The Blog to Nowhere

Happy New Year!

- Finished 61 books this year. That's down from last year, but I was unemployed for a big chunk of 2016 so that's probably why. I had wanted to read something exciting for my last book of the year, but I didn't find anything in time so I ended up reading another book in the knitting themed cozy mystery series. I really should give up this series, but it's like candy. You know it's not good and you should put it down, but you just can't help yourself. And the thing that bugs me - on top of the plain and repetitive writing and the dull characters and the boring murder mysteries - is that the author doesn't know a thing about knitting. Yes, the knitting isn't important to the story and it's just the hook for the series, but if you're going to feature something so prominently in your book, you can at least do some better research. The knitting store in the series is real for heaven's sake! There are actual knitters that the author knows. Okay, so maybe it only bothers me, since I actually knit, but you have to assume that a good chunk of the reading audience are also knitters. If the author describes something wrong, you know all of the knitters will pick up on it.

(Like, who decreases stitches every round on a hat? Rapid decreases like that would give you a very pointy crown. And you don't wind yarn into a ball until you're ready to use it! Winding yarn into a ball stretches it out. That's why everything comes in skeins.)

But I digress... I read a few stand out books this year. I finished off the Jackaby series; that's the series with the main character who is the love child between Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock and Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor. I don't get why the author ended the series after four books. He has enough ideas to keep going for many books, but on the other hand, it's nice to see a YA series with a definitive end. I also discovered the Galactic Commons series by Becky Chambers. A lovely sci fi series with great world building but small, intimate stories and interesting characters. I also started a YA Sherlock Holmes series called Charlotte Holmes. Charlotte is a direct descendant of Sherlock Holmes and her best friend Jamie Watson is also descended from John Watson. Basically, it's a modern day Sherlock Holmes series, but with a teenaged girl and boy. My only gripe is how the author chose to have Jamie in love with Charlotte. Ugh. You really don't need that.

Thanks to my library, I also read a ton of graphic novels. Ever since DC launched its Rebirth line, I've been reading some of those, like Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Supergirl. The app that I'm reading everything through also got some Marvel comics, so I may have to check those out at some point.

- Officially completed 8 knitting projects along with a handful of other smaller projects. My god, it was so slow at work before the Christmas break that I knitted a good chunk of the Christmas sweaters while at work. Good thing my manager doesn't care what we do to occupy our time during lulls. I'm trying to start proper sock knitting. I finished one adult sized sock with worsted weight and it turned out all right; I just need to finish the second sock. After that, I may be ready to start with sock weight yarn. I also keep meaning to knit a shawl for myself, but other stuff keeps getting in the way. Oh well. I'll get there eventually.

- Started a new full time job in May. After 8 months of doing temp work, it was nice to have benefits and sick days again. The work isn't anything exciting and the pay could be better, but it's better than being unemployed again.

- On the geeky side of things, I had a great vacation in Cardiff and got to visit the Doctor Who Experience one last time before it shut down. I even got to meet Peter Capaldi at the comic book expo. It's the small things in life that make me happy. :-D

What's to come in 2018: I don't know really. I re-booked that British Isles cruise that I had to cancel last year. My mom is turning a significant age this year and she'll get to celebrate her birthday while on the cruise, so that should be fun. The cruise will visit parts of the Ireland where they film Game of Thrones. I don't watch the show at all but it might be fun to hit up some of the filming locations just because I'm a giant nerd and I like things like that. Aside from that, I don't have any plans. I guess I'll wing it like I always do.

- Not much to comment on this year. Personally, there were highs and lows and while the year wasn't great, it could have been worse. Landing the temp job in October was nice. I've really clicked with my co-workers. We're all such big geeks.

- I officially finished 9 knitting projects. By officially, I mean it's a project on my Raverly page. There were a bunch of small items I made for a friend so she could sell them on her website. I probably could have finished more projects, but I got super unmotivated towards the end of the year. As for what's coming next year, I have plans to knit a Newt Scamander scarf for a friend's cosplay. This should be a fun one. He's assembling a pretty bad ass Newt cosplay so I hope the scarf is up to his standards once it's done.

- I also read 69 books this year. Up a whopping 10 books from last year. It helps that I had a lot of free time this year. Looking back on my list, I seemed to have finished a lot of book series. I completed the Russell Quant mystery series, the I Am Number Four series, and the Temeraire series. I'm sad to see Temeraire end, but at the heart of the narrative is a war, so that can't stretch on forever. I'm still holding out for a TV miniseries from Peter Jackson. Russell Quant was a fun and zippy mystery series set in Saskatoon, so that was entertaining reading. Thank god the I Am Number Four series is done. It was kind of a fun read, but the writing and the characters really bugged me. I know, I could have stopped reading at any time, but after you've invested yourself into a few books, you kind of feel this obligation to reach the end.

I didn't start too many new series this year. For some reason, I've kept reading this really dull knitting themed cozy mystery series. The characters are so one note and the action is so forced and the author repeats herself a lot when she's describing things, and on top of that, I don't think she knows how to knit. So why do I keep reading? I guess it's nice to have some fluff to fall back on after you've finished a particularly heavy book. There are also some YA series that I started, but none of them are really worth mentioning.

The last book I read this year was The Well of Lost Plots, book three of the Thursday Next series. These books are so damn imaginative. Thursday spends all of her time in the Book World in this one and Jasper Fforde puts a wonderful spin on how books are created and assembled. It's strange that no one has expressed interest in making the Thursday Next series a TV show or something. Or maybe it would be hard to pull off due to the various rights involved with using well known book characters.

- Things to look forward to in the new year: I don't know, actually. I haven't made any firm plans. It'd be nice to get back to Cardiff before the Doctor Who Experience shuts down.

TV show wise we have Sherlock season four and Doctor Who season ten and The Expanse season two. Sherlock starts tomorrow, The Expanse February 1, and Doctor Who probably some time in April. Ooh, I do believe iZombie is back in March. Yay! Something to look forward to each month.

On the video game front, Mass Effect Andromeda and Red Dead Redemption 2 are coming! Can't wait to revisit these worlds.

- Well, that's that. So long and good riddance, 2016.

- newnumber6 mentioned he was going to re-watch Sliders and that got me wanting to re-watch, too, so I got my hands on the first season. I probably haven't seen any of these episodes since they aired 20 years ago, but I could remember bits and pieces. Some of the CGI is a bit dodgy, but the premise is still a great one. It's a shame that there aren't more TV shows dealing with alternative worlds. The story possibilities are endless. It'd also be cheaper than a time travel show, as travel is regulated to one time period. So you can have an unfamiliar setting, but you can still have familiar landmarks and technology.

If someone decided to reboot Sliders, I actually wouldn't mind, but it would have to be done right. These days, I think a writer/producer would be inclined to add an overall arc and a big mysterious backstory, which is what brought down the show back in the day. I don't care about aliens who can also slide and an Earth Prime and Quinn being from another Earth that wasn't ours and having a secret brother. Keep it simple. The only arc that should matter is whether the characters find their way back home.

- I finally finished book five of The Expanse series. As the the library didn't have the ebook version, I had to read a hard copy and I swear I read slower when the words are on a page rather than a screen. I guess my eyes are more used to reading off of my phone. Thing is, I prefer reading The Expanse books on my phone as the actual books are thick tomes that don't travel very well in a backpack or a purse. But anyway... I'm caught up! Book six lands in November. It's crazy how they can put out a book every year, but since James S.A. Corey is actually two guys, I can see how the work can go faster.

All of The Expanse books are good, but Nemesis Games was really good. For once, the four POVs weren't split between Holden and three new characters. Every member of the Rocinante crew got to tell their portion of the story and it made the plot more compelling since you know these characters and you really worry when any of them are in trouble. I don't know if book six will follow the same formula. It'd be nice if it did, but that means the crew has to be split up again, and I'm not fond of the idea.

The TV show needs to play catch-up, but if the producers don't want to make a book a season, then that's okay, too. It just means more of the plot will make it onto the screen. The series is chock full of things that shouldn't be overlooked.

- Looks like Space will be airing the new Star Trek series next year. Not to brag, but Canada will be the only place where it won't be behind a pay wall. Thank goodness for Canadian content. Now I won't have to watch the show through "alternative means".

- And Star Trek Beyond is out in theatres this weekend. I'm seeing mixed reviews, which is not great, but I'm still going to see it regardless. If I don't see it opening weekend, I'm totally going to get spoiled on the plot at the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas and I so don't want that to happen.

- So yesterday, I got access to a procurement system at work. The only reason this is noteworthy is because it's the same system I used way back when I first started working for the company about eight years ago. It was so weird being back in it. Nothing has changed. I remember hating the system, but actually, it doesn't seem so bad. It's probably because I have more experience with these things now. It's not that all different from a system I used extensively on a previous project.

- The commute is the only good thing about being back at work. I finished two books, Cibola Burn (book four in The Expanse series) and Needled to Death (book two in a knitting themed cozy mystery series), in about a week and one was like 500 pages long. Okay, so I was sneakily reading both books while at work when I had nothing to do, but still. I enjoyed Cibola Burn more, obviously, since it's not a piece of fluff like the mystery was. I can't wait to read the next book in The Expanse series. My usual complaint about the series is how the narrative is usually split between four POVs and three are usually characters we've never met before so it takes longer for you to care about them, but book five is told from the POVs of the Roci crew, so I'm really eager to see how the writers handle the inner narratives for Alex, Amos, and Naomi.

Knitting mystery was something I downloaded because I knew I would finish Cibola Burn before the end of the week and I needed something to read to bridge the gap to the weekend. I'm not sure I'll keep going with this series. It's, well, boring. The mystery is dull, the characters are either forced or bland, and the dialogue doesn't feel natural at all. Funny, considering this is set in the real world but The Expanse is in the future and the dialogue there totally makes more sense. The only vaguely interesting thing in the mystery is the knitting. The main character's knitting woes are familiar woes if you're a knitter. The only thing I didn't believe was how her second project ever was a sleeveless sweater and her third was a sweater knit in the round. She's a beginner! Who jumps to sweaters and knitting in the round after making one chunky scarf?!? Anyway...

- Finished knitting my second Fourth Doctor scarf commission. I just need to put on the tassels and then block the whole thing. Even unblocked and with no tassels, the thing is about as long as the scarf that I knit for myself. Good thing the recipient is a tall guy. His scarf will probably end up being 13 feet once it's complete.

- I'm ready to take a break from knitting for a bit so I can rest my wrists and fingers and shoulders, but somehow I keep finding projects that I want to make. Like, I was looking at how to knit Osgood's scarf from "The Day of the Doctor". Why do I need another multi-coloured scarf? I don't even have any plans to cosplay as her. My sister also keeps trying to get me into sock knitting; as a birthday gift she got me KnitPick's Time Traveller Felici yarn, which is basically a self-striping sock yarn in the Fourth Doctor's scarf colours (minus brown, probably to avoid copyright infringement or a licensing fee). So it's super tempting to learn how to knit socks. And, I'm trying to knit Jessica's grey infinity scarf from Jessica Jones. Too many projects and not enough hours in the day to do them. ;-)

- My friend, the one I'm knitting the season 16/17 Doctor Who scarf for, recommended a really good book last year and I only got around to reading it a couple of weeks ago. I just finished it and I wish I had read it sooner. It was so good. Jackaby, by William Ritter. It was described to me as Doctor Who meets Sherlock Holmes, and yup, that was a totally accurate summation. Jackaby is a consulting detective who is brilliant and observant but completely oblivious at times, but he is always about helping people. Just imagine a younger Benedict Cumberbatch with the coordination and voice of Eleven. So much of the dialogue sounded like things Eleven would say. I don't know if it's an intended homage by the author or if he was subconsciously channelling Eleven while he was writing, but I had Eleven's voice in my head the entire time. Basically, Jackaby is the love child of Sherlock and the Eleventh Doctor, but he investigates paranormal and supernatural cases.

Jackaby also has an assistant, who very much fills the Companion/Watson role. Abigail writes up the cases and asks the questions and gets into trouble so Jackaby can come up with a solution, but she also humanizes Jackaby. I pretty much pictured Victorian!Clara in the role. You'd think the similarities would stop there, but Jackaby also lives in a house with strange inner dimensions and the land lady type character is like a cross between Mrs. Hudson and the TARDIS.

Heh, it's almost like this book started life as a Sherlock/Doctor Who crossover fic. ;-) I do recommend it, though, if you're a fan of either show. It's not without its flaws, but it is a fun read.

- Rose's wrist warmers from "Doomsday" are done! I finished blocking them last night:

( Picture behind the cut )

- So there was that new trailer for Captain America: Civil War and they had a certain someone appear at the end.

( Spoilers for the latest Captain America: Civil War trailer )

I also hope that Steve doesn't come out looking like a jerk in the movie. The same goes for Tony. Someone has to be the "bad guy" in the plot, but please don't compromise the integrity of the characters.

One last post for the year:

- Finished 59 books this year, one short from last year. Going downtown to visit with my sister and my niece really helped. The best book series I picked up this year was The Expanse series. It's a space opera at its finest. I need to get cracking on book three, but I have so many other books to read from my book club. Second best series I picked up this year was the Thursday Next series. I love the alternative 1985 England that Thursday lives in. Third best series I picked up this year was the Russell Quant series. Russell is a gay P.I. who works in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and he has such breezy and geeky attitude that's fun to read.

Last book I finished this year was Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond. It's written by a local author; one of the book club ladies picked it up at the literary con that's held here every August. It has a fun steampunk setting and a plucky journalist as the main character. The weird thing about the book, though, is that it reads like the second book in a series. There's all this backstory and references to past events, but as far as I can tell, this is the first book. Maybe the author didn't want to do an origin story. There are some witty character names, too. Colonel Muster, Professor Plumb, nods to Clue of course; Windsor "Windy" Jones, professor as Indiana University; a take on Indiana "Indy" Jones; and Hercule Hornblower, a Belgian detective who uses his "little grey cells" to solve crimes but mostly falls asleep; Hercule Poirot, if Poirot was narcoleptic.

- Completed 13 knitting projects. I say that's pretty good, considering I only picked up knitting at the beginning of the year. Best project, hands down, has to be my Fourth Doctor scarf. It wasn't the most complicated project (that honour goes to the Mass Effect scarf I knitted for my sister), but I ended up with something that is so iconic. Plus, thanks to that project, I'm getting paid to knit two more. :-)

My sister keeps bugging me to learn sock knitting, but I don't know when I would get around to that. I want to learn how to read charts and do more colour work first. I also want to knit Amy's scarf and fingerless gloves combo from "The Pandorica Opens". Why do I want to keep knitting scarves? You'd think I would be sick of them by now.

- Got laid off this year, but let's not dwell on that.

- Had a fun vacation cruising around the Mediterranean. Venice was the best port; so much history and culture there. Pompeii was the best excursion, but visiting Trogir is a close second, if only because it was a filming location on Doctor Who.

- The comic book expo was crazy busy and fun this year. Meeting Ming-Na and Hayley Atwell was the best part of the weekend. I don't see the expo getting a lot of big name guests next year. The Canadian dollar is super crappy right now. Though, who knows. The expo team has pulled off huge last minute surprises before so I wouldn't put it past them to do it again.

Things to look forward to next year:
- Cruise around the British Isles in May with Amsterdam and Paris thrown in. Sadly, the cruise is no longer stopping in Wales, which makes me very sad. The port would have been in Northern Wales, presenting me with an opportunity to visit Portmeirion, the filming location of The Prisoner. I may need to head back to Wales in 2017.
- 50th anniversary Star Trek convention in Las Vegas in August. I attended this con a few years ago and the company that runs it really knows their stuff, so this one should be a blast. I expect Paramount and CBS to do a ton of stuff for the anniversary next year. And man, Star Trek Beyond better not suck. This is their last chance to get it right.
- Plus other miscellanea, like superhero movies and TV shows.

As usual, nothing extremely exciting, but there's nothing wrong with that.

- I can't believe that it's been ten years since Serenity came out. I still remember the heady excitement the day the movie came out. I actually managed to meet up with some of the local Browncoats and it was such fun, sitting in that theatre, waiting for the show to start. We sang "The Hero of Canton" and "The Ballard of Serenity". There's nothing like seeing a movie with a room full of fans. You're all on the same wavelength and you all feel it when the hard moments come. I will never forget the moment when [ten year old spoiler]Wash dies. Everyone was laughing at the "leaf on the wind" joke and then bam! Reaver spike through the window and there's just stunned silence. It's still amazing how the scene can go from such a high moment to a low one.

- It seems very doubtful that we'll get more Firefly on our screens. The best we can do is the Firefly Online game when it comes out. I'd like an animated Firefly series, though. It'd be cheaper and you don't have to worry about the actors aging. It worked for the original Star Trek, so why not Firefly? Most of the cast has done voice over work by now - hell, it seems like most of the DC Animated Universe is made up of Whedon alums - so you know they can deliver the goods.

- I started reading Cinder, the YA book series retelling Cinderella with a cyborg, and it's okay so far. I like the setting, which is futuristic Chinese, but I think I've already figured out the twist in the plot. It also bugs me how there must always been a romance in YA books. Yes, this is Cinderella, so there has to be a prince, but why does Cinder need to fall for him? I'm only half way through the book, so maybe things change down the line, but it gets so boring, seeing her angst over the prince. Oh, I was very pleased to see that the book was written in the third person. So many YA books are written in the first person and it feels so lazy to me.

- Trying to figure out a Halloween costume for this year. I have plenty of cosplays to choose from, I just can't decide which one to do. I kind of want to do something new, which is kind of ridiculous since I don't need to spend more money right now, but I think I could cobble together something from stuff I already own. Like, Shaun from Shaun of the Dead. I have a white, short sleeve dress shirt and black slacks and I can borrow a cricket bat. I would just need a red tie. Easy peasy!

- I've been looking at Jayne hat patterns and I found this awesome breakdown of the hat. This lady picked up on things that I never would have noticed. I also love how she supposes that the hat was the first thing Ma Cobb ever knitted based on the design choices. The thought that Ma Cobb learned to knit just so she could send Jayne something wear to warm during his travels just fills you with a warm fuzzy feeling. :-)

- In an effort to cleanse my brain of Nora Robert's horrible writing, I read the second book in The Expanse series, Caliban's War. A nice, thick tome full of good, well thought-out science fiction. ZOMG, the science in this book. Daniel Abraham, one half of James S.A. Corey, was in the city last month for a literary convention, and I fangirled all about the believable science to him. He and his co-writer go into such details about space travel and gravity and colonization and so many other things. The result is such a rich setting. I can't wait to watch the TV show when it premieres in December.

Oh, and another good thing about the book. All of the chapters are about the same length, so you can get into a good rhythm and just blow through sections without realizing it. I finished the thing in under two weeks.

- Doctor Who is back next week! Cinema showings for "Dark Water" and "Death in Heaven" in 3D are also next week. I'm not sure what to think about these showings. I'm paying money to watch something I've already watched for free, but I still bought a ticket regardless. I guess I just go for the atmosphere. It's always nice to sit in a theatre that's full of other people who love the same things that you do.

But they released the season 9 prologue ahead of the showings! I thought the prologue would be a theatre exclusive, but I guess not. So the only draw now is the fact that the episodes are in 3D.

- And I'll be taking my Four cosplay for a test spin at the showings. It's mostly done so it's good enough for something small like this. My Seven cosplayer also has a really good Four cosplay, so we'll be a 2x4. ;-)

- I finally finished watching Daredevil. Yes, I know it's been four months since it premiered, but I was busy with knitting, and then I was gone for three weeks, and then I was embroiled in my Fourth Doctor scarf, so I didn't have any time until now to finish off the season. It's a pretty good show overall, but I'm really not on board with the costume at the end. I much prefer Matt's black ninja look. I know the red one is supposed to be like armour and protect him better, but it doesn't have the same oomph as, say, the Flash's costume on The Flash. Meh, whatever. Matt will be in the shadows a lot, so you won't see the costume in full detail.

- With one superhero show done, I decided to watch another. Constantine was very short lived, but seeing as the character will be making an appearance on Arrow, I thought I would watch the only season to get caught up on who this guy is. So far, I'm getting a The Dresden Files vibe. Guy who does magick helps people and defeats demons and whatnot. It's a shame Constantine wasn't under the CW banner of DC shows. I'm sure it would have done better if people knew it was tied into Arrow and The Flash. At least the character gets one more go. Oh, and the pilot gets bonus points for having Doctor Fate's helmet as an easter egg.

- Facing a geeky dilemma at the moment. The comic book expo up in Edmonton just announced Jenna Coleman as a guest and I would love to go up for the weekend to see her, but the time and money involved would probably be best served on something else (like my vacation next year). But it's a Doctor Who guest! At a much smaller con where line-ups will be shorter! And I actually have a Clara cosplay! So I will have to decide soon since I would need to book transportation and a hotel.

- I don't know how I ended up with the book, but I got stuck with a Nora Roberts mystery from my book group. To be more precise, it's a J.D. Robb mystery, which is Roberts pen name when she's not writing romance or whatnot. Whatever the author's name is, it's still a crappy book. Ugh, I want to stop reading it, but I pride myself on finishing all of the books I pick up from the group. I thought it wouldn't be that bad, even though it's like book #27 in the series, but despite the futuristic setting the writing still sucks. Not that much description and a lot of talking and the dialogue is not engaging at all. I'm going to need some good sci fi or fantasy to clean out my brain once I'm done with this pile of crap.

- I'm still between projects at the moment so I've been doing some coverage for an admin who's out sick. It's a lot like being a temp again. The desk and computer aren't yours and nothing is set up for you and no one has any clue about what the admin does. It's only slightly less painful because I'm already an employee so I have my email and I actually know people in the building. A lot of sitting around and doing nothing yesterday. And my god, I hate the cubicles they have in this building. They're so open. :-P Three walls instead of four and two of the walls have glass in them so people can peek in. I'm going to be so happy when I move back into my old building. At least they have proper cubes there.

- Just some thoughts on the latest episode of Agent Carter:

( Spoilers for Agent Carter 1x04, "The Blitzkrieg Button" )

The ratings aren't looking too good, though, which makes me sad. Why aren't more people watching this show?!?

- On a slightly related topic, the first trailer for the new Fantastic Four movie was released and it's... so bland. It seems like they're marketing it as a straight up sci-fi movie instead of a superhero movie, which is just bizarre. You'll get more people to the theatre with a superhero movie than a pure science fiction movie. I wasn't that interested in this movie anyway. Also, the Thing has no pants. I kid you not. In the one clear shot of him, albeit from behind, he's not wearing pants or underwear or swimming trunks or anything.

- I wanted to have a fourth point, but I can't think of anything. Um... I finished seven books for the month of January. Working through The Dispossessed right now, but I doubt I will finish it before the end of the week. Read a kind of decent detective novel, but I just felt like it was trying too hard to be gritty and funny at the same time. Also, the author had the tendency to switch tenses in the middle of a chapter and that drove me insane. Stick to one tense, lady! Past or present tense. You can't have both! My book club usually recommends great books, but there's always going to be the occasional stinker.