So, it is party time again, folks!

[wiseheart]

Each year this time, we launch my virtual birthday party, which starts on October 1 and ends on October 9 at midnight, sharp. The goals of the party are to post as many comments and collapse as many threads as possible, on as many new pages as we can. It is always great fun, as you can see if you check out the similar entries of the last few years.

This year, I'll also throw the real party at mid-time - and post the recipes of all the food that will be there for you, so that you can all participate if you want to. Virtual food has no calories.

Fandom-related discussions are as welcome as the ones about coffee or chocolate (just to name a few favourites from previous years), and, of course, pictures and recipes of birthday cakes. ;)

So, drop by, tell your story, post your pics or silly poems, ask questions you always wanted to ask and have a good time!

Soledad, in excited expectation




Oh, and by the way, to provide birthday gifts hobbit-style, I've got a revived story and a Kansas 2 update for you.

Enjoy!

Comments

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

The breaking of this stereotype with Miles and Keiko O'Brien is one of the things I love about Deep Space Nine. I believe we have discussed that at length in previous years...

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I find I can put up with the 'guest character falls for main character and then dies' bit better than the 'never quite coming off' love story between two major characters, because at least the former is over in the same episode, and generally never spoken of again.

P.S. If no one beats me to it, this will be comment number 800! Wow!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

800 comments! Go us!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

I tend to find picking favourites hard - so many different things to try and rank on.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

I think I saw one or two episodes before that. Those cakes looked very impressive!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

*nods* I see that. I just got tired of so many of the interesting characters being thrown into the same pattern. However, the show does have its good points, and so much unused potential.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Long comments are good!

I do think it is still true that most people who do an A-level science subject such as physics or chemistry will also take maths, but since it isn't a requirement, the science subject will be taught as if the students aren't taking maths. At least in physics, this leaves it at mostly a show-and-tell sort of level, rather than giving the students proper understanding of how and why things work. I also think it gives them a very incorrect impression of what university level science is going to be like; the first year, one-third of the courses our physics students do are maths, and another third are (sort of) disguised-maths in the form of computational physics, with only a third being straight up physics. There was a similar level of maths for the first year students in Materials when I was at Imperial, and they too were often surprised by it...

I do recognize that there are niches of science where you can get by without maths, but I usually think they would actually do better if they had a deeper mathematical understanding. While you can use a spectrometer, to take your example, and just take the data it spits out, you will be better able to understand what it means if you understand the working principles and the data analysis that goes on in the 'black box', and that generally means understanding some maths. It isn't necessarily the 'hard core' algebra and calculus, but being able to understand statistics is extremely useful for any discipline that deals in large data sets...

Improving the mathematical literacy of the populous in general, is a topic close to my heart, and it upsets me that we fail people so badly in this. A lot of maths is just a compact way of expressing complex ideas, and being able to understand it allows you to see the underlying principles more clearly.

Sorry, I get quite worked up about this topic, as you may have noticed!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Gardening is a new hobby of mine, too! So far I have mostly planted things in pots, with more or less success. My radishes didn't grow any root at all, but went to flower. On the other hand, my tomatoes did beautifully, with the plants almost breaking under the weight of all the fruit!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I have had the great fortune of seeing Stewart in Stratford-upon-Avon twice: First in The Tempest and then in Hamlet. As you say, he has a very powerful stage presence!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I have never baked one myself, and I am not sure I actually know anyone else who has either. They are on sale in every café/patisserie in Sweden, and tend to be the sort of thing you buy from a professional rather than make yourself. One of the key questions when having one, is always how to share the rose!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I am hoping we will be getting the new Agents of SHIELD fairly rapidly here in the UK, like we did last year. I haven't seen it come up on the guide of my PVR yet, though E4 seems to be rerunning the first season at a high rate, so perhaps that is a good sign!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Go us indeed! Have some chocolate to celebrate!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid I wanted to grow up to be a farmer, and take over my parents dairy farm. I think I got over that 'dream' before hitting my teens though, and now I definitely would not want that job! It is a lot of very hard work, for very little pay, and often even less appreciation. It was a good life as a kid though, always having my parents at home even when they were at work...

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Yay, chocolate. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Castle, Agents of SHIELD, Supernatural and Arrow are returning shows - the rest are brand new

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

This does indeed sound intriguing; I may have to see if I can get hold of the first few episodes to see if I do like it. On the other hand, I do have a lot of other things I mean to watch, not to mention a nearly infinite list of books to read...

[sammydragoncat]

the above anonymous comment is me - I'm at work and forgot to log in

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Part of my problem is that I haven't got that much freezer space, and a substantial portion of what I do have is taken up with single portion boxes of frozen left-overs to have for dinner. Much as I love baked goods, they aren't something I (intend) to eat every day, while dinner is so it takes precedence for space in the freezer.

[sammydragoncat]

Tonight, will be the 3 episode to the new season - so hopefully you should get it soon.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I should perhaps have added: My current job is university lecturer in physics; it isn't what I planned to do even when I started university, partly because my first two years at university I did history and German. After changing to an engineering degree, I still wasn't planning on staying in academia; indeed one of my main reasons for going down the engineering route (apart from really enjoying it) was the prospect of a 'real' job at the end of it. On the other hand, I did always say I wanted to work in the research and development department of whatever industry hired me, and being a physics lecturer is partly a research post, so in some way I suppose I have ended up where I planned to. I am very happy where I am, both with the job itself and with my colleagues. For example, this afternoon I was working on setting an assignment for the module I gave the lecture in this morning. The director of my research centre, one of the senior professors, will teach on this module after my three weeks are up, and I asked him to look over my ideas for the assignment. He not only took time to read it through and give a few quick comments, he actually went and got his laptop and showed me the assignments he set for his part of the module last year and then talked about the pros and cons of different types of questions for quite some time. For someone new to the lecturing gig, like me, that sort of thing is fantastically helpful!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Time for bed for me now; I have another lecture tomorrow morning, but this time at the much more civilised hour of 11am. There are plenty of other things I need to do at work this week, though, so must get some sleep so that I can do them...

Good night all, and thanks for fun discussions! Looking forward to seeing threads collapsing on this fifth page tomorrow!

[sammydragoncat]

I have a separate freezer, so I have the space - I mainly do that so my nephews can pop them in the oven when they want a snack, I rarely get to have any.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Was that the Hamlet production with David Tennant? I saw that in Stratford and thought he upstaged Tennant by miles. The other play was Ibsen's The Master Builder, in which he was brilliant.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I've not had much success with pots so far, but I'm really bad at watering, and tomatoes need watering every day. You must be very diligent!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Supposedly titles should be italicised, while universes/characters are usually not; so Earthsea series vs Earthsea the universe. But mostly I was being lazy/inconsistent with everything except the obvious titles!