Spren of Kindness

I will say, one of the reasons I like the Wheel of Time is because I managed to finish it, since it looked rather insurmountable at the beginning. I'm also pretty good at keeping things like publication date and authorial circumstances in my head while reading, to pull for explanation of something that doesn't go with modern standards (that's a whole 'nother talk that I won't get into). I have essentially the same thoughts about Mat/Tylin and Rand/Alanna. Those were not great. I feel like Alanna's...deal was dealt with a little better, but yeah. Neither of those were good sequences. Rand, I get the frustration, but I understand him, especially as I get older. In the grand scheme, he's pretty young and unprepared, with very little support, or he refuses to take support. Plus he's got an ancient, traumatized wizard riding about in his head and the threat of insanity looming. While I do not have either of those things, I can see where he's coming from. The war crimes are still a problem. The other reason I liked it that I can immediately think of is actually the clothing. Jordan wrote a lot of variety into how different cultures dressed, often drawing from history, and I was a fan of that, as a historical dress nerd.

I'm reading Black Unicorn right now, and I've picked up Bridge of Clay, the first Dresden Files book, The Genesis Fleet: Vanguard, and a book based on a Thomas Kinkade painting? I dunno, that one could end being really good or really bad, I'm not sure yet, but it does intrigue me. I could crush my library's summer reading program with these.

Well, mockery is a good word for one particular person because of their particular personality. I cheerfully misuse that word. At this point? Heck if I know. I wish. Might be wishful thinking. They're absolutely doing it on purpose. I love them though.

So, I like my Star Wars with more holes than Swiss Cheese (this statement should be applied with as many gaps as desired depending on whatever frame of mind I'm in) and as such: Moving onto other thoughts: All in all, I think it was a pretty solid show! I'd definitely watch it again with friends.

Don't you love it when everyone knows and gently mocks you about your crush? I'm not mad, I just think that it's unfair.

That is absolutely gorgeous!

Last week was so freakin' awesome. Mission weeks are the best weeks, even when they're full of travel ups and downs (we only got like five hours of sleep the first night because we arrived so late) and construction hiccups. The love and joy we get to experience and share, the community and teamwork, and the connection despite the language barrier, more than make up for it. Also I'm supposed to start therapy or counselling, not sure of the difference, in a couple weeks! And I'm really glad about that.

I'm not sure I'm going to haul my 1200 page Jane Austen collection on a week-long mission trip (it's very nice quality and also heavy), but I estimate I can definitely finish Sense and Sensibility before that if I choose not to bring it. Honestly, I really adore this book. I usually read fantasy and science fiction with quite high stakes, and modern social situations confuse me to no end, but older works like this are just the right level of removed from modern norms that I can enjoy the story, social-event based though it often is, and the writing style is so comforting that even situations that might normally give me second-hand embarrassment do not do so quite so significantly. I might go through in order and read Pride and Prejudice next, but I might also skip over that straight to Mansfield Park. Who knows? I certainly don't.

Episode Five spoilers:

But a few hours, and I will be released from mine chains for the long days of summer and the sweet relief of being unconfined by the unfeeling walls of the school system!

So, I read both Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, as well as Fall of the Argosi, which seems to be part of a larger universe. I thought it was pretty interesting, and the world seemed fairly unique. The Starless Crown was pretty good. Next up: The last Shadow Children book and The Lost Fleet: Outlands: Boundless. Three layers of titles deep; that's a new one for me. I'm going to read other things, but summer is about to officially begin and I'm not entirely sure of the legality of taking library books across national boundaries, so I'll probably be reading less for a while.

I don't quite remember where I got my name, since I'm fairly certain it came to me in a flash of clarity when I was going to sleep, but I know I was trying to think of a positive characteristic, and I wanted something from Sanderson lore.

No particular order: The Lord of the Rings, because duh. Throw in The Silmarillion while I'm at it, since I still have the entire Finwë family tree memorized and I don't do that for just any series. The Stormlight Archive - this is my favorite Brando series, so it's the only one I'm going to put in here, though I enjoy all of them. The Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio, because I will be plugging this until the day I vanish from the Interwebs. It's sci-fi written as a memoir, by the man who destroyed an entire alien race. It has some of my favorite prose ever. And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer And Longer by Fredrik Backman is a novella, but if it can make me cry, it's really good. It's about a grandfather with dementia, and if you've seen my posts about it before, well, it hits close to home, as my grandmother also had dementia and reading this story was very cathartic. Anne Of Green Gables is probably one of the biggest reasons why I'm interested in historical dress now, and Pride and Prejudice definitely furthered that, and my sappy romantic side too. (I'm going to read the other Austen books and I'm sure I'm going to really love them, but I have all six in one massive really nice volume and I can't take it places.) Both of these are also a big reason why I'm interested in history, full stop. These are the ones that come to mind immediately, though there might be a few more that are really high up there.

Oh, there's a whole new album? I'll have to look into that. Discovered a new genre, at least, for myself. The genre being filk, or essentially space shanties. I think there's also a lot of fantasy ones, but I haven't gotten to those yet.

Well, that's obviously just as good!

I'm rereading Chronicle of the Dark Star by Kevin Emerson. It's a trilogy, and I've finished Last Day On Mars and am almost done with The Oceans Between Stars. So, tomorrow will be The Shores Beyond Time. These books honestly have some of my favorite titles, and the writing is really good as well. So far as middle-grade sci-fi goes, this is among the best, and actually is better than almost all the YA sci-fi I've read. I haven't read enough adult sci-fi yet to know what I think about it's standings. Thursday I'll hopefully be starting either Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? or Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

Is anyone else of the thinking that they've never heard of this before, but consider it to be quite amusing?

This is a bit of a bizarre one - but my phone broke, and while my dad was trying to fix it, he saw one of my google searches about depression and anxiety, and asked about it. Which means the ice has been broken and I have more of an idea as to how this imminent conversation is going to go. Oh yeah, and I get to go on a mission trip very soon!

Yeah, but we also want

"I'm not sure. This place was abandoned because of a particular incident," alarms and screaming and white fires crackling "And I guess some animals might have decided to take up residence. Anyone still here is honestly more likely to avoid us than confront us." Well, try to avoid them, anyway. Martin knows this place far too well, and he'll know if anyone is here. "Be careful, though."

Shoo it away. Why do people wear collision gear around you?

How'd you end up in this position anyway? My lord. I guess.

"Control room." Martin leads them down another hallway. This one looks even more torn-up. There are scorch marks on the walls. "Keep an eye out for blue lights on panels. We might need to check those things."

I live in a house where Sunday breakfast is pancakes, so pancakes are better because my dad makes them with love. Thou canst argue with mine logic.