My thoughts on the election

Yes, I'm glad Trump won. I pulled for him to win all the way through.

And no, I didn't want Hillary for a president. She doesn't care about this nation or it's people. She just cares about the office of president and has lusted after it since her hubby, Bill, had the office. When I thought about her as president, I had an awful premonition of doom for our nation if she was elected; and I had a premonition that Trump was our only hope for righting this ship we call America.

On election night, when they declared Trump the winner, I felt a great weight lift off me. I knew the reactions the following day would be interesting, but I didn't know they would devolve into traitorism and a severe lack of patriotism.

People are showing their true colors, and the lack of depth to themselves as a person. Before the election, and in the aftermath of it, I have unfollowed and unfriended several people on facebook. The Clinton supporters are showing their extreme childishness in their reaction to the election results. Their candidate didn't win, so they are throwing a huge tantrum about it.

There have been protests and riots, all of which have went unaddressed by either Clinton or President Obama. And then there's this:

Voters target Electoral College members to switch their Trump ballots, elect Clinton

That is totally traitorous in my opinion. They're lucky I'm not in charge, because I'd kick every one of them out of the country and label them as traitors. They're so childish and so determined to have their way.

I'm wondering how many of these protestors are Americans, and how many are illegal immigrants who are afraid of getting kicked out of the country? I have no respect for and no use for these people. Our founding fathers are turning over in their graves.

January 20th can't come soon enough for me. I even went so far as to send a message to President Obama, asking him to take some kind of action. But I doubt that he will. He's probably enjoying this.

Meanwhile, this is all destroying our nation and tearing it to shreds.

College students are made of such flimsy stuff that colleges are letting them out of classes because they are so distraught over the election. SAY WHAT!!! If they are made of such pitiful stuff, what will happen when one of the major storms of life blow in? They are falling apart because their candidate didn't win. What will they do when a real crisis appears in their life? They will crumble, that is what.

All I can say is that I am glad that the parents of the Baby Boom generation were made of much sterner stuff. Otherwise, Hitler would have never been defeated.

These pampered children of today don't know what real problems and real trouble is. In all my 55 years of living, I've never witnessed anything as shameful as this election year has been.

I am disappointed in people in general, and am growing to not like people. This 'entitled me' attitude that the younger generations have is getting on my last nerve. And they don't know how to listen! All they know how to do is get angry and argue!

I know one thing about the protestors, that they must not have a job that they are depending on for food on their table and a roof over their head. Because if they did, they wouldn't be able to be out there protesting and causing trouble. Unless someone is paying them to be out there. And some of them are teenagers under the age of 18, so where are their parents?

And I'm so fed up with people who are 'afraid' because of the election results. People today are simply being childish.

It makes me wonder what these baby-dults will do when a real storm enters their life? They will collapse under it, that is what. They are falling apart over an election. Where the rest of us would just take a deep breath and forge on, sad that our candidate lost; they throw a major tantrum and want the election results rewritten to suit them.

Once upon a time, Americans were made of much stouter stuff.

B is for blue

Upon coming over to put up this post, I decided to continue my journey through the alphabet; and no, I'm not posting about the color, but the mood.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I'm sitting here feeling so damned depressed and discouraged tonight. Some neighborhood vandal has taken a delight in letting the air out of our tires, and it's the only car we have. We don't know who it is, or when they're doing it, even though we're home all the time. A few times, they've even let the air out until the tire is flat.

This has caused great problems for us, as both of us are disabled; and like I said, it's our only car. No, we don't have an air compressor at home. I just recently ordered a little cheap one from Amazon, but it didn't work, so we're having to send it back. Huge disappointment and bummer. And no, we can't keep it in the garage; door doesn't work.

We don't have money to spend on getting the tire checked, buying fix a flat, motion sensor lights, or video surveillance. Yes, I've contacted the local police, but there's not a lot they can do. They made some extra runs by your house, and things were quiet; but I guess they've stopped, and our vandal has started up again.

We have a hard enough time as it is, just making ends meet from month to month. This is just so discouraging; it's a problem we don't need. I have IBS, among other things, and all this stress just makes things worse; till sometimes I don't hardly feel like eating.

Why is someone doing this to us? We're quiet, we mind our own business, we don't bother anyone. Why do they get their jollies out of making our life harder, when it's hard enough already. Now we can't go out and do any grocery shopping until someone helps us get our tires aired up.

I so wish that air compressor had worked; we really needed it to work. The motor ran, but it didn't air anything up. In fact, the tire lost a pound of air. We have to beg for help to get the tires aired up. We need one that is good and really works good, but we can't afford a good one. All we can afford is crap that doesn't work.

Why can't things get easy for us? Why do they always have to be so hard all the time? I'm so bummed out and depressed. We both are disabled and live with chronic pain, and now to have these hassles. Some people have good luck hand over fist. We never do. Once in a while we'll have a tiny bit of good luck, here and there. But we don't get used to it, don't expect it to continue, cause we know it won't.

I'm so tired of the constant ongoing struggle. Don't know what to do, no solution. Sometimes I just want to curl up in a ball and give up. Tonight is one of those times.

-- jd --

paypal.me/tkfuzzkid

A is for August

So, I've decided to blog through the alphabet, from A to Z. I did a bit of googling, and I know that there's an official challenge that goes off in April of each year. But they want you to blog each and every day ...... yeahhhhh, that may not happen. But whether or not I do it every day, or however often I choose to continue the alphabet posts, I thought it would be an interesting thing to do.

Besides, this A to Z thing is an old friend to me. A good while back, many years ago in fact, I started this mental game to pass the time when I was somewhere and was bored. I would simply go through the alphabet, with the requirement that I had to come up with a word for each letter. Sometimes I would have a category that I would go by, and a lot of the time it would be just random. I still use it sometimes to try to get to sleep; it's very helpful with that.

So,
A is for August.
I like August, at least now I do.
When I was but a youngling, back in my school days, I had a love/hate relationship with August. It was the traditional month when the Kentucky state fair took place, and me and my parents used to go a lot. But it was also when school started. I didn't particularly like school. It wasn't the teachers or the studying that I minded. It was the kids I was in school with, road the bus with. I was teased a lot, all the way from grade school until high school. I don't have a lot of good school memories. But I do have some good memories of the state fair.

Now, I'm 55, and many years out from my school days, and I like August. Because I hate July. Several years ago, I got overheated real bad, and now I just can't take the heat. During the hottest part of summer, I just hibernate inside under the air conditioning. Here in Kentucky, that's July.

But when we get to August, ..... ahhhhh, sweet August, it heralds the return to cooler weather and fall. Don't get me wrong, August is still quite warm; but I know that September will be cooler, and in October, the weather will be nice.

The seasons, in order of preference by me:

1. Fall, because it is the beginning of cooler weather;
2. Spring, because it comes after winter and brings with it so many spring flowers;
3. Winter, because I can stand to get out in cold weather;
4. Summer, because during the hot days, I have to hibernate inside; and by the end of summer I have a bit of cabin fever. 

So there you have it.
A is for August.
-- jd --

The hot days of summer

Well, here in Kentucky, it is summer. And July here isn't just hot, it's humid too. Sometimes, walking out your door is like walking into a sauna.

Me, I hibernate inside during summer. Several years ago, I got overheated, and so I don't handle heat well anymore.

My seasonal preferences are as follows:
1 fall
2 spring
3 winter
4 summer

A new way to post

I'm going to be trying something out that I haven't utilized a lot before now, and that is email posting. It's a neat feature that blogger offers, that will hopefully have me posting more often in this blog.

The posts may be short, but I'm going to try it out. Hope you like what I share.

Technology is wonderful, and I love computers.

Till next time. -- JD --

My book preferences

In my younger years, (I'm 55 now, and got away from reading for a while), my main reading preferences was fantasy, science fiction, and romance novels. Back in 2011, I discovered ereaders, and renewed my love of reading.

Now, I have a kindle and am always reading something. I was just sitting here at the computer going through my book emails, and thought it would be fun to do a post on my reading preferences. So, here goes:

The book emails I get:

• BookSends
• BookBub
• eBookSoda

I've subscribed to several different ones, and these are the 3 that I like best, and have kept.

My favorite genres to read:

• science fiction,
• fantasy,
• paranormal romance
• romance
• western romance
• historical romance
• mysteries
• westerns

And I think that covers it pretty much.
As for genres I won't read:

• horror, of any kind
• stuff that's very, very violent
• and not too fond of apocalyptic themes
• anything that's real gory

I think you get the general idea. My tv and movie choices pretty much mirror my book genre preferences. Some tv shows I like a lot are:

• NCIS, all 3, especially loved the DiNozzo season finale
• Lucifer, can't wait to find out who 'mum' is
• Killjoys
• Scorpion
• Major Crimes
• Hallmark romance movies
• Hallmark mystery movies

Yes, I do have a book review blog. Here's the link for that, in case you'd like to check out some of my reviews:
The Leisure Zone
** Note to authors - at the moment, I have a pretty full read and review list. **

If you want to keep up with what I'm currently reading, you can do that on Goodreads -- me on goodreads -- I keep it updated pretty good now.

I don't care for continued or cliffhanger books. With my book review blog, unless the author sends me all of the series to review, I usually don't get around to reading anything else in the series.

I do like, and much prefer, stand alone novels. If they're part of a series, that's cool too.

I've gotten to where I don't care for multi-author box sets too much. Here's why:  You'll have usually a two or three 4-5 star books, then you'll usually have at least a couple 3 star books; and then there are the 1 and 2 star books, the clunkers in the set. Plus, you spend forever reading that box set. I'm getting to where I enjoy just the individual novels instead.

So, I guess that about winds up this post. If you have any questions for me, just post them in the comments. Thanks for stopping by.

-- jd --

Facebook live

Tonight I discovered a fun new toy - facebook live.

Did you know just about anyone can broadcast live on facebook? Well they can. I've somehow, (don't ask me how because I don't know), set it up where I get notifications when some people in my facebook sphere go live.

Tonight, it was Larry Gatlin and friends, live from the grand ole opry. After that finished, somehow I ended up on a map of ALL the live facebook broadcasts around the world! That was so neat. I spent a nice little chunk of time checking that all out, all around the world.

Here's the link, if you want to try it:
https://www.facebook.com/livemap/?ref=endscreen&pnref=story

It's a lot of fun.

Take care,
-- jd --

Playing catch-up

Have you ever played catch-up?
And no, it's not a game.

It's what you do when circumstances of one kind or another have caused you to get behind, and you're getting caught up on stuff. That's me, getting caught up on stuff.

Does the stuff ever totally get away from you?
I don't think any of mine has totally gotten away from me, but I do have a good bit of catch-up to do. But it's not as bad as it has been before. Over the past year, I've gotten a good bit of that catch up stuff done, but there's still more to do.

Then there's emails .....
Yeah, those can be so easy to get behind on. And then you just have to wade through them and get caught up.

Something not catching up related .....
I finally found myself an easy to use app so I can upload pictures from my computer to my instagram account. That's a lot of fun. I love to take pictures, so I have loads to upload. You can find me on instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/jdriggsky/

Also, I've given my links tab on here the once over, and that's up to date.

Well, back to my catching up. Take care
-- jd --

Hello, it's me ... update

Well, 2016 got off to a rather rough start for us. We did the traditional New Year's Day foods and all that, (which we won't be doing again I don't think), and we've had some problems. If you've read my previous blog posts, you'll have an idea of what I'm talking about. But thanks to some friends, we made it through the rough spot; and one of those major issues has resolved itself.

Things are better now. We're not on easy street by any stretch of the imagination, but things are a bit better. And I find myself in the position of being able to spend the next several months working on whatever I want to. I've decided I'm going to enjoy it.

One thing I've decided is that I'm going to shelve, for now, my monthly newsletter.  I mean, we all only have a finite amount of time each day to do things. So you have to make choices on what you want to spend your time on. And here are some of the things I want to spend more time on:

This is a temporary working cover for my science fiction romance novel, Chasing Zane. I want to spend more time working on it. It's the tale of a girl from a ranching planet who takes off in search of her best friend Zane, who has suddenly went off planet, without a word to anyone. It's her first time off her home planet, and I'm still working on what she encounters along the way. One person she encounters is Zane's college friend Harrison, who she has a slight crush on, and has never met in person before. Does it sound good to you?

Another thing that I want to work on is a cookbook. I have all the recipes, it's just
a matter of sorting them and coming up with sections for them. The recipes are some that I collected back when I was in my teens and early 20s. There's some wonderful recipes there and I want to publish them in a cookbook. I'm thinking I'll make it a no frills, recipes only cookbook; a lot like the homemaker cookbooks that have been popular in my area. Here's the working cover for that.

So that's 2 of the things I want to spend time on.

Also, like most everyone else on the planet, I have some sorely neglected to do lists; plus, I'd like to post more stuff on wattpad. I'm going to be putting all my links under the links tab on here. That's one of those things off those sorely neglected to do lists. Plus, I'm going to pull out an idea I had previously shelved, of putting up an online review index for my book review blog, The Leisure Zone.

Also, I want to give more time and attention to this blog and my other blogs.
Take care for now,
-- jd --

Why my plans for my old review requests have changed

Lately I had some free time, and started working on something I had been working towards for a bit, and that was putting all my review requests from my book review blog, The Leisure Zone, in order. Here's a link to my previous blog post, talking about it:

Going through my review requests

I indicated that I would be contacting some of these authors. Well, I've changed my mind on that front, and won't be contacting them after all. All these other authors have one author to thank for this. 

Now, lets go back to yesterday evening. I was on my computer, going through the last of my review requests, some of the very oldest ones, dating back to when I first started the blog.

Back then, I would agree to review about any books. I didn't make a preference between genre or anything, and I didn't have my books to review list as organized as I do now. Since the beginning of my book review blog, I've sunk a lot of time into it; working on it and making it better, tweaking it and streamlining it. And I'm quite proud of the blog I created.

Well, one of the books that I had agreed to review, sounded like something I would still like to read; so I thought I would check in with the author. 

BOY WAS THAT A BIG MISTAKE! 

Seems she is in the process of getting ready to re-release the book I asked her about, and is editing it. First off, she wanted me to let her know if it was going to a bad review and just tell her and not post the review. Also, she wanted me to review the copy I had, and not the version she was getting ready to release. If you're confused, join the crowd, because I still am. She didn't seem to understand that I would need to review the version she was going to release, and not the old version that I had. So naturally, I declined to review the book, under these circumstances. Then she proceeded to get pissed at me, and told me she wouldn't recommend my blog. Hey, I didn't ask her to. I was going to discuss it further with her when she blocked my messages and unfriended me. So I blocked her.

But afterwards, I did get concerned that she would badmouth my blog, and harm all the hard work I have put into it. I know first hand what damage unfounded rumors can do. So I felt I needed to get ahead of anything she might do, and put up a post on my facebook timeline talking about it. Then this morning, I decided I would move the whole thing over to a blog post, where I could explain better; and it also went with the previous blog post as well.

So, I'm taking some actions regarding this very unpleasant experience:

• I won't be contacting all those old review requests, as I had thought about doing. I still have them, and they're nicely organized now, and I'm not sure what I'll eventually do with them. Right now I just know that I'm not in the mood to go contacting any authors. I have a nicely filled read and review list to pull books from.
• On The Leisure Zone blog site, I have put up a Review Request Rules for Authors tab, in order to try to protect myself and my review team from such unpleasantness.
• In my blog, The Book News Journal, I'm going to start a series of articles for authors, about contacting book reviewers.

So hopefully these steps will help. 

-- jd -- 

Going through my review requests

Well, I'm finally going through all the tons of review requests I've gotten over the past 3 years, going all the way back to fall of 2013. I started doing reviews back in 2012. But it wasn't until 2013 that I discovered using google drive forms for my review requests.

Over that span of time, I've tweaked on my blog till I got it like I wanted it, and, the review request forms have undergone some changes too. But I have all the responses from those forms, always aiming to go through them. 

Now there's something you need to understand about me. I'm a packrat to a certain extent, a keeper, a list maker; and going through these review requests have been on my list for a while now. But . . . 

I've finally gotten my review blog site in good shape, finally getting down to those last details that I hadn't gotten around to yet. And the review requests are one of those details. 

Going to be surprising some authors with a long overdue email.

P.S. Another of those details is finally putting the review index online. Check out my blog, The Leisure Zone, here:

Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/jdspg3

Blog site:

http://jdslzone.blogspot.com/