After Game Of Thrones

Posted on June 24, 2019 by Meg

We had a dramatic Westeros death pool at my work for the last season of Game of Thrones, where we bet on who’d survive, and counted out each week to see who was ahead. I don’t watch the show, but I read all the books, so I wanted in. Although the TV series has gotten ahead of the books, and I’m waiting for Winds of Winter to come out and wrap up the story arcs for the characters I care about. (Apparently Brienne of Tarth gets knighted?)

I’ve really loved how this story pulls people together, like my coworkers at Epic Games or in Yangzhou or now in Boston, and guessing what will happen next is the best part. I don’t know what other stories have the same mass appeal combined with the same reversals of fortune. I’ve never seen anything like the way the internet exploded over the Red Wedding, and it almost makes me sad that I read that alone instead of with dozens hundreds thousands of friends feeling the same way.

Anyway, I’ll need a new series to read, and since someone refuses to be hurried on Winds of Winter, I’ll have to check the best books about dragons for more fantasy recommendations Of this list, I liked the Cinder and Bone series best, for the blend of scifi and fantasy. In this world, dragons are basically dinosaurs, intriguing but extinct animals, and just like in Jurassic Park, science just can’t leave them alone…  

Right now, I’m currently 2 books in to the Limited Wish trilogy,  and anxiously awaiting the third book. These scifi novels focus on time-travel and tabletop gaming. Fantastic things happen, over and over in these novels, but they’re explained with time travel and split universes, not dragons and magic. 

Shortly after Game of Thrones ended, and our work death pool ended, WorkBro told me he got drunk and ran some stats on our guesses and success rate (This is why we are friends.) and asked if I knew how often we, as a group, correctly predicted the character’s end. I guessed 51%, because the reversals and betrayals of Game of Thrones are a lot of the appeal, but you don’t want fiction to feel completely random. It would be too frustrating. I was just slightly off, it was actually 58% or 59%, but it holds true. Just a little bit better than randomly guessing.

I’ve enjoyed the reversals in Ruth Ware novels, like The Death of Mrs. Westaway and The Lying Game. Both of them have stunning reveals and twists, just like in GoT, although with more modest death counts. (I know The Woman In Cabin 10 is the one getting the most buzz, but it just didn’t pull me in the way her other novels did. Rich people using endless wealth and connections to be over-the-top evil isn’t nearly as compelling as ordinary people doing whatever they can to keep their dark secrets.)   Lucy Foley’s new novel The Hunting Party is another one with twists and turns to take the reader completely by surprise.

What about you? What’s replacing Game of Thrones for you?

 

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Dear Prudence

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Meg

I always listen to Dear Prudence on the subway. This week, I almost screamed when I heard Julian introduced as the guest! I shouldn’t have been so surprised, since there was already a reference to Julian’s podcast in a previous Shatner Chatner, but still. My friend is on Dear Prudence! There’s also sweet marriage advice from Seth’s nana included.

You can listen too! But maybe, don’t scream  when Daniel says Julian will be the guest.

 

 

 

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On Leaving Davis Square

Posted on June 4, 2019 by Meg

For the last almost-3 years, I’ve lived down an alley behind a Thai restaurant and a closed not-restaurant. For a few months, there was a dumpster in front of my house, but then the construction finished, and the abandoned restaurant became a stylish little coffeeshop in front. I started to harbor fantasies about getting fancy coffees every morning (on my way to meet the coworker who’s driven me to school since, uh, since there was some Boston bridge construction traffic two summers ago). I imagined having my reliable home wifi from a cute coffeeshop table.

Now that we have a cute coffeeshop out front instead of a dark alley, our landlord wanted to raise the rent by $500/month. Not a typo. Does that sound kinda evil to you, too? Because when my husband wondered if such a huge increase was legal, our landlord changed his mind and just declined to renew our lease, which is of course 100% legal. So we have to move.

No more little rogue garden in the gap next to the Thai restaurant, with the hardy perennials started by my previous upstairs neighbor. No more riding to work with Aaron, which has been such a nice part of my weekday mornings. No more little branch library next to the subway stop, although that’s closed for renovations now, because nothing gold can stay. No more Thai takeout next to my front door, although the Thai restaurant has new owners, who’ve stopped selling cheap bowls of noodles and started selling fusion brunch.  Leaf subsides to gentrifying leaf, y’all.

The neighborhood has had a lively Facebook board for local news, and it’s usually full of my neighbors finding a missing glove or holding a yard sale or complaining about snow parking, but a few days ago, Trump trolls took over the page with truckloads of own-the-libs memes. I don’t really understand most trumpery, but owning the libs is particularly baffling. “New Yorkers hate Trump for his shady deals and failure to pay staff, and I hate New Yorkers, so I support Trump! That’ll drive those liberals drive crazy! I’ll stick it to those liberals by voting against my self-interest! MAGA!” Weird, unwelcome, and generally unpleasant, and this is exactly this type of heavy-handed symbolism that doesn’t work in fiction.

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My Chinese Food Autobiography

Posted on April 4, 2019 by Meg

When we made Takeout, I wanted to share my personal experience with players. It’s an autobiographical game, using game mechanics to tell my story and my feelings.

I wanted to share the frustrating mystery of ordering in foreign language and the joy of finally getting a good meal. The face-down draw deck represents my understanding that there was something good in the kitchen, but not being able to choose what I was getting. The lack of Cold cards represents, well, the lack of cold drinks, due to the traditional Chinese belief that cold drinks are unhealthy. Even my original game title, Chi Fan Le Ma?, sums up the value of good food in Chinese life.

Last weekend, we took our games to Ithacon. Just between us, Internet, I almost backed out of the show because I felt terribly overextended. Our landlord is selling, so we have a surprise move coming up, which means every minute I’m not teaching, I’m apartment hunting, Harold is changing jobs, and also adulting is unpleasantly time-consuming in general. And when we finally left for Ithacon, we got caught in a freak March snowstorm in the upstate mountains, so I quoted that road to Ithaka poem to Harold as we pulled into a highway motel and hoped that we could make the rest of the drive in the morning. (Being married to me is an unending delight.)

But I’m glad we made it, because I had a really wonderful time sharing Takeout with new players. We also demoed our Captain Action card game and our newest project, a beta release of a vintage fortune-telling game, but while I’m quite proud of our other projects, they just aren’t as personal as Takeout.

With Takeout, I’m sharing more of myself and my own experiences with new players. It can be a bit emotional to share my game, submit it to a festival, or even talk too much about it, because on some level, it really is my personal story, in a deck of cards.  So I really loved seeing new friend groups figure out the food-stealing as they teased each other about their real-life chopstick skills or yoinked a favorite dish. The Ithaca College kids were so friendly and receptive, and I just felt so lucky to be there.  Ithacon was great in general, the student organizers and volunteers killed it. We’ve been to professional conventions that didn’t run nearly as smoothly. But my main memory was just the warm feeling of watching friends steal each others’ dishes and draw new cards, hoping they got something delicious.

 

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Things I Learned In Grad School

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Meg

I read faster than anyone else. I guess I kind of knew that already, but grad school gave me external validation and certainty.

I don’t like craft books. I am so deeply disinterested in other people’s processes, I almost can’t believe that anyone else could care.  Is everyone else faking it for the grade, too? Or does someone actually care?  It’s like discovering an entire genre of overcooked broccoli. Like, I guess it’s healthy and all, but really? I’m even bored by thinking about my own process.

Having a published book doesn’t necessarily make someone a good writer. I guess I kind of knew that already, but I’m certain now.

I expected to learn a lot about writing fiction, but instead I learned a lot about writing politely and professionally worded emails asking certain staff members to do their jobs. Following up with anyone who hasn’t gotten back to me is already terrible.  Following up with someone who’s previously been impressively bad at her job but is still in a position of academic power over me is my own personal hell.  I spent a lot of time in my own personal hell in grad school.

It turns out I like books about people having feelings and relationships, and I’m not sorry.  My biggest resolution is to read popular and commercial fiction unapologetically. I’m not going to hedge by labeling it a beach read or insisting that I usually read obscure literary fiction. I still love character-driven lit fic, but when I see lyrical prose in a book blurb, that book is back on the shelf at the speed of light. Using nice words is no replacement for writing complex characters. I already knew that, too, but I’m certain now and I have a paper that says I know things.

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Honolulu, Novel and Reality

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Meg

I first read Honolulu several years ago, and this is the novel that sparked my interest in Hawaii. Before I read it, my  mental picture of Hawaii was hulu, surfing, mainland American honeymooners, and the last Hawaiian queen (also through reading), I didn’t realize quite the influence of Japanese, Korean and Chinese immigrants on Hawaiian life. This got me reading a lot more about Hawaii… which eventually led me to spend a month working on Oahu.

Jin, nicknamed Regret in a family that prefers sons, leaves her village in Korea and makes her way to Hawaii with a group of other picture brides. They’ve been promised to Korean men, but that’s just about the only thing that’s true about their husbands-to-be. Jin dreams of prosperity and romance in Honolulu, but her husband isn’t exactly a prince. She also dreams of earning enough money to rescue Blossom, a little girl promised as a small wife to Jin’s brother, and bring her to Hawaii. Although Jin has years of hardships and challenges in her new home, the story is ultimately  uplifting and filled with the ohana spirit. Her Korean picture-bride girlfriends, Hawaiian Joe and Esther, and their complicated family, Jin’s second husband and children (spoiler alert!), and even her Japanese neighbors are all part of her ohana by the end of the novel.

I loved the mix of exotic, beautiful Hawaiian landscape and Jin’s personal adventures. Sure, Oahu a land of sunshine and bright flowers, but for a lot of the book, Jin is working in the pineapple-canning factory or sugar cane fields, not chilling at Waikiki. Since I was working pretty long hours myself on Oahu, I found myself thinking about this novel a lot. Being a worker in a place where everyone’s on vacation is a strange feeling. I mean, I had time to vacation afterwards, and that’s how I funded my trip, and I’m lucky to get to do that, but it’s a strange feeling to be working in a holiday destination.

Later, when I was done with classes, I went to stay in Waianae. When I was taking the bus from Waianae, I saw the old train tracks running between the bus route and the ocean, and I realized I was on Jin’s path. The bookish traveler’s dream. (There’s no train on Oahu, which blows my mind. There once was needed infrastructure! The tracks are still there! But you can’t take a train! You have to sit in traffic next to the train tracks!)

When I read, I bookmarked basically every place where Jin went to eat that was still around. I would have gone to try malasadas, masubis, and Hawaiian fusion meals anyway, but it was extra fun to do it after reading about them.

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Waianae Dreams

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Meg

Found this googling for Waianae beaches.

For my last week in Oahu, I booked a room in a hale in Waianae. When I mentioned this, several coteachers in Kaneohe warned me about Waianae,  suggested I cancel and stay somewhere else, and told me to keep my car locked and my eyes on my wallet all the time. Joke’s on them, I don’t have a car!

But actually, Waianae is my dream vacation neighborhood. The lava coastline is so beautiful it kind of hurts. In the mornings, I’d go drink a coffee and read on the rocks, and I’d only see a few grandpas out fishing, and maybe a dog-walker, peacefully enjoying the beach.

There are tasty plate lunches, Chinese and “Chinese” meals, diner food, and beachy seafood all for under $10. But put a fork in your bag, because most of this deliciousness is sold at  counters or stands, where everything is disposable. Prices for food and coffee were literally a third of what they were in Honolulu and Waikiki, and no one seemed to be in a hurry here, so I often found myself chatting instead of getting hustled out to turn the table.

And Waianae’s on the bus line to Honolulu for all the other touristing I wanted to do! To me, Waianae is like Bed-Stuy or Jersey City or whatever, only with stunning natural beauty. Just a regular working-class neighborhood, plus endless rainbows, epic mountains and wild hibiscus flowers all around.

Waianae under a rainbow

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In Honolulu: Foster Botanical Gardens

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Meg

About a week into my Hawaii trip, I was feeling a little underwhelmed with Oahu. I guess I wasn’t expecting the levels of ocean trash and homelessness, and I thought it was particularly jarring right next to the boutiques and resorts of Waikiki. Also, my work turned out to be 7ish hours of English instruction, plus an additional 60 or so hours of child-wrangling. I wasn’t having a bad time on Oahu, it was just kind of underwhelming.

So on my first day off, I took the bus down to Chinatown and walked up to Foster Botanical Gardens. Honolulu Chinatown is pretty great, too, all my familiar sights and smells, with the gorgeous weather and natural beautiful of the island. The botanical gardens are right beside the temple of Kwan Yin. I didn’t spend too much time there, because it’s an active temple, and there were worshippers praying and lighting incense.

You guys, this part is how I imagined Hawaii. Tropical flowers and strange trees, arranged with quiet benches and meandering walks. Entering felt sort of like Central Park, when you walk a little bit in and the traffic sounds fade.

The flowers, you guys, are just a riot of colors. One of the reasons I can’t bear New England winters is the lack of color. Every winter, I force hyacinths indoors to get some color, and every spring I’m newly delighted by the return of warmth and color. It’s just grey for so long in Massachusetts, without color to break it up.  Meanwhile, in Hawaii, in January, the frangipani trees drop their bright blooms at the perfect stage to pick them up, and tuck them into your hair. That’s the everyday frangipani trees, next to the sidewalk, not even the special ones in the gardens.

With the scent of incense drifting across from the temple of Kwan Yin next door, my walk in these gardens was the absolute dream of a tropical island.

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Leaving for Hawaii: The Islands At The End Of The World

Posted on January 20, 2019 by Meg

I read The Islands At The End of The World on the plane to Honolulu, along with Big Little Lies. I’d been reading a lot about Hawaii before my trip, and I’m always interested in post-apocalyptic stories, so I enjoyed this story about surviving on Oahu after electronics mysteriously fail worldwide. Teenage Leilani and her dad are on Oahu for Leilani’s experimental epilepsy treatment when communications and electricity start to fail, and in the new world that opens, they have to use their wits to survive and make it back home to Leilani’s mom, grandfather, and little brother. It’s a solid adventure story, with believable post-civilization social factions and a supernatural twist.  (It’s also the first post-apocalyptic story I’ve read in which a girl loots a razor to shave her legs, and, honestly, I get it. I’d be looting cosmetics and plucking my eyebrows in the post-civilization world.)

But I have to say that I didn’t fully get this novel until I was in Hawaii, and had been here a couple weeks. A lot of the story relies on an understanding of Hawaii and Hawaiian life, on the simultaneous nearness and incredible distance of the islands, and one the constant contrast of old and new lives. I thought of this book when friends noticed the wild chickens running around, and joked that Hawaiians could catch and pick a dinner if they wanted.  I thought of this book when I saw the gorgeous beaches and plastic trash.

The whole thing really shows the exploitation of Hawaii for (foreign) tourism, from the weird lack of ferries between islands (which still completely blows my mind — how is there no commuter line or tourist cruise between the islands???) to the conflict between locals and visitors, Hawaiians and haoles, wealthy and struggling, all just under the surface on these beautiful islands.

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Done or Whatever

Posted on January 12, 2019 by Meg

Dear Megan,

Congratulations! If you are receiving this email your degree was conferred by Lindenwood University on December 30th, 2018. To recognize this, you will receive one free issued-to-student official transcript to the address listed above. Your transcript will feature your recently conferred degree and can serve as verification of your completed program.

In the meantime, I will be placing an order for your diploma through Herff Jones on 1/16/19. Once Herff Jones receives the order, your diploma will arrive in 5-8 weeks.  Please review your name as it appears in this email.  That is how it will look on your diploma.  In addition, if the address listed above is incorrect, you must respond to this email with your updated address before I place the order on 1/16/19. You will be responsible for a reprint fee if your diploma is delivered to the wrong address. Thank you, congratulations again, and best wishes for all of your future endeavors!

There is nothing I could write that sums up my feelings about my grad school experience as well as this mailmerge email telling me I get one free transcript to prove I went to grad school. Also, my diploma will come at some point in the future, and the university is definitely not responsible for knowing my name or anything. (Unless I miss a student loan payment, then they’ll be able to find me just fine.)

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