Sci Fi

Sat down in anticipation last night for Eureka, the SciFi channel’s newest show. I turned on the TV a little early and caught the end of “Dead Like Me”, where a young woman is just getting started in her new job as the Grim Reaper, with Mandy Patinkin as her mentor. The bits I saw were okay; I’d watch it again. Anyway: Eureka. The website for the show is funny and satirical. What they need to do is take the people who worked on the website, and put them in charge of writing the show. ...

Who’d have thought a sleepy little Northern California lumber town would become the setting for a new Sci-Fi TV show? Actually, I dunno if Eureka, the TV show, has anything to do with Eureka, California (one is SF and one is north of SF…). The teaser commercials remind me a lot of the upcoming Doctor Who spinoff, Torchwood - a top secret facility that uses alien technology to do whatever it is they do. (Well, after looking at their website, I guess Eureka (the TV show) doesn’t have anything to do with aliens, though Eureka (the city) might.) ...

I know, I shouldn’t have bought it. I can’t really afford it. But I love my widescreen monitor. And I haven’t even tried to play a game on it. Took me about half an hour to teach Linux about it, mostly because of a stupid typo I made in the xorg,conf… but since then… movies… being able to work on the new website design, watch a DVD, touch up graphics with the GIMP… ...

(This review has been Deadwood-ized) My #&# son did enter whilst I was availing myself of the &## pleasure of watching this fine &#&# Western, &&#&# Deadwood. And after standing there for a (_#(# moment, he did ask, “Is this &#&# show the (#(#& last episode of )&(& Firefly?” I said, “No… if this were Firefly, they’d be swearing in Chinese.” This was the third season opener I watched; never watched before, no idea who all these people were. Like “24” and “Lost”, I didn’t have the luxury of learning to care for the characters. So when a bunch of them died right after the opening credits, not sure what I was supposed to think. ...

Yesterday was June 6th, 2006 - 6/6/6 - and naturally, the entertainment industry was full of devil love for the day. The entire pointless remake of the Omen came out; Slayer kicked off their Unholy tour; and Doctor Who woke Satan. The Doctor and Rose interview Sauron to replace Rose’s ex-boyfriend Mickey, left in a parallel universe in “The Age of Steel” The Doctor and Rose found themselves stranded on a planet suspended above Hell. The TARDIS is lost, you see - and doesn’t it seem like the TARDIS is about as reliable as the original Star Trek transporters? Anyway, they are stuck with a group of good, ordinary, working-class Brits (in Doctor Who, working class accent = not evil) on a planet hovering over Hell. Yup, just them. And their demonic slaves, the Oud. Who start chanting that the beast has awoken, all will serve him. There are deaths; one woman is sucked straight into Hell. ...

Well sure, I’m going to watch the whole season. Why not? And I have to admit, after the Nazi disaster, the season improves. They have an episode arc; episodes do effect the episodes after them. Of course, nobody important ever dies. They’re still Star Trek, you know. Only unimportant characters die. The whole bit about the Vulcans plotting a pre-emptive war on the Andorians, claiming they have weapons of mass destruction they don’t really have, was a nice bit. Kinda obvious. Doesn’t answer the question of what possible reason people would have to fight wars in space. I never understood that very basic concept of the space opera. Space is so BIG. Sure, maybe in the Star Trak universe where every planet is habitable… I dunno. ...

My faithful linux computer Baphomet, she of aborted OS upgrade, has decided I should watch Star Trek Enterprise, like Firefly, Lost, Battlestar Galactica and 24, I show I missed while it was running. It looked really stupid from what I saw, and I had no desire to see any of it. Found a torrent out there and Baph has been building up Season 4 piece by piece, bit by bit. BitTorrent doesn’t bring in things all at once; the file comes somewhat randomly. ...

I never played Kingdom Hearts, where famous Final Fantasy characters meet up with famous Disney characters and go on an adventure. I used to be a big Disney fan when I was a kid… watched Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday, with popcorn of course, saw every Disney movie (mostly live action when I was growing up; they weren’t really doing animation then). I’m not sure why I stopped being a Disney fan. Maybe it was just the pervasive unreality - I was angered about Gladstone Gander’s magical power of luck. He could do ANYTHING - because he was so lucky. If he was stranded on a deserted tropical isle - with Donald and Daisy, of course - his luck would provide him a rowboat stocked with delicious fruit. ...

Howard Tayler has kept the fans of the military/SF strip Schlock Mercenarie’s waiting a week to see a pretty lieutenant’s new hair style. Good trick!

I have to send more spam for work today. Some more styles we’re trying to get rid of. The last time, just for fun, I put the pictures of the outfits we’re hawking in front of a Renoir landscape… and people liked it… they made our clothes look sunnier, classier… I thought I’d try that again, but this time with a Van Gogh. Renoir probably hummed a happy tune, picked up his easel when he was done, and went home and did happy things. Who knows. I don’t know anything about him. ...