The Book of Awesome is actually not that awesome. Some blog-to-book stories have been very successful and some blogs sell a lot of funny merchandise, but The Book of Awesome doesn’t stand up.

Based on www.1000awesomethings.com, Neil Pasricha started the blog to celebrate the little things in life. While this is theoretically a great idea — everyone needs to think positive and take joy in the little things — it just doesn’t work as a book. To start, even though the blog touts over 10 million hits, Neil hasn’t even reached #1 of his “awesome” list; the blog counts down from 1000 and (as the time of this review) is on #452.

And the book… I picked it up during a gathering of bookish folks for Books on the Radio. Yes, we may have ridiculed the book more than necessary, but it still isn’t all that “awesome”. I started flipping through it and reading the chapter titles out, and AnnMarie would declare “awesome” or “stupid” or “gross” and we’d move onto the next one. I have to say it was great for a laugh and a conversation starter, but I wouldn’t have ever paid $28.50 for this book.

• “When someone offers to toss your dirty clothes in with their load of laundry” — No, that’s just gross, unless you’re dating. I wouldn’t even touch a roommates laundry, much less let someone touch mine!
• “Sneaking under someone else’s umbrella” — If someone did that to me, I’d elbow them in the face. Is a black eye awesome?
• “Blowing out all the candles on your first try” — Maybe if you’re 3 years old.
• “Old folks who sit on their porch and wave at you when you walk by” — No, that’s creepy. There is this guy that sits at my bus stop all day and when the sun gets too high, he transfers to the other side of the street and sits on the wall of someone else’s garden.
• “Wearing sandals when you shouldn’t be wearing sandals” — Who the hell gets to say what you should wear? If you wanna freeze your toes off, go for it.
• “The pushoff” — This is actually is talking about learning to ride your bike alone for the first time. I thought we were taking joy in simple pleasures in life, not reliving childhood memories.
• “Really, really old Tupperware” — This one describes the ‘burping seal’, but did you know that after a certain period of time plastics start leeching harsh chemicals into your food.
• “Scraping all the lint off an overflowing lint trap” — No, that’s just good housekeeping, and safe so it doesn’t catch on fire.

I don’t often give a book this bad a review. If you see it in the bookstore, have a flip through and see if you find it “awesome”, “heart-warming” or leave you “looking for new joys”. [quotes from reviews].

Now, I mentioned book-to-blog stories and blog merch. Here is some of the stuff out there:

• Sh*it My Dad Says (Twitter first, book is actually funny)
• I Can Haz Cheezburger (blog first, first book 2008, second book 2009, third book 2009. The books are more humour books written in LOLspeak)
• Cake Wrecks (blog first, book and calendar)
• Stuff on my Cat (blog first, merch rocks, first book in 2006, second book in 2008). Second blog: Stuff on my Mutt
• The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks (blog first, book out July 2010 from Chronicle Books… the same people as Stuff on my Cat.)

Soon we’re going to look at some books and think, “What came first? The Book or the Blog?”

Henry’s favourite toy is a large, crinkly, plastic bag.

He likes to sit in them and just watch me, but he also loves to play in them too. I should remember to take a video next time he’s playing! Happy Whiskers on Wednesday.

There are pros and cons to all shopping experiences, but even more so for shopping online. You’re taking a huge risk and purchasing a product, service, or deal based solely on photos and descriptions. Sometimes things go great — I have had tons of positive experiences when things go great as well as awry.

I’ve been really impressed by the daily group-buy offers and have even purchased one (and nearly purchased a few others). I love receiving those daily deal emails from StealTheDeal, Groupon, TeamBuy, GoodNews, LivingSocial, and EthicalDeal. Another great experience: Once we ordered an all-region DVD player but it arrived only being able to play Region 2. We emailed the eBay seller who was able to send us instructions to reset the region to 0. Fantastic customer service!

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But since Saturday, one recent experience has been pissing me off. I really need to rant about poor customer service. Frankly, I don’t care if you’re at Comic-Con or on the other side of the world (hello World Wide Web…). I ordered this item a month ago and I just want a damn response regarding a replacement!

Craig’s birthday is this Friday and he’s a fan of the online comic, VG Cats. He’s been laughing over this humourous Zelda-themed shirt sold by SharkRobot for a while. (View the VG cats comic it’s based on OR read a Game FAQ to find out why it’s funny). He hadn’t ordered the shirt due to the cost of shipping to the UK. Good for me though, since shipping to Canada was pretty reasonable. I ordered the shirt a month ago and it arrived last Friday (allow 4-6 weeks for shipping, fine).

But when I opened the package I was highly disappointed. As you can see above, the image is supposed to be large and wrap-around. It is tiny and only on the front.I replied to the “Order Shipped” email with my dissatisfaction and demanded they reprint the tshirt as advertised and reship it to me. I don’t want a refund, I want the product I paid for. I hadn’t heard anything by today (Tuesday) so I sent another message via their website and quoted my Order Confirmation number. As of this post, I still haven’t heard back. Grrrr…

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Online Shopping silver lining: today I came home and Kim Werker had retweeted something from PoppyTalk about an online sewing class. I’ve been really tempted to take some of the clothing workshops and tutorials offered at local shops, but really don’t feel my skills are up to snuff. I realize that the point of a class is to learn, but if my basic skills aren’t honed, I might miss out on what I really want to learn about. What appeals to me about a local class is that with clothing, they can help measure me and teach me how to modify patterns to fit.

However, with this online Home Ec class offered by Leigh-Ann, Courtenay and Rachel, I’ll be able to practise some basic skills for a reasonable price! I ordered as soon as I finished reading the list of project and course description.

That’s right, I’m knitting a lace shawl! The pattern I decided on was Argante by Corrina Ferguson (Rav link) and I’m using 1 skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in colourway “Garden Daze” (Rav link).

I was a little worried that it was too busy. Because at the beginning (tip) when I cast on, the colours pooled together a little more. But as the rows are getting longer, the colours are getting more sporadic. When I asked Craig what he thought, he said it looked like yarn barf. I said, “But they’re pretty colours right?” and he agreed that they were pretty. Then I explained how blocking would enhance the lace pattern more, which reassured me too.

Christopher Moore is a hilarious fiction writer. The first novel of his I read, A Dirty Job, had me laughing out loud. Then I picked up Fool, a satirical comedy loosely based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, which I also enjoyed. With the recent release of Bite Me, I was really interested to read the first book in Christopher Moore’s vampire love story, Bloodsucking Fiends .

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Here's winking at you babe ;)

Occasionally Henry gets all squinty in one of his eyes. I’ve taken him to the vet and he doesn’t have a scratch on the cornea or anything. I think sometimes he just gets a piece of fur in his eye that I can’t seem to get out. The other day it happened again, and he looked so much like a little pirate cat winking at me, that I decided to make him an eye patch.

I’ve been meaning to read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon for a few years because I’ve heard extraordinary things about it. It came out in 2003, was a #1 international bestseller, and received numerous book awards. The book is covered in review quotes of praise: dazzling, brilliant, original, addictive, inspiring, captivating, moving… etc.

Christopher is 15 and lives in Swindon with his father. He has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. He is obsessed with maths, science and Sherlock Holmes but finds it hard to understand other people. When he discovers a dead dog on a neighbour’s lawn he decides to solve the mystery and write a detective thriller about it. As in all good detective stories, however, the more he unearths, the deeper the mystery gets – for both Christopher and the rest of his family.

From the publisher, Random House UK
[Note: Cover image shown is the Canadian/US paperback]

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I enjoyed the second book in Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy in a different way than I enjoyed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (book review / movie review). In the first book, it’s very much about the mystery at hand, and through solving it, you come to care about Lisbeth Salander. Even though she’s odd, anti-social and a bit weird, she has morals and integrity. The second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire , takes places after the first book, but delves more deeply into Lisbeth’s past.

A few weeks before Dag Svensson, a freelance journalist, plans to publish a story that exposes important people involved in Sweden’s sex trafficking business based on research conducted by his girlfriend, Mia Johansson, a criminologist and gender studies scholar, the couple are shot to death in their Stockholm apartment. Salander, who has a history of violent tendencies, becomes the prime suspect after the police find her fingerprints on the murder weapon. While Blomkvist strives to clear Salander of the crime, some far-fetched twists help ensure her survival.

[From Publisher's Weekly]

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This has been my “stupid knitting” project for some time. Why is it “stupid knitting”? #1: It’s simple pattern is perfect to take to Knitting Meetup where I am constantly distracted and just plain chatty. #2: I’m stupid and forget to mark down where in the pattern I am and then just randomly pick it up the next week (or 2 or 3 weeks later) and keep knitting. So the resulting FO (finished object) may not be my best work, but it would be an excellent pattern had I paid attention.

Pattern: Herringbone Cowl by Lauren Osbourne [Ravelry link]
Yarn: Nashua Ivy (held double) in “Soft Violet”
Needles: 5mm circulars
View my Ravelry Project Page.

This second photo represents the true colour of the yarn. I think that this is a good pattern, and if I knit it again I’m going to mark what row I finished on so when I pick it up again, I’m not just guessing. Also, I don’t think holding the yarn double did the pattern justice. I wanted it to be nice and squishy but I think it would have been better with more breathing room.

If I’m out of town for more than 24 hours, my mom likes to have my cat, Henry, over for a visit. Last weekend (Canada Day long weekend) I went out of town so my mom had Henry over. My sister is also out of town so she’s currently taking care of my sister’s cat, Sasafrass, too.

A few weekends ago the cats were napping and had swapped blankets; Henry was on Sasafrass’ and Sasafrass was on Henry’s blanket pad. I cooed and melted and couldn’t believe mom hadn’t snapped a picture. So last weekend, mom made sure to take photos of the furkids (her grandcats) sleeping.

Happy Whiskers on Wednesday!