Yay Compy!

After much frustration, blood, sweat, and tears ... okay maybe not tears, but I was definitely sweating at one point while hauling this damn computer up and down the stairs and I sliced open three different fingers during the installation this week ... MY COMPUTER IS FINALLY WORKING.

The new mo'bo?  Awesome.  This CPU is fantastic.  I'm very pleased with the aftermarket heatsink and fan as well.  The RAM?  Nice, but I think I have to change a setting in the bios on the mo'bo to force it to use 1600 speed as opposed to just 1066.

My video card is as good as it gets.  These solid state drives are baller.  I'm going to have to get one more though because 150GB of space is just not enough; too many programs and games!

I have yet to actually set up the "music box".  Thursday night I was up until midnight trying to finalize the installation of the new motherboard and get everything else set up.  But I ran in to a little bit of trouble with installing Windows 7.  So the product key I have is only for an "upgrade".  I had originally installed it from the Windows 7 RC1 back in October '09, and it worked fine.

Well it turns out that to use an "upgrade key" you have to run the installer from an existing OS.  Long story short, the resolution is to install Windows 7, don't enter a product key and go in to the OS under the free 30-day trial, run the setup.exe for Windows 7 again from inside the newly installed OS and then enter the product key during the second install (after selecting "Upgrade" instead of "Custom").

It took me four hours to figure that out Thursday night.  I didn't get to bed until midnight.

Friday during the day I was able to install World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, and RIFT.  WoW and RIFT look fantastic; I thoroughly love getting 100 FPS in WoW and a whopping 50 fps in RIFT.  RIFT's requirements (and then to play at "ultra" graphic settings)  are super high.

The features of the BIOS on this Gigabyte board are fantastic.  Motherboard BIOS has improved exponentially since the last board I had.

After I'm done doing these achievements tonight, I'm going to run 3DMark and get a score, see how high it is.  Should be pretty good now.

Aside from all the frustrations, the cuts on my fingers, and the time wasted, I am extremely pleased with the results.  And I still had enough time to finish the Noblegarden achievements in WoW before the event finishes tonight at midnight.  Then tomorrow starts Children's Week.  As soon as I finish that, I'll have finished the giagantic meta achievement What A Long Strange Trip It's Been and I will have my Violet Proto-Drake mount!

Weeee ... *spins in circles*.

And today we managed to get through 12 sets of our opening tune in Minnesota Brass (drum and bugle corps).  Our first outdoor camp was today, in pouring rain.  In a matter of minutes my jeans were soaked.  Thankfully, my core wasn't very cold as I wore my snowboarding jacket.  Kept me nice and dry, kept my head warm.  But my hands were freezing cold.

Before rehearsal, I checked my email and found out that my Kahlan corset for my costume was finished!  I sent the maker the second (and final) payment shortly after I got home and she said she'd send it early next week.  I should have it within another week!  OMG I'm so excited.  Here's a pseudo final picture:

She said she has one more coat of ... I'm not sure what ... to rub in to the leather yet and then it'll be done.  I hope it turns out as dark as it supposed to, because, while it is gorgeous in these pictures, it should be a dark forest green.  Either way, I'm still super pleased with the outcome.  I'll take pictures when I get it.  My dress is still at the tailoring shop.  I will be calling them Monday to find out how things went since February.

So not really a tech post, more so a general life update today while I wait for a friend to come out to Un'Goro crater to help turn me into a bunny so I can finish this achievement.

Shoeing Horses > Sewing

We get to meet Ned's daughters for the first time ... in a stitching circle.

Arya

It's apparent from the first sentence in this chapter that Arya is not a typical girl.  Actually, she's probably more typical than she seems.  She just doesn't act in a manner that all the other women are trying to make her act.

First off, she can't sew straight stitches.  Um.  I can't either.  And I'm 17 years older than Arya.  Septa Mordane says that Sansa is a wonderful girl, with all these positive things.  And then she says that Arya has the hands of a blacksmith.  That's not very nice ... unless Arya wants to be a blacksmith ... but she's probably not allowed because she has a vagina.

And when Arya begins chatting with her sister, this catches the attention of the Septa Mordane, who sounds, essentially, like a full-time babysitter, or a sort of wet nurse minus the breast feeding.  And whenever I picture Septa Mordane, I think of an older nun who uses a ruler to smack her student's knuckles when they're misbehaving.

And Arya gets pissed that she attracted the Septa's attention.  During their quick conversation, we learn one key element of Sansa.  She does not think highly of Jon and makes it a point to call him their half brother.

Arya seems to look up to Jon, never pointing out he's a bastard.  But once Sansa ended up attracting the attention of the Septa, the conversation was over.  Septa Mordane demands to see Arya's stitches, and after inspecting them, she says in a really polite way that they suck.

Arya is overcome with embarrassment, especially because they're with Princess Myrcella today, and gets up and attempts to dash out of the room.  Septa yells for her to return and not embarrass them in front of the princess.  Arya comes back, asks Princess Myrcella for permission to leave, to which Myrcella does not know how to respond; she looks to her advisors and never responds. Septa Mordane asks where she's going.  And because Arya is smart, she says, in a sweet manner:

"I have to go shoe a horse."

And then she bolts out the door.  We then get a look in to the relationship of Arya and Sansa.  It appears they're two very opposite girls, while only 2 years apart in age.  Arya envies just about everything to deal with Sansa; everything she has makes Arya jealous.  And that nothing was fair.

But at least Arya had her direwolf pup.  She had named her Nymeria after the warrior queen of the Rhoyne.  Sansa had named her pup Lady.  That girl needs to get out more.

Arya meets Nymeria shortly after having left the sewing circle.  She then heads for the Great Keep to watch the men practicing swords in the yards below.  When she arrived, she found Jon in the window, who asks her why she was not practicing stitches.  She simply says she wanted to see the men practicing.  Jon finds this endearing, smiles, and helps her up on to the sill.

The young boys are still practicing; Arya compares them to featherbeds with all of the padding they have on.  Bran and Tommen continue to fight.  Jon comments that this appears to be a shade more exhausting than needle work, to which Arya tosses back that it's a shade more entertaining.

Arya asks Jon why he's not down there ... as though she doesn't know.  Maybe she really doesn't.  I couldn't tell; I just thought it was obvious.  Bastards aren't allowed to harm princes.

After some small talk, Jon points out Prince Joffrey who's wearing a surcoat with the arms of both his parents; the crowned stag on one side, the lion the other.  Jon makes this seem like it's unreasonable, that Joffrey's mother's House is no where near as important as the Baratheon House.

Arya stands up for "the woman" (not so much Cersei, but what her position stands for), saying she's important, too.  Jon then says that Arya should don a coat of arms that weds Tully and Stark.  Arya finds this hilarious, saying "A wolf with a fish in it's mouth?  ... That would look silly."

Ser Rodrik breaks up Bran and Tommen and asks Joffrey and Robb to go another round.  Robb quickly agrees, but Joffrey scoffs saying this is a childrens game; Theon Greyjoy points out truth in that they are children.  I can see Theon rolling his eyes as he says it.  I chuckled.

And here is where we get a true look at Joffrey's colors.  And the only color I can really put on him is baby-poop green.  He's a selfish little ponce.  He attempts to insult Robb by suggest he is a child, but then says that because he is a prince, he bores of swatting at Starks with a play sword.

Robb jabs with the fact that he hit Joffrey more times than Joff hit him, and then taunts him further by asking if Joff is afraid?  Little boys don't like being called chicken and Robb just called him out!  The gloves are off!

With Joffrey surrounded by Lannister body guards/baby sitters/Joffrey-ego-boosters (because all they really do is laugh-on-cue when Joff insults Robb/Stark family), Joffrey is full of muster and mocks Robb.

Arya points out to Jon that Joffrey is "trully a little shit."

Ser Rodrik asks what Joffrey is getting at and Joffrey puffs out his chest as he says "Live steel."

Robb agrees immediately.  And Ser Rodrik says no.  One of Joffrey's knights, a man Arya did not recognize, claims that Ser Rodrik is not allowed to say no to the prince if he asks to have an edge on his sword.  Rodrik should have shoved his foot up the man's ass, but he reiterates the fact that he's the master-at-arms in Castle Winterfell and what he says is the rules.  We learn the man speaking up has part of a name at least: Clegane.

Clegane insults Ser Rodrik, claiming that they train women here.  We also learn that Clegane's face is marred by burn scars, and that he's a big guy, "muscled like a bull".  Rodrik explains that training knights implies providing edged steel when the boys are ready, when they are of the proper age.

Clegane then asks Robb how old he is, to which he responds "Fourteen".  Clegane then tells the crowd that he killed a man when he was twelve and that he was not with a blunt sword.

Robb pleads with Rodrik for a match of steel against steel (did I really use that phrase?) with Joff, but Rodrik suggests tourney blades.  Joff scoffs, again, like the little twat he is, and jousts one more insult at Robb.  "Come and see me when you're older, Stark.  If you're not too old."  And then the Lannister men laugh, as though there was a button Joff pushed and a big neon sign light up above his head that says "LAUGH!"

Joffrey gathers Tommen, and leaves the children to their "frolics".  More canned laughter.

The battle of wits ended, Jon insists that Arya return to her rooms before she wait any longer otherwise Septa Mordane will have her sewing all winter.  Arya emphasizes the fact that she hates needlework but agrees to return to her rooms.  Jon leaves, with Ghost on his heals, and Nymeria attempts to follow Ghost, but stops when she sees Arya is not following.

Arya goes the other direction to her room, only to find not just Septa Mordane, but her mother there as well.

Shoeing Horses > Sewing

Not an extremely informative chapter, but a cute one, nonetheless.  We see that Joffrey is an insufferable brat and that Arya is not very lady like.  I don't know many nine year old girls that are very lady like ... most enjoy playing outside.  But again ... medieval accuracy!  And then I think, tell Joan of Arc her place in society during that time and she'd run you through with a blade.  (Sure she eventually was burned at the stake by her enemies, under false claims of heresy [false or not, I'm not sure] but ... oh well!)

Overall a fun chapter, but nothing overly important.

Murder?

And now we get more of the plot, and the story moves on just a little bit further.

Catelyn

The Stark castle is built on natural hot springs, and Catelyn describes her bed chambers as the hottest in the entire castle.  Ned insists on the fact that the Starks were made for the cold, to which Catelyn always responds that they built the castle in the wrong place if that is the truth of it.

While we're getting this little view in to Catelyn's mind, her thoughts are broken off by the beginning of a paragraph that goes like this:

"So when they had finished, Ned rolled off and climbed from her bed, as he had thousands of times before."

o.O

They were having sex?  No where, and I mean absolutely no fucking where in the previous two paragraphs that started this chapter was there even the smallest, infinitesimal hint at them being in bed together.  That to me just looks like poor writing.

And then a scene straight out of the movie 300 comes to mind as I read the rest of that paragraph.  Ned crosses the room, throws up the window and stands butt-naked, staring out in to the darkness.

*Disclaimer*

I have no problem with sex.  I quite enjoy it, actually.  However, I have a problem with writers who ... write about sex poorly.  And I'm not talking about the subject of the sex (i.e. incest, rape, torture, etc.).  I'm taking about this type of crappy writing right here.  I had no clue Ned and Catelyn were in bed and the line that told me they were was really out of place!  "So when they finished".  That's Martin's way of saying they were doing the hibbidy-dibbity?!  "So when they finished, Ned rolled off and climbed from her bed, as he had a thousand times before."

Their sex life must really be boring if this is over the thousandth time they've had sex and he simply rolled off of her, climbed out of bed, and opened the windows.  And yet she says the lovemaking was urgent, and she ached with that urgent lovemaking and she could feel his seed within her and she hoped it took so she could be pregnant again.

The Score:

Medieval Accuracy: 10

Jeanna:  0

I apologize for the tangent, I just felt I should make myself clear.  I don't have a problem with reading about various types of sexual encounters in books.  I have a problem with poorly written sexual encounters.

After a few minutes, Ned says, out of nowhere "I will refuse him."

Okay, sure Ned, you keep telling yourself you'll tell your best friend Robert no.

Catelyn tells him he can't do that (duh).  Ned says that Robert wouldn't harm them if he said no, he's his best buddy, a brother almost.

He keeps arguing with Catelyn and she eventually gets pissed.  And then Catelyn brings up Sansa's betrothal to Joffrey (which had been agreed upon, apparently between now and the last/first time it had been brought up), saying that she could very well be queen one day (foreshadowing!).  Ned complains that she's only eleven.

He then tries to say Joffrey is a pompous little douche bag, but doesn't put the words to it, and Catelyn finishes with "prince and heir to the Iron Throne" as though that excuses his douchebaggery.  She adds that she was only twelve when she had been promised to Ned's brother Brandon.

So that further excuses promising your own daughter away to a little prick?

The Score:

Medieval Accuracy:  11

Jeanna:  0

I give up.

They continue talking about Brandon a bit, and just about when Catelyn decides to go comfort Ned, there's a knock at the door.  It's Desmond asking if Maester Luwin may enter.  Ned agrees to see him only after determining it was extremely urgent.

Luwin enters, and we get a little description of him.  He reminds me a bit of a wizard, specifically a wizard I once knew named Giller ...

That does not bode well for Maester Luwin.

Anyway, after Maester Luwin enters he explains his reason for this necessary meeting because he had been left a message, not by a rider, but in a slightly different way.  While napping, someone left a carved wooden box on his desk in the observatory.  Inside he found a new lens for the observatory, which looked to be from Myr.

Ned grew impatient and asked what this had to do with him.  Catelyn pipes up that a lens is intended to help them see, and that the lens must be a hint or clue.  Maester Luwin agrees, and they go back and forth a bit until Maester Luwin says that he dismantled the box, finding a false bottom and a letter inside but it is not for him.  Ned demands it but Luwin says it's for Catelyn.

Go figure.

Catelyn is afraid to open it, seeing it's from Lysa, with the falcon seal in blue wax on the letter.  Ned urges her to open it.

She opens and reads it.  She then immediately lights a fire and burns the letter.  Ned insists on knowing what is going on, Maester Luwin averts his eyes in response to Catelyn's nakedness (which is silly because he helped her deliver all of her children), and Catelyn then states that the message is a warning.

Ned pushes her to tell the rest and Catelyn states that Lysa believes Jon Arryn, her husband, was murdered.  In response to Ned asking, Catelyn say that Lysa also thinks that the Lannisters did this, specifically the queen.

I knew that bitch was trouble.

Ned then goes to explain that Lysa must be delirious with grief over the death of Jon.  Catelyn specifically points out that the letter was coded and was sent in a manner that it was not intended to be found.  Lysa took extreme caution that the letter did not fall in to the wrong hands.

So now we have a murder mystery.  Because of this, Catelyn insists that Ned accept Robert's offer to the position of Hand of the King and head south.  He doesn't want to, he belongs in the north, but Catelyn convinces him he must go.  He then insists that she stay in Winterfell to continue to govern in his stead and prepare Robb to take his place.

And then that line comes up again.  Winter is coming ...


For whatever reason, Ned insist that, besides Robb, only Rickon (the baby) stay behind.  He also notes that it is apparent Sansa must wed Joffrey to avoid any disrespect or give the Lannisters cause to question their devotion.  He even mentions that Arya will need to learn ways of southron court because she'll be old enough to marry as well.

So now he's okay with marrying off his daughters at eleven years old.

Catelyn pleads with Ned to leave Bran in Winterfell but Ned insists that Bran must go with him.  It will ultimately make their house safer in the future if Bran befriends the princes.  Catelyn submits, knowing he is right.

Luwin mentions Jon.  Catelyn immediately begins brooding about Jon and his parentage, she thinks of the rumors she had heard of who Jon's mother might be and the name Ashara Dayne comes up.  She remembers asking Ned about this once and he simply defended Jon, stating that Jon definitely is his son, and that he would then determine where Catelyn heard the name.  After that, Catelyn never heard the name ever again.

She then thinks that the reason Ned would never send Jon away was because he loved Jon's mother.  I don't get that.  Did she ever stop to think that maybe Ned loves Jon and doesn't want to send Jon away because of that love?

It's almost like a woman getting raped and she ends up pregnant from that rape.  She doesn't want living proof of that rape walking around her for the rest of her life ... but the baby did not ask for his life to start in this fashion.  It's not the baby's fault she was raped.

Ned didn't want to get the woman pregnant (so in my head I say "then he shouldn't have been boinkin' her").  But in lieu of that discussion, his intent was not to produce a bastard.  However, the result of his actions were just that and because it was not Jon's fault, Ned took responsibility for his actions and cares for Jon.

I'm a little miffed that Catelyn doesn't recognize that.  She was completely aware of the fact that many men produced bastards, but she's angry at Ned for keeping Jon around?  I find that takes a lot of guts, in a position of royalty and public eye, to admit you made a mistake, had a child out of wedlock, cheated on your wife, and accepted the responsibility of your actions and cared for the child.  I have respect for Ned in that he didn't just send his mistake away.

The Score:
Medieval Accuracy: 11
Jeanna:  1
Catelyn: 0

Catelyn does redeem herself though.  I can see where she's coming from, not appreciating the proof of her husband's infidelity walking around the castle, and she demands that Ned to Jon with him.  Ned says he can't because he will be shunned there.  Catelyn makes a wise crack on Robert, saying he's sired dozens of bastards.  Ned further confirms my suspicion of Cersei.  She has made it a point that none of Robert's bastards have seen court.

Does that mean she's just ensured that another family take care of them?  Or did she have them killed?

Cersei, I am watching you like a hawk watches the field on the hunt.  /Glare

Maester Luwin proposes another solution that has recently come to light.  Jon wants to join the Night's Watch.  Catelyn omits herself from the decision and let's Ned figure it out; he's Ned's son, not hers.  Makes sense.

Ned agrees, and determine to tell Jon later just before they're ready to leave.

Murder?
Now we're getting in to the meat and potatoes of this story.  I was wondering when a plot would surface.  We'd gotten a hint of something going down in the first chapter with the direwolf omen but after that, only read about some shady characters and the goings on in Winterfell.

But now we've got ourselves a murder mystery.  And I know Cersei Lannister is at the center of it all.

New Mo'Bo

My new Gigabyte motherboard is due out today.  UPS has the tracking at "Out for Delivery" in Eagan.

My plan on installation for this board is to set it up on the table, outside of the case.  Going to install just CPU (w/ heat sink and fan), RAM, and power connections and see how that goes.  And I swear if I get a DRAM light heads will roll.

A Dwarf and a Bastard Leave a Feast and ... -- Jon

I forgot to mention something earlier as I hadn't quite noticed it until now.  What makes it difficult to follow the families/characters in these books is that wives keep their original last name.  They don't take on the last name of their husband.  Interestingly enough, I got confused and thought that Cersei was just a Lannister.  Her name was only mentioned once, maybe twice, as the Queen.  They typically just refer to her as "the queen".  Unless it's Robert bitching about her.

What I finally got straight was that Robert and his children are Baratheons.  Cersei still is, for all intents and purposes, a Lannister.  The Baratheons' house symbol is a Stag.  Lannisters are a golden lion.

Remember the direwolf omen in the first chapter.  Stabbed through the bottom of the jaw by a stag antler.

We're very well aware of the love Robert has for Eddard, so I don't see Robert killing him.  But in Robert's absence, I can see Cersei or Robert's children taking their frustrations out on Ned.

I don't think I'm far off base, but we'll see.  On to Jon Snow.

Jon

The feast has begun and Jon is happy he's a bastard, for once.  He gets to sit at a table away from the attention, and he was allowed to bring his direwolf pup where his half-siblings were not because they sit at a higher table for all to see.

So he's feeding his pup some table scraps (like a whole roasted fowl) and he consumed all the wine he pleased because, since he wasn't at the royal table, he wasn't being monitored.  So now we have a drunk bastard on our hands.  With a mute albino direwolf.

Cute.

Jon watches the procession, Eddard accompanies Cersei in and Robert accompanies Catelyn.  Baby Rickon wanders in, stopping to try to talk to Jon, who pushes him onward to the table.  He is followed by Robb with Princess Myrcella on his arm, and then by Arya and Tommen, and then Sansa and Joffery.

Jon's interest piques when Cersei's brothers enter.  Jaime Lannister is Cersei's twin, while Tyrion is a deformed squat little dwarf with black hair, not the blond of Jaime and Cersei, and he had one green eye and one black eye, where Jaime and Cersei both had green.

Jon could not look away.

I suppose I wouldn't be able to either.

Uncle Benjen Stark enters (brother of the Night Watch and Ned's brother) and is followed by Theon Greyjoy (who I don't trust at all).

Ghost, Jon's albino mute direwolf pup, nudges for more food as the feast continues.  Jon consumes more wine.

Ben visits Jon, and after a bit of talk about the wolf pup, Ben asks how much Jon had to drink, and he doesn't respond, he just smiles as a drunk would.  Ben asks why he is not at the royal table to which Jon spats that he normally would be but "The Lady Stark" worried Jon's presence would insult the royal family.

Really?  Cersei be insulted by the presence of a bastard child?  Nah.  She must be fond of the little things, I'm sure she takes care of plenty of Robert's bastards ... (please note the extreme level of sarcasm not apparent in the text in that sentence).

Some more banter back and forth and Ben admits that Jon's people-watching skills would be useful up on the Wall.  How, I'm not sure.  Jon seems skilled in assassin-like traits: people watching, social observation, etc.  I'm pretty sure the Wall needs rough fighting men to hunt wildlings and The Others.

Anyway, when Ben mentions the Wall, Jon insists to be taken with.  Ben doesn't agree right away, and insists that at fourteen years old, Jon doesn't know what he would have to give up to become a brother of the Night Watch.  Things like family, siring heirs, sex, drugs, and rock and roll ... er wait I think I got that one wrong.

Ben says this:  "Our wife is duty.  Our mistress is honor."

Jon exclaims that bastards can have honor too and he's ready to swear the oath.

Ben reiterates that Jon is only fourteen and has never known the comforts of a woman.  E.g. Jon hasn't had sex yet so he's fairly certain that if Jon had slept with a woman he'd say "Fuck you and your Night Watch, I enjoy sleeping with women way too much."

But, since Jon is merely fourteen, his little drunk fourteen year old ego pipes up and says he doesn't care about that, to which Ben further states that Jon would care if he'd ever had sex before and what it would mean to be giving that up.

Ben slips and uses the term "son" and Jon flips and says he's not his son.  Ben apologizes (sort of) and says the following:

"Come back to me after you've fathered a few bastards of your own, and we'll see how you feel."

What.

The.

Fuck.

Are all the men in this world obsessed with getting women pregnant and not giving a shit?  All medieval accuracy out the window at this moment, I'm really getting sick of all the bastard and casual sex and consequence-ignorant men in this book.

Jon redeems himself though and says that he will never father a bastard, shouts "Never!" in Ben's face, and realizes too late the whole room has gone quiet and is staring at him. He tries to excuse himself, runs to leave the hall, crashes into a serving girl who spills a flagon of spiced wine, and everyone proceeds to laugh at the boy.  He regains his footing, dashes out in to the night, and Ghost follows.

What an emotionally disturbed little boy.

I will give him the benefit of the doubt though; I'm fairly certain he'll never intentionally sire a bastard.  But I'm betting $100 (between me and myself) that Jon will knock some woman up in a later book.

That is if he survives this one.  Which I'm not entirely sure of quite yet.

Jon begins to cry in the street as he sits with Ghost, and from the darkness someone calls out to him.  Up on the ledge above the door to the hall sits Tyrion Lannister.  He asks Jon, once he has his attention, if he may come down to look at his direwolf.

Jon asks if he needs a ladder to which Tyrion responds, "Oh, bleed that," and in what most would call a circus stunt, does a one and a half front flip, landing on his hands and then vaulting backwards on his legs.

What.

The.

Fuck.

Where did that come from and was it necessary?  We were just introduced to this creature as an ugly, stunted-limbed dwarf and now he's got an Acrobatics score of 25?  I'm all about twists and throwing the reader for a loop, but this just doesn't make sense.

Once back on his feet, Tyrion approaches Ghost who doesn't appear to appreciate Tyrion whatsoever.  Jon coaxes him forward, forcing him to sit and allow Tyrion to pet him.

Tyrion then introduces himself (as though Jon had no clue who he was) and Jon says he knows this.  Tyrion then states more than asks that Jon is Ned Stark's bastard son.  Jon doesn't respond.

They banter back and forth about about bastards and Jon's siblings, but Tyrion gives Jon the best advice I've read the whole book:

"Never forget who you are, for surely the world will not.  Make it your strength.  Then it can never be your weakness.  Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you."

Of couse, Jon's drunk and doesn't want to be lectured and taunts the dwarf asking what he knows of being a bastard.  Tyrion all but admits outright that he was also a bastard; his mother died giving birth to him and his lord father (Tywin Lannister) was never able to ask his mother whether or not he was truly Tyrion's father.

Tyrion then gives another little bit of wisdom (All dwarfs may be bastards, but not all bastards need be dwarfs.) and leaves.

The last line reads:  "When [Tyrion] opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king."

So a Dwarf and a Bastard leave a feast ...

I'm not sure whether or not to make heads or tails of Tyrion.  I like him better than the other Lannisters, and I liked how I developed a dislike of the whole family before they had even appeared in a scene.  Martin is good at making you hate characters, that's for sure.

I'm also not sure what to make of Jon either.  He seems like a whiny baby.  And I dislike lead male characters that have power or some issue thrust upon them that they didn't ask for and all they do is whine about it.  (This is why I like Richard so much from Sword of Truth and why I hated Rand Al'Thor from Wheel of Time during books 1 through 9.  Book 10 he was okay, but he finally learned he didn't need to be a cold-hearted, emo-face jerk in The Gathering Storm).

So I hope Jon doesn't continue to be a whiny baby the entire book.  He should really take Tyrion's advice to heart.

I still don't trust Tyrion though; Ghost didn't like him, and that means there's something definitely worth not trusting there.

The Hand of the King -- Eddard/Ned

To keep my shit straight, all Eddard chapters will include his short name, Ned.

The King and his entourage have arrived in Winterfell ...

Eddard

Immediately upon his arrival, Robert asks Eddard if he can be shown to the crypts to pay his respects.  It's been nine years since Eddard and Robert have seen each other and while Eddard admits to some change in his own physique, Robert has really let himself go.

Nine years ago, Balon Greyjoy (father to Theon, Eddard's ward) attempted a rebelion in the name of the rightful Targaryen king (who would be Viserys at this point).  I finally made the connection here that The Greyjoys are loyal to the Targaryens and Theon is a hostage.  (Yeah, I'm slow but can you blame me?  There's easily 20 important names in this book already).  Eddard and Robert put a swift end to that rebellion.

They go to the crypt, much against the wishes of Queen Cersei (who is a Lannister, remember that!), and we see a little bit about burial/death rituals/practices of the Starks.  It's pretty common crypts with tombs carved in the once-likeness of the bodies they hold.

Three tombs rest in the place Robert is interested in.  One, is Rickard Stark, Eddard's father, and the other two are Brandon and Lyanna, Eddard's brother and sister.  Aerys Targaryen strangled Brandon to death at the age of twenty.  Lyanna died of a fever, but after Rhaegar, Viserys and Daenerys' brother, had done something to her, what we don't learn.  But Robert killed him for it and his vengaence was not sated by this kill.

They lament over Lyanna some more and decide to head up.  Before going upstairs, Robert asks Eddard a very important question.  Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, died as Eddard is very much aware and the true reason Robert ventured north to Winterfell was to ask Eddard to replace Jon.  Robert hates being king; he fully admits that obtaining the throne was fun, but sitting in it and maintaining it is quite literally a pain in the ass.

They also speak of Lysa, Catelyn's sister and Jon's widow, with whom Jon had a son, Robert (after King Robert).  They talk about how neither like the boy and Lysa alone in the Eryie and Robert says he offered Tywin Lannister the option to foster the boy.  Ned nearly spits and leaps on the chance to foster the boy instead.

I have a feeling Eddard Stark does not lik the Lannisters.  He definitely showed some distaste when Catelyn originally informed him the entire [Lannister] family would accompany Robert to Winterfell, and now with this mentioning of Tywin, he flips.  Yes, I'm quite positive the Lannisters are evil.

As they again attempt to leave the crypt, Robert mentions in a round-about way that Joffery, his son, and Sansa, Eddard's older daught, should be betrothed.  Eddard doesn't take this too seriously as the girl is only eleven, but he thinks on it anyway.

Eddard is torn between going south to be with King Robert as the Hand of the King or remaining in Winterfell where he feels he belongs.  And winter is coming ...

Robert's Arrival

So now we see the actual reason Robert has come to visit; he needs a replacement Hand.  And it's evident that Robert is not fit to be king.  At least, I do not see any kingly qualities about him.  He sleeps around a bunch (that's probably medievally accurate, but I don't give a rat's ass) and he has no respect for his wife, Cersei, who in turn doesn't appear to respect him much either.

I predict by the end of the book the following:

• Robert is dead and Joffery is king with Sansa queen.

OR

• Eddard some how wiggles his way in to the throne, obviously after Robert is killed/dies of a heart attack because he's fat.

OR

• Both of them die because Cersei is a bitch and the Lannisters just sound like evil people.

Viserys is an Asshole - Daenerys

And if he were my brother, I'd have killed him the first chance I got when I was old enough to hold a dagger.

Daenerys

The story is pulled from Winterfell across a couple land masses and some oceans to a place called Pentos.  It's in a realm called the Nine Free Cities, commonly refered to as just the Free Cities.

Introduced are Daenerys and her brother Viserys.  Viserys is showing Daenerys a lovely silk dress she will be wearing so as to look like a princess again.  Magister Illyrio is helping them survive at this time due to their current misfortunes in life.

Over the course of this chapter, to be brief, we learn a lot about the history of Westeros and the Iron Throne.  It appears as though our beloeved Eddard Stark and his King Robert took the Iron Throne from the Targaryens, Rhaeger fighting to protect his brother Viserys and sister Daenerys, but dying in the battle at the Trident.  A lot of Targaryens were killed.  And Viserys doesn't like that.

So they want their land back.  And Viserys' way of doing this is by marrying off his sister, who is a mere 13 years old, to a much older ruler of a people known as the Dothraki, a savage warrior race in Pentos.  Khal Drogo sounds like a fierce man, but pales in comparison to the fear that Viserys instills in Daenerys when he speaks of "waking the dragon".

The Targaryen's house symbol is a dragon.  And whenever Viserys gets pissed, he calls it "waking the dragon".  Okay, Viserys ... whatever you say.

As he says this to Dany (Daenerys), he also tells her to act proper tonight in front of Khal Drogo, stand up straight to let him see she has a woman's shape now.  He then begins to carress her breast and when he asks "You don't want to wake the dragon, do you?" and she does not answer, he grabs her nipple and twists, repeating, "Do you?" and she finally responds with a quiet, "No."

I would have kicked him in the balls so hard, he would no longer be capable of siring heirs.

But alas, this is a medievally accurate world where women, especially younger women, have no rights whatsoever unless they're of high nobility.  And even then, they're simply protected, they still have little say in matters of ... anything besides their own safety.

Viserys leaves for her sister to bathe and get dressed.  After dressing, they head off for the feast where Viserys intends Dany to make a good, long lasting impression on Khal Drogo, enough so that he asks her to marry him.  They enter and Daenerys sees Khal Drogo for the first time and his frightened out of her mind.  He's huge, imposing, intimadating ... and yet she notices he's graceful on his feet, like a large cat, and is younger than she expect, maybe only thirty.

Viserys points out the incredibly long braid the khal has; the end brushes the back of his thighs.  Viserys explains that Dothraki warriors chop off their braids when they lose in combat but survive as a sign of shame.  Khal Drogo's, to be so long, had never lost a battle.

Dany say she wants to leave, but Viserys threatens her again (in an extremly rude fashion), and so Dany musters up the courage, wipes away her tears, and goes forth to meet Khal Drogo.

Not All That Scary

From the description of Khal Drogo, he sounds like a good lookin' guy.  Sure, their separation in age and the way Viserys treats Dany, she may not exactly be ... okay in the head, but the only threatening thing we know about the man is that he's never lost a fight and he has an army of forty thousand Dothraki warrios.  And that's the whole reason Viserys wants Daenerys to marry the khal.  He wants the Dothraki army to go north and take back his land.

I fear for Daenerys in the hands of Khal Drogo, however.  I'm afraid things won't end well for the poor girl.

While this chapter had a singly important event beginning, it felt more moving than the previous two chatpers.  Sure, the book beginning with a death, a beheading, and another death (direwolf), this chapter felt more important for some reason.  It feels as though the start of this event will lead to some fairly intense chain reactions down the plot line.

Yay For People Who Know How to Use Photoshop. Like My Sister.

My sister made a nice banner for the blog!  It's purty.  I likes it.

And I think I finally fixed this purple color scheme now, everything should match ...

Btw ...

Can anybody riddle me how the effenheimer do you reorder the links in your pages bar on Blogspot?  I cannot, for the life of me, get that changed around to be in the order I want.

For further information, I mean this:



UPDATED:  Nevermind, I figured it out.

Fuck You Asus.

Told you I had no qualms with swearing.

The first Asus board I ever buy and it's shit.  I set up the RMA with Newegg for a replacement board only to find out that ground shipping to Newegg will be 3-5 business days (from today) so that puts out their receiving the p.o.s. to next week Tuesday at the latest, Monday at the earliest.  And then it's 3-5 business days for processing the return.  Which means they're probably going to asses the board and be all like "No, we dun wanna replace, you brokeded it urself."

So I called BestBuy today to see if maybe I can get a board faster.  I had them order and expedite one at the same cost of the Asus board.  And I'm getting the same type of board but just the Gigabyte brand instead.

I also got a hold of Newegg Customer Service and coaxed them in to changing my RMA from a Replacement to a Return.  Once I pushed hard enough, the lady was able to give me an in-store credit.

Well, now I've a $250 Newegg Gift Card.  Hopefully they don't revoke it when they come up with some explaination as to how I broke it.
I should have just stuck with MSI like I have since I started building computers.  Why did I want to switch?!  I couldn't explain.

From my last tech posting, remember when I said I was worried about the "crunching" or "tinking" noise I heard when I was clamping down the enclosure on the CPU cover?  Worries gone:

Ninjalane Instructions on Installing a 1366 Socket CPU

The last line on the second page says the following:  "Next swing the retention clip over the processor, and lock it into place with the latch.  You'll likely hear the pins being scrunched down during this process. The sound is normal."

Scrunching.  Sure, I can call it that, sounds about right.  Good.  I know I'm not crazy when I heard that.  I even checked the pins after I heard that sound and I had the thing clamped down all the way.  Nothing looked bent, so I assumed it was normal.

They need to put that shit in the manuals on these products.  "You will hear a slight scrunching, or metal twining, possible crunching noise when you clamp the CPU cage closed.  DO NOT BE ALARMED.  This is normal.  If it's any louder than a soft scrunching noise, then you're probably a fucktard and are doing it wrong, He-Man."

(He-Man is my universal reference to too-much-strength/force used.  Whenever something is closed too tightly and I cannot open it, I'll ask Luke [boyfriend] to come open it by saying, "Hey, He-Man, can you open this since you He-Man-ed it closed, please?"  Something like that.)

So HOPEFULLY I don't get another fucking lemon with the Gigabyte board.  What I've read on all brands of this model of board, regardless of edition or version, they're all having DRAM issues.  The specific model is for LGA Socket 1366, DDR3 RAM between 2200/1333/1066/800 speeds, and all contain SATA 6 GB/s connections (usually only 2) and 2 USB 3.0 connections.

Wish me luck.  I'll find out on Thursday/Friday when I get my new board from BestBuy.  *Crosses Fingers*

Woods of Gods, Faces in Trees ... wtf? -- Catelyn

We find Catelyn sitting in the "godswood".  Wtf a godswood is I have no idea, but I have a feeling I might learn by the end of the chapter.

Catelyn

Catelyn is searching for her husband, Ned, in the godswood of Winterfell.  Immediately, we learn she is a Tully of Riverrun.  While searching, she thinks of the godswood in her birthplace of Riverrun; bright and airy, with tall redwoods following streams.  She then begins to think, in a very glum manner, of the godswood in which she currently walks.  She doesn't like it, it's cold, gloomy, primal, and smelled of earth and decay.  It' sounds kinda creepy.

She notes that the gods who lived in that particular godswood had no names.  And she does some reminiscing of what sounds like a baptism (forgive me, I was raised Catholic); her Father and granfather and his father before him were all of the Faith, in the sept of Riverrun.  Unlike the gods of her husband, her gods had names and faces she could remember.  At the center of every godswood is the heart tree of the wood, and carved in it is a face

We continue getting tidbits of history/lore/faith through Catelyn's thoughts until she finds Ned at the center of the wood , where the heart of this godswood sat.  It is white as bone, a weirwood tree, and has it's own face carved in it; the eyes are red from dried sap.  The leaves are red as well.

Ned and Catelyn begin idling chatting, and here we finally make the connection; Ned is Eddard, and we know this because he has the greatsword Ice in his lap as he cleans it.  Catelyn is the Lady of Winterfell.  Not sure how you get Ned out of Eddard ...

They talk of the children and their new pets.  And then here, for the first time in the book, we get a line that is used over and over and over again.  "Winter is coming".  From the descriptions of the weather in Winterfell, summer seems to be a time of what I would call early winter in Minnesota.  Average snow falls of about 6 inches, and bearable temperatures in the 20's F.  I'm betting that Winter in Winterfell rivals the snow storms of the Arctic circle.

Then we find out that Gared was the fourth deserter that year, and that the Night's Watch is down to less than a thousand men.  They're not only losing men to desertions but men aren't returning from rangings either.

More back and forth discussion of ending Mancer Rayder, and then Ned asks Catelyn why she's come out to him, knowing she hates the place.

With little hesitation she tells him that Jon Arryn is dead.  Catelyn explains that the letter informing her of this was in Robert's own hand, and that Jon died quickly.  We get a little background info on Jon Arryn, Catelyn and Eddard here; Jon was married to Catelyn's sister, and Eddard grew up with Jon at the Eyrie, whatever that is ...

And Catelyn's sister and Jon had a son, and the two of them went back to the Eryie after Jon's death.  Catelyn's uncle, Brynden, brother to Hoster, is also in the Eryie, as a Knight of the Gate in the Vale.  Surely he'll take care of them ...

Eddard suggests Catelyn go to her sister and to take the children with her, but she says she can't because the King also informed them that he's going to come to Winterfell to see Eddard.  Eddard is pleased, and decides to call his brother home from the Night Watch for the visit as well.

And now we get bombarded with family names and I had to stop and go read up who belong to what frackin' family on Wikipedia because I was so damned confused at this point.  Here's the deal.  King Robert is married to Queen Cersei Lannister, who has two brothers, Jaime and Tyrion.  Robert and Cersei have three children together and the whole family is going to follow Robert to Winterfell.

Ned's not happy about that.  But he agrees there should be a feast.

Meeting In the WTFWoods Afterthoughts
Alright, too many names are in this book already, and this is only chapter 2 (3 counting the Prologue).  And what is with this godswood thing?  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the book, but Martin is a sink-or-swim writer: if you can dive in and understand what in the world is going on and keep up, you're swimming.  If not, you're dead.  And no, I'm no closer to really understanding what a godswood is at the end of this chapter than I was when I started.

I'm treading water.  Sort of.  Poorly.  Maybe the next couple chapters will clear some things up.  Over all, a more informative chapter than anything.

Beheading and a Direwolf Omen -- Bran

The first chapter in the book is entitled "Bran".  When I first started, I assumed this would mean that the chapter revolves around a character named Bran.  This is sort of true.  Simply, the chapter is from his point of view.  All chapters in this book named after the person from whose point of view you are reading.

Bran

Bran is taking in the crisp morning air as he rides with a group of men to "see a man beheaded".  Twenty men rode out and Bran is described as nervous with excitement.  We learn Bran is only seven years old and his "lord father" and his brothers are with him to go see this beheading.  And summer has lasted nine years.

So the seasons are completely unlike that of our reality.  And it's been hinted at that summer is nearing its end.

Robb, Bran's older brother, had told Bran prior to this that the man to be beheaded had sworn himself to the King-beyond-the-Wall, Mance Rayder.  Bran then starts fretting about tales Old Nan used to tell them to frighten them.  But when he sees the man,  Bran thinks of him as old and scrawny and he notes that he's lost both ears and one finger to frostbite.  He was dressed all in black like those of the Night Watch.  So Gared has been captured and returned.

Eddard Stark, Bran's father, dismounts and begins the execution process.  Bran recalls little of the process, and then we learn of Ice, Eddard's sword.  Made with Valyrian steel, spell-forged, and as dark as smoke, the two handed greatsword was as wide across as a man's hand and "taller even than Robb".  Bran compares things to Robb a lot.

We learn of two more characters, Theon Greyjoy, who is Eddard's ward, and Jory Cassel, the captain of Eddard's household guard.  Eddard commits the man to death, for reasons left forgotten by Bran, and then he lops off his head, but not before Jon Snow, Bran's bastard half-brother, insists that Bran keeps his pony under control and not to look away, because their father will know if he does.

Bran watches intently.

Robb comments on the fact that at least the "deserter" died bravely, but Jon Snow pipes up saying that it was not courage, but fear and he was already long dead before his head was cut off.  Robb commits Jon to a race to the bridge, and they tear off.

Bran remains behind, knowing his pony would not keep up, and though deeply of the man's eyes.  Eddard notices and asks if Bran is okay, to which Bran responds he is fine.  But then he quests Robb's comments.  Eddard asks Bran what he thinks, promoting self-thought, and Bran asks a very odd question to be coming out of a seven year old boy.

"Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?"

To which Eddard responds so properly with, "That is the only time a man can be brave".  He further pushes Bran to think, asking him why he had to behead the man.

Bran believes it was because he was an evil wildling who steal women and sell them to the Others.  We learn from Eddard that Old Nan likes to tell stories, and that the man was a deserter of the Night Watch.  He then restates his question, asking why Eddard himself had to behead the man.  Bran doesn't know how to respond, since King Robert has his own Headsman.

Eddard explains that because they follow the ways of the old blood, the man who deals the sentence also swings the sword.  And this is because you owe it to the condemned to look in to his eyes and hear is final words.  If you're incapable of that, then the committed might not deserve to die.  Very well said Lord Stark.

After this Robb and Jon shout from the bridge for Eddard and Bran to come and see what they've found.  Lying dead in the snow is a full grown direwolf (and the direwolf is the symbol of House Stark).  About the direwolf is a full litter of pups.  Robb has one in his arms and allows Bran to touch it.  When Eddard asks what killed it, Robb notes there's something stuck in the lower jaw of the beast.

Eddard removes a foot of shattered antler from the animal.  And then something weird happens.  Everyone gets quiet, and even Bran can sense their fear.

Thus far, all I've been doing here is summarizing (albeit in quite a bit of detail) this first true chapter of the book.  And an antler stuck in a wolf's jaw brings pause to the party (no pun intended)?  My brain came to a screeching halt and I said "LET'S FIGURE IT OUT."

(To finish summarizing, everyone kind of ignores the omen, Robb wants to take a direwolf pup with him, Jon says yes, this is a good idea because there's two female pups and three male pups, and each of Eddard's children [excluding himself] can have one, two daughters and three sons.  Eddard says okay after some banter about signs and omens, and when they go to leave, Jon hears something, rounds back, and finds an albino mute pup pushed away from the corpse of the mother.  Jon says "This one is mine" and then they ride off in to the sunset happily ever after the end).

Post-Dead-Direwolf-With-An-Antler-Sticking-Out-Of-Its-Jaw Thoughts

Alright so my immediate thoughts turned to the House symbol of Stark, the direwolf.  A stag killed the direwolf.  So some House with the symbol of a stag is going to kill someone, most likely several members, in House Stark.  Sound good?  Does to me.

This whole chapter felt like setup more than anything.  A good intro in to the main family (as far as I can tell), and we know a little about Eddard and his family's home of Winterfell.

I Hate Technology

I hate the fact that we live in an era of such superior science, yet we cannot get parts out of a box that work right away.

Here are the specs for my new computer:

Intel Corei7 940 2.98 Ghz cpu
ASUS P6X58D-E mo'bo
3x2GB sticks of Kingston 1600 DDR3 RAM
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Toxic Ed (stock OC) (I did not purchase this for this update, I've had this card for about 8 months now).
2 x 80GB OCZ SSD's
1200w PSU (Thortech Thunderbolt Modular)
NZXT Phantom Full ATX tower
CoolerMaster aftermarket heatsink/fan


The Phantom tower is awesome.  I am so glad I got a full case this time instead of a mid.  The Radeon 5850 is around 10 inches long, so trying to get that in to a mid case was horrible.  I also like that I can hide most of my cabling behind the right panel so the front looks clean.  I'm also ribbon (IDE) free!

The RAM was pretty to look at if that means anything.  And the motherboard was nice and sleek.  The cooling apparatuses were low profile, giving me plenty of room to work.

SSD's are so fun.  I like how tiny they are.

My first concern was installing the CPU.  This is the first CPU of it's kind that I'm installing.  The last CPU I installed still had pins on the processor itself and it fit in, nice and snug.  With these newer CPU's there are no pins on them.  Just gold contacts.  So I made sure I found the little triangle arrow and lined that up with the triangle arrow on the motherboard and set it down.  It still had some wiggle room.  I wasn't sure if I was doing that correctly and no directions I looked at could tell me yay or nay if that was supposed to happen.  It looked right ... as far as I could tell.

I flipped the metal enclosure down and then pushed the locking lever down.  When I did this, I heard a crinkling sort of sound from the CPU, like it was crushing little metal pins that aren't supposed to be crushed.  Worried, I unlocked the lever, and flipped up the metal enclosure back up.  I looked at the CPU and saw nothing wrong with it (again, only as far as I could tell) and looked at the CPU slot on the motherboard.  Could tell if anything was bent or not.  So I put it back and closed the metal flap, and crushed the lever down as gently as I could until it locked.  I crossed my fingers then, hoping I wasn't breaking anything.

The CoolerMaster aftermarket heat sink and fan I bought, while nice, was a pain in the ass to install.  First off, the directions are terrible.  I can see what they were going for well after the fact but trying to differentiate between two set ups (one for Socket 775 and AM2/3 CPU's, and then Socket 1155/56/1366) was a little much to shove on one side of the paper.  Not to mention they need about 80 languages to describe how to install it, but nothing was descriptive enough.  I ended up getting most of what I needed out of the pictures/diagrams once I figured out there were two different sets of instructions.

And I still don't know if I installed it right.  The contact of the heatsink to the CPU still had some give.  I could sort of slide the heat sink around on top of the arctic silver.  It was very minimal movement; maybe an 8th of an inch, but enough to make me worry.  I've never done after market CPU heatsink/fan.

The aftermarket heatsink and fan was the worst part and took the longest.  My boyfriend had to help me He-Man a few nuts down to anchor the support bracket for the heatsink/fan to the motherboard.  That was scary and I think this ultimately caused the problem I experienced.

I got everything in the case.  Mo'bo, PSU, CPU, RAM, video card, SSD's and then hooked it all up.  Grabbed an HDMI cable and plugged it in to the t.v. upstairs (for shits) and also plugged in my 4GB USB bootable flash drive.  Plugged in power cable, flipped the back switch.  Gave it a couple seconds and then hit the power on the case.

Everything turned on.  And when I mean everything, I mean everything.  Including the fucking DRAM LED.

I hate the DRAM LED.  It is now the bane of my existence.  Once I saw this, I immediately started Googling everything I could to figure out wtf was going on.  The computer wasn't going through POST, t.v. wouldn't come out of the "no signal" mode.  I disconnected and reconnected everything.  I tried various combinations of the 3 sticks of RAM I had in various combinations of slots (going between the two sets).  No dice.  I read that if the RAM were a problem, I'd be getting an internal speaker beep (if that was connected).  So I plugged that in after shutting the machine off, and then turned it back on.  No beeping whatsoever.  I even tried it without any RAM installed and heard nothing, which is completely wrong because if you have no RAM installed, the speaker definitely will beep.

Reset the CMOS (three different ways, reset button on the I/O panel, manuel reset by moving the pin cap from 1-2 to 2-3 on the CMOS connection, and popped the CMOS battery off the board for 5 minutes).  Nothing helped.  MemOK! button doesn't do shit, held that down for 3+ minutes, and the light never changed.

So from the first power up, the motherboard would not work.  I couldn't boot in to anything.  I couldn't do a bios update, I couldn't get the thing to POST.  Nothing.  While doing research I realized a lot of people with this board have had similar problems.  I made sure to buy RAM that was certified for this board to use, and I'm fairly certain the RAM is not the issue.

So I've set up an RMA for the motherboard.  Hopefully they can replace it quickly because I need that board asap.  I'm just frustrated that we can't get parts out of the box that just fucking work.  It's the first ASUS board I ever bought as well, I moved away from MSI because their boards are bulky with lots of raised cooling apparatuses that would get in the way of aftermarket heat sinks/fans.

I'll post later when I get the new board.  For now, my computer is sitting in pieces in the living room on a work table.  It'll probably be like that for a week.  /sadpanda.

Prologue

I'm going off memory here, so bare with me ...

Prologue

We're given a little insight as to what occurs beyond the Wall in the far north of Westeros.  And through the short-live experiences of three men, Gared, Will, and Ser Waymar Royce, we learn a little bit about The Night Watch, The Others and wildlings.  (And if we didn't really learn that, and I'm spouting nonsense, I'm going from memory.  So STFU.)

The men are out on a "ranging", which I can only assume is to wrangle wildlings and kill The Others as they crop up since the intent of a ranging wasn't exactly described.  Will is confident that a band of wildlings he saw ahead were dead, but upon returning at the behest of Ser Waymar Royce, the bodies are gone.

Will attempts to climb a tree to find where they went; meanwhile the cocky and egotistical Ser Waymar Royce is attacked by what we can only assume to be The Others.  Through Martin's descriptions, my immediate thoughts turned to Undeworld vampires.  Able to hide in the shadows, hunting at night, with piercing blue eyes.  So are they vampries?  Do they turn their prey?  I can't tell yet, but Royce gets his ass handed to him by the crystalline swords these baddies carry, and then they leave his corpse in the snow.  Will shimmies out of the tree and attempts to take Royce's gem encrusted hilt (to prove he didn't kill Royce?) but Gared shows up and throttles the boy.

Afterthoughts

We're immediately introduced to three characters, two of which are now dead.  When people told me not to get attached to these characters, I was prepared for some pretty heart-wrenching character deaths.  I'm worried that, with how easily Martin killed off two characters in a single chapter, the same chapter in which they were introduced, I will never even get a chance to become attached to a character because everyone's going to die before that.

A Little Bit of Ice and Fire

I've started reading A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin.  Though I'm already some 250 pages in to Game of Thrones, I'm going to go back and recap the chapters I've read thus far.  I'll probably get this done some time this week.  What I'm finding straight away is that 1.) Characters don't last very long, 2.) The chapters are named by the character from who's point of view you're reading and 3.) These stories are accurate on a level of medieval happenings, e.g. political subterfuge and intrigue, rape, incest, infidelity almost to an obnoxious level, women have very little to no power at all, and little magic.  I was expecting more at this point, but since the Prologue, there has been none.

I have computer building duties this evening, so maybe I'll test the new beast out on how efficiently I can blog.  I may even add a Video Game/Computer Hardware review section ... Tech Corner?  Sounds good to me.