Review: Fringe 2.1 - "A New Day in the Old Town"

The fall TV season is yet again upon us. No doubt most of you have already picked the shows you are going to watch and have decided to give some new shows a chance. I was not as prepared this year as I was last year and I know I'm missing Glee and Vampire Diaries but I am going to try and pick up Modern Family, V, and Flash Forward.

I'll also still be reviewing Fringe, Dollhouse, and Clone Wars for TVZ, as well as a couple others possibly. The fall season took most of us by surprise as we'd all be watching summer shows with much enthusiasm and I think the new shows didn't see that spectacular. I know we've all been surprised a little and I hope V and Flash Forward continue that.

Fringe premiered last week and I have a review pending at TVZ, so make sure you stop by and check it out when it posts. Also, ABC posted the first 15 minutes of Flash Forward and I know it's probably too early to say anything, but I think I'll like this one. Give it a watch, let me know what you think.

Meanwhile, here's the review of the latest episode of Fringe.

...and we're back. A quick recap of the season finale is in order. Thought not a cliffhanger, there are some parts that are integral to the story line in the premiere.

The season one bad guy, David Robert Jones, is dead. He was trying to use equipment powered by a power cell from Nina Sharp's robot arm to open a gateway into another universe. (If I had a nickel...) Peter stopped him by using a "patch" that Walter found in an old beach house. We also find that this universe's Peter may have been pulled from the another when his other version died. Walter mourned him at a grave that indicated he died when he was seven. The Observer intervened, helping Walter find this patch device. Olivia, still bubbling with uncertainty about her cortexifan induced powers, visited William Bell at the top of the World Trade Center.

That's all you need to know for now.

A man wakes up with a cut forehead in a car that's been in an accident. We're in Manhattan. He flees the scene, gains entrance to an apartment building, jumps a guy in the laundry room and drags his body back to his apartment. Once there the man crushes his own face like Playdough. He then takes a tool that looks like a large RF switch with two wires coming out of it, each ending in a three-pronged attachment. He jams one of these into the soft palette of the dead man, the other into his own mouth, hits a switch and begins grunting and shaking. The TV is playing the X-Files movie and we see now that the car wreck man now has the face of the dead man. The FBI and police are investigating the crash and when the agent asks who was driving the vehicle, another agent hands her a print out of Olivia Dunham.

Boston. Walter and Peter are in a grocery store shopping for custard ingredients. They banter, Peter's birthday is coming up, Walter makes a few unintended dirty comments about custard, when Peter's phone rings. They arrive at the scene of the accident and meet agent Amy Jessup (Meghan Markle) who begins grilling Peter as to what Fringe Division does for the FBI. Peter tells her it's all classified and asks where Charlie Francis is. Walter is checking out the car. Peter asks where Olivia is, and Agent Jessup says there was another vehicle out of which a man exited and left. No one was in the SUV licensed to Olivia Dunham. Walter, inside the car, hears static as the electronics all kick on. He gets out, the car revs its engine, the alarm goes off and suddenly Olivia Dunham crashes through the windshield onto the pavement.

Opening credits.

**A quick note here. Shortly after the season finale last spring, Kirk Acevado posted on his Facebook page a note that he'd been fired from the show. In shifting the production company to Vancouver, it seemed like a cost saving move to not pick up the options of secondary characters. Some saw it as a publicity stunt, some marked it up to reportedly common outbursts by Acevado as experienced on other shows, but no one knew if it was true. The production company and Fox said he wasn't fired, but the summer news was somewhat quiet about the matter.**

Dunham is wheeled into the ER at New York General with quite a few injuries. Broyles intercepts Agent Jessup with the "report" of the accident that says nothing was out of the ordinary, and makes her sign it. A doctor comes out and tells Peter and Walter that Olivia sustained too severe an injury to the brain and will likely not regain consciousness. Walter goes to see her, and apologizes, calling her Olive.

At a nearby bar, Broyles joins Peter for a few drinks. He tells Peter he's going to Washington; Fringe Division is being shut down. Peter questions what they were doing anyway, saying they were always too late. Too late to save Olivia. Back at the Federal building, Agent Jessup gains access to Fringe Division's files via a scrap of paper with a number on it. Where she got the paper we don't know yet. Peter runs into Rachel at the hospital who tells him Olivia had a living will saying not to put her on life support and in the morning they were going to unplug her. He goes in to see her, wrestles with emotions, leans in to kiss her and say goodbye when her eyes snap open and she speaks a phrase in a foreign language and then screams and sits up.

Olivia says she went somewhere, but someone is trying to stop her, but she doesn't remember anything. She begins freaking out and asks Peter to go get her gun. He goes to the Federal building in Boston where he finds out his credentials have been revoked. When an agent tries to escort him out, he throws a nifty release move, surprising the agent. Amy Jessup says she'll escort him. She already has the file he was requesting about the accident. The tire marks indicate the other car was speeding up, not stopping. And surveillance cameras got a picture of man they're en route to question. When she asks what Fringe does, he says, "Nothing." They find the body of a man matching the photo, but he's been dead a while. Jessup allows Walter to take to body to his lab. She asks if Walter's crazy, Peter says he is.

The man from the apartment enters a typewriter shop asking for a specific model that's never been made. The shop keep says as much but when the man persists, he says "Oh, you're one of them." It's been six years and he's not waiting around forever. The man takes a key and goes to a back room with a desk, a type writer, paper and mirror. He puts in paper and types, Mission Accomplished, Target Eliminated, In Fatal Car Crash, Meeting Prevented, Request Extraction. Then from the mirror, the reflection begins typing in an odd reverse sound. The message is, Negative, Mission Failure, Meeting Occurred, Target Still Alive. The man types, Request New Orders and the response is, Interrogate Target, Then Kill Her.

Peter takes Amy Jessup to the lab and gives her a little back story. They introduce everyone, Walter asks for custard ingredients and autopsy tools. Amy sees Jean the cow.

Charlie Francis visits Olivia in the hospital, she says she's fine. Charlie recaps a story about a domestic disturbance that went really wrong, in which his partner died and he was shot. He kept telling people he was fine but he wasn't. He was shaken and like him, she probably has a gun under her pillow. She cracks a little, says she's so scared she can't even load it. At the lab, Peter gets Walter to focus on the dead body instead of the custard (which Astrid is making) and they see in the mouth the three holes and it makes Walter remember something. A video tape of an experiment Walter and Bell did with a subject and a lot of drugs. The 30 year old taped subject talks about three nails in the mouth and a soldier from somewhere else that can look like any of us. Peter and Astrid put in a law enforcement alert for bodies matching that description. Olivia frantically tries to load her gun.

(right hand, light on the right)

Washington. A committee says Fringe Division is basically taking too much money and not providing any results. Broyles reminds them he's a colonel and they should thank God they don't see what's being stopped by Fringe Division. Another senator says that without some kind of proof, they have no choice. Nina meets Broyles on the steps and says it's important that the division stay operational. She and Broyles then kiss and she tells him to save the day like he always did.

Peter and Agent Jessup find another body with three holes in its mouth. Jessup reminds Peter that if this shape shifting person is a soldier, they do one thing; stay on mission, that being to kill Olivia. The soldier arrives at the hospital, surprising a nurse on a break. The same nurse shows up in Olivia's room and asks about her memory. She can remember going to meet someone but that's it. She feels like she went somewhere, talked to someone, then came back to the accident. (If you remember episode 1.20, right before she met with Bell, she was almost in an accident that I commented on seemed to have no purpose.) But she doesn't remember who she was meeting. The nurse prods her but she can't remember what she was supposed to do or what this person said. Something's hidden, but she doesn't know where. The nurse jumps on her and starts strangling her. Charlie, Peter and Agent Jessup arrive and put a couple bullets in the nurse who jumps out a window about 60 feet down and flees into the lower levels. The three pursue. The nurse jumps Charlie and he fires a few shots. The other two catch up to see Charlie standing over the nurse. The electronic changing box is on the ground nearby.

Peter brings Olivia flowers and they recap a bit about the soldier and what she asked Olivia. Peter repeats the phrase she uttered when she woke up. She doesn't remember, but asks if it's Latin. Peter says it's Greek and his mother used to say it to him every night before he went to bed. It means, "Be a better man than your father" and was a code between them meaning keep your people close. They smile at each other. As he leaves she asks if they're shutting Fringe down, he says no.

In front of the capital, Peter stops Agent Broyles and gives him the shape-shifting box. Walter had said the technology is not from here and it's proof. The Feds can have it, use it to make an army to look like anyone, but they are not shutting Fringe down. Peter says they're done reacting, they're not going to be too late any more, they're calling the shots. Agent Jessup is cataloging Fringe cases and ties them to Bible books, chapters and verse, ie 7546B-FD - The Beast, R19:19. Peter returns to the lab where Astrid, Walter and the cow surprise him with birthday custard. Olivia loads her gun with a smile.

In the hospital basement, Charlie Francis wheels a laundry basket to the incinerator. He removes a bag of laundry and we see the body of...Agent Charlie Francis. The shape shifter dumps Charlie's body into the incinerator.

(Commercial glyphs spell TOWER)

Was Kirk Acevado partially right? Was he "fired?" His character certainly was. I think, however, his option on Fringe was not picked up but they felt the need to wrap up his character. And wrap it up they must. The Soldier now is without its shape shifting technology, which means it has to be Charlie for a while. It interrogated Olivia but didn't kill her. It also didn't discover anything as her memory was scrabbled via windshield and asphalt. He now has to be close enough to her to find the information he needs without causing her suspicion enough to withhold it. However, how long can this soldier remain Charlie? Does this transfer via the little box change just the physical appearance or does some of Charlie Francis go with it, enabling this soldier to act as Charlie? The length of this character's run is uncertain.

The tone of the show changed at the very end. Peter says they're going to stop just reacting but what that means exactly for their group will have to be seen in weekly installments. We will have to see if Olivia regains her memory of what she and William Bell discussed. We will have to see if the shape shifting Charlie continues to be the killing soldier or if he becomes something more intricate and sustainable.

And what of Agent Amy Jessup? She was brought in rather quickly as though Charlie's departure was a foregone conclusion. Given the Acevado news and her early debate with Peter, you could see the cast list shifting from space. But what will she bring if not another eye-rolling skeptical attitude, playing by the Federal book and only willing to get involved if it moves the plot along. Her itemizing the Fringe cases by scripture was unique to this show. The area of spirituality has yet to be explored by Fringe and my guess is Agent Jessup will become the Christian foil to the group's emerging war on other plains of existence. I'm also wondering where she got that paper with the access code needed to get into Fringe Division's files. Is she a mole? Is someone using her?

I'm disappointed we got roughly 20 seconds with William Bell and now he's a nearly forgotten memory. I'm also a bit disappointed that Nina Sharp and Agent Broyles had to kiss. It immediately reminded me of season two of Heroes and the Petrelli matriarch, and frankly the less I'm reminded of Heroes the better.

I'm looking forward to season two and this episode picked up right where we left off. I liked the nod to X-Files and I'm excited to see more.

Three and a half randomly chosen glyphs.

Word Usage - Corporate Speak

Corporate meeting speak is a bane on most wordies' existences. When middle to upper management convenes to go over plans for the year or catch up on everyone's progress, we understand that time is a factor. You may have only a short time in which to get important information across and dwelling on minutia eats up precious seconds and it bores the crap out of those not intimately involved. So you dumb it down and shorten it up, but the words are still smart sounding so as not to reveal the true nature of the actions. You don't want people to think you're ineffectual either, and being to curt can impact your ability to manage your people.

However, there are some words and phrases that are meaninglessly long or overblown and what they are replacing may not need replacing.

The following are examples of words or phrases that should be retired from our vocabulary and not because they are wrong, but because they border on double speak or redundancy.

Spend (or other verbs) as a noun, ie "...our third quarter spend." That "ing" was really tripping people up.

Take it off line. To a tech, that means shut something down. To a manufacturer, it means to remove a worker. To cube dwellers, it means to talk outside of the meeting. You can't say, "We'll talk later?"

Skill set. You're adding an 'e' and 't' to say the same thing. More words doesn't mean better meaning. "This doesn't fit my skills." That works for me.

Going forward - (quoting my friend Dstew) "Indicates I am an executive; I'm keeping this intentionally vague." This can be said for most things said during quarterly meetings.

Higher level - Another friend (Mer) suggested this one as a way of indicating that nothing will be accomplished at the meeting. "Those decisions will have to be made at a higher level."

30,000 ft. view - I don't know why this one bothers me. It's to indicate a broad, macro view of a project or business goal. Rather than get mired in minutia and micromanaging, a group will step back and assess things as a whole.

Big pole in the tent - Again, don't know why this gets to me; probably because it's over used. To indicate the biggest problem/project a group or company is currently addressing. It makes me feel like if it's not accomplished, the whole thing falls apart, which I guess is the point. I just hate the idea of getting paid by a circus.

If you have more, please add them to the comments.

Word Usage - Misuses

Listening to NPR this morning, an interviewee used the word decimate. It was used incorrectly. It wasn't the man's fault, we all use words incorrectly. Either through lack of knowledge, high levels of laziness or a zealous adherence to tradition, we all use words and phrases as they were not meant to be used.

We use words and phrases to describe things, as humans are want to do. Our language separates us from other animals. We represent objects and ideas as symbols written into a medium to be read later by other humans. Over time these symbols change, grow, evolve and in a few hundred, or even a few dozen years can mean something completely different or lose their meaning altogether.

Phrases are zeitgeist and will drop out of use once the need for them has passed, but some linger and become indelible points in the lexicon. We move passed the use of certain transportation, we no longer adhere to archaic laws, we've modernized many agricultural or pre-industrial methods. The phrases and words used to tell other humans about these things passes in time as well.

The problem is that some don't. Some linger but without the original context they tend to be used incorrectly. Take decimate. The word, as agreed to by a selection of usage experts, can mean to destroy but not completely. Its original meaning is to take one tenth; it's in the word itself. Decimatus or decimare in Latin; to kill (or have killed) one tenth. My Latin/Roman research is weak at best but I've heard tell it was a punishment from the ruler of the time to upstart villages that a Roman legion would go in and kill every tenth male. Hence the term.

Now we use the term to mean 'near total destruction.' It could be 'destroy 9/10ths of something' leaving only a small portion. It's generally accepted that a large number of people killed is okay for this usage, but livestock and crops it's not. The hilarity was the phrase "literally decimated."

But that's not the only word that's being misused in our 21st century vocabulary. Without going the obvious route of trying to wrap a single blog post around the use of 'irony,' I've asked some folks what their pet peeves are with English words and uses. Feel free to add yours to the comments.

Literally - Literally has become a punctuation. When you want to express how large an impact an event had or how truly awe inspiring someone's actions were, you include literally to indicate to the listener that was happened really happened. "He literally jumped out of his skin." No, he didn't. Literally has become what super and mega and ultra have been in past decades. It's not enough something has to be good, it has to be best, then super, then mega, etc. etc. Someone can't almost jump out of their skin, or virtually, or nearly, or seem like, they have to literally do it. Let's use literally with actually more often, please.

Fall Down - Redundant. The definition of "fall" is to descend or drop or be lowered or lose status. The converse being the phrase rise up as though you could rise any other direction.

Similarly, Flush Out. I've never seen anyone flush in anything. Also, it does not mean the same thing as flesh out. (I'm looking at you, corporate consultants.)

For all INTENTS and PURPOSES - It's not for all intensive purposes. Though you could technically use the later phrase for a product that you use in emergencies, for all your intensive purposes.

In lieu of - means "instead of." It doesn't mean "in view of" or "in light of." Incorrectly used: In lieu of recent events, the offices will be closed. Correctly used: Please contribute to the fund in lieu of flowers.

A whole nother - I'm extraordinarily guilty of this one. Derived from another whole or a whole other, this surprisingly dates back to the early 1900's, something I thought was rather odd. It always felt like a newish phrase.

There are other words that are just plain misspoken. You could spend days with people, listening to their idiosyncratic turns of phrase; an 'x' here, a dropped 'g' there. After a time, I begin to wonder if the language is evolving again to suit the needs of lazy tongues.

Supposively or supposibly or supposenly - For all concerned, say it with me suh-pose-ED-lee. This sort of relates to 'supposed to' not 'suppose to.' Yes that d-t combo is hard to get your mouth around, but let's give it a shot.

Sufficide to say - Sufficide, from Pfizer. Treats swollen tongue and hurty brain. It's suffice it to say.

Strenth - When sports broadcasters use this, it makes me throw up a little in my mouth. Then I realize they are broadcasters because they were likely athletes, not English majors. Gimme a G!

Then there are those that just plain don't make sense.

Head over heels. Understandably. We are normally walking around with our heads over our heels. Originally said as heels over head to indicate someone doing a cartwheel or somersault.

Next - Corporate lingo.

9

What stars Elijah Wood and contains a hero's journey fighting against all odds against a red-eyed monster and where his party numbers up to nine?

But wait, some of his party die. There's a couple of old stage and screen actors lending their talents. There's a fight on a bridge, there's winged beasts and a talisman that rules all nine souls.

If you guessed 9 then you're right. If you guess something else...well, you're right as well but let's stay current, shall we? The similarities between Lord of the Rings and 9 are mainly Elijah Wood's fault. His voice - at times pleading, at others resolved - is so ingrained into our film going subconscious that it's hard to picture him doing anything but his Frodo role. At times during 9 I was actually waiting for him to mutter something from The Fellowship. Wood is sadly one of those actors whose careers will be ever tied to the one ring. It will take an Herculean effort and so many films over such a length of time to remind us that he's able to do other things.

But first, he has to do other things. If he continues to be the wide-eyed manchild who sets upon a nigh impossible mission to save Middle Earth or Post Machine Earth or even Penguin Earth, he's going to always be remembered as Frodo, just with different outfits.

9, then, ends up being a very short, action packed reminder of what Wood did in Fellowship and the rest. 9 in and off itself is charming and fun and entertaining. It is not thought provoking or ground breaking. Its thickly veiled messages are a spoof meant to eliminate themselves from the story entirely. This leaves you with the feeling that you've possibly watched a 79 minute commercial for a unique line of toys.

The movie's attention to detail was stunning. All the doll characters sprang to life and each was gifted with their own stunning personalities that had only a little to do with the voice acting. The screenplay and direction was really incredible. The pace and tension the movie builds and releases was enough to keep me riveted and a little sad when it was over so soon. But in the end, its length and Wood's ubiquitous voice reminded me only too well that there wasn't much of a story to be told.

It's a definite theater viewing movie, just make sure you go some place that has good food or go to a matinee. Otherwise you might feel cheated. Also, the role of the scientist in charge of building the big thing the military wants to use as a weapon? The actor's name is Oppenheimer.

Avatars and Aliases

D&D Dwarf Figure
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

Lil Miss Austin asked me the other day why people on the computer call me "xadrian." I didn't have a good answer for her right away.

I spun in circles. At first I was taken aback that she would utter that name. She has an email address and I've sent her some links to Flickr sites with neat Lego builds, so she may have seen my name somehow that way. But that name to me is not something my family or my friends in Austin and surrounding areas use. If you asked my old friends from high school or college who I was, they wouldn't say xadrian.

It's a name I picked up, or made up, a long time ago. I was writing a fantasy story in which the villain's name was Xadrian. When I started becoming more and more involved in the Internet community back in 1996-97, I started out with names like Chimaera and Muad'dib but ended up using xadrian when I registered for an AIM handle. Since then I used it for all my forum names until most people online knew me only as xadrian (or Ex Adrian.)

One guy's kid even thought it was pronounced X Ray Dan, which became a back up handle used at DeviantArt (which doesn't matter because I don't use that site any more.) But it is pronounced with a Z, zay dree un. It's funny, people don't say Ex Avier.

So LMA posed this question to me and I didn't want to give her the whole back story, but I wanted to make sure she understood. I told her that she and her brother call me daddy. The people I live with and go to parties with and play basketball with call me Ben. The people with which my interaction is just on the computer call me xadrian. I said it's just a name, but that doesn't mean I'm a different person.

And as soon as I said that I knew it was wrong.

Daddy, Ben, xadrian are all different people. Daddy doesn't complain about work or ask if they talked about the UK taking over Turks & Caicos at kindergarten. Ben doesn't talk about the latest episode of Phineas and Ferb while out for happy hour. xadrian doesn't talk about his rent or car troubles. They are different people. They are based on different interactions. They are forged in different environments and respond differently to stimuli.

They're all based on the same person, but that person has interchangeable masks to meet different situations. Normally you just go through life like this; everyone has a drawer full of masks. I've just named mine.

I don't think she wants her own mask for the Internet yet. She wants a bank account instead.

Carry on.

TV Without TV

The BGF has been throwing around the idea of nixing the cable for some time. It's costly, no one watches it that much, and what we do want to watch we can get online. It'd better if we didn't have it.

Would it?

If I were to break down our TV viewing patterns, it wouldn't be consistent. It's not about summer viewership being low either. There are plenty of year round shows or seasonal shows or documentaries that don't live or die by sweeps week ratings. But let's take a look by person. I won't include time slots because most of the time we DVR everything. It's rare I habitually watch a show as it airs unless I'm just too excited to watch it, or it's a news/commentary program.

Mr. Austin - In no particular order, these are the shows I watch or will be watching in the next year. The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Rachel Maddow, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, Lost, Doctor Who, Fringe, Dollhouse, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, hockey games with the Avalanche, football games with UT, Air Force or the Denver Broncos, Futurama, V, The 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2010 Tour de France, the 2010 World Cup in S. Africa, possibly Day One and Flash Forward. This doesn't include random "hey what's on" episodes of The Cosby Show, M*A*S*H, Discovery Channel/History Channel/Science Channel shows or movies.

Ms. A and Miss LA - In no particular order and since they watch TV together, it makes it easy to group them together. I have no idea what they plan on watching or even if they care about what shows are coming out soon. I also may have these wrong. The Closer, The Office, 30 Rock, Entourage, Hung, In Treatment, Big Love, Raising the Bar, and Grey's Anatomy. They also watch Fraiser, Golden Girls and Will & Grace. They don't watch as much news as I do, and unless LSU is playing UT, they don't want sports either. If there's a documentary about marching band, Ms. A is all over it.

The kids. The kids watch what they want, but early in the summer, Ms. A put parental controls on the upstairs TV so on G and Y shows were allowed. Even Spongebob was off the list at Y7. This left most of LMA's tween shows out of the mix. However, they can be found watching: Phineas and Ferb, Handy Manny, Imagination Movers, Electric Company, The Mighty B, Spongebob, Wizards of Waverly Place, Ni-Hao Kai Lan, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. They like watching science shows with me; Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs are among their favorites.

So that's a few shows. Roughly 30 regular broadcasts plus more event type things that only last a few weeks. The networks are all different as well. The ladies watch TNT and HBO almost exclusively. I watch Sci-Fi (screw you I'm not calling it SyFy), Comedy Central, MSNBC and the docu-science channels. The kids watch Noggin, PBS, Nick and Nick Jr.

But here's the question. Can you get any or all these shows without cable? How much can you get with just over the air broadcasts or watching online?

Most broadcast channels offer the option to view the latest episode of most of their shows the next day. Comedy Central and MSNBC will do the same. Sci-Fi Rewind offers some of their line up, mostly about a week after and after that it's only a handful of the latest episodes. It's good if you missed it the first time around, and that's what most stations are going for. If you don't have a DVR but have access to the internet, you can catch up on a show you missed recently. No one has backlogs of MacGyver or Falcon Crest, but new and popular network shows you should be able to see.

But can you ditch cable and still watch the latest and greatest shows?

Yes and no. It's obvious you can, by the next day, watch anything from the big four. You can watch recaps or full episodes from CW, Comedy Central, and a few shows from SyFy. Even if you wanted to watch Project: Runway on Lifetime, you can catch the first episode online. Most big time sporting events have a live feed and even offer more options if they're covered by a worldwide market. Versus offered a live streaming video of the Tour de France, but you could get that from French sites as well. The World Cup will likely have multiple outlets covering it. NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB are all available in some capacity online and live. (Not sure about Nascar.) Kids channels constantly play episodes of their cartoons online. Discovery and History and Science Channel have enough content that'll keep you busy and raise your IQ without worrying about it being a new episode or a rerun. You can even watch Cosmos online.

Add YouTube and Google Video and Hulu to the mix and you'll start making a case for never having to order cable again. But, if you like having everything show up on your TV, you'll have to find a way to connect your laptop or PC/Mac to your television and that you have decent internet connection that'll allow the kind of streaming you'd want.

Also, no HD. As much as the BGF hates when I grumble about dpi quality and aspect ratio, I love HD for Discovery Channel and sports. They want TNT HD for The Closer and NBC HD for the Office so I know it's being used.

But, if you just wanted to watch the show, yes. I believe you could get away with watching many of the shows you watch now without having cable.

Don't tell Ms. A I said that, she'll cancel it today.

End of Summer

In Awe
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

Thus ends the summer.

The last couple weekends have just been packed. Between shopping and derby practice and house reorganization, the BGF at Four Pines was just crazy. The adults had parties and work and practices and meet ups with friends. The kids go to see the circus and finally got their own rooms.

School starts this week.

And it starts for Ms. A too. She starts at Austin Community College today. I don't know what her classes are, but I know she's going in for a social and psychology area of study. After graduation she wants to get a teaching degree as well and go into social services.

Lil G-man starts kindergarten tomorrow as well! I got a call last week from a phone number I know I recognized but didn't know why. It was their school and my first thought when his teacher introduced herself was that one of the kids was in trouble. Then I realized they weren't in school yet.

So we get to take supplies to their room today and meet the teachers. There was an orientation last week but we missed it, scheduling issues. But that's the beauty of having a 3rd grader already in the school: We already know what to expect.

G-man is going to have either the time of his life or the worst few days ever. He's completely wrapped up in his home and his sister and his mom. Aside from the few weeks in day care and the summer he spent at the Montessori school (which seemed a lifetime ago) this will be a long time away for him. My hope is he makes a lot of new friends and is so distracted by the experience he won't have time to miss anyone.

Everyone always says, "Well, plus his sister will be there." Yes, she'll be in the building, but it's not like they go to a small school where all the kids are in the same room. She'll be in a different area of the school, have lunch and recess at a different time and likely won't see him till after school. We'll be taking him to his class by way of her class so he feels better knowing where she is, but that's probably as far as that interaction will go. I don't remember seeing my brother at school outside of the walks we took to and from each day and even then, as we got older, we went with our friends.

But G-man is a bit of a loonatic. He's hyper and moody and likes to talk in sound effects. In other words, he's a five year old boy. As much as Ms. A tried, he hasn't pick up much reading yet. He knows what the letters are and what sounds they make, but he's just now getting to the point where he knows that words are made up of letters and being able to tie them together. I hope he doesn't get frustrated in school.

I hope they don't try to make him take a nap.

Carry on.

Review: District 9 (spoilers)

The only name you'll recognize in the credits for this movie going in is that of Peter Jackson.

The name you will remember for a while long after seeing District 9 is Sharlto Copley.

The ads for District 9 oddly give away little about the major plot of the movie and that in itself was masterful. The commercials give the impression there are aliens living on Earth against their will and an all out war is taking place. We're trying to keep them here but for what reason? An interrogated alien in a dark room says in its rumble and click language that they just want to go home.

That's really all the ad says that's true. That dark questioning room isn't even in the movie.

The story starts with news recaps of the aliens and their arrival above Johannesburg, South Africa. Notably, the commentators find it odd that this hovering, city sized craft did not arrive over New York or Chicago or Tokyo or London or any other typical point of fictional alien contact. But as we later find out, there's a parallel reason to having them being plotted to arrive over a country known for apartheid.

We quickly catch up and find that the aliens are stranded, their giant mother ship inoperable (but apparently operable enough to remain about 1500ft above the city) and they have some technology we can use but not a lot of intelligence. They are called "prawns" in a derogatory manor; they resemble crustaceans and they feed and live off of human trash. They eat cat food. They are put in a shack community called District 9, but the conditions there are horrible and the neighboring denizens want them gone. MultiNational United (MNU) a fictional South African based conglomerate, organizes a move for the million and some prawns to a new tent settlement called District 10, 200 miles outside of Johannesburg. They've lived in District 9 for 20 years. Some MNU people such as Van De Merwe can understand them and they can understand us.

That's where the story picks up. We meet Wikus Van De Merwe (Copley), a middle management nerd who has been promoted to head up the great eviction of District 9. We see footage of friends, family and coworkers talking about him but you get the sense they are talking about him as if he were dead. You begin to think something horrible is about to happen, and that tension lingers throughout the movie.

The film is shot in a mix of traditional action camera work, CCTV angles, documentary footage and news clips. It chronicles Van De Merwe as he and an MNU force storm through D9 in order to serve each prawn (who likely can't read) an eviction notice. Along the way they find illegal weapons and activities and Van De Merwe's actions become callous and almost excitedly unfeeling. In a scene were he clinically but enthusiastically aborts a whole nest of fetal prawns, we begin to get the stomach churning idea of how humans really feel about these creatures. We want their weapons but can't use them. We want them gone but are unwilling to help. Our best effort seems to be segregating and forgetting about them instead of communicating with them to reach some kind of peaceable coexistence or help them go back home.

There is more to the story, but I'll let you see it for yourself. It's a lot I did not expect and will let it unfold for you as it did me, hopefully pleased by the experience. This was a hard movie to watch in that there were social implications and scenes of violence and brutality that were very visceral but undeniably human. The morality play was obvious and writer/director Neill Blomkamp pulls no punches but does not try to preach about the way human beings deal with what we fear and what we see as different. It would seem no matter what race, religion or even what planet you're from, human beings will want to segregate you and only an insane amount of conflict will change our minds. It wasn't told from a holier than thou standpoint, as though Blomkamp thought his tale was better than its viewers, but rather it was used as a backdrop to tell the story of one man coming to grips with his humanity.

Copley's performance is stunning. He came out of nowhere, apparently getting this role because he was a friend of the screenwriter. But I bet you he'll be an international star very soon. His transformation is really quite impressive and the absolute pivot for the entire film.

Don't go in expecting anything. The closest thing I can relate this to is Enemy Mine but you'll just have to see it.

My criticisms are of the nerd variety. We don't know what the aliens are really called. We don't know where they are from. The movie ends much like a typical Earth regional conflict in that it doesn't end. It was a single event in a larger conflict. We don't know why the aliens are here and we don't know if they'll ever leave.

This was one of the better movies I've seen in long time. It's a definite diamond.

Happy Birthday Cheryl

Roller Girl
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

Ms. Austin turns 'leventy thfour today.

She's battered, bruised, loved, and lingered. She's played flute, done pushups on asphalt in the summer and paid someone to put ink on her back. She's owned a business, raised two kids, put up with a geek husband and found herself and a new love.

She's gonna be a roller girl. She's jumped out of an airplane. She has AP credentials. She took family wedding photos with Karl Rove. She's going back to school.

She has a head like a rotten peach and if you bump it, she sees fireworks and speaks Farsi. She both drinks too much and not enough. She quit smoking.

She's a fearless flirt, a compassionate caretaker and a stubborn sexpot. What she doesn't know, she'll learn. What she can't learn she fakes. What she can't fake, she delegates. She's quick witted, sly, clever and loves laughing really loudly.

She's loyal, supportive and giving, provided you don't give her reason not to be. She keeps her friends close and her enemies closer. She keeps her skeletons away from the closets. She's a party animal in PJs. She likes home cooked meals at outdoor festivals. She likes beer with lime. She doesn't like bagels.

She's pretty cool.

Please wish her a happy birthday.

Wishes

Kind of a filler post, but this is something I always think about. Plus, Twitter is down so I have to do something.

Have you ever thought about what you'd do with Three Wishes? Let's say there really is a lamp with a genie, or let's say the most powerful organization in the world offers you hush wishes for your knowledge of how Zelda is a mind control test gone wrong. Regardless, you have three chances to ask for something; something wonderful and extravagant and fulfilling.

What do you wish for?

Ever since the movie Bedazzled came out, my thoughts on this subject have changed. More often then not, the story of the genie is always one of knowing what you have now and appreciating it or realizing that acquiring things can only lead to suffering and heartache. The genie or devil or wildly wealthy benefactor always seems to twist your words and you end up with literally what you asked for, but not in the way you'd imagined it. You want a million dollars, so you get a winning lottery ticket. The problem is, it's all taxed and you end up with 500,000 dollars, plus undue family and friend attention, and all that goes with the windfall award. You wish to be famous and suddenly you've been turned into a serial killer who's murdered 20 nuns on a 14 state spree. You wish to be in movies and you are now an unpaid intern for an independent film company.

Knowing things can be interpreted differently the broader the scope, I started thinking of ways to get these elaborate things without confusion and I ended up running mental circles and keeping track of long statements laying out exactly it was that I wanted. I didn't want there to be any misunderstanding, any room for interpretation. The wish was to be as concise and as simple as possible.

This meant wishing for simple things.

There's just too many ways you can become rich. You could be a drug lord, or running a human traffic ring or just a regular gang member. They are technically well off because they avoid paying taxes and don't generally deal with a payroll department. The point being you could be any number of salacious individuals whose power and status have made them well off. But would you want to live like that? Would a wish like this need to be more well defined or simpler?

Think about what you'd really like. Do you want to be rich or do you want to be well off? Do you want to be fabulously wealthy or comfortable? Are you willing to trade your life for another just to be able to accommodate the trappings of a large bank account?

To me the answer is sadly pedestrian. I know that money doesn't solve everything and it doesn't bring happiness. But I'm practical enough to know that when people in my house get paid, everyone relaxes for a day. The stack of bills doesn't seem as big because some get taken care of. Our gas tanks are filled, our fridge is stocked and we even some times have enough to take a night out to forget that we have to work for the next 60 years. Or we buy our selves something we've needed put have constantly put off, like an oil change or a pair of shoes or a toy for the kids.

I like my job. It affords me time off when needed, the people are nice, the company is respectable and for the most part is less susceptible to market conditions. It's not drawing or writing for a living, but it's good work. What I'd wish for is a 10% raise on my salary without changing jobs. I'm not going to live outside my means, but knowing you can leave below your means makes it even sweeter when suddenly you don't have to. All I want is to be able to take my lady out on dates, take my kids to movies, make sure people have birthday parties with presents, gas in my well tended to car, chewing gum in my dashboard when I need it and the ability to buy a breakfast sandwich once in a while. I'd like to take my family out to eat once a week. I'd like to take a weekend road trip and not worry if I can swing a hotel room.

There's a song by Ingrid Michaelson that has a line which says, "Let's get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France - Let's get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance." It's a wonderful notion and yes it's a song that requires fanciful and lyric twining of words, but the idea of being comfortable and friendly and giving with your wealth is especially endearing to me. But it again shows how careful you'd have to be wishing to be rich.

But wait, I have three wishes.

I think the easiest thing to do is to wish for something that would make you happy for a little while, but is not able to be twisted. Being rich and powerful and famous leaves the door wide open. Being happy or not worrying in general can be something twisted into a blissed-out drug induced existence. Even something like world peace can be taken wrong. An Earth without humans is a world at peace, right?

The Bhagavad Gita (among others) teaches us that material possession is unseemly and should be avoided in favor of spiritual awareness, but does allow for gradations or levels of enlightenment. Buddhism talks of moderation in all things, we can only assume that means materialism. Some schools of philosophy teach us that things don't make the self, the world does not make the self, sometimes the self doesn't even make the self. But there is, in all these cases, something to be said for creature comforts.

That said, I love Lego. I love Star Wars Lego and I'd love to wish for every set Lego put out, but that would mean I'd have no room in my house to put them up. I'd also have to be careful how to wish for it. I don't want EVERY SINGLE Star Wars Lego set because I'd be receiving every single one, removing them from other people AND ensuring I'd need a warehouse to hold them all. I'd have to say something specific, "I wish for one of each set of Star Wars LEGO." Actually, I'd probably wish for two of each so I could trade with other people for different types of sets and parts. Then for storage or display I'd figure it out on my own. I'm sure eventually I'll have enough room to have a Lego room where I can build and store, but for now having the sets would be great.

It's an exercise, a game. I'm not as greedy and materialistic as all this may seem. It's fun to think about, but you know practically that you make your own way in life and what you do along the way and how many people you can impact positively is more important that how much you have when you die. We all want what's best for our family and friends and given the opportunity, I know most of us would wish for their health and happiness.

Wait, three wishes?

Finally I'd wish for a Snickers ice cream bar because those things are delicious.

Carry on.

Experiments

Experiments
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

I was told by my contacts numbering in the low single digits that I have not LIVED until I've had a Shandy or another concoction of sparkling citrus or fruit juice combined with beer.

To me the two are stand alone refreshments and frankly I'd pick a fruit juice over a beer any day. I love orange juice like most people love chocolate. It makes my knees weak and every time I drink it I finish with one of those post coital sighs.

So the thought of mixing my nectar of the gods with the hoppy nectar of man was not pleasant at all. I'd instantly imagined a worst-case-scenario in which the taste would be something akin to three day old warm OJ + a beer you left out from a party last weekend. The mental image alone triggered my gag reflex.

But, being the open minded idiot that I am, and realizing I'd been putting lime juice in beers for a while, I thought I'd give it a go.

My first experiment was straight OJ + Modello. It was just half and half over about 4 cubes of ice. It wasn't bad. I can see the draw as it was refreshing at least. I've tasted worse and were I to mix in a shot of amaretto, it might work out. There was just nothing special about it and I found myself wishing I had just drank the beer or the OJ instead.

Next came what you see in this photo. Bass plus Jarritos Mango Soda and Stone IPA Ruination plus Jones Berry Lemonade.

The Bass and Jarritos was nice and I found the more soda you put in the better. It started to taste like a hard cider (of which I am a huge fan) and less like a soda beer hybrid. I didn't have enough left to try the other way of more beer and less soda, but I can safely say that a third of Bass and two thirds of Jarritos Mango was actually tasty.

This does not hold for the other combination. I would go as far as to say the other mix was the foulest mix of liquids never before seen on this Earth. Given this back snapping gag of a drink, it was decided to try them individually; maybe the choices of mix were poor. Turns out the Jones soda was fine. It was a Jones soda that tasted a little like a citrus cotton candy - possibly a little too sweet.

However, the IPA was the most horrendous thing I've voluntarily drank. It was liquid mothballs. Put some insulation, butane and a Coors in a blender and then drink it. The label actually says it's there to ruin your palette and they are not lying. Avoid this beer at all costs.

That's STONE RUINATION IPA (Indian Pale Ale.) I don't care what your hipster friends say, it's fucking disgusting.

Which meant the experiment was 1 for 2. The Jones with the Bass wasn't too bad, but that Jones soda was a little sugary and not enough fruit taste. I hope to do some more of these, but as with this test, I always follow up with a known good quantity of Hardcore or Woodchuck.

Cheers!

Summer Round Up

Ben & Grace
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

Holy crap it's been three weeks. You'd think something big would have happened.

Well, yes a few things have. For one, the cat's out of the bag about who I've been seeing since Christmas. Miss LA's sister Grace. Facts are, she's much younger than me, it's Ms. A's girlfriend's sister, yes it's weird. It's been weird for a while, but I think without weird, this house would fall apart.

Grace is a Geek, like me. We enjoy all the same things, have a lot of the same beliefs, taste in music and love of science, literature and the online life. A good date night for us is Italian take out, watching Empire Strikes Back and sorting Lego. She knows more about video games and Harry Potter than I do and is probably the only one who could beat me at Star Wars trivia. I care for her a great deal and I'm really glad we found each other. I'm happy.

There was a time when we fretted over who knew about it, but her parents and mine have been told so now we don't have any reason to be secretive other than what would be considered respectful to friends and family. Hence, I probably won't talk about us a lot. Unless of course something bad happens and then I'm milking the angst.

So that's what's been keeping me occupied for the last half year. Along with the regular BGF goodness, it's always an adventure 'round these parts.

Ms. A is doing well with roller derby. She's getting beat to shit with every practice, but her chances of making a team in October are better than average based not just on logistics and available skaters, but also her skating ability and can-do attitude. She may only last one season before suffering a gruesome injury, but she'll be making her little girl want to be like her mommy and that's important.

Both kids start school in about a month. They have as many small adventures each day as Ms. A can find. Sometimes I'll go with them, some times Miss LA will go, but it's always something. Even if it's an unusual craft or baking opportunity at home, she's making their summer memorable. We've been trying to limit their TV and video game time and have completely - and sadly for me - weened G-man off Lego Star Wars (which was his life's blood for a long time.) LMA has her own email now which she uses to ask friends to go to the pool or talk to her old teacher about what she's doing over the break.

Next she'll be writing a thesis paper and I'll wonder why my knees hurt so bad.

Speaking of hurts, I'm all good now. Recently I had that chest pain thing that turned out to be a chest wall injury. It sounds like a hypochondriac diagnosis, but I was told my paternal grandmother had this happen at one point and she also thought it was a heart attack. Weird.

I've watched a little TV, but no reviews for the summer shows. I'll be back to covering regular seasons of Fringe and Dollhouse when they pick back up. If you haven't watched Torchwood and you missed the mini-series, you missed a really well done show. I'll be on Television Zombies, I believe episode 93, which should be next week so stay tuned.

Robot Portrait requests have died off. The 100 Artists Project is dead. I don't even know what to do with the sketchbook that's out there. I'm sure it could be worth something to someone, but I'm tired of pushing that dead horse around. I'm still drawing when I can, writing even less, as evidenced by the gap on this site.

And as for this blog, it really doesn't have a focus, and I apologize; to myself and anyone reading it. It's more a journal, a diary. I never wanted it to be something I'd update every 3 hours with news or political updates or anything. It was supposed to be when I felt like it, or when something happened in my life. I'm just not sure I'm writing for the right reasons. It was for the family, but I always thought it could be more and when that fails to pan out time and again, I get maudlin over the purpose and reason.

Speaking of writing, I've got a little time killer with Grace on Twitter. We made fake IDs for John Adams and his wife Abigail. If you don't know, the two are relatively famous for the letters they exchanged. Considering the number of text messages we've sent to each other, it seemed like it might be fun to read how they did roughly the same thing in late 1700s. So, if you're on Twitter, come find john_adams_jr and Abigail_S_Adams. Their letters are sweet and endearing, and frankly written a little oddly.

And as usual, spread the word about Robot Portraits, the watercolors are working out great. Better get one while I still remotely enjoy doing them.

That's all for now. Carry on.

Pain

Good Stuff
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

Ms. A is a roller derby girl.

Apparently this has been a dream of hers for a while. Whether I knew it or not, it's something she's always wanted to do. Kind of like me wanting to do cartoon voice overs or flying a fighter jet; if you get the chance, you take it.

So she took it and is now going to practices and schleping equipment for bouts. Her first practice went well and they invited her back. She goes through more practices, then some evaluations and by some time in October, the league will determine if she's up for selection and then teams will pick.

It's very exciting.

The other day I went skating with her. We've been a few times since a friend of Lil Miss Austin had a birthday party at a local rink and we were reminded how much fun it is. I'm not a great skater. I used to be, but now I wobble a lot. I rarely fall, have to figure out cross over stepping and how to stop without running into the railing. But I'm not horrible.

But everyone falls.

Tuesday I was cruising along and something stopped me, or more precisely stopped my wheel. I was thusly catapulted into the air and landed jarringly on my left hand and wrist, jamming my elbow into my ribs. At first it was just my wrist that hurt; a mild sprain, no bruising. I spent the evening icing it and wore a bandage the next day. The pain began to lessen and by Thursday I was able to play a little basketball.

Last night I was laying down and I stretched with my arms above my head and something pinched and twinged from just above my left nipple all the way down to below the side of my ribs. I thought I was having a heart attack. The paint wasn't enormous, but once it happened, it didn't go away like a cramp. And any pain you get in the left side of your chest is worrisome. After a bit of deliberation about going to the hospital, I went to the after hours clinic where the doctor assured me it was a chest wall injury, probably from my fall. Here's some pain medicine, relax and don't lift stuff.

I called Ms. A to give her the news that it wasn't cardio related and she teasingly hazed me about having owies. Apparently, I have a habit of blowing small pains out of proportion. Though a sharp unrelenting pain in your chest I hardly think is crying wolf.

But it got me thinking about pain. I usually keep my mouth shut about the small pains I get. My ears ache a lot and I get the odd sharp, knee-wobbling pain in my head. I don't say anything usually because I don't feel my pain is worth it. It's an odd description, but one a friend echoed when talking about similar pains. You don't think it's worth taking medicine, going to the doctor, even telling your friends and family about. You don't want to be a bother.

Which makes comparing pain quite difficult. Ms. A's going to be a roller girl and she's given birth twice. Unless I impale myself on my own compound fracture, she's going to give me grief over my little owies. It's out of love and fun that she does so, she's not being mean, but how do you compare pain? Some pains are different, some are events you can cope with, others are just merciless. But what makes my pain less or more than yours or his or hers?

We're built differently. Even if you've had a painful experience, it doesn't make each new one something you can relate to. I've had someone kick me in the face, breaking my jaw. That, to my memory, wasn't really painful, any more than running into someone while playing a sport. However I've also had hangnails that make me want to cry like a girl. How to explain that?

While I work on that and try to find books on neuropsychology and pain, I'll go back to taking my drugs for my non-heart-attack chest pain and wait for the next almost-broken-finger and nearly-stroke-like-pain-in-my-head.

Carry on.

Back To School

Comix
Originally uploaded by Cheryl Rollman.

Previously on Life In Austin:

Ms. A registered for and received federal aid to go to school. She's going for a sociology/psychology and teaching degree and become a social worker.

Last week she helped me register as well and as of this fall I will be a registered student at Austin Community College.

ACC is one of those schools that offer either a short associate degree program or a path that leads you to a transfer to a larger university where you can study for a bachelors degree. I picked Art because that's the university path. The other choice in town was Austin Institute of Art, but I've put off going to meet them because a) I don't think a degree from there would be any better than from another university, 2) because I don't think I'll be able to get as much financial aid and finally) because I don't think my college credits from 91-96 would transfer.

So Ms. A has been helping me run through the online applications for both the school and financial aid. I have to turn in some paperwork today, but I should be ok to start at least with some core classes this fall. I don't have many classes left to take I don't believe, but I won't be able to load up; one MAYBE two a semester.

I was in the advising office on Monday finding out how much of my credit would transfer (I have 94 credit hours from a state college in Denver) and what I'd need to take next. The guy was really nice and asked what type of student I was; a transfer or if I was coming out of high school. I laughed, almost loudly. Told him he was really kind to say that. It felt like getting carded for cigarettes.

I don't know what I'd do with a degree in art. I don't know yet where I'll go after ACC. AIA had the type of courses I'm interested in, but that's not a guarantee I'd be working in that field. I'd rather be more broadly studied and find a field I'd fit into than be pigeonholed into a specific career based on a limited education. Miss Louisiana has a degree in photography from SCAD but she's so educated, she's smarter than her chosen field will allow. Thus she's not working in photography. And I'm worried about that.

But, I have to get through English 1301 first. By the way, according to my transcript, I got a D in Basic Drawing 1. Isn't that awesome?

Carry on.

...in which Ms. A goes back to school.

Rockstar Reader
Originally uploaded by Cheryl Rollman.

This week Ms. A filed all her paperwork and registered for classes that she'll be taken through Austin Community College to start and then Texas State University to complete her degree. She'll be taking a mix of psychology, sociology and education classes and work toward a degree that will get her a social worker type job.

We're all very excited for her. This also means that most of her old student loans are paid or paid down to the point where she qualifies for grants and other aid. And if she gets a teaching degree, there's a program that forgives old loans.

Her father is a special ed teacher and I think the teaching gene might run in the family. I hope she does well and it actually made me start thinking about finishing my degree. Though how a BS in Musical Theater is going to help my IT career is beyond me.

Carry on.

Reviews: Fringe & Dollhouse

Yep, these shows ended about a month ago, but TVZ has finally run the reviews I wrote for them. Now that we're knee deep in summer TV watching, I'm hoping nothing major starts and I have more time to be with my kids, do some drawing, muck around with Lego and see some movies.

I'm still stinging about Fox deciding Dollhouse was a better product than Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, especially seeing how much flak the movie received. It's not like I didn't like Dollhouse, it's that I thought the Terminator show was much better.

Still, Torchwood has a mini series out in mid July, The IT Crowd has another series out soon and there's a lot to catch up on over at Hulu. I'm also watching Battlestar: Galactica again from the beginning with a friend who's never seen the first couple seasons. It's fun and I forgot what a good show BS:G was even at the start.

Make sure to head over to TVZ, though, for more news, polls, reviews and commentary.

Carry on.

Summer!

Group hug!
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

Lil Miss Austin has officially graduated to third grade. Yesterday was their awards ceremony and today is the first day of summer break. She received several awards (as most precious snowflakes do nowadays) but singularly she received a Literary Academic award for being the best writer, poet and storyteller in her class. She's also on the Honor Roll and received straight A's.

And for the next three months it's all going to ooze out of her brain like melted cheese.

The BGF has made a few friends over the last year, a few of which have kids so there will likely be a lot of time spent with these folks or at least days when LMA and her brother are either away at a friend's house or entertaining at ours. Now that we've discovered roller skating, I might get her a pair of skates and go with her around the neighborhood. Plus there's swimming and fishing and sleeping late and watching cartoons...

...it sucks being a grown up.

Also momentous is Miss LA's family being in town for the weekend. Their youngest is in Austin to see a concert so they paid us a visit last night and we had fun eating vegetarian TexMex, drinking and playing Apples to Apples. Ms. A and Miss LA got more of a commitment out of the parents to attend their ceremony/party on New Years. They are very Catholic (she was raised as such) and so ideologically this is very hard for them. But the most important thing is that their daughter is happy and to that end they agreed to at least try to attend and raise a glass in celebration.

If you're in Austin and you want a good show, come by our house while these two are making dinner. It's cute to watch them fight about who's making drinks, who needs to stop cleaning and who's family is crazier. I need to film it and possibly pitch the entire house as either a reality show or at least a family research institute.

Happy Friday y'all.

Roller Skating

Roller Skating
Originally uploaded by xadrian

Lil Miss Austin went skating.

Remembering back, I honestly don't think she's ever been skating. She's never owned rollerblades and I the time I think we took her ice skating was a time before she was born.

It's been a long time, for either of us. Let's just leave it at that.

I'm a fairly decent skater. I can go without falling for a long time, turn around, move backwards for a while, stop, etc. All the basics. I know enough that before we left, I told LMA that she didn't need a helmet because she was going to fall on her butt.

A lot.

I tried to emphasize "a lot" because that's what you do when learning to skate. Your body, used to walking, doesn't understand it needs to get over your feet more and the skates end up shooting out in front of you. She must have falled a couple hundred times and I'm not even joking. However, she weights 50lbs and her butt is about 20 inches off the ground, it's not like her dad's nearly 200lbs ass is crashing onto the rink. But repetition did start taking its toll.

The party itself was typical kid chaos. In two hours, tunnel vision parents try to cram in a meal, some social time, a gift giving venture and the celebratory singing of good wishes to the guest of honor. Add eight wheels per kid and turn up the music.

I was the only parent who skated. A few others were in the rink with their precious snowflakes making sure they didn't get hurt. I have an issue with this and part of it comes from the fact that when I was a kid, if you didn't have skates on, you weren't allowed onto the rink. Now people are just strolling around out there.

The other reason is if you're going to experience something with your kid, do it with them. Don't just hold their hand, play WITH them. I can understand a bum knee, but if you can't participate, don't hover. If for some reason I couldn't have skated, I'd have sat my butt on the side lines, not wandered around behind them as the puttered along, holding their shoes. I won't go into a moon jump, but that's a logistics thing. They don't make those for dads such as myself.

What surprised me the most was how taken she was by this activity. She fought through round after round of tears and spills and crashes only to fight it off and nearly scream, "I want to skate!" She's fairly sore today and I know she used muscles she hasn't before. I know my inner thighs are sore and she said her hips hurt a lot. The sideways motion of skating is brutal on those muscles if you don't do it regularly. But despite what was some severe twists and wipe outs, she soldiered through as though at any moment the skates were going to be removed from her feet.

So much so we're thinking of taking her to the Austin Derby Brats Jr. Roller Derby practices and seeing about being a regular skater. Of all the things I've thought about what LMA might like to do, I'd never imagined she wanted to skate. We'll see how it goes.

I really hope she likes going because I like it too. Ms. A can't skate because of her knee, but I know that any activity that doesn't cost $1000 in registration or equipment and that the kids like, we're going to let them do it.

Plus it may be something she can do over the summer.

Foreign Exchange

Ms. A is working with a company that places foreign students in American homes. I don't know that it's a strict exchange like you have a kid and you trade for another kid for a school year.

Regardless, she is now in charge of finding homes for kids for a full school year. She will be getting kids from Germany, Thailand, Serbia, Montenegro, and China. Most of the kids will be from Germany. This would be a great opportunity for families with young children or whose children have left home and those looking for a great exchange of cultural ideas, customs and traditions.

If you have or know a family within about 100 miles of Austin, TX who is willing to take a student in for a school year, please contact Ms. A and she'll provide you with all the details.

Also, please pass this along to anyone you can. The more families we find, the more students we can bring to the US for a school year. Thank you, carry on.

More G-man

Happy Birthday Gregory

Coolin it
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

Today 102 years ago, Marion Michael Morrison was born. He's otherwise known as The Duke, John Wayne. 22 years ago, Star Wars debuted.

And five years ago, Gregory Powell Rollman was born.

I don't remember much about being five. I remember bits and pieces of things that happened around that time, but it's hard to say if I was three or seven. I hope G-man has better luck remembering his life because it's a good one.

G-man is loved by a lot of people. His mom and dad and Miss LA all care for him quite a bit. I think his mom may love him the most, though. He didn't go to day care like his sister, and so Ms. A has taken it upon herself to not only stay home and care for him, but teach him as well. Where Lil Miss Austin got the brains, G-man got the charm. He's a crazy little ham who would rather give you a hug and make a crazy sound than most anything else in the world.

Except play Lego Star Wars, that boy is addicted to Lego Star Wars. It's all he wants to do and he wants me to play with him all the time. When he's not playing that game, he's asking me if he can play with my Lego in my room.

So G-man turns five today. He'll have a nice summer with his big sister and best friend and then come August he'll be in kindergarten and we plan on getting a lot of notes saying that all he wants to do is hug people and make funny noises.

Happy Birthday little dude.

Watercolors

Watercolor Robot
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

If you haven't been to Robot Portraits lately, well I don't know what to do with you. I've been pimping it for years now. Your loss. Anyway, what you'd notice is there has been more activity in that I'm also trying to churn through the 700 Robots list to the tune of a couple a week.

What I realized a while back is that the markers I use don't last terribly long and are $3 a pop. I have about $100 worth now and before even this one book is done I'll probably get another $100 just to replace what's used up. So I'm going to try watercolors.

A couple friends I know use water colors for similar projects and they're work always seems more professional. There's something about the markers I've never liked; they don't blend and they streak. It looks like markers. In small areas they work well, but for large areas it just looks blotchy and hastily done. So I'm trying watercolors.

The only reason I haven't tried them sooner is twofold. I've been a pen and pencil guy most of my life. I don't paint, use pastels or chalk, charcoal or ink wells with nibs or brushes. It's a mix of comfort level, cost and time. I've never had time to really explore other tools and thus push my comfort level. There's something to be said for accidental genius and not understanding the tool can sometimes result in happy accidents. Also, buying oils or acrylics is cost prohibitive, especially if you have a Lego addiction like I did for many years. So I'm trying to learn watercolors.

The other reason is a bit of a self confidence issue due to my late grandpa. He's main tool was watercolor and I have his work hanging in my house. To say he was prolific would be an understatement. He made a living doing it and me trying to learn how seems like a dodge. It's a mental issue, but I'm getting past it.

So I'm trying to learn watercolors.

We'll see how it goes.

Life

Magic
Originally uploaded by Cheryl Rollman.

Oh goodness, let's see. What's gone on since we last checked in.

G-man has been registered for kindergarten. Later this month he'll be 5. LMA just turned 8 and will be going to third grade next year. In addition to the Destination Imagination, LMA also participated in the Texas Math Pentathlon, in which she earned a medal and scored the best on her team. She did quite well.

We've decided not to move just yet. Partly because we can't find the exact house we'd need and partly because the property owner and management company have yet to get us an extended lease agreement. So Ms. A and Miss LA and I (to a small extent) have been shaking the house over a sieve and making it livable for a while longer. We've switched rooms, painted, de-baby-toyed the play area, moved computers and desks and repaired broken or nagging items. I won't lie, Ms. A has been doing the bulk of it.

Just last night she got a canopy for the back porch and solar tinting for the back windows in an effort to lower our energy bills. I helped by putting up the tint and sweeping up some of the glitter LMA and G-man spilled on the porch that has now been tracked throughout the house.

The dogs are both getting along, my Lego is all nicely sorted, (though I still have much to get done) and school is nearly over for LMA. She performed last night at her school's Night At The Movies event; a 30 minute program where the second graders put on a small show about movies, complete with abridged songs and a costume or two. LMA had a speaking part and she was very charming. She's also doing very well with her grades, all in the upper 90's and last report had 100 in science.

Ms. A is meeting people today to start work on being a foreign exchange student placement coordinator, which could be a great thing for her. Miss LA interviewed earlier this week to be an artistic coordinator for, I believe, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Texas so wish them both good luck. My job has been going along, no change. Still a lot to do and it always changes and I receive both adequate recognition and proper scolding to keep me in line. Nothing new to report there.

Couple little online bits, since I'm very into the online world. Robot Portraits is still going. I just had my last one go out so if you want one, now's the time to order it. I plan on doing more 700 Robots but experimenting with watercolors. The 100 Artists Project has yet again fizzled out. I have help this time around, but there's just no interest and I don't know how I could have spent two years working on it and have no momentum. The sketchbooks are still out, so might as well try to finish those. Though if that's all I'm doing, I'm going to stop paying for a web site. I'm still writing reviews for Television Zombies, but my shows are all off season now. I'd been doing Fringe, Dollhouse and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. They'll all be back in the fall. I may be doing some work with the TVZ people on their site to help them out, so we'll see.

A few odd commission jobs and a couple really neat ideas for Lego builds should keep me occupied over the summer. I don't know what the kids' are doing yet. We thought of doing a camp for LMA at least, but that hasn't been finalized. And yes, to all the people in Colorado, I will TRY to visit with at least one child over the summer, but I can't promise anything.

That's all for now, carry on.

Star Trek 2009

I'm going to offer a counter argument to Dan Coulter's review of Star Trek, but only because I really like Dan and I know he's a huge Star Trek fan and a lover of good science fiction, of which there are scant decent works.

(Warning, there will be spoilers, both here and on Dan's site.)

I saw ST:09 at the Alamo last night around 7pm. Got there early and got a good seat. Was then treated to a typical Alamo tribute to William Shatner, some more comic moments of Star Trek, TOS, and a bit of fun with Austin improv comedy troupe Start Trekkin.

Not gonna lie, I enjoyed the bejesus out of this movie. Enjoyment is a personal reaction and had I seen in alone instead of with somone, seen it at a big cinaplex instead of the Alamo, took my kids to see it, I would have reacted differently. Yes there were parts I didn't like, but they were few and far between. I was entertained by the movie and that's the biggest compliment I can give it.

There's been a lot said about J.J. Abram's handling of the franchise. The fans and non-fans are equally divided. I've heard a lot of fans of TOS say they'll see it and probably hate it and a lot of casual or non-fans say they'll see it and it looks interesting. Based on Dan's review, I think that plays out. He doesn't say he hates it, but he offers a lot of points about why it's not good. The problem I have is I don't think these are J. J. Abram's Star Trek problems, but Star Trek or science fiction problems in general. Let's take a look.

1) Idiotic Science - Yes this movie has a black hole through which ships jump around like revolving doors. The black hole is literarly a hole in space. It's not right, not even close. Near the end, they throw anti-matter into it and it all blows to hell without blowing up the ship. Is this Abrams' fault? Not entirely. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman wrote it in and Abrams let it go, but were they playing off established paradigms? I know of an episode where a "black star" flings the Enterprise into the past. In fact, Star Trek is riddled with hypothetical situations involving time travel, celstial bodies and dubious science. Are we blaming Abrams for this? If we wanted real science, would we really be expecting it from Star Trek?

2) I will give Dan this. I caught it too. I'm surprised something like this isn't caught in storyboarding. Someone could just say, "Could we have the 2nd in command Romulan say the last encounter with the Enterprise damaged their warp and they can't go above 1 or 2?

3) The introductions were crazy because the characters were crazy. They're archetypes, parodies of themselves. There was going to be no right way to introduce them, no one would have been 100% happy. Personally, I thought they were excellent. Given the history we've all built in our minds about each character, it actually added a lot to who these people were, something the original never did.

4) I agree the sexism was high here. No bad looking people, even Bones was moderately crush worthy. But again, you can only hate it for being a reboot and being totally not the same thing or you can say it's bad because it's not the same thing. You can't do both. Short skirts, like 'em or not, were something the original series had. It was just as much part of the show as phasers, warp drive, unbelieveable fight scenes and bad make up.

5) I thought that about the monsters too, even though I haven't seen Cloverfield. (I've been told to stay away.) But monsters do exist in Star Trek. Most of the time they are just sentient aliens with an ax to grind, but honestly, seeing another life form that's not a homonid with a rubber band stuck to its nose is enriching. If a klingon were dropped in the middle of the woods on Earth, would it have to deal with a bear?

6) There wasn't a time during the movie when I thought, "Oh just stop talking already." There was plenty of action for me, I'd almost complain there was too much and not enough talking. I'd have liked to see more explanation that wasn't crammed in at the end or during Spock's mind meld. The lends flare thing was annoying and we talked about it later. Once or twice I can understand, but I think the bridge was built out of LED flood lights or something. That was actually one of my biggest gripes. It was distracting.

7) And this was the other. Unless Nero had some fancy projector on that ship of his, there was no way Spock would have seen Vulcan implode like that. And...wait for it...the science...wouldn't something visible, that close, suck the other planet in as well? Black holes generally gobble up anything near by and I'm sure anything within even Vulcan visual range is going to end up within the event horizon of a planetary sized black hole. But, Malcom McDowell did try to steer a dimensional super string, so who's to say what can be done.

8) No arguments there.

9) Watching this reminded me of the Galaxy Quest bit where they have to run through the chompers. I think they had the idea of beaming someone into water and liked the idea so much that they had to get him out. But get him out with fun and action. I mean, it makes sense to have large tubes of water in engineering. Your cooling and potable water would need to circulate somehow, with a large turbine perhaps. But I don't think we'd see them like an early Microsoft screensaver as it was.

10) This actually did upset me. We're 200 years into the future. It'd be like my kids stealing my car and cranking Bach. Yes it's a good song, but for Frak's Sake, get Evervescence to write one specifically for the movie or something.

Agree with the nitpick, but I can see in the planning that he shoots him and drops the gun in order to have both hands free to almost fall.

I'll tell what I didn't like, and take this as you will.

A) Goofy science is one thing, but I know what a black hole is. I don't know what Red Matter is unless we're talking medical analysis of stool samples. Is it like Dark Matter? It's introduction to a material we have to take on faith and that causes three different plot points in the movie. At least make up something we're already afraid of. Boson Matter, maybe. Sticky Muons. And then for Sarek's Sake, explain it. It takes one line. Kirk, "What is that stuff, anyway." Spock, "I'm not sure, but if I were to guess, the future me has been able to discover a recently theoretical partical that can drastically alter space time."

B) Nero's ship was a mining vessel from Romulus. Why are so many bad things (ships, asteroids, monsters) these giant pokey claw like things? I know it's pyschologicial, but a display of evil is not evil. A show of power is not power. Plus, it made it hard to understand what was going on. Action in action movies has always been about quick edits where nothing may actually be happening. If you've got a visual frame of reference, that's fine, but when your backdrop and subject are these twisted and sculpted pieces of aliens spacecraft, it's just a giant jumble of "What the hell is that?" and you have to let your music and sound cues pick up the movement. Armageddon and Transformers are two examples of this where there's just too much going on. Just because you CAN make a computer animate 2,000 different moving parts, doesn't mean you should.

C) I didn't actually understand the time loop thing. I had to think about it after the movie. I will admit I'm very visual and at times complex plot points make me furrow my brow and grunt, but I thought a time travel Star Trek movie would be kind to me. But Abrams loves that.

That's all I can think of right now, and I don't mean this to color the fact that I really enjoyed the movie. I wasn't bored. I laughed. I was excited. I was emotionally invested in a few characters. I was surprised. I left the theater recapping scenes and lines.

I also don't want this to seem like I'm downing Dan's assessment. He was right on a couple times, but I think over all this was a very enjoyable movie. I'm going again to IMAX to see it and honestly I'd buy this DVD. I enjoyed it more than all but one Star Trek movie to date. I consider myself a fan of Star Trek, so take that as you will.

Carry on.

Moo Cards

Moo Cards
Originally uploaded by xadrian.

A while ago I got a handful of cards from moo.com after they did a promotional tie in with Flickr. I'd always threatened to get more because I loved the quality and the mini card size.

Well, good news, MOO has opened a US printing facility. So if you live in the States your order can be sent in five days.

I highly recommend them if you're looking for quality cards. The added plus of having them be as individual as you want them is an amazing touch. 100 quality cards for $20 (plus shipping.)

Give them a shot.

First of May

Crap video quality, but it's the thought that counts.