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

B5 hate file

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Sheridan: This one was an easy choice - I don't like him because he allows thinks he is right and the show mostly supports him in this. His taking over control of Babylon 5 doesn't make sense with his total lack of diplomacy in most situations and the way that his character randomly changes to make bits of plot work is annoying. Also, the fact that most of the background that his gets involves more and more ex-wives appearing is not particularly interesting, especially as it is used to create conflict between him and Delenn.

Boy, don't I agree! I was sooo annoyed when stupid JMS got rid of Sinclair, who was an intriguing, complex character, and brought in Sheridan, who's, basically, the same annyoing type as Kirk. Or Riker. Or Dylan Hunt. Or John Sheppard. The same cocky pilot type who can do anything and can get away with it, without bearing the consequences, and gets to decide in big questions that aren't his frigging business, just because he's the Big American Hero (TM).

The ex-wives were really annoying, too. And despite what one might think of Lochley: to choose her as the commanding officer of B5, despite that she'd fought for the other side, based on the fact that they were married? Hello? Didn't that happen after having too much booze or whatnot? A truly thought-out and responsible choice, eh?

Rant away. The wasted potential about Delenn could make me scream and break things every time I consider how JMS has practically ruined a potentially fantastic character. Making her the bossy wife. Or the whiny wife. Or the flabbergasted wife. Whatever.

I'm sorry that I don't know your other fandom. Haven't even heard of it before, in truth. Is it a British series?

Studio60

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Reply part 1 (I'm separating out bits of conversation)

Studio60 is an American show that only had one season - made by Aaron Sorkin (West Wing) about a political sketch show. Very fast moving with loads going on at every point. It is very funny and clever. It had so much potential, but was probably too overtly political to do very well, and thus got cancelled.

Re: B5 hate file

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

The same cocky pilot type who can do anything and can get away with it, without bearing the consequences, and gets to decide in big questions that aren't his frigging business, just because he's the Big American Hero (TM).
Too true. In some cases these can be good characters, but it gets very boring that there are so many of them.

The ex-wives were really annoying, too. And despite what one might think of Lochley: to choose her as the commanding officer of B5, despite that she'd fought for the other side, based on the fact that they were married? Hello? Didn't that happen after having too much booze or whatnot? A truly thought-out and responsible choice, eh?
I'm wondering whether it was because they had been married or despite it. I'm thinking he was trying to find someone who: had been on the other side; was at an appropriate rank; and he could work with; which probably left a very short list. I think that he wanted someone who had been on the other side as a symbol. I'm not sure that I remember clearly but I got the impression that they were friends before they were married, so he should at least have know her enough to know whether she was competent.
Personally I think it would have been far more interesting if she had been brought in as deputy to Ivanova. The main problem I can see is bringing in someone who had no experience of Babylon 5 to serve as commander (especially without an experienced deputy commander), especially someone who doesn't seem to have had much experience in diplomacy.
However, that brings me on to an separate complaint about how they seem to have so few officers - there doesn't seem to be anyone except the commander and the second in command at any point, except very junior officers. I would have thought that they would want at least 3 or 4 officers who could be left in charge in C&C etc. It is partly the fact that at various point Garibaldi or Delenn seem to be in charge when by normal uses of the command structure this wouldn't happen.

Sheridan and Delenn
The whole relationship doesn't make a lot of sense - it seems a jump from where Delenn's character is in season 1. I can see how it would have worked with Sinclair, partly because they spent a whole season building up towards them being friends and I can see how it would have worked to go from there, but it feels very rushed - like the fact that she has metamorphosed does mean that she has changed personality. She has her moments after then, but seems to become more and more arrogant, out of touch with anything apart from her ideas of destiny and Sheridan. I wonder whether there was something that we aren't told that was in the prophecies of Valen that pushed her into the relationship so quickly, and that when she was there she felt compelled to take a place behind him. Although if that was the case, I would have expected her to revert more when he was supposed to be dead. Possibly it was a cultural thing to her.
I can't help thinking that the whole solution to the Shadow War being what it was would have worked a lot better with a different character there. Given how eager to fight Sheridan had been at most points it seemed very odd for him to be suggesting a peaceful solution.

This got very long! I should probably leave it at that for the moment. :D

Re: B5 hate file

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that Sheridan apparently took the fact that Delenn had been the one who'd ordered the eradication of the human race over a tragic misunderstanding in stride. Was he so besotted, did he think with his dick or didn't he give up the position that being married to Delenn meant to him?

IMO, the metamorphosis caused Delenn to completely lose her personality. I still prefer the androgynous appearance of the pilot episode, even though it was perhaps less pretty than the first season version. I've read somewhere that the original metamorphosis would have been Delenn changing from an androgynous being into a female one, but with the prettied-up appearance it probably wouldn't have worked. Too bad.

Also, originally she was supposed to have a relationship with Sinclair, if I remember correctly. That would have made so much more sense.

Re: B5 hate file

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that Sheridan apparently took the fact that Delenn had been the one who'd ordered the eradication of the human race over a tragic misunderstanding in stride. Was he so besotted, did he think with his dick or didn't he give up the position that being married to Delenn meant to him?

Yes, that made very little sense. I'd have expected him to at least be upset about it, if not more. But by that point his personality seemed to have mostly vanished and seemed to be controlled by her. Possibly when he was brought back from the dead he wasn't the same at all - certainly after that point he seems to mostly be being controlled by other people...

I still prefer the androgynous appearance of the pilot episode, even though it was perhaps less pretty than the first season version. I've read somewhere that the original metamorphosis would have been Delenn changing from an androgynous being into a female one, but with the prettied-up appearance it probably wouldn't have worked. Too bad.
It would have made it much more interesting if they had stuck with that!

Re: B5 hate file

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she certainly had a lot more chemistry with Sinclair than with zombie!Sheridan! Plus, with Sinclair she never behaved like a coquette, which didn't become her at all.

Re: B5 hate file

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Very true!