Flashback Fridays–the 80’s

My brother sent me a link the other day to one of those, if you remember these, you were an 80’s kid, I didn’t think of it much, as a matter of fact, I didn’t click the link for a few hours when I remembered that he sent it.  So I went back to my phone and clicked it.  It was from the World Observer Online site and it was called “50 Things Only 80’s Kids Can Understand”.  It was pretty awesome because it had all kinds of things that you don’t usually see on those 80’s lists.  I won’t go through all 50 here (NES, the Cosby show, the Breakfast Club), you can click on the link to the original article if you want that, but I grabbed a bunch of stuff that I hadn’t seen or heard of in a long time.

The Muppet Babies – I used to watch this every Saturday morning (yes, I was a kid in the 80’s).

He-man – I also watched this every Saturday.  You know, because Saturdays were the only day you got to see a bunch of cartoons.

NASA’s Challenger explosion – I was in Junior High home economics class and they brought in a TV to watch the launch.  I remember how shocked I was when it happened.  It was kind of a disbelief, did I really just see that?

Garbage Pail Kids – I don’t remember ever really being into these but my brother was.  I do remember laughing at all of them though.

  

Hands Across America & We Are The World - I thought these were the coolest things and they got talked about forever.  I loved the We Are the World song, anybody who was anybody sang on it.

Neon Biker Shorts – While the neon has come back, the biker shorts haven’t.  I walked into a Justice store to get some clothes for my daughter awhile back and it was like the 80’s threw up in there with all the freaking neon.

The Oregon Trail – I used to play this all the time.  Although I don’t remember if it was at school or at home.  This is the Sims before the Sims.  I’m curious how many people remember this.  I also remember Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?

New York Seltzer – I loved this stuff, I drank the peach flavored whenever I can.  It was basically flavored carbonated water.

ET Vinyl Doll – I totally had one of these, I think everybody did.  I loved the ET movie when it came out, I got addicted to Reese’s pieces after that too.

Scratch ‘n Sniff stickers – I was a big time sticker collector and loved the scratch ‘n sniff stickers.  Although some of these above, I’m wondering what they are supposed to smell like.

Trapper Keeper – These were so cool back in the day.  I used these for years, everyone had them and it was a challenge to get the coolest one in your class.

WWW Wednesdays #15

To play along, I’m supposed to answer 3 easy questions.

What are you currently reading?

Yesterday’s Gone (Yesterday’s Gone #3)

I read somewhere where the authors released these short books every 3 weeks until 6 were released.  Sort of like how Stephen King released the Green Mile if you remember that.  This is the 3rd book, I just finished the first 2.

What did you recently finish reading?

Into The Woods by Kim Harrison

You can read my review here for this.

Yesterday’s Gone (Yesterday’s Gone #1)

This short book grabs you right at the beginning with the majority of people disappearing from the earth.  Each chapter is a character and what they are doing while they are gradually trying to find out what is really going on.  Then at the very end, it leaves you hanging.  Lucky for me, I already have the first 6 books so no cliffhanger for me.

Yesterday’s Gone (Yesterday’s Gone #2)

The characters are still trying to figure out what’s going on only now we are starting to see what is taking the people and what has happened to some of them.  Of course, we have no idea why or how it’s happening yet, but with each turn of the page, you get closer to closer to finding it out.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Yesterday’s Gone (Yesterday’s Gone #4)

If you’ve read above, then I don’t need to explain this decision.

If you want to join on WWW Wednesdays, click the logo on top or go to http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/ and leave a comment.

Quarterly Stats–volume 3, issue 1

I totally spaced on my quarterly stats posts.  It should have been in April but I was in the midst of the A to Z Challenge so I had planned on doing it at the beginning of May.  Now here we are on the 28th and I still haven’t done it.  Oops.

My last post on January 3rd showed 15,599 pageviews, 271 posts and 20 followers.  So everything is definitely moving up, a lot of that was before the A to Z Challenge.  I should have screen capped the above pic on April 1st instead of today because the numbers aren’t right for the time frame referenced in this post.  Oh well, pageviews will be wrong but I can figure the posts (270) and followers (20).  I had 56 more posts in the last 3 months for a 19 post a month average.  Let’s break down the last 3 months of 2012.

January tied October of last year for the most posts in a month with 24.    Only one Randomness post which says I took the time to sit down in front of my computer to write.  Randomness posts either mean I had a lot of small stuff to say (not enough for a post of its own) or I hadn’t gotten around to posting in a few days.  Considering I posted the 5 days before it, I probably just had a few things to say.  Out of the 24 posts, 4 of them were WWW Wednesdays and 4 of them were Weekly Catch-ups.  I guess if I want to keep my posts up, I need to designate something for every day.

January 2013 – 24 posts – 16,437 words

• average of 685 words per post.

It ended up being my most words in a month, first time over 16,000 words.  Only 7 of the 24 had less than 500 words and 3 of those were WWW Wednesdays where I don’t generally say much other than what I’m reading.  Then one week I didn’t do a WWW Wednesdays post, I posted about my new book page, so it was more of an announcement and that had less than 200 words.  I did have 3 posts over 1,000 words helped those out though.

February wasn’t nearly as productive as last month.  Only 1 weekly meme contributed to that.  Only 11 posts total for the month.  Part of that also was I spent a weekend away from home and I think I only posted once while I was gone.

February – 11 posts – 6,285 words

• average of 571 words per post.

It’s not a horrible words per post average so at least I wasn’t just throwing stuff up there just to get a post out.  3 posts over 900 words but none over 1,000.  One thing that did happen this month was I crossed 160,000 words and 300 posts on this blog.  Plus celebrated 2 years since it was started.

March came in and only 1 post the first week of the month, then I got better.  3 WWW Wednesdays and 2 My Kind of Humor posts, which will probably make it a low word count month as well.  I posted at least half the month with 15 posts which is what I would like to at least average per month.  I did get another Flashback Friday in, maybe I really need to get something up every Friday.  It would give me something to write about at least one day of the week

March – 15 posts – 6,803 words

• average of 454 words per post

I posted more this month but my words per post is way down.  I’m not sure what to make of that.  Only 1 post over 900 had a lot of reason for it I guess.

I already know in the next stat page that I will break my most posts in a month since I participated in the A to Z Challenge in April and posted every day.

Book Review–Into the Woods by Kim Harrison

Book Review

Into the Woods by Kim Harrison

Saying I loved this book doesn’t really say much because a lot of the stories (7) are Hollows related which is one of my all-time favorite series so if your not familiar with Kim Harrisons the Hollows series, I’m not sure how much you’ll like this book.  I would assume you would still like it, just probably not as much as I did.

When I say stories from the Hollows, they are kind of side stories.  They happen around the books.  Stories such as how Ivy started out, the mission that Trent and Jenks went on that was mentioned in Pale Demon, how Ceri became Al’s familiar, and a young Rachel raises Pierce the first time.  Then there are a few others with Hollows characters, a job Jenks and Bis take, Rachel helps Kisten protect some of his family, the story of Mia the Banshee, and some backstory on Jenks and his wife.  Like I said before, if you’re familiar with her works you’ll love these short stories.

On top of those 7 stories, you also get 4 more stories unrelated to her previous works.  One with vampires, a couple with dryads and the best of the 4, one that takes place in this world where some people have a kinetic energy where you either control it or they take it from you.  It’s a good story about a couple of people with the energy are tracking a kid who has been found to have it.  They must either determine if he can use the power for good, or if they need to capture him and take it away.

I gave this 5 stars but like I said above, if your not familiar with the Hollows series, you probably won’t enjoy it nearly as much.

My Kind of Humor #10

Time for another edition of My Kind of Humor.  These were all posted on my Random Thoughts Facebook page at one time or another.

I wonder how long it took the audience to get the joke?

Bahahahaha!

People who don’t know how to wear a hat are morons anyways, this guy is even worse.

Daddy was dishing out the medicine that night.

I posted this one a long time ago, back when it was still cold.

That is a great wife.

That would be most of my family, we are not a skinny family.

I used to love Blockbuster, I even did the online streaming from them before I did Netflix until their customer service department treated me like I was an idiot.

Paul Konerko is a lucky guy.

This is what my kids would do if I sent them outside.

Here we go again

I’m at a loss at what I should do.  First a little backstory.  On Mother’s day, the kids were with their mom (theEx) and being a Sunday and a school night, we were meeting at the normal time of 7 to get the kids back.  Trevor is one of those kids where he has to get his sleep or he doesn’t function well and his bedtime on a school night is 8.  Around 5 o’clock Sunday evening, theEx sends a text asking if she can keep them till 9.  I called her and told her 7:30 at the latest, she told me it was Mother’s day and she was keeping them longer.  She has had them since Saturday so it’s not like they were there for a limited time.  I told her that if they weren’t home by 7:30 then we would go back to her only having them every other weekend.  She said that she would see me in court and then hung up on me.  A little while later I sent her a text that said drop them off at the apartment no later than 9.

She ended up dropping them off at 9:10 and once they were home, I sent her another text that said I plan on keeping with what I said, if you want to keep them every weekend, then you and I need to have a sit down, face to face.  I told her what days I worked and to let me know when we could get together.  She never responded, all week for that matter.  I haven’t heard from her since.  I’ve heard from the JackAss.  If you follow me on my Facebook page then you already know this but he called the next day, said he didn’t know why we couldn’t get along.  I proceeded to tell him that I have no reason to get along with him, and he was the reason I didn’t anyways because he can’t stop texting me.  He then tried to put the blame on me for everything and I essentially told him he was a Jack Ass and I have no need for him.  He told me that I don’t need to talk to my ex again, that anything I have to say has to go through him to her.  He then told me that I don’t know who I am dealing with and that I should watch my back.  Then hung up, just like theEx did the day before.

So this weekend rolls around, she never contacts me about the kids.  I kept them all weekend and had a good time doing so.  Now here it is on Wednesday and I still haven’t heard from her.  Now I’m wondering what to do about this coming weekend.  I really want to just keep them again until she contacts me, but I also feel bad for keeping the kids from her.  I know the majority of this isn’t her, it’s him.  The only thing she has done is gotten into a controlling relationship and refuses to fight back.  I think the JackAss doesn’t want her to have the kids and that’s why he does what he does.  I don’t want to take the kids from her, but I get so tired of being treated like I’m being treated.  Anytime the kids have a day off school, I ask her if she wants to keep them.  I do everything I can to give her as much time with the kids as possible.  But I’m done being the guy giving her all the info so she could have the kids more to someone who may not even want her kids.  She does nothing for them on my end, she never asks about how they’re doing in school, she never asks about kids functions unless the kids beg her to go.  But yet, when I do talk to her “I miss my kids.”  I have never denied her from calling or texting the kids and yet, she never even tries.  I’ve told her anytime during the week, if she wants to take them for a few hours to just let me know.  She never has.

So maybe this is what she wants, maybe she wants me to take them away.  But I just can’t see anyone doing that and I can’t see doing that to my kids.  So I guess I’ll have to go out of my way, for the kids, certainly not for her.

My kids are pansies

Kids these days are pansies.  My daughter has been begging me since Christmas to go play basketball with her.  She played intermurals at school this past winter, then grandma got her a basketball at Christmas so there are the reasons for the begging.  Since I actually had the kids this weekend (and every other weekend from now on since theEx wants to play games), I figured I’d take the kids out to shoot around so we went over to their school.  First off, I had to make Trevor go, heaven forbid that boy goes outside.  We get over there and start shooting around and what do I hear “It’s so hot out here”.  Like I said, pansies.

They even took turns sitting in the shade.  Samantha would go sit there for awhile, then Trevor would go over and she would come out and shoot around.  Just pathetic.  Granted it was in the 80’s, there was a pretty cool breeze most of the time so it didn’t necessarily feel like it was that hot out.

It’s bad enough, I have to force the kids to go outside and play considering my mom and to force my brother and I to come inside.  We spent every waking moment outside playing sports, baseball, basketball, football, wiffleball, poolball, you get the idea.  Even during the winter we played football in the street because it was plowed.

Kids are pathetic these days.

Kids are pansies these days.

At least they do play some outside sports since they are both in little league and Samantha did a run club where they ran a mile or two after school, twice a week for a month.  It’s better than most kids these days.

Liebster Award

When I was doing the A to Z Challenge last month, I received the Liebster Award from 2 different bloggers (“The World As I See It” & “Laughing at Life, 2”).  It’s nice to receive an award and lord knows I could use the press, but I’m not overly huge into receiving them.  But I’ll do what needs to be done here, for the most part. 
First off, 11 (times 2) Fun Facts about me.

1. Apparently I suck at coming up with fun facts about me.
2. I’m a cryer when I watch TV & movies.  I guess I get emotionally involved in the stories and characters.
3. I love technology but when it doesn’t work, I want to throw it against the wall or out a window.
4. I’m not big on possessions.  I’m pretty content with what I have and rarely want something more.  The question I hate the most before Christmas and Birthday’s is “What do you want?)
5. I’m very laid back, so much so that at times, it drives my wife nuts.  Things that should make me angry, I just shrug it off.  Meh!  But there are certain people who set me off right away.
6. I’m a cat person, not a big fan of dogs.  I don’t mind them, they are just more work.  Cats are self sufficient where as dogs you have to walk and play with them.  Plus, living in Indiana, I don’t want to have to take my dog outside every few hours to go potty in the winter.  I’ll take cleaning a litter box once a day, takes 2 minutes.
7. I Googled the word Liebster because I had no idea what it meant. (German word – dearest, beloved, favorite.)
8. I haven’t had a “best friend” since high school.  And while he is on my Facebook, I don’t ever communicate with him (he’s never on it).  I don’t really have many friends if any.  I have work acquaintances that I occasionally do things with outside of work, but it’s very rare.  When I got married in 1994, out of my best man and 4 groomsmen, only 1 do I even talk to anymore, and he’s my brother.
9. I hate the fact that I’m overweight, but that hatred doesn’t out do my laziness to do something about it.  Some of it is laziness, some of it is I just don’t enjoy working out.
10. My ex (theEx) and I both have middle names that start with D, so both of our kids have middle names that start with D.  My current wife (Cheri) has 2 kids, both of her kids have middle names that start with D.  Sadly, Cheri does not.  She’s an oddball.
11. I used to have an earring and long hair (long enough for a small pony tail).
12. I have  tattoo’s on both my arms, a block M (for Michigan) specifically designed for me by a friend on my left arm.  My right arm has both kids names and birthdates along with a design with a heart in the middle between the names.
13. I was never a huge fan of the show “Friends” when it was on, but my wife loves it so we’ve been watching it before bed most nights and I’ve become a fan of it.  I’ve always been a little slow.
14. I’ve talked about my OCD before, another thing I’m OCD is I can’t just start watching a new show in the middle of the season, I have to find it On Demand and catch up before I start watching the current season.
15. I’ve only kissed 2 women in my life, and I’ve been married twice, you do the math.
16. I have no desire to travel as far as leaving the country.  There is plenty here in the US to keep me entertained if I decide to travel.
17. I’ve driven on the Bristol Motor Speedway.  Not in a race car but in my wife’s car.  The banks suck when your only doing about 20 mph.  You feel like your car is just going to roll off the track onto the infield.
18. I truly don’t like conflict.  I can handle it just fine, but if I can talk myself out of it, then I will.
19. My mom used to buy grapefruit just because it was the only drink she could keep in the fridge that my brother and I wouldn’t drink.  I didn’t like that, so I drank it till I could tolerate it just so for when it was the only thing left to drink, I would still have something.
20. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t hate the University of Notre Dame.  I hate a lot of their fans.  Although, in the last few years, some of the actual school’s decisions have rubbed me wrong.
21. I’ve never been diagnosed with a broken bone.  I may have broken my nose once but I never went to the doctor for it but I now have a lump on the bridge of my nose.
22. I’ve been working on this post for about a week, and am so happy that I am done.  I saved these facts for last because I knew it would be the most difficult for me.

I also have to answer 11 questions from each bloggers who gave me the award.  First up is Michael’s questions from “The World As I See It”

1. What kind of creature is Grimace? (The McDonalds mascot) – Is he even still around?  Great question, I think he’s a creation of Cee Lo Green.  He’s shaped like a gum drop (you know Cee Lo has to like sweets), He’s purple (Come on, you’ve seen some of Cee Lo’s clothes) and he has short arms (do I need to say it).     
2. Who's your favourite non-rock or pop musical artist? (I think that leaves Jazz, Blues, Country, Reggae, Trance, most Rap/Hip Hop and Dubstep) – I went through my Spotify playlists and nothing really stood out other than the rock kind so I’m going to answer with a group I enjoy listening to.
   
3. What's your favorite variety of cheese? – Hmm, never really thought about it.  All cheese is good cheese.  I guess it’s Colby Jack, I eat that more than anything.  I do like Bleu Cheese dressing on my salad.
4. Have you ever mimicked the Gangnam Style Dance? – That would be a Hell No.  I don’t think I’ve even done it in a joking manner.
5. Who's selling sea shells by the sea shore? They never mention who she is. – I’m going with Cee Lo again.  Cee Lo sells sea shells by the sea shore.
6. When was the last time you went for a pap smear/prostate exam? – My father died at 30, so I did a full physical when I hit 30 (10 years ago).  I’ve thought about doing another one this year since I’m turning 40 but I’m really leaning against it.
7. Don't you think it's time? – I think I answered that above.
8. What's your favorite Star Wars, Godfather and Indiana Jones film? – Star Wars, I’ll go with Empire Strikes Back.  Godfather, I’ll say #1 but that’s only because it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen them.  Indiana Jones I’ll go with the Last Crusade.  The relationship between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery was hilarious.
9. How many songs are there on your mp3 player or phone? – I don’t use an mp3 player or store music on my phone.  I use Spotify and stream music and in my “Anything & Everything” playlists, I have 1198 songs.
10. Do you/have you ever talked about religion or politics with strangers? – That would mean I have to talk to strangers, but no.  I believe everyone has their opinion so who’s to say my opinion on the matter is right.  I don’t have a problem discussing this stuff, but if someone would have the conversation with me, and I thought what they were saying was stupid, I’d just shrug my shoulders and say ok.  Why do I care what they think, especially a stranger?
11. Which of the Avengers is the hottest? – Well this is the easiest question being as I’m a guy, the Hulk, because he’s shirtless and buff.  I’m kidding, that would be Black Widow.  She’s hot without the black outfit, but wow, even better with it on.

And now for the questions from Shawn at “Laughing at Life, 2”

1. If you could choose to have any super power what would it be, and why? – X-ray vision.  Sorry, but once a pervert, always a pervert.
2. What would you do for a Klondike bar? – Considering I don’t even buy them, probably not much.
3. If you could be any cartoon character which one would you choose, and why? – Bugs Bunny, because he always got the best of everybody.
4. What is your favorite movie? – the Shawshank Redemption
5. If you could be granted one wish what would you wish for? – To never lose anyone I love.
6. Why did the chicken cross the road besides to get to the other side? – Because he was riding his bike on the wrong side of the road.
7. If you had the power to change laws, what would you make legal, and what would you make illegal? – Legal is easy, gay marriage, although it’s slowly being changed now.  Illegal, nothing comes to mind.  People are going to do what they want to do, illegal or not.
8. What is your favorite way to spend your free time? – I hate to say it, but being online.
9. What is your favorite quote? – Going to church doesn’t make you a christian any more than going to a garage makes you a car.
10. In your opinion, do you think man has really been to the moon? – I’ve always believed they have, and I’m not into conspiracy theories.
11. What is your favorite quality in the opposite sex? – Sense of Humor.  If you don’t have a sense of humor, then you won’t like me.

The last step of the award is to give it to another 11 blogs with 200 followers or less.  I’m not going to do that.  I read a ton of blogs and being as I use an RSS feeder to read them, I don’t go to their blogs and I have no idea how many followers each of them have.  So if you have less than 200 followers and you want to do a post like this, consider yourself a recipient of this prestigious award.  If you do accept the award, leave me a comment so I can read your post.  For your 11 questions from me, select 11 of the above 22.  I’m sorry I’m taking the lazy way out but it was a lot of work coming up with 22 fun facts that were new to most of you.

WWW Wednesday’s #14

To play along, I’m supposed to answer 3 easy questions.

What are you currently reading?

Into The Woods by Kim Harrison

I’m 38% through this book.  I got to read a little tonight while I waited for my daughter to get done at Girl Scouts.  It has 7 short stories that take place with characters from the Hollows.  Stories that take place in and around the novels in the series and then there are also 4 other stories.  I haven’t gotten to those yet so I couldn’t tell you what they are about.

What did you recently finish reading?

Everville:  The First Pillar (Everville #1) by Roy Huff

You can read my review here.  You can still get this book free on Amazon through midnight on the 16th, Pacific Standard Time if I remember correctly.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Yesterday’s Gone (Yesterday’s Gone #1)

This seems like an interesting series.  Most everyone vanishes on earth and there are just a few survivors.  I got the first 6 books for free so I’ll read them all in a row.  I believe there are a total of 18 books so we’ll see if I like them enough to get the rest.

If you want to join on WWW Wednesdays, click the logo on top or go to http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/ and leave a comment.

Mothers Day

It’s Mothers Day and for the first time (I think) in my almost 40 years, I won’t be spending it with my mother.  Sure, she’s over at my brother’s having steak (that’s our Mothers Day tradition, all the mothers get steak, the rest burgers) and I’m sure most of the rest of the family is there as well.  But I’m not, because of this new (almost a year old) work schedule of 12 hour days.  But I won’t go into that, as this is a day of celebration.

I’ve posted another Mothers Day post on this blog before so I’m going to repost it again.  Here goes.

Today is Mother’s day.  We had our usual steak dinners on the grill for the mother’s and burgers and dogs for the rest of us.  My brother grill’s all the food because he’s great at it.  The daughter’s made a bunch of the side foods and we brought cowboy baked beans, chips and buns.  I always kind of feel like a slacker because I suck in the kitchen, I suck on the grill so about all I can do is buy stuff for the party.  I know, all guys are supposed to grill, but I’ve just never taken the time to learn.  I have been taught how, but I’m not very confident in my grilling abilities and I don’t even own a grill to practice.  So, like I said, I’m a slacker.  My abilities reside in the internet and sports.  That’s about it.

Anyways, I just wanted you all to know how much I love my mom.  Like I said, I’m an internet guy and our family isn’t the “I love you” types.  So here I type.  I grew up not hearing it much, but make no excuse, there was never a doubt that she did.  We aren’t the touchy, feely family.  But like I said, never a doubt.  To me, my family is what all families should be like.  When I need any of the family, they are just a phone call, or a text, away.  For anything.  There is no question when I call someone and say, "hey, I need your help” that they won’t be there for me regardless of what it is.  I owe all that to my mom, she raised my brother and I, that family comes first.  She may have not been Susie Homemaker, but she raised my brother and I to be the strong, independent adults that we are.  She raised us to take care of our own and help out others that need it.  She worked every day, to put food in front of us.  After working all day, she drove my brother and I to our clubs and athletic events.  And believe me, between the two of us, it was nonstop.  She went to probably 95% of all our games or activities   And there were A LOT of games.  She still comes to the majority of her grandkids games and activities.  If there is ever something bugging me, she’s the person I talk to.  I know she’ll be straight with me and tell me what’s best, not what I want to hear.  So for all those people who say they go bad because they were raised by a single parent, or because their mom or dad didn’t hug them enough, or tell them they loved them enough.  I cry bulls**t.  My mom did it.  By all means, I’m not saying it’s easy.  But it’s possible.  She beat the odds and became the best mother I know.  I compare her to all other mom’s I meet, and no one lives up to it.  I try to be the best father I can be, because that’s how I was raised and it’s my responsibility to honor my mother in that.  I’m nowhere near the parent she was, but my mom set the mark so high, that I could never reach it.  So I’ll keep reaching for that goal, to make my mother proud.  Because we don’t need to say I love you every time we see each other.  We show it, by always being there for each other, by always enjoying each others company even if we are doing nothing, by knowing you can rely on each other for anything.

And if not, or just in case.  “I LOVE YOU, MOM!!!!”

I don’t remember if she was reading my blog back when I posted this, to be honest, I’m not sure she still does read it.  It hasn’t been mentioned in awhile.  But all of that above is the same.  With this addition.

I know I can’t be there today and believe me, I hate that fact, just as I know you do.  But what I do love is, I don’t have to worry about you being mad about it.  You understand the situation and the fact that I’m here is because I’m taking care of my family and working towards a future (home) for them.  You understand that because you’re the reason I’m that way.  You know how important us getting a house is.  Hell, I think you might want it just as much, if not more, than us.  That’s because I know you love me.

Book Review: The First Pillar (Everville #1)

The First Pillar (Everville #1) by Roy Huff

In the case of full disclosure, I had received this book from the author in exchange for a review.  But if you know me, I don’t have a problem telling people like it is, as a matter of fact, I get in trouble for that at work all the time.  I’m not receiving anything else from Roy or any of the author’s that I review books for so this is my review without any bias.

The best thing I can say about this book is it makes you want to read the rest of the series.  It started right into it without delay.  The first half of the book your introduced to the characters as well as a whole other world and species.  What Roy does right with this book is you learn the backstory while going through the current story lines.  So your not stuck in the past while learning about it.  These worlds are constantly colliding in battles and Them are getting closer and closer to conquering Everville and that’s where the college students at Easton Falls University come in.  You go back and forth from a battle between teams at the University to a battle of life and death outside Everville and the collision of both worlds in the end.

This was definitely a good read and I recommend it.  The only negative is you have to wait for the next book to be released.  But I have good news, because starting tomorrow (5/12/13) you can get this book for free on Amazon (Kindle version only) so be sure to go pick it up.  It’s only free for a limited time (thru 5/16/13) so go get it today right here.

Flashback Friday/Cousins–Out to Pasture

I’m going to combine my Flashback Friday’s with a Cousins post.

         

Names have been changed to protect the innocent and the not so innocent.  Our cast, 2 sets of brothers.  The Dink and the Hulk, and Sluggo and the Midge.  The Dink and Sluggo are the same age and the Hulk and the Midge are the same age, but there is a 3 year difference between the Dink and Sluggo (older) and the Hulk and the Midge (younger).  These 2 sets of brothers, pretty much grew up together.  Even lived in the same household for some of it.  Eventually 1 set of brothers moved to North Carolina, but the other set visited as much as they could.  That’s where this week’s edition of Cousins takes place.

The cousins were all down in North Carolina at a relative’s house, I want to say a great grandmother or something to that effect.  They had a house with cow pasture beside it.  Naturally, being this part of North Carolina, the pasture was on the side of a mountain.  If I remember correctly, a creek ran through it as well so when us cousins went for a visit, we had plenty of land to play around on.  We were out playing for awhile and it was starting to get dark, as we started heading back to the house, we cut through the cow pasture.  Which of course, means you had to watch for cow bombs.

I don’t remember why but at one point we came to a huge pile of cow dung that was relatively fresh and we started poking it with sticks.  We were standing in a circle around it when the Dink stuck his stick all the way in it, probably enjoying the squishy sound it made.  I should say a sucking sound because it sucked the stick down and he couldn’t pull it out.  He wiggled it some and nothing so he started to try to lift it out.  With all his might, he finally pulled it free.  We heard the sucking sound again as it was released, the force of pulling the stick out splattered Sluggo, who was standing across from the Dink, with cow crap.

As we all laughed our asses off at Sluggo, we headed back to the house.  But we didn’t want to get in trouble so the Dink volunteered (maybe he felt guilty) to sneak inside the house and get some toilet paper or paper towels.  Due to the fact that the Dink couldn’t stop laughing, he got caught and they all had to fess up to what happened.  I don’t remember the details to the punishment but till this day, we all remember it happening.

Crime and Exercise

Yesterday morning started like most non work days.  I got up, fed the kids and took them to school.  Although this morning, I changed my routine when I got back home.  Usually, I do one of 2 things.  I either kick on the Netflix and watch Star Trek TOS (I’m in season 2) or I crawl back into bed and cuddle with the wife until I fall back asleep again.  When I play Star Trek, usually around 10 o’clock or so, I start getting tired and end up falling asleep anyways.  So this morning, I came home, changed into shorts and a t-shirt and dusted off the Wii.  But before I got started, I hear shouting.  A woman on the other side of the complex kept yelling (while crying) to leave, just get out.  It took me a bit to locate where it was happening, but I saw the door open so whoever was doing the arguing were in the doorway.  I saw 2 teenage girls leave and that was the end of it.  So I went back to the Wii, turned down the volume and put my headphones on (Cheri and Skyler were still sleeping).

I’m pretty sure 106 days ago I logged in real quick just to see if I’ve gotten any fatter.  When we first got the Wii, I set up a program to work out to.  It had some yoga along with strength training exercises.  So I logged into that.

Yikes, that’s even longer than I thought.  No wonder I’m fat.  I turned on my Spotify and did the program.  It’s a total of 52 minutes.  It was harder than I remember and I certainly didn’t perform it as well as I did 910 days ago but I completed it.  Worked up a sweat and everything.  Here’s the workout at a glance.

These are the Yoga ones, I do 17 (squared in yellow) of those 18.

These are the Strength training ones, I do 11 (squared in yellow) of those 15.

I finished up, then I did some of the games on the Wii fit kind of as a cool down.  I ended up spending about an hour and 20 minutes doing something other than laying around.  That’s a big step for me.  Not that I’ll do it again, but at least when I log into the Wii next time, it won’t say over 1000 days since the last time.  Or at least I hope it doesn’t.

I went back and hopped in the shower so I can smell pretty when Cheri and I went to run our errands.  I got out of the shower and started telling her about the yelling I saw, I pointed out the window to the apartment where it was coming from and what do I see but cops walking around.  Now granted, this is 2 hours later.  I rubbernecked for a few minutes when I see this.

Now, she walked down the stairs and climbed onto the stretcher so I don’t know what her issue was.  All I know is there was a shouting match there 2 hours earlier and then what you see here.  I checked the local police blotter but it only goes to the 7th.  If I remember to look I will let you know what happened, chances are I probably won’t remember and to be honest, I don’t really care.  Other than it made my usually boring mornings a little more exciting.  And I got a blog post out of it.  Lucky you.

    

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