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

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

I've read some of them, it has been a good long time since I've read them though. I've been meaning to read them again at some point. I remember watching the 1985 movie of Vampire Hunter D. That was one of the early anime things that got me into anime back in the day.

Review went well, basically I'm doing a great job, I'm super helpful, and people have noted and appreciated my kindness (that last part feels odd saying it out loud). As a plus there was no mention of the committee thing so I think I might have dodged a bullet.

I have this really weird feeling that part of my upcoming performance review is me getting "volunteered" (aka voluntold, aka strong armed) into being the co-chair for the safety committee.

Today is going to be a long one. I've got my usual mountain of work I'm working through, then I've got back to back meetings starting at 9:30, then in the afternoon I've got my yearly performance review. Normally I'm pretty nervous about my review but this year I'm feeling alright. I know there will be some criticism or areas to improve upon but I know that I am definitely not one of the problem areas in the warehouse currently. Who knows though, maybe I'm way off the mark and I'm an absolute screw up. Somehow I don't see that though and I'm sure I would have heard about it by now.

They were both ebook versions and I got them through the library. Both of them were from Overdrive. One of them kind of makes sense as the company that originally released it doesn't exist anymore and the company that bought them up sold the rights to the series to another company who made the series into audiobooks. The second one was one of the Will Trent novellas.

That's not good. I'm assuming the ribs is why you're there?

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


The weekend can't truly be coming to an end. I still have snacks and many, many, many things to read. Not only that I just started my weekend like an hour ago. Time wise this weekend is far from being over.

This is odd. I just had another novella that I tried to find a price for and it just doesn't exist. Nothing on Kobo, nothing on Kindle, nothing physical, just nothing. Not that my numbers really need any more but it is odd.

Time for that weekly update. Yes, I'm a day late but it's a long weekend here in Canada land.

The Best of Edgar Allan Poe -3 Stars
I have been meaning to read some Poe as an adult pretty much since I got back into reading but for one reason or another I just never did. When I was finally faced with not one but two challenges that need a book of poetry I finally did it. I have some mixed feelings about this book overall. There are of course the ones I remember from when I was much, much younger like The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado which are still good. I then discovered some new ones that were also good. Ones like The Pit and the Pendulum and The Black Cat. Then there were the ones that I just couldn't get into. That just felt like an endless barrage of words bouncing of my brain. Looking at you The Premature Burial. Overall it was an interesting listen and a nice start to the spooky season.

Fallen -4 Stars
This was yet another tense roller coaster ride where we get a lot of background on not just Faith but her mother and Amanda. This book was really interesting and I didn't see the twist coming. Maybe it was just week I was having where I feel like I wasn't 100% focused on reading but it was a good twist. We of course have more movement on the relationship side of things which continues to feel good. Overall just another great book in this series.

Now for the manga and comics

Perfect World, Vol. 3 -3 Stars
Perfect World, Vol. 4 -3 Stars
I am done with this series. I'm not going to say that the series is bad but I will say that the series is just not for me. Instead of a sweet romance I find myself lost in the endless swamp of what I think daytime soaps sound like. Everyone has a crush on everyone, confessions are handed out like candy at Halloween, diseases drop at the most convenient of times. It's just to much for me. I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will like this sort of stuff and power to you. I'll be over here with sweet simple romances and action stuff.

The Muscle Girl Next Door -4 Stars
Romances like this one. This is a one shot manga (for non manga fans that means it's a single volume story) about a guy who has a crush on his ripped next door neighbor but not the confidence to confess to her. It's simple, it's sweet, and I grinned my entire time reading this thing. If you are looking for a sweet one shot then give this a shot.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: Deluxe Edition, Vol. 2 -4 Stars
I don't know if it was just the mood I was in when I was reading this or if it was the book but this one just didn't feel the same as the first. The cozy vibes were still there but the story just didn't quite connect like the first one. I'm still in for more of course but I'm at the point where I just want a bit more from the story.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 2—Battle Tendency, Vol. 1 -5 Stars
Oh man, now this was a treat to read. This settles into the true weirdness of the series. The main male characters are all ripped giants who strike a super model pose at every chance they get. The body horror, oh man, there was so much body horror in this and I wasn't expecting that. This story has some characters from the first series but the MC is not the same. He is the grandson of the first Joestar character and as a character he is fundamentally different. He is loud, brash, and unconventional. He is not afraid to run away from a fight if he thinks he is loosing. Yet there is a part of him that will fight for what he believes in. This series is set in 1938 and has, lets say, certain WWII standard villains but they are not the true antagonist of the series. For the most part they are there to be ripped apart by the true antagonists of the series. I really can't wait for the next one in this series.

Bea Wolf -5 Stars
I was feeling that JoJo was the stand out book of the week until I opened this book. It only took the first couple pages of this comic to have me fully on board. This is a take on the classic Beowulf but with kids battling parents. I know it sounds weird but man the author really made this work and it is glorious. Here is a sample of the first couple pages.

Listen to the lives of the long-ago kids, the world fighters, the parent-unminding kids, the improper, the politeness-proof, the unbowed bully-crushers, the bedtime-breakers, the raspberry-blowers, fighters of fun-killers, fearing nothing, fated for fame.

There was Tanya, treat-taker, terror of Halloween, her costume-cache vast, sieging kin and neighbor, draining full candy-bins, fearing not the fate of her teeth. Ten thousand treats she took. That was a fine Tuesday.

This book had my brain create a separate narrator voice in my head just for the sheer epicness of what I was reading. This book is just amazing and if you find yourself even slightly curious then I encourage you to give it a shot.

Now what is coming up next.

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
I can't find my audiobook cover through this menu as I think that there are just to many different copies of this book. Back to the book itself. I'm currently a little over 60% into this book and rather enjoying things. The story is slow moving but I'm oddly engaged. I'll get into things in the next weekly wrap up but I'm really surprised by this one.

For non audiobooks I have a stack of manga and a stack of novels to get through still. I think today I want to tackle Monstress Book One when I have a day to just focus on reading.

Listen to the lives of the long-ago kids, the world fighters, the parent-unminding kids, the improper, the politeness-proof, the unbowed bully-crushers, the bedtime-breakers, the raspberry-blowers, fighters of fun-killers, fearing nothing, fated for fame.

There was Tanya, treat-taker, terror of Halloween, her costume-cache vast, sieging kin and neighbor, draining full candy-bins, fearing not the fate of her teeth. Ten thousand treats she took. That was a fine Tuesday.

Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith

This book is a kids re-imaging of Beowulf and it is glorious. I can't help but hear it in this super serious, deep voiced, narrators voice.

Normally I wouldn't care so much about the swearing as I cuss as well. It was just the frequency of it and the fact that everyone in the building could probably hear this conversation.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally found a toilet stall and, most importantly, remembered to add it to this list

Maybe this is me just being a grumpy old man but I really don't like people who have conversations on their speaker phones in public. Especially when the person who is on speaker feels it necessary to drop the f-bomb every two or three words. I know I'm not the most well spoken and tend to cuss from time to time but I think I've grown past the need to use the f-word so much.

We've been feeling the grip of a polar vortex the last couple days which has driven the temps down to the freezing mark over night and not much above 10c/50f during the day with a good wind blowing. Today it's warming up though and the next few days should be about 20c/68f ish during the day.

There is something essentially northern about this. It was sitting at the freezing mark this morning and was pretty chilly and yet I'm standing outside sipping on an iced London Fog like it's a balmy sunny day. My mindset is that while chilly it's far from the cold that is coming and that is when I'll want a warm drink.

I'm working my way through Frankenstein currently and while slow I find myself oddly engaged. My only frame of reference are pop culture versions and so far it feels vastly different.

Weird the songs that suddenly drift to the surface of your brain. For some reason this song popped into my head this morning in the shower and now I can't get it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy01R...

Then there is this song. For me this was the original Friday song. The DJ at our local radio station would play this every Friday morning at the start of his show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO17h...

Most of his stuff has been pretty easy to get into but there have been a couple that were just words bouncing off my brain. As for Shakespeare I had to read him in high school and will never touch his stuff again.

I'm listening to a collection of Poe right now and I'm not sure if I'm just stupid or uncultured. Don't get me wrong, some of the stories/poems are great and I love listening to them. Then there are others that feel like it's just thesaurus vomit. Lets spend 10 minutes using the biggest words possible to describe a pebble. It's a problem I have with a lot of older books honestly. Maybe I'm just uncultured and can't stand big scary words.

Meels wrote: "Mr got up about an hour ago to go to the loo. I was finishing Goblet of Fire, so I was still up. I heard an almighty crash, then a lot of yelling. Now we’re sitting at emergency. :/"

Yikes, hopefully everything is alright or at least not super bad.