Richer Reading Life in 2016

Part of my desire to give up on a challenge was so I could relax and enjoy reading without the stress and pressure of a challenge. But I want to have a richer reading life which both about what you read and how you read.

This challenge was also inspired by two articles from BOOKRIOT: Read Harder Challenge 2015 and 2016 and tips for a richer reading life. Since this is for 2016, I have 16 in each category. 16 books to read, 16 activities to do. Each of these should be fun, so help me gods.

Things to Read
-By a woman
-By a POC
-By a LGBT person
-Deals with mental illness
-Woman in politics
-Author over 65
-Author from Africa
-Takes place in Asia
-Indie Press
-Translation
-Poetry
-Published before 1850
-Genre I typically avoid
-Award winner
-Audiobook
-Recommendation

Things to Do
-Ask a librarian at my local library for a recommendation
-Ask someone I respect for a recommendation and read it right away
-Read outside
-Read a book that looks like it will make you uncomfortable
-Read out loud to someone I love
-Dog ear a page
-Write in margins
-Give away a book that's been in my TBR pile for a long time
-Cull 10 books from my collection and don't bring any new ones home for a month
-Attend a reading event near me
-Read the book, watch the movie, debate which is better
-Listen to an audiobook of a physical book I DNF
-Listen to a podcast about books
-Memorize a poem
-Read one page of a holy book of faith I was not raised with
-Have a conversation about books with someone you've never talked books with before

It's unrealistic to say I won't buy any more books but I'm running out of space and I need to save more money. I can only bring 16 new books for 2016 outside of conventions. I can only purchase at conventions if I can get them signed. Gifts purchased to be given to others or given to me as gifts don't count.

This is it for 2016. It should be an interesting year.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Final Review

I knew from the outset I might not finish it. Toward the end of the summer, I knew it would be dicey but not impossible. By the end of the fall, I knew it wasn't happening and decided to just read what I wanted and hoped it fit a category on the list.

There were only so many hours in the day and many of them involved bar trivia, various gatherings, different cons and events, hockey games (mostly televised), laundry, family time, and a variety of other tasks. I was still reading but not as often and not as much as I'd hoped. 

Make I'll fix that next year, maybe not. I do know I'll keep reading but not berate myself for falling short of goals only I'm measuring. Reading is not a contest. It's a way of life.

Of the categories I didn't finish, I had books in mind for many of them. Here's what I had hoped to read but didn't pull off this year. I was 16 short in total.

A Classic Romance
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

A Book that Came Out the Year You Were Born
Aces High (Wild Card #2) edited by George R. R. Martin

A Book Set in the Future
Metatropolis by John Scalzi et al

A Book that Made You Cry
The Book Thief
* - I've never read it but the movie broke my heart so I figured the book would do the same.

A Popular Author's First Book
Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi

A Book from an Author You Love that You Haven't Read Yet
Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman

A Pulitzer Prize Winning Book
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

A Book Written by an Author With Your Initials
The Executor by Jon Evans

A Book You Were Supposed to Read in School but Didn't
Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger Jr.

Here's the final list. I did good. Not great but OK.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 35 or I Dare You

For a book that takes place during Christmas, I read Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn. I have loved everything I've read by Levithan and this book came recommended.

It was a fun and easy read switching back and forth between Dash and Lily's POV as they traded a red notebook back and forth. I loved seeing the adventures they'd come up with for the other and hear the inner monologue of such radically different characters. They were funny and poignant in different ways. I loved the wit infused with Dash (courtesy of Levithan) and the sweetness that was Lily (courtesy of Cohn).

It took a few meandering turns in the final third and moved in ways I didn't totally expect. While those moves slowed the story down, it was also truer to life for it. I'd give it 4 stars out of 5. Not perfect but definitely a pleasant read. It was a good book to end my challenge on since I don't think I'm going to check off any more categories before January.

The Fandom Awakens

I saw the latest installment of Star Wars on Friday. I had grown to loathe this movie by viewing time because of the inescapable hype. I then made a snarky comment on reddit that blew up enough to make the front page. I knew which character died within an hour. 

This didn't help since I'm highly critical of this franchise. The writing on the first 6 films sucks. While there are some funny moments, most of it makes on the smallest amount of sense necessary to keep the series afloat.  The character development is nonexistent. Leia's planet is blown up and we hear no more about it. Luke's entire family is flambeed but when he goes into battle, he wishes Ben/Boo Radley was there instead of the people who raised him. Anakin and Padme have no chemistry. When she said "I love you," I thought, "Are you sure?" Padme loses the will to live after seeing her babies born? That is the stupidest, most indefensible shit I've ever heard in my life and I've seen Trump at the Republican debates.

I went in prepared to hate this movie. I left with a new appreciation for the franchise. Contrary to what the previous paragraph would have you believe, I don't hate the franchise. I respect what it has done for popular culture but I saw it as an adult when you can't unsee plot holes and bad acting. The Force Awakens fixed most of the issues I had with Star Wars. It even passed the Bechdel Test!

The cast was diverse and talented. The story was interesting, made total sense, and ended in a way that had resolution and left room for the other 2 films we know are coming. The characters had motivations and desires that worked and they grew and changed as the story progressed. It was a good movie. I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10.

Why didn't I rate it higher? I want to give it a 7 but I have 2 major problems with this film and explaining those requires SPOILERS. You have been warned.

1) Cheap CGI

The new cantina scene was great. Maz (Lupita Nyong'o) was an excellent use of motion capture. However the junk dealer on Jakku? He looked ridiculous. I've seen enough episodes of Face Off to recognize the fat suit, foam, and paint that went into this character. It was very half-assed and again, took me out of the moment.

The worst offender was Kylo Ren's mentor. If you can nail Star Wars FaceTime in the prequels, Space Gollum should look better in here. For a big bad, he looked like the forgettable villain in a fairy tale cartoon for little kids. I don't care if he's 20 feet tall (you should call tech support about that BTW). If the Sith leader can look creepy and menacing on video conference, so can Space Gollum. 

2) Derp Vader

Someone kill the casting director. They nailed every character except Kylo Ren. Why did every other character work so well? Because they were either  already established in the universe or the new kids were played by unknowns except Derp Vader. He's played by Adam Driver, better known as Hannah Horvath's boyfriend on Girls.

The second I saw him without the mask, I couldn't take him seriously as a villain. Driver has gotten to much exposure as this weird idiot on an insanely popular show. FFS, one of the Obama kids interned on it! People associate him with this role. I couldn't unsee it and it took me out of the moment. Even his rage tantrums felt like Derp Boyfriend instead of Unstable Bad Guy.

While I'm on the rant, why does he have such nice hair under a freaking helmet? It's like he's out of a damn shampoo ad. Can you at least pretend to make him look different than Derp Boyfriend? Give him a military cut? Anything? How about a vague attempt to make him look like his parents? Derp Vader is a walking joke about the milkman. 

Did Driver do a good job? Yes. Had I never seen him before this, I'd think he was OK. A milkman joke but good. But I have seen him and it's like watching Rob Schneider as the bad guy.

Those two issues are going to be mostly my issues. Unless you've seen Girls, Kylo Ren hasn't been tainted for you. If you love, like, or merely tolerate Star Wars, go see this movie. It's the best in the franchise. The nerds were truly blessed this holiday season.

Pop Sugar Reading Challenge Book 34 or LBD Revisited

For a book I own but haven't read, I chose The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick. I was a big fan of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I was able to join in on the fun while it was still happening live. I saw the infamous website. I contributed to the Kickstarter to get the DVDs. I'm a bit of a fan. That's why it's a bit of a surprise I didn't read this sooner.

Maybe I thought it would be a rehashing of old events or it just didn't feel necessary but I had been away from the series for a while. This was a fun way to revisit it. So fun I've busted out my DVDs and have been re-watching the show. The diary added to the story and included transcripts of our favorite parts. It showed us scenes that were kept out of the videos like Lizzie telling her dad about the videos or a side of Jane's relationship we never knew about.

If you're a fan of the series, this is a must read! It did nothing but add to this great series. I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel of Lydia's adventures.

Challenging Reading

The Pop Sugar Reading Challenge totals 52 books for the year. I've got less than 3 weeks to read 18 books. Even if I made half of them graphic novels and binge read, I don't think I'd get it done in time.

I'm fine with that. I figured out months ago this was a distinct possibility. I haven't had as much time to read lately and some of what I was reading was taking me longer than I anticipated. It is what it is.

Now I'm debating what I should do for a reading challenge next year. I've done them for several years now. It's almost a routine of some sort. December comes and I figure out my next reading challenge. While fun, I'm seriously considering not doing one next year.

I'll still read a bunch. Let's not talk crazy here. But what if I didn't restrict myself in what I read or when I read it. No schedules, no lists, just pure enjoyment. At the same time, I like the idea of challenging my reading habits. Read more books by women, people of color, people of different orientations, genders, nationalities, etc.

One thing is for certain, I need to spending less money. Keeping a running, safe car in a new state has cost over $1,100 in 2 months. While some of that cost is shared, that's still a good chunk of change out of my pocket. I own over 700 things to read and have a to-borrow list from the library that's over 200 books long. Whatever I decide to do next year will involve another attempt at not bringing new books into the house or severely limiting the amount.

Enough Is Enough

I read this article on Cracked about why we really hate the Kardashians. He’s pretty spot on with a lot of his points but I don’t 100% agree with everything.

I didn’t rage about finding out about Lamar Odom’s big crisis. Khloe is the least annoying Kardashian and she was still legally his wife. When she put the divorce on hold to handle this crisis, I thought, “That makes sense,” and went about my life.

I spend no time deliberately thinking about that fame-whore family but our media makes it near impossible to avoid them. Recommended links on CNN or Facebook, rants on other social media just perpetuate their hold over our culture. Brown says it best:

“All those blogs and magazines and news sites don't talk about Kim Kardashian because they care about her, they do it because you care about her, and the frustrated comments you leave and the links you anger-share on your Facebook page do nothing to make that less true.”

Most people love to hate them because we all love a common enemy. Why do you think Speidi was a thing 10 years ago? I saw an article about Kim complaining how fat she was this late in her pregnancy. I saw red but knew posting anything would just perpetuate their status in our culture so I just resumed my regular life.

I think they’re vapid, materialistic, and useless. What good thing have any of them done with their fame and fortune? Before you say the domestic violence PSAs, they didn’t consent to those. That was an artist and photoshop.

That’s what makes the history of genocide and persecution their ancestors escaped that much sadder. They fled to survive and many of their descendants haven’t actually done any good in the world. Robert Kardashian helped a murderer go free. All of the women help perpetuate a shallow, image conscious ideal on young girls.

I will grant these fools their ability to capitalize on this medium and monetize their fame. That doesn’t make them smart. That makes them one step down from a savant. They’re not intelligent and they’re not worth our time. 

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 33 or The New Weird

For a place I've always wanted to visit, I read the Welcome to Night Vale book. Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor have been telling us about this weirdly magical place since 2012 and I've always wondered what this place would look like. The closest I came to visiting was to see the live show earlier this year with the voice actors surrounded by a community of fans.

Fink and Cranor write a spectacular podcast. I adore Welcome to Night Vale. However, I don’t think Night Vale’s weirdness translated especially well into print format this time.

I found it hard to engage in the book as much as I expected. I adored this town and these characters. Why isn’t this speaking to me more? I’m willing to bet that if I’d done the audio book, it would have totally altered my experience.

I don’t think the book was bad but it was as amazing as I expected it to be. It was good and tied up a very curious story that’s been running around the podcast for ages. It’s a bit rare that Night Vale’s weirdness gets explained so that was pretty fun.

I’d love to see another Night Vale book in the future. Maybe short stories about various pieces of weirdness with people around town or another novel that ties up a loose end. BF enjoys Night Vale but doesn’t have a ton of reading downtime so I’m thinking about getting the audiobook off bandcamp as a surprise for him. We’ll see if that changes my mind about the book a bit.

Unpopular Opinion: Sweet People Need to STFU Sometimes

This was partially inspired by a reddit thread and a few actual events. Most people who know me don’t read this but just in case, I apologize in advance if I offend any of you.

I think the world needs kind people with sweet, sensitive souls. Life is hard and ugly and sometimes we need a reminder of its sweeter side. I especially respect these people if life has been hard on them and they are still this way. It’s remarkable.

That said, I have a hard time taking life advice from people to whom life has been kind. If nothing major has ever gone wrong for you or nobody has died on you, keep your life advice to yourself.

Both of your parents are alive, well, and happily married. Mazel tov. We spent the Christmas I was 13 trying to figure out my father’s funeral.

Your grandparents are alive? That’s beautiful to have so many generations around to spread love and celebrate. One of them has hints of dementia? That’s terrible.

I spent most of my twenties helping my mother deal with my grandfather’s immobility, dementia, nursing homes that stole his cookies, his total disconnect with reality, and failing health. I got a lovely preview of coming attraction for when it eventually happens to her. Did you know people with dementia can be very ugly and spiteful? I do!

I’m really glad your extended family can come together, stays in touch, and just straight up loves each other.

My mom’s sister was 12 sorts of useless when it came to caring for my grandfather. She didn’t speak to my mother for several years while we got to deal with the fun times. Did you know my grandfather’s wife slowly stole money from him and wrote all his grandchildren out of his will? Or that the son she stole said money for didn’t do a goddamn thing when his mother was dying? That fell to my mom. And by golly was he horrible to my mom.

Your secure career with excellent pay and benefits is stressful. Please tell me more.

I’ve never had one of those so I don’t know what it’s like. It’s actually quite fun to guess if you’re going to have enough money for bills when they come due. Who doesn’t love going on interviews and not hearing back? How about that delightful moment when you realize how much cheaper your life would be if you had benefits like transit subsidy, healthcare, and the extra income you’re not making as a temp?

Of course I want to hear about the problems in your romantic life. I’m very single so I get to live vicariously through you.

We all want to find someone to love us but it’s really fucking hard, for some of us. Hey, it’s not like I’m the ugly friend and most guys only acknowledge me to get to you. Oh, wait… It’s really reassuring to hear you tell me I’m pretty. No one else seems to think so but I’ll keep being in denial about popular opinion and hope that doesn’t eventually seep in and destroy my confidence.

You think depression is like being sad and don’t want to deal with the negativity? That’s cute.

I’m going to be in the corner hoping my crippling despair subsides enough for me to do laundry. Hey, who doesn’t enjoy routinely contemplating the pointlessness of their existence? I would love to ‘choose happiness’ but my brain will not allow that to happen. It’s really great when nobody around you understands and doesn’t particularly want to know you’ve got these problems. Maybe I can make it through the weekend without acting on the urge to kill myself. We’ll find out.

Now I’m not in the ugly depressed place right now but that has been my reality before and may very well be my reality again. I’m also not single anymore but if I was out with my friends, I was the grenade the guy had to jump on to get to the hot chick. Forever alone folks, your pain is not alien to me. A lot of this is in my past but it has toughened me up.

When life has been a bitch to you, getting life advice from someone who hasn’t been there but thinks they know what they’re talking about is remarkably condescending. People with kids don’t want to hear advice to someone without them. Dog people don’t want to hear suggestions from people who have never owned dogs. Tourists don’t give directions.

I don’t want to offend the softies out there but I’m not the only one thinking this. If you want to be supportive, by all means do it. People in hard situations need all the support we can get. Just keep your audience in mind before you talk and respect that you don’t know their experience. 

Not Worth the Wait

One thing that has always bugged me about ADELE was that she never did anything to stay relevant while taking time to raise her son. Her social media presence was nonexistent, she didn’t do any covers or charity concerts, no major appearances. While I think it’s great she was able to lie low, I feel disrespected as a fan. We’re great when she wants to make money for her art but otherwise, whatever.

I do like that she didn’t do the insane amount of media hype for her new music. We found out she had a new song when the video debuted and we could download it. It wasn’t like Katy Perry doing very dramatic stunts to hype her singles and albums. There it was. Because Adele is incredibly talented, we all accepted it.

Adele said the reason she waited so long to do anything was because she was afraid of making a lackluster product. Unfortunately, I think that’s exactly what she did. There was one song on her album that instantly grabbed me like ‘Turning Tables’ and ‘One and Only.’ River Lea was not good enough to make up for a prolonged absence and an underwhelming record.

Am I saying it’s not good? No. It’s a good record. I don’t think any song on it is bad. But 21 set such a high bar that anything less is disappointing. It’s good and will probably grow on me with more plays but on the first couple of listens, 25 can’t hold a candle to 21. You can’t follow up phenomenal with something that’s just good.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 32 or Killer Puppies

For a book by an author I've never read, I opted for Deadpool: Paws by Stefan Petrucha. It's part of the Posehn universe with our beloved Agent Preston. His assignment? Puppies. I wanted to know what they could do with this that wouldn't massively offend anybody.

Turns out, these puppies are monsters in disguise. Something triggers them into becoming flesh hungry monsters but they start out as sweet little creatures that people want to nature and protect. S.H.E.I.L.D. has to take them down but killing puppies is enormously bad P.R. Enter Deadpool. 

The ending was a bit random and the whole solution was a major dues ex machina. I still have some questions but all in all it was a fun read, good addition to the universe, and had plenty of fun superhero cameos.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 31 or The Horror, The Horror

I completed another book on my challenge list. I read something that scared me, In the Dark: A Horror Anthology edit by Rachel Deering. 

I discovered this anthology at Baltimore Comic Con. It was one of the first things I saw and I hesitated to buy it since it was $50 but I knew pretty quickly that I had to come back to it. It's gorgeous with a ribbon to mark your place and a lovely smooth texture. People greatly under appreciate the sensory experience of physical books.

My favorite stories were The Unseen, Famine's Shadow, All Things through Me, When the Rain Comes, In Plain Sight, Not All There, Shadows, Doc Johnson, Lost Valley of the Dead, Gestation and Inside You. While we all have favorites, there was nothing in here I didn't like. Even the history of horror comics at the end was incredibly interesting.

I think my favorite thing was that it was numbered. I'm hoping to see more of these in the future. A big thanks for putting this one together.

Why Are the Dead Still Walking?

I watched an episode of The Walking Dead with BF last night. I did my best not to be an askhole and follow along but there was one thing that always bugged me. Why are the zombies a continuing problem?

If they follow the basic rules of decomposition, the decaying flesh would eventually lose functionality to the point of rendering the zombie immobile. Soft tissue would be the first thing to go like the eyes and brain. Eyes are self-cleaning organs so with cells regenerating or doing anything helpful, most zombies would be blind in a matter of days.

Even if Walker #3 has glasses, he lacks the instinct to swat away the flies who want to lay maggots in that nice soft tissue. Territorial stray dogs might attack them and even some birds might figure out the blind ones are easy pickings.

There’s also the vast amounts of bacteria living in our bodies. The idea of vampires rising like started from the swell and release of fluids by unembalmed dead. If you’re in a hot and humid enough location, zombies are going to pop like rancid balloons from hell. If you’re guts have blown, the zombie will be knocked to the ground and possibly immobile since a lot of what keeps our joints moving and together is soft tissue.

Other environments are just as bad for walking necrotic flesh. Deserts would dry out and slowly mummify the tissue. It also poses the possibility of cooking what’s left of the brain. Freezing temperatures would freeze whatever water remained in the tissue making them rigid and slow.

Even if I focus on the poppable zombies of TWD, Georgia has animals. They’re not exactly stomping around Atlanta for most of the show so why aren’t bears, cougars, and aggressive stray dogs picking these bastards off? Where are the bugs going after the soft tissue?

Even if they are wandering around Atlanta, it’s still freaking Georgia. The streets make for nice corrals to light ‘em up, either with guns or Molotov cocktails. The fire should destroy the tissue at least rendering them immobile and cooking up what’s left of the brain at best. We’ve established they’re not smart enough to stop, drop, and roll.

Also, how did this even become a thing? Most developed nations are pretty on their shit about rare diseases. Even if the zombie virus started in rural Africa, it’s not going to spread to the entire world. How many Americans who never left the continent got Ebola? 0.

All zombie viruses in the mythos start as blood borne. Even if it turns airborne, it doesn’t turn people until after their dead. Even if it’s an air born virus that turns people upon infection, most countries haven’t forgotten what quarantine is. If someone is visibly sick coming in to a foreign country, they don’t get to stroll around the airport. Customs is going to have some questions.

Even if the zombie virus started in the U.S. (and Fear the Walking Dead makes me think otherwise), there are cops, multiple branches of the military, a freaking government agency dedicated to disease, and how many universities and hospitals available to work on this shit? At least some of those people have to be competent when a national emergency is declared. Can we please write a script where someone, anyone, has seen a zombie movie and has common sense? Sure it might only be 90 minutes but it’d be an interesting, realistic 90 minutes.

How Did I Get to Alone?

I have struggled with depression off and on for most of my life. Sometimes it's worse than others but more people need to talk about what ails them so that healthy people can better appreciate what we're going through.

Regular people don't understand how much this illness does to people. It's more than just a 'bad day.' It robs you of the ability to feel joy. It saps your energy and puts such a spin on your mental state that you're not in total control anymore. Because it's such a personal feeling and experience, it is a very isolating illness.

Depression is isolating not only because of how it makes you feel but how it makes the people around you feel.

A lot of people don't want to get that close. They know you have a problem but if they acknowledge it, they might have to deal with it. They don't want to know what you're dealing with.

If you try to tell the wrong person, you figure it out pretty quickly because they shut you down. They deny what you're trying to tell them, dismiss it, minimize it. They jump through a lot of socially acceptable hoops to ensure this doesn't become something they have to deal with. They want no responsibility for your mental health.

Of the few who don't happily leap toward denial, you have to decide how much you let them see. What can they handle? What can you count on them for? Did you make a mistake picking them?

Getting support from people who can't see the depth of your struggle often makes it worse. They offer suggestions but they're the suggestions of people who don't understand the bad days can last for weeks at a time. Positive words and kitten videos don't cut it when you're contemplating what's tying you to this earth. How do you explain to someone their off bad day is sometimes the best you can hope for?

What happens if you let someone see how deep the rabbit hole goes and they can't or  won't deal with it?

They've never 'casually' contemplated suicide. Which method hurts less? Which has the easiest cleanup? How do you make sure you're found? Ridiculous reasons to ignore the urges like a new movie, unread book, or upcoming holiday. How can you make them understand?

You can't.

They can't handle your negativity in their life. They don't believe you really want to get better. They get sick of the impotence of being unable to help. Worst of all? Some just don't care.

Rather than risk adding all of this to your burden, you keep it to yourself. You get burned by the uninitiated enough times, you eventually stop asking for their help. Why ruin a relationship by giving that person the chance to do something you won't be able to forgive or forget?

You already feel alone in your experiences. Sometimes it's easier to try to bear it alone than feel abandoned by your supports.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 30 or Seven Wondering WTF Is Going On?

For a book with a number in the title, I chose Seven Wonders by Adam Christopher. I saw it sitting on my friend’s shelf and thought it looked like fun. Everybody’s gotta be wrong sometimes.

From the cover and general description, the premise is great. The last troupe of superheroes, the final supervillain, and one ordinary citizen who just became super himself. I expect Tony to be the main POV character but we don’t really spend that much time with him overall, and that was a huge problem.

Christopher was trying to tell too many stories: Tony, Blackbird, the Cowl, Sam & Joe, the Seven Wonders, and a few others. Because there were so many different narratives going on, none of them were very deep. We weren’t able to go deep enough into Aurora, Dragon Star, or Cowl’s mind to get a good picture of them as characters or find out what they know. It also disrupted the narrative flow to jump from character to character. We’re following the cops and now we’re switching to Tony and now we’re switching to the police chief.

What was almost as distracting as the ricocheting narrative? Never know anything! I was able to make some educated guesses in the beginning but toward the end it got more and more convoluted. I’m dealing with issues from a dozen characters and nobody can know what the hell is going on at any point in time? I wonder if this is how amnesiac characters on soap operas are supposed to feel.

By the final 100 pages, I was only still reading because I wanted to see what would happen with the plot. I wanted to see if, by some dues ex machine of epic proportions, this could be tied together. If 90% of the remaining characters died, I was fine with that since I had no investment in any of them.

Austin Grossman did a much better job of telling a superhero story with Soon I Will Be Invincible. There were 2 POV characters and it worked pretty well. Christopher was trying to do all the subplots of Game of Thrones with none of the depth and it didn’t work. Mildly entertaining but not worth the amount of time I wound up putting into this book.

What Should I Be?

I’m not sure what I’m going to do for Halloween this year. I was originally thinking a feminist Hulk but that requires more pieces and makeup than I can really afford to buy. I need to come up with 2 costumes for 2 different parties. Here’s what I’ve got available to me:

-Victorian widow
-Pirate
-Vampire
-Serial killer (they look just like everybody else)
-Stand-up comedian (they look like everyone else except broke)
-Cereal killer
-(Fallen) Angel
-Death/victim of higher education
-Catholic school survivor

Last year I was the color purple and the year before that I was a witch. I might be able to pull off a fae but it’s reachy. I have a bunch of RenFest stuff but that maybe be a little overdone since our RenFest wraps right before Halloween. There’s a little too much of me to love for me to be comfortable as the TARDIS or Lolitapool all night.

I could do a ‘spirit of Halloween.’ I could reuse some of the same pieces I used for the witch but I want my costume to be a bit more straight forward this year. I did a conceptual costume last year.

I’m leaning toward the pirate for one weekend and the widow for another. The widow will require some makeup but I should be able to pick something up at the drugstore. I’d have to make my face very pale but I’ve already got the rest of the makeup for both looks.

Men's Rights Get It Wrong, Again

I already learned what happens when you post something accurate about GamerGate and MRAs on Twitter but what happens when you post it on Reddit?

Someone asked why feminists are angry. I said that if you consistently have your point dismissed, ignored, or redirected so no man actually has to think about his power and, gods forbid, change his behavior, it's frustrating. Then you have groups like GG and MRAs whose sole purpose is the antagonize feminists rather than do good in the world, you start to get a little angry.

I have read multiple articles about GamerGate and MRAs from pretty reliable sources (Washington Post, NYT) and I fail to see any good they're doing. Those sources also do some impressive things like actually citing their research rather than spouting off facts and expecting everyone to take them at face value.

I also made sure to note that I have had personal experience with both of these communities and none of them have been pleasant. I posted something positive to Ann Wheaton on Twitter while she was under fire for saying something not positive about GamerGate. Despite do nothing to provoke any of these individuals, I got several antagonizing tweets. In the world of GamerGate logic, supporting their enemy means taking up a sword for their side in battle. 

"So what you're saying is your opinion on gamergate and MRAs is formed by listening to people that already hate them talk about them?

MRAs have opened shelters for men and continue to push for recognition of male rape and domestic violence victims despite opposition which extends all the way to outright criminal violence and shootings.

Gamergate has achieved significant reforms in ethics policies at many major journalistic outlets as well as raised literally hundreds of thousands of dollars for everything from funding female game developers to anti-bullying and anti-suicide charities.

The people telling you that both are the devil incarnate are literally racists, pedophiles, and rapist defenders like Sarah Nyberg, Arthur Chu, and Leigh Alexander."

"MRAs literally can't even try to talk about lowering the catastrophic suicide rate among men without large groups of feminists flooding the venue with death and bomb threats, blocking the doors, attacking people trying to get in, and pulling fire alarms to shut the whole thing down.

Which side is really the one that tries to make life harder for anyone who dares disagree with them here? The side that tries to open shelters, or the side that shoots peoples' dogs for sheltering male DV victims?"

I asked both users to show me proof of their evidence. If there's anything both of those groups seem to love, it's throwing out facts without citations and expecting everyone to take them at face value. If you want to change my mind, the burden of proof is on you.

I have yet to see anyone in either group defend their side without resorting to vitriol and ranting. They're consistently bad listeners and incapable of find fault with anyone on their side. Both groups have horrible reputations and it seems very well earned.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 29 or Name of the Whatever

For a book over 500 pages, I read Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I’ve had several friends sing me the praises of this book and, at 722 pages, it fit the bill. The description on the back is pretty vague so I didn’t really know what to expect. Based on the hype all my friends gave it, I foresaw an action packed story with a lot of adventure and interesting characters. I really should have known better.

I’m going to preface this by saying I’m not a big fan of high fantasy. There’s A LOT of new rules that have to be established very quickly in order for you to make sense of what’s going on. Is it just humans or are there other races/sentient species like elves, orcs, etc.? What about dragons, minotaurs, unicorns, and other beasts? Is magic common place? Is there more than one kind of magic? Do some people have inherent powers? Is the societal structure/hierarchy based on medieval British aristocracy or something totally different? How different is the geography and the weather? What about the monetary system? How do people travel? How many different languages do I have to use context clues to decipher?

I prefer urban fantasy since you go in with a lot of the fundamentals already established. You don’t wonder if Harry Dresden will get around by flying carpet or talking horse. Is his favorite bar run by a half-Orc speaking Caeldish? No. It’s contemporary Chicago. He’ll drive a car, have his American dollars in a bank, and his favorite bar is run by a human. To conform to contemporary society, most beasties have to keep a low profile so they’re not taken as a given.

While not the most complicated fantasy novel out there, I definitely had to shrug and fake it more than a few times. Overall, Name of the Wind was a well-written and entertaining book. It drags in some places but that’s the most negative thing I have to say about the book. So why didn’t I like it more?

The hype. Everyone I know who has read the book said it was amazing and I had to read it. They all said this with the same sort of near-crazed reverence in their eyes.  That should have been a warning. It didn’t have the action I expected or the cast of characters I was anticipating. I spent most of the book waiting for something more interesting to happen. Kvothe is a good character with an interesting story but I still don’t see what the big damn deal is.

It finally picked up in the final 75-50 pages but that was a long slog. People are saying the second book is better but writers need to stop using the first book as a staging ground. I almost quit after the first 100 pages because I had no investment in the book, the characters, any of it. If it's going to be a slow progression, people need to stop selling it to me as the pinnacle of fantasy literature. 

Let this be a lesson. Even if you love a book, don’t overhype it. I'm in it enough to finish the series but I'd have liked it more if everyone else had loved it less. 

A Graphic Year Ends Early

I am admitting defeat. I will not be able to complete A Graphic Year challenge. It got away from me sometime in July. I was scraping by toward the very end of the month but with my new gig and move in August, it all collapsed.

I'm still going to keep reading graphic novels because it's an excellent genre. Currently sitting on my shelf is the final installments of Fables, My Friend Dahmer, Rat Queens 1 & 2, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Legenderry, Smut Peddler 2014, Lumberjanes 1, Paige by Paige, The Wicked + the Divine 1, Leaves on the Wind, The Underwater Welder, Quantum and Woody 1, The Adventures of Apocalypse Al, Black Canary & Zatanna, TNG & Who, Archie Meets KISS, Saga 1, and several different Deadpool stories. 

Plus, with the new Archie and the classic Deadpools all coming out, there's a lot more out there for me to find and enjoy. Below I have the final reviews I was able to generate before everything got away from me.

Week 24 

This week I took on an old Baltimore Comic Con purchase, Peril at Summerland Park.

I love choose your own ending novels and this was no different. A mix of comics and full page text, Peril lets you and 2 of your friends navigate the turn of events when you check out an abandoned amusement park.

I was impressed with the amount of adventure and twists and turns that were packed into such a small book. Charging jungle animals, disappearing roller coaster tracks, paralyzingly arrows, friends, foes, and mystical critters I haven't even heard of.

There was an excellent balance of endings where everyone lives, you meet your doom, or only a few of you make it out alive. I look forward to tackling more of the series.

Week 25-30 

A friend lent me Deadpool and Cable 1-6 which I've been very curious about. While entertaining, it reminded me why I stayed away from superheroes for a long time.

The scope of each story arc was so large, its impact so great, that it felt like it should have been extended. Cable grow in his power and influence so rapidly in the first two trades that I wondered how much else there could be to tell. The further into the series, the more it became what I don't like about superhero stories. 

It became convoluted and harder to follow. Once they started bouncing through worlds following Cable's soul, it started to lose me. I feel like these stories could have been stretched longer, the characters becoming more developed rather than throw one epic storyline into each trade.

Deadpool gets to remember his past and we barely touch on what that means. I've only read a little bit of Posehn but he definitely tries to explore the importance of that. It stopped being character driven and became driven by these extreme plots which meant little because of the shallow characters. The beginning was great, the middle was OK, and the end just felt tedious.

August Shopfessions

Clothes
Poshmark - $35
Torrid - $43

Makeup
Amazon - $36
Poshmark lipstick - $10

Books
Felicia Day's Memoir Signed - $30
ShoreLeave splurges - $103.30

MISC
Chain Maille fez - $6.36
Pillow and wristlet - $55



Earned/Returned
eshakti - $27.95
Torrid return - $25
Sold books - $9.50
Poshmark - $22


The Poshmark dress was marked as new with tags and was $35 with shipping and looks great. I've already worn it to work several times.

The Amazon listing was for 3 lipsticks 2 of which were for costumes, one this month.

A signed copy of Felicia Day's book ordered from an independent bookstore? I regret nothing. Buying $100 worth of books at ShoreLeave, I regret a little bit of that.

No Kickstarter or music this month. All songs were obtained with Viggle points. I may let myself order an album in the coming months if I can manage to keep other spending under control.

My total unnecessary spending for the month: $318.66. I didn't do much shopping on vacation (benefit of going to the boonies) nor did I have much time before or after given the move.

Looking at my new living expenses from the move, I really don't have much room to play. I have to plan my splurges more carefully. I'm enjoying my new job but I'm a contractor so there are no guarantees. The new apartment also needs things like a couch and bookshelves so these things take priority.

I've also realized the new apartment has limited space so I'm doing another assessment of my clothes. I want to do a full KonMari sort but I don't have time right now. I've already pulled somethings aside and if I don't miss them in the next few months, they're going on Poshmark. Speaking of Poshmark, if you count the two returns and two checks I got in, I got $84.45 back. That knocks $318.66 down to $234.21.

Now that my money has to go to concrete things like furniture and rent, I think I'm going to do a lot better. Not having much choice is really motivating.

PopSugar Reading Challenge Book 28 or All's Fair

For a book that takes place in my hometown, I bent the definition of hometown just a little bit with Valerie Plame Wilson's Fair Game. I’ve worked and socialized in DC for several years and grew up just outside the beltway. Most people aren’t from my little slice of suburbia and, after hearing Plame Wilson speak, I wanted to experience her story.

I was in high school and college when all of this was happening so I never really caught much of it while it was happening. I always knew I never liked the Bush administration but this just adds to the list of reasons. It’s surreal that while all of this was going down, I was too wrapped up in petty drama to notice.

Because the CIA redacted so many things, I had to go to the afterword and use that to fill in the blanks. Unfortunately the afterword was much dryer but it provided helpful information. It became apparent that the redactions were largely out of spite because even the review committee couldn’t understand what they were trying to protect with so much of that information now out in the public.

When I heard her speak, she talked about how they redacted the word “station chief” but less than a year after that, they published a memoir with the title Station Chief. I can’t be sure exactly how many times they did this but they did it at least once on page 33.

Despite several powerful people in Washington ruining her career and almost destroying her marriage, Plame Wilson still says she’s a patriotic American. I feel like that’s more of the correct answer than the honest one. I’m sure she still loves her country but I think she is far more jaded than her book would have you believe. You’d have to read it to truly see what I mean but I think she subscribes to the notion that “It’s not slander if it’s true.” Very interesting read.