Seven Things: Some Mini Rants

01 - Do you ever have dreams where you go on some trip with a group of people, like to a museum and then for some reason they ditched you or that you somehow ended up alone and then you had to find your way back to the group but you got lost and before anything else happens, you wake up? No? I guess it's just me. I don't analyze my dreams or remember them but this one I remember. I guess it's one of those normal abnormal things because no one likes to be left behind.

02 - I don't have a license so I can't drive but traveling can be expensive even if you're going to the next neighborhood. My only way of transport is the subway, ie, the train. So if I'm somewhere and I couldn't find a train station, I wouldn't know how to get home. People use the subway because it's cheaper but now the train rides are more expensive which makes no sense. I barely know how to ride the bus which I think I rode twice. And taxis? I've only ride in one maybe once with someone. Taking a taxi is probably cheaper but I don't like that because you're alone in the back seat and who knows, maybe the taxi driver had other ideas and take you somewhere you don't want to go. 

03 - Recently I finished watching Soul Detective which is about a soul detective who finds/catches souls that had escaped from hell. It's a somewhat, light drama but with a lot of deaths and people getting possessed by souls and some romance and tiny bits of humor and a couple of sappy moments. The special effects are really well done. I enjoyed watching it. You can watch it here. Make sure to turn on the closed captions/subtitles for the English subtitles.

04 - I really starting to hate the phrase, Spoiler Alert, in fictional books. I find it's especially annoying in fantasy books. I can't give an example because I didn't mark them and don't remember them but it seems to be used to tell readers the obvious things with a slight attitude of annoyance. The ones I read were used in children's books so I find that even more annoying because it's like unless you're a child, you feel like they are trying too hard to sound young - I don't know if that's true but it just seems that way.

05 - I just finished a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle called Snow White and the Seven Gnomes with artwork by Demelsa Houghton. Houghton's artwork is gorgeous. This artwork is fun - one of the gnomes painted a mustache on the queen in the mirror. This was mostly a fun puzzle except I'm annoyed by all the puzzle dust. 

art by Demelsa Houghton

    If you don't know, Ravensburger puzzles pieces have blue backings instead of gray which is nice until you have to deal with it. There seems to be excessive dust so I couldn't completely remove them while putting the puzzle together so I have to accept it. For some reason, they just seems to multiply if you move them around as a group, like pouring them from a box to another box. I use boxes to sort the puzzle pieces so I have to remove the dust after each use. I really don't to figure out why the excessive puzzle dust or why the blue dye seems a bit clingy on smooth surfaces so I'm not buying any more Ravensburger puzzles and besides that, they are quite expensive and they don't even come with a poster.

06 - It just seems like lots of blogging things are ending - memes, challenges, co-ops, hops, blogs. Art challenges are the ones that seem to end more frequently, I think. There are many art challenges at instagram and other social media platforms but I'm more incline to participate if it's run on a blog by a blogger and stays there instead of spreading around to other platforms. 
    Motivations to create art (& do other things) has been very low for me these past few years. I do find with prompts, the creative juice seems to run more often. People crave doing creative things even when the motivation is not there, I know I do. Making art for my blog posts sort of counts as a small creative outlet but it's not quite there. Why have the motivation gone? Why do people stop doing things that make them happy? Who have answers to such things?
    Recently (more like a year ago), Thursday Art and Dinner Date ran by Rain has ended due to Rain wanting some time away from the internet. So now I'm thinking some blogger should make a new art challenge for bloggers who don't care to use social media. I would do it except somehow I just don't think I can. It's easy to come up with prompts but if I can't do, I can't ask other people to do it. I know there still a of art challenges out there but I haven't found one that I like so I'll keep looking.

Unofficial badge, more here.

07 - Anyone up for the Blogging from A-Z Challenge this April? I'm going to do it even if I don't finish. I like the challenge of using the alphabet as a guide to write 26 post. I don't pre-write any of my posts except maybe the first post. I like the extra challenge of writing a post before I publish it which no one have to do. I think even if you pre-write your posts, it's a good challenge for any blogger to sort of test your stamina and your blogging brain. It really is a challenge and not just something to do lightly. More about the A-Z challenge here.

What's on your mind these days?

Book Rants: Sept 2025

I would like to have more varieties in the books I read but I always seem to end up reading murder mysteries. I had tried a couple of none murder mysteries but I barely got past the first chapter but at least I did finish one science fiction. The more I dislike a book (or anything), the more I have to complain about so some of these rants are pretty long. It wasn't a great reading month but I did enjoy a couple of books. 
   I put in the spoiler alert text in red but is it useful? It's difficult to decide sometimes what is spoiler and what isn't. I think you cannot write your thoughts on certain books without some spoilers so yes, spoilers for all the books I mentioned here.
    Here are all the books I read in September and other stuff I finished.

Books I Read:

01 - The Night Singer (The Island Murders #1) by Johanna Mo
What's it about: death of a teenage boy, investigation, teenagers, family, old crimes
This is like two books in one but the same story told twice - one in the victim's point of view (Joel, which was told in the present tense which is odd but acceptable) and the other is the investigation with various point of views, mostly Hanna's (a cop). It seemed like one of the views is redundant. I don't like going back and forth, it cuts off the continuation of the story each time.
    I'm annoyed by how much useless information and how many detours the book made before getting to the end. Also, Hanna's father's crime/case hung over the entire book as it was constantly mentioned, constantly thought about by Hanna but of course no resolution but will probably be the last case of the series. But I do find that case more interesting than Joel's case.
    Also, they kept mentioning Hanna's height (over 6 feet) and that annoys me because she really had no personality other than her height, her father's crime and also being awkward around everybody. This is a socially, awkward woman who got a bit too emotional when she shouldn't and her so-call great cop skills were mentioned but never utilized. Basically throughout the book, she was trying not to break down and sob. I don't think she's fit to be a cop, at least, she shouldn't be working Joel's case.
    I wouldn't call this is a murder mystery or even a thriller, it's mostly about people and their emotions and thoughts. I guess titling this as The Night Singer seemed almost meaningless considering that was barely referenced twice but I guess in a way, it gives a certain mystery. I honestly expected something vile or ultra-violent or something unexpectedly better than this ending with that large knife shape on the cover. What actually happened was underwhelming and dumb and I wouldn't call it murder. I don't like this two viewpoints format so I'm not continuing this series.

Seven Things: Some Stuff

the rain witch, 2024

01 - I've been slacking in my commenting and I am very sorry to my fellow bloggers. But I have no excuses. I simply didn't have much will to do it. So I did a lot of drive-by blogging - I read, I thought about what I read and I left without leaving any words. Maybe there are no words even though I'm a wordy person. But I did finish replying to comments on my blog, at least, I was caught up two weeks ago. I don't like to slack on replying to comments on my blog. I just think it's a good thing to do if for readers even I'm often two weeks late in replying.

02 - I'm doing the April A-Z Challenge because I like the challenge or maybe I like torturing myself by speed-writing posts but whatever reason, I'm up for it though I have no post prepared even though the challenge starts tomorrow. As usual, I will post random nonsense that may or may not entertain people a little with some not too-long fiction. More about the A-Z Challenge here.

Some thoughts on Jigsaw Puzzles

One of my favorite hobby is jigsaw puzzles which I don't do often but I've always enjoyed them. Usually people start a puzzle by putting the edges together and begin from there. I've done that but now I prefer to pick a piece from the middle and build the puzzle around it - it's more challenging that way. But the edge method is definitely a good way to start if you don't know any other way.
    Here are some puzzles I had finished over the years and what I think of them in no particular order. I didn't include the level of difficulty for each puzzle as I think that depends on the person but these definitely aren't for younger children as the pieces are rather too small.

01 - Disney Tangled > link
Artist: Thomas Kinkade
Brand: Schmidt
Pieces: 1000
Packaging: Cardboard box shrink-wrapped with puzzle pieces in sealed plastic bag
Puzzle Dust: minimum
Thoughts: I think Schmidt's brand have one of the best quality puzzle pieces I've ever encountered though they are pretty expensive. This particular Tangled puzzle is a bit difficult to do as there are so many similar pieces but the artwork is great. I especially like the puzzle pieces are kind of matted so it didn't have shine to them. This is definitely one of my favorite artwork but I love all things Tangled. (If you like this artwork but want to spend less, Ceaco have a version of this same puzzle.)

August 2023 - A brief review

August was a slow and yet, quick month. I had been lazy, only that, work made one un-lazy somehow. The weather had been a bit mixed - one day, it was hot, the next, it was cool. Often, my brain can't shut off so on some nights I'm awake thinking about things but mostly worrying for no reason but also, the heat kept me awake. I don't enjoy summer because of the heat but more because of mosquitos/flies/insects tend to bite me for no reason. The strange thing was, I didn't see that many mosquitos/flies/insects around and I'm hardly outside so how could I have been bitten so many times?
    I might have had watched a bit too many Chinese shows last month so that I can learn Mandarin but honestly, it's just an excuse to watch more television because my brain can't seem to learn new things, especially new languages. I think if I had started learning mandarin when I was kid, I might actually have been able to learn it but now it's rather difficult but I did learn a few phrases.
    Reading was not as enjoyable as usual. Somehow I just couldn't get interested in any book to finish it. I read so many samples, they can kind of accumulate into 10 or more books. Every sample I read is terrible or boring or I'm correcting the writing or I just didn't like it. Maybe I'm sick of reading or maybe I haven't found a book worth finishing.
    For most of August, I've been working on three writing projects but even though I did write a lot, it's still not a lot. I write about ten to twenty minutes or so at a time and then somehow I loose the motivation to continue which is a habit that I couldn't fix. Lately, I think too much on a story but write very little. All this equals to not a lot of writing done but I at least, I got some ideas down.

The only thing I've finished in August (besides work projects which I will not talk about here), was a Agatha Christie jigsaw puzzle. I really liked this puzzle but I kind of wish the art wasn't so symmetrical because it's no fun if all the pieces are too similar. For info about this puzzle, go here.

How was your August? I hope September is good to you.

February 2023 Books & Misc

Nothing much happened in February that is worth mentioning but I read books and really, books are the only good things these days. Still reading Agatha Christie books but mostly because I couldn't find other books interesting enough to read.  Here are the books I read in February plus other stuff.

Books I read

01 - The Alpine Path by L. M. Montgomery > link
This was very short (at 34 pages, less if you don't include the biography), essays that sort of offer a little insight into the author's mind and life. Then there is a mini biography which I wish I hadn't read. I didn't want to know how Montgomery nor that it might be suicide which you can either believe it or not since there is different opinions which I read elsewhere I can't remember. I think I prefer not to know the how at all.