Return of the Dragons

I’m am mildly ashamed to look at how long it has been since I’ve posted on here, but this blog has not been alone in the neglect. It all started about the time I had to knuckle down and really get into the meat of my dissertation. It took a lot of my time and effort, and there’s been things since then that have just piled up, and I was really bad about picking up all the pieces that I’d left strewn behind me in the wake. I didn’t go to taekwondo for six months, I failed NaNoWriMo for the first time ever, and my eating habits spiralled in a slightly uncontrollable fashion. But that’s the good thing about life – you can always come back and pick things up. So new(ish) year and I’m really making an effort to do things.

First big and good news is that I got a new job. I started that in October and I’m now pretty settled in it. I’m an Information Analyst for the NHS now (a mental health trust) so I get to look at figures and numbers to do with mental health services and provide information to people so that we can show we’re meeting our targets and improve the service. I love it, it’s data and number crunching and SQL and excel all the time. I do miss the library, I like books and information and the people there were great, although weirdly the biggest thing I miss is how much I moved around – I’m very sedentary in this job, and I have to drive to and from work, so no more walking, and I do notice the lack of it (I try to walk during lunch time). But the job is overall more satisfying and much more my pace of working, so it’s a huge step up.

Since started my master’s degree I’ve not done much, if any reading for pleasure, so something I aim to do this year is pick up a book or three again. Not signing up to any challenges or anything, just realising the I enjoy reading and encouraging myself to take it up again. The new job is full time so I find I have less time to do, well, everything else really, so I’m really working on doing what I want to do and cutting out the other stuff that I don’t want to do. It’s sort of like refocusing. Writing comes in here as well – as mentioned above, I failed NaNoWriMo for the first time since I started, oh, what, seven years ago? And you know what? I’m rather okay with it. I decided that with everything that was going on (new job, anxious about results, some mental health stuff, other bits and pieces) I could push to try and get it done, but then I’d probably hate the story at the end of it, and liking what I’m writing was more important to me than completing the challenge. It was a good realisation and I’m still okay with that decision and I look forward to getting back into that story. Again, I’m not going to push this immensely, but I will remind myself to open up a file and put some words on the screen, because I am looking forward to getting back to writing that book I didn’t – Quiet Poison, it’s very fun to write about assassins and underground stuff.

One thing I am looking to do more of is play video games. I’ve had Ori and the Blind Forest sitting on my computer for ages, and I’ve just picked up a recent release called Rime for my switch which looks right up my street. I’ve also got Persona 4 to finish off so I can finally move onto 5 (but nothing will ever match the feels I had for 3 (playing as the girl, it’s much better)). I do like playing video games and I feel that I don’t do enough of it. I get distracted. And as I said above, working full time cuts down on my spare time, as I still have all the house and other chores to do.

Oh! Speaking of house – me and my partner are going to try and buy our first house this year! If we can get the right mortgage lender, we’ve not had the best luck so far finding one, but we will! Eventually!

In more good news last weekend I went to the first LARP player event (smaller than the main events, often run by players rather than the main crew) that I have ever enjoyed, and considering it was my third, I was almost put off them forever. I’m grateful to my friends for pulling me along to it, because I did have a wonderful time, and I’m actually looking forward to trying to go back next year. I got to heal the people from the fighting tournament, enter some contests, coming third in the crafting one, talk to people, and had a delicious nap on a huge pile of bean bags. It was a very fun and relaxed day and just what I needed to get me excited about LARP again.

What have I missed. Life. Writing. Gaming…of course. Dragons.

You know I mentioned that I won third prize in the crafting competition? I did it with this beautiful cuddly thing – my wood dragon. I’m super proud of him, even though he took forever to make (entirely hand sewn. Worth it, but sooooo much time). And guess what? People have already asked me if I take commissions – pretty damn high praise in my opinion ^_^

Dragon Interim

As you might have guessed by the lack of activity on here, things are being a bit hectic in real life. I’ve handed in my dissertation proposal and had the marks back (68%, woot!) so now I’m moving onto the actual dissertation itself, and I still have two other bits of coursework due in at the end of the month that I’m working on. That alongside work and the social/gaming events that keep me sane is keeping me busy. Also less sane then I would like, but that’s stress for you.

I did, however, find a very cute picture that I wanted to share. Credit to Fiona Hsieh, whose deviant art account you should definitely check out since it has Pokemon on there as well.

I have a vague idea to go around my flat and photograph all the dragons I find at some point in the nearish future. So if I ever get so stressed I need a break, lots of photos might suddenly appear here. Or I’ll finish Zelda. So close to killing Ganon, so very close.

Unusual Dragon Hoards

It’s a Monday morning, and in an effort to make myself smile, I went and discovered (well, re-discovered) a whole bunch of picture that never fail to make me smile. Artist IguanaMouth has a whole section of their Tumblr devoted to unusual dragon hoards, and here are a couple of my favourites, in an effort to spread the smiles around on a Monday morning.

Absolutely go and check out the Tumblr page, because there are many, many more. And all of them are great.

These also might be inspiration if I ever get to play in a Beast game. You can totally play a dragon with a hoard in there, and I would love to have an unusual hoard. I even have the start of some of these hoards!

Hibernation

If I was a dragon, I would very much hibernate. Although I might do it in the summer to avoid the heat. Or just for a hundred years, because sleeping is the best thing to do any time of year.

The Sleeping Dragon by shimhaq98

You probably know what hibernation is – a long sleep over the winter months to help animals get through the period when there isn’t much food available. You basically slow everything down (breathing, heart rate, temperature) so you don’t really need much to survive, just the leftovers from the stuff you ate all summer long.

Do dragon hibernate? Yes, but they tend to do it on the scales of years or decades, rather than just the winter months. Do they do it for similar reasons? Yes and no. Yes, it can be useful when there isn’t much food about, hibernating doesn’t require a lot of energy, so if there isn’t a handy village full of sheep/cows/people nearby, and the adventurers have stopped coming into your lair to defeat you/steal your gold, then sleeping until the human and cattle populations have built themselves up again isn’t a bad choice by any means.

However, it is not the only reason for dragons to hibernate. They are also said to have pretty good healing when they slip into hibernation. It’s not regeneration, so if they’ve lost a limb, then it stays lost, but rents in scales and other such injuries can be healed with a hibernation. Also good for if you need to get rid of some scales and grow some new ones because they’ve gotten old or tarnished. A dragon doesn’t really want to be out and about when there’s a gap in their armour.

An interesting point that has been theorised is connected into the hoards of gold that some dragons collect. If a dragon breaths on the gold, not enough to melt it but enough to heat it, then the dragon has a very good blanket in which to sleep in or on for the hibernation, with occasional top-ups of heat required. This part is thought to depend on the species of dragon, as some dragons do not like heat (frost dragons) and may instead bury themselves in snow to pass their hibernation in.

Mostly I am just slightly jealous, since I love sleeping, and doing it for a number of months/years sounds like a dream. That, and the weather is just about horrible enough that getting out from the covers each morning is a draining experience. I’d much rather be sleeping under a horde of gold. Or blankets, I could very much hoard blankets.

“There He Lay” by Justin & Annie Stegg Gerard

Book Wyrms

The next kickstarter arrived! As followers of this blog will know, I am a big fan of an artist by the name of Jessica Feinburg, and the beautiful book collections she runs through kickstarter. And Book Wyrms has arrived!

As you might be able to tell, I was really excited about this particular project, because I like writing and books and all those surrounding topics and now I have dragons to do with books!

It’s quite a bumper collection, I did splash out a little. The book and cards are there, bookmarks, and prints, but I also got badges and stickers and a ketchain to put on my bag and a larger print of this gorgeous woodland library.

 

Need to find a space on my wall for it, but I love it quite a lot. She’s got another kickstarter live at the moment for another colouring book which I have of course backed. Colouring in is great, especially dragons. That, and her bext project is going to be birthstone dragons, so I’ll have to see what I pick up when that one goes live.

The collection of dragons grows ever larger!

Dragon Oracle

My latest kickstarter arrived! Jessica Feinburg did something a bit different to her usual book and cards, and instead made an Oracle deck out of her artwork!

I of course sprung for some extras, book and clockwork card expansions, and that lovely playmat that you can see beneath all the cards. It’s gorgeous, and I look forward to using it for other card games as well ^_^

As well as the deck of cards, it comes with reading guides (those cards down bottom left) to help you do some readings with the cards. And helpfully, all the cards have their meaning written on the bottom, no need to have to keep referring to a tiny little booklet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, I am very happy with this latest kickstarter, and I plan to do a fair few readings with it. And I’m sure I can use it as a prop in one of the games I play in since I play a Seer, which should be lots of fun.

This is the back of the cards and the design on the playmat – super gorgeous!

Dragons Race to the Edge Season 3

Season 3! Came out very a fortnight ago and it’s great! Admittedly, I don’t know if there’s anything that the series could do to make me think that it isn’t great, but I really enjoyed it. I will say right now there are going to be some spoilers. I’ll try and coat things in generalities, but some stuff will slip out.

So, we start with a twist surprise, and old enemy turning out to actually have a change of heart! And the new enemy, oh my dragons the new enemy is kind of scary, and dangerous, and really, really clever, which is so nice to see. It’s someone that even Hiccup has trouble pitching his wits against! And just when you think he might have figured him out, bam! Turns out the guy was thinking six steps ahead of them the whole time. Just, so very well done that evil genius.

People and dragons from previous series turn up, along with the customary new dragons introduced, although it’s not quite one an episode as it was with other series. Still, the imagination and creation of these new dragons is amazing, and it’s great to see what they come up with next. I quite liked the episode where Gobber meets Grump (the dragon he has in the second movie), it’s very sweet.

Speaking of old people, Heather! I always like seeing her, and the interaction between her and Astrid. Easily the most competent people in the team. Well, Hiccup and Toothless as well. But having the girls be the main combat force? Excellent.

Overall, I really enjoy this next instalment of the series. 13 new episode in total, and there will be a season 6, so I’m just ready and waiting for that. How do I know there’s a season 6? Well, for one, the internet tells me there will be, and two – they end the series on this AMAZING CLIFFHANGER. Seriously, it pains me that I will have to wait dragons know how long to find out how that’s going to resolve itself, let alone all the other stuff from the series.

All in all, I am very happy, and there is yet another dose of dragons in my life.

Almost Dragons

For this week’s dragon post, I thought that although finding some nice pictures of dragons would be excellent, I wanted to write something about dragons, since I haven’t done that properly since my ‘Dragons of the World’ series at the end of last year. So I rummaged around a little bit and came up with today’s topic – almost dragons.

What do I mean by that? It struck me that in a fair few novels, stories and other media that are around, you can have dragons, but you also have creatures, often small ones, that are related to dragons, but not dragons.

Examples: In the Dragonriders of Pern has fire-lizards, arm length miniature dragons (which the dragons are rumoured to be bred from), Natural History of Dragon series by Marie Brennan has sparklings, again, tiny creatures that resemble dragons but often highly debated as being related to them. The Penneykettle dragons from The Last Dragon Chronicles by Chris d’Lacey are different from the dragons of the old tales.

Of course, these are different from pygmy, tiny, nano, or just generally small or juvenile dragons. Dragons come in a large variety of shapes and sizes. For instance, in How To Train Your Dragon book you have nanodragons, which are almost too small to be seen with the naked eye, and in the TV show you have Fireworms, Smothering Smokebreaths, and Terrible Terrors, but despite being small, all of them are regarded as dragons.

So what’s the point of them? I always viewed almost dragons as some sort of bridge, whether narrative, or biologically, or socially. A narrative bridge would be that you meet the almost dragon, and successful interaction with it can lead you to the larger dragons, or there’s some plot device that the almost dragon fulfils that the dragons don’t. I’ve got, well, a couple of ideas for dragons novels in my head, and they do use almost dragons. The ones in my current idea are almost exactly like dragons, except tiny and they don’t have the elemental breath. I’m also hesitant to write a dragon novel, because I love dragons so much and when I do write the novel I want it to be something I’m really proud of. So, that’s mostly in the background right now.

Biologically, there’s a few stories where dragons evolved from almost dragons, or almost dragons have some sort of genetic link to dragons. Dragonriders of Pern is a good example of this without going into too much detail. Social links sort of cross over with the narrative stuff I mentioned above, dragons are usually intelligent, and almost dragons are often less so, but good interactions with them lay ground work for future interactions with both types.

Actually, having said about novel ideas, I do have an idea where there are almost dragons, and the dragons (or dragon, singular, as is actually the case) can change their size, from the almost dragons, up to the size of mountains, so they can blend in with the almost dragons when they need to. Size changing seems like a cool mechanic to explore as well, and allows for greater plot movement, because if you were the size of a mountain, then there’d only be certain times where that’s useful.

Before I ramble on too much, I’ll finish there. But can you think of any other book or shows or movie that employ almost dragons in them? I’m sure I’ve missed some, and I love getting new books recommendations.

Pride Dragons

Given how awful I am feeling today, I’m looking for ways to cheer myself up and put a smile on my face, and I have been exploring the depths of the internet to help with this. (For those of you interested in the why, I am a UK resident, and we just had our EU referendum, which ended up with a 52:48 majority for Leave. As a Remain voter and believer, this is very upsetting and worrying)

One of the things that I have managed to find this morning, is an artist’s tumblr account – Land of Ink and Charcoal, run by Kaenith – where they have drawn a series of ‘Pride Dragons’ – dragons which are themed around different aspects of the gender and sexuality spectrums.

And they are pretty awesome

So there’s Lesbian, Gay, Asexual and Polysexual in there. Just a selection of the ones which have been drawn, all of which are very pretty, and I love the style of the artist.

Here’s a few from the gender identities – Transgender, Agender and Genderfluid. I love how they use the colours and symbols from the flags to shape the dragons as well.

I’m proud to have many friends that identify with many of these labels, and my friends are what make my life such an awesome thing. I will get to remind myself of exactly how awesome they are when we go out for drinks tonight to commiserate what’s happening with the country.

In the meantime, it’s back to the internet to search for uplifting things. One thing I will be hoping to do is outlining new content to include in this blog. I think that i’m going to aim for two posts a week – Dragons on Thursday (or the later half of the week) and Writing on Monday (or the early half of the week), which seems a reasonable rate of posting that I should be able to keep to. As long as I can figure out what to post!

Oh, and I’ll just leave you with my favourite dragon from the collection – the Questioning Dragon 🙂 Find all of the dragons and Kaenith’s tumble account here.

Spirit Dragons

Another Kickstarter had arrived!

As I have featured many times on this blog before, Jessica Feinburg, a supremely talents artist, is doing a series of field guides based around dragons and other rare elemental creatures. Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Clockwork have all come before and proudly sit on my bookshelf. And now, Spirit Dragons joins them!

It’s making the door to my study pretty impressive, as I use the art from the postcards to make a collage:

The one from the spirit dragons is technically a bumper sticker, but it’s so awesome. It says “Don’t make me call the Dragons” ^_^ I love it.

Of course, she’s not stopping here either. Her next book project is going to be Book Wyrms! Literary dragons! I’m so very, very happy. But the project she’s got which is currently live is an Oracle Deck which is not a tarot deck, but is similar, and it features artwork from previous projects on the cards. It looks magnificent, so I have of course placed a pledge for a bunch of stuff from it.

Very much looking forward to seeing the artwork that comes from her next! Book dragons!