Wednesday, August 14, 2013

WWW Wednesdays #23 and Stacking the Shelves #5

I have decided to combine my 2 book posts today, I may continue to do this, I may not.  Depends on my mood.

WWW_Wednesdays4

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

What are you currently reading?

Deadly Night (Ghosthunters 101, #1)

Deadly Night (Ghosthunters 101 #1) by Aiden James

I haven’t actually started it yet.  But it’s loaded and ready to go in my Kindle.

What did you recently finish reading?

Bad Wolf (Bad Wolf Chronicles - book 1)

Bad Wolf by Tim McGregor

I liked this book, it was much better than I anticipated.  I hadn’t really read a werewolf book in a long time.  The Hallows series that I love has some in it but the story isn’t actually based around them.  I put the 2nd book on my Wish List, mainly so I can find out what happened to one of the lead characters.

Synthetic: The Rise of the Siren

Synthetic:  Rise of the Siren by Shonna Wright

This was a little hard to follow but I still really enjoyed it.  It has some many odd characters but once I got into it, it was a little easier to follow them all.  It’s listed as the first book of others but I don’t see any others yet.  But if they come out, I will be picking them up as well.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Afraid

Afraid by Jack Kilborn

This may change because I have a library app and I’m waiting on a book to become available and since I can only keep it 2 weeks, I will switch over to that before this one.

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

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual.

This is another weekly meme about books, I’m probably boring you all but it’s my blog and I can book if I want too.  These are what I purchased this week.

Collapse (New America - Book 1)

 

Collapse (New America #1) by Richard Stephenson

In the year 2027, America is in the process of collapsing between terrorist and mother nature.  3 men ban together to try to save it.  Sounds good and a plausible story judging by the description.

Purchased:  Free

Kindle Edition

 

Exit Reality: A Ray Garret/Lifeline Techno Thriller

 

Exit Reality by Robert S. Wilson

This definitely sounds interesting.  A future with even more technology than today.  Internet connectivity with the human brain and more.  I like these kind of books just to see what people can come up with in the future.

Purchased:  Free

Kindle Edition

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Randomness #17

Just a quick holla to let you know I posted another story on Yahoo (actually a week ago).  While my other posts were sports related, this one may help all you out.  I’ve done it for years and never thought to share the info.  I googled after I posted it and the information is out there but nobody told me, I figured it out on my own.  Click below to check it out.

How to Skip the Previews on a DVD - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

If anything, click it, let it load, then close it.

The kids have met their teachers and seen their classrooms, they know where they are sitting and who else is in their class.  Now they just have to get on the bus and go to school, which they will be doing tomorrow morning.  They are both nervous, as am I, because this is a new school system for them.  We are really close to getting approved for a mortgage loan (we go back Thursday to find out if we are approved yet) and we are only looking for a house in 1 school district.  So we decided to go ahead and switch their schools now so it didn’t have to be done in the middle of the school year.  Now we just have to get the house.

Samantha seems ok with the switch, she knows more people than Trevor does at the school because they’ve been playing little league in this district for a few years, but since Samantha made the all-stars, she basically played on two teams this past year.  We only saw one of her team mates in her class but we saw a few more out in the halls.  Samantha is definitely more of the social butterfly than Trevor is.  Talk to her once and she’ll act like your best friends for life.  Trevor, he’s quite and is in his own little world.  He seems a little different because he isn’t the typical rambunctious boy, he does want to play with his lego’s or video games but he’s not a rude, loud or physical.  He’s quiet, helpful and sensitive so I worry more about him going to a new school.  He had friends at his old school but to watch him interact with his classmates, he didn’t seem to really fit in.  Plus he has told me he’s nervous about starting a new school and that just makes me even more nervous for him.

The good news is, before they were old enough to be in school, I always thought Trevor would struggle and Samantha would shine.  It’s actually been the opposite.  Samantha struggled some her first few years and Trevor has shined.  Samantha picked it up last year and had a good one so hopefully she’s coming around now.  But I’ll always worry about Trevor when it comes to his classmates.  I do have some worries about Samantha and her classmates as well, but not as many and totally different worries.

zzz-trackoftheday[3]

Track – Dream On

Artist – Aerosmith

totd-screencap15

I figured since I skipped my Music Mondays post yesterday (I was wore out) that I would at least give you a Track of the Day this evening.

If you would ask me what my favorite Aerosmith song is, this is it.  I don’t know why exactly and I like a lot of their songs but this one has always stuck out for me.  Maybe I remember it being released, I was less than a month old so maybe I associate it with cuddling in my mom’s arms.  Who knows?

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Nice guys finish last

I hate being the nice guy.  Yeah, I know, I’ve referred myself as an asshole on occasion, but I’m a nice guy.  I respect those around me as long as they’re not doing anything to me.  When I’m turning onto another street, I avoid crossing the turn lane if nobody is there so the light doesn’t change, I don’t cut lines, I let people out when I know it’s hard to get out on that road, I’ve offered to help people with their groceries.  I’ve taken grocery carts from handicap people outside stores so they don’t have to push them all the way back in. Just yesterday, one of the assholes I’m going to mention below dropped something on the sidewalk outside her apartment, her hands were full so I picked it up and handed it to her.  I hold doors for people, I’ve watched people drop cash and told them so they didn’t lose it.  My kids are not allowed to run down the halls or play music loudly at all because we are in the upstairs apartment.  I’m always on time, usually early, because it’s disrespectful to make someone wait on you.  I’m a nice guy.

Unlike these true life assholes who never respect anybody and think they are above everyone else.

Google Maps(1)          

I included a compass to make it easier to explain these assholes.  You see the orange blocking half of the road and then a little further down the whole road?  Those are blocking the road for construction, it is completely blocked off, you can’t get through but the problem actually lies on the north/south road.  You see the train tracks that run across it (black), there are constantly trains crossing it.  They run into a huge rail yard just north of the picture so when they cross, they usually cross very slowly.  There is a stop light at the corner and it lets one side go at a time.  The cars coming from the north get pretty backed up at certain times of the day.  If you want to go straight, it may take you a couple light changes to get through the intersection and your chances of hitting a train rise with each minute you sit there.  So while all the good people sit in line and wait their turn, the assholes will get in the right lane, turn right (heading west) then do a u-turn so they can turn right again back onto the road they were just on.  They do it when there is a train blocking the tracks as well, they basically jump the line.

I’m the nice guy who sits in the line waiting to go through the light, I take my turn like most everyone else.  Or I’ll go left to the underpass but it’s a few miles down the road.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve thought about doing the u-turn thing, and I wouldn’t think twice about doing it.  It’s not the law that scares me, it’s the fact that it isn’t fair to everybody else if I get to cut the line.

This happens all over the place.  People getting in turn lanes and going straight beating out traffic.  People who stay in lanes that are ending all the way to the last second until they have to force their way over.  People are assholes, put them behind 2 tons of steel and they think they become invincible assholes.

2013-08-10 09.40.51

Here at our apartment, I deal with assholes on a daily basis.  I have the luxury of calling them my neighbors.  Whether it be my neighbor in the next building and his stereo, the lady below us with her 50 kids who slam the door every time they go in and out, to the special breed of asshole who lives right next to us.  We deal with their stereo on a weekly basis but what’s worse is what you see above.  Those first 4 parking spots are marked handicapped.  The blue Tahoe and the black Monte Carlo belong to them, and they are far from handicapped.  Unless not knowing how to wear your pants at your waist is considered being handicapped now.  The apartment below them is a group home of sorts with 3 handicapped individuals who have a rotation of nurses that come in and stay with them.  They deserve the handicap spots (the other 2 cars are theirs), not the asshole neighbors.  The really pathetic part is that we have a handicap placard for Cheri and even she refuses to park in the spaces because the nurses need them.

2013-08-10 09.41.13

Apparently they think if they destroy the handicap sign, then it’s ok.  I couldn’t tell you how many times they’ve replaced it.  I’m so sick of living here, I need a house out in the middle of nowhere with no one around.  I’m really starting to hate people.

I want to say I believe that you get what you deserve.  But I’ve seen a lot of good people get hurt who didn’t deserve it.  I’ve also seen more assholes continually getting away with being assholes with no retribution.  It gets old.  I’m a nice guy and I’m trying to raise my kids to be the same, but I wonder if I’m doing the right thing.  The way this world is, the assholes continue to take from the nice people.  Maybe I should raise my kids to be assholes so they can survive this world.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Dating Netflix

I got on Netflix to see if they had a certain show that I wanted to check out.  I ended up forgetting what I was going to look up before I got it loaded up so I can’t tell you the show or if they have it.  But apparently Netflix is having just as many issues as I am.

Netflix

I circled the date that I apparently viewed movies that I never heard of and at the bottom right, you can see today’s date.  Those movies may have actually been watched, just not by us.  Apparently Netflix got a jump start on drinking for the weekend.

And while I have you here, I was at work talking with a friend of mine who is fighting cancer.  We were talking about his blood being so thin because of the treatments.  He said that if he cuts himself shaving, it bleeds for 5 hours.  My sensitive side came out and I said “Your periods must be rough.”

I’m an asshole.  I can’t help it.  But he and I usually give it to each other so it’s all in jest.  It’s mainly for shock factor on the people listening in, their faces are priceless.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

WWW Wednesdays #22

WWW_Wednesdays4

I haven’t done one of these in a little while and it was a slow week at work last week so I finished quite a few books compared to my normal.

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

What are you currently reading?

Bad Wolf (Bad Wolf Chronicles - book 1)

Bad Wolf by Tim McGregor

I’m a little over half way, it’s been pretty good so far.  I haven’t read a book about werewolves in awhile.

What did you recently finish reading?

Predation

Predation by SJ Parkinson

I enjoyed this book.  It was a little wordy at times but I still enjoyed it.  It took place in space in another galaxy, kind of like Star Trek but it had more of a war aspect that I liked as well.  The humans are fighting with the Drakk’har, who are a kind of a reptile type creature but our forces are moving in on their planet that they make their ships.  We have ground forces as well as a battleships so there are a lot of characters to follow plus we get to know the alien forces as well.

Darkness Breaks (Darkness Falls, #2)

Darkness Breaks (Darkness Falls #2) by Jessica Sorensen

This is the second book in the series.  Kayla is still trying to figure out who she is and how she is supposed to save the world.  Good action and I still enjoy the characters plus we learn all new things about the Others as well as Kayla.

Zomblog (Zomblog, #1)

Zomblog (Zomblog #1) by TW Brown

I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy a book written in journal type entries but with everything going on really makes you forget it was written that way.  It was a little odd when the main character dies considering he was writing the journal but someone else picks it up and continues it.  I think this is probably a pretty accurate book about what would happen if zombies took over.  We’d end up fighting ourselves more than them.

Zomblog II (Zomblog, #2)

Zomblog II (Zomblog #2) by TW Brown

The 2nd book picks up right where the first one leaves off.  As we get further away from the day the zombies take over, we meet more survivors and more crazy people.  While there are a few communities that are trying to rebuild like normal, there are others that take a step back from humanity.  I’m looking forward to getting the 3rd book in the series.

The Man Who Built the World

The Man Who Built the World by Chris Ward

A man goes home for his sister’s funeral only to be in a battle of his past that he has blocked out.  As he learns more and more about the father he hates, he learns more and more about the mother he loved and the sister he feared.  This was a good book, it kept me reading every chance I could get at work.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Synthetic: The Rise of the Siren

Synthetic:  Rise of the Siren by Shonna Wright

This may change because I have a library app and I’m waiting on a book to become available and since I can only keep the 2 weeks, I will switch over to that before this one.

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

Monday, August 5, 2013

Music Monday’s #5

zzz-musicmondays

Welcome to the next edition of Music Mondays.  It’s pretty basic, I take a playlist and put it on random, and post what comes up.

  • Playlist – “Anything & Everything”
  • Description – Anything from Christian to Rock, Rap to Country, Classical to 80’s.  It goes from the 1960’s to current.  Pretty much anything and everything that I like.
  • Number of songs on the playlist – 1,340 songs (up 16 songs from last post)

 

  1. Get the Party Started (P!nk)
  2. Dirty Minds (Here Come The Mummies)
  3. Can You Feel the Love Tonight (Elton John)
  4. When the Children Cry (White Lion)
  5. By Myself (Linkin Park)
  6. Run to You (Whitney Houston)
  7. When I Think of You (Janet Jackson)
  8. For My Growing (Mylon & the Broken Heart)
  9. Head Like A Hole (Nine Inch Nails)
  10. Little Deuce Coupe (the Beach Boys)
  11. I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) (the Proclaimers)
  12. This Blood (Carman)
  13. Every Now and Then (Crumbacher)
  14. Baby, Baby (Amy Grant)
  15. I’ll Make Love to You (Boyz II Men)
  16. Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm (C+C Music Factory)
  17. Destined To Win (ETW)
  18. Hey Jealousy (Gin Blossoms)
  19. Are You Gonna Go My Way (Lenny Kravitz)
  20. Citizen/Soldier (3 Doors Down)

You see I’ve added 16 from the last post (2 weeks ago).  Those were mainly songs from the Thompson Twins, Cars and Wilson Pickett.  Plus I added a song each from Ugly Kid Joe, Florida Georgia Line, Enya, Stryper and Bruno Mars.

I’ve decided to randomly choose an artist from above and show all the songs I have on my playlist.  Exciting stuff I know.

I used Random.org, put the numbers 1-20 and click random 3 times, the number 15 came up at the top which would be Boyz II Men in accordance to the list above.

Random Thoughts From A Random Guy- Music Mondays

I have 8 songs from Boyz II Men on my playlist.  I listened to Cooleyhighharmony all the time when I was growing up.  Although, End of the Road and In the Still of the Nite weren’t actually on that album.  I believe I bought End of the Road as a single and In the Still of the Nite was on the flip side of the cassette.  I went through a R&B and some rap phase for awhile, I still like some of it but I have grown to think most of it sounds the same.

zzz-trackoftheday[3]

Track – Believe in Love

Arist – Russ Taff

totd-screencap14

Russ Taff was one of my favorite (still is) Christian artist.  He does a multitude of different types of music from rock to country to old gospel.  He even did a great Christmas album in jazz.  The song above is one of my favorites of his and is also from my favorite album by him.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Coming Soon

I’ve been a slacker, I haven’t posted in a week.  Granted it was my 5 day work week so I don’t generally post as much but I didn’t even do any of my weekly posts (Music Mondays, WWW Wednesdays, or Stacking the Shelves) not even a Flashback Fridays.  (How’s that for a plug of some of my posts?).  Nothing really went down this past week.  It’s cooled off some so work hasn’t been as miserable.  Kids are getting ready to start their new school next week.  Trevor has his birthday party coming up on Tuesday.  We go back to the bank to see if we can get a loan for a house in a couple of weeks.  We are at wits end living here so that really needs to happen.  I’m also in the process of fighting off a cold, stupid runny nose and stuffiness.

I’ve gotten behind on my Feedly again due to the fact that work put in a web filter so I can no longer access the internet on my Kindle.  So since I’m not keeping up with my blog reading anymore, I’ve been reading books instead and on some days, have read a whole book before I left work.  Speaking of books, my library has finally gotten Kindle books to loan out.  I’m not all that impressed with what they have available but I haven’t searched extensively on it yet either.  I’ve just checked a few main authors that I like and there wasn’t much available (Kim Harrison, Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Jim Butcher).  I did put World War Z on hold so when it is available, I’ll get to read it.  I heard the book is way better than the movie anyways, which is usually the case.  Apparently the book will come to your Kindle and then in 2 weeks, poof, it disappears.

So as you can see, you haven’t missed anything.  I’ll try to post a little more regular this week.  I already have an idea to add to Music Mondays tomorrow.  I’m also almost done with another My Kind of Humor post and another post so I haven’t been completely gone.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Facebook crap

Does anybody else use the personal lists on Facebook?  And by personal, I mean lists that you created, not the ones that they’ve created for you.  Mine are listed in the picture below, to the right.

2013-07-17 20.41.32

I have 4 lists but I only actually use 2 of them.

Family - I use the Family list which as you can probably guess, is all my family members.

Current Friends - I also use the Current Friends which is my current friends, but it also has more.  When I “like” a page and it’s something that I want to see what they post, I add it to that list as well.  Any of my classmates that I actually communicate with, I add them here as well.

Page Alerts - Let’s face it, we all “like” some pages but we don’t really care what it’s about.  Sometimes your supporting a friend, sometimes it’s humorous but it’s nothing you need to see again.  We’ve all “liked” band, tv, or movie pages because we liked them but we really don’t need to see the news associated with it.  I rarely check this one, as you can tell by the 547 unread posts.

Classmates – I approve anybody that graduated from my high school the same year as I did, way back in 1991.  There was over 500 graduates in my class so there were a lot of kids that I knew a little bit and some I didn’t know at all.  When I “friended” my wife, she was in this list that I never check.  But she commented on some stuff I posted and I moved her over to Current Friends.  Of course, now she’s in my Family list.  But I check this list the least, usually only when I’m online and I’m really bored.

As you can see, I never use my home feed which is the feed that comes up when you first log in to Facebook.  As a matter of fact, my bookmark for Facebook goes right to the Family list.  I loved this concept and I was using it before Facebook came up with their automatic lists.  But now, apparently because I made my own personal lists, I have to be punished.  Not only does it not show me everything that I have put in my lists, like it does the home feed, it only shows me what it wants to show me.  I put them in MY lists, why would I want YOU to decide what I see.  I set notifications for everybody that I want to see.  It gives me a crap load of notifications on some days but it’s the only way I can see who I want to see.

Now, on top of them controlling my lists.  Now I get these stupid ads.

Family

They are all over the place and they are right in my list feeds.  Sometimes back to back, sometimes there will be only a post or 2 between them but they are all over.  I don’t play any games on Facebook to begin with so why would I care what my friends are playing.  Now if I went over to my home feed, there are none of these.  So like I said, they punish me for creating my own feeds.  I’m waiting for the Social Fixer app I use (which is also why my background is black) to come up with a way to get rid of these because it pisses me off.  I probably wouldn’t mind it if I was looking for games to play, but I don’t play any games so it’s just a hindrance.

Friday, July 26, 2013

FORE!

Went golfing this morning, for the first time since my cousin was up last year.  My brother has invited me a few times in the last month or so but I always refused because of my back issues.  Well, when he asked this week I said screw it, I’m going.  I’ll drug up if I have to.  I took some ibuprofen before I got there and headed out.  There were 4 of us and we were only playing 9 holes.  The first guy (brother’s friend) gets up, crushes it but I goes right into the fairway next to us.  My brother gets up and crushes it as well, also to the right.  The next guy (brothers friends friend) gets up and barely hits it.  Now it’s my turn.  I’m nervous because I’m not sure how well my back will allow me to swing.  Not to mention, this is only the 2nd time I’ve ever tried to use an actual driver.  I’ve always used a driving iron because I could never get the hang of hitting one but my driving iron had broke and I couldn’t find another one on short notice.  So I get up there, line up and smoke it right down the middle of the fairway.  It hurt my back a little but not bad.  Everybody goes up to take their next shots and some their third.  I get up to my ball, pull out an iron and put the ball within 5 feet of the hole.  I was extremely happy, I thought this was going to be one of those good days.  I ended up 2 putting for a +1 on the first hole.  Then it was all downhill from there.  I never saw the scorecard, but I was probably around 50 for 9 holes.  I’d hit a great shot followed by a couple of crappy ones.  I had a good time regardless of how I played.  I only threw my club once which says a lot.

I used to golf quite a bit in high school.  I even tried out for the golf team once (I sucked).  But the clubs I play with now are the same ones I played with back then.  Although I have picked up a 3 wood and a putter.  I had a friend who was a golf pro at a shop in college so he was a pretty good golfer and he would give me tips on how to improve so I was a decent enough back then.  Never a scratch golfer by any means, but decent enough, especially for someone who never uses a driver.  I generally shot in the upper 80’s, lower 90’s.  But I loved to play and still do, but finances played a lot on why I quit playing as well.  It’s not a cheap sport, especially now when my fat ass refuses to walk instead of getting a cart.  It costs us $17 a person this morning and that was only 9 holes.  This was an out of the way course as well, if you want to go to one of the nicer courses, it’ll cost even more.

My brother is talking about playing every week, we’ll see if I’ll be able to do that or not but I can go every so often at least.  It would be nice to be able to afford it since I now have days off from work and actually have the time to do so.

Tonight, we are heading for Portage to watch my nephew play for a chance at the Little League World Series.  They are down to the final 7 teams and are in a double elimination tournament.  They won their first game last night and play again tonight and more games Saturday and a final game on Sunday if they keep winning.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

My Kind of Humor #11

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’m behind on these, they were posted awhile ago.

humor02 ecard glue

People are stupid, but the creator of this card was a genius.

humor03 kangaroo small

Awkward!

humor04 vegan tattoo

Do you see it?  So is he or isn’t he?  Or is he confused at what the word means?  Or is it a regrettable tattoo?  Does it mean something different in Texas?

humor05 sean connery

This explains so much.

humor07 twilight sucks

Ha, not a huge fan of Will Ferrell’s movies, but he is hilarious.  And Twilight sucks, a good combination.

humor08  boxes

I had actually posted this on my Facebook page before, but I love it.  How do people even see this?  If I was looking at it, it would just be 2 boxes.

humor09 what is that

Do you see it?  Yikes!  It’s embarrassing when a woman’s penis is bigger than yours.

humor01 duck dynasty

Pretty much Cheri and I’s thoughts exactly.  That would be why we didn’t go to our 20th reunion 2 years ago.

humor10 jesus saves

The perfect response to WWJD.

blog-mensbathroom

I hate to let out a man’s bathroom secret, but this really happens.