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Been watching the Olympics all day, and moving about, and updating gadgets, and trying to make the pencil stylus with the Apple I-Pad work - it doesn't. I can't figure out how to get these digital pencil things to work.
I can draw - I just can't get a digital pencil to work.
Olympic events that I've been watching?
* Women's BMX Biking - where Japan won, with US in the Silver. It was fun, but repetitive after a while, and I don't understand the scoring. But fun to watch.
* Women's Trampoline Jumping - Great Britain won. It showed the medal ceremony, most don't.
* Equesterian Jumping - Great Britain won, with US in Silver
* Men's Skate-Boarding - I can't remember who won - and I don't understand the difficulty of the tricks?
* Pole Jumping and some of the decathalon events (I'm going back to it).
* Women's vault - which also got repetitive after a bit, but Simone Biles is amazing.
* Some surfing - but I lost interest and jumped to something else. Same with the cycling race.
***
Books?
In Audible Books - I finished Butcher's Battleground, which has a tag-on story, a Christmas Story, to tie reader's over until the next book in the series. There are to date 17. I think he needs to branch out a bit and explore the world, like other urban fantasy writers do.
My difficulty with Butcher is he swings too heavily into Christian mythos and I don't think it works well in noir, without becoming cliche ridden.
I'd prefer he explored fairy more.
Now, I'm listening to Illona Andrews' Clean Sweep - book one of the Innkeeper Chronicles, as a Graphic Audio Dramatization. I like Graphic Audio - it's a radio show adaptation of the book, complete with sound effects. Kind of fun, and Andrew's books work very well for it - because they have great dialogue. The trick for graphic audio is emphasis on dialogue over action. Not sure Butcher's would work as well.
The Innkeeper series is rather innovative - I've not seen this done before. I give Andrews for doing different takes on old established tropes.
Here's the description from Illona Andrew's site: "On the outside, Dina Demille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town, owns a Shih Tzu named Beast, and is a perfect neighbor, whose biggest problem should be what to serve her guests for breakfast.
But Dina is…different: Her broom is a deadly weapon; her Inn is magic and thinks for itself. Meant to be a lodging for otherworldly visitors, the only permanent guest is a retired Galactic aristocrat who can’t leave the grounds because she’s responsible for the deaths of millions and someone might shoot her on sight. Under the circumstances, “normal” is a bit of a stretch for Dina. And now, something with wicked claws and deepwater teeth has begun to hunt at night…."
I like their sense of humor and world building - it's very dry and sardonic. They make fun of themselves and others. For example they call their readers? The Book Devouring Horde or BDH or just Horde. Do have some quibbles about the romantic pairings, but nothing major. I don't tend to mind the wounded alpha male, and fierce badass female pairing all that much.
I can draw - I just can't get a digital pencil to work.
Olympic events that I've been watching?
* Women's BMX Biking - where Japan won, with US in the Silver. It was fun, but repetitive after a while, and I don't understand the scoring. But fun to watch.
* Women's Trampoline Jumping - Great Britain won. It showed the medal ceremony, most don't.
* Equesterian Jumping - Great Britain won, with US in Silver
* Men's Skate-Boarding - I can't remember who won - and I don't understand the difficulty of the tricks?
* Pole Jumping and some of the decathalon events (I'm going back to it).
* Women's vault - which also got repetitive after a bit, but Simone Biles is amazing.
* Some surfing - but I lost interest and jumped to something else. Same with the cycling race.
***
Books?
In Audible Books - I finished Butcher's Battleground, which has a tag-on story, a Christmas Story, to tie reader's over until the next book in the series. There are to date 17. I think he needs to branch out a bit and explore the world, like other urban fantasy writers do.
My difficulty with Butcher is he swings too heavily into Christian mythos and I don't think it works well in noir, without becoming cliche ridden.
I'd prefer he explored fairy more.
Now, I'm listening to Illona Andrews' Clean Sweep - book one of the Innkeeper Chronicles, as a Graphic Audio Dramatization. I like Graphic Audio - it's a radio show adaptation of the book, complete with sound effects. Kind of fun, and Andrew's books work very well for it - because they have great dialogue. The trick for graphic audio is emphasis on dialogue over action. Not sure Butcher's would work as well.
The Innkeeper series is rather innovative - I've not seen this done before. I give Andrews for doing different takes on old established tropes.
Here's the description from Illona Andrew's site: "On the outside, Dina Demille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town, owns a Shih Tzu named Beast, and is a perfect neighbor, whose biggest problem should be what to serve her guests for breakfast.
But Dina is…different: Her broom is a deadly weapon; her Inn is magic and thinks for itself. Meant to be a lodging for otherworldly visitors, the only permanent guest is a retired Galactic aristocrat who can’t leave the grounds because she’s responsible for the deaths of millions and someone might shoot her on sight. Under the circumstances, “normal” is a bit of a stretch for Dina. And now, something with wicked claws and deepwater teeth has begun to hunt at night…."
I like their sense of humor and world building - it's very dry and sardonic. They make fun of themselves and others. For example they call their readers? The Book Devouring Horde or BDH or just Horde. Do have some quibbles about the romantic pairings, but nothing major. I don't tend to mind the wounded alpha male, and fierce badass female pairing all that much.
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