Sunday, February 9

Still haven't gotten my laptop fixed. It's not that I'm lazy, I swear. Every time I found a chance to go down to best buy or that computer store near my house, something came up and I couldn't go. Tomorrow is my last chance. I have to find time to get it looked at or I'm handing the responsibility to either Kevin or my mom. They're both pretty good at getting things done. 

I've been crazy busy with a book that I've been editing recently. There were a lot of errors and it's taken me hours to get through it. I'm still not done, but I hope that I can finish the whole thing by Friday even with the exam I have on Thursday. Speaking of class, I've been struggling with that, too. Two English classes was not a good idea. I've calculated that I have the equivalent of one essay each week between the English and psychology classes. I'm not sure how well this is going to work, but I'll try my damned hardest. There's no way I can just quit now.

In good news, I picked up the books from the library and the chosen ones are (in order):

1. Sweet Treats & Secret Crushes by Lisa Greenwald - three girls give away homemade fortune cookies to their neighbors in an attempt to bring happiness to those around them

2. Broken Hearts by R.L. Stine - girls at Shadyside High get scary valentines which quickly turn to murder

3. The Trouble With Valentine's Day by Rachel Gibson - two spurned adults find themselves in the middle of the gossip pool after a compromising accident in a supermarket

4. A Catered Valentine's Day by Isis Crawford - two sisters get involved in a Valentine's Day fundraiser only to find themselves in the middle of a mysterious death.

This means I have to read two books a week or so. :( Not the most fun, but I'm sure I can manage it. 

No videos for a while, but there will be new reviews on hubpages, hopefully. If you're interested in reading them, you can find them here: rainaevink.hubpages.com.

Monday, February 3

I believe I have been cursed. 

First, the Broncos lose the Super Bowl in an embarrassing defeat. They haven't played so horribly in quite a while. I'd like to believe they were payed off, but I'd also like to believe that they have the moral strength to not be bribed so easily. 

Then, a few hours later, my laptop breaks. I'm not sure how, but I opened it and got the pixelated white and black that occurs when you apply a great deal of force to a small area of the screen. I'm not sure what caused it, but it certainly wasn't me as I was two floors above it, showering at the time. It's still under warranty so it shouldn't be too difficult to get it running again.

On top of that, my washing machine is on the verge of giving up and my dryer burns all my clothes. It's grinding and shaking and making horrifying sounds like a whale dying with a sinus infection, all wet and gross. I'm just hoping I can get all my laundry done before it floods my house.

So no video for last week. I was in the process of editing the bookshelf tour when the screen cracked or whatever. I'm thinking about making a video that explains the computer thing. But it'll have to be done in one go on the ipad and I'm not so awesome with that. There's a lot of blank footage of me staring off into space while I record my regular videos. 

I'm not sure how long it's going to take to have it fixed. Kevin is going to have a shot at it (which I'm not too thrilled about) and I'll probably have to take it to best buy and have them replace the whole screen. Hopefully, that will be done by the end of this week so I can continue with homework and editing stuff. 

Blue Bloods and The Book of Disquiet are still kicking my ass, but I've passed the halfway point in each of them. It's a slow process, but I hope that I can finish them this month. I started reading both of them about a year ago. Which is aggravating for me. I should have finished by now!!!

I'm still not sure what I'll be reading this week for valentines day. They tell me the books are "in transit" to my library which means they could come later today or take until Friday. But whichever one I grab first (maybe the shortest one if I don't have a lot of time to read) will be the lucky one and I'll put it on goodreads as soon as possible. I'm still reading and updating goodreads almost everyday so you can keep track of my progress on there.

Saturday, January 4

New Years passed fairly uneventfully for me. I haven't had time to finish editing my video but I hope to do it later today if I have time. It's 4 in the morning, I haven't slept, and Kristin and I have a few errands to run. I have to finish painting my living room before I leave, too.

A little update (since I haven't done anything lately): I'm in the process of updating my house. The wall between my kitchen and living room had horrid wallpaper that we took down. Now we're painting over it all and it is taking much longer than I anticipated. As such, all my money and time has gone into Christmas and paint. I got Sonia a baby animals crochet kit for Christmas and I want to finish all six or eight of them by the time she has her baby.

Reviews are coming slow because of the remodel but it's gonna get better, I promise. In a week or two, I'll have my workspace cleaned up and everything will be so much more efficient. For now, I'm stuck doing everything from my dining room table or coffee table. And neither of those places is comfortable at all.

This month is manga month!! I've already got all the books planned out for January, but next months books aren't decided on. If anyone has any suggestions for a Valentine's Day theme, I'm open to them.

Sunday, November 24

Happy Teacher's Day (in Turkey)!

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything on here, but I've been productive, I promise. Apart from a crazy amount of tests, watching every episode of Mythbusters, and trying to finish the video games I'm halfway through, I've finished reading, writing, and taping book reviews.

I've been worrying about being able to complete the 2013 reading challenge of 50 books because I've been hovering around 30 books for a month or so. As I was cleaning up my Goodreads shelves, adding ratings and so, I noticed that I hadn't added the Dengeki Daisy mangas I've been reading all year. When I added those in, I found myself only a few books away! Now, I only have to read two more books before New Years and I'm all done! Hopefully, I can make more than just 50 this year.

There is a wonderfully growing pile of books on my headboard that I need to write the written reviews for. Thanksgiving on Thursday needs to be returned to the library as soon as possible, so that one is on the top of the list. I've got Zenn Scarlett mostly done. It only needs a little bit of revision and it'll be ready for publication. After that, Steve Jobs is up, followed by any library books I finish in the next few days.

Keeping with the Thanksgiving theme for this month, I have another festive book that I would like to have completed by Wednesday morning so I can make a Thanksgiving day video this week instead of Friday. But that means that I have to get through it and take notes in the next three days. I'm sure I can do it, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time.

Thankfully, my mom has finally agreed to change the look of our house. Yesterday, we went couch shopping and it was more difficult than we thought it would be. It turns out that we have different tastes entirely. I think we'll be lucky to find something that we both agree on. As exciting as it is, it means that I might be spending this week painting, reupholstering, and building new furniture. This means I'm going to have to plan reading time, which is not something I'm used to.

But I have to finish The Catered Thanksgiving by Isis Crawford by Wednesday. Keep track of my progress on Goodreads!

Friday, November 15

Happy National Spicy Hermit Cookie Day! (I have no idea what that is, but it kinda sounds gross...)

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. It was hard to find time to post the last two weeks. I had three different tests at school, plus helping Kevin move into a new house, and the strange problems with my appliances. Hopefully, most of that will be over and done with now.

Today, I finally finished The Vampire Stalker review at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0FjeamGjds. I know that I was supposed to do a review of Zenn Scarlett or Steve Jobs, but I've had reader's block for some reason. I just haven't had the motivation. Strangely, once I actually force myself to read, I get drawn in very quickly and it's hard to stop. I just have to make myself sit down and do it.

Appliance problems: The trash compactor was successfully installed, however, it's the wrong color. So we had to order it again and it should arrive later this month. The dishwasher should be here by the beginning of December and all the appliances should match the black oven we have. I'm hoping that all of this can be done by Christmas. That'll be my present to myself :)

My reader's block has become a real problem. I got two books from the library that I was supposed to finish by Thanksgiving or thereabouts. But they're second to Zenn Scarlett and Steve Jobs. So I have to buckle down and spend maybe the whole day just reading those two books. I'm halfway done with both of them and that gives me hope.

The long list of books I'm "currently-reading" on Goodreads is way too long. Most of those books I haven't touched in months, if not years. I'd really like to get most of those off the list so other people don't get confused about it when I don't update those books for a while. Wish me luck on finishing everything!

Please follow me on Goodreads and Youtube for further updates!

Friday/Saturday, November 1 & 2

I hope you all enjoyed your Halloweens. We just finished up an awesome, if somewhat uneventful party of four.

I edited and uploaded my videos for Hair Raising and The Great Little Madison, which makes two videos in three days. Not something I'll ever have to do again hopefully. The links are down below. But now I only have to finish the written reviews of those books and I'm done with them. To be honest, I'm toying with the idea of not doing the written reviews until after New Years. It can be very time consuming and I'm trying desperately hard to finish reading fifty books before December 31st. On top of this, I have school work and class four days a week, plus another day every month for labs outside of class.

The dishwasher that was supposed to be installed on Wednesday arrived damaged and the man wasn't enterely comfortable saying it would work properly. It was very hard trying to prepare for Halloween without a dishwasher. We had to clean everything by hand. I did dishes three separate times today before the party even started. So we have to wait another couple of weeks to get that installed, too. Plus, we're still waiting on our trash compactor. Hopefully the second one doesn't have any problems and we can instal it and get it working ASAP.

I have yet to crack open Zenn Scarlet, but I'm hoping I can have it read by the 8th. I'm not sure how much longer Steve Jobs will take, but I'm hoping not long after that. If I can get through at least one or two books a week, when the holidays come and I have nothing to do but sit at home and read and watch Charlie Brown everything, I'm hoping I can get through enough to pull out that total of fifty by the end of the year. Maybe I should just start reading children's books or books I can read in less than half an hour...

Please keep track of me on goodreads and my videos. Now my cat is whining for attention and she won't let me be until she crawls her way under the sheets and falls asleep with me.


The Great Little Madison Book Review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za8QRqhPaZA

Hair Raising Book Review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX4Op_AP9M8

Tuesday, October 29

Thankfully, I've been able to catch up on enough of my stuff to record a video for this week and I just need to edit it. I apologize for the huge gaps in video and blog making. I know I say this a lot, but hopefully after next week, I'll be back up to snuff.

Tomorrow, my new dishwasher will arrive and it should be installed just in time for the Halloween dishes rush, provided it's not damaged. The trash compactor I ordered arrived damaged and that's why I have to wait another week for that one. I'm very excited to not have to wash dishes by hand anymore. I admit that I'm a faily lazy person, but I barely found time to do the dishes before and now it takes me three times longer. 

I had planned on being finished with the two books I've been reading by now and started on Dracula, but I'm too far behind schedule for that. I don't think I'm going to get to Dracula until November, which kind of ruins the whole point of Dracula. I might keep that one until next year and keep in on my list of Halloween books.

There's only nine more weeks left until the end of the year and it's starting to creep up on me a little. I pledged fifty books this year on goodreads and I've only managed to get to thirty. When I chose fifty at the beginning of the year, I thought that I wasn't oiling to come even close and I was going to have to lower the bar by twenty or thirty so I'm pretty proud of where I've gotten, but I'm still a little hopeful that I can get there. If I focus more on reading, I think I might be able to read two books a week, especially during school breaks and Christmas. But I'll still only do one video review a week.

Check in with goodreads and hubpages to keep track of my progress if I don't post anything in a timely manner. Thanks for keeping up with me!