Vampires and Robots

If you've been reading this blog, you'll recognize Shoshanah Marohn as the talented artist who not only designed my current page header, but also the cover of my latest book, Mother of Darkness. Of course, if you've been reading this blog then there is a 25% chance you are a human and not a spambot. If you are human, there is a 25% chance you are Shoshanah, so congratulations, you are not vain, this blog is totally about you. Not content to simply be a successful artist , blogger , and farmer, Shoshanah has now added bestselling author to her accomplishments. I was lucky enough to receive a copy of her debut book, Exhaust(ed), which I am now going to talk about until you are convinced that your life has a book sized hole in it. This size, to be exact. The subtitle is The 99% true story of a bus trip gone wrong. I've been lucky in that I've only ever ridden the Greyhound bus line once and it was a short, uneventful trip. Not so for our poor narrator. ...

The following is an unapologetic rant and you will get offended.  This is a book: This is also a book: Amazingly, this too, is a book: It comes as quite a shock to me to realize that in this day and age, there are people who don't consider a book to be a real book unless it's made of paper. I'm not talking about 'old' people who don't 'get' technology. No, to be quite honest, electronic readers are very popular with older readers for a number of reasons: They are lightweight, the font size is changeable, they require no shelf space, etc... I'm talking about  young folks, teenagers through middle age. I've seen comments online by a number of folks who claim e-books are not real books. I've had people personally dismiss me because I only offer my books in e-book format. That, by the way, is insulting. To insinuate that none of the effort I poured into my work counts because the words appear on a screen rather than pap...

Like an urban legend with just enough creep factor to make you wonder if it's true, the issue of privacy on the internet is making the rounds again. You've probably seen at least one post on Facebook by a supposed teacher who wants to show their students how far their private posts can spread. You might have also seen the countless videos of random people being told important things about themselves, scraped from their social media footprint. These are, of course, meant to shock you into thinking twice about what you post online. And I think the whole thing is kinda dumb. Don't get me wrong, there's a reason you keep certain things private. Things like your bank account, social security, and other sensitive information aside, I'm not advocating for the #YOLO mentality. (For those of us over the age of fifteen: #YOLO is the millennial varient of the baby boomers' Sha la la la la la live for today and Gen-X's F*ck that noise.) Posting a manifesto-length ra...

A while ago, I considered doing a food blog. This was back when I was young and idealistic and thought I would actually have time for such things. I've thought about it again recently, considering that my husband and I spend an awful lot of our time experimenting with new ways to make the food we love good for us. He's been amazing at coming up with recipes to replace the salt filled premade fake meats we used to eat a LOT of. I, on the other hand, have been concentrating most of my efforts on finding the elusive healthy chocolate cake/cookie/brownie/etc. Which leads to this post. I still don't have time to do a full blown food blog, but I feel I am entitled to divert from the vampires and robots every so often if I have good cause. And boy oh boy, I have good cause. This is a 36 calorie fudge brownie bite with a 24 calorie dollop of cashew cream on top. Since this worked out so well, I had to share. Especially because you aren't going to believe me that these...

I am not going to be robot food after all. For nearly two months, I've put my diet in the cold, robotic hands of the My Fitness Pal app. And I've lost twelve pounds. My husband has gone as far as downloading several workout regimen and fitness tracker apps. He's lost about double what I have. I've had similar success in the past without the aid of robot overlords. After all, in 2009-2010 I lost fifty pounds before I got my first Android phone. But I have to say, the app made it easier. When people get down on technology, I have to wonder what they are so cranky about. Sure, kids today are staring at a tiny screen in their hand more than ever, but that doesn't mean they aren't being social or that they are wasting their time. Anyone looking at me right now would think I'm having a rapid fire texting marathon. I'm not. I'm writing this post. On my phone. Actually, all of my blog posts are written this way. It's convenient and yes, Blogger ha...