Things to read

First off:

Books of 2009, as of 27 December
1. Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil - Inga Muscio
2. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
3. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
4. The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks
5. Neuromancer - William Gibson
6. The Opposite of Fate - Amy Tan
7. The Joy-Luck Club - Amy Tan
8. The Bonesetter's Daughter - Amy Tan
9. Takarazuka (Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan) - Jennifer Robertson
10. The Hundred Secret Senses - Amy Tan
11. The Kitchen God's Wife - Amy Tan
12. Cunt - Inga Muscio
13. Beyond Heaving Bosoms (The Smart Bitches Guide to Romance Novels) - Sarah Wendell, Candy Tan
14. Killing Rage - bell hooks
15. Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
16. Polite Lies - Kyoko Mori
17. Looking for the Lost (Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan) - Alan Booth
18. Lost Japan - Alex Kerr
19. Geisha: A Life - Mineko Iwasaki
20. Women of the Pleasure Quarters - Lesley Downer
21. The Faded Sun Trilogy - C.J. Cherryh [it's an omnibus, so I'm counting it as one]
22. The Loved Dead - H.P. Lovecraft
23. Idoru - William Gibson
24. Looking for Jake - China Mieville [a volume of short fiction]
25. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
26. Dune - Frank Herbert
27. World War Z - Max Brooks

Now I'm on to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell by Susanna Clark. It's a long book, so I'll probably be at it for a week at least. It's sort of alternate history meets fantasy, which I love: 19th century England with magic, more or less. I've only just started, so I don't have an opinion yet, but I think it'll be a fun read. And, if you like zombies at all, read World War Z because it's awesome. It's written as an oral history of the zombie apocalypse - interviews with and first hand accounts from people who survived it (soldiers, politicians, normal people, etc.). Brilliant stuff.

Outside of the realm of books, but still related, I've fallen deeply, passionately in love with two web comics. I wasn't into web comics for a long time, to be perfectly honest, but recently I stumbled across a couple and started reading and am now completely engrossed and waiting for them to pick back up now that Christmas is past.

The first one is Trying Human. It's a sci-fi romance predominantly about a woman who gets abducted by aliens (who look sort of like stereotypical UFOs) and eventually falls in love with one of them. Then there are subplots, mostly about other attempts at inter-species romance. The title comes from this thing the second alien species in the comic (reptilian) have, the Trying Human circuit, which lets the alien wearing it take on the appearance of a human. So, if you like sci-fi, it updates every Monday and Thursday.

The second one is Beauty and the Beast. As I'm sure you've guessed by the title, it's a retelling of the fairy tale, with a somewhat unusual take on the story and great art (very distinctive and nothing like the Disney film). The Beauty character is a little too perfect, but considering the nature of the story, it's forgivable. This one updates 5 days a week.

Yes, it's Christmas break, which means it's time to catch up on my reading.

Almost Done

First of all: I will be back in Seattle December 20 (that's next Sunday, for the record). Actually, I might be back Saturday night, but I'm getting a ride from Alex like usual, so it depends on whether he wants to leave after his last final on Saturday, or wait till Sunday morning. I'll be around till mid-January (like, the 16th or 17th), so if you want to hang out (and why wouldn't you? I mean, seriously), we can definitely work that out.

I'm also getting my wisdom teeth extracted at some point, because one of them has been actually causing on and off pain since, oh, October, but awesomeness needs to go down around my first ever experience with dental surgery.

Actually, speaking of my wisdom teeth and pain, how lame is it that I don't have dental coverage outside of the state of Washington? I was so mad when I learned that a couple months ago. I am in pain (minor and not all the time, but still) and I can't deal with it until I leave Oregon for more than a couple of days.

Putting all that aside, it is cold in Salem. And I don't mean cold like 'maybe I should wear an extra sweater today,' I mean cold, like 'oh, wow, my arm just snapped off and shattered like an icicle on the floor.' We're reaching such blistering high temperatures as 28 degrees during the day and it's getting down to the low teens at night (it's 18 degrees right now). Salem is almost never this cold. The stream running through campus actually froze last night. To make matters worse, my apartment has 1920s windows with no insulation, so there is a constant draft. And, just to add insult to injury, it's really dry, so I'm getting little annoying nosebleeds about 5 times a day and there's not even any snow to make up for the suffering.

So:

Dear Oregon Weather Gods,

If you're going to subject me to painful cold, the least you could do is throw in some snow to make me feel better. This whole dry cold thing? Yeah, I don't approve.

No love,
Me

And, just to close up another of my habitual all-over-the-place blog entries, tomorrow and Friday are Christmas in Hudson Hall (the big Christmas program the choir department does every year - readings and carols and... stuff), classes end on Friday, my only finals are next Thursday and Friday, which means I have plenty of study time should I need it, Annie and I are hosting a Christmas party on Saturday, and I am all but counting the hours until this term ends. So burned out. So ready for Christmas and relaxing for a few weeks.

Actually, I'm ready for it to be May. Graduation is looking pretty good right now.