Panthera Sapiens Ellipsis: The Blog

[Monday, May 21] I have finally got some good news regarding the job--it's over. My parents have decided that a month in China with them would be vastly more therapeutic than living with the Brats. (It's also something to do with me going off to Singapore soon and being further separated, and with their impeding move of house, which will require spring-cleaning of the new house and arrangement of various possessions.) So they told me, by email and via the Empress, to get my visa ready and my passport and to get a ticket to the Big S, as soon as I can. The Coconut said not to worry about her while I'm gone. So far I've got two travel agents' numbers to call and compare prices and visa preparation durations. I do hope everything goes OK, or else I'm going to have to get a ticket to Wuhan, which might be more expensive than to the Big S and might require a transit flight into the bargain (I dislike transits). But at least I'm going to be merrily jobless after t...

[Monday, May 7] My wallet, and I, are reeling somewhat from a series of impulse purchases over the last week--or more specifically, the last weekend, beginning on Saturday when I went into a secondhand goods store near my church. That store turned out to have rather more interesting things than its exterior suggested--at first I had thought it sold only old TVs and electric guitars that nobody could tune any more. Apparently they have stacks and stacks of bokken--Japanese training swords, very blunt but very heavy--going for less than 10 each; boxes piled high with records (I'm not sure if they were pirated, though); and, which caught my attention most, a few hundred books in shelves along the wall. I was decidedly happy to see those. The books, naturally, were mostly romance novels with half-undressed chests sprawled all over the cover. I avoided those, but I did find an early Patricia C Wrede (I've read some of her other work, and it's pretty good); a David/Leigh Eddings ...