the actuality of it happening; that strange little valley in the middle of last minute and too late, where I have lots of things to get done that I can't do now, and anything I haven't done yet that should have been is already too late. Also, I know my personal life is about to be wiped away for a week, which is a good thing in general, but somewhat exhausting. I should write one of those psych books; the 7 Stages of DexCon. Stage One: Denial...
***
Really serious about the distraction thing here...
***
I've been monstering through fiction again for the first time in ages. Over the last year, I've really been locked mostly into non-fiction, mainly history and media theory. However, a stack of new stuff showed up at my house (and is stacked haphazardly in the living room) which has been mined for new material.
Finished Where Is Joe Merchant by Jimmey Buffet. Yes, that Jimmey Buffet. Stop laughing. It's not high literature, but it's a surprisingly decent book. Basic plot is a charter seaplane pilot out of the Keys, who's ex-girlfriend shows up looking for her brother, an Elvis-like former rock star named Joe Merchant. The interesting parts are the small operator seaplane flight descriptions, and the madness of the world between the Keys and the small Carrib islands in the region. It's pulp, with a nice touch of authentic experience about the region.
Finally read Darkly Dreaming Dexter and it turns out I was right. It does suck. The schtick just doesn't work for me, and I've never been a big fan of the CSI style of foresnic thriller. It's too smug in displaying the cleverness of the character, and I really can't believe the psychosis long enough to get into the story at all.
Rereading Kavalier and Clay, which I haven't read since it first came it. Forgot how easy it was to get lost in the flow of Chabon's narrative, far more than his other oft-overrated work.
Pre-ordered Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis and Spook Country by William Gibson. Based on the first chapter, I think CLV will be gloriously bizarre, make you laugh with sick entertainment, and be a pretty hack job in terms of the writing. Again, the first chapter exposes Ellis' comic book writing style pretty obviously, and he'll need to get past that to make a solid voice as a novelist. Gibson I fully expect to be brilliant, as he's one of the few writers that has gotten better with every single book. Pattern Recognition was easily his finest novel, and I'm curious to see how SC builds stylistically on where he's been going.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-07-18 03:52 pm (UTC)And a critical blood shortage.
Your icon...
Date: 2007-07-18 03:57 pm (UTC)But then I remember how much I miss Rome, and that leads me to screaming _THIRTEEN_! into the phone and then trying to burn the building down, pledging the souls of those within to Mars.
Juno's Cunt I'm bored today.
Re: Your icon...
Date: 2007-07-18 04:02 pm (UTC)The icon's Eddie Izzard as he appears in The Riches. Yes, that's the English transvestite comedian I was telling you about. ;)
Re: Your icon...
Date: 2007-07-18 04:05 pm (UTC)He looks remarkably well-preserved.
RDP is My Friend. Made a tunnel from the work PC to the home PC, and use the home PC to get out onto the 'Net.
Kludgey, but it works.
Your icon is the sole representative of French badassery, Jean Reno.
Re: Your icon...
Date: 2007-07-18 04:10 pm (UTC)The Jean Reno icon I picked up from [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com], mostly for the text: "The internet is serious business". It's nice to remind myself not to take everything so seriously sometimes.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-18 04:07 pm (UTC)Oh, don't forget to make those Dexcon-related calls you needed to, if you've forgotten. I now consider my reminding duties discharged. *flees*
no subject
Date: 2007-07-18 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-18 04:18 pm (UTC)Or, if you feel like it, you can beta-read a House fanfic for me that I need to have finished by the end of the month for the
no subject
Date: 2007-07-18 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-18 04:30 pm (UTC)The frustrating part is that the way I've written it is so stylized that it is hard for me to figure out how I can fix what I need to fix.
Also? A much better House apocalyptic fic had been written, and I didn't want to ape it too much.
Fictional Suggestion
Date: 2007-07-19 03:16 am (UTC)