Miscellaneous Mishmash

I read Dachshund Through the Snow by Rosie A. Point. Two stars. This is another "mystery" where somehow the police in a small town fail to do the basics to investigate a murder, so a random dog walker named Holly (of course her name is Holly!) figures it out. Plot points, including a potential romance between Holly and a cop, glimmer briefly and slip away like tinsel from a Christmas tree. I guess that's supposed to entice me to read the next book in the series. Ha ha ha. At least the story fit an original category on the 2025 Reading Challenge: about an animal. The most interesting thing here is that there are multiple books with this title on Goodreads. 

My friend L and I saw Life of Chuck at the cinema on Sunday. It’s an adaptation of a Stephen King novella, which I hadn't read beforehand (I usually like to read the book before I see the movie). Nevertheless, I loved the film! Highly recommend. It’s not horror ~ it’s more of a psychological/ philosophical drama, with a bit of science fiction and a few ghosts thrown in. So good. I have added the King book with four novellas, including Chuck, to my wishlist.

Unfortunately, even after paying $16 each for our seats, we had to watch ads and previews for over a half hour from the time the movie was scheduled to begin until it actually started. Ridiculous and irritating.

I finished The Pride of the Peacock by Victoria Holt and gave it three stars. It was a predictable romance and the dialogue/ narrative was at times repetitive, but the characters were interesting (Holt always gives her MCs major flaws, which makes them more relatable), and the twist at the end was fun. I also enjoyed reading about opals and Australia’s history and geography. I created my own reading challenge category for this novel: bird in the title.

I deleted my Bluesky app. Enough is enough. It’s just not fun to read the constant stream of political babble and repetitive memes, which are mostly some version of “I hate him so much.” So boring! And the “real news” is depressing enough without reading people’s fantasies about WW3. I tried to focus on other feeds, but even a lot of the poetry was in a similar vein. What else is there to enjoy on Bluesky? Pictures of cats, food, sunsets? Book and movie reviews? Meh. Pointless. 

It’s true that I am much more tolerant of boring posts and memes from friends I already know. Seeing the same stuff from new folks doesn’t motivate me to attempt friendship with them. Plus I don’t see how you become real friends with someone far away if you’re not willing to exchange private messages, which most on Bluesky don’t want, including me, since that opens you up to the scammers and spammers.

My daughter, son-in-law, and I went to a dim sum place for brunch on Sunday (Seafood Cove in Westminster). It was a delicious treat, though NorCal still has the edge on food, especially Asian food and pizza. I particularly enjoyed the steamed sesame buns with Nutella filling at Seafood Cove (yes, here’s me bypassing the fish for sweets)… and now I think I need to buy Nutella again for a snack on graham crackers because it’s been a long time. 

OK then. Stay safe, everyone.