Random Blog Thoughts

I was searching for a suitable topic to write about today.  Something funny and entertaining to kick off the weekend.  Unfortunately, I find myself easily distracted and have difficulty focusing on just one topic.  According to an excellent blog post by Jennifer Crusie (When is she NOT excellent?), this is cognitive disinhibition and it's common among creative people  Now that's a topic I could have blogged on, but Jenny already did and she explains it better than I ever could.

Oh!  A cat just chased a gecko by my office. 

Anyway, rather than settle on one topic, I decided to embrace the random, "Oh look, something shiny" aspect of my mental process and rattle off some things.

My friends and I have discovered a game app for iPhone called Hanging With Friends.  You compete against a friend in the old game of Hangman.  You put up a word and the friend has half a dozen chances to guess the letters and, ultimately, the word.  Fun, right?  I'm always up for a little word game competition.  There's a twist to the colorful graphics in this game, however.  Each player picks a cartoon kid icon to represent her.  Each icon starts out with a bouquet of balloons gripped in his/her cartoony hand.  The scene shows the two player icons hovering in the sky, held aloft by their balloons over a flowing river of lava.  The volcano is belching smoke behind them!

Everytime a player does not successfully solve a word, he/she loses a balloon and falls closer to the lava.  Fun and sadistic, right?

The facial expressions of the players are priceless as they guess their letters.  They smile, they look surprised and, eventually, terrified that they aren't going to solve the word.  The game is free.  I recommend it to anyone who really likes high stakes hangman.

My room remodel is finished.  Well, at least the construction part.  Walls, ceiling, windows, floor, doors -- everything gorgeous, gleaming and new.  I've been living in the guest bedroom with my clothes overflowing the closet onto the twin bed in which I'm not sleeping.  Tonight I get to start moving clothes into the bigger, new closet with the closet organization system. 

I ordered the new bed, night table and chest yesterday.  Good news -- no sales tax or shipping charges.  Not-so-good news -- it won't arrive until late August-first week in September. I'm considering buying the new mattress and box spring locally and making up the bed on the floor, just so I can move myself out of the twin bed.  It's a good lesson in patience.  Besides, it took me 9 years to finally remodel the room at all.  I can wait a few more weeks.

Hey, we've almost gotten through an entire week and no politican has had to confess to having an affair, sexting, or any other scandal involving thinking with the wrong head.  Was Congress on summer break?

Did anybody watch the Daytime Emmy Awards?  The way that soap operas keep getting cancelled, this is one award show nobody will have to worry about running long.

My favorite new show is The Voice competition on NBC.  I won't be able to watch next week and I've already set up the DVR to record.  The premise was that the producers searched the country to find really talented singers in bar bands, country fairs, recording studios, you name it.  They brought them to L.A. to audition in front of four established stars who would each pick 8 singers for their team - Cee Lo Green (The Forget You song or the F**k You song, depending on which version you've heard; Adam Levine of Maroon Five; Christina Aguilera of Christina Aguilera fame; and country star Blake Shelton.  The four coaches listened to each singer with their backs to them so they couldn't see them perform, just listen. 

There was a phenomenal roster of talent auditioning for this shot and none of the freaky people that slip into the American Idol auditions wearing feather suits or shrieking like maddened peacocks.  Gradually, members of each team have been eliminated and now it's down to one from each star's team singing for the win next week.  I'd like to see all of the last eight get contracts.  They're all terrific.  I really liked the coaching/mentoring relationships.  I get the feeling the stars really care about their team members and want to help them succeed.

Hilariously funny writer/sportscaster/blogging phenom Ken Levine asked on his random thoughts blog post a few days ago which coach we'd like to send home.  I voted for booting show host Carson Daly.  He's boring, repetitive and as stiff as a frozen fence post. 

Speaking of singers, why is it that that some people who couldn't carry a tune with both hands and a tote bag, don't realize how bad they sound?  Not everyone who sings badly is tone deaf; some just don't have the chops, so what's the deal?  Across the water from where I live are some very enthusiastic folks.  They like to have dance parties outside of their little house and frequently throw in some karaoke.  The one woman is so horrible she sounds like a squawking peacock, bellowing moose, and screaming cat all rolled into one.  When she lets loose on her high volume rendition of Funky Town, she's so bad that she could be used as an instrument of torture in a combat zone.

Last night, I really, really craved ice cream.  I don't have any in the house, but I could easily have obtained it with a ride to the corner store that would have taken less than a minute.  However, that would have necessitated me locating my bra, putting it back on, and actually leaving the house, getting into the car and driving.  I ate watermelon instead.  I'm not sure if big boobs just saved me from gaining a pound, or if I should further develop the idea as a new diet.  I can see it as a headline on a supermarket rag tabloid:  "Sloth Leads to Better Food Choices".

Has anyone laughed yet?  Chuckled?  Smiled wryly?  Beuhler?  Beuhler?

Back to the bedroom, which reminds me that I really need to clean around the rest of the house now that it isn't constantly filling up with construction-related dust faster than I can wield a Swiffer.  I have solemnly pledged that, when I have completely refurnished my bedroom, I will never again let it get cluttered and dusty.  I'm determined, I tell you.  Determined!  There are only two obstacles to the plan.  I'm a pack rat and I hate to clean.  Three obstacles, if you factor in the aforementioned sloth.  I must stick to my determination!  (Picture me waving a vacuum cleaner like a flag in battle.)

No big plans for this weekend, other than that cleaning, moving of clothing and a few other things.  The season premiere of True Blood is Sunday.  I'm looking forward to the show.  Let's see what happens between the vampires, witches, faeries, shape-shifters, and other fine creatures of Bon Temps.  Are you a Trubie?

I will not obsess over my e-book sales.  I will not obsess over my e-book sales.  I will not obsess over my e-book sales.  I will not obess over my e-book sales.  If I keep typing this, I can't go over and see if I've sold any more copies of All Keyed Up or Key of Sea on Amazon, BN.com, Smashwords, Apple, Sony, Kobo, or Diesel.  I will not obsess over my e-book sales.  In the meantime, you can read an excerpt of my books at my website.  I will not obsess . . .

Edited to ad:  In honor of summer and beach reads, for one week only, All Keyed Up is just 99 cents for Kindle and Nook!  Check out an excerpt here!

Have a great weekend, everyone!