Linkspamming fool

So I mentioned earlier that one of the ways you're supposed to get your blog or website to rank higher in Google is to have other websites link to it. Which helped me finally understand comment spam. I suspect it's link spam, basically. Once I got enough of the robot generated spam I put word verification on my site, but I gather you can hire companies to work on your linking/ranking for you.

So here's the thing. If you're going to, as a human, go and post some link spam that's relevant to the post, in the hopes that it doesn't get deleted... at least fake your opinion?

I posted an article about how the last thing overweight people need is to be told "you just need discipline."

So what did the linkspammer post?

Swish click. That's the sound of my mouse heading for the trashcan icon and clicking it.

Time for kitty pictures!!!

Fernando took these pics as I was packing up the Christmas tree, also known as Minion's Favorite Cat Toy.

"Betrayal!"

 "J'accuse!"

She decides to stage a sit-in.

 "Shh hush. I love you Christmas tree."

nom nom nom

"I love you so."

At this point she appeared to have handcuffed herself to the tree.

________

THEME: Who Says There's No Sleep For the Wickeds?

(all you need is a comfy nap spot)

 

 

________

Trying to sneak up on Haley

Loo loo just sleeping here...

...raaaaw just streeetchiiiing...

...loo loo just -- F*CK OFF! --

_____

THEME: There's No Schnoogle Like a Daddy Schnoogle 

 __________

Saturday afternoon...

...even winter sunshine brings out latent dreams of the Serengeti.

I thought Minion's most intense Cake Face was reserved for when she sees Haley. But having only got her last August, I'd never seen her "the return of the first birds after winter" face.  Woah là. It's going to be a struggle to keep the baby birds that like to practice flying to our balcony safe this spring.

Return to cheapskatatude

Until I again have a regular income we have gone into Supa Careful Monies Mode. It's not too difficult. When I was in school I worked part-time, and Fernando's position was a little less than full-time, so we've always tried to live at a lower standard of living. We don't own a home or a car and schooling in Quebec for residents is unbelievable inexpensive, and I had a bit of monies from my grandfather, and my parents sometimes sent nice gifties--so we've never gone into "good debt." And we pay off the credit card every month, so we have no other type of debt either. But I want to keep it that way!

In January I finally knuckled down and hauled out the half-finished budget I'd worked on earlier in the year, and with Gail Vaz-Oxlade's tools I finished it up. Fernando wanted to go on her jar system, and he chose out spice jars for it. Aren't they cute? Don't bother robbing us, you'll be very very disappointed at our weekly spending monies. And half the jars have fake money because I mostly spend online. So I made up little "Mabel dollars." Whenever I buy something online I withdraw Mabel dollars from my jar so that I'm conscious of SPENDING. It's worked so well that I've become a cheapskate. I like seeing my little fake dollars accumulate.

I also made little I.O.U. dollars cause I know the little Fernando sometimes likes to ahem borrow ahead of himself. And me too sometimes, for gift items.

Anyway. One way Fernando has helped cut money is to let me make lunches for him, and to come home for supper instead of eating at work. (He has a very physical job, so he was often so tired he preferred to stay there and relax and eat.) Which means I get to use all my bento boxes and rume bags! Weeee!

 

Fernando likes 1 jelly bean.

I purposely didn't tidy my bento drawer for you. Here it is in its messy glory. monotone lunch slow and healthy time.

 

lunch bags

Shakespeare bottle

The other thing I did this year was Family Calendar on the Cheap! I like calendars that come with stickers and stuff, but I used to work somewhere with a staff discount. No more! So this year I bought a dollar store calendar...

attached it to the pocket from last year's calendar, where I can keep handy notes and stuff...

 

gathered up all the unused stickers from my last three calendars...

  

And voila! I have a fancy calendar again.

This is why some people put the "approved followers only" setting on their Twitter accounts

In other news... Minion just fell off the heater in her sleep... again... . Luckily I have really long, very thick curtains. Too long, cause I was too lazy to trim the ends, so they drag on the ground. Instead hitting the hardwood floor, she sort of rolls through the curtains and gets deposited in a startling but gentle thump.

Book review: I Do Not Come to You by Chance - Nwaubani

I wanted to knock a book off my backburner file, so I returned to this one. Here's the longer review I sent to The Betties Blog About Books. Or, for your viewing pleasure, you can just skip to the end and watch the video of the Nigerian scammers performing the Monty Python skit about the dead parrot. Just because it's funny.


I Do Not Come to You By Chance - by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
It's hard to find English language fiction about sub-Saharan Africa, by authors who were born and still live there, so this book is a good find for this reason alone. The book takes place in Nwaubani's home town and the areas where she's lived.

I Do Not Come to You by Chance (I love the title) is about Kingsley, a young man from educated but poor parents, who can't find a job even with his university degree. As the family falls deeper into poverty, he finally ends up working "419" scams--those famous Nigerian emails we've all received--and naturally the book's tension hinges on both his moral dilemma of being a scammer, and the inherent danger of the activity.

While the author isn't very good at descriptive writing--I didn't get that "Ooh I want to see Nigeria!" feeling--she's great at everyday detail. I learned a lot about daily life (public transportation, placing a long distance call, education, dating, village vs city life, names, money, etc.)  I think if you were Nigerian you wouldn't be bored/feel like she was writing for foreigners, but as a foreigner I was able to learn a ton about life in Nigeria. Super super interesting. And of course I learned about 419s. Nwaubani's done her research, and I never found the topic tiresome. The variety of scams being run is simultaneously fascinating, sad, creative, and funny. And I had to love the gangsters with their names like Cash Daddy and Protocol Officer and World Bank.

In the beginning I put this book aside for several weeks, because the start is slow. She's carefully trying to establish Kingsley's character, and why and how he would end up in 419s, but I think she could have shortened the front end of the book, and elaborated a bit in some other areas. For example, we don't witness his actual transition into scamming at all--it's a fait accompli when we hit Part II of the book. And towards the end, when we reach the inevitable point of having to choose between his new criminal lifestyle, or returning to the poor and honest path chosen for him by his parents, the choice would have felt more difficult if (a) the author had better maintained his connection with his mother, and  (b) if the romance in the latter part of the book had been introduced earlier, and handled differently. The book's first romance is really heartbreaking, and this later romance could have had that potential.

On the plus side, Nwaubani's writing is really entertaining. The last book I read was also by a first time author, and he too was attempting to write a humor book about his nation (Canada); and though he was obsessed with proper English (he admits to this obsession) I found his similes and descriptions unoriginal and long-winded. Nwaubani, on the other hand, uses words in odd ways, and her writing is a bit sloppy; yet her similes and metaphors were creative, and her descriptions were funny. I don't have any quotes 'cause I can't underline on my ereader, but here's a good one someone posted:

"Then came my father’s diagnosis. For a poorly paid civil servant to get caught up in an affliction like diabetes was the very height of ambitious misfortune."

Also, I loved Kings. His character arc was realistic, he was a good kid, and I was rooting for him. I was curious to see how Nwaubani would choose to end the book, and I'm giving the book four stars solely on the basis on the last chapter (epilogue). It was perfect. It is so so SO rare to find that perfect of a last chapter. It was tight, it was funny, it answered all my questions, and it was satisfying.

I will definitely read her next book.

_____

Hidy-cat

The huge book tote I bought on my last day at my last job (I worked at a large format bookstore, where we sold a lot of gift items.) I'd had my eye on it for awhile cause of the pretty lettering.

Today I discovered a kitty inside of it.

M&Ms and rock star brains

By the way, I only learned this this year. I must share in case you've never heard it - about why Van Halen started the whole thing of including weird "contract riders" like "no brown M&Ms!!" It was actually for a very good reason, and it's not even a false story. Hard to believe rock stars are capable of such intelligence when on all those drugs. This is from wiki:

They were one of the first bands to use contract riders to specify a "wish list", a practice now used throughout the music industry. Van Halen pioneered this because they had extensive requirements including power availability and stage construction details. The band's demands were not limited to technical issues; their now-infamous rider specified that a bowl of M&M's, with all of the brown M&M's removed, was to be placed in their dressing room. According to David Lee Roth, this was listed in the technical portion of the contract not because the band wanted to make capricious demands of the venue, but rather as a test of whether the venue had actually read and honored the terms of the contract, as it contained other requirements involving legitimate safety concerns.^[51] On earlier tours, inadequate compliance by local organizers to the safety requirements of the rider had placed members of Van Halen's road crew in danger which was occasionally life-threatening. Because of these incidents, the band developed the M&M's demand as a means of checking whether the venue was properly honoring the terms of the contract to their satisfaction. Subsequently, if the bowl was missing, or if there were brown M&M's present, they had reason to suspect that the venue might not have honored legitimate technical and safety concerns within the contract. As a result, the band would be within their rights to inspect the technical side of the performance prior to going on stage, and/or request the venue redo their work properly.^[52]

My beloved boots boots boots!

I'm trying to work my way to starting my career homework. ...Can't you tell?

This winter I've been taking my rubber boots out when the weather is closer to the 0 mark. Because my winter boots have a few leaks in them. I don't think I've ever owned winter boots that didn't eventually spring a few leaks--I blame the salt. They use salt in Montreal like it's going out of style. When you walk along the sidewalks, you're elevated about three inches off the ground by the stuff. When a big icing hits you don't really complain, but still. It wreaks havoc on the footwear, I never remember to rinse off my boots when I return home.

So when it's closer to 0 Celcius and things get slushy, the boots suck. So I tried out my new rainboots. I am so in love with them that I have to recommend them. If you live in a milder climate, where you get a cold rainy winter, or a bit of snow but not tons, you could wear them all winter long. They're so warm. I don't know why, because they're not fleece lined, but my feet are never cold to about -10 Celcius (14 F). They also have really good grips, I've never slipped in them. They also go in at the ankle, so they don't come off my feet.

They're Kamik, which is a 100 year old Quebec company, which is why I think they're so well made for cold weather. Mine are "Wales" which they don't seem to make anymore, but I would assume/hope their other boots are as good. (The Christina looks like the same boot.)  I love them so much, I DO remember to rinse them off when I come home!

I bought mine off Zappos, but paid so much in duties that I wouldn't recommend it to Canadians. You can find a dealer here.

Oh, also, I get compliments all the time. Mine are tartan like this but RED.

And so ends this commercial break.

What's been goin' on with me

ME
I wrote a wee bit about my religious background on Mabel Talk, if anyone's interested.

FOOD
As I cook things from my vegan cookbooks, I go to the VeganEats tab at the top and update it. It's divided by vegan cookbook. So if you're ever curious about buying this or that cookbook, you can see which ones I end up using the most. But I only started doing this a few months ago.

HEALTH

So I've been on Elavil for a couple years now--it's the daily preventative headache drug I take. It's made a huge difference in terms of keeping the daily headaches at bay. If I'm not stressed out, and I'm not menstruating, I can go for a week or two without headaches.

Then I tried a second drug, Nadol, which didn't seem to make any difference. I was at work at the time, and under a lot of stress. When I went off it, I was no longer at work and very relaxed. And I went through two really bad weeks--the week I was menstruating and the week after. Which leads me to believe the drug might have been helping a bit. But not enough to warrant continuing to take it.

Awhile ago I went onto drug #3, Topomax--I've been increasing the dosage every two weeks. This is the drug that gives me pins and needles in my arms (that's ok), pins and needles in my feet (less ok - actually SUPER ANNOYING LIKE MY FEET ARE IMPLODING!), less sweating (that's really convenient, I can forget to wear anti-perspirant even!) and last week I finally got up to the full dosage. Just in time to get my period.

The first full day of my period, Friday, I fought off super headache all day, with super drugs. Fight fight fight. Dull throb of low grade headache all day, went to bed this way. But since Saturday I've been headache free. Haven't taken one pain killer. I'm almost afraid to say it. It's the loveliest menstruation week I've had in ages.

I even had some stress, and it didn't bring headaches either. Fingers still crossed.

TV
I've been working my way through all the Blackadders lately. I started with 3 and 4, then back to 1 and now I'm on 2. The whole thing is just so brilliant, and exactly what I've been in need of. 

BOOKS
Finished one today. Now I've either got to start something new, or pick something off my backburner list. I'd finish Julius Caesar but I keep losing it.

Ali Velshi

I finished the Canada Reads book today: Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis. It's about a guy, Angus, who is strong-armed intro running as the Liberal MP in a riding that's always been completely Conservative, where he has zero chance of winning. But a last minute scandal throws the Conservative out of the running, and he ends up winning. He has no desire to be re-elected, so he goes about being an MP of Conscience, if you will--making decisions based on what he thinks is best for the country, not best for his riding, or for his political career. The book was originally self-published because Fallis couldn't find a publisher for it, until it won the prestigious Stephen Leacock Humour Award. It's now reached bestseller status for winning the battle of the books on Canada Reads--well defended by CNN reporter Ali Velshi, who argued it was an antidote to political cynicism, and he hopes it will inspire some real Anguses to run in future elections.

Here's the 2-star review I wrote on Goodreads--there are no spoilers.


My short review: I liked the characters, I was interested in the politics, it was a pleasant read, but man it was badly written.

My long review: I don't blame every publisher for famously turning this book down, the writing is AWFUL. 1. there's too much of the author in the book. What are the chances of two English-language-usage-obsessed people meeting each other? Very slim. It would have been charming for the narrator to have this obsession, or the protagonist Angus. But for both to be this way, it just felt like the author was being a sanctimonious pr**k.

2. He's terrible at describing settings and people. In a humor novel long descriptions just invite you to pass over them, unless you're very very brilliant. Otherwise a few well chosen words is funnier. (PG Wodehouse: "She looked like something out of the Book of Revelations.")

3. Our hero Angus had no failings. He had one small plan go awry, but everything else he did went over brilliantly.

4. Not very suspenseful. Really, there was no suspense to the book at all. No tension. No arcing plot. No bad guy, no antagonist, no goal, nothing to strive for, no tension. The book just wandered along until a sudden mild spike in tension in the last chapter. It looks like the sequel has an antagonist, so it might actually be better.

5. The first few chapters of the book could have been cut, they added almost nothing to the book. Just a lot of blaaa blaaa blaaa. I would have given up if I hadn't listened to the Canada Reads debates, and been spurred on by Ali Velshi's excited descriptions of Angus. I spent the whole beginning of the book just waiting waiting waiting for Angus to get elected.

6. The character of Muriel is so prominent in the beginning chapters of the book, and then becomes a ghost once Angus is elected. You could have completely removed her from the book, it would hardly have affected the plot.

7. You could have removed the narrator's romantic interest from the book and it would hardly have affected the plot. I hesitate to call her a romantic interest. She was there, she and the narrator fell in love in about two seconds. There was no romantic tension, it wasn't drawn out at all, there was no fun love story to keep the reader hooked, no fun subplot to jolly me along. It just existed. It needn't have.

8. All the 5 star reviewers on amazon said it was gut bustingly funny, and it won the Stephen Leacock award for humor. I thought the book was amusing at times, when Angus was Doing His Thing. But I never laughed at loud. Fallis didn't know how to build up the right kind of tension, so as to surprise me with the Angus Moments. I never had that edge of the seat 'Oh my God no no no -- he's gonna do it! OH NO!' moment that I get in really outrageous books. I always knew Angus would do the outrageous thing, so it wasn't suspenseful, which made it less funny. Also, the fart jokes and dog poop jokes weren't funny. Pete 1 and Pete2 were amusing, but Fallis never did anything really funny with them. The finale would have been funnier if we witnessed it in first person, rather than hearing it after the fact. The Leacock People and I just don't share the same funnybone.

Fallis looking shocked that he won

The good: Except for having no faults, Angus was a great character. Everyone else was likable. I wanted to see them win.

I was interested in seeing how a Canadian political campaign works, and then how daily government works. So I enjoyed the setting and the insider knowledge.

It was a quick read, and I always returned willingly to the book. I'd be temped to give it three stars just because I didn't find it an onerous read. But in the end... there were so many things technically wrong with it... I just don't think I can. If I hadn't heard it defended on Canada Reads, I don't know if I would have made it past the first few chapters.

You're seeing double

I accidentally wrote and posted this post here, instead of at Mabel Talk. Instead of deleting it, I just copied and pasted it over at Mabel, and am leaving the original here anyway. But if you read both my blogs, no you're not going crazy.

___

Dug into my ideas folder to find something positive to focus on. Remembered this tumblr site I found recently:

 

I gather there's also one called "fuck yeah chubby girls" but they let anyone post so it isn't always a safe space. "fat positive" is more careful about what they allow. They also pointed towards a boy page: fuck yeah chubby guys

Coolios non?