Temple Talysman

Crazy Dogs Do Crazy Things

2014-02-21T20:38:56Z

My mother had some kind of reaction to the chemotherapy and has been incoherent for the last sevveral days, and had trouble breathing Wednesday night and has been moved to the ICU. Otherwise, nothing new to report. So It thought I'd focus instead on something related to her, but not as somber.

While she's in the hospital, I am caring for her chihuahua. My mother wanted a pert for a long time to helpkeep her from being depressed, and had a recommendation from her doctor for one, but she probably shouldn't have gotten a dog. Even before the leukemia onset, her health fluctuated a lot and she is unable to keep any kind of schedule, not even a vague "daily" schedule. A cat would have been easier to take care of, Another kind of dog would have been easier to train.

But she has a chihuahua. A chihuahua with separation anxiety. She's been staring at the front door quite a bit, expecting my mom to come walking back through it any minute. And she goes in my mom's bedroom periodically to see if my mom is hiding under the blankets. Since the dog was spayed a few days before the emergency, she probably thinks this is all part of some kind of deliberate torture. She's been pretty calm lately, as long as I keep her in my lap and stay still. But man, if I take the trash out, she screams like she's being beaten or something. First time we went to see my mother in the hospital, we took the dog with us, with the idea that one person would stay outside with the dog while the other went in. Second time, though, my sister insisted we had to leave the dog at home, alone. First time ever.

No furniture or other items were chewed, but she seemed pretty hoarse when I got back.

Of course, when the dog is in a good mood, that's not necessarily a good thing. As a chihuahua, she's bossy. What she likes to do for hours on end is play. And play, to her, means biting your sweet, sweet flesh and tearing at your clothes, although occasionaly she will tear a toy instead, as long as you are holding it, and can occasionally "accidentally" bite your hand. She's not mad at you or snappy, she just thinks it's fun. I call her a "hand vampire".

Oh, Great.

2014-02-05T01:29:01Z

After verifying that the computer was working after The Ferocious Microsoft Incident, I spilled ice tea all over it. I know some got in the vents, because I turned it upside down to shake liquid out. Only a little drained out, so maybe it wasn't much, but I have it unplugged and upside down right now. Later, if we have some alcohol, I'll think about taking it apart to wipe it down, but I don't really have the tools to do this right.

And I'll have to skip using the desktop for several days. Blech.

Stupid Computer Stuff Detected

2014-02-03T00:53:04Z

So, I've been having a problem with the new desktop computer recently. Five days or so ago, Microsoft pushed an update my way. A day or two later, I had incidents where the computer would hang for anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours, perhaps forever, but I would force a reboot... and usually get the same problem within about an hour. It was a very weird behavior: I could move the mouse cursor, and when I moved it over to the upper right, the charms would (usually) pop up, but slowly. But whatever I was doing at the time was locked up pretty tight, and I couldn't close that program or start any new ones. Not even the power button control. Ctrl-Alt-Del seemed to have no effect, or maybe after five minutes it would get me to the screen where I could select the task manager, but that would never open.

First thought was that Chrome was doing some bullshit. But then I had the problem on reboot before I even touched Chrome.

Second thought: since I installed Dropbox close to the same time, I thought it might be that. Exited Dropbox after a reboot. Few minutes later, system was hung again.

After one reboot, I thought about opening task manager right away and leaving it open so I could see what was happening. Guess what? Disk activity went to 100%, even though there was only a little CPU activity. Searching for that revealed that this is a frequent problem with Windows 8/8.1 and Microsoft pretends not to know about it. Just about every Tom, Dick and Harry has his "solution", but since other people report those solutions didn't work, it didn't really look like a "solved" problem to me. Still, I tried a couple things: disabled VM paging, turned off live tiles. No real result.

But one guy's longish solution mentioned a good strategy, at least: open Resource Monitor and find the specific thing that's hogging the disk. Of course, I had to open this before the problem began, just like task manager, because there was no way it was going to open after the problem began. I did not get the same result he did: part of the time, the resource hog was "system" -- good luck fixing that -- but Soluto was also showing up quite frequently. This was installed on my computer by the manufacturer and is something I never use, so I disabled the service... and so far, problem appears to be solved. Also disabled Dropbox on start up, just in case.

My 1 Theory: the MS fix I downloaded specifically mentioned correcting a problem with update requests being pushed on the stack. Unfortunately, this has hosed every app that does automatic updates, including Soluto. In my case, I didn't want that program in the first place, so disabling it was no big deal. But I pity the people who have had their systems effectively bricked because a program they use regularly is no longer compatible.

Not California's Gold

2014-01-07T01:43:49Z

One thing I've been wondering lately: who are the equivalents of Huell Howser for other states or regions?

For my friends in other states who aren't completely aware: the late Huell Howser was a California TV personality who made several TV series for the California PBS stations, the most famous of which was California's Gold, in which he visited any place in California he thought was precious, beautiful, or of historical interest. He had a couple other shows as well: Visiting, which seems to concentrate more on people and businesses, California's Parks, California Missions, Road Trip, etc. Obviously, almost everything was about California, since I think he financed almost all his travel himself, although he did a couple shows on Alaska, Las Vegas, and Moscow (Russia.) Many, but not all, of his shows have been digitized and put online by Chapman University as part of the Huell Howser memorial archives.

There's one other California-centric PBS show which is sort of like Huell Howser's shows: Rob on the Road. He may be local to KVIE/KQED only. But the stories tend to be much shorter and to the point, and aren't quite the same as Huell's.

But what I've been wondering is: if I wanted a wealth of information about roadside attractions, points of interest, tiny bits of local history, and the like for another state or a region, via a TV show similar to the Huell Howser shows, where would I look? Surely, there ought to be local travel shows for New England, or Massachusetts at the very least, since WGBH seems to produce nationally-distributed PBS shows. Some other stations might produce regional-interest travel/history shows as well.

Minimal Who

2013-12-06T18:09:15Z

I have two cousins who, not long ago, got into the new Doctor Who, and then discovered that the show had been going on for a a few more years than they thought, and kind of balked at the huge backlog of stuff to watch. But obviously, you don’t need to watch every single episode, because not all of them were great, and even the good ones are probably too numerous for anyone except a die-hard fan to slog through.

So, I pared it down to just the essential stuff: enough of each Doctor to give a taste of what the past incarnations were like, focusing on episodes that fill in important details of the “mythology”.

And I published it on Facebook. Big mistake, as I discovered when I tried to track it down again for another person. Facebook is terrible for finding specific stuff you or a friend wrote. I eventually found it, though, and edited it a bit, and I’m finally republishing it here, so that I won’t lose it again.

First Doctor: An Unearthly Child (4 episodes) and The Daleks (7 episodes.) Optionally, The Dalek invasion of Earth (6 episodes.)

Second Doctor: Just the last one, “The War Games” (10 episodes.)

Third Doctor: Spearhead from Space (4 episodes) and Terror of the Autons (4 episodes).

Fourth Doctor: Genesis of the Daleks (6 episodes), The Deadly Assassin (4 episodes), The Invasion of Time (6 episodes), and The Keeper of Traken (4 episodes). Optionally, The Pirate Planet (4 episodes) because it was written by Douglas Adams, and Logopolis (4 episodes).

Fifth Doctor: Castrovalva (4 episodes), The Five Doctors (90 minute special), and Resurrection of the Daleks (2 episodes).

Sixth Doctor: The Trial of a Time Lord (10 episodes).

Seventh Doctor: Time and the Rani (4 episodes) and Remembrance of the Daleks (4 episodes).

Eighth Doctor: It’s just one two-hour movie, but not very good. Skip it, unless you feel up to it.

Written with StackEdit.

Parents of Adult Children

2013-11-30T06:29:14Z

Parents of adult children, attention!

If your adult child expresses a feeling of not really having accomplished much and a sense of no real direction to go once you, the parent, have passed on, and perhaps even a lack of connection to the world at large, the correct response would be something like:

"We all go through moments of doubt, but I want you to know that, even if you don't feel you've offered anything to the world because you haven't done anything big, really, you *have* made an impact. Everyone makes an impact on the world at large, in small ways if not in big ways. Everyone will be missed."

What you, o adult parent, should not say is something like:

"Grow up! This just proves you are immature!"

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

You Made Your Own Bed

2013-11-21T02:44:59Z

I'm a pretty anti-commercial guy. Not in the sense that I boycott mass-products products and make all my own clothing out of hemp. But I hate being sold to. I hate intrusive ads.

On the World Wide Web, I've used ad-block programs in the past, but for a couple years I haven't. My eyes just automatically move away from the ads. It's usually only the pop-ups and the like that really annoy me, and I avoid sites that use those regularly. (For example, Upworthy is getting really popular for sharing, but I avoid them because they want you to sign some petition or some other BS related to the article you haven't even read yet. Jackasses.)

There's this one forum I visit daily that is hosted on ProBoards. Love the forum, don't mind the forum software, but the banner ads frequently slow down page loads or even cause the browser to hang. My anti-virus software -- I've tried three or four of the front-runners -- reports that it blocked malware in a ProBoards ad about once a month. Today, the site kept locking up repeatedly, and I would have to close the browser or the tab to do anything else.

So, I installed AdBlock Plus. The site now loads superfast and has none of the previous problems. And, I get to see this in place of the banner ad:

Please consider supporting this website by disabling your ad-blocker.
This website does not use audio ads, popups, or other annoyances. Thank you!

The irony being, of course, that it was their annoyances that made me install an ad blocker. You guys had your chance...

Birthday

2013-11-08T00:07:03Z

So, my mom gave me a couple simple presents, like a neck pillow that turns into a pillow for your tablet. But also, an R2D2 candy dispenser than makes R2D2 sounds.

So the fun part of my birthday was watching her dog's reaction to the robot noises. Of course, even before I unwrapped the presents, she thought *all* the presents were hers and wanted to play with them all, but the robot turned out to be the most fun.

I should probably torment the dog again and try to get video of her reactions.

"I Met Her on the Live Journal!"

2013-10-18T22:11:22Z

"I have been BLOGGING!"

Looks like I've finally got internet on the new computer. I had a Linksys USB wireless adapter, which worked on the other computer back when I was staying with the Vampyrecat/Vajra family. But it wasn't working on this computer. It would connect just long enough to download half an update of something, then die. Chrome was not working. I bought a new USB wireless adapter and now it's working.

I just happened to have the Linksys USB because the same thing happened before: I had a D-Link USB wireless adapter that worked fine on my laptop, then a couple years later, I tried to use it with the previous computer and it wouldn't work. I'm beginning to think that USB wireless adapters are designed to fail every four or five years.

I'm glad this is working, because extensive writing on the Nexus 7 is *hard*. I didn't much like blogging on it, although quick little Facetybook comments weren't too bad. Tablets are great, but they are very much a popcorn media machine and not a meat-and-potatoes writing tool.

Although just writing this post on the new computer tells me: this keyboard SUCKS.

Plans Get Tied in a Knot

2013-09-26T21:26:50Z

The update from when my plans went awry: I went digging through a bunch of boxes and found a USB wireless adapter, which I figured would let me connect the new computer to the network without having to move it next to the old computer and make that space all crowded and stuff.

Oh, wait. You have to be connected to the internet to download the wireless router drivers so that you can connect to the internet.

I went to the old computer, downloaded the Vista drivers for the adapter (most recent version Linksys had on their website,) and put it on the USB drive. Nope, Windows 8 doesn't even recognize that .sys file as being a driver. Hell, it was pretty hard to figure out just how to manually add drivers instead of relying on it checking the non-existent internet.

So I went to the Tom's Hardware website or whatever it's called, downloaded the program that supposedly will install drivers for that wireless adapter... oh, it doesn't actually include the drivers, either; it wants to connect to the internet. Useless piece of shit.

So I caved in and moved the new computer. Downloaded the driver for the wireless and a couple other things I needed to install, let it do its update. At one point, Windows told me it had an update it wanted to install, I told it "I will do it later". Thirty minutes later, Windows says "fuck you, I'm doing it RITE NOW, IYKWIM."

Eventually, I moved the computer back to the less-crowded location, connected it to the wireless network, and now I'm finishing setting it up. I figure I won't actually move it back until (a) I'm sure all the stuff I want on the old computer is copied over, since it's going in storage; and, (2) the cables and thumb drives I ordered arrive, so I can set it up properly and have a recovery thumb drive ready.

Plans Go Awry!

2013-09-23T06:07:50Z

So, I ran into the following problems with the new computer:

The plan was to just get a computer, no monitor, because I have a flat screen that I haven't been using. Connected computer to monitor ... oops, monitor can't turn on anymore; keeps flashing at me. Well, it was at least 9 years old, and had already lost a couple pixels. Should have expected that.

The plan was also to get the new computer set up in the front room in a temporary spot before replacing the old computer. It would give me a chance to use it; getting access to my own computer has been unpredictable. However, I neglected to take into account how hard not sitting on a chair was going to be.

Also, I wanted to set up antivirus and stuff offline, then connect over the wireless network at first, switching to ethernet when I moved the computer to its final location. Oops, forgot that it was my first pick that had the wireless; second pick doesn't.

Oh well, I should use the 16 GB thumbdrive I bought to back up important stuff from the old computer, transfer that and some tools I want set up before turning off the old computer and packing it away. Oh, wait, that old computer transfers files to USB pretty damned slowly, especially since none of the ports think they're USB 2.0 anymore (one of the reasons it's being replaced.) Took 4 hours to copy 6 gigs of stuff to the thumb drive. Copying onto the new computer took 15 minutes. Bleh. Also, I apparently have more than 16 gigs of stuff.

So now a lot of stuff has been transferred, but the plan is to temporarily set up both computers side by side and copy over the network.

On the plus side, the unexpected monitor I had to purchase is bigger and wider. FInally have 16:9! Oh, but there was an annoying thing there, too: computer has VGA and HDMI output. Monitor has VGA, HDMI, and ... DV/I? Or something. Guess which cable isn't included with either the computer or the monitor? HDMI. The VGA still looks better than anything I've ever had before.

Getting Almost Up to Date

2013-09-14T23:08:18Z

People laughed at me because I didn't have a smartphone. I had one of the "small brick" cell phones that was about 15-20 years old. T-Mobile shut off my pay-as-you-go plan because, even though I refilled my minutes a couple times a year, I never used them.

So now I have ... almost a smartphone. Couldn't risk a contract, and even the current pay-as-you go plans seemed beyond my means, and I figured I'd have problems qualifying... and, obviously, I hardly ever talk on the phone. So I opted to go with "make VoIP calls over wifi when I can find it" and got a Nexus 7 tablet and a Google Voice number. Haven't actually used the "phone" to talk to anyone yet, but jwgh and I were able to send SMS messages, so that seems to be working. I'm waiting for a Bluetooth headset I ordered before I try making actual calls.

The other thing that's really old is this computer. It's a 10-year-old (or more) HP Pavillion and it's been getting slower and slower. The PS/2 port went out, and I think there's a problem with some of the USB ports and maybe even the RAM. Also, the hard drive it came with died maybe 5 or 6 years ago and I replaced that. It seems about to die for good, now; I'm certainly having trouble getting work done on it. So I bit the bullet and ordered a tower computer, which should be arriving in a couple days. It's probably a tad behind the times (a quad-core AMD) and certainly no where near top of the line... but based on crude CPU comparisons, it looks like it will be 12 to 15 times faster than my current computer. Well, faster that it was originally.

So, soon, I will be almost as up-to-date as everyone else.

Nothing New

2013-06-29T16:06:43Z

This is not really a post about anything, but I figured I ought to post at least every couple months so that it doesn't look like I've fallen off the face of the earth.

Things I've reported elsewhere:

- Finally saw all three Jurassic Park movies. I assume there's only three. Didn't even know there were three until I started watching them. They were OK, nothing special.
- Finally saw all of Serenity. The story behind this was: there was cable and a DVR when I finally got to see Firefly, and I recorded Serenity, but then the cable service was downgraded and the cable company sent a signal to the DVR telling it "you are no longer a DVR", so I never got to see the movie until a month or two ago. Saw it a couple times, actually. I was a little confused by who died at the end of the movie, but I guess now that's because one of the graves wasn't a grave, or something?
- Also, there was RPG stuff, which I moved off to another blog. I'm embarrassed to say that I post twice a day there. It makes my sparse posting here seem extra pathetic. I swear, Livejournal, I still love you!

Sullen Silence!

2013-04-23T00:49:00Z

Man, I haven't posted anything in a year?

I've actually been *reading* LJ every day, just about. And occasionally commenting on the posts of friends. But I kind of gave up posting movie reviews for a while (because, frankly, who cares?) And I've been posting one or two posts a day on my RPG blog, so I kinda use up all my energy there.

Sorry

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Unwarranted Expansion of Executive Power

2012-07-03T15:45:30Z

Andy Griffith, 86, has reportedly died. (Source: Executive Office of the President of the United States)

--- Caption of a photo on a TV news website.

Butthurt

2012-06-30T02:00:48Z

I've been reading a forum where flamewars erupt every couple of threads. And in one, Guy A complained about a bunch of crap, and Guy B referred to him as "Ironic Butthurt Dude". And IBD responded with a bunch of stuff, then said, "does that make you feel butthurt?"

And then Guy C swoops in with "I'm afraid you've taken so much of the butthurt that there is none left for anyone. That's pretty selfish, dude."

1977: Eyesight Invented!

2012-06-28T17:20:26Z

In a forum somewhere, when someone asked about the influence of movies and TV on early D&D, they followed up with this comment:

I'd assume that because this was pre-Star Wars that the visual mediums would have had much less of an impact than they do today in gaming culture.

Now, I didn't want to comment in that thread because the person wasn't saying this in some kind of demeaning manner, but honestly, so that makes them "one of today's lucky 10,000", as xkcd put it a little while ago. It's no crime to not be aware of how many pre-Star Wars fantasy/sci-fi films and TV series there were, or to have no direct exposure to the bulk of them, perhaps based on pre-conceptions.

But man, that's kind of stunning.

Cosmetic Errors

2012-05-29T04:33:41Z

People who play D&D and post about it on forums or blogs really, REALLY need to learn how to spell "rogue".

Just saw someone write that "rouge mastery seems a bit too powerful."

Doctor Who Is Atomic-Age Horror

2012-05-20T18:42:26Z

I was posting some idle speculation to a forum about what Doctor Who would have looked like if it had been made by an American company, but back in the '60s or thereabouts. And it might not have looked too bad:

Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka would have made a great Doctor. Or, going earlier, maybe Rex Reason or Michael Rennie. Vincent Price would have been The Master. The interior shots of the TARDIS would resemble the command deck of the saucer in This Island Earth plus the Krell power core from Forbidden Planet. Cybermen would have looked more like Gort. The Daleks would still be conical, but the dome would be transparent and would contain the Martian leader from Invaders from Mars.

And, of course, there'd have to be an interocitor somewhere.

And then it hit me: The Doctor is an atomic-age horror scientist-hero, like Rex Reason, although he has a touch of the atomic-age smug alien, like Michael Rennie or Exeter (This Island Earth.) The thematic core of the series expresses the same values as the scientist-hero. Solving problems with a mix of genius and feeling. Definitely the central figure, but enlisting the aid of the government or military when possible, as long as they are willing to fight the menace with some measure of morality. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers would have made a perfect Doctor Who story. So would a lot of atomic-age-horror movies.

The Coming Race

2012-05-10T02:09:51Z

After reading The Moon Pool, I decided to read Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race, which served as partial inspiration for The Moon Pool. Narrator travels underground, finds an advanced society. The book is half the length of The Moon Pool, but took a lot longer to read; it's tough slogging, perhaps because of the legendary Bulwer-Lytton writing style, although I haven't read any other Bulwer-Lytton books to compare. It's slow reading mostly because it's not an adventure story, like Merritt's book; it's from the tradition of social and political commentary disguised as a travel tale. I think his intent was to focus on gender and class questions, but because his underground race has access to a near-magical force known as vril, and suggests at the end that the advanced race might be expanding into the upper world next (hence, the "Coming" Race,) the book became a legend in the occult and crackpot communities. Richard Shaver thought the book was a true story and wound up spinning his own, similar tale about the subterranean Dero. Nazis thought the subterraneans were Aryans and wanted to communicate with them. Conspiracy theorists thought the Nazis succeeded.

The Coming Race is also famous for inventing the phrase "the almighty dollar". And perhaps should be famous for referring to some people as "twats". In 1871! And he didn't think it was part of a nun's habit! Scandal!

Most Interesting Character Is Not Always Main Character

2012-04-17T18:18:38Z

The break-out character in New Girl?

Schmidt.

The fact that he's high-strung and a douche makes him an endless source of great humor. Especially since he's a harmless douche, and is aware of his own douche-dom. He's even willing to put money in the Douche Jar anytime he does something douche-like. But he won't change, 'cause he likes the way he is.

The Moon Pool

2012-03-28T23:38:13Z

I just finished reading The Moon Pool (1919) by A. Merritt. People say that this influence Lovecraft and the TV series "Lost", and they are right. I found out also that it influenced The Mole People (1956). I'll explain more in a somewhat spoilery fashion behind a cut.

The novel is sometimes claimed to be the inspiration behind "The Call of Cthulhu", but I'd expand that statement to say that it influenced most of Lovecraft's work. I think it's fair to claim that Lovecraft's mission with the so-called Mythos horror stories was to capture the themes and idea presented in The Moon Pool, but re-interpreted as horror instead of romantic adventure. Instead of the partially-sunken city of Nan-Tauach in the South Pacific, we get the once-sunken but now risen city of R'lyeh in the South Pacific. We even get reference to weird angles in both works. The descent into the lost world of Muria echoes descriptions in both "At the Mountains of Madness" and "The Mound" (ghostwritten for Zealia Bishop.) There are frog-people (the Akka,) reminiscent of the fish-people of "Dagon" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". There is an unbelievably ancient, unbelievably advanced race of saurian titans, the Taithu, born near the Earth's heart, which seem to be the pattern for the Old Ones. They have a means of travel (or is it remote viewing?) suggested later in "Dreams in the Witch House". And they created The Shining One, whose eerie, almost musical alien sounds and amorphous nature are echoed in the shoggoths of "At the Mountains of Madness" (they even rebel against their creators, as does The Shining One. Oh, and it's described as a thing of swirling light and mist surmounted by glowing globes, which is reminiscent of the "congeries of lights" used to describe Yog-Sothoth in "The Dunwich Horror".

But when I was reading The Moon Pool, I was also strongly reminded of the '50s film The Mole People. It's not set in the South Pacific, but in the Himilayas -- but it seems that another A. Merritt novel with the same narrator character, The Metal Monster, starts with an expedition to the Himilayas, so maybe that's not a significant difference. There are a lot of trivial changes to the basic story, but enough is recognizable: deep below the Earth is a huge cavern with a lost civilization (Sumerians, instead of Murians.) There's a sharp social divide, with the rulers treating the lower caste as slaves... but one slave-woman inspires love in one of the surface visitors because she has a markedly different appearance, a throw-back to their surface-dwelling ancestors. There's a horrible chamber where political prisoners are sacrificed, but instead of being sacrificed to The Shining One (a creature of living light,) the chamber contains a shaft to the surface that allows horrible, horrible sunlight to burn the flesh of the cave-adapted Sumerians. The technology in the film is much more subdued, lacking the super-science elements of The Moon Pool. In fact, that's a good summary of The Mole People: It's The Moon Pool watered down, with the serial numbers filed off.

The real reason I read The Moon Pool, though, was because I'd heard that "Lost" was inspired by it. It is, in a peculiar fashion. I wouldn't say that "Lost" has anything remotely resembling the same plot, and the bulk of the details are different: there's a suggestion of an ancient civilization in the form of ruins, but nothing like the Murians and no super-science. Desmond in "Lost" seems to be inspired by O'Keefe in The Moon Pool: both are Celtic (Desmond is Scottish, O'Keefe is Irish,) both are ex-military, both have warm personalities that inspire immediate admiration in other characters, both have some supernatural visions, both are castaways, and both long to be united with one true love (although O'Keefe's love is a Murian woman, not a former love interest like Penny.)

But the real clincher is Smokey, the insubstantial killer monster on the island of "Lost". The Shining One (or Dweller in the Moon Pool) is clearly the inspiration for Smokey, even though one is dark smoke and the other light mist. They both make a weird noise, snatch people up into the air, and carry them down below the ground, where there's a magical glowing pool. Oh, and there's an explicit comparison of both to The Devil.

I do recommend The Moon Pool, which is a pretty good read even with its dated language. I feel like it influenced a lot of other fantasy/adventure stories beyond Lovecraft and "Lost".

Minotaur Rampage: Not So Rampageous.

2012-03-09T02:39:57Z

In memory of Mut Arspunremzu Turostro Tospas

Born 235

Struck down by the yak cow Savagelabor in
The Rampage of the minotaur Mut Slaughtersrouted the Red Cut of Strife
in Quietflame in the year 279

Slayer of the Human Ozo Bunnyspice.

I was terrified when he showed up, but I guess he wasn't so tough.

New (Barely) Fantastic TV

2012-02-11T01:14:54Z

I tend to watch a lot of fantasy/sci-fi/horror on TV, but a lot of stuff I used to watch is now either finished or only available on channels I no longer get. So I've been scraping around for new TV series that will fit into my preferred niche -- and the pickings are slim.

Some of them just seem to be scheduled wrong, so I rarely watch them. Terra Nova is one of those, as is Once Upon a Time. At least, it's more charitable to say "they're in the wrong time schedule" than to admit that I watched a couple episodes of Terra Nova and couldn't muster up any interest. Same applies to the modern-day segments of Once Upon a Time, although I've watched a bit more of that because the fairytale segments are more interesting. The storyline split across two time periods is annoying, badly handled, and obviously done because they were afraid audiences wouldn't buy a straight fairytale storyline. Cowards.

Grimm is similar to Once Upon a Time in that the people in charge obviously want to tap into the horror fanbase, similar to OUaT's tapping into the magic fanbase, but the producers were unwilling to commit fully. It winds up looking like a very toned down Buffy, Angel, or Supernatural. The hero's abilities are minimal and he doesn't really exploit them to any degree; he's really just a cop to hunts criminals who are secretly subhuman, but only he can tell. Stories are kind of ho-hum as a result, but I'm still sticking with it.

Person of Interest, in the same way, is borderline science fiction/superhero. No costumes, no powers, no gadgets, just an ex-CIA dude and a guy who built a terrorism- and crime-predicting computer for the government. Thus, the tech is just a little itty bit more advanced than reality. It's actually the more interesting of the four shows, but I still feel cheated, even though it has "Ben" from Lost and he's doing a pretty good job in a paranoid good-guy role.

Those are the shows that started with the fall season, but there have been two new mid-season replacements: Alcatraz and The River. Both are further along on the fantastic motif scale than the previous four: Alcatraz has the backstory that everyone on the island when the prison closed actually disappeared, and now they're coming back, without any signs of age. It's also got a Lost alumnus ("Hurley".) But despite the backstory and hints of future mystery-tinged with sci-fi, the storyline is basically Brimstone without demonic powers. It's kind of early to tell (only saw two episodes,) but The River has a pretty decent bundle of supernatural horror ideas, but the presentation (all done as a fake cinema verité) is really pretty lame, as is every single bit of action or dialogue that the main characters are involved in.

Which is sad, because it seems to be the only new "fantasy" series that is willing to commit to a fantastic premise.

New Girl

2012-02-01T00:54:05Z

It looks like *everyone* forgot about Rabbit Hole Day. Usually, it's just me.

I forgot to mention I've been watching New Girl, the sitcom starring Zooey Deschanel. The commercials didn't look all that funny, nor did the clips I saw on Ferguson, plus as I've reported here, I've found my Zooey Deschanel experiences to be uneven (one movie I can't remember in any detail, two bad movies, one good movie, one good job in an otherwise bad movie.) So I wasn't planning to watch it. I blame gmdreiafor changing my mind.

The show was funnier than its previews. It's got this weird simultaneously wacky and low-key quality. For example, the cat that was raised by birds. There are some really contrived bits; they're obviously planning this as a long-term "boy (Nick) and girl (Jess) meet cute" story. So, like all sitcoms in the last thirty years with this kind of plot line, they had a "see each other naked by accident" episode.

But despite the failings, I like it quite a bit. If only I could remember to watch it...

I should also talk about the current crop of borderline sci-fi shows, but I'll save that for later.