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Bujinkan today was very ninja themed. Lots of rolling about and avoiding your enemy (and planning to run away) or getting in a hit or two before rolling away. Sensei Jack came in the last half hour and had us doing this one kick and roll over and over which I was only variably good at, then another move which I got in seconds and could do perfectly every time. Such is life. Have a few bruises but nothing serious. Hit my heel once and saw stars, which was interesting since it didn't feel all that painful, but the stars begged to differ. Made sure not to do that again so I can train on Wends. Jack said exactly one sentence to me, which was, "Got that, Skinny?" *L*
I trained with the guy who flirts with me all the time (he pulls my braid...). Every once and awhile he asks me to train with him so he can do some heavier flirting. I don't mind so long as he isn't serious. He told me some interesting stories to impress me. I liked the one about how historical ninjas used to carry around monkeys dressed in ninja outfits. They'd run down an alleyway, throw a smoke bomb, and disappear. Leaving a ninja monkey in their place and some very confused guards *L* This led to me picturing Naruto monkeys - Monkey!Gaara, Monkey!Kakashi *g*
It took me five hours today to submit one job application. This was partially because the application had so many weird specifications and extra documents, and partially because I couldn't figure out where in my luggage I'd packed my transcript (which I needed a copy of). At this rate, will be applying for only one job a day.
And now, a review - Tong Lashing by Peter David - This was a better book than the last one, but I can't help but think that I didn't get a lot of the humour in the last one since it was parodoying the very specfic barbarian and warlord subset of fantasy. I got the LOTR parody at the beginning of The Woad to Wuin and was vaguely sure it was parodying Conan in other places, but other than that, it wasn't all that funny or interesting.
Tong Lashing managed to at least be interesting enough to make me want to finish it, though not enough that I couldn't have put the book down and walked away. I liked the poke at roleplaying at the beginning (and Thomas Covenant, who deserves it...) even if the actual game just made me think of Yugioh. If in the last book I kept wondering if I was missing the joke, this book I didn't see any jokes to miss (though I suppose you could have missed the Thomas Covenant one if you don't know the basic plot and character of it). For a book proposing to parody fantasy, it was more depressing, self-centred and predictable. Part of this is because Apropos gets more and more unlikable over time. The other is because he occasionally has to act really out of character to get the plot moving and there seemed to be a lot of moments like that in this book.
I was kinda annoyed by the Oriental theme of the book. I wouldn't have minded the blending of Japanese and Chinese culture so much if the book was parodying the whole genre, but instead it came across as the kind of sloppy world building by stealing from history that I find so annoying in fantasy. I suppose since I'm very familar with that type of genre too, the story was even more predictable than usual.
It did make me laugh once, and grin at least one other time (for comparisson an average Discworld novel makes me laugh out loud about 2-3 times and grin every couple of pages... this is why I consider Pratchett to be a god of humour), but I'm not really sure what these book's purposes are any more. I read them for the humour, but they've lost that element. I'm kinda curious to see what happens in the next book, but also might jsut grab it off the shelf one day and skim it.
In other news, I surprised myself by reading the first ten chapters of Slam Dunk last night, and mostly enjoying myself, even if the main character is an ultimate Dork. It made me laugh though, which is always a plus. Appreciated this since HunterXHunter is getting kinda old.
I trained with the guy who flirts with me all the time (he pulls my braid...). Every once and awhile he asks me to train with him so he can do some heavier flirting. I don't mind so long as he isn't serious. He told me some interesting stories to impress me. I liked the one about how historical ninjas used to carry around monkeys dressed in ninja outfits. They'd run down an alleyway, throw a smoke bomb, and disappear. Leaving a ninja monkey in their place and some very confused guards *L* This led to me picturing Naruto monkeys - Monkey!Gaara, Monkey!Kakashi *g*
It took me five hours today to submit one job application. This was partially because the application had so many weird specifications and extra documents, and partially because I couldn't figure out where in my luggage I'd packed my transcript (which I needed a copy of). At this rate, will be applying for only one job a day.
And now, a review - Tong Lashing by Peter David - This was a better book than the last one, but I can't help but think that I didn't get a lot of the humour in the last one since it was parodoying the very specfic barbarian and warlord subset of fantasy. I got the LOTR parody at the beginning of The Woad to Wuin and was vaguely sure it was parodying Conan in other places, but other than that, it wasn't all that funny or interesting.
Tong Lashing managed to at least be interesting enough to make me want to finish it, though not enough that I couldn't have put the book down and walked away. I liked the poke at roleplaying at the beginning (and Thomas Covenant, who deserves it...) even if the actual game just made me think of Yugioh. If in the last book I kept wondering if I was missing the joke, this book I didn't see any jokes to miss (though I suppose you could have missed the Thomas Covenant one if you don't know the basic plot and character of it). For a book proposing to parody fantasy, it was more depressing, self-centred and predictable. Part of this is because Apropos gets more and more unlikable over time. The other is because he occasionally has to act really out of character to get the plot moving and there seemed to be a lot of moments like that in this book.
I was kinda annoyed by the Oriental theme of the book. I wouldn't have minded the blending of Japanese and Chinese culture so much if the book was parodying the whole genre, but instead it came across as the kind of sloppy world building by stealing from history that I find so annoying in fantasy. I suppose since I'm very familar with that type of genre too, the story was even more predictable than usual.
It did make me laugh once, and grin at least one other time (for comparisson an average Discworld novel makes me laugh out loud about 2-3 times and grin every couple of pages... this is why I consider Pratchett to be a god of humour), but I'm not really sure what these book's purposes are any more. I read them for the humour, but they've lost that element. I'm kinda curious to see what happens in the next book, but also might jsut grab it off the shelf one day and skim it.
In other news, I surprised myself by reading the first ten chapters of Slam Dunk last night, and mostly enjoying myself, even if the main character is an ultimate Dork. It made me laugh though, which is always a plus. Appreciated this since HunterXHunter is getting kinda old.
