Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: Roundup

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Saturday, May 31, 2025

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:

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 :-)

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

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:

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.

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! ;-)

Friday, November 29, 2024

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:

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? 😉

Thursday, October 31, 2024

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:

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:

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.

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.