Asstd. Misc. Etc.

Here are some random thoughts, possibly without context:

• Why Rose? Considering the possible selection of companions are all going to come from the War Doctor's future, why not choose the one who best represents a weapon with a conscience? Martha is the only one who was able to get out essentially the same person, physically, as the one that went in. She's a doctor, she's brilliant, she had been drilled in ethics, and so she would have very happily been an excellent choice for the weapon. I'm sure there are plenty of Doylist reasons why Rose was selected, but the Watsonian reasons elude me.


• Stop stealing our stuff. If you want to go pirate, go pirate digitally, or rip the disc at your own computers, or whatever. Just return it to us so that other people can check it out and enjoy it. Besides, you're not going to get a whole lot for the things you steal, anyway. So stop, please.


• It must just be a thing for libraries to be designed and built a few years before another thing arrives that makes what was a brilliant idea into something entirely ill-suited. There has to be a way to design things that they can be modular and reconfigurable, including the shelves, so that reinvention is possible.


• Politics is going to suck this year, with campaigns, intransigence, and everyone clamoring for attention and showmanship. Someone should just shoot for "This is what I believe, and I'm going to use my power to bring it about." Having people outright state their desires and working toward them would make politics much better. If for no other reason than to weed or the people who really are unsuited for office.


• Bruno Mars had a very Jackson 5 vibe for his show on Sunday. And apparently has a pretty decent bass groove going for him as well.


• I wonder about some picture books sometimes. There's an entire series of them where cute and fuzzy animal babies stop using various things that babies have - pacifiers, diapers, blankets, and the tendency to bite as a way of getting their way. It's couched in cute titles, too - "No more $foo for $alliterative_animal_name_based_on_$foo!" I think they might be more traumatic than helpful, though - for example, the one about the pacifier had the piggy running about and playing when their pacifier falls out. They go to pick it up and the duckie says it's dirty, so the piggy can't use it. Piggy has a backup in a pocket, though, so all is good. Until the second one falls out. Same routine with the duckie telling the piggy they can't have their pacifier. With no pacifier left... apparently, no more pacifier for piggy! Hooray, habit cured permanently, cold turkey. Because Duckie is secretly Haruhi Suzumiya? Most kids I've ever met that still have pacifiers would have had a meltdown at someone telling them they can't have their pacifier. If it was a parent, it might be a tempest instead of a meltdown, but it would definitely not have been "Oh. Guess I can't have that any more. I'm going to go play with my friend, the one who verbally and physically prevented me from using my pacifier, now. And hey, I don't need my pacifier anymore! Thanks, double trauma, for curing me!" These books are mostly in the same vein - animal baby with a comfort item, traumatic event, possibly repeatedly, prevents the use of comfort item, animal baby magically no longer needs comfort item. At least when Kevin Henkes did this in Owen, he extensively points out that the trauma to Owen is because of an overbearing neighbor who believes she's an expert in raising other children imposing herself on Owen's parents by insinuating that Owen is somehow deficient or inappropriate by having his comfort item well into his preschool years.