Lounge II (The Lounge Strikes Back)

[TheDwarfyOne]

I'm perhaps going off on a tangent - 5am to 2pm shifts inspire such things in me - but I'd like to hold a snake.

My brother's friend brought one (its name was Ulster, which was so ridiculous I laughed) into our house once. I learned two things.

1) Snakes are cool - in all senses of the word 

2) My mum has an irrational fear/hatred of them.

Number two was surprising, because frankly the woman could scare a grizzly if she'd half a mind. Anyway, I managed to stroke the snake, but my mum filibustered and threatened to disown me if I did more. She also threatened to move house because the snake had somehow contaminated it? Dunno.

I'd bring one into the house again for a laugh, but it might kill her.

Then again, sic semper tyrannis, eh?

[Snakenaps]

5 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

I'm perhaps going off on a tangent - 5am to 2pm shifts inspire such things in me - but I'd like to hold a snake.

My brother's friend brought one (its name was Ulster, which was so ridiculous I laughed) into our house once. I learned two things.

1) Snakes are cool - in all senses of the word 

One of my favorite joys is watching people light up when they hold Virgil. I wish I could let you hold him. He's the sweetest, most laid back ball python I've ever met. I've owned him since he was six weeks old and seven inches long. Because I've been brought him to elementary classrooms since he was a few months old, Virgil's completely bombproof. You can kiss him on the head all day long and he won't care. 

As for snakes being cool, most people don't consider the fact that because snakes are cold blooded, their pee, poo, and urates (a white, chalky substance of the bones they can't eat) is cold too. I discovered this firsthand, because Virgil peed on me during his first extended car ride. I thought I had spilt water at first because it wasn't hot. 

I was young and rather foolish when I bought Virgil. I impulse bought him due to extreme loneliness and a bully of a roommate nearly four years ago. That roommate didn't speak to me for three days (best three days of my life) and for the eight months she lived with Virgil, she was convinced he was slimy to the touch and wouldn't go anywhere near him. He stayed in my room. That was back when his hides, his little cave houses, were tissue boxes. Now he sleeps in modified litter boxes XD 

5 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

2) My mum has an irrational fear/hatred of them.

Number two was surprising, because frankly the woman could scare a grizzly if she'd half a mind. Anyway, I managed to stroke the snake, but my mum filibustered and threatened to disown me if I did more. She also threatened to move house because the snake had somehow contaminated it? Dunno.

I'd bring one into the house again for a laugh, but it might kill her.

My best friend (who poked Virgil in the rear yesterday) used to have a massive fear of snakes because he was originally from Louisiana. Pretty much everything snakey there will kill you. It took me a long while to get him to even go near Virgil's tank. Now he'll hold him. Cracks me up, because my bestie is a massive bear of a man who literally punched the shelf he built for me today instead of using a rubber mallet :/ 

Do me a favor, don't scare your mom, just on the offhand chance she'll one day come around I have a hard enough time trying to convince people that not all snakes are killers. 

See if there's ever a reptile expo near you. That's how I got introduced to it all, and got to hold all sorts of reptiles. Just be careful not to come home with a friend! Ball pythons like Virgil are mostly easy keepers, but they can live over forty years. Plus, reptiles are deceptively expensive, much like fish. 

[Snakenaps]

On 6/19/2020 at 3:17 PM, kais said:

I'm glad he's safe and sound now! Being prodded near my rear with ice would not make me a happy snake/person

My best friend realized afterwards the whole reason Virgil would jump forward if he was prodded in one certain area was because my bestie was poking poor Virgil straight in the butthole (called a vent on snakes!) Probably the most action Virgil is ever going to see in his very long, single life. 

On 6/19/2020 at 5:05 PM, shatteredsmooth said:

I am certain I would've bit someone if I was Virgil.

I'm glad you got him safely back into his tank. Maybe he will be hungry from his adventure.  

I hope he doesn't loose his appetite! I just finally got him eating again after nearly six months, the jerk!

13 hours ago, Robinski said:

OMG! Glad he's back where he belongs. Our fridge make loads of weird (and extremely annoying) noises, like constantly. I'm kind of hesitant to pull it out from the wall now...  

If you had a snake in your fridge, it'd be dead by now. They can feast for a ridiculously long time, but most species die from dehydration after just a few days.

Oooh!!! This got me remembering! Christ Church in Dublin have this mummified cat and rat. The cat chased the rat down an organ pipe, and they died and naturally mummified in the pipe. You probably don't have mummies in your fridge. 

Edited June 21, 2020 by Snakenaps

[kais]

2 hours ago, Snakenaps said:

You probably don't have mummies in your fridge. 

I mean that's the HOPE

[Robinski]

11 hours ago, Snakenaps said:

On 20/06/2020 at 11:44 AM, Robinski said:

OMG! Glad he's back where he belongs. Our fridge make loads of weird (and extremely annoying) noises, like constantly. I'm kind of hesitant to pull it out from the wall now...  

If you had a snake in your fridge, it'd be dead by now. They can feast for a ridiculously long time, but most species die from dehydration after just a few days.

Oooh!!! This got me remembering! Christ Church in Dublin have this mummified cat and rat. The cat chased the rat down an organ pipe, and they died and naturally mummified in the pipe. You probably don't have mummies in your fridge.

Yeah, I was joking (I'm sure I was), but that is a great mummy story!! 

[Robinski]

8 hours ago, kais said:

I mean that's the HOPE

 Always.

[TheDwarfyOne]

22 hours ago, Snakenaps said:

One of my favorite joys is watching people light up when they hold Virgil. I wish I could let you hold him. He's the sweetest, most laid back ball python I've ever met. I've owned him since he was six weeks old and seven inches long. Because I've been brought him to elementary classrooms since he was a few months old, Virgil's completely bombproof. You can kiss him on the head all day long and he won't care. 

As for snakes being cool, most people don't consider the fact that because snakes are cold blooded, their pee, poo, and urates (a white, chalky substance of the bones they can't eat) is cold too. I discovered this firsthand, because Virgil peed on me during his first extended car ride. I thought I had spilt water at first because it wasn't hot. 

I was young and rather foolish when I bought Virgil. I impulse bought him due to extreme loneliness and a bully of a roommate nearly four years ago. That roommate didn't speak to me for three days (best three days of my life) and for the eight months she lived with Virgil, she was convinced he was slimy to the touch and wouldn't go anywhere near him. He stayed in my room. That was back when his hides, his little cave houses, were tissue boxes. Now he sleeps in modified litter boxes XD 

My best friend (who poked Virgil in the rear yesterday) used to have a massive fear of snakes because he was originally from Louisiana. Pretty much everything snakey there will kill you. It took me a long while to get him to even go near Virgil's tank. Now he'll hold him. Cracks me up, because my bestie is a massive bear of a man who literally punched the shelf he built for me today instead of using a rubber mallet :/ 

Do me a favor, don't scare your mom, just on the offhand chance she'll one day come around I have a hard enough time trying to convince people that not all snakes are killers. 

See if there's ever a reptile expo near you. That's how I got introduced to it all, and got to hold all sorts of reptiles. Just be careful not to come home with a friend! Ball pythons like Virgil are mostly easy keepers, but they can live over forty years. Plus, reptiles are deceptively expensive, much like fish. 

My mum's a lost cause on the snake front, I'm afraid. She'll not change her mind now.

And one non-conventional pet at a time, methinks. I was gonna buy some hives this summer (can't because of dratted Covid) and still hope to.

Free honey. Yum.

The Alsations are more conventional, though big as wolves. If wolves were the cutest things alive.

Edited June 21, 2020 by TheDwarfyOne

[Snakenaps]

57 minutes ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

And one non-conventional pet at a time, methinks. I was gonna buy some hives this summer (can't because of dratted Covid) and still hope to.

Free honey. Yum.

Oooh man!!! That's so cool!!! Bees are probably my second or third favorite animals. Horses are obviously first

[shatteredsmooth]

1 hour ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

The Alsations are more conventional, though big as wolves. If wolves were the cutest things alive.

The wolfy dog is adorable! 

My dog is weird and does not like dogs that have pointy ears if they are bigger than him, so we always have to give the wolfy ones wide berths on the walk, no matter how friendly they are. He also hates great Danes, and gets along okay with most other dogs.

 

1 hour ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

And one non-conventional pet at a time, methinks. I was gonna buy some hives this summer (can't because of dratted Covid) and still hope to.

 

I like it when people in my neighborhood have hives so their bees pollinate my garden and fruit trees, but I wouldn't want to have to deal with the hive myself. And my dog likes bees less than he likes big adorable pointy eared dogs. No hives in my future, though I do love honey. 

[Snakenaps]

1 hour ago, shatteredsmooth said:

My dog is weird

You also have a stupidly adorable dog who deserves all the pets in the world. 

[Robinski]

That's a great picture, @TheDwarfyOne.

[TheDwarfyOne]

9 hours ago, Snakenaps said:

Oooh man!!! That's so cool!!! Bees are probably my second or third favorite animals. Horses are obviously first

Ah, horses. My dad got my sister a pair years ago so she could ride. Xanadu and Dinky, both named by the previous owner. I doubt said owner got the former name from Coleridge's poem, but that's why I liked it

We don't have them anymore, which is a pity. I do still get to pet horses I meet along my walk/jog, though.

8 hours ago, shatteredsmooth said:

My dog is weird

Your dog's class, I love his tufted ears. I'm trying to pin the breed and can't. He reminds me of a Scottish Terrier, which he very obviously isn't.

3 hours ago, Robinski said:

That's a great picture, @TheDwarfyOne.

Thanks! I had my phone, my dad had bought a new (old) tractor, and the dog was out. These things all connected in my head, ahaha.

[Robinski]

1 hour ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

My dad got my sister a pair years ago so she could ride. Xanadu and Dinky, both named by the previous owner. I doubt said owner got the former name from Coleridge's poem, but that's why I liked it

Probably not the song by Canadian rock legends, Rush, either (inspired by Coleridge, I'm sure). Maybe the Olivia Newton John album.

[shatteredsmooth]

4 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

Your dog's class, I love his tufted ears. I'm trying to pin the breed and can't. He reminds me of a Scottish Terrier, which he very obviously isn't.

7 hours ago, Robinski said:

Tavi is a mutt. His mom was found abandoned and pregnant with  a litter of puppies. The mom kind of looked like a cross between a Scottish Terrier and an Airedale Terrier, but she was probably more mixed than that. No clue what the dad looked like. 

The person who adopted Tavi's sister had a DNA test done to try and figure out what mix she was. It was mostly "unknown terrier mix" with a little bit of boxer, golden retriever, and husky. The sister looks exactly like him, but her fur is a golden-yellow color. 

[shatteredsmooth]

I while back I read an article  street dogs and dump dogs in different parts of the world, and what happens when natural selection starts replacing human interference and breeding. The result was dogs likes him. There is some variation in fur color and length, but his size, build, and scruffy look was pretty common, especially with the dogs shown from central and south america. 

I don't remember all the details about why, but the part that stood out was the medium size (he's about 50 lbs, but very well fed unlike strays) was efficient. Any bigger and they need too much food, and if they're much smaller, they're easier prey(I think, but I could be remembering wrong). He isn't from any of the areas in the study. He's from Tennessee. A lot of the southern states in the US have issues with dog over population, especially in poor rural areas where people don't have or spend the money to spay or neuter the dogs and let them roam.

A lot of the rescue organizations pull dogs from shelters down there and bring them up the northeast where there more demand for pet dogs, especially puppies.  

Anyway, I think some of the same dog evolution that is happening with street dogs in developing countries is also happening the rural areas of the US. 

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by shatteredsmooth

[Snakenaps]

8 hours ago, shatteredsmooth said:

I while back I read an article  street dogs and dump dogs in different parts of the world, and what happens when natural selection starts replacing human interference and breeding.

This is utterly fascinating! I never thought of it before. 

[Snakenaps]

Before I show you today's moving treasures, I want to give a quick notice: Tomorrow I am going to begin to catch up on critiques. I'm going to go story by story rather than week of submission. @shatteredsmooth Book of M is going to be the one I will do last, as I will jump straight into your short story afterwards, unless you want me to do your short story then Book of M. I am aiming to catch up on all past critiques by Monday, June 29th. 

Now, onto the show...

Mom brought me an entire box of my old sketchbooks, which has led to some golden finds. 

Forgive mobile for the sideways photos (which are horrible quality, my fault).

For instance, the earliest drawings of Ir that I think I still have, from 2012 (she dates back to about 2007/2008):

This was back when she was in her earliest incarnation, a former hero's soul trapped in a bracelet. 

Then there was highschool's dragonrider/weilder of magic sword Ir, which was the longest incarnation, and the second-to-last before her current look/story. This was from the year I graduated high school, in 2015. 

And last but not least, a doodle of the BK from 2015:

Thanks for letting me share

[TheDwarfyOne]

Well, your drawings are definitely better than mine, that's for sure, ahaha.

[shatteredsmooth]

26 minutes ago, Snakenaps said:

@shatteredsmooth Book of M is going to be the one I will do last, as I will jump straight into your short story afterwards, unless you want me to do your short story then Book of M

The short story and Book of M are not at all related, so it doesn't really matter order they go in. Different characters. Different universe. 

It looks like Ch. 5 was the last one you read? I rewrote 6 since I submitted it, so let me know when you get close to starting and I'll send you the newest version. 

Edited June 22, 2020 by shatteredsmooth

[Snakenaps]

17 minutes ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

Well, your drawings are definitely better than mine, that's for sure, ahaha.

I've been drawing non-stop since I could hold a crayon. Time and dedication definitely builds artistic muscle. 

I've also owned an ocarina for five years and all I can play is "Happy Birthday" :/ 

8 minutes ago, shatteredsmooth said:

The short story and Book of M are not at all related, so it doesn't really matter order they go in. Different characters. Different universe. 

It looks like Ch. 5 was the last one you read? I rewrote 6 since I submitted it, so let me know when you get close to starting and I'll send you the newest version. 

I was going to do Book of M first because it will be easier to jump back into a story I already am familiar with. 

Can you shoot me the chapter by Wednesday morning? I'm hoping to get to it by Wednesday morning/Thursday evening. 

[TheDwarfyOne]

I started drawing a few months back then stopped fairly recently. I should get back into it. It was relaxing, and I managed to evolve from 'can't draw a stick-man' to 'can draw something resembling a human face in the right light.'

I think I have a picture of some faces I did on my laptop somewhere...

Yep, here:

Spoiler

On a complete tangent, I notice that @Robinski is the "Wielder of the Grammar Stick."

By any chance has it ever said "I. Am. A. Stick (Which Is A Noun)!" to you? 

Edited June 22, 2020 by TheDwarfyOne

[Snakenaps]

45 minutes ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

I think I have a picture of some faces I did on my laptop somewhere...

Dude, you immediately have my respect. There are three things I struggle greatly in drawing: 1) men, 2) beards, 3) and profiles. Seriously, if you look at my art, how many of them hit even one or two of those categories? 

I especially love the man on the far left. His nose is awesome. Noses are such a pain. You've also got great proportions! 

I'm not the only artist! I'm so happy!!! You've got to show me more at some point, got it? Do you prefer mechanical or wooden pencils??? I'm a sucker for Dixon Ticonderoga's myself. 

[Robinski]

7 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

By any chance has it ever said "I. Am. A. Stick (Which Is A Noun)!" to you?

This is a Sanderson thing, isn't it? I never got that. I've only read the first four Mistborn books; that's it. ell, the last three Wheel of Time books too. Sure, I've got more on my shelf, but Sanderson is not may favourite author, so they tend to get pushed down the list.

Love all the sketches. I wonder why Ir angry is my favourite. And, Dwarfy, the expression of the guy second from the left is really subtle, kind of forlorn. Nice job.

I've dabbled very, very slightly with sketching. Did a half decent one of my daughter. My mum is an artist, but I never had the patience.

Edited June 23, 2020 by Robinski

[TheDwarfyOne]

@Robinski

It is a Sanderson thing! Good gracious man, read Stormlight Archive. I doubt you'll regret it.

@Snakenaps

Ahah, I'll be sure to share the next time I draw something, but it's been a while. I spent a lot of time drawing faces because I felt they were the hardest, so I can't really draw anything else now. I could never manage that horse or dragon (which is class btw). And that was you approx. 5 years ago.

Seriously, you are the only artist. My artistic ability is v. limited. Also deffo wooden pencils, be serious now.

[Snakenaps]

4 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

I could never manage that horse or dragon

See, I cheated, because I learned how to draw horses first, and they have a lot of physical similarities to dragons. Dragons are just horses with longer necks and toothy smiles. 

4 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

I spent a lot of time drawing faces because I felt they were the hardest, so I can't really draw anything else yet.

Oh, I noticed you had a typo, so I fixed it

Faces are definitely up there in difficultly, but hands are the bane of my existence. Horses at least have faces, but horses don't have hands to learn from. What are thumbs...

4 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

Seriously, you are the only artist. My artistic ability is v. limited.

Nope, I refuse to be the only artist. Besides, that's like saying the only real writers on this forum are the published ones, and that's not the case. You can be any level of a writer here, and therefore I say you can be any level of an artist here. After all, writing is an art too. 

4 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

Also deffo wooden pencils, be serious now.

You are a man of excellent taste. 

I'm too fiddly for mechanical pencils or pens. I always end of breaking them.