Geek Love

4:09pm: Confession Time
I think I've been silent for too long and if I don't do this now, I don't know when I'm going to do it... so I might as well do it now.

I am completely and utterly smitten by All the Small Things.

( Further confessions, inappropriate squeeing, and other embarassments behind the cut. Oh yeah, and spoilers up to and including episode five. And icons! )

8:03am: A very short Paul McGann picspam
I got my hands on The Rainbow for a Ravelry's Who Knits? forum and managed to take a few screencaps of Paul McGann. I figured that I should share because, you know, Paul McGann (specifically naked!Paul McGann).

I'm going to see if I can take better caps today or over the weekend. If so, I'll add them.

Enjoy!

( Warning: not safe for work behind the cut. )

10:00pm: Day Of Classic (Who): The Curse of Fenric
For the Day of Classic, I'm doing icon bases from "The Curse of Fenric".

Teaser:


Take. Have. Enjoy!

( And the rest... )

10:08pm: Writer's Block: Robotic
Who (or what) is your favorite fictional robot?

When I first read this question, it popped into my head with music from the television programme and all:

"Your plastic pal whose fun to be with!"

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has been part of my cultural vocabulary ever since I was 7. Friday and Saturday nights, the local PBS station would show British television, both science fiction like Doctor Who (Peter Davison, MY Doctor) and Blake's 7 and comedy like Are You Being Served?, Fawlty Towers, and Monty Python's Flying Circus (which, at the time, I didn't care for).

"I think you ought to know, I'm feeling very depressed."

I remember missing the opening moments of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I remember the hilarity of the scene in the pub when Ford first tells Arthur that he's not from Guilford after all, but a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. The "computer screens" fascinated me, as I thought they were genuine, similar to the screens on my computers (at that age, I owned both an Atari 400 and a Heathkit) and I wondered if there was something like the Guide that I could get for myself. I was hooked. I thought that Ford Prefect was absolutely handsome, Zaphod Beeblebox was at a level of cool that I could never achieve, Trillian was sexiness that I could never achieve, and I was convinced that I could cheer up Marvin, my favorite Paranoid Android!

"Life. Don't talk to me about life."

A few weeks later, I discovered that it was a book series. I was browsing in a Barnes and Noble and spotted the first three books. I convinced my parents to buy it for me and I quickly devoured every line. Douglas Adams became one of my most treasured loves and I've collected all of his books, audios, and games ever since. I even remember playing the Hitchhiker's Guide game as a kid and being frustrated with the mail/babel fish/robot and the tea/no tea puzzles. I've owned the television show with every new phase of format: VHS tape, laserdisk, and it was one of the first DVDs I owned.

"Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cos I don't."

I suppose my love affair really is with Hitchhiker's, but Marvin is such a big part of it. He's at the top of my list of favorite robots, the first that comes to mind, and I still cling to my childish hope that I could make him happy and hoopy.

"We apologize for the inconvenience."

12:46am: The US Election and Me
( Cut for those uninterested in the US election. )

5:42pm: I have won the Internets, again!
Wow, it's been a while.

July's been a really intense month and I've been away from LJ for around the past three weeks, just coming in off and on but not being devoted to reading my flist. I acquired a Bell's Palsy and I've been in and out of doctor's offices and stuff. I'm almost 100% back to a full recovery, although my ear still feels like it's under pressure and my left cheek isn't at 100% full feeling or mobility. Hopefully, I will start physical therapy sometime next week or so and things can get back to normal in August.

My birthday has come and gone, so I'm 33 now and Mike's 40 and we've been kidding around that our bodies decided to really show signs of wear and tear. Hee hee! Thank you for the fabulous birthday greetings, y'all are really great.

I wanted to give a shout out, especially, to my good friend PP. She sent me Five for my Jelly Baby swap. Now, she's given me a little friend to go with him!



YAY! (Methinks I've got a new OT3.)

Isn't he adorable? She also got me a lovely skein of this gorgeous Cherry Tree Hill yarn called "Foxy Lady". Mrowr! I really love her so very very much. (She's on LJ as awoods5. She's awesomesauce!)

We've been spending a lot of time together, along with a number of other fans and friends at Plurk. (Thanks to Ceej who got me into Plurk in the first place.) It's fun and I've made a number of new friends, mostly knitters and friends of knitters. A number of us are into Who too. And speaking of Who...



Those of you out there who know what that means, yay! I am proud to be 1 of 100 and I can't wait until the pictures of all 100 get released.

So, yay, I'm back and hopefully will throw myself back into my flist and friends and all the folks I've missed.

9:16pm: Best Thing Ever
So, everyone on my flist will be voting for the obvious selection in the latest best_thing_ever poll, right?

*wonders if who_knits will pick up on this and gets folks to vote for the TARDIS*

3:09am: Doctor Who Quote Meme
Meme popping up everywhere on my flist: When you see this post, quote from Doctor Who on your LJ.

TRICKSY! My first thought was to post my favorite line from New Who, but I think this time I'll go Classic.

"A man is the sum of his memories, you know - a Time Lord even more so."
The Fifth Doctor, The Five Doctors

It's just too difficult to select just one and trying not to repeat what I've already seen. A lot of good quotes in "The Five Doctors" too, especially the one from the Master that everyone knows and loves.

12:00am: I have won the Internets.
So, I'm on Ravelry and there's a Doctor Who forum on there called "Who Knits?" One of our members decided that it was a shame that folks on this side of the pond find it hard to access Jelly Babies, so a swap was born from it. Jelly Baby Swap 2008!

I, lucky me, have a UK import store in my little town, so I happen to be able to be in the "Haz Jelly Babies" category. My swap partner, knowing this, decided to splurge on me because my package was coming from across the country and not across the pond.

She gave me the bestest swap package ever.


The yarn was selected because it reminded her of Tegan's uniform. The roving, my swap partner dyed herself in a "Five" colorway, after his coat. Awesome, yes? But the BEST part about the swap?!


She made me a Five of my own! MY DOCTOR! (Yes, this is a picture of me with my little guy yesterday. My fab sister took the photograph.)

I love her so much. So very, very much. I fangirl her. Hard.

12:53am: Doctor Who, S4E10 - Midnight
As usual, I'm late to the "here are my thoughts" game. Mostly, this is because I tend to collect my thoughts over a couple of days, write a few thoughts here and there on the 'Net about it, and by that time I think that I might have said everything that I wanted to say about an episode.

Still, I think it could be good to collect my thoughts in one place, so here goes. Folks that know me from here and there would recognize these thoughts already.

( For the spoilery stuff. )

12:15pm: Religion and American Politics
( Cut for those who don't follow or care about American politics )

10:54pm: Zombie Meme
Everyone is doin' it:
You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have: one weapon, onesong blasting on the speakers, one famous person to fight alongsideyou. (Weapon can be real or fictional; you may assume endless ammo ifapplicable. Person can be real or fictional.)

My weapon: Abigail Whistler's awesome bow/lightsaber combination (from Blade Trinity). So they don't get too close and when they do, I get to go all Obi-Wan on them.

My song: Weapon of Choice, by Fatboy Slim. Or Map of the Problematique by Muse. Both songs have a pace and intensity that I can get down with slaying zombies. YEAH.

Famous person to fight along side me: Shaun. Because he's tackled zombies before (to great effect). And then later he could fall madly in love with me and we'd live happily ever after. Hee!

I think this is evidence of me being mostly a 10 in the fannish personality disorder list.

I asked Mike what famous person (real or fictional) he would like to fight along side him. His response: God. <3

ETA: Still writing bits and pieces at the anonymous porn kink meme. REALLY fun!

12:19am: Miscellany, mostly fandom stuff
You know, I never thought I'd ever get this excited about no news. But reading Neil's two paragraphs about the rumors flying about that he'll be writing for Doctor Who fills me with an insane amount of joy. It's seriously no news, but there's these vibes of potential that I'm getting from it. I have to keep telling myself to not get too over-excited, because I don't want to be disappointed.

But yay, Neil and Who would rock my socks.

I haven't been feeling so well recently. Not sure if it is the weather or female problems or just the recent trip, but I've been sort of blah. I might go to Philly this weekend for an Art Craft fair, which would be fun because Philly means good food, but that's still highly dependent on how I'm feeling. I don't like feeling blah and I wish whatever is misaligned will fix itself. On the good side, the shoulder ache I had the entire time I was in Illinois now is gone. I bet I just strained a muscle and it's finally healed. Yay.

I found out today that the local theater only played The Fall for a week. BAH. I'm going to need to trek to NYC to see it, I suppose. Or central Jersey. Poo.

Over the trip, I decided to bring along a copy of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. ( Cut for those that really can't stand reading about it. )

And I've been doing some test knitting for Mazz. Whee! I love knitting lace.

9:29pm: Doctor Who and Uniqueness
( Cut for any possible spoilers. Just some questions that I've got regarding how unique the Doctor is. )

ETA: Oh I found this discussion which poses the whole alt!Doctor question. It's a recent discussion, so it's not the one that I had sometime last year (or maybe even the year before, my memory is hazy (time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so)).

11:58am: FINALLY!
Moffat named lead writer and executive producer for Doctor Who.


YES!

PS - Here is the official BC press office release.

2:09pm: Doctor Who and Knitting - a very happy ending, indeed
YAY!

We've just heard from Mazz that she's in talks with the BBC for a whole lot of stuff, including to get her pattern licensed for use on the website and in a BBC magazine. She's also got a whole lot of opportunities ahead of her (including knitting for and meeting Team Cardiff).

WOW.

I am so happy and pleased and I think that it's a huge win for Who fandom knitters.

8:34am: Knitting and Doctor Who: The BBC Speaks!
The news has finally made the BBC.

So far, it's the article that has had the most statements from the BBC that I've seen, but there are a number of things that bug me about what they've written.

"BBC Worldwide said it acted because finished figures were being sold by others on auction website eBay." (Emphasis mine.) They also repeat this later in the article "This lady, with the best will in the world, wanted to share with friends, family and fans. But there were some unscrupulous people taking these patterns and using them on eBay to make profit for themselves. Unfortunately, we had to get to the source of the patterns - and that was her website." That's something that I don't understand. Why penalize the person who is distributing the pattern (and by extension the rest of the knitting community) and not just the people who were selling the pattern or finished knitted objects? And why just HER and not other people who have distributed other patterns and have sold finished knitted objects?

When Mazz informed the BBC that she took down the patterns, she wrote a really great email that attempted to inform and appeal to their sense of fairness, and hoped that she wasn't being singled out. Their response implied that she was the one that was preventing profit from genuine merchandise and read like a canned response: it was two sentences long.

Also from the article: "It [BBC Worldwide] also denied threatening legal action and said it had offered to consider marketing the designs itself." I am working to confirm this, but reading all correspondence that Mazz has shared so far, BBC Worldwide has NOT indicated to Mazz that they considered marketing the design.

The BBC spokesman has said, "It's not that we don't admire creativity from fans - most of the time,we take the view that if it's small-scale and not for profit, then weturn a blind eye." I wish they made that policy all of the time, because Mazz was small-scale and not for profit. She was even working hard to STOP the ebayers by reporting them! (And enlisted a whole bunch of us to report them as well. I know that I have reported three listings by the same ebay seller who still has an active ebay account last I checked.) When he said "Mazzmatazz was still welcome to get in touch with BBC Worldwide to discuss the issue.", she HAS. She has sent them two additional letters, the first arguing the case that she is small-scale and not-for-profit and the second with a number of different ideas on how to resolve this issue. Like I said, I'm working to confirm if they have continued correspondence with her... and I'll keep folks updated on what I know.

Thanks to everyone out there who has taken some form of action, by either writing to the BBC or spreading the word. Here's hoping that in the semi-near future, there will be knitted adipose (and others) for all!

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.