Various topics
Jul. 24th, 2005 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wiseheartThis will be a long entry, full of boring domestic stuff and whining, so I put everything but the topic lines behind a tag, so that people don't get frightened out of their minds. I feel the need to clear my thoughts about various things, and writing them down helps.
For starters, I'm back from Vienna.
It has been a lovely two and a half days, even though living in such close quarters (=read: in the same room) with my Mum would drive me crazy on the long haul. It seems that woman never sleeps - or, at least, manages to awake every time I turn onto my other side. It was beyond frustrating. Major privacy issues here...
Vienna was beautiuful as always, and we had nice weather: not too hot, but sunny and pleasant. And we finally managed to find the Vienna Museum that had been right in front of our noses every time in the past when we tried - unsuccessfully - to find it, just obscured by a small park. Anyway, it's a small and interesting one, showing the history of Vienna from the Iron Ages to the present day, although there are regretfully little founds from before the Romans. Most of older stuff is stored in the Museum of Natural History, and the expositions over there aren't very... visual.
Here, in the Vienna Museum, we saw an interesting temporary exposition called "Eating and Drinking in the Middle Ages", which was great. I'm interested in that stuff to begin with, and it's very useful for my Tolkienfic, too. You could touch the grains and sniff the spices they used back in the 15th century and such stuff. I even bought a book with the CD about the exposition (€ 21,50, ouch that hurt!), I hope it'll prove interesting.
What made me a little sad, however, is the fact that Vienna, once a treasure chamber for all things sci-fi, horror and fantasy, barely offers anything in those genres anymore. The shops I'd bought my books and videos for years, are either closed or full of that stupid anime crap. Sorry, anime fans, I grant you to get your own stuff, but not to my expense. Selfish, I know. But it's a sad thing that nowadays it's easier to get some stuff in Hugnary - and the chance is slim as it is - than in Vienna where I hoped to find what I need.
I don't know why it seems impossible to get any Star Trek or Andromeda novels. Not even the English bookshops have them. Everything is full with that Star Wars shit, which I hate, but no Trek, nowhere. And even the magazines that used to bring sci-fi stuff turned to those stupid present-time shows like ER (yes, I hate ER, so shoot me!). The only thing I could find was the Space View magazine that only appears four times a year. I was lucky to catch the latest issue.
Other than that, we managed to catch a sale and bought some nice cotton underwear, discovered a café directly in front of the house where we stayed, with the most adorable hottie Italian waiter I've ever seen. He looked like the Italian version of Blair Sandburg, just prettier. Yes, I own my shallowness, so what? That's all the action I get at my advanced age. *g*
Sad news: Jimmy Doohan is dead.
He died in his home at the age of 85. He had a long and full life, so I guess he could have done worse, but he still will be missed. For me, Star Trek will always meen the Original Series, first and foremost. I loved those characters (well, aside from that arrogant prick Kirk), and now two of them are gone, forever. DeForest Kelley has been dead for years, and now Jimmy has beamed up to him, too. I hope they're having fun together.
The new London bomb attacks.
There is little that I can say to those. Only this: although I deeply despise what the old European countries have done to their colonies (including the Monarchy, even though my people were the oppressed party in it, but our nobility wasn't innocent either), I find it absolutely inexcusable and disgustingly cowardly to attack the civilian population for anything the government or the military did. Nothing justifies terrorist attacks against innocent civilians. Nothing.
You might call your deity God, Allah, Jahweh, "The Power Behind Creation" or "The Cosmic Order of Things", it's still the same deity... entity... power... whatever. And I for my part can't imagine a power that launched creation to want from its followers to kill and destroy any part of that same creation. People who say they're doing this to please their deity, are either stupid fanatics or lying. No exceptions. On neither side.
I remembere the Original Trek novel The Disinherited, where the warrior caste of an insectoid society, no longer having a purpose on their peaceful planet, sold their skills to the highest bidder, raiding defenceless colonies for other parties. The other bugs had a remarkable attitude. When Starfleet finally stopped the mercenaries, one of the bug leaders said something like this:
"The innocent are the innocent, no matter to what race their belong. If the innocent are hurt by our own people, then our people have to be stopped."
I think it's a remarkable statement. One of the most profound Star Trek messages ever. The other one being the Prime Directive, of course.
I discovered a new fandom for me: Queer As Folk, the US version.
As if I needed another fandom, eh? Anyway, the series has been running on Hungarian TV at impossible hours for quite some time - I guess they've just started the 2nd season. They gave it an idiotic Hungarian title, so it took me weeks to recognize which series it is to begin with. But I like it. There is something incerdibly erotic seeing all those handsome men going at it with each other. PLus, the stories do have a real plot, not just getting the guys to bed with each other. I might add a few characters to my massive vampire crossover one day. But not just yet.
The Lórien Soap Opera.
We restart the Soap on August 1, over at Otherworlds. Got two people to play Gandalf and Gimli. Still desperately need someone to play Steve the Elf, though.
Memory Alpha.
The group is dead, right now. People sign up and promptly fall into hibernation. Must be some sort of curse I carry with me from one fandom to another. Ah, well.
So, that was the trip to Vienna and the few days before in a nutshell. I'm seeing things more clearly now.
For starters, I'm back from Vienna.
It has been a lovely two and a half days, even though living in such close quarters (=read: in the same room) with my Mum would drive me crazy on the long haul. It seems that woman never sleeps - or, at least, manages to awake every time I turn onto my other side. It was beyond frustrating. Major privacy issues here...
Vienna was beautiuful as always, and we had nice weather: not too hot, but sunny and pleasant. And we finally managed to find the Vienna Museum that had been right in front of our noses every time in the past when we tried - unsuccessfully - to find it, just obscured by a small park. Anyway, it's a small and interesting one, showing the history of Vienna from the Iron Ages to the present day, although there are regretfully little founds from before the Romans. Most of older stuff is stored in the Museum of Natural History, and the expositions over there aren't very... visual.
Here, in the Vienna Museum, we saw an interesting temporary exposition called "Eating and Drinking in the Middle Ages", which was great. I'm interested in that stuff to begin with, and it's very useful for my Tolkienfic, too. You could touch the grains and sniff the spices they used back in the 15th century and such stuff. I even bought a book with the CD about the exposition (€ 21,50, ouch that hurt!), I hope it'll prove interesting.
What made me a little sad, however, is the fact that Vienna, once a treasure chamber for all things sci-fi, horror and fantasy, barely offers anything in those genres anymore. The shops I'd bought my books and videos for years, are either closed or full of that stupid anime crap. Sorry, anime fans, I grant you to get your own stuff, but not to my expense. Selfish, I know. But it's a sad thing that nowadays it's easier to get some stuff in Hugnary - and the chance is slim as it is - than in Vienna where I hoped to find what I need.
I don't know why it seems impossible to get any Star Trek or Andromeda novels. Not even the English bookshops have them. Everything is full with that Star Wars shit, which I hate, but no Trek, nowhere. And even the magazines that used to bring sci-fi stuff turned to those stupid present-time shows like ER (yes, I hate ER, so shoot me!). The only thing I could find was the Space View magazine that only appears four times a year. I was lucky to catch the latest issue.
Other than that, we managed to catch a sale and bought some nice cotton underwear, discovered a café directly in front of the house where we stayed, with the most adorable hottie Italian waiter I've ever seen. He looked like the Italian version of Blair Sandburg, just prettier. Yes, I own my shallowness, so what? That's all the action I get at my advanced age. *g*
Sad news: Jimmy Doohan is dead.
He died in his home at the age of 85. He had a long and full life, so I guess he could have done worse, but he still will be missed. For me, Star Trek will always meen the Original Series, first and foremost. I loved those characters (well, aside from that arrogant prick Kirk), and now two of them are gone, forever. DeForest Kelley has been dead for years, and now Jimmy has beamed up to him, too. I hope they're having fun together.
The new London bomb attacks.
There is little that I can say to those. Only this: although I deeply despise what the old European countries have done to their colonies (including the Monarchy, even though my people were the oppressed party in it, but our nobility wasn't innocent either), I find it absolutely inexcusable and disgustingly cowardly to attack the civilian population for anything the government or the military did. Nothing justifies terrorist attacks against innocent civilians. Nothing.
You might call your deity God, Allah, Jahweh, "The Power Behind Creation" or "The Cosmic Order of Things", it's still the same deity... entity... power... whatever. And I for my part can't imagine a power that launched creation to want from its followers to kill and destroy any part of that same creation. People who say they're doing this to please their deity, are either stupid fanatics or lying. No exceptions. On neither side.
I remembere the Original Trek novel The Disinherited, where the warrior caste of an insectoid society, no longer having a purpose on their peaceful planet, sold their skills to the highest bidder, raiding defenceless colonies for other parties. The other bugs had a remarkable attitude. When Starfleet finally stopped the mercenaries, one of the bug leaders said something like this:
"The innocent are the innocent, no matter to what race their belong. If the innocent are hurt by our own people, then our people have to be stopped."
I think it's a remarkable statement. One of the most profound Star Trek messages ever. The other one being the Prime Directive, of course.
I discovered a new fandom for me: Queer As Folk, the US version.
As if I needed another fandom, eh? Anyway, the series has been running on Hungarian TV at impossible hours for quite some time - I guess they've just started the 2nd season. They gave it an idiotic Hungarian title, so it took me weeks to recognize which series it is to begin with. But I like it. There is something incerdibly erotic seeing all those handsome men going at it with each other. PLus, the stories do have a real plot, not just getting the guys to bed with each other. I might add a few characters to my massive vampire crossover one day. But not just yet.
The Lórien Soap Opera.
We restart the Soap on August 1, over at Otherworlds. Got two people to play Gandalf and Gimli. Still desperately need someone to play Steve the Elf, though.
Memory Alpha.
The group is dead, right now. People sign up and promptly fall into hibernation. Must be some sort of curse I carry with me from one fandom to another. Ah, well.
So, that was the trip to Vienna and the few days before in a nutshell. I'm seeing things more clearly now.
