Chomping At A Small Bit

Hey there, all...

So this week has found me increasingly frustrated with myself, for reasons that are entirely of my own doing. I could go into detail about them, but the last thing LiveJournal needs is more angst, and I'd rather get into the philosophical/spiritual ramifications of the situation, anyway.

But first...I took a shower, washed my hair, and ended up with water in my ear. It's really annoying because it makes my voice sound funny when I speak, and it makes chewing really *loud*. Has this every happened to anyone?

A day late (of course!), happy birthday to Duncan Roo! Can you believe I've spent a month desperately trying to find a neat present, but nothing I could think of sounded good? Blah, so you'll have to settle for a belated congratulations for surviving another trip around the sun, and a promise of an ass-whoopin' at cribbage sometime in the near future. :) Hope your birthday was a good one, roo.

( And now, angst. )

And since I'm doing this at work, I should probably get back to it.

Gum That Doesn't Lose It's Shoe

Hey there, all...

On my 'lunch hour' (which for the past couple of weeks means being completely alone in the store and unable to leave the front desk) I finished Johnathan Lethem's "Gun, And Ocassional Music". I have to say, Part 2/Epilogue really made it worth the read.

I'm always ambivalent about books/movies/etc that tie everything together in a chapter or two, taking all of these seemingly unrelated incidents and tying them together in ways that are just...not there up until the point they're pointed out to you. One side of me goes, "Wow, that's amazing!" The other side of me goes, "It's really crappy that the story-teller never gave us a chance to figure this out, where's the fun in it?" And yet another side of me goes, "Actually, the connection was probably there all along. You're just too stupid to see it." And then all three sides of me shut up and think about that. And the fact that in an argument, I'm always the triangle.

But still, the execution was pulled off well, and Part 1 was interesting enough to wallow in ignorance happily, letting Metcalf take you on a ride through a world hell-bent on dystopia. By the time he wakes up six years later, you see shades of Zamyatin and Orwell punching up in ways that make Part 1 seem like a very frightening bridge.

Thinking back on this, I am even more disappointed that I missed Lethem's NPR interview last night. :/