A plateful of cookies

...and now ship Vili, Vé, Odin and Frigg all together in one happy brothers & wife family.

Although considering the context I'm basing this on is in Loki's rap battle against the other gods, who is not the most reliable of narrators, the canon's pretty shaky.

But Norse mythology and prose is the best ever. If only for the fabulous verses like these:

( Contains such great lines as 'My mighty hammer, Mjöllnir, shall stop thy prating.' )

And then I'm also reading about Homosexuality in Viking Scandinavia, realising that the description of Hel being "half black and half flesh-coloured," could just mean she's dark skinned as the Vikings were trading with the Middle East, and that there were ravens? (ornithology is not a strong point of mine) flapping around in the Avenger's movie when Thor chewed out Loki.
I like Hel as a goddess. She's the most 'normal' out of Loki's kids by Angrboda and gets the cushy job of presiding over all those who died of old age or outside of battle, rather than being chained up or made to encircle the world. Then there's the fact that Queens of the underworld are always cool and willing to let people live again if you can melt their hearts. (See Persephone)

( Mini link dumpery relating to Norse myth and the Marvel adaptation and the Avengers movie )

I kind of love that it's so easy for me to slip back into Norse mythology geek mode. Now I'm going to go see what fabulous crossovers I can manage to find...

Firstly, go check out the Pixiv tag for Doctor Who. (You need an account to see the pictures large. I trust you can google how to sign up.)
It's only six pages but that isn't too bad for a foreign import with amusing dubbing (for those who know the original actors' voices anyway).
Of particular note are these fanarts. (There's stuff by feriowind, there's Amy and PLENTY of Ten. Oh, and of Eleven too. But mostly, almost entirely Ten.) The Amy + Doctor stuff is awfully cute though.


Secondly, I just discovered this, which is basically Paul McGann showing off the 'new' costume for Eight at Armageddon Auckland and a 11-ish Sonic apparently made by Weta.

I'm a little wary, as Armageddon Auckland is kind of a small 'con' (it's technically an expo) internationally, despite being the largest in New Zealand. (Stats for Saturday put attendance at 45k.) And it is, in the words of Bill (the event organiser, whom all the NZ cosplayers seem to know) "Pauls costume is not BBC approved, it's his interpretation of what he wants the costume to be" and "the new Paul McGann costume is totally unofficial. It was designed by Paul and arranged by bill Geradts in NZ" but Weta were involved, as was Bill but I just can't help but be excited.

Because while all of it may turn out not true or not eventuate, I am exploding with glee at the mere thought of Doctor Who, Eight/Paul McGann (who seems a wonderfully nice person and is now rather quite sad that Eight didn't get picked up for a series) and Weta Workshop possibly planning something, which may be happening in my country.

*should stop being so excited at this time of night*

Here, have more pics from the tweetstream: Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3, Photo 4, Photo 5, Photo 6, Photo 7, Photo 8, Photo 9.

In related, but different news, Robert Llewellyn - the guy who was Kryten on Red Dwarf and hosted Scrapheap Challenge and currently does the odd presenting job, including his own chatshow and green car promoting - is attending next year.
This means I might be able to persuade my dad to come along.

Also of interest to Wellingtonians, The Dreamstress' talk 'From Pompeii to Paris' is having a redux at Massey on the 18th of November.

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I do think that if the media is government owned/funded, they do have the right to say what is acceptable to air and what requirements the media needs to fulfil. Like having a certain amount of locally produced programming for example.

However, I don't think cutting funding because they're a neutral news source or demanding unreasonable results is exactly the right way to go about owning something that is THE NATION'S NEW SOURCE IN TIMES OF EMERGENCY. *looks pointedly at the National government and their plans to cut funding to National radio*

Privately owned media companies do have the right to pretty much say what they want though, provided their Boards don't object. I do think however, that with that freedom, they should be as informative as possible. Not neutral, which applies to the government funded/owned media, but informative. (The Government funded/owned media somehow needs to be both informative AND neutral, but this is talking ideal here.)

Are there any situations where media should be censored... no. Absolutely not. Information is good, information should never be STRAINED of all particulates.

And for something entirely different and much more lighthearted – minus a completed webcomic about a girl who can talk to ghosts and do anything you can imagine.
I have also learnt that Sky's UKTV actually IS somewhat partially owned by the BBC. Which answers my general ponderance of why they're branding every BBC program so very throughly with 'BBC'. (The stuff you learn from TVTropes...)

This is just a link dump. No ratings or warnings given for fic, so please read the headers/click at your own risk.

( fanfictions (includes Torchwood, Doctor Who, Discworld, TRC, Harry Potter, Tortall series, xxxHOLiC, Naruto and/or crossovers of the above) )

( fun things (mostly online flash games, although there are a few odd ones out) )

(I will likely do another one of these sometime in the future. This was simply getting a little long.)

Firstly, have an actual link.
Yet another reason why kissing is good for you.
If science is not wrong and you are female and plan to have kids some time.

Then have some videos.

( First is Lil' Cthulu, which is absolutely adorable. And the thing I was talking about at Jenny's birthday. )

( Second is a really weird, but hilarious video on how to make a McNuggetini )

( Thirdly is... a remix of John Barrowman dancing set to Beyonce's 'Single Ladies'. About two thirds of the way through, there is something resembling an Irish dance step. )

In RL news, today/Monday I am front-of-housing. For dinner. *dies*
Also, never have a barbeque with twelve chefs. Too many chefs, while not spoiling the broth, does make it rather awkward as everyone wants to do something and actually knows how to do it, but there isn't enough things to do.

Firstly a goth goldfish plushie. I love the tail and obviously want to make a similar fishy. Except in bright colours.

Then there are brain cakes. Well, brain cupcakes, but you get the idea.

Cthulhu hat. Is epic.

And oh god, customising rubber ducks brings back so many memories.

The last of the deviantArt links is a Goldie plushie. I am seriously considering misusing my Tanpopo felt to make one of my own.



Now, onto the TVNZ rant.
When I was doing my little delve into what people were saying about TVNZ's pause of Torchwood over the summer, I found out that they had acquired this series called 'Primeval' as well. It vaguely rang a bell but I figured I had glimpsed it out of the corner of my eye while traipsing around fandom one day and wrote it off as something that probably aired on TV1 some time ago. Why else were fans angry at Torchwood being aired a year and a half after it had been acquired?
But it's only NOW it's playing on TV2. At 10:15, which is basically Torchwood's timeslot, if they aren't going to mess around with it with the new season.
Seriously TVNZ can you stop premiering shows you acquired TWO YEARS AFTER YOU GET THEM.

*tries to figure out which episode it is*
Oh, it's episode 1 of episode 2. And they have really small seasons, of which the third and last season only JUST stopped airing.
Okay, so not as big a yell at TVNZ, unless they are doing a run of the first and second season. IN WHICH CASE I'M YELLING AT YOU AGAIN.

And I'm not sure if it's because rips in time and space are in every other thing I read/watch, but it's kind of lame. Interesting but nothing to make a big deal about.
But if Torchwood does make its appearance after this run of it, that does mean there's only 6 weeks until it.

Not too many, but they are of varying geekiness.

How to make K9 from Doctor Who in Lego
There's also designs for the TARDIS and a Dalek there.

A Star Trek ship (I can't remember the names, ever) and made from random bits and pieces.

(From the same blog) Fixing sandals OR how to use a leather sewing awl

Felted animals! I'm pretty sure this guy has also posted his stuff on DeviantArt, but I can't be bothered checking.

Vampire cupcakes I just really want to try the cherry/vanilla flavour combination. Bonus vampire biscuits/cookies

I really wish this was a real product: Aerosol scents: book-lover style

Particles larger than galaxies

The perfect poached egg. Although I'm not sure about using glad wrap/cling film. That stuff is NASTY when heated.
The website that its hosted on also has a weekly newsletter filled with links and stuff.

And the link de resistance. An amazing site with not-so-serious experiments
Seriously, you've heard of nailing jelly to a wall and how impossible that is? Well, following on from this guy's experiments the people behind myscienceproject.org decided to follow it up. That experiment is here.
But what's of more interest, possibly, is the sucession of Jell-o/jelly shot experiments they did.
First is about how to increase the alcohol content without compromising structure or taste.
They try to up the results, which just ends up with them setting the shots on fire.
Then it's how to make the best tasting jelly cocktails, followed by a kind of footnote on blue flavoured jell-o/jelly shots.

I'm not too sure on the cocktails, but the chocolate/cherry confection they made looks really tasty.

Oh, I am filled with geeky love for the internet today. There are carved pumpkin Daleks, edible flying spaghetti monsters, pacman crackers, Pokemon pulsh patterns and Doctor dolls.

Strangely, the last one reminded me that for this week's Torchwood, near the end, when John said goodbye and scolded Capt. Jack, I spent a good while admiring shirt and waistcoat combination that Jack was wearing. Both the shirt and waistcoat were a nice shade of dark blue, enough so I almost didn't realise that there was a waistcoat, except the back was made of some shiny satin-like fabric and, after noticing that, I noticed the pocket watch chain hanging between buttons and pocket on the matte front.
(Despite watching Antiques Roadshow many times, I've never quite figured/remembered how they're supposed to be attached to one's clothing.)

I SHOULD retrieve fishy from my dad's office and finish it up and take plenty of photos. And decide what geeky thing I should make next. Aside from moar Tanpopo, Mokona and Mugetsu of course.
And damnit, all those geeky fathers and mothers make me want to have geeklets. It's all very well to use your crafting powers for evil yourself but... the geeky toy possibilities! (Also, this should also be covered in a book: Geeky toys you can make with or for your kids, just like 'Useful techniques in constructing cosplay and accessories'.