Happy First Contact Day!!

It is First Contact Day! The 50^th Pre-Anniversary of First Contact day! Yep, 50 years from now, the T’Plana Hath will be heading into Earth orbit after picking up a warp signature, just hours from landing in Montana. Zefram Cochrane will offer his hand to the strange visitor and then introduce them to the music of Roy Orbison…

We’ll be lucky to avoid them wiping us out for the good of the galaxy. I have a theory the Xindi attack was in fact entirely motivated by Zefram Cochrane trying to pass his CD’s to other races.

Anyway, I digress from the point I was vaguely considering making. Well, less of a point and more of a list! Yes, to commemorate this momentous pre-anniversary, I am listing my top 5 Vulcan moments in Trek! These are my personal top 5 moments, other opinions are available.

5. Sarek

I am a dude who got into Star Trek with The Next Generation. By the time Sarek rolled around I was already gaining some familiarity with the character and Vulcans, having got through the movies, though had yet to realise the full backstory from Journey to Babel. This episode always stuck out for me as particularly brilliant though. I think this was the first time I really understood that Vulcans do have emotions, they just control them. The concept of a Vulcan who is losing that control is brilliant. It’s almost horrifying to watch, the character has such gravity and dignity and it’s gradually crumbling. The final solution, for Picard to meld with him to give him emotional strength is also marvellous as it leads to the scene of Picard struggling with all of Sarek’s 200 years of repressed emotion. Which give Patrick Stewart the chance to let loose, which is awesome to see and underscores how much control a Vulcan must have to exert over a lifetime, which makes Sarek and Spock and all the Vulcans more impressive for managing it.

4. Kir’Shara

Ah Enterprise. For three series I persisted and struggled with you. Then season 4 arrived and wow, you got seriously awesome!

I’d never been too keen on Enterprise’s portrayal of Vulcans as a race. I liked Soval and T’Pol just fine, I just wasn’t keen on the idea of Vulcan as an overbearing, disapproving group holding us back from exploring space. I liked even less the idea that they were engaged in ongoing hostilities with the Andorians. I didn’t mind the hostilities as much as the way the Vulcan’s were dicks about it. They were, they were being dicks.

So this episode went a long way to redress that. In fact it was pretty momentous in terms of changing the status quo with Vulcan, as we pretty much have them go through a big old shift in philosophy. Yes, they’ve retained the basic idea of emotional control and logic, but from here they have to re-assess a lot of what they think they know about Surak’s teachings. As with so much of Enterprise’s fourth season, I would loved to have seen where this led in future years, but of course, that’s not possible now. Also, I really enjoy Robert Foxworth, I loved seeing him as a Vulcan/Romulan agent!

3. Innocence

I loved the character of Tuvok. I thought he was brilliant and tragically underused on Voyager. And when he was used, I felt they often failed to make good use of him. There seemed to be a lot to do with Tuvok losing emotional control through injury or some other thing or being injured.

But this episode Tuvok just got to be a Vulcan. Trapped on a planet alone apart from three scared children and a monster! Brilliant! Though I quite like the twist at the end that the children are actually really old people, the highlights for me are Tuvok’s interactions. He talks about his children and how Vulcan’s raise their young and his attempts to teach the 3 ‘kids’ Vulcan techniques to control their fears are all really brilliant.

2. Journey to Babel

I adore this episode! From the opening scene, when the Vulcan ambassador openly disses Spock and then Kirk offers Spock the chance to beam down to visit his parents and there’s the slightly awkward pause before Spock explains the Vulcan ambassador  and his wife ARE his parents, you know this is going to be good. What often happens in Trek is when an actor comes in to play a Vulcan, that stoicism coupled with that slight air of superior feeling that Vulcan’s seem to have means they come across as more Romulan than Vulcan. But Sarek comes across as perfect Vulcan while still having this air of disapproval and being a complete hard ass, but doesn’t end up feeling more like a sneering Romulan. Of course, Spock totally ups his game on the no emotion stakes by flatly refusing to donate blood for his father’s life saving operation as he needs to be in command of the ship. Throw in poor Amanda trapped in between the two most important people in her life for years of this conflict and now faced with losing one due to the others refusal to act… it’s marvellous. And leads to the payoff at the end, when in the face of Amanda’s emotional outburst, Spock asks why Sarek married her, the answer being, ‘it seemed logical’! You… you probably had to be there.

1.Amok Time

My number one moment with the Vulcans! The pon farr thing is kind of ridiculous if you think about it, but it’s one of the big things now in Star Trek lore, Vulcan’s absolutely have to mate every seven years… OR THEY DIE!!!
There’s a lot of big moments in this episode, our first real glimpse of Vulcan, our first encounter with other Vulcans and a pretty awesome fight and a crazy crazy Spock. It establishes that for a race steeped in logic, the Vulcans have a penchant for needless ceremony and ritual. It also seems odd that when everyone thinks Spock has killed Kirk in ritual combat, everyone is pretty ok about it. That seemed odd, admittedly 20 minutes of outcry would be rendered pointless at the final reveal, which is still very effective for Spock’s emotional slip when he sees his friend is ok. It’s one of those episodes where if you look deeply at it there’s a bunch of stuff that is actually stupid. But it doesn’t matter because it all works and you’re swept into this story where every moment is just brilliant. Who cares that needless gongs are necessary for a people steeped in logic, that Spock’s mother didn’t bother coming to his wedding/fight, that the deadly mating urge can also be cured by a punch up, altogether these things are brilliant because this episode is just brilliant. See, I can't even make that coherent an argument for why this episode ranks number 1 in my list of 5 great Vulcan episodes, it’s just so brilliant I am reduced to babbling and gushing about how much I love it.

I’m going to go watch it again this weekend. Actually, I think I need to watch this episode every seven weeks…OR I MIGHT DIE!!

(But I’ll probably be ok if I can have a fight instead)

Star Trek Trailer Analysis

Yay, it’s Star Trek Trailer time! It’s always exciting to get these little teasers, the promise of exciting things to see in a few months.

Of course once the trailer is release, the internet is filled with people analysing it frame by frame, picking out each word and shot and speculating what it could mean. Myself, I like to be surprised, so I’m not overthinking this one. I’m just going to sit back and be pleasantly excited about a film I will most likely enjoy.

But this film… ok there’s a lot of rumour and speculation. And actually it’s kinda fun to read how people can take the same moment and declare it 100% without a doubt confirms that this will happen, while other people take the same moment and declare it confirms a different theory. As far as I can make out, there are 2 popular theories and rather than deriving conclusions from the trailer, people are using their theory to interpret the trailer. They seem to hinge upon who Benedict Cumberbatch is playing, on the assumption (which has been stated by producers to be true) that he’s a character we’ve seen in the Original Series before.

So with that in mind, I’m dreaming up my own outlandish theories and forcing the trailer to fit into them!

Theory 1: Benedict Cumberbatch is …HARRY MUDD!!

Hey, everyone is so excited about this mystery villain from Trek’s past, well Harry is a pretty well known one. Yes, it would on the surface appear to be a drastic re-imagining of Mudd’s character. But bear in mind this movie will be taking place a lot earlier in the Trek timeline, maybe before Harry discovered Bolian Snickers Pie?

My ridiculous justifications

Well, let’s say while trawling the spacelanes for old women he can beautify up with illegal drugs and pimp out (see Mudd’s Women) Harry stumbles upon some sort of weapon or power and in revenge for perceived slights when he’s been arrested in the past, Mudd decides to remake the Earth in his image…Mud! You see, this is obvious, as there’s the scene where the Enterprise makes it’s splashdown into…water!. To make mud, you need to mix dirt and water! So either  Mudd crashes the Enterprise into the sea to splash mud around, or has an underwater mudbase. Carol Marcus is the pretty young scientist who’s developed an amazing new wash powder that can be used against mud (and Mudd) while also having a romantic subplot with Kirk. The crew must travel to the alien world that is the source of Mudd’s new mud powers and then back to earth for the big splashdown showdown!

I think it’s pretty plausible! More plausible than my theory that Cumberbatch is playing Edith Keeler anyway…

Theory 2: The main villain is GOD!

It’s the return of one of classic Trek’s favourite theme! An awesome powerful being presents itself as a god until being taken down by good old human ingenuity.

Like the Thasian’s powered up Charlie X and Q gave Riker Q powers, some powerful race grabs Benedict Cumberbatch and powers him up, unleashing his rampaging powers upon humanity. As the Enterprise crew finds a way to defeat him, Kirk also has to give an impassioned speech to this powerful race about leaving humanity to find its own destiny. Or possibly the gift of amazing powers makes Cumberbatch’s character think he is God? Something like that.

It would be very classic Trek to do a story like this. I don’t know how well it would fit in the new re-imagined super realistic style Trek we’re getting these days. And to be honest, the advanced being/godlike powers thing works better in episodes and tends to fail dismally in movie treks.

Theory 3: Benedict Cumberbatch is Darth Sidious.

Wait, getting confused….

Theory 3: Benedict Cumberbatch plays…Flint!

Actually this could work out. Flint, if you don’t remember (or aren’t a massive nerd, but to be honest I doubt you’ll have got this far if not) was an immortal human who built himself a robot wife, but needed Kirk to teach the robot wife to love. Maybe in this timeline, Flint has been upset by something and is all up for vengeful rampage against humanity! Somehow Carol Marcus is drawn in, maybe Flint has been posing as her professor/mentor? Y’know, before the vengeful madness. Hopefully he’ll build an army of robot wives to devastate planets?!

Actually, it’s funny, but Flint actually could be a viable candidate, except he wasn’t that memorable a character from TOS and also wasn’t really a bad guy in the way that this movie seems to have one. But it’s an alternate universe and he could have been changed by events since the Kelvin was destroyed in some way so it’s not completely impossible. Just unlikely.

Theory 4: Benedict Cumberbatch is Kor! Or Koloth! Or Kang! Or Kruge!

Look, I just really want some Klingons! It’s been years since we’ve had any new Klingon wackiness! With their singing and their fighting and their drinking! I want to see warriors charging through Enterprise corridors with their bat’leths, I want to see Kirk go toe to toe with a smug arrogant Klingon captain who revels in the idea of a glorious battle. Yes, I know this isn’t happening, but if we all just close our eyes and wish really really hard…

Ha, did I just make you wish for Klingons?!

More fatherhood examples

Back to my search for a decent father example for nerds! I’m expanding my search beyond just sci-fi, I think I’ll incorporate fantasy a little bit. Just to give myself more options really…

Doctor Who. Ok, I never really thought this would yield much in the way of results. The Doctor? Well, he must be a father as he has a granddaughter (unless you subscribe to the Looms idea from Lungbarrow, which never really seemed right to me) but obviously we never see him parenting. We do see him abandon his granddaughter on an alien (to her) world that’s just been devastated by a Dalek occupation. Pretty harsh. Not many other fathers to choose from after that. Until Brian Williams! Ok, he’s pretty good! Changes lightbulbs, waters the plants and offers useful advice for items to keep on your person or add to the Christmas list. Brilliant! That’s two good dads I have found!

Feeling pretty inspired by a second success so soon, I return to my quest with renewed vigor. In fact, I’m a little overconfident now, cocky even.

So it’s a logical progression from Doctor Who, to look at Torchwood. Jack is a father while working for Torchwood, which has necessitated special provision for his daughter to have name changes and remain hidden. And at the end of Children of Earth… oh. But then there’s Rhys! Good old Rhys! He’s ok? Well, I can’t find anything obviously bad in his parenting, I’d have more issues with Gwen and the staggering amount of guns she keeps around the house.

Ok, well Torchwood was always going to be a long shot, with its adult themes and action packed episodes. What about finding something that features a lot more characters and a lot more detail? Something that really delves into the minutiae of the lives of the races within it’s world? Surely in something like that, we’d find more room to detail family life and fathering? Yes, I mean Lord of the Rings!

Why would I choose this mighty epic for my search? A mix of the  overconfidence I mentioned and the staggering amount of material available from Tolkien detailing his world and it’s inhabitants. So, characters who are fathers…

Elrond. Well, I guess he’s pretty ok. His main fathering role tends to be grimly disapproving of his daughters choice in men, then taking the man she loves and encouraging him to go off into a massive war. Over-protective maybe, but a sight better than Denethor, the guy who openly favours one son and tried to set the other on fire. Otherwise, there’s Bilbo’s fatherly relationship with Frodo, that culminates in him handing Frodo the most dangerous bit of jewellery you could get, along with the responsibility to take it to Mordor and chuck it in a volcano. While being pursued by that Gollum fellow he once robbed.

Actually, mentioning Denethor reminds me of John Noble, so Fringe. Walter! Yeah, um, that… that’s quite a mess right there. The guy replaces his dead son with an alternate reality duplicate, whom he nearly drowns by setting his portal up on an iced over lake!

My previous enthusiasm has been dampened somewhat. Actually it’s been brutally beaten out of me by a thuggish gang of disappointment. Wearily, I turn to the next item…

Harry Potter. Well… oh! Arthur Weasley! He’s ok! Lotsa kids, fun house, good choice of mother, government job, they all go to school, no turning evil! We have another! Brilliant!  And isn’t it odd, he’s played by the same actor who plays Brian Williams?! (Hey who’s playing Pa Kent in the new Superman movie? It’s not… no, it’s not.) It is only Arthur though, Remus didn’t want to have a child, Malfoy got his family indentured to Voldemort, Seamus’s dad couldn’t handle his wife being a witch, can’t think of any others...

I’m reaching now, but Lost in Space? Ok, well the dad there gets his family lost in space! The idiot!

Red Dwarf? Well, as seen in an episode of the recent new series, Lister does try to do his best for his son. But being as his son is himself, I think he’s done plenty of damage right there.

Ok, it’s a sad fact in TV and movies for these sorts of genres, extended sequences or stories of a dad just being a dad are not going to come up a lot. It’s always going to be more entertaining to have a space battle or a sword fight. Still, there’s some pretty bad fathers out there! And my search was mainly focussed on ‘the good guys’! Imagine if I did this with the villains?

Fatherhood in Sci-fi

Having been a father for nigh on 10 months now and discussing the impending fatherhood of a friend, I’ve come to the realisation that there are not many good dad’s in sci-fi.
You see, often when I’m faced with a new challenge in my life, I like to look to my idols in the science fiction world to see how they handle it. For instance, when cooking for myself was becoming in issue as I advanced through my teens, Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine was a brilliant example. I always carry a screwdriver and make sure to leave my droids outside of bars. So naturally, when my wife was expecting, I turned to my normal array of science fiction TV and film for advice.

Oh dear…

So I began with Star Trek. There’s actually no fathers at all there, except for Kirk, who stayed away from his son until forced to meet him when Khan stole the Genesis device. Ok, no help there.

Ok, The Next Generation must be more help? Picard, no children, hates kids. Riker? Had an imaginary son and mainly tried to teach him the trombone. Worf? Oh, right, packs the kid off to his grandparents or if he can’t get away with that, pretty much leaves it to Troi. Data? Built his own daughter and has no emotions. Oh and had her working in a bar!

Let’s move on to DS9! Sisko! Brilliant! Sisko seems on the surface to be a good example. Until you factor in he’s dragged Jake to a backwater run down space station where the only schooling opportunity is a class of mixed ages run by a botanist?! No disrespect to botanists or their field, but he’s not getting a well-rounded education there. Plus it shuts down after a year! After being blown up! Still Sisko persists with keeping his son, now without any school, wandering around an increasingly dangerous space station as the area degenerates into a war zone. Finally, Sisko conceives a second child and promptly ups and leaves to be a prophet and live in a wormhole, abandoning both children. I guess there’s O’Brien, but… well his wife and kids are so annoying, I can’t. I just can’t!

Voyager has one father, Tuvok, who’s probably great, but we never get to see any actual parenting. And again, Enterprise has no active father. I think Phlox has children, but they’re not seen.

Forget Trek then, let’s move onto other areas…

How about Star Wars? Hm, actually, I don’t need to think too hard about this one do I? Me and my son would be happier not chopping limbs off…

It’s not going well so far is it? What about the Buffyverse? Well, Buffy’s dad left his family, her surrogate father, Giles, well I guess he’s pretty ok, but there was the time he drugged her so she lost her Slayer powers and locked her in a house with a vampire. And Angel? Well, he managed to lose his son in a hell dimension with his worst enemy.

Batman! Right, ok his Dad was shot and killed in front of him, causing severe emotional trauma. But Alfred was like his second father from then? And he’s… pretty much let Bruce’s trauma overwhelm him to the point he dresses like a bat and risks his life nightly fighting crime. Bruce’s own son is encouraged to follow the same path while fighting his upbringing as a cold blooded killer with a superiority complex. Not to mention Batman’s taken on three other kids and encouraged them all to wallow in their pain and grief to such an extent that they also feel the need to embark on a suicidal quest for justice while wearing silly costumes. I hate to say it, but Batman sucks! As a dad at least.

Superman? Sure, his biological father put his newborn child in an experimental rocket and blasted him into space, which I think is grounds for a referral to Social Services, but what about Jonathan Kent? He’s good right? Actually, he is! There’s pretty much no problem with Pa Kent! Except DC keep insisting on retconning Superman’s history to kill the poor guy off earlier and earlier.

Right, we have one good father! Surely, I can find more? Otherwise I’ll have to raise my child using my own judgement and common sense! My search continues…

Some thoughts on Disney buying Star Wars

So, there’s going to be a new Star Wars Trilogy. The 3^rd trilogy, making a trilogy of trilogy’s you might say. And it’s going to be made by Disney. This is pretty huge news and understandably causing some mixed reactions amongst Star Wars fans.

I’m thinking this is probably a good thing. There, I said it. But wait! I have reasons!

The first reason! I actually quite liked the prequels. Yes, they were caught up in quite a political storyline, but like many stories, they’re a product of their time and we’re in an age where everything is politicised to some degree. It might not be the most entertaining thing to watch in a movie of course, but we are now several years on and new movies will have new writers and reflect their take on our times.

Which neatly brings me onto new writers. No Lucas! Imagine! Given how everyone complained he’d ruined Star Wars with the prequels, surely this is a good thing? Though I don’t think he ruined anything, I do think new movies will benefit from new writers and directors. Joss Whedon’s name has already been thrown into the mix and I do think he’d have a pretty interesting take on Star Wars. But there’s a huge number of skilled writers out there in Hollywood who could bring some fresh new thinking to Star Wars.

If you’re a fan of The Clone Wars series, then you’ll see how well Star Wars is still working. Different writers, new story ideas and a wide array of characters, it’s a pretty good series.

It’s Disney! Disney are pretty hot on making kids films. Ok, not always successfully, but sometimes successfully, And Star Wars films are films for kids. The sense of awe and wonder of alien worlds, old Jedi Knights and the youngster who finds his way into a whole new world of the Force and an important role in a galaxy-wide battle for freedom. That’s perfect for Disney.

Ok, I’m saying a lot about new writers and new stories, a new take on Star Wars. However, you also need to maintain a certain respect for the original source. I think Disney can do that. The recent Muppets film I think stands as a brilliant example of making a new relevant film that maintains a good respect for the original series. Actually, the Muppets is pretty much an hour and a half love letter to The Muppet Show. I think we’re at a point now where the writers and directors around now are the ones who grew up with Star Wars and will come in respectful of the original trilogy.

Actually, you know what’s also good about Disney buying Star Wars? Crossovers! Next time there’s a Toy Story movie, we should see Harrison Ford voicing a Han Solo figure! I’m actually really excited about this idea!

Most of all, Star Wars is a pretty defining set of movies for a child to see. Regardless of the opinions of guys in their 30’s and 40’s who will staunchly resist anything different to that original trilogy, kids in the next 10 years are going to love this new set of Disney made Star Wars movies. And that’s good, it’s their childhood and they deserve to have those movies made in their day. 2015 means my little boy will be 3 or 4, just about old enough to sit through a movie. So this will be his trilogy and I’ll be able to take him to see brand new Star Wars. Regardless of whether I like them or not, he probably will and to me that makes this news good.

Monday

Another week, back at work for a Monday morning. I was hit by inspiration today. I have another Star Trek group next week and was wondering what to do for my introduction for my chosen episode. Having gone into video intro’s I want to keep doing something along those lines. And today it hit me, Big Brother! Brilliant! I shall take a selection of my sci-fi toys and make an episode of Big Brother with them! And at some point they will discuss trivia from the episode I have chosen! Genius! MLF is onboard with this, she will do some voices for me. It’s an excellent idea!

My stag do is at the end of this week, and so my brother, who is also serving in Best Man capacity was due to send a text out to everyone finalising the times. I was hit by a moment of hilarity as I came up with a classic prank!

I didn’t know what time he’d be texting, so I had to move fast. I managed to contact 3 of my attendees before the text came around. I asked them to respond to my brother’s text asking which Doctor Who costumes other people were making, the implication being that I’d got them all to agree to come dressed as a different doctor! I have not mentioned the important part of this, which is that my brother is not a nerd! Not at all! So the idea of spending the day in the company of 7 gorwn men dressed as various Doctors is not one that would appeal to him!

I had later confirmation that at least 2 of my 3 co-prankers had had a response, and then I got the text from my brother! He is not happy! He called me a sneaky russian and warned he would make things worse later in the stag do! I sent him one back saying ‘Wait till you see your costume K9!’

I will tell him soon it is a classic prank. I may even say ‘bazinga’.

I had a conversation with MLF regarding strippers later on. She raised a point that I hadn’t considered and is now going to cause me considerable concern. Lap dances. See, my brother/bestman has promised me a strip club visit. This is mean. I am a nerd, I’m terrible at talking to women as it is, and the idea of a strange naked lady dancing around me is horrifying! It’s massively embarassing. But I’m ok with it for the traditional stag do type thing etc. But lap dances... well those are a bit different. I will have to speak to him about making sure there isn’t a lap dance on the cards, as for me that crosses a line. The no touching rule in strip clubs, I think should work both ways, at least for me. Maybe I’m being an old fuddy duddy, but I just don’t think it’s appropriate. I kind of hope I am being a fuddy duddy, because that is an awesome phrase and I feel like I was kind of serious there so I need to say some funny words or something!

Sunday!

Sunday, ah Sunday, living up to it’s name with some sunshine. Though it could also have been called, wind-day’ as there was some breezy behaviour. In fact, one of my tomato plants suffered at the hands of the fast moving air currents that plagues us this day and some of the stalk has snapped. Hopefully it’ll be ok, it didn’t snap all the way through and I’ve tied it up to support it. Some tiny green tomatoes have formed upon the plant now, so it’d be a terrible shame if it got trashed.

Wait, what? Have I just chattered about tomatoes? This isn’t a gardening blog, it’s a nerd blog! So what have I done that’s more nerdy??

Well, we had our photographer’s free pre-wedding shoot in the morning. My Lovely Fiance also timed her makeup trial at the venue for this morning so we went there and I waited with a coffee while she had her trial before the shoot.

Firstly, £2.30 for coffee! It’s an outrage! I got two small cups out of that! However, the wi-fi is good there, and also actually free, so I was able to sit at the windy terrace bar with an overpriced coffee and my EEE. The wind kept blowing the door shut behind me, which was annoying to begin with, until on of the staff charged out in a panic as one of the outside tables was blowing away. Ah, slapstick!!

When we had the shoot itself, we were led all across the grounds of our wedding venue to get some shots. It’s a really nice place with lots of interesting spots. MLF is not a keen photography subject, but apparently I am brilliant! The photographer kept insisting I was a good subject and I infer from that I should probably consider modelling. This sounds good to me, I imagine lots of people would enjoy looking at my face in magazines and on billboards. They’d probably like to look at more than just my face, but I’m not up for doing gratuitous nudity. I’d need a good reason. Like large amounts of money.

Actually I should follow that up, get the modelling started.

Or maybe concentrate on losing a bit more weight first.

Hm, that’s still not very nerdy is it? Ooh, I helped MLF update her iPhone! To OS4 or whatever they call it. It took some time, we had to install a new itunes first. (Hey Apple, if itunes is so good, why do you keep doing new ones?? Maybe you should get it right the first time! Like I did in my photoshoot!) Anyway, after a lengthy download and letting the machine restart, reload, and refresh the phone about 80 times, it was all done. The update took a backup of the phone which it then restored after. But not the emails apparently. Clearly apple feel that while you’ll want to keep your precious memories in photos and the songs you’ve bought, you won’t have any important emails in you inbox!

But the new features are pretty cool. The camera is now zoomable, while the quality isn’t great when zoomed in, it’s still useful. The icons can now all be rearranged into small sections to neaten things up. And besterest of all, all the photos now have a corresponding location pin on a map so you can see where they were taken. Even on previously taken pictures, which is a little unnerving that the iphone has been tracking your movements since you got it. It’s like a little nosy old woman in your pocket!

The weekend cometh

Ah, is there anything more delightful than waking up on a Saturday? It's so full of promise, two whole days without work. And the sun is shining! You're young and it's summer and for the next 48 hours you don't have anything to worry about!

Then you remember, you're in your 30's. You need to sort the washing out. And get a haircut today. The rabbits need to be cleaned out. As does the fishtank. Also some shopping will need doing

Weekends aren't what they were when I were a kid!

My lovely Fiance and I spent the first part of the morning sorting a few details about the wedding out. We picked our songs and vows, ready for our meeting with the registrar. We'd ummed and ahhed about a second reading for months now, we finally decided we did want it. Both our readings are pretty awesome, being both beautiful while capturing essential elements of us. Had to call up a friend to see if she'd be amenable to reading the reading for us, she seemed happy to. At least I hope she is...

And I've got a few nerd surprises in the music choices too! Those should be good. I've been a bit torn on how openly nerdy some aspects should be. We are considering an 'Order of Service' type sheet for the guests, which would name some of the music tracks, but a part of me wants to see who can spot them. Another part doesn't want older uncool relatives rolling their eyes in tired tolerance of my silly ways, but as MLF pointed out, they're getting a free meal out of our day, so they can damn well like our silly ways!

After this we went into town for our haircuts. Me for a general cut, MLF for a trial run for her wedding style. I had my usual hairdresser, which is good, as if I have one I don't know, I clam up and can't carry a conversation. But I know Gemma, and like how she cuts my hair and pretends to like my stories, so I entertained her with the tale of the woman at the tailors. The one who measured me for my wedding suit and said, 'You're a 32 inch waist...in your dreams!'

Which I thought is quite funny, but also cruel and unbecoming of someone in a customer facing role. And you know what? At the beginning of this year, I was a 38 inch waist. When she said that I was a 36. I'm now in a pair of 34 inch waist jeans. So actually, by the wedding I might be 32! Yeah, eat that tailor bitch!! Though I'm happy at 34, but it depends where I am at Kyle Rayner weight I guess.

Once I was done entertaining my hairdresser (who seemed to really enjoy my stories today, I imagine she has a crush on me!) and was satisfied with my cut, I thought it's a beautiful day, I shall walk home. Which I did, my walk home was aided by the Ben Folds albums on my iPod. And I had a couple of those horrible moments where I'm at a pedestrian crossing alongside a family with a young child. I hate this because I'm always aware that the parents are trying to teach their child safe and responsible road crossing, but I always see a point where I can cross long before that green man appears. But if I do, am I condemning those parents to an afternoon of the child asking why they couldn't cross when that other man could. It's an odd paranoia that at certain points I would be an unwilling influence on a child and, without malice, accidentally interfere with the important lessons that parents are trying to impart. But it's an irrational thought that occurs to me every time!

I tried to have a start at writing my speech after that. I got a few key lines down, but it's a struggle. As I'd said, I'm writing a blogpost daily to try to keep my writing juices going, (try not to dwell to long on the phrase 'writing juices', or just pretend it's ink) to aid my speechwriting, but there's a lotta difference between being able to look back at my day and pick out the bits that mean I'm a nerd and summing up everything I think and feel about marrying MLF. Oh and also thanking the various people etc.

It's as well I'm starting 2 months before the day!

Later in the afternoon we visited our friend Stevie for a while. MLF had found a newspaper item about an old school friend of theirs being found with a rape kit and having an attempt at attacking a girl. We also just like to see him every so often, before you think that we only visit him on such occasions, or that such occasions are frequent! Stevie has nerf guns, so we had fun times shooting each other and diving around his living room. I've rarely seen such a look of pure joy in MLF's eyes as when she's lining up a shot at me. I don't know if I should be concerned about that...

Also, Stevie has some excellent toys, I was admiring his Doctor Who figures. He has the 4th, 5th, 9th, 10th and 11th Doctor's! And an awesome set of Daleks and Davros.

Feeling somewhat Doctor Who'd up, we headed home to have a pizza and watch some older Doctor Who to fill that Saturday evening gap. MLF chose the opener for Series 4, Partners In Crime. There's something extra fun about a season opener, especially when the Doctor gets a new companion. And as we'd already met Donna, this one was less encumbered with introductions and makes for a very entertaining episode. What did surprise me was how odd it was to see the older TARDIS console room, which is odd as I got used to that for more than four years, but just one series with the new look and it's already become the default TARDIS room in my mind. How easily my affections are switched between TARDIS consoles!

But then time was reversed and it never happened...

As it turns out I rather enjoyed that Enterprise with Archer suffering a memory loss condition. Though all the development and interesting story aspects were ultimately lost when the timeline was reversed. An annoying occurence, I remember being disappointed on Voyager that Year of Hell just never happened. If things had been solved differently it could have been a fascinating thing to carry the series on with Voyager barely held together and the crew dealing with the effects of nearly being blown apart. I’m sure the Doctor could eventually cure Tuvok’s blindness, given his unrealistic skill at curing any other random recently encountered condition. Heck, McCoy once kept a Vulcan alive after his brain was removed, then to follow that miracle, attached a remote control unit to him!

I’m sometimes struck by the futility of railing against Voyagers failings when the shows been off the air for seven years. But not often.

I saw some of the latest and last series of Big Brother this week, and I noted that some of the housemates seem to be wearing a version of the nerd glasses I so admired last weekend. I’m not convinced that it isn’t a non-corrective pair that’s being passed around. It makes me feel better about not getting them!

I took Thursday off from the gym, though I shall be going again on Friday and looking to do something energetic on Saturday too. It’s a more punishing gym schedule than I’ve had before, but I’m feeling motivated and would really love to reach Kyle Rayner weight by my wedding. Which basically works out as two months to lose just under two stone. I don’t think this is unreasonable, I lost 3 stone in just over three months this year. My problem there was I got over-confident and spent the next 3 months bouncing around that weight. But progress has resumed now and I shall go from overweight nerd to skinny nerd!

Of course, in that time I have a stag do to attend and someone else’s wedding. Those will both involve alcohol and food in large quantities. I find it incredibly selfish of the couple getting married to have their wedding mere weeks before mine, thereby impacting on my weight loss. I may raise this point during the ceremony when they ask if anyone has any reasons etc. Actually, that would probably get me thrown out even if they reject my reasoning and still marry, so either way I can still eat healthily! I win! Right up to the point when my lovely fiancé comes home and brutally murders me for embarrassing her and everyone at her friends wedding.

I have almost finished Richard Herring’s book, which I have enjoyed. It seems to be frank, honest, self deprecating and in some ways tragic, but also wittily written and hopeful. Of course, instead of being titled ‘How not to grow up’, he could have called it ‘how to obsess over having a threesome’, which is quite a recurring theme. Though as a nerd I have enough trouble talking to girls one on one, let alone two of them. And yes, I said talking, imagine how much awkward embarrassment there would be trying to bed 2 at once! Actually don’t imagine it, just in case you picture me naked! Wait two more months, then me naked should be a more attractive image! Well, when I say ‘more attractive’, I actually mean ‘slightly less repulsive’.

Or maybe I was wrong...

Actually, I probably don’t have hay fever. See, I said it was a cold, then people started saying I might have developed hay fever, so I started taking some anti hayfever tablets, but they’ve had no effect, so maybe I have got a cold.

Which is a tad unfair, I’m eating tons of fruit these days. I easily pass my 5 a day, plus the exercise and general healthier living, doesn’t seem right to catch a cold. Also, I haven’t been in contact with anyone with a cold, and no-one else seems to have caught it from me. Clearly fruit is working for them...

I did another gym workout, which makes three so far this week. According to the Wii, I’ve lost 2 more pounds since Sunday. Still a way to go to match Kyle Rayner’s weight, but I think it’s achievable before the wedding. Well, before Christmas anyway...

I’ve recently begun watching through the 3rd series of Enterprise. I always tried with Enterprise, I’d start each series determined to give it a chance, but normally tailed off. Except with the 4th series, which really picked up. But the 3rd series was a series long storyline, and I’d dipped in and out before, so my buddy Will loaned me the series set. I’ve got 2 disks in and while the episodes are of variable quality, the larger story has caught me a bit more this time. What I have noticed is that Enterprise seemed to have a predilection for flashy effects sequences that weren’t particularly relevant. I just watched one where for no good reason a shuttlepod had fired a thruster while landed and Archer and Tucker watched it start to sail off leaving them stranded. So they shot the thrusters out and bought it down. Great looking sequence, completely pointless for the story.

The next one I have to watch features Archer waking up in the future.. well I guess he always does that, but I mean his own future, after the Xindi have destroyed Earth, but Archer can’t remember it. His short term memory is gone and he’s like that guy in Memento. Sounds a bit similar to Future Imperfect from the 4th season of The Next Generation really. That was a kick ass episode.

My lovely fiance pointed out to me that uh-oh, no Doctor Who on Saturday! This is very true and a cause for concern. Frankly, after that finale, Christmas seems a long way away! So, what to do?

Well, I might see if she’ll be amenable to some classic Who on DVD! Seems like a plan! I’m in the mood for some Troughton myself but who knows how the mood may take me?

My allergies!

I’m a touch concerned that I seem to have developed hay fever. It turns out that it’s not because of too many Fonzie impressions (that’s ‘heeeeeyyyyfever’ and has very different symptoms) but you can develop this randomly at any point in your life! What?? So a childhood free of the ravages of pollen means nothing in terms of lifetime immunity?? I’ve been walking around with a ticking timebomb of summer sensitivity? Unaware that at anytime the forces of nature would suddenly turn on me and the merest hint of pollen would cause my eyes and nose to stream their associated fluids? (So far it’s just those two thankfully, any streaming from other orifices would be most uncomfortable!) How has humanity evolved this way? What grand design would feature this?

Well, that’s my overly dramatic reaction done with. It’s a touch annoying though, I don’t want to be all sniffly and snotty, it’s the summertime! But in a way, I’m a little bit happy! Now I can put on my nerdiest tone and complain about my allergies! It’s as good as getting nosebleeds! Which I haven’t done in a while, though with the increased nasal workload that this hayfever has been causing, who knows? Maybe soon...

And why Hay fever? Why not Pollenitis? Or SunshineSniffles? That’d be a good name.

It may seem odd that I have found a brightside to hay fever as it makes me nerdier. I guess I’m just a glass half full type. Oh, I did see, when in Meadowhall the other day, awesome nerd glasses! They were big thick frames and the size and shape of the ones Christopher Reeve wears as Clark Kent. And they weren’t corrective, which is great as I don’t need glasses (another regret, I’d look much nerdier in specs!)

Then I realised something. These glasses were being sold as a fashion accessory. What kind of a nerd would I be if I went around being fashionable? What kind of a nerd would buy eyewear that wasn’t to correct a vision problem? Vanity is not my way!

Also, my lovely fiancé wouldn’t let me get them. Her reasoning was again, that wearing glasses without needing my eyesight corrected was not really me. She is probably correct, I am lucky to have her.

I hit the gym again last night, despite my nose-based issues, thankfully it didn’t hold me back and as usual, the only thing dripping off me was copious amounts of sweat. It’s funny at my gym, they have a separate smaller room with some machines in, which is the ‘Women’s Gym’, for women who want to do their work out away from men. I’m not sure why this is, I suppose they’ve had questionable clientele in the past or something. So this supposed private room is blocked from men’s sight by some blinds on the window. That were open. I happened to be on a treadmill that was facing this window and realised I could see clearly into the Women’s Gym and could see women in there on their treadmills. Facing me. So they could see me, staring into their private Women’s Only gym and breathing heavily and sweating! Man, I was only looking at the blinds inefficiency!

Tonight I must find a treadmill that faces a different way, or I’m going to be labelled as some sort of pervert...

New week, same monday...

As they must, the weekend, well, ends and a new Monday dawns. A brand new week, filled with possibilities, almost a new start with life here, all refreshed from the weekend and ready to start again in this wonderous experience that is life.

Of course, most of us manifest this feeling as, ‘oh crap, Monday already? Gluuurrrggghh!’ Which when you think of the immense impossibility of our lives even getting to this point is a bit of an anti-climax. After all, it’s a long string of unlikely coincidences that have led to this planet being formed in just the right position from the sun, the atmosphere developing, life emerging, life evolving to this point and still not getting wiped out by a passing meteor, then the specific circumstances that have led to the right people getting together and producing offspring, then those offspring getting together and so on and on until here we all are.

Of course, those are lofty and mind boggling thoughts for a Monday morning, I had to make some lunch, have some breakfast, pack my gym bag and get to work!

Not that I was being much fun there, though she’s only got a minor infection, I was still concerned about my Grandmother and waiting to hear news from my mum after she heard from the Doctor about the current status. Which when I did hear, is positive. So a day’s worth of being worried and irritable for no reason there!

When I wasn’t being irritable I was discussing Saturday’s Doctor Who finale, with pretty much anyone who would listen. In some cases I followed people around talking about it even though they didn’t want to listen. I knew deep down they cared. The general consensus is everybody loved it and no, I should not get a fez.

I did have a stint wearing a fez in my early twenties. It got pretty much the same reaction as the Doctor’s.

I hit the gym for the afternoon. I’m quite proud of my progress this year in increasing my fitness level. When I started I struggled to jog for more than a few minutes at a time, I can now manage half an hour constant jogging, at increased speed from my beginnings. My only problem is I now get bored! After all half an hour with just the gym wall in front of the treadmill to look at is a bit dull. I used to listen to Doctor Who Big Finish audios, but I started having increasing problems with earphones. I may have to look at some better listening devices. The hideous truth is the normal in-ear type, gradually slide out as I become slimy with sweat.

There’s an image to give you cosy dreams!

I should get back into the Doctor Who audios though, the Eighth Doctor ones were very enjoyable, you kinda wish we’d been able to have a full TV series with Paul McGann. I wonder what it would have been like?

Pretty good I imagine, depends who was writing. But as time progresses I guess even the prospect of a flashback to the Time War with him is getting fainter and fainter. Though I have imagined an awesome episode in my head just this morning now, as I was thinking about this. It follows from The Doctor’s taking The Moment from Gallifrey, and being chased by Time Lords, up to encountering the Dalek fleet when he has to use the Moment and sets of the destruction of Gallifrey and Skaro. But the Daleks have prepared a defense. In the midst of a battle as Dalek saucers overrun a Time Lord fleet whos history is burning up, The Doctor would take his TARDIS into the heart of the Dalek city and have to destroy the device that was protecting Skaro from the Moment. Which he does, then prepares to burn with his people and his enemies, but whatever protection the Dalek defense provided, some of it has permeated the TARDIS and the Doctor, just enough for them to survive outside the time lock though he ends up regenerating.

It’s a spectacular sequence, as there’s no limit on the effects budget of the human imagination. Also, I’ve had some particularly mindless tasks this morning, so y’know, able to think about important things! This afternoon I shall be thinking up a version with the Black and White Guardians...

Fez's are cool!

Sunday morning, I abandoned my Trek Night co-watchers quite early in the morning to make my way back to Lincoln and get home to watch the previous nights Doctor Who, the series finale, The Big Bang! I was naturally massively excited with about 18 nerd-boners for this episode. This whole series has been absolutely magnificent and I had high hopes for the conclusion. I tryto always watch Doctor Who now with my lovely fiance, so once we were both in the house, we settled down and I went to Virgin's on demand catch up.

It wasn't there. Dammit! This thing is useless! It never has the programs I actually want to watch there!

So I iplayer'd it through the wii.

Wow! Thought I'd sussed the episode quite early when we saw little Amelia recieve clues and go to see the Pandorica. But when she opens it up and Amy's in it, then I was confused again! And the episode proved a regluar mix of confused, understand, confused, understand. I think I've got my head around it now, but I will have to watch it a bunch more times to be sure!

I'm not going to do a full analysis, you will have watched it for yourself and I want to see it again before I can be sure I understand it. But yeah, fez's are cool! Also, I am looking forward to the mystery of who did take control of the TARDIS? Looks like we've got that still to come, which is nice, after all why would everything all get sorted out neatly together in one go? And Rory and Amy are now a husband and wife team onboard the TARDIS?! Excellent. I always liked having a group accompny the Doctor rather than just one lone girl.

Of course, now I've said that the Christmas Special will blow Rory up or something...

Man, it's going to be a long time till Christmas.

After all the fun, it seemed natural whatever followed would be a letdown. So I watched the football. What a letdown! Glad I didn't bet any quatloobs on that game! (That was a little Gamesters of Triskelion joke... ah why explain, if you didn't get it you won't care!)

It's a shame the World Cup's over for England. While I'm not a massive football fan (I'm only a fan of small to medium footballs) I was enjoying watching the games with my lovely fiance and the twitterverse. It's a lot of fun, seeing the tweets coming in, it's like watching the game with your friends and with some celebrities! I guess I'll have to wait for the next on, but who knows when that'll be??? Oh, yeah, 4 years...

Of course, possibly that match could be erased from time, and eventually a new big bang would need to restart everything and we'd all remember winning??? Maybe? Or do FIFA not believe in the use of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff in the game?

So a pretty awesome weekend comes to an end. I'm hoping to have another in about 5 days of course. Which reminds me, that's my photo session, so serious dieting and excercise again this week. I did weigh myself before Doctor Who, and lost half a stone this last week. Wouldn't mind doing that again! Actually I wouldn't mind doing that while only eating large amounts of pizza, wotsits and chocolate, but due to a flaw in the universe's imprint in the pandorica, those things are now bad for me in this new universe!

Shopping & Star Trek

Took a trip over to Meadowhall on Saturday morning. We've got a free 'test shoot' with the wedding photographer next week, so thought we'd get new 'outfits' for it.Was a nice day for a drive in my lovely fiancée's new car, so we set off in good time and were there before 10 and it wasn't too busy. Managed to quickly find me a shirt and I'm happy to find that I'm a size smaller for shirts, which is a pleasant boost to my weight loss attempts of late. I also get a selection of fresh coffees from this awesome little place which seems to have a gazililion different flavours and grinds the beans up. I also bumped into a work colleague, which is just weird when you've left the city to go shopping.

By the end of the day I found out I had also gone down a jeans size, (and without the aid of Special K) and got myself Richard Herrings book and the newest Danny Wallace one, so some amusing reading times ahead.

What's particularly nice is just getting out of familier surroundings for the day. When me and my lovely fiancée don't keep being reminded of he various jobs we've got on, or work or anything like that we always have a good day, even if it's doing something simple like shopping. Actually, shopping isn't that simple, she's spent 4 years teaching me how to do it, I think I'm getting there though.

Afterwards, I headed over to Nottingham to see my friend Will. We've started meeting up every few weeks for a Star Trek night, which has been fun times. This is the third one recently. It's me, Will, another Rick (known as Rick-One, whereas I am Rick-Prime) and Will's fiancée Gemma. We all pick an episode to watch, based on a pre-selected theme, and often do a little introduction. Mine was a powerpoint presentation about the Next Gen Episode, The Last Outpost, which is the first Ferengi contact. (First Contacts being our theme.) What I hadn't remembered from the episode was Geordi's inappropriate lines all through! He makes the oddest comments, from 'Hello stranger' to a ship no-one has ever seen before, to 'My hero' at Data and the just odd 'Do I look conscious?'. And the frustrated mime playing one of the Ferengi was hilarious, especially when he just gave in and danced around the set.

Of course this episode looked perfect when we watched Spock's Brain after. Marvellous. By which I mean ridiculous. And terrifyingly sexist.

It wasn't all fondly ridiculing Trek though, we had quite a discussion about the feasibility of a myth/legend/metaphor based language as we watched Darmok. We also watch Voyager's Distant Origin and had a serious discussion about Chakotay as wasted potential. It's fun times to do. Will did a introduction with various action figures having a roundtable discussion about Darmok and Rick-One did a video with himself as Captain Picard displace in time and leaving clues in his episode of Voyager. The intro's are fun times for 30 year old men to spend their time!

Twas a late night as we also added on The Gamesters of Triskelion and Who Watches the Watchers. And I took to my bed (well, Will's sofa) excited for the following day's return to my fiancée and the Doctor Who finale.

This weather is getting proper warm this week. It's kinda good, though I am prone to sweatiness so it's a tad awkward now and again. By awkward I mean uncomfortable and damp.

Anyway, that was gross! Hey, I had to go to a nursery school for some computer lessons. I gave the lessons that is! And to the staff! And when I say lessons, I mean I got their internet working. Then tried to sort their sound out. Then their printer. Then their camera. Which was fun. A small child approached me and asked me what I was doing at one point. I was tempted to try to explain the finer points of wireless networking to him, but the little dude was 3 so I left it at making the computer work properly. I did enjoy the sight of one of their laptops which the children had clearly run wild on and it was missing several of the keys from the keyboard. You could still use it, the buttons underneath were fine, but it's really only useful if you can touch type. You need to be very sure of your familiarity with the qwerty keyboard to use it.

After that afternoon, I popped over to the gym. That's my fourth gym session this week, I'm hitting it hard now with two months to go till my wedding, I'd like to reach my ideal weight. It's achievable but requires hard work.

Of course when I say ideal weight, that's my ideal. Which is the weight that Kyle Rayner is according the the DC wikia. He's also my height and my favourite Green Lantern so I figured it was a good one to aim for. I will of course then require my lovely fiancé to paint herself green and fire green energy from her hands.

My ideas for the bedroom are sometimes odd and difficult to achieve...

Mega excited about Saturday nights Star Trek club, then the Doctor Who finale. My fave theory is still Omega! Day's shopping in Meadowhall with my lovely fiance before that, which is good, I do love our quality time out of town

News in an odd order of relevance and how it makes my Mum like an alien

There's an excellent episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Well, actually there are over a hundred of them, but I'm thinking of a specific episode, namely A Matter of Honour. It's the one where Riker goes on an officer exchange to a Klingon Bird of Prey. It's brilliant as a great Klingon episode, a great Riker episode and just all round great. Hidden within the Klingon craziness is an officer who exchanges onto the Enterprise, the Benzite Mordock. He works at the science station and spots a bacteria that's eating away at the hull of Enterprise and also the Pagh. He later receives a proper bollocking from Picard for not reporting what he'd found. His reason was that he was completing a full assessment including a solution before making a report, whereas Picard expected an initial report.

I was reminded of this yesterday when my Mum phoned me. She informed me that she would soon be receiving a contact number for one of my Uncles and did I want her to call him and invite him to my wedding? Well considering we'd sent out save the date cards and invites months ago you'd think he'd know, but it seems he's moved house and not told his immediate family. Considering this, I'm not inclined to have anyone waste time chasing him up about it and frankly don't want him there now.

I know, this is still nothing like that episode of TNG is it? Bear with me...

I then enquired as to how she was to come into possession of this number? She said that they'd got it from my wayward uncles 2nd ex wifes mother. Yep, she gets to know where he's moved to! Why these measures to chase his number up now?

'Well your grandmothers not been well this week...'

Right. I love my Mum, but she does have an infuriating habit of leaving the important items till later in the conversation! My grandmother will probably be ok, she's on medication and being observed for the weekend, so once I knew that I looked back on the conversation and was reminded of Mordock. Granted it's not really that similar is it? But I enjoyed the kind of link that my mind sometimes makes. And after the fact I can kind of enjoy my Mum's crazy ideas of which item is appropriate to begin with. Like the time she called me to let me know my brother had been in a car accident. She started telling me the specifics of the crash, the location, angles etc. I had to stop her and ask her if he was ok! He was, it was minor, but you hear 'car crash' and you kind of need it followed up with the medical status! Bless her!

Oh, also my Mum is blue skinned and has a rebreather unit when in an Earth atmosphere...

The rest of my day yesterday was spent working, kissing my girlfriend up and getting excited about this Saturday. The Doctor Who finale is obviously a hugely exciting prospect, I am metaphorically crapping myself with anticipation. Though I can't watch it till sunday, as I'm over at friends on Saturday night watching episodes of Star Trek! Woo! We've all picked an episode each for a 'First Contact' theme. I've made the mad choice of 'The Last Outpost', which is first contact with the Ferengi. Maybe not the best episode ever, but interesting. I've done a powerpoint presentation about the episode to show too. I am possibly the coolest guy ever!

Last night I had a play with my KDE desktop. While I've been using KDE for a couple of months now and been enjoying it, I've not really scraped the surface of what can be done. Now I've got a desktop that shifts wallpapers amongst my Trek based pics, with several semi transparent widgets showing my Twitter feed, RSS feeds, Dinosaur Comics and how long till my wedding. Which is now 70 days. Shit, I better write a speech!

I'm not talking about Politics, but...

Hasn't politics been in everything lately?

I mean, obviously pretty much anything can have politics ascribed to it in some form or another. I mean, in the UK, that Political figures have been all over the place, normally in things I wouldn't expect.

But suddenly they're looking at space!

At least it says so here.

It makes for interesting reading and I like that we look to have some involvement in a space program. I found it pretty interesting that the government may look to change regulations to allow Virgin's SpaceShipTwo to launch from the UK. I'm kinda curious as to what regulations are preventing it. Surely we didn't have some in place just to stop Richard Branson going into space right? Is it the beard? Is there some UK law forbidding bearded people going into space? Can't be, haven't they seen from Commander Riker that beardy guys do well in space?

I recall many a conversation with my old housemate about travelling into space. The upshot was always that I would go if I had the chance. Which is kinda odd, I don't really like to fly. But the opportunity to see my planet from space? Sounds pretty awesome to me. Though it concerns me slightly that Virgin still haven't got the TV service spot on, I still get the occasional flicker or something, but figure they can send people into space. Considering the paranoid panic I had last year on the way home from holiday when, on take off, the plastic front of the seatbelt sign dropped off, I don't know if I'd be a calm astrotourist. I got through the flight, but dear god, I had to watch a Jim Carrey film to keep my mind distracted. (Having gone through my Linux magazine 18 times and watched that animated Doctor Who series through fully twice.)

Still it doesn't look likely to be a big issue anytime soon. The Virgin ships aren't yet doing commercial flights and tickets are $200,000 so not something I'll be doing anytime soon! After all, if I had that sort of cash handy, I'd be building my own Enterprise bridge and travelling through space the safe way. Heck, I can apparently start doing that for a lot less!

Yes, I know how awesome is that wallpaper? And no, I'm not getting some...

Catch up

Been a bit quiet on the old blogging front of late, but there's been a bit on. I've had a lot of attention on the election, wedding issues have been around and my car has been a little scamp in getting through the MOT.

However, I've still been being a nerd!

Ubuntu 10.4! Yay, the new long term support release, and it's a bit of a big change for Ubuntu, as it's not brown! What's more, it's really easy to setup. At least it is on my system. Now it's around a year since I first made the leap to a Linux system, starting with Ubuntu 9.04. That took a little fiddling and prodding to get working. Mainly in display issues, I had to search around for a rewrite to the xorg.conf file to get my monitor working. Generally everything else worked fine and I had an enjoyable time with it. When 9.10 arrived I had a little more trouble, the Pulse Audio being my biggest problem. I also seemed to break Gnome when I installed a new video card, but a re-install of Ubuntu fixed this. However, I could not get my head around the sound and it was only a recently I got the audio in properly, before then my maximum volume was about half what you'd expect. I did find an easy solution was to install a KDE desktop and turn it into Kubuntu. This gave me awesome sound and obviously some beautiful graphics. So much so that when I upgraded to 10.4, still run mainly in the Kubuntu desktop. I've just become attached to it, though there are some elements of Gnome I prefer. The package manager is easier in Ubuntu than Kubuntu, at least for me. Still I'm 99% in Kubuntu now.

So the upgrade to 10.04 went pretty smoothly, and so far I've had to do... absolutely nothing. Everything just works this time round. Now a while back I was singing the praises of Linux for making my PC fun again as I had to find fixes for little niggles. That was part of the charm and made me nostalgic for the old days when I ran Windows 95 on a P75 with 8MB Ram and an 850MB hard drive. But to be honest, I really don't have the time that I used to, so there's a lot to be said for having a system that works. And doesn't prompt be about security software every 30 seconds. Or treat me to 30 different voice bubbles about how it's setting up my new memory stick. Or crash for no discernible reason. Boots up in a reasonable time. Etc, etc... And this means the time I do have can be spent trying out Jamendo. Hey, there's good music available there, it's an awesome site. Oh, and I'm setting a virtual machine up to give Chromium a try. Have to see, I have tended towards Chrome as a browser for months now. I'll also need a virtual machine set up for Windows again, so I can get these Doctor Who Interactive episodes that are coming up soon.

The Great High Def Conspiracy

There’s a conspiracy against me. Maybe just me, maybe several people, but for timing, it seems to be me. That conspiracy is that ‘they’, ‘they’ being the shadowy organisation working against me, don’t want me to watch Doctor Who in HD. Now, I don’t know anything about this sinister group, I don’t know who they are or why the idea of top quality picture for Time Lord adventuring offends them, but I’m convinced of it.

Now before I put forward my evidence, let me point out that there are certain conditions of watching HD TV that I am not prepared to meet. I have already purchased a HD TV set, I have purchased a PS3 for playing blu-rays and I have purchased the required HDMI cables and optical SPDIF cables to play through a surround system. This is a hefty initial layout. Therefore, I refuse to pay an ongoing subscription to access HD channels which will be broadcast for free. If I wanted to watch 24/Lost or other Sky 1 show in HD, I accept I would have to pay an additional monthly premium to do so. But not for the BBC! No sir! Not because I question the contents value, far from it, in fact I’d willingly pay more for the BBC than for Sky (but that’s a seperate rant) but because, by it’s nature, I have paid for the BBC’s HD content in the license. And it transmits in a non-subscription nature on Freeview HD already. So I’m not further lining Sky or Virgins pockets for it. Maybe this stubborn attitude is the worst culprit for working against me? But let’s irrationally assume it isn’t...

So my current options. Well, mainly none. Freeview HD is not available in my area for sometime. This isn’t my favoured option as a new receiver is currently looking to set me back over £100. And I have a lot of equipment and a lot of remotes, frankly I’m running out of space, batteries and sockets. (I do accept that some new equipment is going to be necessary, as long as it’s not an ongoing cost.) So, setback one, lack of coverage for the very area I just happen to live in?! Hey, didn’t Sony bring out an add-on for the PS3 that receives Freeview and utilises the console as a HDD recorder? They did! And in many countries, isn’t that capable of receiving their free to air HD channels? It is! So if I get that device, I’ll be set at least for when Freeview HD comes to my town? No. Because this country is using a different standard for encoding, which that device won’t support. Arguments about the superior quality of that standard etc. are irrelevant, when setback one is gone, setback two kicks in and ensures I need higher priced and bulkier equipment and I can’t utilise an existing device. And with the way it’s all wired up, that’s a shame, cos I’m going to have to pull down the whole house of cards and begin again to put anything new in.

So, is there another way? Hey, wait a second, HD programmes are available on the iPlayer right? And the iPlayer has a icon on my PS3 right? Surely a machine built for HD would run this perfectly right? Well, it appears we cannot know, as it doesn’t allow the HD content. And even if it did, my broadband connection would not support HD content streaming to any watchable standard. What about the option to download a programme to watch within 30 days? Also a feature not available on the PS3 version. Setback 4 has made it’s move.

Hang on a second! My fiancées laptop has a blu-ray drive and an HDMI socket! Under windows that will allow me to download the HD version of Victory of the Daleks, plug it into my TV and presto!

Enter Setback 5. I imagine that the video hardware in the laptop is sufficient to play a Blu-ray, but not quite enough to output iPlayer to a TV. The result is the slightest of judders to the picture. Oh, it’s slight, it’s so close to not being there, but it is there and it’s impossible to ignore. And the less you ignore it, the more distracting it is.

If only the iPlayer desktop utility would work in Linux. Maybe then my desktop PC would be able to use it. Well hang on, maybe it does. So I checked and yep, runs fine in Linux. My desktop has a decent video card with HDMI out too, so maybe this would be something I could utilise? I’m going to call this setback 5.5 as I never seriously thought I could utilise it. I can’t lug my PC down and up stairs every week to connect it to the TV. That’s madness.

But hang on a second! If iPlayer desktop works in Linux, can I not install a version of Linux onto the PS3? That already lives downstairs and is connected to the TV! And while I had to eliminate it from downloaded HD programmes through the normal PS3 iPlayer, running the desktop through Linux on it should be fine right?

Setback 6 then burst into the room and slapped me hard across the face! I went onto the web to look up the best Linux distros to use on a PS3. And that’s when I discovered that the latest firmware update on the PS3 removed the facility to install other operating systems! Noooooo! So close! I was literally one Ubuntu install away from enjoying HD Doctor Who and it was snatched away. This PS3 update is the latest update. This very month. Seems something of a coincidence that it should come out the very month the new Doctor Who series begins.

6 setbacks to me watching one programme? Really? It seems more like a conspiracy than a coincidence. You may scoff and say I’m paranoid, crazy even, but clearly someone’s out to stop me watching Hi-Def Doctor Who. Or at least force me to await the series box set. But who would be behind this? Sky? Virgin? They may wish to force me into paying for their HD service. It’s not the Daleks, they made themselves all pretty and colourful for a HD series, they’re clearly into it. Maybe President Logan from 24, he’s into conspiracies and he might want me to get Sky’s HD to see him in 1080p? Maybe it’s Amazon, wanting to make sure I buy a new Freeview box from them, and the Doctor Who blu-rays?

Ultimately I think it’s the same group who make those people who leave their trolleys across an aisle to block it, go to the supermarket at the exact time that I go!

Toy Story

Anyone whose seen my twitter feed this week may have been expecting a blog reminiscing about my gaming days playing Heroquest, Warhammer 40k and Blood Bowl. And you know what? I'm proabably going to write one fairly soon. But this isn't it! Nope, for while a huge wave of nostalgia basically mugged me this week, mugged me, dragged me to it's house and tied me in it's basement, I had already made prior plans for this weekend. And those plans had involved a little bit of toy hunting.

You may be thinking, 'a 30 year old hunting for toys? What?! This is madness!?' and if you are, then I can only assume you're severely lost and really have no business reading the blog of a nerd. If you're still here, meh, it's your time you're wasting reading my rambling nonsense...

So yes, I went toy hunting. I like my action figures. My collection is modest and basically consists of whim purchases and presents. I'm not aiming for complete sets really, just picking up odd ones that I like the look of.

My jaunt today was to a car boot sale. It's a regular and large event and on previous visits I've found a few gems.

This is today's haul

Batman and Robin are lead figures I found at a stall that had a huge bunch of them. I had some serious thinking time deciding which ones to get. Eventually I decided on these two over trying to start the Titans. They're completely awesome statues, the detailing is fantastic and it's an awesome paint job. I was quite pleased with these two and I'm hoping the same guy will be selling the next time I go there.

Shortly after that we found a stall with a bunch of random action figures dumped on some tarpaulin in front of the table. I glanced over it and there was nothing of any interest, I almost turned and carried on and suddenly I spotted a Kyle Rayner Green Lantern. Whaat? This looks to be Kyle's first costume as GL. You know how people tend to say that one particular actor who plays Doctor Who is 'their Doctor'. Often the first one they remember seeing, the one who means the most to them? Well, Kyle is my Green Lantern. Not my first as I read some Hal Jordan before he went Parallax, but Kyles the one I read most while growing up (yes, I said growing up while talking about reading comics) and the one I related to. Since Hal's return, while Kyle is still around and gets a decent role, the focus is back on Hal. I haven't seen a Kyle action figure before, so spotting this one was pretty exciting. The shame is, it's not actually a great figure. The details are off, there's no symbol on the costume, the ring is painted flesh colour and the positions are terrible. I'm not sure why it's set up so he can only be posed in ridiculous, splayed legs poses, it's a little embarassing for him I imagine. But it's a Kyle figure, and it cost 50p, so I'm happy with it.

The last couple of times I went, there was a stall with a huge amount of random out of packaging figures of many varieties, including plenty of Star Trek and Star Wars. Sadly this guy didn't seem to be about, which was a shame, as I was hoping to increase my Next Gen set. My original series new movie (has anyone come up with a better way to reference this version of trek yet?) which began with a birthday present last year is now a complete primary crew and I hope to do the same for the Next Generation crew.

Obviously I still have a little way to go! My bigger set so far is the Doctor Who toys. This started a few years back when my lovely fiancee bought me a radio controled Dalek. Soon after I was given a smaller radio controlled K9 which came with a 10th Doctor figure. And it's slowly increased a little from there, with my patient, long suffering fiancee contributing when christmas and birthday's roll around. Bless her. I hope she doesn't come to her senses before the wedding.

There's a Tardis, a tiny Dalek keyring, the 10th Doctor, Jack Harkness, a weeping Angel, the Master, Professor Yana, a Time Lord, K9, a Sontaran trooper, the sun infected guy from 42, the Moxx of Balhoon!, a Cyberman and a natural Ood. Oh and a Sonic Screwdriver.

So I end my short trundle through my toys with my favourite figure. My Hal Jordan Green Lantern! It's a brilliant figure, it has about a bazillion points of articulation, it's huge for an action figure and wonderfully detailed!

And yes, that is a Green Lantern Ring at the base, alongside a Blue Lantern ring.