We had some WiFi problems yesterday,  because we changed the provider and they did new fibre and stuff, but the signal wouldn't go through. I remember that last year there were some guys checking the signals, and they said, in our house, everything was OK, but there is a disruption somewhere outside. They could not locate it because they needed different equipment for that. Then they said, their boss would check it out and repair it and they would tell us if it didn't work. It must be somewhere between our street and the next one. I had a strong suspicion that said boss never came.
Today, a technician showed up because we called them. Our old provider cut the signal and the new provider should have kicked in, but it didn't work. But now they are more motivated to repair the damage, because as of yesterday we are their customers and now they have to pay our old provider to grant us wifi as long as they have not solved the problem, muahaha. So, for now we have WiFi.

I stopped reading the book for a week or so, because I am relistening to the Dresden Files. And I couldn't concentrate on any other book. I am now at Battle Ground. THE Chapter is already behind me. I did some garden work while listening to it, and I managed not to cry.

Now I have read a few pages from the other book. It isn't bad, it's just that I seem to be spoiled by all those extraordinary books I've read so far, the DF included, that my threshold for "book that keeps me reading" has become very high, lol.

I am not sure if I told you already: the author (from the USA) asked in a language group about how to call a German village whose inhabitants were all magicians. Kind of a subculture. A bit likeHarry Potter where almost all the wizards live in their own bubble. She decided to take one of my suggestions, so I asked her to share the link and that I would read the book, even if I am not a fan of romance, but I like fantasy and vampires. And so I came to read the book.
I like the ideas and the story so far, but sometimes I am either annoyed by the main character or by them solving a problem in a much too complicated way while on the other hand they often got away too easy.


But there were also good exciting parts, like when the vampires sent a freshly turned one to kill the wizard equivalent of a government including their vampire hunters. And he succeeded. Only two of them survived.
One old veteran with sadly not much combat magic and one female kind of secretary who only recently was trained as a vampire hunter, because she has rare lightning powers. But being very inexperienced. That's the main character.

One guy (the German one, coming from the mentioned village) has been abducted by the vampires and now they are trying to free him. Of course he is the romantic interest.
Only now they are both prisoners. But this actually is the interesting part now.

The book is well written in my opinion. Definitely worth reading, but more by readers who also like romance, because sometimes the romantic aspect is very much the focus of the story.
So, I am just not the target audience. But I know my cousin is.

Indeed. Maybe he can institute the necessary reforms to keep the Coins securely locked away.

I am sure he will. From what I have read about him, I believe he will be a good pope and able to lead the church into modern times.

@Dina: thank you. I will look into Eternauta in the next days.

Edit:
For now we are still watching Blacklist.

Hi Weird, sorry for the double post.
The death of the Pope brings me so many memories about the time he was elected and our discussions here is Weird. It was a moment of glory for me, as the most active Argentinian member of the forum  . It was so shocking...
I think he did a good job. RIP.

Maen.
Dina, I actually thought about you yesterday, when I heard that the Pope had died. He was the first Argentinian pope ever. I think even the first South American one.
I liked that in the beginning he wanted to change a lot in the Catholic church. I still think that he wanted change, but the institution is so big so that he was kind of blocked a lot.

Also I do think that the Catholic church needs to adapt more to modern times. In my country there is such an increase of people turning away from faith in the last years. I guess it us in part due to at least the Catholic church almost living in the middle ages. Some rules did not transfer well into modern society.
I hope that the next pope will continue what the late pope has tried to start and modernise the church.

I am not a very religious person myself. I would rather say that I am almost agnostic, but I did grow up in a mostly Catholic region. I remember that as a child I was afraid of priests and God. Most priests I knew seemed so far away from reality, I could not imagine they understood everyday problems.
But still the church belonged into the society and was rooted there through many cultural aspects.

In Germany, religion is rather a private matter except for the rules on religious holidays, like no noisy partying on Good Friday or most shops closed on Sundays.
Otherwise there usually is no public display of one's private beliefs.

LOL, I just remember my culture shock when I went to an US American service. At that time I was a member of a temporary Christmas choir organised by the families of American soldiers in the city. Most singers were Americans. I was the only German singer without ties to any American soldier. I just came because they advertised in the newspaper that they needed more singers.
It was fun, I met some nice people, some of them I could not understand.
Before every rehearsal they would hold hands, bow their heads and pray. I thought that was weird, but OK. I wasn't used to this kind of devotion. We don't do that. We just meet, greet each other and start to sing, even in a church choir.

But the shock came during mass. There was an American preacher and the way he prayed I have so far only seen on TV in some movies. And I thought this wasn't real. It was fascinating to see that in real life. And suddenly people all around me were shouting how much they loved God and Jesus.
I almost had a heart attack when the man next to me jumped up to shout out his love for Jesus.
I was used to being quiet in church except for prayer. And even then you do it in kind of a murmur.


In our choir we have a relatively new singer. She joined about a year ago. She is from Nigeria and her way of expressing her beliefs reminded me a bit of my experience in the American service. She usually tones it down a lot. And I've asked her if she feels that our service is somehow not enough, as she is used to people being more open. But she told me, that she understood that just because someone isn't expressing their beliefs like she does, this doesn't mean theirs is less strong than hers.

Yeah. I thought I'd share that with you.  Whatever you make of it.


Also: there is an Argentinian school in Antarctica? Wow.

Here is my Dresden Files appreciation post: 😃

I lost count. I am also relistening. Started with Dead Beat, now I am at Changes. To prepare for the next book.
I love to read about all the ideas and opinions here. It enriches the books so much.

And Dresdenphiles should definitely be a thing, lol.

These are usually pop-culture references, that the monsters never get.

In this case, I think this person spotted it:  https://www.reddit.com/r/dresdenfiles/comments/11ys5hu/comment/jdbwnnj/

Aaaah, I am like Barrowill, I didn't get the pop-culture reference.

@Dina

I hope your neighbors who are building things are far away, so their noised do not bother you too much.

I'm afraid not. They are about 3 metres from our house. But their house will be built faster than the others, because they won't build any basement and the walls will be prefabricated ones. Also the builders are very nice people, they always announce when they will be blocking the street. As there is only one way out, it is crucial for us to know when we need to park outside. Not all builders did this and one was even blocking our exit one time. And as they spoke neither German nor English, I needed to show them with gestures that they needed to put their stuff 2 metres further to the right. I had my doubts that they understood, because they just looked at me confused, lol. But 5 minutes later they moved the stuff like I asked them. The block would have lasted for two days.
So I am quite happy with the new ones. I memorised the name and when we build our future shed for the bikes (if we ever do this) I will ask them to do the digging and the concrete.

Spoiler for White Night:

@Dina.
I can imagine how exhausting teaching can be. When I have an intern or an apprentice with me at work, everything takes 3 times as long as it would alone and at the end of the day I have a headache because I talked so much and didn't have time to drink enough.

About 12Months: when he finished writing in February, I was very excited to have the book this year. It is only 10 months from now but it feels like eternity.

Also it is my husband's birthday, which means, I can not start reading at once and have to wait until the guests are gone, lol. Could make me a shitty host perhaps.
But as it is a Tuesday, I am sure he will want to have the party on the weekend. Though there will still be at least my mother as a visitor.

Micro's birthday is on Tuesday and there are not many relatives there because of work.
And later that week I have to go to an indoor trampolin park with 11 kids. Yay 
I hope I won't have to jump myself. I am only 0.3 kg from maximum weight. Could be embarrassing.

Back to the book: maybe, the date is a new placeholder and we'll get an earlier release once editing is done.