Today marks the ten month anniversary of the day I started this ridiculous project. In that time I have walked 1,009.34 miles on the treadmill while taking 1,980,726 steps, watching 568 episodes and 118 stories of Doctor Who, and losing 60.30 pounds in weight. That's another 6.88 pounds since last month, which is more than half again what I lost the previous month. Where I seemed to be stalling out in progress during the fall, I now seem to be accelerating again. Last month I set a stretch goal to weigh in at least once under 250 lbs before Christmas, and here I am with five days to spare and I am consistently weighing in between 245 and 247. My current stretch goal is to weigh in at under 240 lbs at least once before my birthday next month on the 15th. Another new thing in my progress - last night my wife mentioned to me that I don't snore anymore, which I think is a huge positive sign. I can honestly say that watching Doctor Who has been the most positive thing for my health in my entire life.

Speaking of which, I watched two new episodes this morning. Let's talk about that.

As much as I have ragged on Adric as a character, I don't blame actor Matthew Waterhouse. Adric is no more his fault than Wesley Crusher is Wil Wheaton's fault. Today Mr. Waterhouse turns 56 years old, and I wish him the very best. True, I loathe the character he played, and I am counting the days until I can gleefully witness his demise. That being said, it is worth noting that he was the very first openly gay actor to appear on Doctor Who. That took a lot of guts in 1981. He also still holds the record as the youngest actor to play a male companion on the show. It's just a shame his character was such a smug piece of crap.

Speaking of which, let's talk about how Adric was a smug piece of crap in today's viewing.

As of about an hour ago, I have walked over one thousand miles on the treadmill since starting this ridiculous project. How amazing is that? My feelings are best summed up by David Tennant and the cast & crew of Doctor Who:

Also, I watched the first half of Kinda, so let's talk about that.

So, I just finished installing a new hardwood floor in our guest room. This, after a 2pm performance of my show (the fifth performance in the last four days). My sister is arriving from Seattle on Tuesday, and I am racing to get the room ready for her. Tomorrow I will get the baseboard trim done and reassemble the room, so I think we are golden.I didn't get the closet done, but that can wait for another day. I also plan on installing a new floor in the master bedroom, but that ain't happening until after Christmas. Aside from that, I also hit the treadmill this morning and watched two more episodes of Doctor Who. You'll never guess which character annoyed me completely.

So let's talk about that.

In lieu of saying something pithy or relevant today, I think Cyanide and Happiness has summed up my weight loss journey pretty well with this recent short:

Oh, I also started watching a new Doctor Who story today, so let's talk about that.

In no particular order, today:  I set a new record low for my weight, just below 245 lbs, so my target of getting below 240 before my birthday next month seems do-able; the show I am in is now sold out for the remainder of its run, with seven performances remaining; I am now on vacation until the second of January, and I was able to clear out my entire bug list  before going, with one exception, so I feel pretty darn good about that (especially since we did a really cool software release last night, with some work of which I am very proud); and, oh yeah, I finished watching the first Fifth Doctor story.

So let's talk about that.

Look, here's the deal:  Today has been a long day of work, plus a theatrical performance, plus a software release, and now it's almost midnight and I want to go to bed. But I'll write this up all quick-like first.

So let's talk about the very first Fifth Doctor episodes.

Well here it is, the end of the Fourth Doctor era. It's weird, in that in some ways I feel like I have been watching Tom Baker stories forever (every day for three months), but in other ways it feels like it came and went so quickly. I'm a little bummed that the new restoration of Shada hasn't been released yet in the US, I would have liked to include that in my viewing. I will have to add it to my list of associated things to watch once I finish the main series, along with K9 and Company and a few others. After 92 days, 41 stories, 335 miles, and 625,000 steps, I am done with the Fourth Doctor. 

So let's talk about his final goodbye.

As I am sure you readily remember, the Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that the state of entropy in any isolated system (such as the Universe) will always increase over time.So, for example, left to its own devices your home will always get more messy and it will always take more effort to clean it up than it took to mess it up in the first place. Currently my own desktop is a monument to the Second Law, although I do intend to remedy that situation in the near future. I can honestly state that no chemistry of physics teacher taught me about thermodynamics; no, I learned about it from Doctor Who all the way back in 1981 and it has stuck with me ever since. This proves that the show lives up to its remit to be an educational program as well as an entertaining one.

Let's talk about that.

I had another strong day on the treadmill, and another good weight checkin. I also had a very long day of work plus a performance in the evening, so I am exhausted. The only thing I want to note is that I have a couple of big milestones coming up. In two more days I finish the Fourth Doctor. In about a week I will hit 1,000 miles cumulatively walked. In about two weeks I will hit 2,000,000 cumulative steps. Yes, I might actually hit that last one on Christmas day. Ho, ho. ho!

I also finished the first story of this Master trilogy, so let's talk about that.