Sunbird

Re: car repairs, yeah, they completely replaced my door. The dent was about the size and shape of a football (American football, not the rest of the world's football), but didn't keep me from driving the car or opening the door. I dunno what other problems the dent might have caused, since my car doesn't have power locks or windows. *shrug*

Went and saw Dan Wells's I Am Not a Serial Killer movie in theaters tonight, and WOW. Storming fantastic!! Probably the best movie adaptation of a book I've ever seen. Max Records is a perfect John Cleaver.

Well, will you look it up? You're the one who posed the question, so you're allowed to. I'll try to think of some other possibilities.

Does a shark count? 'Cause I think goblin sharks might be found in the Arctic.

Thank heavens that's not the case!

Finished reading Jumper by Steven Gould today and liked it better than the movie, so I picked up the next two books in the series from the library. I've also started reading This Is A Book by Demetri Martin on a friend's recommendation. Pretty funny so far!

My mom has been dive bombed by an overprotective mother wren before, and actually got hit in the head. But the bird is like five inches long and weighs less than an ounce, so it's not like she was in any danger.

When I ask someone a question and they start telling me this story that is only somewhat tangentially related to my question and utterly fails to tell me what I need to know.

@lyssie95 I forget, does bimonthly mean twice a month or once every two months? I'd be happy to meet more often, but not less.

I finally got my car back from the repair shop yesterday! Last Monday when I dropped it off, they said they expected to have it finished Thursday. Thursday they called me to say they were waiting on a part and wouldn't be done until Friday. Friday I called them and they said they hadn't been able to finish, so I'd have to wait until Tuesday since they're closed on the weekends and Monday was a national holiday. But on Tuesday I finally got my car back with a new, undented door!

You know you're addicted to the Shard when you have an extensive spreadsheet keeping track of all the players in Sanderson Elimination as well as their stats, complete with color coding. *cough* @little wilson

When you go look up this quote on GoodReads and get annoyed that it has the wording wrong, so you ask one of the site librarians to fix it.

Great review, @Rubix, except you spelled crapaflapnasti wrong. ;P

When you go to a presentation about ancient writings at your university's library and all you can think of when they bring out the metal plates with writing etched in them is "I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted."

@little wilson Yup, first day of classes was August 29. So be careful when selecting a parking spot until 7pm.

Space was actually not as much of an issue as I expected. Brandon talked about how Alcatraz came to be: the character started out as what Brandon calls his "inner heckler" that mocks him and his writing, and Brandon put that voice to creative use by writing Alcatraz. Brandon also did readings of two different drafts of the opening to an unpublished project called Dark One--one sorta like Alcatraz in its snarky tone and real world setting, and the other a bit more in the style of traditional high fantasy. I saw two different fans dressed as Bastille. I asked Brandon if it was any coincidence that Sadeas's name sounds suspiciously similar to the word sadist, and in essence his answer was no, it's not a coincidence, but he didn't consciously choose the name for that specific reason. More like his brain decided it sounded good for that character because his subconscious heard the similarity. I got copy #7 of The Dark Talent. Lowest numbered copy I've ever had! Haley Lazo and Isaac were both there signing their respective artwork as well.

@little wilson Should work for me! We're just doing "buy your own dinner in the Cougareat" this time, right?

Glad you and Bruce are okay, Twi! *hugs*

Yup, barn owls scream bloody murder, although I've only heard them do it in recordings. Just imagine hearing that bloodcurdling shriek when you're out alone in the middle of the night. That'll give you a good scare!

I've read both of Matharu's books in that series so far and loved them. Once Fletcher gets to the battlemage training academy, things really start picking up, and it sounds like you should be getting there soon. If you want to read my full in-depth review of The Novice, here's the GoodReads link. I haven't read Throne of Glass yet, but I've heard all sorts of good things, and it's on my list.

Can confirm. I went to an owl banding once where these ornithologists set up nets out in the woods at night to catch Northern Saw-whet owls so they could put little numbered metal bands on their ankles to track them for research purposes. They eventually caught one and took all his vitals--weight, age, how much fat he'd stored, etc. We had a bag of Hershey's chocolate kisses to snack on, so after they weighed him we piled kisses on the scale to see how many equaled the weight of the owl, and it was only 17 chocolate kisses! Seriously, these owls are like the size of a 12-oz soda can. Here's a photo of one in the hand for scale: Anyway, once they were done getting down all the little guy's information and fitting him with a band, we all went outside to release him, and they let my mom do it. She set him on her bare arm and he was so relaxed that he almost fell off before he flapped once and regained his balance. It was so incredible; even though owls' talons are so unbelievably sharp, like kitten claws, he didn't scratch my mom a bit because his perch on her bare arm was all balance and no grip. He just sat there looking around at us for a few minutes until one of the banders said, "Give him a lift." So my mom made sort of a slow, exaggerated "throwing" motion with her arm up into the air, and he lifted off--completely silent even though we were standing right there like 2 feet away. The combination of his utter silence and his pale feathers against the blackness of the night made him look like a ghost as he circled once and then flew off. Here's an awesome video showing the difference between the noise a pigeon, a Peregrine falcon, and a barn owl make in flight:

Po-ta-toes. Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew!

America's smallest falcon! They're storming adorable. <3 I am a big birdwatcher, so this thread makes me very happy. Have you ever heard an Eastern screech-owl do its whinny call? Totally sounds like a horse neighing. This page has some recordings of the owl calls.

Pro tip for anyone who's planning to go to the release party at the King's English tomorrow: get there early. The bookshop used to be a house, so there aren't really any rooms inside large enough to accommodate the kind of crowds that Brandon's signings usually attract. I expect space will be a problem.

People unapologetically cutting in line. Any sort of line, but especially one to meet a famous singer where most people have been waiting patiently for like 45 minutes without the line moving because people keep jumping to the front. Also, attempting to open a jar of peanut butter but I can't because my hands are slippery from the lotion I just put on. #firstworldproblems