Surprisingly Quiet Mall Trip
Dec. 8th, 2014 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickSeriously, place was not nearly as busy as I had expected. I suspect the reason for this is that it was a Monday fairly early in December that not a lot of people would have actually had off. Also seriously cold outside (daytime high was about 30 F). Not that I'm complaining -- this was pretty much my only chance to get up there WITHOUT it being an overcrowded mess.
Anyway, how my day went:
-->Got up there without a problem, only needed to brave the cold for a few blocks. It was actually spitting snow a bit during the day -- nothing that would actually cause any accumulation, but a few tiny flakes here and there
-->Wandered Newbury's, saw only one thing that I wanted to buy -- How To Train Your Dragon 2 on Blu-Ray. And I figured, I might be getting a gift card over the holidays, so I can wait on that.
-->Subway lunch -- Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki. Yum yum. Took advantage of food court wifi to stay caught up on things and visit DragonVale as well.
-->Spent most of the rest of the afternoon at Dave & Busters. Hit most of my favorite games, including finally getting to Mission 2 in the new Seawolf game (you play a submarine and shoot down enemy ships). Also tried out some new ones -- they have a FLAPPY BIRD GAME. I suck at it. XD A guy fixing a game was also nice enough to give me some tickets someone had left behind, so I have a bunch more of those now. :) In fact, I believe I almost have enough to get an iPod Shuffle! Yes, they have those for "sale" in their ticket store. Hell, you can get video games and even CONSOLES with enough tickets. Might go ahead and grab one next time I get up there and get enough tickets. I've been wanting a new MP3 player for a while.
-->Sweet treat today before I headed home was a City Girl Cupcake. Their stock was surprisingly low when I visited, but they had a Snickers cupcake available. It was good, but not perfect -- a little hard on the top edges, and a touch soggy from a caramel-and-nuts filling. However, it tasted fine, so I can't really complain. I might have another at some point to see if they're truly recommend- or avoid-worthy.
-->Finished Unseen Academicals on the bus ride home! Again, very much enjoyed it -- though for a "Wizards" book, the wizards weren't actually present all that much. The real focus is on the Unseen University staff -- I'd say the true "protagonist" is Glenda, head of the university's Night Kitchen and a star cook. She's the one who gets the most POV shots, it seems, and has most of the character development. And she made me crave various pies throughout the book. XD I believe there's at least one Discworld cookbook already, but I want another with her recipe for Plowman's Pie.
I would like to take a moment to talk about one of the other characters -- Nutt, an orc who kind of facilitates everyone else's growth. Someone put him under "Canon Sue" on the TV Tropes page, and while I can see where they're coming from -- Nutt has super-strength, super-smarts, and is generally really good at most things -- I'd like to argue that he's not quite to "Sue" levels. The poster said that he has one flaw, low self esteem, but it doesn't really impact him. I'd say he has two -- the low self esteem, and an inability to really relate to other people. He's very erudite in a section of the city where people -- aren't. In fact, his use of big words gets him killed once in a minor brawl. (He gets better -- special talent of orcs.) It's clear that between wondering if he has worth and constantly talking like he swallowed several dictionaries (many in foreign languages), he needs some help learning how to interact with others. That's basically his character arc -- at the beginning of the book, he's incredibly shy and gawky and can barely communicate with his fellows; at the end, he's gained some confidence and can actually use Ankh-Morpork street slang and the like (without giving up all of his ultra-long semi-foreign words either). He does grow and change, and that saves him from Sue territory for me. (It also helps that he's more of a background character than you might think -- his main role is to help the other characters grow and change, really. Particularly Glenda.)
And that's about it, apart from exercising, setting up RP queues and doing a little Christmas fic writing. *shrug* Not particularly exciting, perhaps, but it felt good to get out and about. Helped relieve some of the twitchiness I've been feeling, that's for certain. Back to the grind tomorrow, though, so I'll sign off now. G'night!
Anyway, how my day went:
-->Got up there without a problem, only needed to brave the cold for a few blocks. It was actually spitting snow a bit during the day -- nothing that would actually cause any accumulation, but a few tiny flakes here and there
-->Wandered Newbury's, saw only one thing that I wanted to buy -- How To Train Your Dragon 2 on Blu-Ray. And I figured, I might be getting a gift card over the holidays, so I can wait on that.
-->Subway lunch -- Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki. Yum yum. Took advantage of food court wifi to stay caught up on things and visit DragonVale as well.
-->Spent most of the rest of the afternoon at Dave & Busters. Hit most of my favorite games, including finally getting to Mission 2 in the new Seawolf game (you play a submarine and shoot down enemy ships). Also tried out some new ones -- they have a FLAPPY BIRD GAME. I suck at it. XD A guy fixing a game was also nice enough to give me some tickets someone had left behind, so I have a bunch more of those now. :) In fact, I believe I almost have enough to get an iPod Shuffle! Yes, they have those for "sale" in their ticket store. Hell, you can get video games and even CONSOLES with enough tickets. Might go ahead and grab one next time I get up there and get enough tickets. I've been wanting a new MP3 player for a while.
-->Sweet treat today before I headed home was a City Girl Cupcake. Their stock was surprisingly low when I visited, but they had a Snickers cupcake available. It was good, but not perfect -- a little hard on the top edges, and a touch soggy from a caramel-and-nuts filling. However, it tasted fine, so I can't really complain. I might have another at some point to see if they're truly recommend- or avoid-worthy.
-->Finished Unseen Academicals on the bus ride home! Again, very much enjoyed it -- though for a "Wizards" book, the wizards weren't actually present all that much. The real focus is on the Unseen University staff -- I'd say the true "protagonist" is Glenda, head of the university's Night Kitchen and a star cook. She's the one who gets the most POV shots, it seems, and has most of the character development. And she made me crave various pies throughout the book. XD I believe there's at least one Discworld cookbook already, but I want another with her recipe for Plowman's Pie.
I would like to take a moment to talk about one of the other characters -- Nutt, an orc who kind of facilitates everyone else's growth. Someone put him under "Canon Sue" on the TV Tropes page, and while I can see where they're coming from -- Nutt has super-strength, super-smarts, and is generally really good at most things -- I'd like to argue that he's not quite to "Sue" levels. The poster said that he has one flaw, low self esteem, but it doesn't really impact him. I'd say he has two -- the low self esteem, and an inability to really relate to other people. He's very erudite in a section of the city where people -- aren't. In fact, his use of big words gets him killed once in a minor brawl. (He gets better -- special talent of orcs.) It's clear that between wondering if he has worth and constantly talking like he swallowed several dictionaries (many in foreign languages), he needs some help learning how to interact with others. That's basically his character arc -- at the beginning of the book, he's incredibly shy and gawky and can barely communicate with his fellows; at the end, he's gained some confidence and can actually use Ankh-Morpork street slang and the like (without giving up all of his ultra-long semi-foreign words either). He does grow and change, and that saves him from Sue territory for me. (It also helps that he's more of a background character than you might think -- his main role is to help the other characters grow and change, really. Particularly Glenda.)
And that's about it, apart from exercising, setting up RP queues and doing a little Christmas fic writing. *shrug* Not particularly exciting, perhaps, but it felt good to get out and about. Helped relieve some of the twitchiness I've been feeling, that's for certain. Back to the grind tomorrow, though, so I'll sign off now. G'night!
