What In Tarnation?!?!?

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Star Trek Enterprise. This is the last season for Enterprise but at least they are going out on the top of their game. This is especially true in the two part episode In the Mirror, Darkly. The newer writers for the series have gotten serious about continuity in the Trek universe and it really shows in this episode. From TV Tome:

This story, set in an alternate universe, serves as a prequel to the original series episode “Mirror, Mirror” and the subsequent DS9 follow-ups. It is also a sequel to the TOS episode “The Tholian Web,” which features the U.S.S. Defiant vanishing from the 23rd century.

It has been a joy for a Trekker to watch and get all the reference to other parts of the Trek universe, from James Cromwell (who also appeared in Star Trek First Contact) to the appearance of a starship from the Kirk era. They went whole hog and totally redid the opening credits to reflect the evilness of the alternate universe. I think this is the first alternate universe episode that has no interactions between the universes. Good stuff.

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It may be just me, but this season of Survivor and Amazing Race kinda pale in comparison from the previous seasons. Especially Survivor. Watching the same tribe loose again and again and again just isn’t interesting to me. The idea of a tribe of one was kinda interesting but they didn’t stay with that too long. As far as the Amazing Race, the only thing that I really liked about this season was the Brothers (”Don’t do drug and stay in school!”) and Rob and Amber. At least Rob and Amber are still around.

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Sci-fi movies. I saw Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (B+) last night and enjoyed it very much. The middle get a little slow but the humor used in the movie (and Adam’s novel, one of my favorites) is right up my ally. Then there is that little independent movie getting ready to come out… what was the name? Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Despite previous prequel disappointments, I am excited about this one. Even further down the road: Serenity, previously linked to. Based off the excellent series Firefly.

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Google Maps. You know why. Also check out Google Sightseeing with it’s new domain name.

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My “Classic” Movie Project. Since I joined Blockbuster Online, I have decided that I needed to see movies that are generally considered to be classics (using the AFI lists as a guide). Number 20 on AFI’s Greatest American Movies List did not impress me (C-). I’m just not sure I understand Chief’s motivation for doing what he did at the end. This is only one movie however. Up to bat: Unforgiven, Blazing Saddles, and Casablanca.

Class dismissed!

Taking a stupid quiz. Thanks {Bryan}.

Your Score Summary

824
Listed as 10 times your percentage correct.

I think I could have done better.

Class dismissed!

This audio file can’t be real.

It makes me laugh a little bit though.

Class dismissed!

Fall.

That is a long time from now.

I can wait.

But it is going to be hard.

Good thing I have the DVDs.

Class dismissed!

{Bryan} tagged me. I must now play along.

Directions from Bryan’s site:

Ogre here has created a new meme (not that I needed another one) and has been tracking its progress throughout the blogosphere as sort of an unassigned research project… Fascinating stuff, really.

How this works: Immediately following there is a list of a bunch of different occupations. You must select at least 5 of them (feel free to select more). You may add more if you like to your list before you pass it on (after you select 5 of the items as it was passed to you). Each one begins with “If I could be…” Of the 5 you selected, you are to finish each phrase with what you would do as a member of that profession.

Once you’re done you get to tag three people you think will actually respond - and would have a good answer. Oh, and by all means, don’t forget to trackback to this post… and to Ogre’s original post so he can keep tracking the progress of his little creation.

If I could be a scientist…
If I could be a farmer…
If I could be a musician…
If I could be a doctor…
If I could be a painter…
If I could be a gardener…
If I could be a missionary…
If I could be a chef…
If I could be an architect…
If I could be a linguist…
If I could be a psychologist…
If I could be a librarian…
If I could be an athlete…
If I could be a lawyer…
If I could be an innkeeper…
If I could be a professor…
If I could be a writer…
If I could be a llama-rider…
If I could be a bonnie pirate…
If I could be a servicemember…
If I could be a photographer…
If I could be a philanthropist…
If I could be a rap artist…
If I could be a child actor…
If I could be a computer programer…

If I could be a musician… I would be a composer/lyricist. I would write a bunch of really cool songs that would be loved by millions. I would write several musicals that would be smash hits on Broadway and I would score a very hip Requiem Mass.

If I could be a chef… I would have a several restaurants that would focus on different kinds of cuisine. I would have one that had all kinds of fancy and exotic foods but the dishes wouldn’t cost eight bazillion dollars and occasionally I will have specials that would recreate the dishes that were featured on the previous week’s Iron Chef America. I would have a restaurants that would specialize in Italian, Asian and seafood. All my blogging friends would have discounts but I think all the restaurants will be local so you would have to travel a little ways to eat. I would also go up against Iron Chef Bobby Flay and win.

If I could be a professor… I would probably be an education professor and I would require students to cut small things out of construction paper for time consuming projects.

If I could be a lawyer… I actually think I would make a descent lawyer, but I wouldn’t be interested in civil stuff. I would have to be a prosecuting attorney because I would feel dirty being a defense lawyer.

If I could be a llama-rider… I would be looking for a different profession. Not that there is anything wrong with being a llama-rider.

Now for my victims:

• {Michael}
• {Anna} - If she is still alive.
• {Timothy}

Class dismissed!

Just links that I have found that for one reason or another I want to keep around. If they help you, great, if not please ignore. I haven’t explored them so I can’t comment to their quality.

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Class dismissed!

From my inbox:

A visiting minister during the offertory prayer:
“Dear Lord,” he began with arms extended and a rapturous look on his upturned face,”without you we are but dust…”

He would have continued, but at that moment one very obedient little girl (who was listening carefully for a change!) leaned over to her mother and asked quite audibly in her shrill little girl voice,”Mommy, WHAT is butt dust?”

Church was pretty much over at that point…

And another. I will probably be reading this to my class tomorrow. Not sure on its authenticity of it’s claims.

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world. Love him or hate him, he sure hit the nail on the head with this!

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping - they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Class dismissed!

{Bene Diction Blogs On} has a link to a free game created by the World Food Program called Food Force.

Each mission represents a part of the process of delivering food aid to an area in crisis. The final mission shows you how food aid can help people rebuild their lives in the years following a disaster.

The download weighs in at a hefty 202.3 MB. I am currently downloading it, let you know what I think.

Challies has some good things to say about blogging and should be bloggers, especially Christian bloggers, be held accountable.

Kevin has me stumped and it is bothering me.

I enjoyed the first Revenge of the Screen Savers Podcast, I need to download the second. Guess I will download BitTorrent while I am at it.

{Bryan} is taking far too many quizzes. Here is one:

You are ‘programming in QBASIC’. This programming
language (of which the acronym stands for
‘Quick Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic
Instruction Code’), which is so primitive that
it cannot easily be used for any purpose
involving the Internet nor even sound, was
current more than a decade ago.

You are independent, in a good way. When something
which you need cannot be found, you make it
yourself. In writing and in talking with
people, you value clarity and precision; your
friends may not realize how important that is.
When necessary, you are prepared to be a
mediator in conflicts between your friends.
You are very rational, and you think of things
in terms of logic and common sense.
Unfortunately, your emotionally unstable
friends may be put off by your devotion to
logic; they may even accuse you of pedantry and
insensitivity. Your problem is that
programming in QBASIC has been obsolete for a
long time.

What obsolete skill are you?
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Speaking of Torrent. Info about Torrent TV for Mac.

Michael is making up new desserts and breaking company Internet Usage Policy all in the same post!