Everything you want, in the worst possible way.

Galactica Cast 2, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

There's only a vague spoiler below:

Jacob of TWoP wrote those words about Battlestar Galactica - "everything you want in the worst possible way". I've reflected often on this curse, because it comes true OFTEN for us the audience, as well as the characters.

(My favorite silly instance of this curse was when we got to see Lee in a towel in Why We Fight. All the fangirls were begging "More Apollo in a towel, please!!!!" So what does Ron Moore do? We get Lee in a towel during his "distressed at Kara so I'm going to eat everything in site" phase. Aagh! My eyes!)

I mentioned to Nancy this show makes me cry at least once a month and it has set a record by making me cry for the first 3 episodes. The last ep I saw ("The Ties that Bind") made me cry for a character who I was looking forward to watching die. This character's death left me feeling horrible! Everything I want, in the worst possible way.

This character did some stupid, stupid things and got everything dreamed of (in the worst possible way). What a screechy, annoying asshole and right now I am so haunted by this character's end. That was no way to live and that was no way to die.

I'm so scared for everyone on this show I almost don't want to watch.

The Best Way to Travel

cessnamark, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I don't have much time to write as I'm still busy playing catch-up. We're back from a week in Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping over the plane. Really, we had 40 knot headwinds flying to McAlester but it beat driving. We had to stop in Stuttgart, Arkansas to refuel and most of Arkansas is under water.

We had a fine, relaxing time at dad's house. I did absolutely nothing and I think my total TV + computer time all week was less than 2 hours. I read some and ran around after Brenden mostly - his favorite activities involved kicking ant hills, throwing rocks into the pond, and getting rides on the 4-wheelers. He also made oatmeal cookies with Ilu and had ninja fights with his grandpa using balloon swords.

I have a crapload of pictures to post and when I do I'll go into more detail on exactly what we did.

The flight back was much better because we had a 20 to 30 knot tailwind. Our flight there was over 5 hours (including the stop) but the flight back was 2 hours, 47 minutes.

Oh yeah, a big cheer (\o/ \o/ \o/ \o/) for Fox! They renewed The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Short bits

Pig, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Tornadoes took out the Dixie Railway Museum last Friday so our Day out with Thomas on sunday was cancelled. I'm glad Brenden doesn't really understand things well yet because that would have been a headache to explain to him.

These women should never ever have to buy their own beers (or fruity mixed drinks, if that's what they prefer) again: Sgt. leigh Ann Hester and Spec. Monica Linn Brown.

This blog constantly causes me to snort hot coffee out my nose: Bad News Hughes. Too bad he's not writing it any more.

And I wanted to post a link that is some convincing proof that John McCain is a cylon but it's a season 3/4 spoiler so I won't.

We are going to Oklahoma soon for vacation. Yay!

Rant time:

I just wrote a $65,000 check to put on our mortgage. No, it wasn't painful at all. You know why? Because we're saving about $100K in interest.

Jon and I were listening to the Dave Ramsay show the other day and he was talking to a sadly ignorant woman who didn't want to be out of debt. Her husband did (and obviously had talked her into talking to Dave). Dave was patiently explaining to her why sacrificing now would pay off in the future, but her whole argument was that in order to buy things they would have to go right back into debt.

I don't know if she was merely ignorant or just stupid (I hope the former for her husband's sake) because I used to think like she did until I learned to run the numbers. I am going to work HARD with Brenden so he understands terms like 'saving' and 'delaying gratification'. If I had kept every dollar I have paid on interest I would be able to pay cash for real estate on St. John.

Bummer.

Charlton Heston: A Tribute from Mystic Ed, originally uploaded by gaywizard123.

I am glad his suffering has ended - being 84 with Alzheimer's has to suck. I've been a fan of Charlton Heston since I was 10 or 11. I'm amused /annoyed at all the press write-ups that mention him and his affiliation with the NRA but don't mention his work during the Civil Rights movement. Wikipedia touches on some of it. I don't agree with all of his politics but he shouldn't have been smeared and vilified the way he was. He was an old school LIBERAL who grew disenchanted with the direction the country was heading and had the courage to speak up about it. Rest in Peace, sir.
Before I forget,I have one Charlton Heston memory that just skidded through my thoughts: He was on the Mike Douglas show a billion years ago and Mike had him read aloud from a car manual. The idea was that Heston could make anything sound dramatic. It did and it was hilarious.

Back to my regularly scheduled blatherings: I like this quote: Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.

What I'll be Watching:

Dollhouse Woo-hoo! A new science fiction series from Joss Whendon! Plus Tim Minear is aboard and Eliza Dushku stars. (\o/). I'm also pleased to see that Olivia Williams is signed up for a part. She played Bruce Willis' wife in The Sixth Sense. I have always wanted to see her in more but everything else I've seen her in she hasn't really done much. Anyway it's about sekrit agents who get their minds wiped between assignments -basically they are programmed like robots for their jobs. Dushku plays an agent who starts to develop her own personality. Hey, it's Joss Whedon. I'm there.

What I'm Watching:

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life I love Amazon Unboxed but they should really have the titles you can download closed-captioned. Brenden tends to be turned up all the way to 11 just before bedtime and most of the Monty Python fun is when someone goes off on a diatribe. I've seen it before and it's still funny. I was amazed at how young everyone looks.

Speaking of the Meaning of Life:

I'm sorry I'm such a goober - remember I said my love for something can be embarrasingly unconditional. I've been obsessing over this show for the last week or so and thank the GODS Battlestar Galactica Season 4 started Friday so I can start worrying about Kara and Lee again (and Bill, and Laura, and Six, and Athena, and Helo, and Saul, and Anders, and yes, even Gaius). It's a long way to September when we get new episodes of Life.

I'm totally dorking about all the Deadwood alumni that showed up - Robin Wiegert (Calamity Jane) is a cast member; William Sanderson (best known as Larry who had 2 brothers - Darryl and Darryl), Garrett Dillahunt (constantly plays creeps well - was also a creep in 4400 and Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Titus Welliver (is that a great name, or what?) have all guest-starred and all 3 characters would be welcome back. If the casting director manages to snag Timothy Olyphant or Ian McShane for season 2 I might spontaneously combust.

Letter to Brenden Month 34:

jonandb2, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

You were tested by the Hartselle School system, and you actually did well on vocabulary, but you qualify for tutoring on enunciation. I'm relieved to hear that it's not only me who doesn't know what the hell you are saying.

Your behavior the past month has been troublesome - you tend to hit. It's not out of anger or frustration as much as wanting attention. I wish I knew some kids your age, bud. We're thinking about putting you in a day care setting one or two days a week so you can play with other 2 to 3 year olds. The 5 year olds you spend time with of course don't want much to do with you because you aren't as developed as they are. Still, jumping on them when they aren't looking is a no-no. At least they aren't smaller than you, but it's troublesome.

The other thing that is really annoying me is you've been playing me - the night before last you woke up crying and you wouldn't stop. I couldn't tell if you were hurt or having nightmares or what. Jon went and slept on the couch and you slept with me. There were no more tears. Then the next day Devin said you had a good day and were cheerful, etc. but as soon as you came in, you started crying in that fakey way you have when you want something and you wanted to be held. Jon called shenanigans earlier, but I didn't smell the bullshit until then. I knew it was going to be a long night. You cried and cried and cried, but I made you stay in your own room. You finally went to sleep. Crap, I hate it when you play me like that!

On the bright side we've gone out to eat a couple of times and your behavior has been moderately acceptable. I'm so glad it's warming up so we all spend time outside together after work.

Just for Nancy:

Ralph Fiennes, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Hot Nazis are wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong wrong.

Tank Hard

brenden, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

That "tippity tappity tippity tappity" noise you heard yesterday was me doing a happy dance. We sold our private airplane (\o/) to the business. The money is going on the mortgage. I also am happy (\o/ \o/ \o/) because Battlestar Galactica starts season 4 this Friday.

What I'm Watching plus a bonus rant:

Live Free or Die Hard: It's interesting to note how much Bruce Willis has changed over the years - how much he's matured as an actor and aged as a man. This movie is okay but it's further proof that the 80's are over. Action movies are in a low-point on the cycle - a cycle that James Cameron ushered in with his 2 Terminator movies and Aliens, then John McTiernan imitated with Predator, the original Die Hard and Hunt for Red October (which in all fairness is more of a political thriller and his least James Cameron-like movie). McTiernan's career seemed to have imploded with The 13th Warrior (which is a GREAT MOVIE BTW - it's got VIKINGS!) and the remake of ROllerball (which sucked the proverbial ass).

Then Renny Harlin, who is a pale imitation of John McTiernan who is a pale imitation of James Cameron, did Die Hard II and Cliffhanger. He suffered from hubris and made the godawful pirate movie Cutthroat Island and was last seen directing dogs like Manhunters and The Covenant.

Then we won't go into Micheal Bay, who seems to be in a category all by himself in terms of directing hubris but he still wishes he were James Cameron (Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon etc etc etc). He's got enough smarts at least to try to reinvent himself and Transformers was a pretty good kid's movie that also appealed to people who grew up with those toys.

One thing that James Cameron understands that his imitators didn't really get was he knows that action movies tend to exclude women. They either exist to prove that the hero is heterosexual or to be rescued by the hero (in many movies they are both at the same time). In Cameron's movies the woman tends to be the hero. (True Lies is the exception but Jamie Lee Curtis had more to to than your average woman in an Arnold Swarzenegger movie). Cameron understands that in a date situation 80% of the time it's the woman that chooses the movie so he made it a point to try to have something that appealed to them. People can slam Titanic and hate it all they want - that movie appealed to girls and women, especially young girls and they represent an ungodly amount of purchasing power.

So anyways most straight-forward action movies these days are either direct-to-video or they have a strong appeal to women. The Bourne franchise is the only one I can think of that has been kicking box office butt and it has strong women characters and a tortured hero you just want to hug. The other action movies that have succeeded in the late 90's to present day have strong fantasy elements (The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Spider-Man) that succeed with women because the actors appeal to younger women and / or there's an aspect of the story that appeals to them (love beyond the perfunctory heterosexual creds, tortured cute heros you want to hug - actually I don't get the appeal of the gay pirate thing as much but still - there are pirates which are almost as cool as Vikings).

So to get back to what we were discussing, the last Die Hard movie (directed by Len Wiseman who perpetrated the Underworld movies on us) tanked hard but it wasn't really that bad of a movie. It wasn't great, but I bet in the late 80's - mid 90's it would have been box office gold. As I watched it, it just felt kind of flat. Been there, done that, blah. Plus there was just nothing there to appeal to me as a woman. Nothing!

I also watched the first episode of the Showtime show Dexter, about a serial killer who stalks and kills serial killers. Cool premise, but I am beginning to completely hate voice-overs. There's nothing that Dexter said in V.O. that I couldn't have inferred by what was happening on the screen.