Books

Total read: 8 of 36 (target was ~12)

• Sassinak (re-read) — This is one of my favorite books, but it’s been in a box for years along with all my other books. I finally unpacked those boxes a few months ago when we moved into this apartment, and I immediately wanted to re-read this, but didn’t have time. Then I found out they released it on Kindle and that was it. I had to buy it and re-read it. I have to say, I still love this story. Sassinak may be the best heroine ever. She would definitely make a “top five fictional heroine (from a book)” list were I to put one together… (future blog post idea!)
• Beautiful Creatures — basically I read this because I saw the preview for the movie and decided I had to read the book first. I will say it was much better than the Twilight series (which I didn’t like), but not as good as some of the other YA fantasy / sci-fi that I’ve read recently. I’m not sure it’s worth continuing in the series. I am just not that interested in what happens next.

I have also been reading lots of short stories for my writing class, and I purchased quite a few new books for my Kindle this month that have now been added to my rapidly growing “to read” pile. Besides Sassinak, I purchased:

• Island Beneath the Sea
• Unnatural Creatures: Stories selected by Neil Gaiman
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2012 Edition

All this focus on short stories in my writing class must be paying off… I think I might finally be learning to enjoy / appreciate short stories… Hard to believe I purchased TWO volumes of short stories this month…

Writing

Only three blog posts, but lots of progress on other writing fronts… You might be interested to know that I took that writing exercise that I posted here and turned it into a short story. I submitted it to my workshop class and got some great feedback. I’m making revisions now and will find a way to publish / post / share with anyone interested once it’s complete. Everyone in my class seems to think it should be a novel, but I’m trying very hard to cram it into a box labeled “short story” because I can’t see a full novel story arch here…

I also completed another “just for fun” exercise for class which I think I will post here today or tomorrow, just for fun…

Swimming

My US Masters Swimming FLOG (Fitness Log) says I swam:

• 13 of 30 days (target was ~20 days)
• 21.14 miles (target was ~30 miles)

I was a bit of a swimming slacker this month. I intended to only take one week off after the Pacific Masters SCY Championships. One week turned into two. Then when I tried to go back, forces conspired against me. So, I swam just over half the number of days I intended to swim this month. However, I seriously kicked up my mileage and am not trying to swim 2800 – 3200 yards (1.7 – 1.9 miles) per session (this takes me about an hour).

I only had one race this month. You can check out my race times on the US Masters Swimming website here. But if you’re lazy and you just want to see my times / events from the Pacific Short Course Yards (SCY) Championship swim meet I participated in this month, see below:

Date	Event	Time	Age Group Place
2013-04-05	50 Breast	38.27	2
2013-04-05	100 Breast	1:20.59	2
2013-04-05	200 Breast	2:51.81	2
2013-04-05	100 IM	1:17.11	2

As of right now, I have the 16th fastest time in my age group (35-39) for the 200 yard breast stroke, and I have the 25th fastest time in my age group for the 100 breast stroke. Not bad for about three months of training. Of course, the Nationals are next weekend and I’ll probably slip a bit in the rankings before they finalize the 2013 SCY season best times at the end of May. Until then, I will enjoy the fact that I achieved two of my three swimming goals for this season (Nationals qualifying times and top twenty times). Next year I’ll get that stretch goal — top ten times here I come!

Besides all my “season best” swims this month, I did achieve one additional swimming milestone… as of today’s practice, I have swum just over 100 miles since January first! Yay me!

Movies

We averaged about one movie and two TV show episodes a week this month… that means we probably watched almost four hours a week of entertainment. Not bad. Still WAY below the national average…

The movies of April:

• Total Recall (the new one) — People told us this wasn’t as good as the original, but I actually liked it better than the orignal. The conclusion I came to was that action / sci-fi movies really benefit from a special effects refresh… and better acting… 
• Argo — How did I miss this one when it came out? This movie was so good. I absolutely loved it. And now that I’m thinking about it, I want to watch it again.
• The Hobbit — I really liked Lord of the Rings, but this… this was SLOW, almost nothing happens, and it made me think of this addendum to the submission guidelines for an online sci-fi / fantasy magazine that I read recently:

Stories that start in an inn are usually out.

Ditto for stories that start with a group of strangers meeting at an inn.

Ditto for stories that start with a group of strangers meeting at an inn and being hired to do a job by a mysterious individual who is clearly a sorcerer (or vampire, or sorcerer/vampire).

Double ditto for stories that start with a group of strangers meeting at an inn and being hired to do a job by a mysterious man who is clearly a sorcerer (or vampire, or sorcerer/vampire) who then turns on the very adventurers he/she/it hired only to be thwarted by the one dwarf in the party.  In fact, toss us a dwarf curveball.  So far we’ve never seen a story with a dwarf character where that character doesn’t kick ass from beginning to end.

• No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (part 1) — Greg says we watched this already, but I don’t remember watching it. So we watched it (again?). I love Bob Dylan. He is so full of shit. And he is such a talented artist. Watching this I was struck by the similarities between being a musician / artist in “the Village” when he was up and coming, and the start-up scene in Silicon Valley today. He was like the Mark Zuckerburg of his age / industry. So many parallels… someone should write about that…

Besides movies, we’ve been enjoying Sunday night Game of Thrones, season 3, episodes on HBOGo (thanks, @MagMarCat!) and we finally finished season three (the final season) of Lie to Me on Netflix. We really liked Lie to Me and are very sad it’s over. At least we have Game of Thrones…

And that was April…

And tomorrow is the first day of the best month of the year… my birthday month!

Books

Total read: 6 of 36 (target was ~9)

I haven’t had much time to read anything that wasn’t assigned for my writing classes (mostly short stories). In March I finished:

• Blue Remembered Earth — Space odyssey that is part mystery, part family drama, part environmental politics, part technology politics, and part adventure quest. The multiple “themes” at work here remind me a little of Frank Herbert and Dune. The Descrutinized Zone and the hacker / maker culture reminds me of Cory Doctorow and Little Brother.
• Little Brother — Read almost all of this in one sitting. Definitely YA and definitely geeky, but in a good way. Doctorow is ever the activist, and his writing is very “message-y.” I wonder how this book actually goes over with teens (if they love it or if they find it too preachy). Even though I agree with his ideals, I worry that this is more propaganda than literature. Still… if you are a fan of freedom of speech, technology (esp. Linux), and security, you should check out this book.

I also noticed that Amazon (finally) added one of my all-time favorite Sci-Fi novels (Sassinak) to Kindle. So I had to buy it and start re-reading. Anne McCaffrey rocks.

Writing

Most of my writing this month has been part of one of my two writing classes. This was the month where my two classes overlap. So I’ve been writing all sorts of exercises and impressions of stories I’ve read, and working on my own stuff. It’s been a good month for producing content.

On Tuesday I turn in my final “portfolio” from my Craft of Writing Workshop. It will include two poems, one short story, and one personal essay. After that, I get to focus 100% on short stories (fiction) for another month plus. I’ve determined that it’s way easier for me to write fiction than to write personal essays or poetry. Most of the people in my class found writing non-fiction easier, which surprised me.

As much as I prefer writing fiction to writing non-fiction, I seem to be keeping up with the blogging. I posted six times this month (if you include this post). I seem to keep coming up with new ideas for blog posts, I just never seem to have time to write them. Maybe next month I’ll finally get around to those “learning to code” posts I promised.

Swimming

My US Masters Swimming FLOG (Fitness Log) says I swam:

• 20 of 31 days (target was ~20 days)
• 29.09 miles (target was ~30 miles)

That includes three swim meets this month where I swam US Masters Swimming Nationals qualifying times in all three breaststroke events. You can check out my race times on the US Masters Swimming website here. But if you’re lazy and you just want to see my times / events from the various swim meets I participated in this month, see below:

Date	Event	Time	Age Group Place
3/10/13 (CAL)	50 Free	32.92	4
3/10/13 (CAL)	50 Breast	38.79	2
3/23/13 (USF)	50 Breast	38.16	1
3/10/13 (CAL)	100 Breast	1:21.65	2
3/16/13 (RINC)	100 Breast	1:22.28	2
3/23/13 (USF)	100 Breast	1:21.57	1
3/16/13 (RINC)	200 Breast	2:55.23	1
3/23/13 (USF)	100 IM	DQ	—

The two events I swam that weren’t breaststroke were disappointing. I almost missed the wall on the flip turn in my 50 free sprint at the CAL Masters meet, and then I got disqualified in my 100 IM at the USF Masters meet. The DQ was a stupid mistake. I thought backstroke turns were legal going from back to breast, but they’re not. Oops. I am now practicing touch turns in preparation for the Pacific Masters Short Course Yards Championship meet next weekend. I’m swimming all three breaststroke events and the 100 IM. It’s a two day meet. So, that’s actually a reasonable number of races — two on each day.

Movies

In addition to my usual busy schedule, Greg was out of town for a week this month and I was sick. So this ended up being a big movie watching month.

• Total Recall — The original. I hadn’t ever seen it and Greg hadn’t seen it recently. Hello totally 80s! We’ve come such a long way in both special effects and… acting!
• Ted — Funny. Mostly. A nice evening distraction. Also, I’m a sucker for Mila Kunis. Pretty sure she plays the same part in every movie, though…
• Anna Karenina — Started watching this with Greg who lasted about 10 min and kept saying “is this a musical?” It’s not a musical, but it is “interpretive” in a way. Greg couldn’t handle “Anna” and her hysterical screeching. I watched to get a “Cliff’s Notes” version of the story and to admire what the Russian classics do with character and narrative. Also because I’m a sucker for Keira Knightly… who also pretty much plays the same part in every movie… huh.
• Pretty in Pink — saw that Netflix added this to Instant and couldn’t resist re-watching. This was one of my absolute favorite movies as a teen. This was for me what War Games was for Greg. Now they are both on streaming, so we’re both happy.
• First Position — Ballet documentary? Yes please. Of course. Watched this the night before my USF Masters swim meet to get a little inspiring athletic kick-ass drama.
• LOL — I could just say I’m a sucker for Miley Cyrus and leave it at that, but that’s embarrassing… true, but embarrassing. Miley Cyrus may have been the hook, but this movie surprised me a bit… better than I expected. I will admit, the emo-boy love interests all kinda looked alike, but whatever.
• Mona Lisa Smile — I remembered liking this one and was looking for something to watch while I was sick. Also I’ve been thinking a lot about gender issues / sexism lately. There are aspects of this movie I really like, especially the part where the teacher has to realize that part of feminism is that everyone gets to choose what’s right for them. Sheryl Sandberg, as inspirational as she is to many, takes a lot of flack for making a similar mistake… (Also, I’m a sucker for Julia Stiles…)

It’s not a goal of mine to watch movies, so you may wonder why I even bother including them in my monthly “by the numbers” post. I think it’s interesting to review the list of movies I watched in monthly snapshots. Movies are like little drama snacks for me. When I don’t have time to read a book, I watch a movie. Particular movies appeal to me more than others depending on my mood. I’ve been known to use both movies and music to “balance my brain chemicals” when I’m in a mad / sad / bad / whatever mood.

I definitely think these particular movies give some additional insight into my state of mind this month. Maybe the streaming ones more so than the ones I watched with Greg, but they all have some common threads. It would be an interesting exercise to trace the emotional / character / narrative links back to Pretty in Pink… maybe some other day.

Books

Total read: 4 of 36 (target was ~6)

I know February is a short month and all, but it seems like this February went by at an unbelievably fast pace. It went by so fast, in fact, that I didn’t have enough spare time to finish *any* books this month. I find this particularly hard to believe, but I’ve actually been slowly chewing my way through Blue Remembered Earth for an entire month. Yikes!

It’s not that I don’t want to finish it — far from it. I’m really enjoying the book. It’s long, but not long enough to justify an entire month of casual reading for me. Even though I haven’t finished it yet, I will say that I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction adventures with political / social sub plots. I have been thinking of it as “Dune crossed with Little Brother / Homeland…” Which isn’t entirely fair because I haven’t actually read either of those books by Cory Doctorow (yet). I have heard him speak a few times and have a general idea (from Greg) about his novels.

Writing

My writing class that started at the very end of January has been occupying almost all the free time I’ve had outside of swimming and work. And, if you remember, I have a second writing class that starts this month and overlaps briefly with the one I’m currently taking. I am just beginning to freak out about that.

I did more writing than blogging this month (only 3 blog posts!), mostly due to free time and my writing class. I wrote two poems for a class assignment — the first time I’ve written poetry since high school. I also attempted to write a short story.

I say “attempted” because the process was messy and I’m not entirely pleased with the result. I wrote two different versions of the same scene that I was attempting to turn into a short story. But then I realized the story would have to be longer than I intended, and I had no ideas about how to make it shorter. So, I abandoned both versions to my “drafts” folder and pulled out something I’d written previously but never submitted to polish up for class. I need a lot more short story practice. Lucky for me, we’re working on short stories for the next two weeks in class.

Swimming

I didn’t compete in any swim meets this month, but I did hit it hard in the pool. My US Masters Swimming FLOG (Fitness Log) says I swam:

• 18 of 28 days (target was ~20 days)
• 27.13 miles (target was ~30 miles)

I surprised myself by swimming a couple of sets at times / pace faster than I though I would be able to swim. I’ve had several people at the pool that I don’t know comment to me about how fast I am. Compared to the competitive swimmers, I’m not that fast yet, and I know how far I have to go before I’ll admit to being “fast.” However, to regular lap swimmers that just swim for fitness or as practice for a triathlon they’re training for, I probably do appear to be “fast.”

Sometimes I will admit I am the fastest person in the pool at my gym (including the guys). But there are two women (both appear to be younger than me, and significantly taller), that are faster than me — except in breaststroke. I don’t think there is anyone that I’ve seen at the gym that’s faster than me at breaststroke.

You might think this would make me feel good, or confident. However, I don’t get any great joy from swimming faster than and/or intimidating a bunch of casual lap swimmers. At the same time, I worry I won’t get substantially faster unless I have someone faster to compete with and to push me. So, I’m beginning to seriously consider joining a masters swim team in the summer or fall. We’ll see how this season goes and how I perform at the meets coming up in March. I’ll decide after that.

Movies

I spent some of my book reading time watching movies. This month we watched:

• Celeste and Jesse Forever – Disappointing. I was expecting this would be funnier. 
• Perks of Being a Wallflower – This was better than the book. Emma Watson was fantastic in this. We were probably almost 30 min into the movie before I realized she was speaking with an (flawless) American accent.
• the entire first season of House of Cards – This was way better than I expected. I had only 3 gripes with the first season: 1) Francis has terrible rowing form making him less believable as an ex-rower (#CoxswainProblems), 2) I noted one plot loophole that didn’t quite tie out (but I’m now having a hard time remembering what it was…), 3) The last episode was frustrating for many reasons that I won’t get into here so I don’t spoil it for those that haven’t watched yet…

And that’s February 2013…