Thoughts, ramblings and other stuff

So the sunshine is still not here. The best we got was few days of just clouds instead of clouds and non-stop rain. And it switched from hot and raining to cold and raining. Three days ago I had to switch the AC back on because it was getting 25C inside my apartment (same as outside) and with the humidity it was just too sticky. It at least got the humidity down (92% outside but only 72% inside). Then Sunday came with cold wind and no rain for a moment so I enjoy a moment of getting a little drier. And then I woke up today to the sound of falling rain. It was barely above 10C and rained the whole day. Of course as a Polish person (and generally European from North side of Alps) this is what I consider true November weather. This is why it is the worst month - rain, mud, cold and very short days made even shorter by the clouds and rain. The trees are bare, the skies are grey and the days are getting shorter. November in Europe is what depression looks like.

Here usually is not that bad. US is generally much much sunnier - way more sunny days in a year (except Pacific Northwest which has similar weather to Western Europe). I started to get used to autumn and November being sunny and pretty warm. This is usually when the best fall colours happen around here - the yellow, red and orange against blue skies looks amazing. But this year all the rain has already taken all the leaves out. They were still getting not fully changed last weekend and this one they were all gone. I blame the El Niño - I'm told it makes this part of the continent very rainy when it happens.

So this is the best autumn pic I got - a week ago (if you look closely you can see the rain)


So here is something to take the mind off the weather - new Star Wars trailers with new footage

Here is a new Doctor Who minisode where he revisits the Sisters of Karn to prepare for a meeting with an old enemy


And here are the trailers for the Syfy coming attractions

And now I go to deal with my headache

Today Internet believed in miracles as Tatiana Maslany has been nominated for Emmys. Doesn't make me care any more about them but I always say all the awards. Here is here post-nomination interview with her. As always she credits the fans for spreading the word about the show. And there is another one here. I think we all feel like it's a group nomination (not only because it's hard to believe she'd just one person but also thanks to the hard work of all her doubles). And here is BBC America celebrating.

This seams to also be an exceptionally good year for SF&F as Game of Thrones got 24 nominations, AHS: Freak Show is close behind with 19 and Dardevil and Last Man on Earth got some too. Maybe it's the drought. Or maybe the lowering of herd immunity among the voters.

So this is also the high time to post the Orphan Black S3 bloper reel


And the proposals for spin-off with Alison and Donnie that were presented at SDCC. Which one you can't wait to watch?






Holly freaking Christmas cake!

It looks like the final in 2015 Suvudu Cage Match will be between Death and Death's granddaughter. Susan vs. one of Endless. I'm sure she'll bring the poker. Semifinals are still on but unless large amount of late votes come in it seems to be the end result. I'm just happy Death is the right gender. Weird Germanics with their male personification of Death.

The io9's March Madness is already on the Sweet Sixteen stage and it looks like Firefly is loosing to Game of Thrones. Finally a show with bigger (or more obsessed fandom) than Firefly but I'm not sure it's really an improvement.

An sneak peak from episode 3x01 of Orphan Black with the Sarah - Rudy clone talk we've seen fragments of before. It looks like Delphine now knows all about project Castor.


Also Alison as Sarah always hilarious - can't wait:

The first real trailer for season 3 of Orphan Black is out and I think we all ask ourselves why it's not April yet.


There's also interview with Graeme Manson about new season that comes with a picture of Sarah meeting the male clone in dr. Bowles basement. We also learn his name is Rudy. The name and faces he makes in trailer made me think it was inspired by Misfits.

DC Comics has announced that its March 2015 variant covers will pay tribute to some of the most iconic films of the past 100 years. You can see all the variant covers and the movie posters that inspired them here. They are all brilliant. I still can't decide which one I like best.

Parks and Recreation final season trailer is coming from a distant future where all the things we've been warned about came true.

Google doodle today celebrates the 100 birthday of a man who saved me (and millions of other people) from polio Jonas Salk. The polio vaccine changed human civilisation and, if not for the war zones and anti-vaxxers, it could be the second deadly virus we eradicate.

However, today is mostly about Marvel's big announcement about phase 3 films. The list of all Marvel movies coming in the next 4 years has some long awaited names - both Black Panther and Captain Marvel are on it (and yes - that means Carol Danvers). We also learned that Chadwick Boseman is Black Panter but despite the whole internet celebrating it already Benedict Cumberbatch is not Doctor Strange yet. Also despite all the denying next Captain America is going to be a version of the Civil War (highly modified of course - as Feige said "Events of the whole cinematic universe will make all governments in the world want regulation. Not so much about secret identity, but about who reports to who."). And the Avengers 3 are going to be so big they are getting split into 2 movies with Captain Marvel and Inhumans coming in between. I wonder if that means those are all going to happen concurrently. I also wonder if Carol Danvers is going to have a cameo in the Guardians second outing. It looks like Black Panther is going to be introduced in Avengers 2 so it'd made sense to introduce her in similar way. And for as long as it exists you can watch the announcement including a sneak peak of Infinity War:


And of course as promised Agents of SHIELD had the extended version of the first Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer. Here's the leaked version:

And the actual AoS version:

I have long weekend now and we suddenly have all the summer weather this summer was missing so far (it's humid and hot and it is to be even hotter - up to 36^oC on Tuesday) so I'm wasting my time this weekend on shopping, swimming and cat videos. I caught up on Simon's Cat today - I have tendency to binge watch channels and then forget them for a while (like months or even longer) and then binge watch again. So I was surprised how many adventures of Simon's Cat I missed. Like this one - hard to believe it hasn't been done till this year


I also missed their Indiegogo campaign to make a Simon's Cat movie - Off to the Vet. Even the little bits they show in this are so true - especially the thermometer reaction. It's always the most difficult part. My cat was pretty sick recently - my dad says he's still just skin and bones - so he had a very unpleasant vet visit and nothing went as badly as the enema. Not even hydrogen peroxide washing off the abscess. My dad says he was very grateful for the gloves the vet gave him*. I, of course wish I could've been there - to pet my cat and make sure he's OK (but also because I find procedures like that fascinating - I always ask to watch when they cut me). My dad says he's eating again so it seems everything is going to be OK. The vet told my dad that besides that infection he's in a very good shape for 16 year old cat.


*I recently learned that in US the vets just take the animal somewhere in the back and just treat it with their staff. In Poland, and apparently in UK too, you are with the animal the whole time and in most cases are responsible for holding it and carrying it around. Unless, it's an operation with full sedation obviously.

The Opportunity rover mission was supposed to last 90 days. It just finished a decade of exploration of Mars and it's still going. Think about 10 years - it's 40 times longer then it was planned to work. Without any repairs and all the engeenirs on a different planet with minutes delay.


The Spirit rover that landed three weeks earlier stopped responding in 2010 but Opportunity is still sending us more and more information and along with Curiosity it's letting us learn more and more about Mars warm, humid past.



There are more anniversary videos on the jpl you tube channel and they are all worth watching. Like this recording of the life feed celebration talks:

The countdown to the anniversary episode has started and BBC America shows almost nothing else. There is also more and more teasers showing up and this is a round-up of them

First something non-spoilerish (I think) - David Tennant introduces The Day of the Doctor:


Doctor Who on BBC Breakfast - with a lot of spoilerish information about The Day of the Doctor:

The Day of the Doctor: A Preview - BBC Children in Need: 2013 - SPOILERS

And an extra - No bug-eyed monsters! - excerpt from An Adventure in Space and Time


And the out pour of love for Paul McGann and Eight is wonderful but I'm sure we all feel like we haven't seen enough of his Doctor. Some people decided to do something about it and created a petition to give Paul McGann more chances to show us Eight on TV. I don't believe it would happen but I hope it'll get more people to experience his other adventures.

I was to write something interesting and coherent but I got distracted by this list of most amazing cat gifs. Ignore the title - and just watch your brain turning into awww.

For the rest of you you can get suitably annoyed by Americans appropriating even the hurricanes for their internal politics


And the victim blaming among zombies


on your own. Or not. You can just laugh instead.

I'm just acutely aware that both views are held by the same people. And then they make decisions about other people's lives. And that's not funny at all. You should've stayed distracted by cats, shouldn't you?