Doctor Who Series 5 is Near-Perfect: Part 2

So, this second part has been a long time coming.

I've been mentally trying to figure out how I'd want to divide and separate the next few DWS5 blogs and I think I've gotten it pretty well hashed out. The next few blogs will aim to focus mainly on the changes The Doctor goes through, starting with Nine.

Now, I'm in no way, shape or form going to say that Smith portrays a better version of The Doctor than Tennant or Eccleston. I will, however, attempt to tie in all the reasons I think Series 5, Doctor #Eleven included, is near-perfect together.

Eccleston's Doctor was very fun loving, encouraging others to do what would make them happy but was also hard and drastic when he needed to be. He was very brooding and full of melancholy, which is understandable after being responsible for the extermination of Time-Lords and Daleks, alike. He's like an uncle. Slow to anger, will protect anything that threatens those he cares for, and very jovial, even when the situation calls for fear. There was something scary and aggressive about him but you knew he'd fight tooth and nail to protect the innocent.

I have no strong issues with Nine, but his character doesn't seem very real to me. He was a mix of extremes and it was very flip-floppy for me at times. I was never lost in the Series 1 episodes like I was with later episodes. I always consciously knew I was watching a television program, whereas, with some of Tennant's and Smith's episodes, their Doctor was so believable and natural, I completely lost myself in the show.

Next up, Ten!

Go back and read: Part 1 Part 3 Part 4

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Doctor Who Series 5 is Near-Perfect: Part 1

Let me just start out by saying, "It is 'Series 5', not 'Season 5". If you want to get technical, the season introducing Matt Smith as The Doctor is Season 31.

And I think Series 5 is near-perfect.

But first, let me give you a tiny bit of recap into my summer's swelling of Doctor Who:

Nearly a year ago, to the day, actually, I started watching the Christopher Eccleston episodes of Doctor Who. By late December, I had caught up to the end of the David Tennant episodes.

Then I waited for the Matt Smith premiere, patiently, like everyone in England.*

*(I say, 'everyone in England' because I sure wasn't going to wait the two extra weeks for it to be on American TV. I was going to watch them online. Even so, I didn't have basic cable at the apartment I was living in, so I wouldn't have been able to watch anyway.)

Then, during the middle of the Matt Smith-sodes I moved into the place where I'm living now and we have Digital Cable which also, I found out weeks later, gives me access to BBC America.

I was a happy lad.

The point of this blog is a platform set-up into something that I may continue for the next few posts or so. The Series 5, while it may not have David Tennant as The Doctor, has evolved into something more perfect than (I'm assuming) the previous 30 seasons hadn't been able to touch.

Scratch that. I meant to say, 'The previous 26 seasons', because I am able to heavily compare and contrast the last five series/seasons to each other.

But more on that later.

Go back and read: Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

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The Internet was Invented Today

Twenty years ago to the day, the Internet, as we know it, culminated.

The first web browser, WorldWideWeb, was developed by Tim Berners-Lee, and it was, IMHO, the biggest leap forward in communication and technology this century. And it only happened twenty years ago.

Before 1990, there was no available HTTP or HTML to use and there was no such thing as a Web browser. In 1990, TB-L created the HTTP and HTML needed and the very first WorldWideWeb Web browser, not to mention the first few Web pages which described the project.

It's just odd for me to think about because I'm older than 20, and although I remember the popularity boom of the Internet, I don't remember a time when a computer wasn't a big part of my life. Back in the 90s, I was hooked on my dad's computer games. I often played a Star Trek RPG video game which was loaded from DOS. And even though I was never the biggest Star Trek fan, I spent a lot of time playing it.

Then I remember updating to Windows 95.

Then came dial-up, which, by no stretch of the imagination, was anything to really blog about nowadays.

But then everything exploded in the DotCom Boom of the late 90s.

People were able to create websites with very, very low starting rates and the Internet welcomed a surge of destinations.

So think about that today, as you browse this wonderful WorldWideWeb-based technology. Because without it, we probably wouldn't be as close as we are, even if we are thousands of miles apart.

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WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?

So, it's recently come to my attention that I have no idea what this is.

This blog, I mean. Not the internet.

Everyone knows that the internet is a series of tubes.

Duh. #oldjokeisold #hashtaggingblogs

What I mean is that I don't know how you guys come to find this blog because, frankly, I got near 200+ hits on my last blog within the first day of it being posted.

WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE AND HOW ARE YOU FINDING ME?

The internet is a slacker's paradise.
You don't like the video you're watching? Click away.
You don't want to sift through another clip art website from 1996? Click away.
You can go wherever you want whenever you want*.

I have Twitter to thank for a lot of my blog-viewers. My Twitter followers are some of the most awesome people on the internet. And I'm not just saying that because you're reading my blog. I'm saying that partially because you're reading my blog. But that does not account for the hundreds of people visiting my blog-o-sphere so I'm still at a loss.

Blogger lets you put "labels" to your blog which are a version of YouTube's "tags". And even if the tags are what are bringing people to my blog, I'd have to say, I'm surprised.

But thank you. :)

I love being able to have a place where I can put my thoughts down for others to peruse if they so wish and then comment to let me know how they're feeling. Help me help you. Help me figure out what this is. Should I talk about my day and what I did, blabbity blah, or should I use this as a quick 'media discussion' outlet with witty remarks and humorous rants?

I guess it could be both.

I want to hear from you guys. I want to know what you like reading about. This isn't YouTube. It's not me talking at you. This has the ability to become a discussion and I'd love that.

*based on your connection to the internet, the speed of that connection, and if connection is actually made.

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I'm a PC

Today, I am installing a program on my computer to use instead of Windows Live Movie Maker.
I know, I know, seeing as how I'm a video blogger, it's all horrible. I understand.

Believe me.

The issue comes with the fact that I don't like Mac computers yet I am incredibly in-tune with the video and audio software (iMovie, FinalCut Pro, Garage Band, etc) The problem is that I don't trust Mac computers.

Yea, I said it.

I don't trust Macs.

Not because I think Macs will steal my identity or that Steve J is out to get me or anything, but because the software/hardware is so tightly packed and contained that if anything were to go wrong, missing file, accidental overwrite, there's nothing to do but a full system format.

That being said, I think most Mac programs are incredibly user-friendly. Now, do I think that the programs are very user-friendly in order to be able to help out the less-than computer savvy people in the world? Partially.

But that's a different blog for a different day.

I'm not out to fuel the Mac-PC war and I honestly don't care what platform use.

All I'm saying, is that I don't want to own a Mac computer, but I do want to use something better than WLMM. That's why, I got my hands on Sony Vegas Pro and so I'll be testing that out later.

The only other hang-up about editing on this computer is that it's a laptop and I don't have a USB mouse so I have to use the touch-pad for exact cuts which don't /exactly/ turn out the way I want. (SEEWHATIDIDTHERE?)

Anywho, the update is done so here I go, testing this out!

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Why OpenOffice Sucks - A NaNoWriMo Blog

I should really be writing my NaNoWriMo novel instead of this blog.

No, seriously. I should REALLY be writing it.

The fact is, I had gotten to about 8,000 words. And now it's all gone.

Every single word.

Stupid file decided to lock me out of itself and then proceed to delete the contents. That's the last time I use stupid OpenOffice.

But let me start from the beginning...

So, a few weeks ago, I needed to type up and print out my lyrics for 'Hogwarts State of Mind'. I was going to record the audio and I wanted easy to read lyrics in front of me to go off of. So, being the poor kid as I am, I used a free option available to me. OpenOffice. Stupid, stupid, OpenOffice.

The thing with OpenOffice is that it integrates itself with most all other text editing programs. Because of that, you can save a document in about a BAJILLION ways. It gets a bit tricky after a while unless you know exactly what you need.

If I had known it would be this much hassle, I wouldn't have even bothered.

Then when November rolled around, I thought, "Oh, hey. I already have a typing program on my computer." And I decided to start work on my NaNoWriMo story. Using OpenOffice.

Which was a big mistake.

So, I'm typing along, and a few days go by. I can just leave the computer in standby for hours at a time and then come back and type more on my story. But then, for some reason, on Wednesday, I decided to save the novel and shut the computer off.

When I booted the computer back up and tried to open the file today, it said something along the lines of me not being able to change the document because another "user" had the file opened. The computer had just booted up and I've worked with computers a while. There was no other "user" keeping the file from me.

When I finally did get the file open, it looked like
###########################################################################
which is not exactly the story arc I was looking for.

After downloading and running three different recovery programs, they all said that there were no contents to the file.

All was lost.

I ran to the store, got Microsoft Office 2010 and installed it. So guess what shiny new program I'll be using tomorrow to catch-up to the people who are cranking out 2,000 words a day? Hint, it's not stupid OpenOffice or whatever.

I'll keep you posted on my NaNo progress and there will (hopefully) be a Q@A video tomorrow! :D

EDIT: People are telling me I should have made more backups, and while it is true that I didn't email the contents to myself, the reason that they all failed-out was because of the way that I saved them. I saved them as a file that had a lock-out backup saved and then when I tried to reopen it, I wasn't the "correct" user to be able to open and edit (or even view, for that matter) the file. But I learned my lesson. I'll backup the contents and send the story to myself as a story, not as an attachment. FIN.

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If you're doing NaNoWriMo, check out some of these books for helpful tips!

Hogwarts State of Mind: The Blog

So, as many of you know, I'm back on the YouTubes again. Posting vids and taking names. Well, more about the posting vids and less about taking names. But I am thanking subscribers. Still. Which can get rather exhausting at times.

But I love you guys. :)

And, as 2,621 of you know, my big comeback video was 'Hogwarts State of Mind', the parody of 'Empire State of Mind'. And it was incredibly well-received, even though Kiera and I are not black rappers.

The confusing thing for me was, that usually, my parody videos do very well in the view counts and, I don't know if it's because I'm getting spoiled with thousands of views on the other videos, or because Empire just isn't a very searched-for song anymore, a view count of 2,000some seems rather low.

I'm probably just spoiled.

Fear not, the views don't matter too much to me. I am happy with each and every one of my views and I'm quite proud of the song/video. I have a few other parody ideas (okay, a lot of parody ideas) and you'll see more of them culminate soon in the future, you have my word.

I plan on dressing up as Malfoy for another parody which will be filmed as soon as December rolls around. The reason for the month-away film date is because this month I am not shaving my face, and, cmon, Malfoy can't grow facial hair to save the Dark Lord.

AND OMFG SO EXCITED FOR HARRY POTTER DH PART 1.

Hogwarts State of Mind

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I'm Gonna Be Honest - A NaNoWriMo Blog

Okay, I'm gonna be honest.

I only wrote about 1,000 words last night for my NaNoNovel.

Which, now that I think about it, doesn't actually mean what I meant it to mean. National Novel Novel. Wuud?

ANYWAY, this is not a post to tell you that I'm sorry that I didn't write a lot yesterday. It's not even that I didn't have time. I had plenty of time. I just didn't feel like it. But hey, that's what this weekend is for. I'm off on Saturday and Sunday so I'll try to get it up to 20k words by Monday.

My friends are of the best witnesses to the fact that I work and type well under pressure. I don't think this would be nearly as exciting if I WASN'T behind in the word count. By the last week of NaNo last year, I was still 20k behind. I ended up hashin out 15k of them out on the night before Black Friday (Thanksgiving night). Granted, it took me until about an hour before midnight to hit 50,231 words, but that's another story.

My point is that I'm not going to let my NaNoWriMo novel stress me out in any sort of negative ways this year, only positive. And if you're doing NNWM as well, don't let it stress you out either. Use the pressure as motivation but don't look at 50k as the goal. Do what you can.

That being said, I like how my ideas keep changing for where this story is going. Last year, I had a pretty firm outline of where I wanted my story to go because I had been mentally planning it through the second half of October and I knew the beginning and ending, just not how the characters quite GOT to the ending.

This time around, I'm introducing the characters and letting their personalities interact with each other like they would IRL and not IRBook. It's like they actually have freewill and motivation and thoughts and it's rather scary not knowing what's going to happen. All I know is that it's good fuel for writing, writing, writing.

I'm sure something will happen in my novel. Eventually. Right?

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If you're doing NaNoWriMo, check out some of these books for helpful tips!

NaNoWhatNow?

So this year, like last, I am participating in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. The goal of which is to hash out a 50,000 word "novel" in the month of November.

Easier said than done.

Well, actually, scratch that. It doesn't sound easy at all.

That being said, it's not as daunting as it sounds either.

It's a feat that's totally do-able. I am blogging proof that it can be done. I believe I hit 50,133 words when I submitted my work twenty-three minutes before midnight of the last day of November last year. What was funny, well, at the time, scary, was that when I went to submit it, it said there was a time discrepancy and that I wasn't able to submit it or "win" NaNoWriMo because it was December 1st.

Needless to say, I about freaked out in fear.

But it was fixed in time. It seems about half of the people in my part of the country had an issue with submitting it on the last day and all we had to do was change our time zones on our profiles to Cuba's time zone and for some reason it worked.

IDKMYBFFJILL

Ya know, it's odd. I just hashed out 1,500 some words just now for my new NaNoNovel and now I'm typing a blog post, something I haven't done much of these past few months. This is time that I could have spent working on my NaNoNovel, words that could have been counted towards my goal, but instead I'm typing a blog post that doesn't have a time limit, word count, or an immediate reason for being here.

And that's the humor of the situation.

We talk about how scary a goal of 50,000 words in one month is, yet I just typed up about 1,500 in less than two and a half hours and I'm typing a blog post, watched some Doctor Who, and worked an entire shift at the store earlier.

I can make time for this.

But let me tell you, this me being ahead of the curve on the word count thing will NOT last, ha.

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If you're doing NaNoWriMo, check out some of these books for helpful tips!

Sorry, Customer Lady

First off, I am not going to mention where I work now. No matter how I leave employment with them, be it on good terms or very bloodily, I won't want anything on the internet of me saying anything that could be taken as my view of them as a company. No, I only blog/vlog about customers, not the company.

Secondly, this will probably be a vlog someday soon. So you can essentially read the manuscript for a video that hasn't been filmed yet. Meaning you can subsequently watch the video and...not laugh, I guess?

MOVING ON.

So, some of the things I CAN tell you about my job is that it's in retail. Retail of the electronics variety. The majority of my time is spent making photos for customers, selling cameras, and telling customers where the burnable CDs are located. And so far, seeing as how I've only worked there for about three weeks, I haven't gotten many upsetting customers.

Until Thursday.

Digital cameras, iPods, and other heavy duty technology are located behind the photo studio desk in cabinets with locks so as not to be stolen. The studio closes at 9:00pm and it's pretty obvious when it's closed. There are two signs that are put out saying that it's closed and the time when it will re-open, the cash register is shut off, the photo kiosks are shut down and the lights are turned off. That being said, if there's a customer waiting for their photos and they do all the necessary computer/editing stuff before the 9:00pm mark, I will hand them their photos when they're done. I just can't check them out at an empty register.

Around 8:55pm, a lady, we'll call her Cheryl, finishes her photo order and I tell her it'll only be about fifteen minutes for them to be printed off and I'd be able to give them to her then. While Cheryl is waiting, I start cleaning up the lab. Shutting down the kiosks, emptying the register, locking the cabinets, and even sweeping the floor. Around 9:05pm, a woman, we'll call her Ann, comes in with her daughter and starts looking at the digital cameras.

Three things go through my mind. First, she's here after 9:00pm. The photo studio closed at 9:00pm and she got here too late. The second thing was if I'd want to rummage through the cameras and compare makes and models with her even though it was her fault for showing up after we closed. And thirdly, and finally, she hadn't asked me for help. I had made eye contact with her multiple times while finishing up Cheryl's pictures, said hello, and still no asking for help. So maybe, just maybe, she was just waiting there for someone else.

My hopes were wrong.

I give Cheryl her pictures and go back to the computer to finish closing stuff up. I decide to just let Ann be and see what her move is as I turn to leave the media center. Of course, right as I'm about to turn, I hear an, "Excuse me?" and I wheel around to see that woman and her daughter. Obviously, it wouldn't been an issue if she had come up to me a half an hour, or even twenty minutes, but it was then 9:20pm. And the photo studio had been closed for 20 minutes. And I had done my job and locked up the cabinets.

So, back to her, "Excuse me?".

"Yes?" I replied, then knowing, regretfully, what she wanted.

"Could we take a look at a couple of these cameras?" she asked. Yup. I had known what she wanted. Great.

"I'm sorry," I say. "It's 9:20pm. The photo studio is closed now. We closed at 9:00pm."

"So, we can't see the cameras?"

"I'm sorry. The cabinets are all locked up because we closed at 9:00pm," I reiterated, but still being polite. I wanted to tell her that she showed up after 9:00pm and that I didn't feel bad turning down her request, but again, I was being polite.

"Well, fine then," she said. "We'll just take our business to Wal-Mart." It was obvious she was trying to rub in my loss of a sale.

"Alright then!" I say to her, sounding cheerful, as she turned to leave.

I may have lost a sale but was I who had the last laugh, customer lady. Because if you went right to Wal-Mart after leaving my store, you would know that the Wal-Mart photo lab also closed at 9:00pm.