(no subject)

[salinea]

meeep !!

I spend one week vacation, and i loose the habit of updating entries, don't I ? Oh well.. I have twenty minutes before my Macroeconomics Midterm so let's see what I could do :

Yes, I did eventually change my layout (not that this entails more than picking a general theme and playing with colours since I'm so graphically disenclined) So now I'm all purpled up. Yay. However I need a new Mood Icon set to fit this, anyone's got a suggestion about where I could find one ?

Good grads for Midterms have continued, I got an A on IR. Need to be careful not to become too proud and arrogant about it - sometimes I scare myself with how vain I can, and suddenly not slacking so much in classes have exponential results.

Lots of people from my flist are not looking so well for different reasons or doing hiatus. I feel sorry for them and hope they'll all get better. Take care everyone.

I finished reading the Wild Cards novellas. A strange gathering of good, okay and mediochre. GRRM's one alone made it worth reading, and a few others were interesting. As a global theme for writing, the Wild Card idea is interesting, I guess, and a way to look at the history of the US. However, it might have been revolutionnary at the time, but nowadays I'd rather read an issue of the Ultimates for for a cutting edge and multilayered tale of superheroes. Not that I am that familiar with superheroes in the first place. ^_^

Fevre Dreams I have also finished yesterday. It was slow to get in at first, but once I arrived midway throught it, I was hooked and it became fast. Loved the parallel between the slavery and vampires' relations with their "cattle". In a way I was surprised by how much in this book related with the Vampire : the Masquerade mythos and themes... amusing. As a vampire novel, however, I'll stand my point it isn't that interesting, original or worthy. I'd take CS Friedman in Season of Change or Coldfire, Tim Powers' Stress of her Look or even Dan Simmons' anyday over it. Well written, nice atmosphere, great sense of desperate epic as often in Martin... but just not unique enough.

By the way Teresa ! I recced To say nothing of the dog to my dad and he LOVED it. Said it was the best SF book he had read in a couple of years. So I thought you'd like to share a part of the credit for it, since you're the one who intially recced it to me ^^

Went to bought the french translate of Tsubasa reservoir Chronicle yesterday too. As a translation it is probablt as butchered as the American edition is, but it's nice owning it. I used the occasion to finnaly buy the last X volumes I still couldn't find in bargain sales : 15 and 16. This calls for a re-reading of the whole thing. ^_^

Okay, that's all for now. Tonight the School organize a Halloween party I should go to (since it's the first one i've actually got the time to attend)

PS : People, go participate to the Hinoto, Kanoe & Daisuke Character Discution at togakushishrine NOW !

Comments

[rahael.livejournal.com]

Hey Ete! I need your help in the form of information.

I need to get some information about how the French education system handls school trips - i.e, do schools often take school children on educational/lesiure trips? To musuems, galleries, etc? Do teachers take them? If they go on a long trip, i.e to a different country, do the teachers get paid for their time? You may not know the last question but I need to get some corroboration for the information I have so far.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Err good question. Frankly i think it varies a lot from schools to schools. I remember doing quite a few small school trips when I was in primary school. For exemple we went to Mont St Michel. When we did the teachers were there, and they usually asked for a few housewives mothers and the like to accompagny them for supervision. We also did one Skiing class of 1 week i think when I was errr 9 or 10. In middle school and high school I can't remember more than a very few trips to museums. No real trips to far off place. We did go see several theatre plays however, about at least once a year, but maybe that's because I was generally blessed with very good french teachers.
I remember that when I was younger I was terribly jealous that other classes got to do more long or abroad trips than I did (like my sister, or even my parents had had more in their time) while my generation always seemed to slip in the holes so to speak. So there is some abroad trips organized in middle school and high school i just never had the chance to do them. My town city is rather well off, generally middle class to higher middle class so we were probably better off than less wealthy cities and towns.

I assume that the teachers were paid during trips because they did teach us regular classes on the morning !!! I have no idea if they were paid extra.

Hope that was helpful ^_^

[rahael.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That's very helpful (and apparently teachers don't get paid if they go in non class time. )

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Oh i see. Yeah, I remember one of my english teacher organized us to play "The Importance of being earnest" out of class time and i knew she wasn't being paid. I'm all the more impressed by passionate teachers who go out of their way to propose to their students experiences and occasion to discover more of what they teach.

[darkemagick.livejournal.com]

Just want to say that I love the new layout to bits. :D

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

thank you dear ^^

Nice purple....

[generalblossom.livejournal.com]

I like the new layout :)

And yay for your father liking To Say Nothing of the Dog - and if he wants more Willis, there is plenty more of hers which is very good, funny like Bellwether ( where the science in question is actually Sociology) or more dramatic like Passage and Lincoln´s Dreams. Her most famous book is probably another time travel novel the Doomsday Book, but it is actually my least favorite of her books.

About Wild Cards, yeah, agree - I also liked Zelazny´s story, though he seems to change the tone of that character a lot in later books. GRRM´s story was the best of the lot ( I am not a fangirl, really), didn´t the Turtle perhaps remind you a little bit of Sam Tarly?

About Fevre Dream, I disagree on the surface, because I think it is a great vampire novel, though OK the natural history of the vampires is not unique or great. But on terms of memorable characters and writing and plot developing and all I like it better than some of your examples, but I also agree your examples got more unique vampire universes or more original ideas or atmospheres. I guess it is just Fevre Dream made me think more on good and evil and being human and choices. It is very GRRM-ish though, i think the GRRM quote that the difference between good and evil is not just what one does, but has to be measured taken the choices one had.

Re: Nice purple....

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

thanks ^^

*notes the Connie Willis books, for herself and for her dad* I have only read the Doomsday book and Remake so far (and some novellas) I need to find the other ones, because she does write so good.

Well, yeah, but then it's Zelazny I always love what he writes ^^. Waltern Jon Williams' one wasn't bad either, and there were a couple of others which had nice things. None of them were shining good however.
I can see the similarities yes. In fact, after a while, I think GRRM often have similar ideas of characters - it's interesting.

*nods* Yes there were some very nice themes going on. But the plot and the pacing were the parts I wasn't that impressed with. I'm not overly fond of vampires as a whole, so unless it's original it's easy to loose me ^^

Re: Nice purple....

[generalblossom.livejournal.com]

*notes the Connie Willis books, for herself and for her dad* I have only read the Doomsday book and Remake so far (and some novellas) I need to find the other ones, because she does write so good.

She does indeed! I think you would like Bellwether :)

*nods* Yes there were some very nice themes going on. But the plot and the pacing were the parts I wasn't that impressed with. I'm not overly fond of vampires as a whole, so unless it's original it's easy to loose me ^^

I can understand that, and the goriness level was also much too high for me. I do think I liked it better than you did, as a story and as a novel. Oh and forgot a nitpick did you notice how that vampire reproduction did not make natural sense?

Re: Nice purple....

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Oh and forgot a nitpick did you notice how that vampire reproduction did not make natural sense?

*giggles* definitly did ! I put it under 'possible recessive flaws that got worse with time', since it couldn't have started out this way.

[meggu.livejournal.com]

Very pretty layout you have here, Ete. <3 I love purple - it's my favorite color.

Anyway - a Halloween party sounds like fun. I haven't been to one in a long time, because either 1) there are none, or 2) I don't get invited. XD Oh well. You should go to the party... and dress up, too. X3

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

thank you ^^ yeah, it's also my favourite colour - with green.

it was ! not much of a Halloween party, thought. I think me and another girls were the only ones with slight pretentions of disguise. And it was also the first one i went to - Halloween is very recent in France and not that popular yet.

I had a nice top with bat-sleeves and short skirt, all black, my hair in a bun, black make up, fishnet tights, black boots and pretended it was a witchy outfit ^^

Welcome back ^^

[azure-empress.livejournal.com]

Good to see you again and congratulations on the great grade.

Getting an MBA is a wonderful way to have a lot of options later in life when you decide on a path in life. It is in no way a narrowing down of your possibilities.

Re: Welcome back ^^

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Thank you <33

Yes, that's why I'm going for it. I got one useless diploma, now I'm trying to get the means to be independant, have a life and finally spend some time on the things I love.