Today's netcast is up (fashionably late) and many of you will find yourselves linked in it. ginasketch has some more original art for sale. Malady of the weekend appears to be random nosebleeds. Lego Batman Wii game horribly addictive. Small Person has fanvids on YouTube. Quote of the week goes to Andrew Hickey:

if you look at Doctor Who fans between the ages of (roughly) 30 and 60 you’ll find that an astonishingly high proportion of them are gay (or in some way of an alternative sexuality), members of the Liberal Democrats, middle class, very interested in computers, readers of 2000AD, or all of the above.

I resemble that remark... Oh, and today's APOD is GORGEOUS. All I could think when looking at it was Saturn is my favourite planet, mummy! It has thousands of rings and LOADS of moons!, which is what Small Person always says whenever Saturn is mentioned in any context.

And... yeah. Haven't been posting as much as usual, have I? Life is pretty busy right now, that's fer sure. And there hasn't been anything that I have felt moved to post about which hasn't been posted about by better folks than me many times over. So, in lieu of more substantive content, and since I haven't written fic for ages, here is a meme, via netgirl_y2k:

The One Sentence Fic Meme!

Pick a fandom, and try to write different categories of fic (angst, fluff, UST, etc) in one sentence.

( click for fic )

And finally, inspired by Mr Quist's latest hobby horse (three posts on the subject in the last few days):

Poll #1329222 Private vs Public
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 30

The fact that everything everyone does is increasingly public OUGHT to eventually lead to:

The fact that everything everyone does is increasingly public WILL eventually lead to:

It's the 23rd of November, people. Doctor Who is 45 years old! The above picture is by Lee Sullivan, who did the art for the fantastic Real Time, and you can see a bigger version of it here.

---

And now, a meme! ( click to get a bunch of fives... )

Via tyrell comes the news that another piece of my childhood has slipped away. I looked at this post, and those were the books I grew up with. THAT edition of LotR. THOSE Narnia books. THAT Watership Down.

The art in the Narnia books, in particular, is simple and beautiful and clear and seeps straight into the memory, to stick there for always. Who can think of Mr Tumnus without seeing the picture of he and Lucy walking away arm-in-arm? The kind of talent which draws art THAT iconic isn't easy to come by, and should be celebrated.

RIP, Pauline Baynes.

---

Completely unrelated, but which still brought a tear to my eye... It's not often I read fic this days, much less recommend it. Nearly all fic is self-indulgent wankery, and I have to read enough of that on the political blogs. So when I rec something, you KNOW is gotta be good, right?

This is How The Universe Ends stars Captain Jack Harkness and Discworld Death, and it is full of laugh-out-loud humour and genuine pathos, and made me satisfyingly weepy by the end. If you have ten minutes, go and read it, even if you only have a passing familiarity with one or other of the characters. The odd spelling mistake aside, this is the best fic I have read all year, and I don't say that lightly. Go! Read!

Woes first:

- Having bought myself a little Ka, and fallen in love with its distinctive shape and quirky little bumpers, imagine my horror to discover that this year they are launching a new, redesigned version that looks like a cross between a Fiesta and a Yaris, and is no longer distinctive at all. Poor Ka-Ligula's younger siblings are not going to be anywhere near as cool as him.

- having discussed Pinky and the Brain on my previous post, I thought about upgrading my old World Domination Workout Video to shiny disc... and they're only on Region 1! Curse you, evil region encoding of doom!

- Even BBC Parliament is not immune from the curse of Sport. Don't they realise that some of us would rather watch repeats of old House of Lords debates hoping to spot our facebook friends than watch the bloody Olympics?

The Yays:

- Lookit the cute widdle snakey! He's so CUTE! (hat-tip: ginasketch, who still would like you to buy her art)

- Charlie Brooker's awesome post is awesome.

The Tee Hee Hee?

- The Honourable Lady Mark Valladares delivers a smackdown to a troll called Jay. I, personally, am waiting for Silent Bob to turn up.

Those who know me will know that I am so averse to advertising that I rarely watch non-BBC TV channels (generally only when Young 'Un is watching Cartoon Network), and NEVER listen to non-BBC radio stations. I hate, loathe and deplore advertising for stuff that I am not interested in intruding into the stuff I am interested in. So guess what I'm going to do now?

That's right, I'm going to advertise!

The very talented ginasketch is having a little bit of financial difficulty at the moment, and so is offering you, yes YOU, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a piece of original, custom drawn art on A4 paper for the bargain price of £10.

I'm skint right now, and I am going to get one, even though I already have some of Gina's stuff, because her stuff is THAT cool.

Go on, scoot, buy!

I spent last evening losing at Ludo with matgb and burlesque_bunny and her other half, and therefore didn't get around to backreading. Thus, today's linkspam of random things that caught my magpie eye is HUGE! Also, if I haven't hat-tipped you for the link, it's because I forgot who linked me to what. This is because I are a scatty old bint. For which, I apologise. A fair few of them came from m'colleague Douglas over at LC, though.

---

First up, Ros Scott is unsure that too much choice is a good thing. I certainly agree that in terms of schools and (particularly) hospitals, people don't want choice, they just want their local one to be good. If someone is bleeding to death, the last thing you want to have to do is to decide whether St Luke's or the BRI would suit your needs better.

However, it's not just about whether or not people have the ABILITY to make choices, it's about whether or not there aren't better uses of their time, IMHO. A lot of the time I don't want to choose between a set of things because I'd rather be doing something else. Choice of beer is great, choice of buses to get to the pub is not. I just want a bus that's frequent, prompt, and stops where I want it to, not a choice of three, none of which go at convenient times, or stop at the stop I want.

---

Via Neil Gaiman: No to age banding on books.

I agree, to an extent, with age restrictions (but emphatically not censorship for 18-rated films) for violence on films and computer games (less so for sex), because you don't need to put any actual effort into perceiving the violence of a film or computer game, and it could cause some serious trauma to some children. Books? No. I first read the bible cover to cover aged seven (after the Hobbit but before LotR), and you'll be hard pushed to find a book more stuffed with violence than that. I still think it was a worthy use of my time. Reading books that are "unsuitable for children" is an im;portant part of any child's intellectual development.

Similarly, I loved, and still love, books which are clearly aimed at much smaller people than me. Why should I be castigated for this by over-prescriptive publishers?

---

el_staplador makes a good point about feminism, inspired by this article on the BBC:

Feminism, the way I learnt it, isn't about voting for the woman because she's a woman; it's about voting for the best person for the job because of them being the best person for the job. Where the feminism comes in is that, should a woman be the best person for the job, there should be nothing more standing in her way than there is standing in an equivalent man's way. I must admit that I haven't been following the campaign terribly closely, so can't give a considered opinion on the question. (In any case, it's too late now and I have no influence upon it whatsoever.) But honestly, it should be simple: which of the two could do the job better? They're both human beings, no?

I'd go further than the sainted El S. I think that voting for a woman just because she's a woman and not because she's the best person for the job DAMAGES feminism, just as "positive" discrimination is a patronising pat on the head from the patriarchy. YMMV, of course.

---

Much hilarity abounds about Tony Blair's new plan to foster peace and stuff by not invading other nations getting people of different faiths to talk to each other. Like the author of jesus_and_mo, and I think the result of this is rather predictable:



OTOH, maybe cabalamat2 is right, and this will result in more questioning of the overweening power of religion in general. Which would possibly be a good thing. I don't mind religious folks doing whatever they like in the privacy of their own homes, but I don't want them present in my legislature, and I don't want them indoctrinating my child. Shame this still seems to be too much to ask.

---

I originally did the "wife" version of this, and, somewhat predictably, I was atrocious. However:

109 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

This contrasts nicely with my result for this test, I feel:

What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Hedonism Your life is guided by the principles of Hedonism: You believe that pleasure is a great, or the greatest, good; and you try to enjoy life’s pleasures as much as you can. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!” More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page... ( percentages and stuff under here ) Big hurrahs for the really, REALLY old guy! I particularly like that the secret to his longevity is "cigarettes, whisky and wild women". An organ which definitely disapproves of wild women, especially in conjunction with whisky and fags is the Daily Hate. Here's a couple of links to stuff about their misogyny and how it negatively affects the whole of society. Via the incredibly talented ginasketch, today is Drawing Day. So get your pencils, or Wacom tablet, out. Via shishmish on the TGT, someone at the BBC has seen the woeful Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky, and thought that's not a bad idea, but the execution is terrible... I bet we could do better! Am really looking forward to this, even though Hamster is my least favourite of the TG3. And finally, guaranteed way to get me to accept your Facebook, friends request? Unashamed fanboying of this humble blog! As a reciprocal measure, I'd like you all to go and have a nosey at ottenfeed, which is being added to lcreadinglist as we speak ;)