Now, on to the details. Each DIY snowman kit comes with enough material for a large snowman. The snow itself is of course in perfect condition. No yellow or brown stains or any of the other less desired colours. Nope. All pure white. The DIY snowman kit can of course also be used to build a snow Dalek (sucker not included), or, if you buy 2 or 3 kits, you can build a small igloo!

Discounts are available if you buy more than one and please understand that due to the size and nature of the DIY snowman kit you have to arrange for the delivery. First come, first served.

Basically, the weather messed up our party plans for last night. There was snow and ice rain and since it was New Years Eve the addition of drunken drivers, so I stayed at home with a few friends. I haven't done that since I was a kid, I think. There was always somewhere to go, but this year it was just drinks, too much food, games and DVDs in the living room ... and a hangover and new years ski jumping today.
All in all - I had a very good time.

Anyho,

Happy New Year everyone!!!!!!!

Christmas ... nothing exciting happened really. Just a good old family Christmas. Which isn't a bad thing of course. It's shocking though, how fast the little relatives seem to grow up. The toys under the tree have been mostly replaced by cell phones, cameras, clothes and stuff like that ... at least I still get toys :p

Flying ... well, good thing I'm used to sitting around and waiting and good thing I had books and a full Ipod, because there was a lot of time to kill. Thanks to the crazy weather and the nutter who tried to blow that plane up.

Doctor Who ... mmmh ... I did have fun watching it. On HD no less. I might or might not have a little thing for bondage!Master. I have always enjoyed the crack that is inevidable in Science Fiction, BUT the scenes that worked best for me had no eplosions, running around and over the top plot - it was the quiet, intense dialog scenes - Doctor/Wilf and Doctor/Master. Beautifully written, very well acted, why couldn't there be more of this and less of the other ... stuff?



*why didn't anyone draw that conclusion earlier? I mean, the face changes and all are a dead giveaway, no?

I'm a bit early with this, but there are aparently still some delayed flights due to the weather, so I was told to be at the airport earlier ... yeah, doesn't make much sense to me either ... EARLIER because of a DELAY? Doesn't the word delay imply that something is later, rather than earlier?

Oh well, nevermind. I'm packing my stuff now and then I'm off to my yearly Christmas visit and I'll be available on Twitter only.

I've recently gotten back to icon making and there is this batch of Alice in Wonderland icons I wanted to finish and the ones I did before had all these shiny bright colours and when I looked at them now I really really hated them for being so cheery and bright and did some in muted colours.

Now I can't help but wonder if that stuff depends on my mood or on the weather or something like that ... because look at these two - pretty much the same scene, iconed on two different days:




PS: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on the subject of Daleks

I can't find the new Abney Park album in a shop that I trust and that doesn't ask way too much for shipping ... yeah, I shouldn't expect too much, living in Germany and all, but I would settle for a download for now and even that isn't an option. Damn. The new songs on myspace are really good. :-/

I baked a chocolate-walnut cake. Looks cakelike from the outside ... not like a briquet. Go me.

Hey, when did they give 15 icons to the free accounts?! I have been living on 6 icons for quite a while now, so I'm a bit overwhelmed by the posibilites of having 15 icons now *lol*



And I forgot what else I wanted to write ... but hey, look at my new icon! Awesome christmasy Wilf! Reminds me that I haven't posted icons in ages. I could maybe make some while watching Willy Wonka. Might keep my from singing the song for the rest of the movie and getting killed as a consequence by an annoyed Doctor Marco.

Aparently, Chris Eccleston is playing John Lennon in some BBC drama with Torchwood-Tosh as Yoko Ono.
Fact is, he's a good actor and he should be more than capable of doing the job, I don't doubt that ... but I probably won't be able to watch this without imagening other members of the Who/Torchwood cast in other roles. Ianto, Owen and the 10th Doctor are unemployed ... there we go, Beatles cast!

Also, spoiler warning for the ending of Hamlet (yes, THE Hamlet. The play that's been around since the 17th century)???!!! Seriously people! That's like putting a spoiler warning with the information that halfway through "Titanic" the ship hits and iceberg and as a consequence sinks. These things are not spoilers, they are common knowledge ... almost everyone dies, btw. In Hamlet and Titanic. There. Spoiler!

Talking about spoilers. I love how they German press reports on New Moon by telling almost the whole story of the film, till the clocktower scene. And then go all "will she be able to safe him?!" ... as if that was really up for debate in a film like that.

I'm not too happy with the lack of Damon in Vampire Diaries recently. There's way too much relationship stuff for my taste.

How about, Damon gets his spin off show with Eric? So Vampire Diaries can be all about cheesy romance in high schools and True Blood can be all about fucking, subplots-that-everyone-fast-forwards, and fucking-in-subplots (that probably not everyone fast forwards) and "The Damon and Eric spin off show" (title subject to change) can be all about awesome bad ass vampires being awesome and bad ass?

(This just arrived in my mailbox, apparently from the Christmas special ... ehhh ... right ... no idea if this is true or if this picture is photoshopped or if it's something silly that took place between takes and is not part of the actual episodes at all. I find it quite funny though)

There ARE reasons to dislike Science Fiction (like, a serious lense flare allergy or an IQ that is too low to handle techno babble ...), however "it's so unrealistic" is not one of them. Especially not when you are planning to watch New Moon on the opening night. Because sparkling vampires, werewolves and whiny Bella are not exactly the height of realism either. Especially not whiny Bella.

Doctor Who: Best fucking quarry in Who history (that's only my thoughts on the first minute, btw.) ... other than that I just feel very "wow!" about it. It won't replace Midnight, Blink and The Empty Child as my favourite episode but it comes close. And yes, I totally fail at making lists of favourites. Always have, always will. I'm not very good at "this or that" either.

- Mc Donalds has Clone Wars toys with the kids menu. Yeah!
But how much less embarassing would an adult menu with toys be? Not that it's embarassing to be a Star Wars fan of course ... but ... you know ... you do get the occasional odd look when you don't have an alibi kid with you, order a kids menu and argue over the toy that comes with it. Of course, it's also embarassing when you go "he wants an Obi-wan" and the kid's like "I thought the Obi-wan is for you".

- I have decided to not start watching any of the new shows that everyone seems to recommend these days (V, Flashforward ...). I'm fully booked out with the ones I DO watch at the moment and can hardly keep up with them and never get to the older stuff on my "to watch" pile. Like, Life on Mars sans John Simm (I know it's got another title, something else Bowie, but I can't remember it at the moment). Why do days only have 24 hours?

- Also ... while talking David Bowie ... look at this image from "Waters of Mars". Jep, "BOWIE base one". I'm probably the last one to find out about that, but it's pretty cool. Makes total sense to name a Mars base after David Bowie too. It's probably unpopulare to say I love RTD for little details like that, because bashing him is so cool and hip and popular and all that, but I really do.

Any Rammstein fans left on my f-list?

If so, does anyone know anything about their new album being put on the index or something? Because they just said on the radio that they can't play these songs, which is especially strange since this is not a mainstream radio station. They usually aren't bothered by any "bad" words in songs, they'll play bands like Combichrist (I've yet to find a CC song that doesn't contain "shit" or "fuck" or variations of both) or Die Form (I've yet to find a song that isn't about sex and or violence) in the middle of the day ... so I suspect it must be something official rather than a decission of the station itself


I did some Christmas shopping today with my grandma. Well, just candle market really, because she's low on candles and I wanted some really big ones, which I couldn't find at IKEA. But it was all so christmasy with the music and the candles and the food and drinks (first mulled wine of the season!) and now I feel like I really should put up a tree and some decoration and start thinking about presents ...


Also, the wall came down 20 years ago. Yeah, I know that. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, especially for us in Berlin. Yeah, yeah, yeah ... but do we have to watch and read stuff about it every bloody year? It's boring and it's history. Nothing wrong with history, but the very nature of history is, that it's about stuff in the past, so there's nothing new to report. So, if you live in Germany and don't suffer from Alzheimer or something else with a similar effect to your memory you KNOW that stuff already.

It's this time of the year again. The leaves are turning red, when you take a walk in the woods you get hit by chestnuts, pumpkins are showing up at front doors and windows, Tim Burton movies and Poe's poems have been moved to the top of the to-do piles ... and I'm wondering what to wear.

The biggest surprise is, that I'm not aware of a vampire party, not a single one. In the last few years it was a given that there was a vampire's ball, something Fangtasia themed, old school Dracula ... this year, nada. I have "Malice in Wonderland" and "Golden Age of Torchwood" (not based on my idea or anything ... noooooooo ...) on my list so far. Bless Halloween for being on the weekend.

Since the last one is not based on my idea or anything the costume for that one is kind of obvious. Something Torchwood goes Steampunk with alien-victorian gadgets. I briefly considered going as a really crappy Doctor Who monster from the 70s, all dressed in bubble wrap, but as funny as the idea is - I would most likely end up hiding in a corner to avoid the people who can't resist the urge to poke the bubble wrap.

For the first one I have no idea though. It's obviously Alice in Wonderland with a little twist and I can see girls going as Alice with a really short skirt or really huge breasts or something, but other than that I have no idea. It should be bright and colourfull and totally over the top, but ... mmh ... I just don't know ... and I don't want to be in full make-up for a party. So everything that only works with having the whole face painted isn't an option.



On to some TV stuff:

- I enjoy Vampire Diaries more than I thought I would. It's totally to blame on Damon. I don't care one bit for the 90210 crowd, but a vampire who behaves like a vampire ... seducing virgins, drinking human blood (well, scratch the virgin part, this is the 21th century) and all that ... is rare these days.

- I enjoy the new season of Heroes more than I thought I would. In the last season, I was just staying for Sylar ... but somehow it's gotten really good again. I totally blame it on the boys from the carnival. I don't see an overall theme yet though. I mean, in the previous season there was a very obvious threat, but maybe it does the show good to have no "OMG, the world's going to end!" theme for a change.

So, I'm having this weekend planned that includes watching some plays and stuff and I will take my grandma to some.

So, she writes me a mail. Flight arrival, food wishes, the usual. And of course she has to add "pack some appropriate clothes, will you?" (I haven't been wearing jeans with holes around her for ages - she still picks on me for that ... *sigh*)

So, one thing we're going to see features a man in a sparkling dress

So, I'm kind of scared of "appropriate" in this context ...

I was just about to rant about German TV (because, showing the same political debate on 4 (four!) channels?! WTF?!!!) but then I heard something familiar from the living room TV and it was an ad for all 6 Star Wars movies that will be showing on one channel. Yeah, I've seen them all. Multiple times. Yeah, I own the DVDs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But. Star Wars!

I did not watched said "debate", btw, because the election campaign that's been going on in Germany is even more boring than usual. The party that provides the chancellor was leading the polls by a good deal, so they decided to not bore us with an actual program but settle for a "you voted for us before, now vote for us again. KTHXBYE." message. Because, with an actual program some people might disagree and vote for someone else and this logic is supported by the other parties too and yeah, it's all very boring and unenthusiastic. It's like watching a game of chess where both players are afraid to make a move.

Oh, and on the gloves topic from last entry ... how about a little Nightmare before Christmas design that features Zero with his red glowing nose?


*I actually got this on Twitter and since the topic is German politics fail, double error is a very fitting topic.

Help!
I need some quick suggestions for self knitted gloves.

I'll get some gloves knitted (in exchange for a book-bookshelf) and since they are handmade they can totally look like I want them to look and like something you'd never find in a shop and ... I don't really have any good ideas :-/

The girl who'll do mine showed me examples of her designs, including Twilight gloves (black with the red ribbon from the Eclipse cover in 3D) and Dalek gloves (golden and black with knobs and all ...), which looks totally awesome, so I know that she'll be capable of doing whatever I might come up with. 

Bored? Take an IKEA catalogue, pick a product, read the name to your friends and let them guess what kind of product it is. Of course, nothing comes close to the old classic - bed "Rektal" (yes, that is the German word for "rectal") - but I'm sure you'll find enough amusement in it. Unless you're Swedish I guess.

Stupid "Hermes Versand" is too stupid to find our entrance and therefor declared our adress to be non existant. Yes, there is a bush there, but if you walk around that bush you'll see a big house number and a door and a bell with our names right next to it and you can ring that bell and ... and you shouldn't have to explain these things to a professional ...

Do we really need random "VIP" people to take trips to Antarctica every couple of weeks to "get informed about the climate change"? It always looks like a big wank to me when someone gets a headline for taking such a trip "look, I care about the environment!" ... no, you don't or if you do you are not capable of logical thinking. You know what would be good for the environment? Staying at home, reading a book or watching a movie on the topic and saving the gas that is used for your trip!


Also, I'm going to see John Barrowman in drag with my grandma. Yiha! My reputation as being the expert for stage stuff in the family probably won't survive, but anyway ... Yiha!

- ordering a little handy copy of Twelfth Night and getting a recommendation for Breaking Dawn? Fail.

- my sucking (no pun intended) vampire book found a new home. Win. I couldn't be bothered to finish it after all, so I traded it in.

- they just said "I've got a bad feeling about this" in Doctor Who from 1964. See? Everything is connected by the force! < / star wars geek moment >

- I'm sure when a restaurant has an "all you can eat" buffet this is not meant to be some kind of challenge.

- I'm missing some LJ comments / replies to comments ... since there have been problems with hackers I won't list this under "fail" but it is a bit annoying. Sorry if I didn't reply to someone though.

- True Blood is awesome when it has vampire scenes, for everything else there's the >> button.

- Also, "Matt Parkmann to return to Lost?" is all kinds of wrong, because for one thing it shows that the "journalist" is too stupid to google the name of an actor when he doesn't know it and also because Matt Parkmann has never been in Lost in the first place, which makes a RETURN highly unlikely. Although, of course, we are talking about Lost. And the Lost writers are a bit on the mental side and the writers of Heroes have created more pointless plot twists that I care to remember ... so maybe, maybe the abilities in Heroes turn out to be the result of a Dharma experiment and Matt, eh, finds out and stuff and eh ends up on the Lost island because Hawaii is really kind of nice ...