Karsa Orlong

Well one way or another I've ended up with 1TB worth of SSDs, the original 250 GB one plus the new 750, so I guess it's all good. I'll just use the regular HDD for music and stuff, maybe even back up a lot to it. I only got Divinity: Original Sin. And as I was typing that I remembered I got the recently revamped versions of Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 as well, for the grand total of £7 Might as well start at the beginning, with The Blade Itself

Are we going to talk about each book in detail in this thread?

It was that intro that inspired me to start writing again, after a long time. I'm kind of hoping that re-reading the series - if and when I do - might get the creative juices going again

Thanks, Sarah New SSD is installed and working - eventually. It was looking a bit dodgy at first, as I installed it in the case beneath the dvd drive, attached the cables etc. SSD was recognised in the BIOS against SATA connection 3 (I didn't change anything, just looked to see if it was there) but when I went into Windows and Disk Management it wasn't showing up. Tried Samsung Magician and it wasn't showing in there either. I tried connecting it to one of the other SATA III sockets, and also tried a different power cable, but still no joy. So I was going to call Quiet PC tomorrow morning and see if they knew why that might be. Then later on I turned the pc back on to see if I could find a solution on the internet (I couldn't, although there were plenty of people with similar problems), but I left it on and went to do something else. Came back twenty mins later and suddenly the drive was showing as ready to initialise. Bizarre Anyway, all's good now. Spent a few mins transferring Steam + games over from the regular hard disk and played a bit of Divinity: Original Sin. The SSD is super fast at loading stuff. No more pauses whilst the game has to load a sound effect

Good luck! I'm kind of envious that you're getting to read this for the first time, cos I remember how enthralling and thrilling I found it all. Mind you, I get excited about the prospect of a re-read, too I have a tattered copy of Gardens of the Moon in my desk drawer, so I've had to take it out and have a glance through it. Now these ashes have grown cold, we open the old book. Always gives me goosebumps! Did your library copy include SE's introduction?

La-la-la, not listening

Serious answer to this: If I were you I wouldn't re-read GotM . . . yet. If you want to give the series another go, I'd suggest starting with one of the other books instead and then return to GotM at a later date - you'll get much more out of it that way, imo. There are three or four other points at which you could enter the series. I think Laura might agree that Midnight Tides is one of the best, if not the best book in the series. It starts a completely new storyline, so it's not essential to have vast amounts of knowledge of the previous books. You could also start with Deadhouse Gates which, again, begins a new storyline. I also know of a few people who started with Memories of Ice and got hooked on the series that way

Very nice! Like mine, you step away from it and you can barely hear it Unlike my old one, which sounded like an aircraft taking off from the other side of the room. Plus towards the end the watercooler used to gurgle a lot 50 degrees is just about perfect. Anything up to, I believe, 70 degrees is okay. The highest I've seen my cpu go is 49, with the chipset up to 59, and the system as a whole averaging about 55 - 56, so I'm really happy with that. I dread to think what it was that first night before the case fans were working

Ah right, yeah I saw a few cases like that when I was looking around. Just so long as the case itself wasn't causing problems with the components, that's the main thing! Love it! The whole side panel is a window? I really wish I had the room for a full-sized tower case like that, but I can't put it under the desk - it has to fit on top beside my monitor and under my shelves, so it has to be small. Mind you, I think my previous pc was too small, and that's what did for it in the end, because the heat wasn't dissipating fast enough. I've been monitoring the temperatures on the new one, which is about twice the size, and so far (since the fans are working) nothing's gone above 59 degrees, even when playing something like Tomb Raider on its 'ultimate' settings, which is great. Fingers crossed it still will be after tonight! I did notice. Hopefully they'll keep everything working properly whilst they're in there Your cable routing is so tidy! (can't believe I just typed that ). Again, the advantage of a full-size case, I suppose. Plus all that room for airflow. Sigh.

I didn't know cats got hayfever I thought Pixie might've had flu recently - she was sneezing a lot and wasn't herself for a few days, but she was back to normal after ten days or so. Now she's got fleas I looked down at my feet the other day and saw that a load of bite marks had suddenly appeared all over my calf and ankle. This is because she's spending so much time outside in the good weather, I suppose, and I've stupidly let her go without a flea collar for the last few months So she's got one on now, and I've sprayed all the areas around the house where she sleeps. What with all that and her regular bouts of stomach problems, I have to say she's been far harder work than either of my previous cats

Yeah, it would save me a lot of money I think it's possibly the most boring book I've ever read, tbh. I think a lot of it's down to my preconceptions, though - everyone knows the basics of the story, and that was what I was expecting, and it turned out that it wasn't the case. The bulk of the actual story is at the start and the very end, and the 300 pages or so in between I found was like wading through treacle. If anyone tries to tell you it's a great adventure story, don't believe them! When he spent pages and pages explaining how rope is made I reached the end of my, ahem, tether

I know that feeling! Well done for taking that on What was wrong with the Cooler Master case? You've got me concerned now, as mine is a Cooler Master It's years since I took a pc apart, so getting the fans working was a bit stressful. And now I'm going to have to take it apart again. The base spec of the pc included a 1TB solid state drive but I changed it to a 250GB ssd (for Windows specifically) plus a 2TB regular hard drive (for everything else), which seemed like a good idea at the time, but I've found the regular drive is a little slow for gaming and is causing occasional pauses whilst it loads up a sound effect or whatever. So that was a mistake on my part when I ordered. As a result, now I've ordered a 750GB ssd which I am going to have to install myself - and of course installing it will mean taking the graphics card out again, doing cable runs, and fighting with the side panel I had problems with when I attached the fans. Then putting it all back together and praying that it works. Joy! The new ssd is being delivered today, so I imagine there will be lots of cursing and swearing this evening Like you, I just hope I don't damage anything because the pc is otherwise running like a dream at the moment Apparently my graphics card has LEDs on its fans, but there's no window on the case so I've never seen them Sounds like you've done a brilliant job. I just hope, after today, I don't have to open my one up again for a loooooong time Oh jolly good, I hope you enjoy it

You're both mad, The Heroes is his best book You'd have to read it twice to be able to do that

They've both got a great ear for melody, imo. Mariusz isn't quite as up himself as Mr Wilson is, I don't think. But then Mr Wilson is a genius, so he's allowed to be. Just. ETA: You might like this

I've always been a bit partial to this one: And the obligatory Gene Kelly scene:

Oh I prefer Best Served Cold, too, but I found Half a King quite refreshing and enjoyed it a lot. I guess I benefited from knowing absolutely nothing about it before reading it

Great review, Laura, but I do disagree with this bit. I'd better spoilerise it . . .

Fantastic goal to win it. Thought the first half was great, then it became a typically tight affair. I was disappointed Di Maria and Khedira couldn't play. The right team won, but the Argies seemed to have the better chances. Looked like they had nothing left to give in extra time, probably due to having a day's less rest and extra time in the semi, too. Thought Schweinsteiger was outstanding. Not sure how Messi got player of the tournament - thought that should have gone to James Rodriguez Only four years till the next one

Glad I took it to the charity shop now Shame you didn't enjoy it, though, when you enjoyed the previous ones so much. Never nice when a series lets you down Yay for the new books Apart from the Bob one, of course

Most welcome! Hope you have a fantastic time. Tell Mariusz I said hi

I found losing on penalties in two semi-finals more upsetting, though Sadly, the Argies have got a lot of players I like these days: Di Maria especially, then Aguero, Higuain, Zabaleta, Mascherano, Lavezzi, and Messi, of course. They're far from a one man team. That said, I'm not bothered who wins it now - I wanted Colombia to win it Just hope, like you, that it's a good game

Coming to a tv near you: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/the-last-kingdom

No Mind you, I haven't forgotten Italia '90 or Euro '96, either. Might as well not bother with the final

I liked it, but I didn't see what all the fuss was about. I'll re-read it one day and see if I change my mind Oh my gadz, this has just made my day (doesn't take much, admittedly ): BBC adapting Bernard Cornwell's Saxon novels for tv Uhtred? On tv?