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thanateSome day, when I'm rich and famous, I want to make one of these, only with attention to soil stratigraphy, well-faked artifacts (rather than looted real ones), and a nice water-etched stone plaque at the bottom of the biggest feature with my name and the date on it.
(Is it bad that when I hear people talk about the "Time Team" I still think of the silly stories from 3-2-1 Contact magazine in the late 80s, after they discontinued The Bloodhound Gang?)
Bullet points, of miscellaneous variety:
*Still working on the stairs; they are sanded & taped to paint (well, except for moving my desk out of the way of the very bottom step) but the wood putty was Not Working, and thus I got![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
grauwulf to dig up some paintable caulk for me. It was only after caulking all of the appalling gaps between riser & wall that I read the instructions which say "allow to dry until completely clear, 7-14 days, before painting." Um.
*We finally got someone out here to look at the pellet stove (preparatory to returning it) who says that he's pretty sure it has a control board issue; he does believe that there was something wrong with it, even if he didn't seem too convinced of our ability to hook it up according to the directions.
*I would really like for the things I order to get to me. Currently waiting on a thread for machine sewn lace (which doesn't appear to have shipped yet) and a small doll stuff order that was last seen leaving China on the 2nd. I'm not quite sure what could possibly take customs this long to examine elastic, small plastic eyeball kits, and a pair of doll boots... I've given up on the *second* copy of the January Omikuji story ever arriving, as the February one was mailed at the same time from the same place with the envelope printed from the same database and showed up a week ago. Fie upon the post office.
*Just finished reading the most appalling book: Soulless, by Gail Carriger. It reads like the bastard love child of a paranormal romance and a bad Austen/Heyer fanfic, only set in steampunked alternate Victorian London. I'm fairly sure the author was doing most of it deliberately, but every turn of phrase is turned about a quarter turn too far, there is a great deal of the sort of characterization where one is told what a person is like and subsequently provided mainly with counter-examples, the point of view swings confusingly about for sudden two paragraph intervals, and even in the context of an alternate world many of the cultural notes are jarring. The heroine, we are told, had been "put on the shelf" by her mother at the age of fifteen. And if Queen Victoria wants to talk to you, I don't care how unique you are; she is not going to show up on your doorstep. At any rate, I think those who enjoy reading trashy romances would be amused, but there were a few too many passionate scenes between the lady who is supposed to be completely devoid of sentimentality and the 200-year-old werewolf in places where they were guaranteed to be walked in on at any moment, and rather too much abuse of language and stereotypes for my taste. Sadly, I missed the opportunity to complain about it totamnonlinear, who passed on the recommendation.
*Weather is lovely, and we have crocuses and snowdrops blooming about the yard. I even managed to hang out a load of laundry without stepping on the ones under the clothes line. Today I did a little yard work here; tomorrow there will be a great deal of yard work at the Aquarium. After that, it is supposed to start raining.
(Is it bad that when I hear people talk about the "Time Team" I still think of the silly stories from 3-2-1 Contact magazine in the late 80s, after they discontinued The Bloodhound Gang?)
Bullet points, of miscellaneous variety:
*Still working on the stairs; they are sanded & taped to paint (well, except for moving my desk out of the way of the very bottom step) but the wood putty was Not Working, and thus I got
grauwulf to dig up some paintable caulk for me. It was only after caulking all of the appalling gaps between riser & wall that I read the instructions which say "allow to dry until completely clear, 7-14 days, before painting." Um.*We finally got someone out here to look at the pellet stove (preparatory to returning it) who says that he's pretty sure it has a control board issue; he does believe that there was something wrong with it, even if he didn't seem too convinced of our ability to hook it up according to the directions.
*I would really like for the things I order to get to me. Currently waiting on a thread for machine sewn lace (which doesn't appear to have shipped yet) and a small doll stuff order that was last seen leaving China on the 2nd. I'm not quite sure what could possibly take customs this long to examine elastic, small plastic eyeball kits, and a pair of doll boots... I've given up on the *second* copy of the January Omikuji story ever arriving, as the February one was mailed at the same time from the same place with the envelope printed from the same database and showed up a week ago. Fie upon the post office.
*Just finished reading the most appalling book: Soulless, by Gail Carriger. It reads like the bastard love child of a paranormal romance and a bad Austen/Heyer fanfic, only set in steampunked alternate Victorian London. I'm fairly sure the author was doing most of it deliberately, but every turn of phrase is turned about a quarter turn too far, there is a great deal of the sort of characterization where one is told what a person is like and subsequently provided mainly with counter-examples, the point of view swings confusingly about for sudden two paragraph intervals, and even in the context of an alternate world many of the cultural notes are jarring. The heroine, we are told, had been "put on the shelf" by her mother at the age of fifteen. And if Queen Victoria wants to talk to you, I don't care how unique you are; she is not going to show up on your doorstep. At any rate, I think those who enjoy reading trashy romances would be amused, but there were a few too many passionate scenes between the lady who is supposed to be completely devoid of sentimentality and the 200-year-old werewolf in places where they were guaranteed to be walked in on at any moment, and rather too much abuse of language and stereotypes for my taste. Sadly, I missed the opportunity to complain about it to
tamnonlinear, who passed on the recommendation. *Weather is lovely, and we have crocuses and snowdrops blooming about the yard. I even managed to hang out a load of laundry without stepping on the ones under the clothes line. Today I did a little yard work here; tomorrow there will be a great deal of yard work at the Aquarium. After that, it is supposed to start raining.
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-10 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-10 10:56 pm (UTC)The problem with the parasol was that (like most of the characters) it spent far more time being talked about than actually being interesting. So far as I can recall, she actually gets to use it briefly about three times and spends the rest of the time she's not making out in public regretting that she hasn't got it with her.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-11 10:40 pm (UTC)Part of the reason it appealed for me is that I had been trying out a few regency and supernatural novels recently where I was getting annoyed that no one was hitting the monsters rather than swooning or screeching ineffectively, so it was an antidote to my current bad reading experiences.
Still, I think I would have loved it more if it had stayed an antidote, and the unattractive and sensible spinster had remained a spinster rather than finding a guy to swoon over her. The anachronisms didn't bother me as much, because I've read so much horrible fanfic over the years, but this is akin to losing hearing from going to too many bad concerts so you can't tell that you're at a bad concert anymore.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-11 11:43 pm (UTC)Try Devil's Cub (or These Old Shades, which is technically the prequel, although it's got some slightly creepy "blood will out" undercurrents to it) for competent Heyer heroines... The Corinthian isn't too bad, either.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-10 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-10 10:38 pm (UTC)I was actually somewhat thinking of you when I said people who like silly romances would enjoy it; compared to taking a train across the English Channel, the historical lapses weren't that bad. I just had trouble with the chick-lit style cavalier attitude towards history and um... reasonable behavior, which may just be the uncomfortable knowledge of how little the average reader knows about actual history, and how liable they are to decide that if they read it in some "historical" fantasy novel, it must be true.
The parasol was all very well, but like most of the characters it spent a lot more time being talked *about* than being interesting.