Buys
Amazon put up the second season of Babylon 5 and 20$ as they had the first, so I snatched it. And I picked up the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism from a graduating university student, proving once again that my interests are fairly wide-ranging.
"Accomplishments"
It's a Doctor Who kind of week... First I flipped Timelash, a 6th Doctor story universally considered among the very worst the series has ever produced, and yeah, it was pretty bad. Though not necessarily BORING-bad. Not quite bad enough to like though. Almost camp. Good make-up effects though. Anyway, I particularly appreciate the included documentary on just what went wrong. Hint: It wasn't just John Nathan-Turner, but he helped!
A much bigger deal is my finishing About Time 6, the last volume of Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles' comprehensive Doctor Who guide, this one going through Doctors 6, 7 and 8 (well, the TV movie). I love About Time despite the frequent snark and it's the main reason I haven't read much of anything in a number of weeks. These things are BIG. And now I see they're going to double the size of Volume 3, since the Pertwee era book was the first published and they hadn't yet gone insane. Good chance I'll buy it given there are new essays in it. Sigh. In the meantime, I get to read some fiction!
My Doctor Who material ends with a handful of new cards for the Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG. Most of the work on my fictitious game this week was bookkeeping (fixing errors, assigning rarities, figuring starter deck issues).
Our role-playing one-off of the week was a Steampunk story set in World War I as TL5+1 was giving way to TL6 (to use GURPS terminology). My players really came into their own this week in this one. The usual bog-standard violence gave way to great ideas, planning and full immersion into the flavor of the setting. Crazy inventions, romance and intelligent apes... this one had it all.
And finally: You will believe a grown man can watch an entire season of Veronica Mars in two days! I'd heard good things on the blogosphere and had the opportunity to try the first season for 20$, but really no idea if I would like it enough to purchase the remaining seasons. By all rights, I shouldn't have liked the show: beautiful twentysomethings with glossy lips playing teenagers and voice-over narration like every "girl's series" since Sex and the City? Veronica Mars registers instead as a knowing spoof of 90210-type shows, making the rich kids out to be corrupted by all the glitz and money. It's closer to Murder One than it is to The O.C. (though like the latter, I have trouble differentiating the pretty boys from one another), and Kristin Bell is quite endearing in the starring role. The scripts are witty and savvy and have a lot of geek cred. Result: Amazon, speed those other seasons to me NOW!
Someone Else's Post of the Week
More than one post on the blogosphere this week centered on the end of Dave's Long Box, the blog without which this patch of Internet real estate would not exist. Dave's was the first comics blog I read and I think it shows. Oh, it's been on the wane for months, as Dave started working on other projects more and more, no evidence of it more damning than his au revoir being posted on the 16th and no reaction of note being posted until the 21st. My favorite of these is from Dave's nemesis himself: Chris Sims. So it's Someone Else's Post of the Week!
Amazon put up the second season of Babylon 5 and 20$ as they had the first, so I snatched it. And I picked up the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism from a graduating university student, proving once again that my interests are fairly wide-ranging.
"Accomplishments"
It's a Doctor Who kind of week... First I flipped Timelash, a 6th Doctor story universally considered among the very worst the series has ever produced, and yeah, it was pretty bad. Though not necessarily BORING-bad. Not quite bad enough to like though. Almost camp. Good make-up effects though. Anyway, I particularly appreciate the included documentary on just what went wrong. Hint: It wasn't just John Nathan-Turner, but he helped!
A much bigger deal is my finishing About Time 6, the last volume of Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles' comprehensive Doctor Who guide, this one going through Doctors 6, 7 and 8 (well, the TV movie). I love About Time despite the frequent snark and it's the main reason I haven't read much of anything in a number of weeks. These things are BIG. And now I see they're going to double the size of Volume 3, since the Pertwee era book was the first published and they hadn't yet gone insane. Good chance I'll buy it given there are new essays in it. Sigh. In the meantime, I get to read some fiction!My Doctor Who material ends with a handful of new cards for the Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG. Most of the work on my fictitious game this week was bookkeeping (fixing errors, assigning rarities, figuring starter deck issues).
Our role-playing one-off of the week was a Steampunk story set in World War I as TL5+1 was giving way to TL6 (to use GURPS terminology). My players really came into their own this week in this one. The usual bog-standard violence gave way to great ideas, planning and full immersion into the flavor of the setting. Crazy inventions, romance and intelligent apes... this one had it all.
And finally: You will believe a grown man can watch an entire season of Veronica Mars in two days! I'd heard good things on the blogosphere and had the opportunity to try the first season for 20$, but really no idea if I would like it enough to purchase the remaining seasons. By all rights, I shouldn't have liked the show: beautiful twentysomethings with glossy lips playing teenagers and voice-over narration like every "girl's series" since Sex and the City? Veronica Mars registers instead as a knowing spoof of 90210-type shows, making the rich kids out to be corrupted by all the glitz and money. It's closer to Murder One than it is to The O.C. (though like the latter, I have trouble differentiating the pretty boys from one another), and Kristin Bell is quite endearing in the starring role. The scripts are witty and savvy and have a lot of geek cred. Result: Amazon, speed those other seasons to me NOW!Someone Else's Post of the Week
More than one post on the blogosphere this week centered on the end of Dave's Long Box, the blog without which this patch of Internet real estate would not exist. Dave's was the first comics blog I read and I think it shows. Oh, it's been on the wane for months, as Dave started working on other projects more and more, no evidence of it more damning than his au revoir being posted on the 16th and no reaction of note being posted until the 21st. My favorite of these is from Dave's nemesis himself: Chris Sims. So it's Someone Else's Post of the Week!
Comments
My roommates' band had one of their songs in an episode. I'm not sure which one. I should ask them sometime.