Survivor

You know that T.V. Series, "Survivor"? Well, it has been here in Turkey  for a couple of years, of course. 

I was checking in on my Turkish Grandma and found something I think is not only cool but kind of funny, and something I did not expect. 

 Long rock's Grandma LOVE Watching Survivor. as a matter of fact, It was during the Camp Fire elimination time and she was telling me how this girl on the program should get kicked off tonight because she refuses to eat what everyone else has to eat and she is more lazy than everyone else. She had to tell me.. Oh, wait, it is back on. I have to see who they will take off this week. 

 I was laughing because I did not think that she would love Survivor. She was watching it so intently and she said she has to see what happens. 

Anyway... I wanted to share that because it made me smile. 

Counting Our Blessings

I wanted to write something positive. 

 I think that oft times in our life we get so busy with work, school, family life, etc etc etc that we get bogged down and do not stop to "Thank God". You know, I have been taught all my life when someone gives you something you Thank them. 

This human experience we call life is so easily filled with negativity. I think it is so easy to feel down. The easy way is letting ourselves get caught up in how bad life is. If I were to count how many things did not go my way, I would would be here blogging for hours about the injustices of the world. But where would that get me? 

I have been thinking about this a lot and I have been praying. I asked God a couple of nights ago, please mind you in sort of a personal plea to Him, "God, for once can't I have a turn? When will it be mine?" and realized today... It always has been my turn. I need to make it happen for me, not because God does not want it to, but because I need to be accountable for me in my life and with that, I need to be Thankful to God, because He gave me life. He does not always sit up in the Heavenly Hosts and look down as if we were on a chess board. No, He created life and for us to appreciate little things. Those Simple Gifts He has bestowed upon us are things that can carry us, edify us, lift our burden, help others when they are in need, give each other love and we are the ones to make our lives move int eh direction of either up, or down. We use get our strength in God, our love from Him and yet, Thank Him because in the end He is the one that is there really wanting us to succeed. I feel in order to do so, we need to first acknowledge all the things we have and be truly grateful for those things. My eye sight, my world around me, the love of my life (Yes, You, Mr Long Rock!)  my health, my hands, my ears, my feet, my family, I get to see brilliant colors of the sunset and sun rises, I am given life. 

  Yes, sometimes life stinks and the news is unbearable, but, my faith in god makes life bearable. My being positive and finding good in such a bad world, that is a blessing! Me being happy and healthy, that is a wonderful gift and a Tender Mercy. God's gift to me. 

  As I write this tears weld in my eyes at the wonderful things that life has brought me. 

 MY life has not always been easy. Sometimes, very sad. But, I have found joy, love, peace beyond measure, I have found positive things in a world of chaos. I have found happiness in a world of turmoil. And I have family and the love of my life at my side to share it with. I have good friends and good people that I would say have make it that much better to live here. 

 The human experience is something we all are here on this planet to "Do". 

 God has not forgotten us. Have we forgotten Him? Our Creator? The  Being Greater and Mightier than Ourselves? 

 I am here to challenge my Dear Readers. Find who you are by seeking The Higher Being first. If It is God, or Buddha, or Shiva or whomever it is or whomever He is. As for me, I believe there is God and He knows that we are all here on this earth. I believe that we are here to love each other, strengthen each other, show kindness and warmth to all around us. I think that in the end, He wants us happy, and we have to find that happiness and love and kindness within ourselves. Then, we need to Thank Him. Because He gave us life. The greatest gift we could ever ask for, Life. 

May our light within us burn giving peace and thanks to all those around us. May we all seek for goodness, kindness and may we all give love to those we come into contact with. 

Not my picture. I found it and this inspired me to be grateful. If He can push a wheel barrel one handed... Well, you know. The original caption was in Turkish... It was to the effect of "When you think you have complaints about your job, here is someone that works and doesn't" or something like that.

Facebook Detox Would This Be 1,000?

It feels like I have a love hate relationship with Facebook. 

 I thought for Lent (although I am not Catholic, Episcopalian, Protestant, Orthodox, nor do I belong to anything other than the L.D.S. Faith) I still thought for Lent I would give up Facebook and go on every so often. I have a huge loathing for some of the things my friends post on Facebook, and I hate stupidity also. I also hate when my friends argue among each other and when they are rude about other people. 

  I hate with a passion and with a deep burning in my soul this atrocity of a design called "Timeline". What is worse there is no choice in the matter. They are what is called "rolling" all accounts to this horrible monstrosity of a  design for everyone all over the world. And there is no choice in the matter. Everyone has to have it. I hate it. I hate it with a deep passion and I have to say, no one understands how to use it. What is worse it that it switches from side to side and makes it impossible to read anyone's profile. 

  I think that once a year ago someone was drunk and decided to design something that made sense to only the most stupid person in the whole planet, which would only include a small handful of people, this horrendous Timeline. I think it was also spat out by the Devils Carnage and I presume not even the devil can read it himself. 

 In any case, I tried my best to leave Facebook. My problem lies in the people I want to really connect with. They for some reason do not answer their emails but will in face answer their Facebook wall. Can you believe it? Have we gotten to where we communicate through "Facebook-ing"? How obnoxious is that! 

 And can you believe that the people of thi social networking device has copy righted the word "Face" and wants to copy right the word, "book" seriously? I want a list of words I have made up and a list of words I pronounce to be copy righted too. First off... Happy People Are Happier. I want that copy righted. My dad and I made it up and we have been saying it for years and only him and I used it in code, so why not? 

 I will one day list a bunch of things I want copy righted.. If I list them now they will hit the popularity polls and I will be out of words and phrases that everyone will copy. 

Anyway... I am once again trying to go cold turkey on that webpage. Please this time, sincerely wish me luck! 

Oh, but I have to go on still for those people that actually do not answer anything other than Facebook... Yeah, I know. But what can I say? They are family or close enough to be... And some of them when asked don't even know their own email... Just... Oh, message me here... Sigh... Still trying.  

 

I am Reading A Book:

Before I read my Novels,  (I can not Thank Long Rock enough for buying me) I wanted to add, that I am reading a book called; "Blood & Roses: The Paston Family and The Wars of the Roses", by none other than Helen Castor. 

If you recall a couple of months ago I wrote about a book she had written called "She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth." Helen Castor wrote Blood & Roses long before she wrote She- Wolves. 

  I will say that of all the history I have read about the Paston Family, no one had intrigued me more and captivated me more than how Helen writes it. As I was reading it, (I have about 70 pages to go, Epilogue included, but not the notes, which I will be reading at this most excited me!) I thought,"I wonder what she will write next" and I do so hope she writes more. This woman makes history more exciting than any novel. And Honestly where else can you get some of these books, anyway but reading the archives of these historical court documents and letters. 

 Whomever devoted their hours of time in helping and donating their information to Helen for writing her biographical books, I deeply want to thank for without them, her books would be not. 

  I find England's History to be purely intriguing and upon reading about it, believe that George RR Martin really knows history well and took all the great stories of treason, war, and games people played from Rome and the Great Wars of England and threw in fiction, different names and a few different creative things and came up with this books. Helen brings history to life in a way that she speaks and I understand that she is a history lecturer at Cambridge University. Wow. To be able to listen to her speak of these places, I think would be such a dream. She is so knowledgeable and knows England's History, to the point that her descriptions you can feel the weather, and hear the arguments and smell the blood on the battlefields. That is really true writing.

Helen Castor if you are reading my humble blog, please, don't stop writing. I can not wait to see what you will write about next!  

Whew! Been a while!

Dear Blogging Readers

 I am so sorry I have been on a leave of absence. I was ill the last week in March and I am better now, but got out of the habit of writing.

 I did fall off the Facebook Detoxification, sadly to admit but hey, at least I am admitting to it. Right? (Stop shaking your head at me! hehe)

I wanted to tell you all about a set of books I got for Valentines Day... Thanks Long Rock!!! 

I like reading biographies, Jane Austen books, I love reading Autobiographies, I also like informative reading. I have a hard time reading novels because I have a different style. A long time ago my friend said "You must read this" And It was called the Piano Teacher. It looked interesting. I read it and thought... GEEEEEEZZZZ!!! Why the heck did I listen to my friend and read that crap?
I am sorry if any of my readers like that kind of stuff. But, there it is ... Any kind of "please reader feel so sorry for this woman and her hum drum life, let me write to you as to why she should cheat on her spouse and leave her husband for a disturbed and tormented man only to be insanely miserable and let's throw in a lot of sex" Just does not do it for me. To me, there is no justification to cheat on your husband. If  you are unhappy in your marriage and you want to work it out, then work it out. If you are unhappy and you can not work it out, then, leave your husband after telling him you are unhappy... Then, once you are divorced, find your happiness and hey slut, don't cheat on your husband thinking you are going to be happy because that is not any way to get respect!

  So, That is my take on today's books. And I am tired of reading the same thing. Over and over and over. I did not like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I felt the girls were too young and promiscuous. I hated Bridge to Madison County. Another "Please justify the whoreness of people cheating on their spouses" type of book. 

So this leads to how picky I am about books and how to find a book that I would enjoy reading. Mind you, I do not want to read "Green Eggs and Ham" ALLLLL The time, but Dr Seuss can out rap anyone.

So... My man, a couple of months ago, heard from online somewhere that HBO has been showing this TV Series called "Game of Thrones". I normally hate succumbing to the masses. So, I downloaded it for us to watch, thinking,  "Yeah Yeah... " and BAM! I was hooked. We watched three episodes together. He had to go back to work the next day, and I went online to read about it. I found out, and vaguely remember that there was a book about it, and was popular about 15 years ago or so. I remember seeing it in Barnes And Noble. So, I read the Amazon.com "Read me" page, and was hooked again. I called The Long Rock and said there is a set of books!!! He had me put the set on my wishlist in Amazon, and said... I see that there is a guy trying to sell it here in Turkey. It is a brand new never been opened boxed set and Deej, It is in ENGLISH... I was like... Kismet!!! BUY IT, DUDE!!! And it came, with my luck and chance... On Valentines Day!!! I was hoping it would come on Valentines Day and it was such a great gift! I love Books so very much 

So, I got, with much anticipation, "A Song Of Ice And Fire" Boxed Set Books 1-4 (They do not come in a bigger boxed set) Those books included the following titles: 

Book One: A Game Of Thrones

Book Two:  A Clash Of Kings

Book Three: Part I A Storm Of Swords: Swords, Steel and Snow

Book Three Part II: A Storm Of Swords: Blood and Gold

Book Four: A Feast For Crows

 Written by George R.R. Martin 

This book has war, action, somethings scary, somethings made me laugh, treason, knights, lords, kings, dragons, 

There is enough of everything to make me unable to put it down. I read the entire set in less than a month, and was waiting for Book Five (Which is in two Parts) 

Now, mind you many die hard fans are so upset. I understand why the author did what he did and it did not bother me. 

 This is how he wrote it. Books 1-3 give backgrounds, set the stage, and explain watch it happening in the different regions taken place. Book Four talks about what is happening in one area, and Book Five will talk about what is happening at the SAME TIME as Book Four, only in Different regions. Book six with bring it ALL together and at the same time and conclude the story. The TV Series Producer wanted to know what will happen in Book six but the Author does not want to say what will happen... Think, If you want to make a hit TV Series, don't you want it to last a long time? Well, yeah! So far, they have enough story to last about 8 seasons. So, it might go for about another 8-9 seasons before it ends. Which will coincide with the Books. 

I am excited. I just got in the mail Books Five Part One and Part Two... Again Thanks to Long Rock, he had them shipped from the exotic land of England! (Thanks, Amazon.uk.co!!!)

They are titled 

A Dance with Dragons Part One: Dreams and Dust

A Dance with Dragons Part Two: After The Feast

The Next book will be called The Winds Of Winter (Which will Like I said tie everything up to what concludes what will happen. As I said Book Six is what happened after Book Four and Book Five is happening the Same Time as Book Four) If you read them, you will understand why. 

   If you are like me and like the same books as I do, I would suggest you read the books. You will love them. I say I will only read a half hour and find myself reading 300 pages and realizing I read half the book and not wanting to put it down! Those are the kinds of books I like though. 

You chose for yourself. 

 Happy Reading Everyone! And Again, Long Rock, Thanks for your tireless effort in having the books and ALL My books sent to me! You are such a Gem! I adore you!