The Shape of Water
Book Notes kitt decided around 14:37 on 19 July 2019 to publish this:
Andrea Camilleri passed away a short while ago. After his passing, his death was mentioned in the NYT and in a post on MB.
I wasn't sure if the MB post was a recommendation for the books or not, but figured, hey, the author passed away, he was a fairly prolific writer, maybe a book or two are worth reading. Problem is that most early works, especially the first of a series, and the first published by an author, have rough edges. The author may not have (that is to say, likely hasn't) developed their voice yet, so the first novel isn't a great choice for a reader's introduction to said author's works.
At least, that's what I'm going to say.
The book was a murder mystery. The characters were one-dimensional, feeling more like a long 1970s era Fantasy Island episode than a detective or mystery book. A prominent business man (was he as good as his public face, or was he good at covering up his corruption?) is found dead in a seedy location. A blonde is seen fleeing the scene, suspiciously.
Everyone thinks the guy died while having sex with a known high-class prostitute. Well, everyone except his wife and Urbane Sicilian police inspector Salvo Montalbano. Let's take a moment to point out that only the wife saw that the dead guy's underwear was on inside-out, okay?
Yeah, so, when the murderer comes out of nowhere, I rather scream deus ex machina and flip the table.
I'd say, if you're on a desert island, sure, read this book. Or if you're a fan of Camilleri and are reading all his works, yes. Otherwise, watch the tv shows. Wait, maybe not, are they any good? Don't know.
Pecorilla was the foreman in charge of assigning the areas to be cleaned, and he nurtured an undisguised hatred for anyone with an education, having himself managed to finish middle school, at age forty, only thanks to Cusumano, who had a man-to-man talk with the teacher. Thus he manipulated things so that the hardest, most demeaning work always fell to the three university graduates in his charge.
Page: 5
“If, on the other hand, you hush everything up, the silence itself starts to talk, rumors begin to multiply out of control until you can’t stop them anymore.
Page: 100
If I had to express my sincere opinion of the man, I would say that he represents a splendid specimen of the nincompoop, of the sort that flourish wherever there is a rich and powerful father.
Page: 115
He thought it best to exit, return to his car, and get his pistol from the glove compartment. He hardly ever carried a weapon; the weight bothered him, and the gun rumpled his trousers and jackets.
Page: 118
“Where do we go now?” Ingrid repeated. She wasn’t joking anymore; utter female that she was, she had noticed the man’s agitation.
Page: 154
Asshole
Blog Posted by kitt at 22:50 on 2 July 2019As is our routine these days when I'm in town, we have dinner together and play some game afterward. I enjoy these evenings a lot, playing cards with Mom and Eric.
We tend to stick to the simpler games, card games with a short game time, often as little as five minutes, rarely longer than 15. We also tend to play the same game for weeks, mostly so that we don't have to adjust what rules are foremost in our heads. Skipbo and Uno are our usual go-to games, if only because of their familiarity. We tried the Uno sibling game Duo, but didn't really like the additional complexity.
Well, last week I picked up a deck of Uno Flip, and tonight was a night of the game.
Normally, we'd study the rules, have some sort of discussion about how the game plays, and then start in on the game.
Except, all of us had a drink.
Which meant we dove right in. This game has a "good" side, and a "bad" side. The "good" side has penalty cards that are less onerous than the ones from a normal Uno deck: +1 cards instead of +2, and +2 Wild cards instead of +4. The flip side (hence the name of the game) is the "bad" side, it has +5 cards and a lot of them. It also has a "draw until you draw this color" which ofter results in a 12 card pick-up. There are flip cards that switch which side of the cards (which deck) we play.
When the "bad" side is played, every one is a jerk in the game. It's hard not to be jerk, possibly impossible.
Compound that with the drinks we were having, and the game quickly devolved into a total game of Asshole. Each time a player dropped a +5 card, someone else muttered, "Asshole." in some entertaining way, and all of us would giggle. A player would call Uno and 3 rounds later have 20+ cards in her hand. Asshole indeed.
Pretty sure this game is going to stick around for a while. At least, until we all decide to stop being Assholes for the 30 minutes we play.
I Keep Doing This Wrong
Blog Posted by kitt at 15:27 on 29 June 2019
I swear, I keep doing this speaking thing wrong.
ONCE AGAIN (how many times am I going to do this?) I miss where all the speakers are sitting, and I sit off by myself.
ONCE AGAIN (how many times am I going to do this?) I miss the opportunity to bond over butterflies and nerves and nausea as we wait for our speaking slot.
ONCE AGAIN (how many times am I going to do this?) I miss the chance to relax into the understanding of other speakers post-talk.
I keep doing this and it keeps frustrating me.
My biggest goof was Webstock 2012, no one told me there was an entire cordoned off section for speakers where the group of them all bonded. I sat in the second level balcony alone, in tears because I had no feedback about my talk, I didn't know if I had done even remotely okay.
My latest goof was today.
Upside, the other speakers helped me recover. They came up to talk with me after my FIRST EVER KEYNOTE. SQUEEEEE!
But not like Kitt
Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 19:08 on 26 June 2019Me: "No, Mom, I don't think you're eating enough."
Mom: "You don't?"
Me: "No, I don't. You restrict what you eat and don't eat enough of what you do eat."
Mom: "Huh. Do you agree?"
Eric: "Yes, but don't eat like Kitt does."
Me: "What does that mean?"
Eric: "You find something you like and binge on it for weeks. That's not healthy either."
Me: "..."
Looking out at the world from the inside of our own heads / hearts / minds / thoughts, recognizing our patterns is difficult. I can't say that I thought of my eating habits as a single-focused, binging diet. After having it pointed out, I could recall my rice only phase in high school, and my bagel only phase also in high school, and maybe a ramen phase in there somewhere. There might have been some other eat-this-every-day foods, but I hadn't thought they were obsessive or long.
Clearly, I thought wrong according to Eric.
The comment brought me up short, because the idea of binging doesn't fit my story, according to the stories I know. And yet, Mom didn't contradict him, and I trust these two very much.
I wonder what other stories I keep getting wrong, and if everyone around me is going to keep dropping truth bombs on me until my world crumbles.