Showing posts with label Harry Potter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harry Potter. Show all posts

Sunday, July 29, 2007

It Just Sucks!

It's Sunday morning and I woke up with more energy than usual. The sun was shining but it was still cool out. I was excited because we bought a wheelbarrow yesterday and I had knocked down some wasp nests (using a katana, of course) in an area of the yard that I wanted to do some cool stuff with. My muscles were slightly sore from some of the outdoor work I did yesterday and they felt kind of good, so I dressed for working, put on my leather gloves, pocketed my good knife and a charged battery for the weedeater and headed outside.

What a beautiful day! I hadn't really even started yet, but we'd had to move an old kennel away from the area that I wanted to work in so I was checking the high weeds in that square to see if I could use the weedeater or if I'd have to work with hand shears. In a matter of a second I went from upright, whistling, and pleasantly warmed by the sun to down on the ground in stunned silence. Apparently some dog who had long ago occupied the now-missing kennel had dug a deep hole in a corner, but the tall grass had obscured the hole well. My foot was deep in the hole at an ugly angle and I had taken most of the fall to one knee and a shoulder. I lay there for a moment and decided I felt no serious pain, just bruises and I gingerly pulled my foot out of the offensive hole. I got up though favoring the foot a bit. It didn't seem that bad. I took a slight limping step or two and still seemed okay. Good, I could get right back to my energetic mood and get to work. So, I picked up the hand shears and took a much firmer step toward the grass further from the hell-hole. When my full weight landed on that foot a bolt of pain shot up to my knee and I was down on the ground again, thankfully not stabbed my shears. Appparently this was a bit worse than I'd thought. Now my ego was bruised as well. I crawled back upright and half hopped and half hobbled back to the house. I tried to be quiet and not wake my partner, but my now swelling foot was more aware and the bit of weight I had to apply to limp inside elicited grunts of exertion and pain.

Well, to make this long and stupid story short, now I'm sitting in my recliner with foot propped and ice on it (at the insistence of my silly significant-other who does not realize how certain I am that I will magically heal by myself within an hour.) Not only that, but she announced that two doors down they are having a garage sale. I LOVE garage sales! I could walk there in two minutes! With that news, I thought the ice had probably cured me and I got up and tried to move toward my shoes. Even with a heavy and stupid looking limp, I couldn't put quite enough weight on the foot to walk in any way that made me look other than a semi-quasimodo thing.

I know, I know, this should be great news! I'm a writer! I love to read. I like computer games. now I have the whole day as an excuse to do that stuff. BUT I whine to you, daring blog reading- I didn't WANT to do that today! I wanted to play outside! I had a new mailbox to install, a chicken coop to do some repairs on, and a pic-nic table to fix up for my new sitting area!

Then there is the other side. How hurt am I? My family is known to be great whiners (as you can see) but strangely we whine about things like the price of butter -- when it comes to actual injury or illness we are both stoic and somewhat dumb. My own grandmother broke her hip in the middle of the night but proceeded to crawl to bed and lay there in pain for the night, then get up in the morning and halfway fake horrible arthritus pain (not broken hip pain, she said) and drag herself into the kitchen with my grandfather's walker. There she cooked him eggs and sausage for breakfast and then went back to bed. She attempted to get away with convincing other family visitors that she had a slight cold that had her stuck in bed, but they would have none of it. My grandma loves to go to Dillards with my mother, and she would never say no to that over a tiny cold. So, after literally forcing her to the hospital they discovered a badly broken hip and all my grandmother had to say was that the weather was too hot, she didn't approve of the president's latest announcements on our national defecit, and the neighbor's dog had crapped on her lawn again on Tuesday. Oh, she griped, but not a word about pain or the horrible night and morning she must have had.

So, back to ME, since I am stuck sitting here I thought I'd catch up on the blog by complaining about the dent in my old mailbox and the tomato worms that are bothering my garden. After this perhaps I'll try to work on a feature article that I have a deadline on, and maybe play a good round of Jade Empire. I could read some Harry Potter since I've been wondering about the later books. I could do some celebrisurfing (another hobby of mine) and see what's up with good old Paris, Lohan, and the unforgettable Spears. Ooh, ooh, I almost forgot! I haven't watched anything on Youtube or Glumbert lately. I need to see those. I also need to watch Pirate Master on Innertube since CBS did the stupidest thing in the world (to me) and pulled a reality show that wasn't THAT bad and only 5 espisodes from the end. I've heard Innertube isn't working too well, but maybe with all this time on my butt I can figure it out. Oh yeah, I have the DVD of Black Snake Moan from Blockbuster Online. Wow, this might be a good day after all. Ok, thanks for the therapy, dear Blog Diary today! Since I usually try hard to give you some useful information on most of my entries, this being an information blog- I'll offer a recommendation. If you've never used GIMP, check it out. It's a free alternative to Photoshop and I've been messing with it. Works on Linux and Windows and it seems pretty nice. You'll find it at www.gimp.org if you want to see. Wish me luck- I'm sure that just writing this blog has now healed my foot so I'm also now going to try to walk on it again. Later!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Am I the Only Book-Lover Who Hasn't Read the Harry Potter Novels?

I'm a total bibliophile and I even admit I'm a total book addict. I keep books that I won't read again. I read books again that I have no reason to read again. I steal books from the library because I MEANT to take them back but.... I love them. I need them. (Please don't tell - you other bookaholics know how it is!) I also admit openly that I mostly read garbage. Oh, I've spent my time with the classics and I do truly love them. I spent 10 years in college (getting a 4-year English degree) and it was mostly an excuse to read. I adore Faulkners "Sound and the Fury" and Hemingway's "Travels with Charlie" (which is under-rated) and I occasionally still read some so-called literary fiction that is contemporary like Alice Walker or Alice Hoffman or Alice Jones. Ok, I don't know of a writer named Alice Jones but I was hung up on Alice for whatever reason.

Still, maybe it was those years in school to blame that thrust me into the wild and dangerous world of genre fiction. Maybe it was just meant to be. I don't really know. But now, what I read most is horror, medical thrillers, occasional mysteries, a bit of humor if it's superb (like Douglas Adams - and YES 42 IS THE ANSWER.) I even indulge in a little sci-fi and fantasy but I'm really picky about it. Back to horror, by the way, I consider myself picky there too though I read lots of crappy horror in search of better stuff. Actually, too, lots of the horror I love the most isn't really classified right. Have you read "Watchers" or any of the "Odd Thomas" books by Dean Koontz? The BEST. Of course, it's true- if Dean wrote the text on a toilet-paper package I'd have to buy it. I also like some stuff that my reading friends seem to skip right over like F. Paul Wilson. How can they not love Repairman Jack?

So, what was my point in this ridiculously long post? Um.... Oh yeah! Harry Potter. I read the first book just to see what the big woo was about. I liked it. I read half of the second book and it's well-written and I can't say I didn't like it - I just didn't finish it. Not even sure why. After that, like an evil non-reader- I stuck to the movies. I liked those too though I haven't seen them all yet. I really enjoyed the first three except for the part where Ron does that awful thing with the slugs. Eeewww. Being a book-lover, though, I just feel a little guilty here. I don't have interest in standing in long lines to be the first to get the next book. I'm not that concerned with who will die in some book that I guess hasn't been written yet? I kind of got lost on that debate. And, to be really terribly honest, the Rowling lady seems a little snotty to me. Didn't she like write her name on some statue in a fancy hotel room where she wrote a book? Isn't that kind of snotty to think that her signature would be so cool it was okay to deface someone else's property? Maybe I'm all wrong about her and if someone ever buys all the novels I haven't finished writing yet I might turn into someone awful. Anyway, I just wondered if I'm the only one.