Topical Abandonment

Is it my imagination or does Machoke get more and more purple with each new Pokemon game?

I have spent the last half hour trying to summarise the character of the Doctor and what exactly it is that makes Doctor Who such an incredible program. I've discovered that I just can't do it and so, for the first time in a while (I still have an old major topic hanging around in the back of my mind from months ago), I've just dropped that angle for now and I plan to return to it as soon as possible.

So, because of that and other reasons, I don't really have time for one of my long, rambling posts today. I suppose I could, and probably should, have started earlier but I didn't. It wasn't really due to an abundance of other activities but to a distinct lack of any kind of motivation, or the energy to act upon that which I did have. The first week, or at least the first day, of any holiday (not that study leave is technically a "holiday" but I'm counting it as such due to my incredible confidence/arrogance) is like that for me. I didn't even get much more of Pokemon Diamond done, except relentlessly training up a Ponyta while watching The Sweeney.

I have been doing more reading of Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy and, if I only seemed to recommend it to you yesterday as something for filling space, I can now only recommend it even more strongly. Plait picks apart common misconceptions about astronomy, and sometimes science in general, that so many people seem to believe because they are presented to us in the media. He has whole sections devoted to poking holes in the plots of films and television shows, that he often admits to otherwise liking, which take liberties with the laws of physics.

I myself am often a great cynic and nitpicker when it comes to TV shows, the treatment of DNA and genetic manipulation in Daleks in Manhattan driving me to near madness, but it's fascinating to see mathematics that I can (occasionally) recognise, sometimes from my use of it in exams just over the last couple of days, applied on the scale of planets and suns. And used to point out stupid mistakes in the news.

I have more to say on the matter but, alas, my own laziness and my desire to post before midnight each day has undone me. Of course, at least I've remembered to post today. Skippy seems to have forgotten New Word Thursday once again. And we were doing so well, too.

I'll return to this topic yet. When you least expect it.