Author: Shara

Culture Consumption: December 2014

~ Shara ~ 6 Comments

Ah, 2014 has finally ended, and with that, I say good riddance! At least the stuff I was reading and watching was thoroughly enjoyable, so let’s see where December ended up.

Books

My goal for 2014 was to read 50 books. If you don’t count the novellas/novelettes/short stories, then I fell just shy of that goal. However, if you include those (some of those novellas were pretty hefty!), then my total for the year was 95, which is more on course for what I was reading back in my book blogging days. Still short, but considering the kind of year this has been, quite respectable.

44) Symbiont by Mira Grant
45) Authority by Jeff VanderMeer
46) The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

Short Fiction

45) The Ninety-Ninth Bride by Catherine F. King
46) The Astronomer Who Met the North Wind by Kate Hall
47) The Awakened Kingdom by N.K. Jemisin
48) Snakes and Ladders by Seanan McGuire
49) White As a Raven’s Wing by Seanan McGuire

Comics

It utterly amazes me at the number of comics I read every year. Seriously, I added it up, and I read a total of 283 individual issues this year. There’s definitely down from previous years, but the way the issues have piled up is overwhelming, and I still have a very large TBR comic pile. There’s some series that are ending, which is good, and some series I’m pretty close to quitting. That said, I’d like to be more judicious and selective in the my titles for 2015, and keep it to the stuff I’m really into.

Individual Issues:

Batgirl #37
Black Widow #12
Black Widow #13
Ms. Marvel #10
Sex Criminals #8
Sex Criminals #9
Sleepy Hollow #2
The Massive #29

Movies

My husband and I had an epic Harry Potter marathon in December, which was a helluva lot of fun, because it’s been a while since I’ve seen these and it was a lot of fun to go back to the start, knowing how the series ends, and see all the little clues I missed the first time around. I look forward to do the same with the books, but that’s a marathon for a much later time.

Total movies seen this year? 14 total in theaters, and 61 in the comfort of my own home.

In December, we watched the following:

A Christmas Story
Elf
Guardians of the Galaxy
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Home Alone
Palo Alto
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (in theaters)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1 (in theaters)
Total Recall (1990)

Television Shows

We didn’t finish and seasons this month, but we completed a total of 46 seasons of stuff. Damn, that’s a lot of television, but when you consider a nice portion of those to be marathons of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Friday Night Lights, it takes up a good portion, and most of the television we watch is during the fall to summer season, so it’s an episode a week for a limited number of shows. Still, those seasons do add up, don’t they?

That’s it from me! Also, feel free to share whatever 2014 stats you’ve got! How many books? How many movies? What were your favorites? Lay them on me!

Cheers!

Becoming Janus

~ Shara ~ 14 Comments

Happy New Year’s Eve! It’s the time of year to sit down, reflect on what’s gone by, to look forward to the future, and to attempt to mold that future through a resolution or two. It sounds daunting because we’re talking about, yanno, a year, and it sounds daunting because we usually have BIG IDEAS and BIG PLANS for that year, and often, it’s easy to fall off the saddle before January has even wrapped up.

I have some friends who don’t do resolutions. Not just the ones who don’t do resolutions at all, but those who simply have a different approach. My friend Nu Yang names her years: she gives herself a theme and focuses each year to make sure everything she does is supporting that theme. I love that idea. It’s not one I can embrace for myself, because I need more direction, but I love it. However one approaches a new year, if it works, hats off to you!

As for me, it’s time to reflect: what happened, where I am now, and what I hope to maybe accomplish in 2015. If you’re interested, just click the cut. If you’re not, Happy New Year! May your 2015 be better than 2014.

I sure as hell hope mine is.

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Cleaning House

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

The idea of spring cleaning is quite common in our culture, yet there’s something more satisfying about cleaning at end of the year. It’s not that I’ve hunkered down and started scrubbing the house from top to bottom, but there’s a lot of things I’m trying to get wrapped up in order to get my head on right for the new year. As a result, I was inspired to go through my laptop and start REALLY cleaning up some files. I’ve never really re-organized everything in a very long time, and it’s overdue.

One of the worst culprits on my hard drive are my writing files and critique files. They’re all over the place, organized based on where I was when I was writing, or who I was writing for, who I was critiquing for. I started there, and got a lot done. There’s still plenty to clean up and organize, but that’s going to take a different day, a different frame of mind, because it requires me opening old files and figure out what the hell I was writing back then.

But outside of the writing-related files, I feel good. One of the things I’m really bad about is finding a webpage that I’m interested in reading, but don’t have time to, so I bookmark it to my desktop and never come back to it. Several of these will accumulate, and then I’d dump them in a folder, assuming I’d get to them later. Spoiler alert: I never get to them. Ever.

So it was good to go through and clean house, so to speak. I always feel like I have a lot to do for the New Year, be it resolutions or simply new states of mind. This year, I feel the pull more than ever for some kind of resolution, some kind of focus. That’s a separate post, however, and since today is my anniversary, I think I’ll stop “cleaning” and pay attention to my long-suffering husband, who really isn’t suffering: he’s playing Dragon Age: Inquisition instead. I think this means I get to read. 😉

Show, Don’t Tell: How It Works in Total Recall

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

On Sunday, I watched Total Recall for the first time. Not the remake, but the original. I know, I know… I’m late to the party. But after watching the film, I noticed a very simple, straight-forward thing the film did that followed the rule of “Show, Don’t Tell” when it comes to world-building. Because Total Recall came out in 1990, I’m not worried about spoilers, but I promise not to be overly specific outside of discussing the specific world-building situations themselves.

Situation #1: The movie opens with the main characters in space suits walking around on Mars. Because they’re in a mountainous area, the footy is rocky, and one of them slips, slides down the mountain, and their face plate cracks open. The movie then proceeds to show us what happens to the character when deprived of air in the Martian atmosphere. Don’t worry, I haven’t spoiled anything for you.

Situation #2: The main character is going through his normal morning routine. One portion of his morning commute to work is to walk through the security scanner on his way to the subway. The security scanner, of course, scans for weapons, and of course, the main character walks through, no weapons visible.

Situation #3: At one point, the main character receives new tech to help him on his mission, and one of the pieces is a watch-type thing that projects a mirror-image hologram of whomever is wearing/holding the tech.  It’s nifty.

What’s cool about these three situations? Because each of these three situations sets something up: no explanation is given, and when the story comes back around, the viewer knows what’s going to happen when that tech/situation comes into play. The first go-around in each situation shows how something works, and the second go-around shows what it does in reference to the story. All of this without info-dumping exposition.

Which is neat. Total Recall might be an older, more classic SF movie, but I appreciated the straight-forward storytelling, and the trust the writers place in the viewer. A good lesson, even if it’s a little obviously telegraphed how things are going to work.

There And Back Again: Some Observations on Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit Trilogy

~ Shara ~ 2 Comments

I have a new tradition. Every year, when a Hobbit movie comes out, I take a vacation day so that I can see one of the first showings. It accomplishes two things: 1) I can pay a matinee price for my ticket and 2) I can avoid the crowds. It’s a day of fun and excitement, and I love sitting in the theater and immersing myself back into Peter Jackson’s vision of Middle Earth.

I knew I’d have a lot of thoughts about the movies, about the film trilogy as a whole, once The Battle of the Five Armies came out. And ever since Friday (this year, the movie opened on a Wednesday, but I wanted a three day weekend, so I made myself wait until Friday to see it), I’ve been mulling over the film, considering my reactions to it, and listening to Howard Shore’s The Battle of Five Armies score. There’s so much I wanted to talk about, but my attempts at a post got long, unwieldy, and unfocused.

So in order to at least start the conversation, I’m going to make a list. The list will be below the picture and behind a cut, because there will be spoilers, and I won’t be responsible for ruining the movie for you if you decide to spoil yourself. Cool? Cool.

the_hobbit_the_battle_of_the_five_armies_movie-wide1 Continue reading →

Changes….

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

This post is just a head’s up more than anything. I’m starting the process of making some serious changes to this blog. Some will be subtle, some will be major, but don’t be surprised if you visit the site and see it looking differently from day to day, even minute to minute. I’m fiddling with themes and all kinds of things, some things minor, some things major. It’ll take time, because I don’t want to jump in head first without really understanding what I’m doing and why. It’s a strange thing, really digging in to learn a new platform. I used to know Live Journal like the back of my hand, despite my serious lack of coding skills. Word Press, not so much, but it’s past time.

At any rate, this post is brought to you by a stupidly busy weekend, hot chocolate made with Rum Chata while watching the mid-season finale of Once Upon a Time, the Christmas album from She & Him, and a cat who’s currently plotting revenge because I accidentally elbowed him in the face after I returned home from a chili cookout.

Culture Consumption: November 2014

~ Shara ~ 3 Comments

Pretty good November for entertainment, all things considering. I guess my brain was good for something after all! If you’re interested in talking about any of the following, just comment and I’ll be happy to engage!

Books

40) Menial: Skilled Labor in Science Fiction edited by Kelly Jennings and Shay Darrach
41) Ticker by Lisa Mantchev
42) The Martian by Andy Weir
43) Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

Short Fiction

43) Mrs. Yaga by Michal Wojcik
44) The Mussel Eater by Octavia Cade

Comics

Graphic Novel:

Chew: The Omnivore Edition: Volume 4 by John Layman

Individual Issues:

Batgirl #36
Copperhead #3
Fairest #29
Lazarus #12
Saga Chapter 23
Saga Chapter 24
Supreme Blue Rose #3
The Massive #28
The Walking Dead #134

Movies

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Dumb & Dumber
Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever
Interstellar (theater)
John Wick (theater)
Only Lovers Left Alive
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
The Awakening
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Extended Edition)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Extended Edition)
The One I Love
To Be Takei

That’s it from me! Also, feel free to share whatever 2014 stats you’ve got! How many books? How many movies? What were your favorites? Lay them on me!

Cheers!

NaNoWriMo and What I Learned Attempting It

~ Shara ~ 2 Comments

If you’ve been following my blog for the past few weeks, you know the following:

1) I signed up for NaNoWriMo and got off to a pretty good start.

2) Then came the week-long migraine of DOOM.

3) Then came the family drama of DOOM.

4) Then I gave up, because I was just too behind at that point and my brain was whimpering from all the DOOM.

But I promised a retrospective of sorts, because while my participation in NaNoWriMo was short and limited, I actually learned a lot about how to participate in the future, so I thought I’d share those thoughts here, so that I can actually, yanno, remember them for the future and also in case they might help others. Continue reading →

Week #2: NaNoWriMo and the Nope

~ Shara ~ 3 Comments

Even if I wanted to, I can’t even begin to describe this week. I was talking to my grandmother last night, telling her about last week’s migraine, and the week before’s fighting of the cold, and combining that with THIS week, I feel like I should put on some umpire gear and yell, “Strike three! You’re out!” at whatever gnome or goblin that has jinxed me this week, last week, the week before, and this year over all.

I’m not the only one who feels this way: 2014 has been full of suck.

It’s an interesting thing though: I know I haven’t talked specifics about my personal life, and there’s some things that, no matter how open I may get on this blog, that I’m just not going to air to the public. But those things that happened earlier have prepared me, I feel, for the here and now. I’m a different person now that I was back in February, when I felt my life was draining through my fingers. I’m a stronger person now, which is good, because the events of this week have required it, and it’s still not over.

I know, I know: don’t you hate it when someone writes something, asking for prayers or clearly bemoaning their life, clearly indicating something is wrong but not telling you what it is? It feels like a cry for help. It feels like begging for attention. I’m doing neither of these things, and I’m not keeping secrets either: the people in my life who need to know absolutely know.

But I’m writing this in vague terms to say I’ve officially thrown in the towel for NaNoWriMo. I’d contemplated it over the weekend, after the week-long migraine subsided and I could legitimately focus on writing again. Yet, I couldn’t focus. And then something completely different started brewing on Monday, not related to my health at all, but my family. Monday was the warning, Tuesday was the tornado, Wednesday was the calm before the storm, and then Thursday dropped a bomb so big I’m still reeling from it, and since then, while telling myself and others, “Take one day at a time,” I’ve been dreading what that next day would bring.

This year, more than anything, has been a year of transition. And not just that, it’s a year that’s defining me. It’s a year that’s forcing me to focus on my fears, face them, and accept the fallout, whatever that may be. It’s forcing me to step up and that’s a scary thing.

And to put things in more specific terms, what’s happened this week has absolutely killed the writing brain. Not for good, just for NaNoWriMo. I have some thoughts about the few days I actually participated, how I felt about having to write nearly 1,700 words per day versus the way I normally write, but that’s a post for another day.

So for now, I’m gracefully bowing out. The migraine was one thing. This week has been an entirely different beast, one that colors the rest of the month, let alone the rest of the year. Trying to write to a deadline is just not going to happen right now.

And I’m okay with that.

Week #1: NaNoWriMo and the Week That Wasn’t

~ Shara ~ 7 Comments

It started innocently enough: Monday night writing session, sitting in a crap chair that encourages crap posture, a chair I’ve used since my freshman year of college 11 years ago and I’m surprised it hasn’t crippled me yet. That kind of crap chair.

On Tuesday, I felt the starting tension of a headache building at the base of my skull. Easy fix: grab a Coke, see if caffeine will knock it out. By time lunch was over, it was clear the full octane, liquid caffeine wouldn’t work, so I did the next best thing: took the generic form of Excedrin Tension Headache. Two pills.

Three hours pass and I arrive at my physical therapy session and the receptionist asks if I’m okay. I lie, say I’m fine, because it’s automatic and really, when someone asks you that question, they’re not really expecting a different answer, are they? Well, maybe in the medical and health-related field they actually do, but I keep the building headache to myself, get on the exercise bike, and work with my physical therapist and talk extensively about the crap chair and what to do about it.

Get to my car, take a prescription migraine pill. Generic form of Imitrex. One pill every two hours, maximum two pills a day. One pill should do it. Except it doesn’t. Driving home I realize I’m in a kind of trouble, because none, absolutely none of the medication I’ve taken that day has even come close to making a dent in this thing. I stop at a gas station, grab an emergency Coke, and when I get home, take my second and last dose in 24 hours of my prescription migraine medicine, hoping, just hoping, that this will do the trick.

I go to bed. Wake up at 4:30 am Wednesday. Still in pain.

Migraines used to be a different beast for me. Back in college, I would wake up with them, and I’d wake up vomiting. That particular migraine/trait/symptom is mostly history (used to be a monthly occurrence), and I get tiny headaches, the kind that lurk in the background and throb just enough to let you know they’re there, but not bad enough that you’re reaching for the first available pain medication. I also get bad headaches, the ones that make me debate between the Excedrin generics or the heavy-hitting prescriptions (it’s a debate, because I don’t want to starting overusing any one thing and make it less effective as a result). But by and large, if  headaches don’t make me vomit, I feel I’m functional.

I’ve not had a migraine that’s lasted longer than a day. Or, if I have, I’ve forgotten, and the circumstances were so completely different that it’s not even triggering the whole, “Oh, I’ve been here before,” feeling.

For the purpose of this entry, I’m blaming the craptastic chair. Truth be told, I honestly don’t know. In the past few weeks there’s been enough going on that’s different (I’ve made a list) that it could be any one of or any combination of those things.

In those wee hours of Wednesday morning, I gave up and took two generic Excedrin Migraines (only two in 24 hours allowed!). I feel asleep, and when I woke for work, the headache was on the way out. I grabbed my emergency Coke from the fridge, hoping the extra caffeine would drive it away completely, but I ended up taking a nap at lunch. When the timer went off and I was forced to return to a vertical position, I knew it was a very, very bad idea. But I did it anyway. After all, I only had four hours of work left. How bad could it be?

Bad enough that I finally gave up and went home at 3:15, after fighting to keep my head upright. Bad enough I called my doctor and asked for his advice on medication: I’d already taken my recommended dosage of the generic Imitrex. I’d already taken the recommended dosage of the generic Excedrin. What else could I do? He asked about my symptoms, the location of the pain, about what I’d taken and when, and called in two prescriptions: a new round of generic Imitrex (as the stuff I’d been taking had gone out of date in March. Ooops) for migraine, and generic Fioricet for tension headaches, which we both agreed was what this was. An aggressive, Hulk-sized tension headache, but a tension headache nonetheless.

I pick up the meds, get tips from the pharmacist on how to make those meds more effective (20 minutes soaking in a hot-as-humanly-tolerable bath with 4 lbs of Epsom salt). Pick up Thursday, until mid-afternoon, where I swear, in the span of 20 minutes, if left like someone grabbed the remote and turned up the pain levels back up to screaming. I wanted to pop my head like a zit. Powered through to 4:00, went home, made my list of WTF-is-causing-this-shit list, took my special bath, and then ended the night with the prescription dispersing in my system.

Today, Friday, was a day of goals: don’t ingest the things that might be exacerbating the pain (sugar, caffeine). Don’t take anything for the sinuses, even though the blockage is annoying as hell (and yet this isn’t a sinus headache). Keep taking the big guns through-out the day, because if the bugger comes roaring back like it has the past two days, it’s time to call the doctor and beg for a brain scan.

Fortunately, I did not have to call the doctor and beg for a brain scan. But headache’s still there. Lingering and waiting, shifting around and testing various locations in my head, like it’s trying to find a room just right. But because it’s Friday night, I’m debating taking another around of the big guns. I want to go to sleep, see what I wake up with, so I can get a feeling for how this sucker really operates, if it’s really on the way out like I hope. I’m not out of the woods yet, but I didn’t need to go home early today (stayed late, even!), and that is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Writing-wise: Tuesday yielded nothing. Wednesday yielded a couple hundred words that knocked me over 10K. Thursday I didn’t quite make the daily word count, and today, Friday, well, I need to get started. While I’m not in bad shape for NaNoWriMo, I’m also not where I want to be either, and I’m hoping the weekend affords me some time to get ahead, really ahead. I’m also hoping that this migraine, this tension headache on steroids, goes the hell away and stays the hell away.

Because this bastard has been here since lunch on Tuesday. Not off and on, but on, brighter and sharper at some times and dimmer at others. Friday’s been the best day since this started, and I hope that’s a sign that Saturday and Sunday will get better and better. I’m tired of having to say, “I was migraining yesterday,” in order to explain a lapse in attention, a screw up at work, a bumbling of words, or a plain fuck up (leaving the garage door open, forgetting to feed the cat twice). I’ve had to say it two days in a row, and that’s more than enough.

So let’s be optimistic: here’s to a migraine/tension headache-free weekend. Here’s to writing my heart out, eating delicious Chinese food with friends, and being blown away by the glory of Interstellar on IMAX. Please be awesome, Interstellar. Please be awesome.