Jane In Progress

Jane Espenson, one of the writers on Buffy, has a fascinating blog. Her audience is potential script writers, but it is interesting for TV viewers too.

Grr... Arrgh... Reprise

This morning, I watched the last episode of Buffy. I've officially seen the entire series straight through. I feel a little sad. It had a great ending, but I'm going to miss it. I know I'm a little late with this since I watched all of the episodes in syndication.

So I think I'm going to give a few posts on my favorite episodes. A top ten episodes by my own standards.

I think I'll start with Season 1 and work my way through. So top 10, in no particular order. Oh, yeah. I'm going to exclude season/series finales.

Season 1. Episode 7. "Angel"

After our introduction to the Hellmouth and a few of its mysteries, there is still one large mystery, Angel. In this episode, Buffy and Angel finally get their romance on and we find out that he is a vampire. After the whole series, it is hard to remember that she didn't always know that he was a vampire.

This is a great episode because it sets up much of the next several seasons and the entire Angel series. A vampire with a soul... classic.

Notable Quotes:

Xander: "I mean, guys'll do anything to impress a girl. I once drank an entire gallon of Gatorade without taking a breath."
Willow: "It was pretty impressive. Although later there was an ick factor."

Buffy: "You want Xander, you've gotta speak up, girl!"
Willow: "No, no, no, no. No speaking up. That way leads to madness... and sweaty palms."

Angel: "You have no idea what it's like to have done the things that I've done... and to care."

Occasional Quote:

Liberace

"Nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself."

Wire In The Blood: Series 4

Wire in the Blood, Series 4 is now filming. Maybe I will have something to watch after I finish watching Buffy and Alias ends.

Saturday Sparky

This is my good side.

Big Animals

My friend Laura, who sent me the picture of the giant bunny, just sent me this picture of this giant cat. This guy is pretty heafty, but not as big as my sister's cat, Zoe. He looks like Sparky if he had just eaten his body weight in "muscle max weight gainer supplement".

Toonophobia

Check out Cox and Forkum's take on the recent cartoon issue.

200

This is my 200th post. A milestone? I don't have anything special to say... just, um, hello, be excellent to each other, and, um, party on, dudes.

Sparky on Sugar

I think Morris and Sparky might both have sugar in the cat food.

Happy Birthday George Washington

See his bio here.

Punching Holes in Boats

Dee and Aviva had a bit of a hair raising experience today. Read the quote from her blog below.

...The first job was to make a 2-inch hole in the bottom of the boat, no mean feat I can tell you and yes I was very nervous. I had checked with the shore support team to make sure I could reduce my chances of sinking. The speed transducer had stopped working; it had been intermittent for a while but had now given up completely. I needed to pull it from the bottom of the boat to inspect it. After I had checked the method and confirmed which transducer I needed to pull, as it sits next to the depth transducer in the hull, I set to work. There is something quite surreal about pulling something from the hull that when absent leaves a hole. I had been assured that a valve would close the hole and water would enter the hull slowly at a trickle, if I got it wrong I would have a two-inch hole and the water would enter pretty fast and fill the watertight compartment in about four hours. A relaxing thought to keep me company. I was confident and didn't wear my mask and snorkel however I did have some butterflies in my stomach. All was well and I found the transducer had a friend attached to it. I wasn't sure if it was animal, vegetable or mineral and not being one for little nasties, I extracted whatever it was from the paddle wheel using a screwdriver, once clear I replaced the transducer back through the hull and heh presto the speed suddenly started working again. Another job successfully completed and I wasn't sinking!

How's that for adventure!

1 Part Peanuts, 1 Part Buffy, Shake Well and Serve

See it all--here.

Hat Tip: Whedonesque

I'm a little bit country...

she's a little bit goth and punk.

So I decide to break out my newish kickers of the s**t for a night on the town. I put on my only cowboy shirt , my boot cut levis, my worn leather belt, and I'm good to go. I don't look down right hick, but I have the look of a mild mannered accountant ready to play cowboy for a night.

So Y and I go to meet her friend Mike for his birthday at Bull and Bush. After dinner, we give him the choice of where to go next. He chooses a bar at 23rd and Champa(?) that I've never heard of. They play "industrial" music, he says.

We go into this place and I immediately stick out like a white man at a Black Panthers meeting. It wasn't an "industrial" dance club. It was a Goth bar.

So my tan plaid shirt looks like neon white compared to all of the black at this club. I'm the only one whose hair is not platinum blonde or jet black. I have no makeup on, no fishnets, no black at all come to think of it. I stick out. I thought to myself, "of all the nights you decide to go hick, you choose the night to go to a goth bar."

So what did I do? I had a great time. I danced to Siouxsie and the Banshees, Decpeche Mode, the Cure, etc. I drank something alcoholic and steaming like witch's brew.

In any case, the really interesting part of the evening was Jerry, one of Mike's other friends, who joined us at the Goth bar. He was wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans and didn't quite glow in the dark like I did. But he was SO uncomfortable. It was as if he felt how I looked---really out of place. I'm not sure why he though it was so bad. No one looked at him (or me) twice. Nobody cared--well, except for my mistaking the women's room for the men's, but that's another story.

The whole experience made me think about how the people there were no less costumed than the people at "Cool River Cafe" meat market. Just a different style of dress.

Well, to quote my dad: "Clothes don't make the man".

Saturday Sparky

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Sparky!

I'm starting a new tradition. I will post a photo of my Sparky every Saturday. I'm doing it because he is tired of the paparazzi following him around and harrassing him about driving with a baby in his lap. Wait that's someone else.

Podcast Update

So I've produced three shows and I'm definitely getting better at making everything flow together. I'm running into three problems.

1) My comes with the computer mic is a piece of go-se. When I make my internet debut, I have to get a new mic and a preamp mixer to accompany it.

2) I don't know any cheap (read: free) way to get the shows up on the internet. I have already overloaded at least one of my friend's email accounts.

3) My software program: Audacity--good... Castblaster--better. Audacity---free... Castblaster--not so much. (Hat tip to Cali Lewis on GeekBrief. Check her out to see why Adam Curry says Grrhrr!)


So--the long and short of it is, if I'm going to do a Podcast, I'm going to have to spend money. Since it will be a bluesy type of Podcast, John Lee Hooker's song "Money" is coming to mind. "moneh, thas what I wan'"

I've decided to take the plunge and go for it. I'll keep you posted.

Serenity--Muppet Style

All of the action...

All of the adventure...

All of the excitement...

And Muppets too.

Churchill Quotes

Check out WitNit's post of Churchill's quotes.

My favorite:

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

Is this...

sick and wrong... or is it just wrong?

V-day

I have a date for Valentine's day for the first time in a few years. I've decided to flex that ol' romance muscle and make a special meal for my special lady friend. I've already made her one meal and I pulled out all the stops, so I'm kind of screwed. I can't out do what I've already done; I've already impressed her, which means---expectations. I've decided to make her almost the same meal, but with subtle variations.

So here is the menu:

To start:

last time--cucumbers topped with balsamic vinaigrette.

this time--a glass of an Mondavi's sauvignon Blanc. No food.
(She didn't eat much of the appetizers last time)

The wine:

last time--a good 2005 Chateaux Moi

this time--well see above. This time the food will match the wine.

Main course:

last time--Red Snapper with a sweet and spicy mustard glaze

this time--Lemon Pepper Salmon
(She doesn't eat beef or chx)

Dessert:

last time--homemade ice cream.

this time--Chocolate covered Strawberries.

Music:

last time--Mozart

this time--Sinatra

And, of course, there will be candle light, the same as last time.

I'm now thinking that maybe I shouldn't publish this... I have two worries... 1) what if she reads this and the surprise is ruined... ok... Unlikely... 2) what if I end up dating one of you, dear readers, and then I serve this meal to you... I'll get my ass kicked. Damn!

Well, it's written. Here goes nothing...

BB&T vs Kelo

Principled action against an unjust Supreme Court decision. Here's Diana's post. BB&T is refusing to make loans on any development whose land was taken via a Kelo taking. If only Wells Fargo and BankOne did the same thing!

Sparky: Superstar

Sparky's famous. He's on this week's Carnival of the Cats.

Occasional Quote:

Robert Heinlein

"In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it. "

Sparky Saturday

It's like having guard cat. Always vigilant against that pesky squirrel.

What kind of monster...

... would create these things! Although the monkey is pretty good.

(Via GeekPress)

Bunnies

Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes!
They've got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses!
And what's with all the carrots?
What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?
Bunnies, bunnies, it must be bunnies!!
... Or maybe midgets?

-Sung by Anya in "Once More, With Feeling"
Season 6, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

My friend, Laura, sent me this article about a giant Bunny in germany. Part of me wants to think this is a hoax, but it was in the New York Post and they tend to make fewer mistakes than the NY Times.

Here is the news story.


German Giant, one of the biggest bunnies on the face of the planet, tips the scales at 17 pounds — almost seven pounds more than the average rabbit of his breed. And he’s still growing, according to German breeder Hans Wagner (above), whose hair-raising angora hare was the highlight of a recent rabbit fair in BerlinOn all paws, German Giant, named for the world’s largest rabbit breed, stands 17 inches tall. And standing on his hind feet, he’s more than three feet tall. To find out how unusual Wagner’s wabbit is, The Post contacted Six Bells Rabbitry in, Colo. “That’s a huge animal. That’s amazing,” said breeder Michelle Jones. “In the States, it’s hard to get them past 12 to 15 pounds.” How did German Giant get so big? “I don’t feed him an unusual diet,” said Wagner. “He goes through more than his brothers and sisters, but he eats the same food mix. His favorite food is actually lettuce. He can never get enough of it.” Herr Hare is unusual in another way, he noted. “Unlike some other rabbits I’ve had, he’s really a gentle character — a gentle giant.”

Giant Black CDs

My parents are moving and thus coercing me to "take my crap out of their house". I didn't realize this, but they still have my record collection. Oddly, it was mostly inherited from my dad and pieced together through garage sales. I mean, I only EVER bought one record from the store. (AC/DC's Back in Black, thank you very much).

So I started going through my record collection and I realized that it is pretty damn good. You have to keep in mind the context of when records were big to truly appreciate it. I don't know when cassettes replaced records in volume, but 1980 seems like a good number. There were records prior to 1960, but lets say they really became a mass market in 1960. So lets say1960 to 1980.

So the star players, artists with >5 albums in the collection, in my record collection include:

The Beatles (I have 2 copies of the White Album)
The Rolling Stones (I have "Exile On Main Street" and I didn't even know it)
Kiss (!)
Jefferson Airplane
Alice Cooper (My own preference)
Jimi Hendrix
Ozzy Osbourne

If I had these as CDs today, I would say I have a pretty solid classic rock collection. I could probably take over 103.5 The Fox for a day and not repeat myself or bore the listeners.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this new found knowldege. Ebay and RipVinyl seem to be two pretty good options.

William T. Sherman

Today is Sherman's birthday. He is most famous for his "march to the sea" which devastated the south. According to the bio, "Sherman maintained that only by breaking the war spirit of the enemy, noncombatant as well as combatant, could victory be won—hence the march through Georgia and South Carolina."

Holding Our For A Hero

The Ayn Rand Institute's writer Andrew Bernstein had the Letter to the Editor below in the LA Times yesterday. (Hat Tip Truth, Justice and the American Way)

Dear Editor:

While it is great to finally welcome Superman back to the wide screen, Geoff Boucher's "Old-Fashioned Value" [Jan. 15] raises disturbing questions about our culture. If American society now rejects Superman because he is "a big blue Boy Scout," i.e., a morally pure hero, then we are in greater internal danger than any we face externally. A free society fighting for its existence against religious fascists needs to know that good exists, that the world's freest country represents it, and that it can and should triumph over evil. A preference for antiheroes represents a collapse into cynicism at the precise moment that the country needs the idealistic commitment to freedom ("the American way") so brilliantly represented by Superman.

Andrew Bernstein

Grr... Arrgh

For Buffy/Angel/Firefly fans, this signals the end of an episode. It's the tag that Mutant Enemy has used to close its shows. I thought this was appropriate for this post because I am coming up on finishing the Buffy the Vampire series on Tivo.

Truthfully, I'm a little sad. I know that I have a finite number of new episodes to watch and then no more.

Grr... Arrgh.

Once I finish Season Seven, I'll post my thoughts on it, including why I thought this was such a great series and compare and contrast it with both Angel and Firefly. Until then... I'll be savoring... and you... Keep flying and stay shiny.

Getting My Dork On...

My brother sent me a post from a website called dorkon.com, dedicated to getting one's dork on. This post has nothing to do with the website; ie I'm doing the old bait and switch.

And now for the switch...

As you may have noticed my blogging has slowed a little. Why? Because I've been spending some of my "blog" time to look into Podcasting.

I actually prepared a brief trial podcast to see what was possible with out spending any additional money. I already have a "comes with the computer" mic, a few MP3s, and a half an hour of free time. Audacity and its mp3 encoder are free. I had the tools and a very minimal amount of talent. So Podcast ahoy!

Now that I've created PC1 (Podcast 1 for you non-dorks), I'm excited about PC2. I have a few problems to overcome.

1) Bandwidth and storage. I have been researching places to store the podcasts without spending much money. If I ever get a big audience... then I'll shell out some cash. Until then, cheapskates the word. I have two leads.

2) Copyright law. To play music over the internet you need to make sure it is either in the public domain, which no sound recordings are, yet, or to get a license from ASCAP. Brian Ibbot at Coverville has gone through this process, but it is expensive. So the alternative I've chosen is to work with www.garageband.com. Bands are allowed to post info about themselves and post songs available for download. The cool part of it is that if you get a podcast license from them, you are able to use any of their downloadable songs for a podcast of your own. So this will allow me to post my shows on the internet w/o breaking any laws.

And so now for the part where I get my full dork on...

I've been to half of the computer stores in Denver, looking for some equipment that would boost my podcast to a slightly better level. Having an iPod, a little better mic, a mixer, a compressor, an external sound card that ports to USB, headphones, would improve the quality of my podcast significantly. I talked to two separate sales boys at CompUSA and I was astonished about how much they know.

The funny thing was they both said "the [insert piece of equipment] I bought for myself was ...", and after they said it I thought, maybe I need to work at CompUSA part time so I can buy all the cool toys. It took a couple seconds before my dork meter came on. In the matter of days I had gone from normal businessman joe back to the uberdork I was in high school.

So there it is.... I got my dork on and damnit, I'm proud.

(BTW, if anyone wants a copy of PC1, let me know. It is a 10MB file so you need to be able to handle that big of a download.)

Sparky on the Computer

Sparky didn't like me blogging last night, so he climbed on the computer and caused some havoc.

(Well, the picture and blogger aren't getting along. If you click on it, it comes out better.)

Best Superbowl Ad

I don't really care much about football, but I love the Superbowl ads.

This year my favorite was "The Magic Fridge is Back", although the "Streaking Sheep" was pretty good.

Occasional Quote:

George Burns

"Age to me means nothing. I can't get old; I'm working. I was old when I was twenty-one and out of work. As long as you're working, you stay young. When I'm in front of an audience, all that love and vitality sweeps over me and I forget my age."

[I hope whatever I'm doing at 90 makes me forget my age!]

Occasional Quote:

Pythagoras
"Above all things, reverence yourself."

Heebie Geebies

I had a TA in college who told us about how he had been thrown out of a Christian cult when he was an undergrad. He said he thought he was moving in with a bunch of guys from his church. In his mind it was a kind of Christian fraternity.

The way he told it actually sounded kind of funny. He was a chemistry major and was always asking questions. So the day he got kicked out of the cult, he said that he asked the 'leader' "Why is the diet here only made up of carbs? I read in my nutrition book today that if you only eat carbs you become mentally complacent."

In my mind this is like asking Jim Jones--"Don't you know that the poison in the kool-aid will kill you?"

Anyhow, I just read this account of being in a cult. I'd mention the cult's name, but I'm sure you can guess it and I don't want my blog to come up with any searches having to do with this group. The account is what made me give post that title. It is fascinating and disturbing. It makes you want to tattoo the words "THINK FOR YOURSELF" on your arm so you will never, ever, EVER forget it.

Burning down the house

I lived in a condo one of the years I was in college. I was surprised to see the a large portion of that condo complex burned down last week.

According to the Denver post:

A fire in boulder that torched a condominium complex and left more than a zozen people homeless was probably started by the discarded hot coals of a hookah pipe, though investigators can't say for certain that was the case.

Can you understand why I'd have mixed feelings about going to school at CU-Boulder?