a quiet winter's day

balatro until late again. and a fair amount of it today.

i started the day slowly, finishing the fourth percy jackson novel and leaving the following review:

a bittersweet experience, a great story but clearly rushed.

the first three books of the series set a really high bar, and i wondered how it could be that the percy jackson franchise hasn't gained as much traction as the harry potter one.

but then i read #4.

while the story itself is great, with lots of exciting and clever elements, riordan and his editors seem to have started taking their readers for granted, and a whole lot of things just seem lazy. and i find myself offended by every single incorrect usage of the word "shined" as opposed to "shone"; if those editors got paid, the publisher should demand its money back. 

**SPOILERS** 

two scenes in particular of the glaringly obvious cardinal sin of breaking the fourth wall to tell, rather than show. one of them is kelli the monologuing empousa:

“a vampire, you say?” kelli laughed. “that silly legend was based on us, you fool. we are empousai, servants of hecate.” “mmmm.” tammi edged closer to me. “dark magic formed us from animal, bronze, and ghost! we exist to feed on the blood of young men. now come, give me that kiss!”

seriously.

and then there's the telekhines receiving on-the-job sex-ed in the forges.

“now, younglings,” the instructor said, “what is the proper name of our kind?” “sea demons!” one of them barked. “no. anyone else?” “telekhines!” another monster growled.

i'm still feeling a bit gross and weak, but i'm definitely doing better. mr smear's still pretty sick, though, very feverish. it's been a rough day for him. but in spite of that, he's always ready to jump up and down in front of the screen playing minecraft...

i thought we'd watch the fellowship of the ring together (the extended edition), but after i woke up from passing out i realized that so had mr smear, and then he decided he wasn't interested in continuing :(

i spent some time finishing the draft of that algorithm i mentioned a few weeks ago, and i'm about to get up for my third round of dish duty, which is honestly the only thing that's gotten me out of my chair / off the couch today.