My Whole Expanse I Cannot See…

Today, I have nothing.

I’ve always loved timepieces, clocks, watches, they can be so beautiful. I enjoy them more as art than just a utilitarian way to measure time. I have this pocket-watch in my travel bag, I can’t physically use the thing myself, but I love watching other people use it. I really just love knowing it’s with me, I’ve had it over ten years. Pocket-watches aren’t exactly “in,” but I’ll take elegant over “in” any day. Smart watches are in, but I wouldn’t take to carrying one, even if I was paid to carry it. Sure, they’re all running shoddy operating systems, that’s awful enough, but even worse, they’re flat out ugly. There’s no sophistication, no sense of style. They’re too clunky for fitness-wear, or too gaudy to be worn by a used-car salesmen, let alone a high-end executive. Smart watches aren’t smart, and are hardly passable as watches. At least, such was the case before today.

Today saw the announcement and impending release of the Apple Watch, and it’s spectacular. No, I’m not some Apple snob, but I’m absolutely a watch snob. If Apple happened to give us a hideous, stupid smart watch, I’d totally say so. The Apple Watch is gorgeous, and it’s running on iOS 8, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system. I’m excited, I want one in my bag.

Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer is the final book in The Southern Reach Trilogy, and it’s a perfect closing curtain.

Acceptance brings back the intensely ominous feeling introduced in Annihilation, the series’ first book, but on a much grander scale. Much of the story takes place in flashbacks, we’re taken back to the events that took place before Annihilation, to everything that led up to the disastrous Twelfth Expedition into Area X and the subsequent shifting within the Southern Reach. We also go back to a little place called the Forgotten Coast, a place where misfits, outcasts gathered to make a home. A quaint costal village complete with a lighthouse and its gruff, but kind keeper. A rustic place, but a good place, a nice place to live until something turned it into a nightmare, a biological disaster; Area X. In this final book, by way of glimpses into life on the Forgotten Coast, we see the horrific creation of Area X. قمار على النت

Acceptance begins with the death of a character, a death that occurs toward the end of Annihilation. We learn about her life through flashbacks, yet we also know that she is damned. betrally We know that the Forgotten Coast is damned, that the people we learn about, grow to care about, will be lost. The horror of the book, and really, the trilogy as a whole, is witnessing this slow fall and knowing that no matter what, it won’t be stopped. Though, we get to see points at which maybe if different decisions were made, Area X might not have been made. Knowing that so much loss wasn’t inevitable, that it could have possibly been avoided, makes the loss that much more painful. We keep reading because we want to know the whats and the whys that birthed Area X, but also, there’s still the right now, the world after the creation of Area X. That part of the story is completely uncertain, it’s ultimately why I kept turning pages until a late night became an early morning. I wanted to know if our world would survive, or if Area X would envelope everything. موقع مراهنات I know, but I won’t say. I don’t want to say more, I don’t want to make reading Acceptance pointless while trying to convey why it’s so spectacular.

The Southern Reach Trilogy is a masterpiece, it is brilliantly conceived and written. Acceptance is what seals the deal, it’s a truly remarkable end to a beautiful, sad, scary as all Hell work of fiction.

Tomorrow, expect something real.

I strongly dislike Saturdays.

So, I’ve been using this totally antiquated theme (the way a WordPress blog looks) since 2008, since Day One. On the one hand, it’s home, it’s become me. It’s so obscure, I’m probably pretty much the only person using it, I don’t think it’s even available anywhere anymore. On the other hand, it really is old. Themes are so much more lush now, cleaner, fancier layouts and what-not. Behind-the-scenes, the blog gets more sophisticated, while its public face doesn’t. Then again, there’s something to be said for consistency, it’s kind of soothing to have at least this one thing as a constant. I’m torn.

A few months ago I dropped fifty dollars on a “pro theme,” I actually saw it on Cherie Priest’s blog. I started looking for header/footer images, and at color schemes, but as I got into it, no matter what, it always looked like Cherie Priest’s blog. Sometimes it was just the skeleton of her blog, but still, it was always and would always be someone else’s blog. I’m not out to copy someone else’s look, especially another writer’s. After that failed experiment, I’m done buying “pro themes.” I mean, if some design firm sells ten thousand copies of a theme, you have ten thousand blogs that look like cousins.

I’m thinking, IF I do change my look, it’ll have to be to some obscure freebie theme, or… I’ll invest in a totally unique theme… right after I sell my unicorn farm (yes, farm, unicorns aren’t stabled, they’re more of a free-range animal).

So, after much waiting, we are now running WordPress 4.0! The update is pretty interesting, it mainly centers around making adding media to posts a much better experience. Basically, I never used to know how an embedded video or music clip would look in a post until I actually posted it. I don’t post a ton of media, but at least now, doing so will be way less annoying.

Let’s try…

Nice! It worded…

Wake Up, off of Jagged Little Pill, is one of my favorite Alanis Morissette songs, I always think of it when I’m doing something that really scares me. It helps me remember that it’s always easier not to do that scary thing, it’s easier not to risk anything, but if you don’t go and do and risk, you’ll never have anything that’s worth anything.

Anyway, this is WordPress 4.0.

Today sucked, tomorrow will suck,  and it’s my Goddamn fucking fault. I’m just stupid.

This song just came up in my mix after a really really long time. When you’re shuffling four-hundred songs that suit a melancholy mood, you get surprises.

It’s amazing how a song can take you to an exact moment, can make something that happened years ago feel like it’s happening right now.

Let Me Know by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is one of those songs…

So, two books that I’ve really been looking forward to are out today…

Acceptance: (The Southern Reach Trilogy: Book 3) by Jeff VanderMeer: I’m totally excited about Acceptance, given how spectacular Annihilation and Authority are, this third book should close out the Southern Reach Trilogy splendidly. I’ll be posting a full review soon, but just go buy it. You won’t be disappointed (if you are, you can personally come by and punch me in the face).

Maplecroft by Cherie Priest: Cherie Priest is a master of taking true places and events, twisting them around in her brain, and making them turn out totally creepy. Maplecroft should be absolutely no exception. For those unfamiliar, after Lizzie Borden was acquitted of brutally hacking up her parents with an axe, she inherited a bunch of money and bought a mansion on a hill, a mansion called, Maplecroft. Little is really known about Borden’s life in that mansion on a hill. She hoped for true happiness as a member of society’s elite, but died achieving neither. The real story is disturbing by itself, I’m excited to see what Priest spins. I’ll post a full review, but again just go buy it. Maplecroft should be a scary fun read (the face punching again applies).