Peebles' Perfectly Pointless Popular Prattle - Random Banter #211

[LaZodiac]

Welp, I'm lactose intolerant. Explains all the reflux stuff that was going on, and why I'd get so gassy when I have milk. Now I have to go two weeks without *any* milk or dairy products before even starting lactase pills. At least I know why I've been having the symptoms that I've been having.

As for Star Wars being sci-fi, it's easy to see why people would think that, with all of the future technology like laser guns and spaceships, and the fact that it's set in space. However, people duel using magic energy swords and control objects using a magic system called "The Force", so I'd say it's Science Fantasy.

True suffering

Yeah Star Wars is 100% science fantasy. Star Trek is Sci-fi, usually, but sometimes is fantasy. Also, regarding Dr Who and Torchwood and stuff, all I know about either is that Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who.

[Taet]

Wait I lost a quote again. What is going on here?

I figured it out! They were not quotes at all. I was just going to say hello to LadyTialait and INoKnowNames and VincentTakeda and offer them tea. Then we will know what side of the tea and coffee table to put them on.

Everyone in here is speaking nonsense, and not the good sort that can responded to in kind, but the bad sort that requires specific responses to draw out a further response.

Nertz.

But then you put in new nonsense in in a cookie. And then everything was good.

Well, the topic of Dr Who has at least sparked some back and forth, but yeah. Kind of a sad state of affairs.

It stifles conversation. It's draining to have to fight an uphill battle to have one in a thread ostensibly about them. It is, I suspect, the reason the old thread lasted for over two months instead of being burnt through in a week or two as the older RBs were.

Oh.

Because I cannot keep up with those conversations. To quote and cut and quote and cut and quote and cut again. An hour of work. Just plain work. That gets pushed aside in ten minutes with another post that goes on for pages. That is what I think is draining and an uphill battle. So I put in even more short and small pieces. Pieces I thought would fix the problem and not make it worse for other people.

So I pushed them out before. And now they push me out. Fair.

In fact, it's such a fine art that they've made a sport out of it. It's called tea duelling and the purpose is to be the last to lift your cookie out of the tea, but if it crumbles, you're out.

Call it "handcrumb". Because the handegg joke about football.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

True suffering

Yeah Star Wars is 100% science fantasy. Star Trek is Sci-fi, usually, but sometimes is fantasy. Also, regarding Dr Who and Torchwood and stuff, all I know about either is that Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who.

I had no idea...

*mindblown*

[Taet]

And here is the last lost quote I gave up on. In a new answer box?

Well maybe instead of insulting us all by calling our favoured conversation topic 'nonsense' you could actually try and have a conversation about something you can talk about. That is, after all, what this thread is for.

The only thing that was insults was at the end of last banter. At my music. I just turned it up over here and pretended you all had to listen to it.

I had no idea...

*mindblown*

I am looking at right now. And still cannot make it work. I am awful at this.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

And here is the last lost quote I gave up on. In a new answer box?


The only thing that was insults was at the end of last banter. At my music. I just turned it up over here and pretended you all had to listen to it.


I am looking at right now. And still cannot make it work. I am awful at this.

Doctor Who

T

Docor Who

To

Dcor Who

Tor

Dco Who

Torc

Do Who

Torch

Do Wo

Torchw

Do o

Torchwo

Do

Torchwoo

D

Torchwood.

[FinnLassie]

Wombambino, that's almost like poetry right there.


O Wombambino, how is Wombambina? And your Mr Kitty Cat?


Also, guys, just, totally not cool splurting 12th Doctor spoilers here.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Wombambino, that's almost like poetry right there.


O Wombambino, how is Wombambina? And your Mr Kitty Cat?

Mrs. Wombat is good! And my cat Oscar is as well! :3 Last I saw him he was fluff deep in dream land on the couch, cuddling with my 3ds case and chirp-snoring.

[FinnLassie]

Mrs. Wombat is good! And my cat Oscar is as well! :3 Last I saw him he was fluff deep in dream land on the couch, cuddling with my 3ds case and chirp-snoring.

That's lovely to hear! And listen, Wombat... you really should post more photos of Oscar von Cattington. THE PEOPLE DEMAND IT. The people meaning me at least.

Does he have any favourite toys he likes to derp around with?

I want a cat so, so bad. Too bad not a lot of renters are open to pets.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

That's lovely to hear! And listen, Wombat... you really should post more photos of Oscar von Cattington. THE PEOPLE DEMAND IT. The people meaning me at least.

Does he have any favourite toys he likes to derp around with?

I want a cat so, so bad. Too bad not a lot of renters are open to pets.

He loves the TV. No joke, we turn on netflix and the loading wheel makes hime attack. And he tries to talk to people on the TV.

Other than that, anything that we get him, or looks remotely like a toy, he'll play with. He's easy to please. He'd rather just play/snuggle with us.

[Teddy]

I quite like it, myself - the thing I dislike about it is that for some inexplicable reason everyone thinks it's sci-fi.

To be fair, "science fantasy" is far from an established genre label, and even when it is, it's usually considered a sub-genre. If we assume its non-existence, Star Wars would probably fall under science fiction on mere historical merit. Especially considering the fact that even what we consider pure fantasy usually was labeled "science fiction" before the term "fantasy" was invented. With this in mind, I don't think it's inexplicable at all.

Call it "handcrumb". Because the handegg joke about football.

Out of the question, that would disintegrate its air of Victorian dignity.

[Thufir]

In Matt Smith's final episode, they establish there is a truth field that entirely prevents one from lying. Then he lies to a child that he has a plan. We know he's lying because about 6 seconds later he says that he lied to him.

Same. Bloody. EPISODE!

Hm. Well, I suppose one could debate that since we've already seen that the truth field is susceptible to being misleading and lying by omission, that's what he was doing there; maybe his plan was to make the child feel better by saying he had a plan. It's dubious though.

They establish that the Silence are aliens that have manipulated humanity since 'the very beginning', and then it turns out they're actually confessional priests that showed up just in time to send humanity to the moon for some reason. And the Doctor is supposed to know this, but... when did he figure that out? Also, why aren't the silence being shot by all the human that come to confess? Did they actually forget Neil Armstrong and the Doctor was just BSing them? If the Silence are supposed to be confessional priests that are genetically modified, why can they shoot lightning out of their hands?

OK that one I straight up forgot that it happened (oh the irony), because it was just a really stupid idea.

Why was River Song's ghost on Trenzalore when it's supposed to be in the library?

Because there was that whole psychic meeting thing and then she piggybacked her way from that onto Clara's mind. That one was actually explained in the episode. She was never really there.

Why does the Doctor no longer die on Trenzalore if he's previously visited his own grave and altering all of time at once at it, making it a fixed point? Yeah, I get that they were never going to kill him, but at least last time he got out of such a trap they explained how.

It was never a fixed point. The show is pretty vague about the dynamics of time travel (probably deliberately), but they've said more than once that just because you visited an event doesn't mean it happened. And they've never really said what makes something a fixed point in time. Time was changed, not such a big surprise in a show about time travel (I mean, yeah, it's still a bit dumb, but it's not a continuity error).

The Doctor's sudden decision to use the copbot thing to fake his death worked great as a plot twist, but the entire episode before had been about him coming to accept his death. So... yeah. Character inconsistency~! Again, same episode.

Bad writing, not continuity error.

Because they're talking about writing, you're talking about the actress. The problem isn't inconsistency - the problem is that Clara has no clear identity of her own to be inconsistent. She's spunky, and she likes the Doctor. What else about her is established and remains consistent throughout Matt Smith's run with her? She goes from kind-hearted babysitter to military general to teacher, as dictated by whims of the plot, with no rhyme or reason.

I like Clara as a military general, sure. But that's not who she was last episode. Or the episode after. Heck, she was introduced as a hacker extraordinaire. The two both require intelligence, sure, but they're not interchangeable!

Well for one thing she wasn't a military general. She was put in the position of having to try and be one because that sort of thing happens when you travel with the Doctor, and she made what seemed to her like sensible decisions in the circumstances. And the transition from babysitter to teacher is really not that big a leap, personality-wise. It would be nice if her hacking skills ever came up again, I'll grant you, though those skills were never really part of her personality since they were dumped into her brain by that group working for the Great Intelligence (given that, maybe she lost them when she got fully uploaded to the cloud and then downloaded back into her body, maybe it put her back to how she was originally, but if so they could've put a line in explaining that).
What else is established about her? She's curious, adventurous, she wants to travel all over the place, see the world/universe, but she cares too much about the people in her life to just walk out on them. All this is primarily just from Bells of Saint John, but nothing in other episodes invalidates it. She likes to take care of people, she's a bit of a control freak and therefore gets frustrated when things don't go her way (and thus spiral out of her control). How much more do you need?

Well, like I said, I actually stopped watching before Danny Pink showed up. For all I know he bucked the trend. I'll thank you not to assume s#@$ about what I mean. Especially when it contradicts what I've previously told ya

DW near the end of my time with it seemed averse to letting anyone die (or even get seriously hurt) let alone anyone we were supposed to care about. The result was that it was impossible to believe that anyone was in any danger.

Yeah, that occurred to me as I was writing it, but since without watching the episodes you know who the character is I assume that means you paid some attention to the publicity, which clearly established him as a significant character (Because Doctor Who characters don't get that sort of publicity if they're not significant).
And looking at the episode list, yeah, maybe they were a bit light on notable deaths in that period, though they were also fairly light on notable extra characters who could have potentially died. And of course a couple of episodes decided to have their cake and eat it too by resurrecting them afterwards.

Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who.

I had no idea...

*mindblown*

Yeah, because when Doctor Who was originally revived it was such big news they were worried people would try to steal the recordings and leak the episodes early, so to throw them off they labeled them 'Torchwood' instead of 'Doctor Who'. And then thought "That sounds like it could be something interesting..."

Also, guys, just, totally not cool splurting 12th Doctor spoilers here.

Sorry. In our defense though, we're spoiling something from an episode three months ago, at which point I tend to assume people who care about spoilers will have watched it already.

[Amidus Drexel]

Hahaha I still do that. And I've been drinking coffee for like 20 years.

It's like, I'm holding the cup, I can feel it's hot. It's literally burning my fingers through that little cardboard sleeve thing. But I still take a sip. GG tongue for the rest of the day.

At least it doesn't really get much worse after you scald your tongue, which means our impatience is immediately rewarded by allowing us to drink the rest of it while it's still hot.

You know, come to think of it, that's probably why we do.

Solution: make it yourself. It generally tastes better anyway, I don't care where you buy your espresso from. And then you control the temperature and additives, you tend not to burn yourself on lava-hot coffee. Here's my quick crash course: French press is best method. Anyone who says otherwise is a heathen (unless cold press, but then you have to get all science-y). It's obviously nicer to roast and grind your own, but buying pre-ground is fine at a pinch. Heaviness of roast is up to you, but darker generally brings out the flavour more, at the potential cost of acquiring a burnt taste (which some of us actually like). And here's my super-secret brand tip: Single-origin coffee is the best, and Kenyan and Ethiopian single-origin is the best of the best. The reason is that blended coffees destroy the flavour profile of the actual beans, and Kenyan/Ethiopian beans have the best flavour profile. That is, if you like a strong and "smoky" flavour. And it can be drunk black.

Also there is nothing quite as delicious as freshly-baked bread with a cup of freshly-brewed coffee.

Ah, hm. I will need to get some variety of coffee machine, then. \looks up french press
Okay, so that is what I thought it was. That shouldn't be terribly hard to get ahold of. Honestly, the bigger issue is going to be making the coffee in a timely manner such that I can make it at home before class, when I really need it.

Single-origin makes sense to me. I've got about the same opinion on Scotch - single-malt all the way. I'll certainly remember to go for Kenyan or Ethiopian coffee when I get myself around to that point.

This will be the harder obstacle, I think, as I don't know anywhere here where I can get fresh bread, and I don't have the kitchen space, time, or patience to make my own.

I think fresh-brewed coffee smells really good but tastes really bad, regardless of whether stuff is mixed into it. Tea, on the other hand, both tastes and smells delicious (again, regardless of purity.)

Yeah, coffee's really bitter, which isn't something your nose picks up all that well/at all. I don't mind the taste all that much, and it's probably the healthiest source of caffeine I've got access to, so I just deal with it.

If we are going to talk about maths, might as well be maths in space and time.

Puts in cookie collection!

Space math is fun! Or, well, astronomy is fun. Gonna be honest, I'm way more interested by the ideas and concepts in that field than I am the math, because higher-level physics equations tend to get a little ridiculous.

Oh, and the most exciting thing in my life today?

Spoiler: I changed my desktop wallpaper.

Show

I'm not having a particulary exciting day today...

Yeah, I've had days like that. Except for the changing desktop backgrounds - mine's been the same since... hell, probably since I got this laptop, or around that time, anyway. I don't think I've ever actually changed it since then.

I remember that artist! You (or someone... >.>) showed us a whole bunch of their stuff a while back.

No, I'm pretty sure that happened because people just weren't talking to each other so much, or not in as timely a fashion.

That's a bit of a chicken-and-egg thing, isn't it? Do people give difficult-to-respond-to statements because no one's talking, or is no one talking because everyone's posting things that are difficult to respond to?

I've certainly simplified things, anyway.

I quite like it, myself - the thing I dislike about it is that for some inexplicable reason everyone thinks it's sci-fi.

Probably because it's set in space, with futuristic technology, and uses some small amount of technobabble. It's more of a fantasy story, for sure, but it looks a lot like sci-fi to your average person that doesn't particularly know or care about the distinction. Science-Fantasy is a decent term to describe it. Or what jhunter_d said. Almost exactly, now that I'm looking at his post.

Welp, I'm lactose intolerant. Explains all the reflux stuff that was going on, and why I'd get so gassy when I have milk. Now I have to go two weeks without *any* milk or dairy products before even starting lactase pills. At least I know why I've been having the symptoms that I've been having.

Well, that sucks, though I'm glad they've at least figured out what the issue is.

Please do! My cookie net is almost ready. I started with a fishing scoop and put in a fabric net. Better to catch cookies that were thrown.

Cookies are for eating... Why are we throwing cookies?

Oh.

Because I cannot keep up with those conversations. To quote and cut and quote and cut and quote and cut again. An hour of work. Just plain work. That gets pushed aside in ten minutes with another post that goes on for pages. That is what I think is draining and an uphill battle. So I put in even more short and small pieces. Pieces I thought would fix the problem and not make it worse for other people.

So I pushed them out before. And now they push me out. Fair.

Eh, don't sweat it. Giant walls of quotes can be intimidating, and that aside I'm being a crotchety old man about the whole thing.

\shakes cane at kids
WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE, THERE WAS NINE PLANETS!

[Razanir]

OK that one I straight up forgot that it happened (oh the irony), because it was just a really stupid idea.

I'm still wondering why they genetically engineered them to wipe the memory of the penitent. If you're trying to use sci-fi technology to enforce the seal of confession, wouldn't it make more sense to wipe the priest's memory?

[FinnLassie]

Sorry. In our defense though, we're spoiling something from an episode three months ago, at which point I tend to assume people who care about spoilers will have watched it already.

That's no defense, still. I moved to Finland about three months ago, and have missed a lot of Doctor Who episodes due to everything being so damn hectic (it's not easy to pack up your life whilst going through a family crisis). Though the DW epsiodes do seem to come to the Finnish telly a bit faster nowadays, the subs are appalling (which is a huge phenomenon atm) and extremely distracting in general after having none at all for a couple of years. Maybe it's just me, looking at this from a small-country-point-of-view, but something that is 3 months old is still pretty damn fresh in my eyes. When we're talking about an episode that originally aired a year ago, then it's business. As in, not everything moves in an original BBC airing date schedule, and that's one of the reasons the amazing spoiler button was intended.

I probably sound way more pissed off than I mean to (honestly, I'm not that iffed, I just need to direct my venting at something, so take the past paragraph with a grain of salt), but I'm currently suffering from a huge headache (whoo two concussions within a week!) and the upstairs neighbour won't shut off his god-awful techno crap. And also, I'm not directing this directly at you, but at the... whole phenomenon. Am I even spelling right. Derp. Must sleep. But can't. I think I make no sense atm.

[Teddy]

That's no defense, still. I moved to Finland about three months ago, and have missed a lot of Doctor Who episodes due to everything being so damn hectic (it's not easy to pack up your life whilst going through a family crisis). Though the DW epsiodes do seem to come to the Finnish telly a bit faster nowadays, the subs are appalling (which is a huge phenomenon atm) and extremely distracting in general after having none at all for a couple of years. Maybe it's just me, looking at this from a small-country-point-of-view, but something that is 3 months old is still pretty damn fresh in my eyes. When we're talking about an episode that originally aired a year ago, then it's business. As in, not everything moves in an original BBC airing date schedule, and that's one of the reasons the amazing spoiler button was intended.

In Thufir's defense, though, it isn't easy to know how long it may take for an episode to cross the language barriers. Three months does sound like a lot of time if it's not put in a context...

I probably sound way more pissed off than I mean to (honestly, I'm not that iffed, I just need to direct my venting at something, so take the past paragraph with a grain of salt), but I'm currently suffering from a huge headache (whoo two concussions within a week!) and the upstairs neighbour won't shut off his god-awful techno crap. And also, I'm not directing this directly at you, but at the... whole phenomenon. Am I even spelling right. Derp. Must sleep. But can't. I think I make no sense atm.

You contracted a second concussion? Owww...

[HalfTangible]

Hm. Well, I suppose one could debate that since we've already seen that the truth field is susceptible to being misleading and lying by omission, that's what he was doing there; maybe his plan was to make the child feel better by saying he had a plan. It's dubious though.

Very much so.

OK that one I straight up forgot that it happened (oh the irony), because it was just a really stupid idea.

Oh right, i forgot to mention: a lot of the ideas in this series - even ones that are consistent with established continuity - are just really really stupid.

Because there was that whole psychic meeting thing and then she piggybacked her way from that onto Clara's mind. That one was actually explained in the episode. She was never really there.

Fair enough, i could've just forgotten... And the Doctor knows she's there, because?

It was never a fixed point. The show is pretty vague about the dynamics of time travel (probably deliberately), but they've said more than once that just because you visited an event doesn't mean it happened. And they've never really said what makes something a fixed point in time. Time was changed, not such a big surprise in a show about time travel (I mean, yeah, it's still a bit dumb, but it's not a continuity error).

One thing they establish consistently is that you can't mess with your own timeline, or bad s#@$ goes down. They also establish that the Doctor can never visit his own grave.

Bad writing, not continuity error.

Uh, yes it is?

Continuity of the Doctor's character and not the universe, perhaps, but still continuity.

Well for one thing she wasn't a military general. She was put in the position of having to try and be one because that sort of thing happens when you travel with the Doctor, and she made what seemed to her like sensible decisions in the circumstances. And the transition from babysitter to teacher is really not that big a leap, personality-wise. It would be nice if her hacking skills ever came up again, I'll grant you, though those skills were never really part of her personality since they were dumped into her brain by that group working for the Great Intelligence (given that, maybe she lost them when she got fully uploaded to the cloud and then downloaded back into her body, maybe it put her back to how she was originally, but if so they could've put a line in explaining that).

Well, no. She also had hacking skills when she jumped through the giant time hole thingie at the Doctor's grave, and was normal aside from her own skills and aforementioned time-hole.

The jump from babysitter to teacher is jarring in large part because the two are associated with different stages of life (teen to college and mid-adulthood, respectively)

What else is established about her? She's curious, adventurous, she wants to travel all over the place, see the world/universe, but she cares too much about the people in her life to just walk out on them. All this is primarily just from Bells of Saint John, but nothing in other episodes invalidates it. She likes to take care of people, she's a bit of a control freak and therefore gets frustrated when things don't go her way (and thus spiral out of her control). How much more do you need?

What does she like? What does she dislike? What will make her tell the Doctor off for his behavior, a la Donna in Pompeii? Even Rose - the 'perfect companion' - had a scene where she and the Doctor yelled at each other over morality.

She's a babysitter, a cook, a military-style hardass, a teacher and a hacker. She babysits but is apparently out of college with a teaching degree. She babysits in the suburbs but lives in an apartment complex? Clara doesn't act in most of these stories, she reacts.

Yeah, that occurred to me as I was writing it, but since without watching the episodes you know who the character is I assume that means you paid some attention to the publicity, which clearly established him as a significant character (Because Doctor Who characters don't get that sort of publicity if they're not significant).

Here's the thing. I am specifically referring to the problems of the era I decided to stop watching.

I honestly thought Danny Pink was going to be a schoolteacher who died in the very first episode, and that the publicity was done to throw us off.

And looking at the episode list, yeah, maybe they were a bit light on notable deaths in that period, though they were also fairly light on notable extra characters who could have potentially died. And of course a couple of episodes decided to have their cake and eat it too by resurrecting them afterwards.

You say that almost like that's a GOOD thing.

[CurlyKitGirl]

And I'd say "Dalek" was good too. And then they had to ruin it with the finale. My wife ended up liking Chris a lot more than she thought she would, which is good. I liked him, though many do not.

Ecclestone is great, it's a pity he was overshadowed by Tennant (I find him overrated) and there was drama of some sort behind his leaving. Honestly, I'm starting to like Mrs. Wombat more and more, and I only know her good taste in Doctor Who and, well, marrying you. You're a cool dude, therefore she is equally cool.
As for 'Dalek' and its finale, Super ~Speshul Snowflake~ Companion Powers are endemic of all Nu Who seasons regardless of show runner and writer.
The only person with Super ~Speshul Snowflake~ Powers should be the Doctor. And other Time Lords. On account of being, you know, Time Lords.

If we are going to talk about maths, might as well be maths in space and time.

Numbers confuse me, but when I watch sci-fi (of the softer variety) I at least know that these things aren't meant to make sense. It makes me feel smart.

It was a grand concept. I feel its actually been used a few times now - that concept. Such as:

Spoiler: Plot spoilers

Show

The Cracks, Clara, ect...

Mickey as the Bad Wolf would have been great! It really annoyed me how much they made him the fall guy, when he was competant on his own.

Like I said, Super ~Speshul Snowflake~ Powers.
It's endemic in a lot of media though; and I'm not even talking about superhero films either; I'm talking about ~Speshul Snowflakes~ here.

Blink is great, because its good, and doesn't give away anything about the storyline at the point it is at. So I could rest easy knowing that I could let her watch an example of Good Doctor Who, so that she could slog through the Bad Doctor Who to get there. She did enjoy 'Empty Child' / 'Doctor Dances'. She said it was freaking creepy, and I smiled. She didn't like Jack either, thought he was a little annoying. He does lay it on a little thick, and she's a little sensative to that. Probably won't be showing her "Torchwood".

I never really got into Torchwood, I know its concept was 'Doctor Who, but hotter, sexier and more mature', but here's the thing about maturity: sex does not a mature person make. In fact, sexual innuendo (and sex in general) is sometimes a lowest common denominator.
Gasmask children speak to creepiness and certain factors of human psychology.

Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I'll break out some wine, and make a game out of it. Mrs. Wombat was rooting for Rose's death, and literally cheered when she got "disintegrated", and booooed when it turned out to be a misleading thing.

Drinking games are always good fun - providing you don't drink too much that is. Anyway, consider it a way to bitch about things. Oh! And tell her that . . . the main character (what's his name even?) is Mister Teatime from the Hogfather TV adaptation! It makes things more interesting if you allow for the fact that Main Character is sincerely unhinged. Especially when it comes to the ending.
The more I hear about her the more I like her. For what it's worth, she has the eternal friendship/approval of some Random British Girl.

I'm a bit short of money right now, so it'll be hard to procure them. If you give me links to places I can find things, I'd be more than happy to figure out my best course of action.

Usually I just Google "Watch [serial name] online free", but I usually get pointed to DailyMotion. And if you're in America Hulu apparently has some; I can't tell you more than that on account of Hulu being a US (and Canadialand?) only thing, but it's meant to be there.
You might also have some luck searching TVMuse for "Doctor Who (1963)", it's just a collection of links, so I can't speak for whether or not you have to pay to see some, if they're broken or anything else.

ION:
Just gave Bees a mini-Latin lesson (which was about fifty percent basic grammar - identifying the subject and verb of a sentence as well as what's [currently] unimportant) because his laptop kicked the bucket a few days ago (long story short: virus and hard use killed the hard drive (it's a 'soft' one, and that's bad?), so we're in the process of copying his data onto a new hard drive and are only partially finished) and he doesn't want to use the internet on it tonight.
Even if he can use it perfectly fine on his currently factory settings only laptop.
Because Bees.
I know why he's like that, ASD makes for quirks like that, but it's going to be annoying anyway. Because he goes on his laptop at night. For the internet. And if he can't internet he will. not. TV. Or XBones. Or XBox 360. Or Rubik's cube. Or read (maybe). So he'll be up all night talking to Mum. And that means everyone will be up because he has a voice that carries even when he tries to be quiet. And Mum won't sleep until he does.
At five in the morning.

Maybe he'll have pity on her and do some other things after a while.

But yeah, I gave a mini-Latin lesson at eleven o'clock at night. I feel obscurely proud of myself for doing such an odd thing.
My life is measured in oddities.

[Teddy]

Now why did I fail to quote Amidus...?

Yeah, coffee's really bitter, which isn't something your nose picks up all that well/at all. I don't mind the taste all that much, and it's probably the healthiest source of caffeine I've got access to, so I just deal with it.

You haven't got access to tea? I think tea was considered healthier than coffee the last time I heard...

Space math is fun! Or, well, astronomy is fun. Gonna be honest, I'm way more interested by the ideas and concepts in that field than I am the math, because higher-level physics equations tend to get a little ridiculous.

Aww, for a second I thought you meant linear algebra by "space math"...

Yeah, I've had days like that. Except for the changing desktop backgrounds - mine's been the same since... hell, probably since I got this laptop, or around that time, anyway. I don't think I've ever actually changed it since then.

Given, I have done other things today too. Mostly stupid things like skipping lunch, but still, I managed to proofread and touch up two reports, written by my different assignment partners, before when lunch should've been, so at least I've got some accomplishment under my belt today...

And what is your desktop background then?

I remember that artist! You (or someone... >.>) showed us a whole bunch of their stuff a while back.

Might've been me, but it could also have been whoever I learned of his existence from, since I can't remember if that was here or not. If your memory dates all the way back to last summer, it was probably not me, otherwise I'm probably the likely culprit.

[HalfTangible]

Ecclestone is great, it's a pity he was overshadowed by Tennant (I find him overrated) and there was drama of some sort behind his leaving. Honestly, I'm starting to like Mrs. Wombat more and more, and I only know her good taste in Doctor Who and, well, marrying you. You're a cool dude, therefore she is equally cool.
As for 'Dalek' and its finale, Super ~Speshul Snowflake~ Companion Powers are endemic of all Nu Who seasons regardless of show runner and writer.
The only person with Super ~Speshul Snowflake~ Powers should be the Doctor. And other Time Lords. On account of being, you know, Time Lords.

To be fair, Amy Pond didn't have special powers (she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time) and Rory's powers came about as a result of him being an auton, and therefore weren't all that special.

[AtlanteanTroll]

But then you put in new nonsense in in a cookie. And then everything was good.

Fear my powers of suggestion!

[Teddy]

I never really got into Torchwood, I know its concept was 'Doctor Who, but hotter, sexier and more mature', but here's the thing about maturity: sex does not a mature person make. In fact, sexual innuendo (and sex in general) is sometimes a lowest common denominator.

Okay, I think I got you point, but just becaaauuuse of the maths talk, I've got to butt in here and ask "Of what and what?". Because I'm not sure you think that phrase means what it actually means. And that confuses me. And I can't explain what it would make that statement mean because I keep mixing it up with GCD. And the example wouldn't make sense anyway.

Gasmask children speak to creepiness and certain factors of human psychology.

Heh, this reminds me of the "in case of nuclear war" instructions which were standard issue in Swedish phone books throughout the Cold War. Actually, I still remember them as being there when I was a little child, together with the charts explaining what the different air alarm signals meant (back then they had all sorts of interesting patterns, today it's just "general danger"). There was a picture of a mother with a child both wearing gas masks, and she held a baby carriage with a gas canopy too. There might've been a father in the picture as well, but I can't remember the specifics on that point. Point is, though, that gas masks still has a prominent (if dying) slot in the Swedish collective "People's Home" ("folkhem") memory. Sweden was the craziest doomsday preper for a while, there...

My life is measured in oddities.

My life is measured in code and today that measurement reads zero. I feel oddly inaccomplished as a result...

[AtlanteanTroll]

Sweden was the craziest doomsday preper for a while, there...

It's really kind of impossible to out-do Switzerland...

[Amidus Drexel]

Now why did I fail to quote Amidus...?

You haven't got access to tea? I think tea was considered healthier than coffee the last time I heard...

Magic~
\waves hands mysteriously

I mean, I do, but getting the same amount of caffeine via tea as I do via coffee pushes being prohibitively expensive (and I'm already spending more money on coffee than I ought to), mostly since I'm sans-kettle at the moment and am purchasing caffeine when I'm out rather than preparing anything at home. I do need to get a kettle eventually, though.

Aww, for a second I thought you meant linear algebra by "space math"...

Given, I have done other things today too. Mostly stupid things like skipping lunch, but still, I managed to proofread and touch up two reports, written by my different assignment partners, before when lunch should've been, so at least I've got some accomplishment under my belt today...

I will never ever, proclaim linear algebra as "fun". Tedious, often; interesting, rarely; linear algebra is many things, but not fun.

Well, you've done more than I have.

And what is your desktop background then?

Might've been me, but it could also have been whoever I learned of his existence from, since I can't remember if that was here or not. If your memory dates all the way back to last summer, it was probably not me, otherwise I'm probably the likely culprit.

I don't know if an online copy exists, and I don't really feel like uploading it anywhere (see: lazy) - it's a picture of dark clouds over a body of water (that I want to say is a lake), with a few rays of light shining through.

I know I saw them on here, but I can't say how long ago that was. Last summer... could've been. I feel like it was earlier than that, honestly, but I couldn't say when for sure.

[Cuthalion]

I just finished Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and it was good and oh man.

And I was gone over the weekend so you guys are way ahead.

I was fine, a bit cold, but nothing out of the ordinary in Taetistan.

[LaZodiac]

I just finished Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and it was good and oh man.

And I was gone over the weekend so you guys are way ahead.

I was fine, a bit cold, but nothing out of the ordinary in Taetistan.

Awesome. Now post in threads maybe before I kill us all with my stupidity. Also Brotherhood is the best.

[Thufir]

I'm still wondering why they genetically engineered them to wipe the memory of the penitent. If you're trying to use sci-fi technology to enforce the seal of confession, wouldn't it make more sense to wipe the priest's memory?

Yeah, also surely people would forget they confessed and try to do it again. See again under 'stupid idea'.

Fair enough, I could've just forgotten... And the Doctor knows she's there, because?

Because he's psychic as well, and I don't know Moffat wanted his stupid love story to get some more screentime.

One thing they establish consistently is that you can't mess with your own timeline, or bad s#@$ goes down. They also establish that the Doctor can never visit his own grave.

Well, strictly speaking he didn't mess with it, other people messed with it for him, and the specifics of what happens if you mess with your own timeline are decidedly non-specific. And it's not even the first time the Doctor's own personal history has been changed.

The jump from babysitter to teacher is jarring in large part because the two are associated with different stages of life (teen to college and mid-adulthood, respectively)
What does she like? What does she dislike? What will make her tell the Doctor off for his behavior, a la Donna in Pompeii? Even Rose - the 'perfect companion' - had a scene where she and the Doctor yelled at each other over morality.

Well I meant in terms of personality and stuff - she lilkes taking care of children. As far as stages of life go, she was looking after them (as an au pair, rather than a babysitter I believe, though that might just be an assumption people made) as a favour to the family IIRC.
Ooh, the yelling thing, that happens in series 8. Unfortunately it happens in the worst episode of the series. Though in general, I'd say Clara is not much of a yelling person, her disputes with the Doctor tend to be quieter.

She's a babysitter, a cook, a military-style hardass, a teacher and a hacker. She babysits but is apparently out of college with a teaching degree. She babysits in the suburbs but lives in an apartment complex? Clara doesn't act in most of these stories, she reacts.

When was she a cook? The other things I already covered. She's working as an au pair as a favour to a family she's friends with, then when freed up from that she moves onto something else - teaching. We don't know or need to know if she qualified as a teacher before joining the series or offscreen between series 7 and Day of the Doctor. Either is possible since she's apparently 24. While working as an au pair she was living with the family, when she moved on and became a teacher she moved into a flat. Where is the problem here?

Here's the thing. I am specifically referring to the problems of the era I decided to stop watching.

Except you used Danny as an example of how you assumed it had continued.

You say that almost like that's a GOOD thing.

The resurrecting thing? Nah. But, the fact they came back subsequently shouldn't invalidate any sense of danger evoked at the time of their deaths.

Okay, I think I got you point, but just becaaauuuse of the maths talk, I've got to butt in here and ask "Of what and what?". Because I'm not sure you think that phrase means what it actually means. And that confuses me. And I can't explain what it would make that statement mean because I keep mixing it up with GCD. And the example wouldn't make sense anyway.

No, it does mean what she thinks it means, but I guess maybe it doesn't transfer so well to Swedish. 'Lowest common denominator' in general is used to refer to something in media which will appeal to more or less anyone because it's such a basic and common point of reference - such as in this instance, innuendos: almost anyone will get them and get an immature laugh out of them.

[LaZodiac]

Woo, beat Majora's Mask 3D! Still super great.

[HalfTangible]

My life is measured in code and today that measurement reads zero. I feel oddly inaccomplished as a result...

My life is measured in how often I cry, how often I laugh, how often I think about killing, and how hungry I am.

(That third one mainly involves tv shows and video game characters)

Woo, beat Majora's Mask 3D! Still super great.

Majora's Mask was my first Zelda game. It's amazing.

Yeah, also surely people would forget they confessed and try to do it again. See again under 'stupid idea'.

I think it's implied the Silence can say 'your sins are forgiven' and you won't think about it anymore. (Also, you'd still remember going into and getting out of the confessional.

Well, strictly speaking he didn't mess with it, other people messed with it for him, and the specifics of what happens if you mess with your own timeline are decidedly non-specific. And it's not even the first time the Doctor's own personal history has been changed.

They specifically established that you couldn't visit your own grave if you're a time traveler - it's the one place you can never go.

They established when the Weeping Angels took manhattan that visiting yourself or seeing your own grave created an unbreakable-without-suicide time loop.

The show hasn't established how fixed points are created or maintained but they have established some things about them.

Well I meant in terms of personality and stuff - she lilkes taking care of children. As far as stages of life go, she was looking after them (as an au pair, rather than a babysitter I believe, though that might just be an assumption people made) as a favour to the family IIRC.
Ooh, the yelling thing, that happens in series 8. Unfortunately it happens in the worst episode of the series. Though in general, I'd say Clara is not much of a yelling person, her disputes with the Doctor tend to be quieter.

See, the fact that you consider such an episode to be worse than Journey to the Center of the Tardis does not fill me with confidence.

What disputes has she had? I don't remember any, unless crying when he's about to unleash the Moment counts.

When was she a cook?

Not professionally - I meant as part of her skillset (same as hacker). She made turkey.

The other things I already covered. She's working as an au pair as a favour to a family she's friends with, then when freed up from that she moves onto something else - teaching. We don't know or need to know if she qualified as a teacher before joining the series or offscreen between series 7 and Day of the Doctor. Either is possible since she's apparently 24. While working as an au pair she was living with the family, when she moved on and became a teacher she moved into a flat. Where is the problem here?

The problem is that none of her character traits fit together and are determined by plot.

In Cold War and Hide she's a timid, frightened thing that does whatever Doc says. Whereas in Nightmare in Silver (or Asylum, or that Christmas special) she's brave as f#@$. She sets her own terms for travelling with the Doctor, but when she finds out he lied to her (benign or no) she throws herself into his timeline to quite possibly die for the lieing sunuva bitch.

She learns in the anniversary and season finale that the Doctor can regenerate but is still shocked that the Doctor... ya know... regenerates. And she treats the different Doctors in the anniversary (and, I'm told, Capaldi) as if they're different people which doesn't make any sense at all considering that she explored his entire life.

That is the problem. None of it gels together into a cohesive whole. Clara is a plot device, not a character.

Again, this might have changed when Capaldi came around. Some have told me that it did. But saying the problem never existed just baffles me.

Except you used Danny as an example of how you assumed it had continued.

1) No I didn't. I brought him up to address one of the problems I have with the series, and know of him largely through previous announcements and cultural osmosis. 2) Are you seriously trying to tell me what I have and haven't watched? >.>

The resurrecting thing? Nah. But, the fact they came back subsequently shouldn't invalidate any sense of danger evoked at the time of their deaths.

It does when the deaths are always either resurrections or never happen at all. If you're in no danger of being harmed or dieing, there's no tension when you're ABOUT to die.

Also, I was referring to that entire paragraph

[Solse]

True suffering

Yeah Star Wars is 100% science fantasy. Star Trek is Sci-fi, usually, but sometimes is fantasy. Also, regarding Dr Who and Torchwood and stuff, all I know about either is that Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who.

At least there's coconut milk, almond milk, and the like. Still, there aren't that many good substitutes for dairy products, and the ones that do exist are on the expensive side.

MIND BLOWN. I've never even heard of Torchwood, but still.

Well, that sucks, though I'm glad they've at least figured out what the issue is.

Precisely my thoughts. I would much rather know that I have lactose intolerance and have to deal with these two weeks from hell than not know what's wrong with me and be left in the dark.

That makes sense. Even though it is sad news. Please be careful coming off the nexium pills. You did not take them very long but people who have taken them long had to go off slowly. I am glad you will not have to put up with all those nexium side effects. They are not a great cure. They make new problems.

Nexium pills? I was taking prevecid, not nexium, so luckily, I don't think I'll be incurring any side effects. I talked with a gastroenterologist and I was cleared to cut the drugs, and so far, I've been doing well. (I don't really know my drugs that well, though, so maybe prevecid is in the same family as nexium?) Thanks for your concern, though. What are those side effects, though? Have anybody that you've known experienced them? From the way you talk about them, they don't sound too pleasant.

[Rawhide]

True suffering

Yeah Star Wars is 100% science fantasy. Star Trek is Sci-fi, usually, but sometimes is fantasy. Also, regarding Dr Who and Torchwood and stuff, all I know about either is that Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who.

I had no idea...

*mindblown*

Torchwood is an anagram for Doctor Who. When they started filming the new Doctor Who, they used the anagram of Torchwood as a code word on all documents to keep it a secret. Torchwood later became an organisation in Doctor Who, then later still became a spin off series.

Woo, beat Majora's Mask 3D! Still super great.

If you'd bought Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, you would still be barely scratching the surface.