Sundry and Divers Ramblings

[rj_anderson]

Read The Hallowed Hunt last night, couldn't put it down, loved it. At first I was disappointed that Bujold wouldn't be writing any more Vorkosiverse stories and resented that she'd got caught up with this new series (which was ironic, seeing as I normally much prefer fantasy to SF), and I didn't really enjoy The Curse of Chalion that much when it first came out. But I really enjoyed Paladin of Souls and I think this one has to be my favorite of the series yet. Also, a story in which a healthy pregnant woman has an (apparently) easy natural birth with no complications may be a Bujold first, although I had to wonder a little about who was feeding the baby why Hallana gallivanted all over the countryside, and why Hallana wasn't engorged like whoah. Either she had some magic long-distance pumping thing going, or a wet nurse on one end and a whole lot of absorbent padding on the other...

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Since I have pretty much given up on this season's Canadian Idol in despair, as there is not one single contestant in the Top Ten (now eight, I guess) that I care about enough to back, let alone vote for, I decided last night to give Rock Star: INXS a chance. *shudders* Never again. Sure, most of the contestants are poised and professional on stage (more than can be said for the Idol franchise), and the live band is definitely a nice touch. But the skank factor is just way too much for me. And Brooke Burke and especially Dave Navarro make me want to run weeping into the arms of Ben Mulroney, which is a very frightening thing indeed.

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Aw, the Tenth Doctor is so cute in his spiffy new outfit. Stop pouting and get over it, Billie (who looks oddly pastede on yay in these pics, especially the last one).

Is it Christmas yet?

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Massive congratulations to james_bow, who has just landed a publishing contract with Canadian publisher The Dundurn Group for his YA novel Rosemary and Time. Way to go, James!

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And finally... Surely it is not possible for any human body to contain this prodigious volume of snot. I've been blowing my nose every two minutes all morning and it just. never. ends. Where does it all come from?

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ETA another silly meme result:

11 2/3", Oak, Veela You scored 63 wisdom, 22 bravery, 15 emotional, and 11 martyrdom!

Oak signifies wisdom, endurance, protection, and authority. The veela hair as a wand core means that you are slightly unpredictable but very powerful.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on wisdom You scored higher than 0% on bravery You scored higher than 0% on emotional You scored higher than 0% on martyrdom

Link: The Harry Potter Wand Test written by sputnik845 on Ok Cupid

Comments

[lydaclunas.livejournal.com]

No. :(

Since my poor computer doesn't particularly like downloading and then letting me watch these giant files, I think I'll be waiting for a new one before I catch up on the New Who. I'm pretty well addictied, though -- it's only the computer that keep me from going "omg must dl now!!!"

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Your icon still makes me giggle.

And also reminds me that the other day I had "Sister of Mercy (http://www.lyricsdepot.com/thompson-twins/sister-of-mercy.html)", which I have not heard in about twelve years, running through my head for no reason I can think of whatsoever.

[sabrinanymph.livejournal.com]

I guess I just need to figure out how to download. So far I've had no luck with it, either I've got the wrong players and they won't play back properly or something. I have cable now, so I could theoretically, but in practice it just never works out that well...

[lydaclunas.livejournal.com]

I just used Windows Media Player. DL torrents and off we go (well, theoretically... it's more of, "and off we struggle slowly into making the player work without too much crashing or fuss").

[sabrinanymph.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Maybe I should retry, but really, why couldn't they just make my life simple and air it down here? I mean even if it's like at two am on the Sci-Fi channel, I could set my recorder! That's technology I can figure out...

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Windows Media Player stinketh. I much more highly recommend the free DivX player, which works beautifully even on my old Windows 98-based system, and gives me smooth video even when Windows Media chokes (which is usually, in my experience). The only thing I've noticed (and this is probably because my system is Teh Primitive) is that sometimes the sound and picture get out of sync or I get a slight crackle in the soundtrack, but hitting the space key to pause for a couple of seconds and then hitting it again to resume always fixes the problem.

[lydaclunas.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know it sucks, but I'm lazy.

I need to do a lot of stuff to my machine, though, anyway. Back-ups and clean outs and whatnot...