In Which I Stumble Upon More Modernized Classics

Okay. So I just finished watching a TV series called Jekyll which first aired on BBC in 2007.

If you're looking for something interesting to watch, you should definitely try it! It was fantastic! It was created by Steven Moffat who also create one of my other favorite shows Sherlock and is also the current head writer for Doctor Who.

Similar to concept of  Sherlock, Moffat set the plot of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" in present day. James Nesbitt plays the "Jekyll" character. Look familiar?

Well, if you've seen The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey then you might recognize him as Bofur the dwarf.

Now you're probably curious as to whether or not good-guy Bofur can pull off iconic duality of Jekyll and Hyde. Let me tell you, James Nesbitt can! He is fantastic. It's amazing how well he shifts between the two characters and makes you terrified of Hyde while extremely sympathetic to Jekyll. He does a spectacular job. I cannot praise his performance in this show enough. I can't wait to see Nesbitt in other roles. He truly is an amazing actor. 

Overall, Moffat really did a fantastic job with this series. If you are familiar with either his work on Sherlock or Doctor Who, I would say that plot-wise, Jekyll is  a lot more like Sherlock and his earlier two-part episodes of Doctor Who (not his stuff as head writer- honestly I don't think he does nearly as good a job as Davis did), i.e. he does a better job of keeping his plot together and pulling off those usual Moffat-esque surprises. It really is a brilliantly done show.

Most of the actors do a pretty fantastic job. There is the token American who is kind of pathetic, but whatever. Also, if you really enjoy dark humor, this show is definitely for you. There's a scene in Episode 2 that cracks me up just thinking about it.

The only unfortunate thing I can say about this series is that Season 2 is non-existent. It ends on a fairly decent wrap-up but I think Season 2 could have been pretty awesome. According to imdb.com, Moffat has written Season 2 but BBC refuses to make it which I find really sad because it really is an amazing show!

Hope you have time to check it out and let me know what you think!

Happy readings!

Heather

P.S. This show is available on Netflix and Amazon Prime!

Star Trek Into Awesome!

As I mentioned yesterday, I was all psyched to see Star Trek Into Darkness at midnight.

 Let me tell you that the movie did not disappoint! It was amazing! JJ Abrams does a brilliant job yet again. It definitely lives up to his first attempt at the Star Trek franchise. The story was fantastic and there are several surprises in store for you on that front. Benedict Cumberbatch played an amazing villain. Everyone else did such a great job just like in the first movie!

The one actor that impressed me the most though was Chris Pine who plays Captain Kirk. He did such a fantastic job. Not that he wasn't already a great Kirk, but I think he really out did himself this time. His acting was amazing. He pulled off the part JJ Abrams wrote for him spectacularly. You are in for a treat, my friends. 

I'm going to stop here before I start spoiling it, which is a big NO-NO in my book. Anyway, I'll definitely be seeing it again! Hopefully, y'all be will be able to see it soon! Enjoy!

Until next time, happy readings!

Heather

P.S. If you're a Doctor Who fan, you should keep an eye out for Mickey! :) 

IT'S ALIVE!

By "it's", I mean, me. Apparently I survived my first year of grad school! WOOT WOOT! That is some cause for excitement my friend. Unfortunately, I don't know how much of my sanity has been left in tact (and given that I didn't have much to start with I'm not too hopeful) but I survived and that's what counts. 

Grad school has been an experience, my friends. There's not much time to do anything else but math. Not that I mind. I do love math but it's definitely going to be nice to be able to do other things (see list below). Okay. That's not entirely true. In case you didn't know, the proportion of television you watch in grad school correlates directly to how much stuff you have to accomplish in a given amount of time. The short amount of time and the more you have to do means you get a decent amount of TV watched. Not necessarily a good thing and I'm seriously hoping to break the habit next year but I does give me stuff to blog about now. I think that'll be part of my mission for this summer: find a more productive way to de-stress during the school year. We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, it's so nice to have a break that lasts more than a week! WOOT WOOT! I have so many plans for this summer it's a tad bit ridiculous. I highly doubt I'm going to even touch on half of it but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try! 

Heather's List of Summer Accomplishments (hopefully):

1. Quilt! Quilt! Quilt!

2. Play lots of games

3. Start applying for PhD programs

        (i) Study for Subject GRE

        (ii) Write statements of purpose

4. Knock out a good bit of my thesis

I order an insane amount of fabric last week. I think I've turned into what my aunt calls a "fabric addict." Some of it I just ordered because it looked pretty... I need to be more careful in the future I think but it should help towards my first goal. Hoping it'll be here soon because I'm itching to get started!!! 

Currently, working on (2). Getting my butt handed to me by some computers in Battle for Wesnoth. That's what you get when you team up with a guy. He thinks you can take on 2 computers at once when you've both already admitted to not being great at the game. Apparently, he doesn't comprehend the concept of "baby steps." Tsk tsk. Oh well, we're definitely going to learn from this experience though. Or at least I hope so. 

Well, that's what's new for me this year. I better go focus on my game. I think we might be making a comeback! Hope y'all have a great summer planned and come back soon. Hoping to update regularly over the summer. Might have something about Star Trek Into Darkness because you know this girl is going to go see it! 

Happy Readings!

Heather

The Madman's Box

Dude! It's seemed like so long but I finished my newest project in under a week! Have any of you guessed what it is? I know some of you already now because (a) you live in my house and "researched" with me. Great times, Rach!, (b) I talked to you about it extensively. Thanks for all the help, Aunt Sarah!, or (c) You watch the show from which I got inspiration for the quilt.

Here's the picture again for those of you who missed the last post.

For those of you who do not fit any of those categories, my quilt was inspired by the British show Doctor Who! My sister and I recently marathon-ed all six seasons of the new series. We did it in 12 days. Yeah, we have no life, but it was our last summer together before we left for school. It was essential sister bonding time. ...okay, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! :)

Anyway, I'm addicted. It's a great show and I have no idea how to explain it. lol. My best attempt is that it's about a time lord called the Doctor who travels through time with people from Earth who are known as his companions. His ship is called the TARDIS and that's how he travels through time. Also, the ship looks like a Police Box from the '60s. Apparently, they were very common in England when the show first started. The ship's chameleon circuit broke down after landing on Earth so it's stuck the shape of a Police Box. Anyway, their adventures take them from medieval Venice to 5 billion AD (at least that's where we've seen them go!). They also travel to various planets across the universe, meeting all kinds of aliens. IT IS AWESOME! I LOVE IT! :)

So back to my quilt! I finished it this afternoon. I probably would have finished it this morning but I promised a friend I'd hang out with her so of course I only had one more panel to sew on and I had to leave. :\ But it's done now and that's all that matters and it's so awesome!!!!

It's the TARDIS. Here's a picture of it from the show just for reference.

Picture from Google Images

AHHHHH! I'm so excited! :) It's so cool! I designed it myself. The border was inspired by the opening sequence for seasons 1 through 4 of the show. It turned out a lot better then I thought it would to be honest. I can't wait to get it quilted. I have an awesome idea for the binding. Can't wait! After it's finally quilted, I'm strongly considering turning into a Linus and carrying it around with me ALL THE TIME! I just want to show it off to everyone. :)

Okay. I need to calm down. lol. And get back to the so much less exciting packing. :\ Now I have to figure out something else nerdy to quilt. I'm really enjoying these nerdy quilts!

Hope everyone's had a great week!

Happy readings!

Just a little update...

Hello all! I've been busy researching my next quilt. Yeah, watched an entire series to prepare for it. :) Here's how much I have done so far!

Don't knock it! I just started tonight! Can you guess what I'm working on?  I accidentally made it a little small but I've figured out a way to fix it!

Oh I also finished a 1600 quilt top. I've had the fabric for years now and I finally decided to finish. I'll post a picture later. Right now, I have to keep an eye on the oven. Got a batch of baklava cooking! My house smells yummy!

Hope everyone's week is going well!

Happy readings!

Long Time No See, But I've Been Productive!

Long time no hear. yeah, I can make all these excuses but what do they amount to? Nothing. So Im not going to make them.

Instead I'm going to tell you about my insanely busy week! Yay! Ever felt like the world was just sweeping along and you're only along for the ride? Yeah, that's what my week kind of felt like but I enjoyed every minute of it. I finished my first quilt, beat up two people to find out where my captain was (Okay, my tabletop RPG character did that...), and I started watching Doctor Who (more like marathoning...). I went to The Dark Knight Rises midnight premiere and started watching Downton Abbey. I think I can safely say that British TV has ruined me f orever.

So you see I've had a pretty crazy week but that also leaves a crazy amount to write about! Yay!

Since my aunt has threatened my life otherwise, this post is going to be about the quilt I made.

It's a baby quilt I made as a gift for one of my professors. Given how close my college math department was I thought it would make a nice gift from all the mathies. I designed it around the professor's area of study - physics. Yes, that's suppose to be the doppler effect. The border on the outside is a fabric I found online. It's a print of one of the professor's favorite online comics, xkcd. It's a pretty funny comic and very nerdy.

Anyway, I'm really proud of this quilt because it is the first quilt I've done almost completely by myself. I'm extremely grateful for all the help my aunt gave me with the parts I had problems with to be honest. Yeah, I admit some not so nice words were said about my sewing machine. Thankfully though, we ended on good terms and are still friends so much so that I have a new quilt in mind. I got the fabric yesterday with an insane amount of coupons.

In other news, I'm going to Six Flags tomorrow. You're probably wondering why a girl who is terrified of heights is going to an amusement park. I honestly don't like roller coasters but I'm going with some friends and I'm going to try to ride one of the bigger coasters. Not the metal contraptions that that spin you upside down, mind you, but I'm going to attempt a roller coaster. I'll try to get pictures. In any case, it should be highly hilarious for you, my reader. You know how insanely honest I am about embarrassing and horrifying events in my life. It really is amazing what people put on the internet nowadays.

Well, that's it for today. We'll have to see what tomorrow brings. If I can come unclued from Doctor Who long enough, I'll try to share my recent obsession with you all!

Until next time, happy readings!

PS I saw my third in-theater preview for The Hobbit. Given my friend said afterwards that she wished she could be as excited about something as I was about that movie, I think I can safely assume that I expressed the same level of excitement as the first time I saw it! :) 

Tired....

Uh... I feel like a zombie. I've done so much today. I think I've done more today then I have all summer. Ugh...That 'ugh' isn't so much for productiveness as it is for how exhausting productiveness is. As such, this post is going to be tiny. Super duper tiny, because my brain doesn't have the power to write 400 words and I think yesterday's long blog post can make up for that.

So you want to know what I did today. Of course you do. You're probably sitting on the edge of your seats as you read this. Careful! Don't fall out of your chair! ;)

HEATHER'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS JULY 16th EDITION:
1. Quilted a quilt for my aunt on her awesome... you know I don't know what it's called. It makes quilting easier that's for sure.
2. I finished quilting a baby blanket for a friend.
3. I sewed a butt-ton (yeah that's a real measurement) of my Wicked quilt. Not done yet though.
4. Made the front of a pillowcase.
5. Made binding for quilts.
6. Sewed part of 1600 quilt
7. Lost feeling in my hands...

Wait...that last one shouldn't be an accomplishment for today. Though to be honest, I'm not exactly sure how I'm typing this blog post... Anyway, that's it for now. I'll post pictures tomorrow. You know, when I can feel my fingers.

Hope your day was just as productive!

Happy readings!

Oh, Frodo and Gandalf went on an adventure yesterday to the airport. ...well, apparently the camera on my phone didn't save the picture. They did go to the airport though. Sorry I don't have any proof. Stupid camera...