{"id":11782,"date":"2016-03-01T20:51:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T01:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=11782"},"modified":"2016-03-01T20:56:53","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T01:56:53","slug":"february-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=11782","title":{"rendered":"February 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/25128247840_ce0ffcbb55_k.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/25128247840_ce0ffcbb55_k-765x1024.jpg\" alt=\"25128247840_ce0ffcbb55_k\" width=\"765\" height=\"1024\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-11784\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/25128247840_ce0ffcbb55_k-765x1024.jpg 765w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/25128247840_ce0ffcbb55_k-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/25128247840_ce0ffcbb55_k.jpg 1530w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 765px) 100vw, 765px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nWas February a better month than January? Oh man, it would almost <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=11764\">have to be<\/a>, right?<\/p>\n<p>I did only spend <i>one<\/i> day home sick from work last month, so I suppose it&#8217;s a definite step in the right direction. This time it was courtesy of a cold I think I caught from my boss &#8212; my second cold in as many months, as it happens. I&#8217;d like it to be my <i>last<\/i> one, at least for a little while.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, it was kind of an uneventful month.<\/p>\n<p>I watched four movies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Hunger Games: Mockingjay &#8211; Part 1<\/li>\n<li>Deadpool<\/li>\n<li>Mortdecai<\/li>\n<li>Less Than Zero<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I mostly liked the first two, and mostly didn&#8217;t like the second two. <i>Mockingjay<\/i> suffers, I think, by being split in two, though I&#8217;ll certainly watch the second half when it&#8217;s available to stream. <\/p>\n<p><i>Deadpool<\/i> is violent and rude, and sometimes less clever than it thinks, but it&#8217;s also a lot of fun. <\/p>\n<p><i>Mortdecai<\/i>&#8230;well, isn&#8217;t. It suffers from being late into late-period Johnny Depp, this stage of his career where it&#8217;s all affectation and no acting. If it had come earlier, I don&#8217;t think it would be any less not-funny, but it wouldn&#8217;t suffer as much by comparison. It would just be a dull movie, not a symptom of the disease.<\/p>\n<p>And <i>Less Than Zero<\/i>? Well, it probably seemed more impressive in 1987. There are some good performances in it, from Robert Downey, Jr., and James Spader, but too little of anything else. I mean, seeing ridiculous yuppies ruin their previously pampered lives through cocaine <i>might<\/i> have been compelling in the mid-&#8217;80s, but thirty years later it&#8217;s a little dull and trite.<\/p>\n<p>I managed to read two books in February: <i>The Fifth Season<\/i> by N.K. Jemisin and <i>Updraft<\/i> by Fran Wilde. Both books are very imaginative, creating rich and unique worlds, but Jemisin&#8217;s novel was definitely my favorite. It&#8217;s just a stunningly original fantasy.<\/p>\n<p>I also read thirty short stories, continuing to read one every day. My favorites included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Charlotte Incorporated&#8221; by Rachael K. Jones (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lightspeedmagazine.com\/fiction\/charlotte-incorporated\/\">Lightspeed<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea&#8221; by Sarah Pinsker (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lightspeedmagazine.com\/fiction\/sooner-or-later-everything-falls-into-the-sea\/\">Lightspeed<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Starfish&#8221; by Karen Tidbeck (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lightspeedmagazine.com\/fiction\/starfish\/\">Lightspeed<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Between Dragons and Their Wrath&#8221; by An Owomoyela and Rachel Swirsky (<a href=\"http:\/\/clarkesworldmagazine.com\/owomoyela_swirsky_02_16\/\">Clarkesworld<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Vulcanization&#8221; by Nisi Shawl (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nightmare-magazine.com\/fiction\/vulcanization\/\">Nightmare<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;A Partial List of Lists I Have Lost Over Time&#8221; by Sunil Patel (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.asimovs.com\/\">Asimov&#8217;s<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;And You Shall Know Her By The Trail Of Dead&#8221; by Brooke Bollander (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lightspeedmagazine.com\/fiction\/shall-know-trail-dead\/\">Lightspeed<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Coming of the Light&#8221; by Chen Qiufan (translated by Ken Liu) (<a href=\"http:\/\/clarkesworldmagazine.com\/chen_03_15\/\">Clarkesworld<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;So Much Cooking&#8221; by Naomi Kritzer (<a href=\"http:\/\/clarkesworldmagazine.com\/kritzer_11_15\/\">Clarkesworld<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Midnight Hour&#8221; by Mary Robinette Kowal (<a href=\"http:\/\/uncannymagazine.com\/article\/midnight-hour\/\">Uncanny<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Our Lady of the Open Road&#8221; by Sarah Pinsker (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sarahpinsker.com\/our_lady_of_the_open_road\/\">Asimov&#8217;s<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The Zeppelin Conductors&#8217; Society Annual Gentlemen&#8217;s Ball&#8221; by Genevieve Valentine (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lightspeedmagazine.com\/fiction\/the-zeppelin-conductors-society-annual-gentlemens-ball\/\">Lightspeed<\/a><\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Alchemy and Ice&#8221; by Charlotte Nash (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.andromedaspaceways.com\/shop\/latest-issue\/\">Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=11764\">last month<\/a>, the first <s>five<\/s> six stories are from 2016, while the rest are from earlier, in this case mostly 2015.<\/p>\n<p>And finally, like always, I listened to some music. Here&#8217;s my monthly mix:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/videoseries?list=PL62qRURJS1HBl1Y0XDZd2VTEfg3jIuOpp\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll notice there&#8217;s a song from <i>Hamilton<\/i> in there. I finally listened to the internet and listened to <i>Hamilton<\/i>. It really is quite good. Good on you, internet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Was February a better month than January? Oh man, it would almost have to be, right? I did only spend one day home sick from work last month, so I suppose it&#8217;s a definite step in the right direction. This time it was courtesy of a cold I think I caught from my boss &#8212; &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=11782\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,5,8,14,15,28,222,52],"class_list":["post-11782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-books","tag-health","tag-monthly-mix","tag-movies","tag-music","tag-personal","tag-stories","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11782"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11793,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782\/revisions\/11793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}