The List (Must-Read Fantasy)

First, some quick personal stuff. Not much has happened lately, which is why I haven't been posting much. I got longer hours at the library, and I've been working a lot. Other than that, doing a little noveling, and reading a lot. Which brings us to...........

"Literature" Part 2: The List

A while ago on MH we were talking about the book Eragon. I stated my rather strong opinions on said book, which need no repitition here (*halo*); but it got me thinking about the many many better fantasy books I have read of late.

1: "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel", by Susannah Clarke

This book feels heavy when you pick it up, but start reading it and the time goes by so fast you don't realize how long you've actually spent reading--until you look up and realize it's been two weeks and you're halfway through and have no desire to do aught but read. It goes down like smooth ice cream, and other metaphors


The plot of the book is that in the early Nineteenth Century, two magicians emerge to bring magic back to England. They get involved in the Napoleonic Wars, become celebrities, quarrel, cause a schism in the magical community, etc. It's really rather hard to explain, but if Tolkien and Jane Austen wrote a novel together and it was edited by Dickens, this is what it would look like.

2: "Gardens of the Moon," and the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, by Steven Erikson

I'm not really ranking these in any order, because all of the books on the list would be tied for Number one.

Anyway, Gardens of the Moon. I thought Johnathan Strange was hard to describe, till I tried this. It has a really huge sweeping plot, lots of characters, and a world so incredibly detailed you'd swear it was real. It combines the mythic granduer of Tolkien with a gritty realism unlike anything I've seen--you feel the dirt on soldier's faces, the burning as mage-fire washes over you, the sand under your skin. I've read the first two books, the second is better than the first, and so far the third is better yet. The First one is kind of hard to get into, but after a hundred pages or so you get the hang of it. These, like the previous and most of the next, are big books. the first is 600-700 pages long, and is by far the shortest. But they're worth the read.


3: "American Gods", by Neil Gaiman

This one comes with a warning: there are some sex scenes in this book (not that that's unusual for modern books). Easily skipped, however-- at the end of most of the chapters are flashback scenes, and that's where most of it is. Either skip them altogether, or read carefully and skip when it's coming. It's not hard to predict.

This book would be the best thing I've read recently, except I read Johnathan Strange and the Malazan books. It's about Shadow, who was recently payrolled from prison. He is hired as a bodygaurd by a man named Mr. Wednesday, and is soon plunged into a world of Gods--literal Gods, the ones the American immigrants brought over from their native lands. These Gods are still lurking in the shadows, leeching off whatever belief people will give them. (Gaiman has it so that the gods exist because people believe in them, not the other way around. Terry Pratchett uses this device too.) It turns out a war is starting between these old gods, and the new ones--the things we worship today--Gods of Money, of Plastic, of News, of Stardom. There are lots of twists and turns, it's quite a fun book to read. But at the same time, it's supremely uncomfortable.

There is Christian symbolism to be found all over the place here, or at least what you could see as such. The very idea of whatever people worship becoming their gods has direct Biblical references--I should remember where exactly, but I don't.

There is one line in here that reminds me particularly of something a Lutheran might say. One of the gods is showing someone a stick that he intends to use as a spear (it's hard to explain further in breif): "This stick is a spear because it symbolizes a spear. The symbol is the thing, in this sorry world." What does this mean? (;-))

Think of Christ on the Cross, taking all our sins upon himself. He is not literally commiting every sin, yet he is bearing the responsibility for our sins. Or think of Communion: the Bread and Wine does not turn into Christ's body and blood (or it does not appear so to our eyes), yet it is Christ's body and blood.

Yeah, I may be way off here, but that's what occured to me. Maybe you should read it and find out. ;-)

4: The Artemis Fowl books, by Eoin Colfer

These books aren't too recent, at least not the first ones. The series includes: Artemis Fowl, Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code, and Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception. A lot of people who are fans of the series don't even know about the fourth book.

The Fairy world, which was chased underground thousands of years ago by the rise of Man, hides from us in the Earth's center. The Fairies are always at least twenty years ahead of us in technology, and they keep constant watch to make sure we don't find out about them.

Artemis Fowl, the twelve-year-old criminal mastermind, discovers the Fairy world and even cons the Fairies out of some of their gold. This is the first of many dealings and adventures he has involving his sometime-rivals, sometimes friends. All these books are great fun. The first one is like Harry Potter mixed with Ocean's 11; the next are somewhat like this, though the plots vary enough to keep it interesting. They vary in quality, but as I said, all are fun.

5: "Abhorsen" by Garth Nix

Abhorsen is one of the best ya fantasy books I've read in a long time. It's basically epic fantasy mixed with some stuff that's more like adventure/s&s; you can see some influence from zombie stories. The plot is great (complex), and the book is well-written.


6: Newly re-issued The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, and the other Conan Stories, by Robert E. Howard (Last one, I promise)

I know what you think when you see Conan the Barbarian. "Ugh, me Conan, me big dumb fantasy character as cliche as they come."

Unfortunately, this is what the character has become. Robert E. Howard, Conan's creator, died young, and other writers took over the character and hacked it up and turned it into the sad mess it is today. The first Conan stories were what a lot of good fantasy is and always has been: a mixture of action (fights and chases scenes, etc) and deeper philosophical themes and musings; in other words, literary elements.

Howard was taken with the idea of barbarism vs. civilization, a struggle he saw as eternal and inevitable. Man's true nature, he thought, was that of the barbarian: brutish, unrefined, wild enough to be like an animal, but always smarter than animals. He did not, however, hold with Noble Savage idea. As he once wrote to a friend, "[The barbarian's life] as near as I can figure it, was hard, brutish, and short." And this was Howard's conception of how life should be.

But, on the other hand, man always strives to build something bigger than himself, to make the world something better. Thus he tries to develop civilization. He builds up empires, which may flourish for a while, but which will eventually crumble. Many of Howard's stories center around this last. The story Xuthal of the Dusk is about a once-great civilization that destroyed itself through overindulgence. The Scarlet Citadel is about civilization under attack from within and without, about to crumble, barely saved by the coming of a strong barbarian leader.

It seems this theme might have some theological paralells. Barbarism is shown to be the natural state of man, similar to Original Sin. Perhaps civilization on the rise could be man's guilty conciense prodding him into an attempt to make the world a better place, but without outside help, man returns to sin, and civilization returns to barbarism. Something like that. The paralells aren't perfect, but they're their.

As for warnings, well, there is some talk of "buxom maidens" (verbatim quote), but it's not very explicit. You can see a bit of racism here, as black people tend to be dumb, evil, servants, or a combination thereof; but it seems to be more of the style of the times and the genre Howard was writing in than anything. I don't think Howard was too deeply racist--in another of his series, the Soloman Kane stories, there is a black sorceror who is almost the second hero of the series.

Some of these stories are somewhat minor, and not that great. If you don't want to wade through all of them, I recomend getting this book from the library and reading these stories: The Tower of the Elephant, Queen of the Black Coast, (these are the two that really stick with you), The Scarlet Citadel, Xuthal of the Dusk and The Vale of Lost Women.


That'll do it for now. This list may grow, as I have a couple stacks of new (and old) fantasy books waiting to be read.

Slan agus beanacht,
Ethan
(Exit, pursued by a bear)

"Literature"

Part 1: Recent Writings

Well, here it is, by popular demand, the poem I wasn't going to post. But you gotta give the public what they want, right? ;-) :-D

So anyway, read if you like, but don't say I didn't warn you.

...

And you sat there
holding my hand
you made my thoughts
travel distant lands

You sank to the ground
in a pool of red velvet
and the tears flowed all round us
but you smiled
that made it alright

the Lady said to me
come stay a while with me
the Lady stole a kiss from me
and sang soft so sweetly

she told me Know,
wherever you go
they'll be no one who knows
till your tears well and flow

And there will come a time
you see each other's eyes
you join hands together
your souls upward fly

And you sat there
holding my hand
and as you sat there
you had me at your command

those Times are over
our souls have split
i've gone all strange
you've gone with It

but late in the deep
dark of the night
i recall your face
it turns dark to light

And i look in your eyes
i see myself there
and i see also
what i don't dare

don't ever change
stay as you are
burning by night
the northern Star

we both drank from the Chalice
aye, faith, we can see
we held hands together
by the shore of the sea

And you sat
holding my hand
your hair tied like silk
in a black velvet band

there you sit
holding my hand
and worlds and worlds
are at your command

The Only Poem I Ever Wrote

seconds click in which I'm changed to dust
whithered roots of knots and hairy rust
no one sees you on a vampire planet
no one sees you like I do
--Sparklehorse, "Sick of Goodbyes"

So earlier this week I was feeling kind of melancholy/depressed. (It sucked. I mean, I got thru February and March and April without long periods of being depressed like in other years, but in late May with the sun shining and a blue sky, there it is. Welcome to Melancholy, population, You.) I think it was mainly post-prom let-down, the coming down off the mountaintop thing or whatever, but it was a little deeper too. So I'm sitting there about 12:30 at night, not really wanting to go to bed, so I just grab a notepad and start writing a poem. Even as I did it, I figured this would be my usual procedure for writing poems: come up with something I think is good at 1 am, wake up next morning and realize it's crap. But I wrote it and it felt good, and I left it. And the next morning I realized it was actually readable, something that had never happened to one of my poems.

So of course I had to think about this, and I realized what made this poem different is that I meant it. Always before I had tried to convey some image or idea that I thought was cool/beautiful/whatever; but it was never me talking, just me trying to re-tell something from somewhere else. And I think that's how truly great writing comes about: people talking about things, telling stories, that only they can talk about, stories only they can tell. And suddenly I remember that's what alot of people have praised in stories of mine: "This is something you would write" in the same breath as "I liked it alot."

No, I'm not going to post it. I'm sure that, viewed objectively, it's crap, and it seems sappy even to me. Anyway, just my thoughts. I remember a while ago someone over in the NaNo forums said: "Even for authors that are better than me on every aspect (Shakespeare and Dante, etc.) there is one thing I can do that they can't."

That's it for now, I must go to bed.

Ethan
(Exit, pursued by a horde of angry undead authors)

Prom

What good is melody, what good is music
If it ain't possessin' something sweet
It ain't the melody, it ain't the music
There's something else that makes the tune complete
It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing
It don't mean a thing, all you got to do is swing
It makes no diff'rence if it's sweet or hot
Just give that rhythm ev'rything you got
It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing
--"It Don't Mean A Thing", Ella Fitzgerald


So last night I went to the homeschool prom, organized by a homeschool group in our area, open to all homeschoolers. Got dressed up, suit, jacket, fedora (my personal touch)-- aye, the whole bit.

The music was pretty good, for a mainly Evangelical crowd--lots of swing, some Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Beatles, "Sweet Home Alabama", "Roll Over Beethoven" (my personal favorite); also some unfortunate rap and contemporary Christian music, but the latter had good dance beats, and the former at least was not Christian rap, so I guess thank goodness for small favors; and of course there was the Chicken Dance. I knew some swing moves, some cool spins and stuff, and picked up/was taught a waltz and some "contemporary" moves, so I didn't look like a complete idiot dancing to more modern songs.

I actually danced with like eight girls this year, up from four or five last year. :-D Pretty good for an introvert like me. And, as previously stated, dancing is quite fun. Near the beginning of the evening, when people weren't really "mixing", the DJ (a homeschooler dad with some experience DJ-ing) had everybody line up facing the wall, girls on one side, boys on the other. Each person was assigned a number, and the boy with, say, number eight had to dance with the number eight girl. I thought it was quite effective, and certain members of the party I came with probably wouldn't have danced with any save one or two people they knew otherwise.

All in all, pretty fun. And people were well-behaved (for teenagers :-D). So yeah, today I'm still recovering (please forgive any flying pink monkey incoherence. It's not entirely my hippo fault. Toothpicks.)

Sassafrass banana-bread,
Ethan
(Exit, break-dancing)

Quick Update (and 2 Reviews)

Hello, ev'rybody!

I am still here, yes you thought you could get rid of me but it won't be that easy hehe! (Yes National Insanity Day was a few days back and I haven't quite gotten over it).

I've been quite busy of late. I will soon be moving up from shelver to clerk at the library, so I have to get trained in how to use the computer, check books in/out (I can no longer use the phrase "check people out" innocently because a certain friend ruined it forever), etc. Other than that.... Well, the homeschool prom is this Friday and yes, I'm going. I WASN'T going, but my mom organized these dance lessons--swing dance, jitterbug, that sort of thing--and of course I had to go to them. And everybody who was going to the prom wanted me to go. And furthemore I'd forgotten how much fun dancing is. Not just the whole "Girls like a man who can dance" thing, that's part of it, but dancing's just... fun. If you know what you're doing.

So last Friday I went to the Reduced Shakespeare Company's performance of All the Great Books. For those who know not, the RSC's original show was "The Complete Works of Shakespeare--Abridged", purporting to be the complete works in 90 minutes. Hilarious show. They did some other abridgements--the Bible, History of America, and now All the Great Books. I'm not very good at in-depth comedy reviews, so I'll just say this: afterwards I hurt from laughing so much. My favorite part was towards the end, when one of the actors was summarizing all the books in one sentence (not a verbatim repro.):

"One flew Over the Cuckoo's nest."
"Sanity is overrated."
"Don Quixote."
"Sanity is overrated."
"Harry Potter."
(tosses book aside) "Overrated!"

Tee-hee.

The other review:

Good Lutherans, rejoice! Our founder is back from the grave, and what is he doing? Ridding the Lutheran church of its liberal corruption? No. Fighting off the church's enemies? No. Combatting evil? No! He is watching movies. And he is blogging. And it's hilarious. I hardly ever laugh out loud while reading something anymore--only when reading Twain, Terry Pratchett, or this guy. Check him out at http://lutheratthemovies.blogspot.com.

That's all for now. I have plans for a longer post(s) soon.

Slainte'bah!
Ethan
(Exit, strangely absent of any bear)

ERIN GO BRAGH!

But the bravest fell, and the requiem bell rang mournfully and clear
For those who died that Eastertide in the springing of the year
And the world did gaze, in deep amaze, at those fearless men, but few
Who bore the fight that freedom's light might shine through the foggy dew
--"Foggy Dew", Traditional

Yesterday marks the 90th anniversary of the end of the Easter Rising in Dublin.

Some background: In 1916, the British had been ruling Ireland for hundreds of years. By the early twentieth century the Irish had seen their language all but wiped out, most of their freedom taken away; they had sugffered through the potato famine, which killed a third of the population and drove another third away; by 1916 the spirit of the Irish people was all but broken.

But a group of young men, idealistic college students, poets, and revolutionaries, determined not to let this happen. They gathered in Dublin, and the movement for Irish freedom centered around a man named Padraig Pearse. He was a poet, and did not relish fighting save as a last resort. But when it became clear that their politically lodged protests were being ignored (as they had been for hundreds of years), the leaders of the resistance movement decided there was nothing left save to rebel.

An enterprise like this was difficult to arrange under freindly circumstances; the Irish are so naturally tribal that they are prone to split over minor issues, and there were several instances of political leaders forming breakaway groups that hindered planning. But the planning was completed (as well as possible at any rate, for an illegal group with low funds). The Rebellion was set for Easter, 1916.

On April 24, a few hundred Irishmen in and around Dublin took over the city and faced down the might of the British Empire. They held out, fighting tenaciously for one week, before thousands of British soldiers invaded the city and ended the rebellion. Most of its leaders, including Padraig Pearse, were shot.

It appeared the last real hope of Irish independance was snuffed out. But in executing the rebellion's leaders, the Briitish had created martyrs, heroes that no living man could match. Popular opinion began to swing to various nationalist movements. By 1922 there was another rebellion, and 26 of Ireland's 32 counties were independant.

The themes of this rebellion--desire for freedom, a nation for one's people, etc--run deep not only with the Irish but with all people. Padraig Pearse and his freedom fighters are some of my heroes.

The traditional song "Foggy Dew" commemorates the Easter Rising, and pays better tribute than I could.

As down the glen one Easter morn to a city fair rode I
There Armed lines of marching men in squadrons passed me by
No fife did hum nor battle drum did sound it's dread tatoo
But the Angelus bell o'er the Liffey swell rang out through the foggy dew

Right proudly high over Dublin Town they hung out the flag of war'
Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky than at Sulva or Sud El Bar
And from the plains of Royal Meath strong men came hurrying through
While Britannia's Huns, with their long range guns sailed in through the foggy dew

'Twas Britannia bade our Wild Geese go that small nations might be free
But their lonely graves are by Sulva's waves or the shore of the Great North Sea
Oh, had they died by Pearse's side or fought with Cathal Brugha
Their names we will keep where the fenians sleep 'neath the shroud of the foggy dew

But the bravest fell, and the requiem bell rang mournfully and clear
For those who died that Eastertide in the springing of the year
And the world did gaze, in deep amaze, at those fearless men, but few
Who bore the fight that freedom's light might shine through the foggy dew

Ah, back through the glen I rode again and my heart with grief was sore
For I parted then with valiant men whom I never shall see more
But to and fro in my dreams I go and I'd kneel and pray for you,
For slavery fled, O glorious dead, When you fell in the foggy dew.

I Used to Be Mad

I used to be mad
Oh I used to be mad
They put me in the house upon the hill
I used to be mad
But now I'm not so mad
Just as long as I keep taking my pills...
--I Used to be Mad, Nigel Burch and his Flea Pit Orchestra



Bonjourno, Good Gobbers!

Happy Easter, a day late!

So yesterday we went to church (beautiful service--great sermon and hymns), then out to lunch with my parents' old friends from college, or before college, I can't remember (I said they were old...). They're my godparents, anyway. We had lunch at Ella's (see... um... a previous post). Fun. And beneficial for my wallet (They're always generous contributors to the Give Ethan Money Fund). They're quite fun to talk to. My dad and Uncle Kevin (godparent, not real uncle) and I were kind of ranting about this "new" Gospel of Judas BS... (For those who don't know, there's a new book out by an author who "discovered" the Gospel of Judas, a 2nd or 3rd Century Gnostic writing that has Judas as a good guy, and our current form of Christianity is based on one of many splinter groups and it won a power struggle and some other crap...):

UK: So did you read the Gospel of Judas?

Dad: (Laugh) No. Maybe one day when I'm really bored I'll try it.

UK: (shakes head) Well, the media...

Dad: I know!

Me: Katie Couric's our new spiritual expert, I guess.

UK: Well they treat it like it's an "earth shattering revelation." [Quotes indicate sarcastic tone.-E] It's gonna "Shake people's faith." I mean, it's been around for eighteen hundred years!

(Laugh)

Me: And apparently the water changed to ice, and that's how Jesus walked on it.

(General laugh.)

UK: It's not even a Christian writing. It never pretended to be a Christian writing.

Dad: If Christians knew their doctrine better...

In Other News...

Here's some headlines to enjoy (they're all real):

Woman Ticketed For Crossing Street Too Slowly

Check it out.

Woman Bit By Snake At Home Depot

Wow.

Geologists Find Ancient Worm Feces

Seriously.

More (tho not always clean) can be found at
Dave Barry's Blog

...

So a friend of mine got back from France today... Actually yesterday, but I saw him today. Lucky bugger. He was told not to go into Paris on Monday or Teusday (due to riots), so, of course since he was staying with French girls (twins, and French-- enough said), they went to discotheques Monday and Teusday night.

Currently reading a book called The Peshawar Lancers, alternate history. The idea is that in the 1870s a series of comets hit Earth, dismantling much of civilization, forcing the British Empire to relocate to India, etc. The story takes place a century and a half later, with conflict between the British and the (Devil-worshipping) Russians. Lots of action, intrigue, mystery... And the world-building is excellent. The style is almost painfully detailed in places, but it works for the type of story. The research is incredible.

Having finished writing a Sons of Adam story, I am now working on the "Mustard Museum Mystery," a local writing contest with a reward of... I forgot the amount. Lots of money. They wrote the first chapter of a mystery novel, and you write the second chapter and an outline of the rest of the novel, and they select the winner.

If you want to see what I'm working with, click here.

For those who don't know, my town has the world's only Mustard Museum, which is exactly what it sounds like. They have all types of mustard, stuff about the history of mustard, the making of mustard, blah blah blah. And a curious ketchup prejiduce.

Well. That about does it for now.

Slainte'bah!

Ethan
(Exit, pursued by the Easter Bunny's angry cousins)

Easter Saturday...

...A quiet day today, as seems appropriate for the day between the solemnity of Good Friday and the celebration of Easter Sunday.

The past few days have been in the 70s and sunny, with a light breeze that keeps things from getting too hot. On Thursday my legs were suffocatting so I cast aside the bounds of social restriction and Wore Shorts. (The previous verb-subject conjuction is capitalized because after six months of Wisconsin crappy-weather-fall-winter the author feels it is a momentous occasion, warranting exessive capitalization.)

So Tenebrae service yesterday was beatiful, as usual. Solemn of course, and I'd have it no other way, as we are observing Christ's death. The symbolism--church stripped bare of accoutrements, black cloth hung over the cross, etc--was vivid and majestic. Mourning for the death of our Lord.

Ahem.

That's about it for today. A bit solemn mayhap, but tommorow's Easter, when we break out the decorations and celebrate the Resurrection (and Eat Candy!).

Rath de Ort,
Ethan
(Exit, pursued by a now-depressed Easter Bunny)

A Test and a Survey

It's always better on Holiday
So much better on Holiday
That's why we only work when
We need the money
--"Jacqueline", by Franz Ferdinand

Hujambo, bwana na bibi!

Well, I took the bleedin' ACT Saturday. For a three-hour test, early in the morning, it went as well as can be expected. I'm trying not to think about it too much, or guess how I did at all but:
English was pretty easy. Some tricky questions, but... pretty much common sense. Math... well, no walk in the park, but the problems were easier than I expected. Reading was hard, because, being a Book Geek, I felt the tendency (native to my people) to analyze every passage, rather than skimming it. In Science I tended to take too long answering questions, and having to rush later questions. The writing part... I won't even get into what a horrible essay I crafted in half an hour.

Now on to N's "survey"...

Profile.1.Name- Ethan
2.Age- As old as my gums, and a little older then my teeth
3.Height- Taller than some, shorter than others
4.Shoe size- 11 (I had to answeer one straight)
5.Ring size- Dunno. Why?
6.Unusual habits- I'll list one of many: much of my slang comes from-or is adapted from- across the Pond.
7.Eye color- Blue/green (blue when I wear blue colors, green when I wear green)
8.Length of left big toe- about eight cm.
9. Around 3 cm.
10.Number in your graduating (or present) class- 1.
11.Graduation year (high school)- 2007
12.Graduation year (college)- 2011or 2012, depending...
13.Graduation year (seminary)- Four years after i graduate from college, that is if I go to Sem (which I'm not sure...)
14.Major (planned) in college- English probably, if possible with an emphasis on Creative Writing... Unless I find a doable college with Creative Writing as a major... that would be cool.
15.Address- Somewhere In America.
16.Social security number- Right. Nice try.
17.Zip code- Nosy beggar, aren't you?
Favorites and two Least Favorites.33.Favorite Movie- Wow. Um. LotR and SW come to mind, and most recently Serenity (brilliant movie!) Also some old Rom-Coms like Philadelphia Story. And Arsenic and Old Lace.
19.Favorite TV show- *Huffy voice* well it WAS "Arested Development" until they bleedin' cancelled it... So now I'd have to say Lost.
20.Favorite CD- Um... Dropkick Murphys' "Blackout," or "Good Morning Spider" by Sparklehorse As a whole, the two best CDs I own.. 21.Favorite tape-I don't own that many tapes, but the best would be Arkangel's production of Shakespeare's "Love's Labor's Lost" (assuming you meant audio tapes and not video).
22.Favorite band- I have many (see fav.s list), but if I had to choose one to be stuck on an island with, it would be Sparklehorse. Or Dropkick Murphys. Or Ashley MacIsaac. (Hey, I narrowed it down to three.)
23.Favorite superhero- Conan the Barbarian, the original, as in the Robert E. Howard stories.
24.Favorite book- Talk about opening a can of worms... I guess Tom Sawyer or Lord Jim... or LotR.
25.Favorite poster- My Yoda "Read and the Force is with You" poster.
26.Favorite Brady child- I want to kill them all.
27.Favorite American Idol- See 26.
28.Favorite X-man- Wolverine, from the time I was very young.
29.Favorite member of NSYNC- See 27.
30.Favorite sport- Fencing of football.
31.Favorite weapon- My paintball gun, because it's mine.
18.Favorite clothing brand- Goodwill.
34.Favorite Higher Things blog- Borghardt’s Reflector.
35.Favorite restaurant- Something that serves good food.
36.Favorite food- It varies depending on my mood.
37.Favorite type of restaurant- Good pizza parlors.
38.Favorite type of food- Anything edible.
39.Favorite color- Red.
40.Favorite period of history- The Dark Ages (aka the early Middle Ages) or the high Middle Ages... or WWII
41.Favorite Muppet- I dunno.
42.Favorite alcoholic beverage- Communion wine.
43.Favorite musical instrument-My guitar.
44.Favorite candle scent- Lilac, an old standby for my mom's birthday.
45.Favorite operating system- Windows. *Cringes from Mac people*
46.Favorite smiley face- ;-)
47.Least favorite book- Sounder. Awful book. Also I Kissed Dating Goodbye, which I ran into once while shelving, looked at, and almost burned.
48.Least favorite candle scent- I have no least favorite candle scent.
49.Have you ever gone toga-ing? No. Want to.
50.Have you ever blown up, set on fire, or mutilated an action figure? Oh yes... Many many. (EE Hehehe!)
51.Have you ever tried to eat a fake decorative fruit? No. I took a bite out of a lump of butter, thinking it was ice cream.
52.Have you ever gone trick-or-treating since your childhood? Yes, "escorting" sibling and cousins (but really in it for the pity candy).53.Have you ever killed a seagull? No. Tried. failed.
54.Have you ever eaten a dog biscuit? No.
55.Have you ever fired a high powered rifle? Yes! Such fun.
56.Have you ever worn a dress? No.
57.Have you ever tried hitting a piece of technology to make it work? Yes. It doesn't help, just hurts its feelings.
58.Have you ever head banged through the entire guitar solo in Bohemian Rhapsody? Um... No. 59.Have you ever deep-fat fried a random food item and eaten it? No. sounds like fun. I ate deep fried Snickers at the County Fair.
60.Have you ever been in a blog war? No.
Miscellaneous61.How many HT conferences have you been to? Two.
62.Do you know how to play any musical instruments? If you can, which kinds? I used to play piano. I'm teaching myself guitar.
63.Did anyone notice that I switched numbers 33 and 18? Yes indeed.
64.Did anyone notice the other numbering errors? Not really.
65.Did anyone actually look for other numbering errors? No.
66.If you had to dress up as one Star Trek character, which one would it be? Spock, just for the ears.
67.Do you have any odd hobbies? Too many to list. For one thing, I still have battles between my plastic soliders.
68.What's the most random gift you've ever given or received? toilet paper.
69.Sith or Jedi? SITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
70.How do you like your steak cooked? With meat in.
71.If someone paid you $5, would you drink Dr. Pepper out of the navel of a hairy Scottsman? No. Add a few zeros and we'll talk. I would however, put on a kilt and pay someone five dollars to drink Dr. Pepper from my navl. Does this mean I'm a hairy Scotsman? (By the way, Scotsman is spelled with one 't'.)
72.Did you enjoy filling out this tag form? Sure.
73.Will you be prepared at The Feast to party every night with The Mop and Patty? Sure.... assuming I'm there. Which is still in question.
74.Do you vow never to tag, as well as never respond to tags, ever again? NEVER!!!!!
75.Which three people do you choose to tag? 1) Sir N. (Take that!) 2) Elizabeth 3) Jeremy

Back!

I'm glad to say
I'll soon be on my way
I won't return to you but I don't care
I'm packing my bags, and goin' back to Ireland
At least the grass is greener over there
"Grass is Greener" by the Electrics
Heard at paddyrock.com


*Steps up to podium, sees empty space in front of him, the crowd having grown bored and left*
*Shrugs, begins adressing pigeons*

Hello, er, everybody. I've not posted in a while, because there has not been much to tell. Our small youth group has had a couple meetings. What's great is that there's really nobody there (kids or adults) who tries to be "cool." At least not the way I've seen at certain other youth groups... *norski voice* with the knucklings and the constant slaps on the back and the fake ghetto talk... Sorry if I sound like an old woman, but I've had experiences like that with certain youth groups at former churches, and it always seems fake and annoying... *steps down from Griping Platform*

So my dad lost his job... His last day at the insurance company was Friday... He knew like two months ago, so it was no surprise. He had three parties that last week. I think that's more than he's gone to in the past year. He has several months of severance pay and some freelance writing jobs coming down the wire, so it's not real worrying... Plus we got a new computer and DSL connection (both to support dad's upcoming home-based work), so now I can post in the Manor without worrying about tying up the phone line. Yay!

(I never say "yay" in real life, in case anyone was wondering)

Thursday night someone I know from the library gave a Flash Fiction writing workshop for teenagers. (Flash Fiction being stories of a thousand words or less.) It was fun. There was one kid, elleven y.o. or so, who was rather wild-- constantly pulling ideas out of the air, some of them really good. I wish I could think like that at his age. Anyway this class got me coming up with ideas too, and I kind of can't seem to stop... Some of them are dumb, some are pretty good. Sigh.

Friday night I slept over at a friend's house. They have three computers, so we had three (he and I and his brother) playing three-way Unreal Tournament and AoE2 games... Then we watched a strange and funny movie called What About Bob? I'd never heard of it before, but apparently alot of people have....

Oh yeah, we also went to see Ice Age 2. It wasn't great. There were some mild chuckles; of course Scrat was hilarious, and there was a funny (if rather morbid) musical segment involving vultures; but i wouldn't waste an hour and a half seeing it at the theatre, if you want my reccomendation. Rent it on video and watch Scrat, if even that. *scolds self for causing more unintentional rhyming*

Saturday was a three-hour shelf-reading party at the library. (Shelf-reading: Scanning the book/CD/etc. shelves and putting all the books/etc on them in correct order. Source: MTH Library Staff Lingo, 2001-) After Shelf-reading for quite a while, we (teen staff and the Assis. Dir.) ate pizza and stuff... all in all, pretty fun.

Sunday we had a youth group get-together--pizza and games, etc. We have a room with a pool table and ping-pong, and there is a cup in this room--apparently a former coffee cup whose Dregs were left to sit for a long time, long enough to become mold. And of course, rather than cleaning it up like the good children we *are* (snicker snicker), we (meaning my brother and one or two other young people) are feeding it (sugar, water, lemonade, etc.). I believe the mold has a name. Bob, my brother tells me.

I found a Great website. ("Great" gets a capital g because Ethan likes said website enough to give its adjective a capital.) www.paddyrock.com --"The best in Celtic Rock, Punk, and everything in between." 'Cuz there's alot of uncovered ground between those two.

My Grandparents are coming down tonight, from up near the Twin Cities. This is the visit they've been trying to make since Christmas. Should be fun. Upon finding out this week was good for them, mother declared this week is Spring Break. Yay! for homeschoolers' flexibilty. (Here, have some free propaganda...)

Apparently Sir N. has "tagged" me with some sort of survey... I shall have to investigate this... But not now.

Slainte agus Beannacht,
Ethan
(Exit, pursued by that bloody bear)

Back Again! (And a CCM Rant)

Hullo!

I've been terribly busy of late, unfortunately not with anything interesting. Friday night I went laser-tagging with a group of highschool/middleschool aged kids, most of whom go to our old church. Nice kids, most of them, many of them friends of mine. But they made me a bit sad, as does spending time with kids so deep in the evangelical subculture. Great people, but so intent on making themselves look "cool" and "in," bowing to the culture in order to get people into the church, that they really only know complex vagueries about what they actually believe in so strongly. Perhaps I was feeling depressed anyway, as happens at this time of year (weather, lack of light, etc.). Anyway, the next night I stayed up till 2 writing a fifteen hundred word story about... well, hard to explain. It was depressing, at any rate.

This sort of leads into the next topic. I thought of something a while ago, and was talking with my dad about it. So we know the Contempory Christian Music scene largely sucks, and there are many reasones why--bad lyrics, mediocre music, etc. etc. My theory, which applies to bands still trying to work in "the message"(as opposed to the other kind, the ones that just play pop music and prominently don't swear), is as follows. These guys don't believe in their music. Oh, they know the words they're saying are true, but the music, the art, is not an end-it's just a means by which "the gospel" (which is often more like the law) is proclaimed. They have a foot in each camp, as my dad says, in art and in preaching, but that will produce at best mediocrity.

So I finished this book American Gods. And this, dear reader, is the one brilliant fantasy book that makes slogging through a hundred bad ones worthwhile. This is the first uniquely American mythology I've ever seen. The old gods (Odin, Eostre, tribal gods, etc), the ones settlers brought with them when they came here, are dwindling, and the new gods of Money, plastic, TV, etc, decide to start a war with them and wipe them out. Without giving away too much, there is lots of Christian symbolism, etc, as seems to happen anytime an author gets into the sort of 'deep myth' territory this does. There's one line, in which a character is talking about a shaft from a sort of magic tree, "This stick is a spear because it represents a spear. In this sad world, the symbol is the thing." Kind of made me think of Christ on the Cross.

Oh yeah, and my church is starting a youth group. We actually have like eight youth now (we had less than half that a year ago).

Well, that's all for now.

Slainte!

Ethan
(Exit, pursued by time-warped bear)

Reading and Writing

Lookin' down on a tide of no return
Is a man not knowin' how he should feel
Mocked by the wave
That beats the water's edge
There for the Grace of God go I...
--"Grace of God Go I" by Flogging Molly

Hullo all,

So not much has happened lately. I did nothing for V-day save buy my mom a couple things. Otherwise my family's sick, and nothing real exciting is happening. School and work. Etc.

So I shall list what I'm currently reading and writing (currently in the broad sense, not at this moment, in case you were wondering). Read on if you like.

Writing projects (ones for which I have written actual text):

Shadow's Call (125,000 words, something over 2/3rds of the way done with the plot). Epic fantasy, meaning alt-world, sprawling storyline, lots of characters. But this one has guns in it, because I got tired of using medieval age weapons. (Also a hideously complicated system of magic which I am still trying to figure out). When I tell people it has guns, they tend to do the nose-wrinkle, but everyone who's read part of it likes it. Magic and technology are in conflict, as of course are good and evil. A major theme is reliance on the self vs. reliance on a higher power.

The Passing of the Anars (3,104 words). Also an epic fantasy, it's resurrected from a novel I started a couple years ago then abandoned because the writing was, well, awful. I was trying to write like Tolkien, and I'll leave you to imagine how that turned out. But I like the world, and some of the characters, and I think it deserves another go.

The Travels of the Sons of Adam, (4 stories written, a fifth started, total of 27,000 words or so). Short stories about two men traveling as mercenaries in North America in the 1870s. Except the Civil War ended twelve years after it started, and Europe got involved, and North America now consists of eight or ten seperate countries. Also there's magic involved. And there's a bunch of things I didn't tell, and won't, because we'd be here all night long.

The Literary Cycle (One story finished so far, three more started, probably half dozen others concieved of or outlined). That isn't actually it's name, just what I'm calling it till I come up with a proper name. It's about... well, teen subculture, at least those areas of it I've seen close up. A lot of it centers around an evangelical youth group, for several reasons-I know the setting well (having grown up close to it), but have been out of it long enough to have some perspective; also it's a great sort of cross section, because they welcome everybody so you tend to get a lot of interesting characters, saved, unsaved, and everything in between.

The one story I've completed here is about the most perfect I've ever done-- symmetry, disilisionment, symbolism, even poetic devices (like giving hard sounding words to obnoxious people, and soft, pleasant words to sympathetic characters). It even reaches an emotional(anti-) climax that the reader can see but the character can't, a technique borrowed from Dubliners.

Finally, a novel about a boy and a girl that is as yet titleless. It should hopefully be literary too, an experiment with structure, plot, symbolism etc. I'm trying to get away from the boy-meets-girl-they-kiss-and-can't-be-together-because-of-some-outside-gimmick that even good teen novels seem to like these days, and write realistically about relationships, both friendly and romantic. And of course, try to make it a good story too. We'll see how it goes.

Reading:

The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett. Hilarious book, one of the Discworld series of humorous fantasy. The hero, Rincewind, is the opposite of the archetypal "Hero with a thousand faces"--he's the "Hero with a thousand retreating backsides." Apart from said heroic fantasy spoofing, Pratchett makes fun of Australian stereotypes, evolution theory, time-travel stories, governments, ancient myths, and anything else in sight.

Dubliners, by James Joyce. This is an incredible book. Less than two hundred pages, but people have written libraries' worth on it. It's easy to read, that is, it's written simply, but Joyce packed in layers of meaning and symbolism and symmetry, and relationships between the stories... I swear that guy could do more in ten pages than many can in 400.

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. Excellent fantasy book. Set in modern America, with fantastic creatures and "gods" lurking in the shadows. Gaiman is always interesting. Not necesarily Christian, but... interesting. Kind of hard to describe, really.

The Lord of Snows and Shadows, by Sarah Ash. Above-average epic fantasy that I haven't read much in since... um, Christmas.

The Fire and the Staff, by Klemet Preus. Wonderful book, an excellent defense of Lutheranism and Lutheran practices, and why we shouldn't be swayed by "mainstream" "Evangelical" influences.

Anyway, that's enough boring stuff from me.

Slainte!
(Exit, purued by some kind of horse-alligator hybrid)
(You see what happens when you wipe out the top of the food chain?)