November Post

This month:

Rant: State of Affairs
Books: Science Fiction
Friends: Communication
Drinks: Absinthe

The Current State of Affairs

So this is the first post on the actual "Monthly" post proposition. I hope this makes it better and easier, knowing that the actual posts will come on the first week of each month, rather than having to check to see if there's anything new.

Just to have everyone know what's going on I will cover it now.

I am still in England. I am doing an MA in Children's Literature that means, it is a Literature course, which requires Literary Essays, it is not a "Write for Children Course" which you would still fail, Mandi, given your writing skills and just how little you actually understand of what writing implies and how bad you take constructive critisism. But, I digress.

This MA will finish in June, after which I still have to decide what to do exactly. There are general plans, but as common sense dictates it is not advisable to leave it hanging in the air until the last moment.

I am enjoying my lectures and course very much, studying the history of Children's Literature, the various Literary theories of analysis (that don't really exist as such in the American Continent) and learning about the intricancies of Childen's Literature in Translation.

Ross, Stacey, Becky, Sam and I have started RAGS (Roehampton Adventurer's Guild) which is the RPG Society for all intents and purposes. Currently I am DMing a Dungeons And Dragons 3.5 adventure, and waiting for my players for a Vampire: The Masquerade session that I will also Story-tell. I am also playing a character in a Legend of the Five Rings campaign. I am in no hurry about the Roleplaying though, which is good as it doesn't interfere at all with my actual work.

I am planning to enter a couple of contests for writers in January, so I will keep you posted on that.

We (Stacey and I) have had some trouble with our flatmate, Miranda. In my opinion it boils down to two main issues:

a) the bad care she has for her Rats.

and b) That she never compromises or is willing to talk about what the problem is, and the worst thing is, she complains about what a bad week she's had if we bring it up.

Now she has said that she wants to leave, leaving us with a 1 year contract. But then, she doesn't want to leave now. We don't know what the hell she intends to do or not. And it is very annoying.

I'm not saying that we are the perfect flatmates. I am not implying that we are the cleanest beings in the world. I am not pretending that we don't leave plates in the kitchen for probably longer than advisable without cleaning them... but we DO clean them.

She thinks we bully her or that we are not her friends. But the fact is that I am dissapointed by her and the reason I am is because I considered her my friend. Otherwise I would not give a flying fuck.

Anyway, Miranda, if you read this and wonder why I actually said it here, let me point it out for you. I don't say things about people that I wouldn't say to their faces. All of my friends know this; Ripton, Ross, Sam, Stacey, Elf, Luis, Omar, etc... if I have a problem with them I will tell them and face the music. However, you Miranda, are NEVER AROUND for me to say any of this to you, so there it is. If you insist I will remove this, but bear this in mind: We HAVE tried to amend things, we HAVE shown interest in coming to a resolution, and the only thing we got in return was your contempt.

Anyway, as you can see, not all is going perfect, but thankfully there are enough good things floating around to make up for the misery some people insist on perpetrating on others.

Books

Fabulous Riverboat by Phillip Jose Farmer, Amazon.co.uk; Amazon.com

This book is amazingly well written and it is a cornerstone of Science Fiction. With more than a bit of Fantasy into it, it is kind of similar to the classic SF rather than the more modern, more technical approach that we find today.

In this book, interesting historical characters meet, such as Odysseus, Mark Twain, King John and Mozart. This is the second book of the Riverworld Trilogy. Highly recomended.

Ender's Shadow Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com; Shadow of the Hegemon Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com; Shadow Puppets Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com; Shadow of the Giant Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com By Orson Scott Card

For those fortunate enough to have read Ender'sGame, Xenoside and so on, Orson Scott Card has wrote a new compelling series in the Enderverse. Starting with Ender's Shadow, this is the story of Bean and several of the other characters from Battle School that joined Ender in the last battle with the Formics. I know at least one of my friends has read Ender's Game, and when we talked about it we found just how diverse the interests in it can be; from the political to the technological, to the philosophical, Ender's Game is a gem, and this sequel series is completely enjoyable even on it's own.

I still have to read "Shadow of the Giant" but can otherwise vouch for the other three.

Brothers Grimm

Not the destroyers of Folktales as some people think...

It has come to my attention that the Brothers Grimm are not the ones that "adapted" fairy tales to be more children-friendly, rather all they did was gather stories from around Europe, and compile them.

It was actually the translators of such texts (notably the French) that adapted them, not for children, but for the court, changing small details, adding things and adding Christian references to stories that didn't need them.

Sadly, most of these Fairy tales would have dissappeared if they hadn't been "sanctified" by adding the word "God", as the very pagan and magical nature of fairy tales would be offensive to the sensitivities of God-fearing, Church-going fundamentalists.

The original Grimm records include all the blood, gore and sexual innuendo that you can hope for in the original stories.

Friends

Getting in Contact with friends can be sometimes more complicated than expected... MSN, Skype, Emails... what to use? And what if you're not using your computer for a couple of reasons? Is it fair to randomly install programs to do so? I know some friends don't use MSN Messenger for their own reasons, and I respect that even if it is annoying not to be able to contact them otherwise.

To be honest, I miss my friends. I've always thought they are the best influence in my life. They sometimes inspire me, sometimes challenge me to be better, sometimes annoy me and sometimes make me realize some truth about life or myself that I hadn't even considered. It is hard to be away from so many of them and only be able to see them a couple of times in the few months I've been back, and even then, not being able to see all of them.

I'm trying, along with reviving this blog with the monthly updates to somehow keep in touch with everyone. And I am glad to have heard from some of them lately.




Drinks: Absinthe

Tastes like crap when mixed with water... who's idea was that anyway? It is simply stupid.

Blame it on the French again!

Absinthe tastes better when you put the spoon with the sugar-cube, pour Absinthe on it to mix it with the sugar and fill your glass (well, not FILL to capacity, just a shot or so) and then set it on fire. THAT is good. Especially when the sugar starts melting and falls into the glass, setting the absinthe inside on fire too. Yummy.

While the Wikipidea article about it is informative, it is heavilly censored into what and how it was originally drank, which is the method I mentioned above... although it is said that Lord Byron had his absinthe like that while "Chasing the Dragon" there is only so much I will do in pursue of fun.

***

Anyway, this is it for now, see you soon!

-Nya