Okay, life update.

Apparently, K from work wants my coworker J to pass on details of his steamy weekend to me -- it would appear that I send him mixed signals, but if I were to ever send him a clear one, he'd take me up on it. Or something like that, I've given up on understanding males. They're crazy in the head (don't try to defend yourselves, you know it's true), and they make no sense.

Anyhow, whatever. I have myself a sweetheart of a guy at the moment, so I don't need any cheap flings or dating through work. Did that route already, huge crash and burn, we have learned from our mistakes and moved on.

Went to Chapters with Ben today. Urgh. I knew I shouldn't, but I just had this vague urge that I needed to go buy books. I left $80 poorer, having forgotten entirely to turn over my coupons and gift card (stupid!), but with four books: Firstus, The Big U, by Neal Stephenson, foist upon me by Mr. Ben himself... so far, it's an interesting read. The bit on the English prof is familiar, in that I swear I've had profs who graded that way. Secondus, The Breast Book. It has pictures of naked boobies in it -- what more do you need to sell a book? Thirdus, The Canadian Writer's Guide. The comment on the front by the Reviewing Librarian reads, "... an absolute must for any serious and aspiring Canadian writer, at whatever level... Freelance writers, this is your book." As I'm at the whatever level, I thought what the hell? What's another $28 dollars? And fourthus, I'm trying another Carl Hiaasen with Skin Tight. That will be my guilty pleasure reading that I sneak in between the chapters of the course materials I have to read.

I'm about three quarters of the way through Writers on Writing at the moment, and I've found a few authors in there whose writings were either compelling enough, or spoke to my experiences with writing in such a way that I'd like to follow up and read a few of their works; Carl Hiaasen was one of these. As well, I need more authors whose books I want to collect religiously. It gives me a feeling of such pleasure and happiness when the latest [insert name of author I'm stalking here]'s book comes out and I can buy it and take it home and lose myself in its pages. Of course, the real bitch is waiting for books to come out in paperback – this is why I check the shelves religiously for the latest Jennifer Crusie to convert to paperback (sometime this year, I know!), and why I whimper whenever I see the latest PTerry novel. I know, get thee to a library, but I just haven’t yet. I’m lazy.

I’m also working my way through “Canuck Chicks and Maple Leaf Mamas: Women of the Great White North,” part of my Christmas gift from Markuk. I want to get through Writers first, so it’s getting very slow treatment, but some readings here and there.

As well, I carry around Brave New World in order to absorb it through osmosis, and so far that’s going well; I’ve absorbed approximately the first six or seven pages, and I feel confident that more will come.

At night, prior to laying my little head down to rest, I read from Screw the Roses, Give me the Thorns, in the hopes of garnering more information so I can write articles and appear informed, rather than just equating bondage with laziness and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Anything else I’m working on? I think that’s got it covered. The textbooks for the one class I had this evening – Communication and International Development – are going to come to over $150 with taxes. That’s for one class alone. Urgh. As well, there will be crazy amounts of reading to do for that one class, much of which I’m sure I won’t understand, but I’ll have to do it in order to keep up to date. I like the prof – she’s the same one I had for women and media – but she says ‘you know’ at the end of every single fucking sentence, and in the middle of many of them as well. It’s very annoying. I was able to tune it out in women and media because, let’s face it, I didn’t have to show up to any class in order to pass it, but this one is another matter.

Anyhow, I have a minor project in mind, and I’m not sure how successful it’ll be, but I’ll outline it here for anyone who’s managed to read this far and wants to participate. Namely, in order to further my abilities and knowledge as a possible writer, I need to familiarize myself with more books than I might otherwise think of just on my own. I’m thinking primarily of the classics, but I’m open to other ideas as well. In that vein, I would like to take any suggestions for books that anyone might think I should read, and I will read them and post my thoughts on what I gleaned from the book, or what I liked or didn’t like about it. I think I will create a new site, Bibliophilage for all of you to marvel and debate over.

Now, as a caveat; I will be honest in my opinion of what I am reading. That means you may not like what I have to say about your favourite book, and for that I apologize. Since this is my opinion, that means it cannot be wrong, regardless of how much you might disagree with what I am saying! If there is enough interest, I can open up the page to other posters so that we can have debates on the subjects of the various books, but it’s dependent on interest and such.

As a second caveat, I also reserve the right to say no to a book, if I’m really opposed to it for some reason or another. There likely won’t be many to which I’ll flat out say no, but there will likely be many I don’t get to right away, especially what with the semester starting up now.

Anyhow, it’s all just speculation at this point.

For now, I think I’m going to sneak in some of that reading while I still can, before the school stuff gets to be too much… and perhaps catch a few winks while I’m at it. This post has gotten seriously delayed from the time when I started it, namely ‘cause I wound up in a bunch of conversations. Good ones, for sure, but distracting ones. ;)

And Moose is on my shit list for not showing up online. ;) Therefore, he gets some name-calling, of the variety he doesn’t like. But I’ll save it for in person so it’s that much more effective. :)

For now, I say goodnight, and don’t forget to read the article! :)

Oh yeah, P.S.: The fish are doing well. The new fish (as of yet still unnamed) appears to prefer the flake food I bought. Either that or he simply wasn't hungry this morning. The other two... well, they appear to continue to tolerate the Wardley's stuff. I'm going to have to make the trek to the pet store where I bought them ('cause the store were I bought NoName didn't carry the brand), and buy the kind they were first on. Bastards -- three different kinds of food I've tried, and they prefer the fourth. :P