Monday Must See 10-30-06

Heroes: Hmmm... I'm beginning to think I only want the really good parts of Heroes, because this episode, like the one last week, felt like mostly filler except for the few points that moved along the plot.
And no Nathan, Peter, or Matt this week!
Looking forward to next Monday!

Studio60:  wasn't on. And I think I read where it's being put on hiatus.

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Monday Must See 10-30-06

Waffles! woHOO!

It's Monday.

That means Heroes is on tonight!
And just in time; a Heroes fan podcast, a discussion board from the crew of that 'cast, and another fan discussion board.

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Waffles! woHOO!

Current TV Season Meme

I grabbed this from Michael.

Shows I Love
Stargate SG-1

Heroes

Shows I Like

Battlestar Galactica

Stargate Atlantis

Eureka
Bones

House

Smallville

Shows that have been on but I just started watching and they're pretty decent
None

Shows that have either jumped the shark or suck, yet I still watch
None.

New shows that I really like
The aforementioned Heroes.

New shows that I kind of like and am still "trying out"
Studio60 on the Sunset Strip
The Nine

New shows that I tried but didn't like 
None

New shows that I liked but have already been canceled
None

 

Current TV Season Meme

Friday Memes

First, from Friday's Feast

 

Create a new candle scent:

-Burning Leaves

Name one way you show affection to others:

-hugs.

What is your favorite writing instrument?

-clicky pens I get from conferences

If you were given $25 to spend anywhere online, from which site would you buy?

-Barnes and Noble.

Are you dressing up for Halloween? If so, what are you going to be?

-I'm 33.

 

And now, from Friday5.

What is one thing you always have with you?

-Fat.

 

What are two things on your night-table (or next to your bed)?

-The alarm clock and dust.

 

What are three things you learned in the last seven days?

-A new way to search for things in our Computer-Aided Dispatch system at work.

-It's actually called "Daylight Saving Time", not "Daylight Savings Time".

-I need to update my resume, it's seriously out-of-date.

 

What are four things parents always have to tell you?

-Be careful.

-We love you.

-We wish we could help out our kids more.

-I hurt.

 

What are five things you paid for in the last month?

-Lunch

-Dinner

-Gas

-Groceries

-preschool tuition

 

And finally, from Question of the Day:

If you were writing your autobiography, what would the first sentence say?

-The end.

 

 

 

Friday Memes

Thursday Fandom 10-26-06

Smallville:

I actually like this Oliver Queen character. I'm not very familiar with his comic incarnation, and haven't seen his DCAU counterpart yet (I hope to soon though), so I can't say how he relates to the established character - but I like him. And I like his relationship with Clark.  Ollie is already establishing himself as a "costumed hero", Green Arrow, and he seems to be directing Clark in his growth towards being a visible hero.

 

I'm glad the show is heading back towards the release of the "'Zoners" also - I dislike dangling plot-threads.

 

And finally a scene with Lois and Clark doing their "reporter" shtick: Lois digging for the story, and Clark up and disappearing just as it gets good.

 

But: Astral Projection? Really?

Although, astral projection being countered by an EMP is an interesting twist I haven't heard of before.

 

Ooh! Almost forgot - one of Ollie's friends mentioned having to get back to Gotham!  (Shortly before he got all exploded.)

And Clark needs to go revive the Fortress. We need more Fortress!

 

Okay then. I'm off to read spoilers...

 

 

Thursday Fandom 10-26-06

Reading In Bed

Reading in bed

Do you read in bed? For how long? Do you fall asleep reading? Will a good book keep you up all night?

I usually don't read in bed. I often read on the couch until I can't keep my eyes open, then set the book down and doze off into a wonderful nap.  A good book will keep up late into the night, but not all night.

 

Where do you keep your nighttime reading? Do you have a special table next to the bed? Are there many books there? Do you keep books there that you aren't reading (finished or unread)?

I have a nightstand next to my bed where I might keep my current book. Otherwise, books I plan on reading are usually kept on a bookshelf in my living room.

 

I usually have a stack of three or four books waiting to be read, sometimes I don't get to them because I come across books I want to read before I get to those in the stack.  Since many of the books I read come from the library, this means I often don't get to some of the books in my stack before they are due back, and then I forget what I had, and never get to them unless I think the book is worth making a note of somewhere so I'll remember to get it again. I have a huge stack of print-outs from the library of books I'd like to read sometime that I'll probably never get around to reading.  Depending on the book and the time I can commit to reading, I can often finish a book in a day or two (especially if I can stay up late).  But I usually have little time to commit to reading daily, so I usually take about a week to finish a book, reading maybe a chapter or two a day as time permits. 

 

 

 

 

Reading In Bed

Monday Must See 10-23-06

Heroes: Quickly becoming one of my favorite shows. Hiro is awesome! But when he did start speaking better English? Rubi started watching with me last night and likes Hiro too. "Waffles! Woo!" and "Poo! Poo!" were her favorite lines.
Also, "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" is spreading rapidly as the "new" catchphrase. On another discussion thread I saw someone refer to Claire (the indestructible cheerleader) as "Cheerverine"! Too funny!
I thought the Hiro/Ando story line this ep was pretty much filler - but I might be wrong.
I'm interested to see if this show gets picked up for a 2nd season, how the storyline will develop. The current storyline seems to pretty well dead-end with the aforementioned saving of the world. Not that that's a dead-end, just that it seems to be the logical conclusion to the current story line.
And last nights episode had another good ending - I really like how this show throws these great endings at us!

Studio60: This episode was a little better than previous eps, perhaps because there weren't any sketches from the show on the show. The old guy story line was very interesting, and the hiring of the new writer was well-done;
"I don't work for you guys."
"You do now." And the guy turning around and giving a very subdued happy pumping elbow action (what is that motion called anyway?).
The other storylines in this episode I found lacking though.

In summary:
Heroes: Rock!
Studio60: eh...

Monday Must See 10-23-06

Fun!

Our small group went to Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois, including Garden of the gods, Rim Rock, and Cave In Rock. Rubi, Elizabeth, and I went with.
We had a great time!
Rubi sister Sara kept the little kiddos while we were there. (Thanks Sara!)

I've uploaded some small versions of our pictures. There's 40 there. In all, Rubi and I took 95 pictures. Here's a slideshow.

We had a great time, and we'd love to take Alexander there some time (when he's a bit bigger). He'd love to climb all over the rocks. Catherine, on the other hand, would probably be upset about getting dirty.

We left town about 9:30 am. First we went to Rim Rock. I really liked this place. Lots of climbing, walking around in the forest, a nice stream flowing through the area, and apparently this area has trailheads into other areas that we didn't investigate as we were doing three short visits yesterday.

After Rim Rock, we drove up the road to Garden of the gods, parked and had a picnic lunch, then walked in the park. Lots of climbing again, more fretting from me about Elizabeth getting too close to the edge and running around without an adult near, and more great scenery.

After Gotg, we drove to the Ohio River to see Cave In Rock. Very cool. I like caves, and this was a nice small hole in a wall of granite - almost like an amphitheater at the back of it. I was told this cave was where pirates used to lay in wait for a ship to pass, then they'd sail out of the cave and go about their looting. Very cool!

Also at Cave In Rock, one of the other couples in our group took their small dog with them, and the dog discovered the corpse of a possum amongst the rocks on the riverfront and proceded to roll around in it. Once we discovered what it was rolling around in, we all ran over to see!!! (Woo-hoo! Let's all look at the dead animal!) Then spent the rest of the day calling the dog "the possum dog".

While Rubi, Elizabeth, and I were in Southern Illinois, Sara took Alexander and Catherine and spent some quality time with them - they went to a local "home show" and the kids gathered a bunch of freebies from the different vendors, then they went an played at Sara's boyfriends house for awhile (apparently building an invisible treehouse, though I'm not sure how that works), then they went for slushies at Sonic, and came home and had a nice long playbath with many bubbles ending up all over the bathroom. They got to have a fun day too!

We'd like to go back sometime to Rim Rock, take Alexander for some more climbing, and maybe spend time on different trails.

Fun!

Down in Fraggle Rock

Hmmm...
Frank Zappa's kid is planning a live-action Fraggle movie.

I love the Fraggles (or in the words of Junior, the "Fwaggles"), and the Muppets in general.
I hope this turns out well.

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Down in Fraggle Rock

New 7 Wonders

I've got my vote in for the New 7 Wonders. 
I voted for:

 

Angkor

Chichen Itza

Easter Island Statues

Petra

Pyramids of Giza

Statue of Liberty

Stonehenge

 

 

 

New 7 Wonders

Must See Monday

Hereos: Pretty Good and getting better.

Studio60: The Jury is still out.

 

Heroes, in my opinion, started off in the pilot of slow - Hiro and Claire were the only really interesting characters - although I did want to know if Peter really could fly.

Episode two was much better, developing the story and characters a little more.

Episode three, last night, was excellent! Hiro and Claire are still the "breakout" characters, but Peter's abilities have possibilites. And last night's surprise ending was way better than last weeks.

Heroes has definitely become Must See TV for me.

 

I missed the pilot of Studio60, but I've caught the last three episodes. I had high hopes for this show, what with Matthew Perry and Amanda Peet starring in it. Plus a cast of familiar faces in many supporting roles. I expected a straight-up comedy with Matthew Perry, but it's definitely supposed to be a drama, maybe leaning towards dramady since it's about a sketch comedy show.  I agree with the various reviews I've read that the actual sketches they show are bad.

Matt, the head writer, is supposed to be a brilliant comedy writer but we don't see that.  I think they should leave the actual sketches out of it or, as I read in various other reviews, hire actual comedy writers to write the sketches.  It seems this show is taking itself too seriously and I fear for it's longevity. It has potential - but it hasn't lived up to it yet.

 

 

 

 

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Must See Monday

That Trip To Anniston

I mentioned awhile back that I had attended a weeklong training program in Anniston Alabama at the Center for Domestic Preparedness.

Here's a good news article about the CDP, and here's a video about it.

EDIT: (embedded video removed because I think it was frelling up the way my sidebar loaded.)

That Trip To Anniston

Is it wrong...

Is it wrong that as soon as I heard about the 6.3 Earthquake in Hawaii, I started singing "The Ring Of Fire" by Johnny Cash?

 

Hawaii sits pretty close to the center of the Pacific Ring of Fire (at least, visually).

 

 

Is it wrong...

Civic Duty

Apparently, my job as a 9-1-1 Supervisor isn't enough "Civic Duty".

I have to report for prospective jury duty tomorrow morning, making Rubi have to miss work tomorrow.

 

They could have at least scheduled it so I'd have to miss work.

 

 

 

Civic Duty

SG1 Continues! -ish

Gateworld reports that SG1 is set to continue in at least two direct-to-DVD movies!

 

Woo!

 

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SG1 Continues! -ish

Hmmm...

After a long rough weekend at work working every shift (dayshift, 12 hours overnight x2, 2nds) - I think I'm finally almost sure what day it is.

 

 

 

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Hmmm...

Nooooooo!

From the master himself:

"There's no sequel, no secret project regarding Serenity or somesuch..."

 

Posted at Whedonesque, with a collection of links to collective gasps around the fandom.

 

Now... reading his post, and some of the comments, it seems more like he's saying there isn't an immediate in-the-works sequel.  It doesn't, to me, sound like he's saying Serenity is gone for good.

 

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Nooooooo!

Wow

The article speaks for itself.

 

 

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Wow

Have You Ever

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink - No
02. Swam with wild dolphins - No
03. Climbed a mountain - No
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive - No
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid - No
06. Held a tarantula - Absolutely NOT!
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone - No
08. Said “I love you” and meant it - Absolutely
09. Hugged a tree - Maybe...
10. Bungee jumped - No
11. Visited Paris - No
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea - No
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise - Yes
14. Seen the Northern Lights - No
15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards) - No
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa - No
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables - No
18. Touched an iceberg - No
19. Slept under the stars - No
20. Changed a baby’s diaper - Absolutely
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon - Not yet.
22. Watched a meteor shower - Several times.
23. Gotten drunk on champagne - No.
24. Given more than you can afford to charity - No
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope - Yes
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment - Probably.
27. Had a food fight - Probably. I can't remember a specific one, but I'm sure I have.
28. Bet on a winning horse - No
29. Asked out a stranger - No
30. Had a snowball fight - Yes
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can - No
32. Held a lamb - No
33. Seen a total eclipse - I don't think so.
34. Ridden a roller coaster - Absolutely not.
35. Hit a home run - No
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking - Well yeah.
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day - No.
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment - Of course.
39. Had two hard drives for your computer - Yes.
40. Visited all 50 states - Nope.
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk - No.
42. Had amazing friends - No.
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country - No.
44. Watched wild whales - No
45. Stolen a sign - Yes.
46. Backpacked in Europe - Once, and as I came upon this clearing, there was this woman, crying...
47. Taken a road-trip - Oh yeah.
48. Gone rock climbing - No.
49. Midnight walk on the beach - No
50. Gone sky diving - No.
51. Visited Ireland - No
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love - No
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them - No
54. Visited Japan - No
55. Milked a cow - No
56. Alphabetized your CDs - Yes.
57. Pretended to be a superhero - Yes.
58. Sung karaoke - Yes. Once.
59. Lounged around in bed all day - Yes, when sick.
60. Played touch football - Probably.
61. Gone scuba diving - No.
62. Kissed in the rain - Probably.
63. Played in the mud - Probably.
64. Played in the rain - Yes
65. Gone to a drive-in theater - Yes.
66. Visited the Great Wall of China - No.
67. Started a business - Does a CafePress store count?
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken - Yes. Hi Rubi!
69. Toured ancient sites - Yes. Angel Mounds in Evansville, Indiana.
70. Taken a martial arts class - Yes, but I dropped out after a few classes because it didn't fit into my schedule.
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight - No.
72. Gotten married - Yes. Hi Rubi!
73. Been in a movie - No.
74. Crashed a party - No.
75. Gotten divorced - Absolutely not.
76. Gone without food for 5 days - yeah right... Like that would ever happen.
77. Made cookies from scratch - Yes.
78. Won first prize in a costume contest - No.
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice - No.
80. Gotten a tattoo - No
81. Rafted the Snake River -No.
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert” - Yes.
83. Got flowers for no reason - No.
84. Performed on stage - Yes.
85. Been to Las Vegas - No
86. Recorded music - Does a recording of the aforementioned Karaoke count?
87. Eaten shark - No.
88. Kissed on the first date - No.
89. Gone to Thailand - No.
90. Bought a house - Yes.
91. Been in a combat zone - No.
92. Buried one/both of your parents - no.
93. Been on a cruise ship - No.
94. Spoken more than one language fluently - No.
95. Performed in Rocky Horror - Absolutely not (sorry Rubi).
96. Raised children - ongoing yes
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour - NO
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country - No
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over - No
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge - No
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking - Yes
103. Had plastic surgery - No
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived - No.
105. Wrote articles for a large publication - Not yet. I hope to someday.
106. Lost over 100 pounds - No.
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback - No.
108. Piloted an airplane - No.
109. Touched a stingray - No
110. Broken someone’s heart - Not that I'm aware.
111. Helped an animal give birth - No.
112. Won money on a T.V. game show - No
113. Broken a bone - fractured yes. Broken, no.
114. Gone on an African photo safari - No.
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears - absolutely not.
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol - No.
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild - No.
118. Ridden a horse - Yes.
119. Had major surgery - Does the Big "V" county as major?
120. Had a snake as a pet - absolutely not.
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon - no.
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours - No.
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states - No
124. Visited all 7 continents - No
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days - No
126. Eaten kangaroo meat - No
127. Eaten sushi - No.
128. Had your picture in the newspaper - yes.
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about - I don’t know.
130. Gone back to school - No.
131. Parasailed - No.
132. Touched a cockroach - Ewwww.
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes - No.
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey - No.
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read - No
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - No
137. Skipped all your school reunions - No
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language - No
139. Been elected to public office - No
140. Written your own computer language - No
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream - Yes
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care - No
143. Built your own PC from parts - Yes
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you - No
145. Had a booth at a street fair - No
146. Dyed your hair - No
147. Been a DJ - yes
148. Shaved your head - No
149. Caused a car accident - Yes
150. Saved someone’s life - Maybe.

 From Carrie.

Have You Ever