Seen here is James, pushing the salt and pepper shakers around the table saying, “Exterminate! Exterminate!â€
Hereafter, these shall be known as Dalek Salt and Dalek Pepper, the Cult of Spice.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who, Dr Who, Family, Kids
After reading the info on the American IT Crowd, I foolishly decided to look at the premise of the other shows for NBC this season… it’s enough to make the blood curdle (These are also all from zap2it):
PREMISE
Struggling to make ends meet as a bartender while serving as a surrogate mom to her teenage sister, Jaime Sommers figures that her life couldn’t get any more difficult. She is terribly, terribly wrong. Nearly killed in a horrifying car accident, Jamie is saved by a cutting-edge operation — performed by her boyfriend, Will — that leaves her with extraordinary new strength, among other artificially enhanced gifts. Now, however, Jamie must figure out how best to utilize her new abilities while embracing her new bionic identity. Jonas is Will’s boss, while Ruth is Jonas’ second-in-command and Jae is the specialized operations leader.PREMISE
You know all those warnings about never opening an e-mail if you don’t know who sent it? Computer geek Chuck Bartowski learns that lesson the hard way when he opens an e-mail that has been subliminally encoded with vital government secrets, triggering a massive download of critical information into his brain. With assassins and international terrorists eager to nab Chuck’s noggin, it falls to Maj. John Casey and his partner, CIA agent Sarah Walker, to protect the U.S. Government’s newest and most unlikely secret agent. At least Chuck can rely on best buddy Morgan and his understanding sister, ElliePREMISE
Commuting takes on a whole new meaning for San Francisco newspaper reporter Dan Vasser, who unexpectedly finds himself traveling through time to change people’s lives. That’s the good news. The bad news is, he has to explain these sudden and unpredictable disappearances to his family and colleagues — and finding himself reunited with a long-lost fiancee can’t be good for his marriage. Or can it?
I shan’t even bother to mention “The Singing Bee†a reality-TV Karaoke program.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Television, Video
Zap2it.com => NBC’s New Shows for the 2007-08 Season: The IT Crowd
I’m still very dubious about the American IT Crowd, but my fears about the casting being completely off-base are at least 1/3 unfounded. Richard Ayoade (The original UK Moss) has been cast in the American version (presumably as Moss.)
I just hope he doesn’t try to put on an American accent, alà Daleks in Manhattan.
Here’s what we know, from Zap2it:
The IT Crowd
Midseason comedyPremise: A group of IT workers deals with the daily humiliations of their jobs and a new, tech-averse boss. Based on a British series of the same name.
First Impressions: NBC didn’t show a preview of the show.
Stars: Joel McHale (“The Soupâ€), Jessica St. Clair (“For Your Considerationâ€), Richard Ayoade (the British “IT Crowdâ€), Rocky Carroll (“Invasionâ€)
Studio: NBC Universal TV, FremantleMedia North America
Producers: Joe Port (“Just Shoot Meâ€), Moses Port (“Just Shoot Meâ€), Joe Wiseman (“Mad About Youâ€), David Guarascio (“Mad About Youâ€), Gail Mancuso, Graham Lineman, Steve Tao
“No preview†is often not a good sign.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Television, UK, Video
Be the master of your own destiny and find out about Harold Saxon at VoteSaxon.org.uk or check out his MySpace profile.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who, Dr Who, Television, UK, Video
I’ve been digging through the old archives and found this, my December 1988 review of the Sylvester McCoy story, The Happiness Patrol, published originally in the TARDIS Index File. I’ve resisted the urge to edit it.
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The View from Taiwan => A Pinch of Fate
Never let it be said that I passed up an opportunity to mock another culture…
Every time I pinch my wife’s cute little nose she says, “Don’t! My nose will get longer!†Never mind that she’s a college graduate with an above average intelligence, this is one of the weird cultural things around our house I just don’t understand.
Now it’s beginning to make sense… link, with picture.
There’s a strong Taiwanese folk belief that the shape of the nose can be changed simply by pinching it. In local society a long straight nose is preferred, with the result that the childhoods of many local women saw periodic torture with clothespins and other devices to lengthen out a beautiful pug nose. Like my wife.
Here an intrepid company has capitalized on this belief by offering a specialized nose pincher, a “nose lengthener.†The original price was $250, but it’s on special for $199. Use just 5-10 minutes per day, while driving, reading, watching TV… Very convenient! And you can use it with any nose.
After the devastatingly cold winter freeze we had, both Michelle and James’ trees appeared to have been wiped out.
Recently, though, Michelle’s tree has been showing a strong surge of new growth.
I’ve tried pruning some of the old, dead branches off and am really unsure if I should finish cleaning up the top area. These particular trees is a ficus nitida (Indian Laurel Fig) and apparently, all I can do it wait for spring (it’s here, yeah!) and see which branches can spring forth new growth.
James’ tree, on the other hand, is only showing a few leaves forming on the main trunk. Maybe, just maybe, some of those can turn into new branches.
Technorati Tags: Blog
With our upcoming trip to Taiwan planned for June, I decided it was time to upgrade our secondary camera.
Normally I use my Canon DSLR for most of my photography, but that’s just not always convenient to haul around. Chu-Wan’s got our old Sony Cybershot, which is a lot more portable, but it’s now 6 years old and beginning to wear out.
Based on a lot of reading on Steve’s Digicams I decided that a Canon SD600 was a good fit for us. Very small, decent picture quality and, most important, fast on startup. I can’t tell you how many pictures we missed because of the slow startup on the Sony. (My Canon, like most DSLRs, has a near instantaneous startup.)
Just as I was getting ready to order it, the next generation, the SD1000 came out and since it was basically the same camera with slightly higher megapixels, higher ISO capability and some other technological improvements (for roughly the same price) I decided to go with it.
I ordered it on the 14th from Amazon.com and was amazed that it shipped the same day.
So here’s the problem, I’m tracking the package and this is what I get:
Shipment Date: April 14, 2007
Destination: PHOENIX, AZ, USA
Estimated Arrival: May 2, 2007
It shipped from Wilmington OH. Google says thats 1,893 miles by road and can be driven in 1 day, 3 hours.
DHL will apparently take 18 days.
That’s 105 miles per day.
I’ve ridden further in a single day on a bicycle. That’s slower than the Pony Express back in 1860.
I’m glad I didn’t wait until May to order this, it might not arrive before we left the country.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Commentary
Life on Mars is gone. The final episode aired this week.
It’s past 2 in the morning and I’m wide wake. I’m wide awake partly because of how disturbed I am about the final episode. I did not like it and I will say no more about it so as not to spoil it for anyone else.
Perhaps we could say it is a credit to the writers that they have been able to produce a compelling drama series that could both draw me in and, ultimately, deeply disturb me.
While the adventures of Sam Tyler in 1973 have come to an end, immediately after the airing of the final episode, this BBC press release announces a sequel series, Ashes to Ashes starring Philip Glenister as DCI Gene Hunt, now transplanted to the 1980s in London.
I’m already questioning how they’re going to end this one.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Television, UK, Video
After a particularly short battery-run on my MacBook monday morning, I decided that there was nothing left but a call to AppleCare. Surely they’d replace my faulty battery.
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