So we went on vacation...

...and had a pretty good time. We went to Abilene, TX where a good portion of Jenn's family live.
It was a lot of food and a lot of talking and a lot of wondering where Jackson and Joseph had run off to. The kids loved the hotel. We bunked up with Grace and Zane, which was extra fun because we had dueling scream sessions all night. As soon as Zane would finally get to sleep, Joseph would start in. Jackson slept through everything.
On the ride up, somebody told us that the drive would take 8 hours. Because we would have 3 toddlers in the car, we decided to leave at night, and let them sleep through it. So we left about 9:00, figuring that with stops for the potty and food and whatnot, that we'd be there around 6:00 am, and could just go to one of the cousin's houses for breakfast. The problem here is that the drive is actually 6 hours, and I drive fast. So we showed up at 3:00 with nothing to do. We decided to go where you go when there is no place left to go. IHOP. After a pile of eggs and funny face pan-cakes, we decided to call the hotel and see if they would take pity on us, which they did, and let us check in early and get a few hours sleep, which we did.
So. The way back would have to be in the daytime. there was no going around that. I figured we could leave at 9:00, do three hours, stop for lunch and some running around, then the other three hours, putting us home around 5:00, just in time for dinner. Wrong. We had to stop many many more times and for much longer durations because general child craziness, and we didn't roll in until 11:00pm. By that point we were all sick to death of the sight of one another, that we just dumped our stuff in a pile in the garage and went to bed.
Good times.
In other news...
I have gone viral. The animation I made for an interview the paper did with Ira Glass of This American Life fame, has hit the blogs, and made it to Ira's Wikipedea page.
I'm Internet famous.

um... that's about it.

Powers out.

Pop Culture

Star Trek:
So the new Star Trek movie is awesome. I, like a lot of people I know, was iffy on the franchise for a number of reasons. After DS9 ended, Voyager went down hill, and I was unengaged enough by that point from the world of Trek to not take much of an interest in Enterprise. I tried but couldn't make it through season 1.
Also, even though Abrams is a genius, the whole thing had a very Phantom Menace/Superman Returns feel to it. I had a weary optimism.
Then they went and knocked out of the park. Good job. The cast was perfect, the acting on target. The writers deserve kudos for making each character three dimensional and believable. Scotty*, Sulu and Checkov weren't given enough to do, but this story wasn't about them. Hopefully future movies will remedy that.
What this movie got right was something lacking from Trek for 43 years, and lacking from a lot of sci-fi in general.. I don't quite know how to explain it. In the past, every Klingon was a carbon copy of the one standing next him, right down to the outfit. Same with the Romulans, Cardassians, etc... Every race was a stereotype. If an alien race came to Earth, they wouldn't find a whole planet of similar looking people with similar outfits on, who all have the same basic belief system. The writers of this Trek added that element to the alien races in the Trek canon. Even the Vulcans were given depth and breadth, with racism(specism?), ambition and a few new haircuts. The Romulans now have a class system and 4 separate languages. The Orions have slutty sorority girls, though that may be the one that actually extends to the entire race.
This may be a small point, but it opens up infinite possibilities. Suppose not every Klingon wants to die in battle? Suppose some of them want to start a country band? I'm just saying.

The Dollhouse:
A lot of people don't like this show. I like this show. It is so very different from the rest of Joss Wheadon's stuff, but you can still totally tell that it's him. This show should not be cancelled.
A side note: Alan Tudyk is awesome and should really be given a lot more work.

Lost:
I think John IS the Island.


There it is.

-JP


* Pegg was an inspired choice for this role. He's so expressive with his face and with his body movement that once the line does come out, it's more like a punch-line.

Big news from the party boat.

Well, not really big news. Or interesting, really. Nor is it from the party boat.

The news:
1)So Joseph seem to be all better, but has somehow turned into the most accident prone kid ever. I don't really think he all that clumsy or anything, but lately he just seems to be getting knocked around a lot. Yesterday, he was coming over from the couch where Jennifer was sitting, to the chair where I was sitting, and slipped on a copy of Goodnight Moon. He then hit his chin on the coffee table and bit his lip pretty good. Poor guy.

2) Swine flu, Schwine flu. Looks to be about as bad as the bird flu pandemic, which barely left rural China.

3) I started picking up a few shifts at another coffee shop, The Coffee House on Cherry St. The shop is lovely, and they seem like good people. I was hesitant to get back into coffee after so long, but it all came back to me lightening quick. It's easy and I know it by heart and I need to save up for a new car. So come see me. I work nights. Part time. Maybe text me first to see if I'm there. Or not. You should go there anyway, actually. They serve good stuff. The meatloaf sandwich is the poo.

4) They keep cancelling, or are threatening to cancel some really good shows. The ones that make TV tolerable with Idol running around screaming all the time. Chuck, Life, The Unusuals, Castle, Reaper, Kings and several others all might get axed. This in addition to ER, Boston Legal, BSG, and few others ending that were actually supposed to. Seems like fall will be truly all new.
A lot of shows deserve it. I think the world will be a better place when Carlos Mencia no longer has a show.

5) Speaking of... Life on Mars ended after only one season, and I have to say, it had the worst series finale I have ever watched on purpose. (I'm talking to you, Seinfeld!). The original British version was way better, and was way more esoteric. Even the ending had several different possible interpretations. The American version gave us a definite answer, and it sucked. Spoiler: Echoing the "who shot JR? Oh golly nobody because it was all a dream! bullshit, the whole thing was a freaking video game! LAME.

6) We are turning into commune hippies. We have a garden, Jen bakes all our bread now, and she successfully served three children smoothies this morning that contained spinach and cucumber and soy milk. Peace, dude.

7) I find it laughable that after living in Colorado in the '90s and having Blues Traveler crammed down my throat for so long, they now have to play casinos. Bite it, fatty.

8) My computer caught a virus, and destroyed itself. Everything gone. Luckily, most of the family pics were on Flickr or on my work computer. The movies are gone, but I hear you can move music back to the computer from the ipod, so I'll have to mess with that a bit. The shit thing is all the graphics programs that I acquired through "completely legitimate" means. I cannot acquire such programs in such a way now. So I have to save my pennies now, I guess. bummer.

That is all.

-JP