Something you may notice if you’re on site.  The Amazon.com banner in the sidebars is gone.  This has been replaced with something Nick and I call “You Gotta See This” which currently displays a gorgeous banner for Double Trouble.  Which, counting today, there’re only 22 days left for me to scrape up my pennies so I can get my copies of Digital Magic and The Case of the Pitcher’s Pendant on August 8th.

Anyhoo I digress.  The space is currently reserved through the end of August, but after that I have nothing for it.  I’m not looking to charge for placing an advertisement there, donations are welcome, but there is absolutely no payment required for use of the space.  Depending on if, and how many, banners I get for the space they may be rotated regularly.  Since this is a new thing for the site, it’s hard to make projections on if it will work.  If you are interested in displaying a banner on the site, please contact us at reviews@timeww.com and let us know.  The space available is 120×600 pixels (w by l).

That being said, I have some news that’s just tickling me pink.  Time Well Wasted has its VERY FIRST INTERVIEW.  Since we’re not a podcasting site this was done the seriously old fashion way with me sending out a questionnaire.  I’m not going to tell you who it was with, you’ll have to come back tomorrow to see it.

The Weekly Trivia is being moved to Sundays.  I’m hoping to make this into something I can give prizes away with in the future, but it may not be until next year.  Also, depending on if I can work of the courage, I may start trying my hand at podcasting with these silly little trivia questions.  Still, all I have is a headset and audacity, I rather prefer to leave the airwaves open for the professionals.

We are upgrading later this weekend, so you may see some downtime with the site.  I’ve already had warning from Indiana Jim that the upgrade seems to be eating categories.  For now I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that everything that is down now fixes itself and I can start adding pictures and such to the articles again.

On a final note I’ll be starting the ABCs of Entertainment series before the end of the month.  Nick and I may be repeating letters occasionally, but it’s all in good fun as we try to being you more ways to waste time well.

In the meantime I have five episodes of Double Share staring at me and begging me to listen to them.  Since this is all the news of note then we’ll see you in the morning with our very first interview.

Sorry for the lack of review/news/update today folks, I am struggling to pay bills and make ends meet.  While it’s certainly time well wasted, after all I need a cable connection, it’s not a pleasant ordeal and makes it less fun to try and write happy things.

In the meantime it’s also giving me time to think of a few new ideas for the site, like maybe dong an ABC type series of posts.  I’m also trying to coerce my husband into lending a hand as well, as he’s got an excellent view on things to waste time with.

Speaking of posts, we’re accepting guest posts.  If you’re interested you can send an e-mail to reviews@timeww.com.  Our only request is that you keep it PG-13 and try and inject some humor into it.  You can do a review for something you’ve enjoyed or something you think the whole world should avoid like the plague.  Please also note how many penguins it ranks on a scale of one to five, five being oh my god I’m going to watch this every day.

So that’s all the news of note, we may be slow going this week, but will do our best to have something up daily.  For now, I’m immersed in Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel novels, anxiously awaiting a time to get the new one in my hands.  These are excellent novels and highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a massive dose of intrigue.

With luck, I should have a review of Obsidian 10, Mur Lafferty’s “A Rose by Any Other Name” later this evening.  By the end of the week I hope to have Clear Heart finished and reviewed as well.

As always thank you for your time, patience and visit.

Ladles and Jelly spoons, please allow me to take a moment of your time to direct your attention to the bright, orange button on the side of the screen. The one that reads “make a donation”. See it? Awesome. Keep it in mind as I yammer at you for just a little bit.

Now, I’m just a guest poster here at Time Well Wasted. One day, GeminiFatcat asked if I would cross post something I’d written in my Live Journal, and I said, “Sure.” (Actually, it was the original version of the Cloversuck post that she got such a kick out of) So, she set me up a member name and I became a regular poster. Ever since then, I get the occasional “OMG! Halp! I need an article, like NOW! Come up with something, Plz!! Kthxbye!” It’s a lot of fun, and there’s a whole lot of work that goes on that even I don’t have to worry about.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell anyone reading this that the economy is dangling somewhere between the terlet and the last couple squares of paper on the roll. We’re all feeling the crunch. Gas prices skyrocketing, the job market collapsing- it’s pretty crappy these days. And it’s getting harder and harder to keep the little perks in life. Time Well Wasted for example.

Gem puts a lot of work in to keep the posts fresh and interesting, and seriously, if it wasn’t for her some of us would be missing out on a lot of great podcasts and books- weird websites and all that groovy jazz. She’s benefiting not only the audiences of the world, but also the performers looking for an audience, and that really rocks. She loves doing this, and her only wish is to spread some joy.

TWW takes a lot of Gem’s time to keep going with new articles and fun links. ‘Cause, remember this, she’s not only gotta write these posts, but she’s gotta listen to all these podcasts, watch all these movies, read all these books- you should SEE her library! It’s crazy! And these things ain’t free all the time- even the hosting costs money.

So, what *I* am asking of *you*, is that you help Gem out. Toss a buck or two into the popcorn fund, so that she doesn’t have to worry so much about keeping this place afloat with the rising price of gas and groceries. I know that I for one would hate to see TWW fold cause the decision had to be made between food and fandom.

But, you know what? Making a donation is not the only way you can help gem out! See the list of Amazon.com books on the side there? It’s not just a stupid banner to be ignored. If you click through there before doing your amazon shopping, you actually help Gem out, cause that tosses a few pennies into her account there. And, I know you buy stuff on Amazon! We all do. How hard is it to stop on through TWW on your way there? Seriously. It’s no more money from you. It’s just one little extra click. Do it. Help the lady out. She busts her hump daily to keep us all entertained.

There’s even MORE though. Look to your right. No, not that far.. just to the right of the screen. See in the LINKS there where it says “Comfort Cooking”? *nodnods* that’s GeminiFatcat’s own cookbook- a collection of her favorite recipes (and some of my favorites, too) and you can buy a copy of it over on LuLu. Don’t wanna spring for the whole paper copy? Fine, you can get a copy of the PDF for just a few bucks.

I’m not here begging you for your money. I don’t get a CENT of the stuff that comes in to TWW. It all goes into Gem’s coffers to keep this place and her own house running. *I* am just here to help you all find these ways you can lend a hand. I’ll even resort to bribery. If Gem tells me that the donations and sales and clickthrough have skyrocketed. Then I’ll Um - *thinks* - I’ll draw a stupid webcomic about a stick-figure dragon. How about that? Maybe some of my posts will be drawn instead of just text. How about that? Will that get you to clickthrough? Srsly. Give us your $.02 .. literally.

What a long, strange week it’s been. We celebrated Sloane’s birthday with a nice, rich devil’s food cake that had a bittersweet mocha glaze. A glass of wine to go with a kick arse batch of chicken and dumplings (the recipe for which you can find in Comfort Cooking).

Nick is getting moved in and enjoying his place, it’s a great little den where I foresee much creativity and podcasting coming from. He’s all set on his site to begin his podcast, soon as he gets his recording done. Piggy Moto: All Star Boar Band is an absolutely fantastic story that I’ve had the pleasure of editing and reading for him. I definitely encourage you to check the site and check often and I’ll let you know here when the podcast starts.

The King of Viral Media has been working over time while we were on hiatus. JC Hutchins released a bunch of Obsidian posters into the wild, a lot of neat designs. I’m anxious for the 31st to arrive so I can partake in the Obsidian goodness.

I spent the hiatus with my nose buried in bodice rippers. I don’t think I’ve listened to a single podcast since last Monday, mind I have A Brobdingnagian Minute going at the moment. I went through my small collection of Bertrice Small novels, her grasp of historical romance is simply wonderful, and is one of the best romance writers around. I admit my enjoyment of her books comes forth because she paints her characters over a historical landscape instead of changing history to suit her characters. The novel Skye O’Malley is a perfect example of this and if you know a fan of the bodice ripper genre I recommend it as a gift.

Currently I’m reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Diana is probably my absolute favorite fiction writers. The Outlander saga, currently consisting of six epic novels, is a time travel fiction series that takes place in post WW1 and the Jacobite Revolution of 18th Century Scotland. Well researched and absolutely fascinating books which I read about once a year.

Finally saw Transformers, oh holy balls! Words cannot convey what I thought of this film, the fact that I’ve watched bits and pieces of it everyday since Saturday must say something. It easily became one of those movies I’ll turn on when I see it’s playing on cable. Love Bumblebee, always have, and I think my favorite scene is when he upgrades in the tunnel. The movie rocked! I’ll have a full review up by week’s end but I can promise you it’s ranked a lot of penguins.

The site, if you’re reading this through and RSS feed, has been completely redone. I sort of blew it up recently trying to remove something I had added to a sidebar. You can bet that I’ll be taking better precautions next time. I design websites you think I would know better than to not copy something before I change it. Live and learn. The new theme is more of what I was shooting for when I first began Time Well Wasted last year and I’m very happy with it. You’ll note there are some things missing, like the adsense ads, the cookbook cover and the popcorn fund buttons. Of those only the donation button will return, probably before the end of the week.

So that’s how I spent my Memorial Day hiatus. How did you spend yours?

Good afternoon dear readers.  I don’t know how many of you have noticed that we’re not adding as many pictures to the posts as we did before hand.  Something glitched badly in the upgrade to Wordpress and I’m no longer able to upload items for display.  And I have a few too many morals to bog down other people’s bandwidth by linking to their pictures just to display them.

Until this issue can be resolved we will be posting sans pictures, cover art, etc.

Thank you for reading.

Good morning readers.  We’ve had some trouble on the back end of the server the last few days and are working on a fix.  This may include finally upgrading WordPress.  Therefore I’ve been archiving articles and hope to be back up and running at full steam as soon as possible.

Next week look for pieces about bad ass ring tones, Nathan Lowell’s South Coast, Cloverfield and much more.

Thank you for your patience and remember if you’re going to waste time, waste it well.

Yes I know, I’m a bad blogger and I’m sorry. I’m trying to finish Comfort Cooking, which I’ll give you more info on when it’s finished. Plus I’m getting ready to head into Houston tomorrow, a 3 hour drive at least, to be a good Syndicate member and support the Future Dark Overlord Scott Sigler.

Reviews of Nathan Lowell’s novels Quarter Share, Half Share and Full Share will be forthcoming next week. Along with a review of Sigler’s podcast The Rookie and some pictures from the signing and pubcrawl.

We will be back on schedule after on Tax Day (thank god mine are done). I know Nick (Flippant) has reviews of Cloverfield and his take on Playing for Keeps ready, and we’ll get those added soon.

More news when I have it. Remember, if you have time to waste, waste it well.

I’m tossing up some thought provoking entertainment articles today, though we should get a post by Flippant about the webcomic Doc Rat sometime this weekend.

I’m contemplating getting a second copy of Scott Sigler’s book Infected, getting it autographed in Houston, and giving it away in a drawing. I haven’t decided on that course of action yet, in part because I think most of my readers already have it. Or I hope they do, it’s a fantastic novel. I’ll discuss it with some friends and see what they think.

I’ve been listening to Nathan Lowell’s books Quarter Share, Half Share and Full Share. He’s an amazing writer and what I’m enjoying about his stories is they are character driven instead of plot driven and they’re great for character studies. I highly recommend them to anyone who’s had issues developing a character; his are damn near three dimensional. I’ll do a full write up soon.

Tthe San Francisco Chronicle has an article about Sigler and Seth Harwood and them giving away their books. It’s got some nice insight into the Dark Overlord’s brain check it out and leave a comment if you’d like. I’m sure everyone involved in the article would like to see some comments on it. If you’ve got DIGG then there’s always that option.

Also, Stephen King has an interesting article on a video game law that the state of Massachusetts is attempting to get passed. It’s over on Entertainment Weekly’s site and he makes enough of a point on it that I really have nothing that can be added. It’s a nice change to see writers like King discuss things like that.

Have a great weekend folks. I’m going to go enjoy some sunshine before it goes away again.

Time Well Wasted will return on 25 March with a review of Seth Harwood’s

Jack Palms 2: This is Life.