The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Do I Have to Leave My Computer?

‘Tis the season for vacationing…. and that usually means a lot of fun….. and "computer withdrawal" for some of us un-savvy computer users. Besides all of the usual travel preparations, we people who have become "computer dependent" now face new pre-travelling preparations. For me, it doesn’t mean a lot, since I am totally dependent on my husband and two children for all of my computer "knowledge."

So, why do I have the above-mentioned word "knowledge" in quotation marks? You would only have to see my computer desk to know why……… I have piles of stapled notes and scotch-taped notes…. (and, you-name-it-notes!) all over my computer desk area. I actually have a desk file and an end table right next to my computer with even more piles of stapled notes.

Whenever one of the computer-savvy in my household "teaches" me how to do something on the computer……. I get out my trusty magic markers and recycled note-taking paper, and write like a mad woman. I know that once they leave the room, they will expect me to know what I am doing …. since they have "taught"  me my new skill.

Thank goodness for the boxes of un-dried magic markers that my children’s elementary school teachers insisted they have at the beginning of the school years! I use magic markers because I just prefer to be able to actually see the notes that I take! And, being as compulsive as I am, I then tape the ends of the notes together making an accordion type of pamphlet, so that when I perform the new (learned) skill by myself, I can just keep reading down the accordion notes.

But, I have rambled on for long enough (off topic, again!)…. I guess I will have to "blog" about travelling preparations later…

Dalziel & Pascoe…. Why No DVDs?

I keep searching around for DVDs of series that were so down-right entertaining to watch that I can’t believe I didn’t set up my trusty VCR years ago. Of course, we no longer watch anything on the VCR machine, so I would have to check to see if my husband has disconnected it. Everything these days is in DVD form…. everything EXCEPT some of my very favorite shows.

I remember watching Dalziel and Pascoe on the A&E Network. It was so many years ago that I don’t even know when it was that I saw the delightful show. I do know, however, that I absolutely loved the show. Colin Buchanan and Warren Clarke were exceptionally well-cast as the two "hero" detectives. Clarke’s portrayal of brash, disgusting, bully-of-an Inspector Dalziel was equaled in it’s perfection with Buchanan’s upper-crust younger and "greener" Inspector Pascoe.

While typing up the 2001 Edgar Awards, I was reminded (once again) of how much I miss having access to this great British show. Did you know that this show won the 2001 Edgar Award for the Best TV Feature/Miniseries? I didn’t even know about the Edgar Awards back then, but I did know that it was a wonderful series, based on a wonderful series of books by Reginald Hill.

I keep checking on Amazon, Blockbusters, and Netflix to see if they have released any of the shows, but no such luck. I hope that they are planning to offer them soon. In the mean time, I have the next best thing………. I am listening to the unabridged books on tape. Although it’s great fun to hear the books, it would be even better to finally have access to DVDs of the shows.

Your Madness VS My Organizational Skills

I joined a forum a while ago, and then found that I was so busy with this site, that I forgot about the forum. I rediscovered the forum yesterday, and this morning, I put it on my computer’s desktop… which has way too many files on it now. I find that if I don’t put a site on my actual desktop, I forget about it. I have at least three different pull-down "favorites" lists on my computer, but I rarely use them. My desktop makes more sense to me.

It seems a little unorganized to my family members who see all of these files and wonder why I keep such a messy desktop. BUT…….. in the madness of my desktop, there is such a wonderful organization going on………. at least to me! I have "piles" where I put my site’s important "parts," I have "piles" with my Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, Audible.com information/sites, I have other "piles" with my needlepoint/bead information sites, and even more "piles" with miscellaneous sites. I know exactly where to go when I need to find something. And, since I have renamed most of the sites, they are easy for me to "understand."

I have to admit that to the "untrained eye,"  my computer’s desktop is a mess. But to me, all of the cluttered "piles" of sites make my life easier… and isn’t that what we all want?!?

Another author I haven't read… yet…

I just added a new author to my list:  Shirley Rousseau Murphy. I belong to a forum, and some of the posting members thought that her Joe Grey Cat Mystery series should have been on my cozy site. I haven’t read any of her books yet, but when I looked her up, yes indeed, her books look like they qualify as cozy.

I know that I have said this before, but I always enjoy hearing about a new author who has a lot of books out. By "new" I mean new to me. Isn’t it fun when you find an author who has… let’s say… seven books out already?

An example of this comes to my mind… When I "discovered"  M. C. Beaton, I started by reading her Agatha Raisin series. It took me a little while to "catch up" with the recently released, and I got a lot of enjoyment from reading those books.  When I read the synopsis of her Hamish Macbeth books, they simply didn’t interest me. I had found, in the past, that when I was a devoted fan of one of an author’s series, I generally didn’t like the other series that author wrote. That had happened on several occasions.

Anyway, I finally "made" myself read the first Hamish Macbeth book. I could NOT believe I had been putting that series off! I absolutely loved it! (And still do!) As a matter of fact, I have found that I much prefer the recent Hamish books over the recent Agatha books. 

MENU