Cathryn

WTF EVEN Doctor Who. This post got so long I did not even proofread because my brain was pudding by the end. Fair warning.

( Spoilers for all of series six thus far including today's ep, discussion of the prequel for next week's episode, and a whole bunch of speculation. )

Oh, hey, I'm alive!

More importantly, I have committed fic. Are there any Britishers on the flist who'd like to Britpick a three thousand word Doctor Who/Sherlock crossover that has nothing to do with Sherlock being a secret Time Lord?

Guys guys. All that stuff you've heard about How to Train Your Dragon being awesome? Totally true. Like, it's not just a good animated movie, or a fun kids' movie. It's an awesome movie. I just got back from it a little while ago and I already want to see it again, Scottish Vikings and all. (Because like the entire cast is Scottish, that's why.) Oh, and David Tennant is apparently in it, which I didn't know until the end credits because obvs he is not using his Doctor accent, so keep an ear out for that too.

Now I am off to rewatch yesterday's Doctor Who, because watching something when you've missed a night's sleep does not make for the best comprehension or retention. (Although, the bit with the four-second thing? Yeah, I was wide awake.)

That . . . that was everything I've been hoping for since the announcement that Steven Moffat was taking over.

I'm too overwhelmed for anything more than this: series five is going to be amazing.

I am working nine-hour shifts four days in a row (after being accustomed to two four-hour shifts a week during the semester, mind you; my tolerance is shot) and so do not have mental energy for much and shan't for the next few days.

I did, however, have to stir myself to share this retroactively obnoxious macro, which I found in a post from April 2008:

( spoilers for Doctor Who, The End of Time Parts I and II )

Oh my god, the calling out gamble.

You know. When you're awake two hours before your shift starts, and you suspect you might be sick, but it's hard to tell what's genuine ick and what's the product of, like, sleep deprivation or whatever.

(I am not hungover. I chose the cheap wine expressly because I knew from experience that it would make me stupid enough to drink the entire bottle, but that it wasn't strong enough for that bottle to tip me over from tipsy to drunk. It's a science.)

And since you have two hours before said shift starts, there's only so much time to evaluate the situation before it becomes Not Cool to call out. So what do you do?

Well, I can't stop fucking coughing, and I work in food service, where that kinda thing doesn't look so good. So I took a chance and called out shortly after I coughed long and hard enough to bring my first couple bites of breakfast back up. So far, this seems to have been the right choice.

It also puts visiting Dad right out of the question, just in case. He's doing a lot better, by the way; his blood sugar is coming down and all that good stuff. Thanks to the people who replied to my post about it. *hugs* I have an awesome flist.

Unrelated inquiry: Does yesterday's Doctor Who make more sense if you actually remember most of the stuff from, say, the first forty-five minutes? I kind of doubt that to be the case, but I thought I'd ask.

Okay, so. Have a proper post-Christmas update, plus random thoughts. In bullet format!

* I don't do a Christmas Haul List these days, because I'm lazy and I don't think you guys care that much, so here are the highlights that might actually be interesting:

Series one and four of Doctor Who! Amazon had a one-day sale like a month ago where the seasons were something like thirty-five bucks each, which is much better than usual freaking eighty or whatever ridiculous amount every single place I've been to charges for them. I let my mom know, told her which ones I wanted most, and voila. I may buy series three for myself out of completist urges (and because it's also awesome, but on that particular day I prioritized Nine and Donna over Martha; sorry, Martha), but I'll skip series two unless I find it really really cheap someday, because there aren't enough eps I rewatch relatively often for it to be worth the money.

An iCarly calendar. Which only sotto_voice cares about, but still. XD

ELECTRIC TEA KETTLE. These things are not exactly ubiquitous in the States, and I've wanted one for so long. Plan for when I have extra money again: buy lots of delicious tea. ♥

* My mom kind of collects performances of "O Holy Night," so I played her the John Barrowman version I stumbled across a while ago. She loved it, was interested when I told her he was a trained stage singer and there was more Barrowman where that came from (oh my god SHE HAS NO IDEA), and long story short too late, it looks like I'll be legally purchasing a copy of Another Side after all. And probably Reflections from Broadway. She has a birthday next month, after all.

And, thanks to comments Mom made about useful birthday gifts and the boringness thereof, I think I will pack them in a box of tampons. I firmly believe Barrowman would approve. (Come on, you know he would.)

* One of our holiday traditions includes watching Love, Actually while wrapping gifts late Christmas Eve. I will have to add this to the list (short, but slowly growing) of things that The Thick of It has, uh, enhanced, because during the scene at the pageant where the curtain rises on the Prime Minister kissing the assistant chick, I was giggling helplessly at the thought of the bricks Malcolm Tucker would shit over that. I think this is a crossover that needs to happen.

* YULETIDE. My recipient adored hir fic and was one of those able to get a comment through before everything asplode, and it was a long awesome comment and I can't wait for the reveal so I can reply. XD The fic I received was an adorable Sam-centered iCarly fic, which was just what I wanted. It is a fandom crying out for non-shippy Samfic.

* And finally, regarding last night's Doctor Who: My first though upon becoming conscious enough to have thoughts this morning was, "Oh my god, what did I watch last night?"

. . . so I got my usual monthly text telling me about how I have to pay my cell phone bill to continue receiving service and stuff, just in case that concept is beyond me. Usually, I don't look at those too closely, but right now I am writing a really boring paper so EVERYTHING that is not that paper is getting extra attention.

The From field, in its entirety:

"456."

YOU GUYS MY CELL PHONE SERVICE IS WITH THE 456. Now what do I do? Is the British government going to try to kill me? Should I keep a close eye on my eight-year-old brother?

More importantly: should I stick with the 456 or take my chances with the Archangel network?

OMG today. Today is new The Thick of It (which I have watched, and which was excellent, as usual; I may post to say more later, but I haven't the time now), FINALLY some new Doctor Who, AND I woke up this morning to an e-mail informing me that there was new iCarly available for download.

Plus my mom and I are going to see 2012, which promises to be utterly ridiculous.

Today is made of geeky win. ♥

Everything I have watched this weekend was AWESOME. I did finally get hold of both parts of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and watched that, and it was awesome. I figured out how to watch the ready-to-burn-to-DVD conversion of the 2006 revival of Evita bootleg I've had for a while (turns out you don't need to do the actual burning to watch it with the DVD Player program, as long as you've got all the right files, which . . . duh, oops), and it was awesome. And I just watched 3x02 of The Thick of It, and it was FUCKING AWESOME.

And I have to read a huge chunk of Jude the Obscure today (I have a movie I am also going to watch, with Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet; it and Sparknotes are Plan B if I run out of time/brain/will to live), so it is obvsly very important that I tell you in detail about how awesome each awesome thing was.

( The Sarah Jane Adventures, 3x05 and 3x06: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith. With random Children of Earth spoilage toward the end, because I can never seem to leave that alone when I talk about SJA. )

*

( Evita! This is the production with Elena Rogers, Matt Rawle, and most importantly, Philip Quast. )

Man, I think I just depressed myself right out of an adequate discussion of The Thick of It. To say nothing of how long it's taken to write this so far, man, my brain hurts. (I refuse to proofread.) I'm not sure I'm up to it in general, anyway - the show has changed in really interesting ways with a new Minister, and a woman at that, and what seems to be a subtle difference in Malcolm Tucker's explosions. He's still funny as hell, but there's been a moment or two where Peter Capaldi's performance is more rawly furious than I recall it being before; it's much easier to see that Malcolm is going to give himself a stroke long before he has a chance to retire. I think I want to see how the show progresses for a couple more episodes, how the dynamic in the office firms up with the new member, and maybe rewatch the previous episodes before I go in depth. I do think that, so far, the show has only gotten better, and I will leave you with a Malcolmism that I choose to interpret as a subtle shout-out to Children of Earth (paraphrased a bit):

"Do you know, Malcolm? How to best clear up a paper jam?"

". . . do I know how to best clear up a paper jam? How about you try killing a kid an hour until it sorts itself out?"

(. . . I so badly crave a fusion crackfic with Malcolm replacing John Frobisher for the events of CoE. I cannot even.)