Road Apple Pie... Yummay!

I finished the final First Law book last night. It ended well - and really, while it did a great job tying together the storylines and loose ends, it left enough room for another book, should the author ever wish to continue the story. I know his next book (Best Served Cold) will begin a new series, with a new central character, but it will be in the same world - only focusing on a different continent from the First Law series. I wonder how many story threads (if any) it will pick up or refer to from the First Law series.

I'm resisting the urge to start another book tonight... thought I'd force myself to take time off from reading. On deck, I have yet another from a Fantasy series, this time a book by an author named R. Scott Bakker (He does NOT have a website or blog!!!). The series is called The Prince of Nothing, and book one is called The Darkness That Comes Before. It's a beefy 577 pages, not counting glossary, maps and index in the back. It was recommended on a couple forum threads back when I was purchasing books from new authors to read.

The same things that I like about the Fantasy genre are also the things that are starting to frustrate me. Whole worlds, histories, lands, peoples, languages & religions set forth, some nameless, unstoppable evil threatens to destroy it all, one or more warriors is swept up on an impossible quest to defeat the unstoppable evil. War lays waste, people are killed, cities are ruined, the brink of destruction is flirted with, and the heroes carry the day (usually with some loss).

Started with Lord of the Rings, I suppose. Add in the books I've read recently, all following the same pattern: The Song of Ice and Fire (Martin), Across the Face of the World (Kirkpatrick), The Assassin's Apprentice (Robin Hobb), The Name of the Wind (Rothfuss), The First Law series (Abercrombie) and even what little I read of The Briar King (Keyes)... now I contemplate cracking open the Prince of Nothing series - which will evidently follow the same pattern (if the back cover blurbs are to be believed).

That's a lot of worlds and history and characters and evil lords and wizards and heroes to keep straight in one's head. A couple distinct worlds can find isolated cubbies in my brain and avoid blending together, but I fear I've reached the point where they are starting to merge in my mind. Who belongs where again? Which capital city is in which continent again? Who's the king of where again? Information overload!

So perhaps I should set aside the fantasy series for longer, and go back to something non-fiction, or a different genre for a bit. See how things settle before dumping more in.

I got some work done today, and at the same time, went through the time-consuming process of installing about 2 dozen mods for my freshly-reinstalled game Oblivion. Got it all up and running, and all the mods working (minor miracle), but the game keeps crashing to desktop on me, every 10 minutes or so, like clockwork. It's kind of frustrating. That's the problem with installing so many things at once. Ideally, you install one or two, then play a while to see if any glitches reveal themselves. It's easy to troubleshoot the problems with only one or two new variables. But install 22 or 24 new mods, and if/when you see a problem, the trial-and-error to find the conflict is a nightmare.

Trying to decide if it's worth it or not.

Caught a funny error at the bank this afternoon. I've been flat broke the past week or so, with bills needing to be paid, so I'm kind of watching every penny. So imagine my surprise when I see a debit from my account to Taco Bell for $74.43! I took the family there on the way home from Miramar last Thursday, and bought them some dinner, because it's cheap. We spent $14.43. Somewhere along the line, the 1 became a 7, lol. I called Citibank, and they say I need to fax them a letter tomorrow, which I'll do. They said they'll get it straightened out - I trust them, they've always been a great bank. Unlike Wells Fargo, who I despise with a fiery passion.

Ate Indian food with my mom tonight (business meeting). Never had Indian food before - it was good.

Well, if you've read this far, you have the patience of Job. I can't imagine any of that was very interesting to read. I shall reward you with a cool big wave surf video from my "cool video clips archive." You really need to watch it - it's brief, and you will not believe how GIGANTIC the wave is...



Soon enough, I'll return with movie clip posts again, but this will do in the mean time..

Until tomorrow, sink, sank, sunk.