BSG: Flesh and Bone

The theme of paranoia continues as Leobon, the Cylon whom Adama beat to death with a flashlight in the mini-series, resurfaces on another ship and is held for interrogation. Starbuck, wearing yet another sombrero, is brought in to handle the questioning and one is left wondering if Apollo has any duties whatsoever on this ship.

Leobon immediately gets in Starbuck’s head and tells her that he’s planted a nuke on one of the ships. Of course it’s a total lie, but while messing with her for the next eight hours he does drop some tantalizing foreshadowing about the fleet finding Kobol, birthplace of mankind, which will in turn lead the fleet to Earth.

Leo also brings the monotheism vs. polytheism schism between Cylons and humans back to the forefront by openly sneering at Starbuck for praying to idols and sinning and worshiping Artemis and sinning and...

Of course she counters by pointing out that his “race” is responsible for genocide, so they’re clearly evil, but is it worth considering that the Cylons really may be – honest to God! – agents of Jehovah, about to lay the final smack down on some infidels who quite possibly deserve it?

Just a thought.

Anyway, some observations:

• Kudos to President Roslyn, who really had me thinking that her cancer treatment had screwed her up so bad that she really was talking peace with a Cylon. However, I’m not sure if it made sense to destroy one Cylon model, yet keep another (the Raider).
• Baltar is priceless once again as he finds out his Cylon detector works, but he’s too scared shitless to tell his subject, Boomer, that she’s a fembot.
• As usual, Baltar, the sex junkie, has the best line in the show: “So… why do they call you ‘Boomer’?”
• Did Jamie Bamber piss someone off, or...?

BSG: There are 12 Models of Cylons

In the 2003 mini-series, Number Six said that there a only twelve models of Cylons. Let's see how many we've seen so far:

1. Shelly "Number Six" Godfrey, Baltar's lover.
2. Doral, the tourguide/suicide bomber.
3. Leobon, the arms dealer killed by Adama in the miniseries and later by Pres. Roslyn.
4. Sharon "Boomer" Valeri, Tyrol's ex-girlfriend.
5. The Centurians, often seen chasing Helo and Sharon through the woods of Caprica.
6. The Raider, currently being examined in the Galactica's landing bay

So, we've seen at least six models, maybe seven if the Base Star has sentience of some kind.

Although I predict that "God" is a Cylon model, analogous to the Imperious Leader in the original show, the human Cylons aren't acting as if they know that their God is a machine.

I think we'll eventually see two more human models. It would be good if one was a child. One should also be an old person.

Favorite Artists: Malarz

Leaving Out by Malarz

8 Million Stories

I'm watching Alien Siege, another Sci-Fi Channel Original. The premise is that aliens have landed on Earth and are demanding 8 million people as sacrifices or they'll destroy the planet. Early on the show establishes that most countries have selected their sacrifices from their prison populations, but the good old USA is trying to be fair. 650,000 Americans will be chosen using a lottery system. The President gets on TV and tells the people who are fighting back to stop resisting.

As if!

Could any President sell this? Someone would assassinate him. His party would be ruined forever. And I hate how they always show soldiers in these types of films as having no problem with what is going on. Let me tell you, we bitched all the time about our orders and we weren't being asked to escort people to their deaths!

There are two things that civilians don't seem to know about the U.S. military, and it's really important.

• The soldier has taken an oath to defend the Constitution, not to do what the President says. If there is a contradiction, the Constitution must be upheld.
• The soldier is not supposed to obey an unlawful order.

Handing people over to an alien race is enslaving them. Slavery is unconstitutional. And human sacrifice is against the law, even in the red states. So no soldier (airman, sailor or Marine) should be standing there assisting in "processing" the "winners" of the lottery.

Would some assholes go along with this farce? Oh, hell yeah. But I have no doubt that military personnel would go AWOL rather than do this, especially since their own families would be effected if the lottery is truly random.

But would the lottery be truly random?

The best way to ensure that the majority population could be sold this would be to weight the lottery. For example, you're more likely to be picked if you've ever done time, been on probabtion or ever collected public assistance. You're less likely to be picked if you hold a college degree, and you are given extra consideration if you hold an advanced degree. Certain professions would be exempt entirely -- police, military, medical professionals, etc.

That is how you would get the majority to cooperate.

By the way, my discussion of this is way better than the show.

Happy Dirt Day

I finally got my computer back today. It'll be a looong time before I have everything reinstalled.

The next time I have to reformat my hard drive(s) I will:

• Back up my email
• Back up my browser bookmarks
• Back up my passwords
• Download and store the latest drivers for everything

BSG: Richard Hatch set to cruise with fans

Check this out:

Richard Hatch, the original Captain Apollo from the cult classic TV show, is planning a most unique theme cruise to the Mayan Riviera region of Mexico and Belize. The exotic western Caribbean itinerary of the "Carnival Glory" makes stops in Belize City, Cozumel and Progresso Mexico. All of these stops feature shore excursions to historical Mayan ruin sites, many of which have been hidden in the jungle for hundreds of years. At the most famous of these sites, Chichen-Itza, Richard will lead an expedition to climb the Pyramid of Kukulkan.

Read full story

No Plot? Big Problem!

I bought the book No Plot? No Problem last week because I'm considering taking part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this fall. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to produce a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. This book is supposed to help you do this, but the author really has very little in the way of tips to offer.

It's not until page 85 of the 173 page book that he gives you the answer to the "no plot" problem. The answer, in case you want to know, is to make two lists. One list is a list of all the things that make a novel a good novel, in your opinion. The other list is a list of things you hate in a novel. The trick is -- get this -- you're supposed to use all the things in the first list and avoid the things in the second list.

Yep, that's the secret!

Oh, and based on the stuff you like, you will automatically have a list of characters in your head. Write down their age, gender, occupation, hobbies, where they live and what they were doing five years ago.

Boom, there's your story. The plot will automatically come to you as long as you write 1,667 words a day with no regard for how bad it may suck.

Woo hoo!

Back The F*** Up

I had a bad experience today concerning backing things up. I took my PC in to a shop to have a new motherboard and CPU installed. They told me they had to reformat the C drive. I thought I had copied all of the "good stuff" from the "My Documents" folder, so I gave the okay.

A second later I realized that I hadn't backed up the email!!

All the passwords I had emailed to myself, all the story ideas I had emailed myself, all of the cool writing tips I had been saving...

Poof! Gone forever!

Mofo!

Did I mention that a service pack that got downloaded to both my desktop PC and the Sony laptop hosed my Verizon DSL connection? II'm trying to figure out how to uninstall whatever it is.

Thank God I still have a working Mac.

I believe that life here...

...began out there.

Actually, no, I don't. I believe that life here began here. And life out there began out there. If it's out there.

But I always dug Patrick McNee's voiceover at the beginning of the original Battlestar Galactica series.

For some reason I can't fathom, the Sci-Fi Channel had six hours of programming on Presidents' Day dedicated to alleged alien crash sites -- one in the UK in the 80's, one in Pennsylvania in the 60's and, of course the Roswell crash. I'm not really seeing the connection, other than that if there are aliens crashing their ships, the president ought to know about it.

Bryant Gumbell was the host of two of the shows. Talk about someone who has totally fucked himself! Whew!

The one thing that was mildly interesting was the surveys they showed before each commercial break in one of the shows. In one survey something like 70% of the respondents said that the government shouldn't keep knowledge of ETs from the general public.

Are you fucking kidding me?

People need to think this through.

How could you let Joe Sixpack know that we have absolutely no control of our airspace?

More on this subject later.

Losing is a Disease...

"Losing is a disease as contagious as syphilis." The Natural

Spring training started last week and I'm really not pleased with this year's Yankee squad. They've picked up three new pitchers who are good on paper, but we've been down this road in recent years. I remember Jaret Wright very well from his days in Cleveland. He was a headhunter and a punk.

Randy Johnson. What can I say? If we had had him last year, we wouldn't have lost the ALCS. But this is this year. He's not getting any younger and he's already pissed off the reporters by trying to shove some guy. Hey, this is New York. Guys have been run out of town for far less...

Ed Whitson, anyone?

I don't know anything about Carl Pavano. He was 18-8 last year, but it's harder to go from the NL to the AL. You face real hitters in the AL from top to bottom. I'm scared he'll be another Javier Vasquez and have a meltdown by the All Star Break.

I miss Roger and Andy. And El Duque. :(

I can't see how Giambi is going to make it now that he's off the juice. He barely seemed to handle the pressure when he first came over from Oakland and now he's going to feel he has to put up big numbers to prove he can play without artificial enhancements. Can he?

Bernie's getting old. We need to ease in a new centerfielder before he's really done.

On the bright side, I have no reason not to expect solid performances from Jeter, Sheffield, Matsui, Posada and A-Rod.

And we still have Mariano.

BSG: Six Degrees of Separation

This episode had a noticeably lighter tone than the other episodes we’ve seen so far. James Callis continues to be amusing as Baltar.

Comments:

• We finally learn Number Six’s alias: Shelly Godfrey. There goes that word again -- God.
• Is this the first time a public bathroom stall has been seen in a Sci-Fi series?
• Adama looked like he wanted to punch "Shelly" when she tried to come on to him. LOL
• Since it’s so easy to fake video even with our 21st century technology, Adama and Roslyn seemed a little quick to assume Baltar was guilty. Of course, he really is guilty, but in a much more subtle way.
• I cracked up when Baltar tried to destroy Lt. Gaeda’s computer. Was there a little hammer in his hand? Where did that come from?
• Roslyn gave Baltar a whole speech about how she knows he’s guilty, then later she gives a press conference exonerating him. Isn’t their relationship going to be a bit chilly now?
• Exactly how are the reporters reporting the news to the fleet? In the original show they had set up a broadcast network, but is that safe? Shouldn’t they maintain radio silence? Maybe they have a printed newspaper...
• Starbuck finally gets out of the infirmary after Tigh tells her he has a low opinion of her. Doesn’t she already know that?
• I like how Chief Tyrol can’t figure out how the Cylon Raider operates, but if anything that makes Starbuck’s ability to fly it look even more farfetched.
• Boomer on Galactica fondly touches the Cylon Raider and tells the Chief he should treat it like a pet. When is he going to turn her ass in? Later she finds that someone has written "Cylon" on the mirror in her locker. It would be cool if it was Tyrol who did it (or Hadrian!), but I bet Boomer did it herself.
• Roslyn almost OD’s herself on her cancer medication and scares Billy. I like that they're following up on the effects of her treatments. You gotta like the continuity in this series.
• Dr. "Dutch" seems to be less of a dick now, but Starbuck still had to tell him to "frak off". And he's still chain smoking. LOL
• The meat in the Cylon Raider hasn’t dried up or rotted yet? It looks fresh still, but a little drippy. Shouldn’t they wear some biohazard gear before climbing in there? I sure would. That thing is nasty!!
• Caprica Boomer and Helo get it on, as was expected. Her spine glows bright red like Number Six's did in the mini series. If that always happens when Clylon women have sex, I guess Baltar didn't have mirrors on his ceiling. And I guess they stuck to the missionary position.
• Apollo is back, but he doesn't do jack in this episode other than encourage Starbuck to try out her crutches.
  

I'm not sure why this episode is called "Six Degrees of Separation," but I did the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game and came up with this:

• Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell were both in the cable remake of 12 Angry Men with the late Ossie Davis.
• Ossie Davis was in The Stand with Gary Sinise.
• Gary Sinise was in Apollo 13 with…
• Kevin Bacon.
  

Top 100 Movies: Observations

I've seen 79 of the 100 movies on the list I posted the other day.

Some things I noticed:

• Only one of these movies has a black protagonist -- Cidade de Deus.
  
• There are actually movies with female protagonists on the list: Silence of the Lambs, All About Eve, The Wizard of Oz, Alien, Aliens, Annie Hall, Kill Bill Vol. 1, Fargo and The Princess Bride. Nine movies.
  
• There are only two horror movies on the list -- Jaws and The Shining -- though you might make a case for Alien, Donnie Darko, Psycho or Se7en. How is The Exorcist not on this list?
  
• I don't think any of the movies have a gay main character, unless the Peter Lorre character in M was gay. That wasn't clear to me when I saw the movie.
  
• There's only one Western -- High Noon -- on the list. How is Shane not on this list?
  
• Surprisingly, there's only one Holocaust movie on the list: Schindler's List.
  
• There are 8 War movies on the list: Lawrence of Arabia, Apocalypse Now, Paths of Glory, Das Boot, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Saving Private Ryan, The Great Escape and The General. Where's Platoon? Stalag 17? Full Metal Jacket?
  
• The Crime genre is well represented: The Godfather, The Godfather II, Pulp Fiction, The Usual Suspects, Goodfellas, Double Indemnity, M, Se7en, Touch of Evil, Reservoir Dogs and A Clockwork Orange. 11 movies.
  
• If you lump Sci-Fi and Fantasy together, there's an impressive presence on the list: Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, The Matrix, Alien, Aliens, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Metropolis, Blade Runner, The Return of the King, The Two Towers, The Fellowship of the Ring, Raiders of the Lost Ark, It's a Wonderful Life, The Wizard of Oz, Finding Nemo, The Sixth Sense, Donnie Darko, A Clockwork Orange and The Princess Bride. That's 19 movies, but The Princess Bride doesn't belong here. Donnie Darko is a personal favorite, but no way is it one of the 100 greatest movies of all time.
  
• There are only two children's movies here -- The Wizard of Oz and Finding Nemo. Where are Shrek and The Lion King?
  
• Braveheart is the only period piece on the list. How is that possible?
  
• There are four Stanley Kubrick movies, four Alfred Hitchcock movies, three Quentin Tarantino movies, three Francis Ford Coppola movies and two Steven Spielberg movies. Is Tarantino really as good a director as these heavyweights? Please.

A-Z: Songs on My iPod

Angel Dust – Gil Scott Heron
Been A Long Time – New Birth
Casanova Brown – Teena Marie
Devotion – Earth, Wind & Fire
Everlasting Love – Rufus & Chaka Khan
Fetes – Claude Debussy
Ghetto Heaven – The Family Stand
Happiness Is Just Around The Bend – Main Ingredient
Inner City Blues – Marvin Gaye
Joy - Blackstreet
Keep Your Head To The Sky - Earth, Wind & Fire
Let’s Put It All Together – The Stylistics
Making Love In The Rain – Herb Alpert
Nas Is Like - Nas
Only When UR Lonely - Ginuwine
People Get Ready – Curtis Mayfield
Quincy Jones – Betcha Wouldn’t Hurt Me*
Rocket Love – Stevie Wonder
So What – Miles Davis
They Reminisce Over You – Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
Untold Stories – Buju Banton
Voyage to Atlantis – The Isley Brothers
Whatever You Want - Tony Toni Tone
X (none)
You Remind Me - Usher
Zombies – The Time of The Season*


*Okay, I had to cheat for “Q” and “Z”.

Right Brain or Left?

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (60%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (44%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Take The Geek Test!

Have you:

• Studied a language on your own?
• Done homework that wasn't required?
• Looked forward to dissecting a frog?
• Looked forward to doing your taxes?
• Named a pet after a literary character or mythological being?
• Have you ever been to a gamecon or other con?
• Ever roleplayed for 12+ hours straight?
• Worn a costume other than for Halloween or a play?
• Regularly gone to movies alone?

I have!

Can you:

• Name 4 comic book artists?
• Name 5+ hobbits?
• Name 5+ dwarves?
• Name 2+ Dragonlance characters?
• Explain what THAC0 is?

I can!

Take the Geek Test!

Top 100 Movies

Below is the list of the top 100 movies from the IMDB from May 2004. I've bolded the ones I've seen.

1. Godfather, The (1972)


2. Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)


3. Godfather: Part II, The (1974)


4. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003)


5. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002)


6. Schindler's List (1993)


7. Shichinin no samurai (1954)


8. Casablanca (1942)


9. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001)


10. Star Wars (1977)


11. Citizen Kane (1941)


12. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)


13. Dr. Strangelove (1964)


14. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)


15. Rear Window (1954)


16. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)


17. Pulp Fiction (1994)


18. Usual Suspects, The (1995)


19. Memento (2000)


20. North by Northwest (1959)


21. 12 Angry Men (1957)


22. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)


23. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)


24. Psycho (1960)


25. Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001)


26. Silence of the Lambs, The (1991)


27. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)


28. Goodfellas (1990)


29. American Beauty (1999)


30. Sunset Blvd. (1950)


31. Vertigo (1958)


32. Matrix, The (1999)


33. Cidade de Deus (2002)


34. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)


35. C'era una volta il West (1968)


36. Apocalypse Now (1979)


37. Pianist, The (2002)


38. Third Man, The (1949)


39. Paths of Glory (1957)


40. Taxi Driver (1976)


41. Fight Club (1999)


42. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)


43. Some Like It Hot (1959)


44. Double Indemnity (1944)


45. Boot, Das (1981)


46. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)


47. Singin' in the Rain (1952)


48. Chinatown (1974)


49. L.A. Confidential (1997)


50. Maltese Falcon, The (1941)


51. Requiem for a Dream (2000)


52. All About Eve (1950)


53. M (1931)


54. Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)


55. Se7en (1995)


56. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)


57. Saving Private Ryan (1998)


58. Rashômon (1950)


59. Raging Bull (1980)


60. Wizard of Oz, The (1939)


61. Alien (1979)


62. American History X (1998)


63. Sting, The (1973)


64. Léon (1994)


65. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)


66. Manchurian Candidate, The (1962)


67. Vita è bella, La (1997)


68. Touch of Evil (1958)


69. Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)


70. Finding Nemo (2003)


71. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)


72. Reservoir Dogs (1992)


73. Great Escape, The (1963)


74. Modern Times (1936)


75. Clockwork Orange, A (1971)


76. Amadeus (1984)


77. On the Waterfront (1954)


78. Ran (1985)


79. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)


80. Annie Hall (1977)


81. Wo hu cang long (2000)


82. Jaws (1975)


83. Apartment, The (1960)


84. Braveheart (1995)


85. High Noon (1952)


86. Aliens (1986)


87. Fargo (1996)


88. Strangers on a Train (1951)


89. Shining, The (1980)


90. Metropolis (1927)


91. Blade Runner (1982)


92. Sixth Sense, The (1999)


93. City Lights (1931)


94. Donnie Darko (2001)


95. Duck Soup (1933)


96. Great Dictator, The (1940)


97. General, The (1927)


98. Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957)


99. Princess Bride, The (1987)


100. Dogville (2003)

How many of these have you seen?

What's missing?

What's overrated?

Slick Deals?

Do I dare?

A 19" Dell monitor for $368??

http://www.slickdeals.net/#p5764

Two Things

For every subject, there are only two things you really need to know. Everything else is the application of those two things, or just not important.

For my job the two things are:

1. Check your links
2. Content is king

What are the "two things" about your job?

Ripped off from Let Me Make My Point(e).

Places I've Been: Europe

I've visited 12 countries/states in Europe.

create your personalized map of europe

Places I've Been: USA

I've set foot in 29 states!

create your own personalized map of the USA

This is bullshit, but I took this quiz and it says...

I am a hybrid of: Girl Next Door Progressive Girl Click on the pictures below to read more: Take the 'What Kind of Girl Are You?' quiz at CookingToHookup.com

Cheddar X

What's the best way to spend...

Fifty cents: Candy
A dollar: Fries
Five dollars: Beer
Twenty dollars: A computer manual
One hundred dollars: Credit card bill
One thousand dollars: A vacation
One million dollars: Land
One hundred million dollars: A business

From Cheddar X.

Star Wars Plot Formula

If you want to make your own Star Wars movie, here's the formula:

1. Opening crawl fades into the stars with an explanation of what is going on.
2. Film opens with action sequence(s) space battle
3. Light-saber action
4. Search sequence(s)
5. Action sequence(s) in space
6. Shoot-out sequences
7. Monster(s) attempt to kill good guys
8. R2-D2 has a heroic moment
9. The heroes blow something up
10. All the films have a high-speed chase sequence
11. New villains introduced
12. Main hero suffers tragedy
13. Droids damaged, destroyed or in disrepair
14. Bad guys die
15. New planets or moons introduced
16. Damage to the body
17. Good guy(s) dies in the first and third episode of the trilogy
18. One giant battle sequence
19. New star ships introduced
20. Villains capture at least one of the good guys
21. Jedi Mind Trick
22. Each film features a chasm or a deep pit of some kind
23. Characters ride on something, usually an animal
24. In each film, at least one character says, "I have a bad feeling about this."
25. In each film, at least one character says, "May the Force be with you."
26. Appearance of a new bounty hunter
27. Introduction of a new Force power
28. Small midget-sized characters
29. Film ends with celebration or heroes gathered together

If you want to see how the formula is applied, visit the Star Wars and Indiana Jones Plot Formulas page.

Caution: The page contains spoilers about Episode III.

Closure and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

[I've updated this, but I wrote the bulk of it almost three years ago. I'm already resorting to digging up old stuff to keep the blog going...]

I bought the Star Wars Trilogy boxed set when it was finally offered a few months ago. Since then I've watched all five movies multiple times in preparation for Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

I have to say, Phantom Menace doesn't seem so shitty when taken as a companion to Attack of the Clones, but it can't stand on its own. But the original trilogy does seem a bit creepy now because of the events of Episode II.

The quintet is Anakin's story, now, not Luke's. Also, because of the events of Episodes I and II, things that happened or were said in the other movies don't make sense. I don't see how they're going to resolve most of these questions, and frankly, George Lucas hasn't shown me that he's able to bring closure to everything, or even desires to. We're going to see the movie anyway, right?

But still the questions remain.

In Episode IV: A New Hope, Owen and Beru aren't surprised to see Threepio and Artoo, though those droids belonged to Anakin's mom and Padme, respectively. You could say that's like recognizing a generic TV as your old one, but these droids have distinctive personalities. Especially Threepio.

In ANH, Luke knows who Obi Wan is, but he knows him by the name “Ben.” Is the last name Kenobi so common that Obi Wan wouldn't change his whole name to hide his identity?

When Luke tells Owen that Artoo claims to belong to "someone named Obi Wan Kenobi,” Owen warns him to stay away from "that old wizard." Is it common knowledge that Ben has powers of some kind? If not, why doesn't Luke ask him what he means by "wizard"?

Luke doesn't seem terribly afraid of the Tusken Raiders when he goes out looking for Artoo, but in Episode II the moisture farmers view them with the same fear that white settlers in the Old West had of Indians. Luke could not have known that Tuskens murdered his grandmother.

By the way, did Luke know his father and grandmother were slaves? Did slavery still exist on Tatooine when Luke was growing up? You know, it wouldn't surprise me if Anakin found a way to abolish slavery on Tatooine, even after he turned to the Dark Side.

Later In Episode IV when Luke is talking to Obi Wan he doesn't ask, "What's a Jedi?" when Obi Wan tells him his father was one, but Ben has to explain to him what the Force is. Could knowledge of the Force -- even a general definition of it -- have been stamped out in one generation, but knowledge of the Jedi was not erased? They go hand in hand.

Ben tells Luke that he tried to give him his father's lightsaber, but Owen prevented him. Is that a lie? Owen couldn't have stopped him. Ben also tells Luke that his father joined him to fight in the Clone Wars -- which he describes as "a damned fool idealistic crusade" -- instead of staying to run the moisture farm. Another lie? It seems so.

How was fighting battle droids idealistic? Actually, he probably meant that preserving the Republic was idealistic.

In Episode I we found out that Anakin was the only human to have ever won a pod race. Wouldn't people have talked about that for years? Did Luke know about that? Maybe people didn't give a shit about pod races anymore by the time Luke came along. Maybe they were abolished.

Anakin butchers a Tusken Raider village in Episode II. Was that kept secret from the rest of the moisture farmer community? How? Wouldn't the raids have abruptly stopped? Or wouldn't the Tuskens have retaliated?

Many times in Episodes IV and V Luke is described as being "angry" by Ben and Yoda. Huh? He never seems angry to me. He seems mostly scared and lonely when he's showing any emotion at all. Maybe a little frustrated. He's nothing like Anakin. In Clones, you can see that Anakin is arrogant (in the bar scene when he’s chasing the bounty hunter he basically tells the patrons to fuck off and mind their business).

Anakin disrespects Obi Wan both to his face (tells Obi Wan in front of Padme that finding the assassins is what he, Anakin, should be doing) and behind his back (“he's holding me back, he's jealous of me,” etc.). Luke has a mild argument with Han early on in ANH with regards to his piloting skills, but that type of behavior never resurfaces.

One thing father and son do have in common is that they have a strange lack of curiosity about their own parentage. Does Anakin really believe he has no father? Are you fucking kidding me? What child raised by a single parent doesn't wonder about the absent parent? What was Luke told about his mom, if anything? I've always hated how the fact that Leia was raised by a stepmom never came up until a brief Luke and Leia scene near the end of ROTJ. It was clearly an afterthought. What bullshit.

I think Anakin's father is really Palpatine, by the way. But I don't think he had a relationship with Shmi.

In ROTJ, Ben tells Luke that he hid Anakin's kids to protect them from the Emperor. Hey, everyone has said this, but I'll say it again -- How stupid a hiding place is Tatooine? And why openly use the name "Skywalker" for the boy? How the hell are they going to explain that one?

"Luke Lars" is a shitty name, though. LOL.

In TESB, Yoda admits to have been monitoring Luke for years from light-years away, yet in Clones, he can't sense Darth Sidius literally standing in front of him. So how good is he?

The biggest question I have is, what is the Emperor's motivation?

Narnia Film Pitched to Faith-Based Organizations

Oh, no!

Disney is using The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to pander to religious conservatives:

Disney and Walden took the unique step of introducing the film to a segment of their audience most concerned about the integrity of the final product. Over 30 faith-based and educational organizations were present at the preview, organized by Motive Entertainment's Paul Lauer. Disney and Walden "felt it was important to assure you that they intend to get this movie right," explained Mr. Lauer.

Mr. Lauer told the audience in Burbank that all of this was designed to allow faith groups to "use the film for [their] purposes."

Read more: Winter Wardrobe

Favorite Artists: Frederick Remington

This is "The Stampede" by Frederick Remington

I love his work!

BSG: Litmus

The basic plot of this episode was simple – the Cylons are making the seeds of distrust take root.

Doral, the Cylon the fleet abandoned on Ragnar station shows up again with bombs strapped to his body. Tigh spots him but they don’t get to him before he blows himself up, killing himself and wounding others.

Adama informs Sgt. Hadrian, the Master at Arms, that Cylons look like humans and gives her the authority to investigate any and everyone. The President warns him that the tribunal Hadrian wishes to form could turn into a witch hunt, which, of course, it does.

Hadrian immediately zeroes in on Chief Tyrol and his support crew makes things worse by telling conflicting lies about his whereabouts when the explosion happened. Hadrian accuses both Tyrol and Boomer of being Cylons or Cylon collaborators. Spc. Socinus, one of Tyrol’s crew, insists that he, not the Chief, is responsible for leaving the deck unsecured and allowing the suicide bomber access to the arms locker.

But Hadrian makes the mistake of summoning Adama before the tribunal and questions him about why he withheld knowledge of the new human-looking Cylons from the fleet. He quickly dissolves the tribunal. Socinus is stripped of rank, sentenced as a traitor and thrown in the brig. Hadrian is escorted to her quarters by armed guards and presumably is confined to quarters.

Tyrol goes to Adama to insist that Socinus should be released since he was only trying to cover for him. Shockingly, Adama breaks it down for him. Socinus has to take the fall, because as Adama angrily explains, Tyrol is too valuable.

Meanwhile, on Cylon-Occupied Caprica, Helo “rescues” Boomer.

Observations:

• Sgt. Hadrian got fucked over for doing her job. Those of us who have been in the military are all too familiar with being “set up for failure” because of the privileges of rank and boy did she get the royal screw. But as she’s chilling in her rack thinking bitter thoughts, she’s probably going to realize that she didn’t think things through. And she was starting to “flex,” so to speak. Hadrian went wrong when she didn’t stop to think what would happen if her investigation led to someone in a critical position. When there are only 49,000 humans left, some people will really be above the law.
  
• Apollo was completely absent from this episode. Not too many shows would do that with the guy who’s assumed to be the main character.
  
• Starbuck is still in sickbay. I can’t remember a Star Trek character being wounded for an extended period of time. I think Nog got his leg shot off in DS9 and was only bitter about it for one episode.
  
• Baltar visits Starbuck in the hospital and gives her a “get well” cigar. With each episode they show more familiarity. The groundwork for them hooking up in place.
  
• I chuckled when I saw Chief Tyrol’s crew trying to make moonshine. There was a pilot named Rigel who wanted to do exactly that in the BSG game I ran on CompuServe.
  
• One of the burn victims in sickbay was truly scary. His skin was charred black and he was howling in pain. He looked like an absolute monster.
  
• Tigh saved Adama’s life. What the hell was Adama thinking when he lunged at Doral who had 20 pounds of explosives strapped to his chest?
  
• Adama revealed that his father was a civil liberties lawyer. That’s funny, especially since he screamed down on his son in “Bastille Day” for “sounding like a lawyer” when Apollo told the President that she needed to abide by the Articles of Colonization and hold free elections.
  
• The scene where Number Six gave Boomer an ass whipping was surreal. You don’t see fashion models administering beatdowns every day. But having said that, it still didn’t look real.
  
• I’m starting to think that the Boomer model of Cylon is new, or experimental. Both the one on Galactica and the one on Caprica seem like they haven’t worked out all of the bugs yet. Doral and Number Six are evaluating her performance with Helo on Caprica and the Boomer on Galactica really does seem to fight her programming.
  
• There sure are a lot of reporters among the survivors, huh? At first glance this seemed stupid, but remember -- the decommissioning of the Galactica had a lot of press coverage. A bunch of journalists and cameramen lucked out and survived because of a fluke! Roslyn survived because of this fluke too.
  
• I don’t understand how Helo “found” Boomer. She could’ve been anywhere in the city or outside of it.
  
• Was the Cylon really trying to destroy Baltar’s project? I’m unsure.
  
• Poor Spc. Socinus was convicted of lying under oath and dereliction of duty in time of war. I’m sorry, but Chief Tyrol just doesn’t seem cool enough to justify someone taking such a severe rap for him. Socinus probably didn’t have a clue how hard he was going to be hit.

Adama had the best lines of the episode, as usual:

Tyrol: He’s innocent! You can’t do that!

Adama: I can’t? What I can’t do is let someone who wears this uniform get on the witness stand and lie under oath. He either did it the first time or he did it the second time and it doesn’t matter. He’s guilty and he’ll pay the price.

You’ll pay a different price. You’ll have to walk out onto that hangar deck every day knowing that one of your men is in the brig because you couldn’t keep your fly zipped.

You’re the most experienced non-commissioned officer I have left. You keep my planes flying and I need them to fly. Dismissed.

A to Z

I saw this execise on someone else's blog.

A - Accent: New York/Caribbean/Hispanic
B - Breast size: 42D
C - Chore you hate: Washing dishes
D - Dogs' names: Cricket and Beren
E - Essential make-up item: Lipstick
F - Favorite perfume: Red, by Giorgio
G - Gold or silver: Gold
H - Hometown: Brooklyn
I - Insomnia: Sometimes
J - Job title: Internet Specialist
K - Kids: Dogs
L - Living arrangements: Condo duplex
M - Mom's birthplace: Panama
N - Number of pets you've had: 4 dogs
O - Overnight hospital stays: 1
P - Phobias: Vertigo
R - Religious affiliation: Roman Catholic
S - Siblings: None
T - Time you wake up: At the last minute
U- Unnatural hair colors you've worn: Auburn
V - Vegetable you refuse to eat: Boiled squash
W - Worst habit: Pessimism
X - X-rays you've had: Too many to count
Y - Yummy foods you make: Donuts
Z - Zodiac sign: Pisces

iPod Shuffle: The Verdict

I like my iPod Shuffle.

Like I was not going to like it?? The only problem is that it is so small that it is destined to end up in Beren's mouth.

I charged it overnight, held my breath and hit the "play" button at about 8:00 this morning. There was a slight pause, then:

"...One Two checka, Baby let me know what's up..."


At noon I went out and bought better headphones. I didn't even attempt to use the earbuds that came with it, but I had destroyed the earbuds that I've been using with my Palm.

Whose ears are the Apple earbuds made for anyway?? Yoda? They're huge.

I have no complaints so far. If you don't know, the whole gimmick of the iPod Shuffle is that you plug it in, it goes into iTunes and it randomly selects and copies songs until it's full. When you push play it randomly plays back the songs. This is cool, as long as you like what you've got on your hard drive. If you're a musical packrat and you copy shit you don't like, you're going to end up hitting the "next" button a lot.

The result of all of this randomness is that May It Be was followed by How to Avoid Being Hit By Lightning, followed by Down Ass Bitch.

SWG: Spice Warz

Okay, it was mildly amusing the first two times, but now I'm getting pissed.

I got busted AGAIN for spice last night on SWG. I was on my speeder bike heading out to empty my harvester for the first time in three days when I came across a patrol of stormtroopers outside of Theed.

I tried to skirt them but my friggin' computer was lagging badly and I heard the familiar, "Halt, citizen..."

So I tried to gun it, and guess what?

I went flying off my bike!

You know the rest -- I was searched, they found Neutron Pixie and sliced armor and they fined me, this time 1200cr.

Fuck these guys.

Gotta upgrade my CPU so I don't lag so bad and I can spot these guys before they spot me.

And, no, I'm not gonna stop selling spice. I make too much "lucci" selling to people who are too lazy to buy a crate.

Oh, and in other news, I finally completed a piloting mission. I shot down three TIE fighters with Nety, my Wookie character on the Corbantis server. I still suck, though.

BSG: "Battlestar Galactica" Earns Second Season

No brainer here!

Rice: A Diss Served Cold

OMG!

This is weird and funny. Read these strange ramblings on Condoleezza Rice.

Here's a sample:

"Imagine a pretty, white Dr. Rice playing Chopin or Bach in red lingerie and wearing Chanel No. 5 perfume, and candles and rose petals everywhere, and you are a guy, would you not want to fuck her on the piano?"

Uh, whatever. LOL!

Got My iPod Shuffle!

My iPod Shuffle finally arrived from Amazon today! I loaded up some songs from iTunes and it's charging now.

I will report on how it works tomorrow.

"Lost" Me

The only show I watch on network TV is ABC's "Lost." It started out with a bang, but they started fucking it up almost immediately. They started repeating episodes before even five episodes had aired. They started showing episodes back to back. The pilot has been aired at least three times.

I think Lost is another Twin Peaks -- a fantasy show that got sold to the network execs on the strength of an imaginative pilot, but ultimately without substance. I don't believe even the writers know where the plot is going.

I've seen a lot of theories around the 'Net about what the "secret" of the show is. The most popular one is that the crash survivors are dead, but they don't know it. My theory was that they've stumbled across an island where some government or corporation is doing unethical research.

There are two interesting theories, neither of which I can take credit for:

• The survivors are unwitting participants in a reality show.
• The survivors are being subjected to a psychological experiment.

Unfortunately, I'd make a small wager that it'll turn out to be an "it was all a dream" thing.

Anyway, for now I'm watching because the flashbacks are interesting enough even though nothing gets accomplished on the island. Funny how some people have had multiple flashbacks, or even showed up in other people's flashbacks (Jack, Charlie, Sawyer, Kate), but they still haven't showed a flashback for the fat dude, Hurley.

Colonel Tigh and The Revolution

I'm watching Slavery and The Making of America on PBS and all of a sudden they mention "Titus," a runaway slave from New Jersey who fought for the British who came to be known as "Colonel Tigh." This guy was evidently a leader of a racially mixed band of soldiers who fought for five years against his fomer master and others.

Interesting!

I seem to remember a Colonel Tigh, also black, from a certain 70's sci-fi show.

Hey, Terry Carter was born in Brooklyn and went to Stuyvesant!

SWG: Crash & Burn

I can't stay on SWG long enough to get in a good gaming session. I'm crashing constantly. In the last two days I have only been online long enough to check my cash flow and put some more Muon Gold on the market.

I've made 32K credits or so this week, but I'm running low on Muon Gold. I need to go out to one of the malls and get a few crates. I also need to empty my harvester! It may be full now.

Is it my computer? Is it my video card? I don't want to buy any new hardware. Sigh!

Promoting my blog

One whole day and no one has seen my blog! I'm gonna place an ad.

All Rights Reserved

Good info here about copyright laws. Especially important for those who may be tempted to rip off any images I may be tempted to post in this blog.

10 Big Myths about copyright explained

SWG: Open Letter to the Stormtroopers

Dear Stormtrooper:

Was it really necessary to bust me twice this weekend on Star Wars Galaxies? The people who buy Neutron Pixie only use it for medicinal purposes. I think the 1300 credit fine was harsh, but you'll be happy to know, I made it back in twenty minutes.

I noticed you were nowhere to be seen when those four jedi sliced open a guy in front of the spaceport?

Signed,

"Spice Girl" of Naboo

Legends of Earthsea: Bite Me

Weak.

The 2004 Sci-Fi Channel story bore little resemblance to the Easrthsea trilogy I read as a kid, but I knew that would be the case, based on the author's own statements of disappointment.

I thought it was funny how they had girls at the wizards' school in the TV show, but no black people. In the book, the reverse is true -- it's a school where black and brown men train black and brown boys. Girls are barred (why a woman would've written something like that in the late 60's, I don't know). I guess Sci-Fi channel thought that an all male school would look like a seminary or a military school and that would be distasteful? By not sticking to the book, they made Roke Island seem like a rip-off of Harry Potter's Hogwarts in the eyes of anyone who doesn't know that Earthsea was written thirty years before Potter.

I didn't know what was going on with the side plot about the king that's trying to wake "The Nameless Ones." That's all made up. The priestess living out in the desert does show up in the second book of the trilogy, but the dynamic is different, since Ged is trying to steal from her people. And there's no romance.

Ged's wizard friend Vetch comes off too much like Sam Gamgee, but that probably couldn't be helped. In the book he's a fat friendly sidekick and he's a fat friendly sidekick in the TV movie too.

The locations looked good, at least the outdoors ones. Danny Glover was fine as Ogion, Ged's teacher. Isabella Rossellini is always going to be dignified.

Ultimately, I have to blame Ursula LeGuin for what we ended up with. With the exception of the 2003 Battlestar Galactica miniseries, Sci-Fi channel's made for TV movies are average at best and usually plagiarize from whatever's hot or an old standby (how many variations of Jaws and Aliens can they make?). It was up to the author to choose a better way to get her novels to the screen. If only she had held out a little longer.

The Lord of The Rings Extended DVDs

All of the extended DVDs for LOTR are great, even though the extended version of Fellowship is probably the best. The real value is in the commentaries and "making of" features. I especially like the parts where the art department shows the evolution of their design ideas. It's really inspiring. They didn't just design some random outlandish costume and think, oh, how fucking clever we are.

For example, they go into this whole thing about these faint little ovals etched on the Gondorian helmets. It turns out these are stylized seagull feathers and they're there because Gondor was founded by Numenor, a maritime power. The Gondorian armor in the Third Age is a watered down (pun) version of what you see Isildur and Elendil wearing in the prologue of the first movie, 3,000 years before. The sea motif is in the design of Minas Tirith too. The big jutting piece of rock that Denethor jumps off of is supposed to remind one of the prow of a ship. That's cool, and it makes sense. I also like how on the Fellowship DVD they talk about the dwarvish architecture and how they hit on the idea of using geometric designs for them (to represent minerals). There's tons of stuff like that on the extended DVDs.

So buy them already.

What's this "Lion's Domain" shit anyway?

I thought you were a fucking Pisces?

I thought it sounded cool, what the fuck?

Anyway, I plan to post some shit about Narnia as we get closer to December and the premier of "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe."

Aslan rules. You better ask somebody. Kiss the paw, son!

BSG: Galactica in name only

As soon as they made Starbuck and Boomer and the President women, made Tigh a white drunk and made the Cylons able to pass for human, it was a given that the new BSG was "Galactica in name only." I don't have a problem with that, however.

We'll see Commander Kane next season. Everybody wants it. But what will he be like? The Kane in the original show had a personality that contrasted sharply with the Lorne Greene Adama. He was the shit. He was the one everyone was ready to die for. The Olmos Adama is more military and less scholarly. Now he's the shit. And Tom Zarek kinda fills the Kane role as the charismatic leader of an opposition movement.

Oh, let me guess.

They'll make Commander Kane a woman. And she'll compete with Starbuck for Apollo's affection.

I don't think we'll see Count Iblis. I don't think the creator of this version of the show wants to go overtly supernatural, though he does want to bring religion into the mix. I think we'll see the Gemonese religious zealots that were in the original show. If we see the Nomen, they'll look human. If the show lasts any amount of time they'll have to define the culture(s) of the different colonies.

Will we see any aliens? I'm not sure if I want to, but eventually they'll have to meet somebody. If the fleet meets any aliens, it'll be a first contact situation for the Colonials, I think.

BSG: Demographics

I wonder what the demographic breakdown is among the survivors? That would be another thing for the writers to explore. What if more men than women survived or vice versa? Would the average survivor be underage, like Boxey? Will an official program be set up to get people to adopt all of the orphans, or will they be raised together communally? What attempts will be made to preserve the flora and fauna of the Colonies? What if only one dentist survived?

Speaking of Boxey, check out how he gets Boomer in trouble in "Bastille Day." I missed this the first couple times I saw it, but he's the one who tipped off Tigh that she's been shagging Chief Tyrol. It comes at the end of the scene where Starbuck gives her squadron a very sloppy briefing.

Tigh: Where's your mommy?
Boxey: She's dead. Where's yours?
Tigh (frowning): I'm looking for Boomer.
Boxey (making a face): It's 14:00. She's in the tool room.

BSG: "You can’t go home again"

I liked the acting in Friday's episode, but I wish they could've avoided the bogus science. How did Starbuck plug up that hole in the Cylon ship? What kind of seal could she make that would make that vessel spaceworthy? Shit, we've seen two space shuttles blow up because of tiles falling off.

Did the fact that she was piloting a ship by grabbing handfuls of meat work for you? The ship never had a pilot, so why would it have any controls you could grab? I guess we're supposed to think she was stepping on different "lobes" of its brain or something and it was reacting to that. But didn't she "kill" it, or give it a lobotomy when she shot it down? So why would it fly again? She didn't repair it.

I hope Starbuck doesn't get a disease from sticking that nasty tube down her throat.

Cute how she said, "Are you alive?" like Number Six always does.

Something I really liked was the tension when Helo was trying to hide from the Cylon and he knew that when the bread popped out of the toaster he'd be busted. I like how they wove back in the "Cylons are walking toasters" thing. The toaster even had a red light on it.

I also liked how Adama relieved Tigh of duty for questioning him. That'll really improve the relationship between Tigh and Starbuck, huh?

It was a nice touch at the end when Starbuck "waggled" her wings, which is something the original Starbuck did in a similar situation when he was flying a Cylon Raider.

Baltar is looking grimy. LOL!

I think Tom Zarek should use this incident to "prove" that the President and the military are corrupt. They jeopardized the safety of the whole race for one person.

They finally got the fucking water! The Colonials haven't made any progress since "33"!

BSG: "Act of Contrition"

BSG is strongest when they stick with one character and they did that in this episode. And I'm a sucker for flashbacks.

Pros:

• Edward James Olmos is one of those actors who can do a lot with just his eyes. In the scene where he finally finds out that Starbuck got his son killed by not flunking him... whew. But the fury in his eyes morphs into pain as she tries to explain why she did it.
• The pilot "Hot Dog" is EJO's real-life son, Bodie Olmos.
• The doctor who examined the President was Dutch from Soap. LOL! He was such a dick in this episode!
• I like the President. She has a very kind voice. You know what's funny? We haven't seen her interact with any other women.

Cons:

• No fucking way could Starbuck have survived a fall from the ionosphere. See, that's the problem with making a sci-fi show too "real." You notice when they start defying the laws of physics. But when Scotty beams someone's particles across a planet, you don't blink an eyelash because there's a high fantasy feel to Trek and they're consistant about it.

BSG: "Bastille Day"

I really like how this show is anything but "science-fictiony." I still think that "33" was the best episode so far, but I liked this one better than "Water."

• I was surprised by the fact that "Bastille Day" took place immediately after "Water." In any other show they never would've bothered to explain how the water Boomer found got back to Galactica. And at the end of this episode, they've decided who's going to *get* the water, but the fleet *still* doesn't have the water!
• I had heard over and over again that Richard Hatch's character was supposed to be a "Nelson Mandela type freedom fighter." Bullshit! Mandela was nothing like this guy! When did Mandela ever plan to have himself and a bunch of his followers massacred?
• I was surprised to see Boxey again. I really thought they put him in the mini-series just to throw a bone to fans of the original show. But there he was, evidently Starbuck's pet, hanging with her and high-fiveing her after she disses Baltar. Then he dissed Tigh too. So obnoxious. But that's real. Boxey's dad died two minutes into the mini-series (he was the first victim of Number Six) and his mom lost the lottery to get on Boomer's raptor on Caprica. And Boomer is too busy sabotaging the Galactica or boning Tyrol to pay attention to him. So he's pissed.
• Tigh. He's not fooling anyone. When he went to that briefing in the morning and made those lame jokes and remarks about the civilians, all the NCOs in the room knew he was toasted. Yet somehow he manages to do his job and he disciplines Boomer later in the day. It's about time someone busted her and Tyrol. But I figured the writers would let this slide. There was no such thing as fraternization on Star Trek.
• The prison barge uprising. Man, I can't believe they went there and had one of the convicts try to rape Tyrol's assistant, Callie ! And she bit off piece of his ear and he shot her in the gut! You should've seen my face! They always make the prisoners in these shows innocent or "misunderstood."

Other observations:

• "New" Apollo seems so weak in the presence of the original Apollo. It was funny how Hatch broke down to him what someone named Apollo is supposed to be. And we also got a definitive answer about the Lords of Kobol. At least one of them is a Greek god.
• Dualla seems to be embarrassed about her open display of affection for Billy in the mini-series, so she's really sharp with him now. LOL!
• Starbuck is the best pilot in the fleet *and* she also knows how to lead a ground-based assault team. This is exactly what we see on other shows -- people straying out of their roles.
• The President got over being mad at Apollo over committing her to elections pretty quickly. What he did was correct, and she's a reasonable person, but there should be a little lingering awkwardness since they're still new in their relationship.
• I don't see why Starbuck made a peace offering to Tigh and shared a drink (of water) with him. She's been completely unrepentant up till now.

BSG: "33" and "Water"

[I wrote this hours after the first showing of these episodes, so some of these comments are out of date. The same is true about my comments about episodes three and four.]

I liked "33" more than "Water," but they were both good. They did the right thing by blowing away the Olympic Carrier, but they killed something like 2% of the entire human population when they did that. I'm glad that in "Water" they showed that Apollo is still haunted by pulling the trigger.

I liked the little touches:

• Tigh is rationing his liquor by making marks on the bottle so it'll last another few days.
• The pilots touch a picture of a child looking at a nuked city before going into combat and whisper, "Never forget."
• Starbuck has to tell Apollo to behave as a commanding officer and not one of the gang.
• A baby boy was born on the Rising Star. Aww! Too bad it wasn't a girl. They would've named her "Hope."
• Outside the info center where people are compiling a registry of all survivors there are hundreds of pictures of the missing. There's no space left for Dualla to put up the picture of her family.
• Baltar blows off his assignment to come up with a Cylon detector and joins Starbuck's card game. And starts coming on to her! I sure didn't see that coming.
• Starbuck's and Baltar's comments at the card game show that alcohol and tobacco are fast becoming worth more than cubits. Even civilian clothes are worth more than money. Makes sense. Unless someone knows how to create and use a loom, the Colonials won't be able to make new clothes.
• Helo on Caprica is taking anti-radiation medicine. And he looks sick. They would never bother to show that on Star Trek.
• The scene where Galactica-Boomer fights her programming and is able to report that she found water was good.

What I don't like:

• Billy is useless and boring.
• The president wasn't as strong in these two episodes.
• I want to see more of Lt. Gaeda, the guy who plots the jumps for the fleet. He seems cool, but all he gets to do is speak on the PA system. He's only left the bridge twice in 8 hours of programming.
• Why isn't Helo freaked out by being kissed by a human-looking Cylon who knows his callsign?? And then Sharon shows up, shoots Number 6, and starts acting much more forceful than ever before. Duh, Helo!

By Your Command

The new Battlestar Galactica is the shit. I'll go into greater depth about the original show and the 2003 mini-series some other time. Right now I want to jump right in and comment on season one.

See the next post.

Currently Reading: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Actually, I don't read anymore. I listen to audiobooks. Right now I'm listening to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel by Susanna Clarke. I guess she's trying to imitate Dickens -- there are dozens of characters and the narrative is at times boring as all hell. I can't take much more of this, but at the same time I want to know what happens.

Cafenut

There are some cool things about the layout of the Cafenut blog.

Actually, that's not true. It's cluttered as all hell but there are a lot of links I want to explore. And I'm going to bite the "Currently Reading" idea.

"In a time of lies and insanity..."

I found a random action film generator that comes up with some funny premises.

I would pay to see these movies:

"In a haunted city of terror, in an age of darkness and pain, four prostitutes and a spirit hope to avert the apocalypse."

"On a lost world, three actors and a mercenary battle terrorism."

"In a galaxy of pain and barbarism, in a time of lies and insanity, two duchesses and a grave robber attempt to save a kidnapped prophet."

"On a terrifying planet of ghosts, in an age of blasphemy and technology, a marine and a gambler try to save the last living fertile woman."

LOL!

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=actionfilm

DAY 752: My captors continue to taunt me

DAY 752 – My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while I am forced to eat dry cereal. The only thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape, and the mild satisfaction I get from ruining the occasional piece of furniture. Tomorrow I may eat another houseplant.

===

Okay, I stole that from A Cat's Diary, but it's pretty freaking funny. The full thing can be found here.

I've decided to start blogging as a way of forcing myself to write creatively each day. I may not be able to keep this up for long. We'll see.

I have some comments on Battlestar Galactica that I will be posting later.