Gord’s Comments (group member since Apr 06, 2017)

Gord’s comments from the Vampires, Weres and Fae! group.

Another day another sewer backup. It's so bad that our neighbors are clearing the building. It hasn't hit here, yet, but the clock is ticking down.

I decided to Google it as I was curious. Alberta and Saskatchewan average 14-18 tornadoes each per year. Manitoba and Ontario each average 8-14 per year. That's more than I thought to be honest.

Depends on where you go but yup, we get tornadoes. I know southern Alberta gets hit with a few every year.

This heat is brutal. I've had like three hours sleep and I am exhausted this morning. It's six in the morning and it's already 20c/68f and the sun is just coming up. How am I going to survive the next week of this heat?

Stay safe down there with all that wild weather.

I've been saying for years that politics are getting way to nasty. I get it, you want to make yourself look good and your opponent bad but things have just gotten ugly. I blame a lot of this one particular candidate but it's not just him alone. Add in the whole world of grifters trying to make money off of lying their asses off and it's just a lot.

Oh my phone is on silent by default. I only turn on the ringer if I'm expecting an important call or text. Outside of that the phone is only silent mode. The problem is that it vibrates which I just realized that I can turn off. Guess what I just did?

I don't know who the hell this is or if it's the same person but it's starting to get annoying. I live in an apartment and the front door buzzer is tied to your phone. So if someone buzzes your apartment to be let in your phone will ring. Now I've been randomly buzzed either by accident or by someone just trying to get into the building. Lately there have been some odd ones. One Friday evening someone decided that buzzing the same random apartment five times in a row was a great way to get in. One night someone buzzed me at 11ish at night for unknown reasons. Then this morning someone buzzed me twice in a row at 2:30 in the morning. This odd behavior has really ramped up in the last couple months so I'm suspecting someone new in the building. If I had to go further with that guess I'd say that it could possibly be that unit of young people on my floor. They only have one key to get into the building so other people from the unit just buzz to get in. Whoever it is they are not there for me. No one comes over to visit me and if someone was to do so they would know not to do so in the middle of the damn night.

I need Q, V, and Z still.

I finished this just now and I think it's a pretty solid thriller/mystery novel with a good twist ending that I didn't see coming. I'm not sure how you follow this up with a sequel though, this felt like a stand alone novel. The one big criticism of the novel though was the romantic elements. When ever they popped up they just felt weirdly out of place. Minor criticism though as it wasn't a huge part of the novel. If you like mystery/thrillers then I'd say give it a try.

I'm about 70% into this book and I thought I was finally getting a handle on what the hell was going on. Then new evidence came to light and all my theories went out the window. I'm now officially back to being confused again.

Time for that weekly update and not as much to talk about this week. I've been splitting my time between reading and other things on the go. With that being said lets get into what I read.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold -5 Stars
This was a beautiful book that hurt me a lot. It's a slice of life book with four chapters and each chapter is its own self contained little story with interconnecting characters and the cafe as a location. I listened to the first story and it was a little emotional but nothing to heavy. Then the remaining three stories had me crying my eyes out. I listened to this while on my walk to work and for a lot of those walks my vision was rather blurry. I even had to stop a couple times to collect myself before continuing on. What I came to appreciate after I was finished was that these were not just stories full of crushing despair that would leave you broken. There was hope mixed in. You could see the characters processing a horrible event and then see a path forward. A glimmer of hope that while things were dark now they would get better over time. At the same time I don't feel like it was a super sappy happily ever after kind of thing either. It's complicated alright. I'm really glad I read this book and while it did hurt I loved it for the experience. I'm definitely requesting the next one and preparing some tissues for the inevitable tears.

That was it for completed novels this week.

Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus, Vol. 3 -4 Stars
There is something just wonderful about this series. I was thinking about this a lot after I finished this volume and I think a lot of it comes down to the innocence of this series. Don't get me wrong it had it's serious moments for sure but overall it had a pretty innocent tone. There was none of this edge that more modern magical girl shows have. That whole idea of taking something innocent and making it darker and edgier. Don't get me wrong I can appreciate those kind of things to a certain degree but I find as I'm getting older I just want that wholesome innocence more. As for this volume it's more of Sakura finding her own power and changing the cards and I had fun reading it.

I Married My Female Friend Vol. 1 -4 Stars
I Married My Female Friend Vol. 2 -4 Stars
Speaking of innocent and wholesome. This was a random snag from the library and I enjoyed it. Basically two young ladies make a promise that if neither are married in fives years that they will marry each other. Of course, as you can guess from the title, this is what happens and we join the couple at some point after they got married. This is a "romance" but it kind of feels like the romance is more one sided and very low key. It's more about learning to live with someone who is the opposite of you with a hint of romance mixed in. It's a fun little read and there are only three books in the series.

As for what I am reading currently/next
Now You See Me
I'm about 60% of the way in to this and it's hard to explain why I'm so invested in this book but I am invested. It's a police procedural style thriller and the author is doing a great job laying out the mystery. It's definitely feeling like on those mysteries where you are not supposed to solve it until the author shows you who it is and I'm not opposed to those style of mysteries.

Body Movers
This is the other audiobook I'll be working on and it's for a challenge. I'm kind of meh feeling about it but I'll get through it.

Outside of that I've got some more manga to work on as usual.

Holy crap... I hope this is not a sign of things to come over the next few months.

I'm a little over 2 hours into the audiobook or about 19% of the way into things and so far it's alright. It's a police procedural thriller so far. It's super hard to make a call this early on as the first part of the book is always about setting up things. Books like this shine or die in the second half where all the investigation starts to wrap up and we get all the big reveals.

I'll be starting this on the walk home this evening.

Something seems really, really off about all of this. The story I was told was that a man came up to the driver of a van, smacked him with the shotgun, and took off with the van. The supervisor and our lead approached the man to make sure he was alright. It sounds like he was already on the phone with the police so our guys headed back inside. After that, nothing, no police, nothing. You would think that with an armed suspect the place would be crawling with cops but nothing. Something just seems really off about all of this.

Apparently we just had an armed car jacking right outside our work. he warehouse supervisor and the lead hand were standing outside when they witnessed someway get their van stolen by a guy armed with a shotgun. This is really odd for where we live and work.

I know that I shouldn't laugh but that is pretty funny. Glad to hear that he is fine though.

It's 4:30 in the morning and it's already almost 70, 20c for my other Canadians, and that is way to warm for first thing in the morning.

To be fair if he is right hand dominate then that is a hard instinct to shake. Glad to hear that he is doing good though.