looking book back on 2008

[pssst! check out my other blog for a retrospective on 2008, and a pic of my niece!]

So, if I'm seeing my list on GoodReads correctly, I (only) made it through 49 books this year. Coincidentally, that's the same number as last year. Heh, if nothing else I suppose I'm starting to read at a consistent rate?

2008 was the year I actively hunted down vampire-related books, or at least some sort of "darker" angle to the fantasy I usually read. I really enjoyed the Noble Dead series by Barb & J. C. Hendee, where a half-vampire and her elf companion, accompanied by an elemental reborn "dog" form, start out being fake vampire hunters, then real ones, then finding themselves enmeshed in a much wider web of deceit... On a totally different angle, I found Vicki Pettersson's Sign of the Zodiac series promising: its romance elements were not overwhelming, and did not detract from the plot (unlike Lois McMaster Bujold's foray into the romantic fantasy arena - I remember laughing out loud at the love scenes!). There was the total flop that was Charlaine Harris' southern vampire series - it is to my dismay that this series has been made into a tv series that seems to have many fans... perhaps it translates better onto the small screen than in my mind?

2008 was also a year of discovery. Joe Abercrombie's First Law series (I've read 1 & 2, impatiently awaiting 3!) was an excellent read: full of detailed nitty gritty, and not very pleasant characters, and yet, they grow on you. Then there was Brandon Sanderson: I'd heard of him only because he's going to be completing the late Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and figured I'd see what he's produced. I've only read one book, but me likey! Then there was Alex Bledsoe's A Sword-Edged Blonde - another enjoyable read in fantasyland.

2008 was a year of children's books. Well, okay so I only read two "children's books", but they were pretty famous ones. Unfortunately, both kinda disappointed. I guess I just don't have the patience to read such simple language? I do want to pick up L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for a reread - I probably haven't read it since 1984 or so. Then I'll reread Wicked. :) Look out for these titles in my 2009 list next year :)

2008 was a year of borrowed-but-not-read. The Tibetan Book of the Dead;The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise From its Ashes; Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land; ... only three? No, I'm sure there were more ... Sometimes I borrowed more than I could handle. Sometimes there was that one book that just. stalled. everything. else. Like that Crusades book. Grrrr!

I am currently reading The Existential Joss Whedon: Evil And Human Freedom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly And Serenity (if you've been paying attention, you'll know I started it in November! After one chapter, I banished it to bathroom reading, where it's been competing with Sudoku for my attention when I'm there, LoL!): I suppose I'll limp into the new year with this tome...!

I hope that 2009 will see me making a dent in the 129 or so books in my to-read list!

And for those who are curious, here's a brief list of what I read in 2008. More information, and my "reviews" of them, can be found if you follow this link to my 2008 GoodReads page.

January

1. Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud - Julia Navarro
   
2. Season of the Witch - Natasha Mostert
   
3. The eternal self and the cycle of saṃsāra: Introduction to Asian mythology and religion - Rajeshwari Pandharipande
   
4. The Good Fairies of New York - Martin Millar
   
   February
   
5. The Overlook - Michael Connelly
   
6. The Devil's Hearth: A Fever Devilin Mystery - Phillip DePoy
   
   March
   
7. The Witch's Grave: A Fever Devilin Mystery - Phillip DePoy
   
8. The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One) - Joe Abercrombie
   
9. Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Medicated a Nation - Charles Barber
   
10. Jar City: A Reykjavik Thriller - Arnaldur Indridason
    
    April
    
11. Silence of the Grave: A Thriller - Arnaldur Indridason
    
12. Metro - Alexander Kaletski
    
13. The Sharing Knife: Beguilement - Lois McMaster Bujold
    
14. The Sharing Knife: Legacy - Lois McMaster Bujold
    
15. Dhampir (Noble Dead, Series 1, Book 1) - Barb & J. C. Hendee
    
16. Small Favor (The Dresden Files, Book 10) - Jim Butcher
    
17. My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time - Liz Jensen
    
18. Deepwood: Karavans - Jennifer Roberson
    
    May
    
19. Thief of Lives (Noble Dead, Series 1, Book 2) - Barb & J. C. Hendee
    
20. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - Christopher Moore
    
21. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay
    
22. The Scent of Shadows: The First Sign of the Zodiac - Vicki Pettersson
    
23. The Taste of Night: The Second Sign of the Zodiac - Vicki Pettersson
    
24. The Secret History of Moscow - Ekaterina Sedia
    
25. Speak of the Devil: A Novel of Suspense - Richard Hawke
    
26. Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 1) - Charlaine Harris
    
27. Voices - Arnaldur Indridason
    
    June
    
28. Sister of the Dead (Noble Dead, Series 1, Book 3) - Barb & J. C. Hendee
    
29. Traitor to the Blood (Noble Dead, Series 1, Book 4) - Barb & J. C. Hendee
    
30. The Sharing Knife: Passage - Lois McMaster Bujold
    
31. Rebel Fay (Noble Dead, Series 1, Book 5) - Barb & J. C. Hendee
    
32. Before They Are Hanged (The First Law: Book Two) - Joe Abercrombie
    
33. Child of a Dead God (Noble Dead, Series 1, Book 6) - Barb & J. C. Hendee
    
34. Ysabel - Guy Gavriel Kay
    
    July
    
35. Flesh and Spirit - Carol Berg
    
36. Breath and Bone - Carol Berg
    
37. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
    
38. Give It Up!: My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less - Mary Carlomagno
    
39. The Tyranny of the Night - Glen Cook
    
    August
    
40. The Total Zone - Martina Navratilova & Liz Nickles
    
41. To Hell and Back: An Autobiography - Meat Loaf
    
    September
    
42. The Lace Reader - Brunonia Barry
    
43. Lord of the Silent Kingdom - Glen Cook
    
    October
    
44. The Sword-Edged Blonde - Alex Bledsoe
    
45. The Story of Forgetting - Stefan Merrill Block
    
    November
    
46. Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, Book 1) - Brandon Sanderson
    
47. Backup - Jim Butcher
    
    December
    
48. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
    
49. The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam (Bampton Lectures in America) - Jonathan Riley-Smith

HAVE A GREAT 2009!

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surreal

h/t: Ian @ My Big World of Crap

... click here to read this news article on what can only be described as an incident of Movie Rage...

ok, you've read it?

here's what I keep stumbling over: the dude went back to watching the movie!

Unbelievable.

Remind me never to go to a movie theatre in Philly... or never go unarmed, at least.

Sheeeeesh!!

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humped and tongued on Christmas!

Things that happened to me on Christmas:

1. Got humped by a dog. This was at a yoga pal's house, it was their pet. At first I thought Wolfie was really excitedly sniffing at me because he smelled evidence of the psycho kitty,, but then he "hugged" my arm... and when I pushed him off and stood up, he proceeded to "hug" my thigh. Thankfully the critter was a small breed, because at least I could push him away pretty easily. But ugh. I guess *those* jeans go straight into the laundry basket! Didn't have the opportunity to ask his owners if this was a common behaviour of his, or if I was his type :p

2. Bit my tongue. Hard. What distracted me, I don't know. But this is a reason I rarely chew gum - when I did, the insides of my cheeks were a mess because I'd keep accidentally biting them! Getting the tongue is a less common occurrence, but hey, it happened. And right now I feel as if I should be talking with a major lisp, because, gah, that one side of the tongue is certainly bigger than usual!

Okay, only those two things to whine about from yesterday.

I wonder what today brings...

3. In the meantime, here's a GREAT thing that happened yesterday: someone mentioned that there was an Indian version of "12 Days of Christmas". I heart the internets. Found it easily. And proceeded to laugh and laugh and laugh... How can you not, when it starts off:
On the first day of Christmas
my true love gave to me
a totally insufficient dowry

Click on "play" and prepare to be amused:


[the only thing that falls flat to me is the "five Indian games" ... what's that about, how's that funny, can someone explain?]

So it seems the song is by an Indian boyband called boymongoose. And hey, they have another Christmas parody song out, called Single Girls (to the tune of Jingle Bells, in case it's not obvious). Part of the refrain goes Single girls, single girls,
I'm only 5 ft 2
but on the internet I can be just as tall as you

Enjoy:

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have a merry maury christmas, y'all!

Remember, it's not about materialism or commercialism, but about celebrating an important birth (even though we all know Jesus wasn't born at this time of year, and this event was hijacked from the pagan winter solstice celebration, etc etc etc).


H/T: Ritualistic (image source)

To those who believe/celebrate, I wish you a Merry and Peaceful Christmas. And to all, have a great rest-of-the-year! May 2009 be a challenging yet fulfilling year for us all :)

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wicked winter weather!

Wow was this a wicked weekend, weather-wise!

You can read more, and see some pix, over at A Malaysian Abroad: 'snow joke!.

Cheers!

three FAIL!s in one product!

.. continuing along the theme of windshields ...

The inside of Kosh's car is a tad grungy (I won't ask how many times it's actually been properly cleaned since he bought it back in '97!), and during wintertime the windshield tends to get a little fogged up with condensation. I don't like it, it interferes with my view of the road.

So quite a while ago, I saw this product at a local Target, and got Kosh to buy it.

The first FAIL! occurred when trying to open the Moisture Lock Snap Pack: the little ring you're supposed to pull to get to the wipes? It came off. Just the ring. No way to get to the wipes.

So back we went to Target, and got a replacement.

A few months later, (we are nothing if not procrastinators), it's cold, the windshield is threatening to get foggy, so we finally open the pack and wipe down the insides of the windshield and front windows. The wipes were very wet, so we could cover a huge surface area with it... but it turned the glass all foggy.

Umm,,, take a look at the photo - see the ANTI-FOG claim?

We ended up having to get a whole bunch of paper napkins (we were at a gas station at the time) and just wiping off all the foggy crap from the windows.

You know, we figured maybe it was because the glass was mega-dirty, that's why the product didn't work as claimed. So a few months later, when it was nice and summery, one day we worked on the car with Windex and loads of paper towels, cleaning grime off of the windows.

Then a few months ago (do you see a pattern here?), we tried again with the anti-fog wipes. FAIL! Seriously! As soon as you're done wiping the glass, it goes all foggy. I ended up sacrificing my sweatshirt sleeve "unwiping" everything so we could see out the windshield again!

.. and since it had been so long since the purchase, Target wouldn't give a refund, especially since it was a product quality issue. So Kosh called up the rain-X Customer Service number to complain. They essentially took down basic information and said a representative will call back in a day or two to get the whole story.

A week passes. Kosh calls again, wanting to know what is up, when is someone going to call so we can vent about our dissatisfaction, and perhaps get a refund (certainly don't want a replacement!). The Customer Service representative who answers the call this time around refuses to take down any information, insisting that someone will call soon, maybe they are a little backed up.

Yeah.

A MONTH later, and still no call from them. So Kosh calls again, this time talking to someone who seemed to have his act together. Agreeing that the ball had probably been dropped somehow, our information was once again provided, and Kosh was assured that someone would call back within two days.

That would have been December 10th.

Hey, it's December 17th, and guess what? NO CALL!! FAIL!

I suppose it's safe to say that not only does this rain-X product fail, but the Customer Service fails too! So in case you were considering purchasing this product, I advise you DON'T!!

And what about fellow motorists out there - what do you use or do to your windshield to make sure it doesn't fog up in wintertime? Pray tell, a curious mind wants to know!

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does your car freeze on the inside?

Okay so technically winter doesn't start till 22nd December.

But if it's not yet winter, explain why it's been snowing steadily all day today?

If it's not yet winter, explain why it was so cold yesterday that ice formed on the inside of the car?

Yeah, this is the picture I snapped yesterday while waiting for the poor car to warm up in the sub-zero (Celcius) temperature. All that "fog" is ice, on the inside.

The lines you see were made by me trying in vain to use the ice scrapers: they didn't do diddly.

So, ummm, does your car get ice on the inside too?

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This one, this swan!

"Have you ever?" - as found at MsRay's Woman On A Journey blog.

1. Have you ever been on TV?

Ummm, no, I don't think so.


2. Have you ever sung in public?

Numerous times! It's all karaoke's fault! :) Totally out of practice now, though, don't think I could tarik those high notes anymore... no more Fantasia Bulan Madu for me! :(


3. Have you ever dyed your hair blond?

No. Light copper goes well with my complexion; but haven't dyed my hair since 2004.


4. Have you ever eaten frogs' legs?

Yup. Then I find out I'm not supposed to because it's haram. Yay!


5. Have you ever received a present that you really hated?

"Hated" is such a strong word.... nothing comes to mind, but I'm sure I've received gifts that might have disappointed me before; however, I make it a point to appreciate the thought more than the gift itself.


6. Have you ever walked into a lamppost?

Lampost, no. Bedpost, yes.


7. Have you ever cooked a meal by yourself for more than 15 people?

Oh gawd no!


8. Have you ever fallen or stumbled in front of others?

Yup, back when I was young I fell and hit my head, got a cut above my eyebrow, it seems I bled all over the place!


9. Have you ever done volunteer work?

Not exactly, no...

Wow, wasn't that exciting?? If you want to play along, go right ahead.

Have a good weekend, y'all!

P/S: can anyone make the connection between the post title and this meme? It's a really obscure connection that McCartney fans might get, depending if they know that one song from that one album... :D

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Blast from the Past: Boney M!

Music has always been a HUGE part of my life, especially in my early childhood and teenage years. I grew up immersed in the sounds of The Beatles, ABBA and Boney M, the latter two being quite different yet the same in terms of disco Euro-pop bubblegum sweetness. Surprisingly to me, Kosh hadn't heard of Boney M.

No Brown Girl in the Ring,
... no By The Rivers of Babylon,
... ... no ra-ra-Rasputin,
... ... ... no Daddy Cool,
... ... ... ... no Bahama Mama!
OMG has he been missing out!! :D :D :D

I've been craving Boney M recently, no idea why.

Rhapsody helped a bit, but I notice I've got a total of 25 free plays. Blah. Besides, they didn't have one particular song I remember from the Boonoonoonoos album, the one vinyl my parents have of them, that stood out in my head and gave me goosebumps every time I heard it.

Thank goodness for YouTube!



I'd recommend you not pay attention to the visuals, and just close your eyes and let the music take you away. Kinda like what I did perhaps 25 years ago, over and over and over... it's called Ride to Agadir.

... for the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons ...


Found out one really amusing fact when wikipedia-ing Boney M. ... Turns out that a guy called Frank Farian (does the name sound a wee bit familiar?) was behind the group, creating both the low deep voice and the female falsetto voice and mixing them together to get the Boney M sound back in the mid-70's. He then hired a few people to be the "front", to be the face to the sound he had created (any of this sounding familiar at all?). This group then lip-synched their tv performances (c'mon, not familiar yet??), although it seems that for live performances, they did actually do it live, for real. Since lip-synching was common practice in the 70's, people didn't really care... but when Farian did the same thing in the 90s, he got totally canned. 90's. Lip-synch. Ring any bells? Yes, he's the guy behind Milli Vanilli! Imagine that!

Fake front notwithstanding, I really did enjoy Milli Vanilli's songs, and I didn't care that the two (gorgeous) guys weren't the actual singers. Never bothered to pick up the album by "The REAL Milli Vanilli", however, LoL!

Anyway, to end this post, here's another song from the Boonoonoonoos album that also struck a chord with me. Enjoy:

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a broad malaysian?

... as I've mentioned off and on over the past four years [HOLY COW it's been FOUR years??!!], Life After Work was created as a means of staying in touch with friends and family after I upped and left them for the U.S. ... I later realised most of my target audience wasn't cooperating, but I went on blogging anyway, soon turning this blog into a real mixed bag of topics, which was fine with me, but sometimes I felt it could do with a little bit less fluff and a bit more meaningful content.

Thus the birth of a malaysian abroad. Here, I intend to focus on observing, comparing and ultimately celebrating the differences and similarities that exist between Malaysia, Switzerland, and the USA.

I talk about my reasons for wanting to do so here.

I think I've made this topic broad enough that I shouldn't run out of topics anytime soon, yet narrow enough that I hope I can lend a unique voice to a focused perspective.

So please swing on by and check out my other digs! And if you like what you see, do leave a comment there, consider subscribing too, and please visit often, okay? (It's now EC-equipped too, for my Entrecard readers)

.. and in case you were wondering, Life After Work will continue its erratic blogging schedule, no worries.

Have a good week, y'all!

p/s: we have 3 more weeks till 2009! Crikey!!

broken...

Anyone got suggestions as to where I can get my bag fixed?

Okay, so Kosh calls it my purse, and I suppose that is what it is called in the US. In Malaysia, it is usually called a handbag. I, however, don't like either term. What I have is essentially a rugged yet delicate small leather backpack-like thing, bought in Switzerland in 2003. It's a bag. Nuff said.

Thing is, one of the thingamajigs broke (circled in red - click to embiggen).

What's broken isn't obvious in the photo right now, because we have tried to fix it. You see how there's a male and female component? Well, the female component, the ring, had a little piece break off. So we glued the piece back on (with male component in place within it), made sure it dried properly, all that jazz. I used the fixed bag once and ooops whaddayaknow, "he" slipped out of "her"!

I have no idea how to replace the thingy, even if I knew where to source a replacement. I don't even know what to call it ("a carabiner type connection with swiveling capability"?), hence the catch-all "thingy".

I've been wondering about bringing it to a shoe repair place: they work with leather, so I wonder if they also work with bags, or at least know of someone who might. But which shoe repair place? None that I've passed by downtown seem to do anything except shoes, and I seem to have accepted a defeatist attitude about this.

.. and yet ... I miss my bag, and want it fixed!!

Y'all have any suggestions?
... That don't involve getting a new one, that is!


... because here in Chez Naranek, we try to fix things up as best we can, squeezing maximum value and use out of something before discarding it ... like my winter boots, for example.

Last winter, the zipper handle broke. You know, the little piece that you hold on to when you pull the zipper head up or down? Yeah, that little thing went bye-bye. The zipper itself was working well, and the boots were still in good shape, so throwing them out just because of that little broken piece would have been such a waste.

So first I used a paper clip: threaded it through the hole in the zipper head, and used that as a handle. Worked well enough, but it was a dinky thing that bent when force was applied, and would poke my fingers kinda painfully. Recently, Kosh and I searched the apartment for a possible replacement for the paper clip: key chain loops, those little rosary bead-like chains, all too big to thread through the tiny zipper head hole.

Finally found something that worked - can anyone identify what we used?

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... will we never learn?

Sorry, this will be a short and incoherent post.

Yet another landslide in the Bukit Antarabangsa area.

The knee-jerk reaction? Banning new hillside developments. Wow. That is something that should have been done at least fifteen years ago, after the Highland Towers landslide.

But you know what has got my blood pressure up? Reading that Pak Lah has the gall to say "Malaysians never want to learn from past experiences. They want good views while developers only seek to profit ... no one takes safety and soil stability into consideration."

ummmm... wait a minute... there's at least one other player in this fiasco... or are you telling me that there is no government agency that is in charge of town planning and development? None that is in charge of checking, vetting and approving the profiteering developers' proposals, including looking at pesky little details such as safety and soil stability? That has the authority to can projects that are unsafe, or force projects to upgrade specifications before getting approval? None? Really? You sure?

C'mon lah, Pak Lah, don't insult us, okay?

*sigh*

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Foody Friday: mega-pumpkin bread!

A few weeks ago, as I was strolling up and down the aisles of the neighborhood grocery store, it was full of specials relating to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. For some reason -- probably due to subliminal advertising or something, wouldn't put it past stores these days -- it popped into my head that I wanted to make some pumpkin bread.

But, I don't *like* pumpkin! Okay, not really. I don't mind it. But I've never been a fan of pumpkin pie - it's just way too slimy, and overwhelmingly pumpkin-y and spicy.

So I picked up a box of Pillsbury's pumpkin version of their Quick Bread... but almost immediately started thinking about how to jazz things up a bit. I mean, just plain old "bread" would be a bit boring, right?

I noticed that they suggested adding either cranberries or walnuts into the mix. "Hey, I have both at home, how 'bout both?" I said to myself.

And yet, I still felt like there was more I could do.

"How 'bout making it a MEGA-pumpkin bread?" I asked myself.

Next thing I know, I've added a can of pumpkin pie filling to the cart. Yeah, the stuff that I say is all slimy. Go figure.

So next came the kitchen adventures.

Prepared everything according to the box, then added the can of filling, and a handful of walnuts (available due to my Waldorf salad adventures) and cranberries (available sue to my broccoli cheddar salad adventures).

Popped the mixture into a loaf pan, and into the oven it went.

"Uh-oh", it dawned on me, "adding the mixture is going to impact the cooking time!"

Ummm, yeah. Almost doubled it!

The box called for a cook time of about 40 - 50 mins. I think I ended up adding another 30 mins before saying screw it, I'm tired of poking a toothpick in this thing every ten minutes!

Here's the result:


If you look closely, you'll see that the top half looks bread-like, while the bottom half seems to have the consistency of pumpkin pie. Thankfully, the bottom half wasn't overwhelmingly slimy. I liked the nuts, but wasn't keen on the cranberries. Overall, definitely very edible, and redoable.

I figured, in order to not get the two different consistencies next time, I would need to reduce or even eliminate the water added to the mix, since the pumpkin pie filling provides a lot of moisture.

So, this past Thanksgiving weekend, I experimented again, this time adding just half the water the box calls for. I also added about 1 - 1.5 cups of walnuts. No cranberries. Baked it at 450 for 15 mins before turning it down to 375 for ... um... yeah... again with the poking the loaf with a toothpick every ten minutes or so after a total of an hour of baking ... I don't remember exactly how long it was actually in the oven.

But it came out a lot better. (No pix, sorry!) One of my nephews(-in-law), the seven year old, declared it was the best bread he had ever tasted :) How's that for a pat on the back? :) There was some confusion whether the bread was more appropriate to be eaten with the main meal, or as dessert. Frankly, both also can! :)

The only drawback that I could see was that it was a little too crumbly, so that's the next improvement to make.

And yes, there will be a next time.

I have two boxes of the bread mix and two accompanying cans of pie filling waiting in the kitchen cabinet,,, one set of which will be used later today: going to try it out in a 8x8 pan, the mix will be more spread out, brownie-style (Kosh's suggestion). If you're interested, I'll take pix / report on how it turned out - if you leave me a comment expressing your interest, that is, LoL!

So... anyone else like to experiment in the kitchen?

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Moan-day?

I'm baaaaccckkkk!! Survived the in-laws despite a four-day exposure, LoL!

... my waldorf salad was a hit, as was my pumpkin bread :)

And got back in time for snow to finally hit Chicago, and STICK.
Out come the snow boots!

I need to get caught up with what's been going on in the world. I know something really bad happened in Mumbai, gotta read up on that. Putting that off a bit though, I know it's going to be grim.

So in the meantime, here's a nod of thanks to my top Entrecard droppers of the last month or so, made especially more meaningful considering I had been rather lax this past month, what with naNo and all...:

• Is 8 Enough? (31)
Journal of our homeschool family's daily activities and general happenings.

• Lofty Matters (31)
A general collection of what I find interesting

• MJG's Rambling Thoughts (31)
My rambling thoughts and stuff. Such as Music Videos from You tube, Photos, Awards, Prayer Requests, And my rants.

• On The Bricks (30)
People, Places, Things, News, World happenings, weird stuff and sometimes just plain oh stupid and silly crap. Or just anything that I feel like posting.

• Spicybugz World (28)
Little bit of this and a whole lot of that. My daily adventures, joys, heartaches, laughter and tears.

• WindMill on the Hill (28)
the man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud nobody ever hears him

• 1 Blog and 2 Sides (27)
A collection of favorite recipes that chilly and I have tried and taste great or ones we would like to try.

• fwaggle.org (26)
I'm a late 20-something hacker, with a penchant for programming, hardware hacking, and video games.

• Everything Under the Sun (23)
About life, relationship, church,people. Anything we can talk about under the big big sun.

• What about Brazil? (23)
The country is emerging to become one of the next world power.

And a big thank you to those to not only accepted my ad requests, but somehow got the ads clicked on many many times in the past month :)

• Lofty Matters (114)
• The World of Silly Willy and Fluffy (99)
• WindMill on the Hill (88)
• slightlydrunk.com (84)
• Everyday Living (71)
• Sasha says... (54)
• FeeFiFoto 47
• my kids are my world (39)
• Ritualistic (38)
• Tialey Vintage Clothing (34)

Ciao, and have a great start to December.

omg omg omg only 30 days to 2009??!!

away

I'll be away from the 'puter for most of the weekend.



We'll be shuttling from one relative to the parents-in-law to the sister-in-law and back over the next few days. Wish us luck - both with surviving the trip and the people associated with it, LoL!

Back on Sun or Mon.

See y'all then!

Saturday Snapshot

So this morning, I thought the elevator was filled with bags of garbage.

Seriously.

If this sight were to greet you as you approached an elevator, what would be your first thought?

Exactly.

Turns out that while they were indeed garbage bags, they weren't bags of garbage.

Someone was moving in on a budget, or didn't have access to boxes, I guess.

Whatever works, I suppose....


I just hope he/she/they reuse the bags, that they will be set for a few months' worth of bags for their actual garbage. Because if all these bags end up in a garbage bag and get thrown out... well... that's a big OUCH for Mother Nature!!

winter is coming!

... and I don't mean right now that the seasons are turning yet again... although they certainly are... it was a few days ago that I spied a bunch of snowflakes dancing in the breeze, fluttering in the air as they drifted slowly down to the ground, as I huffed and puffed at the elliptical machine in the gym. The snow didn't stick, and it was just a little flurry thingy anyway... but yeah, that 8would* indicate that winter is indeed coming ...

... but that is NOT that I'm referring to!

Anyone know? Anyone?

Hmmm... okay so how many of you have read George R R Martin's Sword of Ice and Fire series? If you haven't, please do. It's an awesome series, each book (4 so far) is an extremely satisfying read, even though *sniff!* the wrong people diieeeeeeeee *waaaaaaah!!* but that is what sets it in a class all of its own ... this is no cookie cutter fantasy. Cetta over at Ritualistic lists a few reasons for you to pick up the books: go here and read them, and tell me you're not inspired to give this series a try. I also talked about it a little here, omg was that three years ago already?

Actually it's thanks to Cetta that I am grinning happily right now. Upon visiting her blog tonight, I found out that on November 11th, NOT ONLY did GRRM announce that HBO will be filming the pilot episode of A Game of Thrones, but he ALSO assures fans that the script is excellent and faithful to the book. I quote: "Winter is coming to HBO. Hot damn."

Whooohooooo!!!!!!!!!!

... I do hope this turns out well ... of course, HBO is NOT among the channels available to us right now based on our cable subscription package. And the last time I talked Kosh into upping our cable service was for us to get SciFi's The Dresden Files - a short-lived one season series that was relatively okay by itself, so long you didn't start comparing it to the book lah :D


And do y'all remember my not so good review of The Legend of The Seeker? Well, I watched the next episode (Bounty, I think - about a cartographer that manages to produce maps that show Richard's location), and was *SO* put off that I wasn't going to bother watching any more episodes. Lame storylines, poor acting, atrocious fight sequences... you name it, they botched it. ... surprisingly, Kosh wanted to catch last week's episode, just for s's and g's. Okay fine, so we watched it - something about Richard stumbling upon the village in which he had been born, and managing to get the villagers to rise up against their D'Haran oppressors. Slightly better storyline, but still, just not appealing. I do hope that is the last episode that I ever catch of this series. yes, that's how much I am not impressed.

.. and again, I am reminded that I *have* to get my hands on Wizard's First Rule. Firstly because I don't remember details, so when Kosh asks me "Is this episode anything like anything that happens in the book" I can only answer I don't remember, it's been way too long! I have been reminded that the books have some serious S&M going on, which I doubt will every get mentioned in the tv series. Not that I care, really.

Really!

After all, I have the tv adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire to look forward to.

Please, oh please, let the pilot be accepted by the HBO gods.

Please, oh please, let it be GOOD!

neglect

... I've been neglecting this blog (and my EC duties!) ... sorry!! my other personality is busy participating in NanoWriMo, you see ... maybe this year she'll do better and actually make the 50K mark... we'll see...

Meanwhile, I am taking back the lynne naranek persona for a few minutes over an hour to talk about my attempt at getting Kosh and I to eat fewer dead animals. We've tried Boca burgers or equivalent, but have not really been impressed. More recently, I experimented with blocks of firm tofu, which while edible, was also not outstanding.

Tried morning star farms' fake meat strips - pretty sure they gave us bad gas!

... Fake ground beef, however, seems to be the way to go. I blogged and posted pix of dishes using textured vegetable protein a while back: this post features a "beef" & macaroni bake and "meat"loaf using 1 lb fake beef and 1 lb ground turkey.

Since then, I've experimented with...

1. Tater Tot Casserole, found on The Daily Dish, and amended to exclude, you know, dead pig.

The result? Not too bad, the ratio of taters to "meat" was off... okay so it didn't help that I only had 2/3 of the meat equivalent (i.e. equiv of 1 lb, not 1.5 lbs) ...

... then the tater tots themselves ... came out a little chewy ... (tried the tater tots all by themselves later - same result - maybe I shouldn't have bothered with a name brand?)


So a few weeks ago, we got hold of a pretty good voucher for a free breakfast at Baker's Square with the purchase of one breakfast & two beverages. Perfect! Not that we would associate said establishment with breakfast per se... but we tried it out... and omg I fell totally in love with their breakfast quiches! They all sounded *so good* ... I went for the cheeseburger quiche, and man oh man it was oh so good :D Can't remember what Kosh had (wasn't a quiche) but that was also really good.

So I had quiche on my mind...

Decided to experiment with a crustless quiche, since all I found at the grocery store was the sweet dessert pie type of ready-made crust (later I saw somewhere that I could, once again, tap the valuable resource that is the canned crescent rolls!).

Didn't follow any one exact recipe, so can't point you to anything. I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to do my own thing: first making the fake ground beef with taco seasoning, then adding canned diced tomatoes, onions, (maybe mushrooms, can't remember),
cooking together and then putting at the bottom of the pan... then adding a mixture of egg and milk and cheese over it all, then baking it for a while.

The result? Edible, but missing some oomph.

Firstly, as you can clearly see, it was mucho watery - probably should have strained the diced tomatoes better, and not used as much water as instructed when preparing the taco seasoning. In a way it's good I didn't have a crust, it would have been utterly soggy, eh? But a crust would be nice too. Although, if I had some hash browns at the bottom, that might have absorbed the liquid and provided the equivalent of a crust/cushioning... ... but the thing that makes it a quiche, the egg/milk/cheese mixture - was kinda lost in the "meat" ... I probably got the proportions all wrong.

I'll have to look harder for a simple recipe if I want to try this again!

...and two weeks ago, I decided to whip up a batch of vegetarian no-bean chili, using come chili spices that Kosh has had sitting in the pantry/larder/cabinet for y*e*a*r*s! Didn't take pictures, but wow, 2 equivalent lbs of fake meat is A LOT! I immediately froze about half, and we had chili for breakfast lunch and dinner for a few days immediately following, LoL! It was good, though.

Now, during all this experimenting, I ended up using two different brands of fake ground beef:

Just because this was the brand I recognise (I think Kim had highlighted this in her blog once, too), I tended to go for this all the time. I liked this brand because the "meat" is individually crumbled, all you need to do is empty the bag into a hot skillet and within a few minutes everything is set. Until the local grocery store seemed to run out. Seriously, the label on the shelf would be there, but that particular shelf in the freezer section would be empty! Bummer!

So then I tried this one, of equivalent price, but found in the refrigerated organic vegetables section. It's packed tightly into a brick, and in my mind is more of a bother because of course I'd pop it in the freezer at home, so I'd have to thaw it out first in order to have crumbles and not a big brick sitting in the skillet, y'know?

While I haven't done a face-off, both seem to work just fine for us.

Then I took a look at the ingredients and nutritional information. Funnily enough, the first ingredient in the Yves brand is *water*! I also noticed, however, that Yves is drastically lower in fat wile providing the same amount of carbs & protein as MorningStar Farms (okay, both are pretty low fat items, but still... 25 vs 5 cals from fat is still substantial!).

Looks like I'll stick with Yves for the time being.

Note: images of MorningStar Farms and Yves products taken from their respective websites.

I participated! and other book tales

A first for me: I submitted my review of Alex Beldsoe's The Sword-Edged Blonde in the 4th Edition of the Book Review Carnival :) Do click on over to find short descriptions and links to a whole slew of books you might want to check out. And if you like, go ahead and join :)

And on to other book-related news... so yesterday I had a really great meditation session at the local library, and after that I went to pick up this book that I'd ordered last week on a whim: The Existential Joss Whedon: Evil And Human Freedom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly And Serenity. Yeah, a mouthful, LoL! But I figured what the hey, seeing as enjoyed every show/movie (the Buffy movie doesn't count!) in the title, and seeing as I'd like to produce (a) novel(s) of similar intelligence and wit, I think it would make for good reading.

Of course, I can't really jump into it till NaNo is over...
Hmmmm, I think my timing is just a *wee* bit off... LMAO :D

After all, I'm still in the process of reading Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn... On one hand a typical fantasy where a rag-tag group of people strive to overthrow a baddie overlord, but on the other... well... firstly there's the Allomancy concept: certain people have the ability to "burn" a metal (... or all 10 possible) thus taking advantage of its properties... the manipulation of iron by flipping coins and "stepping off" of them, and the description of the action involving them, is excellent. Then there's the hints about who the Great Ruler was before he became the supreme immortal overlord: I'm thinking he may not the absolute bad guy they all think he is, or that he is as much the victim of circumstances as us all, or perhaps even more so than most... we'll see... I'll definitely be reviewing this once done.

So, what with NaNo and all, I told myself I'd read Mistborn a little bit at a time, giving priority to my writing. Then came yesterday and my needing to pick up the Joss Whedon book. I knew I shouldn't, but I took a gander at the shelves holding new books... and whaddaya know, I walked out the library with FOUR books, not just one. Grrrrrrr!!

Funny thing is, those three "extra" books? All have a similar theme... can you see it?

Modern day Israel, and the Jewish community, is strongly influenced by the memory and horrors of Hitler and the Holocaust. [The author] argues that the Jewish nation has been traumatized and has lost the ability to trust itself, its neighbors or the world around it. He shows that this is one of the causes for the growing nationalism and violence that are plaguing Israeli society and reverberating through Jewish communities worldwide. Thought-provoking, compelling, and original, this book is bound to spark a heated debate around the world.

Crusading features prominently in today's religio-political hostilities, yet the perceptions of these wars held by Arab nationalists, pan-Islamists, and many in the West have been deeply distorted by the language and imagery of nineteenth-century European imperialism. [this book] returns to the actual story of the Crusades, explaining why and where they were fought and how deeply their narratives and symbolism became embedded in popular Catholic thought and devotional life [and] traces the legacy of the Crusades into modern times, specifically within the attitudes of European imperialists and colonialists and within the beliefs of twentieth-century Muslims.

Set in Israel, with its 30,000 archaeological digs crammed with biblical-era artifacts, and full of colorful characters—scholars, evangelicals, detectives, and millionaire collectors—Unholy Business tells the incredibly story of what the Israeli authorities have called "the fraud of the century." It takes readers into the murky world of Holy Land relic dealing, from the back alleys of Jerusalem's Old City to New York's Fifth Avenue, and reveals biblical archaeology as it is pulled apart by religious believers on one side and scientists on the other.

... how's THAT for some light reading... not!! :p

booking through history, shredded fingers and book presents!

History:
In 2004, I had been in the U.S. for just a few weeks, starting out in my new life with Kosh, when the Bush vs Kerry election was held. I remember sending out sms'es (phone text messages) to a whole bunch of folks in Malaysia saying something like "Hmmm looks like Dubya's going to win" on the assumption that 1. they cared about the elections, and that 2. they knew who Dubya was. Lesson learnt: don't assume! Every time I think back to that day, I find myself shaking my head in incredulous disbelief at how many either emailed or sms'ed back "Ummm, who or what is Dubya?".

But in 2008 ... what can I say? Even though I couldn't participate in making it happen, I saw everything unfold, and saw history being made. I love the pics that PolitiGal posted - made me all a-teary-eyed :) Makes me believe in America again, y'know? Obama's got a tough road ahead of him: the economy needs addressing, yes, but perhaps more importantly, the entire population needs to do some self-reflection: the racism, the hatemongering, the racism, the blatant lies and the swallowing of said lies, the racism, oh did I mention the racism? This was an ugly ugly ugly election. How to heal from that?? Not going to be easy...


Shredded fingers:
So recently I had my appointment at an USCIS facility to "capture fingerprints, photo and signature". They seems to have improved their system greatly. I was in and out within 15 minutes!

But while doing my fingerprints, the person doing me asked "Do you work with glass, or metal?"

"Ummm, no, why?"

"You have all these lines, you see?", she said, pointing out fine lines that ran across my fingers, "We usually see this in people who do a lot of work with their hands. What do you work as?"

"Umm, I don't work. Back when I did, it was just a regular office job..."

"A lot of typing?"

"Meh, sure, but not much, and not very well!", I joked.

"How about crafts?"

Crafts? Having just visited a Michael's store the day before, and my unsuccessful search for cross stitch kits as something to do in my spare time besides eat, tv, blog and drop card still fresh in my mind, I speculated, "Well, I did some cross stitch a long time ago..."

She shrugged and continued with the fingerprinting, while I studied the screen as the fingerprints were taken. Yeah, there were a lot of those fine lines.. how on earth had I shredded my fingers such that the fingertips, which heal and slough off skin just like the rest of the body, still had traces of this occurrance? What a mystery.

Later, I told Kosh about it. Immediately, he said, "From all your pottery, right?"

Duh, what else??!!
Can't believe I didn't think of it.
I suppose it's been too long, I've stopped even missing it? :(


book gifts:
This week's Booking Through Thursday's question is "What, if any, memorable or special book have you ever gotten as a present? Birthday or otherwise. What made it so notable? The person who gave it? The book itself? The “gift aura?"

One book immediately comes to mind: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

My parents gave it to me for my birthday back in 2000 when it had just come out amid quite a bit of hoo-hah. Since I read all things fantasy, and since they had heard that this series was enjoyed by adults as well as its original target of children, they assumed I was wanting this book.

Well, you know what they say about making assumptions... because while I'd certainly heard of the series, I just wasn't gonna bother reading it - it was, after all, for kids... but now I had Book 4 in my hands!

I certainly wasn't going to read it without going through Books 1-3 first, but it's not like I had access to a library, so if I wanted to read them, I was going to have to buy them... but they're KID's books!!! I wasn't sure if I wanted to throw away $$ like that, y'know? Books are NOT cheap! So Book 4 sat on my shelf, gathering dust for a few months....

... until a chance remark with a work colleague, who was a fan of the series, who immediately offered, insisted!, to lend me his copies of Stone, Chamber & Prisoner so that I could read them *and* Goblet, he was confident I would enjoy them all. And whaddaya know,,, I did!

Now I have all seven books.

Funny how that turned out, eh? :)

a rambling review of The Legend of the Seeker

So Saturday November 1st, 2 - 4pm, WGN premiered the pilot of The Legend of the Seeker. Found out about this by chance, watched the trailer, and wasn't too impressed - it seemed like typical fantasy fare, looking like every other fantasy that makes it to the (big) screen nowadays. And the dude playing Zedd looked nothing like how I envisioned Zedd to be, y'know? See for yourself!



But I went ahead and set the VCR (yes we're old school!) to record it, and watched it yesterday.

Okay, firstly I suppose I should say that I have enjoyed Terry Goodkind's books. Okay okay, just the first few in the series.
Okay okay okay so the first book, Wizard's First Rule, was the best, as far as I remember. I found having Richard conveniently learn the Wizards' Rules through his experiences, one book per rule for perhaps the first three or four, to be really really contrived. But I kept on, because there were enough things going on that had me wanting to know how things were going to develop....

But then the books started to contain paragraph after paragraph of the author's philosophical, theological, existential, you name it he did it ramblings. It got just a *bit* irritating after a while.

Then came the major disappointment that was The Pillars of Creation, the story was 99% about someone who seemed totally unrelated to anything else in the series, and only in the last chapter oh what a coincidence Richard, Kahlan et all cross paths with the person we'd followed painfully through the book. Sure, it showed the rule of Richard from the perspective of a D'Haran country bumpkin of sorts, so it was interesting, and yet, as a reader I felt like I'd been used somehow. I finished this book in disgust, and debated whether or not to continue the series.

But I continued anyway. I might have bought the next book, but I know for sure the one after that I borrowed from the Urbana library. omg that was a travesty! Why do you have a book that's both book #9 of the series *and* Book #1 of the Chainfire trilogy? wtf?? Setting aside that weird series/trilogy thingy, I read on and on... and so unsympathetic was I to Richard's plight I really didn't care that Kahlan seemed to havebeen erased from all records and memories except for Richard's own mind. It's a great premise, but everything in the book rubbed me the wrong way.

I again reached the end of the book disgusted, this time swearing for real that I wasn't even going to bother with the remaining two books. I just didn't care anymore. Heck, back in 2006 I purged ALLL the Sword of truth books from my collection! And I have picked up neither Phanthom nor Confessor, even as they sat on the library shelf begging me to pick them up. No way, dude. You lost me at Chainfire.

But back to the tv series (links: imdb, wikipedia, official site)

One word review: "meh"

Want more words?

Cheesy special effects. What's with the slo-mo of Richard launching himself at some opponent or another, both hands hoisting the sword above his head? At least three times! Gah!!

Zedd comes across creepy weird. I remember him as befuddled weird, kinda like Zifnab/Fizban from DragonLance. Not sure if I like him this way.

Richard is blah. I rolled my eyes at the gratuitous shirtless-and-chopping-wood shot, geez could you *be* anymore obvious??

Kahlan is more appealing, there's something arresting about her eyes, voice... but maybe that's because she reminds me of Zooey Deschanel?

I don't remember Fayne from the book, but his character in the show seems well done.

Darken Rahl looks too much like Snape.

The last I read Wizard's First Rule was probably in 1997. As such, I don't remember enough to say just how similar or different the "pilot" (which was actually Episodes 1 & 2 back to pack) is from the book. In general it fits, but I have enough little niggling questions that I might just pick up Book One from the library, just to refresh my memory.

But you know what? I'll probably try and catch the next few episodes, to see whether things improve or not. The challenge is to find out when it's on next. The official site gave me weird info when I punched in my zip code. Thanks to imdb I see that WGN is airing more this Saturday: Episode 2 at 8pm and Episode 4 at 9pm.

read that last part again, please.

Now, all together, let's ask "what about Episode 3?"

*rolls eyes @ WGN*

... how about you, what's your take on Terry Goodkind, his books or this series?

two months on entrecard...

... and what an interesting ride it's been!

Firstly, a big *hello!* to Monique: I remember hers was one of the first drops (and ad requests) I received, and I was like wow, if all the blogs I come across are like hers, I am set! I have really enjoyed her posts, which can vary from funny to deadly serious, but always with that pleasant easygoing style. She also happened to be my top dropper for my first month on board (that would be for September, if you were wondering. Yes I'm two months behind. I am nothing if not a major procrastinator, LoL!). Thanks Monique!


As I mentioned two months ago, I joined Entrecard in order to find more bloggers and blogs to read. Yeah, as if my blogroll isn't long enough, right? I already separated some out into "famous folk", "we've met" and the mouthful that is "socio-politico-religio commentary" in order to keep them manageable, and that's barely helping. And now on top of that I'm adding about 300 blogs to visit a day? Ummmm yeaahhhh... so now's the time to wave to my "regular" reads and say "I've not forgotten y'all!! I still do visit, but maybe weekly! Don't give up on me, aight?" *grin!*

Sometimes the "must drop 300 cards" monkey on my back rears its ugly head and I get caught up in quantity vs quality. But usually I'm good about it. "Drop and run" is not my modus operandi: I usually stop and read new posts. I do try to leave a comment if I have something to say/add to the particular topic ... but most importantly I've learned not to kill myself trying to get in my 300 drops a day, as you can see from this chart :)


If nothing else, surfing through the wide breadth of blogs within the Entrecard system has opened my eyes to communities I otherwise would probably not have discovered on my own, such as:

> homeschooling parents & kids
> Filipina (Pinay?) wives in the U.S.
> political blogs so red I swear my monitor started to bleed
> proudly christian bloggers
> cat blogs, both written by owners about their pets, or by the cats themselves :D
> all those food blogs omg omg omg LoL!

... and of course, blogs that are trying to make money with paid posts, with some "real" posts added in once in a while... I swear, the first few days I was exploring Entrecard, I didn't understand why so many blogs had the exact same article and photo (I think it was the free Obama bumper sticker one)... then when I saw wave after wave of similar articles all over, it finally dawned on me.. okay okay so I'm a little slow to catch on... then again, up until then the blogs I read were by bloggers who blogged for the joy of blogging, not for the money making paid posts! Sure some would have ads in the sidebar,,, but they didn't do the paid posts. Heck, I actually dropped a blogger from my blogroll a few years ago once she started with paid posts because I felt I was being used, and that I couldn't trust was she was typing was for real or for money, y'know? Sigh. And now I'm wading through a lot of these posts every day. There was one who totally disgusted me by talking about a tragic loss of a colleague's son then suddenly speculating that if they had known about this service that harvests stem cells from menstrual blood maybe it might have helped. Congrats, a paid post that turned me right off!

I'm considering not "rewarding" such blogs with my card drops, if a paid post is the latest post when I stop by. Considering. Because it wastes my time more than theirs. The jury is still out. If you have an opinion on this, please share, I'd be happy to hear it :)


As mentioned earlier, I didn't do anything at the close of my first month on Entrecard, but I'd like to take a moment to give some linky love to this month's folks who seem to like what they see here (or, like that my widget is easily accessible! ... for those who do the drop and run thing lah, that's not all of you, okay?)

Life After Work's Top EC Droppers (as at 9:40pm 31 October 2008):

spirituality and self help (31)
MJG's Rambling Thoughts (31)
Symphony of Love (29)
The Power Of Three (28)
Computer Aid (28)
Lofty Matters (28)
Earn Blogger (28)
NEWSVIDS (27)
The Way I See It (27)
Is 8 Enough? (27)

Of the above, if you were to go visit just one, give The Way I See It a try - I really enjoy the thoughts and stories shared; perhaps you will too.

And while I'm at it, here's another EC shout-out: this time to a fellow Malaysian I first knew as "The Fool" from "Fool on the Hill", which then changed to "Windmill on the Hill" when he shut down and merged his other blog "Windmill of my Mind". He writes a lot of technology-related stuff, but has enough social commentary and other topics that had me dropping by with a comment or three every other visit or so, such that he gave me an award (which unfortunately is on the now-defunct blog, waaaaaaahhhh he said such nice things about me too!!) a few weeks ago. So go say hi to him too, k?

I'd also like to tip my hat to the sites that pointed a whole bunch of folk my way, based on the number of clicks my widget got on their site:

slightlydrunk.com 108
Windmill of my Mind / WindMill on the hill 58 + 32 = 90
On The Bricks 64
Confessions of a Fitness Diva 49

All righty then! That's linky overload!!

Y'all have a good weekend, and for those who celebrate it, I wish you a safe Samhain.

Ciao!


[p/s - this is post # 922. I should start slowly planning on what to do when I hit the one kay mark, eh? Then again, that probably won't be for another 5 months or so. But stay tuned anyway, LoL!]

pill poppin' fool

Okay, saw the allergist.

Having hives for more than 6 weeks puts them in the chronic category (as opposed to acute, usually as a reaction to stress, food, etc), and considering their behaviour, they might be indicative of an autoimmune condition. Gulp. But thankfully, the tests that the GP had ordered two weeks ago covered the things the allergist wanted to check, and they had all come back fine. That means some scary things like lupus or certain thyroid problems can be eliminated already. Phew!

It seems that identifying the cause of a chronic hives is usually unsuccessful, and that the things can go into spontaneous remission fast, or it may take years... oh joy!

But anyway: since the hives are the result of the body producing too many histamines in reaction to this as yet unidentified cause, the first step to relief is to stop them histamines. Using antihistamines. To block the H1 and H2 receptors. Or something like that. I got overloaded in doctorspeak.

Bottom line? I'm gonna be a pill poppin' fool:

To get the hives under control:

morning:
10mg zyrtec
150 mg zantac

25 mg hydroxyzine later in the day if symptoms demand it

night:
10 mg zyrtec
150 mg zantac
10 mg singulair

In addition to that, I take
a multivitamin
500 mg Vitamin C
birth control

Yum. That's about 9 pills a day.

Glad I can manage pills though! Back when I was young, heck even as a teenager, I just. couldn't. swallow. any. pills. My parents had to hide it in a piece of bread and have me swallow that instead... didn't work too well, because I'd crunch/chew it and bleaahhh...!! :p

No longer to be taken:
Benadryl: no need for this at the moment, since I'll be playing with the zyrtec/zantac/singulair cocktail at this time... have a full bottle at hand though, if needed :)
81 mg aspirin: have been taking this daily low dose as a preventive measure, for long-term heart protection. However, it seems aspirin has been known to cause and/or exacerbate existing hivey conditions, so just to make sure all bases are covered, no more aspirin until the situation is back under control.


... and it's only once everything is a-ok (or at least in remission such that I don't have all these antihistamines in my system) that I can consider going for the skin pricking testing thingy. But if you were paying attention, you'll realise that it's probably going to be a waste of time and money, since symptoms are pointing away from a specific food/pollen/whatever allergy and towards an internal off-kilter situation.

Yeah.

This is going to be fun.

Remind me to get back into daily meditation. I'm gonna need it.

Book Review: The Sword-Edged Blonde

As I lament every once in a while, I have an official to-read list on Good Reads that's over 100 books long, yet every time I head to the library I end up with some random book choices because I neglect to bring said list along. No real complaints, though. I'm always up for exploring new authors.

Especially when one of my recent forays introduced me to Alex Bledsoe's The Sword-Edged Blonde.

Yeah yeah, I read the title and went "huh?" Actually, I'm still not 100% clear about how the title fits the book. But never mind. Then I picked it off the shelf and again went "huh?" in reaction to the really weird cover. Then I flipped it over and read the blurbs, it all sounded promising, "Sam Spade with a sword", okay I'll try it out.

And proceeded to consume it in one day (and night).

Man I *love* it when a book pulls me in like this one did.

The premise is simple: Eddie LaCrosse, a Private Investigator is hired on the qt by his childhood friend (now King of Arentia) to solve the mystery of the Queen who seems to have murdered their child. Eddie comes across as a man who might have once been haunted by his past, but who has now come to terms with it and has moved on... until this call for help, that is. Returning to his homeland, we slowly find out why he'd left Arentia and lost himself in mercenary work so many years ago, and how his past might inadvertently hold clues to the mystery at hand.

In order to not blurt out spoilers, let's just say that there are numerous plots and storylines in past and present, all woven together quite well and narrated with just the right touch of wry wit and simple prose such that everything moved along quite nicely. On one hand it's all one big coincidence, but on the other it still involves a whole lot of detective work, with clues right there if you see them. I would have enjoyed a more in-depth exploration of the challenges faced by a god in human form (not *really* a spoiler, really!), but I suspect I would prefer to be left to speculate on my own than to have everything explained and handed to me on a silver platter.

The setting isn't built up much, which is actually great: details are provided when necessary, so we know it's a typical medieval fantasy world without getting mired in too many descriptions establishing said world. And yet there are some amusing touches that make it unique: I was very amused at the horse getting a parking ticket, for example, and that a barwench would have a nametag.

For a first novel, I found this an excellent piece of work and a fun read; I urge you to check it out for yourself.

I'm looking forward to the sequel Burn Me Deadly, and a 70s vampire novel Blood Groove, both coming out next year.

while we were in line at the grocery store the other day ...

... this woman comes up to the line and asks "You got 15 dollars?"

I look at Kosh, Kosh looks at me, both of us wondering if this is for real.
This goes beyond panhandling!

"Okay, how about 10 dollars? That's a 5 dollar savings, not bad!"

Ummm... yeaahhhh....

this that and the other

This:

So we brought the cat to the vet a few weeks ago for her annual wellness check-up. Remember that it was as a result of the previous check-up (slightly overweight, slightly dehydrated) that we ended up getting her the automatic cat feeder and the water fountain.

The water fountain is great.

The food thingy... well... let's just say we've discovered our cat is probably an emotional eater. Kinda like Daddy and Mommy. When she's bored, she eats. If she's kept occupied, getting lots of lap time, she doesn't really eat much. So it was a challenge figuring out her daily consumption let alone trying to then cut back on her portions. Because she wasn't consistent!

The thing is, and we found this out the hard way, if she feels she needs to eat and there's no food because she's finished her allocation for the day/12hrs, she pees in the wrongs places... to show her ire...

So we stopped trying to cut back, and instead just let her have the portion she seemed happy with, every 12 hours.

Yeah. So now she's weighing 12 lbs.
Last visit she was 10-ish.
Doc wants her at around 8lbs.

Guess who's gotta go on a diet?

That:

So I went to see my General Practitioner doc about my hives urticaria, and he was quite concerned that I'd been suffering these for over a month... he immediately put me on (not too high) a course of steroids, because he didn't want me to experience side effects like the hunger and the bloating. Told me to continue with the Zyrtec and Benadryl but to expect not need them much soon.

Within 24hours, I woke up for the first time in so long, itch-free. What a relief!!

Scary thing is, I'm already in the tapering off phase of the 'roids, and, well, I *need* the Zyrtec and Benadryl! Yesterday I forgot said "supplementary" drugs *and* was an hour late taking the 'roids, and wow, the itchy welts started appearing on my scalp, scary how fast the things came back as soon as I let my guard down... and this morning I woke up to find splotches on my shoulder and chest - just a few, and not itching, thankfully, but still...

It's not over, not by a long shot.

I've got an appointment with an actual allergist next week. That'll be a token visit, setting up for whenever it is that I need to go in for the actual testing. Of course, I would need to get that done when I am *not* still having these hive thingies and therefore not having roids, zyrtec, benadryl or claritin in my system. I wonder when that's gonna happen.

I was looking at myself this morning and last night, at the amount of pills I'm taking all of a sudden... I hate it.

I want this things solved and fixed, stat!!

The other:

USCIS has acknowledged receipt of the package we sent. My conditional Permanent Residency is extended for one year as they actually process the thingy. According to their website, that office is currently processing similar applications from 6 months ago. Yes, you read that right. We'll see how long it actually takes. I've had relatively good experiences with much shorter processing times than advertised.

I'm going to have to go for another round of biometrics stuff (see item three here), they say to capture fingerprints, photo and signature. I'm quite surprised they aren't taking a cheek swab too. *rolls eyes*

Once I get the above done, I can have a better idea of when my next visit to Malaysia will be... as I might have mentioned before, my passport expires in March '09, so I need to be heading back anytime between now and then to get the thingy renewed.

Of course, I'm reluctant to throw so much $$ for the trip unless it's "worth it", so I might add another leg or two to the journey: Switzerland (see my niece!), England (visit HW!), ... maybe be adventurous and visit a blog pal or two? But extra legs means extra $$ too... so we'll see... one step at a time...

Have a good Tuesday, everyone!