Doctor Who... Now What?

Well, I've caught up watching Doctor Who episodes. I didn't really think I was going to actually manage to do that but I did. Well at least with the newer stuff.

I've seen ALL televised versions of Doctor Who from the 8th Doctor through the 11th Doctor's current episode that aired yesterday, Season 6, Episode 10, "The Girl Who Waited." Starting with that craptastic 1996 TV movie simply called Doctor Who but often tagged "Enemy Within" by fans. And then the entire new series starting in 2005 with the 9th Doctor (Christoper Eccleston) Season 1, Episode 1 "Rose". Though all Doctors and companions, 10th Doctor (David Tennant), 11th Doctor (Matt Smith), Rose Tyler, Jackie and Pete Tyler, Micky Smith a.k.a. Ricky a.k.a. Micky the idiot, Captain Jack Harkness a.k.a. The Face of Boe and the Torchwood 3 team from Cardiff, U.N.I.T., former prime minister Harriet Jones, Matha Jones, her sister Tish and their brother and mom and family, Astrid Peth, Lady Christina, Donna Noble, her mom and granddad Wilfred Mott, the return of Sarah Jane Smith & K-9, Mr. Smith, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song a.k.a. Mel a.k.a. Melody Pond, Winston Churchill, The Daleks, Cybermen, The Master, The High Council of the Time Lords, Adipose, Sontarans, Weeping Angels, Ood, The Silence, Judoon, Silurians, Hath, Vashta Nerada, and a hundred others I can't even remember from the battle of Canary Wharf to the Pandorica, past, present, and future. I've seen all the holiday and seasonal specials, all the animated versions including "Dreamland" and "Infinite Quest". Have also watched all of Torchwood including the two normal seasons, the 5 part "Children of Earth" and the 10 part "Miracle Day".

So, now what? I grew up watching 4th Doctor (Tom Baker) mostly and some of the first 3 Doctors in repeats and such. I guess I need to watch Doctors 5-7? Somehow I imagine those as sucking since the series sort of died for 12ish years or something after them (not counting the stupid 1996 movie). I'm tempted to go back to Season 1, Episode 1 and start over and watch ALL of it again... But, that was like a lot. I figure if you add it all together both Doctor Who and Torchwood and specials it's over 100 episodes easily. Torchwood alone is 41 episodes and there's 69 from Season 1-5, plus 10 so far in season 6, plus the specials and animated. So, 120+ hours roughly. It was all so freaking awesome. I cried like a baby through most of it with the companions and friends coming and going, very emotional. Hence, a lot of it sort of blurred together. Especially back to the 9th and 10th Doctors, it blurs for me and is hard to recall which one did what, or which companion was where when. Also, that first time through was confusing figuring out how and more significantly when Torchwood fit in to the Doctor's timeline. And I'm still confused over Capt. Jack's entire history and time line. Thing is, a lot of what made those episodes great was not having any clue of the bizarre twists. One of the only shows I've ever seen that constantly catches me unprepared where I thought I knew what was going on and suddenly something totally different and unexpected would happen and completely change every thought I had up to that point. Watching it a second time, already knowing the twists and turns and how it's going to go might really make rewatching it kinda crappy.

As much as I like Matt Smith, I do miss David Tennant a lot. He was so much cooler. The 11th Doctor is insane. Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor is just way over the top. Show is so much darker now, too dark. And it's not like when we changed from 9th Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) to 10th Doctor (David Tennant). Going from 10th to 11th we got all new companions, all the old ones gone forever, Sarah Jane Smith actually died in real life so she's definitely not coming back. Even the writers and production crew are all different. The theme music and introduction and even the logo all different. The TARDIS is new both inside and out. He dresses different, sonic screwdriver is different, different habits and terminology and everything. 9th and 10th Doctors were so similar. I mean we went from "Fantastic" to "Brillaint". What does 11th Doctor say? "Fezes are cool." "Bow ties are cool." I mean wth is that? lol And I quite miss "Allons-y", "Molto bene", "What!? What? What???", "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry.", "ooooh yes!". All the 11th Doctors expressions are weird. I mean, "Fish fingers and custard", seriously? And the 11th Doctor is too out of control, he thinks he's god now. He's chased off entire armadas with fleets from his worst enemies over 908ish years by telling them who he is and that they should let someone else try to kill him first. He's too cold, too crazy. I do still like the new show but it's not what it was with Doctors 9 and 10 in the Russel T. Davies years.

I do want to add this little bit about Torchwood, a quote copied from the Wikipedia entry:

Torchwood explores several themes in its narrative, in particular LGBT themes. Various characters are portrayed as sexually fluid; through those characters, the series examines homosexual and bisexual relationships. The programme also addresses issues around existentialism, the nature of human life and the absence of a traditional afterlife, and the corrupting nature of power.

That also holds true for Doctor Who. I would just like to say you can lock me in a phone box with the 10th Doctor (David Tennant) and companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) any day! rofl

September...

Well, July was just about the best month ever! August, mostly frustrating and annoying, still quite a bit of fun though. September however is already looking like it's going to suck pretty bad. All I see for this month is a lot of legal and medical crap, a lot of helping my mom and dealing with a house that's falling apart. And who knows what else.

Month starts out with one of my best friends birthdays. Someone I pretty much grew up with. Known him for 22+ years. Today's his 35th birthday and we can't even celebrate because he got into some trouble. Stupid trouble, stupid situation, all because of alcohol. It's sad, I keep thinking of him on his birthday unable to celebrate with friends and family, unable to wake up or go to sleep when he wants, unable to go where he wants, unable to eat what he wants, or even watch TV or see a movie that he wants. Extremely upsetting and not a thing I can do about it. Happy birthday Rodney, hope to see you again soon...

On the plus side, October is looking to be an AWESOME month, if I make it that far!

Doctor Who

Ok, I seem to have officially gone Doctor Who crazy! I grew up watching Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor Who on PBS back when we only had like channels, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 17, 23, 29, 33, 39, 51. And most signed off at night with the national anthem, long time ago, getting old lol. But in those days there wasn't a whole lot to watch that was actually intellectually stimulating and not just mindless dribble like Hee-Haw or Lawrence Welk. At night when the cartoons and muppet style shows were over it was either go to sleep, watch news, or PBS. And it was there I watched Doctor Who, Red Dwarf, the original Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, Dark Shadows, Monty Python and Benny Hill. That right there should explain a lot about how I grew up to have the personality I have, where I think too much and find a joke in everything.

Anyhow, somewhere in the 80's Doctor Who kinda faded away. With the success of Star Wars movies, E.T., Close Encounters, and a million others from Starman to TRON; Doctor Who kinda fell by the wayside. I remember in the '90s, I believe 1996, there was a Doctor Who TV movie with a lot of hype. I believe it was a Sci-Fi channel special or some network maybe. Lots of hype, was excited, thought it was going to make a huge comeback. Sadly though, the movie pretty much sucked. I remember nothing but bits and pieces of it now and will watch it again but that kinda killed Doctor Who for me in my mind it was gone. Hadn't seen it in years and years on TV and all they came back with was a crappy movie, kinda like what happened to Lost in Space.

I knew there was a new series that had started in 2005 but I didn't pay it much mind or intend to watch it. Had no idea if it was even on any of the stations I had at that time. In the last two years I've seen Doctor Who everywhere! Tons of places both online and real life. From stuff sold online at ThinkGeek or Entertainment Earth to real life WalMart or Toys R Us. T-shirts on most of the big shirt sites like JINX. I started to get kinda curious but was like, 777 episodes, 48 years, too much. Seemed kinda overwhelming to even try to check it out now. I know most of the other huge Sci-Fi and Fantasy franchises have, in considerably less time than 48 years, grown to be huge and complicated and involved. I kept thinking about Star Wars or Star Trek or even Lord of the Rings or Stargate. And how many years and all the sub-stories and how involved they've become and figured I'd just skip Doctor Who like I did the new Battlestar Galactica and Firefly and some of the other newer and fairly popular franchises.

Then, Comcast finally pushed our last button so-to-speak and we ditched them. When we switched to DirecTV the stations I was most excited about were Cartoon Network, Disney XD (cause of the new TRON Uprising coming soon), and BBC America. I found myself watching BBCA like nonstop. And then one day I wandered onto an eleventh Doctor episode with Matt Smith. He was popping up and down the stairs through time telling himself what he was doing and giving things to people in the past and taking them out of their pockets in the present and then he saw himself die and fall down the stairs before he even reached the top and I was like whoa OMG this is awesome. Very rarely, in fact, next to never does a time travel type of show or anything like that confuse me. I mean things like the Matrix or Inception or many of the Trek episodes, heck even Back to the Future, none of those kind of things were ever remotely confusing. The what's real what isn't, what happened in what order, and how did this happen back then based on what hasn't happened yet, all that kinda stuff always been easy for me to understand usually before it's ever fully explained. This however was one of the first times I sat there like WTH just happened? Still I think about that episode and it makes no sense. He doesn't know what he's doing until he tells himself to do it and the only way he knows to tell himself what to do is because he's left himself a note that he hasn't even written yet but how'd he know what to write to tell himself what to do if he hasn't done it yet? There's no start. It's the chicken and the egg times infinity. I was hooked immediately.

Since then I went back and started with the new series, season 1 , episode 1, the ninth Doctor and one of my favorites despite him only having like 12 or 14 episodes. I've since watched all the ninth Doctor episodes, about 2/3 of the tenth Doctor and a few random eleventh Doctor episodes and I can say for fact that this show is AMAZING! The stories are so well written. Especially the ones by Russel T. Davies. I think I like Doctor 9 the best than 11 than 10, despite the popularity of the tenth doctor and the amount of episodes he's been in, I just like 9 and 11 more. And it's not the special effects or any of that that makes the show good. The effects are mostly lame with a few CGI backdrops here and there. But the stories are really, really, well written. I've cried through probably 3/4 of them at least. They're so emotional. You really come to realize how alone the Doctor is and every time you start to really like one of his companions or even him, they die, or move on, or he regenerates into a new incarnation, or something happens. The whole point being that time keeps going no matter how good or bad everything else around you gets, time and the universe keep going.

I'd guarantee that anyone I know that likes Sci-Fi, no matter how little or how much, watches the first three episodes with the ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and you'll be hooked. That's 2005, series 1, episode 1 "Rose", episode 2 "The End of the World, episode 3 "Unquiet Dead". Watch those and tell me you don't LOVE the show at that point.

Brief Update

Haven't blogged in awhile. Life has been pretty unbelievably crazy lately. A lot of it is rather personal and private but this is what I can say.

This year has been nuts. First I had more than a few long lost friends return into my life. Then my dad gave me his 2009 Honda Accord. Then we put the dog to sleep making this the first time in my life I don't own a dog. Then my best friend runs into someone that was able to help me find doctors and help I needed. A great many things have happened since then.

I wish I could elaborate more but the majority of it is in fact too private a matter to discuss here. Suffice to say my entire life has changed within the last 2 to 3 months in particular. July 13th currently stands as the new happiest day of my life so far. I've had little to no time for gaming or facebook stuff due to all the real life things happening. There's been parties, birthdays, conventions, doctors, something every day just about. I almost feel like everything before this year was just a bad dream.

Just within this last week the washer and dryer broke, the ceiling caved in, the bathroom light broke, the cable TV went out leading to another fight with Comcast that then led to us getting DirecTV. We got a fine for too much crap in the back yard. Cat had kittens right in front of us in the middle of all this while it was raining! I mean seriously, it's like wth else can happen right?

As I posted once a week or two ago on facebook; life really is like a roller coaster! Once it gets going there's a lot of ups and downs but mostly it just goes really fast. You can't steer and there's no way to slow it down or speed it up. All you can really do is enjoy the ride, maybe scream, and hope you don't puke along the way. The only thing with me though is that my ups have been like Mt. Everest in the Himalayas and my downs have been like Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.

Overall it's been quite a ride and far from over.

Unconventional "Quirky" Workout

So, I'm almost embarrassed to give out my secret since it's kind of... um... quirky. =) But I was at the doctor two days ago and I have now officially lost 15 pounds in 2 months. How? Heh, well, let's start at the beginning.

About 18ish years ago I had my first real encounter with a serious exercise routine that I pieced together from various sources. It was difficult and tedious and boring but it worked. After my years of serious hardcore drugs I had stopped exercising amongst other things. Then I started getting really sick and that went on for nearly a decade. By the time all this ended I was WAY out of shape. As of early 2010 I had gotten to the point where standing up was difficult. Walking to the mailbox wore me out for the rest of the day. Lifting anything was a challenge.

Finally, over the last year I got fed up with a lot of things in my life in a serious way. So I started out just stretching a lot. All the time really. I'd be stopped at a red light and stretch my neck. I'd be drinking something from the fridge and stretch my legs bending them at the knee so that my heel would hit my butt. Little things like that. Then I started some basic exercising through the day. Like doing calf raises while brushing my teeth or curling the gallon of milk once or twice before putting it away.

Luckily there's a good part to having exercised years ago. An old friend of mine who was a fitness freak explained it to me once and I never forgot it, mostly because it made perfect sense. It's easier to build strength, muscle and flexibility back up to where you once were than it is to start from scratch. Works like this from what I understood. Imagine your muscles as 5 strings (just to be simple and make up a number that's way wrong but easier for example). As you exercise those get as big as they can and do as much as they can. Your body then creates more strings per muscle that also get larger and so forth. Now say you're up to 10 little string things and you stop exercising. They lose their size and shrink but you don't go back to 5, there's still gonna be 10. So when you start up again you already have that part going for you, just have to build up what was already there to get back to where you were. Now of course moving further beyond the point you were is again difficult. However, lucky for me, that time 18ish years ago I was in really good shape. I mean my legs were like no body fat and strong. I could walk in 5 inch heels all night and dance and walk some more for 12+ hours without problems. I could run, jump and climb quite well by the mid 1990s. So all I wanted to do was get back to anywhere close to what I was. Which theoretically should not be so difficult.

Ok, so what was my initial problem when starting up actual exercise last year? After I got past the basic stuff again and was able to actually do more than one squat straight to the ground where I would stay lmao. Well, I've changed a LOT in those last 18 years and the same old exercise routine I use to do was not working. I couldn't get motivated to do it and it was boring and tedious and the more I did it the less I wanted to. Which is the exact opposite result I wanted.

So, I decided to look at it in a new light and go in a new direction. I decided to go for what would be fun, what would be cool. What would likely lead to me being able to do things outside of exercising because of exercising...

Well this is what I came up with. And the first person to laugh will get bitch slapped into next week. Started doing this occasionally since last year but got on a 3 times a week minimum schedule just these last 2 months when I realized that I was gaining strength, stamina and flexibility but not losing weight. Since then I have lost 15 pounds.

For aerobics, stamina, speed, I decided the most fun thing is to dance a lot like a maniac. Not just what would be regular dancing but over the top jumping around and stuff like a total nut. This works surprisingly well for few reasons. First off, since it's not a set routine I can do as much or as little as I want for as long or short as I want to whatever music I feel like at the time. That gets me past the boredom and tedium part. Secondly, this is something useful beyond just exercise as it will lead me back into being able to actually dance when and if the situation arises which is more than likely with current events in my life. On average I can get through 3 songs with me in hyper spaz mode. And if I feel like it sometimes I will just find a decent music video and try to copy it like a little kid might or something. Hyper spaz mode is clearly better exercise though lol.

For strength, flexibility, agility, I came up with something... well odd. Even after doing it for months and finding it works, I myself still find it kinda odd. I've been copying combat moves from movies and tv shows. Yes you heard me. All those moves you see and think, "damn that looked cool." That stuff, for the record, is NOT easy! In fact, the first many times I attempt something new I can't even get it right once lol. What moves, what movies? You name it, Sucker Punch just got added to the line up, Milla Jovovich as both Alice from Resident Evil and Leeloo Minai Lekarariba-Laminai-Tchai Ekbat De Sebat (yes I felt the need to type her full name!) from Fifth Element, Scarlett Johanssen as Natasha Romonoff a.k.a. Black Widow Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. from Iron Man 2, Olivia Wilde as Quorra in TRON Legacy, Ashley Scott as Helena Kyle a.k.a. Huntress from Birds of Prey, and a whole lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Laugh if you want but let me tell you, you jump off of something and try to do either the Sucker Punch landing, the Quorra in the End of Line Club landing or the Black Widow pseudo split during that big fight scene in IM2. Then once you get it right do it again 20 times and tell me that don't make your muscles scream, "oh shit!" Then follow that up with anything involving a katana. I actually own several dozen weapons including a katana, a real one not a plastic prop piece of crap. By real I mean heavy as hell, ivory and gold and sharp enough to screw yourself up if you aren't careful. Great way to lose that flabby bottom of upper arms. Swing that shit around a few times. Nunchaku are also great upper body exercise. And I happen to actually be proficient with them, was trained by a friend like 15 years ago, have had them about 25 years though. Then get some throwing knives, lots of them. After you have some heavy enough weapons go look up or learn what a kata is and memorize a few or do like I have done and make some up based on the above movies. Personally, I made up a few little routines based off the movies since the film's editing ruins a full fight scene most the time. I went not for what made sense as a martial arts move, or for defense or whatever one might normally learn and went for the moves I thought looked coolest.

Which brings me to the next part. Like the dancing this will eventually pay off beyond exercise. When? Future conventions and stuff of course! I fully intend to pwn the costume contest next year at Florida Supercon, mark my words. I didn't watch the actual contest live while I was there but have watched the vids and seen the pics of this year's and last year's. There's one common flaw with 99% of the cosplay costume contest entries I have seen. Even some of the ones with the best costumes fall into this 99%. They don't act! There's almost no roleplay and the little I've seen is poorly done or otherwise lame. There was a really amazing Wolverine & Phoenix combo I saw for the 2010 one where they looked the part and had the poses and attitude but clearly only for a second for the pics because you can see them elsewhere in costume and out of character! To me this is blasphemy. I am a firm believer in people staying in character if they're in costume. Also strongly believe that people should not try to cosplay a character that they don't fit. For example, I would never do Baby Doll from Sucker Punch because I'm way too tall, and just not shaped right. Now, I could do Sweet Pea and probably even Rocket with a wig. Anyhow, I've rambled off topic as usual.

I guess that brings me to the end. I usually have some kind of ending to my posts but not sure what to say here. I kinda went off on a random cosplay tangent and then sort of just finished. Short of it is, dancing around like a damn spaz, usually to Madonna, combined with mimicking super hero moves from movies and tv shows has led to me losing 15 pounds in 2 months. Take it however you want and laugh at my absurd quirky methods but the facts and results speak for themselves if you ask me.

The World Ended an Hour Ago?

So many things I can say about this, both funny and true.

First off, what was this even based on? I mean this is at least the fourth time in my lifetime that I'm aware of that the world was supposed to end. Ever hear of the boy that cried wolf or chicken little? When and if it ever happens no one will be ready. Not only because people are usually just not prepared for anything, but because so many people have cried wolf so many times throughout history.

Secondly, how would you know if the world was ending? Seriously, every belief, religion, and individual has their own idea of how the end will come. Most just assume it's gonna be some huge thing that will be blindingly obvious and everyone will just know immediately. But the world is ending. The world has been ending since it's creation, it's just how the universe and everything in it works. From the very first second of everything, whether you believe in a big bang, or a deity, from the very first nano second of existence everyone and everything has been heading towards the end. It's called time. You can only be headed towards the end. Unless someone's invented time travel which I'm unaware of.

Here's a thought. Maybe it did end? Maybe the world ended hundreds, thousands, millions even billions of years ago and this is hell? Can you prove that it isn't? Seriously, prove to me that this isn't hell. You can't!

I saw no earthquakes, no birds or snakes, and rumor has it that Lenny Bruce was indeed afraid!

So, let's say the world hasn't ended. Let's say, it's going to end next year (lol). Well, yeah, ok, so? What exactly is anyone going to do about it? Can't stop it. And exactly how do you prepare for the end of the world? Clean underwear and a flashlight ain't gonna do a whole lot. I mean do you make sure to pee before it happens? What exactly is anyone expected to do in preparation for such an event? Personally, I was playing FarmVille when the world ended this time. And will likely be raiding in some MMO if it ever really does happen.

On a related note, a volcano has erupted in Iceland today causing something like 50 small earthquakes... wait... what? um... birds, snakes? Who is Lenny Bruce anyway?!? O.o

REVIEW - Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (NO SPOILERS)

I wanted to post this a few days ago but between exhaustion and lack of what to really say I am only just now getting to this.

IMDB Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

The fourth in Disney's Pirates movies. I managed to be lucky enough to see this on Tues. May 17, 2011, 3 days before release. A friend of mine got us in with the press.

Lots of strange happenings and going ons before the movie which I'd love to get into but for the most part you had to really be there to appreciate the amount of weird in the air that night. Let's just say between "free popcorn lady", "dragonball z lady", and some screaming pirates in VERY nice outfits, it was certainly, um, memorable. lol

Now, for the movie, hard to say a lot without ruining the story. I will say this though, sadly, it was my least favorite of the four movies. Yes, it was still hilarious. Yes it is worth seeing if you are a fan of these movies or Johnny Depp. Yes, Johnny Depp in IMAX 3D is awesome. My friend described my blabbering description of the movie as me attempting to say it was too linear. There was basically one story the whole movie and no subplots or diversity to the story. It had much less special effects and much less of an overall magical feel than the previous movies.

And they got rid of far too many of the old cast. Not only is there no Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and no Elizabeth Swan (Keira Knightley) but all the old characters were basically gone. There was of course no Davy Jones, no Norrington, no Weatherby Swan, no Bootstrap, or Tia Dalma (the voodoo lady), or the two funny guys the skinny one with the wooden eye that knew everything or his chubby goofy partner, whatever their names were. What your left with is basically, Capt. Jack Sparrow (Jonny Depp) and his first mate Joshamee Gibbs (Kevin McNally), Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and his British crew, Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and his first mate Angelica (Penelope Cruz). All basically doing the same thing heading the same way. And there is also a Spanish fleet that you see for maybe five minutes total in the movie.

It had a few exciting scenes but all-in-all it was kind of boring compared to all three other Pirates movies. That's not to say that the few exciting scenes aren't good.

Also, the 3D effect was not used as much as it could've been. I mean it didn't have the same kind of 3D awesomeness as say TRON Legacy. Can only even think of two very short scenes that really used the 3D effect for more than just for background depth.

Overall I'd say it was still a good movie, just not as good as the first three. But still far better than most movies out there. Worth seeing. Not necessarily a "must see in 3D" type of movie. Am pretty sure the 2D version of this would've been just as good.

One last little word on the strange occurrences prior to the movie. I don't know if it was a full moon or if these are regular people to the early premier movie showings or what the deal was but man there was some, odd people there. The screaming pirates were the more normal ones. Very unique crowd. As for those pirates, they had some awesome costumes. Clearly they spent hundreds if not thousands some of them. Very impressive, and yet annoying to me that the one time I go to a movie without some kind of cosplay larp thing going on and there's tons of people dressed up! I mean seriously, where are these people when I go dressed up to movies like TRON or Star Wars or Star Trek or the upcoming several superhero movies? Dangit! lmao