Oh, By the Way...

Happy Halloween! I am dressed today as a respectable member of society, but I don't think it's fooling anybody...

Look at the Klingons

Well, OK, I watched last night's Enterprise episode, in which Archer and co. come to the aid of some deuterium miners who are being raided by a gang of marauding Klingons, and I hate to say it, but I think we've gone right back to the status quo of the first season, in which the episode starts, some not-terribly interesting stuff happens to people I don't have much of a reason to care about, the episode ends, and I'm left with the vague lingering feeling that I've sort of wasted the last hour of my life. I honestly can't think of a single comment to make on this episode, positive or negative, except to say that I did kind of like the costumes on the Klingons. Y'know, they looked quite appropriately scuzzy and disreputable.

Well, no, that's not quite true. I can think of one other thing to say about the episode, which is that it left me with a really strong desire to go and watch some Farscape. Which, since I still hadn't finished with the latest batch of episodes on DVD, I did. In fact, I watched the whole of the three-parter "Look at the Princess." And while that episode doesn't even come close to making my top-10 list, it did give me exactly what I was wanting: a complex plot with lots of interesting twists, character development, something for all of the regular characters to do, humor, sharp dialog, a dollop of angst, scenes that offer subtle contributions toward a larger story arc, at least one exciting action sequence, and a lot of stuff that works towards establishing the larger political context of the universe in which the characters exist. And, that, my friends would be my personal wish list for Enterprise.

Suddenly, I Find Myself Catching The Halloween Spirit

So, I've just started reading Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, which is doubtless one of those books that I really should have read ages ago, but somehow never got around to. And a more utterly perfect Halloween read it's hard to imagine. There's just something about Bradbury's writing style that, all by itself, is capable of sending lovely little shivery feelings down your arms and the back of your neck. Man, but that guy can write.

Just take a look at the prologue:

First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys. Not that all months aren't rare. But there be bad and good, as the pirates say. Take September, a bad month: school begins. Consider August, a good month: school hasn't begun yet. July, well, July's really fine: there's no chance in the world for school. June, no doubting it, June's best of all, for the school doors spring wide and September's a billion years away.

But you take October, now. School's been on a month and you're riding easier in the reins, jogging along. You got time to think of the garbage you'll dump on old man Prickett's porch, or the hairy-ape costume you'll wear to the YMCA the last night of the month. And if it's around October twentieth and everything smoky-smelling and the sky orange and ash gray at twilight, it seems Halloween will never come in a fall of broomsticks and a soft flap of bedsheets around corners.

But one strange wild dark long year, Halloween came early.

One year Halloween came on October 24, three hours after midnight.

At that time, James Nightshade of 97 Oak Street was thirteen years, eleven months, twenty-three days old. Next door, William Halloway was thirteen years, eleven months and twenty-four days old. Both touched toward fourteen; it almost trembled in their hands.

And that was the October week when they grew up overnight, and were never so young any more...

And if that doesn't make you want to read the book, nothing will.

Here's something this book's got me wondering about, though: What on Earth is it that makes carnivals seem so creepy? When you actually go to them, there's nothing remotely scary about the things at all. Even the haunted house, if there is one, is usually pretty lame. But in books and movies, there's something about a carnival that can just totally make your flesh crawl and all the hairs on your neck stand up. Why is that, do you think?

This Is Weird

Every time I look at a blogger-powered page, a box pops up asking me for a password (which, fortunately, it doesn't actually seem to need). What's up with that?

Also, where have my comments gone?

Has the entire web just gone nuts on me? Am I supposed to go nuts, too, and nobody sent me the memo? I'm so confused...

Ladies and Gentlement, I Give You... Jack Frost

When I went out this morning, my car windows were all frosted up. This tells me two things: 1. Winter really is just around the corner. And 2. I definitely am having to get up way too early this week.

The State of My Buffy-Viewing Report

Well, OK, as mentioned before, I've now seen through about half of season 4 of Buffy (albeit with gaps), and I've seen random scattered epsiodes of season 6, including the finale. And I figured, given all that, I really might as well jump in and start watching the current season 7 episodes. After all, if I wait until I'm all caught up, it's likely to be years. And I don't think I could handle the withdrawl symptoms. So I watched the rerun that was on tonight. (I actually intended to start with last week's episode, but my VCR screwed up. Stupid machine.) Anyway, I didn't have any problem with it at all; the necessary continuity points all either involved things that I had seen or things that I've just sort of resigned myself to accepting on faith until I do eventually get to see the relevant episodes (like the origin of Dawn, which I am confident that one day I will actually understand). So, as it happens, I really only have one question about the progression of the show during the episodes I've missed: Just when, exactly, did Xander become an adult? Not that I'm complaining. It looks good on him. (Though not, admittedly, as good as that duster looks on Giles. (OK, there, my shameful secret is out: I'm a complete sucker for a man in a duster. Happy?))

Oh, and I have absolutely no idea what that obvious new Big Bad is that appears at the end of the epsiode, but I like it. More, please!

I'm Really Bored

Fortunately, the internet has the answer for everything.

Singin' in the Rain

It was rainy yesterday, so I didn't get the chance to get up on the roof and paint on the waterproof coating. I have to admit, part of me is actually a little relieved. It's undoubtedly going to be a really big job, and I'm just not looking forward to doing it.

So, instead, I had fun playing around with the new computer. Believe it or not, my old one didn't even have a CD burner, so I'd never before experienced the joy of creating my own CDs. Since it was high time I rectified that, I spent a big chunk of yesterday going through my music collection and putting together a compilation of science fiction-themed songs. (It will probably surprise no one who knows me to learn that I could have quite easily put together a second CD on that theme, as well, possibly without even having to dip into the soundtracks.) I have to say, I was really quite pleased with the results. Making CDs is fun!

And, amazingly enough, far from being yet another time-waster, embarking on this particular project actually resulted in me getting a hell of a lot of stuff done around the house. Because, before I commited all this stuff irrevocably to disc, I had to preview all 80 minutes of it to make sure it flowed nicely. And then afterwards I had to play the whole thing again to make sure it came out OK. And I needed something to do while I was listening to the music... So now my computer room is no longer full of boxes and miscellaneous loose junk; instead there's just one big pile of boxes and miscellaneous loose junk in the middle of the room, which is a big improvement, believe me. Also, you can now see some portion of the surface area of my kitchen table under the piles of paper. And there's a new water-flow valve in my toilet, a feat of plumbing which I'm actually a tiny bit proud of.

The other unforseen benefit is that I discovered the secret file on Weird Al Yankovic's Running with Scissors. It's a little "documentary" video that features Al giving interviews and visiting his parents. I had no idea it was even on there. Sneaky guy, that Al!

It also got me thinking about music and science fiction, and inspired me to create the following list:

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A GEEK WHEN... (MUSICAL VERSION)

Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Pt. 2" immediately makes you think of Doctor Who, not sporting events.

You hear The Kinks doing "Lola" on the radio and start singing along: "I met him in a swamp down on Degobah..."

You have been known to critique the scientific accuracy in songs. (I mean, I still can't quite figure out just what the planetary disaster in Peter Schilling's otherwise excellent "The Noah Plan" is meant to be, becaase the description of it just doesn't make any sense.)

You have checked the accuracy of the astronomical figures given in Monty Python's "Galaxy Song" (as seen in The Meaning of Life).

You know all the words to "Star Trekkin'" and are perfectly happy to listen to it three times in a row.

You think an album full of metal songs based on the plots of science fiction movies is a really cool idea.

You create a CD compilation of science-fiction based songs...

...And then you make up a "you know you're a geek when..." list based on the experience.

Spaceward Ho!

Let's talk about Firefly, since I've been largely ignoring it here in favor of other SF shows, and it really deserves better. I am definitely liking this show. I like the characters, I like the smart-assed sense of humor, and, as I believe I've mentioned before, I like the western-in-space feel of the whole thing, too.

Last week's episode, in which Jayne, improbably, discovers he is honored as a folk hero in some "crappy little town" where he once pulled a robbery, was especially good. It was wondefully funny, it raised some interesting issues about ethics and human nature without succumbing to the temptation to preach or moralize about them, and it did an excellent job of humanizing Jayne without ever turning him into less that the complete bastard he really is. Good stuff.

Though this week's episode, while still entertaining, wan't quite up to the same level. It starts with Malcolm lying alone in the ship, bleeding, and then proceeds to flash back and forth, without much in the way of transition, between that point in time, the events leading up to it, and Mal's first meetings with the various members of his crew. This kind of non-linear storytelling can be made to work well -- Reservoir Dogs leaps immediately to mind as an example -- but it's difficult, and I don't think it's completely succeessful in this case. Not only is it a bit confusing, but it does leave one wondering exactly what the point was in structuring the story that way. Though I have a strong suspicion as to what the reason might be... From what I've heard, Joss Whedon wrote and shot a two-hour premiere episode which was intended to introduce all the characters and explain how they got together, and then Fox apparently decided they didn't want to start the show off with a two-hour episode and never aired it (though supposedly they will eventually). And it seems to me that someone -- presumably Whedon -- is extremely concerned over the fact that we were never properly introduced to these people and is trying hard to make up for the fact. So we've got the new opening, which introduces each of the characters specifically, instead of just describing the setting (and which, in my humble opinion, isn't nearly as good as the original version). And we've got episodes like this, which try to explain what these people are doing together via flashbacks. But personally, I don't think it's really necessary. I think we've already got a pretty good handle on who these people are, and even if there's a lot of backstory that we don't know about, it hasn't resulted in any serious confusion, at least in this viewer's mind. I say, Relax, Joss! It ain't broke, and there's no need to fix it!

Then again, what do I know? I definitely seem to be out of the mainstream American viewing audience, or at least out of what the networks perceive to be the mainstream American viewing audience. I've heard rumors that Firefly may be facing cancellation in the pathetically near future, which, all things considered, really shouldn't surprise me. I like it, so of course it's likely to be cancelled.

Sorry. Let my cynical side take over there for a minute. Anyway, bottom line, it's a fun show. If you haven't yet, I'd definitely suggest checking it out before it gets axed like everything else good on TV.

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OK, I'm Ready for Winter Now!

Yes, that's right, I've finally packed up all the shorts I didn't wear over the summer and unpacked all the sweaters I won't wear over the winter. I feel such a sense of accomplishment.

The Friday Five Reminds Me That Halloween Is Just Around the Bend

1. What is your favorite scary movie? You know, I'm finding that surprisingly hard to answer, possibly because I don't mentally categorize "scary movies" as being different from any other sort of movie, and if I like a scary movie it's probably for reasons other than its sheer fright value. But, let's see... The Sixth Sense is wonderfully creepy, and a very good movie on a number of levels. And I was amazed by how much I liked that old Halloween standby, Scream, when I finally got around to seeing it. I'd maybe nominate Alien, too, but honestly I liked the second movie a lot better, and that was less of a traditional kind of horror story, I think.

2. What is your favorite Halloween treat? Anything chocolate makes me happy.

3. Do you dress up for Halloween? If so, describe your best Halloween costume. I haven't for years and years. Not since I was a teenager. I think the last time I dressed up for Halloween was in junior high. I was Mr. Spock.

4. Do you enjoy going to haunted houses or other spooky events? Nah, I'm afraid Halloween is generally pretty much a non-celebrated holiday for me.

5. Will you dress up for Halloween this year? Only if, for some strange reason, my friends suddenly decided to exert massive amounts of peer pressure on me to do so. Then maybe I'd put on a bathrobe and say I was dressed as Arthur Dent.

Minor Renovations

OK, I've decided to do a bit of clean-up on my Blogger template page. I've been using the links section over on the left there to link to various blogs I've found that looked interesting and that I wanted to revisit periodically, but, well, I don't know about anybody else, but I've started to notice that there are a number of them that I pretty much never click on. So I figured I might as well just remove the links to things that turned out not to interest me as much as I thought, or that interest me in theory but that I never seem to look at anyway, or that haven't been updated in a zillion years. (I've made exception for the small block of friends-and-family's blogs at the top there, even though some of those haven't been updated in a zillion years, either. (Yes, little Sis, I am thinking of you!)) Anyway, just in case anybody is deeply distressed by losing those links, here's the ones I've removed. If you wanna keep 'em, hey, put 'em up on your own page!

Backup Brain
Bibliomania
Book Slut
Bouillabaisse for the Soul
Fresh Hell
The Louisiana Mars Society
Musings from the Gutter
Neverness
Outside of a Dog
Weasel Words

Absolutely no disrespect is meant to the authors of any of the above, by the way! It's just that I was starting to feel guilty about all those links going ignored by me, their creator, over there in that incredibly prominent place on my own blog, and, you know, if I don't have to look at them any more, I won't feel bad any more. Or such is the theory, anyway.

That's One Small Contest Entry for a Man...

'Nother interesting site I found in my random wanderings around the internet while trying to avoid doing anything productive. This one features the results from a contest to pick what the first words spoken from Mars ought to be (assuming we ever actually make it to Mars). Some of these are really very good, in both the serious and the humorous categories.

A Long Time Ago, On a Computer Far, Far Away

Check this out: it's Star Wars done as an ASCII animation. Some people really do just have way too much time on their hands, but I gotta admit, it looks pretty cool.

Let's Not Try To Analyze This One, Okay?

I had another Buffy dream this morning. Actually, it didn't start out as a Buffy dream. There was a lot of stuff at the beginning involving my ex-boyfriend, I think, but I don't remember that part all that well, and I'm sure it wasn't remotely as interesting, anyway. But, in the dream, when I got home from my ex's house, or wherever the hell I was, there were these people outside my house. Turns out they were some kind of exterminators, although the didn't use the word. But they told me that there all these really nasty vermin critters crawling around in the ground under my trailer -- I was vaguely imagining that they meant crawling around in tunnels, but I'm not sure -- and they wanted to set off some explosions or something down there. Rather foolishly, I gave them my permission, and they assured me that the trailer would hardly be affected by it. Probably. They thought. Well, this started to make me a little nervous, but before I had time to think any more about it, they'd fired off these missles, which promptly flew into the ground and disappeared. (I don't know whether they were burrowing missles, or whether they just had the ability to fly right through normal matter, but either way, they really were kind of cool.) We all stood there and watched. There was a slight vibration. There was a slight noise. Some mud fell off the bottom of the trailer. We kept waiting. More very slight vibration. More mud. Where was the explosion? Surely there had to be something more than that? Actually, it was an extremely suspenseful, tense, even rather creepy moment, with everybody standing around waiting for the other shoe to drop. And this is where we get to the Buffy part, becuase, at this point, Giles came running out, completely naked[*] and looking extremely panicky. He demanded to know what was going on, and the exterminator-people explained it to him. (Interestingly, at some point during this conversation, he suddenly and mysteriously acquired underpants and a t-shirt. My subconscious mind apparently decided to engage in a little censorship. Or else maybe it just figured he'd be cold and embarrassed, and was being considerate.) Anyway, they were all standing around, looking a little lost, wondering what they should do next. And Giles pointed out that, wait a moment, wasn't my trailer located directly over the Hellmouth?[**] We looked at each other for a moment, and suddenly we both knew exactly what to do. "Run!" we shouted simultaneously. And then we did. We were in the process of hurtling over a fence[***] when I woke up. Why is it my dreams always seem to end right before the big climax? No, wait, don't answer that. I really don't think I want to know.

[*] I have no idea what a naked Giles was doing in my house. Unfortunately.

[**] Ordinarily, it's not.

[***] Well, it was, like, a 3-ft. fence, so it's not as if I was performing some amazing athletic feat, there. That would have really stretched the credibility of the whole thing.

Because No Movement Can Be Truly Effective Without a Pithy Catchphrase

The Save Farscape fan campaign, it seems, now has an official slogan for promoting the show: "Farscape: Use Your Mind, Lose Your Heart." I can see why that one won the vote; it sums up the attractions of the show extremely well. I mean, damn, how many shows are there on TV that completely engage both your brain and your emotions?

Things I Should Have Learned By Now, #193

I should really, really know by now that when I'm on morning shift and I wake up thinking, "Hey, I'm awake before the alarm went off! Wow, great, I can just stay snuggled here in this warm, comfy bed for a few mintues until it does," that it always and without exception means that I somehow neglected to set the alarm the night before, and I am now about to be late for work.

And now I have to sit here all day without even having had a shower. I hate being unwashed.

Sigh.

There Is No Hope for Me Now.

Well, I hope all you Buffy fans are happy. (Yes, you know who you are!) There's just no denying it: I have become a pathetic, drooling, Buffy addict. Is there maybe some kind of Buffyholics Anonymous support group I can join or something?

Yesterday, instead of any of the things I really should have been doing -- working on my Phoenix zine, getting out my winter clothes, answering my e-mail, bringing some order to the chaos that I call my home -- I spent the day watching Buffy. All day, from almost the moment I got home from work until I went to bed at what, considering how early I had to get up this morning, was probably a somewhat later hour than it should have been. And then, when I did go to bed, I had trouble sleeping, because I was excited about still having more Buffy to watch, as well as being all upset about what happened with Willow and Oz.

That's not all, either. I'm even dreaming Buffy. I'm serious. I had this dream where they were all on some kind of organized camping trip, and the scout leader or whatever he was turned out (of course) to be a vampire. Giles was actually arguing against killing it for reasons I'm a little vague on. I think his argument was that this was a very powerful vamp that was obviously going to become the head vampire back in Sunnydale, but that he seemed to be a lot more amenable to reason than most vamps, so it was better to have him around to deal with as the leader of the vampires. Which logic seemed a little strange to me (and Buffy thought so, too). But they went out hunting the thing, anyway. Giles had this big old rifle with a telescopic sight on it (which is perhaps in slightly poor taste right about now, but I refuse to accept responsibility for the content of my dreams). I think he was going to shoot it with a tranquilizer dart. I never got to find out how it came out, though, because that's when my stupid alarm went off.

And that, boys and girls, is how you know you've been watching too much Buffy.

I have to say, though, that watching through the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth season has been both extremely wonderful and extremely frustrating. Wonderful because, well, it's Buffy. It's awesome stuff! I mean, geez, did you see the third season finale? Does TV get any cooler than that? Yowza! But it's frustrating because there are a few epsiodes missing from the tapes I've been watching, and every time I start getting really, really into the story arc-y stuff, I'll hit, say, an episode with "previously on..." scenes that I haven't seen before, and I'll find myself wailing "Wait, I missed that?! Nooooo!" Of course, thanks to the modern marvel that is the internet, it's easy enough for me to go and look up episode transcripts of the ones I missed so that I know everything that I need to know about what's going on, but it's just not the same. I need DVDs! I need them badly! I need them now!

Man, is there, like, some kind of Buffy methadone that I can take until the next batch comes out? Maybe reading the novels will help...

Yes, my name is Betty, and I'm a Buffyholic.

Thanks, guys. Seriously!

Cool

I've been googling around the web, hoping to find something along the lines of a Swamp Cooler Maintenance for Complete Morons site. No luck so far, but I did find this not-terribly-helpful but decidedly amusing do-it-yourself cooler-maintenance guide.