My Little Corner of the World: And In This Corner, Wearing the Purple Speedo and Flip-Flops...

Wish I could find this pic higher res... is that an amazing photo or what, eh?

Almost makes me wish I could afford to travel the world and see beautifully-Photoshopped places in real life... come on... like that shot happened like that in "real life"? There was really a moment like that? Ya think?

Maybe.

But chances are, if I could discover where that was taken, what time of year it was taken, and travel there again this coming year, and try to take a shot like that, it would likely end up being completely "meh"... I'd probably just end up getting diarrhea and going home... just my luck.

Or I could have the time of my life! And maybe hang out in a great kitchen, and have the thyme of my life, too! Imagine!

I'm not moody today... are you proud of me?

In fact, I got my first-ever smart phone today. An "iPhone 5c"... that's about all I know about it (or care, at this point). All I know is, it's green, and the call quality is about 100 times better than my previous piece of crap phone.

And I've already started taking selfies with it! See?

See how hip and trendy I am now? This is like Selfie Inception! I took a selfie with my new green iPhone, then posed for a selfie with the selfie, taken with my iPad! I don't think my daughter Katie has even done that before! And she's a professional!

Here, I even did a duck-lips selfie! Now I'm a real person! (by the way, no, my nose is not that huge in real life.... it's even bigger! Run! It may blow!)

So I'm tearing through the sequel to Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb... it's called Mad Ship, and it's another behemoth book... 900+ pages. It's a great ride thus far. I find myself really caring about the characters, in a way that I normally don't in books... Robin Hobb has slid quietly into my Favorite Author's List on the strength of the book-and-a-half that I've read of hers in this trilogy. Can't wait to see how it plays out. Plus, she has quite a few other books written, so I have goodness ahead once this trilogy ends. In fact, I have all 4 of her Rainwilds novels bought and filed away for when the time is right... the results of happy book hunting on Amazon. Got each one, at various times, for between 1 and 3 bucks... aww yeah, I shop for kindle books like my wife shops for shoes... (weeping softly and hoping they "fill the void in my soul"....)

Seriously, though... I have soooo many books in my Kindle Library waiting to be read... at the rate I read books (about 35 per year), I could read new titles for 3.5 years and never have to buy another book... and that doesn't even take into consideration the books I want to re-read... However, I never pay full price for a book... my acquisitions run from free to $3 each... and I've been accumulating titles for a couple years now... so it may seem like a lot of dough, but it isn't... I spend "gift card" dough on them, usually... so it's like they're free to begin with! And I've stopped buying games on Steam, so I'm actually saving money!

See? See what a socially-acceptable addiction book reading is? See?

So here we are, on "this side" of Tax Day... I'm nervous. Honestly, there was no way on earth I was going to be able to pay all I owed on the 15th... my tax guy told me to send what I can (which I did) and then they'll contact me about arranging payments for the rest... man, makes me feel like such a deadbeat, but what can I do? Maybe this time next year I'll be rolling in dough, all debts paid off, driving around in a car that has balls (as opposed to my Sentra, which is a eunuch). My worry is that I'll get audited... I don't want to get audited... sounds unfun. I have nothing to hide... (except those two selfies I posted above... those I should hide)... still... the idea of getting audited... *shudder*....

No, I've still never seen an episodes of Game of Thrones. Yes, I'm a huge fan of the books. Still, I know this is Joffrey, and I prefer his wedding to that of Robb Stark's, of course... I may watch the series someday... I'm glad it's such a cultural phenomenon... bodes well for the books being finished... I hope the books end strongly. Wasn't too crazy about A Dance With Dragons... I should re-read that one soon... it's the only one of Martin's SOIAF books I've only read once...

I need to re-read the Mistborn trilogy and the Kingkiller Chronicles again soon too! Sheesh!

Acting classes are going well. Lately, we did scenes from Breaking Bad, which were great. This week, we're doing scenes from Big Bang Theory... in my scene, I get to be Raj... and our instructor wants me to do the Indian accent, lol... why not? I love doing accents. I love my Russian character in the web series... can't wait till I can show you all the first episode... we did some test shoots recently, and it was so much fun. Got to see myself in character on screen for the first time... breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw the footage... we'll be fine... I'll be fine, I think...