Rex Dalek & K-9 Visit Krispy Kreme

The Final Dalek/Halloween Post of 2013!

Rex: Look at all those choices, K-9.

K-9: You are not my Master.  You cannot order me around.

Rex: I’m not ordering you.  I’m just suggesting that, as Master’s newest best friend, you might want to look at what’s available.

K-9: Very well, I will poke my head out of this pocket.  You’re right; Master is dithering between the Strawberries & Cream and the Lemon Meringue Donuts.  Can he not see the Halloween options?

Rex: Perhaps you could influence him to—

K-9: You are not my Master!  You cannot order me around!

Rex: I see your Mesmeric Beam worked.

K-9: I hope Master likes his Pumpkin.  I exist only to serve.

Rex: In that case, you’re serving him a fun, frosted donut with a gooey chocolate center. 

K-9: Yes, it seems a safe choice, but still…

Rex: Mistress seems to like her Chocolate Cobweb. 

K-9: She should.  That chocolate donut has a rich vanilla cream center.

Rex: Yes, I thought it would go well with her cream tea. 

Rex: Well, you can relax, my friend.  Master seems to be—

K-9: YOU ARE NOT MY MASTER!!!  YOU CANNOT ORDER ME TO RELAX!!!!!!!!!

Rex Dalek & K-9

A Day in Brighton

Despite the hassles of getting to England, once we arrived in Brighton, we had a good time.  We had driven down from London, and everywhere we stopped, people complimented us on our tasteful choice in rental cars.  

There's always a little jet lag to be endured with such a long trip, so the storm that blew in off the Altantic Ocean made things easy on us. While we endured a few spats of rain, for the most part the cool wind gusted along, keeping us awake, and propelling us effortlessly along the seafront.

Our impulsive choice of rental cars had cost us more than we had budgeted, so we opted for an inexpensive yet exotic lunch: Tandoori Chicken sandwiches on flatbread at Subway.

We found several locations that E. F. Benson mentions in his novel The Blotting Book, including this former church, which is now used as a homeless center.

In the evening, we explored more of the beach, taking photographs and enjoying the atmosphere.  We stopped to chat with three men eating their fish and chips along the seafront.  They introduced themselves as Lovejoy, Tinker, and Eric, three antique dealers who had taken a holiday together.  But then the youngest man, Eric, spotted a juggler with an old plate, and Lovejoy cried, "That looks like a dainty dish!" and the three leapt off the metal railing and tossed their food in the trash can.  

It's amazing how fast three grown men can run, when they have sufficient motivation.  

A few minutes later into our walk, a red sports car--nice, but not as pretty as ours--pulled up along the sea front.  This surprised us, as we didn't think people were allowed to park there. An old man and woman got out, and introduced themselves to us as Tom and Diana.  Tom offered to buy us all cotton candy, so we walked over to a vendor's stall together.  We enjoyed chatting with them for awhile, but then their conversation took a more serious turn, dealing with their experiences during World War II.  So we took our leave of them, and wandered on.  

A little later, we saw a motorcycle cop leading Tom and Diana slowly down the road, his lights blinking and his siren wailing.  I guess they take a dim view of parking illegally in Brighton.

In E. F. Benson's day, the West Pier was the happening place.  Brighton has a new pier now, and we watched its shops, casino, and fun faire games and rides light up the night.

We wanted to sample its pleasures, but after our walk, and meeting such interesting people, we decided to save it for another day.

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links
Lovejoy: The Dainty Dish
Waiting for God: A Trip to Brighton
The Blotting Book

October 2013 In Review

It’s always interesting to me what blog posts take off and which ones don’t.  Usually, I have no clue to a particular post’s popularity.  Perhaps I gave it an intriguing title, and people just wanted to see what I was writing about.  But some posts find a readership long after I wrote them, so I have to assume that, in some way, people found what I wrote to be of value to their lives.  So it is with the top three posts from last month, as well as the post I wrote on Jeremy Bullock's portrayal of Boba Fett in "The Empire Strikes Back" nearly a year ago. 

Some bloggers might be upset that their current month’s posts don’t rank higher on their monthly statistics.  But I’m glad that all my work is out there, and people are finding it--and enjoying it--regardless of when I wrote it.  I’m also beginning to think that the statistics only record those who, whether as a search result or following someone’s Twitter feed, actually went to that particular post.  If so, then the statistics area (and my post list) doesn’t give an accurate picture of how many readers are going to www.dragoncache.blogspot.com, on a regular or occasional basis.  That means that some of the days when I get a lot of page views, readers are actually enjoying some of the current posts more than the older posts.  That’s also a good feeling.

Hey, I’ll take a ray of sunshine whenever I can get it.

 Top Ten Posts For October 2013

Post Name                                              Date Posted         Views
1. Looking for Alec & Zoe Calendar: Pt. 1   Nov. 28, 2012          49
2. Norman Clegg's TV House                      July 30, 2013         29
3. Terry Brooks Definitely Doesn't Suck    February 8, 2013       26
4. Ray Bradbury Loves Dinosaurs              October 8, 2013       21 
5. Internalizing Hulk & She-Hulk Pt. 1      October 22, 2013       18
6. Ninetine Days As Boba Fett                    Nov. 26, 2012        18
7. Drawn Back to Laupahoehoe Point        October 14, 2013      17
8. Conan the Barbarian on Difficult Family   October 16, 2013     16
9. Mark Twain on Good (or Bad) Gov.         October 17, 2013     16
10. Reviewing Old Movies                          October 6, 2013      16

If you look at My Ten Most Popular Posts, you’ll find that some of those listed above have landed on that list.  To a certain extent, this has to do with the weird algorhythm Blogger uses.  In some cases, the page views listed in the Statistics section for some posts have fallen to the extent that they no longer show!  (How can you have a negative page view?) But if nothing else, My Ten Most Popular Posts gives you an idea of any recent trends in reader interest, and again, it’s nice to see that some posts have, in some ways, affected people so strongly that they shared them with their friends.  Again, that’s a nice feeling.

More Reasons To Smile

You know, I guess I have a lot of reasons to smile.  How about you?  What do you have to smile about?

Dragon Dave

My Fantastic Voyage

Just when I thought I was firmly living in the future, an incident occurs which drags me back into the past.  Allow me to explain.  On several occasions in this blog, I’ve extolled the virtues of British Matter Transport (BMT), a radical new system that affects all world travel.  Knowing how busy the London terminal can get, we purchased our BMT tickets early for this year’s trip to England.  Then an accident occurred that changed everything. 

The United States government was miffed when the British mastered the concept of matter transportation, and standardized it so quickly on a worldwide basis.  So they worked furiously to develop a system of their own to compete in this entirely new market.  As best I understand it, American scientists were working along different lines to their British counterparts.  Instead of trying to break down molecules, beam matter up into orbit, bounce it off satellites, and project it down for reassembly at the destination point, they tried to slip a person or object through another dimension (or parallel universe, if you prefer).  This method would have allowed them to shortcut the tricky process of matter disassembly and reassembly until they really understood it, which was necessary to comply with European Union (EU) regulations.

As with the space program, accidents occur during such rapid scientific development.  In this case, several of those working on the program were unexpectedly dragged into this strange, other dimension, and when they reappeared—in different locations across the world—the molecules of their bodies had been reassembled differently.  Reports are sketchy—at this point, they seem more akin rumor than substantiated fact—but one of these unexpected travelers now has rock-like skin, and another may spontaneously combust without warning, and without the flames consuming him!  While no one seems to have died, I think you’ll agree that these affected individuals, these unexpected travelers, may wish they had. 

As is always the case in such matters, fear often accompanies the fantastic.  Even though their system is based on entirely different principles, Brussels moved quickly to shut down all BMT stations all across the EU.  Thankfully, BMT worked out a deal with British Airlines, and stranded travelers such as my wife and myself got flights that will transport us to England without radically reordering our plans.  Nevertheless, it seems like such a shame.  At a time when we should be embracing the future, once more we’ve been relegated to the past, consigned to noisy, fossil fuel-guzzling monsters that take hours to travel vast distances instead of seconds. 

Despite all this, I’m looking forward to our upcoming flight.  After all, a airplane flight that takes hours still seems a little fantastic, when compared to yesterday's ocean voyage, which would have taken days or weeks instead.

Dragon Dave

To learn more about America's Matter Transportion efforts, read Fantastic Four Vol. 1: The Fantastic

Playing with Watercolor Pencils and Water

A guest blog by Dragon Dave’s wife

As Dragon Dave has mentioned in some of his recent blogs, we have taken up sketching (again).  Somehow going places inspires me to take out my sketchpad and pencils.   So when we went on a weekend get-away to Big Bear Lake, the sketching supplies went with us.

One evening, inspired by a scene on the local tourist magazine, I sat down with my watercolor pencils and sketchpad to see if I could recreate it.  I used a set of Caran D’Ache Prismalo watercolor pencils (a gift from my loving aunts), and set to work. Below is the picture that inspired me, and the results of that evening.

Sometimes being creative leads me to more creative thoughts.  I had been using my watercolor pencils as just color pencils, with only a quick dab at adding water to them, so I began thinking about using my watercolor pencils with brushes and water. What kind of results would I get?  A trip to the local craft store provided me with water-brushes.  These are brushes you fill with water and gently squeeze to release the water into the brush.  

As the paper in my sketchpad does not react well to water (it is only a 65 lbs. bond), I decided to try drawing on some watercolor paper (140 lbs. bond). Note: the higher the bond of paper, the less warping of the paper when water is applied.   So what should I draw?  I decided to redo the scene from Big Bear Magazine to see what difference water would make to the picture.  On a free evening I re-sketched the scene.

Drawing on Watercolor Paper

Then I used the water-brush to dissolve and blend the pencil drawing into a watercolor painting.

 

Drawing after water has been applied.

I found it interesting how the water brought out the intensity of the pencil colors and made them even more vibrant.  I will definitely work on making more watercolor paintings using my watercolor pencils.

Original Drawing & Watercolor Painting

I hope you enjoyed seeing the results of my little experiment, and that it inspires you to a creative effort of your own.

Dragon Dave’s Wife

Dental Swag

Denim: You know, a visit to the dentist gives a whole new meaning to the term swag.
Pocket: I've never heard of Stuff We All Get including cavities, but then, Fury's got his eyepatch, so I guess we all need to take care of ourselves.  

Pocket: I tell you what.  While I start on the toothbrush and toothpaste, you can get busy with the floss.
Denim: I don't understand, boss.  What's a Dalek supposed to do with dental floss.
Pocket: Let's go ask Spider-Dalek.  With his talent for web design, he should be able to give us some tips.

Denim: Maybe I'll just try to figure it out on my own.
Pocket: Yeah, that's probably for the best.

Pocket & Denim Dalek

Fury's Fury

I don't believe what I'm seeing!  You ate all your Halloween candy already?  Get up!  No, I don't want to hear your pathetic groaning, or your complaints.  Get up now!  

By the moons of Skaro!  You even ate Mistress' Snickers?  

Fine, don't get up.  I've got a better idea.  Thor, get in here!  I've found a new use for your hammer!

Oh, so you get up now that Thor's arrived, eh?  No, don't try to explain how one piece of candy tasted so good it forced you to eat another.  No, don't go blaming your bad behavior on your programming.  Your little moment of madness promises to get all of us in hot water with the Mistress, and that's a very bad thing when you're made of yarn!  

Now, leave my sight, you two.  The dentist gave me some cleaning supplies after yesterday's checkup, but I think you need them more than I do.  I expect you to use them, and I'll inspect your nutrient ingestion ports later, so you'd better do a good job, or Thor here might just find a use for his hammer after all.

No, Thor, I don't think I'm being too hard on them.  If they're going to bear the Dalek name, they've got to learn discipline.

I heard that, you two!  How dare you be rude about "Snakes on a Plane!"  There's some fine performances in that movie...for one actor in particular!  

And anyways, Agent Coulson's got the plane!

Dalek Fury