Friday, April 30, 2010

Dr. Who getting more interesting

I have not been a Dr Who fan. It's just been a bit too campy for me. Torchwood, I liked better. However, being a sci fi fan, I am aware of the show, the various Doctors and companions, and have seen some episodes with Rose, Martha, and Donna.

In my search for more sci fi to watch -- I have blankets to crochet! TV is best companion for that -- I've been watching the new Dr. Who season. And have to say I may actually make this appointment TV.

I liked Amy right away but need more time for Matt Smith as the Doctor to warm up to. Liked ep 2 "The Beast Below" and Liz 10 and the whole idea of having the countries fly in space and the social control aspect of protesting and controlling. The ending was a bit twee but overall, it may be the episode that turns me into a DW fan.

Then on io9.com today I read this:

Amy's Choice, ep 7: It's been five years since Amy Pond last travelled with the Doctor, and when he lands in her garden again, on the eve of the birth of her first child, she finds herself facing a heartbreaking choice – one that will change her life for ever.

I love this concept. I imagine this is what happens: Amy goes traveling with the Doctor and has great adventures. Then she comes back to Leadworth, marries Rory as planned, lives her life with Rory and then periodically goes of with the Doctor, but comes back to resume her life with Rory.

It's like she gets to hit the pause button on her real life, goes off to have this exciting parallel life with the Doctor, comes back to Leadworth, un-pauses and resumes her real life. Don't we all wish we could do that? But we can't so escape into hobbies and entertainment. I love the meta-ness of it, if that's what's going on.

However apparently in ep 7 Amy's 2 lives collide. It'll be really interesting to see what happens.

Again, not a Whovian, but this is a new tack for the Companions, right? Rose Tyler separates from the Doctor because something happened that they have to live in separate alternate universes. Kind of like Lyra and Will at the end of the Golden Compass trilogy. Broke my heart. Hope I didn't spoil that for anyone. However I saw an ep where she came back and warned Donna Noble... Still, Rose: one linear life. As linear as things go in Whoverse.

Martha Jones goes to work for UNIT and continues this world-saving work. Goes to Torchwood occasionally. Martha: one linear life

Captain Jack goes to Torchwood and continues this world-saving work. Okay, man who can never die, old as dirt, and Timelord who can never die. Why are they not a couple? Capt Jack and Capt John were for years. I want to see the eps that have Jack and the Doctor and see that arc play out. Netflix here I come. Jack: one linear life

Donna Noble levels up to awesome and part Timelord, then has her memory of it all wiped. Talk about a reset button. Donna: one linear life

So as far as I know, this is the first time with the modern era of Dr Who that the companion gets parallel lives. Looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

And given that Amy's Choice apparently involves children, I'll probably watch Amy's choice thinking of Torchwood: Children of Earth.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Crochet lace

I have it in my head to make a crochet lace something from the green laceweight yarn, colorway River, I got from Creativelydyed.net. It's 1300 yards of fine yarn.

I tried knitting shawls like Clapotis but the yarns kind of splitty. And I'm just in a crocheting mood. Still working on the crochet stripey blanket, but have new yarn, must play with it now!

I've started a Swiss cheese scarf from the red/orange/yellow, colorway Earthbirth, Lisa Souza sock yarn.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Stitches South 2010

Went to Stitches South for the first time today. Stitches is a knitting expo, with classes and a marketplace. I went for the shopping and above is a picture of my haul.

I went prepared. I took a limited amount of cash and when it was gone, I went home.

The highlight, other than the yarn I bought, was meeting Rachel Herron. That's her book up there. I first learned about her through her blog Yarnagogo.com. She's a 911 operator, knitter, and now author.

The Lisa Souza yarn will become a scarf someday. The green Creatively Dyed yarn will become a shawl for my mother in law. It's 1300 yards of fingering weight, almost laceweight yarn.

All this just in time too because I'm almost finished with a Noro multidirectional scarf and will need another portable project. Not that a huge honking ball of yarn is portable. Winding that skein will be quite the project for tomorrow.



BSG vs. Firefly/Serenity

Yesterday, the Syfy channel was showing Serenity, which I own and I have kind of started rewatching Firefly.

I also have been Netflixing Battlestar Galactica. Yesterday I had an interesting moment of:
"Do I watch Serenity because it's on but I've seen it before many times. Or should I put in the BSG DVD that I just got and which I have not yet seen?"

I ended up watching BSG.

There are some parallels, such as both shows are about a rag-tag crew (one much, much bigger than the other) living on the edge, both running from something.

Where Firefly/Serenity wins is the humor. BSG is just grim and grey, always inside the ships, only sunlight is flashes where Gaius and Number Six are talking back at his house on the lake pre-apocalypse. F/S at least visits planets and gets to go out into the sun.

Plus F/S has Wash for levity. When I first watched Firefly, I marathoned it and then again for the commentary. I loved Wash and Zoe right away. And as I rewatch Firefly, my affection for Jayne has increased. Adam Baldwin does a great job as Jayne, being sly, blunt, crass, but with hidden depths. And funny too.

Where BSG wins is with the plot. What's going to happen? Will they find Earth? Who are the Cylons? When and how will we find out? What in the world is up with Number Six in Gaius's head? What does Six see in Gaius? It does ask much bigger questions than Firefly.

Plus there's just more of BSG with several seasons, movies like Razor and the Plan, and now the prequel Caprica. I'm sure in an alternate world, there are multiple seasons of Firefly, but alas in the one I'm in, there's only the one season.

I am looking forward in BSG to seeing how women are portrayed. Sure the President is a woman and the military is mixed gender. But the continuation of the human race does depend on baby-making and in BSG, it's still women who do that. Plus in the episode I just watched about the prison ship, Cally, who was part of the delegation to recruit prisoners for a work detail, was taken by a prisoner and it's implied that he was going to rape her. That's still a danger that women face that men do not.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Battlestar Galactica: the Miniseries

Well, now that Caprica is on hiatus, I've started BSG. Yesterday I watched the miniseries and can I say: Hello, Apollo!

Because BSG is over, I'm doing the DVD marathons via Netflix. Amazon.com had a good sale on DVDs and I thought about getting BSG but then realized, hey, I haven't even watched any of it yet!

As I watched the miniseries, I tried not to compare it to Caprica or to anything about future episodes. On the one hand, it was easy not to, because the story itself is compelling and there's lots going on. On the other hand, as some things popped up, like Number Six and religion, I thought about the role of the Soldiers of the One on Caprica and the controversial last episode of BSG. I haven't seen any BSG until now, but as one who reads TV reviews and pop culture, I was aware of some of the things going on.

After watching the miniseries, I surfed the net for info on BSG, like at TVTropes.org and Wikipedia. Some of what I found was surprising, and of course all of it were spoilers. But there's several seasons of BSG and mini-series and between seasons movies, that there's so much that I doubt that any preknowledge I have about any particular plot point will diminish my enjoyment.
After all, the point of watching shows, like reading books, is seeing how things unfold, not just what happens in the end.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Found a new blog

Work has been stressful, as I'm sure everyone's is. But today I found the new blog called Hyperbole and a Half which is smart, funny, and illustrated.

Enjoy!

Friday, April 9, 2010

happy stripes

This is what I'm doing with the crochet squares that didn't like. Just random stripes in single crochet. DK weight yarn, size G hook.

It was partly inspired by this:
It's my screensaver on my netbook. I took it from Jane Brocket's post here.

I know I keep using the same bright, primary colors over and over but I just love them. And so appropriate for spring.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

to the Georgia Supreme Court and dressy exercise clothes.

Tomorrow Husband's arguing a case before the Ga Supreme Court. It's his third time doing so, but my first time going to see him do his thing.

To fortify him, I'm making a roasted chicken with leeks and rutabagas.

In other news in my life, I visited REI yesterday. It's the first time I've been to the outdoor gear store to actually get anything for me.

Now that we live downtown, we've been walking more. For example last summer we regularly walk 2.2 miles one way to the baseball stadium. Lately, now that spring is here, we've been walking over a mile one way to dinner.

So I thought I'd get some clothes made specifically for this activity. I am not kidding. Among my junk mail recently was a catalogue from Athleta.com, a company that makes women's clothes for tennis, yoga, golf, swimming, hiking/adventuring, running/walking, and nicer stuff for hitting the town after a day for roughing it. It's a subsidiary of Gap, which is nice because I bought a pricy skort at Athleta and a cheap skirt from Old Navy which will be delivered together.

I also got a dress with built in support because I may walk 2 miles for exercise, but there is a restaurant stop in the middle.

Now I'm on the hunt for dressy exercise clothes. Hence the trip to REI. On their website, I saw some good candidates but wanted to try them on first.

I walked in and immediately felt out of place. I don't do any camping, rock climbing, etc. However, there was clothes shopping to be done so I forged on. I did find some skirts but not the dress I came for. Tomorrow I have a meeting near another REI so I'll stop in afterwards.

Fortunately with the popularity of yoga and people running errands after yoga/exercise class, there are dressier exercise clothes out there. I will be using mine for walking around a totally urban environment, that's all.

Tomorrow will be quite a day: Ga Supreme Court, immigrant rights meeting, REI.