Lounge II (The Lounge Strikes Back)

[TheDwarfyOne]

Leviathan, ugh, so long since I've read that. Really enjoyed. I can still see them throwing gold bars out of the zeppelin. Ughhhhh.

The Abhorsen books! I knew there were some I forgot to put into my previous list.

Another I forgot was the Inkheart books by Cornelia Funke. I loved that series, largely because it literally had people visiting book-worlds. The main character slept with books under her pillow and had a special chest full of books, so I sympathised. And emulated her by sleeping with books under my pillow. Uncomfortable, but I thought it would give me good dreams.

14 hours ago, Snakenaps said:

Admittedly, most of the romance I've been reading lately has been webcomics

I've been reading through Lore Olympus. It took me a bit to get used to the art style, but once I did it was a genuinely touching story. I began a poem on it, actually. Posted here.

[aeromancer]

3 hours ago, kais said:

HARD agree. It is hands down the best in YA fantasy. In my top three of overall fantasy series ever. 
 

@aeromancer you know Nix has done a few more, right? Goldenhand and one other. Not quite as amazing but still excellent. 

I didn't enjoy Goldenhand. It's supposed to be a continuation of the series, but half the book about a pair of minor characters from the original books and the other half is based off a short story I already read. I supposed it wouldn't be bad if you haven't read the short story, because the book seems to be written based on the assumption that you haven't, but I have, so I was bored reading it. I'd probably have enjoyed if I hadn't gone in with expectations, but you can't write book 4 of a series and decide to go off in a different direction.

It's kind of like my opinion of Orson Scott Card's Formic Wars series. I cracked open the series expecting something akin to Ender's Game, and it's not. It's good sci-fi with asteroid mining and plucky heroes and ridiculous plans, but it's not Ender's Game. It's like Orson Scott Card mapped out the series and then just decided to toss it into the Formic Wars because it was kind of relevant. Goldenhand is good fantasy, but not a good sequel to Abhorsen, and as a result, I wasn't a fan.

Clariel was better.

[kais]

@Snakenaps Did you want picture/early reader books too, like Jane and the Dragon by Martin Baynton and such?

[kais]

1 minute ago, aeromancer said:

Clariel was better.

I enjoyed both (I'd not read the short story). Neither were as good as the trilogy for sure. And I agree completely about the Orson Scott Card Series. Didn't like it nearly as much as Ender's Game

[Snakenaps]

27 minutes ago, kais said:

@Snakenaps Did you want picture/early reader books too, like Jane and the Dragon by Martin Baynton and such?

That looks like the cutest book ever. Yes!

 

[Snakenaps]

 

@kais @shatteredsmooth @Turin Turambar @aeromancer Thank you for so many excellent book recommendations! I'm so excited!!! This is going to be fun! 

 

1 hour ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

I've been reading through Lore Olympus.

I can't wait until Lore Olympus starts up again. Have you read Under the Aegis? It's finished now, but one of my favorites. I have a long list of webcomics, but one of my favorite non-Webtoons comics is Tiger Tiger, which has made me weirdly fond of sea sponges and mollusks. 

[TheDwarfyOne]

Ah, under the Aegis, as Odysseus was under the aegis of Athena.

Reading through it now! I'm enjoying it. Vaguely reminiscent of your own style.

 

Any more recommendations? I find it hard to find good ones, but I just love the art.

 

Edit: Also, random thought: it's scary how much I identified with Hades, lord of the underworld, in that webcomic 

Edited July 8, 2020 by TheDwarfyOne

[TheDwarfyOne]

Apologies for double post, but I was asked to show any new drawings. I even tried to give one of them a body for once! It... didn't really work, but I tried. 

Spoiler

 

[Snakenaps]

3 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

I was asked to show any new drawings

Dude, your faces are awesome. 

8 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

Any more recommendations? I find it hard to find good ones, but I just love the art

Luckily for you, I've been reading webcomics since high school. I'm very fond of them because they are free, mobile, and combine art and storytelling. Nothing is in any particular order. I wouldn't normally note which ones have LGBTQ+ relationships (a good romance is a good romance, imo), but I'll note it in case anyone has any particular interest. I'll bold my favorite favorites.

EDIT: Okay, after I posted this, I realized HOLY SMOKES MY LIST IS WAY TOO LONG for this forum. So I created a Google Doc instead:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Kn_jR0hWsfFbXoS0C4e6306XMcYErrS8rEsgz4vZU2k/edit?usp=sharing

Have 55 of my favorite webcomics, with brief descriptions.

 

Edited July 9, 2020 by Snakenaps

[Robinski]

20 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

And emulated her by sleeping with books under my pillow. Uncomfortable, but I thought it would give me good dreams.

Quality!! Well done  

[Robinski]

13 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

I was asked to show any new drawings.

Looks like it worked out to me. Well done  

[shatteredsmooth]

@TheDwarfyOne Your art is fantastic! 

[TheDwarfyOne]

@Snakenaps Thanks for the list! Definitely a lot of fuel for things to distract me from writing. I'm more than 60 sheets into Aegis.... (Cyrus is deffo the big bad, but guessed that from first appearance....)

@Robinski I've been consistently strange since childhood. It's a matter of principle! It did lead to good dreams, though. Or should I say.... Funke-y ones?

@shatteredsmooth Thanks! Though respectfully disagree, hahah. I'm alright at faces, though by no means stellar. I've tried composing scenes once or twice, it's out of my ballpark.

Though I did just finish drawing my D&D character (Icarus, a compulsively-drinking satyr) realising the local settlement has been placed under prohibition. That was lots of fun.

[Snakenaps]

2 minutes ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

I'm more than 60 sheets into Aegis....

Let me know what you think when you're done... >:D 

3 minutes ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

I've been consistently strange since childhood.

All interesting people are consistently strange. 

[shatteredsmooth]

t/w animal violence (swans fight, but they both live)

Spoiler

Have I ever mentioned how terrifying swans are? I saw a pretty vicious swan fight today out front of my house. One swan had another pinned against my retaining wall while it bit and pecked at it. I did not want to witness swan murder and did not want to deal with disposing of a dead swan, or bringing a wounded one to a wild life rescue, so  went outside and made a ton of noise to try and distract it. The thing looked at me and went back to pecking the other swan. Eventually, it just left. The other swan walked then swam away, so I assume this was some kind of territorial warning / dominance thing and not an attempted murder. But it was terrifying. And later, when I was swimming (I swim about .5 to 1 mile a day) I was constantly looking around to make sure I didn't get to close to any swans. I've always been a little afraid of them, but seeing their violence in action kicks it up a notch or ten.

 

Edited July 18, 2020 by shatteredsmooth

[Robinski]

[TheDwarfyOne]

You swim every day? Outside? No matter the weather?

[shatteredsmooth]

3 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

You swim every day? Outside? No matter the weather?

Mostly, yes, but only in the summer (June-August, maybe September). I'm planning to buy a wet suit soon so I can extend my season a bit. However, by Nov, it will be too cold even with a wet suit, and the lake will start to freeze.

I will skip a day if it is pouring really hard all day, however, I will swim in light rain. I'm already wet if I'm in the water. I won't swim when there is lightening, but thunderstorms don't usually last a whole day. This week, I didn't swim the day I went hiking since we left early and got  back late, and then I had to skip he day after because I fell when I hiked and my shoulder was too sore. But before that, I think I had a two or three week streak of not missing a day.

[Robinski]

2 hours ago, shatteredsmooth said:

This week, I didn't swim the day I went hiking

Pfff, lightweight

[TheDwarfyOne]

2 hours ago, Robinski said:

Pfff, lightweight

And how often do you swim? I can just see you circling the Isle of Arran....

I go for a 6 and a half mile jog/run most days, but it's only made bearable by Audible. I'd get hugely bored if I couldn't 'read' while doing it.

Edited July 18, 2020 by TheDwarfyOne

[shatteredsmooth]

20 minutes ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

I go for a 6 and a half mile jog/run most days, but it's only made bearable by Audible. I'd get hugely bored if I couldn't 'read' while doing it.

 

I hate running. There was one summer where I worked my way up to a mile and a half day, but it was torture. Then my mom got a puppy dog, and when he got big enough, I tried trail running with him, and he got to excited and bit my rear end. Not hard enough to break the skin, but just hard enough to leave a giant bruise. Now I have my own dog and I stick to walks with him. 

However, competing in a triathlon in on my bucket list. The local one is a 10 mile bike, 5k run, and 1 mile swim. I'm not sure why they put the run in kilometers and everything else in miles. I can bike 10 miles no problem (though I'm not fast because I don't bike often) and I can swim the mile. But I've never run a whole 5k. 

58 minutes ago, Robinski said:

Pfff, lightweight

Ha ha ha

I was  doing one of the New Hampshire 4,000 footers and those are no joke. They may not be the highest mountains in the country, but they are steep. And I didn't make it to the summit. The top was in a cloud. It started raining. The last few tenths were big scrambles, which were too dangerous to do if they were wet, so we had lunch at an overlook just below the cloud line and turned around. 

This is looking south as some of the smaller mountains. The best views would've been from up top. 

Edited July 18, 2020 by shatteredsmooth

[shatteredsmooth]

Last week's hike had better views. 

And a snake. Whenever I see snakes now I think of @Snakenaps

 

Edited July 18, 2020 by shatteredsmooth

[Robinski]

3 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

And how often do you swim? I can just see you circling the Isle of Arran....

LOL, on a bike, MAYBE.

3 hours ago, TheDwarfyOne said:

I go for a 6 and a half mile jog/run most days, but it's only made bearable by Audible. I'd get hugely bored if I couldn't 'read' while doing it.

Hard yes. I go for a 20 minute 'power' walk every morning, usually about 6am. Later, hopefully, I will get out in the garden for a solid 2 or 3 hours of gardening. At my age, I have to look after the temple that is my body. It's more of an old church; hole in the roof and rising damp in the foundations.

3 hours ago, shatteredsmooth said:

I hate running.

Ditto. I know a lot of people whose knees are totally fecked.

3 hours ago, shatteredsmooth said:

The local one is a 10 mile bike, 5k run, and 1 mile swim. I'm not sure why they put the run in kilometers and everything else in miles.

I suspect it's because the run portion is aligned with the Olympic distance. Not sure why the others would not be also, but that's my theory.

Cool snake!

In the first picture, those little bumps look more like hills? Nice view in the second pic: now we're talking  

In Scotland, we have hills classified as Munros, which are hills over 3,000 feet. There are 282. Some folks make it their life's ambition to climb them all. I am not one of those people. I've done like, maybe 10?

[shatteredsmooth]

25 minutes ago, Robinski said:

In the first picture, those little bumps look more like hills?

Yeah. That's the Ossipee Mountains and the Belknap Range. My mom used to call them "the foothills." They're mostly between 2,000 and 2,500 feet. 

 

28 minutes ago, Robinski said:

Some folks make it their life's ambition to climb them all.

We've got those kind of people here too. I'm not sure how many mountains there are in each state, but there are all these list people go through.

My cousin just finished the "48 4000-Footers of New Hampshire." Now she is on the "52 with a View" which are mountains in NH that are under 4,000 feet but still have a view. I'm sure when she finishes that, she'll find another list. Mt Washington is the highest in NH, at 6,288, though there are much bigger mountains in other parts of the country. 

I've never counted to see how many I've done, though I'm sure I could check off a handful on either list. However, I've hiked most of the mountains and hills in Acadia National Park, which are short and steep (500 - 1500). They tend to start right from sea level. That's a four hour drive though, so I haven't been up there this year. Hotels and house rentals are open to people in the five New England states plus New Jersey and New York, but I don't think overnight trips are really safe, even if COVID cases are relatively low in Maine compared to other parts of the US.

What I find really interesting is that I have a friend who lived in Colorado for a few years and did a lot of hiking out there where the mountains are much, much higher. She claimed hiking in the Rockies was easier than New England hiking. I heard at least one other person say the same thing. I guess they have a lot of switchbacks out there and the trails in New England tend to go straight up the face of the mountain. 

Some day, when COVID is under control, and I get over my flying issues, I want to go hike in Scotland. 

[Robinski]

2 hours ago, shatteredsmooth said:

Hotels and house rentals are open to people in the five New England states plus New Jersey and New York, but I don't think overnight trips are really safe, even if COVID cases are relatively low in Maine compared to other parts of the US.

Eh, yeah, they certainly aren't in NY.

3 hours ago, shatteredsmooth said:

Some day, when COVID is under control, and I get over my flying issues, I want to go hike in Scotland.

Hey! You'd be most welcome   Here's a picture to whet your appetite: the view from Ben Lomond south along Loch Lomond towards Glasgow. (Robinski not pictured).