awesome

6 posts

Photo Phriday: What Have You Built?

BTHOB Ags Build the Hell. A-Whoop

Are you crafty? Are you inventive? Are you a builder or a craftsman? Have you ever devoted your life to a project or task that you will always be proud of? For this week’s Photo Phriday show off what you’ve built from the ground up.

That is Student Bonfire from 2008. Student Bonfire is a 501(c)3 corporation that I helped created. It is based off of the Aggie Bonfire that fell in 1999, and it helped me create who I am. I was quoted in an AP article featured in major newspapers around the country (including the New York Times) because of this college project of mine. There are over 1300 people who sacrifice their fall weekends in college to get together and Build The Hell Out of Bonfire. Continue reading →

Random Musings on Brave New Waves, Best Canadian Music Program Ever

There was nothing like BNW for going to sleep by, you’d be lulled nearly to sleep by some lull in a 10 minute long instrumental sound painting only to be woken up violently when the song switched to loud chaotic noise. This happened about once a night or so.  – posted by Space Coyote at 5:40 AM on February 2, 2007

Continue reading →

Take My Love, Take My Land: Firefly Will Always Stand

44 comments

So I got excited this morning when a friend texted a headline from Entertainment Weekly that said, “Firefly Returning to Cable.” Seriously my heart started to flutter, and I couldn’t log on fast enough to see what the deal was. I’m not saying that this is my most fervent entertainment wish, but it would come damn close to the most exciting television news I’ve heard in nearly a decade.


So imagine my disappointment upon reading that Entertainment Weekly‘s breaking news was that the original fourteen episode series is slated to air on the Science Channel. The science channel? Of course there’s a science channel. But what is their interest in Firefly? Well, the channel has acquired the rights and will show the episodes interspersed with segments from renowned physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku, who will talk about the “theoretical science behind the show’s concepts.” Right. What, just what? Now, I’m all for discussing this great, ground-breaking series in almost any means, but to lure us dedicated fans in with a misleading headline that caused a collective gasp across all of nerddom, and not deliver news of some sort of revived series…well, that’s just harsh EW.

Or is it?

Well, if you think about it, any PR for the show is still fantastic! And the fact that the show is still in the hearts and minds of fans, television networks, and even the science community, speaks volumes for its appeal and relevancy. And a kudos from the scientific community isn’t a bad way to keep the dialogue going.


I recently watched a documentary that discussed the making of Star Wars and the lofty ideas of a young George Lucas who was looking to bring something to the screen that had never been seen before scientifically. Many thought that this odd space odyssey would never amount to much, that it would be a box office failure, and Lucas’ audience “just wouldn’t get it.” Well, we know how that turned out. Firefly has often proven itself to be the little show that could do amazing things post-screen. Despite a less than stellar turnout in ratings, and at the box office, there has always been something about Firefly that has drawn more and more fans year after year.  It’s the elaborate world in which it exists. It’s yes, the nostalgic essence of Star Wars and Star Trek, but it is also the original and complex characters and all their complicated, misfit-like, family ties and morals. To say nothing of the inventive dialogue and fun, unpredictable banter. It transcends simple cult classic, it’s more of a cult movement. It’s great that the show is still recognized on such a large scale, and each new iteration on the small screen breathes new life into a once expected to be walking dead series. And in the highest endorsement, after nearly a decade, the main star still feels the same way, and that will always lend itself to never saying never about a revisit to a live action production.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was the part about playing the character?
NATHAN FILLION: It was my favorite job ever. What wasn’t great about it? I got to wear a low-slung holster. I got to ride horses. I got to have a spaceship. I got to act mean and curmudgeonly. [Creator Joss Whedon] is really good at kicking characters in the nuts so the other characters would have laughs at my expense and that was great too.

If Castle had its series finale tomorrow and Fox said to you and Joss: “We screwed up, let’s try doing Firefly again.” Would you do it?
Yes. Yes. I would examine very closely Fox’s reasoning — I’m a little gun-shy. If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.

And, yeah, just because Fillion would strap on the thigh-guns once again if a network came calling doesn’t mean that he has no interest in the business side of things, if we’re to give credence to his off-the-cuff remarks here. The series could do a lot worse than to be captained by, well, the captain. There’s an online effort going on to secure him the rights, right now! As sci-fi site io9 has reported, fans have gathered to try and make sure those rights land in captain Mal’s capable hands website, facebook.


Conversely, some feel that the show is perfect as is, and that a short-lived beloved series and movie is the best way to go out in a blaze of glory, and that actually tinkering with a sequel or new series could sully the original and somehow reduce the goodwill the show has stored. I believe there is a very real fear out there that the show has reached such iconic status that anything following would not do it justice. But since this is Joss Whedon’s world, I think there’s not much in the universe that would make him sell this series short, and if given the chance, he could create an undeniable testament to the original and possibly surpass it in an opus not seen since the release of The Empire Strikes Back, which many believe is the trilogy’s crowning jewel. And what do the networks and movie studios have to lose? It’s not as if there has been a deluge of great sci-fi, especially not on the small screen. Need anyone remind them of what ABC and NBC have offered to the genre? And Hollywood is indeed suffering from “original idea” anemia. (Right now, if Firefly was a successful series in the UK and on the BBC network, the U.S. powers-that-be probably couldn’t wait to adapt it here.)

I’d place my bets on Whedon.

Given the momentum of the series on the small screen, I hope some studio feels the same, because there’s more story to tell, and I am anxiously awaiting its return to the ‘verse.

Update: Commenter BankerHardcore has found out that some very cool Browncoats who work for the California Lottery have sent Nathan Fillion a complimentary $1 free play Mega Millions ticket which he posted on his Twitter account. Awesome! Browncoats unite! Thanks for the tip!

Back to the Island! 5-0 Style!

33 comments

I know you missed my updates from the 50th (and 3rd-Awesomest) state.

I’m sorry!  The holidays and whatnot.  I’d like to say that you didn’t miss much on Hawaii 5-0, but you did.  You missed so much!

But, we can’t go back in time, so we are just going to have to pick up with this week’s lessons about National Security, Fashion, and Shaved Ice.  Don’t worry.  You don’t have to have seen the episode.  This is all about what we can learn about the world around us.  5-0 Style!

Recap!

Fake pirates kidnap rich kids off of a boat and ask for ransom.  5-0 saves the day!

Pirates are Everywhere!

One of the main things I learned this week? Pirates are everywhere.  (It was right there in the header.) Apparently, they are a huge problem in Hawaii.  So huge, in fact, that if you want to kidnap somebody, you should totally just pretend to be a pirate.  Because then you will just blend in with all the other pirates.

(Note:  Apparently it helps if you dump a dead pirate on the deck.  This is very convincing.)

Other things we learn later about real Hawaiian pirates:

  1. They don’t kill people, just rob them.
  2. People who kill people are fake pirates.
  3. HOOYAH is apparently the name for the pirate code of silence. (A real pirate said it during interrogation. This one in particular might come in handy.)
  4. If you have a specific engraving on your watch, the pirate will not pawn your watch, but wear it, just in case he needs an alibi for a kidnapping that occurred at the same time he stole your watch.

(Note:  These things may only apply to Hawaiian pirates.  I make no promises that they will work on other pirates.  If you are near Somalia, you are on your own.)

Nick Lachey’s Lover is Trapped in the Closet!

I hate love hate love! obvious examples of Chekhov’s gun.  You know the old saying “If there is a Nick Lachey in the scene, somebody is going to get shot by the end of the episode.”  Well, at the beginning of this episode:

The only person left on the boat when 5-0 shows up is a super-cute girl that hides in a closet on the main deck. Sorry, do I hear bells ringing in my head?

Her boyfriend who meets her at the dock is Nick Lachey, and they leave together “never to be seen again.”  HOLY SHIT THOSE BELLS ARE LOUD!

(Note: If at this point you predict that she will be the one who has to bring the ransom to the head bad guy at the end, who turns out to be…Nick Lachey (WHAT?!), you have seen television before.)

Technology Rules!

5-0 has a Surface, or whatever those table computers are called that can take an excel spreadsheet and magically turn all the matching squares into neon green blocks with “MATCH!” written in comic sans.  It’s like the world’s most powerful “My First Matching Game!”  But that wasn’t the cool part.

They also take “biometric” mug shots of your eyeballs so they can match your face to people in ski masks that have eyes that look exactly like NICK LACHEY!  But that is not the cool part either.

They also have a button on all police computers that you touch and it “Transfers call to 5-0.”  I’m sorry.  Did I say computer?  I meant computer screen! That was even cooler, but still not the cool part.

McGuffin or McGarble or Tall Guy has an iPhone App that just shows every kind of gun to a witness for identification purposes.  I call it “Gunphone.”

“This one? *swipe* This one? *swipe* This one? *swipe* THIS ONE?!  IT WAS AN AK-47!”

(Note:  She is in on it!  Why is she correctly identifying the gun?!  Also, why do bad guys always use the same gun?  “We matched ballistics to 400 other crimes on that island over there.” Also, couldn’t they have just figured out the type of gun by those exact same ballistics?  Also, what does it matter?!)


*****

Break 1:  Subtle Product Placement Edition:  The families of the missing kids are all staying “at the Hilton.”  Very smooth MacGuffin!
Break 2: Grace Park walks in wearing a red/pink top and green pants.  My wife says “Why does she look like a watermelon?”  I do not say: “Honey, Grace Park never looks like a watermelon.”
Break 3: Have I mentioned that their primary “man on the street” is a sumo-wrestler trainee who runs a shaved ice stand and gets his “intel” from “what I read in the paper.”  5-0 style!

*****


Pawn Shops Suck.  Explode them!

At some point in the episode they needed information from a guy that runs a pawn shop.  I don’t know why.  I don’t care. Something to do with a single golden money clip that tied the entire case together.  Here is what I do know.  Pawn shops are always shady.  Always.  Is there a not shady pawn shop anywhere in the world?  I think that if the guy at the pawn shop won’t help you out you should strap a grenade to the door of his office and then run out the front door.  Fortunately for me, McGrudel agrees.  BOOM!  Maybe you’ll speak to 5-0 now Mr. Shady Pawn Shop Guy.

Sexy Time!

There is always some unnecessarily “sexy” element to 5-0.  This week it was how all the young kidnap victims were being held in a hot cage all half-naked.  They looked like a commercial for Skins or something.  It was totally inappropriate.  Also, hot.  Later in the episode they are trapped in a sweaty school bus.  That was just creepy.

5-0 Don’t Care!

Armed kidnapping in international waters!  Forget the FBI!  Fuck the Coast Guard!  5-0 Don’t Care! State Police Task Force in the HOUSE!

Paying ransom to kidnappers like everybody says you are supposed to?  No fucking way! 5-0 Don’t Care!  We are going in armed and strong.  Paying them will just lead to disaster! One kid’s dad ignored 5-0 and paid their family’s share of the ransom anyway.  When the kidnappers killed a hostage for only paying part of the ransom, guess who they killed?  That’s right punk.  Listen to 5-0 next time! Because 5-0 don’t care! Paying  = disaster!

After the kid died, 5-0 decided to pay up after all.  Changing plans for no reason!?  5-0 Don’t Care!

*****

Break 4: Fight scene in a bar!  (Doesn’t matter why.) (a) Grace Park can jump from the middle of one escalator to another and kick somebody in the face.  (b) A guy named Bobby ran really fast.  His hair looked like it was in a Flock of Seagulls cover band (he did not), and when he ran it started flapping like wings.
Break 5: Survivor Commercial.  A former marine says that the best part of Survivor is no one is shooting at you.  No Mr. Marine, that is the worst part about Survivor.

*****


How Did It End?!

According to the kidnappers, cute-girl-from-the-closet (remember her?) was the only one who could take the ransom to some dirty, sticky, warehouse or dock or whatever, filled with naked-kidnapped-teenagers, BECAUSE SHE IS IN ON IT!  Who else knew that?  That’s right 5-0 did!  The money was just phone books!  Thank goodness we don’t use phone books anymore, so they could just waste them all like that.  “What are we going to fill the bags with?” “I don’t know.  How about all those phone books over there?”

Anyway, BOOM!  POW!  Some disco lights go off or something.  Nick Lachey runs and jumps into a trolley!  McGrawhillber shoots him!  Everybody lives except the kid of the punk-ass dude that did not listen to 5-0.

Moral!

Listen to 5-0!  If you don’t, your kid will die! 5-0 don’t care!

Verdict!

Not enough Scott Caan.

Fartin’ Around with Ruby

2 comments

Hi fans and Dawgz!!  Well, it’s raining today so no rompies 🙁  But here is a picture of me from a few days ago.

We went rompies yesterday and it was awesome!  First, we got there and Codename:Stabby realized that I got into the car naked and did not have on my collar or leash, so we almost had to go home, which was not awesome.  But a nice fit runner lady in the car next to us heard Codename:Stabby’s swears as she looked for the spare leash and gave us a rope which I used as a leash.  Rompie saved!!  On rompies we met a Forest Department guy in a truck and he told me that I am awesome, so that was pretty good.  Then we went back to the car and drove back to town and did some errands and went home.  Then I ate and went to sleep.

All in all it was a good day.  Toes crossed that we get some rompies this weekend!