Weekend in Review

~ Shara

1) On Saturday, my hubby and I visited his grandmother in the nursing home. The nursing home cat fell in love with me and tried to follow me home. An elderly lady resident fell in love with my hubby and wanted to keep him. Fun times.

2) On Friday night, I finally looked at my big toe on my right foot to see why I’d occasionally have a pinching pain on the side of it. Turns out, there was a blister UNDERNEATH a pre-exisiting callous. How does that even happen (I know now, but then, I didn’t)? So for my Saturday walk, I was so focused on the blister itself that I ended up walking funny and therefore rubbed the back of my right ankle raw. Also gave myself a SECOND blister beneath the callous. Go me! Took Sunday off from walking (sadly). I don’t think the blisters will be a problem (one’s already gone) but I want to let the back of my ankle heal.

3) Got a LOT of laundry done over the weekend, which always fills me with a sense of accomplishment.

4) Got a LOT of reading done over the weekend, including John Scalzi’s The Human Division (John Scalzi book = fun reading times) and more important, Jeff Smith’s epic graphic novel fantasy BONE, which I’d highly recommend. It’s unique, it’s fun, it’s original and different. The omnibus I read was nearly 1500 pages long (I started it last August and ended up taking a break because it’s such a LARGE volume), so for anyone who decides to read it, I suggest getting the trade paperbacks of the various volumes instead. 🙂

5) Watched a few movies: Cars 2, finally, and while I still think it was an unnecessary sequel, it was fun. Also watched (finally), Trouble with the Curve, which I enjoyed quite a bit. Not sure what the critics are gnashing their teeth over, unless they don’t like that the movie’s more about the father/daughter relationship and the daughter’s potential new romance (all set against a backdrop of baseball), but I liked it a lot.

6) We were supposed to have met with friends on Sunday evening for dinner, but plans changed, which was good: I had a weird headache all Sunday afternoon, and while I managed to chase it away before bedtime, it came back at 1:30 this morning and I ended up staying awake for over two hours. No elliptical this morning!

7) But while awake, I’ve decided that my cat’s snoring/wheezing is both cute and worrisome.

8) I also discovered he (my cat) considers my head his own personal teddy bear.

9) Ann Aguirre (author of Grimspace, a favorite of mine) posted a fantastic but utterly disheartening post about the existence of sexism in science fiction (I don’t not use that term as science fiction AND fantasy, just science fiction) and how it’s affected her. It’s a great post, and I encourage everyone to read it here. The bottom line: if you’re a guy, don’t be a douchebag. If you’re a girl, don’t be afraid to stand up for your rights (easier said that done, as evidenced by the backlash poor Aguirre is getting).

10) This past weekend was my 10-year college reunion. I did not go. I’m sorry that I couldn’t, and felt rather wistful looking at all the pictures on Facebook. A friend of mine posted some fantastic thoughts about reunion and out alma mater here (great food for thought, especially given that we went to all woman’s school), and I feel like I need to comment on my own experiences as an undergrad. Not today, of course. But soon.

But now the week is starting, so happy Monday! How was your weekend?

20 thoughts on “Weekend in Review”

    1. Storm Shadow would definitely not agree. Unless the cat was a girl (which I don’t know) and then maybe he might not mind so much….

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  2. Ye gads! That Ann Aguirre blog post is shocking. What I think makes it the most is the fact that she started going to cons in 2008, just FIVE YEARS ago. I keep on thinking that we’ve moved past things like this, but then you hear about experiences like Ann’s (not to mention those troubling SFWA articles that came out recently) and you realize how far we have to go.

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    1. I didn’t know what the hell was going on with SFWA until after I posted this and started digging around this morning. Aguirre’s post is kind of its own response to the BS that’s plaguing SFWA right now. But I remember a few years ago her mentioning she’d likely never get into SF again after the Sirantha Jax series was over. Now I know why. And I’m glad she’s going back to SF regardless.

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  3. Thank you for the link to Ms. Aguirre’s blog post, even though it left a sour taste in my mouth: one would think that people who deal with speculative fiction (be they writers or readers and fans) would be more enlightened, that the very subject matter of their writing/reading would broaden their horizons, and expand their mind.
    Talk about double standards….

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    1. Fortunately, not all men in the genre are that bad. But it’s sad and sickening to think that in this day and age, women still have to deal with this….

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      1. The situation reminds me about a post I saw some time ago on Seanan McGuire’s blog, where she complained about the same kind of short-sightedness in the “geekdom” circles.
        It’s sad, yes, but being vocal about it will certainly help in exposing (and curing?) this kind of behavior.

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    1. You’re welcome! Grimspace always reminded me of Firefly mixed with a bit of Pitch Black with a dash of romance. I’ll be curious to hear how you enjoy it!

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    1. Great link, thank you! I loved the analogy used!

      Now, regarding Grimspace, it is NOT Firefly, but there are elements that reminded me of such. 🙂 I hope you enjoy it!

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      1. Devoured “Grimspace” in one day (let’s just say it was a mistake to bring my Kindle to work yesterday, because not a lot of work got done :-). It did remind me of “Firefly”, in a good way.

        I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. It will be interesting to see where Aguirre takes the story from here, since “Grimspace” was a very self-contained novel.

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        1. I will say this: the second book, Wanderlust, is the weakest of the series. It’s still got great stuff, but I felt a little let down after Grimspace felt so awesome. The third book goes a long way to kicking me in the pants, though, and I love the series as a whole. 🙂

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          1. I have now finished “Wanderlust” (the angst, people, the angst!) and “Doubleblind”. Alas, I’ll have to wait until after I get back from Russia to get “Killbox”, since it is not available as an eBook OR a paper book at my library consortium. *sad face* Unless, of course, I will get lucky on my Half-Price Bookstore trip tonight, in which case I shall stay up late reading it 🙂

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  6. About Ann Aguirre–

    I went and read her post, and at first I was incoherent with rage, so I had to walk away from the computer for a bit, until I was able to express myself in language more coherent than gutteral howls and profanity.

    I’ve realized I can’t express everything I want to say here, so I’m going to make an LJ post about this. As a woman with aspirations as an SFF author AND a woman planning on going into a male-dominated field (computer programming/game development), this issue affects me in both of my intended careers.

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    1. I need to write my own post as well, to be honest. When you write yours, will you please shoot me a link so I don’t miss it? I miss a lot now that I’m not on LJ very often… 🙂

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