Just so we're clear.



.

I am apparently getting this for Christmas from my mother. I know this for certain because after I sent her the link, in a move which was at least 60% a joke because I'd already been angling for the All Creatures Great and Small boxset, she then proceeded to call me when she was having problems with the online checkout system, as I'm the only person she knows who she could call to talk her through an internet related problem. The slight element of suspense being lost is made up for by the fact that I'm going to have a life size John Simm in my bedroom. Dude.

Also, although I downloaded the mp3s a few days ago, my CD of Ringpullworld arrived yesterday, and physically having it in my hands is making me go slightly more fangirly than usual. It came with a magazine as well, which I'm guessing is standard issue but I didn't know about it so that was an extra bonus.

( Spoilers ahead )

( Spoilers for 'The End of Time' Children in Need Preview )

In other news, I've started some more vids that I hope to finish...eventually. I hate being here with most of my DVDs at home, I keep thinking of footage I need that's in Wales.
One's another big fucker like the Spaceman thing I've had in the works forever (I just need some season 1 stuff for that, shouldn't take me long once I get home), that requires some of my Old School DVDs.
The other is a Turlough/Tegan vid, because I feel they're under represented as a pairing. Also in collecting the footage I've come to realise that they just can't keep their hands off each other in Terminus. Every time they go anywhere, whoever is leading feels the need to take hold of the other's arm and pull them along, like saying "come on" wouldn't do the job. It's like the "we-respect-the-seriousness-of-our-situation" version of wandering around holding hands.

I also got Ringpullworld the other day. Will review that properly sooner or later.

Spoilers for Waters of Mars and also the preview
( Buggery fuck that was creepy. )
Can't wait for Christmas *fidgets*

Also I'm now watching Top Gear, and James's hovercraft seems to be full of eels.

( Okay, I've had a minute to calm down now )

They are of course completely unrelated, but I'm still a little disapointed with the fact that so far I haven't seen anyone go anywhere with the fact that Sam supposedly died by driving his car into the canal, and Sunday's Doctor Who secial being called "The Waters of Mars"

Okay, I'm going to blame this on the fact that when I was a kid my parents wouldn't let me waste my pocket money on Pokemon cards, but I'm so very tempted by the Doctor Who Alien Armies trading card game.
Even if I never actually build up a proper collection, I'd rather like these few specific cards:

Elton Pope
Because its Marc Warren on a trading card ffs - it's not like anything else he's in has proper merchandise

Professor Lazarus
Because Gatiss is a GQMF

Luke Rattigan
...no comment

Private Ross Jenkins
Because we like Ross

Reverend Golightly
Because his expression is fucking hilarious

I already have a Harold Saxon card, which I got free from DWM (I'm way behind on that, and as a result only just got the news that Colin Baker is going to be in an episode of Hustle, which is all manner of awesome)

The 60s, so that I could watch every single episode of Doctor Who as it came out, including the ones that caught fire in the 80s or whatever it was that happened there. Then I'd hang around at least until the late 70s, for the music.

That said, if I ever have an accient that renders me comatose an I don't end up in 1973 I will be most disappointed

Two things
One, I went into HMV earlier and saw a staff member dressed as Shaun from Shaun of the Dead - awesome
Two, I got pulled off the street to do market research stuff for KitKat Senses. It's Halloween and I was given free chocolate despite being too old to trick or treat anymore - awesomer

I got this in my university email account inbox yesterday, and frankly I'm a bit too busy being amused by it to be as grossed out as I should be:

Dear all,
Thanks for your efforts with recycling so far this year but could I just
clarify something ……
They made be made from something that could be recycled… but condoms really
should go into the general waste bin, NOT the recycling one…
I think you’ll find that they are made to be used only once..
Thanks
Tony


Ah, students.

Okay, I've decide in advance that I'm going into town this Halloween, regardless of whether or not I can find anyone to go with. Taunts and jeers be damned. This decision comes largely from the fact that this year my costume is not-too-rubbish, in that not only am I fairly certain everyone who's seen the thing it comes from will be able to tell who I am, but it sort of stands up as an okay costume in its own right.

Anywho, as I may be going out alone, and therefore there may not be any photos for me to post afterwards, I took some pre-emptively (cut because the pictures are pretty big)

( The world's a mess and I just, need to rule it... )
*I have just realised how oddly proportioned that coat and those boots make me look - I seem really tall until you get to the hemline and realise just how far down my legs it comes.>

...Well, at least until the The King's Demons/Planet of Porn Fanservice Short Shorts Fire Island* box set comes out early next year anyway.

I've ordered the Sillurians/Sea Devils box set from Amazon, as well as the Time Flight/Arc of Infinity set. Once those arrive I'll have every Davison era story that's available on DVD. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that the reason I'd never seen Warriors of the Deep on DVD anywhere was because it was released as part of a set with the two Pertwee era stories - probably because I really didn't think it was all that bad an thus it didn't occur to me that it would have to be packaged with some better stories to sell.

Everyone complains about it being over lit and the Myrka being crap, but really, most of the stories from that era (Enlightenment being an exception) were over lit, and since when has it mattered that the monsters are a bit rubbish? I dunno, I think I just like it as part of the whole "death, doom, bleakness and some more death" thing that series had going on - it makes the ending of Ressurection of the Daleks make sense. Plus, I don't really watch for the monsters. For instance it always sat oddly with me that reviews of Mawdryn Undead focused quite heavily on the whole Flying Dutchman thing with Mawdryn and his zombie mutant buddies, when to me they were only like the forth or fifth most interesting thing about the story (depending on whether you count the Brig twice or not).

I think we're pretty much just waiting on two box sets now; a Mara box set with Kinda and Snakedance, and an Awakening/Frontios set (just because they'll never sell The Awakening on it's own).

Another thing I've bought (I'm in catered halls and I have no real outgoings, cut me some slack), or rather two things, are the Target novelisations of Frontios and Planet of Fire. Suddenly the collectors shop where pretty much everything interesting is for display purposes only seems a good deal less pointless. I came away from reading them with two main thoughts;
( Cut for length and ranting )

*Sorry, it's a rich area
** Think about it; an intelligent, charming, manipulative young man with a self serving attitude, a cruel sense of humour and a dark side on the verge of consuming him, who just happens to be eagerly accepted on board the TARDIS and turned towards the side of good by an incarnation of the Doctor who's having some serious Master issues (being repulsed by what his old friend has become and wanting nothing to do with him, whilst at the same time feeling guilty because he could have stopped it all from happening, that sort of thing).
Then there's the Androzani cameos, where not only is Turlough's line really kinda Master-ish (it put me in mind of the "The cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about" line from The Five Doctors), but he's also explicitly backed up by Kamelion (i.e. the Master's servant) and the Master himself shows up and proves his point. There was a crack!theory a while back that the Master in his first incarnation was ginger, which I really wish hadn't been jossed by The Sound of Drums because it would have been too bloody perfect.
I'm not entirely alone in this, I think Janet Fielding briefly made the connection on one of the commentaries *is not mad, really*

(I hate lj's spell checker - stop telling me I can't spell things the British way damnit! You Americans with your "z"s and your lack of "u"s. It doesn't like Lanzarote, any of the alien names, or half the last names of the real people I mentioned either)

Some of the comments to today's xkcd have been amusing the hell out of me - the discussion has been about airport security, and one guy said that "there's pretty much nowhere in the world where they'll let you take a bottle of water on a plane". Hah, going from Luxor to Cairo they let me take two, so long as I ran them through the scanner. What exactly the scanner was going to show is beyond me, given that it was just a slightly battered x-ray machine, and it's not as if I bought the water there, I could have had anything in that bottle.

The airport security in Egypt just sort of astounded me really. At one point I set off the metal detectors, and was allowed through with nothing more than a handwave about it being because of the buckles on my sandals. They didn't pat me down, or make me take off my shoes and go through again, they just took my word for it. I was wearing a full length opaque black skirt, I could easily have had something strapped to my leg, but no one checked because the guard thought I was "very beautiful" (his words).

That's another thing, everybody hits on you out there. I was rather relieved to get back to the professional indifference of British airport security when we got home. There's something quite unsettling about the guy who determines whether you can get your luggage home or not inquiring as to whether you're married with a hopeful look in his eyes.

Well, that about sums up my feelings on the subject. Poor lamb

Okay, I haven't actually had time to watch these yet, but I was wondering if anyone knew what the point of the "reversible covers" was. They're exactly the same on both sides.
Was it a printing error they decided to market as a special feature so it looked as though they did it on purpose?

I just found "Meganomeg" by Mega. My week is made.

For those of you who didn't grow up having to listen to this stuff in Welsh class, well, you know that pseudo hip-hop pop stuff that 5ive used to do in the late 90s? Well, it's kinda like that, only in Welsh.

It's full of "ch"s and "rh"s and "ll"s and it has a rap interlude and bits of it sound vaguely like Hindi because of the delivery and it's just... oh I have no words.

I don't even know what any of it means anymore (and bits of it never made much sense in the first place), but I don't even care.

This sort of thing is why I have iTunes, seriously.

*don't ask me why I was thinking about it...

Just got around to seeing the latest episode of HIMYM. On the plus side, Lily/Robin dream femslash, Dead Poets Society reference, and general cute awesomeness. On the downside, "Emotional equivalent of and English degree", ugh, Ted, don't remind me.

Speaking of, I'm back at uni now, first lecture/seminar tomorrow afternoon.
My new room is in old court, which is all red brick and a court lined with trees and there really ought to be guys called Archie and Sebastian lounging around the place. Also, my room is huge; bigger than any room I've ever had at home. I still haven't unpacked my boxes because it just doesn't feel like my room if I don't have to climb over or around something to get across it. Oh, and you can actually drink the water that comes out of the bedroom sinks here, which is conveniant because I'm on the second (i.e. top) floor and the kitchen is on the ground floor.

I haven't really spoken to anyone here yet. I know the guy across the landing from me is called Sam, and I briefly met a guy called Jack and a girl called Lauren, but I haven't been feeling all that sociable. Too busy having nightmares about the lack of privacy involved in hall life and watching The Five Doctors and Resurrection of the Daleks.

I already had a copy of The Five Doctors, but I went out and bought the 25th Anniversary edition for the commentaries. Stricko is just, the most enthusiastic person in the world isn't he? He can't sit still or stop talking for five minutes, and he always seems so happy too. I rather loved Phil and David talking about their respective crushes on Turlough and Lalla Ward on the hidden commentary as well.

Resurrection was actually better than I though it would be - the Tegan and Turlough doubles and the Daleks which had gone mad from the disease near the end, were creepy as hell, the ending didn't feel as rushed as people had warned me it was, and damnit if I'm not shipping Turlough/Tegan quite a bit now (that moment when they meet up after being separated for most of the story, and just sort of spend a moment touching each others arms and sighing at each other? Come on). I still don't really care aout Davros though. He just doesn't do it for me as a villain.

Ye Gods I'm having a freakout. It's not even that I'm especially nervous about the actual uni part, it's moving back into halls. See, I don't know, exactly, where I'm supposed to go to get my keys, and as minor a thing as that is, it's bugging the fuck out of me. I hate that sort of thing, not knowing exactl where to go - I'm the sort of person who, when told the have a meeting in a room they've never been to before, will go and find the room two days in advance just to be sure, even if I alread know the building it's in and have a fair idea which corridor it's in. Having to find something on the day I actually need it? Oh, that's not sitting well.


In other news, it's probably for the best that I'm missing certain parts of Five's era on DVD, because otherwise some terrible crimes against vidding would be occuring just because my brain is convinced they need to exist. I know it's selfish but could someone please do a Turlough/Five vs Tegan/Five vid set to "Girlfriend" so that I don't end up doing it? I've already made an "Accidentally in Love" vid (albeit to one of the tiniest fandoms I'm in), it's a slippery slope.

Maybe if I make one set to "Jezebel" by Chely Wright it will stop me from succumbing to the pull of Avril. Yes, that song is possibly even cheesier, and I'm still making Turlough the "other woman" in the relationship, but it's slighly less over used and damnit if I don't have a soft spot for country. May also need to make a Five era one set to "Johnny, Are You Queer?" by Josie Cotton, (it's as good an explanation for why the "no touching" thing only applied to Fivey's female companions as any).

Frankly I think I just need to use the songs up, before I get sucked into a fandom where their use would be even crackier or, worse, where people will think I'm being serious (it's why the DBZ fandom scares me - they have no sense of irony).

Icon loosely related if you squint, given that he doesn't want to be in the education system anymore either, but mostly I've just spent an unreasonable amount of time staring at that screencap and it just makes me happy. I'm not used to having age appropriate crushes, at least the fact that Stricko's about 50 now is making it less strange for me.

Kevin, my boss at the pub, has fucked off back to Cardiff or Spain or somewhere, leaving behind a flat that hasn't been cleaned since he moved in, a stack of unpaid utility bills, and two notes on the pool table - one for the owner and one for the head barman.
He owes me money, he owes the barman money, he owes another part time staff member money, he owes the owner money, he owes the brewery money, and he's blown it all on internet poker and handouts for his moronic useless son (who's about 20 and has never worked a minute in his life despite living at the pub).

I am so pissed off right now, not really on my own behalf (though having lost the two shifts worth of pay he owed me for is irritating as fuck - it was only £44 but that is beside the fucking point. Plus, you know, I'm a student, I can't really afford to loose money like that), but rather on account of Mathew (the head barman), who's basically been keeping the place running for months, is a fantastic barman and a really good friend, and who has been cheated out of something like £700 by that bastard.

If he hadn't left everyone in the lurch I'd say I was glad to see him go - he was crap to work for, never ordered enough of anything and never told any of the staff when we ran out of things, instead leaving us to discover that when we tried to serve people, could never admit when he was wrong, much less appologise to anyone, rarely paid anyone on time, expected everyone else to do his job for him... and of course because he's fucked off with no forwarding address I can say exactly what I think of him because it's not as though I could get a reference from him anyway.

*seethes*

Can I just say that I absolutely love the fact that it seems every single person who watched the last episode of HIMYM decided, without even discussing it with each other first, that Ted and Barney's doppelgangers who they're going to find by next summer are GCWOK-Ted-and-Barney. I love this fandom.

Also, finally bought The Resistance. Good Lord, Muse are not even pretending not to be the Doctor Who orchestra anymore are they? That opening track is basically the old school theme (as in the one they just kept remixing until the late 80s when they brough it that weird mess for McCoy) mashed up with Shoot the Runner (with a dash of Devil Gate Drive for good measure).