Maius Intra Qua Extra

"You Should Never Meet Your Fans"

Thu, 07 May 2026 18:19:25 GMT

Title: "You Should Never Meet Your Fans"
Fandom(s): Doctor Who
Characters: Fifteenth Doctor, Belinda Chandra
Rating: G
Genre: General
Word Count: 234

Summary: (From "Lux") The Doctor discovers that his life is a TV show and chats with his fans about it.

Read it on AO3.

Author's Notes: Nothing to really say about this. Was just thinking about how this scene must have appeared very different from the Doctor's point of view than from our point of view. I do love trying to picture things from other characters' points of view and discovering that it may be very different than what we, as viewers, think.

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I just don't know what to think

Tue, 05 May 2026 20:36:55 GMT

Mother's Day is coming up, so my husband and I were talking this morning about ordering something to send to his mother, and he told me something that I still can't get over.

Mom-in-law loves decorative items. I'd say tchotchkes, but it's more than just cheap little things. Her house is filled with all kinds of things, from crystal vases to Faberge eggs (not real ones, just enameled eggs), a collection of ceramic houses from Europe, glass perfume bottles, and much more. She also loves cats, so her TV room is decorated entirely with cat figurines, prints, cross-stitches, throw pillows, etc.

Note, all of this stuff was store-bought or received as gifts. MIL is not a creative type, preferring to spend her time reading, gardening, and watching TV. Most of the handmade items, like the cross-stitch cats and the framed drawings and paintings, came from her sister (who is a huge creative -- her Christmas cards are always handmade and beautiful) or her aunt.

Most of the gifts we send her are either decorative items or jewelry (she loves her jewelry), but last October, when we got home from visiting her, I suggested that I make a sparkly diamond art cat for her to put up in her TV room and send it to her for Christmas, in addition to the usual gift. My husband thought it was a great idea, so I ordered the kit (this one in specific) and spent a few hours (three or four sessions of one to two hours apiece) to make it. I sent it off, and then my husband ordered an enamel egg off Amazon for her real gift.

So today, as we were talking about what to get for Mother's Day, my husband told me that MIL, when she'd called to thank us for it, had said that the diamond art cat was pretty but she was upset that I had made it for her instead of sending her the kit for her to put together herself. Then, she received the egg a couple of days later and was happy with that.

And I'm still just going "What???" about it. Frankly, I'm insulted. She actually values the kit itself more than she appreciates the time and effort I put into making something for her.

And who looks at something that someone's made for them and thinks, "They shouldn't have done that. They should have let me do it." It reminded me of a beaded box that her sister made and sent us for Christmas about ten years ago. It was gorgeous, but I didn't think, "I could do that myself -- she should have just sent us the beads and instructions." What I actually did was put the box in the display case and then go buy a book on beaded boxes to learn how to do it myself.

Anyway, my husband has decided to send her a diamond art kit for Mother's Day. And you know, I bet she will never put it together. As I said, she's not a creative type, and the only creative endeavor we've ever seen her attempt -- adult coloring books -- she abandoned after an hour and sent the book and the pencils to me.

Urgh, I'm more upset about this than I really should be. I should go off and practice for the DWFO. But I'll tell you what I won't be doing, ever: making another thing for my MIL.

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DWFO rambling

Sun, 03 May 2026 23:33:02 GMT

I've finally buckled down and started to practice my DWFO part in earnest. I've been poking at it for the last couple of months, but now I'm actually devoting some time to it.

It might sound like I'm not taking it seriously by not practicing until now (it's due the middle of next month), but honestly, this is a clarinet part and it is just not that difficult (a good middle-schooler could play it). Clarinets are not all that important in an orchestra, and most of the time, they just provide background. Now, if I played violin, I'd have been practicing every day for the past two months, because their parts are complex.

The clarinet part does have a couple of difficult bits. The first is a passage in C#, which has seven sharps. I know that doesn't mean much to most people, so all you need to understand is that band music rarely has music in which clarinets have even four sharps. Orchestral music is written differently and often has many sharps. The bottom line is that I am not used to reading music with that many sharps, so it's difficult to remember them, and thus I'm sometimes hitting wrong notes. So, I've marked up my music to remind myself which notes should be sharp, and that's solved the problem.

The second is a passage where the clarinet switches back and forth between notes on the beat and afterbeats. Again, that doesn't mean much to most people, and I really can't think of an analogy outside of music. Anyway, it's only a short passage (eight measures, maybe?) but it really messes up my timing, so I've been concentrating on that, out of the entire piece.

We were given a click track, which is an MP3 of the music with the beat laid over it, so that we can hear the beat (which is what the conductor would be doing if we had one) as well as what the rest of the orchestra is doing, and it really is almost as good as playing with the group in person (except I'm playing it off my phone and it's not loud enough -- I can't find my Bluetooth speaker). When I make my recording, I'll be listening to the click track on headphones, so that I stay in time with the rest of the orchestra but the click track won't be heard on the recording.

I did have to buy a studio mic (and the DWFO provided specs on what that mic needed to be able to do). I did buy one of the cheapest I could find, but it should serve. I just hooked it up to my computer yesterday and used it on a Google Meet call and at least it works. I'll be practicing with it later this month to prep for the actual recording.

And slightly related (well, it's about music), I've decided to rejoin the local "marching" band (in quotes because it's less about marching and more about concert music). I used to be a regular there back before the pandemic, but the old conductor (my friend Tim) retired from it and the new conductor, Daniel, extended the season from just the summer to the rest of the year, and I just wasn't interesting in committing to that. It's still that way, but I decided I wanted a second music night and I missed that band. So, this year, I'll be doing clarinet for concert and sax for marching. So far it's been fun, but we'll see if I'm exhausted by it come September. :)

Also another reason, I know Daniel now and have great respect for him as a musician and a teacher, so I wanted the opportunity to play for and learn from him again. And he's changed the direction of the band away from Tim's old-timey music and towards jazz and more modern pop/rock, which is more interesting to me.

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"Gunge"

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 17:58:28 GMT

Title: "Gunge"
Fandom(s): Doctor Who
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Martha Jones
Rating: G
Genre: General
Word Count: 296

Summary: The Doctor and Martha work to prevent ~~a calamity of epic proportions~~ ... ~~widespread bio-disaster~~ ... All right, all right, it's just going to be really gross, okay?

Read it on AO3.

Author's Notes: So here's the deal. I've been working on a story, and it's 1730 words of pure dross so far. Then I was looking back at another story of mine and thought, "I should write *this* idea instead," but you know, that's going to take two weeks.

Then I remembered I'd written this earlier this month, as just a practice adaptation of another fic I saw, and I thought, "Hey, I can clean that up in ten minutes and get it posted!"

So yeah, this is just crap that I'm posting to not miss a month. Just keep scrolling down your feed and forget this ever happened.

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Interesting dream

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 17:47:36 GMT

Well, interesting to me, anyway. Probably not interesting to you. But this is my journal and I want to make sure I remember it, so here it is.

Unfortunately for you, if you care to read this, it requires a lot of backstory.

( Read more... )

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"Cyberman"

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:37:41 GMT

Title: "Cyberman"
Fandom(s): Doctor Who
Characters: Amy Pond, Rory Wiliams
Rating: T
Genre: General
Word Count: 406

Summary: In a graveyard in London, Missy is presenting the Doctor with the gift of an army. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond....

Read it on AO3.

Author's Notes: I started this one just after "Dark Water"/"Death in Heaven" aired but never finished it because I thought, no one wants to think about this. But yesterday, romanajo123 showed me Big Finish's announcement of a Torchwood audio with Cyber-Ianto on the cover. Now, who knows what BF actually did (it's probably just Ianto having to dress up as a Cyberman; they've done this kind of thing before), but it got me thinking about how Ianto actually was cyberized and reminded me of this story. Modern Shivver has no qualms about offending people with her stories, so I finished it up and here it is!

But think about it, this is entirely canon: the Cyber-pollen hit every cemetery in the world, so every beloved character who died before this episode was cyberized: not just the Brigadier but Amy, Rory, Sarah Jane, Ianto, to name a few. So, here's the story of two of them.

And just saying, I love it when I get to put "Major Character Death" on a fic. Plus, this also has the F/M relationship tag. 400 words and it hits both ends of the spectrum.

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Another one?

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 18:41:14 GMT

I found out yesterday that my friend Rich just discovered that he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer -- incurable but therapy can prolong life and improve quality for a bit. I play in a concert band with his wife (he occasionally played in it, too) and she had informed the band, which is how I found out, but I've known him (well, worked with him) since the 1990s.

I actually got to work closely with him on a project back in 2012 or so and got to know him pretty well. At one point, we had to go up to Seattle to work in-house with the dev team, so we spent two weeks hanging out. I think the big things about Rich is that he's nice, optimistic, and fun. Maybe that doesn't sound like much, but he is always compared to his brother, who is a mean, conniving sociopath. Everyone loves Rich. No one likes his brother.

Honestly, Rich is awesome. One of the most respected game designers in this game-dev town. My favorite memory is going to this excellent sushi restaurant in Bellevue and sampling everything on the conveyor belt with him. (Ah, the things you do when the company is paying for your meals!) His wife says he still mentions that restaurant. But he's always happy to see you and eager to have fun. Oh, also, he and his kids are Doctor Who fans, so that one time we played Doctor Who: Through Time and Space and I snuck in my Thirteen cosplay under my uniform because the conductor said I couldn't but the president said I absolutely should, Rich wore my Dalek lights headband and his son wore one of my other accoutrements (don't remember what it was).

But the thing that's really getting me down today is that yet another of my friends is being taken by cancer when they're so young. Rich is a couple of years younger than me, and fours years ago, I posted about another friend who didn't even reach fifty.

I'm the last person in my generation on both sides of my family, with uncles and aunts that were 40-50 years older than me and cousins that are thirty years older than me, so for the past twenty years or so, any news from home meant someone had died. I'm used to that. But I'm not old enough yet that any news from my friends should mean the same thing. It's not fair, why Rich, why anyone at all, yadda yadda...

Fuck cancer.

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Just really in a good mood today

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 20:20:18 GMT

I'm usually in a good mood -- I'm definitely an optimist -- but today, I'm just really happy.

( Read more... )

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"Dead in the Water"

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 21:53:20 GMT

Title: "Dead in the Water"
Fandom(s): Doctor Who
Characters: David Tennant, Will Sampson
Rating: T
Genre: General
Word Count: 8242

Summary: (The Actor AU #2) Nearly a month after "Sandcastles", David and Will are still at odds with each other. Perhaps getting out of the TARDIS and relaxing on a space cruise ship will help mend things between them.

Read it on AO3.

Author's Notes: You know, I only just realized that I don't have to tag Will as an "original character" in my own journal. I can list his name in the character list! I can also make him a tag! *evil giggle* Did you even know he has a last name? I also just realized that I still haven't, after nearly a decade, come up with a good name for this AU. :P

Anyway.

I finally wrote the resolution to David and Will's argument from "Sandcastles"! This story isn't what I had envisioned when I wrote that one years ago. I thought it would be just an argument scene, but though I knew how the argument was going to end, whenever I tried to picture what this discussion was going to look like on paper, I wanted to barf. People talking is boring. People arguing and trying to convince each other that they're right is even more boring. What I wanted was for Will and/or David to learn something about themselves that helps them resolve the problem.

I'd been envisioning the actual story here (without the argument) for years now and I realized it was exactly the right thing to teach them what they needed to learn. But I still sat on it because I had the beginning and the ending, but had no idea how to get them from A to B. Then my husband made a few suggestions of "let them go here first, and then over here later" and BAM! It came together.

Let me tell you, it was AMAZING having an idea I was passionate about and working on it for two weeks. My husband was actually concerned about how much time I was spending writing, because I haven't done it like this in a long time. And this piece is rather different from my other stuff, or at least very different from the tripe I've been putting out this last year. This has a plot. It has meaning. It probably isn't actually interesting to anyone else, but I'm rather chuffed.

Also, this is the first fic that I've used generative AI for! "Really? You had it write your fic?" I hear you cry. No, never. (Remember rule #2: Don't have AI do the things you enjoy doing.) I wrote the fic, from beginning to end. And then while editing, I found a word that I didn't like, so I asked ChatGPT to suggest an alternative, and it gave me a number of suggestions, with reasons why they might work better. I reviewed each one and eventually chose the one I liked. So yes, I used generative AI! And I'm not going to tag my fic with it! You are now challenged to identify which word it was. ;)

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Firefly animated series!

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 16:33:18 GMT

Set between Firefly and Serenity, because Alan Tudyk!

Apparently they have a script and animators, and the only thing they don't have is where it's going to be released. But, as Nathan Fillion says, "It's happening."

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Further forays into AI

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:50:02 GMT

I've been doing more stuff with AI, to learn how to use it (because it really looks like if I ever get another job, it'll be AI-related in some way; also, I can list this learning on my resumé) and to see what I can do with it. But first, a funny.

( Or maybe not so funny. )

( AI in random stuff )

I've also been starting to use AI for work tasks, like building tools and testing, and I wanted to talk about that, but I've already spent way too long writing the above, so next time!

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More Firefly?!??!!!?

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:39:55 GMT

As a coincidental follow-up to my post about a new Stargate show being in the works, here I am posting about something new from the Firefly universe!

Apparently, Nathan Fillion has been releasing every few days short videos of him approaching various actors from the show and saying, "It's happening!" That's it. So far, the videos have shown Sean Maher, Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, and Summer Glau.

The internet is going wild with speculation. It's not expected that they're starting a new live-action series, since Nathan Fillion already has a current series running (The Rookie). Also, people don't think that an extension of the series would work well with the actors being so much older, not because of looks but because of story reasons, such as why this particular group of people, in a not-exactly-peaceful system with dozens of worlds to settle on, would still all be alive and traveling together twenty-five years later.

On the other hand, the videos haven't included Alan Tudyk yet, so maybe this will be a continuation of the 'Verse after the events of Serenity! (Yeah, yeah, I know, too soon.)

Top suggestions on what this might be is an animated series with the original voices, and a series of Big Finish audios, and yes, Big Finish was specifically named, which warms this audio fan's heart.

But at this point, it's wait and see. I am not sure I'm as excited this time as I was for the Stargate news, because Firefly was so incredibly good and I feel like any addition to the 'Verse could not possibly live up to the original. But I'm still happy to see that something is happening after all these years.

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Random update, incluing Gallifrey One

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 23:00:17 GMT

Despite having a bunch of things I've wanted to talk about, I haven't posted in a while. Various reasons for that, but mostly it's me not setting aside time to do so. So, here I am, forcing myself to finally write something.

( Where is the time going? )

( More serious stuff )

( Sojourns into AI )

( Music )

( Gallifrey One )

And that's about it. We're still cleaning out the house and garage, and have two dump loads, a Goodwill run, and a tech-recycling run scheduled for the next two weeks. We're also starting to plan what we're going to replace the back deck with (possibly a sun room!), but that might get pushed back because the heating broke today. Luckily, it's not too cold anymore, so we can weather it for a little while, but we're not happy about having to spend on that right now.

I shall now wander off in my warm fuzzy socks.

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"A Night at the Lanes"

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 22:47:40 GMT

Title: "A Night at the Lanes"
Fandom(s): Doctor Who
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble, Clara Oswald, original character
Rating: G
Genre: General
Word Count: 6632

Summary: (Blue Rain AU) In repayment of a favor from his colleague Dave, Jon takes Donna, Dave, and Dave's girlfriend Clara out for a night of bowling.

Read it on AO3.

Author's Notes: Nothing special here. This is mostly intended to introduce new characters for the future: Dave, Jon's colleague who's a mechanic in his group and who'd been mentioned in Blue Rain but never actually appeared, and Dave's girlfriend Clara.

I did notice that while selecting character tags on AO3, "Clara Oswald" is subsumed by "Clara Oswin Oswald", which is weird to me, that the splinter's tag is considered dominant, not the companion's tag. Personally, I'd have three separate tags for Clara Oswald, Oswin Oswald, and Clara Oswin Oswald, since they're all different characters, but if I couldn't, I'd definitely make "Clara Oswald" the dominant tag.

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Maybe this is what it's about

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 20:34:08 GMT

My last post was about a comment on my latest story that sounded sarcastic, or at least insincere, and I postulated that it was written by AI.

Well, I was on the AO3 sub last night and people were talking about a new trend where someone leaves a comment on your fic and then when you engage with them by replying with a thank-you, they follow up with "I really want to do some art of your fic. Contact me on Discord so we can hash out the details." In other words, a new type of art spammer. People are especially outraged by this new thing, because they get the excitement of receiving positive feedback and then find out it was a lie, and that the commenter is just trying to manipulate them.

No idea if this is what this was, as I'm not going to reply to them, but I wouldn't be surprised, especially since they left the "omg this is wonderful" comment but weren't impressed enough to leave a kudo.

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No idea what this is about

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 19:11:27 GMT

So that story I just posted yesterday. It was okay, right? I mean, nothing amazing, nothing groundbreaking, not even anything moving. Just a couple thousand words connecting the real-life colorful belt from the Byzantine era to the Doctor's scarf.

Well, I got this comment on it:

( Read more... )

And I have to ask, to anyone who cares to voice an opinion: Is this sarcasm? Are they saying it really was rubbish without making it look like a bash?

Because it's so excessive -- especially for such an average, vanilla story -- that I can't take it at face value. I mean, really, who gets emotional about a description of a city being loud and colorful? Not to mention, I didn't even describe the city at all. I just had Victoria say it was noisy and the Doctor point at the church.

And they want "the next update immediately"? This is so obviously a one-shot. Sorry about your hands and knees.

I feel like the person fed ChatGPT my story and asked it to write the most over-the-top emotional comment it could come up with.

I'm torn between answering nicely and deleting it entirely, but I'm starting to lean towards the delete.

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"Threads and Memories"

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 18:38:29 GMT

Title: "Threads and Memories"
Fandom(s): Doctor Who
Characters: Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield, Third Doctor
Rating: G
Genre: General
Word Count: 1809

Summary: The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria visit Constantinople in the early part of the Byzantine Empire.

Read it on AO3.

Author's Notes: This was inspired by the post shown in the ending notes, from Archaeology & Art on Twitter, which romanajo123 sent to me a couple of days ago. As she said, "there's so many possibilities here", which of course, is exactly the kind of thing I like to write, so how could I resist?

I mean, as Paul Cornell said in response to the question, "Where do you get your ideas?"

The answer is that everyone has ideas. The difference is that writers write them down and work on them.

I got a few ideas from the image, and another few ideas from my husband (who loves to come up with ideas), and this is the one I selected and worked on. Two days later (one day writing, one day rewriting), and here it is. And the most fun I've had writing in a while, because this wasn't induced by my monthly posting deadline (though it still counts for that). \o/

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The joys of housecleaning

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 18:55:27 GMT

Happy 2026! Surprisingly, the new year has not brought much more rain in this part of the world than last year. It's been strangely dry this season, and moving across the border between that part of the solar revolution and this part of the solar revolution hasn't made much of a difference. Yes, I'm trying to be funny and sarcastic, and it really isn't working, is it?

The holiday season was the same for us as it's always been, which is pretty much just the same day-to-day as every other season. Mum-in-law was a little less annoying than usual, calling on both Christmas Eve and Christmas to ask how we liked what she sent us, and then calling every day after that for a week to ask if we'd received the card she sent (which we never did, as I think about it). It's not that it was a special card or had anything extra in it. It was just late (or lost) and she wanted to make sure it got to us (and that we thanked her for it; that's her real goal). I don't know why she doesn't pack the card in the box with the presents when she sends them.

Anyway, more behind the cut.

( Read more... )

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Fic Year in Review, 2025

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 18:57:17 GMT

I was poking around in my journal and found this fic meme from 2017. I like the format and discussion questions, so I thought I would resurrect it for this year.

The Year in Fic:

All stories are Doctor Who except where noted.

( Read more... )

And discussion...

( Read more... )

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My late uncle

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 20:16:43 GMT

While I'm actually sitting here at my desk posting stuff, I might as well write a post here that I've been meaning to do. My uncle -- the last of my mother's family -- died last month, and while I really didn't know him well, I wanted to jot down a few interesting things about him.

( Read more... )

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"The Experiment"

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 19:42:44 GMT

Title: "The Experiment"
Fandom(s): Doctor Who
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble
Rating: G
Genre: General
Word Count: 1983

Summary: (Blue Rain AU) Donna loves helping Jon learn how to control his powers, but she's surprised by his latest idea.

Read it on AO3.

Author's Notes: This fic is a gift to romanajo123 because the idea -- specifically the last few things that Jon says -- comes from a discussion we had earlier this year, way back near the beginning I think, about how a person will typcially only work hard to do something if there's something they really, really want at the end.

This was an interesting challenge for me because for the most of the latter half, Jon and Donna do not move and can't see each other's faces, so I felt that I had to keep the visual description to a minimum: no gestures, no facial expressions. It's rather a dry read, but then it's rather a dry situation.

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I don't know whether to feel happy or sad

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 20:13:54 GMT

Been a kind of up and down last two weeks.

( Read more... )

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"The Bookshop"

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 20:31:08 GMT

Title: "The Bookshop"
Fandom(s): Doctor Who, Good Omens (TV)
Characters: Fourteenth Doctor, Donna Noble, Aziraphale, Muriel
Rating: G
Genre: General
Word Count: 1219

Summary: Shopping in Soho, the Doctor and Donna find a quaint old bookshop.

Read it on AO3.

Author's Notes: This is the DW/GO doppleganger crossover that no one wanted.

I seem to do that every few fics or so, write things that go in directions that no one wanted them to go. I suppose it's a good thing that I don't care. :D

I've wanted to write a Ten-meets-Crowley fic ever since GO came out in 2018, but every idea I came up with seemed so cliché, the same as everyone else was writing, so I never bothered. But, this week, I thought of this. And I made it Fourteen-meets-Aziraphale only partly because it's amusing to me to write a story which doesn't have either of the characters I originally wanted to write. Mostly, though, it's because Fourteen's timeline actually matches the GO timeline and there's a good reason for him and Donna to be in Soho.

To be honest, my husband is to blame for this idea. He found a list of words online and suggested I use them as prompts for stories, and the first word on the list was "hubris". That and a comment he made a couple of days ago about the Doctor probably being able to see the demons' and angels' wings even when they're hidden (because they are more metaphysical than physical) sparked this.

I'm noticing, in my attempt to write a story a month, that while I'm spending most of the early part of the month working on completing WIPs, I rarely ever actually do so, and that what I end up posting is usually some idea that comes to me on the 20th and doesn't have enough time to develop well. It's actually really disappointing, the quality of my work over the last year. Maybe I need to work on trying to get the cool idea early in the month, to give me time to actually do a good job on the story, and use the end of the month (if I have it) to do WIP work. Or, perhaps, have some tripe ready to post, so that if I get an idea late in the month, I can post the tripe for that month and then work on the idea for the next month.

I just feel, though, that I'm just trying to game the system, which was not the intent of this "a story a month" goal.

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More Stargate?!?!!

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 04:09:17 GMT

Absolute total coincidence.

My husband wrenched his knee and aggravated the tendonitis in his arm a couple of weeks ago (not in the same incident; they just happened with a day of each other), so he was looking for things to do that he could do sitting in one place but not at his computer (which is what aggravated his tendonitis). We got into a discussion about some event in Stargate SG-1, which we found was in the second episode of the fourth season, so we decided to watch the episode to answer whatever the question was.

Hey, that's a great thing to do that's sitting in one place and doesn't use your arm! So, once the episode was over and we found that we enjoyed it more than we had anticipated, we watched the next one. And the next one. And the next one...

Basically, we've been chain-watching SG-1 for the past week or so, and we're now near the end of season 6. It's twenty-six episodes per season, so we really are watching a lot. And it's been awesome! It's been a while since we rewatched SG-1, so though we're able to figure out what each episode will be from the first thirty seconds (and we've been racing each other, who figures it out first), it's been really fun seeing all the details again. Still lots of <3 for O'Neill, Teal'c, Daniel, Dr. Fraiser, General Hammond, and especially Jonas (we're in his single season now, and I still prefer him over Daniel). Sam is still an annoying caricature of female empowerment, but not so bad when you're expecting it. Oh, and Maybourne! Probably one of the best character development arcs ever!

Speaking of Maybourne, my husband has been reading the r/stargate sub, though I think he's always been following it, but only now he's telling me about it because we're watching the show. He says that there's a movement of "Maybourne did nothing wrong," which is awesome. I mean, they're wrong -- Maybourne did a hell of a lot wrong -- but it's nice to see that lots of people recognize that he's an amazing character.

Anyway, so we were on a road trip today (overnighting in the nearby city) and silence fell in the car for a little bit, so my husband pulled out his phone and checked Reddit, and he discovered that just today, they announced a new Stargate series! Omg!

There isn't much info on it yet. It's being produced by Prime Video (which is good for us, as we don't subscribe to anything else). It's not a reboot, but a continuation (so, much like 2005 Doctor Who). The showrunner is one of the writers that was involved in all three SG series, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe. No description of the show or cast list was released, though one of the old showrunners said that he's seen the script for the pilot and it will be just like the old shows, focused on exploration and human spirit. So, I'm expecting late 2027 at the earliest, more likely mid-2028.

We've been talking all day about what this show could possibly be about. The thing about all of the old SG series, they were all about humans going out with current-day technologies and exploring a universe that's so much more advanced than they were. The stories, then, were that humans were the underdogs, hopelessly outclassed, but able to find solutions to the problems because of their determination and cleverness.

However, SG-1 and Atlantis (I've never seen Universe, so I don't know about that) pretty much ended with killing off all of the powerful races in the show (the Ori, the Asgard, and the Replicators are all dead, as well as all the powerful Go'auld) and landing the most advanced Ancient city/spaceship ever in the ocean outside San Francisco Bay. The writers are going to have to come up with some pretty amazing BS to challenge the humans, who had already started to build their own spaceships and weapons at the time and have now had fifteen years to incorporate Ancient tech.

We're optimistic, though. All we really want is a "go explore a new planet, get in trouble, save the day" show. If they can do that, we'll be happy.

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Magic: the Gathering: Doctor Who Secret Lair

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 22:15:48 GMT

A couple of years ago, Magic: the Gathering put out a Doctor Who set of cards, and I wrote an entry about that, explaining the card set and our progress in collecting the cards we wanted. The set came out in October 2023, just before the 60th, and covered the show up until the end of Thirteen's run.

Well, a few weeks ago, a friend of ours in Guild Wars 2, who we call Cupcake and who is a big MtG player, was talking about the set and lamented that he couldn't justify how much he'd have to spend to get the Fourteenth Doctor card.

Wait, Fourteenth Doctor card? There was no Fourteenth Doctor card. The set ended with Thirteen.

It was part of a Secret Lair drop. Didn't you guys know about it?

Yeah, brb, buying cards...

Apparently, MtG does this, put out small sets of cards in limited printing. In the case of DW, they released a set called "Secret Lair: Regeneration" for the 60th, with cards for the Fourteenth Doctor, the Meep, Rose Noble, the Toymaker, and the Fifteenth Doctor. The set came out in December 2023, so the BBC must have released details of the specials to Wizards of the Coast long before that so that they could make these cards. (Though obviously not *all* the details since the set isn't named "Secret Lair: Bigeneration". :P )

So, of course, we bought the cards -- well, the ones we were interested in, anyway, as we're trying to cut down on our spending. (Though, the two cards we didn't get aren't all that expensive.) The expensive one was Fourteen, expensive enough that it's counting as my birthday and Christmas present this year. I looked online to find out why in the world this card is so expensive, and it's a combination of two things: 1) a completely unique mechanic that makes for an interesting Commander deck, and 2) David Tennant. As Cupcake said, "He is so handsome on that card!"

Anyway, here they are! Click to expand. They're in soft sleeves and hard sleeves, so there are a few artifacts in the photo. Also, Fifteen is a foil, and that also played games with my phone camera.

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