So far the week has gone something like this: Saturday I went to Derek's and got cooking. Spampuffs, chili, and chocolate pie. I used a new chili recipe, and it smelled great, but wound up tasting kind of bland, I thought, much like that curry recipe I got from Sean. (A common ingredient was onions; can I just not cook onions or something?) The Spampuffs and chocolate pie seemed well received, though. We played 7th Sea, which was fun, Dentry finally got some action after what seemed to him like two sessions of "what will you wear to the big party?" Sunday was tea, after which I cut the upper green at the New West lawnbowling club. Monday and Tuesday I worked, yay. Yesterday I brought some pizza out to Jenn for lunch, and we hung out for a bit. I also went to the New West library and borrowed Wolves of the Calla. Last night I finished Dune. I thought it was okay. It's supposed to be a classic of science fiction, and I can definately see how it influenced other science fiction, and it was well written for prose and language, but for the most part it wasn't my thing. If you're going to have spaceships, have spaceships. If you're going to have a way into the future devolved society that hates computers and fights with knives and shortswords and uses a patriarchal-type caste system, go ahead. But when the two are mixed I don't buy it. That and desert stuff doesn't interest me. I think I'll read the rest of the series though, I got lots of reading time at work, and I am eventually going to run out of novels. Bearing that in mind, books six and seven of the Dark Tower series is supposed to come out this year, completing the whole thing and allowing Stephen King to retire. Well, I'm tired. I still have to do a couple things to get ready for tomorrow, I was hoping to be finished that stuff, but my bike chain broke and I had to spend time replacing it.

No package today, it's just as well that I worked. My sister says that she didn't borrow my DVD, so I probably misplaced it. Silly me for jumping to conclusions. I wanted to get some more containers for my Lego, but I don't feel like bussing or biking to Scottsdale, and the van is out, so it will have to wait untill tomorrow. So now I'm just munching some nachos.

On a lighter note, I finally finished the New Jedi Order series today. It's kind of funny to think that when I started reading it I was still working at the gas station, trying to save up for my diving course. Not to mention that I read it through my diving job. That's about two years to read all 19 books, although in my own defence I had to wait for most of them to be published. I can read more than ten books a year you know. I find it kind of strange the way that if you watch a lot of TV or play a lot of computer games people might say that you're wasting your life, but if you spend twice as much time reading fiction no one says anything except that you read a lot and that you must be some kind of smart person. On the other hand, reading seems like the answer to having minutes of your life whittled away by waiting for stuff. Like that monologue in Fight Club about layovers subtracting from the amount of time you have left. Books are easy to carry, require no power, and allow you to steal the wasted minutes of your life back. But does the nature of the book matter? Are you succesfully Robin Hooding from bureaucrats, busses and breaks when you read fiction? Can the imaginary improve the value of your lifetime? If so, can't you get the same result from TV and computer games? I guess it depends on the depth to which you absorb and consider the plot, and if it gives you any revelations or insights to the meaning of existance.

And then there's Star Wars. The Unifying Force made several prequel references, which was kind of cool. Kyle Katarn was mentioned about six times, which makes me hope that Jedi Knight 3 will be produced and allow gamers to fight the Yuzhan Vong. There was an Arthurian reference that also left a plot hook for future novels, which was kind of cheesy, much like the last line of the book which made me want to hit my head against something. All told, There seems to be about 3 plot hooks left for more novels, not to mention the crap load of "those guys you thought you defeated are back and are worse than ever in a totally non-epic way that is kind of getting old" novels that Star Wars authors feel compelled to write. I was kind of hoping that this would be a series to end Star Wars, and say that an era of peace would settle in the galaxy and the Solos and Skywalkers lived out the rest of their days in peace. But that would go against capitalism, not to mention piss off the fan boys that can never get enough. I also had several guesses as to "what's the deal with Onimi?", all of which were wrong, but the answer was kind of cool. I was also wondering who, if anyone, else would die, and again I was satisfied with the answer. All in all, I'm glad I read the series, it was neat to see something truly epic happen, rather than "the continuing adventures of". Also, even though I just commented on fan boys who can't get enough, I want to read about the adventures of Ben Skywalker when they come out. Also, I think it would be cool to have a series about the Yuzhan Vong that takes place before they left their home galaxy. I also think that after the series is over makes a good setting for Star Wars D20. Anyways, now all I have to do is check out the CD-ROM that came with The Unifying Force, and then I'll be all done and can take it back to the library tomorrow when I see Jenn.