![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Week in review: Week to 1 November
Nov. 3rd, 2024 06:01 pm. As I mentioned some time back, I had formed a vague intention to travel to the city and catch up with family there, but I had run aground on my problems with self-motivated scheduling. A week ago, I finally managed to nail down a specific event I could build the rest of my travel plans around, and then things proceeded with rapidity (perhaps aided by the fact that I'm running out of leave), so I'll be heading down later this week. Those of you who are in the city already, any suggestions about fun things to do or places to visit while I'm in town? I've already taken note that it's a WABA weekend, so if any of you are going I might see you there.
. I've been playing Ingress more than usual, partly inspired by the recent event and partly by noticing that I'm getting close to unlocking Access Level 12, which I've been picking my way toward for quite a while. (Although I looked it up just now, and apparently the feature that used to be only available to Level 12 and up was recalibrated months ago and is now available from Level 10 up, which shows you how much attention I've been paying. I'd have found out if I'd tried to use it in the past few months, but of course I never did because I thought I knew it wouldn't be available.) I'm running out of things to do locally because everything within easy bike distance is already incorporated into a field, which is partly a result of my activity and partly due to the fact that my main opponent, who can usually be relied on to tear down anything I build in short order, hasn't been active recently (based on past experience, he's probably out of town for a while). I'm using it as an impetus to expand my definition of "easy bike distance".
. Speaking of which, I've been riding my bike a lot recently. I'm trying to build up a habit of going for a bike ride in the morning before the day heats up (though even then, I haven't gone out recently without being glad my bike has a water bottle holder). I'm hoping that if I get the habit going now, it will stick when my leave is over and turn into me going for a bike ride before work.
. I've been reading a four-volume retelling of stories from the Mabinogion by Evangeline Walton, which if memory serves I picked up secondhand at a Swancon. It's a mixed bag; she tries to give comprehensible human motivations to the characters, which works better for some stories than others. Sometimes if you try to add human depth to a wonder tale about a cunning trickster, you run the risk of your audience coming to the conclusion that the trickster is an entitled jackass. And sometimes I don't know what Walton was doing; her characterisation of the female characters in Prince of Annwn, which I read first, is deeply weird and would probably have resulted in me giving up on the series entirely if I didn't already have all four volumes at hand. The Children of Llyr, which I read next, is much more successful (though the subject matter is grimmer, and it trails off a bit after it gets to the climactic tragedy), and The Song of Rhiannon and The Island of the Mighty fall somewhere in between. Looking back on it, I think the characters Walton created from whole cloth to patch gaps in the narrative feel more alive than the ones she took from the Mabinogion and tried to add flesh to, which is probably significant of something about the pitfalls of a project like this. In the end The Island of the Mighty did stick the landing, but my main emotion at finishing is to be glad I've got these checked off and can get on with reading something else that hopefully I'll enjoy more.
. Letters from Watson is onto the last Sherlock Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear. We're about halfway through, which since it shares the traditional Sherlock Holmes Novel Structure means that Holmes has just solved the murder and most of the remaining page count is going to be Arthur Conan Doyle, Frustrated Historical Novelist, giving us a detailed account of the killer and victim's backstory. I'm looking forward to it; from memory, this is the one in which the structure is most successful and the backstory most interesting. (I'm also looking forward to the reactions of the people who haven't read it before.)
. I've been playing Ingress more than usual, partly inspired by the recent event and partly by noticing that I'm getting close to unlocking Access Level 12, which I've been picking my way toward for quite a while. (Although I looked it up just now, and apparently the feature that used to be only available to Level 12 and up was recalibrated months ago and is now available from Level 10 up, which shows you how much attention I've been paying. I'd have found out if I'd tried to use it in the past few months, but of course I never did because I thought I knew it wouldn't be available.) I'm running out of things to do locally because everything within easy bike distance is already incorporated into a field, which is partly a result of my activity and partly due to the fact that my main opponent, who can usually be relied on to tear down anything I build in short order, hasn't been active recently (based on past experience, he's probably out of town for a while). I'm using it as an impetus to expand my definition of "easy bike distance".
. Speaking of which, I've been riding my bike a lot recently. I'm trying to build up a habit of going for a bike ride in the morning before the day heats up (though even then, I haven't gone out recently without being glad my bike has a water bottle holder). I'm hoping that if I get the habit going now, it will stick when my leave is over and turn into me going for a bike ride before work.
. I've been reading a four-volume retelling of stories from the Mabinogion by Evangeline Walton, which if memory serves I picked up secondhand at a Swancon. It's a mixed bag; she tries to give comprehensible human motivations to the characters, which works better for some stories than others. Sometimes if you try to add human depth to a wonder tale about a cunning trickster, you run the risk of your audience coming to the conclusion that the trickster is an entitled jackass. And sometimes I don't know what Walton was doing; her characterisation of the female characters in Prince of Annwn, which I read first, is deeply weird and would probably have resulted in me giving up on the series entirely if I didn't already have all four volumes at hand. The Children of Llyr, which I read next, is much more successful (though the subject matter is grimmer, and it trails off a bit after it gets to the climactic tragedy), and The Song of Rhiannon and The Island of the Mighty fall somewhere in between. Looking back on it, I think the characters Walton created from whole cloth to patch gaps in the narrative feel more alive than the ones she took from the Mabinogion and tried to add flesh to, which is probably significant of something about the pitfalls of a project like this. In the end The Island of the Mighty did stick the landing, but my main emotion at finishing is to be glad I've got these checked off and can get on with reading something else that hopefully I'll enjoy more.
. Letters from Watson is onto the last Sherlock Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear. We're about halfway through, which since it shares the traditional Sherlock Holmes Novel Structure means that Holmes has just solved the murder and most of the remaining page count is going to be Arthur Conan Doyle, Frustrated Historical Novelist, giving us a detailed account of the killer and victim's backstory. I'm looking forward to it; from memory, this is the one in which the structure is most successful and the backstory most interesting. (I'm also looking forward to the reactions of the people who haven't read it before.)
