No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on July 23, 2017

Photobucket has announced that as of the 27th of July, I believe, that they will no longer allow you to post your photos to third party providers of which this site is one of them. This means that years of photos that are attached to various blog entries are going to vanish overnight. The work in progress photos. The how I made this photos. The adventure photos are all going away. Not very happy with this at all.

As much as I would love to post photos of all the things I have been doing and people we have met, I can’t because I know shortly they will be removed. I am looking for suggestions for a good place to host the photos for my blogs because I post this in three to four places.

What have we been doing?

Lots of stuff.

Shorleave, except for the eye problem, was a lot of fun. Peter met a fan who had been waiting 20 years to tell him how much he loved his work. When asked in a Q& A whether he had ever been star struck with all the people he has met while working on the Big Bang Theory, Kevin Sussman (Stewart the comic book shop owner in the show) said, “Yeah, happen today. I got to meet Peter David and tell him how much I loved his work.”

We got to talk to Marina Sirtis who didn’t recognize Peter without a beard but was happy to see him. Caroline got some Gargoyle questions answers and they talked about other topics with great passion.

I spent time hanging out with my ‘gang’ at the convention swapping stories and the like.

I was a prop in AJ’s costume entry. I was dressed up at the 12th Doctor and looked like I had gone through hëll.

David read the following as I staggered across the stage

“Once again time, injury, and the BBC have combined to cause the Doctor to regenerate. He’d rather not, but he must because ya’ know contracts”

I stopped turned to the audience and shrugged as if to say ‘what are ya going do?’ and continued to lurch until off stage.

“Determined to be stronger than even and sick of the dumb-ášš fans who said he was too old, this new Doctor is determined to give them an incarnation that they will never forget.”

AJ entered with a bow tie and his sonic screwdriver dragging my extra vest.

The audience laughed.

The title of the entry was “The Doctor Falls, but he gets up again. You are never going to keep him down”

So that was fun. Again I have some lovely pictures I would like to show you, but photobucket stinks.

I did various panels talking about various topics and had fun.

Monday was Doc in the Box day.

Tuesday we went to Geppi’s museum and enjoyed ourselves. I have great pics for that but Photobucket…..

Wednesday I got to take Caroline to the Air and Space museum and show her some of my favorite things. Again photos but no photos here. Thanks Photobucket. We touched moon rock. Walked through Skylab. Looked at the restored Enterprise. And wondered why there is a plaque in the exhibit about the solar system all about Sherlock Holmes not knowing about the Solar system. Our conclusion is that Holmes is everywhere.

Thursday we visited with Ariel, Anthony and AJ at their house before driving to Raleigh and the Raleigh SuperCon. Wish you could see the cute AJ photos I took.

Raleigh SuperCon is part of a group of conventions run by the same people who do right by their guests and make the time there as enjoyable as possible. We can highly recommend them if they ask you to be a guest at their conventions. The fans were having a blast too. Lots of great costumes including an incredible Davros which I would love to show you but Photobucket sucks. I met a group of fellow Doctor Who Cosplayers and we had a lot of fun together. We got to talk about the choice of the next Doctor before and after it was announced. My friend Patty was moderating Alex Kingston’s Q&A when she found out. Her reaction was priceless. I got to speak to her and know what I am doing for her River Song puppet.

From Raleigh we went to Orlando and straight to Disney for a couple of days. A lot of fun and really good food was had by all. We saw old friends. We rode pretty much all the rides we wanted. The only disaster was Peter’s cane getting tossed from the Buzz Lightyear ride but we got it back two days later and they gave Peter a loaner. We did not go to Animal Kingdom figuring to let the Pandora fervor lessen before going to see what that is about. Lots of great pictures but ya know Photobucket.

From there we drove to St. Augustine where my parents have had a timeshare for over 30 years for this particular week in July. We are here now just taking a couple of days to regroup and not worry about anything but ‘will we get to the beach once or twice today’ and ‘what’s for the next meal’. It is very relaxing.

Friday we will be going to the Florida SuperCon in Fort Lauderdale where adventures will be had and photos will be taken but then Photobucket so until I find a solution to that, I am down to words to describe what happened.

I am grateful for all the fun we have had so far this trip.

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Posted By Kathleen David on July 13, 2017

Shoreleave was a blast and a half. I had fun and got to talk to friends and meet some new people. However I was not quite all there due to an eye injury that became infected.

Wednesday evening I was on the couch and all of the sudden my eye exploded with pain. I eventually managed to get a tiny grain of particulate matter out of my eye but it was in there for a while. My eye kept me rather sleepless because it hurt a lot.

Thursday it was red and irritated but I had things to do. I got everything packed and in the car with a few exceptions that could only go in the next day.

Friday morning my vision was blurred in my left eye and it looked more swollen. It was weeping copious amounts of tears along with some mucus but no more than an irritated eye would. By Friday night this problem was getting worse.

Saturday I was seeing out of one eye for the most part as the left was pretty much swollen shut. I did the hot compresses and washed it out and all the things you do for such a problem. No one could see the eye as I was wearing my 12 outfit with sonic sunglasses. By the end of the evening I was miserable.

Sunday was a blur both literally and figuratively. I could see shapes but couldn’t read much unless it was right after I did the compress. Both eyes were tearing and I went through so many tissues and handwashing. But during that time I did two panels, saw the last Mystery Trekkie to be performed at Shoreleave, and then went into Washington DC with Peter, Caroline and our buddy Bob Greenberger to see Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Watch out for Snakes Tour which Joel Hodgson had given us tickets to. Fortunately most of that show is making fun of a film while in silhouette so dialogue is key. I could hear what was going on. Seeing not so much.

Monday morning we were going to go into DC and see a museum or two but my eye needed attending so we went to, as we use to call them, a Doc in the Box (insert your own Dr. Who joke here) and get this sorted out.

Cornea scratch that is well on its way to healing and an infected tear duct along with all the irritation to the tissue surrounding my eye. Lots of antibiotics and rest my eyes for a couple of days.

Yea!

However there had to be a new wrinkle since I am highly (like I could die) allergic to penicillin. The antibiotic chosen to take care of the problem is one that I have to stay out of the sun and we are going to Florida. The irony is delicious. But I would rather that then my eye continuing to decline.

So the eye is improving. As of Tuesday I could see out of it again. Wednesday showed more improvement. I am hoping by the weekend to look pretty much normal.

So that’s what has been going on with me besides everything that happened at Shoreleave including my being a prop in AJ’s first masquerade sketch but more on that another day.

I am grateful I can see out of both eyes now.

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Posted By Kathleen David on July 4, 2017

Caroline is celebrating it with her sister in Florida so Peter and I have our schedule planned. Baseball at 11 A.M. Why 11 A.M? Well apparently to get as much MLB in a day as possible. We are a nation of sports junkies apparently. Then our annual viewing of 1776 the Director’s cut, which includes two songs that were cut from the original film. Later burgers will be eaten and fireworks seen. And that will be our Fourth o’ July.

Between that I have a number of things that need to get done now that the workmen are done with the inside of the house. They still have some shingles to replace on the outside. This makes our upstairs bathroom usable again and that makes me happy.

But now onto the convention circuit and a short David family vacation. Cat sitter is more than happy about it.

I have to pack with an eye for two sets of activities. This includes all our convention stuff and our vacation stuff. Some of it is the same but other items are not. And I am going to have to do laundry more than once during our travels.

First I need to do laundry then I pack. I also need to make sure I have certain items in place including a bag o’ puppets. I have this wacky idea for the 12th Doctor costume I will be wearing. Photos if I can pull it off.

Peter has his books and scripts.

Caroline has her art and art supplies.

You can see where this becomes a challenge.

I have no idea if I am going to go silent or blog more often. I guess we will all see.

I am grateful for my country of birth.

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Posted By Kathleen David on July 3, 2017

Only in darkness are we revealed.
Goodness is not goodness that seeks advantage.
Good is good in the final hour, in the deepest pit,
Without hope, without witness, without reward.
–River Song from Doctor Who:Extremis written by Steven Moffat

The next episode scheduled for Christmas is the last one for Peter Capaldi as the Doctor and I will be sad to see him depart for so many reasons including this, to me, is the best season of New Who so far.

Spoilers are under the cut and possibly in the comments so fair warning if you haven’t seen this episode.

This was a hard one to watch especially knowing where we are heading but it was one of the best ends of a season of Doctor Who.

The acting was top notch across the board. Each actor had at least one scene written for them to shine and they did.

My one complaint is that it was a little dark and not just in tone. I wasn’t expecting the villains to fight in the daylight but this blue murky light they used was made it hard to see what was going on but on second viewing, I had a better idea what I was looking at.

This was a clever episode in both the good and bad version of the word. At some points they out clevered themselves.

I will miss the characters that have departed. I will miss Moffat and his oeuvre although I am looking forward to what he gets up to with Gatiss regarding their version of Dracula. I expect Sherlock meets Doctor Who but they could surprise me.

It is the almost end and we await the final words of this Doctor and find out who is next.
(more…)

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Posted By Kathleen David on July 2, 2017

OK Fandom, we need to sit down and have a little talk.

Oh no, no, no I am not going to smack you, although that is tempting considering your recent behavior, I really just want to talk to you.

News Flash, not everyone is going to like everything you like especially at the intensity with which you like it.

And that is OK.

I am sure there are fandoms that you wandering into online that leave you scratching your head about what do they see in that.

But they do see something in it that appeals to them like your fandom(s) appeal to you.

Here seems to be the disconnect these days, you can’t make others like/love the things that you like/love. Or as the old saying goes, “You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” You have shown it the lovely water now step back and let it make up its own mind about what it wants to do.

The opposite is true too. You may hate something with the passion of a 1000 fiery suns and you are allowed the heartily to dislike something. But to berate others because they like it is really not cricket.

Here’s a suggestion, just walk away from what is causing you such consternation.

Life is too darn short.

I have talked about how a movie does not ruin a book in the past. The book is still there. The movie didn’t magically make the words change in the book to match the film. You can still read your story the way that you liked it.

Recently in several fandoms that I am either a part of or watch from the sidelines have been having some serious meltdowns about things that effect, or may effect, the thing that they love.

One series jumped the characters forward a number of years setting up the next season. They did finish all the previous threads so that we knew about where everyone landed before the time jump. If that had been, as rumored, the last episode of the series, it would have satisfied most fan base. We don’t know except for that little snippet what has happened since we last left our heroes. We do know who has a contract in the next season and who doesn’t so we have an idea of which characters will still be around and they are the most and least popular ones all at the same time. The screaming from fandom has been rather intense. I hope that they give the show the chance to find its footing again and remember that the previous seasons are not wiped off the face of the earth because of the new season. Although I think they are going to kill it with the new time slot.

Another fandom is practically going into convulsions given what happened this season and what is going to happen next year. I think want makes me most upset with a good chunk of the group is the threatening nature of ‘if you don’t do/fix this I am going to …’ that is going on. It’s just a TV show. Sure the fandom is one of the oldest on the planet, but still it is not cancelled but it sure is changing. And the ‘if you don’t’ has been turned up to 10 on this season which I consider one of the best to date. I know a number of my friends don’t agree with me on this and that’s fine. This season worked for me but didn’t for them. I am not going to go try to convince them to see it my way.

There is another fandom that a large number of my friends love that I cannot get into and it hasn’t been from the lack of trying. I just don’t like the premise or the characters. It is not my cuppa but I don’t try to rain on my friends’ parade of love and accolades of their fandom. I read through their comments and move on happy that they have something that brings them so many feelings.

So enjoy your fandoms. Enjoy your entertainment.

Just be kind and allow others to enjoy theirs.

I am grateful for the variety of fandoms out there.

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