General Discussion : I'm Alive! July Edition!!

1. Are you alive? Despite my best efforts

2. Your views on fireworks? From the ground

3. What song makes you cry?  You know there is one - stop lying. Ben Folds - Still Fighting It

4. What did you eat for dinner last night? Steak

5. Are you doing any home renovations? Yes, thought still in planning phase

6. What's your favorite musical instrument? hrm. drumsguitarbasskeyboardsdaws

7. What's your favorite book that involves an animal? Cujo

8. What is the best time of day to read? Morning

9. Hot out there, amirite? Not in central oregon, no

10. Any vacation plans? (I know I asked that last month, but I don't care) The coast, but I want to go to Canada 

1. Are you alive?   yes 

2. Your views on fireworks?   I enjoy setting them off near or at people.  Which is why I don't get to set them off. 

3. What song makes you cry?  You know there is one - stop lying.   I...don't think I have one. 

4. What did you eat for dinner last night?   Spaghetti, but with penne, so not really spaghetti. 

5. Are you doing any home renovations?   Shit yes.  Bathrooms. 

6. What's your favorite musical instrument?  Spoons

7. What's your favorite book that involves an animal?  The Bear

8. What is the best time of day to read?  Some time when the kid is asleep.

9. Hot out there, amirite?  You know, not a bad as last summer.

10. Any vacation plans? (I know I asked that last month, but I don't care).  Biding my time until the new kid is born.  So I guess I'm on vacation now.

1. Are you alive?  Fyeah!

2. Your views on fireworks?  I like them.  Sometimes I can see them on the horizon above the minor league baseball stadium across town.

3. What song makes you cry?  No song will every time, but this one has once.

4. What did you eat for dinner last night?  Frozen pizza.

5. Are you doing any home renovations?  Nope.

6. What's your favorite musical instrument?  To play?  An old Silvertone guitar I had to give back to the guy to whom it had also been loaned.

7. What's your favorite book that involves an animal?  No favs.

8. What is the best time of day to read?  Anytime you have electric light and a/c.

9. Hot out there, amirite?  Until they got the power back on, it was just as hot in 'ere.

10. Any vacation plans?  No.

1. Are you alive?  I'm being kept alive by a hamster running in a wheel.

2. Your views on fireworks?  Bunch of pyromaniacs

3. What song makes you cry?  You know there is one - stop lying.  I sat on my balls - Dave Attell

4. What did you eat for dinner last night?  Chicken Flautas 

5. Are you doing any home renovations?  Bunch of pyromaniacs

6. What's your favorite musical instrument?  The jug(s)

7. What's your favorite book that involves an animal?  Animal Farm - Orwell

8. What is the best time of day to read?  The morning

9. Hot out there, amirite?  Yeah, I've been addressing strangers by saying "hey sweaty," no one minds.

10. Any vacation plans? (I know I asked that last month, but I don't care)  Try to start exercising.  But it's so hard!!!
 

1. Are you alive? running on coffee and broken dreams

2. Your views on fireworks? I am in favor of it.

3. What song makes you cry?  You know there is one - stop lying. In the right moment--Angel's Wings by Social D or Hey, Jude by The Beatles.

4. What did you eat for dinner last night? Chicken sandwich.

5. Are you doing any home renovations? I am. I'm currently sitting in my half renovated kitchen.

6. What's your favorite musical instrument? Electric guitar.

7. What's your favorite book that involves an animal? The Dark Tower Series. I want an Oy.

8. What is the best time of day to read? Any time of day. I used to love reading on the half wall outside of Union Station, DC in the afternoons. Now I get most of my reading done before bed.

9. Hot out there, amirite? I live in the desert. Guess.

10. Any vacation plans? (I know I asked that last month, but I don't care) Heading up to NorCal in a couple days.

I SEEN OY FIRST! BACK OFF PEOPLE! 

1. Are you alive?  Depending on the definition, no, I don't believe that I am.

2. Your views on fireworks?  America, Fuck Yeah!

3. What song makes you cry?  You know there is one - stop lying.  I don't have a song that automatically evokes tears, but the closest I've got is "Every Time You Go Away" from the Planes, Trains, & Automobiles soundtrack, because that's the only movie to make me cry.  Shhhh, don't tell anyone.

4. What did you eat for dinner last night?  vegetarian hot dogs

5. Are you doing any home renovations?  I washed the dishes in my apartment a couple days ago

6. What's your favorite musical instrument?  drums

7. What's your favorite book that involves an animal?  I'd like to use my lifeline here...I phoned a friend, and the answer is Animal Farm.

8. What is the best time of day to read?  Sometime around 1 or 2 a.m.

9. Hot out there, amirite?  I came home, yet again, to no power.  Yeah, it's hot enough already.

10. Any vacation plans? (I know I asked that last month, but I don't care)  You need to have money and motivation to plan a vacation, and I have neither.

Hahahhahhha, so true, Jacks.

It seems writers live off fast food.

I still haven't finished the Dark Tower books. I think I have 2 left? It's been so long I feel like I've forgotten most of what I read, though.

@Riser

Before you finish the dark tower books... stop. Don't do it, man! You have too much to live for! Read the penultimate, then skip the last one.

I actually liked the end. I know...I'm a pariah.

Wait...I mean the end, end. Not the epologue. I mean, I kind of liked the epilogue in a totally self indulgent way.

Riser--you'll see what I mean. Just do it. Do it so you can be as opinionated on it as everyone else. All the cool kids are doing it.

You might be eating canned ravioli because you spent all your money on home renovations.

As I recall, my friend told me that the ending was sort of inevitable, that there was no other real way to end it, but knowing that didn't really make it less awful.

Oh I never said it wasn't awful. 

Let's face it, everything after Wolves of the Calla was kinda bad. I think only people that were too invested in the series to quit kept reading past that point....which was everyone that read up to that point..Did that make any sense? 

Drawing of the three was my favorite, too. Blaine was my favorite villain, although Marten was cool in books 1-3, then he kinda loses his edge.

Blaine, the Gasher, and the Big Coffin Hunters were so fucking awesome. I only liked Marten when he was channeling Flagg. I really need to read The Wind Through the Keyhole; now that I'm thinking about it, I'm reminded how much I really enjoyed it. 

The Wind Through the Keyhole is better than the last two books, but not as good than the first ones. Surprisingly, The Little Sisters of Eluria was an amazing short story, and has a more DT 1 feel as far as how bad ass Roland is. 

1. Are you alive? - Getting redundant, hey?

2. Your views on fireworks? - Once you hit twelve or so, it just doesn't pay off.

3. What song makes you cry?  You know there is one - stop lying. - "So Sorry" by Feist, but only if I'm singing along.

4. What did you eat for dinner last night? - Last night we had pizza hot dogs, which are hot dogs, but you just put pizza sauce and cheese over them instead of ketchup and mustard.

5. Are you doing any home renovations? - I might answer this in a later question.

6. What's your favorite musical instrument? - The piano, because it conveys many moods, and you can always trust a piano player to give you a good finger-blasting.

7. What's your favorite book that involves an animal? - Remember Bunnicula? I don't think I've read a book that involves an animal since Bunnicula.

8. What is the best time of day to read? - Just before bed, when I read a page and pass out and the Kindle falls on my face and wakes me up again.

9. Hot out there, amirite? - Nope. It's raining.

10. Any vacation plans? (I know I asked that last month, but I don't care) - I'll be taking a "renovation vacation" in September, which is taking time off work to renovate, because my renovation team always works sporadically and we are not gettting anything done.

I didn't realize there was such a thing as symbolic music.

For me and DT, Roland was the mainstay. Also, I didn't realize it was possible for anyone to like Blaine the Mono. That shit almost caused me to stop reading, along with all the stupid Wizard of Oz shit at the end of Wizard and Glass. I actually loved the majority of that book, though, and cried like a baby at the sad parts. But King and I have a very love-hate relationship. Or rather I have a love-hate relationship with him and he doesn't know I exist.

The more I think about it, the more I think it's always been about Roland for me. Everybody else is pretty expendable. I do sort of enjoy Eddie for being goofy, but Susannah's story I found a bit unbelievable and sometimes even nonsensical. I didn't dislike Jake (and of course Oy is all kinds of awesome), though there I think I was mostly attached to him through Roland rather than for any of his own merits.

The whole series has swung back and forth for me, which I guess is why I haven't finished. I greatly enjoy parts of it, the parts that for me are rock-solid. Other times it just feels under par or downright ludicrous. It can't seem to make up its mind, and that's both fun and incredibly aggravating.

Without doubt the first book is my favorite. Followed by the fourth. So yeah, I guess I have a Roland man-crush.

Jake is really pretty likeable and a good character. I think all it is is that I'm not big on kids in real life. That shortcoming seems to carry over to fiction. I just don't bond with them.

EDIT - At least mostly. I really liked and bonded with the kids from The Lovely Bones, which surprised me.

I loved Roland throughout all of the series. Eddie was a little annoying at times, and I liked Susannah in the drawing of the three. The scene where she kept waking Roland and Eddie up ("In case there be woofs around") cracked me up. I think despite Roland being a hardass and dry character in the gunslinger, you learn to understand his actions through the rest of the series. 

but would you really want to get "finger-blasted" for 27 hours straight?

And I agree, that was pretty damn funny.

I fuckin' would. What is wrong with you people?

Did you even watch that video? Because it sounds like the most intense finger blasting ever.

If you had him play some piano for you in advance...I mean, you'd be good to fucking go.