Books

Droughtlander, I Missed Ya!

I am looking forward to Droughtlander.

  1.  I am looking forward to Droughtlander because the idea of having almost unfettered contact points (via Twitter and Instagram) to the actors, writers, producers and production team is so astonishing, and then using that access weekly to vilify them, to bitch at them, to complain to them, to tell them they are wrong just floors me.
  2. I am looking forward to Droughtlander because the writers are artists in their own right… not transcriptionists. They are ADAPTING an overwhelmingly bulky story into another medium and they have every right to add their own flavor. I know I couldn’t do it better, and you couldn’t either.
  3. I am looking forward to Droughtlander because I tire of hearing “that wasn’t in the book, stick to the books, the author knows best” AND “Murtagh shouldn’t die; he should marry Jocasta;”  “I miss the antics of Rupert and Angus;” “OMG, why do they skip all the conversation and only have action–I don’t care about battles,” AND “why is it all just talking, so boring!”  Diametrically opposed, bros. (Pro tip–They are NOT writing it for YOU; your giving a Hamilton to STARZ five months a year is not a contractual obligation they make the show YOU want.)
  4. I am looking forward to Droughtlander because now that another season can be viewed AS A WHOLE, I think that upon rewatching, maybe people will view those things that didn’t make sense in the short-term (57-minute story) and were derided as a waste of screen time will be seen as prescient and well-crafted; now that the ‘tale is told.’
  5. I am looking forward to Droughtlander because the constant “I hope the writers wake up and write what I want to see from the books, or they will lose viewers” is OLD. They are professional story-tellers. They are not writing purposefully bad episodes and sneaking them past multiple layers of editor$ and director$ and producer$ to magically appear on your TV, awaiting your pronouncement it was done wrong. They just aren’t, ok?
  6. I’m looking forward to a respite from the constant bickering over something having happened on page 754 but showing up in episode 4 instead episode 10.
  7.  I am looking forward to a year where there isn’t a weekly “this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, I hate this episode, I hate this season, I hate this actor” and yet!  Here I am watching it (at midnight!) so that I can bitch and whine and whine and bitch.
  8. I am looking forward to Droughtlander because I will not have to comment for a year– “It was one 2 minute scene of a  57 minute episode of a 684 minute season of a 1000 page book of a ~ 9000 page series of 10 novels that haven’t been finished yet!”
  9. I will not have to hear about “that one book quote that touched my heart so deeply, that made me swoon and that I tell everyone they should read the book for, was not represented properly, at the right time, by the wrong person or not at all” (I knew going in “my” favorite scene this season wouldn’t make the cut… But I can still go back and read the scene and laugh!)
  10.  I am looking forward to Droughtlander because yes, I hate Sam’s wig and I mostly hate it because they have done just everything else visual perfectly, and I truly can’t see what the reason for his look is. I will hold out hope that in season 5 he finally wears his hair like EVERY OTHER MALE IN THE SHOW over the age of 15–good guy, bad guy and whether it suits them.
  11. I am looking forward to Droughtlander because I am of the generation that had to remember not to make plans on Thursday nights if I  wanted to watch 22 episodes of a half-hour sitcom that I learned about when the TV Guide showed up. I got to watch the reruns over the summer one more time, and then it disappeared from my world. I can watch season 1-4 on an endless loop 24/7 till the new season. (and I just may!)
  12. I am looking forward to Droughtlander because during Droughtlander, I’m going to go to Scotland! This spring a trip to Ireland, Scotland and Wales is being planned– with friends I have made VIA Outlander! What a special way to spend some of my Droughtlander!   

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    My first Droughtlander meme.

  13. I am looking forward to Droughtlander because it means that Diana Gabaldon’s next book is getting closer to publication, and hopefully there wont be things for people to complain about in that! (she’s the SOURCE!)
  14. I am looking forward to Droughtlander because we will all be together in the misery that is Droughtlander, and misery loves company, and we on these fan pages will eventually tire of bitching, and find things to talk about and we will forge new layers of friendship while suffering, together.
  15. I am looking forward to Droughtlander so we don’t have to discuss whether time given to beauty shots– the vistas and locations that Diana WRITES pages and pages about–is wasted time. (It’s not. It’s a VISUAL medium.)  TV an aural medium, and the risky choices of music ALSO tell a story; a story of time travelers, and of how multi-layered our lives and our story and the history of this country is and how often, we only see the bits we want to see. These are also things expressed in paragraphs and pages of the book.
  16. And you know what? I agree we don’t NEED to see another instance of Claire playing doctor, eating up those precious minutes of screen time… but the thing is, Dr. Claire Is ALL OVER THE BOOKS. *(if Diana WRITES another eyeball-oriented medical situation in BEES, however,  I’m  gonna throw the  book! <VBG>)
  17. I am looking forward to Droughtlander because it could have been a feature length movie instead, and if you think they changed things for episodic TV…. Ron and Co have been amazing. As my husband said when I was fretting about the books being ruined, back at the beginning, “Trust Ron. He is a world builder.”
  18. I am looking forward to Droughtlander, because this too shall pass.

I found Outlander in 2003 because I went to the library and always looked for the thickest book I could find. I stayed for the life of these characters and for the show.

I show up to work every day because I have to go there; I don’t want to go to work, but they pay me. I cannot imagine spending my midnights every Saturday doing something that I know is going to piss me off. Unless I was being paid, I can’t imagine spending so much of my time watching and then going onto fan pages and complaining.  If I knew I was going to getso aggravated by what I saw on a TV show, I’d stop watching or wait for the DVD and a snow day binge. If I constantly came away from the show disappointed and let down, I would stop giving it my psychic energy.

I have stopped reading books that everyone raves about because I tried and tried and couldn’t find joy in them. I close them and put them away. Same with TV shows. (Mrs. Maisel?) Sometimes, it is just a bad fit. I don’t have to watch the TV show –I’m not being paid.  I don’t have to be in any group-I’m not doing paid. I have left groups because I do not like the vibe. Nobody is forcing me to stay in a group.

But I can not understand anyone doing that to themselves. Getting worked up to the point of trolling the cast and crew on Twitter, feeling they have the right and obligation to make sure they are as loud and rude about their displeasure to everyone who will listen.

There is a really simple solution:

Turn off the TV and open up the book again;  it’s gonna be a LONG DROUGHTLANDER!

(if you would like to add to my piggy bank for this wonderful, once in a lifetime trip to Scotland, Ireland and Wales, please consider purchasing one of my photos! Follow this hyperlink and please, pass it on!)20170503-dandy

27 books…27 Magazines

Oh, books, magazines, you are going to be hard.

Books mean a lot to me. I have them everywhere. I even read some of them. Others, I just keep for the pictures!

But books do not stay in one location in this house. There is the pile in the bedroom—reading, about to read, finished reading.

There are similar piles in the guest room.

And shelves in the studio, and the den and the living room. All full of books.

I want a “KindleNookSonyIpad”—an E-reader. I haven’t settled on which, I am curious to hear from those who have them already about their pros and cons. But even if I own one, I don’t truly see books going away in this house. Too many of them are reference. The photos, the how-to’s, I don’t know that E-reading is the way to go (or that it’s even supported well…)

The financial difficulty of replacing all the reference of my life precludes being able to assign new roles to all the bookshelves in the house. (Although if forced, I COULD reassign them to hold fabric….)

The joy of wandering through Goodwill or yard sales or other thrift stores, and investing a quarter or a dollar in a new author and discovering something special—that too will be gone with E-reading. The idea of having anything that I might want at my fingertips on vacation? In the car? Bored on my lunch hour?? Heck, yes!

Still. The books currently in the house–27 flinging. Right, get back on target.

Do you live in an apartment but have a shelf (or more) of garden books? Do you not cook but have a shelf of cook books? Think on why you have them. Is this about who you WANT to be versus who you ARE? Is it a temporary situation?

Some may be worth keeping, because they ARE special, and do have great information. Some, well. Fling them. We live in the information age. We CAN find the information again.

Travel is a great past-time, but travel books are often out of date by the time they are printed. As reference, the internet is far better, or contact AAA just before your vacation and get up-to-date publications.

Books about crewel, or needlepoint, when you can’t remember the last time you threaded a needle?? Fling.

That small bit of shelf of children’s books that you saved? Keep’em. (No more than about a dozen really special ones, unless you currently HAVE children in the house. In that situation, you keep them all, lol!) They bring back memories, and it will tickle your child some day that they still exist. They are a great thing to have if you have unexpected small company.

Novels you read and can’t recall? Fling. Novels you enjoyed, but the TBR pile is so overwhelming you can’t imagine the time you would ever read it again? Fling. (Write down the title and author, and get it onto your E-reader eventually.) Novels you have started to read more than twice and STILL haven’t finished? Duh! Fling.

Novels that you have written in the margins of, dog-eared, bookmarked and underlined passages of? They get kept. They are old friends. (Still, you may want an E-copy eventually.)

(Let me clarify this word FLING for this topic. This should read a bit more like ––Share— Give away to friends who read the same things you do. Introduce a neighbor to your favorite author. Donate the entire pile to your library for their book sale. Sell on Ebay, Half.com, put up on PaperbackSwap.com, etc. Save the whole bag/box till your next family gathering and put it on the counter for people to take as they please.)

Magazines are an entirely different sort of animal. My first suggestion is to not allow them into your home. Barring that, weed out the titles you subscribe to, keeping only the ones you actually READ when they are still fresh. Do NOT get sucked in at the grocery store line and toss them into your cart. Really, with magazines, you need to take a firm line!

I only purchase quilting magazines. And I try not to even buy them. I am seduced by the pretty colors of the quilts, yes, but even more so by the setting the photo was taken in, the clever title they gave to a block I own the directions to already (5 times, in many of the books I own)….

What I do with magazines like this is allow them to gather. When I have a large pile, I sit on the couch, or on the floor in the studio, with a stapler and rip out the patterns I really like. Staple together all the pages, and make a pile. The rest gets flung. (This pile should be moved to a magazine holder, of which I have cleared out a few that were being used for other things, like files)

I sometimes even hole-punch and put the patterns into three-ring binders. The fact of the matter is, unless I run out of THREAD, I need not another scrap of fabric, nor another pattern purchase in order to continue quilting—unless I live to be 300!!!

Oh, and tomorrow is March 1. (Happy Birthday, Jeanine)… Go back to the blog at the end of January and REPEAT the digital photo process!!)

Christmas is coming…

…and I am aware that I’ve been slacking… Did you know almost 40% of your holiday prep time is GONE gone gone… and here I am, neglecting the posting of my “Christmas is coming, the sky is falling!” blogs…

My excuses, such as they are, are as follows:

  • I’ve been hanging out with friends.
  • I’ve been traveling.
  • I’ve been taking photos (Almost 600 images that I have shot over the past few weeks are grinding around in the computer waiting for processing so you can buy them!)
  • I’ve been fondling my quilting fabrics, thinking, planning, plotting….
  • I’ve been buying out the book section at Goodwill, so I have many more excuses not to do housework.
  • Oh, and housework.
  • And work-work.

Yet, time waits for no woman to prepare for the holidays. I DO have my Christmas cards already. They aren’t signed or addressed or stamped, mind you, but they are HERE!

I have the gifts for that list of ‘just a little something’ people almost completed, and I do have a ‘short-list’ of gifts for the majority of the family. Which is really a SHORT list this year (No, not the family–I haven’t off’ed anyone! Just the quantity of gift$ per person…)

The biggie is always Timmy. As I usually get one REALLY GOOD IDEA. And then, his birthday occurs on December 2 and I end up giving him the REALLY GOOD gift then, and have to hit the drawing board again….

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Of course, since these two beauties will be joining our family on Sunday, I may just buy him stock in lint rollers—meet …well, Nameless and Nameless Jr.- (25 combined pounds of FUR)

I posted a poll last month. You responded that you feel that handmade is better. You preferred to give and receive thoughtful (and possibly handmade) gifts.

So, share with me, and the thousands (lol) of other dedicated readers…What are some of your favorite gifts you’ve received –and why?

And, one last thing…if you are looking for a bit of spiritual whimsy to add to your holiday stocking, check these out…my brother’s newest cool venture!