Quick review:

I just came back from seeing STID. Without spoiling: Benedict Cumberbatch is a great actor. He has the range to portray villains: nasty villains, noble villains, tragic villains. He could be Sherlock Holmes, the Doctor, Moriarity, the Master, or Richard III. But he's not the villain for this film.

That, plus plot holes you could fly a starship through, and physics that suits the needs of the moment. I've been a Star Trek fan since 1965, and there was too much fan service even for me.

So only two photon torpedoes at best, and that's as a simple disconnect-brain action flick. This is not Star Trek.

I've had some medical problems recently. As a result, I've only got partial vision in my left eye.

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It's been a couple of years since I last posted about my fantasy role-playing game, Argothald. That game has been a part of my life for about 35 years, including a 20-year hiatus. If I'm to use this blog to document what's important to me, I should check in on Argothald once in a while.

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This year we had five at the seder. This is about what I expected, since Erev Pesach fell on a Monday night.

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I wasn't feeling well. I probably shouldn't have gone. But was I feeling a powerful case of cabin fever, and it was a chance to get another interview for the biography. So I went to Lunacon. this past Saturday.

I'm glad I did, though I paid for it the next day. To my pleasant surprise, it was better for me than last year. I interviewed Leslie Fish (though I forgot to ask her how good a singer Isaac really was); later I attended a filk sing for the first time in over 20 years.

I also did my usual share of gaming: Do Move Say (a great game for a large group of kids or kids-at-heart); Chez Geek (I was the second-best slacker); Munchkin Zombies.

And, as usual, I spent too much money on stuff.

One thing I noticed about this year's Lunacon is that the costuming was better than it had been in years. I don't know what brought about the reversal, but this year the costumers really "brought it" in terms of quality of both costumes and ideas. Brava and bravo! I may amend this post later with a few pictures.

Alas, no Werewolves of Miller's Hollow for me this year. I was feeling poorly at about 9PM, and I knew that if I tried to join that game I'd be there until at least midnight. Maybe next year!

Many of my friends are just getting into Doctor Who. This poses a problem for those of them who want become Doctor Who geeks. The newer series, started in 2005, makes frequent references to events and characters in the "classic" Doctor Who series that ran from 1963 to 1989.

Depending on how you count them, there are 157 serials in "20th-century" Doctor Who (it seems so strange to say that). Each serial typically ran between 4-6 half-hour episodes, which works out to roughly 400 hours; it's actually less than that, since many early serials were destroyed. That's a lot of time to invest on geekery, especially since some of those serials are pretty awful.

To ease my friends' entry into Doctor Who geekdom, I offer my list of the key episodes in the saga of the earlier series. Since the quality of the serial often does not correlate with its significance in the development of Doctor Who, I offer a rating of one to four stars for quality, along with the reason why I feel the serial is worth watching.

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This is my name in Gallifreyan, as translated by this program.



There's a "simplified" guide here.

Now you have something to look for as you watch episodes of Doctor Who.

My thanks to crave and YOZcreative for the links.

After many months of health challenges, I'm finally up to the point where I can think about working on Isaac's biography again.

The current challenge is the interviews. I've already blogged about the number of interviews I'd like to do. Another issue has come up: releases.

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Today I received my copy of Deborah Lipp's memoirs, Merry Meet Again. Full disclosure: Deborah was one of my teachers, and we visit each other for rituals, tabletop games, etc.

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My father's birthday is coming up, and he'd like to get himself a new phone. I'm doing the research to recommend a phone for him. I could use some advice. Here are the requirements:
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