Ramblings-n-Writings

Archive for the ‘skittles’ Category

How am I doing with my American Idol picks for Season 9?

Back in the beginning of March, I chose my top 3 females and top 4 guys from the top 24. At this point, I chose 5 of the top 7.

Wednesday night we said goodbye for the second time to a female pick – Katie Stevens. Like Ryan said when chatting with Katie, she really has come a long ways in the past weeks and has grown up a lot too. I have no doubt in my mind that we’ll hear from Katie in the future. She has a huge set of vocals! I thought her performance Tuesday night was one of the best of the night. (But I don’t think the judges thought so.)

The only complaint I have about Katie is that whoever chose her wardrobe for the show didn’t do her justice. Her clothes were consistently unflattering and made her almost look frumpy. And if I had to guess, the clothes probably cost her some teenage boy votes. 

So, since we said goodbye to Katie, that leaves me with only one female pick left – Siobhan Magnus. I’ve liked Siobhan from the beginning and especially after her Aretha song. I feel her frustration because the judges tell her not to scream (a.k.a. opening up and letting it rip on the high notes), yet when she doesn’t use her powerful vocals, they tell her she’s boring.

Rabbit trail warning: After paying attention to a lot of the judges’ criticisms this year, I think I’d like to sit in the audience for a show. There’s apparently a dramatic difference between the live versions and what we hear on tv. Many times a performance sounds horrible and the judges praise it or it sounds awesome and they trash it. But I digress…

So far, all of my top 4 guys are still in the competition. Last week got a little touchy when Big Mike had the least votes but was saved by the judges.  Now that we’re a little further into the competition, here’s my thoughts on the guys…

Tim Urban – Wow, has he come a long way since the beginning. Something about him made him stand out in the top 24, because he made my cut. I think he got a little lost along the way, and getting some of the “vote for the worst” vote gave him the confidence he needed. Like Simon said recently, Tim went from a “zero to hero” in two weeks.

Big Mike – He can definitely sing, although he needs to add some variety to his songs. Like Siobhan, his songs are starting to all sound the same.

Lee DeWyze – I liked Lee in the beginning, still do, but he isn’t a favorite. He’s good but he’s too much like past American Idol guys. 

Aaron Kelly – Aaron has a great voice, but lacks a little bit in the maturity area. If he wants to pursue a career in music, he’ll make it some day, but I don’t think now is his time. He hasn’t quite figured out who he is as an artist and I think some of that comes with maturity.

The two left in the top 7 that I didn’t choose are Casey James and Crystal Bowersox, both excellent in their own way.

I’ve been trying to decide on a top 3, but I’ve only managed to narrow it down to 4. For the girls, I’m confident that it will come down to Siobhan and Crystal being in the top 4. The guys are a little more dicey. I see Aaron leaving the show first followed by either Casey or Tim, possibly Lee, or for that matter, maybe even Big Mike. LOL

What’s your choice for the top 3?

I finally accomplished something I set out to do about 10 months ago!

Some of you will remember my lamenting about my business website and some of the issues I had with it. One of my goals all along since I started the site about 2 years ago was to add a blog.

Through the blog, I wanted to share writing tips, editing hints, graphic design ideas, grammar lessons, and publishing-related stuff. (Isn’t “stuff” a fun word? It can encompass so much without having to be specific or particular. Of course, some might say it’s uncreative and it can be replaced with a better word, but oh well.)

Well, guess what? My new blog launched last week!!!

I’m going to be sharing on the topics I originally planned on – writing, editing, grammar, publishing, and graphic design. I might even throw in a few posts about rural small business, advertising, and who knows what else!

One of my favorite parts of the blog is the grammar section. I’m starting off by talking about the most feared piece of punctuation … the comma. So many people are afraid to use a comma, but once you know the rules, that little squiggly thing really isn’t too intimidating.

When you have a few minutes, stop by the Skala Creative blog and let me know you visited!

Oh, and I also added some new advertisements I designed to my portfolio. Click on ”Promotional.”

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The year is 1945. The war is over and 21-year-old Betty Lake has been invited to Europe to sing in a USO tour for American soldiers who now occupy Hitler’s Germany. The first night’s performance is a hit. Betty becomes enthralled with the applause, the former Nazi-held mansion they’re housed in and the attention of Frank Witt, the US Army Signal Corp Photographer. Yet the next night this songbird is ready to fly the coop when Betty’s dear friend, Kat, turns up missing. Betty soon realizes Frank’s photographs could be the key to finding Kat. Betty and Frank team up against post-war Nazi influences and the two lovebirds’ hearts may find the answers…in each other. But will they have a chance for their romance to sing? The truth will be revealed under a German moon.

MY THOUGHTS:

Author Tricia Goyer is quickly becoming one of my favorite historical fiction authors. Her stories are down-to-earth to the point that you can easily see yourself as the character. Her characters don’t do strange things and feel like they could be the person living around the corner – that’s how true to life they are.

 Songbird Under A German Moon transports the reader back to post-war 1945 Germany. I really enjoyed this setting partly because I’ve always been fascinated with European countries, but mostly because this book breaks the mold and takes place just after the war rather than during the war. I found myself empathsizing with Betty as she observed the hundreds of displaced Germans trying to make it through each day without roofs over their heads or a reliable meal. So often when we think of World War II, we immediately think of the Germans as the bad people, yet the common German citizen suffered so much. I like how author Tricia Goyer evoked that emotion, as well as different way of thinking, from me.

Another favorite aspect of the book was the relationship between Betty and Frank. Both were able to separate themselves from the moment and think longterm – “how will things be once we return stateside?” I grew to have a lot of respect for Frank’s character as he tried to show Betty what was right spiritually. The book isn’t preachy, just written to reflect how two Christians might talk to each other about spiritual matters.

Needless to say, Songbird Under a German Moon is another historical fiction book that will take up permanent residence in my library.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tricia Goyer is the author of twenty books including From Dust and Ashes, My Life UnScripted, and the children’s book, 10 Minutes to Showtime. She won Historical Novel of the Year in 2005 and 2006 from ACFW, and was honored with the Writer of the Year award from Mt. Hermon Writer’s Conference in 2003. Tricia’s book Life Interrupted was a finalist for the Gold Medallion in 2005. In addition to her novels, Tricia writes non-fiction books and magazine articles for publications like Today’s Christian Woman and Focus on the Family. Tricia is a regular speaker at conventions and conferences, and has been a workshop presenter at the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) International Conventions.  She and her family make their home in the mountains of Montana. Find out more about her and her books at www.TriciaGoyer.com.

WHAT ERA? CONTEST:

Leave a comment on Tricia’s blog or send an email through her website CONNECT page and answer this question: What era in history do you wish you’d lived in and why? Earn extra entries by signing up for Tricia’s newsletter here, becoming a Fan on Facebook or Tweeting about the contest on Twitter (use hashtag #songbird)!

You’ll be entered to win one of three signed copies of Songbird Under a German Moon.

A special thank you to Amy Lanthrop and Stephanie Garvey of Litfuse Publicity Group for sending me this book for review. This post does not contain any of my affiliate links, and the “My Thoughts” section is my own words. The other sections are promotional copy provided to me by Litfuse.

Have you noticed a tiny change in the left sidebar? Earlier this week, my BlogHer ad vanished. Don’t worry, it wasn’t those pesky gremlins that keep messing up my site. It was an intentional move by me, and here’s why ….

I’ve had a great experience with BlogHer. Their ads are colorful, family friendly, and I really have no complaints. The main reason why I chose to remove BlogHer ads is because of their increasingly more stringent rules about the kinds of posts I could put on my blog.

I believe that this is my blog, my space in the online world, and not a place for advertisers to dictate what I can post, where I can post it, or how often I need to post. Ultimately I have the say in what can or can’t be done on my site.

Besides random ramblings about various topics, my main focus is on promoting excellent books. As many of you know, I receive these books free from the publisher in exchange for my writing a review or introducing my readers to the book. Unfortunately, the advertisers that have contracted with BlogHer feel like a blogger’s promotion of a book interferes with their product advertising.

Personally, I see no harm in a post that includes an author bio, product details, and a video about the book. But in order for those posts to continue on this blog, I would need to create a separate review page or write a review for every single book I read.

So, with all that being expressed, I decided to discontinue my BlogHer ads.

(Short side note: when I started with BlogHer ads a couple of years ago, they did not have the stringent requirements about reviews. Over time the requirements have morphed into what they are now. BlogHer ads is wonderful passive income generator, and I recommend it to other bloggers who do not have other advertising or write reviews.)

Just popping in to quickly say that I’m so excited about how things are falling in place this week! Something must be in the air … spring, maybe?  

• Starting today, I’m going to be posting 1 book review a day for the next 4 days. Make sure you come back on Thursday to find out about the most gripping story I’ve read in a long, long time. Seriously.
• I’m making progress on redeveloping my business website. I’m doing a lot of work behind the scenes, and things are going a lot smoother than I imagined.
• I’ve also revised some other areas of my business after reviewing rates and all the nitty gritty stuff.
• And, perhaps the most exciting thing, I have my first flower blooming in my garden today! Yep, a gorgeous white crocus spread its petals along with some other tiny purple flower that I have no clue what to call. Of course, if you count the dandelion, I had a flower blooming two days ago. Is it really time for dandelions already?
• If it is time for dandelions, that means the hummingbirds aren’t too far away. One has been spotted in mid- South Carolina, so start thinking about getting your feeders ready! I faithfully put my feeders out on April 15 every year.

Some of you might remember that I used to have a separate garden blog and then I joined up with Jendi’s Journal for last summer to continue Garden Vines. Unfortunately, halfway through last summer, the gremlins ate that site and it vanished in cyberspace. I haven’t decided if I should start over with another blog or just do a weekly garden post here. What do you, my readers, think?