Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: Ipiccy

Showing posts with label Ipiccy. Show all posts

Monday, March 31, 2025

March '25 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels - 12 ↓

Short Stories - 2 ↑

Manga/Graphic Novels - 1 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.13 ↑

Pages - 2847 ↓

Words - 927K ↓

The Bad:

Star's End - 2.5stars of realizing Glen Cook's SF is crap, period.

Demon Slayer #13 - 2stars of side characters that I didn't care one bit for.

The Good:

Service with a Smile - the only 4star read this month

Movie:

The Dark Tournament was a great entry in the Yu Yu Hakusho anime. I loved all 40 episodes of the non-stop fighting.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

I had bought a sunlamp in the middle of February and by the beginning of March really hadn't noticed a difference. I was told that it could take up to a full month to notice any difference, so I didn't just give up in despair. I got this from Amazon and it's an 11,000 lux version with variable color and brightness levels. I have kept it at its yellowest color and on the brightest setting. I use it as a "regular" floor lamp while sitting on the couch, so use it a good 2-4hrs after work. I did notice a big difference by mid-March. Unfortunately, that also coincided with warmer temps outside and more sunshine, so it might not have been the lamp itself. I guess a true determination will have to wait until this Fall and Winter when I can start using it from the get-go of the season. It would be really nice to not feel like I did this year, that's for sure.

Mr Zip had his 40th birthday this month and I enjoyed celebrating that with him. Good food, good drink, good friends and lots of books to choose from. Doesn't get much better than that. Except by adding a big ol' banana cream pie to the mix!

Our Kia (car) passed inspection for another year. With about $1800 worth of help, sigh. Our State House of Representatives just passed a bill that would do away with state inspections. I am all for that. Still has to go through the State Senate and be signed by the Governor, but things are looking up in that regards.

Cover Love:

Ruin by Nate Crowley wins the cover love award hands down. Much like Jimbo, I too have a thing for axes.

Plans for Next Month:

Same old, same old. I still want to find a long term series to blog about, but right now I'm flailing and not coming up with much of anything.

Friday, February 28, 2025

February '25 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels - 13 -

Short Stories - 1 ↑

Manga/Graphic Novels - 1 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.06 ↓↓

Pages - 3008 ↑

Words - 988K ↑

The Bad:

Mephisto's Game - 2stars of me abandoning the Galaxy's Edge authors :-(

Faust: A Story in 9 Letters - 2stars of russian infidelity without repentance

Death in Ecstasy - 2stars of continued wallowing in the fallen human condition

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine Sept '12 - 2stars of not very good stories

The Good:

The Finality Problem - 5stars of ending for Warlock Holmes

Too Many Clients - 4stars of Nero Wolfe not wallowing in the fallen human condition

Nemesis - 4stars of monster butt kicking

Movie:

YuYu Hakusho: The Spirit Detective arc was a fun rewatch and gave me hope that maybe I'm not too old for anime, not yet anyway.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

Just like the last couple of years, February has been the month where Winter bared it's arm and smacked us as hard as it possibly could. Multiple snow storms kept us busy and made work a real bear (pope) of a time.

Yes, the Pope DOES wear a hat...

Readingwise, this month also felt bad. Getting three 2-2.5star books in a row in the second to last week was like getting kicked in the sensitives. If you're wondering, that is NOT a good thing. If it wasn't for those books, my average would have stayed the same or even gone up a tiny bit from last month.

Cover Love:

Veruchia by Edwin Tubb. Really no surprise. Nothing else really came close to even challenging it. Curse of the Spider King was the only challenger but with all the "dark" on the cover, I said "no".

Plans for Next Month:

Magic cards will be moving to noon or 1pm while the book review for that day will go at 5am. So still a double posting on Monday but in a different order, as what I consider more important goes first.

Mr Zip will be making an appearance one Monday, so for all his fans, you now have something to look forward to. You are welcome.

Other than that, it is all the usual magic, journal/my week, reviews and blatherings you can cope with.

Friday, January 31, 2025

January '25 Roundup & Ramblings

Novels/Novellas - 13 ↑

Short Stories - 0 ↓

Manga/Graphic Novels - 1 ↓

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.27 ↑

Pages - 2648 ↓

Words - 896K ↓

The Bad:

That Is Not Dead - 1star of blasphemous cosmic horror

The Beggar Queen - 2stars of depressing non-fantasy fantasy

The Good:

Legion - 5stars of monster killing awesomeness

The Throme of the Erril of Sherill - 4stars of delightful whimsy and muse

Movie:

Friends and Family. Giving up on the Cardcaptor Sakura franchise for right now. Need to find a different way to engage with anime. 3-4 episodes a month just isn't working for me.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

January did not start out very well. Meth-heads and car parts stolen, flat tires and tools that didn't fit, missing doctors, cold weather enough to kill you, it was just one big fat unhappy mash. I will say that venting through the My Week posts really helps though. I get all upset about something, am able to write it out and vent and then I'm past it. Whereas if I kept all inside until now, I'd be just like a stewed prune. Disgusting! (I was going to put in a picture of stewed prunes, but I ended up grossing myself out) Blogging is so therapeutic when I let it be.

Mrs B got her cast off and returned to work. For a half shift. Because she was "on leave", there were a ton of hoops the store had to jump through to get her "off leave" and back into the schedule. And they did that as well as could be expected, ie, not very. But starting next week, she's In The System! Oh, she's so excited /sarcasm

Cover Love:

After Dark by Manly Wade Wellman. It's the second Silver John novel. Creepy, in a delicious way.

Plans for Next Month:

Have another food post for this upcoming Sunday. I'll even include the cookbook and recipe! Yowzers ;-)

Speaking of Sundays, I'm going to reserve them for non-book review posts. Then Mondays will probably be double posting of a Magic card and a book review. Fridays will be either a Journal post or a My Week post. With Valentines falling on a Friday, I do plan on posting something oriented that way.

I've got my next anime picked out and will be reviewing an entire season instead of just one disc. 28 episodes of shonen goodness coming your way!

Then everything else will be book reviews, book reviews and book reviews! And not an oxford comma to be seen anywhere! ;-)

Monday, September 30, 2024

September '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 11 ↓

Short Stories – 0 ↓

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 ↓

Comics – 1 –

Average Rating – 3.38 ↑

Pages – 2187 ↓

Words 817K ↓

The Bad:

Cthulhu Resurgent – 2.5Stars of non-cosmic horror pretending to be cosmic horror. I put the smackdown on THAT quick enough!

The Good:

Monster Hunter Vendetta – 4.5Stars of monster killing!

Wyrd Sisters – 4Stars of good classic Discworld.

Movie:

Friends Forever, the third dvd in the Cardcaptor Sakura anime.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

The trip to Georgia went really well. Meeting our niece for the first time in real life was good and I hope she can remember who we are, because it’ll be a couple more years before she sees us in real life again. Taking that time off from writing on the blog was good for me too. I needed it more than I realized.

Fall is here. Period. Leaves are falling off the trees. Acorns too, and let me tell you, those things HURT when they hit you on the top of the head. It does mean work is going to be an absolute delight for 4-5 weeks as the cool air is perfect working weather and the falling leaves means site distances almost double. That means 1/4 less work! This is the time of year I look forward to the most.

I read a good bit less this month and so my metrics are all down. I’m ok with that though, as it was mostly due to the Georgia trip. I didn’t read a single book during those 5-6days. I did read on the airplane, but I don’t count that. Taking a break from reading was good for me too.

Plans for Next Month:

Pumpkin Festival!!!!!! Yeah baby.

Because the Book Hauls of Misery are over, I will be returning to my regularly scheduled My Week posts a bit more.

Over the last year or so both Mrs B and I have been finding that we have been getting disconnected from keeping the Sabbath (Saturday, a day of rest and worship) in a meaningful way. We will be taking concrete steps to combat this and one of those steps will be that I won’t be posting on Saturdays. I still plan to read and comment on others’ blogs, but I don’t want my attention to be drawn to my own things. Having Fridays off in the previous months has been a good stress reliever but now I want to move that to where it belongs. It does mean that I am planning on doing double posts on Mondays, but you’ll survive, because I trust in the Power of Friendship!
~gag puke barf, etc….

Saturday, August 31, 2024

August '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 13 –

Short Stories – 0 –

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 –

Comics – 1 –

Average Rating 3.21 ↓

Pages – 3303 ↓

Words – 1076K ↓

The Bad:

Dragon’s Den – 2stars that finally sunk the series for me

Last Contact – 2.5Stars of Star Wars dying for me, all over again 🙁

The Good:

Lady Susan – 4Stars of epistolary fun

The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles – 4.5Stars of Warlock Holmes amusing me greatly

Movie:

Everlasting Memories, the second dvd of the Cardcaptor Sakura anime series. As sweet as ever.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

Ahhh, you know, I really like doing those My Week posts. Cuts down on trying to remember everything and regurgitate it in one paragraph!

Our washer has started leaking. Going to be finding out if it is a fixable leak or if it means we’ll need to buy a whole new one. That’s going to be expensive. I guess that red Porsche I was eyeing is going to have to wait another year.

From a reading perspective things started out bad. Three sub 3star books in a row made me feel like it was the worst reading month ever. I felt that way the whole month even though I had a whole bunch of decent books. It wasn’t until the end when I read Warlock Holmes that I felt like things had turned around. This is exactly why I don’t trust my feelings and put out the hard numbers each month. Keeps me grounded in reality.

Cover Love:

The Infinite and the Divine, a Warhammer 40K: Necrons novel. I had several choices this month, but this just appeals to me.

Plans for Next Month:

Guess what? I actually DO have something different for September that I can tell you about. Whooowhee!

Mrs B and I will be visiting family from the 11th to the 16th. I’ll be posting my Annual 9/11 Post but will have comments turned off and then there won’t be any more posts until we come back. I’m sure I’ll still be around to visit you all, but the blog will not be active for those 5 days. I’ll get a post up on the following Friday about the whole time.

On a scheduling note. I usually schedule my posts for 5am, Eastern Standard Time, which is -5 GMT. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be changing that to 6am. Not a big change, but I am experimenting with some small things to see if it can help with some larger issues.

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

July '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 13 ↓

Short Stories – 0 –

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 –

Comics – 1 ↑

Average Rating – 3.62 ↑↑

Pages – 3572 ↓

Words – 1331K ↑

The Bad:

Mansfield Park – 2Stars of Stone Cold Jane Austen really letting the team down

The Good:

A Study in Brimstone – 5Stars of Pure Literary Genius!

Monster Hunter International – 4.5Stars of the best monster killing you’ll ever read

Movie:

Didn’t review anything this month. Just wasn’t feeling it.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

The first half of this month was insanely busy (for us). Those first two weekends were just jam packed. I use my weekends to recover from the week, so when I have to expend valuable “social” energy on a weekend, I really notice it. Thankfully, things settled down and got back into a more normal groove.

After last months R&R where I went on and on and on, I decided that just wasn’t going to do, so I started/continued those “My Week” posts where I blab about all the super interesting things that happen to me, like being in the Emergency Room for 9hrs or getting paid for 5hrs of driving instead of doing actual work. All those gripping, exciting and enthralling stories (and no oxford comma! ha). It has worked well for me. I get to blab about something non-book oriented but that’s not “themed” so I don’t feel pressured to be creative. The bonus is that it’s been on my scheduled “don’t need to blog day” (Friday) so if I don’t feel like saying something, I don’t have to. It’s been great!

And can I talk about that average rating from the Numbers section? 3.62!!!! That is the highest monthly rating I’ve had this year. I am wicked happy about that. That is partly why I do those numbers each month. Sometimes my memory of how the overall reading time went gets fuzzy near the end of the month and it serves me well to do the hard facts.

Cover Love:

While the cover is a little dark (in terms of lighting, not content), MHI gets the nod this time. I was severely tempted to stick with Kalin, but I chose modesty and guns over swank and boobs.

Plans for Next Month:

Sometimes I wonder why I even do this portion of the R&R. Forgive me while I indulge in a moment of self-pity for a couple of sentences.

Wah wah wah

I do the same thing every stinking month. I review some books. I put up some pictures of magic and superhero cards. I put up a piece of artwork. I review a movie or tv show. I blabber nonsense. Every. Single. Month. I want to be one of those bloggers who are just bursting with creativity and doing something new every single month. Most of the time I readily accept that I am a steady, plodding blogger. But there are a few times a year where I just WISH I could be an “arteest” and wow everyone for a post or two. Or ten, twenty or even one hundred! (might as well dream big)

Ok, somebody call the wambulance, show’s over. Time to go cut down a tree, translate some chinese curses and shoot a groundhog, all with my bare hands, my eyes closed and while in a strait jacket. Tada!!!!

Sunday, June 30, 2024

June '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 15 ↓

Short Stories – 0 –

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 ↓

Comics – 0 ↓

Average Rating – 3.20 ↓

Pages – 3608 ↓

Words – 1304K ↓

The Bad:

Life, the Universe and Everything – 2 stars of utter stupidity. Not funny, just stupid.

Remains – 2.5stars of watching a favorite series slide into something I didn’t want.

The Good:

Jenny Trapdoor – 4stars of Polity goodness and ultra-violence.

The Pinhoe Egg – 4star ending to the Chrestomanci series.

Movie:

The Clow. The first four episodes of the anime Card Captor Sakura. When story telling still meant something.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal: (there’s a lot)

Thankfully, that nasty cough is gone for both of us. Took me two weeks longer than Mrs B, but we eventually beat it. Man, I do not want to repeat that any time soon!

Got both my eyes injected for my diabetes, at the same time. I usually have one eye done one week and then the other the next, but that is an extra vacation day to use up, so I took the latest time slot and Mrs B came with me so she could drive home. It’s a good thing. I normally drive myself home when it was just one eye, but man, doing both at once really did a number on me. Once we got home, I took some tylenol, a sleeping pill and slept until it was time to go to work the next day. And I didn’t even have to use up any vacation time. Score!

One of our cars developed a gas leak, but the garage said they didn’t have an opening until the next week, so we drove it there and parked it. That way the gas would get on THEIR parking lot and not ours 😉 I was hoping that would help convince them to put it into the schedule sooner. That meant juggling our remaining vehicle as we both had to work. Thankfully, our work times have enough leeway that one could drive to work and the other drive back. Meant one had to sit around in the morning the other sit around in the afternoon, but better than walking 4 miles each way next to a four lane highway. It was taken care of, quicker than they said it could be, so I think leaving it on their premises helped 😉

It was also a busy month. Mainly for Mrs B, but when she’s busy, there’s always spillover and so I’m busier too, even if not as busy as her. Several various doctors appointments. Lots of social meetings (including picking strawberries at a local organic farm), a highschool graduation party, a bbq sendoff for a childhood friend of mine who I haven’t seen in years, singing at a local rest home, helping our new (future) pastor and his family move in to their home and going to a work friend’s place for more bbq’ing.

In fact, we were so busy that I forgot to read a Groo comic this month. Is that a crying shame or what? Never fear though, I’ve made sure to pencil it in for July so I won’t miss it. Wouldn’t want to deprive you of your one piece of good literature you’ll read about 😉

I also managed to forget about $2000 worth of equipment on a jobsite one day. Thankfully, the contractor saw it and set it aside so no one stole it, but man, that really shook me up. I’m usually very meticulous about making sure we pack everything up at the end of the day. It was about an hour away, so Mrs B and I went on a road trip that weekend to pick it up. Lovely scenery anyway.

I participated in my first “group thing” in several years. #ReadingtheMeow2024 was a very simple group activity of just reading a book that involved a cat. The Pinhoe Egg (linked above) slotted right in without me even having to try. THAT’S the kind of group activity I like. Where I am by myself and nobody tells me what to do 😉

The Mysterious Spike In Stats (chronicled in the “So This Happened” post, which also broke the 100 view mark in a single day) got me some big numbers for the month. I believe I was able to find out the cause of some of them, but definitely not all. Either the bots are truly becoming intelligent (as shown by their consuming my words like honey) or my ascension as the King of Blogging has begun. Personally, I suspect you may start calling me “Your Majesty” by this time next month. 👑

We had a heat wave mid-month. For three days it was 100 degrees. Had to go into work an hour early so we were done before the temps peaked in the afternoon. It was pure misery.

Plans for Next Month:

READ A GROO COMIC!!!! I know I mentioned it above, but seriously, that is important stuff.

Independence Day is coming up later this week and I’ll be doing my usual posting of our Founding Document.

Book Recommendations. I garnered enough suggestions in the Intro Post to start replying in July. So put on your thinking caps and come up with MORE suggestions. And you people who comment rarely or never, jump on in would you? I would love to link to some of you folks and get to know you, even if in a very silly way. You can do it! I would say there is nothing to be afraid of, but honestly, there is. That Chartreuse Flag is flapping menacingly in the background. You can hear it, flap, flaaaap, flaaaaaaaap…

Friday, May 31, 2024

May '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 17 ↑

Short Stories – 0 –

Manga/Graphic Novels – 1 ↑

Comics – 1 –

Average Rating – 3.32 ↓

Pages – 4135 ↑

Words – 1379 ↑

The Bad:

Betrayal – 2stars of very badly storied “secret agent” fiction. VERY BADLY STORIED

A Phule and His Money – 2.5stars of utter mediocrity

Conan the Hunter – 2.5Stars of really badly written Conan fanfiction

The Good:

Conrad’s Fate – 5stars of Jones at her absolute best

Three for the Chair – 4stars of Nero Wolfe at his fattest 😉

Northanger Abbey – 4stars of Austen impressing me

Movie:

Dune Part 2 was the biggest disappointment I have had in over a decade. Never. Again.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Cover Love:

Green Eyes by Maxwell Grant. I know everyone focused on the big ol’ schnozz last time, but for goodness sake people, stop being such shallow dipsticks and enjoy the beauty of the whole cover. Or I swear, I’ll grab the Shadow’s twin .45 pistols and shoot you with them.

Personal:

Both Mrs B and I came down with some sort of cold/respiratory infection that just about killed us for a week and then left us hacking up our lungs for 2 more weeks after that. I got it first and then a week later, Mrs B followed the exact same path. It was extremely unpleasant and left us both exhausted. When you wake yourself up coughing, even with having taking cough suppressant, it just hurts the ribs. That really dominated everything. We got through work each day, recovered as best we could over our days off and just prayed for death.

Had dinner with another couple at church and he and I played a couple games of parcheesi while the women folk took a nice long walk. I love parcheesi. I could play it for hours.

Plans for Next Month:

With being sick in May, I’ll probably be taking Fridays off again in June. My ooomph is just completely gone.

I was talking with Nic and she gave me a good idea for a potential new monthly series of posts. I’ll be posting that in the next week or two. Give me some time to cogitate about it.

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

April '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 16 ↑

Short Stories – 0 –

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 –

Comics – 1 –

Average Rating – 3.35 ↓

Pages – 3479 ↑

Words – 1229 ↑

The Bad:

Drop Shot – 1star of all that fallen human nature is, and calling it good.

Lord Hornblower – 3stars, but man, Hornblower is a scumbag of a character.

The Good:

Persuasion – 5stars of Austen persuading me, yet again, of what a fantastic author she is.

The Diary of a Superfluous Man – 4stars of Russian melancholy, depression and death. Talk about wonderful!

Movie:

While I’ve only seen two versions of Persuasion on the screen, this 2008 BBC version did a very good job imo.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

More reading, more posts, more good ratings (second highest months rating this year, whoooo!). Bookwise, another splendiferous month. I’m getting spoiled folks. So don’t be surprised if in the next couple of months the other shoe drops and I have horrible book after horrible book and you see me whining and complaining about how terrible all the books are.

I was all over the place emotionally. For a wide of variety of reasons. Work would be great one day and then absolutely brutal the next and I just couldn’t spring back from the brutal ones quite as quick as I used to. Several of the new people at church didn’t keep coming like I was afraid and that really bummed me out. You can’t be a Christian in a community of Christians and not go to church. Your connection to Christ will wither and you’ll fall away. I got some new diabetes equipment that works really well, but the learning curve is pretty steep and so it was both good and bad all at the same time. Had a wonderful morning date with Mrs B at a local diner (Mrs B could breakfast food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, 7 days a week) and I must admit, I stuffed myself to the gills.

I got sunburnt on my head, in April! We were working next to lake and the sun was shining but it wasn’t that warm, so I had my hoodie on. Put the hood up to protect my head but the wind kept blowing it off and it was off enough that I got a sun burn. First of the season, sigh. I also walked through a tick nest one day and ended up with 12 ticks on me. Thankfully, I got them off before they embedded, but it was just disgusting. Work is disgusting in fact!

Went to the gun range one Sabbath with my brother. Tried out my new drum magazine for my 9mm carbine. It has a 50 round capacity. I just tried it with 20 and it performed flawlessly. Next time I will use a whole box of 50 and load it up, but man, that’s a lot of money to literally shoot away, even with ammo prices not being astronomical like they used to be. I also shot my brother’s 1911 .45 caliber pistol. That’s what the Shadow uses 😉 I’ll tell you what, there is no way I would single handedly shoot that thing. While it’s not a monster, it’s too big for just one of my hands. So dual wielding like the Shadow does, that’s for the movies.

The month ended with me getting some sort of head cold and a cough. It was bad. I ended up having to call out of work one day and I lived off of cough drops and robitussin. I’m hoping that that is it for spring time sickness and that I can go forward into the summer’s sunshine and stay nice and healthy.

Cover Love:

Derai by Edward Tubb. I already talked about this in the review for Derai, but I think it bears repeating that that IS an awesome book cover!

Plans for Next Month:

I actually have two poems to go live. Not my own (duh!), but from a fellow blogger I follow. I don’t expect it to be a regular thing, but even something a little different is good. It’s spring time, so it’s time to shake winter’s slumber off and wake up. Even if only for May, hahahaha 😀

I hope to have another Marvel Champions post up. I’m having fun with the titles alone, so that has guaranteed I’ll keep them coming for a while.

Depending on when Dune 2 drops on bluray and I get a hold of a copy, I might end up reviewing that for my movie selection at the end of the month. I’m “almost” excited for that 🙂

Other than those things, it’ll be Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Book Reviews and Magic Cards.

Monday, April 01, 2024

March '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 12 ↓

Short Stories – 0 –

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 –

Comics – 1 –

Average Rating – 3.50 ↑

Pages – 3259 ↓

Words – 1145K ↓

The Bad:

Notes from Underground – 1Star DNF@10% nonsense

The Good:

The Lives of Christopher Chant – 5Stars of how Middlegrade should be written!

Movie:

Martian Successor Nadesico was an overload of angsty emotions and activity.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

Great book month! Yes, I read less but boy, did I read some great books. I was looking at my ratings calendar and I kept seeing 4star here, 4star there, it was just wonderful. And did you see that monthly average? 3.50!!!! I nearly blew a happy gasket when I calculated that particular statistic 🙂

Had a stomach bug near the beginning of the month. I also had to get some injections in my eyes because of my diabetes. Couple both of those things with the shenanigans that WordPress.com started pulling and it was no wonder I took a week off from socializing online. I was pretty stressed out. Once I got back things were a bit better. I’m thinking about permanently uninstalling the jetpack app on my phone so that I can only go on wordpress when I have access to my laptop.

At the same time, I wrote more non-review posts and overall really enjoyed it. You can’t see it, but I also journaled a LOT more this month. Almost every single day. So in terms of getting the words out of my system, this was an amazing month. Words, words, words! Plus, the week where I took off from WordPress and didn’t get words out in people’s comment sections, I ended up texting a lot of people who I don’t normally communicate with regularly, so that was good to reconnect with old acquaintances again. Or get more acquainted with the regulars. It is surprising how many people I know that are not texter’s. For some of those people, if I got a response at all, I counted that as a victory 😀

Paid my bleeding, fething, fracking, bleepity bleeping taxes. Second year in a row that we have ended up owing money instead of getting a refund. Huh, almost like our current administration is a spendthrift with other peoples’ money (ie, MINE). I’m going to leave it at that before I say something I shouldn’t, like “I wish all IRS agents would just suddenly drop dead”. That’s the kind of thing you can’t say in the United Soviet States of America any more.

Sadly, real life also sandbagged me right near the end of the month. Something I never saw coming in a million years. Thankfully, it WAS just a sandbag and not a baseball bat, but it did leave me reeling for a couple of days. Got my bearings back but man, realizing the emotions and their fallout, amazing how something little can have a big affect.

Plans for Next Month:

The Usual. I feel like I’ve gotten into a blogging rut and right now, I’m ok with staying right there. I don’t have the “oomph” to try something new, so I won’t.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

February '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 15 ↑

Short Stories – 0 ⭤

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 ⭤

Comics – 1 ⭤

Average Rating – 3.31 ↑

Pages – 3427 ↑

Words – 1244K ↑

The Bad:

The Expanding Universe #1 – 1star comparable to nuclear waste

The Good:

Pride and Prejudice – 5stars of goodness even with stupid questions ruining the experience

Phule’s Company – 4stars of light fun that really hit the spot

Movie:

No movie this month. After John Wick 4 last month, I needed a break.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

Man, where January sped by so fast that it was over before I blinked, February has felt like absolute frozen molasses. It went no where and it went there really slow. Every day of each week felt like it should have been Friday, not matter if it was Monday or some other day. Every single week. It was the month That. Would. Not. End.

Then part way through the month I got the worst cold that I’ve had in a long time. It started in my head and worked it’s way down to my chest. For two days at work I thought I was going to die. It was like a freight train had run me over. Took me over a week to recover from the weakness and I was coughing for the rest of the month.

On the positive side, I was able to play a good bit of Magic the Gathering on whatsapp. Had a 3player game with Dave and Mark. It took us a solid, glorious week to play. With me in the United States, Mark in the UK and Dave in the Netherlands, those time zones really kicked our butts. But we overcame and while I don’t know about the other two, I had an absolute blast. Long, slow games of Magic where you chat between turns is one of my favoritist things.

Speaking of games, I kicked my own butt into gear and sleeved up Marvel Champions. I will put up that post next week, so no need to fret, you’ll get your MC fix.

We have several new families at church, so I’ve been wearing myself out introducing myself each Sunday. I am NOT a people person and interacting with people wears me out, even good interactions. I can’t wait until they’re regulars and I can go back to ignoring them 😉

Cover Love:

Kind of the opposite of “love” because this is the cringiest cover for a book that I’ve read in a very long time. But “Making Love Last Forever“ by Gary Smalley was a great book. The cover, however, is like looking at a train wreck happening in real time in slow motion. I cannot look away no matter how much I want to. And now you get to see that image seared into your brains as well. You are welcome.

Plans for Next Month:

I’m going to watch and review a movie. I have no idea which one though. I’m contemplating digging back into my massive pile of anime discs and trying them again. There’s gotta be SOMETHING I can still enjoy 😀

My Magic card posts will get a slight aesthetic change. I’m not going to be putting up the art AND the card in the post. While I liked a change, I found it was simply too busy for my taste. So I’m going to be making the art part the featured image and just having the card itself in the post. That way I still get both parts but without having it look overwhelming.

Will have two [Art] posts again.

Will be doing another buddy-read of the Discworld series with Dave again. Going to be reading Mort, the first of the Death subseries. I remember really enjoying the Death books before, so I have high hopes I’ll enjoy it as much if not more so than last time 😀

Other than that, reviews as normal and random posts when I feel the inspiration.

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

January '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 14 ⭤

Short Stories – 0 ⭤

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 ⭤

Comics – 1 ⭤

Average Rating – 3.23 ↓

Pages – 3057 ↑

Words – 1060K ⭤

The Bad:

Stalking the Dragon – 2stars of Ultimate Boring!!!!!

Woman in White – 1star of Wilkie Collins. Overwriting. Everything. All The Time.

The Good:

Second Foundation – 5Stars of all the SF goodness

Weaponized – 4Stars of Polity body horror

Movie:

John Wick 4 was a torturous, bloated movie of violent excess. I don’t have any thing else to say.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

What a busy month. Looking at our wall calendar, we had multiple things going on every single week. I am not a fan of having commitments to others that often. A body needs down time, alone time, so it can recharge.

Had a couple of snowstorms, both of which were decent sized. Of course, a week later it either rained and washed it all away, or it was up to 50degrees and melting like crazy.

Taking Friday’s off from writing on the blog has helped tremendously. Just seeing that “Free Day” on my google calendar is a weekly reminder and it’s been good for me emotionally. While Wednesday’s haven’t worked out quite the way I was hoping, knowing that they are only open for Review posts does help me. I read enough that writing reviews, while monotonous at times, doesn’t have the same creative pressure that a non-review post does. Mainly because the reviews are for myself and I just don’t care. Non-review posts are usually written with some random idea whereby I hope to engage your interest and elicit comments from you all 😉

Our church finalized the hiring of a new assistant pastor (not sure what his official title is, as he’s still studying at seminary and so doesn’t have his doctorate yet). He’s in his mid-20’s, married to his highschool sweetheart, with one little kiddo. He’s some sort of engineer at one of the big car companies and he likes people. In short, he’s everything I wanted to be 20 years ago. But I’m me and no amount of moaning or whining is going to change that 😉 I am really hoping for his success out here (they are moving from Michigan) and that he gets along with the majority of the congregation. He made a great impression on us when they came out to visit at the end of ’23. I do admit, I am looking forward to seeing how a young man proceeds in this day and age, as the challenges he will face will be totally different from what I might have back in my 20’s. Being witness to the rising of the next generation of Christians is sad, scary, exhilarating and oh so encouraging, all at once.

Our cable bill went significantly up this month. I am looking at other options but I am afraid it will impact us, I just don’t know how yet. Not looking forward to yet another change. Using our phones as hotspots and tethering is one option. That would mean I can’t stream stuff on our bluray player anymore but I don’t know how much of an impact that would actually have. But a 50% jump in the rate is not something we can sustain.

Cover Love:

Shadow of Anubis wins this quite handily. The Arcane books are just gorgeous and I’m ok with that. And Dr Bell is looking shaaaarp in that vest!

Plans for Next Month:

Going to be doing a buddy read with Lashaan for Pride and Prejudice. Looking forward to that.

Other than that, it should be business as usual. I do promise that this month’s Art will be happier than the Pain & Suffering of January 😉

Sunday, December 31, 2023

December '23 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 14 ⭤

Short Stories – 0 ⭤

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 ⭤

Comics – 1 ⭤

Average Rating – 3.60 ↑

Pages – 3031 ↓

Words – 1060K ↓

The Bad:

Cthulhu’s Daughter – 1Star DNF

Basil – 2.5Stars of pansy character being a pansy

The Good:

A Christmas Carol – 5stars of Dickens awesomeness

Virgin Soil – 5Stars of Russian’ness, again

Foundation and Empire – 5Stars keep on rolling!

Movie:

Miscellaneous Posts:

Personal:

Ohhhhhhhhh, what a month. Mrs B’s wrist stayed in the cast all month. She was on light duty at work and it meant that even little things like grocery shopping she needed help with. That made work time unpleasant for her as she was stuck mainly on cashiering and she hates that. It also meant I did a LOT more of the chores, which gave me a VERY good appreciation for all that Mrs B does. It’s so easy to overlook all the contributions your spouse makes, so this was a good reminder to me to not take her for granted.

Then the week right before Christmas our car died on us. In the church parking lot, after everybody had left, sigh. It made for a very rough hour as we raced around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to get everything straightened out of where to get it towed, how to get home, and how Mrs B was going to get to work, in an hour. If I had had any hair, I would have been pulling it out. Thankfully, a bunch of wonderful people from church helped us out and one of my good friends took me out to lunch so I could vent and settle myself down. I’m so thankful for good friends who not only help us out, but also know what we need after such an incident. Being a words person has gotten me some notorious attention at church but I’m working on not being such a blabber mouth. Thank God they are all merciful to me 😀

Work for me was as busy as ever. We are 3 months out for scheduling and it’s only growing longer. I had a Surveyor’s Conference partway through the month and talked to one of the project managers from my old company. They are 4 months out and growing longer. Every survey company is in the same boat and I feel bad for anyone needing a survey.

I was tired out enough that I had to block out Fridays from blogging, which was necessary and good for me. Didn’t work out 100%, but it did mean I didn’t feel any pressure to blog if I didn’t want to. I did find that I was emotionally ragged most of the month and that made me a bit curt and short on a lot of peoples’ posts. I was not proud of how I reacted in many cases.

Reading-wise, this was the best month I had all year. I had THREE 5star reads. That’s incredible, especially considering how grumpy and out of sorts I was during most of my reading time. Ahhhh, why can’t more months be like this one in that regards?

Cover Love:

Two contenders and I couldn’t choose between them. So two winners! Imperator & Get Me to the Wake on Time.

Plans for Next Month:

Have to finish up the Year in Review post for tomorrow, THEN I can deal with the rest of the month.

I do plan on taking Wednesday’s and Friday’s off from writing posts. I have not been in a writing mood ever since Christmas and I’m not going to force it. Other than that, it will be business as usual.