Boredom slaying, Part I

Since I'm searching for ways to entertain myself up here without a television, and without my normal assortment of computer games, I'm going to share some of my findings with everybody periodically. Here's the first one.

www.freerice.com

Seriously, it's a fun game, and it's for a good cause.

Shiny!

So I think that perhaps only one other person will care about this, and I could just tell him in an email of IM, but I think I'll make you all hear about it. There is apparently a new Firefly novel, which has been released online and is free for download. I'm having difficulty seeing how this isn't just another fanfic novel set in the Firefly universe, but I found the link on IMDB, so something makes this novel different from the (I'm assuming) thousand of other ones out there.

Perhaps it is because this one is by a real, published author (19 novels) who is published by Tor (which is one of the biggest sci-fi/fantasy publishers out there). So if you like Firefly (which anybody who has ever watched it should), you should perhaps check out this novel (it doesn't sound too long) during those boring lunch breaks when you're obviously not commenting on my blog.

Disclaimer: That last comment was not directed at anybody in particular, but the author of this blog has had no sarcastic outlet for quite some time, so you will probably see a lot of it coming out in posts.

One more change

I've decided to start using the poll option on my blog. I think it should be fun, and will be another way to get my friends actually contributing to my blog. Also, it should help me to update more frequently and regularly. The first poll should come as no surprise, since it is the only thing that has been talked about recently in any news program. And I'm actually curious who you all voted for.

Aristotle is my homeboy.

I have to love it when an economics class starts out with philosophy of science, then heads on to ancient Chinese philosophy, then to Hebrew philosophy, and finally to Greek philosophy, all in the span of a week. It makes me very happy that I will be tested on this, and have to write a paper.

I'm being very responsible about my work, which is kind of strange. It really helps that I have no computer games to play up here, nor do I really have a tv that I can watch daily. So I'm incredibly bored, and thus I turn to my philosophy and economics for solace. Also, I think it helps that I'm not living on campus. Since I don't feel like driving back and forth all the time, I'm staying longer on campus, and have nothing to do but homework. It's very nice that all my classes have the text books on reserve, since I haven't gotten any yet (they're on order, just haven't arrived yet). It makes me wonder how much more work I would have gotten done if I hadn't lived on campus at Whitworth. Of course, it could just be that I'm more mature now, but I really doubt that.

Nobody has commented on the differences in the site, which makes me sad, since I worked so hard on them. Of course, I also worked very hard on making them unobtrusive, so I guess I did a good job. Or it could be that nobody cares, and thus won't comment. In which case you're all jerks, but I wonder what it will really do to call my readers names.

By the way, I can totally picture Brisco using the title of my post in an adventure. Ah, if only it had lasted more than a season.

Highlights Issue # 3

See if you can find all the little changes that occurred in this blog recently!

Trouble acclimating

I think there are two things in particular that I'm having trouble getting used to at school. The first is that I have to pay for anything that I may want to print. Now, I know this isn't unusual, but we didn't have it at Whitworth. Before I started going there they had a fixed number of pages that a person could print during the year (any more and they had to pay), but they did away with that once we started using an online service to put up sources and other course materials, instead of putting them on hold in the library.

So for a lot of my philosophy classes, I could just pull up the sources online, print them out in the library, and I'd be good to go (it was also great for things I wanted to print but weren't used for classes, like whichever story I was working on at the time). CSUS uses this same online service (Blackboard, for those of you who know it), but I have to pay for each page I print out! Inconceivable! This just means that I don't really want to print anything out, and it's possible because of it I won't do all the reading that I should. %0.05 a page seems a bit steep to me, but I could be imagining things. Does Kinko's let you print things off the internet, and if so, does anybody know how much they charge? Of course, I could fix this by having a printer up here, but where would I put it?

The other thing I just can't get used to is the fact that all of my classes are lectures. I want to discuss what we're talking about (read: argue about), and it's very difficult for me not to consume class time discussing small points that interest me as a philosopher, but really shouldn't be that important to me as an economist (and aren't important to all the other people in my class, since they're all business people). So far I think I've done a good job, but it's just going to get worse as we start Greek and Medieval philosophers starting Wednesday, because those are my homeboys, and I'll have a lot of trouble when the prof waters down what they said. I know it's necessary, but I don't have to like it! Maybe I'll get a neighbor to kick me every time I start talking about something that they think is unnecessary. But I would probably ignore them anyways, because I've been conditioned to ignore being kicked.

The Curse of the Bambecca

Since I've started watching television after I came home from college, I've seen show after show that I love canceled within a couple years of me starting to watch it. Due to all of these canceled shows (VM, GG, Alias, AD) I've decided that I am a curse to shows.

Lately I thought my curse might have been gone, since the only show left this fall that I have watched previously was Heroes, and I don't see that being canceled any time soon. Although , come to think of it, maybe my curse caused the writer's strike because there were quite a few new shows that I liked this fall (this would mean that my curse has gotten worse).

Lately I've been trying to get around the curse by watching shows that have already been canceled, like Brisco County Jr. and Dark Angel. So while I still get very upset when they end prematurely, at least I know what I'm getting into when I start the shows.

But I just found out that two of the shows I had thought were safe are canceled: The 4400 and The Dead Zone. Theses are summer series on USA, and usually shows that play on cable and during the summer last for a good number of series. Not only that, but I think both are popular, and I know that The 4400 started off with the highest number of viewers of a cable premiere.

I don't mind so much when shows get the ax once they start sucking. I think of the fact that Alias ended as the fault of the show, because it really started going downhill. As much as I think that there were more stories to tell in the show, it was its time to end. The same was true to a lesser extent of Gilmore Girls.

But I hate it when a show dies before it's time, and especially when the writers don't have an opportunity to actually end it. When a show finds out halfway through a season that it won't be coming back, there is no way to wrap up all of the plot lines that are in development. This is even worse when, in the case of these two shows, they find out in the off-season, when everybody had expected it to come back. This means that there is absolutely no closure for the series in general.

As one article said, "the move to cancel series with continuing story lines before a final resolution is beginning to wear on fans, who may reject new sci-fi series for fear of investing their time and energy in a tale with no end." So all of you Heroes and Smallville watchers, I'm sorry, but those shows will get canceled soon, and probably without reason, and without any real resolution. And it's very possible that Chuck, Journey Man (that is amazing and therefore absolutely no hope for it to stick around), and Bionic Woman won't even make it a second season. Sorry for all of you that actually like them.

Feels like old times

The other day I realized that I'm regressing back to my childhood. And by this I mean my actual childhood of elementary school, as opposed to my maturity childhood of high school and college. My school colors are once again green and gold - just like at Van Horn, where I went to most of elementary school. And my mascot is once again a hornet - just like Van Horn. It makes me wonder why green and gold go with hornets. I understand the gold part, since bees and the like are known for their yellow coloring. But where does the green come from? Is it the color of the grass behind the hornet? Because don't they like flowers more than grass?

Also, I feel like I'm 9 years old again because most of the people I'm around are calling me Becky. Now, don't think that this is some sign that I'm going by Becky at school, and don't take it to mean in any way that you have permission to call me such a name. That name is reserved for people who are family members, or who have known me since I was 9 and were around my family who called me Becky. I think the number of people who fall into that list (non-family members who are allowed to call me Becky) is around 15 if I'm feeling generous.

But since I've been around my cousins and aunt and uncle, I'm getting used to hearing Becky. It's funny because neither of my brothers call me Becky, so I didn't hear it a lot in Bakersfield. I think much of my family there just calls me Beck or Becks. But here it's definitely Becky, and I've definitely noticed the difference.

In the midst of all this retro stuff I had a new experience today. And it'll lead to a new experience on Tuesday. Amanda had a handful of people over to her apartment in Davis to discuss the various propositions and the candidates for President. The real reason I went over there is because she said she was also going to bake apple pie (since what could be more American than talking about voting while eating apple pie?), and I love apple pie.

We spent probably an hour discussing the propositions, and then decided that we should watch the Hillary Obama debate that just aired, mostly because we couldn't figure out how they were that different (in terms of policy). So far this year I've almost completely avoided the political stuff, so it was interesting to hear what the important issues are (since they hit on the ones where they differ the most), and I was surprised to notice that I didn't hate listening to the debate. Of course, this could have been because they were actually cordial to one another, and it was inter-party, but I have to admit that I found it interesting. I don't think I like Republican vs. Democrat politics, but I could really enjoy other types (if there is such a thing).

After spending quite a bit of time discussing the different things (although interspersed with lots of other topics) I believe I will be voting exactly the way that I would have voted before I learned about what I was actually voting for. So my uneducated reaction towards voting is the same as my educated position. Interesting.

Things I wasn't prepared for

1. Parking
2. All lecture all the time.
3. Fast food on campus.
4. Parking (yes, it deserves two spots)

So far things are going well. I've got three classes, and it looks like it might stay that way, since I refuse to take any classes on Tuesday or Thursday, and the philosophy class I wanted to add is now full. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to use the extra time to re-teach myself Latin. Because it will be so useful to my Masters that I just have to know it.

I've added a Calc II for the Social Sciences class, which looks like it should be easy. They started with reviewing differentiation, which I've already finished, and will have to learn integrals, which I will be reviewing before the class gets to them. Apparently there's no trig in this class (which is sad because I love trig) and they gloss over some other topics compared to your standard Calc II class. So while I haven't taken Calc for 7 years, I don't expect any difficulty with this one.

It would appear that my initial impressions of my economics teachers are correct. One is going to waste all sorts of class time because he is obsessed with his own clerverness. This, of course, doesn't mean that he doesn't expect everybody to be in class, even though all of my learning will be done outside of it (he actually takes roll). I think I will have a lot of fun this semester relating all the tales of what he thinks is important to talk about during my precious class time. At least the subject matter is interesting, even if it looks like it might be pretty easy.

The other class is going to be awesome. Not only am I supremely interested in the subject, but it will be difficult (well, marginally), and hopefully will keep my attention. I do find it ironic that the first real topic we hit on (besides a very brief history of economics as a discipline) was the Vienna Circle and Logical Positivism. I really really hope that it is only a brief discussion topic, because if I have to hear about Logical Positivism all semester long, it is going to be very hard not to rip it to shreds every day. For those of you who don't care I won't go into what it is, but I will say that it is the most despised of all the philosophical ideas I learned. Ever.

I've located the Safeway closest to campus, so I'll have my deli food whenever I want it (I love Signature Soups). For all you SoCal people, Safeway is the north's Vons. It looks like there's really nice snow up in the mountains, but I don't think I'll go boarding this weekend. I should pretend that I'm up here to do things other than play, at least for the first week.

Hey, teacher! Leave those kids alone.

I'm officially a student again, and I have the student ID to prove it. I've already been struck by all the differences between a big state school (it's much bigger than Cal State Bako, which I knew, but wasn't really prepared for) and the small private school that I'm used to. Paying for parking and my student ID are just the beginning of it, but I think it'll be a good change.

I only had two classes today, and I'm very excited about one - both the material and the professor. She was an English and econ major in college (Jess, there's another in the world!) and is making us start with ancient philosophers in the history of economic thought, unlike most courses of it that start just before Adam Smith (late 1700's). So I get to read Aristotle in an econ class, which is very exciting. I also love that the prof told the class that this was going to be a hard class not because she grades hard, but because the material is dense, and there's a lot of writing. At the end of her little spiel, I thought to myself, "Hurrah, I'm home!"

The other shouldn't be too bad, in spite of the fact that the prof strikes me as a bit of an off-topic rambler. Of course, this is just a first impression, but I think it's a pretty safe assumption, considering that as we introduced ourselves, he interrupted almost every person with some tidbit of his own. While off-topic rambling can be fun, when I'm in class, I'm there to go over the material and not learn all about the personal likes and dislikes of my prof. If they throw them in every once in a while, that's fine, but completely taking up class time with non-pertinent facts is not okay.

Sacramento seems like a nice city, although I haven't seen much of it. The campus is situated right on the river, which is pretty cool, and there is a great bike/walk path running the whole length of the river (it's the American River, not the Sacramento River). If I had a bike, I could take the path all the way to campus from my uncle's house (about 5 miles), but I couldn't fit it in my car on the way up. Next trip I'll have to convince my dad to bring all my stuff up in the Expo.

I'll post again at the end of the week about first week impressions, and put up the biggest differences between Sac State and Whitworth, but for now I'm excited to get back into learning and procrastinating.

The Dead Zone

So I've gotten away from my series a month idea, but I thought it was time to bring it back. USA has a show called The Dead Zone which is based on characters from a Steven King novel. This novel was also made into a movie which starred Christopher Walken in 1983. This show has been around for a while (recently finished its 6th season this past summer), but I never really looked into it because with Steven King's name attached to it, I thought it would be more akin to horror than it actually is. With a name like The Dead Zone, I expected him to be seeing ghosts or something like that, but really, it just refers to the part of his brain that he uses.

But luckily, this past summer it was on immediately after The 4400, so I started catching episodes of it as I was getting ready for bed. I think I watched probably four episodes this way, all of which were at the end of the season, and got intrigued. So I decided to download the first season and watch it to find out what the show is all about.

So far, things look pretty good. The basic idea of the show is that John Smith seems to have the ability to experience past and future events by touch the objects or people around him. This happens because he is in a coma for 7 years, and when he wakes up, he not only has to integrate himself back into society (a lot could happen in 7 years, like your finance getting married and having a son, strangely enough named John Smith), and dealing with this ability, and people knowing about his ability. It's similar to The 4400 because the ability given protagonist doesn't try to hide them (like in Smallville or Charmed), and that leads to some fun episodes. I especially liked the one about witchcraft.

Unfortunately it's a summer series, so that means only 13 episodes per season, but that can also be a good thing, I guess, although I can't think of a reason right now.

Lack of class

There was a student in the class I was in yesterday named Sparkles. Seriously, that was the name listed on the roll print out. That is all I have to say.

And I didn't die once!

So Saturday after reffing two soccer games, I decided that it would be a good idea to head down to LA and join Rob's D&D group for some orc-slaying fun! Actually, I don't think we slayed any orcs, but we had fun running around a tower and trying to kill a spider lady. Plus, there was lots of food involved, and flashy cups.

On Sunday, Rob wanted to try out a pick-up Ultimate Frisbee game he heard about through his new Ultimate Frisbee league, so we headed out to Pasadena, and to a park in the Rose Bowl area. Now, you all may think I'm fanatical about frisbee, but you ain't seen nothing until you see these people play - very good and very intense about frisbee. It was a beautiful day, and it was great to get out and run around for a while, once we figured out the different rules and the subbing mechanism.

On Monday, I decided to pay my aunt, who lives about a mile from the Rose Bowl, a visit. Had I known she was that close, I might have made us go over on Sunday and say hi (it was literally almost on the way that we went), but oh well. I'll know for next time. It was good to see my aunt and uncle, and we went to the Norton Simon for about an hour (I had never been there before) and had Mexican.

Now I'm home and I have to start getting some things done. Only two weeks until my classes up in Sacramento start! I keep dreaming that I'm back in high school, only not high school aged, so I think I'm either worried or really excited about going back to school. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

It's been 12 years

Drank a Dr. Pepper and nothing happened. Interesting.

Putting the "real" in RL

Here's a review of the biggest and most popular MMORPG ever. (Read it, it's actually funny.)

Click me!

Also....

Everybody should see Juno. Great movie.

Up in the Sky!

So, I think most people are aware of my somewhat recent obsession with comics. Well, actually, so far I have refrained from buying actual comics (with the exception of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8), but wait for the good ones to come out in book form and read them then. I just thought I'd share some of my favorites (and maybe some people will join me in my nerdness).

52 - My first encounter with this series was in book form (as in paragraphs and sentences), but it was so good that I had to find the visual version of it. This was a weekly (which is amazing in comics) comic that used a huge number of DC characters, but noticeably missing are the big three - Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. It takes place pretty much right after Infinite Crisis, and is really good. It focuses on some of the more interesting superheroes, morally speaking, including Black Adam, who is pretty much classified as a villain, but toes the line.

Kingdom Come - This was a Christmas gift from my grandparents, and I've been hearing about it for a long time, but have never found it in Bakersfield. I read it in one sitting, and it's a 225 page book, if that tells you how good I thought it was. Basically, all of our current heroes are old, and have for one reason or another retired, but their inheritors have seriously screwed up. So the question is, should superhumans (for the most case, extra-terrestrials) even play a part in human life, or should it only be up to actual humans. Very, very good.

Marvel 1602 - This is the only Marvel comic I've read, and for good reason. While I can't see anything wrong with Marvel, it has never been my favorite of the two for some reason, but this book was different. It took a handful of the most popular and powerful of the Marvel characters, and placed them in Elizabethan England. I think my favorite character in this book was Daredevil, which was a real surprise. It's written by Neil Gaiman, which was probably most of the reason I bought it.

Help Wanted

So I'm thinking on getting my own website, because they're cool, and I want a way to keep my extended family in touch with videos, pictures, and perhaps some other toys. But I need a good name for my site. Anybody got any bright ideas for what it could be. I will give the winner total credit on the site once it's up.

You Rock!

So I played Guitar Hero for the first time last night, and while I can see how it is fun, I think I'd much rather just play my actual guitar.

I have officially corrupted my little cousin, by giving her the first taste she's ever had of candy, I think. We were over at my uncle's for Christmas dinner, and I was playing with Shea while eating a candy cane, and she kept grabbing for it (although she might have been trying to get my hair - she has an unhealthy obsession with my hair) so I gave her a taste. From then on she would not take it out of her mouth, and I had to struggle to make sure she didn't poke the back of her mouth with it. Jenny took some pictures, and if I ever get my hands on them, I will post them here. Shea is almost old enough for me to really enjoy playing with her. When we had out poker party, Chris and Jessica couldn't believe that I would actually hold her, and promptly took a picture of the feat.

A Very Merry Un-Christmas To You

I threw a poker party on Saturday for friends and family, and I think it was a great time, and don't really care if anybody disagrees with me. Although some people couldn't make it, I think we had a good number of people, although it was probably a bit annoying for the people who went out first to sit around for a couple of hours watching other people play. I think it was a fun non-traditional way to celebrate Christmas by having people that I like hanging out with around, and not have to do any of the cheesy Christmas stuff that I find annoying. We had cookies, but that was about the only Christmas thing that there was (thanks to my cousin Jenny for the good home-baked cookies).

Buy in bulk

Every time I walk out of Costco, I'm amazed at the types of things you can get there. I love the movie selection, because they always have some random old movie, or box set, or two-pack that I love looking at. But the thing that gets me every time, are the displays when you walk out. You can buy mini-blinds, carpet, and tires! But that's not all! Need a casket? Get it at Costco. Cuz, you know, buying in bulk makes it cheaper? I'm not really sure what they're trying to tell us with that one.

This year I'm having a problem that I normally don't have: I can't tell my mother what I want for Christmas. Now, you have to understand; my mom is great at buying gifts for everybody that we need to give them to. If we have family over at any time during the holidays, she is never without a gift. But for her immediate family, she can't manage to ever get surprises. She has to know exactly what we want, and half the time, we usually end up buying it for ourselves, but she just pays for it.

I have the completely opposite mentality for Christmas. I like to find gifts for people that will surprise them, that they haven't asked for, but that they will love. Sometimes I make exceptions to this when I know there are things that a person needs, but usually it's more fun for me to find the perfect gift for somebody, that they didn't even know they wanted. Likewise, I want other people to surprise me, instead of telling them exactly what I want.

I should be used to needing to give my mom a list of the things I want, but for some reason this year I was caught off guard, and still can't manage to come up with anything. I mean, there are some things out there that I want, but I don't know the specifics that I want. Like, I need a new graphics card, but I don't know what kind. Also, I need a new backpack (well, messenger bag), but I haven't found one that I like yet.

I did ask for some Lego, but I doubt that I'll get them. How sad.

The deep abyss

I have been sucked into the abyss that is the Warcraft III map editor. And yes, I know I'm a nerd. I've never denied it, nor will I ever. I know I can't fool anybody.

Anyways, this this is the end all in power over Warcraft III. It's amazing in its depth, even if I haven't managed to get all the commands down. It's part video game, part programming code, all fun.

My two days of fun starts tomorrow. Originally, I had been put with my brother at CSUB doing really bad girls varsity games, which I was looking forward to. $40 per game, with no sprinting and only minimal jogging for two days I can handle. But the stupid assigner changed me to doing moderately good girls varsity games, with lots of sprinting, filled in my some standing around, and some jogging. For probably less money, because there will be more refs on the game. And it's at the soccer park, which adds at least another hour per day to the time I have to spend. I'm not very happy about this.

For anybody that will be in town, I'm having a poker party at my house on Saturday the 22nd. All are welcome, and it should be a lot of fun hanging out and enjoying people's company right around Christmas.

In the Grind

It's been a busy week, although I don't really know why. On Thursday and Friday I was the sub in a class that I've done a couple times already this year, so it was good. We went to the Nutcracker on Thursday, which is always fun. It wasn't the whole show, because third graders would have a difficult time sitting through all of it, but only about 5 of the more entertaining dances.

Since Brandon is in town, we've done a lot of hanging out, which usually involves food and our computers. Their house is still in the dark ages with dial-up, so he likes coming over to the broadband of my house, although he almost doesn't know what to do with all that speed.

Soccer tournament season is officially upon me, with the Taft Tournament last week, and the massive Garces Tournament this week. There's something like 150 teams and 350 games over two days. This year I'm at Cal State instead of the soccer park, which is a nice change. It makes for a little shorter day, which is always wanted.

I guess it's just typical December business, but after the chill of London (when there were only things I wanted to do, not things I had to do) it's a drastic change.

Down and out in LA

This past weekend I drove down and back to LA on both Saturday and Sunday. Luckily, I didn't drive either time, but if you count that I was down there on Tuesday, too, that's a lot of time spent traveling over the Grapevine. Saturday I went with Matt and Donna to pick up Soldier Boy from the airport, and Sunday Billy and I went down for a volleyball ref meeting.

I was at Golden Valley for a soccer match yesterday, and had a girl drop unconscious for no apparent reason. I didn't even see if happen, since it was behind the play, but all of a sudden I heard the ref and my assistant yelling at me to stop play. I glanced back and saw her on the ground, but just figured she had been kicked, so it wasn't a big deal since play was away from her and she wasn't in any danger.

But when I saw that the coach had run on the field, as well as my assistant, I decided to stop play to tell the coach that players getting kicked happens, and he shouldn't freak out about it. This was the second time he had done so, running onto the field when his goalie just needed to catch her breath. When I got over there, I saw that she was unconscious, and so realized that it was a good thing I stopped the game. We ended up canceling the rest (about 8 minutes left) because they were keeping her still until the ambulance came, and we didn't have any lights.

That was the first time I've had to have an ambulance come to one of my games.

In other news, I got into Sac State, and will be starting there at the end of January. I'm looking forward to getting back into school, but not looking forward to the Calc review that I'm going to have to put myself through between now and then. Should be a good way to work myself back into the swing of things, though.

Back in black

So I'm back in the states, if you were wondering, and soccer has started full swing. Apparently the weather decided to turn cold while I was gone, as we now have started to use our heater a little bit, but I suppose that's to be expected - as soon as soccer starts the weather turns cold.

The UK was great, and I had a wonderful time. I will try to put up a few pictures sometime later on the site, but most of them are of buildings that a lot of people have seen already, so I don't feel like I'm in a rush to get them up. The only problem I'm having with jet lag is that I keep waking up way too early in the morning for my liking, but all that will take to cure is one late night and sleeping in. And I suppose it's not a bad thing to get up early in the morning.

"I'm a wee monster!"

It's been a long time with no post, but I've been busy. Tuesday night, I guess it was, I got the red eye bus up to Edinburgh, and arrived at 8:00 the next morning. Edinburgh is a very nice town, but it didn't give me a very warm welcome - it rained without stopping from before I arrived until after I went to sleep that evening. I hide in a museum for most of the day, and learned some fun things about Scotland, but still got soaked walking to and from it.

On Thursday I found a nice little tour of the highlands to join. There were only five of us in a little mini-bus, which made for a very personal tour, especially considering that two of the five couldn't speak English, and so were basically just along for the ride. I got to ask a lot of questions, and, or course, talked about football with the driver. We also got to listen to some nice Celtic music when he wasn't telling about the places we were, so it was an awesome day, altogether.

My bus got back at 7:00 Friday morning, and I decided to walk back from the station, firstly because I didn't want to wake Rachel up that early, and secondly because I wanted to see some of Westminster (the city, not the Abbey) in good light (all previous visits had been during or after dusk). It was fun seeing the city of London wake up, and was a nice walk. After that, since it was such a beautiful day, I walked around Hyde Park (largest royal park in London) and Kensington Gardens, and then hit the National Portrait Gallery until around 7. I saw Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Jane Grey, and some other tutors, and then spent a lot of time on their computer, looking up pictures of my favorite British actors and actresses that aren't actually shown in the gallery. Good times.

Today the plan was for the National Gallery and a pub for some football matches, but a bad allergic reaction to something yesterday and Benadryl today sort of knocked me out, so I made a quick run into the Gallery, saw three of the four turtles, and then explored Saturday afternoon and evening at Coven Garden, which was a zoo, although a very interesting one.

Tomorrow is our venture off to Fulham for a football match, which I'm looking forward to greatly. Before that, if I'm feeling ambitious, I might head to Westminster Abbey for services, but we'll see. I think we'll also be going to Wimbledon, just because I can. I thought about putting some pictures up, but have decided instead that it's time for bed, and I might put them up tomorrow. Although the really bad techno music from next door might mean that I put them up tonight.

Be Prepared

Today I wasn't particularly prepared, so I didn't get to hear somebody sing that song on stage. Silly me, assuming that there would be a Sunday evening performance of The Lion King that I could go see. So instead I Googled things to do in London on a Sunday night, and found absolutely nothing, aside from clubs, which I'm not really interested in.

The problem is that everything here closes so early, which I'm just not used to. Museums close around 6 PM, and the same with stores. So I finally realized that the London Eye might be open after dark, and decided to check it out. I saw that it closes at 8 PM, but didn't know if they let the last 'flights' go up at 8, or if everybody was off by then. I decided to risk it, and arrived at about ten 'till 8, making it on the last flight of the evening.

It was pretty nice because our room was almost empty, there only being four other people in there with me: two Americans and two Japanese. The view was pretty awesome, with London all aglow. Parliament was especially fantastic. My pictures couldn't turn out very good, but I think I got a few that are decent. And I figure I can just buy some postcards for good pictures; I was up there for the view, not pictures.

Yesterday I popped into St. Paul's to find out what time services were, and arrived just in time for a concert. It was Saturday Evensong, but they were giving away some music awards, so it was basically a concert. I couldn't understand any of the words, so I don't know what they were singing, but the music was very cathedral-ish, and added a definite atmosphere to the cathedral.

Scotland tomorrow!

My buddy and me! (it wasn't a doll!)

I've cruised about London for the past two days with my best friend Soren. He really is a great traveling companion. He always wants to go where I want to, and I can tell him to shut up when I want, and he does.

But in serious news, I have spent the past two days cruising around London on a tour bus. It was well worth the money, I must say. Yesterday I traveled around the heart of tourist London, and say most of the things to see from a great vantage point. While I really enjoyed my exploration tour from the previous day, it was nice on my blistered foot not to walk around everywhere. That's not to say that I didn't do my share of walking, but it wasn't across the whole town like before.

I also got to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is awesome. I'll talk more about it later once I get pictures up. And right next to it is the Natural History Museum, and I can never resist one of those. It's pretty amazing, and has so much stuff in it - dinosaurs, rocks, bugs, mammals, whales - anything you could want to look at. It even had a dodo bird, which I think might be the coolest thing of the day. Obviously not a live one, but one that I think actually did live at one point. Gotta love the empire and the fact that Britain once ruled half the world, and so has stuff from half the world.

Issues

London is great. I was really looking forward to being able to walk everywhere, and aside from a blister on the bottom of my ankle (really, how do you get one there) I've loved my two days of walking around the city. I'm getting a bit mixed up because everything is so much closer than I think it is, but it's so cool to be able to walk to so many attractions in an afternoon.

There are a couple things that I'm having issue with.

1. Pedestrians rarely have the right of way in sidewalk.
2. Added to this, cars come from the wrong direction, and rarely have blinkers on. But so far I've only almost stepped in front of a car a couple times. Mostly I cross when the other people cross and I'm good.
3. No Mt. Dew. I need not say more.
4. The buildings are too tall. When you get among the buildings, it's very hard to get good views of the cool ones because everything is so packed.

Tomorrow (and probably the next day) I'm being a total tourist and going on the open bus tour of London.

Across the pond

I made it here safely, although my phone didn't. Either I left it in the car, or it has disappeared. I really hope it's in the car.

The adventures started early, at least for Rachel, who saw that my flight was getting in like 45 minutes early and had to race to the airport. Once there she realized that we had no way to contact one another and did not set up a place to meet. Luckily everything went smoothly, and there were no problems.

After letting me take a short nap, we decided to go on a walk though London to see some of the places on my list. It was nice a cold, which I loved, and I got to see a handful of the big attraction here at dusk and beyond when they weren't very crowded.

After this I got to meet Rachel's friend Ellen, and she, Rachel, and I stayed in the dorm talking about the differences between English and American schools and whatever else we felt like talking about. It was a good way to help me stay awake until 10.

Today I'm going to be a total tourist and go on a bus tour of London where you can get on and off the bus at various attractions. I don't have any problem being a tourist, because I am one. After that, who know, but I'll keep you updated.

I have been remiss

Some how I managed to post this on the quote page, but it was supposed to be here. Pretend you're reading this on Monday.

So Jessica told me last night that it had been a month since my last post. It has, which is quite pathetic of me. Granted, it has been a busy month, but I still should have been posting. The only excuse that I can think of is that I've been slowly using Facebook and that has taken all my posting time on the internet.

So today I'm jumping across the pond to visit Rachel, which is going to be an awesome trip, I hope. We have some madness planned, and some madness will hopefully be planned once I get there. I'll be posting from over there, so you'll get to hear about some of the exploits from here. I'm going to jump out on a limb and promise a post every other day (depending on internet availability), so check back often!

That's it for now, I'll check back when I'm in a different time zone!

Is nothing sacred?

I realize that creativity has been so lacking lately that artists of all kinds must remake, rerelease, cover, steal, and sequel-ize, but I thought some things were off limits. For example, if I ever saw a remake of Casablanca, or Casablanca II: Ilsa's Return, I think I would never watch another movie put out by anybody involved in the project (down to the second best boy).

You can imagine my shock, dismay, and really, disappointment when I heard a rap/techno remix of the puppet show song from "The Sound of Music." It was on a warm-up disc for volleyball, and I was surprised that young kids would put something like that - even a few lines of it - on a warm-up CD. My initial surprise turned to horror when it broke into the vamped up, techno chorus. Most of the song didn't even resemble the original, it was just a few lines of yodeling, and the intro (at least that I could tell, it was very hard to understand the words).

What's next - Gershwin? Disney? I can just see kids getting down to pumped up versions of " 'S Wonderful" or "So This Is Love." Perhaps next year's prom will have "Cheek to Cheek" on the playlist, although I doubt it will be the same cheeks that Few was singing about.

Some things should just be off limits.

A little perspective

I'm often criticized for so closely following AFI's film lists. People seem to think that I only will watch films that are on the list, and think that, "This list... is an absolute good. The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf." Just to be clear, I don't think this, but know that these lists are good starting spots for a deep appreciation of film.

Recently, a blogger asked for "the fans" version of the AFI list, and gave a little different criteria for the list. In the most recent release, AFI only allowed for four "write ins," while 96 of the films had to be on their 400 film nominated list. They also obviously gave the voting to people who are involved in film - critics, directors, producers, and the like.

This guy gave the vote to anybody, and allowed as many write ins as desired, but strangely enough, all of the films that made his list were on the nominated 400. Makes sense that people are going to think of what they see. Anyways, check out the results here, along with a nice write up of each film, and an iconic picture. He also includes comparison with the original lists for those people who care.

A New Saga Begins

It's the start of a new school year, which means it's the start of the new television season, too. This isn't such a big deal as it used to be since cable has so many quality shows on during the summer, but some people who haven't discovered those gems, it's the return of new episodes to watch. Most of the shows that I watched last year are no longer with us, which means that I am in need of one or two new ones to watch. Heroes is still around, as are Battlestar Galactica and Smallville, but both of those I much prefer to watch on DVD, which left me with just one show to watch during the week.

The good news is that with the success of Alias in the past and all the spy movies lately, studios are willing to develop spy and action shows, even if most of them are drama filled. Also, with the recent huge success of most things supernatural or metahuman, television is trying desperately to get on the band wagon of superpowers.

All of this is good news for me since I enjoy one of those generes immensely, and the other when it's done right. Almost all of the new series (that I'm aware of, at least) show a trend of tv falling into fewer and fewer categories. The sitcom is slowly dying (although shows like The Office refuse to acknowledge this), which generally makes me immensely happy. Hour long television falls into crime (procedural, forensic, and action being the sub-genres), fantasy (metahumand and supernatural being the sub-genres), reality (crap and crap being the sub-genres), and hospital shows (drama and comedy being the sub-genres. I really only will watch two of those genres.

So here are my thoughts on some of the new shows this season.

Chuck - Mondays on NBC
crime, action

Jumping from Alias' idea that girls kick butt, "Chuck" is a show about a mild-mannered nerd who works for the equivalent of the Geek Squad (called the Nerd Herd). His college roommate is a CIA spy who goes rogue and emails Chuck all of the NSA and CIA's secrets, which are then downloaded into Chuck's head.

Enter two agents: one from the CIA, and one from the NSA. The one from the CIA is subtle and embodies the motto of "girls kick butt," while the one from the NSA is Adam Baldwin doing an impression of Jayne in a suit (if you don't get it you're a loser who needs to watch Firefly). They duke it out, there's a decent car crash, and a bomb is dismantled. Your average pilot for a spy show.

The awesomeness is seen in Chuck's complete nerdiness. In order to receive the email, Chuck has to input a command code from a text RPG that he and his roommate created in college (just like Gemstone). The awesomer part is Adam Baldwin in all his Adam Baldwin goodness. He's the ultimate trigger-happy mercenary who is a comic genius.

Potential: Sadly, I don't see this one sticking around. Many of the supporting characters are incredibly annoying, and I think Chuck might be too nerdy for the mainstream. That could have just been in the pilot, though, and we'll see what subsequent episodes bring. I hope it sticks around.

Heroes - Monday on NBC
fantasy, metahuman

For those of us that are aware of "The 4400," "Heroes" is just a time filler until the summer, but it does still have it's charms. Instead of explaining the events that happened immediately following the season finale, this season starts Four Months Later, as Chapter 1 is titled. This can be fun because then we get to figure out what happened, but I have a feeling most of this season will be clean-up, which is cheating and lame. The regulars from last year (that survived) have almost all made appearances, including my favorite, Mr. Bennett.

Hiro has gone back in time to meet his hero, who turns out to be one of my heros, David Anders (he was on Alias). The addition of David, and Kristen Bell later, solidifies this as watchable, even if I am a bit worried about the plot.

The Good: David Anders as a samurai and three spoken languages (now with Spanish!)
The Bad: "Who am I?" - I hate this plot device
The Ugly: Nathan Petrelli's beard.

Journey Man - Mondays on NBC
fantasy, supernatural

Taking a page from Quantum leap and revamping it for this century, "Journey Man" is about a journalist who finds himself inexplicable traveling back in time. He doesn't know why, but the jumping follows around a guy who he decides he's supposed to save.


I think what will make or break this show are the relationships between the characters. It seems that Journey Man's former fiancé (who was thought dead), is a Journey Woman. After she died (or so he thought), he ended up marrying his brother's girlfriend. So he's faced with a dilemma - while time traveling is it really cheating if he hooks up with a person who, at the time, he was dating? Only time will tell.

Potential: Seems to have a good chance at surviving the ax, as long as NBC doesn't listen to people like my brother who "didn't understand what was going on." It has mysteries to solve, people who need closure can get it every episode while there is a larger mystery going on over the whole season. There are also interesting characters, and plenty of room for them to grow personally and in their relationships. But we'll see. I liked it, so that means it must already be halfway to the dumpster.

All in all, Monday night is looking to be a bit busy. We'll see how long they last, though.

Coming up soon: Life, Bionic Woman

Headlights in my rearview

I love driving at night, which is a good thing because I've made so many long trips during the dark. The only thing I hate about driving at night is that recently some car makers have decided that it's fun to turn regular headlights into brights. And the car makers that haven't decided to do that have decided to sell their cars to idiots that like driving with their brights on. If you are going to drive with your brights on, you must be enough on your game that you turn them off before you are about to pass me the other way (or just tailgate me and don't ever turn the brights off, that's cool). If you can see my headlights, I can see yours, so turn them down!

Really, you can only be as safe on the roads as the other drivers are, and it's very difficult for me to be safe when I'm blinded every few minutes by idiots with their brights on. It's really just safer all around for us all to have lower watt bulbs, because then your eyes adjust.

Okay, done whining. Until the next time, at least.

The Awful Truth

So I'm off to SB again to watch Natalie DEWM herself to a life of happiness. She's the first, so I have a feeling it will be a little strange, but two days of wine tasting before the wedding will probably help things, as will sitting on Santa Barbara's East Beach for the ceremony.

The Mummy Returns

Okay, so cheerleaders aren't really mummies; they're worse. I've never been a fan of cheerleaders. I guess they have their place, but that place is as far away from me as possible. Now, if I'm being honest, there was one time when I appreciated cheerleaders. My senior year our soccer Valley Final was in Clovis, and we took some cheerleaders with us, not to cheer, but to convert Clovis' stadium into our own little Griffith Stadium away from home. Many people commented that if you didn't know better, you would have thought that we were the home team since there was so much Driller representin' going on.

But since volleyball season has started again, so has the cheerleaders' habit of sitting right behind me and yelling. They can't manage to sit on the side their school is on, no, they have to sit right in the middle behind the official. And it pisses me off.

Stupid cheerleaders should stay with the stupid football players where they belong.

Beach Blanket Bingo

I don't know why, but I've been neglecting my blog lately. Perhaps it's because nothing has happened that is note-worthy, or perhaps it's just because it's the fall and that sort of thing tends to happen.

Anyways, over Labor Day Weekend I spent a fun time in Santa Barbara with my parents and grandparents. Unfortunately, it was obscenely hot (it would have been more comfortable to be in B-town due to the lack of AC in SB), but was very comfortable on the beach and in the pool, where I spent much of my time. My grandmother was recovering from knee surgery, so I kept her entertained with movies, and we watched some sports together.

I went in the ocean and played around a bit for the first time in probably two years. I've been to the beach many times, but it's always in the winter, or when it's too cold to swim (or I'm not properly attired).

All alone

I currently have 0 friends, so movies have become my friends. I think I've watched 6 in the past 3.5 days. This isn't anything new, as I've done it before, but that was mostly when I was working and too exhausted to do anything else after a long day.

Not that I'm complaining - watching movies is a perfectly fine way to spend a day, especially when you consider that I've been winterizing my room at the same time. Or I guess I should say "fallizing" my room, since I'm not insulating pipes or anything, I'm just getting all the clothing that I need for the fall and winter out of boxes.

Family Ties

Most of you don't know this, but there are five of us in the family within about three years. These same five grew up about five minutes away from one another, and always went to the same school. Matt was born in Jan, then Billy and I in October, then Jenny in July, and finally Robby rounds out the group in the next December. Granted, the first four are the closest, but there's no way to exclude Robby. Now both of my cousins are married, and one has a baby while the other is expecting in January. And everybody still lives in Bakersfield.

It's absolutely pandemonium when the whole family gets together. Like tonight.

We always play cards (either poker or Oh Hell), and if the neighbors can't hear us, I'd be amazed. After two bottles of wine (between four people) and margaritas all around, it's amazing that anybody can still try to win (but we're Jennings, so we hold our liquor well).

Tonight was fun because my dad (who had the least to drink) managed to spill a full glass of wine (thankfully white) on me while he was dealing (he was promptly banned from dealing again). And we had a fun rimmer to play with while making the margaritas. Matt and I are always assigned to making the margaritas, which is fun. He rims, while I blend. It works very well, and nobody has ever complained about our concoctions. Matt and I also have the same taste in wine (the only two to like reds), so I know I will never be alone in killing a bottle when he's around. That's a useful thing.

All in all, a very well spent evening. As much as my immediate family may annoy me, my extended family makes everything better. Even if they are getting married and having kids (in no particular order).

Because voting leads to suffering...

... those of you that can finish that quote go ahead, but I feel like I might be attacked if I said that online. Anyways, I just saw this, and couldn't help laughing. It made me think of Little Buddha and all the fun that watching that movie entails. Maybe they'll make a sequel when the new Dali Lama is reincarnated (with China's approval, of course).

I don't know how to speak in a normal voice!

Or at least Jack Bauer doesn't. He's always either whispering or yelling. This week's quiz is from "24" (Chris, you were pretty close with guessing "Alias"). It seems to only be the first season, but I'm not really sure. One of you "24" experts out there will have to tell me. I figure you guys who haven't answered yet probably won't unless I remind you, and I'm not going to do that, so you can answer later whenever you think to check my blog.

1. You are rock solid - the person everyone knows they can trust in a crisis to make sound decisions. People have faith in you because you are fair and sensible, but your pragmatism never eclipses your idealistic nature. You believe in a better world for all. You're President Palmer.

2. Apologies and regrets aren't in your repertoire. You work hard, to the brink of obsession, and for you the ends always justify the means. You know that when you operate on instinct, your wits rarely let you down; maybe that's why you don't think the rules ever apply to you. You're Jack.

3. Not to put too fine a point on it, but you tend to be blunt, even rude sometimes. Maybe it's because you're a nerd at heart - a social outcast who resorts to sarcasm in order to relieve the resentment you have towards the entire world. Now put away that stun gun. You're Chloe.

4. No one blames you for being a bit of a mess, since fate has delt you a pretty chaotic hand, but you don't do yourself any favors, either. You're constantly shifting your life in dramatic ways, always running into trouble while searching for some elusive slice of happiness. You're Kim.

5. You play it real close to the vest, don't you? Few people know the real you, probably because you're a cautious person by nature, choosing your words and actions carefully. You prefer operating covertly, influencing things behind the scenes, whispering in the ears of those in power. You're Mike.

Becca - Jack, Chloe (3); Palmer, Kim, Mike (2)
Chris - Kim (3); Chloe (1)
Jessica - Chloe (4); Jack (0)
Will - Chloe (5); Palmer (0)

I'll probably be in SB next week, so I don't know when the next quiz will be.

Better late than never

It's been a while. Sorry.

1. If you were a Molotov Cocktail component, you'd be...
a) gasoline
b) bottle
c) rag
d) cork
e) igniter

2. If you were a time of day, you'd be...
a) morning
b) noon
c) evening
d) night
e) late night

3. If you were a breed of dog, you'd be
a) German shepherd
b) poodle
c) mastiff
d) mutt
e) foxhound

4. If you were an amendment to the Constitution, you'd be...
a) Freedom of Speech
b) Right to Bear Arms
c) Right to Avoid Self-Incrimination
d) Due Process and Equal Protection
e) No Unlawful Search and Seizure

5. If you were a kind of tape, you'd be...
a) duct tape
b) cassette tape
c) double-sided tape
d) caution tape
e) red tape

6. If you were a U2 song, you'd be...
a) "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
b) "Mysterious Ways"
c) "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of"
d) "I Will Follow"
e) "Beautiful Day"

7. If you were a famous plane crash victim, you'd be...
a) Will Rogers
b) Glenn Miller
c) Patsy Cline
d) Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.
e) Buddy Holly

8. If you were a classic spying technique, you'd be...
a) false flag operations
b) honeypot
c) black bag operations
d) dead drop
e) agent handling

9. If you were something you remove at airport security, you'd be a...
a) belt
b) shoes
c) laptop
d) pocket change
e) cell phone

10. If you were a conspiracy theory, you'd be....
a) the grassy knoll
b) Area 51
c) Elvis sightings
d) Apollo moon-landing hoax
e) Freemasons control the world

Same rules apply. Don't pick what you like the best, but what best describes you. You can pick more than one answer if you'd like. Comment the answers, and check back in a week or so and I'll post the results.

Hazy days of summer

So not only is Bakersfield getting all of the pollution from the entire central valley, but now we have to deal with bad air from the southern coast. Arvin has the worst pollution in the country, and it's only going to get worse. But at least we know that this pollution isn't caused by too many people driving big SUV's by themselves, but instead millions and millions of trees going bye bye.

For the past two weeks we have had a huge plume of smoke traveling across the coast mountains from the Los Olivos area to grace Bakersfield with it's presence. It has made for some really cool sunsets, but unfortunately, some very disgusting skies.

Remind me again why Bakersfield is one of the fastest growing cities in the US?

To a 10 year old I'm huge.

I went with my dad to a West High faculty BBQ last night, and was made to sit for an hour and a half while this guy talked non-stop. I know that in movies and shows there can be characters that just don't stop talking no matter what, but I didn't think that these people actually existed. Apparently they do. What's worse is that my dad new I was wanting to go, and he just kept listening. He now owes me, even if I did get margaritas and wine out of it.

Also yesterday I was waiting for teenager #2 to get her hair cut, and was sitting in the waiting area with a mother and her two daughters. I brought my DS for entertainment, and as I looked over, I noticed that the 6 year old had her DS with her. I probably should have been a little bit embarrassed about it, but wasn't. # 2 accused me of being like a little kid when she saw me with it for the first time. I said, "Yep."

Holy Night Soil, Batman!

Tonight was the beginning of season 3 of Weeds, so the three of us townies made a party of it (although no pot was involved) by creating a drinking game out of the show. Unfortunately, we didn't think much about the rules we were making, and only one ended up applying, but it applied a whole lot. The rule was every time they swear, you have to take a drink of the Happiness wine. Even when we dialed it down to only two words applying, we still got through the bottle rather quickly.

After the show, we were killing time, and decided to watch some of Meadowlands. For some reason, however, instead of watching the show, we got into a discussion about late 80's and early 90's stair placement in sitcoms. Chris commented that in all your family sitcoms (Full House, Family Matters, Boy Meets World, Blossom, Sister Sister) the stairs is placed directly behind the door on the left side (usually, although the last two are different) of the living room. There is no foyer, and the kitchen is directly through the door from the living room.

We discussed why this might be so (the composition of the shot, inability to pan, so you want them coming downstairs right by the door to answer it), and I think that Jessica and I won, in that there are lots of reasons for this, and they all come down to either money or ease (usually both). Chris should know better than to get into a "discussion" with two philosophy majors. Even if it's friendly, we don't aim to lose.

After that, we decided that we had thrown enough bull around, we might as well see how the masters do it, so Chris turned on a episode of Penn and Teller, which was all about colonics. It was very interesting, and somewhat disturbing (giant sized colon, anybody?). All in all, it was a great evening, made all the better by perhaps a little too wine, a little too quickly (darn Showtime and HBO allowed to use bad language!).

Quote of the evening - Penn or Teller: If it was called bull-night soil, you'd be able to see it on your TiVo.

Other quote of the evening - Chris: It's raping my memory! (He meant to say erasing).

You break it, you buy it!

I really can't believe that people treat Borders and Barnes and Noble like a library. I can sort of understand why there are cafes in there, since people go to study and everything. But the people who just go to sit in the chairs and read books the don't intend to buy baffle me. Especially when these people bend the covers back. This probably bugs me especially because I hate people in general that bend back covers, but even more when they don't own the books!

For each generation...

The results are right here!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired on March 10, 1997. This cross-genre series from Joss Whedon (my hero!) builds an elaborate mythology around its demon-hunting star and shows the real dangers of trying to make it through high school (and college).

1. People gravitate towards you, making you a born leader, whether it's because of your dedication, honesty, or naturally effervescent personality. Beneath the serene surface, however, lies an angst-ridden and haunted heart; as strong and confident as you are, you often manage to be hurt by the ones you love. You're Buffy!

2. You're the adorable prodigy, the one who things clearly before addressing a problem, no matter the size. Being so brainy has left you with some self-esteem issues, however, and you do your best to supress them, mostly by trying to be everyone's best friend. You're Willow!

3. Though you're a natural comedian, one with a quick wit and an everyman charm, you often have trouble making things happen for you. It's most likely your fear of success - and a small trace of bitterness - that keep you from achieving your goals. You're Xander!

4. Mysterious and brooding, you have a long memory to go with your complicated past. You are passionate, yet deeply conflicted, afraid of being around others to the point that you jealously guard your privacy, preferring to remain a loner who harbors a dark side. You're Angel!

5. You may be blunt and demanding, but if you don't ask for something, how on earth can you expect to get it? Fashionable and self-important, your opinions are more valuable than everyone's else's, especially because you're always right and they're always wrong. So let them know it. You're Cordelia!

Becca: Buffy and Xander (5); Willow (1)
Carly: Angel (4); Xander (0)
Chris: Willow, Xander, Cordelia (3); Buffy (0)
Jessica: Willow (5); Angel (0)
Tim: Buffy, Willow (3); Angel, Cordelia (1)

The stuff that draems are made of.

I don't often (that I can remember, at least) have the normal sort of dreams that "everybody" has. That I can remember, I've never dreamed that I was naked at school. Nor have I had the flying dream. I can't think of any other "standard dreams," but I'm pretty sure I don't have them. I've often wondered why I haven't, in particular the flying dream. I think it would be amazing to be able to fly (that and being insubstantial at will are my dream superpowers), so it's kind of strange that I wouldn't dream about it. I'm sure there's some psychological reason for it.

I do have lots of epic fantasy dreams, though. And lots of dreams involving sports. I'm sure there are psychological reasons for those, too.

"Who's got you?"

My love of Superman is well known, I think. If it isn't, I'm stating yet again that I love the Superman mythos. Most people have become anti-Superman. They think that things are too easy for him. He's too powerful, and doesn't even have to try to fight crime. These are the people that love Batman because, "he's just a regular guy!" Yes, he's a regular guy with billions of dollars to burn on toys. Puleez.

Anyways, for this month's piece of entertainment, I've chosen Smallville. When this show first came out, I was a bit hesitant to watch it for a couple reasons. First, it was a WB show, which isn't exactly known for its quality. Also, I like the Superman story the way it is, so I wasn't sure I would like this new imagining of it.

While I don't think Smallville will ever win any sort of awards, there are some very good parts of the show. First of all, after the first season they decide to get rid of the whole "nerd" image. It didn't really work with Tom Welling playing Clark. Unfortunately, individual plots are rather lame and contrived in the first season, but the show hits its stride for season two, which continues (with a few interruptions), especially into season four, with the introduction of Lois Lane.

But the real star of the show is Michael Rosenbaum, who plays Lex Luther. The characterization and portrayal of Lex in the show is up there with Snape, I think. This is especially true of season 2-4.

The show also isn't afraid to make little nods to previous endeavors. Martha Kent is played by Annette O'Toole, who play Lana Lane in Superman II. They also had Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder guest star in a couple episodes. The first one with those two is my favorite, I think.

Now if they would just kill off Lana, I would like the show even more.

Completely Random Note: Sidesaddle must be the dumbest invention ever made by man. (I'm watching Tombstone).

Weekend at Bernie's

I've been neglecting, I admit it. I'd like to say that it's been because I'm crazy busy, but really, I don't know why I haven't posted lately. I have been playing a lot of Guild Wars, kind of a last hurrah with some friends before life starts again in the fall.

There was a wedding a couple weeks ago, which was rockin', as much as possible, at least. Good music was played (contrary to Jessica and Lauren's wishes), and I think a good time was had by all. Next up is Natalie's, which shall be another big party, this time on the beach.

I recently bought a Nintendo DS, which I've been thinking about getting for a while. It's a surprising little system! Not only can you play DS games, but also Gameboy Advance games, which means that I can get some old school SNES games (like Zelda and FFVI), plus all the new, touch screen games of the DS (like FFIII). Plus, if I ever cared to, I can play against other people through Wi-Fi hot spots. And it has Tetris and Sudoku games. What more could I ask for?

My dad and I are headed out to Bass Lake for tomorrow and Wednesday. The plan was to beat the heat, but if things are the way they were today, there won't be any heat here to beat. But maybe that will make the mountains even colder! We'll see.

Roll credits!

I dig the new trend of not showing people during the opening credits of a television show. Of course, it may not be new, but it's new to the shows that I watch. I first experienced this on Alias, but only for the first season or so (and since I saw that first season in the span of about two days and generally skipped them anyways, I didn't pay too much attention). After season 1, the credits changed to a montage of different alias, which was pretty danged cool, don't get me wrong, but I liked the black screen with the letters flashing.

My two favorite current credit roles are probably The 4400 and Weeds. Both show the names of actors, but don't show their faces, or shots of them from the show, like most other television shows do. The 4400 shows a series of scenes that would have happened when people disappeared mysteriously over the years (along with a perfect theme song), and Weeds shows the monotony of suburbia (also with a perfect theme song). These credits set the tone for their songs much better than the other option, in my opinion.

Another one that does this is Saving Grace, but it's not a good. This could be because I've only seen two episodes (it's a new TNT show), but the images that the credits show aren't as appropriate, in my opinion. I still like it, but it's not quite as well done as the other two shows.

I'm sure there are some other shows out there that use this particular method of opening credits, but I don't watch them (I really don't watch all that much television).

You threw a knife at my head!

Sorry for the lateness. Busy weekend.

Comment your answers, and in about a week I'll put up all the results. And if you don't answer, I'll just have to answer for you, and you won't be able to complain about who you are.

Oh, and I'm not going to tell you which show I've picked until after you've answered.

Note: When answering the questions, don't pick your favorite of the possible answers, pick what best suits you. And if there's two that are equally true, you can pick more than one answer for each question. Just don't do it often, because it makes work for me. Also, if you don't know all of the options, just go with your gut. It's not necessary to research the answers.

1. If you were a former teen pop star, you'd be...
a) Tiffany
b) Alanis Morissette
c) Donnie Wahlberg
d) Isaac Hanson
e) Brandy

2. If you were a hotel, you'd be a...
a) bed & breakfast
b) boutique hotel
c) single room
d) five-star resort
e) youth hostel

3. If you were a puzzle, you'd be...
a) crossword
b) jigsaw
c) Sukoku
d) Jumble
e) maze

4. If you were a vowel, you'd be...
a) A
b) E
c) I
d) O
e) U

5. If you were a Judy Blume book, you'd be...
a) Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
b) Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing
c) Superfudge
d) Otherwise Known As Shelia the Great
e) Forever

6. If you were a shade of red, you'd be...
a) crimson
b) magenta
c) mauve
d) scarlet
e) cardinal

7. If you were a track and field event, you'd be...
a) high jump
b) shot put
c) javelin
d) relay
e) hurdle

8. If you were a phobia, you'd be...
a) acrophobia (heights)
b) agoraphobia (public places)
c) coulrophobia (clowns)
d) arachnophobia (spiders)
e) claustrophobia (small spaces)

9. If you were something from which to drink, you'd be...
a) thermos
b) chalice
c) coffee mug
d) water bottle
e) wine glass

10. If you were a section of the newspaper, you'd be...
a) front page
b) science/ technology
c) travel
d) sports
e) letters to the editor

Wordplay

There's so much that is amazing in HP that it's hard to hit all of the supa-cool things, but I've always admired the naming conventions of JK. In 5 out of 7 books, the big mystery of the book revolves around the book title, and even in the two where the meaning of the title is revealed early in the book, in on there are still mysteries that involve the object in the title. And the one that who's title doesn't involve mystery is my favorite book, so I don't really care. In fact, it might be the lack of driving mystery that helps it to be my favorite.

Usually in the books, Rowling takes something that we're familiar with and can understand and make guesses. This last one was different for me, though. I couldn't quite grasp the "deathly" part of the title because we don't really use that word much on this side of the pond (I'm not really sure if they do on the other side, honestly). Nor, really, do we use the word "hallow."

While I now understand the use of "hallow," I'm still not sure about "deathly." Could somebody please explain it to me? (In email, not here, since this is a spoiler-free zone). In fact, more to come later on how much I hate spoilers.

Oh those summer nights

I love summer nights. The first thing I love about them is that they happen so late. As a kid I loved being able to play outside until 8:00, and even today I love that I can be outside to late. Plus, there's something about dusk that appeals to me. While the essentially look the same as sunrises, sunsets are just better to me. Perhaps that is because they don't occur at a time that all sane people are asleep. I do have plenty of experience with sunrises, however, since when I worked at Bolthouse I would usually have to drive into them. And I much prefer sunsets.

Usually in Bakersfield, our sunsets are huge things. They're almost always colorful, thanks to all the crap in the atmosphere. When I was up in Spokane, they would have half the color that we have in Bakersfield and think it was an amazing sunset. I had to disagree. Most evenings, there is color all across the horizon, from the horizon line to about 60 degrees above it. But tonight was different.

I don't know if it was because I was out at a later time (I don't think so), or because the rain wiped away most of the pollution, but tonight's sunset was the way that I like them. Instead of just oranges and reds, there were purples and blues, plus orange. The clouds made for different colors, and patterns in the part of the sky where there were no colors. Plus, since there wasn't as much pollution to diffract all the light. It was more concentrated. Instead of being spread all across the horizon, there was a concentration of orange, but most of it was darker. It felt more like dusk.

Of course, I'm not doing a good job of describing it, but it was pretty cool. It was a much better end to the day than I started, since I had to call a plumber (who then had to rip out a part of the downstairs ceiling) and later my car wouldn't start. At least the week can't get much worse (I really hope).

I'm being arrested for being a plumber.

I was told recently that the picture in my profile was of Zombie Becca, so I've decided to change it. Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of myself, so I had to search for this one. It's either at Zion or Yellowstone (Zion I think), and there's a baby waterfall behind me, which you can't see at blogger's poor size and resolution. Oh well.

I found my first season of GG (someone (I'm not saying who) had stolen it and decided to not tell me), and it's good to know I didn't just misplace it.

Now I must go because we have an exploded (hopefully I'm just exaggerating) pipe someplace upstairs and the plumber is here.

PS If you know what movie the title is from, you need to watch better movies.

Fin

Wow. Just.... wow.

Harry Potter must not go to Hogwarts.

The end is here. Oh sure, we have two more movies coming, probably over the next four years, but the surprise and suspense will soon be over. The anxious anticipating of millions of people around the world will never quite be like this again. Sure, they'll all look forward to the movies, and the, dare I say, magic, will be gone. And I will surely miss it.

On a worldwide scale, I don't think there has been anything that even resembles Harry potter in terms of literature (or really, anything). Sure, there have been books that have exploded, but because of the times, the shrinking of the world, and honestly, movie technology, Harry Potter far exceeds them in sheer awesomeness. Magazines and people keep asking, "What will be the next Harry Potter?", and I'm sure many new series will be hailed as it over the next years, but it's a lie. There will never be another Harry Potter.

Personally, I've read a lot of books, especially fantasy, and particularly serial fantasy. And while I have been excited for each new release in a series (more excited for some than others), never has the whole world been excited with me. And while a few friends have enjoyed the same books that I have (yay them!), never have almost every one of my friends been waiting for that release date along with me.

It really pissed me off in the early days of HP when people would dismiss HP because it's children's literature. Unfortunately a lot of people probably still think this. These are the same people that dismiss The Chronicles of Narnia as children's literature. They are children's books, but they are also so much more. I challenge anybody to find a more complex, ambigious, love/hatable, and discussable character anywhere than Snape. (Irina Derevko in "Alias" comes close). He alone takes the series out of the "dismissable" genre of children's books into something entirely different (I say "dismissable" because some of my favorite books are considered children's literature and I don't dismiss it at all). But if you think that he is the only thing adult about the series, then I get to punch you.

I don't know if Rowling purposely matured the style of the books as Harry matures (probably not), but that's what has happened. The entire series is seen through Harry's (admitedly questionable) eyesight, and as he matures, so does how he (and we) see his world. The first book is much like The Hobbit in that it's all about goofiness, a new magical world, interesting people, and solving puzzles. The second book is much of the same, although Rowling is preparing us for the dark turn that will happen in the next book with a handful of characters almost dying.

One the second book ends, however, the real series begins. For the first time (at least for me) we feel as if Harry is actually in danger. There's a sense of foreboding in the book that hasn't been present in the first two, and it's just plain dark. This is not the style of your typical children's book. Then the fourth book comes along which draws and shapes the anticipation of something bad happening until it actually does.

The fifth book is my favorite book because there's a dark comedy hiding underneath it's children's exterior. Most people just see the dark, with Harry whining and complaining his way through most of the book, but Rowling decides to make it a dark comedy by exaggerating Umbridges hatability and pitting her against Fred and George. This is no longer children's literature, but literature which prominately features children in it.

The sixth book is no longer really about children, as Harry has matured beyond his years, and Ron and Hermionie are almost ignored, or only put in for comic effect. The story is really about Harry, Snape (as the Half Blood Prince and himself), and Dumbledore, with a bit of Tom Riddle thrown in for flavoring. Sure, there's childish drama about snogging, jealousy, and other run of the mill teenage problems, but that's not the heart of the book, it's just thrown in because it's funny.

All this to say that I'm going to miss waiting for the next Harry Potter book to come out, and I'm going to miss guessing how the characters are going to react. I know I'll be re-reading these books for years to come, and probably talking about them to whomever will listen, but the mystery, the potential, the fear of the next bad thing to happen to Harry will be gone. Instead, it will just take its rightful place next to the Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia, and the Belgariad. And actually, as much as it pains me to say it, depending on this last book, it might surpass those. We'll see tomorrow.

He's snarkastic

Does anybody out there have my first season of Gilmore Girls? I seem to be missing it.

On an unrelated note, I love Finding Neverland. One of my favorite recent movies, right alongside Eternal Sunshine.

Mister F

Well, it's been a bit delayed due to a visit down to LA, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (book and movie), Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and 9 glorious hours of goblin and orc slaying, but here are the latest results for the online quizzes!

As I hoped you guess from the title, I finally choose "Arrested Development" as the subject of the quiz.

"This series takes on the interpersonal relationships and dynamics surrounding the always dysfunctional Bluths following the arrest of the family patriarch.

Michael: Traditional and idealistic, you're the kind of person who gets more out of doing things for others rather than yourself. Though you're a natural leader and take pride in being a self-starter, you also have a bit of an edge, no doubt from putting up with your family so long.

Gob: You're a loose cannon - a spoiled and demented con artist whose idea of a good time often crosses the line from playfulness into bullying. Your own best audience, you have a gift for standing out in the crowd, thought it might be because your act is so cheesy.

Buster: Sheltered and repressed, you're a simpleminded wallflower, a creature of habit who's constitutionally averse to change and would rather hide in his room. So what if you're out of touch? Maybe if more people never left the house, the world would be a less frightening place.

Lindsay: You're the definition of a hopeless romantic, on who, considering how fashionable you are, is as bad at getting a date as you are at keeping one. Constantly getting in your own way, you end up sabotaging yourself at every turn, though you always look good doing it.

Tobias: Quirky, compulsive, and more than a little conflicted, you have a natural talent for self-deception. Pretentious and performance-oriented, you think you have it all figured out, though your endless and tiresome journey of self-discovery may yet turn up the real you in the end.

Lucille: You're a cruel one - a haughty, ruthless sort who takes pleasure in making others uncomfortable. Acerbic and blindsiding, you demand that people indulge your most delusional requests. You lack a single nurturing bone in your body. To say you're old-fashioned is to insult the elderly.

Becca - Michael, Buster (3); Lindsay (0)
Carly - Lindsay (4); Michael, Lucille (0)
Chris - Tobias (4); Michael, Lindsay (0)
Jessica - Lindsay, Tobias (3); Gob (0)
Robert - Michael, Buster (3); Gob (0)

This was the first time that everybody had a character with zero answers. Also, for an alternative description of these characters, check this out. (For those of you who haven't seen it already).

We didn't need voices; we had faces.

One of the things I love about watching older movies is that I can compare today's society with yesterday's societies. This can occasionally be done by creating a period piece, like the recent Pride and Prejudice, or biopics, but I really enjoy watching an old comedy or drama and comparing how different movies are today.

In particular, lately I've seen two "battle of the sexes" comedies from different eras, each made by the famous match-up of their respective decades. "Pat and Mike" is from 1952 and is a Tracy/Hepburn movie. "Lover Come Back" is from 1961 and is a Hudson/Day movie. I'm not going to go into specifics of how each movie differs from the other and everything, but people often wonder why I like old movies so much, and this is one of the main reasons, and I think it's most obvious in romantic comedyish movies.

Of course, it's also fun to watch movies that feature families and see how different that life is from now (recent example: "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), but a lot of times, movie families aren't typical, because if they were, they wouldn't be real interesting.

I think you can in Europe.

There's a lot of things I like about languages. In general, the fascinate me. I especially like seeing how language changes and evolves over the centuries (I actually enjoyed HOTEL in Adams' class freshman year). But sometimes I just don't understand it, or rather, I don't understand the relationships between some compound words.

I was thinking the other night of the words inflate and deflate. Now, the root of these is flate (but we don't have the word in the English language, I check Wiktionary). Of course, it's a Latin root (meaning to breathe or blow), and the prefixes in- and de- have been added to the root, in- meaning into, and de- meaning to reversal or undoing. But it strikes me that these prefixes aren't opposites, and therefore the word deflate shouldn't be the antonym to inflate. Seems like exflate or unflate would better choices, or even deinflate if we're going to be technical.

But of course languages aren't technical, and this is doubly true of English (I blame the French, damn Normans). We don't normally have double prefix words, even though they would make sense. There are some, like antidisestablish, deconstruct (reconstruct, too), and some others that I can't think of right now, but generally if we want to show the opposite of some Latin derived word, we just switch prefixes, which really, we shouldn't do.

Don't even get my started on why we use certain Latin roots with prefixes, but not without. Like flate, and whelm (actually, I just looked and whelm is an English word, meaning to cover with water. And somehow from that we got our current usage of under- and overwhelm).

The Searchers

I've never been a big fan of westerns. I like the idea of westerns, and have loved to see it's metamorphosis into the space western, but the westerns that were made around the 1950s, well I've just never had a big appreciate for them.

Of course, there are exceptions, like "High Noon" and "The Magnificent Seven," but if we're talking about the traditional Cowboys vs. Indians western, I'll pass. I must admit that I haven't seen some of the big name westerns like "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" and "Shane," but in general I don't see the point of a movie where your homestead or outpost gets attacked by Indians, so you must go out and hunt them down and kill them for vengeance. It just seems like it would get old. All the ones with that plot line that I've seen have no character development (or very little if you're being generous), and very little in the way of interesting conversation. I just don't see the point in watching a movie if those things are lacking.

A great surprise was "The Searchers," which has exactly the plot outline above (homestead gets attacked, everybody is killed except the youngest daughter, so they go on a endless quest to rescue her), but does it amidst one of the most beautifully filmed movies I have ever seen. What puts this movie over the top, however, is that the hero is actually interesting. John Wayne plays a guy that I would despise normally, but you still find yourself rooting for him, and in the end when he redeems himself, you're glad to see it, even though you know he hasn't changed, not really.

There's a reason John Ford is the king of the western, and I think "The Searchers" is it. I love Ford for doing "The Quiet Man," but I think I respect him even more now that I've seen "The Searchers" (oh, and this little film called "The Grapes of Wrath," too).

The circle is now complete

I used to pretend and tell myself that I wasn't a complete nerd. There were a couple of nerdy activities of which I didn't take part. Reading comics and playing D&D were two examples of these. Now, granted, these are more activities from the 70's and 80's than today, but are still fairly prevalent in nerd culture today. (Although growing up I thought comics were the realm of the "dumb idiots" since there were very few words and large pictures. Television and movies have since told me otherwise).

But I've fallen into the swirling vortex that is DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Vertigo, and dozens of other comic publisher - I've gotten trapped by the plastic covers and mesmerized the by glossy covers.

I thought that I could avoid this pitfall by sticking with graphic novels. After all, those aren't really comic books; they're not released in serial, and they have a beginning and an end, unlike most superhero comics. Even if I couldn't stay away from comics, I could at least avoid recent comics, and concentrate instead on older ones that have been compiled into books. That way I could feel superior by calling them "graphic novels," and more importantly, I wouldn't be stuck waiting a month for my next one to continue the story.

But Joss Whedon had to go and screw things up, the jerk! He had to start writing a Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic that continues from where the show left off. The comics are even labeled "Season 8, # 1" instead of as issues, which even gives hope for seasons 9 and so forth. You might be thinking that these can't be good, but Joss has done a lot of comic writing previously, and the comics portray the tone of the television show very well.

I know this because I now have all four, and am anxiously waiting for the next one to come out in August. Not only that, but I've discovered that Serenity also has a comic series, and I'm going to have to buy that now. I guess I'll just have to embrace my nerdiness from now on, instead of kidding myself.

Quiz Show

It's that time again! Time for another fun quiz!

Comment your answers, and in about a week I'll put up all the results. And if you don't answer, I'll just have to answer for you, and you won't be able to complain about who you are.

Oh, and I'm not going to tell you which show I've picked until after you've answered.

Note: When answering the questions, don't pick your favorite of the possible answers, pick what best suits you. And if there's two that are equally true, you can pick more than one answer for each question. Just don't do it often, because it makes work for me. Also, if you don't know all of the options, just go with your gut. It's not necessary to research the answers.

1. If you were a hit by a one-hit wonder, you'd be...
a) "Mickey"
b) "Take on Me"
c) "Who Let the Dogs Out"
d) "Bette Davis Eyes"
e) "Sister Christian"
f) "99 Luftballons"

2. If you were a card game, you'd be...
a) bridge
b) war
c) solitaire
d) go fish
e) hearts
f) euchre

3. If you were a brand of soap, you'd be...
a) Ivory
b) Dial Antibacterial
c) Calgon
d) Lifebouy
e) Irish Spring
f) Neutrogena

4. If you were a famous family, you'd be...
a) the Kennedys
b) the Jacksons
c) the Rockefellers
d) the Vanderbilts
e) the Osbournes
f) the Partridge Family

5. If you were a magic trick, you'd be...
a) "Pick a card, any card."
b) saw the assistant in half
c) rabbit out of a hat
d) vanishing act
e) escaping from chains
f) never-ending scarf from sleeve

6. if you were a vegetable, you'd be....
a) eggplant
b) spinach
c) clerey
d) iceberg lettuce
e) radish
f) cauliflower

7. If you were a Robin Williams movie, you'd be...
a) Club Paradise
b) Mrs. Doubtfire
c) Hook
d) Jumanji
e) Deconstructing Harry
f) The World According to Garp

8. If you were a football penalty, you'd be...
a) false start
b) pass interference
c) delay of game
d) holding
e) roughing the kicker
f) clipping

9. If you were a type of house, you'd be...
a) ranch
b) Colonial
c) Victorian
d) Tudor
e) split-level
f) modern

10. If you were a cheese, you'd be...
a) American
b) Swiss
c) sharp cheddar
d) Brie
e) Monterey Jack
f) Velveeta

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Wow, I almost didn't realize that it was time for a new show. Thankfully, Chris updated his site with his music of the month (good band, check them out), which reminded me.

I decided to go back to a solid favorite for a couple of reasons. The first is that none of my friends have ever really watched Buffy, and it's a fairly important series. Not just important, but also good. It artfully combines horror, science fiction, sarcasm, and even a little bit of drama in a way that hasn't been done, well, ever. The second is that Jessica told me about this, which is very exciting, and I have to go to it.

There are a lot of reasons that Buffy is important, even beyond the fact that it's great television. Joss Whedon has gone on to do more great things (can anyone say "Firefly?"), a large number of the writers have gone on to either create or write for other great shows. Another huge thing Buffy brought us was the idea of a self-contained season, meaning that each season has a plot and conclusion, and while they all tie together, each one can exist on their own.

But Buffy also paved the way for shows like Alias and Veronica Mars (and a handful of other shows that I don't watch), in that Buffy had a strong central female character. This really hadn't been done before Buffy. It also showed that supernatural and occult ideas and concepts wouldn't flop on television, and we've since had far too many shows go from there for me to list.

I own Seasons 1, 3, 6, and 7, which are the four best and most important seasons in the series. Four and Five I try to pretend don't exist. Here's a breakdown of each season (with a few spoilers, so beware).

Season 1: There's a new slayer in town, and her name is.... Buffy? While the name sounds like she should be a cheerleader, Buffy soon tells the demons of Sunnydale that there's a new sheriff in town. Has one of the best evil demons of the show, The Master (even if the name wasn't original, he's still pretty cool).

Season 2: Lame because it focuses on the Buffy-Angel romance, which I never really cared for. Angel wasn't my favorite character, and I can't say I was disappointed when he died (great ending for the season, though).

Season 3: Has the introduction of a new slayer (Faith) for Buffy to compete with. Also has The Mayor, who's the big bad for the season, and is a great character. Buffy manages to graduate from high school, and promptly blows the place up. Go her.

Season 4: Buffy goes to college and meets Riley (one of the few good things in the season - the actor, not the character). There's a new team trying to play the game, but Buffy soon shows them who's boss.

Season 5: Buffy has a new little sister, and she's a teenager? Um, okay. We'll just try to forget that this one exists as Buffy has to battle a goddess who, in her free time, is a male hospital intern. Riiiight.

Season 6: A return to form for the Scooby-team. Buffy is brought back to life by some bad-ass magic, and Willow turns evil. Also has the best trio of villains ever, who are complete nerds, and allow Joss to input all the geek-pop culture references he could want. (The van that they use as a mobile headquarter plays the Imperial March as it's horn). Of course, one of the main characters bites the bullet, and Willow goes mental and fillets a guy. Which is pretty sweet.

Season 7: The final season, and the show goes out with a bang. The Watchers (stupid British pricks) are blown up (woohoo!) and Buffy has to bring all sorts of would-be slayers under her wing in Sunnydale. Cue Caleb (Nathan Fillion, my hero), "The Preacher," who takes his cue from Robert Mitchum in "The Night of the Hunter" and is incredibly creepy, and it's a quality season. One of the best, in fact.