Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in iko's InsaneJournal:

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Friday, January 8th, 2010
9:53 pm	Above Suspicion: The Red Dahlia I am big on procedurals and watch many. There's something fascinating about detectives trying to piece together the clues they discover into a cohesive story. I'm not sure if it is my puzzle-loving nature or what, but I find it appealing. I especially love the personality analysis; because I am completely lacking such behavioral awareness, I like it when a show does it for me even if it is in the context of an entertainment program. Lynda La Plante's Prime Suspect series ranks up there as a favorite. Great performances, especially one from my favorite actress of all time, Helen Mirren. Great casting across the board, to be honest. There are a number of Prime Suspect cast members whose careers I watch regularly because of that show, including John Bowe and Zöe Wanamaker. When I heard that Ms. La Plante was doing another series and Kelly Reilly (loved her in A for Andromeda) and Ciarán Hinds (Rome!) were headlining, I jumped to watch Above Suspicion. I loved it! When I spotted that a follow-up series arrived, I decided to definitely check it out. ( Spoilers for 'Above Suspicion: The Red Dahlia' in the cut, along with a picspam of one of the characters for a special friend of mine. ) In short, I enjoyed the new series. It's definitely graphic and I could guess the content from the subtitle, being all-too-familiar with many gruesome murder cases, but worth the two hours and a bit required to see the whole thing... if just to see a guest star that needs to be in more stuff. Current Mood: pleased Current Music: Terry Pratchett's "Nation" (Comment on this)
Friday, January 1st, 2010
6:12 pm	Now that Moff has taken over... ( Spoilers in the cut for The End of Time E2 and the trailer for S5 ) Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
10:23 am	Does Not Play Well With Time ( Some thoughts about Doctor Who's The End of Time, Part One . Includes thoughts about the trailer for Part 2 and the 2-minute intro scene released for Part 2. ) Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
4:10 pm	Confession Time I think I've been silent for too long and if I don't do this now, I don't know when I'm going to do it... so I might as well do it now. I am completely and utterly smitten by All the Small Things. ( Further confessions, inappropriate squeeing, and other embarassments behind the cut. Oh yeah, and spoilers up to and including episode five. And icons! ) Current Mood: excited Current Music: "Swing, Swing" as performed by the cast of All the Small Things (Comment on this)
Friday, February 6th, 2009
8:03 am	A very short Paul McGann picspam I got my hands on The Rainbow for a Ravelry's Who Knits? forum and managed to take a few screencaps of Paul McGann. I figured that I should share because, you know, Paul McGann (specifically naked!Paul McGann). I'm going to see if I can take better caps today or over the weekend. If so, I'll add them. Enjoy! ( Warning: not safe for work behind the cut. ) Current Mood: confused Current Music: Hustle, S5E5 (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 31st, 2009
10:00 pm	Day Of Classic (Who): The Curse of Fenric For the Day of Classic, I'm doing icon bases from "The Curse of Fenric". Teaser: Take. Have. Enjoy! ( And the rest... ) Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Doctor Who, "Battlefield" (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
10:53 pm	Writer's Block: Robotic Who (or what) is your favorite fictional robot? When I first read this question, it popped into my head with music from the television programme and all: "Your plastic pal whose fun to be with!" The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has been part of my cultural vocabulary ever since I was 7. Friday and Saturday nights, the local PBS station would show British television, both science fiction like Doctor Who (Peter Davison, MY Doctor) and Blake's 7 and comedy like Are You Being Served?, Fawlty Towers, and Monty Python's Flying Circus (which, at the time, I didn't care for). "I think you ought to know, I'm feeling very depressed." I remember missing the opening moments of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I remember the hilarity of the scene in the pub when Ford first tells Arthur that he's not from Guilford after all, but a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. The "computer screens" fascinated me, as I thought they were genuine, similar to the screens on my computers (at that age, I owned both an Atari 400 and a Heathkit) and I wondered if there was something like the Guide that I could get for myself. I was hooked. I thought that Ford Prefect was absolutely handsome, Zaphod Beeblebox was at a level of cool that I could never achieve, Trillian was sexiness that I could never achieve, and I was convinced that I could cheer up Marvin, my favorite Paranoid Android! "Life. Don't talk to me about life." A few weeks later, I discovered that it was a book series. I was browsing in a Barnes and Noble and spotted the first three books. I convinced my parents to buy it for me and I quickly devoured every line. Douglas Adams became one of my most treasured loves and I've collected all of his books, audios, and games ever since. I even remember playing the Hitchhiker's Guide game as a kid and being frustrated with the mail/babel fish/robot and the tea/no tea puzzles. I've owned the television show with every new phase of format: VHS tape, laserdisk, and it was one of the first DVDs I owned. "Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cos I don't." I suppose my love affair really is with Hitchhiker's, but Marvin is such a big part of it. He's at the top of my list of favorite robots, the first that comes to mind, and I still cling to my childish hope that I could make him happy and hoopy. "We apologize for the inconvenience." Current Mood: amused Current Music: Terry Jones: Medieval Lives (Comment on this)
Monday, June 16th, 2008
12:53 am	Doctor Who, S4E10 - Midnight As usual, I'm late to the "here are my thoughts" game. Mostly, this is because I tend to collect my thoughts over a couple of days, write a few thoughts here and there on the 'Net about it, and by that time I think that I might have said everything that I wanted to say about an episode. Still, I think it could be good to collect my thoughts in one place, so here goes. Folks that know me from here and there would recognize these thoughts already. ( For the spoilery stuff. ) Current Mood: okay (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
12:15 pm	Religion and American Politics ( Cut for those who don't follow or care about American politics ) Current Mood: cheerful (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
10:54 pm	Zombie Meme Everyone is doin' it: You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have: one weapon, onesong blasting on the speakers, one famous person to fight alongsideyou. (Weapon can be real or fictional; you may assume endless ammo ifapplicable. Person can be real or fictional.) My weapon: Abigail Whistler's awesome bow/lightsaber combination. So they don't get too close and when they do, I get to go all Obi-Wan on them. My song: Weapon of Choice, by Fatboy Slim. Or Map of the Problematique by Muse. Both songs have a pace and intensity that I can get down with slaying zombies. YEAH. Famous person to fight along side me: Shaun. Because he's tackled zombies before (to great effect). And then later he could fall madly in love with me and we'd live happily ever after. Hee! I think this is evidence of me being mostly a 10 in the fannish personality disorder list. I asked Mike what famous person (real or fictional) he would like to fight along side him. His response: God. <3 Current Mood: cheerful (Comment on this)
Friday, May 30th, 2008
12:19 am	Miscellany, mostly fandom stuff You know, I never thought I'd ever get this excited about no news. But reading Neil's two paragraphs about the rumors flying about that he'll be writing for Doctor Who fills me with an insane amount of joy. It's seriously no news, but there's these vibes of potential that I'm getting from it. I have to keep telling myself to not get too over-excited, because I don't want to be disappointed. But yay, Neil and Who would rock my socks. I haven't been feeling so well recently. Not sure if it is the weather or female problems or just the recent trip, but I've been sort of blah. I might go to Philly this weekend for an Art Craft fair, which would be fun because Philly means good food, but that's still highly dependent on how I'm feeling. I don't like feeling blah and I wish whatever is misaligned will fix itself. On the good side, the shoulder ache I had the entire time I was in Illinois now is gone. I bet I just strained a muscle and it's finally healed. Yay. I found out today that the local theater only played The Fall for a week. BAH. I'm going to need to trek to NYC to see it, I suppose. Or central Jersey. Poo. Over the trip, I decided to bring along a copy of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. ( Cut for those that really can't stand reading about it. ) And I've been doing some test knitting for Mazz. Whee! I love knitting lace. Current Mood: mellow (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
11:58 am	FINALLY! Moffat named lead writer and executive producer for Doctor Who. YES! Current Mood: enthralled (Comment on this)
Monday, May 12th, 2008
12:07 am	One meta-thought about Doctor Who S4E6, The Doctor's Daughter ( About something mentioned in the commentary ) Current Mood: indescribable (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 10th, 2008
10:39 pm	Doctor Who, S4E6 - The Doctor's Daughter I'm at Powder Hill, which is where my parents live. I cannot say that it is their house, as it isn't; it belongs to the estate of my late father's friend. The house is beautiful and it's great being able to stay here to look after my mum as she recouperates from minor surgery. The plus side: no problems with torrents from here! Sharing seems to fine, while at my apartment, sharing doesn't seem to work very well (I can download fine and I can share while downloading, but once the download is done, upload seems to poof). ( Spoilers, ahoy! ) Current Mood: cheerful (Comment on this)
Friday, May 9th, 2008
10:48 am	Doctor Who Knitting: The Word is Spreading! Both the Open Rights Group and Boing Boing has picked up the story. YAY! Spread the word, folks. (That means you too, who_daily. *poke poke* That includes yesterday's entry.) Current Mood: determined (Comment on this)
1:13 am	For fans of Bioshock Holy cow. Gore Verbinski to direct Bioshock. He'll direct and produce with The Aviator's writer John Logan to maybe do the screenplay. Oo. And there will be a Bioshock sequel released in 2009. *drool* Current Mood: awake (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
2:33 pm	Doctor Who and Knitting Well, it seems like the word is spreading about Mazzmatazz's order from the BBC to pull all of her Doctor Who-related patterns. I know that I've written to both the Brand Protection Team (at BBC Worldwide Ltd.) and the Doctor Who Branding group (which was an address that was given to me when I submitted email feedback to the BBC). I keep thinking that either folks should be able to distribute inspired patterns so long as no one is profiting from them (and it is those that try profiting from them that should be shut down) or the BBC should get their act together and allow someone to publish inspired patterns in the same way that Alison Hansel was able to get Charmed Knits published. It makes me even madder to see that people are still using, up until 4 days ago, Mazz's pattern to sell knitted objects from it. And that one of the most flagrant offenders hasn't been banned from eBay (this person also tried to sell Mazz's pattern to people. GRRRR). I don't know what else to do, and the fuss has driven a lot of other fabulous patterns "underground". It makes me sad that others that are a little late to the game won't be able to easily find and create their own treasured items from fan-created patterns. Who fandom is a little lesser because of a few bad apples that forced BBC to act. *sigh* Current Mood: angry (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
10:24 pm	Doctor Who, S4E4 - The Sontaran Strategem Does having the title of the episode in my subject header constitute a spoiler? Given that they display the title with the author credit within the first 5 minutes of the episode, I think it's ok. Yes? And man, this was really freaking long. Gold stars and some cookies (pick up in New Jersey) if you read to the end. [Unknown LJ tag] Within the first three minutes, I had my first squee moment: DONNA DRIVING THE TARDIS. Seriously, that gives me tons of Classic Who vibes and it's awesome to see a companion in New Who finally doing it. And to be honest, Donna is the type of companion that would ask to have a go. The Doctor/Donna relationship is not one where the Doctor is the one to have the keys to the universe and is showing it to his commpanion; it's where Donna is an active participant in the journey. She takes the wheel once in a while (oh, oh, oh... I bet she will drive the TARDIS on her own in the future. Yes? YES?), so to speak. "This is your final destination" has taken on new meaning, thanks to this episode. I have a GPS system on my cell phone which I use frequently when I'm going to an unfamiliar location. I found having the phrase "final destination" to be literally true rather creepy, although I have to say that I am experiencing a disconnect between what happened to the poor woman in the opening scenes and what happened with the Doctor and his UNIT driver. It's great to see Freema's name in the opening credits again. Then again, I think that her story is contuing to be told. I firmly believe that she is New Who's Brigadier. A good person who tries to use UNIT to do good. I am looking forward to seeing her on an on again-off again basis in *Who* (unless the rumor mill turns out to be true, which is actually something I don't want, but won't go into flaming protestations if it happens). I love how pleased the Doctor looks just before he hugs her. It's so sweet. It's a wonderful connection that they have. He does care about her, wants her to succeed and do well... and she's sort of "home on Earth" for the Doctor in the same way that the Brig was. The only minor fail was the LACK of the Brig (or overt mention of him) in the episode. It's nice to see Martha as a proper doctor. Given her life experiences, her YEAR of travelling (and I'm sure tending to the sick along with spreading the word of the Doctor), it is understandable that she is fully qualified. In that environment? It was wartime, some of the most intense and best on-the-job training for those in the medical profession. She's got level one clearance and is highly trusted. Understandably so. It really, really pleased me. I haven't seen the second part, but I think Helen Raynor just had a really off time or something with "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks" which I didn't like. I do admit to be extremely biased against the New York setting, not because of the New York setting but the accents got to me (although they weren't as bad as I expected to be from the trailers). I liked this! And I liked bits of "Ghost Machine" in Season 1 of Torchwood and parts of "To the Last Man" from Season 2. I need to shove her out of the DO NOT WANT space in my brain, because she really isn't a DO NOT WANT writer. Donna and Martha -- they have chemistry and it is good, yes? The warmth that Donna shows to Martha? I think it is another notch in how she's just shown to be a Good Person (and any suggestion of future evil!Donna will turn out to be inadvertantly-evil!Donna). I love how observant Donna is. AGAIN! "Who is the lucky man?" Hee! And "She's engaged, you prawn." AWESOME! *loves Donna so much, it hurts* AND IT IS TOM YES YES YES! (Does this mean that, someday, we will see Tom Ellis again? Pwease? Awesome that he's in Africa. A pediatrician in Africa. *love* "I've got a doctor who disappears off into distant places. Tell me about it." *love* It sounds like she's landed herself a really great guy, too. *love* LOL COMPARING THE DOCTORS! "Is he skinny?" "No, he's sort of... strong." "He is too skinny for words. IF YOU GIVE HIM A HUG, YOU GET A PAPER CUT!" LOLs all around! And I love his expression. It's so "Oh my goodness, the new girlfriend is meeting the ex" sort of exasperation. It's nice to see that all the worry about UNIT being the baddies to be false, even though their status was a bit questionable in the beginning. I mean, they are doing it in Not Ten's Style, but they are trying to prevent alien problems, sort of like Torchwood but on a much larger scale. It's interesting to see Donna and the Doctor's general discomfort at the execution of Operation Blue Sky. I get the impression from the Doctor that it reminds him a little too much of Torchwood One. It's sort of... disconcerting to think of this regeneration's discomfort with the military when he used to work happily with it in earlier regenerations. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. The dialogue between Martha and the Doctor when they were talking about her participation in UNIT was really interesting. I like how she demonstrates her desire to make a change, to make things right, a trait that many companions that willingly leave the Doctor have. She's was the the peacemaker for her family and now and she's serving that role in a larger context within UNIT. Colonel Mace is cool and I like the interactions that he has with the Doctor. It has Classic Who echos. I loved the mention that the Doctor "work for them long time ago *in the 70s*." AHHHH my little fangirl heart beats! "It was a little more... homespun back then." Hee! I LOVE DONNA TAKIN' THAT SALUTE! Speaking about Donna, I thought she was pretty awesome this episode. She was quite a fountain of knowledge, which pleases me. And when the Doctor and Donna were left together and she dove right into the problem? AWESOME. I love how she is being the one that bounces ideas out. Again, she's not being the problem SOLVER, she's just being a really darned good assistant, the one that he turns to. When she comes back after looking at the human resources files, my first thought was "OH DONNA GO ON YOU RESOURCEFUL THING". And then look at this look: OH YES. BRING ON THE UST! "I can see why he likes you." OH YES INDEED. I loved it. I love team Donna/Martha since they do seem to get on well. There's no jealousy, there's no malice. There's a shared understanding, like Martha and Jack, about how thrilling it is to be with him. I bet Donna and Jack would get along swimmingly too, yes? The later interaction between Donna and Martha, especially abut her family and being with the Doctor was interesting. The theme comes up again: the CHOICE that is being made and the CONSEQUENCES of the choice. "The Doctor, he's like fire. Stand too close and people get burnt." It does a good job setting up the later Doctor/Donna scene where he thinks she's leaving. And speaking of that scene... I liked seeing how the Doctor reacts to being rejected by Donna! "It's a bit... soon. There are so many places I wanted to take you." GOD I CAN'T STAND THE UST! I LOVE IT! The seemingly endless ramblings with the sudden dawning that she's NOT leaving. Hilariously funny - Tate and Tennant really being a good game to the table. I worried about Ross when he became the Doctor's driver. It felt a lot like REDSHIRT. Thank goodness, that didn't come to pass but maybe he'll bite it in the next episode. The creature in the tank, very creepy and gross (and has echos of some anime character that is currently escaping me... I'll come up with it, though). Umbilical cords... Ood cords... is there a link? (Perhaps only in my fevered, fannish brain that looks for links everywhere.) Why is the Sontaran so short? I don't remember the Sontarans being so short or polite. Was that a disconnect for anyone else? He looks like Rick Moranis' character Dark Helmet in Spaceballs. When he said, "Words are the weapons of womenfolk. I judge you unfit." it didn't feel threatening or whatever. I was giggling and not taking them seriously at all. Perhaps that was the intent? It fell a bit flat for me, so I didn't find the Sontarans a threatening baddie. It's hard to take them seriously when I keep imagining Tom Cruise underneath the potatohead. And how pleased was I when the potato-dialogue came up? Hilarious! "It's like a potato." LOL! "A TALKING BAKED POTATO" *dies* "PINK WEASEL!" *dies again* Really good stuff. I wonder why the Sontarans were not allowed to be a part of the Time War. Unless they wanted to be on the side of the Time Lords: I can't imagine the Daleks saying no to more bodies to hurl at their enemies. How do they know that if this is the Doctor that he is the last of the Time Lords? (And yay for the silver sphere spaceships!) I'm not sure what I feel about having Luke Rattigan in league with the baddies (although the actor is sort of cute in a 'he looks sort of like Sweets in Bones' sort of way). He seems like an extraneous middle-man, although I get the impression that him and his school of geniuses (anyone else think that they studied at Xavier's Academy for Gifted Youngsters?) will end up saving the day in the next half. I kept thinking that David Krumholtz would be better in the role. The conditional clause bit and the ATMOS System bits were funny, but then it definitely turned dark. "It's been a long time since anyone's said no to you, isn't it? Not easy, is it? Being clever. You look at the world and you connect things, random things. You think, why can't anyone else see it? The rest of the world is SO SLOW. You're on your own." OOH. The Doctor's words are hauntingly like he's talking to himself. I think he recognizes that. Ten's growing as a character, we're seeing him change and it's really cool. Intruder window, indeed. *facepalms* I hate admitting to liking the cheese. When the genius kid and the Sontaran were looking out at the surface of the earth, the shot totally reminded me of the shot at "The End of the World" with Rose and the Doctor. "It was never big enough for me." Are they trying to draw connections or am I being the typical obsessive fan seeing connections where they aren't there? When Martha discovers the strangeness of the workers, narrows it down to hypnosis (go Martha go), that was cool but then the big flashly lights went on as she was drawn into the evil plans! And she was so tiny compared to the two soldiers. And then later: creepy, gooey, naked, unblinking evil!Martha! Oo! With a ropey white umbilical cord in her neck! Oo! I can't wait for next week to see how they wrap that up. I think that there's something about Donna and the way she's presented in Season 4 that makes one connect with her so easily. As she's walking down the street back to her home (which I could definitely see doing myself), encountering one of her neightbors and says that she's "been away", I can see myself in those shoes. I can see having this short walk to my home by myself in a familiar place for the first time in a while and thinking about what I've seen so far and emotionally reacting to it like Donna reacted. I think that over Rose and Martha, we are seeing the story from Donna's perspective. I think she's being written like an equal: we're not just following the Doctor's story, but hers too (and not just in bits like previous seasons, but following her story too as a general rule). It's so touching and real. Her interactions with Wilf are wonderful! "Are you safe with him?" I think what I like is their relationship's contrast to Rose and Martha's relationships with their families. I think Wilf cares, really cares, and understands Donna's participation. When the Doctor finally shows up and meets her family, it was such a shout out to previous Christmas specials. I LOVE IT when Who does that. It hugs my fangirl's heart. (And Cribbins is so good. SO GOOD.) So, looking forward to next week where I hope that Raynor doesn't disappoint me. How will they get Wilf out of the car? How will the smoke affect people? How will the potatoes get baked!? What exactly is the Sontaran Strategem?! Is it saturday yet? Current Mood: anxious (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
7:04 pm	Oh yeah, baby! It's official! Guillermo del Toro to direct 'Hobbit' And not only that: Filmmaker signs on helm feature and sequel WOO HOO! He will be moving to New Zealand for the next four years. I am pleased. Ever so pleased. Current Mood: enthralled Current Music: none (Comment on this)
Monday, April 21st, 2008
6:45 pm	I was tagged! (The Closest Book Meme) I was tagged by bruyere_75 for the following book meme: Grab the nearest book, open to page 123, find the fifth sentence.Then post the next three sentences. Tag five people and post a comment. I've got a number of books near me, but almost ALL of them are thin. Seriously. The two closest which are right on my desk? Graphic novels Scarlet Traces by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli and Rex Mundi, Book 1: The Guardian of the Temple by Arvid Nelson, EricJ, and Jeremy Cox; both are less than 100 pages. The closest book to me that has a page 123 is Homespun Handknit: Caps, Socks, Mittens & Gloves edited by Linga Ligon. The fifth line: Work even on these 26 sts until work measures 1 in (2 1/2 cm) from bridge. It's instructions for a pair of gloves with a zig-zag pattern by Betty Amos. Ever since I got a spinning wheel for Christmas (*hugs the parents*), I've spent my time equally either spinning or knitting. I've acquired a number of books on spinning, this one from a Ravelry member that was destashing it. I love Ravelry. I've been really active since the start of the year, especially in some of the fandom boards (especially the *Who*-related fandom boards). I'm a regular poster in two of the three *Who* related boards (Who Knits? and I Dye for Doctor Who) and in the *Torchwood* board. It's awesome to see how many folks in fandom are also fiber artists. (I'm actually running a survey/contest in Ravelry in the *Torchwood* board, so if you're a member of Ravelry, check it out! If you're on Ravelry, definitely drop me a like. I'm Iko there too.) The closest non-knitting/spinning book near me is Hogfather by Terry Pratchet. Page 123, sentence 5: "All of them flowers." (Chickenwire) Last weekend, I watched Hogfather, with Marc Warren and Michelle Dockerty and Ian Richardson. I loved it! I watched it because I saw a fandom secret that said they shipped Teatime with Susan, Death's daughter. That totally intrigued me, so I got myself a copy and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, I told Mike and he loaned a library copy out for me to read. I've gotten as far as page 5. Spinning, knitting, or fandom squeeing seem to get in the way of me reading it. (See: my newly acquired The Lost Room obsession.) I dislike tagging people, so I'm not going to tag anyone (I know, I fail at memes). I don't mind being tagged! I just... dislike tagging others, but feel free to take the meme and continue rolling with it. Current Mood: working (Comment on this)