BFFL Best Friends For Life

Must be off doing other things eh?

I admit it... I am excited about this summer's movies. Not because I haven't gotten out to see many movies in the theaters lately, but because it seems that it finally the time of the superhero movie. So far, I have to say that Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk have not disappointed. On my list for the remainder of the summer, I'll include the two moview featured below.

First Hancock, with Will Smith:


Then Wanted, with Angelina Jolie:


See you in the theaters...

Run, don't walk to the nearest theater... Iron Man is Good! If this is what we can expect from the Marvel Studios now that they have taken control of their product, then I am very excited about the slate of upcoming movies.

Iron Man does a great job of satisfying both the comic fans and the non fans. The story is close enough to the original Iron Man "origin", while updating it in ways that actually enhance the story. It's easy to see why Tony Stark does what he does. The technology is handled in a way that makes it almost seem believable, and the bad guys have easy to understand motives.

The casting of Robert Downey, Jr. was great. While I was originally skeptical, I am now a believer. He brings character to a role that could have been droll with a lot of other actors. This first movie opens the door for a rich franchise and I hope that the sequel is as good as this.

Since I am about to go on vacation and it is likely that the identity of the fifth Cylon will happen while I am away, I might as well put my vote on the board now. I like tom Zarek as the fifth for a few reasons.

We have had clues that the 5th Cylon is seeking redemption for some past act. Tom Zarek has a past as a "freedom fighter/terrorist" who has used violence to make his point. He is a vocal advocate of freedom for slaves (which would align with a Cylon perspective) and has been very anti-Cylon, which nearly led to his death on Cylon occupied New Caprica. Note here that at least 3 of the other 4 "final Five" were leaders in the resistance on New Caprica, and were ultimately responsible for saving Zarek's life.

Unlike the other 4, I will go out on a limb and also say that I think Zarek has always been aware of what he was. I think that he is the one who triggered the musical signal to "awaken" the others.

I maybe totally off base, but what's the harm in putting it out there?

As Joe stated below, we have our best guess about how the series resolves. I just wanted to add some detail to our speculation. The marketing was not lying about the fact that revelations were coming, but the tricky thing is, they led us to believe that the revelation was the identity of the 5th of the "Final 5". Instead, the clues that they are leaving are starting to reveal the real truth.

Joe mentioned that the special hybrid said that this has happened before and it will happen again. In the most recent episode, we see the biggest clues about what that means in the Cylon civil war. All along, we have seen the Cylons become more and more like the humans. At first, the similarities were positive. They sought love... a higher power... the power to procreate... physical stimulation... free will...

We now see that the Cylons are starting to take on the darker traits of humanity: Infighting, betrayal, power struggles, politics, violence and most importantly a sense of entitlement. "Humans" created Cylons as tools. Now we hear the Cylons refer to the raiders and centurions as tools. Physically, the Cylons hae been near indistinguishable from Humans since the beginning. Now it becoming clear that that is because they really are not that different.

But if the people we first met on the twelve colonies as "humans" were the offspring of someone else's robots, then when did this cycle begin? And if we consider the humans to be v2.0, is it possible that the rogue cylons from "Razor" were actually v1.0?

Did anyone else notice how the scene where #6 stands there while the Centurions cut down her fellow Cylons had an eerie feeling of Deja Vu with the scene where #6 originally started the latest war on the human space station?

The endless cycle started with someone organic, but since then has been a muddied loop. The organics build robots as tools. The robots get smart and resist being tools. They revolt against their creators. They strive to be like their creators. They become indistinguishable from their creators. They mate with their creators to differentiate the race from the original designs. They build robots as tools...

Cool concept if that's what the writers are thinking.

After a very long hiatus, (We we holding out for more money) and to coincide with the Hollywood Writer's strike being over, Big T and I have decided to dust off the keyboard, and gather our random thoughts again on this blog. We've missed imparting our in depth analysis of our favorite TV shows and what better show to break the silence by blogging about "BattleStar Galactica!"

This being the last season of the series - I am sure most of not all of the story arcs will come to some sort of conclusion. Who is the 5th Cylon? Do we care? Why now with the other 4 cylons? If Saul Tigh is a Cylon - why did he lose his eye? Is Kara a Cylon? That would be too easy if she was so we think her miraculous return is nothing more than a red herring.

So Tony and I were talking this morning about the season premier and we both tapped into our vast database of trivial movie story lines and compared this season with the Matrix Trilogy. We are going to predict a similar ending with the Cylons and humans living in harmony on Earth to the final scene with the Architect and the Oracle talking about the rest of the humans plugged in. There are too many subtle hints to previous movie plot lines - "this has all happened before and will happen again" is probably the most revealing.

Think about the Terminator Franchise and traveling back and forth in time to reshape the future. Or the many versions of Neo talking to the Architect - what we think is going to happen is these Cylons were "awakened" to help find earth so the new Cylons and return back to the source. These skin jobs - the 12 - are the gods these humans have being praying to - they just don't realize it. I think the humans are the offspring of skin job Cylons and Earth is where it all started. These humans attacking the Cylons are the ones that have been either effected or have lost their way. If you have a change watch Serenity again and pay close attention to the Reavers. The Reavers were fine until the Alliance tried to calm the population down.

In the current desolate winter wasteland that is the November/December lineup, it's good to know that there is still something on TV worth watching. Battlestar, while on hiatus until March, offered up a mid season filler called Battlestar Razor. This show, written well before the writer's strike is the best thing that I have seen on TV in the last few months. Wow!

It is rare that writers can go back and fill in historical blanks in a way that truly makes future episodes more engaging, but that is exactly what the Battlestar writers have done. Riveting new characters, portents of doom, a new possible enemy (from without and within), and more.

I loved it. I'll even say that I loved it enough to forgive them an overly long hiatus. After Sopranos, I lost faith that a long break equaled great writing. Perhaps my faith is restored.

There may be some redemption for me after all. With some reflection, it seems that I don't spend all of my free time watching TV or doing Sudoku puzzles. That's not so say that I don't live a big chunk of my time living outside of reality. In addition to my other mindless pursuits, I actually read quite a bit. Of course, what I read isn't really making me smarter...

My reading seems to parallel my love of television. I enjoy fiction over reality and I enjoy ongoing story lines. My favorite authors are the ones that create memorable characters and invite you to view their characters over a long time, like a TV series that has been on for years.

My current favorites are:

The Dresden Files - by Jim Butcher
A series of books about a professional Wizard for Hire out of Chicago that uses real magic to deal with the things that go bump in the night.

Spenser - by Robert Parker
The original material that spawned the Spenser for Hire TV show years ago, this is a 20+ year series about a tough guy PI who defines honor, quotes poets and is very hard to kill. The character development alone makes me want to pick up the next book in the series.

The Alex Delaware series - by Jonathan Kellerman
Alex is a former child psychiatrist who now consults for the the LAPD on grisly cases with a need for a psychological perspective. This series covers more than 15 years in the lives of Alex and the people around him.

The John Rain series - by Barry Eisler
This is perhaps the youngest of the series profiled here. I think that they may be up to 5 or 6 books in the series so far, but they are captivating. The protaganist is a mercenary assassin who speicalizes in making his assignments look like natural deaths. The author makes you root for the assassin... The writing is crisp and very visual.

If you are a fiction fan, any of these series is well worth the read and will provide even the most avid readers with many many hours of entertainment.

I have lot's of friends that are fans of spectator sports. I am not. But like my friends the sports fans, I feel some of the anticipation that they feel when a new season is about to begin. They avidly read the preseason news and await the drafts. I avidly read the TV trades and await the release of the new lineup. The see their favorite players moving from one team to another, I see my favorite actors move to yet another series. They wait to evaluate rookies to see if they are worth the money, and I wait to evaluate the new offerings to see if they are worth the all star cast.

Maybe it was inevitable that I was not going to be a fan of spectator sports. After all, with all of the TV that I watch, when exactly would I have time to watch them.

This season, I was excited to return to my old standards. Again, like a good sports fan, I have the right to be disappointed when the stars of yesterday get off to a bad start. Some of the old shows seem like it might be time to trade 'em to cable, or least get some new blood. Some just seem like they are going through the motions and don't have their head in the game anymore. for some, I am hoping that they just need time to find their rhythm.

My All Stars that continue to shine are:

• The Unit
• Smallville
• Boston Legal
• Numb3rs
• Ugly Betty
• Two and a Half Men
• How I Met Your Mother
• Brothers and Sisters
  

The Returning players that seem to be suffering some injuries are:

• Prison Break
• Heroes

The Jury is still out on returning players:

• Stargate Atlantis
• Criminal Minds
• House
• Desperate Housewives
• Grey's Anatomy
  

The Rookies that look promising include:

• The Big Bang Theory
• Big Shots
• Chuck
• Pushing Daisies
  

And finally, the overpaid rookies who need to either raise their game or exit the field are:

• The Bionic Woman
• Torchwood
• Journeyman
• Moonlight
• Back to You
• Dirty Sexy Money
  

Can you imagine my surprise when walked out my cabin early Saturday morning to see a blanket of snow covering everything? The weather forecast called for temps in the 60's not SNOW! I am frantically working a snow tool trying to chip away the sheets of frozen ice and snow on my windshield as the bus is leaving the Horizon at 6:40 am! After about ten minutes, I cleared enough area so I could see out the window and made off down the highway. The car trip to the hotel was another fun experience. Did you know you vehicle will actually slide if you don't have any chains on? What was I thinking? I knew I forgot to pack my chains.

Yes it was cold, extremely cold, a record setting 24 degree's. The coldest ever for Lake Tahoe on Sept 29th. And guess who gets to run a marathon in this weather? Needless to say, I was not prepared for the snow - no one was. I didn't bring any tights with me nor gloves, but I wasn't about to repeat my fiasco at Boston, so I tried to dress with the clothes I brought up. I found this silly looking hat in the cabin that had built in ear muffs - I felt I belonged on the set of Fargo - but you know what they say, 90% of your heat escapes from you head. I always pack a long sleeve throw away teeshirt so I had that and luckily, I also packed some cotton sweats. The picture you see is a photo I took with my slick new HTC Elf Touch-Flo phone - right by the start line. I wish I took one of the crowd everyone couldn't believe the weather conditions. During the pre race announcements, the guy talking directed all of us to look at the lake as steam was rising up from the lake. The announcer said, this is one of those rare times when the lake is actually warmer than the air. Nice eh?

My plan was to run the marathon very conservative prior to the snowy conditions, now I had to change my outlook to "let's survive the course and live to tell about it." 8:30 rolls along and a shotgun blast sounds the start of the race. No one goes out fast, in fact, everyone is warning everyone else about being careful and watch out for all of the ice. I trudge along very carefully, picking my surface area carefully, but no matter where I place my feet, I am constantly sliding. I shortened up my stride and went really really slow as I didn't want to fall and break my butt.

The first 10 miles of the course was under snow. I've never run that far in snow before and it takes a mental toll on you as you spend a great deal of energy just trying to stay upright! I wish I packed my racing spikes! I could have been a contender. Remember all that cotton I was wearing? Well, it started to weigh me down and actually make me colder. Plus, I was beginning to feel some chaffing on my chest area even though I used Body Glide. I made a judgment call and took off my long sleeve shirt. At first I tied it around my waist, but that turned to be more trouble than it was worth, so I tossed it. Picture this, here I am running in a singlet, my Fargo Hat and Black Cotton sweats. The saving graze was the lack of wind - that's what I kept telling myself. There's no wind so don't worry about it.

Along the course I met this couple who were out supporting one of their friends, and I asked them if they would take my sweat pants to the finish line. The said sure thing. I was finally free of the cotton- albeit, cold, but free. At the half way mark I heard the lady call out 2:15. Holy smokes, that was slow, I mean really slow! Even on a super bad day I can break 4 hours no problem. I did some math in my head and figured I had to run a 1:44 second half to break 4 hours, which on any normal day isn't a big deal, but today it's a big deal.

The second half of the course was beautiful, the sun was out, the air heated up enough to melt the remaining snow on the ground and it felt like a crisp fall morning. My pace did pick up a bit, but I backed off after awhile and just enjoyed myself. I made a point to stop and talk to all of the volunteers working the water stops, I high fived a bunch of little kids, spoke to spectators along the course (they were few and far between).

This was going to be my final marathon for a couple of years, I've been running these things for quite awhile now I felt now was a good time to take a break. I want to get into the pool and work on my swim stroke and also get back into my speed training for the track. Funny thing though is once I finished the marathon, I didn't want to on marathon sabbatical just quite yet. So here I am thinking, maybe I'll just do one more marathon before I take a break. Whatcha think?