St. Patrick’s Day is near, when the world unites in all things Irish. Sure, the story of St. Patrick is littered with miraculous imagery to possibly cover over a gruesome part of old Ireland’s earthen history. BUT, the way people today share, cook, and toast to one another’s health, wealth, and happiness has added a new spirit to the day.
Here are some Geeky Irish Blessings created for you. Enjoy! Hopefully, there will be time to come up with some more.
I’ve never viewed Doctor Who as a science fiction story. A person can drive himself mad trying to see the science in the fiction and the connections in the timeline. Within the wibbley wobbley universe created, there is a tangible hope that each episodic glimpse breathes more life into the fairy tale character, and the desire to have it come closer into our individual lives.
We are on the edge of our seats, we hold our breath, we don’t blink…
How has the story of Doctor Who influenced your life?
There are a multitude of theories running around regarding who Clara Oswin Osward is. Everything from the “granddaughter” Susan to the Time Lord Romana, and Jenny as the Doctor’s test-tube daughter to an early regeneration of River Song. They are each plausible in the Doctor Who fairytale, and it’s amazing what that team of writers can do.
The River Song regeneration could be plausible as she mentioned being an “impressionable young girl” when she first meets the Doctor. Depending on a definition of “young”, that could have been Mel in Let’s Kill Hitler, but at that time, Mel was far from “impressionable” in the traditional sense. There’s also the issue that River’s regenerations bring around a new body, while Clara has been the same character twice. In a Steven Moffat-esque twist, this might still work. In the same episode, Amy mentions to River “Apparently you used all your remaining regenerations in one go. You shouldn’t have done that.” Perhaps as the normal regeneration process was interrupted, but she still retains some of the attributes. Maybe she’s now getting multiple 1UP’s. Same body, but having to continually take the slow route.
Amongst the guesswork, the hat should be thrown in that Clara Oswin Osward might be the legitimate daughter of the Doctor and River Song. To put it bluntly, they had to have had a few adventures together alone after they had been married. *nudge*nudge*wink*wink*
What’s the thrill and excitement in being predictable, anyways?
The TARDIS always takes the Doctor where he’s needed. Perhaps the TARDIS recognizes Clara, knows that the Doctor needs someone with him, and takes the initiative to bring the two of them together. With a mix of Time Lord DNA and human DNA with TARDIS blessings, the outcome could be a person that lives and dies, but retaining the same genetic codes. Almost like a reincarnation, complete with a simple mind wipe of the previous life (she obviously doesn’t recognize the Doctor in Asylum of the Daleks). Born on November 23, which is the date when the first Doctor Who episode was broadcast. A new life created on the birthday of the show?
Regarding the flirt and fascination with each other, it’s obvious that something’s pulling the Doctor and Clara together. It seems possible for an oddball twist reminiscent of the Star Wars Luke & Leia flirt-and-kiss before they knew that they were related.
Depending on how long Clara is planned to be a companion, the show could have lots of play time to build up the suspense of who Clara is. Sure, it would be a corny ending to the hype, but it also holds a much more emotional tie that could only be compared to the moment when we discovered that River Song was Amy and Rory’s daughter.
Besides, with Clara’s wit and feisty spirit, a “Hello Dad” could be delivered with the same enthusiasm as “Hello Sweetie”.
The name itself, Clara Oswin Oswald, seems like a brilliant search for anagrams. It’d be a shame if there wasn’t some kind of hint in there somewhere. Aside from some interesting words, “snow” does appear in it.
We inch closer day by day to the season premier of Doctor Who on March 30. I’m sure that the writers aren’t going to be letting us down. It’s going to be an intense roller coaster ride of adventure and emotion, and we can’t wait.
It’s that fabulous time of the year again!
Whether you slingshot around the sun, jump in your personal TARDIS, or procure the binary code for time travel, have fun!
Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day
December 8 at 12:00:00am until December 8 at 11:59:59pm
Everywhere
Description
Spend the entire day in costume and character. The only rule is that you cannot actually tell anyone that you are a time traveler. Other than that, anything’s game.
There are three possible options:
1) Utopian/cliché Future – “If the Future did a documentary of the last fifty years, this is how badly the reenactors would dress.” Think Star Trek: TNG or the Time Travelers from Hob. Ever see how the society in Futurama sees the 20th century? Run with it. Your job is to dress with moderately anachronistic clothing and speak in slang from varying decades.
Here are some good starters:
- Greet people by referring to things that don’t yet exist or haven’t existed for a long time. Example: “Have you penetrated the atmosphere lately?” “What spectrum will today’s broadcast be in?” and “Your king must be a kindly soul!”
- Show extreme ignorance in operating regular technology. Pay phones should be a complete mystery (try placing the receiver in odd places). Chuckle knowingly at cell phones.
2) Dystopian Future – This one offers a little more flexibility. It can be any kind of future from Terminator to Freejack. The important thing to remember is dress like a crazy person with armor. Black spray painted football pads, high tech visors, torn up trenchcoats and maybe even some dirt here or there. Remember, dystopian future travelers are very startled that they’ve gone back in time.
Some starters:
- If you go the “prisoner who’s escaped the future” try shaving your head and putting a barcode on the back of your neck. Then stagger around and stare at the sky, as if you’ve never seen it before.
- Walk up to random people and say “WHAT YEAR IS THIS?” and when they tell you, get quiet and then say “Then there’s still time!” and run off.
- Stand in front of a statue (any statue, really), fall to your knees, and yell “NOOOOOOOOO”
- Stare at newspaper headlines and look astonished.
- Take some trinket with you (it can be anything really), hand it to some stranger, along with a phone number and say “In thirty years dial this number. You’ll know what to do after that.” Then slip away.
3) The Past – This one is more for beginners. Basically dress in period clothing (preferably Victorian era) and stagger around amazed at everything. Since the culture’s set in place already, you have more of a template to work off of.
Some starters:
- Airplanes are terrifying. Also, carry on conversations with televisions for a while.
- Discover and become obsessed with one trivial aspect of technology, like automatic grocery doors. Stay there for hours playing with it.
- Be generally terrified of people who are dressed immodestly compared to your era. Tattoos and shorts on women are especially scary.
Remember, try to fit in. Never directly admit you’re a time traveler, and make really, really bad attempts at keeping a low profile.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… Oh geez, the month is almost over! Did you know that it’s Movember?
While the ladies get the highly publicized month of October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Save the Ta-Ta’s!), the Gents definitely take the proverbial cake for going about men’s health awareness in a far more creative way. November is Movember, a time to reflect and inspect. Balls.
The Movember movement has an amazing website and donation system set up. Teams and individual persons (ladies, too) sign up to raise money for awareness, education, and research. Guys get their whiskers growing all month in a physical display of their support.
So, in the efforts of finding a geek related team to support, what can be geekier than a team developed behind the Geek Squad counter, and Star Wars based? Ladies and gentlemen, that’s right, Stache Wars is on the board to raise funds. The crew includes a guy nicknamed “Lando” (apparently due to a darker complexion compared to his friends) and “Han Cholo”. If Obi-Wan was a real guy, he’d go with this team, and he already was sporting the hermit beard.
If you would like to make a donation, we highly suggest going through their team. You can view their Mo Space HERE
In all seriousness regarding men’s health and cancer, here are a few stats posted from the Movember website.
In this last week of Movember, if you’re part of a sci-fi themed team, reply in the comments section below with a link to your Mo Space, and we’ll get a running list of links to direct people to your page.
Nothing gets something hyped up like sneak peaks into the inner workings of production.
The following press release was released in August:
AN ADVENTURE IN SPACE AND TIME TO MARK THE DOCTOR’S 50th BIRTHDAY
The BBC today announces that a special BBC TWO drama has been commissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.
An Adventure in Space and Time will tell the story of the genesis of Doctor Who since its first broadcast on 23 November 1963. Exploring all aspects of the longest running science fiction series to date, the special one off 90 minute drama will also look at the many personalities involved in bringing the series to life.
Written by Mark Gatiss, it is Executive Produced by current Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat and Caroline Skinner. The single drama was commissioned by Ben Stephenson Controller, Drama and Janice Hadlow, Controller of BBC TWO.
Mark Gatiss, Writer, said:
“This is the story of how an unlikely set of brilliant people created a true Television original. And how an actor – William Hartnell – stereotyped in hard-man roles became a hero to millions of children. I’ve wanted to tell this story this for more years than I can remember! To make it happen for ‘Doctor Who’s 50th birthday is quite simply a dream come true”.
Steven Moffat, Executive Producer, said:
“The story of Doctor Who is the story of television – so it’s fitting in the anniversary year that we make our most important journey back in time to see how the TARDIS was launched.”
***UPDATE! FEBRUARY 2013***
It’s a bit reassuring for up-and-coming filmmakers that even an established production company still tries to do a guerrilla style sequence.
Doctor Who actors
David Bradley as William Hartnell
Jamie Glover as William Russell
Jemma Powell as Jacqueline Hill
Claudia Grant as Carole Ann Ford
Reece Shearsmith as Patrick Troughton
Nicholas Briggs as Peter Hawkins
Behind-the-scenes Personnel
Brian Cox as Sydney Newman
Jessica Raine as Verity Lambert
Sacha Dhawan as Waris Hussein
Sarah Winter as Delia Derbyshire
Jeff Rawle as Mervyn Pinfield
Andrew Woodall as Rex Tucker
Ian Hallard as Richard Martin
David Annen as Peter Brachacki
Pond Life is the new 5 part mini-adventure, with a new part every day, featuring the Doctor, Amy, Rory and some surprise familiar faces! En route to visit the Ponds the TARDIS’ Helmic Regulator malfunctions, leaving the Doctor popping up everywhere in time and space. Will he ever make it back to them?
Watch Asylum of the Daleks, the new Doctor Who adventure, on BBC One on Saturday 01 September at 7.20pm, and on:
BBC America on Saturday 01 September at 9pm ET
Space (Canada) on Saturday 01 September at 9pm ET
ABC1 (Australia) — Coming Soon
Prime (New Zealand) — Coming Soon
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho
***Be sure to check back here for a list of all the adventures as they are released!***
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MAY
JUNE
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AUGUST
It’s hypnotic. 50 minutes of 56 episodes of Star Trek TOS played at the same time, tiled next to each other. If you get through the whole thing, it will make the 49:15 mark, and following, that much more enjoyable.
Good luck.
56 Episodes of Star Trek At The Same Time
Little Amelia Pond, not scared of anything. Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of the box, man eats fish custard. Brave Amelia Pond, with one hell of a scary crack in her wall. Amelia hated apples, until her mum carved a
face into one. With her mum and dad gone, little more than a memory, Amelia Pond is pretty much on her own.
When those apples started to turn, what did Amelia or her aunt do with them? Seems a shame to waste a perfectly friendly apple.
Here’s a recipe that both adults and kids can enjoy. Don’t worry, the alcohol in the rum burns off when making the glaze, leaving a delicious sweetness.
Amelia’s Apples
Ingredients
The Saucey Glaze:
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 cup Vanilla Rum (used Whaler’s brand)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• Small pinch of ground ginger
The Apples:
• 12 small to medium apples, washed, cored, and carved with smiley faces (used Honeycrisp because of the sweetness)
• 4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 ½ cups unsweetened apple cider
For the glaze: In a medium saucepan, combine the dark brown sugar, rum, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and that small pinch of ginger. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes to allow the sugar and other ingredients to blend together (sugar dissolved) and thicken slightly.
For the apples: Preheat the oven to 375F.
Line, with foil, a baking dish that is large enough to hold all of the apples. Arrange the apples in a single layer. Pour the glaze over the apples and top each with pieces of butter. Add the cider to the bottom of the dish and place it in the center of the oven.
Bake for about 45 to 50 minutes until desires tenderness. Remove and let cool.
Delicious with ice cream, whipped cream, or even custard.
“Luke! Luke! Come inside and have some blue milk.” The obvious was pointed out in Seth MacFarlane’s “Blue Harvest”, and we all laughed. Star Wars broke through so many creative barriers, even thought went into what type and color the milk would be. While Bantha Milk isn’t native to Earth, you can still have fun making a tasty treat an using your ***imaaaagination***.
The basic idea would be to use blue food coloring in regular milk (2 drops per roughly 1 cup of milk turned a decent result). There’s a recipe out in the cyber world that calls for Soy Milk and Blue Powder Punch mix, however, the local corner ethnic store didn’t have a wild collection of Kool-Aid, let alone blue punch mix.
The Soy Milk added an interesting nutty taste, however, it didn’t go great with the fruitiness. The regular milk provided more of a Berry-creamsicle flavor.
With summer rapidly approaching, here’s a new spin on the Blue Milk idea. It is a chilled, tasty treat for those hot Tatooine-esque summer days.
Blue Milk Popsicles
2 Cups Cold Milk
3 Tablespoons Blue Jell-O
Popsicle Molds
Mix the milk and Jell-O together in a bowl with a whisk. DO NOT HEAT. Make sure well combined. Pour into the popsicle molds and chill until solid. Remove and enjoy!
***If you’re a fan of the blue milk mustache, you can drink this cold, in a non-frozen version. The Jell-O will set slightly to give a thicker, milkshake-esque texture, and is just as tasty.
Bantha Milk Popsicles
Mmmmm Tasty
Popsicle Force Action
