If you follow this blog, you've probably noticed that I enjoy listening to myself complain. So, what do I enjoy?
Firstly, I picked up Terry Pratchett's new book, Unseen Academicals. I've read the first two-thirds of it so far, while I've been waiting for Isabel's jury duty. It reminds me a lot of the Witches series in tone* or, to be especially precise, the bits of Maskerade before Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg got involved. That was my favorite part of Maskerade, so I'm enjoying this book very much so far.
Secondly, I played through Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. The puzzles seem more balanced than the first game's. It's hard to find puzzles in that narrow range between "can solve it by looking at it" and "will never solve it".
Thirdly, I recently discovered Top Gear. It's a British TV program. It's kind of like Mythbusters, only they break cars instead of myths. To grab a random episode summary from their website: "We build a big ramp and test cars from various nations to see who can jump the furthest. "
Regarding my previous post:
Firstly, there are a few puns in Unlike Minerva. Walt Kelly made complex, beautiful wordplay look easy. It isn't. I stopped doing them because I realized I was better at everything else. And I do mean everything. Tree-lifting. Disarming bombs. Telepathy. I'm better at any of them than writing puns.
Secondly, regarding failure and comedy, there was a recent You Say it First story, Lockout. Brisbane gets locked out of his apartment and one of the guys from the lounge tries to pick the lock When I first wrote it, he failed. He said something like "Well, I guess I never really learned how to pick locks in the first place". Then I immediately rewrote it and now I realize why. Not just because it's funnier if he succeeds, but because he's got a lot of character development in those comics. He's worked a series of interesting odd jobs, he's a bit jealous of Brisbane's marriage and career, and he's got stories to tell, but nobody stops to listen. But if he didn't open the lock? If he was just playing at it? Then he'd be a clown and none of it would matter. So he opened it.