lyore

Brand New Shiny Computer is at the shop, being fixed. On Saturday I should get him back, and then I can seriously start replacing all the software I lost in the Great Computer Crash. Computer type friends - expect a call from me in the next week or so :)

Other significant thing which happened today: Got a haircut. Yay! After hunting around all of Canberra for a decent and not ridiculously expensive hairdresser, I ended up going back to the one on campus. Makes me all nostalgic for university :)

Which got me thinking - I really would like to go back to uni. While, fingers crossed, I will be starting my Masters next year (if I ever get around to submitting my paperwork), I'd really like to be able to go back full time and study something completely, just for interest's sake. I'd love to do an Arts degree, for instance. Maybe one of these days...

The other important thing which happened today was that I bought an adorable Super-deformed Darth Vader. On special, even. Now I just have to convince myself that I don't want to go back and get the TIE Fighter Pilot and Stormtrooper too...

Oh, and thanks for all the input and feedback on my topic for the public speaking competition. I've registered, and now just have to write and learn the damn thing. Before Monday. Hmmm - why do I do this to myself?

Despite my mild aversion to things Trek (one day I will get over my reactions to the movies and watch the series, I swear), everyone should go read this: Analytics According to Captain Kirk, because it is analytical, awesome and amusing.

Although honesty and fandom partisanship forces me to admit it is not quite as cool as Star Wars and Gravitational Constants, which is probably my favourite combination of Star Wars and physics I have seen on the web, and embodies everything I love when fans and geeks combine.

Plus, it's a wonderful example of the great scientific principle whereby one goes to great lengths to prove something one already know, and then writes it up as a paper :)

And since I am linking (semi-) scholarly works, I should include the real deal: Intercourse and Intelligence, an article discussing the effects of intelligence on the likelihood of virginity, from adolescent to adulthood. Cites a number of studies, and presents some interesting theories, some of which I agree with, some of which I don't. Interesting stuff, anyway.

(And for some reason none of my drop-down posting menus are working - mood, icon, journal. Anyone else have this problem?)

Let me say right up front that this isn't addressed to the book itself, but rather to some reactions I've been seeing.

( A few spoilers and a bit of ranting under the cut )

Right. Sorry about that. *wipes rant off the keyboard*

It's odd. I've never really been a Tonks fan, I certainly never thought my first DH-related rant would be defending her. *slightly bemused*

Just finished.

It is... surprisingly good. I'm sure you all know about the my opinions of the last two (especially OotP), so my expectations were exceedingly low, but overall I liked it.


( Spoilery thoughts under the cut )

OK guys, what are your thoughts?

No, I haven't read them. Not because I'm particularly trying not to be spoiled, I just haven't gotten around to tracking them down. But all the reactions I've been seeing on my flist have prompted a thought or two, which I thought I'd share.

If, for the time being, we consider the spoilers genuine (and again, I haven't read them, so have no opinion either way), I'm interested in the reactions of the fans. Are people more likely to be honest about their opinions when it is possible (or even likely) that this isn't the 'real' Harry Potter?

Every single reaction I've seen has been negative, profoundly so in some cases. And this is coming from a wide cros-section of my flist (as well as random people on LJ/the internet), people I wouldn't be able to get to agree the sky was blue in normal circumstances. And yet they all agree on this. I've certainly never seen such uniformity of opinion on any of the actual books (For instance, IMO, OotP was mostly unmitigated rubbish, and yet I know some people think it was OK, and some who think it was the best in the series).

If these spoilers do turn out to be accurate, I'd be very interested in a comparison of the reactions posted before and after the spoilers were authenticated. This seems to me to be the best chance of get a reaction to the book uncluttered by the automatic canon/creator defense mechanism of many fans (not throwing stones here - I've been guilty of it too).

Of course, in this instance there are other issues to be cosidered- people being more critical because they suspect the information is faked, annoyance over spoilers, etc. Still, I think it would be interesting to look at, if they turn out to be real.

I also think this has some interesting insights into the different ways fans react to official sources versus unofficial (and specifically fan-created) work, but that may have to wait until I am fully awake to articulate properly.

ETA Have had a quick flick through the spoilers, since I figured this was a win/win situation. Either a) they are accurate and DH really is as bad as it looks, in which case I am forwarned, or b) they aren't accurate, and therefore the book almost has to be an improvement, and the exceeding of my expectations makes me happy. (That said, there are some parts which look good/interesting, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see.)

ETA the 2nd Have done a slightly more intensive flick through the spoiler comms, and there are people who like it, so I stand corrected. I still think a comparison of reactions would be interesting.

So, the bad news is that my computer is officially dead. The good news is that this means I can buy a new computer! I'm going to get the new MacBook Pro, 15 inch, 2.4 GHz, 160G HD. Nice and shiny.

Hoping to get off work early tomorrow to buy it, and then the Mac people can transfer what they can save off my old comp, and I can take it home on Wednesday.

So, if all goes according to plan, I'll be back up and running on Wednesday night. See you all then!

Just a quick update to let you all know that my computer is dead. D-E-D. Dead :(

So all comment-answering and flist catching up is on indefinite hiatus, pending either a) my computer being repaired or b) me getting a new computer or c) both of the above.

bob_ette is kindly letting me borrow her computer to post this - and I plan on stealing it on a semi-regular basis until mine is fixed, so I'll be around intermittently.

I finally got around to making a new layout. Opinions? I'm still undecided on the colour of the writing - do you think black or grey would work better?

*Yawn* Soo behind on my flist... will try to catch up tomorrow.

Right. Now LJ has decided to behave itself, I bring ( David Tennant Picspammy goodness )

Oh, for FFS LJ! Explain to me exactly *WHY* I should renew my paid account? (Which expires this week, I might add.)

You haven't delivered my comments even reasonably close to on time for the last week, then you eat my layout, then you disappear off the face of the internet for hours at a time, and now you won't let me upload OR embed images in my posts.

Yeah, I get that keeping this site running at 100% is hard, especially with all those DDOS issues. But this is getting ridiculous. It doesn't bother me on a free site (well... it doesn't bother me as much *g*), but when I pay for this? Arrghh.

This post was going to be nothing but David Tennant picspammy goodness, but that'll just have to wait until LJ decides to actually WORK for once.