Posts Tagged → Dresden Files

Level 19 in darkshore wow

Up incredibly early this morning. Not feeling great.

Yesterday, after work, I came home and played World of Warcraft Classic for an hour at my standing desk. I walked on a little treadmill while I did so, hoping that a little more exercise would help out with my sleep.

It didn’t.

Well — I know that I’ve got to make doing that sort of stuff more habitual in order to see benefits. As it is, I only walk like that once or twice a week, which simply isn’t enough. I’m going to try to pick up the pace as much as I can, but work has been rough recently and I am stressed out the the bejeezus belt.

All the more reason to exercise more, I suppose.

Anywho. I finished Twelve Months last night, which was great, but then, when I suddenly snapped awake at like 3:30 in the morning, I didn’t have my next audiobook queued up. In a daze, I downloaded the full-cast edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on Audible. Sarah and I listened to The Sorcerer’s Stone a few months ago, so I figured the next book would do in a pinch.

These new full-cast editions from Audible seem like a great idea, although I’m sure they’ll suffer from the same thing that will hit the HBO series when it comes out: Comparisons.

With an IP as omnipresent as Harry Potter, it’s difficult to get away from them. When the original movies came out, everyone compared them to the books. (“DiD yOU pUt YoUr NaME iN tHe GobLet OF fIrE!?!?!?”) Any new version that comes out now will be compared to both the books and the movies.

And can anything stand up to that kind of comparison? The movies are great. The books are even greater.

I want to give these full-cast editions a fair shake, but it’s hard to get away from thinking, “Ron doesn’t sound like that!”

Night mayonnaise

Had a slow morning. Up at 5:00 AM to drink tea, watch the news, and read a bit. That’s my general morning routine but, as I’ve posted about before, I don’t often sleep well. Sometimes I snooze until around 6:00, sometimes I randomly wake up at 4:00.

This morning, Good Morning America actually had a brief report stating that the Melania documentary was doing well based on ticket sales, which is an astounding thing to hear on the news. (First, that is an absolute lie. Nobody cares and nobody went to see it, probably including the first lady herself. Second, even reporting on this visual diarrhea is the result of coercion.)

The struggle continues to find a news station that isn’t complete garbage. Or, at this point, I suppose I should say that the struggle continues to find something to do with my time in a post-news landscape, because I doubt I’ll find any news channels that are worth a damn.

I mean. Were these news shows always trash but I just never noticed? I feel like the news used to have integrity. Or, at least, some broadcasters did. Now, though, I feel like I’d be better off hanging around a public toilet, jumping into stalls right after people flush and demanding of the swirling water, “TELL ME HOW THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS DOING!”

It shouldn’t be this tough to find reliable news to watch.

Last night I stayed up late (again) to try and finish Twelve Months, but I only made it to Chapter 53 (of 55). As frequently happens in Dresden books, there are several climaxes all lined up right near the end. Each of the sub-plots has its own little ending that all fire off right in a row, which makes it really hard to put the book down. I’d say the only reason I didn’t finish was because I literally fell asleep in the midst of it.

I’m anticipating some kind of twist at the end. Not an M. Night Shyguyamalan type of twist, but some unexpected thing right in the last chapter that comes into play in the next book. It happens all the time in the Dresdenverse — It’s like waiting for post-credit scenes in Marvel movies at this point. You’re sure it’s going to happen, but you aren’t sure how much you’ll care.