Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion
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Mod
I was driving home no big deal, then 75% home I looked into my rear passenger window to switch lanes, only to see a big spider web anchored between the front passenger headrest, and the read passenger seat (spider was sunbathing)... more the surprise than anything... I found out it was anchored to my window scraper on the seat, too, when I got home and used it to remove the web and get the spider out of my car...
Timelord Iain wrote: "I had the shit scared out me me while driving home from work today, lol...I was driving home no big deal, then 75% home I looked into my rear passenger window to switch lanes, only to see a big s..."
Yikes!
Timelord Iain wrote: "I had the shit scared out me me while driving home from work today, lol...I was driving home no big deal, then 75% home I looked into my rear passenger window to switch lanes, only to see a big s..."
Lucky you didn't have an accident!
Mod
I was driving home no big deal, then 75% home I looked into my rear passenger window to switch lane..."
That was what I was thinking, the rest of my drive home, after the initial jumpscare...
Is there a metapher hidden somehow Iain? Last year you complained about to much moisture and streamed up windows and now it's full of cobwebs? 😂But I'm glad it's only a fun story to tell and nothing happened to you.
Sir Anni wrote: "Is there a metapher hidden somehow Iain?"Well if you wanted a metaphor...here is a literary one...😂
(view spoiler)
Mod
I think I would have an accident. I'm afraid of spiders. I totally freak out if I see one of them. Normally my cat would be chasing it, but being really old now, he's looking at me: 'Now, my young Paddewan, what I've been learning you? Catch those damn things!'So the end of the year is closing in and I find out that I still have some challenges to finish and I hate unfinished challenges. One is almost undoable: the overflowing Bookshelf! How many books I bought this year!
So my resolution for next year is to clean my physical bookshelf and the one on GR. I know, I set the bar to high. But you can'' blame a girl for trying ;)
Mod
And so, I blame you, I guess... >:D
I assume that was a type :D
Haha, I never saw the typo! I had to read it over to notice :p I guess I need some sleep, now.
If that's the case can I blame you for failing my challenge as well?😂
Ow, yes, blame it all on me :p
Awesome! :) Phew, that helps, maybe to celebrate not being responsible for my own bad decisions I should buy a nice book now.
Mod
I started some challenges I had basically no plans for finishing, considering how obscure the requirements are... I'm just sloughing them off and paring down for 2020... gonna finish the book cover / armoury challenge and that's about it, I think... ending Pop Sugar and cancelling Wheel of Fortune... gonna maintain the Recommendation one, altho it doesn't necessarily need to be a challenge... just need for recs...
Sir Anni wrote: "Awesome! :) Phew, that helps, maybe to celebrate not being responsible for my own bad decisions I should buy a nice book now."Yes to that! :D
@Iain: I should look what I've finished. I think that I've finished none. Maybe I'll put them all into 2020 and finish them next year. The 'overflowing bookshelf' will be a huge challenge!
Hey guys, I've just read a sci fi short story on Kindle that I loved! It's called Emergency Skin and part of a collection of shorts by popular authors. They're all 99p and on KU too.
Timelord Iain wrote: "Sir Anni wrote: "Awesome! :) Phew, that helps, maybe to celebrate not being responsible for my own bad decisions I should buy a nice book now."I started some challenges I had basically no plans f..."
I guess this one is a thread you check regularly? :) I've got my copy of How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems!
When would you like to start? And is there a thread we can hijack, maybe the old "What if?"-one? I hope it's as good as the last one :)
Mod
I started some challenges I ha..."
I lurk in Notifications... outside of a few threads/trackers I've put on ignore, I see everything, and just click on things that seem relevant to me...
Anyway, sounds like a plan for thread hijacking... I read chapter 1 a few days ago and am waiting for you... chapter 1 was about how to cheat at high jumping, without jetpacks :D
Timelord Iain wrote: "Sir Anni wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "Sir Anni wrote: "Awesome! :) Phew, that helps, maybe to celebrate not being responsible for my own bad decisions I should buy a nice book now."I started som..."
Sounds absolutely existential :D
If you like me to, I can take some pictures of the best illustrations.
Mod
Sounds good... I'll be re-reading chapter 1... I think this type of book goes best when I listen to it in small bursts when I can focus on it, so I don't miss anything... which works great when each chapter is basically standalone...
Timelord Iain wrote: "Sir Anni wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "Sir Anni wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "Sir Anni wrote: "Awesome! :) Phew, that helps, maybe to celebrate not being responsible for my own bad decisions I shou..."Agreed, I think I also would enjoy it more if we read smaller bits. We could do 2 chapters a day or something similar?
Mod
Sounds good... I want to try and do a "car book"... my drive is only 7-9 minutes, but I can listen a bit before/after to finish if the timing doesn't match up...
Mod
Timelord Iain wrote: "To shift topic, I'm not a big Black Friday / Cyber Monday shopper, but I just broke trend and bought a 1TB SSD on sale, since I'm building a new computer next year... I can plug this SSD into my cu..."Good buy! I bought an actifry in the sale, I'm boring.
Mod
Yea... 1TB SSD is pretty good for under $100... I'm looking to upgrade my HDD to 4-6TB in my new rig, mostly for audiobook storage and less important games, and that'll cost $100-$150, unless I find a sale... storage prices have certainly dropped in the past couple years, but like I said elsewhere, last time I was shopping they were inflated by manufactory flooding in Asia...
The real cutting edge of SSD seems to be these new PCIe RAM sticks:
I think they go in PCIe slots next to your graphics card, and work like SSD despite looking like RAM...
Edit: A bit of research shows that SSD had hit a speed ceiling on SATA III cable transfer rates... PCIe lets SSD push towards 3-6x faster rates... overkill in most situations... for example it means your PC can boot up in 2 seconds instead of 6 seconds on a fresh install... the main perk to SSDs in gaming is loading times between zones in MMOs/ARPGs...
I definitely felt it in WoW last week when I was hunting rogues of 10 different races including enemy races for the Thanksgiving achievement (in a non-combat Sanctuary zone)... you could tell who had an SSD and who had an HDD by how long they stood still after spawning into the zone before moving... (I spent over an hour just clicking on people spawning in)
Timelord Iain wrote: "I spent over an hour just clicking on people spawning in"That sounds slightly creepy 😅
Mod
That sounds slightly creepy 😅"
WoW promotes creepiness for Achievement points and cosmetic rewards... I needed to be in a semi-popular location where I could look at enemy faction characters in large numbers without NPCs attacking me for being in enemy towns...
It's a lot harder to find race/class combinations these days, since most holiday achievements haven't been updated in close to a decade, and in the last couple years they introduced Allied Races, which are slight variations on existing races that you unlock through the story of the game... the current expansion introduced Zandalari Trolls and Kul Tiran humans, which are slightly different than regular trolls and humans, and don't count as their base race for achievements... so most players are playing newer races that don't help me do holiday achievements that are only available 2 weeks a year... in another year or 2, there are going to be more Allied Races than base races... this expansion alone added the 2 I mentioned plus Mechagnomes (gnome cyborgs) and Vulperans (fox people, completely new race), on top of the 6 at the end of the last expansion, for 10 Allied Races and 13 base races (6 Horde, 6 Alliance, and Pandarens on both sides)
Ok, this is uncanny... I've listened just yesterday to my brother rambling about the upgrades he's going to do on his PC when he comes back from his trip in South America (in 5-6 months). Talked about it for close to two hours (despite the fact my meager knowledge only helped me understand the first 10 minutes haha).
Timelord Iain wrote: "You could tell who had an SSD and who had an HDD by how long they stood still after spawning into the zone before moving..."Bwahahaha, that was me for YEARS before a guildmate (and IRL friend) took pity on me and gave me a 256GB SSD he was no longer using :p
Due to moving around for my studies, I only had an old portable computer for gaming, and boy, that made everything so tricky. Since you've played BfA, Iain, you know the Temple of Sethraliss dungeon, right? The passage with the little bolts of energy that knocks you back if you touch 'em going in circles, and you have to run & avoid them to continue... Cool concept, except the bolts were so graphically taxing for my PC that I would literally freeze, and thus ensure I couldn't get past them xD
Had to fiddle with the graphic options in the middle of the dungeon run, then restore 'em to previous settings right after ('cause you can't see the evil pools of bad on the ground otherwise), rinse and repeat. So ridiculous :p
Timelord Iain wrote: "This expansion alone added the 2 I mentioned plus Mechagnomes (gnome cyborgs) and Vulperans (fox people, completely new race)"Ah, so those are the two new races... I stopped playing right before the 8.2 (too disgusted that my favorite class/spec, Disc Priest, was not even viable for M+ runs despite it being indisputably the hardest healing class to play).
So... The Horde got bad-ass trolls from an empire that has dinosaur gods and fox people, and the Alliance got just slightly different humans & gnomes...?
BWAHAHAHA.
On the other hand, they made our (yes, I'm Horde, always and forever) Warlord the bad guy (or in the case, bad undead woman :p). AGAIN. Seriously, they made Garrosh a raid boss, then Vol'jin died (after presumably being compromised - yeah, that whisper in your ear as you die telling you to name the slightly insane banshee as your successor? Not your guiding spirit/god...). And now, Sylvanas goes "In the end, all will serve me" and starts killing everyone/committing war crimes? Tsk.
Mod
SSDs are the main improvement these days... and how AMD has surpassed Intel in core power at the moment, top-end... I'm pretty clueless about tech news unless I'm shopping for a new PC...
Mod
Bwahahaha, that was me for YEARS before a guildma..."
Oh, that was the WORST... I did a bunch of LFG dungeon groups back in 8.0, and so many took forever to get past that segment... lag made it nearly impossible for some people... most got so annoyed they just brute forced it until the stars aligned and they made it through after about 5 minutes... continuing with 3-4 people was fine as long as the tank wasn't the problem...
Another one was the first time I did the pirate dungeon, and we didn't know we needed to get drunk with the captains to make the boss fight right after doable...
Blizz is really big on doing tricky things these days... this is my first time back since September 2018, and there's so much to do...
Nazjatar has Bejeweled WQs and wire sorting ones... Tortollan added a WQ at some point where you play a crab killing baby turtles, as the other side of the coin to the one where you shoot seagulls eating baby turtles...
I'll probably like Nazjatar more once I unlock flying... the layout has many annoying facets on the ground...
Aren't Discipline Priests the goto PvP healers?... never really played them... mostly healed as Paladin/Druid...
I wonder if Shadowlands will have any Allied Races?... it has a bunch of new races, but it depends how Blizzard plans to return everyone to life at the end of the expansion, since we're spending the expansion in the Azerothian Afterlife... I also wonder how they're going to do corpse runs in Shadowlands, since the in-game canon that corpse running is you going from a graveyard back to your corpse in the Shadowlands, to come back to life...
Yea... Horde got the better Allied Races, but Alliance got that big bee mount... think there was something else, too...
Re:Sylvanas: She's ended up being more like Arthas 2.0 than Garrosh 2.0, given the Shadowlands trailer... and her actions in 8.2, where she killed Saurfang and said "The Horde is Nothing" and went completely rogue, continuing her plans with the Shadowlands Jailer and Azshara to free N'Zoth (to kill tons of people, and trap N'Zoth in Xalatath's dagger prison... looks like this was Azshara's plan all along)... I already watched all the videos for the end of the war, and am getting close to it in the questline, too... I assume/wonder if we'll be fighting her towards the end of 9.2-9.3... they certainly have her framed with the Jailer, expected to be the final boss of the expansion, similar to Azshara/N'Zoth in BFA (once you get past the war plot)
At this point, the Horde has had to replace most of their racial leaders... and I'm curious how long before Tyrande/Malfurion spark a 5th war, for all the talk about how Azeroth can't handle another war after this 4th one in 35 years in-world... they are really not happy, after Teldrassil and Darkshore events... Tyrande is some sort of Night Warrior now and AWOL...
Looks like the Horde is doing away with the Warchief title, and setting up a Council government, so Garrosh/Sylvanas can't happen a 3rd time... and because Thrall turned down the position...
I've always been Horde, too... mostly since the people I started playing with in TBC were already max level Horde...
Re:Sethraliss-mini-game-hell: Yeah, I struggled like crazy 'cause I just couldn't respond fast enough... Funny thing is, lots of class/specs have something to bypass the thing entirely. Warriors can use their jump, Outlaw rogues their chains/grapple thingy, Demon Hunter double-jump-dash-glide-salto-whatever, Druids can morph-travel-form and use their jump (if talented) while carrying someone.Re:WQ: Oh god, I HATE those Tortollans quests... Just hearing "Oh no, a turtle has made it to the shore!" pisses me off xD
Re:Disc Priests: Nah, not anymore... They were insanely strong in EVERY type of content at the beginning of 8.0 then got nerfed like crazy. In PvP and M+, the best healers are RDruids for similar reasons: mobility, the ability to roll an impressive amount of HoTs when you have 3-5 targets only, the ability to go cat/bear form to add some damage/tanking and the Tranquility panic button.
Disc Priests are not good (or even viable sometimes) when they're the only healers, so Arenas/M+. To heal, you need to anticipate incoming damage at least 5 seconds in advance, and thus struggle when something deviates from your plan (so PvP = hell). That makes them however insanely strong in raids, since they have THE strongest healing burst of the game. They just need to prepare for previsible upcoming damage (boss mechanics), line up their CD to it and let the other healers take care of the rest.
It's really annoying though, because Disc Priests are without doubt the most difficult healer IMO (or even spec - all role included) of the game, but they are not recompensed for it on 5-man content :'( (which is the only content I play).
Re:Corpse runs: Did you notice that, if you die on Zandalar, it's Bwonsamdi, the loa of Death, that welcomes you instead of the normal Valkyrie/angel of Death. He even interact differently with you depending on your class: he tries to recruit priests, tells demon hunter to take their stench away from him, and monks... That bastard trolls them like crazy, tells them something like 'Couldn't roll out of this one, heh?' and laughs in their face xD
Mod
I knew about Bwonsamdi in Zandalar, but didn't hear the variations, since I usually play while listening to books or music and miss dialogue/sounds...
I did some reading on Shadowlands, and we're actually entering alive, but corpse running will involve a new object instead of the usual (Kyrian) spirit healers we're used to from Azeroth... there's also no traditional graveyards in Shadowlands, since everybody else there is already dead... found that in an interview...
I'm mostly anti-PVP, and focus on moneymaking, achievements, collectibles, and the like... I do the occasional LFG/LFR group content, but mostly for quests or achievements or to pad out my gear to make doing solo content easier, especially with how content scales with ilvl these days...
Druids are definitely head of the pack at the moment, tho... I checked some DPS rankings online and alot of what you said, Nazjatar seemed rough to start, but once I unlocked Heart of Azeroth Essence socket and got some Benthic gear to boost my ilvl and get some bonus effects, everything has been really smooth... and doing rares and some War Mode PVP Invasions for the ilvl 410 Conquest weapon reward, I've been surprised how well I hold up, thanks to tons of self-heal procs, Swiftmend/etc...
I was specced into Tiger Dash for much of 8.0, but I'm back on Wild Charge here in 8.2 and it's as great as I remember... the jump forward thing is great for skipping fights while Dazed, and also for avoiding fall damage and jumping up hills and over pits... paired with Moonkin Flap, it's just great for all these vertical zones without flying mounts, yet...
Speaking of flying mounts, it's annoying how slow it is to rep grind... Legion was much better, I think... BFA made it so basically everything only gives 75 rep on completion... I thought I was close to getting BFA flying, then realized the small print Revered Rep I needed with the new Nazjatar/Mechagon factions... I'm nearly through friendly with Nazjatar (boosted by storyline quest at first) and barely started on Mechagon (which has less WQs to supplement once I reach that point, as well)...
Re:Sylvanas: Oh yeah, she's definitely becoming Arthas 2.0... There were always parallels drawn between the two of them, and even more so this extension. The whole 'burning of Teldrassil' cinematic outlined that pretty clearly, painting her as the villain to that idiotic elf that basically challenged her to do her worst, just like Arthas was to her. Even the fact that she would twist the Horde to her purpose, then cast it away was foreshadowed. I remember a moment when she was turning fallen soldiers into undead (as in, turning war prisoners, not just dead people), and Garrosh was horrified, asked her what was the difference between her and the Lich King. She answered something like: "Isn't obvious, Warchief? I serve the Horde...", with the heavily implied "for now". So of course, she made it so the Horde served her instead.I know it wasn't a out of nowhere betrayal, but dammit, so killing our leaders/turning them into villains. The one good thing to come out of this is that we'll probably fight Nathanos as some point. I can't wait to kick his ass after an entire expansion of listening to his sarcastic jabs and watching his strangely handsome-yet-punchable face :p
I still remembers that one quest/event on Darkshore when you end up fighting Tyrande "Fuck-holy-priests-I'm-respecing-shadow" Night Warrior AND Malfurion, everyone is lowkey panicking, you're struggling to simply stay alive, and Nathanos is just there, trash-talking them like there's no tomorrow, and you're thinking "Stop making the newly empowered-knife-welding-warrior and the big bear even MORE angry, that's not helping!"
Btw, I'm thinking about reading those books of Warcraft lore in 2020, there's a ton of them, that looks fun. Dunno about BRs since our pace is likely to be very different (not even sure there's audiobooks actually), but maybe you'd like to discuss things with me in a dedicated thread? :D
Mod
She said something similar in this expansion, that the difference between her and Garrosh is that Garrosh failed/died...
Shadowlands is being setup as her WotLK, where we finally get answers to all the backstory questions that have been piling up, now that we know Sylvanas has been teamed up with the Jailer of the Damned since near the end of WotLK (from her side-book where she made the deal with the Val'kyr pre-Cata)... I also read a lore article earlier that pointed out foreshadowing in dialogue from the final boss of Legion and some of N'Zoth's comments in 8.1.5 about the breaking of the crown...
Yea, lol... Nathanos is a weirdly handsome undead...
Tyrande/Malfurion: that cinematic was full-on Red Riding Hood horror movie material, when Malfurion is a blur taking out the caravan in Bear Form...
Pretty much every non-Undead character just looks tired/downtrodden throughout this expansion... Baine/Saurfang/"Zappy Boi" Zekhan... meanwhile Jaina and Anduin have these newer fresh-faced character models, and Tyrande/Malfurion have recovered into Dark Badasses after the near death in the early parts of the War Campaign...
I also read that Tyrande/Malfurion's story will continue in Shadowlands in Ardenweald, the Emerald Dream-esque section of the Afterlife, about nature/rebirth...
Mod
Discussing lore would be great, whether or not I read the books... the side-lore has become more important to the story in recent years...
Looks like a smattering of the books have audio... makes sense... some of the shorter lore stories are just posted on their website for free... so there's not even an official book to record...
Re:Jaina: Ever since she got the new character model and that Warbringers cinematic in which she's singing, I can't help but think she's that princess from the Frozen movie xDI mean... She's blond, she's got the side braid AND has ice powers... They even have the 'dead relatives at sea' backstory :p
Mod
Christy Punchcog: I don't want to be rude, but have you considered extensive mechanization as an alternative to your current state?
I assure you, there is vast room for improvement in almost every way.
When you've already hit rock bottom...
Response: What improvements could mechanization offer me?
Christy: You are slower than a motorcycle.
Let's replace your entire lower half with a big ol' motorcycle.
We can make it whatever color you want. We'll get in all the science journals.
You want to pop wheelies while you're chasing down bad guys? I'm in! Let's do this!
Response 1: Thank you for your candid advice.
Response 2: I'm perfect just the way I am!
She has about a dozen of these suggestions... group hivemind, replacement head, replacement feet, replacement skin, replacement eyes with weekly OS updates...
Imagine your arms... but now, instead of arms... they're FLAMETHROWERS!
Mod
I mean... She's blond..."
I think she's supposed to be blond, but ever since the upgrade and the flying ship, her hair has been more silver/white to me, but that's probably partially because so many of her cinematics have moonline shining on her hair... I think that meshes with Elsa even more, tho...
Re:Jaina's hair: Didn't it turn silver after Garrosh ordered a mana-bomb on Theramore? If I remembered correctly, her apprentice saved her by sacrificing himself but she still got an insane amount of arcane energy in the face. So... Either 'mana radiation' or the stress of watching her city nuked & her apprentice turning to ash.She still has a few blond streaks, I think.
@Everyone but Iain: Sorry, we completely hijacked the thread to talk about WoW... :p
Mod
Shhhhhh, don't let them know how unapologetic I/we am/are :pEDIT: Should we start to take care of the 2020 spreadsheet soon-ish? I liked our little chats via Google sheets:p
Mod
The only rule change I think I said I wanted to see next year, was another loosening of the page count edition rule, since I know there are discrepencies happening in how people interpret the current rule... just go back to the #1 pagecount, or the #1 on the first page excluding Large Print editions (and in English/own language)... I think we had a discussion where people were ignoring audiobooks or books with no page data over in the rules thread... and doublechecking people is an impossible task with 10000+ entries...
I know we wanted to remove the form, and and planned to make some of our January modifications default next year, and had some ideas to improve my sheet... but other than that?
Heh, I think the 5 most popular editions was a good rule...I'm personally not including audiobooks with 1 hour = 1 page thingy going one. It all comes down to how one interprets the rule, in the end. I chose to do it: 5 most popular editions with relevant page count (aka, there IS a page count that is not twisted for time = page weird audiobook count). If I read in a language other than English, then I use the old rule (use the edition you're reading) because figuring out a top 5 in another language is such a pain.
The Mods should just lay down the law and clarify IMO. And yeah, I agree that doublechecking entries doesn't make sense; it's not like we win anything in this competition to begin with :p
Don't have any improvement to propose. If anything, I want to give people that don't care about stats an even more simple spreadsheet (to help with the overall speed).
Fantasy Buddy Reads
Books mentioned in this topic
Once Was Willem (other topics)The Society of Unknowable Objects (other topics)
Elder Race (other topics)
Elantris (other topics)
Mistborn: The Final Empire (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Michael Lesley (other topics)Michael Lesley (other topics)
Michael Lesley (other topics)
Michael Lesley (other topics)
Michael Lesley (other topics)
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This sounds rather wistful, Lain dear, like a small girl wishing on a magic mirror...😂😂😂
(view spoiler)[ Perhaps she's wishing your car troubles were over...😝 (hide spoiler)]