Yeah!

Oh, relief, happiness, and joy!! The headache is gone - granted "dopey", "sleepy", and most of the other dwarves apply to how I feel on this medication, but still - better!! No pain. Sleepy would have to be the worst side-effect, when I haven't been at work, I've been sleeping. One would think I'd start to feel rested, but naaah.

Anyway, library-land is a blast; with no school my days are busy, busy, busy! This morning I've got Book Bingo, aka my excuse to give kids free books (go me!). It's rather amusing, the kids will get really, really competitive about the game; only a few seem to notice that I will continue playing until everyone wins, of course, they want to win early so that they can get the book they want before someone else does. And then a craft project this afternoon with the 8 and up crowd. Ending it all with a family craft project this evening. It'll be a great a day.

However, sleeping and working have not really left me with any time for perusing the net for goodness and fun.

Christmas was great - I slept nearly all the way through it. We stayed home and it was just us, which is the way I like it.

However, I did find one rather interesting bit. I'm not sure about this, part of me thinks, well, ok..... and the other part is sure that this is from some joke source. I guess I'll just drag out the tried and true 'wait and see' attitude.

And, OMG!! I came across this preview in the DVD of the short film Kakurenbo (see "What I'm Watching" below), and it's just too funny to be real and yet, it's completely real - and no it's not made by the creators of South Park or the Family Guy, although I could easily believe it to be. It's a completely serious film, intended to be a touching, life-altering cinematic experience, if you will. The film: Doggy Poo. Now you might think, 'maybe the title refers to a cute doggy named "Doggy Poo", ' but you would be wrong! Because Doggy Poo is indeed a film about a little piece of poo that dreams big. And as the movie tagline says, "Sometimes Dreams Do Come True". I have to admit, I haven't seen it, so while I scoff, I am chuckling at something I haven't seen - lucky for me, Netflix has it, so I think I'm going to have to give this one a shot.

But I have been able to start reading again, so joy of joys, now I can finally bring back:

What I'm Reading:

After re-reading Beowulf (for the nth time) I got my act in gear and ILL'ed Grendel. For those of you who still have not read Beowulf, you may not know this but Grendel is a monster, a villain, who in the original epic-poem is evil incarnate, a monster of the night that shows up, eats men, and leaves to come again another night. Rinse. Repeat. Gardner's take on Grendel is fascinating, fleshing out the character as he watches the rise of Hrothgar, and ponders humanity. There is the whole existential angst bit, but I chose to ignore that now for a more shallow reading. I enjoyed the book, especially the development of Unferth - a character I had always found despicable in the original work, now flushed out with Grendel finding him just as contemptable.

Grendel is also a quick read because afterwards I was able to read Cryptonomicon, which I've been meaning to for quite a while. The author, Neal Stephenson, is the very same that wrote the classic Snow Crash (another highly recommendable read). Cryptonomicon is another entry in the cyber-punk genre (I admit, I did skip over some of the more technical details) using an interesting blend of historical fiction and techno-thriller.

And then after that I decided to pick up a book that had been recommended to me a short time ago: Barbaraians at the Table, Taming and Feeding the American Family. What a funny cookbook - both hilarious and completely practical!

And then finally, a truly weird and, well, really, really weird book that manages to be both very funny and very scary, Zanesville. Presenting a dystopic future after a huge earthquake in which America is ruled by a giant corporation, a strange character without a past who is going to search for the cure. I really enjoyed this book quite a lot, it's not a lazy book - there is a lot of thinking to do when you're reading. I can imagine this inventive and unique story reaching it's own cult status among certain types of readers.

What I'm Watching:

Well, having been doing so much reading the "watching" part of things has been relegated to primarily anime episodes and short films.

So, let's start off with an anime short film, Kakurenbo - a beautiful and completely creepy short film about a game of hide and seek in the inner parts of Tokyo - the story is straightforward and simple and the animation is fluid, dark, and enchanting. I highly recommend this short film.

Caitlyn let me borrow her DVDs of Trigun, so Allegra and I have been enjoying that series, it's nice to see them all in order.

And Hannah let me borrow her Ah! My Goddess, which I also really liked. She also let me borrow her copy of the original Mel Brooks' The Producers, I'll be watching that later.