Fish slap calm me.

[sarea]

1) Those with knowledge about the Anita Blake series: Do we ever learn all about Jean-Claude, and how he became the ultra hottie that he is?

2) This Sat. am going to dim sum w/ Scott and Linda and their friends, who are also a couple. I hate dim sum, and I hate being a Singleton amidst all the Smug Marrieds, but afterward we're going to Fountain of Beauty and I'm getting a massage and that's all that matters. I think it's been a YEAR since my last one, and my back has been bothering me lately. I'm hoping it's just the tightness of the muscles back there, and not that something is terribly wrong. How much is one supposed to tip a masseuse? I usually go about 15-20%, but some people say 10% is fine, or a flat rate rather than percentage. What say you? Can I also mention how much I despise the U.S. practice of leaving gratuity??? I wish they'd just factor it into their wages/prices, because I hate having to worry about it.

3) I'm using Bit Torrent for the first time, and I'm having newbie confusion. Some of the files are downloading as .mpgs, and some of them are downloading as .rm files. What I'd like to do is to burn them to a CD or DVD so that I can actually watch them on a DVD player, rather than simply archiving them as files. corianderstem has helped me out a ton, and I think I'll probably be able do that w/ the .mpgs no problem. But does anyone know if you can burn .rm files so that they're viewable in a DVD player, or do you have to convert them to .mpg first? And if the latter, how does one do that???

4) Watched 50 First Dates again last night for the first time since seeing it in the theater. I just lurve it. The ending makes it worth it every time, plus all the rest of it isn't as grating as I normally find Adam-Sandler-esque movies. Have also shamefully watched Coyote Ugly. Yes, it's terrible, but not Surviving Christmas terrible; it's more Get Over It! terrible -- rewatchable. Plus the music was great and I like Bridget Moynahan. Poor Melanie Lynskey, going from playing opposite Kate Winslet in an arthouse movie like Heavenly Creatures to playing these throw-away best friend roles.

5) Jade and I are switching Web servers, so our site will be down for a few days (possibly more if we can't be arsed to reupload everything immediately). That means our vanishingscroll accounts are frozen also, so you'll have to email us at our Gmail accounts if you want to reach us.

Comments

[fearthainn.livejournal.com]

See, unfortunately I haven't re-read the last few books since I got them, so I can't really remember. The first books of the series are really the best, although LKH doesn't descend to Anne Rice-ian depths in her quest to write smut-filled stories. The latest is coming out in September, so maybe there will be more on JC and his vampire birth and all the rest.

I don't think LKH talks about the vampiric souls beyond saying they don't have them, that it takes 3 days for a soul to leave a body and 3 days for a new vamp to rise, etc. So in that sense it's not like Buffy-verse, where Angel and Spike got "new" souls to replace the ones they lost. I don't think it's possible in Anita-verse for that to happen, but honestly, it's never come up.

And yeah, sometimes she does contradict herself. :)

Also. Your icon? Made me laugh out loud. :D

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Damn, I could have sworn I read somewhere that vampires had souls -- but she didn't specify what kind of soul it was. She was going through the whole ghosts/ghouls/zombies/vampires thing, about how zombies only have the memory of who they once were, didn't have a personality, etc., but vampires actually can think for themselves, etc., and there was something about a soul slipped in there somewhere. I'll have to see if I can find it again; shouldn't be too difficult, since I'm only 2 1/2 books in.

I was thinking that about Angel and Spike the other day -- probably from thoughts about the Anita Blake books. Specifically about their 'generic' souls, how they can just get their souls replaced, and if it's that easy, then a soul must just be a generic thing. And yet, I don't think that's the case, actually ... not as sure about Spike, but Angel's soul seems to be specifically his (I think it was from the second to last season, when he turned into Angelus again). Yet I think that was kind of contradictory to what had been said before, so that they could guarantee maximum angst. Don't know if you watch those shows, but if you do, then you'll know that they're no strangers to contradiction, either. <g>

Anyway -- I ask about vampire souls because I thought that's what had been suggested, and if so, it was a really interesting concept to me. That maybe a soul is why a vampire is animated/can think for itself. That it's a different soul, a vampire soul, is an unusual but cool idea (if true). I mean ... there was that voodoo queen who was able to trap souls into zombies (gawd, how awful), so maybe it is possible to trap a soul into a vampire, too? Now I'm getting a headache, which isn't worth it given I'm not even sure exactly what I read. I'll let you know what I find!

Haha, I loves me the Orlando, but he was such a little wussie in Troy. :))