Book Three

Again, I finished The Graveyard Book a couple of days ago, but the internet connection was bad. I just had dinner, and, fed up with the poor connection in the cabin, I came over to the Lodge to use one of the computers in the basement.
I never know what to expect from Neil Gaiman. In early 2000s, it started to look like he was using the same template repeatedly: person gets transported to fantasy land and must complete a quest, escape, or both before the freaky malevolent creatures, quite at home in said fantasy land, eviscerate the protagonist. Let me be clear - I would read a hundred more of his books if they used the same template that many times.
But The Graveyard Book takes a slightly different tack, and Gaiman manages to showcase all the stuff he does so well. The mythology is expanded; the adventures and setting are new. Every time I read one of his books I feel a little better equipped to deal with ghouls, under-revered gods, and the endless. You get this sense of, "Jeez, that didn't turn out very well for that guy. If the Goddess of Cats shows up, I'll know what NOT to say."
I hear people say of Coraline, "I can't believe how scary this is. Isn't this supposed to be for kids?" I think The Graveyard Book will leave you with the same impression. And for the record, my response to that is:
1) Yes, these books are freaky.
2) The adult books that Gaiman writes (American Gods, Anansi Boys) are different in content because they contain more gore, and some ... adult themes ... that Gaiman doesn't put in his children's books. They are equally scary. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
3) As to whether this is OK or not. It is. First, kids are dealing with the world same as we are. I don't know about you, but I was way more scared of stuff like clowns, potential kidnappings, etc., than I was about fantasy stories. Second, there is a long tradition of scary as hell books for kids, e.g.: Brothers Grimm.

On the day I read The Graveyard Book, I climbed... I can barely remember. I do remember climbing in the North 40, doing a few v1's through v3's that I hadn't done before, and doing a v7, also that I hadn't done before: Celestial something. Maybe five tries or so. It had a bunch of throws to sloper sidepulls, and finished with a powerful throw to a wide pinch.
Then I went down to the Leatherface boulder, and worked hard to do this thing called A Little More John Wayne, rated v4. The thing was great. It took me more tries than the v7.

In other news, getting over the last term is taking me longer than usual. It's hard to say why. I think being here, and not being able to climb very well, or really work on things that are near my limit has been tough for me. I've done a few v7s and v6s, and all that, but I don't consider that my limit. I climb those in a few tries, or on my first try. It could be that I have just done all the v8s here that I can do, and now I'm just struggling with the ones that don't quite fit my style. It could also be that I am still tired from the term. I don't like to think along those lines, because it feels like a copout for poor performance, but it seems the most likely.
On the first day here, after finishing exams, sleeping a few hours, and driving the twelve hours down, I was so shaky that I thought I might actually keel over while I was checking in. I still climbed that day, and the two days following, but I never really climbed very well.
There have been other challenges that I've experienced, lately, and I think that is dragging me down a bit. In reference to that, it's difficult to care very much how hard I'm climbing. I almost have to remind myself that it's important to me to push myself, because I only get so many chances to be in a place like this. When I am pushing myself, I really need to be willing to go for it on a visceral level. Lacking serious drive, even at an unconscious level, keeps me from climbing my best.
I think anyone in my life can tell that this term was among the hardest on me so far. Perhaps they will just get worse. Personally, now that I am emerging from the post-exam funk, I am getting a little more optimistic about the next one. This term had a great deal of what felt like micro-management: meaningless busy work, and "tracking" of learning. It just translated into more hours spent not studying, but proving that you were studying. Which meant that I was constantly stressed that I would forget to evidence that I was studying all the time, which would translate into a poor score in the course. Sorry, but I thought that that was the point of the test.
I'm thinking/hoping that the next course director will have a different personality, potentially, and that their style of course construction will jibe more with what works for me: self-driven, self-structured learning.

I climbed today, and did pretty well, but I haven't finished REAMDE, which is like a thousand pages or something, so I'm not going to tell you about it until I do. Maybe I'll finish it soon, or maybe I won't. I've been reading it for a couple of days, and I swear, if I'm not careful, it could easily take me the rest of my break.
Oh, and here's the first round of thanks to Brice for recommending it. It's a hell of a book. Also, I never publicly credited him for getting me to read Infinite Jest (probably the best work of fiction in the last fifty years), although I did credit him for getting me to read the Temeraire series (A sweet story about wars with dragons and stuff). Brice, thanks.
In case anyone forgot - Happy Sean's Birthday week.