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~The Priory of...
~The Priory of the Orange Tree~
Hello, sorry it took me so long to make this! I'm pretty behind on CB stuff rn... but anyways! Priory of the Orange Tree!! Yayy!! :DD
***WARNING: SPOILERS TO COME***
First things first Ig, favorite characters? Little worldbuilding details? Quotes? Other things I'm too tired to think of rn bc it's 10:28 and I'm tired (I already said this didn't I) but I'm trying to do this tonight anyways bc it's the last day before midterms start and things Officially Get Busy and eek I'm so excited for this!! :DD? (question mark bc this was originally a question before I went on tangents btw) Any complaints/questions/observations? Did you want to talk about something specific? (I'll post my answers later)
btw you don't have to read all the rest of this post (except maybe the very end paragraph) if you don't want to/are too busy, don't ask why I'm including it all anyway :/
It took me sooo ridiculously longgg to finish Priory and I must confess, the only reason I got to doing so before the library due date (well, the renewed due date) is because of my dance concerts. And before you ask, yes, I do find it necessary to tell you all the following paragraphs, because [totally make-sensy reason here]. Did I mention I'm tired? Haha usually night times are my productive times but idk
Basically I joined a dance group at school and so we had two performances in November + one dress rehearsal which was literally us running through the whole performance 2 times (also in November). There are 20 acts/dances in total. So the whole dress rehearsal took 4 hours, with performances being like 2 hours. I'm only in 1 dance that lasts for a few minutes + final bows that lasts for a few minutes + blech social life that lasts for hopefully not my whole life which means like 1-3+ hours of mostly uninterrupted reading time down in the (oh-my-super-so-awesome-the-kind-you-only-read-about-in-books) basement under the stage!! x3!! Which means finishing Priory before having to disappoint librarians! Yayy!! :D
The only downside was that I was finishing the book up so basically a lot of people were dying (well, I mean I thought they had died, which is almost the same thing in the moment) and big dramatic sad stuff was happening and Igrain Crest was getting her head chopped off as really loud bouncy happy peppy music was being blasted over the speakers bc why did so many of the dances have bouncy happy peppy music again?!??? I'm trying to mourn some of my favorite characters almost-dying here! Hello! But oh well it's fine I'm used to it :)
Also I was sitting on the floor next to a trash can (I wonder if this has something to do with my blech social life? :) ) so once someone dumped their trash on me... which I'm fine with it's my fault choosing to sit where I sat but it's kinda like, NOOO!!! EADDDD!!! WHYYYY?!????? Oh hey there's suddenly a candy wrapper on me. BUT EADDDD!!! :)
As you can see, I was pretty devastated when I thought Ead had died cuz she's like my favorite character... I literally burst into tears on multiple occasions and literally no one noticed, everyone around me just kept on doing their makeup and stuff like EAD DIDN'T JUST GET SHOT WITH A POISON DART BY HER OWN SISTER!! BETRAYED! NO! XD Not to mention everything else...
I was still devastated when they call came that it was my turn to go up on stage and perform for the audience so like my whole performance my body's doing the movements but my mind's just EADDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!! Almost messed up cuz I was so distracted XD
anyways sorry enough rambling about myself, Priory! Yay! :D
(also I thought I'd put the thread on BaB because I'm gonna be absent for like 2 weeks soon + if you're gonna be busy; currently I think BaB is kinda sorta the most inactive place here so it's less likely to get pushed to the bottom if one of us is too busy to respond; I'm fine with moving it too though if you want (though sorry admins if so cuz extra work...)
submitted by Celine@Hex :D, age Nayimathun, The Haithwood
(December 14, 2023 - 2:19 am)
(December 14, 2023 - 2:19 am)
The Priory of the Orange Tree posing with a cockroach (that I promptly human-named Ebony) that made its way into my room and decided to stay a while 2 months ago XD
(yes I was hanging out with a roach and a book hiding amongst my clothes that were hung up (like in Narnia!) at 11:00pm... didn't I say nights are my productive hours? :) )
also, thought you might be interested in this cuz interested in puns=interested in anagrams, right? But, anyways~
sedimentary - many see dirt
_________________ - no untidy clothes (blanked bc sorta inappropriate, but still awesome)
silver and gold - grand old evils
the lost paradise - Earth's ideal spot
(source: what I remember from the cover of Palindromes and Anagrams)
(December 14, 2023 - 9:17 pm)
so I wrote this giant comment and it was great and then I accidentally reloaded *sob* and now I can't remember what I said uhh well ig I'll write something else then hmm
I appreciate your cockroach XD I'm also 'productive' late at night oops—I've been staying up until one the past few nights because stress and life and homework and other lovely problems but also avoiding all my lovely problems to watch Star Trek or rewatch my favorite Owl House episodes (you like TOH, right? if not you should lol) sorry that's totally unrelated to the entire point of this thread but uhh
I think my favorite character was probably Tané! I think she incorporated really cool worldbuilding aspects, as well as generally kicking but and being besties with a dragon. In general I loved the overall worldbuilding vibes and style: the geography was believable, the religion and relationships were interesting and made sense, and the overall story was complex.
My main pet peeve with this book was the build-up. It was a pretty long book (I mean I'm currently reading a 1200 page Brandon Sanderson monster [Stormlight Archive. I'd highly reccommend them they have cool epic fantasy and worldbuilding aspects if you have the patience to get through them] but that's hardly relevant) and the first 700 pages were all build-up and ~the plot thickens~ and character development. And then the last 50-100 were all 'oh lord the world's gonna end ack' which was interesting but annoyingly unproportional to the rest of the story... still, that's a tiny thing to nitpick and overall I really enjoyed the book
did you know there's a prequel?? A Day of Fallen Night (why are the names so cool ack) I'm still deciding if I'll read it tho, I don't really have the time and I'm iffy about books that introduce a bunch of new characters in a world I already like, I worry that it'll ruin the world slightly
I'm rereading your post to figure out what to say next and I'M TIRED TOO also loud bouncy happy peppy music is a struggle for the soul. poor Crest deserved a better dirge </3
and thank you for the anagrams! you're right, I love words :] and now you get to go on a long research rabbit hole about anagrams (TOTALLY YOUR FAULT) did you know that Louis XIII, an old king of France, had a paid Royal Annagramist (by the name of Thomas Billon, or something similar)? And there's so many cool anagram spin-offs: if interested, I'd suggust looking up anagraphs in particular, there's some super cool videos on them and you can spiral down infinitely into horrible anagram depths with them, it's great. Then there's the supposed anagram Newton sent in a letter to Leibniz in which he said "6accdae13eff7k3l9n4o4qrr4s8t12ux" and apparently if you write out the numbers of each of the letters, anagram them, drop one of the 't's because it doesn't fit right, and translate it from Latin it discloses the fundamental idea of calc? I don't know if I believe that but there are some pretty cool articles about it if you're interested
and then there's just really cool anagrams: like "eleven plus two => twelve plus one" this one is especially cool because mAtH and it has 13 letters :0 or there's some with quotes like "To be or not to be: that is the question, whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune => In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten" that are just so impressive like how and then there's a bunch of songs and stuff and there's a cool one I found that anagrams the LOTR poem thingy into alternate wording that still makes sense and I think I saw one that anagrams the entire Yellow Submarine song~
sorry I got distracted :P always a hazard if you get me talking about nerdy stuff lol
(no worries about being gone for two weeks/really busy/whatev—I'm also super busy and that's only going to get worse (yay??) and it sounds like you're pretty booked as well it's totally fine)
(December 14, 2023 - 11:15 pm)
So I'm gonna respond to the rest of this amazing post later but first of all YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! THAT SHAKESPEARE/HAMLET ONE!!! HOW DID I FORGET?!?!???? :DDD And I realize we are totally off-topic rn but WHO CARES bc that one is AWESOME!!!!!! Wait, I think I have the chat saved... oh wait no, this is another one. Which is also awesome! Here it is:
me: rn I'm reading a book and the main character likes palindromes and so he was talking about taco cat to his best friend and she was like.. wait for it...
me: is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?!?!
me: isn't that amazing?!?! It'sa palindrome with words! I love it!!! (ooc: I was so excited I made a typo XD)
me: do you get it?
Jack Frost: wow
me: yeah!
Jack Frost: it took me a moment
me: me 2 and the main character 2
Jack Frost: I am in shock
me: yes!!
Jack Frost: hooray for palindromes!
Jack Frost: *party/celebratory emojii*
us: *lots more celebration*
:DD I love this cuz you can rly see Jack Frost (best friend ever that I've known since... well, ever, btw :) )'s realization and shock :D I don't remember what book I was talking about though...
um, ANYWAYS. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I was such an annoyance to all my friends after I learned about that hamlet one (from a random website I'm so glad I stumbled upon) bc I wrote it down to carry around with me (tried and failed to memorize) and would just shove it into ppl's faces to rant about its awesomeness at semi-inconvenient times XD
one of my favorite books is Shouting in the Rain, partly bc it's a good book, partly bc I like the author (also wrote Fish in a Tree and One for the Murphys), yes, but also... ANAGRAMS!! The title is an anagram, but also the characters' names are anagrams!! And I haven't read it in a while but from what I remember, they're not even, like, super bizarre names either. And their names when anagrammed supposedly form a key thing about them/their personality/their role in the story! :D I don't think I ever finished solving them all (or maybe even one) though... gotta get back to that again!
and now it's later Ig? So responding to the rest-
ugh yeah that sucks. I once wrote out a 40-or-so song playlist for Amethyst/others and then closed the tab... still haven't got to rewriting it :/
hmm.. but is it unrelated to the point of this thread? Ok, yes, it is, but I'm just gonna ignore that cuz yess I LOVEE TOH!! I have to wait to watch it when I'm home alone for at least 20 min though cuz idk where my parents stand on LGBTQIAP+ stuff... but it's so quirky and weird and adorable and funny and you're right I should love it and I do! :D taught myself how to play Luz's theme on the piano day 1 bc that's how right-off-the-bat obssesed I was :) yesterday I was so happy bc I got to sneak off to watch 3 episodes + do some effective studying on my own and it was great (I'm only on ep.. umm.. 10 though (but hey! Still pretty good!)) I really appreciate how bite-sized/still satisfying everything is though bc of this (plus even the ep. names are great!)
ahem! But getting to the actual title and purpose and whole/part reason of existence of this thread~
Tané!!! Honestly, at first I loved Tané simply bc what she was doing was EXACTLY what I would do if I were in this dragon-filled world!! NO EAD AND SAB AND LOTH WHY?!?? Why are you running AWAY from the dragons?!?? That is the wrong thing to do!! Ok, ok, Ik. Worldbuilding and religion and beliefs and all that, sure. But. Dragons. So I immediately fell in love with Tané, but throughout the whole book I think it was really interesting to see what happened to her/others' opinions of her/interactions with her too. Especially her and Niclays' conflicting interests, her relationship with Nayimathun (of the Deep Snows bc we must be respectful to the dragons bc they're so cool (looking at you Ead and Sab and Loth)), her relationship with Susa (and how she dealed/didn't deal with her grief after), her relationship with the gem and being a scholar stripped of the miduchi(?) title and her place in the story even. I think Ead was more like fire and passion and I'm doing this bc this is my oath/whatever while Tané was more refreshing and I'm doing this cuz this is my dream/whatever?? Though Ig not exactly... but more, Ead always has kinda the same purpose throughout, but we see Tané from all these different points of view, we learn to love her, we learn to hate her, we learn to feel uncertain and adrift with her. She's more morally gray maybe?? But even so, even with all her selfishness and pride and flaws, we still love her and root for her and want her to succeed. Maybe it's bc she's such a great character, if not person. Maybe it's bc we put ourselves in Tané's place and want ourselves to succeed. Maybe it's bc we think Tané is worthy or just love Tané as you would any other or hate Turosa so much or are putting up with Tané just so the world doesn't end, but whichever way, what matters is we want her to win and acheive her dreams! And so in a way we do kinda love her. And I feel like we really need to love her/at least be invested in what's happening to her, because it's only her and Niclays holding up the East side of the story, and half the time Niclays is trapped aboard a pirate ship almost-dying, and idk if this is just me but Tané's parts felt fewer than Ead/whoever's. I mean, she got sorta stranded on Feather Island for a while (stranded by grief for Susa and Nayimathun (of the Deep Snows... *death-glaring Ead, Sab, and Loth*) too), and felt sorta put out of commission? Plus then she was super unfriendly to like all the other main characters in the book and only cared about finding her dragon and oops did I offend you well too bad where's my dragon (yesss!!! Go Tané!!!) :) And oc, by "we", I always mean "me", cause I'm the only one who's data is in this experiment here (to replace the better explanation/example that's currently having fun eluding me but I think you get the gist), so pls feel free to correct me/add in your own thoughts too.
As I've said, my favorite character is who I kinda think of as the opposite of Tané, Ead. Bc yesss. Killer in the night? Awesome! Forbidden + sapphic romance with the Queen? Sold! You were really just an undercover powerful mage assassin sent in to protect the Queen for 17(?) years but ended up accidentally making yourself a life there instead this whole time? I'm hooked! And now also sounding like Leo Valdez...
but seriously. While Tané has all these awesome complexities and, as you said, kick-butness, Ead is kinda the fierce let's change this world and revolution! person, which I also love. Plus, her relationship with Loth is just <3
and yes the worldbuilding. Wow. Just wow. I could go on for absolute days about it! Instead I'll just say, I really appreciated how the dragons were more Chinese dragons rather than the Westernized version, bc you don't really see a lot of that going around outside of Chinese films and books and stuff. And the amphipteres! They're one of my favorite mythical creatures (I was an amphipthere in the mythology SI), so it was nice to see them represented.
and woah this is getting long (actually, it already was long. This is getting longer), so, let me just say...
*gaspp* I LOVE research rabbit holes!! I'm gonna wait until I'm not typing on the phone and can have my laptop back to devote all my time to finding everything I can on those things you named bc no way I need to know everything!!! :DD oh, and studying for midterms. Yeah, that too :)
And with that, I end~
*posts without rereading so sorry if it's all just nonsense*
(December 15, 2023 - 2:45 am)
All right. Also, another math anagram you prob already know - decimal point = I'm a dot in place! Well, without the apostrophe, oc. I also have a book called, sure, it occasionally sorta cheats, but it's pretty cool!
Yes! Honestly, I quite enjoyed the buildup bc it was a lot of worldbuilding details, but it was also sorta like all building up to this one big battle and for me the ending was kinda rushed and not that satisfying and it was sorta easy to defeat the Nameless One (huh, initials NO) once you had all the tools :/ but the rest of the book made up for it so I wasn't too annoyed
Ooh, Brandon Sanderson, I think I've heard of him! Didn't he write Mistborn and Skyfall or something? Looking on the website rn~ ooh, the Start Here is so cool! He pitches it really well, ok, I've got to borrow some books by him! Love easter eggs. Plus the whole thing sounds awesome. Oh yeah, first result is Mistborn... ooh, here's Stormlight Archive! And... woah. I'm sold. I was gonna write more of this post but actually yup bye I want to read the previews and see if it's available at the library, plus go down those rabbit holes. B(prob not)RB!
(December 15, 2023 - 7:31 pm)
Ps, nvm, it was Skyward, not fall :)
(December 15, 2023 - 7:34 pm)
*realizing I forgot to post this post* that's why the timing's off... anyways, Ig I won't change that part even though it's not entirely accurate anymore?
...Ik I posted 15 min and 39 sec ago to say bye, but I just read I Hate Dragons (yay! For free! Free fiction!) and I LOVE it! I think most of Brandon Sanderson's works aren't so humorous from what I'm piecing together (?) but... :DD
anyways, I always love grammar, and a good dragon, and polite totally-off-topic conversation with your enemies (which is what I'm currently writing), so the whole combination was just perfect. Also, just dialogue (well, there was one unnecessary slip I assume was just a typo of some sort)? Masterful! :)
Also, I forgot to put the name of the book. It's called The United States of Anagram. For ex: United States of America --> Some Fantastic True Idea (who knows if we completely agree, but at least it isn't nonsense). Did you know that Lake Michigan is A Calming Hike? Or wait... is it Hacking Emails? :)
(also way more off-topic but I was just reading Tui T Sutherland's (who may be even more obsessed with dragons than I am! :0) blog, btw I've been systematically working my way back through time, now on December 10, 2009, and have you ever read Tooth and Claw? It sounds TERRIFIC! Reminds me a bit of I Hate Dragons too. Tui's description~
"It's like a nineteenth century British novel where all the characters are dragons. DRAGONS! Who EAT EACH OTHER! But who are also extremely civilized and devoted to the rules of etiquette. Even when it comes time for them to EAT EACH OTHER! It's AMAZING. It's also a terrific love story, very funny, and extremely well-crafted, with great surprises and twists along the way, all of which are linked inextricably to the main premise of this quasi-Victorian dragon society. I LOVED IT."
:D
(December 15, 2023 - 9:00 pm)
anagraphs :0
"Anagrams, but where you can break apart letters: 'Anagraphs' " SO AWESOME. I had to stop at 8:10 though just in case any Inception spoilers...
that was the only video/result in general I could find that's not about the game though... do you mean the game?
Also, have you ever read The Alphabet's Alphabet? Kinda like this! Yay Chris Harris (I'm Just No Good at Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups is one of my favorite books too!)!
(December 15, 2023 - 9:19 pm)
that's pretty cool! I've definitely seen some of those before, but I can't remember where... sit on a potato pan, Otis
I've never heard of Shouting in the Rain—what's it about? But yes, I love books that have puzzle easter eggs hidden inside :D I can only remember two off the top of my head—Mr. Lemoncello's Library and the Magic Misfits, both of which I haven't read in a few years but I remember really enjoying.
yeahh, my parents also don't know I've seen it—but that's less about their attitude on queer stuff (they're not against it, they're just... bad at it) and more about their attitude on TV and screens and stuff... but ahh Lumity is so cute!! and yes Luz's theme is awesome. I loved the early episodes in s1 before the real plot but after meeting all the characters. I love episodes 12 and 17 from season 1 especially :D
I think you're definitely right about Tané being more morally gray—she's always questioning her own principles and somehow that makes her more relatably human. She was also written less I think, which was a) sad and b) made her parts more interesting.
ok I was totally not expecting Ead and Sabran to get together like that?? maybe that was just me being romance oblivious like usual lol but I seriously didn't see that coming until a few chapters before... or maybe I did I can't really remember it's already been like a month or two since I read it and my brain is tired ok it's sometime past midnight ahh
yeah he wrote Mistborn and Skyward and a bunch of other stuff—none of which I've read. I've never actually visited his website before you mentioned it (maybe I should do that for more authors huh) but I read I Hate Dragons a few days ago and it was really funny :) you're right, his writing isn't always that humerous but it's still interesting and impressive how he manages to convey so much worldbuilding stuff through only dialogue like that. lol my friend got the Brandon Sanderson box package thingy for a while and she has some truly weird stuff—she said it gave her socks once (not decorated with his face, unfortunately [I asked ofc]) and a tin of mints decorated with a character or smth (so now I have Brandon Sanderson mints in my school locker?? yay? they're actually not bad) wow that was a tangent
anyway you should read the Stormlight Archive!! actually you should also read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It's a Harry Potter fanfic by Eliezer Yudkowsky where Harry's in Ravenclaw and kind of an evil genius and ahh I'm not doing it justice but I swear you'll be hooked it's amazing and seems like the kind of thing you'd enjoy
I actually have Tooth and Claw on my shelf rn :0 but I have over 70 books on my bookshelf to read so idk when/if I'll actually get to it... (and that's just the physical shelf in my room *sob* I have a much longer one on my computer)
no, I had no idea it was a video game, that's super cool! yeah I basically just meant that video—it's pretty cool :D
I've never read either of those. Have you ever read Ella Minnow Pea? sUCH A COOL PREMISE LIKE HOW it also seems like a book you'd love :)
ok imma go watch more of TOH until it truly is an unholy hour of the morning—sHOOT I have school tmrw oops—and then go to bed... also good luck with finals week? whenever that is for you? coming up I think? mine was basically last week
(December 18, 2023 - 3:40 am)
Sit on a potato pan, Otis --> awesomee. And assuming you mean the book, that cover is pretty great too :)
Hmm... how do I- oh, I'll just copy and paste the summary :/
"From the author of the New York Times bestseller Fish in a Tree comes a compelling story about perspective and learning to love the family you have.
Delsie loves tracking the weather--lately, though, it seems the squalls are in her own life. She's always lived with her kindhearted Grammy, but now she's looking at their life with new eyes and wishing she could have a "regular family." Delsie observes other changes in the air, too--the most painful being a friend who's outgrown her. Luckily, she has neighbors with strong shoulders to support her, and Ronan, a new friend who is caring and courageous but also troubled by the losses he's endured. As Ronan and Delsie traipse around Cape Cod on their adventures, they both learn what it means to be angry versus sad, broken versus whole, and abandoned versus loved. And that, together, they can weather any storm."
Also there's the musical Annie in it too if you like that
Hmm.. I bought all the Mr. Lemencello books bc they sounded great but oddly didn't really like them?? Or no I think I did just I didn't love them, and stopped reading at the first one (also this is really petty but James Patterson was like "great book"! so I was like yay! but he has bias so then I was like no I don't know if I can trust you or not now! Which is sad cuz you're a legend! So this book ruined my trust in you...)... I really gotta get to actually reading them though, if not just to justify all the money I spent on them (it's fine Ig though, I try to only buy books when they're really cheap (like $1-5) and I absolutely need to own them and can't get them anywhere else, or else then toodles!, that's a million dollars down the drain!). I think my brother has the Magic Misfits... is that the cover with like a dummy or something hanging upside-down or something? I should read that one too then, I absolutely adore puzzle Easter eggs!! Well, if he lets me... but if not I'll just steal it, don't think he'll mind >:)
ooh, cool!! :D I'm excited to start getting to the real plot; on a villains-that-you-love thread here, I heard there's someone called the Collector, who, frankly, sounds SO AWESOME. Don't think I've seen him yet, but... :D but yes these episodes are really great too!! :)
yess you put it so perfectly (for Tané)!! And Ead and Sabran... blech. I actually was expecting them to get together like that, but not bc I'm like a romantic/romance expert or anything, it's cuz I was looking up to see if Priory was LGBTQIAP+ for a friend, and came across a result that said "is The Priory of the Orange Tree lgbtq?" so I clicked on it and immediately it was like "TPotOG is the best book ever!! I totally didn't anticipate the romance between Ead and Sabran, which-" SHUT THE COMPUTER SORRY WHAT?!?? Hello?? Spoilers??? But Ig that's what happens when you put your spoiler-free existence in the untrustworthy hands of the internet... :/ but what made it worse was that it was only a few chapters before the signs really started showing/things started happening so if I had just waited a few chapters longer... but yeah, Ead and Sab... pretty big twist
Yeah I have a weird obsession with visiting author websites (as you can see on the Book-Related Recs thread), cuz some websites are just so cool!, and what if this one is also cool?, or this one, or this one, or- ok but that's cool!! You have Brandon Sanderson mints?!?? :0 *looks to see where I can get that cuz that just sounds so weird it's awesome* wait- Brandon Sanderson also wrote Tress of the Emerald Sea?? I've been meaning to read that!! Just can't find it anywhere...
ohmysorrywhatthatsoundswaytoogoodtobetrue!! Ok but seriously I need to stop now my reading list is like way too long... I have to read that!!! As for Stormlight Archive... I went to the library yesterday and looked for it but didn't realize it was The Way of Kings or something and not, in fact, Stormlight Archive... how did I not realize that on the website too? So going back to look for it (properly) today!
oof good luck with that... though that probably doesn't help :/ yeah that's me too, though the majority are library books, which is horrible cuz they're like months overdue (to be fair, the library's currently under construction (eee!! When we're done we're gonna have a whole new floor and a book balcony!! Though I'm kinda scared what this is all is gonna do to my cozy homey library...) so I don't know exactly where to return the books... but also I'm still slowly working my way through all of them, so even if I did...)
I've only read the preview of Ella Minnow Pea but yesss so cool and good and wordy and eekkkk!! :)
Today is actually my 4th day of midterms (finals??), my 5th midterm in total (we crammed 2 into the 1st day). Honestly they're actually pretty fun, but I'm weird like that (yesterday I had math and drew a little Calvin and Hobbes (have you ever read Calvin and Hobbes before? Highly recommend!! So good!!) comic on the back for my math teacher (d=rt Mr. Jones if you were wondering) to thank her... my math teacher is like so nerdy I love her!! :DD). Hope you did well on your midterms!!
and in other news, my dad, also a giant word nerd (do you know that word of the day thing on Google? My family likes to get that and then every day we try to find time to sit down and my mom will play the audio of the word of the day on her phone, and we have a contest to try to guess the spelling based on pronunciation and origin, then she tells us the sentence and we try to guess the definition based on context... it's pretty fun and actually pretty useful! Well, ok. 1 word so far has been useful. But that word was susurrus, and so I was thinking about it a lot and then read The Wee Free Men and was like ackkk!!! :DD), recently got a book called Rebel With a Clause... have you read it? It's pretty interesting! Basically about this person who roams the country setting up "grammar tables" and giving ppl free advice on grammar (nonfiction btw)!
(December 19, 2023 - 11:17 am)
Ok, just started the 12th episode and am so excited!!! :DD
(December 19, 2023 - 7:30 pm)
oh lol I had no idea it was a book, I just liked the palindrome
I love the musical Annie! Probably the first musical I saw live, it was a really long time ago but I remember some of the songs and it was really fun (it's a hard knock life, for us)
the Collector is pretty cool, and the plot is well done—I just preferred the story when it was still mostly worldbuilding and fun witchy Lumity stuff instead of actual plot... enjoy the Collector! I'd say my favorite character is either the Nose (whatever her name is) or maybe King. They're all so good though :D have you watched Amphibia? It's pretty similar, I've seen half of the first season and I like it so far.
I really need to start looking at more author websites! I usually don't—maybe it ruins the ~mistique~ around each book a bit, or maybe I just don't remember to... yes I have Brandon Sanderson mints!! BE SCARED MWAHAHAAA I also almost had Brandon Sanderson socks (that unfortunately didn't have his face on it, I asked) that came in the same author package thingy but my friend said she threw them away D: so no socks... I love funny socks, I have some great holiday ones and some Berkeley ones and one pair that's just the Google dino game...
speaking of dinosaurs you need to read any dino comics books (dinosaur therapy, dinosaur philosophy, and dinosaur friendship)! they're like really depressing humor that I love and relate to but told through adorable dino comics :D it's a weird mix but I love it so much... honestly just google "dino comics" you don't need to get the books
read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. just the first chapter?? please :D I promise the lack of time and sleep is worth it!!
cool your finals went well! I hope you're also enjoying wherever you said you were going for break, I forgot lol (I've never read Calvin and Hobbes beyond the occasional page, unfortunately)
I didn't know about the word of the day thing on Google—is it some kind of extension? I get an email thingy with a word of the day tho and the words are seriously really cool—some recent ones were gallimaufry, spitchcock, and gnathion...
yesss Terry Pratchett! I sometimes just scroll aimlessly through Terry Pratchett quotes for like an hour, they're great :) I've never heard of Rebel With a Clause... what are you currently reading?
I'm currently reading Oathbringer and Les Mis (unabridged version my friend somehow convinced me to start, I've read an abridged version before and tbh I don't see the point of reading the longer one but I've already started so might as well keep going). I just finished Solitaire by Alice Oseman (good but heavy stuff and mature and some extreme content warnings [suicidal thoughts, depression, eating disorders, mild homophobia], I'd read Heartstopper first though if you were going to read this, but I wouldn't honestly reccommend Heartstopper [sorry admins if this isn't CB-appropriate, I'm not sure]), To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers (weird in a good way, short, kind of like sci-fi book-long vignettes), and Boys Run the Riot (trans manga about fasion brands, not usually my kind of book but my friend was reading it and why not).
[that was very parentheses] {ok gn lol} [:P] wait that looks like a sandwich hold uppp...
(December 27, 2023 - 3:46 am)
Sorry this is very short and to the point and I hope not rude so sorry if it is but eek just realized there's a website for HPatMoR (or just HPMOR Ig) so I actually can read it and don't have to wait till I can borrow at a library but also do I have to read the HP books before I do? I never got past the 1st one, just not enough motivation honestly, and oc the controversy just didn't seem like something I wanted to waste time reading when I already have like piles of books I SO want to read at home? But this seems SO AWESOME and so I really want to read this the right way at least the first time in order to get the most out of it and it seems like there are lots of clues or something and just an overall better experience when you know the other books? Ok sorry but - my question is, do you recommend reading the HP books - and if so, all of them? - before reading HPMOR in order to get the best experience?
(bc if so, I'd be so happy to! Plus, seems like a bit of an inevitability anyway cuz my dad LOVES HP and I'm pretty much either gonna have to read them all sooner or later)
anyways yup thanks!! :)
(December 30, 2023 - 4:10 am)
I mean I'm a huge HP fan—it was basically my childhood lol—but I get that they could be hard to get into or frustrating and some of JK Rowling's views are... controversial. But I'd say you could totally read HPMOR without having read the origional (the plots aren't super similar)—as long as you know who all the main characters are and basic relationships and plot and stuff first.
I'd just try it out! Get a few chapters in, and if it makes no sense then maybe stop but otherwise enjoy! There's a few really weird humor scenes that I don't like but other than that the whole thing is amazing.
(December 30, 2023 - 3:59 pm)
Oh then... um nope I don't. I just know... there's a person named Harry Potter who's a wizard. He has a best friend named Ron. He had another best friend named Hermione. There's someone named Dumbledore. There's apparently someone named Ginny. There's someone named Cho Chang. There's an owl named Hedwig!! There are 4 houses: ravenclaw, slytherin, gryfindor, and hufflepuff (and a play called Puffs I think! But that's totally unrelated). Um. Oh! And there's someone named Voldemort who's also named Tom Riddle who can't be named and who is on the back of someone's head?? Um yeah but anyways I'm just gonna go read a few chapters like you suggested, thanks! :)
(December 31, 2023 - 6:53 pm)
Ok this book is amazingly good and I shouldn't be reading it right now but eekkkkk!! :DD I'm on the Fundamental Attribution Error rn and absolutely love it!! Though I do wonder what the point of all those "JK Rowling is wAtChInG yOu" comments are... but thank you so much for the recommendation!!!! And YES it was totally worth the headache and dizziness and walking into things I had today from lack of time and sleep no I really do mean it :) :) Ok, now responding to the rest:
Annie was one of the first musicals I've ever watched too! In 1st grade we took a field trip to watch it and I was obsessed with the fact that Sandy was a real dog lol. I remember just constantly looking at my poor friends sitting next to me and being like "it's a real dog!! Up on stage!! A real dog!!!" XD. Like, you're not realizing the magnitude of this situation there's a dog!! And I was so focused on this that I honestly don't remember the rest of the play at all... though to this day I can still recall exactly how the dog looked! :/ Anyways, It's a Hard Knock Life and Tomorrow were two of the first songs I'd ever learned for musical theater when I was really little, and I still mostly remember them, and yess they are so fun! If I remember correctly, the music video for It's a Hard Knock Life is pretty cool/fun too! :)
Whenever I see mistique or something now, I just start thinking, mystic is Miss Tick and is that a good name for a witch or would it be better for it to be mystique is Miss Teek and a teek is a clearing in a forest I think?? or maybe mis... but um yeah! And yeah I see what you're saying... also sometimes there are consequences for going on websites like once I got rickrolled by one of my favorite authors XD (if you know what that means)... Look up Dino game?!?? No way! :) Did you know, usually when you click the spacebar, the Dino game just starts, but last year my school disabled it so when you click the spacebar it just shows astroids striking the Dino with a message that says "Game disabled by your administrator" or something! I actually kinda like that more than the game itself... I'd love to have those socks! My socks are literally just whatever ppl buy for me, I wear. I honestly don't really care about most of them. But there are some I do like though are these super comfy sorta athletic-hiking ankle-length socks?? Idk. But also I have these really cool space socks, like they're really long and there are planets and satellites and stars on a pitch black background and they don't match, each sock is sorta like a different scene, which is cool!
"A comic about depressed dinos who find hope in each other"... :0 ok I'm already excited (relating to dragons and birds sorta, I also pretty much love dinos :) also as you can prob tell it doesn't really take much to get me excited... unproportionate random enthusiasm/excitement is something I have in spades). *3 minutes later* Ohmyohmythisishilarious??? "You're the best thing until sliced bread" XDD !!! And a small thing Ig but I love how the site grays out the comics you've already read, makes things so much easier!
And eek gotta go sorry no rereading things to find mistakes sorry if this is bad bye! :)
(January 8, 2024 - 11:18 pm)