The Golden Compass

Alright, I am not the world's biggest fan of His Dark Materials, as most of my readers will know if they have read my book club postings. I know Philip Pullman is supposed to be some kind of genius and that these books have been voted as the best fantasy in seventy years, but I found them pretty hard to get into.

That said, I absolutely love the world that Pullman created...it's gorgeous. His concepts, from souls that take animal form and reside outside the human body to armoured bears that roam the far north, are simply amazing. I also found his characters to be both realistic and likeable. (Oh, and the heroine's a girl...and there's more than one strong female character in the book...in fact, there's many!) The main difficulty I had with the books was that they were so dense, layers and layers of words, and I found some of the religious themes to be a bit overbearing for my taste. However, with the wordiness removed and many of the subtexts stripped bare, leaving a world that is visually stunning and an overriding theme that is heart-stopping...

I expect to LOVE this movie. I may be first in line for tickets, babysitting notwithstanding, just to see the armoured bear.

And thank you, Philip Pullman for creating Lyra's universe...who knows...the books may get better with re-reading. Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings did.

It's True...

I'm a Facebook traitor. Have mostly been posting there since I can include pictures which I don't feel comfortable posting on the blog because it is open access. Today I am off sick from work. Currently awake because I had to go pick up the kids and feed them supper. Will be back to bed once Thammuz is home and able to help out.

It's been a mellow summer. Normally I am a pretty anxiety-prone person, but I actually feel content. I'm reaching more of my goals. I actually participated in a walkathon last weekend. My hubby decided to enter us last-minute - as in two weeks before the race. It was 5k and I had no time to train, but I decided to go and do it anyway. Two of our best friends did the walkathon with us. Our friend Darth, who actually exercises, placed 118th out of 245. My darling hubby placed 165th - he tried to keep up with Darth, but eventually gave in. Mr. SuperHappyAura (Orange) and I placed 236th and 237th respectively...not quite dead last. On the other hand, we didn't really try. Both of us know our health limitations and, without any training and being pretty out of shape, we weren't going to push it. So for us, it was more of a stroll-a-thon. The race, however, did convince us that it was fun enough to actually train for the next one. So, healthier futures await! I'll be taking bellydance lessons beginning in October to help whip my sorry behind back into shape. I'm also going to start walking more.

In other news, PirateBoy starts grade one next week. He's been practicing his reading and writing over the summer and he's showing some improvement, but more importantly, excitement with his work. His sister, Ninjababy, has passed her second set of swimming lessons and is getting really tall. Seriously...she's outgrowing her clothes so fast. I expected a lot of surprises when I had a baby, but tall is quite a shock considering.

I've spent most of the rest of my summer being obsessed with Harry Potter, participating in a life-encompassing medieval faire, plotting to dye my hair blue, and visiting Vegas.

So, that's my update. I'll try to live on the blog more instead of feeding Facebook as much...unless I can convince you all to join. It's just easier for me to have photos, e-mail, blog, and games all in one site. I promise not to ignore the blog anymore, though. Forgive?