I guess it's inevitable, but I feel a little bad to characterize this month as generally depressing :). It's entirely possible this is not the first time I've felt this way, and probably wont be the last. The daylight disappears fast, with the good-intentioned but ultimately pointless conceit of daylight-saving-time merely delaying the inevitable. The snow is generally yet to make an appearance, and thus we are left with a world largely colourless, dark and miserable.
This last day of November, however, has somewhat redeemed itself with the first proper fall of snow this year. (Yes, there was that dump last month, but it was overall too warm and every last bit of snow disappeared within a day.) The latter half of the month had been quite cold as well, repeatedly heading below zero, so that now the snow has arrived, it's likely to stay a bit.
Of course, what would be really awesome is for it to get a little bit warmer (it's hovering close to -10 most nights) so it snows some more! Alas, it's still too early for any cross country skiing. But one hopes maybe it's not too far away. Yes, I know I'm being rather optimistic :).
As usual, the last months of the year mean a very busy time at work. In some ways I'm already looking towards the last couple of weeks of December. There's no saying what we'll be able to do by way of travel or celebrating the festive season, socially at least. But if last year is anything to go by, just having some time off would in itself be quite a nice thing.
Which is not to say I want to wish away the next few days. Cos that's the thing, regardless of how well or badly things are going, this is as good a today as I'm ever going to have. Today. And tomorrow is a new day with its own possibilities, joys and disappointments.
Speaking of disappointments, I'm not sure Ready Player Two was entirely a disappointment. But I did feel a bit let down. I feel like a lot of pages were given over to moping and navel gazing (I'm looking at you Parzival!). I guess while the first book had the significant novelty factor, there was little fundamentally new in the setting of this sequel to detract from the less than awesome plot line.
So now I'm back to The View from the Cheap Seats and enjoying it rather a lot :). I'm currently deep into the section with introductions for books, graphic novels and other things that Gaiman generally seems to have enjoyed, and the enthusiasm and the persuasiveness almost makes me want to try out most of the books in question!
At the same time, I'm now in a sort of slow sporadic reading phase. No longer ploughing through book after book. Which rather fits in well with this book with its short and more or less discreet accounts of authors, films, comics and whatever else Gaiman seems to want to write about. A good counterpoint then, to the rest of life, which seems to be hurtling onwards. Not under control, but then when is one ever under control, really? :)
