Title Goes Here

I meant to post this as a Sunday recap, but to be honest I just got lazy.

1. My Dad got HBO for us, which is so friggin' awesome because now I can watch True Blood season 3 on my laptop at school!  Not that I hadn't already seen it, but since I was watching it online the quality was awful.  Besides the wonderful amounts of Eric we get in this season (omg omg I cannot wait for next season to start) I am absolutely head over heels in love with Alcide.  I know a lot of y'all are beard girls (and he's starting to turn me into one too) so here's one of my favorite screen caps of him ;)

2. RIP Elizabeth Taylor 1932-2011. You were ARE an icon for the ages.

3. Reading Recap: 

I finished Sabrina Jeffries' A Hellion in Her Bed last week.  While it didn't blow me out of the water, I did generally enjoy it.  I would only really recommend it though if you're already reading or planning to read the whole series.  Nothing about it really stood out to me.  I could set it down for days at a time and not have trouble picking it back up, but nothing compelled me to find out the ending (like I've felt with some of her other books).  3 stars.  I am already reading How to Woo a Reluctant Lady, so it'll be interesting for me to see how Minerva's story compares to her two brother's.  I do like the overall story arc of the siblings uncovering what happened to their parents, and I love Mr. Pinter so I'm eager to read his and Celia's book whenever that is released (especially since I think Gran might disapprove of him!).

Interweb Humor

I just wanted to share a few things I'd found online over the past few days that had really made me laugh.

Under The Influence

Now that Kris has gotten ratings on my mind, I've gotten to wondering, what influences you?  Or doesn't influence you?  Ok, maybe you're one of those people who manages to keep all of their reviews and ratings completely subjective.  Good for you.  But I think most of us are influenced by a lot of factors when making decisions, even ones so seemingly simple as rating a book.

1. Profession
This may seem like an odd one to put at the top of the list, but I know it has the biggest influence on my ratings.  I'm a college student (as if I haven't mentioned it enough) and something that really bugs me is grade inflation.  To me, a 3 star rating is average and by definition most books you read are going to be average.  I know it must feel horrifying for an author to be told their book is average or worse (at least I would be horrified) but it's not meant as an insult.  For me, the problem is if everyone is out there rating most books at 4's and 5's ratings become so much less reliable.

2. Other reviews
I suffer from review hype.  I seriously do my best not to, but if I've read too many good reviews for a book, it will impair my ability to judge the book for myself.  One the one hand, I'll be so prepared to love it that I might give it a 5 when otherwise I probably would have given it a 4, or I'll have been expecting so much from it that, when it doesn't deliver what I wanted, I downgrade it.

3. Author/Series
This isn't something I do, but I sometimes wonder about other people.  Does loving an author or a series mean you automatically love all the books by that author or in that series?  Here's an example.  I love love LOVE the BDB.  Can't get enough of them.  But I don't love all the books equally.  I gave Lover Eternal, Lover Enshrined, and Lover Avenged all 3 stars.  They would have been given less if not for the side plots and heavy appearances by other characters I did like.  But I'll go on Goodreads and see people who have rated all of the books in the series 5 stars.  Really?!  You think they're all that amazing?

Does anyone else feel they get influenced?  Do you have a method for only assessing your own feelings when rating a book?  Or worse- are you a grade inflator?!

Rating System

Lately Kris over at Kris 'n' Good Books has been on a kick about ratings, and I realized I've never set up an official rating system for my blog.  I have one in my head of course, but I thought I ought to publish it as well so everyone knows I'm not making everything up!

5 stars:  I can't stop thinking about this book.  I likely stayed up all night to read it.  I was wowed by  the originality, characters, plot, or development.  I would recommend this book to everyone.  I will buy from this author in the future.

4 stars:  The book ad no problem passing the set down/pick up test.  I love almost all of the plot and characters and thought any flaws were negligible.  I would recommend to almost anyone.

3 stars:  A completely average read.  Some good things and some bad things.  I might recommend it to a friend depending on what exactly their tastes are, but it probably won't stick with me personally in the long run.

2 stars:  The book struggled (or failed) to pass the set down/pick up test.  There were major flaws and/or plots that annoyed me.  I would not recommend it to anyone.

1 stars:  I can't stop thinking about this book.  I likely threw it at a wall or trash can.  I was wowed by stupidity, typos, lack of character development, bad dialog, or simply the fact it was published at all.  I will avoid this author in the future.

In Other News

A couple things have happened in the past week, but since they're not particularly related here a bit of a mash up.

1.  For all you Gleeks- Kurt/Blaine FTW!  I think we all knew it was coming, but in my opinion it played out perfectly.

I also just loved the episode as a whole.  The original songs were great and I'm sad we're going to have to wait a while for the season to start up again, but the mid-season did end on a stellar note.  I'm really counting on Finn and Rachel getting back together later in the show (it's pretty obvious right?) because they're my favorite pair.  Any thoughts from other Gleeks out there?

2. Sabrina Jeffries has officially announced that in the final book of the Hellion series Celia will be pair with Pinter.  I don't know if anyone else felt this way, but I thought the pairing was clearly set up since the first book (sort of like Minerva and Giles), which is something I've really enjoyed and am looking forward to.  She's said on her Facebook that David Gandy is her model for Pinter.

Very nice.

3.  I got to try TruBlood!  I know, I know, it's so gimmicky, right?  It tastes pretty good though.  It's carbonated blood orange soda, so it's just like a premium over price regular orange soda, but the bottles are soooo awesome!  I'm such a fan.

4.  The Iditarod recently concluded.  When it comes to this dogsled race, I am the definition of a superfan.  I constantly am running back to my computer to check the standings of the mushers.  I was pretty psyched because I won my bet this year.  I predicted Dallas Seavey would not win but place in the top ten, and he came in fourth!  Look, here's me being superfan-y.

My Spring Break is over and am now back at school. Le sigh.  Time to get back into gear.

All The Single Ladies!

This is for all the single ladies out there, because I know you feel me.

Dating is very confusing.  There are so many self-help books on the subject, usually with conflicting views, that where do I even start?  Do I call him?  Do I not call him?  Give him another chance or strike out after one infraction?

I think most of us single women have a general set of "guidelines" for what  we want or what we avoid.  I admit, I'm very superstitions, so my "guidelines" probably seem totally ridiculous to most people.  But I swear these rules didn't come out of thin air!  Certain seemingly inconspicuous things kept coming up over and over again for me until I finally decided I was cursed. 

1) Scorpios.
I've posted about this before, over at DIK.  I'm sure a lot of people think I'm crazy for it, throwing out a whole group of eligible men just because of their birthday.  And I don't even believe in astrology.  I just really really think that any Scorpio and I are doomed.  Trust me, there's tons of precedent for this rule.

2) Pianists.
Think Sugar and her saxaphone players in Some Like it Hot, except without Tony Curtis and me riding a speed boat into the sunset.  Yep, all that's left is that squeezed out tube of toothpaste.
3) Libertarians.
It has nothing to do with the fact that our political views clash.  I just have a long history of getting involved with Libertarians and then having it go sour as a Lemondrop.
4) Blonde blue eyed guys who wear camo and shoot guns.
I don't know if this actually belongs on here, but since that's the exact image of all of my ex's, I'm voting I steer clear of these fellows for a while.
5) Andrews.
I know this probably sounds unfair since it's not like all the Andrews out there named themselves, but I haven't met one yet who hasn't tried to pull one over on me.  They're like magnets for bad karma.  I don't care how you choose to use it- Andrew, Andy, Drew- if it's your name, keep on walking.

New Books Cheer Me Up

I am in the midst of a really bad stomach flu, so to say the least it hasn't been the best week for me.  I'm happy to finally be going home today.  I haven't gotten much reading done (I haven't gotten much of anything done!) but some fun books came in the mail this week for me, so I thought I'd go ahead and celebrate that.

Love in the Afternoon and His at Night have been on my To-Buy list forever, and both Lisa Kleypas and Sherry Thomas are autobuy authors for me.  I've been hearing a lot of buzz about When Beauty Tamed the Beast and What I Did For a Duke, so I decided to add them to my Amazon order.  Since next week is my Spring Break hopefully I'll get to read some of them!

Bukkits All Around

Holy hole in the donut, Batman, have I been out of the loop!

Apparently a few days ago something I sent into Smart Bitches got featured in a post, and I didn't even realize it until a friend mentioned it to me!

That Bucket Gets BUSY gives credit to "sharp-eyed reader DL" (me!).  This is very exciting in my world.  This is actually the second time something I've sent in got featured on Smart Bitches, and both times have featured the magic bukkit!  The last one was Nathan's Bukkit, which includes a very pretty picture of Nathan Kamp and his abs.

I seem to have an excellent memory for covers and stock images... if only I could turn this into a marketable skill...

Movies: TiMER

Movie: TiMER (2009)
Genre: Romance
Grade: A-

TiMER was an unexpected pick I found when browsing on Netflix.  It's hard to exactly pick a genre for it- I'd maybe even place it as a romantic comedy, but with darker humor than usually seen and not the usual outcomes (I don't want to give too much away!).

If a clock could count down to the moment you meet your soul mate, would you want to know?

Oona (staring Emma Caufield, Anya for all us Buffy fans!) has had the TiMER implanted in her wrist since puberty- a device that counts down to the exact moment when your soul mate enters your life.  However, since her soul mate has not yet had his implanted, her countdown remains blank, and she feels in limbo.  Steph, her sister, has a TiMER set to go off when she's 43, making her feel just as lost.

Each sister deals with their dilemma differently- Oona by making every un-TiMERed man she can find get the device and Steph by running through a series of meaningless one-night stands with other TiMERed men.  But what happens when Oona meets Mikey, the younger, TiMERed guy who makes her ok with living in the present, and Steph finds Dan the Man, the un-TiMERed man who she might actually stick around for?

This was the most relatable romantic comedy I've seen in a while, despite it's alternate reality premise.  It's so normal to be worried about when you're going to meet "The One"  that you start to lose sight of the big picture and are willing to throw out a perfectly decent relationship because it likely won't last forever.  I think to an extent everyone worries that love has no guarantees, so there are a lot of universal themes in this movie.

It's hard to discuss specifics of movie, because it took a lot of turns I didn't expect and it's not something I'd want to spoil.  As I finished this movie and the credits began to roll I thought this would be a great movie to watch after a break up.  It's all about the fact that the road to love is rocky and unexpected, and that there is no right answer, but it the end it will be ok.  I would definitely recommend this one no matter your mood!

Gleeked!

I've had a case of the February blues, so I'm glad March is finally here. The weather is warming up bit by bit and even though spring showers are right around the corner it's nice to see the sun peaking out for now.

I can't say that I've been doing much reading, but lately I've gotten myself hooked on Glee. I never thought I'd say because I never quite got the appeal of the show, but after seeing a recent episode I ended up going back and devoring the first season and am now making my way through the second.

I can't say it's my favorite show I ever got hooked on. There are some major, gaping plot holes and since it's an esemble cast no one plot thread or character (no matter how much I like them) gets focused on for very long. However, I do think it does do a fairly good job of capturing the stresses and stereotypes of high school

Other than that, I'm looking forward to my Spring Break. It's about a week away. Any further and I think the rest of the student body and I might go nuts.