Saturday Waffling (January 3rd, 2014)
Right. Happy 2015, then. I just wanted to give everyone an update on what we’re going to be doing around here for the year. For January and the start of February, at least, the plan is more or less as it has been. TARDIS Eruditorum on Mondays and Fridays, The Last War in Albion on Thursdays, comics reviews on Wednesdays. On three Tuesdays in January, there will also be posts on Sherlock Season Three. Those will be funded by the Patreon.
There will also be one bonus post in January, with its topic to be determined by Patreon backers, so if you want say in what I write that on, well, you know what to do.
Come February 9th, TARDIS Eruditorum will end. At that point, the weekly schedule will shuffle, but for at least a while it will be the long-promised audio commentaries on Doctor Who episodes one day, Last War in Albion another, and a third day of… something. Game of Thrones reviews, initially, but it will vary. But as long as the Patreon remains over $200 per blogpost, I’ll post something media criticism related once a week. In addition to that, I’ll do a monthly bonus post, which will go up for free, without charge to anyone.
And if the Patreon makes it to $400 per blogpost ever, I’ll go to two posts a week, still only charging for one. So basically, for $1 a week, you can ensure this blog continues indefinitely, doing something or other. It’ll vary. Game of Thrones is going to be first, but I’ve got other ideas in mind for the future, and I look forward to getting to them all.
So. What’s your New Year’s resolution?
Currently working on: The Secret Doctor Who Project.
Post of the Week: Through Powdered Teeth (The Last War in Albion Part 77: Valerie)
January 3, 2015 @ 12:29 am
"So. What's your New Year's resolution?"
Find the time to write.
I know I left it around here somewhere…
January 3, 2015 @ 2:02 am
Hi hi,
When the AfterMASH blog wrapped and started doing commentaries, they listed them on Zarban's House of Commentaries. You might want to do the same as it's free and a central clearing house of sorts.
Also, great work on the TARDIS Eruditorum. It's an unparalleled project and I'm looking forward to the McCoy book!
January 3, 2015 @ 2:43 am
New Year's Resolutions:
1) Write something that isn't Doctor Who – I've stayed off my other projects for too long, and it's time to get back on track.
2) Stop trying to control people – because I'm a huge control freak, basically, and I need to lay off.
3) Talk to people who I usually neglect. The friends I've forgotten, the people at the back of the room, etc.
January 3, 2015 @ 4:49 am
Become more of the person I think I want to be.
January 3, 2015 @ 5:48 am
Don't have a resolution. Prefer to stay unresolved.
January 3, 2015 @ 7:15 am
Buy a power supply so I can use the new graphics card someone gave me. Literally a new years resolution. Ha ha, I'm witty as hell.
January 3, 2015 @ 7:34 am
This.
January 3, 2015 @ 7:44 am
1: Finish the book I'm working on.
2: Write something else for a magazine to publish.
3: Be a generally nicer and friendlier person.
January 3, 2015 @ 8:00 am
Forgive Dave???
January 3, 2015 @ 8:01 am
And stop mentally calling you Phlip Sandifer in my head. Seriously, I did it once on accident, and now it keeps happening.
January 3, 2015 @ 8:56 am
Don't really have one, but mean to start the year as I began it – to continue to do what's nourishing. More hillwalking too.
Taken on a new art studio with my partner, so more art.
January 3, 2015 @ 10:13 am
Whenever I read his name I think of a character from an obscure… call it a video game, "Rosco Sandifeur", so I keep pronouncing his last name like that in my head.
January 3, 2015 @ 1:03 pm
I've always thought it's pronounced like sand-eyef-err (like eif in Eiffel Tower). But I could be wrong.
January 3, 2015 @ 1:16 pm
1) Lose some weight
2) Get a job
3) Following the discovery, when I went to do a "Fanfic year in review" meme on LJ, that I didn't complete any fanfic last year, do more writing.
January 3, 2015 @ 4:58 pm
Help my wife take her Old Movie reviewing vlog from amateur to paid.
Write and self publish a parents & kids tabletop Role Playing Game, with a best mate of mine.
January 4, 2015 @ 7:13 am
This might be a little unrelated but apparently, the BBC (and perhaps other British-based companies as well?) has revoked its rights from Netflix, and Doctor Who, Torchwood, etc are going away on February 1st unless negotiations change, I suppose. This interests me because recently, Doctor Who in America has been a lot about "Netflix culture." It's treated just like every show, leaving the expectation of a clear beginning and continuity, and so some people are confused when the eras change. It's also expected that you watch it in order. (I've been told I watched it "wrong" because I thought back in 2011 that you still started watching a show by tuning in to the currently airing season, and it worked for me.)
I mean, I don't think anything is really going to change considering Hulu, iTunes, and other means of watching "from the beginning" still will exist (I believe), and BBC America is not a common channel in many areas. But it would be nice if we had a deeper understanding of how Doctor Who has been stitched together from the ideas of many different contributors, and had more diverse ways of viewing it in relation to ourselves. People in the UK are always like "Yeah, I started watching it when X was the Doctor and I was X years old." Here, some argue that you're supposed to have the same experiences, especially in how you feel about each Doctor and companion..
It just…kind of takes out the magic of falling through the rabbit hole, I fear.
January 4, 2015 @ 9:29 am
No resolution this year, but happy New Year everyone!
I watched a grand total of three TV programs during the holidays – Last Christmas, Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists!, and Do You Know How Rich You Are?, which has been sitting on the PVR for ages and was the only thing we could agree on which was short enough that I had the stamina to stay for at the time. And that's a bit more than usual for me. So I guess my hope (not a resolution) is that I will be able to watch more in 2015.
January 4, 2015 @ 4:56 pm
In other news, my cable provider decided to stop carrying BBC America completely in the New Year. Possibly related to the Netflix thing. All related possibly to how the BBC planned on offering iPlayer overseas.
January 4, 2015 @ 8:02 pm
Doctor Who, Torchwood, etc are going away on February 1st unless negotiations change, I suppose
Argh — for fuck's sake. I'd better hurry up and finish Torchwood, then. I like it, but I'm not sure I like it enough to own the DVDs. Thanks for the heads up!
I definitely don't think you have to watch Doctor Who in any particular order. I did it out of order like everyone else: I started with novelisations, then watched Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, and Peter Davison in some order or another, then probably some mix of Colin Baker, William Hartnell, and Sylvester McCoy, and finally a handful of Troughtons, and there are still some sixties episodes I haven't seen. I watched the new show in order, though, and that might actually be more important now that there's so much more emphasis on the Doctor's character and his relationship with his companions. But I think starting with Matt Smith is still a pretty common experience, and why not?
For what it's worth, when I talk about what order I saw stories in and how old I was when I saw them, I'm just commenting on why we probably bring different expectations and biases to particular episodes. There's no "should" about it — it's just an attempt to account for varying tastes.
January 5, 2015 @ 2:14 am
Get a – hopefully part-time – day job to supplement our income, as the home business is ailing. With any luck it won't be cripplingly boring, although options are limited in this city.
January 6, 2015 @ 12:23 am
I am from the UK myself and totally agree that there is no real should about what order the show should be watched in, as the show is about a character who lives a non-linear life. I do just happen to have grown up in the UK and despite the fact that I watched most episodes certainly from Tom Baker through to the first season of McCoy in order, I never really had a sense of linear storytelling due to repeats, etc – especially really as until 2009 or so I had not actually seen most of the televised shows available anyway.
So I agree that this is part of my experience and history in regards to the show, but not really something that forms a dictate on what should be.