Seeing as I’m trying on the 52 books in 52 weeks for size, and seeing as I got to the party a bit late, I thought I’d include the books I’ve read since New Year’s as well. Specifically, Haunted and Wicked.
Seeing as I’m trying on the 52 books in 52 weeks for size, and seeing as I got to the party a bit late, I thought I’d include the books I’ve read since New Year’s as well. Specifically, Haunted and Wicked.
Sushi Daze is one of those trendy, coming of age novels where the protagonist always knows what to say, even when they don’t know how to live their life. It follows the antics of Jamie, an otherwise spiritually lost individual, through his own personal self-discovery teaching in Japan. Jamie applies to BIGSUN, a Japanese ESL school, on a whim and lies his way into Japan, where he finds it’s not quite what he expected. Small rooms, borderline psychopathic roommates, students with various eclectic tastes, and dare I say it … discovering love? Wanky? Sure, but it’s not all bad.
Rob Payne reads like a Douglas Coupland wannabee. He isn’t bad, and it’s an entertaining tale, but it just isn’t bizarre enough, moving enough, or trendy enough to really hit the spot. I enjoyed it, but without spoiling the ending, it seems that there isn’t really one. The whole book is left hanging, with Jamie never really having the epiphany he needs to complete the arc. It’s almost as if some mad scientist took Neal Stephenson’s inability to finish a story and merged it with the more uninspired writings of Coupland.
Payne’s descriptions of Japan are only really going to appeal to those who haven’t been there and don’t know the first thing about it. 10 years ago, they probably would have been edgy. Now, they’re just not edgy enough - he misses out on broad swathes of “interesting” cultural facets, ranging from the otaku to gameshows / personalities to even Shinto spiritualism. While I’m nowhere near an expert on Japan, even I’m aware of what he missed - the book reads somewhat like someone who either only brushed the surface of Japan, never really exploring off the beaten path, cocooned in their ex-pat community, or someone who wrote through relatively superficial research. Brief nods are made to some cultural quirks, but that’s it. The characters are all pretty consistently one-dimensional - while attempts were made to develop some of the characters (notably Eldon and Cassandra, his rapidly degenerating roommate and love interest, respectively), they’re just not fully enough explored to make them anything but caricatures.
It’s not a bad book, it’s just that there’s better out there. The fundamentals are all there, he just doesn’t develop them enough to make it a must-read. Which, to be blunt, is a shame - the protagonist is interesting and his personal journey has promise. I had high hopes, especially after enjoying the Bangkok 8 books by John Burdett and the Feng Shui Detective series by Nury Vittachi, but it seems Payne just didn’t quite hit his stride. I’ll probably read his other major book, Working Class Zero, at some stage, but it’s not high on my list of priorities.
Added a book review plugin, customised the layout sheets to support it, and fixed some bizarre header problem that was randomly preventing the full page from loading. And by fixed, I mean replaced.
It boggles my how all this shit works - MacGyver ain’t got nothin’ on my leet duct tape skills. Thank god I don’t have to do any real maintenance on the crap I write.
Small stuff:
Unfortunately, the stylesheets for WPG2 seem not to work with my current theme. So, I’m just linking straight out to my gallery for the timebeing.
Courtesy of another blog, I came across a meme that I think I might give a go this year - 52 books in 52 weeks. I doubt I’ll actually get through 52 books, but it’s a nice round number.
Plus, I popped by a discount book wholesaler yesterday and picked up 15 or so books. Gotta read ‘em now, of course.
I’m still primarily writing this for myself, but out of interest, is there anyone out there? I’ve noticed sustained hits on my feed, but I don’t know whether that’s spammers or real people. Given I just emptied my inbox of five thousand odd spams, anything’s possible.
So … is there anybody out there?
Each day gets a little easier. I’m still getting down in the late afternoon / early evening, but it becomes less each day. In some ways, I guess that’s a little sad, but in others, it makes it easier.
I’ve been thinking about what I want to try and achieve this year. Last year, I wanted to start writing semi-professionally (i.e. paid), I wanted to read a lot more, I wanted to listen to more classical / jazz, I wanted to take more photos, I wanted to watch less TV, and I wanted to drink less. So how did I go?
Writing? Check. Paid for a 360, a bunch of games, and had quite a bit of fun. Still writing (not as much over the last month and a half, but there are good reasons for that), still having fun.
Watch less TV? Check. Still caught up on stuff I liked while travelling, but that was about it. And, I think I’m happier for it.
Photography? Check. Sticking with it, too. And, enjoying it tremendously (when I get a chance to go out and get some shots).
Reading? Double-plus check. Read quite a lot this year, even changed the back room into a nice little library / office.
Musical appreciation? Hmm. Not really. Listened to quite a bit, but didn’t learn much from it. Guess that one’s a cross.
Research into gaming theory? Another cross - started strong, but fizzled out when the year got busy. Which I regret a bit, but given I achieved other things, I don’t feel too bad about it. And, I’ve had enough exposure now to know that while I could probably make some new contributions, it’d be a hell of a lot of work, especially given my relative lack of direct contact with actual lead designers. If I really wanted to, I could probably improve that contact, but I don’t know what the pay-off would be other than personal satisfaction. It’s a noble goal, but I don’t know that I’m quite passionate enough for that pay-off to justify the work.
Drink less? I’d say yes to that. I’m still probably drinking more than I ideally should, but ideals are pretty lofty. I’m definitely drinking less than I did in the year before, which is good. I’m not an alcoholic (a big night for me is about 3/4 of a bottle of wine), but I’m probably still a bit over what I should be drinking were I to be living an ideal life.
So where to from here? Hard to say, really. I’m still thinking about this year’s resolutions, even though we’re already half-way through January. Still, I’m tossing around the following:
Beyond that? Don’t know, still thinking. Figure I’ll have a bath sometime over the next week and reflect in the dark on it - I should be able to come up with something a little more substantive if I put my mind to it …
Thought I’d update this sadly neglected blog. At least it isn’t unique in that respect - I haven’t done much of anything since our daughter was born. She’s really gorgeous - I know everyone says that about their kids, but I’m not deluded! Really!
She was a very punctual baby - she came right on her due date, and even waited until midnight the night before before starting labour proper. Weighing seven and half pounds and measuring 52cm, she entered the world around 9:00 in the morning. She’s on a 2-4 hour feeding schedule at the moment, which is difficult, but not impossible. My wife’s made of stronger stuff than I, that’s for sure - she’s absolutely amazing in her patience and ability to calm our daughter down. It’s like talking down a suicide jumper - most times I try, I end up with a red patch on the pavement.
It hasn’t all been good though. Unfortunately, one of our dogs, Chief, wasn’t able to adjust to the baby. We spent the last nine months trying to socialise him with other babies and get used to their smells and cries. Sadly, when we brought her home, he lost it - he spent a full 48 hours barking, whimpering, and crying. I tried everything I could with him - leash training, separation when he was unruly, letting him smell her, letting him see her through a baby gate, and so on. After 48 hours, he’d lost almost a kilo in weight and had barely slept, so we had to take him to a kennel.
Thankfully, we managed to find him a new home with the breeder we originally bought him from. She lives out on a farm in Healesville, and her older son goes rabbit hunting, so I think he’ll be happier there than here. Dropping him off at the kennel was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, as was the decision to do so. At the time, I wasn’t sure whether we’d be able to find a solution or whether we’d have to have him put down, a thought I really couldn’t come to terms with. He’s been a difficult dog, but he’s also been a loyal (if somewhat argumentative) friend for seven years. And now I’ll probably never see him again.
The late afternoons and evenings are the hardest. The house has noticably less energy now that he’s gone - he used to patrol all afternoon, making sure everything was OK. Around 5:00, he’d come and bark at us to feed him. Now that he’s gone, the house seems quiet. Borderline lonely.
I wouldn’t change what’s happened for the world. I love my daughter, and I’m really looking forward to having conversations with her. It’s sad though how some of the greatest things in life come with such high costs. The decision was easy, but dealing with the aftermath’s the hard thing. Day by day, it grows easier, but it still sneaks up on you - I came to work today to see a photo of our dogs, Chief and Mischief, on my desk. That makes it hard.