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Word of the day: ratiocination. It means “the process of logical reasoning,” and it’s my new favorite arrangement of letters.
There is a great mystery in my daily life (well, more than one, but that’s an aside). Every day when I go to work, there are hundreds of dead worms on the sidewalk outside of my office building. There aren’t particularly more of them after a rain; it was dry for a week and their little worm carcasses were still there. Nematode massacre! Yesterday I rescued one little guy who was still faintly twitching, but he was already starting to go crispy around the edges, so I have fears for his continued survival. What causes such wormy carnage? Does anyone know? It is somewhat disconcerting to crunch worm carcasses under my feet every morning before heading to work.
It is time for a book update! Brace yourselves and put on your reading glasses.
I read The Game and Locked Rooms, the seventh and eight books in The Beekeeper’s Apprentice series by Laurie King. Sadly, after much denial, I have reached the conclusion that The Beekeeper’s Apprentice really was the best one of the series, and they’re getting less delightful as they go. Ah well. They are not without merit, though, as the previously mentioned “ratiocination” was encountered within their pages.
I also read Now and Forever: Somewhere a Band Is Playing and Leviathan ’99 by Ray Bradbury. I know. Every other entry is all fluttering eyelashes and happy sighs over Ray Bradbury. But he’s worth it! These were the two best novellas I have ever read, I think. “Leviathan ’99” is Moby Dick in outer space (with a white comet for a white whale), for crying out loud. GENIUS. I shall illustrate:
“Take this, Ishmael Jones,” said the first man, who was tall and thin. “You’ll need it if you’re going upstairs to meet that monster,” he said. “Drink up.”
“But first,” said the second man, holding out his hand to stay my arm, “how do you fly, shallow or deep?”
“Why, deep, I think,” I said. “Deep space.”
“By the timid mile or the great light-year?”
“Light-year, yes,” I thought, then said.
“You may drink with us, then.”
Just go read it, you won’t be sorry!
Right now I’m working on The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay. I have also done a fair bit of happy sighing over Kay in this journal, I know, but just stop and consider for a moment. He helped Chris Tolkien to edit The Silmarillion. He wrote The Fionavar Tapestry series. And he has a name that trips off the tongue like magic. Put these things together, and you can’t fail to be amazing. This particular book is a historical fantasy (new favorite genre!), and he somehow has managed to bring together three of my favorite cultures (the Norse, the Anglo Saxon, and the Welsh) in a way that is both historically accurate in the cultural details and yet completely imaginative and unheard-of. He is a master of the unsaid, which I appreciate more and more in my books. What you don’t say is more powerful than what you do, sometimes. Anyway, I’ve barely started Last Light of the Sun, but I’m already madly in love.
Off to scrounge for food!
At first, I didn’t want spring to come at all because it feels like I only got half of a winter, having spent a good deal of it in Florida. However, I may have revised that opinion. I’ve been having my lunch on a grassy hill behind my office building, and the sunshine is quite lovely. Spring, you have my leave to remain!
So, it would appear (and I stress the word “appear”) that I will have continued employment at my current workplace even after my contract ends in three weeks! This is excellent! If rather vague as to details. I’m going to be daring and renew my apartment lease, though, so here’s hoping all pans out. *crosses her toes*
What American English sounds like to non-English speakers. The sad thing is, I find this song really catchy…
My food looks funny.
Le Wrath di Khan. Star Trek action figures singing opera!
Jumper by Improv Everywhere.
Singing dog comforts baby. There are several great things about this. I love how the dog pauses dramatically after each howl, nose still tilted up, and I love the dog under the table pleading, “just let me kill zem. Please.”
101 small pleasures you can enjoy every day.
32 and Failing, a video by some of my old CU buddies.
Then a friend reminded me of how great Sesame Street was, and I looked up some old favorites!
Bert’s Blanket. I still wake up with this song stuck in my head sometimes, though I haven’t seen it since I was a wee thing. What does that say about me?
Imagine That. This had a powerful impact on my childhood aspirations, I think! I’m with you, Ernie.
I dreamed amazingly detailed, narrative-filled dreams during the past two nights…but that’s all I can remember of them. All plot is completely gone from my brain. I lived intense adventures! I want those back! I wish I could unlock all of my dream memories. I would have fodder for stories for the rest of my life.
Oylaloy, you silly internets, look what you’ve been up to:
I think this is the first time I’ve ever linked to a dog food commercial, but it’s worth it.
Swarms of pink bunnies tap dance on the line between creepy and cute.
Pleix Piu (whatever that is) flirts with the same line, I think. Aerodynamically impossible birds are watching you do your laundry!
DFTBA. Darling, fetch the battle axe, and don’t forget to be awesome.
Ok Go decided to do another music video to their song “This Too Shall Pass,” and it’s very nearly as cool as the first one.
NOOOOOOO!!!
Small lamb runs around house. Sounds like a yoga pose.
Birds playing the electric guitar as part of an art exhibit. (Why yes I have been spending time on cuteoverload.com. Don’t you dare judge me!)
The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids. Fascinating!
Quoth the Girl 