The Blog to Nowhere

My god, it was hot today. It's usually not this warm in April around here. I did end up wearing my Ten coat, but I had to ditch it midway through the day. It was just one layer too many. Thank goodness for coat checks.

( Saturday details behind the cut )

Tomorrow's forecast is crap. Rain all day. :-( I'm a little bummed that the good weather didn't last the entire weekend, but 3 out of 4 days isn't bad.

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.

- I get a lot of good books from my book club, but there aren't a lot of books I rave about. I recently finished The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers and it was so good. I had wanted to read this book for a while now and I finally had some time to get it out of the library. If you love Firefly and Mass Effect, this is a book series for you. It has a rag tag crew of a cargo ship just trying to make a living set against the backdrop of this galactic community that includes a lot of neat aliens. The book is a bit info dump-y at times, but you just plough through it to get back to the good stuff, which is scenes with the crew. The plot is basically a series of vignettes as the crew makes the trip to the small angry planet of the title, but they're great character moments. There's no big political conspiracy, well, there is, but the crew isn't involved with it for most of the story, so that's a nice change from these sprawling and complicated space operas.

And I totally pictured Nathan Fillion as the captain of the ship. He probably doesn't match the actual description of the character, but when I think of gruff but lovable captains in charge of a oft repaired cargo ship, I can't picture anyone else.

There's a second book in the series, but I'm annoyed that it doesn't follow the crew. It's still set in the same universe and it picks up on a plot thread from the first book, but I'd rather the author spend more time with these characters she has crafted. Oh well. I'll still read the second book, but the third book better be about the crew or at least feature them in some capacity.

- After watching The Defenders, I wanted to upgrade my Jessica Jones cosplay to include her black hoodie and somehow that led me back to looking at pictures of her infinity scarf. Now, when Jessica Jones first came out, no one had identified the screen used scarf, so I had winged a pattern when knitting my own scarf. Well, to my great delight I saw that fans had identified the scarf in the interim and I was finally able to track down some reference pictures of the SA scarf. Needless to say, my scarf was a decent attempt, but it's not a good match.

Now, I'd usually be content to just leave the scarf as is, I'm a "good enough" cosplayer at heart, but this is knitting. This is a skill I'm actually good at. If I can knit a better scarf, then dang it, I want to knit a better scarf. So I've been looking at stitch patterns that will closely resemble the actual stitch pattern of the SA scarf. It's some weird stockinette seed pattern that also creates a honeycomb look on the wrong side. I think I've found a stitch pattern that would recreate most of the elements, but I still want to see if I can refine it a bit further before I start looking for wool.

(I really should be focused on my Christmas knitting, but I just can't help myself.)

- Alex Kingston and Charlie Cox are guests at Edmonton Expo this year. I keep meaning to head up to Edmonton to check out their comic expo, but the time and money factors always get in the way. Alex is the last person I need to finish off the autographs for November, aka Eleven's month, on my Doctor Who calendar, so that's part of the reason I'd like to meet her. With Charlie Cox, I just want to ask him if he's still knitting. :-D Though, perhaps this means they will come back to the province next year for CCEE since the expos sometimes carry over guests from one city to the next.

- And damn we've been busy at work. Can't wait for the long weekend.

- Hmm, I haven't posted in a while. I had been knitting like a fiend to finish a commission for a friend, so that's probably why. Of course, I have no news or anything interesting to post about...

- Orphan Black had its series finale last Saturday. I was a little sad to see it go, but I doubt they could have sustained the clone conspiracy storyline for much longer. So it's nice that the creators got to finish things on their terms. It was so amazing that this little Canadian show gathered such a devoted following. Here's hoping that Tatiana Maslany can win one more Emmy for her incredible work. I swear, there was always one moment in every episode that I forgot that she was playing multiple roles.

( Minor spoilers for Orphan Black 5x10 )

- The Defenders premieres this Friday. I'm actually fairly excited despite how lacklustre Iron Fist was. Danny may be as dull as dishwater, but there's Matt and Jessica and Luke to make up for that. Plus it's only 8 episodes, so that should help tighten up the storytelling. The Netflix Marvel shows always slow to a grind around the midway point. And who doesn't love it when superheroes team up?

- I also bought the DLC for Red Dead Redemption, "Undead Nightmare", the other day. We got to talking about RDR at work and it made me want to revisit the game. I never played "Undead Nightmare" when it was released, but it's been fun so far (though I couldn't remember how the controls worked so there was a lot of dying while I tried to figure it out). The zombie theme fits really well with the Western setting. The writing approaches the zombie apocalypse quite seriously, but you can tell the writers were also have a grand ol' time. Now that I'm not under a time crunch to finish some knitting, I can really get back into the game.

- 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.

- Second Fourth Doctor scarf commission is done! No more scarves for this year after this, Doctor Who or otherwise.

( One more scarf behind the cut )

- I had some leftover yarn from knitting both scarves, so I decided to use some of it up to make this:


I wouldn't say I designed it, since I was just following the pattern from doctorwhoscarf.com, but I did adapt the pattern to make a 1/4 sized bookmark. I used US 1 needles, so the stitches are pretty tight, but it makes for a sturdy bookmark.

- I got "The Invasion of Time" DVD from my library over the weekend and I was sort of off-put by the season 15 scarf. It's noticeably different from the original, so my brain kept going "Wrong! Wrong!" through all six episodes. I wonder why they knit a new scarf for season 15. I guess the original was probably looking a little tatty so maybe they wanted to give it a break?

Aw crap. I ran out of yarn on the second to last stripe on my Fourth Doctor scarf commission. :-P Now I have to buy another ball of yarn just to finish off the stripe. It wouldn't be so bad if the stripe was really big, like over 20 rows, but nope, the dang thing is only 8 rows and I'm halfway through. I thought I had bought enough, but I guess not. And I was on track to finish the scarf by the weekend, putting the whole project time under a month.

Ugh, shipping to Canada is such crap. Why does the Canadian dollar have to suck so much right now?

And it's completely done! Approximately 20 feet of multi-coloured garter stitch.

( Photo behind the cut )

So this took what? About two months and a week? Just think; it took me about the same amount of time to make my scarf last year and that one was only 11 feet. Now I just need to deliver this to my friend and then she can proudly wear it around somewhere. Preferably a place with clean floors and no puddles.

- Ugh, spring. This is the worst time of year for my allergies. I can't stop sneezing. You'd think staying indoors would help, but nope. Time to crack open a box of antihistamines.

- I am so close to finishing my friend's Fourth Doctor scarf:


This isn't a true representation of where I am in the pattern, I'm 10 panels away from the end and one of those panels is 56 rows, but you get the rough idea. I can't wait to finish knitting this thing. The row upon row of garter stitch isn't tedious, but I would like to rest my wrists and arms for a bit. My friend's going to love it, though. I have to remember to snap some pictures before I hand it over.

- I'm only two episodes into Daredevil's second season, but man, those endings do compel you to keep watching. I try not to devour everything in one sitting, though. I know, I know, Netflix shows are meant for binge watching, but I'm old school. I'm used to watching one episode per week. It gives you a sense of suspense.

It's hard to judge a season from just two episodes, but it's not bad so far. The presence of the Punishes really makes Matt question whether his vigilantism is a good thing or not. I just can't get behind his red suit; I don't know what it is. The black ninja look was just so sleek and minimal, while the red suit is kind of busy. I mean, it's no more busy than Ollie's current Arrow costume, but that feels more organic somehow. But hey, if that's the only complaint I have about the show, then that's the sign of a good show. ;-)

- I managed to find a decent leather jacket for my Rose cosplay from "Doomsday". I mean, I have the wrist warmers so I felt compelled to complete the outfit. While it's not a great match to the jacket in the episode, you still get a sense of the costume. And now I have a leather jacket I can wear out. :-) That's always the nice thing when you cosplay characters who wear normal clothes; you can work the pieces into your every day life.

- Comic book expo is under six weeks away. I think I'm ready. I have my photo-ops sorted and my cosplays worked out. It feels like it won't be a big year this year; attendance numbers will probably be down. This year will actually be my tenth year attending the expo. It's crazy to think how far it has come since then. My first year, it was held in one big room and the panel area was this small space blocked off with curtains. Now the expo takes up the entire Stampede grounds.

- Had to cancel my cruise for this year. It's been planned since last year, but I just don't have the funds right now for a vacation overseas. I'm bummed, sure, but I have the Star Trek 50th anniversary con in Las Vegas to look forward to and I think that'll be more fun. Ronald D. Moore, Star Trek writer extraordinaire and creator of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, is one of the guests and I'm super excited to see him. Most cons don't bother to have writers as guests so it'll be a great chance to hear him talk about the process. I really want him to sign something but I don't know what yet. Hopefully he is doing autographs.

- I'm still watching Legends of Tomorrow. I love the characters, but logistics is not the show's strong suit. It feels like the writers have no idea what to do with all of the characters or how to work their powers and skill sets organically into the plot. So we get a lot of scenarios where half of the team is back on the Waverider twiddling their thumbs and it makes no sense. Oh sure, the writers try their best to explain it away, but in the end, Rip just ends up looking like an idiot. I really hope they learn how to balance everyone as the show progresses.

( Spoilers for Legends of Tomorrow 1x06, "Star City 2046" )

- Still knitting away at my friend's season 16/17 Fourth Doctor scarf. I've started the "Duplicate" half, so I'm at least 50% done. I get so bored doing endless rows of garter stitch that I started a bunch of side projects to keep my sanity. I'm nearly done Rose's wrist warmers from "Doomsday" and I came up with a pattern that replicates Jessica's infinity scarf from Jessica Jones. It's not a super accurate design, but it's good enough for my liking.

- Agent Carter is done for the season tomorrow. :-( I hope the show gets renewed for a third season. Maybe Netflix can pick it up if ABC decides to drop it? I mean, if Full House can get a revival, then surely Agent Carter can find a good home there.