that canadian girl

It’s a two-episode finale, and we’ll be recording it. Just a note to others to Sky Plus it, since the Series Link seems to have failed. For those who have yet to take the time to appreciate quite how good Torchwood is, why not make this your first encounter with Jack Harkness?

In other Torchwood news, John Barrowman has now tied the knot with Scott Gill, his partner of 16 years in a civil ceremony in Cardiff. Surely won’t stop the girls from swooning over him (or won’t stop me, anyways!)

And in somewhat related news, Andrew and I watched the whole first season of Doctor Who over the past few days, catching up on all the Christopher Eccleston & Billie goodness we missed out on in 2005! We’ve seen most of Season II, but bought it anyways for later viewing.

And now, time to look forward to Dr. Who Season III, which should start some time in the Spring. A new assistant for the Doctor, and some more Dalek action confirmed! EXTERMIIIINAAAATE! EXTERMIIIINAAAATE!

These are what I call great British productions – and a great Canadian collaboration in the case of Torchwood!

It’s been a long time since I published some of my favourite Google search results landing people onto my blog, so after reading Google’s own end-of-year Zeitgeist, I thought this would be a great opportunity to pick and choose some of the funniest search keywords from 2006 (since top keywords are a bit too boring in this case).

• “airplanes games”: As long as they don’t involve saying “boom” or sharp objects
• “quadra boob”: Fashion crime if there ever was one
• “make up tips for chinky eyes”: Yikes, I wouldn’t quite have worded it that way myself…
• “why dont ducks tell jokes whilst flying”: Whatever the punchline in, I bet it’s awful
• “im fat”: Join the club!
• “how to make a move on a girl”: If you’re counting on Google or my blog for help on this, you’re screwed, mate!
• “girls 10-13 advice on having your own business”: A lemonade stand maybe?
• “canadian chav pictures”: In Canada, we generally just call them white trash…
• “i want to purchase some womens ugg boots where can i find them”: The “Ugg boots”-related searches are frighteningly high this year. It’s too late to save the world, I’m sorry.
• “photos of people wearing ugg boots with leggings”: Urgh is it two-for-one at the Fashion Crimes Homestore?
• “jade goody stairs in your eyes”: Ouch, watch out for splinters
• “funny but not rude digestion songs”: Digestion song that doesn’t involve farting? Then what’s the point!?
• “brain reading ipod”: So THAT’s what Apple is releasing next? And here we were, thinking it was going to be a new phone…
• “6 boobed girl”: Wow, that’s got to be even more painful than quadraboobs
• “from the 13th of december how many days until christmas”: How lazy are some people?!
• “crap towns the nation decides croydon”: Have to agree on this one!
• “blow up doll jason donovan”: Leaving us all with a disturbing mental picture…

Cabel’s been playing Saints Row, and has produced what is possibly the most entertaining bug review in history – a Musical review.

“For starters, it was literally, down to almost every detail, an exact clone of Grand Theft Auto. (I couldn’t believe Rockstar didn’t K.C. Munchkin all over their faces.)

It also has some bugs. The world’s most awesome bugs.”

Or visit Cabel.name for the better quality Quicktime version.

On the way back from Kent a few days ago, I spotted Tom Toms on a couple of cars’ dashboards as we drove by them. Thought it would be funny to play yellow punchbuggy to pass time, but we would’ve been black and blue by the time we get home!

Just how many people got Tom Toms for Christmas!?

Just wanted to drop you a short note to wish you all a fabulous Christmas, filled with lots of relaxation time, with family and friends, and lots of good food, drinks and fun presents!

We’ve just opened most of our presents, and I think everyone’s very pleased with what they’ve got. I received the Doctor Who Season 1 box set from Andrew, and some lovely La Senza pyjamas from the in-laws (which, it turns out, I already owned a pair of, but LS has so much nice stuff, it’ll be easy to swap!).

I gave Andrew some very low-tech presents this year, going for the Articulate board game, and some artsy stuff – a box of Derwent sketching pencils and sticks, a large box of Derwent pastel pencils and two sketchbooks. Even if he ends up using them to sketch out websites, it’ll still be some nice time away from the screen!

So I’m raising a glass of port to all of you, have a great Christmas! Now, get off the computer, and go spend some family time!

It was announced over a week ago that the Doctor Who spin-off show, Torchwood, will come back for a second season. It took me a week to post it, but I was thrilled to hear about it. Especially that it’ll be back on BBC Two instead of BBC Three – it’s moving up the rungs!

The first season of Torchwood started a bit slow, which is a shame, as I get the impression it has lost it a big chunk of viewers. After 3-4 weeks, it started getting really good and now it’s just excellent. John Barrowman is a great Jack Harkness (and all-round lurvly, Gemma & Kat would agree!) but he still doesn’t quite have David Tennant’s charisma. I can’t wait for the second season of that, and the third season of good ol’ Doctor Who! [Fine, for the finnickity ones, third season of the NEW series, I know there were tons before]

As a total aside, BBC really aren’t doing themselves any favours with the impossible search across their websites. I have no doubt the archives are filled with great content, but it’s impossible to find anything! Searching is particularly awkward, and the oddest off-topic results come up, but navigation as a whole is difficult. Why wouldn’t they put more energy towards successfully distributing their great content?

Only four sleeps left until Christmas. Motivation to do anything is rather low. Distractions are welcome. And then I get tagged by Matt! Well, how could I resist?

Five things you (probably) didn’t know about me:

1. I once went straight from an all-night rave to singing in an early Sunday morning classical concert at the National Gallery in Ottawa. I only just had time to shower and change from oversized jeans and sparkly stuff into white blouse and black pencil skirt. I promptly fell asleep the moment we went off stage.
2. I met my British husband online, on xvi.com to be precise *cringe*
3. I may be Canadian, but I know nothing of English-language Canadian music. I bet my British musicophile colleagues could name more Canadian bands than I can.
4. As a child, I was a very evil older sister. I’d regularly throw things to the floor and ask one of my three younger sisters to pick them up, just to establish my authority!
5. I still own, and wear, cartoon underpants sometimes. My favourite ones have a lion and pink paws on them (and you probably didn’t want to know that!)
6. I can’t count very well…

I’m now tagging Lisa, Mat, Liz, and two writers from the same blog, Steph and Annabel.

*Throws self to the ground in desperation*

It seems Heather’s forecast on Ugg boots being popular again this winter wasn’t a fluke, and wasn’t a local thing either. Bill, also from Hitwise, confirms that the trend has been set in the US as well. It’s a worldwide plague!

Oh well… it’ll give the Fug girls plenty of blogging fodder this winter!

If like me, you’ve tried using Quicksilver as an app launcher, you might benefit from using the Overflow Launcher by Stunt Software. It’s available for free through Macappaday today instead of the usual $14.95. I’m sure Quicksilver does a zillion things more, but I know I’m not alone in not having done more than use it as quicklaunch… so this might be better suited to me, since my dock is getting longer and longer with all sorts of junk!

Macappaday is giving away a free Mac application every day until Jan 1st, so have a look every day for a new one!

Our Nintendo Wii arrived safe and sound from Amazon.co.uk this afternoon. No need to sleep in the gutter or outside PC World to get my hands on one, just a comfortable (if slightly anxious) wait in the office until Parcelforce dropped it off around lunchtime.

My impressions so far… Creating the Mii was fun, but as-expected since there is a Flash version of the Mii Channel available online. The interface is generally easy to use and reasonably fast, but anything on the network is sluggishly slow – for a good reason, there are undoubtedly thousands of Brits and Europeans online tonight all trying out the Shop Channel!

Now, the games. Keeping in mind we only own Wii Sport at the moment, it’s been a good laugh but a limited experience. I first tried Tennis, which was extremely easy to get to grips with. There’s no need to move very far, but I developed the urge to jump around anyways, making me look like I was swatting giant imaginary bees.

Second, I went on to bowling, which in theory wasn’t hard at all, but it took a few turns before really managing to let go of the B button at the right point. Once you get it, it’s like going bowling, but without the sweaty mingers in the next aisle and the uncomfortable shoes!

Third, I gave boxing a go. I knew this was going to be a good one, because I’d seen a number of You Tube videos showing guys punching like girls or girlfriends kicking ass. Within an instant, I was hitting with all my strength, jabbing my opponent in the kidney and roaring with pride when winning.

I was dreading trying baseball – being Canadian, I’ve never been a fan of this all-American sport – so I had a go at golf first. There’s no question that I’d be rubbish at real golf, I can’t even finish a game of mini-putt without getting aggravated! It turns out that the game of golf is a whole lot easier than in real life, especially when following the visual and audio cues it gives. I cleaned up at this one, with my husband constantly going overboard with power.

So finally, we had to try baseball. Let’s just say, it really was a non-event. It’s not the most exciting game when you’re batting, and when you’re pitching, it’s just plain dull. So we only played that one once.

All in all, the Wii Sports is a great demo of what the Wii can do, but it leaves you wanting much more. It’s a shame Amazon.co.uk didn’t manage to send out the other games we ordered – Zelda, Rayman and Wii Play – on the same date as launch, but I can only be thankful that my Wii showed up on time. I can comfortably see a long, prosperous and evolutive future for the Nintendo Wii.

And now, I raise a wiimote to all my fellow Brits and Europeans who are getting a first go at it this evening. Enjoy yourselves!

[Note: Cross-posted to the WiiWii blog]