The GGA Project -- Day #136 "Guilty Pleasure (?)"

After leaving Monkey at his Dad's this evening, I headed to University Avenue in Palo Alto for a date-with-self, and one of the places I was most excited to go to was Borders.  Man, talk about cheap thrills.  The thing is, I used to work at Barnes & Noble forever.  I left and went back to work there three times!  A part of me really loved that workplace, despite the fact that it was retail.  If you're gonna work in retail, I can scarcely imagine a better venue than the bookstore.


Since leaving work there permanently, I've gotten a little bit sad whenever I go into bookstores.  For a time there, the subjects I was browsing were less-than-fun (having to do with relationships and divorce and whatnot), and since then I've been spending most of any time I browse books in the children's section at the library.


But this evening I felt the strong pull to re-live the feeling of my youthful, exploratory jaunts to Borders...the very first Borders that opened near the mall just before I graduated from high school in Phoenix, Arizona.  I remember walking into that place for the first time with my parents, brother, and grandpa, and thinking it was the most magical store I could conceive of (not that I'd conceived of this one, but I'd be hard-pressed to conceive of one more awesome).  I mean, really.  Books, music, and a coffee shop, all rolled into one?!  Kids these days take such places for granted, but back then it was a true novelty.


And even though I liked working at Barnes & Noble, once you work at a place like that 40 hours/week, you don't exactly enjoy hanging out in one.  Tonight was the first time in years I'd felt free to just browse all the displays without feeling the overwhelming urge to straighten anything that was out of line or in the wrong spot. Nevermind that I never worked at a Borders, I still would have felt the desire before: 'There are books out of alignment nearby; I must so what I can to remedy this!'


I wanted to splurge on a book I could abuse and dog ear, since the library is all up tight about that, it would seem.  But what to buy?


In thinking about The GGA, it occurred to me that it was a good opportunity to buy some guilty pleasure genre fiction.  What was the biggest departure from something I would normally choose?  I very briefly entertained the idea of buying a romance novel.  But this project is supposed to be fun, not torturous.  Nix that.


Then I thought of sci-fi or fantasy, an option I've actually considered once before, in the very early days of the project, but I decided I'm still not quite ready for that.


Perfect solution: mystery.  I used to admit to being (internally at least, and outwardly to some) something of a literature snob.  Anyone who studied literature as a major will tell you it's nearly sacrilegious (why is that word spelled like that?  The "i" and the "e" seem backward) to admit to reading, and god forbid enjoying, any genre fiction.  Mystery, sci-fi, and especially romance were for the lower-minded species of readers.  In my growing and expanding, however, I've come to realize that this attitude was simple prejudice, judgement, and close-mindedness.  While I might not be drawn to choose books in any of these genres, I had absolutely no grounds on which to snub them, especially since I'd never even read books in any of these genres! (Unless you count the Nancy Drew mysteries I read as a little girl).


So it was I ended up in the mystery aisle.


Today's New Activity: Mystery Genre Purchase


Once in the aisle I had a new decision to make.  Which of the mystery superstar authors would I choose?


First I thought the good thing to do would be to choose the very last thing I would have typically gone for.  First on that list would probably be one of the books in the ever-expanding mystery + cats or mystery + food sub-categories.  But I'm not there yet.  Then there was the author J.D. Robb, who is immensely popular because he's really the romance novelist Nora Roberts disguised as "J.D. Robb"--a la George Eliot, only not at ALL like that, since it tells you right on the book cover that J.D. Robb is really Nora Roberts.  Seriously, what is the point?  Anyway, I wasn't burning to try that option either.


In the end, Steig Larsson caught my attention.

I feel like choosing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is cheating in a way, if the goal was to explore genre fiction.  The book was critically acclaimed in a way that books shelved in these aisles typically are not.  But hey, we're taking baby steps here.  Next time I may just be willing to pick up one of Janet Evanovich's numerical series or Sue Grafton's alphabetical one.  I doubt it, but you never know.


Oh, and so far I've only read the prologue to my new book, but I can tell it's gonna be a page-turner.  And though page-turners aren't typically my thing, I am excited about this guilty pleasure, and maybe not even all that guilty.

The GGA Project -- Day #29 "WoW"

If you live nearby and are reading this, you know that I sent out e-mails inviting people to help me with my GGA project by introducing me to something they do, or have been eager to try, thereby helping lead me down new paths.

Though some of my new activities have involved other people just by the nature of the activity, or in an impromptu way, today was the first of the planned play date activity introductions, brought to me by my friend Kenneth.

A word here on the idea of writing about friends: I will not do so without permission, so that's covered, just FYI.  But I was thinking about it, and I have the feeling that writing about these play dates (I'm really not crazy about calling them that, but I can't really think of a better, non-wordy term off hand) will inevitably lead me to produce mini, potentially embarrassing shout-out biographies in which I tell you what is cool about this person I spent the hour or day with.  While it's kind of a cheesy thing to do, part of me responds to the cheese factor with a big fat, "so what?!," because, really, don't we spend enough time in our lives bitching and complaining about the people we know and encounter?  I think this is a great opportunity to share what I truly enjoy and appreciate, where my friends are concerned.

So then, back to Kenneth.

Kenneth is a former coworker I've known for, golly, 9 years now but have not spent too much time hanging out with outside of work.  He is, however, the perfect person to have become reacquainted with recently, especially in terms of this project, as he is into alllllll sorts of things I've had little or no exposure to before now.  A lot of his hobbies are things I consider to be within the realm of normal human activity: snowboarding, motorcycling, spending time with his girlfriend, reading, Rock Band, etc.  And then there is this whole other world which he is part of that has nothing to do with anything I would consider normal.  Case in point: Warhammer 40,000.  If you don't know what that is, consider yourself, well, normal  :)

I'm totally kidding, of course.  Yes, it's true that Kenneth's (self-described, I must add here) nerd/dork hobbies are for the most part foreign to me, but the fact that he is into them so passionately is, I would say, one of his praiseworthy character traits--mostly because he manages to walk that rare line of being a devoted sci-fi/fantasy/RPG geek while somehow retaining the ability to maintain good hygiene, talk to members of the opposite sex, and discuss current events (i.e. things happening in the *actual* world).  And hey, if you're gonna accuse me of being a hater, I simply invite you to attend the book signing of any major sci-fi author and you'll be singing another tune.  I've worked at a number of such events during my days at Barnes & Noble, and I can say that the reality is even WORSE than the stereotype, so back off, Jack!

Anyway, I've long maintained the position that Kenneth is actually my brother from another mother, and I offer the following as supporting evidence:

     Exhibit A:  Same corny, alliterative initials.  Ah ha!  (Are there really two sets of parents out there who would do this to their children?)

     Exhibits B, C, & D really all have to do with his similarities to my dad (of the same initials, I might add.  Ah ha, again!)  The two of them share the following common, yet truly-central-to-the-personalities-of-these-two qualities:

          1)  Tirelessly active and interested in a wide range of hobbies...for the most part game to trying anything

          2)  Super helpful and ready to lend their expertise to your cause on a moment's notice

          3)  Ridiculously good natured, and most comfortable in your friendship when teasing or being teased by you (my personal favorite)

Indeed, as I've told him many times before, Kenneth is a truly lovable nerd, and I'm happy to call him my friend.  Additionally, Jesse, one of my favorite people in the world, considers Kenneth one of his favorite people in the world.  Double the props by way of testimonial.  Don't you just love when your worlds match up like that?

Ok ok, enough of the Kenneth-fest.  I'll just move along and say that, despite the fact that a number of my friends participate in the below-discussed activity, the evangelical ("hey, you know what you should try?") nature of his dorkiness made Kenneth really the best choice to introduce me to 

Today's New Activity: Playing World of Warcraft

In writing that, I know that in near-equal parts, my friends and family members will cheer and groan.   Hahaha.  But I've been making fun of this hobby for like 4 years now, all along without even witnessing more than about 60 seconds' worth of playtime, a few years back.  Can't knock it till you know it, no?  That's not always the case, but hey, why not give this a try?

Look, that's me!  Getting quest orders from somebody named Niven or something like that.  Kenneth deleted a character on his account so I could make a new one, and I chose to play as a gnome.  I didn't know (because nobody TOLD me) until halfway through my 1 1/2 hour session that gnomes are pretty much the scum of the WoW earth, and I only found out because one of Kenneth's friends saw what he thought was him playing online (oh, that's an important thing about WoW...its devotees are EVERYwhere out there, millions of them, and they find each other and "socialize" online), then sent him a message that read, "really bitch, a gnome?!"  Ok, it wasn't that harsh, but whatever he said made it obvious that gnomes are losers.

Whatevs.  With a good deal of guidance, I was able to complete some 7 quests or so, making it to level 4 (!).  I cleaned up toxic geysers and annihilated deranged (was it?) leper gnomes, among other things.  I'd say I did my part to help the planet out today.

All in all, WoW was not nearly as stress-inducing or, well, lame, as I expected it to be.  In my young Nintendo days, I was always fond of the quest games (lost at least 100 hours of my life to The Legend of Zelda), so I can definitely appreciate that aspect of it.  I did, however, think it would get a little monotonous after a while, so I'm not susceptible to this *particular* potentially addictive activity.  Won't be losing my life due to WoW-induced dehydration anytime soon.  So that's a relief.

After the World of Warcraftin' we joined friends Dave and Scott in the garage, where they were pretty thoroughly engaged in a round of Warhammer 40,000, which, if you don't know, is a role-playing game in which armies are pitted against each other....to the DEATH!  Check out the beauties who sat this round out.  Look at 'em, just kicking it on the shelf, waiting for the next battle:

Nevermind the fact that no actual gunfire is exchanged and nothing actually moves at all without the players' assistance during the games: the winners and losers are clear.  Despite a decent explanation from these guys on how that happens, the theory of play turned to so much saywhat(?!) when I actually saw the game in action.  Here, watch this and see if YOU understand a word of it:  :P

Listen closely to what Kenneth says at about 1:15

Naw, KK, not judging...just enjoying another opportunity to appreciate the differences in our respective worlds.  I thank you for introducing me to yours.

And rest assured, I wasn't laughing at you, just near you.

The GGA Project -- Day #2 "Chuck"

Lately I'm having a terrible time finding (making) time to read.  Facebook time: no problem.  Reading time: problem.  I have to say a big part of this is that I don't have a good reading spot these days.  I used to always read while lying down in bed, but now that my baby boy and I share a room, I am reluctant to risk waking him with the reading light, and I just can't seem to get comfortable anywhere else.


The compromise I've made is to listen to books on CD during my long hours spent commuting to and from work and driving the 20 mile minimum I travel at least 3 times a week in order to visit any of my friends.  I'd never listened to a book before about 3 months ago, and I'm liking the new discovery.


Sooooo, I went to the library this afternoon with every intention of finding a sci-fi book on CD to check out.  This fit squarely (yes, the word choice is significant) into my try new things project as I've resisted sci-fi for years, despite the strong-armed encouragement of a host of friends and former coworkers (Kenneth).  Unfortunately (fortunately), there were only a few options, none of them viable because they were parts of series where the 1st installment was not in stock.  Anyway, I thought checking one of these out would be unfair anyway because their almost guaranteed suckiness in the grand scheme of even the sci-fi genre would have been too convenient an excuse for me to poo poo the whole movement for all time.  I thought that if I'm to read/listen to a sci-fi book, I should at least give it a fair shake and find a decent representation of the genre.


Plan B jumped off the shelf:  Today's New Activity: Chuck Palahniuk.  Diary, specifically.

I've never read a novel by Palahniuk (best known for Fight Club).  To be honest, I'm kind of scared of him for some vague reason.  My friend Jesse is a big fan (or maybe just a fan?), and maybe he told me something once upon a time...the overall sense is that perhaps Palahniuk likes to flirt with the grotesque...along those lines anyway.  Also, I feel like he's a real guy's kind of author.  The only people I've ever known to be fans were young men or else girls who are into ultra guy type things.  Anyway that assumption and speculation is about to be put to rest because I'll be listening to it come tomorrow morning.


I think I'll save the sci-fi adventure for month 10 or 11 of this project.  It definitely feels like a kind of final frontier for me.  And by then my mind will ideally be more open to new ideas and forays into imaginary universes.  Really.  I look forward to the day I can embrace that prospect with open arms :)