Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

I'm on a few authors' mailing lists, and one of them mentioned they wrote a book for this collection: Gypsies After Dark: A Collection of Brand New Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels. 22 books. For how much? 99 cents. That's 22 books, not short stories or something. Novels. And from an actual publisher, too! I don't read urban fantasy, otherwise I would jump on that offer.

...ah drat. The other offer won't work. I have a $3.14 credit at Barnes & Noble and I can't even use it to buy pie. I won't be using it, but it seems to be bound to my account. If it was a code number or something, I'd pass it on to someone.

And, since I'm posting random stuff, I'm not even much of a Star Wars fan, and I love this picture. I figured bigger fans might enjoy it:

All my life, I've wanted to be able to run. As a very heavy person, running even a couple steps was a bad idea. But gonzostar does lots of running now, and instead of just admiring her for it, why can't I try it too? I still haven't gotten the app issue worked out yet, but I figured I could just try it some and see how it goes.

Odd thing #1: It doesn't hurt my knees. It doesn't hurt anything. It doesn't feel at all like running when I was 130+ pounds heavier. :P Duh on me!

Odd thing #2: And, unlike #1, this one really is odd. I don't seem to know how to run. You'd think we could just... run. It must be in our genes. I had to run a couple times for gym class in high school (decades ago), but I haven't run at all since then. I'm 100% sure I'm doing it wrong, as I only land on the balls of my feet and never put the rest of my foot down. Also, perhaps related to that issue, I seem to... bounce? too much. Like I'm not running smoothly, I think I must be going up and down more than other people when they run...

I watched some videos on Youtube, but unsurprisingly there are no "how to run" videos out there. I did learn it's rare to land on the balls of your feet instead of your heels, and that it's safer/better for you to land that way, so go me?

I didn't run for long though, because it just felt so wrong. I have no idea how to force my heels to drop down and touch the ground too, it feels natural to stay up on the balls of my feet if I'm running. I didn't run for long outside, because I worry I look like I'm running oddly, so I ran back and forth in my apartment (I have one long hallway that goes from one end of it to the other).

I have no idea how to figure out how to run right though...

Stardew Valley: I haven't been posting about it much. I'm back into winter again, which is just the worst season of them all. So boring. I'm trying to max out my mining and adventuring ratings (both 9 now), which means I have to keep going into the Skull Dungeon (which I really dislike, it's stressful to me for some reason, I guess maybe because the mobs are so much harder). I wonder if I could max out in the mines or if the XP there is just too low?

Finally, after having a baby for like three weeks, it woke up. I think we can all agree that Haken should not be permitted babies and/or needs some better way to paint the ceiling.


Stop throwing so hard! D:

And lastly, the perfect food for the next time you go to the strip club. Sexy snackfoods? (Work safe on that link? I think?)

Three things make a post!

1) Game of Thrones, told with pugs:



The how they made it is a good watch, too.

2) By way of donnaimmaculata: Critique my dick pic. This is a more interesting site than it would sound on the surface, as the guy critiques the whole photo, not just the dangly bits. In his own words: "friendly reminder that i’m interested in the quality of the photograph rather than the dick itself." (Edit: I forgot to mark this as NWS, but I hope that would be kind of obvious. :) )

3) The scariest teddy bear ever. The animated toy sold for $712. It actually is pretty darned creepy (though not $712 creepy).

Linked because the sample image is somewhat disturbing.

Following the "three things make a post" rule:

- I slept five hours last night. While that's just a drop in the bucket after not sleeping the previous two nights, at least I'm only tired today and not 'oh my god, kill me now' level exhausted. I still hate the machine, it makes me feel like I'm being smothered. Nothing like the feeling of being smothered to help you fall asleep, huh?

It's way too early to know if this is just chance or if it's a Thing, but usually I remember at least one dream a night, and I haven't the past three nights. The first two can be explained by the lack of sleep, but I wonder about last night. To remember a dream, you need to wake up within (some number of minutes, I forget how many) of having it. If the machine makes me sleep sounder/wake up less, I guess I'll stop remembering them. That would be a really big negative side effect; I love remembering my dreams, I often spend much time the next day thinking about them. I guess we'll see.

- Still loving FFXIV. A side effect of that is how much schadenfreude I get from reading WoW news. I had been unhappy there for so long, and I wasn't looking forward to anything about the coming expansion, and I hated the graphics and so much else about the game, now I can sit here and read the news and snicker to myself that I don't have to put up with it anymore. I sure do wish I had quit sooner!

I'm so happy to be getting so much RP on FFXIV. I'm still getting it almost daily (the days I don't RP it's by my choice, not for lack of options). A new fellow just joined our FC ("guild"), and he writes long posts, like me. It's so nice to be able to flex my writing muscles and not feel like I'm making people wait for me.

- It's such a wonderful thing to read a book by a great writer after such a string of bad books. I just started reading BZRK, by Michael Grant (the same fellow who wrote the Gone series that I loved, and wrote all the Animorph books with his wife, along with tons of other YA books from that time). It's not just that his stories are great (they are), or his characters are realistic (so realistic), or he has a GRRMesque willingness to kill off his characters (*cackle*), but his skills at crafting a sentence and describing the world just blow me out of the water. I had to go back and reread this section a number of times (then continued reading the book only to keep flipping back to it).

Even though he was just seventeen, he wasn't really for girls. He was for women.

Women would look at him and let their eyes slide over his face and those shoulders, because you know, women don't stare the way men do. They just need a glance. And then, having memorized him with a glance, they would...

It wasn't until I read that that I remembered there have been studies that confirm just that -- women decide in something like two? three? seconds if they're attracted to another person, much faster than men do. Something about their general body shape (silhouette), the width of their shoulders, that sort of thing.

Unfortunately I accepted a book for review (Salvation, by James Wymore) from a publisher. Bad timing, I'm going to have to read it next instead of continuing on with the BZRK series. Oh well, hopefully Salvation will be good. It has good reviews on Amazon, for what that's worth...

Wow, this turned out to be an actual post! I worried it wouldn't be more than three sentences long. Heh.

For this random post about random things, I shall use a random icon. *closes eyes, picks one* Ah ha! ani_mama drew this one a while ago, one of those "five random people get free sketches!" things. I love it, I should use it more often. :D

The current book I'm reading is taking forever to get through, which is what's holding up my next post (seeing how I mostly post book reviews nowadays...). It's not a bad book, it has some issues (some of them serious), but all in all I'm enjoying it, which means I can't explain why I'm reading it so slowly.

I have three kids' books lined up to read and post about all in one day/post. Maybe tomorrow.

I'm off all this week, which is really nice! It's hotter than heck here, but I can happily hide inside with the AC blasting.

Ellie New Cat, on the other hand... I'm worried about her. While I'm home, she sleeps at the door, her nose nearly at the crack where it would first open if I opened it. I have no idea why she's doing it, other than she wants to get outside? I hope that's not the case, but I have no idea why else she'd spend so much time there.

Before we get to the book, Google made me blink earlier today. I think I'm allergic to my hairspray (I only use it on one section of my hair, and that section of my scalp itches and burns every day), and I wanted to find out how common that might be.



I... um... what? What in the world are people doing... I just... what?

Anyway, the book! I enjoyed rereading Jurassic Park so much that I decided to grab a few more of Michael Crichton's books. I picked five or six of them at random and tossed them in my To Read pile (thankfully not an actual pile anymore, since they're all ebooks). At random I picked Prey.

I love learning new things when I read, but in this book Crichton takes it way too far. The story will be merrily trotting along, then BLAM! The whole plot pauses for a few pages as he talks about some technology. It's totally outside of the story other than the character is daydreaming about it or thinking about it or whatever. Then the plot will continue a bit until BLAM! A few more pages on the history of that technology. More plot, then BLAM! Another total halt of the story as he talks about how that tech might be further explored, how it relates to other sciences, whatever. Scenes go something like this:

Mary says, "We're glad you were able to come today, Mike."
Mike's attention drifts. Nanotechnology first came about in 1992 when Jack Mercer, a computer engineer specializing in software development, of CalTech and Jane McKay, a biologist with twenty years of field experience in India, now working at Intel got together...
[Three pages of information about the history of nanotech.]
Mary says, "Are you listening, Mike?"
Mike says, "Oh, yes, sorry."
[Plot continues for a while, as if that pages long break never happened.]

The story was okay at best. I think it would have been a much better movie than a book (the whole thing had an action-adventure feel to it, other than the walls of information dropped in at random). Basically it was the exact same story as Jurassic Park, except with nanites in place of dinosaurs. Stupid and/or greedy people with higher tech than they should posses losing control of it and it ends up eating a bunch of people who deserve it, the good people walk away at the end.

I started my next book last night, Gullstruck Island by Frances Hardinge. It hasn't hooked me yet, but I'm only a few pages in. Unfortunately the writing style doesn't thrill me, and it's written in the British style of single quotes around dialog), which keeps knocking me out of the story.

Looking at the Amazon page again, it's odd that it has only one review... It's been out for years, won awards, and is from a major publishing house (as opposed to self published). Strange that it has only one review. Hope that's not a bad sign.

This makes me smile a lot:



Funny that I had forgotten Encarta. At its time, it was such a cool, useful thing. (Though now it's laughable -- You too could pay money for what's free on the net!)

I keep wanting to remove dailyreenactor from my friends list, because they post so many pictures a day, but they're all good pictures!

So many different time periods, costumes, details! They may spam my friends list, but I love every post.

II hate it when I write and delete posts over and over. "But this person would think X about it!" "That group would think I mean Y!" I always tell people that they have the right to write whatever they want in their own LJs, and here I am unable or unwilling to follow my own advice. (I don't know what the hell is wrong with my brain tonight. Now I'm rereading this paragraph again and again. "Is it too emo?" "Are people going to be annoyed because I don't say what I mean?" STOP IT, BRAIN. I SWEAR.)

Well, on the subject of minor things that are unlikely to offend or be misunderstood, my damage on all of my alts has come up nicely. In some cases the alts got the Halloween ring fitting for their class, but I think a big part of it is me getting experiencing with playing and updating my macro bars. (Last time I PvEed most of them was last Halloween.) Most are now doing 5-7K, sometimes hitting as low as 4K (my rogue). Thistle does the best, he does 8-10K. I've not been kicked out of a group yet, and no one has rolled an alt on my server to tell me I suck. Good enough for me.

Eight alts have been going every day. Still not one single mount.

This image from Blizzcon tickles me more than anything on WoW in a long time. "Other races that struggle to pass through doorways", heehee. And the Alliance saying "We'll keep trying!" just kills me.

And tonight's ten random images. I'm not sure if there will be a last set of ten. I was supposed to be picking them at random, but the ten left I've grown kind of meh about, so we'll see.

Back from the days when there were ads on the net I saw ads on the Internet: Only YOU can help little boys in need of cybering: Give cyber today.

Happy Pride day, officers! I love this picture so much. They look so happy! Um, the women do, anyway.

Russians have the wackiest things... Things, not "things". NWS

From FFXI, I forget the name of them, but they sure as heck count as cute. ToAU: The WotLK of FFXI. I miss you so.

Best Pet Ever... if you don't mind a pet who might eat your face off and then happily bite your skull in half. One, two.

If I had the art skill to doodle this in the middle of my class notes... Warning for M/M kissing and Hetalia.

"I feel like chicken tonight, like chicken tonight"? (Naked man, no bits shown, probably NWS anyway.)

Yummy sandwich? I love this image so much, though I have no idea why. His expression? His looks? Sandwich meats?

"So I said... Are you listening? Are you?" I love images that so clearly tell a story. :D

Tiger tiger, burning bright, are your shadows made of stripes? ...wait, that's not right.

I was looking for one image, but I had no idea what I named it, so I downloaded every image file on Catlove and spent a mostly enjoyable couple hours looking at every single one. ("Mostly enjoyable" because it was a shock and then sad to see pictures of my previous cat, photos I had totally forgotten I had, when she looked so young and active.) Very early in my search, some pictures started catching my eye. They were good enough to deserve reposting.

No picture here is later than 2009, and the oldest ones are from 2001. Some of these will be NWS. Some of them will not be to certain viewers' tastes. I'll place as fitting warnings on them as I can. Please believe them or you might end up unhappy. :)

...hours later. Man, it took a long time to arrange this. Saving file names (without file extensions, oops), then having to recreate the URLs from various directories. Turns out 40 in one post is kind of overwhelming, so I'm going to do 10/night for four nights. I have them arranged in groups (truly random, animals, naked people...) , but I think I'll pick a few from each one, just to continue with the 'random' theme.

One day I was shopping in a Japanese dollar store and found this... costume for your crotch? One, two, three, four, five.

I needed this bumpersticker in 2008, and I need it even more now. (political, sort of)
And this license plate (also fitting for a number of DKs).

Tiny baby hamsters: One, two, three.

FFXI had the best sigs, poor Dragoons used to be so unloved.

Thistle and Squall sitting in a... no, wait. It's sad when you have so much outstanding commission art that you lose track of it! This is FFXI (and MUX) Thistle, pre-WoW. He and Squall were (at best) friends, nothing more. Done by the wonderful ani_mama.

Don't ask me to explain this, no one could. NWS, nakedness.

Old joke, but good one.

Three Avatar the Last Airbender fan pictures. I bought the middle one (it's a magnet, it's currently on my fridge). As un-religious as I am, I still really, really like this image. He deserves peace and happiness in the end, for all life threw at him.

Would you believe I totally forgot I did this, that I ever cross-stitched at all? It's beautful! I wish I knew what became of it.

And non-random:
If you're looking for a Crimson Deathcharger on WRA-H, there are currently two on the AH for 42K. That's less than a third of what I paid! D: D: I'm seriously tempted to get one for mount collector/Dalaran AH mule, but... ground mount. What's the use? :/ There's also a Reins of the Spectral Tiger up for 210K. That tempts me even more, but... ground mount. (Edit: Hour later, all are gone. One of the horses was relisted at 150K, the price I bought mine for. Maybe I should have tried flipping it. Sigh. Stupid rooster.)

Speaking of, anyone want to buy a damned magic rooster? I'm never going to sell that thing. Every time I think about buying something expensive to flip, I think of that damned rooster.

Flipping cheaper things tickles me though. I bought 8 stacks, 200 per stack, of things for 4-5 gold per individual item, I'm slowly selling for 13+ gold each. *happy AH person eyes* So much profit! /Ferengi

On the RP front, it was a nice evening. Three quiet, mellow scenes, lots of downtime in between. Wild, crazy, Deeply Meaningful RP is nice, but quiet nights are nice sometimes, too.

Tonigh's chicken breast came out yummy. A little dry (will I ever stop overcooking things! I'm so paranoid about undercooked meat and my thermometer is broken). Soy sauce, worcestershire, and a heaping spoonful of garlic, in a ziplock bag for 24 hours. I wanted to try the 'scoring the meat first' idea, but I hadn't wanted to handle raw chicken last night. Oh, oops, and I forgot to try adding the olive oil, too. Oh well, it was still yummy.

And a video! The Walken Dead ! Found by lives_this_life.

Oh hey, earthquake. Woo! Big enough that there were little noises in my wall! My stomach always gets upset after them, as if I were really dizzy.

Bollywood dancing. With birth control pills.



I wish I were better at this kind of dancing. It's surprisingly hard! It's one of my hardest exercise DVDs. Luckily no one can see me when I do it, so I'm free to randomly flail and pretend I'm keeping up okay.