It is heartening to know, as a dumb American, that other countries have large groups of people that inexplicably re-enact historical battles. I mean, sure, ok, I have a weird hobby too, but this kind of thing just confuses me. I can understand putting on a show, lord knows I have acted in several things, but that's not this. I can even understand dressing up in period costumes for something like a Renaissance Faire, hanging out and meeting other people who are into that kind of thing. But dressing up in period costumes and then painstakingly walking through an entire battle, with no audience but your fellow reenactors? That's just weird. But hey, whatever gets you out of bed in the morning, right? Unfortunately, in the case of this story the reenactment has potentially world-ending consequences.

So let's talk about that.

I couldn't avoid it, so this morning I watched the second half of Warriors of the Deep. It was ponderous.

The good news is, I can talk about this for a couple minutes and then never have to think about it again.

So, I got a bit of a late start today. After yesterday's epically long workout combined with a very long work day plus a birthday party, I just couldn't bring myself to get up early this morning. That being the case, I didn't hit the treadmill until well after 9pm tonight. In retrospect, I shouldn't have bothered.

But I guess I have to get through this story no matter what, so let's talk mock about that.

Good lord, what a long day. For the past eleven months I have been watching two 25-minute episodes per day, but this morning's viewing was the twentieth anniversary special that is effectively a movie with no breaking point. That meant that I spent a full 102 minutes on the treadmill, walking further than I ever have in a single day. Then I had a full day of work, and then a big birthday party. Aside from being Alexander Hamilton's birthday, today is my wife's birthday (and also my boss' birthday, and also a friend's birthday), plus my own birthday is on Monday. So we had a whole big thing planned for tonight. Unfortunately my wife has the flu and couldn't go out, but we filmed everyone singing to her. After that I had to go back to work to do a software release, and so now here I am at nearly midnight just finally writing this post.

So let's talk about the big twentieth anniversary special.

Today I watched the 600th episode of Doctor Who, how cool is that? The King's Demons makes for an interesting statistical bookend to the previous season's Black Orchid. Where Black Orchid boasted the largest viewing ratings of the John Nathan-Turner era, The King's Demons suffered the lowest ratings of the era. Both are rare two-part stories, and while Black Orchid is the last Pure Historical story the series has ever done, The King's Demons starts out appearing to also be of the same type. The story is set in England on March 3rd, 1215. I am sure I don't have to remind you that this is that date that King John announced his intention to become a crusader, and that only three months later he would sign the Magna Carta. So by all signs this story seemed to be a Pure Historical right up until the point that it isn't.

So let's talk about that.

Last month I set myself a stretch goal to weigh in below 240 at least once before my birthday on January 15th. I knew it was going to be a hard goal to reach, and this past week it has been complicated by my getting sick. That means I missed a couple extra days on the treadmill, plus just in general for me getting sick means getting a little bloated. If I had lost some weight in the last week instead of gaining a pound then I might still have a chance. As it is, it ain't gonna happen. At this point I would have to lose a pound a day for six days running, which isn't even healthy. So I guess that goal is being pushed back. I am eleven days away from my eleven month checkin, and I still think that's a bit tight to make. Maybe, but not likely. I certainly hoping to be consistently weighing in below 24 by the time I hit my one year anniversary of this ridiculous project on February 20th. Here's hoping.

Anyway, let's talk about Turlough finally growing a spine.

I wasn't sure if I was going to hit the treadmill today. This morning I wasn't quite up to it, so I put off my decision until the end of my work day. By 6pm I felt about 80% better, and decided I could push through a workout without damaging myself. Surprisingly, I made it through the entire hour at just one notch below my normal speed. I feel pretty good about that. Of course, I also now feel exhausted, so I am headed to bed directly after I hit the Post button.

So let's talk Doctor Who so I can fall into bed.

Honestly I shouldn't have done my treadmill workout today. I feel like crap, I have a headache and sore throat and my chest feels heavy. But I missed yesterday and I didn't want to miss two days in a row. so here we are. Not only did I do the treadmill for an hour, but I also took my son to the Magic Kingdom for several hours because, dang it, I promised him he could see Tinkerbell and take pictures. So here we are, it's barely 7pm and I am ready to crawl into bed and sleep for fourteen hours.

Folks, today has been a day. Up early racing to hit a deadline at work, sucked into a Production issue that turned out to have nothing to do with my code (but I was of course happy to pitch in and help figure it out), hours of going round and round with bug fixes, right in the middle of it a stupid non-emergency emergency with my mom (she's fine, and it wasn't her fault), and as I write this I am still in the midst of a software release and waiting on final QA sign off. Tomorrow I have to be up extra early because my autistic son is having dental surgery under anesthesia. All I want to do is go to bed, and I can't until this release is put to bed.

So while I am waiting for that to happen, let's talk about Doctor Who.

This evening my wife and I wont out to see a couple shows at the Orlando Fringe Winter Mini-Fest (if you are in Central Florida and have the chance, definitely go see Ominous George), and before the first show we happened to bump into the director of the show I did in December of 2016. I think the last time I had seen him in person was maybe in the early spring of 2017? Anyway, he walked right by me without even a glance but saw my wife and said hello to her and gave her a great big hug. She jokingly commented something along the lines of, "what, somebody loses sixty pounds and you don't even recognize them anymore?" which was when he turned and looked at me again. Then his eyes bugged out when he finally recognized me. He sincerely did not even know who I was until he studied my face. I have to say, it's a pretty nice feeling to be at the "people don't even recognize me anymore" stage of weight loss.

In other news, I finished my current Doctor Who story on the treadmill this morning. So let's talk about that.