September '25 Roundup & Ramblings

 

Raw Data:

Novels - 11 ↓

Short Stories - 0 ↓

Manga/Graphic Novels - 0 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.25 ↑

Pages - 4048 ↓

Words - 1457K ↓

The Bad:

Then It Fell Apart - 2stars of sketchy memoir

Lair of Bones - 2star ending to the Runelord series

Father Sergius - 2stars of mystical hokum masquerading as Christianity

The Good:

The Dragonbone Chair - 5stars of fantastic re-reading

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Hypnotic Specter - MTG 4E
• CR: The Younger Sister
• My Week XXVIII
• Reading Rotation 9/25
• Immolation - MTG 4E
• 9/11 - I Still Remember
• A Sabbath Letter #4
• Inferno - MTG 4E
• Gone for the Day
• My Week XXIX or Wadical Wheels
• Instill Energy - MTG 4E
• [Art] Maiden of Fall
• [Poem] "I Loved You" by Alexander Pushkin
• Ironclaw Orcs - MTG 4E

Personal:

September was the month my eye was completely better and I went back to work. It was brutal. The first 2 full weeks in September was all about pure misery and suffering as I kicked my body back into gear and showed it who was boss. But in the end, I won.

Partway through the month one of our cars went into the garage and we found out the engine was on its last legs. The mechanic told us not to take any long trips and he wasn't kidding. So we scrambled around. We considered a new car, but while we could have afforded it, it would have left us with no safety net. So we settled on a used car. Last time we bought one was back in '20, so some sticker shock was involved, sigh. But we're safely and fully mobile again, so that is a blessing.

Celebrated 17 years of wedded bliss this month. And while folks can joke about this and that in married life, I never joke complain, because I don't have anything to complain about. I don't take that for granted and have been spending the last couple of months really appreciating just what God has given each of us in the other. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and ate about 2 days worth of calories in 1 meal. That is a great thing to do, once a year :-D

On the book front, I read a lot less in terms of pure book numbers, but I read some real chunksters, so my page and word count weren't as low as might be expected. It is amazing how working 9hrs a day cuts into the reading time, hahahahaa. However, reading less also meant I didn't read as many middle of the road or crap books either, so my average rating went up. That is always a pleasant experience. Coupled with the several 2stars I read that weren't really "bad", they just weren't good, I felt like my reading for the month was a success. That's a good feeling to have, especially since I'm supposed to be a book blogger ;-) Reading less also led to more non-review posts. Look at that list above, 14 non-review posts. That's a good ratio of review and non-review posts and I'm happy with that balance.

Plans for Next Month:

Oh, do I have plans! I have a Warhammer 40K buddy read, which I'll post about tomorrow. I have a nasty rant coming (I tried to make it not nasty, but I just couldn't do it), on what subject, you'll have to wait and see. Our town's Pumpkin Festival is coming and I plan on doing a post about that, and the lovely food associated with it :-D I plan on reviewing a movie this month. After a long stretch of not, it feels like it is time to get back into the cesspit of Hollywood and give those *profanities whatfor. Finally, I have a post with the schedule for the Barbara Cartland romance read coming up in December. I am just bursting with non-book review ideas. Long may it last!

August '25 Roundup & Ramblings

 

Raw Data:

Novels - 22 ↑

Short Stories - 1 -

Manga/Graphic Novels - 0 ↓

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.10 ↑

Pages - 6484 ↑↑

Words - 2071 ↑↑

The Bad:

A Kiss Before Dying - 1.5stars of horribleness

See Them Die - 2stars of me stopping the 87th Precinct books

The Good:

A Wizard of Earthsea - 5stars of still good as ever!

Lord of the Isles - 4stars of re-reading'ness

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Hurkyl's Recall - MTG 4E
• [Art] The Summer Maiden
• Hurloon Minotaur - MTG 4E
• Hurricane - MTG 4E
• Hurr Jackal - MTG 4E

Personal:

I was off of work due to my eye, again. Thankfully, I am now back to work and everything is working as it should. 2 months of not working has not treated us well and thus I am actually happy to be back at work and earning money again. Bills don't magically disappear. And that is all I am going to say on that subject.

Because of the enforced time off, I read a massive amount. 24 book reviews made themselves right at home on the blog. I read almost twice as many books and I did read twice as many pages and words. Near the beginning of the month I began posting reviews on Saturdays because I realized what a tsunami of reviews was coming down the pipeline. I didn't want to end up 6 weeks ahead as 4 weeks is my limit. After that, I begin forgetting what I wrote in the review and can't intelligently respond to comments (some might say I don't anyway, but phooey to them! hahahahaha).

This past week was my return to work. Oh man, had I gotten soft. I did more walking on Tuesday-Thursday than I did in the previous two months combined. I woke up Friday (the day I was getting my eye injection) and my legs and lower back hurt and were stiff enough that I had to take some acetaminophen (tylenol) to get going. Thankfully, Monday is Labor Day, so I have that off. That means I only have to work 4 days this week and I have a feeling I'm going to hurt as bad by the end of this week as I was by the end of last. Getting back into fighting shape is going to be hard and brutal. At least my books aren't beating up on my this bad!

Plans for Next Month:

Work more, read less and desperately try to get the creative juices flowing again. 24 book reviews in one month just killed my creative side. I'd kill to be creative again.

July '25 Roundup & Ramblings

 

Raw Data:

Novels - 14 ↑

Short Stories - 1 ↑

Manga/Graphic Novels - 1 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.06 ↓

Pages - 3044 ↓

Words - 1059K ↓

The Bad:

Usagi Yojimbo: Samurai - 2stars of realizing I'm done with comics and graphic novels in general

Tide of Unmaking - 1.5stars of young adultness

The Good:

Homicide Trinity - 4stars of Nero Wolf novellas

The Monster Hunter Files - 4stars of monster hunting short stories

Miscellaneous Posts:

• American Independence Day, July 4 (2025 Edition)
• Update
• Holy Armor - MTG 4E
• [Journal] Jane Austen: Persuasion
• Announcement: Barbara Cartland Buddy Read
• Holy Strength - MTG 4E
• [Guest Post] Plagiarism
• Howl from Beyond - MTG 4E
• Spaceballs 2 Trailer
• Howling Mine - MTG 4E

Personal:

Batten down the hatches, Hurricane Blabbericus has arrived!

This month was completely taken over by me having a "6th Optic Nerve Palsy" in my left eye. Basically, one of the muscles froze up (it happens to type 1 diabetics) and my left eye couldn't track with my right, which gave me double vision. Thankfully, all of the tests came back clean, so it wasn't because of a mini-stroke or anything. It just happened. But I spent a day and a half in the ER and then 2 weeks of trying to get some doctor to give me a plain diagnosis. Thankfully, the eye specialist I see did an admirable job of explaining it all to me.

I have to wear an eyepatch on my left eye, because the double vision makes me nauseous, like perpetual motion sickness. Thankfully, the eyepatch takes care of that. It does mean I can't drive, I can't use sharp instruments and I can't do anything to jar my head (like walk through the woods and fall down), so I have been out of work all month. Originally, the eye doctor said I could probably go back to work mid-August, but after a follow up visit, she said the recovery was slower than initially expected so I will now be out of work until the end of August.

I do have short term disability through work, but that has been a nightmare. First they sent me the wrong paperwork and the insurance company rejected my claim out of hand, but didn't tell me or the HR person. It wasn't until I started calling (almost 2 weeks later) that I found this out and got the correct paperwork. The problem is, there are 3 different sections, one for me, one for my employer and one for the doctor. The first two are easy to get filled out, but getting the eye doctor to refill the paperwork is going to be something else, just because of how busy and swamped they are. But I'm hoping to get that taken care of next week.

Not being able to drive and be independent is a real killer. Thankfully, because I use an ereader, my reading hasn't suffered. My blogging didn't (on my own site) because of how far ahead I schedule. I was emotionally raw all month and it didn't take much to set me off online. I tried to minimize such times though by not going online as much, which did help. But there were a few times where I just blew up in a comments section, not a time I'm proud of :-( I burned a bridge or two, and I know I'll regret in the next couple of months, but right now, I don't have the emotional skin left to think anything more than this about it.

Speaking of bloggy things Wordpress.com also switched Ad partners. That led to a lot of problems, mainly that the partner they were using used scam ads and redirects and other scum moves. Here are the various posts on the Official Wordpress.com Support Forum talking about it. The "staff" (who I am not convinced are human any more) assured everyone it was all taken care of, but it obviously wasn't. It mainly hit the free blogs and many wondered if it was a pressure tactic by Wordpress.com to get the free people to upgrade to a paid plan. Several days later the complaints stopped coming in, so I assume the issue was fixed. But it never should have happened in the first place.

On the positive side of things, we took our car to a different mechanic and he passed it for inspection without any of the issues the first mechanic said the car had. Obviously, somebody was lying. But that means the car is set for another year, so one less stresser on my shoulders at the moment.

Plans for Next Month:

Read. I expect my reviews will be either a bit harsher than normal or shorter, given how I was feeling when writing them.

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:

• Grizzly Bear - MTG 4E
• Currently Reading: Batman/Shadow: The Murder Geniuses
• [Journal] Pear Garden
• Calendars & Scheduling the Bookstooge Way
• Healing Salve - MTG 4E
• My Week XXVI
• Helm of Chatzuk - MTG 4E
• Sergeant Zip Wants You!
• Hill Giant - MTG 4E
• Shelf Control: Night Angel Nemesis
• My Week XXVII

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. 

May '25 Roundup & Ramblings

 

Raw Data:

Novels - 17 ↑

Short Stories - 1 ↑

Manga/Graphic Novels - 1 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 3.10 ↑

Pages - 4195 ↑

Words - 1376K ↑

The Bad:

City of Stairs - 1star dnf of the now-typical usual suspects

Blades of Damocles - 2.5stars of the Hated Astartes, aka Space Marines

The Good:

Blood Debt - 4stars of Victor the Assassin being Victor the Assassin

The Final Deduction - 4stars of Death and Taxes ;-)

Miscellaneous Posts:

• [Journal] Verdi, Carteggio
• An ERA Update
• Gray Ogre - MTG 4E
• My Week XXIV or Bearly Surviving!
• Bookstooge's Criteria
• Greed - MTG 4E
• A History of ….. Bookstoogia
• Sunshine Blogger Award - 2025 Edition
• Green Mana Battery - MTG 4E
• My Week XXV
• Green Ward - MTG 4E

Personal:

First and foremost, my "Bookstooge's Criteria" post was the top post for this month and this year. even topping the hits for my "About" page (who can resist that lovable Mr Zip after all?). It even tops all but 5 posts from 2024, and that is in this month alone. That kind of post only happens once or twice a year. But I am glad it resonated with so many of you, as that is a good feeling as a blogger. And that's enough bragging from me ;-)

Mrs B contributed a post midmonth and that always makes me happy. She read my review of Austen's "History of England" and decided to do her own farce of a farce based on the fictious land of Bookstoogia.

Work was all over the place. New Guy is now fully in the Environmental Department so I got bounced around with Tall Guy (he's over a foot taller than me), by myself or with whoever. It was a very unsettling time. I knew it was coming though, so I just rolled with the punches. I have a feeling this whole summer is going to be like this.

Mrs B and I have started attending the Seventh Day Adventist church full time this month. It's a bit of a change, but with how I was dealing with the contemporary worship music at the Sunday church (ie, I wasn't, I had to sit out in the vestibule because I couldn't stand to even listen to it any more), something needed to change. Thankfully, it's an amicable change and we still have our circle of friends from the Sunday church. They are a real blessing to us.

My reading for May was insane. 20 books/comics are the kind of numbers I would expect to pull down if I had two weeks off from work. But I was just insatiable and tore through the books like a beast. My average rating went up quite a bit too. After last month's 2.86 fiasco, getting back to 3.1 feels good, real good!

Cover Love:

This actually had THREE contenders, first time that has happened in years. There was the Warhammer 40,000 novel about the Necrons (immortal but insane ultimate killing robots), called Reign. Next was the Shadow novel, Shadowed Millions. Finally, and the winner in my books, was the fantastically despicable Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu. Like I wrote in the review, the Arcane Casebook vibes were superduper strong with that cover and I couldn't resist.

Plans for Next Month:

Because I read so fething much this month, I am going to ease WAY back on that. Which in turn means less posts, so I'm going to go back to taking Saturday's off again. I was ok with posting this month, but it was ALL because of how much I read and I don't foresee that happening again.

Going to watch and review the final story arc for the Yu Yu Hakusho anime. Since I stopped reading the Demon Slayer manga, I hope to sneak in a graphic novel in it's place. Not sure which one though. Probably either the Shadow/Batman: Murder Geniuses recommended by Lashaan or the next Usagi Yojimbo, which is the samura rabbit that I started last year :-)

April '25 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels - 12 -

Short Stories - 0 ↓

Manga/Graphic Novels - 1 -

Comics - 1 -

Average Rating - 2.81 ↓↓

Pages - 3364 ↑

Words - 1144K ↑

The Bad:

The Wild Adventures of Cthulhu 2 - 1star of blasphemy and utter hypocrisy

Infinity Gate - 1star of just cutting a massive 1300 page book randomly in half

The Good:

Nothing got above 3.5stars this month. That's not nearly good enough.

Movie:

Yu Yu Hakusho: The Chapter Black Saga kept the momentum rolling and held my interest.

Miscellaneous Posts:

• [Journal] Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
• PSA: Blogging and Personality
• Goblin Balloon Brigade - MTG 4E
• My Week XXII
• Goblin King - MTG 4E
• [Art] The Darknesses Cry Goodbye
• Happy Resurrection Day! 2025 Edition
• Goblin Rock Sled - MTG 4E
• My Week XXIII
• Grapeshot Catapult - MTG 4E

Personal:

Man, April's reading stank to high heaven! Two 1stars and nothing above 3.5stars really did my average rating in. I feel like I was mugged and then stabbed in the back when it came to reading books in April. I had plenty of "decent" books but nothing great and I WANT great books.

Work was all over the place. New Guy came and went and came and I ended up being with him, or Tall Guy or by myself. Each week was a new adventure and it was extremely unsettling to me. I like stability.

Weatherwise, April gave us a black eye at the beginning with a weekend snowstorm that dropped 5-6inches of snow! Of course, it was all gone within 3 days and we hit 80 a couple of days. The buds are on the trees, little leaves are popping out and there is sunshine, sunshine, sunshine! So April turned out ok in the end.

Yesterday I got my tri-monthly eye injections so today is going to be a bear. I think I'm going to have to start getting the injections done in the mornings and just take the day off from work, instead of having them done in the afternoons and then suffering the next day at work. Balancing it all with taking vacation time is a real pain!

We started going back to the Seventh Day Adventist church on Saturdays full time this month. While I love the sermons at our Sunday church, and Mrs B loves the people, the music is completely out of control. One time there was a group of us praying in another room while the music team practiced. The drums were so loud that we couldn't hear each other pray. And that's from being in another room, imagine what it is like where they actually are! So while I am having to give up listening to expository preaching, at least I am getting a proper reverence in the church. God is not the God of chaos and bedlam and out of control emotionalism. It wasn't like this when we started attending this Sunday church back in '17 but has crept in over the years, with the leadership's full approval. Ahhhh, life is complicated isn't it?

And I think that's enough "ramblings" for now :-D

Cover Love:

The Hanging Stones, the next Silver John novel wins easily. Believe it or not, that "creature" is supposed to be a were-wolf. Wellman put were-wolves in the proper place!

Plans for Next Month:

A little bit of a change, but not much. My reading is picking up so I will have more book reviews than this month. Instead of doubling up on Monday's though, I'm going to shift some reviews and the My Week posts to Saturdays. It's been a great break to take Saturdays off of writing (since October!) but since the words keep piling up, I'd rather get them out each day instead of doubling up a day. I'm not a huge fan of multiple posts by bloggers each day. No idea why exactly, but I suspect it stems from that leading to burn out and them leaving without a word. You'd think by this point that my skin would have turned into callouses by that, but nope, if anything, every time a blogger leaves now it just hits me all the harder. That means I do whatever I can to make sure that I don't become one of those statistics.

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:

• Giant Strength - MTG 4E
• [Journal] Inkblot: Old Leather Collection
• Bookstooge's Serenity Prayer
• Mr Zip Turns 40
• Giant Tortoise - MTG 4E
• My Week XX
• A New ERA Begins
• Glasses of Urza - MTG 4E
• [Art] Maiden of Spring
• Book Recommendations VII (The Final Edition)
• Gloom - MTG 4E
• My Week XXI

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.

Jimbo says "Bring it, Necrons!"

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.

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:

• [Food] Chicken Pot Pie
• Gaseous Form - MTG 4E
• [Journal] Maya Angelou: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings OR My Week
• The Book Titles Tag
• Ghost Ship - MTG 4E
• [Poem] Would It Be Ok?
• Book Recommendations VI (The Penultimate Edition)
• Giant Growth - MTG 4E
• [Art] Tainted Love
• Giant Spider - MTG 4E

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.

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:

• Bookstooge Reviews 2024
• A Decade in Review: 2015-2024
• [Food] Red Flannel Hash
• Fortified Area - MTG 4E
• [Journal] Yeats, Easter 1916
• Frozen Shade - MTG 4E
• My Week XVIII
• Fungusaur - MTG 4E
• My Week XIX
• Book Recommendation V
• Gaea's Liege - MTG 4E
• Marvel Champions: The Organizingening

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! ;-)

November '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 6 ↓↓

Short Stories – 0 ↓

Manga/Graphic Novels – 6 ↑↑

Comics – 1 –

Average Rating – 3.08 ↓

Pages – 3022 ↓

Words – 709K ↓↓

The Bad:

Neuromancer – 1/2star of Utter Badness

Web of Spider – 1.5stars of neo-paganism

The Good:

If Only He Knew – 4stars of good relationship advice

Demon Slayer #1 – 3.5stars of mercy in action

Movie:

Vacation Daze, the 5th dvd in the Cardcaptor Sakura anime.

Miscellaneous Posts:

• [Journal] Orwell’s 1984 or My Week XV
• Flight – MTG 4E
• Announcement: Love Saves the Day Buddy Read
• Flood – MTG 4E
• [Journal] Amy Winehouse, Tears Dry or My Week XVI
• Flying Carpet – MTG 4E
• My Week XVII
• Book Recommendations IV
• Fog – MTG 4E
• [Art] Happy Thanksgiving 2024

Personal:

As you can tell from the book numbers, Neuromancer absolutely destroyed my book reading rhythm. I had almost zero desire to read after that blasted thing. If it wasn’t for me trying out the Demon Slayer manga and loving it (I read more manga this month than I have in the entire year for goodness sake), my numbers would have been even worse. As it was, I read about half the number of words that I usually consume in a month.

Couple that with one week at work where my coworker and I were setting lot corners all week. That is a combination of granite bounds and iron pins. We set a total of 20 granite bounds and 25-30 pins. A day or two isn’t a problem, but by day three my elbows begin to throb by 8am and it’s pain reliever time at lunch time for the rest of the week. And one night of sleep isn’t enough for my body to recover from that level of labor any more, so I was simply exhausted by week’s end. Thankfully, that was only one week out of the month, so it was survivable, just not enjoyable. But it did coincide with the week I reviewed Neuromancer, so I was blasted both in body and in mind.

Thanksgiving, REAL Thanksgiving, was yesterday and I had that off and I get today off from work as well. Using that time to do as much nothing as I can.

Cover Love:

The Old Gods Waken, the first in the Silver John series takes this month’s cover love. I love the cover, but in all honesty, it had NO competition at all this month.

Plans for Next Month:

I am desperately hoping my reading mojo returns and that I can return to my more normal levels of reading. I do have a bunch more of the Demon Slayer manga on standby though, just in case I’m still not fully recovered.

Each Friday in December I plan on doing my Love Saves the Day by Barbara Cartland update for the chapters I’ve read. Anybody is more than welcome to ride along. Here is the schedule for the chapters and dates

• December 6 – Chapters 1-3
• December 13 – Chapters 4-5
• December 20 – Chapters 6-7
• December 27 – Chapters 8-10
• January 7 – Final Review

Other than the usual Magic the Gathering posts, I figure I’ll squeeze in an Art post or two. Honestly, the first week in January is looking extremely busy (in terms of blogging) so I’m trying to give myself all the extra padding I can ahead of time. Yes, that’s a month away, but doesn’t everybody plan their blogging schedule that far ahead? 😉

October '24 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 17 ↑

Short Stories – 1 ↑

Manga/Graphic Novels – 0 –

Comics – 1 –

Average Rating – 3.29 ↓

Pages – 3846 ↑

Words – 1333 ↑

The Bad:

False Flag – 1.5stars of fake “american”, sigh

Mostly Harmless – 1star of complete and utter pointlessness

The Good:

Monster Hunter Alpha – 5stars of the ultimate Werewolf fight

My Grave Ritual – 4.5stars of Warlock Holmes

Movie:

Sakura Fight, the next several episodes in the Cardcaptor Sakura anime, went down like silk.

Miscellaneous Posts:

• 8 Journals or My Week XI
• Firebreathing – MTG 4E
• The Blog Tag
• [Art] Lady of the Fall or My Week XII
• The Great Pumpkin Saves the Town or Pumpkin Festival 2024!
• Fire Elemental – MTG 4E
• [Journal] Renoir, Letter to Morisot or My Week XIII
• Fissure – MTG 4E
• 11 Years or My Week XIV
• Flashfire – MTG 4E

Personal:

What a mixed month. Good times at the Pumpkin Festival, bad times with getting needles in the eyes. And everything in between. I rode the rollercoaster of emotions for the full gamut. The month ended on a pretty down note when the volunteer situation I mentioned earlier in one of My Week posts got booted up the ladder to the paid people in charge. They officially endorsed the no youth decision. I didn’t even realize how upset it had made me until I couldn’t sleep. I was awake for close to 40hrs after that happened because I was so stressed out. Thankfully, I’ve been purposefully letting it go and praying that my attitude stays right. But boy, 40hrs without sleep took a long time to recover from. I guess I’m not 30 any more.

On the reading side, I managed to bag a total of 19. That pushes me over the 150mark for the year, which is always my unofficial goal. So now I’m coasting for the rest of the year, which is always a good feeling to have, as life seems to get especially busy from now until New Years.

Cover Love:

Lallia, the next book in the Dumarest series. Chickie-boo dies, just so you know.

Plans for Next Month:

art credit to sxwx

Got a serious Hate Read going for Neuromancer. That is so I can participate in Scifi Month. Oh, the Hate will be strong in this one! I guarantee that with every iota of my being.

Emperor Palpatine wants YOU to read Neuromancer!

Blogging will probably be lighter, quite a bit lighter in fact. I just got the wind knocked out of me in October and I know that kind of thing always plays havoc with my desire and ability to churn out the posts.

ps,
I am going into work early today and looking at a 10hr+ day. So I don’t know when I’ll be able to respond to comments. Just making sure you know I’m not ignoring your comments.

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:

• Feedback – MTG 4E
• Book Haul of Misery III – The Final Miseration!
• [Art] Entropymancer Unleashed
• A Serious Post About A Serious Subject…
• Fellwar Stone – MTG 4E
• 9/11 – Remembering the Heroes
• The Trip or My Week X
• Blue Monday Variant + Lyrics
• Book Recommendation III
• Fireball – MTG 4E
• [Art] King of Dragons
• [Repost 2024] About

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….

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:

• Family or My Week VII
• [Art] The Hidden King
• Eternal Warrior – MTG 4E
• Currently Reading: The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles
• Bookstooge VS Predator or My Week VIII
• Evil Presence – MTG 4E
• Liquid Death or My Week IX
• [Art] Soul Guardian
• [Repost 2024] Bookstooge’s Star Ratings
• Eye for an Eye – MTG 4E
• Book Haul of Misery I
• Marvel Champions: The Playening II
• Book Recommendations II
• Fear – MTG 4E
• Book Haul of Misery II

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.