Now that it's over, I can sum up my feelings about Leviathan.  Actually, I like a lot of the individual elements.  The evil Barnabas is rather interesting.  If I thought he was really evil, perhaps it wouldn't be, but since it's obvious that he's under the influence of the Leviathans, it's not only intriguing to watch him as this cold, calculating, evil leader, but to wonder if he'll be able to break away from it and get back to normal.  Julia's reactions to him during this time add to that interest.

The main theme of the box, the breathing and the succession of children is rather exciting, too.  I never minded the children as almost everyone else seems to!  True, Jeb actually killed some people shortly after his appearance, but aside from that I think even Alexander and certainly Michael seemed more menacing in their manner.

The trying to find Quentin's portrait, especially since it was all Julia and some of the other side stories provided interesting diversions.

I guess it's in the middle that things get messed up.  Aside from those early killings, Jeb turns into a wimp.  He seems to cower and be afraid all the time.  HE'S THE MONSTER!!!  And, they kept coming up with a new "only thing that can kill him"!!  As I mentioned before, Bruno's attempted coup makes no sense.  It's not one of the followers trying to take over from the leader - Jeb is THE LEVIATHAN - the other's can't replace him.  As with the Adam story, I think once Nicholas gets involved the whole story changes and goes downhill.  While I enjoy Nicholas' scenes with a lot of the others, especially Angelique, he just messes up the Leviathan story.  Again, I suppose we can believe that this whole thing was his idea, but the way it was originally presented with Oberon and Haza, it just doesn't seem to make sense for it to suddenly be Nicholas behind it all.

What I never understood was why they needed Barnabas to bring the box to "our present" time.  They were there in 1796 (or whatever), had been waiting for centuries for a rebirth of their kind, so why didn't they just do it in 1796?!!!

The whole ghost and hanging man part seemed a rather silly intrusion, and when it turns out to be Peter Bradford and then the revelation about Vicki, it really ruins everything.

However, even with all those negatives, there are lots of exciting scenes making up those parts of the story, so if I break it down into parts, I really do like a lot of the elements.  Somehow, the whole just seems to be icky.  If I think of Leviathan, that's my reaction - ick!!!  And, my mother and aunt never liked it either.

That might be one of the reasons I like parallel time.  It seems so light and pink and pretty after the dark Leviathan!

The original mystery of this beautiful room appearing and disappearing, the barrier preventing one from entering or being seen or heard, seeing the "same" people so different, etc.  It was such a mystery at first.  I hadn't realized that Julia mentioned the parallel time theory so soon.  I thought it was after Elliot was involved that he told the theory.

Then, as I said, the room is beautiful, Angelique is beautiful, the following of the Rebecca story is fun, Barnabas being involved with them and some of the later developments (particularly one very dramatic and scary scene that I won't even list as a spoiler) are very interesting.  While I wasn't as thrilled with the Jekyll-Hyde story, it was all right and at times good.

So, my overall feeling for PT was that it was a lot of fun, and aside from some of the highlight stories (1795, most of 1897, some of the present things - arrival of Barnabas, etc.) it's my favorite.

I've made a few references previously about my mother being in a nursing home.  For over 7 months she has been in and out of various hospitals and nursing homes.  A couple of months ago, we thought the end might be imminent.  But, recently she had improved.  A week ago she went back to the hospital for pneumonia, but otherwise seemed much better.  And, after returning to the nursing home, they started physical therapy again.  So, we really thought things were improving.

Therefore, it was a total shock to get a call in the early hours of this morning to say that she was gone.  In fact, they say that she had been talking to one of the aides just 15 minutes before, and then when the nurse went in, discovered that it was over.  So, my aunt and I really can't believe it at this point.

I happened to notice that on TNT late tonight (2 a.m. Wednesday - Eastern) there is a movie called "Leviathan"!  It's from 1989 and stars Peter Weller.  The description in our TV magazine is:

"Precious-metals miners become trapped on the ocean floor with an eellike genetic alteration."  And it's rated R!!

I suppose that might fit the description that some of us have of "our" Leviathan. 

Quentin and his great-grandson.  Those were some touching scenes.  First, Quentin seeing his great-grandson suffering as the wolf, knowing what it's like to be like that and knowing that he is responsible for it.

And, I had forgotten that Chris knew who Quentin was.  Although he took it all rather matter-of-factly.  This person also used to be a werewolf, he's responsible for me being one, and, by the way, he's my great-grandfather, even if he does seem to be close to me in age!

Anyway - his accusation that I'm like this because of you, so at least you could kill me - wow!!

Since this is OT anyway, I couldn't decide whether to post on the regular board.  Since it's "computer" related, I decided to put it here.

This is all done in the manner of computer specifications, etc.  I'm sure all (especially cat lovers) will enjoy it. 

http://www.andreas.com/catman.html

Angelique was so worried about Elizabeth and/or Carolyn recognizing her as Cassandra.  Barnabas pointed out that she had had dark hair then.  Lots of people have dyed their hair and still been recognized!!  However, so far it seems to have worked, despite Liz' feeling of familiarity about her.

But, both before they arrived and today when Barnabas came to get Carolyn, we see that the portrait of Angelique is still there!!!  Aside from whether or not that would recall to them who she is, surely they'd remember that portrait.  I guess we assume it's in a room they didn't go in, but as it seems to be somewhere near the front entrance and they are visiting for a week, it's really hard to believe that she'd risk that!!!!!

After talking about it for a year or two, I'm finally on the verge of getting a new computer and thought I'd get some hints.  From the WordPerfect forum I use, it would seem that one should make sure to get Windows XP Professional and not Home - do you know anything about these?

I know you like Linux.  It's always sounded interesting.  Now that I'll have room, I could consider it.  However, since the XP would also be on the computer and since they are both operating systems, I don't quite understand how that would work.  At one point I think WordPerfect was developing a version to work with Linux, but I don't know if anything really came of that.  If one uses Linux, will the regular programs work?

Any opinions on anti-virus programs?  McAfee came with this computer and I've kept it up ever since.  If I get Gateway again (which I think I will), it comes with 3 months of Norton.  On the WordPerfect forum, again, someone recently indicated that he feels Norton is no good.  However, some of them seem to feel the same way about McAfee!!  They recommended a few other programs, and I think one of those is free.  The names mentioned were:  ViRobot, Panda, and AVG.  I think AVG is the one I've noticed a few of them recommending and I think that's the one that's free.  I've always been reluctant to switch to anything else.  I assume I'll accept the 3 months of Norton and then decide whether to subscribe to them or go back to McAfee.

When I got my current one, it has a 4 GB hard drive (which sounded enormous at the time; I was going from 212 MB!!), at that time it had to be subdivided and came as C and D drives. The pre-installed programs and most others I've installed (Fax, Acrobat, WinZip and anything else that came along) are on C. I have WP and all of my own files on D.

I kind of liked that separation. However, it's C that's almost full, while there's still more room on D (by now that's getting pretty full, too, though). One salesman seemed surprised when he learned of the partition and I said it had to be that way back then. He advised to never partition.

With the large size of drives these days, since it would be a major undertaking to partition it once it's set up, I thought I'd solicit opinions as to whether it's better to have the one huge drive or partitions.

I think that's it for now!!

I went to reply to Debra's "Introduction" topic, but couldn't find a way of doing it!  There were buttons for Notify, Send Topic, and Print, but no Reply.  And, there was no "quote" button in any of the posts.

I subsequently discovered these items (Reply button and "quote" buttons) in other topics and even used them in a couple.  I went back to this one, and they are still missing.