Digital Dreams
Hi. I still use LJ, follow my friends and similar, but I've moved my main host to Dreamwidth now, and am crossposting everything to here, but asking people to comment there.
Mat Bowles.
It's still fully interoperative, the OpenID comment functions there are good and improving, and I can follow everything from both sites easily.
Mat Bowles.
It's still fully interoperative, the OpenID comment functions there are good and improving, and I can follow everything from both sites easily.
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I have, naturally, chosen a Doctor Who theme to my replacement images—feel free to replace them with something else if you wish. I forget where I got the original code for to do this, it's heavily updated now, but I'd like to credit the author, so if you know, gimme a link?
Anyway. Dreamwidth users should go to the DW Custom CSS page and paste the code into the big box.
Livejournal users should go to the LJ Custom CSS page and, go on, have a guess...
Yup, copy and paste the code into the box. One little caveat—it's replacing images taken from l-stat.livejournal.com, if LJ changes their CDN again, then the URL might change and the code'll stop working, I'll update it as soon as I know to, it's likely to be a simple change the letter hack (it used to be p-stat.*)
The Colin icon is taken from
allah_sulu's Ten Doctor's. If you want to use different images, then replacing the image location is fairly easy, just make sure you also change the dimensions in the 'padding' area, the first two are effectively height and width. I
appeal a bit).As always, feel free to link or comment with questions, etc.
This entry was originally posted at http://matgb.dreamwidth.org/361968.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
- ( The announcement of the new Doctor Who )
- 19:25 Dear ITV: spending a fortune advertising the start time of your new series wih posters everywhere works better if you GET THE TIME RIGHT. #
- ( Blow by blow reaction to the farce that is Demons )
Microblogging using LoudTwitter and Twitter.
matgb_twitter is there if you're mad enough.pickwick has more on the choicePoll #1324685 The new Doctor
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 33
Ruby in the Smoke
Party Animals
a 26 year old actor playing a 900+ year old character
Incredibly long drawn out taunting announcement
BBC news management of the speculation
View Answers
We didn't get close
6 (20.7%)
I was convinced it was Paterson 17 (58.6%)
Well done those PR types 9 (31.0%)
Bastard and gits the lot of them 17 (58.6%)
And
whouk has doe a different bio Matt Smith is Doctor WhoStill, in no way can he be described as a Pretty Boy, right?
( Voting now closed, we were wrong. And robbed. )
As always, you need to be logged in to vote, Non-LJers almost certainly have some sort of OpenID they can use, LMK if you want me to find the link to the how to I wrote.
1. Does it have at least two women in it,See? How easy is that to fulfil as an objective? Everything should pass that one, right? Shame it's not true. Shame that, in reality, a huge amount of stuff, including stuff with strong female lead characters, fails it. Even authors that consciously try to ensure their work isn't sexist manage to fail it regularly, as Charlie Stross has found out. It seems though, that despite many of the writers gender neutrality failings, Doctor Who doesn't do too badly, even taking into account the added complication of the significant central character being male.
2. Who [at some point] talk to each other,
3. About something besides a man.
Of course, the test isn't perfect—there are some perfectly good films where none of the characters are realistic, male or female, and in some it would be innapropriate to try to fulfil it. But for most shows or films, that are supposedley 'realistic', don't you think it should be a fairly normal thing to manage? Charlie's conclusion goes further than I think I would, but he's probably not too far off[2]:
The current decade is characterized by ... a socially conservative culture, of retreat from liberalism, and a strong anti-feminist backlash. Our popular media, far from being the bastions of liberal values ... are actually belwethers of popular culture, ... reflecting our culture's normative values back at us ... What they're showing this decade is really rather disturbing if you happen to agree with the core feminist ideological belief that women are real people too, not just baby factories and sex objects.Given that I watch a lot less TV than most people, and even fewer films, is he right?
TV has always been bad ... but of late, the messages coming at us out of the mass media are nothing short of toxic. If movies and TV objectified people of colour the way they do women, the only reasonable conclusion one could draw would be that a concerted propaganda campaign was under way to return us to the unquestioned institutional racism of the 1950s.
[1] Or scary, or just Plain Wrong, depending on how bad the film or show in question actually is. I'm pretty sure it was
innerbrat that first made me aware of it.[2] I'm excising a lot of text from this quote, marked by elipses, I do think the whole post is worth reading in its own right though.
Meh. Watched it twice now. But when I went to fill in the
diggerdydum reaction poll, the "what was the best bit?" question? Completely stumped me.Sure, there were some nice set pieces, some funny bits and similar, but nothing stood out and made me go "cool!". Combine that with the Return of the King style multiple endings and you've got an extended episode with enough plot for about 30 minutes.
Dear Rusty, in your next job, can you learn how to write a climax and an ending please? Your set ups are great, it's just, well, meh.
Can't be arsed thinking up a reaction poll, plan to do a whole season poll tomorrow, what'd you lot think?
( SPOILER! (really, lots of spoiler) )Overall, I enjoyed the show, but I enjoyed the penultimate show last season as well. This is Rusty's last ever finale, and I refer my honourable friends to the opinions expressed this time last year.
ETA: My friend the astrophysicist says: Basically, doing this with a planet will screw it up but he still enjoyed it.
It'll be a nice complement to his short form awards. You lot definitely liked the likely winner this year anyway.
ETA: El Reg has managed to sum up my view of Rusty's term in office quite well, so here's a link.
In other news, I am not well. Neither is SB—we've caught whatever bug Teh Shrub had last week. Consequently I'm barely reading entries and have no energy to comment much (or reply to a few comments). Normal service may be resumed if I can get a good nights sleep.
- 19:29 so the next Doctor Who spin off is... #
Microblogging using LoudTwitter and Twitter.
matgb_twitter is there if you're mad enough.- 18:27 is watching Doctor Who, and hoping his laptop and WiFi will stop crashing. #
- 18:31 trying to not be horribly cynical. Honest. But if Donna could stop repeating things three times it'd help. #
Microblogging using LoudTwitter and Twitter.
matgb_twitter is there if you're mad enough.So, well, here's a poll for the first three episodes so far.
( The Good/Bad reaction post O'Doom... )
As usual, I really want to like it, but I'm just getting jaded. I really like Tennant as a bloke in the Confidentials, I just dislike the way he plays the Doctor. I don't like Tate at all, and never have. Planet of the Ood was better than the previous two, and that it had ( SPOILER! ) and ( SPOILER! ) is cool. I shall watch it again, but I'm not sure I'm watching out of anything other than a sense of obligation and a hope it'll get better.
Still, next week has ( SPOILER! ). They can't mess that up. Can they?
( Cut for your sanity and because it's a point by point thing... )
I guess it wasn't awful, I think overall I would've enjoyed it if I could get past my dislike of Tate and Tennant's Pretty!Boy! smugness. Ah well, others have enjoyed it. For a more balanced view, with actual knowledge and analysis, Pen's review is rather good.
Microblogging by SMS, using LoudTwitter and Twitter.
- 12:03 waking up and getting ready to go to Leeds. Not sure what the plan is after that but Leeds is a good start. #
- 14:03 scared by the huge crowd in Scarbrough, not queueing for pizza, but Whitelocks had a table, yay! Leeds very busy. #
- 18:09 wishing Inspector Sands would get his arse to Platform 7 so they turn the bloody message off #
- 22:49 watching The Mind Robber. Zoe really does have a fine arse. #
Microblogging by SMS, using LoudTwitter and Twitter.
We wandered a bit after that, I wanted to get hold of a book. Smiths didn't have it, but they did have a nice pile of DVDs on offer and, well, we couldn't resist, so more classic Who[1] and a few other things, including a boxed set of wooden board games[3]. Waterstone's didn't have it either, but they did have an import of Android's Dream so that's ok. We decided that out of Borders and Waterstone's, Waterstone's wins, could've spent all day there, easily. Instead we just spent money we don't really have. Ah well, books are never bad.
So, given she's off galivanting in York and I'm not in the mood to go back out, it's me, the dogs, a wide screen TV and a glass (or three) of whisky. After a nice long bath that is. What should I watch first then?
Poll #1162622 DVD watching plans
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15
What would you watch tonight?
View Answers
Essential research for my next post on Liberal Conspiracy 2 (15.4%)
Bug Eyed Monsters destroy Earth 3 (23.1%)
Zoe's arse in that spangly catsuit 8 (61.5%)
A review of the Thundercats DVDs we bought last time:
View Answers
Write it Mat, go on! 11 (73.3%)
Nah, you can't write reviews anyway. 1 (6.7%)
Thundercats? Why would I want to read a kids cartoon review? 2 (13.3%)
guido_was_taken 1 (6.7%)
[1] And some 5th Doctor stuff, does that count as "classic"?
[2] our first proper 'date' as it happens
[3] Does anyone actually play backgammon properly? Never actually tried it.
( Here there be spoilers )
In case it's not obvious from the above, I thought it started well, had some great ideas, then, as usual with RTD's stuff, turned into an OTT "we're so cool" festival of silliness. It might be that the Doctor's messiah/god complex will be a plot point for the next season, but that's the only excuse for doing it in two episodes in a row. Good Xmas day entertainment? Possibly, but as usual, sorry Rusty, C-, Could Do Better.
[1] For those reading this via a different feed (like as a note on Facebook), the bulk of the entry is a Livejournal poll, to vote in it you need either an account or to login using any OpenID. Facebookers can use the Identitude application, but if you've got a Wordpress.com, Typekey, Technorati, AOL or other OpenID provider account you can use that if you want. Blogger users will need to add code to their template—can tell you how if you want or you can follow this simple walkthrough.
- 20:03 thinking Rusty Davies needs beating around the head and told to knock off the mawkish sentimentality #
Look, it's better than me texting LJ directly when I'm bored, right? Plus, y'know, microblogging, it's all the rage donchaknow. LoudTwitter
innerbrat and ms_ntropy have a "Hugh Jackman list", I'm now declaring SB and I have an "Alan Rickman list", because his version is oh so much better...I suspect she's going to have an objection, but, y'know, negotiating positions...
Words from Dr Who, idea by
calapine, with a background by anabel_icons—I liked this when I first saw it, but she'd messed up the spelling, I animated it but messed up. I was said by Hartnell in The Daleks' Master Plan (reviewed here by nwhyte, a fairly high google result for the phrase), and is thus cool.Animated by me, original art by SJGames—I've just always liked it, but the old version was a bit too fast and fairly static, now I've figured out how to do more frames, why not? NB, when I use it from now on I'll use the 'Goth' keyword, the 'Goth Rome' is merely there for backwards compatibility...
Russian intellectual catechism, from a t-shirt by New Statesman magazine—This comes back to my hatred of the UK libel laws, John Major, then Prime Minister, sued the New Statesman for printing an article asserting he wasn't having an affair with his caterer. The suit was spurious, and it was eventually dropped, but not until after the distributors and printers (because they can get sued to, as can a paperboy) settled out of court, and the Staggers indemnity insurance wasn't good enough.
A few more still to do, but I think I like animating quote icons like this, need to sort the timing out a little on these but overall I'm happy. Opinions?
ETA: Above images are updated versions after feedback, they'll probably get messed around with again.
Now onto some Google Külness. Google Mars. It's like Google Maps, but on Mars! Really does bring into relief what KSTR meant when he talked about the great northern sea. After that, How to Make Gmail/Gcal Rock; I especially like the open a compose window in the sidebar bookmarklet, very handy.
Things that make you proud to be British that you'll miss when overseas. Note to the colonials, inhabitants of rebel provinces and other types reading this; yes, we really are that weird.
autopope fanboying (again). Charlie has 15 minutes of fame (and a few more years to follow) with an article on the BBC technology website about the future of history and how we're only just leaving the Dark Ages. Follow up interview on BBC Radio Wales on the Adam Walton show, about half an hour in, it'll be on Listen again for the next 7 days from at some point later this evening, I caught all but the first minute or so.Hmm, still lots of Doctor Who wank throughout fandom, so instead I bring you The Empty Goth, and a useful translation phrasebook for any Doctor Who forum (or in fact pretty much any BB ever, as I rarely go to Who forums and I recognise 9/10s of the idiocies). That last was via pretty much everyone already, but you never know. What do you mean what wank?
judge_death has the full story. Sort of.Last up, the Origins Awards, including a win for
jonhodgson and Deadlands: Reloaded, which makes them double plus good. Which means I have to use a Fineas icon for this post in celebration, it's not like I'm short of them.ps. Ignore this link, it's not here. Oh, alright, go have a look.
devils_kitchen proves that political party websites don't have to look like something from the late '90s with his build of the UKIP Ealing site for the by-election. Ouch, I just linked to UKIP approvingly. I'll go and repent now—the content remains crap you'll be pleased to know.Feeds
Introspection
There probably ought to be a Creative Commons licence in here somewhere but in the meantime consider this permission to quote me (link) & link to what I write.
If you decide to keep reading, please do say hello, let me know where you found me from, etc. I promise not to bite (well, unless you want me to...)
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