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

[artemis10002000]

1. Name 3 of your most favourite fandoms.
That's a difficult question! I have sooo many different fandoms I love.

Transformers has to be on the list, though it's not one we share, since I've been consistently active in Transformers fandom for a year.

Usually, I do a lot of fandom-hopping. It's not that I fall out of love with a show, but since my fandom activity consists mostly of reading fanfic, I feel the need for a change of scenery after a while.

I'll pick Buffy, though I haven't spent a lot of time on Buffy in a while since it's one of these fandoms I always fall in love with all over again when I get back into it. And I've been into Buffy for ages! The oldest Buffy fic I have on my computer is from 2001!

I'm torn for the third spot, tempted to go for Harry Potter since it's another long-time fandom love, but I don't think we share this one, so I'll say Torchwood instead.

2. Name one character of each fandom you particularly like. Tell us why.

Transformers: Prowl and Starscream are my favourites, but I'll tell you about another favourite instead, Rumble - you already have to read about him on your flist so often (he's the one I roleplay) so I might as well tell you why! When he is on screen, he never fails to make me smile or laugh. That's what made me fall in love with him. He has this huge spirit, such a tiny guy among giants, but he doesn't let it stop him. He isn't intimidated (and probably too dense to know when he should be afraid) no matter what, yet his arrogance isn't annoying and he takes such joy in destruction. That he is the worst and most enthusiastic poet on any planet helps, too *laughs*

Buffy: I love pretty much the whole main cast of Buffy, whether old or new. Yet if I had to choose one, just one, I would pick Xander. Because he is the ordinary guy among all these people with super powers or who are extremely smart and educated, but he's still there, still saving the world. Even when they don't take him seriously, he never quits. Xander is such an amazingly loyal friend and I don't think they could have done half the stuff they did without his emotional support (and sometimes being there to whack a baddie.) Yes, he does some pretty dumb and hurtful things, but that just makes him more human. If he was perfect, he wouldn't be Xander.

Torchwood: Harsh! I'm torn between Ianto, Toshiko and Jack. We've already discussed the awesome of Ianto and Toshiko often, so I'll go for Jack tonight (and damn, I need to shorten this or I'll be writing until morning!) I started out loathing him, grew to sympathize with him as he showed some human vulnerability (I think the fairy episode was the first time I liked him) and came to love him. I love how dedicated he is to his team and to the idea of Torchwood as he envisions it. How he has gone through so much and has neither given up (for long.) And how he still, after everything, is capable of feeling compassion and still dares to let himself care for others, though he knows he'll have to watch them die.

3. Name one character of each that you don't like. Tell us why.

Transformers: I don't really have a character I dislike. There are those who interest me more or less, but no one I actively dislike. I'll name Shockwave just because he's the most prominent of these characters I just can't bring myself to care about either way.

Buffy: Spike with a soul, although it breaks my heart to name my favourite vampire and I thought the whole idea was very interesting. Simply because I thought Spike being a good vampire with a soul took away from his choice of doing good despite being a soulless vampire. Which was really one of the problems I always had with the show, this soul = good. Because it doesn't work that way for humans and they even acknowledged it with their human villains, but they never made it an issue with the vamps.

Torchwood: For once, it's easy. Gwen. I don't have a problem with unsympathetic characters, I would have just shrugged that off, but I think the writers wasted so much potential with her character. It would have been better if they'd just decided on whether she was supposed to be a sympathetic character or "jerk but has a reason for it" like they did with Owen.

[artemis10002000]

Whoops, I saw there was a fourth question to the meme! I'll do that tomorrow or rather later today, I need to go to bed *lol*

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

No worries, there's still time.

[artemis10002000]

I thought about it and realized I wouldn't know what to recommend for Buffy and Torchwood. I haven't really read Torchwood fic beyond your own (not for lack of interest, just never got around to it!) and with Buffy, it's been so long I can't even say if I'll still like my old favourites.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

The main Buffy cast really is excellent, isn't it? They are none of them perfect, but that makes them much more interesting and believable I think. I can definitely see why you would pick Xander as your favourite, because in some ways I think he is the best of them all. He doesn't have any superpowers/magic/loads-of-book-learning, but is just an ordinary guy yet he still fights evil to the best of his abilities and if that means he has to pick up doughnuts he will do that too. If I had to pick just one of them as a favourite though, I would have to go with early-series Willow -- the geeky, socially awkward girl who loves learning. She is portrayed with such love and respect and being a (now grown-up) geeky, socially awkward girl I can't help but love that.

I haven't seen enough of season 7 to tell what I think of Spike with a soul. The idea seems very interesting to me too, and I don't think it would necessarily have to take away from him choosing to do good as a soulless vampire; he choose to get his soul back after all. However, as I said, I haven't seen what they did with it, so I can't comment on that. It may have just been in Angel, but there they certainly add in shades of grey, showing that just because someone is a demon doesn't mean they are evil and that some vampires where evil even before becoming vampires, indeed actively choosing to become vampires to be able to do more killing.

[artemis10002000]

Yeah, I liked the shades of grey Angel gave the demons, with there being good demons (though we had them with demons like Clem in Buffy as well, but less so than in Angel.) Vampires in Angel having been evil before being turned and even choosing to become vampires sounds very interesting! Was this in one of the later season? I didn't get to watch those.

Early seasons Willow is one of my great favourites, too. As much as I love Willow as a badass witch and the wallflower who grows up into a beautiful woman, I love her even more as that geeky, shy girl. Yeah, between her and Xander, I do love my Buffy underdogs. This shows portrays the ordinary people with so much love for them, their strengths and the important role they play. Really, it's one of my favourite things about Buffy.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I have only watched season 1 of Angel, because after that it moved to a subscription channel on Swedish television. I am slowly rectifying this, working my way through buying and watching Buffy and Angel DVD box sets. There may have only been one case of somebody being evil and wanting to become a vampire; I can't remember the details I am afraid but I have a clear memory of somebody having a soul forced upon them and it turning out that this didn't make them a better individual.

Josh Whedon really does do geeky girls well, especially for a man! There is a speech he gave at an Equality Now benefit, which is basically him answering over-and-over again the question "So Josh, why do you write these strong women characters?". It warms my heart that he thinks it isn't a question he should be asked.

[artemis10002000]

I believe I have watched a vid of that speech on Youtube or read a transcript of it somewhere because you mentioning it brings up some vague memories. I don't remember details, but I do recall that I loved it.

Here in Germany, it wasn't moved to a transcription channel, but the broadcasting was moved to so late in the night that I couldn't watch it anymore. I don't even know if they aired the last season at all.

I've been intending to watch the later seasons on DVD, too. But I just don't get around to it, since there are so many more recent interests I've been meaning to buy on DVD, too.

Buffy episodes

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I've got most of Buffy, up to Season 5. German TV did show the later seasons indeed, and I've even taped some of them, but I graudally lost interest as all those Slayers-in-waiting invided the series. From then on, it was just not interesting enough - the main characters, for whom I used to watch it, got out of focus, and I've enough pain with teenaged snots myself than to watch them on TV, slayerettes or not.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Trust me: Spike-with-a-soul is an annoying wimp. A lot worse than neutered!Spike wit the behaviour chip. I liked badass!Spike from Season 2, killing the Anoined One with an afterthought but being Drusilla's devoted slave at the same time.

I liked ealy-series Willow, too - although I'd also have liked if they'd made her the big adversary of the season in which she'd gone evil. She'd have been so much more interesting than stupid Glory - plus that version had spared us Dawn, whom I hated with a passion. I'm probably unjust to Dawn, but I just can't stand stupid, annoying teenage characters. Even if they are the Mary Sue Key of the season.

Absolutely loved Xander, too - and lynch me if you want, but I adore Wesley. Early Wesley, the overcompensating little geeks from Buffy and Season 1 Angel.

[artemis10002000]

Season 2 Spike was my favourite Spike, too!

Willow would have made a cool villain of the season!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I intend to write that in my alternate Pathways universe. Somewhen.

[artemis10002000]

I know that "somewhen" only too well... But who knows, if inspiration suddenly strikes... It can go quite quickly then!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Perhaps when I've finished the "Toreador Chronicles". That's one ungodly long serial, a QAF/Pathways AU, in which Angel is the Kindred Prince of LA, Wesley is the Precept of the LA Legacy House, Tara is alive and married to her, Drusilla and Spike are reconciled with Angel, Owen (Buffy's one-episode date from Season 1) is Angel's Childe - and so is Riley - and other possible and impossible Buffy, Angel and Kindred characters have their cameos, while Brian Kinney and Michael Novotny of QAF are joining the Night. *g*

[artemis10002000]

Heh, that sounds like one of these fics which just keep growing and growing as you go along! :) Do you have plans how much more you have to write before you're finished?

Pathways vampire AU

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Perhaps two or three chapters. I only have to write this last part of the series, kill off Justin - preferably in a gory way - and wrap up a few loose ends. The series would continue in "Pittsburgh by Night", eventually, with Brian returning to the Pitts half a century later, to become the Prince of the city.

But you're actually right, the Pathways universe is incredibly complicated, with multiple storylines, and eating up new fandoms as I go. Beside the obvious (vampire) ones, it has eaten "Criminal Minds", "QAF", "Poltergeist: The Legacy", to only mention the biggest ones.

Re: Pathways vampire AU

[artemis10002000]

Yep, sounds like one of these fic monsters that just refuse to be done :D But while the most frustrating, the way they're spawning new ideas faster than you can write, I find these ideas also the most fun! After all, that you keep getting new ideas means the story is very much alive in your head and you're having a good time.

Re: Pathways vampire AU

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It *is* fun. It's just getting increasingly complex, so that my old spreadsheats about who's related/allied/in love/in lust/in hatred with whom and who's done what aren't even working anymore. And I don't have the time and the energy to update the framework, work in dozens of new characters, connect the timeline, weave the different plotlines into one unit, and so on...

I'd need a secretary with all the time of the world and a real obsession for the stuff to order it. If you hear of one, send them to me, please.

Re: Pathways vampire AU

[toughnrumble.livejournal.com]

Eeeep, talk about complicated!

Maybe it'd be easier to handle if you just write one-shots or shorter stories for these new characters and different plots rather than try to fit it all into one or two big stories?

Re: Pathways vampire AU

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know.

Most of its existing parts *are* short stories, actually, like "Favourite Son" or "The Return of Forrest Gates" or "The Path of Wolves", which focuses on Oz (from Buffy), or, indeed, "The Road Not Taken"... and a few others, including one-shots.

The problem is that I've been writing in this alternate universe for so long that certain parts start contradicting each other and very few still match the original concept. *le sigh*

Re: Pathways vampire AU

[artemis10002000]

*nods* I think the contradicting is impossible to avoid. Ideas just keep growing and changing. It even happens to the pros. Just look at long-living TV shows or book series, they contradict another as well at some point.

Re: Pathways vampire AU

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, I like to think that I'm more devoted to my own stuff than they are - getting it just right *is* the only payment I get, after all, unlike them who get the big bucks to do a lousy job. *g*

Re: Pathways vampire AU

[artemis10002000]

*laughs* There is that!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Spike as a wimp sounds very annoying indeed. I liked how he planned things and then ruined his own big schemes by getting impatient. Also the fact that he was unimpressed by and mocked Angel, who I found really dull in Buffy!, made me love having him around.

I didn't like Wesley in Buffy, but then I don't think we were really meant to; he was so obviously a pompous ass that was displacing our beloved Giles. In Angel I really like him, but as I mentioned in a different comment, I have only seen the first season so maybe I won't like him as much in later series.

Spike & Wesley

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I really hated what Joss did with Spike in the later seasons.

Wesley, OTOH, only became himself in Angel. In Buffy, he was just the jerk of the season, mere comic relief. I loved how Angel made him a full-fledged character, with a background and a convincing motivation, including character growth and stuff.

Unfortunately, I abandoned Angel after 2/3 of Season 2 and only watched the later seasons sporadically. Didn't very much like the direction the series took afterwards, but perhaps the_wild_iris can persuade you that it wasn't so bad, after all. She likes the later seasons.