Can't Seem To Sleep

I can’t seem to fall asleep yet.  My wife farrah went on a mini-vacation to Hawaii this morning.  The bed feels a little different, so I’m sure this is why I can’t fall asleep.  Or it might also be that I watched that stupid 20/20 episode tonight called ‘Last Days on Earth’.                

ABC's Last Days On Earth

The show was counting down how the human race will cease to exist.  If you didn’t watch it, here are the seven way that scientist feel how life on Earth will end (from least likely to most likely):

  • #7a - Death of a Star - Gamma Ray Burst: It's something like massive heat from a dying star.  It will rip off the ozone layer and we'd fry.  Nice.
  • #7b - Death of a Star - Black Hole: I learned that we don't necessarily need to worry about our sun turning into a black hole.  But we need to worry about nomadic black holes that wander the galaxy sucking up everything in its path.  Nice (again).
  • #6 - Intelligent Machines - Terminator and HAL come to life.  I'm not too worried.  John Connor will travel back in time to set things right.
  • #5 - Supervolcano - Yellowstone Park becomes one massive exit point for molten lava that needs to expel itself from below the Earth's surface.  Fun for the whole planet.
  • #4 - Asteroid - Well, we've seen this one on film as well.  I guess we discovered a hunk of rock that might come very close to Earth on April 13, 2029.  Depending on how Earth affects the asteroid, it might just hit us when it comes back 7 years later, on April 13, 2036.  Uh, will Bruce Willis be available then to blow the sucker up?
  • #3 - Nuclear War - I guess the fear is that Russia and the USA will still (accidently) duke it out.  I guess there are about 80,000 nuclear war heads still pointed at one another.  Oh, and it will only take 20 of them to do the whole planet in.  Talk about having a surplus.
  • #2 - Plague - Either a flu pandemic, a man-made virus, or something else, scientist feel this is inevitable.   There have been 10 pandemics over the last 300 years.  I guess were due.  I'll need to look at Enoch Choi's PowerPoint presentation on the Pandemic Flu.
  •  #1 - Climate Change - Previously known as global warming.  Climate change is meant to cover all the effects of global warming (storms, floods, heatwaves, etc.)  Of course Al Gore was there to give his two cents about climate change.

Wow, looking over the list, I’m not surprised I can’t sleep!  I need to stop watching television news.

Everyone Wants To Be Jack

It seems that anything with a modicum of success is cloned.  For this entry I’m focusing on the cloning of Jack Bauer.  At least, to me, it seems that is happening this year.  For those of you who don’t know who Jack Bauer is, he is the hero in Fox’s 24.

24 - Season Four

24 - Season Four

I’ll be the first to tell you I didn’t catch onto 24 until last year.  While I was working at Yahoo!, friends in my group would watch and talk 24 for days on end.  Well, I checked out season 1 and 2 - easy when it’s on DVD - and I was hooked.  I then quickly added season 3 and 4 followed in my Netflix queue.  For the two weeks all farrah heard was the theme to 24 on our television screen.

This fall season there seems to be a series of shows that are, in essence, trying to capture the flavor of 24.  Neither of them, however, successed on any scale.

First up is Kidnapped.  I watched this show on DVD.  It seems NBC wanted to release two of its pilots on DVD before the start of the fall season.  The other show on the disc, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, looks very promising.  But I’m writing to talk about Kidnapped.  It stars the guffy likable Jermey Sisto from Six Feet Under as a man who can get retrieve a loved one who has been kidnapped.  Get this: he only charges you if the kidnapped victim comes back alive. Oh, how nice of him.

Kidnapped

Kidnapped

Jeremy must also must deal with the FBI in the form of Delroy Lindo - who is basically playing the same role he did in the movie Ransom.

The parents of the kidnapped victim are played by Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany, both in pretty much wasted roles.  You can see the writers trying to setup the twists-n-turns that will weave there way through the season (Why was he kidnapped?  What’s the wife hiding? What did Jeremy Sisto’s character leave the FBI?  Should I really be watching this show?)  There is no ticket clock on this show, but I’m sure the show is set to resolve itself by season’s end.

Vanished

Vanished

The other kidnapped based show is Fox’s Vanished.  It stars former Queer as Folk actor Gale Harold.  Gale plays an FBI agent with “something to prove”, trying to find the missing wife of a US Senator.  His acting in this show is pretty flat and emotionless.  If he’s supposed to be the tough guy lead, at least exude some charisma, will ya?  I’m not really going to get into this much, as the show is as flat as Kidnapped. The only thing going for this show is it has Ming-Na in it.  Too bad they don’t give her much to do.

I guess I’ll turn off my television and wait until the new season of 24 starts.

QotD: Home Sweet Home

What is your browser's default home page set to?

Submitted by Kelev T. Cat.

Currently, it is set to my web site - Janella.com  I think it's going to be changing soon, since I'm not going to be maintaining that site any longer.  Hmmm....what should I have as my home page now?  Vox, perhaps?

Vox Hunt: Stuck On You

Take a picture of something that someone put a sticker on.

Tiana with stickers on her face

Tiana with Stickers.

Fun with stickers!!!

Give a child a sheet of stickers and they will handle the rest.

Movie Review - Brick

Look, I did what she said with the brick.  I didn't know it was bad, but The Pin's on it now for poor Frisco, and they're playing it all on me.  -- Emily from the movie Brick.

Brick

farrah and I watched this movie last weekend.  I’ve wanted to see it ever since I saw it’s preview during another DVD we watched several months ago.  It looked like classic film noir set in high school. 

It took a while to get into the nuances in the the dialog, but once you got into the rythym it was easy to follow.  In a way it was sort of like watching Trainspotting for the first time, not knowing what is being said.

I enjoyed the movie overall, giving it four stars.  I like the characters and the look of the film.  The pace of the story was spot on, moving from scene to scene at a good clip.  I figure if Sam Spade went to high school, he Brendan, the lead character in the film.

Go add this movie to your Netflix queue (or rent it at Blockbuster if you must).

QotD: The Best Part of Waking Up...

What's your morning beverage of choice?  Coffee, tea, juice?  Homemade or store-bought?
Coffee, and lots of it.  I would prefer a triple grande mocha from Starbucks, if the wallet and waistline would allow.  In its place, I have two cups of the company's coffee before noon.  On the weekend I treat myself to Starbucks.



Coming Clean

Alternate Title:  Simplifying My Social (Networking) Life
 
It looks as if the big web hosting move is done.  I've managed to clean up 1.5 GB of data on the old service, cutting it down to a clean and manageable 512 MB of space on my new web host, TextDrive.  I'll need to manage my space to keep under the 1 GiB.  The limit will keep me clean.
 
Doing the move also made me realize I am so spread out in the social network stuff.  I
enjoy the following sites, as of late, so I think they will stay i the rotation:

  • Flickr - I just love photography, and the social aspect Flickr brings to photography has help me grow.  The users also constantly inspire me to take more photos.

  • Vox - Flickr is to photography as Vox is to blogging, at least to me.  I have been able to read a tremendous amount of talented writing this past month I've been on Vox.  I only wish more of my friends and family would accept invitations I send them.

  • Last.fm - This site and service has opened me up to other music artists that I had not discovered or that I would not enjoy.

  • Yelp - Whenever I'm unsure of where to eat, Yelp has always pointed the way.  I need to contribute more to this site that has given me so many new places to eat.

  • Janella.com - I still will post, though less frequently, to the web site that started it all for me.  I think I'll be trying more HTML / CSS / whatever-language-you-choose on the site, but I don't think I will every abandon the site.

  • Linkedin - You never know when you or someone you know is looking for another job.

What falls by the wayside?

  • Mog - They tried to be a competing service to Last.fm.  But slight slowness and the lack of anything different has left indifferent to their offerings.

  • Yahoo! 360 - The promising power of Yahoo!  But for some reason, follow-up features are lacking.  Adding a RSS feed from Janella.com is the only thing keeping this blog updated.

  • 43 Things - A list of things to do that I never completed. I'm not too good with lists.

  • LiveJournal - Besides keeping up with my friends on LiveJournal, my blog there has only served as a mirroring service to Janella.com.  I think posting the same content to one blog is enough, right?

I'm sure I have signed up for some other services, but I can't remember any of them right now.  I know there is a MySpace, a Friendster, and Multiply account out there some where.  I'm glad they are all free.  Imagine paying for all of those services I don't use.

QotD: My Intro to the Big Screen

What was the first movie you remember seeing in a movie theater?
Question submitted by mainmor.

Star Wars. At least it was only known as Star Wars back then. I would go with my older sister to work on the weekends. She worked at Liberty House in San Antonio Shopping Center, which was located across the street from the Old Mill Six theaters. I would wander the shopping center — yes, all by myself — as she put in her 6 to 8 hour work day. If I went to work with her, I had to be willing to occupy myself the whole day.

There are only so many times you can go to the San Antonio Hobby Shop or to the bookstore, and so, I would cross the street and go to the Old Mill Six theaters. I still remember the first scene: the music, the scrolling words, the laser fire, the smoke, and Darth Vader.

QotD: Baby Love

How cute were you as a baby/child? Let's see those baby pics!

  <img src="http://www.janella.com.php54-2.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/img1.jpg" alt="" />

Yeah, I had to have these photos for our wedding slideshow.  I should really post farrah’s photos as well.  I mean, it would only be fair, right?