Just a guy

Just a guy putting thoughts on the web. Current fandoms: D&D, Miraculous and Leverage. [This is a placeholder for where I'm gonna put the Fic Link when I finally get to Adrien]

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Turned out, they changed the schedule 2 months ago and i hadnt received the e-mail. They're not playing Scheherezade. Haydin, Bach and once more Haydin.

They said i'll probably get tickets comped for it. Which is a relief at least...

Was a great performance, don't get me wrong. But not the one i booked booked an entire vacation around.

Gotta hand it to Fate, or whomever runs my life though. Making me lose my copy of 1001 nights before i left on my trip, was an excellent bit of foreshadowing.

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Spend over an hour trying to find a new suitcase (still have the old one, dont worry. But its a loaner and i want an owner), running shop to shop cause i just knew in my gut the sizes were off.

Finally found a hardwarestore and bought a tapemeasure.

They are all off. 20 cm thickness for overhead carry-on, and they were all 21 through 22.5 (mist were 20 at the corners, but they were all concex and im not taking chances).

Finally found one that shouldnt get me a fine. Taking a break, concert in an hour 40 min. Hope it was worth the trip.

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Second stop of the day: Barcelona zoo.

Half the enclosures under construction, but nice to see the trees marked with signs and trivia too.

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first stop of the day: Picasso museum

Progressing through his career one room at a time, watching ghe feature become more abstract, is what i inagine it be like walking through the brain of al Alzheimers patient, who can no longer recognise his daughters face. Or anyone's face for that matter

The music on the audioguide at the room dedicated to "else colomins" is great.

At the "las meninas" exhibition, the focus is on contrast with Velázquez's original version. Which doesnt really work as its far less known. A picture of the original with which it is conversing, would help explain this dialogue.

Hope the giftshop has pidgeons.

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End of day 2...

Gonna have to stop reading 80 days soon, already halfway through and i cant risk running out of pages on a 2 hour flight. Should probably be something English in the BCN airport bookstore, but also cant remember seeing anything English at AMS so i dont want to risk it.

Hop on/off tour was dissapointing 2 hours.

Park guell was... interesting, but in a weird way. A lot of it the stuff just kind of "was there"? A failed attempt at a gated community thst never even reached the customer stage.

Dont get me wrong the filtration in the pillars for the cistern (or did the guide say system? Accents...,) is an impressive double-use. But aside the strange choice to mic gargoyles with columns, it all felt kind of bleh.

Guess thats the thing with experimental projects, not all experiments are a success.

Liked the salamander though. Got him as some hairclips. Coolest emergency overflow valve i've ever seen.

Sagrada is an ugly thing tbh. Looks big and imposing sure, but its iconograohy is cluttered, the symbolic equivalent of clinkling keychsins to entertain a toddler.

Saw more beauty on the parkbench behind it, then i did at that Tower of Babel looking thing. Phone started to run out of batterijen before my tineslot though, so i went back to the accomodations.

Liking the book though. Strange how old timey folks prefered to describe, rather then transcribe conversations. Seems easier to right, but does create a vexing sense of vague imperaonality.

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Chapter 15: where a crime punished with a fine, is just a permit with a price

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Never seen a couch with a drain before. Smart, wonder why we dont do that wih garden funiture today.

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Tour guide at parc guell just called the Sagrada Familia a "Christian temple". And i love yhe inversion. (Not subversion, the neutral "house of worship" would be)

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Phileas fogg charactertraits:

Strong opinions on food

Seeming lack of fear or capacity to worry

Inabilaty to meaningfully fail.

If i ever make him in dnd, he'd be a halfling. (Probably timewizard, Passepartout a bard, and kiouini would be a Loxodon ranger)

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Dont know how i feel about the implication that the rajah's next of kin are burning his widow to affect the inheritance under religious guise.

On the one hand, it gives an implication that it isnt the faith itself that is evil, and that Hinduism is merely taking the fall for self-interest. (Which is strangely progressive)

On the other hand it now cornflakes religious tradition with duplicity.

On another, it could be a quirk of the translation.

And yet another that feels like it could genuinely be how that tradition started in the first place.

And no, these arent my hands. I only have 2, those are Kali's /joking

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I do apreciate the coverart on my copy. I feel like you'd know which book it was even if all the letters turned to simlish.

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Chapter 12, where Fogg decides its time to propose actually doing something.

Also, im not gonna look it up now dor fear of a wikiwalk, but wasn't the Juggernaut thing supposed to be Vishnu rather then Kali.

Obviously not feeling great about the constant "British Empire, beacon of civilisation, Indian natives horrid bloodsuckers" thing.

Am starting to get a grip on why this particular public domain work isnt adapted or "modern day remade" often though. Its central conceit seems to be about the might and power of the Empire as an economic force. A modern retelling would mandate a different nationality for Phileas. Maybe China or Japan as an economic force?

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Also, given that they're technically unfinished military equipement, repurposed for its ability to navigatie difficult terrain. Kiouni would be some kind of prototype tank or jeep. Which would be a lot less interesting visually or physically.

[richardsphere]

Chapter 12, where Fogg decides its time to propose actually doing something.

Also, im not gonna look it up now dor fear of a wikiwalk, but wasn't the Juggernaut thing supposed to be Vishnu rather then Kali.

Obviously not feeling great about the constant "British Empire, beacon of civilisation, Indian natives horrid bloodsuckers" thing.

Am starting to get a grip on why this particular public domain work isnt adapted or "modern day remade" often though. Its central conceit seems to be about the might and power of the Empire as an economic force. A modern retelling would mandate a different nationality for Phileas. Maybe China or Japan as an economic force?

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But chapter 9, seems to be when things are actually gonna start happening? Up till now its just been a list of beautiful vista's that Phileas couldnt be bothered to look out a window for and zero struggles or delay. But with the Shoe Incident and fix telling local authorities that might actually create a plotthread...

Also obviously contemporary racism.... "the ground that ws so often stained with the blood sacrifice of Kali's worshippers, not to be confused with that other murderous cult that they also have"

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So Jean Passepartout makes less in a day, then it takes to keep the light on. (Literally), but he'll splurge on kitchy fake pearls?

Dont get me wrong, i get he needs new shoes. But it feels like a weird choice for someone who literally complains he's got negative money right now.

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Its weird how every chapter in 80 days, is titled like an episode of F*R*I*E*N*D*S

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Jules Verne around the world in 80 days, initial impressions.

The fucker's name is passport. But at least it's a nickname not a legal one. So i can accept it somewhat.

Frustrating character introduction for Phileas tbh. Just a list of things he isnt, followed by a strange claim to punctuality and time-sticklerism. (Schedules an initial introduction to Jean with a half-hour margin, which doesnt feel like it fits the rest of his sticklerness).