u/MythicalSplash

Book 1 - The mountains were visible in the distance practically from the start. Though the desert was punishing and the mountains gruelling, there wasn’t all THAT much distance traveled.

Book 2 - The Tet wasn’t even along the path of the Beam in this one; they traveled north the entire time. The entire distance was implied to be maybe one or two hundred miles.

Book 3 - This is when they traveled at least a few hundred miles through the forest and on to Lud, and then - whoops! The train just carried them more than EIGHT THOUSAND fucking miles!

Book 4 - Nearly all flashback. The travel that does occur is mostly along one stretch of highway in another world where the glass palace is visible in the distance from the beginning. MAYBE a few dozen miles away, tops

Book 5 - Other than the beginning few miles through the forest, most of the book takes place with no travel whatsoever as they plot to save the children of Calla Brynn Sturgis

Book 6 - Was there technically ANY actual travel in this one? The majority takes place in Keystone NYC and Maine, but through magic and technological doors rather than walking. Same with the parts that do occur in Mid-World (Fedic)

Book 7 - This one definitely contains the second greatest total walking distance. Still, that only occurs in the second half. The first half is actually mostly BACKTRACKING. Once the Tet is ready to leave Fedic though, other than …a rather significant trip back to Keystone, there’s probably a few hundred miles of distance between Fedic, the Badlands, the castles, Empathica, and the Tower. Even so, Fedic is already described in Song of Susannah as “very close” to the Tower.

Conclusion - nearly the entire quest was absolutely CARRIED by Blaine lol

Although I was born in 1984, I was only 10 when he passed away and so I never knew who he was until I only very recently read his Wikipedia article. I was wondering if those who DID hear of and follow him have to say about him. Was he as famous as his Wikipedia page describes? Was he a great man with few flaws? How relevant was he during his life (before becoming sick and passing away)? Was there really a movement that claimed him to be the Messiah, and did he ever say anything that implied he thought he himself may be him? Stuff like that. Basically if you remember any interesting details about his life, or if he was actually more obscure a figure than described on Wiki? I’m an Ashkenazi Jew, yet I don’t remember really anything about seeing him on the news or anything.

Todah!

I do, and I can’t stop. It’s a serious problem.

Talk about hitting the ground running. Despite being a spinoff that’s very different from what Cheers was, the concept was sound from the beginning, almost immediately hilarious, and it established all the character traits we came to know and love in the later seasons.

As good as it is, it keeps getting better and better up to and possibly including season 7. It’s amazing.

We’re told several times throughout the series that the stars and constellations are very different from the Keystone world and those like it. Drawing refers to “unfamiliar galaxies spinning above” or something close to that. Old Star and Old Mother are mentioned CONSTANTLY. So for almost the entire series, we think that the 99th level of the Tower is just somehow fundamentally different from the others since it appears that the earth is in a completely different place.

But once the Beams start recovering, the BIG DIPPER comes back, what Roland says is a sign that things are finally healing. There are a few other things we see from this, like the Sun being in the proper direction, but this really stayed with me for some reason even though it’s only given a couple of sentences. I’m not even 100% sure why exactly that is, but it was very unexpected and thought provoking for me somehow.

He started off as a surprisingly complex character considering the few times he appeared. He had similar “nerdy” interests like the main group, but he had an attractive subdued sort of confidence that manifested most clearly when he casually asked Penny out without showing any sort of self-consciousness or fear. He was a talented artist and was shown as being a great business owner who was respected by his clientele.

Now fast forward a few years. He changed completely from an interesting character who was well-used as an occasional acquaintance of the group to becoming one of the most obvious Flanderized, one-dimensional characters on television. His entire character revolved around being whiny, chronically depressed and shamelessly mooching off of anyone he could - even though he considered those people his close friends. Then he has the audacity to complain about them seemingly not reciprocating the friendship and not inviting him to social events. Who the hell would want someone like him around?

It feels very much like the writers wrote themselves into a corner with him, making him almost a regular character in the early seasons but then not knowing what to do with him. Ok, fine - that’s understandable, and he should therefore have been gradually used less and eventually become a minor background character. Yet for some reason, the writers actually doubled down, using him more and more frequently while at the same time making him actually MORE one-dimensional and less interesting.

The way the show is written, pretty much every member of the main cast has huge flaws and are horrible to their own friends at some point, yet they remain generally likeable because they have more complex personalities and are funny. All except Stuart. The more of him you get, the more insufferable he becomes.

Just subtle enough for Dark Tower fans to get it and love it, yet variable enough that said hypothetical son could live without being teased over it. Calling himself Will or Bill and so on.

🌹

I know this is a fairly popular method of weight loss, but based on what I know about fasting physiology, it seems like it should be one of the WORST ways to do this. Doesn’t it take a few days or so for your body to use up all glucose and glycogen stores before ketosis really begins in earnest? It seems counterintuitive to eat normally one day, fast for just long enough to deplete stored sugars but not long enough for any significant fat burning to occur, then eat again so that you replenish your glucose at exactly the wrong time.

I know this is a simplified picture of course, and that there still must be some degree of lipopysis occurring on the fasting days in order to provide the necessary calories for bodily functions, but it still seems to be inefficient in theory.

After Roland got it back from Flagg in the Glass Palace? He used it to show his ka-tet the horrible thing that happened long ago, and then they sleepwalk about 30 miles away from the Palace toward the Borderlands, but the ball itself is never mentioned again. Did Roland somehow lose it when he showed them all that vision, or was it lost during their sleepwalking trek? Or did Flagg take it back while they were all unconscious? I suppose if he packed them a lunch and left a note, he could have taken back the Grapefruit as well. Even though nobody seemed surprised that it was gone.

Even with all those mountain ranges and rock formations, I can’t recall ever hearing about even a small cave in the Monashee/Columbia ranges, including the Okanagan Highland and Thompson Plateau ranges that are closest to the city. Is there simply not much limestone in the area?

This was taken in a semi-artificial pond on the valley floor of the Okanagan, BC. I say semi-artificial because the creek that flows into it is natural, and there may have been an enlargement there originally, but the pond was almost certainly expanded and shaped by people very recently.

Anyway, I think these have to be Western Painted Turtles (I’m not sure there is any other kind here), but I’m not 100% sure. 99.99% maybe, but not 💯!

Even the area burned in 2003, which I was here for, still looks mostly empty compared to how it was before. 23 years should be enough time for tree growth of moderate size. Is it just not happening because the climate is too dry now to support even dry forests?

Robin. Furth. RF. Coincidence, or ka? 😆

O’ Concordia!

When I do get to it on a trip to the Tower, I realize how much better it is than I had originally thought. It has some of the best scenes like when Roland and Eddie talk to Tower and Deepneau, and it also reveals a ton of critical world build that I love but still somehow don’t associate it with that book. It’s still definitely not my overall favorite or anything, and it does have issues that would have benefited from King having more time to write it, but it’s always much better than I think it’s going to be.

Was she the Oracle in the Gunslinger, or was she a creature of the Prim living in Fedic and connected to Susannah’s mind? Or both? Susannah guessed she was the Oracle, mixed with her personality, but later in the book I got the impression that she was different from that one.