Quick Update

I need to go to work soon, so I can't write much.

Work has been... stressful. So much so that I, as I have said before, basically turn off when I get home. I would like to write more of what I want to write, but that hasn't been an option the last few months. We're adjusting to a new house style and a new publisher and it's just taking longer than it ought to be taking. Depending on the day, I'm either deep in despair that we'll ever get on an even keel or hopeful that we're finally starting to "get it" and making progress.

That said, I finally received my Hugo PIN, and I'm starting to sort through my reviews from last year and working on figuring out what I want to nominate. I haven't had time to read in the past few months, thanks to the new boss, but I hopefully have enough to get started. I'm excited to be nominating for the first time, and I hope to get it "right" in the sense that the stuff I put on the ballot is truly the stuff I think is the best I read published last year.

I tend to obsess. I think most of my readers have figured that out by now. I've got a handful of current obsessions at the moment. One is my so-far pathetic attempts to start a Doctor Who club locally. I know there's the interest, and I know my hubby's model for a club (bring food, watch Doctor Who, have fun, no fees) should work, but I'm having trouble reaching the local fans, since they are all students. And since hubby is subbing a lot in another district, he can't spread the word. Ug.

Another obsession is Fortean Times. I had a thrown-together page of cover scans, but I upgraded it to a wiki over the weekend to make it easier to update. I was getting tired to hand-writing the HTML files and uploading it via FTP, when with a wiki I only upload the latest scan once and then it's got all the sizes automated by the wiki. Of course, being an obsessive, I started to index issues while I was at it... hey, don't judge me. I know what I am.

The final recent obsession is with a slightly local news incident, which I refer to as the Bird Sanctuary Bozos. Living in a largely conservative area, I know a lot of people who sympathize with the cause of the bozos, but I find it hard to accept that most of them would support the people who did the occupation if they knew even a little about the background of those people. I ended up writing a long Facebook post about it, which I will reproduce after the fold. I have no idea why I'm obsessed about it, I got obsessed long before I knew that some of the "protesters" claim to share my religion (they understand their religion about as well as they understand the Constitution, which is to say: not at all). All I know is that they fascinate me, like watching a car wreck or something, and for a time I couldn't get enough about their antics. Now only a handful of people are still paying attention, since the media has mostly moved on, but I'm still curious to see how it turns out and find out what damage they actually did to archaeological sites in the area... a crime for which I hope they pay most dearly.

Well, time to get dressed and head to work, so if you are interested, my Facebook rant is below...

Doctor Who Day

I didn't realize Seattle had so many Doctor Who fans...

Eric and I crossed the mountains Friday night with a very unhappy Inkwell the cat. We stayed at my folks' place in Renton (thanks again Lisa, for putting up with us). Inkwell wandered my mom's fabric collection and was given lovin' by my parents.

Saturday morning we headed out to Lincoln Square in Bellevue to watch the simulcast of Doctor Who on the big screen in 3D. We joined up with other fans while there, then we left hubby-Eric to wait for another fan while we went in and got seats. I found a pair of seats in the top row for Eric and I and when he came in I waved. He spotted me, then was greeted by somebody else, then by another person, so he threw his arms out and shouted, "For everyone who knows me, HELLO!" and got a surprisingly large response. That's how I know theater #4 had a lot of Androgums and other old school fans in it. We later learned many of our friends were also in theater #12.

When Eric made his dramatic entrance, I told the girls sitting next to his empty seat, "That's the guy you're going to be sitting next to." They giggled. Nervously I think.

What can I say about "Day of the Doctor"? Let's see... the opening sequence with Strax informing people of proper theater etiquette, particularly the screaming popcorn, was a delight. The 3D bit at the beginning showing how to tell if the person sitting next to you was a Zygon was a hoot. The episode/movie itself was ... wow. I mean, wow. It was... wow. I'm sure there were bits that I would quibble about, but frankly at the moment I still want to just enjoy the experience. There is a special aspect of watching anything in a theater full of like-minded people... Doctor Who seen that way was simply amazing. It just was overwhelming.

Anyway. After the movie was the short making of, and that was also fun to watch in the theatre. I think maybe two people got up after the episode itself was over. No rush to the door until after everyone in the whole place was certain there wasn't any more delightful bits to watch.

Eric and I eventually got out of Bellevue Square, I'm not sure how, and made our way to Marlow's place in Totem Lake to have a mini-Androgum party. We had pizza, dissected the episode and watched "An Unearthly Child" (just the first episode, not the rest of the story with the cavemen). We had a good discussion and made up some theories that I'm sure many other people will have made up, and then we carpooled (five of us) to Seattle to go to the Experience Music Project party.

There were Androgums at the head of the line, we managed to join them and pack the front of the line with Androgummy goodness. We stood outside in the cold for more than an hour and I got more and more hyper just to keep warm. Eric had changed into his fifth Doctor costume and I was wearing the Ace jacket my mom made as a costume for me more than 20 years ago for Visions '93. More than a few people recognized who I was supposed to be, although there was a large number of folks who simply, sadly, had no clue.

Getting in was easy enough, but there were so many people that my main goal was to get away from the crowds until the party settled a little. So I actually found the bar where the trivia was going to be held and settled down after my initial run-through of the building. Unfortunately, no soft drinks at that bar and even a cup of water cost $1. Yikes. Still, it was a relatively quiet place early in the evening and I managed to rest my feet and recover from the cold.

Then the trivia started and the place got packed. Eric came back, Dan arrived... we only needed Ryan to make the Doctor Who trifecta. As it was, Eric and Dan managed to answer most of the trivia questions without any trouble at all, and then they promptly left me alone in the bar before the results were announced. I was not at all surprised to find out that they'd won the contest, but because they were missing, I had to go and accept the prize. I then gathered them up and got the guy running the quiz to get his picture of the winners. We then divvied up the loot, which had some neat stuff. Nothing huge, but it was good.

I left to wander the building and see some sights while they watched our place in the bar. I got some pictures of some of the attractions (Wizard of Oz, mainly) and was recognized by more than a few people... either as Ace or for being the one who won the quiz. It was far too crowded for me to handle being out and about for long, so I headed back to the bar and enjoyed the boys, this time with Ryan, taking the second quiz. When the results were announced the trifecta had only missed one. They came in second... somebody had managed a perfect score.

I can't remember exactly what we did next, but basically we left the bar for the night and headed to the costume contest. A tree approached us and asked Eric to follow her because she was doing the costume contest. I didn't realize she meant she was the MC of the costume contest, but Eric followed her while I wandered the edges for a bit. When they started pulling the finalists out of the crowd I managed to get to the other side of the stage to take some pictures. Eric was a finalist.

They started with the best Doctor category and pulled up three contestants. A second Doctor, Eric as the fifth Doctor, and an eleventh Doctor. Eric was crowned the best, got a loot bag, and eventually found me and got a big hug. One of the people who was handing out prizes handed me a little prize, a Doctor Who minifigure, because I was wearing a costume and hanging out so close to the stage.

The other prizes were announced, they were well deserved, and then I went to get Eric's picture with the EMP's Cyberman.

I don't really remember much after that. I was tired, hungry, and mildly grumpy. Our group found the car and we all headed up Lake City Way and stopped at Dick's Drive-In for some cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes just before midnight. We eventually made it back to Marlow's house, then Eric drove us back to my folks' place where my mom was waiting up for us. I somehow got to bed... and we came back over the mountains with an EXTREMELY grumpy cat late this morning.

Linkdump!

Folks in the Puget Sound area should watch KBTC tonight starting at 6 p.m. to watch my husband and the Emerald City Androgums answer phones during Doctor Who.

Everybody is posting this one, because it's so awesome: This isn't the petition response you're looking for.

My husband is already pretty excited about the new Oz movie, but he's also a huge Danny Elfman fan so this news has him practically squeeing in delight.

Oscar Nominees. I have seen none of the movies. The Razzies Nominees. I have seen none of the movies. Oh well.

How Voltaire got rich enough to be Voltaire.

The lie of Nazi gun control. Not that anyone who is indoctrinated by the NRA will read and believe this, but hey, I like spreading the truth when I can.

Why Adobe (and other vendors) should give away older software. I admit it, I snagged InDesign, but haven't installed it yet. More at Slashdot.

Most of these 25 foods you'll never eat again actually gross me out, but I did like the crispy M&Ms.

Future gadgets that might be worth buying from CES this year. The only one that made me wish I could afford it was the solar battery back up.

The Onion does it again. I like the Toyota Highlander comment.

Oh man, I wish I could afford to get this Aquaman #15 Blank Cover variant with art by Fred Hembeck! I did buy a blank variant for myself, but haven't figured out what to do with it yet.

One of these years I will make it to GeekGirlCon. I hope it's soon.

More on lab-grown meat. Again, I have no problem trying lab-grown foods myself. I'd rather have a cleanly grown hamburger than some of the stuff that gets into hamburger nowadays.

Speaking of food, for the twelve-week-challenge I'm using myfitnesspal to log food intake and exercise. I would have used Calorie King like I did in the past, but it doesn't have an app for Android and the PC app hasn't been updated in years.

An update on my post from the other day. Yes, the student who died was the athlete. That makes it so much more painful for some reason.

Also, when I got in on Thursday there was a note on my desk from the editor pointing out that my Wednesday afternoon's work was pretty bad compared to my usual and asking me to do more proofing before turning stuff in. When I went to talk to the editor about it I quoted a techie, "Sometimes it pays to stay in bed on Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debuging Monday's code." At least he understood.

CameraPhone Zen

Cleaning for Androgums

We spent the day cleaning the house for the Androgums (the Doctor Who club hubby-Eric founded) to visit us here in Churchville. Waiting for the first victim guest to arrive soon.

Another Linkdump

I probably already linked to this, but since it became an Astronomy Picture of the Day, it's worth another link.

Terrorist Watch List Graph.

This is an Androgums meal: Blood and Souls.

The mystery of The Lido.

Lost tapes of the Doctor Who Composer. Delia Derbyshire was ahead of her time.

Kids on the Tower.

Wonderful Safety Sign.

Don't Litter. Aquaman would like this ad.

Fanboy in the dictionary.

Virus Alert: Snopes on the latest. Snopes also takes on McCain's citizenship.

The Rubik's Cube prank.

Can't sleep, penguins will eat me. But wait, BATDOG to the Rescue!

Different Flavors of Chocolate Labs.

Cute Overload embeds Simon's Cat Shorts. For the latest, Simon needs a TiVo.

Random Thoughts

Couldn't get through all the links I wanted to post, so I'll finish tomorrow if I have the time...

Self-Link #1: Grassroots promotion of Aquaman.

Self-Link #2: It is time once again to remind you of our eBay auctions. If it has "KBTC" in the description, all proceeds are going to the local PBS station. If it doesn't, all proceeds are going to pay our bills.

Colleen Doran Sees Wicked then flaunts her stuff at the DC offices.

Heidi Meeley applies "The Customer Is Always Right" to the comic book industry.

Ten in Green. Remember the Alamo.

Pictures from Wondercon.

I got my monster, thanks to Adventures in Applied Math. Apparently, Tegan eats townsfolk and abducts geeks. Hrm.

Speaking of monsters... mmmmmmm Chocolate Dalek. It looks REALLY messy. Yum.

With March came a tiny bit of spare money, some of which went to Conlan Press to buy The Last Unicorn DVD.

FilkerTom on naked actors and stupid commentators.

If you haven't checked out Strange Maps yet, you really ought to. All kinds of neat stuff there, from Oz to the DCU and back again.

I don't really care much about this news item, except I do hope the press gets to ask the perp one single question: WHY?

After several days of not moving, the Leif Erikson statue finally was successfully removed to be renovated and moved to a slightly different location.

Hmmm, I think I'd actually watch this.

I Park Like An Idiot dot com, where you can get bumper stickers to put on the cars of people who can't park in between the lines. I don't think I'd have the nerve to actually apply one of these, but I am amused by the thought.

Reading Scriptures leads to Violence.

Don't use the words winter, games, or gold in Vancouver BC for the next few years. More from Boing Boing.

Oz and Ends tells us what a "baramin" is.

Junk science from the RIAA.

Duct Tape comes in handy.

We still don't understand ball lightning.

9-year-old Canadian Terrorist detained by the US.

Diebold may dump e-voting unit because it's tarnished their reputation. Well, duh. Creating easily hackable voting machines with no paper trail would tarnish any company's reputation.

Garrett wants us to remember what a jury REALLY is. As a juror, you have the right to judge both the criminal AND the law. It's called Jury Nullification, and judges don't want you to know about it.

You must know your rights! Because, once selected for jury duty, nobody will inform you of your power to judge both law and fact. In fact, the judge's instructions to the jury may be to the contrary. Another quote from US vs Dougherty (cited earlier): "The fact that there is widespread existence of the jury's prerogative, and approval of its existence as a necessary counter to case-hardened judges and arbitrary prosecutors, does not establish as an imperative that the jury must be informed by the judge of that power".

For St Patrick's Day: Oh Danny Boy, as performed by three of the best evah Muppet singers. Don't get yer hopes up.

Puget Sound Race for the Cure

The 2007 Puget Sound Race for the Cure will happen on June 16th. Our local Doctor Who group, the Emerald City Androgums, are going to put together a team. If we can get enough members this year, we'll try to do the walk with matching t-shirts and all that jazz. Maybe we'll even get berets and carry eating utensils, who knows?

The registration doesn't open until March 5th, so I probably won't be mentioning it again until I've signed up and put up a donor page. Unlike the 3-Day, I don't need to raise a certain amount to qualify for this event, but our team will no doubt have some goal for fundraising.

If you live in the Seattle area and are interested in joining our team, drop me a comment or an e-mail.

Androgums Tonight

We had our delayed-by-the-windstorm Androgums meeting tonight. That's the Doctor Who fan club formed by hubby-Eric many years ago. I wanted to watch the Seahawks playoff game, but I wanted to be a good hostess more. So I TiVo'ed the game and we had the meeting as usual. Now that we've finally managed to get the last person out of the house, I'm watching the game and fast-forwarding through anything that isn't action. Lots of fun. I don't know who won yet, but I will in ... well, whenever I finish.