Geek Love

12:07am: One meta-thought about Doctor Who S4E6, The Doctor's Daughter
( About something mentioned in the commentary )

10:39pm: Doctor Who, S4E6 - The Doctor's Daughter
I'm at Powder Hill, which is where my parents live. I cannot say that it is their house, as it isn't; it belongs to the estate of my late father's friend. The house is beautiful and it's great being able to stay here to look after my mum as she recuperates from minor surgery.

The plus side: no problems with torrents from here! Sharing seems to fine, while at my apartment, sharing doesn't seem to work very well (I can download fine and I can share while downloading, but once the download is done, upload seems to poof).

( Spoilers, ahoy! )

10:48am: Doctor Who Knitting: The Word is Spreading!
Both the Open Rights Group and Boing Boing has picked up the story.

YAY!

Spread the word, folks. (That means you too, who_daily. *poke poke* That includes yesterday's entry.)

1:13am: For fans of Bioshock
Holy cow.

Gore Verbinski to direct Bioshock.

He'll direct and produce with The Aviator's writer John Logan to maybe do the screenplay. Oo.

And there will be a Bioshock sequel released in 2009.

*drool*

2:33pm: Doctor Who and Knitting
Well, it seems like the word is spreading about Mazzmatazz's order from the BBC to pull all of her Doctor Who-related patterns.

I know that I've written to both the Brand Protection Team (at BBC Worldwide Ltd.) and the Doctor Who Branding group (which was an address that was given to me when I submitted email feedback to the BBC). I keep thinking that either folks should be able to distribute inspired patterns so long as no one is profiting from them (and it is those that try profiting from them that should be shut down) or the BBC should get their act together and allow someone to publish inspired patterns in the same way that Alison Hansel was able to get Charmed Knits published.

It makes me even madder to see that people are still using, up until 4 days ago, Mazz's pattern to sell knitted objects from it. And that one of the most flagrant offenders hasn't been banned from eBay (this person also tried to sell Mazz's pattern to people. GRRRR).

I don't know what else to do, and the fuss has driven a lot of other fabulous patterns "underground". It makes me sad that others that are a little late to the game won't be able to easily find and create their own treasured items from fan-created patterns. Who fandom is a little lesser because of a few bad apples that forced BBC to act.

*sigh*

( What I've done so far )

10:24pm: Doctor Who, S4E4 - The Sontaran Stratagem
Does having the title of the episode in my subject header constitute a spoiler?

Given that they display the title with the author credit within the first 5 minutes of the episode, I think it's ok. Yes?

And man, this was really freaking long. Gold stars and some cookies (pick up in New Jersey) if you read to the end. (And my sincerest apologies to those that saw the content of the entry because I mis-typed the lj-cut tags.)

( Spoilers for Doctor Who S4E4 )

7:04pm: Oh yeah, baby! It's official!
Guillermo del Toro to direct 'Hobbit'

And not only that: Filmmaker signs on helm feature and sequel

WOO HOO! He will be moving to New Zealand for the next four years.

I am pleased.

Ever so pleased.

6:45pm: I was tagged! (The Closest Book Meme)
I was tagged by bruyere_75 for the following book meme:

Grab the nearest book, open to page 123, find the fifth sentence.Then post the next three sentences. Tag five people and post a comment.

I've got a number of books near me, but almost ALL of them are thin. Seriously. The two closest which are right on my desk? Graphic novels Scarlet Traces by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli and Rex Mundi, Book 1: The Guardian of the Temple by Arvid Nelson, EricJ, and Jeremy Cox; both are less than 100 pages.

The closest book to me that has a page 123 is Homespun Handknit: Caps, Socks, Mittens & Gloves edited by Linga Ligon.

The fifth line:
Work even on these 26 sts until work measures 1 in (2 1/2 cm) from bridge.

It's instructions for a pair of gloves with a zig-zag pattern by Betty Amos.

Ever since I got a spinning wheel for Christmas (*hugs the parents*), I've spent my time equally either spinning or knitting. I've acquired a number of books on spinning, this one from a Ravelry member that was destashing it. I love Ravelry. I've been really active since the start of the year, especially in some of the fandom boards (especially the *Who*-related fandom boards). I'm a regular poster in two of the three *Who* related boards (Who Knits? and I Dye for Doctor Who) and in the *Torchwood* board.

It's awesome to see how many folks in fandom are also fiber artists.

(I'm actually running a survey/contest in Ravelry in the *Torchwood* board, so if you're a member of Ravelry, check it out! If you're on Ravelry, definitely drop me a like. I'm Iko there too.)

The closest non-knitting/spinning book near me is Hogfather by Terry Pratchet.

Page 123, sentence 5:
"All of them flowers." (Chickenwire)

Last weekend, I watched Hogfather, with Marc Warren and Michelle Dockerty and Ian Richardson. I loved it! I watched it because I saw a fandom secret that said they shipped Teatime with Susan, Death's daughter. That totally intrigued me, so I got myself a copy and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, I told Mike and he loaned a library copy out for me to read. I've gotten as far as page 5. Spinning, knitting, or fandom squeeing seem to get in the way of me reading it. (See: my newly acquired The Lost Room obsession.)

I dislike tagging people, so I'm not going to tag anyone (I know, I fail at memes). I don't mind being tagged! I just... dislike tagging others, but feel free to take the meme and continue rolling with it.

3:17pm: Late, again, to the fandom party
So...

About a week and a half ago, I stumbled upon The Lost Room.

To be honest, I have no idea who turned me onto the program, or how, or why... but I LOVE IT (whomever is out there in my flist that mentioned it in the past two weeks or so, speak up and let me know because seriously, I have no memory of it and I want to shower you with praise). Not only do I love it, but Mike loves it too. It reminds us of some of the darker RPG settings that we enjoy like Over the Edge and Chill and Unknown Armies (especially UA). Almost no one we know plays these settings, but we love them. I am especially enamored of stories where there is a moral dilemma: having to choose is something that I as a player love to do. I become emotionally invested because of that choice... and I love having to deal with the consequences.

We've only watched the first two parts. The third part is going to be for another time: 87-minute episodes make for a nice evening's viewing and we're taking the show slow and together (typically, I'll watch a program in its entirety to "screen" it for him, since he's got really picky tastes).

The fandom for the show is really small, and I'm really late to the game, but it's nice to add this show to my list of fannish obsessiveness.

I even made icons!

11:18am: Question about "Fires of Pompeii"
( Behind a spoiler cut because I don't want to spoil folks )

6:50pm: Doctor Who, S4E2 - The Fires of Pompeii
My thoughts on the latest episode. It was good and there were many fun (and funny!) things in it. And scary bits (but scary in a good way).

( Spoiler cut for S4E2 )

6:00pm: Grrrrrrrr. Do not piss off the knitter.
mazzmatazz has created a really delightful pattern for the Adipose creature from the first episode of Doctor Who, Season 4.

Well, it turns out that user on ebay is selling the pattern and Mazzmatazz is furious about it. The pattern is being distributed FOR FREE on Mazzmatazz's website and it's completely wrong that someone is attempting to sell the pattern.

Here is the offending ebay item.

Please let people know that the pattern is available FOR FREE so that they don't need to give this person any money and please report this person if you can.

GRR.

ETA: Update! The offending item has been removed from eBay. Huzzah! Hopefully folks can keep vigilant to make sure that no one else tries to exploit the gift that Mazzmatazz has given to us fans. Pass on the news that the pattern is currently FREE!

ETA AGAIN: Whomever this person is really deserves some awful punishment or something because they have listed the item again. Why can't this idiot figure out that they shouldn't be distributing the pattern in the first place? I've gone back and reported this one too. AUGH.

9:41am: The Torchwood Rumor Mill
So...

I read a rumor about Torchwood Season 3 casting. No, not the news that has been around for a while.

( Do not click if you're not interested. )

Feeling a bit out of the loop this morning.

9:08pm: Doctor Who, Season 4, Episode 1 - Partners in Crime
( My thoughts on the episode, as I was watching. Spoilers ahoy! )

9:49pm: *FLAIL*
Words cannot express how much I want to see The Fall (see the hi-res trailer).

It's being released on May 9th in New York. I'm hyperventilating, that's how excited I am.

Directed by freaking TARSEM, with costumes by Eiko Ishioka with Lee Pace as the lead? YUM!

9:34am: Yea, I will weep a while longer.
They just published the first photographs of Russell Crowe filming in D.C. for State of Play.

I'm hoping that I will be shown to be very very wrong about this, but I think it's simply awful (WTF, Russell? LONG HAIR?! Yuck). The cast is amazing and impressive other than the two leads. They're not even close in age, so I'm having a hard time seeing them as colleagues!

Right now, my only hope is to see Russell Crowe and Helen Mirren together. I can imagine their scenes to be really cool.

3:35pm: Old School Torchwood
So, a question for the first season Torchwood fans:

Do you remember, on the Tochwood website, there was a journal.
I believe the journal was in pictures, not in HTML text.

It was a journal that described a person within Torchwood that was put in stasis and woken up on occasion.

My (admittedly bad) memory has this person as Jack.

Am I dreaming this?
Does anyone have access to these originals?

I'm having a discussion with a new Torchwood fan that asked "If Jack is making Torchwood in the Doctor's honor, what was he doing in Torchwood before that?" and I thought that this document suggested that Jack was in stasis and woken up every once in a while. Thus, he could be associated with Torchwood and was in a position to help take over after the Battle of Canary Warf without being a party to the pre-Canary Warf Torchwood that was disliked by the Doctor.

6:29pm: It's like comparing apples to oranges.
It's NSFW, so be aware if you look at the series of photographs called "Lindsay Lohan as Marilyn Monroe", where Lindsay and the original photographer recreate the shots of Marilyn a few weeks before she died.

Marilyn Monroe was thirty six when the photographs were taken of her. She's gorgeous. Sexy. Her shape is amazing.

Lindsay Lohan is twenty one (turning twenty-two this year). She looks OLDER than Marilyn Monroe. She looks tired, fake. She lacks the same amazing curves that Marilyn has.

By trying to do a tribute to Marilyn, all that comes out is how unlike the two are: Marilyn is far more amazing and will continue to be, long after Ms. Lohan has faded away. Perhaps I'll be wrong, and Lindsay will rekindle her once-promising career, but right now it doesn't look promising.

(Oh, and hi! I am sort of here. My life has been work, knitting, spinning, and Pirates of the Burning Sea. I'm not as active in fandom as I used to be and I miss everyone lots. I have cleaned out my office, though, and I'm back two-boxing my desktop and laptop computers in my little study. Whee!)

9:46pm: The Top 50 Dystopian Movies
Snarkerati published a list of the top 50 dystopian movies back in the Fall of 2007.

I love dystopian films. There's something about this particular genre (is it a genre? It seems to be a theme that crosses film genres) that I find attractive. I've always been fascinated by the whole utopia/dystopia society concept. It's staggering how many of these fifty films I've seen.

( List behind the cut with commentary. )

Oh yes, Happy New Year everyone! I hope that your 2008 is a fun, fandom-filled, joyful one!

7:46pm: Help.
I've fallen madly for Alan Davies.

Jonathan Creek - OMG. I even got my sister into this show. I love it.

The Good Housekeeping Guide

Bob and Rose

HELP.

(My life is just a journey from one little obsession to another, isn't it? Sigh. Dangit, I need to get off my butt and MAKE ICONS. I've just been knitting up a storm, so I've had no time to do anything.)

(Oh, and I watched through Mrs. Bradley Mysteries and I thoroughly enjoyed predictable-but-wonderful Cranford.)

4:30pm: Let me introduce you to my new fangirl crush!
His name is Yahtzee.
He's a British-born, currently Australian-based writer.
With a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder.

And he writes the best freaking game reviews in the world. (I can't wait for him to review Mass Effect, which I finished playing and enjoyed.)

( Cut for strong language. )

OMG, how excited am I about David Tennant being the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car on Top Gear?
I am going to squee squee squee all the way home!

Something I'm not squeeing about:
Russell Crowe committing to State of Play. I... sort of want Brad Pitt back, just for the Pitt/Norton yumminess. I just can't get excited over Crowe (although I think he does an adequate acting job with whatever he does).

10:50pm: The Sarah Jane Adventures, Season 1 - Episode 7
( Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?, Part One... cut for spoilers )

In a bit of unrelated news, I found a torrent for Nightmare Cafe and hopefully over the next week (not many seeders or peers) I'll be able to watch the show for the first time in over 15 years. I can't wait.

8:44am: Happiness is a warm gun...
Ten things that make me happy, tagged by nonelvis:

( Cut for the folks that don't care. )

3:13pm: OMG OBSESSION TIME
HALP!

I just fell in love with Pushing Daisies.
And I'm only 25 minutes into episode one.

HALP!

I love the narrator.
I love the main character.
I love the visual style.
I freaking love the writing.

HALP!

Because I seriously do not need more obsessions in this world. Seriously. I'm watching like 13 shows this season.

Even worse, I've got some serious jet lag. Going from the Philippines or London back to the US? No problem! Going from California time to New York time? UGH. I knew there was going to be trouble when we went from Arizona to New Mexico and the one hour difference seemed to put a dent in my sleep schedule. Now it's awful. I'm groggy when I should be alert. I'm alert in the wee hours of the night.

HALP!

Update:
Episode two.
AAAAAAAA!
One of the main characters freaking KNITS.
AAAAAAAA!
SWEATER VESTS!
HANDGUN COZY!
I can't freaking stand it.

HALP!

12:36am: No, it's not in your head!
From my friends list (himynameisjamie), I was sent to this AWESOME video. Drawings. NSFW. But so very very fun.

Share and enjoy!