Summer Blahs and Distractions… and a new computer doesn’t help!

Yeah, I’ve seen a few of you expressing this same thing.  Just a general sense of blah and a disinterest in anything.  Maybe it’s the heat, it’s baking our brains -though, it’s been unseasonably mild here, so I can’t use that as an excuse!  I just can’t seem to focus or concentrate on reading.  I just can’t seem to bring myself to caring about anything.  I turn on the tv and fall asleep.  I start reading a book and space out.  The house looks like a tornado went through, but I just step over the messes.

Here’s the thing.  I was feeling a bit blah-like before I got the computer, but since then, I’ve been 10 times worse.  I suddenly realized yesterday when I forgot to get up and wake up my daughter for her summer club that maybe I’ve been on Facebook playing the games a little too much.  Yeah, okay… so I didn’t go to bed for three days playing online stuff, is that a bad thing?  LOL…

Well, at least it didn’t take five or six months to realize maybe I was spending too much time online, you know.. like it did with SecondLife.  And we all need a break from the everyday, right?  Okay, so break’s over.  Time to get back in gear.  First up, cleaning the house before FEMA steps in.  I did mow yesterday, so that’s good, right?  Or was it the day before yesterday… 

I did manage to finish reading Fruits Basket volume 1yesterday.  I was trying hard to wait until I wrote the review before going on to volume two, but… halfway into the second book now, and I think I’ll give up that plan… LOL.  Maggie made me read it!

Speaking of Maggie, she has a friend spending the night tomorrow, and she’s been involved in a play with the summer reading program at the library for which her performance is tomorrow evening.  She’s excited, of course, and is happier that her best friend will be there than she is about my going.  And Maggie starts summer school on Tuesday, which will set me back into a schedule again.  Yay for routines!

Maggie showing off her long Airhead tongue

Coming soon, I promise… a review of Fruits Basket volume 1 with Maggie’s guest review, too.  She made me read it, I swear!  She may look sweet, but you should see her claws!

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Viral Video Wednesday and 19th Wife Winner!

Happy hump day everyone 🙂  First thing’s first:  As promised, today’s the day I announced the winner of The 19th Wife giveaway.  Despite her misgivings at being the first entrant, because Mr. Random Number doesn’t like the number 1, rhapsodyinbooks is our winner!  Congrats to ya!  If you’ll send me your address, I’ll be happy to forward it to David Ebershoff so he can get that in the mail to ya 😉

And now on for Viral Video Wednesday 🙂

This week’s topic is DINOSAURS.  You can post any vid that deals in any way, shape or form with Dinosaurs, whether they be extinct reptiles or crotchety old men, or even obsolete technology.  And you know me, mine will be weird and wacky or funny.  So, on with the vids!

 

This first video is one of our absolute favorite at our house.  To give you a glimpse of our family dynamics, I’ll just tell you that, after the first time we watched it, we identified who each of them were.  The T-rex in here is Sam (my oldest, who is 16), then the middle character is Maggie (my youngest, age 10), and the non-dinosaur character is  Gwen (who is 15 today, Happy Birthday to her!). 

Maggie, btw, is physically incapable of belching… seriously, you can imagine the colic as a baby… so all gas is converted to the outboard motor, if ya knowwhaddamean.  She is proud of the fact she can fart on command, and actually takes the stance this little dino does… which is why that is her character.

And now, the real reason dinosaurs are extinct!

One of the first video game-to-movies was Super Mario Brothers.  We have the VHS of it, and watch it on a regular basis.  It’s one of our favorite movies, especially since John Leguizamo is in it and the Princess is played by Samantha  Mathis (my oldest daughter’s name is Sam, remember?).  I love the song Walk the Dinosaur originally by Was (Not Was), which was used in the movie. 

Here’s the music video from the Super Mario Brothers movie, with scenes from the movie and performed by George Clinton and the Goombas.

While watching the Walk the Dinosaur video, Sam came home from summer school and started going on about the movie, which always leads back to the best scene in the movie:  Mario and Luigi’s escape from the elevator-full of goombas. 

Dancing and music are primal, and Luigi takes advantage of that fact in this next vid clip:(the song, btw, is Somewhere My Love)

And one of my favorite TV from when I was a teen was The Dinosaurs. The Sinclairs was your typical 80’s family… 60,000,080s BC, that is.  The dad, Earl, worked for the Wesayso Corporation pushing down trees, while Fran, his wife, stayed home and took care of the baby.  Robbie and Charlene, the Sinclair teens, went to school and had typical teen concerns and attitudes.  It was a wonderfully fun show that ran from 1991 to 1994 (not long enough, IMHO)… Next stop for me is Netflix.  I’ve gotta put this one in my queue!

By request, Maggie wants next week’s VVW topic to be:  Mash-ups!  For those of you who don’t know, mash-ups are videos made with parts of two or more movies and are made to seem like one show.  Like Harry Potter video with South Park audio track, or like Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?‘s recent post of Buffy vs. Edward (which is what made Mags ask me to do mash-ups next week.)

So now it’s your turn… Share your favorite Dinosaur vids!

TSS ~ I’m LOST in the VioletCrush of Springtime!

Oh my! What a week… or two 🙂  We’ve had the season finale of LOST, which seem to pull in every title and concept of every show for the last six seasons, and left us with quite a quandary (meh, I’m not in a quandary about it, but some people are I guess).  DON’T WORRY!  NO NEED TO CLICK AWAY!  I’m NOT going to post spoilers or anything.  I hate it when I watch a movie, or mention I’m planning on it, and that one pain-in-the-ass tells you, “Don’t bother watching it, John dies in the end.”  (Actual title of a book, John Dies in the End, which has been on my wishlist for about six months or so… NOT a LOST spoiler, so stop white-knuckling the mouse!)

For the most part, I’m not much of a TV viewer anymore.  I watch my TV shows on DVD from Netflix, on the Internetz, or OnDemand.  LOST, however, is the only show the world stops for (at least, at my house it does), and I hafta wait until February of NEXT YEAR before the NEXT new LOST episode… AND next season is the LAST season (okay fellow Losties, I’m sure we can organize a memorial for the loss of our life show).

But, with the end of this LOST season we are greeted by the return of Mr. Sun (Yay!) and the flowers and the green-green-grass and the song birds (even the ones that sing outside our windows at 2 in the morning) and the garden and….. books?  what are those?  and what is a blog?  Seriously, WHERE is my grill brush?  the charcoal and lighter?  Got a good fire going… now where did my book disappear to? 

Needless to say, Spring is a distraction 😀

Add to Spring’s already siren-like call, it’s the end of the school year, which means choir concerts, class parties, summer-school registrations (I’ve lost the paper for my oldest daughter’s enrollment, which is bad… without summer school, she don’t graduate!)  We’ve got eye doctors appointments, calls to the dentist for possible lost fillings (plastic ones, so The Island had nothing to do with it 😀 ), and the question:  Is it scabies? or psoriasis?  Doesn’t matter, just put lotion on it!  (LOL…  Teulah’s dad in  My Big Fat Greek Wedding had Windex, I’m always telling them to put lotion on it…. I’ve got the slipperiest kids in town!)

Ah!  Thus is mi vida loca!  Not living La Vida Loca, mind you, just have a vida loca.  With 2 teenagers and a tweenager, all girls, a dog and three cats, could it be any other way?

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And now, to announce the winner for my copy of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.  All entries were randomly compiled and numbered, then the winning number was chosen using Research Randomizer.  Number 12 was drawn, and that number belonged to:

Violet of Violet Crush!  Email me your address so I can get that out in the mail for your reading pleasure 🙂

I wanted to add that I enjoyed Violet’s answer to the giveaway question:

“What tangible thing (a toy, record, woobie, etc) from your childhood you wish you had back the most?  What does this item mean to you?”

I really really wish I had my book of Ramayan back. It was my grandfathers. I never read when I was young but I was attracted by the bright and colorful pictures in it. I spent hours drawing pictures from it. I remember my grandfather reading to me from it but I never really paid attention (come on, it’s a religious book). I wish he would read to me now 😦

After looking up Ramayan, I had to add it to my book wishlist, it looks like a beautiful book 🙂

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And now, some music to read this blog by… crap!  Suppose this should’ve gone at the beginning instead!  Oh well, click play and read it again LOL… or, music to comment by.  Whatever tickles your fancy 😉

OH! BTW! Those who didn’t win, despair NOT! Stephanie of The Written Word is hosting a giveaway for a copy, open until May 20th 🙂

The Sunday Salon -Book Overload!

This last week has been a busy book-week. My middle daughter went to her dad’s the week before, leaving me with just my 15-year-old. She’s in summer school and can’t go to her dad’s until next weekend after S.S. is over. Then I’ll have about a week alone (since June 29th is my birthday, this will be a wonderful present!)

July 5th will see the return of my youngest, who starts summer school on the 8th (High school and elementary take their SS at different times).
I’m kind of starting to miss the little bug. (Her nickname when she was younger was “Lady Bug”)

I finished four books this past week: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, Skeleton Crew by Stephen King, Two For the Dough by Janet Evanovich, and Cell by Stephen King. Six is the most I’ve ever read in one week, and Skeleton Crew was only the last third, but it’s still a lot of reading.

I’ve also been working on writing my novel. So much of the process is in figuring out how everything works together, not just the fapping the keys and filling the screen with words. It also seems my writing is having some sort of breakdown, incurring the red wrath of Bic more and more. Don’t care.. edit later… write now. I may have a title for it, also. Mirror Image maybe, but that is subject to change.

Last week I also learned never to underestimate the Mooch. In trying to scrape together the point to mooch a book I wanted, I added Skeleton Crew (I was only 2/3 the way through) and Two For the Dough (which I hadn’t even started). I figured since there was plenty of those available, mine would be safe and I could finish at leisure. WRONG! My Skeleton Crew wasn’t even the best copy available, but it was mooched from me. Go figure. So now I won’t post until I’m done (or at least certain I’ll be done in a day or so.)

For this week, I’ve already started reading Hope’s Boy by Andrew Bridge. It’s a heart-breaking memoir of a boy who went into the foster system in Los Angeles county at the age of seven. He’d been living with his grandma in Chicago and was loved, cared for, and secure. But when his mom got out of prison in California, she demands her mother (Andy’s Grandma Kate) to send him to her. There he’s beaten by her boyfriend, used in a burglary by his mother and her girlfriend, and ignored often. The book just makes me want to cry.

After Hope’s Boy, I want to read all my Austen’s in chronological order. I have wanted to do a Jane-a-thon for a couple months, but haven’t been able to. The week alone (hopefully!) will give me the chance to just read-read-read straight through. 😀