vintagefury's blog

Um, yes.

So, lost my job. I say "lost" but really, I needed to GTFO.

Working at Peet's Coffee and Tea now.

And um. Yes. Life is fairly dull.

<3

I fell asleep midway through reading it. Which I would like to think is fair considering that when I cracked the book I was residing within the realm of 30+ hours of being awake.

I am not going to spoil anything.

I just have one thing to say. Those of you who read it will know, those of you who haven't, wont.

FUCK PAGE 658

That is all.

Re-reading. Remembering only 1 thing: Sirius dies. No other plot points.

Dudley saw something horrible coz of the Dementors

I suppose I should open this by responding to RevStan's comment about how much I do look down on JK Rowling.  I do. I probably shouldn't harp on her nearly as much as I do, but, well, call it a personal flaw. I expect a lot from people.

There is a distinct difference between a writer and a storyteller. Rowling is a storyteller. She can create a compelling universe, interesting characters, an excellent storyline. However, penning that to paper is a completely different talent, one which I believe she needs to cultivate. I appreciate and respect the world she has woven together, and how complete and authentic and settled it all feels, as if it really has been there for ages and we've just never noticed it. I also greatly appreciate how many pages kids have read due to her books, and that it has sparked up a love of reading in children, as well as in adults. However, there are many who think she's a brilliant writer. She's got good moments that will make me chuckle, or feel a slight pang, but the books really just need to be edited down (book 4 on up). Those books in particular just utterly drag.

Also, I think I'm once more undecided between Opera and Firefox. Vox and Opera are not friends. Anyway, onto the book.

Well, you can take the above paragraph as how I feel about the book overall, but that's not important. Of all the things that could have stuck out to me - Voldemort basically saying he's going to kill Snape, Ron's recurring penchant for just breaking it off with Harry, the twinkle in Dumbledore's eye - what stuck out to me was this: "Dobby likes Professor Dumbledore very much, sir, and is proud to keep his secrets for him."

Iiiiiiiiiinteresting. Now that he's dead. Well. Anyway. I noticed it. Just sharing it. No real conjectures at this point what kind of secrets Dobby could hold - I suppose in a few weeks it won't matter anyway.

Hopefully I can finish book 5 before the 10th.

(And seriously. Vox + Opera = NO SOMOS AMIGOS. I may have to re-do this post. The word wrap isn't working on the input box doolie and it's not working on the post either. What a waste.)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)

J.K. Rowling

I forgot to mention that the other night I finished PoA. Three more books in about a month, but since I'm going to be shortly joining the ranks of the unemployed, I suppose I'm going to have a bit more time to wallow in books to console my ego, bruised by day after day of fruitless jobsearch. Unfortunately it's the three longer, poorly edited, JK-obviously-read-too-much-fanfiction books, but well, I suppose it's better than nothing.

To be honest, there was one thing in this book that struck out at me, that nobody seems to be very concerned about for book seven, which means one of two things: either everybody else forgot about it, or we all just suspect Rowling's memory won't dip far back enough for her to recall what she wrote so many books ago. Clearly she can't re-read her own material.

Peter Pettigrew owes Harry a life-debt. Strong magics, according to Dumbledore. Strong magics that may come in handy, and he claimed that there may come a time when Harry is happy to have saved Pettigrew's life. Yet no one mentions this. If this life-debt is forgotten in book seven, then it confirms my insistance that Rowling is a hack and should have been slapped three books ago by her publishers.

Outside of that, nothing interesting to me.

Holy shit. I thought Diorama was going to be their last album. A great album, but sad that it was the end, because I felt they were really going somewhere with the sound.

Hurrah, it was not the end.

Take a listen. You won't regret it.

I know, diametrically opposed books. But well, Stardust I had to read because the movie is coming out August 10th and I, like many, enjoy being that snob that says "the book was better." I read The Plague because, well, I was halfway done with it, and I might as well have finished the whole thing.

Stardust

Neil Gaiman

Stardust, by Niel Gaiman. If you know me at all, you know this man is just about my favorite living author. I have many favorite books, but favorite authors are harder to come by. This is one of his earlier works, so if you've read Anansi Boys and American Gods and are looking for more of that theme and quality, you're not as likely to find it here. This is a fairy-tale in the traditional sense. It is something you could read to a child and you yourself enjoy while reading it. There are moments where it's funny, and overall it really just reads very traditionally. Great book, but like I said, it's early. It's not bad by any means, and does not read like a first entry at all. It's just an old style of his.

The Plague

Albert Camus

The Plauge, by Albert Camus. I hope I wrote enough on Stardust to get this to align properly. At any rate, another in the list of "early works by authors I like." Can't say much for Camus being my favorite living author, but he's up there on my list of favorites. I've read The Stranger and The Fall, and loved them both, so I thought I'd give this a whirl. Whereas my comments on Stardust were "this is an early work, but it doesn't read like an early work, it's just a style/theme that he has abandoned," such comments don't apply here. You can see in this work that Camus is beginning to hone in on his own ability, and you can see what lessons he learned after writing this book. While the themes and the characters are quite good, and the message of the story very strong, there were parts where the book just begins to meander. He needed to drop about 200 pages total from the book, and just trim the fat in general. But it's still a good read; just bear in mind you're not going to get what you're used to if you've read later works.

I miss the days when the internet was more secluded.

I could openly bitch about work and bosses and not get caught.

Now, I have to be paranoid about saying anything about anyone if I want a future.

That said, I need a new fucking job. Anybody hiring? I have a shitty GPA and my portfolio is completely erased due to no efforts or lack thereof on my own part, but I'm reasonably clever, dedicated, and love working with people. Favorite language is C. Good communicator. Um... yeah. I'm not good at talking myself up.

>.>

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