Weird internet stuff and a book rec

[tardis_stowaway]

Three unrelated items make a post!

1) These pictures from a dog grooming competition, wherein people trim, sculpt, and dye their dogs' fur into elaborate designs, are right on the boundary between hilarious and disturbing.  I have so many questions:  How do they make the dogs stand still for all this?  Who does this to their animal?  Why don't they just take up crafting (with nonliving materials)? How can I cleanse my brain of the image of the dog with the Yoda head and an Ewok on its butt?  Which of these dogs is most likely to murder its owners in their sleep for what they did to it?

2) I just finished reading Cold Magic by Kate Elliott, which I highly recommend.  Firstly, because the worldbuilding is really cool and inventive.  It takes place in 1837 in a world with the bones of our world, but radically different in ways both magical (magic is undeniably real here), physical (the Ice Age never really ended, so sea levels are lower and ice sheets cover northern Europe), and historical (the Roman Empire persisted for centuries longer and seemingly without Christianity ever becoming a big thing, and a disaster drove large numbers of people from the wealthy Mali empire into Europe a few hundred years ago, resulting in fusions of European and African cultures and bloodlines).  The world is so different that I'm not sure whether this book can really be called an alternate history fantasy or if it's more of a high fantasy.  Either way, very cool stuff.  Secondly, it's a rare treat to have fantasy, especially historical fantasy, with a racially diverse cast, and this book has diversity in spades.  Characters of color outnumber the white ones by a fair amount. (Incidentally, the cover of the edition I own whitewashes the protagonist.  WTF, publisher?  Why those blue eyes?)  Thirdly, I found it a very entertaining read.  There were a few sections that were kind of a series of minimally related events happening, but overall I found it gripping.

3) I'm excited about the new season of Game of Thrones coming up soon.  In honor of that, here is a video proving that using Autotune to make characters sing doesn't have to be exclusively the realm of ridiculous "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" sorts of things.  This vid gives me lots of feels, although that is partially because it is a lot of Daenerys and Jon Snow's faces.  I just have a lot of emotions about their faces.  (The vid spoils only S1.)

Comments

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I don't understand those kinds of dog competitions at all, all dog competitions in general are just ego boosters for the owners because the animals don't really give a shit about anything that is happening. It's about the owners, never about the dogs/animals, and it's really sad tbh. The animals deserve better.

GAME OF THRONES TONIGHT! I am pretty excited, not gonna lie. That video was hilarious yet kind of awesome. I've seen similar autotuned remixes combining actual dialogue in other things, too, and it surprisingly works very well.

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed "Cold Magic" and its sequels, though I found her pacing a bit...off. It's more noticeable in the later two books, I think, but certain sections feel very rushed, and made it hard for me to follow the action. But oh my gosh, her world-building is so fantastic, as are her characters.

[twelve-pastels.livejournal.com]

Okay, I've seen dogs all over Asia with their fur dyed to mimic other animals - tigers, leopards, etc. - and I've seen the requisite old lady poodles dyed pink with their claws painted to match, but this is just damn disturbing.