Neil Gaiman

Raise your hand if you have ever read Neil Gaiman. I hope there are at least a couple of you out there. Don't recognize the author? That's ok. I'm talking about Neverwhere, American Gods, The Graveyard Book, Stardust,  Anansi Boys. Sound a little more familiar? I hope so. If they're not stick around for a bit. If they are, do stay.
Now the reason I picked those particular Neil Gaiman books is because they are the ones I have read. I try not to form too strong an opinion on something I don't know but for this I am fairly convinced. Neil Gaiman doesn't know how to write stories involving Gods. Let's start with Exhibit A, American Gods. The story had potential. It opens with potential living dead, creepy hallucinations, and adorable pet names. A BA ex con whose dead woman used to call him puppy, I think it's darling. However that's about as far as the characterization of the guy went. The story itself was dull and I found I kept reading just because it was a Neil Gaiman book and I kept telling myself if had to get better. The characters felt flat to me. The plot not 100% thought through. And to avoid spoilers, let's just say I was overall disappointed. 
That was Ok though. I had Neverwhere to keep me company for many rereads or if I wanted something a little more chipper I had Stardust. Then I managed to get a copy of the Anansi Boys. It was a book about a man called Fat Charlie Nancy who has no ambitions and no real merit in the world. He is an accountant and he is due to unenthusiastically be married. Then his father dies and at the funeral he discovers that he is the son of a spider god and he doesn't have powers because his brother has them all. If he ever wants to talk to his brother he just has to ask a spider to invite him. Once again this book gets off to a great start and it took me a little bit to think back to American Gods and make the connection that this was a spin off tale. That is probably why I didn't enjoy it and found the same flaws in it.
So once more disappointed with a Gaiman book I set my sights on The Graveyard Book. It was written for children I believe but had quite a fascinating story of the life of a little boy. This little boy's parents are murdered when he is just three years old and he waddles into a graveyard exploring/escaping from the murderer. It is in the graveyard the the inhabitants find him and protect him. The story follows the next twelve years of his life and what he goes through and all he learns being raised in a graveyard. I found it to be a darling story that kept me entertained all throughout. It was paced nicely and while it was a bit heavy on foreshadowing to the point of prediction, it was quite an enjoyable read that I would recommend. 
Now being in a couple of fiction courses, I have quite an extensive lot to read for class and it's not leaving me much time to read on my own. However the list is quite a varied selection of short stories and perhaps I will share my opinions of them with you in a little bit. I have my own works of fiction to create right now as well as papers to be done and a reading list to hack away at so I am capable of discussing things in class. 
So Corset is going to cross her fingers and try and find time to finish reading Charles DeLint The Onion Girl. Unfortunately it won't be today.
With Laundry calling her name,
Corset signing off.

Physical Brainstorming

So I don't know if I ever mentioned, but Corset likes to write and is in college to learn to write better. So we were talking in class and I turned out to be an anomaly because my brainstorming for a character wasn't a spider web with words it was a doodle. I refuse to believe I am the only person who doodles their characters to find out more about them. Want an example? Well I was trying to determine what was on my characters mind so this is what popped out:

It's poorly done, but then again it's not meant to have artistic merit it's meant to let me organize my thoughts on my characters. I have maybe a dozen of these featuring a character at different ages and some even scenes from the piece I am writing. I find it makes my life easier. Same thing, if I write a letter to a character. It makes me get in their head and ask, what have they been through lately? What type of person are they? How would they respond? Would they tell me about the crisis I'm writing or are they more secretive than that? I like fleshing out my characters so if I sound like I belong in a loony bin, you'll have to excuse me. I find once a character catches hold they irritate me until there story has been told, or the realization that there is no story to tell happens. 

;-) Going back to the padded walls,

Corset signing off.

Gotta Catch Them All

Pokemon applied to Husbands. 

Oh how much simpler the world would be if when you saw a man you wanted you just nailed him with a metal ball and got to keep him and they would automatically do what you said because you caught them. Hmmm.  Corset personally got her man the old fashion way. 

Corset enjoying her new tablet,

Signing off

Skyrim, an apology to the horse and other side notes

Ok so there's a remote possibility that someone may remember when I said the horses are awful don't use them unless you move slower than a dead horker. Well I also said there may or may not be one simple exception. Shadowmere. While the horse itself only seems to move a bit faster than the average horse, Shadowmere has one slight detail that is a blast to watch. This was the first time in a while I've seen a horse charge past me up a tower to kill the guy attacking me before I even found out where he was. Shadowmere is like a dog honing in on anything that might wish you harm and as long as you aren't riding him, he will chase it down and kill it for you, towers, mountains, houses, none of these things are large enough to stop the horse once it detects an enemy. I have found this a hysterical event, especially since my horse seems to be immortal. It's great to watch it try and take on a dragon. Even better when you realize, it might win given time.

Anywho, moving past the horse there is one slight reccomendation I would like to make about the game. Do the main mission sooner rather than later. I'll be honest here, I was putting it off to do random fun things around the universe for 120 hours. So you'll understand how disappointed I was when I killed the end boss in three strikes. I spent more time walking there then I did killing it making it feel like a mini mission rather than this thing I'd been waiting on. Same thing with the whole war issue, do that pretty early on or you'll just waltz through like you own the place.

In other news while we are speaking of things that start with sky lets talk about Skylanders. Skylanders is a childs game but if you have a sense of humor and someone to play with, it's not a bad use of a couple hours. In seriousness I'm talking about 4-5 hours MAYBE for an adult to play through. I wish we'd known that before we spent the $90 but hey, it's sunk money no need to dwell. However one thing to dwell on is the fact that you can buy certain mini's for the game that come with extra levels. Granted the levels are painfully short for an adult but they did try. Of course I'm still on the bandwagon that says I'd buy more of their stupid little mini's if they released free DLC levels for the game. A level is less than ten minutes long. It won't kill them to give someone hope that they didn't waste $90 for nothing. So my advice here is if you have an easily entertained kid, get if for them, they will have a blast and then one day when they are at school take a breather and just run through it real quick. It's got an adorable plot, some silly innuendos, and it will take less time than it probably takes to clean up after the kids you bought it for.

Anywho, Corset has papers to write and professors to email. Enjoy.
Signing off.

Health Insurance! My old friend!

You know what they say, you don't know what you got til it's gone. The more I think about it the more I think Health Insurance is the ultimate example of this. People who have it assume that they can just waltz into a long list of doctors offices pay a $20 co-pay and waltz out with their problem solved. It's a pretty nice idea. However one thing history has taught me is don't piss off the person who has you on their plan. It get's nasty when they give you an ultimatum. Do this or your health insurance will disappear. Most people shrug. When was the last time you got sick enough to see a doctor? Months ago? How many times do you go a year? Who cares right? Well who cares when you allergy medicine runs out, when your asthma medicine needs a refill but without insurance its over a $100 just for the one. I take four medicines on a regular basis to keep breathing in a steady manner and stop my skin from breaking out into hives. It's quite a nasty combination of allergies, asthma, and contact dermatitis. I assume that's why she thought I would chose the other option.

I didn't. Instead I chose to fight the medical industry once more. The age old fight of how far into debt are you willing to go to stay healthy, or in some peoples cases. Stay alive. I know I am the first to stand on my soap box and tell the world to suck it up, life isn't fair. But looking back on life, I can remember times when we owed more in medical bills than on our house. When were were debating to buy medicine for a family member in need or to buy food for the week and I can't help but wonder, how did it get this way? This isn't right. Children should never have to go hungry because they have a terminally ill loved one. No one should have to ever feel guilt that they asked for food one week which would take medicine away from a loved one.

I know there are some standing off to the side scoffing at me. There are options. True. There are a lot more options now than there were in the early - late  90's. But there are still not enough. In a world driven by profit there is little consideration left for those in need beyond the good will show of politicians. Who did the good deed of the day so they can get their brownie points with the population. So readers, let me ask you, do you think the medical industry is justified in its cost? What about the people who just can't afford? Suck it up? Maybe one of these days I'll hear from you.

If wishes were fishes I could fill a thousand seas.
Corset signing off.