Updated HouseKeeping

If I do this for one more week, it'll almost be like I have an actual schedule or something. Anywho, the week starts out on a bit of a down note in RL, as my delicious vacation week comes to a close. But hey, at least I am still employed... at least I hope so.

As for the site, things should go pretty smoothly for the week. I have a few major articles I'm working on that should be out before the week is over. And of course, I'll find some more stuff to ramble about before then. And oddly enough, I'm currently debating whether or not I'm going to attempt that podcast thing that all the hip kids are doing. It can't be that hard... right?

Even More HouseKeeping

As of this afternoon, I've officially joined the Facebook. I also managed to reactivate my deviantART account, which I had actually forgotten that I had. Of course, it's not like I had added any art or anything. Anywho, I should be updating both over time, although with deviantART it will probably take a good while before I get around to doing anything concrete.

Yay, Trailers!

Okay, I know I just went nuts about how trailers give too much away sometimes, but that doesn't mean that I don't still sometimes like them. For one, I wouldn't even know the film Surrogates existed. And I feel like I'd be worse off for it.

SURROGATES trailer in HD


And of course, I don't care if it spoils half of the film or not. My life is fuller for having seen this trailer. The film is seriously not going where I thought that it would.

Sherlock Holmes Trailer

More Dollhouse, Please!

In a move that please and surprises me, FOX has apparently decided not to cancel the sci-fi drama Dollhouse and has renewed it for a second season.

While most will view it as a symbolic victory for the Joss Whedon produced show (given the horrifically poor treatment his last show Firefly received from the network), it also may be setting a new precedent for the network. Don't get me wrong; they do still seem to do things that don't make complete sense. But they seem to be showing a little more faith and support for shows that they would have just axed with no thought a few years ago.

But enough of all that postulating. If you're a fan of the show, make sure to show it support by buying the DVD set whenever it becomes available. And of course, make sure to let your friends and associates know about the show, too. And all you slackers that missed it now have a chance to play catch up before the new season. So no excuses.

"We 'Bout to Get All Lysistrata Up In Here...!"

Here's an odd story. Women in Kenya have decided to launch a protest against the divisiveness of the coalition government. The form of said protest? A sex strike.

I find this intriguing for two reasons. First, the activist groups are so dedicated to this "shutdown" that they're even considering paying sex workers to steer clear of men. Secondly, it actually made me recall Lysistrata, which I hadn't thought of in years. Junior year Drama class may well end up being more beneficial to my world view than History ever will be.

Goooooooool!

With just a scant hour before the official end of the operation and with me seemingly not in any big rush to put any big push of work into the effort, I'm going to officially call it. With an unofficial (but what I'm calling final) count of 108 pages, I hereby claim victory in the month long crusade that was Script Frenzy. A winner is me.


After some initial trepidation over the whole thing, I have to say that it was much easier to settle into the pace of Screnzy, and overall I'd say that the goal of 100 pages was much more workable a goal than the 50,000 words that are NaNoWriMo. Although honestly, I think I have love for both projects. It's probably just that I think it much more likely that some off script that I write will get produced somehow over a novel being published. But life is odd and strange, and the exercise isn't necessarily about making something producable anyway.

Still, I will persist in torturing the wary few that come here by sharing some odd snippets here and there. But given the response I've had from when I've shared before (namely none), that may well be an exercise for the sake of doing it, too.

But enough of that. I dedicate this victory to the late Sam Johnson, who I still think about every time I sit down to write something here. I'm sure he'd enjoy this victory, as well as this victory tune, provided courtesy of Earth, Wind, and Fire:



(And yes, I realize the song has no bearing at all on anything. But I already used Kool and the Gang's Celebration for my NaNo win, and I've had this song stuck in my head for most of the day. Best Elite Beat Agents level... ever.)

At a Loss for Words...

Considering that most of the people who have seen my page no doubt either came from his page, at some point visited his page, or just knew him personally, there's no doubt in my mind that I don't have to tell most people that visit here about the passing of Sam Johnson. I'll be the first to admit that we weren't horribly close, but through our web adventures I feel like we had established a kinship of sorts.

I'm still trying to find the right set of words to say on the matter (and believe me, I will have many more words about the man), and I almost don't feel like saying much until I do have those words, but I felt like I needed to say something in the meantime. So I'll leave you with these two things regarding the man. First, his encouragement is one of the things that prompted me to get this old page up and running. And secondly, his joy of life and his embracing of his own mortality is one of the things that keeps me working on my writing, both here and in what passes for real life.

So if at any point in time you've garnered any semblance of joy, amusement, entertainment, enlightenment, or just blind distraction from anything you've seen here at the old House Rules! site, you can offer a small measure of thanks to Sam Johnson for it.

"Run That Through Your Clicker... Boom!"

AP is now reporting that long time sportscaster and gaming franchise leader John Madden is retiring. Madden notes that it was time to go and that he wanted to spend more time with his family. Makes sense to me, but let's translate it to Madden speak:

"See, what this means is that he's old, and his anniversary is coming up, and he wanted to spend more time with his family. So he's going to retire so that he can do that."

Yeah. Pretty much filters out there, too.

Of course, EA Sports has yet to announce if this will have any effect on their long running Madden NFL series of games. The only serious negative consequence so far has been the announcement that Cris Collinsworth will replace Madden in the booth for Sunday night games, finally giving all of America a reason to watch The Simpsons.

Oh, yes I did say it. Collinsworth is a hack. I'm not afraid to say it.

"That's Tatiana!"

AP (and no doubt various other sources) has reported that adult star Marilyn Chambers has died at age 56. Now granted, I shouldn't care about this. The majority of her "work" was before my time, I can honestly say that I haven't seen much of it at all, and even the later, less racier stuff occurred mainly during my teen years.

...

And I clearly wouldn't have seen that then, either. And that's the story I'm sticking to.

Still, the woman was heralded as one of the groundbreaking stars of her genre. If anything, she helped make ye ol' pR0n more mainstream, and there can't be too many people that are upset about that.

(And yes, I realize that there is, in fact, only one person I know of that might get the quote I used in the title of this post. But if you happen to, then you realize exactly why I used it.)

"Knowledge is Power... For Real!"

News of the passing of Ron Silver today got me to thinking about the various things I know him from. He's one of those actors that was bound to pop up in almost anything, and no doubt I'll spend the next year or so playing a game of, "Hey, that's Ron Silver!" I recall him most recently from his recurring role on West Wing, but that's mostly because I've been watching reruns of that show.

But of the odd variety and a personal favorite of mine was a show he appeared in by the name of Heat Vision and Jack. It was basically an unaired pilot, and it wasn't particularly spectacular. Honestly, it reminds me of something that early era FOX television would have shown. But between Rob Schrab (of Channel 101 fame) spearheading the show, Jack Black and Owen Wilson leading the series, and Ben Stiller doing both an intro and a brief (and useless) cameo, it's hard to point out any of the oddball antics as extraordinary. Peep said opening...



But we had Silver, who was noted as playing "himself" but was clearly not an ordinary human. The joke, of course, was that Ron Silver was just that bad of a man. It didn't take much digging for to find this, which is quite honestly my favorite line of the entire pilot.



RIP Ron. In my world, I will always be afraid to shoot you in the back.

Edit: Of course, the one time I don't double-check my embeds, I end up posting the same clip twice. I like the scene, but not that much.

Good News For HeroClix Fans?

Could the epic game of miniature comic book combat be on its way to a revival? Saveheroclix.com's Jake Theiss (also part of the producton staff of Pinata Games) made an announcement on their website on March 10th. Part of said announcement follows here:

1) We (Pinata) have reached a deal in principle with the new game company formed to purchase HeroClix. We're on-board and once their deal with Topps closes, we'll be back working fulltime on HeroClix. Whew!

The new company will staff up to support the transitioning brands, and Pinata will be one component of the new company's operations. We'll still be based out of Seattle, and we'll spend the vast majority of our time planning for and relaunching HeroClix.

2) Hammer of Thor will be the first product release post-relaunch. We're working with several vendors now to see how fast we can get it to market (without sacrificing any quality).

So basically, while a new company will have the rights to HeroClix, Pinata appears to have a deal with them in place to work on the property. And on top of that, the Hammer of Thor set is still slated to come out at some point. Later posts have asked site members what they might want from a starter set, so at the very least ideas for future sets are still being discussed/bounced around.

I'm usually the first to say I'll believe something when I read it definitively, but seeing as just a few weeks ago they couldn't say anything regarding any deals, this at least sounds like a positive sign. Even another set or two woul dbe a welcome addition to my army of tiny warriors.

"Missed it By That Much..."

So the story of interest today isn't what you missed at the start of the week but what missed you.

As reported by CNN.com and other sites, an asteroid 40 yards wide just missed hitting the planet on Monday night. By just missed, I mean that it was roughly 40,000 miles away from us. Which seems like a long way away, but in astronomical terms is pretty freaking close.

And while many people seem to play it off, I feel the need to point out a handful of factoids that continue to make me nervous. First of all, this particular asteroid, while not large enough to take us out like the dinosaurs went, was still large enough to cause a serious boom had it hit land anywhere. Second, since it came as close to the Earth as it did, some astronomers believe that Earth's gravity may well affect it to the point that we will continue to have near misses with it. Good stuff. But on the bright side, we should have plenty of warning next time. After all, we had... wait, what? Three days? We had three days warning this thing nearly half the size of a football field was on its way past us? Sheesh. I feel comforted.

And lastly, while I can't prove this is related at all to it, cell phone calls have been randomly riddled with static the past few days. And paranoid me is always more afraid of a near missing celestial body accidentally irradiating us than it hitting us. But hey, it's not like we can really worry about it. And if worse comes to worse, well, you know how the drill goes...



(And yes, I've had this song stuck in my head since I read this story earlier this afternoon...)

I Couldn't Let This Go...

Sam talked about it. Roland Martin talked about it. Al Sharpton was on Countdown talking about it (although to be fair, I imagine Rev. Sharpton will be everywhere talking about it, but he's getting a pass because he seems to be on a good tear right now...).

And the thing is that I really wanted to let this go. Keep in mind I will play devil's advocate for almost anyone. And in truth, had the both the Post and the cartoonist in question kept their mouths shut, I might have continued to. But both released statements and both statements together lead you to one of two conclusions.

1) the cartoonist and editor are racists that are bad at lying.
2) the cartoonist and the editor are short sighted and/or idiots.

Because really, at best they should offer a non-committal, "We're sorry if you were offended by this," statement. But no, they seem to imply that it's absolutely ridiculous to look at the image and think that somehow there was any racial overtone to it. But the problem with this, as is the case with many so-called "political satire" cartoons, is that in order to make that argument, there must be some other conclusion that can be drawn from your drawing. In reality, there should be a clear alternate conclusion, and not only was there not one, but it wasn't addressed by any of the defending parties.

Heck, I can do it if I apply myself hard enough. Earlier today I was noting that I often use the expression, "trained monkey" in sentences (i.e. "A trained monkey could do that job."). I'll note here for my own personal safety that I have been exerting a great deal of effort to cut that out of my dialogue to prevent any accidental or incidental offense of nearby ears.

So obviously, that's the clear and easy path to defusing this, right? Surely, someone at the NY Post thought to offer some explanation like that when referencing this, right? Right?

Nope. The Post's EIC notes that the carton was "...a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy." Except that it fails as a parody, as it actually depicts the event nearly as it happened, and it fails to draw any logical connection (in parody or otherwise) to the stimulus bill in Washington. Really, if the cop was saying something like, "Maybe they'll forget about that stimulus bill now..." or "Maybe that stimulus bill will keep this off the front page..." I could get in your corner on this one.

But the fact is your defense makes no sense, and your explanation has no logic. And when you fail to successfully connect something like that logically, the first and only conclusion to be drawn is that you have an ulterior motive.

So sorry, NY Post. I was going to let this go, and not manage to ramble about it for half a page. But because you can't mount anything that resembles intelligent defense, and because your only outlet was to attempt to malign Rev. Al Sharpton (who, as I noted before, is actually presenting the calm, logical argument against you in this case), I just gotta say... What the **** is wrong with you? Can no one think before they publish something like this? Because if you're telling me that a small office full of people saw this thing, and none of them thought to say, "This might not go over well..." then I've got to say that you need new people in your office.

That's assuming, of course, that you care what the general public thinks. And it's obvious that you don't consider a certain percentage of them at all when you go to press.

Why "It Works on TV" Doesn't Work in Real Life...

or... "Dear Hef, pay attention to this one."

CNN reports that a Chinese businessman had his attempt at Elimi-Date go horribly, horribly wrong. The man, who by the way had five mistresses.... five! Anyway, the man had been so affected by the recession that he had to cut back to just the one mistress. So instead of choosing one mistress, just one, based on the merits of her being and what she meant to him personally, the genius decided to take a different tactic...

He staged a private talent show in May, without telling the women his intentions. An instructor from a local modeling agency judged the women on the way they looked, how they sang and how much alcohol they could hold, the Shanghai Daily said.

There are 4 things he should not have done here. First, he shouldn't have turned the entire thing into a competition. Secondly, he certainly should not have done so without letting his five... five! mistresses know they were on the chopping block. Third, he should not have ever let someone cut a woman (known only by the name Yu in the aritcle) for being ugly, especially if he does thing four, which is this...

The judge knocked out Yu in the first round of the competition based on her looks. Angry, she decided to exact revenge by telling her lover and the four other women to accompany her on a sightseeing trip before she returned to her home province, the media reports said.

That's right. After letting the judge drop her for not looking good enough, this guy decides to get into a car with what should be a clearly upset woman and drive around the mountains. What could possibly go wrong?

It was during the trip that Yu reportedly drove the car off the cliff.

Whoops. So not only did he dump her, but he also managed to nearly get himself and all four... four! remaining women killed in the process. The guy ends up paying a chunk of change to the Yu woman's family (as she oddly enough ends up being the only person in the car to die in the crash), and all of his remaining women leave him. That's his mistresses and his wife, who was the only one who didn't know he had other women.

"And in Other News, the Sky is Blue and Water is Wet..."

In a move that should surprise no one, the Republican party has decided to claim that President Barack Obama is failing to deliver the change and bipartisanship that he promised. Also, there are no gumdrop trees and it's not raining cupcakes.

Of extra note to me is that one of the spearheads in this commentary is Senator John McCain, who said this to CNN:

"It was a bad beginning because it wasn't what we promised the American people, what President Obama promised the American people, that we would sit down together," McCain told CNN's "State of the Union With John King."

Now, what he and other Republicans mean to say is that President Obama and his administration aren't doing things the way that the GOP wants them to do it, which for some reason is their definition of bipartisanship. I'm not going to go hyper-political or anything, but I find it just a bit frustrating that the GOP, which has had a virtual stranglehold on the country for the better part of the decade (and yeah, "Democrats took over the Senate two years ago..." what the **** ever...), now suddenly are shocked that their ideas and concepts for what will be put into effect aren't being embraced. Really, they should be happy that anyone is even willing to give them the chance to speak on the matter.

And I know that sounds like me being a bit harsh, but let's look at the facts. In a perfect world, bipartisanship would mean that both parties argue the pros and cons of various points and come to the best middle of the road solution. But in reality, we all know that it's going to play out exactly the way that it is now, at least in the short term. The Democrats will attempt to give the Republicans a voice and probably concede some minor points while working their own agenda.

Furthermore, there's absolutely no reason to think that the nature of Congress would change itself overnight. Nothing else has, so why would anyone think that it would? If there is to be a change towards more bipartisan legislating, it will take place over time and through the efforts of both parties to be reasonable. Whining about how nobody's listening to you and your idea of a solution (which is a toss up between more of the same thing that got us into this mess and apparently absolutely nothing judging by the lack of ideas floated by the conservative side) is counterproductive and makes you look like... well, a bunch of whiners.

And finally, for some reason... McCain has just been pissing me off recently. He gives the sweetest concession speech I have ever heard, and then a few months later he's spearheading the same bull**** parade he was leading during the campaign. This Republican notion that their failures in the past few elections can be fixed by going back to basics and deeper into their conservative shells is destined to blow up in their faces. If nothing else, don't be so blatantly open with your bull****. If you're going to blow smoke up my poophole, I'd at least appreciate you not telling me to grab my ankles while puffing the cigar right in my face.

Hey, an ankle-grabbing reference. I'm Bizarro Rush Limbaugh. There's a scary thought...

HouseTV: Depth Advisory

Depth, as in the third dimension. As in that thing that 3D glasses are supposed to provide. See what I did there? Yeah, I know it's stupid...

Anywho, for anyone possibly out of the loop, there are a small handful of ads and such during the Super Bowl that are being presented in 3D. Not only that, but NBC is also airing a special 3D episode of Chuck (a show anyone can love) the following Monday night.

If either concept appeals to you, then you can pick up a free pair of 3D glasses at the locations listed here. If, on the other hand, you feel like I do that fate and timing will conspire and that you will be the only person that won't find any of the millions of pairs of them floating around, you can opt to call the toll free number (1-800-646-2904) and get a free pair (or four, since they come on sheets of four). Of course, since they're mailing them out, you'd better get a move on if that's your choice. They're won't exactly do a ton of good if you get them next Tuesday (although apparently, you can watch the Chuck episode online in 3D... but what fun is that?).

Now if you don't mind, I have to spend the rest of the week figuring out who's playing the Piper to my David once I actually get my hand on some wacky shades. "Put on the ^$%* glasses!"

Did I Just...: Casting Call Edition

To paraphrase Lil John (and to a lesser extent The Doctor): "What? What?!"

First I have to hear that there was even talks of a Cowboy Beebop live action film. That in and of itself would be enough to make me boggle. But then, I have to learn about said film as I stumble across this tidbit of news from Newsarama.

Keanu Reeves is set to add another genre project to his resume, as the trades are reporting that he will star in a live action version of Cowboy Bebop for Twentieth Century Fox, based on the anime series. This confirms reports that Reeves would have some role in the live action version that have been circulating since summer.

You have to understand that I say this as a person who actually believes that Keanu Reeves can be a capable actor with range and everything. Mind you, I base this almost exclusively on not hating the film A Walk in the Clouds, but something had to be going right in my head there. At any rate, I have to say that Keanu as Spike Speigel? Um, no. This is a bad play call. And not bad like Keanu as Constantine. No, that was just an odd call. This may well be the first time ina good while that I can honestly say news like this killed any interest for me.

But to be fair, it's not like I believe in the project to begin with. I'm one of the rare few that has made his peace with Cowboy Beebop as a series and truly believes that any attempts to expand or continue it are destined to failure and disappointment. And while that may just be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy, I'll believe otherwise when I see it. As it stands, I have more confidence in the upcoming Dragonball film than I ever will in this project. The only thing that could save it is they somehow managed to drag Beau Billingslea into it. Yeah, it's like that.

"Enough is Enough!"

I've had it with these mother****ing actors and their mother****ing paychecks!

Or something like that.

Word is now out that Samuel L. Jackson, after appearing in a brief cameo as Nick Fury in the Iron Man film, may not make it into the sequel. The story here includes a quote from Jackson that I find interesting:

"There seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world. It now appears that somebody else will be Nick Fury or maybe Nick Fury won't be in it."

Uh huh. That sounds like Mr. "Will appear in almost anything" is bucking for a bigger paycheck. Which might be a bad sign, given that money was allegedly one of the issues that led to Terrence Howard being recast. Allegedly.

So now we have to wait and see if this sequel, which should have been a virtual slam dunk as far as making money for all concerned parties, will exist in its expected form or at all. Honestly, with nonsense like this, Marvel's film making division is starting to remind me of its comics division.

"Khaaaaaan!"

From the AP:

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Ricardo Montalban, the Mexican-born actor who became a star in splashy MGM musicals and later as the wish-fulfilling Mr. Roarke in TV's "Fantasy Island," died Wednesday morning at his home, a city councilman said. He was 88.

Of course, many people will remember him from his role as Khan in the original Star Trek series, a role he repeated later in the motion picture Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (Which I actually saw long before his appearance in the series). Others still will remember him as Mr. Roarke, the charismatic and slightly dark fulfiller of wishes on the original Fantasy Island.

And of course, the really noteworthy among you will remember him as the voice of Guitierrez in the animated series Freakazoid. Not necessarily his greatest performance, but I still remember being impressed that he was involved at all when watching it in my younger days.

Why Can't Some Things Go Away?

You know, the fact that I may never in my lifetime achieve anything that resembles widespread noteriety is both relieved and antagonized when things like this occur:

Joe The Plumber is putting down his wrenches and picking up a
reporter’s notebook.

The Ohio man who became a household name during the presidential
campaign says he is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for the
conservative Web site pjtv.com.

Why? Why, of all the human beings on earth you could pick to send overseas to do reporting, would you send Joe/Samuel/Dumbo on said assignment? The man has zero credentials, and the only television appearances he's made thus far have only gone to confirm that he's a blithering idiot. That's rhetorical, of course. The obvious answer is ratings. A second rate site will no doubt pull in tons of viewers who are either fans of Joe, enemies of Joe looking for ammunition, or random observers who need to sate their idle curiousity. I mean, hey, look at me. I wasted time talking about it this week.

I guess at least now when he decides to talk about Israel being in danger, he can maybe have some idea of what he's talking abou... nah. Nah. Can't do it. I can't find a positive way to spin this. Maybe if he took Joe Six-Pack and the rest of his buddies and formed an actual news cabal over there. JoeTV: all Joe, all the time. Hmm. Nah, that won't work either.

But I guess one day, when I bother to sell three copies of a book or get some random screen time as an aside on some third rate cable show, I'll have to accept that the world just isn't a fair and balanced place. And a small-minded nobody from the midwest can end up having to file for a passport and going on a trip across the ocean. Only in America.