Reviews and More

One of my readers asked me if I’d consider adding a “Foods” category to my reviews. I thought about it briefly, but decided against it for the simple fact that I’m not a very adventurous eater. I mean, my favorite food in the whole world is bread!! I don’t like to try different foods and I’m one of those people who could (happily) eat the same thing for lunch or dinner every day of the week. So I won’t add a separate Foods category, but I will try to throw in some food reviews from time to time. I’ll start by telling you about my favorite cookies: the Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Chunk series.

As far as I know, Pepperidge Farm makes four different varieties in this series: Milk Chocolate Macadamia, Double Dark Chocolate, Dark Chocolate Pecan, and White Chocolate Macadamia Nut. My absolute favorite is the White Chocolate Macadamia Nut. This is a cookie that I just can’t get enough of no matter how often I eat the same flavor! While I prefer fresh-baked ones from Mrs. Field’s, that habit gets pretty expensive, and I don’t want to have to run out to the mall every time I want a cookie.

The Pepperidge Farm version is an excellent substitute. The cookies are big and delicious, plus they are much more reasonably priced than Mrs. Field’s. The only negative that I can think of is that the PF cookies are “crispy” while I like soft ones. A few seconds in the microwave fixes that right up though!

If you like cookies (and who doesn’t?), you have to give the Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Chunk series a try!

I’m probably one of the unhealthiest eaters out there. I never eat fruit or vegetables, and could easily thrive on a steady diet of cheeseburgers, pizza, chicken nuggets and french fries. I know that this is a recipe for disaster, but I just can’t force myself to choke down healthy foods. I try to take vitamins and supplements whenever possible, so I hope that helps.

I just heard about something else that might help me become healthier overall. It’s called Goji berry juice, and it has many properties that are beneficial to our bodies. For example, it contains lots of protein, vitamin C, and special compounds that help guard against cancer and aging. I have no idea what it tastes like, but I’m willing to buy Goji juice and give it try!

A short time ago, I posted a list of four books that I was planning on reading (Money by Martin Amis, The Ambassadors by Henry James, Scoop by Evelyn Waugh, and Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie). I just wanted to type up a quick update here to let you know how that’s going.

Basically, I’m not making much progress in any of those books! I really wanted to read The Ambassadors because I thought I was ready for something a bit more intellectual than the Agatha Christie books that I’d been devoting my entire summer to. But I had a lot of trouble getting into that book, and have put it aside after just 30 pages. I’m about 1/3 of the way through Money, but have tired of the seeming aimlessness of the plot. What is the point of that whole thing??? As for Scoop, I’ve got about 150 pages left. However, I’ve been stuck at that point for, like, six months now!

The only book that I’m actively reading is Partners in Crime, but it’s not as interesting as I thought it would be, so I’m just barely getting through 5-10 pages per day.

Ugh. I hate it when I can’t read. I think I’m going to have to go back and re-read an old favorite just so I can get in the habit again!

I’ve got a friend who makes a full-time living from selling products on eBay. She’s not a latecomer, either. She recognized the income-earning potential of eBay way back in 1997 or 1998, just before the site really took off in terms of mainstream popularity. A decade ago, my friend simply bought things from garage sales and flea markets and resold them online to make small profits on each transaction. Now, however, she purchases brand-new items at wholesale prices and makes an absolute killing on each eBay transaction!

That’s why I think she would be interested in this site I just learned about. It’s called CTS Wholesale Sunglasses, and it offers a wide variety of sunglasses at wholesale prices. I took a look at some of the products on the site, and I noticed that they have sunglasses inspired by brand-name designers.

Personally, I can’t imagine paying hundreds of dollars for a pair of sunglasses just because of the logo on them. I would, however, happily pay a fraction of that price for sunglasses of similar shapes and styles. I’m sure lots of other people feel the same way, so I bet my friend would be able to make some good money by reselling these products on eBay. I’m definitely going to run this idea by her later today!

I had no idea that CSI returned with a new episode last Thursday, but my TiVo caught it so I was able to watch it last night. The ep was called “Leaving Las Vegas,” and was quite different from what we usually see on the show. I liked it!

“Leaving Las Vegas” opens with a typically gruesome murder scene, but then quickly switches to a courtroom. We see that Catherine is testifying in court about that very murder, which was committed some time ago. The defendant is a man named Jay Finch (played by Jed Rees), and he’s accused of brutally stabbing and murdering his own mother. Nice.

The evidence in the case isn’t conclusive enough (there were traces of blood from unknown persons on the knife, which the defense attorney argued could point to other killers), so the jury finds Finch not guilty. However, Catherine is convinced that Finch is the guy and she’s determined to get him. So for the rest of the episode she and Nick track Finch’s movements from three years ago and try to connect him with unsolved crimes in a 350-mile radius.

Meanwhile, back at the lab, Grissom is saying his goodbyes to everyone because he’s leaving for a four-week sabbatical to teach some obscure class at Williams College in Massachusetts. His goodbye scene with Sara was very strange — it was warm, yet it wasn’t what I expected from two people who are in a serious relationship. Hmmm.

Then at the end, we get something of a cliffhanger: A huge package is delivered to Gil’s desk and inside is another one of those miniature murder scenes.

As I said above, I liked this episode. It was fun to see the CSI team do a little investigating instead of just analyzing stuff in the lab. I wasn’t exactly happy that Nick and Catherine were the main characters in this one and that Greg, Warrick, and Sara just put in token appearances, but whatever. Oh, and speaking of Catherine, what was up with her in that jailhouse visitation scene??? She just starts offers to unbutton her blouse without even seeing if the guy was willing to talk to her first??? Um, o-kay….

I’m still not really interested in that whole miniatures thing, but at least it’s good to know that the factory worker from “Loco Motives” wasn’t the real killer. That was too boring.

Looking forward to next week!

I’ve been reading up on different investment strategies lately and I get the feeling that I’m being far too conservative with my money. Currently, my investments are pretty much limited to my home, a mutual fund, an IRA, and a savings account. I’m not exactly raking in big interest rates or high returns from any of those things, so although my money is working for me, it’s not doing as much as it could.

I’ve heard that stock option trading is a much more aggressive investment vehicle that has the potential for huge payoffs, but I don’t know the first thing about this topic. I have to gather more information and then determine if it’s the way I want to go with my money.

All I know right now is that I’m currently getting 4 or 5% on my investments when I should ideally be at 9 or 10%. I’m way off the pace and better pick things up soon if I want to have enough when I retire!

A couple months ago, I listened to the Librivox audiobook of Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native. I am a big Thomas Hardy fan, and hadn’t read this book in awhile, so I was looking forward to revisiting it.

Unfortunately, the reading was just terrible. It’s hard to give Librivox recordings bad ratings because the work is all done by volunteers, but I’m just trying to be honest in my assessment here. The book is billed as a group project, meaning that more than one reader handles the chapters, but in reality, a single reader read 65% of the chapters (yes, I calculated). He had some very, very long chapters in there, so I’d say that he actually read closer to 80% of the book in terms of content.

Anyway, I just COULD NOT STAND his voice or his reading style, so the recording was excruciating to listen to! I tried to get past it and hoped that I would at least get used to it in the latter stages, but that didn’t happen. Every time I heard his voice introduce yet another chapter, I felt like jabbing a pencil in my ears! Ok, maybe that’s a bit extreme, but you get the picture.

The Return of the Native itself is an excellent story and the book is definitely worth reading. However, you’ll definitely want to skip the Librivox version of the Audiobook. In a word, it sucks.