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I slept about 14 hours last night/this morning, and feel like I've ascended several rungs up the evolutionary ladder. Whoo. The only good thing about sleep deprivation is how good you feel when you get rid of it.
I had lunch and coffee with Daniel, paid all our outstanding bills, updated our car insurance policies (by way of my insurance company's utterly spiffy new web site), rented a car for our forthcoming jaunt to south Florida for my grandfather's 90th birthday party, and transferred my latest batch of Big Finish Doctor Who audio plays into iTunes for iPod listening.
I've become quite enamored of the audio play recently. I've long enjoyed audio books as a way of passing the time while I exercise, but most books aren't written with the intent of being read aloud, and it sometimes shows. Whereas audio plays are designed to be listened to. Audio plays are also a wonderful medium for science fiction, because their ability to depict truly weird and alien stuff is limited only by the ingenuity of the sound designer. Though sometimes you get writers who don't trust their sound designers nearly enough - I've heard otherwise good audio plays marred a bit by writers who insisted on having characters pointlessly narrate their own actions.
I do find it interesting that the audio play has essentially vanished from American popular culture, while it seems to be (relatively) alive and well in Britain. I've been trying to locate other sources of audio drama besides Big Finish, and I haven't managed to find much. Audible.com has a small selection of British radio, mostly comedies, and the BBC 7 homepage lets you stream current and recent broadcasts over the internet. (Science fiction buffs should definitely check out BBC7, as they've got a fair amount of SF in their broadcast schedule, including a short program dedicated to analyzing* each week's episode of Heroes as it is broadcast on BBC 2.)
Of course, Big Finish has several hundred hours worth of audio that I haven't listened to, and they're making more all the time, so I can't realistically worry about running out. (I should note that if any of y'all in North America are thinking of giving Big Finish a whirl, it's much cheaper to order their audios from Who North America than from Big Finish's own site.)
Anyway, it's lovely to be home and to be just taking care of the little routine chores of everyday life.
*I keep looking at that phrase and thinking it really ought to be "a short programme dedicated to analysing". British spelling. Oy.
I had lunch and coffee with Daniel, paid all our outstanding bills, updated our car insurance policies (by way of my insurance company's utterly spiffy new web site), rented a car for our forthcoming jaunt to south Florida for my grandfather's 90th birthday party, and transferred my latest batch of Big Finish Doctor Who audio plays into iTunes for iPod listening.
I've become quite enamored of the audio play recently. I've long enjoyed audio books as a way of passing the time while I exercise, but most books aren't written with the intent of being read aloud, and it sometimes shows. Whereas audio plays are designed to be listened to. Audio plays are also a wonderful medium for science fiction, because their ability to depict truly weird and alien stuff is limited only by the ingenuity of the sound designer. Though sometimes you get writers who don't trust their sound designers nearly enough - I've heard otherwise good audio plays marred a bit by writers who insisted on having characters pointlessly narrate their own actions.
I do find it interesting that the audio play has essentially vanished from American popular culture, while it seems to be (relatively) alive and well in Britain. I've been trying to locate other sources of audio drama besides Big Finish, and I haven't managed to find much. Audible.com has a small selection of British radio, mostly comedies, and the BBC 7 homepage lets you stream current and recent broadcasts over the internet. (Science fiction buffs should definitely check out BBC7, as they've got a fair amount of SF in their broadcast schedule, including a short program dedicated to analyzing* each week's episode of Heroes as it is broadcast on BBC 2.)
Of course, Big Finish has several hundred hours worth of audio that I haven't listened to, and they're making more all the time, so I can't realistically worry about running out. (I should note that if any of y'all in North America are thinking of giving Big Finish a whirl, it's much cheaper to order their audios from Who North America than from Big Finish's own site.)
Anyway, it's lovely to be home and to be just taking care of the little routine chores of everyday life.
*I keep looking at that phrase and thinking it really ought to be "a short programme dedicated to analysing". British spelling. Oy.
