New Weird

[Dina]

@Regen,very good about your mother!

We are having a lot of rain, but apparently it will stop tomorrow.

I have very little time to post, I just wanted to say hello and I will be back when I have more time.

[Regenbogen]

The snow is receding, but it will come back soon. Meanwhile we had melting snow which froze over night and ice rain, but not much. It vanished in the sun at noon.
Tomorrow I am going to the Greek restaurant in my mother's village. Yummy. She has a discount there she needs to use in 2023. What a pity, lol.

I finished TOA yesterday and am still browsing through the sub and reddit.

Jim's progress bar for the 12M is still at only 26%, so I don't think there is hope for the book in 2024. But I hope we can read it in 2025.
I mentioned this on purpose, because often there was a change after I complained.

I still have the new Jacka book to read and I have started "The Eye of the World". Next summer there will be a new Mercy Thompson book.
I tried The Eye of the World as audio, but the narrator annoyed me. He sounded like some overly confident arrogant guy, who thinks he is cool, but isn't. I couldn't continue. There was no emotions, no nuances. It always sounded the same.
But maybe I am spoiled with James Marsters. Even Jim himself in "The Law" was better than that, lol.

[Dina]

Well, at least snow is giving you a respite.

Enjoy your Greek food 

I hope you liked TOA. About 12M, yes, I saw it is still in 26%. You made me laugh with the description of the reader of the Eye of the World. That reminds me I plan to watch more of the Wheel of Time season 2 show. I am in episode 3.

Tomorrow is a day off! It is a religious Holiday (Virgin Mary's conception) and it is the day traditionally destined to decorating the Christmas Tree. Nowadays people tends to do that whenever they feel like that. I have done it much later too, but when I can, I try to do it December 8th. So, my plan for this year is doing on time. I already retrieved the decorations from the top of the wardrobe, so the first step is done.

[Regenbogen]

We did enjoy the food. Next year the restaurant won't open at noon anymore. They didn't say why. But I guess, there are not so many people eating there and it would cost them more to be open than they earn at that time of day.

Yesterday we watched the third Dr Who special. I liked how they let David Tennant

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not die, but that there are actually two Doctors now. One new active one and the Tennant Doctor gets to live a life happily ever after with Donna, if he is able to be content with it, lol.

TV Wheel of Time was good. I have not read the books yet (the narrator and I preferred the Butcher- and Jacka- books in between), but I liked season 2 a lot. Looking forward to the book. I think I will read it after the new Jacka book. Which is also very good and the beginning of a new series.

An Inheritance of Magic: a young man, who has been taught a bit about drucraft (what wielding magic is called in this universe), tries to learn more about the craft and make a living with it. But obtaining knowledge is difficult, if you are not rich and privileged. And so he has to face some (dangerous) obstacles, including members of privileged drucraft families trying to throw stones in his way.

I like it a lot. It us a promising first book.
And the author also included a pun on Harry Potter and the Dresden Files, like he did in his first Verus book: the protagonist tried to make a drucraft sigl work and used words to try to activate it. The list included expelliarmus and forzare, LOL.
In the first Alex Verus book he mentioned a wizard in the USA who even advertises openly  in the phone book.
Another fun fact: Jim Butcher praises the first Verus on the cover and iirc Jacka said he believed that helped a lot with the sales. In fact, if you are searching for either DF or Verus on amazon, you eventually get both as a result.
To close the circle, there is a praise by Benedict Jacka on Peace Talks. At least it is on my version.


Edit spoiler tags

[Dina]

Hello there!
It is good that you enjoyed the food. You are probably right about the reason why they won't open at noon. It is quite common in some places here to open only at night for the reason you mentioned.

I saw the third special too.

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I am not sure it makes a lot of sense for Tennant to stop, and I can't imagine him sitting in the garden enjoying a tea if there is some future danger to Earth but I still liked the idea of seeing him happy with a family. His first regeneration was so traumatic, with the "I don't want to go" and he also had to do it to save Wilf so it is good that the family that got Wilf for 15 years is the one adopting him. He earned that family.
I also think the new doctor is quite nice. I think I am going to enjoy his run.

I watched until episode 6 included of Wheel of Time. I am so anguished about A

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ngwene and other slaves

.  This season is definitely much better than the first one. I've read a few comments from people who read the books and it says that there are a lot of changes in the adaptation but that they are good. They kept the feeling of the story and the books are simply too big. So get ready 

I laughed at the references you mentioned to both wizards called Harry. I remember the Verus one was commented in this forum years ago. I had never read them though. The new book you mentioned sounds interesting too.

My Christmas Tree is up!  Also, my foot is getting better, this past week it hurt less, so i am happy. And today is a sunny day so I feel happy even when today begins the new presidential run.

[Regenbogen]

I'm looking forward to the new Doctor too, though I am hoping he is going to wear some trousers, lol.

We'll traditionally put up the tree on the 23rd.

Now I need to sleep. I am up late today, because I had to tidy and clean a lot. Tomorrow we will get a visit from some guy from a firm that does windows and doors. We need new windows, because ours are very old and they don't shut completely. They are wood and have lost form over the years and in winter we are loosing heat. It's going to be a big investment, but it needs to be done, because in the long run it will safe us heating costs. I am a bit anxious about how big the amount will be. If we can afford to do all windows at once or if we have to do it in parts. And how long it will take. At least we don't need to renew the basement windows. This has already been done by the previous owner.
After that in a few years we will start isolating the roof. It's an old house.

[Dina]

Ooof, refactions at home are complicated.
Best of luck with the windows man. Oh, take care of the kittens. Sometimes they freak if there is a stranger in the house.

[Doroga's Cousin]

As someone who has read the Wheel of Time books (very recently, too) my biggest complaint about the show is that they very awkwardly downplay important book moments. The season finale for season 2

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didnt have Rand's Big Moment. It had Egwene soloing a Forsaken, which may come back to bite the writers in the future.

[Dina]

*glomps DC* So good to see you here!
How was your time abroad? (You are back home, right? Getting ready for Christmas?)
I did not read your spoiler, because I have not seen The Wheel of Time yet. I mean, I still have 2 episodes to go, and I am planning to watch them this weekend. I will revisit your post later.
I wonder if I will be able to read more of the Cinder Spires book. I read a touch more on Monday but I am still far from the ending.
I won't comment about the situation on my country but I will say that it is a terrible moment for doing some expenditures I need to do. We need a new water heater (I feel like Harry, taking cold showers) and new earphones for hubby. Of course, he has some cheap extra earphones for now but the fancy ones he bought last year are malfunctioning, so we will have some new ones. We hope we are able to buy those two things with small payments.

Oh, I watched the new Indiana Jones movie! I could not like the character of Helena (the female lead) no matter how much I tried. I found her rude and selfish. But in general, I liked the movie. I think it felt like a real Indiana Jones movie (unlike Cristal Skull), Also, the original movies were not perfect either. My generation loves them because we were children and we enjoy them, but they were not so much better than this one. It is only that now we are older. BUT as all the Weird Citizens (SHOV residents) know, I am not such a mature and serious person, so I can still enjoy the thrilling of a Treasure Hunt and some silly adventure 

[Regenbogen]

There is a new Indiana Jones? Oh, I'm so not informed.

The windows guy was here and he appeared trustworthy, unlike the other candidates we had in the past years. We have not decided yet, but will do so this week.

@DC
Oh, it is usually bad, when they change important things in the TV adaption. Someday I'll read all the books, but by now I only know the TV version, and I felt it was a cool scene.
I hope this will not change the plot too much in future. As long as I haven't read the books, I won't notice, so probably this is a case of best first watch then read.

[Dina]

Hi Regen! Yes, there is an Indiana Jones from this year. As Harrison Ford is not young I imagine this will be the last movie. They said they were not trying to do a pass-the-torch movie with the female character, but I do not know. Perhaps they were probing the waters 

Good luck with the window.

I watched Wheel of Time. So, my comments.

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The scene that DC commented felt weird to me. Egwene was supposed to be real powerful, but still a novice. Not so much raw power as Nynaeve or the Dragon. And yet, he kept the big baddie at bay for a long while. It felt random. I still liked the scene in general, with all they gang getting together and Moiraine and Lan helping from outside, but I think there should have explained something about Egwene sudden surge of power.
My heart broke for Hopper, his scene was so sad. But again, it was weird how he crossed the whole city, arrived at that moment and then it was a chain of killings that was almost comical. i mean, the black man (the whitecloak, i do not remember the name) decided it was a great idea to forget about the mission and just attack Perrin, alone. Then Hopper attacked. The old man killed Hopper to try to save the black man. Perrin got angry and killed the old man. The young man went to kill Perrin (luckily he was stopped). It felt too much. Also, I got angry because they made me feel secure about Hopper's destiny because Perrin asked him to wait outside. They tricked me! Sneaky bastards.
I think Moiraine's sister was amazing. I also loved the Brown sedai and her sister.
I did not like Junkie Mat all season but at least in the finale he shone.

[Regenbogen]

Ah, good, I'll see where I can find the film. Definitely want to watch it. Harrison Ford !!! 

WoT:

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Honestly, I was annoyed with Nynaeve. At first she appeared to be quite the grown-up, looking out for the others and protecting them. But in this season she mostly behaved like a sulking teenager. Always whining that all the teachers were so unfair and nobody understood her. Except the part where she went through the portals.

I just came home from a meeting with my violin teacher. Most of the time, he doesn't teach anymore, we just meet regularly to play together. We didn't manage to play all the Christmas songs yet, so we decided to meet again on Friday to play the rest. Because he said, they need to be played before Christmas, lol.

[Dina]

I have it in Disney+, which is why I watched it a few days ago, when it appeared there. It has a deaging part which was excellent, in my humble opinion.

WoT

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Yes, and in the finale she was so annoying, like freezing instead of doing her Wisdom job and helping Elayne. It is like season 1 was Nynaeve's. Season 2 is Egwene. But we need to see powerful Rand in action.

I think I like your violin teacher 

[Doroga's Cousin]

The one thing I will say about that character

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they do technically mention the reason she isn't able to channel on a whim, but I don't think they've actually explained what it is/why it works that way. Ah well. Dovie'andi se tovya sagain, as they say. 

There is one thing I'm really, really hoping the show doesn't do. I'll know early next season if they are planning on doing it though.

[Regenbogen]

We just watched Indiana Jones. Dina, you were right. It felt like one if the old movies. I also liked it. Funny: once they entered a building at night, didn't stay long and when they got out, it was day. LOL. May have missed something in between, but my husband also said: "didn't they go in at night?"
Did you notice Antonio Banderas? At first my husband didn't believe me, but it was him.