RRT-Daylight Savings Time

Yes, Yes, I know it's Friday but I figured that since it's Daylight Savings Time (DST) and we had to push our clocks forward an hour, than I could (for a day) push this post forward. Honestly, I planned to make this post yesterday, but time got in the way and with NaNoWriMo, I just didn't have the chance.

Any who, In the spirit of DST, I just want to say, I HATE IT!!!! That whole "spring forward, fall back" thing may be a good idea in theory, but in real life it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Let's start with the spring. Sometime (I'm never even sure when) in the spring, we must all diligently go to our clocks at 2am and turn them 1 hour forward. Therefore, we lose an hour. That includes an hour of sleep, which means instead of waking up at the normal time, say 6am, now that the clocks changed, you're now waking up at something more like 5am. It really puts a strain on the good moods come Monday morning. Let's not even talk about the fact that every one almost always forgets that they're supposed to change their clocks so they wake up thinking they're on time and then realize they're an hour late.

Then comes the Fall. Everyone seems so excited when the Fall comes because instead of losing an hour, they gain an hour. At 2am you will turn the clock back to 1am, and now you get an extra hour of sleep. Sounds pretty awesome right? Well, it isn't. Look at it like this. You're laying in the bed, and your alarm clock goes off (people barely forget to turn the clocks back, we like our extra sleep and will set reminders to remember set our clock back before bed). You should be pretty rested, since you got that nice extra hour, but your body is already used to waking up at a certain time unless it's a weekend. So now that you've gotten the extra hour, your body thinks, "Hey, Sherre must not be going to work today, let me just make her feel the need to sleep in like she does on the weekends." Then, before you know it, you've snoozed your alarm a few hundred times and you're late for work. Then comes the night time, when you get tired at 9pm and can't keep your eyes open because your body thinks it's 10 and almost time for bed.

Can you see now why I think Daylight savings time sucks. It seems purposely put there to mess with my body clock. Furthermore, the fact that it makes me want to sleep so early messes with my ability to write for NaNoWriMo well into the night like I planned. I hate DST, and I think it should be done away with.

What are your thoughts? Does it annoy you as much as it does me?

Review: The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

Book: The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1)
By: Kelley Armstrong
Published: April 12, 2011
Published By: HarperCollins

Description: Sixteen-year-old Maya is just an ordinary teen in an ordinary town. Sure, she doesn't know much about her background - the only thing she really has to cling to is an odd paw-print birthmark on her hip - but she never really put much thought into who her parents were or how she ended up with her adopted parents in this tiny medical-research community on Vancouver Island.
Until now.
Strange things have been happening in this claustrophobic town - from the mountain lions that have been approaching Maya to her best friend's hidden talent for "feeling" out people and situations, to the sexy new bad boy who makes Maya feel . . . . different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya's biological parents and it's easy to suspect that this town might have more than its share of skeletons in its closet.

My Thoughts: The Gathering was an interesting book about Maya and her friends in the little town she lives in on Vancouver Island.It was quite interesting and set many things into motion for the next few books in the series.

We begin the book with Maya and her friend Serena playing at a lake near their home. Champion swimmer Serena quickly is pulled under and Maya jumps in to save her and she too is pulled under. Soon, Maya is saved by her best friend Daniel, bus Serena wasn't so lucky. The authorities drain the lake to find Serena dead at the bottom.

As per most books where the main character's friend dies at the beginning, not much happens in the life of the MC for some time. The death impacts them dramatically and they have trouble coping. Maya only continues her work helping her father, the Park ranger, help wounded animals. Meanwhile, strange things are starting to happen to Maya. It seems cougars begin to feel oddly attached to her. In addition, an old native woman calls her a witch and a skin walker, and finally, the attraction between her and the somewhat new addition to the town, Rafe, seems ridiculously strange. Couple that with a new reporter that's been snooping around and an approaching wildfire and we have the recipe for disaster.

Maya was a nice enough MC. I didn't completely fall in love with her, but she was nice enough. She was a semi-popular girl (as popular as one can get in a school with only 60-something students) who had a knack for healing and dealing with animals. She was pretty strong and focused as well. Her friend Daniel was very protective of her and somehow reminded me of a brother more than a love interest. The other love interest, Rafe, was cute and interesting, although he was a bit of a player but he had a lot of depth and I enjoyed reading the things he would say next.

As a whole though, this book just wasn't amazing. There wasn't much of a plot, I'm nos quite sure who the antagonist is, a ton of questions I have have yet to be answered, and the ending was just plain underwhelming. I remember reaching the end thinking, "That's it? That's all that's going to happen? What the heck?" It just needed more. This book really just missed something for me. Nonetheless, because I did enjoy it up to the ending and it kept me interested, I will give it 3 stars. I just hope the next book fills some of the gaps.