Jaye's Musings

x-posted to LJ & DW

Okay, so I'm a few days late, but that is thanks to the oldest visiting us from Cali and sucking up our limited data allowance, so the last few days of December internet was switched off. And the first couple of days of January have been busy.

It's the Yearly Round Up!

So, I didn't surprise myself when I said last year that I would fall behind in trying to post weekly updates. Once again, for 2014, I will make that attempt and hopefully succeed better. I think I will due to some things that I'm planning to do and because this year will be far less of an upheaval than 2013.

( Looking back and looking ahead )
So that's the plan...let's see how it goes, huh?

No, I haven't been around much, but I have a good excuse, that if you follow my Facebook, you've probably seen.

But I thought I'd better post something before I go on radio silence for a week. Today, approx 18mos after booking, me and the hubby embark on our transatlantic voyage that is marks our departure from Europe and our return to th US. Wifi will be too expensive, but I'll be blogging and posting once we arrive...with pics, of course! Also what makes it even better, is that we got an upgrade...bigger stateroom, even nicer dining! Cunard, www.cunard.com have a webcam, so you can follow our progress, not that you'll see much, just sea! :D

In other news, when we shipped my cat before we left Germany, the plan was that he would stay with my sister-in-law. Unfortunately he and her cats did not get along at all, so now now he's staying with my MIL and settling in nicely, at last.

So two weeks ago Friday was hubby's last day at work in the Air Force (he officially retires in July), which is why I've fallen behind with updates...again. I'm just not used to having him around the house all the time. As for writing, it's very hard to do when he's around and interrupting me every five seconds.

That said things are speeding up for our move. We've been getting a lot of stuff sorted out, ready for the movers to come at the end of the month and setting up all the necessary stuff like shipping the cat and car, as well as getting the other one ready to sell.

But as the Subject line states, from next week it's really going to get busy and I'll be lucky to be around online at all as his sisters are arriving on Monday and we are all down at Garmisch for the week. Fortunately, though, before that hubby is away down in Munich for the weekend for the Strong Beer Fest with 12 other middle-aged guys, and I get to enjoy this weekend to myself. Just what the introverted me needs!

Short post as I'm on my tablet, as there is only wifi at Starbucks here at CanterParcs Longleat.

gmnoonie and I are now enjoying a well desvered latte after doing an hour of Bollywood dance aerobics. As I'm not exactly at the peak of fitness, I wondered if I would get through the whole hour. I did! I really enjoyed it and had a great workout. I will have to find out if the offer these classes close to where I'll be living, as I could really get into it as a form of aeroboc exercise, especially if the instructor is as nice as this one was.

Ganked from beccadg

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

1) What are you currently reading?
2) What did you recently finish reading?
3) What do you think you’ll read next?

1) Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller I'm really enjoying it. It's the story of Achilles (obviously) as told by Patroclus, and it is a true love story between the two. I do have some quibbles, mainly the fact that she changes tenses all the time. I know it's supposed to be a stylistic thing, but there's not even a defined break, like a chapter but from one paragraph to the next sometimes.

2) The Legion by Simon Scarrow. I still stick with this series even though I am thoroughly sick of what a Gary Stu Scarrow's beloved main character is. I keep hoping they'll improve (the series started out so well that I'm always wanting to give it another chance).

3) Not sure yet. I think I will be downloading several onto the Kindle, so I have plenty to read once I'm in transit, and I think most will be light reading material, perhaps Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series or some of Anne Bishop's other novels. I also want to read the other books in Chris Wooding's "Adventures of the Ketty Jay" series (and would love recs on other steam punk novels).

So, the Holidays are over, the decorations are put away, hubby is back at work, and #2 is back in college....it must be time for my annual post apologizes for not posting more over the previous year and promising to post more in the coming year....and likely failing again.*ggg*

(Okay, so I started this post over a week ago now, so I'm already behind on my attempt to post once a week, at least, but I'm still going to try. Maybe I'll even get two posts done this week....yeah, sure!)

I'll also be updating from Dreamwidth more often and crossposting to LJ, seeing as LJ is becoming ever more unstable and vulnerable to ever more regular attacks. Okay, so the crossposting didn't work...pretty sure I know why, and I'll work on that later, maybe.

( Read more... )

Ok, so the only reason I'm posting is to try out my new toy.....a Samsung Galaxy 2 to be exact. Now I'm just playing about with and learning different apps like this one!

Finding it pretty nifty *g*

I haven't done a post where I've gone over my newest fandoms for a looonng time, and as I'm sitting her at the coffee shop waiting to head to the airport, and it's way to noisy to concentrate on writing...I might as well find something to occupy my journal.

BEING HUMAN (UK): Okay, so I've been a fan since the first season, and now that I can watch BBC iPlayer, I can now watch S4 the day after broadcast, I am more hooked than ever. To be honest, I wasn't sure how I would like this season with three lead cast members leaving the show, especially Aidan Turner who plays Mitchell, but I think that the PTB have done a good job of dealing with that. I even like the 'replacement' characters. Yes, they've set it up the same, but Tom and Hal are so totally different to George and Mitchell (despite being a werewolf and vampire, respectively) that the interactions are fresh and interesting. I love Annie always have, always will and I'm liking watching her grow as well as deal with her grief over her friends and forging new bonds (or not?) with her new housemates. There are plenty of interesting supporting characters as well, and I'm curious to see how they will develop and what side of good vs. evil they will fall on. The only weak spot that I can see is the baby, Eve and the whole "War Child" prophecy. I'm hoping they will do something completely surprising with it, and not turn it into a typical prophetic child trope.

SHERLOCK: I've only just started watching this, and only a couple of episodes at that...but it sucked me in immediately. It is just so clever (which I would expect from the subject) and an original take on ACD. While I don't find anything greatly physically attractive about Cumberbatch or Freeman, I absolutely love their chemistry together. They work so well together. It's unique and fun.

THE TUDORS: Yes, I'm late to this particular party, but hubby bought the complete series when he was deployed and we are slowly getting through them. I've never been a fan of the actual Tudors (Ricardian here!)...but with it's loose historical accuracy and great acting, I'm really enjoying it. Of course, watching JRM so much is hardly a bad thing...nor is Henry Cavill.

GAME OF THRONES: This really shows how bad I've been at updating my journal. LOL I had never heard of ISOIAF before hearing that Sean Bean was in the series. Hearing the premise, I got interested, and the local used bookshop here had the first novel. That first novel was quickly followed by the rest. And now I'm waiting impatiently for the DVDs and also the second season (which I'll miss the first ep as I'll be in Ireland!). As is typical for me, my favourites aren't the fandom favourites, and I find those that are annoying. I love Tyrion, hands down my favourite...he's a wonderful mix of grey that I love, and you can understand how he got to be like he is. Also those who I know I'll enjoy when I get to their chapters are Cersei, Petyr, Jamie, and Dany (although I hope she stops wasting time soon). Theon and Sansa are both growing on me slowly, and I do love seeing how they are going to develop. And while I'm sure that Jon Snow will be key to how this all plays out, in some way or another, I really hope not. I've been 'meh' over him since the start, and after everything that has happened (and still will happen?) it just seems all rather predictable. Please George R.R. Martin, surprise me like you have so often!

ONCE UPON A TIME: I heard a lot of people talking about this, and when it came on here, I checked it out. First network US show I've really got into for a long time, and what's more, hubby enjoys it as well. Rumplestiltskin makes it (okay, long time Robert Carlyle fan here, since Begbie and the guy he played on "Cracker" whose name eludes me right now), and I love the Queen/Mayor. But the best thing about the show is seeing the "before and after" of the fairy tale character and their real world counterpart. Sometimes it's a little predictable, but I like figuring out who is who. Also, Nick Lea was in last night's episode here! And although I'm not a big fan of the actress, Emma Swan is a strong female character and carries the show well.

( And a fandom that I've fallen out of love with )

Especially having DVDs sent rather than Watch Instantly?

I'm having a problem with them sending me DVDs in order from my queue. This has happened about three times now (first time I thought it might just be a glitch, second time was right around the Holidays so I was too busy to do much about it).

( The Problem...which is also a rant )

ETA: Okay, a FB friend found a number for me (apparently, I had to log all the way out and still go a couple of clicks to find their 'homepage', and it's there....obviously because no already signed-up customer could ever need to contact them), so I shall be calling later.

ETA2: *sigh* And that number was the British number for Netflix (as friend is in Britain). Although it did clue me in that I had to switch Tunnel Bear to the US proxy...and finally found their number. And will (again) call later (yes, they're available 24/7 but I'm on my way out).

It seems that I do despite not posting to it (aside from icontests) for a loooooong time. So, although I'm not one for resolutions, I'm going to endeavour to try and update regularly, probably with mostly meaningless (to everyone else) stuff from my life.

I am debating with myself whether to mirror what I post here to my Dreamwidth Journal, but for the foreseeable future, I'm not leaving Live Journal. I'm still roleplaying, for those of you who might have thought I've fallen off the RP world, but most of it is now over at Insane Journal (100 free icons, FTW!), with some at DW and here at LJ, and I'm trying to get a couple of inactive pups active again...so we'll see how that goes.

( Rambling, possibly quite boring summation of last year )

( More rambling, just as boring list of what I'm looking forward to in 2012 )

It's going to be a busy year!