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Actually, a year ago tomorrow. "Tomorrow" being a word which here means "in less than ten minutes. . . oh, look at that. I meant to say 'today'."

Quibbles aside. I joined the PPC on February 21, 2016. When I arrived, the big news was a text game thing which turned the Board into a dungeon full of monsters, Boarder shipfics featuring corsets were being written, and hS was panicking over the low number of Boarders. Since then, I've stopped flaking out on RPs and writing challenges (mostly. . .), doubled in squeamishness, and finally learned what a trace on an oscilloscope is.

It's been a great year. I've met so many wonderful people, learned a lot about writing and swords, and. . . I'm getting emotional. I never thought I'd stick around for longer than a week, and now I've got an app downloaded on my phone just to talk to you people. And a fellow Boarder who calls me "senpai."

Anyway *toasts with ginger beer* here's to another year. Maybe by the end of the next one I'll get my Permission prompts written.

--Picture Key wrapped in scribbled outlines and character bios, hair mussed and smelling of candlewax

They're a bit too flat for my tastes and their questline is boring. I kinda prefer Mjoll; it's a shame most of the stuff concerning her was cut/never implemented, IIRC.

*Fights through the pile of dust on top of him.*

Oh. Right. New person. Hello! Greetings, welcome, salutations, and a whole host of other welcoming comments. Welcome to the PPC, hope you survive the experience.

Have..... um.... an old tea bag and a bag of dust. You never know when it may come in handy.

The PPC message board, I wouldn't be able to post otherwise......

Oh, you mean other stuff. Right. Yes. I have a pile beside my bed that I'm working my way through, A Dance with Dragons I'm about half way through. Below that I've got Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre with a bookmark in Chapter Two. Then below that is The Citizen of the World by Oliver Goldsmith.

Happy birthday. Take it from someone who's been there, there's plenty more milestones to hit still. You just have to keep making new ones.

Have a copy of 2014's PPC missions as that's about the last time I logged in!

Congratulations on joining the PPC! Have a Mary-Sue Lego figure.

Well. That's proper cool, that is. I, er, I feel like squeeing and such would be a bit weird, in general, so I won't. But, lemme say, considering how much I bloody love your writing and stories and such... Well.
I'm a bit happy about this!
I'll assume Alleb is, too, but we've separated our masses and become two separate individuals, so I don't know her thoughts or anything like that.

Glad you enjoyed it! Cheers for pointing out them SPaG problems. Got them all sorted and such.

Phew. Phew

"I'm very glad you could make it to my little soiree, Jesse," he added from the shadows, stirring his wine glass slightly. "Enjoying the evening so far?"

I wish I had proper concrit for you on why it's wonderful, but I'm afraid I was just killing time before bed, and my brain is not at its best. But, I laughed, and I enjoyed the characters and the action, and that's pretty much that. {= )

I did notice a misplaced comma, though, at the end of the ‘And then I hit her’ before Maz says 'Is she nice?' It should be a period.

Also, the quotes around Alleb's speech “I think we ought to fight one another" ought to be single-quotes to match the rest of the story. I'm pretty sure all the rest are quotes within quotes, but you might want to double-check to make sure.

~Neshomeh

Finished Kraken, by China Mieville a week back. It was quite good - very sort of bizarre look on urban fantasy. I'll admit, it deflates a bit towards the end - the bizarreness sort of wears off slowly, and it just kind of turns into a more generic urban fantasy. A good one, mind you, with really interesting ideas on magic and reality and such, but it's a bit disappointing considering the start. Made me expect a bit much, perhaps.
It also has the first positive portrayal of a cultist character I've ever seen! One've the main characters, part of a cult that worships squids and such. He's entirely faithful with his beliefs, and yet is still shown as a totally reasonable, relateable person!
I'll appreciate him for as long as possible, considering he's also most likely the last positive portrayal of a cultist character I'll see, too.

I also recently got The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkaway. It's a bit of a mess, as genres go, but it can be generally summarised as an absurdly comedic post-apocalypse kind of thing. Which is probably very inaccurate, anyhow.
I've not even got halfway, but, I mean, it's surprised me, it really has. For all the surreal humour satirising this and that and bureaucracy and such, it's actually quite genuinely sweet at times. I note this in particular, because these kinds of stories with these kinds of humour usually sway in a more bitter, distant direction, y'know? And it's damn bloody funny as bollocks, too.

Aaaand, just today, in fact, relating to a school project thing I've got, one've my teachers lent me a copy of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The script. Book. Scriptbook. Dunno what that's called.
Only actually read a few pages into it, on account of having just gotten it, but it's bloody funny as hell, too. The very opening joke is so well delivered, and escalates perfectly. Brilliant stuff!
P'raps I should stop being a filthy plebian animal and actually watch the play but, er. Pssssh.

I just searched up Flight, and it looks bloody brilliant! That sort of structure reminds me a little bit, just a touch, of Slaughterhouse 5. A bit. Just a tad. And if you haven't read that, mate. You got to read that.
Oh, aw, mate. Is there anything else about it you recommend that I don't want to search up because I'm afraid of spoilers?

Also, I haven't read much of Pratchett, and what I have read has mainly been his earlier works. I have heard, here and there, that his later stuff (which includes Making Money) isn't all too good, but, then, I wouldn't know. Er. Not having read it.
What were the problems with it, might I ask? I've only really seen his good writing, so I'm curious as to what, exactly, it was he did to bugger it up, y'know?

There's no going back. Wrinkles, aching backs, grey hair, a fondness for soap operas.
You are now, officially, as decreed by my incredibly ignorant sixteen-year-old eyes, old.

Congratulations! Happy old day, you old coot, you!
My gift is: four walking sticks! For all four limbs!

Huzzah!

I wish I had time to read as many books as you. Alas, for the sake of time.

I should probably get around to reading Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom. I read the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and all I remember was loving the world it was set in. I remember liking Graceling but that was a while back. There are too many fantasy books which I read for the base idea and worldbuilding and end up forgetting things such as characters, and plot.

The Black Butler manga is excellent. Especially the Zombie Titanic arc, or whatever it's called.

As anyone in the lounge or on the wiki already knows, I just finished Watership Down by Richard Adams recently. It was rather better than I was expecting. I've never seen the movie, but I didn't find the violence to be too overwrought in the text. Then again, I am a zookeeper, and am used to seeing animal violence regularly, so not sure if that would bother other folks. Either way, I found the characterization of the individual rabbits and their collective culture to a very believable representation of how a prey species might behave, which importantly helped keep the story from feeling dated, despite its age. It was a fairly quick read, too, so I definitely recommend it to anyone who can stomach tooth-and-nail rabbit battles.

I'm still in the middle of Bryce Courtenay's The Power of One. I'm not very far yet, but I had to watch the movie version for Senior Synthesis back in high school, so I already know most of the major points. It's a long, sprawling story about a little British boy growing up in South Africa right at the start of World War II, his experience shaped by dealing with nationalism-based hatred from the Nazi-sympathetic Boers (local white people) while also observing how native black people are treated by both. It's a good theme, obviously, but I have to warn for not just vulgar language, but extremely frequent use of the k-word. I also don't know if any sex scenes are coming up later, since I'm only up to Peekay being eleven years old. (I don't recall any from the movie, but the movie cut stuff from the book, and I may just have forgotten any that were.)

—doctorlit is aiming for a biography on Saint Ignatius next; he likes to mix things up with a teeny dose of non-fiction, ever-so-rarely

I read it once, a few years ago, and though my memory's fuzzy I remember I loathed the main character by the end of the book.

Specifically, I just brought home and began reading five books, while I was already in the middle of Lord of the Rings (I swear I'll finish it eventually), three essays on Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse (for school), a giant essay on Euripides' Medea (school again), Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (for school and fun; I love it, and rereading Crooked Kingdom (the sequel to Six of Crows. I like it, okay?).

The library haul:
-Making Money, by Terry Prachett. I've been excited to read Prachett, because a bunch of my friends like him, but. . . this is bad; I'll probably put it down. It's about banking. Not in a good way. I'm choosing to assume his writing is hit-or-miss?
-Siege and Storm, by Leigh Bardugo. This is also bad. I'm reading it because it's part of the series Leigh Bardugo wrote before Six of Crows and set in the same world. I want to write fanfic set in this world, and the wiki isn't well-maintained, so: melodramatic romance with a limp, uninteresting protagonist, here I come.
-Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. Haven't gotten far enough to judge yet. Haven't gotten far enough to know what it's about yet. It's been recommended to me constantly since seventh grade; it's about time I gave it a chance.
-Flight, by Sherman Alexie. This is so excellent.
-Black Butler, volume 22. Before you judge me, remember that the manga and anime are different, and I can't stand the anime.

Plus a couple of fanfic (a Six of Crows modern AU and some of Miss Cam's old LOTR slash), sundry webcomics, and PPC stuff as it's published (of course).

That's it for active reading; there's some other stuff I dip into now and again, though.

--Key has a problem. She's working on it but this week is not her week.

Novel: Fall of Giants by Ken Follett, which came recommended to me by several people. It's not my usual fare, since it's historical fiction about the start of World War I, but it's very good. All the characters are interesting, even when they're not being particularly nice, and you get to sympathize with multiple points of view from people of various nationalities. Also, this may or may not be a selling point for you, but a surprising amount of nookie takes place. I think it's fun—it's kinda detailed, but not TOO detailed, and real people fall in love and/or have sex, so it fits in with Follett's meticulous character-writing—but nobody told me about it ahead of time, and I think it should probably be mentioned.

Fanfic: "Saving the Dragonborn" by SaxyGirl - Skyrim - Farkas/F!Dragonborn. A light, fluffy, fun series of (mis)adventures with my favorite character and a perfectly tolerable, nay, likeable OC. Raelynn is clueless, hapless, and a little bit hopeless, but her heart's in the right place, and she's funny. ^_^ The SPaG isn't perfect and the characterization of both parties is a little inconsistent, IMO (exacerbated somewhat by the episodes being told out of chronological order), but I had fun reading the whole thing and I'll go back for more if the author updates.

(Out of curiosity, fellow Dovahkiin: Got a favorite twin? Farkas or Vilkas, and why?)

~Neshomeh has been on a serious Skyrim bender lately.

Obviously, the only way to celebrate this happy event is to drink yourself under a table and hope it doesn't kill you. Yes. That is totally a thing you should do, and is not a stupid plan at all. But, in case you choose not to do this totally safe and sane thing, you can go ahead and take my best wishes for your next year of life, and some free internet ice cream.

"As it happens, I am straight as well. I must agree with you on the sexuality point, for before, I was partnered with a robot who seemed as interested in myself as I was in him." He took a glass from the side of the table and took a drink from the it. He grimaced. "I should not have tried that," he muttered. He searched momentarily for an acceptable topic of conversation. His previous date did not seem to have gone well, so that was out. Work? As safe a starting point as any. "In which department do you work?"

((BrOTP indeed. :P - Granz, the Still Rather Amused Monarch.))

Steele moved the chair aside and folded her legs under herself. She wasn't fond of sitting like this, but trying to squeeze into a two-legger chair? She'd learned not to do that the first time she'd been a taur. That was one lesson that didn't leave a girl.

"I'm Chikara Steele. I'm sorry if I startled you, Lady; my long-standing partner is used to me by now, and the new one hasn't been around long enough to think more of it than 'non-humanoid individual'. But hey! Let's talk about you! Are you into boys or girls or both? Or neither, I guess."

(Oh, wow, I forgot that she was blue! Hmm, I'll have to find a way to change that... preferably without using one of the never-turning-off mods. As for the eyes thing, that's really interesting! I'll have Steele ask after her continuum in a few posts. I absolutely must acquaint myself with it!)

I do not remember if you play Civilization or not, but in honor of you reaching legal drinking age, here is a French drinking song (which happens to be France's theme in Civilization VI): the tourdion Quand je bois du vin clairet ("When I drink Clairet wine").

Alright, I'm reading Tale of Two Cities because I have to, but I'd guess that's not really relevant. On my own time, I'm splitting my time between the webcomic Freefall, and the anime Fate/Stay Night, which for some reason I am watching after Fate/Zero.

"You--you--deer--eyes--" She could only gape for a moment. Blue for King Eliam, red for Paragor, green for the undecided--but what did black mean? "Lady," she whispered, not knowing quite why she was bothering to answer the question. "I'm Lady Alleb."

((On the colors thing--in Alleb's home continuum, eyes will "glint" a certain color, depending on that person's loyalty. Alleb's eyes occasionally turn blue for a moment at particular angles.

This particular form freaks Alleb out because it's a nine foot blue deer lady with black-streaked eyes. I think I'd be freaked out too. XD

-Alleb))

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
MAY ALL YOUR WISHES COME TRUE
HOPE NOBODY MAKES YOU BLUE
AND YOUR CAKE DOESN'T EXPLODE IN GOO!

*blows noisemakers*