fun geeky weekend
This weekend I had a grand time with various geeky pastimes.
On Saturday I finally got to see Secret of Kells with my parents. It was a great little film - very different from what I expected but excellent anyway. It was gorgeous - totally inspiring and intriguing on many levels. I really liked the animation of the illuminations, and the voices.
ETA (not really a spoiler ) there was an adorable, extremely morbid wee kid sitting behind me, and everytime something scary happpened he would pipe up with "Is that a bad man?" or "Why are his eyes closed?" and most of the time, "Is he dead?" The chorus got really funny after a while. "Is he dead? ... Is that a bad place? ... Is he dead? ... Is she dead? ... Is he dead? ... Is he dead?" That poor parent. ;)
After the movie we had a nice dinner, then I came home to finish setting up my new computer, which I named Aisling after the fairy in the film.
It's kind of amazing to work on a machine that doesn't take much time to boot, and doesn't default to error messages from the start.
Today I went with Chuck, Val, and Julie on the Texas Wine and Wildflowers Tour of local wineries. It was really lovely. The flowers were abundant and colorful, and even though it threatened rain all day it didn't really pour until after we were done with the tour. We had some wonderful wines on the tour, and met some very nice wine makers as well. I learned that I have no idea how to taste wine any more, but that there are a lot of wines out there that I like. I also appreciated the way the selections offered for the tasting were complemented (or not) by the food offerings. The discussion around the table was great.
I got a few photos, but nothing exceptional, and no flowers, unfortunately. I'll have to go out on a wildflower quest later.
Also this weekend, I watched the latest episode of Doctor Who, "Victory of the Daleks."
I really enjoy Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, but when the Doctor ends up in the London Blitz I expect him to run into one of his other faces. I looked for Rose dangling from a balloon, even. I think the Doctor must be living in a near-constant state of alternate reality - even though he has that "key" in his head preventing him from changing the arbitrary history that is important to the timeline of humanity (cf "The Fires of Pompeii").
I wasn't too excited to see the Daleks again, really, although I understand that establishing them was important - and Amy's ignorance of them is obviously significant to the 'crack in the universe' season arc. What I did like was the android/bomb storyline, and the way his humanity defused himself. A trifle heavy-handed with the 'love saves' message, but moving nonetheless. I don't really expect a lot of subtlety from Doctor Who, to be honest.
Despite my problems with the story, special bonus Ian McNeice as Winston Churchill, w00t!
I liked "The Beast Below" better than this one, and "The Eleventh Hour" best so far, but there are ten more to go! Hurrah!
I'm planning some new art, but mostly now that it's the end of April I need to concentrate on finishing my Prismacolor of Morgana for the show in June, and making prints of my digital work. It should be a pretty good spread of pieces, I think, fandom-related and not.
On Saturday I finally got to see Secret of Kells with my parents. It was a great little film - very different from what I expected but excellent anyway. It was gorgeous - totally inspiring and intriguing on many levels. I really liked the animation of the illuminations, and the voices.
ETA (not really a spoiler ) there was an adorable, extremely morbid wee kid sitting behind me, and everytime something scary happpened he would pipe up with "Is that a bad man?" or "Why are his eyes closed?" and most of the time, "Is he dead?" The chorus got really funny after a while. "Is he dead? ... Is that a bad place? ... Is he dead? ... Is she dead? ... Is he dead? ... Is he dead?" That poor parent. ;)
After the movie we had a nice dinner, then I came home to finish setting up my new computer, which I named Aisling after the fairy in the film.
It's kind of amazing to work on a machine that doesn't take much time to boot, and doesn't default to error messages from the start.
Today I went with Chuck, Val, and Julie on the Texas Wine and Wildflowers Tour of local wineries. It was really lovely. The flowers were abundant and colorful, and even though it threatened rain all day it didn't really pour until after we were done with the tour. We had some wonderful wines on the tour, and met some very nice wine makers as well. I learned that I have no idea how to taste wine any more, but that there are a lot of wines out there that I like. I also appreciated the way the selections offered for the tasting were complemented (or not) by the food offerings. The discussion around the table was great.
I got a few photos, but nothing exceptional, and no flowers, unfortunately. I'll have to go out on a wildflower quest later.
Also this weekend, I watched the latest episode of Doctor Who, "Victory of the Daleks."
I really enjoy Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, but when the Doctor ends up in the London Blitz I expect him to run into one of his other faces. I looked for Rose dangling from a balloon, even. I think the Doctor must be living in a near-constant state of alternate reality - even though he has that "key" in his head preventing him from changing the arbitrary history that is important to the timeline of humanity (cf "The Fires of Pompeii").
I wasn't too excited to see the Daleks again, really, although I understand that establishing them was important - and Amy's ignorance of them is obviously significant to the 'crack in the universe' season arc. What I did like was the android/bomb storyline, and the way his humanity defused himself. A trifle heavy-handed with the 'love saves' message, but moving nonetheless. I don't really expect a lot of subtlety from Doctor Who, to be honest.
Despite my problems with the story, special bonus Ian McNeice as Winston Churchill, w00t!
I liked "The Beast Below" better than this one, and "The Eleventh Hour" best so far, but there are ten more to go! Hurrah!
I'm planning some new art, but mostly now that it's the end of April I need to concentrate on finishing my Prismacolor of Morgana for the show in June, and making prints of my digital work. It should be a pretty good spread of pieces, I think, fandom-related and not.