Odd how something like summer can keep you so busy. See, in Germany we're usually done with summer in a week. Before and after you have a kind of in between seasons weather and people complaining about the lack of summer. Now we're in the fourth or fifth week of straight summer and since this is Germany no one seems to believe that the weather will stay that way so everyone is squeezing as many summer activities in as possible. So, I've been busy with sailing, swimming, BBQ, skating, a white picknick, more BBQ, loads more swimming, open air cinema (Pacific Rim and Wolverine) , water fight flash mob, my aunt's birthday party, summer of love party, much more sailing (to Denmark), shopping (because everyone is running out of summer clothes ...) ...

On other news - new Doctor! (*not sure if "medicus" is used correctly in this phrase ... Latin grammar police, don't sue me)
And it took about two seconds for the usual suspects to complain about Peter Capaldi being too old ... I'm pretty sure it's the same people who complained about Matt Smith being too young ... and of course there are people who complain because neither one of them is David Tennant ... anyway, I'm happy with the casting. I was afraid they'd go with another hot young guy or something deliberately controversial.

Also, I might have finally found a sewing class that isn't female centred, it's aimed at cosplayers. So even if the class isn't that great I would still be in nice, geeky company :D


How is everyone doing? Enjoying the summer?

Happy boxing day or second Christmas day (never heard anyone actually using that term in English, but in Germany that's what the 26th is called ... because Christmas is so much fun there are two Christmas days there)!

Now, let's talk a minute about Doctor Who ... great, yes?! Last year's Christmas special was quite forgettable, IMO, so I didn't expect much this year, but I ended up loving it. The Doctor as a really rubbish Sherlock Holmes alone justifies a re-watch.


Btw, since when is LJ sending out mails every time you log in with an IP that comes with a different location than your previous one? I get the idea behind it, but really, it's 2012 ... people are using mobile devices to connect to the internet, not that many people are limited to just having the one computer sitting on their desk at home. In other words, that feature would have made a lot more sense like 10 years ago.

Best insult I heard in a while: Facebook-farmer! I'm loving it! And talking facebook ... "good luck with that" was probably not the reply a girl was expecting when she said "I'll friend you on facebook".

So, Doctor Who ... I love that Rory gets to die three times in his last episode. By now, he has probably died more than the Doctor himself, is there any statistic about this? (There probably is, you know how nerds are ... :p) And once again I noticed that it's not the Weeping Angels episode itself that feels so creepy to me ... its going out afterwards and suddenly being very aware of the fact that there are so many statues all over the city ... MOFFAT!!!


And as you can see from the subject - I'm starting to get into full Halloween mood :D

So, Doctor Who tonight. I prepared by watching some Ood on the loo and listening to a 50 shades of grey clip, read by a Dalek. I haven't read the book, so I'm not angry for having wasted time on it, but still ... a fan fiction type sex scene (you know, the type of sex scene written by someone who imagines how it COULD be, as opposed to writing about stuff they know ...) combined with a Dalek voice is absolutely hilarious.

I would put up a link, but it was sent to me by Marco, who got it from a friend ,who got it from another friend, who thinks it might be from some podcast ...  but maybe the original source will pop up ...

Also, I'm starting to really hate capatcha codes.Yes, I get it, it's  spam protection and all that, but is it really necessary to make the words nearly and in some cases totally unreadable, so you have to try like ten times to get it right and start to feel just a tiny bit illiterate or like you should go see an eye doctor?!

I just came across a "family friendly" fan fiction com and I'm starting to think that "family friendly" is quite a stupid term in this context. What it really means is suitable for minors, but families? I mean, who would sit down with their family to read fan fiction? And don't most of us not like to have their online life separated from their real life? This term might make sense for TV or cinema but for everything else? Not so much.

Also, Doctor Who! How will Rory die tomorrow? And was last week's 1.5 second death caused by old age? Just wondering for the statistics, you know. Oh, and good news, btw. The bible guaranteed judgement day is scheduled for 6 pm local time. That's local time in some American time zone, so, after Doctor Who. Thanks for considering my TV schedule and my BBQ. Although, the weather might get in the way of that.


And finally - dull grey Ipod versus dull black Ipod? Which one of these dull options should I get? My orange nano model died and the classic model sounds great (160GB!!!!! and no extra shit I don't need anyway), only, it doesn't look great. When did Apple get all boring with the colours? Only the two small Ipods come in fancy colours and they are not what I want. Too tiny and also too expensive, if you put storage in relation to the price.

Are people taking bets already on what his next cause of death will be?
Let's see ... so far we had:

- disintegrated by an alien's poison
- blown up with the Tardis
- shot by a Silurian and swallowed by the crack (not sure which one of the two events killed him)
- most likely his Auton self got killed when his human self was restored
- shot again, this time by a human agent
- drowned

I think we're done with the whole shooting thing, but there are a lot of options left that haven't been explored yet. Like, if there's a Dalek episode (and we know there will be one ... these new Daleks were expensive ...) he should really get a proper extermination in this one.


Also - Eurovision Song Contest tomorrow!!!!!!!!
Me and several other party goers are getting Jedward hairdos. We even have glitter hairspray so we will look like a very gay version of Bros. :D It was really easy to decide on a costume this year. As soon as I saw the Irish guys, I knew.

Question for bibliophiles: Damaged dust jacket or none at all?

Not an issue if you only buy new books, but with used books or books that are on discount for visible damage a not-so-pretty-anymore dust jacket can occur. What's the best way to deal with this? Keep it or throw it away and put the "naked" book on the shelf? Yes, "serious" collectors get them re-printed, but that's way too obsessive and reading-with-gloves-on for my taste.

I have removed three badly damaged ones today and think it might be a fun idea to turn them into bookmarks. The middle parts are fine and big enough for bookmarks ...


Also, it has apparently been confirmed by the Moff, that there will be more fez in the next Doctor Who series. I wonder if that's a case of "on popular demand" or Matt Smith insisting on getting a new one ...

Aaaand, no Harry Potter spoilers, but let's just say, I'm not sure they picked the right book to suddenly decide to make two films out of one.

This weeks adventures in free book hunting: Thomas Mann and Friedrich Nietzsche, next to a whole bunch of pinkish, Fabio covered romance novels. I should really take a camera next time, because that's something you'd never see in a book shop.

TV watched: - "Lennon naked" with my mum. That's the title of the film ... just to avoid misunderstandings and stuff. Anyho, I thought CE as Lennon was quite convincing and I loved the music, naturally, and the costumes and all that, however, I didn't much care about the story. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for it or maybe I really don't care about anything but the music when it comes to the Beatles?

- Classic Doctor Who ... to find Tom Baker NOT tripping over that scarf AGAIN. Seriously, this is low budget 80s TV, they must have forgotten to cut out a scene somewhere, where his scarf caught somewhere and he fell over. You can't wear a ridiculous scarf for that long and NOT have a comedic accident.

- Did I mention that I really don't care one bit about the story lines of various humans in True Blood? However, I do care about the story line of a certain werewolf and this one is tragically lacking!

- I want more Sherlock. And I miss Lost.


Other than that, nothing much is happening at the moment ... I'm just working and freezing. Yeah, it has suddenly become really cold and wet. Well, it has been wet for quite a while, but the cold is new. I spend a break with a blanket and a hot chocolate and that just isn't right in the middle of august. I should be sweating and eating icecream.

It's saturday and it's the wheeping angels episode tonight on Doctor Who ... you better not fuck that one up, Moff, because I love Blink and I find them properly creepy monsters ... let's hope it stays that way.

Talking angels,  I checked out Angelology and I find it quite boring. And I'm not even reading the book, I am listening to the audio during workouts. It's one of these books that are based on pseudo-history mixed with mythology, but that's not the boring part. The boring part starts, when you get a flashback within a flashback, while you really want to know how the actual story continues. Yeah, character background, yeah it will probably all make sense in the end, but while you're in the middle of it it's simply boring.

And while I'm on the book subject - a used book store pulled a nice little marketing trick on me recently. I got two Terry Pratchett books and the sales guy digged out a little book with a biography and bibliography of Pratchett and asked me if I want it, since little books like this don't sell ... I accepted of course, happy about the freebie. At home I looked through the book, noticed that I'm missing some books and now I want to get them ... competism and all.

I'm feeling old. Me and Marco just talked about music videos and our youth as children of the Viva 2 (most awesome music channel ever) generation ... and it all feels like history and in a way it is. It's been over 8 years since they shut Viva 2 down and it all went rapidly downhill from there on to hit the bottom where the stupid reality shows are waiting. Back then, you got the see the whole video from beginning to end, and the only interruption was a little text at the bottom to tell you the name of the artist and the song ... *sigh* ... those were the days.

Anyho, on to the fun stuff. I caught up with a couple of things:

Lost: I LOVE it when they do stuff like the Desmond episode that destroyed a couple of the most populare flash sideways theories. It's Lost after all, you can't expect to have anything figured out in the middle of the season ... or five minutes before the season finale ends, for that matter.

Doctor Who: "There's a star whale, waiting in the sky. He'd like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds ..."   (I admit, I had to borrow quite a bit of stuff from David Bowie for that totally serious review)

Reading: Her Fearfull Symetry. Not sure if I like it as much as Time Traveler's Wife, but it was weird enough to keep me entertained and I don't understand the complaints about the ending. I guess I just don't need a happily ever after for everyone ...

Gym: After months without exercising properly ... pain.

- So, I'm back home and usually, one of the first things I do is putting on some music. However, I just noticed that I'm really bored with my music and there's nothing I feel like listening too. I just haven't had the time to get into new stuff during the last couple of months, but I have hundreds of CDs, so there should be something ... but there isn't. Is this my losing my love for music?

- I read a news item about people putting videos of Ipad destroying on youtube and it just makes me sick. How decadent has this society become when you can spend like 500 Dollars on something and then smash it to pieces? How sick is it when people think their claim to fame is a video that shows them destroying something? And how sad is it that other people think this is actually funny?

- Rewatching Doctor Who made me realize that I could build like half a Tardis console with the junk I have stored in various boxes to build lamps and lightsabers and stuff like that, or that I use for decoration ...

So ... while I'm reading my f-list I thought I could as well post a little update, to show I'm alive and stuff ...

Sooooo ... Happy Easter!!!! (Or other holiday of your choice)


Also, some thoughts on Doctor Who - no spoiler cut because there are none:

- WTF is that new theme supposed to sound like? I certainly will get used to it, like I got used to all the other versions I have heard in the older episodes, but right now ... do-not-want.
- Matt Smith looks like a cute puppy dog version of Frankenstein's monster. (I said "cute puppy dog" ... don't send hate mail ... :p)
- The episode itself ... well ... without the new Doctor and Companion factor it would be totally unremarkable. Sorry Moff, but you can do better than that.
- The new Doctor: So doctorish *loves*
- Amy: Gosh, she's pretty. I might take a while to get over the visuals and have an actual opinion on her character *lol*

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?

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.

(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.

- 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 ...

He doesn't, right?

11th Doctor and companion (what's her name again? Amy something?) in costume:


I'm a bit in denial about these costumes. After David's great coat and Chris' more modern look this Doctor looks kind of blah ... I don't mind a retro look but this looks as if they ran out of retro ideas at the waist and added generic jeans and boots. Although, isn't it sweet that the new girl gets the Doctor's old shoes? She could wear the scarf in the Christmas episode and she could make kids feel better about having to wear stuff from older siblings!

Anyho, it looks like a random on set picture, certainly not an official "posing in front of the Tardis with sonic screwdriver while looking very important and about to save the universe" promo picture. Maybe I'll be convinced when these start to show up ...

We went to one of these "pick your own strawberries" places this morning. Yummy. Of course, you have to try "a few" while picking them to make sure they, eh, taste like strawberries and stuff, so I didn't bother with lunch ... my whole car smells like strawberries now, in fact, I smell like strawberries too (the cats find that a bit suspicious) and so does the kitchen, where strawberries are waiting to be turned into cocktails tonight.



Oh, and this news: "Matt Smith will battle The Daleks in his first 'Doctor Who' episode (...)"?!

Let's join me in a Darth Vader moment and say "NOOOoooOOooooooOOOOOOo!11!!!1!"
Or even better, how about a Samuel Jackson moment? "“Enough is enough, I've had it with these mother fucking Daleks in this mother fucking universe ... and any other universe there is, for that matter!!"