ebonlock | Where am I? What day is it?

There are times when living with Kage rather reminds me of having a five year old around the house. This morning before the sun rose was one such occasion. Waking up to have her six inches from my face and mewing, "Mom, mom, mom, mom." repeatedly was somewhat less than fun. When a few minutes later she left and I'd just settled back down to sleep she then leaped from the door up onto the bed and bounced a bit before returning to staring in my face doing the "Mom, mom, mom, mom." routine. Tonight the door gets locked and she can scream at me from ten feet away instead. If I turn the fan up high enough I won't even hear it.

Add to that the fact that I just couldn't drop off to sleep last night and you get a serious zombie Ellie today. Fortunately the most important activity I have on my plate for the afternoon is getting some credit card paperwork notarized and faxed to the company at Mailboxes, Etc. I doubt that will require more than three or four functional brain cells so it's all good.

And

devine_debris forwarded me this very funny link:

The Evil Henchman's Guide

Never invoke anything bigger than your head.

Words to live by. And my personal fave:

Never play strip Tarot.

A bit on the long side, but definitely worth a read.

Managed to finish season two and launch into season three of StarGate last night while I a) finished my credit paperwork and b) got the hell out of Kimbombo in Golden Sun 2 at last. Jesus god I thought I'd never escape! Now I get to backtrack to the last continent I was on in the hopes of finding a ship and making it go. I have a vague idea where it's going but not what I'll find when we get there. And the characters had two long chat fests last night, one of which involved a bunch of characters from Golden Sun 1, none of which I knew. I sat there pressing the "A" button and growling, "Oh get on with it already!" If there is a downside to this game it's that they spend way too much time gabbing and there's no way to get around it when they do. *grumble*

Also had a lovely dinner with

jimweasel at an Italian place neither of us had ever even noticed before. Good food, reasonable prices, and a nice atmosphere so that was cool. We then stopped at Bookbuyers and I had a small used book accident. Two were books I'd already owned and one was still back home in NY, the other I loaned out to a former friend and never saw again. I think I loaned it to one of the two people who wrote me simultaneous, "You suck!" letters and then never spoke to me again. So I felt it was a good investment to pick up another copy. The other was DragonLance related and included the short story "Test of the Twins", which I have in multiple formats (including its original run in Dragon Magazine ages ago) and couldn't resist. Grabbed a copy of Richard Hatch's Battlestar Galactica book as well. I was kinda put in the mind to do so after watching the Scifi channel on Saturday and seeing their teaser ads for the new series they're doing in December. It'll undoubtedly suck ass, but I'll have to tune in at least once or twice.

I almost picked up hard covers of several of the Thomas Covenant novels but reminded myself that I was pretty much out of bookcase space and I already had multiple soft cover copies of them. I have a very real addiction where it comes to these books, they had a profound impact on me when I was growing up and my love for them goes very deep. I'm always in serious danger when I wander into the scifi section of a used bookstore. But I resisted, go willpower!

Got the front lawn mowed, but that was about it, and in my infinite genius I managed to leave the garage door open all night. As Aelf said this morning when we saw it, "It's a good thing we live in a safe neighborhood." I think suburbia is making me far too complacent. I need to reawaken my inner, paranoid New Yorker.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

several of the Thomas Covenant novels

Worth reading for one character, at the very least:

Saltheart Foamfollower =)

Worth reading for one character, at the very least:

Saltheart Foamfollower =)

Heh, always had a soft spot in my heart for the giants, no question, but it was Covenant that I was obsessed with. His leprosy was a rather apt metaphor for my own feelings of exclusion and loneliness in high school.

I will have to make certain my henchling reads that article.
And although it's been twenty years since I read Thomas Covenant, wow did I really dislike all six books. Tell me about the good parts?

And although it's been twenty years since I read Thomas Covenant, wow did I really dislike all six books. Tell me about the good parts?

I think the key to liking the books is whether or not you can empathize with Thomas. If you can't (and many don't), you're not going to like the books no matter what literary merit they have. I've known way too many people who can't get past the character raping, and basically destroying Lena's life.
For me it was a combination of really sympathizing with his plight, understanding the bigger message (i.e. what is reality? and if something isn't real can it still have significance? are you accountable for your actions only in the "real" day to day world, or even a fictional world you may have created for yourself? what is the nature of morality? Etc.), and just flat out drooling over his prose.
And if I were going to be buried rather than cremated I'd have something from this piece on my tombstone:

Dust and Ashes
© - Stephen Donaldson -

My heart has rooms that sigh with dust
And ashes on the hearth
They must be cleaned and blown away
By daylight's breath
But I cannot assay the task
For even dust to me is dear
For dust and ashes still recall
My love was here

I know not how to say Farewell
When Farewell is the word
That stays alone for me to say
Or will be heard
But I cannot speak out that word
Or ever let my loved one go
How can I bear it that these rooms
Are empty so?

I sit among the dust and hope
That dust will cover me
I stir the ashes on the hearth
Though cold they be
I cannot bear to shut these doors
To seal my loneliness away
Not while dust and ashes still remain
Of my love's day

Where am I? What day is it?

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