True Blood Random Thoughts

The following blog post contains adult language, parental guidance suggested!

I am re-watching the fourth episode of True Blood with my wife because she fell asleep while watching it the other night and I noticed the picture of George W. Bush in vampire form sucking the lifeblood out of the Statue of Liberty. I’ve always thought that was a striking picture but it seemed very ironic in Fangtasia.

Tara is still hilarious the second time around, the scene with her and Jason in the ER is pure comedy especially when she admits to having “sick fascination about medical shit”.

Watching the scene with Erik in Fangtasia does raise the question; “Why the hell would vampires out themselves in the first place?” It just seems counterproductive to the vampire’s way of life, Tru (no E) Blood or no Tru Blood. Vampires could accumulate wealth and power from behind the scenes much easier then the new out of the closet kind can.

Also the ability that vampires have to “glamour” people is hooky. It was hooky when the Master or Drusilla did it in Buffy and it is super hooky every vampire in the True Blood universe can do it.

Sam, Sam, Sam, you actually aren't the killer are you? You have some weird connection to the dog who follow's Sookie! There was even a picture of a dog laying with a little girl (seemingly protecting her) in your office. You are part dog? You are actually a Vampire? The case of Blood you bought that went bad before Bill showed up actually went in your belly? I know Sookie can hear your thoughts but something is up with you! Perhaps you are a Werewolf?

Galatica Time Stream

The following is a timeline I created for Battlestar Galatica after seeing the episode “No Exit” near the end of series. This timeline has no dates making it more of an order of events or a time stream but you get the point. This is a lot of information that came near the end of the series, but it’s all stuff that happened before the series. In some cases hundreds of thousands of years before the series.

This is obviously a little spoilery so don’t read on if you haven’t watched the series yet. Also, a lot of this information comes from my own inferences so it can’t all be taken as series cannon, but this is the way I keep things straight in my head. Also because I’m brilliant I knew that Earth couldn’t be Earth as we knew it so I referred to it as Earph in my time stream (to be honest I picked the Earph term up from Galatica Watercooler Podcast, but still I was smart enough to know the truth when I saw it).

Anyway, everything that follows this sentence was written sometime in February 2009.

Planet Kobal

Gods live (Athena, Zeus, the whole bunch)

Gods create man

Man creates machine

Machine Gets Souls from GOD

Gods expel man from Kobal for stealing the secrets of creating life

Man and machine flee Kobal (they most likely were at war with each other)

12 Tribes of Kobal wander the galaxy looking for a new home

13th Tribe made of Cylons look in the opposite direction

12 Tribes find the twelve colonies and live there for 4000 years

13th Tribe of Cylons find Earph and live there for 2000 years

After 2000 years on Earph the 13th Tribe creates new Toasters

The Mechanical Cylons of Earph rebel and kill everything on the planet

Right before the Holocaust on Earph: Ellen Tigh, Saul Tigh, Sam Anders, Tory, and Galen Tyrol re-create the long lost Cylon download technology, which had existed for the Cylons on Kobal

The five survivors download to a ship where they begin to travel to the twelve colonies in hopes of stopping a new Cylon holocaust

During this time the only Cylons in known Universe are the Five aforementioned.

It takes the Five 2000 years to reach the 12 Colonies because they did not have Faster than Light (FTL) technology, however, with resurrection they can last indefinitely

Approximately 50 years in the past from the present humans on the 12 colonies create metal Cylons (toasters)

The Toasters rebel on the twelve colonies beginning the first human/cylon war in 4000 years

During this war the final Five Survivors of Earph reach the Cylons of the 12 colonies and convince them to end the war in return for teaching the Toasters how to create human Cylons. The reason the Five decided to do this was the fact that the Toasters believed in the one True God therefore with this faith they could stop the cycle of violence.

All Cylons leave humanity for 40 years during which time

The Five create 8 humanoid cylons models:
1. John Cavil
2. Simon
3. Deanna
4. Doral
5. Leoben
6. Caprica
7. Daniel
8. Boomer

The first of these new Cylons “Cavil” kills the entire Daniel line and proceeds to kill the Five. When the Five resurrect Cavil reprograms them to forget who they were.

Cavil leads the new Cylons in genocide of the Humans of the 12 colonies and replants the Five among the surviving human fleet to give them a front row seat to the “evils” of humanity.

True Blood Episode 4

I’m thinking Renee might be our killer by the way… Well at least that was my thought about 4 minutes into this episode. Then of course Sam had the key to the storage unit and it was all about him for the rest of the episode. Then him making love to bed sheets at the end of the episode was super creepy. Of course he could be a vampire looking for clues.

The whole scene with Erik (I’m spelling it with a “K” cause it seems more vampire like) in Fangtasia was interesting although the female vampire with the vault for a brain seemed too old to be a vampire.

True Blood Episode 3

Wow if that vampire trio never shows up again it will be too soon. Hepatitis D causes weakness in vampires, that’s interesting. Also good to know about stakes killing vampires in this world as well.

Although it’s pretty dumb that living alone allows vampires to keep their soul while living in nests makes them soulless.

Sam: “You know what I wish would come to Marthasville? Buffy…” That was terrific. Speaking of Buffy I like Angel’s explanation of why a vampire’s thoughts cannot be heard by someone with Sookie’s ability. In the episode “Earshot” Angel explained that a vampires thoughts couldn’t be heard because they cast no reflection like a vampire in the mirror.

True Blood Episode 2

Call me crazy but I decided I love this show, or at least this episode, when Bill was licking the blood off of Sookie’s forehead.

Also I’m glad to see they kept the invitation rule in tact for this series. However, I’ll be pissed if a human can simply rescind an invitation to a vampire.

Turns out Tara is a good character, maybe my favorite. The music in this show is terrible though. Also if we are going to end every single episode with Sookie in danger I’m going to be a bit bored.

By the way can the trio at the end be anymore stereotypical vampires? One of them was the Vampire on video with the dead girl from last episode.

True Blood Episode 1

Interesting first episode, however, the sex and violence seemed very gratuitous. Sookie seems like an interesting character and I think I loved her a little bit when she made fun of Bill for his dumbass vampire name.

I think I might find Tara extremely annoying.

Bill kind of sucks for being late.

The show seems interesting enough, and I’ll keep watching.

True Blood Preview

I've finally been convinced that it is time I attempted to get on board with True Blood. Actually I've realized that there isn't much else for me to watch so I'm giving this show a shot. But the hype on this show is so intense that I feel I can only be let down.

In watching the menu screen on a repeated loop over and over again (the wife is on the phone so I'm in a holding pattern here) I've got to say that the show seems a bit pretentious.

Ok she's finally off the phone, hopefully I like this cult favorite/hipster hit. In any event I'll post thoughts eventually.

Chuck Episode 13

What a terrific season finale this was! They managed to raise the tension in the show while still keeping the humor at an all time high. Big Mike not noticing that his entire store was empty, until he attempted to pull out his keyboard, was a wonderful moment. It also was perfectly within his character to have a sailfish mounted on his wall that he did not catch!

Is it better for Chuck to be the intersect from a government run jail or dead? I’m guessing the former. I’m thinking that Casey has finally warmed up to Chuck as much as the rest of us have by this point which is good news. That means he most likely won’t kill Chuck when the eventual order comes from the powers that be.

Sarah fighting the delivery girl made for some great television, it’s great that the female characters on this show can kick some serious ass.

Chuck was renewed for a third season a few days ago which means I get to continue discussing the episodes here on the blog! Of course it doesn’t actually come back till March 2010 so I don’t think I’ll need to be in much of a rush to pick up with discussing the second season episodes. Please stay tuned though for all other blog posts between now and then!

Chuck Epiosde 12

I love John Casey, that dude is awesome! Adam Baldwin is perfectly cast as the spy who has nothing to live for except his job. With this episode we found out why Casey is the way he is. The explosion at the beginning of the episode set the pace for what was an awesome exploration of Casey’s character and motivation.

Additionally it was great to see Chuck give some advice to Casey and for Casey to take it! The best part of the episode was Chuck and Casey falling off the balcony and into the pool while tied to a chair.

Chuck Episode 11

I was a little disappointed when it was reveled that Morgan would possibly be at the same ball that Chuck and Sarah were crashing only to have it not happen. It was also kind of lame the way they put Morgan on a boat that was being targeted to be blown up by the Dr. Evil of the episode for very unclear reasons.

I did end up liking the pairing of Morgan and Anna in this episode even if Morgan behavior was way over the top even for him. I’m writing these thoughts a few days after watching the episode and I find it odd that I can’t remember exactly what I thought of Chuck and Sarah in this episode. Though I do think, this was the episode where Sarah gave Chuck the cold shoulder after Bryce left…

I managed to leave out my thoughts on Bryce’s return… I find him absolutely charming and hope he’s around again in the future!

Buffy's Back? Wait what?

Great news! They are maybe making a new “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” movie! Terrible news! The “they” in the previous sentence does not refer to Joss Whedon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, or any of the terrific writers or stars of the groundbreaking television series that goes by the same name. It turns out that the woman who produced the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie still hold the rights to any film version and she’s considering using them.

She has stated that she will NOT use any characters from the original film or television series but likes the general mythology and would like to use that as a backdrop for a new film (to be fair I’m paraphrasing someone mostly likely paraphrasing her). Another bad omen for this new film is that Joss has always stated that the original movie version of “BTVS” got away from his original vision because of outside influences. The original versions director was Fran Rubel Kuzui who it should be noted is the woman trying to bring Buffy back to the big screen and in typical hysterical blogger fashion I’m saying that in Joss speak “outside influences” plainly means Mrs. Kuzui.

Zune HD

I have a confession to make. I am seriously considering grabbing an HD Zune this holiday season and I am not ashamed to admit it! Well, maybe I’m a little ashamed considering I had to qualify that statement with “I have a confession to make”.

Now I must say that currently I love my IPOD Touch for many reasons, great internet browsing, excellent media device, flawless syncing with iTunes, and it’s super easy to use. However, this is my third IPOD in a period of 5 years, and it is my third IPOD to show its age much earlier than I’d like an expensive device to.

My first was the black and white screen IPOD that did nothing but play music and the hard disk stopped spinning after about 2 years.

That forced me to acquire the first Generation IPOD video, whose battery detached from the device. I actually cracked the IPOD open and fixed the battery issue only to have my headphone jack crap out on me which was quite the bummer. Also the screen was so badly damaged that it was hard to make out images at that point.

This brought me to my IPOD Touch which upon almost a year exactly after purchase had a similar headphone jack issue. Since it was a year old, I couldn’t use the factory warranty to get it replaced and the Apple Store wanted to charge me $200.00 to swap it out for a new one. The good news is that only one jack went dead so I still get mono-sound out of the device but for a music player it’s considerably embarrassing form!

Naturally I’ve been interested in the possibility of the Zune since it first came out. But, I’d be lying if I ever said I wanted one of the little, brown, and squirtastic devices (Zune calls the sharing of music between devices squirting, I don’t make this crap up). The HD Zune sounds different though.

HD Zune, sports a few neat features that make the geek in me smile. First off it’s got an OLED screen which is the newest (that means it’s the best… and most expensive) display technology. That alone makes the device worth thinking about. Next up it will out put what it has on the device to your television. That eliminates the need for an Apple TV or Sling Box in my book and is a feature that I have been craving since my original IPOD video. Plus it’s Microsoft and maybe they will take better care of me if my device craps out a day over the warranty.

A Zune HD does have its problems and you can feel free to mention them in the comments section but, truth be told, I’m feeling a bit used and abused by Apple as of late. See my “Apple Store Fun” rant for additional details on that.

I was honored today!

I was honored today! Well, a team of teachers of which I am an integral part of were honored today for a program I created. Actually, a team of teachers of which I am a part of were honored today for a program I became a part of after it was already established for a few years.

While the honor was very prestigious, the county I work in gave our team a historical society award, it was an odd experience. First off my team and I had a meal ahead of time, which ran long and we were in fact late to our own honoring! It started at 7:00 PM and we were walking through the metal detectors (The County Freeholders meet in the same building as the courthouse) at 7:01 PM and by the time we got upstairs the program was already under way.

It was at that point I thought to myself, self: your shoe is untied, your shirt it too tight, and you ate way too much at dinner. I remedied the shoe pretty easily although I was afraid my shirt would pop open as I bent over (it didn’t). Also it would have been nice to be in the room but the presentation was still going strong and my team and I were stuck in the hall.

The speech covered a story I struggled to hear about a heroic paramedic who “using non-verbal communication” (I crap you not) took out the terrorist who was holding him hostage, threw him to the ground, and cuffed him… in a simulation, in which he broke the rules as he was supposed to wait for police support and not physically provoke the “terrorist” whom he later had to actually drive to the hospital. It was at that point I thought to myself, self: they give awards to people in simulations who break the rules? Why am I even here?

They then gave 7 consecutive awards to various people and groups all significantly worthy of being honored more than our simulation ruiner. During this time my team members had snuck into the room and I managed to be in every single picture that was taken with the honorees as I was standing directly behind them. It was at this point I thought to myself, self: Is your fly unzipped? But I couldn’t check because I was standing in the front of the room. Then they came to us, it was an odd moment as I had to pull myself out of the potted plant that had grown around me during the exceptionally long ceremony of 25 minutes (fly was zipped).

It was pretty cool, we got a plaque, that had a misprint and they needed to repress. I got a piece of paper with my name and my team teachers names (no misprint) and we took a group picture with the Freeholder who did not introduce himself to me so I did not introduce myself to him out of spite when I shook his hand. Everyone else introduced themselves so I felt like I was being a bit too harsh to my nameless Freeholder.

The picture was a bit awkward as the Freeholder was holding the plaque with my Superintendent, I was standing directly behind the plaque, and then my other four team members were crowded around me, the plaque, and my Superintendent.

Unfortunately we had to listen to a few more people get honored and then finally we got to leave the room. While we were chatting in the hall I had an odd moment with my Superintendent who was crammed on my right hand side. I had a giant bald eagle statue about 6 inches from my head at the moment and it was pre-occupying my thoughts. When my Superintendent asked me: “So what did you think of the program?” I responded: “That is a huge bird right?” I then attempted to recover by saying: “Oh that it was pretty awesome”.

Scrubs Early Episodes

In watching the first three or four episodes of “Scrubs” (I know I’m late to this game) I’m very impressed with three key things.

First off, it’s funny, not a lot of comedies actually are funny (2 and ½ men I’m looking at you) and this one really is funny.

Secondly, they make wonderful use of music in this series; whether the characters are actually singing or it’s simply filling in as background music it brings clarity to the episode, punctuates a punch line, or simply entertains.

Finally this is a show that holds up very well to the test of time. I think it’s because the main characters are wearing the same junk that they wear on Grey’s Anatomy (Scrubs) in 2009 and not what was trendy in the early part of the decade. What was trendy in the early part of this decade anyway?

Google more like Boogle!

Google Ad Sense screwed me out of $28.28 and future income! Since adding Ad Sense to my blog that was the amount of money I was able to accrue from my advertisers and I was supposed to get a check in about 2 weeks. However, apparently my audience was too enthusiastic in their support of my site.

Turns out that you can only be “so” successful with Ad Sense because if your readers click the ads too much Google accuses you of “click fraud” and annihilates your account. This, while obviously a major setback, will not affect my postings to the blog whatsoever. I’m enjoying posting immensely and do not plan to stop anytime soon.

However, the advertisements on my webpage are now Amazon branded. It’s a big change from the Ad Sense styled ads because I don’t make money when you click anymore. If you click through my website to Amazon.com now I make a % of whatever you purchase on Amazon. I know this sounds crazy but I’m pretty sure you need a Kindle, no seriously get a Kindle and then subscribe to my blog via Kindle’s subscription service! Maybe you’d like a PS3 or a flat screen TV?

Promise not to post about this again any time soon but if I type Boogle at some point in the future it’s most likely a Freudian slip.

Chuck Episode 10

Chuck is a great guy. But is Chuck’s good nature enough to overcome the charm and boyish good looks of Bryce? I’m thinking yes, but I can’t wait to find out! Which is why this Blog Post will be very short… I’ve got my PS3 streaming hulu.com which in turn connected me to the WB.com which apparently is the host for all the Chuck season 1 episodes.

Suck on that XBOX 360 owners, who needs Netflix streaming when you have Hulu.com? Too bad Microsoft doesn’t make a browser they could just slap on the 360 which is basically a PC anyway…

In any event this season is winding down now, only 3 episodes left counting the one that’s cued up on my PS3. Damned writers strike still making my TV life difficult even though it been over for over a year!

Chuck Episode 9

Bryce is back! That is kind of awesome and kind of horrible. Chuck kissed Sarah. I kind of really liked Lou so that’s a bit of a shame but also kind of awesome because hey Sarah is terrific too. Of course she’s overly emotionally involved now with her thought to be dead ex-boyfriend.

Casey continues to be a great character. As the Bryce chamber popped open and Sarah was visibly conflicted by his sudden appearance Casey exclaimed “Didn’t I kill that guy?”

I can’t wait to find out why Bryce is still alive and who kept him alive. Also I can’t wait to see Chuck interact with Bryce, it should make for some very interesting moments.

Chuck Episode 8

This show seems to get better and better and this particular episode might have been the best one I’ve watched so far. Chuck throwing out truths left and right was a lot of fun but the best line in the episode by far was Morgan calling Chuck a “Mind Cheater”. I love that Chuck is growing up and “broke up” with Sarah.

Unfortunately I spoiled myself a bit after the first episode of this show. I needed to find what the name of Adam Baldwin’s character Casey was while I wrote my first blog entry. It was at that point that I found out that the character who I hated from that very first episode, Harry Tang, would be gone after only 5 or 6 episodes. Well it finally happened, Casey sent Tang on a mission to Oahu to wait on further instructions from the government! That was terrific, and who knew that Big Mike was a cheater? It was kind of convenient how Tang suddenly had a wife but whatever, he’s gone and this show can only improve.

Awesome continues to impress and even though he is a bit of a one note character, he keeps hitting that note flawlessly, unlike Mr. Tang.

Also of note are the other Buy More employees who are really doing a great job making the scenes in the Buy More something to look forward to rather than a simple break in the action.

Some housekeeping issues… Only five episodes left in this season and I just did some research. It turns out that all of Chuck season 1 is streaming online at hulu.com. So the rest of my thoughts on season 1 should be up sooner rather than later. That also means you have no excuses now, you should be watching Chuck on Hulu. Unfortunately there is no free/legal solution that I’ve found to watch the first 11 episodes of Season 2. Episodes 12-22 are streaming at Hulu. If you find a free/legal solution to stream episodes 1-11 of season 2 we’d appreciate you passing it along.

Apple Store Fun... Wait how do YOU define "fun"?

I went to the Apple Store today in an effort to get my wife’s IPOD fixed. She’s got a generation 3 nano (Fat Nano) and she loves it. Recently it stopped syncing to our computer much to my wife’s chagrin, hence the trip to the Apple Store.

We were running late on our way to the store, it’s about 30 minutes away and we left at 10:06 for our 10:30 appointment, plus they tell you to arrive 5 minutes early. As we pulled in front of the store my wife jumped from the car to walk in around 10:33. I screamed instructions to her as she ran inside while I parked the car in order to not miss our appointment; “Tell them you are there for the Geek Squad, because your IPOD isn’t syncing!” That was our first faux pas of the day because when she went in she said exactly that to the friendly greeter who responded; “You mean you have an appointment with a Genius?” Apple snobs.

After I parked the car I walked into the store and the greeter asked me how she could help me today. Thrown off slightly by the question I said “I’m here to meet my wife” and pointed to some non-descript section near the back of the store… also I mumbled the statement and it might have sounded like “I’m here to say goodnight”.

By the time I got into the Store proper my wife was already speaking with the appointed “Genius” who said that she would restore the IPOD to factory settings. I whispered to the Mrs. “that won’t work because I tried that… a lot”. Much to my surprise 10 seconds later the “Genius” turned around and exclaimed “It worked”. The “Genius” then stated that she was going to try to sync the IPOD with some of the stores music to see if the process took.

It was at that moment I thought, “Maybe we’ll get some free music out of this deal… no Itunes is DRMed and I’m sure the music they sync will be authorized on more than five computers… wait most of Itunes is DRM free now so maybe I’ll get some cool DRM free music… nah this store is old so it’s most likely music that was purchased before the DRM switch.” It was at the point the “Genius” turned around and said “Ok that worked, now I’ll just wipe your IPOD clean again”. Oddly that outcome never crossed my mind.

But happy the IPOD was fixed the wife and I decided to play with some shiny new Mac’s in the store. We did what we enjoy doing most nowadays when we are in giant computer labs; we reset all the Mac’s in the store homepages to my blog and left my blog on every computer screen, it was pretty awesome. Then we left, very proud of our accomplishment. Kim went off to look around some other store which was fine with me because I had some business to attend to.

Basic research on the IPOD problem before hand informed me that it was possible the “Genius” would “fix” our issue in store only to have the issue resurface the second we got home. I was two steps ahead of Mr. Jobs and crew this time because I had my Dell laptop in the car ready to sync the newly fixed IPOD. Only of course it didn’t sync at all and the IPOD was still broken.

I then did the only logical thing I could think of at the time. I entered the Apple Store with my Dell Notebook! And this time I was not to be intimidated by Apple Snob greeter. When she asked “How can I help you today?” I was ready.

I stated “I just had an appointment with a “Genius” well my wife did, and they said that my IPOD was fixed, well it’s not!” Then I brandished my laptop like a shield and flashed my Dell logo for all in the store to see! I could tell I had the greeter on her heels this time. As she slowly backed away she said “who did you speak to?” I retorted simply, “The “Genius” on the right”.

I was in control and I was going to get a new IPOD for free I could feel it, maybe they’d even upgrade me for my trouble because I could tell they wanted me out of there as soon as possible, my Dell was making people visibly uncomfortable! No waiting again I spoke to my original “Genius” right away. I started from the power position saying “It didn’t work; I’m getting the same message”.

I could see the wheels turning in my “Genius’s” head, so I fired another volley. I did some research online and it looks like it is most likely a problem with the new Itunes version, KaPOW!” I actually didn’t say “KaPOW” but I like to think that my eyes did. Unbelievably the “Genius” was not fazed by my newfound strength. The “Genius” looked me in the eyes (the ones that were still visibly “KaPOWing”) and said without affect, “did you try a different syncing wire”?



I responded “I sync my IPOD Touch with that wire and we’ve had no problems with that”, suddenly a bit unsure of my position in the relationship with the “Genius”. The “Genius” shot back, “Yeah, but did you try a different wire, this one’s a bit bubbled at the USB connector here”. “No” I whimpered back. Like one of Santa’s elves the “Genius” found a new wire, fashioned it to the broken IPOD, and attached it to my Dell (which suddenly looked very old compared to all the shiny new Mac Books).

Suddenly my wife’s IPOD was syncing to my laptop and I was sunk. The “Genius” asked me if I would like to buy a new wire for 20 fraking dollars and I declined thinking I’d have to have an extra at home. I ran out of the store (noticing that not one of the computers had my blog on display) with my laptop tucked underneath my shirt and my pride flopping on the Genius Bar like a fish out of water. The kicker is that I did not actually possess another syncing wire because my dog, you remember, Benjamin Linus actually chewed through my two spares about six months ago.

Benjamin Linus: No Not That One...

So I have a crazy dog. I hate to go all Marley and Me on you and write about my dog but here it goes anyway. Almost a year ago my wife and I adopted a puppy from the pound and he had one very distinguishing feature. This dog had and continues to have one blue eye and one brown eye and when he looks at you it seems as though he is saying one thing… but thinking another.

We named him the only thing that made sense for that feature, Benjamin Linus, after the misunderstood schemer on Lost. In any event, Benji has been working to live up to his name sake as much at possible. Most of the time Benji is completely harmless and does his best to please the people around him, however, it seems that he is simply biding his time waiting for the next moment to wreak havoc and change the game.

Benjamin has a habit of destroying pillows, blankets, hats, earrings, Wii remotes, pet beds, pens, chairs, and really anything he can at least partially fit in his mouth. After considerable trial and error, as the previous sentence alludes to, we finally got a system down where he was destroying less and less. Until 4 days ago, that is, when I forgot to lock his crate immediately after he got out of it.

Instead I opened his crate, walked upstairs, and took my morning shower. By the time I got out I saw Benji had dragged his bed out the doggie door. By the time I was dressed and in the backyard Benji had systematically tore open his bed and spread the stuff around all the corners of the yard.

The wife and I went to the drawing board and decided to give our bundle of energy some new freedoms while making it impossible to destroy another bed. First we permantaly removed the crate door so he is free to go in and out as he pleases. Then we got a piece of plywood, an egg crate from Bed Bath and Beyond, some stuffing out of the old bed and a sheet together to create a custom Benji bed. After some pretty ingenious engineering and breaking our swing line (non-red) stapler what we had was immobile and comfortable… I tested it out for a few Zzz’s.

The Benji special bed lasted three days. Today he sliced a hole down the middle and ripped the stuffing inside out. Any recommendations on strong fabric that is also comfortable and easy to work with? It’s greatly appreciated. Keep in mind that I took Wood Shop over Home Economics in Middle School.

Weeknight Fun

So the wife and I went out to eat with some friends tonight (I’d mention their names but none of them would sign my blog release form). It was my buddy’s birthday… since he didn’t sign the release we’ll call him Ravid Dubman. Me, Kim, and Ravid met up with Lean and Sindsay (once again blog release problems forced me to change their names to be unrecognizable).

It was a fun experience the waiter brought us raw meat that we then cooked on a 700 degree stone. We should have known something was up; the place was called the Stone Grill. Kim believes that she has food poisoning from undercooked chicken… She was going to complain to the chef but realized the complaint would be somewhat cyclical.

After the meal which was delicious if you are into slightly undercooked chicken; Kim convinced the group to play mini-golf so she could get a milkshake from Nifty Fifty’s. After 18 holes in the dark (Nifty doesn’t believe in turning on the lights until people start tripping on the course) I was robbed of a mini-victory and Kim decided it was too late for a milkshake so I was deprived this time of a delicious treat.

Overall it was the most excitement I had on a school night in a long time!

Chuck Episode 7

Taking notes as we go!

Loved the flashback Stanford… maybe I just love Flashbacks from Lost.

Chucks in the Intersect? Cool!

I hate Harry Tang and his schedule for lunch. Although Harry poking Morgan like the Pillsbury Doughboy and then licking his finger was slightly hilarious.

It would make sense that Chuck could Ace the encoded images test considering how much of the intersect information he took in.

Veronica Mars!

Harmony Remote…

Chuck never stays in the car unless he does this time… Haha of course he won’t stay in the car. Oh no they shot the professor with a cross bow!

Loved Casey’s look when Chuck asked him how many crossbow killers he knew.

Bryce and Chuck were Gamma Delta Phi’s…

Casey “Take a shower hippie” to a undergrad trying to sell him a tree.

Good for Morgan planning to steal the Harmony remote!

Lester betrayed the workers to Harry, no!

Stanford really does have it in for Chuck. Jeeze how many Sweds does it take to get a disk? Holy crap, “are you coming to the toga party?” Stanford is fully of spies man.

Chucks first interview! Bryce screwed him, Bryce tried to save him. Bryce is a good guy! Casey killed Bryce the good guy!

Episode ended… I love this show, they’ve successfully set up a compelling back story now! You should watch Chuck! Damn I’ve got to send this disk back to Netflix to get the next one… stoopid lack of online streaming for Chuck!

Chuck Episode 6

Fun times again. I really loved Morgan working the HR rep for Chuck unsuccessfully. I hate Harry Tang and can’t wait for him to be off the show. Also I was a big fan of the bad guy this episode though I was a little disappointed Chuck was so easily duped again. At least Chuck didn’t give up the fact that he was a supercomputer!

I wish I had more to say but Kim’s pissed that’s CBS canceled Without a Trace and I’ve got to cheer her up… Although… when FOX canceled Terminator: TSCC she said “Good I hate that stupid show”.

Wolfram Alpha

What’s Wolfram Alpha? More importantly what’s wrong with Wolfram Alpha? What Wolfram Alpha is, is a computational knowledge engine and what that means is WA is supposed to answer a question with an answer. It is promise of the original “askjeeves.com” promised once more but with much fancier technology behind it.

Wolfram Alpha uses what is called the Symantec Web technology. The promise is that you can ask it a question and it will give you an answer in plain English. Who is the first president of the USA is answer nicely by a table that includes George Washington as the answer and lists Adams and Jefferson as well; it even puts a nice little timeline graphic on screen for you.

Ask WA; “What baseball team has won the most World Series?” and it doesn’t know what to do. Actually it couldn’t answer any of my questions except the ones about Presidents.

I can’t wait for this to work but unfortunately it doesn’t work yet… Give it a shot though and maybe you’ll have better luck than me!

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Chuck Episode 5

While nothing stands out tremendously at a deal sealer to me this show seems to continue to improve noticeably with each episode. Morgan is firmly in league with Xander Harris when it comes to plucky side kicks. It’s too bad though that Morgan doesn’t yet know that he’s a plucky side kick.

There is one major thing that this show is doing now that I don’t love. The “my friends and family simply don’t understand because I can’t tell them” story line is one of my least favorite in all of in television. To me it’s always seemed like a cheap dramatic trick. So hopefully Morgan and Chuck’s sister find out soon that he’s a super spy.

All that said I’m very happy with show non-the-less and can’t wait to get caught up! Season 3 is coming next fall NBC decided to keep it on the air!

Kim says “I think this show might be finally starting to get me hooked”.

Grey's Anatomy

Why Grey’s Anatomy Can Never Be Great

Huge Spoilers for anyone who has not seen the Grey’s Anatomy finale DO NOT read if you are planning on seeing it.


It’s a small complaint but I consider it symptomatic of the major problems with shows like Grey’s Anatomy and other dramas that do not trust their viewers. When George wrote “007” on Meredith’s hand, Meredith would have known it was George automatically and could have filled in any viewers without any problems who did not know that was a moniker given to George early in the life of this show. We did not need Alex to call George “007” when referring to him earlier in the episode because in that context it did not make sense. George showed Alex up in the OR very recently and it did not make sense to call him that since no one has for a very long time.

Other than that super shocking finale for Grey’s and I must say that even though I’m a huge TV snob I actually enjoyed it… ok enjoyed it too strong a word, but it didn’t suck!

Supernatural: Lucifer Rising

I hate to toot my own horn but damn, I saw a bit of this finale coming! I loved that the writers chose to follow through on allowing Lucifer to actually break out. That’s two seasons in a row where our heroes utterly failed in stopping the big bad of the season and for some reason my passion for this series continues to grow.

Though I suppose it is unfair that both the Angels and Demons were working towards the same goal the whole season. Allow Lucifer to rise, bright about the apocalypse and then smite him by raining down all of Gods wrath upon him. Except of course the Angels don’t have God. God’s out to lunch and apparently has been for an exceptionally long time. If the writers of this show got together with the writers of Fringe I’d think they’d write a Phillip Pullman novel.

Since the Devil is rising I’m guessing that means he will be a character in the fifth and hopefully final season (Eric Kripke has said he has a five season arch for this show). What if the Devil is a more charming/human version of Cas? What if the Devil is likeable? What happens if Sam and Dean like Lucifer more than they like the “Angels” and decide it is time to start playing for the other team?

Or the Kripke and crew can go traditional and make the Devil some CG looking creature with horns and a pitch fork… some how I doubt they’ll go that route.

Even though they did it off screen the scene in which Sam decides to kill an innocent woman for the juice he needs to beat Lilith was super reminiscent of the scene where Connor kills the innocent girl in order for his and Cordellia’s baby to be born… Only in Angel they had Connor kill poor girl with a meat cleaver damn near on screen. As I’ve stated before there really isn’t any coming back from that and Sam is seemingly damned at this point, he had the black eyes and everything! It makes me sad.

By the way a big “Boo” to Sam for not noticing Lilith didn’t fight back at all! Also gold acting stars to Ruby who fooled us all the whole time! Almost forgot, but I loved the Prophet Chuck ordering 20 hookers for what he believed to be the last night on Earth!

The final scene was very much like the final scene of Lost this season with a fade to brilliant white light.

Whoot Watch Part III

Jonny woke up around 7:56 AM and lied to us first thing. He walked into our bedroom and said Jordan’s crying. But unbelievably she was still sleeping since 8:00 PM yesterday. Turns out he was up and wanted us to be up too. Kids are kind of terrible like that, they have no way to entertain themselves while you attempt to get your 12 hours… I mean 8 hours.

It’s 9:45 now and both the kids have been fed and changed. Jonny’s playing the Wii and Jordan is watching him. Now we’ve just got to run out the clock until 11:00 AM when Jackie is supposed to pick them up. Who said kids were hard?

Whoot Watch Part 2

I’ve lost count of what hour it is but let’s see if we can run through the highlights. After I last checked in, Jordan woke up from her nap and Jonny finished Jedi. Immediately upon completion of Jedi we walked to the park. We did this because Jonny found my PS3 game “Killzone 2” and said he’d like to play it to which I responded that’s for adults and it is very boring. “I yike boring stuff” retorted my nephew.

So Kim smartly distracted him with the park. Jonny learned to climb on the monkey bars. The little dude completed all five monkey bars like a fraking gymnast. In order to psych himself up before climbing across he chanted, “You can do this, you can do this, you’re a Jedi, you’re a Jedi." I have a cell phone video, it’s hilarious.

When we returned from the park we put Benji in the backyard and went to Nifty Fifty’s for food and fun. Jonny drank his milkshake so fast that he got an ice cream headache. Then Jordan punched me repeatedly in the face while I tried to feed her a hotdog. After our meal we took them into the game room where we put them into the moon bounce. In the moon bounce Jonny threw himself over and over again into the mesh walls in order to hit me in the face… Notice a pattern with these kids?

Then we took them to Shoprite and they complained that they were tired and wanted to go home. Well, Jonny complained, Jordan pooped and cried a lot so we just inferred. As soon as we returned home Jordan went right to bed and I put “Titan AE” on for Jonny. “Titan AE” is an animated Star Wars rip off but Joss Whedon has a writing credit so like I said Jonny has great taste in movies.

Finally we drugged Jonny with some allergy medication. Then Kim read him “You’re All My Favorites” and I read him “Oh the Places You’ll Go” and he was asleep when we said good night. Of course then Benji jumped on the bed in an effort to wake him up but the little dude was well off to dreamland! So far everyone sleeping through the night and Kim and I even had time to watch the season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy”. Shocking about the ending there! Hope everyone sleeps until 10 AM like I normally like to sleep on Sundays.

Whoot Watch

Kim and I are watching the nephew and niece for a 24 hour time period whilst their mother and father attend a wedding. So far we’ve had them for just over an hour, Jordan is down for a nap and Jonny’s watching Empire Strikes Back (he’s much cooler than the average child).

So now we are three hours into our Whoot watch and Jordan is still down for her nap and Jonny has just started Return of the Jedi (how much Star Wars is too much for a 4 and ½ year old). I was outside mowing the lawn and doing other random yard work while the dog taught Jonny how to escape our home through the dog door between Star Wars movies. The good news is that I don’t think Benji is smart enough to teach Jonny how to open the gate out of the yard. Of course I suppose it’s possible that Jonny could teach Benji how to open the gate, then we’d all be in trouble.

Three hours and ten minutes into Whoot time Benji decided to prove he had a sense of irony by chewing off the foot of Jonny’s Chewbacca action figure. Jonny remarked “Chewbacca’s dead now!?!”

Lost: Update

I was driving home day dreaming about Lost when a simple yet unsaid thought popped into my head. Richard Alpert came to the island via the Black Rock. He was building a ship in a bottle in the episode before the finale and he didn't seem to be on the island when Jacob and Bizzaro Locke were talking so I think it fits. Also Jacob seemed very interested in the Black Rock, almost like he was expecting something or someone. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it!

Lost: The Incident

Spoiler Warnings Aplenty!


Wow! No seriously, wow! It’s amazing how often this show raises the bar and clears it (I’m a track coach so I can get away with that metaphor… but I don’t coach high jump). First off I loved the opening scene with Jacob and Bizzaro Locke (the nameless threatening other man) staring at the Black Rock discussing the fate of the people on board. From the first scene we see him, Jacob is an instantly likeable character and I was completely surprised.

What lies in the shadow of the statue? Ille qui nos omnes servabit or “He whom we all serve”. So Illana, Bram, and Richard all worked for Jacob. I suppose that makes sense. It also keeps the waters from being overly muddied by an additional faction vying for control on the island. Even the war that Ben and Charles were preparing for has them on the same rather than opposite sides. Widmore just believed Ben was not the man to lead; he misplaced his faith in Locke.

The most important clue that was dropped last night was when Illana said “he hasn’t been using it for a long time, someone else is” right before she burned down Jacob’s cabin. Whatever “it” is, is powerful and important and Bizzaro John has it now. Speaking of that cabin, why would Jacob need that cabin if he always lies in the shadow of the statue? Maybe Jacob’s cabin was Bizarro Locke’s cabin.

Sun finding the “DS” ring made me miss Charlie just like it was supposed to, I hope she kept it!

I love Juliet, even though I thought she’d bite the big one in this episode a major part of me is hoping beyond hope that she wakes up in the jungle naked, with the ability to see the future or past or whatever, just don’t kill her!

Jack was a man possessed and simply a shell of his former self (though he still fired a gun better than Billy the Kidd). If anything good comes out of this nuclear explosion let it be that Jack finds some peace and is able to work through his demons and become the man everyone thought he was way back in season one.

Sawyer hanging on to Juliet’s hand was one of the tensest moments I’ve ever watched on TV. The Jack/Sawyer confrontation wasn’t half bad either and I think Sawyer would have killed him if it hadn’t been for Juliet.

That fraking Swan Station has brought nothing but pain and misery to everyone it touches. I hope the explosion caused the incident because that means Radzinski will be forced to live out the few unhappy days he has left pushing that damned button.

Speaking of “caused the incident” two points for Miles stating the obvious, “What if that bomb is what caused the incident? Ever think of that? Glad you thought that through!” Miles became one of my favorite characters instantly. Mostly because I’m sure he’s right and the bomb did in fact cause the incident.

Rose and Bernard retired! That’s terrific and I love them for it. I loved the hut (which looked eerily similar to Jacob’s cabin), I loved the attitude, and I loved Bernie’s beard. They will be the islands Adam and Eve!

A lot of people have theorized that this show is about good verses evil but I couldn’t disagree more. Jacob while caring and compassionate is not Jesus. Jacob has had many evil things done in his name and either allowed or encouraged it to happen. Kidnapping of children, torturing of captives and the mass murder of the Dharma Initiative all come to mind almost immediately. While Jacob may be the good guy in this story his soul is smeared with a heavy coloring of grey.

More thoughts on Lost will follow at some point soon. I’ll most likely pick up Lost season 5 on Blu-Ray before 2010 so keep checking back for more Lost related posts!

Fringe: There’s More Than One of Everything

SPOILER WARNINGS APLENTY for this post!

When this show first started I was bored with it. It seemed to be an X-Files rip off and that’s saying something considering I don’t think I’ve ever watched a complete episode of the X-Files (I know I’m a terrible geek). It also seemed like it was trying too hard to shock us and it was not doing enough to establish its characters. My other gripe was that it didn’t make us buy into the world before doing completely crazy and fantastic things like the bio weapon on the bus or the heart monster incident.

Slowly over the course of the season I started to let down my defenses and simply bought in regardless of my initial misgivings. I believe the reason for my buy in was because I started to get very interested in the Massive Dynamic story thread. By the time they beam a dude out of a German prison I realized I was on board for this show and would be until cancelation or conclusion. Which brings us to this weeks season finale.

First off I enjoyed this episode of television even if I could see the two major plot reveals coming they were still very cool to watch unfold. I loved that Peter had died in this reality back when he was a child and the ramifications that it must have for Walter and Peter’s relationship in the future. The fact that Walter traveled inter-dimensionally to find a new version of Peter to replace his dead Peter reveals a dark side of Walters’s personality. Did he kidnap this Peter or travel from dimension to dimension until he found a little orphan Peter?

Additionally interesting was the creative choice to put William Bell into the Twin Towers. I loved seeing the cover of the New Yorker with the Obama’s on the cover followed directly by a full view of the Towers still standing in this alternate reality. The fact that Bell would choose to inhabit an office in one of the Towers says something important about his personality. I’m thinking it points to a significant God complex and I wouldn’t be surprised if William Bell was directly responsible for the Towers survival in this alternate reality.

That being said placing Bell in the Towers didn’t make complete sense to me because the “soft spot” phenomenon as described by Nina earlier in the episode seemed to have a 1 to 1 ratio between dimensions so where ever Olivia was would have had to be within the area of our world’s Ground Zero. It seemed to me that Olivia was in a high rise building with a fancy restaurant. So unless I am misinterpreting the logic of how this works (and that’s possible) I believe Fringe just established a rule in their universe and then broke it all within the span of one episode.

Even with that little snag I am actually very excited to see where this show goes from this point forward. Too bad we have to wait till fall to find out!

Speaking of Olivia in the elevator did anyone else wonder if she was going to be transported into the white room to see the big cat? If you get that reference you are cool enough to guest write a blog entry, let me know if you are interested!

Podcast Possibilities

This post will be a change of pace from the TV focused posting I’ve been up to as of late. What I plan to do is give you a heads up on some free podcasts I check out on a regular basis.

I am in the car one and a half hours daily commuting back and forth to work so podcasts have filled a gap in my entertainment portfolio. They allow me to stay more informed on a wider variety of subjects than simply reading the paper or browsing the internet could. I’m going to go through my podcast feeds alphabetically and highlight some of the better ones.

First up we have “The Battlestar Galactica Podcast” which was recorded by Ron Moore the executive producer and creator of the new Battlestar Galactica. BSGP was unique because it was a weekly behind the scenes audio commentary of every single episode of BSG. If you are a fan of BSG you could check it out, but if you are interested in making television or movies it’s a must listen because Ron Moore goes through the process of writing, directing, then producing each episode. The podcast is archived from episode nine of season one all the way through the series finale and even has hours of audio recordings of the writers in the room breaking storylines for entire future (at the point of recording) seasons. The podcast runs as long as the episodes would minus commercials so about 42 minutes.

Next is “Buzz Out Loud” which is a darling of a show. Currently the hosts are Tom Merrit, Natalie DelConte, and Jason Howell with a rotating additional host daily. People ask me why I have so much technology information crammed into my brain, BOL is the answer. It is fun, it is informative and it is never boring. BOL starts every podcast saying they run and indeterminate length but they usually run about 35 minutes.

Every Friday I look forward to the “Friday News Feedbag” from the Discovery Channel. Hosts Will, Jorge, and James have a fun bantering quality with 6 science stories up for discussion weekly. The Feedbag usually runs about 25 minutes but can vary greatly with episodes being as short as 12 minutes and as long as 45.

NBC puts out “Meet the Press” in video form almost immediately after it airs. They also do the “Nightly News with Brian Williams”. I like to drive my Monday morning commute with MTP. MTP runs about 50 minutes and I can’t remember ever actually watching a full episode of the news but I think it’s about 22 minutes.

Speaking of news The New Yorker puts out the “Political Scene” which is a weekly conversation of events in Washington and NPR has a show called “It’s All Politics”. The “Political Scene” started out long ago as the “Campaign Trail” then transitioned into the “Transition” and has finally settled on the “Political Scene”, I’ve stuck with it and have been completely entertained and engaged the whole time. “It’s All Politics” is more a show about the horse racing in political circles and full of energy. Both political shows run about 12 to 15 minutes.

“The Official Lost Podcast” is a fun almost weekly rant from the shows co-creators Damon and Carlton. They have running jokes and occasionally drop insights about the show. I like it a lot but that makes sense because I like Lost a lot. The show runs about 15 minutes and only releases new episodes when Lost is in season.

“Real Time with Bill Maher” is released in podcast form by HBO, however, it is audio only so it is definitely missing something that you’d get if you caught it on HBO (the actual video). Real Time will run you about 45 minutes.

The online only magazine Slate.com puts out the “Slate Daily Podcast” with can be hit or miss like any story posted online. Fridays however, we get the joy of the Slate “Political Gabfest” which is a great conversation between three writers at Slate about politics and not to be confused with the “Culture Gabfest” which is not of the same seriousness of subject. If you are interested in politics it is the one podcast that gets my “Listen to this One” seal of approval. The Gabfest usually gabs for about 30 minutes.

I’ll round this out with two podcasts from Howstuffworks.com “Stuff You Should Know” and “Stuff You Missed in History Class”. Both shows are pretty good and worth a listen. “Stuff You Missed in History Class” tends to cover things I’m more interested in but “Stuff You Should Know” might be the better show for the average listener.

Hope I’ve given something free to listen to! All podcasts can be found in Itunes by going to the store and searching through the podcast section.

Lost: Follow the Leader

First off let me say that titling the blog post “Follow the Leader” is a bit, well, misleading. I am calling this “Follow the Leader” mostly because it was the last episode I saw before writing this post. That being said, it is not super fresh in my mind and I’ve already tried and failed to write something interesting about it.

This post is a state of show post. At least that’s the plan. What this post will most likely turn into is a bit of incoherent rambling coupled with one or two things that make sense in the context of this show (if I’m lucky). Anyway here we go…

Where the hell are Rose and Bernard? Seriously, did they fall off the island as it was skipping through time? Are they dead? Did they get to Dharma Town before Sawyer and crew and end up getting on the sub to go back to the mainland? Are they currently living out Sawyers dream and investing in Microsoft early?

My thought is that when the time traveling stopped they moved back to the original Oceanic Flight 815 beach. After too much time in the sun and not enough company (the smoke monster was killing off the last of the log carrying people) they decided to move to the caves from the end of season one. There they lived until sometime in the late 1990’s when Rose and Bernard died in their sleep on cool September night within 10 minutes of each other. About 15 years later the Oceanic crew finds them in the caves and call the mummified bodies they find the islands Adam and Eve. Actually if we never see Rose and Bernie again you can just consider that last paragraph unofficial Lost cannon.

Sawyer, Kate, and Juliet are going to get off the island in that submarine because baby Miles, baby Charlotte, and the other Dharma people must get off the island in order for the time loop to remain in tact (which I believe it must). However, once they get off the island they will try to make an escape from the Dharma people, rush into a locked room and suddenly be transported back to island perhaps via Ben’s magic box metaphor… or they will just take the captain hostage force the sub to surface and swim back.

Jack, Eloise, Richard, and Sayid will in fact explode the nuclear bomb. The explosion will cause the incident thus allowing the time loop to remain in tact, once again, forcing the Dharma Initiative to build the countdown clock, button, and computer to release energy. In the nuclear explosion, Jack, Sayid, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Miles, and Juliet will seemingly die only to be transported back to present day island time and possibly right into the Shadow of the Statue people (don’t forget about them).

Miles, Juliet, or Lapidus are likely to die for real. Lapidus hasn’t had much to do in this season and I think he’s eventually going to have to fly the Ajiria plane off the island so I think he’s safe. Miles seems to be a key member of the group now and I feel like his “I speak to dead people” ability hasn’t been used to its full potential yet. My money is on Juliet dying while saving Sawyer or Kate’s lives. I don’t know why I just have this bad feeling it’s going to happen.

Sun and Jin won’t be reunited this season. We’ll have to wait for the season six opener.

Locke, Ben, and Richard will engage in mortal combat with John Locke killing Richard Alpert. Richard doesn’t age but that doesn’t mean he can’t be killed. Locke told Ben at the end of “Follow the Leader” that he’s going to “kill him” with the “him” being Jacob. I’m not sure Jacob can be killed but I think Richard can, especially when Ben helps John kill him.

I believe that Jacob and the Island are two separate and competing entities. One is Zeus and one is Chronos. The father who was ousted from power by the son…

I guess this post just turned into a wild speculation rant…

Supernatural: When the Levee Breaks

Just finished watching this episode and it was interesting even though it wasn’t at all satisfying. Usually I’m on board for the “big bad” coming from within but for some reason I don’t like it on Supernatural. That’s not to say that this was a bad episode because it wasn’t, in fact it begins to pay off on seasons worth of hints and clues. It’s just that for some reason I don’t love Sam turning evil.

Maybe it’s because this show has been so clear about lines and what happens when lines are crossed. A few seasons ago when Sam and Dean came across a Werewolf they drew a line and then bloodily crossed it. It’s an episode that still bugs me to this day and I think it’s because it foretold this brotherly show down long ago. In season two’s episode “Heart” Sam and Dean are hunting Werewolves and all goes well until they discover the person they’ve come to befriend and protect had become a Werewolf before they even showed up on the scene (it was news to her too I believe).

How do they solve this seemingly insurmountable problem? Tell her to live her life normally except during the three nights of the full moon when they can lock her up in the local school library’s book cage? Nope, they tell her that no matter what they try to do she will kill people and lots of them. So in completely extreme fashion Sam kills her (with her blessing if you can fraking believe it).

That’s the thing with this crazy show, they do things that are uncomfortable and they’ve created a fiction and a story line that is tied so tight I don’t see how Sam gets through this alive (not that he hasn’t died already).

Sam is drinking demon blood to the point where if he can’t have it he goes through withdrawal (Willow similarities are not lost on me dear reader). Ruby seems to be a bit more villainous in this episode than she has in the past. For the first time I don’t trust her and I’m surprised I have for so long.

The Angels who are supposed to be the good guys in all this have motives that are as murky as the demons. In fact, if I didn’t know any better I’d say that they are trying to bring about the apocalypse just as much as the demons are. Actually I have a thought on that (big surprise I know) lets see if I can nail this theory down.

In Supernatural cannon we’ve established that no demon on record has ever seen Lucifer. We have also been told that maybe 4 Angels total have ever known the face of God. Also, there was a renegade faction of Angels who were killing other Angels with the hopes of raising Lucifer because they were sick of bowing towards the humans, Gods favorite children. Additionally Cas was growing fond of Dean and was going to spill the beans on a heavenly plan before he was sent to the divine principal’s office and had a major attitude adjustment.

What if the fallen angels 2.0 had the right plan but the wrong motivation? What if God (or whatever angel is speaking for him) has decided it is time for the apocalypse and the angels are allowing Lilith to complete her fanatical plan to raise the devil so God/Right Hand can lay the biblical smack down bring about the end of existence?

Anyway I know that’s a lot to digest for an episode that was mostly setup but it was my first Supernatural post and I guess I had a bit to blog about. One last thing, I hope that we see the redheaded angel, the prophet, and Cas’ boss in the season finale because those characters are awesome. If you aren’t watching Supernatural I highly recommend it!

Survivor Tocantins: The Ultimate Sacrifice

First off I must tell you that I am not a fan of Survivor. I don’t enjoy watching the show and they do the same challenges/rewards season after season after season. What’s worse is that they do this twice a year!

Now dear reader you must be asking yourself, “Why then is he writing about Survivor and more importantly why is he watching it?” The answer while twofold is simple, it’s the only thing I’ve watched so far today and my wife makes me watch it, also I’m itching to write something. Maybe that was threefold.

Anyway I wish they would vote off Coach, he’s annoying and he doesn’t add anything to the group or the show.

Turns out that’s all I needed to write about Survivor… hopefully I’ll watch something more interesting later after all the moms day celebrations end.

Kim says “I hate Coach”.

In Defense of Dollhouse

After watching the Dollhouse season one finale I can say that there is no reason this show should be canceled. Well the low ratings might be a reason … But that doesn’t mean that creatively this show is not firing on all cylinders like so many people have claimed since the inception of this unique television experience.

That’s not to say Dollhouse is a perfect show, it has had it’s moments where it faltered. The Dollhouse episode that was a riff on the Most Dangerous Game for instance was the season low light for me. That being said, even that episode though had some great stuff in it that was vital towards the end of the season. The reason why I believe this show has a future is the plan of the series seems to be coming to light and really came into focus in the last few episodes.

Critics have stated (IGN TV I’m looking at you) that there is no point in watching a show where the main character does not develop, change, and grow because they don’t retain their experiences at the end of the episode. I’d argue that the introduction of Alpha’s original self coupled with Echo’s reaction to becoming Omega puts that criticism to rest. As Agent Ballard stated smugly in the finale, you can’t wipe a person’s soul.

Now I will pose a thought that has nagged at my own soul for a while and which I’ve hesitated to say because of my deep love and appreciation for another Joss Whedon creation. This will likely incite many a heated opinion (assuming anyone actually reads this) but I feel the need to say it non-the-less. The 12 episode season one of Dollhouse as a whole was a more entertaining and intellectually challenging run of television than the 13 episode season one of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Dollhouse has more stories to tell and I’d hate to see them end here. Could you imagine if the WB canceled Buffy after 13 episodes? No evil Angel, Spike, Drusilla, Mayor, Faith, Oz, Tara, Dawn, Wesley, Anaya, Agent Finn, or Andrew would have ever graced the TV screen. We’d be left with the cartoonish “Master” as the greatest Buffy villain and we’d remember Inca Mummy Girl as a high-water TV mark instead of the devilishly fun Sweet and his musical episode.

The components of Dollhouse can continue to be built upon in the same and maybe even better ways than they were with Buffy. You can check out (as of 5/9/09) episodes 8, 9, 10, 11, and the season finale 12 on Hulu.com. The earlier episodes you can grab off Itunes, stream and download this show dear reader you won’t regret it.

Wife says: "I can't believe how much I love this show" and that's big because we certainly don't agree on all our TV shows.

Star Trek the Reboot

Star Trek the Reboot

So I’ve never been much of a Trek person, I’m too young for the original series & most of what was on in my formative years has been fairly far off my radar… I am ashamed to admit this to you dear reader but I’ve never even seen the Wrath of Kahn. That being said I’m no Star Trek newbie either. I watched my fair share of Next Generation in syndication and can certainly appreciate the fact that there is a difference between Romulan’s and Vulcan’s (even if I couldn’t exactly put my finger on what that difference is…).

That being said the new Star Trek movie is simply, FANTASTIC! I really enjoyed it and I was very happy with the story, the character choices, the casting, the timeline, and all the other excitement that came with this movie.


Before I saw this reboot I thought to myself that Batman Begins was a masterpiece made even better because they took all the previous Batman movie baggage and threw it out the window allowing for a clean start and a fresh perspective. Then I saw JJ Abrams take on Star Trek and I can’t believe how much happier I am with how he deals with all the previous Star Trek universe cannon.


The key to this movie though is that it was a lot of fun. I really loved ever minute of this movie and was extremely satisfied when credits rolled. If you weren’t planning on seeing this movie reconsider and if you were make sure you do because you really won’t regret it.

I am thinking that my school is pretty awesome for letting me use DUKANE Slate tech before anyone else. I really think that this would be much cooler if it didn’t make my hand hurt. Also the fact that this post has taken me 20 minutes to handwrite kind of stinks a bit. But the software does seem to be learning quickly so that’s nice.

Fringe: The Road Not Taken

When Olivia has her cell phone app dial the number that was recorded off the glass window when it was super heated by the women who makes fire, inside her own body and then psychokinetically fires it at will my wife says “are you fraking kidding me”.  At that point I concurred. 

 

When Olivia’s new boss showed up I was super pissed because I hate that character and don’t feel he serves the story.  Then they had Fire Girl the Encore kill him off and I was pretty satisfied. 

 

Loved JJ Abrams getting in the extended reference to Star Trek, it was very appropriate considering who they’ve cast to play Bell.  

Chuck Episode 4

The wife is on the phone so I’m starting this musing before I’ve finished the episode.  Morgan in this seems to be teetering on the edge of fun eccentric sidekick and holy crap this dude is annoying… to put it another way he could be Xander Harris (and if you don’t know who that is shame on you) but he might be Jar Jar Binks (and since you know who that is shame on you).

 

I think that might be all I can say write now… Though I’m finding it hard to believe that Sarah can work with Casey after he killed Bryce. 

 

Finished the episode and I’m thinking Morgan is nearer Xander at the moment (falling for the monster of the week) so that’s good.  Loved the diamond heist/hostage negotiation stuff and really loved the jet ski coming out from under the water and Chucks reaction was perfect. 

 

The whole will they/won’t they stuff between Chuck and Sarah already seems a bit old and who knows how much longer they’ll keep that up for… well I guess you do if you’ve watched all the Chuck that’s aired already… If they are still in a holding pattern now I think I’ll be retroactively pissed when I get to the Chuck season 2 (hope it’s not the series) finale.

Chuck Episode 3

I had this weird sensation while watching this episode... I couldn't stop smiling.  The plot was fairly obvious and most of the gags were pretty standard and yet I really enjoyed this episode.  

 

This show is simply programmed for me it's like Josh Swartz went into my brain, took notes, and then wrote this show.  That doesn't mean it's good yet, it's just awesome for me right now.

 

I loved Chuck dancing the woman’s part of the Tango both with Captain Awesome and La Ciudad.  Morgan as a character is a lot of fun too, and even Casey (Adam Baldwin) has become something I look forward to watching on this show.

 

Right now it’s feeling like a light version of Alias (great show for those who missed it) only it plays the tension for laughs rather than intense drama which isn’t a bad thing.

 

Wife says: "Think I'm losing interest, lets just go to bed after this one, what do you mean you have to blog?"

Chuck Episode 2

Just finished another episode of Chuck and this one seemed less strong.  It was a little too cute for my liking in some places while still strong in others.   I’ve realized that I really like the guy who plays Chuck, maybe because he seems to be seriously channeling Jim Halpert, so that’s a good thing.  Adam Baldwin is awesome.  The actress who plays Sarah (though that’s not her real name) seems to be good but I found the character choices odd in this episode. 

 

Why would Chuck trust her, other than the fact that she’s attractive and nicer than Baldwin’s character?  So she doesn’t get to be pissed when Baldwin (I’ll try to get his character name for next episode) makes rational points and gets Chuck to believe that she’s the bad seed.  Also I hope this is the last episode that sends roving packs of teenage boys into the wiener place it was a bad joke the one time and they already did it twice.

 

Wife says “I think it was sillier this time”

Chuck

Pilot episode:

Interesting show, certainly doesn’t take itself too seriously, but definitely entertaining.  It attempts to speak to the geek in me and seems to be doing a fairly good job so far.  Anyway episode two is on right now so I’ve got to go.

 

Wife says: "It’s OK and I'mwilling to keep watching…" Which is more than she said about about the Tutors and Dexter.