Monday 31 October 2016

Autumn darkness sucks

Today's mood is a great resounding "MEH". It was dark when I staggered half asleep off to work this morning and it was equally dark as I left... this time of year is no fun at all.


Wednesday 19 October 2016

The Hutt Recommends: The Name of the Wind

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.
First of The Kingkiller Chronicles.

   The road of life has been long, winding and most arduous for Kvothe – adventurer, famous musician, arcanist and living legend - now living out his life quietly and as anonymously as possible as an innkeeper in a rural town. He's been across the world and seen many things, been hunted by demons, studied the arts of magic and swordsmanship, spent time with the fae and is even rumoured to have killed a king...
So when Chronicler is attacked by demons on the road and Kvothe saves him (which also leads to Chronicler realising just who his saviour is) he offers to put Kvothe's story on record as thanks. After some consideration, Kvothe agrees and with that our story begins.

   I really enjoyed this novel. It's a story within a story within a story, because while we're listening to a life as told by the old Kvothe, young Kvothe is chasing a completely different story - the layering is excellent. Sure, we might have heard the story before; brilliant young man becomes hero, but it's still a welcomed story and Rothfuss actually does something quite new and exciting with it despite the predictability that experienced fantasy readers might feel. It leaves you wanting for the next part of the story.
My big weakness nowadays, especially with fantasy and scifi fiction, is finding the major female characters and analyzing them to bits. In this case we have in our main girl a variation of Sexy Lamp with Manic Pixie Dream Girl syndrome. Lets be frank; I hated her. The story could have gone on without her and been better off for it. I know Kvothe would be better off without her, that's for sure.

   The novel's on the heavier side with 700+ pages so if you're not in to  that you can download it and instead listen to 40+ hours of Kvothe's adventures. In either case, I recommend it.


   With the immense success of Game of Thrones I'm very surprised that the rumours from several years ago that Kingkiller Chronicles were going to be adapted into a tv series haven't given results yet. I guess we'll just have to give them a few more years...
...just like we seem to have to give Rothfuss a few more years for the continuation of the Kingkiller Chronicles.

Wednesday 12 October 2016

Feathers and bones

I've got a new tattoo!
   "Again?" I hear you mutter, and yes, again. I finally got around to putting a chestpiece on this delectable bod. Ever since I began wanting tattoos I've been hesitant about chestpieces in particular for a myriad of reasons including but not limited to that they're not as easy to hide (something I've always been very specific about wanting to be able to do) and were rumoured to hurt like a motherfucker to get done, more so than the tattoos I wanted on my legs. Put on a shirt with the least bit of a lower neckline and the ink is visible, but even I had to admit they look fantastic when well made. So when I found out one of my favourite artists on DeviantArt was also a tattoo artist I felt like it was meant to be. I made a sketch, booked a time, booked a flight to where I could find her studio (yeah, you guessed it - Warsaw) et voilĂ ! Just about 4,5 hours under the needle and done.
It's healing up nicely now.
   And the rumours about the pain were absolutely 100% true. Hoooooly hell, did it hurt.


   Just for fun I took a stroll around the corner to Instagram Land and checked out whether or not the tattoo artist had put up any pictures of my tattoo there. It's not like she asked me if she could do it or alerted me to it, which I would have appreciated by the way since it happens to be my chest, but she's the artist so I guess it's still fair. And indeed there it was with plenty of lovely comments to go with it.
There was also a picture of her in a bastardised Native American style war bonnet. Suddenly the bit about her putting up pictures of my chestpiece without telling me didn't seem all that bad. She describes her selfie as a tribute to a beautiful headdress, knowing full well she's going to have a shit storm in the comments section about cultural appropriation, but... people have been murdered for wearing war bonnets (the real thing, not her cheap Indonesian faux crap). Millions and millions of people were murdered, raped and displaced in North America, and continue to be treated terribly today. Realising just how ignorant and disrespectful she is of Native American history kind of hurt a little because I admired her work. What makes it worse is that even after being told repeatedly by actual Native Americans about how and why it's wrong of her to use that war bonnet she admits to no wrongdoing.

   I realise it doesn't take away from how awesome my tattoo is but it makes sure I will not be returning to her studio.
   On a positive note; I have a Harry Potter-themed tattoo.

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EDIT:
   SHE TOOK THE PICTURE DOWN! Not the ones of my tattoo but the one with her wearing the bastardised war bonnet. Last time I checked before she took it down the comment section was starting to get a little... infected.