I Just Can't Walk Away

30 Days of Sweet Valley Challenge

Tue, 08 May 2018 14:49:44 GMT

Like there was a chance in hell I wouldn't actually make this a thing and at least attempt to get someone else to play. Right. Have you met me? :P Feel free to tweak however you see fit.

Sweet Valley 30 Day Challenge:
1. Favorite twin
2. Favorite character
3. Least favorite character
4. Favorite book
5. Favorite arc/mini series
6. Least favorite book
7. Least favorite arc/ mini series
8. Favorite couple
9. Least favorite couple
10. Favorite friendship
11. Favorite vacation book
12. Favorite holiday book
13. Favorite doppelgänger
14. Favorite series (Kids, Twins, Unicorn Club, Jr High, SVH, Senior Year, SVU, Elizabeth, SVC, TSL)
15. Thoughts on the TV show?
16. What about Senior Year?
17. What about Sweet Valley University?
18. Favorite Super/Thriller/Magna/Saga/Star edition
19. Thing you wanted to happen but never did
20. Fav Liz moment
21. Fav Jessica moment
22. Character who deserved more (better or worse)
23. Favorite one-off character/plot
24. Pick a best friend for yourself
25. Moment that stands out to you the most?
26. Jump the shark moment
27. Favorite scheme (Jessica or otherwise)
28. Saddest death?
29. Favorite cover
30. Least favorite cover because sometimes you can judge a book by the cover

Do it all at once, dole it out, whatever makes you happy will make me happy. Because I am a dork. A dork who is off to paint her nails and consider her own answers.

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Wed, 18 Apr 2018 22:21:25 GMT

Pretty sure my eyes are now made up of mostly pollen. That's how this works, right?

16.) Favorite BSC love interest:
Logan was probably my favorite as a kid because oh so romantic that he and MA were together and ooh, ahh. If they'd done more with Sam, I'd probably go with him, though he's probably my current favorite. I get why the timing with Stacey was always iffy as there's a pretty big divide between high school and middle (though imagine the possibilities if the regular series had moved the 8th grade to the high school ala CD) but really, I wasn't reading the books for the love interests. I got that fix in Sweet Valley.

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Playing catch up, Days 9 & 10

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 12:50:05 GMT

I gather things went 90% off yesterday and the clearance/coupon ladies descended upon the store at various times. I thought Ms. G was going to murder the lady who was in the store for at least two hours shopping and took at least half an hour to check out the second time. I know, because I had to figure out how much the original prices were and then adjust for what the sale should've been. It took forever and a day.

It also meant that I looked like a lazy ass who couldn't finish my work despite having plenty of time... until you take into account the having to ring up other people so clearance lady could check out and then having to help figure the prices out so she could be rung up.

*twitches*

9.) Favorite minor character:
Janine maybe? I think it's really interesting how fandom took Janine in and ran with various theories. I'm not sure I really cared too much one way or the other when I was younger because I could get why Claud and company would run (sometimes literally) when Janine came 'round. Sometimes you gotta know your audience, Kishi. I also knew on some level that Claud was being unfair to Janine a lot of the time. But upon re-reads, I do stop to wonder what it was like for Janine to have her home invaded three times a week (minimum, can't forget those emergency meetings) by a gaggle of girls (and the odd Logan sighting) who didn't seem to care much for her, at least for quite awhile anyway.
And that's before we even touch upon the Charlie/Janine 'ship which is something I did not know I needed but I do.

10.) Least favorite minor character:
Cary? Is that nu!Alan? *looks it up* Yup, Cary Retlin. I haven't read most of FF, so I dunno what happened to him there and my reading (and possibly owning?) of the later BSC books is spotty but he always kinda bugged me simply because we'd spent 100+ books bemoaning the awfulness of Alan Gray and yet here's someone who is basically Alan without the history. Dude, I'd rather you just worked with the history because I do enjoy a good redemption arc. (I think Alan gets a tiny bit of that in FF with Claud but again, spotty at best.)

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Neeeeeeeeerd

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 09:20:10 GMT

This is going to be quick but I might update it later. LT is up and I went from holding steady at around 170-ish books for the last zillion years to, in less than half an hour, hitting 279. So in about 25 minutes, I added about a hundred books. And uh, yeah, they're all BSC books. When I've eaten and possibly when I've added the rest of my BSC collection, I'm going to sit down and see if I need to fix things (I've had to delete a couple of books that pop up probably because they have similar codes to BSC books) and then possibly nerd out if someone else hasn't already nerded out on the info. *adjusts glasses*

Really should've asked Widget about that folding table the other day. This would be so much easier, I suspect, done all from my room.

And because I didn't post this yesterday, we'll go for a two-fer. Stupid migraine jumped coasts from California to me.

eta:
And the LT is up to around 440 books. I say around because there are a few actual duplicates that I need to delete and I swear the number of books fluctuates but it's always at least 440. This, of course, means that I do actually have limitless book potential. MUHAHAHA. Ahem.

That covers about two shelves on my black bookcase. The second shelf I should probably go through and chuck/donate the various VHS things but sentimental reasons and a desire to finish up because my god, I was hungry kept me from doing so. I was pretty pleased that for the first time I can remember, I cleaned and sorted a shelf and managed to actually come away with room left over. Which I promptly filled but still. Room! Huzzah!

My original plan was to go through and book nerd it up properly with the various books but after about five of them I gave up. That's going to have to wait for a time when I've cleaned this desk off and LT is up for the weekend. Possibly might try to use the laptop for it again but also might not because getting comfy on the floor was not possible.

I will say that if you do go play on LT and are scanning in stuff like the BSC, just skip straight to scanning the inside cover. The newer books (like the re-releases from not too terribly long ago) will work the other way, but the old stuff won't. And some of them either have the same numbers as other books OR they're close enough and when scanning things, it'll sometimes double scan and catch another number at random. I'm used to the machines at work doing that so it wasn't a big thing. Also, it only happened a handful of times and I clearly scanned in quite a few books. Super fast, though.

Other highlights: me telling the program that yes, I know this was a duplicate book and yes, I meant for that to happen because I must catalog ALL the cover variations. Seriously, I'm the dork who would honestly like to have all the little variations like the little "win this!" things that changed cataloged. I might not want to own them all, but I'd like them to be noted. (And yes, in the land of SV, I think I've been known to buy the variations like that because I have a problem.)

In nail polish needs/wants, despite not really caring one way or the other about Grease, I have a mighty need for Chills Are Multiplying! because apparently I am a sucker for blue and glitter. It's beautiful though and I neeeeeeeed it.

7.) Favorite super special:
Toss-up between Summer and Winter Vacation. I always wanted to go to summer camp but I also knew myself well enough to know I would be absolutely MISERABLE and um, no to the snakes thank you. (I might've toured a girl scout camp that my mom was willing to send me to that's nearby but would've been sleep-away and while we were there snakes were found in the pool and I just had to say no.) This was like getting to go without having to actually leave home. Winter was fun and had a ghost story and it was just all kinds of yes.

8.) Least favorite super special:
The European one, I guess? I dunno, I don't remember much other than Mal being related to Shakespeare which is enough of a reason to make a face of no. It was also I'd pretty much checked out of the BSC and was only popping back in to buy the SS/Mysteries and anything that caught my eye. There's no nostalgia factor to mask any issues and it didn't stick in my memory very much. Plus side, when I re-read it eventually it'll be like reading a new book. Maybe.

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welp, I tried

Sun, 08 Apr 2018 22:37:58 GMT

LT is still down. I'm going to guess that I was not the only one who thought, "AHA, unlimited books! Time to catalog ALL THE BOOKS!" or something. Or maybe it was their thing with whatever app thing they bought. Dunno. Point is, my weekend plans have been dashed. And the internet is being slow as hell.

Grr.

I slept a little too long for my backup plans to kick in (picture comparisons between Cecile, Gabby, and Sonali) so what to do, what to do.

6.) Least favorite mystery:
Uh, the Mysteries were my thing as a kid so this question makes no sense. :P Which is to say I'm gonna go with the super mystery Christmas Chiller because I don't remember anything about it other than a vague feeling of "that's it?"

Sigh.

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Sat, 07 Apr 2018 12:22:02 GMT

And so tourist season kicks off. I'm sure everyone has their own designated kick-off date for it, but for me it's the Bridge Run and Flowertown. I think I went to Flowertown once and it was kind of awesome and definitely all too much for me, but I was also in middle school and I'd imagine it's worse as an adult. :P Anyway, you could tell all the people who came in last night who work any job that'll bring 'em in contact with tourists or those who are just really psyched for the two events. They had the look of "and so it begins." We all wished one another good luck because really, this weekend sucks if you don't get to play.

Onward!

Oh, and I finally looked it up and it turns out that I wasn't kidding every time I said my work-a-versary is April Fool's Day.

5.) Favorite mystery:
Mary Anne and the Secret in the Attic. I'm going to agree with people who think this should really be in the core books, especially considering how often things in the mysteries didn't really seems to translate to the core series but this one is a big, important life change for MA. I think I re-read it not too long ago (a year or two?) and the only thing that didn't hold up is that the pacing is off, and I think I remember feeling that way when it first came out, too.

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Day 4?

Fri, 06 Apr 2018 14:55:28 GMT

4.) Least favorite regular book:
Dawn Saves The Planet. Not sure if it's actually my least favorite, but it's the one I still wince anytime I think about it. It's pretty much the book everyone points to when discussing how awful Dawn is and it's not even like you can defend it because she's meant to be the absolute worst. Why, book, why. Also, Dawn does not look cute on the original cover. Not as bad on the re-do but too little, too late.

Also, Mallory Pike, #1 Fan is just... seriously, Mal would understand the fucking concept of FICTION.

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Day 2!

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 14:22:16 GMT

2.) Least favorite sitter:
I see you, little meme. Trying to stir up trouble already. Tsk tsk. I really don't know how to answer this, though. Do I go with Jessi, who tended to just be the dancer of the group and seemed to exist to just dance in and out of meetings and occasionally show up when the plot needed sign language? That feels like a cop out, especially since I think Jessi had moments where she was pretty awesome. Also, I love her friendship with Mal and Mal would never forgive me for saying Jessi was my least fav.

Ghostwritten Kristy? But that feels like a cheat since it's a very specific Kristy and honestly, I think I'd have to narrow it down even more since not all ghosties treated everyone in the same way. I will say that Kid!me was not a huge fan of Kristy books because I did not care one little bit about sports and once the Krushers were a thing (which happened pretty much right after I found the series) I knew I'd never be safe in a Kristy book again. :P However, adult!me has a serious soft spot for early Kristy and also I have a vivid memory of trying to convince my mother that a friend of mine wasn't all bad, she was just very Kristy Thomas-ish. Mom replied that she did not really care for Kristy, be it in fiction or apparently in reality. So no, not Kristy.

Logan? Yeah, we'll go with Logan. He was part of the club before Jessi, Mal, Abby, and even Shannon and I don't think I really could tell you too much about him. Part of this could've been that he didn't really get a lot to do, being an associate member and all, and part of it could be that he was pretty much Mary Anne's boyfriend (except when he wasn't) and that's all my kid mind needed to know. Adult me just never really formed an opinion or cared much one way or the other. I don't hate him but I don't really have an opinion beyond "eh" and that I think qualifies for least favorite.

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Let's start something I likely won't finish, eh?

Tue, 03 Apr 2018 07:15:24 GMT

1.) Favorite sitter
2.) Least favorite sitter
3.) Favorite regular book
4.) Least favorite regular book
5.) Favorite mystery
6.) Least favorite mystery
7.) Favorite super special
8.) Least favorite super special
9.) Favorite minor character
10.) Least favorite minor character
11.) Favorite sitting charge
12.) Least favorite sitting charge
13.) Favorite parent
14.) Least favorite parent
15.) Favorite BSC fight
16.) Favorite BSC love interest
17.) Favorite BSC organized event
18.) Favorite vacation spot
19.) Favorite holiday book
20.) Favorite couple in the book
21.) Favorite couple not in the book (as in who you wanted to get together but didn't)
22.) BSC member or minor character you could see yourself being friends with
23.) Favorite Friends Forever
24.) Least favorite Friends Forever
25.) Moments/Scene from the books that sticks out to you the most
26.) Favorite Claudia outfit
27.) Favorite Stacey outfit
28.) One thing you learned from the BSC
29.) Favorite BSC 'villain'
30.) Biggest 'that wouldn't really happen in real life' moment

I could have sworn I started this once upon a time, back in the day. But since I'm shit at tagging my stuff properly for future!me, I guess we'll never know. Might as well give it a go and see how far I make it before I give up. I'm pretty sure I might've finished one of these however many days kind of things over the course of, y'know, a billion years. Oops.

1.) Favorite sitter
Dawn. I could pretend otherwise, and there are certainly close runners up, but it's pretty much always been and always going to be Dawn. The very first BSC book I bought and read was Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn and I was hooked right from the start. Long hair (younger!me was forever getting haircuts that were entirely too short, either through my own fault or someone trying to "even things out" or gum would get stuck in my hair), ghost loving, marches to the beat of her own drummer but still worries about how that's percieved by other people? SOLD.

Over the years for various things I've defended Dawn and should the need arise again, I shall continue to do so. Her ghostie years are a crime against humanity that adults should be able to work around since it's not like most of the characters fared too well but I guess part of growing up is realizing that the stuff you loved as a kid had faults and then you overcompensate. Or something like that.

Anyway, early Dawn is the best Dawn. She managed to be granola crunchy but understood that not everyone was going to feel the same way and let them live. She had certain non-negotiables (toy guns) but found ways to get her point across calmly and without much fuss. While she might not have been the ultimate Individual the others always said she was, I think I always understood that to be kind of the point. Dawn's friends saw her one way and then Dawn's books and little interludes in the other books showed what was going on behind the curtain. The girl is thirteen, she doesn't have it all figured out even if she'd like to think she does sometimes.

Never did understand the Laura Ashley thing though.

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