Alice

I tried to post this twice before, but it was lost… Time for reconstruction. *After the first loss I learned my lesson and copied all of the text.*

I'm in the middle of watching Alice--not Tim Burton's film (though I plan to see that eventually), but the Syfy (I still dislike that new name) miniseries from last year.

Sone stuff from Syfy is quite goofy and or campy; but this show is quite enjoyable. It is similar to Tin Man in that it is a present day set reimagining of a classic story. I think I'm about a third of the way through and plan to watch a bit more tonight.


~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Lost in the Night

Last night I walked across the street to my sister's place. They were in the middle of Bible Study, but I sneaked through. I tried to get Chase up but he claimed he was too tired. I understand needing sleep, but too tired for Lost?

Unfortunately the guys were downstairs so I couldn't use the big screen. I was reduced to using the old TV in my sister's study, but it was better than nothing! I never got a digital converter for my TV and am too cheap to pay for cable, so I can't really complain.

It was a good episode. I'm enjoying getting answers this final season. I know the ending may not be awesome (endings can't be entirely mysterious and mystery has been a strong point of Lost), but I've enjoyed the ride and don't regret the investment of time.

Here is an old blog post I recently found:
http://blackwolff.blogspot.com/2005/03/lost.html

I've been watching the show since Mark got me hooked in 2004…


~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Television tonight

Well I've been watching TV for a few hours tonight.  I came over to my sister's place after cooking dinner.  She and my brother-in-law are gone this week--on a Caribbean cruise.  I found the nerfs watching Monsters vs. Aliens so I sat down and watched the remaining portions of the movie.  I have seen it before, but it is a fun flick and I enjoyed seeing the parts that I saw again.

My brother-in-law's mom, Marie, is staying with the kids to watch them.  She wanted to watch NCIS, but the movie was going to overlap the start--so we set it to record along with NCIS: LA and Lost.  After the movie we watched NCIS and I voted to watch NCIS: LA next because the first minute or two were caught on the NCIS recording--but Chase wanted to watch Lost so that he could go to bed.  I decided that it wasn't a bad idea after all and we watched Lost.

I'm still really enjoying Lost, even though the show really has changed from the first season.  There are still questions as the season continues, but we're also seeing answers.  Tonight we got to see something that we hadn't seen in several seasons--it was quick, but I like the fact that we got to see it.  The writers either don't forget things or really do listen to the fans that are constantly asking questions/reminding them about things.

After Lost Chase headed to bed and Marie left just a few minutes ago.  I switched over to the Olympics--but unfortunately I checked the medal count since I had missed the past couple hours.  I managed to spoil the first even that I saw.  *sigh*  I really like the live events--except that sometimes I forget they are live and think that I've seen the results.  Overall though it is nice to not have to worry about being spoiled about the result of an event, even if it can be a bit nervous.  I think I'll stay over here watching the Olympics for a while...

~Matt

Being Lazy, Watching TV

And to be fair, here is a picture of me also being lazy...


~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Location:Highland Ave,Fort Mitchell,United States

Chuck

So I've posted a bit about this on Facebook, but nothing on my blog as of yet. I've recently (within the past few days) gotten hooked on the TV show Chuck. I had several friends tell me about this show, but I never developed that much interest...I never even tried watching it actually. But I'm glad that I changed my mind.

Yes, it is over the top at times, but it is fun, and funny. It reminds me of Alias in its crazy portrayal of espionage, but the humour makes it more believable or easier to digest. When the show is as funny as it is I don't care as much if credulity is strained.

So I've been watching several shows a day and I hope to have Season Two finished by Sunday so that I can watch the two hour premier of Season Three. It really won't be a hardship to lose some sleep to such a fun undertaking. Of course then the problem I have is that I have to wait a week for each new episode...sigh... I haven't been regularly watching any television this season, but this year I'm going to at least be watching Chuck and Lost. I doubt I'll have time for anything more (especially since my TV isn't capable of getting a signal), but those should be good enough.

I'm just not sure what I'll do Monday evening since that is the day I fly into California. Hmm...

~Matt

They should know better

The next time Tim Minear has a great idea for a TV show I dearly hope he goes to somebody other than FOX!!!  There have now been two shows produced by Tim and starring Nathan Fillian that FOX has canceled, Firefly and Drive.  I don't think that I have any respect left for the network.  they certainly don't have any other shows that I watch.

At least Firefly got a few more episodes.  I thought that Drive was fascinating and it had hooked me in from the very start.  Then it is canceled after four episodes with the news that the last two episodes may air during the summer.  Please, someone just keep the idiotic Fox executives away from any good show concepts.  They're sure to make hash of them and/or murder them prematurely.  *sigh*

I didn't realize it had been canceled until I finally realized this evening that I couldn't find a place on the official site to play the episode that I thought aired last night.  Instead I watched the episode of Heroes, and was really looking forward to relaxing in front of an hour of Drive only to have that hope cruelly snatched away.  Darn you Fox!!

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Disappointing

I watched the Super Bowl again this year--rather I watched the commercials and read during most of the game.  I was disappointed however as the commercials didn't seem to be up to the standards of other years.  Sure, many were better than run of the mill advertising spots, but they didn't all seem to be worth the hefty price tag associated with them.  Are companies simply willing to throw more money at substandard sales/marketing department ideas?  I'm not sure...

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Will you marry me?

Today we had something unusual happen at the museum.  A guy arranged to come in around 16:30 and have access to the reproduction of a first class cabin.  We had a volunteer standing there who moved the stanchions away and made sure other people didn't come in.  The guy came in with his girlfriend and they walked into the area.  Then he proposed to her.

I wasn't there to actually see it, but we'd all heard that it was going to happen.  Thankfully she said yes.  Of course Laura (the weekend supervisor) told about the time she was at a game and a guy proposed to his girlfriend via the JumboTron.  Everybody knew who he was because she stood up, slapped him, and stormed out.  That must have been hard to live down--but not as bad as the guy who is apparently planning to propose via a Super Bowl commercial.  It would be incredibly embarrassing if she says no.

~Matt

PS I guess I'll post the answer to Balderdash tomorrow.  I was hoping for more guesses, :(.
--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Threshold

I'll have more news (and pictures) later about Best Buy and such...but more news now. CBS has cancelled Threshold. When they switched it (including a two week hiatus) with Close to Home the latter show jumped in ratings and was given the Friday timeslot--then after Threshold failed to perform on Tuesday it was cancelled. I hate it when this happens!!! Some shows I just appreciate or enjoy--but Threshold was one I really liked! I'm really hoping that the remaining episodes are aired. I honestly cannot understand why this happened--it was a well written and acted show that showed considerable creativity. *sigh*

~Matt

Hey Jude

When I was reading through Stephen King's The Dark Tower series I kept noticing that the song "Hey Jude" cropped up. While I was reading a companion book to the series I discovered that it was a Beetles song. I'd never heard it before so it slightly bugged me. However last night while I was watching the Super Bowl half-time show Paul McCartney played and sang the song! I don't know that it was my favourite song, but it was cool to finally hear it. For those of you that haven't heard the song here are the lyrics, courtesy of Brave.com

Hey, Jude, don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better

Hey, Jude, don't be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make it better.

And any time you feel the pain, hey, Jude, refrain
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders
Well don't you know that its a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder

Hey, Jude! Don't let her down
You have found her, now go and get her
Remember, to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better.

So let it out and let it in, hey, Jude, begin
You're waiting for someone to perform with
And don't you know that it's just you, hey, Jude,
You'll do, the movement you need is on your shoulder

Hey, Jude, don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better

Okay, time for some pictures, it has been way too long that I've been promising to post them and never have. I will warn you that these are a bit large (all under 1 MB but over 500k), so don't try too many too fast on dial-up, ;-).

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting.

These were the beautiful snowy conifers that we passed going through snowy Northern Arizona.

And here was the gas station where we exited from the freeway onto white roads.

Welcome to rainy Memphis.

The one thing that I really don't like about the move is trading the awesome California state flag for the Kentucky flag. It really isn't that bad I guess...but it can't hold a candle to the Bear Flag Republic!
vs
I just don't see much of a contest, the California flag is obviously superior!


My snow pictures I unfortunately can't post. I had mislaid my adapter cord for my digital camera so I had to borrow my mom's camera to go with Chris and take pictures in the local cemetary. Unfortunately I forgot to get those pictures before she flew back to California...I also forgot to give my parents back their CDs that I've been borrowing since I graduated high school...oops...but that is another story! :)

Okay, I'm going to head up to bed now...but I hope that this nice long and image rich (for me) post is good reading.

~Matt

Enterprise

Yes, I have heard the very sad news that Enterprise has been cancelled. I know there are those out there that think this is a good thing, but I simply can't agree with them. I've been watching Star Trek since the late nineties (for some reason I didn't catch any of the series from the very beginning except for Enterprise) and I've been having fun. In retrospect though Deep Space Nine is clearly my favourite, though Enterprise is a very close second. I think that Enterprise is far better than Voyager, and that one lasted for the full seven years.

While the Temporal Cold War was a bit unusual and a bit sticky to maintain they have successfully concluded that arc, at the same time showing us a tantilizing view of the founding of the Federation in 2160. I guess the hardest thing for me is that while I've really enjoyed Enterprise all along I've really liked this fourth season. The three episode mini-arcs are great for giving us quite a bit of detail and spreading out plots. The Vulcan trilogy for example addressed the many differences between Enterprise Vulcans and those of later Star Treks. *sigh* Well I could go on for quite a while, but to no point really. All I guess I'm saying is that I really wish that Enterprise were coming back, but now that I know it isn't I'm going to really enjoy each new episode. The finale should really be something to look forward to. At least the people at UPN weren't as stupid as the Fox executives that canned Firefly before it even had a chance. This way Enterprise has the chance to film a good finale that will wrap things up as best it can.

~Matt

How Many Millions?

I was rather disappointed with the Super Bowl ads this year...I can't believe that companies paid millions for these spots and then force-fed us some of the tripe that they did. Now some of the ads were fun, but too many were pathetic. *sigh* And that was the only reason I watched the game! I read a book during the actual game.

~Matt