Ahem. Yes, hello. I am free to confirm that until the day before Hallowe'en, I am in Washington DC.
Yes, you read that right.
Washington. DC. The United States of America.
Frankly, the hotel is disappointing. No Internet unless I pay extra for it - and each payment lasts only twenty-four hours. Really? I mean, really? I think my exposure to the potential harm of wireless waves should at least - at the very least - be compensated by free Internet.
Also, monogrammed pillows. That you can buy. For forty dollars.
BTW, the pillows are the size of two netbooks side by side.
Hm.
Now, onto the good things. The conference is exciting, but the registration fee was one hundred dollars. O.o Seriously, this is so not Canada. And all that's included in the bag is a notebook, no pen, the conference booklet of abstracts, and lots of advertisements. I mean, they even have a nice folder to keep the advertisements all organized and stuff.
Will blog later. Am too tired.
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Friday, 14 October 2011
Wow, I just spent...
...half an hour going through Amazon and reading people's reviews of various teen/supernatural/romance books. One review was really scathing about some book called Halo or Hades? Or, rather I think they're the first and second books of this series.
So.
Apparently, the heroine is this angel who falls in love with this mortal (not really original; this could be the plot of THOUSANDS of books) and then this demon "kidnaps" her on a motorcycle (seriously, it's even on the cover) so that he may woo her and marry her.
This is the part where people stare at the crazy person laughing at the computer.
(FYI, yes I am that person.)
Seriously, what is with all the drivel that's been written these days? Twilight has a lot to answer for, but then again, it's not like Twilight did something new - I don't know how it got popular, maybe right time, right place? But it didn't exactly introduce something new - supernatural romances have been published before but to lesser attention - for example, LJ Smith's Nightworld series, where the soulmate principal is introduced and inevitably binds two people who could not be more different. And naturally, one of those pairings must be a mortal girl and a vampire. (It's like the law of teen romance fiction. Pair the good, kind, fair, innocent mortal girl with the worst guy possible...who just then turns out to have a heart of gold and was hiding his feelings under his tough-man exterior.)
Real guys don't function like that. They are more apt to annoy you with questions about what your mark on that last test/assignment/project was and then try to hold back their smug smiles when you tell them it was a sixty-six. They are the ones who either care too much or care too little about their academics. The obsessive ones, the annoying ones, the earnest ones that are just let's-face-it too needy.
This is why fiction has a market - real-life men are flawed, people, they are flawed, sometimes you can't see it at first, but trust me, they are there. Book men? They are fantasies, and for one fleeting moment when you're reading, you can pretend you're the heroine and that your love interest is let's-face-it just awesome.
Relationships are messy - you can't kill off your ex the way a writer can kill off a character. They don't have easy beginnings or easy endings, with the all the fake angst and teenage melodrama.
Yet despite the obvious escape fiction provides me, I've always liked stories where the relationships aren't easy, where you can't tell the difference between love and hate, where the unresolved sexual tension is so thick. I relish those stories.
(Just these past few weeks, when I should have been studying for midterms, I find myself reading and rereading this complicated stories... it's this complexity I crave, not over-simplicity.)
But then again, who doesn't love a happy ending?
So.
Apparently, the heroine is this angel who falls in love with this mortal (not really original; this could be the plot of THOUSANDS of books) and then this demon "kidnaps" her on a motorcycle (seriously, it's even on the cover) so that he may woo her and marry her.
This is the part where people stare at the crazy person laughing at the computer.
(FYI, yes I am that person.)
Seriously, what is with all the drivel that's been written these days? Twilight has a lot to answer for, but then again, it's not like Twilight did something new - I don't know how it got popular, maybe right time, right place? But it didn't exactly introduce something new - supernatural romances have been published before but to lesser attention - for example, LJ Smith's Nightworld series, where the soulmate principal is introduced and inevitably binds two people who could not be more different. And naturally, one of those pairings must be a mortal girl and a vampire. (It's like the law of teen romance fiction. Pair the good, kind, fair, innocent mortal girl with the worst guy possible...who just then turns out to have a heart of gold and was hiding his feelings under his tough-man exterior.)
Real guys don't function like that. They are more apt to annoy you with questions about what your mark on that last test/assignment/project was and then try to hold back their smug smiles when you tell them it was a sixty-six. They are the ones who either care too much or care too little about their academics. The obsessive ones, the annoying ones, the earnest ones that are just let's-face-it too needy.
This is why fiction has a market - real-life men are flawed, people, they are flawed, sometimes you can't see it at first, but trust me, they are there. Book men? They are fantasies, and for one fleeting moment when you're reading, you can pretend you're the heroine and that your love interest is let's-face-it just awesome.
Relationships are messy - you can't kill off your ex the way a writer can kill off a character. They don't have easy beginnings or easy endings, with the all the fake angst and teenage melodrama.
Yet despite the obvious escape fiction provides me, I've always liked stories where the relationships aren't easy, where you can't tell the difference between love and hate, where the unresolved sexual tension is so thick. I relish those stories.
(Just these past few weeks, when I should have been studying for midterms, I find myself reading and rereading this complicated stories... it's this complexity I crave, not over-simplicity.)
But then again, who doesn't love a happy ending?
Friday, 7 October 2011
What is it with Friday evenings?
What is it with Friday evenings?
(Yes, I know that's also the title, but it bears repeating).
Obviously, I look forward to them as the end of a week of annoyances, assignments, and other asinine things unfortunately present in this world.
There is also the peace and quiet - the silence which I crave like a starving beggar craves a bagel and cup of coffee. I love how it's the one night where I can drink coffee this late and not care about waking up tomorrow at some ungodly hour.
Then let's look at nights in general - what is so fascinating about them? This time where you can see the moon and the stars - or planes masquerading as stars. This time where your ears are especially sensitive to the crickets singing, the leaves fluttering, the shadows that may not be so empty.
You shouldn't go walking out at night, common sense says, but for once in my life, I want to walk the streets at night and just glory in it, fearless and controlled.
Perhaps I'll be spooked by a passing squirrel. Perhaps I'll be attacked by a random madman.
Or perhaps I'll walk home safe, greeted at the door by my house guardian feline.
Sometimes I just don't want to care. Sometimes - someday - I want to just let my inhibitions slip away. I'll leave them decorating my room, little anxieties bouncing on my bed and climbing up my bookcase.
Only then, only then will I be free.
(Yes, I know that's also the title, but it bears repeating).
Obviously, I look forward to them as the end of a week of annoyances, assignments, and other asinine things unfortunately present in this world.
There is also the peace and quiet - the silence which I crave like a starving beggar craves a bagel and cup of coffee. I love how it's the one night where I can drink coffee this late and not care about waking up tomorrow at some ungodly hour.
Then let's look at nights in general - what is so fascinating about them? This time where you can see the moon and the stars - or planes masquerading as stars. This time where your ears are especially sensitive to the crickets singing, the leaves fluttering, the shadows that may not be so empty.
You shouldn't go walking out at night, common sense says, but for once in my life, I want to walk the streets at night and just glory in it, fearless and controlled.
Perhaps I'll be spooked by a passing squirrel. Perhaps I'll be attacked by a random madman.
Or perhaps I'll walk home safe, greeted at the door by my house guardian feline.
Sometimes I just don't want to care. Sometimes - someday - I want to just let my inhibitions slip away. I'll leave them decorating my room, little anxieties bouncing on my bed and climbing up my bookcase.
Only then, only then will I be free.
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