You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Watcha Doin' - 2016.1
Lori Z wrote: "Happy New Year Everyone!I was just curious since we have people here from all over the world, do you eat a certain food on New Years Day, for luck? Growing up in Pennsylvania we ate pork and sauer..."
As Peggy described, in the Netherlands we eat Olliebollen (yummie!), but since my mom is Chinese/Indonesian our family also eats noodles for good luck. It's some kind of superstition that you have to eat noodles on days like new years, your birthday, etc. and therefore will recieve good luck all year long. I personally don't really believe in it, but still I find it hard not to eat noodles on these days, even if it's just a quick instant form of it as a snack. LOL
My mom also does like a spring cleaning of the entire house before the new year starts. This is also to clean out all the bad luck from last year, and to welcome the good luck of the new year. (Another tradition I find hard to break no matter how busy I get with the season festivities.)
Do you have any non-food traditions like that too?
Sandra, your tradition sounds like a hoot! Gotta love family silliness, and the Olliebollen looks so yummy. I don't think there is an over-arching tradition commonly found in the US for New Year's, my guess is that it's more familial or regional. For us it's a day of leftovers or delivery, as it's the day we spend taking down our Christmas decorations. LOL.As I'm starting a Whole 30 tomorrow, we're kind of going through and eating up the last of our non-compliant food. Which, isn't too much, just some pot pies for lunch, and a good southern breakfast this morning!
Stephanie, Blake looks great on the FB page! It's a such a nice picture.
Sandra wrote: "Same thing in Uruguay. All the foods are so high in calories, absurd for such a hot weather. The roasted pork is generally eaten cold, though. It's roasted a few days before (hot anyways) and then ..."Sandra, I never knew why we ate pork but your explanation makes sense. (As much sense as a superstition, can make anyway, lol). I loved your description of your non-food traditions, too funny! Thanks for sharing :)
Sharon wrote: "Lori Z wrote: "Happy New Year Everyone!I was just curious since we have people here from all over the world, do you eat a certain food on New Years Day, for luck? Growing up in Pennsylvania we ate..."
Sharon, no we don't have any non-food New Years tradition, just the old toast at midnight.
@Lynda, yep, a lot of family silliness. But since we moved to the US 5 years ago we haven't done anything of this. Maybe is time for resume. :)@Lori, I'm not sure where it comes the pork tradition. My stepfather is from Uruguay, but his parents were from Poland and Russia. He himself isn't sure where it comes from either. But, yes, it makes some sense as a superstition.
Lynda wrote:Stephanie, Blake looks great on the FB page! It's a such a nice picture."Thanks, Lynda :)
Sandra wrote: "Beautiful place!"One of these days I will get an album together on photobucket and share it of pictures around here when we go exploring. There are a lot of hiking trails. One we went on when we first moved here was to a waterfall. I think this one was cooler than the one we hiked to. Falling Spring Falls we didn't have to hike to at all! It is just on the side of the road :) the waterfall we hiked to wasn't bad until we had to hike back up ;) Blake was limping for a few days his joints were so sore :(
I don't know if you know, but yesterday George R.R. Martin announced in his blog that his new book, The Winds of Winter, which he was suppose to deliver to his editors by Dec 31st, 2015, is not finished, and it's not gonna be in several months. Here is the post.It's funny that before reading this news this morning, I was reading a Neil Gaiman's post from 2009 I found somewhere replying to a reader about the pressure of writing series, and specially about Martin not meeting due dates. Here is the post.
I thought someone here could be interested.
I've just been reading about it Sandra. I think he wrote a good post. I can imagine it being stressful to work to deadlines as well as the anticipation people have that are already invested in the series. I moan about having to wait but as Martin says, it will be ready when it's ready. I watch the show too and I do like it. There are some differences. I've not watched series 5 yet and people have leaked spoilers (Facebook oh how I hate you) and I can see that the show has diverged even more from the books now. I am worried that spoilers for the upcoming season 6 will get around and ruin my experience of the book when I get to read it. I want to read the book before the series and I've told my partner this already - he'll have to wait to watch the series too now (he doesn't read the books).
I spent some time in an Indian supermarket yesterday buying up all the spices and ingredients I needed to prepare a Southern Indian Thali. I really enjoyed the shopping, looking at all the different products. We spent a rather large amount of money. Whoops! Then last night I spent hours cooking. It took ages. I had to make two spice mixes, two pickles, one dhal, one curry and one rice dish. We only sat down to eat at 9.45pm and I was exhausted. But tonight I won't have to do anything as I just have to reheat the leftovers. Plus now the spice mixes are made, I won't have to do that next time. The dishes are what I learnt on the cooking course I went on a couple months back. It's first time I've made them since then. It all turned out well though.
Sarah wrote: "I am worried that spoilers for the upcoming season 6 will get around and ruin my experience of the book when I get to read it. ..."They sure will, Sarah
Sarah wrote: "I spent some time in an Indian supermarket yesterday buying up all the spices and ingredients I needed to prepare a Southern Indian Thali. I really enjoyed the shopping, looking at all the differen..."Oh!, the delights of living in a great city or near by...!
Happy New Year!
@ Sarah, I love Indian food. We used to live in Rochester, NY(how I miss the city!) There was an Indian restaurant that we loved. The chef would always come out and talk to us we were there so often! Never had much luck cooking it though.
I am wondering, is anyone else having trouble with the site? I am, tried e-mail, see if something is going on and it could not load the page, and my email was gone.
No icons or profile pick on the status bar. I could not see the stars to rate a book, though I can click on them. Even ratings from other books do not show. Then I had to update my 2016 challenge. Not complaining, just never had problems before.
@ Sarah, I love Indian food. We used to live in Rochester, NY(how I miss the city!) There was an Indian restaurant that we loved. The chef would always come out and talk to us we were there so often! Never had much luck cooking it though.
I am wondering, is anyone else having trouble with the site? I am, tried e-mail, see if something is going on and it could not load the page, and my email was gone.
No icons or profile pick on the status bar. I could not see the stars to rate a book, though I can click on them. Even ratings from other books do not show. Then I had to update my 2016 challenge. Not complaining, just never had problems before.
Which is a long way of saying, "How may children did Scarlett O'Hara have?"
It's disappointing for sure that we won't be seeing The Winds of Winter by March, but I honestly wasn't expecting it. I made the decision to accept "when it's done, it's done" a couple year's ago, and so therefore: when it's published, it's published. I'd rather it be the book Martin wants it to be, then something rushed to production. I can't imagine the pressure he is under, especially with all of the anticipation looming, but I do know what it's like to have stress/depression/frustration/exhaustion effect creativity.
I've made the decision to sit out the next seasons of Game of Thrones until the book is out. The books were my first love, and as far as official cannon goes, that's the world I kin to.
I'm off to read Neil Gaiman's post linked above. *skips along the path*.
Sarah wrote: "I spent some time in an Indian supermarket yesterday buying up all the spices and ingredients I needed to prepare a Southern Indian Thali. I really enjoyed the shopping, looking at all the differen..."I'm glad your Indian dishes turned out well Sarah. They sound yummy!
I'm watching the series as I read the books. So far, I've read Books 1 & 2, and seen Seasons 1 & 2. I have all the published books and I'm in no hurry to read them. They are long and will require a commitment. My friend has Season 3, and I bought her Season 4 for Christmas which I'll get to watch when I'm ready for it. Hey, she bought me Season 2 for a gift and then borrowed it before I even had the cellophane off of it. We share. :)I feel sad for George. I can't imagine the pressure and stress he is under. I would think that the pressure is counter-productive to the writing process.
I really like Neil's response. George is not your bitch. I can understand the disappointment from the reader's point of view. When I finished Shadow of Night, Deborah Harkness didn't have a title for the last book let alone a publishing date. I finally realized that I have no control over the situation, and that there are plenty of books to read while I wait.
I don't feel that frustration for Song of Ice and Fire because I'm so far behind as it is. Maybe I'll catch up before the last book is written.
Interesting to note, Michael J. Sullivan completes his series before he sends them out for publishing. The exception there is the Ryiria Chronicles. He said that he will keep writing stories about Royce and Hadrian as long as people are wanting to read them. But, these are stand alone stories, not ongoing, so people aren't left wondering what's going to happen next.
GRRM isn't under much pressure if you look at Stephen King. Took some 30+ years to complete Dark Tower series. In which he had said he wouldn't finish the series several times. The you have The Shining with couple decades before Dr Sleep.
Cool pic of Blake Stephanie I finally checked it out
I'm in the same boat as you Janice. I have only read the first two ASOIAF books and seen the first two seasons of the tv show so I don't feel any frustration over the latest book not being finished. I can understand why fans would be frustrated/disappointed over the delay but writing a book is not a two minute job and everyone writes at different speeds so I don't think you can always expect books to be churned out quickly with only a year or so between publication dates. Some authors can do that, which is great, but some can't and I don't think they should be put under pressure to do so.
Travis of NNY wrote: "GRRM isn't under much pressure if you look at Stephen King. Took some 30+ years to complete Dark Tower series. In which he had said he wouldn't finish the series several times. The you have The Shi..."That's right too. I'd forgotten that he announced after book 4 (or was it 3) that he wasn't going to continue the series and the outcry from that. I didn't start the series until this year, so I had the advantage of having all the books available.
Sandra wrote: "I don't know if you know, but yesterday George R.R. Martin announced in his blog that his new book, The Winds of Winter, which he was suppose to deliver to his edito..."I think he is right. It will be finished when it will be.
BUT, therefore I almost always wait to read series (complicated, as this one), when they are complete (some spin off, I don't mind)
Travis of NNY wrote: "Cool pic of Blake Stephanie I finally checked it out"Thanks, Travis :)
I have not read Game of Thrones but hubby and I binge watched the show! We both really like it! One of these days I will start the books :)
I agree with all of you regarding GRRM. And I think Gaiman's answer is perfect. I specially like his response because I know he's not only a buddy writer of GRRM, but they are really fond to each other. I can't imagine the pressure GRRM has been enduring. The editorial world is meat grinder per se; imagine in addition HBO's pressure.I haven't read any of GoT books yet (in my TBR, though), but for some reason I really like GRRM. And I read slower than he writes, so we'll be fine. :)
Sandra wrote: "I agree with all of you regarding GRRM. And I think Gaiman's answer is perfect. I specially like his response because I know he's not only a buddy writer of GRRM, but they are really fond to each o..."At the bottom of GRRM's post, he had a little icon with an unhappy face and it said, "Today's mood - depressed". That made me feel sad.
I kind of lost ibterst in the show GoT. I just think they cut out too much/put in stuff that diesn't matter. Or my opinion of what is crucial to the story is different than the writers. The actors always did good On the other hand ,4 eoisodes ibto the Expanse and I am nothing but pleased with it. My only issue is same as I always have had Holden is cast too young he seems older in books. The rest of the cast is good
@Janice, I saw the icon too. Many people is saying stupid things. USA Today, for example, had a idiotic article saying something like '5 ways GRRM could write faster". But so many readers were showing him support, that I'm confident that he will son feel better and be ready to resume his writing.
I too liked Gaiman's article.I also wanted to say that I enjoyed reading about all the different New Year traditions. It was very interesting to see what you all do/don't do.
You guys seen this from 2013? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5vw9...A follow up to that blog post.
I did, Rusalka. I think it was shared here before. Maybe it was you?But the first time I watched it I hadn't read Gaiman's post, so now I get the "bitch" part had its back story!
I've just signed up to a FREE trial with all you can books and then afterwards it's £11.79 ($19.99) per month after. Unlimited audiobooks and ebooks apparently. So going to test it out.There is a kindle unlimited too which I have yet to test out. Does anyone else have a membership with either of these?
I would like to hear what you think of it Sarah, and if it has all the books you want to read (newer ones for example). I've looked into Oyster a long time ago, but it was only available for members in the US (don't know if that changed) and you could read books on your computer or tablet, but not on an ereader. Other than that I have no experience with these kind of things. I would like a big international e-book library, where you can also borrow newer and popular books.
I think we discussed Kindle Unlimited in the 2015 Watcha Doin thread Sarah is you want to do a search for it. I think a couple people had tried it. I can't remember what the consensus was though.
Sarah wrote: "I've just signed up to a FREE trial with all you can books and then afterwards it's £11.79 ($19.99) per month after. Unlimited audiobooks and ebooks apparently. So going to test it out."That sounds interesting Sarah. I might have to check it out if you think it's worthwhile.
Interesting timing. I just read this article from Ursula K LeGuin, about the "Amazon Model" http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2015/06/... I can't help but think the Kindle Unlimited idea further erodes the profitability of books and the "BS Machine" she talks about. What books get included, and which excluded? It reminds me, too, of the conversation had concerning the Goodreads Winners and how books are often chosen by word of mouth/popularity vs merit/good writing.
My personal belief is that whenever art and commerce intersect there's tension. Art should be created for the pure purpose of creating art; yet, artists need to eat, and business needs to be profitable. I do feel like there is an inevitability to Amazon. I think that corruption occurs when the business model dictates and drives the artistic medium. Examples that come to mind are those trilogy adaptions that expand the final book into two movies, "reality" TV, popular TV shows that expand well beyond the life of the premise or the character stories, the YA books model that crosses all the i's and dots all the t's in terms of tropes (and that of course exists in all genres), in an effort to become the "next" Harry Potter/Hunger Games/Twilight movie franchise. These are things that are created to make money as their primary purpose.
You see this in all forms of art but I think there is a greater parallel, though, in music to what is happening in the book industry. In music you already have markets that focus on single releases, and albums aren't really valued in the same way; particularly, pop and country. If you want to hear independent music, you have to hunt for it. It's not just going to show up on most radio dials any longer, unless you live in a "music city". Fortunately, too, we live in a digital environment where it's easier for independent voices to be heard, through alternative means of decimation. I like to believe that these avenues will prevail, but just not in ways we expect.
How to Write 2,500 Words Before Breakfast Every Day"Three hours a day will produce as much as a [person] ought to write."
from An Autobiography, by Anthony Trollope (Author)
It was my practice to be at my table every morning at 5.30 A.M.; and it was also my practice to allow myself no mercy. An old groom, whose business it was to call me, and to whom I paid £5 a year extra for the duty, allowed himself no mercy. During all those years at Waltham Cross he was never once late with the coffee which it was his duty to bring me. I do not know that I ought not to feel that I owe more to him than to any one else for the success I have had. By beginning at that hour I could complete my literary work before I dressed for breakfast.
All those I think who have lived as literary men--working daily as literary labourers--will agree with me that three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write. But then he should so have trained himself that he shall be able to work continuously during those three hours--so have tutored his mind that it shall not be necessary for him to sit nibbling his pen, and gazing at the wall before him, till he shall have found the words with which he wants to express his ideas.
And his books are great.
When we bought out bed about 5 years ago, we splashed out and bought some amazing memory foam pillows. Mine has started to loose it's shape and isn't as good as I remembered. So I bought myself a new one. I knew it was a cheap version. I got a firm one as my old one was firm. It arrived in the post yesterday. It smells really strongly of plastic and is solid. I couldn't get comfortable and didn't sleep much and I woke up with a sore throat from inhaling the horrible smell. So I'm not sure what to do now. I guess I need to go to an actual store to try them out. Or perhaps I'll just get used to it.
Its a beautiful morning! Water is froze. Pipes are split and salamander won't fire. Just insulated this whokr area a few weeks ago. Went out at 5 am and double insulated it on the outaide. Went to store bought new pipe. Then a new salamander. Now to get to work. The bright side is I think our old 165000 btu salamander cost like $425 amd I got a 190000 btu because they discontinued the 165's for $399. Of course I woukd have been happier if the okd one still worked ao I didn't have to buy one at all but nice to know they are cheaper thesr days. No one really fixes them anymore you just go buy a new one. Only 1 place I know fixes them and it costs oractically as much as just buying a new one. And now I'll sing Summertime and the livings easy". Makes me feel warmer to think of summer. Nice thing weve warmed from -20 f (-29c) to -11f (-24c). Friggin heat wave today. Supposed to get up ti 20f (-7c) today which beats yesterdays high of -2f (-19c)
And in the 2 hours I was gone my dog peed in his crate.
Sounds cold, Travis. And smelly. :)Temperatures really dropped off here too today. But we are in 15F (-9C). I guess this is warm compared with your area.
You know I like to keep the milj barn about 40f but last night we still had water and a rubber line to a cow bucket got a pin hole and sorayed on a cow. She had icicles coming off her ears and forehead. I was milking at that time. Ive never seen that in my milk barn. Heifer barn yes but cows no
I love my memory foam pillow, Sarah. This is my second one. Can you send that one back for a refund.I feel for you, Travis. I'm sure glad I don't have to deal with frozen pipes any more. We often would wake to no water or no sewer. Did your dog freeze his pipes too?
I helped an elderly lady who needed air intires at fas station this morning so hopefully that changes some of my bad luck
Travis of NNY wrote: "Its a beautiful morning! Water is froze. Pipes are split and salamander won't fire. Just insulated this whokr area a few weeks ago. Went out at 5 am and double insulated it on the outaide. Went to ..."Brrrr.... too cold...the temp here has dropped down a lot . Today is 30 F (-1C). The sun is out which helps a bit. I am missing the 68 degree weather we had here on Christmas Eve.
Travis of NNY wrote: "I helped an elderly lady who needed air intires at fas station this morning so hopefully that changes some of my bad luck"Awe! That was really nice of you!!
I just finished reading through the last page or so of 2015 "whatcha doin'" and the 2 pages of 2016 so far. You have been a busy bunch. I was going to remember what all I read through and reply to several, but my brain computing power is struggling today, so I'll simplify my replies to: Happy new year, everyone! :)
Travis of NNY wrote: "I helped an elderly lady who needed air intires at fas station this morning so hopefully that changes some of my bad luck"You are such a nice guy, Travis!
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You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
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We were at Falling Spring Falls in Alleghany, Virginia. We love taking road trips when it is nice out :) so much exploring to do!