A Game of Thrones, episode the first...

This afternoon I did the Game of Thrones test: "Which house are you?" I turn out to be Targaryen:

House of Targaryen (3 headed Dragon) - You rely on the sufferance of others probably more than you should. You've had a hard road, but the world doesn't owe you everything and desperation will only get you so far. Try working harder to get what you want. It may not get you as far as you'd like, but it will definitely help breed confidence of character.

Which is a rather odd description of any Targaryen, but I am not displeased. Fire-dragons? A sense of hard-won privilege? Oh, yeah, I wouldn't mind being a Targaryen. Not the evil madmen in the family but the more romantic, heroic sort.

I watched the first episode of A Game of Thrones this evening. The books have long been favourites of mine and Pim, and maaseru has heard far more about those books than she ever wanted to. The show has been much discussed and much anticipated; the only shared fandom I can think of that surpassed it was Lord of the Rings. And of course the books are very different, though with the similarity that George R.R. Martin is a very good writer.

...As far as it goes.

So what did we think? Thumbs up. Most characters and most aspects have been done better than I could have expected: the huge, rambling castle of Winterfell; impish Arya, loyal but unsympathetic Catelyn, bold Tyron, frightened Danaerys... Even where they had to cut or improvise, they did it in the right way.

( Looking at specific details... )

Maybe that's the best thing about this series: that the book itself is so extreme, so exaggerated, and yet depicted with such verisimilitude, that it would be easy to make the story a parody of itself. But they haven't. They downplayed just enough.

I'm looking forward to more. Bring it on.

My desk...

The way my living room was arranged before, I felt as if my desk area was a small corner of the living room.

Now I feel as if I actually have an office - a sort of open concept study area, as if there were an invisible wall between it and the living room. Two distinct areas now.

I like that. I feel as if I've added an extra room to my living space.

And goodness knows, I spend a lot of my life at my desk.