For the last nail in my geek coffin I will confess that I have an extensive, though regrettably not 100% complete, Doctor Who videotape collection.  Our local PBS station showed the entire series through twice and then some in the 1980s, and by great diligence sometimes treading the boundaries of obsession, I taped almost every episode.  They began with the very first episode and broadcast everything that had been made up to that point in time.

Of course, there are gaps.  Like the great loss of most of the Second Doctor's series because someone at the BBC destroyed most of them to make room in storage.  And I missed an episode here and there, but not many.

At bit of trivia.  The first episode aired on November 22, 1963.  But of course, the world was focused on something much less trivial than a new science-fiction series that day.  They re-ran that episode one week later instead of going on to the second episode.

When they began showing the newest Who on BBCAmerica, I tried it and at first didn't like it, for some reason.  I think I was just being irrationally nostalgic for the old format.  Several weeks ago I started giving it another go, and now I really enjoy it.  There have been moments of poignancy and sorrow that the old series never touched.  The episode where Rose prevents her father's death, only for him to willingly sacrifice himself to save her (and all the rest of humanity) was especially touching.  One line that notably sticks in my mind from that story was, "I'm your father, Rose.  It's my job for it to be my fault."

I never went out of my way to read all the novels, considering them somewhat non-canonical.  But I could see myself getting into them sometime, just for fun, since I believe I will still be a sci-fi geek when I'm a crochety old man.  And there have been several novels and stories that were Doctor Who/Cthulhu Mythos crossovers.

I guess my favorite Doctor is still #4, Tom Baker.  He was the first one I ever saw, and he played the Doctor longer than any other actor.  Following closely behind him would be his predecessor John Pertwee tied with Doctor #7 Sylvester McCoy.  Doctor #7 was when things finally began to be more "modern," and there were several things that were tied in with very early episodes that helped to explain a little of the mystery of the Doctor.

I suppose all Whovians like to speculate as to the actual identity of the Doctor.  I came to a conclusion about this a long time ago, myself.  It helps to have a good ability for the suspension of disbelief, coupled with a decent knowledge of the fantasy/sci-fi genre in general and the ability to "correlate the contents" of different bits of unrelated lore.

The Doctor is always seemingly turning up where he is needed most.  How does this happen?  He is being, if not controlled, at least heavily influenced by an outside source.  Many times in the series he mentions that the TARDIS is actually a living thing, with its own intelligence.  I think the TARDIS is this outside source.  He is always accompanied by a companion who turns out to be a vital helper in his battle against chaos.  In times of confusion between regenerations his companions have sometimes been more aware of his identity than he is.  He has had many faces and many identities.  He travels through time, space, and the many dimensions of the universe.  Has anyone guessed what I'm getting at yet?

In other times, other worlds, and other dimensions, he has also been known as Corum Jhalen Irsei, Erekosë, Dorian Hawkmoon, Jherek Carnelian, or Elric of Melniboné.  All were controlled by a more powerful outside source, all had their artifacts of power, and all were dedicated to the battle of order over chaos.  The Doctor is none other than the Eternal Champion.

It may be a stretch to compare Stormbringer with the sonic screwdriver, but it does make some sense, in a way. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to compare Stormbringer with the TARDIS itself.

For Gone Rick Motel caption contest.

UPDATE:  Second place!

Via this thread at packing.org.

I've been trying to change the blockquotes so they are more set off and distinct without being jarringly distracting.  I went for a very low-key dark-colored box and a different font (Times).

Does Times look okay, or would something like Courier work better?  I ask because Times always looks sort of squished together, to me.

I found this blog post about pretty blockquotes very useful, and it led me to this great CSS Tutorial.

Just learned about the webcomic xkcd via Wondermark.  Some of them are beyond me, since I'm not a true math/computer nerd.  But some of them, like this one, I can still get.

Or this one.  I used to fix the old Datsun pickup that way, too (remove fuel filter, blow crud out).  And this one really cracked me up.

Many years ago I used to be sort of a calculator nerd.  I wielded a TI-30.  It ran on a 9-volt battery, had a red LED display, and the rightmost digit would flicker and swirl for several seconds while the calculator calculated any of the trigonometric functions.  It would go into power-saver mode if left on for too long without being used.  The decimal point of each digit would flash in turn from left to right.  Those LED displays sucked a lot more power than the more modern LCD displays.  In an emergency, you could type all "8's" across the display and use it to find your car key slot in the dark.


My senior year in high school I placed second at district in UIL Calculator Applications.  I didn't place at the state competition.  I was also on the UIL Number Sense team throughout junior high and high school, and on the Science team during most of high school.

In 1824 Mexico enacted a constitution establishing a representative republic style of government similar to that of the United States.  Congress was made up of a Chamber of Deputies, which consisted of 1 member for every 80,000 Mexican residents; and a Senate, consisting of two senators for each Mexican state.  Also established by this constitution was an 11-member Supreme Court, and an executive office in which the President and Vice President would be elected to four-year terms by the individual state congresses.

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had risen through the ranks of the Mexican military, opportunistically switching loyalties as it suited him.  After siding with Augustin de Iturbide, the Emperor of Mexico, in 1821, he was rewarded with the rank of General.  By 1823 he was siding against the Emperor in the plan to overthrow him and make Mexico a republic.  The overthrow was successful; the republic was not.

Santa Anna was elected President in 1833, replacing assassinated Vicente Guerrero.  In 1835 a new "constitution" was drafted, essentially a set of documents declaring martial law, abolishing states rights, and giving Santa Anna himself dictatorial power.

Armed rebellions broke out throughout Mexico.  Several Mexican states attempted to secede.  Yucatan seceded to form the Republic of Yucatan.  Coahuila (the southern portion of the state of Coahuila y Tejas), Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas joined together to form the Republic of the Rio Grande.  The rebellions in the these states were quashed and the errant states were forced to once again become part of Mexico.

Having put down the rebellions closer to home, Santa Anna and his forces began heading north to Texas.  On February 16, 1836, they crossed the Rio Grande.

to be continued...