Tuesday, May 6

Sorry it's been so long since my last entry! Life has gotten crazy recently and spending a long time writing out a blog bit has been difficult for me. So I solved that problem by recording myself instead. This is an unedited video and I'm sorry! It's quite long, but I answered a few questions I've been getting and problems I've been having.

Saturday, February 22

I was finally able to post new videos! An update (that mostly focused on my contributions to A Sea of Fate that's coming out pretty soon), and an actual review. I just taped my review for Broken Hearts, so expect that in a day or so. 

I'm very excited for Kyle Throw's first novel, A Sea of Fate (hereby referred to as ASF). He's been working on it for seven years and he's already got a sequel in the making. It's hard to summarize it without giving anything away and there's no official summary yet. What I can say is this: it's a fantasy novel with three main characters. Sheala is a sheltered girl who is forced out of her home and into the city of Roghulth for protection. Alexander is a young boy who wants nothing more than to go on adventures like the ones in the stories he hears about his father, King Aireander. Victor, Alexander's half brother, is the captain of the Honored Guard, a group of highly trained soldiers, and is soon getting ready to battle the Mentore, a race of powerful creatures that have only been defeated once. They have come from their mountainous prison to destroy the world of men and kill all in their path. We have a tentative date of mid-March set to start printing, but because Kyle is self-publishing, only a few copies will be printed. The electronic version will be cheaper and available to anyone who wants it. 

Today was probably the most productive day I've had in a long time. I finished reading Broken Hearts, made my review, edited the hour long video I made for Sweet Treats and Secret Crushes down to about seven minutes, and edited a couple chapters of ASF. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it was at least ten hours of work and I'm about to do another hour, at least.

Since I haven't made a video since Valentine's Day, I'll post the picture of Kevin and my gift to my mom. It was the nicest thing we could have done for her. She came home from a stressful class to a whole bunch of candle-lit cupcakes.

Thursday, February 13

I'm not proud of myself at all. I still haven't taken the laptop in. Today is the day, though. I hope. I'm just really uncomfortable with going, I think. Maybe if I had another person behind me, prodding me the whole time, I'd be okay. I might make my mom go with me tonight. Or make Kevin go tomorrow, but that's not a real romantic thing to do on Valentine's Day. 

Speaking of Valentine's! My mom's presents include getting her car taken in for a tune-up (we're dropping it off tonight), flowers, a store bought card, breakfast in bed, and me driving her around for a day. The car thing is going to be pretty expensive so we had to cut back on actual presents. I got Kevin a fan for his computer because it overheats like crazy and I'm going to take him shopping for something to sleep in and cute boxers. He really needs something other than regular monochromatic black and grey. I'm also thinking a hat so he doesn't have to keep stealing them from people, but I'm not sure if I'll have enough. Kevin already ate my present of chocolate, I think, which is good. I'm not a big fan of chocolate, especially since dark chocolate make me puke and if I eat too much milk chocolate, I get a tummy ache. I probably would have just given it to him to eat anyway :)

Tomorrow, I have a meeting with an author about his book, but I'm still struggling with some of the sections that are worded weird. I think I. Just going to have to go over it with him and see if we can't both agree on the wording and the syntax. For instance, I use the Oxford comma, but he might not.

The Book of Disquiet and Blue Bloods didn't get finished like they were supposed to, sadly. I have to return them in about three hours, but there's no way I can finish another 200 pages of Pessoa by then. So I'll just have to return them and check them back out when I'm done with the February books I set aside.

Right after this, I'm going to go back to editing and when I get tired of that, I'll start writing my reviews on hubpages again. I can't do either for longer than an hour, but if I go back and forth, it shouldn't be so hard. I really need to start catching up on hubpages or the pile of books that I haven't finished is going to get higher and higher and overtake my desk again. I must not let it happen!

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!