Book Review: Black is for Beginnings

Blue Is For Nightmares, Book 5 - by Laurie Faria Stolarz. Title: Black is for Beginnings. Author: Laurie Faria Stolarz. Genre: Young Adult Graphic Novel. Paperback: 168 pages. Publisher: Flux (September 1, 2009). Description: Prophetic nightmares. Near-brushes with death. Killers pursuing her and her friends. Stacey Brown knows that being a hereditary witch isn't all it's cracked up to be. All she really wants to do is work things out with Jacob and figure out what to do with the rest of her life. But before Stacey and Jacob can have a future, they must face their pasts. Black is for Beginnings reveals the never-before-seen backstory, and what lies ahead for the young, spellcasting lovers. It's happening again... My Review: I read Blue is for Nightmares back when I was, um, younger. Wasn't a huge fan. At all. I just didn't enjoy the vibes coming off the book. I wasn't interested in reading more. So why did I read this? I don't know. After I left the library with it I was questioning my sanity. The majority... okay, okay, all of the book was annoying. Trying to be hip. And down with the kids. The romance and angst were irritating. The big annoyance was the main character: Stacey. She was extremely insecure. 

Insecurity, like feistiness, if done wrong, can make you hate a character. From my experience. Insecurity can become a chronic whining and moaning. Feistiness is often another, nicer, word for extreme bitchiness. Of course, this insecurity was enhanced by the fact that this is a graphic novel. Every unsure glance. Every drawn brow. Every constipated expression. For heaven's sake her face on the cover is exactly what I am talking about. Anyway, the book is all about Stacey's insecurity, her regret and her self-absorption. Nothing much besides that, of interest (key phrase here), was really happening. The ending was a killer for me. Stacey, obviously gets the dude, but she has to ask if her likes her. "Do you hate me? You do right? I bet you think I am dumb and ugly!" Omg! I was about to die. She never gains any confidence. Would have enjoyed some character growth here! Well, they're teens, one can only hope that relationship crashes and burns. Sorry I always get like this, acting like it's all real, when characters or a plot/story annoys me greatly. My rating is 1/5. Would not recommend this book. Unless you love the author and her Blue series. Or if you are an immense junkie of GNs.

I Need to Think Happy Thoughts

Or i’m not going to make it through the day. Here’s a happy thought: my daughter just had her first taste of chocolate! And what did she do? she immediately began to demand more. Smart kid. It has been brought to my attention that she was not given the chocolate, she stole it. It’s probably evidence that i’m a terrible parent that this fact fills me with a certain frisson of pride. You should see her though. Most of the time, when she finds things, her first impulse is to give it to whomever is standing nearby. It’s the cutest thing in the world. The fact that she kept the chocolate for herself is merely evidence that she’s a normal human being. Could have fooled me, I see daily signs that she’s an angel. This is a child who is loved. I want so much to give her everything that will make her strong, confident and secure. At the very least, I don’t want her to ever, for one second, have to doubt or question that she is loved, absolutely unconditionally. God willing she’s escaped her father’s brain chemistry. That being the case, I’ll do what I can.

Solar Charge Controller

Passionate about electronic or wanting to become a good electronics engineer, then you are in the right place. On electroschematics.com you will find a dedicated community  of smart and innovative people, that will help you develop your skills and improve your knowledge. You can initiate conversations regarding branches of electronics that you are interested in and we provide you valuable information and advice. You can always ask us questions if you have any difficulty in understanding our projects or our articles and we promise prompt responses. A charge controller or charge regulator is a voltage and a current regulator to keep batteries from overcharging. It regulates the voltage and current coming from solar panels going to the battery. A charge controller is usually useful.  A fully charged "12 volt’" battery is around 12.7 volts at rest, so the panel has to put out at least that much under worst case conditions. Contrary to intuition, solar panels work best at cooler temperatures. 

Roughly, a panel rated at 100 watts at room temperature will be an 83 watt panel at 110 degrees. If you use a standard controller, it will often work with high voltage panels if the maximum input voltage of the charge controller is not exceeded. However, there is going to be a lot of lost power, from 20% to 60% of what your panel is rated at. Charge controls come in all shapes, features, sizes and price ranges and in 3 general types. Circuitry that functions as a charge regulator controller may consist of several electrical components or may be encapsulated in a single microchip, an integrated circuit usually called a charge controller IC or charge control IC. We invite you to find out more about the low dropout voltage (LDO) solar charge controller that uses a simple differential amplifier and series channel MOSFET linear regulator. Voltage output is adjustable and it’s mainly intended for charging 12V lead-acid batteries. Discover specification on this page www.electroschematics.com/6899/12v-ldo-solar-charge-control/ and join the team!

Sytling Your Bookcases

My idea book on styling your bookshelves was just published over at Houzz if you want to stop by to read the whole article. Enjoy your night!

Award for Fairness and Citizen of the Month

Garden Tour, Last day of School, Award for Fairness and Citizen of the Month. May is probably my favorite month of the year, the flowers are abundant and the fruits and veggies are growing rapidly to be on time for Summer. In my garden I have Hydrangeas planted with "Big Boy" tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, butterfly daisies and wallflowers. The middle garden bed features lavender and three other flowers that I completely forgot the name of, complete with a bird bath. The first garden bed is home to allysums, stock and strawberries. Making their big debut are climbing wisteria... Anyhow, the kids will be out for Summer vacation and I'm ridiculously excited! Our Summer is packed and I wouldn't have it any other way! I wish you all a lovely weekend!

Pretty Pins, Progress

I'm making progress on my chairs. Remember the ones I shared with you here? I found a pretty neutral velvet thanks to my friend Carol. It was a bargain at $12/yard. I've got one chair done you can see my Instagram photo of it here. The other has been painted with one coat. I'm hoping to finish tomorrow! I was going to buy the rug from PB but turns out they didn't have the one I wanted in the border color I liked so back to the drawing board there. I ordered the Wuslu deal of the day yesterday. I usually go look but I've never ordered from them before. I really like the lantern and knew it would be great in so many places! Here is my favorite pin from this week. My first Houzz Tour as a Contributor will be published tomorrow. I can't wait for you to see who's beautiful home it is! I'll have the link as soon as it's live. See you soon.

Valentine Dinner Menu

Hello! I don't have a plan for my whole week today. I just need to get through a crazy busy day tomorrow. I do plan to make this yummy looking Vegetable Lasagna and Carmelita Bars for our family Valentine's  dinner tomorrow with some homemade bread. Nothing too crazy just a nice meal together. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by my to do list but I'm hopeful I'll get some things crossed off tomorrow! See you soon.

Mustard Seed Interiors

I had the pleasure of working with the super talented Marian of Miss Mustard Seed on a tour of her beautiful home for Houzz. If you get a minute to stop by and take a look I know you will enjoy her home! I want to thank Marian for taking time out of her very busy schedule to be a part of this. Marian is busy working on her first book. I wish her much continued success! Thank you for coming by, see you soon!

Chairs After & Before

Well friends my chairs are finally finished and I could not be happier! After looking at PB, Home Depot, and Lowes I found a perfect rug at Target. It matches the one on the other side of my living room really well and it was pretty reasonable. I put together a How To for Houzz on this whole project that will be published in a few weeks. So for now, here is the after. I moved some things around and decided that they would be pretty in front of the window. It's getting there, I'd love to find an ottoman that I can slip cover and maybe that pretty tufted sofa? We'll see, I'll have to save my pennies! A little improvement, don't you think? I'll let you know when the How To goes up on Houzz if you're interested in seeing the whole process. Thanks for visiting!