Book Review - The Enthusiast

Just finished "The Enthusiast" by Charlie Haas. Very interesting read, and very different.

The premise is that the main character, Henry, is a writer who drifts from 'enthusiast' magazine to 'enthusiast' magazine - 'Crochet World' to 'Kite Buggy' to 'Spelunk'. Although he himself is not any particular sort of enthusiast, he is intrigued by those who are.

The book, though light on actual plot (in terms of conflict and resolution), is a thoroughly engaging read and leaves the reader with a sense of peace, despite everything that happens. The characters are realistically flawed and very well fleshed-out, so much that you could see yourself having a conversation with them, like with a real person. The dialogue is clever and tongue-in-cheek, the subject matter is enlightening - overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a short but intelligent read.

A Very Educational Entry

Hello, my three followers! This is a Very Educational Entry, as I'm sure you could tell from the title. Book recs!

See, this is what happens when I'm on summer break. I still somehow get educated. Blast.

Book Recommendations

Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman
Soon I Will Be Invincible follows both a supervillain and a superheroine along their respective journeys through a world where Supers are on the same level as celebrities. The villain, Doctor Impossible, is a genius, but has trouble keeping his tendency to monologue under control. Fatale doesn't think she fits in with the other superheroes because she doesn't have any actual superpowers, apart from being a cyborg.

This is an engaging read with plenty of laughs but a truly important message embedded in the text. Even though these characters are superhuman, they remain poignantly human behind their powers of flight, superstrength or invisibility. Despite being glorified in the media of their world, each of these characters has their own individual problems. Having massive destructive battles with giant robots is something any superhero can handle, but romance, friendship, secrets, and the sheer human desire to fit in are what make these characters incredible.

Want more?
Did you enjoy the book, or does it sound interesting? Then you would probably love Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog! This tongue-in-cheek three-act musical will place you alongside the hero (or rather, sympathetic villain) Doctor Horrible as he strives to win the affection of the girl from the laundromat - and of course, take over the world. Featuring Neil Patrick Harris as Doctor Horrible and Nathan Fillion as his arch nemesis, Captain Hammer, as well as Felicia Day (of 'The Guild' fame) as Penny, I am pretty confident that this will be one of the best forty-five minute segments of your life.

The Wanting Seed by Anthony Burgess
The Wanting Seed, a novel by the author of A Clockwork Orange (which I haven't read yet), is a short read, but by no means a light one. I tend to just interpret words I don't know from the context, but my vocabulary was increased over the course of this book by considerable dictionary reference, and I also learned a lot about the natural cycle of the phases of a government. But don't be nervous, just because the book is intelligent and you might learn something doesn't mean it's not great leisure reading. This is a book that makes you think, makes you laugh, and makes you nervous.

The book takes place in a society where overpopulation has become so out of control that families are limited to one birth (alive or dead) and homosexuality is encouraged. Food is scarce and it's difficult to succeed if you have children or are heterosexual simply due to prejudice. Although I'm not sure I agree with every message this book sends, it really made me think about what lengths we're willing to go to in the name of protecting the human race. Under heavy, exaggerated themes of fertility, cannibalism and government deception, there are countless tiny messages - little warning signs to the human race of what could happen. The characters are relatable and yet flawed - far more than most main characters seem to be in recent literature. The writing itself is complex in its conciseness - where one author would write a simple paragraph, Burgess writes a high-density single sentence. Don't let the vocabulary and structure throw you off; if you listen, this book is making a very simple and very clear point.

Want more?
Did you enjoy this book, or does it sound like something you'd like? If you haven't already (you slacker), I'd highly encourage you to read George Orwell's 1984. Although Burgess and Orwell have slightly different interpretations of possible futures and the people who will bring them about, both share a dark, warning tone that at the same time intrigues and terrifies the reader. If you enjoyed 1984, definitely pick up The Wanting Seed.

Talking to Strangers v2.0: Pokemon

My friend showed me this on my Facebook wall and all I wanted to do was try it. I kept thinking about my previous experiments on Omegle and decided I would do another edition of Talking to Strangers! In this one, I will appear to my chat partner as a wild EEVEE. Ready? LET'S BATTLE!

Battle 1
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
You: A wild EEVEE appeared!
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

Battle 2
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
You: A wild EEVEE appeared!
Stranger: :(
Stranger: no
You: What will you do?
You: ITEM
You: FIGHT
You: POKEMON
You: RUN
Stranger: FIGHT
You: What Pokemon do you choose?
Stranger: CHARMANDER
You: What will CHARMANDER do?
Stranger: FIRE ATTACK
You: CHARMANDER used FIRE ATTACK!
You: It's super effective!
You: Wild EEVEE was burned!
Stranger: Do I win?
You: Wild EEVEE used GROWL!
You: CHARMANDER's attack fell!
You: What will CHARMANDER do?
Stranger: METAL CLAW
You: CHARMANDER used METAL CLAW!
You: It's super effective! Wild EEVEE fainted!
You have disconnected.

Battle 3
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
You: A wild EEVEE appeared!
Stranger: really?
You: What will you do?
You: ITEM
You: FIGHT
You: POKEMON
You: RUN
Stranger: fight!!!
You: What pokemon do you choose?
Stranger: pickahu
You: What will Pikachu do?
Stranger: attack
You: PIKACHU used ATTACK!
You: It failed!
You: Wild EEVEE fled!
You have disconnected.

Battle 4
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
You: A wild EEVEE appeared!
Stranger: fuck you
You: What will you do?
You: FIGHT
You: ITEM
You: POKEMON
You: RUN
Stranger: noob
Stranger: new fag
You: STRANGER used NEW FAG!
You: It failed!
You: Wild EEVEE fled!
You have disconnected.

Battle 5
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: 21m
You: A wild EEVEE appeared!
Stranger: you m or f
You: What will you do?
You: FIGHT
You: ITEM
You: POKEMON
You: RUN
Stranger: finger yourself
YOU: STRANGER used FINGER YOURSELF!
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

Battle 6
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: hi, bored/horny, male/female, pics/no pics?
You: A wild EEVEE apppeared!
You: What will you do?
You: ITEM | FIGHT | POKEMON | RUN
Stranger: attack weak, then catch
Stranger: fight
You: What Pokemon do you choose?
Stranger: show my 6
You: CHARMANDER | VULPIX | PIKACHU | MANKEY | MAGIKARP | BLASTOISE
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

((Guess they didn't like their team.))

Battle 7
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: hey
You: A wild EEVEE appeared!
Stranger: go charmander
You: Go, CHARMANDER!
You: What will Charmander do?
Stranger: use slash
You: CHARMANDER used SLASH!
You: It's not very effective...
You: Wild EEVEE used GROWL!
You: CHARMANDER's ATTACK fell!
You: What will CHARMANDER do?
Stranger: use ember
You: CHARMANDER used EMBER!
You: It's super effective!
You: Wild EEVEE is weak!
You: What will you do?
Stranger: use a pokeball
You: STRANGER used POKEBALL!
You: Oh, it appeared to be caught!
You: Wild EEVEE fled!
You have disconnected.

Battle 8
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: hiya
You: A wild EEVEE appeared!
Stranger: as
Stranger: l
You: What will you do?
You: ITEM | FIGHT | POKEMON | RUN
Stranger: Funny ;DDD
You: What will you do?
Stranger: umm, run
You: You were able to get away safely!
You have disconnected.

Battle 9
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
You: A wild EEVEE appeared!
Stranger: hi
You: What will you do?
You: ITEM | FIGHT | POKEMON | RUN
Stranger: .
Stranger: ..
You: What will you do?
Stranger: ..
You: STRANGER used ..!
You: It failed!
You: Wild EEVEE fled!
You have disconnected.

Battle 10
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
You: A wild EEVEE appeared!
You: What will you do?
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

I found most of these responses highly amusing. Some people immediately took to the game. Some seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. Others just wanted to webcam with a slutty chick and were not interested. This was ALMOST as fun as that time I tried to run a Choose Your Own Adventure Game. Only a few people played that one, though.

HOORAY for Omegle adventures! I'm sure I'll do more! It's just so addicting. I love strangers.

WHY HALLO~

Wow, it's been a while! Look how much you've grown! -cheekpinch-

I haven't been recording my dreams lately, which I'm sad about. I think I'll go back and estimate dates for the last few I can remember. In any case, I had a really strange one last night.

First, a quick short story about first semester, Freshman year of college (last year.) It was four girls sharing a suite - two bedrooms, one bathroom that linked us. On my side, me and a yaoi-obsessed girl who was convinced she was bisexual ("although I'm not sexually attracted to girls, just like...emotionally." "Er, yes, that's usually known as friendship."); on the other side, Missy (who I already knew from All State Jazz Choir and summer Jazz Camp) and Bee, a creature whose depths of insanity are unknowable until you've lived with her for a semester. Basically, she was a tiny black girl whose father was angry that she was rooming with a white girl. She wanted to be Japanese, she never showered, and she never flushed. Yeah, I mean NEVER. Don't you just love popping into the bathroom for a pleasant urination and finding the toilet occupied by...well, moving on. Anyone, these little "quirks" were bad enough, but she also didn't have a sense of personal space, she couldn't read the people around her (thus why she kept thinking Missy and I liked her) and she...well, honestly she just wasn't very smart.

Anyway, long story short, living with her was so bad that Missy and I switched dorms at semester. Bee has since become an unpleasant memory (as well as a good conversation-starter.) SO I had this dream last night.

OH and she was an art major.

ANYWAY I had this dream last night that for some reason I was on the roof outside her window. And then it ended up that our room was next to theirs, and there was a window over my desk that led to her room. So when we were sitting at our desks, we were staring at each other. Weird. But basically, in this dream, I was trying to somehow signal through the window to Bee's new roommate that she needed to get out of there while she still had her sanity, and her hygiene. But then Bee noticed me, and decided to try and make me feel bad about myself as an artist by showing off her work. Luckily for me, her work was really bad. It was like...second-grader-level. There was one drawing of a mermaid that was just awful, and I asked her if I could sign the back, which she agreed to for some reason, and instead of signing it I wrote this really mean critique and then drew my version of the mermaid, which was much better (especially in my dream...I whipped that shit out in about thirty seconds. Go me!)

But then when I tried to return it to her, something happened...I'm not sure exactly what, it's slipping out of my mind now, but something about a really tall, empty tree trunk. I don't know if she fell or what, but she died, that's the important part. Bee died and Missy and I were so glad that when the cops questioned us, we were taken to jail as suspects because we were just so goddamned cheerful.

Also, her art portfolio involved bad poetry. I was like BEE, THAT'S ENGLISH, SILLY.

Well that's all. "Welcome back, Ginny!" Thank you, thank you. It's good to be back.

Talking to Strangers

I read an interesting blog about the writer's adventures in talking to strangers. She used a website called Omegle to talk to ten random strangers and see what sort of conversations she had.

Her ratio of good conversations to shitty ones was 2:8. I was interested to see if this ratio is common, so I repeated the same experiment to compare results. However, I did 15 chats because I wanted a bigger pool to choose from, to have more accurate results. Also, I had a lot of time on my hands. I didn't post good conversations, since that isn't entertaining. Out of fifteen conversations, I ended up with eight good chats (a boring guy from Iran, a nice guy named Johan, a friendly girl named Jenny, an enthusiastic girl gamer who had just gone shopping, a sad person of indeterminate gender who doesn't like people, and talks to their pet bird ("at least the bird likes me."), a sixteen year old who I reassured about being a late bloomer, a 28-year-old from Indonesia named Ifran who had just made a friend in Brazil, and the most ADORABLE little 14-year-old boy from the UK who gave me relationship advice) and seven bad chats. The 'bad' ones follow.

ONE
Connecting to server...
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
You: Hullo!
Stranger: ello
Stranger: are you an idiot?
You: Um, I don't think so.
You: Why, are you?
Stranger: what are your thoughts on transcending the boundaries of our space and time?
You: I think that any transcending of boundaries, especially those presented by such solid obstacles as space and time, should be done with great care and much forethought.
Stranger: do more drugs
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

TWO
Connecting to server...
Looking for someone you can chat with. Hang on.
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: Hi. I'm a 19 year old male who looks for a female to have cybersex with! ;)
You have disconnected.

THREE
Connecting to server...
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
You: Hello!
Stranger: hey
Stranger: from?
You: USA. Yourself?
Stranger: denmark
You: Cool, cool.
Stranger: m or f?
You: Female.
Stranger: age?
You: 19.
Stranger: 20
Stranger: do u have msn?
You have disconnected.

FOUR
Connecting to server...
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: hi 16 f scotland
You: Greetings!
Stranger: haha
You: 16? Do your parents know you're chatting with strangers?
Stranger: its just chatting
Stranger: and im 16 its not as if im 10
You: I guess. If you were my daughter, I'd probably be worried.
Stranger: why
You: Because sixteen is awfully young. You're very impressionable.
You: There are some really awful people on this site.
Stranger: i no but a can disconnect
You: I guess so, yeah.
Stranger: ok
You: What's your favorite chat you've ever had on Omegle?
Stranger: emm dont realy have one
You: Have you enjoyed any of them?
Stranger: emmm i honestly don tknow
You: If you don't enjoy the chats, why do you still chat?
Stranger: there all the same like - hows you where you from etc
Stranger: stop all teh questions
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

(Shame, I thought that one was really going somewhere.)

FIVE
Connecting to server...
Looking for someone you can chat with. Hang on.
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: hi
You: How!
You: What's up?
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

SIX
Connecting to server...
Looking for someone you can chat with. Hang on.
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: Hi
You: Greetings!
Stranger: Hey........I am Ricky from australia....you?
You: I'm Ginny, from the USA. C:
Stranger: nice name
You: Thank you!
Stranger: So can we be friends?
You: Um, sure, I guess!
Stranger: Are you student?
You: Yes, I am. What about you?
Stranger: same here
Stranger: are u on facebok?
You: Yup.
Stranger: can I add u?
You: Nope!
Stranger: ok
You: Fbook is for my real life friends, sorry.
Stranger: Just wanted to see ur pic
Stranger: :)
You: Ohh, sneaky!
Stranger: ?
You: You could've asked for a picture, you know.
Stranger: ok I ask
You: And I decline.
Stranger: fuck off
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

SEVEN
Connecting to server...
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: Any crossdresser with cam?
You have disconnected.

EIGHT
Connecting to server...
Looking for someone you can chat with. Hang on.
You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
You: Greetings, Mortal.
Stranger: sweden
Stranger: haha
Your conversational partner has disconnected.

I am intrigued by the fact that the majority of my chats were good, compared to others' results, which tended towards the majority of results being negative. I think that in order for this experiment to really have solid results, MANY more chats needs to be undertaken. Also, there need to be constants, such as how one greets the other, how one reacts, etc. We also need to define what makes a 'good' conversation versus a 'bad' one. For instance, some might argue that my conversation with the 16-year-old from Scotland wasn't a 'bad' conversation at all - only a short one.

In any case, I'm intrigued not only with the results, but with this site. The concept is incredible. Expect much more to do with Omegle in this blog in the future!

L-O-V-E

I've decided recently that people have too big a fear of the word 'love' now. No, this isn't going to be a cliche blog about people who can't say 'I Love You' - that's been talked to death. What I mean is, people used to be infatuated with someone and say that they were 'in love'. Now, saying you're 'in love' seems to be equated with saying that you love someone. Ridiculous.

While watching Disney movies, I had a revelation on the matter.

To be in love is to be infatuated, to adore, to want madly, to think about nothing but. It isn't a commitment, it isn't something to be afraid of. Why can't people say "I'm in love" anymore without being labeled melodramatic and overzealous? Being in love is easy, even if loving is hard. I want humanity to be able to say that they are 'in love' and mean it.

This post is shorter than I imagined it being. Just wanted to say that. : P

Suits

First things first - I have heard the Mysterious Singingz a few times since my last blog, but unfortunately haven't gotten any closer to solving the mystery. Meanwhile, I shall tell you a story about a guy on campus who Jen and I had dubbed 'suit guy.'

We are so creative.

The reasoning behind that moniker is that he always wears suits. Well, almost always. Most days he's wearing a suit - he has a million - and then once or twice I've seen him in jeans and a T-shirt, and it's always weird when that happens. He has long curly hair in a ponytail and is just all around quite a character.

Well, today when Jen and Shan and I were at breakfast, we were discussing what the reasoning could be behind his suit-wearing tendencies. Jen and I were trying to convince Shan what the merit would be to just asking him. Our reasoning was that it pretty much had to be an exciting answer, like "Suits were on sale and this is all I own," or "God told me to wear suits to prepare for judgment day" or "I go to a funeral or a wedding every single day." We couldn't think of a single boring reason to wear a suit every day.

Finally, I convinced Jen to go and ask him - he was in the dining hall, sitting alone, and Jen is the type who will just go up and sit down and say "So, why do you wear suits all the time?" Here is a transcription of the conversation as Jen described it to us afterwards:

Jen: Hello! I see you around a lot and you're always wearing a suit. I was just wondering why you always wear suits?
Him: When you look this good in a suit, why wear anything else?
Jen: Alright!
Him: I'm Jared.
Jen: I'm Jen!
*a handshaking commences*

See? We knew it would be an interesting response! And what a great answer that was, honestly. I'm still not quite sure it's the real reason he wears suits all the time, but I really liked his answer!

What a character, indeed.