Chit Chat

[Lisa]

So what do you all think about the changes that the powers that be at GoodReads HQ made to the website?

[Jenny]

Wait wait wait what happened? Which changes?

[Lisa]

Just the fonts and some colors. It wasn't too drastic but it was enough that a lot of people got mad about the new font and so yesterday they changed it again haha. I didn't have any problems with it. I think it looks a lot cleaner and I like the new blue/green color for the links. Here's the thread where they explain it.

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/5...

[Kandice]

I love the color of the links and even the font (today's version) is nicer, but the white is blaringly white and yesterday the font was lightish grey instead fo black. I had a headache after a bit.

Today is an improvement.

[Lisa]

Yeah I definitely think was better today than it was yesterday. To me it looked alright on my phone but I could see how it could be a bit hard on the eyes on the computer.

[Kandice]

I am taking tomorrow off work to stretch the weekend. I have a cold that has gotten increasingly worse. I couldn't take a sick day yesterday since it was the last day of Torah School before Winter Break, so I may end up leaving early today too. If I do, I hope I feel well enough to get some of my Christmas baking begun. I HATE being sick during the holidays!

[Lisa]

I agree! My daughter came with pink eye symptoms and an earache yesterday and we go out of town Saturday! Her symptoms weren't very bad and so my step-mom who was a nurse said it sounded more like allergies so we gave her some medicine. She seemed better this morning but I told her teacher to monitor her and if it seems to get worse we'll go through with taking her to a doctor. Blagh. I had one of those colds that I couldn't get over a month ago and over the four day Thanksgiving weekend, I got A LOT of sleep and I get so much better. All the cold stuff cleared up within a day or two. Try to get as much rest as possible!

[Kandice]

Everyone always says to rest, but realistically, who can? Maybe if I was a single person, living alone, maybe, maybe, maybe, but I have three children, a home, the holidays and my father-in-law to care for. At least at home I don't have to worry about looking presentable.

I hope your daughter really does just have allergies. Pink Eye went around our school last week. We had about 15 kids absent yesterday.

[Jenny]

I must be crazy since I did not notice anything xD. For me its finally christmas vacation, now i can study for re-examns.

[Lisa]

Wow! So happy the box wasn't taken! That's definitely a very stressful situation but at least it had a happy ending! Thankfully my boss allows me to send packages to the office so that I don't have to worry about stuff getting taken. It also helps that I have a neighbor who likes to keep an eye on the house for us while we're away!

[Lisa]

Hello! Thank you for joining us! Happy Holidays to you too! And I love the photos!! Gorgeous!

[Kandice]

Lovely!!!!

Glad about the "found" box. Shipping always feels stressful to me at the holidays.

[Jenny]

Christmas must be hell at the post office. XD Luckely everything turned out well.

[Kandice]

My co-worker and I are are taking turn leaving work early this week since it's so slow. I forgot that I had a present shipped to the office and it arrived right after I left yesterday. Thank goodness because really, I had forgotten about it!

[Lisa]

Whoo! That was a close call! Glad it was saved. I'm out if office almost all week and I had to make sure I let all my coworkers know I had packages coming! It sure is stressful sometimes!

[Jenny]

Last minute micro-budget christmas shopping done!

[Lisa]

Whoo! Good job Jenny! We bought our last few presents the day before yesterday haha.

[Jenny]

The day before christmas eve is the best time for tiny things to buy because the in-between-day sales start. Ofcourse there is a lot of elbowing infolved. :)

[Lisa]

True! It's a give and take but saving a few bucks is always worth it! It's always such a relief to finally get it done too. Got any big plans or will it just be a family day? We just got back from a few days with my in laws and then we'll spend Christmas day with my parents.

[Kandice]

I had to do my mother-in-laws last minute shopping today because she waited until this last minute and then wasn't up to going out. I took the kids and let them spend her budget on them and then got myself $170 worth of sweaters marked 70% off so only spent $51 on myself from her. It was awesome! But, yes, there was elbowing and long lines. My shopping has been done for weeks so it was especially irritating, but still...exciting!

[Jenny]

Merry christmas to you too Rob!

And yes, last minute shopping is grand! I managed to get everyone a fitting 20sk (3 dollar-ish?) present on top of the stuff I bought last summer. I'm always either really early or really,really late ^,^

For me its just with the family and a family friend who has no family here in sweden and an uncle with ... posibilities. Its fun though since we're all savvy sale crusaders XD I really hope I get the books I asked for and that everyone likes what I got them.

[Lisa]

Thank you for sharing the beautiful pics Rob and Merry Merry Christmas to you too!!

Kandice, I'm glad you got to splurge on yourself! I got a little Christmas money and so I went to the store last night and bought some new under garments and other things I've been needing for ages but never got around to getting. It was grand to spend a little money on myself!

That sounds fun Jenny! That's sweet that you are going to spend time with that friend that has no family there in Sweden. And I sure hope all my family likes what we got them! I think they will because I'm pretty proud of my purchases this year haha. I will admit that I am very excited to see their responses to the gifts!

[Kandice]

There is one gift my husband and I got for our family as whole and it's the thing I am most excited for my children to open. They always feel like the best gifts, the ones that are meant to be enjoyed together.

[Jenny]

I just finished the big challenge. 70 books :)

[Kandice]

Jenny wrote: "I just finished the big challenge. 70 books :)"

Congrats!

[Jenny]

:D Not sure if I'll go for 80 next year,...

[Kandice]

I sometimes add 5 to my challenge, but don't think I will this year. It begins to feel almost stressful when December begins.

[Jenny]

Kandice wrote: "I sometimes add 5 to my challenge, but don't think I will this year. It begins to feel almost stressful when December begins."

I added 10 each year in the last 3 years. I did not keep track before that. I do that so I don't feel bad for adding short stories and such. The extra 10 is supposed to be 10 more of 100 pages or less. But if I take my yearly page count and divide them through the books I read that year, my average book length has become longer. So much for the extra short stories.

But 70 sounds like a lot. It sure looks like a lot. But is it that much you think? What does the average person read?

[Kandice]

I generally read between 1 and 3 books a week so, depending on length and time I could read between 52 and 156 a year. This year I read close to 120, but very few were short. I've had years where I read about 200, but I had a lot more free time.

I would rather read 50 I enjoy that feel pushed to read 100 that I don't.

[Jenny]

I only read the ones I like. And sometimes to figure out what the fuzz is about. I'm going slow though. In middle school I'd go through 4 books a week.

I go fastest if I have an art related deadline. I pick up audiobooks and listen when working. I easily listen to 12 hours of narration a day that way. Thats also about the length of an average audiobook so for bigger projects I 'read' 7 books in a week. When I have essays to write for school I read nothing at all. Lots of car trips/bus rides result in many e-books being read. Vacations are for the paperbacks. I don't feel rushed. A good part of my reading is procrastination anyway.

[Lisa]

A lot of my reading depends on my current circumstances. Like the first year of my daughter's life, I think I only read about 2 or 3 books. But then when I started working in a cubicle in a big office where we could listen to music or whatever while we worked, I would go through audio books like crazy. Now the only chance I get to listen to audio books is when I'm cleaning house but that usually gets interrupted about every 5 to 10 minutes because of my daughter or one of our pets or my husband needing something lol That's why it's taking me so long to get through this audio version of Dune. I do read a lot more ebooks no days though because I can read at work when we have nothing to do. I want to be reading 24/7 but life just doesn't always allow for it. I liked doing the 2015 reading challenge because it really made me step away from my usual sci fi/fantasy books and read other awesome things. I had a lot of fun doing it but I didn't pressure myself and make it not enjoyable. Plus I read quite a few books that were not related to the challenge at all haha. I might try a 2016 challenge or I might just do a challenge where I read the two shelves of new books I bought in 2015 and haven't gotten around to yet haha. Also, good job Jenny!!!

[Jenny]

Hahaha. Yeah I should read all the books I have a copy of but not yet read too, but I pick books so much on gut feeling and the position of the stars. XD

Either way, Happy New Year Everyone!

[Lisa]

I do the same!! I have said 'I need this book' to myself and yet I cannot give a good reason other than I just need it. Happy New Year to you too!!!!

[Kandice]

I just realized that it's really just us four on this thread now, for a while, anyway...

I wish everyone a happy and safe New Year. I'm dropping my husband at some friends for a poker tournament/New Years party, continuing to my in-laws for my four hour shift with my father-in-law and then going back to the party by 11 to experience New Year with them. Then a three day weekend. Yay!!

[Lisa]

Sounds like a busy night! Our plans got cancelled because my hubby came down with Strep Throat. He went to the Doc today and got some medicine but is in no shape to go out so sitting around watching TV is our only plan for the night! And yeah we do kind of have a small group. It would be nice to have a lot of people posting a lot of cool stuff and I'm sure the group will grow with time but I do sometimes enjoy the close-knit group feeling. I feel like I know you all so much better that way! I hope you have a great night!! :)

[Jenny]

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Any plans for the next year?

[Lisa]

Jenny wrote: "HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Any plans for the next year?"

Happy New Year to you too!!!! My plans for this year are just to try to be a little bit better than I was last year. How about you?

[Jenny]

I decided to not make any promises I cannot keep. So I have only realistic ones like: Wear less pants, pet the cat and don't change my eating patterns/stay pudgy :)

[Kandice]

I don't like resolutions either, so like Lisa, I just want to be a bit better person all around. Ha! Harder to do than it was to type, that's for sure.

[Lisa]

haha! It is always much much harder to do that to say/type. I do want to work on myself but not unrealistically so. I of course would like to start working out, saving money, read more books, learn a new skill etc etc but those things probably just won't happen. So I'll stick to things like try to drink a little more water, go to bed 10 minutes earlier, take an extra second or two to think before I speak. Stuff like that.

[Kandice]

One of my favorite quotes from a book is "Practice being kind rather than right." THAT'S what I would like to be.

[Lisa]

That is a wonderful quote that I should practice more at home. Sometimes I get so frustrated with my daughter when she wants to argue with me about something small that I know 100% to be true. It's so frustrating because I want her to know the correct thing but she's as stubborn as I am and just won't hear it. It usually ends with us both mad at each other lol. I should start putting this into practice more but still find a way to make sure she gets her facts straight so she's not walking around thinking that right is left and left is right.

[Jenny]

Hahaha my dad and me do it too. Often he is only wrong because his information is just outdated by 40 or so years.

[Lisa]

haha it happens. my husband and I often get in little tiffs about trivial stuff like what movie an actor is in or the proper lyrics to the song. it always ends with one of us saying 'fine I'll Google this s***' and then whoever comes out right gets to say I told you so haha

[Jenny]

Yeah we too, dad has even an I-told-you-so dance ^,^ Google is my friend

[Lisa]

haha love it! :D

[Lisa]

So did anyone else have any crazy winter weather this past week? Here in Texas we got a bunch of snow dumped on us. I missed an entire week of work because I couldn't get to work the first half of the week and them my hubby got super sick the last half of the week. It was hectic!!

[Jenny]

Its quite normal now. Snow, -20, calm weather we even got some northern lights last week but we did have a very warm winter all the way up to christmas. First snow should be in middle oktober, not december.

Lisa, Isn't Texas in the south? To the border with mexico? I mean, it is normal to have snow at all there?

[Lisa]

Yes I do live in Texas and we get some odd weather. It's not really uncommon for us to get snow but it is less common to get huge storms with like 1/2 a meter of snow dumped on us overnight such as the one we had last week. Texans are used to crazy weather. We all just kind of shrug and get through it haha. Nothing really surprises us anymore. My husband used to live in Belgium and he says that our Texas snow is a LOT different than the snow there. He said it's because you guys get 'nicer' snow that is kind of gentler and easier to manage and softer while we get 'nasty' snow that comes in almost horizontally mixed in with dirt and slushie rain that then freezes solid overnight which is true. I guess I just never think about other places getting nicer snow than us haha.

Glad you guys had some pretty mild weather! Also, you are sooo lucky to see the northern lights. It's one of the top 3 things I want to do before I die. I would love to go to Norway and go waaay up north like to Hammerfest, Norway and go out as far as I could and just lay there and stare at them. That would be a dream come true!! I'm a sap and I'm pretty sure I would cry with joy!

[Jenny]

Whahaha, well, the lights are very pretty and alien looking and totally worth seeing.

Snow here is pretty gentle too, though when it finally falls it usually stays for the rest of the winter. The cold here is mean though, but dry-ish because of the low temperatures. Back in holland a few degrees below zero (centigrade) would feel like the weather was out to murder you and the entire country grinded to a halt, but here everything above -20 feels fine, untill you fall over from hypothermia (thats why the cold is so dangerous). When it drops below -25, breathing becomes painfull but that does not happen more than a week of two a year at most.

I'm still amazed that texas can have snow. The movies always make it look like half a desert! :p Not a place with murder snow!