Adventures await

Hi.

I know, it’s been a long while.  How’s everyone?

Me, well, I’m two weeks into my summer vacation, and I admit to enjoying a few extremely lazy days lately. 

However, here’s the big news, are you ready?  In four days I get on a plane to visit England for two and a half weeks!!!  I’ve been planning the trip for the better part of a year now, and have been actively counting down the days since February.  Now it’s finally here, and I’m nearly ready to crawl out of my skin with excitement!  I’ve never been out of the US before. I’ve always wanted to visit England, as do most of my friends, given the number of them who’ve begged to stow-away in my suitcase the past few weeks.  There’s the Flashing Blade podcast picnic on the 2nd of July, where I’ll get to actually meet many of the people with whom I’ve only tweeted or Skyped or Facebooked or such [my inner grammar nerd is really rebelling at turning all of those words into verbs, but as I’m on vacation, I shall tell her to shush].  Incredibly looking forward to seeing friends in person!

And, most importantly of all, I’ll have over two weeks together with my fella. You know, on the same continent, which will make a nice change.  Yes, *blush* as pretty much everyone knows by now, my co-host Dave and I are a couple.  Have been for quite awhile now.  I can see the knowing grins of our PDAIS listeners from here.  Yeah, you were right, guys 😉  Though we’ve tried to be a bit discreet, as long-distance is hard enough without everyone watching, I suspect this will come as a surprise to no one at the picnic… or on the twitters. 

We’ve got such adventures planned!  In addition to the picnic, there’ll be Shakespearean theater [Tennant and Tate in “Much Ado About Nothing”!], touristy wanderings, the Doctor Who Experience, and all kinds of wonderfulness.  Hence the update here on the blog.  I’m going to try to write down some of my England adventures– partially so I don’t forget how marvelous they all were amid the whirlwind of what I know will be a blazing fast two weeks, and partially to let my friends enjoy vicariously, the second best thing to stowing away.  Our goal is to do a few podcast discussions together and put those up on the PDAIS feed, so these might act as a supplement to those as well.  Anyway, adventures await!

to make your Friday more fun

Hi… um…. it’s been awhile.  again. 

So… since December… what’s been going on? 

We’ve just finished our Spring Break– which was the first Spring Break (since what, 1996?) I’ve not spent with my family.   My mom came to visit at the beginning and the end of the week, though, and it was really nice to see her.  Becoming adult friends with my mother is a great joy, really.

Most of my creative energies these days are going into preparations and recordings of our podcast, Professor Dave’s Ark in Space– PDAIS, for short– http://profdais.libsyn.com  My co-hosts (our team has grown to 5 people now:

Professor Dave, Doctor Thomas, Viki the Vixen, International Sensation Danielle, and me!).  I so much enjoy our discussions!  I’m earning my comic book nerd card at the moment, as Doctor Thomas introduces me to graphic novels.  In this latest one, we talked all about the Asterix books.  I now understand the reference in the Eddie Izzard routine about Mister Dog.  🙂 

Oh! Oh!  And I really want to tell you about, though, are tongue-in-cheek radio serial episodes Our newest escapade is our PDAIS Presents: http://pdaispresents.libsyn.com/  Right now we’re Superheroes.  Doctor Thomas writes our scripts.  If you laugh even just half as much as we do while reading and recording them…

Work-wise, well, it gets intense this time of year. A mixture of calm and relaxed days (like today) and really difficult and frustrating days (like yesterday). I’d tell you some of the shenanigans, but you wouldn’t believe me!  [Here’s just a snippet.  I had to say the words, “‘He threw it at me first’ is not an acceptable reason for throwing books across the room.” And that was before 9am in the morning. Le sigh.]  Three weeks until our big state test, so the pressures to make the kids perform is ramped up to 11.   I’m up to my ears in grading most of the time.  Starbucks becomes a bit of a second home, as massive amounts of solo venti peppermint java chip frappachinos are required to deal with the hundreds of weekly journals. 

Personally, well… let’s just say that I’ve got a really wonderful fella and am silly happy.  *blush* 

Also (and not unrelated to the previous point), I’m planning a trip this summer [end of June/ early July] to London, England– actually finally bought my airline tickets this week, which left me dancing about the living room with excitement and glee! 

Well, that’s about that.  I’ve updated my Library Bag links along the side, and after tomorrow’s library trip I’ll try to remember to update them again.  Tonight, I’m curling up with the new Carrie Bebris book.    I’d like to blog about the Kat Atkinson novel, as it had quite a few interesting points.  Oh… and in a few months I might have a really cool short story collection by a fantastic to review for you.  I should also blog about ‘Blue Box Boy’ by Matthew Waterhouse, as that was pretty special too.

Right. Calling it a night, ya’ll.

The Lizard– a slam poem

As heard on the latest PDAIS podcast (episode 17), my contribution to our Slam Poetry segment.  Enjoy!

If you’d like to hear me perform it, here’s the link: http://profdave.libsyn.com/pdais-017

The Lizard

by Lillibet

Absurd.

Clearly.

but–

‘More scared of you than you are of them.’

Not likely.

 

Stella, nose pointed, tail poised, legs primed for action

Nudges the blinds, opening…revealing

 

A hole in the screen, too tempting for this fine fellow, fatal mistake

There in the corner he wriggles— squirmed his way from predator to prey

I hesitate

She pounces

He flees

The chase is on!

 

Advantage Stella, sharp senses, whiskers, clever paws, tail to twitch

Me—with my weaker weapons, plastic cups and panic,

Both of us hoping to capture

He, in desperation, dodging under the desk, diving

From kindness and cruelty

 

A capture!  Triumphal procession to the living room.

A release! 

Not emperor’s mercy but a tyrant queen’s humor

A game to her

Run, little fellow, run

Me, stricken in two minds: save the doomed one,

and please God don’t let it run across my feet!

Too late– 

Again

Again

 

Then sudden…. Success!  Offering the panicked one

Ok… the other panicked one…

An alternative to paws and claws and jaws

Look, a nice cup.

Clapping the other atop it—no climbing out, please…. Please

Rushing out to the garden

Toppling the fellow over the fence—safety maybe in the ferns

 

Back inside

Throwing out the cups—I know I’ll never be able to use them again.

Stella, sadly, tracing where the games had been

Longing for bygones.

apologies

Hi, folks–

I’m completely chagrined to see that it’s been since April– (April!!)– since I posted anything here.  Summer’s nearly over, and I miss blogging, but as the podcast has just taken off in an amazing way, along with other very nice things as well, so this has kind of slipped through my fingers. 

I’m updating my book lists here today, and I’m going to try to post up at least one thing a week for awhile, to get back into practice.  It should help a bit that we’ve started doing a book discussion group called Ark Between the Covers as a tangent with the podcast [check out the Facebook group HERE].  We’re beginning with Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” in honor of its anniversary.  I’ve never read it (I know?! right?), so this should be interesting.

I’m also in the middle of reading  Birthmarks by Sarah Dunant (a good Brit detective story recommended and lent to me by a friend), Tangerine by Edward Bloor (previewing, as it’s the novel we’ll read as part of our new curriculum this year), and Blue Box Boy by Matthew Waterhouse (an autographed copy! a kind gift, and a really good read, especially for any classic Who fans).

While I get myself sorted out and organized over here, go and cheer on Lulumankiller at Life Under A Rock, as she does a really cool Read-a-Thon this weekend.  We loves her!

an update on the little ol’ podcast

Hi everyone–

It’s been an incredibly long time since I’ve written a proper post, but work is rather overwhelming.  Let’s be honest, extremely overwhelming.  However, the last time we talked, I mentioned that I have started co-hosting a podcast project called “Professor Dave’s Ark in Space.”  We just released our 4th episode (we’re a fortnightly podcast).  If you’re interested, here’s our RSS feed: http://www.profdave.libsyn.com/rss .  We’re also on iTunes. 

Personally, I’ve been blown away by how quickly this little ol’ podcast [which is basically about what we love about humanity, with frequent distractions into random geekitude] has caught on.  We went live only 8 weeks ago, and we’ve already had over 200 downloads of our first episode!  I’m flabbergasted!  I figured that our listeners would be us and a few of our friends who would humor us for the first few episodes.  Instead, our listener base and our Facebook group are growing and growing!

So, thanks very much to you all who have come and listened.  I can’t tell you how pleased it has made me that you like being part of Dave’s and my fun.  If you haven’t yet listened, please give it a try and let me know what you think.  Our e-mail is profdais@hotmail.com or you can leave a comment below.

p.s. There’ll be a new book review very soon.  I promise.  I’ve just started the sequel to “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie,” and I’m looking forward to telling ya’ll about it.

I’m officially a podcaster!

I’m very very excited because today marks my official debut out there in the vast world of podcasting.  We’re on iTunes and everything!  Our little show, called Professor Dave’s Ark in Space, is Dave and I having a discussion about what elements of our culture mark the best and the worst of humanity, and generally having a great time while we’re at it. 

If you feel inclined to give us a listen, here are the links:

iTunes–   http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/professor-daves-ark-in-space/id359160686

libsyn– http://www.profdave.libsyn.com/rss

If you love it, we also have a facebook group– just search for Professor Dave’s Ark in Space.

Enjoy!

a new project for a new year

I’ve been dropping hints over the past few months about my new year’s project, and now I’m ready to let ya’ll into the secret…

 

I’m going to be co-hosting a podcast with Professor Dave (a regular contributer to “The Flashing Blade” podcast).  We hope to have our first episode out somewhere in the middle of Feburary the first of March, and I’ve very excited!

Our premise is that the Mayans were right: our world is going to end, and so we have to prepare an Ark to carry all of elements, people, and places of our society that we need to save.  We want to show what’s best about humanity, as well as what shows us as we really are.  It’ll be a bit like that old “desert island” game.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to strike a nice balance between the silly and the serious.

So, who wants to play?  Dave and I want listener feedback to become a vital part of the podcast.  If you’ve got something that has to be saved in the Ark (music, movies, television, pop culture, people, places, anything really) tell us what you would save and why.  We’ll use as many as we can in our discussions.

Come and join us on our Facebook group or leave a comment below.

Thanks to all of you in advance!

A toast to Who fandom

Today marks the 46th anniversary of Doctor Who’s premiere on British television, so I thought I’d chronicle for you my introduction into its fandom. 

Though I’ve watched Doctor Who on and off for many years, and I was completely excited when it came back on Sci-Fi Channel, I wasn’t involved in any fandom activities at all.  In fact, I didn’t know there WAS a Doctor Who fandom, really.  The only people I knew who liked it were my siblings and my mom.  My biggest exposure to other people liking the show was during pledge breaks on PBS during Sci-Fi Saturday Nights on WXEL back in the day.

The 4th Doctor was my Doctor.

Buying my ipod last autumn really marked my entry into a huge world that I never knew was there.  While I was discovering podcasts of radio shows I liked, I stumbled across The Whocast.  They were the entry drug.  The discovery that not only were there other people out there who knew about and liked Doctor Who, but there were A Lot of them, was pretty astonding.    After listening to the back catalog of Whocast, I found that I most enjoyed the episodes with Tony, so I then back-tracked to Staggering Stories, and then on their recommendations, over to Tin Dog Podcast and Radio Free Skaro.  I was introduced to Big Finish.  I was now well and truely hooked.  Now The Flashing Blade, The Minute Doctor Who podcast, the Two-Minute Timelord, and Bridging the Rift make the regular rounds on my itunes each week.  There are many, many more people all over the world who contribute their own unique talents and perspectives to the discussion– and how awesome is that!

The really great thing about learning about Doctor Who fandom is finding that it was composed of groups of intelligent, erudite, and entertaining people who use their mutual understanding of the show’s 46 years to frame discussions about literature, art, philosophy, morality, history,  politics, and more [If you ask them, they will deny this, but it is true]. 

Sooner or later, of course, I wanted to be a part of the discussion.  I sent in feedback and began writing my own episode reviews,  and that’s when I learned another important part of this fandom– it’s collaborative.   This isn’t some clique of uber-fans who set themselves high above the plebs– far from it.  They actively encourage more people to come to the party and to play on their playground, and they embrace new fans and old alike.  It’s this inclusive joy that makes being a fan fun. 

  I worked up the bravery last weekend to attend my first real fan-event– a Hurricane Who viewing party of “Waters of Mars” over in Orlando.  I had a fantastic time, and much like the fans I’d met on the podcasts, the people were intelligent, fun, and welcoming.  It was a wonderful experience.

So, today on Doctor Who’s anniversary, I raise a glass to the fans– Thanks for being fan-tastic!

 

 

I’ve got a lot of listening to do

First off– you guys rock!  I haven’t had this many views in one day for ages.  So, thank you all very much, and please come back and play soon!  (and leave comments so I know who you are, please.  I would like to visit your blogs, too.)

Secondly,  I have 4 new Doctor Who-esque podcasts to listen to now: Staggering Stories, Flashing Blade, Radio Free Skaro, Tin Dog.  I love you guys, but everyone comes out on a Sunday!  I end up listening to you all at once, and then having nothing but old ones all of the rest of the week.  Yes, I know I should pace myself, but it’s not going to happen.

Third, I have just realized that I never reviewed the third recently-released Torchwood radio play, so I think that will be the next one up to bat (or, perhaps, the brilliance that is “Jeeves and Wooster”).  Which ever I choose, you all have some treats coming!

this is my ipod. i love him.

sorry for the delay…

Hi, everyone–

Sorry I haven’t put up any posts recently.  I was having a lovely long weekend with my family.  🙂

Going up tomorrow will FINALLY be the second part of my commentary of Robots of Death.

In the meantime, go and enjoy the many anniversaries of the Doctor Who podcasts.  

They are lovely!

 

50– Staggering Stories

 

 

 

150- Radio Free Skaro

 

 

 

100- Tin Dog Podcast

 

 

 

7- Flashing Blade