Opinion
River Song is…..
Jun 19th
If you’ve not watched the mind blowingly amazing latest episode of Doctor Who, don’t worry. I’m not going to spoil it for you! (And if you have I don’t need to, right?). My theory about the identity of River Song still holds though, with a few tantalizing lines confirming it even more in my mind.
River Song is…….
The TARDIS.
More accurately, she is the TARDIS from the future (after….. y’know… that THING happens) regrown from Amy’s Ring. That’s why she can fly the TARDIS, write Gallifreyan and keeps a dairy (her “memory bank”) that looks an awful lot like the ol’ Police Box. As she is regrown, her Chameleon circuit is working too, which is why she looks amazingly like Alex Kingston. And yes, that does mean that River Song is bigger on the inside than she is on the outside.
Don’t go there.
Want more proof?
Add an L from somewhere (I’m sure they’ll invent a middle initial or something) and River L. Song is an anagram of Lover’s Ring. Ok, it’s a stretch, but worse anagrams have been made in Doctor Who :D
In this episode she says to herself “Oh Doctor. It’s amazing I let you out” – something only the TARDIS can say!
The TARDIS is The Doctor’s constant companion, friend, ally, and has proven time and again (no pun intended) that she is utterly devoted to him. In a way, she IS his wife. The TARDIS has demonstrated her ability to create Sonic Screwdrivers which explains how she got one in Silence in the Library.
As to what on Earth she is up to, and what’s going to happen next episode, I haven’t the foggiest idea.
But I do know one thing.
It will be amazing.
In Moff, we trust.
Who is River Song, part two
Jun 19th
A while ago I posted my own theory about who the mysterious River Song is in the current run of Doctor Who. I was wrong. I was wrong in the same way that everyone who has suggested everyone from The Rani to Rose Tyler, from The Master in drag to The Doctor’s Mum to The Doctor’s Daughter is wrong. We are all wrong.
I’m say that because I have a New Theory. And it’s a good one. A doozy. It’s the only solution that fits. Unless Steven Moffat proves me wrong (again), of course :D
As with any mystery, it’s all a case of asking the right questions.
- Who is The Doctor’s constant companion more than any other, by a mile?
- Who knows more about The Doctor than anyone else, and keeps a record of all his incarnations?
- What is the significance of River Song’s diary?
- What is the significance of Rory’s engagement ring?
- Who did River Song kill? If it’s the Doctor, how?
- Who gave River Song her sonic screwdriver?
- Who should be able to fly the TARDIS better than anyone?
- What is an anagram of River Song? (I think there’s a letter missing, maybe more – if she gains a name badge saying Lt. Dr. River Song next episode, I’ll know for sure)
Out of respect for our Stateside cousins, I’m not going to spoil things and answer those questions until the end of the next episode. By then a few more pieces of the puzzle will have fallen into place, and perhaps even the answer revealed.
Pretty sure you should be able to work it out though. My blog readers are clever like that.
Like I said, it’s a doozy.
Watch this space!
For Steve
May 12th
No words, because words are so rarely enough. Your family are in my thoughts and prayers right now.
Your faith and love is an inspiration my friend. May you carry on the song that’s kept you going thus far, and find comfort knowing that you will see her again.
Rest in Peace, Virginia .
O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: “My God, how great Thou art!”
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
The Saturday morning open comments thread
May 1st
This should be a role-playing post but I’ve been too knee deep in multiple errant servers and whatnot to write. Instead, I’m going to open this post up to you, dear reader.Feel free to drop by, comment, drink my coffee and generally spread out and make yourselves feel at home.Chat about household uses for a d4, best non-combat use for a 4e Power, which dice explode the best in a microwave, and the ideal character sheet. Or anything else which takes your fancy.
The floor (or should that be battlemat) is yours.
What’s on your mind?
Flash: A thought for the day
Apr 29th
Steve Jobs said Flash is bad, so it must be true. I’ll try to remember that when I’m looking at all those Flash-enabled websites on my little netbook, watching my battery not draining away at all.
The claim that Steve Jobs is doing all this out of the goodness of his heart and isn’t going to make a single cent out of pushing for an end to Flash is a naive one, at best. Apple’s Safari (which isn’t without faults of its own) also happens to be one of the few browsers out there with a 100% Acid 3 test result. It’s fully HTML 5 compliant, in as much as anything can be fully compliant in an unproven, un-stress-tested and not fully defined technology. In comparison, Internet Explorer hovers around the 20% mark, though they’re aiming to get in the mid- 50s sometime soon!
I just tested Firefox and scored a reasonable 92% – good, but it’s still a fail. You can test your own browser, right here.
Yes, Flash is clunky, but so is the web itself, and it works. I applaud Apple wanting to push HTML 5 to the fore but given that Internet Explorer’s HTML 5 capabilities are…. well, lacking it’s a foolish web developer who would explicitly code for the one platform and not the other. Steve Jobs’ letter is a lesson in smoke and mirrors designed to sow doubt among the developer community, nothing more. One day, Flash will die a death and be replaced with something better, but we’re a long way from that point just yet. Apple is trying to boost their own importance in the browser market on the back of their latest mobile toy. Don’t be fooled! Demand a proper browser for your touch tablet, or take your wallet elsewhere!
The real question is: would you create a site which works for over 95% (IE, Firefox, Chrome and Opera) of the market share, but not on the other 5% (Safari), or vice versa?
Is that a question which really needs asking?
Who is River Song?
Apr 25th
There’s a lot of theories out there about the mystery of River Song. Is she The Rani? Is she a Time Agent and worked alongside Captain Jack in the 51st Century? Is she human, Time Lord, or something else entirely? And is she really the Doctor’s wife?
Here’s my theory, to add one more onto the heap. River Song is Lucy Saxon, wife of The Master.
Here’s my thinking. Alex Kingston revealed a teaser in an interview that River “killed the best man she ever knew” – something which Lucy Saxon did when she shot The Master in Last of the Time Lords, and she was taught how to fly the TARDIS by someone else other than The Doctor (he was busy that day, as she put it).
Lucy was last seen in The End of Time when she apparently died after sabotaging The Master’s return. But what if she didn’t die, but instead was thrown through the time-stream or captured at the last moment by Time Agents to serve sentence for the murder and re-animation of The Master. The diary she owns wasn’t originally hers, but belonged to her husband, an obsessive tome about his arch enemy – she has merely added to it over time.
She is also most likely the one who took The Master’s ring from his funeral pyre at the end of Last of the Time Lords, having travelled back in time to reclaim it. If I’m right – and that’s a big if – then it will likely have major significance in the future.
Of course, it’s equally likely that she is someone entirely new, and really is a future companion and wife of The Doctor. Only time, as they say, will tell.
Food for thought, eh?
UPDATE: I got a whole new theory, right here!
Forbidden: Role-playing the -isms
Apr 24th
There’s been a fair amount of discussion lately about sexism and racism in role-playing games. We populate worlds in our mind where chainmail bikini-clad barbarian babes battle people of a different colour for riches and glory, or so it seems if you take a simplistic and stereotypical view of the hobby. Yes, role-playing games are sexist and racist, but only if you want them to be.
Our fantasy exists because our reality shapes it. We see ourselves in our characters through a glass darkly, and they reflect something of our subconscious self. Deep inside we want to Control, Defend, Lead or Strike and that’s reflected by our choice of character class. Most of us are a bit of all four, and which class we choose depends in part on where our mood takes us. Role-playing lets us loosen the social screws a little and do things we wouldn’t normally be permitted to do in real life. Let’s face it – killing and looting is usually frowned upon in modern society, but in RPGs it’s a full time occupation.
It’s the same with racism & sexism. Yes they are wrong, but they exist in the real world and are an intrinsic part of our cultural history whether we like it or not. Our hobby lets us explore that in a way which isn’t going to get us locked up or beaten to a pulp. We can label entire races of people as being Evil; it’s up to us whether to accept that as the norm in our gameworld, or challenge it. A scenario involving a tribe of Goblins who are quite nice but just want to be left alone makes a welcome change to all that slaughter. This hobby lets us decide whether to accept the -isms of our own societies, or meet them head on.
I think the bikini-clad barbarian stereotype has worn a little thin. She’s wearing a bikini just the same as the Conan-esque male barbarian cuts his swathe wearing only a loincloth – what’s the problem? A female barbarian is an empowering figure and every bit the equal to any man. We live in a world where stick-thin-and-big-breasts is seen as “attractive” (here’s a hint: it isn’t. Give me curvy any day!), and the trope only carries that across. The fault isn’t with the fantasy world. It’s with the real one.
Talking of which, I’ve never understood how people can be offended by bare flesh. Underneath all these clothes we’re all naked, and we’d be a sorry mankind indeed if we didn’t find the naked form attractive. Beauty should be cherished, not criticised. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t cause earthquakes. It seems that if you showed a picture of a nude women slitting the throat of a man, more people would object to the nudity. Go figure.
Anyhow. Am I sexist? Probably. Racist? I dunno. My hobby lets me explore that.
And that’s a good thing, right?
Damn you DLL
Apr 23rd
They’re not dynamic. They don’t link, and don’t let you borrow any books. Yet Dynamic-Link Libraries (DLL for short) are out there, and they’re evil when they don’t work. Thankfully, most of the time they potter along doing exactly what they are supposed to; but when they fail, they tend to bring entire applications down like a crashing crashy thing.
That’s what has been happening to my usually rock solid stable DAZ Studio for the past week, and it’s all thanks to Microsoft’s implementation of version control across multiple versions of the same DLL – ie, there isn’t any. If one app happens to overwrite a DLL with an incompatible version with the same name, tough. And it’s a darned tricky thing to trace as all too often it’s not the DLL which causes the problem that’s the one shown in the error report (also another thing which Microsoft has sucked at, since ever).
Finally, I think I’ve traced the problem and one de-install of the offending app and re-install of DAZ Studio and I’m back to crash-free status once more.
I hope :D
Expect a very short Render Dump post this week folks.
Ipad? No thanks
Apr 5th
Technology excites me. There’s a part of my brain reserved for technolust, and it’s constantly on the lookout for downright cool geeky goodness. The iPad should be making all sorts of sqeeeeee noises in my mind right now, but it’s barely rated a blip on my personal geekometer. It don’t impress me much, at all.
Yes, the iPad is game-changing. It is game-changing because Apple have done it, not because Apple have done it right.
Tablet PCs have been around for quite a while, and they haven’t yet set the world on fire. Heck, they’ve barely even set a match alight. Now that Apple have entered the game I expect to see a tablet form-factor computer from every major (and quite a lot of minor) manufacturers over the next 24 months. Some will ape the iPad slavishly, though many will (hopefully) correct its deficiencies. Release a multi-tasking tablet with USB ports, an SD card slot and a camera, and I’ll take notice. The next iPad will almost certainly have some or all of those; the current release is defective by design, just so that Apple can sucker the sheep into buying another one 18 months later. You know who you are.
The iPad is constantly described as “a supersized iPhone” which it would be – if it was a phone. What does that make it? An “i”? Give the iPad a camera and Skype and it really would be game-changing in a fundamentally altering the way we use computers way rather than a following like sheep where’er Apple goes way.
As it stands, the iPad is two steps backwards. With no USB ports, lock-in to the dreadful iTunes and not even a SD card slot to its name, this is a computer – sorry, Appliance – you never truly own. Unless you’re willing to jailbreak your iPad all your apps and content are under the near-constant control and scrutiny of Apple. The word “jailbreaking” implies you’re doing something illegal – stealing something you already own. How fucked up is that?
Me, I like my netbook. It does everything the iPad does, and more. It has much the same battery life (I’ve used it for 8 hours easily without a power lead in sight), an excellent screen and even Flash works without that mythical battery drain we’ve heard so much about. I have true multi-tasking, a wide choice of applications and can easily switch between multiple Operating Systems with a reboot – no jailbreaking needed. My apps and data are my own, and I’m free to do whatever the heck I choose on it.
Yes, the iPad looks sleek and sexy out of the box. I’m betting that within 6 months 80% of them will have a coffee ring stain on the screen after they’ve been carelessly left on a table and your spouse/mom/partner/waitress has mistaken it for a shiny tea tray.
My netbook has a camera, USB ports, an SD card slot, a great keyboard and the same form factor (when folded) as an iPad. It’s an iPad++, in every respect. “There’s an app for that” says Apple. Yes, there is – it’s called The Internet. If you own an iPad I’m happy for you. But it’s not for me.
What’s more, my netbook is red. Beat that, shiny black tea tray.
