Come gather 'round, if ye be brave of heart,
A tale of dreadful woe have I to tell:
On Thursday morn my tragic tale did start,
When coliforms were found inside our well.
They may have been there months, admittedly--
What that entails I feel no need to spell.
But so they stopped our well immediately
Bacteria from the water to expel.
Yet Tuesday, and again on Friday morn
We heard that still our water was unwell.
A three-fold plague have we, so I must warn
That drought can cause a people to rebel.
Oh fie, oh spite! There will be hell to pay
Unless that cursed well gets well, I say.
There are very few things that have ever inspired me to write a sonnet, since I have no talent as a poet and thus generally the world is better off if I don't attempt such a feat (my last sonnet was for a dumb AP U.S. History project where we had to write a Valentine to an American historical figure of our choosing; a sonnet was certainly not required, but once the line Shall I compare thee to Calhoun or Clay? drifted into my little brain, I had to see it through and write an entire love sonnet to Daniel Webster). Anyway, the building that I live in has been without full use of water for over a week now since testing positive for coliform bacteria last Thursday (not fecal coliform, for those who know the difference; for those who don't, fecal coliform bacteria are generally from human waste and accompanied by other fecal stuff that's gross and makes you sick, whereas non-fecal coliform bacteria are just, well, bacteria, a fact which is supposed to be reassuring). They've chlorinated the well three times now, and hopefully we'll find over the weekend that the third time's the charm. The second time the well tested positive for the bacteria, I sent an email to the other residents of the building with a mere Oh fie, oh spite, oh hell! Is it too much/ To ask that our poor well again be well? But the third time the test came back positive, I felt an entire sonnet was in order to express my full frustration. Hence the sorry excuse for a sonnet you see above.
The water situation is a little case of "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone." I mean, I already knew that I use water a lot, but washing dishes and my face with bottled water is getting really old, as is trekking to another building to take a shower. We were told we couldn't even flush toilets during the 24-hour chlorination process so as not to disturb the system. This third chlorination had better work. I've already written a sonnet; I don't know where to go from there if we get a fourth positive coliform reading. Epic poetry?
> Update 10/24/08:
Rejoice, dear friends, rejoice! Go forth and tell
The news that once again our well is well.
> Update 11/4/08: Our well has tested positive for bacteria, yet again. They may need to dig a new well or something serious. All I have left to say is
FRAK!
> Update 11/18/08:
Well, the well has tested negative again. And this time it's going to work. Really.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Mysterious Messages from Another Time
Life at the lab is generally pretty low key, same old-same old, but I had a little bit of excitement in the office yesterday. First, a little (not particularly essential) back story: I worked at the lab at which I currently work two summers ago as a (paid) REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) intern. Now I'm back, but there was significant time in between when I worked as an intern and when I got my current job here.
Thursday around noon I'm sitting at my desk minding my own business when one of my office-mates comes over from the printer (he's just printed out a few things himself) and hands me a sheet of paper, saying, "This just printed out--you don't want to lose it." It's a boarding pass with my name on it for a Southwest Airlines flight. The thing is, I'm not planning on any trips at this point--plane, train, or otherwise. I look at the time stamp at the bottom of the page: 8/12/2006 2:45 PM. *Cue Twilight Zone song.* It's the boarding pass for my flight home at the end of my REU. I remember the flight quite well. It was mere days after the London airport terrorism scare, before they decided on what new liquid regulations they would use for carry-ons, so for that flight we couldn't bring anything remotely liquidy. I remember discovering, while already on the plane, that I had a chocolate caramel (Hershey's Nugget) in my purse and fretting that if someone saw it, it could possibly get me thrown off the plane. I'm serious: they weren't allowing chapstick or deodorant, so a bit of caramel in the middle of a chocolate could have been fair game for an arrest.
But why did the printer decide to print this boarding pass just now? This printer has completed hundreds of jobs, printed out thousands of sheets in between when I told it to print the boarding pass and now. The website from which I printed the boarding pass is gone and the email account from which I would have accessed the boarding pass is even gone, so it must have been caught in the printer. For two years. It makes me wonder what else the printer is hiding in its little printer brain. And what was the meaning of this strange blast from the past?
The answer didn't come to me until this morning. It's so obvious! How could I be so dumb? The printer was caught in a time anomaly. While my 8/12/2006 self could send something to print out on 10/2/2008, maybe my 10/2/2008 self could send something to print out for my 8/12/2006 self! When I got to work, I quickly typed up a letter to my(2006)self:
10/3/08
Dear [Eleni],
I just got the boarding pass for your flight home from your REU summer internship (which you printed on 8/12/06). I remember that flight quite well. Some info and advice for you:
I then rattled off a list of advice for myself (-Don't wait to take the GRE; -Be very careful to observe all driving laws on October 30, 2006; -A close friend will ask you out this fall, so think of a tactful way to turn him down; etc.). I also tried to think of important events that it would be helpful to know about (bad things that I could possibly prevent, like Kyle Chandler on Early Edition). All that came to me at the time was: 1) The stock market crashing, 2) the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and 3) Heath Ledger's death. So, I wasn't going to spend that much time on the note because one, the time anomaly wouldn't last long--it could have already closed!--and two, I had a meeting with my PI* that morning and needed to get a bunch done before then. Still, it's kind of a sad, sparse little list I came up with.
What should have I included? What would you say if you could write a letter to yourself two years ago? Keep in mind that world-changing information is dangerous in time-bending circumstances (Peter Petrelli has beaten that message to death by now). Even little changes can make a big difference--perhaps by telling my(2006)self how to avoid a small driving infraction, I(2008) am leading my(2006)self to a huge deadly car crash down the road that my(original 2006) infraction helped me avoid. And that's not the only danger of sending this message back in time. How do I know I'd be the person to receive the letter? Assuming that the anomaly, as long as it is in existence, moves through time at the same rate that we move through time, I(2006) wouldn't have even been there a day later on the morning of 8/13/2006 to receive the letter that I(2008)'m sending to the printer on Friday morning, the day after receiving the boarding pass, since I(2006) would already be on my way to the airport. Even not assuming this anomaly-moving-through-time rule, I would still have no way to know who would receive my letter. It could fall into the wrong hands--I could have given an evil villain everything he needed to... well... not prevent a few bad things from happening? I guess he could pull out of the stock market before things get really bad and thus retain the funds he needs to pull off some nefarious plan. And all because of me.
In any case, when I hit print, the letter promptly printed out of the printer, in the 10/3/2008 present. Disappointingly, it seems I missed the time anomaly. Obviously I should have thought of this yesterday, immediately after I had received the boarding pass, when there was a better chance of the anomaly still being open. Though... that boarding pass did successfully print in 2006 (seeing as I was able to board my flight) as well as in 2008. While it is most likely that I tried to print it once and when it didn't work (until two years later) I tried to print it again and it printed immediately, it is possible that I only told it to print once and it printed the boarding pass in both 2006 and 2008, in which case it is also possible my(2008) letter printed in both 2008 and 2006. As far as I can tell, the outcome of the future (that is, the present) hasn't changed yet, but maybe any changes will be in an alternate dimension--an alternate version of 2008. One can always dream.
Really though, I'm quite sure that the time anomaly in the printer was open for only a brief period yesterday and was thus closed before I thought to print the letter to my 2006 self. Now the printer is back to printing only in the present. Anomaly closed. Chance missed. But I will save the boarding pass, and the letter, as mementos of this amusing technological, if not mystical temporal, anomaly.
*Principle Investigator (as in PhD-holding scientist leading a research group, the sort of friendlier term people use here for "boss"), not Private Investigator.
Thursday around noon I'm sitting at my desk minding my own business when one of my office-mates comes over from the printer (he's just printed out a few things himself) and hands me a sheet of paper, saying, "This just printed out--you don't want to lose it." It's a boarding pass with my name on it for a Southwest Airlines flight. The thing is, I'm not planning on any trips at this point--plane, train, or otherwise. I look at the time stamp at the bottom of the page: 8/12/2006 2:45 PM. *Cue Twilight Zone song.* It's the boarding pass for my flight home at the end of my REU. I remember the flight quite well. It was mere days after the London airport terrorism scare, before they decided on what new liquid regulations they would use for carry-ons, so for that flight we couldn't bring anything remotely liquidy. I remember discovering, while already on the plane, that I had a chocolate caramel (Hershey's Nugget) in my purse and fretting that if someone saw it, it could possibly get me thrown off the plane. I'm serious: they weren't allowing chapstick or deodorant, so a bit of caramel in the middle of a chocolate could have been fair game for an arrest.
But why did the printer decide to print this boarding pass just now? This printer has completed hundreds of jobs, printed out thousands of sheets in between when I told it to print the boarding pass and now. The website from which I printed the boarding pass is gone and the email account from which I would have accessed the boarding pass is even gone, so it must have been caught in the printer. For two years. It makes me wonder what else the printer is hiding in its little printer brain. And what was the meaning of this strange blast from the past?
The answer didn't come to me until this morning. It's so obvious! How could I be so dumb? The printer was caught in a time anomaly. While my 8/12/2006 self could send something to print out on 10/2/2008, maybe my 10/2/2008 self could send something to print out for my 8/12/2006 self! When I got to work, I quickly typed up a letter to my(2006)self:
10/3/08
Dear [Eleni],
I just got the boarding pass for your flight home from your REU summer internship (which you printed on 8/12/06). I remember that flight quite well. Some info and advice for you:
I then rattled off a list of advice for myself (-Don't wait to take the GRE; -Be very careful to observe all driving laws on October 30, 2006; -A close friend will ask you out this fall, so think of a tactful way to turn him down; etc.). I also tried to think of important events that it would be helpful to know about (bad things that I could possibly prevent, like Kyle Chandler on Early Edition). All that came to me at the time was: 1) The stock market crashing, 2) the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and 3) Heath Ledger's death. So, I wasn't going to spend that much time on the note because one, the time anomaly wouldn't last long--it could have already closed!--and two, I had a meeting with my PI* that morning and needed to get a bunch done before then. Still, it's kind of a sad, sparse little list I came up with.
What should have I included? What would you say if you could write a letter to yourself two years ago? Keep in mind that world-changing information is dangerous in time-bending circumstances (Peter Petrelli has beaten that message to death by now). Even little changes can make a big difference--perhaps by telling my(2006)self how to avoid a small driving infraction, I(2008) am leading my(2006)self to a huge deadly car crash down the road that my(original 2006) infraction helped me avoid. And that's not the only danger of sending this message back in time. How do I know I'd be the person to receive the letter? Assuming that the anomaly, as long as it is in existence, moves through time at the same rate that we move through time, I(2006) wouldn't have even been there a day later on the morning of 8/13/2006 to receive the letter that I(2008)'m sending to the printer on Friday morning, the day after receiving the boarding pass, since I(2006) would already be on my way to the airport. Even not assuming this anomaly-moving-through-time rule, I would still have no way to know who would receive my letter. It could fall into the wrong hands--I could have given an evil villain everything he needed to... well... not prevent a few bad things from happening? I guess he could pull out of the stock market before things get really bad and thus retain the funds he needs to pull off some nefarious plan. And all because of me.
In any case, when I hit print, the letter promptly printed out of the printer, in the 10/3/2008 present. Disappointingly, it seems I missed the time anomaly. Obviously I should have thought of this yesterday, immediately after I had received the boarding pass, when there was a better chance of the anomaly still being open. Though... that boarding pass did successfully print in 2006 (seeing as I was able to board my flight) as well as in 2008. While it is most likely that I tried to print it once and when it didn't work (until two years later) I tried to print it again and it printed immediately, it is possible that I only told it to print once and it printed the boarding pass in both 2006 and 2008, in which case it is also possible my(2008) letter printed in both 2008 and 2006. As far as I can tell, the outcome of the future (that is, the present) hasn't changed yet, but maybe any changes will be in an alternate dimension--an alternate version of 2008. One can always dream.
Really though, I'm quite sure that the time anomaly in the printer was open for only a brief period yesterday and was thus closed before I thought to print the letter to my 2006 self. Now the printer is back to printing only in the present. Anomaly closed. Chance missed. But I will save the boarding pass, and the letter, as mementos of this amusing technological, if not mystical temporal, anomaly.
*Principle Investigator (as in PhD-holding scientist leading a research group, the sort of friendlier term people use here for "boss"), not Private Investigator.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Fleeting members, Graysons, Sonic, and Pushing Daisies
My thoughts on assorted news from this week in the entertainment industry:
I am not a fan of reality shows. Correction--I have an intense distaste for reality shows on principle. Some of them, such as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, do great things, but I still think they exploit people's misfortunes and emotions. And I actually watched about half of one season of Beauty and the Geek because Dave the Larper and Jasmine the Babysitter were really adorable. But all other seasons of that show and every other reality show are pretty trashy TV. So the fact that Survivor: Gabon (Survivor is still on??) has experienced an unfortunate "wardrobe malfunction" and has gotten CBS into a little trouble does not particularly concern me. But I do give the show and this wardrobe situation credit for inspiring the following quote, brought to you by the Parents Television Council: "The number of 'fleeting' penises we expect to see on broadcast television is zero." (IMDb)
The CW has picked up a new DC-based series to be called "The Graysons" about the young Dick Grayson (and presumably his family) before he became the first of Batman's sidekicks known as Robin (Variety). It's basically supposed to be for Robin what Smallville is for Superman. My only question is, well... Clark Kent is (basically) the last of an alien race living on Earth with superpowers that he uses when he must to fight baddies without arousing suspicion. So while Smallville is about how Clark copes with life as a teenager/young adult with these secret abilities, The Graysons will be about Dick Grayson coping with life as... a normal kid? Or, at best, a kid growing up in the circus. A show about a kid in an acrobat family could work, but the point here is to make a show about Robin. The executive producers say they've come up with an original take on the character, so we'll see what they put together.
> Update 11/7/08: The CW has apparently scrapped plans for The Graysons (Variety)
I have just learned about the new Sonic the Hedgehog game for the Nintendo DS (Variety). It caught my attention because it's a BioWare game, and as I have made known through previous posts, most of my favorite games are by BioWare. But as for this Sonic game... I think I must be getting old. Firstly, I'm not going to play this game because I don't have a Nintendo DS and I don't expect ever to get one. I don't know what the deal is with that touch screen--why should any game need more than one screen? Does a person have two separate fields of vision? No. Secondly, hearing the phrase "Sonic on the Nintendo...", I just have to shake my head; it triggers in me almost the same reaction I would have seeing Iron Man in the Justice League (*shudders*). Back in the day, Sega was a top competitor of Nintendo--the day of the Genesis vs. the Super Nintendo. My family was in the Genesis party, and we had a lot of fun with it, but as later generations of consoles came out, the Saturn and Dreamcast disappeared under the N64 and PlayStation's success, thus leading to Sega's demise as a console-maker. But in the height of my console days, Sonic was for Sega and Mario was for Nintendo, and Sonic had not one but two TV shows. That sassy Sonic with his love for chili-dogs has been reduced to an adopted Nintendo tag-along makes me a little wistful. At least he's getting some BioWare respect.
Now here's the good news: Fringe has received a full season order from Fox (Variety). It had me worried after its not-weak-but-not-strong premiere, but when the following week it had ratings-champ House as a lead-in, its audience increased significantly and it has now been receiving fairly strong ratings, particularly compared to other new shows which have overall failed to impress audiences. Fringe can be a little icky (and I can put up with a lot of ick), but I'm looking forward to seeing where they take the show. The bad news: Pushing Daisies's season premiere on Wednesday ranked fourth in its hour with less than half the audience that tuned in for the series premiere last year, getting a sad 4.3/7 with 2.0/6 in the demo (Variety, IMDb). This was the show whose return I had been most anticipating, especially since there haven't been any new episodes since the winter because of the writers' strike. I guess for other people, the long hiatus just weaned them of the show. *Sniffle.* This is a wonderful, delightful, whimsical, quirky, hilarious, lovable show. Help save Pushing Daisies! Watch the show! ABC Wednesdays at 8/7c.
I am not a fan of reality shows. Correction--I have an intense distaste for reality shows on principle. Some of them, such as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, do great things, but I still think they exploit people's misfortunes and emotions. And I actually watched about half of one season of Beauty and the Geek because Dave the Larper and Jasmine the Babysitter were really adorable. But all other seasons of that show and every other reality show are pretty trashy TV. So the fact that Survivor: Gabon (Survivor is still on??) has experienced an unfortunate "wardrobe malfunction" and has gotten CBS into a little trouble does not particularly concern me. But I do give the show and this wardrobe situation credit for inspiring the following quote, brought to you by the Parents Television Council: "The number of 'fleeting' penises we expect to see on broadcast television is zero." (IMDb)
The CW has picked up a new DC-based series to be called "The Graysons" about the young Dick Grayson (and presumably his family) before he became the first of Batman's sidekicks known as Robin (Variety). It's basically supposed to be for Robin what Smallville is for Superman. My only question is, well... Clark Kent is (basically) the last of an alien race living on Earth with superpowers that he uses when he must to fight baddies without arousing suspicion. So while Smallville is about how Clark copes with life as a teenager/young adult with these secret abilities, The Graysons will be about Dick Grayson coping with life as... a normal kid? Or, at best, a kid growing up in the circus. A show about a kid in an acrobat family could work, but the point here is to make a show about Robin. The executive producers say they've come up with an original take on the character, so we'll see what they put together.
> Update 11/7/08: The CW has apparently scrapped plans for The Graysons (Variety)
I have just learned about the new Sonic the Hedgehog game for the Nintendo DS (Variety). It caught my attention because it's a BioWare game, and as I have made known through previous posts, most of my favorite games are by BioWare. But as for this Sonic game... I think I must be getting old. Firstly, I'm not going to play this game because I don't have a Nintendo DS and I don't expect ever to get one. I don't know what the deal is with that touch screen--why should any game need more than one screen? Does a person have two separate fields of vision? No. Secondly, hearing the phrase "Sonic on the Nintendo...", I just have to shake my head; it triggers in me almost the same reaction I would have seeing Iron Man in the Justice League (*shudders*). Back in the day, Sega was a top competitor of Nintendo--the day of the Genesis vs. the Super Nintendo. My family was in the Genesis party, and we had a lot of fun with it, but as later generations of consoles came out, the Saturn and Dreamcast disappeared under the N64 and PlayStation's success, thus leading to Sega's demise as a console-maker. But in the height of my console days, Sonic was for Sega and Mario was for Nintendo, and Sonic had not one but two TV shows. That sassy Sonic with his love for chili-dogs has been reduced to an adopted Nintendo tag-along makes me a little wistful. At least he's getting some BioWare respect.
Now here's the good news: Fringe has received a full season order from Fox (Variety). It had me worried after its not-weak-but-not-strong premiere, but when the following week it had ratings-champ House as a lead-in, its audience increased significantly and it has now been receiving fairly strong ratings, particularly compared to other new shows which have overall failed to impress audiences. Fringe can be a little icky (and I can put up with a lot of ick), but I'm looking forward to seeing where they take the show. The bad news: Pushing Daisies's season premiere on Wednesday ranked fourth in its hour with less than half the audience that tuned in for the series premiere last year, getting a sad 4.3/7 with 2.0/6 in the demo (Variety, IMDb). This was the show whose return I had been most anticipating, especially since there haven't been any new episodes since the winter because of the writers' strike. I guess for other people, the long hiatus just weaned them of the show. *Sniffle.* This is a wonderful, delightful, whimsical, quirky, hilarious, lovable show. Help save Pushing Daisies! Watch the show! ABC Wednesdays at 8/7c.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
How to throw a Serenity Shindig
Today is the third anniversary of Serenity's theatrical release. On this occasion, I would like to share one of my happiest college memories (and that's saying something, indeed). It is the story of my Serenity Shindig.
For those who do not know what Serenity is, it is the movie sequel to tragically short-lived Firefly, a brilliant and delightful TV series created by the great Joss Whedon (who also created the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series). Words simply cannot express my adoration for this show. It is probably my all-time favorite TV show and I have yet to find anyone who saw it who was not extremely enthusiastic about the show and utterly depressed that it managed to be canceled after just half a season. Its cancellation is a complicated tale of woe that does not belong in this overall joyful post, and those who care about such things probably already know the story anyway. Still, if you haven't seen Firefly, you should definitely find and watch it the first chance you get. Remember, 14 episodes--it's not much of a commitment.
Senior year, I came to school equipped with the DVDs of the complete series of Firefly (all 14 episodes) and Serenity. My roommates and I shared an apartment-like dorm room with a nice common area with a couch, some chairs, and a TV. Every couple of weeks I would invite about a dozen friends over to our room, and we would watch an episode or two of Firefly while munching on cookies I had freshly baked. As was inevitable, they all fell in love with Firefly and got totally hooked. We were done with the TV series by the end of first semester, but I was determined to make them wait a little before watching the movie so they'd appreciate it more. Spring semester senior year was pretty hectic, but I managed to nail down a date that (almost) everyone could make. And so I emailed invitations to all my Firefly-watching friends...
Subject: Mighty fine shindig!
Body:
(Badger): 'Course you couldn't buy an invite with a diamond the size of a testicle, but I got my hands on a couple...
of INVITES!
Well now you've got your hands on one as well. You are invited to our shiny
SERENITY SHINDIG
on
MARCH 18
at
6:00 PM
We will be having a fine home-cooked dinner, featuring some Firefly-themed foods (Protein in all colors of the rainbow! Mmmmm... Just kidding). After dinner, we will be watching Serenity, maybe around 8 pm.
DRESS CODE:
Here's the catch: Seeing as this is a themed party, you're going to have to dress up as characters from Firefly! If you don't dress up, I won't give you food. It's that simple. To help you in your task to dress as a Firefly character, I have even compiled a COSTUMING GUIDE, which you will find on my homepage. Yes, I spent hours formatting my college-granted homepage entirely for this purpose, so now you have to dress up. Besides, it'll be really fun! Now here's the catch within the catch: I don't want any repeats. I'm not going to eat dinner with four Jaynes--one makes bad enough dinner company. Naturally, two Hands of Blue are allowed. Reply all to the email list to claim your character!
Mal: Turns out this *is* my kind of party!
I aim to misbehave.
[Eleni]
P.S. I claim River!
Some advice to anyone planning on throwing a Firefly party: Since Firefly is so quotable, it is important to pepper Firefly-related messages with quotes. When I sent a reminder to my friends to come on time, I included the quote
Mal: 'Pears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us?
Zoe: Big damn heroes, sir.
Mal: Ain't we just.
And the multiple times I reminded my guests to claim a character for the dress code, I used the "pretty floral bonnet" quote, the "them soft cotton dresses feel kind of nice" quote, and the "slinky dress" (Wash: I can buy you a slinky dress. Captain, can I have money for a slinky dress? Jayne: I'll chip in. Zoe: I can hurt you.) quote.
Anyway, my "costuming guide" was merely a collection of pictures of the characters wearing various outfits. In such a short-lived series, there was only a small number of non-main characters notable enough to warrant an entry in my costuming guide. I think I included Saffron, Niska, Badger, and the Hands of Blue. I also included Early, but didn't exactly expect anyone to come dressed in the red leather jump suit. It would have been pretty awesome, though. I highly recommend having people dress up for a Firefly party. Really, it's not that hard to dress up like the Firefly characters--it's not like you have to wear Star Trek unitards or anything. And it really helps set the atmosphere. I also bought (yes, bought) the Firefly soundtrack to provide nice background music during the dinner party. A simple but effective touch.
Now, what to serve at a Serenity Shindig dinner party. For the most part, I just cooked a whole load of Chinese food because they eat Chinese food in Firefly and I know a lot of Chinese recipes. I made beef broccoli on a bed of fried noodles, chicken with peanuts (and rice to go with it) and fried dumplings, but my biggest triumph of the night was making char siu bao from scratch. Bao is one of the things Saffron made for Mal (Wash: Did she really make you fresh bao?!)--a round bun with seasoned pork inside. I had never made bread dough myself, so I was so pleased when they came out perfect from the oven. In addition to this Chinese food, I'd also bought some fresh strawberries that Kaylee would have appreciated. Another anecdote, lest my boasting about the char siu bao lead you to think I'm some sort of competent chef: After my friends had arrived and were all there watching me, the kitchen got a little exciting. First there was a small 4-inch high split-second grease fire. It was there and out again before I had any time to panic, so I found it all quite funny, though I realized that it really could have ruined the evening. Not long after this, I burned the first batch of dumplings, making enough smoke to set off the alarm in our room. We opened the windows, and the alarm stopped, but a fire safety guy still had to come by to check on our room. We were all there in costume, but he was only concerned about one of us. As he was leaving, he asked, "Why is that guy wearing blue lab gloves?"
For dessert, what else? Ice planets, those balls of ice cream hanging from a string attached to a stick about which River remarked, "My food is problematic." In the show, it actually looks like there's a bowl that helps support the ball of ice cream, but the script does not describe it as having a bowl. I didn't know how I'd get a bunch of appropriately sized bowls or how they'd work anyway, so I decided not to use them. Some of my friends doubted my ability to make the ice planets, but I was determined. The question was how to assemble them with limited resources. Here's how I did it:
ICE PLANETS
-ice cream
-half-sized popsicle sticks (available at a craft store)
-unflavored floss (I was trying to figure out what kind of string I could get my hands on that people wouldn't mind putting in their mouths, and was thus pleased when I realized this solution)
-chopsticks (Swiping a handful of disposable chopsticks from a college cafeteria snooty enough to have them works quite well.)
-plastic wrap
Knot a ~15 in. string of floss around a popsicle stick. Lay a square of plastic wrap on the table. Place two half-spheres of ice cream on the plastic wrap, most easily done with a large ice cream scoop (they don't really have to be hemispherical, but the closer they are, the easier the next couple steps will be). You can now lift the plastic wrap to shape the ice cream inside the plastic with your hands on the outside of the plastic. The next step is a little awkward: if you have two perfect hemispheres of ice cream, push their flat sides onto both ends of the popsicle stick with the string positioned so that ideally it will be perpendicular to the flat plane of the popsicle stick (simply a common sense way to give the ice cream a better chance of holding on to the stick). Then use the plastic wrap to shape the ice cream into a ball around the popsicle stick. If the ice cream is not in perfect hemispheres, you'll just have to work a little harder to get it into a ball. Once it is sufficiently shaped, place it (still in the plastic wrap) into the freezer, which should be cranked up all the way to make the ice cream as hard as possible (and give its consumers more time to eat it before it melts and falls apart). Someone more resourceful than I might find a way to avoid this, but I found that the ice planets would sort of flatten on the bottom when I put them on the flat bottom of the freezer. I had to re-shape them once or twice (they won't flatten if they're sufficiently cold and hard, but the first time I had shaped them they were a little soft). When ready to serve, tie the other end of the string onto the end of the stick (the chopsticks I found had little notches around one end, which were perfect for securing the placement of the string) and remove the plastic wrap. Try dipping the ice planet into bowls of chopped nuts, crushed oreos, or shredded coconut to make "dirty" ice planets. Enjoy!
The ice planets were actually really fun--kind of the same appeal as bobbing for apples. This was probably the highlight of the party.
After dessert, we watched the movie. I had cookies for us to snack on (if anyone was still hungry) while watching the movie. We all loved the movie, of course. My guests all said they had a great time, and I think they did; I certainly had a blast.
Mighty fine shindig!
And so went one of my most cherished college memories. Sure, I'm a total geek. I should point out that some of the people at the party would definitely not consider themselves sci-fi fans, though the fact that they all (except one who came late) dressed up for my party reveals that they too are some sort of geek. Call us geeks, Firefly fans, Browncoats, whatever. We are proud. We are many. And remember, you
CAN'T STOP THE SIGNAL!
My friends and I pose for a group shot (with my signature grotesquely rough photoshopping so you can see who the characters are).
For those who do not know what Serenity is, it is the movie sequel to tragically short-lived Firefly, a brilliant and delightful TV series created by the great Joss Whedon (who also created the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series). Words simply cannot express my adoration for this show. It is probably my all-time favorite TV show and I have yet to find anyone who saw it who was not extremely enthusiastic about the show and utterly depressed that it managed to be canceled after just half a season. Its cancellation is a complicated tale of woe that does not belong in this overall joyful post, and those who care about such things probably already know the story anyway. Still, if you haven't seen Firefly, you should definitely find and watch it the first chance you get. Remember, 14 episodes--it's not much of a commitment.
Senior year, I came to school equipped with the DVDs of the complete series of Firefly (all 14 episodes) and Serenity. My roommates and I shared an apartment-like dorm room with a nice common area with a couch, some chairs, and a TV. Every couple of weeks I would invite about a dozen friends over to our room, and we would watch an episode or two of Firefly while munching on cookies I had freshly baked. As was inevitable, they all fell in love with Firefly and got totally hooked. We were done with the TV series by the end of first semester, but I was determined to make them wait a little before watching the movie so they'd appreciate it more. Spring semester senior year was pretty hectic, but I managed to nail down a date that (almost) everyone could make. And so I emailed invitations to all my Firefly-watching friends...
Subject: Mighty fine shindig!
Body:
(Badger): 'Course you couldn't buy an invite with a diamond the size of a testicle, but I got my hands on a couple...
of INVITES!
Well now you've got your hands on one as well. You are invited to our shiny
SERENITY SHINDIG
on
MARCH 18
at
6:00 PM
We will be having a fine home-cooked dinner, featuring some Firefly-themed foods (Protein in all colors of the rainbow! Mmmmm... Just kidding). After dinner, we will be watching Serenity, maybe around 8 pm.
DRESS CODE:
Here's the catch: Seeing as this is a themed party, you're going to have to dress up as characters from Firefly! If you don't dress up, I won't give you food. It's that simple. To help you in your task to dress as a Firefly character, I have even compiled a COSTUMING GUIDE, which you will find on my homepage. Yes, I spent hours formatting my college-granted homepage entirely for this purpose, so now you have to dress up. Besides, it'll be really fun! Now here's the catch within the catch: I don't want any repeats. I'm not going to eat dinner with four Jaynes--one makes bad enough dinner company. Naturally, two Hands of Blue are allowed. Reply all to the email list to claim your character!
Mal: Turns out this *is* my kind of party!
I aim to misbehave.
[Eleni]
P.S. I claim River!
Some advice to anyone planning on throwing a Firefly party: Since Firefly is so quotable, it is important to pepper Firefly-related messages with quotes. When I sent a reminder to my friends to come on time, I included the quote
Mal: 'Pears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us?
Zoe: Big damn heroes, sir.
Mal: Ain't we just.
And the multiple times I reminded my guests to claim a character for the dress code, I used the "pretty floral bonnet" quote, the "them soft cotton dresses feel kind of nice" quote, and the "slinky dress" (Wash: I can buy you a slinky dress. Captain, can I have money for a slinky dress? Jayne: I'll chip in. Zoe: I can hurt you.) quote.
Anyway, my "costuming guide" was merely a collection of pictures of the characters wearing various outfits. In such a short-lived series, there was only a small number of non-main characters notable enough to warrant an entry in my costuming guide. I think I included Saffron, Niska, Badger, and the Hands of Blue. I also included Early, but didn't exactly expect anyone to come dressed in the red leather jump suit. It would have been pretty awesome, though. I highly recommend having people dress up for a Firefly party. Really, it's not that hard to dress up like the Firefly characters--it's not like you have to wear Star Trek unitards or anything. And it really helps set the atmosphere. I also bought (yes, bought) the Firefly soundtrack to provide nice background music during the dinner party. A simple but effective touch.
Now, what to serve at a Serenity Shindig dinner party. For the most part, I just cooked a whole load of Chinese food because they eat Chinese food in Firefly and I know a lot of Chinese recipes. I made beef broccoli on a bed of fried noodles, chicken with peanuts (and rice to go with it) and fried dumplings, but my biggest triumph of the night was making char siu bao from scratch. Bao is one of the things Saffron made for Mal (Wash: Did she really make you fresh bao?!)--a round bun with seasoned pork inside. I had never made bread dough myself, so I was so pleased when they came out perfect from the oven. In addition to this Chinese food, I'd also bought some fresh strawberries that Kaylee would have appreciated. Another anecdote, lest my boasting about the char siu bao lead you to think I'm some sort of competent chef: After my friends had arrived and were all there watching me, the kitchen got a little exciting. First there was a small 4-inch high split-second grease fire. It was there and out again before I had any time to panic, so I found it all quite funny, though I realized that it really could have ruined the evening. Not long after this, I burned the first batch of dumplings, making enough smoke to set off the alarm in our room. We opened the windows, and the alarm stopped, but a fire safety guy still had to come by to check on our room. We were all there in costume, but he was only concerned about one of us. As he was leaving, he asked, "Why is that guy wearing blue lab gloves?"
For dessert, what else? Ice planets, those balls of ice cream hanging from a string attached to a stick about which River remarked, "My food is problematic." In the show, it actually looks like there's a bowl that helps support the ball of ice cream, but the script does not describe it as having a bowl. I didn't know how I'd get a bunch of appropriately sized bowls or how they'd work anyway, so I decided not to use them. Some of my friends doubted my ability to make the ice planets, but I was determined. The question was how to assemble them with limited resources. Here's how I did it:
ICE PLANETS
-ice cream
-half-sized popsicle sticks (available at a craft store)
-unflavored floss (I was trying to figure out what kind of string I could get my hands on that people wouldn't mind putting in their mouths, and was thus pleased when I realized this solution)
-chopsticks (Swiping a handful of disposable chopsticks from a college cafeteria snooty enough to have them works quite well.)
-plastic wrap
Knot a ~15 in. string of floss around a popsicle stick. Lay a square of plastic wrap on the table. Place two half-spheres of ice cream on the plastic wrap, most easily done with a large ice cream scoop (they don't really have to be hemispherical, but the closer they are, the easier the next couple steps will be). You can now lift the plastic wrap to shape the ice cream inside the plastic with your hands on the outside of the plastic. The next step is a little awkward: if you have two perfect hemispheres of ice cream, push their flat sides onto both ends of the popsicle stick with the string positioned so that ideally it will be perpendicular to the flat plane of the popsicle stick (simply a common sense way to give the ice cream a better chance of holding on to the stick). Then use the plastic wrap to shape the ice cream into a ball around the popsicle stick. If the ice cream is not in perfect hemispheres, you'll just have to work a little harder to get it into a ball. Once it is sufficiently shaped, place it (still in the plastic wrap) into the freezer, which should be cranked up all the way to make the ice cream as hard as possible (and give its consumers more time to eat it before it melts and falls apart). Someone more resourceful than I might find a way to avoid this, but I found that the ice planets would sort of flatten on the bottom when I put them on the flat bottom of the freezer. I had to re-shape them once or twice (they won't flatten if they're sufficiently cold and hard, but the first time I had shaped them they were a little soft). When ready to serve, tie the other end of the string onto the end of the stick (the chopsticks I found had little notches around one end, which were perfect for securing the placement of the string) and remove the plastic wrap. Try dipping the ice planet into bowls of chopped nuts, crushed oreos, or shredded coconut to make "dirty" ice planets. Enjoy!
The ice planets were actually really fun--kind of the same appeal as bobbing for apples. This was probably the highlight of the party.
After dessert, we watched the movie. I had cookies for us to snack on (if anyone was still hungry) while watching the movie. We all loved the movie, of course. My guests all said they had a great time, and I think they did; I certainly had a blast.
Mighty fine shindig!
And so went one of my most cherished college memories. Sure, I'm a total geek. I should point out that some of the people at the party would definitely not consider themselves sci-fi fans, though the fact that they all (except one who came late) dressed up for my party reveals that they too are some sort of geek. Call us geeks, Firefly fans, Browncoats, whatever. We are proud. We are many. And remember, you
CAN'T STOP THE SIGNAL!
My friends and I pose for a group shot (with my signature grotesquely rough photoshopping so you can see who the characters are).
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Emmys, Pirates 4, and Spider-Man: The Musical
Well, it's been an interesting week. All sorts of... things... have been happening in the big scary Real World. But what news from the entertainment industry?
The week started off with the 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. You may have read that the show was bad (since judging by the numbers you didn't actually watch it yourself). Well, as someone who managed to watch the first half hour, I can tell you that whatever you read was probably accurate. I never had much respect for the nominated reality show hosts, but Sunday night showed me how right I was to withhold my respect. In any case, the only show I watch that won on Sunday was Pushing Daisies, with the Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series win for Barry Sonnenfeld. Congrats to him. I guess I've also recently picked up watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, now that I've discovered they put the episodes up on Hulu the day after they air (I don't get Comedy Central). All the excitement of current events has given them more good material than they could have ever hoped for, so the shows have been particularly sharp and entertaining recently. Anyway, they each won an Emmy, so congrats to them, too. I'd given up watching the Emmy telecast, though, before the Daily Show got up there. I think I turned it off shortly after poor Josh Groban sang his misguided theme song medley.
Speaking of really dumb shows, I was pleased to see Hole in the Wall ranked number one on Entertainment Weekly's list of The 10 Dumbest TV Shows of 2008. I have to say that I found the initial trailers for this show hilarious. Seeing clip after clip of people looking in wide-eyed terror at the approaching wall, contorting themselves into some awkward position, then being inevitably swept into the water was surprisingly entertaining. Simple minds, simple pleasures, I guess. Watching Ellen DeGeneres do a version of the game on her show with random audience members or--better yet--guests, was also highly amusing (though not quite as funny as Ellen's new game, "Aw, snap!"). But when I saw part of the actual Hole in the Wall show that Fox tucked in after the season premiere of Fringe, I was not amused at all. I think part of the humor in the game on Ellen's show was the fact that these were poor unsuspecting people who were called out of the audience, plunked in front of the moving wall, and forced to make a valiant effort to keep on their feet. And then it was over, whether they succeeded or not. In the montage of the trailer, the contestants had the same appearance. But in the actual show, you realize that these people wanted to be there. They signed up. They thought they'd be good at it. They actually trash-talk the other team. And then they go and make fools of themselves. And then they do it again. All the while, an audience pumped with more excitement than they have a right to cheers on, and the unnecessary two hosts yell into microphones as if they're having fun. You can be sure I won't be tuning into that show again. The concept of the show is funny (and owed to the original Japanese version) and makes for amusing snapshots. But as an actual TV show? Dumb.
Mid-week, Disney announced their plans for a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean installment (see Variety article). I'll be the first to say that Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow is brilliant. And Curse of the Black Pearl was one of the most pleasant surprises in my cinema-going experience (I mean, I'd actually seen the Country Bears movie, sadly, so I wasn't expecting all that much from a movie based on a Disney ride). But I think I'd be a slightly happier person if the sequels had never been made. Maybe a third sequel will redeem the other two, but more likely, it will just be another bad (though lucrative) idea. In other sequel news, it looks like they're planning to make an I Am Legend prequel with Will Smith reprising his role as Robert Neville. A prequel is smart, since a sequel would have had some difficulties (Gotta love how none of the articles about the prequel announcement care about spoilers. When does a movie lose the privilege of spoiler warnings? After it leaves theaters? After it comes out on DVD?). But I wasn't really a fan of the first movie, so I have doubts as to how good a prequel could be.
And lastly, in case you haven't heard yet, Julie Taymor (Across the Universe, The Lion King Broadway show) is making a musical version of Spider-Man which will be released in 2009. I am reminded of a trivia question from one of those series of trivia/quotes/photos/movie moments that loops on the screen in the movie theater before the movie starts and you realize that you're already out of popcorn. I'd like to tell you the question was about Spider-Man, but I think it was actually about The Hulk:
"Was the Hulk originally a 1) TV show 2) Musical or 3) A comic book?"
Well, first of all, duh! And second, Hulk: The Musical?! The idea of it had me laughing out loud in the theater. And now an accomplished Broadway director is making Spider-Man: The Musical. I have to say, I think Spider-Man is significantly better suited to musical form than the Hulk (though is that saying much?). In fact, I saw Spider-Man Rocks in Universal Studios Hollywood, and it was pretty entertaining. But a short show at a theme park venue is a little different from a full length Broadway show. Well, it could turn out to be embarrassing, but hopefully it will be great. Wish I were living close to New York so I could see it.
Now that I've written this post, I've realized most of the stories are pretty negative. That was not my intention. Oh well. I guess that's just the world I've been living in this past week.
The week started off with the 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. You may have read that the show was bad (since judging by the numbers you didn't actually watch it yourself). Well, as someone who managed to watch the first half hour, I can tell you that whatever you read was probably accurate. I never had much respect for the nominated reality show hosts, but Sunday night showed me how right I was to withhold my respect. In any case, the only show I watch that won on Sunday was Pushing Daisies, with the Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series win for Barry Sonnenfeld. Congrats to him. I guess I've also recently picked up watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, now that I've discovered they put the episodes up on Hulu the day after they air (I don't get Comedy Central). All the excitement of current events has given them more good material than they could have ever hoped for, so the shows have been particularly sharp and entertaining recently. Anyway, they each won an Emmy, so congrats to them, too. I'd given up watching the Emmy telecast, though, before the Daily Show got up there. I think I turned it off shortly after poor Josh Groban sang his misguided theme song medley.
Speaking of really dumb shows, I was pleased to see Hole in the Wall ranked number one on Entertainment Weekly's list of The 10 Dumbest TV Shows of 2008. I have to say that I found the initial trailers for this show hilarious. Seeing clip after clip of people looking in wide-eyed terror at the approaching wall, contorting themselves into some awkward position, then being inevitably swept into the water was surprisingly entertaining. Simple minds, simple pleasures, I guess. Watching Ellen DeGeneres do a version of the game on her show with random audience members or--better yet--guests, was also highly amusing (though not quite as funny as Ellen's new game, "Aw, snap!"). But when I saw part of the actual Hole in the Wall show that Fox tucked in after the season premiere of Fringe, I was not amused at all. I think part of the humor in the game on Ellen's show was the fact that these were poor unsuspecting people who were called out of the audience, plunked in front of the moving wall, and forced to make a valiant effort to keep on their feet. And then it was over, whether they succeeded or not. In the montage of the trailer, the contestants had the same appearance. But in the actual show, you realize that these people wanted to be there. They signed up. They thought they'd be good at it. They actually trash-talk the other team. And then they go and make fools of themselves. And then they do it again. All the while, an audience pumped with more excitement than they have a right to cheers on, and the unnecessary two hosts yell into microphones as if they're having fun. You can be sure I won't be tuning into that show again. The concept of the show is funny (and owed to the original Japanese version) and makes for amusing snapshots. But as an actual TV show? Dumb.
Mid-week, Disney announced their plans for a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean installment (see Variety article). I'll be the first to say that Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow is brilliant. And Curse of the Black Pearl was one of the most pleasant surprises in my cinema-going experience (I mean, I'd actually seen the Country Bears movie, sadly, so I wasn't expecting all that much from a movie based on a Disney ride). But I think I'd be a slightly happier person if the sequels had never been made. Maybe a third sequel will redeem the other two, but more likely, it will just be another bad (though lucrative) idea. In other sequel news, it looks like they're planning to make an I Am Legend prequel with Will Smith reprising his role as Robert Neville. A prequel is smart, since a sequel would have had some difficulties (Gotta love how none of the articles about the prequel announcement care about spoilers. When does a movie lose the privilege of spoiler warnings? After it leaves theaters? After it comes out on DVD?). But I wasn't really a fan of the first movie, so I have doubts as to how good a prequel could be.
And lastly, in case you haven't heard yet, Julie Taymor (Across the Universe, The Lion King Broadway show) is making a musical version of Spider-Man which will be released in 2009. I am reminded of a trivia question from one of those series of trivia/quotes/photos/movie moments that loops on the screen in the movie theater before the movie starts and you realize that you're already out of popcorn. I'd like to tell you the question was about Spider-Man, but I think it was actually about The Hulk:
"Was the Hulk originally a 1) TV show 2) Musical or 3) A comic book?"
Well, first of all, duh! And second, Hulk: The Musical?! The idea of it had me laughing out loud in the theater. And now an accomplished Broadway director is making Spider-Man: The Musical. I have to say, I think Spider-Man is significantly better suited to musical form than the Hulk (though is that saying much?). In fact, I saw Spider-Man Rocks in Universal Studios Hollywood, and it was pretty entertaining. But a short show at a theme park venue is a little different from a full length Broadway show. Well, it could turn out to be embarrassing, but hopefully it will be great. Wish I were living close to New York so I could see it.
Now that I've written this post, I've realized most of the stories are pretty negative. That was not my intention. Oh well. I guess that's just the world I've been living in this past week.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Heroes Season 3 Premiere
SPOILER ALERT
Well, they sure dove right back into it. I'd barely changed the channel from Sarah Connor Chronicles, and already future-Peter is coming back in time to shoot Nathan in the shocking scene from the Season 2 finale. The two episode premiere cut hurriedly between its many characters and plot lines, seemingly checking off a laundry list of New Mysteries:
-Whom is this speedy Daphne working for?
-What is Parkman doing in Africa? Who is this guy who found him in the desert?
-Why can't Clair feel pain anymore?
-Why is Ali Larter Tracy now, and why can she ice cube* people?
-How is present-Peter stuck inside one of the scary escaped Heroes? I mean, obviously future-Peter put him there, but where is his real body and what happened to the other guy's mind? This is definitely an odd situation.
-How is Linderman back? Why can only Nathan see him? Does he have any relation to Number Six?
-Just what is the deal with Mrs. Petrelli? What are her motives?
Unfortunately, the episode raised a few skeptic's questions as well. Obviously, I'm a big fan of this genre and am willing to suspend a lot of disbelief, but there are some things that make me either roll my eyes or purse my lips. In most cases I'm willing to put up with them, but inconsistencies, weak explanations, and dumb character actions can erode the quality of a show and its wide fan base. And occasionally, a weak, nonsensical plot device will influence the story in an unfavorable way (say, when a villain survives a situation that he never should have survived and lives on for multiple seasons to continue to kill), and that really ticks me off. Here are some questions I had for the premiere:
-When Hiro took a peek into his future, how did he manage to find such a crucial point in the future (i.e. Ando killing him with Sith powers) and--correct me if I'm wrong about this, but--how did it happen to be on the same block that he had been standing on in the present?
-If they're emphasizing the profound butterfly effect future-Peter has had by coming back, how did Hiro's previous forays into the past avoid screwing up the world so much?
-How has genius scientist Mohinder gone from dumb to dumber?
-If the type of power someone has is determined by their unique blood chemistry, why are there so many repeats in powers?
-Is Maya ever going to be able to justify her existence on this show? (The season opener did not give me much hope.)
-What, exactly, is the stuff that the speedster leaves behind when she runs? We know that it takes on her colors and it's something that Hiro can run his fingers through when he "freezes" time. That seems a little weird to me.
Well, in spite of all this, I really enjoyed most of the show. My favorite moment was when Elle kicked Sylar's a%s. As I have already implied, I am not a huge fan of Sylar--or at least the Sylar of the present. First season, he was an awesome, creepy love-to-hate-him bad guy, but the only reason he's still alive is the disappointingly clumsy, botched Season 1 finale. While he was one of the highlights of Season 1, since his should-have-been death, he has, like Maya, yet to justify his presence. Still, it looks like he is poised to get interesting again.
I have high hopes that the Heroes team can bring the show back to its former glory. Sadly, it looks like it may not be able to recover its first season audience. It was one of the biggest freshman shows of the 2006-07 season, with frequent "Save the Network, Save the TV Season" jokes, but like many serials it has had trouble gaining new viewers, and the relatively weak Season 2 lost a significant number of followers; the Season 3 premiere had 20% fewer viewers than the Season 2 premiere. While the numbers are still solid and the show is not in danger of cancellation, it may be falling from the water cooler gossip status it enjoyed two years ago. But I can hope. As a strong proponent for mainstream geekdom, I'm sure rooting for Heroes.
*I have deemed "ice cube" a legitimate transitive verb since my days as a Diablo II sorceress enthusiast.
Well, they sure dove right back into it. I'd barely changed the channel from Sarah Connor Chronicles, and already future-Peter is coming back in time to shoot Nathan in the shocking scene from the Season 2 finale. The two episode premiere cut hurriedly between its many characters and plot lines, seemingly checking off a laundry list of New Mysteries:
-Whom is this speedy Daphne working for?
-What is Parkman doing in Africa? Who is this guy who found him in the desert?
-Why can't Clair feel pain anymore?
-Why is Ali Larter Tracy now, and why can she ice cube* people?
-How is present-Peter stuck inside one of the scary escaped Heroes? I mean, obviously future-Peter put him there, but where is his real body and what happened to the other guy's mind? This is definitely an odd situation.
-How is Linderman back? Why can only Nathan see him? Does he have any relation to Number Six?
-Just what is the deal with Mrs. Petrelli? What are her motives?
Unfortunately, the episode raised a few skeptic's questions as well. Obviously, I'm a big fan of this genre and am willing to suspend a lot of disbelief, but there are some things that make me either roll my eyes or purse my lips. In most cases I'm willing to put up with them, but inconsistencies, weak explanations, and dumb character actions can erode the quality of a show and its wide fan base. And occasionally, a weak, nonsensical plot device will influence the story in an unfavorable way (say, when a villain survives a situation that he never should have survived and lives on for multiple seasons to continue to kill), and that really ticks me off. Here are some questions I had for the premiere:
-When Hiro took a peek into his future, how did he manage to find such a crucial point in the future (i.e. Ando killing him with Sith powers) and--correct me if I'm wrong about this, but--how did it happen to be on the same block that he had been standing on in the present?
-If they're emphasizing the profound butterfly effect future-Peter has had by coming back, how did Hiro's previous forays into the past avoid screwing up the world so much?
-How has genius scientist Mohinder gone from dumb to dumber?
-If the type of power someone has is determined by their unique blood chemistry, why are there so many repeats in powers?
-Is Maya ever going to be able to justify her existence on this show? (The season opener did not give me much hope.)
-What, exactly, is the stuff that the speedster leaves behind when she runs? We know that it takes on her colors and it's something that Hiro can run his fingers through when he "freezes" time. That seems a little weird to me.
Well, in spite of all this, I really enjoyed most of the show. My favorite moment was when Elle kicked Sylar's a%s. As I have already implied, I am not a huge fan of Sylar--or at least the Sylar of the present. First season, he was an awesome, creepy love-to-hate-him bad guy, but the only reason he's still alive is the disappointingly clumsy, botched Season 1 finale. While he was one of the highlights of Season 1, since his should-have-been death, he has, like Maya, yet to justify his presence. Still, it looks like he is poised to get interesting again.
I have high hopes that the Heroes team can bring the show back to its former glory. Sadly, it looks like it may not be able to recover its first season audience. It was one of the biggest freshman shows of the 2006-07 season, with frequent "Save the Network, Save the TV Season" jokes, but like many serials it has had trouble gaining new viewers, and the relatively weak Season 2 lost a significant number of followers; the Season 3 premiere had 20% fewer viewers than the Season 2 premiere. While the numbers are still solid and the show is not in danger of cancellation, it may be falling from the water cooler gossip status it enjoyed two years ago. But I can hope. As a strong proponent for mainstream geekdom, I'm sure rooting for Heroes.
*I have deemed "ice cube" a legitimate transitive verb since my days as a Diablo II sorceress enthusiast.
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