Summerween

 Hello Friends,

So it was hitting late 80's to early 90's here in the mountains of Western North Carolina the last few weeks, thankfully the temps have chilled al ittle now So I thought let's  invoke some Halloween in Summer with Summerween!

I'm actually shocked how much this has taken off this year. I've been familiar with the concept since I think the earliest mention of Summerween which was in the cartoon: Gravity Falls. According to fandom, Summerween is celebrated on June 22 or the second to last Friday of June, but as many of the people I mention in this post, you can celebrate anytime of the summer.

Bob Troubles 

I meant to post this closer to June 22, but Bob and my motivation to write became problems. Who's Bob? Let me get you antiquated.  This is Bob:

I bought him with part of my dad's stimulus check we got during the pandemic, because my old tower was giving up the ghost. So I went to Walmart and bought the cheapest tower that had everything I wanted. I knew it wasn't gonna be an awesome piece of equipment, but I figure it had to run better than what I currently had. Boy was I wrong, this thing not only was laggy as my old PC, it has proven to be worse. Plus he has this habit of erasing documents, I lost a version of a chapter for a book I'm working on, plus lost a writing gig cause it ate two weeks of work. I called HP to tell them something was wrong with their product, but that was a hopeless cause. I even have my Dean Winchester Funko Pop and Sam Winchester FBI ID hoping to put the fear of the Winchesters in whatever demon or entity that is possessing it. If your wondering why I call it Bob it stands for: beast of burden.

But you didn't come here to hear about evil tech let's get back to Summerween. Now I know we're heading into August a some of you guys or your kids maybe are going to be starting school soon, but there's time for one last spooky summery party, or heck even when school starts just utilize a weekend in the last bits of Summer.

What can you do for Summerween?

 Have yourself a costume party. Get your people together and dress up, adult, child, whatever your age just let go of normalcy for a time. Do summerized versions of Halloween concepts like instead of a headless horseman do a headless surfer.

Hold your own trick or treat event. Let it be a trunk or treat, table and treat, what have you use your imagination. If you say "but I don't have kids", so what, do it anyway. I mean many of us miss the thrill of trick or treating, so why not You can be as childish or as adult as you want to be with the offerings you want to give. 

S'mores! S'mores seems like Summerween  something that transcends one season. Got traditional or get funky with, heck set up a whole s'mores bar, just have fun with it. 

 

Other People's Suggestions: 

 I have come across some videos that will help you celebrate some Summerween: 

It's a Charming Life shows you a quiet Summerween in Sleepy Hollow with Watermelon carving, they do an elaborate on and the classic Gravity Falls one. They also take you on a trip through the town. I've always wanted to visit Sleepy Hallow, and as much as I would love to visit during the fall, it's as popular as Salem that time of year, but maybe a Summer visit?

Angie Bellemare gives you  Summerween BBQ  and Summerween Movie Night ideas using mainly things you have. I love this idea! Heck it doesn't even have to be Summerween themed for me to love it.

Kia Creates gives Summerween Ideas  including a suggestion for what I think is a must watch the "Summerween" episode of Gravity Falls. I also say not only the book, but also the movie Practical Magic I think would make a good movie to watch for the festivities.

As I was going to put this post to rest Just Lanchen posted a on the subject. 

Music:

If your looking for music for your festivities an artist I listen to Aurelio Voltaire and he's made a Summerween playlist of songs he's recording for his next album, but it's taking time so he's releasing each single as he finishes so we can listen to them while it's summer. These tracks are spooky and summery perfect for Summerween.

 

Well that's this post finally done! Only took over a month!  I hope it gave you some ideas for your Summerween celebration either this year or next. I'm hoping to try to start posting more, I'm not gonna hold myself to it cause it depends on Bob and my mental health hydra, and my laziness. Have a good weekend, get into a bit of trouble, but not too much! Happy Summerween you guys!

 

 *Thrifty Geek*

Fangirl and Thrifty Geek's Epic Return to Asheville!

 Hello friends,

So Saturday your favorite Everyday Heroes* returned to our beloved Asheville since Tropical Storm Helene, aka the worst visitor to WNC ever! ><  

Since it was Doctor Who Day, I wanted to put a little Doctor in my outfit:

I wore a dark blue shirt and the over shirt I've been using mainly for my 11th Doctor Costume since 2019. I had my Doctor Who pins, which I'm noticing are all sorts of crooked. Threw on a combination of blue and golden eye shadow, and lastly this resin necklace Fangirl made that I got for my Bad Wolf Birthday years ago.

When I got it since I was in a Doctor Who mind mode, and seeing this I thought Fangirl had made my Whovian Butt a Doctor Themed necklace, I mean come on a blue box with two hearts on it... What else would it be. I found a few years this was just a random design she came up with. Well too bad I have declared it my Doctor Who necklace. Lastly I slipped my smallest sonic the 13th Doctors in my pocket. Now that I was Whovianed out I was ready to journey forth.

The roads were crowded due to it being Saturday, people probably shopping for the holidays, and visitors excited as we were to visit the city again. Yes I said city, I hear so many many visitors call it a small town. It is not. You want North Carolina small towns go to places like Canton, Clyde, Waynesville in Haywood, or Hot Springs in Madison County. Yeah that is a tiny Main Street in Hot Springs. Fun to visit year ago though. OK now that I'm had my light hearted and hopefully only with a smidge of bite rant, let's continue with our story.

Our first stop was Itto's Ramon Bar and Tapas in West Asheville. We were greeted by a waiter I'd never seen before. He went crazy for my necklace and Fangirl's winter wrap. He proclaimed us stylish, which I don't think is a term I have ever heard before in reference to myself.  I loved this guy! they were so full of energy, he made sure we were taken care of. Fangirl even gave him info on resin work. We think he may have been just starting here cause while he remembered the water they always give you, he forgot to ask the drink order, but he was so charismatic I was okay with it.  We had our usual appetizers of Takoyaki Balls, then I had one of my usuals Itto Classic Ramen and Fangirl tried for the first time Itto Miso Ramen. It was awesome as always, but Fangirl's left her lips numb. So she got some vanilla Japanese Ice Cream to counteract it.

With my hands smelling like my lunch we went down the street to Morgan's Comics. Morgan's boasts the title as the first female owned Comic Shop in Western North Carolina. Her storefront also now boasts a mural of Morgan's Superhero self.

Now we haven't actually been to the store since Free Comic Book Day in May. We haven't seen Morgan since at the Spring WNC  Comic Con, which I realized I never posted about on here. I chatted at length with Morgan about our Storm experiences and purchased a holiday present. 

 

After Morgan's we headed toward the mall, which we saw in the parking lot it was so packed we're like nope after we couldn't find a space, so we headed to Five Below. While waiting to turn in we saw the now closed section of the road as you go toward the river:

Today was my first time seeing Asheville's devastation in person. It made me feel the same as seeing our home county's for the first time.

At Five Below I proceeded to try to knock a hole in my holiday shopping, I have never spent that much there ever. Now one of the items was a Luffytaro keychain from One Piece for Fangirl who loves the series. I was hoping she didn't have it. Well get out to the car only to have Fangirl show me the Luffytaro she'd purchased, then she said she'd found out when she got to the car she had that already. So while we were still there I returned them, and my frustration turned to humor over the situation. 

After that we went to Pop on Merriman Avenue for Bubble tea. Fangirl decided to sit in the car while I got our drinks. There was a birthday party going on. I bought a couple bolba tea charms one for Fangirl and I.

I got my usual black milk tea with strawberry and mango popping pearls.

 

 

 Fangirl got a Universal Love it had cute hearts and stars in it! Although the stars were murder on the straw.

As we headed back toward West Asheville we started reminiscing about Fangirl's Dad CD who like my Pop had passed last year. I asked her if she had anything of her Dad, she replied. "Dad". I forgot she has some of his ashes. We just started laughing.

We went to the Goodwill Outlet, my fav part of Goodwill. I saw some interesting sites like The Cow Wedding Tragedy: 

I got a Buccee's Bag full of things for like $5 and the greatest score was this still wrapped New Phone, Who Dis? game. At Kohl's it would have cost $19.99, a great Thrifty Geek find!

After this I stopped by Burger King so I can surprise my Mom with a large order of fries to make her smile. The 23rd was also the one year anniversary of our final Thanksgiving with Pop, a lot of bad memories from a year ago have been showing up in the last few weeks.

After that we made the journey home. Yeah crap ending, but not much happened. 

I hope you have a good week be sure to check out my Instagram video of the day, and hopefully I'll see you soon. God Bless!

                                                                                            *Thrifty Geek*

* Sorry it's a play on this song I've recently discovered. I also just discovered how awesome Defying Gravity is!

Nerdy Advice in the Dark Timeline

 

Nerdy Advice in the Dark Timeline

We have been knocked down

The future murky 

Fear has gripped our hearts

What will we do now?

Is the question that is cried…

Here is the answer my friends

You will become the Links, the Wonder Women, the Katniss Everdeens

You’ll be Avengers, the Rebel Alliance, The Fellowship of the Ring

You’ll take the lessons you’ve ingested all your lives

And be the real life heroes

The lights in the storm 

Defenders of Freedoms

Who will not allow our hard earned rights go without a fight

So grab your morphers, your pens, and pixelated torches

Get the adventuring party ready

For the BBEG is here

So pick yourselves up

Don your armor

We got work to do

Live Long and Prosper my friends 

Where Have I Been- The Crap That Was 2023

 Hello Friends,

It's been a minute. From your guys perspective I haven't posted since March of last year. In my draft I have a few drafts dating around October last year. So your probably thinking what happened? 2023 happened the effects of which are still affecting me this year. 

Seriously, this was be heading into 2024.

  So beginning of that year I had a slight insomnia spell... upside I think during this time I finished campaign 2 of Critical Role. Then my elder dog Ranger passed. That was anxiety inducing. Then in April Fangirl and me were gonna go see the Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie one day, but had to postpone cause my insomnia came back to the point I was up almost four whole days till I just had to go to the hospital. Then Fangirl and I saw the movie and I learned her Dad had died.

The morning of Captain's 39th Birthday the ambulance went up to my grandparents. This had been happening since a few days before Thanksgiving 2022, because my Grandpa started passing out, most likely due to his heart valve issue, but sadly this was not the case, my Grandpa had died in his sleep.

I can't complain he lived to be 88, and compare to the luck I had with my other two Grandads, I got lucky to have him in my life till I was 39. Then my grandpa's brother passed in November of that year, plus a second cousin I never met.  

In October my Dad started sleeping a lot, we thought it was a reaction to the Iron Pills the Doctor gave him, cause he was "anemic", then in November my Dad started having fever and staggering, then the Monday before Thanksgiving he had his second fall, so we called the ambulance come take him to the hospital. A few hours later  we learned he was not anemic, nor had a kidney infection as my Mom's kidney doctor believed, it was a rare type of kidney cancer. My father would lose his battle thirteen days later on December 3rd. 

This was a devastating blow to our already grieving family. We are in the 11th Month since his passing. We're fixing to have our first Thanksgiving without him. The last of our first holidays with out him.

2024 has brought more deaths, my Grandpa's third cousin and sister-in-law, and three friends of the family. 

In September Western North Carolina was visited by the worst visitor Helene, we fared pretty well, but the storm was scary to listen to. I mean we've had tropical storms before, but still scary. Our community had damage I've only seen on TV.

Monday Nov 4th my cat accidentally scratched my face bad and now our lovely election where we've been condemned to the 9 circles of hell..... 2025 may not be so hot either.

So yeah this is why I haven't posted in forever it's been crap for the last couple years!

Hopefully, not promising, gonna try to post more here. Well I'm gonna hone my sword skills to prepare for our dystopian future. Hope all is well everyone, be strong, and have a Magical Whimsical Day!

Your nerd.

*Thrifty Geek*

Thrifty Geek's Library- Courageous Women

 Hey Reading Friends, 

 

So it's time for this year's first Library post. This month we'll be focused on books that feature courageous women. I always love a book that features strong female leads. January was full of books with such characters. 

 

Tiger Burning Brightly by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, Mercedes Lackey- 

The city/state of Merina is fixing to be besieged by Emperor Balthasar who has been taking over the world worse he has powerful dark magic on his side. The ruling family the House of the Tiger composed of the former Queen, the Ruling Queen, and the Designated Daughter are forced to do a tactical retreat to spare the city till they come up with something else. So the three of them under disguises hid in plain site. Soon the city is under the choke hold of the dark wizards in human men. Can these women bring down this dark empire? Or will it be lost to the dark?

We already know I love stories with strong women, and this delivers. This world has a good Mythos and an interesting magic system. Men get magic early and if they remain virgins can stay powerful, but women's powers show up in menopause. Despite being written by three different women, dynamites in fantasy, the story was weaved together so well you couldn't tell three people had their hands in it. I was riveted and really interested in the story. I love a story were oppressed people try to take down a dark government. The ending was good, but a little condensed feeling. I'm going back and forth weather to keep this in my permanent library, but I gave this 4 stars on Goodreads.

 

Elvenblood by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey-

Shana, the prophesied Elvenbane, a half elf believed to be sent to take out the oppressive Elven Lords. Sadly her last battle ended with her and her friends escaping by the skins of their teeth. The group finds a place to build a new home outside of the Elven ruled lands, but there is some discord among the group, on top of all that Shana and a scouting party get captured by a group of people known as the Iron People who may hold the key to defeating the Elven Lords. In the Elven lands oppressed households are becoming more oppressed as the lords are now looking for any half elves in their midst to punish, feeling this strain is Lorryn an Treves who is a half elf disguised as the legitimate son of an Elven Lord. He has to stay one step ahead if he wants his secret to remain so.

This was an okay read. It was interesting enough to keep me reading, but not enough to probably encourage a reread. Norton and Lackey capture the horrors of a society where even family members are oppressed very well. I was concerned for especially Lorryn's sister, Sheyrena, that she was going to be trapped in a marriage, or else altered magically to be an obedient wife. I thought the party at the beginning had a beautiful setting as a magically created forest, sadly the company would have been off putting.

I felt some scene were dragged out, and others too quick. Book was defiantly middle ground with me and for that reason I gave this a three on Goodreads.

 

Afterlife by JK Ishaya and Kenneth Mader-

The first book in the Arcadia Chronicles, this follows the story of Elaine Ways, a martial artist, who loses her husband tragically. She soon begins having vivid dreams of being a hero in another world. At some point strange and seemingly mystical people kidnap her daughter. Elaine soon finds herself in an extraordinary dark world where she learns there maybe more to her dreams than meets the eye.

Now this book was recommended to me by my sister, who works with one of the authors, so I was intrigued to see it, but I didn't get to it a few months, because I had a major anxiety issue that involved death. But finally I felt ready to read it. This was a book with a good mythos. It gave an interesting look at the afterlife. The science in this was well written, I don't know if it had any basis in real science, but it sounded convincing. I also loved it was based in the city of Asheville. I was so nice to read a book and know the places their talking about, and the fact they added the fantastical to it. 

This book was a little of a slow start for me. Another thing that made it a hard read was that it was so dark, there was a little  humor, but I wished it'd been beefed up a little more to balance the dark, but this is my personal preference. Despite the issues I gave this a four on Goodreads.

My reading year so far has had a strong start, and I've managed to fill all prompts so far for the Year in Aledia so still going strong. I hope to start making post about my character and my journey so far. So be on the look out for that.

Well this page is finished. Hope you all I a good day, read lots, and God bless.

*Thrifty Geek* and Vampire VV Kitty

Musical Moment: Taylor Swift- Midnights

 Hello Swifties,

It's that time of the month for another musical moment. Although it's been a few months... Anyway this month we are looking at Taylor Swift's latest release Midnights. I was excited about this release with all the things Swift did leading up to it. I love the idea, I've done things like mood boards and playlists centered around times of day and the like, so this totally fit my mood. I love the vibe of this album, I've even made a sim with this theme in mind.

Cover Art-

We have a square of a picture surrounded by white. We have Taylor staring at the flame of a lit lighter. The simple scripted words are shades of midnight blue.

Inside Back Cover- 

 

We have Taylor in front of a is that a keyboard or small piano, I'm not familiar enough with the instrument to be able to tell.

Back of Back Cover-

We have Taylor with some midnight twos and a one.

Booklet-

In my mind the photos here are snap shots of her Midnight ponderings and adventures. I like in the case of song titles having colors that the color matches.

CD Art-

The Cd is a record this a clock in it's center. I think it's very thematic.

Songs-

Lavender Haze- Written by Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Zoe Kravitz, Mark Anothony Spears, Jahann AKil Sweet and Sam Dew. The album's first song starts with telling you "Meet me at midnight..." his beautiful song sounds like your in a haze. I can just picture being in a hazy little club with lavender lighting. And after I wrote  that Taylor provides a video with a lavender hazed party scene.

Maroon- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. We continue the color theme, which reminds me of her song Red from the album of the same name, a lot color coming into play. She speaks of an old love in memories of red. 

Anti-Hero- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. This one of my favorite songs on the album. A song about how she feels she's the problem. I read somewhere I think on her Twitter the music video was her dealing with intrusive thoughts, which is currently something I'm dealing with , so probably why I like it so much.

Snow on the Beach- Written by Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Lana Del Rey. Is a song of impossible love coming to be.The sound of song I could just imagine snow falling down, it'd been the perfect back drop to a snow scene. She's joined on this song by Lana Del Rey.

You're On Your Own Kid- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. This to me speaks of the passing of youth a unrequited love and shouldering the wages of life on ones own. I really don't have strong options on this one. It does have a strong guitar riff.

Midnight Rain- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. We have a mellow tune of thinking on those loves where to people were just two different to last, but you still think on it late at night.

Question...?- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. A song of questions after apparently a couple either has broken up or had a short fling, and wondering if she's still thought of while their in new relationships. The sound is one I think is common on this album with the music sound muffled, like is playing through a haze, lavender haze maybe?

Vigilante Shit- Written by Taylor Swift. I feel like this bad a** song is about a woman learning her man is a married man, and pretty much outs him to the missus, then they just ruin his life, or maybe their all different men, either way stay out of the way. 

Bejeweled- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. This song is a woman reclaiming herself after a lackluster man at home. This song has a real 80's vibe. I love the Cinderella retelling the video does.

Labyrinth- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. This song is one of two things, a girl who's broken up with someone, and despite odds falling in love again, or she's having a hard time letting go of her ex cause she keeps falling in love. There's a nice keyboard in this song through out it.

Karma- Written by Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Mark Anothony Spears, Keanu Torrees, and Jahann AKil Sweet. This nice bouncing jam is the warning that Karma is going to get the offender and it's on her side.

Sweet Nothing- Written by Taylor Swift and William Bowery. This gentle, sweet song is about after being out in this crazy world coming how to the simplicity of sweet nothings. Another strong keyboards and some gentle brass.

Mastemind- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. A song of how she planned their getting together. This is another song with 80's undertones. I feel like this hearkens back to the 1989 album.

That another Musical Moment wrapped. What did you think of Midnights? Leave a comment below to let me know. 

I hope you have a good week, listen to some awesome tunes, and God bless.

*Thrifty Geek*

New Reading Plans: Welcome to Aeldia!

 Hello my Bookish Friends,

It's a new year my friends. Okay so in the last post I mentioned I wanted to reread through my collection of Mercedes Lackey Velgarth this year, but there's been a slight change of plans. See it all started when I put my cart together. For Christmas Fangirl gifted me this lovely rolling cart:

I been wanting one since I saw booktubers use them for TBR carts. I wanted to use the bottom shelf for my TBR, middle shelf for my reference material for my books, and the top for just a place to lay things cause I like a place to store stuff beside me at my desk. 

So Monday I put the shelf together while watching the Rose Parade, and now I have this lovely peacock shelf to brighten up my room:

Excuse my messy bed in the middle of a room rearranging.

After it was built, I proceeded to move my TBR stacks from the corner near my bookshelves to this cart. I quickly learned I had more in my TBR than I thought, many of which are Mercedes Lackey novels out side her Velgarth. So I thought, maybe I should work on them instead this year.

Luckily about that time Book Roast provided the perfect avenue to use to work through it the Choose Your Own Adventure: Year in Aeldia. Twice a year and with some events in between. Book Roast hosts the Orilium Magical Readathon in August and April. The concept is you create a character who attends the magical school of Orilium. You join a guild and and choose conduit for your magic and your calling. All these will guide your course of study each semester. To pass each semester you read the books required. This give you points in your guild ranks to build on your ranking with in it. I thought it was an awesome idea and was going to participate from the start, but my crappy attention span didn't allow for it. Well this year she has a year long event that requires a book a month except for readathon months. So I decided to give it a shot. So I started by looking through the worksheets she's made, and made a character. I thought it'd be fun if here I chronicled the journey with this adventure. I found the Novice's Path worksheets that people did at the start of the readathon, and while I don't need to read these books, I want to do it for fun, I'll read these along with by monthly book prompts and hopefully I'll have it done by  the April semester of Orilium, and I'm gonna try to do both semesters of that this year. So soon I'll introduce you guys to my character, and then we'll begin her year long story. I'll include what books I read for each prompt, the review you'll of course see in my Library posts later. Sound like a plan?

Yup it's going to be a whole year of bookish delight, and hopefully I'm not too in over my head. If this sounds like something you'd like to get into click the links above to get started, and hopefully we can make this journey together. 

I hope you guys have a good rest of the week, read lots, and God bless!

*Thrifty Geek*