Hey Anthony, I've been rounding out the semester, making sure I'm squared away for Annual Training this summer, looking for places to move so my wife can start her Ph.D., and starting a new trial to hire position while making sure I'm leaving on good terms at the church I'm currently pastoring at. Life is killing me right now. I've squeezed a little more time for WoT out and I've been reading all the comments as usual. JL did a decent job with your earlier question. If something noteworthy happened (e.g., srEDIT's recent loss) I've been sure to express my support. I'll start posting again in the next few days.

Hi Anthony I started reading english books to preserve my vobabulary. So I gladly learn from you all, no problem if I have to look up words one in a while. Quite easy actually with internet.

feist and eddings are/were two of my favorites so that's a good sign...really don't like GRRM, drives me batty. Malazan is hard to get into, I would say the first 3, maybe even 4 books are like a prologue (which considering their length is disturbing) and the story doesn't really take off till book 5 so hey I can respect not being able to plough through it.

Hi Anthony, thanks for the review on Rothfuss. Just to put your reading preferences into some frame of reference for myself, how do you feel about GRRM and/or SE's Malazan? I posted on your shoutbox so as not to divert the WoT discussion too much.

Hi Anthony, you ask if there is anyone writing anything anywhere near as good as NotW and tWMF in any genre. Of course answers are subject, but I would put forward Stephen Donaldson's Order and Chaos series, at least in the pinball wizardry in the plot department. This one is reasonably hard SF with nasty characters, so not as romantic as NotW, but I would argue equally good. His two-volume series that starts with The Mirror of her Dreams is a much sweeter fantasy that also has a clever plot. At any rate, one thing about Donaldson is that he can change the type of story he writes completely. I have yet to enjoy any of his White Gold Wielder novels.

well, the States does blow when it comes to foreign policy. Kissinger was the last good Sec of State that had a grasp of things. Iraq? Setting things right? naw... that's not what the war was about to begin with, it was about #2 oil reserves in the world. If it was about doing the right thing, places like, Bosia Darfur and Sierra Leone, where genocide was taking place would have been front page. it is what it is and yeah, we agree to disagree:)

Just had to say... thanks for your post on KoD 16 @122. I was thinking much the same, but am so SICK of this unending mess. I loved your comment that it's almost impossible to insert a gay character so that the readers know he's gay without inserting either a sex scene, an awkwardly gratuitous explanation or a stereotype (which would be resented even more!). I have tried to say much the same, but I think I used too many words and they didn't get it! Anyway, thanks for saying it so I don't have to. I'm trying not to touch it again, at least today!

Also, as far as it goes, America is in the business of War. A huge and disproportional part of the national budget goes to "defense spending" as compared to infrastructure, education, child welfare, and health care. Some argue the cost of being free is great, but a lot of groups make a lot of money from fat contracts when America goes to war. And average tax payers like yourself are going to foot that bill. I'd rather pay for my daughter's education than fund a war overseas. I'd rather pay for my parent's social security than have my tax dollars go into some defense contractor's pocket. But that is me, and I'm in a different country with a different system, gov't and beliefs.

wow! my comments do go through! Sorry, been having problems with this messaging thing for the last month or so... I posted to you and it disappeared so I just left well enough alone. You will find now that while things may be different now, unless these countries become occupied- at a huge and unbearable cost to the USA, this will not stick. It is not about who is in power but it is about a cultural and religious shift- something that is only going to change if the people change themselves. Nothing we can do about that. I have experienced social zealotry first hand in the form of genocide. It is blind and doesn't change on a dime. Communism vs. Islam had the same net result as Democracy vs. Islam. Not much beyond driving up the price of gas because of "instability and war in the region". Somehow I am half way convinced that the automakers and OPEC sponsored America's fight so they could get 20% more on the price per barrel. It wasn't their fault that gas cost more, and it wasn't their fault that cars use gas.