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

[nerwen-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Yay! Party! I'm bringing more chocolate and coffee to contribute. :)

Happy early birthday!

It seems both a lot longer than a year and a lot less since this time last year.

Let's see - trying to think about things to say to start a conversation... (you can tell that I'm bad at this - but at least here I can think rather than having to think of something instantly like in person conversations).

To answer your comment on my post (in part): The fandoms that I have stuff partially written in are: Crusade, Firefly, and Swallows and Amazons. I think the only one of those that is a fandom of yours is Crusade. I also had vague plans for other stories but those are the only ones that have got as far. I started planning a Crusade/Babylon5 crossover, but it needs me to re-watch season 5 of Babylon 5, which I have actually only seen once all the way through.
Anyway, I remember talking to you a little about Crusade, but not a lot, so possibly we can talk more about that?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Actually, I've watched (and recorded) Firefly to the bitter end, too, even did some Internet research, even though I didn't particularly like it. So, we can talk about that, about Crusade and about B5, whenever you want. We've vaguely planned to continue the Minbari Sue story together when you get better, so we've plenty of common, don't you think?

Watching Season 5 of B5 is a mixed experience. I liked some parts of it very much and was annoyed by other parts very much. Perhaps we can set up a schedule, watch the individual episodes by a certain time, and then discuss them, eh?

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

I like Firefly, but found it much less something I really want to be involved in fandom for - partly because feels finished in terms of storylines, I'm sure there could be more, but it doesn't really feel like it needs more. I was writing it in response to a prompt - contrasting life on one of the border moons for a family used to living well on one of the advanced planets, but it needs more description so I need to re-watch and pick out details to make it work as a story.

We've vaguely planned to continue the Minbari Sue story together when you get better, so we've plenty of common, don't you think?
I will read that soon - but not at the moment, as I *am* doing productive stuff (procrastinating on this in between bits), but trying to read a story that way isn't good. Then we can talk about that as well. :)


Watching Season 5 of B5 is a mixed experience. I liked some parts of it very much and was annoyed by other parts very much. Perhaps we can set up a schedule, watch the individual episodes by a certain time, and then discuss them, eh?

That sounds like a very good idea. What sort of schedule would suit you? I am mostly flexible at the moment, due to most of the things I have to do not being time specific.

I think part of my problem with it is following from the end of season 4 - I still find the two final earth civil war episodes very hard to watch without crying. Therefore I was thinking of watching starting from The Deconstruction Of Fallen Stars. I think I should have fewer problems with s5 on re-watch as watching Crusade repeatedly for Yuletide really improved my view of Lockley. The main problem I foresee is all the Byron stuff as first time round I found him very annoying, whiny, and dull.
Certainly having someone to talk to about them would help. :)


(You can probably tell that I'm supposed to be doing productive things at the moment, but procrastinating is so much more fun!)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Procrastinating is fun indeed. You're so much more free than after you've started the actual writing!

I do hate the Byron stuff with a passion, too. Lochley wouldn't be all that bad, had she been played by an actress with some more acting talent. But again, after Ivanova who was a cold fish, she's at least different. I'm sorry, but I really really can't stand Ivanova. Of course, the only B5 characters I truly liked were Neroon, Londo, Garibaldi and Lennier, so I'm probably not the right person to listen to. *g*

But we can watch the Season 5 episodes in any order you want. We can give us, say, a week for each episode (as I'm most likely to watch anything on the weekend, work being what it is at the moment) and then discuss it.

I tried really hard to get into "Firefly" but never really managed it. As much as I like Nathan Fillion in "Castle", he annoyed me to death in "Firefly". And some of the episode plots were downright idiotic.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

I do hate the Byron stuff with a passion, too. Lochley wouldn't be all that bad, had she been played by an actress with some more acting talent. But again, after Ivanova who was a cold fish, she's at least different. I'm sorry, but I really really can't stand Ivanova. Of course, the only B5 characters I truly liked were Neroon, Londo, Garibaldi and Lennier, so I'm probably not the right person to listen to. *g*
Ivanova is one of my favourite characters - I really like her pessimism. I like most of the characters at various points and get annoyed with them at other points, which is one of the reasons I love the show - it really feels like the characters are real, and all have their good and bad moments. It is also the way that most of the characters do seem to change and grow over the series in their own ways (and it is the ones that don't seem to that annoy me the most, especially Sheridan and Delenn). My favourite characters are Ivanova, Marcus, Talia, Sinclair and Neroon. Typically, most of them aren't in it much - I seem far more likely to like minor characters, but they are mostly much more interesting than the main characters.

But we can watch the Season 5 episodes in any order you want. We can give us, say, a week for each episode (as I'm most likely to watch anything on the weekend, work being what it is at the moment) and then discuss it.
Sounds good. Starting next weekend? I'll probably be watching them in the order that they are on the dvds in, which would make the first one No Compromises

I tried really hard to get into "Firefly" but never really managed it. As much as I like Nathan Fillion in "Castle", he annoyed me to death in "Firefly". And some of the episode plots were downright idiotic.
I've not seen Castle as it is not on (free) tv here yet and the dvds aren't out. From what I've heard it sounds good. Part of the reason I like Firefly is because I have a soft spot for Westerns, following having watched quite a few at the weekends at school when I first had tv that I could watch freely. It makes it fun to see the usual tropes of that genre played out in sf.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Starting next weekend?
Or the weekend after if you are busy with birthday stuff. :)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

No, starting next weekend would be fine. I'll post a review here, after this virtual party is over, say, October 10, and then we can have a proper discussion. And if other people want to join, they can do it - unless you want it to be a friends-locked post, which is fine with me, too.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Cool! :)
Open post is fine by me - of course, if loads of trolls turn up, we can hide from them. ;)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Erm... that means Ep 01 from Season 5 by October 10, am I correct? And yes, we can always lock the post from the trolls if we have to. ;)

I forgot to add: I actually don't mind Ivanova that much. I even like the Russian aspect; it's so rare that you see anyone but Americans among the human characters in an American sci-fi series. But I utterly despise the actress.

Talia is a very interesting character - and badly misused, I must add. I LOVED Sinclair to pieces, especially before he'd become Valen... but I could tolerate him well enough afterwards, too.

Neroon rocks - he, too would have deserved ten times the part he actually got onscreen. He's the only Minbari character with any character development at all. Because the character rape of Lennier just doesn't count in my eyes.

Oh, and I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Vir Cotto. He was cute, he developed steadily along the whole five seasons, and I wanted to cuddle him every time he was misused... which happened often enough. His relationship with Londo was, IMO, the most complex in the whole series.

I need a Vir icon, I think. Now, where to find it?

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Erm... that means Ep 01 from Season 5 by October 10, am I correct?
Yes. :)

I forgot to add: I actually don't mind Ivanova that much. I even like the Russian aspect; it's so rare that you see anyone but Americans among the human characters in an American sci-fi series. But I utterly despise the actress.
Okay. It is very nice to see non-Americans, especially ones that are not evil - one of the easy ways to tell in American things who is going to be evil is anyone speaking with a British accent.

Talia is a very interesting character - and badly misused, I must add.
It is such a waste that they kill her off - Lyta is a much less interesting character. I keep being tempted to write a Talia lives AU, but so far I haven't got the energy to do so - I worry about starting what would turn into such a long story. Plus there are so many sidetracks that it would probably end up going off on, as there seem to be too many things left unexplained. It is really unconvincing how she is written out, especially considered with the events of Spider In The Web - it seems unbelievable that her alternative personality would want her murdered or that there are two separate agents with the code control...


I LOVED Sinclair to pieces, especially before he'd become Valen... but I could tolerate him well enough afterwards, too.
I love the way that he thinks about problems and comes up with real solutions and considers everything rather than assuming that violence is the answer in every case.

Neroon rocks - he, too would have deserved ten times the part he actually got onscreen. He's the only Minbari character with any character development at all.
He does develop so much as a character. Although given his last scene with Sinclair in Legacies there would have been so much potential for Sinclair to try and persuade him to cooperate with them in the Shadow War - although I wonder if Delenn would have stopped this because she wants to be in charge.

Because the character rape of Lennier just doesn't count in my eyes.
I like the character developement he gets for most of the series - it is really good to see him grow and learn from s1 when he does seem very young and naive, but then they just ruin it towards the end. :(

Oh, and I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Vir Cotto. He was cute, he developed steadily along the whole five seasons, and I wanted to cuddle him every time he was misused... which happened often enough. His relationship with Londo was, IMO, the most complex in the whole series.
Yes, Vir is wonderful! I love the scene with him and Morden when Morden gets him to answer his question - especially as Morden must know that it is going to happen. It is brilliant to see the way that he changes over the course of the series.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

*one of the easy ways to tell in American things who is going to be evil is anyone speaking with a British accent*

Really? Is there an actual reason for it, or do Americans just envy you Brits for your accent? Not that I'd be able to make a difference, mind you... I'm happy enough to actually understand the words when it comes to spoken English.

Sinclair is simply wonderful, particularly because he's so very different from those moustache-twirling sci-fi heroes. I never bought the Catherine Sakai romance, though. They two of them had zero chemistry. The red-headed freighter captain from the pilot was a much better match for him.

Lennier was a very loveable character - the way he ended up went directly against what we'd seen of him before, I find. And Lyta could have been really interesting, had they developed her the way she would have deserved. She was so new and naive and inexperienced in the pilot, and we never got to see how she actually became the woman she was in the middle and at the end of the series.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Really? Is there an actual reason for it, or do Americans just envy you Brits for your accent? Not that I'd be able to make a difference, mind you... I'm happy enough to actually understand the words when it comes to spoken English.
I have no idea whether there is a real reason, but the only one I've heard suggested is that Americans want to identify with the good guys and thus they should sound American... but I'm not sure if I believe it. I find on most things subtitles are such a help - I find it hard to hear a lot of dialogue in things as most actors don't seem to speak clearly - and that's with it being in a language I speak natively! This is one of the reasons why I watch more things on dvd than tv. I remember bemusing people at school by suggesting that for French that instead of having English subtitles they should give us it with French subtitles (as well as dialogue) as I reckoned that it was the way to learn more...

Sinclair is simply wonderful, particularly because he's so very different from those moustache-twirling sci-fi heroes. I never bought the Catherine Sakai romance, though. They two of them had zero chemistry. The red-headed freighter captain from the pilot was a much better match for him.
I quite liked Catherine Sakai, although it annoyed me that suddenly they were going to get married. I liked the way that the relationship up to that point hadn't been a typical tv romance. The woman from the pilot annoyed me because of the remark about frictionless sheets (really, really bad science) and for some reason it appeared to me as the character being stupid rather than the show - I have no idea why.

Lennier was a very loveable character - the way he ended up went directly against what we'd seen of him before, I find.
Yes! I could believe it if there had been anything done to try and make it work with his character, but there wasn't and so it just seemed nonsensical.


And Lyta could have been really interesting, had they developed her the way she would have deserved. She was so new and naive and inexperienced in the pilot, and we never got to see how she actually became the woman she was in the middle and at the end of the series.
That makes sense. I think that is part of why I have problems with her, she has clearly changed so much in between her first two appearances and it never really explained, thus making it less like character development and more like ignoring existing canon to make the character work in the new situation. I guess it is partly because we never see her interacting with anyone she knew well (or more than a passing acquaintance) before she changed, but then there wasn't really anyone around that could. It would have worked with a scene with Talia (but with problems given her alternative personality).
Thinking of how that might work, I think I might actually have to write that Talia lives au... :) Or at least start planning it... It will probably be fun to write, just such a long project to start.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Go for it! I need something else than just Marcus/Neroon smut to read. Not that there would be anything wrong with Marcus/Neroon smut, mind you (even though I actually don't like Marcus), but a girl needs some variety in her fannish life.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Just realised that I started, but didn't finish writing a reply to this - got lost in all the tabs that I had open with so many conversations going on here. :)

This made my curious - so I went and started prodding fanfiction.net, which led to the discovery that it now has rss feeds. So I ended up going through all the categories that I'm interested in and so now I'll know when stories are uploaded, as well as finding loads of stories to read at some point. This is why I didn't end up commenting more here yesterday. This is both very good and bad - good for obvious reasons, but bad because I should be doing more productive stuff instead of reading all the stories that I found. Overall good though, because now means that I won't miss stories for ages due to forgetting to check whether there are new stories there. :)

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that there is so much fic for this pairing, although it is quite cool that it still seems to have people writing fic when most of the rest of the fandom is pretty dead.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's quite a lively party, isn't it? With so many interesting conversations going on in the different threads it's hard to follow.

Marcus/Neroon is a popular pairing in the fandom; there's even a Yahoo group dedicated to the pairing, and I'm a proud member, althoug I never wrote them as anything but respectful adversaries. Or not so respectful ones. *g* I guess part of the appeal is the old cliché of enemies turning into lovers, UST and stuff. And I must admit that Marcus is often portrayed as a whiny wimp and Neroon as a besotted idiot. But I enjoy even those stories. I don't know why. It's like a drug. If you want to read some lovely and/or funny ones, I recommand the stuff of third_charm, here on LJ. She writes mostly short stuff, easy to read.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Such a fun party! I think asking people to say their favourite books was a very good idea - now there are loads of conversations about so many different books. :)

Thanks for the rec. I'll check out her stories.

*sigh* I wish fandom would get the idea that telling stories with good, plausible versions of the characters. There are so many different ways to interpret a character so I wish that people would think rather than just following fandom trends. Not that that makes any particular story bad and certainly there any many stories that use fandom tropes that are good and/or fun.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Some people are just more comfortable with clichés, I guess. It saves them from the necessity of actual thinking, which many find too hard a task to perform.

I do like me a little cliché from time to time. But they get old very quickly, I find.

[third-charm.livejournal.com]

Ah, my friend, you know that Season 5 and I are not friends. Between Ivanova leaving, Marcus staying frozen, Lochley and Byron being added, the turning of a bad ass 'Star Killer" who scared entire Mionbari Warrior Clans out of their minds, blew Zha'Ha"Dum to Kingdom Come single-handedly, told both the the Vorlons and the Shadows to get the fuck out of his galaxy, withstood torture and saved Earth from Clark into "wounded arm candy" for Delenn, and the way the rest of the B5 old crowd emotionally and spiritually shafted Garibaldi, well, it was an exercise in masochism on my part in the fact that I actually watched every damned episode.

As for Firefly, I was impressed with the scope of what the show was trying to do, but the execution left much to be desired in certain episodes. It was as if the production company gutted entire plot lines just to save a few bucks in production costs - and it showed. God how I have it when a great story idea gets neutered becausse of either costs or political correctness!

Third Charm

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

What I liked in Season 5 were the Psi Corps episodes - they were quite freakish - and every single one Captain Montoya was in. I totally agree with you about Garibaldi. I don't like Sheridan, and frankly, how he got to tell all the older races out was way beyond a Marty Stu, so I'm not particularly bothered that he got to be Delenn's bed toy. *is mean*

Delenn lost every appeal to me as soon as she grew hair - it sucked out her brains, I believe. And Ivanova, I might have liked, had the actress not be so... I can't find the right words to express my violent dislike of Claudia Christian. Anyway, I agree with you about Garibaldi - he was one of the most interesting characters (and definitely the most interesting *human* character), and look what they did with him.

But what I hated more than everything was how Sheridan & Co. treated Lyta. That was beyond criminal - first using her, having her risk her life and everything else for their cause, and then dropping her like a hot potato. Small wonder she allied herself with Brian the Freak.

I didn't like Firefly from the beginning, mostly because I don't like when so different genres are mixed. Plus, Malcolm annoyed the Jeebus out of me. Liked Inara and the pilot/XO couple, and Simon, though. And Shepher Bok was an interesting character.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

But what I hated more than everything was how Sheridan & Co. treated Lyta. That was beyond criminal - first using her, having her risk her life and everything else for their cause, and then dropping her like a hot potato. Small wonder she allied herself with Brian the Freak.
And it made no sense whatever! I just don't understand why they wouldn't help her after all they had learnt the uses of having an non-Corps telepath before so there is no reason not to support her - unless there was some sort of deal done to try and force her back to Psi Corps as a price for some of the concessions they got from Earth... but it would seem out of character for them to agree to that.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Character? What character? Neither of the main heroes had any character by the end of the series, save perhaps Vir and Garibaldi.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Sadly, too true. :(

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

The more frustrating, considering how interesting the main characters started off. Somewhere along the way something must have gone terribly wrong.

Cute icon, BTW.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

It was the first icon I uploaded, ages before I had others (I think) and have some on my computer to upload but haven't got round to it - although I got some of them uploaded to my other journal and dreamwidth...

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind me replying to your comment. :)

Between Ivanova leaving, Marcus staying frozen, Lochley and Byron being added, the turning of a bad ass 'Star Killer" who scared entire Mionbari Warrior Clans out of their minds, blew Zha'Ha"Dum to Kingdom Come single-handedly, told both the the Vorlons and the Shadows to get the fuck out of his galaxy, withstood torture and saved Earth from Clark into "wounded arm candy" for Delenn, and the way the rest of the B5 old crowd emotionally and spiritually shafted Garibaldi, well, it was an exercise in masochism on my part in the fact that I actually watched every damned episode.
Good summary of the problems - although I would add Lyta being treated badly as well and I don't mind Lockley that much. I think it would have been very interesting if Ivanova had been in command with Lockley as deputy...

As for Firefly, I was impressed with the scope of what the show was trying to do, but the execution left much to be desired in certain episodes. It was as if the production company gutted entire plot lines just to save a few bucks in production costs - and it showed. God how I have it when a great story idea gets neutered becausse of either costs or political correctness!
I didn't know that about the production company, but it makes sense with the way things seem to work in American tv. :(