Lazy Sunday Afternoon... 'bout time

After a huge, grumpy weekend of work and extra driving around and crap, I'm finally getting a nice, relaxed Sunday afternoon and evening where I can literally get loads of projects off the ground, and do some new entries to my blog.

First up is, of course, my excitement that we'll soon have some brand-new Doctor Who on our screens, with an unparalleled location-shoot in the United States. Many questions will be answered this year, including what the Voice of Silence is really all about and the true nature of Dr./Prof. River Song. Rumor has it that no classic monsters will be part of this season, although the scenes of the Doctor holding what clearly is a Cybermat in a scene in a upcoming episode may have put the lie to that.

The Pacers are preparing to play in just a few minutes against the Knicks at home, and it's been a long, long time since I've felt any kind of excitement about the Pacers. Coach Frank Vogel has elevated what was one of the worst teams in the NBA into a real contender in the playoffs. I've no real illusions about how far they will go in the first round, as they're up against the Bulls, No. 1 in the Eastern Conference, but I saw them beat the Atlanta Hawks for the first time in years the other night, and beat them with impunity. They've laid waste to the Celtics twice this year, so who the heck knows?

Here are the saddest words I'll hear this year on television: "Next week, on the season finale of Justified..."

Back with more later!

It can only go up from here...

Never, ever have I had a week that was as full of darkness as this past week. Deena's stepdad, Gene, passed away after a long illness, my brother Kenny had exploratory surgery for heart disease, Wisconsin public workers lost collective bargaining rights thanks to Republicans totally trashing the First Amendment and Democrats too wimpy to stand up to them in person, the Pacers have been knocked out of the playoff rankings by half a game, the Middle East is a war zone (even more than usual), and, oh, yeah, Tokyo looks like Godzilla and all his buddies from Monster Island had a hoedown.

Is there any way to put a positive spin on any of this?

Well, let's start from the top:

Deena's mom, Donna, has had a really rough time of it all. I got a first hand look at what she had to go through just to get Gene ready to go to dialysis three times a week. It was tough enough to get Gene situated from the house to the adjoining garage and into the car when he still had one good leg and his prosthetic. Just before he passed, Gene's good leg went septic and had to amputated, which placed him in a deep depression which he sadly never recovered from. And I can only imagine in my worst nightmares what managing Gene would be for Donna. I'm quite certain it would have killed her.

So, as tragic as Gene's death has been for the entire family, I think it has been a blessing for everyone involved. Gene is forever free of the pain and misery he has endured for years, and Donna's burden is now off her shoulders. She's even contemplating a trip to Florida for a couple of weeks to visit her son Kent and his wife Rosie and their kids Kent, Jr. and Kiki in Boca Raton. I think now she can finally have a long and deliberate period of fun. More than about time.

The surgery on Kenny went very well and revealed no irregularities in his heart. Which does not mean he can continue smoking and eating crappy McDonalds and Wendy's food. So I can only hope that this is Kenny's wake-up call to make healthier choices.

After a six game losing streak, the Pacers had a great away victory over the Knicks last night, and maybe this is a re-direction to get us back in playoff contention. Tyler Hansborough may be the diamond in the rough.

As for Wisconsin, the Middle East, and Tokyo... not a whole lot of ideas on that.

Yet.

Current Events (where the hell is "Mark and Dee"?)

Just wanted to update you on stuff going on here at the Dooley Lair. And yeah, I know I'm amazingly late with the continuing adventures of Mickey in England in "Mark and Dee", but know that that storyline will be continuing very soon. I really have to devote some time to scanning, coloring, and lettering each strip, and with my work schedule being what it is, I only have so much time from when I get home to when Morphius calls... and of recent, I've been hitting the hay as early as 8:30 PM. So I have to pick and choose what I can accomplish in that time.

One of the things I have finished out during the weekend is one of several Doctor Who videoes I plan on producing for the July InConJunction. This one is called "For Love of the Doctor", featuring clips of the many near-romances of the Doctor, with everyone from Jo Grant to the enigmatic River Song, and set to the tune of a very popular song of last year. It will make its debut at the March Whoosier Network meeting on the 4th.

So far, the new Buick is performing magnificently, though it still hasn't been given a full baptism of fire by taking it up to Indianapolis. That may happen this Friday when Dee and I hit the Cinemark 8 to catch up on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I. It's been almost ten years since we took in a movie there and it should not only be a good night at the movies, but also a true test of Electra's endurance.

Yeah, we named the car Electra. Bite me.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN???!!!!

After far too long a time with nothing but the previous MARK AND DEE comics filling in for me, I'm back to my full powers of observation and making up goofy s#!t.

InConJunction July 2nd-4th was once again a huge success for the Whoosier Network, with a much bigger room this time and perfect audio and visual equipment thanks to or good friend James Robinson from Cincinnati. His contributions, and those of Stephen Kendall, gave everyone a chance to see this season's Doctor Who on a big screen and surround sound.

I, of course, precided and hosted over the room for the 49-hour marathon of the 31st Season, classic Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sarah Jane Adventures, and other cool extras we scrounged up, making me Who Fandom's Jerry Lewis... especially at the end when I was looking and feeling pretty scraggily. But the final two episodes, "The Pandorica Opens" and "The Big Bang", played to packed houses, with the finale blowing the roof off the place.

Amazingly, everything went without a hitch thanks to plenty of prep time to get everything set up. In fact there was only glitch during the entire weekend... while I was napping during the wee hours of Saturday morning during the running of Torchwood, someone swiped my cellphone. Many of the Whovian and Who-Net community rallied to help me out, from offering me time on their cells so I could stay in contact with Deena at home to posting posters around the convention hall to see if it could be located. I was reminded how close and tightknit our club can really be.

Anyway, we had some great panels, headed up by myself, Pyramid Magazine editor and writer Steven Marsh, and our guest-of-honor author Keith R.A. DeCandido (who currently writes the ongoing Farscape comic book), and a terrific round of "Are You Smarter Than a Sci-Fi Geek?", with valuable collectibles going out as the grand prizes. We also had the premiere of my fan video set to the tune of "Doctor Who is Gonna Fix It", and some of Craig Ferguson's hilarious comments about Doctor Who.

I'll have some more commentary about the convention in our next session. Don't be late!