Second Geekhood

Author Archives: TimeSiren

Out of the Vortex – Doctor Who News Updates – March 23, 2010

Posted on by Posted in 'round the 'net, Creative Madness, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Videos, Humor, Matt Smith, Pictures

As we near the release date for Doctor Who in the U.K., podcasts, articles, interviews, images and clips have are giving us a steady stream of news about our favorite Time Lord. Will he wear a face this time around that will become our favorite? Will it be the face for the next new generation of Who Fans? Everyone has a different answer, but the one thing we all have in common is that the news is piquing all our curiosities.

Because the news is so scattered across the internet, I thought I’d compile it all here in one spot for my readers, and thank you, those of youu who have joined my Feedburner and RSS feeds from the links to my 5th Doctor fan fiction on Whofic and FanFiction.net. More will be coming your way as well in stories, avatars and wallpapers, I promise.

Recent Who News as of Tuesday, March 23, 2010:

On Blogtor Who –

Steven Moffat – BBC Breakfast Interview is also here “STEVEN MOFFAT was a guest on today’s edition of BBC Breakfast…In it he confirms that an old monster will return, the Weeping Angels are “way worse this time” and that Matt is an “elegant shambles”.” I love the term, “elegant shambles”! SPOILER ALERT in the links on this page. If you don’t want to know anything further about specific episodes, DON’T click on any video clips without reading the accompanying descriptions, OR on the “2010: THE NEW SERIES” episode links on the right-hand side of the page. There are no plot spoilers in the 2010 links, BUT there are episode images and SCRIPT EXCERPTS…I am so loving this ‘site…

Blogtor Who also contains press launch interviews with Matt, Karen & David, 1st episode clip snippets, pics of the spread in the Radio Times, more snippets from Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, links to tons more video, pics and to their friends at Den of Geek for a spoiler-free review.

Doctor Who in the Media – Article Round Up

The Haunting Music of Doctor Who

Posted on by Posted in Doctor Who

I have been wanting to do a review of the music for the new Doctor Who series ever since the first album came out in 2006. There are currently three soundtracks out; Doctor Who: Original Television Soundtrack (original mushc from Series One and Two), Doctor Who, Series 3 and Doctor Who, Series 4. I will touch base on all of them here.

Every year I go to our local Doctor Who convention, Gallifrey, at the LAX Mariott, I pick up as much music as I do visual Who fare. A soundtrack is so important, it makes the literal difference between how you perceive the identical story, but one version with a good soundtrack and one with an awesome soundtrack.

We are deeply sense-driven beings at times, and some of us more than others. Visuals can touch you – as in the case of the opening fanfare scene of flying through the Time Vortex, but without the music, it is harder to get that “rush” or “buzz” of excitement that comes from deep within our brain as it is stimulated by a sweeping score.

Doctor Who Television Sountrack Series 1 and 2

The first television soundtrack, released in 2006, did not fail to deliver. I always get a chill listening to the first track, simply titled, “Doctor Who Theme”, but not simple in how it makes me shiver with excitement. There are a few tracks on here that don’t float my boat, #30 for one (I could do without vocals, thank you), but I gladly put up paying for them with such treasures as the hypnotic track #3, “The Doctor’s Theme”. Evocative of the lonliness and heartache of a Time Lord forever on the run, who must always and ever let go of the friends and companions he makes on the way, it never fails to bring me to tears and move me down to my soul’s very core. Several pieces are sprinkled with snippets of this haunted, deeply moving theme, coined the “Bad Wolf Theme” by its composer Murray Gold. It is a testament to the deep, intertwined relationship between Rose Tyler and the Doctor that this piece was, “initially associated with the Doctor’s dark and private history, but later became identifed with the “‘Bad Wolf’ plot strand”, a plot that saw Rose risk destruction of her humanity by becoming the “Time Goddess” – all to save her beloved doctor’s current life.

Doctor Who Television Sountrack Series 3

“Martha’s Theme” – track #2 in the Series 3 collection, is airy and light, like the flirtatious, come-hither-and-see-the-stars-with-me glance the Doctor gives Martha after they get back to Earth, escaping a Judoon occupation on the Moon. An amazing soundtrack compilation too good to pass up, too much stuff to include here!

Doctor Who Television Sountrack Series 4

“Voyage of the Damned Suite” – track #12 jumps through highlights of diverse, sweeping music litanies heard throughout other track, highlighting the best of the tragic tale of the doomed starship, “Titanic”. Starting out as “James Bondish” as the Doctor in his black tux (and who can resist that?), moving quickly through heroic strands of the-day-is-saved “bits” to brief and sad, poingnant touches on the all-too-brief Doctor companion Astrid’s ghostly appearance after her ultimate sacrifice to save the Time Lord, ship and crew. I particularly love the driving, urgent bits as they run through the ship, racing against time to avoid an atmospheric re-entry death of everyone aboard.

It’s impossible to go over all the amazing pieces of music on each album (nearly 30 pieces on each album!), so please take it from a particular and discerning lover of movie and t.v. soundtracks and rest assured, these three are worth every penny you spend to get them.

A Celebration of the Fifth Doctor

Posted on by Posted in Doctor Who, Peter Davison
 
Doctor Who 5th Doctor
Peter Davison

“You know what, Doctor? You were my Doctor.”

Only someone who is another Doctor Who fan can appreciate the depth and beauty of that statement in the Children in Need BBC Special “Time Crash”. The ones who grew up with Doctor Who – watching it despite the low-budget, sometimes bad special effects, bad scripts, men in rubber monster suits. Our show has come so very far in one generation that it now overcomes all that with the force of the Eye of Harmony (and if you are reading this and don’t know what the Eye of Harmony is and are not Doctor Who fan, do yourself a favor and check out a few episodes of the series).  But I ramble…I am here to celebrate Davison’s years as the Doctor and remember why I got into Dr. Who in the first place. It was because of Peter himself.

Doctor Who t.v. Series 5th Doctor

My husband and I were science fiction, card game, etc. vendors back in those days…hitting science fiction conventions like Loscon, Baycon, World Con, Westercon, Con Dor and of course, Gallifrey. In 1995 at Galley, I was sitting at the table by myself. Everyone else (even all the dealers), had gone to a panel and I was literally the only one left in that small dealer’s room. A tall, young, blonde man came by, holding a guitar, and we struck up a conversation. He was sweet and pleasant to talk to and just to be around. I took an instant liking to him; the soft, musical lilt to his voice, the good looks, shy smile and gentle demeanor. The amazing qualities I had married my husband for just six years before, were reflected in his eyes.

I had no interest at the time in Doctor Who and knew nothing about the show except it was British and I hadn’t been hooked into liking it because I was put off by Tom Baker’s interpretation of the character, but we never mentioned Dr. Who (we talked about his guitar!), so it was a warm, friendly few words we exchanged and that was it. The amusing conversation with my husband when he came back to the table went something like this:

“Dennis, do we have any video tapes of Peter Davison’s years as the Doctor?”

“Sure. Why? You haven’t been interested in watching before now.”

I shrugged. “I know, but he came by the dealer’s table while everyone was out and he’s a really nice guy. I want to see him act.”

It was then Dennis’s jaw hit the floor in amazement and his own bad luck at having just missed meeting him.

As I said in another post, I was never into Dr. Who in the Tom Baker years – an anomaly in my generation. Tom Baker was everyone’s Doctor. Why wasn’t he mine? Looking back, I think it came down to what spoke to my heart. The reason so many people love Dr. Who the world over is partly because each regeneration of the Doctor has a different enough personality that they appeal to their own fan base. As a recent observation, I always knew Peter Davison had fans, just like every other Time Lord incarnation, but until I put up the video capture of the message Davison sent to the Gallifrey One: Blackjack 21 convention and started seeing the comments left by viewers, I don’t think I ever realized what other fans thought of him.

 

Silly, isn’t it?

 

In my research of the 5th Doctor’s legacy on the internet, I came across a snippet of an interview (or was it an observation) that Peter made of his own tenure as our Fifth Time Lord from Gallifrey. He said he thought if he had been older when he had done the part he would have done a better job of acting. I smiled at the humbleness of the comment – heck, wouldn’t every actor dedicated to improving their craft say and feel that way? It’s just part of why he appeals to me and so many others the world over so much, that humbleness. He didn’t have the “yes, I am marvelous, aren’t I?” bravado and bohemian qualities of Tom Baker.

BTW, before I tick off too many people saying I don’t like Tom Baker’s interpretation, that was then. I have since grown up and grown into liking and appreciating his and all the Doctor personas – yes, even a bit of Colin Baker’s brashness and dare-to-wear attitude that went along with that awesome patchwork coat…I really do like it, LOL!

Another article I read yesterday highlights another quality that Davison brought to Doctor Number Five that I hadn’t seen before and it touched me. He was no longer the Doctor in Control. The one who knew what to do in every situation – he was VULNERABLE. He’d faint, need attention and fussing over, but hate it because he DID need it. He’d make mistakes, but all would work out in the end. His interpretation fit with the new generation watching Doctor Who. They loved it and finally, so did I.

Thank you, Peter.

My favorite WordPress theme so far is…

Posted on by Posted in Word Press Themes that'll knock their socks off 1 Comment

WordPress Theme - Sliding Door

Sliding Door by Wayne Connor, a Mac Host blogger whose theme has over 1,100 fans and supporters on his WordPress and Joomla Support Site forum. His explanation of how the theme works and how it can be customized is fairly straightforward if you have a basic knowledge of css. You don’t even need a full comprehension of .php to get it to work; you just have to follow the instructions, do a little digging on the forum when you get into trouble and you can customize it to your tastes. I fell in love with the potentiality of the design and used it for a local, Los Angeles business networking client, Referrals Unlimited, in Westlake Village, CA.

WARNING – TECHNICAL STUFF –

I customized the images at the top of the page by:

* Going into the header.php file and adding another line to the “links you go to when you click on a sliding door image section” in the header underneath the other categories. This starts around line 51 if you are using the 1.7.1 version of Sliding Doors…there is a new version, 1.8.7. It is easy to remember – add lines if you are adding additional image panes to the 7 default ones, subtract panes if you are wanting fewer.

* Also going in the imageMenu.css file in the imagemenu directory, add another (or subtract) a line(s) below where they start, also around line 51.

* In the same file, change line 40’s width dimension to accomodate additional or removed panes.

* To remove the default titles and change the default links to the windows to where you want them to point, go into the functions.php and add or remove a line to add or remove a pane.

The important part to remember is something not covered in as much detail in the forum’s FAQs, but in a question answered here. This is in the calculation of the width of the panes or “blades” as they are referred to in the discussion. The conversation goes something like this:

1. You remove (or add) one of the li lines in the header code in the div called image menu.

2. You adjust the openWidth parameter in the javascript just below that in the header.

3. You may also want to change the closed widths in the imagemenu.CSS file.

in the section that begins #imageMenu ul li a {
width:133px is the width of the picture when closed.

It’s in the section #imageMenu ul li a {
It’s width:133px;
This is the width of the picture when closed.

I guess it would be 133 times 7 divided by 6 (155px).”

It takes a little tweaking, but if you are used to that in .css and .php, you will knock it out pretty quickly. I wasn’t and it took me a while to get it right, but that’s because I was a newbie at tweaking php settings. Now that I have the notes and have worked with it, it doesn’t take me as long to do.

Update on EarthDaughter Arts

Posted on by Posted in Beadwork, EarthDaughter Arts
Pink and Blue Iris Beaded Bottle closeup, Kristine Cherry, EarthDaughter Arts

Pink and Blue Iris Beaded Bottle closeup

Those that know me know this is my jewelry design & giftware business. Those that don’t, welcome and thank you for taking time out of all the crud the internet bombards us with to check me out.

I have been in business for 15 years, a little bit longer than I have had a website page. I jumped on way early and have been on ever since. Last month my website was hacked by some bastards in Russia, but they actually did me a favor by forcing me to start with a clean slate to create a new website with new, redesigned jewelry.

Until I get my shopping cart fully functional, please return here to see what new items I have in store for you. Even after it is up, I will be talking about my latest projects here and providing more detail on them than you would find in the online store, so please bookmark us and keep us alive in your thoughts when you want to treat yourself to jewelry, giftware, animal totems, altar items and/or you need a gift for a friend that has a birthday or Christmas approaching.

Catcha later.

Open Yourself up to the Possibilities…

Posted on by Posted in Journal of the MoonWitch

About two weeks ago, I started doing something different in the meditation I adapted from my 12-week Black Belt in Excellence Training. This is something that was so ALIEN to me, I literally had no idea how to do it and only did it by sheer accident on one project before in my life in the year 2001.

I opened myself up to the universe and the world of potentiality and possibility.

Sitting on the edge of my bed, getting ready to meditate, I had no clue how to go about this. Sure, I could say the words, but would that be enough if I didn’t know how to follow through with action? With outstretched arms, my face tilted to the ceiling, I took deep, grounding breaths, declared my intentions and tried my darndest to imagine what it would be like, at least, to “let go”.

You can only imagine how insanely hard this is when you think of something similar in your own life that everyone said “was only natural”, yet you looked at them like they just grew a horn out of the middle of their head. I.E. – “how in hell do *I* do that?!?” People can blab away all they want in telling you the mechanics, to “just do it” and it will still seem like nuclear physics if you have no point of reference in your own experience.

Still, when something is supposed to be “natural”, and you have faith that the process just works without understanding why or how it works, there is alway hope you’ll figure it out. I am way ahead of the game since I went through a 12-week course in understanding how the process works, but that is still a bit short of actually putting the knowledge into motion. Energy and the Universe take you a LOT MORE seriously when you get off your hiney and do something about it!

I am not talking about a particular hobby or skill, because those are all unique to each individual. I am talking about the Laws of Attraction, Potentiality Possibility, Reflection and Emanation. Weird words if you are not used to them, but getting used to them might just change your life in ways you can neither imagine nor accomplish any other way.

These past two weeks have reminded me what I can do when I look at challenges with a child’s point of view. They don’t understand why they can’t do something. They try and try and try and try until the thing happens. As a child, I practiced every day for what seemed like weeks or months to try to whistle until suddenly one day I did it. And what a loud whistle I whistled when I did it! It was AWESOME!

So, what has happened these past two weeks to make me believe I am finally, after 47 years, really, TRULY opening up and the universe is not only listening, but is throwing new options my way? What I have needed has begun to come to me, begun to flow. Potential clients I have been chasing for literally more than a year have ALL come out of the proverbial woodwork and at last moved on their projects. New projects more profitable than I have ever had before are blossoming before my eyes. The options are coming at last, but there are so many, I think I may need a bigger net.

AFTERWORD – okay, I am now, officially creeped out, or excited. I’m not sure which to be. As soon as I finished this entry – that literal second I finished the word, “net”, my fax machine rang! It is hooked up to the house phone and only rings when the phone rings AND THE PHONE DIDN’T RING JUST NOW!

‘excuse me – the Universe just ran my fax machine…better go answer it!