Too Pretty to Work

I saw something on the news this morning that has me thoroughly disgusted. I don’t know all of it but a man was attracted to his ‘irresistible’ employee. At the advice of his jealous wife and pastor, he fired her. The state of Iowa said “Right on.”

There had been some texting but apparently it was all innocent. In small offices this is fairly normal. It’s how you say if there’s a power failure or ask about a patient since hygienists and nurses do the nitty-gritty. If he had a problem with that, he should have asked his wife to be the go-between. I’m sure the twit would have been happy to keep tabs on her.

The boss said it was in the best interest of his marriage. Fun fact: your employee doesn’t give a shit about your marriage if it’s the reason she just lost her income. If his wife has a problem with him being attracted to his staff then she should do the hiring.

Her employer was worried about keeping it in his pants. Did it ever occur to you maybe your employee didn’t want to bang her married boss? He can’t get rid of every beautiful woman on the street so how does he handle himself in public? Is he like a dog that humps your leg? If you can’t be around women that are sexually viable, how does he handle female patients? Does he only treat ugly women and men?

I think the wife is insecure and pathetic. If your marriage is that tenuous, why are you fighting for it? Everyone will face temptations outside of the relationship they’re in. You can’t get rid of all of them. If you’re that worried he’s going to cheat, he probably will but it will be in a situation you can’t control. Maybe he already has.

The dental assistant took him to court for wrongful termination and lost. This sets a dangerous legal precedent. Employers can now discriminate based on looks whether they mean it or not. Now a female employer can fire underlings for being too rough on the eyes. Maybe a lawyer will fire his secretary for not being pretty enough. If the boss wants to fire you for petty, personal reasons, now it can be because of your looks.

People discriminate based on looks all the time. Most of us aren’t stupid enough to openly admit it. In Iowa, you can do it, be a douche about it, and get away with it.

Film at 11 3/3

In part three of my thoughts on the Sandy Hook massacre, I take on the media. It’s a popular scapegoat and fuel for the fire. 

‘Movies and video games made me violent’ is one of the most pathetic excuses for committing a crime I’ve ever heard. It’s like blaming McDonald’s for making you fat. Unless someone pulled a Se7en and made you stuff your face, it’s your own damn fault. No character from Grand Theft Auto jumped out of the game and made you shoot the owner of the 7-11 you robbed.

TV, movies, and video games are not directly responsible for violent crimes or violent people. The culture surrounding them, however, is questionable.

Did you know in order for a movie to have a PG-13 rating, it cannot show realistic depictions of gunshot wounds? If you want to show an accurate amount of blood, guts, and gore, it’s an automatic R rating. I think that is an astonishingly backwards system. It desensitizes kids to violence and its consequences. 

Another fun fact about the movies is that the number of thrusts in a sex scene in some sappy love story will contribute to the NC-17 versus R rating. And oral sex on a woman? No matter how romantic, it’s not appropriate for a wide audience. Seppuku in a murder for morality tale is less likely to get you an NC-17 than a realistic sex scene in a love story. That’s fucked up.

What is a more natural part of being human? Killing for sport or two people consummating their love? According to a board of censors, sex is more damaging to teenagers probably already having it than shooting ‘em up.

I’m not a gamer but if I picked the top 10 selling games of 2012, how many require violence to play? How many have more violence than story? How many parents ignore the ratings on the games? How many clerks selling them? Video games are an international pastime that consume hundreds of hours of people’s lives. If you see and do something often virtually, how long until it has an impact on you actually?

Violence is becoming a primary form of entertainment in this country. How many gun massacres happened in the age of musicals? Michael Moore said that in his movie Roger & Me he showed a man getting shot and a woman killing and skinning a rabbit. People reacted more strongly to the death of the rabbit. 

I watched this movie for a film class and realized he was absolutely right. No one, myself included, so much as blinked when the man got shot. It was nothing we hadn’t seen a hundred times over somewhere else. Watching the skinning of the rabbit, the whole class moaned, groaned, and flinched. It was not something we saw too much of. Again, what’s a more natural part of being human? Killing and skinning game or shooting another person?

The news media is no better. A quote erroneously attributed to Morgan Freeman says that people need to remember the names of the instead of the killer. If the media stopped treating these shooters as pseudo-celebrities, maybe we’d get luck and the next one will just off himself rather than taking a dozen people with him. I don’t know who said it originally, but it’s a great point.

Most people can name the Aurora movie theater shooter but how many people can name his victims? The shooter’s name was all over news broadcast for weeks but how many times in those stories did you actually hear the victim’s names? Without Google, how many victims from Aurora, Sandy Hook, and/or Virginia Tech can you name? I couldn’t get out of single digits.

How many of these sick bastards wanted their 15 minutes? What would happen if shooters like this stopped being household names? These men are not rock stars. They are mass murderers. Their names do not deserve public remembrance. The media and the people need to stop giving it to them. It may not solve everything but it will certainly stop a few people.

Creating a culture of violence happens when small things add up to big things. We can’t undo it all at once but small changes can hopefully lead to big changes. I’m starting be refusing to remember the name of the man who slaughtered children. Instead, I’m going to remember Victoria Soto. I wish more people were like her.

Current Jams: Dirty Laundry by Lisa Presley 

Aim for the Head 2/3

The second installment of my take on the tragedy at Sandy Hook is about mental health. First off, I’m truly worried for anyone with Asperger’s syndrome. Because the media has repeatedly said the shooter had it but nothing about what it is, it screams trouble for anyone who publically has it.

I’m no expert but autism has to do with brain function and social behavior. They have difficulty with empathy and think differently but are not inherently violent. A lot of time it manifests as cluelessness. Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory is a good example. Holmes even admits to Sherlock (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) having it. Temple Grandin is autistic and has written books about her autism and how it helps in her work with animals.

Asperger’s syndrome is not what made the Sandy Hook shooter do this. I’ve know several people with that diagnosis none of whom are violent. Anytime I’ve heard about an autistic person having a violent outburst, they don’t reach for the gun. They just try and beat the tar out of you. There was something else wrong with him. Whether it was psychosis, a borderline personality disorder, or just a dose of bat shit crazy may never be determined.

If the shooter was legitimately autistic (I’ve been hearing some debate), he should have had a certain level of care or a social worker of some sort to help him. Someone somewhere should have seen the something else that was wrong with him. Some of the people who personally knew the family said they were ‘troubled.’ There is so much I don’t know about the situation but if the neighbors suspected he might do something like this, what could they have done?

The cops cannot arrest someone without probable cause. They can’t haul him in and search the place without risking a PR nightmare. Our legal system has adopted a system of ‘do nothing until they do something’ for dealing with potential violent offenders. That system is ineffective and broken.

Both spree killers like Aurora and Sandy Hook along with violent partners get away with far more than they ever should because there is no middle ground between ‘he’s not quite right’ and ‘oh shit he really is dangerous.’ I bring domestic violence into this because those offenders can be just as violent but they have a specific target. Many times innocent people are killed as a result of the nothing authorities are allowed to do beforehand.

Creating a middle ground can be very dicey with regard to civil liberties but clearly the current system of ‘wait for it’ works too late. The Sandy Hook shooter was the result of America’s famous sickcare and authorities with limited options to act. Both systems need to stop with the ‘all or nothing’ model. I don’t know what the middle ground is but I know more innocent people are alive there.

Current Music: Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These) by Emily Browning

No Shoes, No Service

I heard an interesting debate on the Kane Show this morning. A listener wrote in because he went to visit his friend who just had a new baby. The house had a no-shoes rule so he left his $275 shoes at the door. When he went to leave at the end of the night the dog had chewed them. His friends are refusing to pay for a new pair. He thinks they should. Who’s right?

This is 100% on the homeowners. If they can’t afford the full $275, they should offer some financial compensation. It is their house, their rule, and their badly trained dog. Refusing to pay for what amount to their screw-up only adds insult to injury. (Freudian slip: I originally typed ass instead of add the first time which is what these people are being.)

What adds to the faux pas is that the homeowners know if their dog is a chewer. If it’s a puppy, everything is a chew toy. You should know better. If your adult dog still chews, you’ve lost enough shoes to know better. If they insist on a no-shoes policy and they have a shoe-loving dog, they need to have a safe location for guests’ shoes. If they can’t do that, they either need to rewrite the rule or stop having guests.

I’ve owned three dogs in my life none of whom had any interest in shoes. I also don’t believe in a blanket no-shoes rule. If your shoes are dirty or muddy or you stepped in crap then leave them at the door. If you want to leave them at the door, go ahead. Otherwise wipe ‘em on the mat and come on in.

I have a friend who insists everyone who enters her apartment must remove their shoes and wash their hands. If you have a new baby or the guest is or recently was ill that makes sense but for a single twenty-something, it’s a little much to ask of every guest you ever have. At least this friend will offer one-size-fits-her slippers (a moot point for large footed people but a nice gesture).

If those are the rules and it’s not my house, I will (begrudgingly) abide by them. If those rules cause harm to the property I had to leave at the door, that’s on you. If you disagree then I probably don’t need to swing by any time soon.

Current Music: Figure 8 by Ellie Goulding

Shoot from the Hip 1/3

Unless you’ve been pulling a Unabomber, you are well aware of the tragedy that occurred in Connecticut. It is heartbreaking and devastating that something like that could happen. However, if an event that horrific were ever going to take place, it would have been in America. Rather than do one super-long blog, I’m breaking it up into three parts: gun control, poor mental healthcare, and the role of the media.

It hadn’t even been a full 24 hours before debates about gun control popped up all over the internet. The inclusion of poor mental health care followed soon after. The shooter obtained his weapons from a family member’s home. The only reason he didn’t purchase his own was because he had the wrong paperwork.

After the sick son of a bitch used an assault rifle to mow down teachers and children, people flocked to gun stores to arm themselves. This is absolutely part of the damn problem!

Having a gun in either situation wouldn’t have saved lives. It would have gotten more innocent bystanders killed by untrained individuals who wanted to play hero. Unless you’ve got a 100% accuracy rate with a concealed and carry (which most law enforcement can’t tout) you are no match for an assault rifle. You’ll just get more people killed.

Australia had a horrific gun massacre in the 1990s and immediately enacted stricter gun laws. It hasn’t happened since.

Americans didn’t do much of anything after Columbine to regulate and control gun sales. Since then we’ve had Virginia Tech, the Aurora Movie Theater, the Oregon mall, and now Sandy Hook. And that’s just off the top of my head. Feel free to add ones that I missed.

I have said this to gun owning friends of mine and they all agree with me. Guns should be as regulated as driver’s licenses. You must take and pass a mandatory gun owner’s education class before you can legally own a firearm. Different guns would require different permits and assault rifles (which no civilian can ever justify) would require a special security clearance. In order to sell from owner to owner, you must present your firearms license. All guns owned must be registered and registration must be kept up to date every X years. Failure to do so will result in a fine.

If you own firearms and don’t keep them in a safe, lockbox, or locked display cabinet, you deserve to be shot by your own weapon. If you can’t store them properly, you shouldn’t have them at all. If you don’t properly clean and care for them, you deserve a painful misfire.

I have no respect or tolerance for irresponsible gun owners. NRA members who know what they’re doing and know their limits are better than the guy who knows nothing but buys a .22 for ‘home protection.’ Most of my gun owning friends knows that starting a firefight with an armed maniac is a Darwin Award level of stupid. Whether everyone remembers that in an emergency is another disaster waiting to happen.

I find killing people with guns cowardly. It’s distant and it’s easy. If you think you’re ‘bad’ enough to murder somebody, you should do it so you can see the consequences of your actions up close and personal. I find nothing heroic about murdering someone with a knife or sword but it’s less cowardly than doing it from 100 feet away.

The NRA nutbags have already started to come out of the woodwork insisting that any and all gun control is unconstitutional. How deep in denial do you have to be not to see the statistics, the devastated families, and the river of blood running through this country? If you say “You can pry me gun from my cold dead hands” I say snack on a bullet because being deaf, dumb, and blind to what’s happening is getting more and more people killed every day.

Current Music: The Howling by Within Temptation

If Only

People who say “I only read ___” worry me.

It doesn’t matter what the blank is filled with: fiction from the New Yorker, YA novels, nonfiction, New York Times bestsellers. Any blanket statement regarding reading materials concerns me.

I met a woman who said she only read YA books. I think YA books are dreadfully undersold as adult reading material. They contain fresh voices and a variety of new and interesting ideas, especially in genre fiction. David Levithan is considered a YA writer because most of his books are about teenagers. When he spoke at the last National Book Festival he made that distinction clear. The Lover’s Dictionary is his first book about adults but it is incredibly readable and beautiful. The woman I met will probably never experience it.

I’ve met people who only read ‘literature.’ I understand the desire for quality writing, storytelling, introspection, etc. but some days I want to read something fun. It’s like having the perfect FDA, personal trainer approved diet. Sometimes life needs a little cake. Just because it wasn’t nominated for a National Book Award doesn’t mean it’s not good.

I heard someone else say they didn’t read anything that was written after WWII. How do you know if contemporary novels aren’t good if you never read any of them? That woman would probably do well to join a book club with some of the ‘literature’ folks.

I have a friend who told me that she’s not much of a fiction person. I respected her stance so much more because while she prefers nonfiction, she would try a novel if it appealed to her (or, I suspect, if the rest of us hyped it enough).

I will never lecture anyone who ‘only reads ___’ but it will shape my opinion of them. It’s heartbreakingly limiting. Life is so much more interesting when you let yourself explore.

If you try something new and you hate it, walk away. Don’t write off the entire genre but choose carefully next time. Every genre has something for everyone.

Current Music: Fingerprints by Katy Perry

Not Fit2 Read

I got Fit2Fat2Fit by Drew Manning from the library recently. In a nutshell: A personal trainer who has always been a super-fit health nut lives like the rest of super sized America. He lets himself go for six months and then spends the next six months whipping himself into shape. It started as a blog and became a book.

I think this was an amazing idea. For people who’ve always been thin or always loved exercise, y’all just don’t get it. Manning decided to do what it took to empathize with his clients. That’s great and it would have made an excellent documentary.

This is hands down the worst book I’ve read this year, probably in the last two years. The writing is terrible. Not even the ghost writer could save this enough to make me like it and I really wanted to like it.

Manning has been built like the friggin’ Hulk for most of his life. He spent 50 pages of a 200+ page book on what it was like to get fat and that includes his wife’s chapter. You completely rewrite your physical form and lifestyle and that’s all you’ve got? 

I’ve been larger than life for many years. Restrict me to the last six months and I can still give you more than that in a day. I wanted more. I needed more. If he didn’t have more in him, the book was a mistake. If more was on his blog, why isn’t it in the damn book?

It was compelling to hear about a fit person finally know how the rest of us feel. Society is very scornful of anyone above a certain size. The only people it’s PC to hate are Nazis, zombies, and the obese. Manning felt very judged when he goes back to the gym even though most people probably paid him no mind. 

He makes some excellent points about fitness in the latter half of the book: Form is key for fitness, variety is vital to stave off boredom, set yourself up for success. Getting to them was tedious, dull, and, at times, condescending. Please explain to me WTF John F. Kennedy has to do with fitness? It makes no sense and sounds remarkably pretentious for a memoir with a text message title.

As much as I wanted to like this book, I hated it. I got almost no enjoyment out of reading it. I still think what Manning did was extraordinary. I have a lot of respect for him. So long as he never writes another book, he’ll keep it.

Current Jams: Blown Away by Carrie Underwood

Home Sweet Own 42 Book Challenge

I’ve thought about what I have, what I like to read, and what it will take to get this challenge done. I present to you the new and improved SweetBlckCherry Book Challenge.

Home Sweet Own 42 Book Challenge

1) Fiction – A story about not-real people

2) Nonfiction – About real people and/or real events

3) Sci-Fi – Another fairly simple genre category

4) Fantasy – A book that takes you to a whole other world

5) Mystery – Someone did something somewhere and someone else has to figure out what happened

6) Horror – A book that should not be read before bed

7) Memoir/Biography – A book by or about a real person’s life

8) Chick Lit – Fluffy fiction for women by women.

9) Feminist – A book that supports women are equals to men

10) Teen – A book geared toward the under 21 crowd

11) Holiday – A book about or on theme with a holiday

12) Essays – Collected works of short nonfiction

13) Short Stories – Collected works of short fiction

14) Library – Something borrowed from the library

15) Animal – One or multiple animals play a vital role in the story

16) Book about Books – A book about books or their importance to someone

17) New – A book I obtained within 3 months of starting it

18) Old – A book I’ve had collecting dust for longer than 6 months

19) Pop Science – A book about science written for a broad audience

20) Near – A book that takes place in my tri-state area

21) Far – A book that takes place somewhere far from the DC/Baltimore area

22) Graphic Novel – A trade form of a graphic novel or comic book series

23) Reread – A book I’ve read before

24) Wild Card – Whatever I want

25) Otherworldly Creature – Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, fairies, and/or other creatures not of our world

26) Free – A book I got for the low, low price of free

27) Noteworthy – The book is a critical darling, labeled ‘noteworthy,’ or a major award winner

28) Bestseller –If a scale is needed, I’ll use the NYT bestseller list

29) Themed Anthology – A collection of different works by different people but one element ties the stories together

30) Steampunk – Some form of fiction that falls in this fantasy subgenre

31) Movie-Book – A book that has been made into a movie

32) Media – A book that focuses on film/TV/music 

33) Travel – Someone went somewhere new and did stuff

34) Food – Food plays an integral role in the book

35) Classic – A book that has endured long enough for B&N to make a discount edition

36) Humor – Something funny

37) Poetry – A beautiful form of storytelling, I don’t read enough poetry

38) Past – A book set in times that have gone by

39) Future – A book occurring in a time yet to come

40) Dystopia/Post-Apocalyptic – Either the world has mostly ended or has changed dramatically and not for the best

41) Zombie – Growing in popularity, this subgenre deserves some exploring

42) Sports – A book about a sport or a player

Short stories is just collect works of short fiction. Themed anthologies is different stories by different writers with one common thread. I always find it fascinating what different writers will do with the same prompt. Noteworthy and Bestseller can go hand-in-hand but Tori Spelling is a New York Times bestselling author. She’s probably still waiting for her National Book Award nomination.

Zombie and Steampunk get their own category because they’ve really taken off as subcultures. There are zombie walks, charity races, and conventions. In addition to cons, I’ve seen steampunk in different movies and TV shows. Each novel set in its respective world can have its own set of rules and possibilities. 

Dystopia and Post-Apocalyptic are lumped together because one generally begets the other. They blend together so well that it didn’t make sense to split them up or exclude one. 

Current Music: Anything Could Happen by Ellie Goulding

New Book Challenge

I’ve pondered how to best handle my debate between challenges and I’ve decided to combine them. 2013 will be the year of the Home Sweet Own 42 Book Challenge.

I have no idea if I can pull this off.

I can tell myself I’ll read what I want and hope it syncs up with the challenge but I know that’s not going to happen. I have thought about the 42 categories and the books I’ve wanted to read. Rather than trying to make this challenge difficult, I’m going to make this as fun as possible

Rules are as follows: 

-Any book used to complete a challenge category must be one I own or have borrowed.

-One book for each category. I cannot use the same book for more than one category.

-I can go in any order I choose.

-Any book I deliberately obtain must be noted here. Gifts do not count; freebies I sought out do. I’m trying to save money and not let my collection get any more out of control than it already is.

I’ll post the 42 categories soon.

Current Music: Weile Waile by The Prodigals

The Girl

Hitchcock created some amazing films. He was also notoriously hard on actors, especially Tippi Hedren. The Girl looks at his relationship with an actress plucked from obscurity and sent back to it on his whim.

I loved the pacing of this movie. It doesn’t drag its feet at all but it was never rushed either. It took just enough time to do its tale justice. This drama does a better job of building tension than most scary movies I’ve seen. When portraying the five days of live bird attacks Hedren endured, I felt the tension and fear. They did a great job of creating empathy within the audience.

Julian Jarrold did an outstanding job mirroring Hithcock’s own movies here. It’s subtle but if you’re a fan of Hitchcock, you’ll recognize and appreciate what this adds to the story. Other echoes of Hitchcock are seen in Toby Jones’s portrayal of the director. Hitch is just as sinister as any of his villains. Jones found the balance between the vulnerable boy within the man without removing any of his darkness.

I’ve heard so much about Sienna Miller being a world class party girl than acting. It’s nice to know she has some real talent. I’m not sure how close the story is to fact but it definitely makes you wonder.

Current Music: I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift

Alphabet Challenge Round 25

Ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between, I give you the final letter in the Alphabet Challenge! C is for Casual Vacancy, the much anticipated grown-up novel by J. K. Rowling. 

Rowling has created incredibly realistic characters. The quiet domestic desperation felt by these people reminds you so much of your friends and neighbors. One teen is a cutter, one father is abusive, one mother fantasizes about a boy band member to compensate for her unsatisfying marriage, and more than one adult acknowledges how few friends they really have. 

Because the characters were so close to life so was their drama which was equal parts compelling and depressing. You wanted to know their stories but those stories also broke your heart. It’s good when fiction reflects life but by Cthulhu’s madness could it be dismal.

The only time I couldn’t relate was with the small town politics and some of the character’s idea of their place in the world. Pagford is made out to be such a huge deal but I grew up between DC and Baltimore. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the small-town-big-deal mentality

I think Rowling is a great writer but I think some of her editors were afraid to tell her what to cut. This book needed to be tightened up and parsed down. I think her next work will be excellent so long as someone makes sure Rowling edits it down. 

A – American Virgin by Steven Seagle

B – The Bible Repairman by Tim Powers

C – The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling

D – Divergent by Veronica Roth

E – Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

F – Fifty Shades of Gray by E. L. James

G – The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham

H – How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown

I – I Do But I Don’t by Kamy Wicoff

J – Jane Austen Made Me Do It by Laurel Ann Nattress

K – Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman

L – A Little Night Magic by Lucy March

M – Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

N – Naked City edited by Ellen Datlow

O – One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde

P – Partials by Dan Wells

Q – Q & A by Vikas Swarup

R – Reality Bites Back by Jennifer L. Pozner

S – Songs of Love and Death edited by George R. R. Martin

T – The Tao of Dating by Ali Binazir

U – Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman

V – Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies by Bruce Waldman et al

W – White Girl Problems by Babe Walker

X – XVI by Julia Karr

Y – Yoga Bitch by Suzanne Morrison

Z – Zoo Story by Thomas French

Current Music: Cold as Stone by Lady Antebellum

Dog Gone

So Michael Vick has a dog. My first thought? I wonder how long until Jerry Sandusky can be a foster parent.

Comparing Vick to a child molester might be a little extreme. He’s not that bad. Hurricane Sandy wasn’t as bad as the Japanese earthquake/tsunami. Both are terrible, neither has a conscience, and you’re not rooting for either of them but one is worse than the other.

A lot of people I talked to don’t see the problem. They said that he’s changed and the dog is for his daughter. People can change but it’s rare and it’s never that quickly or that much.

I think he should be banned from ever getting a dog. At the very least, he should be banned from getting a dog or cat for several years. He should explain to his little girl that the family can’t get a dog because daddy used to help run a ring where they killed each other for sport.

Just because he’s good at his job doesn’t mean he’s changed as a person. I have every doubt that he has learned his lesson. I believe he is enough of an arrogant motherfucker to think he’s above the law and do something like that again. If he was capable of it before, he is capable of it now.

If you want to forgive him for what he did, that’s your call but saying he deserves to get a dog is not forgiving, it’s forgetting. Just because you forgave you’re junkie relative doesn’t mean you leave him alone with your medicine cabinet. Just because a child molester serves his time doesn’t mean you let him babysit. Just because Chris Brown did his classes doesn’t mean his anger issues are resolved. (He put a chair through a window at GMA. Such progress.)

I have learned through multiple experiences that people almost never change. If they do change, it’s because it benefits them. Since Vick got his career back and his supporters pretend this never happened, why does he have to change? Most of what he did reeks of sociopathy.

My philosophy: Just because you’re kind enough to forgive someone doesn’t mean you should be stupid enough to trust them.

Pondering Challenges

With the alphabet challenge drawing to a close (I’m working on C), I needed a new challenge for 2013. I was torn between two options:

Option 1) Read from Home I own so many books I’m out of places to keep them and I haven’t read most of them. The best solution is to only read what I own with the occasionally library loan. Any books I purchase or deliberately obtain for free (gifts don’t count) must be confessed on here. I could also stand to spend less money so that would be an added bonus.

Option 2) 42 Book Challenge A few years back, I attempted to read 42 books in a year each for a specific category. My social life picked up so that I couldn’t complete it. I also had categories that sounded good at the time but ended up just feeling burdensome. It stopped being fun and started being work.

I love the idea of reading from home since I need to get to know my collection again. There’s also books I’ve been dying to reread but have put off because I was doing other challenges. 

If I stick with option 2, I wonder if reading from home and posting random reviews will be enough. It would be nice to read without pressure but if the book is doing its job, I shouldn’t feel pressured.

Current Music: I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons

Burn Out

If anyone tells you dating burn out is not a thing, they are totally lying.

Back in July I had a first date one night followed by a second date the next night with a different guy. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep those details straight? Which one has a dog and which one has a sister. Fortunately neither guy lasted very long or I’d have started messing up those details.

A month later I met someone at a sci-fi convention. We dated for about six weeks and things were going very well until he got a temporary second job and disappeared. It started with the Single in the Shire incident followed by a whole lot of nothing. If he was too busy to call or text, I was too busy to wait around.

I had a first date lined up with a guy I met on-line who grew up in Ireland and moved here. Accents are sexy. Texting a girl you’ve never met good morning every day before your date isn’t. Not two hours after out date he texted me again asking how things looked. Another hour went by before he asked “Not good?” Yeah, definitely not looking good Velcro.

I had one other first date and one other guy ask me out. Both are friends of friends and seem like nice guys but I was just ‘meh’ about the whole thing. What will get you to a second date is if I care if I see you again. They were nice but I could take it or leave it. As for The Vanishing Act, put pennies on its eyes because what we had is stone dead.

It’s a predicament to have but if I’m not that into anybody, aren’t I better off not leading them on? It’s not fair for me to date a guy who seems to like me because I’m bored and could use a free dinner. After such a busy fall, I’m feeling a little burnt out on dating. Since very few relationships start around major holidays, I think I'm safe until January.

Current Music: When Your Mind’s Made Up by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

Say Yes to the Alternative

I was goofing around on Etsy earlier and I’ve heard so many things about what great wedding stuff they have. I’m extremely single but I wanted to see what everyone was talking about. If a girl is going to poke around on the web for wedding crap, what is the first place she’s going to look? The dress.

Etsy gave you different options but I clicked on ‘Alternative Dresses’ first. Lords of Kobol is there some crazy stuff out there. Seeing all of the outrageous color and designs makes the white ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ stuff look really boring now.

This one kicked boring white to the curb and embraced embellishments. Another dress from the same people fell in love with color. They had some standard white fair but their nontraditional stuff was amazing. They’re semi-close to where I live so jotting that down if part of hell freezes over and this happens to me.

One retailer had steampunk fashion some of which was pretty and some of which was weird. I got a big kick out of a pirate dress from Australia. If I ever go hardcore theme, I’m getting that sort of mess custom made.

Some stuff was closer to tradition but had personality. A lot of retailers had shorter dresses and eco friendly dresses.

I have a hard time buying shoes and skirts on-line so I don’t think I’d leave something this important to ‘Add to Cart’ but it can expose you to new ideas and reveal new retailers. They also had some awesome stuff in rings…

Current Music: Game of Thrones Main Title by Lindsey Stirling and Peter Hollens

Alphabet Challenge Round 24

B is for The Bible Repairman, a collection of stories by Tim Powers. This was an intriguing collection. All of the stories had very different characters and kinds of magic but Powers kept things consistent with how he told the story. I liked that the magic in them wasn’t always the same. I think the twin story was my favorite.

My big complaint is that, save for the last tale, this was a very California-centric collection. As a born and bred east coaster, I felt like I was missing something because I barely know California. Whether that’s true or not, your reader shouldn’t feel alienated. It took away from my enjoyment of the work. I liked the stories but I didn’t love them and that was before it was all about the west coast. I’d give it a 2.5 or 3 out of 5.

A - American Virgin by Steven Seagle

B - The Bible Repairman by Tim Powers

C

D - Divergent by Veronica Roth

E - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

F - Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

G - The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham

H - How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown

I - I Do But I Don't by Kamy Wicoff

J - Jane Austen Made Me Do It edited by Laurel Ann Nattress

K - Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman

L - A Little Night Magic by Lucy March

M - Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen

N - Naked City edited by Ellen Datlow

O - One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde

P - Partials by Dan Wells

Q - Q & A by Vikas Swarup

R - Reality Bites Back by Jennifer L. Pozner

S - Songs of Love and Death edited by George R. R. Martin

T - The Tao of Dating by Ali Binazir

U - Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman

V - Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies by Bruce Waldman et al

W - White Girl Problems by Babe Walker

X - XVI by Julia Karr

Y - Yoga Bitch by Suzanne Morrison

Z - Zoo Story by Thomas French

Current Music: Breathe by Two Steps from Hell