Paranoia or Prudence

So, there's a few things that irk me! I've already discussed my biggest fear, and these aren't nearly on the same level but, they are things that I am fearful of. I've thought about them from time to time and I've vascillated between justifying them and ignoring them. But I'd like to put the question to you... am I just being paranoid, or am I being prudent!

Perhaps most notably, I don't like it when there are people walking behind me! Actually, I'm not altogether comfortable with having people behind me in general! That feeling of being watched...it just bothers the hell out of me! I do my very best when entering a room, to find a place where I can put my back against a wall. If I'm walking down a sidewalk or a hall, I'll stop randomly and push up against the wall, allowing those who were behind me to pass. It's worst when I'm driving! If I notice a car that makes two or more of the same turns as I do behind me, I get genuinely nervous! "WHY ARE THEY FOLLOWING ME!?" Even when I'm walking with my friends though, I find myself moving off to the side or filtering towards the back of the group. I've accepted that there are certain situations where there are just going to be people behind me! It's not like I go to any great lengths to avoid being in crowds or anything! Although I do recall deciding very specifically to move along the edge of them on more than one occassion. And I did fine in marching band where there was usually a hell of a lot of stuff going on behind me.


That particular..."quirk" may stem from a bully in the 6th grade who came up behind me on the way back from lunch and pushed my head into a wall....Or it may just be any number of movies I've seen where some unsuspecting shmuck gets attacked from behind...not unlike myself in the 6th grade... But I digress! I like being able to see the people around me. That way, I know the group of white guys walking through the Horseshoe at midnight aren't gonna try to lynch me, or that random shifty guy isn't going to stab me in the kidneys or that moderately cute indie chick isn't going to pick my pocket or that I'm not being targeted for a home invasion robbery by a gang of Russian mobsters. (I'm not usually that specific when it happens, but I admit that it wasn't difficult to come up with those examples) But what do you think? Paranoid or Prudent?


I also experience this "back burner" kind of fear that I've forgotten something important. Here's one example. At this job I have, we're not supposed to use the computer for "personal" business.  Check company email, work related program use and maybe news and weather if the t.v., which also happens to be only for news and weather, isn't enough! But I watch t.v. (and definitely not news and weather) and check my personal email and twitter and play Flash games and watch YouTube videos all the time. So, before I leave at the end of every shift, I clear the browser cache and search history, and leave the t.v. on The Weather Channel...after turning to CNN (can't forget about that pesky "recall"/"flashback" button). The thing is... I don't always remember doing it...so I have to do it two or three times before I'm comfortable that it's been done. And even then, I'll be driving home thinking "did I remember to clear the browser history?" 

Speaking of driving! When I get somewhere, I lock the door, then pull the door handle to make sure it's locked! Then I'll take a few steps, and have to go back and pull the handle again just to make sure...again! And don't get me started on Automatic Saves in video games! Or books! I'll use a bookmark, stick the dust cover in there AND dog-ear the page! I also have clothes and shoes ready to throw on in less than a minute if I need to get out of the house...and a knife ready to grab on my desk...and any number of other things "just in case" one thing or another happens! I'm not even going to pretend to know where all that comes from! But, Paranoid or Prudent?


So, yeah! That's not really even half of it, and most of it probably comes off as paranoid right off the top! But even though I can't think of a reason for doing some of those things, there's probably a good reason to do them! I can't wholly discount two good pieces of advice that apply! 1) It's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it!  and 2) Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean somebody's not out to get you! But those are just my thoughts!

Now it's your turn! Comment! Do you think I'm just paranoid, or am I being prudent! Maybe discuss why! Is there anything that you do that might seem a bit paranoid?

p.s.  If I ever win the lottery, you KNOW my house is going to have a panic room!

Thoughts on friendship

I've spent the last few days thinking about friendship...and sex, but that's cuz I'm a guy and I WANT IT! I WANT IT NOW! But I digress. I have been thinking about friendship lately, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts. Now, I know that my last post was about death, and I don't want to get too depressing with this whole blog thing but, it did occur to me that I didn't have any friends until a few years ago! Let me explain!

What Are You Afraid Of

Fear! Besides the need to eat and the urge to satiate our carnal lust, it is the most present remnant of our animal nature. As this blog is largely about me and my opinions I figured I'd share with you, my most modest readership, my biggest fear. As I'm fairly sure most of us have shared this fear at some point in our lives, I'd like to begin by discussing...THE DARK!


Now, I'm not afraid of the dark, and I haven't been for a long time, but it's a starting point that I think we can all relate to. So, think back to when you were afraid of the dark (or just imagine for you select few weirdos). Remember that it wasn't actually the dark you were afraid of? You were scared of the things that were hiding in the dark. The monster under your bed (sure it was just dirty socks), the shapeless beast in your closet (also known as your winter coat). And woe be unto you if you had a tree outside your window during the winter. Street lights or other ambient light casting eerie shadows through your window that looked like the hands of a wicked witch reaching out to grab you. This fear of the dark, or rather the fear of what lurks in the dark is the one enduring similarity we have with our Paleolithic ancestors. And because our "fight or flight" response is so strange (it does the same thing whether you want to fight or flee) it is also the greatest motivating force of humanity... what is beyond what we see?

The Problem of Keeping a Schedule

I just realized that I was in danger of not posting to my blog for the entire month of September! (Insert Shocked Gasp Here). So, I've decided to fix that! It occurs to me that the lifeblood of web based content generators, be they bloggers or youtubers or Verified Accounts on Twitter, is consistency! You saw a great video or read a great blog post (aw shucks fellas, that's awful nice of ya but you... you... you weren't thinking that about me at all...were you? *sadface*) and you say to yourself, "Hey! That was great, I'd like to view/read more of that!" And the people who make a job out of doing stuff like this will give you more and, they'll give it to you regularly (giggity). The fellas over at Epic Meal Time and most of your favorite youtubers, keep cranking out new videos every week without fail! Because that's what you expect of them! Political and TV/Movie bloggers post almost every day of the week! So why is my schedule so non-schedule-esque? 

I Have Wept

I have wept

For how small we really are

How far we have come and how far we have gone

I have wept

For all we have done To one another

And for all we have done For one another

I have wept

For what we will achieve

For what we may not get the chance to attempt

I have wept

For the arrogant and the humble

For freedom and oppression

I have wept

For how little we know

And for how much we want to discover

I have wept

For the hardships overcome and the tradgedies too

Tears of Joy and Sorrow

I have wept for humanity

BE PREPARED 2: Rise of the Machines

When the first nuclear bomb was detonated, Robert Oppenheimer quoted the Bhagavad Gita saying, "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds!" Unless you're Hindu, that's probably the only part of the text you've ever heard. In our time, this is what we learn about one of the fathers of The Nuclear Age. But lost in the shuffle of history to most of us is the quote of Oppenheimer's colleague Kenneth Bainbridge who, upon seeing the awesome and terrible power of what he had helped create, turned to Oppenheimer and said, "Now we are all sons of bitches." Gotta love that quote! Today, computing power doubles ever 18 months... it's the law! "Moore's Law" to be more specific! Circuits and chips get smaller and faster and cheaper... In my life time we went from the floppy diskette (you know, the big black ones that were really floppy) that you needed three of just to play Oregon Trail to external hard drives that you can slip in your pocket and have more space... about 80KB to 1TB in your pocket... look how far we've come! And it's not going to stop! You've maybe heard about "The Singularity"!? The basic idea being that one day, we'll build a computer so fast, and so good that it will be able to design, without the assistance or guidance of a human mind, a better and faster version of itself... the rise of artificial intelligence. The point at which humanity ceases to be of practical importance! And somewhere out there...probably alive today, is the son of a bitch who's going to build/program it! He might just be some little kid, building his first science fair volcano or powering a light bulb with a potato or learning his times tables... but that little son of a bitch will be the end of us all! (Just as a side note...can you tell I've been watching/reading a lot of Terminator franchise oriented material lately?)

The Price of Poon

I have admitted before, and I will do so again here, that I occasionally cruise craigslist looking to get laid! What I've learned from this exercise in futility is that I'm not successful enough, in shape enough, white enough or gay enough to get laid in South Carolina! Very disheartening, I know! But, what I've also learned is that there are a lot of hookers out there! Out of a sense of curiosity I responded to one of those ads and inquired as to the price. ... Fine, I was, at the time, considering paying for it! But I suppose that's what this is all about...the price! Now, one might assume that it was more money than I had (quite possible, I do live check to check), or that it was more money than I was willing to pay (not every prostitute can be Belle de Jour or Julia Roberts) and it doesn't seem worth it to pay a girl to have sex if you don't want to have sex with her. But that wasn't the case! Rather, the price seemed too low! (I KNOW! How is such a thing even possible) Which got me thinking...what is a good price to pay?

The Problem Of Being A Writer

Ideas are the ethereal product of the greatest machine in known creation! The mercurial result of rapidly firing synapses, devoid of form or function in their purest state! We herd them and corral them, turning these wild imaginings into beasts of burden...Words! Yolked with meaning and assigned importance they convey what they once were to others! Whether to enrich or poison, erect or raze, they traverse the space between minds and change the landscape! This is the goal of the writer. And this is his greatest obstacle!

I Still Drink To Your Health

Because I take most of my cues these days from the Nerdist Podcast I have decided to share with my modest readership (btw, don't be afraid to tell your friends) my experience with alcohol! 

A Modern Measure of Success : 2nd Edition

I'm already re-visiting a previous blog post!? Have I run out of ideas this fast!? No... I just wanted to write about this while it was fresh in my head, and after I sobered up a little! So why don't we just get right down to it! While listening to the Nerdist Podcast yesterday (which I highly recommend...for those of you who care), I noted co-host Matt Mira's mention that he had been getting a lot of hate from people on the internet! Let's fill you in, if you don't know! Matt is a ... let's say "heavy-set" gentleman, who has of late, and surely to his credit, been making great strides in losing weight and living healthier and advancing his career in comedy! So, naturally, there would be a lot of hate directed at him by "the internet", because he's actually doing something with his life and he is a semi-public figure. I'm not saying it's right...in point of fact I think it's deplorable, as did his fellow podcast hosts. But I must admit, it is, in all its unfortunateness, to be expected! Anytime somebody in the public eye makes a mistake, they are publicly chastised for it... and likewise, anytime somebody in the public eye makes an attempt to better themselves, they are publicly ridiculed for it! In some circles this is known as a "crab in the bucket" mentality. Anytime one of the crabs tries to crawl out of the bucket, the other crabs pull it back down! Lord forbid somebody make anything of themselves and shine a light on how we fail on a daily basis! And the internet, with its veil of anonimity, is the perfect forum for people to try and get you down without being judged publicly and in person... like the crabs they are! But there is an upside to this phenomenon!

A Charmed Life

Just a quick thought I had this morning when I woke up!

Some people live what I like to think of as "A Charmed Life". Surprisingly it's got less to do with how much money they have than you might think! Now, don't get me wrong, that doesn't hurt, but it's not what I'm talking about! There are just some people who seem to have their shit together! Moreso than me at least...which isn't saying a whole lot at the moment. But what exactly am I rambling about? Well, let's break it down.

I have friends who seemingly always knew what they were going to do "when they grew up". Friends who got to college already knowing that they were going to become educators or junior executive types or doctors or guys who work for NASCAR and ESPN. They had a plan! And other friends got to college, got a degree and somewhere along the line discovered a particular passion. Like my friend who got a degree in Music Education and is now very happy as a firefighter! Hobbies turn into professions pretty quick too... like being a sports photographer! But one thing seems to tie all of these people together...one thing which I don't seem to have (as of yet), and that's "Passion"!  I just don't have that!

I'd love to be famous for absolutely nothing...unfortunately I'm not pretty enough to be on a reality t.v. show! So I suppose it would serve me well to be good at something. But that's the thing isn't it!?! I don't have the foggiest idea what that something might be. So here I am, whiling away my time writing random blog posts, and compulsively tweeting and watching all the t.v. there is to be seen in the world... and I don't know what I want to do. For example, I've had this story rattling around in my head for years, but I can't bring myself to put words on paper! (Those pesky first words...What would the first note of your Magnum Opus be?)  I've got certain marketable skills (I think...I might be wrong) but, best case scenario... I don't know how to market them or in what field to apply them. I don't have a "family business" to step into or a "life-long dream" to follow.

Now, lest I give you the impression that this is a pity party of a post (where could I market a skill for alliteration... an Ad Agency maybe? I could do the Mad Men thing...where's my time machine!?), what I'm driving at is this: If you've got something in your life that you're trying to accomplish, a dream to chase, or a plan to execute, or even a hobby that you're passionate about, you are leading a charmed life! Good for you! Seriously! And if you're like me, searching for something to make it all worth while... I suppose you can join me and keep searching!

JUDGEMENT DAY COMETH! NO, REALLY GUYS! I'M TOTALLY SERIAL!

According to the "fine folks" over at Family Radio Worldwide, there are only, at the time of this posting, 17 days remaining until Judgement Day! Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself!

  http://www.familyradio.com/index2.html      


I'm not particularly fond of having that text affiliated with my blog...but absurdity is, more often than not, the purpose of my internet presence (that's a fancy way of saying, "my blog and twitter account"...although facebook's been getting in on the act lately too...but I digress).  The point is... Either they're right, in which case I'm gonna be supremely pissed off...or they're wrong, in which case they'll be like every other doomsday predicting fringe group of loons and kooks in history.  

Be Prepared : Zombies

I tweeted earlier this week that I was going to write a "MUST READ" blog! Okay! that may have been overselling it, but isn't that title just a bit intriguing!? Anyway, why don't we get started!


I was listening to the Nerdist Podcast (as I suggest those of you reading my blog should also do) and as is the case from time to time, the topic of zombies came up. Now, I won't go into that discussion too much escept to say that it covered both the morality of killing the un-dead and a quick bit of tactical advice. Suffice it to say, I was pleased with the conclusions that were reached. But, on to the point of this blog post. After listening to the podcast I had to go to work at a local radio station (because my schedule sucks like a Hoover). As soon as I walked through the door I felt uneasy. After about an hour of pacing and talking to myself for a while (a considerably more frequent occurence than I'm comfortable discussing at present), I realized what was bothering me. My Zombie Preparedness Plan (ZPP) was only designed around being at home!

The Ideal Man

For as long as I can remember, there's been talk about the "Femenine Ideal" and how it's unrealistic and/or unhealthy. And sure, there are times when I look at the skeleton shaped clothes hangers with their giant bobble heads slowly drooping from one side to the other because they have no neck muscles left to hold them up, and I feel bad that they felt the need to do that to themselves in order to feel "pretty" or whatever, and I'll be the first to admit that a J.Lo ass and/or some Christina Hendricks chest cushions (and I JUST realized that there's no classy yet non-clinical way to say "boobs") are WAY better to look at! And I totally dig that they seem to be coming into favor again! The fact that we have "size 0" clothes for women has always been confusing and a bit disturbing to me. But what we're talking about today isn't the "Femenine Ideal"! What we're discussing is the "Masculine Ideal"...and you better believe that there is one!

Brother Arson's Comprehensive Guide to Strip Clubs

I hesitate to call myself an expert...but I do have practical experience regarding the psycho-social mores of the Strip Club and I'd like to address a few those things here. Some of what I'm about to tell you may come across as common sense, and some of it is purely anecdotal and purely reflective of my own opinions and experiences. I may be way off base from time to time, and you should feel free when you finish reading to tell me just that. But for now, let's just dive right in!

A Modern Measure of Success

Once upon a time, it was fairly easy to know how successful you were. You had a couple kids (preferrably sons) a few head of cattle and a roof to sleep under. Once we gave up hunting and gathering as a standard, our need were still simple. But, as I'm sure we can all agree, modernity brings with it complexity. Still, it's not that hard to determine how successful we are. Now we measure according to how much money we have...and the standard is not the same as yester-years subsistence farmers. Now, we strive for incredible excess. And while we seek to gain far more than we need in material wealth, depending on the field of endeavor, we seek also to gain recognition, fame and/or notoriety!

Broken Promises

Now...you needn't  worry! This won't be a serious blog post about relationships and integrity and all that mushy kinda stuff! As always, the things I write for you here are meant to entertain, and if the subject matter is serious, trust that there's a healthy bit of "tongue in cheek"-ness to it...more or less! But I do want to talk about broken promises. We were promised things as children (I am of course assuming that most of my readers are relatively close to me in age)! We were promised houses on what looked like giant stilts with flying cars that folded up into briefcases. We were promised more flying cars and hover-boards and 3D holograms and laser guns and colonies in space (at least a permanent moon-base). We were promised these things by movies and television...and in some cases, legitimate science. At this point we've got about 2 centuries to get into a United Federation of Planets...so, LET'S GET A MOVE ON!

One Misquote Can Ruin My Whole Day

When I think about an average day in my life, it's really rather boring! I wake up whenever. I eat crap for food. I go in to work. I come home and waste an untold number of hours on the internet. Like right now...I haven't been to sleep since Thursday night! I'll pass out sometime around noon for a couple hours and the whole thing starts all over again. But some days...very few lately, are incredible! I wake up with the sun, I'm productive (used here as a relative term). Bills get payed, social networks are used to communicate with friends that I really should speak with more, and I find something that inspires me yet still manages not to spur me into action. For reference, let's just imagine that the day I decided to put some actual effort into writing this blog was a day like that, or the day that I decided to switch to electronic cigarettes (which I promise I'll talk more about later). The point is, sometimes I'll be having a really good day... even work will be good! Until just before 11 o'clock!

Do they still teach kids to write in Cursive?

Well, the title pretty much says it all... do they? I recall (as will most of you, I think) an entire year of Elementary School (3rd Grade if I'm not mistaken) where everything I wrote HAD to be in cursive. I remember them teaching us all the little curly swirly letters, and being instructed to turn the paper at an angle to get that signature  cursive tilt. But, as I think about it now, I can't remember how to do a capital letter Q in cursive to save my life (lower case, yeah, I got that, but that damn capital Q....). 


And that's partly my point! How many of us actually write things by hand anymore, let alone use cursive! We all just type it on a computer...which has it's uses I suppose (BTW, thanks for reading!).  I grew up in the days when the computer was a new thing to have in a home as opposed to a necessity, when you actually used it to do work (no, that didn't last long at all) and not waste time on the internet (ah, those AOL chat rooms were fun... of course in hindsight I do wonder how many 40-something fat men I was talking to when I thought they were 14/f/michigan [don't go all Chris Hansen on me, I was also 14 at the time... "No Pedo"]),  when the coolest thing on a computer was Oregon Trail as opposed to interracial midget porn (no really, you gotta see it, she's so tiny and he's...well...you get the idea). The point being, that kinda stuff developed with me, I can't imagine what kids are doing with their time with all that stuff readily available at birth... Do kids still play outside with balls and bikes and sticks and stuff?

I Hate Nancy Grace : And Here's Why You Should Too

I know we've entered this new age of civility where I'm not supposed to say I hate somebody just because I disagree with them. Let me be clear... there are plenty of people with whom I disagree, that I do not hate. In fact, I love some of these people as friends and brothers. There are people who think Napoleon Dynamite was hilarious that I like, there are people who think the Confederate flag should fly on State House grounds that I love. There are even people who went to Clemson...well, I am bound by a blood oath not to state publicly that I have any other feeling but disgust for them, but there are certain individuals who on and individual basis are perfectly delightful people. I say all that for you to understand that it's not an arbitrary or casual thing for me to say I hate somebody. So, you're asking yourself "well why do you hate Nancy Grace then?" And if you're asking yourself that, then you have no clue who this miserable hag is!

Favorites That Don't Usually Get Favorited

We're all painfully familiar with "Top [ insert arbitrary number between 3 and 20 here ] Favorite [ insert arbitrary non-offensive thing you can list ]" Lists. The truth is...We like these lists! Whether we enjoy agreeing or disagreeing with them doesn't matter. We read them, in part because they're EVERY-FUCKING-WHERE! Every magazine, websites and...well, we don't really read things anywhere else these days so that about covers it...


So, instead of going fully against the grain by not doing a "List" of some sort, I've decided to be uniquely subversive and write this blog post.




In no particular order (only numbered to have numbers) I give you My


List of Favorites That Don't Usually Get Favorited

Fluid Dynamics and Happiness

Lunch used to be a simple affair for me, as I assume it was for most people. A Balogna sandwich (or "Baloney" depending on which store brand you used), a slice of American style cheese product (Kraft Singles if you bought name brand), slathered in Miracle Whip (we got that tangy zip in my house, JUST SAY NO to Mayo, Hellmann's can go suck a dick). All that on white bread. It took me till 8th grade to figure out that you could put some Lay's potato chips on there. The point is, I ate my sandwiches in a particular way. I'd start by eating the crust off three sides of the sandwich. Then I'd demolish the soft, crust-less center of the sandwich, leaving me with a single crusted edge of sandwich, kinda like the last couple bits of a slice of pizza. Next I'd take out about a third of what was left, leaving me with the perfect piece of a sandwich. 1 part crust, about 2 or 3 parts proper white bread, meat, cheese [product] and Miracle Whip. All of it just a bit too big to take as a single bite in polite company...but cares about polite company. Polite company is boring. So you take it all in one bite and chew it all up (cheeks bulged out to make room) just enough to squeeze it all down your gullet.

What Excites Me About 2011

TELEVISION! T.V. in 2011 is going to be awesome! And I'm not just saying that because T.V. is my fourth most favorite vice.  The truth is, the Fall lineup in 2010 was jam packed and freakishly weak. You have to blame that in part on the strength of returning shows (ie. HOUSE) which have been absolute beasts in their time slots, and also on a mixture of stale and unoriginal programming choices. Every other show felt like something I had seen before and didn't like much the first time around (OUTLAW, I'm lookin' at you). But there's also plenty to look forward to! So I figured my inaugural blog post would be about some of the shows that have caught my attention, good or bad, and take a look at where we're headed over the course of the next year!


Let us begin, if only for convenience sake, with the shows we saw heading for the scrap heap before the title sequence was over!


Lone Star: My Dear Sweet Lord In Heaven! Two episodes and it was gone! What god-forsaken focus group even brought this show to air in the first place? The idea wasn't, in and of itself, horrible... but, it did strike me as the setup for a campy 80's movie starring Michael J. Fox (see : Secret of My Succe$s) more than a serious drama. Seriously, con man decides to go straight and really do his job for a multi-million dollar oil company, much to the chagrin of his con man father, not to mention his other wife! I am curious to see how far the writers really thought they could take that concept.


My Generation: Again, this one just succumbed to a failure in concept. A show about kids in High School and how their lives panned out ten years later. I assume, because I didn't catch either of this shows two episode run, that their lives didn't turn out the way they expected. I'm still inside that ten year window myself and, evidenced by the fact that I'm up at 3 in the morning writing a blog post that nobody's ever going to read, I can safely say that nobody wants to watch a show that reminds them of how crappy their lives are compared to how awesome they thought things would be when they were 18.


OUTLAW: It had legitimately good buzz going into the premiere...on Wednesday night...the next week they moved it to Friday night...and then a couple times it aired on Saturday night...we can all see the problem here, right? Friday is the bastion of sci-fi shows and other geek-centric fare, precisely because normal people like to go out on Friday and Saturday nights while the geeks stay at home and watch t.v./play video games and D&D (or WoW, for the modern "mountain dew and blacklight" set). Putting a legal drama on Friday night is like asking for a quick count in Wrestling, even if it does have Jimmy Smits. Besides, there's a whole glut of "Law&Order"s out there cornering the market on legal dramas. Hell, they even have Law&Order: UK now...I'm not kidding!




Now, there are some shows, which, despite a very adamant fan base, just couldn't generate sufficient numbers amongst the (oft thought mythical) Nielsen families. I shall dub these unfortunate bastards "Fireflies" in honor of the greatest such television show, Joss Whedon's FIREFLY!


Terriers: I admit, I didn't see it, but I probably would have watched it in re-runs over the summer and fallen in love with it. I do that a lot! All the talk about this one was positive...and I do mean ALL the talk. But apparently it didn't get the numbers it needed to stay on FX. FX!? Really!? With the kind of niche market slop that "annoying little brother" of a network has been putting out since The Shield ended, I would've thought they'd be willing to take a chance on something by now! Even without seeing it I can confidently say "It had to be better than Lone Star."


Two real Fireflies (bona fide sci-fi pedigrees here) also bit the dust before the end of 2010.


Stargate Universe (SGU): The decidedly darker take on the almost irreverent Stargate franchise couldn't garner an audience. For me, I liked the show and the fact that it was a bit of a departure from its predecessors' blueprint. I enjoy well executed character dramas, no matter what the backdrop is (The West Wing comes to mind). And, they were moving in a really interesting direction with the show that I was really looking forward to seeing where it went! David Blue as Eli, really kept me hooked into the show, and seeing Ming Na on a weekly basis didn't hurt either!


Caprica: I'm going to call this the tragedy of the year for the SyFy network! I absolutely fell in love with Alessandra Torresani as "Mama Cylon". I even learned how to spell her frakkin name! Again, great character drama which, it would appear, didn't have enough "Blowing stuff up in space" to carry enough of the rebooted BSG audience with it. Also, I blame (at least partially) the near interminable wait between the first and second halves of the season! It's hard to keep an audience when you go away for that long and then try to come back in the midst of the shit-storm that was the Fall lineup! And worst of all <sarcasm> Now I'll never know what happened with the robots or those crazy Adamas </sarcasm>. In all seriousness, I wanna know what happens to Zoe Graystone!




It's not all bad though! While some shows (i.e. Chase) are still on the bubble for now, I'll lament them when their times come, other shows are going strong and are making the new year awfully bright for me! CASTLE continues its third season, and I see no reason why Nathan Fillion shouldn't be on television forever. I also dig the very "meta" publishing of Richard Castle's bestsellers Heat Wave and Naked Heat (both great reads by the by). CHUCK has been looking good...hopefully it won't require the aid of yet another fan campaign for NBC execs to recognize that it should come back again next Fall. FRINGE should be bringing some awesomeness in spite of (or possibly because of) its move to Friday night! HOUSE, COMMUNITY, THE OFFICE (depending on future casting issues), BONES, The "McFarlane Trio" and almost everything on CBS look like safe bets to return not just this Spring but next season too. And lest we forget...SPARTACUS returns with a prequel series and brings Season 2 to STARZ this summer! The purity of Sex and Violence that our decaying society craves! AWESOME!


For my fellow Anglophiles, DOCTOR WHO starts it's new Spring/Fall schedule this year! and some great 11th Doctor-ness is sure to come! Also, TOP GEAR (the original, although the US version did serve as a sufficient stop-gap for me) is back, and in rare form! If you haven't seen the show ever, I suggest hunting down the latest Christmas Special, absolute genius! Oh, and don't forget to look up "Stig Introductions" on youtube for some reference material! And, in possibly the best news to come out of England since 1784, TORCHWOOD returns! I don't know how you all feel about an omni-sexual lead character (if you know Capt. Jack Harkness, you know what I mean), but the new "more international" version of the show, airing on STARZ should be absolutely fabulous! 


As for what I haven't seen, that I'm excited about, PERFECT COUPLES is going to be a show I watch, if for no other reason than "I love Olivia Munn". Can't stress it enough, I love her. Now I have actually seen the first episode on HULU... and it might not last unless they do something wonderful before their mid-season replacement run ends. I would refer you to COMMUNITY's Paint Ball episode, without which the season would've been funny but not nearly as awesome and probably is what locked it in for a second season.


THE CAPE is the other thing I'm really looking forward to this Spring. Hopefully this show is good enough to keep Summer Glau on my t.v. screen for a while! (OH HOW I MISS TSCC!). Now, I promise I won't make this a habit (unless I do...addictive personality and all) but this video shows you exactly how I feel right now! "Ooh La La" Indeed!


If I had to choose between Olivia Munn, and Summer Glau, or die in some horrible fashion...I would Captain Kirk my way into the best night I could never describe in a public forum such as this!


And that, boys and girls, is how I conclude my inaugural blog post! WELCOME!