Thursday, March 10, 2005
Monday, March 07, 2005
I Am Such a Nerd
So, I'm watching South Park -- the first fourth grade one -- and these two nerd guys are arguing about how many original Star Trek episodes there were. Nerd 1 argues for 72. Nerd 2 argues for 73. All the SP kids think they're pathetic.
And my first thought?
Uh, guys, there were seventy-nine.
{sigh}
And it got worse...they were then showing how nerdy Butters was 'cause he was saying how "The Menagerie" being two parts only counted as one because it was the original pilot, and later was split up?
Nuh-uh. The original pilot was "The Cage," which was spliced into the two-parter "The Menagerie" later....
Let's all sing the "I'm a nerd" song....
And my first thought?
Uh, guys, there were seventy-nine.
{sigh}
And it got worse...they were then showing how nerdy Butters was 'cause he was saying how "The Menagerie" being two parts only counted as one because it was the original pilot, and later was split up?
Nuh-uh. The original pilot was "The Cage," which was spliced into the two-parter "The Menagerie" later....
Let's all sing the "I'm a nerd" song....
Sunday, March 06, 2005
You're Kidding Me, Right?
It's now an act of terrorism to write a short story about zombies -- zombies, for cryin' out loud -- taking over a high school.
Now, being extremely generous, I can see that the fact that the kid who wrote it is a student there might -- maybe -- make it a little more suspicious.
However.
You tell people to write about what they know.
I know that if you look through my old writings...I set stories in high schools when I was in high school; in college when I was in college, and so forth.
So, if your writing bent happens towards the zombies, and you're in high school, you will probably write a story about zombies at a high school.
Ridiculous....
In nerd news, former Screen Savers guy Dan Huard has joined with Roger Chang (of Call For Help and The Screensavers) has started a technology website called Scopetech. Yay.
In other nerd news, thanks to ffmpegX, I am currently ripping some of my DVDs to my laptop's hard drive to take along when I go with my mom and Patrick to Disneyland for the weekend in 2 weeks for Patrick's 18th (gulp!) birthday.
It's something of an experiment; if it results in longer battery life (since it won't be spinning the actual DVD, it should take less battery power to play an avi file than the DVD) I will probably rip most of them so that my DVD case can stay safely home when travelling, since my whole DVD collection (mostly) fits in there.
In more nerd news, since this is from an English/Irish online store, I wonder if thinkgeek has one of these?
Finally, since my grandpa now has a lot of time on his hands, he wants to buy a computer. This is a scary prospect. He wants broadband, but doesn't know what spyware, viruses, or popups are, let alone that they're bad and that they happen a lot with broadband.
So I'm advocating a Mac.
My cousin keeps saying that the differences in user interface (?!) will confuse him, but as far as I'm concerned, the main differences are the one-button mouse (so we'll buy him a two-button mouse, so he can learn about right-clicking) and having option and command keys instead of Alt and Command, but he won't be using those anyway. When you come down to it, File | Save is the same in both OSs.
And, if he does have trouble translating the computer skills to the computers at work, he can buy Virtual PC to install whatever he needs to install, and run it when not connected to the Internet.
Meanwhile my Pepsi/iTunes winning streak seems to be over...but since I won about 6 in a row over last week, a few "please play agains" will not bug me too much.
Now to find my Annual Pass so I can get to Disneyland and buy Patrick's birthday present next weekend....
Now, being extremely generous, I can see that the fact that the kid who wrote it is a student there might -- maybe -- make it a little more suspicious.
However.
You tell people to write about what they know.
I know that if you look through my old writings...I set stories in high schools when I was in high school; in college when I was in college, and so forth.
So, if your writing bent happens towards the zombies, and you're in high school, you will probably write a story about zombies at a high school.
Ridiculous....
In nerd news, former Screen Savers guy Dan Huard has joined with Roger Chang (of Call For Help and The Screensavers) has started a technology website called Scopetech. Yay.
In other nerd news, thanks to ffmpegX, I am currently ripping some of my DVDs to my laptop's hard drive to take along when I go with my mom and Patrick to Disneyland for the weekend in 2 weeks for Patrick's 18th (gulp!) birthday.
It's something of an experiment; if it results in longer battery life (since it won't be spinning the actual DVD, it should take less battery power to play an avi file than the DVD) I will probably rip most of them so that my DVD case can stay safely home when travelling, since my whole DVD collection (mostly) fits in there.
In more nerd news, since this is from an English/Irish online store, I wonder if thinkgeek has one of these?
Finally, since my grandpa now has a lot of time on his hands, he wants to buy a computer. This is a scary prospect. He wants broadband, but doesn't know what spyware, viruses, or popups are, let alone that they're bad and that they happen a lot with broadband.
So I'm advocating a Mac.
My cousin keeps saying that the differences in user interface (?!) will confuse him, but as far as I'm concerned, the main differences are the one-button mouse (so we'll buy him a two-button mouse, so he can learn about right-clicking) and having option and command keys instead of Alt and Command, but he won't be using those anyway. When you come down to it, File | Save is the same in both OSs.
And, if he does have trouble translating the computer skills to the computers at work, he can buy Virtual PC to install whatever he needs to install, and run it when not connected to the Internet.
Meanwhile my Pepsi/iTunes winning streak seems to be over...but since I won about 6 in a row over last week, a few "please play agains" will not bug me too much.
Now to find my Annual Pass so I can get to Disneyland and buy Patrick's birthday present next weekend....
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Science
It's a science night...I just finished creating 2 modified versions of the 5th graders' science test...the first, for A., involves reading short paragraphs about 3 popular molecules and answering questions, and the second, for R.L., involves matching words & pictures for popular molecules (officially -- water, salt, and oxygen).
See, they're mainstreamed into a science class that studied chemistry, but they have a horribly uninteresting substitute, so I figured the important thing for them to know about chemistry was a little bit about some things they'll run into life.
Meanwhile, as I'm typing up the last of A's paragraphs (about salt), Alton Brown is explaining emulsifiers on Good Eats...seriously, Stace, tape this show and use it for your chemistry class...at least, the parts with the styrofoam balls and push pins. ;-)
Murphy's Law moment of the day: I pick Patrick up from school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, because he has an afterschool work experience/class thing. I sat there today for about 25 minutes, and finally called my mom (rather than him, so he wouldn't get in trouble if he had his cell phone on) and asked if she knew why his class was running late.
"Oooooh!" she says. "It's Thursday! Oh, he stayed home from school today."
Sigh.
See, they're mainstreamed into a science class that studied chemistry, but they have a horribly uninteresting substitute, so I figured the important thing for them to know about chemistry was a little bit about some things they'll run into life.
Meanwhile, as I'm typing up the last of A's paragraphs (about salt), Alton Brown is explaining emulsifiers on Good Eats...seriously, Stace, tape this show and use it for your chemistry class...at least, the parts with the styrofoam balls and push pins. ;-)
Murphy's Law moment of the day: I pick Patrick up from school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, because he has an afterschool work experience/class thing. I sat there today for about 25 minutes, and finally called my mom (rather than him, so he wouldn't get in trouble if he had his cell phone on) and asked if she knew why his class was running late.
"Oooooh!" she says. "It's Thursday! Oh, he stayed home from school today."
Sigh.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Oops
Okay, so the FTP server is down. The site's updated on my hard drive anyway. Others will just have to wait to read the newest masterpiece (not). :-)
Always Trust the Ears
First off -- by the time y'all read this, I should have uploaded a few updates to my temporary website, including updates to one story and a whole new story. ;-)
This is pointless, really, but it always amuses me how I can recognize voices, even behind alien makeup and all that -- because when it comes to music, I am pretty much tone deaf. Although I love to sing, I only do so alone 'cause I know I'm no good at it.
Anyhow, Sci-Fi is showing The Clan of the Cave Bear, the movie made of Jean M. Auel's book -- the only one of the series I really enjoyed, though I read the first three.
So, I've seen it a few times, and the voice of the narrator always nagged at me, because I knew it from somewhere.
Then, tonight, it hit me. It's the Female Changeling! Well, at least, to Deep Space Nine fans. :-) It's actually Salome Jens, who has appeared in quite a lot of TV (including much sci-fi) and several movies. Am I good, or what? :-)
Incidentally -- the movie is a good, but not great, adaptation of the book. By necessity, it must leave out much of the Neandertals' biology, customs, psychology, and the other anthropological stuff that made the book so fascination (and which was absent from the sequels).
After suffering through a day and a half of my hot-and-freezing-cold mood swings that I get when I have a fever, I am finally feeling somewhat alive...which is good. Turns out there's something of an epidemic of a weird strain of strep throat that involves some additional weird infection thingie going around the Moorpark/Simi area.
So, it's back to the daily grind I go, while I begin to count down the days until spring break. :-)
This is pointless, really, but it always amuses me how I can recognize voices, even behind alien makeup and all that -- because when it comes to music, I am pretty much tone deaf. Although I love to sing, I only do so alone 'cause I know I'm no good at it.
Anyhow, Sci-Fi is showing The Clan of the Cave Bear, the movie made of Jean M. Auel's book -- the only one of the series I really enjoyed, though I read the first three.
So, I've seen it a few times, and the voice of the narrator always nagged at me, because I knew it from somewhere.
Then, tonight, it hit me. It's the Female Changeling! Well, at least, to Deep Space Nine fans. :-) It's actually Salome Jens, who has appeared in quite a lot of TV (including much sci-fi) and several movies. Am I good, or what? :-)
Incidentally -- the movie is a good, but not great, adaptation of the book. By necessity, it must leave out much of the Neandertals' biology, customs, psychology, and the other anthropological stuff that made the book so fascination (and which was absent from the sequels).
After suffering through a day and a half of my hot-and-freezing-cold mood swings that I get when I have a fever, I am finally feeling somewhat alive...which is good. Turns out there's something of an epidemic of a weird strain of strep throat that involves some additional weird infection thingie going around the Moorpark/Simi area.
So, it's back to the daily grind I go, while I begin to count down the days until spring break. :-)
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Stuff
So, it's been a while. I'm still working on the eloquent thing, and I decided I shouldn't wait until I could come up with something.
This is gonna be very random, so bear with me.
The last couple of weeks have been very hectic. My grandpa and aunt both ended up with pneumonia -- grandpa the day before grandma's internment, and my aunt the day after. She had blue nailbeds by the time she got off the plane. Both are okay now, although grandpa won't go to get rechecked.
I, of course, managed to catch the cold that both of them had before they had pneumonia, thus adding to the Year of Unending Illness that is traditionally your first year of teaching...but when have I ever been traditional, eh?
Meanwhile, I've had another IEP...this one was hurried, 'cause the mom needed ot pick up the girl's sister, but it went okay. It's always nice to say, "Your child met and exceeded all of her goals."
Patrick's IEP was the week of grandma's internment...that Tuesday, I think. Of course, I couldn't ask for a personal day, with what all went on with grandma. Somehow, the OT that did his assessment came to the conclusion that he has limited upper body strength, despite the fact that he can literally pick up his 6-foot-tall cousin. But whatever.
We have Drama going on at school, but that's a whole 'nother thing. People with martyr complexes are very hard to deal with...but fortunately, I have a couple of really good aides that take the pressure off a bit.
My cats are on a canned food kick, which they haven't been for a while. And, of course, being cats, they think that every time I go into the kitchen, it is necessarily for their benefit. :-)
I've been really enjoying Battlestar Galactica, in its reincarnated version. Kara (Starbuck) is a fascinating character; I'd like to see more of what makes Adama tick, but I think the fact that we haven't is deliberate. Meanwhile, my interest in both Stargate and Atlantis has been waning...but when Enterprise (which is finally watchable, of course) goes off the air, it's the only sci-fi on the air that's caught my eye, so I guess I'll have to do.
I've been wanting to go see a movie lately (very odd for me, since they give me headaches that verge on migraines) but there's nothing I really want to see. Later in the year, of course, there will be Star Wars, War of the Worlds, the next Harry Potter and a few others that I've watched trailers for with iTunes, but....
Speaking of -- I think I've won about 8 songs now. Definitely beats last year. :-)
I think there was more, but I have officially lost my train of thought.
This is gonna be very random, so bear with me.
The last couple of weeks have been very hectic. My grandpa and aunt both ended up with pneumonia -- grandpa the day before grandma's internment, and my aunt the day after. She had blue nailbeds by the time she got off the plane. Both are okay now, although grandpa won't go to get rechecked.
I, of course, managed to catch the cold that both of them had before they had pneumonia, thus adding to the Year of Unending Illness that is traditionally your first year of teaching...but when have I ever been traditional, eh?
Meanwhile, I've had another IEP...this one was hurried, 'cause the mom needed ot pick up the girl's sister, but it went okay. It's always nice to say, "Your child met and exceeded all of her goals."
Patrick's IEP was the week of grandma's internment...that Tuesday, I think. Of course, I couldn't ask for a personal day, with what all went on with grandma. Somehow, the OT that did his assessment came to the conclusion that he has limited upper body strength, despite the fact that he can literally pick up his 6-foot-tall cousin. But whatever.
We have Drama going on at school, but that's a whole 'nother thing. People with martyr complexes are very hard to deal with...but fortunately, I have a couple of really good aides that take the pressure off a bit.
My cats are on a canned food kick, which they haven't been for a while. And, of course, being cats, they think that every time I go into the kitchen, it is necessarily for their benefit. :-)
I've been really enjoying Battlestar Galactica, in its reincarnated version. Kara (Starbuck) is a fascinating character; I'd like to see more of what makes Adama tick, but I think the fact that we haven't is deliberate. Meanwhile, my interest in both Stargate and Atlantis has been waning...but when Enterprise (which is finally watchable, of course) goes off the air, it's the only sci-fi on the air that's caught my eye, so I guess I'll have to do.
I've been wanting to go see a movie lately (very odd for me, since they give me headaches that verge on migraines) but there's nothing I really want to see. Later in the year, of course, there will be Star Wars, War of the Worlds, the next Harry Potter and a few others that I've watched trailers for with iTunes, but....
Speaking of -- I think I've won about 8 songs now. Definitely beats last year. :-)
I think there was more, but I have officially lost my train of thought.
Monday, February 14, 2005
Random Musings
I keep having these half-eloquent thoughts about last week...this week...Thursday, etc...but they keep coming and going. I seem to be having trouble hanging on to thoughts, which I assume has something to do with exhaustion and stress. Maybe it'll come to me. Good Monday to everyone.
Sunday, February 13, 2005
When It Rains...
Since Thursday morning (see previous post), the following things have also happened:
- my DishNetwork receiver quit working
- my car had a flat tire
- my patched-tire blew out on the 405
- my grandfather ignored everyone telling him he was sick, and he is now at Kaiser, probably with pneumonia
Thursday, February 10, 2005
1:30 A.M.
From the now-defunct studiesinwords.de.
Shot of Buffy and Tara sitting on the sofa next to each other. They look at each other, then away.Rest in peace, grandma.
BUFFY: (softly, speaking to the floor) I'm sorry...you have to go through all of this.
TARA: You don't have to worry about me.
BUFFY: Everybody wants to help. (Tara looks at her) I don't even know if I'm...here. (Tara looks away) I don't know what's going on. Never done this. (pauses) That's just an amazingly dumb thing to say. Obviously...I've never done this before.
Beat.
TARA: (softly) I have.
Buffy looks over at her.
TARA: My mother died when I was seventeen.
(cut some stuff)
Buffy looks back up at Tara.
BUFFY: Was it sudden?
TARA: What?
BUFFY: Your mother.
TARA: No. (thinks) And…yes. (pauses) It's always sudden.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Maturity
So, I'm driving Patrick back to the house after visiting grandma last night. My mom stayed there because grandpa was really freaked out (it's looking like it'll be sometime this week), so I took Patrick to dinner. He was really upset, saying he didn't want grandma to "go" -- she had been talking about how she was ready before she went to sleep.
We drove through McDonald's, and as we were turning up towards the house, out of the blue, he says, "Grandma was right."
"About what?" I asked. There's a strange resignation in his tone.
"I don't like seeing her like this. She should go." Now, he's sad and choked up when he says it, but he's utterly serious. He doesn't want her to suffer, and he is ready to let her go so that she doesn't have to.
This is my brother, ladies and gentlemen. Disabilities or not, let no one say he doesn't understand what's really important in life.
We drove through McDonald's, and as we were turning up towards the house, out of the blue, he says, "Grandma was right."
"About what?" I asked. There's a strange resignation in his tone.
"I don't like seeing her like this. She should go." Now, he's sad and choked up when he says it, but he's utterly serious. He doesn't want her to suffer, and he is ready to let her go so that she doesn't have to.
This is my brother, ladies and gentlemen. Disabilities or not, let no one say he doesn't understand what's really important in life.
Monday, February 07, 2005
I Could Put a Cheesy 80s Song Quote Here
But, then, Leo already did that last week. :-)
So, today went pretty well -- which, if we go by last week's mood-swinginess, means tomorrow will be crazy, crazy, crazy....
Tomorrow, by the way, I have A.'s triennial, which I just finished writing. I always like how I think I have no goals planned, and then I just start writing them and don't stop.
As of a few hours ago, my grandpa was awaiting the arrival of a hospital bed at home, then grandma will be transferred home for hospice care. Supposedly, some doctor says it might be a week or less, but then, I remember several times when it was a matter of a day or two for my great-grandma, so I figure we'll just wait and see.
But (like I haven't said this enough), never, ever smoke.
If you've started, chew five pieces of the gum an hour if you have to, but quit.
Emphysema is not fun.
It's especially not fun if all your other faculties are in order, and you know exactly how miserable you are.
So, today went pretty well -- which, if we go by last week's mood-swinginess, means tomorrow will be crazy, crazy, crazy....
Tomorrow, by the way, I have A.'s triennial, which I just finished writing. I always like how I think I have no goals planned, and then I just start writing them and don't stop.
As of a few hours ago, my grandpa was awaiting the arrival of a hospital bed at home, then grandma will be transferred home for hospice care. Supposedly, some doctor says it might be a week or less, but then, I remember several times when it was a matter of a day or two for my great-grandma, so I figure we'll just wait and see.
But (like I haven't said this enough), never, ever smoke.
If you've started, chew five pieces of the gum an hour if you have to, but quit.
Emphysema is not fun.
It's especially not fun if all your other faculties are in order, and you know exactly how miserable you are.
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Update
First, let me say...the Cowboy Combo at Applebees is very yummy. Had that for dinner last night.
New developments for the day:
Happy Sunday.
New developments for the day:
- my aunt is visiting from New Mexico. I hope she came up with a good excuse, or grandma might think things are really, really dire. But my family is not known for its emotional prowess, particularly that branch of it, so I bet they just let it slide.
- my mother got one of her funny heartbeats, so we just hung out at our respective places today.
- there is nothing on TV, and I am left watching The Santa Clause 2 on Starz-Whatever-It-Is.
- I really don't want it to be Monday already, but have little choice in the matter.
Happy Sunday.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Statistics
So far, thanks to my mother sacrificing all reason and purchasing a Diet Pepsi because it was the only non-Mountain Dew Pepsi product 7-11 had that had iTunes caps, I have, in fact, won 1 song out of 3 purchases.
I don't expect the trend to continue, based on my winnings last year, but you never know. Oddly enough, I wish the hourly prize was an iPod Shuffle (which I want as much for the thumb-drive-ness as the music player part) rather than an iPod Mini, which I don't really need, seeing as how I've got my nice 40G iPod already....
I suppose I could always ebay it, but since I won't actually win one anyway, this is a moot point. ;-)
I don't expect the trend to continue, based on my winnings last year, but you never know. Oddly enough, I wish the hourly prize was an iPod Shuffle (which I want as much for the thumb-drive-ness as the music player part) rather than an iPod Mini, which I don't really need, seeing as how I've got my nice 40G iPod already....
I suppose I could always ebay it, but since I won't actually win one anyway, this is a moot point. ;-)
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Impulsiveness
Ever wanted a textbook definition of what "impulsiveness" (a word common to those who have ADD/ADHD)?
Next time you are at work and just want to scream, and a little voice says, "you'll be fired if you do that." Imagine not having that voice.
Next time you walk past a fire alarm pull and have brief thoughts of testing it, and a little voice says, "are you nuts?" Imagine not having that voice.
Next time you want to run out to your car in your bare feet and a little voice reminds you, "hey, the asphalt will hurt!" Imagine not having that voice.
I'm really, really glad I have that voice...I don't like stupid questions.
Brought to you from randomness central...'cause I've already forgotten what I was going to write anyway.
Next time you are at work and just want to scream, and a little voice says, "you'll be fired if you do that." Imagine not having that voice.
Next time you walk past a fire alarm pull and have brief thoughts of testing it, and a little voice says, "are you nuts?" Imagine not having that voice.
Next time you want to run out to your car in your bare feet and a little voice reminds you, "hey, the asphalt will hurt!" Imagine not having that voice.
I'm really, really glad I have that voice...I don't like stupid questions.
Brought to you from randomness central...'cause I've already forgotten what I was going to write anyway.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Same Old, Same Old
Isn't it scary when drama becomes the norm?
We had aides out all over the place, people subbing in classes they didn't know, thus messing up their break/lunch schedules (maybe I was spoiled at CHIME, but...you know...working there -- if there was no one to cover a class, no one would dream of taking a lunch, even if it was scheduled...sometimes kids' needs come first), kids going nutty 'cause of the rain, Patrick making dinner, and going to the hospital.
All of this feels normal.
Or, I think it might be just that I'm past the point of exhaustion and am running on cruise control.
I need a mental health weekend....
I'll be less POK-mobiley tomorrow, I promise....
We had aides out all over the place, people subbing in classes they didn't know, thus messing up their break/lunch schedules (maybe I was spoiled at CHIME, but...you know...working there -- if there was no one to cover a class, no one would dream of taking a lunch, even if it was scheduled...sometimes kids' needs come first), kids going nutty 'cause of the rain, Patrick making dinner, and going to the hospital.
All of this feels normal.
Or, I think it might be just that I'm past the point of exhaustion and am running on cruise control.
I need a mental health weekend....
I'll be less POK-mobiley tomorrow, I promise....
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Columbia
No explorer ever set off into the unknown because it was safe, but it's still sad when people pay the price for expanding our knowledge...
2 years since Columbia; 17 years since Challenger; 38 since Apollo 1.
But we've also set up a permanently habited space station, landed on asteroids and other planets, and set foot on a surface not tied on the Earth.
And, someday, I'm sure, we'll build other Columbias, and other Challengers. I think it would be fitting if our next-generation shuttle fleet had one of each. And a Grissom ("D'oh!" she says as she realizes where that name came from...), a Chaffee, a White, a McAuliffe, and so on and so forth.
Memorial (words: Misty Lackey, music: "Ballad of Springhill")
When you sing of Columbia or the Eagle
And reach for the stars as your ultimate goal.
Recall who fell along the way,
For the star-road takes a fearful toll,
The star-road takes a fearful toll.
And it might have been Armstrong, Aldrin, Cernan,
Shepard, Carpenter, Cooper, or Glenn.
They all knew well the questor's fee,
And the star-road's paved with the lives of men,
The star-road's paved with the lives of men.
For the price was paid on a winter evening
When "Fire in the spacecraft!" somebody said.
In smoke and flame the shadow passed
And in Capsule Twelve three men were dead,
In Capsule Twelve three men were dead.
Forget not yet who paid the forfeit
To conquer the stars in the Eagle's flight.
"It's worth the price." they said who paid:
Grissom, Chaffee, and Edward White.
Grissom, Chaffee, and Edward White.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To the men of Apollo 1....
January 1967
2 years since Columbia; 17 years since Challenger; 38 since Apollo 1.
But we've also set up a permanently habited space station, landed on asteroids and other planets, and set foot on a surface not tied on the Earth.
And, someday, I'm sure, we'll build other Columbias, and other Challengers. I think it would be fitting if our next-generation shuttle fleet had one of each. And a Grissom ("D'oh!" she says as she realizes where that name came from...), a Chaffee, a White, a McAuliffe, and so on and so forth.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Priorities
I wonder if it's only in California that the Michael Jackson case, complete with commentary from OJ prosecutor Marcia Clarke, made up the 2 top stories on the news, before news about the Iraqi election?
I meant to post about this yesterday, when the weird priorities were even more apparent since it was actually election day, but I forgot.
BTW, though, I can actually say I've driven through Santa Maria, and even been in the mall there, and it's really funny to hear people talk about it as though it's in the middle of rural Arkansas. :-)
I meant to post about this yesterday, when the weird priorities were even more apparent since it was actually election day, but I forgot.
BTW, though, I can actually say I've driven through Santa Maria, and even been in the mall there, and it's really funny to hear people talk about it as though it's in the middle of rural Arkansas. :-)
What is Adult?
So, while being home with what appears to be a 24-hour stomach flu, I was reading Ron Moore's blog at the Sci-Fi channel's website. Amidst some interesting Q&A, he addresses the question of sexuality on the show.
He makes a good point.
Let me preface this. One of the questions involved is a fan who is upset that they can't watch with their young children because of the sexuality.
Ron Moore's response is that BSG is an adult's show. It's not meant for young kids to watch. He doesn't let his young kids watch.
To be more accurate, it is, at least, TV PG. Like most sci-fi, especially apocalyptic sci-fi, there are battles. Like her male predecessor on the original BSG, Starbuck is...well, of the randy sort.
(Really, in a situation like that, I would expect many people to go a little carnally crazy, so to speak -- certainly, to be overcome with fatalism and chuck society's rules out the window...with the "what does it really matter" point of view intact as well. Really...what chances for survival do they really have? And what would you do if you suspected you wouldn't survive the next year? But that's beside the point -- and, besides, I'm not a sci-fi anthropologist.)
He also makes an even better point.
Why on Earth, except through the weirdness of America's puritanical culture that thinks nothing of showing exploding car bombs on the 4:00 news but fines people for brief wardrobe malfunctions during the SuperBowl halftime show (not known as a bastion of high-class entertainment, anyway), would we be more concerned about Baltar gets it on with the Hot Bad Girl (TM) than about the complete (save 150,000 or so survivors in the caravan) destruction of 12 freaking planets of people?
Full-on, billions-killed genocide.
On TV.
Mushroom clouds, shooting, and "much dying."
And we get bent out of shape 'cause of the sex.
Why?
Or, more to the point, what makes one more inherently bad -- or, inappropriate for younger viewers -- than another?
It's like the people that took their kids to see The Passion of the Christ...many of whom also stridently protested Janet Jackson's...eh...issues.
Why?
Now, don't go getting all religious on me. Understanding Jesus' sacrifice and all that.
Possibly a bad example...though I certainly don't recall learning how horrible, exactly, a death crucifixion was during my first grade religion class. We were taught it was Bad. It hurt A Lot. It wasn't until 6th grade or so that we went into some details...suffocation, and the like. It wasn't until high school, at least, that we learned some of the gory details...so I still don't necessarily buy it that very young children needed to -- or even should have been -- exposed to that.
Not to mention the fact that the whole thing is subtitled, and the poor little guys probably couldn't keep up with half of what was going on.
But I digress....
To get back on topic, and way from religion, here, the same could be said of The Lord of the Rings. Why is it okay to see Boromir riddled with bullets, Frodo's finger bitten off, thousands of people die during both the battles of Helms Deep and Minas Tirith, and so forth?
There were tons of little kids when I saw both The Two Towers and Return of the King in theaters (I didn't see FOTR in the theaters 'cause I didn't think I'd like it)...not so much at the special screenings of the Extended Editions at the Cineramadome, but anyway....
Would the same people have taken their kids if we'd seen Arwen and Aragorn do it? If we'd seen Rosie and Sam go at it? If we'd seen Faramir and Eowyn consummate their marriage?
All of this happened, though not explicitly, in the books. Arwen and Aragorn have children, after all, as do Sam and Rosie. I'm not certain about Faramir and Eowyn, but they do marry, and one would imagine they weren't celibate.
I think it just points out exactly the duality Ron Moore talks about. BSG gets flack for sexuality but not for genocide. In either case, it's not something for little kids. Most sci-fi isn't, really.
That said, I watched sci-fi from the time I was very young...but that was the original Star Trek, which isn't quite the same.
Imzadi, by Peter David, (who has a great blog, by the way) depicts sexual acts (the phrase "impressions that would puzzle future geologists" still makes me giggle), and I read that when it first came out.
I was, probably, about 12.
Did it scar me? Well, no.
Would it scar another kid? Who knows? But that's up to the parents.
It always comes down to that, doesn't it? If you think your kid can handle the sexual images (or, you know, the genocide), go for it. If you don't...record it...TiVo it...whatever...and save it until your sci-fi-ally inclined child is ready for it.
Parental responsibility...what a concept.
He makes a good point.
Let me preface this. One of the questions involved is a fan who is upset that they can't watch with their young children because of the sexuality.
Ron Moore's response is that BSG is an adult's show. It's not meant for young kids to watch. He doesn't let his young kids watch.
To be more accurate, it is, at least, TV PG. Like most sci-fi, especially apocalyptic sci-fi, there are battles. Like her male predecessor on the original BSG, Starbuck is...well, of the randy sort.
(Really, in a situation like that, I would expect many people to go a little carnally crazy, so to speak -- certainly, to be overcome with fatalism and chuck society's rules out the window...with the "what does it really matter" point of view intact as well. Really...what chances for survival do they really have? And what would you do if you suspected you wouldn't survive the next year? But that's beside the point -- and, besides, I'm not a sci-fi anthropologist.)
He also makes an even better point.
Why on Earth, except through the weirdness of America's puritanical culture that thinks nothing of showing exploding car bombs on the 4:00 news but fines people for brief wardrobe malfunctions during the SuperBowl halftime show (not known as a bastion of high-class entertainment, anyway), would we be more concerned about Baltar gets it on with the Hot Bad Girl (TM) than about the complete (save 150,000 or so survivors in the caravan) destruction of 12 freaking planets of people?
Full-on, billions-killed genocide.
On TV.
Mushroom clouds, shooting, and "much dying."
And we get bent out of shape 'cause of the sex.
Why?
Or, more to the point, what makes one more inherently bad -- or, inappropriate for younger viewers -- than another?
It's like the people that took their kids to see The Passion of the Christ...many of whom also stridently protested Janet Jackson's...eh...issues.
Why?
Now, don't go getting all religious on me. Understanding Jesus' sacrifice and all that.
Possibly a bad example...though I certainly don't recall learning how horrible, exactly, a death crucifixion was during my first grade religion class. We were taught it was Bad. It hurt A Lot. It wasn't until 6th grade or so that we went into some details...suffocation, and the like. It wasn't until high school, at least, that we learned some of the gory details...so I still don't necessarily buy it that very young children needed to -- or even should have been -- exposed to that.
Not to mention the fact that the whole thing is subtitled, and the poor little guys probably couldn't keep up with half of what was going on.
But I digress....
To get back on topic, and way from religion, here, the same could be said of The Lord of the Rings. Why is it okay to see Boromir riddled with bullets, Frodo's finger bitten off, thousands of people die during both the battles of Helms Deep and Minas Tirith, and so forth?
There were tons of little kids when I saw both The Two Towers and Return of the King in theaters (I didn't see FOTR in the theaters 'cause I didn't think I'd like it)...not so much at the special screenings of the Extended Editions at the Cineramadome, but anyway....
Would the same people have taken their kids if we'd seen Arwen and Aragorn do it? If we'd seen Rosie and Sam go at it? If we'd seen Faramir and Eowyn consummate their marriage?
All of this happened, though not explicitly, in the books. Arwen and Aragorn have children, after all, as do Sam and Rosie. I'm not certain about Faramir and Eowyn, but they do marry, and one would imagine they weren't celibate.
I think it just points out exactly the duality Ron Moore talks about. BSG gets flack for sexuality but not for genocide. In either case, it's not something for little kids. Most sci-fi isn't, really.
That said, I watched sci-fi from the time I was very young...but that was the original Star Trek, which isn't quite the same.
Imzadi, by Peter David, (who has a great blog, by the way) depicts sexual acts (the phrase "impressions that would puzzle future geologists" still makes me giggle), and I read that when it first came out.
I was, probably, about 12.
Did it scar me? Well, no.
Would it scar another kid? Who knows? But that's up to the parents.
It always comes down to that, doesn't it? If you think your kid can handle the sexual images (or, you know, the genocide), go for it. If you don't...record it...TiVo it...whatever...and save it until your sci-fi-ally inclined child is ready for it.
Parental responsibility...what a concept.
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