(no subject)

I seem to have entirely mislaid my brain this week. Not really sure why, but I'm finding myself very short on time and a bit stressed of late. Days like yesterday, when I had SIX consecutive meetings scheduled at work, do not help, of course. Neither does the perpetual sensation of being just about to come down with a cold. (My general rule of thumb is that if I can get through my morning workout, I'm not sick. I did an hour on the elliptical trainer this morning, which ought to be proof of fantastic good health, but I'm still feeling rather blah.) I'm very much looking forward to having a bit of time off next week.

Paul Cornell has an interesting blog post about Facebook. I think Facebook doesn't yet contain a sufficient critical mass of my close friends for me to experience it quite the way Cornell describes. The social center of my internet experience is still Livejournal much more than Facebook. But Facebook is really great for getting back in touch with old classmates and other people that I haven't seen in years.

Meanwhile, Cornell's previous entry has a very cute bit of fiction in it. I'm fairly certain I'm missing at least half of the references, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Finally, if any of you have been thinking, "Gee, what I really need to get me in the holiday spirit is a bunch of remixes of the Doctor Who theme song," check out Whomix. It's a bit of a mixed (ha!) bag, but there are some nice ones on there. I'm rather partial to the mash-ups. I wish people would do more of them.

Schedule estimates, take 2

Sooo, you remember how I posted about a coworker and I estimating a schedule for the same project, and coming up with estimates of 3x and x, respectively? Well, I had refined my estimating technique, looked hard at my assumptions, and gotten to the point where that coworker and I were producing estimates that were usually within about 15% of each other, which is probably about as accurate as it is worth trying to get with these sorts of things.

Today a different coworker gave me an estimate for another project. I had worked out an estimate of y writer weeks. Her estimate? Just about 3y.

At this moment, I feel as if I'm trying to define a standard of length using a bowl of udon noodles as my only measuring device.

Rebels and Phantoms

So, BBC7 has some holiday radio goodness coming up this weekend.

On Saturday, December 22nd, at 6 p.m. and at midnight (British time), they will be broadcasting Blake's 7: Rebel, the first episode of the new audio reboot of Blake's 7. You can read my review of "Rebel" if you want to know more. I highly recommend this. They will be broadcasting "Traitor" and "Liberator", the next two episodes of the series, in future weeks. I'm rather hoping that the CDs of those two episodes that I've ordered will arrive before then, but if not, I'll be listening along.

On Sunday, at 6 p.m. and at midnight (British time), they'll be broadcasting Episode 1 of The Phantom of the Opera. This is Big Finish Productions first foray into adapting a classic novel to audio. BBC7 will broadcast the remaining episodes in future weeks, but if you get impatient, you can purchase the entire play as a download. I purchased the download, and while I have to say that on the whole, I prefer Big Finish's Doctor Who plays, it's a fun play and a marvelous story for audio.

And then on Christmas Eve, at 6:30 p.m., they'll be broadcasting Episode 1 of The Scarifyers: The Nazad Conspiracy, which I know relatively little about except that it's supernatural and funny and stars actors who have been in Doctor Who. Which probably describes 83% of British radio.

Don't worry too much about figuring out the broadcast times - you can stream any BBC7 broadcast from their website for a week after the broadcast using their "Listen Again" feature. You do have to have RealPlayer or Windows Media Player installed.