zonkered.net

My mixer shorted out this week, and as I was making myself blueberry torte for Thanksgiving (and turkey cutlets and green bean casserole, but dessert is really the only thing that matters) I went to Crate & Barrel on 59th St and bought a new one.

In between the 59th St station and Crate & Barrel is Bloomingdales and two blocks of retail stores, all choked with after work Christmas crowds.  I thought I was going to kill people, and by the time I got home there was no way in hell I was going to make the torte that night; I got up and made it in the morning instead, and I decided I was going to do as much of my Christmas shopping online as possible this year.  Since I spent Thanksgiving alone in my apartment (cue teeny tiny violin music), I started mine yesterday while sitting on my bed eating the aforementioned torte.  And it feels awesome to not only have to fight through the crowds but to have it shipped straight to my parents’ house so I don’t have to worry about it.

It can be problematic reading – and writing, I suppose – a romance novel about the series’ villain.

That’s what One Silent Night is though, and while I didn’t enjoy it as much as Sherrilyn Kenyon’s last several Dark Hunters novels, I did enjoy it, and I think it does work.  The reason for that is because instead of painting Stryker (and Zephyra) as pure evil, the way Satara was, Kenyon chooses instead to make them characters that are more complicated than that.  They aren’t exactly sweetness and light, but they have their own moral codes, and their motivations aren’t really that hard to buy into.  They got a really raw end of the deal, and they are fighting for their continued existance (and, you know, control of the world).

Having said all that, One Silent Night isn’t going to be the Dark-Hunter book I pick up to read again when I’m bored and waiting for the next book in the series.  The romance isn’t overly compelling; while I’ve always enjoyed Stryker, I couldn’t care less if he got back with his ex-wife.  I found some of the new characters compelling – Medea will prove interesting, I think, and while Jared currently seems to be Acheron 2.0, he has potential.  The new developments in Nick’s character will make good fodder in subsequent books, and his reconnection with Ash, while unwilling, should move the plot of the series along.  This is a bridge book, connecting the first part of the series to the second, so while the characters used to move the plot along, so to speak, aren’t as awesome as some of the others, I don’t really think that’s the main point.

Having said all that, I am hoping that Dream Warrior and Bad Moon Rising are stronger, character and romance wise.  I love the series, but really? I’m reading this for the pr0n.

I saw a trailer for this over the weekend while I was at Quantum of Solace, and it looks like it might be good, but honestly? I only had one real reaction.

Keanu Reeves, starring as the emotionless kind of stoned alien character has not been so perfectly cast since The Matrix.

I think my iPod is on the long, slow march to death, as it keeps randomly resetting.

But the interesting this is that it resets when playing the same song.  And while that could just be a corrupted file, the choice of song is kinda…interesting.

The song? “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”

After my last post, I kind of figured this was coming, but it’s a little different than I had expected.  My boss did not quit.  My boss was laid off.  It’s a really weird situation because generally speaking, the less experienced member of the department (i.e., me) is the one that gets the axe.

Not that I’m sorry that they decided not to go that way.

I’ve got mixed feelings about it.  Overall, this is a good thing: I’m not taking over management NOW, but will be in the future, which hopefully will include a nice raise.  While we got along, our styles were completely different, our personalities were pretty different, and she tended to stress me out.  I don’t regret not having to deal with that anymore.

At the same time, she was good at her job.  She was a really good researcher, had a lot of years with the company, and I’m sorry she’s lost her job.

So yeah.  Mixed feelings, definitely.

My boss/sort of boss/the other librarian (it’s…complicated) has just taken ANOTHER week of unpaid leave.  She’s been gone an entire month now.

Why do I get the feeling that she’s quitting and that I’m going to be stuck doing all the admin shit that I hate doing? One of the reasons I really wanted this job (a minor one, but still) is that it was pure research and I didn’t have to, like, negotiate with vendors and do the accounting.  I HATE that.

>.>

There’s a certain freedom/liberty to not bothering to sign up for the annual insanity that is NaNoWriMo.  I didn’t even consider it this year, and now I am free from attempting to come up with an idea that will work as a novel, and I’m free of the inevitable guilt that comes from quitting in the second week.  Which I always do.

I don’t think I’m cut out to be a novelist.  I’m much better in the short form.

My mother called me this morning, and she was pissed.  She’d just gotten off the phone with one of my aunts in California, who voted for John McCain and Proposition 8 and is absolutely convinced that Barack Obama is going to destroy the budget and rack up the national debt and turn us into Soviet Russia.  Oh, and by the way? Climate change doesn’t exist.

Nevermind the last balanced budget was under Bill Clinton’s administration, and the national debt first went out of control in the Reagan years.

My brother is an accountant, and he probably voted Republican too.  My sister is apathetic and didn’t vote at all.  My uncle, Dad’s brother, also voted Republican and has nothing but snide comments for people who work off the “taxpayer’s back” like my parents, who have spent their lives working for pennies in the public education system.  It should be noted that Uncle Don works for a company that gets the majority of its income from government contracts.

(This isn’t the same, apparently.  He’s performing a service. Unlike teachers, who are after all only educating future generations.)

Mom said to me this morning that my parents and I are probably the only liberals in the family, she didn’t understand what was wrong with people, and then we hung up.  I had to do laundry.

I called her back 20 minutes later, after I arrived at the laundromat and put my laundry in to let her know that here, in a working class neighborhood in godless liberal New Jersey, we were watching Obama’s acceptance speech again.

It made her feel a little better.

Tonight marks the first time in at least 2 weeks that I have been able to login to my blog.  Ended up having to upgrade, and fix permissions (and before she says anything, yes, Mura was actually the one to fix permissions).  The fact that I haven’t been able to post means that I was unable to say the following:

1. I have never been so relieved and happy with an election result in my entire life as I was with the one on Tuesday.  I’m looking forward to 2009 – to a president who isn’t actively trying to erode my rights, a president who is extremely intelligent and thinks before he makes decisions, and a president who will hopefully help us regain respect from the rest of the world.  I don’t agree with all of Obama’s stances – for one, I think marriage should be available to all people, regardless of race or sexual orientation – but I do think he was a far, far better choice than John McCain, and he gives me hope for the future.  Also, his running mate is not batshit insane.
2. This week I have developed (renewed?) my crush on Rahm Emanuel.  He’s married, he has three kids, he’s probably shorter than me, and he’s an acknowledged asshole, but none of that seems to matter to me.  In part because of this awesome, awesome video: How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways
3. For reasons that should be obvious, I am really having the urge to watch The West Wing again.
4. My boss has been on vacation for three weeks (well, one week vacation + two weeks unpaid leave).  I’ve kind of gotten used to going it without her and don’t want to deal with her generally panic-stricken, slightly hysterical behavior when she comes back Monday.  Is that bad of me?