One of the things I wanted to do with this blog when reviving it was coming up with a more fun and interesting way to talk about the books, video games, television, and other fun things I'd been spending my time with. I'm still not entirely certain how to go about doing this. More jokes, I guess.
I used to do this sort of thing way back when this blog was at its last, constantly-updated peak about two years ago, a year or so before Bad Books, Good Times started, with features like "Currently Playing" for video games and "Currently Listening" and then later "Saturday Music Diary" for music (Which I may bring back? I'm still trying to figure out how to include music in a way that isn't horribly boring for anyone who isn't me). So I'm starting up a weekly-ish series where I talk about the books I'm reading, the tv I'm watching, the video games I'm playing, and then just some sort of wild card.
Yeah, this one's the personal blog. I have Bad Books, Good Times for funny jokes on the regular.
READING
The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)
I was actually interning at NPR and doing web production for NPR Books when it was revealed that J.K. Rowling had released a detective novel under a pseudonym last summer, which was pretty exciting, I have to say. I had been saying since the last Harry Potter novel came out that I thought it'd be really interesting to see Rowling write a mystery next, because some of my favorite parts of Harry Potter were when she played with mystery elements in the better Potter stories. Harry playing detective with Draco's suspicious activities in Half-Blood Prince (especially because, ironically, it was one of the few times he was right and no one believed him), Goblet of Fire (the twists with Barty Crouch Jr in the past and present are some of my favorite in the series), and especially Prisoner of Azkaban (where basically the whole thing is a mystery) - although it did feel a little derivative in Chamber of Secrets (). I really don't know how I feel about The Cuckoo's Calling, though. I had a little trouble tracking the minute details throughout the possibly too-long novel (one of which involving water that I still don't really buy), but was still able to predict "whodunnit" anyway - even if I couldn't for the life of me figure out how it was even possible while I was reading it (part of the problem is that there are no other convincingly suspicious characters). So I don't know how I feel about it, because I was kind of bored reading it with bright points far and few between, and didn't feel particularly excited at the prospect of returning to Cormoran Strike and Robin in a sequel when I first finished it, although I have warmed up to the idea in the week since I finished it? Robin's kind of cliche in this first novel, but Cormoran does have a certain charm to him, even if - much like the rest of the novel - I have no idea what it actually was.
Watchmen - Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, John Higgins
I had actually never read the book before, although I had seen the mixed-reviewed film adaptation when it came out and was sort of uncertain how I felt about it, having loved the theme and the final twist but was uncertain what I actually disliked about it, aside from Dr. Manhattan's constantly-moving CGI penis. So in finally reading the original book, I was confused trying to figure out what I felt it was doing differently and/or better than a movie I had seen four years ago. Terrifyingly, I wasn't sure I thought the book's alien-monster destroys New York conspiracy ending was better than the movie's Dr. Manhattan becomes the common enemy ending. But then, thinking about it more, the book really does the theme of creating something horrible to solve another horrible problem much, much better with this ending - and the theatrical cut of the movie doesn't have Tales From The Black Freighter in it either, which definitely downplays that key theme. And oh my god, Dr. Manhattan's "Nothing ever ends" line to Adrian before he leaves is just perfect. Just so perfect.
WATCHING
How I Met Your Mother
I actually really, really like the idea of the final season being just one weekend, but what I do not like about this is that Marshall better get to the rest of the group soon. The show spent entirely too long establishing close characters to have one of them be on his own, apart from the others, in its final season. It's sad in a way that the show shouldn't be sad. But at the same time, the overlapping flashfoward/present day scene with the mother at the table actually felt like an incredibly natural tease to introduce the character to Ted before Ted actually meets the mother.
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Nothing about the show isn't generic so far.
PLAYING
Civilization V
So this is my first time ever playing a Civ game, and Alexander the Great is a jerkface. He was the only other civilization I saw for most of the game - which generated a continent with just myself and him on it, and four other players on another across an ocean - and he hated me, which felt really unfair because I also happened to have just way, way too much ivory that I needed to trade and NO ONE TO TRADE IT WITH. So I prioritized scientific research to get a naval unit that could cross oceans way before any other player could, and then realized that, having met these other nations but only having a scouting boat, there wasn't really anything else I could do on that other continent. So I kind of just decided to keep prioritizing on science. And now I'm the first industrial nation, the first nation to discover coal and oil, and I think just one other nation has even caught up to building boats that can cross oceans by this point. I should mention I'm not playing on a very hard difficulty setting. So I'm trying to decide which victory option to go for, since I'm definitely in the lead, science-wise, probably a decent contender policy-wise, and I'm not even sure how diplomatic victory works, but everyone hates everyone else and I have the most city-states. So, yeah, I have no idea what I'm doing. But neither does Alexander the Great, because I kick his ass every time he tries declaring war on me, even though I barely have any military.
DOING
Running
Having graduated from college and no longer with access to a gym, my exercise options are limited. Limited as in "I basically only lifted throughout college and I can't do that now so I guess I'll start running?" Except I haven't done and real cardio work since high school, so, yeah, it's been a little bit of a struggle. And the only pedometer I own is a Pokewalker. So as far as I can best guess, I mostly run somewhere between two and three miles three days a week. All I really know is that I'm not dead yet, so that's probably good.
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