Thoughts

Ad Mundo Exteriore,

Ugh. Software update still not completely downloaded. >_< Is everyone dead from the Harry Potter mania? I'm going to camp out in B&N for a few hours once every week to see if I can sit and read the book, if there are any copies left. I actually read the first three books in that fashion, although at the Corner Bookstore after school rather than my local B&N. I don't think I'm willing to shell out money for a hardcover copy, but I am curious.

See, I have rather mixed emotions about Harry Potter. Being a long-time fantasy fan, I have too much loyalty to Eager, Nesbit, White, plus of course Diana Wynne Jones, Susan Cooper, Phillip Pullman and other children's fantasy authors, to adore J.K. Rowling exclusively. I mean, I do like her books, but the storylines do tend be pat and simple, neh? It's charming and imaginative, but so are many other books. I would definitely say that Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy was much more creative, at least from my point of view. I do admit however that Rowling can sustain a series very well, and her writing is actually getting better, which is pretty rare for popular authors. I have high hopes for the fifth book, after reading the reviews. (Not that reviews are to be trusted, of course.)

Speaking of reviews, I really want to see that new Mary Zimmerman play, Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. It looks so gorgeous. I'm so mad that I couldn't find the time to see Metamorphoses, so I'm definitely going to try my best to see this one. Hopefully the tickets won't be sold out. Or be too expensive. Hopefully. ::crosses fingers:: It's not at all a conventional play, and it consists mostly of actors creating different tableaux or scenes illustrating excerpts from, yes, da Vinci's notebooks, which are simultaneously read out loud on stage. It sounds like postmodernist pretension, I know, but the two photographs I saw were simply too beautiful to be dismissed. Also, I think I have a weakness for excellent staging. ^_^

I finished Narayan's The English Teacher a few days ago. It ended on a...hm...well, I always thought of Narayan as a rather light-hearted and gently humourous author, but the ending was unexpectedly serious. That's the wrong word, perhaps. It wasn't dark or sad, though there were elements of that before, but it definitely wasn't in the least comic, which rather startled me. I rather expected a certain disillusionment to occur, as well, since I thought the "medium" was a complete fake, but nothing of the sort happened. That probably was the intention, and besides, Narayan has a healthy respect for traditional superstitions, even if he subtly pokes fun at them sometimes. Still, I feel rather cheap for expecting the medium to turn out to be some sort of con artist, when the real matter of concern was Krishnan trying to come to terms with his grief. Anyway, in the first two Malgudi books, Narayan writes with a certain level of detachment, though a great deal of affection, which abruptly changes in The English Teacher, and you suddenly find yourself in deep waters, so to speak. Ugh, I can't really explain it. Go read it for yourself.

It's kind of insane, but I've already planned out in detail a Sasuke skin, though I don't even have any images to work with yet. I know what the skin style and elements will look like already. Now I just have to go hunting for suitable screencaps or scans. The irony is that I'm not even finished with the Sai skin, which is growing much more complicated although I wanted it to be simple. >_< I just may work on two skins at the same time. Gah. Oh yeah, battle graphics too. That Eriol wallpaper. (Have no clue how to begin, except it's going to be "techy".)

...Tari

Afterthought

Ad Mundo Exteriore,

It always takes me days to find the resolve to start the Annual Summer Room Cleaning, and this year was especially difficult since my room was messier than usual what with senior laziness and all. But once you start! I'm in such a nostalgic mood! I looked over my Physiology Project from ninth grade biology (remember, kaydeefalls?) where I used a military operation metaphor to illustrate the different adaptations for excretion. It was so funny! I didn't write as badly as I thought four years ago. ^_^ I also found the script for the C/T presentation on Molière that tryogeru and I performed in eighth grade. We planned out every detail, including all the slapstick comedy. (We also very purposefully picked Greg F. and lush_rimbaud's YKW to play the part of Argan. They were good comics, in our opinion. I think, in retrospect, we showed excellent judgment. ^_^)

I also found...::drumroll::...the little magazine from my CTY Writing & Imagination class in the summer before sixth grade. It's sort of weird to realize that I'll be going to college with at least two of the kids from that class. Our excellent student body president happens to be one of them, and the other is a Korean girl in Manhasset. I wonder if anyone else is? Also, that's where I met Serena and Miranda. (Actually, Miranda wasn't in my class, but she was in my dorm hall. Isn't it a really small world after all?) I read over some of our old stories and poems, and boy, I couldn't stop grinning. They were really delightful in a sweetly awkward preteen kind of way. (I wrote about runaway orphans and princesses and talking animals. ::laughing::) I'm going to bring the magazine into school for rehearsals to show to people who were there.

I'm suddenly in a really good mood because of all this reminiscing. ^_^ I'm still smiling and trying to avoid the thought that I've left all this behind.

...Tari