- New Blog
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shuggie- August 2nd, 2007
I've gone and got myself a new blog. Not a new, specific to this purpose, blog, like the St. Pixels one or the WriShug one. No a replacement for this one.
Why?
In the end because there are just a few formatting niggles I have with LiveJournal. I'm sure I could have resolved most of them if I'd been prepared to spend more time learning. But life is short and what I want to do isn't that complicated.
So my new blog, for those that are interested is here.
- Heroes
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- shuggie
- July 29th, 2007
So I've been watching Heroes. Having no life and an internet connection, I've watched nearly all of Heroes.
I just wanted to pause here (3 episodes to go) to post a couple of thoughts. Heroes is good, very good. It reminds me of first season Lost - lots of characters, plot-heavy, high production values. However much as I love Lost it is a shaggy dog story. Almost every time you get new information you get more questions than answers. Heroes appears to be going somewhere. I'll know in a couple of hours or so, but I hope that Heroes resists the temptation to spin out the story. They must've realised some time in the middle what a hit the show was and it must've been tempting to defer the climax. It's all been building to a show-down between Sylar and the others, an attempt to stop him exploding and destroying New York. I hope that plays out. Season 2 should be its own story. I could be wrong but if they try to stretch it out, keep Sylar alive, keep the same threat until next year, then it'll fall into the Lost trap.
I say have a proper ending, kill the bad guy and have a new story and a new bad guy for next time.
I hope they will.
- Hermione didn't die!
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- shuggie
- July 23rd, 2007
So I finished it. At around 7pm last night. No I didn't put it off that long, I started reading almost straight away after the last entry but M. rang me when I was nearly done. So we discussed where she was up to and favourite bits, possible theories about the end, though since I was nearly there that part of the 'discussion' consisted of M. asking me questions I wasn't allowed to answer. After we'd talked I finished the book.
First thing to say is that the 'slashdot guy' was lying.( Read more... )
- Why I'm not reading right now
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- shuggie
- July 22nd, 2007
I said I wasn't going to do this but... well you'll see why I did.
I'm on page 512 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which has taken me a little over 12 hours in total. I'm averaging 41 pages/hour but it's a big hardback so the pages are bigger. I estimate I have about 2 1/4 hours of reading left. Despite what you may (or I would've) guessed I actually have been up since about 10:30 and I'm where I was in the book when I went to bed. I got up, messed around on the computer for a while, went out to the shop, came back, made lunch/breakfast and then decided, despite what I'd originally intended, to write my blog.
In other words I'm putting off reading the final 95 pages. The question is: why?( Read more... )
- Distraction, Dilemma, Decision
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- shuggie
- July 21st, 2007
I said a few days ago that I'd read a lot less because of a 'distraction' and that I'd tell you what it was later. So later is now.
You may be surprised to learn that I was never a particularly big Harry Potter fan. I gave up a couple of times on the early books. I started reading them again earlier this year because M. is a huge fan and it gave us something to discuss. So back in May I decided to pre-order Deathly Hallows from Amazon because I could save money that way. I imagined at the time that I'd be quite happy to read it a few days or weeks after it came out - not being such a huge fan.( Read more... )
- Day 23
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- shuggie
- July 21st, 2007
So I finished. At around 12:10am I finished Half-Blood Prince thereby completing my re-read challenge more or less on time. In total I spent 65.6 hours reading 7 books consisting of 4,031 pages. I read that in just 23 days which means an average of 2hours 51 minutes a day - which when you consider I didn't read at all for of those days is going some. My pages per hour was pretty consistently around 60, though it started lower and ended at 61.45.
I definitely enjoyed the books. There were times when I didn't so much enjoy the reading if you know what I mean. I wanted to take a break and watch a movie but had to keep reading to stay on track. If I did it over again I'd start 3 weeks earlier and/or not worry about the movie coming out.
So here's the order I'd put the books in from my favourite to least favourite:( Read more... )
- Day 22
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- shuggie
- July 20th, 2007
Page: 559
Which is: Hagrid has sent word Aragog has died
Lag: -28
Time Spent: 62.65 hours
Pages Remaining: 209 (95% Complete)
Favourite Character: Ron
Cool Moment: Harry day-dreaming about Ginny
Random Quote: "I love you Hermione," said Ron, sinking back in his chair, rubbing his eyes wearily. Hermione turned faintly pink, but merely said, "Don't let Lavender hear you say that."( Read more... )
- Day 21
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- shuggie
- July 19th, 2007
Page: 486
Which is: Lavender asking Harry about Ron ('he's always asleep when I go and see him')
Lead: 74
Time Spent: 61.6 hours
Pages Remaining: 282 (93% complete)
Favourite Character: Hermione
Cool Moment: When Ron is poisoned.
Touching Quote: Er-my-nee
Emblematic Quote: You're Dumbledore's man through and through aren't you, Potter?( Read more... )
- Day 20
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- shuggie
- July 18th, 2007
Page: 346
Which is: breakfast before the first Quidditch match
Lead: 109
Time Spent: 59.55 hours
Pages Remaining: 422 (90% complete)
Estimated Completion: Fri 20th July
Favourite Character: Ron
Cool Moment: anything with Ron and Hermione's mutual jealousy-fest
Funny Quote: 'You've never been more interesting and, frankly, you've never been more fanciable.' Ron gagged on a large piece of kipper.
Fascinating Quote: the Prince had proved a much more effective teacher than Snape so far.( Read more... )
- Day 19
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- shuggie
- July 17th, 2007
Page: 213
Which is: in Snape's first Dark Arts lesson
Lead: 151
Time Spent: 57.6 hours
Pages Remaining: 555 (86% complete)
Estimated Completion: Fri 20th July
Favourite Character: Ginny
Cool Moment: Draco stamping on Harry's nose
So I chose a 'cool moment' that is Harry's enemy triumphing over him. Why?( Read more... )
- Day 18
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- shuggie
- July 16th, 2007
Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Page: 155
Which is: Draco Malfoy in Borgin and Burkes
Lead: 268
Time Spent: 56.7 hours
Pages Remaining: 613 (85% complete)
Estimated Completion: Thu 19th July
Favourite Character: Dumbledore
Cool Moment: Harry and Dumbledore chat in the broom cupboard
Random Quote: Let us not deprive Molly any longer the chance to deplore how thin you are.
So I'm a good healthy way into Half-Blood Prince and its not hard. I enjoy this book. Not sure if it's just my imagination but this book already seems funnier than the others.( Read more... )
- Fedora 7 wireless connection
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- shuggie
- July 15th, 2007
I apologise to readers expecting more Harry Potter but I need to record how I did something technical for future use.
I just installed Fedora 7 and it took a while to get the wireless connection working - though not as long as last time. It almost works automatically using NetworkManager but you need to tweak it for WPA authentication.( Read more... )
- Day 17
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- shuggie
- July 15th, 2007
Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Page: 7
Which is: beginning of the book
Lead: 295
Time Spent: 54.65 hours
Pages Remaining: 761 (81% complete)
Estimated Completion: Friday 20th July
Favourite Character: Luna
Random Quote: It's not as though I'll never see Mum again, is it?
So, I finished Order of the Phoenix on the train on thursday going into London to see the movie, and I haven't read any Harry Potter since. I did have a 4 hour 'nap' on Friday night after work - so I think maybe I've caught up most of my sleep.( Read more... )
- Day 14
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- shuggie
- July 12th, 2007
Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Page: 928
Which is: Dumbledore just explained a lot of stuff, including why he's ignored Harry all year
Lead: 782
Time Spent: 54.28 hours
Movie Target: Read the last chapter
Pages Remaining: 796 (80% complete)
Estimated Completion: Sun 15th July
Favourite Character: Harry
Cool Moment: The fight scenes in the Department of Mysteries
Random Quote: don't you think you've got a bit of a - a - saving-people thing?
Movie's tonight so very excited. I have one chapter left - which I'll start in a few minutes and finish on the train in tonight.
So the two related questions are: Does Harry have a saving-people thing? and Is Dumbledore a complete idiot/git?( Read more... )
- Day 13
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- shuggie
- July 11th, 2007
Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Page: 780
Which is: in the midst of everything they're taking their OWL exams
Lead: 812
Time Spent: 52 hours
Today's Movie Target: Finish the book! (p956)
Pages Remaining: 944 (77% complete)
Estimated Completion: Sat 14th July
Favourite Character: Harry
Cool Moment: Dumbledore not coming quietly
Random Quote: A lot of people are idiots at the age of fifteen.
So yet another way in which we get "Harry grows up" in this book is the disillusionment with parents. We've had that in one way with the apparent uncaring Dumbledore but now we get the "was my father actually not a nice person?" question.( Read more... )
- Day 12
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- shuggie
- July 10th, 2007
Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Page: 581
Which is: Returning to Hogwarts after Christmas on the Knight Bus
Lead: 788
Time Spent: 48.7
Today's Movie Target: 776
Pages Remaining: 1143 (72% complete)
Estimated Completion: Sat 14th July
Favourite Character: Neville
Cool Moment: Meeting Neville in St. Mungo's
Slightly behind on the movie target but not irretrievably so. I didn't get any reading done at lunchtime yesterday so... but ah, I've realised that me talking about how I'm managing the time is not really interesting.
I said yesterday that the bratty teenager stuff is done well even if it hurts the likeability of the character. Today I note that the lovesick teenager stuff is done very well and it's funny.( Read more... )
- Day 11 part 2
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- shuggie
- July 9th, 2007
I said on a comment yesterday that one of the cliches of the Potter books is that the books "grow" with the characters - so the themes, situations and even language become more adult as they do.
One way in which this is definitely true in Order of the Phoenix is that Harry becomes the bratty teenager. It's quite clever how JKR finds story reasons to make it seem like everyone is against him, life is unfair and to alienate him from his father-figure. Unfortunately it slightly falls into the "how do you write about boredom without being boring" trap. I know many people find Harry less likeable in this book. For me that's true but the book itself doesn't suffer. There's still a lot going on that I like. Umbridge is a great pantomime villain (you love to hate her).
- Day 11
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- shuggie
- July 9th, 2007
Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Page: 412
Which is: Umbridge's hand appears in the fireplace seconds after Sirius' head has left it.
Lead: 794
Time Spent: 45.7
Today's Movie Target: 596
Pages Remaining: 1312 (67% complete)
Estimated completion: Sat 14th July
Favourite Character: not Harry
Seriously, Favourite Character: Ernie Macmillan
Random Quote: Harry had never before appreciated just how beautiful the village of Hogsmeade was. (after hearing Cho couldn't keep her eyes off him)
Cool Moment: I must not tell lies
Ok, so that's 'cool' as in the sense of 'disturbingly creepy' but still...( Read more... )
- Day 10
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- shuggie
- July 8th, 2007
Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Page: 52
Which is: Chaos and confusion at Privet Drive, Dementors have attacked Harry and Dudley, Harry might be expelled for using a Patronus, he's waiting to hear more.
Lead: 609
Time Spent: 39.25 hours
Pages Remaining: 1672 (59% complete)
Estimated Completion: Sun 15th July
Favourite Character: Harry
Random Quote: If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.
Cool Moment: The duel with Voldemort
Phew! Some big numbers there.( Read more... )
- Day 9
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- shuggie
- July 7th, 2007
Book: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Page: 260
Which is: Discussing the Triwizard Tournament after Harry has resisted the Imperious curse
Lead: 196
Time Spent: 30.25 hours
Pages Remaining: 2260 (44% complete)
Estimated Completion: Wed 18th Jul
Favourite Character: Moody
Random Quote: 'Can I have a look at Uranus, too, Lavender?'
said Ron.
Cool Moment: The Weasleys arriving at Privet Drive and getting stuck in the chimney
So big jump yesterday huh? Nearly five hours of reading, 45 minutes of which were at lunchtime. Thing is I worked out the numbers for finishing Order of the Phoenix before the movie and they are scary.( Read more... )
