It’s a bit dark but you can tell what’s going on. I took it late-ish at night, will try to get a better one soon.
He makes a damn decent keeper
This entry was written by , posted on June 25, 2010 at 10:47 am, filed under Fun, Life and tagged harley, soccer, world cup. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
This entry was written by , posted on at 10:06 am, filed under Photo Friday and tagged commuter rail, no trains, north station, Photo Friday. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
I finally managed to get the pictures off my phone. I swear I haven’t been to New York since 9/11 but Beck says we have, and I’ve finally learned not to argue (Well, actually I haven’t but I didn’t feel like it this time)
Anyway, regardless of when I was last there seeing it again after several years was great. And with that I’m going to get out of the way and let the photos I took speak for themselves.
This entry was written by , posted on May 21, 2010 at 12:15 am, filed under Life, Travel and tagged elmo, new york, NYC, times square, world trade center, WTC. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Matt Smith as the Doctor. It still feels wrong. After so many years with David Tennant in the lead role and with all the build up to his departure it’s hard to imagine ever liking another actor in the role again.
I was never worried about Steven Moffat taking over, after all he wrote some of the best episodes of the new Series (Blink, The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead), but how was this new actor going to fair? I admit I had some concerns when David took over from Christopher Eccelston but he quickly proved he was more than up to the task which would only serve to make Matt taking over the reins that much harder.
So now with Russell T. Davies gone, and David Tennant no longer the Doctor, there were some extremely large shows to fill.
Then I watched Eleventh Hour.
Let me get the bad out of the way right off the (cricket) bat. I HATE the new intro. Not so much the visuals but the theme song has been changed so much as to be un-recoginizable. If I had closed my eyes it would have been hard to be sure I was watching a Doctor Who intro.
And the behavior of the new Doctor at first was borderline repulsive. He was about as rude and insensitive to a child as one can be without physical contact. Calling her an idiot and insane, making her cook him food in the middle of the night, and then spitting said food all around the room.
Seriously, lose the bowtie.
The ‘Run.’ comment could have been delivered better. Almost no facial involvement in that whatsoever. No menace.
Now the good. The new Doctor has a very playful personality. I absolutely loved when he meets Jeff for the first time and while talking to him is bobbing up and down on (what looks like) his toes. There is a moment just before that when he’s examining the speakers and radio in the ice cream truck and searches and touches and spins around. It’s fun!
He’s also very caring. This is evident when he first mets Amelia and tells her everything is going to be fine. Then again when Amy tells him she doesn’t believe him and he asked her to for 20 minutes. You can see the concern all over his face.
He’s clever. Granted it’s the Doctor and he’s super smart but how often have you seen him solve the ‘Crisis of the Day’(tm) without either his TARDIS or his sonic screwdriver? And writing a virus on a cell phone and using it to solve the crisis? Ingenious!
I’m torn on the new interior of the TARDIS. One the one hand it’s kind of cool, but on the other it looks like people ran out of ideas and just grabbed whatever they could find and shoved it in. I imagine this is a nod to the older series, it feels like as he gets closer to 12 the more ‘retro’ the series seems.
It seems that each regeneration in the new series has had problems. Possibly because each triggering event has been fairly violent and involved a massive amount of energy (the Time Vortex in Series 1 and the radiation at the end of Series 4). Or maybe as he reaches the end of his 12 regeneration cycle it gets harder. Either way the first few minutes/hours have been less than encouraging for each new version, only to work itself out by the end of the first or second episode.
Meaning I need to give this new incarnation a while before a decision is made on whether I like him or not.
So far however, he’s a great Doctor. So I guess I like him, but he’s no David ;)
This entry was written by , posted on April 4, 2010 at 9:38 pm, filed under Television. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
This entry was written by , posted on March 26, 2010 at 10:08 am, filed under Photo Friday and tagged dog, Photo Friday, pups, watson. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
It’s a little long (1112 words). Forgive me! Comments and criticisms welcome and encouraged.
————————————————————
Southern Nardinia (formerly the British Isles):
Commander Julien wasn’t happy. He stomped around the room changing the scenes on the monitor wall seemingly at random, throwing switches and jabbing buttons like he was mad at them. Only it wasn’t the buttons he was mad at. And at nearly 2 meters tall, he was not an elf you wanted mad at you. Trust me, I’d been here before.
“Are you completely insane? This room monitors every square kilometer of Nardinia and there is nothing on the long range sensors to even remotely indicating that that the humans are mobilizing after 30 years, and I trust these systems far, far more that I trust you or your brother.”
“Sir, I realize that what Nash is saying sounds outrageous, but I’ve known him all his life and I’ve found him to be right time and time again.”
“Regardless Tamarind -”
“Tanaka sir” I muttered meekly.
“Tanaka. Regardless Tanaka, it will take much more than the ‘feelings’ of your nephew-”
“Brother.”
“- brother. Please don’t interrupt me again. I need actual evidence if I am to go to the council and suggest we evacuate based on the ‘feelings’ of your brother.”
Suddenly a scream came from the corner of the room. I glanced over at Nash, my baby brother, just as his eyes rolled up into his head as he collapsed.
“No! Must leave now! Must leave now! All Die! ALL DIE!” screamed Nash as he began writhing in what looked like pain, “MUST LEAVE! ALL DIE!”
“Get him out of here! Now!” the Commander shouted, turning his face turned an interested shade of purple
“Yes sir. Sorry sir. He just gets like that sometimes.”
How embarrassing.
“You might want to consider having him committed. Also consider what might happen if either of you go spreading these rumors around. Last thing we need is to have everyone panicing over the ravings of -”
“Yes sir, I understand. Thank you for seeing us Commander. Come on Nash!”
I heaved him off the floor and walked out of the room, carrying him as best I could.
“We tried Nash. That’s the best we could have hoped for.”
“Tanaka? It is Tanaka right?”
There was a rather large elf standing before us. It didn’t bode well after the events in the Commanders office.
“Yes, ” I replied, “and you’re Vegas if I remember correctly. You’re part of the FSDF.”
“Yeah, Special Ops,” replied Vegas somewhat absently, “Listen, did he really mean what he said about the humans destroying everything?”
“You really shouldn’t get involved sir. It will just cause you trouble.”
“Yes, I can imagine that it would. Truth be told however I think I actually believe him.”
You could have knocked me over with a feather. Here was a high ranking officer in the Security Defense Force telling me he believed my brother’s ramblings. I’ll admit, I was more than a little skeptical. I figured he was trying to get us to say something that could be considered treasonous so he could arrest us. Needless to say what came out of his mouth was something I was not ready for.
” To tell you the truth, I’m not the only one. See some of us on the Long Range Patrols have been seeing evidence that the humans are trying to retake Nardinia. We report it and it gets buried so no one else hears of it. ”
I simply stared.
“Wha… what kind of evidence?”
“Small stuff, like things disappearing, noises and sightings.”
“You’ve seen humans in Nardinia!”
“Not humans but… things. Things that weren’t there that day or the night before. Look, I can get you in to see the council and give you some evidence of human trespassing for you to use, but you have to keep my name out of it.”
“No problem there,” i managed to mutter.
“And if you decide to leave, I can just about promise I can get 10 – 15 others to join us.”
Us? Did he really just say us?
“Others?” I asked, totally confused now.
“Others in Ops that are disgruntled. Elves that have been given the rough and dangerous jobs and positions constantly over time and passed over for promotions. These are all good elves, they just don’t like to play the political game other do and as a result aren’t considered for decent positions.”
I had no idea what to say.
“Thanks for the help. I will try not to let you down.”
****
The council members sit high above the chambers floor. Each has their own seat on a tower that is probably 50 feet tall. I guess it gives them a feeling of superiority. There are supposed to be 4 council members, each an elected representative of each district, however the representative of my home district of Carta died a couple weeks ago and they haven’t filled the position yet. Figures.
The inquiry, as they called it, had been going on for 2 days. We had said everything we knew twice and even brought some of the evidence Vegas had collected over the past few months. Of course his name was never mentioned.
“Tanaka. Step forward.”
I did, staring up at the current Council President, convinced that he was going to simply exile Nash and myself from Nardinia. A prospect Nash relished, and one I didn’t.
“This is a very serious situation before us. You and your brother are claiming that the humans are coming back to Nardinia after being forced out by us over 30 years ago. After reviewing the supposed evidence and listening to the testimony of you and your brother we have decided not to pursue the matter any further. And further more, you and your brother are never to speak of it. You will have noticed that there is no one in the Council Room, no witnesses and no spectators. No one who can substantiate what occured here. No one who will be whispering in the streets and refreshment houses about the ‘Human Invasion’. When we leave this room, this matter will disappear. Any further discussion or rumor be grounds for immediate trial.”
He banged the gavel, then they all got up and left.
Silence.
I should point out he actually used air quotes around human invasion.
****
I walked out of the Council chambers with my eyes glazed over. Stunned was the only word for it. Not only were they going to ignore everything we has said but they were going to pretend it never happened and we were to never mention anything that had happened.
I glanced over to Vegas, waited for him to see me and held his gaze.
“Gather your people, ” i said quietly when I walked up to him, “We leave tonight.”
This entry was written by , posted on March 5, 2010 at 8:36 pm, filed under Fiction and tagged #fridayflash, 2010, Fiction. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
The Anderson/Woburn Commuter Rail station just after a cleansing rain.
This entry was written by , posted on at 11:11 am, filed under Photo Friday and tagged Photo Friday. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
This entry was written by , posted on February 19, 2010 at 12:58 pm, filed under Photo Friday and tagged flower, nature, Photo Friday, plants. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
A few photos I took with the cell phone because I was bored waiting for the train to Boston:
This entry was written by , posted on February 18, 2010 at 3:02 pm, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
I got in trouble because I waited until late Thursday/ early Friday to write this. The wiafe wasn’t pleased at having to wait ;)
And if you haven’t done so yet, you can read part 1 here.
—————————————————————————————-
Gustav sat up as the small grey and black dog walked into through the open gate. He looked around at the pack of dogs that flanked him on both sides.
He smiled, which considering he was a large Golden Retriever made a fairly expressive grin.
“Sam. You have some nerve coming here. Especially with out your little white bodyguard.”
“I figured she might upset you a little after the incident last month, and I wanted to talk to you peacefully.”
“Talk? Why should I talk to you? You and your little ‘pets’ mean nothing to me.”
Gustav tried to put every ounce of disgust he had into pets. It was a lot.
“Maybe, but the subject matter of our conversation will interest you a great deal. “
“Really. And what could you possibly want to talk about that I would be interested enough in to prevent me from siccing Thunder after your scrawny butt?”
“I’m helping a cat try to find his friend…”
“A cat!”, if possible Gustav managed to put even more disgust into cat than he had into pets, “Why on earth would I care about helping some flea bitten little furball?!”
“Because he might be a victim of a catnapping and animal trafficking.”
Gustav froze with his mouth partially open. He close his mouth, licked his lips and looked around at the others surrounding him. They were all looking back at him with a mixture of anxiety and sadness.
Finally he lower his body to the ground, stretched his paws out in front of him and held his head up.
“Let’s talk”
**********
Watson was on his hind feet with his front paws on the side of the house trying to push his nose as close to the open window as possible.
“Interesting.”
“Whats interesting?” asked Harley, trotting over to see what Watson had discovered.
“Sniff and tell me what you smell.”
Harley put his nose to the ground and sniffed everything he could find. He circled under the window several times, occasionally looking around as if he expected to something to suddenly appear.
“Fear.”
“And why is that odd?”
Harley sniffed.
He continued to sniff and began to work his way away from the house towards the yard.
“Oh, because if he was running away he wouldn’t give off fear, but would be anxious or nervous.”
“Right.”
“So he was stolen!”
“Slow down, all it tells us is that he didn’t runaway.
Harley sniffed again.
“There’s else some interesting here.”
He began weaving back and forth across the yard, trying to pick up the scent again. Occasionally he would look around as if expecting something to suddenly appear.
Suddenly he froze and looked up at Watson.
“Dog!”
**********
“So my contacts at both the Wilmington and Tewksbury police departments confirm what Gustav said.” Zena said as she settled down into a lying position on the blanket next to Sebastian, ”There have been 31 thefts in the last 3 months. No one has any idea who is doing.”
“Is there any kind of pattern?”
“Not really. They are taking all types of dogs from pure breed to mutt, cats, rabbits, hamsters and even a parrot. The only anomaly seems to be age. Older animals aren’t being taken.”
“So all young animals.”
“Yep.” replied Zena. She sat on the floor and looked around at everyone. The only missing members of the group were Timothy and Maggie who were assisting Malcom with the search for Peri.
Everyone had returned home and gathered to share what information they had gathered. No one looked particularly happy.
Sam paced around in circles. He went over to the water bowl, got a drink and water, and with his beard still wet sat down and looked at Watson.
“What did you guys learn at Peri and Chester’s house?”
“There was a lot of fear scent all over the place under the window and even some up the wall. Almost like he was trying to climb back in.”
“Fear scent would be expected in a kidnapping” replied Zena, “Even up the wall. He was probably trying to get away.”
“That was my original theory, but he wasn’t kidnapped. We followed the fear scent away from the window and across the yard to a tall oak tree. He apparently climbed the tree to escape a dog.”
“Wait,” interrupted Sam, “What do you mean escape a dog?”
“There was a dog scent that overlapped the trail we followed out to the woods, but it doesn’t look like the dog was actually chasing him.”
“Wouldn’t the dog cause the fear even if he ran away?”, Sam asked.
“The dog scent seemed to weave back and forth across Peri’s. It appears the dog followed the scent to the tree, circled a few times and finally gave up.”
“Did you find any place where Peri came down?” Zena asked.
Watson waited and after a few seconds nudged Harley gently with his nose.
“Oh right! Yea!” Harley exclaimed realizing it was his turn to share information, “This was my idea! The branches in the trees are thick and look fairly sturdy. There are a lot of them close together and I think Peri, realizing there was a dog below, must have used the branches to travel without coming out of the tree.”
Tim suddenly appeared the window out of breath.
“Malcom’s patrols found Peri!”, he shouted, “He’s about 2 miles away in a little culvert. They said he looks okay but appears to be scared out of his mind. Not that I blame his with all those birds circling overhead.”
“It’s farther than I thought he would be but if he used the branches like Harley suggested it would be possible.” replied Sam as he stood up and began pacing in circles.
“Farther than you thought? You know something we don’t?” Timothy asked as he leapt down from the window and sat facing Sam.
“I have a fairly good idea of what happened, and I think I might know how.”
This entry was written by , posted on October 9, 2009 at 4:32 pm, filed under Fiction. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.