January's epic failure, or, how I should never have resolved this in the first place

You know how I said that I resolved to read one non-fiction book per month?

You know what I'm about to tell you, right? That I'm not even halfway done with my book for January and it's February 2nd already?

I guess I could read two non-fiction books in February to salvage things. But that seems disingenuous somehow.

I'm kind of disappointed, but the truth is that I set myself up for failure. I should've started the month with the non-fiction book so that I had plenty of time to finish it.

In other news, I went on an awesome vacation that I plan to tell you about shortly.

The one where Mrs. Dude hopes to embrace non-fiction

Over time, I've noticed that I read much more fiction than non-fiction. I really like learning new things, but I can't read non-fiction very quickly.

It's discouraging, so I end up reading a lot less non-fiction than I want to. I don't even start the book, knowing that it will take me several months to finish it.

In an effort to challenge myself, I have resolved to read one non-fiction book per month.

This month, I'm reading The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World as my January non-fiction challenge.

Of course I waited until the last week of the month to start it. Of course I've read three novels before this one.

I have a week to eek this out, though.

I guess that's part of the challenge.

How Guitar Hero helped me embrace my inner gamer

The Dude and I have been eyeing Guitar Hero for a while now. We've talked about how much fun it would be to have our very own plastic guitar controllers and to rock out.

Over the weekend, we found a crazy good deal on Guitar Hero at one of the Big Box electronic stores. Apparently they're rotating out some of the old versions in favor of newer versions that aren't that much different from the old ones. It was cheaper for us to buy two older games that each came with a controller than it was for us to buy a bundled up new game that came with two controllers.

And, since we're ever the spendthrifts, we decided to go that route. And by "spendthrift," I mean grown ups who don't necessarily need the newest tricked-outest version of the game.

We decided to play the game in "career co-op" mode which allows both of us to play at the same time. For the record, our band name is "Achieve." The Dude picked it. For the record, I think DDC21, the band name I use on the Guitar Hero game I have for my DS is way more cleaver. But whatever...

After playing for about 3 hours between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, we have successfully completed the game on "Easy" and started the game on "Medium."

I complained that there was a huge difference between the skill required to play on "Easy" and the skill required for "Medium." And by "complained," I mean whined and cursed.

Just keeping it real, y'all.

What I learned is that I can't play lead guitar in co-op mode. I mean, I am physically able to do it. I just don't want to. The Dude is way better at it. I am more of a bass or rhythm guitar kind of woman. It works well for us, since he seems to prefer to play lead guitar.

I kind of feel like this could some sort of crazy video game-based metaphor for our marriage.

Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris

I'll be honest...I didn't expect to like Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris.

I don't really like vampires or books about vampires.

I don't get all high and mighty, literarily speaking, about books about vampires. There's nothing wrong them or with people who read them. They're just not my thing.

We have HBO, though, and I saw some previews for True Blood--the show based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels. It looked okay, which is saying a lot for scripted television these days, and I wanted to watch them.

Unfortunately, I am the victim of 'have to read the book before watching the movie' syndrome. Even more unfortunately, this extends to television, too. Take pity on The Dude, would you?

When I picked up Dead Until Dark, I had fairly low expectations since it was a book about vampires.

I have to say, I like Sookie Stackhouse.

Sookie lives in a small Louisiana town and works at a bar. Seems fairly normal, right?

Given that this is a book about vampires, it can't be that normal.

Sookie meets Bill, a vampire who lived in her town during the Civil War who has come home to try to live a normal life. He quickly learns that with Sookie in his life, it will be anything but normal.

The novel is part romance, part fantasy, and part mystery.

And I loved it. Even if it was a book about vampires. :-)

Speech after long silence...

...it is right.

My apologies to Mr. Yeats for taking his poetry grossly out of context.

I haven't been faithful to my blog in quite a while. I have found a hundred other things to occupy my time. But the part of me that likes to write hasn't feel very satisfied with the silence. And that nagging part of me that tries to ignore things long put-off kept nagging.

I have had a lot of trouble knowing how to set the bounds of my blog. I adopted this pseudo-pseudonym because I never wanted the blog to be about me--not really, anyway. I love blogs about people's lives, but I always wanted to let people into my life by showcasing things I liked. I wanted to share poems or books or music. I wanted you to see me through the lens of things that brought me joy.

I feel this need to let the blog change a little bit and not be so secretive and obtuse. I like the kinda sorta anonymity that comes from using "Mrs. Dude" instead of my real name. And honestly, I just really like using it. But I feel like the blog lacks a certain authenticity when it's about me but not really about me.

So, having gotten all of that off my chest, I feel like it's okay to start blogging again. And I aspire to write every day. Some days it may be about stuff I like. Some days it may just be something about me. I hope those of you who read when I was writing regularly will continue to read. I hope I give you things worth reading.

Voting

I don't care who you vote for.

Exercise your right to choose.

Make your voice heard.

Or, as Diddy said, "vote or die."

Stand up for your rights, both nationally and locally. Don't stop voting at the top of the ticket. Go all the way down--down to the local initiatives and propositions.

Stand in line. Wait as long as it takes.

Having a say is made of a lot of awesome.

MTV Music

Are you one of those people who shakes a fist at the new video-free MTV or dreamily laments about a long-ago time where MTV's content wasn't full of fake-reality shows or bisexual internet sensations finding true love?

I don't suffer from the rage as much as most do, since I didn't have cable growing up. I don't actually remember a time when MTV-proper showed videos. MTV2, maybe. But not MTV.

Put those fists away and wake up! MTV has a website in beta called "MTV Music" that allows users to search for artists or songs or to browse the collection of videos. Now you can spend hours reliving your glory days.

My friends have found dead ends--Queen's "Crazy little thing called love" is one that comes to mind--but there are also a lot of obscure videos included that you might not immediately think of. It's a trade-off, I guess.

It's kind of awesome.