Eternal Life

Whether you want to or not, you will live forever.

Well, maybe not your entire being, but a portion of yourself will be present on the planet for decades after you kick the bucket. The portion of your being that receives mail.

That's right, I'm referring to junk mail. Yesterday, a relative that has been departed from this planet for thirty years, received a piece of junk mail. It's was from a charity looking for donations and here is how the letter began:

"Dear XX,

How are you? We have not heard from you in awhile and hope that all is well in your life..."

Then the letter went on to ask for money, etc...

I about laughed myself silly. Uhm... perhaps the thirty year absence should have indicated that something was wrong.

I find the whole thing disturbing and annoying, but also in a weird way comforting. In the future, my great, great grand whatevers can say, "Hey look. The Wall Street Journal wants Adrianne to subscribe."

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Look out Neal Shusterman. You still are the focus of my literary crush, but Paulo Bacigalupi has the goods to give you a run for your money.

Ship Breaker is fanstastic! It really deserves the bazillion awards it has garnered. Fast paced, fresh set-up, well-rounded characters, even a hint of romance which male authors are usually clumsy about pulling off. Highly readable and enjoyable.

I was reading reviews of the book on amazon. Of the few people who only gave this book one star (we're talking 2 out of a hundred) one person's complaint was there was too much bad language. Really? I may be jaded from too much YA reading, but I confess that I can't remember any. The other guy complained that this was another dystopian YA novel on an oil rig and it didn't deserve all the awards. A comment on the review asked which dystopian YA novel set on an oil rig the guy prefered. (Good stuff. ) My suspicion is that negative review was spawned from the pride of a failed writer. It was a little too bitter to not have some personal motivation,

Anyway, if you're searching around for that next compelling book, Ship Breaker is the one to get.

p.s. - Just had my request for The Windup Girl come in from the library. Let's see how it goes.

Husky

I was reading a book that described someone's voice as husky - actually it read "husky English accent" which was confusing to me, but anyway - I began thinking about the word.

If someone has a husky voice, that's usually a good thing. (Unless they are suffering from Bogart Bacall Syndrome)

If someone has a husky body, that's usually bad. (And no one wants to admit to wearing Husky jeans)

If someone has a husky dog, then a lot depends on whether the person has bothered to train the dog. (But they do have pretty eyes and I'm always interested in the Iditerod.)

The different meanings / nuances of a word is fascinating to me.

I have a mini-gig naming makeup and I was trying to come up with a catchy word for a specific blush. I was focusing on blushing, love's first blush, flush, full flush...

And then I looked at Flush from a different angle and decided maybe it wound't be something a lady would want to put on her face...