August 2009 Archives

Once again Richelle Mead has outdone herself with the fourth book, Blood Promise, in the Vampire Academy series. You’ll follow Rose as she travels through Russia and SIberia killing Strigoi and learning more secrets about her own world that she didn’t find out due to not graduating. She’s searching for Dimitri in hopes to release him from his Strigoi self and gets more than she bargained for.

You’ll meet Sydney, a secret part of the Moroi world, who thinks that all Dhampirs and Moroi are dark and twisted like the Strigoi, if not as much. She helps Rose against her will to get where she needs to go and gets a sweet car out of the deal. Even though they may not be the best of friends they certainly become allies.

Following Rose through this book while she searches for Dimitri you’ll relive moments of her and Dimitri together as she reminisces during her search and while she visits with his family. During her stay with the Belikova family, Rose learns a lot about Dimitri’s past and his family immediately considers her one of their own, going so far as indicating they’d be thrilled if she decided to stay with them.

Rose learns a lot about the other side of Dhampir life from Dimitri’s family. They aren’t all Blood Whores as she grew up hearing, they simply want to raise their children and live their lives.

During her stay with the Belikova family a local ‘mobster’ type decides that he needs to run her out of town but refuses to tell her why. He keeps an eye on her, following her around and showing up when unexpected. Rose learns about who this man is exactly when she finally returns to St. Vladimir’s Academy in Minnesota.

While on the other side of the world Lissa is slowly spiraling out of control and doing more and more dangerous stunts while drinking and partying with a new friend, Avery. All Rose can do is watch what’s happening but she’s so tied up in what’s going on with her at the moment that she tells Adrian to back off and leave her alone when he visits her dreams. Rose feels that Lissa has replaced her and simply focuses on what she’s got to do and decides to worry about her later.

Blood Promise will keep you on your toes and a tissue in one hand. Rose finds what she’s looking for, Dimitri, and almost doesn’t survive the meeting. She gets a special package when she returns to the Academy and it drops her to her knees. There’s the hope of a miracle in the future but Rose and Lissa will have to break some serious laws to find out for sure and that may just get them killed for sure.

Remember, Blood Promise isn’t the first book, it’s the fourth. You’ll want to start with Vampire Academy before cracking the cover on this one. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have, through laughter and tears both.

At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to read the entire series (currently 6 books, plus 1 to come) or not. Then it got interesting. Picture this: College girl, somewhat naive, goes to a party, doesn’t get taken home properly but raped instead. She throws herself out of the asshole’s vehicle and after asking her if she wanted a ride home, he drives off. This is (of course) the night of the full moon and she’s near the picnic area of the park.

This isn’t where the story starts off, though. This is simply the explanation of how Kitty got to where she is at the beginning. And then things heat up even more. You see, she’s a werewolf. Named Kitty. She’s a DJ at a little station in Denver and plays all kinds of heavy and classic rock late at night. It all starts when she can’t keep her mouth shut and she starts talking about the things that go ‘bump in the night’ and taking calls.

At first people think it’s a joke, a way to boost ratings, and then someone tries to kill her while she’s on the air and she has to admit what she is. She could have saved herself the trouble simply by having the show go off the air but she was too hyped up about what it would mean for ratings and so forth.

After this Kitty is launched nationally on the airwaves, exiled from her pack and Denver and living on the road going from city to city. Her adventures take you all over and she befriends the hunter, Cormac and even puts his lawyer, Ben (who’s also Cormac’s cousin) on retainer. The story doesn’t end there. Find out what happens between Cormac and Kitty (werewolf hunter and werewolf), how Kitty brings the monsters into the light of day and saves a bunch of them as well, and how she returns home to Denver.

Again, I didn’t think I’d like this series but the characters are well written, no one is perfect and arguments aren’t always reasonable. They are quite human, so to speak. So take a chance and read them, you’ll like what you’re getting into. I’ve read the first 4 and I plan on reading the rest. Enjoy!

Dear Teachers,

I know a bunch of you just got fired due to the cut backs on the budget. I know those of you that are still working at the high school are having to take on more students. I know you don’t get paid enough to put up with sassy, hormonal, annoying teenagers. And yet I have a complaint, even though you have to put up with all kinds of other crap, I’m going to pile more on you.

I’m not very pleased with any of you because you didn’t put out a list of supplies. You could have at least put it up on the school website to let me know what was required of my child to have at her disposal in your classes. Seriously, how am I supposed to do my job in preparing her for your class if you don’t tell me what it is she needs? Is it really that difficult to sit down and write ‘binder, loose leaf paper (college/wide ruled), etc? Notebooks, loose leaf paper, binders, folders, pens and pencils, etc are given. I know she needs these things.

What I’m talking about are the things that aren’t common or if you have a specific request such as “I’m selfish and I don’t want to share a binder with your other courses so you will need a 2 inch binder dedicated to MY class only.” Ok, so that’s probably over the top and not an accurate quote, but my daughter did say you used the word ‘selfish’. Now she also needs a notebok of graph paper. The local Wally World has been out of notebooks of graph paper for almost a week. It’s too expensive to buy it anywhere else and I’d get less paper for more money on top of it.

I’ve emailed your principal. Basicially just to let him know what a hard time we’ve been having in gathering the supplies that are requested required of her simply due to the fact that I didn’t have the information available to me a month before school started. So hopefully next year I’ll have a list in one hand and a calculator in the other when she becomes a sophmore.

Sincerely,
Frustrated Mom

First, I want to say WOW. I watched all of season 1 and caught up with 2 in three days. THREE DAYS. That is just how good the series is and YES there are huge gaping differences with the tv show and the books. So if you’re watching the show and not reading the novels, don’t worry about it. If you don’t want to read them, you don’t have to and you won’t be concerned about all the differences.

If you’ve read the novels then you’re going to be like “HOLY CRAP!” when you watch the show. Even though they have made some HUGE changes the show it still worth watching. You can just be like me and wonder how the hell are they going to pull off Stan being Sherriff of Texas if he’s dead? Lafayette is alive and working for Eric, unwillingly, of course.

I do have compliments for a lot of the effects though. Shifting is semi-believable. It’s not “my bones are breaking and reforming and there’s all kinds of clear goop you’re going t have to clean up off the bathroom floor”. It looks magical, first you see human, then you see dog, then you see human and of course they are naked. It’s absolutely hilarious when Sookie finds out about Sam and how - which is pretty close in the book, but not quite. The book version was better.

It’s also quite nice to see what’s going on with other people living in Bon Temps. I’d never think of Jason doing V or kidnapping a vampire. They changed the way Rene died and I wasn’t thrilled about that. Sookie saved her own life in the book and I think it would have been nice if they had followed that scene in the show. It wasn’t in the middle of the day and I think Bill was out of town. Oh, and Rene didn’t die, he’d started confessing like crazy in the hospital. I don’t recall if he made it or not.

The entire story regarding Long Shadow was done differently, except for the embezzlement, but there was a lot more going on afterwards that connected to his death and his maker in the book. There wasn’t any tribunal that Bill and Eric had to go to and he sure as hell didn’t have to make a new vampire. Although I do like the twist it adds and of course, the drama, for the show.

There are enough differences between the series and the show to make it interesting enough to want to follow both. I’ve read all 9 books now and I’m going to finish watching season 2. HBO has said it’s going to have a season 3. I think that’s a pretty good thing. I just wish I knew the thinking behind the screenwriters reasons as to why they changed parts of the main story itself (Lafayette dies, Stan Lives in the books) because I think it was fine the way it was.

If you’re interested in the show and haven’t read the books, you might want to do so. Check your library, they may have them, or download it to your Kindle if you have one. They are worth reading and comparing to the show. Enjoy.

So, depending on where you live, where you went to school and what years you attended, you probably had a normal every day schedule that started at 8, ended at 2 or 3, and had anywhere from 6 to 9 classes, including lunch and/or study hall. When I went to high school I had 9 periods, 2 were study halls and another was lunch. We had 3 minutes to get to our lockers to exchange books and get to our next class. There wasn’t much time for talking to friends, texting (didn’t exist) friends across campus, etc.

The Little Lady’s school is much different. So different in fact that I don’t have a clue as to how parents cope with the goofy schedule they have. They have A days and B days and short days. Short days in middle school meant getting out early on Wednesday, for the high school it means starting late. On her A days she has to be in her first class at 8 am and on B days she doesn’t have to start class until almost 10 am. Classes are 90 minutes long and there are 15 minute breaks in between classes (due to length of class time) and a half an hour lunch somewhere around 11.

She has 4 classes on A days and gets out at 3:35. She has 2 classes on B days and gets out at 1:50. You can imagine how this is screwing up the fact that I want to get a job, right? I mean, yes, there is a bussing system, and there will be a bus pass purchased for her. On B days she’ll be sitting around for almost 2 and a half hours (depending on when the bus arrives) doing nothing, or sitting in the library when they open it, doing homework (or nothing).

I just can’t imagine how annoyed I’d be if I were stuck with such a schedule. The main thing that bothers her is all the time she’ll be spending on the bus and ‘doing nothing’ on B days. She seems to think that I’ll keep taking her in on B days and Wednesdays and I just can’t do that. I want to buy her a freaking bike so she doesn’t have to ride the bus, it’s really not that far and there’s a bike lane everywhere but on our road. She says she wouldn’t want to ride a bike. Whatever. She can’t walk, it’s too far. Where’s a teleporter when you need one?

Honey and I thought we’d like the TrueBlood series on HBO but after watching a few episodes it didn’t seem to be our thing. Now that I’ve read the first 8 books I may have to check it out again for myself. If anyone out there has read the books and watches the series, let me know what you think.

The books are excellent reads. They didn’t make me cry like the Vampire Academy books did, but they did make me laugh quite a bit. I feel bad for Sookie a lot of the time with the things that happen to her. She’s just trying to use her gift (or curse) to help someone. I like the fact that even though she’s almost been killed several times she still continues to help the vampires and the Weres.

If you like a lot of action, puzzles or mysteries, you’ll enjoy trying to figure out who’s behind what, why someone did such and such and if you know people in the south you may even end up hearing the book in your head in a southern accent. Weird, I know, but it happens to me that way. I have truly started prefering books that are written in first person as well. I think it was great insight of Charlaine Harris to make Sookie a telepath so that you can find out what others are thinking. It’s got to be very hard to not have Sookie helping everyone and revealing everyone’s secrets and turning in those who are supposed to be lawful and aren’t.

I like Sookie. She’s one of my more favorite characters lately. I’m surprised that Charlaine hasn’t had her taking self defense classes with all the trouble that keeps coming after her. But then again, between work and crisis after crisis it would be kind of hard to work that into your schedule. So take the time to sit down and read the books, not just watch the series on HBO. You might get more insight by reading the books than watching the shows, as is normal.

It’s actually cheaper to buy the first 7 all together.

No, this isn’t insight into my personal life. Well, not really anyway. Being as I rarely listen to the radio, since I have my own personal radio station online and I never sit in front of an actual tv anymore (unless I’m playing a game that requires a console) I’ve noticed something. In books, too.

Everything lately seems to be filled with Sex. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything at all against sex. I enjoy sex; having, watching, reading, etc. It’s when it gets to be in every song you hear, every book you read, every tv show you decide to check out, that it gets to be overdone, old, worn out. I’m sure I could use a lot of other words to describe just how much society seems to require sex involved in the storyline in order to be marketable. Explosions, too, for movies, but hey, I like seeing things blown up, so go for it.

Honey I recently watched the Torchwood season 3 episodes. Don’t ask and I won’t spoil it too much. If you watch Torchwood you’ll know that the only good looking guys seem to be those involved directly with the group. There are a lot of pretty women involved but there aren’t all that many good looking guys. To be really honest I did not need to see an overweight guy naked in bed. I’m sure when it airs here that it’ll be clipped or covered or something, but it was just bad. Give me a good looking guy naked on the bed anyday and I’ll be happy to look, but it was just way too much and way to jiggly for me to get with it.

Books with sex tend to be over rated as well. You all know I love Laurell K. Hamilton’s writing and that I do let you know that a lot of the books contain a lot of sex. Yes, it’s a lot of sex, in fact it’s too much sex even for me who enjoys writing erotica when I feel the urge to do so. I know it wasn’t a marketing scheme for her to do that. I know it had to do with the storyline of explaining Anita’s metaphysical ties and needs and whatnot. So I skimmed. Unless the sex was interesting to me I skimmed past it to get back to the main storyline.

Music. I have my own station over at Slacker, which I’ve mentioned and even linked to. Because of that I rarely have to listen to the radio, so it’s extremely shocking to me when I hear four or five songs in a row that have to do with some dirty girl doing the nasty with some guy. Then you get the female singers basically flaunting all the salacious things they are going to do to guys. It’s another reason I don’t listen to the radio. It’s overdone, overrated and sometimes it’s even sickening. I tend to tune it out until I hear the chorus, which usually ends up being some girl riding a guy or giving him oral sex. Yay for them. I doubt these guys truly get laid all that often and if they do I doubt they find it all that thrilling. Or maybe they are writing their music based on real experiences? Those poor girls should be getting royalties if that’s the case.

The anime I watch doesn’t have any sex in it. I know, shocking, right? But it’s meant for a slightly younger crowd, although there seem to be a lot of people my age and even older who watch it. I watch Bleach, Naruto and now 07-Ghost regularly. None of them contain sex but they do fulfill on my needs of fighting and violence. Hey, a girl’s gotta be diverse nowadays, right?

So I’m always on the lookout of new things to read or watch that don’t contain a ton of sex. We all know movies have to have some form of sex scene or two in order to sell, but that’s not entirely true. I’ve watched plenty of good movies without sex involved. And plenty of bad ones with sex involved.

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of Kim Harrison and Richelle Mead. Their books are amazing, they aren’t centered around sex, but there is some involved. The characters in their books come to life and slap you in the face with their adventures and mishaps. They make you cry when someone dies and they make you laugh when something hilarious happens. I know, I tend to reread books and it doesn’t matter how many times. I still laugh out loud at the funny parts and I cry when someone I love dies. I’d stop reading them to avoid the crying, but then I’d never find out what happens at the end. These are the kinds of books I’d love to be writing and who knows, maybe someday I’ll figure it out.

So try something new. Something that isn’t full of sex-filled nymphos running around trying to bang everyone they can get their hands on. Laters.

Even though the Vampire Academy series is rated as Young Adult I truly enjoyed reading the first three books and I’m anxious to get my fingers on the fourth when it comes out later this month. I love reading Richelle Mead. She makes her characters so very realistic. I’m sure you recall me trying to read Twilight and I just couldn’t get into it? Well, Richelle Mead’s teen saga is 1000 times better and she puts you right in the middle of the mess.

The relationships between her characters are quite intense, too. I love to hate the characters that are trying to mess with the ones I love, but then that’s what she wants you to do. When I started the first book I figured that Lissa was going to be weak and constantly in need of reassurance and coddling. That was right, but wrong later on. She ends up turning out to be quite strong and self-assured. She still has all kinds of personal issues, but what teen doesn’t? She’s got the love of Christian and Rose to back her up.

The second book was even better. Love, Lust and Ass-Kickings. I absolutely fell in love with the character Dimitri. He’s an amazing personality and if he were real I’d love to meet him. Lissa starts losing it but Rose is there for her.

I enjoyed book three more than words can say. I laughed, I wanted to yell and I definitely cried. That’s all I will say about this book. I hope that it isn’t true about Dimitri but if it is I know Rose will take care of it and do the right thing. Seriously, you have to read these books if you’ve read the Succubus series. They are just as exciting, thrilling and heartbreaking.

I’ve gotten all the photos from the fair uploaded to my Picasaweb account! I know, you’re so very excited! Here’s a slideshow of the regular fair photos:

And here’s a link if you want to look at them without the slideshow:

SoCo Fair

Here’s a slideshow of the Hall of Flowers photos:

And here’s a direct link if you simply wish to view the photos:

SoCoFair - Hall Of Flowers

If there are any photos in the Hall of Flowers that you’d like to be made into a desktop wallpaper, feel free to comment or email me with the photo information (so I know which one) and your desktop resolution so that I can make it for you. Enjoy!