Summer Hiatus Has Ended, I Hope

I didn't consciously take a summer hiatus. It just sort of happened.

I had a relatively unproductive summer, melting in the heat and humidity of Ye Olde Filthadelphia was about the extent of it. I did very little reading, very little knitting, and even less writing. I felt awful about it, but never bad enough to motivate myself to do anything other than chill on the couch, soaking up the air conditioning and trying to figure out a way to create an air conditioned bubble for myself at work, while watching Battlestar Galactica (and other nerdy shows, but we finally got to the end of that one. I liked it. Season three is boring and took us forEVer to get through, but the rest of it is good. Keep on trucking, if you get bogged down.)

Some FOs to share:

The Dovekeepers- Alice Hoffman.
I read it for book club, and flew through it. Really lovely, really easy to read, despite its very heavy content. I love, love, love strong women characters, and this was a book entirely about them. Four very unique voices, which was impressive to me, as these women had a lot in common but were incredibly different people at the same time- testament to Alice Hoffman's skill as a writer. Very interesting, because it's also loosely historical, and I'm a little bit of a sucker for that- not Tudor England though..that's been done to death at this point.

More socks for Ben: Jack and the Beanstalk socks. I f-ing ADORE the spiral pattern this yarn took. Brilliant dye job.

Seven Pane Sunset. Love the colors, do not love the itch- this wool is extra scratchy.

Finally, a link:

http://deareditor.com/2012/08/23/newsflash-a-deareditor-com-free-edit-giveaway/

I'm entering this contest! It's for a free manuscript edit, from Dear Editor.com, a site that I've only recently found, but seems to be a great source of information. I'm going to recommend that you don't enter this contest, because I'd really like to win, and the few entries there are, the greater my odds.

And now, I need to make arrangements for my boy's birthday. Hopefully it will not be two months before the next post. I really will do my best (I don't just say that to make myself feel better about being a slug when it comes to blogging.) 

Everybody Lies

It's one of the first things you learn about Gregory House- he has no faith in anyone's humanity, least of all his own. I finally got around to watching the series finale of House today. I'd been putting it off because I had a feeling that it was going to be emotional (it was) and because I didn't want a series that I enjoyed so thoroughly to be over.

*Spoilers.*


I'd heard rumors that there was talk of killing off the character in the final episode. In fact, Hugh Laurie himself said it in a recent interview I heard on NPR. With the revelation that Wilson was dying too, this seemed even more possible.

Who is Sherlock without Watson? We've never known. It's possible that he doesn't even exist. We know who Watson THINKS Holmes is, but maybe Holmes needs Watson to exist at all. For example, together House and Wilson are a mostly complete person. But separately? House can't exist without Wilson.

Thus, I was not terribly surprised when it did appear, in the final episode, that House was dead. I guessed the twist though, as I often do. In true Holmesian style, he makes a miraculous, Reichenbach Falls return. This was the point at which I began to take issue with the direction of the finale. At the funeral, everyone whose life House has touched speaks of what they've learned from him. Wilson begins to rant, but is interrupted by the ringing of his own phone. Cue House's return, except Wilson is the only one who knows.

The end is a montage of all the characters over the years settling into life without House and they all seem to have exactly what they need. House and Wilson ride off into the wilderness on motorcycles, content to live Wilson's last days to the fullest.

It was, to quote House's final line, the last word spoken in the series, "boring."

A neatly wrapped and tied up happy ending is inappropriate for a show as dark and real as House. I wanted House to be dead. Really, truly dead. Everyone would have ended the same way anyway, getting what they needed with his death. Perhaps not Wilson, but I think it would have been more poignant if House really couldn't have faced a life without his best friend and took the easy way out.  It certainly would have been more in character.

Yes, he proved that he really did care about Wilson and could be a good friend, and yes he did manipulate absolutely everyone one final time, but he didn't NEED to. It was always clear how much he cared, despite him being a selfish sociopath/asshole. And as far as manipulative plots go, this was one of the more shallow ones. There are generally more layers.

And what happens to House? Wilson will die, definitely. Are we supposed to think House rides off alone after that? And does...what? Lives life to the fullest because he's already dead? How boring.

Finally, is it wrong that I want a completely flawed character? Not a tragic hero, which House is too, but an anti-hero. One with no redeeming qualities, but still a hero, not a villain. The equal and opposite character to Atticus Finch. Can you name one?

I'm still thinking.

So Much for Mondays

Quick post, just to get back in the habit since I need to leave for work in a few minutes.

- CampNaNo is incredibly hard this month. I'm dangerously close to the point of too-far-behind-to-catch-up
-This is partly because I'm having terrible writer's block
-And partly because it is more important that I look for a new job so we can get out of Philadelphia this summer

-We're thinking about Baltimore, or maybe Boston.
-Back to upstate New York would be ideal for the boy, but not for me

-If you've got contacts in any of those places or info about writerly jobs, let me know.
        -I'd love you forever if you helped me out.

-I'm also trying to finish some "so long, co-workers, it's been fun-ish" presents. Here's a sneak peak at one. Sweater for the owner's baby.

Maryland Sheep and Wool 2012

A blog in pictures:

Murals

This is another attempt at the short post I tried to write yesterday. But my camera wasn't cooperating. I should be knitting or writing, so I'll leave you with just a few pictures of a mural I found in Baltimore this weekend.

Creativity and Productivity

I've been trying to stash-bust like crazy, so I can justify a trip to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

This was a skein that I bought at Rhinebeck in the fall, and under the yellow lights of a semi-dark barn, I liked the colors I whole lot better. When I got it home and took it out under natural light, I realized that it was entirely too pink for my taste. Thus, it will be a gift for someone.

It reminds me of wine coolers, so I'm calling it the Wine Cooler Cowl. The pattern is called Chi-Town Crochet Cowl and can be found on Ravelry.

And as it was a rather large skein, I also made a hat. Which will also be a gift for someone. (Though not the same someone. This is a colorway that one person could definitely wear too much of)

And now I am off to work on my scriptfrenzy script.

Oh, what?

You're right. I DID say that I wasn't writing a script this round.

Turns out my characters are a little more demanding than I originally thought. I'd still like to finish Letters... but that seems to be taking a back seat to my script.

But hey, I'll take whatever burst of creativity and productivity comes my way.

I Should Be Writing

I realize that it's a day late, but, Happy Scriptfrenzy everyone!

I'm not writing a script this round. (Well, I might.) My plan for this month is to finish existing projects. 50,000ish more words, or as many needed until it's finished, on Letters to Myself.

I'm also thinking of resurrecting a very old screenplay and reworking it. By that I mean, keeping the basic plot and scrapping most of the lines.

In other news, Ben took me to see The Hunger Games last night. I was pleasantly surprised. Other than the nauseating cinematography, it was fairly well adapted. I'm still less than enthusiastic about Woody as Haymitch, but he wasn't as awful as I expected him to be.

Lenny Kravitz surprised me as Cinna, too.

And now, before I go write something...anything, since I haven't started yet... I leave you with a pre-blocking teaser picture of my next 12 in 2012 project.

Off to Frenzy now. Good luck to everyone writing this month! May the pages be ever in your favor.