Xcolibur

[pne]

Went to lookup a FAQ on LiveJournal this morning... they switched the site scheme on me! Suddenly, it was in Xcolibur instead of the Dystopia I had become used to.

I was not particularly pleased. Went to /manage/siteopts.bml and switched back, but that set a cookie with my scheme preference—so it'll probably still be "messed up" in my other browsers which don't have this cookie set and I'll have to select it all over again.

Edit: Ah, I see there's an announcement in news about this. It seems to have garnered quite a few comments, too (1048 right now).

Edit: Hm, it does seem to remember my scheme choice with my user. At any rate, in two other browsers on this machine, it gave my Dystopia as soon as I logged in (though it was Xcolibur before that). I'm slightly mollified now.

Comments

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

I always thought Dystopia was pretty ugly and so switched to Xcolibur as soon as it was released. All your prefs (scheme, language) are saved as part of your account, though, so they're the same as soon as you login.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I always thought Dystopia was pretty ugly and so switched to Xcolibur as soon as it was released.

Well... but I had got used to it. I think in such cases, I'd rather put up with something I know than have it changed to something different even if it's better.

All your prefs (scheme, language) are saved as part of your account, though, so they're the same as soon as you login.

Here at work, it's all XColibur, though (on both MozFirebird and Opera). Strange. I wonder why it'd be Dystopia on three browsers at home but XColibur on two browsers at work. Hm, it's Dystopia on the MSIE at work (which I hardly ever use). Bizarre.

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

That's a bit strange. Perhaps you've been logged in since before they started saving site prefs with your login. Logout and back in - might fix things.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Heh :) See my comment to myself (http://www.livejournal.com/users/pne/130188.html?thread=247180) where I guessed the same.

Maybe I should just go down the Xcolibur road, though.

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

:) You could do or you could go for the whole lynx minimalist thing!

[pne.livejournal.com]

I'm doing Xcolibur now.

Actually, it doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would *twitch* *twitch*

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

I knew you could do it!:D Well done! *round of applause*

[pne.livejournal.com]

Hm... I wonder whether that's because I had to login on MSIE?

On MozFirebird and Opera, I'm perma-loggedin through a cookie. So maybe it didn't load my scheme preference into that session, or something.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and do the XColibur thing.

[pauraque]

Hello! It's Eodrakken from the zompist bboard. I was just browsing users whose interests included "conlangs", and was rather pleased to see your name. Just thought I'd drop by and say hello. :)

I'll be very interested to see what you think of "Order of the Phoenix" after you're done reading it. I'm a big Harry Potter fan, and have of course discussed my reactions with other big fans, but I haven't really heard from casual fans yet, who naturally have a different take on things. (I realize now that I probably haven't heard from them because they haven't finished the book yet...!)

[pne.livejournal.com]

Hi! *waves*

I have two more chapters to go, so it shouldn't take too long.

Order of the Phoenix

[pne.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know. I think on the whole I rather liked it. Professor Umbridge rather went against my grain, though, and spoilt the enjoyment a little.

Oh, and the fact that Sirius & Co. burst into the Ministry of Magic just as Harry and friends were starting to have serious trouble struck me as a bit too much of a coincidence.

Sorry I can't give you a more detailed analysis of my impressions :) Mostly due to two things: I tend to read for amusement/entertainment and so once the book is done, I don't think about it too much, and my short-term memory is sometimes a bit wonky and I don't remember clearly what I felt at various points in my reading.

Re: Order of the Phoenix

[pauraque]

Professor Umbridge rather went against my grain, though, and spoilt the enjoyment a little.

Well, she was... a very flat character, who only served as something like Bureaucracy Incarnate. I'd say she's the only character we've seen with *no* redeeming or sympathetic qualities that would make us see her as a person. I mean, even Voldemort was abandoned by his parents....

I enjoyed the book too, though I don't think it was quite as satisfying _as a novel_ as, say, "Prisoner of Azkaban" was. It was more a series of episodes than a united narrative, I thought, and it really required that the reader already be invested in all these storylines beforehand. It wouldn't stand on its own, as I think "Prisoner of Azkaban" does.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Re: Order of the Phoenix

[pne.livejournal.com]

I had read that the author decided to abandon the ability to read each book on its own starting with this volume. I also saw a comment saying that the next book might also be a bit unsatisfactory since, by necessity, it couldn't have a real "close" but would have to leave some storylines and threads open in order to them to be resolved in the final volume (which—is my personal guess—may have to be published in two volumes if the books get bigger at the rate they're doing).

Re: Order of the Phoenix

[pauraque]

It's certainly been suggested by fans that the final three will come to form something of a trilogy, while the first four stand alone. This is perfectly reasonable, of course -- the first four set up all the necessary background information, and culminate in Voldemort's resurrection. Before that point, Voldemort is still fairly dead (if not really most sincerely dead), so not much can be done to fight him in any case. So you've got the buildup, and then the War.

Harry Potter fandom

[pne.livejournal.com]

It's certainly been suggested by fans

My gut reaction to this is "well, maybe some fans have too much time on their hands". Incidentally, the first thing that came to mind after that was the entry on "fanon" from FictionAlley's Primer (http://www.fictionalley.org/primer/dictionary.html):

fanon - "Facts" about the book series that have never been explicitly told to us by the writers, but have become so commonly used in the fandom that they are taken as fact. For instance, before J.K. Rowling stated in a chat that Lily was in Gryffindor, a fanon "fact" was that she had been placed in Slytherin.

to which my reaction was also roughly "why do people bother to set up such scenarios?".

No personal offense intended; this is probably just a result of the discrepancy between the fan vs casual reader mindsets; I've simply never put much energy into exploring the Potterverse beyond reading the books.

So you've got the buildup, and then the War.

That's still possible, of course.

Re: Harry Potter fandom

[pauraque]

"why do people bother to set up such scenarios?"

For purposes of fan fiction.

However, the theory that the last three books will form a complete arc isn't really what's meant by the term 'fanon'. It's speculative meta-analysis, sure, but it's not generally accepted or defended as truth when it comes up. That's the difference: When a group of fans have become so attached to an idea that they're no longer open to anything else, then it's fanon.

A good example of this would be the idea that Remus Lupin is "a very sweet and forgiving person". As a casual reader, I'm sure you'd disagree with this, as do I. However, it's a characterization point that a *lot* of writers have used in fan fiction (where whitewashing the flaws of characters is unfortunately common), and it's definitely widespread fanon, even though there's convincing evidence against it in the books.

I'm somewhat known for being rather opposed to fanon, myself. I think it makes for lazy writing and unproductive debate. I try to analyze these books the same way I'd analyze any other literature (which I enjoy doing): by continually going back to the text, not my own assumptions.

No personal offense intended

Nah, I'm not offended. I'm used to being razzed for my, uh, interest. :) As I'm sure you've met with puzzlement and ridicule for your own unusual hobby of conlanging.

Re: Harry Potter fandom

[pne.livejournal.com]

As I'm sure you've met with puzzlement and ridicule for your own unusual hobby of conlanging.

True.