An enjoyable evening

We went to a social last night. The daughter of one of our friends is getting married. 500 tickets were apparently sold and it seems most people came. The hall was designed for about 380 people or so, which meant many people were standing around, but with the dancing it didn’t really matter. It was a social and Halloween party. My wife went as a cat and I went as a policeman. Most people came in a costume, which was nice. Some went a bit too far, like the two guys wearing only briefs. I think they were supposed to be wrestlers. But there were many nice costumes. People went all out with makeup and whatever. There was a group from Wizard of Oz. A couple of tinmen, a lion, and even a guy dressed as a brickwall, not bad if not a bit revealing with his skintight outfit. Some came as zombies, different varieties of cats, policemen and women, gypsies. One guy was dressed as superman, another as a vampire. A Star Trek officer, even Spock was there. And witches. I can’t remember them all. It was nice to see people getting into the spirit of Halloween. Some girls were quite attractive in there costumes. Or to be politically correct I should say Young women. Oh yes, I may be an older guy but that doesn’t stop me from looking at attractive women.
The food was delicious: Perogies, cabbage rolls, meatballs, salads, ham and sausage, and deserts.
I’ve never been to a social with such great food. Usually it is just bread and sausage.
The prizes for the silent auction were also fabulous. A 42inch TV, Jets tickets (hockey), Blue Bomber tickets (football), and many other great prizes. Too bad we didn’t win anything.
One thing that spoiled it for me was the music, or what classifies as music these days. I put pieces of Kleenex in my ears which made it bearable, but it didn’t stop my chest from vibrating to the loud beat. Why does the DJ have to scream into the microphone? I didn’t understand a word he said. Of course, the speakers were shot anyway. Not that it mattered, because I wouldn’t have enjoyed the music even if it would have been played at a normal level. Our parents used to call it jungle music. In those days it wasn’t even as bad as it is now. I don’t understand the words. Pardon me, sometimes I can actually make out one word, like one song had nothing but hot, hot, hot. That’s all I heard. But maybe it was a different word.
I realized again why I haven’t gone to a social for such a long time. I’m as far removed from the music these days as a Neanderthal is from modern man. I’m not sure though if I’m the Neanderthal or vice versa.
I love the Jim Reeves type of Country music, Barbara Mandrell and Ann Murray type of popsongs. I like to dance the waltz, the tango, the foxtrot, rumba. I like to listen to saxophone and the romantic guitar of Liona Boyd for instance, music played on the piano by Richard Clayderman and musicians like him. Music I can relax by, words I can understand, not this loud screeching of steel guitars, the drumming, the screaming of people who can’t really sing. Not for me, but that is just me. Obviously, there are plenty of mostly young people who love it, so who am I to judge? Our parents criticized the way we behaved when we were young and we called them oldfashioned.
One thing I have to say, the young people at the social behaved exemplary. There were not fights or argument. No drunken brawls. So the music was loud. It didn’t really matter. As long as everyone has fun. That is important.
The world changes, people change, customs change, tastes change, in music and everything else. That is how the human race evolves. We can only hope it is for the better.

A nice but cold day

The weather has been kind so far. Just heard about snow in Newfoundland. Here in our part of the province of Manitoba (Winnipeg) we don't have any snow yet, but it is coming. Last night we had minus 4 Celsius. There is ice on the birdbaths. Almost time to take them into the garage for the winter. Today the sun is shining and it looks like a nice day ahead. The weather people promised us about 6 plus today. No frost for tonight.
I've been going fishing quite a few times these last three weeks in Lockport. I live only about 5 minutes away. In Lockport is a lock and dam in the Red River to control the water that flows into Lake Winnipeg. Right now the walleye and other fish are coming up the river to spawn, but they are stopped by the dam, which means a lot of fish at that spot. I've been catching my limit of fish ever time I went. The limit is 4 which incidentally is also the possession limit. Needless to say we've been eating a lot of fish lately. We love fish, so forced to eat them so quickly is not a punishment. The fish I caught were mostly saugers. They are a close relative of the walleye only smaller. 4 fish usually provide about 450 g of filets, just enough for one meal for my wife and me.
In early October when I started going they were biting quite nicely, but it is slowing down now. I catch them casting with a 1/4 ounce jig and a plastic grub. You have to get the jig down to the bottom of the river, because that's where the fish are, but, unfortunately, there are also plenty of rocks and they take their share of jigs. It's what keeps the fishing stores in business.
I also caught 1 nice-sized silver bass and 4 large suckers, but we don't eat them. The suckers are bony and the silver bass taste swampy.
My first fish I caught on my first day in Lockport was a goldeye. It is in the freezer now waiting for more of its fellows. They taste good only smoked because they are so greasy.
Finding a good spot there is sometimes challenging. On some days I fished shoulder to shoulder with other fishermen. Not the most idyllic way to fish. I prefer a quiet place, but I've been catching fish, which does not always happen in a quiet spot on a lake or river. There is always a trade-off, like with most things in life.
Many of the fishermen are Filipino. They like their fish. I've seen the same people coming every time I was there and I got to know some of them. Filipino are friendly people. Often they offered me one of their jigs if I asked what they are using as bait.
Halloween is coming. I remember many uncomfortable cold Halloween evenings with rain or sleet when I used to take our sons for trick-or-treat in the neighborhood. One year we had a snowstorm and the snow stayed for the winter. You never know what Halloween brings, but it looks like it is going to be a nice, beautiful day this year.
I'm waiting for the release of Raptor's Tooth, Book 3 of my Lizard World trilogy. It is supposed to be released by the end of the month.
I haven't made much progress with Book 7 of The Xandra. So far I'm at 5,000 words. Been too busy getting the yard ready for winter and with fishing. But Winter will be here soon enough and I'll have more time to write. I hope.

Ads by Yahoo

The ads on the Yahoo sites are gone! I don't know if the complaining helped, but I am happy Yahoo seemed to have listened to people's concerns and complaints. I understand ads are a necessary evil in today's world. I advertise my books. Without ads readers wouldn't find them, without ads we wouldn't know about bargains and good deals, but when advertising becomes a nuisance and is shoved into our faces wherever we go, then they are not tools to help sell our products but only get potential buyers annoyed and turned off. Advertisers need to know this, and the only way they find this out is if consumers speak up.

Yahoo and advertising

I don't like complaining, but I hate what Yahoo is doing to us again with their advertising. I'm talking about the ads popping up in the center of the postings on the Yahoo groups. It is so hard to read the excerpts and the information other members post. I realize that Yahoo makes its money on advertising, but do we really have to be subjected to this kind of abuse? And I consider it abuse because it annoys me. It gives me heart-palpitations. I wouldn't check out these ads out of principal just because they are so annoying and irritating. I hate all this advertising on TV; they are such a waste of my time, but there I can tape a show and forward the ads. What I hate about Yahoo is that we have no choice. They don't give us a choice to opt out of these ads. I don't mind them when they appear as a sidebar or even on the top as a small strip; I can live with that, but in the middle of the webpage? Come on! Enough is enough. I checked out a forum and found plenty of other upset users. One of the monitors of the forum posted that Yahoo takes a note of these complaints, but will they act upon it? I doubt it.
At first I thought it might be my browser. I use Mozilla Firefox, but when I used Google Chrome and Internet Explorer I got the same thing.
I am totally dissatisfied with Yahoo. Too bad we have no other choice. That is the problem when somebody has a monopoly. They can do what they want. Just like the governments.

2 1/2 Men

We've watched 2 1/2 men from the beginning. At first I thought 'Charlie Sheen? In a funny sitcom? No way! He's a serious actor.' I liked him in action movies. But after watching the first show we actually liked it and became fans. Too bad Charlie had to screw up his life like this with drugs and alcohol. Anyway, we watched another episode with his replacement Kutcher. Maybe Kutcher is funny in other roles, but the character he plays in the new 2 1/2 men series is an idiot. Not funny at all. The episode was stupid but not funny. No genius who managed to make 1.2 Billion Dollars can be such a moron. If the writers and directors don't get their act together the show will bomb. Only another moron can like this new show. I'm saying this and I don't care if it is politically correct.It is almost insulting to expect normal people to watch this. And another thing...since when is farting funny? That's how the last episode ended...with Allan farting. Come on! I've already used idiot and moron. What other word can I use to express what I think about such stupid humor?
I'll give it a couple more chances, but if they decide to carry on this way I will stop watching the show. And I'm sure many other viewers will too. There are other funny sitcoms out there. Modern Family and Mike and Molly are a couple of really funny shows. Good humor.
It is hard to define what is funny and what makes people laugh, but some things are just not funny. Kutcher's character is not funny. I didn't laugh I just cringed.

News about Bullet of Revenge

Just got my contract from Melange Books, LLC for Bullet of Revenge. My publisher likes the novel and it is scheduled to be published in June 2012. That's not even a year away. Hurray. By the way, after reading and editing it three times, my wife read it and found still a bunch of mistakes. Nothing major but there are mistakes hidden in the manuscript. I'm making a note of them and when I get the novel back for a final edit I will fix them. Funny how our eyes and minds sometimes deceive us. Well, I won't have to worry about fixing anything for nearly a year. In the meantime I will write Book 7 in the Xandra series.