Although it’s kind of ridiculous, I actually have too much to write here right now. Normally of course, that wouldn’t stop me, but for one thing I absolutely have to get to bed (been getting less than six hours of sleep a night thanks to having to get up early for my work orientation but still having my college sleep cycles) and I’ve actually done a surprising amount in the past week or so.

However, since there are time restraints, I’ll give the brief run-down:

I have a new job (not sure if I posted about it before) working with developmentally disabled adults in their homes to help them in day-to-day tasks, ideally helping them live more independently. Orientation: long and boring. Job: looking to be both incredibly challenging/frightening, and likely very rewarding, or at least good for me in the long run.

Valerie is back across the state. We had a fun five days (although I only saw her in the evenings and mornings, thanks to the dang orientation going on), but sadly she had to go try to join the rat race.

I have a new bike, which is enabling me to get around Walla Walla much more easily than before. I like it a lot, although I still need to take it to the bike shop and have the handlebars adjusted (they just feel a little weird as close to my body as they are).

Windows is finally installed on my computer, although still with minor problems (sound doesn’t work quite right thanks to faulty drivers). I have been playing Half-Life (the original, to be followed by Half-Life 2, and then all the non-Valve designed Half-Life things) and Heroes of Might and Magic V quite a bit. Half-Life is of course an amazing game, and Heroes V is beautiful, although the campaign has been somewhat slow (read: not at all challenging) so far. It is phenomenally satisfying to know that I can run virtually any software that I want to, although every experience that I have with Windows merely reinforces my knowledge that Mac OS X is the way for me.

I finally had an idea for a plot that I’d like to turn into a novel for my Sociology thesis. The problem is that it’s a fantasy novel, and I’m not sure if I can get that to fly. I get the feeling that there aren’t many lovers of fantasy in the Soc department, and to date fantasy is a pretty un-analytical genre in the extreme (escapism, anyone?).

On the topic of fantasy, my visit to home resulted in my buying a whole lot more books. I hadn’t been planning to do so, but it reminded me that I’m addicted to books, even if Whitman served as rehab of a sorts (if only by not allowing me time to read for pleasure). My job, though, has shifts that are usually 10-16 hours long, though, and look to have a fair amount of time that might be best used reading (since I’m not a big fan of TV). End result is that having tasted book buying once again (ah, for the days of Scholastic) and looking forward to a future with a need for reading and money to fund it, I’m in a book buying mood. I was up too late last night making an Amazon order. Not healthy.

I recently finished the Bartimeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, and it was phenomenal. The ending was a total surprise, and both satisfying and disappointing because it flew in the face of standard fantasy practice. I think I’ll need to emulate Stroud in my own writing. He did just about everything right.

Wow. For what I intended to be something akin to a bullet list, this has turned huge. I better just cut myself off and go to bed. At least I can get seven hours of sleep, even if I’d been hoping for eight.