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Guardian: Smoke me a kipper (Red Dwarf’s back for breakfast)
There were rumours about this one too, but a Bobby Llew better known as Kryten (not Captain Canuck) got the twitterverse talkin’ before the British media pounced on it on Tuesday.
For a better part of this decade, I’ve sort of drowned out the possibility of a Red Dwarf movie just because it never seemed to get off the ground. In my mind, if it had to continue from Series VIII, it had to be a coda that could at least tie up all the loose ends. But bringing the boys from the Dwarf back to Earth?! That was a distant goal that pre-occupied the early series, and distant it remained, until now.
I was wary when I read the news reports initially, but I’m optimistic that something can be salvaged after a ten-year hiatus, and that Red Dwarf gets some much-needed closure. With an Easter airing (possibly the same night as Doctor Who: “Planet of the Dead”), it makes me wish I were in the UK for that weekend!
OK, I may have been blogging for a year, but I still have a lot to learn. Unfortunately, I’m usually the last to know about the events where I could actually learn something and meet people in the process: various Wordcamps (the most recent in Whistler) and Northern Voice (sold out in days).
Wordcamp Whistler was heavily covered through liveblogs and the like, and I don’t expect anything less from Northern Voice, so it would be as if I was attending the conferences in person in terms of learning more about a particular topic. Nevertheless, I still have something to bring to the ether: How could I best integrate my online presence? Sure, I cross-link my various online personae, but I’m sure I could do more, like standardizing a common name across everything.
One option I haven’t yet done due diligence is setting up a dedicated domain name. But that opens up another can of worms: How much? Can I transfer my blogs over? Maintenance? Extra security/privacy precautions?
Sorry for all the questions, but it’s something I’ve had in my head for a while, and it was about time to bring it out in the open. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
(Welcome to those who are visiting this blog as a result of the recent monthly Vancouver Blogger Meetup, or Jan Karlsbjerg’s customary roll-call of the meetup. If I didn’t meet you, there is always next month’s meeting!)
The title of this post refers to the fact I have 262 days to train for the 26.2 miles that make up the Royal Victoria Marathon. I’m splitting it in two, basically: right now, I’ve just started 16 weeks of training for the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon. As soon as that’s over, I’ll be training for the marathon proper.
It’s still a long way away, but I know that preparing to run a marathon requires as much mental training as physical. And a lot of that mental training should include some positive reinforcement. But then again, my goal right now is just to finish a marathon, so I have a bit to go in that category. Hopefully I can use all my previous experiences and channel that into a confidence-boost that should get me to the finish line in a time that I can claim with pride.
The last two weeks have been a whirlwind. I knew that, despite my efforts before Christmas to find a job, I had to turn it up a notch for the new year. And somehow, it worked: I’m now employed on a permanent, full-time basis.
As a result, I won’t be able to devote as much time on this blog as I had done when I was unemployed. However, I put it upon myself to schedule a time to post at least once a week, on Sundays.
A couple of items of interest. The first is a few nifty graphs that Paul Hillsdon created based on SkyTrain station usage. I commented already that, looking at the Expo Line numbers (the blue bars or pieces of pie in the charts), the major surprise was from Gateway placing dead last of the 20 Expo Line stations. I expected Nanaimo, 29th, Patterson, and Royal Oak to be among the bottom five, but Gateway?!?
And this Wednesday (21 January), the Vancouver Blogger Meetup Group, organized by Raul (aka Hummingbird604), has its monthly meeting. Hope to see you there!
1. I absolutely adore Emm Gryner’s music. She has a new album, the fittingly-titled Goddess, due out earlier this year, and you can still pre-order it. Emm will send it early and even sign the album for you! I was inspired to put this in because a number of her songs played on my iTunes yesterday, and I discovered someone from Scotland (!) on Twitter who was having his own Emm marathon.
2. BBC Sound of 2009: You’ll likely be listening to at least one artist in this list this year. The 130 pundits who put forward the acts who will make it big in the new year know what they’re talking about. Just look at previous years’ picks: Adele and Duffy in 2008, Corinne Bailey Rae in 2006, Franz Ferdinand and Joss Stone in 2004. I’m personally intrigued to hear from Florence and the Machine and La Roux.
3. CBC Radio 2’s Obama’s Playlist: Or 49 Songs from North of the 49th Parallel. It’s a concept the CBC’s done before, but at least there has been some enthusiasm for it. Maybe Obama can be presented with an iPod Shuffle comprising of the 49 songs when he makes his first international visit as President. Would the CBC even attempt this had McCain won instead?
(A follow-up to Actually, David, it’s been more than three years. But we won’t hold that against you.)
BBC News: Who on earth is Matt Smith?
(photo credit: BBC press release)
That was quick, and unexpected. With only 24 hours’ notice, the identity of the 11th Doctor has been revealed, and by all accounts, it came from left field. In other words, Matt Smith’s name wasn’t listed by British bookmakers as being in line to replace David Tennant. Now if the average Briton is unfamiliar with his work to date on stage and television (small but impressive), imagine me in Canada, wondering who this Matt Smith is and how, at 26, he managed to snag the most-coveted acting role in the UK. I followed the play-by-play of the special Doctor Who Confidential on Twitter; even before it started airing, “Doctor Who” was a trending (ie. hotly-searched) topic on its search engine, which meant the Twitterverse was aflutter with anticipation.
Not having seen any of Matt Smith’s work, I could only base this casting decision on the interview he gave as part of the Confidential episode (portions of which can be seen on the news link). I don’t doubt the production team’s call on this, so it’s a wait-and-see attitude (or maybe I can find some of the programs he has been on). Based on comments I have read online in the 24 hours since the reveal, there are some who thought Smith was cast for his similar physical appearance to David Tennant; my sister thinks there is a combination of Tennant and Christopher Eccleston. Smith’s age was another point; there were comments noting that Smith is the first Doctor actor to be younger than the commenters (and I count myself in that crowd).
Tennant, officially a lame-duck Doctor, still has four more episodes (the next is “Planet of the Dead,” to air around Easter) before his tenure ends and the Doctor regenerates once more. Matt Smith will take over for series 5, production for which begins this summer, with a UK airing in 2010. At least the speculation has ended; it’s just a matter of wondering what the 11th Doctor will bring to the TARDIS.
Another year done, another ready to take me on. After I declared 2007 an annus horribilis, I wanted 2008 to be the year everything changes. One of the changes I set about right away was to start a blog. Seeing as the date of my first post is very close to the new year, I might as well do the state of the blog now.
While I think I’ve made some inroads through the year, particularly in integrating my various online personas, I could certainly do better, particularly in promotion. While I’m particularly impressed with the number of views I’ve had (more than 4,500), I would like to know who is actually reading the blog on a regular basis (if indeed they are reading – my most-read posts have yet to be commented on).
Looking at what I’ve posted in the past year, I really was all over the map, but I’m a generalist – that’s more or less how I operate. One question I’d like to pose is whether I should narrow the focus of my posts.
I think 2009 will be an interesting year, so bring it on! I hope you have a happy and prosperous 2009 as well!
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