HomeFront Regrets

I'm so bad with my finances.

It's getting to be that money seems to flow through my fingers like sand. Imagine, I once blew 16K in five days. Of course, half of that went to Christmas shopping but still... *brrr*

Hopefully, I'll be able to stabilize things by this coming new year as I want to get settled down by then. For God's sake, I'm 30 years old already. I should know better.

That means I have to cut back on my book-buying and go for more select stuff. Well, that and rely more on second-hand bookshops for my daily fix. I also have to finish book series I already have first and hold off getting the newer stuff.

*sigh* I'm such a book-whore.

On the job front, the only thing that's keeping me from stagnating is the fact that I've started to concentrate on this writing thing. Actually, I'm already regretting wasting 2-3 years of my life at this job for not doing this more. Where was my brain all this time?

I'm likewise convinced that whatever experience I've gained here isn't helping my job search much. Just a sneaking suspicion really, but I've had no bites from other editorial companies since I've started sending my resume out. Ah well...

For more positive news, my elder brother finally got me Tad Williams' Shadowmarch as a gift, almost two weeks after my birthday passed. I'm not complaining, mind, just overjoyed I can finally lay my dirty paws on Williams' newest output.

In other stuff, I keep bumping into the Ursula K. Le Guin issue with regard to the EarthSea television series (first picked up from the Mumpsimus). Originally, I've been dropping links to other folks about this to get reactions-- kinda like poking the bear (sorry Rob! sorry Dean!). However, I figured I might as well thrown in my two centavos.

First of all, despite whatever I think, I'm really planning to watch the show. Well, if we ever get it on cable here. After all, no point having an opinion on something if you haven't seen or read it, right? (Which is why I have to admit I once tried Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code to see what the fuss is all about.)

However, I thought that Le Guin had a point in issuing statements about how unhappy she was over the series (especially this). I mean, it's one thing for the director, Rob Lieberman, to change EarthSea, it's another thing to convince others that this is what the author wants.

As Lieberman says on SCIFI magazine dated December 2004:

The final moments of the film culminate in the union of all that and represent two different belief systems in this world, and that's what Ursula intended to make a statement about.

However, as Le Guin pointed out in her website, she was never in the loop to begin with, much less issue statements or intentions like what the director said. And that, I think, is what gets to me.

As Dean says, Alan Moore never had any problems with other people rewriting his stuff (see as primary example: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) as he usually disowned these at the onset. However, I don't think anyone ever tried quoting Moore the same way as Le Guin did.

(Though if anyone can prove me wrong, I'd be much obliged...)