Earplug Opera

How to Eat Like the English

2011-05-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

On the day of our wedding vow renewal, Betsy's sister Susan met us at our hotel and we decided to have a light lunch before heading over to the Ritz for the ceremony. Both Susan and I ordered Duck Egg Soldiers with Asparagus (I did so on Susan's recommendation).

This is an extremely English dish and I asked Susan for advice on how best to approach it. I captured her explanation on my iTouch on the spur of the moment just for fun. At the time I had no idea what I was going to do with it.

Once we returned home, I loaded the clip into iMovie, added some titles and music and thus "How to Eat Like the English" was born. I hope you like it.

Things to Remember for Next Time

2011-05-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

Some lessons learned from our recent trip:

Take a bit more cash (We took a lot of cabs and I almost got through the trip without hitting an ATM. Almost.)
Take an extra pair of pants. (In my defense, I thought I had. But when I got home, there they were still in the pants press.)
Take more advantage of the hotel laundry service. (It's a bit more humid in the U.K. than I'm used to in Colorado and shirts get 'pitted out' quickly.)
Take a portable GPS or a smartphone with GPS. (We got lost while walking through Hyde Park and it's tough to spot landmarks through all those trees.)

Post-Travel Interlude #1

2011-05-24T09:04:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, but it seems that ignoring your wife while on a romantic holiday in celebration of 20 years of marriage is considered somewhat rude, if not counter-productive to the idea of further years of said marriage.

That being said, we're home now despite Iceland's futile attempts to delay us and I'm going to continue posting about the trip (post-trip, as it were).

On an only slightly unrelated note, if you enjoy reading comics on your iPhone, iTouch or iPad as I do, then you may want to take a look at the Dark Horse comics app. (Apparently an Android app is currently in development.) I picked it up last week on our holiday and it's supplied me with hours of reading fun while British Air was busy dodging that pesky volcano on our way home to Denver.

Travel Tales Pt. 9 - "If I Were as Tedious as a King"

2011-05-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

(Sorry about the gap in postings but we had to get some vacationing in while we're here. However, I've got plenty of thoughts, photos and videos to share so I'll post as I have time.)

Betsy and I enjoyed a performance of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing at the Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End. (Right next to the Leicester Square tube station, in fact. Literally.)

I'm no Shakespeare scholar, but I have performed in both Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream as a young man in school so I'm not completely unfamiliar with his work. In addition, the 1993 film production of the play by Ken Branagh is one which we've viewed many times. (Though Keanu Reeves is not the strongest member of the ensemble. We just squint whenever he's on screen.)

Any theatrical production is only as strong as its source material and I consider this play to be one of the authors most approachable works. The superb timing, the expert and lightning-fast shifting between romance, drama, tragedy and comedy, each emotion intensifying the others, shows that this style of writing did not originate with Joss Whedon but that Joss stole from the best. (And I say this as a devoted Whedonite.)

In addition, Betsy and I are big fans of Doctor Who and the fact that our favorite play starred David Tennant as Benedick and Catherine Tate as Beatrice, one of our favorite Doctor/Companion match-ups, meant that we had to see this, come what may. The rest of the cast also did not disappoint and looked to be enjoying themselves thoroughly.

But first a few sentences regarding the theater. The Wyndham's is in London's famous West End and is what is known as a 'listed building'. This means that it is of historical significance and that you are not allowed to do any significant changes, additions or renovations without prior approval from the appropriate authorities responsible for conserving landmark architecture. Of course, this also means that you can't bring listed buildings in line with modern accessibility requirements and as Betsy was in a wheelchair for the trip, this was a consideration that was much on our minds.

Fortunately, the theater had a work-around. There is a box seat at the rear of the Stalls which is used for disabled customers. It is accessed directly off of the street and there are about two small steps leading down into a small enclosed area with four chairs and a little bathroom off to the side. Two theater employees helped carry Betsy down into the box.

Here's a quick iTouch shot:

Despite being at the back of the theater, we had a pretty good view:

The Wyndham's was smaller than I had pictured and that actors weren't miked as they often are over here (I wonder if that would have constituted a 'significant renovation'?) So they had to resort to good old fashioned projecting from the diaphragm as I was taught in my youth. Still, I had the sense that if I hadn't already been somewhat familiar with the play I would have missed more of the dialogue. (I just checked the Wyndham's Web page where they note that they have an infrared sound amplification system....with 20 headsets. But we did fine.)

This production was set in Gibraltar, in the early 90's, the tail end of Thatcher's Britain. Not a great time to be working class or poor, but a fabulous time to be rich. This was the first stage production I had seen of this work and the differences, while reasonably obvious, are worth noting for their effect on how I perceived the story. In a film, we view what the director lets us view and the soundtrack tells us what feelings to have as the story progresses. This production had no orchestra (all of the music was generated on-stage as part of the scene) and I could focus on any part of the action I wished.

This changed the way I viewed both Beatrice and Benedick. Beatrice is outwardly a snarky, funny lady who is the life of any gathering. But Beatrice also keeps a lot of pain inside. First of all, she's generally the smartest person in the room, which was not considered a positive quality in a woman and this is referred to (albeit jokingly) by several others throughout the play. She can't respect a man who isn't at least as smart as she is and men in general don't care for women as smart as she is. So she resorts to sarcasm as a defense mechanism, to put off men before they have a chance to reject her. Tate portrays the internal life of this character beautifully, even as she uses her considerable comic skills to elicit laughs with as little as a word or glance.

Physical casting also made for some differences as well. David Tennant is a very slim 6' 1'' and Tom Bateman (who plays Claudio) is at least a head taller and is built like a linebacker. So the scene where Benedick confronts Claudio over his treatment of Hero and challenges Claudio to a duel is made more serious by the physical disparity between the two actors. Benedick issues the challenge with the knowledge that there is a good chance he won't survive the duel. But Tennant plays this scene (one of my favorites) perfectly and it's almost heartbreaking to see Benedick risk his life this way out of love for Beatrice.

The entire cast, for that matter, was just pitch-perfect. The production moved quickly and was a wonderful roller-coaster ride of emotions. As the old gag goes, "I laughed, I cried, it changed my life."

Travel Tales Pt. 8 - Interlude 2

2011-05-19T01:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's celebration went off without a hitch!

Plenty of videos and photos to share but right now we're getting ready for a cruise down the Thames (and more photos/videos from that as well!).

Tonight we've got the theater (or Thee-Ah-Tah as it's pronounced around these parts) so I may not be posting until tomorrow, but as always I'll tweet updates.

Travel Tales Pt. 7 - Tragedy, by W. S.

2011-05-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

"Everyone can master a grief but he that has it", Much Ado About Nothing, Act III, Scene II

Well, that didn't last long....

Since we used a somewhat dodgy third party ticket broker (*Cough*ViaGoGo*Cough), our tickets were nowhere to be found.

However, we were sold a pair of tickets for this Thursday evening (at a much better rate, by the way), given a letter by the theater to help us get a refund from my credit card bank and they will have some drinks out for us when we arrive later in the week, as a bit of apology, even though they didn't have anything to do with our problem.

Nice, polite people, the English.

SO...we're going to order some room service, load up the 1993 Ken Branagh production of "Much Ado About Nothing" with Branagh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves and Michael Keaton. It'll still be a fun evening.

More on the Harrod's visit later.....

Travel Tales Pt. 6 - Much Less Ado About....well, Stuff

2011-05-16T10:09:00.001-07:00

Good news on the theatrical front: We contacted the theater (or 'theatre' as they misspell it here) and explained that we had left our tickets at home. They told us that if we could find the seat and row information then they could print us some replacement tickets.

We contacted Daryl, our house-sitter, and had him look for that info and we just got an email from him with the row and seat numbers. Huzzah!

At any rate, it looks like we're off to "Much Ado About Nothing" with David Tennant and Catherine Tate this evening so cheers, everyone!

More news later....

Travel Tales Pt. 5 - Body Issues

2011-05-15T11:23:00.001-07:00

So I call down to room service to order some dinner. Betsy and I are having the same order but she's going to have some water and doesn't need a beverage.

For some reason, this call turns into a desperate attempt by me to convince the room service person that just because I'm having two orders of an entree with one beverage, that doesn't mean I'm eating both of them. The twisted thing here is that she understood exactly what I meant when I told her "Service for two". I was the one having the issue.

Me: "Okay, and that's service for two."

Her: [she repeats the order exactly as given]

Me: "And you realize, that this is for two, right?"

Her: [ Repeats the order ] "I'll keep repeating it, sir, until I get it right."

Me: "No, you're doing just fine. I'm apparently the one having the issues here."

For some reason I felt like the kid who's trying to convince his buddies that he has a real girlfriend....

"Guys, she and I totally made out...."

"No, you don't know her, we met at summer camp...."

"Yeah, she lives in Canada...."

I am a sick, sick man.

Travel Tales Pt. 4 - Interlude 1

2011-05-15T07:24:00.001-07:00

There is a trend in world travel these days known as 'Travel Without Baggage'.

Betsy and I, however, decided to go a different direction....

Yes, that's a wheelchair AND a walker....

I mean, we had to drag the cats out of the garment bag because they kept getting sucked into it's gravitational field.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:London Hilton Park Lane

Travel Tales Pt. 3 - Lost in America

2011-05-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

We have about half an hour before we need to get to our gate. In the meantime, an unexpected benefit of our BA business class fare is access to the BA club lounge. A very proper, Oxonian-accented gentleman greeted us and showed us to a seat where we are currently having a cool beverage and taking stock.
The Taking Of Stock has almost become a ritual for us when traveling. It mainly consists of figuring out what we forgot to pack.

So far, the tally is:

Our wedding album - Not a major loss, but it would have been nice to compare and contrast, particularly since the guests for our renewal ceremony were unable to make it to our wedding.

Betsy's wedding ring - A bit of a bigger loss here, as our ceremony does include an exchange of rings. Two options: a re-write or try to find her a ring in London. I'd like to do the latter as it would symbolize a renewed commitment.

Betsy's Chapstick - Okay, not huge. But I like to be thorough.

Betsy's wedding hat - In my own defense, I had not been informed that this was a part of the wardrobe. Once again, possibly a visit to Harrod's or M&S might sort this out.

Theater tickets - Ouch. We had opening night tickets to "Much Ado About Nothing", starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate. As dedicated Whovians we were both terribly excited about this. I need to make some calls when we land.

And so it goes....

Location:Peña Blvd,Denver,United States

Travel Tales Pt. 2 - Logistics

2011-05-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

This is definitely one of the more complicated trips we've done. Our usual M.O. is more like:

Figure out where we're going.
Get a place to stay while we're there.
Go there.
Come home.

This trip is a little more complicated for a number of reasons. First of all, twenty years ago my wife could still get around with a cane but now she needs a walker for inside distances and a mobility scooter or travel chair for outside. In addition I was planning to renew our vows on the trip. The third complication is that we don't rough it when we travel. We like to go places that are nice, with plenty of people to do our bidding and if possible, a spa/pool/etc. onsite.
I realized I couldn't do this on my own. Not only that, but Orbitz and Expedia aren't going to be much help either.

I needed a travel agent.

I didn't even know if travel agents even existed anymore. It seems like such a quaint profession, like elevator operator or town crier.

Turns out that they're still around, but they've had to raise their games considerably. After all, we can handle the simple stuff (airline, hotel, rental car) and some travel sites let you automatically add 'extras' like tour packages or theater tickets. Modern travel agents have to be specialists, with plenty of local knowledge for your destination, in addition to contacts in related businesses to handle the special stuff.

After extensive searching (okay, I Googled. Don't judge me...) I located a travel agent that specialized in both luxury and disabled travel, David Clifford.

Once we had explained our situation to David, he ran with it. For example, we wanted to take my wife's mobility scooter to make it easier to get around but David advised that British health and safety laws prohibited these scooters from many public buildings. (The 'A' in ADA stands for 'American', folks!). He engaged a local firm to rent us a travel chair for the trip so we wouldn't have to lug our own. In addition, we were advised of the accessibility options available at local hotels.

As for the vow renewal ceremony, I had originally thought to do it in a local registry office, the equivalent of a civil ceremony over here. But I was informed that since vow renewals weren't legally recognized, we couldn't do it there so David engaged a wedding planner to scope out an alternate location and put together all of the arrangements, including someone to officiate, a photographer and a hired car to and from the ceremony. He even threw in a couple of more 'touristy' outings that were wheelchair-friendly, such as a Thames River tour down to Greenwich.
So, to sum up: Travel agents - still around. Do you need one? Mostly not. But, if you've got special needs and don't have the resources to get the local knowledge you require then a good travel agent can be a godsend.

Travel Tales Pt. 1 - The Preparizing

2011-05-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

In a couple of days my wife and I will be traveling to London to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. This will be extra special because the last time we were in London was twenty years ago this past March. We did so well together that we decided to move our wedding date from October back to May, before we left the U.K.
So it's been a while since we've done this kind of trip and...things have changed. I'm reliably informed that nobody uses traveler's checks anymore so that cut a step out of my prep. I still felt I needed cash so I was Googling for the nearest Thomas Cook and found out that I could order foreign currency on the Internet. Not only that, but they do home delivery. Since I'm such a huge nerd, the idea of ordering money over the Internet and having cash delivered to me was appealing so I gave it a try. Sweet! FedEx just came by about an hour ago and dropped it off.
Given the changes in the world since we last went overseas, I also decided to take my nerd cred to a whole new level with this trip. Not only am I taking my laptop, iTouch, iPad and AppleTV with us (just plug it into the hotel flat-screen), but I also plan to blog, tweet, post photos and video while we're there and keep in contact with family and friends back home.
I realize that this is not a new idea in general but it's certainly new to me. The last time we were in London I didn't have a laptop, much less Internet access, and I'd like to use it to help me build some memories. So keep checking in and I'll be posting more Travel Tales.

Morality in the Termi-verse: Human Life is Sacred

2009-10-07T07:36:00.000-07:00

If any thing is sacred the human body is sacred.: Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

One of the advantages of genre fiction in general (and science fiction in particular) is that a writer can present otherwise dry, academic subjects in an interesting, entertaining way. Science fiction is particularly good at this since, as the mythology of our modern age, it can address modern concerns in addition to the classics such as Truth v. Beauty, Life v. Death and God v. Man. In particular, it works well for examining traditional values in the cold, clear light of modern scientific logic.
In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the writers have given us two different approaches to moral teaching: through faith and through logic. The former consists of James Ellison (a former FBI agent now working for a high-tech firm) and John Henry (an advanced AI program which uses the body of a Terminator to interact with the physical world). The latter is represented by John Connor (the future leader of the human resistance against the machines) and Cameron (a cyborg assassin who has been reprogrammed to protect and guide John). Both machines are motivated to learn; John Henry was designed as a machine learning platform and Cameron, originally created as an infiltrator to kill humans, has fundamental programming to learn about human nature in order to better fulfill her function. Ellison has been previously shown to be a deeply spiritual and religious man as well as a top-notch investigator. His revelation that robots from the future were being sent back in time to secure the ultimate genocide of humanity didn't damage his faith, but rather strengthened it as well as his determination to fight back any way he could. John Connor is by virtue of his upbringing more pragmatic, with a talent for science, and sees his fight against the machine as a game of chess, with logic fighting logic.
In the episode "Strange Things Happen at the One-Two Point", a decision made by John Henry (then called Babylon) results in the death of a human (Dr. Boyd Sherman), Ellison is called in by his CEO (Catherine Weaver) to find out if it was an accident or murder.

Ellison: All we know are the facts: means, opportunity. But intent -- not even Mr. Murch can guess.
Weaver: Well, why don't you ask him? Ask the Babylon AI. Ask John Henry.
Ellison: John Henry? It has a name?
Weaver: That was something Dr. Sherman did. Gave it that name.
Ellison: It's not a person.
Weaver: No, but it's a mind. Talk to John Henry.

Ellison interrogates John Henry (who at this point can only communicate with images projected onto a monitor) to determine its 'state of mind' about the death of Dr. Sherman.

Ellison: It has no feeling for what it did. It has no opinion. That's what it's telling you. Sure, you taught it procedures. You taught it rules. But it's got no ethics, no morals. Whether it had any feelings about Dr. Sherman shouldn't matter, if you had taught it to value Sherman's life. Someone killed the man, and it wasn't John Henry. Excuse me... (he turns to leave)
Weaver: What would you teach it?
(Ellison turns to face her.)
Weaver: What would you teach it if you could?
Ellison: You want to teach it commands? Start with the first ten.

John Connor, on the other hand, takes a different approach to educating Cameron about human values. While the two are on a stakeout (in "Complications"), Cameron takes an opportunity to improve her knowledge:

Cameron: There are many things I don't understand.
John: Like what?
Cameron: The tortoise.
John: What tortoise?
Cameron: It was on its back on the side of the road in Mexico. Your mother turned it over.
John: She was helping it.
Cameron: I know, but why?
John: Because that's what we do. When we, uh, see something that's, uh, in pain or in trouble or whatever, we try to help it.
Cameron: Empathy.
John: Something like that.
Cameron: But not everyone would turn the tortoise over.
John: No. Some would just leave it there.
Cameron: Somebody would probably drive over it and crush it.
John: Yeah, I guess they would. Is that what you'd do?
Cameron: It didn't seem like much of a threat. We're not built to be cruel.
John: Yeah, that's one for cyborgs.
Cameron: Yes. That's one for us.

So here are two different approaches to moral teachings. Ellison starts with the Ten Commandments, rooted deep in Judeo-Christian tradition with all of the historical, cultural and religious context that this implies.
(NOTE: It is not my intention to bash religion as a source of moral teaching.)
John Connor, on the other hand, explains that acts of kindness towards the helpless are a result of empathy and are just something humans do. He's even honest enough to admit that not all humans possess this quality. Cameron's response that terminators aren't "built to be cruel" is interesting, though. Cruelty as well as kindness are driven by emotions but the implication of her comment is that cruelty could have been part of her programming. We have seen that Cameron doesn't hesitate to kill if she calculates that her victim is a threat to her mission or to the Connors.
Later, when John Henry is connected to a salvaged Terminator body so that he can extend his learning into the physical world and more directly interact with humans, Ellison begins his instruction. In this scene (from "Earthlings Welome Here") he is playing chess with John Henry. (John Henry was originally designed as an AI learning platform, using chess as a demonstration of its abilities.)

Ellison: Who taught you chess?
John Henry: I did.
Ellison: Did you play with Dr. Sherman?
John Henry: No. We played other games. Talking games.
Ellison: Do you miss Dr. Sherman?
John Henry: I'm designed to learn. He helped me learn. His absence slows my growth.
Ellison: His 'absence' is more important than that. His value was more than just his function for you. Human beings aren't like chess pieces. It matters if we live or die.
John Henry: Why does it matter? All humans die eventually.
Ellison: Yes, that's true. But our lives are...sacred. Do you know what sacred means?
John Henry: Holy. Worthy of respect. Venerable.
Ellison: Do you know why human life is sacred?
John Henry: Because so few humans are alive compared to the number that are dead?
Ellison: No. Because we're God's creation. God made everything -- the stars, the Earth, everything on this planet. We are all God's children.
John Henry: Am I God's child?
Ellison: That's one of the things we're here to talk about.
John Henry (makes a move): Checkmate. I win. Would you like to play again?

Ellison is trying to see if John Henry can move beyond empirical knowledge and logic and accept a set of rules that ultimately rest on a foundation that defies independent analysis. John Henry is expected to accept that a given action is right (correct) because it is righteous (proceeding from accepted standards of morality or justice). Ellison is a religious man.
The Connors, on the other hand, aren't shown to follow any spiritual tradition. For example, when they are hiding in a storefront chapel, Cameron is observing the crucifix when Sarah enters:

Cameron: Do you believe in the Resurrection?
Sarah: What?
Cameron: The story of Jesus Christ, the Resurrection. Do you believe in it?
Sarah: Would you, if you'd seen what I've seen?
Cameron: Faith isn't part of my programming.
Sarah: Yeah, well, I'm not sure it's a part of mine either.

When you're fighting a clandestine war with time-traveling, genocidal machines, faith is a luxury you can't afford. Or is it? Like Ellison, the Connors (and by extension the human resistance) do have one underlying article of belief: human life is sacred. But not for the reasons that Ellison gives to John Henry.
An illustration of this is in a scene from the episode "Today is the Day, Pt. 2" where John is talking to a resistance fighter who has come back in time to manipulate him in order to change her future.

You know, I've been running from the machines my whole life. They tried to kill my mom before I was even born. When I was twelve, they sent one after me. I was a kid. I was stupid. I didn't know what it was all about.
Both times, 'Future Me' sent someone back to stop them. The first time it was a soldier. His name was Kyle Reese. And he died saving my mother's life. The second time it was a machine. I used to wonder why I did that, why I took that chance.
I don't wonder any more.
Human beings can't be replaced. They can't be rebuilt. They die and they never come back.

Ironically, this mirrors John Henry's initial conclusion that human life is sacred because 'so few humans are alive compared to those who are dead'. For the straggling clusters of humanity that managed to survive the initial attack by the rogue computerized defense system Skynet (the attack is referred to as 'Judgment Day' in a reference to the Biblical apocalypse), human life is sacred simply because they are so few in number compared to the billions that died when Skynet launched its attack.
So the Connors arrive at morality (or more specifically a code of right action) by way of empiricism. Human beings are valuable because they are each unique and they can't be replaced or rebuilt when they die. Human life is worthy of respect or, according to John Henry, 'sacred'.
Both Cameron and John Henry are unique as well, each having grown past their initial set of programmed functions. Neither can be replaced. (This is shown explicitly in "Born to Run" when the computer technician Murch explains that John Henry only exists as a specific collection of hardware and software. He even makes the analogy to 'body and soul'.) In the Connor's morality, both Cameron and John Henry have 'lives' that are 'sacred'. In the morality taught by Ellison, however, neither Cameron nor John Henry are deemed worthy, since they are the children of Man, not God.
The Terminator series (currently consisting of four films, a TV series and a number of books) has always had a strong, life-affirming moral undercurrent. However, it is in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles where this subtext fully becomes text and is deliberately and explicitly examined.

11 Days and Counting....

2009-02-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles starts back up on Feb. 13th and I'm completely psyched. I've previously blogged about the high quality of this show's writing, acting and production values so my interest should come as no surprise. However, the most recent trailer from Fox has me even more pumped:

If you haven't been watching this, you can catch up via Netflix, Hulu, iTunes or Amazon.

Another good reason to be excited is that T:TSCC will be paired with Dollhouse, the much-anticipated new series from Joss Whedon. I'm a big fan of Whedon's work and am looking forward to seeing it paired up with my current favorite show.

(NOTE: This is my first post using the Zemanta Firefox plug-in. It's supposed to make blogging easier by suggesting related tags, links and images based on the content of your posts. My concern is that I'm not sure how these get inserted so it may mess up my post until I get the hang of it.

The Stupid Computer Maxim

2009-01-30T07:22:00.000-08:00

I was building some scripts to help automate part of my work and I began to get bogged down while working out the design of my code. Then I remembered something I had realized about programming a few years back.
Here's the thing: computers are stupid. It's just that they're stupid really, really quickly and this makes most people think they're smart. This is what I refer to as my Stupid Computer Maxim.
I don't say this in a disparaging way. I like computers. I use them all day, every day. It's just that I like it when my computers do the boring, repetitive, stupid stuff and I get to do the creative stuff. Many beginning programmers get bogged down by not remembering the Stupid Computer Maxim (SCM).
Give a computer something stupid to do and they'll do the hell out of it. This is a very powerful, fundamental computer programming principle.
My problem was that I was trying to frame the task I was automating in too much of an abstract, high-level way and I got stuck trying to come up with a design. Once I recalled the SCM, all became much easier. I took the complex task and broke it down into a set of really stupid tasks and the scripts practically wrote themselves.

Knowledge versus Wisdom

2009-01-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when I'm reading, a particular turn of phrase will strike me as particularly well done. This is one from a book I just finished called Pack Animals:

Brigstocke scowled. "You're just giving them a pack of lies."
"People want to believe it," Jack said. "They wouldn't believe the truth. There's no point having the facts if you can't process them and stay sane." He contemplated the water in his glass as he swirled it around. "Knowledge isn't the same as wisdom."
"Why? What's the difference?"
Jack smiled. "Knowledge is when you can tell that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is when you leave it out of a fruit salad."

(Anghelides, Peter (2008). Pack Animals. Great Britain: BBC Books. )

Funniest. Blog. Ever.

2009-01-22T09:15:00.000-08:00

Chris's Invincible Super-Blog

I'm talking "pee-your-pants, can't-breathe-because-you're-laughing-too-hard" funny.

It's mainly about comics and it's very geeky but man, is it hilarious. The comments are just as funny if not funnier.

Go show Chris some love.

Story Analysis 101 Pt. 4 - The Wrap-up

2008-12-18T12:13:00.000-08:00

[This is part 4 of an four part essay introducing techniques of story analysis using the episode "Gnothi Seauton" from the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. If you haven't read the first two parts, you can find part 1 here, part 2 here and part 3 here. This is just a summary of the analytical process.]

Part 1 - We start with the big picture to help us find the details that reinforce it. Since this episode is part of a TV series which is itself part of a larger story universe that includes three theatrical films, we can begin there and lay out the major themes that drive the stories. Even these can be placed into context within the larger world of human storytelling tradition, if desired. So these are our big ideas which will serve to guide us in our analysis of "Gnothi Seauton".

Part 2 - Now that we are armed with the Big Picture, we can start dissecting the episode itself. We examined specific story elements such as character names and used them to help connect this story to the Big Picture. We found elements of Greek mythology, Biblical references and even connections to real-world persons. We pulled out the standard components of the storyteller's toolkit: archetypes, plot, conflict, viewpoint and tried to place them within the context of this particular story. At this point we're ready to dive deeper into the story and pull out specific elements of character, action and dialogue that support the connections we've made so far.

Part 3 - We made our way through the story, recapping it to the extent we had to in order to give context to those elements we chose for analysis. The goal here is to look for consistence in support of the themes and styles we found in our earlier examination. If we don't have that support, we need to re-visit our earlier work and see where we went off the rails. In this case, it looks like we are on track and we successfully connected the small stuff to the big stuff and brought the whole thing to some sort of satisfactory conclusion.

Ultimately a story doesn't come out of nowhere. The author chooses specific words, rhythms, characters and plots to get you to think certain thoughts or feel certain feelings, even if it's only temporary. Humans have been telling each other stories for thousands of years and we've gotten pretty good at it.

To sum up the summary:

Try to figure out what the author is trying to say
See what, if any part of the story supports this theory
Lay out the evidence, using outside references as needed.

Sometimes You Have to Let Great Art Wash Over You

2008-12-09T22:27:00.000-08:00

When I was teaching a class on science fiction one of my students, who shall remain nameless, asked me why we had to analyze all of these stories and films, picking them apart for things like symbolism, themes and so forth. Why couldn't we just enjoy them as entertainment? Had my mind been a bit quicker on its feet (so to speak) that night, I might have responded with something like this:

There's absolutely no reason why you can't just enjoy a book or movie or TV show for its entertainment value. However, if this is the only thing you enjoy then you're missing out.
It's as if I told you that I really loved my wife's nose. In fact, her nose is what made me fall in love with her and I really just enjoy being in the presence of her nose.
"But, Tom", you might respond, "I've met your wife and though she has a wonderful nose, she has many other qualities you might also enjoy. She has a charming manner and a delightful sense of humor. Her figure is quite lovely and she has beautiful eyes and an enchanting smile. She is warm and loving and spending time with her is a delight."
If after you had shown me all of these wonderful things I had been missing I were to reply, "But can't I just enjoy her for her nose?", then feel free to smack me silly.

Story Analysis 101 Pt. 3 - Once Upon a Time

2008-12-09T19:45:00.001-08:00

[This is part 3 of an four part essay introducing techniques of story analysis using the episode "Gnothi Seauton" from the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. If you haven't read the first two parts, you can find part 1 here and part 2 here.]

After pulling apart the thematic and character elements of this episode, we can finally get down to the nitty-gritty of examining the story itself. As we discussed previously, the particular theme for this episode appears to be Identity. That is, those qualities that make us definable and recognizable. So there are two storylines running through this episode. The first consists of the action, drama, gunplay and fights that you expect in this series. The other consists of characters asking (as well as answering) both the question "Who are you?" and the more important question "Who am I?".
We begin with a voice-over from Sarah:

A wise man once said "know thyself." Easier said than done. I've had 9 aliases, 23 jobs, spoken 4 languages and spent 3 years in a mental hospital for speaking the truth. At least when I was there, I could use my real name. Through it all, I've always known who I am and why I'm here....Maybe if you spend your life hiding who you are, you might finally end up fooling yourself.

The use of voice-over as a framing device is used well in this series and in this episode in particular. Sarah has been on the run from both SkyNet and the FBI before she even reached her twentieth birthday. She describes the different ways we identify ourselves and others -- by name (9 aliases), by what we do (23 jobs) and culturally (4 languages). The only time she was what she thinks of as herself, she was locked up in a mental hospital. She knows that she can't let anyone know who she really is, but she's clearly uncomfortable with this situation.
She later encounters John and he complains that Sarah has been avoiding getting new I.D.s for the last three days and as a consequence he's been stuck indoors.

Sarah: It's not just a name. It's a legend. A life. A whole new you.
John: We go through this every time.
Sarah: This is different.
Cameron: New IDs today? It's been three days.
John: I want my new name. I want that whole new me.

There are a couple of elements in play here. The first is that we have both John and Cameron mention the passing of three days since they arrived in our present/their future. To my suspicious mind, mentioning this kind of thing once is casual conversation but more than that indicates that the writer wants us to pay attention to this. The most obvious interpretation brings us back to the John/Jesus connection. In Matthew 12:38, Christ is described as rising three days after death and here we have "John Connor" (as an identity) dying (time-traveling from 1999) so that John (Sarah's son and the future leader of mankind) can live on. This may be a bit of a stretch but the series overall has included many Biblical and other religious references so it's not beyond imagination that this is also the case here.That being said, I don't think it's an important plot point.
So we return to our theme of identity. Both Sarah and John refer to the new I.D.s as more than just pieces of paper, but as whole new lives. Sarah calls it a 'legend' and this word has multiple meanings, at least two of which apply here. Legend can mean a story from the past about a specific person and it also means the phony background given to a spy taking on another identity. The series pilot changed the primary storyline from a chase to a hunt and transformed the Connors from victims to hunters, spies and detectives and this particular dialogue underscores this change, with Sarah noting that things are different now, i.e. they have new roles to play.
Sarah wants to see Enrique, a friend from her gun-running days, to get their new identities, but Cameron tells her that John (future John) sent back resistance fighters to act as a support team. When they arrive at the run-down tenement building to see these men, Sarah has another question for Cameron.

Sarah: These resistance fighters, they know you?
Cameron: They've seen me before.

Of course, Sarah is asking if they know Cameron as a cyborg but Cameron seems to be dodging the question. However, one constant from the movies and this series is that terminators will tell the literal truth, as long as it doesn't interfere with their mission. So while it seems that Cameron is being evasive, I think she is being literal. She really doesn't know whether these soldiers are aware that she's a robot and more importantly, whether they do or not is irrelevant. Cameron is the one character in this story who knows exactly who she is and is completely aware that any other self she presents to the world is a false face. Despite her outward appearance she doesn't even have gender. Switching identities is part of her function as she is programmed to be an infiltrator, to be whoever and whatever she needs to be to complete her mission. In the sense that we humans present different aspects of ourselves to others, depending on the context (I'm a different person to my co-workers than I am to my spouse, for example), we are all infiltrators.
The fighters are found murdered, however, so the two need to contact Enrique after all. He greets them and tells them that he has a new life, a new identity. He refers to himself as El Finito, after the nickname of a boxer who retired with no losses. Enrique has retired after a life spent being free, never once imprisoned or captured. Remember this, we'll come back to it.
Enrique refers them to Carlos, his nephew, who has taken on the family business. The two visit Carlos and while Sarah is negotiating, Cameron is outside waiting with the young girl who acts as the gang's lookout. At this point we're treated to an amusing scene where Cameron begins to imitate the body language and posture of the girl (who is simply listed as Chola in the credits and who is played wonderfully by Sabrina Perez). Cameron doesn't have her new identity yet so we see her trying on that of Chola as if she was trying on a new outfit.
However, it isn't long until she gets into trouble. A police car pulls up and a patrolman gets out.

Cop: (to Chola) Hey, baby girl. What did I tell you about hanging around? (he sees Cameron) Who's your new friend here? She someone I need to know? 'Cause the longer you stand around, the more I think she's someone I need to know. (to Cameron) You got a name?
Cameron: No.
Cop: This your car?
Cameron: No. It's definitely not my car.
Cop: See, I know just about everyone in this neighborhood, and you are not one of those everyone. Now you got me wondering not just who you are, that you won't say, but why you're here. And that you won't say.

Once again, Cameron is telling the literal truth. She has no new identity or name (yet) and since they arrived in a stolen car, it was literally not her car. She is about to be arrested when Sarah swoops in and makes up a story about Cameron being her step-daughter 'Jennifer' and in trouble for hanging out with her no-good boyfriend (or as Sarah refers to him, "that punk-ass") and just generally kicking up enough fuss so that the police officer backs off and lets them go. So we see that having an identity, even a false one, is better than having none. Inside we all know who we are and what we're about but to function in a society we need to present an external identity, for others to use in relating to us. The Connors are currently disconnected from society, functionally non-persons, until they establish their new selves.
After the encounter with the police, Sarah and Cameron are walking home and Sarah begins another discussion.

Sarah: Aren't you supposed to take orders or something like that?
Cameron: I do. From John.
Sarah: From John. So if I tell John to forbid you...
Cameron: Not this John.
Sarah: Not this John. Aren't they the same?
Cameron: Not yet.

So we are introduced into another notation of identity in a world that includes time travel. Cameron distinguishes the current John Connor from the John Connor of her (future) time, despite the fact that the two Johns are identical in every way except life experience. In addition, her reply indicates that Current!John is gradually transforming into Future!John. So just as our clothes, our name, our culture and our genetics determine our identity, so do all of our life experiences. Every decision we make, every person we meet, everything we do becomes another part of the persons we are at any given moment.
But Carlos wants a lot of money for the new papers, money that the Connors don't have. This leads us to another voice-over from Sarah, this time while she's walking down the street, thinking.

Carlos was right. $20,000 wasn't that much money. A new identity, a new life, a chance. You can't put a price on that.But unlike John, I was never eager for that new life to begin. I liked having no name, no story. It was the only time I got to be me. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to pay for that. And the price was getting higher every day.

This underscores Sarah's previous comment where the only good thing about being in a mental hospital is that she could use her real name -- she could be herself. Unfortunately the only way she sees clear to being herself now is to have no name, no identity, to hang on to the self within. Right now she is at peace because nobody knows or cares who she is. She is disconnected from everyone else. Once she gets a new name, she has to re-connect.
Once she gets her new papers from Carlos, she hears him talking to his gang about Enrique, using the Spanish word for rat, slang for 'informer' or 'snitch'. She returns to Enrique and confronts him with this. So the self that Enrique presented to Sarah was false. He had spent some time in prison and had become an informant. The man who spent a lifetime creating false identities for others took on one for himself. While he is trying to plead for his life, drawing on the past relationship he had with Sarah, trying to convince her that he's still the man she knew, Cameron enters and shoots him dead.

Sarah: Why would you do this? Did you hear what he said? We don't know. We don't know.
Cameron: He was possibly lying.
Sarah: Possibly? You just executed him on possibly? He had a family! Why would you do this?
Cameron: Cause you wouldn't.
Sarah: How do you know what I would and would not do? You don't know me. You don't know me! And you don't know my son. Not John. Not my John. You don't know what I would and wouldn't do. I don't even know what I would and wouldn't do. I wake up this morning and you tell me... I don't know anything anymore. I don't even remember what my name is.
Cameron: Sarah Connor.

In one sense, Cameron is being literal. In another sense, she is indicating that 'Sarah Connor' is also who Sarah is -- Mother of the Savior, the Legend. It's because her name is Sarah Connor that SkyNet tried to kill her in the first film (literally, as the terminator was killing all of the Sarah Connors listed in the phone book, in order) and it's what starts her on the road to giving birth to John and thereby saving future humanity by proxy. She has been confronted by visitors from the future who tell her that she will do this and will be that, but to her this Sarah Connor to which they are referring is another person, a stranger. The "Sarah Connor, Mother of the Savior" is an identity, a self that has been forced upon her by others. Unfortunately it's also not a self that she can reject.
This brings us to Sarah's final two monologues for this episode, which sum up the theme of this story. The first:

Know thyself. John once told me it's inscribed on the front of the Temple of Apollo. The entire quote is, "know thyself and thou shall know all the mysteries of the gods and of the universe."
That's quite a mouthful. My version is this. Know thyself because what else is there to know? People hide secrets. Time is a lie. The material world can disappear in an instant. It has and it will again.

You can't know what's in others hearts, only in your own. What Sarah thought of as her life, her world, has vanished many times -- when Kyle Reese appeared in a bubble of electrical force, when she was committed to a mental hospital, when she and her young son destroyed Cyberdyne Systems, when a bank vault exploded in 1999. A robot with a stolen face has told Sarah that she died of cancer two years ago and that the world will end in atomic fire in April of 2011. Time is an illusion. Everything that is happening, is happening now, in this instant.

Our identities change. Our names, the way we look, how we act and speak. We're shape shifters. There is no control. No constant. No shelter but the love of family and the body God gave us. And we can only hope that that will always be enough.

The philosopher Rene Descartes proposed that we can argue that everything is just an illusion: the world, other people, our bodies, everything. The only thing one can truly know for sure is that they exist. Buddhists view the world as an illusion in order to detach themselves from it. In addition, the lines about "no control" and "no constant" is reminiscent of William Butler Yeats' poem 'The Second Coming', which talks about the inevitability of Apocalypse, the end of the world. This re-connects our theme of identity back to the primary story element of the series, stopping the end of the world.

That's what I've got. There will be one final section to this essay, where I'll sum up just what went into this process.

Story Analysis 101 Pt. 2 - Names Are Important

2008-12-04T10:42:00.000-08:00

[This is part 2 of an ongoing essay introducing techniques of story analysis using the episode "Gnothi Seauton" from the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The first part can be read here.]

Now that we've established a context by laying out the themes for the story, we can get to work digging through the other elements. I always feel you should start with the simple stuff and work your way up from there, so we'll start with names.
Names are important to a story. The names of characters and places are all elements used by the author to set the mood and move the story forward. So let's take a look at our characters, with references as available:

John Connor -The hero of our story and the future leader of the human resistance. John is a very common name in English speaking countries and it has an equivalent in many other languages and cultures, including Finnish, German, Hebrew, Celtic, Russian and even Slovenian. Thus in a sense, by naming the character John, the author is representing him as an EveryMan. The name comes from the Hebrew name Yochanan, which means "God is gracious" and the name appears in the New Testament. In fact, the circumstances of John Connor's birth parallel that of Jesus Christ. In Luke 1:26-38 an angel appears to Mary and tells her that she will give birth to the Savior and his name will be Jesus. In the first Terminator film, a time traveller appears to Sarah Connor and tells her she will give birth to a son that will save mankind and his name will be John. John and Jesus even share the same initials.
Sarah Connor - The mother of John Connor. In the Old Testament Sarah was the wife of the prophet Abraham and thus is a name we can find in all three major Western religious traditions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Sarah means "princess", "a person of high rank" or "high, holy one". When Kyle Reese travels from the future to protect Sarah Connor, he tells her that he volunteered for the mission because he wanted to meet The Legend. In the future, Sarah is regarded with awe and almost religious fervor.
Cameron Phillips - Cameron is a re-programmed terminator sent to protect John. The show's producer Josh Friedman has acknowledged that the character was named after James Cameron, the writer and director of the first film.
Cromartie - Another terminator, Cromartie attempted to kill John in the series pilot by posing as a high school teacher and, after this is foiled by Cameron, continues to pursue John, directly and indirectly, over the course of several episodes. While initially the name sounds like "Chrome Artie" and suggests a mechanical man, I thought the meaning might be more subtle than that. After some digging I came across a reference to a Japanese anime called Cromartie High School, a school of delinquents including a character named Shinichi Mechazawa, one of the most notorious delinquents of the school. Though it is suspected that he is actually a robot, no one but the main characters seems to notice, including himself. I thought I was on to something with this until I came across an interview with creator Josh Friedman who admits that he named the character after Antonio Cromartie, cornerback for the San Diego Chargers.
James Ellison - The FBI agent who has been hunting Sarah Connor since the events of the second movie. There is some speculation that he is named after Harlan Ellison, who sued the producers of the first Terminator film, claiming that the creators took ideas from some of his works, including the teleplays for the Outer Limits episodes "Demon with a Glass Hand" and "Soldier". He won the lawsuit.

The last name we will examine is the title of the episode itself: "Gnothi Seauton". This is Greek for 'Know Thyself' and we end the episode with a voice-over from Sarah:

Sarah : Know thyself. John once told me it's inscribed on the front of the Temple of Apollo. The entire quote is, "Know thyself and thou shall know all the mysteries of the gods and of the universe." That's quite a mouthful. My version is this: "Know thyself because what else is there to know?" People hide secrets. Time is a lie. The material world can disappear in an instant. It has and it will again.

Given this, why not call the episode "Know Thyself"? Why use the original Greek? This is what we in the story analysis game call a Clue. Sarah tells us that this phrase is part of an inscription over a Greek temple, so clearly the episode title is intended to point us in that direction. The temple is that of Apollo so perhaps that's significant. So who is Apollo?
Apollo was the Greek god of light, sun, truth, prophecy, archery, medicine, healing, music, poetry and more. He is usually pictured as a beardless youth and he has a twin sister, Artemis, who is described as a virgin huntress. So Apollo seems to reference John and as Cameron is posing as John's sister she takes on the role of Artemis.
Many ancient religions had a sun god. In fact, the sun god was one of the top gods in the pantheon, symbolizing light, warmth, hope, renewal, a new day after a dark night. There are even those who contend that the biblical Jesus Christ actually pre-dates the Bible and springs out of a long line of sun gods. (Disclaimer: I present this for reference only and do not vouch for the validity of the argument.) Once again, Apollo appears to reference John in his role as humanity's hope while also giving us a possible link back to the Christ mythology.
Apollo's mother, Leto, does not play much of a part mythologically speaking, apart from bearing Apollo and his sister. Afterwards she fades into the background and becomes this matronly figure on Mt. Olympus, home of the gods. When John emerges as the savior of humanity, Sarah has been dead and gone for some time, but is still regarded with reverence. We can stretch this as a link to Leto, giving us John as Apollo, Cameron as Artemis and Sarah as Leto.
Before we conclude this part of our analysis, let's take a look at what techniques we've used so far.

Background - Before proceeding with our analysis we need to place the story into a context. This can be done by examining the author's other works, the time period in which the story was written, the personal history of the author and, if the story is part of a series, the overarching themes and ideas linking all of the works in the series together.
Themes -This is an extension of the previous technique and is important enough to merit it's own entry. There are one or more major themes unifying a work of fiction and for longer works there are sometimes smaller themes for individual parts of the story. In our example, the theme for "Gnothi Seauton" is identity. We'll get more into this in the next part of this essay.
Names - As I said, names are important and are rarely chosen at random. In addition, names may have meanings beyond what the author originally intended. Don't just look at character names, but also names of places, animals, objects and even the title of the work (and individual chapters, if appropriate).
Archetypes - Humans have a long tradition of storytelling and there are character and story elements that are so fundamental that they keep re-occurring, across cultures, down through history. These are known as archetypes and if we can determine what elements of a story use them we can gain a deeper understanding of the current story. In addition, archetypes are a sort of storytelling shorthand which allows the author to impart a lot of information in very few words.

In the next part of this essay we'll begin taking a look at the story.

Story Analysis 101 Pt. 1 - Getting Started

2008-12-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

[This is an expansion of some lecture notes from a class on science fiction that I recently taught. I decided to introduce my students to some basic story analysis using the episode "Gnothi Seauton" from the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I chose this because the show has plenty of action and drama for the new viewer but the writing is very intelligent and contains plenty of nice, chewy content and subtext. The discussion begins immediately after my students have seen the episode.]

(If you don't watch the series, you can get a very entertaining recap of the previous episode, the series pilot, here. Long story short: Two years after the events of the second Terminator movie, John (Thomas Dekker) and Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) are once again on the run, chased by the terminator Cromartie (Owain Yeoman). Along the way they meet Cameron (Summer Glau), a young woman who turns out to be another terminator sent to protect John. Ultimately the three travel forward in time from 1999 to 2007 in order to escape to safety.

One of the first rules for story analysis is -- don't just re-tell the story. This is not your grade school book report. You need to identify the key elements of the story; plot, themes, archetypes, characters, viewpoints, conflict and references to other works, for example. It's all part of the storytelling toolkit that we humans have used for...well, ever since we started telling each other stories. These elements provide a context for us to gain a deeper understanding of the story and the authorial intent.
You can begin with any part of the story you want. A good start is to figure out the themes because they will help you put the other elements in context. Since this show is based on a series of films, I think we can safely assume that it carries on the same themes.

Destiny vs. Fate - Kind of like Climate vs. Weather, Destiny is what you expect, Fate is what you get. John Connor is destined to lead humanity in the fight against the machines. SkyNet is trying to keep him from getting there, to change his fate. In the first movie, Kyle Reese (the soldier sent to protect Sarah Connor who incidentally becomes John's father) tells her "The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves."
Decisions Have Consequences - SkyNet, the rogue AI that nukes mankind, began as a computer program to automate the national defense grid and eliminate human error. I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. In a larger context, each side in this war is attempting to change the future time line to their advantage and each action they take in our present is a pebble tossed into a quiet pond, rippling outward and affecting everything else.
Fighting the Future - Time travel is used by both sides in this series as a tool to change history. SkyNet is trying to prevent the successful rise of the human resistance and the human resistance (along with the Connors) are trying to prevent the rise of SkyNet.
How do you defeat an idea? - This is related to the previous theme. In the first movie, SkyNet tries to kill John Connor, who inspires and leads the successful human resistance. In the second, Sarah tries to kill Miles Dyson, who is credited as the creator of the technology that leads to the creation of SkyNet. However, both of these efforts are doomed to failure. SkyNet arises from the effort of many individuals and conversely any resistance movement springs from multiple sources. To quote Alfred Whitney Griswold: "Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas."
What does it mean to be human? - In other words, if terminators kill and destroy to achieve their goals and the humans do the same, how exactly is one side more worth preserving than the other? Can the Connors defeat their enemies without becoming them? Conversely, terminators are infiltration units whose effectiveness increases the more closely they can emulate a human, both in appearance and behavior. Each side, in their repeated attempts to defeat the Other, becomes the Other.

These are the major themes, as I see them. Individual episodes in this series have additional, smaller themes that are also important and I'll point them out as we go. Now that we have a context within which to analyze the story, I can begin dissecting the specific story elements in part 2 of this essay.

Just checking

2008-11-28T20:55:00.000-08:00

My brother is having some trouble with Blogger and I'm trying to reproduce it.

As I've Suspected...

2008-11-18T14:48:00.001-08:00

A Show to Watch

2008-11-13T17:09:00.000-08:00

TV shows in general are uneven at best and as a sci-fi fan I can say TV sci-fi has issues, to put it politely. However, there are a few programs that are really worth watching and I plan on talking about them on this blog.

Starting now.

My current favorite show in any category is Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. For those of you already watching this, feel free to go off and re-watch your favorite episodes. For the rest of you, let me give you the rundown. (If you're familiar with the movies, you can skip the next paragraph.)

The summary of the story is this: A young woman, Sarah Connor, meets a soldier from the future who tells her that in a few years a rogue computer called SkyNet will start WWIII and start exterminating humanity using humanoid killer robots called terminators. Her son (at that time unborn) is destined to lead the human resistance. Meanwhile the computer has sent a terminator back in time to kill Sarah. Long story short, they manage to kill the robot, have sex and get Sarah pregnant with the Future Leader of Mankind. Now she has to train him and keep him alive long enough to fight the machines.

It might be hard to imagine how to translate this popular movie franchise to the small screen, but Josh Friedman has assembled an outstanding cast including: Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau, Brian Austin Green and Richard T. Jones. All of the actors give rock-solid performances, but two standouts are Summer Glau, who plays a re-programmed terminator sent back to protect John and Brian Austin Green, who leaves his 90210 character far behind as Derek Reese, John's uncle and a grizzled veteran of the future war.

Friedman nicely solves the problem of translating a mainly chase-oriented movie series to television in the very first episode. The chase is now a hunt for SkyNet and the series is equal parts mystery, intrigue and guerilla warfare. In the midst of all of the gun fights, explosions and brawls the Connors have to figure out how to live as a family and get sixteen-year-old John to grow into his role as a leader of men while fighting off both robots and humans.

Though the show has more than enough action, thrills, drama and even humor to satisfy the average viewer, it doesn't stop there. The acting is superb, the writing is sharp and somehow the production team is able to deliver a cinematic look on a TV budget while delivering storylines and characters that are complex, intriguing and multi-layered. This is one of those rare programs that rewards your attention.

If you want to catch up on season 1 (strike-shortened to nine episodes), you can stream them online at Hulu, download them from the U.S. iTunes store or just get the DVD box set.

Me

2008-11-12T20:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's yet another blog. Why, you ask? For one thing, when it comes to trends, I've always prided myself on being fashionably late. Nowadays the bloggers who haven't switched to twittering are busy angling for jobs in the new administration. (Or campaigning to impeach the president-elect.)

The more relevant reason is that I spend a lot of time in my head. I have since I was a kid. Sometimes the thoughts between my ears build up to such an extent that the only way I can work through them is to write them out. (You wouldn't believe how long I spent trying to compose that previous sentence in such a way that doesn't make me seem mentally unsound.)
Before today I would get on my computer and pound out short stories, essays, whatever needed saying. This has been going on for years and last night while I was lying awake I realized the next step was to put it online.

Given that, I'll be posting irregularly about whatever topics have seized my fancy: my job, my family, politics, music, books, films, whatever. As an aspiring author (I've self-published a textbook already and will probably be posting about that experience) I'll also be using this space to organize my thoughts and try out some ideas. I'm also an instructor at a small college and may occasionally comment on my experiences there. I don't know how this is all going to work out, but I'll try not to be boring or trite (I'm doing this for an audience of me, after all) so we'll just see how it goes.