TV And Films

The shows and movies I like (or don’t).

Faux Klingons

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I just heard about this through last Sunday’s ‘Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!‘ show (which I just found out is available as a podcast, since I never manage to remember to turn on the actual radio), and I think this might be the best Iraq War analogy I’ve heard yet:

One Minute Speech by Rep. David Wu, D-Oregon, 1st District, Portland:

Mr. Speaker,

Four years ago, this administration took America to war in Iraq without adequate evidence. Since that time, this administration hasn’t listened to the American people, it hasn’t listened to our professional military, and it certainly hasn’t listened to this congress.

You know, it’s said of a prominent businessman in downtown Portland that he never listened to anybody, and that if he was ever drawn in a cartoon, he would be drawn without ears. Now, this President has listened to some people: the so-called ‘Vulcans’ in the White House, the ideologues. But you know, unlike the Vulcans of Star Trek, who made their decisions based on logic and fact, these guys make it on ideology. These aren’t Vulcans! There are Klingons in the White House!

But unlike the real Klingons of Star Trek, these Klingons have never fought a battle of their own. Don’t let faux Klingons send real Americans to war. It’s wrong.

So. Very. Awesome. I love this.

Apparently, there’s a book out called Rise of the Vulcans focusing on Bush’s core advisors, who have dubbed themselves “Vulcans” after the Roman god of War. Wu just took the Vulcan thing and ran with it. In entirely the wrong direction.

No More West Wing

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Earlier this week, Prairie and I finally finished an ongoing project of the past few years and made it to the end of the seventh season of West Wing. It was such a good show, and it’s really a bummer that there’s no more on the way.

We’re almost done with Season Five of X-Files, after which we’ll be getting the movie and then exiting gracefully. I’ve had too many people I trust iffy on the quality of the post-film X-Files, so that seems to be a good place to leave off.

From here on out, we have various incarnations of Star Trek as a backup when we don’t have anything else in progress (currently somewhere in Season Four of TNG, I think, with DS9 after that already in the home collection), more Simpsons whenever a new season gets released, and we’ve dropped Season Two of Lost in the Netflix queue (as we gave up trying to keep up with their erratic schedule midway through last season and are now way behind).

For a guy who doesn’t much like TV, I’m sure enjoying some of the shows. Quite a bit after the fact, but it’s so much nicer this way!

Geeks and Film

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Three amusing articles, all via /.:

  1. Top 20 Hackers in Film History:

    My fellow Geeks! Below you will find a list of the 20 coolest, funniest, dare I say sexiest hackers and computer geeks that have graced the silver screen. While we may be misunderstood and maligned in everyday life, geeks have always been portrayed with a certain power, mystery and intrigue in movies. Practically since the word ‘computer’ entered the American lexicon, Hollywood and the public have been fascinated with the people who make these strange electronic boxes do such cool shit.

  2. Servers in the Movies:

    There are two guidelines for this list. One, they must exist only in the world of movies or TV. Second, they need to fit the following definition: A server is a computer system that provides services or data to other computing systems—called clients—over a network or other communication device.

  3. What Code DOESN’T Do in Real Life (That it Does in the Movies):

    I understand that Hollywood needs to dress things up to make them more entertaining, but in the case of programmers, code, and hackers they’ve done more than dress things up – they’ve morphed a little stuffed teddy bear into a cybernetic polar bear covered in christmas lights and phosphorescent hieroglyphics with a fog machine pumping rainbow smoke out of his ass. In other words, they’ve layered a ridiculous amount of extravagance on top of something that in reality is very grounded.

Gaiman, Webley, and Toasty Tuckuses

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Nifty randomness of the day: seeing Neil Gaiman quote and promote Jason Webley (by way of someone posting the video to Eleven Saints).

Nifty plan for the afternoon: three movies have been rented (Clerks 2, Scoop, and Slither), much warm finger food has been purchased, and the couch has been covered with an electric blanket so we’ve got a warm place to sit as we spend a quiet evening at home.

Pop Culture Disconnect

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This week in my History 101 class (covering everything up to 1500), we’re looking at Ghengis Khan, Kublai Khan, and the Mongols. The professor spent a few minutes talking about the Mongol’s invasion techniques, which were simple but could be fairly ruthless: if armies surrendered they’d be treated fairly well; if they fought, they’d often be razed to the ground and completely destroyed. After summarizing this, he commented, “really, they were pretty close to the Borg.”

I chuckled, and there was a moment of quiet while he took a sip of his tea. Then one of the girls in the class slightly timidly asked, “…what’s ‘the borg’?”

Sigh. I’m getting old.

Bowed but not Broken

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Things have been a bit quiet around here lately. Sorry ’bout that (since I know you’re all heartbroken over this turn of events). While I’m not at liberty to divulge details (or even broad hints, for that matter), suffice it to say that the past few weeks have been…stressful. However, it looks like the universe has decided to take a break from throwing curveballs, and I, for one, welcome our new stress free overlords look forward to returning to the usual day-to-day concerns.

Prairie’s birthday was this past Friday, and we had a very pleasant day of relaxing at home, with one short jaunt out to see Flushed Away, which was hilarious and well worth seeing. Here at home, we watched Monster House, which was also extremely good (and wonderfully, surprisingly creepy at times), opened presents, and had a very good strawberry cream birthday cake (with chocolate covered strawberries on top, even). A few pictures have been uploaded.

Thanks to the answers to one of my last posts, and with many thanks to Jer‘s discount code, I’ve created an account with Dreamhost and will be moving my sites over that way…hrm. As soon as I can, actually, given that I’ve got this next month to do it. Oh, for the days of copious free time (whenever those days were, I think it’s been a few years since I had more than one or two such days in a row). Update: After having lain fallow for the past year or so, serving only to redirect to this address, djwudi.com is now up and running as a photography gallery. One domain down, two to go…

And I think that about brings us up to date. School continues, as does work, without much of any great note on either of those fronts. Prairie and I are continuing to work on nailing down the details for a trip to Alaska right around (technically just after) Christmas, and we’re also doing what we can to assist a friend in planning their move to the fair town of Seattle.

So, there we are. Some small amount of actual content. It had to happen at some point, right? ;)

iTunes “Alive Alone” by Chemical Brothers, The from the album Exit Planet Dust (1995, 5:16).

Fall ’06 TV Plans

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Shows that Prairie and I (either together or individually) plan on doing our best to keep up with this season (though, admittedly, our schedules will be busy enough that it may occasionally be difficult):

  • Sundays:
    • The Amazing Race 10 (CBS): Prairie’s been a fan of this one for a couple years now, and this is my first time actually watching it. Generally speaking, I’m no big fan of “reality” TV (most of what I’ve heard of and seen of “reality” programming has little or nothing to do with reality), but I’ve actually been enjoying this one so far. I’m a bit bummed that some of the more interesting teams were eliminated so soon (though, as some commenters have pointed out, my geopolitical placement skills leave something to be desired), and we’ve been surprised that so many teams have been eliminated so quickly — apparently there will be a few stretches later in the season where eliminations don’t come quite so fast and furious. At this point, our current favorites are Lyn and Karlyn and David and Mary.

    • Desperate Housewives (ABC): I missed the first year of broadcast (though Prairie often gleefully filled me in on some of the more outrageous moments over IM sessions before she and I moved in together) and had to catch up via DVD before season two started. Season two hooked me, and we thoroughly enjoy watching the weekly over-the-top shenanigans on Wisteria Lane (and I get to tease Prairie about being the perfect [i.e., non-psychotic] mix of Susan and Bree).

  • Mondays:

    • Heroes (NBC): This one’s just me, and I’m not entirely sure I’ll stick it, but I heard just enough to make me curious (a group of ordinary people suddenly discovering not-so-ordinary abilities) and snagged the first three episodes via BitTorrent. So far I’m not entirely hooked, but it’s caught enough of my interest to keep me checking it out for bit, at least. At this point, Hiro is by far my favorite character.
  • Thursdays:
    • Grey’s Anatomy (ABC): Originally, I just tuned into a couple episodes to laugh at the goofy Seattle geography and then shrugged it off. However, it was in a broadcast slot just after Desperate Housewives, and Prairie and I just kept getting sucked in when we didn’t turn the TV off fast enough. A few weeks of that, and we were hooked (it’s Prairie’s “new ER“). Unfortunately, with their move to Thursday nights, when I’m often working and Prairie teaches ’til late, we’re not able to keep up with it at broadcast, so we’ve been using BitTorrent to watch it on Wednesday evenings.
  • Fridays:
    • The Ghost Whisperer (CBS): This one’s all Prairie’s — her “silly ghost show”. I’ve not seen any of it yet, as I tend to be at work when it’s on.

    • Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi): I’ve babbled about it often enough that this shouldn’t surprise anyone. Still hands-down the best show around (admittedly, I pull from a very small pool, but it’s really good). Prairie and I are just about done watching Season Two on DVD (I’d already seen it via BitTorrent while it was broadcast, she waited for the DVDs to come out), and now I’m BitTorrenting Season Three as it appears (I know, I could get them legally via iTunes, but…[sigh]…the quality still just isn’t quite there). The season premiere? Oh, so very good.

So that’s the TV plan for the next few months. A lot more than I used to do, and all subject to being preempted by school, work, or other major life events…but it’s nice to have some downtime every so often.

iTunes “An American in Paris” by San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (Seiji Ozawa) from the album Panorama: George Gershwin (1977, 18:01).