Thoughts on Daddy 4

I know it has been a while since I checked in last but for the most part things have been going smoothly and thus I’ve had nothing to complain/write about. That was until two days ago when everything went haywire.

It all started when Daddy and I were having fun on the play mat. It is a pretty comfortable play mat so I figured I could lull the old man to sleep at which point I would then make my way to the computer to play some Bejeweled. Unfortunately he was not sleepy. My next plan was to mess with Daddy by stealing his glasses. I reached out and took them right off his face without any issues. Surprised and excited by my sudden success I did the baby equivalent of a touchdown dance. Embarrassingly, I did not account for my fathers glasses which I now held firmly in my tiny fist and ended up pressing the arm of the glasses under my eye.

To be clear, I did not scream, moan, or sob. I simply realized my kinesthetic error and handed Daddy’s glasses back to him. He, however, freaked out. He ripped me up off my comfy play mat, shinned bright lights into my eyes, and inexplicably started yelling at Benji for looking at him “like that”.

Thankfully after a couple of minutes he calmed down and we went back to play. But the spit hit the fan the second Mommy got home. She looked at my eyes and said, “why is one of her eyes a little red?” She did not realize I had just woken up from a nap and wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. Daddy then confessed the scenario which I previously described and Mommy insisted he take me to the doctors.

Getting there was not a problem. The pediatrician took one look at my eye, gave me a clean bill of health, and sent us on our way. Things were looking up but then my lovely parents decided they wanted to go to the grocery store. After a brief shop we were back at the car and that’s when I heard Mommy gasp.

I was able to piece together that we had a fat tire which I am going to assume is a bad thing. Because if you have a fat tire people you don’t know come up to you and say, “Hey are you OK, do you need help with changing that fat?” Frustratingly, my father refused help from about six different people in the Shoprite parking lot. After around 20 minutes of metal banging and my Dad saying things like, “stupid tire, stupid fat, stupid hex nut”, he came over to Mommy and I and said, “we need a tire key for this car, there is no way to way get the wheel off without one”.

While I have not been around that long, even I knew that sounded a bit off. But I was not about to say anything so the situation continued to get more desperate by the minute. Daddy tried calling Grandpa for some advice but since he refuses to purchase a new cell phone his phone instantly died, even though he had a full charge. To make things more complicated, Mommy left her phone at home. Now we were in a wet parking lot, with a fat tire, and no way to contact anyone who cared about us!

Then, through what I can only describe as divine intervention, I saw my father run over to a truck that just parked in the lot. It was a Nissan like our car and it seemed like Daddy was trying to get his hands on a magical tire key. I could not see the man Daddy was talking to, but I heard him say, “I have never heard of a tire key for a Nissan Versa, and I am sure I don’t have one”. Daddy then mumbled something about all hope being lost and the man responded, “Well, do you mind if I take a look at it?”.

My father, being in no position to deny help from anyone, any longer, allowed him to approach our fat tire. The man who had just come into my line of sight, can only be described as huge. He picked up the tire iron, which looked like a toothpick in his massive palm, placed it on the wheel, and proceeded to remove each nut as nimbly as an ogre sized elf. Daddy then said something about heroes in our modern world and the man left as quickly as he had come. Thankfully it only took another four minutes 37 seconds for Daddy to get the donut on the car. On a side note, I have been lead to believe that donuts only add to fat problems but I guess cars are different than people.

Thoughts on Fatherhood 8

The baby and I have spent a lot of time indoors since I have been a stay at home Daddy due in part to nature this winter. It simply is not feasible to go for a leisurely walk when there are more than 2 inches of un-shoveled snow on the ground. Suffice to say, we’ve gotten fairly complacent with our wardrobe choices.

We received some unexpected company recently and after taking a quick glance at myself in the mirror, I realized I needed to make some minor appearance adjustments before they walked in the door. However, my refusal to wear work attire coupled with my inability to fold laundry put me in a bit of a bind. Minutes before my company arrived I turned to my child and said, “wait here, Daddy’s has to go change into his nice pajamas”.

Besides daring clothing moves, it turns out that I’m fairly good at this fatherhood thing, at least so far. We dance, sing, practice sitting up, talk, do the household chores, and roll over (though not as well as Benji does). When my little girl smiles and I know I’m doing well! Of course, at times she when she smiles it leads me to believe she has a different agenda than I.

Just this morning she was sitting in her high chair as I was unloading the dishwasher. I looked over at her and she seemed moments away from dozing off to sleep. I hurried to finish putting everything away, glanced back over, and saw her wide awake with a massive smile. Pleasantly surprised, I went over to her and kissed her on the head. As I approached I noticed the smell of poop. I kissed her as intended and then brought her to the changing table.

What I found was not surprising, however, the quantity was a bit shocking. She must have pooped out 5% of her body weight because it was all over everything. It escaped her diaper, went through her pajamas, and even managed to smear on my arm and shirt in transit from the chair to the table. The entire 20 minute process I spent cleaning and changing her she spent smiling and occasionally stuck her tongue out at me, as if to say, “got you”!

Fringe: The Firefly

Usually I have to looked up the episode titles after watching an hour of Fringe but for some reason this one stuck. The irony of moving Fringe to a night that has killed three shows I was heavily invested in coupled with this hopefully non-prophetic title was not lost on me. That said, if Fringe got the Sarah Conner treatment and was given a season beyond what its ratings justified that would be fine by me.

Would it have killed the writers of Fringe to have named Christopher Lloyd’s character “Dr. Brown”? While something that on the nose may have been to cute by half, I would have enjoyed it. That out of the way, I did have fun with the character of Roscoe and hope to see him again. Walter had a lot to learn from his fallen idol.

The Observer September was busy this week. Walter’s comment, “they aren’t human, you can’t expect them to think like us” was made crystal clear when September brought down a crew of diamond thieves. I still hold to my theory that the Observers are the first people, from a dimension where their Alpha/Omega machine did not destroy them.

This whole episode was all about Walter being able to sacrifice Peter for the greater good. However, in the end Walter simply had to be willing to sacrifice Peter and because he was willing, Peter survived. It would seem that the Observers will be playing the role of God and Walter will double for Abraham. I guess it was only a matter of time until another JJ Abrams show started overtly comparing characters to biblical figures.

I miss Folivia, Charlie, and Lincoln. Please bring them back. Speaking of Folivia, Peter and Olivia’s relationship slowly on the mend. It could get really uncomfortable if Folivia popped back into the picture and declared her true love for Peter.

This episode was a slow mover as far as the ongoing saga of Fringe is concerned which is odd considering the Observers played such a key role this week. Hopefully next week picks up a head of steam and gets us moving again!

Caprica: Dirteaters

This was a fantastic show, but I can almost understand why Syfy cancelled it. The flashbacks to Turon started out slow but grew into some of the most dramatic and fraked up television I have seen in a long time. Joseph Adama shot three enemies and then ended the violence by killing his own father. Turon is a complicated place perhaps too complicated for a network that features Ghosthunters International, Warehouse 13, and professional wrestling.

I would have never pegged Samuel as the naive and mostly innocent younger brother but it does makes sense. Samuel failed his father by freezing at a moment where he needed to push forward and has since chosen the path of violence time and time again as a means to make up for his past inaction. Joseph on the other hand did what “needed to be done” and was sickened by it. Therefore he chose the path of law and attempted to leave violence in his past. However, Sam’s latest choices have led to a betrayal of the Guatra and now Joseph must follow him into hell once more.

Avenging Angel’s seems too cute for what Tamara and Zoe are capable of and thankfully this was a realization they were able to come to on their own. There complete destruction/reformation of New Cap City was impressive, though I would have been more impressed if I did not see Inception this summer.

Jordan apparently did not cover all his bases. Two points for his turncoat GDD boss. Amanda is now spying on Clarice in return for what exactly? Perhaps Jordan is truly done, but his actions put Amanda on a collision course with the resurrection program which in turn puts it in the path of Daniel as well. Perhaps this is how we get to apotheosis.

Speaking of apotheosis, it would seem that the only person Clarice is interested in elevating is herself. She fights for the One God and kills in his name but her end game is apotheosis for herself and everyone else can occupy space in her heaven.

Did anyone else forget that Bill Adama was ever featured in this series?

Why I Will Not Purchase a Verizon iPhone

Since the launch of the iPhone I have always thought it was an awesome device I would purchase the minute it came to another carrier, specifically Verizon. The draconian rules of cell contracts coupled with the throw away nature of cellular phones led me to believe I could never escape the Verizon sphere of influence. This is especially true because I am on a family share plan in which three phones renew the contract in three different seasons. Eventually I came to realize this was not terrible news because the more I learned about the iPhone I realized it had one major weakness, AT&T.

Now that weakness is gone and I am free to purchase an iPhone on Verizon’s robust network, so I may continue my cellular indentured servitude another two years. However, I have decided for a variety of reasons that an iPhone purchase at the point would not be the best decision for me or my family. Specifically, the timing is wrong, the pricing is high, and the competition is fierce.

Apple is notorious for releasing revolutionary new products and then significantly evolving them on a one to two year cycle. This is a major reason why I refuse to purchase a first generation iPad when every fiber of my tech loving being desperately wants one. The iPhone 4 has been out for a while now and it is no secret that this product is tweaked on a yearly basis. Verizon will get their iPhone 4 in the middle of February and it will be old news by late Spring, early Summer. Better to wait a couple of months to get the latest and greatest from Apple, especially since we have waited this long already.

Maybe I am cheap, or maybe my wife is monetarily cautious and I love my wife so I am frugal, but $299.99 (before tax) for a 32 gig phone seems a bit steep. I could purchase a 16 gig phone for 100 bucks less, but I would be cutting my current iPod capacity in half if I do that. Then there is the astronomical monthly data access fee, about 30 bucks a month on top of what I currently pay, which is substantial. Assuming I can get over my parsimonious approach to cellular handsets the iPhone still has to deal with fierce competition from other devices.

While iPhone competitors were negligible in the first few years of the products life cycle, this is no longer the case. The market has dozens of Android powered phones which have all the functionality of iPhone if not the je ne sais quois that makes users smile when playing with that particular handset. I do, however, know that this iteration of the iPhone will not be 4G enabled which means it is actually a generation behind some of its Android competition in terms of internet access speeds. Think of iPhone as DSL browsing while something like the HTC Thunderbolt 4G will be cruising along at cable modem speeds (if you don’t understand what that means I really appreciate you reading this entire posting).

I cannot believe I have come to this point after waiting so long for the magic phone to find its way to Verizon but I will not be purchasing an iPhone any time soon.

Full disclosure I own one share of Apple Inc. and a share of Google as well, I know I’m way to invested in these companies to objectively share my opinions.

Caprica: Blowback

I cannot believe that the Syfy channel burned all five remaining episodes of Caprica in one marathon night. While this was not the best way for the series to go out, at least they aired the episodes. Thank the gods (or God depending which side you fall on) for DVR functionality.

That out of the way I would like to talk about this specific episode. The hostage scenes were unbelievably powerful. I could not believe Syfy allowed this show to get away executing young people fighting a religious war. In all honesty, I felt very uncomfortably with the scenes as a whole and hard a truly hard time watching.

They then divulged that it was simply the first of many training exercise Lacey and her crew will face in STO boot camp. It was not real so nobody died, all was good, at least for the people who did not fail the exercise. But those deaths were now going to be done off camera. Except it was not done off camera and the audience viewed the executions all over again. Powerful and painful stuff to watch, I can’t believe Syfy canceled this show.

Speaking of painful to watch, how in the worlds did Clarice Willow come to any kind of power within the STO? It is obvious she is willing to kill to achieve her goals, but Mar-Beth was a true believer, possibly more so than Clarice herself. How is she not suspicious of Amanda? I can’t believe cop with a grudge, whose name may be Jordan (I tried to remember this time) completely outplayed Clarice, his boss and possibly the entire STO. Of course the Willow home does now have Zoe’s pin which may in fact be the resurrection program so Clarice is not as dumb as I like to believe she is.

My only question is how in the worlds is Daniel going to come into possession of that pin again? Maybe Clarice will bring it to him in an effort to understand the data, I wouldn’t be surprised if what is on that pin is all Turonese to her. The program he created of his wife was horrendous compared to Zoe’s, however, a grieving family would pay boat loads for it. Daniel does not believe in good enough. Daniel might be a dead man by series end if the Ha’La’Tha has his way.

However, smart money is on the brothers Adama killing off the Ha’La’Tha and perhaps installing Sam as the new big boss. If Joseph hates Daniel for his daughter’s actions how could he let the Ha’La’Tha get away with arming the people who put Zoe up to the deed? Samuel’s moral code will eventually begin to weigh on Joseph, it has to. While Caprica depicts all characters in morally ambiguous shades of grey Joseph has completely gone to the dark side at this point and needs some kind of redemption because at this point I don’t want to believe he fathered Bill Adama.

I did not hate Amanda this week. In fact, I actually enjoyed her storyline a bit. She actually does hate Clarice and is willing to do what it takes to bring her to justice, unless it involves risking her own life. Well, baby steps are important. If this series lived past the first season I wonder if she’d make an impressive Ellen Tigh like transition.

Thoughts on Daddy 3

Someone needs to have a talk with my Daddy. I would, but as I have previously indicated, I don’t talk yet and I’m doing my best to make sure he does not read my blog. Thankfully, this talk does not need to be about me. In fact, as we round out the first two weeks of Daddy Days he seems to be adjusting nicely (though at present he has been singing a lot from the Wicked soundtrack so not everything is perfect). Someone has to talk to him about his inability to be the pack leader of Benji, Daddy, and me.

I thought I had Daddy wrapped around my finger but it seems I could learn a thing or two from our manipulative dog. Our dog spent a majority of his time downstairs when I was first born. He obviously did not know how to integrate himself into the new family unit. More importantly, I think Mommy scared him a bit so Benji kept his distance.

However, in the two weeks since Daddy’s been home the old man has ceded more and more personal space to Benji than I thought possible. For instance, once Benji realized that Daddy was the parent in the home (a reality I have recently resigned myself to) he began to hang upstairs more. However, the hardwood floor is no place for a dog to nap, so Benjamin Linus (apparently his name is a television reference I don’t get) took one of the pillows off the couch downstairs and made himself a little nest near my play mat.

Daddy’s reaction should have been, “bad Benji” and taken the pillow to put it back on the couch, at least that would have been Mommy’s reaction. Instead, Daddy’s reaction was, “aw, how cute is this dog, he wants to spend more time with us, look he doesn’t quite fit, how adorable, baby feed yourself I’m going to snap a picture and put it on Facebook”, or something to that effect. This all happened seven or eight days ago and as I type this the dog is currently on that disgusting couch cushion.

The rest of what I am about to share happened while I was “sleeping”, but I’ve been able to observe Daddy and dogie’s behavior with my daddy monitor procured from Daddy’s R Dum.com. For some reason, the dog respected me more than my Father because whenever I hang out Benji sits on his pillow and naps. Yet, when it’s just them, if Daddy attempted to recline on his comfy couch and watch TV Benjamin would get right in his face and bark repeatedly.

At first Daddy would freak out and tackle the dog because he did not want Benji to wake me. But eventually Daddy noticed that Benji’s tail would wag the whole time they were wrestling, even when he used his “stern voice”. His next approach while more effective in the short term only served to reinforce bad Benjamin behavior. Every time Benjamin would start to get a little antsy Daddy would give him a treat. If Benji remained crazy for more than a few treats Daddy would give him wet food, his favorite. After three days of this conditioning Daddy realized that Benji remained in a state of hyperactivity the entire time Mommy was at work in an attempt to earn constant treats.

Breaking that cycle took some significant effort but I think Daddy finally figured out a system which is workable, if uncomfortable. It is kind of ironic that Benji started this whole series of events by bringing a pillow onto the hardwood floor because that is now where Daddy relaxes while I sleep. Now, when Benji gets that look in his eyes Daddy climbs onto the floor and Benji is content with Daddy’s discomfort. Humorously Benji rests on his pillow while Daddy lays on the floor. I can’t make this stuff up, but I think I can claim the title of pack leader!

Caprica: False Labor

Ironic that an actual child was born in an episode entitled “False Labor”. Of course the falsity referred to in the title was Daniel’s stalled progress on Zoe’s resurrection program. That said, in order to have a false labor a women must actually be pregnant. Therefore it is only a matter of time before Daniel figures this program out and actually resurrects the resurrection machine.

Amanda Greystone is actually enjoying her time in the group household, I don’t care what she told the police officer with a grudge. Also, I completely believe that she had postpartum depression after giving birth, let’s remember that she has had significant mental issues in her past. While it was nice that Clarice was not prominently featured in this episode, a double dose of Amanda was almost a little too much to bear.

I love that Zoe is taunting her father from beyond the grave. That said, she did have angelic help with the coding if we are to believe she has her very own head-character. Which kind of bums me out a little. The Cylons are supposed to be the children of humanity, not the children of God by way of humanity. Yet, Zoe designed the Cylon body with prophetic support and her father stole it. She then coded the resurrection program with heavenly help and her father is about to steal that as well.

While Zoe was responsible for the first Cylon taste of human blood, Samuel really just let the flood gates open. He killed a dozen people. While the Cylon stated, “By your command”, I added in my head, “But not for much longer”. Sam sees himself as a freedom fighter, but he is living on a world where he is the only one who cares. I wonder when he’ll hop a shuttle for Turon, Cylon in the cargo hold, and start settling things the way he knows how. Shouldn’t someone from Greystone Industries notice that the Cylon got shot up?

Joseph made a human connection again. I wonder how long before she reveals her virtual persona to him. Also, if she continues going into New Cap City shouldn’t she have news to share with him regarding his daughter? Joseph’s conversation with Daniel in the smoking section outside of the building was fantastic, I wish they would give those two screen time together.

Caprica: The Things We Lock Away

I finally caught up on this long neglected episode of television. I had this on my DVR for a week or so, because sometimes life gets busy. I completely intended to watch it as I truly did love this show when I heard the news that Caprica was cancelled by Syfy. I was disheartened and put off watching this episode even further into the future. The future turned into more than a couple of months, but here I am finally getting around to this series once again.

While this particular episode was no masterpiece it did serve as a reminder that this was a series cut down too soon. There are some amazingly complex and interesting concepts in Caprica. The scene where Zoe is confronted by family members of those who died in the Maglev bombing was powerful and thought provoking. “This won’t bring him back” she said to her soon to be attacker, “Yeah, but it might feel good”. The young man who stabbed her in the stomach didn’t even know if what he was doing was right. But he did it anyway because there are no perceived consequences for actions in New Cap City.

From a philosophical point of view I would argue that that man had nightmares about what he did to Zoe. In fact, all of the people who viciously attacked her in the arena should have had nightmares about what they did to her. When does a game cease to be a game? When you feel as though it is real. New Cap City is a real place, you just don’t take a car, plane, or train to get there. You power up the holoband and you have been transported to a real destination. If you die there you are done, you’ve gone on to another life, an afterlife.

A lot was made in this episode about the humanity of Zoe. Zoe is human. In fact, she is so human that she gets her very own head-character. Since she has not made a “meaningful” connection with another human being, her head-character comes in the form of herself. While I like the concept I cannot help but feel as though it is a little stale considering we now know what these projections are, if you saw the series finale of Battlestar Galactica (if you haven’t, what’s wrong with you).

The King is dead, long live the King! If Daniel wanted to keep the blood off his hands he should have never attempted a military coup. Virgis turned out to be a few cards short of a deck, because Daniel’s plan was not a terrible one. How much power could this mob family possibly have? Of course, I would like to give the writers credit for giving Virgis the courage to carry out his misguided convictions. He came there with a plan and would not be deterred from it, unlike Tamara.

Tamara was convinced in short order that she needed to befriend Zoe. If she truly believed that Zoe was responsible for the Maglev disaster she should have needed considerably more time to get over it. Especially considering the fact that she died in the tragedy.

Clarice and Amanda are still not interesting and now Lacey isn’t interesting either. That is all I have to say about that story line for now.

Fallout New Vegas

This pains me to write but Fallout New Vegas is a broken game. I can say that with authority because I played this game for easily 50 hours (according to my wife it was considerably more time). I know what you are thinking, “why in the world would anyone play a broken game for more than 50 hours?” The answer to that question is complicated so I’ll do my best to explain.

My desire to push forward with New Vegas stems from my love of Fallout 3. I picked that game up and instantly fell in love with the story, action, and inventory system. The phrase “you are over encumbered and cannot run” meant it was time to slow down the breakneck pace of the game and figure out which items to combine, use, or toss. It sounds mundane, I know, but it was seriously fun for some odd reason. Action was intense, almost any weapon ever imagined was available for use to kill mutated insects, feral animals, and other crazy creatures you’d come across in the irradiated waste of post nuclear war USA. The story was pitch perfect, you play as a naive young man looking for his father in the remnants of the nations capital.

Fallout New Vegas had the action and the inventory system but the story was convoluted to say the least. You play as a courier who was left for dead then basically raised from it. You then go into the wastes of Nevada and meet all the groups vying for power. They all want you to work towards their goals to feed their ambitions for the area. It is a really neat setup for a game but I could not help but feel as though my choices were ultimately forced upon me and the openness promised was nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

There is a a karma system in the game which tells you whether or not your actions are good or evil. If I was attacked by a group, meaning they shot first, and I managed to survive I would receive bad karma not for killing people but from stealing by stealing their possessions after they died. I found that to be an odd moral code. But if that was my only problem I’d soon get over it. Non-playable-character’s (NPC’s) want your head on a stick if you shoot another NPC in front of them which makes sense, however, they also attempt to kill you if you take a soda out of their fridge. What’s worse, if you fight back and kill them after they’ve attacked you for being a mooch you’ll get back karma for the soda and the NPC deaths on your hands.

However, it was not until I came across a character known as E-DE that I realized New Vegas was not held to same quality control standards as Fallout 3 (which admittedly had problems of its own). I loved E-DE. It was a flying robot which brought death from above to all who dared to attack me. It was encoded with a message from the Enclave that I was attempting to piece together when it disappeared. I don’t mean wandered off and forgot to come back, I mean literally disappeared from the game. The robot showed up on my map, at the Boomer Base, but everywhere I wandered it would elude me.

I spent hours searching for that bot until I finally broke down and consulted an online guide. On message boards I found out that E-DE was not gone because of something I did, but rather this was a frequent glitch with the game. The only suggested remedy was going back to a previous save. Sadly I did not have a previous save, because in my search I did various other tasks to break the boredom and I lost E-DE permanently. Since E-DE was technically in my party, meaning I still had the perks of its company, I was unable to recruit another character to my cause.

Once E-DE was gone, the bloom was off the rose. The game crashed almost hourly with no rhyme or reason. This would hamper my progress significantly and put me in a catch 22. I could save often and possibly add another bug to my play through or not save until I know everything was kosher but risk a freeze and lose all progress. On other occasions, I would complete a task only it would still be active on my Pipboy and characters would act as if we were right in the middle of action that was not happening. It got so bad that I began to assume things that were actually supposed to happen in game were glitches.

For example, the NCR kept attacking me even though I did nothing aggressive to them and I reset the game half a dozen times trying to get it to work right. It turned out that I was wearing armor of a faction that they were at war with and that is why I was accosted, which is actually a really neat game mechanic. Unfortunately, because of my continued frustrations with this game I thought, “this game is so busted” and tried an external remedy.

The next paragraph contains spoilers about events near the end of the game. Skip if you are sensitive to such things!

Currently I am at Hoover Dam about to go the independent route to victory. I spent the entire game courting the NCR and even got them to begrudgingly spare the Brotherhood of Steel. Yet for reason, which I cannot explain, the mission to save President Kimball ended without ending. The characters froze in time and no amount of resetting could bring them to the present. Being unable to finish that mission meant I had to beat the game with help from Yes Man, whom I dislike passionately. Once the NCR started shooting at me for following Yes Man’s directions I powered my Playstation down and started writing down my thoughts as a way to release my frustrations with this unfinished game.

Fallout New Vegas could have been spectacular, unfortunately in my experience it is mostly just a broken game.

Thoughts on Daddy 2

No Mommy again yesterday, that makes a full week! I think something major has changed. We all had about ten days together and then it seems as if Mommy and Daddy switched schedules. In any event it is very odd and I’m not sure I love the situation. Mommy is fun, comforting, and chatty. Daddy on the other hand is gruff, hairy, and primarily speaks to me in song.

I started taking extra naps this week just so I wouldn’t have to hear him sing the full soundtrack of the Lion King acapella for the fifth time in one day (btw I Googled spelling for acapella and it varies so please don’t send me harassing emails). In ridiculous buffoon news, the lint roller got stuck to Daddy’s back and he walked around with it there for a full five minutes before he noticed!

Along those same lines Daddy seems to be taking over household chores a bit more this week. I saw him do almost ten loads of laundry, curiously he did not fold anything he just piled clean clothes in the guest bedroom. He has been cooking more too which is usually his strong suit, at least according to Mommy (she’s probably just being polite). But the other day he made a mess in the oven when he spilled an uncooked pizza whilst trying to transfer it to his pizza stone.

Daddy told me last night before he put me to bed that he was going to clean the oven. Unfortunately he did not consult me on how to do it. He seemed to believe he could simply hit the “self cleaning” button and go to bed. Whelp, he had a literal rude awakening when the smoke detector started beeping! Actually, the detector did not wake him so I had to start screaming to get his lazy butt out of bed. Before you call me a baby, I smelled smoke and thought the house was on fire.

After rolling over and attempting to quiet my calls for help by shoving a pacifier in my mouth, he also realized that the house was on fire. He sprang from the bead and I did see him again for almost 20 minutes. I did hear some conversation bits which I would like to share with you now. “They should have a warning sticker on that effing button”, “No, you have to do it I can’t reach the ceiling”, “I swear I am going to hit this piece of (I did not recognize this word so I did not remember it) with a hammer”.

Correction: When I was composing my blog in Google Docs I had fully intended to create my own website and post there. However, time constraints coupled with Google’s refusal to monetize my blog because I’m not technically old enough to use the web made the cost/benefit equation tip towards piggy backing off Daddy’s blog. It does pain me to share digital space with his awful reviews of the equally awful show FlashForward (I was in utero for part of that series and even I knew they were not going anywhere).

Thoughts on Daddy

He finally put me in my crib so I am able to post to my blog! I was lucky enough to “procure” my Mommy’s iPod Touch and I’ve seen Daddy write in Google Docs/post to Blogger so frequently that this was easier than learning to crawl, talk, or poop on the potty (all skills which I have yet to master, or minor for that matter). Thankfully the written word comes easily to me and I figured it was time to let the world know what I am thinking.

First off, I would like to thank my Mommy for taking such good care of me from birth through today! No one understands my needs more than Mom! Which brings me to my Daddy. What is up with this guy?

He woke me up early this morning because I coughed and he thought I was going to stop breathing, nincompoop. Then he put on my Pandora station, which I usually love, and proceeded to butcher every song that was played because he figured I would not tell the world how terrible he sounded belting out “Everything” by Michael Buble (Buble is a funny name to say, it’s like bubble, only French). Whelp, Dad, the joke is on you because I’m telling everyone!

How am I going to have any shot at musical talent if he continues to sing so poorly and loud? I cannot even hear the actual version of the song over his obnoxious warbling. I think he is going to make me tone deaf before I can even speak. Not to mention the way he musically mumbles when he does not know the actual words to the song! All I’m saying is maybe Daddy should just read me a book and leave the music to actual musicians.

While I am complaining, I would like to note that I am not allowed to watch TV. The television is shiny, loud, and stimulating which is a perfect recipe to help my brain develop and expand my vocabulary, yet they won’t let me anywhere near it! It is a terrible irony considering the fact that Daddy’s blog has four times as many posts on Fringe as it does on me!

Speaking of things to do online, I think it is time I was allowed to get my own Facebook page. I mean, I’m 17 weeks old today and I really need to connect with people. I know for a fact that there are already hundreds of pictures of me online and I believe I need to start managing my image before it spirals out of my control.

Fringe: The Cure

This was a fantastic episode in many respects and a puzzling one in others. Olivia’s speech to Broyles at the end of the episode was a perfect example of how impressive she is as a person. Peter’s little grin as Walter made Mr. Papaya’s (the friendliest of all fruits) head explode was a perfectly understated way to clue the audience into the fact that he actually is beginning to like his father.

I loved the scene with Nina Sharp and Peter at the horse park (I bet there is a fancier name for it but I am not searching). Nina knows more about Peter’s past than almost any other character on the show. He made fruitful contact with Peruvian natives, really? She also clued the Peter into Walter’s relationship with the Massive Dynamic crew, which was significantly more meaningful than Peter originally thought.

Let’s ignore the fact that a person who attempted to kill a man at the age of nine might have a hard time getting into the FBI. The issue with Olivia’s stepfather seemed a bit out of left field to me, which is really odd considering I’ve seen many episodes beyond this one and I don’t recall them mentioning it ever again. Was Olivia’s sister born after she shot this man?

If she was that makes Rachel Olivia’s half sister? I seem to remember something about Olivia’s mother dying in child birth but I could be confusing that with Rachel dying shortly after being born on the other side. On a side note, who knew a yearly birthday card could be so creepy?

More to the point, who is Olivia’s father? We’ve never met Mr. Dunham and he has never been directly referenced by any character in the series. Wouldn’t it be crazy if Walter created her in a test tube? Of course that isn’t extremely likely for a variety of reason, the foremost being she exists in both universes. I am more than a little curious as to who Olivia’s father actually is.

I did not spot the Observer in this episode, minus ten cool points for me!

Fringe: Power Hungry

Our friend Meegar was a living conduit of electricity. Neat ability if he could figure out how to control it. I think Meegar was a cortexaphan kid, but I don’t remember for sure. This episode as a whole was a bit slow, the story of the week was less than thrilling, and our progress on the John Scott/Pattern front while considerable was a bit uninteresting. In short, this episode laid groundwork for story to come.

I enjoyed Walter and Astrid’s interaction where she called him out on not knowing her name. He did at least know it started with an “A”. The Observer got off the elevator early in this episode. I’m really having fun with the where’s Waldo aspect of the Observer story line considering I missed it completely the first time around.

Charlie was a good friend to Olivia. He did not judge Olivia when she told him about seeing John Scott and he gave her good advice on how to get over her trauma. It is telling that she confided in Charlie over Walter or Peter at this point in the series. I truly hope they are able to bring Charlternate back from the other universe and into ours.

Fringe: The Arrival

Well the Observers showed up in a big way in this particular episode. I believe this week’s featured Observer goes by the name September but I cannot be sure until I get to the episode “August”. It took Olivia three weeks to spot the Observer which is fairly impressive considering it took me three episodes and I knew of their existence when I began my re-watch.

It is amazing to see Walter and Peter interact at this stage in their relationship. Walter wants to connect with Peter, but he simply does not know how to go about it. Where as Peter wants nothing to do with the old man but is drawn to him like a magnet.

Olivia began to fall in love with Peter in this episode. He, as per usual, is oblivious. Unfortunately she is going to have to deal with quite a bit before she and Peter have an actual shot at a relationship.

My favorite moment of this episode was the Walter/Astrid interaction, post injection. In the present of this series no one understands Walter better or enjoys his company more than Astrid. They have come a remarkably long way!

The “bad guy” in this episode seemed an awful lot like a rouge Observer. He wore a hat with a green, green, green, red dotted pattern so we could not tell whether or not he was bald. His eyebrows could easily have been drawn on his face. But the most telling sign was that his weapon was certainly not of this world. Additionally he had the ability to read thoughts of people, albeit with a bit of mechanical help.

We now know that this device was not the reason the September saved Walter and Peter. He saved them because Peter has a greater purpose to bring about the end of one world. With a device I believe the Observers themselves created.

The canister in this episode vibrated on a radio frequency of 2400 megahertz. I wonder if that is anywhere near the frequency of the numbers stations that gave our Fringe team the locations of the pieces of the doomsday machine. It would certainly explain the Observers interest in this particular device.

Fringe: Ghost Network

Well that was interesting. Ghost Network gave us a significant preview of things to come, specifically Amber. Walter even said that the people on the bus seemed like flies caught in amber. Watching this episode again truly made me believe in the plan of the writers to tell a wonderfully coherent story from beginning to end.

The whole ghost network idea seemed a bit odd. I know often the audience has to simply buy into the the “science” of Fringe but why was Roy picking up phone conversations? If he was tapped into that mans mind he should be able to see all his thoughts not just the evil actions he is a part of.

I forgot that Charlie was funny! He joked with Olivia about John Scott telling him he loved him as well!

I finally caught the Observer! He was on the train in a half second flash as Olivia was walking by. I did a bit of research and picked up a Fringe Podcast called “The Fringe Podcast” and they inferred that the Observer shows up in every single episode of Fringe. If I have time I’ll go back and re-re-watch episodes one and two.