The little guy is sick. Again. This time, it’s pink eye and an ear infection. I took him to the doctor on Saturday morning for the pink eye (obvious to anyone who’s ever seen it) and was disturbed to find that he had the added bonus of an ear infection. He had given me no signs; i.e. no ear pulling, no difficulty swallowing, no fussiness. The result of this is that I ended up going into work today while the wife could provide free child care so that I could be at home with him tomorrow. I detest working on the weekends, but at least this was for a good cause. I simply had too much to do to take tomorrow off.
I’m reading Stirling’s The Sunrise Lands while simulatenously doing a re-read of Tyrion Lannister’s passages in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. A buddy of mine and I are having
a good-natured debate about the future of Tyrion and how the foreshadowing may be intentionally mis-leading. If you’ve read the books, feel free to comment below and we’ll chat. Otherwise, go buy A Game of Thrones now. There is no excuse for not reading this book. As a matter of fact, I think Kate might visit you with a baseball bat if you refuse. (Look at that evil face! Don’t say I didn’t warn you!)
The Sunrise Lands is better than Stirling’s last book. The world is more mature, the characters are more likeable, and there’s a more concrete story to follow. I’ll write a full review later, but so far, it’s getting the thumb’s up.
As you might have inferred, I was disappointed by The Bionic Woman premiere, but I didn’t have a chance to talk about Heroes very much. (Spoilers follow; if you don’t want to read them, skip to the next paragraph.) I have mixed emotions about where the writers went with the story, specifically Parkman’s divorce, Nathan Petrelli’s (yes, he’s alive) descent into despair, and the curious absence of Niki, Micah, and D.L. I’ve read in other places that D.L.’s character will not be back for this season. I guess he bled out at the climax of season one? I’m also not wild about introducing new characters. The ensemble cast was quite large enough, and I was enjoying their stories. Throwing in new characters is just going to make it a hopelessly jumbled mess.
Team Fortress 2 is continuing to occupy my time. I have some concerns about balance issues (the spy and the pyro are currently overpowered), but in a friendly server, these serve as a irritating distraction rather than a game breaker. There are isolated reports of snipers being over-powered, but I haven’t found that to be true yet. I hope to continue to play this, despite a lack of interest from my core group of gamer buddies. It’ll have to continue to entertain me to pull me away from Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, which debuts this Tuesday. I don’t expect to get a whole lot of writing done in the latter half of the week.
And speaking of writing, Loss of Innocence is in a major overhaul. Since the first three chapters were serialized here on the site, I’m getting feedback that the first section is a little choppy. The latter chapters are smoother (confirmed by outside readers), but I’ve having to make some narrative changes to accomodate some editorial requests that I’ve had. (No, I don’t have a book deal yet, but my “representation” is having me make changes to ready the book for sale.) I will say that I think the changes compromise my “artistic vision” somewhat, but the bottom line is that I want to sell books. If the publisher wants something that I don’t find too morally reprehensible, I’ll put it in there. As a matter of fact, I might even put out. Any takers?
That’s about it in Pete’s world. How’s life in your neck of the woods?
![Let’s Kill Hitler [HD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hESmStH-L._SL160_.jpg)
Drop me a line (email of phone) if you are ever looking for some hot Team Fortress 2 action. I’m new to this particular sub-genre of games. It’s not much different than World of Warcraft’s Battlegrounds, but there are some undocumented strategies I’ve yet to uncover. That is to say: Imanoob. I expect I could learn a great deal from playing with you.
Pete isn’t blowing A Song of Ice and Fire out of proportion. I’m a good way through the second book in the series and I suspect this may be the finest fantasy book I’ve ever read. I was cautious at first. The series is long and I suspected the collectible card game was a sign the author would sell out his vision to legions of obsessive fans would. I couldn’t have been more wrong. These fans (geeky as they may be) came to Martin because his tales read more like a dramatic history than a comic book and I’ve no reason to think he’ll turn from that vision. Here are more of Pete’s posts on the topic:
Pete’s Must Read List
A Song of Ice and Fire – On HBO!
…now that I am familiar with the series I better understand Pete and Kate’s casting call. Nice.
If anyone is going to hang around for awhile in this series, it’ll be Tywin.
Martin has no qualms on knocking off characters; he did it in Wild Cards and he’s done it in TSOIAF, but I would be amazed if Tywin bites it anytime soon. I was glad he ditched Catelyn Stark, olny to be ‘very’ disappointed that he drug her back out…but oh well, it’s his story, not mine.
Maybe you should finish the four books before you make any predictions.
lollers. I actually started re-reading this as my “I need something to do at work” book this week. About half-way through A Game of Thrones. I forgot how much I liked his characters. I was reading some of the Jon Snow/Catelyn/Eddard passages, looking for clues to Snow’s parentage, based off the last time we’d talked about it lol.
Bottom line, Jason:
(Chris, don’t read. There are MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS below.)
There are multiple possibilities:
Rhaegar + Lyanna = Jon Snow
I love this possibility. It is hinted at that the thing that made Robert Baratheon angry enough to go to war was Lyanna, not the excesses of the then-Targaryen King Aerys. This is hinted at in a Brandon Stark chapter in A Storm of Swords when Meera tells Bran the story of “The Knight of the Laughing Tree.” This is also VERY consistent with Ned Stark’s character. I have a hard time believing that he would dishonor himself with anyone, so if the child were his sister’s, then that would be good. There’s also the nightmare that Ned has of “The Tower of Joy” which is defended by members of the Kingsguard. In it, Ned and Howland Reed (with other Northman) prevail, only for Ned to see images of his sister’s face saying “Promise me, Ned.”
Ned Stark + Ashara Dayne = Jon Snow
Unfortunately, this is also hinted at in the same story mentioned above. Ned seems to have a crush on Ashara Dayne, and that is told very pointedly in the course of the story. Would Ned dishonor himself? I don’t think so, but Jon Snow is paralleling his father’s development, and he does. Robb Stark does also with Jeyne Westerling. So who knows?
Ned Stark + Lyanna = Jon Snow
No way this happened. No way.
Ned Stark + Random Whore = Jon Snow
Given in A Feast For Crows by Jon Snow’s wetnurse, who meets a point of view character in the Riverlands. The circumstances surrounding the revelation seem suspect. This is even less likely thatn Ned and Ashara Dayne. If Ned did indeed dishonor himself, it would be with a woman he loved, not a random camp follower.
LA! LA! LA! LA! LA!
(CONTINUED SPOILER WARNING)
I prefer to think that it is Rhaegar + Lyana. I haven’t gotten to the part about the dream again yet, but from what I remember, that seems to have the most evidence for it as far as I’m concerned. The only other evidence I remember for the Stark + Dayne theory besides the story was the fact, way back in the beginning of A Game of Thrones, that someone (I think it was Jon or Catelyn.. I just read this yesterday and forgot already >
I just came across the interesting tidbit that the heir of the Daynes, who is with Beric Dondarrion in the Riverlands, is named Ned. I wonder if he’s named after ned Stark?
hrmm.. I almost think he’d have to be, unless it’s just a random naming coincidence… I mean, I can’t think of anyone else off the top of my head that was named Ed/Ned or anything close enough to bear nick-naming them as such other than Eddard Stark.