Doctor Who- Storylines Getting Weak?

A new season greets a new Doctor, new characters and new unknown aliens in Doctor Who- Season 8.

I love Doctor Who. Although I wasn’t around to see the old version of it, I love the new take on the Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. (Since 2005.)

But, while I will always say that Doctor Who is one of the greatest shows ever, I will not say that I love the story lines currently being played out in the latest season.

I feel like the stories are… made by pudding brains. They are weak, used and mushy. I just don’t get the same chill that I used to in previous seasons.

Peter Capaldi is a great actor and makes a mighty fine Doctor. Jenna Coleman is beautiful and makes a fabulous companion. I commend both of them for their work. I felt like I should say that. I ain’t hating on any of the actors.

The writers need a mix up. One writer who shall remain unnamed needs to take a break, and let some new blood, with new thoughts into the show.

There are so many people out there who love Doctor Who and have dozens of ideas for storylines. For goodness sake, use them.

👍 or 👎? What do you think about Doctor Who?

Detroit’s Water Shutoff is Just Not Right

It takes only a few days for a human to die from dehydration. And Detroit, in an effort to collect more water bills, has turned off water to citizens who have not payed said bills. Does the fact that these people haven’t payed money for water make it right to deprive them of it? Shouldn’t water be free for everyone?

In a perfect world, yes. That being said, we don’t live in a perfect world. In fact we are very far from it. But why should something so simple become unavailable for one of the poorest cities in the USA?

The answer? Money. Detroit has dug itself into a bankruptcy hole. Now it’s trying to climb out, doing whatever it can to juice money from its citizens.

Nearly 45 per cent of the city’s 173,000 residential accounts were considered past due in late August. Now 350 to 400 households’ water is being shut off everyday. I don’t think this is right, starving people of water for the sake of a bill that they just can’t afford to pay. Water should be free and available to every person, everywhere.

Photo credit to Mary Schroeder, Detroit Free Press

The Maze Runner Movie- Good but not Great

No Spoilers!

Recently the one problem that seems to keep repeating in every novel-turned-movie is that, quite simply, finer details from the book are not getting put into the movie.

This was seen several times in the latest teen dystopian teen thriller, The Maze Runner.

Now I’m not saying that the movie wasn’t good. It was good. The effects in the maze were a-maze-ing (see what I did there!), the acting was alright and the idea of the storyline was overall pretty good.

But some details that were in the book were missed, even though they would make for a much better movie.

And I can’t help feeling that some parts of the movie dragged out a little bit much, and other parts went so quickly that I wasn’t sure what had just happened.

The movie also left off very open to the next movie in the series. It’s the kind of movie that you would want to re-watch just before going to see the next one. I truly hope that with the next movie, they open it in a way that if you didn’t watch the first one, you would be able to pick up what’s going on reasonably quickly.

Let’s hope we see a slightly better attempt with the next movie!

Words With Friends- Back and Better than Ever

Earlier this month, Zynga released a major update of their 5 year old game, Words With Friends for IOS 8. So major, in fact, that it required its own standalone app- rather than updating the old version.

Words With Friends is very much like the classic game Scrabble- the only difference being that it is played over the internet, with whomever and wherever you wish.

In the new version, the game itself remains pretty much the same, as the company doesn’t want to alienate long-time users says Vaibhav Sahgal, Zynga’s general manager for Words with Friends. The interface is now easier to navigate, and the new features make for better gameplay.

The biggest feature that players are most excited about is the new Solo player feature. Players can now play with no internet connection and practice their word skills while on long flights or waiting for friends. “This is really huge for us,” says Sahgal, “It has been requested by our players for a long time.”

And while they have down toned the social interaction with the Solo mode, Zynga has balanced it out with a new Community feature. Players can now choose who they want to play with- either based on how good they are at the game, or simply how good looking they are in their profile pictures. The app can also match players automatically based on their previous stats in the Smart Match feature.

“Our users love stats,” says Sahgal. “They love competing with others but they also like competing with themselves. They like seeing how they’re progressing in the game and how they’re getting better.”

To help players become even better at their game, Zynga included a new in-app dictionary powered by Dictionary.com, which allows players to check the definition and pronunciation of 170,000 words. They can also look up how many players have played a certain word. The dictionary also includes a new Word of the Day to help expand players’ vocabularies.

New Words With Friends is free to download in the Playstore and the Apple Appstore, and can also be played on computers through Facebook and Google+.

Cassandra Clare – Will the Shadowhunter Chronicles Ever Stop?

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like Cassandra Clare is starting to milk her Shadowhunter/Downworlder worlds a little too much?

Now don’t get me wrong- The Mortal Instruments was a pretty good series. And then came along The Infernal Devices– a prequel series to TMI. I thought “Sure, why not?!” Next came along The Bane Chronicles, a collection of short stories, as well as The Shadow Hunter Codex. Now I’m thinking “Okay, she (Cassandra Clare) is just keeping the whole idea of Nephilim alive for a little while longer.”  Now set to come out next year is yet another series, along with 10 more novellas, and after that, with no release date yet set is…drum roll please…..ANOTHER series!

Cassandra Clare- I, as well as many other people, would really like to see a grand ending to your Shadowhunter world. It’s starting to get a tad boring. Your first two series were a great success- but I don’t know if the same will be said about your next three.