Been listening to and reviewing the early Nightwish albums (links can be found in Inspirations). This song, from their second album Oceanborn, one of their finest from that era or ever. Vocalist is original lead singer Tarja Turunen, who is my preferred voice for this song.

Coffee is on and teapots are filled to the tippy-top with Earl Grey and Irish Breakfast. Iced tea is fresh in the fridge, too.

Good day. Weather is a bit meh today, but weekend is looking nice, if a bit steamy.

Been listening to and reviewing the early albums of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. I got into them in 2019-20 and have never really gone back to listen to their early work. The band released its first album in 1997. Writing these reviews has been kind of a fun break from fiction.

https://floorworld.floorjansen.com/c/nightwish/ape-fires-up-his-time-machine-and

https://floorworld.floorjansen.com/c/nightwish/ape-was-not-born-on-the-ocean

Coffee is brewed for the coffee crowd. Teas are English Breakfast and Peach (yes, my tea shop of choice has that). Iced tea is also peach.

Mulling over returning to Tana's world. New lead character and different location (though there would be a visit to Olsham). Not sure, yet, if that's where I will go, though.

And in a rather surprising development, the owner of a web forum in France approached me for permission to translate The Chronicles of Tana the Healer for his site. We are both members on the support site for Xenforo, forum software that I use to run the site Wondercafe2, and I put links to my fiction in my sig there from time to time. He read and like the chronicles. Permission has been granted and chapter 1 is done and up. I knew I had something good with Tana but this was unexpected. C'est fantastique!

Update: The French gentleman repurposed his site and domain and no longer has the French copies of my stories online since they don't fit his current site.

Quote by gillianleeza
Tomorrow I am picking up a half bushel of peaches at the farmer's market.

Yum! My favorite stone fruit and one of my favorite fruits period.

Good evening! Nice day here finally. Back to late day showers again tomorrow but only a 30% probability so may not happen.

Quote by AnnaMayZing

Welcome to Jukka Koskinen, the now official bass player with Nightwish. Marko was a hard act to follow.

He took Marko's place whilst they toured, but now he is an official band member.

Here he is, at the Pinkpop festival in the Netherlands, June 2022.

I watched their shows at Hellfest and Deichbrand on livestream (saw Pinkpop, too, but not live) and Jukka was fantastic. Really working well with the rest of the band now. He did sing backup as well as playing bass in Wintersun so him joining Troy on male vocals is not impossible.

Clarification of rules helps game.

Lark - Dark (light just burnt out)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, good morning!!!

Got a nice Ethiopian dark roast in the coffee pot, English breakfast and Lemon in the teapots, fresh iced tea and lemonade in the fridge.

Nice weather here after a couple dicey days. At least the yard and plants got a good watering.

I am completely at sea as to what to write next. I have a vague idea for a space opera-ish sf story but still not sure where to go with it. And I'm toying with a couple short pieces for (redacted) but they are unlikely to go anywhere. Really, it's not writer's block, it's an imagination block. Ideas just aren't taking root and growing the way they should.

Tetley Orange Peko

Enough words to express ourselves.

Welp, this should be interesting. A guy on one of the other sites I am on (the support site for the software I use to run Wondercafe2) wants to translate The Chronicles of Tana the Healer into French and post the French versions on his site. I gave permission. What is there to lose? He'll link to the originals on here for people who want the English and I get more readership en francais. And it will be kind of cool to have my writing in another language.

Grabs a lion and a polar bear in honour of absent (from here at least) friends.

Not listening per se, but this song by Within Temptation is earworming me something fierce.

Luck - Lack (something is missing here)

Elizabeth will get it right.

Quote by gillianleeza
I won't go into our crawl space for that reason.

The first place I actually owned (vs. rentals), a tiny early twentieth-century townhouse, had a crawlspace under the original part but had a small basement under the kitchen (a later addition/renovation) that was a utility room for the furnace and water heater. It was like the room where some redneck serial killer keeps his victims in a B-movie thriller. Even accessed by a semi-hidden trap door in the dining nook of the kitchen. Creepy as hell but somehow I have never got around to using it in a story.

Rain here, too, for the past 36 hours or so. Supposed to end this evening and be sunny starting tomorrow.

Coffee is in the pot, teapots have Red Rose and Earl Grey, iced tea is in the fridge.

Scarfing a couple cookies and pouring myself a tea. Later, alligators!

Link - Lick (a lollipop)

Rank - Rink (He shoots! He scores!)

Disastrous plans led to devastation.

I have been married 29 years as of tomorrow. So that.

Quote by Mendalla

History, actually. I am reading The Perdiccas Years by Tristan Hughes, which deals with the aftermath of the death of Alexander the Great. It's a period that even my classics degree kind of glossed over. Alexander dies (mumble mumble) presto, Hellenistic kingdoms! But there's actually tons of great stories in the period from 323BCE (his death) and 275BCE when the familiar Hellenistic kingdoms were finally established. This only deals with first 3 years post-Alexander, when the focus was his general Perdiccas trying to hold the empire together. I hope he plans to do this as a series eventually.

And how did I find it? Hughes hosts the History Hit podcast The Ancients and he, not surprisingly, did an episode on the last days of Alexander and the first days after his death in conjunction with the book's launch.

Finished this and it really is an excellent piece of history writing. Keeps the academic discussion and debate to the end notes and focusses on telling the story of our current understanding of how events unfolded after Alexander's death. Worth a read if you're into ancient history.

Currently, I am reading a classic webcomic series called Questionable Content. Does a great job of being all about sex and relationships while keeping things to a PG-13 (soft R at worst) level. No onscreen sex, minimal nudity, some profanity. And the dialogue is hilarious. Not necessarily "realistic" but hilarious. My full review is in the "what are you reading" thread on Wondercafe2.ca:

https://www.wondercafe2.ca/threads/what-are-you-reading.583/post-436309

Not sure if I will make it all way through QC or not. It's long (started in 2003 and still producing new strips).

Bunk - Bank (Yay, money!)

Sale can mean lower price.

Quote by verbal
I got too bored yesterday and so started a story about a suburban homeowner checking his basement for leaks and finding eldritch horrors

Let's just say I don't lift the cover on my sump pit much. Who knows what lurks below the foundations of my house?😲

Black Currant Tea (hot)

So how about pop punk redone as power metal?

Tommy Johansson plays guitar in the Swedish band Sabaton and sings and plays in his band Majestica. He's a fantastic guitar player but also an accomplished singer, arranger, composer, and producer. His solo covers are always a real treat, musically solid but often a bit tongue-in-cheek, too.

Hey folks.

Coffee is on as are pots of English Breakfast and Cream of Earl Grey teas. Iced tea is in the fridge along with some lemonade. Gonna be a bit warm in my area for the next couple days so figured I'd lay in some cold bevvies.

Taking a ship and a plane with my cuppa.

Quote by verbal
My toe has been bugging me

LOL. I've stubbed the four toes on my right foot (all but the big toe, weirdly) like two or three times so toes bugging me is kind of life right now. 🙁

Quote by AnnaMayZing

Another new release from Lissie, today. Sad. Erm, no, it's not actually sad. That's just the name of the song! 🤣

I never post Lissie here because I know you'll take care of it. 😋

My in car listening the last couple commutes has been the latest album from Swedish melodic death metal (the metal subgenres get a bit ridiculous at times) act Arch Enemy. I have been surprised by how much I enjoy this band, given that the vocals are mostly "harsh" aka "growling" from a singer who I know is also a very good "clean" singer, Montreal-born Alissa Gluz-White. But that seems to be my musical direction these days: listening to and enjoying music that wouldn't even have hit my radar even five years ago.

Quote by verbal
Mets got crushed again by our famous cookie-maker Sara's team, the Braves.

It's the cookies. She probably sends them a box to boost morale.😋