And How Was Your Week?

On paper, this was probably my most productive week since moving out here. I did indeed hit the twice revised goal of 7000 words and even dogged it a bit at the end so as not to write too much. Why would I do that? Well, I'm not sure if next week's goal of 5000 words is attainable. I have one chapter left to write before finishes the third book of the second novel and after that I am at another impasse about what I'm going to write next. Mind you, what I want to write next is easily a novel unto itself. So I have to boil all that information down to my standard 3-5 chapters that I have been keeping the books at. I can't wait to see what I come up with.

Is that a good excuse for not writing as much as I could have. No, of course not. Mostly, I just don't want to burn myself out. So what was my end of the week work dodging? I finally finished a book I started years ago. I had only managed to get through the first quarter so I went back and read the whole thing. I won't bother mentioning it because few would be interested.

Next on tap, a book people may be interested in, is a steam punk novel by China Mieville called "The Scar". For those that don't know what steam punk is as a genre: it is a sci-fi/fantasy classification made up by people who are too self important to think that their work falls into the general category of sci-fi/fantasy. The unifying characteristic of the world settings in these types of stories are typified by a lack of fossil fuels, and as a result, steam is the form of energy usage that was developed through the ages. That explains the steam. The punk comes from the punk ass bitches who think their work is anything but a mix of sci-fi and fantasy.

Cullen bought me the book after loaning me the first one, "Perdido Street Station". I think the most interesting thing about that book in particular was the main character is actually the city itself. Mieville goes to great lengths to describe the city and everything about it, he has effectively personified it into a character that effects the actions of everyone in the main story. As a result, his descriptions get a little verbose for me, but they are not as oppressive as Charles Dickens or Anne Rice. I think the main thing I like about his writing (and this is based on the first book) is his vocaulary. It is rare when I have to look up a word; either out of curiosity as to it's exact definition or it is a word I haven't seen before and his writing caused me to look up at least three or four. It was nice to read something that was written with an educated audience in mind, so I suspect the second book will be equally interesting.

This week, I also read some Japanese manga. I have mentioned an anime to a number of friends called Naruto. Oddly enough, I don't recall if I have mentioned it here. If not, I do recommend it. It's a great story with a lot of character development to a lot of interesting characters. Anyway, I wanted to see how much the manga deviated from the show. As it turns out, not at all. The anime recounts the manga perfectly. Well, actually the cartoon has a number of story arcs that are just filler because the cartoon episodes can recount the stories faster than the comic. Other than that, everything in the manga appears in the anime.

Also, I have been watching a great deal of the Tour de France. Today is the last stage, but I am 2-3 stages behind, so I have a few days before I learn the identity of the winner. Watching the stages is a true time investment as I am downloading the full stage coverage. Even without the commercials, the mountain stages run over four hours long. The flat stages are less interesting in some ways and last 2.5 to 3 hours. I am a bit disappointed that the American hopeful, Christian Vandevelde has slowly become eliminated, but considering he wasn't expected to place anywhere near the top, his current 6th place (based on what I've seen) is a pleasant surprise.

I am still pretending to be a vegetarian, but since I bought some cheese and a half gallon of milk, I can no longer claim any ties to veganism. I think today represents the end of my third week as a vegetarian. Though, I suppose purists would not call me a vegetarian. I checked the ramen noodles I have from time to time. The noodles themselves seem fine, but the salty seasoning that comes with it, depending on the flavor, appears to contain powdered chicken or powdered beef. I would be willing to question how much meat actually goes into a chicken pulverized into a powder, but it's just not that important to me.

All in all, I guess it was a productive week....