Get Cynical

Have you ever been to a convention and if so what was it?

For the past few years, I’ve been keeping a list of the books I have read during the year. A bit bored today so I figured I’d update the list. You’ll notice that during the fall I went through a Stephen King kick that took me through the rest of the year. I had read his early works back in in high school and had love it then. I thought I may not enjoy it as much if I reread them as an adult, especially since I haven’t really cared much for his more recent work. I was wrong. His early stuff still captivated me. I have a feeling that sometime after Misery came out in the 80s, his editors gave him free rein and the quality declined.

Faceless Killers 1/1/11 – 1/4/11
The Dogs of Riga 1/5/11 – 1/12/11
Boardwalk Empire 1/13/11 – 1/17/11
The White Lioness 1/21/11 – 1/24/11
The Man Who Smiled 1/31/11 – 2/3/11
Sidetracked 2/6/11 – 2/10/11
The Fifth Woman 2/12/11 – 2/19/11
One Step Behind 2/19/11 – 2/23/11
Firewall 2/24/11 – 3/1/11
The Pyramid 3/1/11 – 3/6/11
The Comedians 3/12/11 – 3/15/11
Atlas Shrugged (went Galt at page 674) 3/16/11 – 3/23/11
Pawn of Prophecy 3/24/11 – 4/3/11
Cat’s Cradle 3/29/11 – 3/31/11
White Teeth 4/3/11 – 4/4/11
Queen of Sorcery 4/4/11 – 4/9/11
Haiti 4/3/11 – 5/3/11
Magician’s Gambit 4/10/11 – 4/13/11
On The Beach 4/14/11 – 4/16/11
Castle of Wizardry 4/16/11 – 4/20/11
Enchanter’s Endgame 4/21/11 – 4/28/11
Guardians of the West 4/28/11 – 5/1/11
King of the Murgos 5/2/11 – 5/9/11
The Serpent and the Rainbow 5/3/11 – 5/6/11
Demon Lord of Karanda 5/7/11 – 5/15/11
Sorceress of Darshiva 5/16/11 – 5/18/11
The Seeress of Kell 5/19/11 – 5/20/11
Riders of the Purple Sage 5/21/11 – (didn’t finish)
Fuzzy Nation 5/24/11 – 6/2/11
Shane 6/3/11 – 6/3/11
From the Ground Up 6/5/11 – 6/5/11
The Mysterious Affair at Styles 6/6/11 – 6/11/11
Kindred 6/12/11 – 6/14/11
With the Old Breed at Peleliu 6/21/11 – 6/24/11
Cryptonomicon 6/28/11 – 7/14/11
The Winds of War 7/18/11 – 7/29/11
War and Remembrance 7/30/11 – 8/9/11
Tomatoland 8/10/11 – 8/11/11
Titan, Life of JD Rockefeller 8/11/11 – 8/15/11
The Eyes of the Dragon 8/15/11 – 8/21/11
Zodiac 8/21/11 – 8/23/11
The Beekeeper’s Lament 8/23/11 – 8/26/11
The Gunslinger 8/23/11 – 8/26/11
The Drawing of the Three 8/28/11 – 9/8/11
The Waste Lands (didn’t finish) 9/8/11 – 9/18/11
John Lennon, The Life 9/17/11 – 9/23/11
Reamde 9/20/11 – 10/10/11
Carrie 10/17/11 – 10/19/11
The Shining 10/19/11 – 10/21/11
The White Mountains 10/25/11 – 10/26/11
Rage 10/27/11 – 10/28/11
The Long Walk 10/29/11 – 11/3/11
City of Thieves 11/3/11 – 11/7/11
The Running Man 11/8/11 – 11/9/11
Firestarter 11/9/11 – 11/16/11
And So It Goes, Kurt Vonnegut Bio 11/16/11 – 11/27/11
The Dead Zone 11/19/11 – 11/28/11
Cujo 11/28/11 -12/1/11
The Spy Who Came in From The Cold 11/29/11 – 12/4/11
Christine 12/4/11 – 12/7/11
Pet Sematary 12/8/11 – 12/14/11
The Tommyknockers 12/17/11 – (Didn’t finish)
God is Not Great 12/20/11 – 12/24/11

The 2009 list is here and the 2010 list here.

How are you doing?

No, seriously. How are you? I’m exhausted. You can see this reflected in how little I’ve posted lately. I can’t even gather the energy to post a Caption This. And I’m just posting those. MacCrocodile and Dale do the heavy lifting on those.

So regular commenters and lurkers alike. How are you?

I started this blog 8 years ago today. Sheesh, I remember when all this blog consisted of was links to various websites that amused me. How things change.

Which celebrity are you a fan of although you have a feeling that they’re a jerk in real life?

Alton Brown. Good Eats was by far my favorite show on the Food Network. And I have a funny feeling he’s a gigantic douche in real life.

If google disappeared today, what services from it would you really, really miss?

Searching, obviously. Gmail. Google reader. Oh, Google Docs. YouTube. Google analytics. I really wouldn’t miss Google + all that much if I’m being honest. I use that as an afterthought really. Oh, google maps! Those are my first thoughts although I’m certainly missing a few.

I think the most common complaint I receive is about the advertising. People hate ads. I’ve tried to keep them as unobtrusive as possible (i.e. no popups, no ads pretending to be posts, etc) but I still get complaints about certain ads or people heralding adblock as a solution. The problem is that this site costs me money to operate which has been covered for the most part by those villainous ads.

I have asked some of those people who have complained what a better solution would be. Most of them have suggested a donation system to support the site. I have no idea if it is realistic to cover the site expenses by donations alone. But I’m open to giving it a try. I created a donate button on the right under site info. If Cynics are generous enough to support this site through donations, I will start scaling back the advertising.

Also, if you have any suggestions about how I could improve the site, (guest bloggers, more contests, more Bachmann!) please use this thread to rant.

What do you miss?

The 2009 list is here and the 2010 list here.

Faceless Killers 1/1/11 – 1/4/11
The Dogs of Riga 1/5/11 – 1/12/11
Boardwalk Empire 1/13/11 – 1/17/11
The White Lioness 1/21/11 – 1/24/11
The Man Who Smiled 1/31/11 – 2/3/11
Sidetracked 2/6/11 – 2/10/11
The Fifth Woman 2/12/11 – 2/19/11
One Step Behind 2/19/11 – 2/23/11
Firewall 2/24/11 – 3/1/11
The Pyramid 3/1/11 – 3/6/11
The Comedians 3/12/11 – 3/15/11
Atlas Shrugged (went Galt at page 674) 3/16/11 – 3/23/11
Pawn of Prophecy 3/24/11 – 4/3/11
Cat’s Cradle 3/29/11 – 3/31/11
White Teeth 4/3/11 – 4/4/11
Queen of Sorcery 4/4/11 – 4/9/11
Haiti 4/3/11 – 5/3/11
Magician’s Gambit 4/10/11 – 4/13/11
On The Beach 4/14/11 – 4/16/11
Castle of Wizardry 4/16/11 – 4/20/11
Enchanter’s Endgame 4/21/11 – 4/28/11
Guardians of the West 4/28/11 – 5/1/11
King of the Murgos 5/2/11 – 5/9/11
The Serpent and the Rainbow 5/3/11 – 5/6/11
Demon Lord of Karanda 5/7/11 – 5/15/11
Sorceress of Darshiva 5/16/11 – 5/18/11
The Seeress of Kell 5/19/11 – 5/20/11
Riders of the Purple Sage 5/21/11 – (didn’t finish)
Fuzzy Nation 5/24/11 – 6/2/11
Shane 6/3/11 – 6/3/11
From the Ground Up 6/5/11 – 6/5/11
The Mysterious Affair at Styles 6/6/11 – 6/11/11
Kindred 6/12/11 – 6/14/11
With the Old Breed at Peleliu 6/21/11 – 6/24/11
Cryptonomicon 6/28/11 – 7/14/11
The Winds of War 7/18/11 –

There’s a fire and you have only enough time to grab two items from your house (pets and people are already to safety). What would you take?