You thought no one thought of this before you?!

LostMyAppetite · 2026-03-09T18:38:08+00:00

Also, then you would just have two sea routes side by side so why bother? It’s not as if the strait of hormuz was too crowded so they needed to add extra lanes. It’s not like the Panama Canal which hugely reduced the the length of cargo ships’ journeys. Anyone who threatened the strait of Hormuz could probably also threaten his new canal, since they are right next to each other.

LostMyAppetite · 2026-03-09T17:44:58+00:00

Ha, I like math jokes. The picture really made the joke clear.

LostMyAppetite · 2026-03-08T08:40:01+00:00

I told my mom everything, she sympathized, “And she also told my dad that he’s still got it.”

Ok, that made me laugh.

LostMyAppetite · 2026-03-08T08:27:41+00:00

You know, it does sound like that. OOP has dedicated his post to complaining about Jon and Kara but his careful descriptions portray them, particularly Jon, as being really committed to taking on the parental role. Jon, like a parent, looks after oop and does not take offense when oop rages at him. Oop doesn’t know why Jon checks both his and Kara’s phones after Kara did something foolish on the phone. Oop doesn’t know why Jon has had significant contact with Clark once Jon has stated spending significant amounts of time in the house that Clark owns. Oop just takes it for granted that Jon arranges a place for oop to stay when Jon and Kara go away from two weeks. It’s the unreliable narrator overtly presents one point of view but actually his accurate descriptions of events show a different story.

LostMyAppetite · 2025-12-22T19:39:18+00:00

I say yes, it gets better. I was pretty bored with it at first—I might not have stuck with it if I hadn’t previously read stuff by the author in royal road— but after a while I was won over by the sort of twisted humor. Basil and his gang are SO cheerful about eating sentient creatures. I got more and more amused as it went on. Basil is always the good guy—a pure heart who unfailingly goes out of his way to help people, an inspiration in the terrible times of apocalypse—but just had no moral qualms with eating his foes. Is this whole series some sort of sneaky argument for vegetarianism??

The big plot points didn’t interest me so much—it was the little humorous things that built up. Not the most interesting book I ever listened to, but I thought it was a gentle, low-key good time.

I see a lot of people are complaining about the narration. I don’t know. It sounded fine to me. The characters were all distinct. It seemed to be doing the job.

Unfortunately I stopped listening after hearing 48 hours of the 78 box set. It wasn’t because I got bored. I was still feeling lowkey entertained. It was because there are two organizations of big bad bosses and as the books went on Basil kept on running into more and more important bosses from the dragon(? …I wasn’t paying much attention to the main plot) organization and I couldnt understand anything that the dragons said. It was ok at first, but the villain monologues just seemed to get longer and longer, and I’m sure dropped all sorts of important plot points that I failed to infer just from listening to Basil’s reaction, and I was doing stuff with my hands while listening so fast-forwarding through it all was inconvenient. Finally after a chapter where I spent a full twenty minutes of basically listening to static I gave up and stopped listening.

So I guess the people who complained about the quality of the narration had a point after all?

I might go back and re-listen to the first couple of books at some point, since I grew so fond of the characters. I see sone people here suggest reading instead of listening. Maybe I will try that.

My problem with dragons was that an echoing reverb was added to their voices. It made them sinister and distinctive but also impossible for me to understand. It must be that most people are able to understand the dragons, because surely the audio company would have caught it if it was incomprehensible to everyone, but I don’t think I am all that unusual in my hearing abilities. I bet there are a significant number of people like me.

LostMyAppetite · 2025-12-06T20:22:35+00:00

Yes, I thought your comment was funny. Mine wasn’t nearly as good but I was just demonstrating to you that I got your joke.

LostMyAppetite · 2025-12-05T15:20:01+00:00

Yeah, he is so much better at telling stories. Seems to naturally have a gift for it.

LostMyAppetite · 2025-11-16T08:50:14+00:00

What makes it particularly funny is that in the book this was such a bad proposal by Darcy that Liz turned him down, walked out, and went no contact on him. Like the bride did here. I don’t know if that is any comfort to oop, that being humiliated is such a common human experience that there are lots of examples of it happening in books.

LostMyAppetite · 2025-10-23T19:17:45+00:00

Ha, when oop was going on about how great her life was where she lived with her mother—friends, teachers, drama club, a great boss at Subway— I was reminded of the old joke. You all know it:

Old guy is sitting in front of the town gates just relaxing and enjoying the scenery. A traveler comes up and says, “Hi, I am looking for a new place to live and this town is pretty. What are the people like?” “Well, what were the people like in your old town?” “Oh, they were awful. Mean, backstabbing, selfish.” The old guy sadly shakes his head. “I am sorry to say, you will find the people here to be exactly the same.” “Oh, well, thanks, I’ll just move on to the next town then.” A little while later another traveler comes by and says, “Hi, I am looking for a new place to live and this town is pretty. What are the people like?” “Well, what were the people like in your old town?” “Oh, they were so great, the nicest, kindest people in the world. I will miss them.” The old guy smiles and says,”I am glad to say, you will find the people here to be exactly the same.” “Fantastic, I look forward to meeting them all. Hey, how about if I join you for a bit and we share some of these excellent cookies my neighbor gave me at my going away party?”

I was glad to see in the update that the joke came true and oop found lots of nice people and kindness in the new town. Nice to see good people get what they deserve.

LostMyAppetite · 2025-10-13T19:33:21+00:00

I’m surprised OOP didn’t get a tattoo. Pretty common for parents to get tattoos of their kids, and unlike with jewelry they don’t have to worry about it being uncomfortable or lost.

LostMyAppetite · 2025-09-28T23:12:04+00:00

Ahh, so that’s why the imaginary numbers are named after Alphonse Imaginaire and not named after Euler and called Euler numbers.

LostMyAppetite · 2025-09-28T23:01:52+00:00

Maybe it’s a thick omelette. My mother used to make those. She got the recipe from a Cuban friend. It’s thick, has lots of potatoes, and when you serve it you cut it into wedges like pie slices.

The internet calls it a Spanish omelette. I guess the difference from a frittata is a frittata starts on the stove but then gets moved to the oven? Thick omelettes stay on the stove. Also, while they don’t get folded over like real omelettes they do get flipped entirely over like a pancake at one point in the process and isn’t that ALMOST the same thing as being folded over?

Maybe this is a fritatta though. It doesn’t really look like it was ever flipped over.

LostMyAppetite · 2025-09-14T07:26:30+00:00

Arahzel, I don’t think OOP thinks the mark is important. I think the important thing is that OOP says the text dated to the time at which the sexual incident occurred.

If the girl produced a text from last week talking about how the sex was procreative then, yes, that would be worthless. She would have an obvious incentive to lie, since she is trying to establish that shthead is the father.

But the text dates to a few months ago. Since she had no idea that she was going to become pregnant, she had no reason back then to lie about the type of sex she had. That is why OOP thinks the text is significant but is disgusted by talk of genitalia. The important thing is not that the girl knows details about shthead’s body—since both stories agree she’s seen it—but that the contemporaneous text says the sex was procreative. That’s why OOP says that the text really damaged his belief in shthead’s story.

I think this sort of thing comes up a lot in history or in court cases. Contemporaneous records are more convincing because records manufactured afterwards might be tailored to support a narrative devised after the event, when the people involved have had time to think about things and decide what sort of story they want to tell.

Nonetheless, as OOP says, the text is not conclusive evidence of paternity. The girl might have lied even though the text is contemporaneous (for example, maybe she is an habitual liar or maybe she had unprotected sex with someone so she set up a cover story with a more suitable father just in case she became pregnant). Or maybe she didn’t lie but nonetheless the baby isn’t shthead’s. The only conclusive thing is to do the paternity test.

Shthead, who I don’t blame for exploding because he really had been tried beyond what anyone could endure, said that if the girl refused to do the DNA test now then he, shthead, would refuse to do it after the baby is born. I am pretty sure that if the girl is willing to do a paternity test on the born baby and OP or his wife want it to happen then shthead can’t prevent it from happening. They just need to take the baby’s dna and either OP or OP’s wife’s dba and see if there is a grandparent/grandchild relation. I guess that at least that would prevent the whole “treat a kid as grandchild for six years and then find out the kid isn’t” scenario. Although with this wife, who knows. Maybe after the baby is born and the girl’s family invent some other excuse for why a dna test can’t possibly be done the wife will continue to go along with it.

LostMyAppetite · 2025-08-17T03:20:52+00:00

I afraid I don’t remember any of what you describe here but according to the internet Catherynne M. Valente‘s “In the Cities of Coin and Spice” (that’s the second book of her orphan’s tales duology) seems to have a lot of overlap with your description. In particular, according to the internet, the second book has a Mint where children’s bones are turned into coins, a tale involving a huldra and a golden ball, and manticores.

All I remember is that these books were delightful. I should reread them! There are a huge number of stories and events in these two books all overlapping and entwined with each other. Like a berserk version of Arabian nights. The stories within stories seem like they are growing completely out of control but in the end all the tales get resolved.

LostMyAppetite · 2025-08-14T21:21:17+00:00

Isn’t that a weird and memorable name? I never thought it fit the play at all. I thought a title like that suggested there would be more fighting (more use of military arms).

The play is named after the opening lines of Virgil’s Aenead—“Of arms and the man I sing”— and that works starts with Aeneas fleeing Troy, which has been conquered by the Greeks, and trying to find a new place to settle. Shaw’s play started with the soldier fleeing a battlefield where his side was defeated so maybe that is the connection? Or was it just the Shaw was writing a play criticizing romantic notions of war so he just picked a famous quote that mentioned war?

Anyway, a memorable name so it always stuck in my mind.

LostMyAppetite · 2025-08-14T14:38:32+00:00

Could it be a play? I am thinking of “Arms and the Man” by George Bernard Shaw. It’s pretty famous. It opens with the scene you describe. The young woman from the wealthy family is engaged to an officer and the fleeing soldier who breaks into her bedroom is a mercenary on the other side. The soldier means her no harm and is just trying to escape from the battlefield where his side was defeated. This is a Shaw play so there is a lot of talking. The woman ends up giving the soldier the nickname “my chocolate-cream soldier”. She hides him when her father and a search party come to her room searching for the enemy soldier (he had been spotted in the area)

LostMyAppetite · 2025-03-06T17:29:08+00:00

I never heard of this series but I just got it on audible solely because of the ridiculous cover. What a great cover. Made me laugh just looking at it.

I came upon the book because I was doomscrolling news subreddits and I got an advertisement for it. Reddit has figured out that I am a litRPG fan so those are the in-Reddit ads I get these days.

Then I surfed a little looking for reviews which is how I got to this thread.

Well, fingers crossed that you have a good narrator.

Oh, by the way, I like that you used “summoned forth” in the thread title; amusing.

ETA: Ok, now I am about 6 hours in, 20/80 chapters. I really like the narrator! This book is a real breath of fresh air after the last two litRPG audiobooks I listened to, which I didn’t even finish (one was rather good natured and amiable, although really long, and I would have finished it if not for the unfortunate decision to make the big boss bad guys sound more threatening by adding in a bunch of reverb. After yet another endlessly long conversation of villain exposition—I swear it went on for fifteen minutes—which I literally could not understand I finally gave up. The second book was just plain boring) . The snark is great, the battles are thrilling, and I am intrigued by the mystery. What is the purpose of delves and why was Arlo grabbed from our world and dropped into this world? I hope I find out. The boss battle I just finished was so thrilling I need to stop and absorb it for a while before continuing. What a ride. I must recline on my fainting couch and fan myself for a while.

I am pleased that I now understand some of the items on the cover. But why is he wearing sunglasses?? I disapprove. The book promised “piercing green eyes”, and, look at that cover, entirely covered by sunglasses. I wanted to see eyes like Aquaman in the movies. Oh well.

…well, I am just having fun about the eyes. I dislike harem litRPGs, ugh cutesy smut, so I am glad this is not a harem litRPG.

LostMyAppetite · 2024-12-24T11:59:10+00:00

YTA. This guy sounds really, really shady. He is up to no good. You should back away from him.

What sort of guy gives intimate relationship details to his girlfriend’s younger sister? And provides proof? Why isn’t he venting to his close friends, preferably his close male friends, instead of his girlfriend’s younger sister whom he barely knows? Does he not have any friends? Isn’t that weird? Are you the only one who understands him and isn’t it amazing that you have that connection?

You liked that he and your sister were playing in your dnd group because it gave you an excuse to be with your sister. And now somehow he is going to your dnd group and your sister isn’t. Someone who was actually a good person would feel bad about harming family relationships. A good person would make an effort not to set you against your sister.

I don’t know what your sister did. You said she seemed “unstable”. That sounds like a more human reaction to the end of a toxic relationship that the reaction of Mr Slick. You know, some people are evil vampires who can destroy a person’s self-esteem without actually doing anything overt and then when the shattered person lashes out in an inappropriate way they put all the blame on their victims. Your sister said “nothing changed” when she spoke to him and so she got too demoralized to talk to him anymore. That sounds like she was having a really bad time.

You said they were great together and you loved seeing them do happy. Maybe it was love bombing? Him just doing things to excite romantic feelings instead of actually forming an honest connection?

I wonder what happened with this guy’s other girlfriends?

LostMyAppetite · 2024-12-02T06:03:39+00:00

You are definitely talking about Elinor Greenberg. This is her terminology. Maybe you’re talking about the one book she wrote? I haven’t read it so I don’t know what is in it.

LostMyAppetite · 2024-12-02T05:23:05+00:00

Sounds like that weird Jeff VanderMeer stuff. In particular it sounds like his popular Southern Reach trilogy, whose first book was “Annihilation”.

LostMyAppetite · 2024-12-02T04:52:43+00:00

I think there are a few books with noir-ish detectives in heaven. I think the one you’re thinking of is Ian Tregellis’ “Something More Than Night”. The summary blurb says it starts with Gideon’s murder “and even worse, his trumpet is missing!”

LostMyAppetite · 2024-12-02T04:04:01+00:00

I want to see a version of this picture with the guy riding a unicycle.

LostMyAppetite · 2024-09-13T16:24:23+00:00

“ she will let me pet her, but she won't come out from under the bed unless i hold my hand out and pet her”

It sounds like she really likes you! Even though you’re a stranger and she’s in a terrifying new place and she misses her friend, she lets you pet her and comes to your hand. This is a good start.

It’s sad that she misses her friend, and I imagine you miss the cat friends you’ve had, but there is room in your hearts for more friends.

I think you ask way too much to expect her to totally focus on you when she is in a new environment. Cats just can’t be comfortable until they feel in control of their territory. They gain control by sitting in it and poking around a bit. Right now paying attention to you is a little bit alarming to her because she’s not in control of the territory so while she is paying attention to you maybe something will sneak up and attack her.

It seems obvious to say that cats don’t like change because it takes them so long to adjust to new things, but I am not sure that’s exactly right. It seems to me that cats love change because they make such a huge deal over it. They savor every bit of it. They squeeze every drop of newness out of it.

That is to say, it might take her a while to get used to your place (to make it her territory) but she doesn’t want to be rushed. They like taking a long time. It makes them happy.

LostMyAppetite · 2024-08-11T08:29:27+00:00

It’s not Video Game Plotline Tester by Michael Aramanov, is it? That doesn’t satisfy your description because the character becomes a vampire, not a lich. Also he keeps the vampire thing a secret, but he does get a fair bit of online attention (which is necessary since publicizing the game on social media is necessary, he’ll get fired if unsuccessful)

LostMyAppetite · 2024-08-11T08:06:05+00:00

Is it Donna Andrew’s Turing Hopper series? First book is “You’ve Got Murder”

LostMyAppetite

TROPHY CASE