Blasted termites ate a piece of wood paneling in our downstairs rental apartment. So now I’ve got to hire a Terminator. Jeez, that’s an expensive proposition! And it’s not just a matter of getting estimates and picking a terminator; I have to decide which approach I want to take—pesticide injection into the ground (the tried and true method), or bait trapping (much less pesticide, but newer, less tested, and more expensive).
Which reminds me that my wife and I have become big fans of the new show, Sarah Connor Chronicles. I just read that it’s been renewed for next season. Yesss! And BSG has started up again. We’ve only watched one episode so far, but clearly they’re going to be messing with our minds for the rest of the series. And I mean that in a good way, of course.
I haven’t had as much time to pursue my Roomba hobby as I’d hoped, but I did bring an ailing Scooba back to life! Turned out have some defective soldering inside. I never would have found it if someone on Roombareview.com hadn’t suggested that I solder a couple of leads for a voltmeter in there, so that I could see what was happening. Lo and behold, the act of doing that solved the problem. And I just got a very nice note from someone in Italy, telling me that my method worked for him, too! (No, he didn’t put leads in, but he did remelt the solder on the crucial connection—and that fixed his Scooba, too.)
In keeping with the theme of BSG and Roombas, I present here a couple of funny videos I stumbled across on youtube. The links will open new windows in your browser.
And I, Roomba, a Roomba love story, of sorts (a little long, but cute):
(I tried embedding the videos, but they played erratically for some reason.)
“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.” —Cicero
Anonymous
I was glad to hear they renewed the Sarah Connor Chronicles. I broke my own rule about not getting into a new show before it lasted a season and was renewed when I decided to watch this one from the beginning. I guess it was partly because I wasn’t sure whether I was going to care anyway and if it didn’t get renewed oh well, partly the fact that it had Summer Glau in it (previously in Firefly/Serenity and The 4400) who plays psychotic kick-@$$ women better than anyone and partly because it was in the same time slot i’d normally be watching 24 in anyway and since there was no 24 this season…. Anyway it turned out to be quite good and I was hoping they’d bring it back, which I thought for sure meant it was doomed *L* Speaking of doomed, the aforementioned The 4400 has been cancelled, too bad that was one of the few shows I actually watched with some regularity over the summer, along with Eureka. It sure would be nice if USA would at least allow a mini-series to be filmed to wrap up the show, but that’s not too likely i’d guess, it seems the bean counters have spoken. And yes BSG is back, best show on TV, sci-fi or otherwise! And now I can watch it in HD, so even better!!
-tsmacro
substandardTim
I watched a few episodes of the sarah connor chronicles but i didn’t get into it too much. Seems pretty much like they chose to go the route of Terminator 3 and add a hot young chick to get nerdy guys to watch. Nice visuals but a cop-out way of developing the story I think. Along the same lines as the last two star trek series with seven of nine and whatever the vulcan chick’s name was on Enterprise. Anyway…
I placed a link to your sci-fi/fantasy writing course on my new site http://www.imnotarat.com on the links page. It’s about trying to get out of the rat race through my pursuit of writing and music and self-sufficiency.
Anonymous
Actually casting attractive women in sci-fi shows isn’t to get the nerdy guys to watch, they were watching already. It’s an attempt to get guys (and some women as well) who wouldn’t normally watch “those kinds” of shows to come on over to the dark side and give sci-fi a try.
-tsmacro
substandardTim
I suppose you may be right about that.
Jeffrey A. Carver
Re the Sarah Connor Chronicles and babe interest, my wife loves watching Summer Glau. I do, too, but the one I really watch for is Lena Headey. Having said that, though, I think you may have stopped watching too soon, Tim. I remember it was around episode 3 that we were thinking, Oh no, this isn’t just going to be evil robot chase of the week, is it–because that can’t last long. And the very next week, they started moving the story in interesting new directions, and have continued to do so, ever since. I find it to be well done on all levels, and I just hope they can keep it up, as BSG has.
(I hope BSG can keep it up, too, for this last season. They’re not hesitating to go over the top, and only hindsight will tell us whether it’ll all hang together. You’ve got to give them credit for courage.)
Jeffrey A. Carver
Oh, and thanks for the link, Tim. I took a look at your I Am Not a Rat website, and it looks like you’re covering some interesting ground.
Jeff
Charlza
I would prefer Spring start winding down. Allergies get very bad in the South this time of year with pollen counts in the thousands. Luckily, that hasn’t happened yet, but itchy, scratchy noses, throats, coughing and sneezing get pretty bad.
I was happy to hear Sarah Connor had been picked up. It’s a pretty interesting series.
Jeffrey A. Carver
Allergy season is going full bore here in Massachusetts. I was awake most of the night last night with a stuffy head, despite being doped to the gills with antihistamines. Yah, definitely a downside of Spring.