Yeah, I know – I don’t update for ages, and when I do… It’s with a Doctor Who/BBC One promo.
Well, bite me – It’s The Doctor, some reindeer, and a TARDIS sled. How can that *not* be considered awesome?

Speaking of holiday madness, in one week I’ll be getting ready to begin Operation Distant Shores. More information on that later.

How can you NOT want to see this?

Computer Desk - Click for Big

Obviously, there’s a lot of Doctor Who going on here, what with the two voice-changing helmets, talking Dalek toy and the TARDIS USB hub. And, of course, there’s the required Star Trek items – I think there’s actually something Trek related in almost every room of the apartment, and that’s beginning to scare me.

The mini Gamera and Ghidorah figures were imported from Japan, along with matching Dreamcast memory cards. Remember those things? They had built in LCDs, so you could play little mini-games when not near the home console? Well, the two that game with these had little Gamera/Ghidorah virtual pet games. They were neat, but I think someone erased both of mine. Someone who wasn’t me.

You may also notice I have a lot of Mac stuff. For the record, that’s the same laptop from the living room; I don’t own two Macbooks. Yet.

The camera get’s almost no use – I had planned on doing some sort of video blog, but once I saw how awesome some of them are, and how horrible the rest are, I lost all interest. Maybe I’ll focus (heh) on documentaries instead.

Next to the Desk - Click for Big

First, The Shirt: It’s a neat little number from Threadless, with a kick ass backstory and some awesome art. As with most Threadless shirts, it was a limited run… and, being a gaming shirt centered around a gaming icon, it sold out fast. I was only able to get an XXL, but I liked the design so much I didn’t care. I think it looks pretty spiffy hanging on my wall.

Yes, I have a TOS uniform shirt. No, I don’t wear it… And, yes, I also have the phaser and communicator to go with it. Got them all at the Star Trek Experience. Eventually, I hope to get a tricorder to go with them.

Table - Click for Big

The mother lode of Doctor Who stuff – a TARDIS from the 80′s, the new series TARDIS playset (which I’ll probably have to replace once the 11th Doctor takes over, seeing as how they’ll be redesigning the interior sets…), a 9th and 10th Doctor and Rose. Not pictured is the Capt. Jack Nadia got for me to mark nine months of being together…

Yes, the Apple Newton still works. It works very well, actually – in fact, if it weren’t so damn bulky (I mean, really! It’s HUGE!) I might consider using it on a day-to-day basis at work… Mostly as a gag.

There you have it – My computer nook. The part of the apartment with the highest concentration of geekness. With luck I’ll get the rest of the pad sorted out this weekend, so I may have some shots of the Game Graveyard, where all my older systems reside.

Friday night we got some teriyaki and watched several episodes of Doctor Who (season four, three episodes)… We’re about half way through the season now, and I think Nadia is really enjoying it. It’s fun going back and re-watching some of the episodes, seeing how the various bits actually played into the overall arc of the season.

Saturday was Valentines day, and we celebrated it by sharing gifts. I got Nadia a teddy-bear (Mr. Bear is almost as tall as her), and she got me a really groovy bracelet with “Carpe Dementia” inscribed on one side, and “Rainbows and Unicorns, Love Nadia” on the other. So awesome. <3

We went to dinner at Tommy Bahamas, , a nice little restaurant at the edge of town. The food was amazing.

Sunday we exchanged seven-month gifts (mix CD for her, Indonesian language lessons for me), packed up the car and headed out to Primm for the remainder of the weekend. The drive was fun, if uneventful. Nadia munched on a Twinkie, I slurpped down a Monster Java drink (mocha flavor, yummy), we listened to some music and just talked… Good times.

Then we got to the hotel. Oy.

Turns out that they don’t do check in until 3PM – a fact that was pointed out to us by a rather surly worker. So, rather than wait around the hotel, we went to the outlet mall to kill three and a half hours.

We did some browsing – well, Nadia did some browsing, I mostly found places to sit and play my PSP. Sometimes I like to shop, sometimes not so much. I still had a great time (finally beat a few levels on n+ that had been troubling me), and Nadia had fun, so it was all good.

We had lunch at a noodle place, the food was okay. One of the items was moving, kinda of reminded me of gagh, although I didn’t say that… It tasted okay. The sauce was kinda yucky, but the food itself was pretty good.

Once we were done there, we went back to the hotel – and were confronted by the LONGEST LINE EVER. I mean, really – this line stretched half way across the casino. It was HUGE! Worst of all, some people were complaining about waiting for over an hour.

Now, it was 3:30pm – half an hour after we were told that check-in started, and people were (obviously) waiting since at least 2:30, probably sometime prior to that… Meaning we were told the absolute wrong time for check in. Worse, we too had to stand in line for an hour to check in.

An hour.

In Primm.

When we finally got to the counter, and found out the room Nadia had asked for (one king instead of two queens) wasn’t available, I blew. Calmly, but I still blew. Mostly I demanded to speak to a manager. Amazingly, a room with a king in non-smoking was suddenly, magically available! All without having to trouble a manager for anything! Huzzah!

We checked in, and crashed for a bit.

Then we hit the roller coaster. I nearly cried, it was so nerve wracking. I normally love coasters, but something about this one just made me not like it at all. Nadia loved it though, so it was worth it just to see her happy.

I got soaked on the log flume too. >_<

We hit the arcade for a little bit, then the buffet. Not much variety, but what they did have was pretty good. Then we hit the room to change (so I could ditch my wet clothes) and went back down to the arcade… Then the bar, then to bed.

Monday we got up, got cleaned up, and were gonna hit Baker, but it was rainy and my wipers weren’t working correctly… So we went home.

A great weekend, all told…

This will be the first Christmas I spend with Nadia, and I really hope it goes well… We’ll be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my folks, and then the rest of the weekend (probably) at my apartment relaxing and enjoying each others company.

So, I’m excited about that, and nervous about screwing something up.

Also: Doctor Who Christmas special. Yay!

Friday
In the evening Nadia came over, and thus did the Great Weekend begin.
We watched the last three episodes of Doctor Who – Season Two (Fear Her, Army of Ghosts, Doomsday) while eating wings from WingStop (Hot and Lemon Pepper for me, BBQ and Teriyaki for her). There were some tears (Rose! ), but all in all it was a good night. We followed it up with some LittleBigPlanet beta, which was also good times.

We also had ice-cream! She kept accusing me of reading her mind, but I think that maybe we were just in sync…

Saturday
Went over to my folks’ house about 10ish, helped them paint their entry way and a short hallway. Nadia did two doors, as well as a good chunk of the entry way. I had ceilings. Still good times, even though I ended up getting a lot of paint on myself. But, I did get a new pair of jeans and a replacement Zelda shirt out of it, so it’s not all bad.

My Uncle Mike came over, Nadia was on guard duty as he walked into the garage. He said he really liked her, so that’s a plus… Looks like my whole family likes Nadia, which really isn’t too surprising: She is just that damn awesome.

That night we watched the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie, and to be honest it was the first time I’ve ever actually enjoyed the damn thing. I mean, actually sat down and enjoyed it. For all it’s faults, it is a good movie… And I think I owe it to my Lady for making it so. [face_picard]

She ended up with a tummy ache that night… I sat with her for a while, as did Rasa. Hell, Rasa actually climbed up on her tummy, trying to make her feel better. Anyway, I felt so helpless, being unable to make her better – I had nothing in the house to offer her, no soup or medicine. I just sat by, rubbed her back a bit, and filled a hot water bottle for her once or twice…

Sunday
Sunday we went to the Ren Faire. Met her friend Sara(h?) there, had a fun time wandering through, looking at the neat stuff and the pretty damn neat clothes people were wearing.

I kinda bought her a ring… A sliver cletic-knot kind of thing. Very pretty, very shiny, very much something from me that she can wear and something – kind of – makes her a bit more mine…

We had burgers at the Burger Bar – Good food, talked about stuff… Was just a damn nice time.

Hit the Luxor, just to look around. Thought they had a cool arcade there, but turns out not so much anymore. Moved it to put Bodies there. Kinda sucky, but it was still a lot of fun just walking through the place with her. And, really – it was just another try on my part to spend more time with her.

Then, she went home.

All in all, a damn great weekend. ^_^

Thoughts after the jump…

This episode was one big fanwank – technobabble up the ass, every companion known to man standing around the TARDIS helping the Doctor Fly (Except you Jackie… You just stand over there…) and one improbable event after another.

This can be excused though, since it’s an RTD episode. He’s known for his Improbable Events, his Reset Button Endings and There Are No Consequences scripts. But, since this is his last episode, maybe we can let it go?

I’m pretty sure this will be the last we see of the majority of the companions at this point: Jack will go back to Torchwood, with Martha and Mickey in tow. Sarah Jane Smith will go back to her improbable son and her tin-dog (A last minute inclusion I was happy to have!) and do her own thing… And Rose? Yeah, her and her mum are safely tucked back in their parallel world, which is really, really sealed off for reals this time, honest.

Oh, and she has her own beau now too, a war vet that’s filled with rage and genocidal hatred, but that she can love and tame. Because, well, she did it for the Doctor, right? [eye_roll]

Which brings us to Donna: She ends the season right where we found her: Loud, arrogant and oblivious to everything around her. This whole season has had a theme of growth and change, of being more than yo start out, of her being the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT WOMAN IN THE UNIVERSE… And it ends with The Doctor wiping her god damn memory so that she doesn’t die!

What. The. Fuck?!

I’m sorry – I loved Donna. She was bold and brassy, and a lot quicker than she gave herself credit for. She finally comes into her own in this episode, and what happens? It nearly kills her.

Maybe that was the reset button: Donna has every memory of the TARDIS, of the Doctor, of her past year removed from her. She has to live her life like she used to, doing nothing, being loud and arrogant and self absorbed – not the woman we saw her become by season end.

How frustrating, eh?

Can I think of a better ending? Maybe: The Doctor find a way to remove the Time Lord knowledge that is killing her without wiping everything else, and the pain of constantly being reminded of what she had been – had known – is enough to ask to go home. She stays the fully grown person we know, the more active, stronger Donna – but on Earth, doing what she can to make a difference here.

Sure, it’s shades of Flowers for Algernon, but I think it’d work quite well in this context. It sure as hell would be less ham-fisted, and I doubt the audience would feel quite as cheated as I do right now.

That said, I’m glad now for the year long break. I think the show needs it, the writers need some time to evaluate where it’s going, and where it should go.

So, so long Donna Nobel – You were enjoyed, and you will be missed.

I ask him what’s going on, what’s the matter… I’m thinking something horrible has happened. Like, my mom was in an accident, or my uncle just died.

“Does the Doctor die?” he says.

“… What? The who?”
“I just saw the one in the library, and the commercials say he’s going to change forever… Does he die? He can’t die… I like this one.”

I wish I was making this up, but no – he phoned me up at the bar in a panic over Doctor Who. My father is a bigger geek than I am.

What? WHAT??

WHAT?!

In the immortal words of Ford Prefect, “I need a good, stiff drink and a support group.”

My iPod just played the same song, different version, back to back. It’s always a bit odd when that happens, particularly when it’s on shuffle. I’ve got a little over two thousand songs, and it decides to play the live and studio version of “Around the World” back to back.

Shit, did I just admit to listening to Aqua at work? I think I did.

Saturday was, as always, Doctor Who Day. Good episode, part one of two. It wasn’t revolutionary – a bit formulaic in parts, so I suppose one could say it was evolutionary if one were one of those pretentious pricks who call things evolutionary – but I still really enjoyed it all the same. It features some great humor and some really good character moments. Donna is really growing on me, in ways that Martha never really did. I just think that Martha was never allowed to develop, she was always kept in Roses shadow.

Picked up GTA IV last night, am totally enjoying the hell out of it. Or I would be if I were playing it right now, which I’m not as I’m stuck at work at my desk writing an entry about it instead. But, I’m playing it IN MY MIND!

The lineup last night was a bit crazy. Lots of, um… Thuggish people there. At one point a fellow in a large SUV drove by, window down, staring at us with the cold eyes of a stoned killer. For a moment, I was sure he was going to engage in some GTA LARPing. I was prepared to duck and or cover.

Eventually he parked, and wandered on over to the end of the line…

The only other notable moment was when the first person to buy it came back out of the store. He stood there, amongst the crowd and slowly opened the collectors edition box… There was a palpable silence, a feeling of tension as everyone in line considered beating him down, taking the game and legging it for the car.

Eventually he stuffed it in his trunk and went home.

I can’t wait for lunch.