misfitmonkey

Holy Smokes by Katie MacAlister


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yeah, yeah. Okay. The last two books in the series lessened my irritation with the second book in this (so far) four book series. This is still just fluff reading, but the fourth book was fun, and actually had me wishing there were more books in the series after reading the ending.

It seems weird throughout this series to vaguely elude to how much more powerful Aising is than she should be at this phase in her Guardian-ness, but there’s never an explanation, never a back story about her family and how she might have ended up a Guardian, really no back story on her at all except for a very poorly constructed back story in the first book about an ex-husband.

Despite all the holes in the plot and the writing, I keep reading. For fluff, it clearly has that addictive quality, which for me isn’t even the smutty bits… it’s more because of the supernatural aspect and the occasional moments of actual humor that have actual made me laugh out loud. Jim is a fun character and Drake has become decidedly less stiff and chauvinistic over the course of the series, although I’m just as irritated with how the author handled the revising of Drake’s character (the whole “I’m going to be empowered and change my man’s behavior by condescendingly treating him like a five year old” dynamic with Aisling is just as sexist).

Good series. Not GREAT series, but good. I wish I could’ve skipped the second book entirely and cut giant hunks out of the others, but despite all my criticism… I still keep coming back for more. ;)
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Light My Fire by Katie MacAlister


My rating: 3 of 5 stars

(No write-up for the third book prior to Holy Smokes, because my thoughts are basically the same, and since I read them so closely together, the storyline blends together.)

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Fire Me Up by Katie MacAlister
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Meh. Okay, now I think I’ve figured out this author’s formula, and it’s not great… or at least it’s not great when used for every book. I find myself now irritated at the domineering Drake and the eventually submissive (or really sad and wanting to be submissive) Aisling. Could this main character be more self deprecating and insecure in every aspect of her life? I thought that was cute and humorous when she didn’t know what she was doing, but now it’s just irritating and predictable.

The plots themselves are becoming formulaic… I find myself disappointed to note that the resolution in this book is not even vaguely like the first book… it is EXACTLY LIKE the resolution in the previous book, with a predictable ending.

I’m currently reading the third book, but I have a feeling it will be my last.

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You Slay Me by Katie MacAlister


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a quick brain candy read (read it in a few hours’ time) that was mostly successful at being funny and mostly successful at being steamy as well. I like the heroine, and have already picked up the second book in the Aisling series, which says a lot of a fluffy romance read. If you’re looking for fluffy, supernatural smut to read, this is a fun pick that I would recommend, and I’m pretty picky with my smut. :)

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A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was overwhelming at times in its hopeless portrayal of two women in Afghanistan whose lives become linked through their shared circumstance.

There were moments where I felt such incredible sorrow for Afghanistan’s bloody, war torn history that seems to never end throughout the reading of the book, and then there are moments of helpless heartbreak at the idea of living an entire life as full of pain as these women’s lives.

I was often angry and mostly just hopelessly sad that women in some countries can live an entire life under the oppressive and violent thumb of both their government and the men in their lives. Even in the triumph that can be found in this book, there is still a lingering sadness. I hope for a better world someday, and gave a lot of thought to what my role is (and isn’t) in making that happen.

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[This was a pick for Timshel Book Club, chosen by Brian Layman.]

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to give this book four stars, but I just couldn’t do it. This is the first book I’ve listened to as an audiobook and I really enjoyed it as an audiobook, but I’m not sure I would enjoy it through a more traditional reading process. The narrator really made the book for me overall.

The book seemed pretty thoroughly unresolved at the end for me, and I didn’t liked the narrator’s depiction of YT (there are certain adult scenes that were somewhat disturbing given how young and childish YT was made to sound by the narrator). The relationship with Hiro and Juanita was underdeveloped and strange as well.

Overall, this seemed like an amazing concept that *almost* succeeded for me. It was fun to listen to, but ultimately left me wanting a little more. There were parts that I absolutely loved, but there weren’t quite enough of those parts to give this four stars.

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Local by Brian Wood


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a great 12-issues comic series that is now available in one hardbound volume. It’s a very quick read and paints the story of a girl named Megan who struggles through finding herself in different ways and relocates at the end of (or between) each issue.

The final issue is a little cliche, but provides a solid ending to this girl’s messy journey, and the coolest aspect of the series is the accurate local scene visually and contextually portrayed for each city featured in each issue. This is a really solid, one-sitting read.

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The Walking Dead Volume 10: What We Become by Robert Kirkman


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This volume got me to the point where I’m now reading issues rather than the trades as they come out. I just can’t wait that long to see what happens to these people and it JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER. This is hands down one of the best comic book series I’ve read, and there’s a good chance that I’ll put it ahead of Preacher by the time the series is over.

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Invincible Vol. 3: Perfect Strangers by Robert Kirkman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is where this series really starts to get good for me. These are the issues that really got me hooked and now I’m in for the long haul on the Invincible series. Robert Kirkman is a genius!

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Yesterday, Jim and I went to Classic Park up in Eastlake, Ohio to see The Bob Dylan Show (Bob Dylan in live in concert with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp opening). My mom got us tickets a month or so ago, knowing that I have always really wanted to see Bob Dylan live before I die (or he does, which was likely to come first).

Willie Nelson played first, and he wasn’t bad. I think Jim was most excited to see Willie play, but even he admitted that it wasn’t a stellar performance. I think Willie’s getting old and his live stuff just isn’t as good as it used to be. Still enjoyable though, and Willie’s son (who was playing with Willie) is pretty darn good.

John Mellencamp played second, and he wasn’t bad (good energy, good musicians playing with him), but my one big turn off with Mellencamp is that a vast majority of his later work all sounds the same, and this was very evident in everything he played, including a brand new song he played that he had just recorded (I found myself able to sing one of his other songs along with the chord structure of the new one). He’s not someone I would go see as a headliner, but I still enjoyed his performance, and MAN oh man were there a lot of middle-aged women going totally crazy over him… it was almost disturbing. Lol.

And finally, Dylan performed. The first thing you should know prior to seeing Dylan live is that he primarily plays his newer work and it will NOT sound like the album version. This tends to really tick off Dylan fans who aren’t prepared for it, so steer clear of live performances if you want “All Along the Watchtower” to sound like any of his recorded versions. He also tends to play completely different sets each night, so you could see him on this same tour and we will probably won’t have heard a lot of the same songs if we compared notes.

I thought it was a solid performance, and I was really just thrilled to be seeing Dylan live. He played several of my favorites from his last few albums (”Jolene,” “Ain’t Talking,” and “Things Have Changed”), and Jim really enjoyed “Senor.” Here are a few of my clips (the first clip has three different song bits included):

One important thing to remember if you go to see this show while these three fellas are on tour: they don’t play together, or at least they didn’t at this particular show. Jim kept insisting they were surely all going to come out on stage together and play at the end, but it was a no go. Just a heads up.

Overall: Great show, glad we went, thanks so much to my mom for tickets and to my dad for a lifelong exposure to Dylan and a heads up about what to expect when seeing him live. This was definitely a check-off on my bucket list. :)

I have a few things to say about Mental, a fairly new show on FOX that stars a:

“radically unorthodox psychiatrist who becomes Director of Mental Health Services at a Los Angeles hospital where he takes on patients battling unknown, misunderstood and often misdiagnosed psychiatric conditions.” (from show description)

My husband enjoyed watching me watch the show this past weekend, and eventually even said, “Umm… why are you watching this? It just seems to be agitating you.”

You know, the show is not really all bad and the doctors are all vaguely interesting as people, but here are some of the things that bug me about the show:

1. Why are psychiatrists the only people who seem to be working with these patients and their families?

Seriously… where are the social workers, the nurses, the aides, the occupational therapists, recreational therapists, and other various people who generally work on an inpatient psychiatric unit? More than one episode shows the main character finding family members and engaging in counseling and doing about a dozen different things that are NOT realistically carried out by the psychiatrist in a typical inpatient setting. It’s a team effort, and it’s really irritating to see my role often completely overlooked or completely misrepresented as something a doctor would do.

Psychiatrists do very important work and I work with many who are very dedicated and mindful and more than competent at what they do, but sometimes (a LOT of the time) it’s a social worker who’s rolling up sleeves and diving into a messy family situation and providing individual or family/couples therapy while the patient is on the psych unit. Did every single important character on the show have to be a doctor? *sigh*

2. Why are all of these patients diagnosed with things or experiencing things in a way that most mental health professionals NEVER see on a daily basis?

I understand the intrigue of rare disorders, but a majority of the public could greatly benefit from better exposure to more common mental illness diagnoses and the difficulties that come with those diagnoses. I would really like more typical psychiatric patients and the struggles that they have to deal with, not to mention the complicated struggles their families deal with as well.

You don’t have to go way into left field to find some really intriguing stories about mental health patients and their loved ones. My work day is completely different every day, and I almost always finish a work week with at least one story that no one would believe if they haven’t been exposed to inpatient or community mental health, so why does the show have to focus so much on rare diagnoses and exceptions to the rule? Try showing the public a more realistic and helpful look at the type of illnesses their family and friends could be struggling with on a daily basis, and there is a valuable, interesting show that people could relate to.

3. Sleeping with a patient’s immediate family member is unethical.

ESPECIALLY when you’ve interacted with that family member during the course of treatment. Enough said.

Overall, I don’t hate the show, and I’ve continued to watch it (I think I’m on the fifth episode), but it doesn’t do a very good job of accurately portraying an inpatient psychiatric unit and all of the hardworking people that spend their days working with patients and their families. They really could have done better with this show.

Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

My review

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Finally finished this volume from the Enderverse, and I have to say that I struggled to stick with it. This book was very disjointed, wandered all over the place, and some of the storylines just really didn’t interest me. The second half was definitely better than the first in that I became even more interested in the formics/buggers than I was when I finished Ender’s Game. I think I’ll be moving on to Speaker for the Dead next, because I really want to read more about the formics and their reasoning, history, and maybe their future?



I won’t be reading this one again, but it had some good moments in it that make it worth the effort. The writing is not great, the characters are not always well-developed (especially the women… Card does not seem to understand women in the slightest), but there are some good nuggets in there, and I’m glad I caught those along the way.


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Has anyone checked out the new Regina Spektor album, Far since it’s release last week? I am absolutely loving it.

I’ve been a pretty big fan of Regina’s since Begin to Hope, and I was honestly pretty leery about her new album, simply because Begin to Hope is such a seriously solid album. As it turns out in this case, a seriously solid album can be followed by an equally solid album (I wouldn’t say it’s better than the last, but definitely stands up to the quality of it and is just as innovative).

I initially thought the album was a bit over-produced, but by the second listen-through, I was totally hooked and already catching myself humming a few of the tracks under my breath throughout the day. I love Regina’s voice, and the more I listen to the lyrics, the more I simply love this new album, which is exactly how I fell in love with her last album… a little unsure at first, but totally captivated by the second listen.

There just isn’t anyone else out there I’ve listened to who is able to really alter their sound and their voice and use the vocal effects that she does and still produce such a beautiful, strange sound. If you’ve enjoyed her past albums, you should definitely be checking this one out. :)

Gift Of The Dreamtime: Awakening To The Divinity Of Trauma by S. Kelley Harrell
Rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book over 4-5 separate evenings, reading a section and then spending time thinking about what I’d read over the days that followed, and I came away from the book with what I felt was the author’s message, but also with a personal message of my own, which surprised me given that this book is so intensely personal in its depiction of Kelley’s own journey toward true and constant Grace.

Accepting and understanding “the divinity of trauma” (a phrase I now better understand after finishing the book) is extremely difficult, going against a lot of societal expectations of a trauma victim and suggesting some very unpopular or uncomfortable ideas about what trauma is spiritually for some. Kelley expresses the learning of this lesson in a way that makes the concept less foreign, and she sheds light (quite painfully at times) on the true nature of trauma.

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Here's my brief initial reaction to the Apple Keynote today as I'm watching it.

Time Capsule - Holy sweetness, batman. This is really cool, although I don't really use Time Machine. I hope that I can use this without using Time Machine. Good chance I will grab one of these the next time I have a few hundred bucks laying around. Ridiculously competitive pricing.

iPhone Firmware Update - I was frantically downloading it before I even got to that part of the video, having already seen the preview video from those fellas who got ahold of the firmware early. I am about to pee my pants waiting to get all the AWESOME new features. (UPDATE: Awesome... gps-ish locator in Google Maps is cool, moving icons on my Springboard rocks, multiple recipients for SMS, and other awesome features... I love it!)

ITunes Movie Rentals - DUDE. I can start it on my computer and if I have to run, I can put it on my iPhone? This is totally going to save Apple TV as well... they've seriously just saved their only pseudo-failed product and I am SO excited about this. No mailing, no nothing. I download it, I have it for 30 days, once I start watching I have 24 hours to finish and then it's done. Every single major studio on board... AWESOME. I wish the new iTunes had videos to rent already, but I don't think it's live yet.

Apple TV Take 2 - With movie rentals now available on iTunes, I'd imagine this is going to take off like crazy. Jim heard this part of the keynote video and wants one already (so do I), and they are LESS than the old Apple TVs. Hawesome to the max.

MacBook Air - *jaw drop* When I heard through Twitter rumblings that this was the big announcement and then looked at it on the website, I was kind of like... "meh... so what?" Then I sat down and watched the keynote video from this afternoon and when I actually SAW it held in Steve Jobs hands, I nearly died of overdose of awesome. Must have one some day.
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So, overall, my first MacWorld Keynote with Steve Jobs was pretty darn good. :)

So, I'm trying out Pownce.  It's in beta right now, but I'm uber so I snagged a code off one of iJustine's fans and have been playing around with it.  Feel free to hit me up for one of the few invites I have left, but I'm not sure I'm very impressed. 

Seems like a better version of Twitter, but why do you need a better version of Twitter?  I'm just not sure how it offers anything that isn't offered elsewhere in a better format.  Sure, it brings different things together, like events and messages and link sharing and small file sharing, but can't you already do all of those things?  Feels closer to a blog, and why Pownce when you can... well, blog.  Or Twitter, if it's something small and quick. 

I guess it's just a matter of who wins the popularity contest?  I dunno.

Crest Whitening Expressions Refreshing Vanilla Mint = freakishly unrefreshing. DO NOT PURCHASE. I'm all for new flavors of toothpaste (my favorite is the Crest Cinnamon Rush), but vanilla mint is about the grossest thing I've ever rubbed all over my teeth. *shudder* Yuckers.

Eep. Phone.

WoW Insider : WoW UI Updater (AddOn Spotlight Article)

This is a tool for automatically updating your add-on all at once or the like. I'm currently downloading it.

*Update : Following the directions in the article helped a lot. Currently updating my addons that were found automatically.


*Final opinion : This is a GREAT program, a huge help for those who don't want to manually look for updates to all 49 of their game addons every time there's a game patch, and I'm incredibly happy with it. Game worked flawlessly after I was done and I did a third of the work to get it all working properly. w00t!!

If you're going to install it, make sure that you read the article and thoroughly follow the FAQs that are linked to in the article. Those sites were very helpful during the setup and now that everything is setup for me, it will be much easier to update in the future. :)

Notes on a Scandal

This movie is a testament to the foolish things a person will do in a state of utter loneliness. Both Dench and Blanchett portray characters who are lonely, but in very different situations. Dench's character is an old virgin on the verge of retirement from teaching who befriends and then falls in love with Blanchett's character, a pottery teacher married to an older man. Blanchett's character has two children, one of which has Down's Syndrome, and seems to be lonely in the midst of a loving family, as if she's lost herself in the midst of being a wife and a mother to a boy with special needs. Dench is lonely because she's failed to find love or even real friendship in her life, and when Blanchett is friendly, even confiding in her about a sexual affair with a student, it spurs an obsession that is truly frightening and highly deluded.

Bill Nighy is wonderful as Blanchett's husband in the film, but then when isn't Bill Nighy wonderful to watch? More noteably, Blanchett does an amazing job as the adulterous wife, which is one of the best parts of the film. It takes an incredible actor to not be completely overshadowed by the strength of Dench's performance, and the two of them together was just amazing to watch. I left the movie genuinely disturbed by the level and the believability of Dench's obsession, and somehow sympathetic to the tragic scandal of Blanchett's exposure as a teacher who has slept with a minor. It was an uncomfortable movie to watch, but very well done. Also left me wondering where all those paper journals of mine have gone to now that I'm so prone to blogging rather than scribbling anymore.

Children of Men

Prior to watching this movie, I'd heard mostly negative comments about it, but thought that it was an absolutely beautiful film. The film shows the struggle of reluctant hero trying to protect a miraculously pregnant woman in a futuristic world where no one has conceived in almost twenty years. The film was full of wonderful cameos by Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, and a wonderful performance by Clive Owen in the leading role. The movie is a comment on our current climate with an interesting proposal about our future that states itself in a non-forceful way, and the camera work, at least from my ignorant perspective, was some of the most beautiful I've seen.

There were long, sweeping shots that were beautifully choreographed (one noteable several minute scene is obviously all done in one perfect take because you can see the blood spattered on the camera lens), and there is so much (so much) in this film that is said without words. In fact, I would say that there was more said without words than in the scarce dialogue, and the scene with Clive Owen walking a frightened mother through a crowd of armed men toward the end of the movie brought me to tears with absolutely no words said. I had a feeling that I would really love this movie, despite the opinions I'd heard, and I was right. It was a beautiful film.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Jim and I watched this last night and it was just an amazingly disturbing movie that generated a lot of great discussion between Jim and I.  It's very well done, and it exposes things about oil companies, the government, car companies, and the California Air Resources Board (if I remember the title correctly) that surprised even me.  Did a good job of pointing out that electric cars aren't for everyone, but they are a good option for enough of us that there were waiting lists to get them when they came out, and a whole lot of people who leased them for years were really upset when they were taken away.  They're a better here and now option than hydrogen cars as well, which is something Jim and I paused the movie to debate about (then we pushed play and almost immediately this guy came on and listed all the reasons why hydrogen cars are decades away from mass production while electric cars were being mass produced almost a decade ago, proving my point bwa ha).  Just a really eye opening movie, even if you're already on board with bringing them back.  There was a lot I didn't know, and there were also a lot of great celebrity cameos and a mock funeral for the EV1 (the first GM-produced all-electric car).
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The Pursuit of Happyness

This movie completely broke my heart and completely brought me to tears at the end.  There was this ability to relate to the main character's desperate situation at that point in his life that we've all felt at some point on a smaller level or over a shorter time period or maybe we've even been in the same situation... when everything has gone wrong and your life is one long series of "please god give me a BREAK" prayers and you just don't know how to keep it together except to put one foot in front of the other...    You can see it in Will Smith's face throughout the movie and it just broke my heart.  It reminded me of those really rough three years I had on my own, clients I've worked with who only get human contact when they show up for counseling or go to family services for their food stamps, my mother trying to work and finish school after my dad left and she had three children under the age of 10, the things that some of us have to get through just to find our place in life.  Watching the little boy (who was wonderful) go through it with his father, not completely understanding, was incredibly hard... the moment when he loses a toy in the street and it gets further and further away was just heart wrenching.  It drags in parts and it's less intense overall than I had anticipated, but it's honest and emotionally valid for all of us in some way, and I enjoyed it.