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Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005 - 10:59 p.m.

I recieved this email a few days ago:

Hey, Update your blog. I'm bored and there isn't anything to read online!!!!

Love,

The Liddle Bruder

Obviously, I did not heed his request. Sorry, liddle bruder. I do believe, though, that I have provided a variety of quality blogs and literary journals on my links list. Who doesn't want to read about shoes?

My blah mood and thus reluctant internet user moood can be directly linked to the lousy weather. My friend, J, keeps asking if we have snow here. I can hear the nostalgia in her voice; I can see her thoughts painting pictures of fences trimmed with snow, laden tree branches, kids sledding down hills. Well, that was the case, for about two days. Then winter really began.

Winter means icy roads, freezing rain, dry air making your skin crack, mud, dirty snow, and, worst of all, no sun. I live in a town that resides in a deep mountain valley. It can be sunny and clear skies thirty miles away, but here, it is gray skies. I am used to it, but I don't like it. Remaining motivated during this weather is hard work.

My mother bought light bulbs that are supposed to have the same health properties as sunlight. I sit under the lights in which we have installed these bulbs as often as possible. If they are working, I don't want to know how I would feel if they weren't.

Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005 - 3:36 p.m.

Once again, I have been a very lazy blogger. The internet has been wacky, due to much wet and heavy snow. Further, I don't feel much like spending time on my computer these days.

I have begun my work for a local CPA for the few months of tax season. It's not difficult work, and I don't have to be at work early in the morning.

So, I may or may not be posting often in the next week or so. If I have not, then I most likely have been sleeping, knitting, or working.

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005 - 1:05 p.m.

As much as I agree with her that Rumsfeld needs therapy, I like reading Maureen Dowd's take on other issues.

Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2005 - 6:22 p.m.

Book Review:

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

I have been meaning to read this book for awhile, since it had been short-listed for the Booker Prize. When I found a perfect hardcover copy in a used bookstore, I was ecstatic.

First off, I have read The Handmaid's Tale as well as Negotiating with the Dead, both by Atwood. For some time I have been contemplating why I don't like Atwood's writing style. The closest I can figure is that her writing feels flat. Her descriptive flourishes are uninteresting to me. Why? Much of her story is built on what the reader does not know. Why do women have to where colored robes according to their class? Why is all human existence extinct except for this own person?

In a mystery novel, I assume, there is enough action to occupy the reader, keeping him or her from being bored. Atwood's novel's don't divulge any information until absolutely neccessary, but there is no action to keep this reader engaged.

Oryx and Crake concerns the aftermath of a biological disease and the only known human survivor. The plot is intriguing but left me unsatisfied. Not all is explained in the end.

I did enjoy this book. I would recommend it to others. I wouldn't read it again. If I had to name an image that came to my mind at the mention of this book, I would have to say that image would be of cool, grey steel. The writing and story are not warm and inviting; they are cool and removed.

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