Finnish heavy metal band Battle Beast are an incredible band and a lot of that is due to the powerhouse vocals of Noora Louhimo. She screams, shouts, belts at volumes seemingly beyond what a human voice should be capable of. Has some absolutely wonderful over-the-top stage costumes, too. From their new live album, Circus of Doom - Live in Helsinki 2023.

Depends what I am learning. If it is a subject requiring a lot of interaction, like a philosophy seminar or class, still think a classroom works best. If it is straight-up learning a skill or something, then virtual or even self-study (I got my MS certification by self-study, for instance).

Host a party or be a guest at a party?

Coffee is always on. I just don't always post about it anymore, just when I change the coffee variety. Think of it as a bottomless pot. 😊

Here's some goodies for hump day or something like that. Someone somewhere must be celebrating something.

Quote by gillianleeza
The Crouch End is in one of his story collections, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, but it is supposedly slightly different from the one in the anthology.

He does that a lot. I think The Mist got edited between its first appearance in the Dark Forces anthology, where I have it, and it's publication as a novel. That's actually one of my favourite King stories. Never got around to the movie.

Quote by verbal
Cool and rainy and the good kind of gloomy today. It’s been hot as a tin roof here, so the cool-off and rain are welcome.

Someone I know in Alberta is reporting near freezing temps. She was worried about frost last night. 😲

Quote by WriterGirl

Don’t mind me as I stick my whole head in the freezer! Hot flashes on days like this aren’t for whimps!

Oh Lord, a hot flash in this weather sounds like a form of torture.

The only thing hotter than the weather is the coffee. Got some dark roast Nicaraguan brewed. For teas, there's Irish Breakfast and Buddha's Blend. Pitchers are washed and refilled with iced tea and lemonade. Sodas are stocked. There's ice in the freezer if you need to chill your drinks more.

Quote by verbal
The 8 hour ferry ride sounds like a trip.

I know the ferry she's talking about. You can actually book a berth and do it overnight.

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Hi everybody. In the words of the Wicked Witch… “I’m melting!!!!” It’s gonna be hot all next week.

As I just commented to a business contact in Boston, it seems to be most of Eastern North America. We are burning through (pardon the pun) heat records around here. High of 35C forecast here today. Current record for June 23 is 32.5. 😲

Bowl. I like ice cream in any form but the stick stuff gets messy.

Read a novel or a short story anthology?

Quote by gillianleeza
I recently watched a series based loosely on the short story Jerusalem's Lot. It's called Chapelwaite and stars Adrian Brody. It is supposed to serve as a prequel to the novel.

I have read the short story. Not so much a prequel as a first try at some of the ideas. It was one of his first published stories. IIRC it ends up being a Cthulhu Mythos story, something King toys with every now and then. His "Crouch End" (I have it in a mythos anthology but I am pretty sure it appears in one of his own collections too) is excellent modern mythos storytelling.

Well, that's a bleeping mess. I think our domestic air system sucks but that's mostly expense. I can fly to Europe for less than it costs to fly to the West Coast of my own country.

Quote by verbal
That Cali-Colo flight always ends up taking a couple of days before it finally lands in the correct city.

Just going from California to Colorado? Seriously? I can get a direct non-stop from Toronto to Vancouver or Calgary with no problem. Or was she not in a major city in California? I know to get anywhere from where I am, I have to connect because there's very few direct flights from our airport even domestically.

And lots of goodies to celebrate:

Summertime, and the living is easy.

Well, sometimes. Welcome to summer (solstice is officially 10:42pm EDT this evening, which is GMT 2:42am tomorrow). And here is Southern Ontario, we are getting some summer weather this weekend to kick it off. 33-34C Sunday through Tuesday. Even tomorrow is looking pretty steamy at 29C.

Still, I know some need their hot beverages whether it's glacial or tropical. There's Tobermory Grotto coffee on. For teas, we have David's Breakfast and Cream of Earl Grey, both from David's Tea. I washed the pitchers and made up fresh lemonade and iced tea. Sodas are stocked. There's cold filtered water in a pitcher, too.

Now to go celebrate the solstice in appropriate style.

Cooled off here, actually. We had a fire drill at work so I had to go outside for a bit and it's like we're back to early May. Cool to start with and then a wind chill on top of that. Got plenty of rain over the past 24-48 hours, too, which will make the lawns and gardens happy.

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He’s disappointed it was cancelled, but gained lots of experience on setting up something like that.

I watch a lot of sets from the big European festivals and can't even imagine the logistics involved. When Nightwish played Wacken Open Air in 2013, there were 80,000 in attendance. Coachella must get into that realm among festivals here.

Good morning. Quiet, mostly uneventful week. I'm trying to get a new story going. Idea came into my head, I kind of know where to go with it, so I'm trying to write it. The trio from The Spirits of Tan Maldrin are the protagonists and its another weird fantasy mystery in that vein.

Quote by verbal
Loved it, actually, until they started charging.

I tried Evernote but found it wasn't quite what I was after at the time. I found MS OneNote was more capable then. Maybe that's changed. Samsung has a fairly basic note-taking app that you can sync using their cloud but app support outside of Samsung devices (i.e. Android) is minimal to non-existent.

It's getting hot here, so maybe some "Hellfire" is in order. Band is Visions of Atlantis and the lady with the dreamy voice is their female lead singer, French metal soprano Clementine Delauney.

Good morning! Welcome to last week of Spring! Yep, Friday is the Summer Solstice. And it's getting summer-y around here, with a humidex today of 31 on an absolute temp of 26 (Celsius of course).

I've put on some Fire-Roasted Biker Blend. That's "biker" as in people riding bicycles, not men in leather on "hogs".

Teawise, there's Irish Breakfast and Creamy Oolong.

I washed up the pitchers to make fresh iced tea and lemonade. Stocked up the sodas, too.

Quote by gillianleeza
It's been another stressful week, of course. My Aunt passed away under hospice care. It isn't easy to process things these days. My dad's situation keeps getting weirder and more distressing as time goes on; it's exhausting.

Vibes and condolences. Never rains but it pours, they say, and you seem to have been pouring for months now.

Quote by gillianleeza
Hopefully, the jellyfish will stay away until late in the summer.

Eek, yes. I have yet to encounter those in the wild and would rather not.

Trying a new writing tool. I adopted software called Obsidian as my note-taking/organizing software since OneNote isn't available on Linux unless you're able to use the web interface. It stores notes as individual files in a language called Markdown in a folder structure called a vault. And I realized that given this structure, I should be able to just write my stories, at least at the draft stage, right in Obsidian. If I'm submitting them professionally, then I can move them to LibreOffice for final formatting and saving to Word or PDF format. If I'm sharing them here, then I can just copy and paste into the story editor. Costs me US$4 a month to use their cloud to sync across devices (there is an Android version that I use on my phone) but that's manageable given it is otherwise free for personal use.

Quote by verbal
I didn't get arrested. It was fun! Hot af though, and I am exhausted. Protesting is hard work.

I have heard that from the kids, too, since they have been involved in Gaza protests here in Canada.

Quote by ladysharon
My kid is on the honor roll at school, and she's going to the third grade.

Congrats, Mom. Smart kids generally come by it honestly, whether through genetics or parenting (usually a bit of both, I find).

Quote by ladysharon
I am writing my first novel

I went back to a project that I shelved a while ago and if I can figure out where the story goes, it has novella or novel potential. We shall see. I am not sure I have the time and energy for it right now but with my retirement probably put off until 2027 now (due to taking on managing a major project at my employer), maybe I will have to find it.

Got the next great space opera or romantasy novel burning a hole in your hard drive? Don't have an agent? Feat not, these publishers of speculative fiction take direct submissions, though you need to check a publisher's website to see when they are open for submissions. Speculative fiction, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a modern blanket term for science fiction, fantasy, horror, and various stories that don't quite fit neatly into any of those but nonetheless have a "speculative" element to them.

» 35 Publishers that Accept Direct Submissions of Speculative Fiction

Quote by WriterGirl

Happy Father’s Day weekend to you wonderful dads! ❤️

Thank you! I kind of had mine last weekend. Son was in town so we visited and went out for dinner. These kids are so (bleep)ing busy, it seems. 😊

It's fried egg!! I mean Friday!! TGIF and all that rot!!

I'll put on some Deathwish Dark Roast with Yorkshire Gold and Sunday Tea for teas. And there cookies!!

No real plans this weekend. Maybe write. We'll see.

Quote by verbal
Anyone interested in bailing me out of jail on Saturday?

Do take care. My son's been in some demonstrations (over Gaza) but this being Canada, they tend to be a bit milder. Hope all goes well. And sorry, but I'm not sure a Canadian can even post bail down there. I'll send good vibes, though. Maybe an American member could run a Gofundme?? 😉

And glad to hear your daughter's recovery is still progressing.

Quote by verbal
Ape, I think you have a similar ability to write real humans, with real interactions and emotions. Naturalistic fiction is your wheelhouse.

So I keep hearing on that other site we all frequent. We'll see. I am trying to avoid that site's usual topic and get back to writing something I can share more widely but not sure which of my several storylines to try.

Quote by WriterGirl
Oh, I happily sit alongside the late, great Survivor with the Omnium as of this morning.

Woo hoo!!! Party!! Hot and cold drinks are all refreshed for the occasion. Unfortunately, the only cake I could find was this one. It is festive, at least. 😊

Used to be sci fi but not so sure anymore. Don't read much historical and when I do, it's usually borderline fantasy.

Iced tea sweet or not?

Quote by WriterGirl
Anyone else wonder what kind of writer you should be? I’m pretty sure I’m done with the kind of stuff I’ve tried to write for the last 6 years, but not sure which direction to go or who my reader group is. Maybe just my cat.

LOL. I still think I'm a fantasy and horror writer (maybe split the difference and call it dark fantasy or dark speculative fiction or something) but I seem to be doing a lot of naturalistic fiction anymore so who knows? Maybe I'm just a dude who likes to write and isn't too fussy about what comes out of his keyboard.

Quote by WriterGirl

Thanks, he can message now. Not sure what the issue was. I better ask though. I’ve been telling peeps it was free here.

Just tried signing up one of my dummy test emails and there's no sign of any change so I'm starting to think I dreamt it. My current account does show as "Platinum" though while the dummy account (which I promptly deleted so it wouldn't be seen as a sock) was "member". But I am "Platinum" elsewhere so not sure if that pertains to here or somehow leaked over as sometimes happens.

Warm, somewhat muggy day here. First real summer-y weather but seems like it's not lasting long. Getting settled into my new office office (vs. home office) and, lest I not have mentioned it before, I HAVE A WINDOW!!! Now I can see the outside world from both my offices!!!

Anyhow, good night, folks. See ya!

Quote by WriterGirl

Hey, this site is still free to join, isn’t it? An author has come over from the other site and every time he tries to send a message or reply, he gets message the he needs to upgrade.

There was some talk of a membership of some kind but all existing members were grandfathered in. Not sure where that ultimately landed, though. Ask Molly, I guess.