I can’t remember if I’ve written about this before – probably not, considering how infrequently I’ve actually been blogging!
But anyway. Coding for fun! Some time last summer (I think) I discovered CodeAcademy and I’ve been playing around on there ever since. At the moment I’m going through their revised / new Javascript course, even though I’ve already done the original one. Because I’m a geek and it’s fun. I’m also working through the “Code Year” track, and I’m planning to do the PHP and Ruby ones after that.
A bit of my profile.
It’s good for keeping my brain in gear. :-)
Mind you, I haven’t done much over, again, the last six months due to wonky-brain issues – more on that another time. I’ve just started up again this week, though. Unfortunately, where I picked up was right at the end of the original JS track, and I’d done something weird with my code. Oops! I haven’t tracked the bug down yet, but I’ll go back to it later on. Doing the easier exercises on the new track should help me get my head back into the right place for that.
Посмотрели Джека покорителя великанов: вряд ли я бы стала это делать больше одного раза. А как постарел Макгрегор и не он уже призывно посматривает на принцессу, и сутулые юнцы дышат в затылок... Испытала приступ праведного феминизма - почему Джек корону повелителя великанов принцессе не отдал, или папе ейному, которым она по праву принадлежит и которые не в кустах сидели, когда все закрутилось, а хвать и на себя сразу напялил. еще Гэтсби посмотрели - красиво, оооочень красиво, хочется растащить на стоп-кадры или хотя бы рассмотреть - и пусть эта массовка наконец минутку постоит спокойно. Декаприо я не люблю и тут не полюбила (он, наверное, хороший актер - отлично сыграл в самом начале своей карьеры мальчика с психическим расстройством и любовника кого-то из великих французов - с тех пор и не люблю, уж очень хорошо сыграл), много мимики и дрожания бровями; от Тоби Макгвайера постоянно ждешь перевоплощения в человека-паука, зря он так заигрался в комиксы - он в Правилах виноделов такой... такой... Ах какой!
The Likeness, Tana French. I couldn't decide if I even wanted to read this after my irritation with In The Woods and its ending that didn't solve the mystery. Well, it solved the murder but it didn't solve THE MYSTERY. But somehow I bought this anyway and then it looked like a good book to read on a plane, and I wasn't disappointed.
The premise here is completely unbelievable: a detective who's the spittin' image of a murdered woman will go undercover and live in her household to catch the killer. There's a lot of shilly shallying about whether or not the detective will agree do do it (though of course we know she'll say yes, that's the point of the book.) Maybe that helped me, the reader, overcome my skepticism because, as ridiculous as it is, it works. The detective more than inhabits her role and is drawn into the emotional life of the group - why shouldn't she be? this is her "family" - and that's what won me over. The characters and the emotions felt so true. I finished it a couple of weeks ago and am still thinking about them and how things ended and how they might have been different.
Summer and Bird, Katherine Catmull. Originally I wrote a long review explaining everything I didn't like about this book, but I'm sure nobody else cares. The poetic style isn't for me, and I was annoyed by the magical world, which wasn't described enough to feel real. It also doesn't seem to have clear rules that the sisters must obey on their quest to find their parents. For me, learning the rules, being thwarted by them, and working with them is what gives magical stories (Oz, Edward Eager, E. Nesbit, Harry Potter) their tension. In this book, things just happen to the girls. They have some agency but are passive in many ways.
Some of the emotional things felt true and moving, like each sister's concern for and resentment of the other. The depiction of how someone can be made to distrust and hate a loved one, and learn to have contempt for the weak really worked. Other things didn't - the abandonment issues, like the Swan Queen's abandoning her people and the mother abandoning her children, didn't feel worked out. The ending was unsatisfying, especially the father's role.
Also, could she have chosen a clunkier term than "the attainable border" for one of the major plot points?
Adam and Eve and Pinch Me, Ruth Rendell. A genial con man is involved with several women, one of whom is crazy. What could go wrong? A number of tangled web weavers’ lies intersect in curious ways. Rendell is magnificent at describing how people make bad decisions that make sense at the time, and the way emotions change as time passes. The tension towards the end of this one is deliciously unbearable.
A Death in the Family, James Agee. I've read an excerpt from this but never the whole book, and I'm really liking its stately pace and beautiful descriptions.
It feels like ages but it really is only three months since I started running, three months since I braved taking that first leap to see if my body would stay relatively upright and carry me forwards at a faster pace than walking. In the photograph above, first three months of being able to run 8th April, 29th April 13th May 18th June 88 down to 80kg
I am feeling incredibly proud of this achievement, not just the weight loss but the whole big picture, being able to move, project myself, run, bend, stretch, laugh, cough, sneeze, smile, all kinds of things that I simply couldnt do before, its all coming together nicely and I love everything about the ride so much I can't stop smiling about it all.
To think this is what I looked like a year ago, it all does not seem real to me at all still, I know its all real because I'm the one doing it, putting in the hard work, counting every single calorie, carbs, protein and fat grams that goes into my body, reading upon more reading about how the body turns the food and drinks consumed each day into fuel and essential nutrients to sustain the organs etc, but in reality it truly is one hell of a ride that I've stepped on to and I have no intention of getting off, not just yet at least!
Today's video compilation is showing my first three months of running experiences, you can see from the first clip going into the second my body is quite uncoordinated, arms swinging all over the place, then in today's clip added on I'm upright and more focused, my body language running is a lot more confident. Angelica took the video when I was on the third lap early this morning, I didn't know she was filming me and we also have her to thank for putting the clips together as well. I'm so thankful for her making this video, it definitely gives me something to work on for the next three months, that mile without stopping is getting closer and closer I can feel it.
Previous 
![[reposted post]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/icon_repost.png "[reposted post]"){kind=icon}
10:49 pm June 18th, 2013, 
creative
good
