Starbug

I didn't know that - thank you! It was a good read; hopefully the wait for the next book isn't as long as the last one.

It's the longest my hair has ever been. I guess the easiest (if a little crude) way to describe it is that my hair is long enough to reach my armpits.

I still get ID'd on occasion when buying alcohol. At 28, I won't complain anymore.

Yeah I think I've got old photos of me in here somewhere too. Really old - I have long hair now.

from a summary of the new cast: I think prioritizing size over looks was definitely the way to go in casting Brienne. Make-up can go a long way in changing a person's looks for better or worse - just look at what they did with Charlize Theron in Monster.

It was originally a 5 year gap, not 10. But it would have been awkward to start the next set of books (originally planned as a second trilogy, we'll see how that goes) by trying to explain what happened in the last 5 years. So now we get AFFC and ADWD to fill in a gap of 1-2 years instead of 5 years. What I find most frustrating about the fill-in books is the lack of resolution of events (and cliffhangers! so many of them at the end of the books!). All kinds of stuff happens, but much of it won't fully be resolved until the next set of books.

So I finished A Dance with Dragons on Sunday... When's the next book due out?

I'm just sitting down to start A Dance with Dragons now! I had my boyfriend pick it up while I was at work; I almost wished I had asked him to drop it off a work so I could read it on my lunch break and on the bus ride home. I'm not going to be terribly social until I get this book finished.

The finale was great! I thought they did a fantastic job of the CGI work at the end. I was a little worried about how it would turn out, but it looked pretty good to me. (don't open the spoiler if you don't know the ending of the book)

Great episode last night! Well, it was a sad episode, but it was put together very well. I'm really looking forward to the finale next week.

The closing scene of the last episode was so satisfying...good to finally see it. For the most part, everything's been really well done so far. I've watched everything up to episode 5 twice now, as I got my dad hooked while he was out visiting. Unfortunately he doesn't have HBO at home so he'll have to wait until he moves back to the coast this summer to see the rest. I was disappointed with the hunting scene. The king is out hunting boar with...a member of the kingsguard, a squire, and his brother? No horses? No hounds? No retinue? Really? And yes, there's more to come on the hunt. I was also a bit disappointed with the scene with Bran and the wildlings - where were the direwolves??? I get that the dogs they're working with are difficult to train, but the wolves were a big part of that scene. Here's hoping they're working closely with the dogs for next season. Episode 7 was available last weekend to American subscribers of HBOGO (at the expense of no new episode this weekend) and from what I've read it's another action-packed episode. Lots of stuff at the wall, and we finally get to meet Tywin.

Don't forget Daenerys! I hated her storyline at first, but now I want to see - well, read - more. Syrio was fine. Payne is a little less intimidating than I expected. And the Hound could have used a little more make-up, IMO. But I suppose I could have expected the scars to be much worse because he was introduced via the children's point of view (would seem much scarier to the kids than to the adults).

I just finished reading them for a second time through (just in time for the series to start). I'm amazed at how much of the 4th book I forgot. And I'd gotten some of the chronology mixed up (thought some things that happened in the second book happened in the third, and vice-versa). Isn't sick time usually TV time? When you don't feel like getting up off the couch to do anything? I've watched all three episodes but haven't been able to delete them from the DVR yet. I might have a GoT marathon day one of these days.

Where was Tywin? I don't recall seeing him... They've been pretty true to the book so far. The third episode had a few conversations that didn't happen in the book (Cersei and Joffrey, Robert, Barriston and Jaime), but needed to be done to fill in viewers who didn't know the back story. Now that most of the key characters (for now) have been introduced, I wouldn't mind them starting to do some episodes that focus on just one or two locales (say, all in King's Landing, or split between the Wall and across the Narrow Sea) to keep the stories from jumping around so much. It might be helpful to viewers who haven't read the book. I love the casting for the series; the casting is pretty much spot-on for everyone, Tyrion and Arya especially. The only one who bugs me at the moment is Robb Stark - he just seems a little wooden. Hopefully that changes when he's forced to grow up. And I saw posted elsewhere that book 2/season 2 already has the green light. Viewership in North America isn't as high as it could be, but they're making a lot of money selling the show in other countries.

I'm glad they're doing it as a TV miniseries rather than trying to make a movie out of it. The miniseries format gives them much more time to explore different story lines and characters.

Even better: A Dance with Dragons is due out in July. I've got the "making of" special set up on PVR already, but the HBO listings haven't yet gone as far as the 17th. I'll probably check daily until I can set up the series recording for it. I'm in the midst of re-reading the series now, as I haven't read it since my university days. I'd forgotten much of what happens, including most of the 4th book (which I'm now on).

I could have sworn there were only a couple of inches of snow on the ground when I first woke up. There was more than half a foot by the time I left for work. I got to work an hour and a half later, after waiting 45+ minutes for a bus. I saw two of my buses heading in the other direction, and it was half an hour before one made it back up the hill in the other direction (my stop is only a few blocks from the end of the route). The woman sitting nearby on the bus is married to a bus driver, and apparently a few buses have gone off the road. I have no idea what kind of detours/route cancellations there are because the transit website isn't built to handle heavy traffic and crashes every time it snows (it's so much like Victoria in that respect).

Apparently some of the buses have stopped running. Camosun closed early and half the buses leaving the Interurban campus (the ones that head toward Tillicum) weren't running. My bf started walking from Camosun toward Tillicum Mall (where his car was) and was lucky enough to get a ride there from someone passing by. Some roads have been closed too, until road crews can address the hill sections. http://www.timescolonist.com/Snowy+conditions+causing+havoc+with+traffic/3867457/story.html

Unless you need to drive over the Malahat without winter tires, I'd call that an overreaction. The road/sidewalk crews here are having a hard time keeping up. They can't really get into the patient parking lot because of the cars already parked in it, and sidewalks are white again two minutes after they're cleared.

Sure is! I just went out for coffee - some of those sidewalks are pretty slippery!

It's snowing in Victoria! I'm not sure how long it's been coming down for now, but it's sticking.

I did not know that - this just happened to be my best photo of a single tombstone of Canadian soldier. My mom's dad also committed suicide when she was very young (younger than 5, I believe). He was one of only two family members known to have survived the camps. Someone tracked down his brother a few years ago, and found him at the head of a very large family. Some people manage to adjust to life after war, and some, unfortunately, don't.

*checks to make sure all photo links are up to date* Many people I know differentiate between supporting our troops and supporting the war; there's a difference between a person choosing to fight for their country and a government deciding on where to send the troops. There are many people who don't necessarily support the war in Afghanistan (or Iraq, in the case of the US), but still have tremendous support for the sacrifice a person makes when they enlist. I might not agree with all (or any ) decisions the government makes, but I very much support anyone who chooses the military as a career.