Why, why, why? After such an amazing episode, why stoop to this piece of tripe. Ugh.

Ugh, what a week. I missed Monday and Tuesday for workouts because my son was home sick both days. I managed workouts the rest of the week, but didn't actually do any writing. So now I am making up for it, and this is the first of three back-dated entries. Let's go.

The joy of Sundays is that I get to sleep in, and then do my workout at a nice, leisurely time in the late morning. Usually Sunday afternoons are reserved for Epcot with my son to photograph Alice in Wonderland and Snow White, but due to rainy conditions I didn't even need to rush out the door to do that.  The rain isn't awesome, but compared to the rest of the country that seems to be buried under snow I am good with it. (Although I get to go visit snow in Colorado a week from Tuesday, so I'll get in my six days of winter soon enough.) As for today's treadmill viewing, this story the end of a cycle of five consecutive stories that follow on to each other one right after the other. It also reunites the regenerated Doctor with her regenerated TARDIS. I have thoughts about that.

Today, after six months of wading through spin-offs, I finally returned to Doctor Who proper. When I crossed the finish line of Phase One of this ridiculous project, the latest season was still months away from airing. Today, then, I started a re-watch of the Thirteenth Doctor's first season -- this time while walking on a treadmill, as any sensible fan should view it. 

Well, that's it. As of today I have now watched every single episode of any official BBC-licensed Doctor Who related television program ever broadcast. It has taken my just shy of two years. I still have a few other things to watch, like the two Peter Cushing movies, a couple of animated web productions, and then some random half-licensed or unlicensed things like Shakedown and The Stranger. Tomorrow I will start watching the most recent season with the Thirteenth Doctor, which I have already seen but have not yet seen while walking on the treadmill. But the bottom line is that I can honestly now say that I have seen literally every Doctor Who television story ever. That's dang near a thousand episodes covering over fifty five years of broadcasting, and that includes watching complete reconstructions of the lost episodes (and God would I love to see the original broadcast versions of Marco Polo and The Faceless Ones). So... how cool is that?

Today's penultimate episode of Class was unique from all the others, and I will get to that below, but first I want to talk about a line of dialog from Miss Quill quoting from the poem Home by Warsan Shire. "No one leaves home," she says, "Unless home is the mouth of a shark." I try not to get too political on this blog, although I make no bones about the fact that I am a card-carrying bleeding-heart liberal. Researching this poem, it absolutely speaks one of the biggest issues plaguing my own country today. Please follow that link and read the entire poem, it speaks to the refugee experience. Her in the United States we currently have a xenophobic president who seems hell-bent on stirring up fear and hatred against immigrants, describing them as rapists and murderers while begrudgingly admitting that some of them might be nice people. It is horrifying. We can be better. We can have immigration policies that maintain security without dehumanizing immigrants, or ripping children away from families and locking them in kennels. "I want to go home," says Shire, "but home is the mouth of a shark, home is the barrel of a gun, and no one would leave home unless home chased you to the shore..." 

Today was a particularly good day on the treadmill. I kept a faster pace through the entire workout than I have since last November, and while it was a battle towards the end it felt really good. I feel like I am pushing myself back in the right direction. In terms of my five-day moving average I am certainly back on the right track. I keep trying to tell myself that this is not about weight, but honestly it kind of is a little bit. I mean, don't get me wrong - I am thrilled with what I have achieved with this ridiculous project, but I also feel like I can still achieve a bit more. As for Class, today's story was a Bottle Episode. So that's kinda weird.

Back in 1969 at the tail end of the Second Doctor era there was a story called Seeds of Death in which the Ice Warriors attempted to invade the Earth by means of some titular deadly seed pods. Then seven years later, smack in the middle of the Fourth Doctor era, there was a story called The Seeds of Doom in which an evil gardener nearly destroyed the Earth by means of an alien Krynnoid seed pod. The only reason I can remember which title is which is because (as my friend Michael Montoure pointed out to me) the titles come in alphabetical order. I have long wished for a third story in that pattern to complete the spiritual trilogy, and today's episode of Class missed out on the golden opportunity. I'm telling you, it should have been titled The Seeds of Digestion.

I had my second day of yoga yesterday, so that was nice. Very very early, but nice. Today I rocked out another four miles on the treadmill while watching some Doctor Who-ish goodness. Tonight I had a performance of a show I am in. Oh, and this morning I produced my very first podcast demo. How cool is that? Life is good. Also, as an aside, today's episode of Class has my absolute favorite title of the entire series, so check it out.

I took Monday off from working out, mostly by accident. I had intended to get on the treadmill over lunch but then got pulled away and was never able to make up the time. Tuesday, on the other hand, I tried Hot Yoga for the first time in several years. I gotta tell ya, an hour on the treadmill? No problem. An hour of hot yoga? Holy cow that kicks my butt. Needless to say, I am going back again tomorrow for another session. In the meantime, I watched the third episode of Class today.