Saturday, July 05, 2025

Update

 





Last Saturday I woke up and in the afternoon went on a walk with Mrs B. I looked down the street and saw two stopsigns. I was seeing double. Got an eyepatch as the double vision was causing me some serious nausea. Sunday I was still dealing with double vision, so called the Eye Specialist. He listened to all my symptoms and recommended I go to the Emergency Room the next morning to get checked out.

Mrs B dropped me off at the ER at 5am Monday morning. I had all the the tests by 11am and then just sat in the ER waiting for the neurologist to go over my results. They moved me into the hospital proper at 8pm and I was in a room overnight for observation. Tuesday morning the head nurse and the Neurologist went over my results. Everything was fine. I hadn't had a mini-stroke, no clots or anything. Basically, my optic nerve in my left eye had "frozen' (it's common for type 1 diabetics). They scheduled a follow up with my Primary for Thursday and Mrs B picked me up around noon time. Wednesday was spent at home recovering and dealing with setting up more appointments.

Because of wearing an eye patch, I can't drive. I have almost no depth perception. So Thursday I walked to my primary drs' appointment. It was sidewalk the whole way, so it wasn't an issue, thankfully. She just confirmed that nothing had changed (or gotten worse) and wrote a dr's note excusing me from work until I saw the Eye Specialist. I am seeing him next Friday, July 11th.

During all of this time, our car is due for inspection. And the sensor to check everything out wouldn't work for the one garage, so they wouldn't even start the inspection. It would cost $400 to replace that sensor. I have to try to find another garage that will do the inspection BEFORE doing all the computer stuff. I'm not very hopeful though. Which means we're going to have get another car by the end of the month.

I am looking at some big medical bills, no money coming in as I can't work and then one of our cars won't pass inspection. Plus there's a bunch of other life stuff which just adds to the load. I am just incredibly stressed out, hence my lack of visiting you all. I am back to responding to the comments on my blog, that's a big step up from even a few days ago.

This exact same thing happened to me about 15 years ago and it took 4-6 weeks to recover. I am NOT looking forward to telling my boss I can't work for over a month. Even with a doctors note, it's just not going to be easy. Because it didn't happen at work, I'm not eligible for short term disability either. So I will probably continue to not visit you for a bit longer. I'll just be sticking around here.


Friday, July 04, 2025

American Independence Day, July 4 (2025 Edition)

 

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.






Thursday, July 03, 2025

The Heckler (87th Precinct #12) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Heckler
Series: 87th Precinct #12
Author: Ed McBain
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 178
Words: 62K
Publish: 1960


This was barely 3stars. The idea of the Deafman and his plans definitely put him into the Criminal Mastermind category and if the story had truly just focused on that, it would have been great. But McBain throws in a latino woman who doesn’t wear any underwear under her work clothes and spends as much time describing her and the men ogling her as he does telling the real story. It was cheap and tawdry.We will see if McBain keeps writing that kind of stuff or not. If he does, then I’ll be out of here.

This is definitely the first book where a criminal really does some long con planning and makes it pay off. Very different from the regular dimwit stupido criminals the 87th Precinct is used to dealing with. I liked it.

★★★☆☆


From the Publisher & Bookstooge

Spring was intoxicating the city air, but the harassing anonymous telephone calls planting seeds of fear around town were no April Fool's joke. Crank calls and crackpot threats reported to the 87th Precinct by a respected businessman were not exactly top priority for detectives Carella and Meyer -- until a brutal homicide hits the papers. Connections are getting made fast and furious, and there's a buzz in the air about the Deaf Man, a brilliant criminal mastermind. Now, the 87th Precinct is buying time to reveal the voice on the other end of the line -- as the level of danger rises from a whisper to a scream.

The Deafman was planning to rob 2.5million dollars and in the process, set the city ablaze to cover his tracks. Bombs went off, fires started, it was all going according to plan. Until the factor of luck hit the Deafman right between the eyes and a cop wanted an icecream cone. Then it was curtains.


Wednesday, July 02, 2025

The Tide of Unmaking (The Berinfell Prophecies #3) 1.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Tide of Unmaking
Series: The Berinfell Prophecies #3
Author: Wayne Batson & Christopher Hopper
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Pages: 349/60
Words: 139K/24K
Publish: 2012



I dnf’d this at 60 pages because while seven years have passed and characters are now turning 21, they are still acting like 14 year olds and being written as such. My patience for that was stretched in book 2 and so I’m just done. There is no reason for me to continue :-(

★✬☆☆☆


From the Publisher

Seven years have passed since the Lords of Berinfell - Tommy, Kat, Jimmy, Johnny, Autumn and Kiri Lee - watched the horror of Vesper Crag wash away, as well as their fallen kinsman, Jett Green. But with Grimwarden in exile, the realm of Berinfell finds itself ill-equipped to weather the coming storms. Kiri Lee begins to whisper of ghostly visitations. Taeva, Princess of the Taladrim, desperately seeks out the Elves of Berinfell to rescue her kingdom. And the genocidal Drefid Lord Asp launches his campaign to conquer Allyra. And Earth. But far worse still is a consuming terror on the horizon: an unstoppable force that threatens to devour all creation and all hope. Nations will crumble, loyalties will be tested, and even the might of Berinfell’s Lords may not be enough to stem The Tide of Unmaking.


Tuesday, July 01, 2025

Homicide Trinity (Nero Wolfe #36) 4Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Homicide Trinity
Series: Nero Wolfe #36
Author: Rex Stout
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 197
Words: 71K
Publish: 1962


3 novellas, just like every other “tri” titled Nero Wolfe book. When I start my re-read of this series, I’m going to just read the novellas by themselves and review each one. Trying to stuff all three into one review is a killer. It’s like a collection of short stories. I don’t review every short story in a collection either.

So I had a good time and that’s all you get.

★★★★☆


From Wikipedia

Eeny Meeny Murder Mo

Bertha Aaron, a secretary at a law firm, comes to the brownstone to hire Wolfe to investigate a possibly serious ethical lapse by a member of the firm. She has no appointment and arrives during Wolfe's afternoon orchid session, so Archie gets the particulars from her.

The firm she works for is representing Morton Sorell in a messy, highly publicized divorce. A few evenings ago, Aaron noticed a junior member of the law firm – she won't say which one – in a cheap eatery, tête-à-tête with Mrs. Rita Sorell, the firm's opponent in the divorce action. That sort of ex parte communication is highly improper. Later, she asked the lawyer about it, and he wouldn't discuss the matter. She won't take the problem to the firm's senior member, Lamont Otis, because she fears that the news, coupled with Otis's advanced age and heart condition, will kill him. But it has to be investigated.

It's a novel problem, and Archie takes the unusual step of consulting Wolfe in the plant rooms. Because the case concerns a divorce, it's one that Wolfe normally would not touch. But because legal ethics, not the divorce itself, is the central issue, Archie thinks there's a chance Wolfe will take it. Even so, Wolfe tells Archie he won't do it, and Archie returns to the office to give Aaron the bad news.

Back in the office, Archie finds he can't give the news to her because she's dead, hit on the head with a heavy paperweight and then strangled with a necktie. It's Wolfe's paperweight. Even worse, it's Wolfe's necktie. He had spilled some sauce on it at lunch, removed it, and left it on his desk where someone could find it and use it to strangle Bertha Aaron.

Late that night, after Inspector Cramer and other police investigators have left, Otis arrives, along with one of the law firm's associates, Ann Paige. The death of his valued secretary has upset Otis, and he wants to know what happened.

Wolfe allows Otis to read a copy of the statement Archie gave the police, and Otis is clearly shaken by the report of the ex parte communication. Otis asks Paige to leave Wolfe's office – he wants to discuss things privately – and Archie escorts her to the front room. Wolfe and Otis discuss the situation at length, and Wolfe gets Otis's take on the three junior members of the firm, one of whom Aaron saw talking with Mrs. Sorell. During their discussion, Archie checks on Paige, and finds that she has opened the window in the front room and, apparently, jumped down to the sidewalk. She is nowhere to be found.

The next morning, Archie calls on Rita Sorell, using as entrée a note he's written, informing her that she and the unidentified junior member were seen together in the restaurant. He wants to bring her to talk with Wolfe, but she plays dumb, and the best Archie can get from her is a promise to phone later in the day.

On returning to the brownstone, Archie finds the office occupied only by a man he doesn't recognize. He finds Wolfe at the peephole, and learns that the man's name is Gregory Jett, one of the law firm's junior members. Jett is there to complain that Wolfe's behavior caused Otis undue stress. Brushing aside Jett's complaint, Wolfe learns that Jett is engaged to marry Ann Paige, and also that he had a brief fling with Rita Sorell a year earlier.

Then the two other junior members, Frank Edey and Miles Heydecker, arrive looking for information and acting like lawyers. Mrs. Sorell's promised phone call comes, and she tells Archie that Bertha Aaron must have seen her talking with Gregory Jett. Wolfe and Archie regard this information with skepticism: she seems to them devious.

Now Wolfe tells them what Aaron had to say before she was murdered – as yet, that's been disclosed only to the police and to Lamont Otis. Wolfe also states his assumption that the guilty lawyer followed Aaron to Wolfe's office, convinced her to admit him while Archie was in the plant rooms with Wolfe, and then took the opportunity to kill her.

The problem is that the three lawyers share a mutual alibi for the date and time that Aaron was murdered: they were in conference together at their office, fully a mile from the brownstone. The lawyers leave, suspicious of one another, and not happy.

When Wolfe then learns from Inspector Cramer that the timing apodictically exonerates Edey, Heydecker and Jett, he arranges for all involved to be brought to the brownstone for the traditional climax. This time, though, all but one are in the front room, listening via hidden microphone to Wolfe talk things over with the murderer.


Death of a Demon

Lucy Hazen has a preemptive confession to make to Nero Wolfe – having come to despise her husband Barry, a cruel public relations counsellor, she has recently become plagued by thoughts of shooting him with his own gun. In order to deter herself from following through on this impulse, she has decided to confess this to Nero Wolfe, knowing that if she did commit the crime he would reveal the act to the police. Although bemused by the meeting, Wolfe humors her and agrees to show her his orchid collection, but while they are upstairs Archie Goodwin hears on the radio that Barry Hazen’s body has been discovered in an alley, shot in the back.

Despite Lucy’s confession, Archie is convinced by her reaction when he informs her of her husband’s murder that she is innocent of the crime. Wolfe and Archie learn from Lucy that she last saw her husband at a dinner party held the previous evening for a group of his clients – Mrs. Victor Oliver, Anne Talbot, Jules Khoury and Ambrose Perdis – and his copy-writer Theodore Weed, whom Lucy clearly harbors feelings for. Although similarly convinced of her innocence, Wolfe is reluctant to accept Lucy as his client and sends her away, though he keeps the gun in his possession for safe-keeping. Using an old mattress, Archie acquires a fired bullet from the gun and turns it over to Inspector Cramer for comparison.

Lucy is detained as a suspect in her husband’s murder, and hires Wolfe to exonerate her. Theodore Weed approaches Wolfe, also offering to hire him. He admits that he is in love with Lucy Hazen and that Barry Hazen knew this, taking pleasure from his discomfort about the situation when in her presence. He reveals his suspicions that his employer was extorting money from his clients. Via Nathaniel Parker, Wolfe’s attorney, Lucy gives Wolfe a key to her apartment, and informs him that her husband had given her instructions in the event of his death; she was to locate a metal box hidden in their home, empty the contents, and destroy them.

Archie Goodwin is dispatched to acquire the box, but on arriving at the Hazen residence discovers that the guests from the dinner party are already there, clearly searching the apartment. He manages to hold them at gunpoint, and – after locating the box – brings them to Wolfe’s brownstone. The guests confirm that Hazen was blackmailing them, and inform Wolfe that he took sadistic pleasure in taunting each person with hints about what they had done. Wolfe and Archie open the box only to discover it is empty, but Wolfe nevertheless claims to each guest that he will sell them the contents of the box for $250,000 each.

Inspector Cramer arrives at the brownstone in a gloating mood, revealing that the police have discovered the gun that Lucy Hazen apparently used to murder her husband – a pistol that her father used to commit suicide. The gun is of the same make as the one Lucy brought to Wolfe, however, and the bullet from the first gun did not match the bullet that killed Barry Hazen. This leads Wolfe to a conclusion, which is further confirmed that evening when, alone of the others, Jules Khoury refuses to give Wolfe any money for the contents of the box.

Wolfe reveals that the box was empty and accuses Khoury of murdering Barry Hazen. He admits that he has no evidence, but argues that Hazen’s hints and the specific gun used strongly imply that Khoury’s secret was that he actually murdered Lucy’s father, his former business partner. Furthermore, Khoury’s refusal to pay Wolfe suggest that he knew all along that the box was empty, having located and destroyed the evidence after murdering Hazen. His use of the duplicate gun was an attempt to frame Lucy for the crime. Khoury is arrested and evidence is discovered tying him to both murders, and Lucy and Theodore admit their feelings for each other.


Counterfeit for Murder

Hattie Annis doesn't like cops.[1] So when she shows up at Wolfe's door with a brown paper package holding a large stack of $20 bills, she thinks that there could be a reward for returning it to its owner, but she won't trust the cops with it. They'll probably stiff her.

Wolfe is busy with the orchids, but Hattie says she'll come back later if Archie will hold the money for her. Sometime later, a young woman named Tammy Baxter shows up. She is one of the tenants of Hattie's cheap boarding house, whose rooms she only rents to people working in show business. Tammy is concerned for Hattie, who almost never leaves her house, but today she said she was going to see Nero Wolfe, and she hasn't come home. Feeling protective of Hattie, Tammy has gone to Nero Wolfe's house to see if Hattie arrived. Archie lies and says he hasn't seen her, and Miss Baxter leaves.

When Hattie returns, she collapses at the doorstep; on her way back to Wolfe's house, a car swerved onto the sidewalk and hit her – fortunately, not hard enough to break bones, but enough to shake her up. In the front room, Hattie is revived by Fritz's coffee, and tells Wolfe and Archie about the money. She was chasing a mouse that ran behind the shelves in her parlor when she found the package hidden behind some books. She took the package and opened it to find a large amount of money – Archie estimates $10,000 in twenties.

The doorbell rings. It's Albert Leach, an agent of the Treasury Department, wanting to know if Archie has seen or spoken with a young woman named Tammy Baxter or an older woman named Hattie Annis. Archie, not caring for Leach's approach, admits to meeting Tammy, but does not mention that Hattie is present in the house. Then he returns to the front room, closely examines one of the twenties, and announces that there will probably be a reward: the bills are counterfeit.

Wolfe won't take Hattie on as a client, but he allows Archie to accompany her to her boarding house and investigate. Once there, Archie meets Hattie's boarders: Raymond Dell, Noel Ferris and Paul Hannah, three actors, and Martha Kirk, a dancer; Hattie caters to stage people. It isn't until Archie and Hattie enter the parlor that Archie sees the fifth boarder, Tammy Baxter, lying dead on the floor with a kitchen knife in her chest.

When Homicide arrives, Hattie locks herself in her bedroom and refuses to communicate with the police. Cramer doesn't want to break Hattie's door down and asks Archie to reason with her. Archie does so, and, acting as Wolfe's agent, takes Hattie as a client, but cannot talk her into coming out from her room. Eventually, Cramer gives up, breaks down her door, and has her carried away to be interrogated.

On his way back to the brownstone, Archie phones Wolfe to inform him that he has been hired. Over Wolfe's objection, Archie mentions that Hattie has extensive assets – close to half a million dollars in bonds, in addition to her four-story house in Manhattan. Wolfe, reluctant as always, accedes, and concurs that Parker should be instructed to see to her bail.

Archie has concluded that the murdered woman, Tammy Baxter, was a Treasury agent: Leach, when he asked about Miss Baxter, indicated that he knew both her phone number and that she had been to the brownstone earlier that day. He and Wolfe conjecture that she had been placed in Hattie's boardinghouse by the Treasury Department to investigate a counterfeiting operation.

The surviving tenants, Dell, Ferris, Hannah and Kirk, call at the brownstone. As she was being carried out of her house, Hattie told them to go to Nero Wolfe and tell him everything they had told the police. They set in to do so, but Wolfe takes control of the conversation, and questions each of them about personal background, present employment and source of income.

Wolfe gets some hints, and the next day sends Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin and Orrie Cather to reconnoiter at the boarders' places of employment. Archie is called to the DA's office to help sort out why the Treasury Department, and not Manhattan Homicide, has possession of the counterfeit money, which is evidence in a murder case. When Archie returns to the brownstone it is to find all concerned – the boarders, Inspector Cramer and Sgt. Stebbins, Agent Leach, and Saul Panzer – in the office to hear Saul describe the counterfeiting equipment that he found in the building where Wolfe sent him.



Monday, June 30, 2025

June '25 Roundup & Ramblings

 


Raw Data:

Novels - 11 ↓

Short Stories - 0 ↓

Manga/Graphic Novels - 1 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.35 ↑

Pages - 3217 ↓

Words - 1094K ↓


The Bad:

Bone Swans - 2stars of rotting granite in a swamp

Murder Geniuses - 2stars of Not The Shadow


The Good:

China Station - 4.5stars of Mrs Pollifax karate chopping a commie pinko to death!

Son of the Black Sword - 4stars of Larry Correia writing yet another kickbutt series


Movie:

Finished up the Yu Yu Hakusho anime with the Saga of the Three Kings. A good enough ending to the series as a whole and I think I'll be hanging onto my dvd's just in case I ever want to rewatch this again.


Miscellaneous Posts:


Personal:

I was not particularly happy with June on a personal level.

Work was utter chaos for almost the whole time. I never knew who I was working with or what I was doing until that morning. I worked with Truckboy enough that I was beyond frustrated. He's not stupid, not at all. He can go on about vehicles and what to do in situation A-Z, but put him on the job and suddenly he doesn't listen, he doesn't pay attention, he turns his brain off and just looks at the screen in front of him without thinking about what it MEANS. By the time I was done with him I was ready to put my machete through his guts. It was that bad. I feel really bad for the other crew chief who has had him for the last 18 months.

Church on Sabbath has been good. It is my new routine and I thoroughly enjoy being able to sit in the sanctuary for the entire time without having an overwhelming desire to storm out during "certain times" (coughmusiccough). I really hadn't realized how much it bothered me until I didn't have to leave. I grew up keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest and going to church on Sunday. It wasn't until I married Mrs B that I began going to church on Saturday. That was a huge adjustment for me. So when we started going to a Sunday church in '17 I thought I would slide right back in. It's been good and I have enjoyed it but I have found that going back to church on Sabbath just feels "right" to me. I am thankful for that because I was very concerned it was going to be a big issue for me like it was initially. I am grabbing every tiny thing I can be thankful for this month.

Life is busy. I was surviving on a week to week basis and I really don't like doing that. I hope July can be different but I have a sinking feeling it won't be. Life just sucked in various ways in June and I'm not over that yet.

On the book front however, June was the highest rated book month I've had all year. That is something to rejoice about and so I do. And nothing says "Be happy" like a twinkie :-D


Plans for Next Month:

Same old boring stuff as the same old boring months that I've posted in the same old boring way for the same old boring years. I'm in a rut and for once in my life, I'm not real happy about it. 


Sunday, June 29, 2025

Sage of the Three Kings (Yu Yu Hakusho)(1992 Anime)

 

Hiei, Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Keiko and Botan (the Grim Reaper)

Title: Saga of the Three Kings

Series: Yu Yu Hakusho Season 4

Episodes: 95-112

My Thoughts:

In this final story arc of Yu Yu Hakusho, the three kings of Demon world are at war for supreme dominance. At this moment in time, they are all balanced against each other, but one of them is on the brink of death and his death will trigger an all out war, which could spill over into the Human world. Yusuke is chosen by the dying demon king to be his Second, while the other two Kings each pick Kurama (the red pretty boy on the left in the picture above) and Hiei (the short, black haired guy on the left) to be their seconds. War is immanent and the three friends are now on opposing sides. Until Yusuke proposes a tournament where ANY demon can enter and the winner is the king of demon world for 3-4 years and then they repeat. This appeals to practically every demon and thus the demon tournament takes place. Yusuke and Friends know they each aren't strong enough to win, but they strategically play the tournament to tire out the top contenders and in the end, some randomly strong demon wins who doesn't want to invade Human world. Everybody wins. Yusuke returns to Human world to be with Keiko and is fully retired from being a spirit detective. The end.

This went rather fast. There was a lot of setup near the beginning, so the demon tournament ended up being short changed in my opinion. They "overcame" this by having several fights per episode and too contributed to the feeling of just rushing through this. I enjoyed this, but that feeling of being rushed just wouldn't go away. At the same time, I was ready for this to be over.

One of the detractors for these episodes was that Kuwabara (the tall guy with the red haired pompador in the picture above) isn't involved at all. He was the funny straight man in previous story arcs and brought a sense of fun to things, as Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei all are the super serious kind of personality. I missed having him around.

Overall, for the entire anime series, I am still VERY pleased with this. I don't know if I'll ever watch it again, but I'll be hanging onto my discs just in case.


Friday, June 27, 2025

My Week XXVII or The Cheeseburger Edition

 

My goodness, these "My Week" post titles are starting to look like Superbowl titles. The main difference is that I'm not raking in 100's of millions of dollars with this blog. What a shame. But if anyone has a couple of spare million, I'd be happy to take them off your hands. I wouldn't want you to suffer with all that responsibility and I'll gladly help bear it.

I debated about whether to even write this post at all. We had our first heatwave of the season from Sunday-Wednesday (a heatwave here is defined as going over 90F for 3 days in a row) and that always wipes me out, big time. By Wednesday I was toast. Any thoughts I might have had were concentrated on getting through each day, that was it. I didn't write or schedule any posts, I didn't have any ideas for future posts, I just came home, ate dinner, read a little in bed and then fell asleep, usually by 8pm. Thursday was a recovery day and today, well, today was Friday. Not much else to say about that.

My work car is going in for inspection next week and I'm not very optimistic about its chances of passing without sinking some serious money into it. And if it ends up requiring too much money, it'll be better to just buy another one. Rust is what gets cars here. The winters with all the salt on the roads just chews up the undercarriage of the car and in 10 years, your feet are going through the floor boards! But why borrow next week's worries right now, right?

To wrap this post up on a positive note, I'm going to leave you with a picture of my dinner. BEFORE I eat it. (I know some of you would go there, so I headed you off at the proverbial pass)

This is a turkey burger made with swiss cheese, onion and peppers IN the burger itself. I add ketchup and mustard to one half of the bun and sprinkled diced onions into that. I then add dill pickles on top of that. I place the burger on top of that bun. I stick a slice of sharp cheddar on top of the burger. To top it off, I add the other half of the bun that I have put 1000 Island dressing on. That's some serious flavor! Well, I'm off to enjoy my dinner, yum! Hopefully you have had a good dinner too. Or breakfast if it's Saturday morning by the time you read this :-)


Thursday, June 26, 2025

Granny Groo (Groo the Wanderer #41) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot, by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Granny Groo
Series: Groo the Wanderer #41
Author: Sergio Aragones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 25
Words: 2K
Publish: 1988


Netnanny has blocked this review due to wanton and gratuitous violence and nudity.






★★★✬☆


From Bookstooge

Groo remembers his Nanny, who was always spanking him for being a bad boy. He meets her in a gypsy band and she uses him to extort money from the surrounding towns. Until Groo tries to prove that he is not a bad boy and ends up destroying her schemes, as usual.




Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Shelf Control: Night Angel Nemesis

Shelf Control is a weekly feature created by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. Since early January 2023, Shelf Control has moved base to Literary Potpourri. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile and write a post about it–what it’s about, when/where you got it, why you want to read it and such.

I have read and re-read the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks as well as his Lighbringer series. I've been a big fan. In his Lightbringer series he did introduce a rather awkward female medical issue that didn't add to the story and even he acknowledged it was a pet thing of his. I think I'm being rather nice by saying it was simply "awkward". I considered dnf'ing the series right then and there. All of that is just to say that Weeks has been known to put stuff into his books that are of interest to him and nobody else.

He began a new Night Angel trilogy about two years ago. This was a sequel series and many fans were looking forward to it, me included. Weeks had a weekly or monthly youtube channel, was very active on social media and kept his website up to date. Soon after the release of Nemesis, he went silent.

Fast-forward two years to now and I began wondering when the next book would come out. He was still dark, so I began looking into other websites to see what might have happened. I stumbled across a Reddit thread that described the book and it appears that Weeks decided to overwrite about Depression and make his main character become truly depressed. It was offputting to all of the commentors and I got the sense that it was as bad as the sex thing in the Lightbringer series.

It has made me wonder if Weeks himself was suffering from depression and couldn't handle the fact that not everybody was enthralled with the subject as himself. It would explain his extended absence as well.

As such, I think I'm going to be passing on Nemesis. I haven't got time for authors who die on me, authors who are too lazy to finish their series OR authors who are human and fail like every other human.