Polaris Day 2

…in bullet form, as I am rather tired…

* Got up early to make it out to Gareth David-Lloyd’s guest Q&A. Not that I’m that big on Torchwood, but it’s Doctor Who-related. He was fun, though. Apparently he has a [band](http://www.garethdavid-lloyd.co.uk/bluegillespie.html).
* I went to a bunch of Doctor Who panels throughout the day, most of which were kinda meh. I’ve always been a bit of a solitary fan, and it kinda weirds me out a little that all these other people like my show now too. I’m not sure what to make of them.
* The Doctor Who cosplay group, though, was pretty awesome. I have pictures! I think the fact that someone (a girl, no less!) chose not only to dress up as Colin Baker, but also to make a fantastic coat for it, is just beyond awesome.
* I went to Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens’ reading. A work in progress, and if the book has a title, I got there too late to hear it. It’s all like ancient mysteries and espionage and secret societies, so that was fun.
* Rachel Luttrell was really sweet on stage. I’m kinda sorry I don’t watch her show.
* Terry Farrel was really amusing. She’s retired from acting to raise a family, and she was all “OMG, babies!” I thought it was cute.
* I went to the Constellation Awards (Rick Green hosting!) but skipped the masq.
* There was much hanging out with people, which was of course very good. You know who you are!

Polaris, Day 1

I’m here in Toronto for Polaris, the convention formerly known as Toronto Trek. This is actually the first time I’ve been here for the whole weekend. Usually I’ve only ever driven down for the Saturday.

The highlight of the day for me was stumbling across Rick Green in the dealer’s room and hearing about Hoverboy, possibly the 137th greatest superhero ever! I went to his panel, and it really stirred up old memories. I remember when I was a kid, getting up at 5am Sunday mornings in my footie pyjamas and watching that old Hoverboy cartoon with Kasey Kasem and Vincent Price. You know, the one with Hoverboy before they brought in Hoverdog and it started to suck.

Anyway, apparently, they’re bringing Hoverboy back! Ty Templton won the rights in a poker game and is working with Marcus Moore to put out a new comic series! Not only that, a Hoverboy documentary is in the works. (I might be in it, since I attended the panel. It’s all very exciting!)

Anyway, there’s some Doctor Who stuff tomorrow that I really ought to be awake for. Hopefully I’ll find out about more exciting Hoverboy news as well.

It’s like walking in on your roommate having sex

It’s hot and sweaty today, so when I came into work, I wanted to go in through the cafeteria doors which is the fastest way to get to the disused gym/shower room to change shirts. Unfortunately when I opened the tinted cafeteria doors, I discovered that [Sandvine](http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080623-sandvine-calls-net-neutrality-laughable-defends-filtering.html), with whom we share an office, was having [some](http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/379633) [sort of](http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/CCNM.20080708.472810_1/GIStory/) all hands meeting.

Very embarassing.

Podfade (fading out and fading in)

I’m a bit sad that a bunch of my favourite podcasts have gone off the air recently:

* [CBC’s Search Engine](http://www.cbc.ca/searchengine/) announced they wouldn’t be renewed for a second season. Jesse’s still going to be posting new stuff come September, but the sophisticated news magazine about the interaction of the Internet and society is gone.
* On [Have Games Will Travel](http://www.havegameswilltravel.net/), Paul Tevis said that after his eleventy-first episode, he was going off to Rivendell to live with the elves stopping the show. He’ll still be posting an occasional audio diary thing, and he’s still on [The Voice of the Revolution](http://www.thevoiceoftherevolution.com/), but I’ll miss HGWT. Not that he’d been posting a whole lot, but his last few shows were actually really good.
* And [LugRadio](http://www.lugradio.org/) just announced they’re breaking up the band after their upcoming LugRadio Live UK show. I’d only started listening to them around Christmas, looking for a Linux lifestyle show kind of like [MacBreak Weekly](http://twit.tv/mbw), but for free software (and without all the iPhone bullshit). They were fun, and I’m sad they’re gonna be gone.

Also, while they’re not ending, [Fear the Boot](http://www.feartheboot.com/) lost Luke, who was my favourite host. They’re changing things up quite a bit too, but I don’t begrudge them that.

So I’ve been adding some new feeds to fill the void. Some I added a while ago, but I’m on the lookout for new shows to fill similar niches. There are a few that look promising:

* [The Ubuntu UK Podcast](http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/) doesn’t have the same sort of fun chemistry that LugRadio had, but I like the Ubuntu focus and they’ve got some fabulous interviews already. I’m trying other Linux podcasts, but a lot of them (I’m thinking specifically about the [Linux Action Show](http://www.linuxactionshow.com/) here) are way too influenced by American talk radio and are incredibly obnoxious.
* [Master Plan](http://masterplanpodcast.net/) is kind of interesting. I picked it up because Ryan Macklin did [Have Master Will Plan](http://havegameswilltravel.net/index.php?post_id=332719) with Paul Tevis a few months ago. I don’t have any aspirations towards game design, but he does have some neat discussions and interviews about how to make role playing work, so that’s much appreciated.
* [Writing Excuses](http://www.writingexcuses.com/) is a great, 15 minute weekly podcast about writing. I picked it up after seeing Howard Taylor at Ad Astra. It’s fun, funny, thought-provoking and makes me want to write more. You can’t really ask for more than that from a writing podcast.
* I’m trying out a few of CBC’s short summer series, including [Between You and Me](http://www.cbc.ca/radiosummer/betweenyouandme/) and [Diet for a Hungry Planet](http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/hungryplanet2.html) (I ♥ Michael Pollan). [Spark](http://www.cbc.ca/spark/), which is off for the summer, but will return next season, is much more of a technology lifestyle show, compared to Search Engine’s technology analysis, but it has occasional interviews with [Merlin Mann](http://43folders.com/), who is awesome.

Apparently I don’t have a doctor

I dropped my parent’s hot tub cover on my toe on Saturday. It hurt a lot at the time. My toenail turned purple.

When I was a kid, my dad’s toenail would do something to his toe (he used to jog a lot) and his toenail would turn black and fall off. This was kinda gross, but it would grow back and he seemed generally resigned to it. So I sort of resigned myself to the same fate. Ew. It takes a year or so to grow back.

It doesn’t really hurt anymore. It just feels weird. And it’s annoying wearing shoes.

But then I decided to go online and see what I could find out. Along with a thorough squicking, I found out that I could drain the pressure and maybe save the nail. I could even do it at home! But a little voice inside my head told me that an infected toenail was even would be even worse than what I had. But hey! I have a doctor! I phoned them up this morning to make an appointment.

First I get a busy signal. Then they hung up on me after I make it through the pre-recorded message (I’m pretty sure that was an accident…). Then I phone back, sit through the message again and wait on hold for a while and eventually get a friendly receptionist.

I make my appointment and give her my name. “Do you sometimes go by another name?” she asks. Uh oh. I give her my OHIP number. Nope, not there either. Yes, I’d seen him before. Oh.

Somehow, I no longer have a doctor. Fortunately, they’re still taking new patients! I just have to show up for an interview next week. For my toenail, though, I get to go to the ER (ugh, no) or a walk-in clinic.

I don’t know if I should go back to these jokers. I didn’t like the main doctor guy much the one and only time I’d gone to see them. I never get the impression they want to have much to do with me, besides collect money from OHIP. On the other hand, I doubt there are any other doctors accepting patients around here who are really any better.

Ugh.