Gooooood morning (or whatever it is where you are)!!

How's things? Not much happening here. Just me saying naughty words at computers. Which is in my job description. Really, it is. 😋

5455 (five for fifty-five, not an impressive win record)

Popped corn is tasty buttered.

Quote by verbal

Done.

Cool. Good luck on the next pass. Hope it is not one of the ones where you go back and realize chapters 4-8 need a total rewrite or something.

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Morning!

Coffee is black and strong. Tea is tastier but still packing some punch. Iced tea is fresh and ready. It has cooled off here but only for today, supposed to be hot and muggy this weekend.

Fees sometimes help pay employees.

Dale - Date (stepping out, with my baby...)

You know things are bad when your office AC is going to be fixed on the day you are planning to work from home. 😨

Quote by DenimAngel
Cinnamon stars

Hmmmm. I'll have to take a few of these. For science, of course. 😋

Nice to see you around, busy one.

I wrote the first sentence of a new story. No ****ing idea what to do with it, but I like it. Definitely leans dark, maybe something grim and apocalyptic. Or maybe something hopepunk-ish where they pull hope out of the grimness.

Too warm for hot drinks. Office AC is kicking up right in the middle of a heatwave. AC guy is here so maybe fixed today?

Salt - Sale (time to stock up on salt)

Lawyer can defend against charges.

Wednesday, aka Hump Day for those of us working the traditional 5 day week. Noon today is the "hump" of the week and it's all downhill (in a good way) from there. Supposedly...

Coffee is on and teas are Duke of Earl and English Breakfast. Iced tea is refreshed for those like me who are going through warm spells. Soda stock looks good.

Since Sara's been scarce of late, I popped by a doughnut shop on the way in for goodies.

Lilt - silt (messy bottom of the sea)

Welt - Wilt (left the lettuce out too long)

Bell - Belt (singing to bring the house down)

Appeal the ruling against you.

Thanks for the kind words, red. I know it is a bit long for the current climate of this place but I just could not find a good breakpoint to split it and rewriting it into two shorter stories did not appeal. Glad you enjoyed it, hope others do as well.

Coffee is on, teapots are full to the tippy-top with Earl Grey and Red Rose. Iced tea and lemonade and made and in the fridge. Gonna be a hot one in my neck of the woods so might need cold bevvies later.

Later, alligators.

The third chapter is now up. Tana sets out to keep her pledge at the end of The Healer's Power to save her mother's spirit, but must plunge once again into the world of her dark father to do so.

The Healer's Spirit

And that's a wrap. I think. The third part of the Chronicles is, I think, the conclusion of Tana's story. While I might explore her world again, it will likely be with a new cast of characters and maybe move on a generation or something. As mentioned in the world-building thread, I might flesh out and explore the Denith Lorn, the priesthood mentioned a few times in the Chronicles. Or maybe pay a visit to some other region of the world. This trilogy has mostly been centred around the valley where Tana lives, save this final chapter which returns her to Tan Kolar, the palace of the Night Lord where she grew up. Might be nice to see what else is out there.

Fortunately, the ape thought they were cute and helped the mother comfort them

Pole - Poll (find out how people are thinking)

Welcome to my wonderful world.

Fortunately, the ape knew to stop, drop, and roll when on fire.

Today has been rather pleasant.

Puke - Poke (Ouch)

Sorry I've been scarce. Nice weekend and a lot going on. Be back on coffee duty tomorrow, I hope.

New story is in the queue. It may be the last for a while but we'll see. I simply have nothing in progress and no ideas that are coming together. Probably won't surprise anyone that's it's the final Chronicles of Tana the Healer story.

Put out a pot of camomile tea for the evening crowd.

Later.

Quote by AnnaMayZing
Once is still their best album, in my humble opinion, which isn't to say that there is anything wrong with any of their others.

Oh, for sure. Once and Imaginaerum are probably my two favorite Nightwish studio albums just based on percentage of the songs on each album that I love. Among the live albums, I think I lean to Vehicle of Spirit.

Original Nightwish lead singer Tarja Turunen has gone down an interesting road for her latest project. She's teamed up with EDM musician/producer Torsten Stenzel under the name Outlanders, which features Tarja on vocals with Stenzel providing backing tracks and production. They also bring in various guest guitarists. This Depeche Mode song is one of two covers and has Vernon Reid of Living Colour on guitar.

And I missed most of the Nightwish set, but did catch their performance of "Ghost Love Score", which is an amazing ten minutes of music that really gives Floor's vocal training a workout.

As mentioned in Inspirations, I caught Floor Jansen's dual performances at PinkPop Festival yesterday on livestream. Solo set, then with Nightwish 3 hours later. Amazing performances both of them. And she appropriately wore a lovely pink suit for the solo set.

A highlights reel from her solo show: "Fire" and "Storm", her first ever solo singles which both came out this year and her performance of Andrew Lloyd-Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" with Dutch stage singer Henk Poort, who she met and started working with in 2019 on the Dutch TV show Beste Zangers.

I think I would take the slit scar over the bullet hole myself, manly or not.

Good morning. Sorry I've been scarce. Life happens.

Sunny, windy, and a bit cool for the weekend before the Solstice here (only 20C today). Supposed to be 32 on Tuesday, though, so summer is in the wings.

Coffee pot is filling. Tea is David's Breakfast (house blend of Canadian tea chain) and Buddha's Blend (also from David's). Iced tea is in the fridge for anyone needing something cool.

Did something unusual and a bit naughty yesterday. My favorite singer, Dutch rocker Floor Jansen, was doing a double header at the PinkPop festival in the Netherlands. Solo performance in the early afternoon, then back as lead singer of Nightwish (her regular gig) later in the day. And Pinkpop is livestreamed in its entirety. So, I closed the door of my office, popped my buds in, and enjoyed the solo performance. I have seen recordings of her concerts (in fact, her first solo album is a live album) but this was the real thing. Unfortunately, I was away from my desk for most of the Nightwish show but did catch the last couple songs when I got back. Just don't tell my boss, eh. 😉

Summertime is coming and going.