Wednesday 18 September 2013

CIBC Run for the Cure

On Sunday October 6th I'm going to be participating in the Canadian Breast Cancer Society's CIBC Run for the Cure. It's a run dedicated to raising funds to find a cure for breast cancer.

I've wanted to participate in the run for the past 4 years or so, but I never knew where I was going to be come October and last year I figured I was going to be working. This year I decided that I was just going to do it.

I don't have a "real" reason for doing the run, no one in my family has been diagnosed, I've just always felt drawn to the breast cancer fundraising. I've always loved October when the Think Pink collection comes out. Basically I'm just running for a cure.

I'm running as a part of the Blue Mountain team, so far there's 12 of us on the team. We don't have an official team name yet, I think that'll be decided by tomorrow. As of today we have 18 days left until the day of the run.

My problem with raising money for things like this is that I hate asking people to donate. I also feel like I should have signed up for the run earlier so I would have more time to raise money, not that I'm sure that would help any. I'm planning on bringing cupcakes to work and getting people to donate a dollar if they would like one.

If you would like to donate you can go to the run website here, and I will be greatly appreciative.

I will do an update post after the run to let you know how it went and how much I and the team raised.

Thursday 12 September 2013

Brief Book Review: A Brewing Storm

Full disclosure, I have not been reading much lately. I have been trying to read We Bought a Zoo all summer and have yet to finish it. However, this past Thursday at work was absolutely dead and of course I forgot my book, so I downloaded the Kobo app onto my phone and started reading A Brewing Storm by Richard Castle. Yes the character from the TV show Castle (which is an awesome show btw and if you haven't yet, you should watch it :) haha).

It's a really short book, a novella? I guess. I don't know book terms (my sister would but she's currently driving herself from St Catharine's so perhaps when she gets here I'll ask her). I also don't know exactly how long the book is, because the Kobo only tells you pages in chapters. All I know is it was short (and I was bad and stayed up late reading it). And my sister has arrived and I was right, it's a novella.



So here's the description from Chapters (it's only available as an ebook).

When Derrick Storm needed to leave the CIA, he couldn't just retire. He had to fake his own death. So when his former boss calls in an old favor that will bring Storm out of early retirement and back to Washington to investigate a high-profile kidnapping, he knows there must be more at stake than the life of a senator's son. Working alongside, but not exactly with, bombshell FBI investigator April Showers, Storm must make sense of a confusing flurry of ransom notes and a complicated web of personal relationships and international politics. He'll get to the bottom of the kidnapping, but the storm is still brewing . . .

I was pretty excited to finally get to read about Derrick Storm, since they talked about the books so much in the show. Like I said it was a pretty short book, but it was still pretty good (minus a few grammatical and continuity errors that I noticed because I'm weird like that). The story ends with a bit of a cliff hanger, which I find weird because I think if they weren't going to wrap up the story in this novella, they might as well just made it one big novel.

Throughout the book you see little things that help you figure out the case. I managed to figure out half of it before the end of the book (and they still don't really tell you the other half before it finishes). I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I actually think it's kind of fun when they give you enough that you can actually try and solve the case before they do.

I thought the characters were alright, we didn't learn too much about Derrick's past or why he "died", but they also seemed to have some really weird names. The plot seemed to move well, but still managed to get everything in that needed to be there.

All in all I enjoyed this book, if you like a short crime story definitely check it out. If you like Castle you should definitely check it out as well, and his other Nikki Heat books (Heat Wave, Naked Heat, Heat Rises, Frozen Heat, and coming out September 17th is Deadly Heat). There are two more shorts in this trilogy, A Raging Storm (which I actually just started reading today) and A Bloody Storm as well as a full length novel Storm Front.

So stay tuned for my review of the rest of the Storm books, and more misadventures.

Wednesday 4 September 2013

Uneventful Summer

Labour Day tends to signify the end of summer. I don't care if it doesn't technically end until the 21st, summer is over when the kiddies go back to school. As the title of this post states, my summer was pretty damn uneventful. I may even go as far as saying this summer was disappointing. Don't get me wrong, I loved my job and had tons of fun at work, but that's pretty much all I did.

I had all these things that I wanted to do, go to the Toronto Zoo, go to Canada's Wonderland, go to the beach, go to the drive in, start running, take more pictures, blog more. Some of these things didn't happen just because I'm lazy, I didn't blog much because I didn't do anything else, but others were lack of time off and having no one in my life with a normal job and time off at the same time. 

I suppose I did do a few things, went to Scenic Caves...with work, rode segways...at work, went to the Thornbury pier...with people from work, pool party...with people from work, went to a few movies, played soccer and Fan Expo. 

I just hate feeling disappointed. I suppose I still have time to go to the zoo or wonderland before they close, but somehow I doubt that will happen, unfortunately. 

Overall, uneventful summer filled with work, but unfortunately not full of saving money. Here's to hoping next summer will be better I guess. 

Tuesday 3 September 2013

Upcoming September Movie Releases

Unfortunately there are no movies coming to theatres in September that I want to see. However there are quite a few DVD releases and TV show premieres this month.

Now You See Me is released on DVD September 3. So I guess, today haha.

NOW YOU SEE ME pits an elite FBI squad in a game of cat and mouse against "the Four Horsemen", a super-team of the world's greatest illusionists. "The Four Horsemen" pull off a series of daring heists against corrupt business leaders during their performances, showering the stolen profits on their audiences while staying one step ahead of the law.


Now You See Me was a pretty good movie. You can see my review of it here. I probably won't be buying it, but if you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend checking it out.

Star Trek into Darkness comes out on September 10.

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving the world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As the heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.


My review can be found here. This movie I will be buying, though I'm trying to decide if I want to buy it when it comes out or later when it's a little cheaper.

Also being released on September 10 are Season 5 of Castle, and Season 1 of Chicago Fire.

The last DVD that I'm excited about being released in September is Iron Man 3 on September 24.

Brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) is pitted against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy's hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to a question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?


My review of Iron Man 3 can be found here. This one I also plan on buying, but am still deciding whether it's going to be when it's released or in a few months.

Hawaii Five-0 Season 3 is also being released on September 24.

The end of the month also signifies TV premiere time. Castle is again on Monday nights, starting on September 23. Tuesday the 24 is apparently a very popular day this year with NCIS, Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. (both unfortunately at 8pm, so I don't know if I'll be getting to watch S.H.E.I.L.D.), NCIS: Los Angeles, Chicago Fire and Person of Interest (since the last two are both on at 10pm, and I only usually watch PoI with my mom, Chicago Fire will probably win). Elementary premieres Thursday September 26, and Hawaii Five-0 has moved days and starts Friday September 27.

That's my wrap up of what's coming on in September. What shows are you looking forward to?