Blue Christmas

It is all but official.  My store, Booknotes, will be closing at the end of the month/year.  It has been open since October 2000, but it is going to be almost impossible for it to stay open any longer.  I was hoping to at least keep it open long enough until I could see if I got into the University of Kentucky Graduate School.  Unfortunately, that will not be happening. Probably.  There is some last ditch solutions that might come through, but as of this writing, I haven't tried anything yet.  The main problem is that I'm not getting enough customers. The location is now so out of the way, it has to be the main destination.  No one would just be browsing nearby.  Even when we opened, this was a problem.  There were mostly services as opposed to stores.  While that changed occasionally, almost no one will be coming by if they are stopping by the church or after a workout.  Doesn't help that places keep leaving for one reason or another.  The recent mudslide didn't help matters either.  Losing our main distributor was a major blow.  This meant I had to go through one where payment was up front, meaning the money had to be there before customers got their books.  Many times, some one would allow people to order without paying first, against the store's policy.  This meant out-of-pocket money paying for things that weren't even it yet.  A final blow was the need to renew the business license.  Usually, such things weren't a big deal, but this year a form actually came in the mail.  That hasn't happened in a long time.  I don't know what to do.  I was hoping to have a job lined up, but that has been harder than it sounds.  How can I accept a local job when I might be leaving in four to six months?  Not only that, but I am not the office type.  The one setting that I might be best suited for, and I am unwilling and unskilled at such things.  I've been independent for so long that I am unsure how to work with others.  It can take me so lone to familiarize myself, I am sure I wouldn't fit it.  I'm best in academic surroundings, even though it has taken me decades to figure that out.  An artist's heart and soul, but with the mind of a scientist at times.  Such a bad combination, at times.  It would take a lot just to keep the store open until I know for certain I will get accepted.  Everything is so up in the air, I don't know what to do.  I'm scared.  I don't want to be without anything to keep me going. I don't want to loneliness to come back.  I don't want to be nothing, again.  I hate this Christmas.  So bad.  So blue, my favorite color.  

But We Still Have the Video

Yesterday, I posted my 31st clip on YouTube.  I still can't believe I have even posted one video , nonetheless thirty-one.  Each one is basically the same.  I'm creating a special logo for my store, Booknotes. Most of the clips are under five minutes in length, but they can get up to ten minutes for some of the more elaborate ones.  For the most part, the logos are thematically connected to an event or holiday that is occurring. I had been creating these logos for over a decade, but I only started recording the process after I got my MacBook. Hey, I had a camera function, so I might I well use it.  Not to mention that YouTube was part of the Google suite that came along with my email address.  I try not to repeat a theme, although that got a little difficult over the years.  Most Halloweens had the same look, but I have managed not to repeat myself that much.  Once I started filming the work, I actually got some fresh ideas that I had never tried before.  Mainly, I was incorporating the letters more into the overall design, rather than just having them done in an intriguing manner.  For instance, my latest vid had Santa's sleigh being drawn by letters in the place of reindeer.  I even have a red "nose" on the lead letter in reference to Rudolph.  Some of my vids have the letters as the theme instead of the word or picture itself.  One of my first vids have each of "o" as a watermelon, with the last one as a cut slice instead of an entire melon.  Another time, each "o" was an apple, in a different color.  I just wish I had done some of these things sooner, as I had some great themes that were never recorded.  I had the letters as hot-air balloons in a Thanksgiving parade.  Then, I had them a floats in a Mardi Gras parade.  Each time, I had tiny people interspersed between the letters to add to the illusion.  For a few months before I started my films, I took pictures of my logos and posted them on the store's website.  Sometimes I included them in both the store's and my own social media pages.  I cut back on both, as the logos tended to make the site look cluttered, but I would still add the pics to albums on Facebook, as long as they were part of the entire decor.  I will have just about one left to do before I end the series.  I don't have an idea yet, but I have about another week or so before I have to post it.  I change them out every two to four weeks, but it's been closer to the low end since I started the videos.  A few of the olde markers are running low on ink, and I haven't seen those colors in many newer sets.  Even some of the newest ones have problems, what with getting cleaning fluid or something on the tips, rendering the marker all but useless.  Just have to get the clips organized for the last grand performance, and then we'll see just how good I have been.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Peeves

I hate bringing this up so close to Christmas, but it is still two weeks away.  So, I feel that it is appropriate to get a few things off my chest, many of them connected to Christmas.  First, the song "My Favorite Things," which I parodied for my title this week.  I keep hearing it everywhere as if it was a Christmas song.  It is not one.  It comes from the musical and movie The Sound of Music.  It is featured in a scene where Maria (Julie Andrews in the movie) is trying to calm down the children in her care during a storm.  While the sone mentions packages, snowflakes, and winters, it does not mention Christmas at all, nor is it being sung during the Christmas season.  Therefore, why do so many people play it for Christmas.  I remember hearing it on one of my mother's Christmas albums when I was a child.  I believe it was Andy Williams.  For many years, that was the only time I heard that song connected with Christmas.  However, for the last few years I have been hearing it more and more, for no discernible reason.  It irks me almost as much as seeing penguins with polar bears at Christmas.  The two species are literally from different sides of the world.  Furthermore, penguins are only found naturally in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is summer at Christmas.  Almost no snow anywhere.  Sure, the birds are cute, but not appropriate for Christmas in the United States.  Next, nuisance snow and ice.  Not enough to prevent going out, but just enough to make me late getting out.  Add to this the problem of not wanting to use too much of anything that could damage my new car, and a nuisance can wind up making me a half hour behind schedule.  This includes deliveries.  On the one hand, I got in a delivery for my store a day or two earlier than I was expecting it, even though I was just late enough coming in that I almost missed it.  On the other hand,  two books that had been cleared to ship with this order weren't included.  I now don't know when they will get delivered.  Add to this that my local comic book store's regular orders for this month were misplaced electronically at the distributor, and now could be weeks late by the time they can be shipped out, well, it is just another nuisance.  Dueling television choices.  Hassles with computer games.  Worries over the fate of my store.  It all adds up.  Look, I don't mean to bring up so many issues right now, but I couldn't come up with a better topic this week.  I know.  Next week will be with a better topic; I know it.  I can't come up with a great ending, so I am stopping this ramble before I say something even more stupid than normal.

Who's Number One, Again, and Again, and Again, etc.

It is the time of year for the year-end best of the year lists.  One I have followed for decades is Billboard magazine's Top 100 songs of the year.  The magazine literally has dozens of other lists, based on things such as genre and format, but I'm talking about the big one here.  I've been trying to come up with my own predictions, based on what I've seen for almost as long, although my calculations aren't as thorough.  Even before I start my my tabulations next week, I can already guess what the number one should be:  "Old Town Road (Remix)" by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus.  How could it not?  It was number one for over five months.  Actually, it is possible for another song to overtake it, if it had more total weeks on the charts and had a lengthy peak position in the top ten or so.  For instance, "Shape of You" beat out "Despacito" for best of the year, even though the latter song spent more weeks at number one, all because the former spent more total time on the charts.  Still, "Old Town Road" will be hard to overtake.  This song is just one of the latest in a trend of songs that stay extra long times at number one, as that song demolished the previous record-holders of sixteen weeks.  Just last year, "Meant To Be" by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line spent an entire year at number one on the country charts.  Over fifty weeks!  Of course, it was the number one country song for 2018.  This year, Panic! at the Disco has spent over forty weeks at number one on the rock charts with two different songs.  First, there was "High Hopes," which spent a few months at number one.  It was then replaced by their own "Hey Look Ma I Made It."  That song stayed at number one for over two months before it was replaced by "High Hopes" again!  While I usually don't track the rock charts as much, I think I can safely say the "High Hopes" could be number one.  In my opinion, I find it more pop than rock, but what do I know.  I personally feel that this trend cannot be good for the overall health of the music industry.  Such slow turnover can only lead to lead to fewer acts getting the opportunity to shine.  I say this when the Hot 100 chart has had more newcomers hitting the top spot this year then there had been in some time.  Most of them are newer acts as well.  Lady Gaga and Post Malone were the only headlining artists who didn't have their first number one ever this year, for a combined three weeks.  And that includes two different songs by Malone.  It's just seems that I hear the same songs over and over again on the radio.  It doesn't help that my favorite station has a habit of playing older (as in over ten years old) at random times, or their frequent exclusions of rap/hip-hop.  It just keeps staying the same, again and again.  And again.

Back in Black Friday

I mentioned multiple times that I currently run a book store, Booknotes, in Pikeville, Kentucky.  AS such, one would think that the day after Thanksgiving, commonly referred to as Black Friday, would be a very important time for me.  Well, for almost every year since Booknotes opened, Black Friday has not been a good time for the store.  I guess it started from about the first year.  We had flyers to put on people's cars while they were at other locations.  Well, one of the first cars had an alarm that triggered when the flyer was put on.  After that, the people putting up the flyers decided not to put any others up.  Fewer than twenty were ever dispersed.  A huge event for the store was never publicized due to that error.  Since then, Black Fridays have been "meh" to say the least.  Part of that might be coming from the fact that the store window has usually been bare, or at least under decorated for the day.  I usually start taking down the autumn and Thanksgiving decorations the Monday before Thanksgiving.  I have traditionally done the decorations for the interior of the store.  I  usually can do most, if not all, of it in a day.  Someone else usually does the window.  For some reason, it has taken them two days, or more, to finish the task.  They insist upon sweeping the area, cleaning the windows, and doing every single chore possible before actually decorating.  They agonize of where to hang the lace snowflakes, and they even complain about not having enough places for them all.  This is the one task I would have trouble doing as my hands aren't quite nimble enough to tie the knots perfectly.  Even then, the snowflakes end up in about the same places they were in the previous year.  They have to stuff the snowman just right, sometimes taking a hour or more for a task I could do in minutes.  They have to fluff the fake snow on the floor in the perfect arrangement.  I could just dump the boxes down and have a similar result in minutes.  They have to position the fake trees and little reindeer just so for some esoteric reason, as they pile the fluff just so around them.  Whatever.  The entire tableau is based on the cover from a children's book we had from the early years of the store.  Even though that book was sold, and bought back many times, we stopped carrying it.  Something about the picture book being too expensive, even though I think it's about the same price as other similar books.  Well, this year, the decorating got finished early.  While not everything is out in the window, the main tableau is done.  We will actually look open on Black Friday for the first time in years.  Now, if someone would actually come in.  I don't think we have had anyone actually come in over the weekend after Thanksgiving for a while now.  No one wants books any more, at least from us.  At least I will be there that day, as I was able to get the shopping I usually do on Friday early.  I least I beat the crowds, mostly.

Day of the Day Trip

As I am currently running a business, I don't get to go out much.  I really can't afford to close my store for long periods of time to go on a vacation.  The best that I can do is a single day, usually for a shopping trip.  I know that I should try and shop local, but sometimes I just need to go somewhere else, frequently for things that I can't find locally.  It's usually just four or five times a year that I close the store for an entire day and go somewhere.  Yesterday, my trip, as it were, was to Lexington.  I almost wish I had waited to go.  My problems started the night before, when I was delayed by almost fifteen minutes to go to bed.  I wanted to go to sleep early, because of the earlier start time.  Didn't happen.  What's worse?  Soon after I went to bed, a neighbor turned of a light that shone right into my bedroom.  There was also the noise of an overloaded washing machine or dryer thumping to a loud stop, twice.  Add another thirty minutes before going to sleep.  Waking up a little after 4:00 am wasn't fun either, especially when I couldn't fall back asleep.  Anyway, the morning seemed to be going right, until someone had to change everything she was wearing, making us leave about fifteen minutes later than what we had agreed upon.  At least that meant that the sun was coming up.  The three hour plus trip with one stop was fairly uneventful, save the police officers looking for something near where we had stopped along the way.  Lexington was okay.  We limit ourselves to a few stores along Nicholasville road.  Sure, it can get repetitive, but my guest doesn't like change too much.  Target was first, but they either didn't carry or were out of stock of everything I was looking for.  Joseph Beth was next. I hadn't been there in months, and I didn't know that they had had a major renovation.  I know that it is strange that a book store owner would go to a book store, but I mostly go for the magazines and scoops on any books I might have missed in my own searches. (By the way,  of the four I bought, one of magazines isn't found locally, two might be only found at a competitor, and the fourth was out earlier than it would be here.) They had reduced their stock by 20 to 30%.  They still tried to provide about the same amount of books, but more space had been taken over by other products.  Next, was the Fayette Mall, starting at Macy's at the north end.  We had just really began browsing when I heard an alert suggesting that the store was going to be evacuated.  The sales associates on the third floor where I was at took a moment to realize that it was real.  However, my guest didn't realize what was happening due to her hearing problems.  She barely knew what was going on even after all but being dragged down the escalators to get outside. It turned out to be a false alarm, but the ten minute delay killed any enthusiasm for shopping.  We spent a few more minutes looking a collecting price information, but we wound up not buying anything there after the incident. Note, that because of the late start and the alarm, we were now over thirty minutes behind schedule, even with the curtailment of shopping at the previous stops.  She demanded such at Chick-fil-a, which was okay, if a little early and maybe a little more expensive than usual.  (The clerk may have rang up the wrong order, but it wasn't that a big of a deal.) A few store were passed over to get to Dilliard's at the south end of the mall.  I had already searched online, and knew that they could still have what I was looking for in stock.  I was mostly right.  I would up getting my cologne, as well as a shirt and a pair of pants (both on sale), but they didn't have anything else that I was looking for, at least in my size, style, and price range.  We actually managed to leave the mall early enough to stop to do some grocery shopping and still leave town before school let out, although that meant I couldn't stop by the Apple store to get some more hints and supplies.  On the downside, the store we went to did not have any of the groceries I was really looking for.  Should have went to a larger one; maybe I will the next time I go to Lexington, which is usually only two or three times a year.  The trip back, with another stop for something to eat, was uneventful.  Just some sprinkles of rain.  And I accidentally got some lemony flavored drink in my refill of Dr. Pepper and root beer.  Didn't taste too bad, but it was still weird.  At least the gas station had nice new pumps.  The rest of the way was boring.  I even got tired of listening to the SiriusXm free trial.  Hours of changing stations, trying to find something, while also listening to each song for a few seconds, gets tedious.  I quick stop in Prestonsburg to drop a book off at the library, run a few things off, and then pick up dinner, and then it was a dull ride home.  In the summer, we would have gotten home later, but I have some weird problems driving at night.  It is not that I have trouble seeing, but I have such good night vision that ultra-bright headlights can blind me.  Most drivers turn them off for oncoming traffic, but those that don't really hurt my eyes.  Anyway, dinner turned out to be a problem, as the restaurant got my Stromboli order wrong.  After I reheated it, giving the top a crusty crunch, the bottom collapsed. Too many toppings.  I noticed that the flavor was off just a tad.  It was only after the other sandwich was started on that I realized what had happened.  Her peppers had been put on my sandwich, and the mushrooms had been left off.  Fortunately, I had only eaten half of mine and many of the peppers and onions had fallen off of that side, so I could just scrape the rest of them off the uneaten half.  Still, I would have liked my mushrooms.  I felt a little sick the rest of the night from eating too much that day, especially those peppers.  The final straws--the hearings preempted my show again so I didn't get to record it and the episode won't re-air because the west coast probably did get to watch, and I forgot to watch another one of my shows because I was so caught up it reconnecting on the twelve hours of computer time I had missed out on, including the ten hour bonuses I collected in Candy Crush Saga.  With all of these problems, is it any wonder that I only do this a few times a year?  When I move to Lexington next year, as planned, things will be better.  Or at least they should be.

Brother, Can You Spare a Fob?

I finally got my new car last week.  With all of the hassle I have been going through, I am slightly amazed that I actually got it.  I had been searching for almost a year, okay a bit longer than that.  All of the pieces weren't falling into place.  At first, I didn't want the same model that I already had.  Sure, I liked my Impala, but it was being phased out.  I didn't like the prospects of having a car that I would have a harder time getting parts for.  So, I waited around, a bit too long.  After the latest round of mechanical problems with my ten-year old car, it was the time to get a new one.  I had been actively searching for the last few weeks.  I thought I had found the exact model that I wanted.  Everything would have been perfect on it.  All the right features.  A great shape.  Sure, it wasn't available in my favorite color, but everything else about the Lacrosse was great, even though it too was being phased out.  Turns out, the 2020 model, the last of the line, was only available in China.  Otherwise, it was the exact one I wanted.  The 2019 model was not as perfect. Close, but still a few things off.  (And yes, I know that the Impala and the Lacrosse were built using the same chassis, but there were still differences between the two.). I looked at other GM models, because that is the kind of guy I am.  GM all the way.  My other three cars had all been under the GM label, and I wasn't going to stop now.  I looked at Cadillacs for a second, but they were higher than I wanted to go.  There are a few new models coming out soon that might have been in my range, but I couldn't wait that long.  I looked at the other Buick model, the Regal, but it wasn't the right fit for me.  I basically went back to the Impala, especially after I found out that the 2019 models had all the features I wanted and was available in blue.  Still, the price wasn't quite right.  I almost gave up, when a new round of deals took effect in November.  That all but settled it.  I wound up going with a new dealer, as that was the only one that seemed to be able to get the exact car I wanted.  Turns out, I had already found the same one online, in my weeks of researching, in Morristown, Tennessee.  I almost didn't use my old car as a trade-in, but at the last second, I turned it over rather than selling it to someone else.  Unlike my other cars, the actual sale took way longer than expected.  About an hour with the dealer to clear the last details, and another hour in finance getting the documents ready.  About fifteen minutes getting used to the new car on the lot, and then we left.  Only to return a few minutes later when a low tire-pressure warning came up.  Turns out, the tires weren't inflated for the colder temperatures.  That took about another thirty minutes of driving back and getting those tires fixed.  After that, it was another hour driving to the store and opening up three hours late.  It is taking me awhile to adjust to all of the new features. For instance, the wiper controls are on the other side of the steering wheel, not that I have had much need for them yet.  Then there is the radio, and the infotainment center that goes with it. (Is it just me, or should I be frightened that the spell check recognizes "infotainment?") I'm only now getting the hang of the touch screen, although certain processes and techniques are still out of reach.  At least I get three free months of satellite radio.  The biggest peeve I have, though, it the keyless entry and ignition.  I don't like them.  I miss the solidity of a key.   A fob just doesn't cut it.  I find myself flicking open the emergency key back-and-forth, as a means of tempering my restless energy.  The push-button start is exactly my favorite either.  It feels too, I don't know, empty.  Like there is something else I should be doing.  The fob itself is so lightweight, I feel like I could lose it easily.  Hey, it could happen.  I have thought I had forgotten my car keys many times, usually while I was driving, and this was decades before keyless ignition.  Anyway, here is the new car.  Many compliments so far on it.  Now to get used to it.

Christmas Is Coming Soon, and I Am Getting Fat

For the past few weeks now, I've been noticing that my pants were fitting a little snugger.  Not all of them, mind you, and none of them were too tight to actually have problems putting them on.  But some were tighter than I liked.  I put the blame mostly on my computer.  I have been online for a lot over the summer, to the detriment of other activities.  Yes, it has mostly to play games, but that wasn't all of it.  I had been doing some other work as well.  Just not for school, since I'm taking this semester off.  I'll also admit that I haven't been exercising as much as I normally do.  For the past few months, I've been too tired just before my regular weightlifting sessions.  I force myself to lift for the bare minimal, both in reps and weight, to say that I did something.  Just this past weekend, I barely worked out for a third of my usual time, and with the lowest possible weights, even though I felt fairly well and rested at that.  I just didn't want to do it, some of that spark had gone.  I will also admit to eating a little more than I need to.  I try to eat the right portion size, but I frequently end up eating a little bit more than I need.  Maybe not that much more, but enough that I feel slightly uncomfortable afterwards. This has been going on for weeks, if not months.  For instance, I stopped giving out candy this past Halloween after barely a half hour.  I still had a this of the candy left.  Part of it was that it was kind of chilly, and I didn't want to have to stand by an open doorway for so long.  Another was that it was about time for dinner, and I didn't want to have to stop just to eat.  Yes, part of it was that I wanted to have enough candy leftover for me.  I didn't get as much this year as I normally do, but it was all my favorite type.  I still feel a little guilty for not handing more out, but as least I haven't started eating any of the candy yet.  I have already decided to try and exercise more and eat less.  Specifically, eat healthier and less unhealthy.  It's just so hard to do so this time of year, when time is stretched so tightly and food is a dominant focus.  I actually put off writing this post for about half an hour, just so I could walk some beforehand.  It wasn't much, mostly laps around my store, but at least I wasn't sitting down.  For the rest of the year, I will try to be as active as possible.  I just feel so sleepy so much.  A neighbor has a light shining into my bedroom many nights.  Sometimes, it is so bright I can almost see colors clearly.  Not an easy thing to ignore when trying to fall asleep.  The light sometimes stays on much of the night.  This doesn't even take into account my own lifelong difficulties with falling and staying asleep.  Just a little more goo sleep, and I feel that enough of my problems will take care of themselves.  Okay, less time on the computer, especially before going to bed will help even more.

The Guy from Catalina Goes Writing

This past weekend, I finally updated my Mac to the Catalina operating system.  It took about an hour for the download and reset.  Unfortunately, there were some hiccups to the entire process.  The major one was that my Mac wasn't accepting one of my passwords any more.  It was just the one word, but it was one of the major ones.  Admittedly, it was a password that I didn't use too often, but it was one I needed to complete the process.  I tried other, possible earlier versions of the password.  No luck.  I tried contacting Apple to get help.  For some reason, I couldn't update my password either.  After a day of back-and-forth, I had to take the ultimate solution and have the account recovered.  I didn't want to, but there was no other way I could see.  At first, I thought that it would take a day or so.  That was what the notifications suggested.  I later got an email that said it would take two weeks!  I may be unfamiliar with some aspects of computers, but even this seems a little harsh. Until then, I will be prevented from doing many things I hoped to do with the upgrade.  Then there are the secondary problems that might be linked to this.  Start times are taking longer.  Wifi is experiencing delays, even with my home router which is relatively nearby.  A few other minor qualms seem to be happening as well, but they might not have anything to do with the upgrade.  So, I wait for another week, for a call at work one morning that will tell me that my account has been returned to working order.  I didn't have this much trouble with the last upgrade.  Sorry for the short post this week, but as I implied, I have had a few problems lately.

Suffering for My Art

In the past year since I got my computer, I have done multiple assignments for my year of online graduate school, include two major papers.  I have downloaded over a dozen PDFs of books I had been wanting, including two where the download came free with the actual physical book.  I have played multiple games, including over two thousand rounds of solitaire.  I have been posting pictures and movies I have made with my computer.  I have joined some online groups, and even posted in a few of them when I felt that I had a pertinent point to make.  I have even posted in a forum.  However the one major thing I have left to do is make actual "art."  Sure, I have written the basic framework for an entire book, but I started that before I got this computer.  I've messed around with the basic graphic functions of Pages, Mac's word processing app, but I haven't actually made any artwork.  Back when I was in high school, many years ago, I was able to goof around with the school's Mac, which had a dedicated art program installed.  Wouldn't you know that Apple would drop such an app just before I would finally get mine.  This has bugged me from the start.  I have looked on the App Store for free art apps, but I am still unsure which one would be the best for me.  Some of the reviews I've seen have not been that kind.  Other apps are "free" for awhile, but I would either have to pay for premium services.  One even has a free trial, but it might stop working after the trial ends, and where would I be then.  My best chance is to wait until I update my Mac to the Catalina OP.  When that happens, I just might be able to gain access to new apps, ones that started on Apple's mobile devices. Sure, I don't have an iPhone or iPad yet, but I still might be able to get an app that still works.  Once I get a great art app, there is so much I could do.  I could finally get a logo for my blogs.  I have tried multiple times to get a perfectly square logo, but my screenshots wind up being a pixel off from true square.  I might be able to do better with the right app.  I have been thinking about creating my own supplements for the RPGs I like.  While there is already ready-to-use artwork for such endeavors, being able to add some extra touches would help me make such projects my own.  You know, give it some pizzazz.  Anyway, I just like creating things.  Look at some of my movies on YouTube or Facebook.  They are of me making logos for my store Booknotes. It is just dry erase markers on a white board, but the possibilities are greater than one would think of.  Just imagine what I could do digitally, if I just had the right setup.  So, I am still looking for recommendations for the best app for me.  I mean, just look at what I've done just with the Blogger capabilities. It is supposed to be a jack-o-lantern, but it might not transpose correctly when posted.  At least the puzzle in red will still work.  Can you figure out which one is missing? (I've previewed the page.  It doesn't look right.  Should and have cut and pasted it.)

Once a Brony, Always a Brony

As I have hinted at a few times here, I am a somewhat casual fan of My Little Pony:  Friendship Is Magic.  I don't collect the toys.  I have only looked at the comic books, never have bought any.  Pretty much just interested in the cartoon.  Because of this, one could call me a 'brony,' a male fan of the series, particularly one who is beyond the typical age range of the cartoon.  Over the weekend, the series finale aired multiple times.  I have to admit, I cried a little when it ended.  It wasn't perfect.  The first hour was all about the season's villains made their attack and how the 'Mane 6' dealt with them.  The surprise twist about how they got together was enjoyable.  However, the fact that they weren't redeemed by friendship, even just a little, unlike pretty much every other villain during the run, kind of broke with the series's overall themes.  The final half hour was a flash forward to the future showing how the cast turned out.  While many facets were glossed over, the few that were revealed were very telling.  Pinkie Pie was the only one who was shown to be married and with a child.  Considering she has three sisters and a presumed husband, who was shown a bit later on, I'm surprised she couldn't find a babysitter, unless her kid has a reputation similar to Pinkie's.  Yeah, Rainbow Dash and Applejack don't seem to have children 😉, and Fluttershy seems to be in a relationship with Discord that could prevent her from having kids, but there's no reason to presume that Twilight and Rarity don't have kids.  Both could easily get sitters.  Rainbow Dash appears to be a general in the Wonder Bolts, semi-retired perhaps.  Applejack still works on the farm, being an aunt to Big Mac's family.  Couldn't tell if they had more than one kid though.  I only saw one, but there were a bunch of four-legged things in the background.  Rarity has even more boutiques, more non-pony creatures, with two of the former friendship students running the Ponyville shop.  As mentioned, Fluttershy is still friends with Discord, who helps her run the reserve. At least they have all of Angel's, the rabbit, descendants to deal with.  Starlight Glimmer is still running the school, with Sunburst.  The Cutie Mark Crusaders are teaching there, along with a few other former students.  Some of the information I saw online hinted that Flurryheart was seen, but I didn't notice her during any of the times I watched.  Many other fan-favorite characters were glimpsed, but there were a few more that could have shown up.  All in all, I liked it.  I only started watching with the fourth season, when Discovery Family, then known as The Hub, got added to my channel lineup.  At first, I just wanted to see what all of the fuss was about.  I had been hearing about the show for awhile, from some of my overlapping interests, and decided to check it out.  I got hooked.  Somehow, I got to see all of the previous seasons (I think) on reruns.I knew about the original show from the 80s, but this one was better.  The plots were more dramatic, especially when compared to many of the "boy" cartoons out at the time.  There was also the friendship quotient.  Just like the 'Mane 6,' I had always felt/wanted to have some friends to rely on for years.  That never happened.  I tried, but it fell apart, possibly on my end, maybe on theirs.  Maybe it was too little too late.  It takes me a long time to feel comfortable around someone to open up and try to become a friend, probably due to issues when I was a young boy.  For various reasons, I never made any friends in college.  I never had a job, so no work friends.  I never had to chance to go out, so I was never in a situation to find friends elsewhere.  I guess I started watching because it gave me a chance to feel that 'magic of friendship' that was missing in my life for so long.  This was just a year or two before I joined social media and began to reconnect to the world.  As I have mentioned, I am very immature for my age at times.  Thank you ponies for everything! You helped me out, even if I am not your average fan.

I Still Want My MTV, and My Other Viacom Channels

One morning last week, I decided to watch something besides the regular news and weather.  That is when I found out that my cable provider had dropped a bunch of channels.  In fact, they had dropped those channels a few days earlier, and I only realized it that morning.  In all fairness, I had been overly tired those last few mornings, and I had been in no shape to watch much else until that morning.  Also, I usually only watch the dropped channels on weekends and occasionally at night, so I hadn't known before that morning about the drop.  I double-checked the last cable bill, but if there had been a notice, it had been thrown out without any regard.  I only knew for sure about the dropping when I checked the provider website.  How could I have missed out on such important news?  In one fell swoop, I had lost at least six channels.  Okay, I hadn't been watching all of them that often.  With almost one hundred regular channels as well as their HD equivalents, plus a few HD only selections, there is no way I could watch all of them.  I barely go through two dozen or so of them on any sort of regular basis.  I never watched the country music video channel from Viacom, except on some very rare occasions.  I still have another one, so I am not sure which was which.  The same goes for most of the channels that got dropped.  I stopped watching VH1 when it stopped playing music videos.  The same holds true for MTV.  The last time I truly watched it was during the VMAs, and I didn't even watch all of it then.  I kept trying to watch Comedy Central, but I kept forgetting to.  Too late now.  In fact, the only Viacom channel that I watching frequently was Nickelodeon.  What can I say; I'm immature for my age.  I actually liked many of the shows, even if they are targeted towards children, and I am not, nor do I have, one.  Sure, I could theoretically stream them, if I was exactly sure how that goes.  And, if I didn't have to pay for that privilege.  Seriously, I will not pay for something that used to be part of my regular package.  I am still learning about online services over a year after getting my computer.  Yes, my cable bill will go down slightly, at least for on month.  Now, I have a bunch of new channels, none of which look all that interesting.  The worst thing is that not all of the dropped channels have yet to be replaced.  There are gaps in the listings that go beyond the ones that were already there.  This weekend was so dull at times without my regular viewings. I would much prefer having to pay the higher rates my provider would have passed on than the current conditions.  Weird, but true.  But what can I do?  It seems like I lose another one of my favorite things every few months, usually without any fanfare. If I had just a little bit of notice, but I had been too distracted to do anything until it was too late.

The Thirty-one Delights of Halloween

I have decided to do something special this year for Halloween, basically for the entire month of October.  I am going to try to get back to my root interests and exploring them for the entire month.  This is doubly fortunate as many of my interests fit perfectly into this month.  First off, I will finally read a very long backlog of books on the supernatural that I had been getting, but was too buy to actually read.  That starts next Monday.  I was just so busy with other things, such as school, that I just put them off.  That goes for the fourteen role-playing game PDFs that I have so far gotten this year.  I've been speed-reading/skimming them for a few months now, but I just started to actually try reading one of the newest batch.  This is part of the second phase of the month.  I was fortunate enough to buy one of the newer physical books that somehow got released earlier this year and I missed it.  I'm hoping to get the other book that came out with my next book order.  Fifty dollars retail is lot to shell out, but at least the PDF is free, if the technical issues have been worked out.  I haven't tried to download the last one yet.  Next for the month, I plan on writing in my literary blog again.  I'm thinking of starting a horror type short story and try to finish it before Halloween.  Another thing I'm planning is possibly start posting my ideas for in-game content.  It turns out that I could actually get paid for creating such stuff, if I ever get the confidence to post it for sale.  That part scares me, but it could open the door for freelance work, or even a job.  I am hoping to read actual books, too.  I'm going through the local libraries to get some newer books, as well as trying to sneak some latter books in series I've just started to read or had been waiting to finish up.  I'm serous into a few series, mostly fantasy but there are a few mysteries as well (I must admit that there are supernatural elements to them.). Okay, some of the series are aimed at kids, but I still like them.  Just because I'm an English major doesn't mean I don't like enjoying what I read, especially with the complicated nature of my further education.  Next to last, I will be trying to catch up on a few weirder television shows that will be returning.  There are so many shows that I am kind of interested in, but I always forget to watch them, especially when their time slots change.  Give me a standardized schedule of the haphazard designs currently favored.  Lastly, there is the actual plans for Halloween.  I have already decorated my store, Booknotes, in its traditional mash up of styles.  I don't decorate at home.  In three weeks, I will be picking out this year's selection of candy.  I used to get blends that favored my likes of fruit-flavored candies, but I have cut way back on the sweets I the past few years, so I get smaller bags leaning more towards chocolate.  That way, fewer pieces left over to tempt me.  Of course, the first step is to announce these plans on my blog here, even if it is a day earlier than usual.

Maybe I Can Drive My Car

Within the next few weeks, I will hopefully have a new car.  There's still a chance that I won't, but considering the shape of my current, I hope not.  I've been seriously looking for the past few months. Okay, it is ac tally closer to a year or two.  What can I say, I have very strict standards. It only took two weeks to get my first car, but that was when I needed one almost immediately.  I had two dealerships competing to get me the exact model I wanted.  It could have ben the exact same one.  I loved that car, even with all the problems I had with it.  I had the bumper smashed by unknown means within a year or so.  One of the manual windows developed a problem, and it had to be fixed so that it could work.  I had a two-door, so the windows had to lower.  The main problem was with the computer.  All of a sudden, my car wouldn't start properly.  When they thought they had the problem fixed, I tried driving it off the lot.  The engine would die on me every few dozen yards.  I had to start it back up multiple times to get to where my mother was waiting and then find a way to get it towed back to the dealership for the problem to actually be fixed.  When I finally decided on my second car, after a month or so of looking, I was driving it to my store before picking up the new one.  About a mile or two from the store, the break failure light came on.  Fortunately, they brakes worked well enough to get to the store.  Unfortunately, my mother had to drive the car to the dealership to get it the breaks fixed, and she would up being the first one to drive my new car.  I never could feel as comfortable with that car because of that.  What's worse, we wound up paying for the repairs, instead of the man we were selling the old one too, even though he had offered to do so.  That car would have its fair share of problems too.  At least two of the power windows would tear up.  It was a four-door, so there were more windows to have problems.  I hydroplaned down a hill and into a lawn ornament, causing damage to the rear bumper, because someone was watering their lawn and it ran onto the road.  Took forever to get it fixed, as well as figuring out a way to get to work while waiting for it to be repaired.  At least it was still in working order when I finally got a new car, from a different dealership, although they were a little angry when I forgot to mention that accident.  My current car has had quite a few problems, as well.  I've kept it two years longer than my previous ones.  It's just so hard finding something I like and afford that also has the exact features I need.  Don't get me wrong, I do like my current car, even though I could never get the headrest to fit me properly.  The windshield had to be replaced, twice.  The transmission failed for no discernible reason.  The brake pads have had to be replaced more often than in my other cars.  The battery had to be replaced rather frequently.  The heating/cooling system has had multiple random failures, including having a motor whir at odd times and near constant clicking whenever certain doors are opened, for about thirty seconds.  The tire pressure monitors keep failing.  Once, a monitor said a tire was flat, even when it wasn't.  While driving to a garage to have the tire checked, the monitor went from flat to full pressure to even higher and everything in between.  During a recent opportunity for an OnStar free trial, I found out that the antenna was broken, and I would be unable to start the service. Oh, one of the windows recently had to be fixed so that it would stay up.  There is so much going wrong with my car, that I won't be able to get a new one if I have all of the current problems fixed.  I need a new car.

What Not to Read about What to Watch

It the time of year again for a new season of television shows to debut.  In concert with the new season, some entertainment magazines offer previews about said season.  Usually, this is a quite thorough affair.  However, this year, it is anything but.  First up, TV Guide offered up its preview of new series.  Unlike previous years they organized the series by genre instead of by day.  I feel that this makes it more difficult to judge if a new series should be watched, as having to keep track of when a new show is coming on without a way to compare it to times for other series is complicated.  At least they returned to having a neutral cover again, instead of focusing on one series or having a collage of multiple shows or stars.  Most new network shows were featured, with other new series were mentioned in a calendar at the end or the feature.  Unfortunately, there wasn't any program grid either to help organize network information.  Two weeks later, the mag came out with its returning show guide.  This time, the cover focused on NCIS.  As it is a top-rated scripted program, one with a cliffhanger featuring the return of a presumed dead character, it made sense.  This time around, the shows were organized by day.  This format was much easier to read and comprehend.  Still no day-to-day grid for network programming though. Some cable and streaming shows were also mentioned, even though much of the latter do not have a standardized start day.  In comparison, Entertainment Monthly, make that Weekly, also has its fall television preview issue out.  For the least few years, it had dedicated the entire issue to the new season, giving each new and returning scripted series, and a few reality series, at least a brief synopsis for a new show or a recap for a returning show.  Not this time.  Not only did the preview not take over the entire issue, but not even each show was featured.  The main cover was dedicated to the new Jennifer Anniston vehicle The Morning Show, which will debut on Apple's new streaming service later this year (Disclaimer:  As I have mentioned previously, I own a Mac.  I will probably be getting some form of this service as part of the next upgrade in OS, probably with a free trial if not more.  I have yet to watch or pay for any streaming service, and I do not intend to start anytime soon.). In fact, the start of the article focused on streaming shows, as well as the new streaming services set to debut.  The rest of the article went in the standard daily format, with one new or returning series getting top-billing and other shows following suit.  However, not even half of the network and cable shows deserved to be mentioned.  The overwhelming majority were delegated to a calendar of start dates at the end of the feature.  A few had a brief comment with them, but that was it.  Friday (and Saturday, they combined the two) only had one show, out of the nine or so featured those days on the networks.  At least each day had a show from a different network featured.  The most obvious difference between these two magazines is that the series featured on the cover of one is only given a mention in the calendar of the other.  The audience for the two mags, as well as the reporters, are so far apart that what's important to one is not so important to the interests of the other.  I would have thought that there would be some greater overlap between them, and TV Guide will probably cover The Morning Show closer to its debut, but I still feel slighted.  My own tastes in television falls somewhere between these two extremes.  I am still disgusted about EW's change in publication. Maybe it's just the me and my lack of wanting to do my watching (and reading about watching) online.  I barely know when my favorite shows will be airing this fall.  Many have new times.  I am not sure if there are any new shows that I would want to watch.  I have a little more time to decide these things, but I still am not sure about what I will do.  I will see, I mean watch.

The Emoji Television Show!

I have been a long-time reader, and solver, of what is now called Games World of Puzzles magazine.  Since grade school, in fact.  While I admit to getting the occasional other non-related puzzle magazine, Games had remained the favorite.  Mostly it is the articles.  Sure, I love the puzzles, but I usually only solve a little less than half of them.  Sure, I look at them, but I only solve those that I like.  Well, earlier this year, Games has featured a new variety of puzzle based on emojis.  Readers are given a string of emojis and have to figure out what they mean.  The two puzzles dealt with book and film titles respectively.  I admit that I am not that good at "emoji speak" yet.  I am still getting the ins and outs of such things.  However, I have come up with my own version of this puzzle based on television shows.  Below are a series of emojis.  Each one represents a television show that has had new episodes within the past year.  Your job is to figure out what each one is.  Answers appear beneath the puzzle, so don't scroll down too far until you are finished.  Good luck! 👍
(I'm sorry if the picture isn't quite right.  I worked out the puzzle in Pages and took a screenshot, before transferring it here as an image.  I wasn't sure I could get the range of emojis I needed here, and at the proper size.)

Nothing Funny about These Books

As I have mentioned many times on this blog, I am a big fan of comic books.  I have been since I was four, when I started to read.  Yes, that is a tad early, but I loved them so much, I wanted to read them whenever I wanted to on my own.  That has continued for many decades, even after two floods took out over half of my collection each time.  Most weeks, I get around four books.  Sometimes more, and sometimes less.  Recently, a small controversy erupted over some titles, and I decided to talk about them and my opinions on it.  Earlier this month, the most recent issues of Superman and Supergirl were pulled from shelves, before they could be sold.  They were already shipped out to retailers, but the issues were not to be sold.  Apparently, the fuss was over the cover trade dress.  The covers suggested that the titles were included in a company-wide promotion, but these particular issues were, in fact, not part of it.  The issues were rescheduled for release today and next month, respectively.  The basic explanation could be that the interconnected stories ran long, and the crossover material was cut out at the last moment.  This is entirely possible, as the two titles were going to be featuring the long-awaited return of the Legion of Superheroes.  However, there is some controversy with that as well.  The writer of both the Superman and Legion titles is Brian Micheal Bendis.  Early promotional artwork for the Legion series has shown very radical departures from most previous versions.  Along with a few new characters and costume designs, Bendis has also changed the racial identities of many characters.  One change, though, happened between the early solicitations and the actual title.  The character of Lightening Lad was originally shown as white, as the character has usually been portrayed, but later artwork has shown him as darker skinned.  People who had picked up copies of the Superman issue that was supposed to have been destroyed have compared it to advance looks of the replacement issue and have noticed that the Lightening Lad character has a slightly darker skin tone, as well as more pronounced African features in replacement.  Somehow, along the production line, the decision was made to change the character, but the change didn't happen as quickly or as thoroughly across all the line.  In fact, much has been said about changing this skin tones of so many of these characters, but no other reason to add some diversity to the group, even when that would mean changing so many things across the whole comic history.  What's more, the current line-up for the series does not show any of the newer characters that were of minority status.  Many of these were fairly popular, and no one can see why they weren't included instead of changing so may traditional characters for no other reason because they could.  As of now, before seeing anything more than the preview artwork, I will keep an open mind.  I have been a fan of the Legion for many years.  This will make the sixth or seventh (possibly eighth depending on how you would define it) retcon of the Legion.  Each one has had things fans have liked, as well as elements that were disliked.  So far, this time's changes are becoming a little more controversial, if only because of the interaction social media allows for fans.  However, I feel that this could lead to more problems in the long run, rather than anything positive that could have came through.  Bendis has a reputation for such radical departures from previous iterations of ideas.  Sometimes, they work. This time, I am afraid of what is going to happen.  While I have enjoyed his current work for DC (I haven't read Marvel, ever really), this time he might have gone too far.  Only "time" will tell.

Where Have All the Stores Gone

I took off this past weekend for a shopping trip.  I usually don't do such a trip in August anymore.  I prefer September when the best selection of Halloween products are out.This year, however, I went early so I could visit the last nearby Sears before it closed for good.  Unfortunately, I didn't get anything there.  Over the decades, (yes, I had been going to that location since the early 1980's once a year, but I didn't start going more than that until the mid-90s) I had bought many things from there.  Not every time, but fairly regularly.  In fact, I got some things there just my last visit this past winter. This one-last time though, I found nothing.  I was looking for fairly specific items, that I thought they would have, but they either were out or they never had them.  Strangely enough, some sections were already empty, even though the clearance sales weren't supposed to have started until that Saturday.  I have the suspicion that instead of being sold out, the items were removed because the manufacturer didn't want their products to be so highly discounted.  How else to explain that the entire men's section of Levi's were gone, save one shirt on a model?  I really didn't need another new pair of jeans, but it never hurts to look.  While there might have been something I could've have bought, I didn't really see anything that I wanted.  One of the worst parts were finding the Reeboks that I needed, only to find the section all but cleared and out of my size in the few varieties left.  That wasn't all.  Many other stores in the same mall were closing or had already left.  I am starting to worry about it.  Unless a new anchor is found, one whole end of the mall could die.  With even more closings expected, I'm not sure if the mall could last.  That mall was the first one I went to that I had clear memories of and that I actually wanted to go to.  I have dim memories of going to one or two others when I was much younger, but I didn't realize how special they were at that time.  Visiting there allowed me access to things I never got to explore around home.  Even after the selection around home grew, I was still able to find a few treasures there that I couldn't find anywhere else.  Sure, there were time where I went there and didn't buy a single thing at any of the stores.  Not a one.  But, that wasn't too often.  A few times I thought of not going so often, but I never did change my frequency.  Now, I worry.  I still go to another mall or two at other times of the year, but this weekend really hurt.  Especially with what is going on with my own store and how much longer I can keep it going.  The thing is, I have don't almost everything, but nothing is working.  I have even tried asking others for help, but few ideas are coming in.  It's almost like no one cares anymore.  Shopping out used to be the only reason I went anywhere, and now that thrill is fading away along with the reasons why.

School's out for Autumn, Well Not in Anyway

It might seem like a mistake, especially after all the fuss I made about getting in, but I decided not to take any graduate school classes this semester.  I know, it feels wrong on some level. Yet I have my reasons.  First, I don't really have any classes that I want to take.  Morehead is offering five classes this fall.  One of them I have already taken, albeit under a different subtitle.  Two others are well outside my focus, namely classes on proposal writing (which I actually dropped last year after a week as it was not currently pertinent to me) and the psychology of language.  I'm sorry, but I want to write fiction, not boring proposals or studies on the mind.  The two final classes are on literary criticism, African-American literature and the British novel.  The former is not that interesting sounding to me ant the latter is too similar to the Modern British lit class I took last year, down to having one of the same books on threading list.  While I could take the last class, just taking one just doesn't seem prudent.  Second, I need to focus on my main goal, getting into the University of Kentucky.  When, not if, I transfer, I will only be allowed to have nine credit hours count towards my degree.  I have already exceeded that number.  Any more classes I take, the hours will be wasted, unless I somehow get a degree at Morehead, at which time, the classes would no longer be transferable.  I feel it would be better to stop taking classes at this time.  While I might take a course in the spring, just to keep my eligibility up and hedge my bets on not getting in immediately, I just don't see the worth in doing any work at this time.  Finally, I am having major difficulties in my personal and professional life.  My store might close at the end of the month unless some drastic measures are taken.  With so many problems in my life, the financial responsibilities of going back to school right now will be just too much for me.  I don't even know why I am even writing this down.  No one but me will ever see this. Sure, it is posted so anyone can find it, but no one ever comments.  No one ever offers the advice I am craving.  These posts are just out there, alone, just like me.  I mention my problems, my takes on issues, but it is like no one cares.  I DON'T KNOW WHY I SHOULD EVEN BE DOING THIS!  It is a waste of time, of my already wasted life.   I don't deserve this.  I don't deserve to write.  I don't want to , I don't know what I am doing.  If just once some one would just let me know what's going on, what I should do.  Maybe.  I can't think anymore.  Next time.

I've Got to Get Disconnected

When I first tried to get online this morning, I faced a huge problem.  While my computer was getting a wi-fi signal, I had no internet access.  Everything was taking forever, if at all, which it wasn't.  After calling my internet provider, the problem was easily diagnosed.  It turned out that the router had a battery that died, even though one shouldn't have been provided in the first place.  All that was needed was to remove the battery and have the router reset itself, and service would return.  The battery probably died after the two five-plus hour power failures over the past few weeks.  Although, I am pretty sure I checked for service, and there wasn't any.  Anyway, I barely had five minutes to check on things before I had to start something else.  I then had a few more minutes just before I had to leave for my store.  After getting the store open, I was ready to get online and write today's post.  Just as I was getting ready to start, the power went off in the shopping center.  The wi-fi, already very tenuous at the store, went out as well for about twenty minutes.  By the time the they both came back on, my window for writing this post had passed.  I had to wait until fairly late, for me, to write this.  My main problem with all of this is simple.  I had messaged someone last night an urgent question about something connected to my plans for graduate school.  They hadn't gotten back to me when I had checked this morning.  In fact, at the time of writing this, they still hadn't contacted me.  This is happening a lot to me, and I am not sure what to make of it.  I don't know if I am not sending the message correctly, or they aren't receiving it properly, or whatever.  I really need some help here.  My future plans for grad school are up in the air, and I need answers quickly.  In a few weeks, my store could very well be closed, and I will be unemployed.  I have no idea what I could do to prevent my store's closing.  I have been asking for help, but nothing seems to be working.  It's like no one is paying attention to me.  I ask for help, but no one seems to realize exactly what I'm asking for.  I need feedback, but nothing ever comes.  Few comments, even when I plead for them.  Why does it seem that no one can help, that no one is willing to help?  The entire day just seems to be a little off, in everything I do.  I feel so disconnected from the world, from my work, from myself.  One bad piece of luck, magnifying itself throughout the day, causing a cascade of mistakes and delays.   So, I am going to cut this post short this week.  I don't really have the opportunity or the time to write much more, so I'll see you next week.

Let the Games Continue, and Continue, and Continue

As I have mentioned in this blog numerous times, as well as in its capsulated purpose, I like all sorts of games and puzzles.  There can be a problem sometimes with this pastime of mine.  For one, there really isn't enough time to do everything that I like to do.  For instance, last fall I was taking a few online classes for grad school.  The assignments for those classes took precedence over almost everything else.  Fortunately, I was able to make sure everything was done in a timely manner and nothing wound up late.  However, working my puzzles magazines began to take a backseat to other interests.  Instead of the usual two alternating quarterly magazines that I had normally kept in reserve, I soon had three to four of them on hand.  This past spring, I took fewer classes, but one of them had assignments that could take hours to adequately finish.  (I had to compose diagrams based on the syntax of sentences.  Each sentence could take an hour to finish, due to the exacting nature of my unfamiliarity with the Pages app as well as my own aesthetic standards.) Some days, I wouldn't even do one puzzle in one those backlogged magazines.  In contrast, I would always make sure to work a puzzle in my favorite magazine, Games World of Puzzles, whenever I could.  Add in three versions of Candy Crush and a few other computer games, and my renewed interest in tabletop RPGs just kept the backlog growing.  I was barely able to keep from having five magazines at once.  In fact, I still haven't really fully read any of my RPG books that have bought in the past year, one physical and six downloads plus four more downloads earlier this month (Yes, it's the last day of the month.  Every other day in July was "earlier this month."  I hate saying that, but it is the expected idiom.). Just making sure I do a few puzzles each day, while maintaining a steady winning streak in all of my games is getting harder to do.  At least I have the time, with my store doing very little business and having so few new books I would want to read.  My playing time is even one of the reasons why I have all but discontinued my store's blog, Booknotes that is.  Just coming up with something new to say about the store has just gotten too hard.  In fact, I almost didn't come up with a topic for this week's post.  This one just fell into my lap, as it were.  I almost ran out of time to even type this post up, but I was able to finish the back-to-school decorating for the store just in time to start this project, and finish it before it was time to start another project.  I was even able to work a quick puzzle while waiting for the wifi to connect and the email files to come up.  I'm just glad I usually don't work all of the puzzles in a magazine, or I would never have enough time to finish even one before I would have to get the next issue of one or the current issue of the other quarterly.

When Weekly Means Once a Month

This week was the end of an era as Entertainment Weekly switched to a monthly format.  I had been a subscriber to the magazine since I was in college, after becoming intrigued by it from seeing in various waiting areas since it debuted.  Oddly enough, the initial subscription may have come through Publisher's Clearing House.  Yeah, I know.  Back in those early days, I would spend almost two hours reading it through.  I would even read the articles ad reviews about things I really wasn't interested in, just so that I would be informed on the subject.  Sometimes, I would become interested and try to check something out.  I would get about forty-eight to fifty issues a year, with an occasional special.  Over the years, some parts of the magazine would change, but the main gist of it would be some brief topical pieces followed by deeper articles, and finally reviews, with snarky comical bits laced in.  Then, there were major changes.  Many of the comical bits were removed.  Celebrity milestones were removed all but entirely.  No more births, marriages, and divorces.  Just an occasional nod to a birthday or death.  The memorials were the last to leave.  They used to feature almost every significant death.  Then, all of a sudden, they would only do features on a select few, the ones they felt were the most important to the current culture, even if that meant someone who was no longer as pertinent would have to be ignored.  Most of this extra information was shifted to their website.  In fact, their website would become the center of their reporting, as the number of issues per year were whittled down to forty-five, and then forty.  At least they let readers know when there would be a skipped week, most of the time.  Suddenly, they wouldn't always acknowledge this fact.  Many times I would have to inform them about a missed issue, only to be told that it wasn't out yet.  Then EW expanded to SiriusXM satellite radio, another avenue that I had only limited access to.   A streaming television channel would follow.  More information total was available, but I wouldn't have steady access to most of it until last year.  Even then, I preferred the physical magazine to anything I could find online.  In the last year, things started to change again.  The number of issues were tracking down to under thirty-six per year, less than three per month.  The radio channel was ended.  The streaming television was no longer being mentioned, so I don't know what happened to it.  More issues were being dedicated to subjects I couldn't get into, with more specials that weren't part of the subscription appearing on newsstands.  With my time being divided by other interests, I no longer read every article fully, many times just giving some parts a full skim just short of actually reading it all.  I rarely even read the magazine in one sitting anymore, finding it difficult to slog through it just to find the parts I liked.  Then, late last month, issue 1569 came out and it was just forty-four pages.  The page count had been going down for years, but it had been hovering around seventy, give or take, for the last little bit.  Even with such a short page count, I found it hard to get through.  When the next issue wasn't in, even after two weeks and I thought I saw a notice of it online, I called to see where it was.  I was informed that the new issue would be coming out the next day, even though the evidence I found suggested an issue had already been published.  That's when I saw the note about the change in frequency online.  Even though the title wasn't changing, the magazine itself would now be monthly, with two issues per year being standard size the rest double.  The amazing deal I got to renew should have tipped me off.  When I got the newest issue, I hated it.  While the format structure was about the same, it felt haphazard and muddled.  The information in the main article about Comic-Con felt dated, it just having ended.  The magazine didn't even hint about what turned out to be the biggest news.  What was worse, they had pictures of Supergirl in her old costume; the new one having debuted just after these pictures were taken.  The review section is going to be difficult to maintain.  Reviews were already lagging behind for movies, and the other sections weren't much better.  Television was focusing on streaming over network and cable.  Music featured more interviews as opposed to actual albums, mostly focused on artists that I never heard of and didn't seem to be genres I would like.  Books were the worst.  They would heap so much praise on titles I hadn't heard of, and I currently run a book store.  If distributors weren't paying much attention to some of these titles, why were so many being reviewed?  I expected more correlation.  Now, any reviews will either be too late to count or too early to matter.  I guess they want people to go to the site for topical information, and for readers to get deeper insights in the magazine.  I, for one, am not liking it.  Unless something improves, I doubt I will be renewing this again in two years.  At least try to clear up some of the mixing, as the current issue feels like everything is being mashed together to cram it all in, with only the barest suggestion of the previous format and ordering.  Ugh.  Do better, please.

[Insert Title with Pun on 'Dada' Here]

After yesterday's big revelation in my book, I must tell everyone about the other possible endings I had considered.  (While there are no spoilers about the ending here, you still might want to read the latest installment at The T. H. Weingarten Miscellany first, just in case.). As I mentioned last time, the original plan for the book included having a second part.  This was partially due to the fact that the book would have been about five chapters shorter than it is in its current form, and that would have been too short, even after editing to include more.  Part two would have been set four years later.  It starts out with Chris taking a look at himself in his large bedroom mirror dressed only in his briefs (the same mirror as in the current version).  He has not only lost the paunch he had been developing, but he had also put on about thirty pounds of muscle. He looks and feels great.  He is getting ready to go on a morning talk show to talk about his first book which is getting great early reviews.  He is also engaged with a wedding coming up within the month to a B- or C-list celebrity.  Suddenly, there is a knock at the door.  Sam barges in before Chris can respond.  Sam is also barely dressed, just some swimming trunks.  He and his friends are planning a day out and Sam wants to barrow something.  Not clothes, as Sam has grown to a 6' 4" man.  While still lanky, he has some muscle tone, suitable for the former captain of the school's swimming team.  In fact, Sam has an athletic scholarship for the University of Kentucky.  After some small talk, Sam leaves and Chris gets ready for the show.  On the way back from downtown, Chris picks up some of his old friends in preparation for a sort of bachelor's party.  At the time, the friends weren't as defined as they are now, so they really weren't the Rick, Will, and Pete of the current version.  Anyway, while getting ready for the trip, one guy traces a signal from Chris's bedroom to Sam's.  It is only now the Chris discovers that Sam had been secretly filming him while naked or nearly so.  Later, after Sam returns and the other men go to the place they are staying at, Chris confronts his brother.  After that, I had nothing.  I could't come up with a good ending at that point.  That's why I took some of those elements and introduced them earlier into the plot.  The rest of the the details are still canon.  I'll be using them in the follow ups to Dada.  That's right, it is a trilogy that I'm now brewing.  Each one taking place exactly four years after the previous one, after Sam graduates from high school and college.  I had other possibilities though.  At one point, Chris knew the truth about the accident from the start, and that his father was the only survivor.  He was comatose, but it was discovered that he had cancer.  The real reason for bringing him to New York was to save his father, as Sam might not have lived or even existed in this draft.  Chris would just hang around New York, waiting for the test results.  He would go on a date to the club mentioned last week as well as seeing the art film.  The experiences turn him off of both his long absent father and the city.  The final irony though was the while Chris was his son, he wasn't a match.  Fortunately, another long lost son or cousin was found who was a match.  Chris leaves with a terse goodbye to his father without the possibility of the two ever seeing each other again, whether or not the treatment works.  This was too much of a downer for me, so I ditched that idea quickly.  I am having trouble reconciling my ideas for the current ending, though.  I am setting up the seeds for the sequel, while making sure that enough is tied up so the book doesn't feel like I made to many twists and turns.  I will have to add many details to help set up the ending sooner.  I mean that last revelation.  I think I have set it up by making sure nothing contradicts it, but I might not have been clear enough.  I will probably add some chapters too.  Currently, the book looks like it will have twenty-three chapters, but I don't want to book to end on such an odd/prime number.  For this rough draft, that can't be helped, but it will work for the revisions.

Who's the Dada?!

Okay, time to get to a review of the second half of my fiction project, "Dada," from my literary blog The T. H. Miscellany.  Chris and Sam reach Sam's home near New York City.  Originally, it wasn't a mansion, just a regular four-bedroom, two-story house.  I made it larger as an enticement for Chris to want to stay.  It's probably too large now, so I might downsize it.  Really, eight plus bedrooms with a furnished attic and basement (both yet unseen).  What was I thinking?  Chris also doesn't explore the house at all the first day.  In fact, he foists Sam off on a neighbor so he can go on a date to a club closer to the city.  Wait, where did he find a date?  I hadn't decided, but I took it out because it made Chris too irresponsible.  I had only included it because I felt it would make a great moment when the book gets turned into a movie.  Just imagine, Chris and a woman are sitting in a round booth with mirrored sides.  As the camera pans from one to another, infinite reflections would cascade behind them.  A great looking moment, but it really wasn't fitting Chris.  Anyway, when he returns home, he crashes on the couch without even bothering to go upstairs to check on Sam.  I know, this made Chris a total creep and not the protagonist that he should be.  This would lead to a second day and night with Sam.  It is on the second day that Chris finally sees one of his father's films.  In the original plan,  Chris's father was either a direct student of Andy Warhol or one of his acolytes.  Remember, this story has been percolating from the late 90's, so this timeline was possible.  With a modern day setting, this would be impossible, but now Warhol is just an inspiration.  Furthermore, the film was slightly different.  While I've only posted a synopsis of the film, the main theme was the same:  three men spend a day fully aroused and no one notices or even cares.  The main differences are the lack of the art lesson (added only after I made the father an art professor, as well as to strengthen the connection of the possible meanings behind the title) and the final scene.  There had been no nudity in the original movie, making the audience's reaction even more shocking to Chris.  I previously mentioned, maybe, how I had a dream that helped develop Chris's own reaction.  Almost exactly copied from my dream.  Sam was at home again, being watched by a babysitter.  He would not see the film, yet.  Chris would return early, and he finally searches the upstairs.  The same situation with finding sheets occurs, leading to the discovery of the missing sister.  That time, Chris wakes Sam up without any embarrassing situations.  They have a late night talk, where Chris finally decides to take care of Sam.  And that was one of the possible endings leading into Part Two.  Wait, possible endings.  Part Two?!  That's right, not only was there going to be a second whole part that would add almost a third or more to the book but also I had other possible endings that weren't so neatly tied up. What were these endings?  Wait one more week, after I post the first installments of the next chapter, because those revelations are huge.  Once again, I post the icon pic.  it might not be the right one, but it is here.

And Then It Was Just Yada, Dada, Yada

In my literary blog, The T. H. Weingarten Miscellany, I am nearing the end of the first, rough  draft of my book.  Technically, I have reached the climax, and I have started to resolve all the problems that have developed over the course of the story.  It has taken over a year to get to this point, at least in writing it.  I have had the main gist of the story bubbling up ever since college.  Over that length of time, many things have changed.  From the beginning, the story was all about how a man, 'Chris,' had to become the guardian of the half-brother he never knew, 'Sam.'  I didn't come up with those names until I started writing the blog.  Even now, they could just be placeholders.  Chris was originally going to be a few years younger, or older.  Twenty-seven seemed to be the right spot, but there is a little leeway.  I didn't know what job Chris would have.  The publishing spot just popped up.  Originally, he didn't really have a job, beyond owning the apartment building where he lived.  He had mad great investments in college, as opposed to having all this money just falling onto his lap.  Strangely enough, most of the tenants wouldn't have known he was the owner.  Not even the few he considered his gaming friends.  That part of Chris has remained constant.  When he first got notified about Sam, he had known just who he was, as opposed to the slight doubt that Sam was claiming to be his son in the current version.  Chris just didn't know what to do.  Sam also was different.  He was now a thirteen year old who was just starting to go through puberty, as opposed to the raging mass of hormones he would turn out to be at fourteen.  He was still very quiet, although it was going to be more out of shock than vocal problems.  Apparent vocal problems, but you'll have to wait another chapter to find that part out.  Chris also knew more about his father in the early version, although he still hadn't had contact with him in years.  It was more of a clean divorce, rather than the borderline criminal activities his mother went through to hide them.  Chris's attitude towards his mother was better, too.  Very little antagonism.  In fact, his mother was much better off as well.  I think I had her as an up-and-coming politico of some sort.  I changed the dynamic, mostly to make Chris more sympathetic.  He was coming off as smug and irresponsible, so I had to play him off of someone even worse.  The first day the two spend together was also much shorter.  Sam didn't need a whole new set of clothes, so they went straight to the apartment.  One detail that was changed was that Chris found more about his father online, particularly a clip of one of his films.  He actually had seen parts of it, before he got to New York.  This would become a critical change, but I'll bring it up when I get to reviewing that section.  A road trip was always a part of the plan, although the medical reason came later.  I don't remember why they had to drive to New York, but there were two reasons why I wanted them to do so.  First, there would have been a scene where Chris visited his mother before heading on to NYC.  While Sam was napping, Chris would take a sudden detour and drive on it for about twenty minutes, on the sudden urge to ask his mother directly about some of the reasons for the divorce.  However, he accidentally kills a chipmunk on the road.  Chris takes the as an omen, and he turns around to get back on his way, an hour late.  The second reason was I wanted to pay homage to another book, Divine Right's Trip, by featuring a similar scene mentioned ion that book, the letters "D" and "R" being sky written.  It my version, it was part of the cause for the traffic jam that would delay the pair even longer.  The current version just has the letters as part of a partially obscured sign, seen near a horrible accident.  In both cases, the message would read "Drive Safely," the irony not lost to the reader.  In both instances, this led to the need to stay at a hotel for a night, and also the first scene where Chris catches his younger brother in an act.  Very embarrassing to both, but I needed some levity at that time.  It would also foreshadow the later scene with the art film.  Again, you'll have to wait for that tidbit, in next week's installment.  While this draft of the book isn't that long, there are still major differences that occur between the versions.  One last thing this week, though.  The current draft is averaging about eight pages, double-spaced, per chapter.  This will lead to a page count of under two hundred, making this more of a novella than a novel.  I am planning to revise, mostly by fleshing out some minor characters and adding some missing details.  This should push me to the two hundred to two hundred fifty level, if not higher.  As the next installments will show, more than just one scene was cut.

What Type of Country (Music) Is This

Billboard has just announced that "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus will spend its twelfth week at the top of its "Hot 100" chart.  While it is not a bad song, there has been some controversy surrounding it.  The main point of contention is what type of genre it is.  When it was first debuting on the charts, the magazine allowed it to appear on the Country charts (This was the original version, not the remix with Cyrus.). However, this decision was quickly changed, and the song would no longer appear there.  It still isn't showing up on the main chart.  Some people claimed that is was country enough and should be appearing there.  I'ver heard the original version and can honestly say, no.  That version was not county.  Don't get me wrong.  It is not a bad song.  It does feature tropes common in country music.  Yes, it is basically sung in rap, but that is not a problem with me.  Rap and country can blend, and quite nicely I do say.  The problem is that the song is more of a rap/hip-hop parody of a country music song.  Again, comedy can work with country music, too.  Just look at artists from Ray Stevens to Cletus T. Judd.  The problem is when you mix everything together.  The sum of its parts take it away from country music just enough that Billboard was correct in removing it from those charts.  Now, when the remixed version came out, the new portion with Cyrus is more traditionally country, albeit with tinges of rock.  This portion has a feel of "Life's Been Good to Me So Far."  Yet, it is still more country than the original portion, even if it has fewer tropes found in the genre.  The song is also doing well on the Rap charts.   Personally, I kind of like the song.  The added portion helps to add both length and gravitas to an otherwise slight song.  Honestly, country music is not my favorite.  While I don't actively hate the genre, I usually don't listen to it.  Sure, I sometimes like a crossover smash, but I rarely listen to pure country music, when I have a choice or a chance.  This is especially true since it is now the frontrunner for the number one song of the year.  As of right now, only Adrianna Grande's two smash number ones, "Thank U, Next" and "7 Rings," have any chance of upending it.  Other songs could wind up being better, but those chances are slim.  Trust me, as I have been analyzing these charts for decades.  I can see the patterns forming. Now, let's see what the follow up is.

Is It Supposed to Act Like This?

I admit that I really didn't know all that much about modern computing when I got my Mac a year ago.  I had barely used any computer for anything in over twenty-five years!  At most, I was using public library computers for internet searches and the occasional download/print job.  I only had a 'personal' email account for about a year, maybe two.   I was on Facebook, had my blogs, and even fixed up a website for my store, Booknotes, and all without a computer.  I was barely online four hours a week, total.  Now, I can't see how I was able to manage all I did with so little time.  That is the main reason why all my early blog posts were so short.  Even now, I try to maintain the same length of time.  My biggest problem now is trying to be sure I am not making huge mistakes.  In just the past few days, my Mac started to act up a little.  Nothing major, and maybe not its fault, but it is concerning.  Just yesterday I had to start up my Mac twice because the first time didn't really take.  I get afraid that I accidentally downloaded something I shouldn't have or I set something up wrong.  I don't think I have done anything too bad, but the dread is still our there.  Maybe I did the last upgrade for Mojave wrong.  Maybe I downloaded something that only pretended to be an upgrade.  Maybe I am just playing too many games for to long a time.  Hey, I have very little to now with school out, a failing store, and no real social life.  If the wifi at the store wasn't so iffy, I might have been playing even more than I do now.  I have digital copies of multiple books, as well as some of my better school projects.  I deleted most of them for room.  Sure, I should upload some of this to the cloud, if I could ever figure it out.  Then again, I like being able to do things such as this at a moments notice.  Although that line up above is disconcerting, even if it did just fade away.  Text wrapping is also an issue, but that is more with Blogger than with me.  I'm only including this pic so it will show up as a 'faux' icon on social media.  It still won't work with the Blogger interface, but I think I can find a work around.  Now, can anybody tell me what is going on with this thing?

My Year of Living Digitally

Almost a year ago, I finally got a computer, a MacBook Pro.  Since then, I have done so much more with my life than I could imagine.  However, I still feel that I haven't gotten the best out of it yet.  For starters, let's take the apps.  I have barely touched the surface in using most of them.  Finder, the default app, is used only to access some files that I could easily do elsewhere, if I knew how.  I mainly use it to send things to the Trash.  I have never used Siri. I just feel better doing things on my own, rather than using that.  Of course, Safari is my main search engine, even if I have to use another one for certain other web sites for better functionality.  Still not sure of every function on it, but I'm getting there.  Launchpad helps me access the secondary apps, a few that I will mention later.  I don't really use Mail, going straight to my main outlet instead.  I don't have any Contacts to mention.  Barley use Calendar or Reminders, mostly to keep tract of school assignments and when to check books back in.  I don't remember ever using Notes.  Maps hasn't been used too much.  Photos has been used rather infrequently, mostly involving uploading images for the store. (It hurts not having a smart phone, but that could change by the end of the year.). I have never used Messages or FaceTime, as I don't have anyone to connect with.  I am not sure I have even activated them correctly yet. I have gotten the most use out of Pages.  I use it for all of my assignments; I just have to convert them first before turning them in.  Not enough people use Mac formats, I guess.  Don't use Numbers (spreadsheets) or Keynote (slide presentations) as I don't need therefor anything.  News is so new, I keep forgetting to read it.  iTunes still hasn't been used, which is good because when Apple upgrades to Catalina this fall, I might get more for my free trail.  I did get a free instruction manual through Books, but that has been all, since the service is technically still my competition for a little longer, at least.  I have gotten a few games through the App Store, but I only play one of them frequently.  Of course, I use System Preferences, even if I don't understand all of them.  I guess I use Photo Booth the most of the secondary apps, again for the ability to upload images/movies for the store.  (It hurts not having a disk reader yet.). iMovies and GarageBand have been played with, but barely.  I have used the Dictionary, mostly when a site said I spelled something wrong, even when I know I'm right.  I played Chess a bit, but it really isn't my thing anymore.  A few apps, such as Preview, get some play when needed, but mostly I don't have much use for the others, until I really understand them.  I mentioned News earlier, which is one of the new apps that got added when I upgraded to High Sierra.  Most of the others haven't been touched, such as Home and Voice Memos.  I have used Snapshot though, mostly so I can add an icon to my blogs.  Unfortunately, they keep being rejected because they are one pixel off from being "square," even when the are.  I need an art or icon creation app, but I have yet to find a free one that I like.  I keep asking for suggestions, but so far I haven't gotten any.  Until then,  I will have to add the image to a post every few weeks.  Next time, as I have tweaked my design and I don't have the pic available today.  My biggest problem is that the wifi at work is terrible.  It can takes minutes for a site to download.  Many games won't finish downloading to the point where I can play them.  I have to go elsewhere and use a different computer just to play.  At hope, I get so distracted that I sometimes forget to do things.  Ah well, I am still new to all of this.  It should get easier.  Until the next download and upgrades, then all bets are off.