Factual Friday...

Okay, okay, it's a day late. But what'ya gonna do? Today's theme is, of course...Doctor Who. What? You thought I was going to say Easter? Okay, okay, I'll do an Easter one tomorrow.

1. The first episode was shown on November 23rd, 1963
2. It originally ran for 26 seasons before it was dropped.
3. The reason why the TARDIS is stuck as a police box is because the chameleon circuit is broken. Donna Noble, in the episode Journey's End, revealed that the circuit can be fixed (by hotwiring the fragment links with the binary...)
4. The TARDIS's windows are actually the wrong size for a police box. This is mentioned in the episode Blink.
5. The Doctor is approximately 906 years old.
6. The Daleks were introduced in December 1963
7. The Doctor and his companions were 'responsible' for a lot of works of literature. Donna Noble gave Agatha Christie the idea for Miss Marple and Murder on the Orient Express, and the Doctor gave Shakespeare the name of a (never seen) character in The Tempest, Sycorax, as well as famous lines of his works such as 'The play's a thing'.

It is less than seven hours now until the big moment!

Egg on my face...

I've been upset with Rachael recently. It has to be said. Apparently, on the rating thing at the bottom of my posts, she has been clicking on 'cool' for some of them, instead of 'epic'. I notice that some of my readers (mentioning no names) haven't been rating. I'm going to assume that is because they forgot or didn't notice it, not because they've been sparing my feelings.

I told Rachael that if she ever voted one of my posts as 'okay' or less she'd be dumped. In a contest between her and my blog, well, I've had this blog a lot longer than I've been going out with Rachael.

However, you may rate this post 'fail', because of my attempt at making a papier-mâché Easter egg. I've also written about it in my other blog, so if you see this story elsewhere, you're not going crazy. Well, you read my blog, so it's a bit late for that.

Basically, I did the papier-mâché around the balloon thing and hung it out to dry over night. Unfortunately, the balloon shrunk while it was drying and the paper got damp as it was outside so it warped. So this is the end result.I think I should offer it as a free give away. Alternatively, for a free give away that is offering something aesthetically pleasing go to Dreaming of the Country.

In the News...

Recently I've had an obsession with the British Museum. I don't know why, I just have. I can tell you that it was founded by Sir Hans Sloane who donated all his curiosities to the government, as long as they gave his children a sum of money in return. It wasn't until recently (1997) that the British Library was a part of, and indeed housed within, the museum.


Yesterday the museum was in the news. Thirty-nine medieval relics were discovered there yesterday. They had actually been in the museum since 1902, but they were inside a German portable altar. It wasn't until yesterday, one hundred and eight years later, did someone think to open it and look inside. There they found alleged remains of John the Baptist, various disciples and Mary Magdalene, among others.

Other antiques were in the press yesterday, but of a somewhat different nature. They were eighteenth century items that were sold for £3,600 in an auction. What were they? Sex toys. They were probably French, which isn't a surprise, really.

Telling me how to speak

I like to think I have a decent grasp of the English language. I can use both formal and informal speech, appropriately changing my modes and styles for different situations. This is why I hate it when people tell me how to speak.

Somebody rebuked me for saying "me and Stephen" about a certain situation. I was not writing an essay, I was not speaking to the Queen, I was not giving a Nobel Prize acceptance speech (only one of which I have done: guess which), therefore formal language was not required. I am full aware of the difference between subjective pronouns and objective pronouns and can utilise them both effectively. So, in short, if you correct me I will think you are patronising me. And being patronised is something that I take great umbrage with.

Some people have certain bugbears with usages of words. 'Random', 'epic', 'fail' are to name a few. I like this words and use them frequently. Just because people use different words than you doesn't make it wrong. One individual announced their dislike for the use of the word 'times' (for instance, when someone says "good times", or "bad times"). I think they have Dickens to blame for that.
Do not oppress me with me with your semantic elitism. If the vernacular was good enough for Chaucer, it is good enough for me.

Factual Friday

I haven't blogged in a while. I know, I know. That makes me a bad person. If there was a list of bad people, I'd be on there somewhere between Gengis Khan and King Herod. So I'm going to make it up to you. I don't know how but I will.

One way is to start a 'Factual Friday'. That is where, once a week, I write about some random thing. It can be of a theme of your choosing. It could be on something topical. But I will write it. Hold me to it. Nag me. Throw bananas at me if you want to. I don't know why you would, but whatever floats your boat.

This week I'm going to talk about monkeys. Why, you may ask? Because I am going to a zoo tomorrow and I've been really excited about seeing the monkeys. There are 264 known species of monkeys in the world, and they can range from the pygmy marmoset, which is only 14-16cm long and weighs an impressive 140g; to the Madrill that are nearly 1m long and weigh in at 35kg.

Famous monkeys include Katie, who played Marcel in Friends, the various monkeys that have gone into space (including Gordo who sadly lost his life), and the famous Three Wise Monkeys.