to start a fire...

       so i promised you this post ages ago, but i'm just now getting around to it. i've been pretty distracted, and even now i had to force myself to put it down and pick up my laptop. i'm reading six or seven books at the moment, but like i mentioned in my pulse, i recently uploaded my harry potter collection and i became absorbed in the sixth when i opened it to make sure it worked. not my favorite of the series (that spot is reserved for the seventh), but it is one of the better written of the bunch. and while harry and dumbledore walk towards slughorn's house for the first time, i'm being soothed by the minimalist themes of philip glass's brilliant score to "the hours." yes, it's an mp3 player, too. for someone on a shoestring budget (who's already bad with money), it's fairly expensive, but i haven't for a moment regretted hitting that little "add to shopping cart" button. i love my kindle.

       for those who aren't sure what it is, you might find it easier to go here and learn all about it. i think they represent it fairly accurately. one of the first things i noticed about it as i tore into the box was how sleek it is. it's fairly pretty. very thin and lightweight, it's the perfect size -- not too big, not too small. the second thing i noticed, and the one that surprised me the most, was the little clear plastic protective cover. yeah, doesn't sound too surprising, but wait for it -- it had some printing on it over the area of the screen. except... when i removed said clear plastic protective cover, the printing didn't come off with it. it took me a minute to figure it out. the first cover was the size of the entire kindle, so i thought perhaps there might be a second just for the screen... but no. it wasn't printing. it was the screen. i was baffled how clear the writing was. they aren't kidding when they call it "electronic paper."

       so i had ordered it on a thursday and i received it the following tuesday. in that time i had browsed amazon's kindle store and purchased somewhere around 80 books to download, so i was expecting to have quite a wait while all of the books were delivered. when i finally figured out how to turn it on, though (i'm sometimes technologically challenged), i was pleasantly surprised to see that my entire collection had already downloaded while the kindle was being shipped. i opened my first book, neil gaiman's "the graveyard book," and read it in a day. i couldn't really decide where to go from there, hence the reading several at once thing. i now have 93 files (many more books since a handful of those are the complete works of such and such) and i still love it. i still can't get enough of it. the only thing i don't like is that not every book that's ever been published is available for it, but you can upload your own documents, pictures, and music files (including pdf, text, and word document types among many others -- which is how i got hp on there) and have enough to go on. people who say that it will be the end of print books are wrong -- i've always been an avid reader, but purchasing this thing has nudged that up so now i'm even buying more print books than ever before (just received ursula k. le guin's "the left hand of darkness," jonathan barnes' "the somnambulist," and eiji yoshikawa's fourth installment of "musashi" within the last couple weeks). now all i need is time to read them all!

       but i'd highly recommend it. if you're sitting on the fence, just do it. :) you won't regret it. i also purchased the standard leather cover and the clip on lcd book light (the kindle isn't back-lit). i've been able to sit and read it for hours without eye strain (something i can't do with a computer). the battery lasts forever as long as the wireless is turned off (i've already lost the power cable a couple times because i'm rarely using it). hmm...what else? oh, i also love the dictionary feature, where you just scroll up to a word and a little window appears at the bottom of the screen with a definition. you can also add notes and highlights quite easily. and i love that you can access wikipedia or search google from anywhere for free. it's really quite wonderful.

       ok, this is getting too long and geeky and fan-boyish. real update to come soon enough, but some of you were asking for this one. later taters!

help! i can't stop!

 
       so i'm excited about the little ups delivery i'll be getting on tuesday, yeah? the only itty bitty detail that i didn't take into account when i decided on this splurge is... i'm a convicted bibliophile. my last book splurge was roughly four years ago, when our local library had it's annual used book sale. they take books that were donated to the library throughout the year and sell them for $0.50 for a paperback and $1.00 for a hardcover to help raise funds for the following year (this library, blessedly, doesn't have late fees--it's quite wonderful). anyway, i don't remember how much i spent, but i purchased somewhere around 80 books. not much of a splurge, put in financial terms, but i did have to bring another bookshelf from home. now i won't have to bring another bookshelf for this latest spree (even though i do need one, i have three here in my apartment--two full-sized, one half-sized--and my books are starting to be stacked on top of each other), but i do need to stop sometime soon before my kindle won't be able to hold them all. in the last, what, two days? i've queued up somewhere around 60 books to be downloaded once i charge up my wonderful device. and that 60 isn't including the complete works of austen, dickens, and shakespeare that i ordered. haha. oy.

       oh... i just had a thought... i don't know where i'm going to start! there are so many... classics, newbies, things in the middle. hmm. yes, i do know. "world without end" by ken follett. the sequel to his wonderful "pillars of the earth." then one of the neil gaiman books (i got three ). then either lois lowry's "gossamer" or gregory maguire's "wicked." hmm. i have an ayn rand that i want to work in there, too. hmm. i still have paper books waiting to be read... "the catcher in the rye" and the fourth musashi and diana wynne jones' "castle in the air," the sequel to "howl's moving castle" (which was awesome). can't forget about those. gah! not enough time!

       i'm addicted, though. i'm not paying for all of them, of course. most of that bunch were free classics. the complete works weren't free. most of the rest were. but i need to stop. mhmm. maybe just a couple more...

       i had a ponder, but i can't think of what it was now... i got too excited. so many books!

       have you read anything good lately? any suggestions? i need to branch out into the more "adult" novels, i think, but i still prefer my young adult fiction. grownups muddle things up too much. nevertheless, any ideas?
 

butterflies and hurricanes reprise...

       finally got my hands on a copy of the sheet music for "butterflies and hurricanes" (see "my tunes" on the right side of the page). it's hard enough without trying to play by ear and/or learning by watching people play it on youtube. i've never been a great sight reader -- i usually just try to memorize it from the pages and go from there, but getting the music has made the learning process so much simpler and faster. it's a good arrangement, too, so i played with that for a bit tonight. starting to sound almost like a song.

       i've had a lot of time on my hands recently. got back from kansas city the weekend after christmas and went into work to see what my schedule was. she didn't schedule me at all last week, and nothing again this week. college towns pretty much die during breaks. kinda sucks, especially after i spent all my money on christmas. heh. so i've been being a bum, reading a lot, watching a lot of movies, playing piano, waiting for my rennet tablets to come so i can make cheese, etc. with the house empty it's been pretty trying, and the emotional roller coasters have been at it again. i've suspected for a long while (and my closest friends have, too) that i'm a little bipolar. i've handled it well enough, some times better than others, and over the few years i've been able to manage it with some natural therapies that were recommended by others who've been there. stopped taking those early last spring, but it might be time again. my swings over the last week have been some of the worst i can remember. just the swings, mind you, not necessarily the extremity of them, but nonetheless it's probably good that there isn't anyone around to witness it. my head has been spinning with all the back and forth, i've not been sleeping... eh. no good. and from the lack of sleep i've developed this really annoying eyelid twitch. ack. stimulating the creativity helps, though, with the movies and books and such. helps the mood, not the twitch. don't laugh, but i've also been doing a free-hand cross-stitch while watching the movies. i sound like a grandma. it's a cool design, though, the mu logo of the big "M" with a tiger head in the middle, and i've been working on it on and off (mostly off) for the past two years. it's huge for a cross-stitch, 14-inches square, or somewhere in the vicinity of 127,000 stitches. ok, i'll stop talking about my girlie habits. piss. spit. beer. football. that oughta do it.

       i have wrinkles on my fingers.

       watched "reprise" this afternoon after giving plasma. well, sorta giving plasma. the machine malfunctioned during the first cycle and the red blood cell reservoir overfilled (no overflow, thank goodness), so they had to take me off. still got paid the full amount, which was nice, and i got all my rbcs back. anyway: movie. made in norway, about two writer friends and the insanity that often plagues writers. oscar candidate as best foreign film in 2006. i really liked it, but it's one of those that my friends probably wouldn't (really sucks being the only person i know -- in person, at least -- who's anything like me). really made me want to write, though. but i feel like the character in the film who is back from the mental institution and isn't able to write anymore. and i know it's just a movie, but it kinda stung that these guys were twenty-three and getting their first and second novels published. the book i finished this weekend, pillars of the earth (freaking awesome and highly recommended), also has characters that were successful at young ages. i still want to be a writer. i still want to be lots of things. i know i'm nowhere near old yet, but every week that passes spent working at dead end jobs or silently going mad in my room makes it feel less possible. ok, ok, rowling was 32, but it also took her six or seven years to write the first, which means she was close to my age when she started. heh...that's a strange thought. but i definitely have no great ideas in mind.

       damn eye won't stop twitching.

       after midnight now. i should probably try to sleep, but i have a feeling i won't. last few nights i've been sleeping on my futon in my living room. no real reason. i do that sometimes when i'm going crazy, but this is a step up because i usually end up on the floor. it's been kinda nice, though, because i've recently been having these dreams that i was in another life. *sigh* then i wake up. to sleep, perchance to dream... hmm. ok, i'm off, but before i go, apparently david holds the copyright on using lyrics at the ends of posts (i'm still claiming the titles), so i have to attribute the use of the following to him, but the lyrics themselves are, of course, from the rock gods of muse.

"change everything you are and everything you were -- your number has been called. fights and battles have begun, revenge will surely come; your hard times are ahead."

every evening sky, an invitation...

       happy summer! today is the official first day of summer. i suddenly have the urge to lose 20 pounds and go for a swim. haha. like that will ever happen. yeah, i'm a guy and i worry about my weight. i've officially gained weight since i've been down here, too. six pounds. in one month. and i'm eating healthier than i have in a long time and lifting more, so i'm hoping it's muscle, but stepping on that scale (i have to for plasma otherwise i'd avoid it) still makes me catch my breath.

       last night i drove with bj to kansas city for an older youth class he was teaching. the class went great. awesome, really. i never go away wanting when i hear him speak. and he's probably the nicest guy i've ever met. period. but for some reason i was a rambling crazy person last night. i'm blaming it on lack of contact with other people resulting in an extreme loss of interpersonal skills. seriously, i felt like such an idiot. we definitely talked about books for most of the drive home. yeah, i like books and all, and i do like to talk about them in certain situations, but i know other people don't. heck, even in those certain situations i feel like a nerd. i have a feeling he won't want to strike up a conversation with me for a while. he did talk about my book some, on the way up. i was happy because he seemed to be picking up on all the things i'd want people to pick up on, but then i got paranoid and wondered if there was too much of it in there and if it was blatant and overpowering. i usually go for the subtle hints, but i've been told often that they're usually too subtle. i need a happy medium. i haven't been in the mood to write lately. i need to be like a shoe and just do it.

       well, i'm going to read some before i hit the hay. it's not really hay, in case you were wondering. that would be really scratchy.