Foodie Fridays in January

Well, my four stories on Friday for the month of December are done. So I'm keeping up the idea of theme Fridays in January. I'll be doing food based posts every Friday in January. See you then.

In the mean time, Happy New Years! Be safe and have fun.

Tour of Duty

"So this is it?" Benny said to an empty table. "I don't think any of you would have thought I'd be here today would you? Ha!" Benny laughed to himself while holding a shot glass filled with some unidentified amber liquid and toasted other glasses sitting around the table in front of empty chairs. "Huff, Charlotte, Mickey, Shevels, Clover and Six, this night's for you," Benny said as he raised the glass high and brought it to his lips and slowly drained it, closing his eyes as he sipped the liquor, relishing the sensation as it flowed down his throat.
Benny slid his chair back away from the table and slowly stood, gripping the table fiercely with one hand and holding on to a highly polished black cane just as firmly with the other one. He walked around the table counter-clockwise, and coming to the next empty chair gently set himself down. He was already exhausted and he hadn't really began to commiserate his comrades yet. Benny didn't really know how his weakened body would hold up through even this little journey around the table, but he was determined to see it through to the end. He took a few deep breaths and cleared his throat before he spoke.
"Six, you were the first of us not to make it back to our little reunion. I guess when the rest of us would reminisce, sharing stories of the glory days and all the good times we had living them that it was easy for us to forget that you never really had many other days than the good old ones. What, did you make it back here four or five times after the war? It's a shame; you were a good man, the better than many of the rest of us and I've often felt it should have been me who was the first to go and you who were the last, not the other way around.
You were what, twenty-two when you enlisted? It still strikes me strangely, enlisting. The rest of us were drafted, conscripted to fight in a war that nobody wanted to fight in, the risk of becoming a casualty were so high. I have to admit that when I first heard that you had volunteered, I thought you were mad, just some violence junkie commando wannabe trying to score his adrenaline fix, but once I got to know you, you didn't fit that bill at all. I guess it reflects very poorly on me that it took so long for me to realize that you had a good reason for enlisting. You understood duty and honor and you were just the type of person who could put the cause ahead of your own desires. Like I said Six, you were my better, and when I say you earned my respect it isn't just a platitude, you did just that, you earned it.
I remember a time, fighting side by side and we were pinned down with hardly any support. I wanted to run, but we had been ordered to hold. The enemy was piling up all around us and we were in a good position to hold, but I was something of a coward and scared out of my wits. I don't know how you did it, how you managed to talk me down and at the same time keep laying down fire. The fighting that day was the fiercest and most savage I've ever seen, and you managed to keep a level head the whole time. You definitely saved my life that day and a lot of other lives too, and that wasn't the only time you did that either."

Oh, and BTW, Merry Christmas!

Incense

I actually like incense so much that I did a report on it once in college. I know that there is a lot of cultural significance and religious import, but still the best reason to burn incense is because it smells great.

By far my favorite is Nag Champa, but any incense made from the Champa flower is alright with me. I've burnt Champa Flower and a Champa with a cirtus scent added, but still, way out in front is Nag Champa.

This time of year you might think of frankincense and myrrh or perhaps other modern scents associated with Christmas, and whether it is the scent of cloves or Christmas cookies, these scents are a huge part of the Christmas experience. I've heard that scent is the sense most involved with memory. We attach scents to memories, and certain scents can invoke memories more vividly than anything else. The scent of rose does it for me.

The scent of incense is almost overpowering when I walk into my local Indian grocery. I haven't bought any there yet, but I'm bound to when I run out of what I have.

Perchance To

Yosef stood in the courtyard as he had so many times before, but this time was very different than those other times. This house of worship had always welcomed him in the past as he made his weekly migration from his home to its hallowed halls and back again. Gone however were the warmth and comfort they had provided and in their place squalor, oppression, and ruin. The synagogue had been desecrated during the occupation and it was a reflection of the depravity of the oppressors that they had twisted so holy a place into a house of misery.
The sky had been overcast for most of the morning as Yosef stood out in the synagogue courtyard and everything had a gray pallor over it: the trees, the buildings, the grass and even the people milling about. The gates of the courtyard had been locked and armed guards had been stationed both there and at a security checkpoint a little farther away. The gates and cast iron fence that surrounded the courtyard had been augmented by large, looping coils of razor wire and an additional barrier has been constructed just outside the gates, all to keep those people in the synagogue where they were.
The large wooden doors swung open, making a clattering sound that was eerily magnified by the sullen silence of those in the yard. A few people very near the doors were startled and jumped while those further away either just turned and looked, or ignored the sound with an almost catatonic cynicism. Two guards emerged and descended the concrete steps while another man who was dressed in a long jacket stood under the awning. It began to drizzle lightly as the man in the long jacket looked over those meandering around. Yosef kept his head down while he watched the man in the long jacket as he pointed around the yard and barked orders at the guards in a language he didn't understand. The guards walked from one person to another until they found the person that their superior had indicated and roughly herded that person to the stairs of the synagogue. Three people had been selected when the man at the top of the stairs pointed at him. Yosef froze out of fear, and when the soldier spoke to him, he ignored it. He ignored the first insistent shove too as he stood there dumbfounded, but when the soldier started yelling and prodding him with the muzzle of a semi-automatic rifle, it was enough to bring Yosef out of his stupor, and he walked over too and ascended a few of the steps.
With Yosef on the steps were two other men and a woman. The woman had been a neighbor who lived a block or so away from Yosef's home and he recognized her from one of the many walks he had taken before the war started. One of the men also seemed familiar, though Yosef couldn't quite place him. The second man was a total stranger whose eyes showed he wasn't reacting well to his incarceration. He was chanting or singing or praying under his breath and rocking back and forth in a way that spoke only of fear. It wasn't very long before one more woman, and elderly one, joined them on the stairs. Five must have been the quota for this morning because the man in the long jacket turned back into the building without another word, and the two guards ushered the quintet into the darkness. Yosef had spent two days waiting in the courtyard before he had been picked. Every few hours it seemed that another prisoner was being processed through the security checkpoint to join their fellows in the yard, and twice now the number of those milling around had been culled. Seven so far had made that fateful journey up the stairs, and so far none had returned.

Dr. Who

What is there to say about this show. First of all it's British, and every day I'm more an more convinced that British television is better than American television. Second, it's SciFi, which of course I really like. Third, there's it's longevity, seeing it's been around since 1963 (with a 16 year hiatus thrown in there) and it's still going. Fourth, it's it irreverent humor. I mean really what's not to like?

Of course, I do see that there is a big distinction between the classic series and the current series, and even though I do like the current series very much, I still think that the classic series has got it beat. Classic Who was created with low budgets, campy villains and the classic running down corridors. It's just so cheesy that someone in Britain should create a new cheese named Who.

I picked up a VHS copy of the Five Doctors and I absolutely love it. It's a blast even though it does move a little slow some times. The best thing about that show was that there were only four Doctors in Five Doctors, go fig eh?

Rowan Atkinson did an absolutely great spoof of Dr. Who that is funny called the Curse of the Fatal Terror. Rowan Atkinson plays a very good Doctor until he gets killed and regenerates several times in as many minutes. Eventually a female Doctor and The Master get together, but not until the Master gets some Dalek bumps first. Don't worry if it doesn't make sense, it's not supposed to apparently.

Wilted

"Good morning Mama. What is my little Helena doing today?" an older man dressed in the simple clothes of a trader asked his wife who was busying herself at the hearth, presumably warming up stew that had been left over from the evening before a warm breakfast.
"Papa, you can look out the window and see for yourself," she replied as she stirred a wooden spoon in the pot, and added a little water. "Your little daughter has not been idle."
The older man heaved his bulky frame out of the comfortable armchair, and stumbled over to the window. Helena wasn't hard to find as she was at work in her flower garden. He watched her for just a moment before a puzzled look crossed his face. He continued to watch her a few more minutes, then asked, "What is she doing?"
"If you'd use half the sense you were born with, you'd trust your eyes. You know what she's doing," Mama replied sharply as she toiled over the food.
"I see your point wife. Though it label me a dullard, I confess I don't know why she is pulling up her roses. What meaning there could be to her actions are beyond my feeble reach." Papa just shook his head back and forth at the mystery.
Mama set the table, all three places, with a generous portion of the pottage and a bowl of fresh goat's milk. "Husband, even I can't claim to be privy to the inner workings of the girl's mind. The reasons for her actions elude me. Come and eat now, there's work yet to do." She patted the table and pulled Papa's chair up to the table.
"Oh aye, I mean to see if I can have half of Ridian's flock on the block before the end of the week. He'll be anxious to trade this late in the year, and I reckon I can make quite a deal," Papa said, already putting his daughter's bizarre behavior out of his mind.
"Of course dear," Mama said, filling in the pause in the conversation. Throughout the entire meal, her eyes kept wandering away from her husband and the meal, and invariably found their way over to the window.

* * * * *

Helena sat cross-legged on the ground in front of one of her prized rose bushes. She didn't move for quite a while, just staring at the flowers in front of her. After waiting a while like this, she reached out and grabbed several of the stems with her bare hands. She felt the thorns bite into the skin on her palm and fingers, ripping into the delicate flesh. She closed her eyes, and her face took on a set look. An angry look crossed her face and she ripped the plant out of the ground. Blood trickled through her fingers, dripping on the ground, but she neither let go or reacted in any way to the pain. So this is what it feels like to be numb to everything she thought to herself. She tossed the plant to the side and clenched her fist, willing herself to feel the pain.

Anime Samurai Girl Type

I don't know what to say about this entry and I hope it doesn't come off creepy. I like to watch Anime as I've said before and there is normally a lot of consistency between different Animes. There seem to be types of characters that are repeated over and over in different stories. In one way it's repetitive, and another, it's funny.

There's always the clueless guy, the hopeless romantic girl, the crazy girl, the jock, the younger sister thrown in over her head, the crazy military obsessed guy and of course there is the Samurai girl.
I'm guessing that these distinct personas are enjoyable to Japanese people, who of course are all completely identical. Of course I'm being sarcastic, but still when conformity to the norm is taught, I'm thinking that a little non-conformity goes a long way.

What I like about some of these stereotypical characterizations is just how crazy they are. Sure, there are plenty of otaku in Japan, and I can see that in a lot of the characters, but there are just some really unique ones. The Samurai girl type happens to be my favorite.

As far as I can tell, this type is the most screwed up of them all. It is normally so over the top that it's hilarious. If you do anything, including look at her, you are challenging her or insulting her honor. She's always demanding vengeance or challenging someone to a fight. If she's not doing that she's training or learning a new technique. On top of this, she's also a super student though she sees socializing as a distraction to obtaining more power and glory. If she does have a feminine side, she views it as weakness to express it. Really, she's crazy, but in a uniquely Japanese way that doesn't seem so out of place.

Conscious

Matt woke from a sound sleep, and looked over at the glowing red segments of his alarm clock which read 2:37, and realized that it was the middle of the morning. He swung his legs off to the side of the bed and just sat there for a few seconds in nothing but his boxers and the t-shirt he had wore to bed before he put his face down in his hands and just said, "aw, crap."

*****

Matt had never experienced anything like the strange thoughts that had woken him out of a dead sleep, yet he knew they were all inexorably true. As he walked into the bathroom to splash a little cold water on his face, Matt realized that the last one had died, and the burden, because that's what it was, had been passed on to him. What bugged Matt most wasn't the randomness of how he had been chosen, it was the seeming pointlessness of it all. Matt had woken up and had been startled to find out that absolutely nothing in life had really meant what he had thought it did.
There were a lot of things that Matt just knew now. For example, one of the things that he knew now was the exact population of the Earth at any given time, but if he ever took the time to say it, it would have changed by the time he voiced the number and wouldn't be right. That amused him somewhat. He also knew a lot of stuff that just didn't make much sense for him to know. He knew that he could tap into information at a whim, knowing anything about anyone he wanted to, he barely had to concentrate on any person to be filled with knowledge, and though it was a bit overwhelming, it wasn't all that oppressive, so it was something he would grow to get used to.
Incidentally, it was just about this time that Matt realized that he had a perfect understanding of women, and that of all the men in the world, he was the only one who truly understood the fairer sex. Ironically with this perfect understanding came the realization that it didn't matter in the least. No woman on Earth was prepared to deal with a man who totally understood everything about her, and even if he would ply his knowledge perfectly in a relationship, most women were intuitive enough to know something was wrong, even though what was wrong was actually right. Matt felt both a little disgusted with this fact as well as humored by the irony. Oh well, he could still have a relationship if he just acted like he always had, and at least he would know exactly how to do that. It took Matt about a minute to come to grips with all of this new-found knowledge, but as soon as he had the thought, how am I going to deal with this, he just knew how and it didn't bother him anymore.

Writing

I really enjoy writing. I guess my style would fall into science fiction pretty well, but I think I fall into more old school SF and not the contemporary stuff. Well, whatever right? The point is that this year I've completed some work and brushed it up a bit and I'm going to showcase it in a limited fashion this December.

I like writing a blog, but blogging is honking easy. You just write off the cuff and you really can't write anything wrong. Trousers! See, that declaration seems to fit into this mode pretty well, but can you just imagine if all of a sudden, during the council scene in Fellowship of the Rings, Gimli were to shout out "Trousers!" at Boromir? It just wouldn't fit. Agent Smith, I mean Elrond, would just shake his head and the Hobbits would start looking around for their scripts and Gandalf would just sit there and cry.

There's a challenge to writing a story, and it not being a whole bucket of suck. Who am I to say whether or not my writing is any good, I don't know, but I will say that it is at least unique. I don't rip off anyone else and call it a remake or a tribute (cough Hollywood), it's my stuff and I enjoy writing it, and I hope someone eventually enjoys reading it.

So here's the deal, every Friday in December, I'm going to post the first 500 words of one of my short stories. I won't be a jerk and cut it off in the middle of a sentence, but I'm not going to post any story in its entirety yet. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet with this stuff, whether it's submit it to short story contests, or maybe even approach a publisher. To be honest, I don't want to even think about publishing until I work out my literary muscles a bit more and have a bit more stuff finished. Still working on improving here.

Keep an eye out for my fiction coming soon. Oh, and please feel free to comment. I'm always looking for input.

White Day

In Japan, Valentine's day is separated into two separate holidays, or three depending on how you count it. It's like Valentine's day has been split between the genders and separated by a month, how very like Japan. Women buy men chocolate on Valentine's day and the men buy gifts for the women on White day. Of course, the gifts men buy are more expensive, but you have a month to decide if you really want to buy this person a gift at all or not, so it kinda works out.

Some things the Japanese do are really super classy, some are really super creepy. Vending machines containing the worn underwear of schoolgirls, creepy. White day, classy. Sure, some of the creepy stuff is so loathsome you want to wash your hands of everything Japanese, but then there is something redeeming that doesn't make you cringe that is cool, and Japanese holidays tend to be like this.

Incidentally, there is a third holiday for singles who didn't receive any gifts on either Valentines or White days. It's called Black Day, and it's a day where singles get together and eat noodles. You'd think that maybe it had something to do with maybe getting gifts the next year on one of those days, but as far as I can tell it's not meant to shed your singleness, just to celebrate being single, and if you're Japanese, that also probably means pathetic and miserable.

Hugh Laurie

Hugh Laurie is coming into his own on American TV, but I've been a Hugh Laurie fan way before House came out. One of the things that made me want to watch House was Hugh Laurie in a starring role. He's been all over British TV and movies before he scored that rad House gig, and he always cracks me up.

You've probably seen him as one of the bad guys on 101 Dalmations, he was the one who didn't play Ron Weasley's dad in the Harry Potter movies. He also got a cool roll in The Man in the Iron Mask. Leonardo DiCaprio had him beheaded; pity it wasn't the other way around.

The epitome of his career, at least in my humble opinion, comes in the episode of of Blackadder goes Forth called Major Star. In it he dresses in drag and plays Georgina, an act in a show for the soldiers. General Melchet falls in love with him and convinces him to marry him. "Chipmunk, I love you." This makes me laugh and laugh and laugh.

Sure, enjoy him on House, I will admit he's great in that show, shoot, I've already written about House, but House is just about the only thing Americans know about Hugh Laurie. I just think he's a great actor over all.

Trains

There is a mystique about trains that I am not immune to. Now, I've only taken one trip by train, and it was only a four hour trip, but it was one of the most enjoyable trips I've ever been on. Something about traveling by train makes a trip seem like traveling is part of the enjoyment instead of just being cramped inside a tiny car.

What did I do on our train trip to Toronto? I read a book. How novel is that (no pun intended)? Four hours there and four back, had an appropriate length book and the gentle sway of the train was not enough to give me a headache while reading. I think I slept some too. How cool is that? Almost all of the places I go I end up driving in a cramped little car, and have to take a day just to recover from the drive. The trip to Toronto was so much more comfortable that it turns me off of cars.

I've often thought I'd like to tool around Europe sipping espresso and riding trains from here to there. Sure, I live in the Metro Detroit area and to talk about trains this way is almost blasphemy, but I'd still like to do it. I kinda wish we had more places we could go by train around here, but sadly, that's not meant to be. Oh well, maybe one day there will at least be a good public transit system in Detroit. (Trying not to laugh too hard).

Manga

This is going to be one of my shot posts. I've been a fan of Manga since before it became mainstream. I was just at the bookstore the other day and saw a Star Trek TNG manga on the shelf as well as a CSI manga. I didn't take too long a look at them, but I'm thought is that someone out there was attempting to cash in on the demographic of people who want to see Sarah Sidle and Deanna Troi with big manga eyes. Who wouldn't?

Seriously though (I so wish the internet had a sarcasm tag) there's something about manga that is cool. It's the Japanese style of comic books, and who doesn't like comic books except pinko commies? The main difference are manga is normally black and white, its a longer story and you read it backwards. That's one of the coolest bits. I'm so used to reading left to right that reading right to left feels fresh and crisp!

I do enjoy reading manga. The stories are normally light and move along at a decent pace. I tend to pick up manga when I can get it cheap, but occasionally I might pay full price. It's a good way to spent an hour, and it is one of the more calming experiences that I enjoy.

Unfortunately I think that many mangas have just become porn for teens. Some of it is just smut or teasing and that does give it a bad name and bugs me, but I think the same thing about the SI swimsuit edition, just porn for teens. There is good manga out there that isn't all just innuendo or more. Some is actually really, really good. No sarcasm tag needed there.

Speculative Fiction

Alright, I'm not even sure how this post is going to unfold, but here goes. I've been a fan of science fiction for a very long time. However, I'm a picky fan, and not all SF is good SF. I've read some stink bombs in my life, and unfortunately some of what I hate everyone else seems to like. In the past SF used to be so distinct as a separate genre that in and of itself SF was counter culture and very much the red-headed stepchild of fiction. However, like anything else that has merit, eventually it becomes mainstream and to make it acceptable to the masses, it loses much of what made it special.

Now, I think that a lot of SF today is talentless crap that the masses eat up for some reason, and that SF which happens to be good is overlooked, doomed to languish in the annals of cult classic fame. I think that probably the best example of this is the SciFi network, or as they have re-imaged themselves, SyFy. 99% of what they broadcast is crap, and that 1% of what they broadcast that isn't, you never see more than once, however the crap is rerun in perpetuity.

However, as is often the case, there is a silver lining to this gray cloud. Thus I present to you speculative fiction. To me, what was once branded science fiction can now be divided into at least four distinct separate genres: Speculative Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Science Fiction and Superhero Fiction. Granted there is a lot of overlap between these genres, but I think that just about any of this imaginative fiction can be categorized as one or more of these genres.

Fantasy Fiction is probably the easiest to classify. Tolkien definitely fits here and so does a great lot of what is classified Science Fiction. To me, SF and FF are clearly separate genres, but at the same time many authors have merged the genres very successfully. Anthony's Adept series is a good example of Science and Fantasy working together well. I think some Steampunk probably falls into this area of when SF and FF merge.

Superhero fiction is a new player in lineup. I'm a little bit inclusive when I talk about this genre. Sure Superman and Spiderman are definitely players here, but I would also include Laura Croft and Ultraviolet in this mix as well. Sure, it's not a perfect fit, but if you look at the genre as being about characters with above average abilities, you see what I'm going for.

Science Fiction is probably the least understood. I've already written about the big three of SF, but maybe what I neglected was just how much they were SF. SF was originally based on, wonder of wonder, science. It was the vision of what science and technology would lead us to. However, in my opinion, some of the best SF was just a setting for a good story to be placed in. An example of this is Asimov's Robot series. The books were detective stories set in a future where man had colonized fifty more planets. Sure, the setting altered how the plot played out, but in essence, the SF just added spice to the detective story.

Speculative fiction is something else. It is none of these other genres, but encompasses much of what they are. Speculative fiction asks only one question, what if? That is an awesome way to start a story. You make just one little change in history or you take what is possible to do today and extrapolate. There is so much fiction that falls into this category. Some of it is light in the speculation department. The Sum of All Fears is a good example of light speculation. What if there was a nuclear attack on the President of the United States? Granted, I wouldn't classify that story as completely speculative fiction, but there definitely is an element. Cyberpunk stories fit in here as well as the rest of Steampunk stories when you combine historical and speculative fiction. I think Gene Roddenbury's initial vision of Star Trek was speculative and not science fiction, though SF is where I would place it. Speculative fiction covers a ton of ground.

The main thing I like about speculative fiction is that it is like some of the old style SF in that the setting wasn't the story, it was just a setting. You speculate and then you tell the story that you wanted to tell, whether it be SF, detective, romance or whatever. Probably the best example of how this spices up a story is Watchmen. Watchmen is definitely a superhero story, but it is set in 1985 where Nixon is a fifth-term president because of an ever mounting threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, and in which superheros helped win the Vietnam War. So Watchmen is set in a world that didn't happen, but is rich in detail that adds to the story without being the story itself. That's what I really like.

Bacon (Special 100th Post Edition)

Bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon! Sure, bacon might not be the solution to all of life's problems, but don't tell me life isn't better with a little bacon in it.

I chose bacon as my subject for my 100th post because it is the flip side of my first post, chicharrones. Both are deep fried pork products that are guaranteed to brighten up your life.

Bacon has become one of the most prevalent internet memes there has ever been. This meme comes bacon-wrapped and bacon flavored. Whether it's bacon salt, canned ration bacon, clothing that looks like bacon, clothing that smells like bacon, bacon scented perfume, bacon fried in amusing shapes, or bacon used as bowls, plates or as meat helmets, there's just so much about bacon to like. There are even some tools out there creating a religion based on worshiping bacon. Alright, that's too far, but still, it is bacon. Oh well.

Bacon, that is all.

Friday

I've really started to like Heinlein's writing since I discovered it. It wasn't until a couple years ago that I bought my first Heinlein book, and a little after that I actually got around to reading it. This is partially due to the fact I have at any one time about 75 books in my to-read pile, and I go through them as soon as I can. Friday was the first Heinlein book I actually read, and I wasn't so sure about it when I first picked it up, but I got into it soon thereafter.

One of the things that struck me about the book was the authors style. Not of how he wrote, but how he crafted his fiction. Clarke wrote about the technology. Asimov wrote through conversations. Heinlein was structured around social interaction and the evolution of mores in society. Some of what he writes about would have been called lewd by an earlier society, but it seems to me that his devices are just that, devices used to tell a story. He doesn't include a plural marriage in his story as an act of defiance, but instead as a tool to tell a different story than other people have before him. I almost want to reclassify some of what he wrote as speculative fiction rather than science fiction because it has so little to do with science in some cases. Then he talks about dimensional and time travel and many other things that are classic scifi, but still, I see the seed of speculative fiction being planted here for other authors to grasp onto and a generation later.

As I said earlier, this book left me with a "what's going on" feeling for the first couple of chapters. I couldn't get into the character's persona for quite a while as she was unlike any I had read before. Instead of trying to figure it out, I just let the story progress and I started getting into it. At first I thought this was like any other story I ever read with a strong female lead, but it was different that everything else I ever read. One thing that struck me was that the story seemed to restart every chapter or two, which lead me to believe that Heinlein wrote this story in stages, however I've not been able to verify that.

This story is unlike any I've ever encountered before, though it does bear resemblance to other stories Heinlein has written. It can be said that when writing science fiction, you are only limited by your imagination, and though Heinlein had a prolific wonderful imagination, you can tell that it was a product of his time. I wonder if his stories would be as good if he had been born thirty years later. I doubt it. His style is vintage without being dated and the way his stories unfold are unique.

Followed up Friday with Tunnel in the Sky, The Moon is a Hard Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land. The Number of the Beast and Time Enough for Love are both sitting in my to-read pile, waiting.

Iron Man

I'm sure that you're thinking that this is a response to the recent Iron Man movie and the upcoming sequel, but it's really not. Most of Marvel's movies are just origin stories, let's talk Spiderman to make a point. Spiderman the movie, main plot lines, origin of Spiderman and origin of Green Goblin. Spiderman 2, origin of Doc. Ock. Spiderman 3, origin of Sandman, origin of Green Goblin 2, origin of Venom. Let's do another! Daredevil, origin of Daredevil, origin of Elektra. One more just for fun. Fantastic Four, origin of the Fantastic Four, origin of Dr. Doom. Fantastic Four 2, introduction of the Silver Surfer and introduction of Galactus. Iron Man the Movie was just an origin story of Iron Man and War Monger. I'm surprised that so many people forget that comic book heroes are great in the comic books that they originated from.

And here's the strange thing about those comic books, they aren't all origin stories. There are recurring villains and guest stars (see War Machine in the picture) and even though there are new villains all the time, there' s more going on. Comic books are awesome serial stories that would lend themselves much more to a well done TV show (cough, Smallville) than to the big screen. I'm not saying that there isn't a place for superhero movies, I do like them, but at the same time The animated series of Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited were so much better than the movies that have been created, that it just isn't funny. I know you can do anything in an animated feature and it's difficult with live action, but if you can pull off the effects in a movie, you should be able to do something with a TV show. Sure, you might have to change some stuff and put a spin on things to fit your story into a live action series, but it can be done, and done well at that.

But I digress, back to comics. When I was a preteen, I used to walk the few blocks up to 7-Eleven, at least I would when I had saved up enough scratch to pick up a comic. Used to be easy at 75 cents a piece, but when they raised the price to a dollar or $1.25, my comic buying days were slowing down, though they've never stopped completely. When I was a kid, if I had the money, I'd buy a Transformers comic, if I already had it, or if they didn't have the new one yet, it'd be Green Lantern. Third on my list was Iron Man and I didn't normally make it very far past third without circling back to Transformers the next month.

The best part about going on trips was that at just about every gas stop, the parents would break down and buy me a comic or two for the next leg of the trip. I guess me not picking on my brother was worth an occasional 75 cents and sometimes I'd end up with around a dozen new comics on a road trip with the family. I picked up more Iron Man that way than any other way, and for some reason the places we'd go always have a few issues of Iron Man for me to pickup. Sure, I'd get some other books too like Daredevil, Fantasic Four and occasionally the Flash, or just something I'd never read before and I never bought again. I don't remember too many trips I didn't bring back one issue of Iron Man though.

I don't know how I never caught on to Tony Stark's philandering as a kid, maybe I was too young and still innocent, but I always thought he was cool. Still, it was the Iron Man persona that had always interested me. One thing that was cool about Iron Man was the revisions. His suit was always being upgraded, which lent an evolution to the character that others didn't have. He kept getting more powers, was better protected and technical glitches added to the story. Something made Iron Man feel more real too. There was no cosmic radiation, or extra-terrestrial origin. Instead a guy who had money created tech to create a hero. I guess it was always a little easier to put yourself in that kind of story than say the Beast.

Numb3rs

Alrighty then. This show has a unique spin in that math is the device that the writers use to drive the plot. I guess it's a good time to mention that I'm a total geek and watching these shows definitely scratches some kind of repressed nerd need.

Now Charlie Epps definitely is an interesting character, but I like most of the characters in this show. It's all well written, and a few of the episodes have awesome stories. Several of the episodes have nerdy tendencies that really can feed your inner geek, but at the same time, the best episodes are really excellent drama that you don't have to be an egghead to watch.

The interplay between the characters is excellent, so much so that the few minor changes to the cast are in my opinion easier to overlook than on just about any other show. The cast are all excellent actors, and they have been playing their characters long enough to really get into them and give them a depth missing in some of the other cop drama shows out there imho.

Charlie's interaction with his brother, his father and his girlfriend are all so much more normal than many of the other shows on the air, that it really seems more convincing than some other shows. Aloof, emotionally repressed geniuses, or dark, emotionally troubled people make up so many of the characters we see than when a couple of brothers have friction for the sole reason of sibling rivalry, it's refreshing and hits close to home.

I've always liked science and math, and to see their application being used to solve crimes is awesome. I particularly like when game theory is used to solve a riddle or figure out a clue. Most of the math I honestly just don't follow, but occasionally I'll hear something I do know, and it seems to me that the rest of the math must be on the level.

Final words, Navi Rawat is an awesome actress, and when Numb3rs is finally over, the only silver lining to that otherwise gray cloud is that she will be able to star in more movies, at least I hope so. BTW, here's a little Amita fan service.

Fark.com

If you don't know what Fark.com is, for shame. Simply put, it's a news site unlike any other. It has all the news you want and some that you probably don't, but what legitimate media outlet isn't crammed full of stuff you didn't want to know.

Fark is much like your CNN's much cooler younger brother who you started to be friends with after you figured out what a tool CNN was in the first place. I mean, sure if Vanilla Ice is on the radio sure you're going to listen to it, but not if there is any music on another station, or if there is any other station available at all, or if you can pickup up static, or if you happen to have a nail gun you can pierce your ear drums with. I mean sure, if the last people on Earth happened to be you and Grace Jones, Tori Spelling and Mariah Carey and it was up to you to repopulate the planet, and you had three bags, sure you'd take those bags and asphyxiate yourself with them, I mean who wouldn't? What does that have to do with Fark you may ask. Well, when you're stuck with CNN, Fox News and Headline News, and all of a sudden Jessica Alba walks up, you take the three bags and while listening to the static on the radio proceed to asphyxiate the other three and recreate the human race with some dignity and class. You get what I'm laying down here, right? Oh yeah!

Chess Variants

I'm not going to go into this subject very heavily, as there is just so much there, but I'm going to list some of them and also some chess based games.

Some variants add a piece or two to the board, some replace a piece with another. Some games alter the board a bit, and some alter it a lot. Some games are hardly recognizable as chess at all, and some just add a bit of flavor to an old standard. I want to give an example of each type, then go into my favorites.

Chaturanga is perhaps the oldest form of chess. It mostly resembles the modern game where the only differences are the queen moves one space diagonally and the bishop has been replaced with an elephant that normally moves two spaces diagonally, hopping the intermediate square like a knight. Other than that, the game is pretty much the chess that we know.

Omega Chess is a newer chess variant where the board has been enlarged to 10x10 with the addition of one square extra diagonally out from each corner. There have also been 2 new pieces added to the game, the champion and the wizard. The wizard functions like a uber-knight which jumps three spaces out and then one over or one diagonally and the champion can move one or two spaces horizontally or vertically, or can jump one space diagonally.

Elephant Chess, or Chinese Chess is one of my favorite variants, and I actually have this board at home. Some of the board differences is that the play is on the intersections of the lines, there is a river in the middle that some pieces can't cross and there is a castle on both sides of the river that the king and his guards can't leave. The elephant returns in this game and the only difference from chaturanga is that it can't cross the river. The cannon is also neat. That piece moves like a rook, but has to jump an intermediate piece to take a piece, which can make it hard to take a piece easily, but can also result in a check from a distance in complete safety. There is also a Korean version of this game, Changgi, that is very similar, but with no river.

Shogi is the Japanese equivalent of chess and it is really different. Played on 9x9 board, the pieces have unique promotions and the pieces look identical on both sides, with only the way it's pointing indicating which player it belongs to. It also has a unique rule where you can drop a captured piece onto the board as your turn, which is kinda like a zombie rule for chess. The pieces are hard to discern for western eyes as they are marked by Kanji, but they pretty much represent similar pieces in western chess.

3-D Chess has many variants itself. There's the famous Star Trek chess that Kirk always seems to beat Spock at, but there are many other types too. Raumschach is a neat looking 3-D chess game on a 5x5x5 board with the addition of a unicorn piece. While Star Trek chess looks cool, I'm thinking that Raumschach might be more fun, but I've not played either.

There are also mini games. Petty chess, quick chess, speed chess and Elena chess are all played on a 5x6 board where the only difference is the initial setup of the pieces. There are also huge versions of some of these games. Taikyoku Shogi has 209 different types of pieces played on a 36x36 board. There are 402 pieces each and 1296 squares.

Four player chess is interesting. Most boards are set up in a cross fashion with the four armies meeting out on a common field. Having to wait three turns to make your next turn has to be annoying when you are trying to strategize. I would think it's more of a defensive game than some of the other variants. Some of the four player games give you control of an opponents army when you capture their king.

Finally I wanted to mention Stratego. Probably the best chess-like game out there, it is also an example of a chess-like board with similar strategy, but not really any of the pieces or vastly different rules. I've seen some of these games that are really just strange, and most of them I wouldn't play, but Stratego is alright.

The Xanth Series

Xanth, what can I say about this series. Let me start with the Author. I think that I've read more Piers Anthony books than any other author. I really like the way that he writes and several of his series are just great. Also, he is a prolific writer who has a good handle on how long a story should be. His stories neither drag or fly by; they are a good length for light reading.

Now, I just picked up a new to me Xanth book within the last month and read it, and to be honest I was thinking that I really wouldn't like it too much, being too juvenile for my tastes anymore, but I was pleasantly surprised. I guess I really go for that nostalgia feeling, and since Ogre, Ogre was the first book that I ever bought for myself as a kid of about ten years, reading this stuff sure fills that nostalgia fix pretty well.

The world of Xanth, which is almost the exact shape of Florida, is a magical world where strange punny things happen. Over the years Anthony has expanded the territory of the series to include a dream world in the gourd (read Ogre, Ogre) and Ptero and it's derivatives. Regardless, the whole world in which these stories reside seems to evolve over time, and in every book, a new facet of Xanth is opened up for discovery.

Xanth has two main properties. First it's magical and second it's humorous. Not all aspects are funny, but most things the characters run across in Xanth are mostly pun. It's actually really fun to read about the absurdity of the land and it's creatures and their unique interactions can be really entertaining.

I'll probably keep picking Anthony books up as long as he keeps writing them, and for a lighthearted read, Xanth books will probably always be at the top of that list.

Masters of the Universe

Is it about the figures? Maybe. Is it the comics? Probably not. Is it about the cartoon? Somewhat. What MOTU is really about for me now is the nostalgia factor. I think that He-man was the first cartoon I can remember watching where I had a toy that was based on it. I do remember watching Tranzor Z earlier, but I never had any of the toys.

I remember as a kid having several of these toys, and my brother had a few himself. I don't know what actually happened to my MOTU figures, and will probably never know, but I do remember playing with these as a kid, and even having Castle Grayskull. That was awesome. For some reason, my parents only bought me good guys and my brother and friends had all the bad guys. I can even remember being really jealous of my friend Doug's MOTU collection, but hey I was a kid, what do you expect. I think it's kinda the suck that I never had any of the bad guys to fight against, cause the bad guys were where it's at.

Which brings me up to one of my theories. Villains are always more fun than the good guys. I don't know why this is, but I heard an interview from a Marvel writer once discussing the problems with villains. His main point was for every hero, there needed to be a slew of villains or the plots would get boring. Would Batman have been Batman if the Joker was the only villain? What about the Penguin, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, the Phantasm, Ra's al Gul, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Clayface, Manbat and a host of others. His point was that behind every successful hero, there stood a ton of supporting villains. I think I read something like at one time Marvel had copyrighted something like 20,000 characters, but that less than 500 of them were superheroes. I think the number was around 96% of copyrighted characters were villains. So if there were so many of them, to be memorable, they had to be great, not good. That's why villains like Bizzaro, the Joker, Sinestro, Venom, Metallo, Magneto and Kingpin just to name a few were so cool, they had to be.

So in MOTU, there were a lot of toys, and there were a lot of good villains in with it. Trap-Jaw, Faker, Beastman, and later some of the She-Ra villains were very cool. There were so many of them that some of them really had to stand out. Some of them just were so good, and no where near as pathetic as some of the heroes.

Just recently there has been a new line of figures released, obviously to tie into the nostalgia market, and some of the additions like Adora and the Green Goddess are really nice. I enjoyed these as a kid, and have a collection of them still now as an adult, so I guess I fill my nerd quotient for the day right there. However, there is one huge marketing faux pas from the original characters that I would like to sum up in the next question. Why was there never a Faker Battlecat?

Rick Steve's Europe

Maybe this is just a follow-up to the post I wrote about History Detectives the other day, but PBS is doing such a great job that I didn't want to leave this gem of a show untouched.

I only started watching Create about a year ago or so, and although the quality of the programming is great, some of it is not my style. I can only watch so many cooking and craft shows before I just want to turn it off, but some of the travel shows really caught my attention. Rick Steve's Europe is at the top of that list by far in my book.

Rick travels around Europe and writes guidebooks and shoots travel shows. I hope this comes out as the compliment I mean it to be, but watching his show is almost like taking a thirty minutes vacation itself.

Rick travels all over the continent to various countries, all of which he makes sound so interesting and like a place I would want to go. He does things like hire local guides to make his stay more enjoyable and goes to little out of the way places, away from the massive throngs of tourists while still managing to hit all the famous sites.

So far I think some of my favorite shows were ones about Bavaria, Prague and Iran. Yes, he even traveled to Iran for his show, and it was a very interesting country. In Prague, just about everything looked fun, especially the art nouveau museum and the music. Bavaria looked like a place to spend a good time in, and I'm sure I'd enjoy all the food and music there too.

Steve points out many of the conveniences of traveling in Europe, one of which is trains. It seems to me that there is a train to just about anywhere you want to go in Europe, and kinda makes me sad it isn't that way here in America.

History's Detectives

I'm a big fan of PBS. I've written a couple articles already on it, and the more I see, the more I'm impressed. Since the big DTV switch, at least here in my area, PBS has three stations, PBS, PBS Kids and Create. I'm probably going to write about a really good show on Create soon, but for right now I'm going to focus on what is my new favorite regular PBS show. History Detectives.

The seventh season of History Detectives started a few weeks ago, and I have to say, at this point, I'm hooked. I started watching this show right about the time that I got my first DTV converter box as before that WTVS didn't come in all that well, and I didn't watch it as much as I do now. That was back at the end of season five, and I caught it when I could during season six and now if I miss a episode, I go to http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/ and go to their video archive and watch it later.

Wes Cowan, Elyse Luray, Gwen Wright and Tukufu Zuberi are the four regular detectives, but during season seven, Eduardo Pagan served as a guest detective too. These four or five will investigate an object with unknown or questionable origins and find it's place in American history. Sometimes the investigation even leads to a discovery with great import, practically rewriting accepted American History.

My favorite detectives are Tukufu Zuberi and Elyse Luray. All of the detectives are really knowledgeable and likable, but Tukufu and Elyse are still my favorite to watch. If you are into more high-brow entertainment, I'd try this show out.

Craigslist

I've posted about garage sales in the past, and to me, the logical online extension of that is Craigslist. I love to wheel and deal, and CL is an awesome way to do it.

One of the keys I've learned about selling is it's all about connecting to a person with a need. That old saying about being able to sell refrigerators to Eskimos is stupid. All that you have to do to sell something is fill that persons need or want. What CL does is allow you to connect to that person.

I've sold maybe around $12,000 worth of items on CL so far, with most of that being sold in 2007, and what I've noticed has been similar in most of the cases. I have something that someone wants, and when the price is right, I have them lined up to get them. It's easy to sell someone something they want, because instead of selling, you are just helping them buy.

You need to know your product. You need to know your target audience, or at least have a way to get to them. You need to take a picture, write a description and then post it on CL and see what happens. Selling on CL is just that simple.

I want to bring up one thing here though, pricing. I've learned invaluable lessons regarding pricing my items for sale on CL or in a garage sale from doing business on CL. It's about worth or value. How much is something worth? Only what someone is willing to pay for it. That's a beautiful thing. If the most I can get for an item is $5, guess what, I'm going to sell it for $5. It doesn't matter how much money I paid to get that item, even if I only bought it to resell it, the fact of the matter is I can only get what people are willing to pay. This has led me into another truth about business.

You make your money when you buy. Occasionally I buy out garage sales and add them to my own, taking some of the greater objects to sell on CL in the mean time. Normally what ends up happening is that I sell the couple large items right away for the price I paid for the whole garage sale or more. By the time my next garage sale comes along, I'm already selling stuff I didn't pay anything for. Then it doesn't matter to me what I sell the stuff for, I will still be operating at 100% profit, and that's good for any business.

You make your money when you buy. If I buy an item for $80 hoping to sell it for $100, that might be a good idea. However, I'm more likely to pass that up or try to ask for less. I'd rather buy something for $20 and sell it for $40. That's the same profit, but the margin is 300% higher and the money I've tied up in it is 25% of the other item. For the same $80 dollars, I could buy 4 $20 items and hopefully sell them for $40 each, netting me $80. If you thought the $20 dollar profit in both examples was the same, it's not. That $20 was 75% cheaper to produce. This should be business 101, not the junk they teach in school.

Oh well, guess I'm off to discover what else I can sell on CL.

I'm back! At least I think so.

Hi. I'm sitting here and thinking, hey, I kinda miss blogging, so I'm determined to get back into the swing of things. But there have been some good things that have happened during my hiatus, so I'm going to tell you about them.

I've always wanted to write. It's one of my few truly creative outlets. So this year I wanted to finish some of my writing projects and get a handle on writing, and I've done just that. I've finished four short stories (Conscious, Perchance To, Garamond... and Wilted) and I'm working on one right now (The Pact - Working Title) and I have the whole story in my mind, so I should be done soon. I've also started three other new projects, though we'll have to see what comes of them, and I've added maybe twenty new original ideas to my notebook for keeping ideas until I use them. Considering that I still have a life and don't get too much time to devote to writing, I think that I've had a pretty productive summer.

There's also been at least one disappointment for my writing. I was going to write for the first time in the superhero genre, and here's the extremely brief treatment for the idea I was going to write. Note, I wrote this about three years ago, but I was going to actually start threshing out a story, well I don't want to get ahead of myself. The next paragraph is copied right out of my notebook, word for word.

Villain treatment where you really get to know a comic-booky villain. They plot and plan and execute, when the hero shows up, busts him up then bails. Everything is from the villain's perspective, and the hero is an anticlimactic agent.

Here, I thought I had a unique perspective on creating a funny superhero story, and then I watched Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. This thing had Neal Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion in it and was written by Joss Whedon! I can't compete with that. As I was working through the details of my story, I had this idea of a hero who is a total tool and really trying to get the reader to identify with the villain, rooting for him to win. The similarities of the story I was thinking of and Dr. Horrible were, well let's just say if I didn't change a lot, I'd look like a plagiarist. It's easier to mark the differences. In my story, there were more than one superhero ruining my guys plans and the girlfriend was more of a henchman character. If I didn't practically idolize Joss Whedon's ability to create and think Neal Patrick Harris was so cool, I'd be kinda ticked. BTW, my working title was "The Hero is a Jerk".

This summer, I've also expanded my online bookstore quite a bit. On 9/29/09, I officially hit the 1000 books in my store mark. This might not seem like a huge accomplishment, but I'm geeked. I'm starting to develop plans for my bookstore, and would really like to bump it up a bit more soon. I'm planning to have about 1100 books mid-October, and maybe around 1250 by the time I put it in vacation mode on 12-1. I hate post offices in December, so I take a month vacation from my bookstore ever year, and this year I think I'm going to extend it until 1-15-10.

One of the last things I've done is scan the pages I've got done for my children's book. I still have about 6 pages to go, and then I'm going to talk to my cousin Sarah about helping me illustrate it when she moves to Michigan later this month.

Still, with all I've done over this summer, I've really kinda missed this, so I'm going to try to blog on a consistent basis again. What I'm thinking is that I'm going to try to get to this blog every Friday, and then if I can, I'll add Monday and if I'm feeling really up to it, I'll throw in a Wednesday too. Hopefully more to come soon.

The Sims

Alright, this is yet another one of those "guilty pleasures" of mine, as this series of games can be so fun. Alright, I've had 3 versions of this game for the PS2 and one for the PC, and invariably I end up spending a lot of time playing these games. Of course there is always the normal way of playing these games, and that's fine, but it's so much more fun to mess with your Sims.

Sims are little simulated humans that are there for you to screw with. They eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, go to work, have fun, have relationships and a ton of other things that regular people do. But unlike us, every move they make is controlled by whoever is playing the game. Also, most of their actions are dependent on some item that you need to buy. Can't eat without food, or have fun without something that is fun. But the best application is to conduct social experiments on your Sims.

First of all, you can do the heinous things that you could never do in real life. For example, I have a serial killer in one of my neighborhoods. All he does is invite his friends to move in with him, and then he starves them by locking them in a room with no doors. You'd think the Sims would be smart enough not to move in with someone who has a well stocked cemetery in their back yard, but they're not.

James Bond lives in my neighborhood too, but all he ever does is swim, drink, and make sweet sweet love to all the ladies in the neighborhood. Neo lives in the hood as well in a trailer, and has terrible wallpaper, and lots of computers. Other than that, he goes to work, and pays his bills, but is just a normal guy, or is he? Then there's the sorority house, with the sorority sisters living there. That one is one I kinda leave running on auto pilot, so it's always a mess and they have great parties. I've got a northern camp resort where people live in a series of buildings: The bunkhouse, the mess hall, the shower house, the clubhouse and a couple outhouses. It's always a hive of scurrying back and forth. Then there's the Minimalists, who have everything they need, but nothing more. They have a very small house, they never get promoted because they don't learn skills, and they only have the items that cover their basic needs. Finally I've got the Outdoorser's, who only have 1 wall and that's just because I can't attach a toilet without one. They live outside and primarily have outdoor items, but they like it that way; it's a very green way to live.

I don't just starve my sims, actually only one of my sims does that, but occasionally I do remove all the toilets, or something sinister like that. It's actually fun to see how they react. Once, in the original game, I built an indoor pool in a room that had a fireplace, and when the fireplace was lit, it caught the surrounding area on fire, including the pool. There were two sims in the pool who caught fire and burnt to death while swimming. That was weird.

One other kinda funny thing to do with your game is if you're married, create yourself and your spouse and try to recreate your house. I did this once, and tried to make the Sims look as much like me and the wife as I could thinking I could get them to have a kid and see if it looked anything like any of my kids. Alas, no such luck. The kid looked really strange, so I made it do all the chores around the house, which I guess that's a little like reality.

Note to my readers

Well, I've missed a few of my regular posts now, and if I do have any actual readers, you might be wondering why. Well I've decided to briefly let you know what's going on.

I like to write. That's one of the reasons that I'm actually keeping a blog right now, but blogging isn't my passion. When it comes to writing, I think it's SF. As a matter of fact I've got quite a few stories floating around in my head, and I want to get them out and on to paper. However, I've met a challenge with this, and I'm trying to conquer it. Time.

All this month I've been very busy, with kids, work, scheduling changes, and all the other unexpected things that happen in life, and my schedule is not liable to change at least until mid-summer, maybe later. I'm getting to the point that I need to back off on something to make everything else fit. So for writing, if I have to make a sacrifice there, this is where it's going to be. My other blog is a one or two a month thing anyway, so that's not much time. However, finding topics for this blog actually require a little research time, and some thought, so I'm going to channel some of that energy into my other writing right now, and go down to maybe 1 post a week for a while here. I'm also going to take about a 1 month hiatus from this blog completely to catch up the other stuff I'm doing before I come back here.

Here's the good news, it's working. I was able to finish a short story very early in the morning on 3/9 that I probably wouldn't have finished nearly as fast if I were still pouring myself into this blog as much. It's not just time, but writing is an effort and it takes something out of you, and if you don't watch it, you find yourself in a mood that the last thing you want to do is write, and I was getting there. My dark little short story however was probably about 3 hours of writing (spread across 9 days when I could find the time) and was some of the most pleasurable writing I've ever done. It went really well, and for the first time, I wasn't stymied for a time trying to figure out how something was going to work. Sure it's only 6000 words, but I'm pleased with the story, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Currently I'm working on about 6 articles, 2 novellas, a few short stories, and one full fledged book. I'm definitely stuck in a few spots, but I'm hoping to get out of some of them this month, and maybe get at least one story and a few articles done, so I don't have so many things hopping around. If so, I'll probably bump these posts up to 1-2 a week instead of just one.

So bye for a while, but see you again either late this month, or early next month.

House

Over the Christmas break last year I picked up the first season of House on DVD, and a couple late night marathon viewing sessions later, I decided that it had been an excellent buy. I'll probably pick up the second and third seasons some time soon and get back to more viewing excellence.

There are two definite phases of house, first team and second team. While I like the characters from the second team alright, and Thirteen is definitely hot, I still tend to lean to the first team more. It seems to me that if you take Foreman out of the equation because he is still there in the second team, Chase and Cameron are more interesting than Kutner, Taub and Thirteen are. It seems that even though there are more story lines about Taub and Thirteen than there were about Chase and Cameron, that doesn't translate into more character development. And Kutner is just kinda boring.

Of course the story is all about diagnosing the mystery illness, and it's done in a way that even though you don't know anything about medicine, it's still interesting. Most of the time House or one of his staff figures out what's happening near the end of the episode, and the patient recovers. In a few episodes, the correct diagnosis isn't a good thing, and the patient dies from some uncurable malady. What I haven't seen yet, and maybe I've just missed it, is where either some test or treatment that House is wrong about kills the patient, or where they get the right diagnosis, but not in time. I guess you could say that the episode where they gave two babies with the same disease two different treatments and one of them died might fit into that, but House had decided that one of the babies had to die anyway to save several other ones, so House wasn't wrong.

House is just one of those newer prime time dramas that I am kinda into. I don't know if it is just because some of the dramas of the past sucked, or that I just am getting older and more mature that I like more of these shows than I used to. I guess it also shows a break from the science fiction I like so much too, but oh well, I don't still do all the things I used to do either.

Bones

I'm going to get a little out of character with this post. Normally I tend to focus on the female cast for reasons I just can't figure out, but not this time. I'm going to go on record right now and say that Emily Deschanel has a major case of five-head going on, and she's just no where near as attractive as her sister Zooey. Also, I really find much of her acting to be wooden and that's saying a lot for a person who is playing a character that is emotionally stunted.

Bones as a show seems to me to work because of the interplay between the two main characters, and I do have to say that most of the character development is very good in this series. However, the main reason that I think this show shines is because of David Boreanaz. He is one of my favorite actors, and I'm always amazed that he is able to portray a character so well.

The character Booth is what makes Bones great. He's a man that just understands man stuff so well without being a jerk. Just an observation, but the way that Brennan is written so that she doesn't understand Booth's motivations is totally spot on for me and a good example of real life. However you put it though, David Boreanaz's Booth is what makes this show.

I know that so many TV shows now are following the scientific crime solving story that it has almost become a genre in itself. CSI, all of them, Bones, Numb3rs, Fringe, 11th Hour, NCIS, and so many other shows all follow some version of this pattern. Bones fits into this science-based crime solving genre quite well, and in some ways that is almost a bad thing, but in this case it's the character development that stands out. I have to say that for the most part, other than the original CSI, it's hard to be interested in the characters of any of the above programs even though I know that the characters are written to be interesting and likable. I just don't think that many of the other shows that are out there really do their character development right. Case in point, when Booth was shot at the end of the last season, I couldn't wait to find out what happened to him, even though I know that without him, there's no show. CSI had this kind of draw with many of their characters.

Now, I will say one thing. Many of the episodes of Bones seem to be cookie-cutter right out of the box story lines, and they are kinda lacking, especially since the Gormagon story arc closed up. This show really needs a season long story arc that can't be wrapped up in in just a few episodes. Still, even after saying that, it's one of the better shows of its genre out there, and it doesn't have to extend itself into pseudo-horrific paranormal exploits to stay entertaining. I don't expect to watch a science/crime story and see all sci-fi just because they both have the word science in them.

Also, I think Sweets is a pretty good character. Just thought I'd add that.

Genealogy

Genealogy is actually something of a sticky subject. There are several ways to investigate genealogy, but accuracy is always questionable. To have any kind of accuracy when researching your genealogy, you have to have primary evidence. Things like first hand accounts of your ancestors that your living relative have met and known, copies of birth, marriage or death certificates, obituaries, or sometimes grave markers. However, getting your hands on this kind of evidence is time consuming and potentially expensive.

Besides first hand accounts there is also the potential for second hand evidence. This could be from biographies that list a primary source, or maybe research that someone else has done that overlaps your own. Second hand evidence can really help flesh out your family tree. You will probably have to gather the first few generations of research yourself, unless you are lucky enough to have a close relative who also has the genealogy bug, but for every generation you go back, you are more likely to find someone who has already done some of the research for you. Because of the near geometric growth of descendants, each generation back potentially increases the number of living descendants for any specific ancestor, increasing the chance that someone out there has already done some of your work for you. God bless those few genealogists out there who actually document their work who you can double check on, but even with a hint of accuracy, it's so much easier to do your own research.

There's actually a genealogical theory that if a person's lineage continues long enough, that person will eventually be the common ancestor of every person alive. Now I know that there are always isolated communities, and that you can't apply a generality to every individual case, but as a generality this theory works really well. What it means for genealogical research is that the farther back you go in your own family tree, if there's information to research, the chances that someone's already done it skyrocket. This theory also means that if you have kids, and your kids have kids, and they have kids that have kids that you will eventually be the progenitor of every human alive.

Best Western

I'm not sure why, but for as long as I can remember, I've always just associated hotels with Best Western. I've had so many bad experiences with hotels in my life that I hardly want to go anywhere anymore. However, I've still never had an issue at a Best Western.

I know that the first hotel I remember staying at as a kid was the Best Western in Pigeon Forge, TN when we visited the Smokey Mountains. Maybe Best Western has some kind of subliminal conditioning for any of it's visitors, or maybe they just run a tight ship, but either way, I know that I've associated good hotels with Best Western as long as I can remember. Oh well, maybe I'm weird.

Girls in Jeans

Maybe I'm being a little too raw or base with this post, but I've decided to post this anyway. I just really like the way girls look in jeans.

There's a couple of reasons for this. First of all jeans are kinda the "in" fashion. They are very comfortable, and I can't really think of any other particular article of clothing that is more patently American. They've been around since the late 19th century and unlike many of the fad fashions that have been all the rage for a few minutes, jeans have lasting appeal.

Second, when it comes to fashion I tend to like simplicity. I've seen some fashion shows on TV, and it seems to me that the more garish an outfit is, the more fashionable it is. Most of what walks down the runway is more humorous than glamorous.

Thirdly, I do like the female form. Maybe it's just me getting old, or maybe more artsy, I don't know, but one of the things I've done over the last few years is try to find a deeper appreciation for art. Art as a whole can be looked as man's attempt to answer the question "why?". There's a depth in art that you are not likely to find many other places, and since the expression of art is so fluid, there are a variety of forms it can take. The ancient sculptors captured something mysterious in their statues, and the object of sculpting was almost invariably the human form. The male form reflects strength and power while the female form embodies grace and elegance. Sure, some of my attraction to the female form is because I'm male, but at the same time I'm also growing into an appreciation that isn't hormone driven as I get older. In an effort to do this, I'm studying Rodin, and so far my favorite pieces are "She Who Used to be the Beautiful Heaulmiere" and "Caryatid Who Has Fallen under Her Stone." These pieces convey a story about a beauty that has been corrupted, but is still there.

Am I saying that a girl wearing a pair of jeans is Rodin material? In a way yes, at least more so than the abominations of the catwalk. When you add the simplicity of jeans to the elegance of the female form, you get a walking breathing form of art where the true beauty isn't on the surface where just anyone can see. Instead there's a hidden mysterious elegance that can only be perceived by someone who is willing to invest a little bit of themselves and dig deeper and see through the story of conformity to the feminine grace that isn't apparent, but nevertheless is still there, lying unseen.

Plus, girls in sweatpants just look frumpy to me.

Calizza

Alright, when you look at this, you might be thinking to yourself, he's blogging about tomato sauce? In all truth, yes I am, but there is a reason, and this is not just any sauce either. I used to work at a Pizza Hut for a couple of years, and it was one of the jobs I really enjoyed. I worked with a great staff, yes even you Monica, and the management were good to work with too. It helps that I eventually became a manager there, and suggested all of my friends who were hired and worked with me. I think I had five of my friends working there with me, which was awesome. However, this post isn't about Pizza Hut, at least not directly.

During the time I worked there, there were four different sauces. I guess normally you don't think about that, but it's true. There was the regular sauce, white sauce, zesty sauce and calizza sauce. Most of what people think about as sauce is just the regular sauce. We used white sauce for an alfredo like pizza that didn't last all that long. That sauce was good, but I think it was so expensive it was eating into the profit margin. Then there is zesty sauce. The Hut uses this on their stuffed crust pizzas; I guess it helps set them apart. But of all the sauces that Pizza Hut used while I worked there, the king was Calizza.

Now the word Calizza is nowhere on the menu. It's only mentioned as Calizza in two places. One is the plackard on the sauce pump in the kitchen, and the other is on the label that comes on the box it is shipped in. If you know Calizza, that means you probably worked at the Hut. The rest of the world knows Calizza sauce as breadstick sauce. You might have assumed that the breadstick sauce was just pizza sauce, but it's not.

When I worked there, one of the perks was a limited amount of free food. During your shift, you could make yourself either a personal pizza, an order of breadsticks, or a dozen wings. I was always more of a wing man, no pun intended, and I'd make wings, or for the occasional bit of variety, I'd cook up a pizza. It was months before I actually got myself an order of breadsticks, though that was what most of the people who worked there ate. When I tried it, I found out why everyone in the joint seemed to be addicted to the breadsticks. It's isn't for the dry breadsticks, it's for the sauce. It's for that wonderful pipping hot spiced sauce.

Now I tried what every person who has ever worked at the Hut for a while has probably also tried. I pumped the hot sauce into a personal pizza and cooked it up. It didn't cook right. Something about the sauce being so hot already screwed up the crust. I learned what to do though. You have to pump the sauce into a cup and let it completely cool, then you can use it to make a really good pizza. It has more water in it than the normal sauce, so you can't use as much of it either, but what a difference it makes.

So are you going to be able to try this yourself? Probably not. The best you can do is probably order some breadsticks and imagine what it would be like.

Maburaho

I've already stated I like anime, and harem anime (named that for the disproportionate number of girls to guys) is one of my favorite types of Seisen. The point of harem anime is to put the characters into humorous situations based on an abnormal competition for the attention of the guy. In this type of anime, the female characters often behave in ways that are normally out of character because of their competition.

Alright, enought of the analysis, here's probably the best complement I can give this series. I actually laughed out loud at this series several times. The humor in this series is actually really funny. I cracked up several times. I'm not going to say I was rolling in the floor, but this series really is funny. Mostly it is from the situational humor, but there are some jokes that are thrown in just for laughs.

The series is centered around Aoi Academy, a school for elite magicians. The main character is Kazuki, who is a powerful magician, but he can only use his magic eight times or he will turn to ash. Because he is so powerful Yuna, Kuriko and Rin are all interested in his genes because he might father the most powerful magician in the world. Even though each of the girls have some major character faults and they chase him unmercifully, he still treats the girls really well, and uses his sparce magic to help or protect the girls.

I don't really want to give away much more than this, but along with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Great Teacher Onizuka, I think Maburaho is one of the best anime's out there.