Ignorence is bliss. You know, they're not kidding there.
This has been one of those "do alot so you can think better" kind of days. It didn't seem like I was doing a lot, but I ended up doing more than I thought...mostly because my mind was running ninety-to-nothing the whole time and...well...time kinda got away from me.
I started by reading a book I loved a year or so ago. I read it cover to cover this afternoon, and I was so disappointed. The basic story is still good enough, but...the writing....
I almost wish I still didn't know what I was doing. I enjoyed that book
so much before. But the head-hopping is just brain-numbing, the extensive passive voice is frustrating, the unnecessary and terribly adverbial description makes me want to grab up the metaphorical red pen, and the characters....
See, it's one thing to have a strong heroine and a strong hero who are both stubborn-but-likable and able to stand up for themselves without losing their appeal as characters. But when the unnecessary descriptions I mentioned before go completely against what the author has actually had the character do or how he/she has had the character act....
*sigh*
"There isn't a deceitful bone in her body."*Not true. She lied to him before she even met him, the fibbed to him throughout the entire book and even got shot because she disobeyed him and snuck out of the "safe" area after telling her guards she was only going to the lake. That was like five people right there, not counting the hero. How is she not deceitful?
"She's just so sweet."*Not true. The hero is continually flabbergasted by her blatant refusal to do anything he orders or asks and by the manner in which she refuses. Sure, the author is trying to show the heroine as headstrong and courageous, but coupled with his utter frustration with her snark-back to each of his requests and commands, I wonder if perhaps he's talking about her flavor instead of her temperament.
"Under all that gruff and brawn, he's really sweet and loving and romantic."*Lie. Under all the gruff and brawn, he's a tough sonovabitch who wants what he wants and goes to any lengths -- even murder and deceit -- to get it. Sure he'll protect her. But who cares? She doesn't listen to a word he says anyway, so all his intention and ability to protect her doesn't come to squat because she keeps running off and lying about where she's going. And I don't think that long, slow -- but masterful and dominant -- lovemaking counts as sweet, loving, and romantic when that's the only time the two are in accord.
* - These are not direct quotes but paraphrases of how the characters see each other.*sigh again*
I wish I'd just left it alone and remembered this book fondly. I wish I wasn't so hard on myself, as it seems to have made me equally hard on others.
Naw. Not true. Heh, that "not meeting with the facts" thing seems to have rubbed off.
I don't wish I wasn't so hard on myself. If I wasn't hard on everything I write, I'd still write like this author, and while that was good enough for me a year ago, it most certainly ISN'T good enough now.
Anyway, after that minor catastrophe, I decided to clean the kitchen and wash dishes. I started with washing dishes and got two sinkfuls done before...I ran out of hot water.
*facepalm*
See, the power went out for a good long time last night, and my water heater is kinda twitchy at the best of times. It ran okay last night -- my bath was neither too hot nor too cold, as it's wont to be when the heater's acting up -- but it must have overheated in the night and tripped its internal breaker.
At any rate, I still have dishes on the counter because I can't STAND washing dishes without hot water. Some people can. I can't.
So, I decided to clean off the other counter and scrub the stove. It gets kinda yucky down by the burners -- it's a gas stove -- from boil-overs and dropped food and such, and the surface itself was pretty grease-spotty, so I hosed on the Windex and got to it.
Now, all this time, I'm THINKING. The radio's on, I'm scrubbing like a crazy woman on dishes, the counter, or the stove, and my brain is just churning. Working shit out. Mulling.
Mulling over plot? Absolutely. Mulling over world events? Of course. Mulling over the new job starting Tuesday? Duh! Mulling over family and friends and the fact that I ought to call my beloved sister and Mom and Kristi more often? Guilty.
Just mulling. Not
dwelling, per se. Just...working out the stuff that clutters in up there and gets in the way of functional daily activity.
After the stove and counter were clean...I decided to try a new dessert recipe. Brandied chocolate truffles. Sounds pretty tasty, ne?
Of course, I don't like brandy much, so I decided to substitute some rum -- also because it's what I had, as I don't keep much alcohol in the house. Rummed chocolate truffles. Mmm.
But even this endeavor was sort of on autopilot. I slowly melted the chocolate into the heavy cream -- and no, I wasn't even DREAMING of counting calories or fat grams, heh -- and thought about gas prices being so high. I added butter a sliver at a time and wondered if we'll get a pretty fall with all the crap weather that has attacked the world this year. I added the rum and stirred and debated whether or not I should get a new pair of dress boots for the new job because my old dress boots are VERY old and very worn out and aren't terribly comfortable if I have to stand for long periods of time or walk long distances.
Then, I put the mix in the fridge to chill, came back into the living room, and played mahjong for an hour, using a different tile set each time.
See, it occurred to me as I was scraping chocolate that perhaps my ease with certain mahjong designs is due to my familiarity with the one and only tile set I've ever used. I decided that as soon as I'd cleaned up a bit, I'd try out a theory on the "easiest" design and see exactly how much visual recognition had to do with my history of quick times and great scores there.
I gotta admit that the further away I get from my usual design, the crappier my game gets. Heh. I did find another tile set that appeals to me, though, so I acclimated myself to it and will probably use it for a while.
Now, though...I gotta go wash the rest of the dishes. The water heater's probably done its job by now, and I hate leaving something half-done.
Besides, I have more stuff to think about. I clean my house not to be a neat freak -- I don't think anyone in their right mind could ever label me that -- but to clean out my head.
And I most certainly needed a good head cleaning.
