Zip Thru Autumn 12 & 13

For December 7 -December 13, the suggested prompts are Dare and Chance. To me being daring means doing something that you're afraid to do. Well, I'm afraid of a lot of things so it pretty much means everything I do is sort of daring. I've been kindly and sometimes rudely, pushed to do daring things. For a couple of things, I have yet to decide if I would thank them but for most things, I am grateful. Introvert that I am, it's unlikely I would have done many things if not for others. Being daring is sort of hard for me but at least, I came out okay at the end.
    Is chance means luck? People think they have bad luck when bad things happen and maybe that's a way of seeing things and not necessarily true unless we believe them. I believe in luck but at the same time, I believe that I shouldn't believe it. What's that saying about you making your own luck? Well, maybe it's true in some situations because if you do nothing, then there's no good or bad luck. It's a belief, right?

For December 14 -December 20, the suggested prompts are Balance and Achievements in 2022. I don't have balance, certainly trying to put on pants is a challenge because I can never stand on one leg too long. I joke but there's so many saying about how to live a well balanced life but really, do we need to try for such thing? Focusing on what we do instead of how to keep balance is better.
    I can't think of any achievements I had in 2022 but then again, I forget a lot so maybe I did do something worth mentioning but I just can't remember it. But I do remember reading a lot of books (good and bad), made a few art pieces (with many still unfinished), wrote a lot of stories, did a lot of blogging, did a lot of thinking, and working - can those be called achievements? I like to think whatever you do is an achievement because you did it. Do we need to pat ourselves on the back for that? Do we need to highlight the great and not the bad? I think it's better not to think about what you have achieved, rather whether you had enjoyed in doing them.

This is the last of the Zip Thru Autumn posts. I had enjoyed a few of the topics but mostly, I find, I have nothing much to say about them. This was a good challenge. Thanks to the people at the AtoZ blog for thinking this up and hosting it.

Books I Read in November 2022

I didn't do a lot of reading in November because I was again stressed out by work but mostly I just wasn't in the mood for reading or much of anything. Cold weather always make me not want to do things that are too active. Maybe I'm like bears, sleep through winter and then become active again when the weather gets warmer. Anyway, here are the books I read in November.

01 - Cat Among the Pigeons (A Hercule Poirot Mystery, 1959) by Agatha Christie > link
This started out a little bland and you can't even begin to think where Poirot would show up or if at all. As these books aren't about the detective, one really shouldn't expect too much appearances from the detective but having the detective showing up at the end like he's a side character of sorts wasn't that great an idea. The mystery was okay but seemed a bit slow somehow.

02 - Peril at End House (A Hercule Poirot Mystery, 1932) by Agatha Christie
I read this same storyline in another Hercule Poirot book (though I can't remmeber which) where Poirot tried to prevent a murder but he didn't succeed and then he solved the murder. I suppose if I haven't been reading Hercule Poirot books I might find this more enjoyable to read.

03 - Dead Man's Folly (A Hercule Poirot Mystery, 1956) by Agatha Christie
This was okay though I find the solution a bit farfetched but there were clues given that said otherwise but it was a bit harder to believe though at first but as with most mysteries, you don't really understand the whole of the story until you got to the solution.

04 - The Big Four (A Hercule Poirot Mystery, 1927) by Agatha Christie
Poirot seemed more like a cop here. I really like this one it did see rather repetitious. [Spoiler: We get to know Poirot has a scar on his upper lips. For a few moments I did believe Poirot had a twin brother but then then I didn't. Though I really did like the idea. End Spoiler].

05 - Dead Wrong (Agatha's Amish B&B Book 1) by Vannetta Chapman > link
The not using electricity and electronics like phones and computers would definitely make me not want to be Amish but here, the Amish character (the main character Agatha) uses just about anything as long as the Bishop approves - it really seems being Amish here is not really a big deal, perhaps a little meaningless at times but nevertheless, this was a decent read but perhaps it needs a little more editing.

Did you read any good books in November? How's your December going?

Thursday Thirteen: Meandering Thoughts

The Tea Witch, 2022

I find a new meme that seems pretty easy. It's called Thursday Thirteen and all you do is just list 13 things on your choice of topics on Thursdays. Here are some meandering thoughts that I tried to be as brief as possible just to add a challenge. (The art above, The Tea Witch, was going to be used in a new about page but I haven't gotten around to it so I'm using it here.)  Visit other people's list at Thursday Thirteen here.

01 - I'm a comment slacker but I didn't mean to be. I try all the time to leave comments but I just seem unable to think of anything to say.

02 - Now and then google likes to test my patience by marking my comments on my blog as spam even though I'm signed in and it's my damm blog.

03 - This not being signed into Blogger blogs when you are signed into google's Blogger is annoying. I have to sign in every time I want to leave a comment on a blog.

04 - I saw a commercial for a phone that has the ability to erase with the swipe of our fingers whatever you don't want from the photo you take. This makes me wonder maybe soon there will not be an original photo posted on the web, at least, not one that wasn't altered in some way. Is this progress?

05 - Now that there's such things as Canva (a free-to-use online graphic design tool), I find being a graphic designer kind of not that great. They made it sound so easy to design everything with "no design experience required." If everyone just go get themselves a Canva account or something similar, then would people still need graphic designers? Of course those templates they offered were probably designed by graphic designers. (Canva link)

06 - "Grow a pair of ovaries" - is this good pep talk to a grown woman? It was in a certain book I've read this year. Does any female say this to themselves?

07 - These days, I have low expectations for books but still, it would be nice if writers stop writing about characters who does dumb things that makes readers think they are too stupid to live.

08 - Apparently, I've been lying to readers for years for saying I read science fiction books but it seemed I've only read maybe one or two science fiction a year. I do like a good science fiction now and then but somehow I never find any to read.

09 - One shouldn't wish for time to go faster because it solves nothing and yet, when one is so stressed out of their mind, a quicker passing of time might be a welcome thing.

10 - Do you know what makes work more stressful when you're on a deadline? When a giant fly keeps bugging you every time you try to do something.

11 - Blogs have long memory, that is, if you don't delete them.

12 - Don't you hate it when you look up a word in the dictionary, it defines it with the short version of that word?

13 - It just seem kind of suddenly very cold one day and that's when it really hit me that it's winter. I don't recall the transition this brutal last year or perhaps I have forgotten it?

Have you anything you want to share today?