Random Ramblings

It’s still busy and I really should be concentrating on what I’m getting paid to do, but I don’t think it will hurt if I take a few minutes here and there as what I’m doing is pretty routine and my mind is once again taking flight.

 

The snobby snob in me can’t help but chuckle at the flogging of the dead horse and the utter ridiculousness that is the FOURTH installment in the 50 Shades phenomenon.    For those who pay attention to such things, I haven’t read the books, will never read the books, haven’t seen the movie, will never see the movie.  I’m annoyed at the fact that so many have read these books and the buzz has been out of this world for, from what I’ve read, is poorly written fan fiction.  There are so many fabulous authors out there who write well written books that will pass by completely unnoticed by the general masses who then read garbage.  To me it’s not unlike Keeping up with the Kardasians winning a Golden Globe for  best acting.  It’s wrong, it’s just wrong.

So I couldn’t help but laugh at the indignation of so many who are discovering that book 1, from Christian Grey’s POV is just one of three and the author has 2 more of the exact same book planned.  Good grief - talk about flogging a dead horse!! 

 

I read some reviews on GoodReads and word is – it’s garbage.  I can’t help but hope the author plummets down to earth where she never should have risen anyway.  I tell you, I am such a bitch some days.

 

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I’ve been designing – sort of – my own calendars for a number of years now through Vista Print.  Every month was a different scene from North and South each and every time the calendar ended in August with “The Train Scene Kiss”.  I brought it into work and as more and more people from work watched and loved it, I began to order more calendars for coworkers – just to share the love.

 

Well people, we have come to the end of an era I’m afraid.  For the first time since 2011, North and South screen caps no longer grace the months.  Nope, I’m figuratively doffing my cap and passing the calendar torch onto Outlander. 

 

 These are a different kind of calendars.  Instead of starting in January, as most do, mine start in September so it’s getting really close to time to order them.  Because we often plan schedules 2 weeks to even a month ahead of the current date, I have 2 of them on my desk, the current month and the next month.  So I’m needing September soon.  A few other people do the same thing and some of these happen to be fellow fans of Outlander.  So I’ve designed the calendar – just have to hit that pay button and the order will be winging its way to VistaPrint.  I just hope Richard/John will forgive for leaving him behind as I move on to Sam/Jamie.  I will love you always John Thornton and at least we have 2013.

 

Bet you all thought you'd never seen the day.

 

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I know I’ve bitched about this before but I will continue to do so until JUSTICE IS SERVED!!  They have a thread again at AAR for freebie or ebook sales.  There are a couple lately for books I would love to get and they are on for a great price at Amazon.  Amazon –dot COM that is!  It’s an entirely different story at Amazon.ca.  And of course it’s through my favourite publisher (not) Harper Collins/Avon. 

Sex, Lies and Online Dating by Rachel Gibson (love her books)

Amazon.com - $1.99

Amazon.ca $8.99

Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas

Amazon.com - $1.99

Amazon.ca $8.99

Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase

Amazon.com - $1.99

Amazon.ca - $7.99 (squeal of a deal there she said sarcastically)

GRRRrrrrrr

 ~~~***~~~***~~~

I received a mood calendar as a gift a while ago and I brought it to work.  I love this calendar and changed it every day to reflect my mood.  Coworkers are starting to check my mood before checking how I am.  Lately it’s mostly been on the negative side of things, but starting Thursday, July 2 (Wednesday is a holiday here in Canada) the calendar mood will be starting to change.  Why you ask?  Well, it’s cause then we will be into the actual month I head once again to RWA – this years in New York, to meet up with my people again.  I think anticipation is even higher this year as I missed last year, mostly because of the depression but also because I had another big project, new bathroom that I had to pay for.  This year I’m getting new siding but that’s not going to stop me from RWA.  There are SO many people I’m looking forward to seeing, but a special shout out to Wendy,SuperLibrarian.  We will be roomies again after several years apart and my first question will be “Wendy, Wendy, Wendy, what do you have against Jon Snow that you are glad he’s dead????” 

 

Mind you I haven’t watched Game of Thrones for a few seasons now, it became just to bloody bloody.  I have tried a couple of times over the other seasons since and then there would come a scene where someone got stabbed in the eye and that was all she wrote.  But from the first season that I was an AVID watcher, Jon and Daenerys and Tyrion were my favourite characters with Jon being #1.  AND THEY KILLED HIM OFF!  As if Ned and Robb and Catelyn all dying wasn’t enough.  As if what’s happened to Sansa and Arya isn’t enough?  I’ve lost track of the little boys.  So did they then have to go and kill of Jon??? Why, Why, Why?

 

 Then I can hardly wait to see Lisabea and Rosie – I hope Rose is going again!!  Of course there are so many other too, but the four of us seem to hang out the most.

Now back to the point – see how I ramble and get off topic?  So now that I will be in countdown mode, my mood will be picking up until I’m up to daily bouncy

~~~***~~~***~~~

 

 This has nothing to do with anything to do with romance but it is a real bug-a-boo I have.  I’m on the phone a lot anymore at work.  And I can tell when the person is speaking on a cell phone.  Cell phone reception/quality is TERRIBLE a lot of the times.  I’m constantly adjusting my phone’s volume, calls cut out, they are mumbled and I can’t hear what they are saying, they are calling while in traffic and all I hear is background noise.  A lot of the nurses who call in have been issued cell phones and I think the company they worked for must have ordered the cheapest cell phones they could get.  It makes me so cranky (and then I have to change my mood calendar) whenever I get one of these calls and chance are when I’ve had to ask for the fourth time for them to repeat something that I can’t hear, an impatient tone in my voice may come through – not at the person I’m talking to, but the cheap piece of equipment they are using.  I’m cranky enough as it is since I don’t like talking on the phone, but talking on the phone and not hearing what the other person is saying, well, many of those kinds of calls a day and I really need to de-stress at the end of the day.

Anyway - that's all I have for now

'til later

 

Random Ramblings

I’m working the late shift (12 to 8) and there is nothing to do except let my mind wander so I’ll follow it and write down where it wanders.  It’s not unlike the guy following a parade at the end and scooping up the horse poop.

 

 

This will be like horse poop.  And speaking of poop, not many probably realize this, but it’s a real fun word to say out loud.  Try it – say it out loud and see if you don’t get if not a chuckle, at least a smile.  Of course it works better if you’re alone.  If anyone is around and you say the word ‘poop’ out loud and they hear you – well – it will be a tough explanation.  Its best if make the ‘p’ at the end pop.

***~~~***

I get 4 weeks’ vacation where I work.  I’ve carried 2 weeks over from last year over so as it stands now, I have 6 weeks vacation in 2015.  I’m going to take a least a week off when I head to NYC to RWA in July.  Then in August, there are a group that seems to grow as word of our fun spreads of coworkers and head to a summer cottage on a local island. 

As there are 10 of us this year though chances are one or two attendees will drop out, we are up to 2 cottages.  It’s a week of hilarity emboldened by much alcohol.   So that will be at least a week also as I need recovery time after the week.  Now that I’m in the upper age range, it takes long to recover.  And that still leaves me with 4 weeks.   I’ve decided to take next week off.  The plan is to do massive amounts of house work in two of the bedrooms in the house.  I live in a 3 bedroom bungalow with another room in the basement which can easily be set up as a bedroom.  For years now I’ve wanted to knock down the wall between the two smaller bedrooms in order to make more of a sitting room/bedroom.  But I’m a great procrastinator.  I took a week off last year with the same purpose in mind.  On Monday I thought – ah, what the heck – I’ve got the rest of the week to do this.  Tuesday – hell, I still have enough time.  Wednesday – I’ve still got four days.  Thursday – it shouldn’t take me that long.  Friday – I have two days left – that should do it.  Saturday – well, it’s too late now, I’ll rush and get it all done tomorrow.  Sunday – Oh SHIT you idiot!

I’m hoping I don’t have a repeat of that week.

 ***~~~***

I signed up for a challenge at GoodReads.  Normally I don’t sign up for Challenges as the minute I do, I start to feel the pressure.  I’ve tried doing Wendy’s – it’s an excellent one – but then I run around in circles when there’s only a couple of days left thinking “ whatwillIread?  whatwillIread?  Ican’tdoit, Ican’tdoit”  Then I’m a mess.  But in this challenge at GoodReads the challenge (or reader) picks the number of books and they can be any book.  I tried to figure it out mathematically.  If I were to read a book a week – sometimes more – I should be able to read 60 – should be no problem right?

Well, then my TV was invaded by gremlins and I was watching very little TV.  And my book reading skyrocketed.  So far this early in the year I’ve read 34 books and I’m going to smash my number to smithereens if I keep this up.  I had to fix things though.  I inadvertently added a couple of short reviews for books I had read last year but somehow they showed up as being read this year and they counted towards the number I read for the challenge.  I debated leaving them there, but then thought, ’no, that would be dishonest’ so I removed them, then thought 'maybe I’m going a bit overboard on the honesty thing.  Who's going to notice?  It's not like we will be entered to win millions of dollars'  But I still changed the date anyway.  Oh well.

But then again I may not blast past the number I put down.  The television gremlins finally made their final stand when I could only get about 7 or 8 channels.  And one of the channels I COULD NOT get was Showcase.  Now for those who don’t know, Showcase is the channel that plays Outlander.  It is simply unimaginable that I miss even a second of Season 2.  It simply WILL NOT happen.
 And there is not a chance in hell I wasn’t going to take out those gremlins like the old Space Invaders game before April 5, the day it comes back here.  So I called Rogers and someone came over on Sunday to fix it.  I now get all the channels I’m supposed to – with sound.  And I shamefully confess *shaking head in sorrow* that I watched the season finale of The Bachelor.  I’d only watched one or two shows all season!!  I could have spent those 3 hours…….reading.  But nope – now that I have no more gremlins, I went straight back to the (as some call it) the “bube tube”.

***~~~***

I mentioned on another post that I’m signed up for this site called BookBub.  Every day they send a list of books found at either Amazon or Koo that are either greatly reduced or even free.  Now with new choices pouring in every day, not to mention the Kindle Daily Deal which I check – well – daily, I’m not going to get just any old book.  If it even appeals to me, I check out reviews on Amazon and GoodReads first.  Now I find many of the reviews on GoodReads helpful – but Amazon – fuggaboutit.  Many are less than useless.  I see some books on there with hundreds of reviews by an author I’ve never heard of and roll my eyes.  It’s obvious the author has friends, family and friends “stuffing the ballot” so to speak.  I know that this is an issue that will never be solved – but to authors – STOP IT.  It’s NOT going to make me buy your book when we have scores of reviews that say “Great Book” or “Couldn’t put it down!!!!!” or “I already bought the sequel”, “Can’t get enough of this author”.  Come on now – do you think the legitimate reader who does any homework at all is going to buy into this?  The only reason I ever do is to go up and down the reviews and hit NO on the “Is this review helpful?”  But here me author – I WILL NOT BUY YOUR BOOK.  It’s always the 1 star negative reviews I place any kind of value on. 

I’m looking at today’s Daily Deal and first I thought – hmmmmm – maybe.  But this book in particular, has over 1,000 reviews and nope – never heard of the author before so it’s just like I said above.  Here are a few reviews.

“Very good read.  Couldn’t wait to read the next book.”

“It was a good read can’t wait to read the rest of the books.  I like series you get to know the characters in all of all the books”

“Awesome book, love the series! Exceptional author”

And just one more – though I could go on..

“This Book was awesome.  I would recommend it to anyone who likes a lot of action and intrigue.  Plus the Love Drama” (Love drama???  What is Love Drama???)

Are any of those the least bit helpful???  Nope, I won’t be getting this book.

One star reviews can drive me nuts too.  Along with the multiple, multiple useless 5 star reviews, this book had some readers that weren’t so happy.  One “reviewer” gave 1 star to said RS book where the hero is a SEAL and on the cover of the book is just the hero with not a whole lot on.  So you have a clue what kind of book you’re going to get right?  But the one reviewer had this to say

“I didn’t really read this book because half way down page 1 they had already used the “F” word.  Many people may not care about this but I do.  I wish more reviewers would make it clear if the book used this word and if there are explicit sexual scenes in this book.  It would sure save me from downloading a book I know I won’t read”

To said reviewer – so would using the thing inside of your head.  If it’s a RS with SEAL’s it’s a given they are going to use salty language.  What – you think a bunch of men who does the most difficult jobs in the world and constantly put their lives on the line are going to use words like ‘rats’ or ‘fudge’?  Get a clue.  By posting such a ‘review’ on such a book, you make yourself sound stupid.

Something tells me this person wouldn’t say the word poop even if it’s real fun to say.


'til later

 

 Later!!
Yep - another night I'm on the late shift with not much to do.  So THIS is why I had to get my cable fixed

 

 

Thought for the Day

How do I put this nicely? Sometimes I wonder how some readers can add 2 + 2 and not come up with 4? I'm reading a book and really enjoying it - probably more on that later. But as I often do, when reading a book by an author where I don't have many of her backlist, I'll do a bit of investigating to see what else she has. I was on Amazon last night (while at my sisters since I had no hydro but that too is another story) checking out this particular author's books when I came across this interesting dichotomy.


Check out the book on the left. What kind of book do you think this might be?

Check out the title of the book. What kind of book do you think this might be?

Check out the product description.

Her sexy letters are his only lifeline in his dangerous world…

Successful computer software engineer Eve Carmichael melts under yet another hotter than hot letter written by Reserve army soldier Sean O’Callahan. Yet Eve can’t take the thought of his life in danger overseas, and she resolves to get a sex life—and a life period. That means forgetting Sean before anything bad can happen to him. To celebrate her thirty-fifth birthday, Eve plans a trip to Male Call, a male review club. Still, she worries about Sean. She hasn’t received a letter from him in too many weeks. And oh, how she longs for those flirtatious, hot letters.

Sean finds Eve’s letters to be the only lifeline in his increasingly chaotic world. As their feelings grow hot and heavy, he can’t wait to return home and kindle that pure firepower.

When Eve receives a letter from Sean saying he’s been wounded, her fears are realized. But fate and a little mischievous planning by her friends will serve up the greatest surprise of all.

Warning: Contains explicit sex, some graphic language, and mild violence.

What kind of book do you think this might be?

I'm thinking it will be a book with - and I quote "explicit sex, some graphic language, and mild violence." Now check out what some 'reviewers' wrote about the book:

"One star because you can't give none and anyway it was free. Was expecting short romance, got bad porn. Didn't bother to finish it, but I'm sure I'm not missing anything."

(first example of someone who tried to do a simple 2 + 2 and came up with 17 or something.) Here's another case of a 2 + 2 = 7

"I have gotten some good books for free for my Kindle so I decided it would be good to try Male Call. I am sad to say I am very disappointed. It is extremely smutty and the use of fowl language is horrible. I believe the author didn't spend enough time on creating a history for the characters and you are just thrown into what feels like the middle of a book. This book is so short, I read it on my lunch hour start to finish (after skipping about what felt like 20 pages of smut) Not good... But I guess if you like smut, this would be a good read"

And one more where I think 2 + 2 = 33 or something.

"pure and complete trash. I dont mean that in a good way. Even for free this book is a bad value."

What were these readers expecting???? It couldn't be more clear. This is a book that has sex scenes and some swearing . It's going to have a high level of steam. The cover tells you that. The title tells you that. The product description tells you that. So how clueless can these "reviewers" be? 2 + 2 = 4. It's that simple. I get that some readers can be offended when there is some or a lot of sex in a book. That is their preference and their right to read that kind. Heck, when I first started reading romance again, I only read kisses only books and didn't want to read anything stronger. And with that in mind, at the time I wouldn't have bought the book with all the warnings and then been shocked when there was heat.

Get a clue you "reviewers" who are shocked when a book has a naked chest, a provocative description and a racy title. I find you annoying. And yes, in case your wondering, the book I'm reading is by Denise Agnew. I'm loving it and I've loved the previous two books I've read of hers. And yes, I bought Male Call as well as another book by her. And yes, I am expecting it to be steamy.

And yep, I've had a few days which have helped give me a case of the crankies