Satisfying Geekfeast

I finished "The Dalek Invasion of the Earth" last night. For something filmed on a shoestring budget in the '60's, it held up remarkably well. Great story with interesting twists and turns. Oh, the overall premise was ridiculous, but in "Dr. Who", one gets used to the idea of a villain wanting to turn a planet into something one can fly around through space or whatever.

After all, the British originated "Space: 1999" in the next decade.

Bless 'em.

I followed up my "Who" fix with some of Walter Bishop's Nazi-hunting in the latest "Fringe". Good fun. I noticed a very interesting plot twist in that episode. I'm wondering if it was intentional or lazy writing? Hm...

So tonight is the end of "Dollhouse". If I get back from class in time, I plan to collapse in front of the tube to watch another of Joss Whedon's creations expire in FOX's care.

Whee.

The Pain, oh the Pain

Wednesday's "warm up" has finally caught up with me. Ow.

My muscles feel severely abused.

I have a cough I can't seem to get rid of and now my abdominal muscles, already tender from the coughing, are delivering twice the agony from the ridiculous number of sit-ups I attempted during the "warm up". Yeah. Good times.

At least it's Friday.

PhoneDeath

My cell died. No rhyme or reason. The battery was operational and charged. The phone just refused to activate.

So, I trucked off to my provider's store at lunch and got a new one. I'm on a pay-as-you-go plan, so no special deals for this little monkey.

I got a cheapie phone. Extra power cord. Read the instructions and adjusted my settings after making sure the SIM card still has my old phone numbers.

I've avoided a plan 'cause I'm a paranoid and am not keen on giving my social security number to the wonks at cell companies. They're not super-secure and exposing the number unnecessarily seems ill-advised.

I asked if that asinine requirement was still in place in order to get a plan these days. The fellow who was capably handling phone issues explained politely that I have an alternate option: I can pay a deposit.

Yep. For $500 as a deposit, they'll enter a bogus social. After a year of good-standing, I get refunded the five C notes.

I now have something to ponder.

Wiping Brain Matter Off the Screen

Last night my class started up again... kinda. It was more a ceremony-thing followed by a "warm-up" that was only mildly-insane.

I'm not sure why I'm not in any special pain from that. I should be. I tried all the exercises (and was pretty much dying by the end) and I've been an unforgivable slacker for over a month now, so it's not like I've stayed in shape or anything.

Hm... maybe the pain is waiting to hit me later?

Bah. I care not. New "Fringe" tonight. I also have a loaned copy of "The Dalek Invasion of the Earth" to watch on DVD. Yeah, that's right. Classic, William Hartnell-era "Dr. Who"! Woo-hoo! Or should it be "woo-who"? Hm.

I'm also currently addicted to some "young adult" fiction books that fall under the series name of "The Ranger's Apprentice", by John Flanagan. Damn these are good.

I got the latest Steven Erikson book and skimmed a few pages, then put it down. I'm just not up to that right now.

A conversation

Recent IM between me and a friend

Friend: iPad, doesn't seem that great of a thing
Me: I don't get the buzz over it, really
Me: "Ooh! Apple did a tablet! I'm having an iGasm..." Whatever.
Friend: pretty much
Me: I should copyright "iGasm".
Friend: you should
Friend: quick, blog it!

And so it is blogged.

I'm sure Apple has already copyrighted the iGasm, but if not... you heard it here first!

[Edit]

VB proved me wrong. I'm apparently not a fountain of originality. I'm busy weeping bitter tears now.

[/Edit]

You Heard It Here First

Okay, so you've heard the term jumping the shark, right? Now there's nuking the fridge.

I propose one even beyond those.

Spoilers for BSG fans.

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Fucking the Monkey. That's the new term.

Where did I come up with that? So in the BSG finale, the human race has finally found Earth. In their limping Battlestar Galactica, they have (at the leading of "angels") come to our pre-historic Earth and decided to give up all their modern technology (modern medicine, weapons, tools, shelter, etc.) to create a new world.

Of course, the Earth already has beings on it in the form of homo-erectus (the implication that they're essentially ape-people) and they've pretty much got to cross-breed with these natives in order to keep the human race alive and going.

Yep. They have to get it on with monkey-people.

The ending is so lame that it can really best be encompassed by the term: fucking the monkey.

And so, Internet, I propose this term as a new extreme for how idiotic a show's writing can get.

Take it, or discard it, as you will.

My apologies for any readers who are easily offended by profanity.

Websplat

* Got one of these a few weeks ago. My keychain looks especially-insane now, but I regret nothing. I'm going to have to shed a good ten pounds of gear before I can go to an airport. [Garret Wade] via [OhGizmo!] and [The Awesomer]

* I like the idea of this book. I wonder if "juggling flaming chainsaws over a lava pit" is one of the scenarios?

* Did you know that the State Department issues passport cards now? I didn't until I started looking into renewing my passport. Not super-useful for me as I don't usually go to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, or the Bahamas. I like how the site reiterates often that no personal information is stored on the RFID chip.

* I have Altoids at my desk. They're curiously strong. Huh. Curious.

Aaah Monday

Few things make me want to sleep in more than steady rain tapping on my window.

So, of course, I woke to the sound of rain this fine Monday morning.

Couldn't have happened on a day I could sleep in. Noooo... has to happen Monday.

Pretty impressive amount of water, too. I hit a fair amount of standing water on my way in.

Good fun there.

Funny Fear

For the second or third time in my life, I held a baby today.

Eight pounds of sleeping little person.

It was weird and more than a little terrifying.

That said, she was an adorable little person.

A plan

My friends of a similar age are now starting to have kids.

It's surreal.

Today I head out to go meet one newcomer to the world.

The kid is too young for toys so I'm at a loss as to what to bring.

Oh wait! Diapers!

Oooh! I have a plan!

Pining for a Clue Bat

Okay... I can get the Dems losing Massachusetts. They f***ed up their campaign there. It's par for the course. I get that.

I don't get them all in a tizzy-panic now. So you lost an election. Suck it up, get your shit together, and get to work doing stuff for your base. It's not all that complicated, Dems. Seriously. Stop helping bail out fat banks with our tax dollars and do something to help the everyday folks. You'll get re-elected then. It's a pretty solid strategy.

I mean seriously... your opponents are represented by people like:

- Rush Limbaugh, a "man" who publically says we shouldn't be helping out Haiti 'cause it plays into President Obama's political ambitions. Um...

- Pat Buchanan, a "man" who claims the Haiti disaster is due to a pact with the devil.

- Sarah Palin, a "woman" who can see Russia from her house. Apparently.

I wish these were just fringe characters, but they're really the more vocal parts of the right-wingers in the country.

Argh. I really just want a clue bat that I can swing about with impunity.

And a pony. No reason. Just thought it would be cool.

Siren Lure of Stuff I Don't Need

Yes, I think this is cool.

No, I don't think I'll cough up $125 for it.

Tempting, but a hundred and twenty-five bucks is pretty crazy for a swiss army wallet.

Of course, I'm sure I'll change my mind.

In lighter news

SQUEE!!!!!

Yes. I'm one of maybe twenty people who liked Push.

I'm not ashamed.

Constants

There's a few things in life I feel I can count on (and usually not in a good way):

- Death
- Taxes
- Gravity
- FOX canceling TV shows I like
- Democrats imploding

I can't say I was super-fond of "Dollhouse" so I don't count that in my FOX rule. I'm waiting for the axe to take out "Fringe".

Oh and the Dems. Yeah. Massachusetts.

Really? The Democrats could f*ck up Massachusetts??? Seriously?

I mean, sure. Their "supermajority" wasn't going anywhere. The Democratic party is too splintered with the bizarre. The "Blue Dog" Dems, for example. They're essentially Repugnicans who think they're clever by pretending to be otherwise.

Still, way to go Dems! Screw up in one of your stronghold states! You're... what? A year into holding the White House again? I look forward to seeing how you'll handle your agenda and stave off the barrage of conservative numbnuts now that you're more vulnerable to filibusters.

I'd at least expected four years of some positive results before you guys imploded. Way to disappoint!

*sigh*... end rant. I forgot my flask. Damn.

Stormin'

Waking to lightning and thunder is one thing.

Having thunder shake the walls of your office is something entirely different.

Woo-hoo! Three more days of storms to go!

Ava-tardy

I'm late to the Avatar bandwagon.

I don't regret it. I hate crowds. I especially hate crowds of frothing fanboys and I knew long ago that this movie would draw them.

However, I decided today to treat myself and checked it out in 3-D. I considered IMAX, but I've seen IMAX at this theater and was unimpressed with the results vs the cost.

So just 3-D.

After a half-hour of trailers (sweet bejebus...) the movie finally came on.

And... wow.

Okay, so bad stuff first:

- Plot was pretty much "Dances with Smurfs" or "Pocohantus in Space". Heavy-handed with military = bad and scientists = good. Seen it.

- Dialog was painfully bad. Seriously.

- The human characters were wooden and uninteresting.

The good:

- the visuals were SPECTACULAR!!!

Yeah, the world was amazing. In 3-D you just get sucked in. Wow.

I'm usually restive after 2 hours of a movie. This had my full attention despite the wince-worthy dialog and plot.

Good, clean fun.

And the nature-hippy-alien message makes Republicans squirm. Icing on the cake!

Karmic Roller Coaster from HELL

I'm undecided as to how I'm going to look back at this week.

I usually focus on the negative, so I'll probably write off this week as pure hell, but it really wasn't.

High Points:
- lots of sleep
- two "Fringe" eps
- a surprising (and awesome windfall)

Low Points:
- losing my temper
- lingering sore throat and exhaustion
- a possible fracture

Ugh. I guess I'll see how today goes.

blahs

Half-day today for a doctor's appointment.

Well-timed 'cause I'm still fighting this lingering throat irritation and I'm feeling somewhat exhausted despite all the sleep I'm getting.

Bright side? "Fringe" tonight! Woot!

Really?

Pat Robertson...

I'm speechless at the level of shameless crap this asshole will pull to get attention.

Now he's saying Haiti's earthquake was due to a pact with the Devil.

I would love for Pat to get airlifted into Haiti and explain his... unique... point of view to the locals. No bodyguards. No soldiers covering his fat ass. Nada.

I fact, I kind of insist on this happening. Now.

Tic-tock

Want!

[Edit]Available, but their site's encryption is crap. Browsers show their payment pages are only partially-encrypted. Yeah... way to discourage ecommerce, guys![/Edit]

Le sigh.

Foxy

FOX temporarily won my love this week by airing "Fringe" on Monday and then will air another tomorrow.

Monday's "Fringe" was an unaired episode from season one. Made me nostalgic by seeing good old Charlie Francis still about and kicking ass.

It was a weird episode, even by "Fringe" standards.

I think it was the attempt to even-handedly deal with religion that made it feel odd.

I still enjoyed it. Can't wait for tomorrow's.

Deprivation

The world looks very different when you've had only three hours of sleep.

My three strong cups of coffee are helping, but I still feel only half-here. Everything has a surreal, dreamlike quality to it.

At least the sore throat has mostly faded.

Adding to my New Year's Resolution list: wait at least an hour or so before replying to any kind of personal email.

strong end

Despite a sore throat and general ickiness that wouldn't go away, this was a pretty good weekend.

Twelve-plus hours of sleep from Friday night to Saturday morning (thank you, Nyquil!) helped me remain mostly-functional for my ten-plus hours of gaming Saturday afternoon.

The game went fairly well, all things considered. I was having trouble maintaining focus (thank you, Nyquil-hangover and lingering ickiness) but the game took a life of its own and I was able to mostly just guide things.

Best gaming group ever, I tell you.

It took me a bit to get moving Sunday. The sore throat more-or-less faded but the general ickiness was still there along with increased pain with my injured wrist. Family time more than made up for that.

Parental-made hurricane (rum drink) that I shouldn't have drank, but did. I'm sure it contributed a bit to the reason my sore throat returned, but I regret nothing. Plus an added present from the 'rents that's going to make 2010 a little easier to manage.

My own healthcare plan

I consider it no coincidence that I developed a sore throat a mere couple of hours after returning home from the doctor's yesterday.

I've had a lingering headache and sore throat on-and-off all day today and felt slightly achy overall. I think the ridiculous amounts of ibuprofen I'm taking for my injury are lessening the achy feeling.

In short, I do believe I've (re?)lapsed into some kind of cold.

I absolutely must be healthy and functional tomorrow. So...

Hello Nyquil!

Doctoring it up

After over six weeks of recurring pain in my wrist, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and go see the doctor.

Unlike seeing the Doctor (capital 'D'), which would be cool beyond words, seeing the doctor is something I actively try to minimize or avoid.

I have reasons:

1) I don't like hospitals. I think many people feel this way.

2) Getting to my doctor requires me to go through sketchy-ish areas.

3) I hate waiting.

Waiting is an unfortunate side-effect of any visit to a medical practitioner. My philosophy is pretty simple about how I justify my dislike for that. Everyone else who is visiting a doctor has an ailment. Many of these ailments are likely contagious. The longer I wait around them, the more likely it is that I'll be exposed to whatever they've got.

Ergo, I think it's reasonable for me not to want to be around them. I don't go to the doctor unless I go for a physical or unless I have a chronic, debilitating problem (bleeding out my pores, skin turning green, whatever). Otherwise I let time and rest do its magic. Usually this works.

Six weeks of fairly constant pain told me that time isn't healing whatever is ailing my wrist.

So I took time off of work and trucked dutifully in with a book. I sat. And I waited.

And all the things I hate about HMOs that add to my dread of waiting all saved themselves up to slam me.

- My doctor's staff were on a meeting and came back late. Thus, my being early for my appointment was a waste of time. They didn't get me in to see the doctor 'till well past my appointment time.

- The doc lined me up with all sorts of fun stuff after explaining what he figures the problem is. He gave me a prescription for drugs and a brace. He lined me up for physical therapy.

Physical. Therapy. Argh.

- The brace should've taken three minutes. Tops. A few bucks and - in a normal world - I'd be walking away with a simple velcro-strap brace. Alas, in HMO world, I waited over a half hour.

Why? They lost my paperwork.

[pause for the scream]

- Then the drugs. Oh the line for the drugs was typical. It was even better with the constant computer system crashes. And, just in case I wasn't taking it personally, the system went completely down when I got to the head of the line.

Yep. Perfect timing.

Gets better, too. I had to hang around and get "counseled" on taking my pills. I guess they don't think I can read labels.


Best of all, I got weighed before I got to go see the doctor. For perspective, I was wearing heavy boots and easily ten pounds worth of junk in my pockets.

I was weighed fully-clothed then advised that I'm running a bit on the heavy side based on my BMI.

I admit I've put on pounds since Xmas and I need to shed 'em stat, but I really didn't need the pitying look from the nurse.

On the plus side, everyone was really, really nice in the office. I usually encounter harried and somewhat callous staff when I go to the doctor's officwe, but absolutely everyone was nice, polite, and maintained a good sense of humor about everything.

Took the edge off my irritation a lot.

Venting now? That gets rid of the rest of my irritation.

Chocolate

It's the name of a Thai-directed martial arts flick. Chocolate, I mean.

In a nutshell: an autistic Thai girl who is the daughter of a Thai hitwoman and a Yakuza boss beats the hell out of everyone in her way to get money for her mother's medicine.

That's pretty much it. And she really does beat the unholy hell out of everyone who gets in her way.

Awesome movie. Fantastic fighting scenes.

Good, clean fun.

Okay, maybe not so clean.

A smattering of brain dumpage

I hate iTunes. It consistently freezes or freezes my PC (even worse). This happens especially when I sync my iPod Nano. A shame, 'cause I love my iPod.

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First bike ride of 2010. T'was rather chilly until about halfway in. I hit all the lights correctly so it was non-stop and felt good.

No hookers at all on the streets. Must be holiday season for 'em.

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Packages awaiting me when I arrived at the office. The last of the Patrick Troughton "Dr. Who" eps on DVD: "The War Games"

I made happy noises.

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Yesterday one of my friends found one of my myriad flashlights in her car. I'd lost it back in November and was quite distraught (it's a pricy light).

That helped make yesterday a good, good day... until my PC choked on f***ing iTunes.

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I've previously (incoherently) rambled about the Russell T. Davies written finale to David Tennant's stint on "Dr. Who". RTD's four specials were lackluster, for the most part. I was very disappointed with "The Next Doctor" and unimpressed by "Planet of the Dead". I enjoyed "Waters of Mars"... mostly. "The End of Time" was a truly mixed bag. Overall I disliked the first part but mostly-enjoyed the second part.

I'm still glad to see RTD go.

End of Time

Thanks to a co-worker's generosity, I was able to watch a recording of "The End of Time" part 1 and 2.

Just finished it as my PC was trying to get all cleaned up and debugged.

Thoughts (spoilers, if you care):

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Part One was pretty stupid. The Master's resurrection was rushed and poorly-handled. His "condition" was ludicrous. The ending, with him taking over the Earth again, was just ridiculous and silly.

That said, John Simm rocks as the Master. I liked the guy who played the Doctor's companion. He was entertaining.

Overall, it was overly silly and self-indulgent, even for "Dr. Who".

Until the absolute end of Part One when the Time Lords made an appearance.

I expected Part Two to be even worse, but it flashed back to the Time War and a hard-ass President of Gallifrey scheming to save the Time Lords from the inevitable end of the Time War.

Overall, it was silly with the Master's domination of the Earth, but the twist that the Time Lords actually created the Master was kind of neat. I do know that in the Jon Pertwee era, the Master was originally supposed to have a close friendship with the Doctor and was supposed to sacrifice his life to save the Doctor's... before the actor of the time died an untimely death.

So the Davies twist of making the Master a product of the future Time Lords seemed strangely-fitting.

The Doctor's final decision as to how to deal with the Time Lords (who, as it turns out, were as bad as the Daleks) was quite well-done.

And then Davies "treated" us to a melodramatic and sappy half-hour of the Doctor, having saved the old man's life, going around to visit his past companions until he finally regenerates.

Not bad, but a bit too sappy for my tastes.

All said, I'm glad RTD revived "Dr. Who" as a show, but I'm not sorry to see him go. I hope Stephen Moffatt doesn't retain RTD's penchant for sappy and silly story elements.

And so... it begins.

Sleep appears to have resolved whatever illness assailed me. Yay. Healthy in time to get to work.

And now I'm at the salt mines and trying to psych myself up for dealing with 2010. I already know there's plans to do something in the office that I know I won't like.

Still, at least I'm employed. Can't complain about that.

It's 2010. Aren't we supposed to have manned missions to Europa to get lectured by obelisk-directed creepy baby-astronauts about not going there?

The year has certainly started with a bang. The daughter of one of my best friends decided to arrive a week or so early. So she arrived on New Year's Day, all in a rush to get started in this crazy world.

Should be an interesting year.

2010's gift to me

I made it to January 2 before starting to feel like crap. Sore-ish throat. Slight body ache. Tired.

I think my plans tonight are going to adjust significantly. Vitamin C will be part of it.

Ugh.

Resolving

It's traditional to make resolutions in the new year, so let's do this thing:

1) Recruit useful minions.

2) Establish a viable and reasonably self-sustaining moon base.

3) Get a jet pack that won't burn my arse off when used.

4) Develop portable focused energy weapons with stun, paralyze, and obliterate as a minimum variety of settings.

5) Start those Mars probes.

6) Decide between an army of invincible androids or an army of superior biological constructs. If both are viable, decide how that's going to work out.

Too ambitious?

Happy New Beer

Oh wait... no. I'm out of beer.

Hmm.

Happy New Year. Yeah, that sounds more appropriate.