Time Out - One Week or about.

I really hate to do this so early in this Blog's life, but as you can see, I didn't update yesterday and have realized that I won't be able to update this week.

Why I didn't update yesterday: We lost one of our dear cats this weekend to complications of heart disease. The Philosopher Musician and I were at the Emergency Vet (I'm so thankful that place exists) late Saturday into the early morning Sunday. I had to get up Sunday to face school work, which I restlessly worked through my "quota".

Why I'm taking time off: Seeing as I leave for my required term trip to school in the next few days, I'll be mad busy getting everything ready as I am also visiting family during this trip. While said family has an Internet connection (we hope it'll be fixed), there is no decent working printer. I'll also be visiting, prepping for school work and of course going to school. I'm also revamping and rethinking the reviews a bit, so I have to look over all that stuff.

Basically, not fun and March has been a wild and crazy month for me with a ton of projects the first week of March, a program last week, trip this week, and this sudden "blow" to my family. See you soon!

Challenge Number 2 and 3 - Audio Book Challenge and Terry Pratchett Challenge

Since I'm not getting to the reading I should be getting to (like the latest Printz book) and with an hour ride to work, I'm jumping into the Audio Book Challenge at Royal Reviews. I'm going to start with the "Fascinated" category of 6 audio books (realistic) but strive to make the "Addicted" level (not so much).

Since I'm currently listening to it, the first one will be Going Bovine by Libba Bray (the latest Printz!). Two more discs! After that, I'm picking a John Green one. The Philosopher Musician and I have to go to the other side of the state in two weeks so we're planning on picking up some Terry Pratchett for the ride.

Which actually leads me into the next challenge: ReadingAdventures: Terry Pratchett 2010 Challenge.

The Philosopher Musician just told me he's read 35 of Pratchett's work, mostly in high school. I come in at a measly 4 or so (two Johnny Maxwell's, one Tiffany Aching, and Nation [which I LOVED] after college). I'm going for the "Cashier at Ankh-Morpork Mint" level which is 1-3 books. I'm pretty sure we could listen to two on our trip, but we'll see.

Now I can see how people wind up with so many challenges...

Challenges 2010 - An Intro and my first sign-up.

A few weeks ago, when I was "blog hopping," I stumbled upon the concept of reading challenges, which was semi-new to me. A friend of mine and I tried to start one last year that fell on its face. I can easily see why. It was not an issue of keeping up with the challenge ourselves. It was site organization. As I look at each site I can see a link widget is necessary, organization, organization, participation, and promotion are necessary. I know organization is listed twice. This is an important concept because it does take a massive amount of organization to keep people interested and informed about the challenge. The ones I'm seeing that have massive amounts of participation are cool looking and interesting. The ones with a few challengers, are not as active, interesting, or cool looking, although, that won't stop me.

The amount of challenges that exist are nuts. There is seriously a challenge for anything you are interested in from romance, to sci fi, to history, and Graphic Novels.

You can see where I'm going here, huh?

My first challenge announcement is that I'm signing up for the Graphic Novel Challenge. I was waiting until I was listed before I announced it, but I'm there and I'm EXCITED. I'm one of the few Experts listed and since I consider myself expert, my spin on the challenge is to work through the ALA GGNs 2010 list. You remember this post?

Yep, so that's my spin and that's the first challenge I've signed up for. I've found a few others so once I get the details figured out, I'll tell you which others I'm participating in.

Review: Love*Com volume 10

A review in which I include sarcasm.

Title: Love*Com (Lovely Complex) Vol. 10
Author: Aya Nakahara

Illustrator: Aya Nakahara
Copyright: (2001 – Japan) 2009

Price: $8.99

ISBN: 978-1-4215-1743-8
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Summary: As college plans materialize for Otani and her friends, Risa realizes she needs to do something with her life. In a small attempt to stay close to Otani, Risa lands a job in a nearby restaurant, but to her surprise, meets a fellow, short, and male, co-worker who loves her favorite musician. Her co-worker Kohori obviously likes her, but Risa loves Otani and is loyal to him. Unfortunately, a poor decision, misunderstood situation, and stress lead to Otani breaking up with Risa. Is this relationship over? Far from it.
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Thoughts: [Sarcasm] Oh no! Risa did something stupid and now Otani breaks up with her? Whatever shall we do? [/sarcasm] Fear not, fair reader, this is your typical manga shojo where the characters are split and true feelings arise. Finally, Otani declares his love to Risa and all is well. I think I can continue with the series now, although, I was hopeful that Risa would grow a little bit since the series started. Honestly, I was finding it hard to push my way through the last two volumes and I was thinking about giving up on this one.

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Will Teens Like It? Yeah. This is the same drama as the last few volumes, but the romance at the end will make hearts melt.

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Things to be aware of: There is one curse word in a tiny bit of thought text. Oh, and an old lady kissing Kohori at the Christmas party.
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Bonus:

Source: Library.