Unlike most of my friends, I did not care much for this episode. I will therefore have to do a spoilery filled rant. Which means cuts for those who haven't seen it.

( Read more... )

Finished: A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Thoughts on the debut of John Carter behind the cut. Not really spoilery. ( Read more... )
Started and finished: The Fifth Omni Book of Science Fiction (short stories)
Started: Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman

Thoughts on the Omni SF book behind the cut. Not really spoilery. ( Read more... )
Finished: Otherland: Vol 4: Sea of Silver Light, by Tad Williams
Started: Queen of Mazes, by Karl Schroeder

Thoughts about the whole of the Otherland series behind the cut. Some minor spoilers. Quick thought: liked it more than I thought I would. ( Read more... )

Other news! I have a new tasty sandwich treat. Mortadella and Caesar dressing. Now, one of my favorite sandwich discoveries of the last decade was Mortadella and Feta Cheese. Very nice, but there's one problem. I have to have Feta. And though I love feta cheese, I don't eat it enough to make it feasible to have it on hand at all times - it's too expensive in small batches and goes bad in large batches. So usually I only get it if my grandmother gives me some from her own batches (she uses it a lot), and so Mortadella and Feta is, although awesome, somewhat rare for me. However, Caeser dressing does a lot of the same good thing - gives it a nice tangy, salty kick, and I can have Caesar dressing all the time. So it is now superior on my list of favorite sandwiches.
(By favorite sandwich discoveries I mean things that I can make easily and for relatively cheaply, not fancy frou frou sandwiches or ones that require 50 steps, no matter how awesome they might be).

In other food news tried a microwave (PC) 'lamb rogon josh' dish today, which was quite nice for a microwave meal. Never had rogon josh before, but it might be worth trying sometime if I get the chance at a real place.

And, haven't mentioned dreams in a while, but there were a couple in the last few days I wanted to get down. One involving something very disturbing from Doctor Who, and another just SF goodness. ( Read more... )

Oh, and damn you Marvel. You finally decide to do a Runaways What If (What If... The Runaways became the Young Avengers)... and not only do you have to give it to CB Cebulski to write (a guy who seems very nice and apparently likes all my favorite characters, but to whom I've never particularly enjoyed any of his writing), but you make it a BACK-UP story to five other What Ifs I have no interest in. *shakes fist*. I think I'll have to resort to... let's call it magic, to get this story.

Finally, shouldn't there be _some_ standards and accountability with television commercials? I mean, specifically, that when a TV channel advertises something as an "all new episode", should it not _be_ an all-new episode, and if it is not, that commercial pulled and replaced with one that does not use that phrase (or, in the absence of that, some kind of punishment)? I'm speaking specifically of the Comedy Network, which I watch a fair bit, and I constantly see commercials for Corner Gas that start with "ON AN ALL NEW CORNER GAS"... except they're reruns. This year's reruns, sure, but reruns all the same. NOT ALL NEW. YOU DIE NOW. It's not like I'm looking forward to new eps or anything, it's the principle of the thing - if you advertise All New, it had damn well better be all new. It's bad enough when US channels used to advertise something as the "World television premiere" of something that already aired in Canada, but this is another level entirely. I don't actually think they're being deceptive in this case, just lazy (too lazy to redo the commercials from when it was new), but laziness is not an excuse - you're a network, you've got millions of dollars - fix it. *shakes fist*.

This week I got one book:

Young X-Men #3 (Meh, wishing it would get to the point)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also picked up at the used bookstore:
Probability Moon, by Nancy Kress

Work wasn't bad. Showed up early and not too heavy. Also, it helped me prove Heinlein wrong today! That is, in the specific case. There WAS such a thing as a free lunch, and I had it. They had a deal with the Wendy's next to us that employees got a free meal. So I had their 'Spicy' chicken breast sandwich combo. I say 'spicy' because, well, what the media considers "Spicy", I almost always consider merely "flavoured". Don't get me wrong, it's usually a pleasant flavour, but I need more of a kick to count it as spicy and am constantly disappointed when something advertised as spicy isn't. And I'm not even one of those crazy major league chili-heads. Still, yay for free food, even if I probably should have gone for the Baconator.

Random other thoughts:
Things I saw on the way home today: A guy fall off his bike in the middle of a street (luckily there were no cars around that the time). A fistfight break out between two people (looking around high school age, and near a school). Rosey O'Donnell at the Bookstore. Well, technically I don't know if I saw her. I saw the crowd around her, and it's possible my eyes crossed over her at some point, but I could not confirm.

At the bookstore I also happened to see "Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone", which makes me wonder.. surely somebody out there's written a crackfic where Indiana Jones stumbles upon rumors of a parallel society running off of magic, in England, and so investigates Hogwarts? I mean, come on, Internet. I'd be disappointed if someone hasn't.

Pet peeve: I hate all the headlines saying 'Obama makes history'... not because I don't support Obama or don't think it's great he passed this particular milestone, but because "makes history" is a meaningless phrase - if he lost, it would make history. If he choked on a celery stick and had to be rushed to the hospital it would make history. Whether he won quick, won after a long fight, lost quick, lost after a long fight, he made history. If he quit right now to become a hermit in the woods where he carves make a congress out of wood to agree with him, he makes history. History dutifully records what happens even if it's not a huge milestone that's never happened before. In my glorious new regime (which would, btw, make history), the phrase "makes history" would be banned from newscasts.

Also, is it wrong I'm much less bothered by the fact that the people on the colon check commercial are transparent and have visible internal organs, than I am about the fact that they're apparently going to the movies nude?

Finally, it's come to that time. I must say goodbye to Newsarama. That is, I must say goodbye to the forums. I'll still read it for news, I suppose, although by the looks of the front page it'll probably stop being my primary source. But I'm leaving behind the forums, which have changed formats. Why?

Because you need javascript to access it. To access forums. And that's abominable. I'm sorry, called me old-fashioned, but I like to surf with javascript off, 90% of the time, and it manages to cut out 90% of the crap (viruses, popups, etc). Having a site that _requires_ javascript On almost guarantees I will rarely use it. (Although often, if there's a site that I like that doesn't require it, I'll add it to my 'allow javascript on these sites' list, because it provides _easier_ use. But if it requires it, usually gets a 'screw you' response). IMHO, it's extremely poor web design. In my glorious new regime it would be disallowed for forums. So, I'm out one more forum.

Well, that was lame. There were a few points, but overall I thought it was awfully silly, and not in a good way. And normally I don't post on it, but since the majority of people seemed to enjoy the ep, I felt the need to rant.

(Spoilers)
( Read more... )

Edit: I've decided to attach some quotes from an article about "Why Doctor Who Sucks right Now" that sum up how I feel. No spoilers for future episodes in my segments, though the original essay has a few. I just wanted to quote it here because of a big, MAN I AGREE (not specifically that it sucks, just that it could and should be so much better).
( Read more... )

Okay, let's start off with Jumper. I saw it, and I was, expectedly, very disappointed. Significant spoilers behind cut, both for the book and the movie, to some degree comparing and pointing out the differences.
( Read more... ) In short, the same old story, loved the book, hated the movie.

Second, let's go for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Good episode on the whole, except for one BIG, obvious science flub (unless I'm mistaken, but I don't think I am) which really detracted things for me. (not major spoilers, but some for the recent ep)
( Read more... )

Now let's move onto Stargate Atlantis, "Kindred". Minor spoilers, but I'm not going too in depth.
( Read more... )

And we'll wrap it up with some two-for-one Book Foo...
Finished: Woken Furies, by Richard K. Morgan
Started: The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman (reread)

Thoughts behind cut, non-spoilery. ( Read more... )

Finished: Otherland, Vol 1, by Tad Williams
Started: Jumper, by Steven Gould (reread, to get the taste of the movie out of my head)

I'm not going to cut my thoughts to keep this short: It was interesting enough that I'm going to read the next book in the series, and probably the rest of it unless it starts to suck fast.

I think we'll start off with some Book Foo.

Finished: The Best of Interzone (short story collection)
Started: Otherland, by Tad Williams (tentative choice, subject to change)

Thoughts behind the cut, not terribly spoilery becuase it's a short story collection. ( Read more... )

Random rant. You know, if someone hasn't picked up their cell phone after you calling them for more than half an hour straight? They might not be there. Particularly if they're at work. But somebody uninvolved might be in the vicinity of the cell phone and not appreciate the words "I wanna lie dowwwwwn in a beeed of roses!" repeated on an endless loop every 3 seconds while you try. The rule is if you can't reach them in a minute, you try again every 5 (you can constant call a landline if you like, in an emergency)

Oh, and my childhood suffered a severe blow, as I watched the animated movie Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight and it was... so bad. (not really any spoilers except in general how they differed from the books)
( Read more... )

So yesterday was one of those days that make me wonder if I'm not secretly in control of the universe on a subconscious level. Why? Because I found $20 on the sidewalk. That's not all, you see, because earlier in the week my brother found $20 (and separately in another incident, $10), and he mentioned it yesterday so while I was walking to work I was thinking to myself, "man, wouldn't it be cool to find $20", and then on the way home, there it was. This was similar to another time when I was thinking about how I once found some bus tickets on the ground, and how cool that would have been, and then later that day I spot like 5 of them on the ground. But then my rational skepticism kicked in, ( Read more... )

Speaking of, Heroes was last night. The first of the big TV show droughts. No spoilers here, but it did feel a bit rushed with plotlines seemingly being dropped (there was originally supposed to be one more ep in the volume but they hastily rewrote when the strike seemed unavoidable, so at least there'd be a conclusion to it), and just a weakness overall. I love Heroes conceptually, but I do think they need to make a few changes in writers and maybe directors, because it's not as good as last year and there are really some dumb plotting bits that need to be smoothed out. Particularly (this is not so much spoilery for the last episode, but a problem that's been recurring throughout this season, and contains some spoilers of that) ( Read more... )

WGA is still on strike. 100% support for the writers here. I'd like to briefly rant about two things I keep seeing popping up on people who are down on the writers (and I realize that most people on my flist are rightly supporting the writers or haven't commented at all, but I see it on message and comment boards a fair bit, and I feel like ranting here rather than there):

1) All these writers suck nowadays anyway, TV is so lame I can't watch it, they don't deserve to get paid what they get.
2) Writers are greedy, they make too much money already, and now they want more? And what's this with residuals, they should just do a job and get paid and have that be the end of it like people who do costuming and set design.
My responses, cut. ( Read more... ) Anyway, rant over.

Today/Last night I had another cool zombie apocalypse dream. They're still shambling around in my subconscious, I guess. This one involved the Marvel Zombies, at least at the start. ( Read more... )

Oh, and I'm thinking of doing a DC companion piece for the icon I'm using. But I need ideas, both for what to say and who to use. I've got the Batman one settled (he writers on his livejournal, then gives an example in typical batman gritty style, ending with MY PARENTS ARE DEAD!), but I don't really want to just have the exact same jokes as the Marvel one with different faces, so need ideas for other ones. Feel free to comment.

Edit: Because I just found it. Spider-Man: One More Day. Either you know the rumors and have an opinion, or don't and should ignore this. But as bad signs go? The writer (JMS) himself saying he considered taking his name off the last two issues of One More Day is a pretty bad one.

Over the last month or so, there's something been quietly going on at Wikipedia that you may not have noticed yet. They're removing nearly all of the spoiler warning tags.

Now, this itself wouldn't bother me too much. I'll explain my feelings more behind the cut. The main thing is that it's how it's done rather than specifically what's being done. ( Read more... )

Okay, there's these commercials for this movie called 'Nancy Drew', about some teen girl outcast who solves mysteries. Come on, can't anyone come up with any ideas other than ripping off Veronica Mars? ;) (Oh, hush, I know Drew came first, I'm just kidding, but the commercial does give me a bit of the same vibe, even though they're outcast for different reasons). Maybe if the movie does well, for the sequel they'll adapt the controversial "Key in the Clock" (so many swears).

I reconfigured my room a few days ago, reorienting my bed and putting in my desk and all my comics, so it's much more cluttered, but I like it better this way. I'd kept the old way because supposedly people were going to fix my window but since I've been here 3 months with no word on when, I'm assuming someone dropped the ball on that. Really, I don't care about the window being fixed, it's a small crack and I don't look out of it anyway.

Doctor Who was... pretty good. I do have some serious reservations about it, though. (SPOILERS for Family of Blood)
( Read more... )

So some of my high school friends had planned to get together for dinner at a place relatively near me over the weekend. Although I didn't want to confirm for the dinner itself, for various reasons, it was close enough that I thought about doing a surprise drop in to say hello for a few minutes and then going back. Alas, on the day of it slipped my mind and there were no followups on it, so if they did meet I wasn't able to see them. Ah well, would have been nice to see them again. Maybe next time, if there is one.

I have some book foo to do too (wow, try saying that 5 times fast) but I'll save that for another post, I think.

Huge post time!

Okay, here's what I thought about the major shows I watched this year. They're not the only shows I watched, but the ones where I made it a point to watch them. There will be spoilers, in some cases for the season finale, as well as a look ahead at what's coming. There will be some ranting.

Ongoing shows: BSG, GA, Heroes, Lost, Office, Prison Break, Supernatural, SGA, 24
( Read more... )

Cancellations/Ending Shows: Drive, Jericho, SG1, VM
( Read more... )

The Coming Year

The networks have released their TV upfronts, detailing the new shows going on the network. A good one-stop site for it all is here.

Shows I'm interested in or vaguely interested in: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, New Amsterdam, Pushing Daisies
( Read more... )
My fall viewing schedule, Monday to Friday:

Monday:
8pm: Prison Break
9pm: Heroes
10pm: Journeyman

Tuesday:
8pm: New Amsterdam

Wednesday:
8pm Pushing Daisies

Thursday:
9pm: The Office
9pm: Grey's Anatomy (tape one, watch the other, probably)

Friday: I usually catch up on Supernatural where it airs on my local channel. Don't know if that'll continue, but it's a possibility.

Saturday/Saturday I sometimes get local broadcasts of US cable shows, plus there's always the typical animation block.

Once January rolls around I'll have BSG, Lost, 24, and Sarah Connor Chronicles

Haven't done one of these in a while, so here we go, strap yourself in... if you're into that sort of thing, anyway.

Lets start with a Interview meme:
Want me to ask you five questions? Leave a comment, I'll ask you five questions, and then you answer the questions in your own journal.

Here's 5 questions from foxfyre...

1) What was it that got you started using the internet? ( Read more... )
2) You generally avoid any ODA (online displays of affection). What are your criteria for making an exception to this rule?( Read more... )
3) How the heck did you put up with running XET for so long? ( Read more... )
4) You've mentioned in the past that you don't like music. Can you explain that a little bit?( Read more... )
5) If you really were a super-powered individual, what do you think your power would be? ( Read more... )

Facebook continues to be an odd source of nostalgia. I've made contact with a few friends from way back that I hadn't heard anything from in years. There's even a group for the old BBS scene in my city. And found, but didn't contact, a couple other people, mostly old crushes and the like. I was also surprised to find a photo of myself in Grade 5. Someone uploaded a class picture, and I stumbled upon it (through a weird series of searches). I don't actually remember the person who uploaded it, but I found myself in it all the same.

On to talking about writing, I'm on another writing cycle. I've been toying with making an addition to the workload. Right now, for 'on' weeks, I do 2000 words per non-work day, for a total of 8000 words. But lately once in a while I've been feeling an urge to write somewhat more... frivolous stuff. Stuff that I'd feel bad claiming under the word limit, but that I kind of want to do for fun. Like, for example, attempting to write a movie adaptation of a book I like, or a comic, or something like that. It's not really 'my' work, but I find such things fun sometimes, even if it couldn't go anywhere. So I'm thinking of devoting one of my work days on a writing cycle to working on these sorts of things. Not Wednesday of course, since that's also comic day, which means in addition to work, I'm walking for something like 3 hours that day, and it's also a relatively big TV night, so I don't really have time. But on Friday I usually could swing at least some time for writing, and Sunday my work's really negligable, although I tend to sleep more in the afternoon to make up for waking up so godawfully early. Though also on Sundays at least on a semi-regular basis I go do family stuff, so that would eat into the time. Anyway, I'm still thinking.

So, that big university massacre. Normally I'm silent on such things, but there were a couple of things I noticed on the coverage that I wanted to get off my chest.
( Read more... )

But on to happier things to end off. TV! New Heroes on Monday finally. Woot. Supernatural was fun this week. Grey's Anatomy, okay. Didn't care for LOST this week (Sorry BKV, I knew it was your first, but too much stupidity on the part of the characters). Still mixed on Drive. Other than that, there really hasn't been a whole lot new, aside from Doctor Who. (very few spoilers behind
cut) ( Read more... )

So, happy St. Patrick's Day all. Of course, I'm not doing anything for it (aside from the icon), but hey, the forms must be observed and I must point it out.

Minor work related rant: ( Read more... )

Book Foo:
Finished: The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons (Reread)
Started: Endymion by Dan Simmons (reread)
Thoughts and selected quote (all not terribly spoilery) behind the cut.
( Read more... )

Let's see. St. Patrick's Day also marks one week until my birthday. ( cut for slight whininess, feel free to skip )

Oh, and I've made a couple new friends in the past few days, so hi!

So, on Saturday I went to a wedding. ( Read more... )

As mentioned above, my roommates and I have been seriously talking about getting another RPG game going. ( Read more... )

Prison Break, Heroes, and 4400 tonight. Woot. (No, not you woot, just a general woot).

This morning I've been idly considering trying NaNoWriMo 'officially' for the first time, since I don't have school or XET to worry about this November. Normally I just sort of promised to myself that I'd try to write a little more that month. Well, technically speaking I probably still wouldn't be 'official' since I loathe signing up for things, but that I'd actually be trying to do a 50,000 word novel rather than having no specific goal and just continuing to add a little here and there to my short stories or longer term projects. Of course, I still have my alternaljournal to keep up with and November I plan to be a 'mission month', so I'd have to be writing more of that too, to keep up, and that would take time from and not contribute to my hypothetical NaNoWriMo. Hmm. Well, I'll think about it some more.

Oh, and for anyone still wondering - that convention I went to back a month ago where I met Morena Baccarin and theoretically took her picture? Yeah, there'll be no pictures forthcoming, somehow the camera lost all of them (see, I always said my face would break any cameras!). Ah well.

Haven't done one of these in a while.

I'm hungry.

Dream Foo: Possibly the weirdest dream ever. ( Read more... )

Meh, I want to RP again, but I'm still too damn picky.

Commercials annoying me recently: What the commercial is vs what impression I get from it! - ( Read more... )

New TV season starts soon. So far the only new show I've seen and kinda dug was Jericho (downloaded the first episode). Still have hopes for Heroes, but haven't seen the first ep yet (I know it's available, I just haven't gotten around to it). And of course returning shows are love.

Oh, and remember the convention? Turns out I was right. According to another browncoat (who actually saw me but didn't know who I was or that they knew me from online), Christina Hendricks (Saffron) showed up on Saturday, pretty well right at the exact time I was leaving the convention. If t'weren't for bad luck, sometimes I think I'd have none at all. ;)

Book Foo:
Finished: Ender's Shadow, by Orson Scott Card
Thoughts and selected quote behind the cut (very low on spoilers, probably safe even if you haven't read the book): ( Read more... )

Started and Finished: Shadow of the Hegemon, by Orson Scott Card
Again, thoughts and quote (and again, very low on spoilers).
( Read more... )
Started: Swan Songs, the Complete Hooded Swan Collection by Brian Stableford (Wednesdays)
Will be starting: Shadow Puppets, by Orson Scott Card (Fridays and Sundays)

Ha-ha, today I found $20! Of course, it was _my_ $20, but it was $20 I thought I must have lost somewhere, perhaps in the laundry. Turned out it had somehow got on the floor near my hamper.
That makes me feel better.

Working on a WIDW for Runaways after BKV leaves, based on a thread on the BKV forums (put some initial thoughts there, these'd be a little more detailed).

Haven't really written much, writing-wise, this week. Well, anything (aside from my alternaljournal). Still been good about not napping if I don't write first, at least, but I was getting into a decent rhythm (wtf is up with that word, it never looks right) going. Oh well, maybe I'll officially declare this week a vacation in honor of labour day holiday and get back in to the rhythm.

Haven't done one of these in a bit, but time for another Big Random Post

The first topic is Copyright and the coming zombie apocalypse.

Now how's that for a title?
( Read more... )

Speaking of zombies, Book Foo:
Finished: The Warrior's Apprentice (Lois McMaster Bujold), Battle Royale (reread) (Koushun Takami), I Am Legend (reread) (Richard Matheson)
Started: The Year's Best SF 10
Thoughts behind cut, not terribly spoilery.
( Read more... )
Some recent icons! (Veronica Mars, Doctor Who) ( Read more... )

Social Interaction Report: For Friday ( Read more... )

So yeah, yet another Friday, and yet another day the $!#$@ truck was 2 hours late. They really need to get their $#!% in gear or I'm going to have to quietly be annoyed some more (see how actiony I am?)

Ah well, the one consolation prize of late truck is that the girl I used to chat with before work on sunday mornings now works friday afternoons and so I had a bit of chance to chat which was pleasant enough although it wasn't really my finest hour in social interaction.

Oh, and before work I stopped at the mall to look into getting new shoes. See, I've had my current pair of shoes for about 10 years and... well, they're pretty much just a formality at this point. There are parts where there's nothing between my foot and the pavement. So I figured, maybe it was time to get a new pair. Unfortunately after spending about an hour at the mall I was unable to find one that a) fit me, b) I liked, c) wasn't more expensive than I'm willing to pay for my decade pair of shoes and d) didn't involve me having to ask for help from a salesperson because I don't do so good at that.

Now, yeah, I'm a little picky about what I wear, because, as you may have pieced together from above, I intend to wear it until the edge of doomsday or until it no longer functions. So I want something I'll be happy with. But I don't think what I wanted was _that_ much to ask. I just want a pure black running shoe with laces rather than velcro. And there were some that looked fine in style, but none that fit (well, annoyingly, there was _one_ that fit, an orphan shoe of good style and price and fit, but the other half of it was nowhere to be found.

Anyway, new topic. Comic Con season is on, and some interesting bits have popped up. They've announced a sequel to Phoenix Endsong, called Phoenix Warsong, which follows what happened after the tiny remaining spark of the Phoenix Force visited the Stepford Cuckoos. Looks like they'll be heavily involved and almost (if that) no Jean so I'm really looking forward to it. Couple other projects and events that look cool announced in the various reports (some spoilers): Marvel, X-Men. Also in the 'I did not know' category. Allan Heinberg, who writes Young Avengers, is also currently a staff writer on Grey's Anatomy. Huh. They should do an episode where a group of YA lookalikes get taken to the hospital after getting wounded trying to stop a crime or something. ;)

Well, I finally finished Planescape Torment. Pretty good game overall. A little too linear at times and I would have liked to have explore more. Tiny bit buggy and annoying too. But overall good.

Specific thoughts:
( Read more... )

Some rambling thoughts about the Planescape setting itself and where thoughts like it takes me...:( Read more... )

Oh, and while I'm on the subject, back when I was... I dunno, youngish (probably around 15?), I was running a Planescape RPG for my brother and a couple other people. It wasn't great but I did come up with what I thought was a great adventure, involving the PCs suddenly finding themselves on a Baatezu (demon) mobile fortress, on a suicide mission in the middle of the Blood War. I found the file, and since I was in the spirit of the setting, decided to clean it up a little and put it online. It's called The Charge of the Dark Brigade. Still a little rough and sketchy in parts, and there are a couple winceworthy things like names and bits of dialog, but still I think the main plot holds up remarkably well.

Haven't done one of these in a while. Random post! Segues limited or absent!

Rants: ( Ice cream, linking etiquette )
There are a few commercials lately that have been annoying me: ( Read more... )

Non Ranty Randomness:
Forgot to add this in my Book Foo post, but one other thing about Deepness in the Sky that kinda amused me. I think it'd be cool to make a movie of it. ( Read more... )

Oh yes, and Book Foo! Finished: On The Beach, by Nevil Shute
Started: The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle. Thoughts on OTB behind the cut. ( Read more... )

Friending Memes! Participated in a multifandom friending meme and a Firefly friending meme, got a couple new friends out of them I think, so hey new friends!

Oh, and again nothing much to report on the social interaction front today, ( Read more... )

Survey Memes and such!
The survey of fives (and a ten), stolen from redlantern2051...
( Read more... )

6 Weird Habits About Myself (stolen from nardasarmy.. ( Read more... )

Today I had a banana for a snack after lunch. I don't eat bananas too often. Once in a while I get a craving. Anyway, the point of it is that this is the first time since I read this article on BoingBoing that I've had to peel a banana. So, thinking of it, I tried it the monkey's way, pinching the 'end' and then peeling it from there, using the stem to help hold it. OMG it's so much easier.

Random question: Why are sails usually white? Is it just because the best material to make them is usually white? Is there tradition associated to the color? Is there a functional reason? Am I completely wrong about them being usually white in the first place?

First, tomorrow's my birthday. Not all that important and I'll be doing more of a substantive birthday post tomorrow, but this is the random post and it's unrelated to anything else in the post so it fits here too.

I've mentioned before how I'd like to ban newscasters from using the meaningless phrase 'made history'.

I would also like to ban them from the phrase 'You might be surprised.' in their promos, and all variations of it. There's a new poll about so-and-so. What are the results? You might be surprised! What's the law about such-and-such, and what rights do you have? You might be surprised!

Yes, I might be surprised. ( Rant proceedeth )
-

Moving on, a phrase has been bouncing around in my head for the last week or so. I don't know what started it, specifically, some other random line of thought, but the phrase itself stuck with me - "The purpose of life is to create fiction." ( Read more... )

Finally, some thoughts on Stargate: SG-1 Season 9 and Stargate Atlantis Season 2, since they just aired the Season 9 finale tonight here. Spoilers behind the cut, nothing really big, but if you happen to be one of those who doesn't like to hear anything and haven't yet seen Season 9 because it airs in syndication for you or whatever, well, there'll be something.
( Read more... )

And thus ends this random post.

Okay, usually noon saturdays is a dead zone for TV. So rather than watch the lame stuff I usually do, I decided to do some channel surfing, and found this show, Flight 29 Down. I guess it's some sort of NBC/Discovery for Kids co-production.

It's basically a Lost ripoff for kids (without the flashbacks to pre-island life... at least in this episode they have an annoying tendency to do random mini-flashbacks to previous episodes or even earlier in the same episode). Some group of teens on a school trip or something crash on a deserted island and have to survive. Maybe it's old news, but I hadn't even heard about it before.

It's pretty lame. I don't know if there are Polar Bears, Others or mysterious island magic, but I doubt it. Also considering it's a kids show, I sadly doubt that there'll be any Lord of the Flies style degeneration or killing sprees, which is a shame because most of the kids are really annoying. (Then again, to follow the story, the annoying kids would be the ones doing the killing). I mean hell, one of the subplots of the episode was about some of them trying to catch a piglet for food. And how does it end? When they finally do, one of them gives a speech about survival ending with "But in the end, we have to be able to live with ourselves." Yep, you guessed it right. THEY LET IT GO.

Still, it's kind of amusing in a WTF sense, and kind of makes me wish for a non-lame version. I mean not all shows starring or targetted to kids need to be lame. Just treat it seriously or don't do it at all. Have them kill the pig, or suffer for not doing so. In general, everything, take it seriously. Kids need to learn about death too, and if one real kid dies because they saw a show like this and got in a real survival situation and couldn't hack it, it's on THEIR HEADS.

Of minor interest to Buffy fans, one of the girls on it was a Potential Slayer (the asian one who couldn't speak English). Well I guess technically she's now an Actual Slayer, assuming she survived, which I can't remember.

According to the commercials, next up on the same channel is a show that looks like it's basically Survivor for kids, which I already knew about and thought was pretty sad, but it makes me wonder, is NBC's entire kids schedule made up of ripoffs of successful adult TV shows? Is there 'Desperate Cheerleaders"? "CSI: The Cafeteria"? My Name Is Jimbo, about a bully who learns the value of karma and tries to make up for all his bad deeds? A classroom comedy in the style of The Office?

Work foo was a pain, both figuratively and literally - my leg hurts and I can't really walk very fast without a significant limp. Ah well, it'll get better, or it won't. Still, annoying because someone who has NO BUSINESS DOING THE ORDER did the delivery order, and we had to mess with the chaos involved. There are rules and principles I've come to rely on with this job. I've only articulated two so far, but I'll list them anyway:

The Rule of Underflow:
If there's too little of one product ordered in a given week, in order to balance out, they will order too much of another product that week.

The Rule of Overflow:
If there's too _much_ of one product ordered in a given week, in order to balance it out, they will also order too _much_ of another product. Such is the logic involved of people doing the ordering.

Ah well, I'm not too annoyed, I have Ginger Beer, so all is well!

My usual rant outlet for this has been plugged, so I'm using this here one. Spoilers for the most recent Enterprise ('Babel One').
( Read more... )

Cough. That is all.

Okay, so the US election is over. I'm in Canada, so I mostly take an idealistic interest. And, well, the one I was rooting for lost. Oh well. Not going to dwell on it; it's a sucky system that the only choices real were poor ones (I still wish McCain won the primaries in 2000 - he's a republican I could respect)

Anyway. Enough on that. What I really want to talk about is something that pissed me off, something done by both sides -( Read more... )

Happened to tune in on this today.

Y'know, just a few years ago, locking your child in a box and covering them with live roaches would have got you arrested, and the children removed from your custody.

Now, apparently it's all right, so long as you film it and there's a chance to win money at the end.

How advanced we've become.

Disturbing.

Okay, we pretty well all know stand up comedians lie, it helps set up their jokes. This one guy though I caught at it and it's just sooo annoying. ;)
First of I've seen him 3 different times on 2 different shows (tv, but I know the show he did twice was different appearances and not just a rerun). Pretty well the exact same act, a couple minor changes. In one case the ending to one of his humorous true stories of married life changed.
Except he always opens by telling people it's his wedding anniversary, which of course means he's out of town. And the gift he bought his wife 'last year' (the appearances are years apart), and so on. If you're not going to update your act... well, I'm not going to finish it, just update your damn act! ;)