gwyn | Dogless in Seattle

Brutus got adopted today! At least, I hope so -- I'm waiting to hear how the meeting went. It was fairly unusual -- the daughter of an elderly couple up in Sequim saw him in the newspaper and sent the clipping to her folks. They fell in love and so she arranged to get him and bring him up there. They have excellent references, both the daughter and parents, and they have had rescue dogs for years, so they're familiar with some of the behavior issues. He tried to nip her, which he has never ever done, and I was kind of freaked that he flipped out so bad, but we figured out it was her white baseball cap that was causing the trouble. He has difficulty meeting strangers because of his vision problems, and that just tipped him over the edge I guess. But when they drove away, he was on her lap, and seemed quite content. He was afraid of me when he met me, too.

We're hopeful that the donations we've received so far might help fund some surgery for him, but we're going to have to see how everything goes. I miss the little dude! I got so used to him clinging to me all the time, and going for walkies. He loooooved to go for walks. I know he'll be really happy though, and he's got a wonderful life ahead of him. Thank you so much to everyone who's helped out. If he gets the surgery, it's going to be the bestest thing ever.

Class finished for the quarter on Thursday, and I feel a huge weight off my shoulders. It's funny that the last year I plan to teach it, I finally get a class who appreciates me and gives me good evals. Oh well. Now it's on to planning my all-day workshop for the program in a couple weeks. I haven't done a damn thing on it.

I broke down and decided to get HBO since there are so many programs I want to watch, but I missed the second and third Game of Thrones eps, and they are not repeating them at all. I'm so frustrated by that, and that they're not repeating the first two Tremes, either, which I got HBO too late to get. I know I can DL it, but it just doesn't look as good in avi format as it does on the TV from the satellite.

Not that I'm enjoying what I've seen of GoT. I... well, I'm baffled by the love for this thing. I asked people about it beforehand, because I'd seen lengthy clips from it, and said that it looked like a bunch of really horrible people doing really horrible things to each other, which just... gah. And everyone agreed that yup, that's pretty much what it is, so I had to decide if my love of Sean Bean (and a number of other people, too) was enough to keep me watching after that execrable first episode. I just do not get the appeal. Sean is wonderful, but it has everything I hate about second-world fantasy that's just reimagined historical Great Britain with a few otherworldly creatures.

I'm learning that that kind of fantasy has never been my bag, but the things I hate most about it -- that it's almost always sexist, misogynistic, militaristic in an annoying way, and usually involves long boring passages about family intrigue and politics -- seem to be the things so many people find perfectly acceptable about it. And seeing it translated to film, from what I'm reading, is making some of those things even worse. I was just so disgusted by the first episode, so many things about it, but especially that Daenyris (spelling? Sorry) stuff with her basically being sold off by her repugnant brother and then raped for her wedding night just... well, that was everything I loathe right there in a nutshell, and it seems like it's just going downhill from there.

I'm completely bewildered by the love so many people I know have for Jaime Lannister, after everything I've seen so far (which admittedly is small, since I am waiting to watch when I can get all the episodes). And while I want to love Sean, his character is just... I don't know. I'd like to slap some sense into him. Anyway. I had a conversation with

killabeez about it and she told me there are some characters who come up later in the story I might like, but she didn't seem to totally disagree with my take on the story, even if she finds more to enjoy than I do. Which helped a lot, because I was starting to think I was nuts since every. single. person. I know. love this thing to pieces. I'm at a loss.

We all have different tastes, I know, and I'm sure it's not helped by my sour feelings for GRR Martin lately, but I just don't know why fantasy always has to be like this. I used to read a lot of it when I was younger, but now I'm a lot more swayed by urban fantasy, although there are certainly some tropes that are falling into cliche there, too.

I'll probably keep recording it though, at least till... what happens happens (yes, I know the first novel spoilers).

Speaking of reading. I've been considering getting an e-reader, even though I hate them on general principle, because I think it would be nice to be able to carry my reference manuals around with me when I use the laptop in other places like visiting my dad, as well wondering if it would help me get back to reading more books. I don't read books at all anymore unless it's for work, and that really saddens me. I'm much more attracted to the Nook color, because it handles graphics and you can borrow books. But every single person I know here has a Kindle. Once I saw how badly that handles graphics and PDFs, I decided that wasn't for me. I would love to hear from any of you who have a Nook Color what you think, and if you feel it's worth it. One of the big things for me is being able to read outside, which is something I can't do with my laptop and I hear the iPad is terrible for. I'm getting landscaping for my backyard, so I think I'll be outside a lot more in the future and it would be great if the Nook is good for that. Would love to hear your opinions!