BSG

Ok, I'm a big dork... I am a BattleStar Galactica addict. It's a really nerdy, but really good show. I've been catching up with the rest of season 2.5 in preparation for season 3.0 which is coming out in October.

However, I am starting to have some serious reservations about the show. Well, it's not so much reservations about the show, but reservations about american-style television shows, as compared to Brittish television shows.

See, television shows in the states go on and on and on, milking every possible plot line until everyone's f-ing sick of it, at which, they have a big finale and sell the commemerative DVD box sets.

In this regard, I feel brittish television shows are superior. In my (very limited) experience, the show runs for no more than two seasons. They tell the damn story, or explore the damn characters, situations, or issues which are necessary or interesting. Once they've told it, they end the damn thing.

Case in point: The Office. The character of David Brent only has about 2 seasons worth of material in him. Any longer than that, he's just going to start getting really repetitive, unbelievable, and SAD! There were several interesting side plots, but none of them ever really hijacked the main premise of the show. Now, I really shouldn't talk about the american version of the Office b/c I haven't really been keeping up with it, but I can't help it. This is a perfect example of what's wrong with it. It seems to me that NBC is making the Jim/Pam love interest the main point of the show, which was never the case in the brittish version. Yes, we were all interested in the love side-story, but that's what it was, a side story! I'll bet they did some testing with representative audiences and found out that they could get the most people to watch if they made it into a Ross/Rachel type thing. F-ing capitalism should never be used to make artistic decisions.

A small disclaimer for the previous paragraph: I have only seen one DVD of the american Office, so I could just be taking things out of context.

Anyway, back to Battlestar: The story has completely morphed from the original premise. According to Mike, the main creative-force behind BSG has a 5-season roadmap for the story, but I'm having my doubts. They kept a character alive in a completely contrived way when it was obvious (to me, at least) they should have killed him/her. We'll see how it turns out when the third season begins, but my initial reaction to this was they were just trying to prolong the series to milk more cash out of the series before they cancel it.

Another Brittish TV show which I think did it just right. Fawlty Towers. Hi-lar-i-ous. John Cleese is maddeningly funny as a neurotic hotel owner. They only made 12 episodes. When I tell people this, they ask why they canceled it so fast. The thing is, if they'd made any more episodes, the jokes would have stopped being funny. There's only so many time Basil can chase Manuel into the kitchen with a stool and have it be funny.

I guess I favor the short-story version of television shows. Use all the words you need to tell your story, and not a word more.

Bah Humbug.

Canada, part deux

So the trip home was more eventful than I would have liked...

We flew into Pheonix just before a giant rainstorm (called a monsoon) hit. We landed, got off the plane, ran to our next flight, and then boarded just in time. We then proceeded to wait for 3 hours ON THE TARMAC for the lightening storm to pass. There are few things which bug me more than waiting in an airplane... By the time we actually took off, we were supposed to have landed already. Grr...

Anyway, it's good to be back home again. Traveling always does a number on my digestive track. I mean, I don't get sick or anything, but I don't think my digestive enzymes work nearly as well, 'cause in the words of Donkey, "there were some toxic gases eeking out of my butt." Maybe it was all the eating out and all the rich food.

In other news, I got my hair cut. Mary (the hot asian domino playing girl I've got a massive crush on) cut it for me. It'll take a while for my hair to adjust to it, but I'm hopeful.

I'm slowly but surely getting unpacked. Unpacking sucks almost as much as packing does.

Mahaffey will be in town on thursday. We're going to play an obscene amount of dominoes and drink massive amounts of beer. I'm stoked.

prediction

I'm saying it now... Mike and Miranda are going to end up together. It's going to take them a while to get together, but it's going to happen.

Washington

So we're in washington right now. we took the ferry into Anacortes on friday and chilled with Miranda's friend. He took me mountain biking in the Galbraith Hills. There are some freaking awesome trails up there. I rented a bike for $20 for the day. It was a really nice bike. I can't remember what kind it was but the list price was ~$2,000. I'll post a picture of it when I get back and get my disposable camera developed. The trails up there are a lot different than the ones in Austin. For one, there are a lot more really really tall trees and dirt. Not so many giant boulders. Anyway, there are a lot of crazy stunts that other bikers have built into the trails. Lots of them involve little ladders bridging over gullys and logs. I should have taken a few pictures of some of these crazy stunts. Needless to say, I didn't try many of them. The ones I did were fun though. Jarrett would have loved it.

I got to see Crystal and Blake, which was cool. We walked around downtown seattle for a little bit. I got my picture taken in front of Safeco field. Too bad the Mariners are on a road trip... I'd have liked to take in a game. Molly (their dog) was cute, but not so keen on walking so much, so she got carried.

We did the Seattle Underground tour... It was anti-climactic. Not that I felt I got completely cheated out of my $9, but it was not too terribly interesting. Our guide was rather weird.

We're going back to Anacortes tomorrow to go kayaking around the San Juan Islands. It should be really cool. And cold. I can't imagine the water temperature being more than about 50 degrees. Hopefully my camera won't get too wet.

Back in Austin on monday. It'll be nice to get back.

ciao

Canada, eh?

So I'm in Canada. It's really freakin' beautiful. The weather is crazy. It's August, and I'm cold outside. That's not supposed to happen.

The conference is pretty cool. Some of the talks are useful and informative. Others are quite soporific.

I met one of Dan's former students. He's now a professor at the University of Calagry. He seems pretty cool. Didn't have any good stories about Dan though.

We were walking around the harbor yesterday, and we saw a street performer's act. He was a juggler/comedian. He was really good and put on an excellent show. I gave him $5, and as we were walking away, Mike made the comment that he probably makes more in a year than we do. I agreed, b/c he gathered quite a large crowd and people were pretty generous. We walked further into the city for dinner, and returned via the same way a few hours later. There was another variety act at the same place. We stopped for a minute or so to see what they were doing. It seemed to be some sort of comedy troupe. However, they were using some of the same phrases/tricks/jokes to entice people to tip them. I.e. they both threw a hat up to a person in the top row to collect money from people up there. Anyway, it dawned on us that they were probably working for a company/guild of stree performers. I don't know why, but it sort of tarnished the image in my mind I had of the juggler. No longer was he the free spirit making his living scraping by on the generosity of strangers, but something akin to a corporate con artist... putting up the facade of the street performer to get more tips.

Then, I thought more about it. It shouldn't matter who he's working for, or whether or not he's a genuine starving artist, because he was really good. He was the best street performer I'd ever seen. His jokes were funny, his tricks were amazing, and he truly entertained me. He earned his $5. I wonder if I'm becoming an entertainment snob now that I've lived in Austin.

Oh well.

E-mail me with your address if you want a postcard from either victoria or Seattle. Crystal, you should call me. Actually, I should turn on my phone to see if you have left me any messages.

Nerd Post - CCD woes

It seems that the CCD camera I've been using in the lab has decided to become tempermental... The camera itself works just fine, but the shutter keeps getting stuck. Because there's a thermo-electric cooler on the CCD chip which keeps the CCD around -20 C, I think that one half of the shutter keeps getting frozen. I hope I don't have to take the damn thing apart. That would really suck.

moving sucks

I am FINALLY out of my apartment. I am so glad to be out of there. Not because I hated the place, but b/c I'm finished packing/transporting.

I'm going to get screwed on the deposit though, because I didn't clean the blinds, and the move-out instructions state that they'll bill me $25 for each blind they have to clean. And they're just the type of bastards to charge me $100 for the 4 blinds, even though I made significant effort to clean two of them.

Anyway, the new house is shaping up quite nicely. It's going to be an awesome party house. Details to follow on the house-warming party.

I have waaaaaaaay too much shit. When I unpack, I'm going to have a garbage can sitting right outside the door. I plan to fill it up at least twice before I'm done.

I am an AWESOME car mechanic!!

I started work on my car today around 4:15. At 10:30, I finished. It seems that my alternator decided to crap out, which sucks, because I bought a new battery before I bought a new alternator. I guess it's just as well, because I've had the battery for 6 years, so it was living on borrowed time anyway.

I really love the engineers at Pontiac. Really, I do. I mean, who else would have thought to bury the battery underneath not only the Wiper Fluid container, but also the air filter? This is a stroke of genius. However, I do fault them for this: the alternator is not nearly hard enough to take out. I really would have liked to cuss just a little bit more, and drop 7 nuts on the ground in the pitch black instead of only 3. C'mon, I was expecting more from you guys.

If you've not slept in 48 hours and haven't had much in the way of food, it's amazing what 3 beers will do to you.

I'll pack tomorrow after I go wash all the tree-sap off my car and drop off the old battery and alternator.

night night

Is it friday already?

Man... I'm tired... I didn't sleep last night b/c I was wrestling with IDL. IDL can go pee up a rope, for all I care. Actually, I'm just being pissy because I'm still learning it. The deeper and deeper I get into it, the more cool things I realize it can do. I think after I re-write my latest batch of codes, I'll be pretty good.

I took Gertie out on a ride with Eric on Wednesday. In case you're wondering, Gertie is the name I've decided to give my road bike. I'll post a picture of her later. She's black with pink lettering, and a very sexy bike indeed. I decided to embrace the pink rather than try to paint over it. This means I'm confident in my sexuality, right?

I'm moving tomorrow. Haven't packed a lick. Still need to fix my POS car. Hopefully it won't be that difficult to fix.

In other news, the squatter is off my couch! Not that I didn't enjoy Greg's company, but I think anyone would get tired of sharing a 1-1. Unless you're romantically involved. Even then, I'm not sure how that'd go.

time for lunch. I'm hungry.

procrastination

I'm here at work procrastinating by reading the Wikipedia list of baseball jargon and watching the Rangers blow yet another 4 run lead.

Anway, I ran across this entry, and it made me think back to my days in baseball.

Tools of Ignorance: Catcher's gear.

How true this is. Dammit, it was fun though.

Overheard in a Burger King

Wow... I'm sitting next to a crazy girl and her bf in Burger King. That's right, Burger King has free wireless in Austin, TX. (Did i mention I love this town?)

So far, she's been talking about the following things:

"I should just put up an ad on Craigslist and see if someone just wants to give me money, no strings attached. See, normal kids have people who do this. They're called Parents. Mine don't do that."

"I don't have any idea what Hezbolla is, nor do I care."

"I think fast food restraunts should have a scale right inside the door. If you're too fat, it kicks you out."

Crazy.