About a month ago, the Trump administration got rid of the de minimis exemption, whereby packages valued under $800 could slide in without import duties. Now there's a backlog as the government can't process all of this paperwork, leading to UPS just destroying packages

This week I've finally been watching the 1977 Count Dracula. Spookily, by coincidence, I started watched Part 1 11pm on 4th of October... only for the warning locals in the carriage scene to declare midnight on the 4th of October the exact date when evil holds sway over the Earth...

That new Barrowman car crash interview is the usual mix of strawmen, disingenuousness, self-justification, self-pity, and narcissism I've come to expect over the last few years. Though him hoping women now feel less secure making complaints than they did a few years ago is an unpleasant new wrinkle.

Maker's Mark somehow always manages to surprise you with how hard it hits no matter how times it's hit you before. Very pleasantly floating around the room here.

In honour of this weekend's Terror of the Zygons screening at the BFI Doctor Who event vm.tiktok.com/ZNdpgrf1W/

Wonder Women clocked it

I know that tie lol

One thing I'll say about DC not only canceling Red Hood, but recalling the first issue and refunding stores for buying it, is that you can still get Neil Gaiman's work through them. They still work with Otto Schmidt. Eddie Berganza worked there for years AFTER the formation of a policy that no women

2 important aspects to the Kimmel thing. (i) he didn't say anything about Kirk, he showed the clip of Trump blatantly not caring, shrugging off questions in the aftermath to talk about his ballroom. THAT'S what hit a nerve.

NOPE. I've never gone to their UK events and never will, but didn't want to lecture. But announcing they're inserting themselves into the Irish con scene a day after their mates took over London? I think Irish con-goers need to think long and hard about where the money goes before going to this.

No idea if anyone from the Whoniverse Show is even on Bluesky, but never mind: here's my contribution to the request for Doctor Who Season 13 fan art and cosplays! The Doctor as seen in Terror of the Zygons and Planet of Evil, complete with anti-matter Farrah's toffee tin. #DoctorWhoFanArt

Can't quite believe it's just over a year since I was interviewed by the BBC and wound up (briefly) in the BBC Two broadcast of the Doctor Who Prom. (Still quietly, selfishly gutted the Prom wasn't included on the S2 Blu-ray) #DoctorWho

Well there's an idea...

My latest review for Blogtor Who is of the Doctor Who Season Two Blu-ray set (also contains convenient links to all the individual episode reviews)

I want what these cats have 😔

Needs lace cutting and styling, obviously, and I need a shave, but pretty happy with this wig upgrade for my Twelfth Doctor cosplay. Working on a few new/upgraded cosplays for next year's Doctor Who con Flux by @starfuryevents.bsky.social and Twelve is definitely in the mix!

Beautifully niche gag, expertly executed

More shamelessly touristic stuff from the visit up north with seeing the Giant's Causeway, which is much more impressive than I remembered from my teenage visit. Particularly the extent to which it actually continues under the surrounding hills.

One cool thing about last weekend's visit to my son in Derry is that it turns out they have a Derry Girls museum. It's as cool as you'd expect.

Actually calling your place Bodega Bagels sets high expectations. But, yes, that's some tasty bagel. Handily located in The Halt next to Belfast Grand Central Station.

Free Derry says Trans Rights!

Did I mention that I have a painting exhibition coming up? It's at the Exeter Picturehouse from 1 September until 2 November 2025. If you're in the Devon area, please do pop along. Oh, and do tell all your wealthy, art-loving, painting-buying friends... Please share this post. Thanks!

On the way north for a weekend visiting my son in Derry! Comfy train and an actual tea trolley (you never see those anymore)

Here are the authors who have pulled out of the Queer Polari Prize due to the inclusion of self-identified TERF/Gender Critical author Boyne. They deserve support & I think it’s worth buying from an independent bookshop or borrowing from a library!

Sunrise as I was leaving the house this morning. Very pretty but also a little sobering. It means the turning point of the seasons and next week it won't be *quite* sunrise when I leave. The nights. From here on out, they are drawing in.

Possibly the biggest ratio I've ever seen (currently about 83:1) And the legal question seems worth asking - is it legitimate to require constituents to hand over data to a private company in order to get constituency services?

I've given up on thinking any actor celebrity "seems like a good person," as it's proven time and again that you never can tell (and honestly, taking that Law & Order coin was already a warning sign for Gomez) but still kind of disappointing to those whose acting you admired prove to be awful.

So I'm officially heading to the UK next year for my first @starfuryevents.bsky.social Flux. The lineup, headed by Eccleston, Whittaker, and Gatwa is just too good to miss. Plus I've always wanted to hit a dedicated Doctor Who con, led by fan and guest meets rather than merch stands.

DuckDuckGo's image search has been its big weakess so far (too many irrelevant results, no real Related Images search.) However, this one move shifts things a lot in its favour.

No cheating. Your last saved celebrity photo is your therapist. Who is it?

A guy at a late night screening of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas who stood up to point and babble about the "lizard people!" in the bar scene. When someone replied that, yes, we could all see the lizard people, he turned and ran out, screaming at the top of his lungs.

So obvious an idea I can't believe I haven't seen anyone else do it, but here's DC's epic Superman 75th Anniversary set to Punkrocker, with some edits for timing and to add some rep for My Adventures with Superman and the @jamesgunn.bsky.social Superman's most punk rock moments #Superman #Punkrocker

This home restoration show sure hits different now the narrator's Galactus.

REVEALED: we identified the operator of an overtly racist X account, "GlomarResponder," as ICE Assistant Chief Counsel James Rodden, based on an overwhelming number of biographical details matched through publicly available documents, other social media activity, and courtroom observation.

Finally caught up to the final episode of Squid Game, which I'd actually been putting off both because I was dreading what would happen and because I just didn't want it to end. It's a rare accomplishment for a show to make you sad, happy, and angry all with one ending, particularly *on purpose.*

People have been looking for alt text for this DCU mural from the Superman movie, so I thought I'd oblige as well as my imperfect DC comics allows.

Is it really THAT hard to write your own copy? A certain site ripping off my articles almost on a weekly basis is starting to vex me a bit. If there's news you want to cover, come up with your own angle, or at least your own sentences. Copying and pasting someone else's word for word is just lazy.

My pals at @vidiots.bsky.social created an interactive experience during the film breaking fakeout scene in their screening of Gremlins 2: The New Batch last weekend. It's even better than what I had hoped to do in 1990! 😁

I love the capacity of film, even today, to still surprise with its innovation and sometimes wildly imaginative ways of capturing moments. Even as audiences increasing just assume everything is CGI.

This is going to seem very specialist and niche. But does anyone know if the 1968 film of Winter's Tale ever got a DVD release or can be sourced anywhere? It's the screen debut of Tom Baker from Doctor Who (he was the Bear) but seems to have vanished into the ether since.

LOL

How the merry Hell is it hotter at night this week?

One of the lovely things about watching old 1970s Doctor Who with both the commentaries and info text on is the little clashes of fact and memory Director: "Of course, this was all before Health and Safety went mad." Info Text: "The production team were fined £500 by BBC Health and Safety for this"

this is insane - ask grok 4 a sensitive political question and it genuinely searches Musk's tweets to find an answer. this is not a hallucination where LLMs lack the capacity to report on their own capabilities — you can just see the searches the bot makes

I’m no expert but I would’ve got a person to do it.

Every now and then you stumble across a YouTube video, often years old, that's so perfect it surely has no right to exist. Rogue One: A Star Wars story, reimagined through the lens of 1970s war/action/heist/comedy movie Kelly's Heroes. youtu.be/PZgHzRm66a8?...

Between this and Firefox Colley had a fine line in perfectly competent mid-management cogs in authoritarian regimes, who made you feel sympathy as they were terrorized simultaneously by Big Hero Stuff nobody could have predicted and the unhinged temper tantrums of those above them.

It makes no difference to any of the cast and crew if you watch Sandman S2 or not. They've already been paid. The show is already cancelled. The only person viewing benefits is Gaiman as a litmus test of whether there's money in continuing to hire him.

Here’s some dog content to temporarily distract you from the mess happening in the world