Sunbird

Happily, I have never had the need for heavy-duty painkillers so I don't know how I react to them. I did have my wisdom teeth removed in 2013, and afterward I was prescribed two different painkillers, one of which IIRC was either a narcotic or an opioid or something like that, but I opted to take the less powerful (and less potentially addictive) one because I am deathly afraid of getting addicted to strong pain pills after having heard horror stories from people who've worked in retail pharmacy of druggies committing all sorts of crimes and ruining their own lives. I also had knee surgery later that same summer, and the doc prescribed me something called hydrocodone (a generic of Lortab, I believe) for the pain afterwards, but I elected not to take any of that for the same reason I didn't want the powerful painkillers after having my wisdom teeth out and also because the directions on the bottle said I shouldn't be driving after taking it, and I had to be able to drive. So I just stuck with ibuprofen even though my knee hurt horribly, much worse than my mouth did after the wisdom teeth.

"Doors are for people with no imagination." - Skulduggery Pleasant

I had not heard of Sabaa Tahir before, but I'm a fan of Dan Wells. I ordered a copy of his latest John Cleaver book so I can get it signed next weekend. I'll have to see if I can finish reading it before then too, so I can ask him questions and/or gush about it. Might be a challenge because I have a stack of library books I need to read as well.

Brain weasels are the worst. *hugs Twi* Just know that I love "A Kind of Magic" and I think you are an excellent writer. (Random side note: does anyone where know the "brain weasel" expression originated? I'm curious.)

As a Percy Jackson fan, I can help with this Mars = Ares Neptune = Poseidon Mercury = Hermes Venus = Aphrodite Bacchus = Dionysus (I always have trouble figuring out how to pronounce the Greek version of this guy--is it die-AWN-uh-sis or die-oh-NYE-sis or what?) Pluto = Hades Vulcan = Hephaestus

Rose

Brandon mentioned in a recent Facebook post that he will participating in Barnes and Noble's nationwide "B-Fest" event on June 11 at the Orem B&N. (See his events page.) Dan Wells is also scheduled to be there, as well as Sabaa Tahir. How many of my fellow Utah Sharders are planning on coming? If you're coming, are you just going for Brandon, or do the other two authors interest you too?

The album "Misty Mountains: Songs Inspired by the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings" by Peter Hollens. If you haven't discovered him yet, go look him up; he's incredible!!

1. Mr. Incredible 2. Frozone 3. Thunderhead (also from The Incredibles) 4. Gazerbeam (ditto Thunderhead) 5. Marrow 6. Phantom (Dark Horse comics) 7. Quantum 8. Paragon (from the same series as Quantum) 9. Max Dalton (ditto Paragon) 10. Metro Man (Megamind) Related--is Hellboy part of DC, or something else? I know he's not Marvel. WLIU, name 10 types of pasta.

I love deep purple, so I would've been happy to graduate in that color. White, on the other hand... I'd be terrified of spilling something on it. This is assuming that men wore one color and women wore the other, as it was done at my high school. Or was everyone wearing the same kind of robe that was both purple and white?

Sociopaths

I realized the irony of the expression I chose only after I wrote it... That seems to happen to me a lot. Case in point: I once posted a status on Facebook about how an author approached me via GoodReads to offer me a free ecopy of their book if I would write a review, and I said, "No matter how many times this happens, it's always a novel experience." And somebody had to point it out to me before I realized what I had done.

Completely random observation: Joe, it pleases me that your current number of upvotes (3639) is made entirely out of multiples of 3.

Finished The Inquisition. Another cliffhanger ending! (But thankfully not as agonizing as the one in Julie Kagawa's Soldier.) Also finished The Shadow Revolution. I've just barely started Ratha's Creature by Clare Bell. So far it feels a little reminiscent of Kenneth Oppel's Darkwing.

You may not like it very much, but at least it's traditional black. I graduated high school in a cornflower-blue robe and cap. Slowswift and I both live in central/northern Utah, USA. (I know this because we both attend BYU Cosmere Club on a regular basis.) Chances are those are the Wasatch Mountains in the background. (A subsection of the Rocky Mountains, if I understand the mountains around here correctly... I've only been living here since 2013.)

Yup, I've heard about them. That's probably why most people are inclined to believe that Healthcare.gov would actually be dumb enough to ask this question.

All of this is true. Maybe I just felt like violin was harder because I'd already been playing oboe for two years when I tried to pick up violin.

Reminds me of this: (Disclaimer: According to Snopes, Healthcare.gov did not actually use this as a serious health survey question.)

Me too, but it's not off to a good start. I called one office to see about getting an appointment and was told they only serve employees of Vivint.

Well, part of the problem is the insurance company too. I used to see a different doctor (we'll call her Dr. Q) at this particular office who my insurance classified as a "family doctor," meaning I could just pay like a $25 copay for each visit. But in recent months Dr. Q has stopped seeing patients at that office so they turned me over to a nurse practitioner (we'll call her Dr. M) who practices under a neurologist. Since her superior is a neurologist, the insurance classifies Dr. M as a specialist, and on my policy that means I have a deductible and have to pay the full cost of each visit with no help from the insurance until I've paid $400 out of pocket over the course of the year. And apparently there are no other doctors at this office that my insurance classifies as family doctors. Thus, in order to not go completely broke from outrageous medical costs, I need to start seeing a doctor my insurance considers to be a family doctor.

Ah, ok. I figured it was a typo/autocorrect of some sort, but I couldn't figure out what you actually meant. So I responded to my confusion by attempting to make a joke.

High School Musical 3 Also: Floccinaucinihilipilification at dictionary.com - the act of valuing something as worthless

Menstruation. Full rant in the spoiler to spare anyone who doesn't want to hear about it. Also, doctor's offices and insurance companies. They seem determined to bleed me and my family dry by charging like $200 per visit to a "specialist" who does nothing of a specialist nature for me--just writes prescriptions and sends me to the hospital for expensive blood tests (and, I might add, who doesn't even have a doctorate degree). Time to find a new doctor.

A Seon. Would you rather fight a chasmfiend with only a Shardblade (a dead one) or be stranded outside in a highstorm?