Good Thing! The new series of QI starts tonight. YAY! Also, more Misfits.

Bad Thing! These American anti-gay-marriage ads are insane. Edit: But good thing! This parody response is wonderful, and has George Takei.

Good Thing! Anton Vowl's Christmas cards for Daily Mail readers are fabulous.

Bad Thing! People think they have the right to know what BBC employees earn. Problem is - apart from privacy concerns and all that - unless they know what other people in the media industry earn, the raw figures for the BBC tell them nothing. It's just another excuse for the Mail to have a go at the BBC. When I worked at the Beeb, you actually earned slightly less than the competitors because of the benefits of working there (job security, status, looks good on CV) and because it's publicly funded, but it would obviously still look like a lot to someone on minimum wage.

Good Thing! That kid who peed on a war memorial got community service. Seems to have had a sensible judge who wasn't going to imprison him just to "send a message".

Also, it's sunny. Hurray!

*shuffles surreptitiously into view pretending she's been here all along*

Well, it's been an exciting few days, I have to say. I mean, I have a new blender and juicer (courtesy of dermfitz) and a new iron (courtesy of Argos - my old one died.) What could be more amazing than that?! I also have a new shaver with six different heads, one of which is apparently an eyebrow shaper. I'm slightly scared of it. Tonight I plan to make a smoothie, iron some clothes for tomorrow and trim my eyebrows into funny shapes. Any good smoothie recipes that don't involve banana?

Monday night I went to see Rachel Stamp at King Tuts. They're a glam rock-ish band from the late 90s - I saw them loads of times then because they were my best friend's favourite band, and they are kind of fab. Especially the drummer. They were supported by Shatterhand, who were pretty good too - I think they'd be really fun to play on Guitar Hero, for some reason! They remind me of the Dropkick Murphys a bit, or Green Day.



Rachel Stamp. Note awesome drummer.

The news is all crap, isn't it? Bank charges, racism, stupid internet laws proposed, more Iraq whitewashes, Borders probably closing down. And we seem likely to drown in Glasgow sooner or later - my jeans have only just dried out from walking to work earlier.

Oh, hey, TV - Misfits is GREAT, isn't it? And Paradox was a bit crap.

Lookit! An entry from me! And all it takes is a new Doctor Who.

( Spoilery waffling )

Overall, as I said on Twitter, 7/10 from me, distributed unequally throughout.

Just another "I Aten't Dead" note. F1 was great today, what what? Go Jenson! But mostly, go Kubica, and whee, things on fire!

Quick run-through of opinions: Jan Moir and the Daily Mail are complete expletives; Charlie Brooker is right about everything; I support the Post Office workers' right to strike until I have to fight with HDN to get my Amazon parcels; Nick Griffin being on Question Time is a good thing; Twitter is great and Carter-Ruck are...not.

At the moment I am reading: The Democratic Genre - Fan Fiction In A Literary Context, which is great, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, also great. Hurrah!

And CIF's religion section has an article about unicorns. Hee.

Ooh, hey, it turns out it was my company who designed the new Doctor Who logo. Should have realised that before, actually, but the office monkeys have less than nothing to do with the creative media types, especially us in Glasgow.

I like the logo (and I said so before I found out it was my company, too). Shiny and kinda retro - the font is a bit reminiscent of the very first logo. With added lensflare, because lensflare is now compulsory. I'm assuming they'll use the two parts separately, as the title card and the logo, and I like the video version. Lots of people getting upset about it, as usual, because it's Doctor Who and you Can't Change Things. Except everything ever, all the time, because that's the whole point of the show. (Also, people are saying that the new logo is a spoiler. WTF, people?)

( Logo: )

Filming photos for the 2010 series are interesting. Cautious optimism coming from here.

Yeah, so this updating regularly thing isn't going great. Sorry. Hello!

Things:

• Letterman talking about his blackmailer was pretty funny. And I admire him for it. And I really, really wish people would stop going on about his "affairs" and his "cheating" - have they never heard of open relationships or polyamory? I'm not saying either of these things apply to his relationship with his now-wife, but I'm not assuming they don't, either.
  
  
• Interesting how media opinions on the Polanski thing have changed in the last few days. Looks like quite a lot of the industry mouthed off before reading about the facts, or were very out of sync with public opinion, or both. Wonder how many people regret signing that petition now. (IMO, if anyone cares: He was convicted of a crime and fled before sentencing. He should be extradited, and if he thinks there was judicial misconduct, he can ask for a mistrial or appeal, like anyone else. I wouldn't if I were him, mind you, because I doubt he'd get off with a "sex with a minor" charge these days - it was rape, pure and simple. And now he also has to do his time for fleeing.) Good list here of celebrities supporting the extradition. (And jeez, if Kevin Smith is more sensitive to gender and rape issues than you, take a look at yourself. Much as I love him.)
  
  
• Less than 24 hours between the first girl-dies-after-cancer-jab story and the information that she actually died of a huge tumour in her chest that could have killed her any time, and yet people are still claiming the vaccine's unsafe, it's a cover-up, it would be irresponsible to have your daughter vaccinated without more testing, and so on. Argh. Hoping Ben Goldacre gets round to ranting about it soon.
  
  
• New TV season! Derren Brown's been great. I quite enjoyed the first three new Heroes, though (judging by the number of downloads and the number of pages of TWOP forum comments) the viewership has plummeted. Although it helps that one of the new characters reminds me of a younger Anthony Stewart Head. First Dollhouse ep was very good (as was Epitaph One). I quite enjoyed the first Flashforward, too, and am about to watch the second - I've read the book, so I'm in that weird place of knowing what happens in some storylines, *until they change it*. All a bit Schrodinger. And I've got two Big Bang Theory eps to watch, too, yay.
  
  
• Also: Unspeak wonders how to spell I'ma/Imma/Ima. Comes to the same conclusion as I have at work, and is therefore Right. Rats playing miniature musical instruments. May be my new wallpaper. Almost Cththuloid balloon creatures. Escher bunk beds. (Want!) Onomastikon - names from many countries and time periods. RP resource, but fascinating. Best porn I've seen in ages - Beautiful Agony; people film themselves from the neck up while orgasming. (Probably NSFW. Especially if you have speakers.) Salon talks about Polanski. A companion project to FML, My Life Is Average. Strangely heartwarming. Gay teens in Oklahoma. Straightforwardly heart-warming. Carl Sagan talks about the pale blue dot. Awesome.
  
  
• And worthy of a line of its own, fjm's book Diana Wynne Jones: The Fantastic Tradition and Children's Literature is out in paperback. I've had the hardback on my wishlist since it came out four years ago, but could never quite justify the £60. £20? Hell yes.

Thanks to all those I've nicked these links off, over the last week or so!

Ahh, procrastination. I'm sure I used to have a procrastination icon, but I can't find it. I have Things to do, so I'm playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook and posting here. Idiotically, it's not even dull or annoying things I should be doing, it's things I want to do, but I'm procrastinating anyway. So, a list:

• Write a 1,500 word Nine/Donna story for sudge. I actually have a triptych in mind for this, in different styles, but we'll see.
  
  
• Set up my shiny new PS3 that arrived today and have a go at Guitar Hero 5. All Along The Watchtower!
  
  
• Finish off the Eisenhorn book that I really need to get back to laerad.
  
  
• Do some ironing, I suppose, before my airer actually collapses under the weight of the things on it.

That's not unreasonable, I don't think. Writing first, or I'll never do it.

I'm listening to the Magnetic Fields, who I should obviously have started listening to at least ten years ago. Making up for lost time now.

Some linkage:

Great video about the acceleration of technological change, via andrewducker.

The guy behind the Alan Turing petition writes about his phone call from Gordon Brown.

miss_s_b has been interviewing Nick Clegg, in a Doctor Who t-shirt. Jennie, not Nick.

Salon interviews Dennis Baron about how the internet is NOT breaking our brains, any more than the ability to write made us forget how to learn things by heart, as Plato worried about.

And I'm not sure if I need a Rubix-esque dodecahedron with pentagonal faces, but I really want one. Not that I ever mastered the original Rubix cube, so...

There seems to have been a lot of online bitching about the Derren Brown lottery Event, but I thought it was pretty cool. Lots of people sound massively annoyed that he didn't actually tell us how he "predicted" the lottery numbers, and are whining that it was obviously just camera trickery and blah-de-blah, but I think that's missing the point. The Friday night show was entertaining even if most of it was nonsense designed to misdirect (no, the wisdom of crowds doesn't work like that; no, those experiments on willpower's effect on randomness by the PEAR group were pretty nonsensical too.) Also there was a cute mouse, so yay. And just because something could have been done by camera trickery doesn't mean it was. I'm not saying it wasn't, but either we'll never know, or it's all building up to something later on in The Events.

(Hmm, actually, this web page is quite convincing that it was done with split screen. Doesn't matter. Moving on.)

There are posts from someone in the studio audience and one of the 24-strong "crowd" doing the prediction which are pretty interesting. But I love the whole huge conspiracy feel of it all, with what seems like most of the internet trying to explain or predict or discredit the trick. Brown managed the important thing - it was definitely An Event.

My prediction? His ratings will stay good, if only to see how he fixes us to our sofas this week.

The sky was doing cool things tonight:



What's happening?

Richard Curtis is writing a Doctor Who episode.

Scott Lynch smacks down a batshit crazy emailer. (I'm more likely to buy his books now.)

Derren Brown is predicting the lottery numbers tomorrow night, and then back for more shows starting on Friday. Hurray!

And the recession is officially over. So presumably if you're still skint, it's now your own fault. Or something.

I was watching Lost Land Of The Volcano with my dad tonight. I learned many things: you can get HUGE stick insects; teeny parrots are cute; nature tends to bite. Also that I still have a crush on Springwatch's Gordon Buchanan, who is on Twitter. I can has stalkericity!

Currently reading: We-Think by Charles Leadbetter. Thumbs up so far.

Sitting watching '80s music videos on YouTube. Look! Angry Anderson with footage of Scott & Charlene's wedding!



Things that have amused me today: a trade union newsletter which said "From my union: "If every Member recruits one more this year then we can DOUBLE our Membership!" It's our maths skills that have got us where we are today, you know. (Also our Capitalisation skills.)

And the people on Countryfile who are actually, actually talking about hugging trees. Measuring their trunks, apparently - a "standard British hug" is about 1.5m. So now you know.

Oh my GOD, I just found a fan-made video to the B-side of Especially For You. By Kylie & Jason. Look! And clips of Smash Hits Poll Winners Parties...no, no. Countryfile.

*phone rings*

Me: Hello!

Dad: Hi, how are you doing? Are you at work?

Me: No, I'm not working today.

Dad: But I called your house and you weren't in! The phone rang out!

Me: I do leave the house occasionally for things other than work, you know.

I mean, I know I don't do all that much, but REALLY. Anyway, today I did many things, and took many photos, and also discovered that the Gaiman photos I thought I'd lost were just...on a different bit of my phone's memory or something, and have inexplicably reappeared. I'm not complaining, just bemused. So, photos of Collectormania this afternoon, and the Book Festival ten days ago and tonight.

( Neil Gaiman )

( Collectormania: Amber Benson, Peter Davison, Kai Owen )

( Douglas Coupland )

( What's a photo post without a couple of randoms? )

Generation A actually sounds like a return to form for Coupland, and I must find the JPod TV series, although he didn't sound too keen on it. And I picked up the new Best Of Tom Leonard poetry compendium - I've been meaning to get some of his poetry for ages.

As a prize for getting this far, two video links people showed me on their snazzy iPhones today: Literal Video for Birdhouse In Your Soul, and a fan-made "trailer" for a Green Lantern movie with Nathan Fillion.

There seems to be a series of three hour-long programmes about Doctor Who on TV just now - the first one was last week and is on the iPlayer for a few more hours (or a few more weeks if you download it) and the second one was transmitted last night. So will also be on the iPlayer. I didn't know about them, so I'm guessing some of you didn't... First one is The Doctor, second is The Companions, and last one is The Enemies, I think.

Today I have put a bunch of books on to my new phone. The speed of phone advancements amazes me. If I had access to a recharger, I could amuse myself off my mobile for about a month without internet access (and indefinitely with it.) I've got dozens of books, hundreds of music tracks, a bunch of games, a camera with editing suite...nuts. And the only down side is that my phone crashes occasionally, which phones never used to do.

The ebook reader I use is mobipocket, and I download free books (free books!) from Feedbooks, which I recommend with a million gold stars. Well, if you like classics, technology and SF/fantasy. And politics. I've got Bertrand Russell, Thoureau, Mills, lots of Nietzsche. Essays are great to read on the underground.

Argh. Right, in September, I'm going to post at least every other day. AND reply to comments. Honest.

In August, I have been mostly watching Battlestar Galactica. I've finished it now, and it is fantastic, obviously. So the next thing to do (after reading the TWOP recaps) is to find fanfic. And...I can't. I can hardly find any, and all of it is crap (except one crossover with Jasper Fforde's Bookworld, which was great, if odd.) Anyone got any idea where to look for good Battlestar fic? I was so sure it was a breeding ground for amazing, amazing stuff.

Just found other the other day that Collectormania is on at the weekend - I thought it was usually in November, but that might have been Memorabilia, which I've just realised was different. Anyway, I'm heading along on Sunday morning-ish, to see Amber Benson and Kai Owen, before I have to go off to see China Mieville and Douglas Coupland. Good days.

And I've been avoiding the games on Facebook for about a year, but someone got me sucked into Vampire Wars yesterday (pun intended) and now I can't leave it alone. I'm sure it'll wear off soon enough.

I don't seem to have been around much this month - no particular reason, apart from a lack of tuits. I've been... I've been mostly watching Battlestar Galactica, actually, and reading the recaps and the forums on Television Without Pity. Jacob's recaps are an integral part of the viewing experience for me now, and the episode threads on the forums are only slightly less essential. And considering the threads are an average of 30 pages long, yeah, that's a lot of reading. I finished the first half of the fourth season last night, so only have the last ten eps to go. (I've been spoiled on the final Cylon, though - bloody Twitter.) Seriously fantastic programme.

What else? I've been to see two (TWO!) Neil Gaiman talks this week, and met him after the second one. w00t! Wednesday was Neil on his own, reading from the Graveyard Book and taking questions, then reading Blueberry Girl. Thursday was Denise Mina chairing a conversation between Gaiman and Ian Rankin, which, awesome. They've all done novel-writing and comic-writing, so there was a lot of talk about different mediums and how storytelling works in them, etc. Gaiman (I think) said that comics are a medium that gets confused with a genre, which is true enough. Rankin has just written a Constantine comic, and was talking about how much hard work comics are, heheh. Also there was a signer-for-the-deaf, so they spent half the discussion dropping in phrases like "balls-to-the-wall" and pausing to see how she signed them - mean, but very funny!

I was with a friend from work, and we decided to skip the enormous signing queue on Wednesday, and wait on Thursday night instead. We ended up almost at the end of the queue (sigh) but it was shorter than Wednesday's 3.5-hour effort, and we got chatting to the lady on her own standing behind us, and geeked out about Gaiman, Doctor Who, Buffy, and many other things for the hour or so we queued. And it turned out that she used to be a subtitler too, in Newcastle, one of our satellite offices. That's some freaky coincidence there, considering there's only a couple of hundred subtitlers in the UK, probably. (Also we only discovered this because she told us something I'd just read on a Twitter search for @neilhimself, and I realised she was that tweeter, and we read each other's profiles. Yay for internet phones.)

So yeah, Ian Rankin is lovely, and so's Neil, of course, and we chatted and got things signed and then trundled back home to Glasgow. I've still got Mieville and Coupland and the Richards Dawkins and Holloway to see. Horrifically, I managed to lose my photos from the signing, because it was the first time I'd connected my new phone to the PC and I hadn't installed the software and it all went nuts. Gutted. I'd twitpicced one of them, though, and I think our new friend is going to send me some others. They pretty much looked like this, though, with me instead of a random person...

via andrewducker

I loved the song, too, so I went and bought the album. Doctor Who indie music, how can it be wrong?

Meep, my computer at home is broken. Something of a crisis. I think it's probably fixable, so I'm currently trying to restrain myself from buying a laptop. I can get into it in safe mode, but system restore doesn't work, and I don't really know what diagnostic things to try and do (and I'm worried about making it worse). It's not starting up, is the problem, and I *think* it's because I closed it down when it was in the middle of starting up the other day, and it's taken offence.

Anyway. I've got my Eee, but it's better for checking stuff briefly than hanging out on t'internet for six hours, as my normal evening goes. Oh, and I'm in the middle of transferring my phone number to my new sim card, so that might disappear too. Basically I'm going to vanish off the face of the earth, is what I'm saying. I'm on leave for a week or ten days from tomorrow (book festival yay!) so won't even have the computers at work to play with.

Last night, thanks to no computer, I read one and a half of Scalzi's Old Man's War books. I am enjoying them a lot, but finding them quite...shallow, somehow. I'm not getting much sense of difference from the different types of people/alien/clones etc, or many consequences from the lives they lead.

Not dead, just...not on LJ, for some reason. Read about a week's worth last night, but I probably skimmed some important things.

Two awesome videos to embed, although I have a vague feeling it wasn't working last time I tried to crosspost embedded video from Dreamwidth. We'll see.

This will clearly be the best movie of next year: ( Hot Tub Time Machine )

And I love this song, from Malcolm Ross and the Low Miffs: ( The Man Who Took On Love (And Won) )

Malcolm Ross is very 80s Glasgow indie - Josef K, Orange Juice, Aztec Camera - and the Low Miffs add a mildly Divine Comedy-esque vocal. Makes it more glam and dramatic than a lot of the 80s jangle pop stuff. Other things I've been listening to lately: Lord Cut-Glass, who is one of the ex-Delgados but I like so much better than I ever liked them. And various stuff on Spotify, which I've now started paying for. Forbidden Broadway! Mull Historical Society! Wannadies! Sinatra! Just whatever comes to mind, really.

I have other links, I'll get to them later.

I finally found a phone I wanted, so I went out this afternoon and bought a Nokia N86. I had been looking at iPhones and things, but my two main priorities were really camera and music player, and the camera on the iPhone is crap and I suspect the music player makes you use iTunes. Which wouldn't be terrible, but anyway. The N86 is much better built than the N97, gets better reviews mostly, and is very pretty. And has an 8mp camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, and the normal Nokia music player, which is fine, with various additions that are even better, like being able to transmit your music through any fm receiver, and being able to make playlists on the phone. And I've got loads of minutes and texts and unlimited data, all for less than I'm on just now. Essentially I'm happier staying with Nokia than moving; all but one of my phones have been Nokias, and they just work, usually.

Unfortunately I can't use the phone yet because of complicated things involving SIMs and PACs and pay-as-you-go SIMs and transferring numbers all over the place. (Because I wanted to move from a Carphone Warehouse o2 contract to one directly with o2, but keep my number, and this isn't directly possible, which I knew. So I have to move my number to a PAYG sim, then move it again to the new phone.)

Anyway. Exciting shiny things in about three weeks, probably. Just hope the disintegrating screen on my N95 can keep going that long. (Although I have a couple of other old phones lying around, in case it doesn't.)

Apparently it's Doctor Who Day! Happy days! New outfit, companion's name, companion's outfit, casting spoilers, &co.

( New outfit! )

( Companion! )

( Other stuff - casting, recurring character and other minor spoilers! Enter with care! )

Articles and pictures, both with the minor spoilers, from the Daily Mail and the Sun.

(Apparently somebody did something impressive 40 years ago today, and also there's some sports thing on. Meh.)

I am very, very bored. The only thing that's amused me today is this, via dave_t_lurker:



Cutest. Picture. Ever. There are more of them here.

(Even at that, the site's called "Its Animals", which makes me despair again.)