Just Books

I've been slow getting this post up, I'm almost finished with book number 21 at this point!  Oh well.... 

16. Cruel Intent Jance, J.A.

17. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac Zevin, Gabrielle

18. On the verge Papa, Ariella

19. The slap : a novel Tsiolkas, Christos

20. Apartment 16 Nevill, Adam L. G.

Note to self:  Reading creepy books when the husband is going to be out of town is a bad, bad idea.  Apartment 16 I finished a couple of nights ago... and it's still haunting me.  Someone had a very bad experience with surrealistic art and felt the need to share it.  I shouldn't have partaken, I think.  That one is gonna bother me for a while.

On the other hand, The Slap was one of the most exquisitely written, interesting books I've read in a very very long time.  I recommend it to absolutely everyone. It's a look at what happens to a group of friends when one man disciplines a child who is not his own at a neighbourhood barbecue.  Really interesting relationships, and it's set in Australia, so some fun and different places and slang to read about.

Grammy Fever - Sis Boom Bah Crash....

I had a blast live blogging the Grammys for Mahalo.  Until, that is, my computer decided to have a rather girly hissy fit and puke all over the rug.  More about that later.

One of the best parts of live blogging is the interaction with others who are writing at the same time.  The expressions of horror over Nicki Minaj's dress for instance - the favourite page of mine that I was able to blog on that night - or the delight over certain winners.  (I'll admit it, I was rooting for Train and Lady Antebellum all night.  Two of my favourite songs of last year came from them).  I get a lot out of the live blogging, as well as putting in a good amount of work of course.  They have such a lovely team at Mahalo, and the immediate feedback of hearing I did a great job on a page is nicely rewarding.  I'm hoping to work on the Academy Awards at the end of this month as well, though once award show season is over, I'm guessing there won't be a whole bunch of opportunities to live blog.  Hm, I'll bet it'd really be something to live blog the Olympics - it'd be practically 24/7!

As for my computer, it's been doing this weird thing lately where it says I have no speaker hardware installed. I googled the situation, and it looked like several people had this problem not long after installing Windows 7, which I did about a month ago.  I was told to reboot, which should resolve it.  Okay, so the first time it happened, one reboot did it.  The second time, I had to reboot twice.  The third time?  Four times.  Uh oh, if it kept doubling I was going to be rebooting ridiculous amounts of times pretty soon.

At the same time, I'd been having a lot of trouble with .pdf docs and flash player items crashing my browsers, so I went ahead and updated both my adobe reader and flash player.  Thought I was all good.  Then during the grammys, everything started freaking out.  Flash was crashing.  I couldn't watch videos.  That was okay for a while, I had the coverage on my dvr that I could watch to blog on.  The browsers were crashing.  The sound was gone.  I couldn't get the computer to stay together for more than a minute or two.  After eight reboots, EIGHT, I was able to get back into Mahalo's irc and finish the page I was working on.  I thought I was all good, took another page on, and boom, crash, system error, your windows did not shut down correctly.  Gah!  I had to call it a night about an hour early.

Luckily for me, I have an in-house computer tech, who spent a few hours taking things apart, trying various options, and finally told me my sound card was toast.  At first we thought that the replacement of that would fix everything, but soon discovered it went deeper than that.

So, now I am typing to you on a new-to-me used laptop that we picked up.  It's only a couple of months old, so that's okay.  My old laptop was from 2008, and I'm well aware that technology is only meant to last a year nowadays.  But I can be back to work today, as I have sound and the ability to play videos again...

Stealing from the Library

"Isn't that stack a little precarious?"

"Mmm?  What stack?"  I look up from the summer sweater I'm crocheting.  My husband points to the stack of books on the shelf, the bottom book jutting out over the front of the cabinet by at least three inches.  "Oh, probably."

"Are those all library books?"

"Mmm.  Yeah. And a DVD and audiobook."

"You have all those out of the library right now?"

"No.  I have one more on the nightstand."  I offer him a sweet smile.  "And you have at least four or five more out yourself, you know."

"Oh, yeah.  I do."

"Three are cookbooks, I just haven't had time to type the recipes into the computer yet."  I eye the stack.  "It does sometimes feel like stealing to have so many good books at home though..."

"It's not safe to have those books stacked like that.  Not with that around."  He points at the sprawled cat on the floor, who has been running around with a straw in his mouth like a crazed maniac for the last half an hour, and has just now become exhausted.

"I actually had to move the books over there because earlier today he sent them all over the floor.  It was like a cartoon, he was running on top of them and they kept shooting out behind him."

"And this is the safer alternative???"

I had no answer for that.

Overcoming Football Fear Syndrome with Live Blogging

One of the best things about creative work of any kind, but especially writing is being paid equitably - rewardingly, even.  I'll write you anything, and I'll write it with passion and in a way to inspire interest, so long as you pay me!  I'm happy because I got a raise at Mahalo - actually, all of the writers got a raise, and some of the tech work, such as inputting related pages and such - has been moved out of our purview, to give us the opportunity to produce better content.  The only thing better than money might be fame, and the M4 software at least gives us a byline, so that's a big step too.

I've had more of a chance to play with the M4 software at this point, and I have to admit that some of the changes are beneficial.  I don't like that everything is centered around the how-to videos, but that's a content rather than a software issue.  Some of the things I really didn't like, such as the new formatting of related pages, I don't have to worry about any more.  I've switched to using Chrome as a browser, which I was extremely reluctant to do, but it's solved most of the bug issues I had at the beginning, so that's something.  Richard continues to run into more bugs than me, and has perpetually lost work due to hitting the backspace button (which takes you back a page in your browser, and causes you to lose your work - OUCH!)  I live in fear of hearing cusses thrown about in regards to backspace.  Cats flee at the mention.  Dogs hide under the bed.  It's almost as bad as my dad watching football....

Speaking of which, I also have to admit I had a blast working on my first live blogging event with the Super Bowl.  This is an event which has not seen TV time in a home of mine since I moved out of my parents house.  Why?  Okay, sorry Dad, but I have to admit it - your football watching style traumatized me.  Football games make me anxious, always waiting for the yelling and cursing to start.  My dad is mild-mannered in almost any way, but he's rabid and scary about football.  I'm told he's mellowed some the last few years, which is good - I used to always think he'd have a heart attack during the games.  I wouldn't date guys who were big football fans either - thankfully my husband is a hockey lover, good Canadian boy that he is.

Okay, so I managed to get the game on, and had a great time writing alongside other like-minded folks, who were mostly there for the shows and commercials rather than the game itself.  It's as entertaining as anything else about the day, and getting to collaborate on pages with such a lovely team made it even better.  Check out some of the pages I worked on during the big day:

• Black Eyed Peas Halftime Show
• Bud Light Severance Package Commercial (Check this out for sure if you missed the live airing - one of the best of the Bowl!!!)
• Captain America The First Avenger Ad
• Go Daddy Ad
• Kung Fu Panda Ad
• Bud Light Super Bowl Ads
• Coke Animated Kingdom Ad
• Jack in the Box Ad
• Bridgestone Carma Ad

There are tons of other pages on the site which include ALL the ads from the Super Bowl as well as coverage of the events surrounding it, so check it out!

Books and Balls

See, I was going to title this "Books and Bowls" but that was less fun.  I'm going to be one of the writers covering the 2011 Super Bowl live on Mahalo today, along with a handful of others, and some video people working live from the office to capture all the cool plays and killer commercials.  If you want fun live coverage of not only the action but the side action too (I'll be doing commercials, celeb appearances, shows, stuff like that) just set your browser to Mahalo.com to check in.  We'll be working pre-game, game, half-time, and post-game shows to bring you info on everything you ever wanted to know about the Super Bowl.  Should be fun!

To help with the pluralization of balls, I should update you that our cat George has a fixation with a certain yellow and white plastic mesh ball that he loves to play fetch with, but only if Richard is asleep or out of the house.  I think he's afraid it's going to be stolen or something.  Stepped on maybe, he's lost a lot of those plastic mesh balls that way.... not by my feet, I'm close enough to the ground to still see what I'm walking on :)  When Richard is home, he persistently brings a large slurpee straw back to one of us for fetching play.  He stole it from the trash a while back, and loves it so much that neither of us has the heart to take it away from him.


Books!
11. The guinea pig diaries : my life as an experiment Jacobs, A. J.
12. Your big break Edwards, Johanna
13. House rules : a novel Picoult, Jodi
14.  Whispers and lies Fielding, Joy
15. Full dark, no stars King, Stephen


A note on House Rules: I started reading this over the summer, but it was long, there were many people waiting for it behind me at the library, and I was caught up in gardening.  I returned it, and downloaded the audio book instead.  I've been listening to it for ages, off and on.  I loved it, but it was an emotionally intense read, like many of Picoult's books are.

The Guinea Pig Diaries is very funny if you like non-fiction essays.


Also, I totally spaced on my FAQ page and forgot to address this one:

Why are your books formatted so oddly and why do they link to your library when half of us can't get there??

Okay, they are formatted oddly, with non title caps and the authors name backwards because I copy them directly from the "Reading History" tab of my account on the library website.  That copies the link for me too, and if you click on it, you can at least check out the book.  The library website has enough information, such as summaries and such, that you will know if you want to read it, even if you plan on going to buy it at your local store, or request it at a local library.  And if you *are* from here, you can just click to request it, so yanno, good for you for being from Alberta.  Or something.

FAQ Day!

I've been getting a few questions since I started blogging, mostly off-site, because one of the biggest questions is about commenting.  I decided to do a FAQ day to address all of those.  Also, I am headachey and having a hard time working productively today, so I decided it was time to write something a little more "fun" to alleviate some stress.

How do I leave a comment on your blog?

This is the most common question, and it's surprisingly easy to answer.  If you have a google account of any kind - Gmail, AdSense, YouTube, Google Documents, Google Friend Connect or, of course, Blogger, just log in at the top navigation bar, and when you comment below the post, it'll use your Google account information.

If you don't have a Google account and don't want one, that's okay too!  Use Name/URL from the drop down menu, and enter whatever you like, whether it's the URL of your facebook page or some news story you like.  I really don't care what you use for a URL, just as long as I know it's you (if you want me to know!) You can also comment anonymously, though sometimes the Blogger system will pick that up as spam.  If it's a legit comment though, I'll de-spammify it.  I swear.  Even if it's bad - I don't mind criticism.  Usually.

I'm still having trouble commenting.  Help?

Really, there's nothing else I can do.  I have removed all the spam blockers, including the prove-you're-a-human test where you have to type in those warped little letters.  I have tried looking up other solutions, really I have.  I don't know what the issue could be.  It's possible my blog is just broken somehow, judging by how many people are having problems.

How can I get a job at Mahalo?

If you really are interested, this is the hiring link: http://mahaloteams.com/guide/

I'm not sure if they are actively hiring still, or if they are on hiatus with the new M4 software rollout.  Hey, it's worth a try, though, right?  The system is very buggy still right now, and there are a lot of issues being worked out, but if you're game to give it a go, go for it!  At least if you've read my blog, you'll be going in with your eyes wide open!  If I know you, feel free to say I referred you. If you are some stranger from Russia who came across this blog while surfing for large woolen hats or something, I'm gonna tell the bossman I haven't a clue who you are if he asks.  But do drop me a line and tell me how you came across my blog in your search for winter headgear.  Was it the crocheted laptop bag?  Hm.

How on earth will you have time to read 111 books this year?

Well, I dunno.  I read before bed every night, and listen to audio books while I do housework, walk, and in better weather, while I garden.  I read instead of watching TV to relax a lot of the time.  Richard and I listen to audio books in the car when we're travelling together.  It's about reading for pleasure this year, too, not just for enlightenment or education, so don't expect to see a ton of stuffy, academic books on my list.  There will probably be a couple, because sometimes I find those fun, too, and I find a steady diet of fun books is kind of like a steady diet of frosting.  You need a steak once in a while, too.  And broccoli.  I'm one book away from posting my next set of five, which will bring me to 15.  I was hoping to read 50 before my birthday in mid-April, and I'm about on track for that I think.  I read less in the nice weather, because I spend more time outdoors, although last summer I spent a lot of time outdoors reading - so who knows!  I only live a block from a park where I can sit and read, and have a backyard that's shady and cool in the summer afternoons, so we'll see how it goes.