This Round Life

one of the artists on my flist posted a new piece. i checked it out and then took a look at their gallery. obviously i've missed a few posts of theirs! i was mostly making those implosions noises that are a combination of a OOO and PFFT and GAHWOW!

so posting some of the gorgeous pieces for you. :)


ARTWORK BY KHAOSDOG

i attempted some huevos rancheros this morning. as much as a canadian can do hehe



GOOD GRUB

just a few items i picked up at the below mentioned ArtWalk

the prints:
i picked this one up for the hubby (thats a reflection in the glass not a pucker in the paper btw hehe)


this one because it was adorable (again its the plastic its wrapped in causing those weird marks)


and this one for me because i fell in love with the birds and swooping lines


the toys

as mentioned below this weekend we took a walk around an art filled get together. these are just some of the very talented artists i saw.

i loved the space-like (to me anyways) theme to these and the beautiful colors


and although this seems super busy, i love the tranquility of the birch trees and the bright greens


( so much more this way )

Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Genre: YA Fiction
Pages: 221
Rating: 9/10

This book follows Miles Halter's life as he goes off to boarding school where he meets an interesting cast of characters. The most important of these being Alaska Young. This book chronicles his experiences with her and their friends, how he falls in love with her, and eventually culminating into a mystery and it's secrets.

I don't want to give anything away in the story because I read someone's review on this book and they gave away the spoilers without warning.

Anyways, this book is divided into two parts: Before and After. You'll have to find out what that pivotal point in the book is yourself. That's part of the fun of this book, the anticipation.

I liked this book. I don't think I was as crazy about it as some, maybe because I found it hard to relate to the smart kids going to boarding school and getting into mischief. But it was fun nonetheless. I thought the philosophical questions brought up in the book were the most intriguing, and I liked seeing how the main character pondered them. As for the ending, it was good, but the answer to the mystery I was hoping to be a bit more shocking than it was, but it was far from a bad ending. Green's writing was also a strong point; I thought it was witty and gave off the right atmosphere for the setting and plot.
 
I recommend this for those who like those growing-up stories or just want to try a unique book. I will definitely try Green's other novels.

Title: Jubilee Trail
Author: Gwen Bristow
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 546
Rating: 9/10

Jubilee Trail is the story of Garnet, a well brought up young woman living in New York city in the middle of the 19th century. She dreams of getting away from her mundane life and escaping the proposals of marriage from boring men. Enter Oliver, a fun, laid back man who is in town doing business for his trading company. Garnet meets him and he tells her that he travels back and forth on the trail to the west, ending in California. Her adventurous spirit is swept away and they get married. This story tells of her journey across the country to California and her experiences there.

This book delivers, just as I expected it would, after reading Celia Garth and also loving that book. Garnet is another smart, strong, and easily likable heroine. The setting is fascinating; Bristow elaborates on details of the move west by settlers and also the annexation of California by the United States. There's also intrigue, some social drama, subtle romance and action.

This is the type of book you sit with and relax and savor and it leaves you feeling good and satisfied.

This book (and Celia Garth) is also good for young adult readers. I wish I had read this when I was a teen.

Writer: an upper and a downer

Sooooo... Montréal people (and former Montréal people)! Recommend me... things! I am looking for neat quirky clothes shops, markets, geek and yarn stores, interesting places to eat (even better if they're not expensive) that I might not otherwise find, and any other stuff to see and do that I shouldn't miss out on! You know... things! I have taken a little look at the Montreal website but I kind of don't know where to start. :o

Got my 2nd work-out in.  I did 20 min. of yoga then stepped for 40 and did cardio-kickboxing for 20.  Once I have walked the dog tonight I'll have 14 activity points on WW.

Book #24
I Was Told There'd Be Cake
Sloane Crosley
Nonfiction; humor; short stories
230 pages


This debut essay collection is full of sardonic wit and charm, and Crosley effortlessly transforms what could have been stereotypical tales of mid-20s life into a breezy series of vignettes with uproariously unpredictable outcomes. From the opening The Pony Problem to the hilarious Bring-Your-Machete-to-Work Day (which will ring true for any child of the early 1990s who played the first Oregon Trail computer game), Crosley is equal parts self-deprecating and endearing as she recounts her secret obsession with plastic ponies and the joys of exacting revenge via a pixilated wagon ride. In less capable hands, the subjects tackled—from unpleasant weddings of long-forgotten friends to horrendous first jobs—could have been a litany of complaints from yet another rich girl from the suburbs. But Crosley, who grew up in Westchester and currently lives in Manhattan, makes the experiences her own with a plethora of amusing twists: a volunteer job at the American Museum of Natural History leads to a moral quandary, and a simple Upper West Side move becomes anything but. Fans of Sarah Vowell's razor-sharp tongue will love this original new voice.

I have mixed feelings on this book. On one hand, there were quite a few humourous short stories that one could easily relate to. However, I found Crosley to be quite unlikeable, honestly. She just seemed like she was quite the snob and I had a difficult time empathizing with her in certain stories. However, I did love the short story "The Ursula Cookie" because I was in a similar job situation and know how nerve wracking so mean bosses can be. That being said, I am glad that I read this book, but I am also glad that I borrowed it from a friend instead of buying it!

Books read this year: 24/50.
Pages read this year: 9025/15000

Apparently I'm now allergic to bananas and strawberries as well? That's not fair. Not that I ever ate the latter on a regular basis, but bananas used to be one of my emergency foods. Somebody please tell me what else I'm supposed to eat when I don't feel like preparing anything or chewing much, aside from yogurt or pudding? The problem with yogurt and pudding is, they're so tempting that they're usually gone by the time I actually need them. No wait, the problem is that I always need them, so I use them up before it gets really urgent.

Argh, I don't get why this is so hard. It's food. It should be tasty and filling, not some kind of awful burden or whatever. I don't even know what's going on anymore - is it my body or my mind that's screwed up here? Probably both, after all this time. On some days I'm like, I'll kick myself in the butt and simply get up and cook now (or make a sandwich), but then it only works for 80% of the day and I end up going to bed hungry after all. Sometimes I do so well, seriously. Eggs and yogurt for breakfast, something warm for lunch (we do that here in Germany), and I might even thrown in some snacks, oh my. But then I forget to have dinner and starve for five hours because I accidentally stay up late, and it was all in vain. GAH!!!!!!!!!!!

Stupid is what it is. I am lucky to have access to food at all and I'm too stupid to make use of it.

http://www.russelltdavies.com/

First full day in Montreal! Well, only half-done so far I guess. It feels later.

Had a nice breakfast in the hotel - they have all manner of toastables, plus muffins, pastries, cereal, fruit, oatmeal, etc. I settled for just an english muffin and Raisin Bran. Then later on we went to the Eaton Centre to do a little shopping. Picked up a few things from Jean Coutu and then we got Ian a few new shirts, and then some jeans at the Gap. Where I was mistaken for his mother. :( He then got a haircut which I don't think is going to help the 'so is he your only son' issue at all*!

(It's a little better now that it has some wax in it, at least. D:)

Hi,
uh, I hope this is allowed... if not, I´ll delete.
I was wondering, does anyone have an experiences with Bookdepository?
Are they serious?
I am interested in ordering some books from them, but the fact they are so cheap (and shipment is free) sounds suspicious.
Thank you.

 Laurell K. Hamilton - Swallowing Darkness
 Series: Merry Gentry Book 7
 Genre: horror, fantasy, fairies
 Pages: 365
 Score: 2/5

 This review contains sarcasm, spoilers and some mildly bad language.




Blurb: Merry Gentry is not your average private investigator. Half human, half faerie, she's caught in a struggle that threatens not only her life, but the lives of those she desires and holds dear. Her very existence and her rightful place on the throne of Faerie have long depended on her ability to produce an heir - and now, after many failed attempts, the services of her royal guards have found her pregnant...

It is a triumphant moment, but revelation follows revelation: for Merry carries two babies, and she knows thay they have more than one father...And of course, there are those of her own flesh and blood who want Merry dead, but she is a fighter and wields a wild magic. And this is her world, where the magical and the mortal intertwine, where folklore, fantasy and erotically charged adventure collide...

First line: Hospitals are where people go to be saved, but the doctors can only patch you up, put you back together.

Do you ever read a series just for the sake of it? You no longer get much enjoyment from it but you pick up the new book none the less? This is what I do with LKH's books. I used to enjoy them, both the Merry Gentry's and the Anita Blake's, now I don't eagerly await the next book. I'm usually not even aware that there is a new book until the library gets it in many months later. So why do I keep reading? Because, sometimes, there is a small glimmer of hope that the storyline going to back to it's former glory.

I love fairies. I love politics. These books used merge the two together, complete with ridiculous amounts of sex (that part I can take or leave). I find the world that LKH has created in these books utterly fascinating and I think that's why I keep reading them. The Seelie and Unseelie courts are both fraught with danger for the part sidhe (pronounced 'shee', for those not up to speed with their Gaelic folklore), part brownie, part human Merry. Both sides wanted to see her dead in her youth because she has the audacity to be mortal (though the way the series goes, I think she'll discover she's nearly immortal before long), now part of the Unseelie want her dead because she's pregnant with twins, meaning she'll claim the Unseelie throne ahead of her cousin Cel. Meanwhile, the Seelie court want her dead because, well, they just do. I think. It all gets a bit confused in my mind.

Throughout the previous books, Merry has had lots of sex with her faerie guards. In order to be Queen, her Aunt Andais, the current queen of Unseelie, stipulated that she must get pregnant before her cousin gets a female pregnant. Whoever impregnates her, according to faerie tradition, will then become her husband and king. With me so far? It's taken 6 books for her to become with child, so that's an awful lot of sex with very little plot. It helps that Merry is descended from 267335757 fertility goddesses (I forget the actual number) and so really, really likes it. I'm making this out to be faerie porn, aren't I? Well in the last few books it was. She'd have anything, from sidhe to goblins to the king of the sluagh. I skipped those parts and read the plot bits and finished the books within a few hours. It wasn't quite so bad in number 7 though, the plot did progress and the shagging was a relatively small proportion of the story.

Due to the fact that Merry stated in an earlier book that she would probably get bored having sex with only one person (or faerie or goblin or sluagh), plus she really couldn't choose between the men in her guard, LKH had to come up with a plot device to ensure that our wee Merry wouldn't have to be monogamous. So the two babes she is carrying have six fathers between them (nope, I'm not sure of the scientific accuracy of the genetics either). Which'll make some interesting looking bairns considering the appearance of the seven of them put together. It also means she'll have six kings and six willies to play with. Plus some tentacles. And a dog.

As Merry is a regular Mary Sue-type character, she's also started channelling a goddess, has super-duper powerful magic, is gorgeous and is going to save faerie single-handedly. Maybe.

And don't get me started in the horrible euphemisms of the titles.

Would I recommend it?: Erm, no.

Other books I have read by this author: Shamefully, all of them.

Will I read another in the series: Yes, probably. I feel dirty.

Now reading: I'm still on Dissolution, have gave up on Harry Potter and started The Blue Girl by Charles deLint instead.

My hands are shaking...in fact my whole body is shaking.  I was supposed to take Vince to the vet for his yearly check-up/rabies vaccine this morning...Vince, you know, the sweet, lazy, laid back cat.  He managed to slip out while I was closing the door to the carrier.  I caught him again with no trouble.  But when I tried to place him back in the carrier, he fought like a demon.  If that wasn't bad enough, Thomas fluffed out and started to attack my legs.  And he wouldn't stop.  I had to drop Vince in self-defense and grab the wii fit platform as a shield.  Thomas continued attacking me.  So I backed up to the table and grabbed a squirt bottle and started spraying him with water.  That got him backed away from me, long enough to grab the carrier and take it into the bedroom where Vince was.  I closed the door just before Thomas got there.  But I was unable to coax Vince out from under the bed.   So, bleeding profusely from both hands and from all sides of my left leg, I acknowledged defeat and called the vet to cancel this appointment and schedule one for tomorrow evening.  Steve will be home then and he'll be able to help me get Vince into the carrier. 

Kind of random, but I just saw this in a comment:

I'm realizing something now, a click, that maybe my own tendency toward the verbose and the over-explanation is because I expect to be dismissed, so I try to get as much expressed as I can before someone does shut me down. I expect that, I expect to be misunderstood or dismissed, and I expect that I will have just one chance, if any, to explain myself and try to connect with my audience and have them see me as a person, so I'd better make it count.

Wow. I could have written that ... only I couldn't have, because I never realised it myself.

Did the third workout of the Couch to 5K.  After that 20 min. of walk/running I walked for another hour to keep my heart rate up, kinda slow walking though.

Kids have some sort of virus so swimming may be out today.  I'll see how they feel. 

Tutoring this morning.  I am not charging my friend for this (3 days wk for 1.5 hours), I figure it's a chesed (kindness).

Got my day planned with WW points.

I'm looking for a Hardy quote - I thought it was from Jude the Obscure but I can't find it anywhere! - in which he describes a loud noise as like a big silhouette on the horizon. I can't remember any of the wording, it was the image that stayed with me, but now it's driving me mad not knowing what it is! Any ideas?

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