A bit of light reading

I am going to pick up today where I left off last post just because I am so obsessive compulsive. Not going to talk about book readers much today though. I thought I would focus on some of the books I have read lately and those books I plan to read soon.

When I got back into the “reading thing” I decided I wanted to read some spooky stuff. You know....tales of the macabre and ghost stories. I am not that big into slasher tales but I like a well told spooky story that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. I started with “Dracula” by Bram Stoker. I have seen every Dracula movie there was to see but had never taken time to read the book. I was not disappointed. Then I read some stuff by Dean Koontz, Algernon Blackwood, H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, M.R. James and W.W. Jacobs. Most of this reading material is in the public domain and easily obtained. My next post will cover where to get classic books for free.

For some reason I had my fill of horror and quite by accident it overlapped with True Crime genre. I started reading about Jack the Ripper, Lizzie Borden, and then I bought a copy of “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote. Thus far, it is one of the best books I have read. I really like it when a writer can capture your attention and hold it. You know the kind of books that are hard to put down? This was one of those books for me. I did come across a couple of books I wanted to share links with here. Well...maybe three. :) I just think these are books and authors you would enjoy.

Jerry Bledsoe is a writer from North Carolina who was once a writer for the Greensboro News and Record. A very good writer in the True Crime genre. Alas! Not all of his work is available for my Kindle yet. Bummer. :(

Kennesaw Taylor is a humorist from Georgia. I found him quite by accident looking for something to read. His humor work puts me in mind of Lewis Grizzard but he has a style that is definitely his very own. The book I read by him had nothing much to do with humor though. The book is titled: “Informally Educated: A True Tale of Child Abuse, Survival and Murder.” This book is the story of his childhood and it will bring tears to your eyes with what that boy and his family had to endure. I read this book in one sitting. It was that good!! Fortunately a good bit of his material I can get for my Kindle.

While I am still reading some of the True Crime books I have diverted a bit of my attention to the Humor genre. I will tell you something that tickles me just as much as the humor books do. Mark Twain has been dead a hundred years now and his autobiography is number two on the New York Times Bestseller list. :) Now that is what I call a comeback!! I would like to read this one for real. If you have...don't tell me anything about it. I want to read it for myself. :) Do yourself a favor and check out the links of the authors Amazon page. I am sure you will find something you like. That should do it for my December reading list. :)

To Kindle a fire

A few months ago my daughter told me she would like to have a Nook for her birthday. My response was: “What on earth is a Nook?” Turns out to be one of those book reading devices. Now I balked at this idea at first. When I learned what the price of these devices were I balked a lot. “Do you know how many books you can buy for a $150?” I just didn't think it was worth the money it would take to get her one. Then I came into a bit of extra cash and decided it was just a book reader...not a Mercedes. Long story short...I bought it for her.

Now something happened after I got that thing for her. It was something I didn't expect at all. I liked it!! I wanted one for myself. It was cool to be able to carry a hundred books at a time that weighed less than a pound. Not only that, but you could change the font size of the book you were reading. You didn't have to look for special large print books. One book did it all. Everything was in black and white including the pictures. This thing read books, pictures, music files. It even had wi-fi and a web browser. It was really a cool gadget! It was about this time I started shopping for myself.

I reviewed several different eReaders: The Nook, Kindle, Sony, Kobo and etc. While they are all a bit different in how they navigate, they all do about the same thing. So it is really a matter of preference and the availability of books for them. There is still only one problem with them. The price. All of these devices are worth no more than say....$119. That is just my opinion but it is an experienced opinion. I have been buying electronic stuff a long time. Anyone who knows me will know that it takes a lot of time and about two sticks of dynamite to blow me off my wallet. However, I did finally break down and get myself a Kindle. I have to admit I love it and have done more reading lately than I have done in years. It has kindled a little fire in my heart for reading again. (Pun intended).

Prices right now are pretty low for some of these eReaders because of the Christmas shopping season. So if you like to read or know someone who does, it may be worth your time to look at these devices. If you buy one for someone as a present you may as well get two....Just so you won't be jealous of theirs. :)

The Good Old Days

I am wondering how many times I have heard the phrase: “I just wish we could go back to the good old days.” Someone usually says this when they are thinking of something wonderful that happened in their past. Perhaps it's because things aren't going so well at present. So I decided to compare the good old days with present day and see what I could find.

My dad's family is from northeast Georgia. My mom's family is from the upstate of South Carolina. Both sides were in rural areas and life was very similar for them in many respects. They lived on farms. To put it better, they lived on someone's farm and worked the land for them. The term is “sharecroppers.” Eventually both sides got their own place to work. You wake up early and have to go milk cows to have milk to drink and cook with. You take the milk and churn your own butter. You plant and work a large garden to have vegetables and raise livestock if you want meat. Now all this means you are having to do lots of manual work. Cows have to be milked and beans have to be plowed and picked. Eggs have to be gathered and cooked and animals have to be butchered and preserved. It's not easy work! If you wanted to go to the bathroom...it was about a hundred feet from the back door with a well beaten path leading to it. If you wanted water...you dropped the bucket into the well and pulled it up yourself. If you want it hot...you put it on the stove. You had to chop wood to keep warm and to cook. I did know some who had access to coal for heating. For cooking...it was always wood.

Life got a bit better with houses being wired for electricity. Stoves and refrigerators helped take a lot of the work out of it. Washing machines took over what a wash bucket and washboard once did. Houses were fitted with plumbing for running water and you no longer had to trod that path to the outhouse. It eliminated the need for chamber pots in the bedroom. Most of us would panic if we had to use what they had to use then.

Today we have our TV's and our music players. Cell phones can go anywhere with us and we feel lost without them. We reheat leftovers in the microwave and complain that it takes all minute! We truly live better than royalty did just a couple of hundred years ago. We travel in hours what it used to take days. If you are cold or hot you go to the thermostat on the wall. You turn it up...turn it down...or turn it off. In case you haven't realized it...these are the “good old days!”

The advances in technology have freed us from a lot of time consuming chores and hardships. They make our lives better is someways and worse in others. Too much idle time is not good for anyone. To try and fit everything under the sun in you schedule is just as destructive. Maybe more. It can make us very impatient. Just be thankful for what you have and use it wisely. We all have a lot more than we realize.

Update on my last post

Just wanted to give an update to you since my last post. I really appreciate the prayers everyone gave for Debbie's healing. This past Friday evening, Debbie went home to be with the Lord. It would be appreciated if you would continue to lift her family up in prayer during this time.

A Prayer for a Special Person

This is not my normal kind of post but this is an important post. Not often do I ask favors from people. I am asking tonight. I just wanted to tell you of someone who is special to me and my wife and why.

Have you ever met someone who touched your life in an unforgettable way? I am sure there is someone in everyone's life who is that way. I have been blessed enough to have several who have been there for me or those I cared about. A few years ago, my wife had a tumor on her brain stem. Things worked out well in that situation. During my wife's recovery there was a person who was there with food and moral support for us.

A couple of years ago I wasn't working regular and I had one of my bouts with depression. I had gained quite a bit of weight and most of my clothes didn't fit anymore. I have an odd size in pants and really had no money to buy new clothes. This person found and bought me several pairs of jeans. She would not take my money for them. This is the kind of lady we are talking about. There are other instances I am not mentioning. She did these things for many people...not just me and my wife. She is someone who knows compassion. She knows Christ in a personal way as savior. I am thankful for that.

Tonight as I write this, this lady has advanced cancer and is fighting for her life. Now I know the things God can do. I have seen miracles first hand. I have even experienced a few. Tonight I am asking a favor from you. Would you join me in prayer for this lady? Just an honest simple prayer from your heart for her is all I ask. Her name is Debbie and I believe she would welcome your prayers. I thank you from my heart.

Friendships in the Computer Age

I used to email and chat quite a bit in the past. Lots of things have changed in the past few months. I went from five email accounts down to two. One for business and one for personal. I don't have all of the instant messaging stuff running all the time now. In fact, I chat very little nowadays. Self-preservation has made me make these changes. I don't email or chat with the intensity I did this time last year.

My new job has me sleeping all sorts of strange hours. This is the main reason I had to make those changes. I woke up tonight after midnight. I did my usual ritual of checking my email and my Facebook account. I actually got to speak to a friend that I had meant to speak to ages ago but never had the opportunity. Had a pleasant conversation with her and got to know her a bit better in the process. I was glad I did. My gain there. :)

After this talk, I got to thinking. There are a lot of my friends on Facebook that have added me who I do not even know. Somehow this made me pretty sad. There are people behind the names after all. They have hopes, dreams and needs that I will never ever know about unless I get to know them. Problem is I have over 1500 friends. Most of my friends added me for gaming purposes. Some of the games I have stopped playing because I don't have the time now that I am back at work. I lost touch with some of the friends I became close to. This made me sad too.
 
I guess that its kinda like when you have a tiny bit of mayonnaise in the bottom of the jar and a large slice of bread. You don't have enough to go around and you spread it too thin. I have spread myself too thin this past year. Again, this made me sad. Now I can't change any mistakes I have made in the past. I can, however, do something about my actions in the here and now and in the future. So this idea came to post a new status:

I was just thinking wouldn't it be cool if all my friends chose someone from their friends list. Send that person a message telling them you are thinking about them. Actually treat that friend...like a friend. :) Just a thought.

While I thought this is a status truly from my heart, it opens me up to criticism for my neglect. Be that as it may, I decided to post it anyway. It's really all about the people and friendships after all. I guess all this to say I want to be a better friend. I want the quality of my friendships to be better. Not just on Facebook...in life! I am not looking for romance because my wife is all I have eyes for. My heart is hers. I am not looking for a best friend. I have one of  those too. Yeah, you know who you are. :) I do want to be genuine from this day forward and be what I can be though. Less gaming and more interaction. Will I lose friends? Probably so. I will gain true friends?  Hopefully. In the end...isn't that what it's all about?

Just a few words

I am not really sure how to begin after all this time. To start with I am no longer unemployed. That's the good news. The bad news is that it is nothing like what I did before. The work is detailed and quick paced so it has been a real learning curve for me. It still is a learning process and will be for quite some time to come. I work on the night shift so I sleep during the days...kinda like Dracula. :) Since December I have been putting in anywhere from 40 to 60 hours a week. That is starting to settle down a bit which is a good thing. I only start with that bit of news to get it out of the way so that I can talk about what I really want to say...that is...if anyone is still listening. No matter though, it's a cleansing process to my soul just to be able to talk about it.

When I left here last year, I was starting to get very discouraged. I threw myself into a lot of other things and a lot of situations that I wish I had not. Not going to elaborate about them but I got distracted from blogging, from my family and from my faith. Made a lot of bad decisions and mislead a lot of people. It has taken me a while to get my head together enough to even bring myself to talk about any of this. Like I said, I am not going to elaborate other than to say I spent a lot of time on social networking sites wasting my time and other people's time. I should have stayed out in the yard with my roses or something. I will say I that I am sorry for a lot of the things that I did. Again, this brings me to the final part of this post.

I want to apologize. I want to apologize to the ones that read this on a regular basis for my absence. I apologize to my family for not being the father and husband I should have been. There was no lack of selfishness on my part. I apologize to friends who I neglected during this time. I apologize to those who met me during this time and were mislead by things I did or said. Most of all, I apologize to my God for taking my eyes off of Him and not following His leading even when He was giving me clear warnings. I have made peace with that part of my life. From time to time I will come here and post things as I have in the past. Not going to follow a regular schedule or anything...just when the mood hits. :) Most of my concentration will be spent on my other blog but I will be here as well. I would be honored if you would come back to visit me. It has been a crazy year but it has been one in which I learned a lot. There are a lot of mistakes that I won't be repeating for sure!!