LOST again

Today the new season of LOST begins. I can't wait. Especially after last season's finale.

A small trip down memory lane for those who don't quite remember what happened.
1) Charlie died. He drowned in the under water pod after shutting down the whatever system it was he was supposed to shut down. It is presumed it was the system that keeps the island cloaked.
2) The ever-present flashbacks regarding the characters' lives before they arrived on the island were replaced with "flash-forwards" (for want of a better term). In these we see that Jack and Kate for certain make it off the island. Jack is a drunkard, and stops by a funeral home for a viewing. The casket is short, and we never see who is in it, and the funeral home is empty. The funeral director tells Jack that no one has come to pay their respects. The short casket, and the fact that no one attended tells me the person on the coffin is the bug-eyed Ben - leader of 'The Others'.
3) Jack has been traveling the world-over. He tells Kate he wants to go back to the island. During this conversation Kate speaks of 'him' and we are all led to believe (or at least I imagined I was led to believe) that 'him' is Sawyer, but that is truly never revealed and I know from experience with this show, you can't assume anything and have it stick.

My guess is that Locke will not leave the island, no matter what. He was crippled and confined to a wheelchair after his father threw him out a third or fourth story window. But on the island he has full use of his extremities. He can walk, and run and jump and all those things that people who are not confined to a wheelchair are able to do. I believe Locked would rather die than go back to being in the wheelchair.

No sign of Jack's current main squeeze, the hot doctor lady from 'The Others' in the flash-forward. And since he is flying all over the place, it would appear they are not together any longer. Perhaps she stayed on the island, perhaps she died. Perhaps she just couldn't put up with his constant drinking and flying off all over the world using the 'Golden Ticket' the survivors received from Oceana Airlines.

Whatever happens, it is certain to be a heck of a roller coaster ride. I'm guessing at the most there are two seasons left in this show. I read a year or so ago that the producers have created the end for the show, but didn't way how long down the road that end would come. They didn't want it to end up like the X-Files, which lasted about three years past when it should have. I don't look for all of the questions to be answered. In fact, I am kind of looking for most of the questions to remain questions. There are some things that are just unexplainable. The smoke monster for one, what is it? Who created it? Who is this enigmatic "Dharma" group that got Ben there in the first place? And who were the other people that were already on the island? We know they are not part of Dharma. Are they survivors of the Black Rock shipwreck?

One thing I would like to know is what happened to Michael and his kid, Walt?

Usually before the new season they would do a kind of "catch up" show, which discusses the major happenings, refreshes everyone's memories, and brings everyone up to date. It is mostly a discussion show with some clips. They did that differently last night. I didn't watch it (we DVRed it), because I was busy watching the Wildcats make the Jayhawks run around like chickens with their heads cut off (go 'Cats!). At any rate, I did get to see a few minutes, and what they did was show last season's finale, but with pop-up info texts explaining what was happening and giving some background. It was a neat way to get everyone caught up. Or, it would have been if we hadn't been in some stupid winter weather warning so that the bottom left half of the screen wasn't taken up with the little map and text 'splainin what the map meant.

"There is no shame in being second best"

For quite some time now No. 2 Son has been talking about his great desire to be a Navy Seal. I don't know what it is that created this desire in him, but I'm not going to do anything to dispel that either.

As the regular readers know, No. 1 Son is in the Marine Jr. ROTC program at his high school. The instructor for that program is CWO Gunner. Awhile back No. 2 Son and Gunner were discussing things, and the discussion turned to the military where No. 2 Son did not hesitate to relate his desire to be a Navy Seal. Gunner asks why he would want to be a Seal, and No. 2 Son responded that while he knows the Marines are tough, the Seals go in, get the job done, and get out without anyone knowing they were there. This didn't seem to phase Gunner in the least (very little does) as Gunner responded "Well, that's ok. There is no shame in being second best if that is what you want."

This conversation was brought to memory yesterday as we were watching "The Unit". I have said before, and I still believe, that this television program is the single best hour long commercial for the US Army ever developed. The plot was the team was extracting a kidnapped journalist from Lebanon. Things didn't go according to plan and their extraction helicopter was shot down, and one of the team was badly wounded in a gunfight so they could not get to the secondary extraction point. They tended the wounded soldier and put a marker on the top of a building hoping the satellites could see it and send help.

At the end of the show, help arrived in the form of the US Marines. This sent No. 1 Son into hysterics as he found great joy that the US Marines had to be sent in to rescue the US Army Special Ops team. I'm certain that at school today, he is telling all of his MJROTC comrades about it.

Bionic Woman Redux

After two episodes, I'm still trying to get past the vast and sweeping changes to the Bionic Woman mythos that are created in the re-imagining of the show. About the only things that are retained from the original show are; the bionic woman's name is Jaime Sommers, and she has robotic parts. Apart from that, almost nothing is retained.

There is no Oscar Goldman. There is no government spy agency called OSI. There is no Dr. Rudy Wells who pioneered the bionics project. And there is a bionic woman 1.0 - who is 1/2 crazy - running around mucking things up.

Instead of the OSI, Jaime works for some super-secret private firm who are trying to keep the world from being destroyed, and she cost $50 million (instead of $5 million in the original). I guess it would have to be a private agency to get all those bionic parts (two legs, 1 arm, 1 ear and 1 eye - the eye is another deviation from the original) for only $50 million. I'm quite certain if it was a government project, it would have run closer to $5 billion. In a government program, she probably could have gotten a bionic little toe for $50 million.

I'm going to give it some more time. At least with Battlestar Galactica they mostly kept the familiar names around. With this, the only name they kept was Jaime Sommers. But I'm still waiting for Lindsey Wagner to do a guest appearance - I'm almost certain that is in the works.

Leaving Las Vegas

One of my favorite shows the last few years has been "Las Vegas" on NBC. I started watching it because of James Caan. Since "Rollerball"(the original, not the crappy remake) I will pretty much watch anything James Caan is in.

Caan's character was great. Ex-CIA spook guy now running a Casino in Las Vegas. Knows all the old-timer mob guys, and how to take care of business 'off the books'. Last season (I believe it was) Caan's character left for awhile. The show was somewhat draggy then. Without Caan, it just wasn't going to fly. I was about ready to give up on it when he came back.

In this season's opener, he left for good. And I'm pretty sure it is for good this time. But I have faith that they can do the same great show without him this time. Last time, when Caan left, there was nobody to fill his shoes. All that was left was the young eye-candy characters - don't get me wrong, the eye-candy is nice. This time though, they have brought in a new character, and new old salt kind of guy. A Wyoming rancher who simply 'wrote a check for $247 million to pay off the casino's back taxes. The character is portrayed by Tom Selleck.

Twenty years ago, Selleck was the bomb as "Magnum, P.I." but his after Magnum career has somewhat stifled. He did some crappy movies and some guest shots on other TV shows. If the western genre was better received, he would have had some good hits with westerns. He seems to just kind of slide into the cowboy role, and this character acts exactly how you might expect a cowboy to act. When an oncologist from Kansas City is caught cheating at black jack, instead of sending the guy to jail, Selleck himself deals cards to the fellow and makes the proposition "You stole over $1 million of my money. Now, I believe sometimes people make mistakes. So what we're going to do is play blackjack until I win all my money back, every cent, then you go back to Kansas City and save some lives." (ok, it was paraphrase, my memory isn't that good, but you get the drift).

I think Las Vegas will last without Caan just fine. Unfortunately, I don't think "Criminal Minds" will last without Mandy Patinkin. Another show I started watching for the actor, Ever since "Princess Bride" I have watched most things Patinkin has done. Sadly, I missed the whole "Dead Like Me" era of his career, but I'm sure that somehow I'll get over it.

Holy Cow! Look at all those reference links. You'd think I'm getting paid for that many links but alas, I don't.

Have a great rest-of-your-Monday!

Mini-Series review: The Fallen

I am a sucker for religious thrillers. I love the whole good v. evil thing. The apocalyptic undertones. That is why I loved the turn of the century. The event called for a good many of such movies. Most of them were sad excuses, but, like time travel movies, I had to watch them.

Last year ABC Family ran a made-for-tv movie called "The Fallen." I hadn't seen the movie, nor had I even heard of it. But this year, they ran the original movie, plus two more for a total of six hours worth of God v. Devil goodness.

The premise is, back in the day (way, way back) some angels rebelled against God. You know the story, the whole war in Heaven thing where Lucifer lost and was sent to reign in Hell. Those that were on his side, but didn't join him in Hell as demons, became "The Fallen." These were the angels who are discussed in the Bible as consorting with human women and creating half-breed offspring "abominations" called Nephilim.

God sent "The Powers" to protect his creation, and they started about killing off the abominations and the fallen angels (I didn't know angels could be killed, BTW). The special effects were good, there were only a couple of scenes where the flying angels' CGI was poor, and those were very brief. One thing that got me though, and it seemed strange, was that some of the angels, the good ones, had bat-type wings, instead of the usual feathery bird-type wings. And some had black wings instead of the stereo-typical white wings. It is not a huge deal, but when dealing with iconic imagery, in an iconic situation, one would think they would stick to the stereo-types. Especially considering they went through the trouble to give the angels names that more or less follow the naming criteria used in the Bible (such as Gama'el, Ara'el, Azaza'el etc).

All in all I though they did a great job. There were a couple of scenes that almost made me laugh, but I was able to get over them easy enough. One in particular towards the beginning, there is a member of the Powers who slays a Fallen, and she is wearing this white hooded cloak, and as she is turning and stomping of screen, the cape flowing out behind her she says something to the effect of "find out what it is, and alert me immediately." Which instantaneously sent me back 30 years to Darth Vader aboard Princess Leia's ship saying "The plans are here, tear this place apart and find them" (or something like that).

We recorded the show over the weekend, and watched it all in one sitting, all six hours of it. If you are a fan of this type of story, I would highly recommend getting the DVD.


Technorati Tags: God, Devil, Angels, Good, Evil, The Fallen, Television, ABC Family

LOST season finale

This season LOST went out with a bang. Not just a little band either, a huge, gi-normous bang. I was sorry to see Charlie go, but one of the main characters had to go. It is the way of things. Hurly was just too lovable of a loser oaf - and nobody would really care if Sayid or Sawyer bit the bullet. No, it had to be Charlie. All too lovable Charlie. Charlie who was the last in his band to get into the drug scene, and (we presume) the last to get out. Other than Locke, Charlie has made the most dramatic change in his life on the Island. He kicked drugs, he found love, and a general purpose for his life, obtained a family. Like the guy in the WWII movies with the 'girl back home', Charlie was ripe for killing off. I was sad to see him go, but it just felt too right. He died with a great purpose - at least that is what he thought. Desmond's visions of Charlie's death finally come true. Although, I don't know why he didn't close the door from the OUTSIDE of the room when the room started to flood, but he seemed content with his destiny.



The world seems to be falling apart around Ben - the bug-eyed leader of 'The Others.' All his best laid plans are unravelling. He didn't expect Juliette to turn against him (at least, to this point we don't THINK he meant for that to happen). He didn't expect to have seven of his people blown to smithereens while attempting to abduct the women survivors (at least, we don't THINK he meant for that to happen).



The one-eyed Russian seems to have a terrific knack for surviving things he shouldn't survive. First the security system around the compound of 'The Others', then the harpoon to the chest. And speaking of that compound. They had electricity and running water. Why didn't the survivors move to the compound after Ben & Co. abandoned it? They had houses and beds and all that nifty keen 'modern living' stuff (bathrooms). Seems to me, if I were on the Island, I would have moved in a hurry.



And of course, no one expected Locke to stay down. Seems he had given up until Walt (Jacob??) appeared to him and told him to get off his duff and complete his mission (whatever that is). It has been a contention with me as to what happened to Michael and Walt. They left in a boat when the EMP was released, but that should have (you'd think) mess up the boat's fuctionality. And if Desmond couldn't get away from the Island in his boat, how come Walt and Michael could in theirs? AND why haven't they tried to send help? Or maybe they had, and that is where the boat off the coast comes from.



It seems that this season we have completely abandonded the Dharma Initiative and whatever company that was for which they setup all of those websites with clues to nowhere. We learned that when Dharma landed on that Island, it was already inhabited by what the DI's called 'The Hostiles.' Some of these hostiles haven't aged in the years from when Ben arrived as a young teenager, through present time.



In LOST we have almost arrived at the point where, as long as we know whether the survivors are rescued, the rest really doesn't matter much. Where did the Hostiles come from? What created that smoke beast? What was the source of that chain ranking sound when Locke was almost pulled into the pit? Who is Jacob? All of these questions, as the show goes on and on seem less important. It is geting to where it doesn't really matter what the answers are. As long as we know, ultimately, if the survivors are rescued, we can all sleep peacefully.



And as usual, there were the flashbacks scattered throuhgout the episode. It was Jacks turn again. In them we encounter a bearded, suicidal, pill popping Dr. Jack. It seems his life is in ruins. He has a run-in with is pregnant ex-wife after he pulls a lady and her kid from a burning car. We see him stop by the funeral of someone. We never find out who it is, but the casket is rather short. In the end though, we are treated to the fact that it was not a flash back we were viewing, but rather, a flash forward. This is the future. Jack's life is in shambles after his return from the Island and he wants to go back. He meets up with Kate (who is looking rather hot - despite her driving a Volvo). I am starting to think the funeral he went to, that no one attended, was for Ben.



I can't wait until next season!



And thanks for stopping by.





Technorati Tags: ABC, LOST, Television

a pair o' ducks

I am a freak for time travel shows and movies. I don't know what it is about them, but when time travel is involved, I almost always have to see it. This kind of weakness has forced me to view movies such as "The Butterfly Effect", "The Butterfly Effect II" and "Millennium". So I was really excited about last night's "Heroes." The teasers all week promised a "what if" style of episode, that is, what if the explosion in New York wasn't stopped. What if the bad guy doesn't get caught. In essence, what if Isaac Mendez's visions come true. And it was everything I had hoped it to be.

Basic premise is, Hiro found his sword, grabbed Ando and transported both of them 5 years in the future. New York has been devestated. Nathan Petrelli is the Prez. Hiro heads to Isaac Mendez's studio not knowing that just before he transported, Sylar opened Isaac's head and had a little snack. While in Isaac's studio, Hiro runs into....Hiro.

WARNING: If you TIVOed this, or if you watch it Fridays on SciFi network, don't read any further.

Most time travel stuff deals with people from the future heading into the past. These actions can create a paradox. The problem comes because one never really knows what actions lead to other actions, which lead to other actions which lead...you get the picture. It is called the butterfly effect (not the movie). It is the notion that a butterfly beats it's wings in China, causing air
movement. This air movement causes some other action, which cause something else to occur, and the next thing you know, you have a monsoon in Hawaii.

So here is my paradox for this time travel adventure that I am guessing will never be answered, and that the writers are hoping doesn't get brought up much (yeah, like geeks don't watch this show. puuuuhleeeeeze). Ok, so future Hiro recounts his battle with Sylar, and how Sylar didn't die because he had the cheerleader's regenerative powers. But as we know the Claire was alive and well and working in a diner in future-Hiro's timeline (at least until Sylar - in the guise of President Nathan Petrelli - kills her). That means that Sylar did not kill the cheerleader in the past, and did not have her regenerative powers during his battle with future-Hiro. So in the battle with future-Hiro, Sylar should have died. But he didn't because he had killed the cheerleader and had her powers, but he didn't kill the cheerleader and take her powers because past-Hiro caused Peter to save her, thereby denying Sylar her powers, but he had her powers because future-Hiro could not kill him.

See how that all works into a nastly little loop? That is the paradox created when the cheerleader did not die. So by saving the cheerleader, it should have allowed future-Hiro to kill Sylar. Still would not have saved the world because it was Peter that destroyed New York and not Sylar. But that is something different completely (probably, future-Hiro did not know it was Peter and not Sylar that was the destroyer).



Technorati Tags: Heroes, Time Travel, Paradox, Hiro

I'm a hot toe-picker!

I know it may seem hard to imagine, but growing up and living in Topeka is not the cat's meow it may seem to be on the surface. This is not a destination town for anyone (okay, except maybe state politicians...but they are barely people anyway). Topeka is, for lack of a better word, boring. When you tell someone you are from Topeka, the silence is so loud you can barely hear the crickets chirp.

Television and movies use all kinds of different places in their plots. Almost never do they ever use Topeka. Sometimes they might mention Kansas. I think the problem is that they don't want to have to explain to the folks watching the movie or TV program that Kansas is not the mythical state where Marshal Dillon lived, but instead a real, live state. Heck, most people don't even realize that Topeka is the home base for the notorious Phelps cult of 'god caused 9/11' fame.

So, anyway, when Topeka gets mentioned in a national TV show or movie, it is kind of a big deal for those of us who live here. For instance, some time ago, one of the hotel guests on Las Vegas (one of my fav shows) was from Topeka. Heck, the 5/8th and I were so excited about that we even stopped the recording and backed it up to hear it again, and to get a better look at the character's ID. And sure enough, they even had a semi-valid zip code (our zip code starts with 666 - which may explain that Phelps cult thing after all).

Then for quite some time, my kids have, on and off, run around the house claiming "Its hot in Topeka." I wasn't sure what this was, but I found out today. I had some extra time, so I hit the YouTube and put "Topeka" in the search box. What came back was the following animated segment:

I found this segment fairly hilarious, I don't know why. My kids tell me it is from a cartoon called "Foster Home For Imaginary Creatures" or something like that. At any rate, Topeka was mentioned in a national cartoon, maybe the little blue guy caused some kids to google Topeka so they could learn something about it. Probably not, but a guy can dream can't he?

Viva Las Vegas!

When I was a kid, I used to watch a television show named 'VEGA$'. For three seasons Dan Tanna - played by Robert Urich - tooled around Las Vegas in his little red corvette, helping people and doing the right thing. This was in the late 70's. I think the show started in 78 or 79, but I can't be 100% on that.

That show started my fascination with Las Vegas. Since then there have other shows based in Vegas. 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' - which I throuroughly enjoy even though it doesn't so much glamourize the city. My current favorite show about the Soddom of the Sands is 'Las Vegas' with James Caan as the president of the fictional Montecito casino (the Montecito also made an appearance in the NBC show 'Heroes' when Hiro was kicked out of the casino for suspicion of cheating).

The show 'Las Vegas' really captures the fantasy that is Las Vegas. From Highrise condos, to the glitz of the strip. They don't seem to make it to downtown area much, but that is probably because the strip is really where it is all happening.

One of my favorite story arcs was when Danny, Mike and the girls build a new home and were renting it to a gay couple. The couple broke up and one of them, in a fit of anger, burned the house down. And they were under-insured. I don't know why that tickled me, probably because it is always refreshing to see seemingly perfect people do dumb things.


This post brought to you by:

Las Vegas Homes


Technorati Tags: Las Vegas, Television, Entertainment, Real Estate, Las Vegas Homes, millionsaver.com

They don't watch '24' in China

I have to assume that the good folks in China do not watch the Fox TV show '24'. If they did, the Chinese official on the show would have done a couple of things differently;

1. He would not have kidnapped and held Jack Bauer prisoner
2. While holding the kidnapped Jack Bauer prisoner, he would not have tortured him
3. He would not have kidnapped and held Jack Bauer's girlfriend prisoner
4. After all of the above mistakes, he would not have required a meeting with Jack Bauer

You see, if they actually did watch '24' in China, this bloke would know that anyone that kidnaps and/or tortures Jack Bauer dies at the hands of...Jack Bauer. Not to be stereotypical, but Asians are usually very smart people. Then again, maybe that is why this dunce is a government official and not working on their space program. He is completely oblivious to who Jack Bauer is, what he does and how he does it.

I'm pretty certain it was SunTzu in his writings 'The Art of War' that said "know your enemy" (I could be wrong - it has been a long, long time since I read the book). At any rate, after saving America from sure nuclear annihilation at the hands of terrorists, Jack now has to steal a component and hand it over to the Chinese, or his girlfriend dies. Riiiiiight, how much you wanna bet the Chinese official actually walks away with the top-secret component?



Technorati Tags: 24, Television, Entertainment, Jack Bauer, Fox

Nina and Paolo?!?!?! Are you kidding me?!?!?!

LOST this second half of the season has been getting good. I think the producers have discovered that if they keep exponentially increasing the number of sub-plots, with resolving nothing in the meanwhile, frustrated viewers are going to start leaving. And leaving in droves. Viewers can be forgiving, but one can only play them for so long before they get tired of being lead around by that ring in their nose.

Last night's episode, I can't quite figure out. Perhaps in the weeks to come some light will be shed on it. There are two characters that were essentially introduced this season, Nina and Paolo. They went with Locke, Sayid et al. to the Pearl hatch to find what they could find. (It was Nina who brilliantly pointed out in the hatch that possibly the blank TV screens connected to other hatches - DUH!).

That, until last night's episode, was it for the couple. But last night started with Nina and Paolo flashbacks (she was an actor, he a chef, and together they were scheming to steal diamonds form a rich movie producer in Australia). Anyway, their back story revealed to everyone who was left scratching their heads saying "so what, who cares about these two?".

These two die and get buried while their back story is being told. But at the end we discover they are not actually dead, just paralyzed via the bite of a very rare species of spider that has a paralytic venom which paralyzes one for about 8 hours, but does not actually kill them.

Questions remain, will Nina and Paolo dig themselves out of their grave? If so, how freaked out will Locke be that The Island has brought the dead to life?









Technorati Tags: LOST, ABC, Television, Nina, Paolo

NNNNNNOOOOOOooooooo

April 23rd? April 23rd? What is up with that?!?!?! Just as Heroes is getting kick-butt good, and builds up all kinds of suspense...they go on hiatus until April 23rd? Crud. That is almost two stinking months! Man, Mondays just got a lot worse.





Technorati Tags: NBC, Television, Heroes

Gonna take the plunge

After careful review of the services and benefits offered by both AT&T and Cox Communications, it looks like we will more than likely switch to AT&T for our communication and media services.

With Cox, we are paying through the nose for about 70 channels of TV plus the local High Def channels (well, the big three anyway, CBS, ABC and NBC). With AT&T we can pay through the nose for 200 channels of television, plus local High Def channels (including FOX - I can't wait to see Jack Bauer kick the crap out of some tangos in HD!), plus several other HD channels (a Kung Fu movie channel in HD - who knew there was a market for that?).

Also, the internet from AT&T is about $10/month less, and we will get a discount on our Cingular phone service.

Downside is....$50 setup fee for the Dish network, and $70 for a new DSL modem/wireless router combo. That's $120 smackers. But there are some pretty good limited time discounts which should make up for that part of if.

Oh, and we'll be getting HBO and Showtime - which we don't currently have, but have to get before Soprano's start up again.





Technorati Tags: ATT, Cox, Television, Broadband, Phone

HRG and Creepy Haitian Voodoo Guy Pull A Fast One

One of my favorite characters from the NBC show Heroes is who I originally named "Horned Rim Glasses Dude." He turned out to be Claire Bennett's father (I still can't remember the character's first name though).



We learned a lot about HRG's past in the latest episode. We saw him first get his job with "The Company" (still uncertain if it is a government entity or not - they kept that kind of vague). Saw how he obtained Claire, and some about his past with Mr. Invisible Pigeon Fellow.



What I don't fully understand is what happens towards the end. Creepy Haitian Voodoo Guy is at the house when everything goes nuclear and Claire saves the day. HRG's boss is there.



1) Why didn't Creepy Haitian Voodoo Guy suppress Nuclear Man's powers like he does other peoples' powers? This would have kept him from going...well...nuclear.



2) Why couldn't Creepy Haitian Voodoo Guy take the memory of the event from HRG 's bossman?



I suppose this would be to further the story, and get Claire to New York where she can hook up with Peter Petrelli. It looks like The Mind Reading Copper is going to work for The Company and HRG Dude in particular.



This is one of those shows that makes one wish it was Monday, so they could see the next episode.





Technorati Tags: Television, Heroes, NBC

Looking for a change

We currently have our cell phones with Cingular (family plan...natch). Our home phone, television and Internet is through COX communications. I'm getting kind of tired of COX.

They block ports on the Internet so I can't hook up with my SQL server from outside, and I can't run a web page from my home (well, I can, if I put it on a different port - but that just doesn't work for me).

In addition, they have bandwidth limits. One can only have so many bytes incoming and so many bytes outgoing per month. Yet they give do not give one a way to check their usage and make adjustments if necessary.

I'm seriously thinking of switching to ATT for all of our television and communication needs. According to their website, we can get DSL at 3Mbsfor less that what I'm paying COX for (supposedly) 3.5Mbs (but I rarely, according to DSLReports.com) get more than 2Mbs).

My only concern is local High-Def channels. I don't think we will get those with the satellite and might have to fork over some $$$ for a High-Def antennae - and maybe a receiver? I'm not 100% certain on how all of that would work. I spent a good hour over the last weekend poking around ATT website, but couldn't for the life of me find a phone number to call so I could get some answers.


Technorati Tags: Television, Internet, Cell Phone Service, COX Communications, ATT, Phone Service

How Smart Are You

Tonight on Fox at 20:30 is a new Jeff Foxworthy show titled "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" - it looks to be an entertaining show. We have it setup in the DVR to record the show. We can't watch it live because it conflicts with "The Unit" on CBS. And we all know we cannot not watch "The Unit" - which is the best hour long U.S. Army commercial in the history of television!





Technorati Tags: Jeff Foxworthy, Television

Most people want to do good.

Growing up, who didn't sometimes imagine what they could do with some sort of super powers? Each of us would imagine saving the world, or doing good. I didn't know anyone who, if granted some sort of great power, would dream of doing evil.

The NBC show Heroes examines what people do and how they react when they discover they have special powers. Of course, the writers are, I imagine, fairly typical folks who as kids also dreamt of being heroes with super powers. Deep inside, I truly and honestly believe that man is a decent creature who wants to do good. That he does not set out to do evil. It happens, but I believe it is usually the unintended consequences of man doing what they believe to be a good deed.

Sure, there are those that are simply evil. There are those that are - for wont of a better word - flawed. That have no desire to do good, or just don't really care if what they do is good or bad.

What got me thinking about this is the TV show Heroes. In it there is one guy aptly named 'Hiro'. He is Japaneses and a comic book sci/fi fanatic. When he discovers he has powers, there is no question in his mind. He can't sit by and ignore he has the powers. He can't pretend he doesn't have them. He is compelled to seek out a mission and use his powers for the benefit of the world.

Then there is Sylar. Sylar is the big baddie. He goes around finding other people with special abilities, killing them and eating their brains. By eating their brains, he absorbs their powers. The show gives me the impression that Sylar doesn't care if his actions are good or bad. Doesn't care what other people think of them. He wants the power, and he will do anything to achieve it.

In between these two polar opposites are the rest of the special ones. In this week's episode, three of them got together in an attempt to find out what the mysterious Mr. Bennet has done to them. Two of them got together, and recruited a third, who is an ex LAPD officer whose power is the ability to read minds. They tell him "we can be heroes." Which seems to be a common theme. Most of the folks with powers in this show it seems genuinely want to be heroes. So far there are only two that don't seem to actually want to go the hero route.

Anyway, it is a show worth watching - for many reasons.

Heroes TV Show on NBC: NBC Official Site