It autumn here yet

Went to Del Mar Fairground last week and spent two hours at the Home and Garden show rather than the ...horse racing that people generally go see (because as one of my high school teacher said: I am an 80 year old in disguise and have zero interest in horse racing). It's basically a convention with booths of construction company, architecture firms, renewable power companies &c, and I mentioned to Lucy, I basically gave people there massive headaches because I insisted on Asking Questions. A lot of which aren't necessarily the sort that a sales person is equipped to answer. (Like for instance: this one guy was trying to sell me this new paint that's supposed to be permanent, or at least he claims it lasts "forever" and it's also insulating as well and doesn't chip -- I wanted to know what kind of chemical / technology's involved so that one layer of paint can be insulating -- whether it's some kind of polymer or clay -- you get the idea.) I ended up collecting a lot of flyers and pamphlets, and got some good research info for a story of mine -- though I do have to figure out what having an architect on site will be like and the logistics of getting a construction crew somewhere remote. Ah well, I do know someone who works for a construction company, so I might ask her at some point.


Annie's been dealing with pest control and also a cold, so I was left on my own last week, which means riffling through my movie list to see what I can find. I ended up watching A MONSTER IN PARIS, which is cute in a fairy tale kind of way and has a very Shakespearian ending in that THREE different pairs of people ended up together. (Lucy you'll like it I think, if you haven't seen it already. It's sort of...tongue-in-cheek French.) Which reminds me that I've gotten an account in Letterboxd -- like Good Reads, but for movies, so I can keep track of things I watched and have a better way of going through my to-watch list, which is currently at 68 items but I don't think Letterboxd deals with tv series that hasn't been released in DVD yet, so there is that.

SALARYMAN'S WIFE turned out to be disappointing partly because of first person narrative, which made a narrator seem like such a brat and clueless to boot (to be fair I might've hated Lupin, one of my favorite character from HARRY POTTER, if I had to deal with reading about him in first person) (seriously: first person, why???). It was bad enough that I find myself gritting my teeth when I open the book. I might've excused her for being young and only 27, except oh wait. Look, if someone just tried to murder you in your room at a hotel and you insisted on having a new room for yourself in the aftermath, don't let that strange man that you've known for less than two days override your opinion and force you to stay in his bedroom for the night. That's the other reason why I didn't finish the book-- the love interest. He's a Caucasian Man (CM) who is, yes fine, physically attractive, but who overrides her opinion at opportunity. I mean sure she ends up being into it or whatever, later, but given the context and cultural overtones (ugh it was grating like nails on chalkboard) I kept thinking DTMFA (an acronym that I learned the past week, be very proud), possibly hoping that my message will somehow telepathically make its way into a book printed probably a decade ago and change the behavior of a fictional character. At that point I knew I wasn't going to finish the book and flipped to the end and realized that the female protagonist gets rescued by CM, at which point I definitely, definitely gave up on the book.

Swapped it out for two more this week: FAIREST by GC Levine (who wrote ELLA ENCHANTED) and MORTAL EVIDENCE by C Wcht, G Saitz, and M Curriden (research for story). We'll see how they go.

This week: found the free tutorial for making Android apps and started lesson one -- someone I knew asked what I was going to do with all the extra brain space after defending my thesis and I had flippantly suggested learning a new language. This may turn out to be true, since I didn't specify that it had to be a spoken language. Tried this new ice cream shop nearby that does ice cream sandwiches at recommendation from a friend, but sadly cannot see why it's so popular, possibly because the concoction is too sweet for my taste. Also tried jicama for the first time because it was on sale-- or it would more specific to say I picked one up and asked one of the workers how it should be eaten, the worker disappeared somewhere with it and returned a few minutes later with it peeled and cut, giving me a giant chunk of it to munch on as I finished grocery shopping. It's a bit like a cross between daikon radish and water chestnut, but with less bite and more starch. Weird. 

Think am going to skip the scavenger hunt this week as I want to spend more time working on my comic / stories. This marks the first month where the PI didn't suggest additional experiments (apparently you need to have defended your thesis for this to happen) and where he first acknowledges that I need to finish so I can "get on with life" (though he confesses it's also to get me off of payroll). One of our collaborators is off vacationing at Buenos Aires though, so the manuscript is definitely not going out before he gets back. Other grad student had promised to help me check the grammar for both my manuscript and my dissertation, buuuut no progress has been made it, and looking back at his track record with different projects, I might end up needing someone else to beta my stuff if I want to finish before December. Alas.

Good news though! The weather's cooled off enough that I can have hot tea again. Last Tuesday we've hit a point where it was 80F at 9pm with ~80% humidity and even camping on the floor did not make sleeping any more pleasant. I can sleep on a bed again. And have tea. This pleases me.