Nat's banality-log

Shall We Do Diaries?

2008-07-21T18:57:18Z

The picture below was drawn for spacefall's birthday. A rougher version was used on a MoonPig birthday card with the text, "A Date For My Diary ...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!".

It's a portrait of River Song posing with the diary, as featured in the Doctor Who series 4 episode Silence In The Library and played by Alex Kingston.

This took almost 15 hours work on the tablet PC, two hours of which was the original sketch and more than four hours was the airbrush colouring on the face. This is now the most time consuming piece of artwork I've produced. It's also the first 'drawing' of a human I've done that I think is recognisably the person it's supposed to be. At full resolution the face fills the screen (click 'Full size' at the bottom of the LJ scrapbook page).

glarmaco comments thread

Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-21T03:53:12Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

09:51 Hmm I must have been extremely tired as I slept an hour past my alarm...

13:43 We've been having an extremely musical morning with autoharp, flute, xaphoon, recorder and YouTube :)

14:29 The Crocus Cafe was shut due to it being Sunday so we've got to the Savoy Cinema about 30 minutes too early for WALL-E. We're 1st seated tho

17:05 WALL-E is probably simultaneouslyh the sweetest and the most anti-commercial film I have ever seen. Highly recommended - I laughed, I cried!

23:33 Phew just spent yet another two hours and 45 minutes on my artwork having put it aside for a couple of days. Setting aside again now...

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-19T03:53:06Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

10:50 I'm working from home today which means I was able to get up at my normal time but do an hour more on my fan art piece before starting work.

10:53 Oo my bargain sale price Doctor Who DVDs just arrived. Including the partially animated reconstruction of The Invasion. 2nd Doctory goodness

18:03 Well after a further 3.5 hours working on the fan art piece today it's finished and I'm really happy with it. It's about 11 hours work total

18:08 Rather than upload it now I'm going to set it aside for a bit & see how it looks with 'fresh eyes' later. I regret not doing that with Staal

18:14 Just watched Moebius part 2 with geeky alt universe Sam and Daniel and lots of time travel fun. This may well be my favourite SG-1 2 parter.

18:15 Now cooking vegan bangers and mash with ketchup for dinner, mmmmm comfort food. Also corn on the cob for a starter, mmmm on-use-by-date food

21:11 @crackerwax I'd say five's The Gadget Show is close to a geeky gadget version of Top Gear as it's generally high end gadgets & 'challenges'.

21:28 @crackerwax I think the bald guy, Jason loves the tech and is generally enthusiastic. I'd certainly watch the sort of show you're suggesting

22:13 I thoroughly recommend the re-constructed 'The Invasion' Second Doctor DVD, really excellent. Especially the Cosgrove Hall animated episodes

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-18T03:53:29Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

07:33 I think it rained quite a lot overnight - I just had to duck and run to avoid being splashed by cars going through a huge road-side puddle!

07:41 I am very thoroughly earwormed by Under The Pines, Jonathan Coulton's song about a love affair between Leonard Nimoy and Bigfoot...

12:48 Gah I've walked all the way to Victoria Market and it's closed due to the union strike. What a waste of my lunch break :/

13:31 I ended up walking the extra 10 minutes to The Natural Food Company to buy some unnatural vegan goodies. Made it slightly less of a waste...

13:52 Mmmm fake vegan mars bar...

17:13 I did an hour's overtime screwing up my plans for the evening simply because everyone else spent 3 hours at someone's leaving 'lunch' :(

22:33 I have been drawing for the last three hours and fifteen minutes and have finished the face. Just the entire body and background to go...

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-17T03:57:06Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

08:00 NOW 70? When I was first buying music that was now 20. Even more depressing I haven't heard of 2 thirds of the bands on this one...

08:06 There's an official Unison picket line at the entrance to the council offices. Ie, 3 people with placards.

16:37 Hmm the strikers have all gone home already. I wasn't at all tired today, woo hoo!

16:43 iPhone 3G, 'The phone you've been waiting for'... I'm pretty sure any phone I'd be waiting for would support media messages and copy & paste

18:25 I've decided to start a ludicrously ambitious piece of fan art involving several different source images and an actual human character o.O;;

19:13 Well I've found all the source images needed for this picture ...seems the minimum I can work from is 13 >.<

21:02 Phew! I've just drawn the entire sketch layer in scribbly 1px pen, all took a little over an hour and a half. Most of that was the face.

21:03 Hopefully tomorrow won't tire me out and I'll be able to do the rest in one marathon evening sitting...

22:41 Spent another 30 minutes re-touching the sketch to get the proportions right, also scaled and cropped it to be ready for the airbrush layer.

22:42 Now I should stop watching regeneration scenes on YouTube and go to bed :)

23:15 Whoops, well I ended up watching all the regenerations...

23:35 I am FAR too easily distracted :/ ...also Glasshouse by Charles Stross is a thoroughly excellent book that I heartily recommend to all!

00:02 Apparently if I go to bed halfway through creating a piece of art my brain continues to plan and draw and visualise in lieu of sleep... :(

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-16T03:54:48Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

18:07 My Get Well Soon card for the4thcircle arrived, it looks like it turned out really well, will definitely use MoonPig again! is.gd/U2y

18:11 Got some really nice comments about my General Staal painting in the various places I posted it, definitely encourages me to draw more...

18:14 Think I'm going to do National Art Making Month again this year, creating a new piece of art every day in August. Means no BiCon costume tho

18:28 I {heart} season one House! Vogel just arrived. Classic.

19:11 Wow that's depressing, Auschwitz: The Great Escape on five feels that it needs to explain what the holocaust and concentration camps were...

19:19 It's a very good in depth documentary otherwise, watch it. It just depressed me that it assumes the average viewer wouldn't know the basics.

21:05 I'm enjoying a new podcast, Radio Free Skaro, a Canadian Doctor Who podcast, I especially like the repeated impressions of Phil Collinson :)

21:06 Nice to see and chat to my parents this evening ...over the webcam and Skype that is :)

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-15T04:39:17Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

07:58 Every morning the big film poster at the bus stop earworms me with ABBA...

16:11 My soya yogurt pot shows intact pears & sliced peaches in front of what must be a sizable vat of yogurt captioned 'presentation suggestion'

17:32 Wow sainsbury's have added milk to their ketchup recipe!

20:10 Just realised that my missing window keys are going down a crack between the wood and the tiles in my serving hatch! Strong magnet anyone?

22:26 My fan art got a mention on today's LJ who_daily round up - is.gd/Tjb - so it was worth posting it to one of the Who art communities

22:29 After being exhausted all day, I've had loads of energy all evening - I've done 4 Escape Pod episodes worth of chores! More than all weekend

03:54 Argh the final spin cycle of my economy7 towels & bedding wash just made a repeated banging noise so loud it woke me & probably the building

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-14T03:56:51Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

13:54 Hmm I was obviously a bit more tired than I though. I got up after 9 hours sleep, read two graphic novels then slept until 1:30pm... whoops!

21:12 Spent 4 hours on this piece of Doctor Who fan art, Staal The Undefeated. In a change to my usual style, it's airbrush only: is.gd/Snz

21:33 Truly in awe of kimble's l33t cycling skillz -- cycling from East London to Canterbury is no mean feat! Well done kimble!

23:55 Really wishing my upstairs neighbours would turn off their noisy TV and go to bed...

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Staal The Completed

2008-07-13T20:18:44Z

The image to the left is a full colour version of my previous sketch of Sontaran General Staal, The Undefeated.

Unlike all previous pieces I've created, this is entirely coloured using the airbrush tool and does not include black lines. I actually started by drawing black lines and colouring underneath them, but I found that it actually looked better with the lines layer turned off.

This just took four hours work to complete, not including the original sketch. I think this settles whether to use black lines or not when trying for a realistic 'digital painting' effect. I think this looks far better than anything I've drawn before!

Now I should probably eat something as it's got quite late while I was hyper-focusing on my painting...

Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-13T03:57:35Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

11:40 Just had a pleasant morning in bed, listening to EscapePod stories and then reading my friends page backlog. Now to do some chores...

13:16 Had cooked breakfast for lunch, tasty. Although odd to have two meals in a row including Linda McCartney sausages.

14:18 The Romulan Commander in this episode of TNG is Abby from Survivors!

14:21 See I thought it was Zoey, the equivalent of Al in the evil leaper episodes of Quantum Leap ...turns out that's also the same actor!

16:26 Decided to start watching Crusade again, I was put off because I knew the story goes nowhere. I'd never get to Sleeping In Light otherwise.

20:41 Practiced autoharp for half an hour. Amazingly it was still pretty much in tune. I'm even more convinced that left handed is the way to go.

22:41 I've signed up for a flickr account to share the best of my artwork online. It'll just be full colour tablet PC art for now is.gd/RY1

22:59 Right, I think I've probably customised my flickr account and added my art to enough groups now. Tomorrow I may even draw something!

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Hidden layers

2008-07-12T17:34:32Z

After doing the same on the kingfisher 'painting', I though you might be interested in seeing the layers used in my last drawing of a certain insane Doctor Who character...

From left to right are the original sketch layer, the black lines layer and the finished coloured image with the background replaced with the original sketch for comparison.

The original sketch was drawn at screen resolution then scaled in The Gimp to print resolution before the rest of the image was drawn over it.

Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-12T03:57:55Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

10:14 kimble's dropped me off a work an hour later than normal and I'm still the first one in. Must be Friday...

10:15 Last tweet extremely late because I forgot to accept the certificate. Bloody Twibble...

14:02 Having a Thai meal out with flippac. Sort of as a celebration.

15:49 Gah my watch has broken. What is this the month of fail?! Bloody entropy.

17:25 Just been to a work leaving do saying 'have a nice life' to two workmates on their last days. I'm now hyper on too much black coffee...

19:28 I'm trying out that MoonPig greetings card making service. It seems really good, very flexible. Allows PNG uploads but fonts only work in IE

19:30 I'm kicking myself for not thinking of sending this card on Monday though, Stacy is out of hospital now but it won't arrive until Wednesday.

19:44 kimble's just found a linux Worms2 clone that will work at HD res under MythTV, this has me looking for a Linux Dance Dance Revolution clone

20:53 Watching the Bionic Woman pilot ...not grabbing me so much so far...

21:25 StepMania seems to be the best OpenSource DDR clone has masses of fan made song/step files and also clone files of US and Japanese DDR songs

21:27 Also there's numerous Linux and dancemat combatible PlayStation to USB adapters available. So I'm going to be wearing a hole in my mat soon!

21:45 Mmm bangers and mash for late dinner. Thank you Linda McCartney!

21:59 Watching SG-1 episode Moebius Part 1. I {heart} alternative universe geeky Sam and geeky Daniel! Thick glasses++ :D

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-11T03:56:05Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

13:26 Is nervous.

15:05 I have mostly positive news and am mostly relieved...

18:03 I has a barakta and kimble!

21:41 Lab Rats now on BBC 2 is officially face achingly hilarious.

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-10T04:01:27Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

07:44 Why is it the day I get to the bus stop more than 5 minutes early, the bus is at least 5 minutes late?

07:50 Ended up on the next bus. My usual bus never showed up...

12:57 Yuck no, I really do only like bananas when they're starting to go black, yellow bananas are ...wrong.

13:03 Spending my lunch break listening to highlights of Jonathan Coulton/Paul & Storm live concerts. Filky goodness :)

16:36 Is wet.

17:06 Seeing if my laptop is actually workable on my laptop...

17:40 On the sofa is quite a comfy position for drawing ...yes I just spent another 30 minutes on Dalek Caan >.<

17:46 They've completely cut away the hedge in front of my building door and removed about two thirds of the hedge under my window. Looks ugly :/

19:39 Watching Bone Kickers, does for archeology what Bugs did for technology. Got to love a show where the characters are saying the plot's crazy

19:42 So far it's patently absurd, crazy, ridiculous and unbelievable ...and that's just what the protagonists keep repeating :)

19:52 Templar Knights wearing jeans, t-shirts and grey overcoats? Classy.

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-09T03:54:44Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

18:07 Got home, did a couple of chores then played flute for 50 minutes. Always a good way to wind down after work.

20:33 Just touching up my naked dalek... ;)

23:12 Whoops just spent more than 2 & a half hours re-touching the image I drew on Sunday including re-drawing several parts. Lost track of time!

23:36 Phew, I've uploaded the 9+ hours work total ultimate edition to my Doctor Who and Portfolio galleries ...although I noticed a few faults :/

23:36 Now really really past my bed time! o.O;;

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-08T04:02:09Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

16:38 Is it me or did Loud Twitter fail to ship yesterday's tweets over this morning?

16:57 Just randomly met @nyecamden moments after I got off my bus home, had a brief chat then parted ways. What are the chances?

18:20 Re-watching the Who finale over a nice curry :)

19:45 Interestingly the end of the finale made me cry this time, probably as I wasn't spodding. Still put off by the Scottish accent at the end...

19:46 Now watching In The Shadow Of The Moon, the Apollo space program in the words of the astronauts who lived it.

19:59 Fake headline spam of the day 'Clinton says: Hilary cheated on me' and 'Apple files for bankruptcy'. Points for effort but no v1agra thanks!

21:03 Just found the web comic 'Doctor Why' via spacefall - community.livejournal.com/ - funny!

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-07T21:04:55Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

22:15 Just spent another hour & a half re-touching the Get Well Soon card drawing. It looks SO much better at full size now & I can draw straight!

22:48 I have to conclude that it's much harder to draw at print resolution rather than screen resolution, or at least much more time consuming...

23:29 Bah, can't sleep. Not in the vaguest bit tired :/

16:38 Is it me or did Loud Twitter fail to ship yesterday's tweets over this morning?

16:57 Just randomly met @nyecamden moments after I got off my bus home, had a brief chat then parted ways. What are the chances?

18:20 Re-watching the Who finale over a nice curry :)

19:45 Interestingly the end of the finale made me cry this time, probably as I wasn't spodding. Still put off by the Scottish accent at the end...

19:46 Now watching In The Shadow Of The Moon, the Apollo space program in the words of the astronauts who lived it.

19:59 Fake headline spam of the day 'Clinton says: Hilary cheated on me' and 'Apple files for bankruptcy'. Points for effort but no v1agra thanks!

21:03 Just found the web comic 'Doctor Why' via spacefall - community.livejournal.com/ - funny!

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For the4thcircle

2008-07-06T21:40:22Z

A get well soon card for the4thcircle who's been in hospital since Tuesday (this took me 6 hours to finish, which is why it had to wait until the weekend):

Stacy, stay happy and GET WELL SOON!

Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-06T03:56:51Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

12:46 Argh overslept until the afternoon but there's still 6 hours to Doctor Who. Extra long episode but feels like an extra long wait...

12:53 Enjoy London Pride everyone who's going! I'd love to join you but I needed a weekend off.

16:20 2 hours and 20 minutes to go... I'm planning to watch Turn Left and The Stolen Earth again before the finale in order to 'reduce the wait'

17:20 About to start my 3 episode Who marathon including the finale. I have snacks and drinks ready & I've listened to PodShock to get in the mood

17:49 Just realised that I have successfully avoided all spoilers, no confidential, no trailers, no commentary podcast. I've only read speculation

18:11 30 minutes to go. Please don't be a disapointment, please don't screw it up!

19:07 Poor Sanjay's a widower now...

19:50 I was not disappointed by that finale, 2nd best finale of Who I'd say. Although it wasn't what I'd predicted, I called the ending on IRC :)

19:51 Now watching last week's and this week's Doctor Who Confidentials over dinner. Truly a Who marathon :D

19:57 Oh what a surprise, the Outpost Gallifrey Doctor Who Forum is down...

21:01 Oh & Donna is still officially my favourite companion ever. And series 4 overall is as good as series 1. Although 3 had some amazing stories

22:34 I've decided to watch Austin Powers 3 as I've managed to never see it before...

22:43 Huh is Austin Powers working with UNIT or what?

23:03 Ridiculous amount of product placement in this...

23:25 Oh I like the white subtitles on a white background gag :)

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Doctor Squeeeeee

2008-07-05T19:45:01Z

Oh my, oh my. That finale was NOT a disappointment...

You know, I really love crossovers, and prophesies and fan service! ;)

Best bits: Daleks talking German -- a million bonus points for that one! Gita from 1990's Eastenders gets turned to dust, Mickey and Jaqui show up, Davros has an incredible rant about destroying all life -- very Genesis, Davros and Sarah recognise each other, The Doctor and Rose recognise Gwen, K-9 appears, all the companions fly the TARDIS together and it REALLY looked like it was designed to be piloted that way, and Donna literally rips Sarah off Jack in order to get a hug! And best of all, NO BIG RESET BUTTON!

I didn't mind the non-regeneration as it wasn't wasted. I didn't mind getting a second Doctor played by David Tennant with a slightly different personality because it was in a different character. I LIKE the ten and a halfth Doctor concept, and by having a second Doctor who's half human, they're explicitly retconning out the half human crap from the TV movie! They also made it clear that the 10th Doctor has Rose's accent because 10.5 has Donna's. We now must assume the 8th Doctor had a northern companion before regenerating into Nine.

I was thinking the Osterhagen Key might be a self destruct for the earth (or some kind of key to a prison for who monsters captured by UNIT), and as soon as we got a naked second doctor in the episode I said on IRC "18:54 - ok so the clone gets to be happy with rose forever - in the other universe".

At the end Martha walks off with Jack and seems to be inducted into Torchwood, then Mickey joins them ...well, the Torchwood team IS short two members!

I thought the Doctor's soul revealed was very clever and a good reason for the Doctor to be a bit harder in the future (as observed by River in Forest of the Dead).

And I really liked the difference between the real Doctor and a half human Doctor. So how does the human factor make this Doctor different? It gives you a Doctor who's willing to intentionally wipe out the Daleks and who's able to say "I love you" and suck Rose's face off in a big snog ;) So there we go, a canon that admits that the Doctor is more asexual than the average human :)

I loved the Doctor-Donna and I can see why the sensitive at the Shadow Proclamation was 'sorry for your loss' -- Forgetting everything you've done with the Doctor is a massive loss, and going back to being Run Away Bride Donna really is a fate worse than death!

Also, note there's no hand in the TARDIS to stop the next regeneration, and even knowing the resolution, I STILL think that's the best Doctor Who cliffhanger in history, and I actually feel sorry for people who don't have to wait a week to see what's next as that was the best week of fan speculation and feeling like a kid waiting for xmas EVER. (But how many regenerations does the Doctor have left now? Did that use one up?).

Can I just say though, Luke is NOT 14 years old. Luke is ONE year old. That did annoy me a bit. But I really did like everything else in the episode.

(Also wasn't last week's episode of Confidential was brilliant? A huge history lesson about Davros, including all the different actors. The creature effects team making Davros and Caan. Raymond Cusick getting a tour of the Dalek designs department, giving an interview and talking us through the original 1960's concept design that looks nothing like a Dalek, then one with a tricycle inside! And has Sly McCoy taken to dressing as The Doctor all the time, or was that interview filmed during a not yet seen multi-doctor story?! ...Blimey Luke has scruffy long hair in the read through).

So yes, to summarise, SQUEEEEE!!!!!!11

Now we have no more series until 2010, only 5 specials including 2008 and 2009's xmas specials. Eep! (OK I imagine there's more Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures).

Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-05T03:55:26Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

07:59 Ooh swanky new maroon line bus, longer, wheelchair accessible, more seating and even two luggage bays. Fancy.

17:01 The journey home is also on a new big shiny accessible awesomebus! Feel like I'm getting value for money from the CityRider card now :)

17:11 Is having a security alarm surround on your wall that includes a pre-01-switch-over obsolete phone number on it worse than having no alarm?

17:42 Annoyed Radio Times' XML has stopped calling the Uncut Culture Show 'Uncut'. Means I missed 2 episodes & can't reliably get the longer ones.

17:56 The fact that 45 minute Doctor Who Confidential episodes have the same program name and episode titles as the 15 minute episodes also galls.

18:01 Loving The Culture Show's Big Brother book group. Former Big Brother housemates including Germaine Greer, Derek & Pete discuss Orwell's 1984

18:59 Now watching the Heroes season 2 finale. Feels more than a little premature due to the effect of the writers strike...

19:22 It ended on a good cliffhanger though ...Is it time for Doctor Who yet? No? 23 hours to go you say? ...arrgh!

21:58 Oww I've managed to hurt my right foot somehow. Don't remember doing it, which is typical for me...

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-04T03:57:20Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

16:44 I'm annoyed with Boots. A few months ago I bought an electric toothbrush and a flosser from them but now they don't stock replacement heads!

16:46 Now I just need to find a web site that sells practical non-leather wallets and purses, as well as spare heads for dental hygine products...

20:42 Cooked 6 portions of food, half stew, half balti. Ingredients included huge amounts of curly kale & spinach. This is the ultimate chow down!

20:55 Listened to MuggleCast's 150th episode, including an enjoyable rundown of their best moments. I've really come to look forward to this show.

20:58 Just saw the trailer for More4's Stanley Kubrick season - a 1 take walk around the making of The Shining. Really brilliant compelling stuff.

22:27 Watched the House season finale ...wow I cried so much I think I'm dehydrated. Really glad I was still wearing an apron or I'd be soaked!

22:33 Amazed to find out that Teardrop by Massive Attack has actual meaningful English language lyrics! Funny what you learn with the subtitles on

23:56 Insomnia for the lose :(

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Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-03T04:04:38Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

16:26 Should I worry that my peripheral vision just decided that a white van edging around the corner was a gold dalek?

16:33 The machine gun brigade are back outside the court. I'm pleased they're getting rained on. Hope their automatic weapons rust...

16:36 Maybe the court is expecting daleks as well, that's not going to help of course, puny Earth weapons at best they'd take out the eye stalk...

19:10 @the_magician I'm learning to pluck melody, the book to do that starts you off by strumming with your thumb, then a finger then combinations

19:39 Watching the deep water scalvage episode of Scrapheap Challenge. Really good episode. In fact it's been a consistently good series this year

19:40 I really shouldn't have painful restless leg this early in the evening :/

20:59 Just had a revitalising soak in the bath while listening to Escape Pod episode 41, Ambient Sleaze, a sci-fi justification for Jerry Springer

23:13 Dear upstairs neighbours, now would be a good time to turn your TV down or off. Seriously.

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Doctor Aaargh

2008-07-02T21:52:04Z

Here's some speculation about this year's Doctor Who season finale:

First off, PLEASE do not reply with spoilers for the finale, please don't tell me if my speculation is right or wrong. If you actually know what's going to happen, please stay out of the comments. I want to be spoiler-free but I just can't help myself talking about what I think is going to happen...

OK so the Doctor started regenerating at the end of The Stolen Earth. A complete shock as there'd been no rumours of this and DT has been seen filming goodbye scenes with the companions for this story as well as filming as the Doctor since this episode went in the can, and we've been told that there's only specials next year simply because DT is doing Hamlet when filming would be happening. Now all of this could be an elaborate ruse of course -- I fully believe DT would be up for faking a few scenes for the press in order to keep this secret.

So what happens next?

WELL, hopefully it's a REAL regeneration resulting in a new actor playing the 11th Doctor because 1, a real surprise regeneration would be utterly awesome and 2, having the regeneration effect as a cliffhanger and ending it with anything other than an actual regeneration would be an unforgivable cop out, worse than the big red reset button cop out at the end of last series!

I think the key is Dalek Caan's prophetic rantings - 'The threefold man approaches, the doctor is coming'.

Perhaps this story involves the 11th Doctor working with two other previous incarnations of the Doctor in order to defeat the ultimate Dalek force. So we have the 11th Doctor, the 10th Doctor who then gets a chance to say a real goodbye to the companions and the audience, and one other previous Doctor, hopefully Eccleston, McGann or McCoy. That would be fantastic!

What I DON'T want to see is something like the following: There's something on Dalek Caan's back, the story ends with this being removed, resetting the events of the story so Davros never came out of the time-locked time war. If they do this though, at least do it with the real 11th Doctor going back to the 10th so we get a preview of the new Doctor before the specials, like we've had a preview of a future companion this season.

I also really do NOT want to see David Tennant regenerate into David Tennant -- don't waste regenerations or dilute the concept or the power of regeneration scenes. However, the very conspicuous view of the hand in a jar during the episode makes me think that something annoying is going to happen involving that (or maybe it'll be the way they break the rules and summon the 10th Doctor out of the time stream to trigger the multi-doctor story I'm hoping for).

I'm also speculating about who is the 'most loyal companion' who will die forever (or whatever the quote was). The obvious answer is Jack, who waited a century for the Doctor to return and can actually die forever (and did so for a century in the Torchwood season finale). That would be far too obvious an answer though. If it was Jack I could see a repeat of Vortex Rose but with Jack going as crazy as Caan by looking into the heart of the Tardis and being in eternal agony (this doesn't work with Torchwood season three of course).

There's clearly a lot of other stuff going on, like who saves SJS and the Torchwood crew, what's the Osterguffin Key, what's Davros actually doing with the 27 planets, when will the Dalek Supreme turn on Davros like in every Davros story ever, what's the deal with all the stuff about Donna being something new, is there any significance to mentioning 'the dark lord returns', and how am I going to wait until Saturday?

I really 'can't' wait!

Yesterday: A Tweet By Tweet Guide

2008-07-02T04:08:21Z

Yesterday I posted the following tweets...

07:48 There's two engineers replacing the left hand belt on one of the broadmarsh escalators. It's impressive how long the belt is laid out.

12:59 Managed to catapult an olive at my top leaving a conspicuous oily mark :/

15:45 Have been let out 45 minutes early because it's the department head's birthday and 26 degrees outside. Am not complaining!

16:13 It's too hot but I'm cooling down with fresh strawberries and mango-berry swirl ice cream. Mmmm nom nom nom!

16:24 s/ice cream/sorbet/ (sorbet is nicer than ice cream but my brain seems to only have one name for sweet frozen dessert)

16:35 Now having a little practice with the autoharp, left handed like I decided I'm going to learn to play it from now on.

16:40 Left handed playing is definitely easier. Fingering is less awkward and I can even strum without using fingerpicks!

18:01 RIP Don Davis who played General Hammond, Stargate SG-1 father figure. Died 29th of June, aged 65. Sad news.

18:05 Owwww delayed sore fingers reaction to strumming all evening! Maybe fingerpicks do have their uses...

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