Party time ahead!

[wiseheart]

Well, yes, dear folks, it's this time of the year again. The big, one-week virtual party from today to the 9th of October starts here. Come on in, be welcome, make yourself comfortable, and post a comment. May we have many collapsed threads again!

Last year we had 559 comments on 4 pages, which is an impressive record to break. But I have an excellent apple pie in the oven, and offer a virtual slice to every party guest.

Let's party!

Addition: someone asked for the apple pie recipe. Here it is, behind the cut.


400 gr wheat flour
200 gr butter or margarine
200 gr sugar
1/10 litre sour cream
1 pinch of salt
ground peel of 1/lemon
2 gr baking soda

For the filling:
2 kg apples
sugar,cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla and ground lemon peel as you like

One eggyolk for painting the top.

How to make it?
1) Make a dough from abovementioned ingredients.
2) Cut it in two equal pieces. Roll out one piece, lay it into a baking tin (baking paper under it is helpful).
3) Spread some dried bread crubms all over it.
4) Peel and plane (slice???) the apples, press out the juice with your hands (it shouldn't be too dry, though) and mix them with the spices.
5) Spread the apples over the dough.
6) Roll out the other half of the dough. Cover the apples with it.
7) Paint the top with eggyolk and bake it in a pre-heated oven, on 200°C for twenty minutes.
8) Cut it when it's cooled down.

Sorry, but I had to use the metric system. My brain doesn't work in cups and pounds and that stuff. I hope you can still figure out how much you need from the ingredients.



Addition: I also wish to gift upon my dear party guests a birthday-present, Hobbit-style: Chapter 03 - Puer Natus Est Nobis of my Cadfael fic "Sparrows" has just been posted to hiddenrealms and to FF.Net. Enjoy!

And the end results are: 735 comments on 6 pages! It's more than I could have dreamed of, and I thank you - all of you - who contributed to this record. It will be a hard one to break next year indeed, but I hope you'll be back. :)

Thanks again, I had a fantastic time and met great new people - it was fun!

Comments

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I was suggesting Narns from Babylon 5 where green-tinged in a discussion with a friend a few days ago, being puzzled by him referring to them as the Arabs of B5. After some consideration we decided I probably thought this because G'Kar had been badly beaten in the episode I had seen/was thinking of; I haven't seen that many because I find the series quite depressing with a dystopic view of the future. All of that is to say that perhaps we can have a Narn for "Green", as a bit of an inside joke?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Interesting. People usually fall over in excitement about B5, raving about how much better it's supposed to be than Star Trek. Well, it's an interesting series for sure, but *nothing* is better than Star Trek, not for me. Speaking of pre-Voyager Trek, of course. And don't even let me start about "Enterprise"...

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Anything that isn't proud enough of Star Trek to want to carry then title -- yes Enterprise I mean you! -- doesn't deserve it! I know they did put it in, for later series but that only seemed to be because they thought that would bring the old fans in that they didn't mind offending when they thought they could spiff it up for a new generation spitting on the established canon. I really hated what they did with it, setting the Vulcans up to be stuck-up, non-logical idiots and basically changing all of the established history even before we start in on the horror that was Captain Archer! I disapprove of the latest Star Trek film on the same principle, even if that actually might have been a decent film if it had been made as a stand alone in some other universe. I apparently don't have any Star Trek icons, so I will use my image from space one instead.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Feel free to steal my Federation icon. I've snatched it from somewhere myself - don't even know where from.

I agree with everything you wrote about "Enterprise". I think the only loveable character was Archer's dog, and I hate dogs with a passion, as a rule.

Actually, the canon rape already started with "Voyager", where Bermaga made the Borg to ridiculous wimps and allowed Janeway to say things like both Kirk and Sulu would be thrown out of Starfleet in their oh-so-advanced days. *grinds teeth*

Strangely enough, I hated the latest Star Trek film a lot less than I'd expected to do. Sure, I didn't actually like it, it was a lame plot with lots of canon rape, but at least some of the actors were great. Zachary Quinto for example.

On the same principle, though, I've adamantly refused to give the "reimagined" BSG a rat's chance. That was the worst slap into the face of old fans of a series, ever!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I quite liked Lt Reed on Enterprise but then I have a thing for socially awkward characters. The fact that I have only seen the first two seasons of it may also help; Swedish television stopped broadcasting after the second season and I just can't make myself pay good money for that series on DVD.

As for BSG I have only ever seen the 'reimagined' series, which was quite interesting though I wasn't impressed with the resolution. It also annoyed me that they kept saying the cylons had a plan, without ever actually revealing what that plan was.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

If Ron Moore would have the balls to come up with his own series, I'd have watched it faithfully, just because he'd used to be a Trek exec. If he'd done something like BSG - the Next Generation, I'd have done the same. But as a devoted fan of the classic series, I was deeply offended by what he'd done to the BSG universe.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

It seems nobody (or very few people at least) has the guts to make something completely original. Yet they often can't be bothered to take into account the established history of what ever universe they want to set their stories in. Given that they are choosing that universe to have a ready-made fan-base that is plain stupid. How can they not see that anyone who is dedicated enough to a series/concept to watch something just because it carries the same brand name is also likely to know and care about the established canon?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, as the Torchwood disaster (CoE and the plannet Gwenwood series) shows, some execs simply hate their fans if they don't like the same thing. Russell T Davies practically killed off everyone but Gwen (and Jack, but him he destroyed morally), so that the old fans won't have anyone else to watch. Plus, he always emphasizes that he wants new viewers who don't know sh*it about the series.

Also, just like RTD, many people simply shoehorn their own ideas into an established fandom, in the hope that the name will lure in viewers... and then have new viewers, "unburdened" by canon, like the new series. They won't mind that it has nothing to do with the roots, as they don't know them.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I gave up on Torchwood after the Children of Earth mini-series; actually it sat unwatched on my HD-recorder for months before I decided I needed to find out for myself how horrible it was. I can see that Gwen could have been a good character, but she was always too full of herself -- and allowed to get away with that -- for me to like her. Her ex-partner constable Andy was a different matter. Him I wouldn't have minded seeing more of! But getting back to the main point, I think you are right. People just think they can treat fans as badly as they like, and get away with it exactly because they are fans. Sadly in some ways this is true; a lot of us will keep giving something the benefit of the doubt that it will be good this week even in the face of quite a staggering amounts of evidence to the contrary.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Sadly, it is true. After Tosh and Owen and Ianto were killed off, there was simply no-one to watch the series for. CoE was no longer Torchwood anyway.

I'm willing to give a chance a series I used to like... but not forever. Life is too short to watch bad TV.

[maglors-finch.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear. Long live Star Trek!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Nothing can beat Star Trek. Nothing!

[maglors-finch.livejournal.com]

More Star Trek?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

In case we're talking about pre-Voyager Trek, then yes, indeedly.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Call me naive, but I still believe it is possible to get good new Star Trek. Someday soon someone will write a new series with interesting, believable and likeable characters set in the actual Star Trek universe paying attention to the established canon and tell more important stories. It might come about purely by accident, but I refuse to live in a world where this isn't part of the future!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Your word in God's ear!

Do you know the fan-made Phase II (http://www.startrekphase2.de/en/phase_ii.html) series? It's very interesting and in places excellent. Well worth a try.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Checking out your like I realize that I had heard of it, back while they were still producing the first episode. However, I have never actually watched any of it so thank you for the recommendation. Have added it to my bookmarks -- now I just need to find the time to actually watch it! That might be awhile, because I have recently purchased the last season of DS9 and have still got half of season six unwatched. I have to be careful with watching Star Trek on DVD, because I often find I can't just watch the one episode when I pop a DVD into my player. Instead I usually end up watching all four on that disc, which means I can rarely do it on a week-night without getting to bed far too late.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I only saw Blood and Fire 1 on YouTube, but I liked it a great deal. James Crawley makes such a funny Kirk imitation, and the Spock actor is simply hilarious.

And yeah, DVDs are addictive...

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

DVDs are addictive...
and Star Trek DVDs doubly so! If they weren't so good, it would be easier to turn them off. Somehow that doesn't sound like the way forward, though.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Perhaps not. But that's the way with addictions, right?

I have Star Trek, The Animated Series, TNG, DS9 and a great part of Voyager on videotape, as at the times I bought them there were no DVDs. Now I'm seriously worried that they die on me one day, but buying the whole thing (plus B5 and Crusade) on DVD again would be a bit expensive.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I am amazed at how much the DVD box sets have come down in price, though. When I started buying them, when TNG was first being released on DVD they were about £100 per season. Now you can get (in inferior packaging, but still the same DVDs I believe) all of TNG for £130 and sometimes even less. Your comment about having the animated series on DVD reminds me that I have only ever seen a couple of episodes of that. Maybe that should be next on my Star Trek to-buy list...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

The problem isn't the price in itself but the fact that you can't get them in Hungary. So if I want me some decent sci-fi, I have to go to Vienna, which I can do twice a year (it isn't a cheap trip), tops, and then they either have them or not, as I rarely stay any longer than three days (again, hotel prices). So I was lucky to get the whole Stargate and Stargate: Atlantis series, some Dr. Who and lots of solo movies, but, sadly practically no Star Trek. It's unfair! The English videothek through which I used to order the tapes closed years ago, so I'm totally helpless.

The animated series, just like the original one, is extemely uneven in quality. There are wonderful episodes, like "Yesteryear", showing scenes from Spock's childhood, and downright silly ones. Insultingly so. Still, a true collector won't he kept from getting them all. ;)

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I have very rarely seen any Star Trek DVD boxes in shops here either. Indeed all of mine where bought through on-line retailers such as Amazon, or in the case of the last few DS9 boxes, eBay. I had the first four seasons in the hard plastic boxes they came out in originally, and then I didn't buy the rest straight away because I hadn't had the time to watch the ones I already had. When I wanted to buy the fifth season, I found that Paramount had started selling them in a new 'slim line' packaging, made of cardboard that looked very different to the ones I already had. The first few seasons are still reasonably easy to get hold of on-line in the original packaging, but the later ones seem very rare. Since I really liked the look of the hard plastic boxes and I wanted all of DS9 in the same type of packaging I had to buy the last few seasons second-hand.

Do I understand correctly that online retailers like Amazon don't deliver to Hungary? That must be very frustrating!

I expect there to be some really horrible episodes of the animated series; as you say there were certainly a few of those in the original series as well (and TNG if we are honest!). Still dedicated collector/fan wants to find out for herself...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

*Do I understand correctly that online retailers like Amazon don't deliver to Hungary? That must be very frustrating!*

Oh, they do deliver, if it's ordered from somewhere else. They just don't accept our national currency. And yeah, it *is* furstrating. I'd be more than willing to pay. but they won't let me.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Oh that is even more frustrating! It sounds a bit like the stupid region system for DVDs where I sometimes find that I can't get what I want on DVDs that my player can read, just because they have decided to encode it differently. It especially upsets me because this is something the film/TV companies have just invented to make it harder for people to buy their product! And then they complain when people download stuff from the internet...