Ramblings of a Joyful Girl

Doctor Who Viewing Order and FAQs

2011-05-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

People ask me about the viewing order for new Doctor Who all the time. I figured it would be easier to have this on my blog so I can link them easily and update the list as needed. I have also included a short section with responses to questions I frequently get asked by people new to the show. I do not in any way claim to be an expert on this. I just figured this would be helpful for new fans. If you notice any mistakes or have any questions let me in know in comments.

Doctor Who Series 1

Doctor Who Children in Need Special 2005

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2005: The Christmas Invasion

Doctor Who Series 2

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2006: Runaway Bride

Torchwood Season 1

Doctor Who Series 3

Doctor Who Children in Need Special 2007: Time Crash

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2007: Voyage of the Dammed

Sarah Jane Adventures Season 1

Torchwood Series 2

Doctor Who Series 4

Sarah Jane Adventures Season 2

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2008: The Next Doctor

Doctor Who Easter Special 2009: Planet of the Dead

Torchwood Season 3: Children of Earth

Sarah Jane Adventures Season 3

Doctor Who Special: Waters of Mars

Doctor Who Special Christmas 2009: End of Time Part 1

Doctor Who Special New Years Day 2010: End of Time Part 2

Doctor Who Series 5

Sarah Jane Adventures Season 4

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2010: A Christmas Carol

Doctor Who Comic Relief 2011 Specials: Space and Time

Doctor Who Series 6 Part 1 (Episodes 1 – 7)

Torchwood Season 4: Miracle Day

FAQs

Wow that’s a lot of shows. Do I really have to watch Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures?

No. You don’t need to watch Torchwood to understand Doctor Who or vice-versa, however, some details of plot lines will makes more sense if you do. Sarah Jane Adventures generally stands apart from Doctor Who and can be skipped. I would, however, recommend watching Season 3 Episodes 5/6 “The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith” and Season 4 Episode 5/6 “The Death of the Doctor” as they include guest appearances by the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, respectively.

Is Torchwood any good?

Personally, I only recommend watching Season 3 of Torchwood which is a five part mini series entitled “Children of Earth.” Season 4 is taking a similar format with a ten part story; hopefully it will be good as well.

Isn’t Sarah Jane Adventures a children's show? Is it any good?

Yes, Sarah Jane Adventures is specifically targeted at younger children. In general it’s a bit hit-and-miss. I generally use it to fill the space between seasons of Doctor Who.

What comes before “New Who?”

The Classic series aired from 1963 - 1989 and includes the adventures of the 1^st to 7^th Doctors. “Doctor Who: The TV Movie” aired in 1996 and deals with the 8^th Doctor.

Where should I start?

If you’re not sure if you are going to like the show or if you are introducing the show to a sceptical friend I suggest starting with Series 3 Episode 10 “Blink”.

In generally, however, I recommend starting with Series 5 Episode 1 “The Eleventh Hour.” This episode marks the beginning of a new Doctor, new companion, and new head writer. As a result it covers most of the basics. The “Eleventh Hour” gives you much more a feel for the current show than 2005 pilot “Rose” does. If you enjoy the Eleventh Hour and series 5, I would definitely recommend going back and watching series 1 to 4 and the various specials along the way.

I don’t really want to sit down and watch all of these. Can you just tell me what the really good episodes are?

Sure, check out my top ten episodes list here.

Love the show but are they any podcasts you’d recommend?

(Ok no one has ever asked me this but I always wanted to give an answer).

My favourite is Radio Free Skaro. I’ve also recently started listening to The Oddcast. There are a number of other Doctor Who podcasts, a directory of which can be found can be found here.

So This is the End -- BEDA #30

2011-04-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

So this is it. The last day of BEDA. End of the line. End of an era…OK that last one might be taking it too far.

As much as I griped and complained about doing BEDA on twitter I did overall enjoy the experience. I want to thank Noxy and Christina for helping me get though this. There were days when I really didn’t want to do it and I thought “Come on they did a post today so can you!”

I am going to continue blogging more often in May. I know Noxy is doing BALM or BAM (blog a lot in May) but I feel like I need more concrete guidelines or I’ll procrastinate and never actually get around posting. Right now I’m thinking I will blog at least twice weekly in May (BALTWM). I might set more specific guidelines for myself if I feel like that isn’t working.

I also wanted to address something brought up by Owlssayhooot's in a recent blog which came to my attention with Christina blogged about it. The basic premise of Kayley’s original blog was that things like BEDA are not good because encourage quality over quantity. Kayley does make some good points but the way I see it creativity and the drive to produce output is different for each person. I started this blog back in September of 2010 and in between then and the end of March I only posted two blogs. I even had other blogs that I had started drafting (my top ten episodes of Doctor Who for example) but they didn’t get posted till BEDA because I didn’t feel any urgency to posted them. Additionally, I face the problem of blog ideas and drafts becoming brain crack. In that you feel like you can constantly work on and improve them and you never actually end up posting them. Sure, the version of my top ten episodes of Doctor Who blog that was posted probably wasn’t the best one I could have written but BEDA forced me to post it and at least now it’s out there encouraging people to watch Doctor Who rather than sitting on my hard drive half finished.

Looking back I’d say I’m really proud of roughly a third of the blogs I posted this month. There are a lot of mediocre posts including a number of tags. There is only really one post I dislike. At the end of the day, for me personally anyway, I feel like the good posts outweigh the mediocre ones in terms of value.

There are, however, a few things I will enjoy about not having to stick to the rules of BEDA. Firstly, I will enjoy being able to write (but not necessarily post) more than one blog a day. I often find I’m more creative after I’ve written one post but during BEDA I tended not to start a second post because I wanted to stick to the “every day” part. Secondly, I will enjoy writing post at whatever time works best for me. While I really didn’t stick to the whole posting before midnight aspect I did feel the need during BEDA to post around midnight for the most part. Thirdly, I will enjoy being able to write a long post over multiple days.

I still have lots of topic that I came up with for BEDA and never used for a variety or reasons (including that horse story I keep talking about on twitter) so look forward to reading those in May. If there is anything specific you’d like to see me write about leave it in the comments.

And now for the last time the 30 Day Song Challenge

Day 30 - your favourite song at this time last year

All Caps – Can’t

Unicorns? Narwals! -- BEDA #29

2011-04-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

Today I asked twitter what I should blog about and Celine replied that I should write about unicorns.

First off here’s some hilarious comedy about unicorns.

So yes, unicorns are cool and all but you know what’s cooler? Narwhals!

Reasons:

a) They are adorable. Seriously, look at them

b) They are actually real.

c) Their “horn” isn’t even a horn it’s a giant tooth.

d) Narwhal sighting are believed to have started or at least reinforced the myth of unicorns. So all those unicorn stories you read as a child? You owe those to narwhals.

Fun facts:

1. When you Google “are u” the first suggestion is “Are unicorns real?”

2. When you Google “are n” the third suggestion is “Are Narwhals real?”

We need to get the word out people! Narwhals are real AND awesome. Tell your friends.

Next time someone stops you and asks you if you are Team Unicorn or Team Zombie tell them with pride that you are Team Narwhal!

30 Day Song Challenge

Day 29 - a song from your childhood
Doris Day - Que Sera Sera

Helping People Imagine You Complexly – BEDA 28

2011-04-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

My dad walked to the kitchen at 7am the yesterday to find me singing along to Ani Difranco’s Talk To Me Now. Though the song is one of my favourites it had gotten lost in the sea that is my itunes library and as a result I hadn’t heard it in months. Listening to a song like that especially one that that I played constantly for a long time a few years ago (in my case my first year of university) is like running into an old friend after a long time. I got carried away in the song the same way you would when reminiscing with an old friend and started singing along. I didn’t just mumbling the lyrics. I was all out singing the song with all of Ani’s inflections and swaying around the kitchen.

My dad seemed rather taken a back at first and asked me what I was doing. I realized that while I sing along to songs often, it’s a side of me he rarely if ever sees. The side of me that adores music, needs music, and defines myself though my favourite songs. I often get irritated when I feel that people not treating me fairly by simplifying me or not imagining me complexly. However, the fact of the matter, which I realized in my kitchen at 7am, is that if you want people to do this you have to be willing to show them your many sides.

30 Day Song Challenge

Day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty

I don’t have songs that make me feel guilty so I’m just going to give you another guilty pleasure song

Waking up in Vegas – Katy Perry

What is This Sleep You Speak of? -- BEDA #27

2011-04-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

Hello Folks,

I’m actually writing today’s a BEDA before 10pm today. That’s mostly because I’m doing another awakepolypse and I wanted to write this before my brain descends into a sleepless haze and refuses to form sentences. Though at this point I’ve been awake for around 22 hours straight so I can’t be certain this post will make sense to a person who has slept recently. Let me know in the comments.

I had something brilliant to say this morning but now my brain is just like “nope I’m not going to form complex sentences and write an interesting post till you have slept for at least 12 hours” so that blog post will have to wait till tomorrow.

In her song "Grey" Ani Difranco sings the lyric “Every time I blink I have a tiny dream” I always thought that lyric had some hidden meaning but now I’m convinced she was just really sleep deprived.

Ok I’m going to stop before I start stringing together random unrelated words. Better BEDA tomorrow, I promise. Unless you thought this post was amusing in which case I like you.

day 27 - a song that you wish you could play

Can I just say Ani Difranco's whole catalogue? Oh I have to pick one song, fine.

Ani Difranco -- If He Tries Anything

I Was Tagged – BEDA #26

2011-04-26T19:42:00.000-07:00

Just as I had today’s inevitable “Oh shit I haven’t written today’s BEDA” moment I clicked onto Noxy’s blog and discovered I was tagged. So here we go!

Random questions
1) Cheddar or Swiss?
Cheddar

2) Purple or Pink?
Purple

3) Skinnies or Boot-cuts?
Boot-cut

4) Converse or Vans?
Converse because that’s what the Tenth Doctor wore.

5)Sweet or Sour candy?
Sweet

6) Leopard print or zebra print?
ANIMAL PRINTS SHOULD NOT EXIST. Sorry for the yelling, I feel very strongly about this. Animal prints are UGLY.

7) Vegetables or Meat?
Vegetables. Unless you mean M.E.A.T.

8) Nook or Kindle E-reader?
Books. I’m not actually anti-E-readers I just don’t read enough to justify buying one

9) Mac or Microsoft?
Microsoft for computers.

10) Pepsi or Coke?
Wait they taste different?

Who's hotter?

1) Taylor Lautner or Robert Pattinson

I guess I found Robert Pattinson kind of attractive in his Harry Potter days. Taylor Lautner looks like a child.

2) Patrick Dempsey or James Marsden
James Marsden. I mean have you seen him recentally?

3) Paul Walker or Hayden Christensen
Oh come on now why would you put them in the same category? Fine, if I have to pick then Paul Walker.

4) Kellan Lutz or Channing Tatum

Channing Tatum

5) Tom Cruise or Christian Bale

Pass. Oh ok fine Christian Bale

6) Daniel Radcliffe or Tom Felton
Tom Felton because I have a personal rule that I’m not allowed to find Harry Potter attractive (Yes, AVPM was difficult for me)

7) Orlando Bloom or Justin Timberlake
Orlando Bloom

8) Leonardo DiCaprio or Chris Evans

Chris Evans

9) Shia LaBeouf or Jake Gyllenhaal

Jake Gyllenhall

10) Ryan Reynolds or Gerard Butler

Ryan Reynolds has great abs plus he was on Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place.

11) Bradley Cooper or George Clooney

Bradley Cooper is basically more attractive than anyone anywhere.

12) Harrison Ford or Patrick Swayze
Harrison Ford because he was kind of hot in the original Star Wars .

13) Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp

I have never understood the Brad Pitt fascination so Johnny Depp.

14) Zac Efron or Chace Crawford
Chace Crawford

15) Robert Downey Jr. or Hugh Jackman
Robert Downey Jr. I guess.

I'm tagging BEDAers and VEDAers everywhere.

30 Day Song Challenge

day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument

I haven’t played in years but given the sheet music I could probably play Beethoven’s Ode to Joy on the trumpet.

Haha got to love the Muppets. Ok here’s a proper version of what it’s supposed to sound like:

Star Wars Episode IV Review – BEDA #25

2011-04-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

The other day I rented and watched Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope for the first time. I thought I would use today’s BEDA post to give a quick review.

Story

I have seen a few spoofs of Star Wars and have been around long enough in science fiction circles to have most of the plot points of the movie spoiled for me. So much so that during the scene with Han and Greedo I thought to myself this must be the scene where Han shot first originally. The one thing that wasn’t spoiled for me was the return of Han during the final showdown and I’ll admit that got a cheer out of me when it happened.

In terms of the actual story I thought the front end of the movie was poorly paced and dragging in parts. If I had stumbled onto this movie on TV and not know the huge status that it has I probably would have switched channels about 30 minutes in. I am glad I kept watch though as the pacing and plot improved as the movie went on.

Visuals/Special effects

I am a big science fiction fan but I am also spoiled by the great CGI in newer shows and movies. Thus I was a little worried about whether or not I would like Star Wars on a purely visual basis. I was pleasantly surprised. There were only a couple of short scenes where the special effects were laughable. I thought the final show down between the rebels and the Base Star were done remarkably well. The battle was written and filmed in such a way that it was dynamic and complex without being confusing or repetitive. If I had to pick a favourite part of the movie that would be it.

Acting/ Characters

While overall the acting was decent, I was underwhelmed by Mark Hamill acting in the beginning particularly in response to the death of aunt and uncle and the destruction of his town.

In terms of characters I found Han and Leia the most interesting. I hope we learn more about Leia’s past in the next couple of movies. I am interested to learn how someone of royal decent who is a politician learned to fight. I don’t dislike Luke and I hope he is meant to grow on you as the story progresses with the other movies.

Overall I did enjoy the movie. I would give it 4 stars out of 5.

I am definitely going to watch episodes V and VI and perhaps the prequels as well.

30 Day Song Challenge

day 25 - a song that makes you laugh

Chameleon Circuit – Journey’s End

(Note this song does contain spoilers)

I always get a laugh out of the boys making fun of the ridiculous plot lines of the series 4 finale of Doctor Who. My favourite lines have to be “That doesn’t sound plausible!” and of course the chorus:

“He was pretty lucky that he kept his severed hand/
Though in terms of canon I do not quite understand/
What was Russell thinking? What the hell was going on?/
OK, fine, we're sorry, we'll get right back to the song”

Easter Traditions of a Non-Christian -- BEDA #24

2011-04-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

I was planning to make today’s BEDA a review of Star Wars episode IV but seeing as everyone else is talking about Easter thought I may as well bend to peer pressure and join in. That’s right kids the moral here is to bend to peer pressure.

Anyways, I’m not Christian. My family is Hindu and I was raised as such. However, we do live in a largely Christian country so we occasionally co-op the holidays. We never really co-opted Easter beyond the chocolate egg hunt tradition though and even that stopped once my sister and I got older. My real memories of Easter come from primary school. I went to a catholic school, not a run by nuns’ type of catholic school, just a public school that happened to be catholic. This was in the days before they secularized the school system in my town. Around Easter every year all the students from my school would take a short walk up the hill and attend a service. There we would sing songs and hymns about spring and Easter and watch performances. My parents never bothered signing me out of these trips to the church; they figured it was a good opportunity for me to learn about other religions. Being raised in a non Christian household my knowledge of Christianity at the age of ten was somewhat shaky. I knew the general jist of the story of the bible but not the details. The church at which we attended this service every year had a giant organ. The pipes of the organ took up the entire front wall of the church. The architecture of the church made appear as if there was some space behind these pipes and the exterior wall. During these long fieldtrips the other kids in my class decided it would be fun to mess with me. To be fair they were probably just bored, I hold no grudge. They managed to convince me that the body of Christ was placed behind the organ pipes. I remember thinking that this church was no more special that other churches in town and therefore the body of Christ must be in every Church behind the organ pipes. Ten year old Sue spent much of her time on these church trips pondering the physics of how the body of Christ could be in every church. I’m not sure when I figured out they were messing with me probably around the time that I properly read the story of Easter. These fieldtrips stopped once the school system became secularized. Nowadays my Easter traditions amount to buying discounted chocolate on Easter Monday.

30 Day Song Challenge

day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral

I really don't know so I'm going to go super unoriginal here

James Blunt – Goodbye My Lover

Survey -- BEDA #23

2011-04-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

The lovely Christina tagged me (after I nagged her) so here we go.

1. What is your favourite Kool-Aid flavor? The red one. Not sure if it’s strawberry or cherry.

2. Do you use a wireless keyboard and mouse. Nope, they drain battery life quickly.

3. Last sporting event you watch on TV or in person? Saw a bit of the hockey game in the restaurant my friend works in the other day. Was more excited by the Doctor Who commercial that airing during the game than the actual game though.

4. Who makes the best fudge? Not really a fan of fudge.

5. Do you like it when the toothpaste bubbles in your mouth? No.

6. Do you believe the world is going to end in 2012? No, I tend to go with John's Green's logic on this: "Always deny the apocalypse. You'll usually be right, and when you're wrong, no one will be left to say, 'I told you so' "

7. How many songs are on your iPod or MP3 player? 1567

8. Have you ever made your own survey? No.

9. Can you swear inside your house? I can but I don’t swear in front of people that don’t like it.

10. Do you save your Bed Bath and Beyond coupons? We don’t have one in my town.

11. Have you ever had a pet goldfish? Yes I had lots of fish growing up. I was rubbish at taking care of them.

12. When did you last eat waffles? Like two years, in other words way too long.

13. What is the most overrated thing in your opinion? The outdoors.

14. Do you have a video Skype account? Yes.

15. What color is your comforter? Grey.

30 Day Song Challenge

...Wow I really don't like a lot of romantic songs haha

The Mountain Goats -- Love, Love, Love

My Top 10 Favourite Doctor Who Stories-- BEDA #22

2011-04-22T19:23:00.000-07:00

In honour of the series 6 premiere of Doctor Who tomorrow I thought I’d share my top ten stories* of "new who" to date. These are ranked in no particular order mostly because it took me long enough to even come up with a top ten. Also, this post contains spoilers for the episodes mentioned.

2X04: The Girl in the Fireplace

The chemistry between David Tennant and Sophia Myles is possibly the best I have ever seen on screen. It’s enough to even make my Ten and Rose shipper heart melt. I also love the beautifully heartbreaking ending (You’ll see a trend as you read this list...apparently I love heartbreaking endings).

4X03: The Planet of the Ood

My favourite parts of Doctor Who is the futuristic time travel inhabited planets. Also I love anything to do with the various incarnations of the Great and Bountiful Human Empire. I love the idea that someday the human race will be out there spread among the stars. This episode combines all three loves.

Also, I adore the Ood. I have no idea why, I just do. Maybe it’s their peaceful nature maybe it’s their creatively designed faces.

5X05: The Beast Below

This is the episode that made me fall in love with Doctor Who. I began watching the series with The Eleventh Hour (5X01) and after watching that episode I quite enjoyed it but after watching The Beast Below I was hooked for life. A large potion of why I love this episode has to do with the nostalgia associated with this memory but the episode does hold up to rewatching, in my opinion.

3X10: Blink

Generally agreed upon by fans to be one of the shows best episodes and let me tell you it is not over hyped. This episode has it all a storyline that keeps you guessing, the scare factor, a likable main character and romance.

After seeing The Christmas Invasion and Love and Monsters I had given up hope on Doctor-light episodes being any good. It turns out that they can be quite good you just need a strong lead character to carry the episode, Sally Sparrow is that character.

5X10 Vincent and the Doctor

I went into this episode fully expecting to hate it. It’s set in the past on earth and is focused on a historical figure I’m not particularly interested in. However, the episode won me over with its character exploration and its beautiful cinematography.

2X12 / 2X13 The Army of Ghost/Doomsday

Dalek vs. Cybermen showdown. Lots of Ten/Rose moments and the most heart breaking ending in the history of the (new) show. What more can you ask for really?

Christmas Special 2010: A Christmas Carol

The Eleventh Doctor and Steven Moffat at their best. Timey Wimeyness dialed up to 11** and some of the best dialogue of the show. The number of quotable one-liners in this episode is ridiculous.

1X9/ 1X10 The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances

A creepy monster (it’s about time people acknowledge how creepy children can be haha), the introduction of Jack Freaking Harkness and an actual happy ending.

5X12 / 5X 13 The Pandorica Opens/ The Big Bang

A brilliant twist in the first part, ridiculous timey wimeyness in part two and River Song at making a Dalek beg for mercy. What more can you ask for?

4X9 Midnight

The scariest episode, in my opinion. Also, some of Tennant’s best acting.

Honourable mentions:

Boomtown

Silence in the Library/ Forests of the Dead

Human Nature/ Family of Blood

Turn Left

What's your top ten?

* A two parter still equals one story.

** Get it?

30 Day Song Challenge

day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad

The Stars -- Calendar Girl

Questions That Can’t Be Answered – BEDA #21

2011-04-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

When I was two years old my parents left India and immigrated to Canada. Their decision to move to Canada was the one that had the largest impact on my life. I love Canada, it’s my home and I’m glad they moved here. However, sometimes I can’t help but wonder what my life would be life if they had stay, who I would be. So much of who you are is affected by the people and experiences you are surrounded with while growing up. Aside from my family basically every person I have ever met and everything I have experienced would be different. I can guess a few things about myself that would be different. I wouldn’t go by Sue, I probably would have gone into a different field of study, I’d be able speak Marathi. But at a base level how much would my family staying in India have changed who I am as a person? Sometimes I wonder if I would like this “other possible Sue” and if she’d like me.

Moving on to questions that can be answered, Christina wanted to know what Kannada was. I figured it was best to post the answer on today’s blog as she was probably not the only one with that question. Kannada is a South Indian language spoken primarily in the state of Karnataka where both of my parents are from.

30 Day Song Challenge

day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy

I’ve recently discovered Molly Lewis and I’ve been listening to her music a lot when I’m happy.

Molly Lewis – My Hope

Five Facts Tag -- BEDA #20

2011-04-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

The basic idea of this tag is that you list five facts about yourself that the people reading your blog might not know.

I love olives and will basically eat them on anything, even cereal.
I can touch my nose with my tongue
I am bilingual. I can speak both Kannada and English. I also understand conversational Hindi.
I didn’t start wearing makeup till I was like 21.
I would love to one day take a train journey across Canada.

As always I tag everyone reading this that’s doing BEDA/VEDA.

30 Day Song Challenge

day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry

My Chemical Romance -- Welcome to the Black Parade

My Encounter with a Squirrel – BEDA 19

2011-04-19T20:13:00.000-07:00

A few years back my family and I went to Vancouver. While there we visited Stanley Park. In addition to having beautiful trees, scenery, and foliage, the park is home to some smaller animals like squirrels.

While taking nature shots of the park I spotted one of the squirrels and decided I wanted a close up. I approach the squirrel slowing figuring that if I got too close for the squirrel to be comfortable I would just run away.

The squirrel did not run. When it noticed me approaching it perked up and ran towards me.

That’s when my fight or flight response kicked in.

It’s important to note here a squirrel is only about 8 inches tall. Now while I’m only 5 foot 2 (on a good day) that’s still a hell of a lot bigger than a squirrel. However my brain was not thinking that. Nor was it thinking “aww how cute you should take your picture now”. No, my brain was thinking “HOLY SHIT A WIDE ANIMAL IS CHARGING TOWARDS YOU. GET OUT OF HERE NOW” …so I ran. I’ll admit I’m not proud of that.

..And that’s the story of how I ended up being chased by a squirrel.

30 Day Song Challenge

day 19 - a song from your favourite album

Alex Day – Not Just Yet

Listen to the whole album for free here.

Things That Should Exist -- BEDA 18

2011-04-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

A random list of some things that I think should exist:

1. Food in pill form. I love food as much as the next person but sometimes I just don’t have the time or patience to sit down and eat.

2. Something that stops you from overanalyzing thing. Or at least an Overanalyzes Anonymous

3. Homer Simpson’s makeup gun

4. Something non habit forming/terrible for you that that makes you fall asleep instantly

5. Cap-less internet on my computer

6. Something that jumps out and distracts you before you say something you’re going to regret

7. Insta-cure for pimples. And don’t say toothpaste that doesn’t work.

8. Jeans that make both your ass and torso look good.

9. Teleportation

What's on your list?

30 Day Song Challenge

day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio

Alex Day -- The World is Mine (I Don't Know Anything)

Google Verb Tag -- BEDA #17

2011-04-17T22:53:00.000-07:00

Today I'm doing the Google verb tag. Basically you type your name and a verb into Google and hopefully hilarity ensues. I tag all of you that are doing BEDA or VEDA

Sue needs to back to school to learn the basics of What Not to Wear (…ouch)

Sue looks like a pro. (Why thank you, I am a pro at everything)

Sue says she is about to turn how old? (Ok fine I’m old leave me alone)

Sue wants the Cheerios to go out with a bang! (This is the second answer in a row which has to do with Glee. I’m actually surprised there weren’t more)

Sue does NOT look like a bulldog!! (I concur)

Sue hates a man with curly hair! (But everyone I know with curly hair is awesome)

Sue asks people to sign up for volunteer shifts (Aw how nice of me)

Sue Likes Blue (HA that rhymes)

Sue wears slacks (No! Down with pants! No pants forever!)

Sue Eats Cake at an AJL meeting (Why is Cake capitalized? Did Margo Roth Spiegelman post this?)

Sue was arrested for exercising her 1st Amendment Rights to free speech during a Bush

rally (Can’t say I’ve ever been to a Bush rally)

Sue loves junk (Well I did write a BEDA post about my tendency to horde things)

30 Day Song Challenge

day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio?

Lady Gaga -- Born This Way

Doctor Who Event Recap -- BEDA #16

2011-04-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

Hello folks

I promised a Doctor Who event and mini meet up recap for today’s BEDA. Unfortunately, there’s not much to report. The event itself wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought it would be a lot of huge fans but it seemed like it was mostly people on their lunch break from the Sci Fi convention looking for something to do. When I tried to make conversation by bringing up theories about series 6 the person I was talking to didn’t remember the name of the current companion. While that aspect was disappointing, I did enjoy watching Doctor Who with a crowd. They aired Blink and I’d forgotten how funny it is. I always find shows and movies funnier when watching them in a crowd. There were also a few people dressed up. My favourite was this kid around the age of 10 who was dressed up as the tenth doctor with the long coat and all.

The nerdfighter mini meet up itself didn’t end up happening. I’m not sure what happened. The girls I was meeting are still in university and it is the middle of final exams so they probably couldn’t take time off from studying or something. Hopefully we’ll plan a proper nerdfighter meet up in the summer.

30 Day Song Challenge

day 15 - a song that describes you

I think I went over this in an earlier BEDA post

Ani Difranco – Joyful Girl

day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate

Clay Akien – No More Sad Song

I was a big fan of Clay back when he was on American Idol. My friend got me his album for Christmas back in 2003 when it came out. I liked it as first but I can’t stand any of the songs on it anymore.

Half Way Done -- BEDA #15

2011-04-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

Hello folks!

Today has been a much better day than yesterday. My best friend of over a decade is back in town for her break from medical school so I got to catch up with her. Also two events that I thought were going to fall through are going ahead. One of those being the Doctor Who event I mentioned in an earlier post. The whovian nerdfighters in my town have planned a mini meet up during the event so that should be fun. This is the first time I’m meeting nerdfighters IRL that I haven’t introduced to nerdfighteria myself. I am a little nervous about not being able to recognize them because I have a terrible memory for faces but hopefully my Ester bracelet will be enough for them to recognize me. Tomorrows BEDA will hopefully be a recap of the event and mini gathering.

In other news it's April 15th which means I'm half way done BEDA without missing day!

30 Day Song Challenge

day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure

Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA

Do I really have to explain why this is guilty pleasure?

day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love

The Game – Hate or Love it

I’m generally not a fan or rap but you got to love a song about the underdog making it big.

One of those days -- BEDA 14

2011-04-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

Today’s been one of those days. It can best be summed up my the Norah Jones lyric

“If it were any other day,
This wouldn't get the best of me.”

Actually the whole song pretty much sums up my day

I listened to some music and watched some TV to get out of own head so I’m feeling a bit better. Today’s BEDA is going to be short but tomorrow will hopefully be a better day and a better BEDA.

30 Day Song Challenge

day 11 - a song from your favourite band

I tend to prefer single artists rather than bands. If I had to pick a favourite band I’d have to say ALL CAPS.

ALL CAPS – Summer of ‘09

day 12 - a song from a band you hate

I don’t really hate any bands but umm here’s some Nickelback

Nickelback – If Everyone Cared

Today I learned -- BEDA #13

2011-04-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

Today I learned

- If I try to get up after only 4 hours of sleep my head will feel like it’s going to explode.

- That I cannot draw a horse in MS Paint and when I try it looks like half great dame half horse crossbreeds.

- My computer hates Skype (or rather that Skype hates me since it would not work correctly on either computer).

- Skype calls where people can see and not hear you can get confusing fast.

- Catching up with old friends I great even if its right before they come home.

- Sometimes its better to not over think things. Sometimes people surprise you.

- That some people don’t want to go into space. These people are crazy.

- Some questions are better left unanswered.

- That my friend Swathi may be reading this blog now. Which I now realize is going to make that blog I planned to write about her awkward. (It was only good things I swear).

- I am terrible at planning things.

- That the majority of people have an above average number of legs.

- I sometimes dance like Liz Lemon.

- That there are only two days left till my first Doctor Who event and I am very excited.

- That if I don’t start writing my BEDA post before midnight my readers end of having to read annoying “Today I learned lists.”

30 Day Song Challenge:

day 09 - a song that you can dance to

O-Zone Despre Tine

I dare you to listen to this song and not dance. (The actual song starts about 40 seconds in)

day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep

The Hush Sound -- You Are the Moon (Ten points to anything that can find me this song on itunes)

Election Debates and Song Challenges -- BEDA 12

2011-04-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

I was planning to write today’s BEDA about the English language leader’s debate that happened today in Canada but I’m finding I don’t have much to say. While I’m not sure what the actual ratings were for the debate in terms of number of viewers it was nice to see Canadians on twitter getting involved and paying attention. The hashtag #db8 was treading in Canada for the entire debate only behind the promoted trending topic. It was also trending worldwide for part of the debate.

Also kudos to CBC for making the debate as accessible as possible by also streaming it online and airing it on the radio.

Alright I’m going to keep this short because I have four questions to answer in the 30 day song challenge today since I forgot to do two yesterday. I may fail at 30 day challenges but I won’t fail at BEDA!

day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone

Angel by The Corrs reminds me of my friend Bethany who passed away a few years ago.

day 06 - a song that reminds you of somewhere

Closing Time by Semisonic reminds me of high school as it was one of our graduating songs.

day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event

The Middle by Jimmy Eat World reminds me of my stats final during my first year of university. Strange I know, but hear me out. I was very nervous about this exam like ridiculously nervous. I hadn’t been doing that well in the course all term but had managed to learn and study most of the concepts before the exam with the help of my dad (who teaches stats). I got there early for the exam and ridiculously nervous, the kind of nervous that makes you mess up even when you know the material. So instead of spending the last bit of time before the exam looking over my notes I put on my headphones and played this song on repeat for and listened to it for what must have been like 15 times before we were called into the room to write the exam. I ended up doing fairly well in the course considering and I partially have this song to thank.

day 08 - a song that you know all the words to

I know the words to a lot of songs…like almost all the over 1500 songs in my library and more that have burrowed themselves into my head from overplay on the radio. What can I say I’m a big lyrics person and I love to sing along to music. So I decided to hit random on my ipod till I came across a song I know all the words to as predicted it didn’t take long. So you get to listen to Why Georgia by John Mayer.

Top 10 Reasons I’m Nerd (in no particular order)* -- BEDA 11

2011-04-11T19:59:00.000-07:00

1. I love science fiction.

2. I watched election coverage as a 3 year old, no really. I could not even pronounce Liberal* (I said Lib-lul) but I watched election coverage.

3. I follow politics like most people follow sports. The thing I was most excited about when I turned 18 was being able to vote.

4. I have a degree in economics. I don’t know if you’ve ever sat though an economics course it is really nerdy.

5. I went to grad school. My personal theory is that everyone who goes to grad school is a nerd.

6. I was in the school band for 6 years and I wasn’t even that good. My friends and I would say we were in band for the social benefits, yes the social benefits.

7. I own a lapel pin which is contains was made from the original copper roof of the Canadian Parliament Buildings. Whenever people compliment me on it I always excitedly tell how the pin is made from part of the Parliament Building then they look at me weirdly. (If you’re curious as to what it looks like it’s the one labelled F here http://www2.parl.gc.ca/sites/lop/boutique/Product-e.asp?ItemId=836&Catid=66)

8. Doctor Who is one of my favourite things in the world.

9. John Green is my hero.

10. Hoo Ha Nerdfighters

*Idea for this blog borrowed from/ blatantly stolen from allydances. Check her out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q4aBgsZgaA

**As in the Liberal Party of Canada for you Yanks

(Sorry again for the weird formatting Word 2007 and Blogger are still not playing nice with each other again)

Minority Report -- BEDA #10

2011-04-10T22:30:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to this belated edition of BEDA.

I literally haven’t had time to write today till now and as I mentioned earlier since I’m going with the “if it’s posted before I go to sleep it still counts” rule that I made up so this post still counts.

Anyways, I watched Minority Report today. It was quite enjoyable. For those of you that haven’t seen it it’s a science fiction thriller set in the not too distance future in which there exists a Department of Pre-crime. The Pre-crime department is able to see crimes before they occur and work to prevent them from happening. I don’t want to say to much more and give it away but I’d definitely recommend seeing it. My only complaint was that given the technology in the film it didn’t seem like it was set far enough in the future. Overall I’d give it a 5/5.

On to the next installments of the 30 Day song challenge

day 03 - A song that makes you happy.

Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd

What can I say? This song just makes me want to dance every time I hear it! Side note it’s the only song I can play well on Rock Band drums.

day 04 - A song that makes you sad.

Christmas Shoes by Newsong

There seems to be a Christmas theme to my answers so far in this challenge haha. The reason I picked this one is that I can rarely ever make it though the song without crying.

Spring Cleaning -- BEDA #9

2011-04-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

I devoted the majority of today to a major spring cleanup. I’m generally not a fan of cleaning. I basically try to the minimum amount necessary.

But today I was all like

Artwork by: Hyperbole and a Half*

So I put my ipod on shuffle and spend about three and a half hours straight cleaning everything in sight (well in sight inside my bedroom). Today's massive cleaning session confirmed that I'm a bit of a pack rat. Not in an "keeping old used pizza boxes" way but in an “I might need the notes from that one stats course I did in 2006.” I did, however, managed to purge most of my old notes. I also hold on to a lot of things for sentimental value, everything from old birthday cards and letters to old trinkets like the doll I made in 3^rd grade. I am curious to know dear blog readers do you tend to hold on to things for too long like I do or are you a normal sane person?

On Noxy’s advice I’m going to do the 30 Day Song Challenge everyday for the rest of BEDA and double up on questions until I catch up so here we go.

1. Your favourite song.

One song? One favourite song? Getting me to just pick one is like making a parent pick their favourite child you know! Fine! if I had to pick I’d say Tangled Up in Blue by Bob Dylan. I love the story telling aspect of the song and the lyrics are beautiful.

I could only find one version on youtube from a live performance. It’s not quite the same as the album version that I have. Some of the lyrics in this version are altered and he switches back and forth between 3^rd and first person in this version (the album version is all first person). I’d still encourage you to listen to it though and get your hands on the album version if you can.

2. Your least favourite song.

This one was hard to come up with. I’m going to go with Last Christmas**.

I have been annoyed with this song since I was a kid. The lyrics make no sense

“Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day, You gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special”

I remember as a child being like “dude I’m sure you thought the girl last Christmas was special too and that didn’t save you from tears then.” I’m not saying he should just be alone instead of trying to find someone else it’s just the way the lyrics are worded, they’re not particularly strong.

* If you haven’t heard of Hyperbole and a Half you should definitely check it out. It’s one of the funniest things on the internet. The image I used here is from one of my favourite post “This is Why I’ll Never Be An Adult”

** I only learned that thing song was originally by Wham while searching for a link. I always though it was just one of those songs like Santa Baby that’s been around forever.

Miss-Mash – BEDA #8

2011-04-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Hello folks

I had a couple of good ideas for BEDA today but neither of them panned out. The first idea was along the lines of my “the story of how I broke my arm at camp and hid it” blog. The problem with this idea is that a) blogs of that nature tend to talk a fairly long amount of time to write and hone and it’s now ten to midnight and b) I haven’t quite figured out how to draw a horse in Paint yet. The second idea was to watch the original Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope) and review it from the point of view of a science fiction fan who has never seen Star Wars. Unfortunately, Blockbuster didn’t have any copies of Episode IV on the self today so that idea will have to wait as well.

Christina in her BEDA post wanted to know how we felt about the new Youtube Live. I caught most of John’s* liveshow I have to say I was impressed with the quality both in terms of picture and sound. I did have a problem with the chat though. Unlike blogtv or Ustream the chat wasn’t broken into a main room and smaller rooms even though there were a large number of people watching. As a result the chat was scrolling far to fast for either the person doing the livestream or viewers to keep up with. As someone who met the a lot her nerdfighter friends in a livestream I prefer smaller rooms where you can chat and have an actual conversation with other viewer. Also as far as I could tell there are no mods for the Youtube Live chat which creates a problem of spam. However I should keep in mine that these are still early days for this new Youtube Live function. Hopefully they will address problems with the chat as time goes on.

Before BEDA started Noxy sent me a link with this 30 days song challenge suggesting we do it as a part of BEDA. When I saw the link and the questions I liked the idea but alas, as you may have figured out on your own by now, I am an idiot. I thought “hey that a good idea for one BEDA post”… as om one giant post where I would answer all 30 questions. Apparently I didn’t get the 30 day part of the 30 day challenge. Like I said, I’m an idiot. Anyways I clued in once I saw Noxy’s BEDA posts but I was still attached to the idea saying it for one BEDA post where I talked about nothing but that mostly because I am/was terrified of running out of BEDA idea. Now it occurs to me that that post would be rather long and uninformative as I would likely not go into detail about my answers if I had 30 questions to answer in one post. So I’m leaving it up to you guys. What would you rather see me start answer one question at the end of each BEDA post or read one massive post later in the month? The third option is that I break the post up into 3 or more posts allowing me to go into some detail about each answer. So let me know what you prefer in the comments. If you prefer I make my own damn decisions you can let me know that too.

Also, I have a correction to make to an earlier BEDA post. After going back and reviewing some old vlogbrothers videos I realized that the first video I saw was not John’s 2009 birthday video but in fact was the video right after in which John responds to his birthday video entitled The Gift of Gary Busey. Which when you think about it is a hilarious and poignant first video to watch. The initial reactions and first impression of nerdfighteria that I talk about in the original post are still accurate.

Alright that’s enough of a mish-mash of ideas to serve as a decently long BEDA post for today so I’m going to leave it there. I'll see** you folks tomorrow.

*Cause clearly we’re on a first name basis haha. but really you all know who I’m talking about here.

**Or as Hank would say I won’t see you and you won’t see me but you’ll read (?) me tomorrow…? Ok fine maybe that saying doesn’t work as well in blog form.

P.S. Sorry about the weird formatting in this post. I'm working off an older version of Word on someone else's computer and it's doesn't seem to want to play nice with blogger.

Tag You're It! -- BEDA #7

2011-04-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

I have temporally lost access to my file of potential BEDA topics so today you get a tag game modified from its original vlog tag format. I tag all of my fellow BEDA-ers in crime.

1. Name a book you would take on a long flight? The next book in the Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire.
2. What is your guilty pleasure? America’s Next Top Model
3. Name three characters from any book, you wish you could be friends with? Bridget Jones, Luna Lovegood, Finnik Odair.

4. What's your shoes size? 7/8
5. If you could write your own book, name the title, and a brief synopsis. Nerds (in your pants): The true story of Nerdfighting, youtube and world suck.
6. What's your favourite flavor of ice cream? Old fashion vanilla
7. What book are you currently reading? Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
8. Best YA series you've ever read? The Hunger Games (though that is also the only YA series I’ve ever read)
9. What is your best physical attribute? My eyes.
10. Do you like manga or comics, if so name your favourite series? Nope.
11. Do you sleep on your side or your stomach? Side.
12. Favourite book mark? I’ve misplaced it at the moment but I have a Harry Potter one which my sister gave me which is designed to look like the parchment the DA members signed in OoTP
13. What song are you currently listening in your Ipod? The entire Norah Jones catologe , Rosie’s Lullaby is currently playing.
14. Worst summer job you've ever had? I once worked part time cataloguing books for a library his was building in Africa. It was basically hours of entering data by myself in my employers basement.

15. What's your favourite band, or type of music? My favourite artist is Ani Difranco. For type of music I’d have to go with Ani’s folk-y style, also anything with an acoustic guitar.

Also I keep forgetting to add this in. My friend Luke wrote a great Friday parody about VEDA be sure to check it out: ttp://www.youtube.com/user/w1zzwizzurd#p/u/2/n4EzEqIqLNU

How I first discovered HP – BEDA #6

2011-04-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

I’m having a bit of a bad day combined with some BEDA burnout but the lovely Christina was kind enough to give me a topic today so I will soldier on. So the story of how I first discovered Harry Potter is not that interesting, I saw some news coverage of either the 3^rd of 4^th book release and decided I wanted to read the series but the part that comes next is kind of interesting. My parents didn't want me read the books. I should mention here that I was only about 10 or 11 at the time. At the time my dad’s argument against me reading the books was something along the lines that there had to be a reason for the books to be that popular and that reason was that the books actually taught spells. To which I responded in disbelief “Dad, do you think magic is real?” In retrospect I doubt he thought that magic was real, he probably just thought that reading the books would get me interested in the world of the occult which would lead me down a bad path, or something. So I didn't read the books for a few years. Finally, the first movie came out. My sister and I hatched a plan to take my parents to go see the movie. It worked, while I don’t think my parents particularly enjoyed the movie they did get the message that Harry Potter was harmless. After that they were fine with me reading the books, hell they even spotted me some money to buy the later books when I was an unemployed high school student. The rest as they say is history.

Sorry for the rambling post. I’ll pull it together for tomorrow. I have some interesting blogs planned so I hope you’ll stick with me. As always I'd love to read your Harry Potter discovery stories either in the comments or on your own blog.

Question Tuesday -- BEDA #5

2011-04-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

Thought I’d do something a little more laid back today after yesterday’s mammoth post. Seriously, I have written essays shorter than that post. So considering today is Tuesday I decided to go with a Question Tuesday type deal except in blog form meaning there won’t be any jump cuts, sorry. If you really want jump cuts you can blink repeatedly while reading this post.

The questions were collected from Twitter. If you missed the call for questions and want me to answer your questions leave them in the comments and I’ll do another one of these later. God knows I’ll probably run out of ideas before the 31^st.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 years/10 years?

A: I combined these two into one question because I honestly don’t know where I’ll be in 1 year. In the grand scheme of things I’d like to be living somewhere other than my hometown, working in job that I enjoy and most importantly be happy.

Q: What do you look for in a guy?

A: Funny. Nerdy. Smart. Educated.

Q: Favourite book?

A: It’s so hard to pick just one! I have a bunch of favourites (that I will not list here and save for a future BEDA post when I run out of idea. If I had to pick just one though I’d have to say Paper Towns.

Q: Advice for 16 year old you?

Be nicer to people, especially her. She just wants to be your friend. You’re friends are not going to ditch you for her, relax.

Don’t feel like you have to pick sides when your friends break up. You don’t, and you will regret it if you do.

Enjoy all your time with Beth.

Be nicer to your parents. They are wonderful people.

Be more open to making new friends.

You will get over him.

Do something with your damn hair, woman.

Have more fun.

Q: What should my next vlog be about? (This comes from Christina)

A: How awesome I am and your summer plans. Also you should probably mention that you’re doing BEDA.

Q: When are you coming to Houston?

A: I thought we agreed to meet in New York on some over pass Christina?

Q: How is the job hunt going?

A: ...It’s going.

Q: When are you going to start making videos?

A: When I discover a magical pill that makes me less awkward.

Q: Design your own question.

A: That’s not a question. Questions have question marks at the end. Ok fine I’ll do it. What is your favourite joke? Two muffins are in an oven. One muffin says “Wow it’s hot in here” and the other muffin replies “Holy crap! A talking muffin!” That joke was told to me by someone who was trying to tell me how lame of a sense of humour their sister had. I thought it was hilarious.

The Story of How I broke My Arm When I Was 9 and Hid it for An Entire Weekend, or I Used To Be A Badass -- BEDA #4

2011-04-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

When I was younger I was in Brownies (which is what you go into before you are old enough for Girl Guides*). In Brownies we had weekly meeting, learned skills which would get us badges and once or twice a year we’d go on a weekend camping retreat. We called it camping but there were no tents, we all slept indoor is one giant cabin because really who wants to deal with a bunch of primary schoolers setting up tents.

Now for this story to make sense you should know that my parents were rather overprotective. I generally wasn’t allowed to go to many sleepovers unless my parents were close with my friend’s parents and I never got to go to any other sleep away camp other than that glorious weekend Brownie camp once or twice a year. Naturally 9 year old Sue super excited for these weekends. They were an entire weekend of campfires, skits, and best of all, no parents to look forward to. When it came time for camp I excitedly packed up my weekend bag and air mattress. Actually in retrospect considering I was 9 and not particularly responsible (as this story will prove) I probably just danced around with excitement while my parents packed for me. I (My parents) also made sure to pack lots of Mr. Noodle’s packets. I was the only vegetarian kid attending camp and I would get the cooks to make me Mr. Noodles every time they were serving meat. In retrospect, I am a bit concerned that my parents were fine with me surviving off basically just Mr. Noodles, smores and toast for an entire weekend. Of course 9 year old me didn’t care, 9 year old me was too excited about camp to care also I rather liked Mr. Noodles and wasn’t at an age where I questioned the nutritional value of my food.

When it came time to leave for camp we all packed into the car along with my clothing/ Mr. Noodles bag and my inflatable mattress and made the one hour trek to the place where camp was being held. Once we arrived my parents inflated my mattress and got me settled in and then left. I was FREE at last! I ran around talking to my friends and doing all the things that 9 year olds do.

And that’s when it happened.

High on my freedom I decided to skip rope with my friend. We were doing that thing that kids do where two people jump the same rope at a time. Now it should be said that 9 year old Sue, much like adult Sue, was a klutz. We ended up getting tangled in each other’s legs and falling. When I fell I managed to land with all my weight on my left arm and since I was the one skipping behind, my arm ended up taking not only my weight but also that of my friend who landed on me. With my arm hurting a lot I decided to sit out the next few rounds of skip rope figuring my arm would stop hurting eventually.

I didn’t.

In fact, later that night while during a fire drill and while running back into the building one girl tripped and fell over. This caused the girl behind her to trip, and the one behind her, and so on. In the end we basically ended up have a 10 kid pile up. In our defence, it was dark out so we couldn’t see that other kids that had fallen already. When I inevitably tripped up on the pile of girls on the ground my body’s defence mechanisms kicked in and my arms automatically reached out so to protect me from falling face first into the gravel. I ended up falling with my weight on my arm again. Once our troop leaders got us untangled and got us all inside my arm really hurt like hell (or heck, as I would have said in those days).

Now this is where we really distinguish the thought processes of adult Sue from 9 year old Sue. Adult Sue tends to over react to injuries and is a bit of a whiny bitch when it comes to these things. For example, just today I cut my hand on the inside of a can while cooking and my thought process went a little something like this:

If adult Sue had hurt her arm as badly as 9 year old Sue had she would have whiney about it to anyone that would listen and demand to be taken to the hospital, or at least to given some painkillers and ice.

But 9 year old Sue’s mind didn’t work like that. 9 year old Sue was focused on camp. She realized that if she told anyone about her arm, or if anyone caught on her parents would be called and she would be sent home, missing the rest of camp. It went down a little something like this:

My arm hurt like hell the entire weekend. I remember I couldn’t even sleep that night because of the pain. I just lay on my inflatable mattress looking out the window waiting for daylight. But my mind was made up. I loved camp. I wanted to stay at camp and I actually managed to avert detection all weekend**. I did, however, manage to bang my arm another time before the end of the weekend.

When my parents finally arrived to pick me up after camp on Sunday I told them about my arm and they immediately drove me to the ER at the local children’s hospital. All the while lecturing me about calling them when I hurt myself. At the ER I was informed I had chipped a piece of bone off of my arm and was fitted with a cast which I had to wear for a few weeks. Every time someone saw my cast and asked me what had happened I’d get to tell them the story of how I broke my arm at camp and hid it for the entire weekend. And every time I felt like a badass.

Surprisingly, I was allowed to go to go to subsequent weekend Brownie camps after the incident but I was required to call home every night and check in so my parents would be sure I wasn’t hiding more injuries.

*Girl Guides is similar to Girl Scouts if you are unfamiliar.

** It should be noted here that it wasn’t a clean break so the arm wasn’t dangling at an awkward angle. This would explain why the adults leading the camp didn’t notice.

My Username Explained – BEDA #3

2011-04-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

I’m always curious to hear the stories behind other peoples usernames so today I’m going to make you sit through mine...actually I can’t make you as I have no control over your computers. If you want to hear the story keep reading otherwise feel free to wander over to the other areas of the internet you frequent.

Most of you know I go by joyfulgirl42 most places on the internet (expect youtube because they don’t allow you to change you username *rant rant rant* ... right moving on). We’ll start with the 42 first. I mostly just use it because straight up words and phrases tend to be taken on most websites. Most of you know it is a reference to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. In the book 42 is the answer to the great question of life, the universe, and everything. I mostly just chose it because I don’t like picking random numbers and I didn’t really want to splash my birth year all over the internet. The part of the username that is actually significant is joyfulgirl. This is a reference to the Ani Difranco song Joyful Girl. I feel like this song simultaneously represents the person I wish to be and the person I currently am.

Lyrics:

I do it for the joy it brings

because I’m a joyful girl

because the world owes me nothing

and we owe each other the world

I do it because it's the least I can do

I do it because I learned it from you

and I do it just because I want to

because I want to

everything I do is judged

and they mostly get it wrong

but oh well

'cuz the bathroom mirror has not budged

and the woman who lives there can tell

the truth from the stuff that they say

and she looks me in the eye

and says would you prefer the easy way

no, well o.k. then

don't cry

I wonder if everything I do

I do instead

of something I want to do more

the question fills my head

I know there's no grand plan here

this is just the way it goes

when everything else seems unclear

I guess at least I know

I do it for the joy it brings

because I'm a joyful girl

because the world owes me nothing

and we owe each other the world

I do it because it's the least I can do

I do it because I learned it from you

and I do it just because I want to

because I want to

How I Became a Nerdfighter – BEDA #2*

2011-04-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

Seeing as I’m only doing BEDA because I was introduced to the idea by fellow nerdfighters I thought it only fair that one of my first BEDA posts should be about how I stumbled onto this wonderful thing know as nerdfighteria. In October of 2009 youtube spotlighted (or maybe featured) a vlogbrothers video, it was one of John’s birthday videos. I had heard of John from his career as an author. I’d actually been meaning to borrow Paper Town from the library for some time but it was always taken out or on hold. Since the first vlogbrothers video I ever watched was all about John I assumed that the channel was just a gathering place for John’s fan club**. It’s been a while but I’m pretty sure the first time I saw the video I though “oh this guy Hank must be the president of his fan club or something”***. I proceeded to check out the channel starting with John’s video about Presidential last words. I've always been a huge politics nerd**** so I kind of just fell in love with the channel and haven’t looked back since. I did eventually work out that nerdfighteria was more than just John’s fan club, that John and Hank are brothers, and that Hank is awesome in his own right. I managed to watch all the videos on the channel at the time in about two months though me being me I didn't watch them in order so I’m not positive I saw them all. I still hope that someday I’ll stumble onto a super old video I haven’t seen.

I'd love to hear about all of your nerdfighteria discovery stories either in the comments below or in your own blog post and as they say in my hometown DFTBA.

* I was repeatedly delayed while trying to write and post this. I haven’t gone to bed yet so I’m still counting this as my post for the 2nd, expect another post tomorrow. Also it’s still the 2^nd somewhere (most of North America)

** Sorry Hank

*** Sorry again Hank

**** More BEDA posts on that later

EDIT: I forgot to mention two more of my friends have decided to do this whole BEDA deal. Show 'em some love:
Margo: http://wrockingawesome.blogspot.com/
Emily: http://justanothercrashlanding.wordpress.com/

It’s BEDA Bitches! (#1)

2011-04-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

Yes you read that right I am going to be doing BEDA (that’s blog everyday in April for those of you uninitiated). You may say to yourself “but Sue you’ve only ever blogged twice how do you expect to blog every single day in April?” I don’t deny that fact of the fact that I will most likely fail but I will try dammit! I have a roughly sketched out list of topics and that will hopefully stop my blogs from turning into something like “today I ate an apple.”

I’m currently on job hunt and those of you who have been unemployed in this job market know that some days when you can’t find any jobs to apply to or don’t have any applications due you start to feel a bit useless. I figure doing BEDA will at least give me something to show for every day in April. Huh...that was supposed to sound less depressing haha. Anyways, here’s a list of some BEDA/VEDA blogs/ channels I’ll be following if you want to check them out. If you know of more I’d enjoy leave them in the comments.

BEDA

Noxy http://msnoxy.blogspot.com/

Christina http://christinarockstheworld.blogspot.com

Keshara http://kesharab.blogspot.com/

Alan Lastufka/Distro http://alanlastufka.com/blog/

VEDA

Luke Merren http://www.youtube.com/w1zzwizzurd

Luke Conard http://www.youtube.com/lukeconard2

Jason Munday (!) http://www.youtube.com/moreJason

Alex Carpenter http://www.youtube.com/ AlexCarpenterTwo

See you all tomorrow, same BEDA place, same BEDA time (...actually the time will probably vary)

Rereading Harry Potter

2010-09-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

I am starting to re-reading Harry Potter for the first time ever. I figured it would be interesting to blog about my thoughts about each book and the series in general right now so that I could compare it to my views after the re-read.

To give you some context here I read the first four books right after one another almost 10 years ago when I was about 13. As for books 5, 6, and 7, I read them as they were released. The movies have also coloured by memory of the books to an extent, ie. I remember movie Luna better than book Luna

If you haven’t figured it on your own by now *SPOILER ALERT*

SS and COS

I’m going to group these together because I don’t have much to say about either one. I’m not particularly fond of either of them and am mostly rereading them for completeness. I always thought of these as the most “children’s” books of the series. This may be because when I read them at 13 I was older than the characters. Yes one or two years isn’t a big difference but at 13 you feel a lot older than 11. After seeing AVPM I’m defiantly going to miss the lack of Quirll and Voldemort scenes. Rereading COS knowing that the diary is a horcrux will defiantly be interesting.

POA

I have nothing in particular to say about this book, I remember generally enjoying it. It was my favourite until I read GOF.

GOF

I am particularly excited to reread this one as it is my favourite of the series. I just love the tri-wizard tournament and the show down with Voldemort. One scene I’m particularly looking forward to rereading is the Yule Ball. I adore the Yule Ball, it is one of my favourite scenes of the entire series. I think that as a 13 year old I really identified with Hermione here and wanted that “Cinderella moment.”

Another one of my favourite scenes happens in this book. It’s the showdown between Harry and Voldemort when the ghost of people Voldemort have killed including Harry’s parents come out of his wand.

OoTP

This was my least favourite book of the series and I am not looking forward to the reread. I don’t understand the purpose of this book nothing of any consequence happens other than the fact that Sirius dies. I don’t get the point of the prophesy but maybe that’s because I assumed from the first book that Harry would have to be the one to kill Voldemort. Also Harry is very emo in this book, VERY EMO. CAPSLOCK!Harry, if you will. I understand that his reaction to Cedric’s death at the end of book 4 is very justifiable but having to read 700 odd pages of Harry’s internal emo thoughts just got annoying. I’m probably going to get some backlash on this but I actually preferred movie 5 to book 5 simply because the movie takes you away from Harry’s internal monologue. Also I hate Umbridge.

Book 5 does have one scene that I am looking forward to reading, however. I’m fairly certain this is in book 5 correct me if I’m wrong. It is the scene where the trio see Neville visiting his parents at St. Margo’s and we learn their back story.

HBP

I don’t remember a lot of book 6 (seriously I had to look up what a horcrux was when I started reading book 7) but I do remember general liking it. Reading about Snape killing Dumbledore now that we know he is good will be interesting. There was also a whole thing that played into the end DH with Draco trying to steal Dumbledore’s wand that I really don’t remember so it’ll be good to re-read that.

Seeing as I read this book only 3 years ago I’m fairly certain I remember most of the major plot points but I think reading the previous books right before reading this book will really help not just with the aforementioned points of the elder wand and horcruxes but also with knowing who more minor characters are and actually remembering their back story. While I did really enjoy book 7 there were also large parts which were also parts I didn’t like so much.

Looking forward to

- The walk through the forest

- Hermonie telling Harry about what she’d done to her parents. Hands down the most emotional moment of the entire series for me.

- Snape’s entire back story chapter (Still? Always.)

- The Hermione and Ron kiss (I’m a shipper at heart)

No looking forward to

- What seemed like the never ending camping. Seriously that shit gets boring after a while

- Harry and Lupin’s fight. I just remember reading it and thinking “I don’t care, there are more important things to deal with than this”

- Harry’s whole distraught-ness over Dumbledore’s dark past. Again this was something that I felt was just taking up space, it had happened like a 100 years ago, Dumbledore had proven himself in the last 100 years and there were more important things to deal with.

General comments

- I’m looking forward to reading book version of Ginny (As opposed to what exactly? It’s not like I can read movie version of Ginny. Work brain, work! It’s 4am as I type this). I feel like the movies have never gotten her character right

- Basically every Snape scene will be interesting to reread based on what we learn about him in book 7.

- I expect to react to certain things differently this time around, particularly with respect to the grieving scenes - My book ordering from favourite to least favourite as it stand right now pre-reread is 4,7,6,3,1,2,5. It’ll be interesting to see if this changes.

Now please excuse me while I go listen to Goin' Back to Hogwarts from AVPM...

Questions for the comments: Have you ever reread the entire series? If not (or even if so) care to join me on my reread? What were your favourite and least favourite parts of the series?

A Very Meta Blog Post (Like AVPM...except not...and worse)

2010-09-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

Oh my God I finally did it I started a blog! I was seriously starting to think this was going to be a brain crack* idea forever, but here I am. I suppose I should introduce myself but if I don't know who you are and you found this blog I am duly impressed. My name is Sue, I'm 23 years old and from Canada. I am also huge nerd. I sure you'll learn more about me as this blog goes along.

Right now the general plan for this blog is for it to be a combination of current events, beauty and general nerdiness. I have a couple of specific entries planed (I've even started writing one!) but I am very open to suggestion so leave topics you'd like to see me write about in the comments. I actually had a list of potential ideas at one point but I can't seem to find it now. If I do I will post it for your feedback.

I feel like this blog post was not that exciting so I will leave you with a video of Mike Lambardo and Jason Munday attempting to do a duet and hilariously failing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ZlQGy8smU

Cheers!

*For more info on brain crack check out Hank's video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeqlCTACUA0 or ZeFrank's video http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/07/071106.html