Christmas, Part Deux
Dec. 26th, 2007 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Yesterday did the rest of Christmas, going to my dad's and opening presents and such. It was a smaller affair than usual, and much less drama, at least direct drama. There was periphery drama, the sort of drama you're not involved in or witnessing but sort of informed about what's going on and might explode into future drama, but oh well, at least a generally good time was had during the day.
Giftwise wasn't too bad, got more money, socks, a gift card for Chapters/Indigo/World's Biggest Bookstore, and a bag of snacks (Whoppers, Willowcrisps, Popcorn, Pringles, Szechuan BBQ Rice Pringles, Honey Roasted Peanuts).
Dinner was also awesome, the traditional turkey, gravy, stuffing, ham, mashed potatoes, corn, turnips, bread, brocolli. Plenty of good food and plenty of leftovers since so few people were there this year. Also plenty of sweets to take home - cheesecake tarts, candy squares, and gingerbread and shortbread cookies.
Oh, and I forgot to mention last time that I made another attempt at making sponge toffee. This time I didn't burn it, but I made the opposite mistake... I didn't let it cook long enough. So when I put in the baking soda it expanded but not super-much like sponge toffee is supposed to, and wound up with a thin layer of perfectly edible (but very sticky) hard toffee-like substance, but not the 'inside of a crunchie bar' type sponge toffee I was going for. Ah well, I'll try again another time and maybe get it right. Or maybe see if I can get a candy thermometer to take some of the guesswork out of it.
I did have work today but no comics since they're delayed this week (and possibly next, but so far I have nothing on my list for next so I'll go this week), and since I didn't want to go a long way out of my way for boxing day shopping when most of what I buy is on sale for the whole of boxing week, I got home pretty early. Work was okay though, light load and things got started at a decent time. Had leftovers for lunch/dinner.
When I got home I had Doctor Who's Xmas special ready to watch. Overall, mildly pleasant, but suffered a bit too much from RTD's writing, and some dopey concepts. Mild spoilers behind the cut.
I did kind of like the "he wasn't the one you would have chosen to survive this" moment, but overall the deaths felt a bit too gratuitous and sometimes just silly, as well as the solutions to the problems. I also felt Ten was a bit of a prick to the old guy. "No, you can't come, I travel alone." Okay, fine, but you could have at least offered to drop him off on another planet or his home (before realizing that he'd be set up spectacularly on Earth).
The little guy with the big name was amusing, as was the Doctor getting to say a phrase he wanted to use for a couple years.
The way they set it in the present day felt a bit cheesy, with the queen cameo and the evacuated city just emphasizing my annoyance at how much the world is now different from the 'present day our world' that it probably will turn out to be any time they decide it should be.
Oh, and I have no conceptual problems with aliens that look exactly like humans, as was in this episode, but I would have liked at least some lip service to the notion that it's a little unusual, especially since (to the best of my recollection) it's the first time this has happened in the New Who (aside from the Doctor himself). The Old Who of course had dozens of human aliens (The Thals of Skaro right from the first set of episodes, for example), but the New Who hasn't, so I kind of would have liked to see some outright examples of dialog establishing a) hey, these guys are aliens, rather than displaced humans, b) yes, it is a little odd they _look_ exactly like humans, but go with it, and c) we did try to make them feel alien in other ways rather than just suggesting it and making a few references to a society that might as well as be a future Earth. Most of the people seemed to have very human-like names, maybe a bit unusual but not dramatically alien.
Ah well. Like most RTD episodes, it wasn't too bad but certain elements left a bad taste in my mouth or had me rolling my eyes a bit.
Previews for the rest of the season looked kind of neat, though.
Giftwise wasn't too bad, got more money, socks, a gift card for Chapters/Indigo/World's Biggest Bookstore, and a bag of snacks (Whoppers, Willowcrisps, Popcorn, Pringles, Szechuan BBQ Rice Pringles, Honey Roasted Peanuts).
Dinner was also awesome, the traditional turkey, gravy, stuffing, ham, mashed potatoes, corn, turnips, bread, brocolli. Plenty of good food and plenty of leftovers since so few people were there this year. Also plenty of sweets to take home - cheesecake tarts, candy squares, and gingerbread and shortbread cookies.
Oh, and I forgot to mention last time that I made another attempt at making sponge toffee. This time I didn't burn it, but I made the opposite mistake... I didn't let it cook long enough. So when I put in the baking soda it expanded but not super-much like sponge toffee is supposed to, and wound up with a thin layer of perfectly edible (but very sticky) hard toffee-like substance, but not the 'inside of a crunchie bar' type sponge toffee I was going for. Ah well, I'll try again another time and maybe get it right. Or maybe see if I can get a candy thermometer to take some of the guesswork out of it.
I did have work today but no comics since they're delayed this week (and possibly next, but so far I have nothing on my list for next so I'll go this week), and since I didn't want to go a long way out of my way for boxing day shopping when most of what I buy is on sale for the whole of boxing week, I got home pretty early. Work was okay though, light load and things got started at a decent time. Had leftovers for lunch/dinner.
When I got home I had Doctor Who's Xmas special ready to watch. Overall, mildly pleasant, but suffered a bit too much from RTD's writing, and some dopey concepts. Mild spoilers behind the cut.
I did kind of like the "he wasn't the one you would have chosen to survive this" moment, but overall the deaths felt a bit too gratuitous and sometimes just silly, as well as the solutions to the problems. I also felt Ten was a bit of a prick to the old guy. "No, you can't come, I travel alone." Okay, fine, but you could have at least offered to drop him off on another planet or his home (before realizing that he'd be set up spectacularly on Earth).
The little guy with the big name was amusing, as was the Doctor getting to say a phrase he wanted to use for a couple years.
The way they set it in the present day felt a bit cheesy, with the queen cameo and the evacuated city just emphasizing my annoyance at how much the world is now different from the 'present day our world' that it probably will turn out to be any time they decide it should be.
Oh, and I have no conceptual problems with aliens that look exactly like humans, as was in this episode, but I would have liked at least some lip service to the notion that it's a little unusual, especially since (to the best of my recollection) it's the first time this has happened in the New Who (aside from the Doctor himself). The Old Who of course had dozens of human aliens (The Thals of Skaro right from the first set of episodes, for example), but the New Who hasn't, so I kind of would have liked to see some outright examples of dialog establishing a) hey, these guys are aliens, rather than displaced humans, b) yes, it is a little odd they _look_ exactly like humans, but go with it, and c) we did try to make them feel alien in other ways rather than just suggesting it and making a few references to a society that might as well as be a future Earth. Most of the people seemed to have very human-like names, maybe a bit unusual but not dramatically alien.
Ah well. Like most RTD episodes, it wasn't too bad but certain elements left a bad taste in my mouth or had me rolling my eyes a bit.
Previews for the rest of the season looked kind of neat, though.
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Date: 2007-12-27 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-27 07:56 pm (UTC)