Let's party again!

[wiseheart]

Well, folks, it's *that* time of the year again: I'll be 53 next Friday. So, it's time for the annual game of "let's the threads collapse". Come in, make yourselves comfortable, have a good time and bring your friends. Last years we had some 400+ comments, now we're in for the new record. ;)

This entry will be bounced up each day until October 9, so that all those who want can participate.

Update: On October 4, we had 195 comments on 2 pages. Well done. We still have got 5 more days, so let's see what we can do in that time. I have to say, the conversations in the individual threads were absolutely delightful. *is happy*

Update #2: On October 6, we had 270 comments - sadly, still on only 2 pages. Only 3 more day left to reach the ultimate goal, which would be 444 comments on 4 pages. But the discussions are great, so at the very least, we have the quality, if not the quantity yet. And that's more important, I'd say.

Update #3: On October 8, we had 388 comments, on 3 pages! Yay! I'm not very optimistic about Page 4, but I think the 444 comments might come together by the end of the day itself.

Pre-birthday gifts:
Got a wonderful bakery book from Mum, titled "Muffins and..." well, I seriously doubt that the English language has a word for the rest. Germans might know what Pogatschen are. They are small, salty or cheesy cookies, made usually of yeast dough... a Hungarian speciality. We already have quite a few recepies, but there are some in that book I never heard of. It will be a delight to try them out.

Also, I got the box-set of 2nd Season Torchwood from the most generous the_wild_iris! Thanks, my friend, you really, really made my day after two rather stressful weeks. I can finally watch the only episode I missed while we were in Belgium - the one in which Owen becomes a zombie. Heh!

Pre-birthday preparations:
I baked some strawberry flavoured muffins tonigh - not from the new book, from the carton box, I'm afraid, but for the colleagues they will do tomorrow.

Mum's bravely going down to the hairdresser's tomorrow, because, as she told me, "I can't look like this on your birthday!" Well, after not seeing a hairdresser for months, there's some truth in it.

The day after tomorrow, we're going to the "Blind Crow" for lunch. Unlike in English-speaking countries, lunch is actually the main meal of the day over here, so it will be great. The "Blind Crow" is a very nice little restaurant, and we can reach it on foot, which is the main issue, as Mum can't climb into any busses yet.


Final update:
Well, folks, the party will still be going on until midnight, CET, but I'm already declaring it a great success. We've made it onto Page 4, we've broken through the 500 (!!!)-comment-barrier, and I'm very happy.

Thanks everyone for participating, especially altariel, rcfinch, solanpolarn, the_wild_iris, theromangeneral and lhun_dweller, who've been working diligently and tirelessly to help me break the record. Should I've forgotten anyone, I humbly apologize.

Comments

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I am afraid I only really read fanfic and I don't even do much of that these days. Not quite sure what manages to take up my time, but it disappears somewhere none-the-less! Well, I do know what I have done with my time today: watched five episodes of DS9, but up until a month ago I hadn't watched any DS9 in well over a year, probably two, despite having a DVD box set and a half unwatched at home!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oh, time does have this strange way to disappear!
I envy you for DS9 DVDs. I've bought the whole series during many, many visits to Vienna (you don't get anything like that here) on video, and I watch them occasionally, but not too often. Video bands aren't half as lasting as DVDs, so I'm trying to save them for as long as I can.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

DVDs are wonderful and my Star Trek DVDs are the pride of my collection. I have all of TNG on DVD and the first six seasons of DS9, as well as the first season of Voyager. They were quite expensive when they first came out, so I would only allow myself to buy a new box set when I had finished watching the last one, which lead to some frantic times with some of the season ending cliff-hangers! There was also the fact that I started buying while they were still releasing the DVD box sets for the first time. This is something I have an issue with, because now they have released 'slim line' box sets, it is very difficult to find the later seasons of DS9 in the original hard box packing. I really like the design of these DS9 boxes and since I had the first few in that design I want the rest in it as well to complete the collection. When I realised just how difficult it is to get hold of the last three seasons in this packing I allowed myself to try and buy them before I had finished the previous box set, which is how I had a season and a half of unwatched DS9 DVDs before this week-end. (Now I only have five episodes left of the fifth season.) I need to start hunting for a hard box set of the seventh season...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

My main problem is, you never get the good stuff here in Hungary. I'm trying to get my greedy little hands on DVDs of my interest whenever I visit Vienna, but that happens only twice a year, and their offer isn't very broad-scale, either. Now, with Mum's recent illness, I won't even be able to do that.

I bought all four Star Trek series (I don't consider "Enterprise" part of the Trek canon, due to all the canon rape Bermaga committed) on video, because at that time, I couldn't afford a DVD player. That is, there weren't even any when I bought the original series, and it took me some four years or so. Anyway, I now have two (admittedly small) rooms filled with Trek videos, and if you have such a small flat as we have, DVDs would be so much more practical. Not to mention of higher resolution and longer lasting. But I can't afford replacing my videos. They've cost me a fortune, at that time. Perhaps I'll be able to have them copied onto DVDs eventually.

The same with Babylon 5. I'm still missing 4 episodes of Season 5, and since they don't even make videos any more, I'll probably never have them now.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Oh I never saw any Star Trek DVDs in a shop until I moved to England. All of my box sets have been bought on-line. I wouldn't like to think how much space my Star Trek collection would take up if it was on video; I have trouble enough finding room as it is and I haven't got any of the original series yet!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Where did you live before moving to Englad?

I moved around a lot, myself. It's and interesting experience, even though not always a voluntary one. *insert wry grin*

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I was born in Sweden and that is where I lived until four years ago. I grew up on a dairy farm in the middle of nowhere; my three siblings and I made up as much as a quarter of our school (years one through six -- seven to twelve year olds) at times. I moved south to go to university in Uppsala and I spent eleven years there before taking up a job as post-doctoral researcher at the University of Warwick in the Midlands of England. At the end of August this year I moved to London and started a new post-doctoral research position at Imperial college. Part of me is excited about the new job prospect and living in London, but if I could have stayed at Warwick I would have. It is hard work moving, both the actual finding somewhere new to live and getting settled in, fixing new electricity and gas providers, getting a new phone line, changing your address, not to mention moving your things. More than that though it is hard (trying to) starting a new social life and I was lucky enough to have a good circle of friends at Warwick. I miss them, but they aren't that far away and there is always email and phones and things. Where have you been living?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I was born in Transylvania, and spent the first 9 years of my life in a small town where my grandparents were deported after World War II because Grandpa happened to be of German origins.

Then we moved to Hungary, where I still live. However, from 1985 to 1988 I lived in Germany and in the Netherlands, respectively, as a nun. No kidding! I actually meant it at that time.

I returned to Hungary in 1988 and have been living here since then.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I was in Timişoara this summer for a friend's wedding! It was my first time in Eastern Europe, proper, though I did visit the former East-Germany in 1996 as part of my university German course. We did have some time for sight-seeing and walked around town a fair bit, which I really enjoyed, as well as visiting a museum of the revolution which was very interesting. I only watched it happening on television, but it still brought back a lot of memories!

I am afraid I know very little about Hungary, past the fact that there was an 'uprising' in 1956 which was brutally beaten down and that it was part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire in the 19th century. How is life in Hungary today?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I almost preferred socialism. We couldn't buy so much stuff we don't need in the shops, and people with different political opinions could get in trouble if they were too loud about it, which didn't really bother me, as I hadn't been a political animal back then. But people had jobs, and if you knew the rules and how to bend them a little without asking for trouble, you had a safe and reasonably confortable life.

Plus, back then we only had to feed the drones of *one* party. Now we have half a dozen parties, which is a much more expensive business, and they're basically all the same. I still go voting, but no longer on the principle whom I'd really like to see in the government. I'm just trying to prevent those I *don't* want from coming to power.

Which is a sad thing, if you think about it.

And no, I don't live all that much better now than I used to live at the age of 19 or 23. A little better, perhaps, but not considerably. And now I have to fear for my job all the time and put up a brave face to every shit that happens, because if I lost it, no-one would take me at my current age. Considering that I'm only supposed to retire in another eleven years or so, it's *not* a happy perspective.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Your comment reminds me of the lyrics to the Kris Kristofferson song Me and Bobby McGee: "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to loose. Nothing ain't worth nothing, but it's free." I think I would have found the socialist system very stifling, because I tend to be awkward about pretty much everything and I have trouble keeping it hidden; not that I ever tried very hard! I am sorry, though not surprised, to hear you are not finding life much better these days and I can certainly appreciate your point about feeding the minions of a multitude of political parties being more expensive and not giving you a lot of added value.

Judging from my own experience of Sweden the social benefit system in my early youth was much more generous than it is today; I think perhaps you had the same problem we had of it being in some sense too generous, in that more money was going out than was coming in and that was just not workable in the long run. I fear we will end up at the opposite end of the spectrum where the social benefit system is far too ungenerous, which actually isn't sound economic policy either. Hopefully, though we will stop in the middle somewhere where we help people who need it, in a way we can afford to keep up. Not holding my breath for that one though!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

The problem is: earlier on, some of the mony that got out benefitted the people. Today, the waste is the same, but everything goes into the pockets of firm bosses and politicians.

If you ask me, we were better off with the previous version.