( Korean drama ratings listCollapse )

These are the dramas I have watched in full (there are quite few dramas I gave up on but I don't think it is quite fair for me to judge a drama without finishing it). I will appreciate any new drama recommendations.

Hannibal

The better, principled part of me says to me: "See, this is a series overcrowded with serial killers. It will not show you anything better than improper use of mushrooms and cannibalism on-screen." The other, not so principled side of me screams: "I adore Mads Mikkelsen! I want to hear him speak English! I want to see him eating whatever he is eating on my TV! I want to see him wearing his odd but interesting waistcoats! I want to make a collection of waistcoats myself!"



I have a long-standing waistcoat obsession and I own a few (nothing is as good as a waistcoat suit for interviews). You might like Hannibal the TV series, or you might not, but here is a waistcoat collection to admire: ( Mads Mikkelsen in waistcoatsCollapse )

Having finished, FINALLY, all seven Harry Potter books I felt compelled to fill a meme (of my own creation):

Characters:

1. Most awesome character: Dumbledore
The one and truly.

2. Most thought-provoking character: Snape.
I used to like reading WW2 spy novels when I was young, so I guess it is no wonder I find Snape’s character so interesting. Although I must say that I wouldn’t have liked him as much if I read the books first, before watching the movies and seeing Alan Rickman as Snape. I am a huge fan of Alan Rickman since forever. And the fact that I was spoiled for the ending helped me too.

3. Character I find most attractive: Sirius Black.
But then again, if it was someone other than Gary Oldman, I might have thought differently.

4. Favourite young adult character: A tie between Hermione and Ron. But Neville and Luna are really close as well.

Houses

1. The house you think you belong to: Gryffindor
I used to think I am a Ravenclaw , but I did Pottermore (my daughter made me do it) and as according to Pottermore I am a Gryffindor. When I thought more about this I decided : ok. Yes, I am not that interested in power or knowledge for it’s own sake. And I am not steady enough to be a Hufflepuff. I am more of a “charge into the battle and start fighting” type.

2. Favourite house: Ravenclaw.
The description of Ravenclaw common room is one of the most awesome things in the book. I want to live there.

Deaths

1. The saddest death: Dobby
It makes me weepy even to think of it. the way Harry dug a grave for Dobby ? So so sad.

2. The death that was most unnecessary: Sirius Black
I thought that the author exceeded the quota of deaths allowed per young adult books. ** tsk, tsk ** Some of the characters "had to" die otherwise the story wouldn’t have worked out. For example, Dumbledore had to die so that the young adult characters could take the responsibilities of leading the resistance and solve problems by themselves. Snape had to die because he was a spy and they always do. Dobby had to die because he is a Big Tragic Hero. But why did Fred have to die?????? And even more: why did Sirius have to die in that pointless "just fell beyond the veil" way?? Why???????

Ships

1. Favourite ship: Dumbledore/Snape
Am I alone in the whole world shipping them? If there is any Dumbledore/Snape fanfiction out there, please let me know.

2. Favourite young adult ship: Ron and Hermione.
I always wonder where the high numbers of Harry and Hermione shippers come from, especially considering the books were released before movies. There have never been any hint towards Harry and Hermione having a romantic interest in each other, but there are hints of Hermione viewing Ron as "not just a friend" as early as in the second book.

Books

1. Best book: Prisoner of Azkaban
There is a kind of bell-cure distribution of the quality of HP books. It reaches the pinnacle in the middle (I think Goblet of Fire is a good book too) and slides into abyss towards the end.

2. Worst book: Order of the Phoenix
This was a seriously tedious book, but The Deathly Hallows with its endless camping wasn’t much better.

3. Shippiest book: Half-blood Prince

PS: I know everyone but me finished these books ages ago, but I am dying to discuss. :D

I can't resist an urge to post the picture of baking .Here is a Banana , Date and Cherry loaf I made today. This is so far one of my favourite recipes, totally yummy:



Also, coming back from the few month of rare posting I have noticed one thing: all the Lj-users I like the most, the ones I love reading and commenting to are still here!! This is so so great!

I am so happy to report that I think I have a baking talent. I have never baked anything before as baking always looked very complex, even mystical, but to my surprise after 40+ years of life I have discovered that baking is like programming: you put correct ingredients in correct amounts in correct order and cook under correct temperature in correct pots, and it all is going to be fine. The secret is that you need to pay attention to detail, but again - this is LIKE PROGRAMMING!

I have tried two simple recipes last week (Banana, date and cherry loaf and Victoria sponge cake) and they both worked perfectly.

The credit must also go to the British Queen of Cakes Mary Berry whose book I have purchased. Thank you so much , Mary, the recipes were simple, cheap, and worked well!

Hi! I have become an infrequent poster.. My sincere apologies! This is an update, in short , of my current life

The back/leg problem. It is still there. I have learned to manage my life so that I can live it. I have reconciled with living with some pain, and have found things that make it bearable. For example, a light swim every evening (with sauna and jacuzzi) allows me to sleep without painkillers. I have completely weaned myself off the codeine-containing strong painkillers by doing swimming-sauna-jacuzzi every day. I only use simple paracetamol and ibuprofen on some nights.

My workplace is quite good as well: they have allowed me to work 3 days a month from home, in combination with my 4-day week this makes only 3 days to commute (on most weeks).

And I love my new team leader job. I have never thought that I will like something that involves working with people so much. :D

But unfortunately sitting is still something that makes me feel worse, so I try not to spend any time sitting after work, and because of it I don’t spend too much time near computer..

As to actually resolving the back problem, it seems that the way is long and windy. It isn’t even quite clear what is wrong with my back yet. My physiotherapist thinks it is a problem with SI joint, but the consultant I saw recently told me that I have a small tear in the cartilage of the spine (from MRI) . So now he is going to try to do something about the cartilage tear (steroid injection). If this doesn’t work I can be later referred for a steroid injection into the SI joint. All this process is taking ages because waiting time is added to every step of the way. On the positive side the consultant was very attractive.

In fannish life, I am back in Kdrama wagon as I am watching several of current dramas simultaneously. I have a decent flat sofa (it is very cheap but comfortable for some reason) which allows me to lie in a decent position whilst watching TV. I have even marathoned some of the older dramas ( Oh FAMILY’S HONOR, how I love you!)

Plus I am trying to find some other interesting light non-sitting things to do. I can only lie on a sofa for so long because the back hurts after doing this for too long. And walking long walks is not very good as well (I know, I am falling to bits). But short walks are fine. The best activities for me seem to be the ones where I can change positions. So I have decided to try baking! I have never done much baking but I like baking in theory because I like cakes. I made some of my simple Russian recipes and bought a cake book. I hope it all goes well.

(the cake in the picture is not mine. but I hope I will have some good pictures soon)


And I am still listening to audiobooks – I am finishing Harry Potter at the moment. I listen to audiobooks whist commuting/shopping/any other activity that allows it. There are even water-resistant mp3 players one can purchase, so I might get one for swimming.

I have even created a Goodreads page, here: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/18357339-alexandra-leaving

On the book theme: Have you read anything good lately?????? Please recommend!

How have you all been? How are things?

Hmm, this wasn’t as good as the author’s previous works. Peter F. Hamilton likes to write hefty space operas, and I really liked his previous works for their complexity. But Great North Rad was way too long and didn’t have enough complexity for such a long book. The ending and the main revelations were guessable from the start and it took way too long to get there.

But the weakest element for me were the characters. The main character Angela Tramelo was reasonably well-defined, but the rest of the characters seemed like chess pieces: they felt as if they were there just to move the story along.

And then there was an odd thing that I haven’t noticed in his works before: all good characters were super-rich. It seemed as if Hamilton views money as some kind of “virtue”. This was not a little odd.

I have spent the last week on a Project management course, namely PRINCE2 Practitioner. I hated the course as it didn’t have anything to do with practicing the approach , but instead was a one-week-long cramming session with two exams.

So I am going to give myself a reward and talk about Joe Abercrombie.


I have finished all 6 of his up-to-date books and in short time he has become my favourite fantasy writer of the moment. I even like his works more than.. gasp.. George R. R. Martin’s! Mostly because Abercrombie fits more with my personal perception of the world: "Yes, life is hard, yes, everyone is neither good nor bad, but the right thing as concept still exists and doing the right thing is good". As opposed to Martin’s philosophy of: "Yes, life is hard, yes, everyone is neither good nor bad, AND there is no such thing as the right thing AND if you are trying to do the right thing you are going to DIE HORRIBLY, so better don't try".

The books in the order of how much I liked them:

1) The First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself,Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings). The trilogy has the largest scope of events, the largest conflicts, and more magic than any other book. Plus, the other books make no sense without reading the trilogy.

2) The Heroes. I might be a rare few among Abercrombie fans, but gosh, did I like this book! May be because I am the Northern girl. May be because I loved the way the military conflict between the Union and the North was shown through personal POVs on both sides. I couldn’t help but root for the Union one minute, for The North the other minute, depending on whose POV I was reading.
Also I found the everyday running of the army to be hilariously similar to running of any other big company I have worked in, so I could really relate to many going-ons.

3) Red County (Really close to 2 ) – more personal story than any other books, with the return of one of my all-time favourite characters.

4) Better Served Cold (really close to 2 and 3). It started as Monza’s personal story and I adored the book up to a point. But in the second half the book had large dozes of Cosca, my single most disliked character in the world of The First Law. I honestly can’t stand him, and there was too much of him in this book, especially towards the end.

My favourite characters (in no particular order):

Female:
-Monza ( Monzcarro Murcatto). Monza is just pure awesome. I can go on and on and on and I will never be able to express every single great thing about her character. Just one thing: she is one of the rare few characters who managed to stay true to themselves, without getting drawn under the influence of the two main powers (Bayaz and Khalul).

-Ferro Maljin. I just wish she appeared in more books! She is also a very independent character, I like it that the two of the most independent characters in the books are females (Monza and Farro)

Shy – loved her to bits.

Male:
- Sand dan Glokta. There are many POVs in Abercrombie books but I have found Glokta’s to be the one I looked forward the most, it was just so amusing.

Logen Ninefingers – the character I have probably found to be the most mysterious. Who is he? Half-demon? Something else? I want to know. Also I seem to love all his sayings and can’t stop repeating them. Plus Logen always wanted to do the right thing.

Bayaz. As Finley said, I don’t think I have ever had a character that I disliked and admired so much at the same time. You have to admire the puppet-master.

- Prince Calder. From the beginning of The First Law, his is the best character development

Smaller characters I also loved
-Morveer and Day
-All the Northern guys: Craw (and his all dozen, especially Whirrun), Dogman, Three Trees, all o of them.
-Finree
-Mamun and the Eaters. I loved the magical aspects of the books and the old grudges of the old guys.
-Bremer dan Gorst
-Friendly

In short, I loved all the many characters in the books apart from 3 (yes, just 3):

The characters I disliked:

Nicomo Cosca. I think I could have found this useless drunk to be fine in small dozes, but he is almost in EVERY BOOK, in big dozes. I don’t find him funny , I find him disgusting, and there is just plainly too much of him!

Caul Shivers - I thought he had a great potential at first , but at some point Abercrombie decided to turn him into a copy of Sandor Clegane, and I don’t really like copies. Plus, ( spoilersCollapse )

Black Dow – I have a personal grudge against him. ( spoilersCollapse )

Our family has watched it!!



I had some apprehensions before watching "Les Misérables".. I have never watched the musical but when I used to see the posters in London I used to think that the idea of fitting Hugo’s huge book into 2.5 hours of time is a very challenging one. But surprise! Overall, this wasn’t a big problem. Somehow they managed to fit all in and make it reasonably easy to understand.
Even my daughter who had never watched/read/heard of “Les Misérables” didn’t ask too many questions..

Overall, I liked the film. I didn’t love it but I thought it was good.

Pluses:
- Hugh Jackman was really good. He is famous for his singing abilities, and he hasn’t disappointed here. I must add that I am a big fan of his anyways.. Jean Valjean is the pivotal character for the story and Jackman’s great performance meant everything else worked well.

- Russell Crowe is another staple. I am not a huge fan of his but I liked him in "Les Miserables" a great deal. He was the first ever actor in the role of Javier (I have seen several movie and TV versions of Les Miserables) that made me interested in the character. His last scene is one of the most haunting scenes in the film.

- Some really good actors in the minor roles: Daniel Huttlestone (Gavroche), Samantha Barks (Eponine) and of course Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as Thénardiers.


Minuses:
- All three of us very quickly discovered one problem with Les Miserables: the film had no dialogue or any other scenes that didn’t involve singing. As my daughter said: it was a three-hour long song. For all three of us this became daunting very quickly! I would have really liked it much better if the film included some dialogues or other scenes as, for example, “The Phantom of The Opera” did. I am not a big Musical or Opera goer (I have watched few Musicals and Operas in the theatre in the past, but I don't go that often). But for some reason the lack of not-sang dialogue didn’t bother me in the theatre. But in a form of a film the same thing was too much.

- Amanda Seyfried as older Cosette didn’t impress me much. But may be this is because her role consisted entirely of falling in love with Marius and getting married.

Singing:
As far as singing goes, my favourites were:

Hugh Jackman (goes without saying)
Samantha Barks - she was by far the best female singer. I would have preferred Marius to end up with her character (Eponine)!
Daniel Huttlestone – he was absolutely precious as Gavroche and his voice was fabulous
Russell Crowe – I have never expected him to sing so well

Do you like Tarantino movies the way I like them? :D I think they are not necessarily the greatest contribution to the world thought but I seem to love every single one of them ..



I loved "Django unchained", because it has:

- Violence the way no-one else does it in Hollywood. Tarantino’s films always make me want to go on a murder spree (take this in a good way, please :D)

- So much style, even in every small detail like the film’s titles.

- Christoph Waltz!! More of Christoph Waltz!!
- Samuel L. Jackson!!!

- An African American killing so many white men!!! Before “Django unchained ”, I would have never thought that success of a film with this storyline is possible in USA. Yep, the times are changing! May be soon we’ll be having a film about a Native American revenging himself upon the White men? I would welcome this!