A RANDOM WEDNESDAY

This is going to be another random post from me. Who knew? It won't be in the style of Misery, because I have been told that I don't do that well by more than one of you. So, it will be random in the style of me. And, really, I don't have any desire to write like anyone other than me anyway, so it's all good.

There are some bloggers on Blogger whose entire blog EVERY day is solely about evaluating products and then doing giveaways. I think that due to their large following, companies actually send them free products to review. I don't know this with certainty, but I kinda sorta think that is what is going on. It is less like a blog and more like a commercial. All of the time. A commercial with prizes. Sometimes. And those are the blogs that turned me off of the traditional blog hop. I feel a bit like Paul Harvey. Now you know the rest of the story...

After coming across these blogs, I made this mental note that I was never going to advertise giveaways on my blog. However, sometimes, I came across really good stuff on blogs that weren't all about giveaways. So.... I felt like that stuff didn't count. What is funny right now is that A LOT of the writers that I follow have decided to do book giveaways. As a reader, I can totally get down with book giveaways. They are BOOKS. Since we are all writers, we are also all readers. We like books. I already told you about Simon's book giveaways and Alexandra's book giveaway.

Well, there are now two more blogs that I am following that decided to get in on this book giveaway action. All of these people are friends with each other and I think they are trying to just outdo one another, but that is just my opinion. This is the grown-up version of "my dad is stronger than your dad." Ah writers.... you just gotta love them. So, this means that I have more giveaways to share with you. Please make sure to tell these folks that I am the one that sent you if you decide to go over to their page and follow them and horn in on this deal. I get points for that and I want to win just as much as the next person.

Who is up first? Sara McClung at Babbling Flow is giving away 7 books. She is calling this abundance the Summer Saradise 7 Arc Giveaway. You can follow the link to fill out the entry form. The contest runs from July 20-August 6.





Carol over at Carol's Prints is also giving away books. To be precise, Carol is also giving away seven books. Carol's contest ends on August 9th. You can fill out the entry form by clicking the link to her page. Once again, please mention my name at every possible phase in this contest, so that I get points as the person who sent you. I want my free books. (I just had a flashback to an 80s song...."I want my MTV".) Well, it's all the same really. Below are two of the titles that Carol is releasing from her collection. (It will be with a death grip when the time comes. I've seen the V-Log from her last book giveaway. It wasn't pretty.)





I finished Season 2 of Grey's Anatomy a couple of days ago. Haven't started Season 3 yet, but have have been thinking about all of the comments that have been made about how everyone hates season 5. I have watched the entire series enough times that I think I am right about this... but I could be wrong. Now, if you don't watch Grey's, don't stop reading. Why? Because what I am about to say is about life. I read Chris's blog every day. Some days it is all about weight loss. Period. You know what? I can find something in it every day that I can apply to my life. And I am not trying to lose weight. In other words, there are lessons everywhere if you open your eyes, mind, and heart.

So, let's look at why people liked the first three seasons. The cast remained fairly intact. 5 interns. They had a resident. Osteothoracic resident. Several attendings (real doctors). Neurosurgeon. Cardiothoracic surgeon. Neonatal surgeon. Chief of surgery. In other words, there were enough people that we got to know them a little at a time. They got to know each other. Interesting cases. Yada yada. The only odd thing is that season 2 ran right into season 3. Last day of season 2 was the same day when season 3 started. So that meant that a one year internship lasted for three seasons. I can suspend my disbelief and go with it.

Season 4 sucked for everyone because that was the year of the writer's strike. Unfortunately, it was the same year that Shonda Rimes already made some very bad calls. I don't think that there was much choice about Isiah Washington leaving the show. (Sometimes people leave our lives whether we want them to or not.) It left a big old void. She filled it with the one cardiothoracic surgeon we had already seen, Erica Hahn. That made sense. I really don't know what happened behind the scenes, but it didn't fly. (Sometimes relationships just don't work out.) The worst mistake she made in casting was assigning interns to all of the first year residents. That was way too many new people. And I can't believe that first year residents are responsible enough to handle interns. Seriously???? (We do some really stupid things in life that we wish we could take back and do over. I have to believe that Shonda looks back on Season 4 and sees that as a glaring mistake now. It became catastrophic in Season 5. When you do dumb things they can snowball on you, gain momentum and you can lose control of the whole damn thing.)

If you are thinking about this as a watcher of the show, imagine it without all of those new interns for our faves. Imagine Callie getting Chief Resident. Imagine Bailey getting the new interns (and George). That would mean she got Lexie, George, and two new interns. We could actually deal with that. They could become part of the fabric of the show. We lost Addison to Private Practice. Then, when Callie and Bailey switched jobs, imagine THAT. George would have Callie as his boss (and wife or would it be ex-wife by then?). It might have been the time in between as in during the divorce. And if they didn't assign the interns to Callie because of that, well that leaves Sidney. Remember her? She is the resident who treats everyone with Love. Our old group about lost their minds with her after one week. That would be hilarious. No matter how it would have gone down, it would have made for some excellent material. It would have kept George in the game. We didn't lose George in Season 5. It started in Season 4. It just became obvious in Season 5. If she had written it like that, he probably would still be on the show.

Shonda is having trouble with this lesson. (Do you ever have trouble with lessons that you keep getting repeats of the same sort of thing in your life again and again?) In TV Land, as in life, you can only keep up with so many people. There are only so many hours in the day. You don't have time for the whole world. You can only invest yourself in so many people, so choose those people carefully. Well, with Grey's we've already done our investing. We know who we like. She has made some additions that we also like. The characters that have integrated with our existing characters ~ those we like. The ones that haven't.... well, we don't. She added some high powered acting talent that has worked (Kevin McKidd, Kim Raver, the woman who plays Arizona whose name I can't remember right now). However, all of the residents from Mercy West... meh. There was zero point to that storyline. None of it worked. It stank so bad that she had to have a shooter come into the hospital in the season finale and kill most of those people off. (In real life, keep the people who are good for you in your life. Don't bring unnecessary drama into your life. And anyone who isn't good for you that is hanging around sucking your energy, they need to go. I am not telling you to shoot them. I am just saying that you need to learn to separate yourself from them. When it isn't working, it isn't working.)

All of that said, I have high hopes for this season on Grey's. Shonda knows how to tell good story. There have always been good story mixed in with that which isn't working. In other words, something has always been working alongside other stuff that wasn't. If it hadn't, well it would have been cancelled. Our favorites pulled their weight and then some. (So, if you have something in your life that is working and other stuff that isn't, figure out why that which is working is. And then start implement the why into the other areas of your life, and they will start to turn around. We all know how to do something right. It is taking that something and applying it to every area of our lives. Sometimes that is challenging. It is like figuring out a puzzle. And if I sound like I have it all figured out, I don't. I am just working it out in my head as I go along. I am still working on the implementation part.)

Oh, and since everyone adores the first three seasons. Here is a video I found with a song I really love. Remember to turn off the idiot box music player.




Did you find anything useful in my Grey's/Life comparision? Do you think that Shonda messed up in Season 4, which led to George being killed off in Season 5? Are you interested in book giveaways? Did you love or hate or just not care about the song on the video?