Notes on a Slow Saturday

Today my pursuits were a trifle more substantial. While I did spend much of my day at the computer, I finally read international news articles again. For example, I learned of Hugo Chávez's threat to nationalize Venezuela's banks, the criminal charges against former Zimbabwean leader Frederick Chiluba, etc. If I keep this up I may even start thinking about people other than myself. (c:

In the afternoon I worked on an e-mail applying for a job in the kitchen of a daycare centre ("Kita," short for "Kindertagesstätte," in German). I sent the e-mail; it came back because the recipient e-mail address wasn't working any more. Oh, well. There will be other jobs. As for music masterclasses or recitals, there weren't any that interested me today.

As far as online books go, I'm still working through William MacLeod Raine's western novels, finding them increasingly uneven. I just finished Steve Yeager. Here the satire -- especially at the beginning -- is sometimes not very well done. As I read these books I keep on thinking how wrong it is for violence to be whitewashed and made into an entertainment. This perhaps sounds extremely moralistic, but I've more or less decided not to write murder mysteries or other violent books because it makes terrible things seem much less terrible than they are.

To change the subject completely, my parents and siblings are enjoying the weekend. J. has a cold and occasionally lost his voice again today, but he caught up on his internet forum(s), drew sketches of Sir Peter Wimsey, and kept his nose in yet another Dorothy L. Sayers book (The Busman's Honeymoon, probably) whenever he could. Per his request, Mama made lentil soup for lunch; in the evening Papa made lamb with garlic and sage, and Mama made bulgur wheat with figs, and we had yoghurt and olives on the side, as well as chocolate mousse (from the dairy section of Plus) and assorted candy for dessert.

T. is working on the outlines of stories, sketching the head of a crested crow or raven, and being cheerful with a subtle tinge of restlessness, as usual. Gi. and Ge. have an assignment for German which involves preparing material on Mark Twain and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but they have evidently postponed work on it to tomorrow. Mama has still been busy, rearranging books, for example. We have one perfectly beautiful bookcase now, like the kind that I picture myself as having in my home when (and if) I am grown up and have written my Great Novel, with old hardcover sets of classics in beautiful dark or gold colours. Papa was vacuum-cleaning one of the computers today, and is generally busy reading up in learned scientific books and papers, living up to the family motto (much neglected among our generation) of "Labor vincit omnia."