Friday, January 29, 2010

Hello World!

Been a while since I've been here. Dealing with paperwork are my plans for the weekend.

I'd say more but I need to put on some music to drown out a coworker making inappropriate comments.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Sunday, January 24, 2010

I watched my first football game




WE'RE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FINISH STRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Friday, January 08, 2010

Having fun with Zen

I made the theme for the Circulation Desk with the Drupal Zen package, but I couldn't get the spacing right (or some of the colors but I'm dealing with them last) before I needed to go live. So I figure I would fix that before getting lost in developing the wiki.

So I turned on the wireframes, set up Firebug for Drupal, finally got the left sidebar not overlapping the tapestry and wide enough so the words were not making funky breaks, and turned off the wireframes. And the left margin shot over much farther than I wanted as well as the width shrunk so the words do funky breaks again. *headdesk*

Now, I will readily admit that CSS is not a skill I have mastered in my website building, but Zen makes sure to cover any possible CSS change and I think all the extras are confusing the hell out of me. First step, is to re-tweak what I had tweaked before and see if it will move back. If that doesn't work, I think I'll just start the whole theme over again. :p

Read Free!
The BookWorm

But it's a dry cold

So I have arrived safely at work. They did close most of the area schools and with the wind chill keeping the temps ten degrees cooler than they are, I think it was a smart move. However, the rain fall dried up before the freezing point so no black ice.

No spectacular plans for the weekend. Staying home, staying warm, cleaning house, writing, website puttering, and figuring out what exercise routine I need to start and where to put it in the schedule.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Doctor Who: The End of Time Part Two

Okay, so I'm a few days late getting my notes typed up. I've been busy trying to meet the Tin Man/Alice crossover challenge that I don't know will actually happen.

The Master knocked on the barrel four times.

Outside shot of Gallifrey during the Time War. Gallifrey is SO wrecked.

Timothy Dalton is Lord President. Natch.

O.O Okay, it probably isn't any big surprise with anyone with half a brain but Dad and I had a conversation over Nine's tears when Tree lady figured out he was a Time Lord and thanked him for their sacrifice. "Dad, he's responsible. Whatever button had to be pushed to end the Time War that ended up killing the Time Lords and the Daleks, the Doctor pushed it." Dad never got past the Doctor isn't supposed to sniffle. Well, blonde lady at the table admitted that was what happened right before she got zapped. And now after seeing the whole thing, I think the Doctor didn't cast the net as tightly around the Daleks as he could have but made sure to snare the Time Lords.

I like the Visionary. She's my kind of mad seer.

The Master is having too much fun with the multiple copies of himself.

Wilf, don't antagonize the crazy Time Lord.

Master about the Doctor: "He loves playing with Earth girls!" Okay, helpless guffaws for the next half-hour.

The Doctor winked, Donna's defense mechanism, wow!

The Doctor's offer: it's not enough for the Master, not with the drumming driving him. SLASH ALERT!

"The rhythm of four, the heartbeat of a Time Lord." -- You manipulated that moment to make the Master crazy? Yeah, I also suspect voting fraud when you replaced Romana.

Master: "The drumbeat is coming from the end of time itself!"

The Doctor: "You know what I find amazing about you. After all this time, you're still bonehead stupid!" -- I need this as an audio file.

Wilf: "God bless the cactuses!"
The Doctor: "Cacti."
Male green alien: "That's racist!"

The Doctor: "WORSE RESCUE EVER!" -- also set off the giggles forever. Reminded me of one too many gaming sessions.

Wilf: "But we're in space!" Later, "I'm an astronaut."

The Master's body was born out of death and all it can do is die.

Pearl Lady: "I was lost so very long ago." ARGH! From "Journey's End" to now, Ten has repeatedly not taken a companion usually commenting "I always lose them." This does not help in identifying Pearl Lady because Susan was his first companion and he left her behind, and Romana was also left behind.

The Doctor: "I'd be proud if you were my dad." Okay, this is where my knowledge of Classic Who fails me, but I have a niggling sense that what has slipped out, the Doctor and his father were estranged long before he stole the TARDIS.

Wilf: "Kill him first."
The Doctor: "That's how the Master got started." -- I'm sure you had good reason, but boy doesn't that explain the hate-on for 800 or more years. And if you're killing someone who can regenerate, why didn't you FINISH the job? This is was the first version of the scene in The Ten Doctors webcomic but Leela understands the concept.

"Gallifrey rises!" -- And I just know Creation is fucked.

Two that voted against are to become Weeping Angels? Well, that certainly explains the Weeping Angels ability to manipulate time and how they want to feed off the energy of the TARDIS. Course that also raises some question marks about the next time the Doctor runs into the Weeping Angels. Does he know that his people were turned into them? Can the process be reversed?

Time Lords to spare! Yes, the Master is still trying to get a gazillion or more regenerations. You know this whole problem could have been avoided dear boy if you had regenerated instead of deciding it was more fun to make the Doctor cry. Oops, Timothy shut down that plan and saved humanity from being the Master forever.

Just in time for when planets collide! *Headdesk* You guys built black holes and you can't come back without putting two planets on a collusion course. Don't you know what that will do to Gallifrey's already wrecked real estate? Oh, Timothy reveals the true goal and it won't matter.

So exactly what do beings of pure thought and energy do if there's no matter around to play with?

And the Doctor has to live with pushing the button twice. *Squishes Ten*

Pearl Lady was one of the ones who voted nay and the Doctor recognizes her!

Timothy is Rassilon! Nailed it. Oh now, you should have told the Master you were sorry for making him crazy. Have fun zapping them inside the Time Lock.

Wilf is knocking; crap EVERYONE knocks four times. But that, oh that hurt.

Well, I think this is pretty good for a death/regeneration scene. Course the only one I remember seeing any footage of is Four trying to avoid the Watcher and then they merged into Five.

Donna: "Did I miss something? Again?"

Martha and Mickey got married? And Mickey finally butched up. I like it.

Luke and Sarah Jane! And at this point, I realized Ten is saying good-bye to his adopted family of Earthlings. *Sniffles* See Sarah Jane is always right.

JACK! And all the alien species we have seen so far that weren't outright baddies. GEORGE! okay Alonso. Started looking for Mitchell, before remembering that he had shot a historical movie about post-Romantic school of painters in between Being Human series.

Joan Redfern's granddaughter.

Donna and Shuan's wedding -- aw, he did the lottery trick again. And Sylvia has mellowed into an actual human being. "Borrowed a quid off Jeffrey Noble." Still like "Ten Years Later" the best. Wilf asks who Pearl Lady is and the Doctor looks at Syliva and then Donna. Now this is fuel that Pearl Lady is actually the Doctor's mother, and they didn't show the Doctor Who Confidential specifically for this episode, but people report that's who they say she is in it.

I'm a little disappointed but mostly ambivalent. Truth any of the three could work with everything shown. What disappoints is that I was one of the few fans who liked Eight's admission in the movie "I'm half human. On my mother's side." Not that be really NEEDS a reason to be an Earthophile (RTD stole my omnisexual so I'm borrowing this), but I like it for why he keeps watching out for the human race, why he gets so proud of their accomplishments, and so angry at their failures. And after Gallifrey falls, Earth is the only home and family he has left.

Doctor went back to see Rose and Jackie at New Year's 2005. And Jackie mention Howard the mechanic with the tow truck that opened up the TARDIS panel. :D That was nice and tidy and poignant without having to deal with the deal with Doctor 10.5.

MUST GET SOUNDTRACK!

The Ood! Across time and space.

TARDIS does not like radiation. Time to redecorate again.

"Still not ginger!" LOL

Observation of the night: the older the Doctor gets, the younger he doesn't mind looking. I think this was a point brought up in "Time Crash" which I still haven't seen thanks to bloody too high of pricing on DVDs.

Next series preview: Weeping Angels! I loved that alien species and maybe I will get my questions answered.

The Doctor uses a gun? I have to see the context for that scene.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

FanFiction Personality Test Results

Your result for The Fan Fiction Personality Test...

The True Fan

OOC is blasphemy, canon is everything.

Once you fall in love with a movie, book or TV series, you are loyal like an old dog. You take fanfiction quite serious and use it as a substitute after the canon ran out.


You are probably a walking dictionary of your favourite fandom and you are picky about what you write and read. The closer to the "real thing" fanfiction is, the more you like it.


You rather explore a character in all depth, see new sides and learn more about them than creating new characters or mix up the situations they are in.

Take The Fan Fiction Personality Test at OkCupid



*Snort* No one is really surprised by this. Still, I wish some of the questions would let you pick more than one answer. Or had a sliding scale for choices. "I'm more this than that, but that is higher than zero."

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Sherlock Holmes

It took longer than I had wanted it to, but I finally got to see Sherlock Holmes.

Final verdict: both DVD and Hans Zimmerman soundtrack are going into my meager Sherlock Holmes film collection. Stop now to avoid any potential spoilers.

Physically Robert Downey Jr. isn't the Great Detective, but he more than made up for that with his manic/depressive cycles and plucking at the violin as a thinking aid. I would have liked to see actual playing, but we can save that for the sequel. And the fighting. :D

Jude Law as Dr. Watson, Super Army Doctor! On a whole, I enjoyed this take on Dr. Watson, his military bearing and doctor skills were both used. And he has learned some of Holmes's deductive skills and can keep up with most of Holmes' train of thought. However, my forehead slapping moments also concerned him. One, no evidence whatsoever of the injuries that ended his army career and it is supposed to be fairly early in the Holmes/Watson partnership. Two, he gets wounded in the course of the case at the very least requiring stitches across his shoulder. Yet after this moment, he is in the thick of the fight knocking baddies around without any repercussion. Good lord, Watson heals like Wolverine!

Eddie Marsan as Inspector Lestrade: this is another role that usually goes to the extremes. Lestrade is often portrayed as an out-an-out enemy that Holmes runs circles around or idiotic comic relief. This Lestrade isn't stupid, and calls on Holmes when he knows he can't figure it out. But it is so underplayed that when he has to act for the bad guys, you know he'll be invited to drinks at 221B Baker Street for an explanation of the case.

Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler: perfect characterization and perfect performance. And I am so copying all of her clothes. Well, okay probably not the dressing gown. But the dresses and her waistcoat and trouser action wear are awesome!

The romantic angles are where a few puzzles remain. While it is canon that Watson marries Mary Morstan, she was Holmes' client in "The Sign of Four." The movie acts like that case never happened and Holmes has never met the lady who he feels is stealing Watson away (which actually isn't played to a slash level). It makes me shake my head, but I'm willing to let it slide because she shows her temper so well as a proper lady.

Irene Adler and Holmes is a bone tossed to the fandom. Honestly though, I think the Irregulars who don't ship this pair on some level are vastly outnumbered. There are a couple of key pieces of dialogue between her and Holmes that intrigue me. She tells him that she got their old room at the hotel. *Eyebrow raise* Okay, intimate relations already? Then after the climax of the film and tells him who her client is and how she has no choice but to work for him. "Everyone has a weakness. He found mine." And then the look she gives him could be read as "you're my weakness and he threatened you (which does happen)" or....

One of the more popular fanon items is that Irene Adler and Holmes had a son. Who grew up to become Nero Wolfe or someone else depending on which pastiche is your favorite. So what has my nose twitching, does the son already exist?

Read Free!
The BookWorm

And the new year is FREEZING!



My joke has been I was preparing for a cold winter because of how well the Saints were performing. New Orleans had a hard freeze last night, down to the 20s. Now the Northshore, we get hard freezes regularly, but south of the lakes usually stays about 10 degrees warmer. Hence the cartoon.

I've already warned my coworkers that if I wake up and it's raining grits again, I'm staying home. Doesn't stick my ass.

The biggest aggravation is dressing in layers to be warm enough to survive the commute, but once at work, I want to strip down to a short set. I don't know if it's the combination of being under the vent and next to the window that collects a lot of sunlight during the day or what. I do know that I only have cotton panties and pants on my butt because my coat covers that area and it is usually sweating by the end of the day. Weird.

So far the 2010 has started off, not perfectly but nothing to bad to complain about. I do need to find more time for chores and exercise. I was going to start my weight lifting 90 day challenge again, but I've about decided with my painful lack of flexibility showing, I better start a 90 days straight of yoga challenge instead.

The New Year's party was a blast. Though I really don't understand how I managed to be the first human up at 8:45am when I went to bed around 3:30am. *Shrug* Still I had a good time and we decided we need to have more get togethers in 2010.

Read Free!
The BookWorm