Random Links (Biblioholic Edition)

Which DOCTOR WHO Library Is the Best DOCTOR WHO Library?: I can't decide, either!

Tsundoku: The Japanese have a word for it. That's oddly reassuring to know. (Also, holy crap, that Bookshelf Porn blog gets me disturbingly excited.)

25 Signs You’re Addicted To Books: I definitely qualify. But you knew that.

bookbookgoose: Shows you random books from Amazon. Very, very random books. I could keep clicking this all day.

Well, How About Next Week?

All day, I've had this weird feeling like there's some specific activity I should be engaging in, or something exciting that's supposed to happen today that isn't actually happening. And a little while ago, I finally realized why.

There is no new Doctor Who on today. And apparently some portion of my psyche is simply not prepared to believe or accept this fact.

My brain, ladies and gentlemen. My pathetic fannish brain.

How Come I Keep Hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger's Voice In My Head Now?

Now that I'm watching my money more carefully, I've started playing this fun new game called "What unexpected expense will there be for this paycheck?" This week's winner: $66 to the vet to reassure me that the weird brown spot on Nova's eye is probably not a tumor. Stupid expensive cats.

Still, on the upside: probably not a tumor! Yay!

Star Trekkin' Across The Universe

Just got back from seeing the new Star Trek movie. I made a point of going to see this one in the theater, not, I confess, due to any deep affection for the Trek reboot franchise -- honestly, the mere fact that I didn't actually hate the first one came as a pleasant shock -- but mostly because, well, Benedict Cumberbatch.

But I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I expected to. Probably more than it objectively deserves, really. It does, at least when it's not too busy being Big and Cinematic, have a fun, TOS-y kind of feel to it, mostly in the characters' banter, which was always one of the best things about the original. And, once again, there were lots of little continuity references and such designed to please us old school Trekkies. Although there were also a couple of points that the old school Trekkie in me had some problems with (including one fairly big one that's also a fairly big spoiler if you're going into the movie blind, so I won't say anything about it here). And, to be honest, I'm not sure the plot was actually coherent at all. More than that, it inevitably (and deliberately) invites comparisons to certain things that the original did, sometimes to the point of deja vu, and if you take it up on that invitation in any remotely serious way, this version is no way in hell going to come out the winner. And, yet, I found I didn't really mind much, but instead found myself settling into some optimal combination of taking it on its own terms and enjoying it for the nostalgic pleasure of being reminded of things I've always loved but hadn't thought about all that much in a while.

And, contemplating that reaction, it occurs to me that the reason these movies work for me at all is because my brain basically treats them as big screen fan fiction. I don't have to take them too seriously, and there's no way I'm taking them as canon, but what the heck. Approached with no expectations, no feeling that anything in particular is at stake, and the sense that I'm perfectly free to enjoy the aspects I like and ignore the ones I don't, it's an entertaining enough way to spend a couple of hours.

Now, on to the Doctor Who season finale! For which I do have expectations...


(Note: You're welcome to discuss details of the movie in the comments, if you like, but for the sake of those who haven't seen it yet, please do label anything that contains spoilers. Thanks!)

Random Links: All-Video Edition

First, we have a trailer for Calvin and Hobbes: The Movie. So help me, I seriously wish this was a real thing. I would watch the hell out of this.





Still on the movie theme, and just in time for the sequel, it's the honest trailer for the 2009 Star Trek movie. With lots of spoilers. Funny, funny spoilers.





And then there's Catherine Tate on some kind of game show, desperately trying to remember what part her co-worker David Tennant played in Harry Potter. This is probably the single funniest thing I have seen in recent memory.





And finally, a promo for the upcoming TV series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. Even if I weren't stupidly addicted to the show it's being spun off from, I would think this looked really, really cool.

And Today's Lesson

The lesson for today: If your alarm clock goes off and some groggy, disoriented, wishful-thinking part of your brain says, "What did you set that for? We've already done Friday! That was yesterday! Today is a day to sleep! Turn that thing off!", do not listen to it.

Fortunately, I somehow managed to make it into work on time, anyway. But ye gods, do I need more caffeine. Or at least for all the coffee I drank before dashing out the door to start kicking in.

This Is The Sort Of Thing You Get When I Decide To Post More Regularly.

Lesson for today: it's a very good idea to wear gloves when you apply shoe polish. Oh, well. I'm sure the orange fingernails make some kind of fashion statement.

I Know, I Should Be Glad I Even Have A Job.

Things that are happening this weekend: a new Doctor Who episode written by Neil Gaiman, the eagerly anticipated season finale of Once Upon a Time, a huge library sale in Albuquerque, Mother's Day (meaning it would be good if I could at least give my mom a call), and probably still more nice weather.

Things I am doing this weekend: working twelve hour shifts and, hopefully, sleeping.

Sigh.

And Then There's This Thing

Current clothes: A nightshirt that says "Oops, I bought another pile of books!" and a pair of pajama pants with a pattern of stars and moons on them. I really need to shower and get dressed soon, but I guarantee you that whatever I end up wearing, it will not express my personality nearly as thoroughly as my sleepwear.

Current mood: Groggy. My circadian rhythms have been even more messed up than usual lately, and today's manifestation of that involved repeatedly waking up (largely thanks to a persistently annoying cat) and then falling back to sleep again, until I ended up spending over twelve hours in bed. And now my brain has forgotten how to actually be awake.

Current music: I was listening to my music collection on random shuffle again yesterday in the car. I don't remember much in the way of specifics, but, as usual, it was a ridiculous mish-mash of genres.

Current annoyance: Between the car payments and the credit card debt still hanging over my head, for the first time in years I'm having to carefully stick to a budget, and I do not like it.

Current thing: I don't know. Wanting to get out and enjoy some of this really nice weather we've been having lately, and not actually doing it. Man. That's a sad thing.

Current desktop picture: I finally ousted Rumplestiltskin and replaced him with the terminator. No, not that one. The one that divides day from night.

Current book: Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Deadliest Creatures by Carl Zimmer. So far I've only read the prologue and I'm already disgusted. Not with the book, which looks interesting, but with nature. Nature is icky.

Current song in head: "Demons" by Imagine Dragons. So apparently that band has been playing in my head for a month now.

Current refreshment: A giant-ass mug of coffee. I'm not sure if it's helping.

Current DVD in player: Disc one of season 5 of Merlin. Which I really should have learned not to watch while I'm also watching Once Upon a Time. The fact that they're both fantasy shows with lots of magic that reinterpret familiar characters means that comparing them is inevitable, and I'm afraid Merlin comes off the worse for it. It's frequently entertaining and occasionally exciting, but it lacks the complexity of OUaT, in terms of plot, character, and narrative structure.

Current worry: Blah, blah, existential angst, blah, blah, what am I doing with my life?, blah, blah, what if crises happen that I can't handle financially?, blah, blah, aging... Screw it all. My brain is not awake enough to deal with my worries right now.

Current thought: Maybe if I rub my face vigorously for a while, that will wake me up. *tries it* Nope.

Hey, Look, I Have An Actual Thing To Post About.

So, I went to see Iron Man 3 today. (I confess, this had less to do with an eager inability to wait for this particular movie to come out on DVD and more to do with wanting an excuse to drive the car. I haven't had much reason to leave town lately, and if I don't take the car out on the highway once in a while, the battery will go flat. Right? Plus, it's still an exciting novelty to me to drive a car that doesn't vibrate or fill up with so much wind noise that I can barely hear the radio. Such luxury!) Anyway, the movie was fun, in that improbable stunts, sarcastic quips, and lots of stuff blowing up sort of way. So pretty much what I expected and was hoping for. Also, I think more superheroes ought to suffer anxiety attacks. It makes them much more relatable.

You know, I've talked here before about my ambiguous feelings towards superhero movies in general (especially ones featuring Batman). But apparently any movie with Iron Man in it is pretty much automatically an enjoyable one for me. Which is funny, considering that before the first movie came out, I had only the vaguest idea who Iron Man even was, other than the subject of a song that gets stuck in my head every time I hear it.

But while I, like Tony Stark, enjoy shiny technology, I would like to offer up this tip for movie patrons: please do not let your kids wear those stupid sneakers with the flashing LEDs on them to the movie theater. I mean, come on, people. Seriously.

I Am Still Living Long And Prospering. More Or Less.

It has come to my attention that my posting here has been, well, nearly nonexistent, and that people do notice this fact and seem to miss me. Awww! Unless, of course, they're secretly wondering if I'm dead and they can loot my DVD collection.

Anyway, nope, still not dead. Just... quiet. Or at least I am here. You know how it is. You don't seem to have anything much interesting to say, and the longer you go without saying anything, the more interesting it feels like you need to be to be worth breaking the silence, and... yeah. Well, never mind that. I'm going to try to post here a bit more regularly, and then all of you who encouraged me can ask yourselves, "My god, what have I done?" when I start going on about the boring details of my boring life.

But let's start with a video, instead. You know, I hate commercials. I honestly loathe them. And when somebody tells me there's this really cute, clever, well-made commercial I must see, that only makes me inclined to be even more hostile to it. Because commercials are an attempt to manipulate my brain for profit, and the only thing worse than doing that badly is doing it well. But, well, I had to make an exception for this one. Had to. So:





ETA: And literally as I was posting this, somebody sent me an e-mail with a link to this video, in case I hadn't seen it yet. Oh, my interests, they are so very, very predictable.