Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

I have no idea. I'm just going to read when I feel like it and see what happens.

Started Jan 1, 2011



Updated after book 34 of 2013

For the year: 6655 as of book 34

(tpp 3658)


I suck at updating. Just go to my Reading in 2013 Shelf.

Series that I read books in this year:

The Dresden Files - Caught up and waiting...
Joe Pitt
The Iron Druid Chronicles - Caught up and waiting...
The Silo Saga AKA Wool - Caught up and waiting...
The Hollows / Rachel Morgan
Sandman Slim

7/1/13 - 560 pages FF read

Reserved

Reserved

Reserved

Okay, that should do it.

I couldn't handle the peer pressure. Had to create my thread. Christmas in July. :D

:-D

What did Homeinmyshoes start?? LOL!

I don't see any issues. Excitement, yes, issues, no.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I don't see any issues. Excitement, yes, issues, no."

Exactly! LOL!

lol!

All that effort and now I don't want to do any challenges this year. :D

Christa wrote: "All that effort and now I don't want to do any challenges this year. :D"

I've started using Steam.

Come, join me. *evil laughter*

Oh my... I just sent you a friend invite. :D Irony of ironies, my back is acting up so won't be doing much gaming for a bit. Can't sit at the desktop computer for very long.

Which is why I just started reading Cold Days last night. It's bittersweet, like eating the last piece of candy in the bowl and not knowing when you'll be able to get more.

:-D

I'm sorry your back is hurting! Hopefully not for long.

I've got some pain (back, hammies and shoulder/neck) and I normally ignore it (thus the reason the shoulder is now shoulder AND neck) but it flared up recently (and brought friends). So I did a search for a good place to start for yoga and found this:

So far it's slow and steady (which is what I need) but I've only done the one for flexibility. I'll save strength for when I have some muscles, lol.

But, I suggest it. It's been good with helping stretch out the back and hamstrings. NOthing for the shoulder/neck yet but I'll give it time.

Re:gaming - I should have bought skyrim for the computer!! Ack, we're doing PS3 and I wanted to grab Dragonborn. :-(

Well, at least they've announced that the DLC is finally officially coming to PS3, and you should get Dragonborn first before the other two, sometime in February. I don't remember the exact details, but PC gets it 2/5, and I believe PS3 a couple weeks later?

BUT, yeah, if you can catch it on a Steam sale, grab it for PC. There will probably be a sale around the beginning of March, possibly sooner.

I love Steam sales. I don't think I've paid full price for a game yet, and it makes me more likely to try things I'm not entirely sure I'll like.

In the last few weeks I've put 100 hours in Fallout 3. (The hours aren't logging on Steam because I'm using a script extender launcher.) My hours listed for Skyrim are wrong also, because it doesn't log in offline mode, and several months ago I played offline for a long time. I think my actual Skyrim hours are close to 1000. Which is why I took an extended break from it to play FO3. At this point I could navigate the entire map with my eyes closed. Still love it, though.

Good to see you again, Christa. I'm sorry you're hurting. Sending Get Better wishes to both you and Mrs. J. (((HUGS)))

Thanks, Nyssa. (((hugs back))) And it's not too bad, really, as long as I don't try to sit at the computer for too long. Right now I'm sacked out on some pillows like a princess with my laptop and it doesn't really hurt at all. So, I just have to listen to what my back is telling me until it decides to be normal again. A few weeks at the most. Less gaming, more reading - certainly not a bad thing! :)

Christa wrote: "Well, at least they've announced that the DLC is finally officially coming to PS3, and you should get Dragonborn first before the other two, sometime in February. I don't remember the exact detail..."

Yeah, I launch Diablo 3 via Steam and it doesn't log hours for that, either. Neither does Guild Wars but I barely play that. Most of my time is with Diablo 3 and Torchlight. I think I'm going to get Torchlight 2 and Titan Quest Gold. I keep holding out on T2 because I missed the sale (*pout*) but Titan Quest seems to be a decent price $20 for it plus the expansion.

Guess I should sort out the first posts in this thread to reflect what I might actually do since my ambitions have diminished quite a bit. :D

Steam always has at least five major sales per year. Then they have the mini flash sales while the main sales are running. On top of those opportunities, sometimes you can find a game on Amazon, which is the Steam download code version for cheaper than it currently is on Steam.

I use to think gaming was an expensive hobby until Steam. Granted, you need a decent PC, especially for newer games, but I already had that due to my music and video work. And I don't need everything to run on Ultra settings, so a middle of the road graphics card works just fine. I'm running Skyrim on an nVidia GT 520. Which, if I'm honest, is not even a middle of the road card - more like a side of the road card. :D

Christa wrote: "Guess I should sort out the first posts in this thread to reflect what I might actually do since my ambitions have diminished quite a bit. :D

Steam always has at least five major sales per year. T..."
520?! Dang it. I wish I had known that. But still...I wanted the card to run Diablo on ultra. (Spoiled me). I *think* I have a GeForce 6??

MrsJoseph wrote: "520?! Dang it. I wish I had known that. But still...I wanted the card to run Diablo on ultra. (Spoiled me). I *think* I have a GeForce 6?? "

Well, I got the one I could afford at the time without requiring upgrading my PSU. I was just fortunate in that it worked out and I get satisfactory performance with it. When I first got Skyrim, I actually ran it on an OEM GT 420 with 512MB. I figured anything better would be an improvement, so I went with the GT 520 1GB.

Get better there. And stop the gaming. Man, even I, a guy in the tech sector, play less games than you people. Sheesh! :)

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Get better there. And stop the gaming. Man, even I, a guy in the tech sector, play less games than you people. Sheesh! :)"



:-D

We are the mythical "girl gamers" that everyone hears about but no one knows. *evil laughter*

But honestly, you should see the slack jawed looks I get when I go tech and game shopping. Before I broke down and had my new laptop built I hunted the big box stores for a while (you used to be able to get high end in Best Buy). I'd tell the guys I game and give them the specs I was looking for. Each adn every one of them looked like they wanted to check for strings.

MrsJoseph wrote: "We are the mythical "girl gamers" that everyone hears about but no one knows. *evil laughter* "

Haha so true! I guess that's why I hang out on the Bethesda Skyrim and Fallout forums - there are plenty of us girl gamers there, so we get our due respect instead of slack-jawed awe. :D

I wish I could play those games, too. However, they give me a terrible headache and make me nauseous (I suspect because of my eye condition) so I mainly play games as The Sims, lately Tropico and soon the new Simcity.

I also get funny reactions when I order a new computer and hand in a complete list of all the parts I want (I don't mind paying �50 to get it built instead of doing it myself). I'm used to getting those reactions in our electro technical store, in the last year I've become pretty good at building fuseboxes (hooking them up is a different story) and many men don't like being told what they need/how to do things/what they want is unsafe by a woman.

Christa wrote: "Haha so true! I guess that's why I hang out on the Bethesda Skyrim and Fallout forums - there are plenty of us girl gamers there, so we get our due respect instead of slack-jawed awe. :D ."

Hmmm. That's a pretty good idea, actually.

one of my other friends was telling me how she trounced her ex in Warhammer: Dawn of Souls after he'd been dissing her skill.

If you decide to wander over: is the one I usually end up in. It's not as active as the Skyrim General but it's a lot more sane.

My user name is Mahnogard.

Oooh! Got a question: Is it worth it to complete the Companions quest (Silverhand)? How long will it take to undo it if we do it?

I think it is worth it for a few reasons:

Possible spoilers, but you did ask.

While you have the gift / curse, you have 100% disease immunity, including against vampirism.

Once you complete it, culminating in curing Kodlak's spirit, you can either cure yourself immediately after curing him, or you can wait and cure the hawt twins first, and yourself last. (I think you can no longer cure them after you cure yourself.) If you choose to cure them first, it can take a while because they ask you to do it during radiant questing (asking them for jobs).

If you choose to do neither, you can continue asking Aela for work, which will lead to her giving you quests to unlock the totems of Hircine, expanding the functionality of the gift / curse.

Christa wrote: "I think it is worth it for a few reasons:

Possible spoilers, but you did ask.

While you have the gift / curse, you have 100% disease immunity, including against vampirism.

Once you complete it, ..."

Hmmmm. We were only thinking about doing it to be about to complete the prison quest. The problem is that i read *somewhere* that being gifted takes away from some aspect of the game. I want to say it has something to do with your companions but I can't remember.

Speaking of companions - our Lydia died in a dragon fight and they took our mercenary when we joined the Companions (and all the stuff we gave our merc, too! :-< )

Got any recs for a good companion? We just ditched the dark elf/monk we picked up. He died too much and never changed his armor.

The only problem regarding companions is some don't like it if you change in front of them, but I never do that anyway. Every follower has a morality setting. Some are lawful and will report you / attack you for certain crimes, others will not complain about anything you do but won't break laws themselves, others will do illegal things for you (ie, telling them to pick up a stolen item or kill an innocent).

The Permanent Followers section on this page at UESP has all the morality info, along with a million other things about followers. Very useful info there. I live UESP.

The only time the gift / curse is not in your control is during the quest for the guy in the Falkreath jail. Outside of that quest, you only change when you want to. If you're concerned about the Daedric connection, if you cure yourself Hircine no longer has a claim on your soul. Of course, one may argue that only Akatosh has any claim on the Dragonborn's soul, so the Daedric Princes can go rot - nothing they do or get you to agree to can change that.

"They took our mercenary..." Huh? Do you mean when you were forced to go on the quest with one of the hawt twins? Yeah, there's another part of the questline when they force the other twin on you, too. But your merc should be back where you first hired him / her so you can hire them again. They probably still have all the stuff you gave them in their inventory.

As for followers, I like Jenassa, a hireable merc who hangs out in the Drunken Huntsman. She's one of the few that can actually sneak worth a damn. And she dual-wields like a maniac. Truly effective, and even better if you give her better weapons.

If you want a mage, Marcurio is available for hire at the Bee & Barb in Riften.

And of course, once you complete the Companions questline, seven of them are available as followers for no charge. The link I put above has their stats. Aela and the hawt twins are the only three that will level up to 50, though, so that's something to consider later on. The others only go to 30. Hired mercs go to 40, housecarls to 50.

Christa wrote: ""They took our mercenary..." Huh? Do you mean when you were forced to go on the quest with one of the hawt twins? Yeah, there's another part of the questline when they force the other twin on you, too. But your merc should be back where you first hired him / her so you can hire them again. They probably still have all the stuff you gave them in their inventory."

Yep. But oooh good! We'll go get him tonight! At least until we find someone we like as much as Lydia. *sniff* I miss her.

Also,why don't housecarls go to 100? Dark Brotherhood only? Have you used one?

And settle an argument: I say that you can only have one follower for the most part. Meaning we can't have a housecarl and a merc. But...hubby thinks that we can marry someone for the boost there and still have a follower/merc/housecarl. Who's right?

You can marry someone, but you can't use them as a follower at the same time as someone else. So you are correct - you can only have one follower of any type adventuring with you at a time. The one exception is critters - you can have one regular follower and one critter (like Meeko the dog, for example, others are listed at the bottom of that page I linked).

I've never used the Dark Brotherhood initiates, usually because my characters that do the DB questline are pretty much done by the time they are available. (Few of my characters are assassins.)

There is a reason for the level limits, sort of. If you play a true class, your soft cap is level 50 - that is where you end up if you max out only skill classes. The true level cap for you is 81, which requires maxing ALL skills to 100. Since followers level with you, there wouldn't be much point in higher caps for followers. Which is why I think it was an oversight (or laziness) that BD Initiates can level that high.

But while having the caps makes sense, how they are decided for followers don't. If a follower has five skill specialties, they should be able to reach a higher level than one with only four.

So while attempting to make my "challenge posts" in this thread into something sensible, I realized that all but one of my books so far this year are from series. (And the one that's not was a short story.) I used to so rarely read series.

Not complaining, just found it interesting. :)

I fizzled out two books into the three-book Shift Omnibus. I will read the third one, but I've just had a little too much post-apoc futility in my reading diet for now. So I split the listings up into the separate books. (Sorry Caleb, that also deleted your comments on my shelving, which I forgot about until after I did it.) Of course, this means I get to count three books instead of one. :D

Being Valentine's day, I started craving a romance read so I'll probably switch to that genre for a while. And I have a billion to choose from. Decisions, decisions...

I read a book! :-D

Scandal

It's a super cheesy so sweet historical romance. I enjoyed it SO MUCH. TOtally reading it again right now.

THe only sad part? No interest in anything else.

Maybe when I'm off all of this medication.

Congrats on reading a book! :D And yes, medication can do awful things to your interest level in just about everything. Being sick puts a drain on it anyway, but meds just make it worse. Been there. But all the wonderful books will still be there when you're ready for them.

Scandal sounds good - I wishlisted it. Instead of romance, I read The Gingerbread Dungeon. Guess I decided to skip the cuddles and go straight for the action. :D

Now I'm about to start The 12 Hot Days of Christmas. I think I'm heading into a genre cycle. Read post-apoc till I needed something different, now erotica, next...? Who knows. BUT it is a very effective way of whittling the TBR down in a somewhat organized manner.

Ditto what Christa said about meds and interests.

I'm reading Third Shift - Pact concurrently with Fang Bangers. That's not a very positive endorsement for Hugh Howey. I don't multi-read, so the fact that I'm doing just that means it's close to losing me completely. As much as I hate to say it, the series is no longer holding my interest.

Though I'm not very far in, I can already see the tie to the first books, but at this point it feels like "same shit, different silo". Plus, having Silo 1 dealing with a problem with Silo 18 interspersed with what had happened to Silo 17 initially confused the hell outta me until the numbers all clicked.

I had thought breaking up these three Shift books would keep this from happening, but it didn't.

Christa wrote: "I'm reading Third Shift - Pact concurrently with Fang Bangers. That's not a very positive endorsement for Hugh Howey. I don't multi-read, so the fact that I'm doing just that means it's close to lo..."

O_o

So, I just received my library card number from Free Library of Philadelphia. Now I'm "BOOKSBOOKSBOOKSBOOKS!!!!!" like a kid in a candy store.

Yes, I have a local library that I could use for free. But they have had multiple issues resulting in my card being deactivated for non-use even though I use it on Overdrive. There's some problem with overdrive activity not registering properly or something. They said it wouldn't happen again, but it did.

I should note that when this happens, it's not a matter of my card just not working - it actually disappears from the system completely. So if I try to log in, it tells me my card doesn't exist. And they have a phone number that no one ever answers, and has no voice mail.

I just got so tired of it that I decided to pay FLoP $35 because they actually understand how "online only" users work.

Christa wrote: "So, I just received my library card number from Free Library of Philadelphia. Now I'm "BOOKSBOOKSBOOKSBOOKS!!!!!" like a kid in a candy store.

Yes, I have a local library that I could use for free..."

Yyaa!

I didn't renew this year. My library has an overdrive and a state wide selection. I use it instead of actually going to the library. Even with DTBs. I just go and pick up (they;ve already pulled the book from the stacks) and then self-checkout.

I used to use the "reserve and pickup" feature of our county system back when I still borrowed DTBs. I lived in one part of town but worked in another, so I just reserved the books I wanted, waited for the notice to come in my email, and picked them up after work at that branch. Awesomely convenient.

I was happily using Overdrive on my system until they started "losing" me. Totally worth the $35 a year to not have to keep straightening that out.

I've read 15 DTBs and 2 eBooks this year. Twelve of those DTBs were from the library. I love my library. I've only bought a few DTBs this year -- one that wasn't available as an eBook or through my library.

Finally finished . The oppressive world of the silos is not the place to be when going through rough stuff in real life.

Now, when I should be digging into my endless pile of books, I'm at FLoP looking for books to borrow. *sigh*

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I've read 15 DTBs and 2 eBooks this year. Twelve of those DTBs were from the library. I love my library. I've only bought a few DTBs this year -- one that wasn't available as an eBook or through my..."

I love libraries... :-D

Yep, I love them. I need to ask the librarian about where my books are coming from. Quite a few of them have been in the Last Chance Fiction section of the provincial library here. I wonder if that is where books go before they are removed from the library's collection.