tvordlj | Entries tagged with 2012 books

Have had a very quiet couple of days. Watched some movies and television, finished a couple books. It's just nice not having to go to work. It's the only "vacation" i take where i'm not actually going anywhere or doing anything specific. My nephew gave me an iPod dock/speaker/clock and I got that all hooked up and working and it sounds great. I'm going to leave it in the living room so i can use it as a mini-stereo rather than as an alarm clock in the bedroom. Graham and I will see in the new year online on webcam tonight as we usually do.

Last book post of the year to finish off the 2012 books below the cut
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Three weeks from today, Christmas will be over! Eek!
I am looking forward to it, though.

I've not posted book stuff in awhile. I didn't read that much in November due to the traveling. Even though I bring my book or ereader when i go away, i don't really get much chance to read other than maybe on the plane or in the airport waiting. In this most recent group of books, I've not had a lot of luck. There have been a couple of them that i did like but mostly they were meh and one i couldn't even get into so i didn't even try to finish it. That is not included in the group below because i didn't get very far into it. It just wasn't for me. Another i did get through but i didn't like it at all. Coincidentally (?) a few of the books i've read recently are paper books. Two of them were given to me, one i bought and one i received for early review. I have another paper book to read too, a Diana Gabaldon book of 4 novellas that are Outlander character stories. It was only available in the UK and it was released just before I got there. I have all her other books in hard back so it was no contest.

I've started one now that I'm going to like and I'm still picking at a biography of Cleopatra. I'm going to pick up the next in the Gabaldon Outlander books, two more to read to finish the series again. I think i've only ever read the last two once each. Her next in the series should be out sometime early 2013.

( 2012 books )

Good grief!
I've just read a short news article where a condemned prisoner who is due to be executed by lethal injection in January is trying to get out of it citing health reasons. He weighs about 400 pounds and his first push of the envelope was that he feared the table would not support his weight. It was proven wrong by a test using a large jail guard and extra weights. Hmm. Well, he also claims that his weight, vein access, scar tissue, *depression* and other conditions would make his executioners "encounter severe problems". His lawyer filed something with the court to say that "there is a substantial risk that any attempt to execute him will result in serious physical and psychological pain" .
So?
He's a murderer, judged guilty (for a murder 20 years ago, which is another rant altogether, these endless appeals). He's suffering depression? Is anyone feeling sorry for him yet? If he's worried about his weight or vein access, I'm sure a gas chamber can be arranged. Or a guillotine.
Apparently weight has caused problems in the past with injections according to this article. I suppose they're trying to say it's undue hardship or emotional abuse. The man is a murderer. And besides, I'm in the "obese" category and they never have any trouble finding a vein to take bloodwork or inject an IV in my arm. Every body is different and there's a lot of places in your body you could use to tap a vein.

The new iPad mini is coming out. (or "miniPad" *snork*) It's a 7.5 inch screen and more the size of the ereaders (slightly bigger) and some tablets. Apparently two weeks after it's released, another version will be out that can take advantage of cellular service. Doesn't say that it'll be a phone but probably that's the 4G network so you don't need a wi-fi hotspot. Seems like a lot of fuss for something that's already out there sold by other companies but Apple has to keep up, i suppose and they certainly have their dedicated fans. I do have an iPod touch, several generations old now and newer apps won't run on it. But then i always ran my PC operating system years past the newer ones that were offered. I don't own a smart phone either because i really don't think i'd use it to any advantage most of the time. I may upgrade the iPod at some point i suppose but there's no hurry. The main thing i use it for is tunes and it does that quite well.

I saw the latest Bruce Willis movie, Looper last night. good clean bloody fun. And I do mean that literally. Typical action movie shoot up all over the place with some timey wimey paradox confusion thrown in. It takes place about 30 years from now. And 30 years from that point, time travel has been invented but is illegal. Because disposing of bodies is also more and more difficult, Mobsters use it to send their targets back 30 years, where a hitman is waiting to shoot and then dispose of the body. The victim is sent with bars of silver attached to their back as payment for the hitman in the past. Sending the hitman himself back to be shot by his younger self is called closing the loop. The victims are hooded and the assassins don't know it's their future selves until they slice open the back of the jacket the body has on to find gold bars instead of silver bars. The equivalent of the gold watch kiss-off i guess. They can then retire and live their lives until they're sent back to be killed.

This loop closing is suddenly happening all the time. There's a mob boss in the future called the Rainman who has just taken control and is closing all the loops as his first order of business. Nobody knows who he is or what his real name is. Most of the loopers are youngish men, cocky, stylish, braggarts. One of them discovers his victim is his future self and can't kill him setting off a man hunt for both men. His best friend gives him up and later, one of his hits is, yes, his future self.

( Spoilers )
That's as much as i'll spoil, without going into the ending. But suffice it to say that i had to chuckle when in a typical Bruce scene, he's squinting, cocking his head to one side, looking rather complacent and shooting the place down with a series of various guns. Most of the action movie guys are screaming or gritting their teeth, leaping about over-adrenalized, it's a big show of Tough Muthafuckin Badass. Kind of like when Bruce Springsteen is straining like he's passing a horse out of his arse, sweating and grimacing while crooning out a soft ballad. Not Bruce Willis. He's resigned to the fact but equally determined the opposition isn't going to cream his ass, he's going to take them out first. He's also a Tough Muthafuckin Badass but he doesn't have to make a big production out of it.

Anyway, I liked the movie for what it was. And Emily Blunt is in it. I always like her. And the little boy that plays her son was quite good for being so young. I didn't see the ending coming. Probably should have.

( more 2012 books )

And .... breathe.
Ok yes things have settled down.
I'm going to try to get to the rental office again today after work. We'll see how cooperative the busses are.
I have to have a follow up ultrasound on my lady bits on Wednesday. Middle of the day. always inconvenient.
Long weekend this weekend, Thanksgiving. EDO next Friday.

There was a note under the door that the building people want to come in today to do pest control (there has been issues with mice for months, a year really or more) so i'm supposed to move things away from the walls, radiator and from under the sinks. And where they think i have room to put all this i don't know. I did shift things in my kitchen, and moved some things from under the immediate area under the sink and under the bathroom sink. I pulled the ironing board out a bit from the wall in the bedroom away from the radiator but there's just no way i can do the rest nor move the fridge and stove. They'll have to do it themselves or not at all. I mainly have the mouse appear in the kitchen though it's been awhile since i've seen it. I've no doubt it's still lurking. I try to block all the possible entry points and i caught the little bastard running along the back of the countertop once. I have no idea how it got up there unless it's climbing up the back of the fridge so i've tried blocking the space between the fridge and the counter top. They can squeeze through some pretty small spaces so I don't know if it worked but i think it has mostly.

There was never a problem until the trucks dug up the landscaping when they were building all the new balconies and destroyed their habitats. I wonder if you can get a room freshener spray that smells like eau de cat so they think there's a kitty in residence. Not Eau de cat pee obviously, just cat. I wonder if a plush cat would work like a scarecrow? Probably not :)))

And catching up on more books read

84. Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
A young woman suffering depression and an obsession with a poet is invited to stay with the poet, his wife and daughter and another couple on holiday in a villa in France.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/419331283

85. The Raven's Seal by Andrei Baltakmens
An 18th century mystery where a man duels with his long time enemy. Nobody is killed but the enemy turns up dead the next day and the other man is convicted. His friends work over several years to find evidence to free him while he tries to survive in the gloomy Bellstrom Gaol. Wonderfully written!
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/416982805

86. The Lighthouse - Alison Moore
A recently divorced man on a walking holiday in Germany mulls over his life and mother-abandonment. A misunderstanding causes a chain of events at the B&B where he starts and ends though he is completely unaware. We have his story and memories and some of the story of the owners of the B&B. Not bad.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/419331471

87. The House of Velvet and Glass - Katherine Howe
Three timelines, the night the Titanic goes down, the surviving family from 3 years later onwards, and the father of the family when eh was a teenage sailor in the mid 19th century. Scrying, foretelling, opium dens, romance. Pretty good book.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/412916657

88. The Red House - Mark Haddon
Two families on a vacation in a cottage in Wales, linked by a middle age long estranged brother and sister recently reunited over their mother's death. Everyone has issues, personality clashes, teenagers with typical teenage problems. We get everyone's point of view in a stream on consciousness, very hard to follow because you don't always know who's talking or what the heck they're talking about. not really enjoyable though parts of the story are good if you can figure it out.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/386022437

I've had my EDO today and i've slept in a bit, had a very quiet day. It's dark and foggy out and not really condusive to a lot of energy.

Six weeks from now I shall be in Graham's flat :)))

I did get some reading done and have finished three more books in the past week or so. All three i quite enjoyed.

2012 books:

81 The Keeper of Lost Causes - Jussi Adler-Olsen
A Danish renegade detective has to solve a cold case, a female member of the Danish parliament went overboard a ferry 5 years previous. Was it suicide or murder? Turns out she was kidnapped and has been held captive, which the reader knows but the detective does not. Yet.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/411529006

82 The Dovekeepers - Alice Hoffman
Story of four Jewish women who come to the fortress of Masada just before the final confrontation with the Romans in 73 C.E. Really enjoyed this.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/412492647

83 To Have and to Code - Debora Geary
Back to the beginning of Nell and Daniel's romance. Another wonderful book about the Witch Central world.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/416982406

( just catching up on 2012 books )

By this time last year, i'd read 58 books. I'm almost up to 80! There were two that i didn't finish and there were one or two handsful of short quick reads.
( 2012 book update )
The fruit fly invasion seems to be over.

Graham still hasn't got his vacation officially authorized. Because he's four days short of time needed, they won't let him go unpaid or borrow from next year's allottment. I think it's because they don't want to do the paperwork. What they have said they will do is let him work a little extra every day and take the time off in lieu. But he's not been able to get his team leader to sit down and work it all out yet. *sigh* I really want to get this booked. I think they've agreed to the dates at least so maybe i could take the chance and book the flights to Manchester at least, before the Halifax/Heathrow leg fills up.

EDO on Friday, four day weekend! Labour Day is Monday. No plans as of yet. Might borrow Mom's car for a day or two.

I read a book last month, Jane Austen Ruined My Life by Beth Patillo (see below). It was a fun, light, chicklit type of thing. I'm now reading The Dashwood Sisters Tell All by the same author. Both books are modern day with the JA themes. This one, clearly, uses Sense and Sensibility as influence and is about two very opposite sisters. It must be shorter than the other one, i haven't checked the pages but i'm whipping through it like nobody's business but enjoying it just the same. There is a minor character from the first book in it, and some of the same locations get reused and I suspect that it's going to a similar ending. The first one had to do with authenticated "lost" Jane letters to her sister and this one has a "lost" diary belonging to Jane's sister Cassandra, which also mentions the same (made up) never-heard-of-before lost love in Jane's life. If you read the other one first, it provides more continuity. Anyway i'm enjoying it and i'll probably have it finished by tomorrow night or even tonight depending on how much time i sneak in reading it!
(eta: Finished it on the bus. Consider this entry number 70 in 2012 books! Ended pretty much as expected, with some further parallels to S&S.)

I always have a few books on the go, moreso now that i have an ereader and i can dip into them depending on what i feel in the mood for. When i turn on the ereader, there's a front screen of the 5 most recent books i've opened (or loaded onto the machine which is annoying if i've got 5 that i am picking at and put a new book on, it takes over one of the visible "spots" and i have to find the one it replaced to open it so it will be back on the main screen again). Yes, i'm a bit anal about organizing things like that. So yes, i can easily have 4 or 5 books on the go at the same time but if one in particular is really drawing me in, i'll likely stick with that until i'm finished. If one is a non-fiction, like a biography or a history or something, it's easier to put that aside and come back to it as there isn't a plot to follow.

I've always had 2 or 3 books on the go at a time so adding one or two more to the mix isn't that difficult. I read on the bus, i read at lunchtime, i read in bed at night and sometimes through the day on weekends or days off if i'm not out and about.

The current roster includes that Dashwood one, 1000 Days in Venice (autobiography), Red Hook Road, and A Room With A View. I think i'll soon be ready for another mystery/thriller after this lot.

65 Divergent - Veronica Roth
First of a trilogy about a dystopian society in a future Chicago. Most people are divided into five "factions" based on their personality traits with those that don't succeed in being initiated as "factionless" people who barely survive and are employed at the service level. The factions share various aspects contributing to running the society as a whole. At 16, teens are assessed and choose their faction for the rest of their lives. Many stay with the ones they were brought up in but some change. Tris Prior changes from steady, selfless Abegnation to daring Dauntless. The initiation is brutal. The Dauntless serve as the "guardians" and must be fearless and tough. What happens during the intiation, does Tris stick with it, does she get accepted? There are hidden agendas, tests of courage and endurance, mind control. It's similar in feel to the Hunger Games but different as well and probably a bit better I think.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/354020267

66 Insurgent - Veronica Roth
Second of a trilogy about a dystopian society, where a teenage girl ends up being part of a rebellious faction. It's not bad, if you liked Hunger Games you will probably like this series and it's probably a bit better, in fact. The next book won't be out until next year sometime.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/384107319

67 Jane Austen Ruined My Life - Beth Patillo
This was good fun, light and easy chicklit. It's about a university profession who is reeling from a sudden and painful divorce and from losing her career because of her ex. She is a Jane Austen scholar and is persuing the possibility of discovering some "lost" correspondence from Jane. She must follow a set of tasks to prove her worthiness by the woman who may or may not own the letters, across various parts of England where Jane lived or visited. There's also a former boyfriend in the picture "helping" her. If you're familiar with Jane Austen books, this will be even more interesting but it's a fun summer read anyway.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/370751452

68 The Fiery Cross - Diana Gabaldon
A re-read. book 5 of the series. I found this one a bit of a struggle. It gets bogged down in far too much detail and could have used a tighter editing I think. But I love the characters and her writing.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/246484624

69 In One Person - John Irving
Really liked this book. Coming of age about a teenage boy who realizes early on that he's bisexual. Filled with quirky characters and some sad parts as well and is very well written.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/380118982

Long weekend coming up, "Natal Day" on Monday. There's events all weekend to celebrate the founding of Halifax and Dartmouth though most of them are family oriented with various concerts and music by bands I'm not that bothered with. No real plans but i might try to take in an exhibit in the natural history musuem, they've got about 40 costumes from various sci fi movies and tv. Excellent stuff! Maybe a movie. Maybe a bit of shopping. We'll see what comes along. I don't think the weather is going to be altogether brilliant mostly so it'll have to be indoors stuff. There's a parade on Monday but let's hope it won't get rained out.

( more books )

Last year i had to get my Kobo replaced and they replaced it with a Touch version. I liked it but i did find that it was overly sensitive and often flipped two "pages" at a time which could be annoying. The other day, i was reading about an Operating System upgrade with changes they made to it and saw comments on a blog post that a lot of people were having trouble after the upgrade. Hmm.... I worried. But after i bought a book and went on WiFi to get it, sure enough the OS upgrade started to download automatically. I did have the choice whether to install straight away or not but if i turned it off and restarted it, it would have installed it anyway so i went ahead and let it go, biting my nails at the same time. I had a web page saved with instructions how to reset it back in case it didn't work.

But luckily, it did seem to install smoothly and it works just fine. They've changed a few things and added features like the ability to create your own custom "shelves". I decided to do that and add to it the books i was currently reading. If you download a new book, it gets put on the front "menu" and if you load on a few then what you were reading is gone off that front menu until you open it again. Having a "currently reading" shelf lets me get to it quickly for things like that.

The other thing i do find is that it's noticeably less sensitive when turning a page now. It rarely skips 2 pages at once, but on the other hand, it's noticeably slower but once i get used to that, i think i'll find it less irritating than the double-skip.

And with that in mind...

( 2012 books )

Went to an early showing of Men in Black III tonight with a friend. Sort of an early birthday dinner as she'll be in TO next week on business. We had a quick bite at Tim's first. Loved the movie, good fun! Will Smith's character goes back to 1969 to prevent Tommy Lee Jones's character from being killed. Josh Brolin played a young Agent K and wow did he have him down cold! He had the looks, the gestures, the vocals just right. Lots of aliens, lots of them being splattered, the main villain was quite creepy really, well. Apparently a New Zealand actor. He reminded me a bit of Tim Curry but i knew it wasn't him. Not in looks because with all the make up you couldn't tell what he really looks like anyway. It was just his voice a bit but anyway, it wasn't Tim Curry. Still did a great job, though.

( More 2012 books )

That baffling mystery at work from Monday finally got solved yesterday. Now we have to deal with the solution but we've got some clever people in this office. If only my service desk request would be sorted out it would make things a lot easier but i have a workaround (i.e. asking someone else to connect using their credentials until mine get sorted). It happens to be the worst week for trying to get anything done through the Service Desk because they changed the email over to a new program and they're being inundated by calls for help. On top of that, i couldn't log into the network this morning and even without the network, i couldn't get into anything. A change was made last night and it affected certain ports and lines. Mine was one of them. Thankfully it was early enough to get hold of the Service Desk before it got busy and they said there were others having the same problem too.

Took about an hour but i was finally back in and online.

As i said, they changed over the email at work. We were accessing it via a web browser and i really didn't like it much so i got the instructions to install the client and got it configured. There's still bits of Outlook i really don't like much but that's too bad. It's here, no going back. I don't use Outlook at home, either because i'm not as keen on it. I'm a Firefox/Thunderbird girl. I do use Chrome but i'm used to FF so that's what i mainly use. I like Thunderbird for email because it's less vulnerable to viruses than Outlook. I use my gmail a lot too, which is configured to pick up my home email account as well.

Gonna be a wet weekend. Might try to get to see the Pixar animated Brave. Got a new ebook from one of my favourite authors, Debora Geary, too. I know i'll be diving into that. Oh i suppose i should keep my 2012 books up to date as well.

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Catching up on 2012 books. Not read very many this month because of my two week vacation with Graham. The first three below were finished before he came and the last two after he left.

( Read more... )

I've got stuff to do this weeking like cleaning and a bit of cooking to get everything nice and shiny for when Graham comes on FRIDAY!!

I've got my traditional pre-holiday pedicure on Monday. Think i'll go with easter egg purple for the colour :) Suitable for spring don't you think?

I'm just catching up on my recorded Friday night shows, Grimm and Fringe. Love them both!! Grimm is new this season and has really become intriguing. It's hard to describe but it's loosely based on Grimm's fairy tales except people in this world may be mythical creatures and Nick, a Seattle police detective discovers he's a Grimm, the ancient defender who is the enemy of these creatures, though not all of them are bad.

another book read
40 - Beautiful Lies - Lisa Unger. I really liked this one. I kind of figured out one of the twists but the writing was good and i liked the characters. Ridley has discovered she's not who she thinks she is and everyone is lying about it, her parents, her new boyfriend, her old boyfriend and if she doesn't stop digging into her past, she could end up dead.

There's another one of the free ones i won from Library thing that i'm already struggling with. Honestly, self publishing is great but why can't some authors proofread their work? It's highly annoying and on top of that, this particular book isn't that well written. I may have to give it up and i hate doing that. Characters don't have to be likeable but at least they should be consistent or well written but the ones in this book are not and are annoying to boot. And the female "lead" is a total idiot. I've pretty much talked myself into abandonment haven't i?

( more 2012 books )

Mostly for my own records, I found a dime this morning. I was sitting on the bed thinking about a book i'd finished last night, thinking about how to describe it in a little review for goodreads.com etc the book is about how everyone has a story and is also about the love of books. More on that another time. But i was thinking about that, and i noticed a dark object on the floor out in the hallway just in front of the bedroom. Dark because the only light on was in the bedroom and the object wasn't under any light. I thought.... hmmm is that what i think it is? Yep. A dime. It's now in my pocket. It's been a little while since i found a random dime so i did get a bit verklempt for a minute.

My sister asks for signs and finds dimes. My mother finds them in particular when she's been thinking about Dad. I just find them randomly when i'm not thinking about him. It's always a nice little surprise and maybe just about when i need to find one only i don't know it.

So yes, i finished a book, (32) The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Very good book. Recommended. A woman, Margaret who is the daughter of a man who owns an antiquarian bookshop, is engaged to write a biography of a well known but reclusive aging writer. The woman tells her her story from childhood to about the age of 16. The story is about twins, sisters, dysfunctional families, stores, words and the love of books as well. That theme runs all through it as well as the twin theme. The writer has never before given the true history of her past until now and Margaret unearths all the layers within that story.

Weather back to normal. Quite cold and windy today.

Mom, Sis, niece and i went to see The Hunger Games at noon. Good time to go as it wasn't really crowded. We all enjoyed the movie and felt it kept fairly close to the book. The cast was all great, especially Woody Harrelson as Haymitch. Excellent choice. Some topics and scenarios that are more detailed in the book are only touched on here, as you would probably expect from a movie adaptation but it was enough to get the idea across. There were only little brief bits about the past and the lead heroine, Katniss's personal history and the history of her more deprived district so you really didn't get a good sense of why she is the way she is or who she is. That's a lot to do with trying to fit the events of the book into a movie though. If you hadn't read the book you might not have found the movie as engaging. If you have, then you can fill in the blanks.

I didn't like some of the camera work, that hand held shaky, too-close-up, too quick editing during action scenes. Makes me dizzy. You really didn't get to know the other Tributes much because over half the movie was the set up and training and by the time the Games were on, there wasn't time to go into great detail or character development for the other combatants. I did like that you got a bit more of the "behind the scenes of the Games" in the large control room, watching how they manipulate things.

After the show, Mom and i had lunch at Montanas and then we went up to Staples. I had seen a netbook on their website and wanted to see if they had it in the store. They did but the Operating System was different than described online. Lo and behold, the website has been changed between yesterday and today so they now match. (Windows 7 starter, which i think is going to be the case on all or most netbooks from my research. It's not as good but it can be upgraded). I asked about getting more memory in it as it can go up to 2gig instead of the 1 that comes with it. Apparently it's a bit tricky to install in the netbook so it would have taken a couple of hours. They were also uncertain whether Windows 7 would have recognized the extra memory before a full install or not. Might have been fine, might not. They charge extra for the installation (Windows is loaded but you have to go through the registration, service pack and patch update process apparently and they soak you to do that if you are too nervous to do it yourself. I could do it but if it didn't recognize the new memory stick and froze up i'd have to take it back to the store, probably pay for them to do the installation before adding the memory after. Pain in the arse, that. He didn't know if it *would* be a problem but said some netbooks are like that and some are not and their tech wasn't sure if this was one of them.

Anyway. Now i find myself rethinking. Do i want a netbook or a tablet? I'm still leaning to the netbook and i considered that i could just buy it out of the box with 1 gig of memory and go from there. Maybe the 1 gig would be fine most of the time. I'm not planning to do anything really heavy with it, any more than maybe light photo editing and i could get software that isn't big and ugly to do that. In fact, PicMonkey looks like it might be pretty good and it's online and not an install and there's no registration required. I tried it but not with a larger resolution photo. You drag the photo or upload it, do the work on it and save it back to your puter. It's one of the suggested replacements for Picknik which is going away. It seems to have all the basic editing needs i would require for on-the-go stuff.

As for the netbook and 1 gig memory, I can always take it back and buy the upgraded memory and pay to have them install it since it's a bit tricky on that model as to the ease of getting to it. Decisions, decisions.

2012 books....more detailed review through the links
30. Madame Bovary - Gustav Flaubert
A classic that i read in school and hated. Emma Bovary was bored, I was bored, then she topped herself. I thought i might reread it to see how my tastes had changed and how i viewed it. Much better this time around. I don't remember much else from it when i first read it but i realize that she is a woman that pretty much lives in a fantasy world and can't cope with the realities of day to day life. She wanted romance, adventure, a white knight to sweep her off her feet. Life isn't like that, toots.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/278694284

31. The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht
Apparently winning a lot of awards, i found it a bit less riveting than all the reviews are screaming about. It was good, well written, but not a lot of character development so when you read the description that says you know what the recently deceased grandfather is by the two tales/legends that are told in the book, you don't know at all really. There's a few other characters introduced in those stories and the author takes you back to their whole history which seems unnecessary. Still, i did enjoy it overall.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/295331004

You wouldn't believe the weather today! It was in the mid to high 20s and even after work at 6 p.m. it was still 25. Gorgeous!

There's a Venezuelan tall ship docked and i went down after the gym to have a look and take a few snaps on my phone except my phone battery was so low that it wouldn't run the camera!!! Sheesh! I might take my proper camera tomorrow and check it out after work, Supposed to be nice again tomorrow.

28. Foursome - Jane Fallon
Two couples, best friends since uni. One couple splits up and the wife of the other finds out why but can't say. She's also got to deal with a horrific coworker who ends up dating the husband of said broken up couple. Lies, secrets, new and old relationships, lots of good characters. Loved it! Brit Chick Lit!
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/297903078

29. Eight Years in Another World - Harding LeMay
The story of the head writer of the American soap Another World during the 70s when he helped turn the show's ratings around to the number one show. Brings back lots of memories for me. My favourite US soap! It finished in 1999.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/297805117

So the busses are finally back on the roads today! Yay! Of course i'm not working today! I'm having a very low key day but i plan to go out somewhere tomorrow just because i can!

Still on the hunt for a mini lap top or netbook. I think i'll just bide my time, wait for a sale or if i see what i want. All the netbooks seem to mainly have 1 gig memory which people keep telling me i won't find helpful because they all run Windows 7. While i don't need blazing speeds, i don't expect it will be *that* slow for what i need it for.

Also good news, apparently our section at work is changing some of it's policies in line with those of the Finance business unit. Our department was realigned and are now included in the Finance B.U. One of the new "guidelines" is the EDO, (Earned Day Off). Long time readers may remember we used to have that in our group but it was ended by the department manager because not all sections allowed their staff to do it. It's still going to be on manager's approval but my manager is ok with it and now that it will be official, I think i can finally go back to working a little extra each day and having a day off every third week. I don't know if the other two programmers will take advantage or not but we'll coordinate it so we aren't all off the same time.

( 2012 books )

I couldn't get to sleep last night. I laid there and my mind was on the spin cycle. Nothing fretting me or anything like that, i just couldn't get my brain settled until nearly midnight. I know that probably doesn't sound all that late for that kind of thing but it is for me. It was a long day, too. I got home from work, slapped a peanutbutter and jam sandwich together, went out, cleaned off the car (borrowed mom's) and drove to get my nephew who then came with me to a doctor's appointment. He did that because he wanted to use the car today. There was the usual 40 minute wait, got done what i needed doing and got home by about 8. Watched Corrie, did a few things and went to bed to read a bit. That usually settles my head down but for some reason it didn't. Ah well. Burny eyes and lots of caffeine today.

The transit strike continues. What a nuisance. Their latest trick was to hold up the road crews and snow plows and salt trucks yesterday for 10 or 15 minutes as they were leaving the depot. Yeah, that's going to help their cause. All the public outcry in the media seems to have died down. I think people have realized it's not doing any good. Nobody in charge on either side seems to care, being more involved in their own agenda than conceding that transit is an essential service. People are losing jobs, losing time at school, not able to get to appointments and both sides are holding the public hostage. Both sides have dug their heels in and not budging. Council meets again today behind closed doors to get an update and discuss the situation further and a couple of them have now come out in favour of binding arbitration but the mayor says no way. Why should he bend? The City is saving a bucket load of money even taking the losses due to the fares into account. Many of the university tuitions here include an extra charge for a school year bus pass. I wonder if any of the students will get a partial refund? Not likely.

My ereader has been giving me grief for a little while, the computer doesn't seem to want to recognize it past the first minute or so. This happens on my work computer too so it's the ereader, not the puter. I bit the bullet the other day and went through the factory reset process. That resets your settings and erases all the books from the ereader. Then you have to plug in and the desktop application reinstalles the ereader's latest operating system and all your books from the Kobo site are reinstalled. I then went through the rest of my stash, copied on the other ones i wanted include what i was reading and had to open all the ones i had on the go and return to the page i had last been on (i'd made a note). Most of the bookmarks existing were a little out of date because i hadn't synced it to the desktop program for a couple of weeks.

It seems to have done the trick though i did get an error copying a group of books to it, but i think the problem was one particular ebook that was very large and perhaps the ereader didn't like it. It seems to me it was the same title as has crapped out in the past and i wonder if that had corrupted something before. I haven't tried it again since so I hope the reset took in spite of that. I can always do it again if need be.

I usually load about 30 books on in addition to all the ones Kobo insists i should have on it even if i've finished them. I delete them, Kobo keeps putting them back on so I'm just leaving them now. I think if i delete them off the Kobo library it might work though i've done that in the past and it seems to keep finding them and replacing them.

2012 books, my full review behind the links.

22 Lady John - Madeleine E Robins
A red headed heroine and a Regency romance. I don't read these often but i did enjoy this one. Apparently this is an older book but it must be newly released electronically. I got it through a member giveaway on Librarything.com. It doesn't seem to be for sale electronically on amazon at the moment.
Review here.

23 War of Nutrition - John Beresford
This is a book by a good friend of mine. It's a thriller centered around a corporation that's released a food supplement that was being tested but before it was fully tested and the results are disastrous. There's a race on to expose them while people are dying all over the world in the meantime.
Book is available on Amazon for Kindle and other ereader formats from Smashwords.
Review here

24 From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris
Another in the adventures of Sookie Stackhouse and the vampires. More of the same but I do like the books. Light, easy reading.

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