Mission to Magnus

I ended up doing a lot of driving over the weekend, visiting people in Belleville and Ottawa and briefly crossing the border. Driving on long trips is the perfect environment for listening to [Doctor Who audio dramas](http://bigfinish.com).

I’d caught up on the regular series with [The Whispering Forest](http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Whispering_Forest). And I’d made it all the way through the [second series](http://bigfinish.com/Eighth-Doctor-Season-2) of Eighth Doctor and Lucy stories before I headed home. So I decided to pick up the audio adaptations of the Sixth Doctor’s [missing Season 23](http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lost_Stories).

As I’ve [previously alluded](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2009/03/23/the-blue-coat/), I really like the Sixth Doctor in audio. I like him on TV too (I like all Doctor Who, really), but I do find myself having to forgive it a bit here and there. The intent of these Lost Stories audios is to come as close to how the episodes would have appeared on television as possible. Which is fascinating, but not without drawbacks.

I spent nearly all of [Mission to Magnus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_to_Magnus) thinking I would have loved to have seen this on TV in the Eighties. It features the return of Sil, who’s always wonderfully portrayed by [Nabil Shaban](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabil_Shaban), and the [Ice Warriors](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Warrior), albeit in more of a Seeds-of-Death-destroy-everything mode than in the more nuanced Peladon stories, but no matter.

More after the cut. Spoilers follow.

Continue reading Mission to Magnus

Ubuntu LAN Party!

From Ubuntu LAN Party

[[Kwartzlab]] has been talking about throwing a LAN party for a while now. We’ve got power, a network and drinks, so it’s ideal. [Eric](http://kwartzlab.ca/blog/egerlach) and I got to talking, though, and with the [[Ubuntu]] stuff in Waterloo centered largely around Kwartzlab it would be extra awesome if it was a free software LAN party. Everything we play is open source and available through the Ubuntu repositories.

So he went off and [tested some games](http://kwartzlab.ca/mediawiki/index.php/LAN_Party_Event_Planning), made a live CD, set up a meta-package and we played some games.

Games we played, in rough order of awesome:

* [TeeWorlds](http://teeworlds.com/)
* [Hedge Wars](http://www.hedgewars.org/)
* [Armagetron 3D](http://armagetronad.net/)
* [OpenArena](http://openarena.ws/smfnews.php)
* [gtetrinet](http://gtetrinet.sourceforge.net/)
* [boswars](http://www.boswars.org/)
* [Pioneers](http://sourceforge.net/projects/pio/)

(Pioneers is awesome, but its reception was a bit disappointing, mainly because only Eric and I had ever played Settlers before. Generally, I think if you’re going to the trouble of getting people together in a room, you’re better off playing the boardgame. Over distances, with seasoned Settlers fans, it has much more potential).

We started small, limiting ourselves to Kwartzlab people and a few friends. But our goal is to get other Ubuntu groups involved, ideally culminating in a cross-country or international Ubuntu LAN party. Which is just awesome.

Twelfth Night in the Square and Taming of the Shrew

Quick note to say Ellen and I hope to go to see [Twelfth Night in Waterloo Public Square](http://www.driftwoodtheatre.com/BardsBusTour.htm) next week, Wednesday, July 21 at 7:30 (although they advise showing up a half-hour before the show. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, but you can access reserved seating for a set price.

Peter Nichol, a.k.a. Dr Chronopolis in [The Red Panda Adventures](http://decoderringtheatre.com/redpanda/) will be playing Sir Toby Belch. I’m a big fan of The Red Panda (and also his sidekick, The Flying Squirrel).

It’s cheap (or possibly free if you like). You should come too.

Then, on Thursday, we’ll be in Elmira for [Taming of the Shrew](http://www.tenbaretoes.com/the-taming-of-the-shrew). The production features Nick Oddson and Jonathan Dietrich, two of my co-workers, who also happen to be Royal Medieval Faire regulars.

Oh, and we’re planning on going to Stratford lots too.

Update (2010-07-22 – Pie approximation day!): We went to see Twelfth Night last night and it was lovely, save for the Harley Davisons which thundered by every five minutes. Seriously guys, obnoxiousness does not make you cool. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll miss Taming of the Shrew tonight as the Shrew in question has been tamed by [some sort of horrible stomach flu or something](http://www.tenbaretoes.com/bad-news). We may try this weekend…

Happy Birthday to me!

Not that I’m fishing for well-wishes, I just thought I needed an excuse to dash off a quick post about little things. Like my birthday. Which was Friday, so you’re late anyway.

I am now 35. This seems like a large number. But considering I have vague recollections of the 70s, I suppose it shouldn’t be too surprising.

I had a party on Saturday during which we watched the series finale of Doctor Who. Which was awesome, by the way. I cannot express how happy I am with this season. While I enjoyed Russel T Davies’ Doctor Who and thought David Tennant was awesome, the writing really doesn’t hold up on reflection. And in the gap year especially, it was becoming increasingly clear that RTD had run out of ideas. The new series is fresh and new and excellent. Stephen Moffat’s writing is a lot tighter, even though he isn’t straying too far from RTD’s playbook. I love Matt Smith’s zany and alien portayal of the Doctor and I hope they’re able to develop it further through the series.

In short: awesome. If you’ve fallen off the Doctor Who bandwagon or have put off getting on, season 5 is an excellent point to jump on. And you totally should.

Unrelatedly, I’m giving a presentation at [[Kwartzlab]] tomorrow for our [5+5 lightning talk event](http://www.kwartzlab.ca/events/2010-06-29/55-v2). I’ll be talking about [Clutter](http://www.clutter-project.org/).

I’m debating tonight whether I should go to dodgeball or [Devhouse Waterloo](http://devwaterloo.pbworks.com/). I’m leaning towards dodgeball, because while I was hoping to preview my Clutter presentation at Devhouse, after spending the last couple days couped up inside, I think I need to run around for a bit.