New poll: Yeah, I’m still bitter.

abulia: abnormal lack of ability to act or to make decisions

Once again the Merriam-Webster Word of the Day provides an eerily accurate analysis of my current mental state.

              _                          _     _

             | |                        | |   | |

__      _____| |__ ______ __ _  ___   __| | __| | ___  ___ ___

\ \ /\ / / _ \ ‘_ \______/ _` |/ _ \ / _` |/ _` |/ _ \/ __/ __|

 \ V  V /  __/ |_) |    | (_| | (_) | (_| | (_| |  __/\__ \__ \

  \_/\_/ \___|_.__/      \__, |\___/ \__,_|\__,_|\___||___/___/

                          __/ |

                         |___/

Pretty sweet, huh? Get your own here. (Link courtesy of the Snook.)

Tonight’s accomplishment: all three pieces of sushi in my bento box, along with a mouthful of baby octopus courtesy of the Snook. It was good. I think that it’s helped that I’ve been at least partially drunk during each of these gastronomic experiments.

Pat Rafter has formally retired from professional tennis. (Yeah, I thought he retired last year too, but apparently he was just taking time off to think about it.) My sister will be sad. The photo gallery accompanying that story should cheer her up though. She once spent, like, a whole summer Photoshopping herself into photos with him. Seriously. (Hey Sis, he lives in Sydney! Just one more reason to visit…)

Our Lovely Bones discussion just never ends. Some of you might want to revisit it to answer points that random visitors have brought up.

Friday Five:

1. Where are you right now?
Sitting in front of my computer in our upstairs office.

2. What time is it?
9:15 am. I just got up. Luckily the office is only a quick stumble across the hall from the bedroom.

3. What are you wearing?
Comfy brown corduroys that – thanks to the diet – are now way too big for me to wear in public, and an old Notre Dame T-shirt. Oh, and my glasses. Boy, I sound attractive, don’t I?

4. Any people or animals around you? Describe them.
As you might guess, the Snook is sitting nearby at his own desk. He’s about to head out to the brew store to pick up some supplies for his next recipe. My house is going to stink again this weekend.

5. What are your plans for the weekend?
Pretty mundane stuff. I need to clean the house before Rodd’s parents visit this afternoon. I also need to do some laundry since I haven’t in ages. I’ve got two scarves to finish up and send, and a sock monkey to create. I’ve also sworn to go to the gym, since I haven’t in a month. Isn’t that terrible? Luckily my weight hasn’t moved, so at least I’m not any worse off.

Oh. My. God. The Snook is going to laugh himself silly over this Jar-Jaromir thing. Hee! (Link courtesy of Max.)

In Australia, even the birds can kill you. Cripes.

I listened to all of Northern Lights from the His Dark Materials radio show at work today. (Did I mention how non-mentally taxing my work is right now?) To be honest, I don’t think it’s that great of an adaptation. I would’ve preferred more of a straight “books on tape” type of thing. It felt dumbed down. For instance, the narrator actually introduces himself as a “recording angel” at the beginning. What’s the point of that? The author is assuming I’m too dumb to accept an anonymous third-person narrator. Also, he spells out everything. The first five minutes are like, “Hi, I’m an angel and I’m in Oxford, which is one of many Oxfords in millions of parallel universes. In this universe, everybody’s souls are animals outside their bodies.” Again, no respect for the audience’s intelligence. Everybody who reads the story figures that stuff out eventually, and it’s a lot more fun to come to those realizations on your own. Like, at least twice people say, “Oh, Lyra’s going to save the world. She’s going to betray somebody, but she can’t know that she’s going to do it.” I’m like, why don’t you just ruin the ending while you’re at it! Jeez. I also felt like it didn’t really build up enough scariness or suspense. When I first read the book, I had nightmares about Mrs. Coulter and that damn monkey. But it feels like she’s barely even in the recording. There wasn’t a lot of menace there.

That said, there were some good things. I liked the little bits of music they used for scene changes and when Lyra read the alethiometer. The voice casting was very good, especially the armored bears. I’m interested to hear what they do with Will in the next installment…