Insomnia

[thistlechaser]

Fooled ya! Nope, I'm sleeping fine, the subject line is referring to Insomnia, the book written by Stephen King. (Though, during the times I have trouble sleeping, the fact that I'm reading a book called that amuses me.)

After finishing the Dark Tower series, I had intended to go back and read it from the beginning. (I had read the first book in the series more than 15 years ago, so I probably forgot lots of stuff.) But instead of rereading, I decided to read Insomnia first since one of the important Dark Tower characters came from that book.

One would think that I would be annoyed that that major character appeared in only a few pages of the almost 700 page book, but I wasn't. One would think that I would be annoyed that Dark Tower-related stuff was only even touched upon in the last 100 pages of the book, but I wasn't. The story stands up totally fine on its own -- it's a novel worth reading for itself, not for its ties to the Dark Tower series. (That being said, ties across his books are wonderful. It's like being a part of a whole big universe!)

Even only midway through Insomnia, I liked it so much that I went out and bought four more King books I hadn't read yet. (Darned fellow writes them faster than I can read them!) I've been reading him since I was a teen, and there are still books of his I haven't read. Amazing, huh?

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MUSH: I came in to work this morning, only to find the darned MUSH is still down. How am I supposed to get stuff done if I can't log on?!?! :P

FFXI: Such an odd thing happened yesterday. Usually I have an awful day at work, and feel better when I log onto the game. Yesterday was the opposite: I had an okay day at work and went home feeling fine, but almost from the very second I logged on, things went to hell. And, somehow, as the night went on, they only got worse and worse. (It's unbelievable how bad things got. For players: I did 24 crafting synths, on an item 56 levels below me. 24 synths. On a new moon. How many HQed? 3. And 5 broke! That much bad luck should be impossible. I should have a better chance HQing some level 100 craft item than failing and not HQing that much!) So eventually I got the clue the damned game was beating me over the head with and logged off early.

Anime: I should have logged off even earlier than I did! I caught up with three eps. Two of the wacky people-in-animal-costumes one (I forget its name. D-something D-something.) I love how cracky it is. <3 <3 <3 It was so good watching stuff again!

Then I watched the double ep of Naruto from last week! Every time I watch the series I say the same thing to myself "This is so good! How do I let myself not watch the ep as soon as the sub is released!" The characters are so nicely complex! Overnight I downloaded the latest ep, and watched it this morning before work. I still dislike Angsty Older Brother, but he's got more depth now and I'm finding him more interesting.

I really, really need to make more time for watching anime.

This morning FFXI was down, and I found myself not upset in the least that I couldn't log on. Not one tiny little bit. I just wish I didn't have commitments that were requiring me to be there three of the next four days. I think I need a break from the game. (I actually pondered WoW just a little. It's supposedly so stress-free! Easier than FFXI, but that's not necessarily a bad thing! Too bad the graphics make me want to destroy my computer...)

Comments

[chaosd1.livejournal.com]

FFXI: Such an odd thing happened yesterday. Usually I have an awful day at work, and feel better when I log onto the game. Yesterday was the opposite: I had an okay day at work and went home feeling fine, but almost from the very second I logged on, things went to hell. And, somehow, as the night went on, they only got worse and worse.

It would seem my theory holds true to others. When it comes to World of Warcraft, I usually seem to have a good time playing ONLY if I had a bad/sub-par day at work. There was a few times when I'd play after having a really good day at work, things just didn't work out. The party I was in would be full of idiots. I would have NO luck on uncommon drop dice rolls. Everything I would put in the Auction House wouldn't sell. One time, my favorite member of my guild quit... and then stopped playing on the Perenolde server altogether.

I'd have to say I'm one of the most superstitious people I know, so I stuck with just not playing WoW if my work night was even remotely enjoyable. On the plus side, I get the 2x experience bonus from being logged out for so long.

However, if you're not a fan of the fact that FFXI was down, I'd say WoW is not the place to be. I'm sure you've heard about the lag issues. They're all true. The Perenolde server usually behaves itself... I do think about going to an RP server sometimes, though.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

There was a few times when I'd play after having a really good day at work, things just didn't work out.

Huh! That's really odd. I wonder if that applies to most players of MMORPGs... and if so, do the makers of the games know that the majority of their playerbase is unhappy with their real lives?

It's also interesting how superstitious people who play are (me included!). I'm not in RL, but in the game I do things like always wanting to face west while crafting.

Thanks for the server info!

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

But instead of rereading, I decided to read Insomnia first since one of the important Dark Tower characters came from that book.

Huh? I remember reading Insomnia back in...oh, 98' or so and I never noticed a DT character in there. Who is it?

As for Naruto, I'm sort of ehh on Itachi. I don't like Sasuke and Itachi just seems so...soulless.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I don't have the book in front of me so I won't remember his name, but Patrick D-something, the artist, turned out to be the whole reason for the book. The old couple needed to stop Ed's plane from hitting the civic center because the kid was in it, and the powers of the Purpose(good side) knew he'd be important. The very interesting thing is that the powers said that Pactrick would save "two men" in another world... so that backs up King having said he intended to have it be Roland and Jake as the last two living characters, and have Patrick join them to beat the Crimson King.

Sasuke and Itachi just seems so...soulless.

Yeah, but that's kinda a little interesting to me. (Assuming they got that way through story reasons and not just bad writing.)

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

Well, Sasuke's screwed up because of Itachi, but so far, they've just made Itachi out to be some sort of mad genius who slaughtered the clan on a whim.

The only major reason he would be crazy is because he had to do something unspeakable* to gain the Mange Sharingan (although it was his choice in the first place to do it, so it's not like he didn't have free will in the matter).

*spoiler for part of the manga chapters from 230 and up. I don't know if it'll play a part in the anime, but I figure it might.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Itachi

Hm. Well, that's not much of a reason, yeah. (And I'm sorry to hear that he's still around! I know the manga is far far ahead of the anime storyline. I would have hoped he was gone by now!)

I keep getting tempted to read the manga, but I really want to experience my first seeing of the story through animation, not flat, static black and white pictures. (And yeah, I know most people disagree with me on that.)

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

He shows up in fits and starts. In the manga, there's the "Going after Naruto" part, then there's a dragging flashback arc, and there's something going on about the Akatsuki in general in the current arc now.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah, that sounds okay enough. Thanks for the info!