RWPK

READING: I just finished Grey by Jon Armstrong, which has been my nightstand reading for the last few weeks. It took me a long time to finish it because, until this morning, I pretty much only read it right before falling asleep at night--I can sustain reading in bed for only about 30 minutes before the eyes enforce bedtime, so...yeah, it took awhile to finish it. As is typical, the blurb on the cover of the novel promises "a legendary book waiting to happen" (Michael Chabon); well, I'm still waiting. This book was too much style, not enough substance, and the style was neither good nor believable. Surprisingly, I hated this book. It has been a long time since I've hated a book that I nonetheless continued to read to its conclusion (I think the last one was Marge Piercy's The Third Child, which is just wretched).

Anyway, I'm not sure what I'll read next. There are a bunch of books on my shelves that I want to read. I picked up I am Legend by Richard Matheson a few weeks ago (same day I bought Grey, actually). I first read it for a popular literature class I took at Grand Rapids Junior College (now GR Community College) back in...like...1986 or 1987. I loved it then. Haven't looked at it since. I also have a copy of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's joint effort, The Difference Engine, aka the seed of steam punk. I'm not a Sterling fan, but I thought I should (finally) get around to checking this one out. It's a hole in my SF have-read list. There are some others on my shelves that I haven't read yet, but I can't remember what right now. I'll go through, take stock, assess, and pick something in a little while. Tune in next week, and all that. (I'm not mentioning work-related readings at the moment. I'll start posting about work again soon, I just haven't felt like it lately.)

WEARING: At the moment, I'm wearing black sweatpants and a navy blue U of Delaware sweatshirt. No, I did not get this sweatshirt from glaucon. It's far older than my acquaintance with him. My ex-husband gave me this when we were first dating, in 1989. He got it from someone he met on a trip he took to Taiwan the previous summer. It was a summer program for Chinese-American kids to go over to Taiwan and learn some Mandarin and some Chinese culture.

PLANNING: Actually, I'm planning some changes. In addition to my new yoga habit (which has, admittedly, been developing in fits and starts, but will hopefully smooth out into something more regular), I am feeling 2 separate needs: the need for more physical activity, in the form of walking, running, and (hopefully) hiking; and the need for less screen time. Lately, I have been spending far too much time watching movies and surfing the internetz. I need to spend more time on other things: my work, and being in the world. Screens are addictive substances to me. I get sucked in and hours, days, weeks, months, just disappear. I have kicked this dependence before. I can do it again. (I will still blog, and read blogs--I consider that intellectually stimulating and interactive activity, thus not soul-sucking like other kinds of surfing can be.) The basic gist is this: when my entertainment activities start using me, instead of the other way 'round, it's time to worry. I can always tell when it gets to that point, because I start feeling numb in the brain and heart, stagnant and earthbound in the body, and developmentally stuck in time and space. As if everything else is moving, changing, growing, but I'm standing still at best, and at worst decaying where I sit. It makes me feel antsy and impatient, like I'm waiting for something to happen....waiting...........waiting.........................waiting. It's interminable, this waiting. It's also an illusion. Nothing is going to happen. I'm waiting for a void.

KNITTING: Still working on my February Lady Sweater. If you want to see pics of the WIP (modeled by the gorgeous and talented Iphi), you can look at my knitting blog.