11.15.11
Posted in Reviews tagged Amazing Grass, Amazing Meal, meal replacement drink at 4:47 pm by kyrias
I was running late today and didn’t have time for a meal, so I grabbed a container of Amazing Grass’ Amazing Meal off the shelf at Harvest Co-op.
*shell-shocked face* It was 47.99 for a mere 15 servings. I knew it was that expensive when I took it off the shelf, but I didn’t expect the container, which is pretty big, to be only about half-full.
To be perfectly frank, I am feeling a wee bit cheated. I honestly probably wouldn’t have bought it if I had known.
At 15 servings, it comes out to slightly over three dollars per serving. Bit pricey.
On Amazon, it’s 31.03, which makes it slightly above two dollars, which is much, much better.
Harvest Co-op, you’re making me sad with how much I want to support you and how much your prices differ from everyone else’s. More than 15 dollars more expensive? Really? 
I mixed it with organic whole milk, not using the full 10 ounces, and thought it was pretty drink-able. Not amazingly chocolate-y, but enough that I could chug it without feeling too “healthy”. Definitely not something I’d savor though.
It did mix up pretty smooth, with little of the icky things like clumps that just won’t die and had a good texture.
All the reviews I read said that they felt energized and full for a long time after they drank it. I drank it at about 2pm and didn’t feel particularly full afterwards and now at near 4pm I’m feeling positively hungry. Meal replacement? Perhaps not.
Also, I’m still feeling really sleepy so that whole energizing thing? Nah.
Noting, a lot of the reviews I read were done around 2009 and were done with free samples. I’m wondering how much of their glowing reviews was based off of psychosomatic happy feelings on getting a relatively good tasting drink to experiment with, how much of it was due to them being people who were already pretty healthy to begin with ( also known as the raw/vegan/scary type who CAN easily subsist off of meal replacement shakes) and how much of it was that Amazing Grass had a better product back then and has since declined in quality.
Not to be cynical, but I’ve noticed that the first year or so of a company putting out a product, they tend to have amazing stuff, and then it usually goes downhill after that. And then there are the others that get bought out and just suck after that. Naked Juice, Burt’s Bees, I’m looking straight at you.
Meh. I guess I’ll finish this container since I already paid for it, but I doubt I’ll be back for more.
Two stars for taste and convenience.
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06.03.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:50 am by kyrias
Me: “I’m so bored I could jump out a window.”
Brother points at the bank of windows, “Yeah, sure, out there should work. It looks high enough.”
Me, looking downwards, “Nah, I don’t think it’s high enough.”
B: “Just make sure to land headfirst.”
Me: “Jeez, that’s too much effort. Besides, you’d have to go to Taiwan and China alone if I die.” *smirk*
B: “No, I’d go home to tell dad the tragic news and then I wouldn’t be able to leave the country because I’d need at least a month of mourning time.”
… and then college would start was the unsaid implication.
God but we’re bored. We’ve been sitting in Boston Logan Airport for, oh, like 5 hours now. Gah.
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02.07.11
Posted in Writing at 10:45 am by kyrias
So. Last week was sick and misery and sick.
I think iddt gave me a mild case of food poisoning from under-cooked beef. Everyone else was fine though, so I think it was because I was gurk-sick already and the immune system said fuck no.
Did about 300? words of writing this morning, so feel much better, and since I think! hope! that Estyria book 1 draft 1 is drawing to a close, I decided to rig up a mini-questionnaire to procrastinate from further writing.
Yes, I’m good like that.
Estyria
Hopefully it will work and I will get data from it.
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01.25.11
Posted in Writing at 11:17 am by kyrias
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Probably for too long considering that I haven’t even managed to finish Estyria (temporary title) yet, but hey, that’s how procrastination works, right?
The thing is, if I ever do finish Estyria, I’m probably going to try and sell it to NY first, and then if that doesn’t happen, I just might try self-publishing.
There’s a couple of reasons for that:
I don’t like how little money most authors make. What I’m hearing from the authors I read and like is that it’s really hard to make a good living off of writing.
The consensus is to not give up your day job. Keep it even if you could scrape by, in case piracy drives you back to it!
The way I see it?
Unless you’re one of those writers who will simply die, die, if they do not write — you not writing sucks a hella lot more for the reader than for you.
Well, also unless you hate your current day job a hella lot more than you hate scraping by and relying on the vagaries of humanity to keep you and yours fed.
Me?
I hate relying on the vagaries of humanity to keep me fed just a little more than I hate my current day job. Considering I have a boyfriend to help put through college, a family to feed, retirement to think of, children to save for, and my own love for disposable income to think of — no thanks.
The idea of busting my tail off to write the book, then shop it around, probably get a paltry 5~6k for my efforts, and then have to start praying that I make back that advance while working furiously to pump out the next book and to just continue on that merry-go-round is somehow oddly disincentivising.
Then there’s more facts to dissuade!
The fact that authors only get about four dimes for every paperback novel they sell and 2.50 for each hard cover is just a tad disheartening. Add to that the fact that you need to make back your advance first and thereafter the money often comes in bi-annually…
It’s almost incidental to comment that bookstores often don’t keep books on the shelf for all that long and that bookstores will order less with each subsequent order based on how they perceive your books will do, driving some authors to publish under other names.
The little quibble I have with losing control over cover art, book title, and ebook rights pales by comparison to all of the above.
Mostly, I’d put up with a good deal with regards to cover at and book title, but in this day and age it almost seems like financial suicide to give up ebook rights.
…right.
Uh-huh.
How about a big, fat, resounding no?
I’ll publish on my own terms, or self-publish, or not at all.
The way I see it, there’s some pros and cons of self-publishing for me personally, cheerleading and hide-bound dinosaurs aside:
Pros:
- Making significantly more for each book I sell. Smashwords, just as an example, offers 85% of net sales proceeds.
- More control over the book, period.
- I’ll be able to reach more readers if I go with a non-DRM system that is user-friendly and doesn’t rely on ebook readers. Think instant demographic boom.
Cons:
- Lack of platform. It’s going to take a lot of PR tail-busting to get it out there and to get past the stigma of self-publishing. Problem? I’m desperately shy.
- Need to hustle to find/pay people to do the editing, proof-reading, and cover design. ~3k for an editor? Hah. When I win the lottery, perhaps.
- Trying to shout above the masses to get attention is going to suck.
The thing is, I don’t believe that the majority of publishers and authors are looking in the right direction when it comes to ebooks. Completely asides even from the self-pubbing bit.
E-books means that you can offer up to half or more of your book as a tease.
It means that ex-pats in other countries can easily find and read your book, thus fulfilling their burning desire for something in their own language.
It means that, not even ex-pats, English speakers the world round suddenly have the ability to become your readers. If I could just sell my book to 1% of the Chinese population, I’d have it made. Which, with their push on English learning, I might very well be able to sell to the Chinese eventually given enough pushing.
So there’s no way I’m giving up my e-book rights. Which is probably a deal breaker. Oh well.
I’m lucky in that C can probably do enough editing to make it pass muster for the majority of the population, which is all we’re really aiming for anyways. If I pass the book around my friends, I’m sure between us monkeys we can get enough plot-nits out. Deviantart can probably supply me with amazing cover art.
I’m not saying it’ll be professional grade editing or cover art, but honestly, reading through horror stories of how new authors can get screwed over with regards to editing and cover art — I’ll take my chances if it comes to that. By the way, I’m speaking of barely getting edited and proof-read because of the time crunch and white-washing of characters, not the lack of choices.
Now, to finish the damn book so I can test out how badly I can fail at this. 
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01.21.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:33 am by kyrias
Things have been floating in my mind off and on since I read Shiloh Walker’s post on piracy and now that some people from a comm I subscribe to have posted their views on the subject, I figure it’s about time to finally hash out what exactly I think on the matter.
I’m not going to read anyone’s full post before I post this, just to see how much privilege I have hanging out.
So. Pirating.
I believe that it is the right of any creator to be paid for their work. I’ve caught flak for this in the past, but I also believe that if fan-fic authors wish to be paid for their work, then they should be.
For the point of books and other media for entertainment, I do not believe that anyone is entitled to free entertainment. If people desire free entertainment, then there’s myriad possibilities on the internet without going into illegal territory. If you’re downloading for the point of pre-viewing something before buying it, then that’s one thing, but if you’ve downloaded something and it’s something that you would have bought if you were forced to it, then you should. If it’s something that you didn’t enjoy and that you wouldn’t have bought if you read it in a bookstore, then I don’t believe that you’re necessarily under moral obligation to purchase it.
I believe, if there a way of acquiring it legally, then you are under moral obligation to do so.
EXCEPTIONS to my rule:
Textbooks. Non-fiction. Information in general. Information should be free for all and should be disseminated freely.
If there is no feasible way to procure the item in question, then by all means.
Now, I’m going to go off and read other posts and see how my privilege is holding up.
- crossposted from DW where there are 14 comments
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01.06.11
Posted in life tagged car accidents at 8:41 pm by kyrias
To the dumb shit who ran out into the street after their light turned red:
I have to say, you bring a whole new meaning to the reminder to go down the street, not across the road. Please, if you want to kill yourself, do not engage us in your suicidal plans. I assure you that pills work just as well as getting run over by a car. Potentially better, since you don’t need to count on the hapless other party to not brake on time. If you must needs use a car, I have it on very good authority that running a hose from the exhaust into the interior of the car is a pretty reliable method of suicide — and your cheeks turn a lovely pink from the carbon monoxide too. Or, if there’s something appealing to you about relying on chance, why not use the railroad tracks? That way, at least you’re not ruining someone elses’ insurance premiums and potentially involving them in a lawsuit. Of course, if you’re a dickless dumb shit, which you appear to be, then I suppose there’s no help for that. I wish you the best of luck in your suicidal endeavors and sincerely pray that you will not make it to reproduction because the last thing we need is someone irresponsible like you parenting an impressionable child.
– no love, kyrias
To the dumb shit who wasn’t paying attention in the middle of Central Sq:
First of all, above all, you fail at life. Mostly because you engaged in a hit and run and lied to us to get us to get back into our car and then skedaddled. Secondly, I’m going to assume that you’re not from NYC, because if you were, then you should know better than to not pay attention when dumb fucks are running around like headless chickens. It was the middle of Central Sq where idiots were running amok, and yet you managed to hit us when we braked for one of said idiots. Considering that it wasn’t a hard brake on our part, I suspect you were just tooling along at a much faster speed than you should have. Double fail for you. If you are from NYC, triple fail with no cherry on top. I hope you get what’s coming to you, shitface. 
– no love, kyrias
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Posted in Writing tagged series at 11:53 am by kyrias
I read a post by Ilona a day or so ago about series and their whyfores and therefores of ending or not ending them:
Personally, it strikes me a little odd when people come out guns blazing to tell us that they’re huge fans of the series, but no, don’t write any more books in it. It’s like walking up to a concert pianist and telling him, “Your rendition of Bach was lovely, now please get off the piano, we’re done listening.” You might think it, but you would not necessarily tell that to the pianist’s face.
The thing is, as a reader, I remember predicting that Robert Jordan was going to die before he ever finished the series — when I was 12. He died when I was in college. I swear I laughed myself silly. C told me at that point that Jordan had said something to the effect of him writing the series until he was stuffed in his coffin — but hey, I’d called it, many years before he came out and admitted it.
Then there’s the Laurell K. Hamilton series where really, I don’t give a flying fuck. I was interested in the first two books and then it just went weird from there and then went crappy after wierd.
Then there’s the Twilight series…not even gonna go into that. Y’all know my stance on that particular series.
Then…and then….and then…
One series that is handled pretty brilliantly is Mima’s Truxet books. As I said to her when she commented on wondering if her series was getting away from her:
I just wanted to say that your series is definitely not dragging on. The problem with long series is when it seems interminable, when it seems like the author is milking the series for all he/she can get out of it and the story line isn’t really so much progressing as standing in place. Your series is pretty much stand-alone so far as I can see; there’s an overall story arc, but it doesn’t get in the way of reading each book as it comes. Each book builds upon the one before and reveals another facet of Truxet life — definitely not boring at all.
Lynn Kurland’s fantasy series is pretty damn amazing too. There’s world-building, there’s character development and there’s closure and she doesn’t take a million zillion years to get around to it. I do want to read more about Morghain and her newly kinged husband — but really, to a certain extent, I’m ok with exploring new characters.
The real problem, is as I see it, is that people get invested in characters and then the new characters just aren’t as shiny for some reason. Perhaps they have the wrong personality type. I like Mercy more than I like whoever the heroine is of the alpha and omega series. See how I can’t even remember her name. Perhaps we don’t like the way the storyline is going. Maybe the conflict just isn’t our cup of tea.
It’s not that I always don’t want a series to end, it’s just that sometimes the known is so much better than the known.
Sometimes, like with Morghain and Miach, it’s not that the story is left undone, it’s just that I’d actually like to see how they deal with being proper royalty and the hilarity that has to ensue from seeing Morghain being a queen.
But why would a reader come right out and tell the author that they’d like it to end quickly?
Well, sometimes I just want it to end because really, we’re done with this arc and we’re done with waiting and can you please just tell us what the ending is already? I don’t want you to get sidetracked by any more side-arcs. Or sex. Please don’t try to distract me with sex.
I want to know if Meredith Gentry or whatever her name is finally does get crowned queen or whatever. Which I do want to know, but I assure you that the question is almost purely academic. That Fae Fever series by Karen Moning is also on my list of “you dragged it out too long and seemed to be going in circles and fuck me if I’ll buy another one of your hardcovers only to see that the plot went forward in inches” series that I’ll just buy the last book or borrow the last book to see how it all goes down. See, I bought the first book in hardcover. Then I bought the second in hardcover and put my foot down in frustration.
PSA: The plot needs to move forward sufficiently so I don’t feel cheated as a reader. ‘k?
And by move forward sufficiently, I mean that it’s great to have a really long series, but Briggs and Ilona Andrews did the correct thing in resolving at least one main plotline before continuing. Mercy finally got together with Adam, rejoice! Samuel got a lady-love! Kate and Curran kind of sort of have figured out their relationship, yay!
And now for our regularly scheduled ass-kicking….
Honestly, if they had dragged it out for longer, I might have said “fuck it” as well. I just can’t keep up the level of anticipation if I’m not thrown a bone once in a while.
Then there’s the “we’re going to write about every. single. possibly. interesting. side character before getting to THE ONE that everyone is looking forward to”.
Nalini Singh, I’m looking at you.
I loved her series to start off with, but towards the later bits, I felt like it was getting a wee bit formulaic. Alpha-ish female having to work out issues with power and so forth with another alpha male. Yeah, we got that. Or, cold Psy needs to defrost with hot-blooded changeling male. Check.
Can we get to Hawk and Sienna’s story already? I’m not at the point where I don’t like them anymore, but it’s getting a little too fluffy for me and it feels a bit like doing time.
The worst of it is when there’s this huge buildup to THE ONE that everyone is interested in, and then the last book just doesn’t live up to the hype. Acheron, yeah, that one. By Sherrilyn Kenyon? The one that’s been building up for what, years and years now? Bought it in hardcover, couldn’t even make it through.
Series building is srs bzness, peeps.
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01.05.11
Posted in Conventions, Feminism, culture at 12:51 am by kyrias
Warning: This blog post will now proceed to engage in the following potentially offensive and triggering activities: victim blaming, victim shaming, cursing, omnicidal intent, and incoherent rage-filled ranting. Continue at your own peril. I take no responsibility for whatever sensibilities might be offended. You have been warned.
C and I just had a fun little conversation where I ended up declaring that if I had access to a little red button that would end the human race, I’d hit it. I’d hit it so hard my wrist would break.
It all started out with the mention of how women at a certain workplace get let go when they fall pregnant.
I will not bore you with our rather longish convo log, but just state my conclusions because to be honest I’m in a frothing sort of rage right now and I can’t be arsed to go ahead and support all my statements with the facts:
I’m really surprised and disappointed that we women as a whole haven’t just closed our legs, sewn up our vaginas and refused to pop out more children unless things were changed. No comments from the peanut gallery about how that wouldn’t work because the mens would just force themselves upon the wimminz — it’s the principle that counts.
I like how we could chain ourselves to fences, to trees, to all sorts of things and endure all sorts of terrible treatment for voting, to save trees, so and so forth, but we’re just sitting here and taking it with regards to childcare and government support and gender inequality in the work place.
I like it because I see it as the result of socioeconomic strata at work again. The rich have enough money to throw at the problem so they can ignore it. The middle-class has dreams of becoming the upper class and being able to throw money at problems and somehow it’s just so gauche to complain that they just suck it up. The poor just take it up the ass, along with everything else.
It’s exactly like the organic food movement. The people who can afford to worry about where their food is coming from and how it’s grown aren’t exactly turning out in droves to fix the problem for everyone. No, they go to Whole Foods and help Whole Foods make a killing.
I just don’t understand it.
It’s not like any other issue where any one of us can stand aside and say “well, fuck it, this doesn’t affect me at all, so the rest of the world can go screw themselves”.
Everyone of us has a mother, some of us have sisters, a large number of us have daughters, and many of us have female spouses and at the very least has friends — gender inequality in the workplace affects you, affects the people you love, affects far too many people in your life — how the hell do people just stand aside and let it happen?
How?
C mentioned something about how the standing argument by the dumbasses is that it’s hard to argue for gender equality when the reality is that women are sometimes, maybe even often, semi-incapacitated (in terms of workforce labor) once they have the chillens.
All I have to say to that is: to explain why things are the way they are right now by saying this is how we failed women is like saying “Oh, I beat my wife up because she limps and isn’t fast enough at catering to my every whim. Oh, what’s that noise about how she wouldn’t be limping if I didn’t beat her to start off with? STFU, man, keep outta my srs bzness”.
To clarify: to complain that women often have to take sick days off to deal with their children, that women often are saddled with most of the childcare duties and so are somewhat more unreliable at work than men, to complain that often women are overworked in the house and so come to work with less than 100% is nothing but pure, fragrant, bullshit.
You know what?
I will think of the children.
I think that it’s better for the children if we just didn’t have anymore children until we cleaned up our act.
Fuck you assholes who see women as nothing more than cheap-ass brood mares that you can use and use and then throw to the knackers when you’re done.
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01.02.11
Posted in I.T at 3:14 pm by kyrias
I came across a mention of QR codes on Shiloh Walker’s blog where she asked what exactly they did. Curious, I went to uqr.me and got one of my own.
There seems to be two parties of thought to the idea of QR codes: there are those who think that they are a passing fad that won’t really catch on, and those who think that they’re the wave of the future.
Some magazines and adverts are already starting to use them, Continental Airlines is currently using it to expedite plane boarding and you can use it to set up Paypal payments so it’s not as if they’re utterly useless.
I set my QR code to point to this blog, but I could also have set it to my Vcard, so whoever scans it will be able to automatically download my personal info onto their phone. I could also have made a “leaf” where any information I put on the leaf, such as my resume, or other sorts of general information.
I don’t know how useful QR codes are currently and I’m not sure how useful they’re going to be because although it seems like smart phones are ubiquitous nowadays, there are still enough people who don’t have the latest in phones that I don’t see QR codes exploding overnight. Add to that the older generation who tend to be less enthusiastic about the more gimmicky types of new tech and it might be a while.
Regardless! I have a QR code, and when I’m a little more on top of things I’m going to edit my leaf, which can include a link to my blog, instead of just having the QR code direct to my blog which is a much less efficient way to disseminate information.
Right now I’m using my QR code as my Facebook profile pic, but if I ever make out name cards, I intend to use it as my name card picture as well. Sort of like Twitter — I won’t necessarily use it much or find it terribly useful in the interim, but there’s no harm in having one now and twiddle with it.
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01.01.11
Posted in life tagged resolutions at 11:57 pm by kyrias
One more year until the apocalypse! Are you prepared for the end of the world?
Requisite trolling aside, I suppose it’s time to talk about goals, timelines, resolutions, and so forth.
I agree with Thene that I’m not really the resolution making sort, but I figure that goals are not quite the same as resolutions and are really quite a bit more friendly.
So!
I didn’t actually manage to get my driver’s license in 2010 because of the blizzard that wiped out my road test, so I guess that goes back on the list.
Goals for 2011
Lose 50 pounds
Set aside 5k into my ROTH IRA
Get driver’s license
Finish Estyria (more writing)
As can be seen, it’s a pretty short list. I figure that it’s dumb to put down a huge list and essentially set myself up for failure, so I’m just going to put up the things that I would really kick myself over not accomplishing.
I want to finish Estyria and hopefully quite a bit more than that, but since I’m probably still going to be working fulltime unless my parents fire me from my job — it’s better to be realistic than sorry when 2012 rolls around.
Everything else is pretty self-explanatory. As a general note, I’d like to try and keep my room neater, and keep better track of where the money is going. The rest is just icing on the cake.
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