New layout/tuoyal weN.

Brittany Forks, my good friend and graphic designer extraordinaire, left me a lovely Facebook wall post two days ago offering to "spruce up" my blog. Thanks to her, we have this cute new layout to enjoy!

Britters is amazingly creative. One of my favorite of her many projects is Kilobyte Couture, adorable geeky jewelry handmade from old computer parts. (I have several of her pendants and two pins. I wear them all the time.)

The old KiloCouture logo is currently undergoing a revamp, as Brittany wants to make the products more appealing to nerdy dudes as well as girls. She's also planning to experiment with dipping resistors and capacitors in gold to create jewelry appropriate for more formal occasions.


LITERATURE.

I finally finished Mark Z. Danielewski's Only Revolutions on Monday afternoon a mere twenty-five minutes before I needed to complete it for Aaron Dell's fourth Monday afternoon Kinbote literary salon. I took four weeks to complete the book.

The plot of Only Revolutions is dependent upon the book's complex structure. It's the sort of book that requires a lot of time to digest. I was fortunate that my first reading took place in the context of the salon; there were many things about the book I didn't notice that other members did, and vice-versa. It's a frustrating novel. As in Danielewski's first novel, House of Leaves, many small things seem hugely significant and few of them are satisfactorily explained. I'm hoping to gain more from the book's obviously (hopefully) allegorical plot in future readings.

After some casual deliberation--I'm sorry, I can't lie--Steph Rahl's Best Beach Reading 2008 goes to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures are a collection of installments from the Victorian Strand Magazine. Each story is a brilliantly executed mystery. Each is perfectly sized to allow you a bit of entertaining reading between the exodus from the water due to the inevitable false shark-sighting, and that blissful moment when the bulk of the beachgoers feel comfortable enough to re-enter the water. I always feel better if someone else goes in first. If there is a shark, he'll eat that guy and won't be hungry when I wade in.