it's almost time ....

[sanders]

Almost time to leave for China and there's still a million tiny things I need to wrap up. Nothing like leaving it all for the last minute. Hey, beats my boss - I was talking to her today and she mentioned that she was heading out for vacation as well, on Friday. To where? London, and from there, onwards to the rest of Europe. To do what? Oh well

Comments

[yourgypsy]

I remember, so very long ago, how you'd write of how much you hated Chinese school. LOL *ducks in case you throw something*

I'm sorry to hear about Robert Jordan. Never read the books, but I know there's a pretty solid fanbase there. Elayne, Gawyn, Morgase - is this somewhat Arthurian?

Have a great time in China - and I want to see pictures that YOU take! And make sure you're in them, too. :)

[lyssabits]

Robert Jordan stole from pretty much every major mythos/religion/folk story there is. But you're right, he's particularly bad about stealing from the Aurthurian legends pretty blatantly. I actually wrote a 10 page paper on it for my senior thesis in high school. ;) You know he's got people pulling swords from the ground in a citadel named The Stone? ;)

[sanders]

Gawyn and Elayne have another brother named Galad! Like Alyssa said below, he ripped off basic concepts of his world from all sorts of fantasy, including Arthurian, but story plot doesn't really read that way. It's a good series - you might like it, but if you do want to begin reading it, I recommend that you NOT begin until they release book 12 (if they ever do). This series is notorious for plots that are never resolved. There's a whole bunch of great storylines from books 3,4,5 that we have no idea what happened to them - and we're on book 11 now. Argh.

I'll be sure to share pictures. :)

[lyssabits]

Writing quality will suffer? Are you kidding? My first thought upon learning his death was the same as yours, except slightly modified, "Well, now I'll never finish WoT. How predictable." I knew he was sick over a year ago, but even before that, we used to make jokes about how WoT was never going to end, it was going to be so long that he'd die without finishing it. When I learned he'd told the whole story to his wife I thought, "Oh good, maybe now we can get someone else to finish it and the writing will improve." Seriously, the first five books are great, but after that.. he could cut the series in half if he just took out all the descriptions of people's clothing and the number of times he has Nyneave pull her braid or all the times he has the women scowling and calling men wool-brained

[sanders]

Ahahahaha. The braid pulling and wool-brained sheepherders. Well, hopefully the next writer(s) will be less eloquent. I was thinking more along the lines of R.A Salvatore's Forgotten Realms world. Once he let some other writers take over his War of the Spider Queen's series, it veered off into really odd places.

Oh, Moraine! Yes, I've been wanting to know what happened to her storyline as well. Lanfear/Cyndane and Alanna as well. Min's okay, but I always forget about her because she's not prominently featured anymore, just as a tagalong to Rand. I like Lan. I keep hoping they'll finally feature him with a Malkier storyline, rather than just following Nynaeve mindlessly around.

[jadelin]

You should read stories by Robin McKinley, Patricia Wrede, and Tamora Pierce. Sure, they are YA book authors primarily, but their stuff is really original for fantasy.

[jadelin]

Thank sounds like it would be a gorgeous tour. :) It's pretty awesome your company gives you that many vacation days (or you're taking a bunch out). If you have sdhc cards, make sure you have a reader, or else most card readers that take sd don't necessarily take sdhc.

I'm glad I never got started on 'The Wheel of Time'. Sounds like it was a massive tease waiting for all those books just to come out. :D Mike warned me against reading them.

Hey! When our high school had "Channel One", I had a major girl crush on Lisa Lang. Except I don't now. Her face is too long-ish looking and pointy, I liked her more when she had more baby fat.

Oh and be sure to keep a travel journal! There's tons of things that pop up in your mind when you travel. I only wish I had more time to write down what I was experiencing (but it would look weird).

[sanders]

My company's vacation policy is pretty similar to everyone else's. I've just saved all my days this year - haven't taken a day off yet!

I just have regular SD cards, and no reader - I just link my camera directly to the computer.

Oh, Wheel Of Time is a giant tease. I would recommend reading it, since it's a great series, but I would also recommend reading it only when Book 12 is released, or else the unresolved plotlines will drive you completely insane.

Lisa Ling? Or Lang? I liked her too. Or maybe I was just desperate to see any squinty eyed Asian on my TV. My high school was not cool enough back then to have TVs in the classroom. (I bet they have them now though. Everything always happens after I leave.)

I'll try to keep a journal! If there's room - my suitcase is buldging with crap already. Maybe I can find time to sneak onto a computer if the hotels have one.

[tharyn]

Yeah, I do the USB thing, too, but sometimes places are a pain and hide their USB ports. :(

The travel journal is something I'm really anal about. By the end of a trip, I'm usually about 2 days behind, but I keep a little sheet of notebook paper and jot down notes to myself so it's easy to remember what to write about. You experience so much in so little time when you're traveling that I know I'd forget a lot if I didn't write it down, especially names of places.

I have actually heard of Jiuzhaigou and it looks incredibly beautiful. I started researching for my family's trip next year and I'd like to throw that in the mix.. you can give me tips when you get back. :)