wiseheart | Birthday Party - The Second Coming

FIRST! That has never happened before. *does a little dance*

Happy birthday!

(should be said for the new post! ;) )

I concur whole-heartedly!

I agree - Happy Birthday!

In the rush to make sure I actually did get in first, I intentionally opted to make my comment as short as possible, so here is the comment actually wishing you a happy early birthday. May the party rage on, with (virtual) cake and conversations aplenty!

Wow! Really cool cake!

This is actually my sister's birthday cake from a few years back that she made herself. It is a family recipe though (that my Mum cut out of a news paper longer ago than I can remember) and we have all made (and continue to make) the cake (including my brothers). The original recipe just had chocolate frosting; the Smarties like sweets were my Mum's addition. When we were little she used to spell out our names and ages with them. These days we usually go for pretty patterns instead.

That is really cool! :)

If it's virtual cake I can have some! =D

Real chocolate gives me migraines =(

Everyone is welcome to a slice! I am sorry to hear you get migraines from chocolate; that must be horrible.

It's annoying, I can't have chocolate or cheese and I get the migraines anyway, I just don't want to have more of them. *sigh* Virtual chocolate is good though!

Aww :(
That is really unfortunate!
(my partner is currently not allowed to eat various thing while they try and figure out if the contribute to his migraines)

I sympathise - they are really unpleasant.

And let's start some topics as well:

Apart from attending

wiseheart's fabulous birthday party, did you do anything fun today?

I'll get us started by answering my own question:

I went for a short walk along the river. The weather wasn't as glorious as yesterday, mostly overcast and a bit chillier, but I spotted a number of trees beginning to turn colours with bright splashes of red and orange. Before my walk my Mum had phoned me and we chatted for quite some time, about among other things patchworking. When I got back from my walk I collected together the materials I am using for the patchwork bag I am making for my niece's birthday next month. I then cut out the pieces I will need and have even sewn the first bits together. I really enjoy patchworking, but I do find getting started on a new project requires a concentrated effort. Now that the major design is determined and I have cut most of the pieces out, I can just do a little sewing when I have a spare moment.

I haven't started a new quilting project in about a year, but it does require concentration - if you cut the pieces wrong, it just won't fit the way you want it to.

I did cut some pieces wrong even so, but I caught it so that they can be used for other projects at a later date. I usually put borders around my patchworks, but I tend not to cut them out until the middle bit is done. That way if I have got the seam allowance a bit wrong I can compensate with the width of the borders to get two sides of the bag the same size.

Clever plan! :)

Since the choice seems to be between sewing things accurately or working out how to make a nice-looking bag otherwise it was always going to be doing something clever for me. I am not bad at sewing, but even small differences in how wide you make the seam allowance add up to quite a difference when you have six or seven patches sewn together in each direction. I am never going to be that accurate!

*nods*
It is just all the patterns I've come across say cut everything out first...

I fear that is because the people writing patterns are evil and want you to feel stupid and like a failure for not managing to keep to the exact seem allowance specified. It does help to have most of the pieces cut out at the beginning though, since that way you can just stitch them together and not worry about having to cut more out. If you are making your own design it also allows you to see how the materials look together before staring on sewing, in case you want to change how you arrange the pieces.

*nods* Or the people making the patterns are more accurate.

It is like cross stitch patterns always say to start in the middle - but I hate doing that because I usually end up running out of space in one direction or another...

I have never actually given much thought to why cross stitch patterns say to start in the middle, I have just done it. Now that I do think about it am not sure what the reason is.

Since most of my cross stitching is done on packs where I get the pattern, the cotton and the aida, I haven't had a problem with running out of space. I think it was my Mother who taught me the trick of folding the aida double and then running my nail along the crease (and then repeating in the other direction) to find the middle of the material.

I try folding it to find the middle, but don't seem to do it very well...

I agree, patern makers must be evil.

Very productive and sounds a lot of fun!

I am quite pleased with the pattern I have decided on. My niece likes lots of different colours, and black&white so I am making the sides mainly out of two types of black&white material with her initials (one on each side) in squares of lots of different types of material.

That sounds very nice! :)

I made one for her older brother in mostly pink (his favourite colour) with his initials on the sides. My sister (their mother) said he was especially pleased with it having 'his letters' on so I thought I should do that for my niece as well, especially since she has always been fascinated by letters. (She will be turning six in November.)

Very personal gifts! :)
Letters are cool...

We are a very bookish family, in the sense of a lot of the presents we give and enjoy receiving are books. Indeed one Christmas a few years back my nephew asked "When are we going to open the books?" meaning the presents under the tree. :-)

Books are the best presents!
(your family sounds a lot like mine in many ways!)

When we were little we used to get books for each other's birthdays as well: We each had a series of books that we got the next part of on all four of our birthdays and one on Christmas as well. Then there was a different series of books that we just got the next part of on our own birthdays (and possibly Christmas as well, I can quite remember now.) There was yet another series of books that we would get the next part of between the four of us only at Christmas, and then be told to sit on the sofa and read that to each other while Mum made the Christmas dinner. I still think a birthday when I don't get a new book to read is a let-down. My sister and I have worked out a system where we are responsible for making sure the other gets at least one book for Christmas and birthdays, after one sad year where I admittedly got books, but not ones to read all the way through, instead being of the reference-variety. The one year she had found a non-book present that she really wanted to give me for my birthday she warned me and so that I could make arrangements with Mum to provide the I-want-to-read-it-right-now book. :-)

Very good plans!

I love the signs of encroaching autumn; it's perhaps my favourite season.

I too am very fond of autumn, especially all the vivid colours of the trees. Not so much the rain and it being well dark by the time I leave work...

I'm not a fan of heat; I like mellow autumnal sunlight, crunching leaves underfoot as I walk in the woods and berries everywhere in the garden. But the decreased day length is a definite downer!

I am not big on heat myself; my favourite season might actually be winter. It has to be proper winter though, with lots of snow. On the other hand I am also very fond of both spring and autumn...

I like winter in skiing resorts, with lots of crisp snow. And those beautiful short days with eggshell blue sky but piercingly cold.

Autumn is lovely when it is good weather, but when it is wet and dark not so much

But summers these past two years have been just as wet!

yes - dreadful really....
iirc there was a nice warm, dry spell here in about May....

The best here might have been March. We never did get the lawn under control this year.

It was a Federal holiday here in the US, so I was off work. I slept in (YAY!!!), then we walked the Earthpig (our dog), had breakfast, puttered around and finally went to the store for groceries. Upstairs neighbor came down to visit for a bit, bringing her knitting, while The Beloved made a snack on the stove. And now I'm checking email before heading off to do a bit of knitting myself.

Try to contain your jealously over the wild and crazy life I lead.... [grin]

I'm jealous I didn't get the day off (pouts)

Try to contain your jealously over the wild and crazy life I lead.... [grin]
I'll see your knitting and raise you patchworking! While my ratatouille was simmering on the stove this evening I got sewed a few patches on my latest project together. :-) We are wild, wild people!

while my day is'nt half over yet (it's just after 12:00 pm here - California), so I'm still doing laundry and I'm about to make myself some lunch. I am looking forward to seeing the second ep of the new season of Once Upon a Time tonight.

I don't think I have heard of that series. What is it about?

Fairytail land crosses over to the real world because of an evil queen's curse - the offical description from the web site:

About the Show

This is Fairy Tale Land. It's filled with magic, monsters and all of the characters we all know from stories growing up. It's real, and so are the people in it. But unlike the "happily ever after" you may have heard about, their stories continued, and The Evil Queen cast a Dark Curse over the land....

This is Storybrooke. It's a quiet, little, New England town filled with people who go about their everyday lives with no idea who they really are. The Queen's Curse has trapped them here and placed her in near-complete control. They have no real memories and no real hope.

Once Upon A Time is, at its core, a story about hope.

"For us, that’s what a fairy tale is. It’s that ability to think your life will get better. It’s why you buy a lottery ticket—because if you win you get to tell your boss that you’re quitting and you get to move to Paris or wherever and be who you always wanted to be. And that’s Cinderella, right? One day she’s sweeping up and the next she’s going to the ball. Adam and I just wanted to write about something hopeful that for one hour a week allows one to put everything aside and have that feeling that your dreams just may come true."
- Edward Kitsis, Co-Creator/Executive Producer

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/once-upon-a-time/about-the-show

Sounds very interesting! I will have to see if it turns up on any of the TV channels I have or else if DVD box sets for region 2 are available (at a price I am willing to pay).

The first series was on Channel 5 - there may be repeats on one of their channels at some point...

Thank you! I shall have to keep my eye out. One of the drawbacks to not watching live TV is that you end up not knowing what is on, and therefore missing things that you might have liked. On the other hand it also means that you generally don't watch a lot of rubbish just because it is on, so I suppose on average it works out in my favour.

*nods* I end up having it on in the background a lot (recently silence has been an issue for me due to depression), as I don't generally get drawn into it as much as radio/audio books, so it is good when I want to focus on something else... ;)

We only had the telly on when we were actually watching something when I was little and to this day I find it hard not to watch if it is on. So I try to turn it off if what is showing is not something I actively want to watch. Somehow I find the radio easier to ignore; I can filter out the sound if I am concentrating on something pleasant like reading or chatting with friends through LJ.

Yay for being productive and more OUAT - hope it is good!

We went for a short walk around our local hill. The weather here was warmer than yesterday, the sky clear blue with little puffy clouds. We saw some acrobatic squirrels & lots of frisky young bullocks, and petted the black & white cat who lives at the farm near the hilltop. Got back and had a slice of chocolate cake, then both did an hour & a half of gardening, which actually got a lot done.

Back after dinner!

Sounds like a very pleasant day! I do love squirrels, they are such lively creature though you sometimes get too many of them in the parks.

I'm very fond of squirrels, though these are boring greys. We have a pair in the garden, and watching them through my office window hanging upside down eating hazelnuts out of the hedge is one of the delights of late summer.

Having grown up in Sweden where we only have red squirrels I still think greys are the interesting ones. Though I think reds are cuter, but that might simply be because they are smaller.

I've only seen reds occasionally but they are, to my eye, much prettier. I hadn't realised Sweden still had only reds.

When I think squirrel, the mental image is still a red one. When my Mother and I travelled across Canada we saw a lot of different types of squirrels; until that point I had thought there were only greys and reds. I hear we are getting black ones in the south of UK now, that are even bigger than the greys and out-competing them. I haven't seen any yet though.

I tend to class the things I saw in the Rockies as ground squirrels, but no doubt they're closely related to the European varieties. I too have yet to see a black squirrel, though Mr EA has seen one in England.

I remember once when visiting my Mum's family here in England that they suggested taking us to see this reserve where they had red squirrels; we were far more interested in seeing grey ones. It is funny how what is exotic varies!

Indeed!

Sounds like a good day! :)

Indeed!

Not much really - my hands have decided to flare badly today, so my plans for baking and cross stitch have had to wait.
I intended to do some writing, but the pain killers prevent that - so I have been reposting comments and watching tv - overall a good way to spend the day (not too hard of my hands as I have been mostly using the mouse which is much easier on my hands than the keyboard)

Sounds like a pleasant, restful Sunday. :-)

But isn't reposting comments bad for flaring hands? *feels guilty*

No need to feel guilty!
It is not actually too bad a thing for me to be doing - I can do most of it with the mouse which is easy on my hands, and it is a good distraction from trying to do any of the worse things. ;)

Scrubbing the oven, scrubbing the fridge, scrubing the freezer, doing some reconstruction work (very little), cursing LJ (very much), eating cookies against frustration (great amounts of those) - and little else.

Not a real Sunday type of day.

*hugs*
At least things are clean!

Lj is evil, but the party survives (and reconstruction is ongoing between loads of us :) )

Sounds like a tiring sort of day, though hopefully having cleaned the fridge, freezer and oven will have given you a good feeling of satisfaction.

Actually, it did. It's only so that when I do something like that, Mum always gets the feeling that she had done something wrong... *sighs*

That is sad, because of course you weren't doing it as a criticism of her. Oh well, hopefully you can both enjoy having clean kitchen appliances for the next little while.

Mr EA says 'happy birthday!' He's just across the kitchen from me and would post it himself, but he's forgotten his password! He sends you a nice relaxing picture from the Lakes (points to icon). He says 'let's meet up when we're next in Budapest!'

Oh, definitely! But then you'll have to visit us at home and we'll cook you something from Granny's old favourites. Also, I'll bake cake!

Mr EA says 'sounds like a nice idea' :) But it won't be this year, I fear.

That's all right. I can wait.

That is beautiful! Which lake is it of? I am not very well-travelled in the Lake District but I do love it. A group of friends have a tradition of going to the Lakes over New Year; we often stay in the vicinity of Kessick and I have a gorgoeus photo from a few years back of Derwent Water with snow on the hills beyond, that I use as a desktop background picture.

It's Blea Tarn, in Little Langdale, one of my mother-in-law's favourite spots. We spent the millennium New Year camping in Great Langdale. We should go up to the Lakes more often -- it's only 2.5 hours drive from here and we used to go up for the weekend, but haven't done for a few years.

Thank you for the link. That is an excellent photograph! There are a lot of things I think I should do more often, like visit all the great museums here in London; somehow I seem to mostly go when I get visitors and therefore have someone to go with.

Thank you! It's a really lovely place, even (especially?) on an overcast day.

I used to work in London & never found time to go to the museums there, and now I'm hundreds of pounds away by train so it's just as cheap to fly to Europe; I've seen far more artworks in other European cities than in London!

Ah! The Lakes. So lovely! Got to go wandering there once... and farther than I expected from the map, so I ended up finally finding a bus to get me back to my lodgings, exhausted! Still, lovely!

The way the valleys are laid out, it's quite easy to walk a relatively short distance cross country, then find there's no quick route back! But I'm glad you're experience didn't put you off! It's truly a beautiful place, with such a variety of scenery in such a small area.

(deleted comment)

Oh, those do look good

Sorry, I'll have to re-size the picture. Will repost it in a sec.

Second attempt with the cake offering.

(http://wiseheart.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/8204/113040)

Edited 2012-10-07 19:33 (UTC)

A very impressive and delicious looking pile of cakes! :D

It's cheeting, though, as they are from a few Christmasses ago.

Recycling ;)

Good for the environment! :-)

Yes, please! Those look delicious. Have I mentioned the Swedish tradition of 'seven types of biscuits/cakes'? (We use the same word for cakes and biscuits: kaka.) The idea is that for a good coffee and cakes type party you should have seven different sorts of sweet things to offer people, and enough of them that everybody can have one of each.

That is a great tradition! :)

We do like our sweet baked goods! There is even a verb in Swedish that means having coffee/tea/cordial/(generally non-alcoholic) beverage-of-your-choice and something small to eat with it: fika that I never have found a satisfactory translation into any other language for. It can also be a noun, describing the act of spending time with friends/family while eating/drinking in this fashion.

that is a great word (and so much meaning in such a short word)! Untranslatable words as fascinating :)

It is one of the truly rewarding things about learning different languages: having new words that you didn't even know could exist before. I find it says something very interesting about the way people think.

Oh my God! No, I won't tell you what that word means in Hungarian! Rest assured, though it's nothing edible. *keels over*

I shall try to remember not to say it to Hungarians, not that I am even sure I have met any apart from you and your Mother.

Sounds an excellent idea :)

What a delicious selection!

One of each, please?

Sure, be my guest!

And the comments have started collapsing on this post too! Go us! o/\o

Already! o/\o

Is that a record you think: collapsing threads within 2 hours of the party post going up?

I don't know, but it would not surprise me! Usually it seems to take a while for it to get into full swing.

I guess we were already in the party mode.

After 7 days and a nefarious attack - yeah, I'd say we definitely are!

May I have another suggestion? The Party Pooper LJ entry is getting incredibly long and complex.
What about moving the not-yet reconstructed threads (like the one about Trek species and I think one or two more) over here? There aren't many left, and it might be easier to deal with them

That sounds like a good plan! I posted the top comments to most of the threads (all that I could find easily), so it should be possibly to see which threads haven't been replaced yet :)

I have only got copies of the top-level comments I made that someone then replied to; I think all of those have been reconstructed at the other entry. That being said, I think reconstructing the remaining ones here makes sense.

Is it just me or is LJ being very slow at the moment? I had serious problems posting a comment to the 'LJ Party Pooper' post just a minute ago, with the page freezing after I clicked 'Add a comment'.

no, it's slow for me too

I suppose that is good and bad news: good in that there is nothing wrong with my computer or internet connection; bad in that it slows down the partying for all of us.

It wouldn't work at all for me for about 20 minutes, I just kept getting error messages. I'm getting paranoid, it's like LJ is going all-out in its attempt to stop the party. We will prevail!

It's the vengeance of the Gwenninator. She tried to sabotage

antigwenallies already, and now she's after me.
I really need to write more in the Wishverse. I haven't killed her for what? Two years?

Yes please, I'm all for killing her off as many times as possible

Ah yes, Gwen could definitely do with being killed again!

Indeed! We won't let anything take our fun from us.

LJ knocks us down but we just come back stronger!

It was giving me 503 errors, but now seems to be better... *touch wood*

I realise I didn't repeat the happy birthday from me! So, happy birthday! I hope you have a day that's memorable for all the right reasons.

Thank you! *hugs*

And, hey, is this the hundredth comment?

Well we are certainly past 100 now. :-)

We won't let LJ spoil our fun!

\o/ 100!

We are awesome! Or possibly addicted. Or both :)

I'd say both :)

I think I'll go to bed now. Sorry, ladies. I was up until 3.15 in the morning, and it's already midnight again. Barely 5 hours of sleep seem to be a lot less than at the time when I was 30. *yawns*

Have a good night!

Goodnight!

goodnight

Good night and sweet dreams!

Goodnight!

(and yay lj finally loaded for me)

Can I bring some apple pie to the party? My agile friends came today and climbed up a ladder to my apple trees to gather about 30lbs of apples.

Yay, apple pie! That is an impressive amount of apple (and homegrown apples are the best!)

My trees are about 100 years old too and still going strong! Maybe they should have their own birthday party?

Wow! I wonder what a tree party would be like.... possibly something like an Ent-moot? ;)

I guess it would be fun. I can just imagine the Ents making their stately way there. Perhaps cider would be served instead of ent draught?

What's wrong with the Ent-draught? It gives you curly hair, apparently, which means we would save a lot of money on not going to the hairdresser's. *g*

Unless of course, you like my latest hairdresser, think that there is something wrong with curly hair! When I said, in response to a direct question, that I didn't blow dry my hair, she told me 'I really should'. However, I much prefer my hair with the natural wave/curl it gets if I let it air dry to the way it looked after she had blow-dried it straight.

That sounds really silly of her!
(but then I don't believe in blow driers - I wish my hair was curly, but it is determinedly not)

I wish I had some decent hair, period. The thin, barely existent stuff that grows on my head is an embarrassment.

I think hairdressers go out-of-their way to make you feel that whatever type of hair you have, you should be striving for something else; it makes business sense, I suppose, but it annoys me greatly!

I suppose so. I hate going to hairdressers - I mostly just let mine grow until it really annoys me... it is currently mid back length

I generally keep putting off going to the hairdresser until my hair gets so long that it annoys me too much. When I was younger I had really long hair, and just occasionally cut the frayed ends off my self. Since getting it cut shorter I have realized that if I keep it below a certain length it gets much easier to manage: I used to have a real hard time and need to spend really long each morning getting the knots out of my hair. When it is shortish I can just run my brush through it and it all sorts it self out very easily.

That's what I do - just let it grow until I can't stand it anymore, then have it cut off. It's much easier to manage when it's shorter, and because it's curly it dosen't frizz as bad when it's shorter.

That's what I do - just let it grow until I can't stand it anymore, then have it cut off.
Exactly! Which makes it all the more annoying when the hairdresser won't cut enough off. In some ways I suppose I can see their point: they are worried that you will be displeased with how much they have cut off and it is easier to cut a bit more than to try to make it longer. On the other hand hair grows! If it should end up a bit shorter than you wanted, you simply need to wait a little while and then it will be longer again.

My main annoyance with previous hairdressers was that they never believed me that yes, I actually do want my hair cut *that* short because it annoys the Jeebus out of me when it hangs into my neck. So I switched to one who works mainly for men, and she has no problems with finally freeing the nape of my neck so that I can wear blouses with colalrs without getting them dirty from my hair in no time.

Hairdressers always seem to think they know best.

I remember as a teenager getting my hair cut - it was just about long enough to sit on and I wanted it in a bob. They insisted on chopping about 4 inches off at a time, and checking if that was the length I wanted it :S

I have had that problem as well; at least this one did actually cut my hair as short as I wanted it. I took the advice of another LJ-friend of mine who suggested I tell the hairdresser how I didn't get my hair cut more than every six months or so and that I was really looking forward to having it short again. That seems to have done the trick, and I am really pleased with how it turned out this time. I can put up with know-it-all comments about how I 'should' blow dry my hair for the relatively short period the actual hair cutting takes for the pleasure of getting it done the way I want it.

I've been going to the same person for years - he knows me and my hair, I just tell him how short I want it and he does the rest.

So far I haven't managed to find a hairdresser around here that consistently believes me when I tell them how short I want my hair cut. I thought I had got it two times before last, but then when I went back to the same place I ended up with a hair cut I really wasn't pleased with: just short enough around the front and far too long in the back.

Yeah I got lucky - he was recommended to me by a friend, I have never been unhappy with my cut. And as he owns the business I don't have to worry about him leaving for another salon.

It is nice to know there are good hairdressers out there; I am pleased for you that you have found one. Maybe one day I will be as lucky too.

Apple pie sounds yummy; I will have a piece, please.

It's time for me to go to bed as well! It has been a fun resurrected party, and I look forward to more tomorrow. Good night all!

So, back to work, but that isn't all bad because, look, I got hold of a really fast computer to say hallo to you nice folks. *g*

I had one lesson in the 8th term today and will be with the kids from the 5th and 6th term in the afternoon - those who stay at school because their parents are working. It's such a nice change, not to have to wait 10-20 minutes for a reply to be typed up and another half a minute until it loads.

Any work-related issues you want to talk about? Radek is concentrating really heavily *points at icon* but I have 2 free hours to listen.

I had planned to mark some reports this morning, but I haven't been given them from the student office yet. On the other hand I am sure there are plenty of other things I should be getting on with...

Aren't there always? :(

But at least it meanst that I still have a job. At my age this is an achievement in this country.

Having a job does pay the bills, such as for my internet connection and allows me to have enough money to buy DVD box sets (and minor things like the rent on my flat and food as well) so I will try to be happy about that. Most of the time I actually enjoy my job, so I really shouldn't complain!

The truth is, I like my job, too. Even after 30+ years in this education business. Or I would, if the PTB would let me in peace to do it as I see fit.

I would, if the PTB would let me in peace to do it as I see fit.
I have this to a minor degree as well. There are definitely things I would like to see done differently with how we are teaching and assessing our students, that I think would make them learn more and more efficiently. Some of the problem unfortunately seems to lie in how the bodies that assess our teaching think we should do things, so it might just be something we can't solve on a departmental or even university level.

I'm off work today -- it's a Federal holidy -- so that's my work entry.

Which holiday do you have?

I didn't get it off, but it was Columbus Day.

It was Columbus Day, in honor of Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of the Americas. Never mind that it had been discovered and inhabited by people for millenia before that... In fact, it's not a universally marked holiday in the States anymore, and some refer to it by other names.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day

Also, since we've agreed to recreate some of the old threads here - and because we need to get to the next page, hehehe - I thought I'd launch here the favourite Trek aliens again. I won't be able to get hold of the actual comments until I got home, but at least the top level comment should be up.

I do believe I told you mine are the Vulcans. Then I probably went on to say, despite Enterprise and refusing to even acknowledge the latest so-called Star Trek film as being anything to do with Trek, indeed possibly even going so far as to claim it doesn't exist. ;-)

And I think I agreed. But I'll dig out the actual comments, they ought to be somewhere in my inbox. It was a good thread and deserves to be reposted.

wiseheart:
> Since we had repeated Trek-related discussions: what about your favourite
> Trek aliens?

> My list of favourites: - Vulcans (Duh! Despite what "Enterprise" did to
> discredit them); - Andorians; - Deltans; - Romulans; - Bezites (the only
> really interesting 24th century aliens);

> I like the Bajorans, but they are too human-like for my taste to really
> count as aliens, and the Trill were never really explored as a species.
> Cardassians are interesting but too creepy, and Ferengi are just
> annoying.

> Your turn...

solanpolarn:
Vulcans definitely! And I think we can agree to disregard
Enterprise as not canon, both with regards to the Vulcans and the
stupid Suliban/temporal cold war plot line.

badly_knitted:
Tribbles, lol! They're fluffy, and I do love fluffy things!

I was always fascinated by Vulcans, I adored Spock as a small child (he's
still my favourite Star Trek character) and I was conviced I must be part
Vulcan because one of my ears is a bit pointy. Of course I was only 5 or
6 at the time, so I think I can be forgiven!

wiseheart:
Oh, yes, Tribbles are the cutest things. But they aren't a sentient
species.

However, if non-sentients count, too, then I'll mention the giant
eel-birds of Rigel V (I think it was Five, at least).

badly_knitted:
I think non-sentient species should count, because they're still aliens!

wiseheart:
The Animated Series had the weirdesst ones. Remember the electric cat?

badly_knitted:
I don't think I ever saw that! I can't believe I missed it! I wonder if
it's on youtube anywhere, I'll have to check.

wiseheart:
The drawing itself is really godawful, but some of the stories are
interesting. Yesteryear, for one, which gives wonderful insight into
Spock's childhood.

badly_knitted:
There are a few bits on youtube, I'll see if that one's among them.
Wonder how I never saw it - it must have been on in the UK, surely. Of
course, if it wasn't on BBC I wouldn't have seen it - my dad wouldn't let
us watch ITV when we were little because he didn't approve of advertising
on television. That seems so weird now, but at the time it was a new
channel and the only one with adverts. There were only 3 TV channels when
I was little, now there are hundreds, but there's still nothing I want to
watch most of the time, lol!

rcfinch:
I must be a creep, as I really like Cardassians...

solanpolarn:
I find them fascinating, though that might be mostly Garak... Dukat
creeps me out.

rcfinch:
Dukat is my favourite Star Trek villain. He's the personification of
creepy, and yet...

solanpolarn:
Creepy isn't necessarily a bad thing in a villain; it is certainly better
than cartoonish, which happens far too often.

espresso_addict:
I really like Dukat! Though he's probably not the type of character one
would wish to meet in real life...

rcfinch:
That's why it is so nice to have him safely in a DVD-box.

espresso_addict:
Fiction is a wonderful invention!

And a safe one!

wiseheart:
No, you're just less easily freaked out than I.

espresso_addict:
Me too!

espresso_addict:
I'm sure I'd like the Vulcans if I'd seen more TOS, but the most
interesting species I've seen much of is probably the Cardassians. I
really enjoyed the hints of their culture that we saw, and I was sad that
most of the characters we met were military types. I'd have liked to have
seen more civilians.

Altariel's Cardassian pro-novels are simply wonderful!

And, in the same spirit, I remember we had something about a favourite TV-shows, too. Or has that particular thread been reconstructed in the Party Pooper LJ entry?

In any case, the only things I'm currently watching on German TV are the old Star Trek re-runs. Tele5 has been on a sci-fi feast for months by now, showing old episodes of TNG, DS9, Voyager and Stargate and SGA, respectively, over and over again. It's a nice thing to realise that I still like them. :)

I'm having a Stargate SG-1 re-watch, I'm halfway through season 4 but haven't had time to watch any for a while. I still love it. =)

Well, lets see... I'm watching Once Upon a Time, Supernatural, Fringe, NCIS, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Arrow and Beauty and the Beast are, but they haven't premiered yet.

Edited 2012-10-08 13:45 (UTC)

tv: currently watching Merlin, Doctor Who

dvd: currently rewatching The West Wing and watching (for the first time-ish) ST:TNG (as in I've seen a lot of the episodes, but not all and not in the right order)

I must have missed this thread! My favourite series is Twin Peaks, particularly the first season. Perfect. I didn't have a television when it aired. I'd nagged a group of acquaintances who did into holding weekly Blake's 7- and film-watching evenings with takeaway pizza. When we ran out of B7 (in those days, there were only three tapes available!), one of them said decisively 'EA will like Twin Peaks' (which he'd recorded). And he was right. I can't even remember his name now!

I forgot to add the shows I'm watching on Hungarian TV - it rarely happens, but soemtimes, yeah. Anyway, there's this charming Victorian detective series called "The Murdock Mysteries", made in Canada, I think, in which the cops run to the crime scenes on bycicles and wear three-piece suits and melon hats, and everything we consider common knowledge or even outdated is brand new and exciting for them. I love the series!

Also, they've started to rerun "The Adventures of Pirx the Pilot", which was about the first Hungarian sci-fi series, based on the short stories of Polish sci-fi genius Stanislaw Lem. This was also the first time when a director (András Rajnai, to name him) experimented with the ten-newest achievements of filmography, just one step before computer-generated stuff and blue and green screens came around.

Of course, he had a very little budget, which he spent on the cool stuff, so that the physical sets turned out really hilarious. For example, the rocket spaceships were actually dismantled coffee machines, with the most obvious parts removed - but everyone recognized them anyway.

It's an old show that first run when I was in upper primary or the early years of secundary school, but it still has its unique charm.

I've never seen "The Murdock Mysteries" - it sounds good, must see if I can find it online.

The Murdock Mysteries sounds interesting, but I don't think it ever got to tv here. I've got it on my dvd list and will hopefully see it at some point.

That sounds like a fun series - old shows have far more interesting props, but often have far more interesting stories as they are less distracted b blowing things up

It's a really lovely show, with the different morals and yet scientific interests of the Victorian times. They even have Sir Arthur Conan doyle as a guest character - twice! - and one of Queen Victoria's grandsons, if I'm not mistaken.

Your mention of Stanislaw Lem reminded me of this interactive 'doodle' that Google put up for the 60th anniversary of his first book publication last November. I really enjoyed it. Did you see it?

No, I've apparently missed it. Thanks.

Lem is a genius. One of the greatest sci-fi writers of the 20th century. It's very interesting to watch how he develops away from the obligatory happy-go-to-the-future socialist world view to darker, more complex themes. His last works are great, but also absolutely depressing.

There is a series of short stories, though, describing the adventures of two robotic engineers, Trurl and Klapantius, which is absolutely hilarious. All stoires are written from the POV of robots, and humans, if mentioned at all, are described as ugly, disgusting and treacherous creatures. Kyberiada is the title, if I'm not mistaken, although I'm not sure about the English spelling.

That sounds like a really interesting set of short stories! I will have to see about trying to get hold of them.

I found some ep of "The Murdock Mysteries" on youtube - I watched the first ep, I really liked it. Thank You!

It's cute, isn't it? I calme too late to it - mid-season 1 - and so still haven't seen the beginning of it, but I love it to pieces. There is a lj comm for MM, but unfortunately, it's mostly dead.

I was only able to see one ep last night (I had to see Castle's new ep at 10pm), I think it was the first one - I really liked it. I'm going to have to get it on DVD, but until then I will watch what I can find on the net.

We have no TV, so I am limited to what's available for free online. I've watched a few episodes of things I liked when they were on TV when we had a TV, but not much lately. I don't seem to have the time.

One particularly fun discovery was when, a year or so ago, I found a couple episodes of a show we used to watch in New Zealand when I was a kid. "Warship" was a fictional show about the captain and crew of a modern frigate in the British Royal Navy. Much of it was actually filmed on a Royal Navy ship, and it was good fun. The BBC has never released it on video/DVD, so that's all I can find for now.

I hardly ever re-watch TV shows nowadays. Hmmm. I do have my Man from Uncle DVDs which I've been thinking of rewatching, at least partially. Sapphire and Steel too, with Halloween coming up, it's the right time to go back. The only other show I have on DVD, believe it or not is Lexx. *cough cough*. I have no excuse.

New shows, I enjoyed the just finished Dr Who season, very effective ending I though, nicely wrenching. I watched the first two eps of Elementary (on line though). It's not bad, I'll watch again on line if I remember ;). Someone told me to check out Person of Interest, which is on-line here in the US too so I might. My TV habits are very on and off.

You actually bouoght Lexx? You're more devoted to sci-fi than I'll ever be, then.

I love to re-watch old favourites. Strangely enough, I like to re-watch them in live TV more than from videoutape, even if I have the original tape/DVD/whatever. No idea why.

MFU - that's a show I never saw but would love to.

I'm not at all devoted to sci-fi, the DVDs were cheap here :) I got it because i liked the darkness and the absolute weirdness of the vision. It's one of those shows that was so uneven, that I could never actually recommend it without caveats--but it had a few episodes that were really smart and that I loved. At the same time, it had some awful stuff, there were plenty of eps that didn't work at all.

There used to be a few episodes of MFU on youtube, but they've been removed. It's fun. And it has Illya which is pretty much all you need to know :D

And another thread waiting for reconstruction:

Did we have music already?

Thinking of this because I've recently returned to my choir, after a year of hiatus. Despite my misgivings os some choices re: what we should sing, I missed singing too much. Otherwise, I don't do music actively much. As a child, I used to play the piano (well, I made lame attempts to do it)
and learned to play the Blockflöte and the guitar a bit. Neither led to much.

So, who else sings in a choir or plays (played) an instrument?

I tried to learn to play the guitar many moons ago, but I was never any good. I don't even remember the chords I learned, but I still have the guitar!

You're luckier than I am. My godson borrowed my guitar for 3 weeks. That was about 12 years ago...

Hmmm, your godson doesn't quite seem to have grasped the concept of borrowing!

My guitar was a 13th birthday present from my parents, so I'm rather attached to it even though I can't really play it.

I believe I responded to having been taught to play the flue when I was younger, but I wasn't very good.... could be I didn't practice enough, and have thought of trying again.

A friend of mine tells me this week is 'national chocolate week' in the UK. I see no reason to restrict celebrations to people in the UK, though: Chocolate for everyone! (who wants it; anyone who doesn't want it can give their share to

wiseheart or me.

Oh, yes, I'm willing to take offerings. In all the hectic we missed the annual Chocolate Festival in Buda Castle anyway.

That's a shame about missing the Chocolate Festival, but hopefully you will get some chocolate anyway. Here is some virtual one to tide you over!

Really? There is a national chocolate week? Somehow I totally missed that! ;)
Yay chocolate!

I only found out through a friend mentioning it on Facebook. He did used to work for Kraft, and through that he could get cheap Green & Black's chocolate, so maybe one of his old work mates pointed it out to him.

Why, thank you! As it happens, I was just enjoying a bit of excellent, dark chocolate from a local shop when I joined the party. Mmmmm....

That reminds me: I have this gorgeous bar of Lindt Blueberry and almond chocolate. I best have some to celebrate this 'national chocolate week' properly. :-)

I wonder if we get to the second page before the party is over...?

Comment count is very promising. By this speed, we might eventually reach that which has been lost, the two entries counted together.

It is looking good, isn't it?

Yes! We will get to page 2, I have faith! :)

I have just shared the results of my baking on the weekend with people at work for a pleasant afternoon coffee/tea break. When asked why I had baked, I told them that a friend of mine mentioned baking for her birthday which inspired me, so we were helping celebrate her birthday: Happy birthday

wiseheart from the LCN/TYC corridor!

What corridor?

Your biscuits still look very yummy. I took some of mine to school, to offer them to a few selected colleagues, and they were ecstatic. Earler on I used to offer them more people, but when I saw my poor cookies lie around on their desks a week later I decided that I'd only give them to those who can value them.

It stands for 'London Centre for Nanotechnology' and 'Thomas Young Centre'; I am part of the former as well as the Department of Materials. We have a very nice group of people with offices off this corridor and a big shared office with lots of happy -- and always willing to eat things -- post-doctoral researchers and Ph.D.-students.

I keep forgetting that we have an actual, honest-to-earth scientist among us. And here I am, blathering around about nanotechnology in my fics and other stuff I haven't really got a clue about. *ducks*

In The Physics of Star Trek there is a list of the ten worst science moments in Trek so if (and I want to stress the 'if' here) you get it wrong you are in good company with professional writers who should have the resources to get it right in the form of scientific consultants.

I got distracted from this by moving furniture about in my living room - it had been an issue for a while - but now is hopefully more convinient. However, I still have piles of random junk sitting in the middle of the floor - all the things that had been hiding under and behind things - and I should sort it all out, but it is a rather depressing task.

Anyway, party :)

Party is always good to make one feel better. Especially a virtual one, with no dancing involved, where one would wait in vain to be asked for a dance. Those are my most humiliating memories.

Virtual parties certainly have a lot of advantages.
(I mostly refused to go to ones that involved dancing as I am so bad at it - plus they'd usually involve loud music so make it hard to have good conversations)

Oh, god, you've reminded me of one of mine -- I hate pop music & used to refuse to dance at discos when I was a teenager (now I just don't go to them, but I'm less self-conscious also). One party my friends decided to nag me into dancing, and when that didn't work, they recruited a male friend of someone's boyfriend to ask me. Repeatedly. While his friends stood in audible range, laughing. It was sooo embarrassing -- at this point I'd hardly spoken to a boy who wasn't related to me or much younger than me (I went to a single-sex school and had no friends outside it).

How horrible!

My school organised dances with a boys's school. Hearing about these from older people (load music, dancing, dry ice, sneaking around trying to have more physical contact that the teachers approved of), I refused to go - I think I had to get a letter from my parents in the end to be allowed not to!

I should have just not gone, but I was a lot less confident in my opinions back then (I was about 15 or 16). I kept going to the things right through sixth form.

It is hard to know what is best to do - I did badly at that during university, did too many things because other people wanted me to...

I did a bit better at university than in my teens, but it's not until my late 20s/early 30s that I really managed to evade peer pressure. (I don't think it's coincidental that it coincides with getting heavily engaged in internet fandom.) Not that it has no effect on me now, but I make a conscious effort to ignore it.

*nods* Fandom was good for me as well - really made me better able to know who I was and to not be so dependent on rl acquaintances for social things....

It definitely makes meeting people with whom one has common interests and values easier.

Yes :)
and leads to parties like this and wonderful conversations :)

We should keep up Soledad's party all year! Though I'd find it hard to get other things done!

*nods* It would be fun, but (like picowrimo) eats time :)

I could do with an extra 8 hours a day to actually get things done! However fast I type it's quicker to hold conversations face to face.

Typed conversations are easier - especially to be talking about more than more thing at a time ;)
I mostly need more energy and focus rather than time - I have quite a lot of time, but other factors are the issue ;)

Typed conversations do have a lot of merits. Indeed, it's really energy & focus I could do with a lot more of.

Finding a better arrangement for furniture is always very satisfying, and some of the stuff you've uncovered might be useful!

*nods* Needles, pins, pens, medicine cups,... :)

Pens definitely. I also tend to lose remote controls, books, important pieces of paper... And Mr EA is forever dropping coins down the back of the sofa.

Remote and books, I usually end up actually looking for sooner - but so many pieces of paper, and by the time I find them I can't remember why they were important...

I have this awful tendency to lose notes for stories, which are greeted with cries of joy if they turn up. Unpaid bills, not so much :(

*nods*
I've taken to keeping story notes on the computer - then I lose then less (except when the computer crashes) and don't have to be able to read my own writing.

Very wise! Particularly if you take back-ups. What almost invariably happens to me is that I write a first plot outline, then print it out and scribble on it, a lot, and only very rarely do I get back to changing the original file. I keep on trying to change this habit, but never succeeding -- I took to typing late (early 20s) and I think my brain is still more creative when faced with paper & pen. The thing I really need to learn to do is stop using a red pen, as it disappears in sunlight!

At the moment most of it is on gdocs - which is fine until the internet is down and I want to work on things. I keep meaning to start using dropbox (even have an account), but I want to more the files there during the unmetered internet time and I never seem to get that far...

You're technologically way ahead of me. And way more organised. I never even manage to move the files I share between laptop & desktop to the file server!

I started using gdocs for Yuletide a couple of years back because I was terrified of my computer crashing and just kept on - although then they changed the interface to make it much less user friendly.... :)

I have too many old computer hard drives sitting around waiting for data to be retrieved, but somehow it never gets to the top of my to do list...

This conversation inspired me to get started on using Dropbox properly - copied my photos over to it and it has now spent several hours syncing them from one computer to the other! ;)
Hopefully it will be faster when I am only syncing working files!

That sounds very useful!

About a year ago I started assigning different notebooks (the paper kind) to different fandoms, where I keep my story ideas and fragments collected and ordered. They also have their special place in the book-case - sometimes I even remember which is which. *g*

Very organised! :)

Reconstructing a thread from the old post.

wiseheart:
The Your Favorurite City thread.

Since I'm at work, having an hour-long break and a computer that isn't as
painfully slow as mine is (it hasn't Norton), I use the opportunity to
start the requested thread.

My favourite city is Vienna. I've seen a great deal of cities, and
Budapest, the one I live in is absolutely gorgeous, but for me, Vienna is
the best city on this planet. It's a lot like my home town, due to the
old Monarchy, but different enough to be exciting, and it has a unique
flair no other city I've ever visited seems to have.

Historic places, fantastic chocolate, amazing coffee and very friendly,
charming inhabitants (well, most of them) - what else could one wish for?

On to you...

badly_knitted:
Due to health issues I can't travel these days, and I've never been out
of Britain anyway, but I used to love York, a very historical and very
beautiful city, and also Lyme Regis, on the South Coast. I remember the
main street was very steep. When I was young I thought of maybe moving to
live there, but it just never happened. A lovely place though, and very
friendly people.

espresso_addict:
So many cities to choose from! Let me think.

In North America, my favourite is San Francisco -- it has a wonderful
relaxed atmosphere with the feel of a European city, a superb modern art
museum, a lovely botanical gardens and a wonderful Chinatown -- best
dim sum restaurant I know! I do love cities on the coast.
Vancouver is also very pleasant.

In Europe, the choice is much more difficult. Hmm. Prague is perhaps my
favourite for the eclectic mix of architecture all jostled together, the
amazing Art Nouveau buildings, the cafe culture, the beautiful bridges,
the views over the river from the castle, the small size of the older
part (one can walk around it more readily than most). But I've also
really enjoyed Vienna, Budapest, Amsterdam, Munich, Venice, Barcelona and
probably a lot of other places I'm blanking on.

rcfinch:
Have you ever been to Copenhagen, or Stockholm? I can recommend both.

espresso_addict:
Not yet! Copenhagen is on my must-visit list, but I'll look at Stockholm
too.

wiseheart:
Yep, Stockholm is pretty. I find it intriguing that you can access lots
of the many islands simply via bridges. Plus, when in Stockholm, you can
meet

disthrainsdotte.

espresso_addict:
Ooh, islands, my favourite! I don't know Dis personally, you will have to
introduce us!

wiseheart:
That would require me going to Stockholm again, of course. *g*

espresso_addict:
Well, I meant electronically, but if you want to be tempted :)

rcfinch:
A report I read lately made Vienna the #1 city. I don't know if it was in
the world, or just in Europe.

espresso_addict:
But Europe has the best cities in the world :)

rcfinch:
:)) As it turns out, it depends on the report:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_most_livable_cities

espresso_addict:
I suspect the qualities one wants in cities to visit as a tourist and
those one wants to live there are diametrically opposed. Beautiful old
architecture & narrow streets make for uncomfortable living (witness
Cambridge).

Are we still stuck on Page 1? That won't do!

Anyway, back from work and currently typing up what I've written in the morning for the 10th chapter of "Atonement". The muse unexpectedly had a blur of activity, so the part has moved on from the dead spot it had been sitting on for days.

Mum and I had toast for dinner - old buns sliced and buttered and covered with a slice of cheese and put into the little toaster oven. It was delicious. We also had chicken soup with thin carrot pieces instead of noodles. Oh, and more coffee and Ischler cookies and vanilla crescents. Yum!

Yay for the muse cooperating! It is lovely when things suddenly work. *feeds muse*

She probably thought she owed me a birthday prezzie. Which she did. *g*

Very good present! :)

(I wonder if I can convince mine to do that ;) )
(although to be honest I know what I want to write at the moment, I just need to focus and sit down and write ;) )

I keep saying: sometimes you have to grab the muse by the lapels and wrestle her down to the floor. *g*

Yay for your muse's blur of actvity! It sounds like there's a lot to celebrate.

There is. :)

It was very nice of your muse to come out and play.

Birthday Party - The Second Coming

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