Lost is coming to an end Sunday evening and people seem to be pretty worked up about it. As much as I love science fiction and fantasy, I started missing episodes in the second season and haven't watched an episode since the beginning of the third season. Unlike 24 I wasn't drawn back into the drama and basically read the spoilers if I have nothing else to do.
That being said, here is my favorite theory (from a mind other than my own) about the show.
It will turn out that they've been living one island over from Gilligan the whole time and all of this was just the Professor playing mind games using his coconut powered reality distorter.
May the force be with the fans and may they find the answers they are seeking.
I've never hidden the fact that Babylon 5 was my favorite science fiction show. Actually it's my favorite show. Period. I've been a Trekker since I saw The Man Trap on Armed Forces Radio and Television. Or Afarts as we called it.
Star Trek provided me with a vision of the future that told me I could be anyone I wanted to, that eventually everyone would be equal. And from my point of view that meant men and women could both be captains or they could be navigators or they could whatever they wanted. I had to take this on faith because female captains were pretty rare on TOS. I believe that the first one was Klingon, the rest were women Kirk tried, and many times succeeded, in bedding. It wasn't until TNG that we learned there had been a female captain of the Enterprise, who dies trying to right a blip in time and her helmsman ends up saving the timeline. But still, I just knew there would be a time when men and women were equal, unfortunately it isn't likely to be in my lifetime.
Enough about Trek, on to a more realistic version of the future: Babylon 5. Way back in the mid-nineties another vision of space appeared on television and Battlestar Galactica should thank its luck stars. B5 had aliens who didn't always get along with one another and women were considered the exact equal of men and could protect themselves. The special effects were fantastic when you remember that this was a television show that saved them for when they were needed, not as plot filler. B5 had politics galore and most importantly, it showed how easy it was to turn a liberal civilization into a totalitarian society. For two years the hints were simple and sprinkled on the wind before coming to fruition. B5 was the last, best hope for victory.
While Gene Roddenberry created and produced a great show (thank you Lucille Ball), most of the episodes were pretty much fluff except for The Famous Kiss and The City on the Edge of Forever. The stories tended towards being lighthearted and playful while touching on a few important themes. J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 was nothing like that. Most of the episodes were completely serious interjected with moments (and people thought he would always be Flounder) of humor. The story arc from first episode to the last was incredibly consistent and from today's perspective, way too prescient. Take out the space ships and the aliens and you pretty much have the present we live in and the future we're headed for.
At the end of the first season, the President of Earth was killed under what the viewers knew were suspicious circumstance, but looked like a tragic accident to others. A Narn outpost had been destroyed and the Centauri were solidifying their alliance with the Shadows. Then things got worse.
The Earth Alliance under President Cheney Clark rounded up people who didn't agree with his decisions, bombed civilians deliberately to get their leaders to surrender, forced television stations off the air until he could get his own mouthpieces to recite the company line while he declared war on former colonies of Earth and B5. In the end Clark was willing to destroy the Earth as his last act before killing himself instead of being captured.
B5 didn't portray humans as the best of the universe, other cultures and characters always had something to offer (such as the (one moment of perfect beauty) and embracing the differences made all of the characters stronger for it, Even if it took acts of evil to realize their redemption. Or, as in the video below, revenge. And how sweet it was.
Marva Hicks can certainly belt one out, can't she? The episode was about different faiths coming aboard the station to have a conference and the music was perfect for the scene and for the moral of the story. Here is a version of just the lyrics and music.Unlike most shows, B5 credits were always worthy of watching, you never knew what you were going to hear.For those who say that those who participated at Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and black sites we don't know about were just doing their jobs and also believe that waterboarding and other forms of torture are okay, there will come a day (hopefully) where somebody, somewhere will stand up and fight for what is right instead of blindly following orders, especially the ones they have qualms about.Otherwise, it really is too late for the pebbles to vote.
One would think that rocking out and John Denver would be mutually exclusive, but one would be wrong. Sunshine On My Shoulders may make me happy, but it doesn't induce the urge to play music so loud that my neighbors would call the cops. And if it was Thank God I'm A Country Boy, maybe he should have been playing Take Me Home, Country Roads on his 8-track as he traveled back to his Rocky Mountain High because Leaving On a Jet Plane (I much prefer Peter, Paul and Mary's version) left Mr. Denver a tad disjointed.
I've been totally ignoring the NBC late night fiasco for several reasons. One, I watch Letterman if I haven't turned off the television or I'm caught up with Stewart and Colbert and two, I never liked the Tonight Show after Carson left. It was a shadow of its former self and Arsenio Hall was much funnier. Leno can whine all he wants, but his ten o'clock show went a long way to ruin television for those of us who don't require child approved fare before the news. Whether Conan's ratings weren't as high as people wanted given all the competition he faced that Leno didn't have to, is besides the point. Conan and his crew moved from New York to California for a job that no longer exists. And not because Conan failed, but because NBC screwed up and Leno can't let go. They were warned it wouldn't work before the season started and they snowballed ahead anyway. Conan, his crew and his fans (whoever they are) are just the damage picked up before the snowball flies over the cliff into oblivion
I took a creative writing class when I was in high school and everyone was going on about this book called Love Story. Being a die hard science fiction fanatic, I told people I wasn't interested in reading some romance crap that didn't exist in real life. Our teacher, whose name escapes me at the moment, asked if anyone in the class had a copy. Somebody did. It wasn't bad, a simple but entertaining read. I finished it by lunchtime. I propped it up behind my assigned reading and read it in class and returned it to the person who loaned it to me. I was pissed when Patton won Best Picture instead of Love Story. Only one of the many disappointments the entertainment world had in store for me. I learned early on that if I thought it was interesting, it would be canceled. Thank goodness for cable. Rest in peace Erich Segal. Thank you for your work. I have two versions of Love Story's theme on my iPod, Arthur Fiedler's and Henry Mancini's. It seems funny to think of Tommy Lee Jones as the inspiration for Ryan O'Neal's character.
For as many times as car dealerships have screwed their customers, this one should admit it made a mistake and move on. Not try and get an additional $7,000 two weeks later because of a "clerical error".
Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!!!! Unfortunately, it's going to be on Fox. You know, the people who canceled Firefly and Dollhouse because they didn't get "it". And John Barrowman might reprise his role as Capt. Jack Harkness. Yippee! It's a shame about Ianto, I had already decided to name my next dog Ianto. Yanto, easy to say, difficult to spell.
Can anyone tell that I'm completely fed up with politics?
The chin. Those lips. The eyes. The smile. OMG, I'm in love with Captain Jack. That would be Harkness, not Sparrow. Whenever he's on screen I spend most of my time thinking about how good looking he is, how he resembles Mark Harmon in some interesting ways and what I'd like him to do to me. Whether it's the seductive looks he gives Gwen that his body can't cash, the passionate kisses with Ianto and Captain John Hart (James Marsters from Buffy), or slow dancing with the man who inspired his name, Jack has stolen my heart.
I know it is a passion that will never be returned since he is committed to a civil partnership, but John Barrowman has replaced Nathan Fillion as the sexiest (vote for John as the gay man of the decade. Yes, I know the decade isn't over yet and Neil Patrick Harris is a good guy, but not nearly as good looking) science fiction captain. Besides, Torchwood has more episodes than Firefly to drool over. And I'm definitely drooling. Whoever thinks that the British are uptight, hasn't been watching BBC television. They have more sex than an R rated movie, it's tastefully done and treated as a fact of life. That some American viewers are disturbed by the allusions to homosexual sex while heterosexual sex is shown, only demonstrates how far the stick is up our ass about sex. Everybody does it, otherwise the human race would have died out long ago. And a lot of people do it just for fun, which goes a long way to explaining why more babies are born in July, August and September. There's not much else to do when one is snowed in.
Torchwood's first season was a little slow, but still fascinating. The second season rounds out the characters with well placed humor and hints of independence. Ianto has blossomed from an uptight fixer to a dry and witty character in his own right. Plus, he gets to kiss Captain Jack. Often. Gwen, Owen and Toshiko make an interesting crew and the storylines are different than the normal crap shown here in the US. Why in the world did I read the Torchwood Wiki? Now I know what happens to the characters. I do hope there is a Season 4.
Oh well, at least I have a few more episodes left to indulge my fantasies.
OMG! People have lost their freakin' minds. Funny how the right likes to quote the Founding Fathers as gospel whenever the subject of gun ownership comes up, but not for anything else. John Adams, the Founding Father most likely to be ignored by those ruled by their reptilian brain, once said "we are a government of laws, not of men". And two even more appropriate quotes to the discussion of whether or not terrorists should be tried in New York, which directly suffered from the crimes of the accused, are also from Mr. Adams
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
And, even more importantly:
The law no passion can disturb. 'Tis void of desire and fear, lust and anger. 'Tis mens sine affectu, written reason, retaining some measure of the divine perfection. It does not enjoin that which pleases a weak, frail man, but, without any regard to persons, commands that which is good and punishes evil in all, whether rich or poor, high or low. 'Tis deaf, inexorable, inflexible. On the one hand it is inexorable to the cries and lamentations of the prisoners; on the other it is deaf, deaf as an adder, to the clamors of the populace.
Both of those statements were made while defending the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre. Inconvenient truths, indeed. But not nearly as inconvenient as old Ben.
Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety.
The Republicans wetting their pants are determined we shall have neither. Honestly, why are they so scared? Timothy McVeigh was tried, convicted and executed by the same justice system, why isn't it good enough for foreign terrorists? What do we stand to lose by showing the world, and ourselves, that we apply the law equally (sort of) to every accused criminal? Or is it that New York isn't Texas and Republicans are afraid that the state can't meet the burden of proof? New York has plenty of experience, they paid the highest price and they deserve to prosecute the offenders. Or at least the ones hat are still living.
My pug is cuter than a French bulldog. Of course that is my biased opinion, but Shai always gets attention when we go out, as do most brachycephalic breeds. One of the reasons I got her was to meet people and she definitely accomplishes that, but all they want to do is talk about how cute she is. It's amazing how everyone knows the names of the dogs at the park and who they belong to but not the owners names. And sometimes we talk to each other for hours. About our dogs.
The health care debate rages on, with nothing useful being accomplished. I will probably never leave Reno, the VA facilities are too good. I had another asthma incident this week but they nipped that sucker in the bud. My doctor had switched me from Flovent to Asmanex, it got a little colder one morning and even though I stayed two aisles away from the soap aisle in the grocery store, wham! Three hours after I arrived at the urgent care clinic I was out the door with an antibiotic because I was at risk for pneumonia, tapered doses of methylprednisone to reduce the inflammation in my lungs (and as a side effect my joints feel better) and Tessalon Pearls for the coughing since I'm allergic to codeine. This is in addition to the blood pressure med and the synthroid I just started because my thyroid is giving up the ghost according to the doctor. Mom is 79 and only takes two meds, this does not bode well for my old age.
When I worked at Universal Studios the secretaries were unionized and when our contract came up for renewal several things happened. The first time they initiated a two tier wage system and then got rid of everyone on the top tier. You get what you pay for and at $7 an hour in Hollywood all you get are bimbos who want to meet a movie star. It took about six months and 90 percent of us had our jobs back. I was working in the black tower, which happens to be a closed environment, during the second set of negotiations. This time Universal got the bright idea to eliminate sick days because they said the secretaries were using them for personal business. Flu season came around and within days half the building (executives) were out sick because the secretaries worked while ill and recirculated air contaminated with viruses was distributed around the building. Sick days mysteriously showed up again.
I'm glad I renewed my library card. Friday night television is just like Saturday night. Useless for entertainment. CBS, which doesn't have very many successful new shows, has cut the amount of episodes of Numb3rs to 16 from 22 as it prepares to cancel it. Not for lack of viewers, but because they say it's too expensive since it's been on so long. Fox canceled Dollhouse after completely botching the timing, audience and advertising. What do those two shows have in common? You have to pay attention.
A tax break I can get behind and not only because I have two dogs. Shai Shai saved mom's life many years ago. She didn't do anything special, she gave mom something to believe in and care for after finding the body of a friend of hers. Both my dogs lower my blood pressure and give me high quality love and affection. In addition to reducing the blood pressure of their owners, dogs also require exercise and they enjoy etting it with their owners. This helps owners lose weight because while it may take three weeks for exercise to become a habit for humans, for dogs it's about three days. Cats are great too, I just find it impossible to breathe around them.
Booman, while Obama was a slightly better choice than the McCain/Palin ticket that doesn't make him the best president and when he consistently behaves the way I predicted he would, I reserve the right to point that out. He is Bush lite and that isn't good for the country. I'm happy he got the Nobel and I understand the committee's reasoning, but that doesn't make him the be all and end all. Obama's latest volley at the people who supported him and naively expected he was going to help them instead of himself doesn't surprise me in the least. If he wants us to be sycophants, he has another think coming.
I enjoy Dollhouse. A lot. Yeah you have to think and pay attention, but as much as I enjoy the alphabet shows I occasionally want a little more. I find the supporting players and the premise on Dollhouse to be intensely interesting as well as thought provoking. Watching Enver Gjokaj's portrayal of the character Kiki last week was absolutely brilliant and eminently believable. And Topher? My favorite. As Boyd (Harry Lennix, the guy most likely to portray Obama in a future movie) points out, when Topher has ethical problems you know you're in trouble.
Here's hoping that Christian Slater doesn't become the new Eric Balfour (another one bites the dust, I like him but his track record sucks) of primetime television. I enjoyed My Own Worst Enemy and was sad to see it go, but The Forgotten is a rehash of Cold Case except without the music. Hopefully the characters will develop and the show might get a full season.
Orly, Orly, Orly. You need a good psychiatrist. And medication. Lots of medication. Something heavy duty like lithium to help ground you and bring you back to some semblance of reality.
Saturday night has been pizza night lately and it's been a lot of fun. I make my own sauce, I vary the toppings and mom gobbles it up. It's raining today so I think I'll make some homemade bread to go along with the split pea soup for dinner. I've only made bread once before and I don't have a bread machine so I think I'll start with something easy. BBB
Did you see Wolf Blitzer on Jeopardy! Thursday night? What an idiot and I say that because he didn't know anything.
I've watched Jeopardy! since it was Art James and Don Pardo and this was one of the worst performances I've ever seen by anybody. When they do a Celebrity Jeopardy the answers aren't as difficult as they are during regular play and nowhere near as difficult as Tournament play. More along the lines of the Kids Tournament whose contestants are between ten and twelve years old.
It was Wolf, Dana Delaney and Andy Richter. After the first five questions, Andy took off and never looked back. 32 questions correct and 2 wrong. Dana was pretty accurate, 11 correct and 2 wrong, but Andy was quicker on the trigger and she didn't get much of a chance to give the correct question. And Wolf? 5 right and 6 wrong. William Hurt's character in Broadcast News would probably have done better. Try and convince me the news isn't scripted.
Wolf was negative going in to Final Jeopardy, they gave him a $1000 dollars because it's for charity and he still missed the final question. Category was Famous Actors and the answer was:
Ironically, he lost the leading role in the 1960 play "The Best Man" because he didn't look presidential.
That has to be the easiest Final Jeopardy answer they've ever had. And he missed it. Seriously. How could anybody over the age of fifteen not know that it was Ronnie Raygun? Wolfie, did you even bring your thinking cap to the show? I guess not knowing the definition of irony and being incapable of remembering that only one actor has been elected president would preclude one from using logic to figure out the question. Plus, he proved he couldn't spell and he didn't know where Jesus was born.
It looks like actors and comedians have as much right to voice their opinions on politics as the newscasters do and with a little more knowledge to back them up. No wonder the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are considered trusted sources for news. They may be comedians but at least they know something besides reading from a teleprompter. I wonder how many people sent Wolfie this.
I am ever so glad I don't watch America Idol. I've seen a few minutes of it here and there when it ran long and interfered with Lie To Me or Fringe. I saw Adam Lambert's rendition of the Tears For Fears/Gary Jules song Mad World and it brought out the goosebumps. I also got to see his Robert Plant performance and being a Led Zeppelin fan I have to say I was impressed. The other guy, not so much. Every time I saw him he was either screeching or hit a flat note. Last night's decision ensures that I will never watch the show because it isn't about talent and whether or not I would buy their music in the future, it's about the story. Kris Allen can follow all the other winners into boring oblivion and Adam Lambert can front a rock band that I would be interested in listening to because his voice is great. Hopefully Adam can use Jennifer Hudson as inspiration and Kris will follow the path of Clay Aiken and Taylor Hicks. To nowhere.
Since I'm on the subject of entertainment how about those upfronts? Network television is going to be so bad next year that they are going to be ripe to be replaced by TNT and USA. The Closer, Leverage, In Plain Sight and Burn Notice could make a killing against the network offerings.
ABC couldn't do much damage to itself because there were very few shows that I watched after they canceled Life On Mars. I like Castle (Nathan Fillion, yum) and they picked that up but they didn't renew The Unusuals, a very quirky show that I enjoyed very much. I might watch Flash Forward and the reincarnation of V (Alan Tudyk, another yum) then ABC runs out of things to watch.
NBC is almost toast. Jay Leno five nights a week at ten o'clock? Not on my tv. Heroes at 8 and Chuck isn't back until after the Winter Olympics which means late February or early March. And they literally have nothing else to offer me since I don't watch sitcoms. I might catch Law and Order on Friday night but it's at 8, how much fun can that be?
The CBS schedule also has major problems. Other than 60 Minutes, The Mentalist, Numb3rs and the alphabet shows they also have nothing. And seriously, how many procedurals can one watch? Medium and Ghost Whisperer (aren't they the same show?) before Numb3rs, what were they thinking?
Fox held up the best but that isn't really saying much. They canceled the Sarah Connor Chronicles (no more Summer Glau, you might think I was a Firefly fan or something) and replaced it with comedy before Dollhouse. There's a match made in heaven. Not. Lie to Me (only 13 episodes so far) and Fringe (without Kirk Acevedo) will be back, no mention of 24 and then they run out of things I'm interested in.
Does anybody watch the CW? Melrose Place? I didn't watch the first version. Once they canceled Everwood and Veronica Mars the CW dropped off my radar. Seriously, this is the weakest schedule I have ever seen. Netflix is going to hate me next year, usually I only watch a couple of videos a month, next year looks like five or six per week.
Yup, it's looking pretty sad, no wonder they are bleeding viewers. A few years ago there were conflicts almost every night of the week, this year I won't need a dual DVR unless TNT and USA schedule extra episodes to take advantage of the lack of competition.
Have you ever wondered what television news anchors do during the commercial break? Straight from WGN-TV, an intimate look at that most serious of institutions.
The coronation I mean inauguration, feels like it's taking as long as the election did. Isn't there anything else going on in the world besides what's happening in the US? Real science instead of infotainment. Cool.
Must have only asked the rich ones because the majority are in no way, shape or form living the dream or have any possibility of achieving it on an individual level. Especially in a country where you can be handcuffed, lying face down and still get shot in the back. Breathing while black is still dangerous and will remain so for many more years.
Shades of the Iran hostage release. Of course they do. There is no guarantee that Obama might find the use of phosphorus bombs and blowing up schools and UN buildings to be the proper way to force one's enemies back to the stone age they've never had a chance to leave.
And if you don't want to join the military because it's the only "job" in town, if you wait just a little while there should be an explosion in prison guard jobs. This country will not go peacefully into its economic ice age.
Meetings are a waste of time. Gee, anyone (except the bosses) having suffered through more than one could have told them that. I wonder what the next news to anybody with a functioning brain blurb will be.
There's a plot on Lost and it makes sense? Wow. The Smoke Monster wasn't just a stray plot device? I quit watching halfway through the second season, the Tailies drove me nuts. Specifically that Rodriguez woman. Her character didn't die soon enough to make me continue watching.
I can go along with that. Unfortunately what's been lost over the years has been giving people the skills to do for the country. If schools aren't getting through to kids by teaching them to read, write, color, lay music, do simple math and learn to think for themselves, then the likelihood of being able to do good for your country drops proportionally (hopefully not geometrically) and since you can't contribute, you are reduced to taking. Whether it be soup lines, welfare or the recent latest craze, stealing from your investors, the same lack of civil charity is not on their radar.
I'm still fighting to stay on the bottom rung of the greased ladder because if I get knocked off the down becomes an abyss. Trying to work my way back up means that I leave mom alone for too long and all kinds of weird things happen, such as things important to me go missing and are sometimes never found. This friend of mine with a psych background finds mom's behaviors and answers to be quite humorous but admits it isn't humorous to be living through it. Maybe in a few years.
By way of the Guardian. You will never see this on American television. It isn't entertainment, it's reality. The reality of living in Baghdad after years of war. First you can't get around.
The graves of those who were killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the wrong religion, the wrong whatever.
And then there are the children. The true innocents and the ones who are paying the highest price. The orphans being recruited to continue the terror that was visited upon them. By us.
Somebody is going to be so happy. And they are. G.W.Bailey should have been nominated for something, like in the best supporting actor in a comedy even though The Closer is a a drama. Other than that, I have no complaints or interest. Except for Michael C. Hall for Dexter, loved him. My friend Linda will be happy about Bryan Cranston's nomination for Breaking Bad. She just got the first season on DVD and wants to have a Breaking Bad party. Now I have another reason to go.
Planet smashing and our earth has the scars to prove it.
That would be 25%, wouldn't it? When I was in school very few people dropped out, now it seems the norm. Do you think the educational system has something to do with it? Maybe they should go back to teaching instead of testing. Music and art classes might help those who aren't cut out to do math and science, but that's just too easy of a solution, isn't it?
Says it all, doesn't it? Our wonderful culture of life, isn't.
Despite spending $230m (£115m) an hour on healthcare, Americans live shorter lives than citizens of almost every other developed country. And while it has the second-highest income per head in the world, the United States ranks 42nd in terms of life expectancy.
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Japanese, for example, can expect to outlive Americans, on average, by more than four years. In fact, citizens of Israel, Greece, Singapore, Costa Rica, South Korea and every western European and Nordic country save one can expect to live longer than Americans.
There are also wider differences, the report shows. The average Asian woman, for example, lives for almost 89 years, while African-American women live until 76. For men of the same groups, the difference is 14 years.
One of the main problems faced by the US, says the report, is that one in six Americans, or about 47 million people, are not covered by health insurance and so have limited access to healthcare.
As a result, the US is ranked 42nd in global life expectancy and 34th in terms of infants surviving to age one. The US infant mortality rate is on a par with that of Croatia, Cuba, Estonia and Poland. If the US could match top-ranked Sweden, about 20,000 more American babies a year would live to their first birthday.
The housing scam is being revealed in all its glory. Everybody was out to make a buck and didn't care who got hurt in the process. Now it's coming back to bite us in the ass. Remember years ago when we dragged our heels to bail out New York City but we did bailed out Chrysler with no problem? That was the beginning of the blatant in your face we don't care about people, we care about corporations thinking that runs this country now. Into the ground, I might add.
I don't care how pretty it is, I'm not jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Do you have any idea how many Valiums I would have to take just to get on the plane? I certainly wouldn't do it just so I could see some scenery from the air while hoping my chute would open. A thrill queen I am not.
The acting was good, but the speeches were phenomenal. Culled from the history records. Now all we have is a shrub with a poor command of the English language and an inability to use it without sounding like an idiot. Every. Single. Time. He. Speaks.
If it was up to the current generations, we wouldn't be a Republic. Oops, my bad, we no longer are. I guess the truths are no longer self evident. Interesting how people are so adamant about protecting the Second Amendment and the other Amendments are just additions to an old piece of paper.
I'm reordering my Netflix queue so that I get the rest of the episodes as soon as possible.
At noon on January 20, 2009, Obama might declare victory, until then he's just having Bush moments such as Mission Accomplished and Bring It On and we all know how well those turned out.
The digital age has seriously arrived. At the Kremlin. Our media, while deficient in way too many respects, has at least had token coverage of opposing points of view, in Russia, not so much. While some people in America put little gaffe they can find on YouTube, the media in Russia does the exact opposite. You so know that Bush and Cheney would love to be able to do the same thing. Erase their opponents from the media. Completely. Not just what they said, but their images too. Along with his parental issues, now he's probably got a serious case of Putin envy. One can only hope that Bush and Cheney don't discover some political Viagra before January 20, 2009.
I addressed this yesterday but Time does it better. I've been getting my news from various sources for all of my life and by no stretch of earthly imagination can I be considered young. It's called research and it used to be required in order to graduate from high school. But I guess when you can buy your term papers off the web it removes the necessity of finding different sources that say the same thing, but in a different way. It also lessens the ability to think through and sort information into retainable categories and realize when you've read the same thing before so that you don't get confused.
I love BART. In San Jose we have the Light Rail but it isn't very convenient to get to or to get somewhere useful. Like Fremont. If we had decent public transportation, I would use it as much as possible. When I hang out with the BARBarians, I take the bullet CalTrain to Millbrae and then switch to the BART. If we meet on the Oakland side, I have to drive to Fremont and then take the BART. Not as much fun. And while ridership is increasing by leaps and bounds due to the encouragement of the high price of gas, Schwarzenegger's response is to take money away from public transportation in an effort to balance a budget that needs money coming in, not just cutbacks. I guess he isn't as much of an environmentalist as he says. But the Hummer and the cigars told us that a long time ago.
Where there is CONTROL, there must be KAOS. Please let Get Smart be as funny as the original, since the trailer was pretty good. I wonder what Maxwell is going to drive since they don't make the Opel GT anymore. My brother had one and he gave it to me. Crunchy was a great car. Oops, my bad. There's a new one! And it looks really cool. Interesting commercial, the woman's fantasy shows you more of the car, the man's is all about speed. I want one.
Well, I guess it's pretty clear why Gary Dourdan (Warrick Brown) is leaving CSI. Heroin? Ecstasy? Cocaine? Asleep in your car at 5 in the morning? What the heck has been happening in his life to go off the deep end like that?
One of the things that I hated about being a military kid were the school transfers. When I was six, we moved back from France and I went to finished first grade in Spokane, WA. Which was only for four weeks and then summer vacation started and we moved on base. So for second grade I went to school on base. I started fourth grade in Puerto Rico and seventh in Lompoc and when we were supposed to move for my junior year, I had had enough and threatened to drop out of school, so I graduated from Cabrillo. Every time we moved it was the same thing all over again and I see that many (many) years later, it continues to happen. Kids shouldn't have to suffer because their parents are serving in the military.
Last night we watched part of the Dexter DVD that I got from Netflix and then caught the tail end of an extremely edited version on CBS in HD. Wow, what a difference! The DVD was good but HD was definitely clearer. Makes me wonder how long it's going to take before Blu-Ray players come down to reasonable levels.
For goodness sake, when is this country going to grow up? Once again, the ugly streak of puritanism raises its head. The FCC in all its wisdom has decided to fine ABC $1.43 million for showing the naked side and backside of a woman getting into the shower in a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue. Ooh, ooh, the people in the Mountain time zone who don't believe in Daylight Savings Time saw the episode at 9:00 instead of 10:00 pm. Since parents don't seem to control their kids bedtimes and viewing habits, the government must do it for them.
Indeed, FCC commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate suggested in a prepared statement released with the proposed fine that the commission would have assessed a higher fine, if possible. "Our action today should serve as a reminder to all broadcasters that Congress and American families continue to be concerned about protecting children from harmful material and that the FCC will enforce the laws of the land vigilantly," Ms. Tate said.
I am so tired of this crap. There is nothing wrong with the human body, dressed or undressed but we keep trying to make it dirty and disgraceful. And why is it that it's always referred to as Janet Jackson baring her breast when it was Justin Timberlake singing about having her naked by the end of the song and it was his hand that did the removing? That has always bugged me. His career didn't suffer but hers did.
Of course the technicians are never dorks. We all know to power down and restart before we call. Whenever I have to call tech support I always get someone who doesn't understand and has me repeat all of the things I've already done before they tell me that they can't help me and they finally kick me upstairs. Now that I have my iMac and don't use Comcast, that particular irritation never occurs anymore.
I'm an isolationist, I admit it. I believe that America should take care of America first and worry about the rest of the world after we have solved the problems at home. I do not believe in withholding medical care, food or jobs from those who are already here and contributing to our society, in whatever menial capacity that may be. That some states would enact such draconian laws in an effort to stem the flow of illegal immigration is stupid and shortsighted. And for a supposedly Christian nation, it's not very Christ like. Why do we hate people who are different from us? Do you think that if aliens (the space kind) came to this world that they would see a difference between us? No, they would think we were all equally barbaric.
It's nice to know that some people are still willing to help others out. Most people (especially those in Oklahoma) would have kept the camera and not made the effort that these people did to return it to its rightful owner. Finder's keepers, losers weepers is how most people act nowadays.
So the game world has been ablaze with indignation since the Fox News program “The Live Desk With Martha MacCallum” said on Monday that Mass Effect, one of the most critically praised games of 2007, contains frontal nudity and explicit depictions of sexual activity. The assertions of virtual lasciviousness first appeared earlier this month among conservative bloggers incensed by brief YouTube clips excerpted from the 30- to 40-hour game.
Mass Effect, a science fiction game, includes a complicated romantic subplot that is no more risqué in its plot or graphic in its depiction than evening network television.
And 24 isn't one of the most violent television shows ever aired. Like the old MPAA joke goes: kiss a nipple and it's X rated, cut it off and it becomes an R. We are one messed up and repressed society.
Let the good times roll is a song by B.B.King (You'd better go out and spend some cash, how apt), not the way to run personal, business or national finances. Moderation? Who are these people trying to kid? People have been saying for years that the housing bubble couldn't be maintained and were blown off as being worryworts or Debbie Downers.
Good grief, I hope not. I was glad when he left, his character sucked and was one of the main reasons I stopped watching.
Who didn't see this one coming? They lied to start a war with a country that had done nothing to us. But will it be enough for impeachment? I doubt it, because lying about sex is more detrimental to the country than telling lies so our troops could die. Or so the people on the right believe. But what can you expect from a nation founded by religious fanatics and criminals.
Cannon fodder. 29% of Army recruits don't have high school diplomas and the poor are overrepresented in the Army, but the powers that be are still trying to maintain the fiction that unqualified soldiers aren't sent into combat. No wonder they're using video games for training.
I'm really sorry about Heath Ledger, what a shame. The only movie I ever saw of his was A Knight's Tale but I was, and still am, really looking forward to his role as the Joker in the new Bat flick. My heart goes out to his family and friends. Rest in peace, you will be missed. I guess this settles the issue about whether or not to prepare young people's obits. I thought Amy Winehouse would be a good candidate, especially after her crack video.
Lewis Black cracks me up. He's funny, to the point and not afraid to share his opinion. Thank goodness. Because if it wasn't for the comedians, nobody would ever hear the truth.
