The Most Obvious God-Damned Idea Ever

How in the Hell didn't any of us see this one???

Doctor Who - Redux

I sat down this afternoon to watch the third episode of Doctor Who, "The Unquiet Dead". This was essentially a ghost story - zombie - time travel episode. Pretty standard stuff, eh?

However, this did include a favorite author of mine, Charles Dickens. I enjoyed the actor who played Dickens and I thought his inclusion very much brought the story down to Earth.

All in all, I did enjoy this episode and will back off a bit on my earlier criticism of the series. The direction was much more stable and not so frenetic. Eccleston is growing on me as a Doctor and Billie Pieper really isn't hard to watch. It is still very British, so it does take getting used to. It is still better than Stargate Atlantis, which I just can't stomach even on a good day.

And Now, I'll Explain Everything

I had intended to blog this last week, but didn't get to it. We had some season finale's and some other odd occurances on some of the other shows I follow.

So, I'm going to reveal some things I think are happening. Don't read if you don't want to know.

Battlestar Galactica:
- When the season ended, a year had passed and we were on New Caprica. Baltar was President and the Cylons had just arrived for tea.
What do I think? Some sort of dream sequence. Remember that the transition between a year previous and a year later was Baltar falling asleep on his desk. It'll suck if I'm right, but we'll see.

Stargate SG-1:
- Not a very compelling ending, really. However, we do see that Vala starts having labor pains. Who's baby is it?
What do I think? The baby is King Arthur. How many times did the town elder say that "if someone pulled the stone, Arthur would return"? The baby will age dramatically (ala Spock in ST III: TSFS) and drive off the Ori.

24:
- Audrey is being set up, obviously. I say this because the PROMO on Fox for last week's episode described this female information broker by saying "Jack has never encountered a foe like her". Nothing she did in that episode made her any huge villian. Remember that SOMEONE knew Jack was still alive outside of Tony, Michelle, Palmer and Chloe. I doubt that Chloe is the villain and it's not Robocop. There's still someone else out there.
What do I think? Kim's gross boyfriend-doctor is involved. Chloe got caught checking up on Kim and that tipped them off that Jack was alive. Also, notice that the election is next year, as was mentioned in this last episode. We'll be back to a political season with the Vice President as a major bad guy.

Lost:
- The writers don't have a damn clue what's happening. They're just writing week after week trying to pay off their mortgages as fast as possible.

By the way, 10pts on the picture in this entry.

If You're Happy And You Know It...

Gelett Burgess once wrote:

There is work that is work and there is play that is play; there is play that is work and work that is play. And in only one of these lies happiness.

I think the reason that I'm contemplating this is that while I have plenty of work, I have no play in my life. There's lots of play at work, don't get me wrong, but once I leave work, not so much. I used to do Paintball, which was some of the most fun I've ever had. I also used to go game at my local shop but there's no appeal there anymore after moving twice. I play with the kids, sure, but that only goes so far. I just don't have fun anymore, and it's wearing on me. I've contemplated getting a bike, but that would probably just kill me. Paintball is out since I uh...sold my equipment. Yeah, that's it and not my 40-year old body.

At the moment, I'm really at a loss. I know that they all say when the kids are in the years between birth and school your life essentially stops. That really sucks for us parents, you know?

Creepiest DVD Set Ever

Ok, so you get some cool discs. But you also get the head of Ceasar, the chimp leader to stare at you from your set top or dresser at night.

Creepiest...DVD...Set...EVER.

OMFG!!

Hang on Bill, just wanna check my ebay account. Sweet! Someone paid $80,000 on "Buy It Now" for the top-secret DOD building schematics I was selling!

My Brain Hurts

I've had my new position for almost a week now (I don't count last week at all since I was at a convention) and my brain just aches. It was literally an overload day and I just can't get my mind to stop racing. I did bring home a 22 page manuscript to proof (because I didn't have time to do it at work) but it feels like I brought home a filing cabinet. I think I actually finished one project today and about 10 more got loaded onto the pile.

I just thought I would share. Thank God I save "24" for tonight so I got my head wrapped around something else for 48 minutes.

Newsflash: Researchers are excited over satellite images showing what they believe could be Noah's Ark (yes, biblically-referenced Noah's Ark) embedded in a mountainside in Eastern Turkey on...wait for it...Mt. Ararat.

Ok, and why is this new? I vividly remember a movie 30 YEARS AGO that showed grainy pictures of the same damn thing. I can't remember the name of the company that released the film, but they did a series of films including UFO's, Bigfoot and the Noah's Ark legend. The Mt. Ararat connection is nothing new.

What is new, is the above photo which was actually taken in 2003. It was released in the hopes that someone will actually make the climb and look for themselves. According to the old film that I remember, the Turkish government refuses to allow any such expedition but there's no mention of such resistance in the new story.

I think what you need to do, is slip into the story about the horrible conditions the animals suffered while in the ark. This will draw outrage from PETA, who will mount their own investigation. Thinking there might still be animals on board, they'll rush to Turkey and scale the mountain hoping to fling open the cages and free them.

Here's the
story by the way if you want to read more.

The Sad Task of Spring Begins

Really, I only went out to fix the gate.

The monkey (my two year old) has begun pulling Steve McQueen-type escapes from the backyard by capitalizing on the poor craftmanship of the two gates on either side of the house. I used big rocks, a drill, and wood to thwart him. No one escapes Stalag Tuttle.

So on my way back into the house, I notice the yard looks like shit. I never got around to raking up most of the leaves, due mostly in part to the crap-hole region of the country I now live in and the biblical-style rain we had all winter. I then pulled out the electric hedge trimmer (if you don't have one of these, get one. even if you don't own a hedge.), leaf vacuum, rakes, trash bags, extension chords, etc. The kids came out to pitch in. I let them believe that spreading the leaves back out of my piles was helpful.

It really was a nice day, for once, so it did feel good to get outside and move around a bit. There's still much more work to do in the yard so the payoff better be worth it.

The State Game - Official Rules

With my recent trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, Trevor and I were discussing the official rules to the "State Game". He has requested that I post them here, as I appear to be the one that has brought this game to most of the folks that I know.

Object: You win the game when you visit every single U.S. state before you die.

Rules:

The rules are very simple:

1) You must physically set foot in every U.S. state. Driving in the state doesn't count. Stop and pee on a tree, if you have to.

2) Airports do *NOT* count as being part of the state as they are considered to be like a foreign consulate. (Anyone who thinks that airports exist in our reality only need to try and purchase food there.)

That's it. Rule #2 usually seems to be the biggest issue and is the most contested. This is usually brought up by people who want to cheat and take the easy way out.

I have never been to Arizona, but I have been to Phoenix as my Southwestern flight stopped through there. For that to have counted, I would have needed to catch a cab, ask him to take me off airport property, get out and run around the cab. This would have probably ended me up in jail.

Feel free to contest any of the rules posted. I'll post my states later and welcome you to do the same. If anyone has been to EVERY state under the rules above, I'd love to see that as well. I hope to have this completed by age 50, personally.

Edit: Here's the link to the resource that Kathy was talking about in the Comment section. According to this, I have 17 states to go. And here is the link to My States

Doctor Who Cares

Ok, I'll admit that I'm only 5 minutes into the new Doctor Who on Sci-Fi (we're losing 7 months of Battlestar Galactica for this) and it stinks.

The directing is just bloody awful. A single chase scene cut to a new angle almost every other second. It didn't build suspense, it made me want to vomit.

I'll give it another 1/2 hour. Stay tuned.

And Now, The News

The other day I mentioned something good had happened. Well, the announcements were made so I can talk about it now. I was promoted at work out of the Sales position I was in into Brand Management. It's a great opportunity with a LOT of responsibility. My last two days (or my first two in the position) have been an absolute train wreck of work trying to get into this.

I'll be the BM for two games, one has been out for a bit and needs some TLC and the other is coming out in August. Both are really great and I think both have "legs" as we say.

Reaction to my news has been mixed, which has struck me as really odd. I'm happy, as I didn't find Sales very fulfilling. This affords me much more creativity so I'm anxious to pursue the different avenues opening up to me. In fact, just today I actually said these phrases in a work meeting:

"Will he have electrodes coming out of his head?"
"You could put a cape on him, you know."
"A big black Fedora. That would be cool."
"What if there was a body, coming out of the other body. No wait, go with me on this one."

I'll be in Las Vegas all next week at a trade show hooking up with some old industry friends and stretching my legs in my new position. I'll try to update the entries while I'm there. There's also another piece of incredibly bizarre news that I hope to share within the week.

Stay tuned.

The Year of Superman

Warner Brothers has dubbed 2006 "The Year of Superman". Of course, it's a silly marketing ploy. But they set up a website so I was obligated to look.

Most everything there is related to the new moving coming out in June. Of all the genre related movies out this year, I'm most apprehensive about this. I love the character of Superman. I just think this version is trying to appeal to those who don't.

Anyway, I could bitch about that for hours. Rather, I would like to point you to the montage video in the middle of that page that auto-loads. No sign of Brandon Routh, but everyone else is there: George Reeves, Kirk Alyn, Christopher Reeve (the ONLY Superman), Tom Welling and even Dean Cain. There are even cuts from the more recent animated Superman series. Notable omissions were the 1960's Superman cartoon and the 1970's Superfriends. Still, with the music of John Williams, the voices of Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman and a wonderful shot of a smiling George Reeves (who hated his role as The Man of Steel) carrying an equally happy young child, made this a really nice homage to Superman on screen. Of course, it ends with the ONLY shot of Superman that should ever be used to end a montage of clips. It's a clip that drew criticism in 1979 from reviewers for "breaking the 4th wall". Screw them. It's an image of Superman that Christopher Reeve created that will never be topped.

Check it out.

Life Isn't Fair Part II

I had a pretty good day yesterday. Something very good happened to me that I'll write about in a few days as I have to wait for an official announcement. Suffice it to say that I was in a great mood and even the usual downers in my life couldn't snuff it out.

After dinner, I went for a walk. I had my cell in my pocket so I decided to call a friend of mine back in Ohio and share my news with him. When he answered the phone, I could immediately tell something was wrong. It turns out a mutual friend, and guy that I used to game with a lot, lost his son yesterday to respiratory complications.

His son was four years old.

There is no justification on Earth or in Heaven for this. I know a lot of you that read this aren't parents, but there is nothing in your life more precious than your child. You would gladly lay down your life for them, given the chance. I can only imagine, and hope to never know, how he is feeling right now. He and his family are in my prayers.

Life Isn't Fair

Dana Reeve, widow of actor Christopher Reeve, died yesterday at the age of 44. She never smoked, but was diagnosed last year with lung cancer.

Dana Reeve once said "Life isn't fair, and you better stop expecting it to be."

We should all be so lucky as to know someone like her.

I Want My 24 Money Back

If you missed 24 last week, this EXACT scene happened. Really.

I think the reason we're getting two 24 episodes this week is because of the fan outrage over the fact that the following did NOT happen on last week's episode:

- Jack didn't kill a single person. No knife, no gun, or cell phone.
- Jack didn't yell "DAMMIT!!!"
- Nothing was ran through a high-pass filter.

I excpect better out of Fox. I suggest that Jack push RoboCop through a high pass filter yelling "DAMMIT" to make up for it.

By the way, here's the website that is tracking Jack's kills. Sick and funny all at once. Bauercount.com

Crisis Counselling

I hear this phrase a lot relating to the industries of my hobbys.

"Just when I thought I was out, they suck me back in again."

Case in point, is the current "crisis" storyline. If you are a non-comic reader, please just stop here and come back for the next blog entry on "24". There is just no way the non-initiated will have any idea what I'm talking about.

For the Marvel only readers, the "crisis" storyline (which is in reality a storyline that is decades in the making) is like a long, drawn-out X-Men storyline that actually ends.

I'm not going to explain the story, but rather praise issue #5. As per the picture here, it's about the battle between Superman (Kal-L) and Superman (Kal-el). Kal-L is the Superman from the 1930's - 1980's. Kal-El is from the "reboot" of DC Comics in the 80's (due mostly, to copyright rules protecting trademarks from entering public domain). Kal-L is from a world of black and white. You deal with evil swiftly and justly. Kal-el's world has more shades of grey than defined ends and every action not only has unforseeable results, but generates unending angst over the decision.

Kal-L's world has passed. Earth-2 was swallowed up in the first Crisis. Alex Luthor was able to save Kal-L, Lois Lane, and Superboy. Earth-1 was the "rebooted world" and everything started over again. What we've all noticed over the last 20 years, is what happened to Earth-1. Superman died to build readership in comics to insane levels. The second Robin, Jason Todd, was killed off due to a misstep by DC that allowed readers to phone a 1-900 number to vote whether he should live or die. Green Lantern died. Green Arrow died. Wonder Woman murdered a man in cold blood. Batman's paranoia has unleashed an army of killing machines (Omacs) that have killed thousands of innocents.

Etc. etc. etc. This isn't your father's comic books.

So I don't think that DC is really trying to return comics to the "good old days" when stories were ridiculous, art was bad, and there were no "events". But I do think that this is a great nod to the fact that comics have moved far beyond their childhood roots.

So while I'm not certain that the new Crisis storyline is meant to say "yeah, we've screwed up" I do believe that there is a certain feeling that things have gone a little far. At some point, comics do have to be innocent fun. A Superman comic should be fun, not full of the angst that have permeated the book for years. Batman should be fun and thought-provoking for its detective roots. Right now, the character is so dark as to be unlikeable.

The associative tie-ins have been reasonably good, although I have not picked them all up. Compared to Marvel's tepid "House of M", DC's Infinite Crisis has been wonderfully told and attractively presented. The panels are big, explosive, and best of all...fun. We're being told that the "reboot" following this Crisis will return many characters to their former glory. I can't wait to see.