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Have triumphed over the (evil) forces of work and (really bad and probably evil) professional fiction* and (not evil at all) weekends spent at friends places to get back on line, just in time to catch up with the latest dramas - FanLib and That MJ statue.

There's really nothing to say about either of them that hasn't already been said, except that the same people who run FanLib are the sort of people who would think the fen protesting about the MJ statue are making a fuss about nothing, at least judging by the ads.


Apparently, according to the marketing gurus at Sideshow and FanLib, women don't read comics, and they don't write fanfic either.

Morons.

*OK, it was Star Wars EU books - so I should have known. I quit about 90 pages in to Michael p. Kube-McDowell trilogy on account of OOCness so extreme it was making my eyes bleed. And given I tend to be very obsessive about finishing books when I start them, me not finishing the book is a VERY bad sign. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself - except the OT Star Wars section is swamped with prequels and EU fic, and I hadn't tried this trilogy before, and I really do want to find more good stories about my characters.

It occurs to me that I most be a masochist - this would also explain why I am frantically busy at work, and yet also of my own free will negotiating to stay with this project long term. But at least work is interesting and educational - I'm getting a crash course on things I didn't even know existed 12 months ago, so I can turn around and be the project 'expert'. It's intense and exhausting, to say the least. It's also likely to be the reason for periodic bouts of silence - apart from the fluctuating hours (I'm averaging between 1.5 and 2 hours overtime a day, but it's varying wildly), I'm coming home so wiped I can't get a coherent thought together (apart from ranting about SW EU, apparently). So I'm reading, I'm just not talking.

Fair warning - I am in a grumpy mood today. So grumpy, in fact, that I have a whole stack of fic open in tabs that I am resolutely not reading, since I don't want my lousy mood to pollute my enjoyment of the stories.

So, with that in mind, I decided now was a good time to post my feelings about Allegiance, by Timothy Zahn. Yes, I was disappointed - TZ is one of the very few SW EU authors I like, and this book, while not a bad read, completely failed to live up to it's potential. Forget any thought of this actually being about Luke, Leia or Han (despite the blurb) - it's basically the Amazing Adventures of Mara Jade and The Good Imperial.

Note to Timothy Zahn - just because you 'bookend' the novel with scenes of L, L & H doesn't mean the book was in any way about them. If their section of the story finishes 50 pages* before the climax, chances are they aren't being used in a way that is particularly central to the plot.

Ok, that may be a little snide, but you really could remove L, L &H from the story without any effect on the plot. ( More character-related musings underneath )

My other major dislike in this book involved Mara, but possibly not the way you think. I think I've finally figured out why I have such a knee-jerk dislike of her when I'm actually reading TZ's books, but don't mind her when considered objectively, or when reading L/M fanfic. ( How writing style can really impact how you view a character )

After all that - the book really wasn't too bad. It just wasn't what it was advertised as, and not as good as I was expecting from TZ, so I felt a bit miffed at paying $55 for it. Ironically, this weekend I borrowed The New Rebellion from a friend and enjoyed it more - very unusual for me, given the era it was set in.

* this is an estimate - no, I didn't actually count.

This post has not enough squee and too much sleepy and probably error-ridden analysis.

( Like a great big Dalek pressure cooker )

As the first half of a two-part episode, it's a bit hard to make comments about the effectiveness of the episode, but it just didn't seem to me to have enough emotional punch. I enjoyed Gridlock a lot more (even if there hadn't been kitten!Ten), even though the entire episode was effectively just filler before they could have the Face of Boe revealation.

Huh - reading the above makes it sound like I didn't enjoy the episode. I did, I swear. It had moments that could have been brilliant, and maybe I'm just too tired to have the appriopriate emotional response right now. Or perhaps I'm just in a hypercritical mood tonight. Sorry, amethyste5, I guess I have lack of squee.

Random thought: David Tennant must be the fittest actor on TV. Every episode, he and C/companions is running for their life away from something.

Gotta love having time off work. You get back, and not only do you have an inbox full of things that really should have been dealt with last week, you find out at 8am that you have meetings running from 9 to 5 the next two days. So much for getting caught up. And the grad team are being clueless bastards as usual (when it comes to Professions-Which-Exist-Only-To-Make-Lyore's-Life-A-Misery, HR is currently beating Lawyers for the top spot).

OTOH, the meeting was run by a group called BSG, there was a Capt. John Sheppard, and animatorsent me a Dilbert cartoon through the internal mail system, so that kept me amused for a while :)

I have battled the Internet Connection From Hell and emerged victorious with this week's Doctor Who, now tucked safely (hopefully) on my harddrive. Unfortunately, I then lost the battle with bob_ette over whether or not I should watch it tonight. *sigh*

Also, I have officially decided I'm not a fan of the new posting layout (yeah, it took me a while *g*) - I never remember to change my icon for posts now that it's up the top.

Set 2: Mont St Michel, Exteriors and shots from the village.



( Not Safe for Dial Up )

All the pics have been resized, but if they are too page-bendy, let me know and I'll try and fix that.

Back in the country and connected again. Yay! Unfortunately, on the RL front, I picked up a cold somewhere between London and Kuala Lumpur, and have now completely lost my voice. Yesterday I sounded like a 14 year old boy, all squeaky and breaking, but today I woke up and it was just gone. Completely. The only good side of this was that I didn't have to answer any questions in my course today, since no one could here me anyway :)

Pictures of the trip will be up when I have a chance to go through them. Shouldn't be too long.

Also, I'm finally up to date with Doctor Who! Despite my dubious reaction to the teasers and previews of Martha, I'm finding myself really enjoying her as a character, and the new season as a whole. A damn promising start to the new season.

I'm not sure if I'm surprised at this or not - I didn't really enjoy the second season as much as the first, but I can't really but my finger on why. Possibly the changes in the characterisation of the Doctor, although I should rewatch it and see if my opinion has changed now the season is complete. So I wasn't too optimistic about the characterisation of the new companion, based on what little I had seen of her in the previews Plus, I really hate the name Martha. Shallow, I know.

But when I was watching the actual episode, I really liked Martha. ( Some not very spoilery thoughts on Ten and Martha )

( Spoilery comments up to episode three )

Next on the list is catching up with SG-1. Unfortunately, my end-of-season-reluctance has kicked in again, doubly so because it is the end of the series. Yeah, I know there's movies, but it's not the same. But sheer curiosity and the desire for more Daniel will drive me to watch them soon enough, I'm sure :)

Damn holidays! They make me get behind on my TV shows!

Been a while since the last update - never fear, I'm still alive.

Left London to travel through Edinburgh by train. We stopped in York on the way, and spent a few hours wandering around, to the castle and through the Shambles.

We spent four nights in Edinburgh, now officially known as the 'City of the TARDIS'.

Day One - After the train ride, got a taxi (have I mentioned how cool the black taxi's are here? And their signs look like the Torchwood logo...) to kasneeze's friend's place, and went to bed. Very exciting.

Day Two - Went to Edinburgh Castle, climbing many stairs on the way. The guide was not as fashionably dressed as the Beefeaters in the ToL, and didn't even have a kilt. Great views of the city. One side effect of this trip is that my knowledge of British History is gradually improving. Meet up with another friend of kasneeze, and hopped bars for the afternoon/evening, before going on a freaky ghost tour in the evening. Went home, spent the night hearing spooky sounds and not sleeping. At least I didn't scream on the tour - unlike some people :)

Day Three - Slept in, meet another (yes, ANOTHER) friend of kasneeze for lunch, and then went for a walk around Edinburgh. Picked up the hire car, getting another free upgrade and a $100 discount into the bargin (long story -but basically they didn't have the car when we showed up, so we got freebies). Successfully navigated back to the apartment, which was quite an achievement considering we didin't have a map and had no idea where we were going.

Day Four - Went on a hunt for the Loch Ness Monster. After a beautiful trip through the lowlands and highlands, we were successful during our cruise on the Loch, getting some high quality video of the monster. Am expecting our reward to arrive in the mail any day now.

Day Five - Left Edinburgh, and Scotland *Sob*. Really loved it there - the city and countryside were both so beautiful. And there was a TARDIS on every corner :)

My paid internet time is about to run out, so I'll fill you in on the rest later. To whet your appetite, our next stop was Stratford-Upon-Avon, and I have two words for you: Morris Dancers.

Also, despite the fact that I am in the UK, I have missed both the episodes of Dr Who. A good sister would have them waiting for me when I get home...

OMG, Supernatural is on right now. Sam and Dean are speaking French! And with funny voices... Wow. It's so weird.

Dean is speaking French.

Quick update, because I'm completely braindead. Who would have thought that sightseeing could be so tiring? Oh, and as for photos - you might have to wait until I get back. The internet connection is falling over regularly just trying to load pages, uploading pictures would probably crash the entire thing. Sorry.

Stuff I've done:

Musee D'Orsay: Amazing architecture, really great atmosphere. I'm not that into museums, especially when all the labels are in French, but this is worth visiting just for the central gallery alone.

La Defense: The skyscraper section of the city (and no relation to the military stuff, except for a sculpture). Very interesting modern architecture, as well as random modern art/sculptures around the place. I have some good pictures, but look like you're going to have to wait.

Catacombs: This was... surreal. The bones of over 6 million people. And then someone got the idea that they should be arranged in an 'artistically pleasing' way, so now they are arranged in 'walls', up to 50 metres deep in some places, with the skulls making patterns in the walls...

It's not a guided tour, but there are security guards/guides down there. I started to talk to one, who as it turns out wanted to immigrate to Australia (so far, he's the only person to pick my accent as Australian. He got it straight away, after I'd said about two words to him- I was impressed). He let me take some pictures with the flash, which technically you aren't supposed to do, but it was too dark to get proper pictures otherwise. I was a little dubious about taking pictures at all, given this is basically a mass grave, but it was too surreal not to make some sort of record of.

Opera House: Impressive, but it loses something being surrounded so closely by the city. There's no space to just sit back and admire it. Didn't get to go in, there was some sort of concert on and the line went round the block, so I went for a walk around the city instead.

Notre Dame (again): Have I mentioned how much I love this place? The back is even more amazing than the front. And I got snowed on. Again.

Louvre: Still haven't made it into the Louvre, but wandered through the courtyard to get to Musee D'Orsay. Did you know you can drive through it? There's even a roundabout in the middle... very canberran :) The glass pyramids are odd, but sort of fitting in a strange way.

Seine: Went for a cruise (well, hop-on, hop-off Batobus)down the Seine. Actually had decent weather for this, the first time I've seen the sun for more than about 10 minutes at a time since I got here :) It was amazing, just cruising down the river. As one monument passed, another one came into view.

Plan for the next few days:
Tomorrow: The Louvre (finally).
Saturday: Day tour to Mont St-Michel. Looking forward to getting out into the countryside.

Right. Have to go get the laundry. and then crash.

And if people want postcards, email me your address. Yes, even if I should already know it, this way I'll get it right.

... Otherwise known as the Eiffel Tower. OK, I wussed out before I got to the top, but I made it to the second level. Those of you familiar with my issues with heights will understand what an achievement this was for me. And the view was spectacular - we went up just after sunset, and everything was lit up. You can see everything, just looking out and seeing the Les Champs Elysees, Sacre Coeur (which looks magical at night), L'Hotel des Invalides - Wow. And as we walked home, it SNOWED! I got snowed on in Paris! Very cool (literally - we were freezing by the time we got back to the hotel).

Yesterday we went to Versailles. The Palace itself was amazing (although Louis the 14th was a little too into the gold gilt for my tastes). The highlights were definitely the Chapel and the Opera. We went out into the gardens, and while they would definitely be better in summer, they were still pretty spectacular.

Afterwards, we went briefly to Notre Dame, just as the sun was setting. As we went in, they were starting a service, so we sat in. The mass was in mostly in French, but the singing was in latin. Since I love sacred music, it was a pretty amazing experience. I want to go back to have a proper look around, and hopefully climb the bell tower.

The whole thing is kinda surreal - normal buildings, then suddenly a world-famous landmark smack bang in the middle of a city block.

Dealing with the French is... interesting. They only seem to come in two extremes - either very nice and helpful, or completely arrogant. As a general rule, the guys seem more helpful than the girls. The hotel is nice, but kinda cheapskate on the extras - for instance, there is no iron in the room, and they charge 30 Euro to hire one. I even got into a argument with the girl at reception because we ran out of toilet paper, and she was insisting that I should wait until the cleaning people came to give us more - on Wednesday!

OK, kasneeze's computer is alternating between trying to lock me out, and loosing the connection, so I'm going to end this before I loose the entry.