Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Okay so maybe I was a little late in reading this; It is one of the books that I’ve picked up a hundred times, flipped through, but wound up getting distracted by something else. What was I thinking? Why had I not allowed myself to read this classic?
Peter Pan is one of the timeless tale about the child who did not want to ever grow up. Everyone knows the story in one form or another, be it play or movie, etc. But to read it as the story itself was spellbinding. The cherry on top was a small ‘about the author’ bit at the back of my edition, telling on Barrie and making allusions to himself as both Peter Pan and Captain Jas. Hook. I had never really researched the man and it was very interesting to read.
Wendy is not the annoying character I took her to be. She is often presented as nagging, pretentious, and far too grown up for the fantasies wrapped around and within Neverland. Here, she is truly just a child in a land of make believe. Oh, she is quite intelligent and knows which buttons to push but isn’t it true that girls learn this trick at a young age, manipulating the boys around them early on?
All in all, I am glad to have finally read this. I was always a fan of the story it presented, particularly in stage play, but I had never indulged in the original (or close to, I suppose, depending on the edition) in all its glory. A highly recommended read.
A Greek God at the Ladies’ Club by Jenna McKnight
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
While I give this a shelf of “Greek Mythology”, it is very very far from any sort of true mythology. But given the context of the book, I had to add it (especially since I will have more of these coming).
Darius is a made-up god, one of the few-and-far-between children of Zeus and Hera. You would think that this would count for something to the mortals in the book; anyone who knew anything about mythology would know just how select a group this was: Ares, Hebe, Eileithyia, and often Eris. This alone rather irked me, as though the author could not be bothered with any real research. But it is a story and within it, the god has been banished for the past 3,000 years. Enough time, by the author’s estimation, to have the mortals all forget who the God of Gems was. Darius who? Execute the first Head-Desk.
You know, I can’t even fathom going into much about the book.
I got increasingly frustrated by the portrayal of the gods and goddesses that were popping up within the story. Maybe centuries of change had done them all a bit of… well I can’t say ‘good’. Hermes was a wuss. Aphrodite wasn’t the proud, vain creature she should have been. Hera… wanted to force her son into marriage with a goddess of her choosing and have little grandbaby gods running around? Wait. What? Execute Head-Desk number… I actually lost count at this point.
If you want fluff, no real romance, and no absolutely nothing about Greek mythology… you might enjoy this book. But I warn you now: if you have even the most basic of knowledge about the gods, stay far away from this.
Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This was a difficult read; considering this is a children’s book I am not sure if that is a feat by the author or if it says something about me as a reader. Maybe I expected too much. I had heard so much about the book in 2008, about how it was an OFFICIAL SEQUEAL exclamation point exclamation point one exclamation point.True, no one can really capture what J.M. Barrie originally created. It is too difficult to fully step into the shoes of another.It was just hard to choke down read-wise and it took me a LONG time to read this book. I kept putting it down in favor of something else. I finally forced myself to sit down and finish it. I read 142 pages over the course of 3 days. That is pathetic!I do not recommend this book unless you want to read it just to have read it… like I did.
I need to get back into my candle magick. I need to get the universe to work with me a bit on things and hopefully I can give it a bit of an ‘oomf’ :-\
Stress abound. Exhaustion. Can’t seem to focus.
Getting so very, very close. Excited!
I’m just trying to not panic. Panic and anxiety attacks are the last thing I need.
*sigh*
Current Mood: 
restless
Current Music: Glee Cast - Faithfully
I haven’t slept yet. I tried. I really did. But by almost 6am it was very clear that sleep was not coming. And since I had to be up by 7:30am, there was really no point in trying any longer. I have plans today! Off to NYC for a day of geekery with Kim, Dani, and Joe.
So I decided to shower, get dressed, and just be ready for the day by 7:30 instead of starting then. I showered, primped, dressed, and… my knee decided that it doesn’t want to play today. And this is a very new type of pain. I couldn’t put weight on it without the front/kneecap area feeling like I was having huge needles jammed through it. Um. Ow? And quite random. I mean, I have knee issues. I have bad knee issues. But mine are with the inside and rear of the knee with it swelling to the point where I cannot bend my knee. This? No warning, nothing to bring it on.
I decided to put my Shape Ups on since the points of contact between my feet and the ground are different when I wear those. I walked down the road to 7-11 to pick up some water and energy shots (and a light breakfast of apple slices and peanut butter! yum!), making sure to pay attention to my knee. With the shoes, I noticed an immediate difference in that I could at least put weight on my right leg without pain. I am very, very leery though. I have a feeling I am going to be in a tremendous amount of pain by the afternoon and even worse tonight, peaking tomorrow. I should probably bow out of the day and just take the day to rest my knee but, dammit, I’ve been home all week and I’ve been looking forward to today. I go back to work tomorrow to finish out the month (my last day is July 1st instead of June 30th) and there is no reason why I cannot just muddle my way through it.
But I just know that I am making a mistake LOL
Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky
are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now.
(wish right now, wish right now)
Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky
are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now.
(wish right now, wish right now)
Current Mood: 
groggy
Current Music: B.o.B. - Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams)
I’m fucked up in the head. This whole thing has me screwed up and I just… ugh. Gave up on project blog because there are too many things not fit for “print” that I want to say. I’m only not saying them because I can’t get them to make sense anyway.
Current Mood: 
frustrated
What constitutes a “boring” blog post? Angel over at theQueenB posted about how blog entries bore her and I got to thinking. I suppose I am a bit more curious as to how many people blog for an audience and how many use their blog as the whole idea was originally intended for: online journaling. Sure, blogging has become an everyday thing. Everyone and their grandmother’s pet dog FiFi has one now. Do people really feel the need to vie for attention? Or is it something else? Do people blog to share information? Do people blog to share their opinions with the almighty “delete comment” button at their fingertips giving them the courage to be an ignorant mule?
All of the above and more.
I have been around the blogging community since before it was CALLED “blogging”. Wow. I feel incredibly old right now. But seriously. Way back when it was simply online journaling and an easy way of creating a tech-based archive of your life. Who even keeps a handwritten journal nowadays? “What do you mean you didn’t know about ___?? Didn’t you read my blog?!” Now, granted, we live in the age of Twitter and Facebook, with phone companies enabling us to keep in constant contact via social media applications and the web at any given moment. Have a short update? Tweet it! Want to share something for people to like and comment on? Facebook it! Lives are no longer really private and I think a big part of that is because people get a taste of what it is like to be a celebrity. There are people out there who are, get this, “famous for being famous”. What?
I guess my whole point, to those who have read this far, is that I could really care less if someone is entertained by what I have to say. If they don’t like something, they are more than welcome to exit out of it. It won’t hurt my feelings. It won’t make me change my ways. I am not here to entertain. Maybe later, should I feel like it. But it is not my focus here. Here I am free to do as I please simply because it pleases me to do so.
– Because I am awesome.
Current Mood: 
content
I had a very weird day today. It started out relatively normal. I woke up a wee bit earlier than normal, knowing that I had to call the rental office to go about terminating my lease but I knew that I wanted to be at work and either in the parking lot or in the building by that point. I wanted to have pen and paper handy and I didn’t know how long it would take.
Well, I left for work and was driving through the neighborhood… and stopped at a stop sign. Suddenly this dog just runs into the side of my car. Yeah. That’s right. My car got hit by a dog. It was a lab/pit mix and you could tell it was a puppy in a full-grown body. I was like “Oh my goodness! Is he okay?!” to the owner who just sort of covered her face with her hand and said “Yeah. Sorry. He’s… he’s just an idiot.” No damage to the dog, no damage to the car. All is well. More of a WTF moment.
Work was fine. I was in Mercer and Burlington counties which were slow and surprisingly well-behaved. All was just peachy up until around 10 PM when the whole system crashed and we went onto paper. Who knows how many people’s calls were lost in transmission. Poor them. Meanwhile, we scrambled trying to break out the file boxes and folders, tried to get Outlook up so that we could get the paper calls, etc. etc. etc. FUN END TO THE NIGHT. /sarcasm.
Even aside from those examples of my day, it was just weird and I cannot even really explain why. I’m relieved, I’m nervous, I’m terrified, I’m a huge mix of emotions and my head can’t even wrap itself around things yet. It’s mostly why I’ve been absent and quiet. Not much to say that makes any sort of sense.
I am made of awesome.
Current Mood: 
weird
I just don’t feel like writing today. I’m not depressed. I’m not… anything at the moment. Meh. Le Sigh. I don’t feel like I have to rant, I don’t really have to vent, blah blah blah.
I am leaving work as I type this, having a particularly crappy night so yay. Glad to be gone. Heading over to Charlie and Dave’s place to visit with one of my favorite drivers because he happens to be in the area.
This entry doesn’t even meet the requirements that we set for Project Blog. Oh well. I already botched it anyway.
I missed a day for the Project Blog. For good reason, mind you; it still disappoints me.
I really do not want to talk about it right now, however. And it is 5:22am. I need to sleep. Haven’t decided yet if I am going to call out or not.
