I'm a slayer, ask me how.

Sometimes I take the risk of putting a popular book on hold and try my best to get through it in the 3-week checkout period. And how could I resist a title like this – How to Sell a Haunted House? (Plus, I read ‘The Final Girl Support Group’ last year and really enjoyed it!)

Lots of spooky vibes going blended with some family drama. Like so many good ghost stories, the protagonist is clueless at the start, convincing herself that the TV magically turned on and that the creepy puppet just fell off the shelf.

She did just have the realtor (who is also her cousin - there is some small town drama too) tell her the house is haunted and she refuses to sell it. There were...noises in the attack which appears to have been nailed shut in a very haphazard manner, as though her parents were scared to go up there.

There was already an earlier chapter that made it hard for me to fall asleep after I read it - it wouldn't have been so bad but the scary thing happened while she was asleep and it wakes her up...

Anyway, about to dive back in and see what spookiness awaits! Hopefully the story and the scares can be sustained over the 400 pages (I have about 300 left, I think). I will report back!

Wow - prior to my last post/link to my website, the last time I had posted to Dreamwidth was May 2021? I can't believe it. I used to live here.

I definitely got caught up in the other social media out there. It's hard to deny the quick photo posts and tiktok videos make for easy engagement, especially when you find a niche group - mine was board game nerds. It's such a small, tight knit group on those sites that it was easy to slip in and become part of the conversation. And, of course, Discord and the real time chat. Twitter was fun...now it's just a hot mess that I peek in on.

And I have been spending a lot of time either playing board games online or on the table. I have a premium account on Board Game Arena and I average about 100 games a month, playing them asynchronously and in real time (I'm playing a real-time game of Castles of Burgundy right now, typing in between turns).

But why did I leave? I think I know why which was...guilt. I was having a hard time keeping up with posts on here. My job has become more time consuming - I was a branch manager at a small library in May 2021 and about two months later, I became the branch manager of the big library I used to work in before that promotion in 2019. And my inbox kept filling up with all of your entries and I could not find the time to read them and then I felt posting knowing that I had not read your entries, but here I was posting my own, asking you to read and respond even though I had not made that time for you.

Anyway, am I back? Maybe? I'm going to make an effort to at least post links here to my other sites and posts. But apologies in advance if I go quiet again. If you're wondering what game I'm playing or book I'm reading, I'm orangerful all over the internet haha. I'm even having fun on TikTok!

I hope you are all well and that 2023 is off to a decent start! I feel like January was a false start so let's just move forward into February!

Still chipping away at Stamped from the Beginning which is a good read, but heavy, and I took a break to try some shorter stuff, just to finish something.

Lying by Sam Harris

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book was short? It was less of a book and more like a ramble? Like, if you met someone at a bar and they were just like "What is lying?" and had clearly just taken a class in ethics (or binge watched 'The Good Place'). I didn't feel like I heard anything new in this book but it is a good jumping off point for discussion.



How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was a very personal and honest story that Glidden shares with us. It centers around her coming to terms with thinking she knows it all and realizing that she doesn't. I think it is a problem a lot of us have when it comes to looking at issues in other countries and societies. She points this out at the end of the book - that it is much easier to look elsewhere and say how easy it would be to solve a problem than looking at our own country and what needs to be fixed.

This book made me realize how little I actually know about the story of Israel and Palestine. I feel the need to do some research, maybe not to try to solve the problem, which is clearly complex and layered, but to have a better grasp on what is at stake when people talk about steps forward.





The Phantom Twin by Lisa Brown

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Lisa Brown says in the end notes of the book that she was always fascinated by Freak Shows and researched them a lot as a teen and adult. In this story, she balances a story of found family and a group of people who struggle to feel like they belong all the while showing the abuse and prejudices people forced into the profession had to endure.

A good read for tweens/teens who are interested in this strange part of history, who like stories about trying to fit in and find yourself in a world where everyone thinks they already know you.



Queen's Shadow by E.K. Johnston

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The book was okay, if you like politics and listening to people talk about politics, but those politics are from a galaxy far far away, then this is the book for you!

It was interesting to hear about Padme and her handmaidens and their relationship to one and other. I really would have been happier with just a book all about Sabe though, which was what I thought we were getting when the whole slavery plot line came up.

The epilogue though. I want THAT book please.
I read this for Star Wars Book Club




What did you read this month?

I have a writing assignment I'm working on, like a thing I will actually get paid for doing. It's only 800 words but I have now thought TOO hard about it and need to just scrap everything and start over and get my head in a better spot. I got the job pitching an idea and using my blog posts as examples of my writing. It's an opinion piece, I can write in my own voice...but my brain keeps making me write it like a term paper and that is BORING.

Any of you professional writers have any tricks for just resetting your mind? Or should I just buy a bottle of wine and write my rough draft after a drink or two? Because right now, that is the best idea I have.

It's due February 15 but I want to get it done by next week in case I do it all wrong and the editor sends me notes back to tweak anything.

Yes, I'm being coy about all of this...I don't want to jinx it. If/when I get it done and it is published, you know I'm going to spam you with the link but right now...I'm just trying to focus.

Tabletop Tuesdays – where I ramble about tabletop games, be they board games or RPGs. Can I make this a weekly thing? I don’t really know, but let’s at least try it out this week!



Recently, during the slow days leading up to the holiday, I brought some games to work for us to play to fill the quiet hours. I wanted to bring something we could play quickly during lunch break, something that could be taught in a matter of minutes and that wouldn’t take too much time to set up. So I grabbed “Stay Cool”.



The game is relatively simple – one person is answering questions while two other people ask them. There is a three minute timer and you play over three rounds. The catch? You will be asked TWO questions at the same time, one you answer verbally and the other you must spell out using a set of four dice. The egg timer slowly drops sand in front of you and is flipped after a minute by your team mates until you’ve flipped it three times.

The verbal questions are relatively easy – identify something in the group of words that doesn’t belong, put a set of numbers in descending order, spell a word backwards, name what street you live on, what’s your favorite color – things you have to take a moment to process but can answer relatively quickly. The answers you need to spell out are only four letters long and the questions are not very tricky, it’s just about rolling the dice fast enough to spell while trying to answer your verbal question.

Not too bad, you might think. But that is just the first round. Second round, it is up to the person answering the questions to also watch the timer, shouting “FLIP!” before the sand runs out or they lose the round.

And then the final round – again, the answerer (?) is in charge of the timer flips, but they can’t SEE the timer as it is hidden behind the game box.

As per usual, I found out about this game via Dicebreaker and you can watch their Let’s Play video to get a taste of the chaos this game brings.



I think the most amusing part of this game is watching people so caught up in the moment, that they fumble simple questions, like “are you wearing pants?” or “do you own a dog?” The game is translated from French and I have noticed a few translation quirks where the phrasing of the question doesn’t make sense. There were also a few questions that were a bit NSFW that I wasn’t aware of until we started playing at work – one asked who do you think of this group was most likely to have an extramarital affair!!! And another asked what color underwear you were wearing! I mean, obviously there is no way to verify either of these questions, they are there to make the person go “WHAT?!?” and then awkwardly say their friend is an adulterer just to get the point (my coworker had no problem doing this LOL).

While my coworkers thought this game was hilarious (one of them immediately bought a copy), my stepdaughter did NOT like this game at all. It was too anxiety-inducing for her taste and she couldn’t enjoy the wild ride for what it was, I think she took it too seriously. So it will depend on your friend’s personalities and who can take the pressure and make it fun.

I was awful at remembering the timer, but we had so much fun laughing together that I want to bring this game back to work for our next staff day (though I might go through some of the question cards before we start to remove any more of the more intimate questions).

Have you played ‘Stay Cool‘ ? Do you have a favorite party game? Let me know in the comments!

last year, I slipped from my 2019 year end mix right into comfort music because 2020 and didn't really find much new music to listen to.

SO!

Please tell me some NEW ARTISTS I should be listening to or at least artists that are still making music in 2021 that I should listen to.

Making myself an epic Spotify playlist to listen to.

If you just give me an artist names, I will add the "top songs" to my mix, if you have specific songs though, please tell me those!



For frame of reference, my favorite artists are:
The Beatles
Sting
Bastille
Jukebox the Ghost
Simon and Garfunkel

But I am open to trying new things!