MonthFebruary 2016

Doctor Who News // No Maisie or Netflix, but Maybe Capaldi?

A round-up of news regarding our favourite television series about a strange alien with two hearts that rides around space and time in a weird blue box.

  • Fans hoping that Maisie Williams (and probably by extension, Jenna Coleman) will make a return to the show sometime soon shouldn’t hold their breath. The actress claims she is done with the show, but people say a lot of things. Or rather, Doctor Who fans remain eternally hopeful that their favourites will return, because as always, The Doctor always lies…
  • If you’ve been watching Doctor Who on Netflix in Canada, it’s time to make some contingency plans, as it has been announced that CraveTV will soon be the exclusive streaming service for the show very soon.
  • In not-really-news-news, Peter Capaldi may or may not show up on the Doctor Who spin-off Class. Also, with BBC3 moving to a streaming service, it’s unsure whether or not the series will air weekly, or drop all at once. Speaking as folks who run a weekly drunk Doctor Who podcast, we kind of hope it’s weekly so we don’t have to plan content for about 8 weeks later this year.

My Shopping Ban: Side Income

I’ve signed up with a couple temp agencies again.

This is not a decision I dreaded, and while it is for the main goal of making money, I’m happy to have some different experiences in the future(and use my substantial background in office administration again). I’m hoping to pick up something quickly, and can focus on putting aside some of my paycheques towards my debt.

In case anyone is worried I will be leaving the store – when working under a contract, I still plan to work at Variant Wednesday evenings and weekends, and any events that Brandon and I would usually be hosting.

This side income will help in the short-term(paying off debt, having money for rent and bills), and long-term(hopefully going away for a few days for our second anniversary). This will also help the store, as what would be my paycheque can be re-invested in merchandise or advertising.

~~~

In other news, decluttering is still going well. I’m keeping a few things in our storage room for the swap at the store in April, so that’s in a bit of a holding pattern. I know it’s going, so it doesn’t bug me so much. At least there is less in the living room.

Brandon and I are holding to our goal of only owning books that fit in our white shelving unit, even with the new books we traded for a few weeks ago. There will be a more books going this year as they’re borrowed, and we will continue to declutter books and movies as we experience them and make the decision whether to keep or not. Some things honestly only need to be experienced once, and that’s okay.

Doctor Whooch // Episode 083 // I Thought It Was Utah

In which Mark Sheppard is a handsome car hobo.

On this week’s show, Danica and Brandon revisit the timeline of River Song with “The Impossible Astronaut”, which features several different version of her, and should absolutely NOT get too confusing for our drunk-as-hell podcast. Spoiler alert: Mark Shepard is on it and he is DEFINITELY AMERICAN. Also, Jim the Fish is a thing. And tunnels? And Silence. And guns. And fun. Yes. Fun. FUNNN.

Outro music is SPECIFICALLY Nicki Minaj’s part of “Monster”
Podcast picture is by GIRL NAMED SHIRL PHOTOGRAPHY.

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Brandon Schatz // Twitter // Facebook 
Danica LeBlanc // Twitter

Doctor Whooch // Episode 082 // Courage and Bullshit

In which Brandon watches the last episode of the Tenth Doctor episodes that he hasn’t seen. Probably.

It’s the Olympics! Or rather, it’s “Fear Her”, the 11th episode of series 2.  There’s a creepy child who draws a dad-satan and has a space flower in her tim-tum! And that’s bad. Danica and Brandon are also really, REALLY drunk and say a bunch of things they may or may not regret. Oh well.

Podcast picture is by GIRL NAMED SHIRL PHOTOGRAPHY.

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Brandon Schatz // Twitter // Facebook 
Danica LeBlanc // Twitter

My Shopping Ban: Galentine’s Day

After my lapse into spending immediately after starting my ban, I’ve been pretty good.

Brandon and I have been making more attempts to view the movies we own, and we’ve turned a shelf into its own little “To Read” pile, so we know where to focus our efforts. We even took three boxes of books to trade at Wee Book Inn on Saturday. I’m still pushing him to go through his clothes, but that may take some time. As for my own closet, I have two cloth bags on the floor in there and am slowly filling them up. I’m planning to host another clothing swap at the store in April, so am using the time to really figure out what I don’t wear anymore.

Saturday was a fun day filled with friends and great conversation. I was working, but happy to see everyone come to the store. My friend Leah came by near the end of my shift and I invited her over for tea. She was game to go with Brandon and I to Wee Book Inn, and then back to our place where we watched old Sex and the City episodes(a Galentine’s Day fave!). Wee Book was a success – Brandon and I both acquired 3 new books, some store credit, and also a movie and television series. And now I have one less box of books in the apartment! Progress!

Books books books

I’ve been cleaning and tidying often, trying to get things out or at least pick things to go in the swap. Two months isn’t so far away, so after April, the apartment will feel more open and spacious.

As for my student loan? I’ve put $100 from the side income I made last week in and my normal withdrawal of $200 will go out at the end of the this month. That will put the amount owed under $1000!!!

Elsewhere // The Retailer’s View: Rebirthing Problems

If you’ve hit the comic book news sites lately, you’ve probably heard rumblings about something called Rebirth. A quick explanation: DC will be supposedly relaunching their line-up in June with brand new first issues. Over at The Comics Beat, I elaborate on the potential shape of things to come, and what DC should do if they are aiming for a relaunch.

An except:

I’m more than a little afraid that DC’s big Rebirth announcement will be born more from a place of panic than laying the foundations down for a better tomorrow. The confirmation of twice-monthly shipping is a bit of a tip off for that. While I can’t argue with the financial boon having Batman shipping twice a month would provide, I can argue that doing so does more long-term harm than it provides short-term gain. All one has to do is take a look at Marvel’s current publishing line to see the effects of this publishing practice. While having your flagship Avengers title ship twice a month ensures a certain sales level that books like, say Vision won’t ever hope to hit in a million years, it also softens the highs that a book like Avengers can have. People are often more shy about taking a chance on a book that will cost them $8 a month (or $11.20 Canadian) to keep up with, which shaves down the audience. In addition to that, retailers are a little more gun-shy about ordering above and beyond for books that routinely circumvent the Final Order Cut-Off process. Currently, if a book ships monthly, you’ll usually have at least 4-11 days worth of sales data before you have to finalize your numbers for the next issue. Shipping twice a month means that orders for issue #3 will be due around the time numbers for issue #1 are finally rolling in – and armed with zero sales information for issue #2, most retailers will play it safe and keep things tight on the shelf. So yes, sales would be fairly stable, but there would be no chance to grab new readers, which is what DC so desperately needs to do at this point.

There’s quite a bit more where that came from, and you can head off to the full article for more, including a tidbit or two about how the Canadian dollar is affecting things as well.

Draggin’

Stop draggin

For a little context, here’s a uh… perplexing panel from CyberRad #3:

Puss draggin

The Douglas Adams Project

I wrote something about this a little while back, but then completely neglected to share it when I dove down into a deep dark feelings pit. Things often get forgotten in the feelings pit, like the shape of a smile or the sound of genuine laughter. I feel like I’m already getting off track.

Last year, I read a staggeringly small amount of actual prose books. I think the number topped out at around… three and a half, which is terrible. In that time, I know I bought more than three and a half prose books, which becomes problematic when you’re trying to live a fairly minimalistic life.

So, at the start of the year, I came up with several goals, some of which apply here. One was to read more books. Another was to buy less. A third was to look at our already populate shelves when the mood to read prose strikes, which would in turn help with that second goal. These goals ended up colliding with the feelings pit, and a very specific project came about: The Douglas Adams Project.

The idea is simple: over the course of 2016, I’ll be working my way through the works of Douglas Adams, starting with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, and rolling straight into Dirk Gently. If some time remains on the clock after those seven, I’m going to extend the exercise into the sixth Hitchhiker’s book, The Salmon of Doubt, and the novelization of Adams’ unproduced Doctor Who script Shana. I will likely read these books regardless of whether or not I get to them in 2016, but I enjoy the idea of having stretch goals for this challenge. But anyway.

I chose Douglas Adams because when I was starting to fall into the feelings pit at the beginning of the year, my brain started pumping out fond memories of reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide, and that coupled with the thought that I had owned the complete set for ages, but had never gotten around to reading the rest. Reading them all would serve several purposes, and hopefully pull myself out of the doldrums.

At this point in the project, I’ve just wrapped Hitchhiker’s once more, and the experience was as pleasurable as I remember it being the first time around. There’s a small chance that I got a bit more out of it now that I’m a bit older and wiser and can pull out more wonderful story structure things from it, but that’s a post for another day. (Next week, in fact.)

So yes. There it is. A task for 2016, already on its way to completion. I suspect there will be several road blocks to come, including breaks to read other things that tickle my fancy, combined with the general fact that I rarely see projects like this through to the end. Which is actually another goal for 2016: try and actually get things done. I’ll let you know how that goes as well.

Doctor Whooch // Episode 081 // Space Babies

In which we fawn over the Last Centurion. That dude is dreamy. As. FUCK.

On this week’s episode, Danica and Brandon are starting a project that will take them twisting all the way through 2016: The River Song Timeline Re-Watch. Or whatever it was we said when we were drunk. If we even said anything. It all starts with “A Good Man Goes To War” (Series 6, Episode 7) and then goes straight into other things on television. Or rather, it stumbles there. We were preeeeetttty drunk, you guys.

Outro music is “Formation” by Beyoncé.
Podcast picture is by GIRL NAMED SHIRL PHOTOGRAPHY.

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Brandon Schatz // Twitter // Facebook 
Danica LeBlanc // Twitter

My Shopping Ban: Surprise Expenses

When I wrote my shopping ban post last week, Beyoncè hadn’t released her new song yet. She hadn’t announced her world tour. Edmonton wasn’t one of only two Canadian tour dates, and I hadn’t worked myself up into a tizzy about going to what will be an amazing experience in May.

welp

IMG_0869

BUT NO REGRETS

So I skip the haircut and dye I was hoping to book until after the ban is up. Cool. I’m trying to grow my hair longer anyway. And I now realize it looks cute in a bun, so I can put it back any time I think I look like a shaggy dog.  IMG_0870
My standard withdrawal of $200 went out of my bank account last week, so this doesn’t affect February, it may affect the tail end of paying off the loan. I’ve been earning a bit of side money this week(around $250), but will wait to figure out by the end of the month whether to throw it at the loan or use it for my main expenses.

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