Lovely! I had been waiting for the new board to come back. No place like home. *Starts sipping green lemonade*

Haven't tried this in awhile, but might as well give it a go. Set something very low so that I can actually make it: 20 books. So far (not in this order, just what I remember): 1.) Blackwood Farm - Anne Rice 2.) Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides 3.) Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice 4.) Battlefield Earth - L. Ron Hubbard 5.) Hannibal - Thomas Harris 6.) The Tale of the Body Thief - Anne Rice 7.) The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks 8.) Thus Spake Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche 9.) IN PROGRESS: Archaeology of Violence - Pierre Clastres 10.) IN PROGRESS: Violin - Anne Rice 11.) IN PROGRESS: The Anti-Witch - Jeanne Favret-Saada Some of these are re-reads, though I hadn't read them for years or over a year. There might also be more I am not remembering - will have to check for loose books later on.

Thanks for the compliments on the cabinet - it is the next best thing to a jukebox. *Tucks it up in a corner of the pub.* I've got a number of compacts, but I only have one record on me so far, an old used one I picked up to test that it even worked. Stevie Wonder's "Talking Book" - I can listen to "Superstition" all I want now, lol.

I'm here. Not doing much other than nodding off in front of emails with classical music on the radio. Found this radio/CD player/vinyl record cabinet a few weeks ago at the secondhand store and I've been putting it to good use since.

I'd be green, given that the one thing I know for certain never gets old for me is fighting and picking fights.

I was wondering how it was going to be told who donated on DM for the badges? Email address?

I've used pedal and electric. Never have I ever seen a giraffe in person.

I've punched plenty of people. Never have I ever cross the Atlantic on a boat (though I would like to).

I've eaten plenty, sometimes on purpose, other times on accident. Never have I ever been married.

I've slept like the dead often. Never have I ever been to Japan.

I didn't like his portrayal of women in general either. Seemed to get off to a decent start, which is where most of the comments of RJ building a world dominated by "strong females" or whatnot seem to comes from (the beginning of the series) - there were not yet too many characters and of the women that were there, most seemed either fair (like Moiraine) or at least excusable for some reason (like some of the leads, who could be credited as either young or just individual quirks [like Nynaeve is just the pissy one]). Then as the series went on and more and more female characters were added, I am not sure how to account for most of them being very petty and at times even abusive, other than RJ just didn't know how to write women and it reflects on how he typefies them.

I had trouble reading the chapters with the women and Perrin later on, but because it became obvious by then that RJ was never going to develop most of their personalities, he really didn't seem to know how to write women in most instances, and alot of the later Perrin chapters became him scratching his beard and either being abused by his wife or taking forever to rescue her. I also stopped enjoying Mat after a while because it became clear RJ was never going to develop him further either, unless Tuon counts as development, which is awful. I didn't skip them, though, as you would think you would miss important parts of the story if you did that, but maybe unfortunately, because those chapters were usually so bad, those are the first things that come to mind when I remember the series, and its one of the reasons I haven't touched most of the books in years.

my memory

Needless to say, I didn't reach my goal.

My new year eve was on October 31st, so just another day.