today's starting off well. my car insurance dropped $400. driving the elderlymobile is starting to pay off.

a few links before i depart for the day:

my new Buffy desktop wallpaper. possibly the script for "Broken Bow" (pilot episode of Enterprise). pdf prologue of Stephen King's Dark Tower V. thousands of newspapers on the net. and one Jean pointed out to me a while back, Angelus' Hair Manifesto. later gators!

to whomever came looking for this, Smallville is a WB program. and now i think i know what Xander didn't want to reveal when he said no power on earth will make him tell the rest of the "one night, a dancer called in sick" story.

this is the Xander that the searcher wanted, i think [is it a good thing that he's "extremely discrete" (see the ad) or would potential clients prefer him to be discreet?].

i and three of my department-mates will remain employed for the time being. yip for us.

also, ice cream is no longer the "soften the blow" food. guess they got tired of treating people right before they escorted them out. now, it's "congratulation, you're still employed" food. they gave us our choice of root beer float ice cream bars (blech) or those orange sherbet push pop things (yum!)

what's the proper length of time to mourn our newly jobless former co-workers before we raid their now vacated cubicles for supplies?

we're having a meeting in 10 minutes to discuss the for-now fate of those us who remain. i can't decide if we're actually staying employed, or if the supervisors took a lunch break, then decided to do a group lay off instead of talking to us individually. i'm thinking the former. if it is the latter though, should i receive the news calmly, or should i start with the wailing and the clothes rending and the gnashing of teeth before collapsing into a heap on the floor?

i've lost count, but today is the next round of the "Reorganizing People Out of a Job" program here at TV Guide. in less than 5 minutes, half of my department was gone.

bloody hell, where's the friggin' ice cream?

a review of the Xander and Cordelia action figures. i want the Cordelia figures, the regular and the Cheerleader Cordy variant, but even more, i want the Cordy figure from the Angel line up, and the Faith. as a bonus, i'm even going to request the "Vanilla Ice as Angel" figure (the Angel series figures aren't finalized yet. i'm hopeful they'll smooth out the "Play That Funky Music, Whiteboy" vibe he's giving off).

an LA Times article on Enterprise.
[via Dark Horizons]

don't have anything like this here, but *please* let me know if you find it.

i think i fixed the Incredible Growing Text problem. now i just have to wait to see what else i've screwed up, eh?

And in Oklahoma, To Kill a Mockingbird has already been removed. [article]

someone should let FOXNews know that one school district in Oklahoma is not the entire state, or they should be a little clearer about what they mean. they *are* journalists (/snicker) after all (hard to keep a straight face through that last part).

i made a purchase at lunch. Terrence is a happy camper.

The moviefone Web site has posted an image of the official poster for the first of Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings movies, The Fellowship of the Ring.
[link and copy via Sci Fi Wire]

The Musketeer - A kung fu version? If they start making "Crouching Pride, Hidden Prejudice" I'm gone.

heh. Garth at Dark Horizons gives us a fall film guide, divided into "Must See," "Worth Seeing," "Unsure Potential" and "For Fans Only."

ATT Wireless says that their voicemail system is down nationwide due to a fiber cut. seems a little too easy to disable the entire thing that way. ATT should do something about that, lest evil anti-phone or anti-ATT forces attack.

i'm sexy! i'm cute! i'm popular to boot!
i'm bitchin! great hair! the boys all love to stare!
i'm wanted. i'm hot! i'm everything you're not!
i'm pretty. i'm cool! i dominate this school!
who am i? just guess! guys wanna touch my chest!

Bring It On was on Starz last night. i had to watch, even though i own the video.

is it me, or has someone been taking design notes from Star Trek? makes me want to poke at my screen and say "thrusters not responding!"

in fifth grade, there was a kid named Eugene. he was teased for his name. he was often badgered with calls of "You gene!" (i guess it's clever in the fifth grade). it later evolved into "Chromosome." he'd cry. i'm not sure why. i've never thought of genetic material as insulting (other than when inheriting it from someone. yeah, "dad", i'm talkin' about you). i don't think i would have cried if someone had taken to calling me "mitochondrial DNA," or if i'd had to suffer shouts of "rough endoplasmic reticulum!" i think the boy was a bit sensitive.

i don't know what made me think of him. but here are a few links to some of the wonderful things about Eugene (Oregon).

Astrology school in Arizona gets accredited.

just in time too. i'm planning on going back to school at spring semester. who wouldn't hire a guy with a diploma in astrology and psychology?

"Now would be an inauspicious time for insider trading. Instead, concentrate on the environmental degradation policies and bribery of federal judges while reducing employee benefits and wages. Also, you will receive a disturbing letter from a long lost friend."

thanks, sweetie. i did it. i signed up for Buffy The Journal Slayer. at my fingertips, i'll have buttloads of places to originate Buffy links. not that i needed more.

if you're a Faith fan (or just a Buffy fan in general), you may get a kick out of the Faith page. i laughed myself silly thinking of her slaying like that.

scifi.ign:TV Round-Up has a bit on those stupid semi-transparent channel ID bugs. they say UPN is considering selling that space to advertisers, and there are a couple of links to protest or write a letter or something. much too Activist for me.

the local FOX affiliate here already uses that space for advertisements for Pizza Hut during the syndicated run of The Simpsons and Home Improvement. it is annoying and doesn't work (i never want pizza after seeing the ad). i wish it'd stop. the bug isn't as annoying as the local WB's "Coming Up on WB19:" pop ups that cover the lower quarter or so of the screen. hate them.

i'm still trying to get used to seeing the local FOX advertise for the local UPN and vice versa. they're both Clear Channel Communications stations, and for some reason, they think it's ok to do that. it's not. it's creepy.

ever have one of those dreams where you dream that you go to sleep and dream?

yeah, my life's so dull that even dreams are starting to suck. but it's better than dreaming of yourself at work doing exactly what you do at work. that's when it's time to invest in a handgun and a single bullet.

what's with the text changing size? i don't remember authorizing that.

ack! as if capitalizing the first letter isn't bad enough, he capitalized the whole name! capitalization is vanity, and the vain are going to hell!

yay me! i talked two of my co-workers into watching Buffy when it premieres in October, and talked one of them into watching syndicated season one Buffy when it premieres on FX in late September (ha! worked in a Buffy post even though there's no Buffy news today).

Summer relief over as gas prices rise

Most Americans are paying 6 cents a gallon more at the pump than they did two weeks ago...

lucky devils. we're paying 40 cents more for each gallon than we did two weeks ago.

vegetarians never have to go through this.

my Find Your Spot results:

Little Rock, AR -it'll never happen.
Sacramento, CA
New Orleans, LA
Portland, OR
Alexandria, LA
Honolulu, HA

other than Baltimore, MD (#6) and Washington DC (#11) everything else was California or Gulf coast. i didn't think my preferences for high crime rates and few educational opportunities would weigh so heavily. (actually, i think it was my preference for warmth, lots of rain, and very little snow that did it.)
[a double attribution of Max and Keithers.com]

i tried to send a thank you to someone, but, because Hotmail sucks, i don't know if it was sent. if it didn't go through, i'm going to seem like a rude bastard, something i'm not (no, seriously, usually i'm not). on the other hand, i did try to send the email twice, so if both went through, i'll seem like a dumb-ass. bastard or dumb-ass, which should i prefer to be?

been messing around with my sidebar. made some minor changes.

added a link to Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered, Jean's sorta-daily second blog chronicling life with ADD.

returned Grazing Reality. she was there before, but dropped out of site for a while. now she's back, with her own domain, and a new look, so she goes back on the sidebar.

had to drop one of Brad's links to make room for Grazing Reality. only ten of my multiple-time-daily reads go on the sidebar (Jean's three don't count in the total. to find out how to be eligible for such exemptions, email me. if you're male, include nude photos of yourself).

Helms says he won't run again. though this makes me happy, i'm still thinking about the remaining 16 months of his term.

incidentally, the reports and articles that celbrate Helms for sticking to his values need to stop. clinging to the wrong answer is not a virtue, and the man was wrong on a great many things.

let's talk federal budget.

or let's talk about not talking.

i think management shouldn't leave reports marked "Confidential" lying around on the copier.

"What makes you such a bitch, Emma?" snarls Jean.
"Breeding, darling," she replies coolly. "Top class breeding."

the new New X-Men must be out.

here's my wishlist of recent and upcoming PC games:
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Fatherdale: The Guardians of Asgard
The Sims: Hot Date
Zoo Tycoon
Simsville
Cult

i really hate that classes have started back up. no updates during the day.

k, here's a guy who's posted a couple of cute cat photos (his permalinks aren't working or i'd link directly to the cats. i like cats, except when they're living with me and shedding all over everything like Black Cat, or vomiting a couple times a day like Orange Cat). i think everyone should be posting cute cat photos.

Short-lived Tropical Storm Dean downgraded. bloody hell, when are we gonna get a good, strong hurricane to come slamming into the coast of Texas or Louisiana? the weather here in Oklahoma is so nice afterward.

when the corporate email server fails, the best way to notify everyone probably isn't with a mass email.

this would look soooo good standing on my desk.

the two online-exclusive Enterprise TVGuide covers are available for $20. they're "individually numbered, polybagged and packed as a set." please buy many.

thank you, dear, for:

1) yay! more action figures! dunno why i get happy about them since i haven't bought any, but yay!

2) lightening the links. i would run my cursor over every word in your posts looking for links, 'cause i couldn't see them. don't take it personally that i don't wear my glasses while looking at your site. i never wear my glasses or contacts anymore. i've decided to grow blind gracefully.

i'm still trying to figure this out: "The Japan Times newspaper reports that Pabuk also caused the final game Tuesday of the national high school baseball tournament at Koshien Stadium, Hyogo Prefecture." the storm caused a baseball game? gotta be some storm. how often do such natural forces cause sporting events?

from Killer storm heads for Tokyo.

from scifi.ign: "Come September 2, though, the [Cartoon Network] will set aside a block of shows specifically marked for adult consumption -- Adult Swim, a three-hour cavalcade of programs that are decidedly not for the kiddies. The block will air Sundays and Thursdays from 10 pm to 1 am." how about, among other shows, some new episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast? or maybe Harvey Birdman, an attorney who, in the first episode will be "dealing with a contentious custody battle between Benton Quest and 'traveling companion' Race Bannon for kids Jonny and Hadji"?

coming to a VCR near you: Megiddo: Omega Code 2. actually, according to AllBiehn.com website (Michael Biehn is one of the leads), it'll be in theaters on September 21st. limited release, i'm sure. i'm pushing for the direct-to-video path, mainly because it "was directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith, whose credits include Leprechaun 4: In Space, Leprechaun 3, BMX Bandits and Night of the Demons 2." do i need a stronger argument for skipping theaters? (in all fairness, AllBiehn.com says the first Omega Code "earned over $12 million in the USA, opening at only 300 theatres and still it managed to make it into the top 10, with the highest per-screen average of those on the list.")
[whore of Babylon employeed by Dark Horizons]

oh, and: eeww! Justin Timberlake auditioned for film Rent?

i started out reading AICN Harry's response to Matthew Lillard, who gave a rebuttal (at the end of the article) to Harry's response to Freddy Prinze Jr.'s thoughts on Harry, who has been a critic of the upcoming Scooby Doo film, in which Prinze Jr. and Lillard are staring. (phew!)

after that, i ended up at Film Threat. there's a transcript of Harry's appearance on "Turn Ben Stein On," along with links (all in the first paragraph of the Film Threat link) to "a series of three articles examining the sometimes questionable behavior of Harry Knowles and others at Aint-It-Cool-News.com." they are: part one - Deconstructing Harry: Ain't It Unethical?, part two - The Geeks Strike Back and part three - Ain't It Criminal. Film Threat led to Coming Attractions' Director's Cut article titled "A Question of Ethics."

in the convoluted cross-linking, i've visited a half dozen sites, and i've decided that i now know WAY more about Harry Knowles than i wanted. i've also decided that he sucks. i've never been a regular visitor to AICN (in fact, i think i've only referred to it twice here), so it's no big deal if i never visit again. the Talkbackers on AICN say 'Harry can post whatever he wants to because it's his site'. yep, he can. just don't expect me to read it. the Talkbackers also say, 'if you don't like what Harry's doing, then go to another website." i think i will.

my preference for film news/rumors sites is apparent by my frequent attributions to Dark Horizons. it's not the most visually-stunning site, but it provides the information in a manner than makes it easy for me to pick out what i want to read.

also, i'd like to note that i am no fan of Freddy Prinze Jr. i'm hoping Sarah Michelle Gellar will have some kind of psychotic episode in which she thinks she's actually Buffy and that Freddy's a vampire or demon or something, and it all ends badly with a piece of wood shoved through his chest. anyway, i'm not a fan of FPJ, and don't care particularly for Matthew Lillard, but i am going to give Scooby Doo a chance and actually see the film before i make any proclaimations about it's coolness or suckage. if i seem to be babbling, blame the hypercaffeinated state i'm in. and yeah, i know this is all old stuff, but i just read it for the first time. quit making fun of me. thank you.

TVGuide's feature on Enterprise. and, because the Enterprise article mentioned Joss, here's my chance for a Buffy link: TVGuide's summary of the show, with lots of links to news and gossip from past issues of the rag.

Marvel Comics has taken to making Flash trailers for current and upcoming projects. most recent: Banner!.

even niftier, Marvel has some Flash comics available free online, including Banner! and Ultimate X-Men.

i figured out a way to use binder clips to make an antenna. now my cell phone can get a signal in my cubicle. yay me!

on the subject of cellular processes, here's the Kreb cycle. i think it's nifty.

Microbe has Midas touch.

"They use dissolved metals like iron, uranium and gold the same way we use oxygen," Lovley said.

The conversion that takes place in the extremophile is a simple process: a dissolved metal is absorbed through an enzyme that coats the microbe, and then is excreted as a solid.

doesn't sound like the gold is being used in cellular respiration, so it's not used the "same way we use oxygen." this guy's a scientist? no wonder the world sucks.

had nightmares again last night. that's 4 consecutive nights. i'm a grouch.

Scholastic Assessment Tests "are a measure of the braininess of the entering freshman class, and by extension the braininess of the student body," he said.

ugh.

bwahahahahahahahaha! (Buffy related) dunno why it made me laugh so hard, but i think it's fucking hilarious.

someone used the Bleh feature to search my archives for "Buffy." to save time, i'll just tell you that almost every day's entries will include something about Buffy. Bleh isn't going to narrow it down for you.

laughed at by Stormtroopers.

a Muskogee, Oklahoma committee of teachers and administrators has voted to remove To Kill A Mockingbird from the required freshman reading list at Muskogee High because it may make some students uncomfortable.

Steve Largent will be resigning his Congressional seat at the end of November to begin running for governor of this state. Cathy Keating, the wife of the current governor of Oklahoma, will run in the special election to replace him. politics are incestuous. anyway...

last night, i dreamed that i campaigned for and was elected to Largent's Congressional seat in a heated battle with Cathy that essentially ended when it was revealed that she was also an international porn star (i'm not sure how she planned on hiding her other career, but hey, no one ever said she was bright. besides, she may have been elected if she'd campaigned *as* a porn queen). i never made it to DC though. i spent my term on an archæological dig in the middle of Mohawk park, just outside the zoo entrance.

believing that my dreams are prophetic, i'm thinking of filing as a candidate when Steve resigns. i'd really love to be an archæologist.

Sci Fi Wire's current poll:

The Freddy vs. Jason movie has
received the go-ahead. Who do you
think will win this fight to the death?

¤ Freddy is Jason's worst nightmare.
¤ Jason will carve Freddy up.
¤ Neither: Buffy kills them both.

so far, 72% choose Buffy, with Freddy a distant second.

According to ToonZone (which appears to be having problems now), Paul Dini confirmed at this past weekend's Wizard World that some scripts for a few BATMAN direct to video/DVDs have been greenlighted by WB. Also the uncut 'Return of the Joker' disc is still quite likely to get a release. [found via Dark Horizons]

i caught the Discovery Channel's feature on Allosaurus last night. it made me want a brood of baby Allosauri of my own. they were native to my area (get a quick and short list of the dinosaurs that once roamed your ZIP code).

i also watched some Animal Planet last night. i know i've mentioned him before, but i really like watching Jeff Corwin. he oozes goobness and intelligence, which is sexy (yes, i know i'm contradicting my post from last week in which i said i like 'em big and dumb. can't i have layers?)

School strip search not actionable. A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's ruling that a strip search of elementary school pupils was unconstitutional but that a teacher and a police officer involved could not be sued for conducting the search.

The appeals court said she was correct to rule there was no clear legal authority at the time alerting school and police officials that a search of an entire classroom was illegal, and those officials were protected from liability because they acted to fulfill their duties.

so, these police officers didn't know that a search sans warrant or probable cause wasn't legal? they also didn't think that maybe, before stripping elementary kids down, that a parent or two should be notified or present? i realize it's only Georgia, but aren't the days of Rosco P. Coltrane over with?

(this post is actually from Friday evening, but the great Blogger gods were displeased with me and wouldn't let me post it)

ack! he defiles everything he touches! from the unlinkable sidebar at Sci Fi Wire: Freddie Prinze Jr. told E! Online that he has signed a deal with Marvel Comics to write a few books, including a storyline for one well-known superhero whom he declined to identify. "I can't say who, but he climbs walls," Prinze told E!

and from E!Online, Wanda says ""Takes More Than Studio Tricks and Cease-and-Desists to Slay Our Slayer." the first page is clean, but after the first paragraph of the second page, it gets a little spoilery (but Wanda-spoilery, which, i'm told, isn't all that reliable. still i'm warning you).

a letter to the President.

today's Happy Is: listening to the Giles Sings clip from "Restless." been a while since i've listened to it. made me happy to find it again.

i probably let myself get much more pissed about people taking-the-last-cup-of-coffee-and-not-brewing-a-new-pot than is healthful. friggin' bastards.

some gossip reported on Dark Horizons today: "David Boreaenz, who plays Angel, on the WB series, could be stepping into the shoes of a legendary superhero - if my sources are correct. My source claims that the TV star was approached about starring in the forthcoming BATMAN movie (Im assuming he was refering to Year One) as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Boreaenz is still considering - but after much thinking, I think the Warner casting office may get something right for once."

Sci Fi Wire advertises for TVGuide: the August 25th issue of TVGuide will have new photos of the ship from Enterprise (which is called, uh, the Enterprise), and "will also feature three different covers, with stars Jolene Blalock (T'Pol) and Scott Bakula (Capt. Archer)." two addition covers with various cast members will be available online, probably for $20 (please oh please buy a few of those expensive online-exclusive covers. help generate some revenue for TVGuide so it can keep all of its employees, and i won't be laid off).

Sci Fi Wire news that probably isn't good: "Blair Witch Project co-director Ed Sanchez told E! Online that he's eager to get started on a third installment in the film franchise".

coincidentally, last night i watched BW2 for the first time, which is why i say a third one probably isn't good news. not scary. at all. and the stupid little "go back and watch for hidden images that may be messages from the Blair Witch!" crap was stoopid. seriously, if your subliminal "this is scary! and great! and ooky!" messages didn't work the first time i watched, they probably won't work the second time either. i got bored, so i read something much scarier: the script for the Buffy episode "Halloween".

Sudden water flow rushes down Mount Rainier. i never get to see anything cool like that.

not that i'm a big fan or defender of the tobacco industry, but when did extortion become a legitimate governmental practice?

TVGuide (print) says "Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America is in development as an HBO miniseries."

and over at TVGuide Online, Seth Green talks about Rat Race.

the Berkeley Breathed Q&A.
[waterfowl made flightless by Bradlands]

could this possibly be used to refute the cosmological principle? i've never particularly cared for that assumption.
[unravelling of cosmic tenets brought to you by Dean, who doesn't sleep with a teddy bear]

oh no. i just got the email. the company's bought ice cream for us again. someone's getting sacked.

Fox Sux. that was the place i went after watching an episode of Buffy that made reference to something that happened before i started watching. it wouldn't be so bad if they'd get scriptbooks for each season published, but right now, they're only up to Season 2. damn Fox.

ADHD TV, two guys who wanna be on tv. not as jackassian as Jackass (which is a good thing). watch clips from the show. Caveman vs. Monkey cracked me up.

QUESTION: In your opinion, is George W. Bush a new kind of
Republican, or is he basically the same as Republicans of the past?

Yes 34%
No 61%

what? given the choice between "This" and "That", one third answered "Yes"? does this mean that people are stupid or that CNN/USA Today/Gallup polls are stupid? ok, there are more questions than that one, but a couple of them are stupid like that.

happy is:

• waking up and not finding Orange Cat sitting next to my head grooming himself and annoying me with his *smack smack* sounds. yay!
• finding a one hundred dollar bill stashed in a planter while brushing your teeth, one for which you can't account, even after itemizing your income and expenses for the last 60 days. yay!
• hearing "Love Is A Battlefield" during the drive to work. yay!

If Jesus were invited to a lunch with Bush.

speaking of Jesus... (and, btw, "Bloody Revenge of the Invincible Jesus Ninjas" is a great title and premise for a game). Christ's miracles are rated.

oh. David Hasselhoff is the Anti-Christ.

now that Jimmy Bond is nowhere in sight, Seann W. Scott has become my new Hollywood crush (actually, it's more like Chester Greenburg and Billy Hitchcock. what can i say? i like 'em big and dumb).

how about some Spike links? Spike-Stock 2001 and Heat. Desire.

here's one on the missing Riley.

chat with Oz (Seth Green) tonight at 7pm CDT. you and a few hundred thousand other people.

Joss: "One of the most dramatic moments from last month's three-week long Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif., was, ironically enough, also one of the quietest. During a poolside shindig thrown by the WB, network bigwig Jamie Kellner slithered over to Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon and — egad! — shook his hand." more here at TVGuide Online.

Angel (link may be a little spoilery. read at your own risk): "Since its 1999 premiere, Angel has solidified into an hour of quality television that rivals — and this past season arguably even outshone — its sire. In fact, if the final WB episode of Buffy (before its fall transfer to UPN) is an "instant classic" — and, frankly, it is — then the four-episode fairy tale with which Angel rounded out the year is at least a mini-masterpiece." more here, again at TVGuide Online (and once again, may be spoilery).

ACT scores remain flat. i heard them talking on the radio about this during my drive to work, and they added that, in Oklahoma, the average actually fell a few tenths of a point, but that, of the ACT taking students from schools with the touted enhanced curriculum, which requires more core classes to graduate, half did better than the national average. they didn't bother to mention that it also means that half did worse. i'll bet they're worried that last part will refute their claims that the most recent education plan will really improve state test scores.

personally, i think they should focus on some of the more immediate problems, like how school started today, but last week, Tulsa public schools was still searching for 50 more teachers. and how long term veteran teachers are retiring early. and how, when i stopped by my old high school to look in on four of my favorite teachers, and that i mentioned off-handedly that i may still want to teach, and three of those four said 'Don't do it. It's not worth it anymore."

Large shark school dissipates off Florida coast.

don't bet on it. they've finished their strategy meeting, and now they're moving on to carry out those plans. makes me very happy that i'm in landlocked Oklahoma, where it's unlikely that a wereshark will be moving among us.

Hundreds of sharks spotted off Florida. it appears that the Rokea are amassing. they're tired of us dumping our trash into their home. they're about to invade us.

the worst thing about all this shark business is that it'll replay visions of Jaws in everyone's minds, they'll get all sared, and then do stupid things to hunt/trap/repel/destroy sharks, first in coastal touristy waters, then later in the open ocean. sharks are modern society's equivalent to medieval society's wolf (well, sharks share that modern distinction with the wolf, because there are people who still blame the wolf for all their woes. apparently, those little wolves are crafty).

in conclusion, the extinction of any shark species should be blamed on Steven Spielberg. and wolves too.

and when the devil did Hell-Mart start selling roleplaying books?

i have a solution for the cloning hullabaloo. let us turn our back for a while, allowing a small group of someones to try it, work out the mistakes, and try again. then, no matter the outcome, we'll denounce them as Evil Mad Scientists and say they're going to Hell for their Evil Ways. then, we can sleep better knowing that the monsters have been exposed and properly condemned, their Evil Deeds known, and that we can take their Evil Research and use it for Good Purposes, thereby perverting the Evil into Good.

because those who would say those scientists are going to hell have already decided that i'm going to hell, i volunteer to be one of those researchers (two birds with one stone, and all that). to be effective, i should probably get a degree in genetics or biochemistry or something life-sciencey related, so i'll need people to fund and sponsor me at university. heck, to be sure you'll be condemning only the best, go ahead and put me through med school. remember, your support of my education will help you sleep better, you'll reap the benefits of any discoveries made along the way, and you'll have me as a convenient scapegoat.

Dot Com: The Musical

much weirdness in the world
[electoral laughs sponsored by I Shoot With My Mind]

balanced by some goodness.
[via Redcricket]

i caught an episode of ST:TNG on Sunday. it was a first season ep, "Hide and Q," and in it, Worf gets to fight some nasty looking aliens in Napoleonic France-era uniforms. for a guy who's supposed to be a warrior, and from a warrior culture, he sure fights like a weiner. he'd, like, throw a punch, then stand there like he didn't know what to do next. he was skewered pretty quickly, and would have been dead if not for Riker's Q-given powers. it was really sad (on a happy note, Wesley was skewered too. sadly he was healed also).

after that, the WB reaired the Buffy ep "The Gift." Buffy did a much better job of kicking ass. she fights a lot better, and though she died too, at least she won the fight first, and against a Hellgod, no less.

so (you see where this is going, right?), the Warrior from the Warrior planet and the Warrior species who regard glorious, honorable battle above all else would sooo get his ass kicked by the 20 year old California girl.

sometimes, while i'm listening to a cd here at work, i go to type an email as a good song comes on, and i end up clacking the keys in rhythm to the song, like i'm a pianist, complete with crescendo and decrescendo, as appropriate. my co-workers find this annoying, and it's probably not good for the keyboard either.

a trailer for 13 Ghosts is up. the movie may be good, it may suck, but there are or will be way too many ghosties on the large and small screen. ghosts are the "In" thing this year

anyone else like to play with Currency Converters? i can take my paycheck tomorrow and head off to Djibouti with eighty thousand Djibouti Francs, or go to Ulan Bator and have more than a six hundred thousand Mongolian Tugriks, or to Freetown, Sierra Leone and have nearly a million Leones. yay! do they get Buffy in Sierra Leone? eh, doesn't matter, since it'd probably be dubbed, and i can't speak Sierra Leonese.

who's Zia McCabe?

sounds like a scene from Pee-wee's Playhouse, except no Laurence Fishburne.

from the archives of TomPaine.com, a little reading to keep me occupied while i have no work:
 ¬The Beijing Olympics and the (Mis)Uses of History. Will the 2008 Games Democratize China?
 ¬The New and Improved President. Forget Policy -- Bush Wants Fuzzy, Feel-Good Phrases.
 ¬A New Look At Pearl Harbor
 ¬The Sound and the Furious. A Writer Tries to Escape Our Culture of Noise.
 ¬Why Can't Americans Swim in Effluent?. Iceland's 21st Century Energy Policy.
 ¬The Neglected Facts for last week.

don't you hate when you're reading an article, and it seems to be a good article, and it feels like it's building up to something big and thought provoking, something that's gonna make you furrow your brow and shake your head and say "wow!", then suddenly it ends, and ends poorly without that moment of wowness?

ok, so this editorial isn't quite so thought provoking or wowing, but i was really disappointed by the last paragraph anyway. if you're gonna make a point about something, don't resort to stale soundbites, please. it doesn't have any punch, it's lazy thinking, and it irks me.

Ain't It Cool News "reported the rumor that the project [Batman: Year One] has been squashed because Warner Brothers instead wants to build a franchise out of a proposed film teaming up Superman and the caped crusader that would eventually lead to a series of Justice League of America movies" they also say that "John Travolta might be in line to put on Superman's cape opposite George Clooney's Batman." [i quoted SciFi Wire on this]

i'm not even going to entertain the possibility that this is true. nope. can't, because the whole idea sucks that much, and though Warner Bros has disappointed me so much lately, i still have to believe that they-who-own-the-rights-to-Animaniacs will redeem themselves.

whadya say? AOL owns them now?

good god, it's gonna suck.

another Buffy entry:

Buffy Star Snipes At Emmys . Whedon says "It's Ripper, not Watcher." concerning questions of continuity between animated and live action Buffy, he also says Dawn will be part of the animated Buffy "because the Monks changed history." and Marti Noxon Talks Buffy Rumors.

Dog lovers threaten World Cup boycott over the consumption and trade of dog meat.

methinks they should mind their own business first.

Shpadoinkle! Tales of the Slayer, to be released November 28, will include stories written by Joss (the Primitive), David Fury (Old West Slayer), Doug Petrie (Nikki the '70s Slayer), Amber Benson (French Revolution Slayer) and, lastly, Joss again (Fray). yay!

Big Buffy entry:

picked up a Buffy Shooter Saturday, along with the newest issue of Fray. in Fray #3, "Melaka learns some of the history of the Slayers and comes to understand a little about what it means to her, " including why there hasn't been a Slayer or vampires since the 21st century.

i also thumbed through the current issue of the BTVS comic. it was interesting seeing how Dawn had helped to save Buffy's life after the Master left Buffy for dead. i've been curious about how events were different (in everyone's minds at least) with the addition of Dawn, but i still didn't buy the comic. i hate joining storylines mid-story, but i'll probably go back for this one, now that i know it was the first of a four issue arc dealing (a little, at least) with the false memories built to include Dawn in a world in which Dawn didn't exist at the time (i, btw, have my own view on the whole "Dawn's only been here for six months" thing).

also, ran across the summer issue of Buffy the magazine. interviews with Emma Caulfield and Clare Kramer, and a brief Q&A with David Boreanaz that makes me want to avoid anything about him unless it's about him in character as Angel. putz. oooh! there's also a Wesley poster in the middle! hooray!

there's something both a little wrong and extremely amusing about running across a television program called "Wildlife Views: Condors/Dutch Oven Cooking."