Sandwich Ratings

I was talking with YouKneek over on her thread at LibraryThing (starting about message 275) and we got sidetracked onto what our ratings would be if they were sandwiches.

I through out a whole range off the top of my head but once I was done I realized, this was a subject worthy of a serious blog post. Food is serious business and so is rating books. And considering that I’m Mister Serious, it all fit together, like a toe in a sock in a steel toe’d boot!

So without further ado, I present My Ratings as Sandwiches!

 

1)  Anchovies and (your favorite) Cheese on Toast 

This is a picture of ricotta cheese (not my favorite btw) and anchovies on toast. The mere sight turns my stomach!

 

2) Peanutbutter and Jelly

I ate this from 2000 until almost 2010 everyday for lunch. It was economical, easy to change up (different jelly every week) and I loved crunch peanutbutter. Now however, I will go hungry rather than eat one of these. I burned myself out on them and I’ve never recovered from it.

 

3) Turkey bologna and cheese

I use wheat bread instead of white bread (because I’m not a racist!) but this pretty much looks like a bologna sandwich I’d make. Relatively cheap, not for every occasion but giving my body all the fuel it needs during a work day.

 

4) Toasted tomato sandwich

Toast, mayo, salt and pepper and then sliced up summer tomatoes. Yummmy!

 

5) Reuben on rye but with turkey bacon instead of sauerkraut

I don’t have a reuben very often. 2-3 times a year at most but I savor them when I do have them. Something about the rye bread just hits my tastebuds square on.

 

I hope you’re hungry now.

 

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‘Round Yonder in These Heah Pahts…

…. we dun kut doun them dern trees and then shuut ahh guns so as to celerybrate!

Dern trees, always growing in them there forests. Nothing but a nuisance!

 

11 acres of private land surrounded by 70+ acres of conservation land. Shooters paradise.

For the record, that is a soda can in both pictures. Alcohol and guns should NOT mix

 

 

 

Yep, that is how I spent last Saturday. Pretty much just watched my bro W.C. Bombfunk use a chainsaw (I was there for safety reasons) and then we went to a house of a friend of his to test out his new to him AR-15 rifle.  The baby had just been put down for a nap so we started with our 9mm pistols to give him to time to get fully asleep. Then the 223 ammo came out and the rifle shooting began.  I did a couple of rounds at the 75yard range but Bombfunk went for the 100yard’er. Neither of us hit any targets at our range, but with a new gun, that is no surprise.  What Magic the Gathering cards are to Bookstooge, guns are to Bombfunk. He was grinning like an monkey.

It is good to have family nearby sometimes 🙂

 

MTG: Fight & Flight: Dino Power!

So I’m working on my third Commander/EDH deck.  One of the recent blocks in Magic the Gathering took place in a world where dinosaurs were a huge part of every day life, for good and bad. Some of those dinosaurs are really, really big and so I wanted to make a deck where I could come out with massively huge creatures and just stomp all over my opponents.  I’ve spent the last month creating this deck in a word document.  Sadly, with our recent car situation (I’ll be talking about THAT bottle of fun’ness in my monthly roundup next week) this deck is going to go on the back burner.

This time around, I decided to add every single card in picture format. I won’t be loading them as individual pictures because otherwise it would take 5minutes for my site to load and that just isn’t fun for anyone.  For each category (in bold) I’ll be showcasing 1 of the cares I think is cool or cool looking and then doing a clickable grouping thing so you can check them all out, or not, as you so desire.

My Good Knight Sirrah deck, while I really like it, just hasn’t performed. I win about 25% of the time with it.  The Get Salted, I’m Exalted, while not competitive, has something closer to a 90% win rate and I don’t play it more than once now as it can be demoralizing to someone else to lose on turn 6 in a game that usually last 30+ turns. This deck I’m just hoping to stomp around with big dinosaurs and have fun killing things whether I win or lose.

There are several main parts of this deck. First and foremost, getting a lot of mana out quickly (with artifacts and sorcery/instants) so as to be able to get the big creatures out quickly, use the Enrage mechanic on half my dino’s to help boost me in various ways and then to use the Planeswalkers and the rest of the sorcery/instant cards to fight outside of combat using my dinos hopefully massive power and sweep away the competition. I’ve tried to make all the cards synergize with as many possible other cards so no matter what I draw I will be good. Only a real play test will tell though.

Without further ado, here is my deck list:

 

Commander:1

Zacama, Primal Calamity

♪We will♪ we will♪STOMP YOU!!!!♪

 

Planeswalkers: 4

Huatli, dinosaur knight

Domri Rade

Samut the tested

Vivien of the Arkbow

 

 

 

 

Creatures: 27

forerunner of the empire

Kinjalli’s Sunwing

Sun Blessed Mount

Bellowing Aegisaur

Burning sun’s avatar

Etali, Primal storm

Gishath, Sun’s Avatar

Imperial Aerosaur

Majestic Heliopterus

Needletooth Raptor

Polyraptor

Raging Swordtooth

Ranging Raptor

Raptor Hatchling

Regal Behemoth

Ripjaw Raptor

Shining Aerosaur

Siegehorn Ceratops

Silverclad Ferocidons

Sky terror

snapping sailback

sun-crested pteradon

sun-crowned hunters

trapjaw tyrant

wayward swordtooth

Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

Ulvenwald Tracker

 

 

 

 

Artifacts: 17

Tower of Fortunes

Sol Ring

boros cluestone

gruul cluestone

selesnya cluestone

boros signet

gruul signet

selesnya signet

commander’s sphere

seer’s sundial

staff of nin

Mindstone

Pillar of Origins

Worn Powerstone

Hedron Archive

Thran Dynamo

Dreamstone Hedron

 

The Power of Scyenze, errrr, Magic(!!) compels you!

 

 

 

Sorceries/Instants: 12

Cultivate

Nissa’s Pilgrimage

Skyshroud Claim

Rampant Growth

Kodama’s Reach

Farseek

Dromoka’s Command

Domri’s Ambush

Band Together

Gravitic Punch

Rabid Bite

Thrash

 

The first rule of Dino Fight Club is: You Always Pick the Fight Option TWICE!

 

 

Lands: 39

Command Tower

Terramorphic Expanse

Evolving Wilds

Myriad Landscape

Taiga

Wooded Foothills

Stomping Ground

Cinder Glade

Fire-lit Thicket

Savanna

Windswept Heath

Temple Garden

Canopy Vista

Wooded Bastion

Krosan Verge

Plateau

Arid Mesa

Sacred Foundry

Naya Panorama

Rugged Prairie

6 Forests

6 Plains

7 Mountains

 

 

 

 

 

So there you have it. A ton of pictures. Please feel free to make suggestions or comments or to ask questions.

 

 

• Previous Magic the Gathering Posts

What’s On My Bookshelf? (Tag)

Norrie tagged me back in December, so I figure I’m doing pretty good to have done this within 3 months. Usually I count on 6, ha!  That being said, I’m always up for showing off my books. Shelfie posts are awesome, but individual covers of real, live books are just scrum-diddly-umptious!

Just to be clear, these are all actual books on my bookshelves. We’re talking genuine rotting tree carcasses here, with chemicals!

 

 

A book or genre I love to read when it’s raining

The Pool of Fire is the final book in the Tripods Trilogy. A great middle grade series that ends on a very dystopian note. Christopher was not a Utopianist. The gloomy ending is best read on a day that the sun is not shining.

 

A book I wish had illustrations

The Rook was supposed to be a standalone but its success convinced O’Malley (well, more than likely his publishers) that a second book in the Checquy Files was in order. I would have liked to have seen some of the monsters described in this book.

 

A book that made me emotional

When I read this back in 2001, the ending just got me right in the feelz. Haven’t had the courage to re-read it for fear that I’ll just roll my eyes now.

 

 

A book that made me laugh

Good old Rincewind. This SFBC omnibus has the first 2 adventures, The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic and then 2 more generic Discworld books. I know most people disagree, but I have always found Rincewind to the funniest stuff that Pratchett wrote. After Rincewind he seemed to get a lot more satirical, biting and bitter.

 

An old book

 

This is the oldest book I have that has a year on it. I’ve got several other Dickens books that appear to be just as old but don’t have any information inside of them beyond stating they are reprintings from the first edition. Nothing worth any money due to their condition but they sure look cool!

 

A steamy book

The 4th book in the Green Rider series. I’d waited 3-4 years between each book and while it started out as an awesome fantasy series, it really devolved into a romance writer wish fulfillment thing. This book has some sort of dream sex sequence so I was just done.  Considering that Britain (the writer, not the country) has pretty much let this series dribble down into an unfinished  mess, well, I think I made the right decision. It is a series that will never be finished.

 

A romantic book

The Queen of Romance and probably the ONLY books I’d voluntarily read with that kind of association.

 

 

A magical book

The original Earth Sea trilogy.  While Le Guin has written more in this world, it was of completely different tone and style and never caught my fancy. I did think of putting this in the next category, as I read the first one as a pre-teen. But when I think of “magic” my mind springs to Ged and Tennar.

 

A childhood book

This was my favorite book in 4th grade. Probably a good thing I read an abridged version as I’m not sure I could have handled MacDonald’s wordiness back then.  This was everything a kid could want in a story: a beautiful princess, a brave miner boy, a magical castle, goblins and monsters.

 

A book I got as a gift

The Cygnet Duology is the book that Mrs B gave me when we first met in real life back in ’06 or ’07.  I gave her the Hobbit. Besides both being dedicated Christians, we’re also both readers. Our idea of a good time is sitting next to each other on the couch reading books. I couldn’t ask for more than that!

 

A library book

 

Quite a few of my hardcovers are from libraries.  It is one of the reasons I stopped buying used hardcovers on Amazon. The sellers don’t have to list that it is from a library. A used library book has a ton more crap in it than just a regular used book. Not worth the hassle so now I buy it new unless it is impossible.

 

 

And that sums up that tag post. I’d definitely be interested in seeing books from all of your collections. (hint, hint)

 

 

• All My “Tag” Posts

 

 

♪How do you solve a problem ♪like♪ Star Wars♪? (Parto Treso)

Ok, it is only Wednesday and I’ve already watched way more Youtube than I ever want to for the rest of my life. I feel like my brain has inhaled whole bottles of spray cheese.

Poodles are to Dogs what Easy Cheese is to Cheese

Ughh. How do people DO this? I think I’m ready to read just about anything, even a romance! *shudder*

 

Ok, now we are moving on to books immediately surrounding the first movie trilogy, with Luke, Han and Leia taking centerstage, as they should.

A treso of trilogies. Han Solo Adventures are WAY better than the Han Solo Trilogy

 

The Han Solo Adventures in individual hardcovers. Written in 1979 and 1980. Awesome baby!

 

Yoda was BLUE in the novelization. Weird huh?

 

I call these the Miquels, as they take place in the Middle of the trilogy between the main events

 

These “Tales” books were good, except for the Bounty Hunter Wars. That was bad.

 

Quite possibly the worst Star Wars book I ever read.  Tied with The Crystal Star, which will be in another post

Alien reptiles in robot bodies that eat the Force. THAT is the quality of story you got in one of these books. I doubt you have to guess very hard which one. You can’t fake this folks, it really was written about and worked into the now defunct EU canon. This was the beginning of the Wild West Era of Star Wars. Luke smashed moons together, Han flew the galaxy. Leia, well, honestly, she didn’t do a whole lot yet. But don’t worry, her heyday is just around the corner.

 

 

 

♪How do you solve a problem ♪like♪ Star Wars♪? (Parto Doso)

Since the last couple of reads I’ve had just plain stank, I’m taking a week long break from reading and posting reviews. I’m wasting my time on Youtube, so that I can feel ever so superior once I stop next week and posting book covers to keep my blog alive.

Self-Righteous Nihilism without apology. And anger. Because Star Wars used to be great (even if the stories were terrible, and let me tell you, some of them were B-A-D!!!!!) and now it’s drunk and puking in the gutters, begging for spare change from any passing stranger. Even Forgotten Realms has more dignity these days.

So hearken back with me to the glory days when we all thought Star Wars could be great again.

Traviss could write, but man, did she hate the very idea of the Jedi and she let that hatred shine on through in her writing

Half of these books were pretty good and the other half really stank

The novelization of the Revenge of the Sith was probably one of the best Star Wars books I have ever read. If the movie had been half as good, it would have been the best Star Wars movie anyone had ever seen

 

And this brings us up to the Infamous Episode 3.  That movie was a dagger in the heart of a lot of fans. Not the story necessarily, but the poor acting, poor writing and poor directing. Lucas is squarely to blame.  It took a lot of “I love Star Wars” for me to buy some of these back in the day.

 

♪How do you solve a problem ♪like♪ Star Wars♪? (Parto Uno)

What with having 4 books in a row just be beyond stinkers, I’m taking a break from reading for a week.

I used to be a huge star wars fan. But that fandom began its death back in ’12 or so and its death throes happened when I watched The Force Awakens. I had been collecting Star Wars books ever since the 90’s though and continued to buy them in hardcover from the Science Fiction Book Club up until I bought  Kenobi near the end of ’13.  I have accumulated a lot of Star Wars novels, with most of them being in hardcover. They take up 3 shelves, double stacked, on one of my book shelves and honestly, it is time for them to go. Mrs B wants to keep the X-Wing books as they are just good adventure stories, star wars or no star wars.

I don’t know what to do with them all now. So before I make any decisions, I’m just going to do a couple of posts showcasing them all so if I ever feel regret once they’re gone, I can simply look at these posts and be all good.

 

From the very failed Old Republic video game novel tie-ins

 

 

Darth Bane Trilogy

 

Prequels leading up to Episode One aka The Phantom Menace

 

All 4 variant covers for Episode One.

 

Prequels leading up to Episode Two, aka Attack of the Clones

 

 

 

I’ve tried to group my books together by Era, which seems the best way. I believe it is all chronological, but with them no longer being canon, who knows.  14 books, with about 90+ more to go. Hope you all like Star Wars covers 😉