There are things I'd love to be doing with my time. Geeky things usually, but things I either don't know how to start, don't have the money to start them or don't have the time to invest without compromising my family's well being. Everyone has these. Everyone wants to write a novel or act on stage or learn that language they started in high school, but I would say the lion's share of people settle for a day job because it pays fairly well and they push the rest of these dreams into the realm of duffer, hobbyist, tinkerer.
So let's hear it. What would you love to be doing with your time? What hobby are you doing that you'd love to turn into a business? What shot do you want to take?
Given the right timing, hours during the day or sudden inheritance here's a list of things I'd love to try.
Learn Mandarin or become fluent in French. I took French in high school and one semester in college. Too me it's one of the most beautiful languages on Earth with the possible exception of Italian. I did fairly well at it but where I fell short was being fluent in conversation. With all language, the easiest first is to read, then write, then speak. Not being an ambassador, I have little opportunity to use other languages. Which brings me to Mandarin. China is a superpower, like it or not. With 1.whatever billion people, it makes sense that we learn a little bit of their language. Plus, on one of my favorite shows Firefly they used Mandarin to swear and that was just cool. I've always admired polyglots and I realized most of my online friends are people from Finland, China, Argentina, Germany or Malaysia who know and speak both their native tongue and American English. It makes me feel less of a global human to only know my solitary, yet seriously complex, language.
Be a Lego builder. I've been collecting Lego sets going on 25 years but I've always kept the sets separate. I had a childhood friend who was an only child and had a lot of toys. He had a bag full of Lego pieces that we used to make all manner of space ships. We'd pride ourselves on creating Hatchet Fighters from Buck Rogers, giant space battleships, X-Wings, mecha, etc. My finest creation was a Gunstar from The Last Starfighter. Nowadays my Lego sits in boxes or Ziplock bags in the garage, unmingled and virtually unused. I watch the builders on Flickr create wonderful models of popular and original space vehicles and I get really jealous. But this kind of hobby takes time and a fairly large account to purchase bulk pieces. It also requires a large, undisturbed area of a home where the thousands of pieces can be stored, accessed easily and kept out of reach from little hands.
Be a voice actor. Some of my favorite big and little screen performers are those that provide the voices. Maurice LeMarche, Billy West, Frank Welker, John Dimaggio, Tress MacNeille all lend powerful and complex talent to any production. I'm sure it stems back to listening to Mel Blanc to a million Looney Toon voices. Having grown up a bit of a class clown, impersonating video game noises and cartoon characters, as well as having above average vocal control, I'd always thought I could be a decent voice actor. Draw backs to this currently include the facts that I don't know anyone in the business, I have no agent, and I know so very little about it all. I just watched a behind the scenes video about Dragonball Z: Bodukai 3 and the voice sessions they did for the game and I have to say I'm both inspired and more than a little scared at what it would take to get into that industry.
Narrow my artistic drives. The problem anyone with a 9-5 job that doesn't involve doing what you want to do is that the things you DO want to do get about 1% of your time and effort. It's all a conscious choice and the willingness to take a leap. You never know what awaits you if you take a chance on something and as countless success stories have shown, it's never too late. I'd personally like to find a focus for all the creative impulses I have running through my brain. I know I could be a good writer, illustrator, graphic designer, even web developer if I put my mind to it. What I have in creative "genius" I lack in motivation and focus. I burn through ideas like cigarettes and if a notion doesn't reach fruition in a short time, I leave it by the wayside. Because of that, in the last 15 years, I've done such an array of projects that I couldn't tell you what I'm really good at. Recently I had a guy posting about a lettering position tell me my work over the past couple years lacked variety - in lettering. I took it okay because I know he was right, but then I applied that to everything I draw, write or otherwise create and I realized it all looked the same. From the robot drawings to the way I color comic pages to the way I do cartoon hoboes, everything seems the same. Given time, I would love to explore more media, more challenges, in short be a true freelance artist.
Those are my big dreams. I have smaller ones like getting back into shape enough to play soccer, teaching myself piano or guitar, joining a band and playing drums or singing, getting involved in theater or do stand up, writing a sci-fi novel and going back to work on the comic I never finished. And here's where the dreams fall apart. I'm currently doing ALL these things, but I get about two hours a day where I'm not working and those two hours usually end up doing creative financing, mucking with daily problems about the house or cars or playing with and caring for the kids. It's not an excuse, it's a reality. At some point, I want to take a chance at something. I want to be able to say, "You know what, I'm going to do it. I'm tired of the grind and getting little in the way of enjoyment out of it." I don't know what I'm waiting for, a break? To be recognized? To become independently wealthy?
There's no advice anyone can give you, there's no tips or tricks to make it work better. The first step is to take the first step and the rest will either roll right along or fall apart, it's typically out of your control after that.
To that end, I'm going to go take a shower and then draw some robots.
Carry on.
30.8.08
26.8.08
Another Year, Another Pack of Supplies
It's that time of year again. Time for Ms. A to spend the morning in tears as her baby goes off to school.
Lil Miss Austin started second grade today - same school and a few of the same friends. The whole family went to see her off after a nice breakfast of waffles. I can understand Ms. A's emotions but I'm the opposite. I'm excited for LMA to be going back because I'D be excited to go back. Think about it; new supplies, new clothes, new friends and during an 8 hour day you get to eat lunch with people you like, run around outside, learn new things about math and history, maybe play with an animal. Who wouldn't want that?
So I'm excited for her.
Besides that, I apologize to the readers for not writing in so long. To use the tired excuse that life is crazy right now is both an offense to language and an insult to the obvious. Ms. A now works for four news papers and a couple of them she's actually doing reporting. It's funny to watch her try to write about sports since she's not a sports person. I keep offering to help but she requires journalistic integrity apparently.
The 100AP is in full swing again and I'm spending a lot of time promoting that, finding ways to promote it and changing things on the various sites. I haven't drawn so much as doodle in weeks and I'm starting to wonder if I ever will again. I had a robot a week distraction with an online acquaintance and that lasted 1 week for me. I've told Ms. A this, I'm in a funk. I'm a bit lonely and blue and I don't have a lot of outlets or people to talk to who are close.
Eh, pity party. And those get old, don't they?
Ms. A's having problems of her own, but I won't go into them here. You can read all about them in the autobiography she's currently writing. There's bound to be spills, chills, thrills, pills and ills a plenty. Let's just hope she doesn't have to write about that time she played any sports, might trip her up.
Cars are becoming a problem, back door shattered for some reason we're not sure of, got bit by fire ants and jammed my finger playing ball. Broke as folk but otherwise doing ok. Just a suck of a summer in an otherwise lame year. Hoping it gets better, hoping I have something better to write about next time.
Oh, my brother is at the DNC this week. We hates him, tricksy he is.
Lil Miss Austin started second grade today - same school and a few of the same friends. The whole family went to see her off after a nice breakfast of waffles. I can understand Ms. A's emotions but I'm the opposite. I'm excited for LMA to be going back because I'D be excited to go back. Think about it; new supplies, new clothes, new friends and during an 8 hour day you get to eat lunch with people you like, run around outside, learn new things about math and history, maybe play with an animal. Who wouldn't want that?
So I'm excited for her.
Besides that, I apologize to the readers for not writing in so long. To use the tired excuse that life is crazy right now is both an offense to language and an insult to the obvious. Ms. A now works for four news papers and a couple of them she's actually doing reporting. It's funny to watch her try to write about sports since she's not a sports person. I keep offering to help but she requires journalistic integrity apparently.
The 100AP is in full swing again and I'm spending a lot of time promoting that, finding ways to promote it and changing things on the various sites. I haven't drawn so much as doodle in weeks and I'm starting to wonder if I ever will again. I had a robot a week distraction with an online acquaintance and that lasted 1 week for me. I've told Ms. A this, I'm in a funk. I'm a bit lonely and blue and I don't have a lot of outlets or people to talk to who are close.
Eh, pity party. And those get old, don't they?
Ms. A's having problems of her own, but I won't go into them here. You can read all about them in the autobiography she's currently writing. There's bound to be spills, chills, thrills, pills and ills a plenty. Let's just hope she doesn't have to write about that time she played any sports, might trip her up.
Cars are becoming a problem, back door shattered for some reason we're not sure of, got bit by fire ants and jammed my finger playing ball. Broke as folk but otherwise doing ok. Just a suck of a summer in an otherwise lame year. Hoping it gets better, hoping I have something better to write about next time.
Oh, my brother is at the DNC this week. We hates him, tricksy he is.
13.8.08
100 Artists Project - Round Two!
After many months of promises and false starts, the second round of the 100AP is underway. Please visit the main site for all the details.
What's New?
I've broken up the original projects and have added a few more. The mail in 100 now ties in to the CBLDF and the sketchbook goes to Hero. The new ones are the 25 piece youth project supporting the International Child Art Foundation, the 50 piece digital art supporting the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education and the Moleskine book supporting the Center for Cartoon Studies.
The sign up page is active and I'll be sending out emails to the charities as well as some studios to drum up interest. If you're part of this community already, you've probably submitted work for volume one and all I ask is that you help talk up the relaunch anywhere you can.
Thanks for your continued support.
I'd also like to thank Ms. A's brother for helping me with the sign up page. Much appreciated.
What's New?
I've broken up the original projects and have added a few more. The mail in 100 now ties in to the CBLDF and the sketchbook goes to Hero. The new ones are the 25 piece youth project supporting the International Child Art Foundation, the 50 piece digital art supporting the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education and the Moleskine book supporting the Center for Cartoon Studies.
The sign up page is active and I'll be sending out emails to the charities as well as some studios to drum up interest. If you're part of this community already, you've probably submitted work for volume one and all I ask is that you help talk up the relaunch anywhere you can.
Thanks for your continued support.
I'd also like to thank Ms. A's brother for helping me with the sign up page. Much appreciated.
Happy Birthday Ms. A
-Birth-
A brain not yet wrinkled
Flooded with light and noise
Forced to breath
The air is cold and sharp
And you cry.
Time speeds up
Ambles along
Teeth, puberty, drinking, children
Twenty, twenty five, thirty
Each day is a miracle, each night is a forgiveness.
Each year is a blessing
Covered in chocolate and served
By friends holding a silver dish.
Each new experience
Leaves a new wrinkle, a new scar, a new neuron
And the lights fade
And the air is warm and friendly
And the noise is comfort
And you cry.
Happy birthday
A brain not yet wrinkled
Flooded with light and noise
Forced to breath
The air is cold and sharp
And you cry.
Time speeds up
Ambles along
Teeth, puberty, drinking, children
Twenty, twenty five, thirty
Each day is a miracle, each night is a forgiveness.
Each year is a blessing
Covered in chocolate and served
By friends holding a silver dish.
Each new experience
Leaves a new wrinkle, a new scar, a new neuron
And the lights fade
And the air is warm and friendly
And the noise is comfort
And you cry.
Happy birthday
8.8.08
Wrapping It Up
Summer is about over for the Pfolks in Pflugerville. Ms. A's work with the photo company is coming to an end so she's looking for employment elsewhere. LMA will be starting school in about two weeks and G-man will likely go into day care for at least half day. He needs friends his own age and size. It's been a good run for him at home and Ms. A has done great with him and has loved being home with him, but it's time for him to make little people friends and get started learning.
I didn't have a summer. Like most grups, I worked. I worked hard this summer and it sucked. Since May, every day ended by saying, "Ah crap, I didn't get everything done today." I haven't had that before. And it's not like there's more work to do, but somehow I've actually wanted to get the work done sooner. I think I've lost my mind. I need a vacation that doesn't involved taking the kids to Colorado. (Sorry mom and dad, those aren't vacations for me. They're babysitting my own kids in a different place. Love you guys to death, and we will visit, but nobody better call that a vacation.)
Still, the summer isn't completely over if you can still go fishing. Ms. A's been taking LMA to P-ville lake to go fish. For whatever reason, Ms. A's picked this up this year. Just when I think there's nothing new left to discover about her, she surprises me with this crap. I know her dad fishes a lot and she's gone with him a few times. I think that's what's causing it. I haven't gone yet. I fished a bit as a kid and just don't have a desire to now unless I'm camping by a lake and have a day to kill. So today, the kids went and each caught their first fish! I think G-man caught three. How cool is that?
(FYI, no one's going to eat these fish. Ms. A has a drying out/ink project she wants to try.)
The kids seem to love it and Ms. A gets positively shouty when they catch something. It's a nice cheap activity and it gets everyone out of the house.
Just a reminder I have some shirts for sale. Some new ones lately so get them before they get taken down for whatever intellectual rights reasons they might be infringing upon.
Also, I have another Charlie Jade review up. Television Zombies has a few other items reviewed and recapped as well, plus their one year anniversary show, in which you'll hear me and other TVZ contributors, should be up as soon as the editing is done. Stay tuned to that!
Carry on.
28.7.08
Summer TV Viewing
As some of you may know, I've been contributing a little bit to the science fiction television site Television Zombies. They do a weekly podcast with news and discussion covering the world of science fiction in visual entertainment. It's mostly TV, but I know they've done a little about movies and one regular is a wrestling fan. I've been covering the 3am summer filler Charlie Jade. Unfortunately, CJ was made three years ago and never had a second season. Hopefully when the fall starts I'll be able to pick up a show that won't get shoved into a drawer. Still, I'm helping out by providing summer content, and that's cool in itself.
By the way, TVZ is having it's one year anniversary show this coming weekend and all the contributors will be on the podcast. So come Sunday night/Monday morning, make sure to check it out.
Which brought up the idea for this post. I started thinking about the shows that I watch and I realized it's a bit eclectic. See, I only have a few staples in my viewing diet. The rest of the time I'm surfing Discovery or History or Discovery Science for something concerning string theory or quantum mechanics or space travel or the history of ancient civilizations. I don't watch reality shows, I don't even watch shows mocking reality shows. To me that's like watching scientists experiment on rats and that's not much fun. The last reality show I watched with any frequency was the second season of The Real World on MTV.
So here are my current viewing choices. Keep in mind I have kids.
First and foremost, Doctor Who. This has been my favorite show of the past decade, easily. And it's a personal, inner AND outer geek love for this show. Other shows may be better written and produced but Doctor Who has been around longer than any other science fiction show and nearly every other TV show in history. It started in 1963 and ran until 1989. In 1996 there was a movie and then the series was revived in 2005 and is currently in its forth season. Doctor Who is campy, mysterious, funny, dramatic, action packed - it's just fun.
Another science fiction show, Battlestar: Galactica. Now I was a big fan of the original show as a child and it's held up moderately well, but nothing compared to the production value, dramatic tension and grown up writing that is the new run. Galactica is easily one of the best dramas on cable. Take out the vipers and Cylons and you really do have a well put together hour long drama. On sheer pathos alone I'd stack it up to any other prime time network show. Sadly the show is in the midst of its last season, a graceful four tours of high caliber entertainment.
Lost has always been a household favorite. Since its inception, Lost has grabbed our attention and never let up. There have been lags with characters and people will agree that some characters should have never been put on screen, but I think it's safe to say this show did to TV what The Matrix did to movies. Everyone wants to make a show like Lost now.
While Heroes has had its problems, I know I'll continue to watch the show until someone figures out how to properly do a super hero show for prime time network TV. Heroes always leaves me wanting more, but not in a cliffhanging, well written kind of way. It leaves me wanting more in the middle of the shows. More acting, more writing, more displays of awesome super powers. There's a lot of posturing and posing, not a lot of doing.
Charlie Jade makes me sad to think about. If you ever watched shows like Nowhere Man you'll appreciate the sense of dismay. This is a show that was set to fill in for Galactica during the summer and was instantly moved from the wonderful Friday night slot to Tuesday at 3am. It's a product of several international production companies, notably Canada and South Africa, and if nothing else, shows us what a decent show could be like without having to be handled by American studios. Charlie Jade is very noir, very slow and thoughtful and I believe that's why it never got a second season picked up. So, like Firefly, it'll have to live as an unfulfilled single season.
Rounding out the sci-fi stuff, Torchwood is a bit of a guilty pleasure to me. It catches a lot of flak for being both too serious and not serious enough. No one seems to like the characters but they also want more character interaction. They don't like the science fiction aspect but they want more plausible science. Personally, I like the characters immensely more than the idea of a time rift in Cardiff, England. It follows the same pattern as X-Files used to; some monster stories, some big story arc episodes. Plus its tie-in to Doctor Who makes it infinitely enjoyable to me.
The Closer is probably the only non-science fiction drama I've watched regularly. After so many Law & Order's, I couldn't see getting into another crime drama, but Sedgewick's performances and the rest of the cast's interactions are very human and very real without being forced. It's a pleasant show usually about very unpleasant situations.
If you haven't seen Psych, you're missing out. I don't know of many other hour long comedies and I actually wonder if they're really out there. Psych's two main characters are absolutely wonderful and completely make the show worth watching. It's charming and sweet and comical, all wrapped up in an old time WhoDunnit style mystery.
Staying with comedy for a second, Scrubs used to be my absolute favorite show. Over the years it got a little repetitive, but it's definitely a very unique show filled with fantastic characters and really well written stories. Hell, even the music they pick is good.
I honestly know people who have seen Futurama and have not liked it. I don't talk to those people any more. There are two kinds of people in this world; smart, funny people who love Futurama and stupid idiots that don't. It's that simple. You can have your Family Guy and Simpsons all you want. Neither holds a candle to the genius that is Futurama.
Moving now to unscripted and non-fiction, Mythbusters ranks among the top of my reality science shows. I'll watch any documentary at the drop of a hat, but how often do you get a show where they just blow stuff up if it doesn't work. However, the explosions aren't my favorite part of the show but rather it's the unexpected result that always gets me. An exploding beer keg, bulls not knocking over china, being able to see better at night by wearing an eye-patch. As long as they keep doing what they're doing, I'll watch for a long, long time.
Dirty Jobs has the best host in television history. Mike Rowe is the most personable, charming men I've ever seen. He makes the show what it is and I know that if they had any other host, the show would have been canceled already. My first viewing of Dirty Jobs was probably right as it started several years ago when Mike was sexing a baby chick. You have to squeeze it, make it poop, then check for the boy or girl parts. I was instantly addicted to the humor he brought to the show and the noble portrayal displayed toward these unheralded jobs.
Ok, I'm a fighter jet nut. Top Gun is one of my favorites, but just for the planes dammit! I have a poster of fighter jets that has traveled to many homes. I have a book about them that I read semi seriously. I can usually tell the type of fighter jet even from several thousand feet. So when I found Dogfights on the History Channel, I about wet myself. CG reconstructions of actual historical dogfights with narration and interviews by the pilots who flew them. I knew all the outcomes but it didn't keep me from holding my breath.
I sort of missed out on the big push by Discovery Channel for The NASA Missions: When We Left Earth. I haven't seen all (four?) of them, but I've seen a couple and I'm honestly considering a DVD purchase. I love our beleaguered space agency and this miniseries reminded me of why. Buzz Aldren may be off his trolley blaming science fiction entertainment for the failings NASA, but I know he's not talking to me. I love this shit.
Both Brian Greene and Michio Kaku have a few things in common; they're both theoretical physicists, they've both hosted television shows and I've read books by both of them. Kaku turned me onto the theory of superstrings with his book "Hyperspace" which is more about wormholes but touches briefly on the topic. He also hosted two of my favorite science shows, 2057 and Time. Brian Greene's "Elegant Universe" is one of my favorite science books ever AND one of my favorite PBS documentaries.
But hey, you're a dad. Don't you have watch any good kids shows? To tell you the truth, I don't. Most kid shows are just painfully banal or so beyond any semblance of normalcy that it hurts a couple of my cortices to watch them. I try to keep the kids on either Noggin or Discovery Kids, but lately LMA has been drifting to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network - the later I don't want a 4 or 7 year old anywhere near. That said, I have my favorites among the clutter.
Chowder is a truly odd show. It has no real endearing plots or moral tales and it usually follows the general sitcom rule of people trying to clean up a mess and not interacting like regular people would so the tension just builds until something explodes. The reason I like the show is because John Dimaggio is in it as the voice of Schnitzle, a character that speaks like the Hamburglar. I was listen to Dimaggio read the instructions on a Pop-Tart box.
The perennial favorite is of course Spongebob Squarepants and I'll tell you why it's gone on this long. The writing is genius. I don't mean Tolstoy genius, but if you can recall anything about comedy, cartoons, farce or variety shows of the last half century, you'll appreciate this show more and more. This is the current youth's Looney Toons. Where Bugs Bunny always seemed like worldly and wise-cracking, you got the sense that most of the jokes were only for adults who lived in New York. Spongebob really does broaden that horizon and fills the show with so many references that you'd be hard pressed not to find something worth watching. Plus, anything that uses the voice talents of Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway has got to be watched.
The Mighty B is a new show and Ms. A isn't too fond of it, but I love it. I like it more than the kids to I think. Amy Poehler voices the main character who has a hellacious lisp but also a depth of character you can't really find in other cartoons. For a 10 year old girl, she's smart and funny but more than a little off center. Poehler alone makes the show worth watching.
And finally, a show even Ms. A likes, Peep and the Big Wide World. Joan Cusack narrates this adorable little show about three friends; Peep, Chirp and Quack. They do the typical innocent exploration of the world around them discovering things like their reflections and shadows. Quack, the duck, is the highlight of the show. He's a know-it-all blow-hard but brings a level of humor to those traits I wouldn't think possible.
I'm sure all this will change once fall starts. There are a host of new shows coming out I'd like to at least give a chance. I mean, had I written this last year, I'd have included Grey's Anatomy which now makes me want to punch people when I see it.
By the way, TVZ is having it's one year anniversary show this coming weekend and all the contributors will be on the podcast. So come Sunday night/Monday morning, make sure to check it out.Which brought up the idea for this post. I started thinking about the shows that I watch and I realized it's a bit eclectic. See, I only have a few staples in my viewing diet. The rest of the time I'm surfing Discovery or History or Discovery Science for something concerning string theory or quantum mechanics or space travel or the history of ancient civilizations. I don't watch reality shows, I don't even watch shows mocking reality shows. To me that's like watching scientists experiment on rats and that's not much fun. The last reality show I watched with any frequency was the second season of The Real World on MTV.
So here are my current viewing choices. Keep in mind I have kids.
First and foremost, Doctor Who. This has been my favorite show of the past decade, easily. And it's a personal, inner AND outer geek love for this show. Other shows may be better written and produced but Doctor Who has been around longer than any other science fiction show and nearly every other TV show in history. It started in 1963 and ran until 1989. In 1996 there was a movie and then the series was revived in 2005 and is currently in its forth season. Doctor Who is campy, mysterious, funny, dramatic, action packed - it's just fun.
Another science fiction show, Battlestar: Galactica. Now I was a big fan of the original show as a child and it's held up moderately well, but nothing compared to the production value, dramatic tension and grown up writing that is the new run. Galactica is easily one of the best dramas on cable. Take out the vipers and Cylons and you really do have a well put together hour long drama. On sheer pathos alone I'd stack it up to any other prime time network show. Sadly the show is in the midst of its last season, a graceful four tours of high caliber entertainment.
Lost has always been a household favorite. Since its inception, Lost has grabbed our attention and never let up. There have been lags with characters and people will agree that some characters should have never been put on screen, but I think it's safe to say this show did to TV what The Matrix did to movies. Everyone wants to make a show like Lost now.
While Heroes has had its problems, I know I'll continue to watch the show until someone figures out how to properly do a super hero show for prime time network TV. Heroes always leaves me wanting more, but not in a cliffhanging, well written kind of way. It leaves me wanting more in the middle of the shows. More acting, more writing, more displays of awesome super powers. There's a lot of posturing and posing, not a lot of doing.
Charlie Jade makes me sad to think about. If you ever watched shows like Nowhere Man you'll appreciate the sense of dismay. This is a show that was set to fill in for Galactica during the summer and was instantly moved from the wonderful Friday night slot to Tuesday at 3am. It's a product of several international production companies, notably Canada and South Africa, and if nothing else, shows us what a decent show could be like without having to be handled by American studios. Charlie Jade is very noir, very slow and thoughtful and I believe that's why it never got a second season picked up. So, like Firefly, it'll have to live as an unfulfilled single season.
Rounding out the sci-fi stuff, Torchwood is a bit of a guilty pleasure to me. It catches a lot of flak for being both too serious and not serious enough. No one seems to like the characters but they also want more character interaction. They don't like the science fiction aspect but they want more plausible science. Personally, I like the characters immensely more than the idea of a time rift in Cardiff, England. It follows the same pattern as X-Files used to; some monster stories, some big story arc episodes. Plus its tie-in to Doctor Who makes it infinitely enjoyable to me.
The Closer is probably the only non-science fiction drama I've watched regularly. After so many Law & Order's, I couldn't see getting into another crime drama, but Sedgewick's performances and the rest of the cast's interactions are very human and very real without being forced. It's a pleasant show usually about very unpleasant situations.
If you haven't seen Psych, you're missing out. I don't know of many other hour long comedies and I actually wonder if they're really out there. Psych's two main characters are absolutely wonderful and completely make the show worth watching. It's charming and sweet and comical, all wrapped up in an old time WhoDunnit style mystery.
Staying with comedy for a second, Scrubs used to be my absolute favorite show. Over the years it got a little repetitive, but it's definitely a very unique show filled with fantastic characters and really well written stories. Hell, even the music they pick is good.
I honestly know people who have seen Futurama and have not liked it. I don't talk to those people any more. There are two kinds of people in this world; smart, funny people who love Futurama and stupid idiots that don't. It's that simple. You can have your Family Guy and Simpsons all you want. Neither holds a candle to the genius that is Futurama.
Moving now to unscripted and non-fiction, Mythbusters ranks among the top of my reality science shows. I'll watch any documentary at the drop of a hat, but how often do you get a show where they just blow stuff up if it doesn't work. However, the explosions aren't my favorite part of the show but rather it's the unexpected result that always gets me. An exploding beer keg, bulls not knocking over china, being able to see better at night by wearing an eye-patch. As long as they keep doing what they're doing, I'll watch for a long, long time.
Dirty Jobs has the best host in television history. Mike Rowe is the most personable, charming men I've ever seen. He makes the show what it is and I know that if they had any other host, the show would have been canceled already. My first viewing of Dirty Jobs was probably right as it started several years ago when Mike was sexing a baby chick. You have to squeeze it, make it poop, then check for the boy or girl parts. I was instantly addicted to the humor he brought to the show and the noble portrayal displayed toward these unheralded jobs.
Ok, I'm a fighter jet nut. Top Gun is one of my favorites, but just for the planes dammit! I have a poster of fighter jets that has traveled to many homes. I have a book about them that I read semi seriously. I can usually tell the type of fighter jet even from several thousand feet. So when I found Dogfights on the History Channel, I about wet myself. CG reconstructions of actual historical dogfights with narration and interviews by the pilots who flew them. I knew all the outcomes but it didn't keep me from holding my breath.
I sort of missed out on the big push by Discovery Channel for The NASA Missions: When We Left Earth. I haven't seen all (four?) of them, but I've seen a couple and I'm honestly considering a DVD purchase. I love our beleaguered space agency and this miniseries reminded me of why. Buzz Aldren may be off his trolley blaming science fiction entertainment for the failings NASA, but I know he's not talking to me. I love this shit.
Both Brian Greene and Michio Kaku have a few things in common; they're both theoretical physicists, they've both hosted television shows and I've read books by both of them. Kaku turned me onto the theory of superstrings with his book "Hyperspace" which is more about wormholes but touches briefly on the topic. He also hosted two of my favorite science shows, 2057 and Time. Brian Greene's "Elegant Universe" is one of my favorite science books ever AND one of my favorite PBS documentaries.But hey, you're a dad. Don't you have watch any good kids shows? To tell you the truth, I don't. Most kid shows are just painfully banal or so beyond any semblance of normalcy that it hurts a couple of my cortices to watch them. I try to keep the kids on either Noggin or Discovery Kids, but lately LMA has been drifting to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network - the later I don't want a 4 or 7 year old anywhere near. That said, I have my favorites among the clutter.
Chowder is a truly odd show. It has no real endearing plots or moral tales and it usually follows the general sitcom rule of people trying to clean up a mess and not interacting like regular people would so the tension just builds until something explodes. The reason I like the show is because John Dimaggio is in it as the voice of Schnitzle, a character that speaks like the Hamburglar. I was listen to Dimaggio read the instructions on a Pop-Tart box.
The perennial favorite is of course Spongebob Squarepants and I'll tell you why it's gone on this long. The writing is genius. I don't mean Tolstoy genius, but if you can recall anything about comedy, cartoons, farce or variety shows of the last half century, you'll appreciate this show more and more. This is the current youth's Looney Toons. Where Bugs Bunny always seemed like worldly and wise-cracking, you got the sense that most of the jokes were only for adults who lived in New York. Spongebob really does broaden that horizon and fills the show with so many references that you'd be hard pressed not to find something worth watching. Plus, anything that uses the voice talents of Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway has got to be watched.
The Mighty B is a new show and Ms. A isn't too fond of it, but I love it. I like it more than the kids to I think. Amy Poehler voices the main character who has a hellacious lisp but also a depth of character you can't really find in other cartoons. For a 10 year old girl, she's smart and funny but more than a little off center. Poehler alone makes the show worth watching.
And finally, a show even Ms. A likes, Peep and the Big Wide World. Joan Cusack narrates this adorable little show about three friends; Peep, Chirp and Quack. They do the typical innocent exploration of the world around them discovering things like their reflections and shadows. Quack, the duck, is the highlight of the show. He's a know-it-all blow-hard but brings a level of humor to those traits I wouldn't think possible.I'm sure all this will change once fall starts. There are a host of new shows coming out I'd like to at least give a chance. I mean, had I written this last year, I'd have included Grey's Anatomy which now makes me want to punch people when I see it.
21.7.08
The Dark Knight (Returns)
I'm not going to write a review, no point. Everyone loved it.
What I'd like to do is get out an idea I had for what will likely be a third movie. Christian Bale has signed for three so there's at least going to be one more.
And in order to do this, I have to ruin some things for you, so don't read if you haven't seen the movie yet. Come back after you have.
Nolan isn't going to bring the Joker back. Ledger's death has pretty much sewn up the fact that the character will not be returning during Nolan's rebooting run on the franchise. Later directors, fine, but not now. Rachel Dawes is dead and even though Hollywood demands love and sex, I believe the third one should be devoid of that. There have been many runs of the comic where Batman doesn't have to worry about his heart-strings.
Also dead in the movie was Harvey Dent a.k.a Two-Face. Now, I'd be ok with him not being dead, in fact I'm counting on it. Eckhart played him so well and the effects on his face were so good that it'd be a shame not to see them again. Plus, Two-Face/Harvey Dent is still freshly tied to the Gotham mythos, the idea of someone taking a stand on crime. With him gone and the cops using Batman as a scapegoat, it's going to be the perfect time for the mob to step in. Now in The Dark Knight, Harvey is in the car with the mob boss Salvatore Mironi (Eric Roberts) when it wrecks. Dent survived; no reason Mironi didn't. It was assumed he's dead, but I don't know if it was ever actually confirmed.
So, here's where part three comes in.
One of Batman's oldest enemies is Clayface, so much so that there have been several incarnations and retoolings of the character including two of them getting married and having an offspring who would become Claything. For the purposes of this exercise I'm going to take the idea of the Clayface from the animated series, Matt Hagen; an out of work actor desperately trying to recreate his career. He ends up in an accident that horribly disfigures his face and is approached by a chemical manufacturing magnate who offers an experimental new skin cream that allows you to reshape your face like putty. Hagen owes money to the mob and when he doesn't pay, they subject him to dangerously copious amounts of the cream, changing his look to that of a monstrous lump of clay. He's able to use this to turn himself into anyone he sees but also turn himself into weapons.
All these things add up to what I believe would be a good part three of the series.
Harvey Dent goes into hiding. He disappears after his last encounter with Gordon and Batman. His wake in Gotham eulogizes him as a hero and the citizens lock in the memory of him as one of a good man and strong character. No one knows who Two-Face is publically. The Joker is locked in Arkham Asylum. The cops were able to get him safely put away without Batman. Rachel Dawes is dead, but Bruce is tortured by the memory of her and how he was unable to stop her death. Bruce makes the excuse of shoring up business ties with the firm in Hong Kong that was shown to be doing dirty bookkeeping but lost its CEO to get away from Gotham. He feels he's lost his focus and with the city wanting Batman's blood, he sees no reason to stick around. He uses the time to seek solace in a Buddhist monastery.
Meanwhile in Gotham, we meet an out of work actor. He's used loan money from the mob to invest in myriad plastic surgeries to keep his appearance up to Hollywood standards. However, while he isn't past his prime, he's definitely no longer action hero material. The surgeries have had the reverse affect and he's both without prospects and in debt to the mob. He's approached by a Wayne Enterprises representative to be a test subject for an experimental new rejuvenation therapy called Radical. It's based off current DNA/aging studies that claim free radicals destroying DNA is the reason we age the way we do. This therapy eliminates this natural cellular devastation and keeps people looking and actually BEING young for much longer as the body is allowed to regenerate itself. Hagen accepts and the transformation is incredible. He looks and feels young again.
However, the mob doesn't want to wait Hagen's career to pick up again and they money he makes from the testing isn't enough to pay them, so he's attacked in his home and in a cruel show, given too much of the medication that helps his cells heal. The overdose doesn't kill him, but it changes his DNA from merely regenerative to synaptically malleable; he can change his appearance at will. He becomes Clayface.
Of course Clayface is now pissed and the change not only affects his body but affects his mind. He blames Wayne Enterprises (and thusly Bruce Wayne) for his ordeal and the mob for making him go through it. The mob in this case is the Chechen (whose leader we see prominently in The Dark Knight.) After Hagen discovers his ability to change shape, he uses his powers at first to avoid the Chechen. Later he plots to get back at them by assuming the mantle of the Mironi family leader Salvatore. We find out Savlatore is not dead, but critically wounded from the car crash. He's in no shape to run the family, but is revered enough not to be killed. Hagen assumes the identity of a caretaker, kills Mironi, and then assumes his likeness - the family thinks he's miraculously cured. Running the Mironi family, Clayface wages war on the Chechens to get back at them, and he's very successful in killing their top man. But he also does something quite unexpected. He knows (somehow) that Rachel Dawes and Bruce Wayne were an item. To get back at Wayne, he changes shape to be Rachel and shows up at Wayne Manor, shocking Alfred and prompting Bruce to return home. However, Clayface doesn't realize that Harvey Dent/Two-Face is not dead. Two-Face sees Rachel and Bruce (news? paparazzi?) and comes out of hiding to exact revenge. In his rage he doesn't understand that it could be a trick.
A mob war is raging across Gotham and Batman is asked by now Commissioner Gordon to help fight it. At first Batman refuses as he's still trying to figure out how Rachel and Harvey could be alive. But then a tragic accident/mob killing at a carnival on the outskirts of town brings him back to his old ways. (The incident leaves two dead and an orphaned boy, and that's as close to Robin as you're going to get.) Batman figures out it's not Rachel with some scientific help from Lucius but he uses it to his advantage in getting to both Harvey and the Mironi family. Clayface drops his guise and assumes his "relaxed" state which is that of a pretty heinous monster with the ability to change his shape into anything, including blunt weapons. Harvey flips his coin and decides he's got to die, but Clayface has the upper hand and Two-Face is killed. Now Batman is forced to fight this nearly indestructible creature. Another nod to the animated series, he'll beat him using water and dissolve Clayface's body.
With the both mob leaders dead and the other mobs not strong enough since the Joker's incarceration to put up much of a fight, the police are able to gain some control in Gotham and Bruce is able to go back to regular patrols, now the hero that helped clean up the city when the city didn't want him. His last act is to ask Alfred what happened to that boy at the carnival.
That's it. That's my idea. And I'll bet you even money Nolan and the producers will instead bring in a new love interest (Talia al Ghul maybe?) and bring in either Catwoman or the Riddler or both. Batman will open up to Catwoman and she'll use it against him and side with the Riddler as he hatches some dastardly plan to drown Gotham by blowing up a levy system or something equally mundane. But I'm sticking to this story. It works in terms of a reboot. It keeps characters similar but not over used. It gives the three movies a complete arc. It gives the story enough time to have growing pains and resolve into enough open ends that another retelling could be done.
Carry on.
What I'd like to do is get out an idea I had for what will likely be a third movie. Christian Bale has signed for three so there's at least going to be one more.
And in order to do this, I have to ruin some things for you, so don't read if you haven't seen the movie yet. Come back after you have.
Nolan isn't going to bring the Joker back. Ledger's death has pretty much sewn up the fact that the character will not be returning during Nolan's rebooting run on the franchise. Later directors, fine, but not now. Rachel Dawes is dead and even though Hollywood demands love and sex, I believe the third one should be devoid of that. There have been many runs of the comic where Batman doesn't have to worry about his heart-strings.
Also dead in the movie was Harvey Dent a.k.a Two-Face. Now, I'd be ok with him not being dead, in fact I'm counting on it. Eckhart played him so well and the effects on his face were so good that it'd be a shame not to see them again. Plus, Two-Face/Harvey Dent is still freshly tied to the Gotham mythos, the idea of someone taking a stand on crime. With him gone and the cops using Batman as a scapegoat, it's going to be the perfect time for the mob to step in. Now in The Dark Knight, Harvey is in the car with the mob boss Salvatore Mironi (Eric Roberts) when it wrecks. Dent survived; no reason Mironi didn't. It was assumed he's dead, but I don't know if it was ever actually confirmed.
So, here's where part three comes in.
One of Batman's oldest enemies is Clayface, so much so that there have been several incarnations and retoolings of the character including two of them getting married and having an offspring who would become Claything. For the purposes of this exercise I'm going to take the idea of the Clayface from the animated series, Matt Hagen; an out of work actor desperately trying to recreate his career. He ends up in an accident that horribly disfigures his face and is approached by a chemical manufacturing magnate who offers an experimental new skin cream that allows you to reshape your face like putty. Hagen owes money to the mob and when he doesn't pay, they subject him to dangerously copious amounts of the cream, changing his look to that of a monstrous lump of clay. He's able to use this to turn himself into anyone he sees but also turn himself into weapons.
All these things add up to what I believe would be a good part three of the series.
Harvey Dent goes into hiding. He disappears after his last encounter with Gordon and Batman. His wake in Gotham eulogizes him as a hero and the citizens lock in the memory of him as one of a good man and strong character. No one knows who Two-Face is publically. The Joker is locked in Arkham Asylum. The cops were able to get him safely put away without Batman. Rachel Dawes is dead, but Bruce is tortured by the memory of her and how he was unable to stop her death. Bruce makes the excuse of shoring up business ties with the firm in Hong Kong that was shown to be doing dirty bookkeeping but lost its CEO to get away from Gotham. He feels he's lost his focus and with the city wanting Batman's blood, he sees no reason to stick around. He uses the time to seek solace in a Buddhist monastery.
Meanwhile in Gotham, we meet an out of work actor. He's used loan money from the mob to invest in myriad plastic surgeries to keep his appearance up to Hollywood standards. However, while he isn't past his prime, he's definitely no longer action hero material. The surgeries have had the reverse affect and he's both without prospects and in debt to the mob. He's approached by a Wayne Enterprises representative to be a test subject for an experimental new rejuvenation therapy called Radical. It's based off current DNA/aging studies that claim free radicals destroying DNA is the reason we age the way we do. This therapy eliminates this natural cellular devastation and keeps people looking and actually BEING young for much longer as the body is allowed to regenerate itself. Hagen accepts and the transformation is incredible. He looks and feels young again.
However, the mob doesn't want to wait Hagen's career to pick up again and they money he makes from the testing isn't enough to pay them, so he's attacked in his home and in a cruel show, given too much of the medication that helps his cells heal. The overdose doesn't kill him, but it changes his DNA from merely regenerative to synaptically malleable; he can change his appearance at will. He becomes Clayface.
Of course Clayface is now pissed and the change not only affects his body but affects his mind. He blames Wayne Enterprises (and thusly Bruce Wayne) for his ordeal and the mob for making him go through it. The mob in this case is the Chechen (whose leader we see prominently in The Dark Knight.) After Hagen discovers his ability to change shape, he uses his powers at first to avoid the Chechen. Later he plots to get back at them by assuming the mantle of the Mironi family leader Salvatore. We find out Savlatore is not dead, but critically wounded from the car crash. He's in no shape to run the family, but is revered enough not to be killed. Hagen assumes the identity of a caretaker, kills Mironi, and then assumes his likeness - the family thinks he's miraculously cured. Running the Mironi family, Clayface wages war on the Chechens to get back at them, and he's very successful in killing their top man. But he also does something quite unexpected. He knows (somehow) that Rachel Dawes and Bruce Wayne were an item. To get back at Wayne, he changes shape to be Rachel and shows up at Wayne Manor, shocking Alfred and prompting Bruce to return home. However, Clayface doesn't realize that Harvey Dent/Two-Face is not dead. Two-Face sees Rachel and Bruce (news? paparazzi?) and comes out of hiding to exact revenge. In his rage he doesn't understand that it could be a trick.
A mob war is raging across Gotham and Batman is asked by now Commissioner Gordon to help fight it. At first Batman refuses as he's still trying to figure out how Rachel and Harvey could be alive. But then a tragic accident/mob killing at a carnival on the outskirts of town brings him back to his old ways. (The incident leaves two dead and an orphaned boy, and that's as close to Robin as you're going to get.) Batman figures out it's not Rachel with some scientific help from Lucius but he uses it to his advantage in getting to both Harvey and the Mironi family. Clayface drops his guise and assumes his "relaxed" state which is that of a pretty heinous monster with the ability to change his shape into anything, including blunt weapons. Harvey flips his coin and decides he's got to die, but Clayface has the upper hand and Two-Face is killed. Now Batman is forced to fight this nearly indestructible creature. Another nod to the animated series, he'll beat him using water and dissolve Clayface's body.
With the both mob leaders dead and the other mobs not strong enough since the Joker's incarceration to put up much of a fight, the police are able to gain some control in Gotham and Bruce is able to go back to regular patrols, now the hero that helped clean up the city when the city didn't want him. His last act is to ask Alfred what happened to that boy at the carnival.
That's it. That's my idea. And I'll bet you even money Nolan and the producers will instead bring in a new love interest (Talia al Ghul maybe?) and bring in either Catwoman or the Riddler or both. Batman will open up to Catwoman and she'll use it against him and side with the Riddler as he hatches some dastardly plan to drown Gotham by blowing up a levy system or something equally mundane. But I'm sticking to this story. It works in terms of a reboot. It keeps characters similar but not over used. It gives the three movies a complete arc. It gives the story enough time to have growing pains and resolve into enough open ends that another retelling could be done.
Carry on.
18.7.08
The Hammer
...ahem...
And for those that DON'T know, you better act quick. It's only going to be up for a short time.
Carry on.
And for those that DON'T know, you better act quick. It's only going to be up for a short time.
Carry on.
17.7.08
Living With Vegetarians
Storm clouds, the smell of ozone from fireworks, sunlight that finally fades at 9 o'clock and a veggie dog hot off the grill.
Wait...what?
My life with these vegetarians goes back to right at the turn of the century. (Still feels weird to say that.) You see, when I moved from Colorado to Texas, I never thought that the change of eating habits I'd be making was going to be toward the non-meat side of the Force. And it wasn't at first. Thanksgivings were much the same as with my family up north wherein we ate turkey and ham. BBQ still had the same choices of brisket, chicken or sausage (though admittedly it's MUCH better in Texas.) Fajitas still had chicken or steak and pizza still had peperoni.
What changed is about two years later, after Ms. A and I had moved farther into Houston and she stops eating meat. She doesn't make an announcement about it, coming out of the freezer - if you will, and I don't remember noticing it at first. I just thought it was a typical chick thing to eat a lot of salad.
Now, she says she's always been vegetarian - this is a point of contention - but it was truly hammered home after a carcass cleaning incident with a turkey. That was apparently before my time. However, I remember her eating peperoni, chicken fajitas, lasagna with sausage, bacon and eggs.
Regardless, in the here and now I'm surrounded by hippies. Recycling, non-meat eating hippies. But, to her credit, she never stopped buying chicken or hamburgers or real bacon. Our shopping trips have always been one pure white 2% milk for me, one slightly yellow soy milk for her. One package of delicious maple flavored breakfast sausage for me, one package of (to her) delicious Morning Star sausage patties for her.
And yes, the children are vegetarian as well. Aside from the occasional fish stick or popcorn shrimp or accidental mistaken Subway sandwich incident, G-man and LMA are total vegetarians. Techincally, they are pesca-vegetarians, meaning they'll eat fish. They don't like it, but they'll eat it. They eat all Morning Star products, bacon, sausage, chicken nuggets and patties, ground "beef." Those alone are enough to make a large variety of meals. Add that to the childhood staples of PB&Js, Mac n Cheese and cereal, it's not like they're going hungry.
We're also fully aware that at a certain age, they'll be able to make the choice as to what they eat. For LMA that's coming very soon. She seems curious as to my basket of chicken tenders with honey mustard, but once she finds out it's really chicken she has a Pavlovian reaction that only slightly edges out the mouth watering curiosity.
Ms. A, however, is starting to have food problems. Since G-man was born 4 years ago, she's dropped something like 4,000lbs. She's not yet to the "Hey, eat a frickin sandwich" phase. She is however running out of things she can eat without making herself sick. She may even start eating real meat again. Why? After all this time and all the available substitutes?
Well, she's got a thyroid issue the prohibits her from eating "white things." What that means is anything with starch or gluten. No pastas, no breads. She also has an aversion to milk, and while not completely lactose intolerant, I don't know what else to call it. So, no cheese, yogurts or milks. Soy milk even makes her sick.
A peperoni pizza at this point would probably kill her.
She's also developed a reaction to citrus fruits. No orange or tomato juice. Bananas maker her mouth and ears itch. Melons make her skin break out into a rash. She can't do artificial sugars because they make her gassy and she can't do too much real sugar because of her thyroid.
This means she can eat the following.
Eggs
Hemp bread
Avacados
Wine
Lima beans
Most vegetables
That's about it. At least that's all I see her eat. She never has a bowl of oatmeal, or a BLT. She loves smelling the food I eat (BBQ, Schlotzsky's sandwiches, chicken fajita burritos.) She's not a terribly big eater anyway, but the limited choices I do believe are going to kill her eventually. Either than or she'll live in the low calorie starvation zone and out live all of us.
I just can't wait for the day I take G-man out for a cheeseburger and not have to ask for the bean patty.
Wait...what?
My life with these vegetarians goes back to right at the turn of the century. (Still feels weird to say that.) You see, when I moved from Colorado to Texas, I never thought that the change of eating habits I'd be making was going to be toward the non-meat side of the Force. And it wasn't at first. Thanksgivings were much the same as with my family up north wherein we ate turkey and ham. BBQ still had the same choices of brisket, chicken or sausage (though admittedly it's MUCH better in Texas.) Fajitas still had chicken or steak and pizza still had peperoni.
What changed is about two years later, after Ms. A and I had moved farther into Houston and she stops eating meat. She doesn't make an announcement about it, coming out of the freezer - if you will, and I don't remember noticing it at first. I just thought it was a typical chick thing to eat a lot of salad.
Now, she says she's always been vegetarian - this is a point of contention - but it was truly hammered home after a carcass cleaning incident with a turkey. That was apparently before my time. However, I remember her eating peperoni, chicken fajitas, lasagna with sausage, bacon and eggs.
Regardless, in the here and now I'm surrounded by hippies. Recycling, non-meat eating hippies. But, to her credit, she never stopped buying chicken or hamburgers or real bacon. Our shopping trips have always been one pure white 2% milk for me, one slightly yellow soy milk for her. One package of delicious maple flavored breakfast sausage for me, one package of (to her) delicious Morning Star sausage patties for her.
And yes, the children are vegetarian as well. Aside from the occasional fish stick or popcorn shrimp or accidental mistaken Subway sandwich incident, G-man and LMA are total vegetarians. Techincally, they are pesca-vegetarians, meaning they'll eat fish. They don't like it, but they'll eat it. They eat all Morning Star products, bacon, sausage, chicken nuggets and patties, ground "beef." Those alone are enough to make a large variety of meals. Add that to the childhood staples of PB&Js, Mac n Cheese and cereal, it's not like they're going hungry.
We're also fully aware that at a certain age, they'll be able to make the choice as to what they eat. For LMA that's coming very soon. She seems curious as to my basket of chicken tenders with honey mustard, but once she finds out it's really chicken she has a Pavlovian reaction that only slightly edges out the mouth watering curiosity.
Ms. A, however, is starting to have food problems. Since G-man was born 4 years ago, she's dropped something like 4,000lbs. She's not yet to the "Hey, eat a frickin sandwich" phase. She is however running out of things she can eat without making herself sick. She may even start eating real meat again. Why? After all this time and all the available substitutes?
Well, she's got a thyroid issue the prohibits her from eating "white things." What that means is anything with starch or gluten. No pastas, no breads. She also has an aversion to milk, and while not completely lactose intolerant, I don't know what else to call it. So, no cheese, yogurts or milks. Soy milk even makes her sick.
A peperoni pizza at this point would probably kill her.
She's also developed a reaction to citrus fruits. No orange or tomato juice. Bananas maker her mouth and ears itch. Melons make her skin break out into a rash. She can't do artificial sugars because they make her gassy and she can't do too much real sugar because of her thyroid.
This means she can eat the following.
Eggs
Hemp bread
Avacados
Wine
Lima beans
Most vegetables
That's about it. At least that's all I see her eat. She never has a bowl of oatmeal, or a BLT. She loves smelling the food I eat (BBQ, Schlotzsky's sandwiches, chicken fajita burritos.) She's not a terribly big eater anyway, but the limited choices I do believe are going to kill her eventually. Either than or she'll live in the low calorie starvation zone and out live all of us.
I just can't wait for the day I take G-man out for a cheeseburger and not have to ask for the bean patty.
10.7.08
It's Not Irony, It's Coincidence
Today I was trying to think of a way to write about how wearing it is to live constantly feeling that the other shoe is about to drop; that at any moment your life could fall apart. There's a certain cathartic recognition when something bad happens - you stop worrying and start acting. It's the waiting and fretting about all the possibilities that make you go gray, bite your nails and drink.
The company Ms. A and her girlfriend work for today told everyone they were going out of business. Costs were too high, debt was too insurmountable. In the next three weeks all the current orders will be met and at that point they're going to stop business. Ms. A wasn't making a killing working there, but it was good income for someone who could do the work from home. WE didn't have to worry about daycare and only one of us was paying for gas with any regularity. It was complicated, but it worked.
Now we have to go back to being DINKs. G-man will have to go into daycare and LMA will have to find something until school starts.
But it's a good thing in the long run. A steady income will help us with our financial problems, allow us to grocery shop more regularly, etc. G-man will get some exposure to other kids, something he desperately needs. And Ms. A will be able to work until 5 and then stop - no more working for 20 hours a day. It'll be good.
As Ms. A says, "We're cats, we'll land on our feet."
So if you get an email or text message from one of us asking if your company is hiring, that's what's going on.
Makes my server issues at work seem paltry. Nothing like a little perspective.
Carry on.
The company Ms. A and her girlfriend work for today told everyone they were going out of business. Costs were too high, debt was too insurmountable. In the next three weeks all the current orders will be met and at that point they're going to stop business. Ms. A wasn't making a killing working there, but it was good income for someone who could do the work from home. WE didn't have to worry about daycare and only one of us was paying for gas with any regularity. It was complicated, but it worked.
Now we have to go back to being DINKs. G-man will have to go into daycare and LMA will have to find something until school starts.
But it's a good thing in the long run. A steady income will help us with our financial problems, allow us to grocery shop more regularly, etc. G-man will get some exposure to other kids, something he desperately needs. And Ms. A will be able to work until 5 and then stop - no more working for 20 hours a day. It'll be good.
As Ms. A says, "We're cats, we'll land on our feet."
So if you get an email or text message from one of us asking if your company is hiring, that's what's going on.
Makes my server issues at work seem paltry. Nothing like a little perspective.
Carry on.
The Rabbit Hole
I've been appointed the task of setting up a new server at work. Not a big deal, mind you. It's part of the job and I've done it before.
(Tech talk to follow, feel free to surf on if this kind of things puts you into a stupor.)
However, this time I'll be working with an x64 machine. For those not in the know, most machines you work with are 32bit (x32) processors. For those not REALLY in the know, that's the computer's brain. 32bit is what most PCs run. Lately (and by that I mean the last five years) there have been some new processors. Among them is the x64.
The problem with x64 processors is the same problem all new computing technology has, it's not compatible with many things. At least not yet.
Thus begins my journey into ever descending levels of sysadmin hell.
New server is a Dell machine. I don't think we should immediately hold that against it. The machine can't help who builds it, nor can it make any reparations. It comes with Windows Server 2008. That's all well and good, but we don't want that. It's unproven in our environment and we have other users that will be connecting to this server, so we want to reinstall with 2003.
Being that the machine is x64, I have to hunt down the exact installation disk from Microsoft. It has to be Server 2003 R2 x64 Enterprise Edition. I have it, but there's a problem. Microsoft doesn't like sending things in order or with any meaning. We also have two different licensing contracts so we end up with duplicate disks, or half of a two disk set. I have three disks I can pick from, one is newer but has no "disk 2" the other is older but both disks are included. Let's go with two disks.
Installation goes ok, but the server is also RAID (it's actually SAS but that's technical) which means it has several drives in it and data is split across them. If you lose one drive, you don't lose all your data. The drives are controlled by a RAID controller, this version is a SAS, PERC 6/i integrated. I have to get that into the OS installation. There's a catch, the machine has no floppy. I can't get the controller software on there. I have to "trick" the machine into thinking that its USB port is in fact its A: drive (traditionally a floppy disk drive.) There used to be a way to do this from the BIOS, but apparently the BIOS is now smart enough to see the USB/Floppy drive I stuck on so I don't have to do anything. However I did waste a good couple hours trying to find that command. On top of that, the USB Floppy kept shutting off. It would detect it long enough to know it was there, but when the software was needed, the drive was off. After many attempts, I did it FAST ENOUGH for the stupid thing's attention span.
Next!
Operating system installed (yes two disks.) Now comes the parts where I join the machine to the domain, give it all the updates it needs, make sure I can remote into it and-
Well wait a minute, the NICs aren't working. There's a conflict in the Device Manager. (BTW, "NIC" = network interface card. People do say NIC Card all the time. It's like ATM Machine or PIN Number or SCUBA Apparatus. It makes no sense to say it like that. If you are one of those who do, stop it now.) Ah yes, the NIC drivers need to be updated. No sweat. It's kind of hard to get drivers from the internet when your machine has no internet connection but luckily I have my trusty USB stick.
Dell's site shows no less than 20 entries for drivers for my machine. You would think the asset tag would be tied to that exact machine and the network devices on that machine would only need one driver. Oh heck no, silly pleb. My tag pulls up drivers, firmware updates, and integration packages from three different brands. I'll just try all of them. They don't work. I don't get it. I get the files, point the update wizard to the .inf file and nothing. So online to Dell Chat we go. Nope, you didn't get the right one, here's the right one. Ok thanks Dell Dude. Download to USB stick, hustle into server room, plug in, run wizard, point to inf file. Nope, still a conflict. Dell dude, are you running an x64 machine? Yes I am, can't you see that from the information I gave you? You need a different driver, try this one. Ugh, I tried that one already. All I get is the the driver is installed, but the device won't start.
Oh you know what, this machine has TOE on it. (No kidding, TOE = TCP/IP Offload Engine. It lets traffic flow processing go through it rather than the main processor. Faster machine and faster traffic.) It needs its own software package, not just a driver. Ah, gotcha, I say. Ok thanks. I get the right one, back on the USB stick, back into the server room. Run installer.
Now comes the second part of my journey.
This installation package needs the .Net Framework to run. I don't know much about .Net or its work with frames. I know it's a development tool and more than a few programs won't run without it, expecially programs written to run on x64 machines. Hmm, I think, that's usually included when you install Windows, or at the very least you get it from Windows Updates. Seeing as I have no network connection, I wouldn't get an update. So I go looking for .Net Framework 2.0.
Hey, I found it. That was easy. Hey, not so fast, Showboat. Just because you have the right installation package for the right machine, doesn't mean it'll work.
The installer gives me an error. You can't write or access these files. Most sysadmins love this. I may make a shirt out of it. It's one of those wonderfully cryptic errors that doesn't tell you what file or directory it's trying to access, it just gives you the error. It's like getting a moving violation ticket while you're sitting at home and there's no description as to what you did wrong. Included in the message is the penultimate helpful suggestion, "Please contact your administrator." Well, bugger. So I ask myself what the problem is and I don't like the answer.
"I have no fucking idea," I say to myself.
I check all the directories I think it needs. I'm logged in locally as the administrator, I can't imagine there's a place I can't go on this machine. Back to Dell Support. Yes I know it's a windows problem now, but you know what, they put the freaking TOE on the NIC of an x64 machine. They should support it when it doesn't work. Third guy I work with, now. "What version of windows installer do you have?" "I don't know, let me check." Hey, would you look at that, there's nothing listed. I guess I don't have one. Ok here, put this on there. Um, does it work with x64. Oh, no it doesn't. You need a hotfix for it instead. A hotfix for software I don't have on there yet? Too late, he's logged off. Thanks helpful Dell dude. I put the hotfix on the server anyway, and it's sort of like walk up to a gas station, paying for $20 in gas, and then pumping it directly onto the concrete.
Ok, no worries. The Windows Installer must be available somewhere. Well it is, but 3.0 came out before x64. 3.1 came out because of x64. So wait, to get the version of the installing component I need, I have to have the one built before that doesn't work on the machine I have. But there's a hotfix for it when I get it installed, which I can't. Right? Yes that's right.
So that's where I am now. My current thinking is I need to get the Service Pack 1 on the machine as all the articles I've read lead me to believe that the right installer is on that. Hopefully .Net Framework will also be included.
I'd keep you posted, but frankly I just don't care. I want to throw this stupid machine out the window. But HEY, at least I'm learning.
Carry on.
(Tech talk to follow, feel free to surf on if this kind of things puts you into a stupor.)
However, this time I'll be working with an x64 machine. For those not in the know, most machines you work with are 32bit (x32) processors. For those not REALLY in the know, that's the computer's brain. 32bit is what most PCs run. Lately (and by that I mean the last five years) there have been some new processors. Among them is the x64.
The problem with x64 processors is the same problem all new computing technology has, it's not compatible with many things. At least not yet.
Thus begins my journey into ever descending levels of sysadmin hell.
New server is a Dell machine. I don't think we should immediately hold that against it. The machine can't help who builds it, nor can it make any reparations. It comes with Windows Server 2008. That's all well and good, but we don't want that. It's unproven in our environment and we have other users that will be connecting to this server, so we want to reinstall with 2003.
Being that the machine is x64, I have to hunt down the exact installation disk from Microsoft. It has to be Server 2003 R2 x64 Enterprise Edition. I have it, but there's a problem. Microsoft doesn't like sending things in order or with any meaning. We also have two different licensing contracts so we end up with duplicate disks, or half of a two disk set. I have three disks I can pick from, one is newer but has no "disk 2" the other is older but both disks are included. Let's go with two disks.
Installation goes ok, but the server is also RAID (it's actually SAS but that's technical) which means it has several drives in it and data is split across them. If you lose one drive, you don't lose all your data. The drives are controlled by a RAID controller, this version is a SAS, PERC 6/i integrated. I have to get that into the OS installation. There's a catch, the machine has no floppy. I can't get the controller software on there. I have to "trick" the machine into thinking that its USB port is in fact its A: drive (traditionally a floppy disk drive.) There used to be a way to do this from the BIOS, but apparently the BIOS is now smart enough to see the USB/Floppy drive I stuck on so I don't have to do anything. However I did waste a good couple hours trying to find that command. On top of that, the USB Floppy kept shutting off. It would detect it long enough to know it was there, but when the software was needed, the drive was off. After many attempts, I did it FAST ENOUGH for the stupid thing's attention span.
Next!
Operating system installed (yes two disks.) Now comes the parts where I join the machine to the domain, give it all the updates it needs, make sure I can remote into it and-
Well wait a minute, the NICs aren't working. There's a conflict in the Device Manager. (BTW, "NIC" = network interface card. People do say NIC Card all the time. It's like ATM Machine or PIN Number or SCUBA Apparatus. It makes no sense to say it like that. If you are one of those who do, stop it now.) Ah yes, the NIC drivers need to be updated. No sweat. It's kind of hard to get drivers from the internet when your machine has no internet connection but luckily I have my trusty USB stick.
Dell's site shows no less than 20 entries for drivers for my machine. You would think the asset tag would be tied to that exact machine and the network devices on that machine would only need one driver. Oh heck no, silly pleb. My tag pulls up drivers, firmware updates, and integration packages from three different brands. I'll just try all of them. They don't work. I don't get it. I get the files, point the update wizard to the .inf file and nothing. So online to Dell Chat we go. Nope, you didn't get the right one, here's the right one. Ok thanks Dell Dude. Download to USB stick, hustle into server room, plug in, run wizard, point to inf file. Nope, still a conflict. Dell dude, are you running an x64 machine? Yes I am, can't you see that from the information I gave you? You need a different driver, try this one. Ugh, I tried that one already. All I get is the the driver is installed, but the device won't start.
Oh you know what, this machine has TOE on it. (No kidding, TOE = TCP/IP Offload Engine. It lets traffic flow processing go through it rather than the main processor. Faster machine and faster traffic.) It needs its own software package, not just a driver. Ah, gotcha, I say. Ok thanks. I get the right one, back on the USB stick, back into the server room. Run installer.
Now comes the second part of my journey.
This installation package needs the .Net Framework to run. I don't know much about .Net or its work with frames. I know it's a development tool and more than a few programs won't run without it, expecially programs written to run on x64 machines. Hmm, I think, that's usually included when you install Windows, or at the very least you get it from Windows Updates. Seeing as I have no network connection, I wouldn't get an update. So I go looking for .Net Framework 2.0.
Hey, I found it. That was easy. Hey, not so fast, Showboat. Just because you have the right installation package for the right machine, doesn't mean it'll work.
The installer gives me an error. You can't write or access these files. Most sysadmins love this. I may make a shirt out of it. It's one of those wonderfully cryptic errors that doesn't tell you what file or directory it's trying to access, it just gives you the error. It's like getting a moving violation ticket while you're sitting at home and there's no description as to what you did wrong. Included in the message is the penultimate helpful suggestion, "Please contact your administrator." Well, bugger. So I ask myself what the problem is and I don't like the answer.
"I have no fucking idea," I say to myself.
I check all the directories I think it needs. I'm logged in locally as the administrator, I can't imagine there's a place I can't go on this machine. Back to Dell Support. Yes I know it's a windows problem now, but you know what, they put the freaking TOE on the NIC of an x64 machine. They should support it when it doesn't work. Third guy I work with, now. "What version of windows installer do you have?" "I don't know, let me check." Hey, would you look at that, there's nothing listed. I guess I don't have one. Ok here, put this on there. Um, does it work with x64. Oh, no it doesn't. You need a hotfix for it instead. A hotfix for software I don't have on there yet? Too late, he's logged off. Thanks helpful Dell dude. I put the hotfix on the server anyway, and it's sort of like walk up to a gas station, paying for $20 in gas, and then pumping it directly onto the concrete.
Ok, no worries. The Windows Installer must be available somewhere. Well it is, but 3.0 came out before x64. 3.1 came out because of x64. So wait, to get the version of the installing component I need, I have to have the one built before that doesn't work on the machine I have. But there's a hotfix for it when I get it installed, which I can't. Right? Yes that's right.
So that's where I am now. My current thinking is I need to get the Service Pack 1 on the machine as all the articles I've read lead me to believe that the right installer is on that. Hopefully .Net Framework will also be included.
I'd keep you posted, but frankly I just don't care. I want to throw this stupid machine out the window. But HEY, at least I'm learning.
Carry on.
8.7.08
TVZ Review: Charlie Jade 1.4
Some questions were answered and some plots were advanced, but the latest episode of Charlie Jade felt a little flat. It could be that watching it while trying to put kids to bed had an impact on it but watching it a second time did not help. A memorial is taking place in each of the three Verses. Julius Galt is injecting his multipersonal eulogy with much vitriol and scowling. The terrorists responsible will be brought to justice. Ms. Rompkin is giving her Alpha version of the same speech complete with make-up department tears.
For the rest as well as episode 47 of the podcast, please visit Television Zombies.
2.7.08
More Charlie Jade
Two more reviews up at Television Zombies and number 4 on the way. For all you Sci-Fi fans out there, you should give this show a good watching. Set up your DVRs for Monday at 2am or whatever the schedule is, and watch it. It's something Sci-Fi doesn't have right now, a unique show that isn't Stargate or Star Trek related. They need something to help Doctor Who and Battlestar: Galactica along and barring a Farscape or Firefly renewal, this is about as good as it gets for that channel.
1.7.08
Thirty Five
Yesterday I turned 35. My mom asked if I knew how old that made her feel. I thought to myself, "I'm 35, I already feel old."
Truth is I don't feel that old. Oh sure my mortal coil rebels once in a while, taking me on week long trips through minor aches and pains, and each morning my joints sound like bags of stale Cheetos, but it's not how I feel inside. I don't know if it's denial or genuine youthful outlook. I would still rather play games, watch cartoons and buy Lego than study investment trends, watch artsy movies and buy real estate.
And it's not about being a "grown up." I've had more than a few people tell me it's immaturity - I disagree. I've been an adult for 17 years now and I can honestly say I don't like doing traditional adult things. And it's not about shirking your responsibilities, it's just the difference in what you do in between. You can pay your bills, fix your car, renew your car tags and shop for better insurance without having to lose that desire to watch Spongebob or play Guitar Hero. The only downside to believing you're a child at heart is the constant feeling you're doing something wrong. Every day I feel I'm forgetting something or I'm not doing something I should be, like a haze of guilt just beyond imagination.
But not yesterday. Yesterday I took a half a day off work, played my newly gifted Rock Band with my little girl, ate a calzone and drank ciders. Ms. A and I worked on moving the kids into one room and then her into another. We played cards and made cupcakes. It was a nice day.
And now I'm back at work. One thing I will say about birthdays as you get older, they lose their spectacle. Unless you get that once in every couple years surprise party or your SO sends you to a spa or sky diving, most of us will spend our birthday's getting lollipops from HR or phone calls from family. I'd like to be rolling in the disposable cash for one year so I could take myself on one of those trips where spontaneity is the only rule and money is no object. Where you don't pack because you'll buy all your clothes wherever you land.
Sorry tangent.
Finally, have a read. I found this quite amusing...because it's true.
Carry on.
27.6.08
Cervical Cancer is for Pussies.
Couple weeks ago, Ms. A found a painful lump in her pelvis. It was a swollen lymph node because her body was trying to fight off cancerous lesions on her cervix. It was early stage and malignant.
She went to the doctor and they froze off the lesions and some surround tissue. The biopsy came back positive but it also showed that they got all the harmful cells. She's still in some pain as her body recovers from the activity of fighting off and the procedure to remove it.
Her family has a history (like so many of ours do) and she's already had some skin work done. Currently other than some pain, she's doing well, but this discovery means she'll need to up her check ups to several a year to make sure that if anything starts coming back they can get to it quickly. It's good that they did this time and her prognosis is quite good, nearly excellent.
Still, it was a big scare and it came on the heels of her dad's wedding. Shortly after the procedure we drove 14 hours round trip to Odessa which of course didn't help her recovery. Seen the picture above, she also insisted that she climb a tree to help hang decorations. We had to kick her out of the tree and finish them without her, about which she wasn't happy. Turns out, Ms. A doesn't like people taking care of her so we have to duct tape her to a chair and tell her to shut up and relax.
Drinking helps.
Other than that, we're all good. My non-broken finger makes me feel like a whiny baby so I'm probably not going to mention any more injuries or ailments. My tombstone will say, "I told you fuckers I was sick."
That's all, carry on.
She went to the doctor and they froze off the lesions and some surround tissue. The biopsy came back positive but it also showed that they got all the harmful cells. She's still in some pain as her body recovers from the activity of fighting off and the procedure to remove it.
Her family has a history (like so many of ours do) and she's already had some skin work done. Currently other than some pain, she's doing well, but this discovery means she'll need to up her check ups to several a year to make sure that if anything starts coming back they can get to it quickly. It's good that they did this time and her prognosis is quite good, nearly excellent.
Still, it was a big scare and it came on the heels of her dad's wedding. Shortly after the procedure we drove 14 hours round trip to Odessa which of course didn't help her recovery. Seen the picture above, she also insisted that she climb a tree to help hang decorations. We had to kick her out of the tree and finish them without her, about which she wasn't happy. Turns out, Ms. A doesn't like people taking care of her so we have to duct tape her to a chair and tell her to shut up and relax.
Drinking helps.
Other than that, we're all good. My non-broken finger makes me feel like a whiny baby so I'm probably not going to mention any more injuries or ailments. My tombstone will say, "I told you fuckers I was sick."
That's all, carry on.
23.6.08
Brick Depression
I've been going through my Lego sets at home, wanting to dust them off and put them all back together. My ideal home would have an office in which would live a computer, a drawing table and plenty of shelf space for all my sets. I have friends with similar "offices" containing scads of comic book related merchandise and I'm a touch jealous that I can't do the same. Having moved four times in ten years really isn't conducive to having a large group of display items. (BTW, "isn't" was not in Firefox's dictionary. Go Mozilla.)Recently there's been a lot of internet hullabaloo over the newest Death Star set. Years ago you could get a Death Star II, but fans were not impressed over the playability and felt they were paying a lot for a big ball of pieces. The new set actually reminds me more of the kinds of toys you'd get where different areas have different scenes; something Star Wars toys used to have - maybe they still do. And at $399, it's almost worth considering if you're a nut like me.
What gets me the most about all the Star Wars sets is that there seems to be a small percentage of sets being remade. I've seen at least five sets being completely redone and in almost all those cases, the newer set is both more expensive and better designed. This leaves the average dabbler with the same feeling a movie buffs gets when purchasing a DVD only to have the Special Edition DVD come out later with more features.
I want to get back into buying these. Of all the things I've done in my life, Lego sets have been around the longest. They predate my marriage, my children, most of my friends and even the places I've called home. Some of the Futron sets I have are more than 20 years old. I don't play many video games and I've given up on comic books so I rationalize that this collector mentality is ok because of that, but it really isn't. I'm torn. On the one had, buying, assembling and displaying Lego sets makes me very happy. Of all the things in my life, it's always been there and likely always will. The little plastic blocks will always snap together the same way. They will always come in little plastic bags and the instructions will always be simple yet compulsively rewarding.
However, in the days when gas is $4.09 a gallon and milk is $2.50 for a half gallon and my kids require more and more food and an ever changing closet full of clothes, it becomes harder and harder to justify the cost of the obsession let alone the space required. And so the bricks sit in their trash and Ziploc bags out in the garage, the boxes remained flattened and dusty and the joy I once had as a child smolders in a quiet part of my soul. I keep telling myself that I'll one day go back and get all the sets I want and complete the myriad space series, but if the Star Wars sets don't stop remaking themselves, I'll be doing it forever.
I've got one set rebuilt and sitting on top of a book shelf in the front room and I feel rather guilty about it, like somehow it's a sign to people that I have an unhealthy addiction or mental disability. I love my Lego sets, but I'm not about to let that impact my family in anyway. I want my kids to love Lego and maybe start their own collection. It doesn't even have to be Lego, it could be stamps or cars or rocks or books. Collecting is a very personal thing and I feel slightly off when even considering bringing my 100 sets back into the light of day.
I suppose one day I'll retire and spend my time in a side room, disposing of my social security checks into other collectors' coffers so I can live out my remaining days being a 9 year old. It's not a bad thing to hope for, really.
Carry on.
18.6.08
Review - Charlie Jade 1.1 "The Big Bang"
“While on the hunt for the killer of an unidentified woman, an explosion from a covert desert operation propels Detective Charlie Jade into a strange parallel universe.”
That’s from Sci-Fi.com’s episode guide. It’s a good thing that they put it up there. I went to the site looking for the episode title and get some more facts and I came away with more knowledge of the show than I had after watching it.
The Casting Game - Robotech
With news that Empire Strikes Back screenwriter Lawrence Kasden has been pegged to pen the live action adaptation of the anime Robotech, I immediately begin on of my favorite pastimes of casting movies.
Now, these are just preliminary, I'm sure given some more thought I'd find better alternatives. I just found out about this news a few days ago. Also, I'm pretty sure this is a Toby McGuire vehicle and he'll be playing the part of Rick Hunter, but whatever. Here are my choices.
Rick Hunter - Emile Hirsch
Hot off the success (and yeah, I said success) of Speed Racer, Hirsch would be a natural. As with most stars appearing in this movie, age will be a factor, but at 23 he could get away with playing a 19 year old Hunter.
The only downside is the only role left after this would be Lance from Voltron.
Lynn Minmei - Charice Pempengco
Minmei's story in Robotech is one I'm sure most fans could do without. She's a flightly love interest of Rick's early on but is shown most of the time as a braty child. However, her music is what eventually changes the alien Zentradi into thinking that war is not everything.
Charice's voice is amazing, if you've never heard her sing, check it out. At 16, she may be a bit young for Hirsch, but that's not stopped Holywood before.
Lisa Hayes - Christa Miller
Yes, I'll change my mind on this later. I have a bad habit of casting people from different time periods rather than the present. Plus I just saw Miller in The Andromeda Strain and her acting wasn't great. She's a good comedic actress which might not fit the buttoned up Hayes very well.
Also, she's 20 years too old for the part. I was going off looks can you tell?
Roy Fokker - Neal McDonough
I would cast McDonough in anything. Whatever show he's in, he commands the scene. Boomtown was a sadly overlooked show and Medical Investigations was actually a decent show. He's got the smile and the charm but with just the edge of mystery Roy has in the show. As Rick's "big brother" Roy was always more than he let on and more than he'd allow Rick to see.
Commander Gloval - Rade Serbedzija
Rade is one of those actors you've seen in everything, or you think you've seen in everything. As far as I can find, he's only bee in a handful of movies and TV shows in the states, but it seems like he's been everywhere.
Playing Henry Gloval wouldn't be much of a stretch. Rade is a Croatian born actor constantly playing Russians. Gloval was originally and Italian in the Japanese series but became Russian in the American show. Natural fit.
Claudia Grant - Khandi Alexander
If for no other reason than to not have Halle Berry or Jada Pinkett Smith play another black woman character, I think Khandi was wonderful on News Radio and she was one of the better parts of CSI: Miami. This one might change again, Khandi is 50 and I'm sure Claudia is the same age as Lisa, around 24.
Max Sterling - Daniel Radcliffe
Max was always my favorite character. He was quiet and a little nerdy but mysterious and apparently pretty handsome. Plus he was the best fighter pilot in the fleet. I like him the same way I like Wedge Antilles; he's the unsung hero of the underdogs who quietly does his job with more skill than everyone else.
And honestly, I'd like to see Radcliffe not playing another kid with glasses. While Max may be emo, he's also very sure of himself, something Racliffe could probably pull off.
Myria (Sterling) - Kate Beckinsale
All I know is Myria is a hot, bad-ass fighter pilot. She marries Max because he's the better pilot and his doting after her eventually melts her heart and she sides with the Earth forces. It's a pivotal story moment and the offspring of the two becomes the protagonist for the next story.
I'm sure you could come up with several bad ass chicks, but after seeing Underworld, my money is on Beckinsale.
Breetai - Clive Owen
I don't know how Mr. Owen will appreciate being blue (or for that matter how any of these people will handle green hair) but Owen's got that dark, brooding look that commands respect. He played Arthur for frak's sake!
Ben Dixon - Seth Rogan
Every anime show has a team. It's usually in odd numbers and they're usually involved in some sort of robot forming or conjuring. Robotech didn't have any of that, but they did have the three buddies Rick, Max and Ben. Ben was the guy (same as Hunk in Voltron and probably countless other shows) that was the big loveable doofus. He likely had some skills but it was always overshadowed by his gruff nature, his imposing size and his affable grin. Sounds just like Rogan.
There are undoubtedly more characters needing to be involved. Kyle, the bridge girls, Dolza, Breetai's second in command and Khyron (who I think Matthew Fox would be perfect for, he nailed Racer X.) My brother also got involved and here's his list.
I'll have to look some of those up. Some I can see being very good. Ian Mcshane for one. Not sure I'd put Topher Grace in anything. He's always going to be Eric Foreman to me.
But there you go, that's the game. I probably spent too much time on it, but it's always fun to speculate. What will likely happen is it'll be McGuire and about 2 or 3 other big names and the rest will be actors coming off lesser known TV shows or indie movies. They'll butcher the story so it'll only be Robotech because it'll have Veritechs and the SDF-1. They won't zap a whole island into space and the Zentradi probably won't be giant sized. I don't know. On paper it sounds like a good story to adapt, but it's so big that anything they do will have to be a large story. The Macross Saga alone would be worth a trilogy, not to mention the Southern Cross and Invid Masters stories.
I'm intrigued why McGuire has the rights to this. It makes me appreciate him as a geek now more than anything. Robotech was such a big influence on my childhood that I can't help but feeling a little worried about this, more so than the comic book movies or Star Wars prequels.
Carry on.
Now, these are just preliminary, I'm sure given some more thought I'd find better alternatives. I just found out about this news a few days ago. Also, I'm pretty sure this is a Toby McGuire vehicle and he'll be playing the part of Rick Hunter, but whatever. Here are my choices.
Rick Hunter - Emile Hirsch
Hot off the success (and yeah, I said success) of Speed Racer, Hirsch would be a natural. As with most stars appearing in this movie, age will be a factor, but at 23 he could get away with playing a 19 year old Hunter.
The only downside is the only role left after this would be Lance from Voltron.
Lynn Minmei - Charice Pempengco
Minmei's story in Robotech is one I'm sure most fans could do without. She's a flightly love interest of Rick's early on but is shown most of the time as a braty child. However, her music is what eventually changes the alien Zentradi into thinking that war is not everything.Charice's voice is amazing, if you've never heard her sing, check it out. At 16, she may be a bit young for Hirsch, but that's not stopped Holywood before.
Lisa Hayes - Christa Miller
Yes, I'll change my mind on this later. I have a bad habit of casting people from different time periods rather than the present. Plus I just saw Miller in The Andromeda Strain and her acting wasn't great. She's a good comedic actress which might not fit the buttoned up Hayes very well.Also, she's 20 years too old for the part. I was going off looks can you tell?
Roy Fokker - Neal McDonough
I would cast McDonough in anything. Whatever show he's in, he commands the scene. Boomtown was a sadly overlooked show and Medical Investigations was actually a decent show. He's got the smile and the charm but with just the edge of mystery Roy has in the show. As Rick's "big brother" Roy was always more than he let on and more than he'd allow Rick to see.Commander Gloval - Rade Serbedzija
Rade is one of those actors you've seen in everything, or you think you've seen in everything. As far as I can find, he's only bee in a handful of movies and TV shows in the states, but it seems like he's been everywhere.Playing Henry Gloval wouldn't be much of a stretch. Rade is a Croatian born actor constantly playing Russians. Gloval was originally and Italian in the Japanese series but became Russian in the American show. Natural fit.
Claudia Grant - Khandi Alexander
If for no other reason than to not have Halle Berry or Jada Pinkett Smith play another black woman character, I think Khandi was wonderful on News Radio and she was one of the better parts of CSI: Miami. This one might change again, Khandi is 50 and I'm sure Claudia is the same age as Lisa, around 24.Max Sterling - Daniel Radcliffe
Max was always my favorite character. He was quiet and a little nerdy but mysterious and apparently pretty handsome. Plus he was the best fighter pilot in the fleet. I like him the same way I like Wedge Antilles; he's the unsung hero of the underdogs who quietly does his job with more skill than everyone else.And honestly, I'd like to see Radcliffe not playing another kid with glasses. While Max may be emo, he's also very sure of himself, something Racliffe could probably pull off.
Myria (Sterling) - Kate Beckinsale
All I know is Myria is a hot, bad-ass fighter pilot. She marries Max because he's the better pilot and his doting after her eventually melts her heart and she sides with the Earth forces. It's a pivotal story moment and the offspring of the two becomes the protagonist for the next story.I'm sure you could come up with several bad ass chicks, but after seeing Underworld, my money is on Beckinsale.
Breetai - Clive Owen
I don't know how Mr. Owen will appreciate being blue (or for that matter how any of these people will handle green hair) but Owen's got that dark, brooding look that commands respect. He played Arthur for frak's sake!Ben Dixon - Seth Rogan
Every anime show has a team. It's usually in odd numbers and they're usually involved in some sort of robot forming or conjuring. Robotech didn't have any of that, but they did have the three buddies Rick, Max and Ben. Ben was the guy (same as Hunk in Voltron and probably countless other shows) that was the big loveable doofus. He likely had some skills but it was always overshadowed by his gruff nature, his imposing size and his affable grin. Sounds just like Rogan.There are undoubtedly more characters needing to be involved. Kyle, the bridge girls, Dolza, Breetai's second in command and Khyron (who I think Matthew Fox would be perfect for, he nailed Racer X.) My brother also got involved and here's his list.
Rick-Tobey Macquire (duh he owns the property for that reason)Roy - Mathew "Allright!Allright!Allright! McconaugheyGloval- Come on man! Ian McshaneLisa- Lili SobeiskiClaudia-Parminder Nagra (ER, Bend it like Beckham)Max- Topher graceBen- I actually agree with you Seth rogen or Jason Segal (How I met your MOther)Minmei- Ziyi Zhang (Crouching Tiger/House of Flying Daggers
Breetai-Micheal Ironsides (he bearly needs makeup!)Myria-Megan Fox (Transformers)Exador- Hugo WeavingDolza (Robert Logia again..bearly needs make up)
I'll have to look some of those up. Some I can see being very good. Ian Mcshane for one. Not sure I'd put Topher Grace in anything. He's always going to be Eric Foreman to me.
But there you go, that's the game. I probably spent too much time on it, but it's always fun to speculate. What will likely happen is it'll be McGuire and about 2 or 3 other big names and the rest will be actors coming off lesser known TV shows or indie movies. They'll butcher the story so it'll only be Robotech because it'll have Veritechs and the SDF-1. They won't zap a whole island into space and the Zentradi probably won't be giant sized. I don't know. On paper it sounds like a good story to adapt, but it's so big that anything they do will have to be a large story. The Macross Saga alone would be worth a trilogy, not to mention the Southern Cross and Invid Masters stories.
I'm intrigued why McGuire has the rights to this. It makes me appreciate him as a geek now more than anything. Robotech was such a big influence on my childhood that I can't help but feeling a little worried about this, more so than the comic book movies or Star Wars prequels.
Carry on.
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