happy b-day kai, two-freaking-hundred (unrelated)

Happy happy happy birthday Kaila! I don't see enough of you anymore now that you've completely withdrawn from society. I have a feeling that soon you'll be a like some kind of wise zen master and the only time I'll ever see you is when I'll need sage advice and I have to climb to the top of whatever mountain you're living on to find you. Once I get to the top, I have to spend a few days carrying water with one of those shoulder-pole things with two buckets dangling from each end. Then and only then will you help me "discover myself." Anyway, I hope it doesn't come down to that too soon.

Wish I got you something. I shoulda. We'll see you in a few minutes.

So, yeah.

It's November 30th and I freaking did it! 30 days in a row without missing a day of blogging! Yeah, I can totally set my mind on stuff. Usually it helps if what I set my mind to doing makes absolutely no difference to anything. That's just how I roll. Always sweatin' the small stuff. Now I'm worried that I'll never blog again, that I totally overkilled myself. Maybe. Maybe hard.

post 199

I should really get new socks.

I think when I listen to my iPod in my black ninja hoodie, an electrical current travels into my ear buds and causes static brain damage.

I spell it 'hoodie' instead of 'hoody' because Wikipedia redirects to 'hoodie,' and a Google search seems to bring up more entries on the latter.

I have a lingering question about Ender's Game. Ender's "relationship" with Alai -- what's up with that?

Today was a good day, because I got to the Ds on my iPod continual play. That meant three hours of Depeche Mode in albumnal order. Songs of Faith and Devotion, Ultra and Violator right in a row.

Songs of Faith and Devotion is totally the best Depeche Mode album.

Tonight I slightly helped Monica move. I know exactly where she's moving to. If anybody who commented on her blog who is dying to know where she's moving to, I'll let you know before she says. Five bucks.

Maria wants to read The Giver. Any good?

I've found a new list of books to read -- the list of shared Hugo and Nebula award winners. 1984-1986 were some very good years of science fiction. Neuromancer, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead all won both awards three years in a row. They're also three of my very favorite books of all time.

I'm disappointed that, as of this moment, Elf is winning in the polls for the December Movie of the Month. This can't happen. I don't want White Christmas to win either. Bing Crosby sings way too drunk.

Another Ender's game question. Ender's "relationship" with Valentine -- what's up with that?

The best thing about Google Analytics is how this blog is discovered by googling. Six people discovered the blog by googling 'listen to beverly clock chime.' one guy found us by googling 'ditka "lord's prayer." My movie commentary site has far better hitting search words, but less people find it. Oh, well. Niche.

I think I'll always be niche. It's a good excuse to have mediocre content.

biden in '08!

Lately, considering how incredibly ill-informed I am, I've been thinking about what presidential candidate to support. Perhaps because it's November and besides Thanksgiving, not much goes on in November besides the cold and elections.

Sidenote. Lately I've heard people complain that with the intense growing popularity of Halloween and the continual popularity of Christmas, that Thanksgiving gets commercially lost in it all. The seasonal aisle in Smith's never even turns Thanksgiving-themed at all anymore. I like that. It's not because I hate Thanksgiving, but because Thanksgiving is cool enough to become the biggest non-commercial holiday. It's sort of like how once upon a time Pearl Jam was the biggest band in the world, but then they somehow figured out a way to go back into the underground alternative music community with a minor, but loyal touring fan base (mostly sucking after their first big album may have helped most of all). Anyway, long live Thanksgiving. May it always be a cozy, intimate family affair.

Back on track. Lately I've said that it would be really wonderful if, instead of being vigilant in observing political platforms through speeches and debates, I could just plug in my own views on all the issues and some computer could tell me who to vote for.

My sister sent me exactly what I wanted yesterday. USA Today of all news sources (actually, as I'm typing this, perhaps it makes perfect sense), put this little questionnaire and presidential database together. It asks only 11 questions and then it tells you who to vote for.

To my horror, I discovered that I'm a supporter of Joe Biden.
I also discovered that despite the fact that I'm Mormon, I really don't relate much to Mitt Romney at all. Anyway, take the test. You can even weigh certain questions and issues harder than others. For example, the first question has something to do with whether or not the United States should have gone to war in Iraq. Perhaps you feel that such a question has nothing to do with what to do presidentially from this point all. Go ahead and zap the question out.Apparently, if I'm reading it right, most people in the country are relating to Mitt Romney after all. Maybe they'd all make good Mormons.

relapse!

So late last night I did a little nose inventory and discovered the following:

Yeah, turns out my nose duality is alive and well. Perhaps I'm slowly turning into Lokai.

Just in case you're using this blog as your main source of current news, it snowed today. I would have gotten a really artistic shot of the snow, but I only opened the front door long enough to get the following shot:
Isn't the first snow of the season so unique? And so deadly. It's obviously wetter. No car crashes that I'm aware of, fortunately (maybe since it was pretty light snowfall and in the middle of the day). However, here is a pretty awesome shot that Maria took as we totally lost control going down Main Street:
I was hoping that there'd be mass snowman-making today, but alas. Today really is the only day to do it, but I guess everybody's sick of snowmen. We need to think of something else to do on first snowfall day.

I've begun the process of listening to all 1500 "songs" on my iPod in alphabetical order. I'm on my second day now. It's at "Co-," so I just finished up with Cold War Kids. Groovy. I'm now in the middle of the Comics Coast to Coast podcast. Yeah, that's right. I'm listening to all my podcasts too. It could be maddening considering I have more than 24 hours worth of content of some podcasts. I'll let you know how tomorrow goes. It'll probably be a majority of The Cure. Maybe it'll do a little something for my current illness.

snot a problem

Today when I came home I got totally pumped to talk about how sick I've been for the past week. To prove it I was going to take a picture of my snot. Strangely, for the past three or four days the snot from my right nostril has been normal, while the snot from my left nostril has been sort of orange and had a much thicker consistency. It looked a lot like apricot jam.

Sadly, when I did my evening snot rocket ceremony, everything was normal. Well, it still had a higher volume than normal and was liqued-ey-er than during the warm weather, but that's to be expected. Sorry things are getting back to boring wellness again.

ender's end

Quick! I need to have Ender's Game read by Thursday for book club and I'm only 40 pages in. What should I be talking about? Who should they cast for the movie (my only sure vote is Chuck Norris should be Mazer Rackham)? What was the main theme? What was your favorite part? What's happening on the front cover?

The only thing I really remember from reading it before was that Ender totally messed up some kid in the showers. I also remember that most of the kids had weird names and that the weapons they use are called "little doctors." I remember also about how they trapped Achilles in some vent, but I think that may be some other book. The last chapter is called "Speaker for the Dead" I think.

Here's a link to my biggest celebrity online meeting.

red vs. blue. plus some green by way of orange.

Click here for the results of the game.

I get pretty sick of the rivalry year after year. It's not like I'm a huge sports fan or anything. I just get sucked into the intensity. I'd like to think that I'm above it all, but there are too many outside variables. If I were a better person I wouldn't let it get to me so much. Maybe a lot of it is my need to defend all the uninteresting things about me: white, Utah County, BYU, male, middle-class family, etc. On paper, I'm like so Whitey.

This year I figured the only way the rivalry would die down would be if there was just a boring game. That's probably what we all need. It's sort of like how Paris Hilton won't go away even if everyone hates her. The only way to get rid of her is if everyone was just apathetic about her. We almost had it too, this year. It was just field goals all the way to the fourth quarter. Suddenly I and my other blue were looking down the barrel of defeat and humiliation -- again.

It all worked out though. We're saved. I think we take it quite well. If the game went the other way, you can bet there will be a lot more talking about it in the future. But it went our way. That means I'll be able to just live my life in wonderful silence about the whole rivalry if I choose to. I'll choose to too.

Completely unrelated -- I just realized a couple of hours ago that yesterday when we were at Red Robin, our server/bartender gave us a free orange drink that he had made extra or something. Free Food Friday strikes again! Kind of in a mellow way, but yeah.

black friday video report

Oh, and here's the Rockband video you should watch (to earn me $).

idling toward true gratitude '07

I'm thankful that Maria has had the patience to go to two separate families today. I'm thankful that two separate families gave me turkey today. I'm thankful that even though I cough every other breath, I'm still relatively healthy. I'm thankful that my Corolla has been able to take the 150 mile round trip today with ease. I'm thankful that the newspaper was kind enough today to stuff itself not with advertisements for gifts that I would consider getting people, but with stuff that I would want for myself. I'm thankful that Rhett bought Rockband and not me. I'm thankful that I don't have a real job, but I still have a bunch of money. I'm also so very thankful for the internet at my parents' house; which is a really horrible and slow version of the internet that I would never find acceptable enough at my house so I can't really put up pictures or anything, but at least I got my post done today.

rockband -- revealed!

I'm feelin' sick, so I'll just put this video up. Those video game people are so mean. We just barely got Guitar Hero III, and now we have to do this Rockband thing.

the apathy gene

November is almost over! That means my obligatory post-a-day project will soon be at an end. Ahh! What a relief! I've been wanting to get into the regular habit of posting every day for a long time now, but I'm not sure I'm capable. I'm a lot more of the type of guy who gets into a habit of not doing things. Presently, I'm in the middle of a pretty good run of abstaining from carbonated beverages. I've been pretty successful at it before. I did it with no problem in high school while certain others had severe withdrawal symptoms. The temperature dropped pretty hard today and I thought about how hard it would be to be addicted to cigarettes because I'd have to go outside in the cold to smoke. I figure I'd just get fed up with the cold, go inside and never smoke again. Maybe I don't understand how addictive nicotine is, but I'm sure it's not as bad as my hatred of the cold. If I got really desperate, I'd probably just invent a smoking helmet that I could wear inside. It'd pretty much just be a fishbowl with tight lycra making a seal where the neck would be.

Obviously I had no idea what I'd be talking about when I started this post.

toil and trouble

I started a new job for the moment today. It's sort of insurancy.

At this point all I can say is that the building is very cold. By the end of the day I was sitting on my hands and I needed to use them.

legitimate weekend post

So this weekend I like bought a whole bunch of stuff including another Blender magazine, but this one had Jay-Z on the cover and so it was more acceptable, and I also bought Ender's game which I have to read for book club next week even though I've totally already read it and I'm waiting for the movie to come out, but it probably won't be that good because how could you even make a movie of that book anyway? I also bought a charger for my Wii remotes because i figured with all the controllers we have lying around the house we couldn't just go around buying batteries every single week and all that and then after all that we found out we could get cheap Evanescence tickets so like eight of us went and then went to IHOP afterward, but I already totally talked about that. Saturday morning I woke up late and was totally late for the Turkey Bowl flag football thingie I did. I got teamed up with a lame team that called huddles after every play and couldn't snap the ball and couldn't roll out or anything, so I woudn't have minded that they were bad, but they were actually really ungood at football too and I also jammed my finger flagging some guy. After that Dre and I went to the Andy Warhol exhibit at the University. I'm undecided on how I feel about the guy, cuz I mean certainly other artists are more deserving of the prominence that the guy has of being able to transcend the art world so well, but then again maybe actual artists don't pay him no mind and all that, so i dunno. Nice hair. Last night we watched Omega Man with Chuck Heston, yeah I love that guy, and we'll probably be talking about that later. So then today we totally had a turkey dinner at church and then we had ward prayer at our house and gorged ourselves on the leftover fake-Thanksgiving pie. That's it. Not much.

free food friday!

Here's a photo of my free meal from P.F. Chang's last week.
Yeah, that's right. I mentioned that Maria was out of town so I figured it was a good time to get Chinese food. She's good to go with me to Chinese places, but I like the food way more than she does. Of course, she actually loves P.F. Chang's, so maybe I don't even know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I got some lo mein surprise and kung pao chicken. I don't know why I got the kung pao since a week earlier I went to Pei Wei and got it there and didn't like it so much. For some reason I totally forgot that Pei Wei and P.F. Chang's is like the same place. Anyway, this being a solo thing, I went ahead and got it as a take-out order, calling in advance. I parked in the ten minute service zone. When I went in and they said they didn't have the order or a record for the order I panicked (I tend to get parking tickets). All was alleviated, however, when they apologized and said the meal was on the house. This was Friday.

Perhaps a real good way to get free food is to go into P.F. Chang's and loudly complain about some lost order.

Anyway, that story isn't worth mentioning much.

BUT -- yesterday Maria, Joe and I met up with Rhett and some of his people at IHOP in Orem directly after our impromptu Evanescence concert (yeah, I had no idea I was going either), AND for some reason our check was lost. Joe explained it as probably being "comped out" by the boss of our server (Valerie), because we came later. I don't really know what that means. It's server talk and I've never ever had a job where I've handled money. We got a free split decision breakfast with two extra eggs all served over medium (but they were kind of on the over easy side) plus strawberry banana French toast.

The point is, I get free food every Friday.

watch it! love it! send it!

First, enjoy this is as hard as you humanely can:



This was from one of our trips to Vegas last summer. It's riding the Speed ride at the Sahara casino.

The most famous thing I'm known for is my online point-of-view roller coaster rides. For my latest venture, I'm trying something different than YouTube. Rhett informed me of this site called Revver. Revver actually places an ad on the end of the video and tracks how many people view the video and click on the ads. They then share the ad revenue with the people who post the videos 50/50. I figure if I get 50,000 views to the above video, I could make a few bucks (20, maybe). It would help even more if you clicked on some of the ads at the end of the video. I think they're for helpful things such as planning trips to Las Vegas and stuff like that.

Help me out! Copy and paste the link below onto an entry on your own blog.

http://revver.com/watch/486238/flv/riding-the-sahara-speed-ride-in-las-vegas/

It would be even better if you went to the link and copied the html code you can use to actually embed the revver player with the awesome video directly into one of your entries.

If you don't have a blog, just freakin' email the link to people.

the internet has come full circle

While doing today's crossword puzzle from my copy of Will Shortz Presents Crosswords for 365 Days, I came to the part of the puzzle where I finally needed the internet to help me solve it. I googled "Dashing horse" which was the clue to 11-down. Google returned with the perfect source: a page grab from the exact same book I was working from.Too dang specific.

The answer is "Arab" by the way.

what kind of presidential name is mitt anyway?

Rhett came in yesterday and said something apparently obvious, but still intriguing. "You realize that there's actually a pretty good chance that the two people running for president might be Hilary Clinton and Mitt Romney?"

Immediately it made me recall what an old New Testament professor of mine said at BYU. He said that some NT scholars think that Judas thought that he was still on Christ's side at the time of the betrayal. Judas's thinking may have been along the lines of helping to usher in the events to bring about the atonement, rather than the obvious traitorous attitude we see on the surface.

What does that have to do with anything? There's a very thin thread of similarity. Assuming you believe the way I do, a Mormon president of the United States would bring Mormonism into the public eye in a way far more than anything else in the past century or the century to come. It'll be huge. I mean, we freak out when Hinckley gets ten minutes out 60 Minutes. The result would usher in End of Days events to an incredible degree. It would be weird. I've never lived in a world where Mormonism is that mainstream. I prefer my haven out of the world. Heck, I rarely even leave my house.

Maria countered that there is absolutely no way that Romney would ever get elected, because LDS women not having the priesthood would be an issue that Romney's opposition would absolutely crucify him over. With this in mind, guess what big announcement may happen during the April 2008 General Conference?

while the writers are away the geeks will play

I've got two television solutions to the impending writers' strike: 1) television through Netflix and 2) television through cinema.

What's the most important impact of the rise of dvd? Most people might say improved picture quality. People would expect me to say the rise of audio commentaries, but that's not what I'd say. The most important impact is the archiving of television. We did it to a limited degree with vhs, but not too much. Around the turn of the millennium, they didn't just turn extremely popular tv series over to dvd. It seems like they put every series ever. Budgetary and space issues made such things far more possible. It was a foreshadowing to the Youtube era when it wouldn't just be television series archived, but every event that's ever happened in the universe ever.

Anyway, the point is that because of this, I Netflax the first disc of Babylon 5. It's been on my list for a while. Many geeks have recommended it. Now that I've pretty much come out with the fact that I'd rather be a total geek than a contributing member of real-world society, I suppose it's about time I gave it a shot. The only things I really knew for sure about the story is that it takes place on a space station and tragically came out the same year as Star Trek: Deep Space 9 -- which pretty much shares the same premise. Another reason I became intrigued with the show more recently is because I've had a lingering memory ever since Babylon 5 came out was that the creator didn't just have a series in mind, but an entire five-year story arc already in place in his head. I seem to remember a quote from the time where he said something to the effect of "I can tell you exactly what will happen in the last ten minutes of the last episode five years from now." This concept really was ahead of its time. Lost and Heroes came ten years later.

Would you believe that the acting is cheesier than Star Trek? I have no qualms with that, but it's funny enough to worth mentioning. Also, I was disappointed to find the four episodes I watched were far more episodic than story arcy. And strangely every episode seemed to run for like an hour and a half.

I really like it so far though. The captain, Captain Sinclair I think, is chiseled from another era. He's like The Fall Guy or Jack Lord or something. His baritone is hypnotizing. It's like the creators got together and said "Who could we get who's more like Captain Kirk than William Shatner is?" The security chief is pretty cool too. When it comes to characters I like seeing cliches broken. Having the security chief as a happy-go-lucky doofus flirt rather than a hard-nosed grizzled scruff guy accomplishes this. I also like the effects, even though they're CG. I've gone on record in saying that models are always better than CG, but honestly, even Babylon 5 CG is better than Star Trek models.

Anyway, maybe I'll see the rest of the episodes someday. That may entail getting my own Netflix account instead of constantly using my girlfriend's roommate's account.

A couple of hours ago Maria and I saw Star Trek: The Menagerie Parts 1 & 2 in the theater. 'Twas quite a unique experiment. Some hotshots at Star Trek Central decided it might be a good idea to show a couple of back-to-back original Star Trek episodes in an actual movie theater with amped-up effects and a cleaner picture.

Thankfully this was brought to my attention as the once fading spectre of Star Trek has continued to sink its talons into my soul as of late. We saw a poster for it last week when we and Joe saw Sydney White at the dollar theater. I was stressed out on the way to the way to the stupid Jordan Landing Theaters. I took the wrong I-215 direction and we wound up in some serious west side sprawl traffic. We thought that there would be a 90% chance that the theater would be practically empty, but since this was the only showing I didn't want to leave room for error. Turns out, there are lots of "Jon's People" in Salt Lake, I just don't know any of them. 20 minutes before the show started, the theater was full. Not just full, but full of Star Trek fans. I saw one guy dressed as an Andorian.

Anyway, I'm getting tired of typing. The Menagerie is sort of a complicated story. It uses footage from the original Star Trek pilot that didn't have Kirk in it, but a more philosophical Captain Pike. According to the story, Captain Pike visited a planet that held him prisoner, but granted him an illusionary reality of whatever he desired. He escaped, and that's how the original pilot of Star Trek ended. The Menagerie finds Captain Pike the victim of a horrendous accident that pretty much leaves him in the same state as that soldier guy in Metallica's video for the song "One." Spock, as a former friend and officer of Pike; finds away to get his former commander back to the planet that would supply him a better life.

This basic story concept became a recurring theme in much of Star Trek. One reason the movie Generations was so gosh darn boring is because the "illusion better than reality" concept was done to death. The Menagerie was far earlier though, and even watching it after sifting through all the similar stuff from years of Star Trek inundation, the concept is far originaler here. A very intriguing coda to the whole story is that after going through so much to get away from it, Pike ultimately settles on life in The Matrix.

The movie also included a commercial for the hd-dvds of the first two seasons of remastered Star Trek. Cool. Get it for me for Christmas... and an hd-dvd player... and an hd-tv.

coping through the writers' strike

Sorry about that last post. It was pretty lame.

Anyway, Stephanie sent me an interesting email with a very interesting link. This is a very handy guide showing how much new material will appear on tv before the written well runs dry.

Notice that, as of today's date, there is only ONE episode of The Office left. That is the most severe casualty, but also the most important. The Office isn't my favorite show on the air, but it's definitely the most popular from a group perspective. It's the one that comes up most in conversation with peers and family. A lot of people would argue that watching so much tv blots out our social skills. Well, when The Office goes off the air, what are we gonna talk about? No, tv is actually essential to our social progress.

Possibly my favorite show is 30 Rock. It's got a writer's strike median lifespan left of five episodes. Once that one goes, we'll be shifting into severe panic mode.

Perhaps it's time to watch a few shows with long future lifespans. Men in Trees has 13 episodes left to air. I really have no idea what this show is, but it has 13 episodes of new material. I may need to either begin watching this show or else begin tivoing commercial breaks hoping to get a glimpse of new and important commercials. Another show that has 13 episodes is apparently its entire season is 13 episodes long and none have aired yet. I've seen a little of this show. It's well-made. Gritty. Fascinating and flawed characters. It's really not so much a tv show as it is a depositing into the epicenter of corrupt cop hell. In other words, the jokes aren't funny enough. One Tree Hill has 12 episodes left. Yeah, I guess it is still on the air. A few years ago when I was a rabid The O.C. fan, my friend Kristi told me that The O.C. paled in comparison to One Tree Hill. Although she'd never actually seen an episode of The O.C. I actually accepted her offer to watch an episode of OTH with her so she could show me what I was missing. When she showed up a half-hour late to the episode because she was at the store she simply told me to start without her. Message clear: One Tree Hill is worth telling your friends about, but it's not worth actually watching.

The list doesn't contain some necessities. I'm really curious about the length of time that The Simpsons has left. I imagine that it's got a pretty long run since the writing and voice work would need to be finished long before the animation. Maybe Simpsons will finish the season. That's just a guess though. It's sort of an irrelevant guess, since even though The Simpsons is the greatest television show of all time, I rarely watch new episodes when they come out.

If there's one good thing about the strike it's to satisfy my sadistic desire to get Pushing Daisies off the air. I only saw most of the first episode, so maybe I haven't given it much of a chance; but it's that first episode that seems to have charmed everyone else. This show thinks it's way more clever than it is, the acting is obvious quirky obnoxiousness and the gimmick is just to upfront for us to enjoy any type of subtle enjoyment. Pushing Daisies only has four episodes left and, although everyone is talking about it now, this writer's strike could mean death to the fledgling show. Sad, really. But it makes me happy.

post to advocate my solidarity with the writers' strike as well as fulfil my obligations to write a post a day during november

saw control

I've been looking forward to seeing Control ever since I first heard that Anton Corbijn would be directing it. When was that? It must have been like two years ago. Anton has never made a movie up until now, but I am a fan. He's sort of a famous rock photographer who's handled U2, the Killers, Depeche Mode and stuff like that. I mostly know him from his Depeche Mode work. He's done nearly all their videos. In fact, the credits list a "special thanks" to Martin Gore, Depeche Mode's songwriter.

I heard that he didn't want his first feature film to be a rock music biopic, but he was drawn into Control because even though he wanted to get away from being labled a "rock photographer," the subject matter was intensely close to him. Corbijn was one of the only photographers to shoot the band Joy Division. It was just about his first gig when he arrived in England from Holland or wherever he's from.
Joy Division's music isn't just considered depressing. They're the reigning princes of misery in late 70s British music. I was turned onto Joy Division as a teenager. It wasn't because I was a severely bleak kid or anything, the music was just sort of therapeutic.

The movie Control is centered around the tortured life of Ian Curtis, Joy Division's singer. Watching the movie is like playing tennis with a brick wall. It's relentless.

Most of the film's effectiveness can probably go to Sam Riley, the actor who portrays Curtis. If we were to take Curtis's life and actually measure how tortured he should have been, we'd probably come up with a seemingly low score. He had his problems such as trying to overcome his severe epilepsy as well as being torn between two women, but he was also becoming prestigious and always had available support from family and friends. All he really had to worry about was keeping his condition in check and staying faithful to those who loved him. The decisions he makes that damage him and the ones he loves so savagely are not understandable at all. Even if his actions can't logically be explained, Riley perfectly explains that Curtis was constantly tortured by the life around him. He just had this way of portraying a believable victimization constantly. The movie really makes no apologies for the guy, but it leaves no doubt that Curtis struggled with everything he did.

We get the film in black and white. Corbijn said that he likes seeing things in black and white because it makes the world so much simpler. I felt that the black and white brought Ian's world to us more concretely. I've often thought that the world is more real, more solid in times of depression. The black and white carried a similar weight.

There are other actors in the movie, one of them the sweetheart Samantha Morton. They're great. Fortunately, the band and management provide a small dose of comic relief every once in a while. It was also a wonderful pleasure for me to see the personality and dynamics of the band that would become New Order.

The movie was really well-done. Extremely well executed. I just don't know if I can say I like it. I'd totally totally totally tell you to see it if you're in the mood for a downer.

On the way out I wondered if I'd ever be able to really enjoy Joy Division's music again. I might just constantly associate it with Ian's lack of control.

trek gods and debauchery

So while we're speaking on Star Trek, one of my very favorite episodes was on yesterday.

Ever see the one called "Return of the Archons?" It's pretty good. It's one of my favorites, if I didn't mention that already. Somehow I think I've given the synopsis on my blog or my site before, but hey, here it is again.

The Enterprise is investigating the disappearance of the U.S.S. Archon that disappeared 100 years earlier. I don't know why it took them so long to get around to finding this other ship or how the search would even benefit something that was lost for so long, but give them credit anyway. The ship was last seen around the vicinity of a planet inexplicably inhabited by humans (or maybe they're aliens that the production people at Paramount didn't have the budget to apply makeup to) and the crew checks the place out. The people on this planet do nothing but walk around like zombies, being vaguely pleasant to each other except for during a specific time during the week. This time is known as "The Festival" or "Red Hour." At Red Hour, the clock chimes and the townspeople cease somnambulism and cut directly to unabashed debauchery -- unbridled sexuality, looting, throwing stuff, etc. Eventually Kirk and the crew find that they're in a place similar to that place with the glowing brain in A Wrinkle in Time. The people are controlled, but secretly hope for more "Archons" like the ones from 100 years ago who shook up their backward society, but ultimately failed to overthrow the control.

There are some wonderful gems. "They're the sweetest, most wonderful people in the universe -- it's paradise." Such things are countered by Kirk and co. at the climax when he argues against this idea, positing that "good must transcend evil" and ultimately that such mindlessness is vacant contentment and not real contentment in the least. The cold logic and order of this planet was God to the people. Apparently a being with merely the means to keep tabs on millions of people and provide safety is hardly God at all. The cold logic didn't have the soul or the spirit of true love and leadership.

I didn't mean to get all this serious.

Anyway, a couple of things were unnecessary, but very welcome. First of all, there was no need to have the original Archons in the story at all. The slight story widening was sort of fun to consider what happened during the events of 100 years ago, though.

The other thing that's stayed with me ever since I first saw the episode is the concept of Red Hour. One guy commented on the imdb that he liked the episode, but it bugged him that the idea of Red Hour was never explained. He assumed that since there was so little action, the producers just threw in people going crazy to make the episode more exciting. No. That's not the case. Perhaps a more elaborate explanation was lost in syndication episode cuts, but the reason for Red Hour is because humanity can't be constrained by constant control. Whatever power was holding the people back needed to let loose to ensure a sort of pressure valve. People who independently better themselves probably wouldn't need Red Hour. This concept was unnecessary for the purposes of what actually happens in the story, but I feel it deepens some of the themes involved.

It turns out that Ben Stiller named his production company "Red Hour" in honor of this episode.

People who know me really really well, know why I really love the concept of Red Hour. I always relate it back to my days at BYU. Some would say that BYU is far more controlled and far more soulless than 99% of all other college campuses in the country. But, BYU had a Red Hour in the form of dance classes. The decentest, most conservative people there always took a dance class and it was the one time during the week when co-human full-body rubbing was guaranteed. The Latin and ballroom types were the most depraved. I never took a dance class, but I made observations. I couldn't imagine participating objectively without my own carnal self getting involved. I suppose my pressure valve was breaking all the other rules.

J.R. if you're still doing the Star Trek Netflix thing, let me know when you get to this episode. Also, I want to do a commentary on Star Trek II sometime in the future.

stream of whatever

I tripped on the treadmill again the other day.

Tell me. When am I actually supposed to start feeling good after going to the gym? It's so absolutely punishment.

I need to buy new clothes. My high-flyin' stuff I got from Mexpress three years ago is begining to fray.

Why would anyone save used ink cartridges from work for six months? It's because I'm ob-com about recycling. For whatever reason, Best Buy has a place where people can recycle print cartridges. Seems like something pretty weird to recycle, but they do it somehow.

Maria is going out of town this weekend. That means lots more burping and farting. It also means I'll be able to plow through the entire dvd of Babylon 5 that just came in through Netflix. I'll probably hit that new movie about Ian Curtis called Control. I'll definitely eat lots of Chinese food. What else should I do?

She's heading to Frisco. I'm not the type of person who exalts specific cities, but San Francisco is pretty choice. I've only been there once, and it was like 20 years ago, but I remember being quite impressed. I tried to talk her into playing that game Manhunter: San Francisco to get used to the area, but she didn't seem too interested.

Have fun, honey! I'll have fun without you, but probably not really that much fun.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I voted the other day. Turns out I voted the same way most other people voted. I didn't vote for that Dave "I like this guy" Buhler for mayor. The reason is probably pretty lame by most standards and it's definitely impertinent to any principle or issue. I just hated his sign that said "vote for the doer, not the dreamer." I'd prefer to have a guy in charge who considered themselves a doer and a dreamer. Because he let go of the "dreamer" part, it sounds like he has no ideals. Yeah, give me a dreamer. I'd rather have someone who hopes to make changes for the better instead of simply being a hard-worker. Of course that person's dream could easily be one where he or she is in underwear in class, but then they inexplicably fall off a cliff. Maybe that would be bad.

Yesterday, I picked up the latest issue of Blender. I'm not really much of a prude or anything, but the front cover this month was pretty extreme. I actually ripped the cover off, because such smut is strangely beneath me; but mostly because I certainly couldn't be seen reading it without people thinking that I regularly read dirty magazines. If anybody is curious, the cover is a very provocative shot of Nicole Scherzinger and it's at the bottom of my recycling bin.

say cheesecake factory!

Yep. Here it is. It's here. Done. I saw it. Here. I saw it here at Fashion Place Mall.

Just so you know, presently the wait time for two people is 50 minutes.

Here's the menu. Maria and I are eventually going to try every cheesecake, or maybe every pasta.

daylight saving blues once more

So I had another thing to post today, but blogger isn't accepting my pictures. Pictures work on my other blogs (check them out! (except they haven't been updated in a while actually)), but for some reason my main blog is having problems. I believe it has something to do with the fact that I'm publishing to my own server rather than the blogger server. Over the past two years I've had some pretty continuous problems in this regard. Hopefully this post gets published, honestly. I am very close to ceasing my ftp dealie altogether and switching over to jonmadsen.blogspot.com.

If, one day, you come here and I'm not here anymore; try jonmadsen.blogspot.com.

Anyway, We got an extra hour this weekend! How did you spend your time? I played Pool of Radiance.

forget literacy, it's star trek time!

I've never considered myself that much of a Star Trek fan.

*wait for laughter*

I am the biggest Star Trek fan I know, but that's different. The reason I feel I'm not much of a fan isn't because I don't like Star Trek that much, it's because I DON'T feel that Star Trek is the most important show to ever air on television. I DON'T feel that Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future is really a good template to base society on. I DON'T feel that just about any Star Trek fight scene can legitimately be considered a believable fight scene.

I love Star Trek. A lot. It's just that there are too many other movies and tv shows that have a higher priority. So I am a fan. I'm just not much of one. A true Star Trek fan is far more zealous than I.

Strangely, however, I've noticed that Star Trek has been coming up in my life an awful lot lately besides my latest Halloween stint. I'm wondering if perhaps the ghost of Roddenberry is calling me to duty to become more of a fan than I actually am. I've noticed that every time I go to Las Vegas I pick up something from the Star Trek Store at the Hilton. Lately some of my podcast listening has been determined by Star Trek. The man behind Lost, another one of my intense pleasures, is colliding worlds and making the next Star Trek film. But definitely, the biggest, strangest event is my good friend J.R. telling me that he's going to actually give Star Trek a shot.

J.R., perhaps needing an escape from the island paradise he lives on, has put ALL Star Trek series and movies into his Netflix queue (read his post here). He's asked me to tell him what chronological order to watch everything in. I don't actually recommend doing that for reasons I'll discuss later, but if someone does decide to do it that way, I'll provide it. I'll also provide my simplified suggestion. Both are for anyone else attempting such a brave stunt.

First, if you actually want to watch everything chronologically in the Star Trek universe you must do it in the following order (which i actually DON'T recommend):

1. Star Trek: ENTERPRISE (all seasons)
2. The upcoming movie from J.J. Abrams
3. Star Trek: The Original Series (all seasons)
4. Star Trek: The Animated Series (all seasons)
5. Star Trek movies 1-6
6. Star Trek: The Next Generation seasons 1-the first half of Season 6
7. Star Trek: Deep Space 9 Season 1
8. The Next Generation second half of season 6 to the end of the series
9. Deep Space 9 Season 2
10. Star Trek: Generations
11. Deep Space 9 Season 3
12. Star Trek: Voyager Season 1
13. Deep Space 9 Season 4
14. Voyager Season 2
15. Star Trek: First Contact
16. Voyager first half of Season 3
17. Deep Space 9 Season 5
18. Voyager second half of Season 3
19. Voyager Season 4
20. Deep Space 9 Season 6
21. Star Trek: Insurrection
22. Deep Space 9 Season 7
23. Voyager Seasons 5-7
24. Star Trek: Nemesis

The reason I wouldn't do it this way is because I haven't even seen a whole episode of Enterprise. I hear it sucks really bad and I don't want anyone to get an immediate bad taste. In fact here's a rough breakdown of how many episodes and movies I've actually seen:

movies: 100%
The Original Series: 80%
The Animated Series: 0%
The Next Generation: 90%
Deep Space 9: 20%
Voyager: 10%
Enterprise: 1%

I'd just recommend watching them in the order they were actually made. That's how people seem to have become Star Trek Fans.
That roughly means watching in the following order (ROUGHLY):
1. The Original Series
2. The Animated Series
3. The first six movies
4. Next Generation
5. Generations
6. Deep Space 9
7. First Contact
8. Insurrection
9. Voyager
10. Nemesis

I know watching them out of order isn't something you'd like to do, J.R., but I think it would be more pleasurable. They may all take place at different points in time, but I think they were all written around the fact that viewers would be familiar with things that actually take place "later" (sort of like the Star Wars movies I suppose). Plus, the original series and Next Generation are definitely the most important and obvious ones to tackle, so you may as well do them before you're bored with too much other stuff. I've always wanted to see The Animated Series. I hear it was alright. Original voices and everything.

It may actually be fun to watch them chronologically, because you'll be able to see the continuity get screwed up from so many series as it would have gotten screwed up in the Star Trek Universe.

This is exciting. I'm really glad J.R. is givin' it a shot. Will he become a fan? Obviously not, but it's still exciting nonetheless. I just hope you get through a good slew of the original episodes. Those are my very favorite mostly because of the incredible presence of William Shatner. He's a joy to watch and emulate and love. I revere him in much the same way we all revere Charlton Heston. I don't want to start some big thing on who's better, Shatner and Heston. However, I would empty my savings account in order to see the two of them fight to the death.

I mentioned before that Star Trek has influenced my listening. A real fun way to compliment your Trek watching is to listen to a podcast called Make It So. Here's an iTunes link. It's a wonderful podcast by some British blokes who are sort of combing through all the Star Trek incarnations as well. They are fans, but they pretty much make fun of Star Trek 90% of the time. The other 10% seems to be sweet, sweet drunk talk.

Live long and prosper.

Cheers.

striving toward literacy

So I have this friend named Emily. About a month ago I was amazed to discover that when she was in grade school, she read every single Newberry Award-winning book up until that time. What's more amazing is that when I asked her what the best Newberry book was, she said it was hard to decide, but that she would think it over and rank them all from best to worst. She calls herself a book-geek. I've wasted lots of free-time devoting myself to other things, but my geek cred isn't nearly as... intelligent as hers. Anyway, you'll probably learn a lot more about her on her blog (if she has one).

Point is, just a couple of days ago she sent me an email saying that she's still working on the list, but that she's narrowed down her favorites from individual decades. Here's the list:

1994 Medal Winner: The Giver by Lois Lowry (Houghton)
1984 Medal Winner: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
1972 Medal Winner: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (Atheneum)
1968 Medal Winner: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
1955 Medal Winner: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
1949 Medal Winner: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
1936 Medal Winner: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (Macmillan)
1927 Medal Winner: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)

And you know she's an absolute book-geek when she makes sure to supply the publishing companies too.

I've read Frisby, Mixed-Up Files and parts of Henshaw (which I found pretty absorbing even though I recall someone in elementary school saying it was lame). I liked the NIMH movie more than the book (I'm a movie-geek -- I've got my loyalties) and all I really remember about the Mixed-Up Files is something about bologna and that the kids bathed in a public fountain.

I've heard of The Giver, but I haven't heard of any of the others. Has anyone else? What should I read once I get through Twilight (and its sequels), Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Interview With the Vampire, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Dracula, Frankenstein, Empire, Shadow Puppets, Black Sunday, Neverwhere, Seventh Son, and Wise Blood? Who am I kidding? I'll probably just read Twilight.

and now for someone completely different

Let's just take this time to introduce two "friends of the moment" as seen in the column to the right.

The Willis family is composed of Jake and Dana and their kids Jonah, Gavin and Breck. I've known Jake since I was nine years old. He's pretty weird, but very smart and funny and friendly. Just don't get on his bad side. He can heckle you to tears.

Monica is Maria's sister. She's one of those English grads and so I've been trying to get her to start a blog for a long long time. She wanted my help in getting it going, but now hers is like way better than mine. Suddenly I'm all mad and jealous and I so wish I didn't encourage her. Anyway, check her out if you want more enjoyment than I can give you.

i never thought i'd become a pod person

The above is the current Extralife strip. Scott Johnson, who does Extralife, also does a podcast of which I'm a regular listener to. I listen to another podcast from The U.K. called The Definitive Word. Strangely, that podcast subject for today is actually euthanasia.

Just about every week I have that Truman Show moment where I get the feeling that whatever high-tech organization that is controlling my life slips up a little bit and throws some strange coincidences into my life. I mean, how often do we talk about euthanasia? Maybe I just listen to way too many podcasts. I drive a lot, ok?

The Definitive Word mentioned a guy named Harold Shipman. Have you ever heard of him? You probably have. Will Tristram and Mike Dawson (the hosts) weren't sure if Americans had or not so they briefly explained. Apparently this guy euthanized probably over 200 people against their will in England. This was like at the turn of the century or so (and by turn of the century, I mean the most recent turn -- y'know the turn of the millenium). When I passed by the tv at work the two stories CNN was covering were a breakdown of Britney's monthly expenses and a little boy who got off the bus at the wrong time and wound up six miles from home. I almost went into the news business you know. I figured I wasn't serious enough for it. I suppose I was wrong. In all fairness though, I hardly ever watch CNN or any other news really. Game shows are pretty much the most non-fictional items I view on tv. I'll bet that if I watched CNN a few years ago, I'd know exactly who Harold Shipman is (or was -- he actually euthanized himself with a bedsheet in prison).

While I'm talking about podcasts, Rhett, remind me to show you the Attack of the Show podcast where they go over the Halo 3 forge. It's pretty psycho.

Anybody else listen to podcasts? They're free. That's pretty much why they've replaced new music for me.

This blog entry has been brought to you by:

Myextralife.com
The Definitive Word
The Truman Show
Attack of the Show!
Halo 3
The United Kingdom
Harold Shipman
and
J.R. Fillmore's November movie of the month! -- Vote now! This is definitely the most important movie of the month yet!

lost in utica

The Office has come full circle for me.

I've mentioned it a little to friends over the past couple of weeks, but tonight's episode really did it. I am officially uncomfortable when I watch the show. I think tonight really did it because I think for the first time, I've felt really horrendously awkward on behalf of Jim. That time when he cried in front of Pam doesn't count. He was quite dignified. But Jim is usually the rock, y'know? Arrgh. Brilliant, but burdensome.

Karen was cuter than I remember. Pam has been exceptionally cute this season, but I thought Karen really had an edge tonight. I'm betting in three episodes, Jim and Pam will fall apart because Jim doesn't take her art seriously enough.

We all have our little finer things. One of my finer things is to get a car air-freshener that specifically is not a pine tree.

This post may seem pretty frivolous, but I'm going to see if I can put in an entry for every day in November.