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Merry Christmas!

As the title suggests. ☺

 

Playmo animation #4

Here it is, the final one. Musical soundtrack (a bit baroque!), no captions.

 

Prezzies and stuff

From Mom, a hardback book about the history of Kanji (in French) which looks to be interesting; along with another (also in French) that translates to be "zany Tokyo"; it appears to be an account of a travel that looks at the more bizarre side of Japan. This can be funny, so long as it avoids the clichés all to often fallen into by British TV (where you would be forgiven for thinking there is a Love Hotel on every street corner and all the vending machines sell pervy stuff). One of the first photos, a photo of the instructions for how to use a toilet. Now you might be forgiven for thinking that you lift the lid, do whatever, then crank a flush lever (UK) or push a button (France). But no. This is Japan. Toilets there need instructions because on a little arm or somewhere else nearby is likely to be a selection of buttons, indicators, and knobs. Spray pressure? Seat temperature? Yikes! Although, peering at the photo in the book, I think my favourite part would be a button that appears to play a flushing sound for 25 seconds.

Amazon links (buy a dozen from here, I might earn a rusty centime):


Note the book on the right, that is not the real cover.
The real cover has pictures and stuff.

If your AdBlockPlus sunscription has blocked the above fancy links, here's a plain link to the Kanji book, and to the Toquée de Tokyo (zany Tokyo).

I also received a Sagittarius bookmark (which will be useful for the above) that is a picture of the hunter or the constellation (turn slightly to change what is seen). It says that Sagittarius people are "charming", "broad-minded", and "optimistic". Well, one out of three ain't bad, right? ☺
A Cherry soap. I have this on my bookshelf with the top wrapper open. Could explain the nice cherry smell around here.
A 3D cat puzzle. Only 18 pieces, but it looks complicated enough.
And, finally, a hand-carved wooden hippo that will go on my shelf of "interesting nik-naks".

Oh yes, a present from God too - the house didn't flood, the satellite dish is still pointing in the right direction, and we were able to go out and get some stuff for a Christmas meal yesterday.

 

[update] The Time Of The Doctor

And so another Christmas Special of Doctor Who has come to pass. It is an interesting, quirky, and scattered story to send off the Eleventh Doctor.

Viewers of BBC America (and other international syndicates) who have not yet seen the programme might want to stop reading now; for what follows is spoiler-heaven.

 

So we open with some claptrap about a special secret message summoning all of the known races and aliens to this strange little planet; the Doctor pratting around inside a Dalek ship, while holding a piece of Dalek. His new BFF appears to be a head of a Cyberman called "Handles". Riiiight.

Clara calls, needing a boyfriend for Christmas dinner. She invented one, now she needs him. This, along with a short series of nudidy jokes that are paper thin but still manage to raise a childish smirk.
And... Clara...
She does moe quite well for a three dimensional person (people not familiar with that term, just read it as "cute"). But, yet again - black tights and a short skirt. It is amazing how often this combination crops up. Even more amazing is when it changes (like the pinafore dress down on the left) it still looks alike!


I'm cute, but I almost always wear the same sort of thing!

Picking up Clara, helping to cook the turkey in the winds of time (overkill anybody?), suddenly we are looking at "The Church Of The Mainframe" which seems to be like an idea pulled from the mythology of The Matrix by a person who didn't really understand computers. With Clara in a short dark (black?) skirt and a greeny/yellow jumper. Colours change, it remains the same.

And so we are in a snowy cold looking town at night. There is a brief appearance of the Weeping Angels (those creepy statues that only move when you aren't looking) which act as a brief distraction until they are not mentioned again. They are rescued from this by the Doctor hiding a key in his wig. Not only is this a blindingly horrible Red Button Reset, but it also introduces the Doctor with his head shaved which is bound to mess with the fandom. This, of course, is lampshaded by Clara saying "got bored one night, didn't you?".


This is the correct response to seeing a guy with hair suddenly being bald.

A tower. A truth field (so you cannot lie). A town called Christmas where it is always dark and always snows. The Doctor doing stuff and horribly betraying Clara not once but twice. And yet the girl keeps coming back. Okay, he's a goofball alien Time Lord, but come on! The first time he was trying to be helpful. The second time is a direct bare faced lie. The Church is infiltrated by Daleks. The Doctor ages brilliantly. And recounting the regenerations, he points out that they forgot the John Hurt version, so he is really the 12th Doctor. This is it. End of the line. He dies here. On the planet of Trenzalor (or however it is spelled).

Of course, this is Doctor Who, so Clara talks sweetly to a crack in the wall (yes, the crack that haunted Amy Pond) to encourage the Time Lords of Gallifrey, stuck in an alternate universe, to send the mother of all Deus ex machinas to gift the Doctor with more regenerational abilities. It has been canon that the Doctor could only regenerate twelve times. This, most likely, just got retconned out of existance.

So, let's see...

  • Baldie?
  • Totally messing up the timeline...
  • ...and then the gift of more lives.
Yeah... that will get the fans in a fit of apoplexy.

The episode ends with a remembrance of Amelia Pond, and then a surprisingly quick regeneration into an old bloke who doesn't like the colour of his kidneys and doesn't know how to fly the TARDIS. Cue a perfect "oh crap!" expression from Clara:


Clara is thinking: "You're, like, really old and you can't fly this thing? We are so screwed."

 

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Last read at 17:06 on 2024/10/08.

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