The Blog to Nowhere

Snowstorm stopped sometime overnight, but there was still a ton of snow everywhere. I think this deterred a lot of cosplayers today. Hell, they had to cancel a lot of the outdoor activities that the expo usual has going on. Thankfully, the sun came out later, so the melt is on, but I wouldn't be surprised if we have another snowstorm before the Victoria Day long weekend next month.

I didn't get up to much today. Maybe the snow sucked away some of my energy. I did wear my Jessica Jones Defenders cosplay, which is surprisingly effective outfit for after a snowstorm. So warm and comfy.

( Sunday details behind the cut )

Well, that's it for another year. I say this every year, but I'd really love it if the expo got David Tennant as a guest. Him or Christopher Eccleston. Hell, both would be awesome.

I don't know if someone at the expo made a sacrifice to the weather gods, but it didn't snow! By some miracle, the weather held. It was damn cold but no one had to walk in the rain and/or snow.

( Friday details behind the cut )

Tomorrow I have to grab Catherine's autograph and get a photo-op with her. I also knitted a Shazam doll for Zachary Levi, so I need to give that to him. Here's hoping he accepts gifts from fans.

- Hmm, I haven't posted here since New Years. Haven't felt very chatty, I suppose.

- Saw Captain Marvel this weekend. I quite enjoyed it, but I wouldn't say it's in my top three Marvel movies. I am excited to see more of Carol now that her origin movie, so to speak, is out of the way. Just some quick thoughts:

( Spoilers for Captain Marvel )

Once again, the latest Avengers movie is out the same weekend as the comic book expo. I have no idea when I will have a chance to see it.

- Oh, and speaking of the expo, they announced Catherine Tate as a guest again. She was supposed to appear last year, but had to cancel, so it's great that she's free to come back. I can finally wear my femme!Ten cosplay for the main reason I put it together: to get a photo-op with Catherine. The expo also announced Jennifer Hale as a guest. She voiced Commander Shepard in Mass Effect, and she's also a pretty prolific voice actor, so I'm super excited to see her. If they got Mark Meer to come back and the two of them did a panel together, that would be so awesome.

Another uneventful year, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

- Finished 61 books, same as last year. The last book I read for 2018 was Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers, which is part of her Galactic Commons series. Man, I love these books. This series has quaint, simple stories with much smaller stakes and the world building is amazing. It's right on par with the world building in The Expanse novels; well thought out with plenty of details. What else did I read... Finished the first trilogy in the Red Rising series. The fact that it's the first trilogy annoyed me to no end. The third book finished in a good place. There was no need to keep the story going. But nope, got to keep churning out books to make the bottom line. Sufficed to say, I will not check out the rest of the series. Started an... interesting comic book series called Sex Criminals. Main premise is that a guy and girl can stop time when they have sex, so naturally, they decide to rob banks. It's definitely not a comic that can be read on public transit. But it is written by Matt Fraction, who did that awesome run on the Hawkeye (Hawkguy) comics, so the writing it pretty snappy and the art is done by a Canadian, so you can't go wrong there. Not many other books stand out. Didn't really read any stinkers, so that's nice.

Annoyingly, my library stopped service with the hoopla app, which is how I read most of my comics. Hoopla was an awesome resource for old and current comics; the selection was pretty vast. My library still carries graphic novels, but the selection is a little limited. Thankfully, I guess, the only comic that I stayed up to date with on hoopla is on a year long hiatus, so right now I don't have to worry about that.

- Completed 9 knitting projects for the year, plus a handful of mini Christmas sweater ornaments. One highlight was knitting a Wesley Crusher doll and gifting it to Wesley Crusher himself, Wil Wheaton. It's only the second time that I've gifted something to a celebrity and he genuinely seemed to enjoy it. Hurray for knitting skills! I'm still trying to knit a shawl for myself and I do want to start knitting proper socks. I think I will be knitting baby socks with actual sock yarn for a friend's baby shower, so that's a start. Oh, and a sweater that can actually be worn by a human being and not be hung on a Christmas tree.

- Not much else to highlight. Did a nice cruise around the British Isles this summer, with the last port of call in Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a lot like Venice with all of the canals, but with more pot and sex shops. It's also very easy to get horribly turned around. I had to do a lot of backtracking while trying to find a popular yarn store. Got another cruise booked for late May with ports in Norway, so I expect there will be a lot of "pining for the fjords" jokes. :-)

Well, that's it from me. I hope everyone had a somewhat enjoyable 2018.

I'm a little sad that this year's crossover was less integrated than last year's. Instead of the Super Friends Power Hour, they went back to having each part be a somewhat regular episode of each show with some very special guest stars. Though, my understanding is that the scheduling from "Crisis on Earth-X" nearly broke everyone, so I get that the producers would want to make things a little easier this time.

With that being said, "Elseworlds" was still pretty crazy and a whole lot of fun.

( Spoilers for The Flash 5x09, "Elseworlds, Part 1" )

( Spoilers for Arrow 7x09 "Elseworlds, Part 2" )

( Spoilers for Supergirl 4x09, "Elseworlds, Part 3" )

It only seems fair to discuss Legends of Tomorrow's winter finale as well.

( Spoilers for Legends of Tomorrow 4x08, "Legends of To-Meow-Meow" )

Well, that's it for the DC-CW for the year. I do believe that Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow won't be back until April. :-( But a lot to look forward to in 2019.

We're almost at the end. So how was the penultimate episode of the season?

( Spoilers for Doctor Who 11x09, "It Takes You Away" )

It's the finale next week. I hope it's a good one.

Oh, creepy robots. A Doctor Who staple. It's like they say in "The Robots of Death". Robots have no emotional cues. I suppose that's what makes them so creepy. That neutral expression can be read in so many different ways.

( Spoilers for Doctor Who 11x07, "Kerblam!" )

Hey, it's Alan Cumming's episode next week. They've also announced that there indeed will be a New Year's special rather than a Christmas special this year. That's fine. Cramming Christmas into an episode was starting to get tedious. Oh, and I went looking at Doctor Who calendars. The ones I saw only featured the first twelve Doctors. No calendars with Thirteen. I hope it was just a case of the store not carrying any calendars of Thirteen rather than the BBC or whoever completely ignoring Thirteen.

I don't know why, but I had a really hard time understanding the dialogue this episode. It's these Northern accents. I need to readjust my brain or something.

( Spoilers for Doctor Who 11x05, "The Tsuranga Conundrum" )

I read that we're not getting a Christmas special this year, that it'll be a New Year's special instead. I'm not picky so as long as we get one more episode.

Heaven help you if you're afraid of spiders and you had no idea what this week's episode was about. Though, with a title like "Arachnids in the UK", it's not hard to figure out what the main focus of the plot is.

( Spoilers for Doctor Who 11x04, "Arachnids in the UK" )

I have no idea what next week's episode is about, so that should be fun. But can we please get some episodes not written or co-written by Chibnall? Please and thanks.

Hmm, I feel like I should get an icon of Thirteen or something.

( Spoilers for Doctor Who 11x02, "The Ghost Monument" )

I see the first episode did quite well in the ratings. I hope the numbers stay steady for the rest of the season.