I can't believe it's been x years, yada yada...

I'm going to make this year's short and sweet, partly because I have four assignments for two classes due this weekend (including a major exam due by this evening) but also because I basically say the same thing every year: I can't believe it's been this long. Eleven years ago today my Dad passed away. It's boggling how fast it's gone by, etc. etc. And it's always going to feel that way. 

So only a couple favorite pics today. There's always Father's Day next month.

Miss you, Dad.

Happy Mother's Day

Fifth one without her. Man, that went by fast.

We both looked so young...

Recent reading: Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (March/April 2022)

I am so far behind in reading. I have three books in progress and the new Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock mags have already arrived, so it was a relief to finally finish something. 

 

"Send in the Clowns" by Paul Charles was probably my favorite. It's a murder mystery in which a minor, blink-and-you'll-miss-it clue gives the investigating detective the ability to unravel a clever but ultimately unsuccessful revenge killing. Dominique Beibau's "Russian For Beginners" is a claustrophobic tale of an avid spelunker lost in a Russian cave; the moment at the end when he finally figures how and why he got lost is absolutely haunting. I also enjoyed Edith Maxwell's "Bye-Bye, JoJo" a brief but entertaining tale about a woman who has no patience with noisy neighbors and their barking dogs.

Some other good ones: Michael Caleb Tasker's bleak "Another Saturday Night" looks at desperate lives in New Orleans. By the end, you do hope that the main character, Sal, a night shift blackjack dealer, does move on, hopefully to bigger and better things. Lou Manfredo's "Sundown" is an interesting whodunit about a pair of detectives seeking the killer of young woman. And I have a soft spot for Tim Baker's "The Rendezvous" because of its clever switch-up of a character's understanding of what it means when someone is about to report to the CIA - in this case, the Culinary Institute of America, not the spy agency. Oops!

In Anna Scotti's "Schrodinger, Cat" a woman confronts her college professor boyfriend after seeing him with another woman and has to deal with his increasingly bizarre explanations for his increasingly odd behavior. How and why she exacts revenge provided a neat twist ending. "Justice" by Cath Staincliffe starts with the line, "She used a claw hammer." Why she used a claw hammer is eventually revealed in a way that thwarts the very justice she was trying to achieve.

From "Bye-Bye, JoJo": If that dog doesn't stop barking, I'm going to kill someone. It's not like I don't know how.

It's official: Orwell was an amateur

Apparently, Joe Biden thinks massive inflation, record high gas and food prices, a plummeting stock market, and just the suffering of non-elites in general is hilarious:

 

 

You can watch the whole God-awful exchange here if you can stomach it.

 

"Fucking Hell" is right.

April Words of Wisdom

Slow quote month, y'all.

 

The modern world will not be punished. It is the punishment. -Nicolas Gomez Davila

 

I was born with a soul that is way too sensitive for this cold and ugly world. I have always felt things deeply and differently than most people That has always been my blessing and my curse. --Reggie Nolan

 

Spare me the fake morality of these Hollywood hypocrites. --Piers Morgan 

Some people's idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage. --Sir Winston Churchill

Virtually no idea is too ridiculous to be accepted, even by very intelligent and highly educated people, if it provides a way for them to feel special and important. --Thomas Sowell

To me there is nothing free-er than a bird. You know? Flying where ever it wants to go. And that's what this country is all about, about being free. I think everybody wants to be a freebird. --Ronnie Van Zant

The possession of knowledge doe not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery. --Anais Nin

Cuts like a knife

So this popped up on my Facebook feed today, and if it wasn't for that one episode, this would be sooooo tempting:

From the post:

Channel your Dark Passenger and seek justice in this ruthless version of the classic mystery game, based on the award-winning Showtime drama! 

 

In CLUE®: Dexter™, Miami-Metro PD is on the hunt for a homicidal monster, but another unseen threat is at large! Get behind the badges of the city’s best investigators to figure out WHICH serial killer is accountable, WHO will apprehend them, and WHERE they’ll be caught!

Two observances: One, I notice they put Dexter back in Miami where he belongs. And two...the responses, of course! Here are a few:

 

You get the idea. There are actually quite a few people who did seem interested in it, so they'll sell a few. Just not to me.

 

Okay, I am a blogging idiot

I don't usually get comments on the blog, and that's fine. I know it doesn't have a huge readership which is also fine. It's something I enjoy doing and that's what I get out of it, rather than exposure and/or attention. 

In the past, I would get an email notification when there was a comment submitted, so I could check it for spam before approving it to be posted. And since I wasn't getting any emails, I assumed there weren't any comments. Fine.

The other day I'm bopping around the posts page for the blog and accidentally click on the left sidebar and to my great surprise, what pops up is a list of comments. Some of them going back a few years, in fact. Turns out that they're there, even if I'm not getting email notifications anymore. Now most of them (especially more recent ones) are clearly spam, but there were a few I would have liked to have seen at the time. I feel bad that they were probably expecting a response. The probably think I'm a jerk.

So I've set the comments to non-moderation and will just deal with spam comments as they come up. We'll see how that works out.

Idiot.

Applaud or die

Oh, how do I begin to thank KC Loewen for sharing this on the All things Monty Python FB page and introducing me to my new favorite YouTube channel, There I Ruined It. Behold, the North Korean Edition of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life:

 

 

 

Totally brought back memories of this: 

 

More importantly, how have I not heard of There I Ruined It before now? The account does some wickedly funny music mashups. Nirvana performing Smells Like Teen Spirit K-Pop style? Bossa Nova Born in the USA? Disco Folsom Prison Blues? How about an absolutely awesome Christmas take on Dancing with Myself? These treasures and more await you at There I Ruined It's Facistbook page. Please go there now, just don't expect to get anything (like homework for the Film Appreciation class that started today) done in the next couple of hours. Enjoy!

Happy Easter

CSI: Doggo

Who's not a good boy? 😞🐕

The official announcement, sort of

I've been holding out until an official announcement was made before revealing more details, but it took a while. I still haven't seen anything about it online (Facebook or their website), but the publication acceptance I received last month is from Writers' Police Academy. They included it in their latest email:

 

 

I thought they might be rushing it out in time for the upcoming Writers' Police Academy in June, but apparently it won't be released until later this year. I haven't received my contract or heard from my editor yet, but this updated info pretty much explains that. 

More info as it becomes available!

Update: And of course, as soon as I post this, they put in on the FB page!

Fall in love with the world around you...

Fall in love with the world around you. Fall in love with the sound of birds, with thunderstorms, with the little flowers that grow against odds in random places. Fall in love with the people and places you can build a home in. --Unknown (via wildnsoulss on Instagram)