Dr. Who Series - 8. Part Two.

Perhaps it was the time of day. Or, perhaps the problem came about because it was a weekend. Whichever it was, I suspect the reason I was unable to watch any of series #8 of Dr Who had to do with the high amount of Internet traffic - either in England or in Philippines - that was causing havoc with the bandwidth available at the time.

Today, Monday AM in Philippines at eight o'clock, I attempted once again to access the programs. It was 1 AM in London. At any rate, I was able to watch episode 1.

There were a few buffering problems, but that's to be expected. I was watching the program in Standard Definition and I did not experience the sound problems of yesterday.

Everything was going well until about 5 minutes before episode 1 was to end. Then, brown out.

For about an hour, we had no electricity in Sibulan.

When the power finally returned, I was able to reconnect with the BBC website and finish the first episode. It was on to episodes 2 and 3. Other than buffering glitches occasionally, I was able to see the first three episodes today.

There are only 2 more episodes from series 8 currently available on the BBC website. Episode 6 from the series will be aired on Sept. 27th. I don't know when it will be made available for viewing on the website.

According to wikipedia, there will four episodes released in October and two in November.

Just to let you all know, there will be no spoilers coming from me.

Dr. Who - Series 8.

As mentioned in Friday's post,thanks to my being connected to a VPN, I was able to connect to the BBC website to watch live coverage of the results of the recent Scottish referendum. Afterward, I searched the site for recent Dr. Who episodes.

I found five episodes from series 8 available for viewing. I watched just for a minute or two but decided to catch up on series 7 on Netflix first.

While in the U.S., I had seen all of the first six series available on Netflix at the time. Series seven had not be available. That series can be viewed on Netflix now, so I connected to the VPN server in Seattle and watched the entire 16 episodes in 2 1/2 days.

I was ready for series 8.

I had no trouble going to the BBC website, but there now seems to be a problem loading the series. I suppose it's a bandwidth problem. HD is out of the question. Standard Definition loads - albeit slowly- but I cannot hear the program in SD.

I've tried several times this morning with no luck.

The first episode of series 8 won't be available forever. I'll just keep trying. I suppose I wouldn't be so stubborn had I not been able to watch the BBC program on Scotland so easily.

If I'm never able to watch series 8 on the BBC website, I know that one day I will be able to watch it on Neflix.

How long will that be? I don't know. Sooner or later, the BBC will sell the rights to Neflix. Why they haven't done so already is anyone's guess.

The Vote in Scotland.

Thanks to my PC being connected to a VPN, I can access the BBC website without fear of being geoblocked. As I write this,it's 4:45AM in London and the top story is the vote in Scotland concerning whether or not Scotland leaves the U.K.. The results are not yet complete, but right now, the "no" vote is ahead; "yes" being a vote to leave the U.K., with "no" being a vote against Scottish independence.

As they say where I'm from,I don't have a dog in this hunt. What happens in the U.K. affects me not one bit. I have no idea which result would be better for the Scots. It makes no difference to me.

That being said, I am glued to my PC, awaiting results.

The only such vote which might affect me would be a vote for particular States in the U.S. to leave the Union, but that issue was settled over one hundred years ago. Scotland may be allowed to vote on whether or not to stay in the U.K., but the folks in Georgia, or New York, or California, don't have that option in regards to leaving the United States.

It's 5:17AM in London, and the BBC is declaring a victory for the "no" votes.

Blogging.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I've been having on-again, off-again problems with my keyboard. Right now, it seems to be working fine, although I don't know how long that will last. For all I know, it could start malfunctioning again while I'm typing this.

As it's doing alright now, I'll make hay while the sun shines, if you will, and write something today to be posted Thursday.

I've even written a post on Dumaguete website blog.

I have plenty of time of my hands and there's no excuse not to keep my blogs and website up to date.

In the past, I made a point of using this blog as a place to post my political opinions. I haven't done that in quite a long time and I don't see myself going back to that any time soon. There will be no editorials on ISIL or ISIS - or whatever the popular name is today. It's an incredibly horrible situation, but I have no desire to comment of Obama's actions or lack of action, which ever the case may be.

But, then again, who can say? I may renege on what I've just written and post something concerning BHO very soon. Unfortunately, this particular blog has been a bit too free wheeling. There has never been a consistent theme - the subject matter has jumped from pillar to post.

In the past, I've thought of breaking up this blog into a number of more narrowly focused blogs. That was the case with my now defunct D'offus of the Big-Doofus and the practically defunct Immigration Reformation. But, as I've said, I have plenty of time on my hands.

A Keyboard Update.

I can't figure it out.

As recorded in this blog recently, I was having a bit of a problem with the keyboard of my desktop pc. Whenever I typed an r it would come out as rt; same with t. U became uy and y did the same.

Believing the problem stemmed from the keyboard being really dirty, I did a super-cleaning on it Sunday afternoon. That didn't help. Letters were still coming out caddywhompus.

On Tuesday,just as I had resigned myself to the fact that the keyboard was "unfixable", it started working properly again. No explanation. Letters were coming out exactly as they should.

I was unable to explain how it had happened; I was just going to accept it.

Of course, one can guess what happened next.The following day, the letters were all wrong again.

OK, here's an update:

It's Wednesday AM here in Philippines. An hour ago, the keyboard was not working properly. I had to send a few messages and r was coming out rt. The letter i was still i]. I could fix all that for the emails by using my backspace key. Now, an hour later, as I write this blog post, the keyboard is working perfectly. I am writing this on Wordpad and everything is fine and dandy.

How long will this last?
Who knows?

I haven't priced new keyboards here; I'm not at all sure what one will cost. If it continues to act up, I'll have no choice but to replace it. Right now, I put off writing more often due to a lack of privacy. That won't be the case when we find a new apartment. When the time comes, I don't want a malfunctioning keyboard holding me back.

For the time being, I'll continue to spend my time reading. I believe a writer needs to open up to better writers.

There comes a time, however, when the rubber needs to meet the road.