The Internet

A few years ago now, most likely 2005 or 2006, I remember deciding what it would take for me to leave PBS. I don't remember exactly why, but I think it was probably due to others leaving dramatically around that time, and deleting accounts etc. I thought that the only thing that'd make me leave was if certain friends left, or if I was no longer friends with them. Over the years, things changed, and I did redefine that for myself a bit. Some of those people did leave, but I met new online friends. I decided that there would be no point to staying at PB if I had no good friends there, and if there was no AIM chat to go to, since going there has always been a good escape for me.

So now it's 2009, and it looks as though all the criteria have been met. All my non-PBS internet friends are gone. People like Mano and Sunil who I met in MSN chats and talked to for years, I just don't have any contact with at all. It must be over a year since I last got an email from Mano, and since I don't trust him all that much anymore, it's unlikely I'll bother to contact him again. I miss when things were less complicated.

As for the PBS friends, I just don't think there's anyone I'm that close to anymore. Back in 2005 (0r maybe 2006?), there was a time when I was really upset over a few things. Not one of my "down" phases, because this was related to something that happened rather than my general issues. At the time, a lot of my online friends, mostly from PBS, let me down pretty badly, I thought. Maybe it's not all that obvious when I'm upset, but still, people who I thought might be there for me just weren't. One had a real excuse, but some others spent more time asking me about how another person was doing than whether I was okay myself. There was one exception, and the fact that he a) noticed I wasn't doing well and b) talked to me about the reasons, meant a lot to me. Over the last few months, I've been in a pretty bad place, and unlike most of my depressive phases, I didn't manage to control/hide it online very well. Usually people wouldn't notice, but it wasn't really much of a secret that I wasn't coping well this time. Absolutely no one was there for me. One person asked me if I was okay on one day where I wasn't even that bad, but that wasn't one of the people I expected to care much. Those I did...they weren't much help. I won't say everyone has been terrible, since one person who I specifically asked for advice did come through for me. The rest of it still sucks though.

So yeah, I don't want to dwell on that, because I know you shouldn't expect people to be there for you everytime you aren't happy. It's just shown me how there really aren't people I'm that good friends with online anymore. PBS isn't the friendly place it has been in the past, and doesn't keep me entertained as much, and I no longer have the tie of moderating. The chat looks like it's finally over, which is sad after so many years. People have come and gone, but it's always kept going. Now, there doesn't seem much reason to go there anymore. With that gone too, my reasons for staying at PBS, and as a regular on the internet in general, are pretty much gone. The only reason I've still been here is because there isn't much else to do, which is also sad. It's pretty much this, DVDs or Wii, and I have to alternate a bit so I don't get bored.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this post is, because based on my last point, I don't think I'll suddenly just leave. It's likely that I'll just fade away from the internet though. I think I've already started that.

Television, webcomics, music and maybe other things

The last couple of weeks haven't been that great, so I haven't said anything, and I probably won't talk about that much at all. Bad times. Instead, here's where I'm up to TV wise, followed by some comments about other media stuff.

Dexter

I'm so surprised that in season 3, this can still be so exciting. I didn't think they could take this serial killer as the main character thing on for a long time without being too repetitive, but that's not happening at all. I guess 12 episode seasons really are a good idea sometimes.

Anyway, Miguel Prado is a really interesting character. He knows Dexter kills, but thinks it's the right thing to do? My prediction is that he's going to do something against the code, and Dexter will have to kill him. I dunno. It can't be as straight forward as him just being cool with Dexter killing. Great twist though, having him know. I'm not sure who the skinner will end up being yet. It's out of character for Miguel, and I don't think it's Ramon. The new detective is a possibility, although maybe a little too easy. I just really hope it's not that Anton guy.

In conclusion, this is one of the best things on tv at the moment. I just found out that there will definitely be two more seasons, so I hope they manage to keep it fresh for all that time, and Dexter getting away with things doesn't always become way too convenient.

Desperate Housewives

Another one of the best things showing at the moment. Season 4 managed to be as good and as exciting as season 1, and 5 is easily keeping up. The five years later thing was a great idea, and I really like the Dave character. I think he's going to end up being after Orson. They're making it look like Mike, but Orson was also in prison, and it could have been him involved in Dave's brother's death. Either way, I'm really enjoying it. I wish Susan and Mike would hurry up and get back together though. I'll feel a bit cheated if they never do, and I think many fans will, so I don't really think I want to see him with Katherine.

Stargate Atlantis

I can't remember when I last said something about Atlantis. I think I mentioned the one Daniel Jackson was in, but if not...wow. ASGARD! One of the best twists ever on Stargate. The episode after that was pretty good, because it was very old school Atlantis. Sort of like season 1 or 2, when the team being all together on random planets was more regular. Nice to see Beckett back in the gang, although it's still a bit odd that he's the clone and not the guy who died in Sunday. It was a little bit disappointing that Sheppard didn't care about blowing up the bad villagers at the end, but I guess maybe he didn't know that guy would go with the wraith? Who knows, but it was a good episode.

The next episode...I'm not so sure. Don't get me wrong, I like a good clip show, but this late on in the final ever season? Not a great plan. The idea behind it wasn't that bad, although it's been done before in several other sci-fi series. Not the same circumstances, but putting the good guys on trial for their actions. It was more interesting in the fact that the prosecutors were pretty much right, as funny as that is. I think the only good thing to come out of the episode was the awesomeness of Woolsey, who like Carter, has been tragically underused this season. Robert Picardo is a great actor, and Woolsey a great character. The episode was wrapped up too fast though, and we could have done with some more of his awesome. I look forward to the next episode though, since I think Michael will be back. It sucked not having a new one last week though. Also, I'm very, very disappointed that there's going to be 3 weeks between episodes 19 and 20 now. Very disappointed. American tv stations generally suck.

Fringe

I don't think I've written in my blog about Fringe yet. This is definitely worth a mention. I see it as something in between Lost, because of all the mystery elements and the things going on in the background we don't understand yet, and The X Files, in the way that they're investigating these things and it's clear that people pretty high up are involved in some kind of conspiracy type thing. Still, it works, and part of that reason is the cast. Anna Torv is pretty good, Joshua Jackson is surprisingly good and I rarely think of Pacey (come on, I have to sometimes though...he was Pacey!), but John Noble is awesome. I assumed he'd be playing some kind of authoritarian genious professor, with bits of Denethor in him. Crazy mad scientist is so much more awesome than that.

The only problem I have with Fringe is that I can see it's going to be months/years before we find out what's going on. I hope it manages to stay exciting, because at the moment I think it's something really worth watching.

Dr Who

Well, this isn't about episodes, but more that David Tennant is leaving :( I wish they hadn't told us, and it'd been a total shock, but more than that I wish he wasn't leaving! He's been perfect for the role, and I was hoping he'd do it for years to come. I have no clue at all who they'll pick for the next one. I hope it's someone older, since they've done the whole having a younger hot guy playing him now, and the younger audience is well and truly hooked. A black/Asian/non-British actor would be a new way to go.

xkcd

And so we move on to webcomics. I think I wanted to say something about xkcd because I'm almost disappointed with it lately. It's hardly ever unfunny, but some of the more recent ones have been more mildly amusing than hilarious. The last couple of week specials haven't been so great either. I dunno, I hate to complain because it's usually just so good. I still want to buy the height poster and the science tshirt. I still think it's awesome, I just wish every comic was still awesome.

Questionable Content

I really don't know why I'm that addicted to this. I have to read it every day, even though it's hardly the best thing around. I guess the overall stories are usually good, and I want to find out what's going on like it's a soap or something. Sometimes it's really funny, other times it's just a story I like, and other times it's actually pretty crap. My biggest issue with it is the fact that the writer is a bloke who thinks like a bloke. The girls don't talk or act like girls. Now I do realise that not all girls are the same, and I'm not all that girly myself, but I just don't hear girls talking about sex in the way that they do. I guess I like it a lot more when that kind of stuff isn't going on.

Cyanide and Happiness

Some of these are just too funny. Absolutely hilarious. Some are just way over the line and actually disgusting. Those ones seem kinda forced, like how can we do something offensive and line crossing today? Again, I still like it though. Just not so much as more light hearted stuff like xkcd. That's adult in a good way, not adult in the way where you'd be mega upset if your kids saw it.

Music

Haha, just one heading that's music related, because I honestly can't remember what I was going to say about music. I've been listening to a lot of Oasis, and a lot of Bright Eyes too when I wasn't feeling so good. Oh, and I'm really looking forward to seeing Thunder this month, so I hope I can go.

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Now playing: Stiff Little Fingers - Listen
via FoxyTunes

Messing with the blog

I can't decide what to do with it. I've put up some ads, and moved the labels list under the SayBox, but I can't seem to decide on where I want everything to go, and whether to change the template completely. I don't think I like many of the other templates Blogspot provides, but I can't be bothered with the hassle of doing any serious editing of the HTML. I'm sick of the current colour, and although I like the blue version of what I've already got, I'm not sure I want to keen the design either.

One problem with the current design is the layout of the sidebar, and the fact that I don't know what to do with it. I can't decide whether the archive or labels are more important. The SayBox takes up too much space. I considered using a popup link for it, but then it'd get even fewer posts than it already does.

I'm tired. I'll think about it again another day :P

Stumbling around the internet

I started typing up a post about books I've been reading and tv I've been watching, but I so can't be bothered with that right now. Instead, here are some sites I like, based on what's on my StumbleUpon profile. StumbleUpon is one of the greatest inventions since the internet, by the way.

Jeff Russells Starship Dimensions

This is a site where you compare spaceships, basically. Great for scifi nerds like me. It's best viewed in IE, because that allows you to drag stuff around for better comparison. Ever wanted to know how big the Enterprise is in relation to Moya? Or Serenity? Or the Cloverfield monster? If so, this site is a great way to avoid doing your dissertation.

Guess the Google

I'm guessing that most people with access to this blog have heard of this game already, but it's still worth a mention. Basically, the game shows a load of images, and you have to type in the word Googled to get those images. It's a simple game that's actually really fun to play. For a while. Obviously these things do get old, but it's worth a mention.

Questionable Content

I discovered this webcomic a couple of years ago. I wasn't really into webcomics, then a PBS thread came up where people were listing their favourites, and I thought I'd check some out. QC was mentioned a lot, so it was one of the first I looked at. I realised that I'd have to start from the beginning to get it, and although at first I wasn't sure I'd be interested, I ended up reading every one and getting right up to date. The comic can be really funny at times, and the plot is usually interesting enough to make you want to know what happens next. I think my only problem with it is how obvious it is that it's written by a man sometimes, and the fact that he writes things into the female characters that just don't seem to fit. I'd still recommend this as one of my favourite webcomics though.

eFestivals

The only site UK festival goers need for all the latest festival news. I live by this site when line ups start to get rumoured early in the year, and check it regularly after I buy tickets for any changes.

Digital Spy

This site is every trashy magazine I hate, but I love it still. I mostly go there for TV and soap news. The premiere list is useful, and I usually like checking up on the cult section. I use the soaps section to see if I'm missing anything major in Hollyoaks if I haven't seen it, so I can go 4oD it if it's something important. Also good for Big Brother, X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing news. One thing I don't like about it is Gay Spy. That part of the site seems to assume that gay men are only interested in thinking about which celebrity pretty boy looks best without his shirt on.

Scientists for Better PCR (song video)

This is brilliant. Just brilliant. It's actually an advertisement for Bio-Rad, who make scientific equipment, but it's still great. For those who don't know, polymerase chain reaction (or PCR) is a method of amplifying DNA for analysis. The thermal cycler Bio-Rad make is a machine that can do this. Anyone who does get it will find this song hilarious. It's funnier because it's made to look serious.

A Dog's Breakfast Movie (+ David Hewlett's site)

If you haven't seen this film, go and buy it. It's so funny, and I can tell David Hewlett has a pretty similar sense of humour to me. If you don't know, he plays McKay on Stargate Atlantis, and quite a few Stargate actors pop up in the film. The site includes his blog and twitter, and so also updates on what he's doing on Atlantis.

Book a Minute (SF/F)

This is the sci-fi/fantasy section of Book a Minute. Basically, it sums up popular books in a few sentences, and usually in a funny way. As an example:

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune: "(People do stuff that is OUT OF CHARACTER. People do stuff that makes NO SENSE. Cool arabic-type words and names are said, making Frank Herbert look SMART and COOL.)"

Too true, haha.

Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog

I believe I've spoken about this in a TV or film related post, so I won't dwell, but it's still as brilliant as when I first saw it. You can't see it on the site anymore, but there are lyrics and stuff there, so it's worth a look.

Television Tropes

This site is one of the greatest sites ever. I like TV. I like overanalysis of TV. I like it even more when done in a humourous way. This site does just that, and includes some awesome comical analysis of my favourite shows, and the patterns and cliches in them. One of my favourite trope labels is "Magnificent Bastard". Obviously this includes Scorpius, who has to be the best character mentioned. The Master, from Dr Who, is another good example. Anyway, this site is easy (for me at least) to lose hours in. I already spent longer on this paragraph than any other so far, since I started looking at the site.

Treesize Free from JAM Software

Even though I could give out more sites, I'm going to end it here for tonight. I'll finish with some free software Google told me about the other day. Have you ever wondered where all the space is going on your hard drive? I know I did. I only have 80GB, and when I couldn't work out how why I was always nearly out of space, I decided I needed a way to find out where I could stand to lose stuff. This tells you exactly where on your hard drive most memory is being used. It made it so much easier to clear things up. Definitely worth a look.

The real world and the fake

Last weekend, after a lot of complaining about how much I hate camping, I ended up going camping in Mablethorpe with my dad, his partner, and her family. It was actually a really good break, away from the internet and the boredom of all the nothing I do at the moment. I sat in the sun all weekend, spent a lot of time talking to my dad (and realising how I was actually brought up rather well) and I read an entire book. Dune Messiah, which I may talk about in another post after I've bought and read Children of Dune too. Fantastic read, and the first time I've read a novel in far too long. I really enjoyed just escaping into it while sitting in the sun outside a beach chalet.

If I wasn't completely shattered right now, I'd write more about that weekend, because I really enjoyed it. There are some things that I would have complained about, like a certain 16 year old who has been far too spoilt, and maybe someone a bit older who is the same, but I can't quite be bothered. It was just some quality time in the real world, and I liked it more than I thought I would.

So going the other way, I've also done something unspeakable in the last week. I got the WoW trial. Yes I'm hanging my head in shame as I type. I got it for two reasons. The first is that it's a cure for the boredom, but the main one is that I want some MMORPG experience on something other than Runescape before Stargate Worlds is out. That's been pushed back to 2009 now, but I still thought it'd be good to have a go on WoW.

So far, it's not too bad. There's a lot to do as a newbie to get going. A lot of small quests that build you up. I can't see how level 70s stay entertained, but it's alright for now. Pete will probably come and help me with quests at some point, which will be a help. I'm not sure how I like the social element of it though. I know on RS doing stuff with other people and chatting as you play is well annoying. I guess I'll have another go before the trial runs out, and consider buying it for my free month if I think it's worth it. Anyone on Burning Blade in Europe should give me a shout though.