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Sigh.

Mom just left to fly back to Taiwan =(. Despite the slight annoyance of having her rag on my weight and general messiness, miss her. And am homesick again. I should probably complain less about my mom in my LJ, given that she is generally a very nice mom (and very funny), and I do really wish she lived around here.

Before she left we hung around Borders before heading to the airport, and I ended up getting Nonnie St. George's new book (which I didn't know was out). I think I will read that to cheer myself up.

Alexander, Lloyd - Westmark Trilogy

(consists of Westmark, The Kestrel, and The Beggar Queen)

I think I may have read The Kestrel a very long time ago in middle school, but I don't really remember a thing about it.

I'm just going to start out by saying the obvious: this is very good. Go read.

I started out being completely not impressed -- while Westmark is in no way a bad book, Alexander's simple style and the fairly typical young adult plot (boy loses old life, finds new life with revolutionaries, meets girl who has a Higher Destiny, etc.) didn't particularly make me see why everyone was reccing the trilogy left and right. The second book is when things really started to pick up, when Alexander begins to go more in depth into the various political issues he briefly glosses over in the first book. And the second and third books are very much political books, books about war and peace and peacemaking, which doesn't seem to be a very common topic in fantasy or young adult books.

The books themselves are written in a very dry tone of voice -- I never got overly emotionally involved with the characters, which was probably good, given the subject matter. But the author still manages to make certain scenes touching and others very funny, all while keeping a bit of narrative distance.

What I liked the most was how Alexander never tried to offer me any easy answers. An idealistic revolutionary could also be the country's worst enemy, even if the ideology he spouted was of the good. And even those starting with the best intentions in running the country would be sidetracked by grey areas. Alexander ends the trilogy on the right note too (imho), and the path he decides to take isn't one that I think many authors would. But I'm glad he did, and I'm very glad I ended up reading these.

Also, it doesn't hurt that Mickle was cool ;).

Links:
- rilina's reviews of Westmark, The Kestrel, and The Beggar Queen

(no subject)

For some reason, I feel very stressed lately. It doesn't make much sense -- I don't have to job search anymore (glory hallelujah), the current job isn't all that stressful (yet...), I have lots of time to myself at home. But I still feel like my mind keeps whirling around and not staying still. Perhaps it's that I'm still trying to get accustomed to the new job and actually putting my brain to work. Not to belittle the bookstore or anything, which I liked, but pricing books wasn't all that difficult, brain-wise, and it helped that I wasn't trying to desperately multitask everything. (Feels like.. "tuan tuan zhuan" in Chinese, whirling around or somesuch? Am not even sure if I got the pinyin right. It's so strange and interesting how some things just make so much more sense when you express them in another language. I think I am different people to some small extent, depending on if I'm speaking Chinese, English, or Japanese.)

I think my brain sort of went on vacation some time ago, and I'm only noticing it now.

( Whiny LJ stuff )

Hrm, maybe part of why I've been feeling so stressed is because my mom's been around, so I've felt like I had to entertain her. And while it was very fun (much shopping was done, to the consternation of my wallet. But new boots! New shirts!) I didn't get too much private time. Or I took private time and then felt guilty about not entertaining. Hrm, and college friend is visiting next weekend, which means more busy-ness. Good busy-ness, but still.

I should remember that being so busy doesn't mean I should dash off little LJ posts -- just writing this down and actually trying to sit and spend time thinking things out has been very calming. I keep making the mistake of thinking that too much information is a problem, when in fact I only get stressed when I have lots of information but not enough time to sit down and deeply process it. Actually doing the sitting down and mulling things over always seems to make me feel better. We can all see why I still want to be in school, yes?

I have Friday's Joan still recorded on Tivo, but I haven't watched it yet. I saw the preview last week with the Judith thing, and really just didn't want to. Plus, last week's episode had embarrassment-factor in the spades, and I don't feel up to it. Maybe I'll watch Into the Woods instead (Sondheim, not Buffy, which would only make me extremely enraged and not unstressed in the slightest).

Stupid things heard at work today:

"Leverage" and "Piece of functionality."

Every time people say stuff like this, I want to say, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." in a really, really awful Spanish accent, so it's probably good for everyone involved that I don't. But honestly. "Leverage" is a perfectly fine and good word (as is "critical") until business people got their hands on it. You don't merely use information -- you leverage it. And similarly, nothing is important if it can be "critical."

Alas, the boy uses "critical" all the time. Drives me batty.

Corporate life is really weird.

Gratuitous rat post

I buy my rats all these fancy rat toys (ok, usually ferret or parrot toys), and what do they like the best?

Paper bags and orange peels.

Go figure.

I don't know what it is, but something about paper bags makes Fool-rat go nuts. "Paper bag! Must kill! Must tear into as many little pieces as soon as possible! Yay! Shredding!" Rat subsequently bounces around the cage and mangles the dreaded paper bag.

I take them out to play on the couch every day, after spreading a big blanket over the couch to prevent them from chewing on it, or getting it dirty, etc. Fitz-rat's favorite game ever is "let's crawl under the blanket and drive people crazy!" I think he really does think it's a game... he waits until I'm not looking, then pulls the covers up. If I catch him and yell "Bad rat!" he gives me this sort of innocent look. Truly it does not deceive me. Then he lies low and waits until I'm distracted by the TV or something again.

Someday I will get it through his thick head that "bad rat" does not, in fact, mean "Awww, such a clever little rattie, let's see you try that again."

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I've eaten five oranges today. Someone brought a whole box of satsumas to work, and I gorged. They're so small, though -- I'm never satisfied with just one. They weren't as cold as I usually like them, but oh, so good. I never quite realize how much I miss the smell of them or the bite of them during the summer. I can't quite get over the fact that they're very much winter fruit, even though they're associated with summer and beaches in commercials. In my head, they're associated with Chinese New Year.