Sadness on loss

I'm sad.  It isn't even really my loss.  My friends lost a beloved kitty today.  He was sweet and beautiful and easy-going, and it was easy to love him even through the camera and from descriptions.  He was so loved.  And to die by getting out and getting hit by a car... He was injured enough to need to be put to sleep.

I need to virtually kill things.  This sucks.

Crochet Giveaway

There's a crochet custom hook giveaway happening for Crochet Addict UK.  Super-easy to enter, you can find details at http://www.crochetaddictuk.com/2013/06/giveaway-sunday-week-67.html.  Only valid for the rest of the day!

Crochet: Baby snuggler

So my friend had a surprise baby, and I wanted to make something.  The magazine said this could easily be done in a weekend, but clearly, the author was drunk.  Took me a couple of weeks.

The pattern is modular, made of a bunch of squares, blocked, and then attached together.  The pattern is from the Spring 2013 issue of Crochet! magazine, and is called the Blottir Bebe Snuggler.  This is 100% acrylic yarn, Mary Maxim Big Ball brand in Deep Blush.  My biggest project so far, I'm proud of the results.  Even if the hood isn't as high as it's supposed to be!

On ownership of digital items

I'm trying to articulate my views on a topic.

My view is that it's wrong to take something without paying for it.  That's stealing.  Even if it's an ebook or a piece of software or a film.  I'm not about to go about policing everyone on it, but if I want to have something, I'll buy it, rent it, or borrow it from the library.

People often use the justification that people who steal digital items buy more things than people who don't engage in this behaviour.  I hate that argument.

I'm sure it's nice for the economy/industry as a whole, but it's likely pretty irrelevant to the person whose work fell into your category of "don't bother to pay."

Using that argument reminds me of a moment in the episode Boom Town, in series 1 of the new Doctor Who.  When the Doctor is having dinner with Margaret, she tries to convince him to let her go, or better yet, help her relocate.  She finally resorts to telling the Doctor that she's not as bad as she was.  That she had mercy on a woman earlier that day, that she let her live even if she could ruin her plan.  The Doctor's not having that bullshit excuse.

You let one of them go, but that's nothing new. Every now and then, a little victim's spared because she smiled, because he's got freckles, because they begged. And that's how you live with yourself. That's how you slaughter millions. Because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction, you happen to be kind.

And while it's more extreme, that's what I think of people who use the excuse that they buy plenty of things, even if they also steal.  It's like a rationalisation to make them feel better.  If they buy some things, they can erase the wrongness of stealing from others.

Yes, this may come across as really heavy-handed.  But you know what?  Something is available for a price, and there's an expectation that you pay for it.  If you can't afford it, you can go to the library, or wait for a sale.  People who are taking the stuff aren't internet heroes or anything like that.  They're thieves.  And funnily enough, the ones who argue over semantics of what legally constitutes theft will at other times complain about other things, because they don't conform to the social contract.  Guess what?  One way to conform to the social contract is to not steal other people's work, whether or not it fits to a rigid legal definition of what is property that is capable of being stolen.

Ug.  And if you're going to steal, don't brag to others about it, or help them do it.

Also, it doesn't just apply to indie creators.  Successful people aren't working free, unless they specify that they are.  Having a price attached to their work is an indication that they're not working for nothing.

Rant over.  For now.

Music in Buffy and Doctor Who

Repost from my G+, only minorly edited:

I've been re-watching the entire Buffy the Vampire Slayer series over the past while.  In the second half of season 5, now.

But I had forgotten about The Body.  Now, this is going to sound off-topic for a moment.  While I love Doctor Who and adore the music, there have been times, including some notable times in series 7 so far, where some lazy script-writing was covered up by emotionally charged and manipulative music.  Scenes that wouldn't have been terribly moving had it not been for using variations of themes from some other genuinely devastating moments from previous episodes.  The Doctor Who people know how to use the music (and have also used lack of it, during the end credits after Adric's death, for example) to make you really feel for what's going on and advance the story.

Where this connects is that the Buffy episode The Body is all the more powerful for not using any music at all during the episode, except during the credits sequence.  There are sounds from what's going on in the scene, or backgrounds of locations, but no actual score.  Leaving it to the actors to carry the story.  And they do so spectacularly.  I bought Buffy's pain, right to the core.  I could feel the awkwardness and uncertainty of her friends.  I truly fell in love with Anya, her wanting to understand, trying to express deeper feelings, offering her support to Buffy at the hospital in a way that would put most off if they didn't actually listen to how she used her voice, the expression on her face.  I could appreciate a glimmer of genuine Willow and Tara chemistry, and felt good that they actually used subtlety finally.  Willow's freaking out about what to wear under emotional distress made me connect to her a little more.  I even disliked Xander far less than usual.  I bought the entire thing.  It's a very moving episode.

Bringing me back to Doctor Who.  Series 7 has been great so far.  Getting emotionally invested in the characters is easy to do.  But episodes 1 and 5, Asylum of the Daleks and The Angels Take Manhattan, well...  They have some great ideas, some key plot points, they turned me into a sobbing mess both for sad and happy.  But the writing is sloppy.  The actors, being fantastic, pull it off.  But I don't think they could have done it alone without the soundtrack.  It covered up some seriously careless writing.  Not unexplained points and holes, or things done that point to something to be explained one day in the future, but some terrible bits of writing.  On the other hand, I found episodes 2 and 4, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and The Power of Three,  to be a delight to watch in comparison.*  Perhaps I didn't go through as many tissues, or have quite the fangirl joy at seeing River Song again, but they were solid and I love them more than any of the other episodes so far because of a strong script with sympathetic and relatable characters and believable dialogue.  The soundtrack was fantastic as always, but it complemented and accentuated, rather than hiding and distracting.

No, I'm not claiming that I could do better.  No, I don't expect every episode to be perfect.  There are always duds.  But I do recognise how music can so change perception, and quite dislike manipulation to that extent.  Despite getting a good soundtrack to buy after the season is over.

* Note:  The closing line of The Power of Three was terrible.  Enough to put a bad taste over the entire episode.  If you re-watch it, I recommend stopping the show before Amy says that last line with the moment, or muting at that point.  Seriously.  Also, it was a teensy bit confusing for them to use a variation of the little Amy music when saying goodbye to Kate, but there's a vague possibility that it might lead somewhere.  Maybe.  But it didn't throw everything, so there's that.