We Wear The Same Bow Tie

"More of me comes out when I improvise." - Edward Hopper


Having gone to the beach for the weekend, I thought the 6 combined hours of sitting in a car would make for an excellent opportunity to catch up on a couple episodes of Pop Culture Happy Hour (and then be bored for the other four and a half hours in which I did not have another episode).


One of the people on said podcast was talking about how excited he was about Kung-fu Panda 2, and I'd seen on his Twitter feed a few days before that he apparently cried more than once during the movie. I love this for a couple of reasons.


1. This is a grown man who is legitimately excited about Kung-fu Panda, unrelated to the fact that his kids probably also wanted to see it.


2. This is a grown man who is willing to admit that not only did he cry, but that he cried during an animated movie.


I don't particularly care whether you're a person given to crying. Some are, and some aren't, and that's fine. However, it makes me very happy when people (especially guys over the age of 13) admit that they have/do, regardless of how frequently. So yay for Stephen Thompson.


There's this weird cultural thing going on where crying is associated with weakness, and fragility, and irrationality, and a lack of masculinity. Which implies that a) emotions are bad, and b) emotions are not a manly thing to have. Both of which are absolutely ridiculous.


That being said, strong emotions certainly can and do have negative side-effects. They can cloud your judgement, consume your mind, and utterly destroy your ability to empathize.


And that's what I think it is: the temporary loss of empathy. It's not that you're being irrational, strictly speaking. You've just undergone a significant shift in priorities that says "I do not freaking care what's going on in your head. I'm not even going to try to see things from your point of view, because what I'm feeling is far more important." 


It's just an evolutionary thing-- emotions are there for a reason, and our reactions to them are there for a reason too. We "irrationally" hate that which causes us pain, and we get "irrationally" upset when something we value is taken away. The hate drives us to get as far away from the pain-causer as possible, and the loss we feel drives us to replace the stolen thing- or steal it back.


Once the strong emotions subside, empathy returns, along with our "rational" mind. (Hold on...there's more to the world than just Me?) The trick is to be able to recognize what's going on, and to keep from acting on it until it's passed.


It's not a weakness to be sad, and it's not wrong to have powerful reactions sweep you off your feet. What is a weakness is to not be able to cope with it in constructive ways. Emotion is probably both the best and worst part of being human. It's perfectly natural, though, and I think that if more people really believed/accepted/understood that, there'd be less hard feelings across the board.


So I apologize for any and all past and future cases in which I have failed to empathize with any of you. I don't condemn myself for it, since I do believe that it (in the type of situation discussed above) is an unavoidable part of life, but all people deserve the respect of being viewed as a fellow person trying to make his or her way in the world. 


And because I am a massive nerd, I am now deciding that it shall be my new goal to remember that we all wear the same figurative bow tie, which is cool. Because bow ties are, and always will be.

Link: Memento Mori

"Look back, and smile on perils past." - Walter Scott


http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/04/memento-mori.html


The above link leads to an article written by Cory Doctorow that goes along with my post about generation gaps. I thought it was very interesting and brought up several good points.
Coincidentally enough, I've also been dancing around the Little Brother PDF for my Civics book report, and...I'd forgotten just how awesome that book is.


As for other awesome things: Doctor Who last night was amazing. My grandparents are visiting so my grandpa decided to watch it with us having not seen "The Impossible Astronaut." At the end he looked at us and said "Did any of you follow that?"
My youngest sister said "No."
I said "Yes."
He said "Well at least someone did! I may have fallen asleep a few times in the middle."


Don't judge him for falling asleep, though-- I overheard him discussing the episode with my dad later. :)

An Important Milestone (not really)

“Religion is a response to revelation and different people respond to revelation differently. We cannot continue to assume that each religion represents only one set of ideas…It is not just one thing. With every revelation, some people respond by making the world better and some respond by making it worse… The revelation isn’t the problem. We are.” - John Green


I like that quote. I like that an awful lot. I don't know if I agree with it 100%, but...


Today is an important day in the history of this blog as declared by Me, because today made April 2011 the first month in which I have gotten over 1000 views, which is made more exciting by the fact that it's come very close in 3 other months (December, January, and March). Not that I expect any of you to care all that much, but I thought I'd mention it. Also, thank you, since you're the ones who are responsible for that probably-irrational boost to my sense of self-importance. :)


Today is also important in that I actually did some research on my district's congressional representative (in the House) and discovered that he's actually doing a good job representing me/my views, according to the database I found. Yay for effective representative democracy!

(Although now I'm not sure what to say in my email to him for my Civics assignment-- I was intending it to be a persuasive letter, since one of the requirements is for it to be "concerning my views on an issue." Suggestions?)


In other news...


http://imnick.tumblr.com/post/3176839190


John Barrowman singing a Jack/Doctor slash-fic Wicked parody, courtesy of a friend of mine. Enough said. Go listen to it. It's seriously very, very awesome.


EDIT: I hit "Publish" and then went over to YouTube to watch the latest WheezyWaiter video and what was his about? How celebrating arbitrary milestones like numbers is a waste of time (it's his 500th video). Wow.

He's Hot When He's Being Clever

Ok, fair enough. I mostly just wanted to use that as a title for a post (although cleverness is attractive, of course). If you caught the reference, you just won today's imaginary non-prize. Congratulations.


I actually want to talk about something else.


So very, very early this morning I read this, which links to another related post I read very, very late this morning after I woke up (because I'm a teenager, which means I have weird sleeping habits.) They deal with the bloggers' experiences with mental health...problems? Issues? Conditions? I'm not sure what the politically-correct and/or most-polite term is. They deal with mental health. Let's just go with that.


I encourage all of you to read both of them, but in case you're too busy gearing up for the Doctor Who premiere (who am I kidding, you all watched it online this afternoon just like I did) to read it, I shall now quote from the end of it:


"So, hopefully by now you agree with me that I am pretty screwed up. I want you to do that not because I desire pity, which would be fairly hurtful, but because someone this screwed up can get into a PhD program, be genuinely and exuberantly happy a couple times each week, and manage rudimentary human interaction to varying degrees of success. So, if you feel screwed up too, hopefully you will agree that it is possible that the ok life is a possible outcome."


I'm not going to write a soul-bearing post like both of those brave, admirable people did. If you really want to know all of my internal insecurities and whatnot, you basically just need to find my most abstract, "philosophical" posts, and read in-between the lines. I don't use personal examples with any of those, because I don't believe a blog is a place for people to freak out and ramble about their personal problems, nor do I feel particularly comfortable writing about mine in a non-freaky-outy sort of detailed way.


This is more to say that I appreciate those posts in more ways than one, and I think they both have important messages regarding self-awareness and working through things.


Because, gosh darn it, I do feel screwed up and insecure and all of that other totally un-fun stuff, and I'm sure you do as well from time to time.


So there are my thoughts on those posts. Now for what I want to add.


I think it's important for all of us to remember that everyone else on the planet has their own strengths, weaknesses, and difficulties. Everyone else on the planet has his or her own internal conflict and pain. And we have to keep that in mind when interacting with others, take it into consideration, and be as supportive and forgiving as we can without significant damage to ourselves. "Respect others as you would have them respect you" or something of that sort.


(Off to watch the Doctor Who pre-show before watching "The Impossible Astronaut" again-- with my family, this time. Allonzy.)

"Of The Day" Montage

Another TED video for your enjoyment. That's the Video of the Day.

Quote of the Day:

"Civilization is the process of reducing the infinite to the finite." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Explanation of the Day:

Montage. That's what happens when you're sitting in a chair with your mind elsewhere all day and think of a lot of unrelated things to blog about that aren't detailed enough to warrant their own posts.


Thought of the Day:


I find it interesting that my location when writing has such an influence on the story. Writing at school, surrounded by people, makes it more centered around characters and interpersonal relationships, while here at my grandma's, the quirks of her subdivision are nudging their way into the story's scenery. At home when I'm alone in my room, there is significantly less dialogue and more introspection/narration. This is all with the same characters, and the same plot line. Does this happen to anyone else?


News of the Day:

• Someone at my school was diagnosed with TB, so they're testing everyone who has classes with him. I'm not one of those people.
• David Tennant got engaged, funnily enough to the woman who played his daughter in season 4.. Fortunately, I'm not quite old enough to be upset about it, seeing as how he's in his 30s.

*puts on the Humble Hat*


Honest Paragraph of the Day:


Also, Kenny, I want to thank you for being here to stick holes in my world and in my arguments. I like to think of myself as a broad-minded person (which is different from open-minded, although I like to think of myself as that as well), and you often help to make that perception more of a reality than a fantasy. Sorry that I don't always respond in a grateful manner (or not at all).


Recommendation of the Day:


My best friend now has a blog. Go subscribe, I COMMAND YOU. (See, I took off the Humble Hat without telling you, so now I can order you about as I please.) She's awesome.

Figment

OH LOOK! A 4TH POST TODAY!
I must be making up for the time I lost in November. Or maybe it's a snow day and I have a lot of time on my hands and a low desire to work on my homework. One of the two. But probably not the last one. 


Today I learned about a site called Figment. It's a place for teens to share and talk about their writing. It's pretty awesome. No offense to The Strand for the 21st Century.
There's contests and book reviews and all kinds of stuff.


I entered the current contest with "Thirst." And yes, there is a Doctor Who reference in there.


So have fun with that. Follow my work, and leave a link to your profile in a comment so that I can read your stuff too.

Orson Scott Card

Today I went to go see Orson Scott Card. He said that he doesn't do many signings, so I'm lucky to live so close (about 1.5 hours) away from him.
The man is brilliant. And hilarious.The best thing was how much I could identify with him-- a middle-aged man who's not my dad. Just offhand comments like: 

• "Most writers are introverts...here, I'm in control of the situation, but having dinner with a stranger?" SO TRUE. This is why I speak in English and don't in math. I'm confident in the former, and less so in the latter, plus math has right and wrong, where as English has write and support. (See what I did there? Ah, lame puns.)
• "I was once in an elevator with one of my favorite authors and didn't say a word to him- not because I was shy, but because I literally had nothing to say." That is how I feel every time I'm in the room with an author I admire. I let my dad do the talking and then build off of what he says.
• "When you're 15 and reading your 13 year old diary, you just want to burn it. But when you're 30 and reading your 13 year old diary, you love yourself. Don't burn your diaries." Well...does it count if I've scratched out lines and torn out pages?
• "You've got to understand, I keep talking because no one at home listens to me for this long anymore." Me too. Maybe that's why I blog so much.

Someone asked him what he was currently reading. He pulled out his iPod and read off a list of audio books, saying that he listened all the time, and his family had gotten to the point where they just had to tap him on the shoulder to wait for him to pause it. My dad felt very validated by this. Then he said how he read in bed all the time as well, except he's lately been watching a lot of Doctor Who on his iPod while in bed. He doesn't like the old series (which I haven't seen), loves the new stuff, and loathes the daleks. He must have ranted about daleks for at least a full minute.


He also had what I thought to be very good writing advice. In short:

• "Just keep writing your brains out all the time."
• Ignore grammar rules. Write how you speak. (But "if you're teaching English...you MAKE those kids learn grammar.")
• Don't consciously develop your style. It'll just ruin the voice you have already. (This was particularly helpful to me)
• Ignore people who give you general writing advice. Content is a different story.
• Have people read your stuff aloud to you.

When I walked in (since he started during writing club, which I left early to listen), he was talking about how the genre of science fiction is running out of "space," so SF authors are simply writing sci-fi in a fantasy setting. Example: a book where people breed dragons, but then the dragons take over. It's the basic Evil Robot story, only with dragons. I thought that was a cool idea.


When we got to the signing table, my copy of Ender's Game was made out to me, but Dad said that he didn't want the new one to be in case my sisters got jealous. So instead it reads: "To Don...Olivia's dad...and Sarah's dad...and Nicole's dad. So many paths, so little time. 12/1/10"


And I have surprisingly very little to say about the actual writing club meeting today, other than that it was very enjoyable, as always.

My Query

I'm pretty sure I've posted my query letter on here for suggestions before, but Daphne Unfeasible of http://ktliterary.com recently critiqued it, so this time I'm including her comments as well. Tell me what you think!

Dear Ms. Unfeasible,
Nearly every civilization has a coming of age rite. In the 51st century, 15 year-olds travel to the dark side of their tidal-locked planet to live without adult influence for a month.
When Terry Massey first arrives, she’s expecting to have a blast, make the friends she’s never had, and start a new life. Her first few hours are great, but then things start to take a turn for the worse. A gang of thugs is terrorizing a select few citizens for seemingly no reason at all, her new friend is furious with her, and she’s surrounded by robots who might be trying to take over the world. The only person she identifies with keeps melting away into the shadows, and by trying to find him, she only succeeds in further isolating herself from the rest of her peers within the paradise of an enormous library.
She discovers a hinting of a secret of epic proportions within that library, as well as Colin, the devilishly charming and clever boy who led her to the library in the first place. As events escalate with the unbelievably irrational behavior of the rest of their age-group— especially the thugs— Terry and Colin join forces with several tea-addicts who sound like computers and an infuriating old man with secrets of his own. Together they must discover the truth behind both the actions of their fellow citizens and the enormous conspiracy that’s been lurking in the Palace’s tower for hundreds of years. And with the thugs after them, they’d better do it fast.
THE CLOCKWORK EXPERIMENT is complete at about 83,000 words. I live in [town], North Carolina, and this is my first novel.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
O.W.

Good opening paragraph, although I think, moving on, you can be a little more specific about where Terry arrives.
Things go pretty quickly bad, I see, within a “few hours.” And the mention of the library immediately brings to mind that fabulous Doctor Who two-parter, “The Silence in the Library.” That’s a lot to live up to, there. Your language moving into paragraph three is a little rough. Can you find a better way to say “a hinting of a secret of epic proportions”? The way it’s worded now, I’m thinking that Terry may also only discover a “hinting” of Colin — although I’m curious to know if he’s the person in the previous paragraph who “keeps melting away in to the shadows.”
As you add in more details, I get a little lost, but overall, it’s something I’d definitely look at the first few pages of.
Readers, what do you think? What advice do you have for O.W.?



This is good. I agree with everything she said, actually. I just haven't been sure what to do about it.


It brings up a question, though: Ms. Unfeasible, I sent you the first few pages. What was wrong with them?


This worries me, considering certain people speak very highly of the first few pages.


Also: HA! A DOCTOR WHO REFERENCE! That, combined with the (regrettably short) nap I had earlier, combined with that I got out of school an hour early, made my day, even though it's in a semi-negative context.

To Be Their Doctor

I can pretty much guarantee that you won't be hearing from me on this blog tomorrow, even though we have a meeting.
Why?
School starts, for one thing, and then I'll be finishing Catching Fire as soon as possible and starting in on Mockingjay. No spoilers at the meeting, please.


But here's a quote for you to enjoy, taken from the website Nerdfighter Secrets.


"A lot of secrets involve people wishing The Doctor would come and take them away. But I want to be someone's Doctor. To be the one to change their life, to always be there for them when they have nothing, to know that I saved one person...and they saved me."


This site, by nature, is anonymous, so I don't know who to credit for that one.


I like this quote a lot. It shows a lot of "I am someone who can do stuff-- not someone who needs stuff done to them."
As Ezra said of the main character when I read the first few chapters of Clockwork at writing club, "It seems like she doesn't do things. Things happen to her."


I was struck by this observation at the time. Struck by how true it was. And from that point on I started to try to slowly change my language throughout the book to show her develop into more of a do-er. I hope it worked.


Also, my dad asked me yesterday if he could read Clockwork. Although he isn't part of the target audience, he is a very good writer (although he's barely written anything besides emails and computer/programming-related articles since college, as far as I know) and will appreciate it for what it is. I expect to get excellent feedback from him, as I do on all of the stories, essays, and song lyrics I show him. However, he doesn't get that email until we've finished reading The Hunger Games together, which won't be for awhile because Emily's borrowing my copy at the moment.

He Might Have To Reconsider

Got another rejection letter today, this time from an entire agency as opposed to one agent. :(
And then my mom said "Maybe it's not the query letter. Maybe it's the story. Maybe it's just too much like other stuff."
This is not the kind of stuff I need to hear from my mother, and I told her as much. I said "That's the kind of stuff that torments me late at night. You do not need to say it."
She thinks she's being realistic and helpful, but really it just depresses me and makes me worry even more than normal about the quality of the book. She hasn't read any of it.
Trying to keep my hopes from getting too high is one thing. But crushing my dreams (yeah, I'm exaggerating) is quite another.
However, I can't actually take it personally or be upset at her, because she really is just trying to help me feel better and be supportive and stuff.
But honestly. If I'm worried about the quality of my query letter, you don't tell me my plot might suck in hopes of making me feel better. It's like stabbing someone to take their mind off the pain of their minor headache. Except I'm exaggerating again.


I also read the worst fan fic ever. It was sent to me by my friend with the note that people only read it simply because it's terrible.
And oh boy was it ever.
My list of specific things in the first 22 chapters (they're short, and I was sort of sucked into the bad-ness. I stopped after 22.) could go on for pages. 


And for the Doctor Who fans...
I put a comment on one of wizard rocker Alex Carpenter's YouTube videos telling him that it had occurred to me that I could see him and Captain Jack Harkness as a couple. Then I apologized because that was kind of a weird thing to say. His reply was this:


"I'm pretty straight, but for captain jack...i might have to reconsider...haha"


Haha indeed, Alex. (*cough* I KNEW IT *cough*)
I thought it was funny, anyways.

The Big Bang

Very good. A lot of things I liked a lot.

I need to find a way to watch the confidentials...

A Doctor Who Rumor

I read on Tor.com that Johnny Depp will be playing the Doctor in the new Doctor Who movie scheduled for release in 2012. I don't know whether or not that's true.

Thoughts?

The Doctor is on Chat Roulette

Okay, so I'm not going to post my lyrics...yet.
But I did find a hilarious "Chat Roulette conversation" between these two people and the Doctor on YouTube.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg7zCkDJ1vc&feature=player_embedded

Driver's Ed update: had three quizzes today (someone got a 15 on one). Just as bad as yesterday. Didn't even get to drive afterwards (I had an orthodontist appointment).

Hurry Up, Guys. :D

I blog a lot. And now you're thinking something along the lines of "Well duh you have almost as many posts in June as there have been days in the month so far!"
Now, see, about that. I'm off of school for the summer, so I've been at home a lot more, and working on Clockwork a lot more, and thinking a lot more, so I have a lot more to say.

I saw a private street called "Awesome Street" today. Seriously. It's not on Google Maps though. I checked.

"Every breath I take brings me closer to my last, but if I stop breathing, death will come all the more swiftly."

Yesterday, I believe it was, I finished a round of editing and decided it was in a good enough condition at this point that I finally sent it to all of you in writing club. If you didn't receive it, that is a problem. Tell me if that happened. I also sent a revised edition of my query letter to the people who gave me feedback on it originally.

So today, I wasn't sure what to do from 9 to 12, as I don't really want to go back through for another editing swipe until you people have sent me comments and suggestions. I spent some of that time eating breakfast. Then I spent an hour (yes, an entire hour) converting italicized words to underlined words. I believe that is how agents and editors like manuscripts.
Then I shut down my computer and finished my breakfast and wished you lot would hurry up. I mean, 400 pages can be read in like five minutes, right? What's the hold up?

Well, regardless of how long it takes you, I hope you enjoy it.

My progress through For The Win is astonishingly slow, considering that I'm enjoying it.

That's about it. I could go on for awhile longer, but none of the things I could tell you are relevant, so I suppose I'll log off and wait for the new Doctor Who episode to be posted. I'll leave you with a link to a fascinating YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxIL4thb3NA&playnext_from=TL&videos=1HZS8CF2UBs&feature=sub

The Lodger & Voice & Some Artwork

I just watched "The Lodger," and I was very pleased with it. I haven't been liking this season of Doctor Who so much since the angels episodes, but I thought this one was great. It broke free of the normal mold of an episode (at least a little), and showed off the Doctor's quirks. Normally we're used to his oddities, as we see him all the time, but when compared so closely with "normal" humans, the differences were more apparent.

I'll be bringing the first chapter of the rewrite of Ishaera to the meeting tomorrow (the one I wrote for my CW exam). I got a 93 on the exam (have I mentioned that on here?), which isn't bad, and I got lots of good feedback from my teacher.

I hate when people talk about the "voice" of a story or novel. I know it's important, but the term is so vague. When you're writing in first person, the voice sort of comes naturally, assuming you're good at sticking to your character's personality. Third person is a bit harder, as the darkly sardonic writer will sneak in little snide comments that don't belong there and other such things. Not that that doesn't happen in 1st person, but I think it's less prone to occur.
I'm subscribed to this blog called "SF Writers," and the most recent post was about voice, and the differences between sci-fi and fantasy when it comes to voice. (On a semi-related note: what the heck is a space opera?)
Is voice pacing? Is voice the personality of the narration? Is it both?

Here's a picture I created back in November when I first started writing Clockwork. I used it as my "cover art" on the NaNoWriMo website (my username's jalawood, if you want to add me as a buddy), even though it definitely won't be the actual cover art. It took me about five minutes to make.

TV Channels & Anecdotes & Jokes

You may or may not know that all of the cable channels just got re-numbered.

So while I was waiting for soccer to start (I ended up not watching much of it, but that's another story), I was flipping through the little cheat-sheet thing they sent us that says what channel is which number.
I figured I'd look for BBC America, since although I watch Doctor Who online, sometimes I watch the old episodes Saturday nights @ 9.
BBCAM used to be channel 116, or 235 HD.
Now all we get is BBC On Demand (on which, funnily enough, the first thing that comes up to be demanded is the most recent 5 episodes of Doctor Who).
So we get porn channels (they were listed on the brochure), but not BBC America. This aggravates me.
My dad insists that we must get it somewhere, but I looked over the entire thing...and it's not there.
So I'm just stuck with Netflix Streaming and that other site. Which is fine, but annoying. Where am I supposed to get the Confidentials from? They're the one making-of series I actually enjoy. **grumbles**

I haven't watched the latest episode yet, speaking of which, as my grandparents are here and they've been looking at pictures from their trip to Ireland on the big TV (which is hooked up to the MacMini, which is how we watch the episodes).

At my cousin's graduation party last night, there was a life-size cardboard cutout of Jacob Black waiting in the front hall. Scared the crap out of me. Apparently my other cousin's boyfriend bought it just to creep her out. He's been appearing in random places in the house (like in the dark at the top of the stairs) all week.
Finally he was bothering everyone so much that we turned him around so he was facing their piano room, upon which my cousins' aunt on their dad's side screamed "NOT THERE! I'M SLEEPING IN THERE!!!"
HA.

Another story:
While my grandparents were in Ireland, they were going to visit the Blarney Stone and kiss it, and their bus driver said "Don't kiss it. They whiz on it." A little while later, he said "Only joking. They don't whiz on it."
After they were back in the bus, he said "So how many people kissed the Blarney Stone?" People raised their hands. "They really do whiz on it."

There's no knowing whether or not something like that's true, is there?

Joke:

A man joins a monastery in which the monks don't talk at all, except for once a year when they go to see the Abbot. A week or two later, that time of year comes around. The Abbot says "So how's it going for you here?" The man says "The bedrooms are cold." The Abbot nods, and the man leaves and returns to his prayers. A year later, the Abbot says "So how's it going for you here?" The man says "The food sucks." The Abbot nods, and the man leaves and returns to his prayers. After the man's second year there, the Abbot says "So how's it going for you here?" The man says "I quit." The Abbot snorts and says "Good riddance! Every time you open your mouth, you're bitching and moaning!"

I hope this post made you laugh.

Theories About River Song

Instead of talking about last weekend's Doctor Who episode, I'm going to share with you the two theories about River Song my dad and I came up with this week.

1. River Song is the Doctor.

Problems with this:

• She's a woman (and we've seen no evidence that time lords switch genders upon regeneration)
• Why does she call the Doctor "sweetheart" if she's him?
• Where is her TARDIS?
• She says she killed a man, who sounds like the Doctor.
• Why is she an archaeologist? The Doctor "points and laughs at archaeologists."

Things that support this:

• The Doctor says (to Father Octavian?) "That's her diary," and she says "Our diary."
• She says she killed a man, who sounds like the Doctor, and we know that regeneration is a lot like dying.
• She's "Doctor River Song." Cover-up?
• It explains why she knows Secret Time Lord Code and how to fly the TARDIS.

2. River is the TARDIS in human form.

Problems with this:

• How did she become human?
• Is that even likely?
• Where's the Doctor?

Things that support this:

• It explains why she knows Secret Time Lord Code and how to fly the TARDIS.
• It makes sense for her to call the Doctor "sweetheart."
• She killed a man, who sounds like the Doctor, which explains where he is.

Thoughts? Which is more likely? What are your theories?

The Victory of the Daleks

Of course the Daleks had to come back. They always do. I like the spin of them pretending to work for Britain to lure the Doctor there. But why are the new, better ones different colors? That kinda bothers me. The white one made me think of Stormtroopers, which matched the very Star Wars-esque action scene. The Dalek jump to Hyperspace looked an awful lot like the jump to light-speed, too.

I'm sure the Doctor would have blown up the TARDIS if necessary...but I guessed from the first that the "self destruct" was a piece of food.

It's really a mark of how much he's become "better" that he was originally willing to blow up Gallifrey to destroy the Daleks...but couldn't do it again (with Earth).

The bit with the TARDIS key was great.

And, I'm finishing this post several days later, so I have no idea what I was planning on saying after that. Sorry.

Another crack in time! 

Four More Reviews

 I've watched a lot of new movies in the past two days, so I think I'll review them for you.

Earlier today, my family and I went to see How To Train Your Dragon. A review on http://www.shurtugal.com (the Eragon fansite that I have in my Google Reader) said it was the "movie Eragon should have been," which I agree with. This movie was great. I highly recommend it. I laughed not almost constantly, but almost almost constantly, for the first few minutes of the movie. The rest was also funny.

When we got home, I checked my iPod to see the time in London (it was almost 10 pm), decided that Doctor Who might be on YouTube by then (it was) and then we watched that.
Looking back, I think I enjoyed "The Eleventh Hour" more than this one, even though I want to give this one a better review.
I very much like the idea of "Protest," "Forget," and "Abdicate" buttons.  The space whale is cool, even though it is completely impossible for such a thing to evolve. Since when has sci-fi ever been realistic?
At first, I thought the woman who turned out to be the queen was River Song, and then my dad speculated that she might have been one of Martha's descendants...but of course, she wasn't.
I was a bit surprised when the Doctor wanted to take Amy home. She was just acting out of care for him.
And Winston Churchill's my eighth cousin 5 times removed. My cousin knows the Doctor! :D

Last night, we watched Bedazzled (witht Brendan Frazer). The plot was really predictable, but I enjoyed the twists put on each of his wishes. It was also very funny. In all: not the greatest movie, but not un-worth watching. It was fun watching him act so many different roles in the same movie.

After finishing that movie, we debated Spiderman, and X-Men, but then ended up popping in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, which was hilarious, albeit very awkward to watch with others. Fortunately, my mom had gone to bed already. :) Watching movies/TV shows with excessive amounts of vomit seems to be something I've done much more than usual recently (Doctor Who, this, and the only episode of South Park I've ever watched: The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs, which makes fun of writing and censorship).


I'm almost finished typing The Other Oz, and I'll probably edit Clockwork for you tomorrow morning.

Rebuttle on the New Doctor Who

I'm writing this as a new post because I don't know if people read the comments.
Take note: some things I say in this post might be different from my last one, since the episode has since sunk in more and such.

CLARIFICATIONS:

I've absolutely no problem with the aliens being cheesy. Actually, when Prisoner 0 was in the form of the humans, it wasn't cheesy at all. Just the eyes and the snake.

I did notice that bit. That bit was excellent. I had to move so my back was against the wall. I agree that not all the episodes should be scary. It was just that this one started out seeming like it was going to be a scary one...and then it became progressively less so. If it had started out less scary and then built up, or the scariness had been spread out more evenly, that would have been better.

When I say (about Matt Smith as the Doctor) "I like him," I don't mean "meh." I mean I genuinely like him as the Doctor, and I think he will be quite good. During the last half, I spent a fair amount of time replying to stuff he said, which is a good sign when it comes to characters (yes, I talk to TV characters. Sorry.). Yes, he did have many great lines. My initial reaction to him was less than he deserved (see? I was wrong about my prejudice having evaporated). But he's still missing...something. Not sure what.



I didn't hate those episodes, so I don't have that reason. "The Girl In the Fireplace" is one of my favorites also. I hadn't realized Moffat wrote that one too. I haven't watched any of the old episodes (not completely, anyway-just fragments) so I don't have that either.

Oh, well, of course it's the best since Stolen Earth.

Actually, you know what? Writing this post has made me hopelessly confused as to what I actually think of the episode, so maybe all of you should just ignore me. I'll stop reviewing things, and just watch them. Okay?

But one thing is for sure: I'm really looking forward to next weekend and the new episode.