What Balance Means To Me

This is kind of an interesting prompt. You can take "balance" in a couple of different directions. Something interesting to think about.

To me, "balance" is what you do when you are trying to fit everything you want or need to do into a 24-hour day.

For example, my Monday schedule is semi-balanced. I wake up around 6:00AM, shower, and get ready for the day. Then I have to put the dogs out and get my daughter's lunch ready so she can leave at 6:45AM for the bus. I slam some breakfast into my mouth and run out the door between 6:50AM and 7:00AM. Depending on the weather and traffic, I get to my full time job somewhere between 8:00AM and 8:30AM. I work until 4:30PM when I rush home. Again, depending on the traffic issues, I am home between 5:30PM and 5:45PM. I slam some more food into my face before jumping back in the car to take my daughter to her tennis lessons at 6:15PM. While she plays, I try to read one of the many books I have lined up for review or talk to some of the other parents. She is finished around 8:30PM, when we can go home and try to eat some sort of dinner. Finally, I try to finish up any writing projects I can before heading off to bed to start all over again.

"Balance" is definitely trying to make sure you can get everything done. A packed schedule requires balance. So does sleep. I would never be able to get enough rest otherwise.

My Favorite Authors

I think it is a little ironic that I have a bunch of book reviews coming down the road and today's post is about authors. Maybe the universe is telling me I need to read more. Hey, Universe! I need more time if you want me to read more books! Damn universe....

1. John Green - I really loved The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns. I wasn't particularly fond of An Abundance of Katherines and I haven't even read Looking for Alaska yet. But I don't think you have to love ALL of their books in order to list an author as a "favorite." On the contrary, Green is more of a favorite because of his personality and charitable action over his writing. He is just an awesome person that happens to write pretty good books.

2. Raold Dahl - I know this one is a little controversial. He may not have been the most awesome person. However, he did write some very amazing books. When I was in grade school, I made it my goal to read every single one of his books housed in the school library. And I did. I will always love Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, The BFG, and The Witches with all of my heart.

3. Jim Butcher - My husband listens to a lot of audiobooks. The Dresden Files series is one of the series that he snatches up the minute it hits the virtual shelves. While the series started out as an amazing pulpy detective novel, it has matured into something more. And even though there are fairies and demons and ghosts, not once do they ever feel out of place in modern day Chicago. It takes a lot of talent to be able to pull that off.

I'm only going with the top three. I have read a ton of books and, I'm sure if I sit and think about it, I can come up with another dozen authors I adore. Why don't you tell me YOUR favorite author? Maybe you'll turn me into a new fan.

Cogwheels: Ten Tales of Steampunk

Normally, I don't read a lot of steampunk novels. For those of you that aren't sure what "steampunk" is, steampunk is a fictionalized world where steam-powered machinery exists in 19th century civilization. The Time Machine by HG Wells is an example of steampunk fiction.

Cogwheels is a collection of steampunk stories written by a variety of authors. While the title tells us that there are 10 stories, there are actually 12. (Supposedly, the editor's cat required the inclusion of two additional stories with a cat theme.) But, to be honest, if I didn't read the foreword, I wouldn't have known that there were extra stories. I didn't actually count the titles myself. 

Most of the stories involved are fairly short. The one exception is The Clockwork Monk, which actually has chapters. Considering the number of stories involved, I was quite surprised at the variety of plots in the collection. Not one was like another.

My favorite stories were The Clockwork Monk (I'd actually like to read more about this world and its characters) and Midnight Visitors (one of the cat stories). I found the characters to be well-thought-out and very intriguing, even the inner monologue of the cat. But the best part is that the entire world they live in absolutely came to life. The steampunk aspect made their universe interesting and colorful. These two stories may have just made me a fan of the genre.

On the other hand, I was not particularly fond of The Touch of Love (a little too abusive, in my opinion) or Lace, Lavender Salts, and Revenants (for the same reason). Both of these stories revolved around the pain and abuse of other people. While Love featured the abusive love between a human and an automaton, Lace followed this theme by beginning with a rape and moving into murder. If these were longer stories that had ample reason behind the acts, I might not have minded so much. Unfortunately, in short form, everyone seems to be an ass for no real reason.

I think fans of steampunk may not be the best audience for this book. They already know where to go for the really good stories. However, if you are new to the genre and would like to know a bit more, this is a very good place to start. Thankfully, each story ends with a mini-biography on the author so you will know how to find more stories by your favorite. All in all, a worthwhile read.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Don't Tell Anybody But...

Generally, I don't keep a lot of secrets. Let's see what my brain comes up with for this.

Don't tell anybody but I am a very busy person. Between working full time, taking my daughter around to all of her activities, finding time to record three YouTube videos a week, plus all of my writing jobs...I don't have a lot of "down" time. It seems like I could try to manage my time better. I'm just not sure where to cut the corners.

Don't tell anybody but I really do dislike my full time job. I frequently end up getting the short end of the stick. Any time I try to make things easier on myself, I get ignored by management. But it does put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads so, until something better comes along, I am stuck.

Don't tell anybody but I enjoy hanging out with my family. And I don't just mean my immediate - husband and daughter - family. I enjoy hanging out with other family members too. We have a lot of fun when we are together.

See? I said these weren't particularly interesting "secrets." Ah, well. Maybe tomorrow's prompt will be more interesting.

Meal Planning For This Week

Wait, what? I don't cook the meals in our house and I definitely do not plan them. So I can't even really do this prompt.

They want a food topic, fine. I will talk about lunches then because I sort of plan those.

My daughter's lunches for school are pretty much always the same. A peanut butter sandwich with baby carrots (this week, at least), a Fiber One brownie, and juice. Sometimes, instead of the baby carrots, she gets a sliced apple or a handful of grapes but it always a fruit or vegetable. The rest is basically the same every day.

My lunch is a little more varied because I usually go out. Since my schedule is changing this week, things will be different. However, I always go to Saladworks at least once a week and get a chicken caesar salad. Then I usually fill in the rest of the week with Wawa hoagies, McDonald's, or Wendy's, depending on what errands I have to run that day. Today, though, I will be hitting the local grocery store to pick up some items for the lunches I will need to eat at my desk.

Yes, I know my lunch could be healthier. I am working on that. We will see where this week takes us.

I Feel Coziest When

I don't know that this one even needs a list! For me, it is pretty simple:

I feel coziest when I am snuggled up under some blankets with my family and my dogs. That is it. It works if we're just watching TV or if my husband is playing a video game or even if we're all napping. Having everyone piled on the couch all warm and toasty is the coziest feeling ever.

That was a little too easy, wasn't it? That's OK. Let me know your cozy moments. When do you feel the coziest?

Things I Do That I Wish Made Me Money

This one is kinda hysterical. Mostly because I have done a lot of things in the hopes that it would make me money but it hasn't come through the way I hoped. So far, at least. I guess I will list all of those things now:

1. My jewelry store - I do have a little more success when I go to craft shows but I only do those craft shows in the winter and spring months. The summer and fall are way too busy family-wise for me to dedicate the time to spending weekends at craft shows. So, alas, it makes a little money but not nearly enough to really support itself.

2. My YouTube Channel - I've only been uploading videos since May so I'm not exactly expecting an immediate windfall that will let me quit my current full-time job. However, it would be nice if something would finally trickle in.

3. This blog - I have been writing this blog in various formats since about 2005. It started on Vox, back when that was a thing. Then, in 2007, it changed to thegeekwithin.com, where it lived on a server box in my living room. Around 2010, it moved to a GoDaddy server, where it lived until recently. The blog went through a massive change this year. The URL changed to cassandra-morgan.com, in order to reflect more of my personality and not tie myself to just geeky things, and the site moved to Squarespace, which has been amazing and I love it. In all of that time, I have had some paid posting...mostly posts where they gave me keywords and links to use...but, once again, I haven't made enough money to really offset the costs of hosting the blog and all that. I really do this because I love it. I am OK with that, though it would be nice to make a little bit of money from all this work.

Oh, it would also be nice if I could make money driving my daughter around to all of her activities. Only because I do it A LOT.

The Queen of the She-Zombies

Warning: This book is for mature audiences only.

When I began reading The Queen of the She-Zombies, I found it difficult to get into. My husband is a huge fan of zombie movies so I have been exposed to a variety of types of zombies. Never before have I seen only-female-sex-zombies. I decided to put my disbelief aside and see where the story went.

The book mostly takes place around the city of Dorvenden. The city has been decimated by she-zombies., who suck the life energy from men through sex. These she-zombies have a sort of hive relationship with their Queen. If the Queen dies, so do the rest of the undead. Red Blade, a young Paladin, has arrived in town to kill the Queen. As the Holy Warrior heads out on his quest, he comes upon a female assassin named Vianca, who also plans to kill the Queen. The story follows their dangerous path into the Queen's lair.

As a whole, I actually enjoyed the book. The characters are fairly well written and, despite the craziness of the plot, the events did follow the natural laws of their world. (Meaning, someone didn't magically get super strong because PLOT and the characters didn't do things outside of their particular abilities.) This alone gets a big thumbs up from me. While I don't usually read erotic books, I do have to admit that I would read more of this series. I am interested to see if the writer, Raol Mavin, will bring more life to Red and Vi or if they are going to remain stagnant. I really hope they become more lively and interesting.

So, in the end, I do recommend the book but only if you are of age and into reading some hardcore erotica.

Reasons To

I have no idea what this prompt means. Reasons To [blank]. I had to go look on the 30 Days of Lists blog. Apparently, we are supposed to fill in the blank then come up with a list from that. Here goes:

Reasons To Be Silly

• Silliness relieves stress
• It is a great way to connect and bond with your children
• You can make a stranger smile
• It is just plain fun

That was pretty lame. Let me know your reasons to do things!

Posters That Were On My Walls

This is an interesting topic. I know I said this on my YouTube channel but I'm not sure I have said it here - I am old. It seems like every other blogger/vlogger out there is at least 10 years younger than me, if not more. I am comforted by the fact that I am about the same age as John Green and Rhett & Link. YouTube is not just kids! Just keep this in mind when we discuss this topic:

Posters That Were On My Walls When I Was Growing Up

The movie poster for Disney's Aladdin

Sailor Moon

My sister and I shared a room for most of our childhood. She was really into New Kids on the Block so there were a bunch of NKOTB posters on the wall but they were not mine.

I don't think I had a lot of posters of people. I did tear out some pages from Teen Beat and put them on the wall. But I was more into collecting the baseball-type cards that were in the back of every issue. I cut every one out and kept them in a wallet. TONS of them.

Normally, I would try to list the people in the Teen Beat pages I put up but I don't even remember who made it onto the wall. I think Kirk Cameron, maybe. Brian Bloom comes to mind because he has those super blue eyes. I also feel like Wil Wheaton was up there but I could totally be making that up. I think the posters were less about the actual people and more about the pictures being pretty.

Yes, I was a strange child.