Katherine E Bennett

It is a gorgeous, sunny day in the mid 50s here, and everyone who can possibly think of an excuse to work on their gardens/ car/ barbeques/ etc is doing so. In fact, with my car sitting in the sun it was so warm that I had to run the air conditioner!

The low-ground flowers like crocuses and daffodils are out! No rhododendrens yet, but their buds are starting to show cracks of color. The second half of the cherry blossom crop is coming out; all of the cherries that weren't directly in the sunlight are starting to slowly bloom now. Which is just as well, since the ones that DID come out early got caught in the last round of freezing rain and lost most of their petals. :(

The bushes and small trees are putting out leaves! So far the big trees haven't, but a swelling of leaf-buds indicates that they are at least thinking about it.

And that is the spring report!

Humor and Horror

At the risk of some ironic Greek-themed retribution to hubris here, I've long considered that I have a real talent in writing in two areas: humor and horror. Glimmers of it showed up in some of my earliest teenage scrawlings, and I like to think I've improved my skills over time.

Why those two areas specifically? On pondering the nature of writing and human beings (two closely related fields of study,) I think it's because humor and horror are innately related: they are two different sides of the same coin. Both of them, at their base, rely on the principle of subverted expectations.

Overanalyzing humor, of course, takes all the funny out of it. But I think it is important to have some fundamental sense of what humor is and why we, as human beings, react the way we do to it. At its most fundamental level, humor is the way that the human brain reacts to something that is wrong or out of place. We human beings, as part of our self-awareness, live in a universe that is largely created within our heads; the real world, however, is not always so obliging. Humor is a coping mechanism for absurdity, a way to deal with things that are not as we think they should be.

( Humor... )

That's humor. Then it comes to the flip side of the coin: horror.

( Horror... )

The trigger point between a subtle wrongness and a blatant wrongness can backfire. Something that is too abnormal and bizarre, without the proper context to shade it into subtlety, simply comes across as absurd -- and hilarious. Many shows can leverage horrific things into dark or gallows humor simply by exaggerating them so much that the 'appropriate' reactions of dismay, sympathy, fear, and disgust no longer apply, and it simply becomes funny.

In both cases, it's imperative to have a sensitive reading of your audience. Because the threshold can be different for many people, it can be difficult to present either a humorous work OR a horrific one that appeals broadly and has the desired effect for all audiences. But if you know what the audience knows, and you know what the audience expects, then the path is open to subvert those expectations into hilarity -- or horror.

My schedule recently got shifted to a Sat-Weds schedule (meaning, thursday and friday off) starting at 5:45. Oy. In an effort to combat my continuing fatigue which would only be exacerbated by this, I have been attacking an aggressive regime to take care of myself better. I no longer drink caffiene after noon. (I think I may need a second teapot for caffienated and non-caffienated tea!) I make an effort to get to bed by 8:45 every night (although some nights, obviously, this falls down.) At the very least I am making sure that all the things that have to get done -- food, shower, any chores or business etc -- is finished by that time.

I am using my lightbox more. Except on days when it's sunny, then I go for walks. On days that it's not sunny I also go to the gym for at least half an hour (the new schedules does make that possible.) I am also taking St. John's Wort, since a doctor friend of mine (who is usually quite skeptical and disdainful of alternative medicine) says that it has proven good for mood balancing. Best of all, I think I have FINALLY located a pillow that gives me the right amount of support and doesn't leave me waking up with a headache, sore neck, and aching back.

It's hard to say which component is doing the trick, or if they are all contributing, but at the least I've noticed I don't feel so worn out and sad lately; and I don't spend all day sitting at my desk in misery feeling like I've been beaten up with the muscle aches. Big improvement!

Happy New Year to all my friends! Happy New Year to all my enemies! (Wait, why are you reading my livejournal? Geez, get a life.) Happy New Year to everyone out there -- may this year be even better than the last! This year's resolutions:

( Read more... )

So, some of you may remember (or not remember) that in the winter of 2008, the pacific northwest had an unusually heavy snowfall (fondly referred to as the Snowpocalypse '08) that shut the city down for a month -- not because it was a particularly severe storm by anybody else's standards, but because the city's response pretty much consisted of "do nothing and wait for it to melt." This is their normal response to snow in Seattle, since normally it melts by morning -- but in this case, it resulted in the city being essentially shut down for a week, and the spectacle of a bus almost sliding off a freeway.

( Remember, remember, 2008 December... )

( Thanksgiving was awesome though... )

As of this morning the weather has thankfully returned to Seattle winter normal -- and I never thought I'd say that -- gray, soggy, and in the 50s. All but the most stubborn snow and ice has melted, leaving only mud and grit behind. Now we're just waiting for the next snowfall, during which I will hopefully have learned my lesson about trying to drive to work on iced-over streets.

I'm feeling a certain sense of inevitability over this cold. Three of my roommates have been down with it, and it's going around at work, as well. The only real hope for it would be "Get a lot of sleep," but that's not something I'm very good at. *rubs tingly nose and sniffs*

In surprising news, it snowed today! The weather report had been hyping it all last week, but I had some doubts that it would actually appear. But it did, and a small amount of it even stuck. I was actually worried for a little bit that if the temperatures dropped, the roads might ice over, so I hurried home from work today, but it all turned out to be nothing. More snow scheduled for tomorrow. It is somewhat surprising to get it so early (or, in Seattle, at all,) but then, they have been predicting an El Nina winter for us for months.

Going to see Harry Potter tomorrow. I was in no particular hurry to see it on Opening Night -- I was never a huge HP fan, and the way the series ended rather disappointed me. Still, out of a sense of completion (and because it's the New Big Thing) I will definitely go.

Rather less looking forward to flying to Boston in a month.

On the freeway going home from work the other day, saw an unexpected mattress on the road. A few hundred yards further on, a flatbed truck stopped on the shoulder. Hope they got that straightened out.

My friend Rachel (whose wedding I went to Indiana to attend back in May) was coming out to visit, so we walked around Seattle for a while seeing the sights. The weather unexpectedly cooperated for the occasion, showing the 65 degrees and shiny blue skies that they pull out when they are trying to trick people into moving there. She is also considering moving out with her husband and daughter, so he can go to school here, and to have a nice place for her daughter to grow up.

Spending time with her made me look at Seattle with new eyes again -- she mentioned that unlike other big cities she's spent time in, Seattle feels very interconnected and homey. For all its quirks and failings, I can see what she means.

We went down to Des Moines (that's Des Moines, Washington for anyone who wondered) to try out a restaurant that one of my friends had discovered. It was fantastic. They had a pretty small menu, but they did everything on it well -- at least, everything I tried out from my friend's dishes. How often do you encounter french fries which are so delicious by themselves that they require no vinegar or ketchup? My own salmon was fantastic -- tender, not overcooked, with a light sweet glaze outside and delicious butteriness in the inside. I actually asked the waiter to take a compliment back to the cook, and since the water was also fantastic, left a nice big tip for them. Pretty low prices, too, which I attribute to the reasonable portion size, since it certainly didn't come out of the quality.

Today I took advantage of the last day of a New York & Company certificate that I had to go shopping for long-sleeved shirts for the fall. As usual, why are clothes companies incapable of attaching long sleeves to ordinary shirts? It's a constant struggle to find something with long sleeves that is not either a button-down or a sweater, and just forget about finding any kind of pretty print or pattern. No matter how interesting our clothes manufacturers make t-shirts, the instant long sleeves go on, that all vanishes.

Back to work tomorrow... sigh...

Also: Gratuitous kitty pic!
( Chrestomanci has a box! )

Rules:
- Leave a comment saying "What's up?!" [or some variation thereof...]
- I'll ask you five questions to satisfy my curiosity.
- Update your journal with the answers to your questions.
- Include this explanation and offer to ask other people questions

These questions were posted by cryogenia:

1. If you had to get a companion for Chrestomanci, what kind of cat would you like to get? What would you name him or her?
1) If I get a kitty friend for Chrestomanci (and I probably will at some point) I'd want to get a female cat, younger, and one who is friendly and playful with cats. Ideally I'd like a manx, or a polydactyl cat, since I had a kitty as a child who was both and I miss her. :(

2. What is your current favorite song?
2) Current favorite song has got to be The Cruxshadows "Sophia."

3. Do you have a favorite season?
3) Probably Spring is my favorite season, at least if it's actually springlike and not just winter until April like THIS YEAR! >E But yeah. Even if fall weather is nice, it feels very pessimistic, like time is running out. Even on bad days in Spring, you can at least hope that things will be better tomorrow.

4. Have you ever played a sport (for a school team or little league)?
4) Soccer was my sport as a kid! I was decent at it, but not enough to keep playing into high school or college. Oddly enough, I don't enjoy WATCHING soccer, because it makes me feel restless and like I wanna be out there.

5. Are you a big picture person or a small details person?
5) I think I have to say small details person, because I can get lost in the minutiae of things fairly easily and lose track of things.

o1. Go to Google and type, "You know you're from (your city or state) when...." (hit "I'm feeling lucky")
o2. Cut and paste the list.
o3. Bold the items that apply to you

( Read more... )

So after a couple of months of psyching myself out to move, I've pretty abruptly decided that I don't actually want to move this year. A number of factors are going into this decision, but the primary three are,

1) the roommate I had a problem with is moving out,

2) the girls I was going to move out with have decided that they are not going to move this summer, and,

3) the construction that was happening on the I-405 which was making my commute so much hell is finished. I no longer have any trouble getting to or home from work.

If I moved out now, I could find a studio or 1BR apartment that I could afford by myself... just barely; but at the very least I'd be doubling what I pay now in rent. Unless I found a total stranger to hook up with as a roommate, which is a roulette I don't really want to throw myself into. There are so many ways for potential roommates to fail; anything from noise, to smoking, to financial instability, to hating animals, to messing with my stuff, to being a creeper, to God knows what. Also, while I could find a place closer to work, it wouldn't be MUCH closer to work... and I'd have to move my work location to Kent, extra hassle.

In addition, if I moved out of this house, Chrestomanci would lose all his kitty friends. Initially I was planning to move in with Athena and Meka, who have two cats of their own, at least one of which counts. He's really very close to Takeshi and Pacifica. He's a friendly and playful cat and if I were to move into an apartment, I'd be gone most of the day and he'd have no one to play with or keep him company. He'd be miserable and he'd make me miserable. I'd really feel like I had to get a second cat to keep him company... at the same time that I'd be paying double rent. Do not want.

So a couple of days ago I sat down and wondered why I was busting my butt to set up to do something that I don't want to do, which would cost me more money and bring me no appreciable benefit.

There's another element, too. Pretty much since I graduated from high school I have moved to a new home location once every year. I'm getting kind of sick of it. I'd like to stay in one play for more than a year at a time. And I don't see why I shouldn't.