Snakenaps

Got it!

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. 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... 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. You are a man of excellent taste. I'm too fiddly for mechanical pencils or pens. I always end of breaking them.

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.

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" :/ 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

In today's episode of Katie's Mishaps, Virgil, my snakey boy, managed to get under the fridge in the 30 seconds I left him unsupervised. Then, Virgil being Virgil, decided to slither into the back of the fridge when I tried to get him out. My best friend and I managed to unscrew the back of the fridge. I grabbed Virgil by the front, and my bestie poked Virgil's butt with an ice pack and a cold metal rod. We eventually got him out inch by inch. All four feet of him. Virgil, in his infinite (unintelligent) wisdom, seemed to have forgotten his joyride once I put him back, uninjured, into his tank. Me, I'm trying to get my adrenaline level back to a reasonable rate. When someone inevitably asks me, "Does your snake bite?" I'm going to tell of this time, when he was getting manhandled on his front half, and poked on the back half, and did not care in the least. I wish I was this laid back.

I'll pass again. I'm hoping I'll be settled enough to catch up on critiques and begin submitting again on June 29th or July 6th.

As much as I'm booked right now, I should be done with this whole moving process by July. If you're willing to give me until July to begin, toss it my way. At 10,000 words, it won't take me long to critique once I'm able to sit down. Plus, I haven't read the previous version, so I won't be biased (although I feel like I'm missing out with the whole giant robots thing).

Virgil and I stayed at my sister's today while the carpets got cleaned. He had a good time chilling. Snake pictures incoming, sorry to anyone who has ophidiophobia. Photos are sideways because mobile hates me. It's very hard to take photos of him because Virgil finds phones fascinating. My boy is a sweet dork who has spent most of today sleeping in an old Pepsi box.

Everything in moderation, including moderation. And I have not met M-o-t-h yet. You are still keeping secrets from me, mister. In order to break the rules, first you must know them. I think the only time I am okay with someone breaking grammar rules is when they do it intentionally and masterfully in poetry. Emphasis on masterfully. Of course, the only example I can think of right now is The Tale of Custard the Dragon, which not only manages to rhyme "pirate" and "gyrate" but also "Belinda" and "window". I would not necessarily call this masterful, but I definitely would call it smile inducing.

The first season is bumpy as it finds its voice, but The Clone Wars is ridiculously good. I enjoyed the Mandalorian, but The Clone Wars is miles ahead of it when it comes to storytelling. Then again, it also had seven seasons, and Mando has only had one. All of my favorite characters are in Clone Wars. I could easily rant essays about the series. For me, when I think Star Wars, I think Clone Wars. Clone Wars is easily up there in my top favorite TV shows (although, granted I don't watch much TV). Avatar: The Last Airbender is #1, though.

Spoilers for Mandalorian season 2

Congratulations on your new lawn mower!

My (now former) roommate had never seen Firefly and I find that both horrifying and sad. The roommate before her was a massive Disney and Harry Potter nerd but had never seen any of the Star Wars or Indiana Jones movies. I'm now responsible for her crush on Harrison Ford.

Hahahaha, love your "alot" story! For me, I ended up writing "blanket" a million times on one of those yellow legal notepads. Maybe it is because beginner writers (or at least me) look up writing tips, we see WALLS of synonyms for "said" to "spice up our writing" but don't see much in the way of teaching one proper punctuation in dialogue. I can only recall one writing tip on dialogue punctuation that came from Tumblr. Here's the post, screenshotted off of Pinterest (don't judge). That is NOT my opinion on the bottom because 1) I disagree and 2) I actually believe in capitalization, unlike this person. (Mild warning for the most tame of all curse words. Sorry cleaning rating) I definitely went through the phase in high school were I never used "said". Now I shake my head. "Said" is the ultimate invisible tag.

Formatting on mobile stinks. I can never get the quote boxes to behave. Ball pythons are supposed to eat every 1-2 weeks, but are notoriously picky eaters. Virgil was a very consistent eater until he hit adulthood. Considering he has taken to fasting in the spring twice now, I think it is a mixture of the winter season and him wanting a girlfriend more than food. If he fasts again next spring, it's definitely a pattern and not a coincidence. Ball pythons can go up to 13 months without food. The important part is to watch their weight when they fast. If they are not acting like themselves or are loosing a concerning amount of weight, then they need to go to the vet. Over the course of six months, Virgil only lost 1% of his total 4lb body weight, so he's fine. He doesn't exactly burn calories. Dude just sleeps all day. As to the roommate, she's definitely moved out, I took her keys. Despite knowing that she was going to move out at the end of the lease six months ago, she waited until the last three days to pack. Then she packed with banana boxes (which have holes in the bottom, fyi) and duck tape while getting heavily inebriated to the point of puking the night before she moved, and the morning before her parents arrived. Then she got in a fight with her mother because she didn't pack right. My roommate has a good heart and is hilarious, but she has a lot of growing up to do. She's older than me, has a degree in video game design, but is moving back in with her parents because working 20 hours a week at a minimum wage job is too hard. She's very salty at me because she wanted to stay and continue to be my roommate, and I wanted to live alone. Rather than take accountability for her own actions, she blames me, Covid, and the economy (despite quitting her job with no other job lined up in November, then getting a job at Safeway for May). My roommate's room was a pigsty, and I have not had fun cleaning it or her bathroom. I still haven't gotten the large dark marks off her her wall from where her bed and her dirty clothes leaned against the wall. Her room is the only one with spiderwebs (which are now gone) and her white fan is black. I'm getting the carpets cleaned on Monday sheerly because I won't step into her bedroom without moccasins. It's been a process. I switch between incredible joy at finally living alone and pulling my hair out from the state of the apartment. Thankfully, I can use 17th Shard on mobile, so I can still talk with you all when I take breaks from scrubbing! I suppose I'm finally going to get some arm muscle from all of this.

It has been absolute insanity this week with my roommate moving out (moving out in the loosest of terms. She left behind so much random junk and literal garbage) and me deep cleaning and refurbishing the apartment. I may or may not have cried this morning when I split dried lentils beans EVERYWHERE in my kitchen. HOWEVER, blessings do occur. After 153 days, my stupid, darling snake Virgil has finally eaten. He thankfully did not beat last year's record of 188 days. Snakes are annoying pills. Man, do I love my boy, though.

Now you're making me paranoid, especially since I know I did screw some of this up in Draft One. Honestly, I think that dialogue punctuation is something that many of us don't consider because, to the reader, it is invisible and flies under the radar. I don't recall ever being taught about it in school. I feel like more emphasis is put on dialogue tags than punctuation in a lot of tips and tricks for writing. When grammar gets my goat, I just remember the Alot: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html?m=1

Fact #1: I think chemistry is fascinating. Fact #2: I suck at chemistry and barely passed in high school. You have my condolences.

You flew in a Tin Can! That's what Dad always calls them. We would often take a Tin Can from my parents' hometown to San Francisco to fly international. It was cheaper to fly in a Tin Can than to drive four hours to San Francisco and pay the parking fees for nine days.