I don't know -- you pick the title

[shadowkat]

1. Whoa...some really good Kindle Daily Deals. Why should I be the only one who impulse buys books for $1.99? Although I've been waiting for some of these to come on sale for a while now.

* We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hedrix is $1.99 for Kindle Daily Deal.

In this hard-rocking, spine-tingling supernatural thriller, the washed-up guitarist of a ’90s heavy metal band embarks on an epic road-trip across America and deep into the web of a sinister conspiracy.

Every morning, Kris Pulaski wakes up in hell. In the 1990s she was lead guitarist of Dürt Würk, a heavy-metal band on the brink of breakout success until lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career and rocketed to stardom, leaving his bandmates to rot in obscurity.

Now Kris works as night manager of a Best Western; she’s tired, broke, and unhappy. One day everything changes—a shocking act of violence turns her life upside down, and she begins to suspect that Terry sabotaged more than just the band. Kris hits the road, hoping to reunite Dürt Würk and confront the man who ruined her life. Her journey will take her from the Pennsylvania rust belt to a celebrity rehab center to a satanic music festival. A furious power ballad about never giving up, We Sold Our Souls is one woman’s epic journey to reclaim her life—and save her soul.

* So is Sunshine by Robin McKinely and The Sympathizer .


I picked up The Sympathizer (which I may have to wait a while to read because so not in the mood at the moment, and had won the Pulitizer), The History of Wolves, and We Sold Our Souls. I already own Robin McKinely's Sunshine in paperback. If you haven't read it and like stories about vampires, you should -- it is to date the most innovative that I've read on the whole vampire thing (outside of Illona Andrews Magic Series). The heroine has the power of Sunshine in a post-apocalyptic world overrun with vampires (who have a spiderish alien feel to them). There's a romance between her and one of them, but it's an odd one.

2. Today, Chidi stopped by my desk just after lunch and for no clear reason and seemingly out of the blue, told me:

"You are a wonderful person, I'm so glad that you are here, and you really add something."

Me: What brought this on?

Chidi: I just felt the need to tell you that. You are just a really good person and I'm really glad you are here. We need you.

Me: Thank you. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Lando: Ah, where have I heard that before?

ME: I stole it from you.

[I just thought I'd share that isolated moment from my weary work week with you all. I'm guessing he may have overheard my complaint to Ric that I'm burned out and tired. And I want to retire. The Universe apparently wants me to stick it out. ]

3. Meanwhile, I watched a rather inspiring video from NYC Mayor on FB of Megan Rapino's speech.

The first part of the speech is rather boring...

Megan Rapinoe's Speech at the NYC City World Soccer Parade

I didn't watch the soccer games, because I kept forgetting they were on or couldn't find them. But for the US -- a women's soccer team winning this big -- is major for the following reasons:

* US doesn't really respect soccer or put as much into it.
* US doesn't put as much respect in women's sports or athletics.

Get to the end:

"We have to love more. Hate less. We got to listen more and talk less. We got to know that this is everybody’s responsibility. Every single person here. Every single person’s who’s not here. Every single person who doesn’t want to be here. Every single person who agrees and doesn’t agree. It’s our responsibility to make this world a better place,” Rapinoe said.

“I think this team does an incredible job of taking that on our shoulders and understanding the position that we have and the platform that we have within this world. Yes, we play sports. Yes, we play soccer. Yes, we’re female athletes. But we’re so much more than that. You’re so much more than that.”

“It’s every single person’s responsibility. There’s been so much contention in these last years. I’ve been a victim of that. I’ve been a perpetrator of that ... But it’s time to come together. This conversation is at the next step. We have to collaborate. It takes everybody."


4. Immigrant Cookbooks

5. Mother will not let go of the idea of me visiting my brother and his family, preferably this year.

Me: You will not let this go.
Mother: I want you to go visit him because I can't.
Me: So, what you plan on living through me? That's not possible.
Mother: Yes, it is -- I can vicariously live through you and experience hiking with your brother and niece and see his house through your eyes.
Me: He's your son, you can talk to him and live through his eyes or your grand daughters' what do you need me for?
Mother: I want to do it through your eyes and I want you to have a close relationship with him and your neice and visit, and hike...

Sigh. She will pester me until I do it. This I know. She won't pester him, just me. Because my brother knows how to ignore her, I do not. Maybe it's a mother-daughter thing? Don't know. I'll try again in the fall, when it's not hot and there's foilage, and hopefully I'm not competing with his bi-polar defense attorney best friend...with the trust fund and insanely dysfunctional family. My brother and I both have crazy-ass close friends with insane family's apparently. Wales is mine, J is his.


6. Well, it had to happen...someone wrote and published a fanfic about Calvin and Hobbes and it sorta went viral.


In The Final Minutes Of His Life, Calvin Has One Last Talk With Hobbes.
Converted this to text from an image I found on a humour website. Try not to cry after reading this.

“Calvin? Calvin, sweetheart?”

In the darkness Calvin heard the sound of Susie, his wife of fifty-three years. Calvin struggled to open his eyes. God, he was so tired and it took so much strength. Slowly, light replaced the darkness, and soon vision followed. At the foot of his bed stood his wife. Calvin wet his dry lips and spoke hoarsely, “Did… did you…. find him?”

“Yes dear,” Susie said smiling sadly, “He was in the attic. “

Susie reached into her big purse and brought out a soft, old, orange tiger doll. Calvin could not help but laugh. It had been so long. Too long.

“l washed him for you,” Susie said, her voice cracking a little as she laid the stuffed tiger next to her husband.
“Thank you, Susie.” Calvin said. A few moments passed as Calvin just laid on his hospital bed, his head turned to the side, staring at the old toy with nostalgia.
“Dear,” Calvin said finally. “Would you mind leaving me alone with Hobbes for a while? I would like to catch up with him.”

“All right,” Susie said. “I’ll get something to eat in the cafeteria. I’ll be back soon.” Susie kissed her husband on the forehead and turned to leave. With sudden but gentle strength Calvin stopped her. Lovingly he pulled his wife in and gave her a passionate kiss on the lips. “l love you,” he said.
“And I love you,” said Susie. Susie turned and left. Calvin saw tears streaming from her face as she went out the door.

Calvin then turned to face his oldest and dearest friend. “Hello Hobbes. It’s been a long time hasn't it old pal?”

Hobbes was no longer a stuffed doll but the big furry old tiger Calvin had always remembered. “It sure has, Calvin.” said Hobbes. “You… haven’t changed a bit.” Calvin smiled.

Eh, I'm a purest when it comes to Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Waterson or no one. Also, I don't see Calvin married. I see him as a curmudgeon philosophy professor with a long mop of gray hair, a beard, sort of like one of my co-workers.


7. So, I decided to pay $20 to release my "genetic traits" on ancestry. So far Ancestry has been quite disappointing.

Friend: So do you have any black people in your ancestry?
ME: Unfortunately, no. I'm 49% Irish, 33% Welsh, English, Scottish, and the rest is Germany, Sweden, Belgium, France, and Finnland. Rather boring actually, and what I already knew. No surprises, at all.
Friend: Damn, I did mine and I found all these frigging white people. Where'd they come from?

Still is. The $20 dollars told me that ancestry thinks I have blond hair and blue eyes based on my DNA. (I don't. I have green eyes -- which appear to be blue and grey to some people in a certain light -- all I see green eyes. I'm either color blind or they are or the mirror is... Also my hair is a light to dark reddish brown. Not blond, unless I get a lot of sun or bleach it.) It also told me I have a cleft in my chin (I guess I do) and there's a smell in my urine if I eat asperagus (which I thought happened to everyone, apparently not), that I'm sensitive to bitter and sweets, have average amounts of Vitamin E, C, and D (no, on the D, I'm actually deficient, possibly because I work in a windowless cubical eight hours a day, with about a thirty minute window for lunch -- the work place is not conducive for health. In short our workplaces are trying to kill us. Despite what they may say to the contrary. We should sue them all and retire.), have less facial hair in the men in my family (true to an extent), have male pattern baldness (to an extent, it's sort of 50/50 to be honest -- although I'd be thrilled if my brother lost his hair, that boy is too pretty for his own good), birth weight is normal (hard to know), my ring finger is longer than my index finger (true)...so there you go.

Like I said? Disappointing.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

Family. Can't live with them, wouldn't be here without 'em.

Ah, Calvin and Hobbes. It's kinda sweet.

I've not been impressed with Ancestry. Pat and I did the National Geographic one and it was cool. I turned out to have an unusually high level of Denisovan DNA. I thought that was cool. But yeah, I'm like you - white, white and more white. (sigh)

[shadowkat]

Family. Can't live with them, wouldn't be here without 'em.

Yup. Pretty much.

I've not been impressed with Ancestry. Pat and I did the National Geographic one and it was cool.

I didn't know there was a National Geographic one. The two popular ones are Ancestry and 23Me&Me. I did Ancestry -- because my Dad's DNA and various relatives DNA is on it. But I'm not sure how accurate it is -- it's heavily slanted towards Ireland, mainly because the database is located there and the Irish have the best records. Germany, unsurprisingly, lost most of theirs during the War, as did France, Scandinavia, and the American Indian tribes destroyed their records to prevent the US government from hunting them down and killing them. So unless the Mormons got hold of them, or they were in Ireland, Scotland, Britain, or early immigrants to the US through legal channels, you can't find it.

I don't know about the African ones...since I can't imagine they kept great records either, but apparently they do.

What's Denisovan DNA?

[wpadmirer]

Denisovan is an early human that lived in Siberia. They've found some bones in a cave and were able to get DNA from a finger bone, and discovered they existed at the same time as Neanderthals, but were distinct from them. Usual amount of Denisovan DNA is less than !% for anyone except present day East Asians and people on Papua New Guinea. The Melanesians have 3% to 5%. My DNA is 3% which is really rare in people who aren't from those areas.

[rose_griffes]

I have lots of reading material thanks to those $1.99 deals... which didn't stop me from adding that first one you recced, because it sounds interesting.

[shadowkat]

Yep, I swore I wasn't going to buy any more books -- ended up with three. We Sold Our Souls -- I'd been waiting to come on sale for quite some time now. It was at $16 on Kindle previously, and just, no. Those daily deals -- have resulted in more books than I'll ever get around to reading. LOL!

[cactuswatcher]

Sounds like the genetic traits aren't perfect, but it's fun to think about.

If your brother isn't showing signs of male pattern baldness yet, he probably doesn't have the gene.

Looks can be deceiving. My cousin's (my mother's brother's son's) wife once remarked how much alike he and I look, mentioning 'family resemblance.' I smiled and pointed out that he looks unmistakably like our common Scotch-Irish grandmother where as I am unmistakably like my Irish grandmother, who we don't share. And I also mentioned that male baldness comes from the mother, so my baldness comes from our common grandmother (our common Grampa had a full head of hair), where as my cousin got his from his mother's side instead. We're both fairly short, but our common ancestors were quite tall. Yep, we look a lot alike but isn't because of our families' recent shared DNA!

[shadowkat]

No, he doesn't have it. But my mother's father had a receding hairline. My father's father - a full head of hair. My father is losing his -- due to meds, nothing genetic. Baldness can be caused by so many other factors.

[dlgood]

. But for the US -- a women's soccer team winning this big -- is major for the following reasons:

* US doesn't really respect soccer or put as much into it.
* US doesn't put as much respect in women's sports or athletics.
+++
This isn't entirely accurate. The US certainly does not care as much about soccer as other nations do. And the US does not respect Women's sports as much as Men's sports.

However...

courtesy of Title IX, the US does provide more support for women's athletics than most other countries in the world do. And while the best male athletes in the US do not play soccer... that is less the case for female athletes in the US. (In part, because there's pretty much no football for women.)

The US Womens team has been a dominant force in Womens soccer for 30 years. What's different now is that European nations are finally starting to support women's clubs, and leveraging the massive soccer infrastructure they already have for men. Europe is supposed to be catching up to the point where several clubs were supposed to challenge the US. That wound up not being the case.

What has helped this squad of US Women gain fame is that Americans care more about soccer than they used to, and the Women are great and have charismatic stars while the Men's team is flailing.

[shadowkat]

So basically Europe is as sexist, if not more so in regards to athletics than the US? Well, that's depressing.

But hey, at least we're making strides in the right direction?

I'm not entirely certain I want a women's American football team -- let the guys get brain damage all on their own. Although, it could be argued that soccer is as dangerous if not more dangerous sport -- since no one has any gear protecting them. This argument has actually been made in regards to rugby. In Europe -- Soccer is actually considered football. They call football in the US "American Football" and don't understand why we call it football -- since we spend most of our time running about with the ball. (American Football -- I discovered -- makes not a lot of sense to many Europeans.)

I can see why the men's soccer team isn't catching on and the women's has -- it was similar in college. And it goes back to the "football" reference. In the US -- American Football is where it is at. Europe doesn't have American Football (to my knowledge) nor seems to understand it. They make fun of it. What they have is Rugby and Football (which I think we call Soccer and they've altered to the word Soccer?).

[dlgood]

So basically Europe is as sexist, if not more so in regards to athletics than the US? Well, that's depressing.

I can't speak as much to other sports, but certainly in the case of soccer. And not just Europe. Brazil and Argentina are as soccer-mad as any countries in the world. Their men's teams are always among the best. And while the greatest female soccer player of all time is Brazillian (Marta) - those teams are not supported remotely the way their men are.

Europe stands out, because that's where the big money soccer is. That's where the training infrastructure is. And presumably, if their programs are supporting women - they'd catch the US sooner or later. But then, the rest of the world hasn't caught US women in Basketball either.

[shadowkat]

That does explain the whole push for equal pay in the World Soccer Federation -- that hit the news in the last few weeks. And the fight over equal pay in sports that inspired the Governor of New York to pass the NY State Equal Pay Legislation during the parade last week.

I honestly think sexism is world-wide, as is racism. Humans aren't that different across the board. There's just variations in degree or type.

But then, the rest of the world hasn't caught US women in Basketball either.

Have they caught the US men? I thought we still lead in Basketball, which doesn't strike me as a world sport? Or Baseball for that matter.

I think Europe's main sports are Soccer and Rugby, also Cricket. And Tennis. Not to mention cycling.

Europe tends to compete with each other in sports and music contests much the way that the US competes with its individual states.

[dlgood]

Have they caught the US men? I thought we still lead in Basketball, which doesn't strike me as a world sport? Or Baseball for that matter.

Baseball is widely popular in Central America, the Caribbean, and in Colombia and Venzuela. It's also very popular in Japan and South Korea.

Basketball has grown in popularity, and is a global sport. Men's leagues abroad can't match the money in the NBA. Both sports have numerous international stars. This year, the NBA's most valuable player is Giannis Antetkounpo, who was born in Nigeria, grew up and was trained in Greece, and now plays for Milwaukee.

On the Women's side, the European sports leagues pay far more than the WNBA does. Most top women's players play year round - in the US because thats' where their families' are, and then Europe because they get paid 5x as much. There are plenty of good international players - men and women - but none of those other countries can field teams to beat the US as long as the best Americans are willing to play.

[shadowkat]

I guess that may explain why in the Baseball World Series -- it's really just the US and one Canadian team (Toronto).

And there's no World Basketball series that I'm aware of. Is there one? I don't really follow professional basketball. College yes, to a degree. But not the professional teams.

[dlgood]

Consider that there are numerous levels of baseball in the U.S. Generally speaking, in terms of quality - the highest level of Japanese pro-baseball is considered the equivalent of AAA (the best minor league) in the US. American Major League teams might play exhibition games in Japan, but the best Japanese teams aren't equal to the US. The Korean league is considered equal to the AA in the US.

At the same token, you will often see American players (not the biggest stars, but mid-level players looking to improve) go play baseball in the winter in Venezuela, Dominican or Puerto Rican leagues. (Natives of those countries, more often...) and then return to their US teams for the Major League season. They've had a "World Baseball Classic" before, essentially an all-star tournament composed National Teams. It's been won by Japan (2206, 2009), the Dominican Republic (2013) and the US (2017) - though it's often hard to get the best players to agree to play.


In professional baseketball... Europe does that. Many European nations have their own domestic leagues, and the champions of those leagues do periodically play each other in a top tournament. Europe's sporting model is different from the US - in particular, in that they don't have the same College Sports model we have. My RL friends could explain it better than I can.