Whaddaya Know, I'm a Pro!

The truth is, I was getting tired of dealing with Blogger's little hiccups, foibles, and outright refusals to work. I was getting tired of the mysterious now-you-see-'em/-now-you-don't archive links. I was getting tired of my template not updating when I tried to add links to the sidebar. And I was tired of having zero tech support for any of those problems. And as I was contemplating this, growling over it, cursing Blogger's name over it, it occurred to me that maybe the answer was to just stop being such a damned cheapskate. I've gotten about a zillion hours of entertainment out of this thing, and it'd hardly kill me to throw a few bucks at it to get a superior grade of product. Thus, I am pleased to announce that Maximum Verbosity is now a Blogger Pro blog. I was sincerely hoping that the upgrade would fix the problems I've been having, and, after a small amount of template-tweaking, everything does indeed seem to be working the way it's supposed to... Which is something of a novel feeling, honestly. I also now have access to a number of new and theoretically nifty features, some of which I might actually want to use. The spell-check feature, at least, is definitely welcome, as I'm sure anyone who's read any of my unfortunately typo-laden posts will doubtless agree.

While I was at it, I also got rid of the banner ad at the top, although now I can't help but think that the blog looks oddly naked without it. Oh, well, I suppose I'll get used to it eventually.

Because It Suddenly Occurs to Me That I Don't Have to Wait to See a Buffy Spinoff...

Well, I've now finished watching through the first disc of Angel Season One. Which is to say, the first four episodes. I haven't played the commentary track on the first episode yet, though, as I seem to recall that there were a number of spoilers for later eps on the Buffy commentaries, and I'd just as soon avoid that sort of thing until I've watched through the entire season. I'd previously seen a grand total of about five mintues of this show, so it's still all completely new to me.

I don't want to make any snap judgments based on just the first four episodes, but while what I've seen so far has been worth watching, it nevertheless somehow lacks a lot of the sparkle and originality that Buffy seemed to possess right from the very beginning. I think that's mainly due to the fact that, though there are occasional Whedonesque moments of offbeat humor and witty dialog in Angel, the overall tone of the show is much more somber and serious. Which means that a lot more is riding on the actual plots, in the absence of the kind of vibrant energy that kept my attention engaged by Buffy even when the story itself was more than a bit thin. So far, I think they've mostly succeeded pretty well on that score, but I'm afraid that even after just four episodes the storylines are starting to feel a tiny bit repetitive. I've enjoyed all of them, but at this point one more instance of Angel helping out a woman being terrorized by a demonic stalker boyfriend is going to be one too many. Yes, I do get the fact that Angel is doing for adult relationships exactly what Buffy did for the trials of adolescence: using supernatural metaphors to explore the human condition from a different set of angles. I get that, and, in fact, I quite approve of it. But, come on, there are different kinds of adult relationships worth exploring, you know.

All of which isn't to say that I've found the show disappointing, by any means. As I said, I have enjoyed what I've seen so far and am definitely looking forward to watching the rest of the discs. In any case, I can't say my expectations were hugely high going in, as Angel really never was one of my favorite Buffy characters to begin with. He does have his moments, though, and so far those moments have outnumbered the ones in which I've kind of wanted to slap him, so we're pretty much ahead of the game, there. As for the other characters... Well, Cordelia is still Cordelia. Doyle is vaguely likeable, in a non-threatening kind of way. And, based on admittedly short acquaintance, I've decided I very much like Kate. I do hope she's going to be hanging around for a while.

In fact, at this point, I think I only have two real complaints about the show, and they both come under the category of moderate annoyances, rather than serious sticking points. Number one is that Angel seems to have a remarkably easy time moving around during the daytime. That must be some amazing sewer system they've got in Los Angeles! And, number two, somebody please tell me that they eventually lose those really annoying fancy-schmancy scene transitions? They really don't add much of anything, and they sort of make me feel dizzy.

A Small Correction

A couple of days ago I posted a reminder that the Sci-Fi Channel is going to start showing re-runs of Farscape this week, but I made a small error... It's going to be airing at midnight Eastern/Pacific time from Monday night through Thursday night, not Sunday-Thursday as I originally reported. (Somehow I managed to get a little confused by the schedule grid on their website, but I just looked in TV Guide, and I'm generally inclined to trust TV Guide.) Anyway, that means that the Premiere will be airing at midnight tomorrow, not midnight tonight. Sorry for any confusion that may have caused...

In the meantime, speaking of TV shows and schedule confusions... Anybody get Tuesday's episode of Buffy on tape? I failed to realize that it was a new episode and neglected to set the VCR. Grr.

Perhaps He Should Have Checked the Papers for News About Being Arrested...

Here's a cool little news item somebody just called my attention to: "'Time-Traveler' Busted For Insider Trading". According to the article, a guy who made a killing on Wall Street and was busted for insider trading claims that the reason he knew exactly where to put his money is because he's actually a time-traveller from the year 2256. Unfortunately, the source for this appears to be the Weekly World News (which, for those of you outside the US and thus perhaps not familiar with it, is a notorious tabloid of the "I Had Bigfoot's Baby!" variety), so it's probably not true. (Well, it probably wouldn't have been true that the guy was an actual time-traveller, anyway, but it wouldn't have been too hard to believe that he had claimed to be one.) Pity. It's such a great story, it ought to be true.

This May Quite Possibly Be The Strangest Online Quiz I've Taken Yet.


You're season three. You're a well-rounded
individual.

Which Buffy Season Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Don't Forget to Set Your VCRs!

This is a reminder to those of you -- and you all know who you are! -- who have been cursing my name of late because I induced you to start watching Farscape, you became well and truly hooked on it (naturally!), and then a) the series ended on that brutal cliffhanger we all knew was coming, and b) now you're having trouble finding DVDs for rent so you can catch up on the episodes you missed without spending a couple of hundred dollars. Well, if you do want to watch the series from the beginning, now's your chance, because the Sci-Fi Channel is going to be re-running it starting this Sunday. Season 1 episodes will be running at midnight Eastern/Pacific time Sunday-Thursday nights. (And, again, I'm planning on taping them, myself, so anybody who doesn't get Sci-Fi and wants copies of the episodes can contact me either via e-mail or here in my blog comments, and I'd be more than happy to oblige.) They're also going to be re-running all of Season 4 at 5 AM Eastern/Pacific on Fridays.

Also, if you haven't yet, be sure and stop by the Save Farscape website for lots of news and information on what you can do to help get the show back on the air for a fifth season. (Hey, it could happen!)

In other Farscape-realated news, the end of the fourth season also marks the end of the Society Against Cruelty to Crichton's annual charity drive, which raised $1,585.50 in pledges for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. (See, are Farscape fans incredibly cool people, or what?) For the record, the final stats were: 4 episodes in which Crichton didn't get beaten up, at $64.50 in pledges per episode, and 18 in which he did get beaten up, at $73.75 per episode. Poor guy. No wonder he's seemed so stressed-out lately...

Well, It's A Friday Five, Anyway

This week's Friday Five turns out to be all about one's memories of the past week, which, frankly, just isn't something I much want to dwell on right now. But it occurs to me that I never did do last week's, so, hey, why not answer that one instead?

1. If you had the chance to meet someone you've never met, from the past or present, who would it be? I like to meet Farscape's writer/producer David Kemper, and make him explain to me all the stuff that still doesn't make sense from this season and tell me where the story was supposed to have gone next season. And to buy him dinner and thank him for making such a cool show. Alternatively, I'd like to meet a Neanderthal (it hardly matters who) and find out whether they could talk or not. Not that we'd be able to understand each other even if they could, but I bet it'd be interesting, anyway.

2. If you had to live in a different century, past or future, which would it be? The past might be a great place to visit, if and when I ever get my hands on a time machine, but I sincerely doubt I'd actually like to live there. I hate to sound like I'm engaging in some sort of temporal jingoism, but I truthfully do believe that, on the whole, this is the single best time in all of history to be alive, what with modern medicine and the internet and all. So, if I had to live somewhen else, it's definitely the future for me. There's no guarantee, of course, that things will just keep getting better from here, but I like to think they will. And I'm definitely curious about the future. I've read enough 1950's science fiction novels to be utterly confident that, whatever it's like, it'll be nothing like anything anybody's ever predicted.

3. If you had to move anywhere else on Earth, where would it be? Vancouver, British Columbia. I paid a brief visit there a couple of years ago and fell instantly in love with the place.

4. If you had to be a fictional character, who would it be? I always hate these kinds of questions, because they make no logical sense. If I were a fictional character, I wouldn't be me, by defintion. It's like saying "if the number two had to be some other number, what number would you like it to be?" If two were three, it wouldn't be two; it'd be three under another name! But I guess I tend to overthink these things. So, OK, I'll say the Doctor. Among other cool things, then I'd have a TARDIS, and I'd be able to visit the past and see the future and meet neaderthals and all kind of interesting things.

5. If you had to live with having someone else's face as your own for the rest of your life, whose would it be? As long as they don't have some sort of horrible skin disease or something, who cares?

Hello, New Readers

Wow. My hit count has suddenly skyrocketed, apparently thanks to a link from Transterrestrial Musings. If you've just surfed in from there (or from anywhere else, for that matter), hello, and welcome! This blog mostly consists of ramblings about the various random personal and pop-cultural junk that floats around in my head, but apparently some people find that interesting. Unfortunately, if you happen to be one of those people, you may have trouble getting into my archives, as Blogger (which has always had a tendency to swallow archive links and spit them back out at random intervals later on) has been giving me even more trouble on this score than usual of late. But if you're desperately curious, you can find links to archived posts here.

Spontaneous Generations

Here's a very cool page of random generators, mostly for RPG-related stuff (e.g. character names, kinds of weapons, random spellbook titles, you name it). The Miscellaneous page is the best, though. Some cool examples:

Random B-Move titles:

The Sleepover of Sexy Pain
The Vengeance of Saturn
Dark Grave Robbers
The Mansion of the Beautiful Skydivers
The Torture of London

A random villanous plot:

Your fiendish plot: create a magical focus, easily allowing you to kidnap a movie star for a huge ransom, easily allowing you to live in luxury!

Some random action movie trailer tags:

In a dark kingdom, in a time of necromancy and danger, two kitsunes try to find a mystic artifact and battle lawlessness.

In a galaxy of technology, a relic hunter and a spy quest for fame.

In a universe of corruption and lost souls, in a time of monsters, eight dancers try to prevent the destruction of mankind.

In a wicked city, six conjurers seek love.

On a forbidden planet, four rangers and a space pirate search for a lost artifact.

(Actually, you know, that one about the dancers sounded kind of interesting...)

2002 Books? But I Haven't Read All the Books Published Before 2002 Yet!

I've just been looking at Locus' 2002 Recommended Reading List, and it highlights for me the mildly depressing fact that I cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, consider myself as keeping current in the science fiction and fantasy fields. I'm generally inclined to wait for paperbacks or book club editions of newer works, since my book-buying budget is astronomically high as it is, and then, once I do get my hands on something recently published, my backlog of unread books is so huge that they tend to sit around for years before I finally get around to reading them. Thus, of this rather long list, I've read exactly two books. The first is David Brin's Kiln People, which I do recommend. It's got a nifty central idea whose social implications are well explored, plus it's one of those mixed-genre works I tend to be so fond of (in this case, science fiction mixed with a hard-boiled detective novel). It gets a little weird at the end, and I can't escape the niggling feeling that it could have been an even better book than it was, but I definitely enjoyed it. The other is Terry Pratchett's Night Watch. I adore Pratchett, and am deeply impressed by how consistently high the quality of his Discworld series has been. Few writers could keep a series this fresh for this long, though I suppose it helps that the Discworld books tend to be only fairly loosely connected to each other.

Several more of them are currently sitting on my To-Read Piles, though. Namely, the following:

Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan: It may be a while before I get around to this one, as I've kind of gone off Egan lately. I thought Quarantine, Permutation City, and the short story collection Axiomatic were brilliant. Distress and Diaspora were flawed, but extremely interesting, nonetheless. But Teranesia was extremely disappointing, so I'm really not sensing a good trend here.

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson: I don't think I've read any of Robinson's books, but I've heard good things about this one.

A Wizard Alone by Diane Duane. It may take me a while to get around to this one, too, as I still haven't read the previous book in the series, The Wizard's Dilemma. I've really enjoyed this series, but I'm a bit wary about continuing on with it, as I just recently read To Visit the Queen, which was set in the same universe, and found it boring and difficult to finish. I'm a bit afraid that Duane, unlike Pratchett, may be running out of steam.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I'm really looking forward to this one. I think the only reason I haven't read it yet is because I'd really like to find time to read it uninterrupted in something close to one sitting. Gaiman's writing simply deserves that kind of attention.

If anybody has any other recommendations... Well, actually, you'd probably better keep them to yourself, as I've got more than enough to read as it is! Not that that ever seems to stop anybody, of course...

My New Protection Scheme

I just ran into a co-worker in the hallway, and he stopped me and said "You're a big fan of Buffy, right?" and proceeded to ask me whether I knew that the series was ending soon and that there was talk about doing a spinoff. (Which, of course, I did.) The following conversation thereupon ensued:

Me: "Yeah, all the shows I like get cancelled. I only really got into Buffy in the past year or so, so of course now the series is ending."

Him: "Well, stay away from Smallville, then! I like that one."

Me: "Hey, wow, there's an idea for a racket! I could get people to pay me not to watch their favorite shows!"

Him: "Yeah, you could make a lot of money that way."

So... Bidding is now open! Anybody got any shows they want me and my sure-fire Kiss of Cancellation-viewership to stay away from? I accept payment in cash or chocolate.

It's A Small, Ugly World

It seems that one of the POWs currently being held in Iraq is from Pennsauken, NJ, where I lived for a largish chunk of my childhood. According to the article, the guy is exactly my age and graduated from Pennsauken High, so I probably attended the 9th grade with him. His name doesn't ring a bell, which is odd, because according to the article he's a science fiction fan, and you'd think I'd remember that. Then again, I never really talked to much of anybody when I was in the ninth grade, so maybe it isn't all that surprising.

In the last Gulf War, a guy from Cherry Hill, NJ, where I lived in my late teens, was a POW. I didn't know the guy, but, if I'm remembering rightly, he was a good friend of a friend of mine's brother. I do remember that his badly-battered face was on the cover of Time magazine, and that local businesses refused to display copies out of respect for the fellow's family.

Connections like that really do bring it all home a bit, I suppose...

Another Dumb Quiz


The U.F.O.s:
You're the secret master, and YOU don't even know
what you're up to.
Fnord.

Which Illuminati are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Well, honestly, what else would you have expected?

And, man, I've gotta get somebody to play Illuminati with me sometime soon. Since I actually went and bought the cards and everything...

...And I'm Back to Talking About Farscape Again

Depressing as its subject matter is for me, I gotta say, reading Danny's Toughpigs review of the last Farscape episode has nevertheless cheered me up immensely. That guy completely cracks me up. Best quote: "Any time something gets beautiful on Farscape for two minutes at a time, that's a red flag that they're about to kill a puppy." It's soooo true...

Note to Self

Note to self: Sarah McLachlan is not appropriate listening material under the current circumstances. I had Fumbling Towards Ecstasy sitting in the stereo from before I left, so I just hit "play" for some music while I was doing the laundry. Got to "Hold On," and discovered I couldn't. Am mostly better now, but have decided to listen to nothing but hard rock -- extremely hard rock -- for the next few days.

Stupid stereo.

Well, I'm Back

Just wanted to let y'all know that I'm now down and safe in Socorro. Had a smooth flight back, which is at least something after the rough time the last couple of weeks had been.

For anybody who may have been wondering just how far I did get through the big ol' stack of books I brought to read, the answer is that I finished The Three Musketeers, Kavalier & Clay, Snow Crash, and Sins of the Father (the Buffy book). And I was about a chapter and a half into Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident when the plane landed. So anybody who said "four and a small fraction," congratulations, you win the pool.

I had about 500 e-mails waiting for me when I got back, so, again, if I owe you e-mail, don't be offended if it takes me a while to get to it. In the meantime, I'd just like to say thanks to all those who offered their sympathies. So: thanks.

A Difficult Post to Write

Apologies for the lack of blog updates over the past few days. Unfortunately, I do have a good excuse.

My stepfather died on Saturday morning. This was neither unexpected nor, in the end, truly unwelcome. We all knew once he was diagnosed with the cancer that it was only a matter of time, and he deteriorated very, very rapidly just during the period I was here. The last two days were difficult ones, as he lost most of his physical and mental facilities, so when the end came, really, it wasn't at all a bad thing. He was not in any great pain, he was well taken care of, and he was prepared. And when he went, he went very peacefully and quietly.

My mother has been holding up amazingly well. I have to say, I am deeply impressed by how well both of them dealt with the whole situation. They handled his illness with a refreshing pragmatism and with great strength of character. They didn't waste time in denial, but instead confronted the reality head-on and set about making the most of the time he had left. And, above all they were unflaggingly honest with each other. The result is that, when the end came, my stepfather knew what to expect and was ready for it, and my mother had already reached the stage of acceptance.

I have to give props, also, to the hospice program and all the people involved. Whenever we needed anything, from supplies to information to reassurance, they got it for us immediately and at no charge. I cannot possibly say enough wonderful things about the hospice nurse, as she consistently provided exactly what was needed in every situation, especially when it came to explaining what to expect and how to do the things that needed to be done. Having to go through this experience without her simply doesn't bear thinking about. And when these people talk about things like "dying with dignity" and "quality of life," it isn't just empty rhetoric. Not only do they believe in it, they see to it that it happens.

As for myself, I'm holding up pretty well, too. To be honest, at this point I'm mainly relieved that it's over. The last few days and weeks haven't been easy on anyone. I've been very worried about my mother, but being here these last couple of weeks has reassured me that, difficult as all this is for her, she can deal.

But I'm definitely going to miss him. My stepfather was one of life's genuine characters, and he was one of the most generous and giving people I've ever known. Although I was already in college when he and my mother married, he treated me as his own daughter. And he made my mother happy, which is far and away the most important thing. Despite my immediate sense of relief, I am deeply sorry that he's gone. But I'm glad I was here at the end.

The funeral isn't until Friday, but I'm not going to stay. I would if Mom needed me, but her mother is flying in today, and my sister is going to be here tomorrow, so she'll have family here for support. I know many people find the closure provided by attending a funeral important or emotionally comforting, but I personally don't, and Mom understands and is OK with that. They way both of us see it, I was here for the part that actually mattered. And I do have other responsibilities I really need to get home to.

So I'll be heading home this afternoon. I'll be getting into Socorro fairly late, and I have to be back at work tomorrow afternoon, so it may be a while before I have the chance to get caught up on my e-mail and get in touch with people personally. Thanks for bearing with me.

And I really am OK. Honest.

Well, the Title Says It All (WARNING: Spoilers for Farscape Episode 4.22: "Bad Timing")

Well, this was it. Barring a last-minute phone call from the governor, we've just seen the last-ever episode of Farscape. Sigh.

In order to talk coherently about this one, I guess I have to come at it on several different levels. First of all, as an individual episode, I enjoyed it quite a bit. If it has one flaw, it's the common Farscape one of trying to cram too much into a single episode, in terms of action, and character stuff, and plot. But the fact that, when it errs, it errs on the side of doing too much rather than too little is one of the things that I've always loved about the show (especially by contrast to, say, Enterprise, where nine tenths of an episode have sometimes been known to go by without anything interesting happening). In any case, whether it's attempting too much or not, the things that it's doing are interesting. There's a number of wonderful, very memorable moments here. I especially liked the reappearance of John's tape recorder as he dicatates the opening monolog, and the site of John walking in his father's footsteps on the moon (even if my knowledge of space history makes it hard for me to suspend disbelief and pretend somebody named Jack Crichton really did walk on the moon).

As a season-ender, it was perhaps a bit less satisfying. There were a zillion loose ends I was hoping would be tied up by this point, and a vast number of little things that I was hoping, even expecting, would come together to form a coherent whole by the end of the season. (And that would have been true, by and large, even if we were still fully expecting a fifth season.) No such luck, though, which means that I'm left with rather mixed feelings about the fourth season's story arc as a whole. At some point in the not-too-distant future, I'll probably post my thoughts on the subject in considerable depth; it's not really something I have the time to get into just at the moment.

As the final episode of the series... Well, it could have been worse. As expected, we did get a cliffhanger, but it was rather less painful that I had feared. The fact that it's sort of tacked on at the end of the episode, rather than arising out of some intrinsic, ongoing plot arc helped a lot with that. If we had to go out on an unresolved cliffhanger, at least this one seems to me to be less frustrating than any of the previous seasons' would have been. There also is a certain sense of closure to a lot of things in this episode. We get John's all-too-appropriate emotional farewell to his father, for instance. It should have served as John's farewell to his old existence, his first step on the next phase of his journey. Instead, it takes on a kind of poignant resonance that I'm sure the writers could never have imagined when they wrote the dialog, but there's something oddly comforting about it. At least John isn't going off on us without some kind of a goodbye. All that isn't to say that seeing the series ending here isn't immensely frustrating, though. For my part, the worst thing about it is that they'd finally brought back my two all-time favorite characters, Stark and Harvey, only to run out of time to do anything with them. I find this particularly annoying in Stark's case, since I'm still deeply curious as to what he's been up to for the last year, as well as because I would have been very, very interested to see where he would have developed as a character from here. And, needless to say, there are still lots and lots of other questions that have been raised in this and previous episodes that it now looks like we'll never be able to get the answers to. Grrrrr.

I'm not going to ramble on with the usual random thoughts about specific things in this episode... Somehow, just at the moment, it feels kind of pointless. I will say, though, that I loved the "previously on..." segment, where essentially the whole series briefly flashes before our eyes. How anybody could look at that and think that this was a series that was ready to be taken out behind the barn and shot, I can't imagine.

By the way, I did get to see the Save Farscape commercial on my mother's satellite service. Very cool, and I for one do still hold out a small amount of hope that enough fan uproar might just stand a chance of making a difference for the future of the show. The Sci-Fi Channel's little "thank you" message, on the other hand, only served to piss me off even more. Don't fucking thank us after bending us over and screwing us, guys. It just adds insult to injury. If you're really grateful, show a little class, stick by your word, and renew the god-damned show. Bloody hypocrites.

And Another One...


Green - You believe that small economic units
should control the goods, and that the
government should be permissive of
"victimless crimes," respectful of
civil liberties and very strict towards big
business. You also believe in either a
socialist tax structure or more power to local
communities. You think that environmental
policies should be written into law. Your
historical role model is Ralf Nader.

Which political sterotype are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Well, the "victimless crimes" and civil liberties bits are right, anyway. But I'm my usual fence-sitter self on the rest of that...

While Everybody Else Is Taking a Nap, I Did a Stupid Quiz


So which fairy tale archetype are you? Hmm??
made by Michelle at EmptySpace.

Well, I dunno about all of that...