Alien Spouse

Evalyn and Hobbes.

I was thrilled to find a soft toy tiger that looks almost exactly like Hobbes for $10; but I must admit I am feeling slightly guilty too.  This isn't an official Hobbes, and has no mention of Bill Waterson on it's tag... But on the other hand there don't appear to be any official Hobbes available... So...

Doc C pointed out that this tiger has a beard, Hobbes doesn't, and I then noticed that this tiger has a white tip to his tail, instead of black.  I suppose that is enough of a difference to not be a copyright infringement? Really?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, Eva has a Hobbes to get into scrapes with so let's not over analyse, eh?

 

Speed Mobility System - From Milan.

It is utterly bizarre to me that I have somehow stumbled into a life in which I am shopping for motorcycle accessories.  How the hell did that happen?

I bought a SMS Visione in pearl white with black stripes, and it arrived yesterday.  I am very happy with it; it fits snuggly whilst still being nice and light, and I love how it looks.  There is a definite hint of Princess from G-Force about it, now all I need is a pink dress, a white cloak and some high white boots.

Originally I was heavily leaning towards a sliver glitter helmet, which was rather stunning, but that didn't have a face visor and I decided that whilst looking like a mirror ball might be fun, it might also be a little over the top.  So I went with something classic (and a good $50 cheaper...).

The SMS website has the following information about their designers:

"SMS is an Italian designed helmet line.  Mr. Landi is the main designer behind these exclusive scooter helmets.  Mr. Landi lives and works in Milan, where he finds much of his design inspiration in this beautiful old European city in the heart of Italy.  Guiseppe is the other Italian designer, responsible for building high quality, safe helmets with a stylish look.  Together they have created this elite line of scooter helmets with a distinct European retro feel."

I love that!  Mr Landi and Guiseppe!  

A Logical Place to Sleep.

Well, the crib was quite easy to put together (as far as I could see anyway - Doc C actually built the crib, because I had built the changing table/chest of drawers earlier in the afternoon).  Eva doesn't seem to hate it or anything, but we will see what she makes of sleeping in it.  Please keep your fingers crossed that our little science officer decides this is a good place to take her r-and-r of a night.

Comic Book Baby.

Based on her pose here, I think Eva is confusing Wonder Woman with Superman.

She's only 3 weeks and 6 days old though, she's got a lot of stuff to learn still.

(By the way, she wore this for about 4 hours before getting milk all down the front and then also peeing on it whilst I was changing her nappy.  Babies!)

Re-Watching The Next Generation.

When we move we are seriously cutting back on non-essentials, and I'm just as surprised as anyone to find myself easily agreeing that Tivo and cable television are non-essential.  This has been made immeasurably easier by two things: 1) The is NOTHING on TV over the summer and so we have been mostly watching stuff on Netflix streaming through the Playstation, and 2) There is so much to watch on Netflix streaming that we will be entertained for months without missing cable at all.

One of the things we have started to watch from the beginning is "Star Trek: The Next Generation", which although I have watched some of I really didn't pay much attention to.  However I did remember that in an early version of the uniform there were micro mini-dresses which were worn by both women and men, (these weren't worn by any of the main characters - I suppose Councillor Troi is the most likely to wear a short skirt, but these were too short even for her).  It would just be an anonymous crew member striding around in the micro mini-dress, and I specifically remembered an asian gentleman in a red command/helm uniform. Doc C never believed me when I mentioned this, so it has been very gratifying to be able to point him out.

Also, some of the early episodes are really freaking weird.  There is one that it is practically "Carry On Star Trekking" because it is so full of double entendres and odd acting choices.  It's really quite fun to watch.

A Dozen Six-Sided Dice.

Over the summer Doc C attended a seminar on re-designing classes, and there was a segment on how to restructure a group exercise. He texted me at the coffee break because his mind was a blank, and I texted back "When in doubt, go with a zombie apocalypse!" So, today Doc C's class will be dividing up into teams which are trying to re-structure society following a zombie apocalypse, and they will have to roll dice to add elements of chance to the thing. They get various advantages and penalties depending on the score they roll, and it also determines how much food they gather or hunt.

We purchased a dozen dice yesterday and Doc was very careful that they were easy to distinguish from each other. We then spent some coming up with names for all of them. In his class today the student groups will be writing the name of their dice on the top of their sheets, so Doc C knows where they all are and who to chase up if one of them goes missing. Mostly they are named after sci-fi species (Suliban) or cartoon characters (Invader Zim, Harley Quinn), but we also have Disco, Smokey and Blue Plate Special.

Game night at our house, when we ever get around to hosting such a thing, will be epic!

Toning Down Christmas.

It occured to me this morning that I had not yet decorated the house for Christmas, but at the same time I'm right in the middle of reading "Miss Minimalist" (on my Kindle) and it just feels wrong to glitter the whole house.

So I compromised and hung up the faux vintage ornaments I bought in Boston last year on the twig arrangement from Halloween, then I added in a couple of other ornaments to balance those out and that's that.  

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 I love the faux vintage ornaments almost more then I did when I bought them last year, they are delightfully tacky and rather adorable in their own very plastic way. Doc C is a particular fan of the angels, who are all holding their hands out in front of them in the manner of fisherman describing the one-that-got-away. They also all have black eyes, which gives them quite a creepy alien-being ambience.

Finally, on the dining table, I've put up the sad little Christmas tree beloved by Charlie Brown and all those who get a bit tearful when watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965) ...*cough*Doc*cough*...

The Crack in the Wall - Now With TARDIS!

This weekend I made art - Well, I cut up a t-shirt with a print I really liked, stapled bits of it to canvases of various different sizes, and then hung them on the wall. That's art, right? Sort of?

Eh, whatever! I now have a panel of the TARDamask Threadless t-shirt hanging up on our bedroom wall right underneath a largish crack in the plaster. It couldn't be much better really could it? (Don't worry Moth, I darkened the crack in this photo to make it a bit more prominent.)

As you can see I also made some mini panels with just one TARDIS on them, this portrait one is ok, but I really like the square minis better because the whole design will fit diagonally rather neatly. I put one of those up too, on the other side of the bathroom door, so we have TARDIS whizzing off all over the place. That seems much more appropriate than them being entirely confined to nice neat rows, don't you think?

I still have half of the t-shirt left, it was a front and back all-over print, so I could make a larger panel, or a cushion maybe.

 

Kitty Pride.

I read recently (on Wikipedia) that the reason Sanrio don't usually give Hello Kitty a mouth is because "without the mouth, it is easier for the person looking at Hello Kitty to project their feelings onto the character" and that "the person can be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty." I've just never pictured Hello Kitty as being a great solace during times of difficulty myself, but maybe she is to somebody.

I think the addition of the glasses make Hello Kitty look more scholarly, but also as if she will not take any nonsense. A fine role-model for any professional woman I'm sure you'll agree.

Today I am wearing jeans and a t-shirt (that both fit!) topped off by a waistcoat with a Nerd Hello Kitty badge on it. I happened to be wearing almost exactly the same thing when I was in a slightly awkward situation a week or two ago and I must say that I felt equal to the challenge because I had Nerd Hello Kitty in my corner (not to mention I was better dressed - Which I hesitate to note because it sounds a bit self-congratulatory, possibly outright bitchy, but, none the less, that was my honest opinion).

Countdown to Halloween: Sixteen Days

Somehow I completely failed to go to the Coraline website until this week.  How did I allow this to happen?

As you can see I have given the Green Queen black button eyes, and I think she looks really quite sinister.  The Beldam must have an alien cousin, don't you think?

I've yet to make the buttons to go on my Coraline amigurumi, so what I might do is take a photo and then upload them to the Coraline website to try different buttons out before I get out the polymer clay.

Dragon Con : Monday

This morning both Doc and I agreed that it would have been really nice to take today off to recover from our long weekend, and get some sleep.  We are both exhausted today, but we have tea and some chocolate biscuits to keep us going until dinner.

In the mean time I promised the re-cap of Monday at Dragon Con.  This was perhaps the most exhausting of all, because we were in such a rush to get to the last available "Battlestar Gallactica" photo opportunity that we skipped breakfast.  The important thing was that we got there in time to sign up for a photo with Edward James Olmos, an actor with a long and illustrious career, but who Doc and I love best in his role of Commander Bill Adama.  We only had to wait in a queue for about twenty minutes before Eddie arrived, and then we were whisked in, posed with Eddie and out the door again.  It took perhaps 30 seconds, but Eddie was very friendly and the picture we have is of him with an arm around each of us.  Squee!  Adama hugged us!  So then we went to the "Battlestar Galactica" panel (Edward James Olmos, Dean Stockwell and Richard Hatch) which was mainly a Q&A with the audience.

After that we hung out for a while and looked at the photos waiting to be collected.  They were great!  There were dozens of science fiction stars at the conference, and several of them had posed for photos with fans; some clearly more happily than others.  Out of all of them I have to say that Eddie McClintockdeserves a special mention, because in all of the pictures he looked as though he was having a great time.  I already liked "Warehouse Thirteen", but now I am all the more charmed.

The final thing before we left was a quick return run to the trading hall, because I wanted to buy a piece of jewelry that I had seen the day before and realised that I needed to own.

Is it not the most magnificent thing you have ever seen?  It can really only be described as a Star Trek Drag Queen accessory, and was (according to the nice man who sold it to me) designed by Majel Rodenberry; who apparently was as much of a magpie as I am.  

We had also intended to pick up a couple of t-shirts, but the very last morning of a convention is not a good time to find clothes in a specific size.

I very very nearly almost bought this for my Mum though:

And THEN we had breakfast.

Dragon Con : Sunday

Things started poorly in the morning because the bed in our hotel room is not compatible with Doc C's temperamental back and he woke up in some pain.  We got him pain killers and I scoured the internet for somewhere to have brunch.  

I eventually settled on Cafe 458, mainly because it sounded like it had some decent food and I thought was fairly close to the hotel.  Until I realised it was really at least a half hour's walk away.  So I bundled Doc C into a taxi and got my sweetie to his much needed omelet and juice.  Cafe 458 is actually only open to the general public on Sundays, and it's entirely staffed with volunteers so that 100% of the proceeds, including the tips, go back to the cafe's charitable weekday work.  During the week reservations can only be made by homeless people who have been referred to the cafe by another social service, and the idea is that it's like a fine dining experience with maitre d' greeting the guests at the door and waiters serving a menu prepared by corden bleu chefs.  if you are in Atlanta over a weekend I highly recommend going, it's a nice little restaurant and you can get a stack of delicious buckwheat pancakes that just happen to also be tax deductible.

After breakfast we headed over to the hotel where Doc C would be giving his talk, but we went to see what was on sale in the market places.  It was like a sea of fabulous geekery, we could have purchased entirely new wardrobes of cool t-shirts along with an exciting selection of steam-punk jewelry and disturbingly accurate weaponry.  Doc C bought a cuddly Darth Vader and I think I may have to go back tomorrow to pick up the gem encrusted Star Trek communicator broach. It was magnificent in it's campy over-the-topness.

The browsing took far longer than we had anticipated, and afterwards I needed the peace and quiet of our hotel room.  Not to mention the elixir that is tea.  Doc had a meeting to go to, so I stayed for a lovely nap and we arranged to meet before his talk.

The talk went really very well, and Doc's observations on how super power's are assigned along gender roles for the most part prompted a lot of discussion with the audience.  He had several people stay behind after the Q&A to discuss things in greater detail, including a student who happens to attend our university who asked if he could help with further research.

Then we went for a ridiculously delicious dinner at the Ritz-Carlton's Atlantic Grill, before heading back to the hotel again.

I am freaking exhausted now, but this weekend has been a welcome jolt of geektastic fun.  Tomorrow we are determined to see the Battlestar Galactica panel, because if Edward James Olmos is in the same town as us we are going to hear him talk or know the reason why.

Dragon Con Saturday

One of the websites that Doc sent me a link to in advance of our coming to Dragon Con gave the very sensible advice that you do have to very consciously remember to eat, drink and sleep.  That sounds redundant until you get here, and find that there is something interesting going on from 8:30 in the morning until 1 in the morning, and that's just the official program.

Today we got up at about 9, had breakfast at our hotel then walked over to one of the other hotels hosting the conference for our first session.  This was part of the Skeptrack schedule, and it was a fascinating and extremely inspiring discussion about the need for secular lobbying groups in American politics.  Hell yeah!  Obviously with us and others like us in the audience the man was preaching to the choir, *snort*, but it was still very refreshing to hear.

We left during the Q&A because I wanted to find the loo before we went to the talk by James Randi.  We found the mens toilets fairly easily, and correctly guessed that the ladies would be opposite, I walked around the corner and there were Dean Stockwell and Scott Bakula signing autographs!  (Post script: That makes it sound as though they were actually in a cubicle in the ladies' loo, I can assure that they were not; they were just right outside.  It was perhaps not the best of locations.) It was most surreal, but I was in too much of a rush to get anything signed - Besides, I had absolutely nothing appropriate with me, so it would have just been a receipt or something stupid like that.

The queue for the Randi talk was epic, and we were not 100% sure we would get in, but we did and even managed to get good seats on the center aisle.  James Randi himself was a very interesting speaker and engaged with the audience in an intelligent and charming manner, although really we were all clearly fans so there was no debate or dissension.  Still he's like a cross between Yoda and Darwin and he can do conjuring tricks, which makes him a pocket-sized version of the ideal grandfather.  Utterly adorable.

Then we had lunch, and then we headed back for another talk - This time on the solar system.  It was 5pm by this point, and when I realised that the sound was going to be terrible and the room slightly too warm I told Doc C I was going back to the hotel and left him there.  I bolted back to our room and had a bath in our ridiculously fabulous whirlpool bath and read some Sherlock Holmes.  Then I had a nice cup of tea and a nap until Doc C woke me up for our next event at 7.  We decided we probably wouldn't get into the Battlestar Galactica panel, so we went to the academic discussion of "The Watchmen".  This had some good observations, and an almost complete set of Watchmen in the audience; although I was even more pleased to see a group dressed as characters from the 80's BBC TV version of The Hitchhiker's Guide.

At this point we headed back to our own hotel, because we wanted to go to the seafood restaurant there and then visit the special after-hours Dragon Con opening of the Georgia Aquarium.

And now we sleep.

Dragon Con : Friday

Atlanta is over flowing with sci-fi fans for Dragon*Con 2010, and the next three days is going to be a veritable cornucopia of geektastic panel discussions and costume judging.

The only problem is that Doc's talk is scheduled for 7pm on Sunday, which is the same time as Patricia Quinn is doing a Q&A; the discussion panel on "Being Human"; and the Chinese Vampire make-up demonstration.  Damn it!  Good thing there are a few hundred other things we can attend over the rest of the time we're here.

We are already overwhelmed, tired and fractious, but I think this will be a fun weekend.

"Girls Rule" T-shirt.

This faux-retro super heroines t-shirt was purchased last week from Old Navy.

It has glitter print on the lettering and hearts, and features (from left to right) Supergirl, Wonderwoman and Batgirl.

Plus, look I'm wearing shorts that stop above my knees!

Eleven Doctors.

Ooh!  Look what Megg Quiddity found:

"The ultimate Doctor Who collectors set! Features all eleven incarnations of the Doctor presented in an impressive Tardis display box with a small bio of each Doctor.

Set Includes:

-William Hartnell (1963–1966)
-Patrick Troughton (1966–1969)
-Jon Pertwee (1970–1974)
-Tom Baker (1974–1981)
-Peter Davison (1981–1984)
-Colin Baker (1984–1986)
-Sylvester McCoy (1987–1989, 1996)
-Paul McGann (1996)
-Christopher Eccleston (2005)
-David Tennant (2005–2010)
-Matt Smith (2010-Present) 

Look for this set from Underground Toys to be released in August."

Buffy in the Office.

She may only be a foot tall, but Buffy Summers is sworn to protect my desk-tidy and in tray from the Forces of Darkness.

Apparently they are on a really small Hellmouth.

Time Bandits

As we were finishing our breakfast yesterday the waitress came over to see if there was anything else we wanted, and then gave us our bill. As Doc was checking the bill he noticed the time, which was printed at the bottom, and was surprised how late it was. I looked at my watch, and reassured him that the time stamp on the bill was an hour off.

I also pointed out, this would provide us with a great alibi if we had any crimes we wanted to commit that day.  We both laughed, and then thought for a moment, before admitting we just couldn't come up with anything to do. 

It's probably a good thing we aren't spur-of-the-moment, devil-may-care, super-villains when the opportunity presents itself, but it's still vaguely disappointing to really know that about yourself.  Doc C will never be Doctor Horrible and I will never be Catwoman.  Except for Halloween, obviously.

Early Pre-Planning for Halloween

It's only March and already I am already well on my way to getting a Halloween costume together.  I mentioned when Mum sent me the "Coraline" DVD that I was considering dressing as Coraline herself as my costume this year.

It would consist of jeans, a yellow raincoat, yellow wellies and a hat/wig, which would be perfect for our annual trip to the ghost train!  I bought some great royal blue yarn for the wig last month, it's even got a nice strand of tinsel spun through it, and so now all I need to do is get the coat and boots.  Today I found great examples of both on-line today, so I'm thinking this is practically a done deal.

Now all I've got to decide is if I want to make myself button eyes, and work out some way of getting them to stay on.  Do you think a cheap pair of round shades painted with the four holes would work?  Oh, this is going to be GREAT!

Alien Edith.

The box that Edith has been using as a climbing frame slash play house is looking very shabby now after several months of being jumped on.  Today Edith finally burst through the base, it was very birth of an alien.

Then she turned round and started gnawing the hole she'd just forced her way through.

Because she is a nutter.

The Journey to the Thirteenth Colony.

This weekend we started watching "Battlestar Galactica" and watched the whole of the initial three hour mini-series in one sitting.  Which was sort of unintentional, but we just couldn't turn in off.  We've got the next disc from Netflix already, and we want no spoilers, thank-you-very-much.  I have tried to avoid paying attention to the trailers for "Caprica" to avoid any canonical information, and I haven't read any reviews or fan forums.

I have a horrible feeling that, despite my best efforts to remain a tabula rasa, I already know a major twist.  I haven't said anything about it to Doc C and I'm trying to sublimate, so it can be a surprise to me too.

It's Alive! Alive!

Today was a very good day!  Doc made crumpets! And I read "Frankenstein" from beginning to end! 

Actually my personal best is still having read "Wuthering Heights" cover-to-cover in a single day, but that's not the point here.  Whilst reading Mary Shelley's best known work I was also underlining lots of passages in the novel and made a couple of pages of notes, which is guaranteed to make a girl feel like she's been doing some serious thinking.

One of the best things about buying second-hand text books is when the previous owners have already underlined bits, or made notes in the margins.  Whoever it was that owned this book before me started off annotating the text quite emphatically, for example there is a star in the margin that was drawn in ballpoint pen with such force that it's impression goes through the next three pages; but that kind of intensity is hard to maintain, and the notes stop a third of the way into the book.

Still, the last note is particularly pleasing:

"The Monster Lives!" Yeah, it does!  Wooh!

Wig/Hat A. or Wig/Hat B.?

I'm torn between two crochet wig/hat ideas.

Clearly there is going to be some bouffant action either way.

poll by twiigs.com

The Brain Slugs Brothers.

I've finished the bigger Brain Slug, he's just as intent on enslaving humans through brain control but I like to think he's got a better sense of humour.

Lost Logan.

Yesterday the new Graduate Assistant and one of our Work Study Students were in the work room next to my office, and I could hear them whispering and giggling for ages.  I don't know about you, but that sort of thing always makes me feel paranoid.

Then they came into my office and asked if I wanted to be part of their conspiracy, but I had to say yes or no before they would tell me what it was.

Essentially they had hatched a plot to kidnap the Wolverine figurine from Zack, the department's Tech Specialist / Advisor / Assistant Lecturer / Photographer / Videographer / Webmaster / Housing Liason.

I let them do it, because they were so hyped up by then it would have taken the X-Men to stop them.  The thing is though that I really don't like practical jokes, so I made sure Wolverine was put somewhere safe (on top of the stationary cupboard) and when Zack hadn't noticed by lunch time today, I cracked and dropped a hint that he might not be noticing something.

He worked out that Wolverine was missing, and found him almost immediately after that.  The students had put a Post-It on Logan, that said "Want a Muffin?" because Zack had offered us all a home-made mini-muffin yesterday.

The plan right now is that Zack is going to put Wolverine back on top of the stationary cupboard, but change the Post-It note.  He just hasn't worked out what it's going to say yet.

The Sleep Pattern of The Justice League. Probably.

Yesterday I found an interesting set of articles about sleep, in particular how to sleep well and get up early each morning.  I'm actually not bad at that, having commuted for years I am fully aware that I need to be asleep before 11 if I want to feel human at 5.30 the next morning, but it's nice to have some back up information on that sort of thing.

The blogger then went on to try experimenting with polyphasic sleep, which involves napping for twenty to thirty minutes six times a day.  It sounds fascinating!  I wouldn't want to try it because the adaptation period of the first week or so appears to be hellish, but after that it sounds like you free up bucket loads of time.  Could be useful when my carefully constructed alter-ego is finally a solid enough cover for me to take on my crime fighting persona.  I may have said too much...

Really though, I'm thinking Batman, Spiderman and Buffy etc., all must have developed polyphasic sleep patterns, because otherwise how could they patrol all night and also hold down a day job?  That has always bothered me, and now I have an actual real world explanation I feel a lot better about things.  I like my sci-fi fantasy to have some sort of connection to the reality, even if it's a tenuous one.