Five things about me!!!!

[alexandral]

From sternflammenden: Five things associated with me:

Fantasy

I am more of a Science Fiction fan, but I also love Fantasy. There is something about the current decade: there isn't too much of new Science Fiction. Strange phenomena, but true. This decade seems to be The Decade of Fantasy Fiction. And I love it!

-House Greyjoy

I love an underdog in fiction. Take, for example, "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. I like Starks as much as any other person, but with Starks, there seems to be SO MANY people out there loving them, discussing every single aspect of their personalities in great detail. So by now I am, frankly speaking, a little bored.

The other problem with a popular House like Starks is that because it has so many followers, it inevitably eventually attracts the attention of two segments of fans whose opinions and posts I like the least of all : 1) posts trying to prove to me how various members of House of Starks are somehow morally superior to everyone else. 2) Posts describing to me in OTT graphic detail how the posters like to have sex with Robb Stark, with naming of the parts they feel the tingling in at the mentioning of his name. My sensibilities are too delicate for this. Plus Robb Stark is 14 in the books and 17-18 in the TV series.

Why am I talking about Starks? Off the high horse, and back to Greyjoys! What I notice is that I am always drawn to underdogs like Greyjoys in fiction, and particular, in fandom. For some reason, here in LJ , the fans of the House Greyjoy seem to be a jolly sane, non-judgmental, open-minded and happy bunch. And the same goes for Sansa/Sandor shippers, but this is definitely digressing. It must be the salt of Greyjoys. :D Back to Greyjoys, I love the opinions and the company of Greyjoy fans and this must add to my general interest in Greyjoys, the craziest (aka the most entertaining) House in "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.

Disclaimer: I am not saying that all posts of the House Stark fans are bad, it is just unfortunately in big fandom segments you are more likely to get someone who posts something crazy or OTT, and for some reason the fans that post crazy things seem to be the "loudest" (somehow the loudness seems to go hand-in-hand with craziness and OTT). But I do love my Starks too.

To show you all how serious I am about the House of Greyjoy, this is a sock I recently purchased for my Android phone:



Asian cinema

I have always been a fan of Asian cinema, but for someone who is not familiar with it I can say one thing of recommendation: Ladies and Gentlemen, Asian cinema is the place where everything is happening nowdays: new ideas, innovative graphics, fabulous actors. One statistical thing: I don't know a single re-make of a Western film in Asia (there must be some, but they are rare). On the other hand, there are so many remakes of Asian movies made in Hollywood that I can count you 10 without thinking hard. One of the re-makes, "The Departed", has even won an Oscar.

Technology

I tend to rattle about this: my job is related to Technology. I am a Systems Analyst which is just another name for the mind-boggling profession of Computer Programmer, or according to Urban Dictionary "Computer Programmer: a) An organism capable of converting caffeine into code. b) Semi-sentient being who inexplicably survives an extremely unhealthy lifestyle. Usually found in confined spaces with low lighting, at a computer terminal. C) This makes attracting females difficult, which can easily be fixed by meeting women through an online service."

I am an atypical programmer, though, because I: a) don't drink too much coffee. I like it, but it makes me too hyper so I don't drink it often, and if I do, I only like "proper" coffee! To clarify, Starbucks coffee is NOT "proper" coffee, and I am not even talking about instant coffee varieties. b) I try to maintain a semi-healthy lifestyle, exercising 2 times a week and trying to eat well, c) I AM a female.

Consequently, I have a loving relationship with technology in general. I am quite lazy by nature which stops me from buying too many new gadgets, but I am never afraid of computers/gadgets/new things and seem to be always capable of harnessing them, given enough time. All these things are my friends, unless they are made by Apple (in which case they are instruments of brainwashing). The only things I am less of a friend with are mechanical devices like printers, they are just less trust-worthy.

To add, my most notable achievement is that my 12-year old daughter still thinks I am cool.

Daughters

Daughters are GREAT. To tell you the truth, I didn't really enjoy giving birth, and neither did I really enjoy the baby period. But now, when my daughter is 12 and we can talk as equals? I am loving it! She is fabulous and cute and I love her so much I definitely know I will do anything for her.

I am in a real worry at the moment because my daughter has her first boyfriend. He seems to be nice but you know, I WORRY! What if he ends up hurting her?

Comments

[shapinglight]

Thanks for sharing. I'm in awe of computer programmers myself. All that code is scary.

It's always interesting to read about stuff going on in other fandoms. I can't really join in the GoT fandom stuff entirely because I haven't read the books (am slogging my way through the first, but it's slow going), but like you say, every fandom seems to have a group that sets itself up as the moral height to which other groups can only aspire. It's a strange phenomenon.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Sometimes (to tell the truth, often) I think my thinking is way too literal/logical because of my profession. :D

I am sure this is just because of numbers. it is all in group dynamics. I love reading psychology-related articles about group dynamics.

[intermezzo]

oh man, you're SO right about Scifi. Thankfully, I only allowed myself to read what I like recently so there's a TON of stuff I can still tackle. As for fantasy, I like it, but not quite as much as I like scifi.

Re: remakes. WORD! I do recall one remake of a Western movie into...uh, what was it? A jdorama? A kdrama? I blocked that out, but heh, details. Anyway, the movie in question was Ghost. Other than that, Hollywood remakes Asian things ALL the time. And when they're not doing that, they're remaking stuff that most of the times shouldn't be remade imho (starsky & hutch anyone?) or rehased things that they filmed in the past. The remake trend is kind of boring tbh

[intermezzo]

oh oh oh and k-ent is basing a movie off Ocean's Eleven, but OMG I can't WAIT to see it. The cast kicks ass!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I like Lee Jung-jae. A lot.

[intermezzo]

Me too! I like everyone in the movie.

I can't wait to see Kim Hae-sook as a swindler. *g*

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

** laughs ** She always plays the kind motherly type. this is going to be good.

[intermezzo]

Exactly! She might even have some femme fatale thing going on, but hey, I'm not sure. In any case, I want to see that movie! *g*

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

INTERESTING. I am not that fond of Ocean's Eleven, though. The one I watched was in itself a re-make. :D

Edit: Where is everyone in LJ-land? Why is no-one posting? HAs LJ being bad again whilst I was working hard?

[intermezzo]

I have no idea why LJ is not that active lately.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

It must be just pre-holidays time.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

For some reason, there is a lot of Fantasy series that seem to be about the same things. Like: elves, dragons, wizards, etc. Sometimes I pick up a book and think "OH DEAR. I have read this already too many times".

I am like you - a while ago I decided to let myself only read what I like, and forget my "completist" tendencies. I must say that the prevalence of series is also a bit .. too much for me. I like series, but three books if my maximum (usually).

Uh-hu, the remakes. It seems a Hollywood thing recently, I wonder: where have all the original ideas gone? There are clearly some films that original, but the remake thing is so so commonplace.

[intermezzo]

LOL True.

Oh I'm still a completist, mind you. It's that...I know this sounds silly, but until a few years ago, I didn't want to be laughed at and that happened every single time I was reading scifi. So I gave it up. What can I say, I was young and stupid. Now I don't give a damn if I'm mocked. I'll read what I like whenever I want.

IKR! When I saw that they've remade Footloose AND 21 Jump Street, I was disappointed. But not surprised

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

OH! Someone was laughing because you like Sci-fi???????????????? Why???? But yes, I also generally don't worry when I am mocked. I always was "atypical", from the word go. :D but I was really good at school and always tried to help the others, so usually my classmates respected me. And I met some friends with similar interests quite early in life.


lol. I think it just must cost less money to make a re-make? And also the sponsors are already familiar with the subject so they sponsor more easily.

[intermezzo]

Some consider scifi or heck even fantasy as a...IDK, sort of like...IDK, think of fiction as movies, okay? Scifi, for many ppl, would fall into the b-movies category JUST because the stories are set in unfamiliar locations and regardless of the quality of the writing and the subject matter. IDK, whenever I'm reading, say, space opera, my sis lols because "oh look, there are starships! And aliens! It's Silly! Why are you reading this?" It's the same reaction harlequin novels' readers get when they reveal what they're reading. "It's all about bodice ripping and stereotypes. Why are you reading this?" Same thing. I guess it's all aobut prejudices?

I think they're running out of ideas and it's just easier to go with something that was a popular hit in the past.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. I think I am may be really immersed into the computer geekery world because as far as I remember Sci-Fie has always been cool. My husband doesn't like Sci Fi, but he is not the type to be saying anything about anyone's tastes anyways. I did go through Harlequin novels stage at some point, though, but I wasn't really ashamed or anything. I used to hide the front pages though, but they ARE so "not decent".

[vierran45.livejournal.com]

There's a Japanese/Korean movie remake of Ghost that reverses the roles and is generally pretty boring Yes, I've seen it.. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1655400/

[intermezzo]

Yes, that's the one I was thinking of.

[sternflammenden.livejournal.com]

Awww, I love the Greyjoys. All of them, even the horrible ones.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I think their craziness and horribleness is so entertaining that they are definitely my favourite House as far as Houses go.

[endlessdeep.livejournal.com]

Daughters are GREAT. To tell you the truth, I didn't really enjoy giving birth, and neither did I really enjoy the baby period. But now, when my daughter is 12 and we can talk as equals? I am loving it! She is fabulous and cute and I love her so much I definitely know I will do anything for her.

This sounds just like me. My daughter is going off to college next year. I don't know what I'm going to do. :(

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Oh no! Do you mean she will go away from home? This is hard!

[oresteia.livejournal.com]

It's funny computer scientist to another we're very different as I've noticed. Though I'm more of art designer that can code truthfully.

1. I only drink starbucks coffee, it's that or no coffee period
2. Eh me and food are half healthy, half OMG should I have really just ate all of that?
3. ... yes

I'm not sure how much you know of Jaron Lanier but my feelings on technology is similar to him. It's like I enjoy certain parts of technology but there are things like Facebook which have my skin crawling.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Lol. I confess I actually LOVE Starbucks Hot Chocolate (I like Costas Hot Chocolate even more, but Starbucks is also good.). But with coffee I am a purist and a hard to please person.

My main specialty are databases (anything related to Oracle), design is not my strongest point.

I don't really hate Facebook (it seems to be working so well for the younger kids of my daughter's generation), but every time I see articles with Mark Zuckerberg's speeches I think "what a tosser".

BTW, I Googled Jaron Lanier and he looks rather cool. :D

[oresteia.livejournal.com]

Costa is a nice place too. Never had their hot chocolate though.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Costas hot chocolate is darker (and they give marshmallows), it is probably the best hot chocolate around in the UK.