Various; also whinging.

[hawkwing_lb]

Hate this time of year. It's dark, damnit, and today it spent all day raining. Raining. England gets snow. What does Dublin get? Rain, rain, and more rain.

Went to the gym. Did a good workout, much hampered by the fact that I haven't been in serious training since early October.

I'm realising after the fact that I've been very fortunate to have been educated where I was, in the manner that I was. I've a basic grounding in the sciences, with emphasis on biology and physics. I've a basic grounding in geography and can actually read maps, a skill never to be over-rated. I'm reasonably well-educated concerning modern European and Irish history, and not too backward when it comes to world history. I can make myself understood in both Irish (a useless skill, to all practical purposes, but one I quite like having) and French. I can read poetry and prose critically (a skill I intensely disliked acquiring). My understanding of calculus and trigonometry has gone rusty over the last six months, but I can still follow an equation if someone else works it out, and I still know my algebra (we will never, ever forget the minus b formula, precious, not after learning it off both backwards and forwards).

Though my education in religion is not what it should be for a graduate of a former (still, although the teachers are all laypeople now) convent school, that's okay. I was always far more interested in learning about religion (other belief systems, other faiths, their histories, the place religion occupies in society) than I was in learning rote doctrine.

Never thought I'd say it, but I miss school. Sigh. At least I knew what I was doing there. :-)

Comments

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Never thought I'd say it, but I miss school. Sigh. At least I knew what I was doing there. :-)

Ya know, I felt the same way. There's nothing quite like school. Even university is different, but it grows on you.

I really enjoyed my final year of high school. When I'd finished, there was very little I didn't know (or so it seemed in those golden days)..;-)

You might say I was addicted to school -- so much so that I spent nearly 29 years total in one school or another, from early days to post-graduate. Scary, eh? You too, can spend the rest of your life in academia!

Now I've forgotten most of what I knew about poetry and literature, history and geography, French and Latin...sheesh, pretty much everything. It all got shoved out to make room for anatomy, physiology, bacteriology, virology, pathology, and general clinical stuff.

Every now and then, some old neurons re-connect, and I vaguely remember something I'd forgotten I'd ever learned. ;-)

I must admit, I do feel just a pang of envy for you, since everything's fresh in your mind. Lucky you -- you've got all this discovering to do. It's a brave new world out there.

Anyways.

You saw Narnia already, didn't you? We saw it last night..and wow.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Wow... was my reaction too.

Not a bad film, at all, at all. Susan and Peter were just perfect. And oh, Jadis. Tilda Swinton as the Witch (did you see her as freakyGabriel in Constantine?). Beyond perfect.

Landscapes... Mmm, New Zealand. Centaurs (looked castrated. That's what I get for studying Greek art), fauns, Beavers. Loved the Beavers.

I don't know about Liam Neeson voicing Aslan, though. In my head I'll always hear him as Michael Collins from the film of the same name, so - cognitive dissonance :-).

Next on my list of films to see is King Kong. Peter Jackson. Seen it yet?

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

I've seen Tilda before, but don't recall the other movies. I'll have to look her up in IMDB and see what looks familiar.

Centaurs -- yes'm. Castrated indeed, but this was for the kiddies too, so we couldn't have anything dangling or bobbing in the breezes. All the females had appropriately placed long hair. Oh, and the unicorn too. Not that I was looking, yanno. Expert eye and all that.

The Beavers were great. Liam's voice didn't stand out in my memory, but I was oohing over the music the whole time, so I'm sure I missed lots of dialogue.

Haven't seen the new King Kong yet. After having seen the Original (although not in the original release :-P ) and the awful remake (with Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange, before she learned to act), I'm not sure I can handle another version. DJ wants to see the new Harry Potter, which we've been promising for a while, and I still haven't seen Wallace and Gromit. So much to do.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I thought Peter-unicorn Edmond-horse was a neat bit of symbolism, myself. Something else I didn't remember from the books.

And, well. I've never seen King Kong, so the Jackson version sounds promising to me :-).

And I would never have imagined you'd seen the original in its original release, I assure you. Never! :-)

I've seen the first three HP films on DVD. Being of the opinion that HP is, hmm, somewhat less good that it might be, I'll be waiting for the fourth one to appear in the video library, also :-). Reports are that #4 is not as good as #3, but I can't speak for their accuracy.

(The main characters of the Potter books quite frankly irritate me... I'd be burned at the stake if that got back to any of my HP-crazy friends - um, have I said too much?)

The lad is a HP fan? [DJ is a lad, right :-)?] Has he taken to the Narnia books at all, or maybe Garth Nix (have you read Sabriel et al at all?)?

Yes. So much to do, and, as always, so little time to do it in. Why do we not have 36-hour days? :-)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Heh..the Potter books are a fun read, but I never take them too seriously. DJ (yes, the wee man, which he hated, or the wee lad, which he didn't mind, and he has a fabulous midlands Irish accent from hanging with the cousins for three or four days...)..where was I? Oh, yes. DJ is a big fan of the movies, so he's gotten into reading the books secondarily. I have the Narnia books in the basement, where he hadn't noticed them at all and I certainly have not mentioned this to him. I might have to buy yet another set of the Narnia books just in case he can't find those. Garth Nix I do not know, so I shall rectify that once I get home and search Amazon.

You are a fount of new books for me to read. Where have you been all this time? Why did not Dave point you out sooner? I am currently reading Stardoc, which reminds me muchly of James White, which I hope you have read yourself. If not, then you should look for those -- he wrote a whole series of books about a medical center in space.

And I would never have imagined you'd seen the original in its original release, I assure you. Never! :-)

Why do I not believe you? :-D Yes, if you've not seen the others, then this will most likely be entertaining.

Thirty-six hour days? Not enough. We need clones of ourselves. With extra pairs of hands. Still too much to do.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Where have you been all this time?

Right here :-).

Nix is an Australian author. I've only read three of his books; Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen. I thought Sabriel (skip the prologue. Just... the rest of the book is so much better) was excellent, and Lirael very good. Abhorsen disappointed me. I won't spoiler it, but... he took the easy way out.

A fount of new books, am I? Have you read Alice Borchardt or Manda Scott's Boudica books, by any chance? The first two of Borchardt's books are out of print, (and damnitIhaven'treadthemyet!) but her The Silver Wolf is an interesting take on werewolves and 7th century (I think) Rome, and her Dragon Queen is a very interesting version of Guinevere and Arthur.

And if I haven't mentioned the Boudica books before... Ye gods and little fishes. They're on the (short) list of books that can make me cry when I reread them. There're whole passages in (the third one is most clear in my mind) them that just... made the hair stand up on my arms because of the skill, the emotion, the understated depth...

You can tell I really like them, can't you? :-)

I haven't heard of James White before ::adds to long list of authors to look at::

Clones? Maybe, but they'd be people too, wouldn't they? What's that wonderful cyberpunk thingy - ah, avatars. We need multiple avatars...

...Sadly, we're not living in the future :-)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

I've read Manda Scott's mysteries, and believe me, those are scary enough. I end up with a pounding pulse and out of breath while sitting down. I have considered getting the Boudica series, but have waited on those..because I think of all those times I got the adrenalin pumping and didn't really want to. She's a damned good writer. Scary good.

::adds Alice Borchardt to list::

Drat, you're right: clones would be people too. More agita. Sigh.

Off to search Amazon. The future will be here before you know it. :-)

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

The Boudica ones aren't scary. Just... good. :-)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Oh, stop! You'll make me buy more books...aw, dang. How did that happen? I swear I didn't open the Amazon.com page. You're an evil influence, you.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Come to the dark side... :-)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

...AND you're stealing my lines. ::shakes fist::