Urgent! Non-Blogging Advise Needed

Wednesday 23 February, 2011 By 28 Comments

I try to limit posting about myself on Rundpinne, as it is a book review blog, however I could use some non-book blogging advise and if it was not for my son, I would not be asking.

Many of you know I suffer from a rare form of migraines; long story short I have not had a day without migraine pain in almost 30 years (wow), I have survived two strokes (so much for living a healthy life-style-seriously I did and do, but my strokes were a cause of the rare genetic migraines I have, so live healthy!), and my pain is tolerable around a 4 to 5 out of 10. This form does not respond to medications, but does give me access to a team of neurologists, which oddly is not comforting.

Some of you probably heard (blah, blah, blah…head pain… blah, blah, blah), which is fine. I find the topic of my head boring as well.

However, my baby is soon to leave the nest and he has a concert tonight, their CD (yes their High School published a music CD) is being released tonight and I must be there.

Here is where the “help” part comes into play. I have less than 6 hours to lower my pain level and I need any and all tips. Usually I roll my eyes (and yes, it does hurt to do that) at well intended advise, but sometimes someone will come up with a tip I have not tried and it will help lessen the pain, which is all I need, for the pain to decrease long enough for me to smile through this concert.

Going against most of what I believe in, I am asking all of you what works for you when you have a migraine or headache. I am opening myself to suggestions only because this concert is very important to my son and I must be there.

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While Quite Rare…

Thursday 17 February, 2011 By 18 Comments

…I am giving into the pain and having a lie down.  I may or may not get the reviews I wanted to post up (both books were wonderful) and I am not going to let that bother me right now.   Actually nothing much bothers me right now as all I can focus on is the pain.   If I get the pain level back down to a respectable 6 (lower would be nice, but I shall settle for a 6) I will be posting two reviews tomorrow: Merciless by Mary Burton and The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino, if the pain intensity stays as it is, there will be no reviews tomorrow until the pain comes down.

Thank you my wonderful followers for understanding. I do so dislike giving in to the pain, I feel weak when I do.  For now I have to lie down with ice packs, rice bags, and an eye mask (not a pretty picture I know).

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What Was Planned

Saturday 8 January, 2011 By 8 Comments

Did not come to pass.  I had planned to have a review posted, however this sinus infection is getting the better of me and I required too much sleep.  Hopefully I will be able to post the review later in the day, but for now, I must rest.

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Reflecting on Reading in 2010 and My Search For Literature

Friday 31 December, 2010 By 8 Comments

Let me begin by saying I am not making a list of my favourite books in 2010.   The reasons for this are numerous as would be the list.   Rather let me reflect on what I learned, will continue to do, discontinue, and/or alter (in no particular order).

As 2010 nears an end I realised I read 500 books  and reviewed approximately 484 of those books and spotlighted numerous others.  That is a lot of reading in one year, approximately 1.5 books a day and sadly I still have shelves of books I truly had hoped to get to this year and will not be able to until 2011.   I felt under pressure a lot of time (this was my fault) and considering  this is a hobby, and last time I checked,  hobbies are supposed to be enjoyed not stressful, I shall be making this far less stressful by reading books I want to read.  I have thought long and hard and have come up with some solutions that I have started to implement and will continue to into 2011.

The upside of reading 500 books in a year is that I am fairly certain which genres work for me and which do not.  I still have a few books I agreed to review near the end of 2010 that fall under the heading “genres I would prefer not to read”, so occasionally a review will pop up in 2011 that is not a typical genre for me.   Fortunately I only made a few commitments to such books before my epiphany.

The other upside of reading 500 books is that I have learned which publishers I mesh best with.  Granted, this is not an absolute by any means.  However there are certain publishers whose works I have never been disappointed by and others I enjoy working with but the books offered are just not genres I enjoy. 2010 was an extremely enlightening year for me and I am grateful for all I learned.

My hunt for true Literature continues.  Yes, I could re-read all the classics, which I have done, but I know there are beautiful works out there and have read/reviewed many titles, often from the same publisher, for which I eternally grateful.   I am hoping the trend toward these books picks up, or at least these books receive more publicity, I know I will do my best to see that these books get exposure.

I have become increasingly picky in what I will and will not read in 2011.  There are too many books I truly want to read to take on a book I may like, but the odds are I will not.  This will be reflected in my review policy (which I am uncertain if it is ever read).   An example may be necessary here.  I do not care to read paranormal books, so when a book is pitched to me as a mystery/thriller and words such as “zombies” or “vampires” are conveniently left out of the pitch and I receive the book, I guarantee I will not even open the book.  In the past I would try to get through the books, in 2011 I will not, my time is too valuable to me and I have books I truly want to read.

Challenges have been a challenge for me.  I start out with the best of intentions and then I lose track, I mean to keep better details and it somehow falls by the wayside.  I know I will continue on with three challenges and I am adding a new one (which I am rather excited about), I will possibly add more as I learn of them.  The four I have joined are:

The Reagan Arthur Book Challenge

Amy Einhorn Books Perpetual Book Challenge

The Mystery & Suspense Challenge

The 2011 Eastern European Reading Challenge

Last, but certainly not least I had a brilliant year due to excellent books, first time and faithful readers of my blog, other reviewers, authors, publishers, publicists, tour guides, and numerous others who have come in and out of my life during 2010.  I appreciate each and every one of you and have learned so very much and look forward to what 2011 brings.

I wish everyone a wonderful 2011 filled with peace, joy, and numerous good books to read.  For you writers out there, I wish for each of you a successful year of writing.

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At Least It Is Friday

Friday 24 September, 2010 By 10 Comments

Plans were made, reviews were to be posted; Shedrow by Dean M. DeLuxe and Once Wicked Always Dead by T. Marie Benchley, unfortunately my health had other plans.  Thankfully those I review for are very understanding.  I shall be getting these two thriller/suspense novel reviews up as soon as I possible so please be on the lookout for both of them.

I apologise to my readers for not having reviews up this morning.  I wish all of you a very happy Friday and hope to be back to my routine soon!

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The Migraine That Could Fell A Horse

Saturday 18 September, 2010 By 7 Comments

This is where one should be reading my review of The Gendarme by Mark T. Mustian, alas my head is not cooperating and I dearly hope to have the review up by the end of the day. The book is brilliant, deep, and dreadfully dark, in a word perfect!

I believe this marks the 5th day of useless medicines and intense pain. I shall not bore you dear readers with details, I only meant to come on long enough to say I managed to see the final showing of my son’s play Friday night then come home and type out these few meager words and fall into bed. The play was brilliant, the theatre was the correct temperature and my head did not explode not did not implode.

Should I last the night and the morning, my review will hopefully be up come late afternoon/evening.   Thank you for your patience.   If you are new to my blog,  I do try to post at least one review a day Monday-Saturday.

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A Simple Sentence

Sunday 21 March, 2010 By 10 Comments

My neighbours are moving. Such a simple sentence yet one filled with so many emotions. Usually one is happy when one moves. Usually a move is done because one chooses to, but not in this case. I may have mentioned once or twice that I am a private person, however today I have decided to share a bit of what is going on in my life. Should my neighbours’ sisters happen upon my blog and read this post, all the better, yet I do not think it would make a bit of difference to them. At this point, I would assume most of you are wondering what I am rambling on about. My neighbours, the ones we do everything with, the ones my sons think of as their uncles, I view as brothers, my husband’s best friends, are being forced to move. The house they currently live in was purchased by one of the sisters for their mother to live in and with her mother, her brother and TW moved in. For five years they cared for that sweet woman, paid all the bills, property taxes, insurance, etc., and yet, now that the mother has died (buried for only two weeks now) the sister is evicting her brother and TW. As despicable as it sounds, it gets far worse; for it is not for money she is doing this. For the past 5 years, the brother and TW cared for the mother around the clock, never leaving her. The compensation they get for being such a devoted son and friend? Eviction. The two sisters put their heads together and decided to buy the guys a trailer in some trailer park far from here. Why a trailer? Easy. One can be purchased immediately, which is vital since they want them out of the house as soon as possible. Still doubt the love these two sisters have in their hearts? As I type this there are rows of cars parked outside. Most are relatives who never stopped to see that dear sweet woman while she was alive, yet they have time to tear through her belongings. The guys wanted time to grieve, to keep her room intact and to continue renting the house. A rather normal request since it is what they have done all along, however, the answer is a resounding no. The sister, backed by her husband and the other sister believe money can be made selling the house. Sure, it is possible, it is a lovely home, but at what cost to those they are hurting? I would like to point out that I am not opposed to trailer parks, so please do not send me hate mail. I am opposed to forcing people to live where they do not want to live. The guys wanted to buy a small condo or rent an apartment, but either of those choices take time and the sisters do not want to give them time. I am furious because they have absolutely no say in where they are to live. The brother is on disability and due for another back surgery. He was told he could stay in the house while he recovered and I would be able to help. Now that is an impossibility. They will be in a place I have never even heard of, far enough away from anyone who ever cared about them or that they ever cared about and that really is the point. The two older sisters want them tucked away, out of site out of mind and I am helpless. I have tried to argue that little to no money would be saved and then it dawned on me that money was never the point. Getting rid of these two kind, caring, compassionate men was the point. This was a plan put into motion before our families ever met and I am filled with so many emotions, and not one of them good. I had hoped blogging about my feeling would be therapeutic and in time it may be, or merely a record of an extremely painful period for my family and myself. The twins are at a loss for words, we spent every day with these guys. We have never lived near family and so we “adopted” them or they us, no one recalls exactly how it happened. Now, once again, we will be without family.

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I Care Too Much….

Saturday 12 September, 2009 By Leave a Comment

According to my oldest teenager (I have 3 teen boys), my current crime as a parent is “caring too much”. His words were meant to upset, yet they did the opposite. My teenage son will someday realise that as a parent, “caring too much” is not a crime. Quite the opposite. I am smiling as I recall our discussion last night, as difficult as it was to see him upset, it confirmed that my husband and I have been doing a good job as parents. When he was born, I was offered a lot of parenting advise, which I ignored. I also had a lot of parenting books (I do so adore books), all well meaning, although I questioned those written by authors without children. It did not take me long to realise most of those books were not helpful beyond the newborn stage and I donated them. Parenting must be learned through trial and error. I digress. I also should not type before my second cup of coffee.
What led to my son’s accusation? Curious this morning I see. My son is “gifted” (a term I dislike, but that is a subject for a different post), which to me has meant, he has never had to study a day in his life and therefore has not learned how to study. This is a problem. Being the wise old mum that I am, I figured he, a high school student, may find his two college level courses a bit difficult, considering his lack of knowledge on how to study. To prepare for this I set into place ground rules. If his grades dropped, he lost privileges. Why not teach him how to study you ask? I would love nothing more. However, I am his mum and therefore intellectually challenged. His father, a professor of chemistry, is equally intellectually challenged. Apparently becoming parents has that effect. At this point I must add in that I have 3 wonderful sons. They do not miss curfew, they do not drink, smoke, or engage in other activities that would not be appropriate. My oldest has a job and was recently promoted. In short, I was blessed with good sons. Yet being a teen means testing limits. This is not new. I tested my parents, they tested their parents, and so on. In the end, my oldest had to be driven to his cross country pre-meet-carbo-loading-feast. Imagine the embarrassment of having to be driven by a parent. I know, we are dreadful! Yet, he took the loss of a car fairly well. After calming down, testosterone surges are wicked, he and I discussed why I “care too much” and devised a plan that worked for both of us. We emailed one of his teachers (why do people no longer use phones to communicate?) to plan a time for our oldest son to meet with his teacher and explain how he “studies” and in return have the teacher explain to him a more effective strategy of studying. Fortunately his teachers have all their intellectual facilities intact, unlike me, his humble mum. We also devised a new order, a law of the house, to help guide him into studying. I will share what we devised, with the understanding that those of you with younger children may think me silly, and those of you with grown children are chuckling (you know, you have lived it) and those of you with teens (understand, you are living it). My oldest, my darling sweet child, who I “care too much” about, has a new schedule (his twin brothers already adopted this schedule on their own years before). No telly during the week, all studying must be done in his room, earlier bedtime, and absolutely no FaceBooking during the week. The latter being the largest of all problems. Hopefully, this will help my oldest teen learn effective studying that will see him through the remainder of high school, through college and beyond.
For now, I shall continue to “care too much” about all 3 of my sons!

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Uncaffeinated and Migraine Brain Thoughts

Thursday 25 June, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I do not think my brain could possible ramble more than today. On top of caffeine deprivation (it is steeping as I type), I have migraine brain. If nothing else, this should prove to be an entertaining blog post.

First off, I am knitting again (did my knitting friends just fall over in a faint?) I am swatching to make Lily, by Marie Grace Designs. I will be using Llamajama yarn in Orchid. I can say with honestly this is the softest yarn I have ever touched. It saddens me to have to add (as a disclaimer to save my bum), I did not receive any compensation to say that nice things about them. To my knowledge they do not even know I did. The yarn (in my unbiased opinion) has a wonderful hand, beautiful drape, a softness I cannot describe and I look forward to wearing it.

Huge news for my household, Sheldon *is* eating!! Apparently Sheldon did not read the book on raising Bearded Dragons and does not realise 75% of his diet should be made up of protein (crickets) while 25% is greens. He humoured me and finally ate 1 cricket late last night. However after trying several salads we hit on a favourite of his! We have a whole baggy of Sheldon Salad; equal parts collard greens, kale, and mustard greens. I confess, prior to Sheldon I had heard of these but only actually seen Kale. A long way to say, my baby beardie prefers veg to insects (I really cannot find fault).

I am about to date myself here, how many of you recall Dudley Do Right? “Here I come to save the day!” Viola, it is my husband. Not for me, no. Rather our neighbours are headed out of town and asked it he would mind watching their dogs. The have gorgeous dogs (did I mention big) and well mannered (with their owners present) and he thinks there will be no problem walking into their home while they are away to tend to the needs of the dogs (they have never been left before and being faithful dogs, fiercely guard their home). If by some good fortune my husband is not mauled to death upon entry, walking them should prove interesting. I mentioned they were big dogs? Yes. They are solid muscle. She is a professional trainer and previous body builder (which is to say she is extremely strong) and when she walks them at times it looks as though they will dislocate her shoulders). At this point let me point out my husband (whom I think is the most handsome man around) does not lift weights, he does not exercise. Please think positive thoughts for my husband this weekend. (I will be asking my father who the patron saint of stupidity is, for good measure).

As for the dreaded summer cold? It is so happy in my body, it may indeed be here to stay. I have lost track on how long I have had it now. The summer cold I can handle, the intense migraine pain, that really needs to subside. I know it will never go away. (I came to terms with that diagnosis decades ago.) Yet on a pain scale from 1-10 (5 does not count) I would like it around a 3-4. Before anyone emails me, I do not know why 5 does not count, I did not make up the rules. Although, I may ask, just because.

Children. I must admit to being baffled. Most of you have never met my boys. I have 2 shy and one outgoing. We have been discussing High School Classes as usual. It does not, at this time, look as though any of my children want to follow in the footsteps of their father. My oldest would like to go into Political Science (score one for me), my outgoing one would like to travel the world. He is fascinated by other cultures, so he is thinking Anthropology/Archeology/Biology. The surprise was my extremely quiet son. He would like to (and apparently has wanted to for quite some time) take theatre and videography classes. Mannequin, if you are reading this, I would welcome your thoughts and advise.

My coffee is ready (Ode to Joy is playing in my head). It looks as though the temperatures will be in the 90s yet again today. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Thursday!

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My Son: Quotable Sunday

Sunday 26 April, 2009 By Leave a Comment

There have many topics I have wanted to use for today’s Quotable Sunday. Then it dawned on me, my son wrote a poem for school which coveys many thoughts running through my own head. He managed to capture and put into words things I could not.

From Nothing, Into Nothing
written by My Oldest Son, April 2009

“Within this world of noise
And of the everything chaos;

We take the Nothings for granted,
As if they are nothing
And could never be something
Of equal value to us.

As we think of ourselves
As everything and anything,
We are blind to our purpose,
Which defines us as something
In this universe of unknown
And Nothings and Somethings.

Our comic beliefs of being
The one who will change the Everything,
Must be halted by the truth
Of the self-discovery of the Nothings.

Everyone against everyone,
As we sacrifice life for the Harbinger of Something,
To affect the Everything
That we cannot fathom;
The endless hordes of chaos
Pillage the earth,
For the Everything that is not there.

They frantically scavenge for the Everything
While trying to know as many somethings,
As the primitive flesh soaks in. Sadly,
They fail to acknowledge the limits
Of the pathetic, feeble mind.
With rage and complexion,
They retreat into insanity
As the search for the Everything goes on.

Blind to the truth,
Ever-seeing to the lies,
Consecrating the power of knowledge,
And the wisdom they foolishly seek.
In attempts to be the Something,
That forms to the Everything,
Of vast, eternal life.

As the congregation of the masses
Swells the globe beyond its Breaking,
The millions of scores of wannabe Somethings,
And self-proclaimed Anythings;
The truth is absent here.

As the corrosion of Conformity
Poisons the brain-dead crowd,
The Earth is enveloped in Deathly Cypress.
The people follow willingly,
As the Blind lead the Blind,
Into the abysmal dawn
Of their true existence;
From Nothing,
Into Nothing.“

I would very much like to thank my son for allowing me to print his poem. If his AP Honors English teacher is searching the internet and has run across this, it is indeed his original work.

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