Ravings of a Lunatic Mum

Books I’ve Read in March 2012

seldombites — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 03:30:49 +0000

Great Crimes of the Century #7: The savage killers by George Carpozi Jr.
Alone by Lisa Gardner
The Mephisto Club by Tess Gerritsen
Evil Serial Killers: In the minds of monsters by Charlotte Grieg
Opal Dream by Ben Rice
A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
Night by Elie Wiesel
Blue Light by Walter Mosley (56 pages)
Broken Prey by John Sandford

Books I’ve Read in 2012

seldombites — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 03:30:03 +0000

Great Crimes of the Century #7: The savage killers by George Carpozi Jr.
Alone by Lisa Gardner
The Mephiso Club by Tess Gerritsen
Evil Serial Killers: Inside the minds of monsters by Charlotte Grieg
Opal Dreams by Ben Rice
A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
Night by Elie Wiesel
Blue Light by Walter Mosley (56 pages)
Broken Prey by John SandfordThe Red Dahlia by Lynda La Plante
Hush Little Darlings by Judith Kelman
Dinkum Dunnies by Douglass Baglin & Barbara Mullins
Rough Justice: Unanswered Questions from the Australian Courts by Robin Bowles
Letters of an Indian Judge to an English Gentlewoman by Anonymous
Poltergeists and Other Hauntings by Rupert Matthews
Eye for an Eye by William Ian Miller (177 pages)
Fast-Tracked by Tracy Rozzlyn
The Old One by Todd Brabander
Asimov’s Aurora by Mark W. Tiedemann (36 Pages)
Crawlers by Sam Enthoven
House of Thunder by Leigh Nichols
Elegy: Book 1 of the Arbiter Codex by Christopher Kellen
Rippler by Cidney Swanson

Fast Catch

seldombites — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 04:44:51 +0000

Because we are probably moving a fair distance, I have a huge pile of books I am releasing. Rather than staging one mass release, I am trying to spread my releases out. To facilitate this, I have instituted a rule in my home – every time anybody goes out they have to grab a book to release. Yesterday, Butterfly took Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. She left it at the bus stop where she catches the bus to work. For various reasons, I was unable to make release notes straight away. I sat down at the computer this afternoon to make release notes for this book only to find out it has already been caught! How awesome is that?

Moving

seldombites — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:09:36 +0000

Wow. What a stressful week it has been! We received a notice last week stating that our landlord has decided not to renew our lease, which runs out mid-april. We have been running about like headless chooks trying to organise money so we can move. Thanks to the mining companies, the rents in our area have skyrocketed. We can no longer afford to live here, so we have been looking in other areas for a place to live. However, if we move out of the area, there are some issues with our car that will need to be fixed before it drives long distance. We need to come up with money for bond and two weeks rent in advance. Also, we then have the actual cost of moving. Definitely not cheap!

After much deliberation, we have applied for a home in South Australia. It isn’t perfect, but the rent is only $75 per week, so we could use it as an opportunity to save for our own home. We emailed the application to them last night and we are waiting to hear back as to whether we get the place or not. I really hope we do. I am so damn sick and tired of renting! I am tired of paying off somebody else’s mortgage. I am tired of quarterly inspections. I am tired of panicking every time my kids so much as mark a wall. I am tired of needing permission for something as simple as hanging a picture hook or getting a cat. I am tired of having to live with somebody else’s sense of style, colour etc. I am tired of having to move around all the time.

I am more than ready to own my own home. It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I just want a place I can call my own. A place I can decorate however I want. Where I can paint the walls whenever I feel like it. Where I get to choose if I want curtains or blinds, tiles or carpet, grass or gardens. Where I can decide how many picture hooks are allowed or whether my pets can come inside or whether fingerprints on the wall of a child’s room is really such a major disaster. A place where I don’t have to deal with someone else judging whether I am a good enough housekeeper. Most of all, a place where I can live as long as I choose as long as I keep paying my mortgage and council rates.

Up until now it has been a pipe dream. Something that might happen in my next life or the one after but which I have Buckley’s of seeing in this lifetime. However, if we get approved for this home we have applied for, or even another home in the area which averages $120-150 per week in rent, the dream may just become a reality.

Books I Read in February 2012

seldombites — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 01:00:23 +0000

The Red Dahlia by Lynda La Plante
Hush Little Darlings by Judith Kelman
Rough Justice: Unanswered Questions from the Australian Courts by Robin Bowles
Dinkum Dunnies by Douglass Baglin and Barbara Mullins
Letters of an Indian Judge to an English Gentlewoman by Anonymous
Poltergeists and Other Hauntings by Rupert Matthews
Eye for an Eye by William Ian Miller (177 pages)
Fast-Tracked by Tracy Rozzlyn
The Old One by Todd Brabander
Asimov’s Aurora by Mark W. Tiedemann (36 pages)
Crawlers by Sam Enthoven
The House of Thunder by Leigh Nichols

Leaving town

seldombites — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:19:40 +0000

I cannot remember the last time I had a chance to leave town and I have no idea when I will have another. I do know that my last holiday was when I was pregnant with my eldest daughter, Butterfly. I was living in NSW at the time, and I travelled up to Brisbane to visit my mother, brother and sister. Butterfly is nearly fifteen, now. I am hoping to go to Japan with my Mum in 2016. But I’m not sure if it’s going to happen. It seems like every time I begin saving for it, a new financial crisis comes along and, voila, my money is gone. It’s like an evil magic trick – now you see it, now you don’t. If I do get to go, it will have been 19 years since that distant trip to Brisbane.

On TV, it seems like everybody has an annual, or at least a bi-annual holiday – even if it’s only to visit the rellies. But who can afford that in real life? I see my mum once a year only because she visits us. Otherwise I would be limited to a voice on the phone. And I’m quite sure I am not the only one in this situation. Everybody is tight these days.

When was your last holiday? Where did you go and who did you go with?

New age vintage goth

seldombites — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 03:11:44 +0000

Unfortunately, at the moment, I am caught in the rent trap. This means I am paying for somebody elses mortgage, I have to endure quarterly inspections and I need permission for something as simple as hanging a picture hook. It also means I am stuck with somebody else’s sense of style. Sure, I can buy whatever furniture I want (as long as it is within budget, that is) but it is hard to stop it looking out-of-place when you have no control over walls, floors, light fittings or even curtains. How can one expect a coffin bookshelf to suit a bright, airy room or a vintage chaise to look anything but silly in a fully modern home? For this reason, I have not been too bothered about coordinating my furniture – I just use whatever is going cheap or, better yet, free.

However, if by some strange miracle, I were to someday own my own home, I would have it decorated in a fairly unique but tasteful new age vintage goth style. This may sound strange at first, but I love all three styles – new age, vintage, goth – and I believe that these three styles can be blended quite well. For example, a beautiful twenties lamp would not look out-of-place in a dark gothic room, and a pair of fairy candlesticks would suit quite well a Victorian style parlour. Thus, with a few innovations to cleverly disguise such modern items as home theatre systems and refrigerators, I believe that a new age vintage goth home would be a perfect blend of my tastes (vintage, goth) and those of my husband (new age). This way we could both be comfortable in our own home without feeling as though our needs were not being met.

Some examples of the kind of stuff you might spot in my ideal home:

Of course, there would also be plenty of bookshelves and at least one library. I just didn’t bother searching for pics of those, since they are pretty much a given.

What would your ideal home look like?

If I were an animal…

seldombites — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:23:30 +0000

I reckon that if I were put in a position where I had to be an animal, I would want to be a (well cared-for) domestic cat. Think about it. Think about every cat you have ever known. Sure, you have to clean yourself with your toungue, and you have to bury your own crap in a litter box, but so what? You get fed without having to work for it. You can sleep most of the day and play all night. You have a house full of servants (er…people) to clean up after you, cuddle you when you want it and put up with being ignored when you don’t. You pretty much have the run of the house. You are worshipped at home and abroad – practically the entire internet is devoted to you and your brethren. What other animal has it so good?

My ever expanding wishlist

seldombites — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 05:51:13 +0000

As of the date of this post, my wishlist is 2,628 books and it is constantly expanding. Every time I hear of a good book I might like to read, on to my wishlist it goes. Honestly, my wishlist is getting so long, I doubt I’ll put a serious dent in it before I die. It seems like every time I read a book off my wishlist, I hear of another book I’d like to read. Some are newly released, others are old books that I just hadn’t heard of before (in fact, sometimes it seems like everybody but me has heard of them). So where do I (eventually) find out about all these wonderful books?

My main source of information is www.bookcrossing.com and, by extension, the BookCrossing Australia group on LibraryThing. On the BookCrossing site itself, there are several forums where people either discuss books or offer them up as gifts or bookrings. The BookCrossing group on LibraryThing is where those of us who utilise both sites discuss the books we have recently read – what they were, what we thought of them, how they compare to other books, the usual drill. If I see a book mentioned or discussed that seems like it could be interesting, on to my wishlist it goes. LibraryThing is also useful in another way. Every month they have a service called Early Reviewers, where authors and publishers offer free copies of new books in exchange for an honest book review. They also have a section for member giveaways, where members can give away their newly published or pre-loved books. This is an excellent way to find new books to read (with an opportunity to obtain a free copy).

Another way to find out about good books to read is by browsing bookstores – an activity I engage in at every opportunity. Most of the time I don’t actually have any money to spend, but I carry a little notebook to list any book that catches my interest. Bookstores are good, in that they have their books divided into different categories, and they usually have a shelf devoted to new releases. It is also a great place to find out if your favourite author has released anything new recently. Libraries are also a great place to browse the shelves, especially if you like older or out-of-print books.

When combined, magazines and Amazon are a great source of inspiration for non-fiction reads. For example, when I see a book mentioned in a magazine, I will look it up on Amazon. If the blurb on Amazon sounds interesting, I will add the book to my wishlist. Then I will scroll to the section called ‘Customers who bought this item also bought’, and check out the suggestions there. If something seems of interest, I click on it, read the blurb and perhaps add it to my wishlist. I then repeat the process until I run out of books that interest me, or time, whichever comes first. It can be interesting to see how different the subject you finish up on is from the one you originally searched.

My final source of good books is the oldest source of all time – word of mouth. Recommendations from friends and family comprise the smallest percentage of my wishlist books. However, they generally turn out to be the most reliable – probably because they know my taste in books as well as I do myself. Or maybe they just share my taste. Maybe both?

In any case, if you are stuck for something to read, or are simply looking for something outside your usual genre, why not give one of the above methods a try? You just might find yourself pleasantly surprised. As for me, I’m off to work on my goal of reducing my wishlist by at least 5% before I die. Wish me luck – I’m going to need it!

1 Million Kilo Challenge

seldombites — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:21:46 +0000

I am gearing up to get started on the 1 Million Kilo Challenge. I am starting a week later than everybody else, because of the initial cost of stocking up on groceries.

Tomorrow, I will be shopping, using the grocery list provided multiplied by 5. But you are a family of 6, I hear you cry! True, but I have been seeing people on the challenge forums commenting that they are struggling to finish their meals. Therefore, I figure I can probably get away with giving half serves to Yasmine and Storm. After all, if an adult can’t eat a full serve, an eight year old surely won’t!

While we are shooping tomorrow, we will actually be starting the challenge on Sunday. This is because Saturday is the big day of the Toastmasters Contest. Lunch will be provided and the day will be finished off with a social dinner. Rather than blow the challenge before it even properly begins, I decided it would be best to simply wait until after the conference to begin the challenge.

And a challenge it will be! I am used to skipping breakfast and eating a late lunch, and don’t generally eat again until dinner. Looking at this menu, I will be eating breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper. Granted the portions will probably be smaller (and will definitely be healthier), but eating so many meals will definitely take some getting used to!

Have a great evening, and don’t forget to support the Kids Helpline here:

http://www.everydayhero.com.au/inner_beauty_thinner_me