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missroseroseGiven the structure of The Eight, which is basically a series of eight monologues (not that you'd guess that from the title or anything), I've ended up with some spare time to kill in between the opening dance number (Alicia, our director, has a very strange sense of humor) and my turn, and then again between my turn and the closing bow. So I've been reading Cherie Priest's Four and Twenty Blackbirds, which was a Totally Non-Denominational Holiday present from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flewellyn.
I'll admit to a bit of skepticism when I first received it ("You should read this! It's by a friend of mine!" recommendations haven't always turned out well, in my experience), but I've been pretty pleasantly surprised. Ms. Priest has a far-above-average talent for both vivid imagery and creepy atmosphere, the two major components in any good ghost story. The pacing (which seems to be the downfall of many otherwise-good authors) has also been pretty good through the first half, and the beginning was quite engrossing. So the only real obstacle that remains is the ending, something that's always tricky in storytelling, and doubly so when it's a story of people coming in contact with the supernatural. But the first half of the novel has given me high hopes. I just hope it doesn't end up like Twilight...
Anyway, I'll be sure to post my thoughts when I've finished it. Because I'm sure everyone here knows how hard it is for me to remember to give my opinions on something. =D
While on the subject of The Eight, I actually had a very nice middle-aged woman I didn't know stop me on the way out of the dressing room last night and tell me she really enjoyed my performance. I was sort of surprised - Blitzen's monologue is funny, but not nearly so much as a couple of the others - but pleased nonetheless. She said that she'd like to see me on stage again, so I told her I'd mention that to whomever I auditioned for next. So, yay - I guess I have my first fan. (Though I suppose there's a good chance she said that to everyone, and I just didn't see...)
In other news, it looks like I'm scaling back my new-computer plans some. My computer here at home has been well into old age for some time now, and has reached the point where it's very close to unusability. Of course, it would do this at the least convenient time, i.e. just after I've bought everyone's Christmas presents, but whatever. Anyway, instead of the $2500 MacBook Pro that I'd really love but probably only occasionally fully use, I'm thinking I'll just get one of the nifty black MacBooks. The main things that turned me off of them were the smaller screen - my current computer has a 15" screen, which made the 13.3" screens on the MacBooks feel positively claustrophobic. They're nice for all that, though, and since I'm no longer using my computer as my main entertainment system anymore (yay for being out of college!), it'll work just fine for plain ol' Internet, email, blogging, instant messaging, etc. - as well as paper-writing and such if I do end up re-enrolling in college.
So the main question is how I'm going to pay for it. I have roughly $500 in savings that isn't spoken for, but I'd prefer to leave that there as a cushion. The Apple Store is running a special where if you sign up for their Visa card and buy something over $1000 on it, you get six months with no interest; that's tempting, but I really prefer not to have any more credit cards than the two I already have, and I hate the idea of using credit for something that's essentially a luxury item. Of course, I could just wait and not have a computer at home until I've saved enough, which would probably be the most reasonable thing to do, but I admit to being distinctly in the tech generation - to quote a friend, I am a computer-using person in the same way I am an air-breathing person, and I have a really hard time when I don't have on-demand access to the Internet. But at the same time, I know that I can live without a computer, which means that it's not a necessity.
A final alternative, and probably the most attractive to me at this point, would be to dip into Brian's and my joint savings account to buy it, and then simply make payments back to it. Brian's already said that he's cool with the idea, and we'd still have a fair chunk of change in it even after buying a MacBook, but I'm sort of hesitant, simply because that's our moving-away-from-Juneau fund. But then, we're not planning on moving for a year or two yet anyway, and I know I could pay it back if I simply disciplined myself, so...yeah. No living without computer for six months = happy!Rose. Plus 1500 airline miles from my Visa card. I can live with that.
flewellyn.I'll admit to a bit of skepticism when I first received it ("You should read this! It's by a friend of mine!" recommendations haven't always turned out well, in my experience), but I've been pretty pleasantly surprised. Ms. Priest has a far-above-average talent for both vivid imagery and creepy atmosphere, the two major components in any good ghost story. The pacing (which seems to be the downfall of many otherwise-good authors) has also been pretty good through the first half, and the beginning was quite engrossing. So the only real obstacle that remains is the ending, something that's always tricky in storytelling, and doubly so when it's a story of people coming in contact with the supernatural. But the first half of the novel has given me high hopes. I just hope it doesn't end up like Twilight...
Anyway, I'll be sure to post my thoughts when I've finished it. Because I'm sure everyone here knows how hard it is for me to remember to give my opinions on something. =D
While on the subject of The Eight, I actually had a very nice middle-aged woman I didn't know stop me on the way out of the dressing room last night and tell me she really enjoyed my performance. I was sort of surprised - Blitzen's monologue is funny, but not nearly so much as a couple of the others - but pleased nonetheless. She said that she'd like to see me on stage again, so I told her I'd mention that to whomever I auditioned for next. So, yay - I guess I have my first fan. (Though I suppose there's a good chance she said that to everyone, and I just didn't see...)
In other news, it looks like I'm scaling back my new-computer plans some. My computer here at home has been well into old age for some time now, and has reached the point where it's very close to unusability. Of course, it would do this at the least convenient time, i.e. just after I've bought everyone's Christmas presents, but whatever. Anyway, instead of the $2500 MacBook Pro that I'd really love but probably only occasionally fully use, I'm thinking I'll just get one of the nifty black MacBooks. The main things that turned me off of them were the smaller screen - my current computer has a 15" screen, which made the 13.3" screens on the MacBooks feel positively claustrophobic. They're nice for all that, though, and since I'm no longer using my computer as my main entertainment system anymore (yay for being out of college!), it'll work just fine for plain ol' Internet, email, blogging, instant messaging, etc. - as well as paper-writing and such if I do end up re-enrolling in college.
So the main question is how I'm going to pay for it. I have roughly $500 in savings that isn't spoken for, but I'd prefer to leave that there as a cushion. The Apple Store is running a special where if you sign up for their Visa card and buy something over $1000 on it, you get six months with no interest; that's tempting, but I really prefer not to have any more credit cards than the two I already have, and I hate the idea of using credit for something that's essentially a luxury item. Of course, I could just wait and not have a computer at home until I've saved enough, which would probably be the most reasonable thing to do, but I admit to being distinctly in the tech generation - to quote a friend, I am a computer-using person in the same way I am an air-breathing person, and I have a really hard time when I don't have on-demand access to the Internet. But at the same time, I know that I can live without a computer, which means that it's not a necessity.
A final alternative, and probably the most attractive to me at this point, would be to dip into Brian's and my joint savings account to buy it, and then simply make payments back to it. Brian's already said that he's cool with the idea, and we'd still have a fair chunk of change in it even after buying a MacBook, but I'm sort of hesitant, simply because that's our moving-away-from-Juneau fund. But then, we're not planning on moving for a year or two yet anyway, and I know I could pay it back if I simply disciplined myself, so...yeah. No living without computer for six months = happy!Rose. Plus 1500 airline miles from my Visa card. I can live with that.
