Austin has been invaded!
This year, as every year, the South by Southwest (SXSW) media frenzy visits Austin, TX. SXSW is a music and film and interactive extravaganza in which all the convention centers, bars, clubs, meeting rooms, hotel lobbies, pool halls, patios and theaters fill up with musicians, support staff, aficionados, hipsters, geeks, fanboys, reporters and fans.
I've always said I'd try to avoid downtown during this time. The film and interactive portions aren't bad, but the music festival literally shuts everything down within a 20 block radius of the capital for three days. Ms. A loves it and is going again to as many free shows as she can find.
This year was my first actual attendance to anything SXSW related and it was to see some Lego. The TexLug group had a exhibitor display in the Screenburn section in the convention center. Screenburn is basically showing design tools and games. TexLug had a big table with a lot of the MOCs (my own creation) that the group members have built. They ranged from a T-Rex skeleton display with visiting museum patrons, all the size of a matchbox, to a 10ft long replica of the 360 bridge over Town Lake. We took some pictures but it's not the same as being there and seeing the intricacies in person.
The best part was, off to one side was an area with a kiddie pool full of Lego. The idea was you build something and put it on the table nearby to show off what you built. It turned out to be a magnet for me and Tiger Lily. The kids hung out with us but were bored shortly after realizing we weren't moving until our dragon was finished. G-man took about 100 pictures, mostly of his tongue and Spongebob shirt. Rowan pleaded for popcorn that wasn't available. (Silly girl, hipster gadget dorks don't eat popcorn.)
As the TexLug group started to pack up all their models, we finally finished our dragon. It was really cute and well put together and we wanted to take it home. Someone was so impressed they took a picture of it. The TexLug group even included it on their media updates of the event. I wish we'd have done it on Friday, it may have been put in the main display with the other dragons and beasties. (Yeah, it was that good.) The best part is we did it together. TG made the head and wings and belly and I did the legs and tail and kind of the attaching of it all together. The kids helped us hunt down pieces.
LMA made a neat remote controlled boat vignette as well but she started later and wasn't able to finish before it was time to pack up. G-man was oddly not into it. I haven't figured out his Lego meter yet. He likes them, wants to play and build with mine, but doesn't much care for the ones I buy him. I see them in his room, on the floor, but when I ask him to build something he gets frustrated rather than excited. He wants me to build him things to play with. I'm not going to do that. I want him to use his imagination. I know it's there.
That way when the next TexLug meeting happens, we can both go and bring our builds.
Carry on.
16.3.10
5.3.10
Let's hope it's not the knee.
I totally forgot to mention that I had an MRI done on my knee last week. For a couple years now it's made a crunching, scraping sound when it bends, especially if I put weight on it. It doesn't get any more or less stiff or sore than the other one, which is to say not much. If I walk a lot from the bus or run or play ball it gets stiff but it's never hurt.
A friend of ours injured her knee at work and had to go through surgery to repair it. It was your basic ACL repair and subsequent therapy. I showed them (or made them listen to) my knee and everyone said I should have it checked out before it got really bad.
So I scheduled an appointment for the same orthopedic doctor that helped Ms. A get her knee fixed after her skiing accident blew out her ACL. She was in recovery for about 2 months and then after that she was restricted to what she could do. Now she skates roller derby so I consider that a success. The doctor is really nice but I can tell he's busy. He doesn't spend a lot of time with me. In fact I think I probably talked to him for about three minutes. He asked me about the knee, I told him there wasn't any pain but it's making a horrible sound. He listened, agreed it was bad and I got an x-ray done. The x-ray came back fine, no bone problems. So he scheduled an MRI.
Now, I'd never had an MRI done before. I figure, if the office visit is $xx.xx copay and the x-ray is covered, wouldn't the MRI? Turns out, no it's not. Well, it depends on your deductible. My MRI ran me $375 and I was a little shocked at first. I know the big Magnetotron (seriously, it was called that) is expensive to run and you have to pay the techs to run it. MRI techs get paid pretty well. On top of that, I wasn't injured, this was preventative at best. It was my idea to go in.
I have a follow up this Monday and I think the doc is looking for a flap of cartilage. He seems to think that physical therapy will help and wants to avoid surgery. My thinking is that I'll take whatever is covered without having to meet my deductible first. But I'll keep y'all apprised of the situation.
School is going fine. I took, and I think passed, my first ethics test. I've got another history test this next week for which I'm getting ready. I love history but have never been a fan of American history. Not this time, however. I don't know if it's age or the material, but I'm fascinated by it.
I've also decided, and I don't remember if I said anything about this, that I'm going to try to turn my degree into something I can use to get a job with Lego. I've talked with them and apparently their builders come from all kinds of fields; design, engineering, architecture, etc. So I'm going to skew my studies toward that and hopefully take those skills and love of the brick and become a designer/builder. It might mean eventually moving to Enfield, CT, so I don't know how crazy I am about the idea. I guess I should pass history first.
That said, I'm trying to get into the community more and that means central Texas TexLug meetings, the first being this Saturday. It's an early South By Southwest (SXSW) event at a toy shop where TexLug members gather and meet and talk. I'm taking the kids because G-man loves Lego. Hopefully I can get some pictures.
That's all for now. Carry on.
24.2.10
Snow in Austin
Snow in Austin
Originally uploaded by xadrian
We had 1/2" of snow on Tuesday and it shut our southern asses down. Farther north in Dallas and surround areas, they had a respectable couple inches, but they're used to that. Amarillo gets some mean storms as well so it's not like Texas is ignorant of snow.
But in Central Texas, we don't get much. I don't even have to take off my shoes to count the number of times Austin has seen snow in the decade I've been here. Even ice storms are infrequent though more likely. There's also this weird atmospheric bubble over Austin and its metro area; we don't get a lot of storms. I know storms are basically a disturbance in the air - cold air falling, warm air rising, dry air mixing with moisture. But it seems the added heat of a metro area further disturbs the storms into nothing and once a line reaches us it's strength has left it. We always seem to get the tail end of the big storms; the last throes, the southern tip of the front, the remaining rainfall from something that opened up a bit out to the west. We're too far inland to worry about gulf weather and too far south to worry about tornadoes. We're in this pocket of stability that's pretty boring meteorologically speaking.
Which is probably why my office shut down after it snowed for 10 minutes. Which is probably why schools and businesses were on a two hour delayed opening even though it was nearly 50 degrees and sunny outside. Which is why I think it's hilarious that despite the actual weather going on outside, the city sends out sanding trucks.
Now I know there's a danger of overpasses icing up, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that at 35° it's not going to happen. Once the snow stops, there's no moisture. Once it starts warming up, there's no ice. Austin panicked like an overprotective parent and a vaguely rug-burned knee. I had a friend tell me he had to shovel 6 inches of show just to get to work.
For those that don't know, I grew up in Colorado and if there's one thing I know about, it's snow. My mom and dad both taught me different lessons on driving and they both taught me that if you can drive in the snow, you can drive anywhere. But their point was also, don't drive in the snow. What happened in Austin yesterday was no where near what I've seen even on the lightest of days in Denver. What happened in Austin was visible rainfall. The streets didn't ice over and by that night even, before the sun had completely set, the "storm" had passed.
The fact that they closed schools the next day was just...well it was kind of fucking retarded.
Sorry Austin, it just was. You won't close the city for SXSW, which has a much larger impact, but a few snowflakes and you send out the sand trucks and shut down schools? This isn't Louisiana where we can get away with shutting down for Mardi Gras, this is fluke snow fall. Go outside, get a couple on your tongue, and get back to what you were doing. It's not radioactive, it's not going to bury anyone in giant drifts. It's softly falling moisture.
I feel as though my city let me down by this. Sorry to anyone else if you heard news of our baby storm. DC had Snowpocolypse, we had Snow Big Deal.
Carry on.
22.2.10
Girl Day
This weekend was full of events. First, TG and I got to take in a viewing of Cirque du Soleil - Allegria. It was a great show, do try to go if you get the chance. I was talking to Ms. A about it and she took LMA to see it later in the weekend and we both agreed that it seemed shorter than the previous time we saw it.
It was at the Cedar Park Event Center, home of the AHL Texas Stars. It's a nice, almost cozy venue and there were really no bad seats. Our only complaint was that Community Coffee is one of the sponsors and they don't have a coffee bar. The coffee you get is from any of the concession stands and it's just from a dispenser. Kind of a let down, especially considering CC's posters and banners and such are all over the place. I joked that Austin Community College was a sponsor too, didn't mean I could take a class while I was there.
I tried to study a little on Saturday but that didn't work out. We spent most of the day at the Women in Engineering Program's event Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day or just Girl Day. It was at the UT school of engineering and they had several buildings set up for events designed for girls ages 6 through 12. It was mostly hands on, thought a few were just displays with explanations. Little Miss Austin had a lovely time. As with most events like this, she now wants to be an engineer and build robots. If we take her to a home and garden expo next week she'll want to be a landscaper. I'm pushing hard for math and science and engineering because it involves robots.
That night was a birthday party for TG'm roommate. It was sci-fi themed so I went as Arthur Dent (easy costume) and TG was a certain fanboy dream come true. (Take a guess.) It was fun and graciously not too late.
Sunday Ms. A took LMA to Allegria while G-man and I went to Chuck E. Cheese. He played and I read Ethics. (Yes, I can focus while I'm there, it's really odd.) We all came home and had a nice family dinner of lasagna, some specially made for Ms. LA who had seconds. It was the first time any of us had seen her eat seconds. For those that don't know, if she turned sideways, Ms. LA would disappear. She's about 5'2" and weighs maybe 90lbs soaking wet. It was a small victory for Ms. A to make food she liked so much.
And then we watched Olympics. NBC upset me a little with it's non-coverage of hockey. We record the prime time show and I should have known hockey was going to end up on MSNBC or something. But unless you're a die hard Olympic fan, you're not going to pay real close attention to the schedule and after a week it just got away from us. Subsequently we watched Ice Dancing most of the night until they cut away to 20 seconds left in the 5-3 US victory over Canada. Stupid NBC.
That's all for now. I have a study a lot this week again. My first test in Ethic is Friday. So far in History I have two A's so I'm confident I'll do well.
Carry on.
It was at the Cedar Park Event Center, home of the AHL Texas Stars. It's a nice, almost cozy venue and there were really no bad seats. Our only complaint was that Community Coffee is one of the sponsors and they don't have a coffee bar. The coffee you get is from any of the concession stands and it's just from a dispenser. Kind of a let down, especially considering CC's posters and banners and such are all over the place. I joked that Austin Community College was a sponsor too, didn't mean I could take a class while I was there.
I tried to study a little on Saturday but that didn't work out. We spent most of the day at the Women in Engineering Program's event Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day or just Girl Day. It was at the UT school of engineering and they had several buildings set up for events designed for girls ages 6 through 12. It was mostly hands on, thought a few were just displays with explanations. Little Miss Austin had a lovely time. As with most events like this, she now wants to be an engineer and build robots. If we take her to a home and garden expo next week she'll want to be a landscaper. I'm pushing hard for math and science and engineering because it involves robots.
That night was a birthday party for TG'm roommate. It was sci-fi themed so I went as Arthur Dent (easy costume) and TG was a certain fanboy dream come true. (Take a guess.) It was fun and graciously not too late.
Sunday Ms. A took LMA to Allegria while G-man and I went to Chuck E. Cheese. He played and I read Ethics. (Yes, I can focus while I'm there, it's really odd.) We all came home and had a nice family dinner of lasagna, some specially made for Ms. LA who had seconds. It was the first time any of us had seen her eat seconds. For those that don't know, if she turned sideways, Ms. LA would disappear. She's about 5'2" and weighs maybe 90lbs soaking wet. It was a small victory for Ms. A to make food she liked so much.
And then we watched Olympics. NBC upset me a little with it's non-coverage of hockey. We record the prime time show and I should have known hockey was going to end up on MSNBC or something. But unless you're a die hard Olympic fan, you're not going to pay real close attention to the schedule and after a week it just got away from us. Subsequently we watched Ice Dancing most of the night until they cut away to 20 seconds left in the 5-3 US victory over Canada. Stupid NBC.
That's all for now. I have a study a lot this week again. My first test in Ethic is Friday. So far in History I have two A's so I'm confident I'll do well.
Carry on.
18.2.10
Ask me!
I put up a little widget over on the side, it's from formspring.me and it's just a little comment tool in the form of a Q&A. So, if you have questions for me, feel free to ask. I'll try to be entertaining but informative. Witty but factual. There will likely be tens and tens of questions so I would likely be able to get to them all. Ask about anything; the kids, my world, Lego, drawing, science fiction, views on politics, upcoming projects, school.
Even if you want to use it to ask something crass, mean spirited or insulting, I'll do my best to rise to the higher ground and give it an honest answer.
In other news, I got a 90% on my second history test, so that's two A's so far, out of 5 tests and a paper. Haven't taken any Ethics tests yet. We'll see how that goes. I have a feeling I'm going to struggle with those.
PS, a plane just hit a building here in Austin so I'm going to go watch the live news feeds for a while.
Even if you want to use it to ask something crass, mean spirited or insulting, I'll do my best to rise to the higher ground and give it an honest answer.
In other news, I got a 90% on my second history test, so that's two A's so far, out of 5 tests and a paper. Haven't taken any Ethics tests yet. We'll see how that goes. I have a feeling I'm going to struggle with those.
PS, a plane just hit a building here in Austin so I'm going to go watch the live news feeds for a while.
9.2.10
2010 So Far
I think this blog has become a cliché. I don't post often and when I do it's usually to write about how I've not been writing enough. I'm frankly a little worried about what to write here. Not because of the reaction I'd receive, but more because it's filler content that is not truly about anything but what's happening in the three foot bubble that surrounds me.
I truly am a creature that lives in the here and now. Much like a dog or infant human who doesn't understand the concept of time or distance. It's part of why I'm really bad with organization; a skill like that requires a view of events to come. I'm mostly concerned with what's happening immediately around me and at this very moment in time. I was joking with someone when I said I live in three day increments, but I wasn't joking by much.
I blame TV (because who doesn't?)
I'm bad with prioritizing and completing projects at work. I'm lousy with long term planning like trips or events. I can't seem to get the hang of doing creative or work related tasks before the last second has arrived. It's not that I procrastinate for that connotes an understanding of when something was needed and my refusal to take action now and willfully put it off.
No, I don't even know it's out there. My subconscious procrastination is so strong that it blinds me to everything but what is immediately important. Thus I am a reactive creature and I wait until something bumps into me. I am a prehistoric single cell organism.
I'm planning a trip to DC in the summer, by which I mean TG is planning and I'm agreeing with everything. But even saving for the trip is foreign to me. I have this architecture in my brain that says it'll be okay if you don't put $50 in a jar right now. It'll be okay if you start saving in May. It'll be okay if you don't buy plane tickets now. I have tests next week and videos to watch and cars to fix, but I can't keep these things forefront in my thoughts. It's as if to do so would mean I'd cease to be me. It would change who I was if I was to constantly walk around with a mental day planner hanging in front of my eyes.
And yet I find time to do this. I find time to watch a cartoon or a movie I've already seen. I find time to sort Lego and build little bits of nothing. I find time to write about TV shows and research them to what end? I don't get paid to do any of that, but I do it.
So that's what I talk to you about. Because the rest of the world around me is currently a little jumbled. Things are happening fast and I'm just trying to keep up. They aren't bad things, they are just things. It's like a multi-person project that sits for a long time in the planning phase and then suddenly you're smack in the middle of acting and doing and there's that feeling of uncertainty where you don't know if you'll end up on the other side the same as you were or better or not at all.
It's hard to describe without using names and events and time lines, but almost nothing stays the same around the house much longer than a day. We keep agreeing on schedules and finances and activities and then making exceptions not hours later. It's like living in a blender in a dryer in a wind tunnel.
The positive news is that I'm taking the bus more and more. It's good for the legs and heart and it's better on my car. I have a bus pass through ACC (which I've already had to replace) and I can only imagine the gas I'm saving. I'm only driving to work two days out of the week now so that's got to be a substantial savings. Plus I can read or do homework or nap. It's nice.
The Saints won the Superbowl. Who dat? No one! We had a few people over and the Cajuns made etouffee and we drank too much. (PS, for those of you who don't know, rice and beer will make you bloat like Violet from Willy Wonka, don't say I didn't warn you.) We missed the forth quarter however. The downfall of technology is our reliance upon it. We paused it at the start of the forth quarter, it was 17-16 Colts. We were waiting for a friend to get off work. She arrives, LMA hands me the remote, we juggle it and it lands between me and the couch and it changes the channel. I quickly change it back to find there's 90 seconds left in the game and it's 31-17 Saints. We were crushed we couldn't see it and oddly only mildly happy the Saints won.
I couldn't have recorded it? Yes I tried not making LMA cry, it wasn't her fault...entirely.
Alright, I should go do some work. Carry on.
I truly am a creature that lives in the here and now. Much like a dog or infant human who doesn't understand the concept of time or distance. It's part of why I'm really bad with organization; a skill like that requires a view of events to come. I'm mostly concerned with what's happening immediately around me and at this very moment in time. I was joking with someone when I said I live in three day increments, but I wasn't joking by much.
I blame TV (because who doesn't?)
I'm bad with prioritizing and completing projects at work. I'm lousy with long term planning like trips or events. I can't seem to get the hang of doing creative or work related tasks before the last second has arrived. It's not that I procrastinate for that connotes an understanding of when something was needed and my refusal to take action now and willfully put it off.
No, I don't even know it's out there. My subconscious procrastination is so strong that it blinds me to everything but what is immediately important. Thus I am a reactive creature and I wait until something bumps into me. I am a prehistoric single cell organism.
I'm planning a trip to DC in the summer, by which I mean TG is planning and I'm agreeing with everything. But even saving for the trip is foreign to me. I have this architecture in my brain that says it'll be okay if you don't put $50 in a jar right now. It'll be okay if you start saving in May. It'll be okay if you don't buy plane tickets now. I have tests next week and videos to watch and cars to fix, but I can't keep these things forefront in my thoughts. It's as if to do so would mean I'd cease to be me. It would change who I was if I was to constantly walk around with a mental day planner hanging in front of my eyes.
And yet I find time to do this. I find time to watch a cartoon or a movie I've already seen. I find time to sort Lego and build little bits of nothing. I find time to write about TV shows and research them to what end? I don't get paid to do any of that, but I do it.
So that's what I talk to you about. Because the rest of the world around me is currently a little jumbled. Things are happening fast and I'm just trying to keep up. They aren't bad things, they are just things. It's like a multi-person project that sits for a long time in the planning phase and then suddenly you're smack in the middle of acting and doing and there's that feeling of uncertainty where you don't know if you'll end up on the other side the same as you were or better or not at all.
It's hard to describe without using names and events and time lines, but almost nothing stays the same around the house much longer than a day. We keep agreeing on schedules and finances and activities and then making exceptions not hours later. It's like living in a blender in a dryer in a wind tunnel.
The positive news is that I'm taking the bus more and more. It's good for the legs and heart and it's better on my car. I have a bus pass through ACC (which I've already had to replace) and I can only imagine the gas I'm saving. I'm only driving to work two days out of the week now so that's got to be a substantial savings. Plus I can read or do homework or nap. It's nice.
The Saints won the Superbowl. Who dat? No one! We had a few people over and the Cajuns made etouffee and we drank too much. (PS, for those of you who don't know, rice and beer will make you bloat like Violet from Willy Wonka, don't say I didn't warn you.) We missed the forth quarter however. The downfall of technology is our reliance upon it. We paused it at the start of the forth quarter, it was 17-16 Colts. We were waiting for a friend to get off work. She arrives, LMA hands me the remote, we juggle it and it lands between me and the couch and it changes the channel. I quickly change it back to find there's 90 seconds left in the game and it's 31-17 Saints. We were crushed we couldn't see it and oddly only mildly happy the Saints won.
I couldn't have recorded it? Yes I tried not making LMA cry, it wasn't her fault...entirely.
Alright, I should go do some work. Carry on.
26.1.10
14.1.10
California Hotel
I was listening to Hotel California the other day and trying to sing along. I say trying because I get the phrases mixed up all the time. Then it hit me, I get the phrases mixed up because they are modular and interchangeable. To test the theory, I switched the lyrics in as a symmetrical way as possible. If the first line, first stanzy is two parts, part one being, "On a dark desert highway" and part two being "cool wind in my hair" then you should be able to mix it with the first line of the last stanza. I took no liberties with words to make it work better, the idea being someone with sound editing powers could remix the song later. I did nothing really with the chorus other than swapping the last lines. Some of it works, some of it doesn't, but I'll wager it makes as much sense as the original.
So here it is, "California Hotel."
On a dark desert highway I was running for the door.
Warm smell of colitas to the place I was before.
Up ahead in the distance we are programmed to receive.
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim, but you can never leave.
There she stood in the door way, pink champagne on ice.
And I was thinking to myself, "Of our own device."
Then she lit a candle and they gathered for the feast.
There were voices down the corrider but they just can't kill the beast.
Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel california
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis
Her mind is tiffany-twisted, please bring me my wine.
She got a lot of pretty pretty boys since nineteen sixty nine.
How they dance in the courtyard from far away,
Some dance to remember just to hear them say.
So I called up the captain, she got the mercedes bends
He said, we haven't had that spirit here, that she calls friends.
And still those voices are calling, sweet summer sweat.
Wake you up in the middle of the night, some dance to forget.
Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin? it up at the hotel california
Any time of year, you can find it here
Mirrors on the ceiling, I heard the mission bell.
And she said, "We are all just prisoners here, this could be heaven or this could be hell."
And in the master's chambers, she showed me the way.
They stab it with their steely knives, I thought I heard them say...
Last thing I remember, cool wind in my hair.
I had to find the passage back rising up through the air.
"Relax," said the night man, I saw a shimmering light.
You can checkout any time you like. I had to stop for the night.
So here it is, "California Hotel."
On a dark desert highway I was running for the door.
Warm smell of colitas to the place I was before.
Up ahead in the distance we are programmed to receive.
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim, but you can never leave.
There she stood in the door way, pink champagne on ice.
And I was thinking to myself, "Of our own device."
Then she lit a candle and they gathered for the feast.
There were voices down the corrider but they just can't kill the beast.
Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel california
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis
Her mind is tiffany-twisted, please bring me my wine.
She got a lot of pretty pretty boys since nineteen sixty nine.
How they dance in the courtyard from far away,
Some dance to remember just to hear them say.
So I called up the captain, she got the mercedes bends
He said, we haven't had that spirit here, that she calls friends.
And still those voices are calling, sweet summer sweat.
Wake you up in the middle of the night, some dance to forget.
Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin? it up at the hotel california
Any time of year, you can find it here
Mirrors on the ceiling, I heard the mission bell.
And she said, "We are all just prisoners here, this could be heaven or this could be hell."
And in the master's chambers, she showed me the way.
They stab it with their steely knives, I thought I heard them say...
Last thing I remember, cool wind in my hair.
I had to find the passage back rising up through the air.
"Relax," said the night man, I saw a shimmering light.
You can checkout any time you like. I had to stop for the night.
4.1.10
Goodbye Tennant
Tennant played the 10th Doctor. Beginning in 1963, Doctor Who was able to get around the problem of contracts and aging actors by transforming the character. He's an alien, after all. The writers created a way that he could regenerate himself, thereby continuing the story. To date there have been eleven Doctors and eleven actors have played them. All but two have had an on screen transformation. The 1996 movie featured Paul McGann as the 8th doctor and then nothing until 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the 9th. We saw Sylvester McCoy (7th) turn into McGann so we know the movie to TV cross over is canon. We just didn't see 8 become 9.
Eccleston's run was short lived, only one season. I was so taken by his run, having been a childhood fan of Doctor Who, that when he regenerated after one season, I was already predisposed into disliking David Tennant. It's natural, you don't like change, but it's a part of life. I wanted to be excited about seeing another Doctor, but I just liked Eccleston's moody, manic, jolly and action oriented Doctor so much that I was worried a new one would be back to the same old goofy, hackneyed Doctors of yore.
But Tennant proved me wrong. He was every bit as dark and emotional as Eccleston and while his Doctor was seemingly smarter, maybe even nerdier, he was also not without his mysterious past which he rarely shared. For four years, Tennant touched a great many lives as the Doctor, especially his companions. Rose was always the 9th's companion and she left after one season with Tennant. We also spent time with Mickey, Captain Jack, Sarah Jane, Martha Jones and Donna Noble. Oh, Donna. I dismissed her at first like I did Tennant but she grew so much as a character on the show that by her final episode I was distraught at the knowledge that she would be leaving. Many fans responded that her story wasn't finished, but the show runners disagreed, leaving her last part to play at the very end of Tennant's run a small and insignificant role overshadowed by her own father.
Which leads me to the Doctor's final days on Earth. I think in previous episodes, it was assumed that the Doctor, while not immortal, was at least a long lived fellow. By the end of "The End of Time" he says he's 903 years old. Fans of the show in previous decades must have known he was able to regenerate himself, but I wasn't privy to the media blitz (if any) surrounding the replacement actors. I don't know if there was knowledge before hand that Baker would be replaced by Davison and when. I have a rose-colored vision of fans being completely blind sided by the transitions; a death to their beloved Doctor only to be reminded that he can rub some dirt on it, walk it off and keep on truckin'.
But what happened with Tennant was sad, and I mean that in the literal way not in the "man, that was lame" way. It was morbid and depressing. It was like watching someone die. Doctor Who stopped regular series production in 2008, this after Tennant announced he was leaving the show. 2009 saw only four specials, the last of which would see the 11th Doctor, played by Matt Smith. This meant for a whole year, we knew Tennant was gone and we only had four shows to mourn his eventual loss. We weren't sideswiped by it. We weren't surprised. We were told again and again that he was leaving and we had only a couple episodes in which to celebrate how much we loved him. It made the last 15 minutes of "The End of Time" pretty horrible to watch.
First off, he goes back to all his old major companions to say goodbye or his version of it. He saves Martha and Mickey from being shot by a Sontaran. He saves Luke Smith who tells Sarah Jane. He gives a note to Captain Jack that the man about to sit next to him at a bar is named Alonso. He gives Donna's family (at her wedding) a winning lottery ticket. He sees Rose in 2005 and says she's going to have a great year. Then he goes back to his TARDIS, fires it up, begins glowing a little and finally says, "I don't want to go."
A flash of yellow energy, a change in features, a bit of goofiness and a "Geronimo!" and we now have our 11th doctor. I didn't want him to go either, but doing it this way made it hurt. I blame Russel T. Davies.
And who knows, Matt Smith may be the best Doctor of all time. He may be so witty and charming that inside of six episodes we'll have forgotten Tennant entirely. I'm hopeful, but I doubt it. Tennant will always be my Doctor. It was Baker at first because he was the first one I watched, and had the show never revived I would have stuck with that. But Tennant's run became, to me, a great example of what the show is and I hope Smith and Moffit take over and run with it as fast as they can. Moffit's credited episodes were some of the best the show had. I hope the two of them continue to make me want to watch.
Allons-y!
18.12.09
Happy Holidays
This has been an interesting year for the BGF. We've made new friends, discovered new loves and participated in a lot of life changing events. I have to say this was a pretty good year for me. It was rough and emotionally challenging and promises to end in a fist fight or a trip to the ER, but I'm quite happy with this year.
A lot happened in 2009. Remember Obama? Yeah, his presidency started in 2009. It seems longer doesn't it? We lost a lot of people in 2009; some famous and some I'd not heard about until doing a search. The US went into then came out of a recession. Swine Flu reared it's sickly head. Climate change became a big political topic. And the world was rocked by tsunamis and earthquakes.
Locally, two people in our house became roller derby girls. Both Ms. A and LMA started skating over the summer. Mom got into TXRD and daughter skated for Derby Brats. Both of them love the sport and will continue to pursue it in 2010.
Ms A. and Miss LA got engaged.
All of the adults went back to school as well. Ms. A started in Fall of 2009 by going to ACC. Miss LA and I will be starting in Spring of 2010. I'm going for a degree in Art and Miss LA is going for a medical technician degree. Ms. A is studying to be a social worker. I didn't draw or build as much in 2009, but I wrote a lot and watched a lot of TV. I quit smoking and started running.
G-man started kindergarten in the fall. So far he loves it and his teacher is a wonderful lady who loves all the kids and has a great time teaching. He's made new friends but still plays a lot with his sister (when she lets him, that is.) LMA did Destination Imagination AND Math Pentathlon. She started 3rd grade in the fall and continues to get high marks in school.
This last year has given us a lot of opportunities to change and for the most part we took them. 2010 promises more change and more adventure and I hope we're all up to the task.
So Yule 2009 will have special significance. While Ms. A and Miss LA's plans to have a commitment ceremony have fallen through, there will no doubt be a lot of merry-making around our house. We'll awake on the 22nd to see what Santa has brought, share a nice breakfast, play with our new toys and then likely try to take naps. (The adults.) I'm sure the kids will be high on new toy smell for at least a week. We'll then likely spend the 25th finding an open restaurant in which to have dinner, as is our tradition.
Something struck me in this past week. Twice actually. The first was from a few comments made on this site (which I sadly had to delete) and the other from a holiday parade we attended last weekend. People believe Santa Claus has something to do with the real Christmas.
And by "people" I mean Christians. And by "something to do with" I mean "was at the nativity." A parade float we saw actually had a Santa kneeling in prayer in front of The Manger. The comment left on this site was, "If you guys don't believe in Christmas, why do you have so many pictures with Santa Claus?"
I'd like to address this because I do it every year, but it bears repeating: Christmas is a Pagan holiday.
Ok, technically "Christmas" is Christ Mass and yes it celebrates the birth of Jesus which happened some time in June. And yes it was taken by the Romans to go along with the Germanic mid winter festivals when they went steaming through Europe and needed to appease everyone. Just think about it for a second, were there any pine trees in Nazareth? Snow even? Elves? Were any of the gifts left in stockings above the sheep and mules and oxen? The the wise men come in on a sleigh?
No. No, not really, no.
Santa Claus is Odin. He's a different spirit from a different realm than Christendom altogether. In fact, some Christians believe that Santa is a hurtful lie perpetuated by commercial interests in the United States and some European countries. It removes the true meaning of Christmas from the holiday and teaches children to believe in a false idol.
To say a Pagan, then, can't believe in Santa is ludicrous. Santa was a Pagan god first, a Christian co-opt second. To say Santa is some how tied to the story of the birth of Jesus or his teachings is akin to saying George Washington was a great Civil War general or that da Vinci was the first man in space. It's just not true.
But, here's the kicker. You don't have to be of any faith to believe in Santa Claus. Just like you don't have to be of any faith to believe in snow or mistletoe or bells or ribbons or wassail or gift giving. Just because it's not technically right doesn't make it morally wrong. I believe what I want to and so do you, dear reader. If I want to believe that a giant bell goes from house to house delivering candy on Easter, the Christian thing to do would be to let me believe it, not give me reasons why I'm going to hell because of it.
My choice to believe in what I believe is inherent with being a sentient human being. My appreciating others' beliefs and letting them do as they will is inherent with being a compassionate human being. If I were to think less of someone because they don't believe what I believe, it turns out, that's inherent with being a Christian.
Happy Yule everyone.
(PS, I didn't intentionally turn commenting off, but Haloscan is moving to a pay only service so I'm trying to enable Blogger commenting. I'll try to make sure it works.)
A lot happened in 2009. Remember Obama? Yeah, his presidency started in 2009. It seems longer doesn't it? We lost a lot of people in 2009; some famous and some I'd not heard about until doing a search. The US went into then came out of a recession. Swine Flu reared it's sickly head. Climate change became a big political topic. And the world was rocked by tsunamis and earthquakes.
Locally, two people in our house became roller derby girls. Both Ms. A and LMA started skating over the summer. Mom got into TXRD and daughter skated for Derby Brats. Both of them love the sport and will continue to pursue it in 2010.
Ms A. and Miss LA got engaged.
All of the adults went back to school as well. Ms. A started in Fall of 2009 by going to ACC. Miss LA and I will be starting in Spring of 2010. I'm going for a degree in Art and Miss LA is going for a medical technician degree. Ms. A is studying to be a social worker. I didn't draw or build as much in 2009, but I wrote a lot and watched a lot of TV. I quit smoking and started running.
G-man started kindergarten in the fall. So far he loves it and his teacher is a wonderful lady who loves all the kids and has a great time teaching. He's made new friends but still plays a lot with his sister (when she lets him, that is.) LMA did Destination Imagination AND Math Pentathlon. She started 3rd grade in the fall and continues to get high marks in school.
This last year has given us a lot of opportunities to change and for the most part we took them. 2010 promises more change and more adventure and I hope we're all up to the task.
So Yule 2009 will have special significance. While Ms. A and Miss LA's plans to have a commitment ceremony have fallen through, there will no doubt be a lot of merry-making around our house. We'll awake on the 22nd to see what Santa has brought, share a nice breakfast, play with our new toys and then likely try to take naps. (The adults.) I'm sure the kids will be high on new toy smell for at least a week. We'll then likely spend the 25th finding an open restaurant in which to have dinner, as is our tradition.
Something struck me in this past week. Twice actually. The first was from a few comments made on this site (which I sadly had to delete) and the other from a holiday parade we attended last weekend. People believe Santa Claus has something to do with the real Christmas.
And by "people" I mean Christians. And by "something to do with" I mean "was at the nativity." A parade float we saw actually had a Santa kneeling in prayer in front of The Manger. The comment left on this site was, "If you guys don't believe in Christmas, why do you have so many pictures with Santa Claus?"
I'd like to address this because I do it every year, but it bears repeating: Christmas is a Pagan holiday.
Ok, technically "Christmas" is Christ Mass and yes it celebrates the birth of Jesus which happened some time in June. And yes it was taken by the Romans to go along with the Germanic mid winter festivals when they went steaming through Europe and needed to appease everyone. Just think about it for a second, were there any pine trees in Nazareth? Snow even? Elves? Were any of the gifts left in stockings above the sheep and mules and oxen? The the wise men come in on a sleigh?
No. No, not really, no.
Santa Claus is Odin. He's a different spirit from a different realm than Christendom altogether. In fact, some Christians believe that Santa is a hurtful lie perpetuated by commercial interests in the United States and some European countries. It removes the true meaning of Christmas from the holiday and teaches children to believe in a false idol.
To say a Pagan, then, can't believe in Santa is ludicrous. Santa was a Pagan god first, a Christian co-opt second. To say Santa is some how tied to the story of the birth of Jesus or his teachings is akin to saying George Washington was a great Civil War general or that da Vinci was the first man in space. It's just not true.
But, here's the kicker. You don't have to be of any faith to believe in Santa Claus. Just like you don't have to be of any faith to believe in snow or mistletoe or bells or ribbons or wassail or gift giving. Just because it's not technically right doesn't make it morally wrong. I believe what I want to and so do you, dear reader. If I want to believe that a giant bell goes from house to house delivering candy on Easter, the Christian thing to do would be to let me believe it, not give me reasons why I'm going to hell because of it.
My choice to believe in what I believe is inherent with being a sentient human being. My appreciating others' beliefs and letting them do as they will is inherent with being a compassionate human being. If I were to think less of someone because they don't believe what I believe, it turns out, that's inherent with being a Christian.
Happy Yule everyone.
(PS, I didn't intentionally turn commenting off, but Haloscan is moving to a pay only service so I'm trying to enable Blogger commenting. I'll try to make sure it works.)
2.12.09
Wikis, Lego and Running
First of all, I hate wikis. I hate giant public wikis that are run by 5 guys with Napoleon complexes. I hate the fact that they are useful. I hate that I try every once a year or so to be involved in one or more only to have my additions or changes reverted back because of someone's concept of quality or notability. No matter how big they are, they always ask to make the page better by editing it. So I do, and then it gets changed back. And frankly, I don't want to invest that much time. So, have fun Alpha Geeks. I'm sure your noble contributions will not go unseen by the great Eye of Time or whatever awaits you.
Next up, Lego! I have a new project, which actually lead me down the wiki path. Star Wars: The Clone Wars, while actually quite good, has also been an inspiration for Star Wars ship building. I haven't taken advantage of this because I've been organizing and sorting and I can't build and sort simultaneously for two reasons: First, I get panicky. I'm not a hoarder or OCD about sorting papers or pens or canned vegetables, but for some reason Lego all has to be in its place. LMA and G-man both have their own sets and as children they are, to their rights, constantly losing pieces and scattering bricks hither and yon. I think they do this to watch my eyes twitch. Reason two, I have a limited space and can't have a giant thing of unsorted bricks hanging out on my drawing table AND build on it at the same time. Not to mention if I've got drawing to do (which I don't, order a robot people!) as that would require the same flat surface.
The drawing I can get away with doing elsewhere, but I doubt I'd get the same amiable response to a giant box of Lego. On top of being underfoot and a nemesis to vacuums, Lego is really loud when you're pushing it around in a box while looking for that one piece. Hence the sorting.
So I'm building a T-6 ambassador shuttle. I was going to build a little snow planet speeder seen last season but I got distracted. Now they actually have a set for it and I must say it's a little weak. But this is on the heels of the SERIOUSLY weak Republic Y-Wing set. I say weak because I did the same thing to a much better scale, in my opinion. The problem I have with minifig scale items from Lego is that they are generally more playable, but they don't line up really well with actual scale. For instance, the image of the shuttle here looks to be a fairly monsterous size, were it to be built out to actual size. The cockpit seats four and there's room to walk around behind the cockpit seating. I drew it out based off screenshots from the TV show, and I took my minifig to human scale of 1 in. to 1 meter and the ship turned out to have a 30" wingspan. To give you an idea of what that looks like, when I built the Nebulon Ranger last year, that had roughly a 30" wingspan and that thing was a beast.
(I realize the descrepancy between a minifig being 1" and a human being ~1.5m, but for sake of building, 1:1 is easier. Also, minifigs tend to be shorter and fatter so that changes much of the perspective. For more on this, read here.)
So I'll be spending my next few non-drawing months building that. I don't know why I take on these big projects. I don't have the right supply of bricks for big ships and yet I do them anyway. Which reminds me, the holiday season is coming up. If you really want to be an awesome reader, you can order and ship me some Lego sets, I don't care what they are or how big or small. In fact, if you did that, I'd draw you whatever you wanted. Say you sent something like this, that's worth, to me, two 8x10 robot portraits. But I mean we could totally work out something else. Pencil, ink, watercolor, photoshop graphics, posters, whatever. I think I might start a new business model. Get paid in Lego. Hmm.
Meanwhile I've started running again. I get horrible shin splints and I'm pretty sure the crunching sound in my knee is a bad sign, but I'm 210lbs at 5'8" and that's just not healthy. When your kids say things like "Well, at least your not fat like daddy..." you know it's time for a change. I stopped smoking a while back (or as my Grandma Vi would say, "I choose not to smoke now") no reason I couldn't drop a few pounds. Plus it'll help when I play basketball.
So far it's no bad. I can run in the gym at work and watch Daily Show repeats and the time just flies by. I'm no fool, though. I run/walk a mile so far and that's about my limit. I'll just slowly build up until I can actually run the whole mile and move on from there. Even if I don't lose much weight, it beats doing nothing.
Thanksgiving was a blast, had a fantastic time with the folks that were at our house. It's like a new little family that we've adopted. If you've been watching Ms. A's and my Flickr pages, you'd have seen most of these people. It was wonderful to have a full house, beer, food, music and laughter.
Miss LA and Tiger Lily were in Louisiana for Thanksgiving so we had to do without the cajuns, but it was a good time none-the-less.
Speaking of Louisiana, guess where I'm going for Christmas? That's right. I'll be taking a drive to Abbeville to hang out with Tiger Lily's family. Last year she went and I stayed and it was a long sad three weeks. We were a newly minted couple but it was still hard to be apart in that tentative and formative time. We text like crazy so were at least in communication with each other. I know my parents will be upset by this seeing as I said I wouldn't be able to make it up to Colorado for either holiday. To be honest, it's a sight easier to drive alone for six hours than it is to fly with two kids. Think about it, come the 23rd or 24th or whenever I leave, I get up, grab my bag and go. I stop for gas, maybe a donut and coffee and I'm gone. And I'm a guy so I don't have to stop and pee for three weeks. (Tried it once, true statement.) If I went with the kids, it's getting up two hours before you have to leave for the airport, then you have to get to the airport and hour before your flight, then the flight is two hours, then getting out of the airport is another 45-60 minutes. So, let's plan for maybe early in 2010. I want to go to DC next year too so we'll have to see.
Finally my car needs to go to the hospital. It's getting sick. It didn't pass inspection and will likely need the following: transmission flush, head gasket, O2 sensor, shocks, breaks, belts. Time for a new car? Probably, I've already pulled my free credit reports to see what I can clean up before buying a new one. And it's time for a new one. I've had this car for 8 years and the exact same model for two years before that. I want a nice, fuel efficient sedan with an mp3 jack and cup holders that don't sit in front of the vents. I'm leaning toward a VW Jetta or maybe a Kia Forte. We'll see. (I'd also like a 47" Vizio LCD but that's just me being selfish.)
Off to do X-mas cards. Carry on.
Next up, Lego! I have a new project, which actually lead me down the wiki path. Star Wars: The Clone Wars, while actually quite good, has also been an inspiration for Star Wars ship building. I haven't taken advantage of this because I've been organizing and sorting and I can't build and sort simultaneously for two reasons: First, I get panicky. I'm not a hoarder or OCD about sorting papers or pens or canned vegetables, but for some reason Lego all has to be in its place. LMA and G-man both have their own sets and as children they are, to their rights, constantly losing pieces and scattering bricks hither and yon. I think they do this to watch my eyes twitch. Reason two, I have a limited space and can't have a giant thing of unsorted bricks hanging out on my drawing table AND build on it at the same time. Not to mention if I've got drawing to do (which I don't, order a robot people!) as that would require the same flat surface.
The drawing I can get away with doing elsewhere, but I doubt I'd get the same amiable response to a giant box of Lego. On top of being underfoot and a nemesis to vacuums, Lego is really loud when you're pushing it around in a box while looking for that one piece. Hence the sorting.
(I realize the descrepancy between a minifig being 1" and a human being ~1.5m, but for sake of building, 1:1 is easier. Also, minifigs tend to be shorter and fatter so that changes much of the perspective. For more on this, read here.)
So I'll be spending my next few non-drawing months building that. I don't know why I take on these big projects. I don't have the right supply of bricks for big ships and yet I do them anyway. Which reminds me, the holiday season is coming up. If you really want to be an awesome reader, you can order and ship me some Lego sets, I don't care what they are or how big or small. In fact, if you did that, I'd draw you whatever you wanted. Say you sent something like this, that's worth, to me, two 8x10 robot portraits. But I mean we could totally work out something else. Pencil, ink, watercolor, photoshop graphics, posters, whatever. I think I might start a new business model. Get paid in Lego. Hmm.
Meanwhile I've started running again. I get horrible shin splints and I'm pretty sure the crunching sound in my knee is a bad sign, but I'm 210lbs at 5'8" and that's just not healthy. When your kids say things like "Well, at least your not fat like daddy..." you know it's time for a change. I stopped smoking a while back (or as my Grandma Vi would say, "I choose not to smoke now") no reason I couldn't drop a few pounds. Plus it'll help when I play basketball.
So far it's no bad. I can run in the gym at work and watch Daily Show repeats and the time just flies by. I'm no fool, though. I run/walk a mile so far and that's about my limit. I'll just slowly build up until I can actually run the whole mile and move on from there. Even if I don't lose much weight, it beats doing nothing.
Miss LA and Tiger Lily were in Louisiana for Thanksgiving so we had to do without the cajuns, but it was a good time none-the-less.
Speaking of Louisiana, guess where I'm going for Christmas? That's right. I'll be taking a drive to Abbeville to hang out with Tiger Lily's family. Last year she went and I stayed and it was a long sad three weeks. We were a newly minted couple but it was still hard to be apart in that tentative and formative time. We text like crazy so were at least in communication with each other. I know my parents will be upset by this seeing as I said I wouldn't be able to make it up to Colorado for either holiday. To be honest, it's a sight easier to drive alone for six hours than it is to fly with two kids. Think about it, come the 23rd or 24th or whenever I leave, I get up, grab my bag and go. I stop for gas, maybe a donut and coffee and I'm gone. And I'm a guy so I don't have to stop and pee for three weeks. (Tried it once, true statement.) If I went with the kids, it's getting up two hours before you have to leave for the airport, then you have to get to the airport and hour before your flight, then the flight is two hours, then getting out of the airport is another 45-60 minutes. So, let's plan for maybe early in 2010. I want to go to DC next year too so we'll have to see.
Finally my car needs to go to the hospital. It's getting sick. It didn't pass inspection and will likely need the following: transmission flush, head gasket, O2 sensor, shocks, breaks, belts. Time for a new car? Probably, I've already pulled my free credit reports to see what I can clean up before buying a new one. And it's time for a new one. I've had this car for 8 years and the exact same model for two years before that. I want a nice, fuel efficient sedan with an mp3 jack and cup holders that don't sit in front of the vents. I'm leaning toward a VW Jetta or maybe a Kia Forte. We'll see. (I'd also like a 47" Vizio LCD but that's just me being selfish.)
Off to do X-mas cards. Carry on.
18.11.09
Fall Update
I wish I could say there was some ground breaking news from the BGF House, but there just isn't. A visit to Four Pines at Rollman Manor would result in any number of friends hanging out, studying, working, singing, making food, playing with children or dogs, watching TV or drinking beer.
Just like everyone else.
There have been high points and low points. The low points are of the "We don't talk about it in public" type of things, so don't expect to hear about anything calamitously juicy or worthy of repost on a gossipy site somewhere. (And yes, I fully expect that. My fans are rabid and uncouth and would push their mom in front of a speeding 18-wheeler if it meant a retweetable twitpic. Some of you may have to look that up.)
On to the more high of the points then.
Lil Miss Austin is truly enjoying Derby Brats. She has a scrimmage coming up and I'm excited to attend. Her group ranges in age from 8-18 so it can be a little unfair to the little girls, but they break them up. Among the littler of the skaters, she's one of if not the fastest. She goes to practice twice a week and still has time to complete all her third grade homework.
However, she has been tired lately. We worried she was not getting enough sleep, but knew she was getting 10 hours. Eventually a visit to the doctor confirmed she had mono and so she's been at home recuperating for the last two days. It's been a little stressful for her as she really doesn't like doctors.
Nothing new with G-man, though he is doing fine in kindergarten. He has taken to reading more and more. He's able to put letters and sounds together to actually form the words. He's moved away from knowing what the words in books are because he's memorized them, to actively breaking them down and reading them. It's quite exciting to see his brain working. And he's a Rollman so you can tell his brain is working because his mouth is opening and closing like a fish desperate for water.The BGF as a whole is a little larger as well. As you may have been able to tell from the photos on Flickr, the house is a bee-hive, though not the dying of indeterminate fungus type of bee-hive. The ladies have friends who visit at least once a week if not more. Everyone's social lives seem to have been turned up a few degrees and the house just never seems empty. I personally enjoy that and I think if I were by myself for too long without kids or company or friends I'd probably become depressed. We've adopted a derby girl and her daughter as near permanent fixtures in our lives as well. Also, Ms. A's mom's dog (which I've loving dubbed Jerk Dog) continues to pee and poop his way into our hearts. (Don't tell anyone, but it's me who leaves the doors open and then feigning shock when he has run off again.) (Not really.)
The past couple weeks my time's been consumed with design projects of small and helpful kinds, some robots and a LOT of review writing for TVZ. We recently switched our cable and internet from Suddenlink to AT&T U-Verse. DVR, HD Channels, faster internet connection AND a home phone and we're staving about $20 a month. So my TV viewing hasn't stopped. In fact, at one point I was reviewing five shows for TVZ. Don't ask where or why I found the time. Luckily one show was canceled and the other was picked up by Tiger Lily so I'm down to three.As to the new cable, like most things AV, the equipment and knowledge I have surrounding the available technology is lacking. Our surround sound system and TV are about six years old and probably about two years old when we bought them. They are scratched and don't exactly work right. I don't have the time to muck with repairing or replacing the receiver or getting a new system so that center channel will just have to be out. The downside of that is you can't hear anyone. But U-Verse fits our needs so far. I have a TV in my room that's also hooked up, which means I can watch all my shows in my room without upsetting the non-geeks. It also means I'm watching sci-fi shows in my room surrounded by Lego. I own my geek-ness, I have no shame!
I've officially registered for classes at Austin Community College. Now I have to officially see if the government will pay for it. I have my financial aid paperwork done, but I may already have too many credits to qualify.
The holidays are coming up and all our plans are still unmade. We have general ideas about them and I can say that we'll all generally be at our house or somewhere in Louisiana. As much as I'd like to see my family in CO, it's just too much this time. I've said that the last five years I think, it's starting to sound dick-ish.
So overall, no complaints. Life is decent. Carry on.
Well, Hell.
I was going to write a post today, but Blogger is either having problems or I'm having problems with Blogger.
Nothing really major going on, but I thought a couple weeks was too long to let the site go by without some attention. I'll have something up as soon as the editor is fixed.
Nothing really major going on, but I thought a couple weeks was too long to let the site go by without some attention. I'll have something up as soon as the editor is fixed.
4.11.09
Review: V 1.1 - "Pilot"
(for more news, reviews and discussion, visit www.televisionzombies.com)
Quoting an online friend, "It moved so fast I felt like I fell asleep and missed huge chunks of it. And then it was suddenly the season finale."
(Review contains spoilers, if you don't want to be spoiled, never saw the original series, don't expect the aliens to end up being villainous lizard people, please don't read on.)
Originally aired in 1983, V was a two part miniseries running on NBC. It was followed by a sequel mini series in 1984 and then a regular series that ran for 19 episodes until 1985. This reimaging (which has been the catch phrase of remakes since BS:G) focuses on the same principle plot points: Aliens from another world visit Earth under the guise of peace and cooperation. Their cover story is they have no home and need resources which are abundant on Earth and once they are replenished they will leave. We come to find out that they are not what they say and a resistance forms to drive the aliens away.
ABC hyped the coolness right off this show. When it first started putting out ads for it, it was exciting, but you couldn't go a single commercial break without seeing Scott Wolf say, "Excuse me?" When it finally aired, my first comment was, "Really? It's only an hour?" To which a friend responded, "Hey, you don't mess with my Dancing with the Stars."
Truth.
I watched this on my DVR after waiting the traditional 20 minutes in respect for the TV gods and so I could fast forward through the commercials. However, between the DVR skipping and jumping to different spots (well done Suddenlink) and the kids needing to be fed and bathed, I had to watch it in starts and stops. At one point I had to let the recording finish and start over. My reaction, then, was unsettled. Whether or not I gave the show enough of a chance at this point is academic.
Without further ado, meet our story lines.
Erica Evans (Elizabeth "Lost's Juliet" Mitchell) is an FBI Agent (of course) who is investigating terrorist cells with her partner Dale Maddox (Alan "I make everything I'm in a little better" Tudyk.) Erica has a teenage son Tyler and he has a best friend Brandon. They're in a clinic after being in a fight.
Chad Decker (Scott "Party of Five" Wolf) is a news anchor who really wants to be a reporter but the network won't give him a shot. When the Visitors arrive, he makes a joke and suddenly becomes the news liaison to the Visitors.
Ryan Nichols (Morris "Yes this is my name" Chestnut) plays a banker or clerk (his abc.com bio says "business man") who is buying a ring and getting ready to propose to his girlfriend Valerie Holt (Lourdes "24" "NYPD Blue" Benedicto.) He's being hounded by an old acquaintance, Georgie Sutton, who wants him to come back to the operation. Ryan tells him to shove off.
Father Jack Landry (Joel "The 4400" Gretsch) and his mentor (I don't know how priest hierarchies work) Father Travis are arguing over the fact that no one comes into church any more.
And along come the visitors.
Anna (Morena "Firefly" Baccarin) is the leader of the Visitors. They arrive on their giant space crafts which they stole from the Independence Day aliens and hover over several dozen major metropolitan cities. Why is it aliens love to hover over major cities? Wouldn't you want to land somewhere or stay in orbit and send down smaller craft? It seems like a perfect way to scare people and waste a lot of fuel. Yes, they've perfected the technology behind gravity manipulation, but it still seems a bit showy.
Anna calms the people by saying, "We mean you no harm. We are of peace. Always." The once panicked humanity actually applauds the giant jumbotron screen in the sky. Anna gets Chad Decker to do an interview but doesn't want any negative questions. The Visitors were once like humans in their emotions but have since learned to control it and realize that negative emotions are wasteful.
Meanwhile, Agents Evans and Maddox are investigating a terrorist cell. They noticed a certain group's activity increased after the Visitors arrived, rather than decreased like all the others. They go to track some leads but are one step behind at each turn. Finally a clue leads them to a resistance meeting led by Georgie Sutton. Erica and Father Jack are both there and suddenly a floating shrapnel bomb explodes and kills several people. The hideout is then raided by people wielding bladed weapons. They start tearing down resistance members. Erica is attacked by her partner and when she hits him with a metal bar, she sees reptile skin under his human skin.
Erica's son Tyler is smitten with a recruiting hottie named Lisa (Laura "Smallville" Vendervoort) and forges his mom's signature so he can be part of the Visitor Youth something or other. As his mom and Father Jack are escaping with their lives, he's accepting a toast at the first meeting of the Visitor Community Awareness shindig.
Oh, also? Ryan is a visitor and helps Georgie escape. He's a traitor. The visitors have been here for decades. This "arrival" is just the last phase of their plan to take over the world.
I have to go back to the quote at the beginning of this post. I rewound several parts of this first episode because I missed something truly integral to the rest of the show. I mean, if you blinked you missed the whole reason Agents Evans and Maddox were investigating an underground storage area. You missed Georgie's speech about who the Visitors really were. You missed the recruitment pitch by Lisa and the interview post mortem by Chad and Anna's first in command Marcus. It was a breakneck pace and at the same time it moved too fast for me to appreciate what was going on.
The comparison I have to V is to the recent film District 9 in which an alien race becomes stranded over South Africa and are forced to leave their ship and live on Earth in a refugee camp. At the beginning of the movie, we are told the entire back story in news clippings and interviews and it takes about 15 minutes. Comparatively, in Independence Day the entire invasion takes place over just a couple days but also spans the full movie until they are fought off right at the end. V took this unsure middle ground where the ships show up in the first couple minutes, but then we spend the rest of the time in an unsure time machine. The only part that gave any indication of how much time had past was half way through when we see the caption "Three Weeks Later" but by that time I was already confused as it seemed much more time had past or none at all.
This treatment could have been given a better chance had it run two hours. I'm not saying that because I think Dancing With The Stars is a waste of my time, but because it was hard keeping up with everyone. You have 40 minutes to introduce four different plots, 8 major and several minor characters AND an alien invasion, something's going to get lost. And in this case it was the identification I had with anyone. What also suffered was the writing. Because we only get a few short moments with each character, their lines have to be jam packed with emotion, meaning and clues. We don't get the film approach to dialog that can be drawn out to explore the full range of an actor's abilities; we get sound bites that are awkward and stiff. Even Mitchell, who is great in Lost had some lines that were just flat. Alan Tudyk was only mildly interesting. The rest of the cast was fairly boring.
I will make an exception for Georgie, played by David Richmond-Peck. He had the typical task of being the Resistance leader and in doing so had to deliver conspiracy and paranoia in a limited space, but I feel he did a bang up job. His revulsion but ultimate need to remain close to Ryan was painted skillfully on his face and the indoctrination scene with Erica could not have been handled better.
There was a lot that didn't make sense in the show. Early on when the alien ship first arrived, the army was already in place to section people off in some random order, but right out in the middle of the streets of New York. There was no reason given and there was no obvious need to do so. Erica and Tyler were a family without a husband and dad and yet despite the arrival of another life form, they can't work out their mistrust. Also, despite the arrival of aliens, Agent Evans continues to work on terrorist threats. Little things like that make me pull my hair out. I don't know about you, but if an alien ship started floating over Austin and Morena Baccarin came out, I think I might quit my job and go wait around by that ship.
This series is going to be set up as a constant fight between the Resistance and the Visitors. It can't go forever and one side will have to win. But they crammed the entire fight into one episode and now instead of any meaningful discovery, all we have left is the fight and I'm not sure I can deal with 17 episodes of rebellion.
Three out of five Anna heads.
3.11.09
Review: Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol
Man, it's another The Polar Express and Monster House with those creepy zombie eyed people with the CG mouths that are close but just not quite past the uncanny valley. Plus, aw hell, it's got Jim Carrey in it. This is going to be awful. It's in 3D too? Yeah, it's going to be horrible. I still haven't forgiven Zemeckis for Contact.
These are all the things we said going into the theater. I was cautiously optimistic. The trailers looked promising, but I really hated The Polar Express and I was worried this was going to be another single actor ham fest with unsettlingly real yet not real animation. But it was a free screening at IMAX and it was 3D so why not, right? Halloween is officially over, I can see a Christmas movie.
I'll cut right to it. While I was not blown away, I was really impressed. A Christmas Carol is as charming, spooky, funny, scary, and emotionally charged as I've ever seen it. Up until now my favorite renditions were Patrick Stewart's one man theatrical performance and Scrooged starring Bill Murray. This would rank among my favorite versions of Dickens' classic tale.
The film is done in what's called "performance capture." I've never heard the term until today, but I know what it entails. Unlike movies that create the characters with the computer, performance capture sets a skin over the recorded movements of real actors. It's modern day rotoscoping and while it produces very believable movement in what is obviously a computer animated world, it also creates some barriers.
The first barrier being what I already mentioned, the uncanny valley. The hypothesis of this is basically that the closer robots look and act to humans they reach a point where our emotional response becomes negative and they begin to scare and revolt us. Nothing in robotics is quite human enough to over come this, though some people say there are puppets that can be made to act near human without being creepy. (To me "puppet" and "creepy" can be synonymous.) This carries over into the digital actor world when the technology to capture lifelike movements and reactions and emotions begin to dip way down into this valley and start to unnerve the viewers. Regardless of how lifelike the animation is, people will (so far) be adverse to it. The Polar Express (a Zemeckis movie) was one of these. The people moved like people, but the eyes were wrong, the mouths were off. They seemed like dolls or zombies. There wasn't a spark behind the stares and the smiles were heinous grimaces doing not much more than baring oddly gapped teeth.
Carol is able to get past that for the most part. I won't lie and say it's perfect, but the main characters are without the vacant quality Express had. The side characters and street people still showed signs of this and likely only because they didn't have the man hours at the computer to bring them to as much life as Scrooge, Cratchit and the spirits.
The second barrier is one that may not be avoidable with this type of animation. The designers and directors work so hard on making Victorian London believable and real that they designed themselves right out of some of the more fantastical abilities inherent to computer animation. There's not much in the way of lightsabers or heavy blasters or ancient goddesses in A Christmas Carol but there is a whimsical aspect to the spirits and the times they show Ebenezer. In one part of his past, a dance is held and his old boss, Mr. Fezziwig, and his wife cavort and careen around the makeshift dance hall in odd, jerky movements. Their jumps linger, purposefully, too long and at one point Mrs. Fezziwig pirouettes herself into the air like a helicopter. Now, it's one thing when the candle-head spirit of Christmas Past takes Scrooge on a hair raising flight through snow covered fields, but when real people suddenly move like fairies, it can make you suddenly feel again like you're watching something that's not quite right.
However, all in all the animation is top quality and the design altogether was remarkable. We walk through Ebenezer's home in the evening and true to form in late 1800's London, there's no electricity or central heating. His large house is cold and dark and at times the only light is his small candle and the only sound is his breathing and the creek of stairs. The character's breath seen in the cold is just the right visibility. The clothing drapes and moves realistically and without the stretching skin quality seen in early and dodgy CG attempts.
The spirits (all voiced by Carrey) were true to the original story and completely brought to life. Everyone who went to the showing came away with a favorite and each specter (including the last) had qualities than made them enjoyable to watch on screen but also of which to be afraid. They were frightful in the way they were intended to be, not because of an emotional attachment to their animation. They were well executed if not, at times, a little gratuitous.
And finally Jim Carrey's performance was quality. This was like watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or even Ace Ventura: Pet Detective again. It was nice remembering that despite some of the crap work Carrey has done (and let's face it, most actors do crap work from time to time) his Scrooge was a wholly enjoyable and well put together performance. Despite some of the trademarks of performance capture (that animates the characters to look like the actors) Scrooge was superb and almost never did I think "That's Jim Carrey doing that." Later in the film as Scrooge becomes more light-hearted, you can see Carrey's face in Scrooge and it does pull you out a little. Up until then the hawk nose and plow chin Scrooge was his own man and not one driven by a comedic actor.
The other actors were obvious and for the most part it did not hurt the story to have them so any more than if it were a live action telling, which in the end is the highest praise a movie like this can earn.
If you have little ones, this is not the movie for you. Rent the Muppet version and be done with it. Zemeckis's version is every bit as creepy and at some points down right frightening as the original could be.
God bless us, every one.
21.10.09
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
A facebook contact joked, "How awful it must be to be blind and dyslexic at the same time."
So, without giving up my day job and completely divesting what little time into auditions, workshops and low paying entry gigs into the world of voice acting, I've instead decided to volunteer to read for the blind.
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic is a non profit, nation wide organization dedicated to making written material available to the visually impaired and cognitively challenged. It started over sixty years ago when a woman named Anne T. Macdonald began reading to veterans of WWII who had returned without their sight, having lost it do to injury or illness while in the service. It eventually became more than the New York Library's Women's Auxiliary could do alone and soon it became a nation wide organization.
I drive by the school of the blind often enough to see the sign for the studios (there's also a state run organization) and I hear about volunteer opportunities on the local NPR affiliate KUT quite a bit. I decided to go.
This is going to be rad.
Coming from a theater background, I have a bit of an ego-centrism issue; I like hearing the sound of my own voice. It's probably more than just wanting to talk, I actually like reading aloud. For a while I'd read to Ms. A so she could go to sleep. I'm sure it was a combination of someone's voice and the science fiction or science material that put her out, but I enjoyed it and would read till I went hoarse. I love reading to the kids and if I didn't have this, I might have tried to get in on the story time events book stores do (except those are always on a Wednesday at like 9am.)
The added benefit is the material I'd be reading is all educational. There are requests for fiction, but for the most part the RFBD focuses on text books. It's their mission to provide educational materials, so there will be a lot of reading of history, chemistry, sociology and a lot of foreign language. Sitting in with a couple people last night, I listened to a recap of most of the political events of the late 1960's.
The studio on 45th and Burnet is quite nice too. It's small and cozy with 7 or so recording booths, some offices and a lot of reference and training material. I've only gone in twice, but the staff is very friendly and the two volunteers I worked with last night were equally as amicable.
I'm really excited.
This is also the time where I say that if you're looking to volunteer, RFBD is always looking for more volunteers. If you can't but know someone who might like it, tell them about it.
Carry on.
13.10.09
Houston
Last weekend we visited my cousin in Houston. The trip was timed with my mom and aunt's visit so we could all spend the weekend. Technically I wanted to leave early Friday but a problem at work kept me there till late which means we got to Houston (or the Cy-Fair area of North West Houston) by 9pm.
Also, it was a short trip because we had originally planned to go to the TXRD championship bout on Saturday night, but we ended up not being able to get tickets in time and the prevalent thinking is that the kids don't do well at bouts so we skipped it. Tiger Lilly came along and got to meet a small fraction of my family.
By the way, Ms. A is officially a Texas Roller Derby skater. Her skate name is Fishnet Stalker. She'd gone through a few names but ended up choosing this one because it more accurately reflected her propensity to stalk people online and off. I warned her people might call her Fishy but she was ok with that.
School is going ok for the kids. They missed a chunk with the flu but LMA's grades are all A's thus far this semester. As far as we've heard, she hasn't beaten anyone down recently. Maybe derby brats is teaching her something or just giving her an outlet. She still a few weeks left of this season and I can perfectly envision her picking it up again. She genuinely seems to enjoy it despite the requirement that you have to practice.
I've been trying to do more drawing and actually do something with all those interlocking piece of plastic hanging around my room, but work has been really busy and lately when I'm home I'm either working more, doing some chores or sleeping. I've got four shows to write for at TVZ and half the time I don't have time to watch them.
I was able to record and watch the the Discovery Channel's "Discovering Ardi" which was terribly exciting. If you don't know anything about evolution or human paleontology, you may at least know about Lucy. Lucy was the, up until about 1992, the oldest known skeleton (or partial skeleton) scientists have discovered. Australopithecus afarensis, a 3.2 million year old species, Lucy was thought to have been somewhat of a missing link back in the 1970's. It was an upright walking ape, but was more human than monkey. Ardi (Ardipithecus ramidus) predates Lucy by more than a million years, to roughly 4.2 million years ago. Ardi was another hominid but with some striking features. Foremost was that of a grasping foot.
Whatever your beliefs are, you have to admit that finding a hominid skeleton that walked upright but had a grasping foot is pretty cool. There's really no comparison in the animal world. The find makes Lucy look positively Cro-Magnon. Scientists were able to determine that not only was A. ramidus bipedal, but also that they were changing in terms of social and sexual traits as well. They were still instinctual, but the instincts were becoming refined.
Anyway, Tiger Lilly and I watched the show on Sunday, absolutely fascinated. We're nerdy like that. Miss LA continues to be sick but was able get someone to fill in for her at work and get some much needed rest. Ms. A is still going to class though she missed a few days when she and the kids were sick. Life still rolls on here.
Carry on.
Also, it was a short trip because we had originally planned to go to the TXRD championship bout on Saturday night, but we ended up not being able to get tickets in time and the prevalent thinking is that the kids don't do well at bouts so we skipped it. Tiger Lilly came along and got to meet a small fraction of my family.
By the way, Ms. A is officially a Texas Roller Derby skater. Her skate name is Fishnet Stalker. She'd gone through a few names but ended up choosing this one because it more accurately reflected her propensity to stalk people online and off. I warned her people might call her Fishy but she was ok with that.
School is going ok for the kids. They missed a chunk with the flu but LMA's grades are all A's thus far this semester. As far as we've heard, she hasn't beaten anyone down recently. Maybe derby brats is teaching her something or just giving her an outlet. She still a few weeks left of this season and I can perfectly envision her picking it up again. She genuinely seems to enjoy it despite the requirement that you have to practice.
I've been trying to do more drawing and actually do something with all those interlocking piece of plastic hanging around my room, but work has been really busy and lately when I'm home I'm either working more, doing some chores or sleeping. I've got four shows to write for at TVZ and half the time I don't have time to watch them.
I was able to record and watch the the Discovery Channel's "Discovering Ardi" which was terribly exciting. If you don't know anything about evolution or human paleontology, you may at least know about Lucy. Lucy was the, up until about 1992, the oldest known skeleton (or partial skeleton) scientists have discovered. Australopithecus afarensis, a 3.2 million year old species, Lucy was thought to have been somewhat of a missing link back in the 1970's. It was an upright walking ape, but was more human than monkey. Ardi (Ardipithecus ramidus) predates Lucy by more than a million years, to roughly 4.2 million years ago. Ardi was another hominid but with some striking features. Foremost was that of a grasping foot.
Whatever your beliefs are, you have to admit that finding a hominid skeleton that walked upright but had a grasping foot is pretty cool. There's really no comparison in the animal world. The find makes Lucy look positively Cro-Magnon. Scientists were able to determine that not only was A. ramidus bipedal, but also that they were changing in terms of social and sexual traits as well. They were still instinctual, but the instincts were becoming refined.
Anyway, Tiger Lilly and I watched the show on Sunday, absolutely fascinated. We're nerdy like that. Miss LA continues to be sick but was able get someone to fill in for her at work and get some much needed rest. Ms. A is still going to class though she missed a few days when she and the kids were sick. Life still rolls on here.
Carry on.
5.10.09
H1N1
Aside from the threat of pandemic, this weekend was quite lovely.
First thing's first: Yes, little G-man got sick on Saturday. My dad came to visit the grandkids for the weekend but all outdoor festivities and external or traveling plans were squashed by a combination of rain and illness. But it wasn't all gloom and iron-lungs at the BGF. We still had plenty of fun.
Lil' Miss Austin has been religiously attending her Derby Brats practices and this coming week is her big bout. It's more a scrimmage with the other girls, but it'll be a lot of fun regardless. Her speed skating practice is at Playland Skate in N. Austin and we usually stay after and skate for a couple hours. Grandpa was there to hang out with G-man (who doesn't like skating much) which left me and LMA and Grace (who will be nicknamed Tiger Lily for this blog) to skate for a while. LMA is becoming a really skilled skater and more often than not she was outpacing me.
And speaking of skating (which is what we all do lately) Ms. Austin's final practice for TXRD was Saturday. We don't know if she's been picked to be on one of the five teams, but she felt she nailed the evaluation practice. She'll likely find out today or tomorrow; I'll keep you posted.
So we watched movies and TV a lot. G-man had a fever most of the weekend but when I took him to the clinic on Friday, the doctor said that because he had an appetite, no coughing or congestion and just a fever and headache, it was likely not the media darling H1N1 (aka Swine Flu.) By the way, we call it the Heinie Flu because of the spelling. Which actually sounds just as bad as Swine Flu.
So G-man and I roll up into the clinic and are met by a line of 20 people just to check in. There area lot of kids. I pull G closer to me as though I emit a force field that protects him from contracting even more germs. Yes, my logic is sound. We check in and go to the waiting room where I kid you not there was no where to sit except the floor. There were easily 25 families in there, some with two or three kids. About half the people in there were wearing masks.
Madagascar's ports were all closed.
But the doctor didn't do a swab test. The presenting symptoms were not indicative of flu, just a common virus, so he sent us on our way. Which is fine because frankly I don't have $300 to spend on Tamaflu anyway. Rest and fluids for you kiddo. G spend most of Saturday and Sunday sleeping on the couch, being adorable and just a little warmer than normal. Today he woke up with me as I was leaving for work and was bright eyed and bushy tailed.
LMA is having attention pains. It's hard to say if she's actually not feeling well, but she is a little warm. Her friend and skate partner was actually diagnosed with H1N1 and that's where we think it all started. Which is really sad. The girl's mom and Ms. A are New Girls in Derby and she's a really rad lady but is having a rough time currently and now a sick kid. We want to be the good people and make sure they're both ok but it's hard to want to take care of sick people knowing you'd be compromising your own family.
For Sunday I was able to talk Miss LA to make some gumbo. My dad said he's never had it, so it was a treat for everyone. Miss LA makes some mean gumbo and it's always nice to have a house full of people and good smells from the kitchen. You know it's fall around our house when there's gumbo, wassail, football and Rock Band. Her sister helped her, a couple friends came by to watch the Cowboys and Broncos game and we all drank beer.
As I type this, though, I have a sore throat and a headache. I'm congested, which isn't saying much considering how much it's been raining, and I'm a bit worn out. I don't want to get sick, but I think considering how much time I spent around G man, it's inevitable. I'm hoping it's allergies and lack of decent sleep.
Still, it was a good weekend. How was yours?
(PS, I have four reviews to write, but my weekend was a bit tied up. They will be up soon.)
First thing's first: Yes, little G-man got sick on Saturday. My dad came to visit the grandkids for the weekend but all outdoor festivities and external or traveling plans were squashed by a combination of rain and illness. But it wasn't all gloom and iron-lungs at the BGF. We still had plenty of fun.
Lil' Miss Austin has been religiously attending her Derby Brats practices and this coming week is her big bout. It's more a scrimmage with the other girls, but it'll be a lot of fun regardless. Her speed skating practice is at Playland Skate in N. Austin and we usually stay after and skate for a couple hours. Grandpa was there to hang out with G-man (who doesn't like skating much) which left me and LMA and Grace (who will be nicknamed Tiger Lily for this blog) to skate for a while. LMA is becoming a really skilled skater and more often than not she was outpacing me.
And speaking of skating (which is what we all do lately) Ms. Austin's final practice for TXRD was Saturday. We don't know if she's been picked to be on one of the five teams, but she felt she nailed the evaluation practice. She'll likely find out today or tomorrow; I'll keep you posted.
So we watched movies and TV a lot. G-man had a fever most of the weekend but when I took him to the clinic on Friday, the doctor said that because he had an appetite, no coughing or congestion and just a fever and headache, it was likely not the media darling H1N1 (aka Swine Flu.) By the way, we call it the Heinie Flu because of the spelling. Which actually sounds just as bad as Swine Flu.
So G-man and I roll up into the clinic and are met by a line of 20 people just to check in. There area lot of kids. I pull G closer to me as though I emit a force field that protects him from contracting even more germs. Yes, my logic is sound. We check in and go to the waiting room where I kid you not there was no where to sit except the floor. There were easily 25 families in there, some with two or three kids. About half the people in there were wearing masks.
Madagascar's ports were all closed.
But the doctor didn't do a swab test. The presenting symptoms were not indicative of flu, just a common virus, so he sent us on our way. Which is fine because frankly I don't have $300 to spend on Tamaflu anyway. Rest and fluids for you kiddo. G spend most of Saturday and Sunday sleeping on the couch, being adorable and just a little warmer than normal. Today he woke up with me as I was leaving for work and was bright eyed and bushy tailed.
LMA is having attention pains. It's hard to say if she's actually not feeling well, but she is a little warm. Her friend and skate partner was actually diagnosed with H1N1 and that's where we think it all started. Which is really sad. The girl's mom and Ms. A are New Girls in Derby and she's a really rad lady but is having a rough time currently and now a sick kid. We want to be the good people and make sure they're both ok but it's hard to want to take care of sick people knowing you'd be compromising your own family.
For Sunday I was able to talk Miss LA to make some gumbo. My dad said he's never had it, so it was a treat for everyone. Miss LA makes some mean gumbo and it's always nice to have a house full of people and good smells from the kitchen. You know it's fall around our house when there's gumbo, wassail, football and Rock Band. Her sister helped her, a couple friends came by to watch the Cowboys and Broncos game and we all drank beer.
As I type this, though, I have a sore throat and a headache. I'm congested, which isn't saying much considering how much it's been raining, and I'm a bit worn out. I don't want to get sick, but I think considering how much time I spent around G man, it's inevitable. I'm hoping it's allergies and lack of decent sleep.
Still, it was a good weekend. How was yours?
(PS, I have four reviews to write, but my weekend was a bit tied up. They will be up soon.)
25.9.09
Review: FlashForward 1.1 - "No More Good Days"
These reviews are done for Television Zombies, please visit for discussion, news, commentary on science fiction, fantasy and cult television.I think it's the announcer. Yeah, I'm pretty sure ABC needs to replace their promotional voice talent because everything I see on ABC that isn't Extreme Dancing with the Makeover Wives, sounds like Lost. It always sounds like everything depends on if I watch this show. Even the sitcoms seem as though something catastrophic is going to happen.
Why is that important? Because it colors the programming. If your introductory hype makes your show sound like something it's not, it unfairly skews your perception of that show. When that guy's voice pimps any ABC show, it always sounds to me like Lost. Plus, Penny Widmore is in it.
Okay, okay. Unfairly, I'm comparing this to another show so let's boil it down to what it really is.
Flashforward is a novel by Robert J. Sawyer. ABC's show is loosely based on this science fiction story in which scientists at CERN run an experiment having the side effect of everyone on Earth going unconscious for two minutes and seeing a future 21 years from now.
FlashFoward starts our fairly regularly and instead of scientists, it's regular people in Los Angeles. We're inserted very deftly into the lives of the Benford family. Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) is an FBI Agent (again? really? ya really) whose wife Olivia (Sonya Walger) is a surgeon (yes really.) They have a little girl named Charlie who is watched during the day by the nanny. Mark's partner is Demetri Noh (John Cho) and Mark's AA sponsor is Aaron Stark. Aaron is an electrician whose daughter was killed in Afghanistan. One of Olivia's residents is a guy named Bryce, Mark's boss is Stan Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance, from Law & Order: Criminal Intent) and the nanny has a boyfriend.
Mark and Demetri are trailing some suspects when their whole world goes awry. Olivia is in the middle of surgery, Bryce is committing suicide on a pier, the nanny and her boyfriend are about to have sex and Aaron is climbing a pole to reach a power line. The entire world blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. But the time doesn't go by uneventfully. Mark has a vision of himself drinking in his office in front of a big case planning board with numerous photos, strings, notes and other pieces of paper. He loads his gun and off in the distance, men with laser sites on rifles approach. He comes to and he's upside-down in his wrecked car. LA is a mess and we find out it happened everywhere at the exact same time for the exact amount of time. We also find out, everyone had a vision. These visions are also corroborated with others to give a precise date, six months into the future. Everyone had them except for Demetri, he had no vision, which he thinks means he'll be dead by then. Olivia has one that she's with another man. Aaron has one in which his daughter is alive. Little Charlie Benford says she had a dream in which there were no more good days.
Mark, Demetri and another agent, Janis Hawk, are given the task to coordinate the effort to find out what happened, what people's visions are and if it could happen again. They call the project MOSAIC and start with the same board Mark had in his vision. Already we see the small threads of the envisioned future start to tie together. Mark talks of drinking again, which is the only reason Olivia would leave him. The other man Olivia envisioned is the father of a boy she saved the day of the blackout. Demetri is planning a wedding with his girlfriend but is always thinking of why he had no vision. Aaron is now hopeful about his daughter, but angry that he's hopeful.
And the world went into chaos. Just stop and think for a minute of what would happen if nearly 7 billion people just passed out for two minutes, what would happen. Would would happen in traffic, airports, people on stairs, people in surgery, athletes, people in baths or hot tubs or pools or lakes. I'm not sure the death toll will ever be mentioned, but it wouldn't be surprising to think of something in the hundreds of millions. Granted, most of Asia would have been asleep at the time and would they even notice? So far the show is very good at throwing questions at you.
But where do we go from here? FlashForward was well put together and at least decently written and acted. It follows the same formula as another show I'll try not to mention in that we start with a huge event and then spend the rest of the time digging for answers. Will it be sustainable? Will the answers sate the viewers? Is it a big enough mystery to overcome any story telling problems?
I enjoyed watching the pilot, but I felt more than a couple times that it was trying to be overly dramatic, overly serious. A meeting the FBI agents had with their boss took place in a lobby and they were standing in a circle, I kid you not, 15 feet apart. The only reason you do that is to get nice camera angels. I want to know what happens to the world I live in when we all fall asleep for 137 seconds, not what happens in Michael Bay's world. Give us some realism and some believable human interaction and the show will do well. Give us short scenes in which people lie or withhold information to push the story along and you'll end up looking pedantic.
At the end, Agent Hawk finds something that will keep the show going for at least two more episodes. During a curious (morbid?) viewing of security footage from around the US in which people are dropping like well coordinated flies, she sees a man in a baseball stadium who is not out. While the entire crowd and both teams are unconscious, this man in black trenchcoat and knit cap walks around very secretly like. He's not panicked, he looks like he's trying to avoid something.
Maybe he's trying to run from low ratings.
It's not a bad outing actually. It's one of the more entertaining pilots I've seen. I may be thinking too far ahead to give it much of a sustainable chance. John Cho and Sonya Walger are very pleasing to watch, as well as much of the supporting cast. That voice over guy, though...have him do just Lost please?
Three and a half broken clocks.
Review: Fringe 2.2 - "Night of Desirable Objects"
These reviews are done for Television Zombies, please visit for discussion, news, commentary on science fiction, fantasy and cult television.First off, we have a new intro. It's Nina Sharp recapping who works in the Fringe Division and what their emerging purpose is.
Pennsylvania. There's a construction/road work team wrapping up for the day. On one man's truck radio, the local news continues the story of the six local missing persons. One man forgets something and goes back to get it. He senses something odd in a cornfield near a scarecrow and goes to investigate. He sees something on the ground, it looks like a blue hand. As he digs it out, the hand grabs him and pulls him into the ground.
Opening Credits.
New York. Agent Olivia Dunham is being released and Peter is there to help her. She had a fractured hip and so is walking with a cane. As they reach Peter's car, we see Agent Charlie Francis in a car watching them. Peter senses something and looks around, sees Charlie's car, but Charlie is hidden. Back in PA, the man underground ignites a lighter and looks at his wounded leg, then around the cavern he's in. There are body parts everywhere; some human, some animal. He sees a tunnel and crawls toward it when he sees a creature emerge from the tunnel. It's just a silhouette but we sense that it's almost human, the same shape and sound as Gollum from Lord of the Rings. The creature attacks.
(sea horse, light lower left)
Peter meets with Broyles, asks about the requests Walter has. Broyles says it should be no problem, but the C-130 might be hard to get. They talk about the mispers in PA and that it'd be a good thing to look into proactively. At the lab, Walter and Astrid are recreating Olivia's accident using a toy car and a frog (1.21 Gigawatts?!) to see if he can make the frog disappear. Olivia was missing for over an hour. Walter tries to explain his multiverse theory with branching time lines, but then stops realizing he's done it before, then gets very sorry for what Olivia went through. Then he talks about the consequences of visiting an alternate reality, then drops it. (We'll see later, I'll let you know.)
Peter, Olivia and Walter go to PA and talk to Sheriff Golightly (Charles Martin Smith) about the mispers and the Sheriff quibbles with the crew about rules of evidence, but they're finally allowed to investigate. Back at the Sheriff's office they again butt heads about this being a local investigation. Olivia starts getting angry but then stops when she hears a fly quite clear and loud, cleaning its legs. Peter jumps in and deflects the tension by talking to the Sheriff about this great lure he has in his office.
Olivia calls Charlie and asks for some help getting some information run through. He agrees to help after he's done running an errand. Charlie goes into the typewriter shop, gets the key from the becrutched proprietor and goes into the backroom. He types, Target Trusts Me Completely. Believes I'm Her Partner. Awaiting Instructions.
(flower, light upper left)
Olivia and Peter pore over the extensive but almost useless information the Sheriff's office has collection on the missing persons. Walter discovers the blue liquid found at the scene is a paralytic, interacting with human DNA or containing it; a possible mutation.
There's a light in the darkness coming towards us. As it gets closer, we see the dead body of the road worker. Then we see a shovel and someone says, "Oh no." We pass up through the ground and come to light in view of a mailbox marked 'Hughes.' Olivia and Peter are on the porch knocking when a grizzled man with a shovel appears behind them. He his Mr. Hughes and as he lets them in, he indicates he's been digging wells. Olivia's super hearing kicks in and she asks if someone else lives there. Mr. Hughes says no, but Olivia goes to investigate. A fairly tense few minutes of her limping along hearing a heartbeat and breathing, she finds a lab of sorts upstairs. When she opens a closet and finds nothing in it, Peter appears in the door behind her and she whirls around and shoots at him, just missing his head.
(frog, light lower right)
Mr. Hughes is in an FBI room behind questions by Agent Dunham. He says he visited the families of the mispers to try and comfort them. He had lost his wife and child, his son died after five minutes. Olivia asks for a blood sample and Mr. Hughes refuses. Broyles asks Peter about Dunham's gun and he says it was a misfire. Olivia is getting a check up on her injuries. She's getting dressed and we see a lot of bruising. Nina Sharp comes in and talks to her about a man who helped her after her cancer. She gives Olivia a note with the name Sam Weiss.
The FBI is going through the Hughes house. Agent Jessup finds an area with a few crosses and a Bible. In the bible is a news clipping of the death of Mr. Hughes wife and child as well as an inscription from a Pastor Lisburn saying it wasn't his fault and they are with God now. Peter tells Walter that Jessup thinks they may have been killed and an exhumation order is requested. The crew digs up the caskets and opens the wife's first, nothing obvious. Back to Hughes in the holding room, he has taken the wire casing off the lights and is bending it and chewing at it, shaping into something. The crew digs up the baby's coffin but there's nothing in it, but a hole has been chewed, clawed, blasted out of it and they see under the coffin is a tunnel leading into the ground. They go back to question Hughes but he has hung himself with the wire.
(frog, light lower right)
Agent Dunham finds Mr. Hughes hanging from the light. Back at the lab, Walter, Peter and Astrid discuss the findings on Mrs. Hughes. She had lupus, there was no way she could have kids, but still she had a baby. We flash back and forth to the Sheriff putting stakes in the ground wrapped in crime scene tape and the ground swelling behind him. Olivia talking with Broyles and her super hearing kicks on again for a second. Walter tells Peter the Hughes boy wasn't all human and likely had scorpion and mole rat DNA to combat his mother's lupus. Olivia arrives and they determine the boy must be under the house.
The Sheriff sees burrowing come toward him when the ground explodes and he his pulled under.
(butterfly, light lower left)
Agent Dunham and Peter revisit the Hughes house and search it. Peter finds a door that's been wallpapered over and behind the door is a nursery. They also find a store room/shed/lab with a large canine tooth on the floor and a cinder block wall. They move away some bricks and a rotting dog head before Peter goes to get a shovel. Olivia sees bones and corpses and looks back for Peter when a thing springs from the darkness and drags her into the tunnel. She and Peter fight it off. It's a nasty looking teenage boy sized creature with an elongated head ending in a gruesome muzzle of teeth. Its skin is pale and covered in blood and dirt. Peter is able to stick the thing with a broken shaft of wood and the creature begins digging away. Unfortunately it digs under the Sheriff's car which comes crashing down on top of it.
Olivia rides back with Charlie and recaps, talking about all the holes Hughes dug in the ground. She says she may not want to remember. He says it may be important and whatever it is, they'll deal with it together. Peter tells Walter he's going fishing, tells the story of a boy who bought his dad a special lure but the dad didn't go. Walter doesn't gather that he's the dad or the one Peter wants to go fishing with, but asks if he can go with him. Peter and Astrid exchange knowing glances. The lure he gives him is called Night of Desirable Objects.
Olivia is in the bath tub when she starts hearing bubbles, a fly, voices, sirens, seemingly the whole city. She goes to a bowling alley and asks for Sam Weiss. He originally says Sam moved away but then chides Olivia for giving up easily. He says Nina told him she'd be coming and asks if the headaches have started yet.
Charlie Francis is in the typewriter room, he types: Target Visted Other Side, But Remembers No Details, Please Advise. Response: Unacceptable. If She Can't Remember On Her Own, Then Do Something To Help Her.
(frog, light lower right)
The glyphs spell MIRRLR, which is a disappointing oversight. We want it to say mirror, and the glyph for L is close to the one for O. Is it really an oversight or a way for the producers to see who's paying attention?
Monster of the week with an inordinately long denouement. The monster was captured with 7 minutes left to go, meaning Fringe is really trying to get the bigger story more air time. I think they realize that they can't do Peter's new Proactive Fringe Division AND keep fighting mutated humans, but the transition will happen slowly. After a full week debating on whether or not I like the Charlie Francis mole, I think it's a good move. It builds tension that only the viewer and that character can see. The rest of the Fringe Division crew and the FBI have no idea, and that makes it juicy.
The problem the show will run into is trying to mix too many monsters with the larger Olivia, Massive Dynamic story. They are at times completely separate, as is the case this week, and may only cause each episode to feel short. Olivia Dunham and crew were able to help the families of the missing persons by solving their disappearances, but they learned almost nothing about the Hughes family, which seems more important to the overall story. Nothing tied Andre Hughes to Massive Dynamic or William Bell or Walter Bishop and if they get more stories like this we'll have to have two teams. One to follow the Bishops, one to follow Olivia.
This was a little repetitive and reminded me too much of "Unleashed" or "The Transformation." Yes this is part of the show to have mutated people, but at least give us a link to the bigger story.
Three out of five randomly chosen glyphs.
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