I FINALLY got to see the series finale for Battlestar Galactica. Now before I tell you how hard it’s been to see it, a little lead up, some of which you know. I read about the first Battlestar Galactica series way before it was ever on the air. I found a great article about John Dykstra and how he was taking the effects skills he learned in Star Wars and was making a TV series with those abilities. I was looking forward to the show well before it aired. Okay, it was the late 1970s, it was cheesy, it was over done, many of the effects shots were re-used over and over, but for me, at that time — well, it was just fantastic. There was a weekly show on the TV with space ships, people that lived on them, effects that made it look real, and stories that took me beyond the here and now. Every week we heard the same tag line at the end, “And so, the last Battlestar, Galactica, leads a rag tag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest for a shining planet called Earth.” After an attack by the Cylons (robots made by man that rebelled), most of the 12 colonies are destroyed, so they find the fabled planet they all came from and find keys to help them find Earth. It ran for one season only and they never found Earth. Well, okay, they did in the really, really, really bad sequel, Galactica 1980, but that was basically an attempt to keep things going and most of us consider it “non-canon” as far as what happened.
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Archive for the ‘Life’ Category
When TV Becomes Art
Sunday, March 29th, 2009Stepping Out or Stepping Up?
Monday, August 11th, 2008
I don’t know whether I was just stepping out or stepping up. I participated in my first dance competition a day or so ago. I went down to Raleigh for a small comp to do seven dances. Apparently that’s a bit unusual — doing that many dances in one’s first comp. At least that’s what some people have told me since then. I guess maybe if someone had told me that earlier, I might stuck with only two or three dances, but we had been practicing eight in comp class and if I had not gone senile with one issue with the basic steps in East Coast swing, I probably would have entered in that as well.
I still don’t know if doing seven dances for your first comp is hard or not. All I know is I did it. I figured I knew the dances so I might as well do them. It wasn’t costing me anything to try them.
Do You Want My Money: A Tale of Two Stores
Friday, October 12th, 2007I make my living from the results of software I’ve written. I have two LCD monitors in front of me and, when I’m working, am often logged into 3-4 computers that could be in different locations in the city or state. When I lose my Internet connection, often I have to stop working. Even if I’m on only my workstation computer, I still need the Internet for reference and other uses. Make no mistake about it: I am a true computer and network geek. On the other hand, I held out for years, avoiding Amazon and eBay. Why? I’d rather support the merchants locally. At one point I had a part time job I loved in a small retail store. I didn’t need the money, but I liked the book store, liked their attitude, and liked helping both the store and the customers. They opened a new branch store in a mall not far from me. Once I was helping two women with a lot of questions and recommending the appropriate books for each question they had. Then I said something about one being discounted. One woman said, “Oh, we wouldn’t get it here. We’d get it on Amazon.” To this day I regret that I didn’t say, “Then see if Amazon is here to help you and patiently answer all your questions in six months. If we’re gone then and you have questions, you’ll know it’s because people bought from them and not us.” I didn’t say it because I didn’t want to prejudice their view of a store I believed in and I didn’t want to hurt the reputation of the owners. Interestingly enough, within six months, that branch store was closed due to lack of sales.
So why would I, a strong supporter of local stores, come within an inch of saying to someone in a store, “That’s okay. I’ll get it on Amazon?”
When It’s Time to Stop Moving Forward
Sunday, October 7th, 2007I’ve been dealing with email before most people ever heard of email, computer networks, or even the Internet. I remember getting emails about the government considering modem taxes before most people knew what a modem was and while some tech people were still making fun of me for using a modem and connecting to networks. Many of the people I know through the Internet are techies. They tend to respond to emails the way I do, with interspersed comments, no HTML formatting or anything else at all fancy. I also have friends I’ve met through the Internet that barely know more than to log on to their computer don’t understand where their computer ends and the Internet starts.
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Things Left Unsaid
Friday, April 6th, 2007It’s been exactly 3 months since Dad died on January 6 of this year. I’ve gone from stunned and with a complete lack of short term memory to feeling like things were okay, then feeling like the loss was even stronger than it was before. Like everyone, I knew one day I would be dealing with my Father’s death and, like everyone who has been through it, I found that no matter what I did to prepare myself for it and whatever I imagined, it was quite different than I expected and that there was no real way to prepare for it.
Spring Is Here in Richmond!
Friday, March 23rd, 2007
This is just a quick post. By now I’m sure some people (if anyone is reading this at all) are beginning to wonder if my life revolves around cars. It doesn’t, but for now, I’m quite involved in the work I’ve done on my new 380SL (the 1985 red one if anyone is having trouble following all this) has taken up a lot of time and, of course, I’m quite excited about such a great find in terms of classic cars (okay, I say classic because I know an antique is at least 25 years old, but I figure I can call a 22 year old car a classic).
I know that all too soon I’ll be back to programming to finish my last major phase of work for my business (still smaller phases, but nothing as intense as what I have looming), so for now, it’s fun to be outside walking or working on a car instead of at the computer. I thought I’d include a picture here of me in the new car, just for fun.
If you haven’t noticed already, the pictures I post are thumbnails. You can click on it for a full sized picture. In this case, you don’t see much in the thumbnail.
I’ve finally got the hard top off and it looks like it’ll stay off for the season now. When I take off the hard top, that’s a sure sign spring is here!
Shall We Dance?
Tuesday, March 6th, 2007I was talking to someone recently about Anna Leonowens. If you don’t recognize the name, think of a bald king calling her “Mrs. Anna” and saying, “Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.” Yes. She was played by Deborah Kerr in The King and I. Of course it’s hard to talk about her without eventually talking about the movie (or play). That led to one of my favorite musical numbers of all time, the Shall We Dance scene. My friend said she’s seen the movie 14 times and thinks of that scene whenever she hears the song. I told her that’s not what it reminds me of and whenever I hear the song I think of something a bit different that is quite a strong memory.
My Father is Now at Peace
Saturday, January 6th, 2007To make a long story short, my Father is now at peace and out of pain.