Causation Metaphysics

Thinking about changing blog providers

todeskun — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:02:00 +0000

I’m really irked with the new LJ ads (and lower userpic limits!) and am thinking about changing to a different blog provider.

It probably won’t happen because that would mean losing all of my friends pages and greater restrictions on content (wordpress, for example, allows no pornographic material; since I’m not sure whether my stuff — when it gets sexually explicit, that is — falls under erotica or porn, I’m erring on the side of caution and ruling them out). Plus I probably wouldn’t be able to use all of my user pics, especially since I don’t know who owns the copyright on a number of them…unless I can use Google and argue that turning them into thumbnails constitutes a transformative use of the image. And I’d have to look into whether or not there are desktop clients for the alternative sites.

On the other hand, no ads.

Stay tuned for more updates of this extremely not riveting at all saga.

todeskun — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:31:00 +0000

I have 3 Big Gay Cats sitting outside of the door to my spare room/study/foster isolation room.

I’m not sure what irks them more: that I dare shut them out of a room, or that I dare shut them out of a room to spend time with another cat.

todeskun — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:19:00 +0000

Having dreams of Michael and Gio. Some of which I think was brought on by watching my Big Gay Cats wrestle with each other (or, in Big Gay Cat language, make out).

Michael is turning into quite the little repressed Englishman in my head. No, I don’t know why he’s English. Sometimes it’s just better not to ask.

In other news, one of the dogs at the shelter I’ve been working with has been adopted. This deeply saddens me as I love this dog and was considering completely rearranging my lifestyle (and that of my Big Gay Cats) to give him a home. Sigh. Well, all I can say is I hope his new owners know just what a lovebug of a guy they have in him.

Not dead

todeskun — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:42:00 +0000

Just still in law school.

Oh school, how you manage to eat up my life.

Plus side, am now beginning to have dreams about fic again. Yay!

book review

todeskun — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:09:00 +0000

Ever read a book that somehow manages to be engaging despite itself? Well I’m reading one such book now. It’s called In the Eye of Heaven by David Keck and it’s the first book in a series and I’m…well, I think the only reaction I can properly articulate is “errgh”. (As an aside, I got a kindle for my birthday and so much love.)

See here’s the thing. There are a lot of cool things to like here. The world is a very harsh, well developed place. And you know me, I geek out like crazy over good world building. The problem, though, is that David Keck has fallen into the lesser known but far more devastating well of “not showing or telling”. See it’s really obvious that there’s this whole cool history and all kinds of well developed backstory going on, but he just kind of throws the reader into it without doing anything to explain, well, anything. Like many authors I find that he’s forgotten that “sink” is always an option.

It doesn’t help that he has a very disjointed writing style — which makes me cringe because I am a big fan of the disjointed writing style, seeing as how that’s pretty much the only way I can write fic (a complete sentence expressing a fully formed thought from moi? heaven forbid). And there are some definite rough patches in his writing just in general — I’ve found myself thrown out of the story several times by the use of certain words and a sudden switch from limited third person to “you” as part of a descriptive passage.

It’s really too bad that I have such issues with the writing style because in so far as I can tell, the plot is rather cool (and he did a very good job of foreshadowing/echoing it) since it seems to be a variant on the echoing fate schtick. And I find myself sympathetic enough towards the main character to want to keep going, at least through the end of this book. But it’s just. Well. Let me put it this way. In my personal scale of “a good read” with 1 being “The Da Vinci Code” — a book so poorly written that I couldn’t get past the first sentence — and 10 being “Swordspoint” — which is so beautiful that I practically read it every year and is a paragon of how to create and convey a fully developed world to your reader without seven bazillion pages of exposition and excruciating descriptions of the world’s minutia — this book is shading towards a 3. Not so bad I’ll stop reading, but not so great that I’m at all convinced I want to spend money to see how this series actually ends.

Unplanned vacation = fairly awesome

todeskun — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:19:00 +0000

So I haven’t actually started my new job yet because the lab that did my drug test (ah the fun of peeing in a cup) hasn’t given the results to my work yet. This is kind of frustrating but also kind of nice (since, you know, I get to chill out and go see 2 movies in a row and all that sort of fun stuff). A part of me is wondering if the reason they haven’t given my results to my work yet is because the results aren’t negative — I know for a fact that my urine will test positive for amphetamines because, well, I take prescription amphetamines every day for ADD. Sadly the lab wouldn’t let me tell them that and thus short circuit the whole bureaucratic run around that this positive finding will no doubt cause. Oh well. Red tape is what makes the world go round.

Also, joannindiw, have you ever ready “His Majesty’s Dragon” by Naomi Novik? As I understand it, it’s like the Aubrey/Maturin series, but with DRAGONS!

Protected: Interesting…

todeskun — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:33:00 +0000

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Bah.

todeskun — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:39:00 +0000

The worst part — correction: among the many, many bad aspects of stupid brain chemistry is the fact that I go through these periods of massive insomnia followed by massive hypersomnia. Which is a long winded way of saying that sunrise is not fun when viewing it from the other end. By which I mean seeing the sun rise because you haven’t gone to bed yet makes this phenomenon — while admittedly pretty — no more fun and/or appealing than it would be if I saw it because I woke up at the ass-crack of the morning.

Anyway. I’m sure a part of it is because I miss my kitties — they’re being boarded for two months while I go back to Hawaii to work for a bank over the summer. And I suppose in a way that this is a good thing — the missing the kitties, not the working. Which is, you know, a good thing qua good thing given the economy and needs no further clarification.

But going back to the missing my kitties. I’m seeing it as a good thing because it means I am, in fact, quite attached to my cats, even though they’re both little assholes most of the time. Although since they’re cats I suppose that’s just a given. Plus it means that my therapy is actually working, which is nice because I’d hate to think I was wasting two hours a week for the past year, or there abouts.

And as if this need any further rambling, I’m going to end with two unconnected and incoherently articulated thoughts:

1) I have never regretted more the fact that my employer is connected with the federal government than I do right now.

2) Goal for this summer: get back into the whole writing thing. After all, how much work can there really be to be done at a bank these days?

Drive-by book rec

todeskun — Sun, 17 May 2009 02:28:00 +0000

Just stopping by to rec a book. If you haven’t read it yet, do yourself a massive favor and go out and pick up a copy of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind. Beyond the fact that it’s got a wonderfully flawed main character, and it’s wonderfully epic fantasy of the “look, there’s a whole developed world here!” variety, the author himself is just kind of awesome. I mean, come on. How can you not love a guy who wants to write so well that people write smutty yaoi fanfic about his work? (and yes, he uses those words exactly)

…Ok, so maybe I’m a bit biased because I’d love to write a book that’s so compelling and well written that it inspires tetrabytes of smutty yaoi fanfic. But still.

Only caveat: this is the first book in a trilogy and the 2nd book isn’t out yet. In fact, it was delayed at least once (possibly more than) and it could still be a while yet before it comes out — and there could be a considerable gap before the third book comes out too. So, you know. If you don’t like to feel desperate anticipation, wait until he’s finished before checking this book out. But go read it. Because it is good.

As for me, I’m going to go get him a Powell’s beer glass and send him my copy for an autograph.

(Yes, I’m fangirling. And I’m cool with it.)

todeskun — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 05:35:00 +0000

You know, I either need to actually write down all the little scenes of the Royal Navy!VF that have taken up residence in my brain or stop reading/listening to the Aubrey/Maturin books. Because, dude. I can only deal with so many fic vignettes at a time. Also, the Navy!crack makes me happy.