OwainGlyndwr's Recent Activity
-
OwainGlyndwr liked Brother Beck's post in the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
I feel like this is a good place to bring this story up, but I had always loved reading as a kid all growing up and into college. I had dropped out of college the first time and was working as a courier at FedEx and I hadn't really read any books in years but I couldn't say when I had stopped altogether. I was picking up one of the FedEx drop boxes towards the end of my pickup route one evening, and inside we would typically get a bunch of post office & UPS stuff along with our stuff, but that day someone had tossed a copy of The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton from the library of that town in there. (The library was a good mile or more away from there.) I ended up keeping it for a few days and reading it before dropping it back off at the library in that town, and that got me back into reading, and I've consistently been reading again since then as much as life allows. Not my favorite book by any means, or even close really, but I gotta give it credit for that.
Jan 18, 2025 at 12:22 PM -
OwainGlyndwr liked FlayedManOfSF's post in the thread Book Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere.
[ATTACH] [ATTACH]
Jan 18, 2025 at 11:05 AM
-
OwainGlyndwr liked mescalineeyes's post in the thread Video Game Video Games.
it was mentioned before and here’s my hot take on this one: miniLED can get dark enough and way brighter than OLEDs without need for cooling(!). Plus they’re much cheaper which leaves more room in the budget for performance/ram/storage. for a portable console that is the sensible choice in this day and age.
Jan 18, 2025 at 10:11 AM -
OwainGlyndwr liked theagentcoma's post in the thread Book Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere.
This finally came back in stock
Jan 18, 2025 at 7:53 AM
-
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Health & Fitness.
For real though, not only is that what you’re limited to doing - but don’t discount the healing effect of lifting on the injured parts of your body. The hormonal cascades triggered by resistance training go through your whole body. Even just training one arm when the other’s broken can influence muscle mass retention and overall recovery. Wishing you a speedy one, by the way
Jan 17, 2025 at 5:55 PM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Health & Fitness.
Sucks to hear, but at least it’s not worse haha. Time to go all out on everything else though! Hammer the lower body hard and you’ll mitigate some of that lost progress.
Jan 17, 2025 at 4:24 PM -
OwainGlyndwr liked oakhurst's post in the thread Health & Fitness.
Went to a doctor today for my chest. I was told my chest spasms are due to a pulled rib. So no upper body workouts for 2-3 weeks. That’s going to suck. Maybe a month of no upper body will set me back 2 months at least. But it’s better than what I thought was maybe heart palpitations
Jan 17, 2025 at 4:24 PM -
OwainGlyndwr liked theagentcoma's post in the thread Writing.
I'm fast approaching the point where I need to format my draft into an actual book and it's stressing me out lol
Jan 17, 2025 at 4:23 PM -
OwainGlyndwr liked Gnarly Charlie's post in the thread Writing.
https://a.co/d/f4sjBIt inspired by books like the road and the dog stars. Always wanted to write something in the vein of my favorite post apocalyptic reads!
Jan 17, 2025 at 4:22 PM
-
OwainGlyndwr liked Gnarly Charlie's post in the thread Writing.
Self-published my first book today. Feels good, fam.
Jan 17, 2025 at 4:20 PM -
OwainGlyndwr liked Brodobaggins34's post in the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
I just got this the other day too on a whim! I somehow missed that jj Abrams was involved in a book, so I just picked it up without looking too into it. It’s really awesome packaging. I’m a bit intimidated to read it, but also really looking forward to getting into it.
Jan 17, 2025 at 11:36 AM -
OwainGlyndwr liked Helloelloallo's post in the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
So I'm not ready to read this as I've got to keep the Sanderson momentum going, but I don't think my previous comment was apt as I hadn't even opened it fully before. Maybe it'll encourage someone else to pick it up so you'll have someone to discuss it with sooner but... This book is gorgeous and a work of art. It's aged to look like an old book, it even SMELLS like an old book - it has old library stamps on it, and there are multiple pieces of art / additional documents throughout the book that are printed on separate pieces of paper / cardboard etc. I didn't remove any of them, and carefully put them back if they fell out (as I am sure they have a place within the story), and as an overall package, it really is something cool. As I said, it'll be a while before I'll get into it, but I wanted to add to my thanks now that I've taken the time to actually look at it. There's so much care taken into how the book looks and feels (including all the font choices, and 'handwritten' margin notes). Ultimately, I feel that what I think of the narrative will be secondary to the enjoyment of the uniqueness of it all. S.
Jan 17, 2025 at 11:36 AM -
OwainGlyndwr liked noxee's post in the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
I’m going to cheat and go with two: The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid - I got frustrated with how the romance played out in this and gave up. The First Binding by R.R. Virdi - People said this was like The Name of The Wind which should be right up my alley but this was such a slog I gave up. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - It was fine but I think I went in expecting the main character Kaz to be a bit more “hands on”. I don’t think I have anything for this. I think I go too much by what is popular when picking what to read. I imagine quite a few have read it already but I enjoyed Where Are Your Boys Tonight?: The Oral History of Emo's Mainstream Explosion 1999-2008. It was fun reading about the genre since I only got to watch the scene from afar here in Australia.
Jan 16, 2025 at 9:50 PM -
OwainGlyndwr liked theagentcoma's post in the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
I guess I'll bite 1) you hated - Fourth Wing, but that's low-hanging fruit. I don't read things I don't think I'll like, but I was curious this time. Never again! 2) didn’t mind, but don’t understand the hype - ask me in a year and I'll say Wind & Truth (jk!). Maybe Babel? 3) loved when no one else seems to - The Dark Tide by Dennis L. Mckiernan. This isn't so much a 'no one else likes this' as a 'no one else has read this' answer. It's also a blatant rip-off of LotR in so many ways, but I thought the cover looked cool when I was in middle school, so it is near and dear to my heart in all it's cheesiness. 4) not in the sci-fi/fantasy space, but think those of us regulars in here would like - I'll echo the David Mitchell love. Black Swan Green is my favorite of his I've read. Hilarious and an easy read.
Jan 16, 2025 at 9:49 PM -
OwainGlyndwr liked tvck's post in the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
My favorite would probably be between Speaks The Nightbird by McCammon or 11/22/63 from King. Just excellent historical fiction from both.
Jan 16, 2025 at 3:05 PM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
Haha nice, that is funny. Slightly extra funny because he’s a veterinarian, so the seals/sea lions are on topic as well lol
Jan 16, 2025 at 3:05 PM -
OwainGlyndwr liked Brother Beck's post in the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
my kids are learning about seals & sea lions at the library in the next town over from us, and I popped over to the adult section to see new books and saw this and got a chuckle -->
Jan 16, 2025 at 3:05 PM
-
OwainGlyndwr liked mescalineeyes's post in the thread Video Game Video Games.
Just put a little more than one hour into The First Berserker: Khazan. It is, without a doubt, the best game demo I have played since the original Metal Gear Solid. It's somewhere between Lies of P and Code Vein if it wasn't for gooners. It helps that as far as soulslikes go, it's fairly easy. I got on just fine. It's also snow level the game. Always thinking of you @sophos34. It's out on all platforms I think, it's 30gb (lol). Here's the steam link. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2680010/The_First_Berserker_Khazan/ Please don't sleep on this.
Jan 16, 2025 at 2:02 PM
-
OwainGlyndwr liked Brother Beck's post in the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
I think my favorite non-fantasy or sci-fi would probably be Kurt Vonnegut, or maybe Catch-22 I'll echo the love for Cloud Atlas, and also Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by Mitchell
Jan 16, 2025 at 1:33 PM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
(Neither of those names is his real name haha.)
Jan 16, 2025 at 12:12 PM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
James Rollins is also James Clemens. He wrote 7 fantasy novels like 20 years ago (a 5-book series and the first 2 of another). But his thrillers under the Rollins name took off waaaaay more than the fantasies, so he eventually put the latter on the backburner for a while. Moonfall is his return to fantasy, but under the Rollins name since at this point that’s how people know him.
Jan 16, 2025 at 12:12 PM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
Precisely. I have never read a book faster than I did Angels & Demons haha.
Jan 16, 2025 at 11:32 AM -
OwainGlyndwr liked Garrett's post in the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
I love Dan Brown, haha. Is it good? Do not care; I'm all in for Robert Langdon.
Jan 16, 2025 at 11:31 AM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
1: Much like @Brother Beck, this is hard for me to answer since I tend to not make it far into stuff I hate. Maybe The Death of Francis Bacon, though that seems to be pretty divisive anyway. That was probably the last thing I hated (except for some indie stuff I bailed on, but that’s rare too). 2: Howl’s Moving Castle lol. It’s weird, this *should* be right up my alley, it’s got all the things I like. But I just found it dreadfully boring and slow. I’ll probably try again at some point, as it’s likely a me problem. 3: Apparently James Rollins haha. Dan Brown also? Some Spider-Man comics, Wolverine too. Nina George’s The Little Paris Bookshop, going by average Goodreads ratings. Brian Lumley. Sōji Shimada. Oooh, KV Johansen, everybody needs to read her work but it’s only at like 3.5 on GR, which isn’t terrible but is still too low. 4: Tricky question, I love it. I’m gonna recommend a couple. Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler. Charles Portis’s The Dog of the South (my favorite book after LOTR). And David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, which likely some of you have read. All three masterpieces that are fantastical but still largely outside SFF.
Jan 16, 2025 at 11:29 AM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
James Rollins is in my top five favorite fantasy authors for sure lol. Wild. These are really great questions. I’m gonna ponder for a bit and come back to answer.
Jan 16, 2025 at 9:19 AM -
OwainGlyndwr liked Tides's post in the thread Video Game Video Games.
I paid the extra to get the Steam version of the new Dynasty Warriors early so I've already been playing a bunch. It's a lot of fun if you enjoy musou style games and/or the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story, I think. They made parrying a little more important than in previous games (where it basically didn't matter, imo), and the story feels the most indepth in the series thus far (although I did skip 9 because I heard that sucked). It doesn't really fit the mould of a Souls style game, since you can, for the most part, just mash through a lot of the combat with the occasional parry (I've had to press the Evade button maybe 5 times in 7 hours), but if you enjoy games where you are basically mowing down hordes and hordes of nameless mooks and like, 10 named characters per battle, it's definitely a game you'd enjoy. This new game also has a completely new character as the (silent) protagonist who is a bit of a blank slate but it feels like this is My Guy who is doing What I Want in this story that I'm already a big fan of, which I personally really like. I know some people find this style of game a bit repetitive though, since honestly there isn't always much challenge, but I don't mind that because I Get To Be Strong and that's fun for me.
Jan 15, 2025 at 2:53 PM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Movie Lists 2025.
Placeholder
Jan 15, 2025 at 1:16 PM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread 2025 Albums.
Placeholder
Jan 15, 2025 at 1:14 PM -
OwainGlyndwr liked Fucking Dustin's post in the thread Video Game Video Games.
I think ima go to Bloodstained after I do Baba Is You
Jan 15, 2025 at 10:27 AM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Video Game Video Games.
Player's Log Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Finished this the other day! It was excellent. I've only played a couple Castlevania games so it took me a while to get into the rhythm, but I liked it more and more as I played. By the end I was already starting to strategize how I'll approach a second playthrough when I eventually get to it. Loved the story, loved the art and music, loved the gameplay. There are a couple more things I'll do in the near future , but I'm essentially "done" in terms of my standards for finishing a game—I doubt I'll ever 100% all the recipes, techniques, etc. But I would love to do another playthrough at some point with a fresh character. And I know they're working on a sequel—super excited about that. Hoa: This was a lovely little puzzle-platformer that I beat in two short sessions. Great story and music. Really chill. The last level was surprisingly hard, but rewarding. Aaaaand now back to the backlog, which is endless and consumes worlds.
Jan 15, 2025 at 10:15 AM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Video Game Video Games.
I've only played an hour of it or so, but I like it. I turned most of the motion controls off and it's good. I never played the original either.
Jan 14, 2025 at 9:51 PM -
OwainGlyndwr liked Greg's post in the thread Accountability in Music.
Personally, I don’t believe that there are good and bad people in the way being discussed here. I typed up a long post, but I don’t know if anybody even cared what I have to say. I do believe there are evil people, but I don’t think it’s them and all good people. There’s a lot to consider and context to think about in each situation. It’s easy to want to divide good vs bad as it allows us to put ourselves in the good camp for whatever reasons we use to self justify ourselves. I don’t think it’s that easy or an honest assessment of humanity.
Jan 14, 2025 at 1:33 PM -
OwainGlyndwr liked hollowmines's post in the thread Accountability in Music.
bad people and/or people that do bad things routinely make good art because these two things are simply not correlated. probably a whole lot of bands routinely discussed on here have members who have done horrible things in private we will never know about, particularly if they are commercially successful. doubly so if they formed before let's say 2000. might as well find your peace about it now.
Jan 14, 2025 at 1:33 PM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
But I do read really fast in general, I should acknowledge that.
Jan 14, 2025 at 11:58 AM -
OwainGlyndwr replied to the thread Book The Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books Thread.
Depends on the book for me. Most epic fantasy or science fiction, say something like Stormlight, is about 70 pages an hour. Stuff like Tolkien and Williams is slower; thrillers, YA, and easier books tend to be faster. Hard to be accurate with how wildly page counts fluctuate, but I’m gonna say about 350–400 words/minute for me personally. An hour of recorded audio tends to be about 9k words, so about 30 pages, again depending on format. I try to read an hour a day and I tend to average 2 books per week, with some of those being manga/comics/shorter works.
Jan 14, 2025 at 11:57 AM