Retroactive Continuity and Beverly Hills 90210

WTF

For those who do not know what retroactive continuity is please brush up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retcon

You know what grinds my gears.

For those who have been watching the new and improved 90210 know that something stinks in that part of TV Land.

To be honest, I was an avid watcher of the original Beverly Hills 90210 and it's spinoff Melrose Place. Should we forget that Rob Estes played Kyle McBride on Melrose Place and is now playing some random principal from Kansas who grew up in Beverly Hills. Are we destroying the world of Beverly Hills 90210 for better television.

This is retconning. Taking a world and screwing it up. Now we all know retconning happens. Professional Wrestling is the predisposed harbinger of destroying it's previously established historical data. George Lucas is also a big fan, changing the Star Wars universe and blowing it up. In the end most people go along with change, but not me.

Where is the authenticity within writing. Is it really so hard to keep a consistent stream of words over time.

One of the biggest disappointments was Stephen King's Dark Tower odyssey. For those who do not know The Dark Tower, it is a core seven books with several other books feeding into it. One of these feeder books, Insomnia, had a character named Patrick Danville. Patrick was a kid an he was an artist. The whole ending of Insomnia revolved around the fact that Patrick was going to die saving two men, one of whom must not die. This was a prophecy in the book clearly linking Patrick to the Dark Tower books and a teaser that in the end he would save the gunslinger before he ascended to the fabled Dark Tower. This, sadly, did not happen. He did make an appearance in the final Dark Tower book, however he did not save two men. His only purpose was to "erase" the Crimson King (the antagonist), and he never died.

Stephen King sort of retconned the situation with some early plot devices, but how hard would have it been to create a situation where Patrick Danville would have to save two men. The same with George Lucas, how hard would it have been to shoot a scene showing Yoda on Dagobah with Luke, or Obi wan having interaction with Uncle Owen. Why create something and then not give it your all.

Rob Estes is an easy thing to ignore on 90210, however is it really staying true to the 90210 world?

Nevertheless, the new 90210 is pretty cool.

The ER Incident.

So I am not sure what the hell happened, but last week I found myself in a little pickle. On the way back home from downstate, i started to notice that my neck was hurting. Through last weekend, the pain in my neck got worse and by the time the new week began, I was in considerable pain. I made it to today, and had to go to the doctor. Unfortunatley doctors will not take a rush appointment, so it was on to the ER for me.

The wife picks me up and we are off. The ER was a wonderful place and a great place to people watch.

There were several observations that I made. I made a list below.

People are miserable in the ER
People with neck injuries wait longer than people with substabce abuse problems.
People who have been hit by a car still need to drag their luggage around.
People who are passing kidney stones cry alot.

Just some observations.

BTW-the neck was just strained a little.

So it goes.

The Truth About Kiefer and Jack

I recently became re-introduced to "A Few Good Men', Aaron Sorkin's amazing portrayal of high-level conspiracy within the United States Marine Corp. This play, as well as the movie, is a compelling look at the inner workings of command within our armed forces. The movie is dated (i.e. September 11th would have changed how we viewed code red's in the military, and of course Tom Cruises charisma, however I think the movie is a realistic look at how discipline works within the military,

The one problem, and call this a random observation, is the character usage within the narrative.

Let me create the scene.

LTJG Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) is questioning 1LT Jonathan Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland). The questioning turns to the matter of the code red and whether Jonathan Kendrick ordered said code red. Now Kiefer Sutherland( in an underrated part I might add) handles Tom Cruise brillantly, and parries and jabs without any problem.

Kiefer 1 Tom Cruise 0

Later, Tom Cruise is questioning Col Nathan R Jessep(Jack Nicholson)and giving him the same hard line joust. Tom Cruise manages, through clever dialogue and a heated scene, to break Jack Nicholson into submission.

Tom Cruise 1 Jack Nicholson 0.

Is this a real world scenario? I totally like Kiefer Sutherland and Jack Nicholson, however there is no way that Tom Cruise would be able to break Jack Nicholson in the real world. To be realistic, Jack Nicholson would have jumped out of his seat and would have detroyed Tom Cruise with a round house kick or a well hidden shank. Kiefer on the other hand would never have taken the verbal abuse from Tom Cruise. I imagine that Kiefer would be like his character from that phone booth movie. He would wait while Tom Cruise was out and about and would snipe him from the 30th story of some building. It would be amazing.

Completley Random.

WTF-Sara Palin and the ABC Afterschool Special

It was earlier this morning when this story showed up

http://ochairball.blogspot.com/2008/09/todd-palin-dwi-palins-go-national.html

Of course Mr. Palin having a DWI is hardly an issue-especially when you read this.

http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2008/06/background-on-c.html


Now, news comes from the great town of Wasilla, Alaska that Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been keeping an additonal secret. Her daughter, Bristol is pregnant at the age of 17.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/01/palin.daughter/index.html

Wasn't this vetted in the selection process? Didn't Campaign Manager Rick Davis notice the baby bump? It is amazing to me that this would go unnoticed and that this woman can NOW even be considered to be a viable candidate for the vice presidancy. If you want to creat an image among women in this country about how Sarah Palin=Hillary Clinton, then ask yourself, how many babies did Chelsea have when she was in high school.

This should be expected. in 2006 Mccain voted against an amendment to the Senate's Fiscal Year Budget that would allocate $100 million for the prevention of unintended pregnancies. Now Mccain has a reminder of his failed voting record following him at every event.

Great job Republicans.

So it Goes

My Fantasy Football Draft

Let me just prefice this that I have serious doubts about the status of the league I joined. One of the players took Matt Hasselbeck in Round 1 and Koy Detmer in Round 3...he had Tom Brady, Steven Jackson, and Terrell Owens on the board.

SLOT PLAYER, TEAM POS ACTION OPP STATUS ET PRK PTS AVG LAST PROJ PVO %ST %OWN +/-
QB Brett Favre, NYJ QB @Mia Sun 1:00 7 237 14.8 -- 223 +0 55.9 100.0 +0
RB Frank Gore, SF RB Ari Sun 4:15 10 170 10.6 -- 225 +0 81.0 100.0 +0
RB Michael Turner, Atl RB Det Sun 1:00 75 33 2.1 -- 151 +0 3.1 100.0 +0
RB/WR Tim Hightower, Ari RB @SF Sun 4:15 -- -- -- -- 44 +0 0.0 14.7 +1.4
WR Calvin Johnson, Det WR @Atl Sun 1:00 34 103 6.4 -- 146 +0 41.8 100.0 +0
WR Jerricho Cotchery, NYJ WR @Mia Sun 1:00 25 120 7.5 -- 156 +0 24.5 100.0 +0
TE Kevin Boss, NYG TE Was Thu 7:00 40 22 1.4 -- 64 +0 1.1 50.6 -1.9
D/ST Vikings D/ST, Min D/ST @GB Mon 7:00 5 164 10.3 -- 100 +0 74.3 98.3 -0.2
K Stephen Gostkowski, NE K KC Sun 1:00 3 137 8.6 -- 96 +0 56.3 91.9 -0.7
Bench Empty -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
BENCH WEEK 1 2007 SEASON 2008 PRESEASON
SLOT PLAYER, TEAM POS ACTION OPP STATUS ET PRK PTS AVG LAST PROJ PVO %ST %OWN +/-
Bench Justin Gage, Ten WR Jac Sun 1:00 50 80 5.0 -- 96 +0 3.4 11.0 +1.7
Bench Dominic Rhodes, Ind RB Chi Sun 8:15 71 38 2.4 -- 38 +0 16.2 6.7 +0.6
Bench Leonard Pope, Ari TE @SF Sun 4:15 20 48 3.0 -- 40 +0 2.5 3.4 +0.6
Bench Kyle Orton, Chi QB @Ind Sun 8:15 52 28 1.8 -- 91 +0 1.4 4.0 +0.9
Bench Buccaneers D/ST, TB D/ST @NO Sun 1:00 8 143 8.9 -- 94 +0 48.4 42.8 +0.6
Bench Andre Davis, Hou WR @Pit Sun 1:00 43 89 5.6 -- 32 +0 4.0 1.5 +0.6
Bench Jason Hill, SF WR Ari Sun 4:15 167 0 0.0 -- 81 +0 0.0 0.9 +0


Cotchery and Favre are gonna put up some good numbers

The Best Album Of The 1980's

Believe me this IS the best album of the 1980's

Some people say it is LONDON CALLING-THE CLASH, or some day THE JOSHUA TREE-U2. If you are really a fan, you could probably argue PURPLE RAIN-PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION. Of course these are all great records and always have a spot in any shuffle that I am compiling. To me, though, the best album of the 1980's is none of these, and in fact, my album rarely shows up on any list anywhere. My BEST ALBUM OF THE 1980's is:

RADIO KAOS-Roger Waters

I will let Wikipedia describe the album. It is a concept album but it is describes to me exactly what the 1980's were about.

The concept is based around a 23-year-old disabled man from Wales named Billy.

Billy is confined to a wheelchair and is thought to be mentally a vegetable. However, Billy is highly intelligent but has no way of expressing himself. Billy has a twin brother Benny who is a coal miner. Billy lives with Benny, Molly his wife, and their children. Unfortunately, Benny has lost his job in the mines due to the "market forces". One night, Benny and Billy are out on a pub crawl when they pass a shop full of TV screens broadcasting Margaret Thatcher's "mocking condescension". Benny vents his anger on this shop and steals a cordless phone. Next, in theatrical fashion, Benny poses on a footbridge in protest to the closures; the same night, a taxi driver is killed by a concrete block dropped from a similar bridge. The police question Benny, who hides the phone in Billy's wheelchair. Benny is taken to prison, and Molly, unable to cope, sends Billy to live with his uncle David in L.A.. Billy is gifted and can hear radio waves in his head ("Radio Waves" track 1), so he begins to explore the cordless phone, recognising its similarity to a radio. He experiments with the phone and is able to access computers and speech synthesisers, he learns to speak through them. He calls a radio station in L.A. named Radio KAOS (hence the album title) and tells them of his life story about his brother being in jail ("Me or Him" track 3), about his sister-in-law not being able to cope and sending him to L.A. to live with his uncle Dave ("Sunset Strip" track 5), and about the closures of the mines ("Powers that Be" track 4). Billy eventually hacks in to a military satellite and fools the world in to thinking nuclear ICBMs are about to be detonated at major cities all over the world whilst deactivating the military power to retaliate ("Home" track 6 and "Four Minutes" track 7). The album concludes with a song about how everyone, in thinking they were about to die, realises that the fear and competitiveness peddled by the mass media is much less important than their love for family and the larger community. ("The Tide is Turning" track 8).

The album is dedicated "to all those who find themselves at the violent end of monetarism." This and other moments in the album--such as a segment juxtaposing a Ronald Reagan campaign slogan with clips from an old western TV show and an apparent recorded plea from American hostages not to engage in "heroics" to free them--make Waters' political point of view quite clear.


Thanks to Wikipedia I can copy and paste a good description. To listen to it is remarkable, and take away the ICBM's crushing towards the west coast, you could definitely picture this album today.

So It goes

Amazon Versus B&N Versus Borders Versus Independent Bookseller: The Battle Of Bioteams

Today I went on a journey.

This journey began on foot and soon ended in a train. My journey was the search for a book. This book Ken Thompsons BIOTEAMS was recommended to me by a friend, and was also a part of a featured story in the latest WIRED magazine. Bioteams details the subject of Biomimicry, or in lay terms, the adaptation of natures rules into a corporate business team. An example is the way bee's work and converting that idea into a real world scenario( project management).

I knew this book was going to be hard to find. It was published in January with little fanfare. I wanted to test and see if the reliability of the two major booksellers and one independent bookseller would be as reliable, efficient, and dependable as my favorite site, Amazon.com.

I first visited my local Borders. Borders is what Barnes and Noble would be if it was more user friendly. Walking into Borders there is a readily available computer console where I can search the stacks for my book. I had already done advance research and new that both major bookstores kept them in stock. In a pre-journey ranking I expected my best chance was to find this book at Borders.
Sadly the book was not available. I spoke with a floor attendant and she told me that they would easily be able to order this book for me. She said it would take 7-10 days. I did not accept and moved on.

Barnes and Noble, at least the ones I visit are a complicated experience. Whereas Borders offers easy search on certain computer consoles, and the independent bookseller has better customer service, Barnes and Noble is hardly either. Walking in, it took me a few minutes to find the business books. I was able to find a Star Wars section, a Fiction and Literature section, and a section completely devoted to Winnie Cooper( yes from Wonder Years). Apparently Winnie, being not only my first real crush, also is a mathematician who is helping young people succeed in Math. Amazing. ANYWAYS, Barnes and Noble was a complete bust, however they have an exorbitant amount of Donald Trump books. evidently in-stock research does not take in has-beens on there list.

My final jaunt was to an independent bookseller. It was with little hope that I would find the book i was looking for. Most of the times, the hard to find books will be here, but for me my little book wasn't available. I left with my head down and decided that with this little journey, I could officially say that what we know as the modern bookstore is DEAD.

Online booksellers are the way of the future. Not only will they have the book in stock, they will also offer you used books from people who may share the same taste. They will show you books that fit the same description, and they will continue to be on the cutting edge of technology. Easy search, less coffee smells, and customer service that is a click away. I ordered my book in two clicks. It is now somewhere between Omaha and Des Moines and will be in my hands on Wednesday.

So it goes.