Gallimaufry

I know precisely why I'm in a crap mood today, and I know exactly how long it's going to last - until I find out what's wrong with the air conditioner and how much it's going to cost to fix. I loathe things being out of my control. Not too thrilled with dealing with the air conditioner in October either, but better to deal with the issue now rather than when the killing heat of summer returns.
ETA: He's coming Friday afternoon, so I'll be sogging in my temper all week. Sorry.

Shows
Warriors of Kudlak Pt 2 under cut: ( my squee is battered but unbroken )

Tommy Knight is now about two inches taller than Lis Sladen, and he hasn't really hit his growth spurt yet. There's no reason for me to find this hilarious, but I do. If he keeps this up, he's going to be looking down two feet to talk to his "mum" before the show's over.

Heroes: Nightmare man is utterly freakin' cool. HRG is about to have a run for his money as Chief Tricky Badass.

Links Around the F-List
humansrsuperior has a Master vid to "I Feel Good"
rhoboat was working on this vid in conjunction: a Doctor vid to "History Repeating" (a really excellent pair of songs for those two!)

The complete spoiler for Children in Need Special publicity photos (ETA: apparently this is locked to members of tennant_love; surprising, as they're all from news sources.)
BBC's page. If Magazine (popup warning) CBBC's.

naamah_darling has snarky and non-snarky lists of instructions for doctors. Good stuff, and she suggests people pull and edit for their own use.

And now to work, and calling the air conditioning guy and the lawn people to find out why I've been charged double.

(no subject)

skywardprodigal had this link: four articles on Black Beauty and White Beauty.

Read. Know that #3, "Black Beauty," is going to gut you.



(This reminds me - I'm going to have to suck up to my favorite reference librarian to find a very old Post article about the addition of slave characters and slavery storylines to Colonial Williamsburg, which led, among other things, to the only time that all the actors broke character in public to remind the crowd that they were actors, because the visitors were turning into a mob, which was turning on the slave catchers.)

ETA: And she comes through! In Williamsburg, the Painful Reality of Slavery

This edgy new representation of Colonial life casts costumed actors as slave leaders and slave owners while paying tourists find themselves in the roles of slaves.

The reenactments are so realistic that some audience members have attacked the white actors in the slave patrol, who have had to fight to keep their decorative muskets. And when some early performances drove young children to tears, Williamsburg added "debriefing" sessions afterward to help calm them.

One visitor even attempted to lead his own revolt against the slave handlers. "There are only three of them and a hundred of us!" he yelled. The actors had to step out of character to restrain him.

At an attraction that historically has appealed almost exclusively to whites, the skits have stoked particularly strong emotions among African Americans, some of whom welcome frank discussion of a topic often given short shrift, even as they and others are discomfited by repeated images of subjugation. Several black actors have refused to portray slaves because they find it demeaning and emotionally wrenching.

F-list roundup

seti_drd The letter of the Holiday Inn regarding a booking by members of the NPD (i.e. Neo Nazis). (This makes M uncomfortable, seeing it as the beginning of a slippery slope of discrimination. Me, I think it's brilliant.)

I need to give credit for this, but I don't know who first linked it. Urban Outfitters has handwarmers like the ones Rose wore in Doomsday They're acrylic, which I'm snotty about, and the wrong color for the episode, but other than that, Mrs. Lincoln... (Am I the only one whose elbows get cold before anything else?)

fyrdrakken has this link: AIDS Denialism and Vaccine Resistance
[T]his is the problem with public health efforts that work. When they work, they quickly become invisible. It's very hard to see prevention working: when it works, you don't see it. So it's easy for people to see things like immunization as pointless. They do happen for no apparent reason... "apparent" being the operative word. The reason is very good indeed, the reason is unassailably excellent -- but unless you've lived in a world without immunization, the reason isn't very apparent at all.

(This article also led me to the concept of the Galileo Fallacy: The thinking goes like this: "Great thinkers throughout history have had unpopular ideas that everyone disagreed with. I have an unpopular idea that everyone disagrees with. Therefore, I must be a great thinker.")

Fic Recs:
The Road to Yes Nine and the TARDIS, in the first episode of New Who.

"Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life."

The door clanged shut behind him and the Doctor nodded to himself, pleased when he heard the sound of muted running. There. That had been taken care of.

Time to blow something up.


With Her Own Wings Not everyone has the message that Martha has a new cell phone; the Doctor ends up taking some odd calls.

"What do you mean, who is this? Who are you?"

"Laetitia Jones, and in about thirty seconds I'm going to call the phone company and tell them my sister's mobile has been stolen."

"Tish! Nononononono, don't do that, it's me! It's the Doctor."

"Oh. Doctor... What, is Martha with you?"

"No, she's with you. On Earth, I mean, she just gave me her mobile."

"Oh...well, I hope you're giving her back part of the cost, if you're using her mobile to make calls from the Horsehead Nebula or wherever."

Say PleasePets are pets the world over... but it's a bit different when the one begging you for treats is a prehistoric monster, as Jack Harkness finds out.


Personal:

It is 10pm at night. It is 10 at night at the end of OCTOBER. It is 10pm at the end of October, and my windows are open. It is 10 at night at the end of October and my windows are open, and my house is still too hot.

No matter how often I say it, my brain refuses to accept the reality. I hear it's going to be in the 60s by the end of the week, just in time for the A/C guy to come by. (This is much like them coming on the hottest day of the summer to service the oil heater before winter. "Okay, crank it on high!")