Monday, December 19, 2016

Random Thought: Why Murder Mysteries Never Talk About This...?


So listen (err, read). I finished reading Chaos by Patricia Cornwell a couple of weeks ago. Now, for those familiar with the series, it follows the narrative of a medical examiner using her profession of forensics and pathology to out-craft a crafty criminal or two. Good deal, right? Sure. But here’s what bits of illumination crawled across my mind during my reading of the book. Given that the series follows the theme of death and autopsies, why do authors skip details related to one particular ickier part of death? What's that I have in mind? Well...shit...
Sure many of us don’t need that piece of detail, but let’s talk about it all the same.
Writers setting up a crime or autopsy scene are quick to dish details such as the body’s temperature (algor mortis). Then there’s the examination of the body’s state/condition–as an observation of this can help relay the time of death.
Authors will relay to the reader if the victim is in a state of rigor mortis (where the body's muscles stiffen shortly after death). Rigor mortis can last for about a day or two–give or take. Which, once observed, helps the reader and protagonist unfold the crime with an invaluable clue. But what if the body is found after its been through rigor? The author will, of course, then relay how the body is in a relaxed state of livor mortis (where gravity pools blood in the body).
So with those many relaxed muscles–including the body’s sphincter–why do authors never describe a pile of shit stuck underneath the victim? Okay, okay. Sure this doesn’t always happen–given all your muscles are too relaxed to push anything from your gut. But because it does happen, why have I yet to read a fictional crime scene where the author describes a corpse’s having released his or her bowels or bladder? Though a murder victim can hardly be described with pleasantries, I would like to read an author just once take it a step grosser. That’s right. Gross me all the way out!
Just a thought.
Next I’ll talk about SEX in romance…

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Goodreads Year in Books Sum Up

I think I'm all booked out for the rest of the year; petering my way through a couple of reads, but basically done with reading.  Anyway, I started off the year setting a Goodreads goal of ten books.  Unlike last year, I wanted the comfort of increasing the goal as I paced my way along.  When I finally put a stamp on 65, I quickly realized it was best to pull that down to 60 and go from there.  I was losing steam as "life" interjected and my reading rhythm fell into a struggle.  
Nonetheless, I did one simple, easy little trick to close this year's challenge.  I ordered a 15 page Kindle singlet (from Nevada Barr of course) and read it at work.  BOOM.  Challenge done.  Hey, it is what it is...
No, for real.  With all the reading I've done this year–especially with those back-to-back Anna Pigeon books over the summer–I'm kind of good.  At least for a little while.



Monday, December 5, 2016

Sole December TBR (For Now)!

"With a beautiful, powerful, and sexy Madame Chiang Kai-Shek at the center of one of the great dramas of the twentieth century, this is the story of the founding of modern China.

With the beautiful, powerful, and sexy Madame Chiang Kai-Shek at the center of one of the great dramas of the twentieth century, this is the story of the founding of modern China, starting with a revolution that swept away more than 2,000 years of monarchy, followed by World War II, and ending in eventual loss to the Communists and exile in Taipei. Praised by China scholar Jonathan Spence for “an impressive amount of telling material, drawn from a wide array of sources,” Pakula presents an epic historical tapestry, a wonderfully wrought narrative that brings to life what Americans should know about China—the superpower we are inextricably linked with."


~ The Last Empress on Amazon
All right.  All right.  As much as I want to break open my copy of Toni Braxton’s memoir, Unbreak My Heart, I have to take a step back.  After two years, I finally cracked open my copy of The Last Empress by Hannah Pakula back in October.  I got a good 100 pages into the book before I began to feel the swell of tome-size intimidation.  Great story, nonetheless.  It kept me glued, but I just knew getting through the book was going to take some work.  So I put it down for smaller titles in November.  And now I’m back at this monster of a read!  I’m committed to closing out the year finishing at least another big book.  This will be it.
WISH ME LUCK AND NO READING DISTRACTIONS!

The author...

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Doodling on the 9-5

So yeah.  Started a new position and was totally bored (though I find that to be a good thing considering my past position).  Nonetheless, I just wanted to share two doodles I came up with while swerving around in a desk chair trying to come up with future ideas to plot down in my mole skin journal.  As, you know, I’m “working.”  

But, in honesty, I think I kind of burnt myself out blogging.  Yet, that’s nothing new.  By December I’m always in this state.  Anyway, see you in the next post!



Sunday, November 27, 2016

(1) Rise of the Tomb Raider: Blind Play-Through

I have to keep this short because I just want the game to speak for itself, but I'm definitely excited to be here.  It's hard to believe I discovered the Tomb Raider series (particularly Lara Croft) around this time of year in 1997.  19 years ago!  Freaking amazing how time flies.  And the fact that I've stuck around and play my way through ever major release is incredible.  But I'll digress from speaking so much more.  Join me in taking on Rise of the Tomb Raider, in celebration of Lara Croft's 20th year anniversary.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

6 Ways to Tell a Book Club Edition Book From Original Publishing House Releases

Maybe this’ll sound a little snobbish and petty of me, but I recently received the final two books necessary to fulfill my Nevada Barr Anna Pigeon Mysteries collection.  So, yes!  Finally I have my own copy of book #17 and 18; The Rope and Boar Island respectively.  Anyway, I ordered the two through Thriftbooks.com; bypassing Amazon and Bookoutlet, I figured I would gives these guys a try.  Besides, I did the math and it was just cheaper to go with Thriftbooks.  Especially considering I’ve already read the books over the summer, via the public library.  I just needed personal copies to fill my shelf.  You know, in case one wants to re-read titles without fuss. 
So, without much thought after I placed my order, I waited a week and a day for their arrival.  Only to find out–as I retrieve the packages–that they were…
BOOK CLUB EDITIONS!
Standing at the kitchen table, I unwrapped them and a light expletive just burst out.  Had I done my research, I probably would’ve known better before I ordered them.  Yet, it is what it is.  Still why was I surprised to find my copies were book club editions?  

Then I thought about why in the hell do I carry this tiny stigma against them?  Part of me blames the OCD half of me.  Or the collector who wants his shelf of series-related books to look uniform with one another.  I mean not that I’m totally against book club editions, but that could be part of the blame.
Or not necessarily...

But hey, I'm not the only one!
Nonetheless, I decided to turn this scenario into a post on 6 things to look for between book club edition books and titles from the original publishing house.

1.  The obvious difference is the size of the book.  Book Club Editions are often smaller than the same title sent from the publishing house.  I don’t have a “house” copy of the The Rope to match book-for-book, but Destroyer Angel follows in the Anna Pigeon series.  Identical in their make-up, cover art, uniform, and marketability techniques; you get the picture.  
2.  Besides size and dimensions, Book Club covers lack the graphical effects of books sent from publishing houses.  In the above image, notice how the publishing house book has a metallic gold tint and 3d effect to the author's name and book's title.  Whereas the BCE is just one flat cover. 

Monday, November 21, 2016

Completed Patricia Cornwell's Chaos! Last Interview EVENT!

Well, folks.  I completed the 24th Kay Scarpetta book, Chaos, over the weekend.  Saturday I crunched through the last 187 pages between eating apples and Oreos.  And it was worth all the time.  I'll get back to you all on that, though.  Anyway, with a whole year before the 25th book comes around (with lots of surprises given what took place in the 24th), I'll be quiet about this series from here on out.  At least I think so. 

But in closing the countdown I set up weekly this month for Chaos's release, I now share the last interview event with the author....


Sunday, November 20, 2016

Ravenswood Publishing $1 Amazon KINDLE E-Book Holiday Sale!

Book Openers Revisited ~ PART TWO...




There’s a lot of history behind this opening scene.  It began in the first book in P. D. James's Cordelia Gray series, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman.  In the opening of that book Cordelia Gray worked as an assistant–turned intern–to a private investigator.  Yet, stepping into his office in that book's opening, she had the misfortune of finding her boss's body.  His death was a suicide, and one with a good-bye letter passing his business on to Cordelia.  
Already an awkward character stuck in a financial crunch; Cordelia wavered on his final request.  Eventually she made the decision to take over his business–just as he trained and legally prepared her.  Fast-forward to this book where Cordelia is completely on her own, and still a little uncomfortable with her new career path.  
So I love the self-conscious reflections seen through a nameplate.  Among other slices of imagery, of course.  To me this opening continues to make Cordelia's character human.  She's uncertain.  Juggling her confidence as an investigator.  However, she recognizes she's already on the path and have to step up to the plate.
Pun intended.
Sadly, there was never a book three.  A TV series featuring a pregnant Cordelia Gray shut James's vigor for writing this character down.



I’m going to keep this extremely simply by saying: if you haven’t read Butler’s Patternist series, then I FEEL for you!

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Night Shift Reading Struggles

"At Midnight’s local pawnshop, weapons are flying off the shelves—only to be used in sudden and dramatic suicides right at the main crossroads in town. 
 
Who better to figure out why blood is being spilled than the vampire Lemuel, who, while translating mysterious texts, discovers what makes Midnight the town it is. There’s a reason why witches and werewolves, killers and psychics, have been drawn to this place. 
 
And now they must come together to stop the bloodshed in the heart of Midnight. For if all hell breaks loose—which just might happen—it will put the secretive town on the map, where no one wants it to be..."
So I’ve been dragging my ass reading Night Shift by Charlaine Harris.  As the third and final book in her Midnight trilogy, I'm kind of not surprised at my paling mood.  While I finished the first book in the series not long after its May 2014 release; a year later, it took me six months to finish the second book.  Why?  Because it was just unexciting.  And now that same bored, languid feeling has arrived in Night Shift.  No matter how many second winds I suck, I just don't think this book is going to happen.
The days kept ticking.  And ticking.  And ticking.  And four days since cracking the book open, I've yet to jump over 93 pages.  The sad part is I like the characters populating the book/town.  I like their individual quirks and supernatural presences (there's psychic, witch, were-tiger, vampire, etc.).  I like how each attempts to serve the mysteries surrounding their small town.  Yet, by God, there just isn’t enough fire and movement in the story to keep me wholly invested.  On second thought, it's as if I'm in love with the idea of the characters, but that's almost the extent of it. 

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Patricia Cornwell's 24th Kay Scarpetta Book is Here! CHAOS!

Sooooo in keeping with my Chaos COUNTDOWN; here I am true to my word!  I have my copy of the latest forensics/medical examiner crime thriller, Chaos.  Featuring our favorite pathologist, Kay Scarpetta!

Whoo-hoo!



Thursday, November 10, 2016

Book Openers Revisited ~ PART ONE...

The first paragraph in a book doesn’t always “contractualize” you into the author’s work, but it starts as potential.  I mean just step back for a moment and think about the power the first paragraph in your favorite book had.  How did it deliver enough to keep you reading and re-reading the book over the years?  What was it about that opening that enticed you upon your initial exposure?  Did the author break you with a vivid setting?  Or maybe it was a character’s voice that captivated you?  Did the author deliver a joke that threw you into laughter, in a moment when you needed it?  Was it a matter of tone or emotion?  Or were you just excited when an author flung you right in the middle of a scene?
Whatever the case, we can’t deny the power of the opening paragraph.
So I decided to pull a few books off one of my bookshelves and share with you a couple of interesting ones I've loved.  Some are from books I found myself compelled to read by the author's style alone.  While some are from books I never read beyond just yet.  And some are from favorite reads of mine that has kept me coming back for more.

Loved the indefinable usage of the phrase “that place.” 
As the paragraph later concedes, "that place" turns out to be a black neighborhood.  Yet, somewhat usual, it's a neighborhood long gone as it fell victim to capitalism (to keep it light).  It fell at the hands of businessmen who uprooted the land and cut down trees to build a golf course and suburban neighborhood.  Hosting and furnishing whites only?  You bet.  Nevertheless, the catch is “that place” may be gone, but its spirit isn't.  There’s a haunting story stilled buried in the land‘s past.  And, of course, Morrison invites us into that haunting history with this opener.
Dare you step back into the 1920s and find out...

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

COUNTDOWN: Patricia Cornwell's 24th Kay Scarpetta Book, Chaos


There's been a few new Patricia Cornwell interviews popping up as we get closer and closer to the release of Kay Scarpetta #25, Chaos.  This particular interview really caused me to pause.  I've never seen Cornwell on the brink of becoming emotion.  She chokes up a little in this BBC News HARDtalk interview.  Enjoy!


Are you looking forward to Chaos?  Or have you given up on this series?  Share your comments below!

Monday, November 7, 2016

Using Canva to Create Easy YouTube Thumbnails

What’s up, folks.  So listen–err, read.  Today I wanted to share how you can use the online design tool, Canva, to create easy thumbnails for your YouTube videos.  Or at least how I create mine.  Nonetheless, you always want an interesting thumbnail to grab viewer’s attention.  Especially for those viewers who aren’t familiar with your content.  When a video of yours pops up in viewer’s search or on their recommendations list, chances are a unique thumbnail will grab their attention.  Especially a thumbnail with eye-popping color and an interesting composite representative of the actual content (no click baiting, please). 
But enough of that.  Let’s get started… (If images are too small, try clicking on them for a fuller scaled view).

1.  First I suggest you grab a screenshot of what’s taking place in the video you plan on uploading.  Different video editing programs have different methods of capturing a screenshot.  But, with Windows Movie Maker, it’s as simple as clicking SNAPSHOT.  Save the image wherever you please before logging into Canvas.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

A Few Charlaine Harris Wrappings

Looks like I’m starting November concluding two of Charlaine Harris’ popular series, via library check-outs.  And I’m excited to see how each will end.
So first I’m finally going to finish the fourth and final book in Charlaine Harris’ Harper Connelly series.  As some of you may or may not know, I finally finished the third book in the series, An Ice Cold Grave, as part of the #SaveOurCozies readathon back in July.  It had taken me all of about six years to finally find my way to the book–after reading the first and second back-to-back.
Anyhoo.  The Harper Connelly mysteries follow a female character of the same name who, crazy enough, has the ability to locate corpses.  She survived a lightning strike during her teen years, and this unfolded her abilities.  
For the past three books she and her partner/stepbrother, Tolliver, traveled to three different small towns to help clients in need of finding a body.  And, like a human divining rod, Harper goes to work locating corpses.  The problem is some of those still living aren’t too happy to have bodies found, and will do what it takes to keep them buried.  
But besides all that, there’s a overarching story that revolves around Harper and Tolliver's missing sister.  Questions as to whether or not she walked out of the family or was kidnapped by gangsters has been in the air between these two since childhood.  Supposedly, that sister’s mysteriously disappearance is coming to an end in this fourth and final book.  Another thing–which is a little creepy–though once stepbrother and sister by marriage, Harper and Tolliver finally slept together in the previous book.  So will this borderline incestuous relationship work?
Anyway, more family matters are coming to a head in Grave Secret.  It appears to be a book wrote right on time to close the series out.  
Charlaine Harris’ latest series consist of a trilogy of books featuring an eccentric and strange Texas town called Midnight.  Plenty of unusual residents live within this small community.  A murder/burglar, a psychic, a witch, a were-Tiger, and of course a vampire.  All among other "things", of course.  The first book focused on this band of characters coming together to solve a “human” influenced murder, and subsequent hiding of the body of a particularly once popular resident.  The second book spoke about the training of a were-tiger, and a running side story consisting of the characters falling into the push-and-pull of a rundown hotel in the area.  But I’ll leave all those details for another day.
However, while I swung swiftly through the first book, it took me half a year to finally finish the second book in the series.  I eventually made it.  With only three books, I figured eventually I’ll give to the final book and close the series out.  Which is now with Night Shift.
Night Shift has an interesting premise in itself.  Apparently, something is causing the residents in the town to walk into the local pawnshop, buy a weapon of choice, and walk outside into the main crossroads of town to… well… commit suicide.
And I’m leaving it at that!
I’m already ready to go read this suckers instead of talking about them!
BYE.
If you’ve read any of these series, please share with me your thoughts below! 

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

2017 Zazzle Calendar!

Updating the Zazzle store with 2017 Wall Calendars.  I created and bought one last year and love it!  So, I decided to do it again for 2017 and share it with everyone.  Here’s a link straight to the calendar on Zazzle!  Check it out!

Monday, October 31, 2016

4 Horrors Movies That Almost F'ed Me Up as a Kid

I’m a little late on the Halloween season thing.  Given the latest circumstances on this blog, you can see why.  But before the calendar turns over and into November, I wanted to share at least four horror movies that messed me up as a child.  And a few of them I can more or less take as an adult (well I do have a hard time watching the unedited Candyman, anyway).  But that aside, my mom watched these movies.  Whether she rented them our bought them, I would watch them with her and turn around and asked to watch them on my own.  I have to give it to her taste, considering what we had to work with in our apartment in the late 80’s early 90’s.  And I kind of feel lucky I got to experience these types of movies, because that’s where my love of the horror genre originated.  Granted I was obsessed with Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kruger as well. 
But let’s get going on the list.  Most of you know the set-up and can look up whatever is missing.  Therefore, I’m just going to try to explain why any of the given movies almost messed me up.
Night of the Living Dead was a movie I would pop into the VHR on my own time.  It really was one of those films I wouldn’t just watch–but also study.  Each time I watched, there was always something new that I hadn't noticed any other time.
But anyway, I would watch this movie asking myself these things:
1.  Could this one day be possible?
2.  What would it take for me to survive?
And most of all…
3.  I refuse to stop watching this movie until I can make sense of how this is happening!



Sunday, October 30, 2016

My Images Disappeared...? FIXED!

Been listening to a lot of Lady Gaga’s new album, Joanne, and watching a hell of a lot of Kitchen Nightmares lately.  And that’s exactly how I’ve managed to reconstructed all the blog posts.  No, every single one of them.  Post after post from my WordPress back up.  At least until anything beyond April 2016, when I lasted updated there.  Nonetheless, the crisis of lost images (though some I couldn't recover) is over with.  I've saved the blog.

Yet...

I had to re-take images from scratch from May 2016 up until now (lost and better resolution reasons).  Or at least before I last converted Blogger to the WordPress backup.  The good news is I found scribbles of those images in other online cloud folders (including on Canva).  So it wasn't all that hard to reconstruct each posts.  It also helps to have a good memory.
Anyway, it feels like I’ve been fighting to pull this together.  Yet, going through the past three years of post after post, made me truly appreciate the work it takes to upkeep a blog of any sort.  I mean, this recovery mission showed how much I've busted my ass these past 3 1/2 years.  Even in times where I felt like no one was hearing me, so I might as well give it all up.  But when you lose something special, and are forced to recover it, the situation really falls into perspective.  You begin to think of what life was like before, and what drove you to create.  You begin to think about what has changed since.  And, most of all, what opportunities your drive and commitment will eventually open up for you.  

So...

Friday, October 28, 2016

Elizabeth Chase: One Female Private-Eye You May Or May Not Have Heard Of

Let’s talk about another female private investigator you may or may not have heard of. 
In 1995 author Martha C. Lawrence introduced readers to her female private investigator, Dr. Elizabeth Chase.  And Chase is anything but your conventional fictional private-eye.  She has an interesting hook serving her layers of profession.  What could that hook be?  Well, she’s an astrologer.  Or psychic/parapsychologist to expand the point. 
So basically Elizabeth Chase can get all Susan Miller on a murder investigation.  She can break down that pesky Mercury Retrograde phenomenal to, perhaps, unfurl the brain of the forgetful suspect.  All done to gather a clue, of course.  She can probably map out the Age of Aquarius, to see which suspect is likely to get his or her hands dirty in the business of killing.  Hell, maybe the dates of eclipses can help her stop a pre-mediated attempt at murder.
Who knows?
I’m more than positive that within the five books in the series, something extraordinary and uniquely flavored is going to happen.  Without (I’m certain) the author cheating both the readers and her protagonist.  I mean let’s get real, a book with a psychic detective ain’t worth beans if all she has to do is close her eyes to tap into her “source” for the answers.
No, no.  I’m sure it won’t be like that. 
Anyway, I’m kind of excited and ready to get started with what Martha Lawrence and her sleuth, Elizabeth Chase, are going to get into.  I have a feeling both are going to take me (and hopefully you) along mystery avenues hardly spoken of and far from traditional.  So–after having never heard of this author–this was the number one reason why I grabbed the first book in Lawrence’s series, Murder in Scorpio, the second I spotted it.  It's always why I value the good ole used bookstore circuits.  There’s so much to discover if you look.
For more on the author, visit her website at www.marthalawrence.com.
Have you heard or read any of Martha Lawrence’s books?  Drop me a comment to whet my appetite on what I have to look out for in the future.

Monday, October 24, 2016

Beverly Hills Housewives vs. Hollywood Husbands

I’ve been reading Jackie Collins’ Hollywood Husbands for two weeks!  Since October 11th to be precise.  And, pitifully speaking, I’m only 330 pages into the 543 given.  And it’s not necessarily a slow read.  
You’d think being in the Did Not Finish (DNF) groove by now (after jumping the ship on Nora Roberts’ Stars of Fortune and Tayari Jones’ Leaving Atlanta) that I’d just let Husbands go.  I am tempted to stuff it into the wells of my bookshelf; out of sight, out of mind.  Yet, I don’t quite want to at the same time.  Maybe I'm enchanted with something about the book.  Because when I try to pick another read in its place, I’m drawn back to finish Husbands off.  I don’t want to cut Collins just yet–hoping this book would be as solid as the previous in the series, Hollywood Wives.  But man is it hard to keep engaged with this slog.
But first, let me do a quick summary…
The book’s primary characters consist of a trio of Hollywood buddies.  Jack Python is a talk show host.  He's married to a cheating actress, though his philandering ways are anything but subtle.  Anyway, Jack Python is slatted as the nobleman of the trio, given that he’s raising his Hollywood diva sister’s estranged child.  He's also the character designed to become the reasonable and pragmatic voice within the group.  Something that's evident by how he complains about being "over" the Hollywood scene.  Then there’s Howard Soloman.  He's a crackhead and movie studio owner with a line of divorces up to his bloodshot eyeballs.  Not one to swallow impulses, he has his eye on a friend’s ex-wife.  While, of course, presently married to an actress.  Without a doubt Howard is his own enemy, and struggles with the pressures of owning a movie studio that needs a good film to stay relevant.  Last there’s Mannon Cable.  He’s the irresistible heartthrob actor in the group.  He's also still hung up on his ex-wife (whom his friend, Howard, secretly covets), while his current wife tootles around pregnant with his child.  However, sadly, Mannon can’t stand the thought of either one.  He just wants a hot movie role and his ex-wife's jealousy over his new relationship.  You know, the one with the pregnant wife that he can't bother to show any love to.
Besides the men there are a host of women players as well.  Silver Anderson is Jack Python’s disunified sister.  Nonetheless, she's rich, famous, commandeering, and–despite her haughty attitude–probably the only likable character.  She does a lot of jacked-up things to her family, but she's a diva you're willing to throw out your moral code to entertain.  As of late, she’s eloped to marry a down-and-out broke-in-the-pockets wanted barman.  Naturally, his allure is that he's risky and thrilling.  He also has a penchant for knocking her “bottom” out just the way she likes.  Or at least enough to keep him around to the chagrin of her "loyal" staff.  Who, of course, are making plans to get him away from your highness to bring order back to the Hollywood castle. 
Let me see who else…
–Errr, well that’s really the only four that matters.  The remaining cast are more or less facilitators of each of principle's story thread.  So they're just sprinkled within to either kiss ass (in some cases literally), be insufferable to the principles, or push a scandal.  However, as far as the 330 pages I've gotten to, I haven’t a clue who’s pulling chains around here yet.  There's dirt to spread, but nobody's spreading it on each other; principle or secondary alike.  What I can say is a few of these secondary players (like the belittled housewife) operate as underdogs ready to bark back at their tormentors.  Which leaves one to continue reading and guessing how.  So the book is not a total slog.
Additionally, there’s an outsider's narrative in between all these story threads.  Taking readers back to a small town in 1974, it's a narrative featuring an abused teen turned arsonist heading for the Hollywood hills to “light” up one (or more) of the principle's life.
So why do I find the book so challenging to continue reading?  Especially when all this crazy, dramatic, and wild stuff is happening?  It's simple: every single character–with or without one–thinks only with their dicks!

Saturday, October 22, 2016

(1) World of Final Fantasy Dungeon Demo (PS4 Live Stream)



I don't quite understand what's happening and what I'm doing, but I can say I'm more interested in this Final Fantasy release than Final Fantasy XV (coming out on 11/29/2016).  We'll see how the rest of this demo plays out.  But if there's any FF game I'm looking forward to, it has to be Zodiac (FF12 HD re-release!)

Friday, October 21, 2016

My Images Disappeared...? UPDATE!

Vanished images update…
Well, hey.  Looks like I managed to get all the posts from 2013 reconstructed and back up.  I've been on a mission.  Yes, sir...
When you're tried, but you're still looking good!
But no–it’s been a trip.  At first I attempted to export the material from my back-up Wordpress blog.  Got the exported file saved, then found out it won’t process through Blogger’s import system.  At least without having the file converted from its original XML Document to a converted version (forgive me of the details, just know it’s been a headache).  
Terrified of finding myself hacked should I still try to convert the file via a sketchy online converter program, I’ve decided to go the long way around and just copy and paste the HTML code from posts in Wordpress to the other.  Problems: resolution of the images are no where near as crisp as the original.  Good: I can apply labels/tags to old posts, as well as incorporate affiliate links in the time before joining Amazon’s affiliate program.
I'm trying my best not to go over old post and "fix" whatever I find that bugs me in the writing.  It'll only hold up the process.  Because I have such a long way to go!
More BOOKS | DRAWING | LIFE updates underway!

Monday, October 17, 2016

My Images Disappeared...?

Okay. Here's what's happening. Some how or another (while putting together an image that wouldn't rotate) I deleted the folder containing all the blog's images. As you can see. It had me down for a minute, but I'm anything but a quitter. Especially for something I've spent hours and years developing. So with that said, bare with my maintenance on reapplying the images in these blog posts. They were stored on this wonky system Google has of combining Google+ images with Picasa. It's a system that needs a little user-friendly tweaking to help some of us understand what we're getting into when engaging with it to edit images.
How I feel about Google+ and Piscas's image system
But there's a bright side–so far. Years ago I started a back-up blog on Wordpress. That's right, I'm hosted in two different places. Periodically, I would export my blog here on Blogger, and import the entire blog on Wordpress. Now I haven't done a back-up since the early part of May, but every image/post before that is available and safely stored on Wordpress. I'm currently exporting it over onto Blogger–which looks like it'll be some time. Then, I'll have to fill in the holes that went missing.
So, that's what's happening.
In the meantime, here's the link to the Wordpress version of the blog. It's janky, but I always operated it as a back-up (you have to pay to get all the good stuff).
Until then thanks. I'll continue to post along here still.

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