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Joined Facebook, but have no idea what to do with it, any more than I have any idea what to do with MySpace. No one I know is actually on these things apparently.
Also watching the Obama/Clinton debate which I taped. It's annoying me. I may have to switch it off soon. They are focusing far too much attention on silly and rather human mistakes that the candidates have made. Everyone changes their minds about things. No one is perfectly constant. No one is completely honest. And we all have friends, pastors, parents, etc who say things that we strongly disagree with and offend us, but we love them anyway. If we didn't we would be robots. Obama - got to love the man - says that we need to stop focusing so much attention to what amounts to being basically little more than gas and focus on the real issues such as the fact that people are losing their jobs and unable to afford to buy the gas to drive and find new ones.
In the midst of the debate, Wales called. Her cat, Josie, died. Of diabetes. I didn't know cats got diabetes. Wales had come back from a two week trip and discovered her cat in a diabetic coma on her bathroom floor. The cat was just 10-11 years of age. A tabby with orange and white strips. Sweet natured. I managed to get her to laugh talking about how my dad went to sleep on me the other night while I was talking to him over the phone. And when I said: "how 10 years is pretty old for a cat, it's about 60 in human years, no wait, maybe that's not so old now I think about it, considering..." One of the reasons Wales and I get along so well, is she appreciates my dry and somewhat subtle wit. Also, the fact that my granny can't tell the difference between her phone and the remote any more - making it impossible for me to call her - because she might just point it at the tv or pick up the remote and say hello.
You have to laugh at these things or you will drown in your own tears.
Watched BSG last night. The episodes are getting better I suppose. But they still feel a bit, I don't know off. And the show is increasingly reminding me of a rather dark somewhat grim soap opera - taking the same illogical character leaps soap operas often take. It's like I said in my post about Mad Men, tv writers, particularly sci-fi ones, have a tendency to fall in love with an idea to such a great extent that they are willing to throw logical character progression and plot continuity out the window to accomplish it - doing what amounts to a ret-con. I see this happening on BSG. While it's ironically amusing what they are doing with Chief, Roslyn, Helo, and Athena - I'm not sure it works. Apollo has no legal background. He never went to law school. He has no political experience. His only background is in running a ship or military command. And no, it's not the same thing. To suddenly make him a lawyer out of the blue because it suits the direction of your plot? Or thematic arc? No. You have to earn it. If they wanted to turn Lee into a lawyer they should have had something about the character attending law school or wanting to do it - not just a quick reference about him inheriting his grandfather's law books and falling in love with them. It defys logic and makes it clear these writers know nothing about lawyers. They could have done this another way. (The first season handled it far better, as did the second, with Apollo grappling with the issues within the context of military law and whether the military should hold sway or the government, here we have him looking at it from a civilian perspective, when the character has never been a civilian and would never in a million years see it from that point of view - at least not at this point of time nor under these circumstances.) Don't get me wrong, I love the character and find him interesting. But what they are doing with him feels contrived and out of character not in the respect that he wouldn't turn his back on his father, he'd completely do that, but in the respect that all he knows is the military. He knows nothing else. But he's acting like the opposite. While Roslyn, who is not military and has never had any military background, is talking the military line. Granted this is great irony, but is it realistic? Or logical? I don't think so. And that's just one example.
The other problems? Not sure what is going on with the folks on the Demetrius or why Helo and Sharon chose to leave their kid on the Galatica and go off with Starbuck. It seems a bit out of character for them. And very convienent. I like the fact they went off with her. But it feels contrived.
I'm on the fence about the four new cylons. I love the irony, but I'm not sure it is working from a storytelling perspective. There are gaps in the plot. It feels uneven and I can't quite put my finger on why.
As for the old cylons - nice irony there. Also it does sort of work, even if it is at times confusing to watch.
The only arcs that are working for me are Starbuck's and Baltar's. They are not making illogical leaps. Both characters from the get-go have been on the edge of sanity. Deeply religious, but feigning disinterest. Deeply insecure, but feigning security and confidence.
The best pilot in the world and the best scientist, yet at root, both are lost souls and ironically may either be both humanity's saviors or the heralds of doom.
The show likes to use characters as mirrors of each other. Chief/Cally is the mirror of Helo/Athena. Just as Chief/Boomer was the mirror of Helo/Sharon. Apollo/Starbuck is a mirror to Adama/Roslyn. And Starbuck is a mirror to Baltar, and vice versa. It's an interesting technique and mostly works, except when I feel as if the writers are jumping over hurdles to make it work - which I think they've done in the case of Chief/Cally - a relationship that never completely worked for me.
I honestly can't predict where the show is going anymore, because they more or less left logic behind sometime in Season 3. The fifth cylon could be anyone at this point. And Starbuck could be a savior or the herald of doom. The fact that show is completely unpredictable makes it fun, but you have to sort of throw logic out the window to enjoy it.
Which isn't that hard to do on a Friday night, when your brain is fried from work.
It's fun if you don't think about it too much.
Also watching the Obama/Clinton debate which I taped. It's annoying me. I may have to switch it off soon. They are focusing far too much attention on silly and rather human mistakes that the candidates have made. Everyone changes their minds about things. No one is perfectly constant. No one is completely honest. And we all have friends, pastors, parents, etc who say things that we strongly disagree with and offend us, but we love them anyway. If we didn't we would be robots. Obama - got to love the man - says that we need to stop focusing so much attention to what amounts to being basically little more than gas and focus on the real issues such as the fact that people are losing their jobs and unable to afford to buy the gas to drive and find new ones.
In the midst of the debate, Wales called. Her cat, Josie, died. Of diabetes. I didn't know cats got diabetes. Wales had come back from a two week trip and discovered her cat in a diabetic coma on her bathroom floor. The cat was just 10-11 years of age. A tabby with orange and white strips. Sweet natured. I managed to get her to laugh talking about how my dad went to sleep on me the other night while I was talking to him over the phone. And when I said: "how 10 years is pretty old for a cat, it's about 60 in human years, no wait, maybe that's not so old now I think about it, considering..." One of the reasons Wales and I get along so well, is she appreciates my dry and somewhat subtle wit. Also, the fact that my granny can't tell the difference between her phone and the remote any more - making it impossible for me to call her - because she might just point it at the tv or pick up the remote and say hello.
You have to laugh at these things or you will drown in your own tears.
Watched BSG last night. The episodes are getting better I suppose. But they still feel a bit, I don't know off. And the show is increasingly reminding me of a rather dark somewhat grim soap opera - taking the same illogical character leaps soap operas often take. It's like I said in my post about Mad Men, tv writers, particularly sci-fi ones, have a tendency to fall in love with an idea to such a great extent that they are willing to throw logical character progression and plot continuity out the window to accomplish it - doing what amounts to a ret-con. I see this happening on BSG. While it's ironically amusing what they are doing with Chief, Roslyn, Helo, and Athena - I'm not sure it works. Apollo has no legal background. He never went to law school. He has no political experience. His only background is in running a ship or military command. And no, it's not the same thing. To suddenly make him a lawyer out of the blue because it suits the direction of your plot? Or thematic arc? No. You have to earn it. If they wanted to turn Lee into a lawyer they should have had something about the character attending law school or wanting to do it - not just a quick reference about him inheriting his grandfather's law books and falling in love with them. It defys logic and makes it clear these writers know nothing about lawyers. They could have done this another way. (The first season handled it far better, as did the second, with Apollo grappling with the issues within the context of military law and whether the military should hold sway or the government, here we have him looking at it from a civilian perspective, when the character has never been a civilian and would never in a million years see it from that point of view - at least not at this point of time nor under these circumstances.) Don't get me wrong, I love the character and find him interesting. But what they are doing with him feels contrived and out of character not in the respect that he wouldn't turn his back on his father, he'd completely do that, but in the respect that all he knows is the military. He knows nothing else. But he's acting like the opposite. While Roslyn, who is not military and has never had any military background, is talking the military line. Granted this is great irony, but is it realistic? Or logical? I don't think so. And that's just one example.
The other problems? Not sure what is going on with the folks on the Demetrius or why Helo and Sharon chose to leave their kid on the Galatica and go off with Starbuck. It seems a bit out of character for them. And very convienent. I like the fact they went off with her. But it feels contrived.
I'm on the fence about the four new cylons. I love the irony, but I'm not sure it is working from a storytelling perspective. There are gaps in the plot. It feels uneven and I can't quite put my finger on why.
As for the old cylons - nice irony there. Also it does sort of work, even if it is at times confusing to watch.
The only arcs that are working for me are Starbuck's and Baltar's. They are not making illogical leaps. Both characters from the get-go have been on the edge of sanity. Deeply religious, but feigning disinterest. Deeply insecure, but feigning security and confidence.
The best pilot in the world and the best scientist, yet at root, both are lost souls and ironically may either be both humanity's saviors or the heralds of doom.
The show likes to use characters as mirrors of each other. Chief/Cally is the mirror of Helo/Athena. Just as Chief/Boomer was the mirror of Helo/Sharon. Apollo/Starbuck is a mirror to Adama/Roslyn. And Starbuck is a mirror to Baltar, and vice versa. It's an interesting technique and mostly works, except when I feel as if the writers are jumping over hurdles to make it work - which I think they've done in the case of Chief/Cally - a relationship that never completely worked for me.
I honestly can't predict where the show is going anymore, because they more or less left logic behind sometime in Season 3. The fifth cylon could be anyone at this point. And Starbuck could be a savior or the herald of doom. The fact that show is completely unpredictable makes it fun, but you have to sort of throw logic out the window to enjoy it.
Which isn't that hard to do on a Friday night, when your brain is fried from work.
It's fun if you don't think about it too much.