Behold the Fleet

And lo, the Duke caused the fleet to pass from his place to my place, thus unleashing the uber-nerd, and so it came to pass:

We're Back In The Universe

Attention all hands! Starbase 66 is back, baby! This week we discuss the works of Richard Matheson, the brains behind The Omega Man and I Am Legend. Find us here from now on: http://starbase66.libsyn.com/

Oh, Yeah, I Almost Forgot...

On Friday, as the day was winding down, one of our seniors, I'll call her Anastasia because that's about as far from her real name as I can get at this time of the morning, came into my office with a young lady bedecked in baggy black garments, with numerous piercings and carrying a skateboard. "This is Penelope," quoth Anastasia to me as if this explained much. Alas, it did not. My blank look of befuddlement encouraged my young visitor to elucidate. "She is the president of the Pride club here on campus." Ah, methought, the plot thickens. I had been of some assistance to the Gay/Lesbian/Bi-Sexual/Transgendered club in the past, and expected to be asked to assist with the preparations for an extravaganza of some sort. "A pleasure," quoth I, "and how may I be of use to you ladies this fine day?" They then spun for me a tale of woe from the years prior. A tale of a faculty sponsor who, though enabling the club existence by affixing their name to the appropriate document, did little else, and was now departing the employ of our learned establishment, and thus was about to do even less. Would I, they implored, assume the mantle of sponsor, and by such assumption grant life to this most worthy endeavor?

"Uhhhhhh, sure." Said I.

So forms were signed, and thanks were bestowed upon me, e'en more so when I promised that I would not be the silent, invisible sponsor. This is untrod territory for your humble correspondent, and the abdominal lepidoptera flutter mercilessly when I consider the task ahead, but I am deeply honored to be asked to serve in this way, and shall endeavor to do my best.

See ya,
Marius

Netiquette Quandary

The digital age has brought with it some interesting questions of propriety, and I am faced with a few such dilemmas right now. Among the lesser posers are just how long does one keep the email addresses and blog links of someone who is deceased? It is a bittersweet moment when scrolling through bookmarks or contact lists only to come across such ephemeral mementos. But ultimately that is a personal decision, and not really apropos of this discussion. No, the real conundrum has to do with friends of those passed on. My mom was a religious Conservative, and we often had 'spirited' debates over the merits of the various peccadilloes of the Republican party, so much so that it ceased to be fun to bait her on such issues. She actually thought George W. Bush was a good president. She was also a member of an online prayer circle, but a couple of years ago her computer broke and she asked me to contact one of her online friends to pass along information. I didn't mind, but this woman has kept me in her email list and has, of late, started to send out right-wing propaganda. Today it was Newt Gingrich's newsletter. I started to send a 'please remove me from your list' email, then I wondered if that would be rude. Should I just ignore such mails? Should I ask her to stop? Should I start sending her editorials by Jeneane Garofolo and Al Franken? She seems like a nice person, and I'd hate to offend, but I really am not her target audience. What do you all think?

Sigh

I had a nice weekend. That in itself shouldn't be news, but lately my weekends have been merely pauses in between work weeks, and little else, but this was a nice weekend. It started right with the cats letting me sleep in til SEVEN AM! I know, you really envy me now, but wait, there's more. Mrs. Marius wasn't feeling well, and stayed home from work, so my plans for cleaning were put on hold. So I reloaded Diablo II on the puter for her and was getting ready to play couch spud when my phone rang. It was Duke asking if I wanted to go to a gun show with him. I've never been to one, and the missus seemed to relish the idea of a bit of solitude(such as it is with a kid and two cats) and I like guns. I don't own any, but I like shooting, plus it was a chance to hang with Duke, which is always welcome. So he picked me up and we discussed all sorts of things on the drive to, and during, and after the show. The gun show itself was remarkably low key and devoid of any obvious nut-jobbery. I saw a few shiny weapons that I wouldn't have minded owning, but my lovely lady was quite clear in her parting directive that I return no better armed than when I left, and since the .357 I had my eye on was a little over $1200 obedience wasn't that difficult. ;-) Then we picked up some burgers and beer on the way home and I fired up the grill. During the drive Duke gifted me with some really groovy toys. He gave me a toy phaser II with removable phaser I(if you don't know what that means, it won't matter to you anyway), about 10 pounds of Star Trek gaming cards, and a huge bag full of Micro Machines starships. I will be taking pics of this nerd-u-copia as soon as I can get it arranged by vessel class and affiliation. Go on, out-geek me, I dare ya! :-D

Today I did get that cleaning done, as me wifey felt better and went back to work. Now as many of you know we're having technical difficulties with the podcast, and since I couldn't post a new one this weekend we decided not to record a show tonight to give me a chance to catch up on my editing. But we got together via Skype anyway, just cause we like talking with each other, and talked for nearly three hours. Granted thirty minutes or so of that was recorded for Kennedy's solo podcast, Weather Station 3, where we talked about the nature of Internet friendships. And now it's 11:34pm, and I'm listening to Simon and Garfunkle and telling you wonderful people about my very nice weekend.


And there was much rejoicing.

:-)

Peace, y'all,
Marius

If The Shoe Fits(NSFW Audio)

Think Up Your Own Clever Title

So I was going to start this post with the usual 'I suck for not posting in so many days' but I'm sure you're getting as tired of hearing it as I am of saying it. There just really hasn't been that much going on to comment about. I could bitch about the Conservatives who seem to think that this year's taxes have anything to do with the Obama administration, but that would just be boring, and Jon Stewart did it so much better. I could talk about how boring things are at work, but someone whinging about how boring things are at work is just...well, y'know, boring. I could tell you how I was kidnapped at gunpoint on Wednesday while making a withdrawal at the bank, and was forced to drive my car in a high-speed chase through downtown St. Pete with dozens of cop cars following until I managed to pull an awesome fish-tail crash into a telephone pole disabling the bank robber and earning myself the undying gratitude of both the police and the electric company, but that would just be lying. In reality I've been doing a lot of navel gazing and lamenting not having more to do. I mean, I have a lot to do, i.e. podcast editing, project grading, theatre maintenance, but mostly what I do is stare at this screen and laugh at other people's work. And I'm getting sick of it. Yesterday was the benefits fair at work. We had to go and collect our forms to affirm our benefits for the coming year, and there was a health assessment being done by Blue Cross. They checked my blood pressure, and took a bit of blood for analysis. I also filled out a questionnaire. On many levels I'm doing well, but my cholesterol and fat-assedness are not so good. So I need to get myself into a better routine of eating and exercise. So yesterday when I got home I went for a bike ride. Today we bought some shrubbery to put in front of our house to appease the Knights of Ni, which I planted and then went for a bike ride, then I caught up on Daily Shows, Colbert Reports, and Jeopardies. Even telling you about my life is boring the shit out of me. So now that the wife has her own wheels, and I'm getting sick of staring at the inside of this house, maybe things will get a bit more interesting soon. On the up side, I did buy my tickets for Star Trek(the new movie) last night. I'm actually getting excited about this film...but JJ Abrams will need to constantly look over his shoulder if it sucks.

And now, it's time for me to make dinner. wheeeee.

Love y'all,
Marius

Episode 14: Religion in Star Trek

Howdy, Folks! Episode 14 of Starbase 66 is now online. This week we talk about the role religion has played in Star Trek and Science Fiction.

Happy Easter

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Good(?) Friday

I'm not quite sure how this qualifies as good, but then there is a cavalier attitude to the whole crucifixion thing on the part of many Christians that just weirds me out. In any case, I don't know the proper salutation for the day, but if you are affected by Good Friday, may it be whatever it's supposed to be for you.

Agnostically yours,
Marius

A$$holier Than Thou

It would seem that assholes are running rampant lately, but there are two extreme sphincters I'd like to bring to your attention today. The first member of the 'See You Next Tuesday' club is Republican Texas Representative Betty Brown. This lovely lady has actually suggested that Asian Americans should change their names to something that isn't so hard to 'deal with'. “Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” The reason for this is her attempt to address concerns by Chinese-American groups because often their names don't appear the same on any two pieces of identification. This leads to voting problems. So, of course, this is the citizen's problem, not the government's. What a twat! You can see the full story here.

The second waste of human flesh is that infamous lunatic and supposed musician, Billy Bob Thornton. Billy Bob is currently the singer/drummer for a band called The Boxmasters. They are enjoying a bit of success, and are currently on tour opening for Willy Nelson. When appearing on a Canadian radio show the host introduced him as an "Oscar-winning screenwriter/actor/director" and then proceeded to talk only about the band. Billy Bob pouted, and then acted like a petulant twelve-year-old refusing to answer questions. Finally it was mentioned that the interviewer was not supposed to ask questions about Thornton's film career, and Billy Bob was pissed because of the quick mention of said accomplishments. The interviewer, a man named Jian Ghomeshi(don't ask me to pronounce it), was flustered and agog, but remained a professional and eventually talked the sulking ass into actually giving the interview he was brought in for. Now I don't like Billy Bob Thornton as an actor, and I couldn't care less about him as a director, and now I really wouldn't shed a tear if he fell into a volcano tomorrow. I recommend you give the interview a listen as I don't think I'm doing his douchbaggery justice. And my thanks to Weathereye for bringing to light this tale of yet another self-important asshole circling the drain of his own relevance. You can read more, and hear the interview here.

In local news we have a three day weekend coming up, and I'm really looking forward to it. I was going to go south to the homeland, but the COA is away at her grandparent's and the missus and I get so little time together when we are both A. alone, and B. awake, that I decided to postpone the trip and spend some quality time at home.

And now, dear friends, I bid you adieu. Have a groovy Easter.

Marius

Get it?

Happy

Blah, Blah, Blah...

On Saturday I flew up to Connecticut. Usually the experience of flying is a blog-worthy event, but this trip was remarkably unremarkable. Southwest Airlines are a class act, and check in was a breeze. Security didn't find me noteworthy, and while the flights were a bit bumpy, they were nothing horrible. Even the fact that they don't have reserved seating was not the ordeal I expected. They line everyone up according to the letter and number on your boarding pass, then you just go aboard and pick your seat. It was completely civilized and pleasant. In other words...boring.

The time spent in CT was, given the reason for the journey, quite nice. I stayed with my cousin Patty, who is my female counterpart in my uncle's family. She has a nice house, with a couple of very friendly(if somewhat neurotic) dogs. She also lives within minutes of my grandfather, so I got to spend a good bit of time with him. My brother also came up for the funeral, and Gramp told us many times how much it meant to him that we were there. The funeral itself was, um, lovely I guess you'd say. There was the traditional viewing, and the morticians did a good job making Gram look good. I'm not a fan of such things, but I guess some people need to actually see the deceased to accept the reality. Personally I could get by just fine without that, but what can you do? Many of Gram's family, most of whom I had not seen in a couple of decades, turned out for the Monday morning service, which seemed to please Gramp. My brother and I were honored to be pall bearers, which mainly consisted of putting the casket in the hearse, and taking it out again at the cemetary, but it was still good to have an active role. After the service we all adjourned to my younger cousin Pam's house were there was much food and pleasant visitation. One of the more surreal moments of the day happened shortly after a lot of us older 'kids' finished looking at pics from family gatherings past. We had just put away the photos of us as children when the eight or nine actual children gathered for a similar picture. Being as I live so far from my family, such meta-events are rare for me. Many email addresses were exchanged, and I now even have some of the family on my Facebook. And we all agreed that we should try to get together more often, next time sans tragedy.

The trip home was even less eventful. I landed in Tampa at 1:30, and was at work by 4:00. The show went smoothly in my absence, and everything is more or less back to normal.


I'd like to share something cool with you all. Allison, who is the first lady of Simply Syndicated, and who has never met any of us in person, created the Starbase 66 crew in The Sims. I think she did a great job, don't you?


And speaking of the starbase, episode 12 in which we discuss Watchmen and the Battlestar Galactica finale is now on line here.

And that's all for now. Peace, y'all.
Marius

Marius Sings

This is really rough, but I felt the need to sing Halleluja this morning, and so I did. I couldn't really monitor my mic, so I overwhelmed it a few times, but if you are so inclined you can hear it here. I hope you like it.

Interlude

For some reason I wanted to hear this song, and of the multiple versions I found this one seemed to fit the bill.


The strange part is that by the third verse I was bawling like a baby. I don't understand my own brain.

But I Asked For The Cake...

Cue the sad violin. I know that as we grow older we inevitably attend more funerals than weddings, but A)I am not that old yet, and B)WTF?! Since January of last year my ex-girlfriend, Heather, died. Bennett Strange, my former boss from Louisiana College and curmudgeon with a heart of gold died. My mother died. Frank Leahy, who was one of the greatest acting teachers ever, and one of the founding fathers of the drama department at Palm Beach Community College, died. And now my grandmother has died. ENOUGH ALREADY!!! I will grant that Bennett, Frank, and my grandmother were all of an age where death is not that unexpected, but still that's a lot of shuffling off the mortal coil for one person to handle. Yes, I'm being a bit selfish here, I realize that, but I'm about to explode with the sheer numbers of people I am currently in mourning over. I thought we agreed that there would be no more deaths in the family this year.

Ah well, railing against the universe accomplishes exactly nothing, so I'll stop. I fly up to Connecticut on Saturday, and at least I'll get to see family I haven't seen in years...I just wish the circumstances could be better.

I'll try to post happier thoughts soon...I hope.

Love ya's
Marius

The Pen Is Mightier-Blue Willy Edition

I know I've said this before, but there should be some sort of test to see if certain people are smart enough to breed. I finally got a chance to see The Watchmen yesterday. And I really liked it. Last month Duke paid me a visit and loaned me his copy of the graphic novel, and I loved it. For those of you who don't know, Watchmen takes place in an alternate time-line where superheroes, or 'costumed adventurers' became a fad in the 40s and 50s, but none of them had any real powers. Eventually vigilantism is outlawed after a real superman is accidentally created in a lab accident. Dr. Manhattan, as his is branded, is called upon to stop the Viet Nam war, thus winning it for the US, and keeping Dick Nixon in office for three terms. That is the foundation of this very interesting story that starts with the murder of one of the heroes, and the subsequent investigation. The story doesn't focus so much on the action as it does on the twisted psychology of people who would dress in strange costumes to fight crime. It is a gritty, violent, sexy, and very gripping story with a rather unconventional and unexpected ending. The one thing it is not, however, is a children's tale. Which brings me to the movie...and parental moronity.
The Watchmen movie is a brilliant translation of the comic to the big screen. I cannot think of a more faithful adaptation. The casting is brilliant; the performances excellent; the effects well suited, and the few changes made actually help the story flow more smoothly. That being said the film pulls no punches. There is rather graphic violence and sex and language that has earned the film a very proper R rating. So, of course, the theatre was filled with four and five year old children. Not to mention the screaming infant three rows behind me. Selfish parents who refuse to sacrifice their own enjoyment for the sake of their children's well-being really piss me off, and make me wish the R rating were more strict, since it has become painfully obvious that parental guidance is woefully lacking in many cases these days. The most generous assessment I have of these idiots is that they just assume that since the film was based on a comic book that it must be a kids' movie, but even that level of fail doesn't stand up to the film's R rating.

Now for the reason for the title of this post. Dr. Manhattan, as played(sort of) by Billy Crudup, is the only superhuman in the story, and he spends most of the book, and movie, naked. And to the artists from both medias credit, they don't worry about tastefully placed potted plants or anything like that. Dr. Manhattan's big, blue willy makes many appearances. His is not the only nudity in the movie, for both Malin Ackerman and Patrick Wilson have some pretty graphic sex scenes, but the only whining I've heard on the Intertubes has been about the dreaded blue penis. Oddly enough, only men have lodged this particular observation. I still don't get the fact that female nudity has become almost common place in films, but one glimpse of the male member and people lose their minds. I'll grant you that it's a rather silly looking piece of equipment, but hardly more off-putting than any of the ladie's accoutrement. It just goes to show that no matter how advanced we think we are as a people, sometimes we are little better than Medieval monks bumbling through life trying to pretend that human beings don't do anything that couldn't be aired on Sesame Street.

In other news, the Battlestar Galactica series finale aired on Friday, and we loved it! If you haven't seen Galactica, I highly recommend you start from the beginning. It is one of the best shows on television, IMHO, and the ending capped the series beautifully. Sure I had a few quibbles, but they were minor and didn't affect the overall quality of the finale. It was a thoroughly well done show that ended when it should, and on its own terms.

So say we all. ;-)

Peace out, y'all.
Marius

Starbase 66: Episode 11

Hi, Folks,
I forgot to post this Saturday. Episode 11 of Starbase 66 is now online. This week we have guests from the Nerd Hurdles podcast, and we talk about the good, the bad, and the downright stupid of Star Wars.

Ever Have a Day Like This? I Have.

Two Lumps

The New Mrs. Mariusmobile

So, only five months later, we finally were able to replace Mrs. Marius's car today.
It's a 2002 Saturn SL2.

Sex and Drugs(but not the good kind)

I just read a news story about a convicted sex offender who attempted to rape, then beat and stabbed a thirteen year old girl to death. He was wearing a GPS tracking device as part of his probation for the crime of luring minors with sexual intent. The device allowed police to find him easily enough after the murder, but did nothing to prevent it. I fail to see what good keeping tabs on the whereabouts of a sexual predator does when all that entails is someone checking the data and going, "Yup, he's still in that vacant field." And what really chaps my ass is that while thousands of supposed criminals are taking up space in jails for marijuana offenses, really dangerous wastes of humanity such as this scumbag are given probation and a bracelet most likely because there isn't enough room to put them away. Sometimes I just don't understand the bass-ackward way the American judicial system thinks. Actually, I do understand it, and it makes my brain squirm. It seems to me that the majority of punitive actions involving drugs are done as much, if not more so, for PR purposes than for actual law enforcement. For some reason, Joe the Plumber and his ilk seem to think that smoking weed is tantamount to biting the heads off puppies. The so-called 'war on drugs' is one of the most wasteful, pointless, and dangerous PR scams ever perpetrated on the American public. Yes, some of the illegal drugs are rightfully outlawed. PCP, ecstasy, crack, heroin, and I guess even cocaine are very harmful, but then again so is alcohol and nicotine. In a country where the choice to wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle is more and more up to the rider, where is the justification for clogging up our judicial and penal system with drug users? Most of the crime associated with the drug trade would vanish if the stuff wasn't illegal, and then the police forces would be free to pursue real criminals, like murderous pedophiles.

In my opinion, of course.
Marius

Live Starbase 66

Hi, Folks. Over in England they have an annual fund raising event called Red Nose Day that raises money for Comic Relief, and this year Simply Syndicated is doing a 24 hour podcasting marathon to help the effort. Starbase 66 is honored to be a part of that, and at 10am EST Saturday we go live here. You don't need to donate to listen, but if you have Skype you can call in and talk to us in real time. And if you can donate a bit that would be lovely too. :-) And if you just want to donate to the cause, you can go here.

Thanks, y'all.
Marius

He Un-Blinded Us With Science

Yesterday President Obama fulfilled one of, in my opinion, his most important campaign promises. He signed an executive order unlocking federal funds for embryonic stem cell research. If you don't know what this is, embryonic stem cells are Primitive (undifferentiated) cells from the embryo that have the potential to become a wide variety of specialized cell types. They are taken from a blastocyst, which is one of the very earliest stages of embryonic development when the embryo is little more than a ball of a few dozen cells, and have the potential to be instrumental in curing or repairing a wide range of diseases and injuries. The fact that they are derived from human embryos was a touchstone for the radical right, and George W. Bush, bowing to pressure from religious conservatives, banned any federal funding for stem cell research. I always find it odd that they will go to great lengths to protect a ball of cells, yet have no trouble killing thousands of people overseas. But I digress, the bottom line is that Barak Obama has repealed Bush's narrow-minded pandering and is allowing science to do what it does. And, as an added bonus, he made the following statement:
...Today, I am also signing a Presidential Memorandum directing the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision making. To ensure that in this new Administration, we base our public policies on the soundest science; that we appoint scientific advisors based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology; and that we are open and honest with the American people about the science behind our decisions. That is how we will harness the power of science to achieve our goals – to preserve our environment and protect our national security; to create the jobs of the future, and live longer, healthier lives.
This is one of the many reasons why I voted for President Obama, and so far he has not disappointed.

Peace, y'all.
Marius

Episode 10

Episode 10 of Starbase 66 is on line! Is off screen douchbaggery a hindrance to our enjoyment of certain stars? And in the newest Admiral's Table I sit down with Duke who works with cutting edge medical equipment to talk about how close we really are to Dr. McCoy's sickbay.

Starbase 66

Weird Week

This has been one weird week. Sunday was fab. Had a nice, relaxing day, then recorded a fun podcast that night. Then the week kicked in. Monday was, well, Monday, and when I lay down at 7:30 to take a power nap, in preparation for our usual 8:30 City of Heroes night, I didn't wake up until midnight. Tuesday my wife didn't quite get her alarm turned off and I was awakened at 2:15 and never really got back to sleep. Wednesday I had to take her in to work at 3am, so by 7:30pm I was too tired to do anything, and was in bed by 8.

Thursday, however, was great. I still had to get up at 0-dark-30 to take the missus in to work, but I then picked her up at noon to go see Spamalot! For Valentine's Day I wanted to get her tickets to see the touring production of the Monty Python musical, and was prepared to bite the bullet and drop nearly $100 on the evening, when what to my wondering mouse clicks did appear but a very rare $20 Thursday matinee!! So I picked up my lady from work, and we went into Tampa to see a show. Parking was easy...too easy I later discovered, and we had an hour to get some lunch. We found a pleasant little corner pizza place and got a couple of slices, then wended our way back to the performing arts center. Our seats were in the front row of the balcony, which turned out to be very good seats. I occupied myself with checking out all the lighting equipment that was right in front of us, and then the show started. Some of you will recall that I had the great good fortune to see the original cast in NYC a few years back, so this was a trip down memory lane for me. This show was lots of fun, and I grinned like an idiot through most of it. It was, however, a shadow of the original. The cast was doing a great job, but how can anyone compete with Hank Azaria, David Hyde-Pierce, and Sara Ramirez? I will say this, though. I have been quoted as saying that Tim Curry was the weak link in the NY cast, and while I think that Richard Chamberlain, who plays Arthur in this tour, did a superior job, I was still dissatisfied. And I think I know why. I used to have Monty Python and the Holy Grail recorded on a cassette tape that I would listen to on long drives, and so every syllable of the movie is etched into my brain. It would seem that no one yet can compete with Graham Chapman's performance of Arthur in my mind. The rest I can get around, but Chapman was just so...so...gahh! I can't think of the appropriate term, but he just was Arthur. It's hard to describe. In any case the character is the straight man in the show and movie(which is ironic if you know anything about both Chamberlain and Chapman) so it doesn't ruin any of the jokes. So if the show comes to your town, and you can spare the sheckles, give it a watch. You won't be disappointed. Oh, and as for the parking, the garages in Tampa are using a pay system where you pay at a machine before you get in your car, then put swipe your ticket at the gate to get out. It does just the opposite of streamlining the process, and it took nearly 45 minutes to get out of there after the show, but it was still worth it.

Friday went well, and I actually finally got my interview with Duke(no, I didn't forget to post it, dude) edited. Depending on how long the next episode of Starbase 66 runs after I edit it I'll either put in the main show, or post it as a stand-alone later next week. I'm also one step closer to my interview with Dr. Laurence Krauss as he emailed me about when we'll do it.

And so that's what's up with me. How're you?

Love and kisses,
Marius

Grammatical Quandaries

So just before I turn in, I got to pondering a couple of linguistic conundra:

1. Is 'politics' singular or plural?

2. If one uses the initials for a thing, such as ATM or LCD, and one is referring to only one of said initialized thingy, does the choice of 'a' or 'an' depend on the consonant or vowel in the initialization, i.e. 'an ATM', or on the actual first word, i.e. 'a LCD' since the first word is really 'Liquid'?

Ok, now you won't be able to sleep either. You're welcome.
:-D

Marius

Uh, Sorry.

Ok, yesterday's post was rife with teh suck. First of all, very little of it was even remotely interesting, and second I was fairly buzzed when I wrote it. That's a bad combination. Of the events listed only the cosmic balancing act of Duke's visit(yay!) and the car's brake job(suck!) were pertinent. The rest was just Newcastle inspired drivel. Pray accept my humblest apologies.

I never thought that the following words would ever escape any form of expression instigated by yours truly, but it must be said that I actually miss George Bush. Now don't go calling the guys in white coats just yet. What I mean is that politics has/have(I never know if 'politics' is a singular or plural noun) gone back to normal. And in this case normal = boring. Barak Obama seems to be doing his best to get the nation, and by extension the world, back on track economically, but the details of said efforts are about as exciting as a date with Alan Greenspan. Even the partisan bickering between the 'we won't agree to anything that the Democrats come up with' Republicans and the rest of the non-brain dead people in Congress isnt' very exciting. It's just the typical Neocon mating cry, "Cut Taxes!" Well, since W's final fuck you to the Marius household was a higher tax bill than any I've paid before, I'm not too sympathetic with those who feel the tax burden on the wealthy is too high.

WAKE UP!!!!!! I'm sorry, I should know better than to go off on an economic tear. I promise I won't put you to sleep again. This will, hopefully, be a good week. Thursday the missus and I will be going to see Spamalot! with, according to the billboards, Richard Chamberlain as King Arthur. Hopefully he'll rock the part(although being as it's a Thursday matinee I wouldn't be surprised if we saw an understudy). I will, of course, give you lovely folks a full report after.

Ok, that's all for now. May this first week of March be a groovy and productive one, unless you actually have time off, then may it be groovy and restful. In any case take care, y'all. :-)

Marius

So Anyway

It's been a good weekend. It didn't start off that way. I was supposed to go away to an SCA event Saturday morning to witness the stepping down of one of my dearest friends from the position of baron of the Gainesville chapter, and the investiture of another one of my dearest friends into that self-same position. And I was going to do some fighting. But I fear I may have talked about this venture within earshot of my car, and she decided that she did not feel like driving three hours out into the wilds of North Central Florida. Instead she informed me on Friday afternoon, in no uncertain terms, that unless a brake job were performed immediately we would not be going anywhere. So, no event. But Friday night Duke, yet another of my oldest and dearest friends(I am blessed with an abundance of such people in my life)was in the area, so he came over and we drank beer, talked comic books and Star Trek, then he treated me to dinner. Much beer was consumed, and a bit was recorded for the podcast(out on Wednesday). I have to confess that my neurosis about interacting with people grows annoying. I found myself trying to come up with reasons to postpone or cancel the get-together, but it was such a comfortable and fun evening I'm glad I did not. Why am I trying to become a hermit?

Saturday found me cracking open my computer to hook up my old hard drive so I could retrieve the pictures that languished there, and then reformat it in preparation for its new home in Frankenputer. The only snag in the plan is that the copy of Windows Vista Basic I ordered has gone on back order. But on the plus side, Targon has a LCD monitor for me. I just need to find a time to get back down to West Palm. Hopefully during Spring Break I can take a couple of days to go down there. Then we went to CiCi's Pizza. The COA likes it there, and it is all you can eat, but the offerings last night were mediocre at best. But it was filling. Also Duke loaned us his copy of Watchmen, so I'll have it read before the movie comes out later this year.

Today was laundry, and beer day. And blogging day. And that's about it. What are you doing today?

Marius the uninteresting.

Episode 9

After a thorough analysis of last week's show, it was decided that it was just too serious. By way of remedy this week, much silliness ensues.

Wrong, wrong, wrong...but funny.

Episode 8

This week we discuss whether being a SciFi fan makes one more or less prone to believe in the unbelievable. Plus another peek into PandoRo's Box, and a field report from Alice,in Australia.

Starbase 66

Twitter Ate My Life!

So, yeah, I disappeared again. I have a good excuse this time...sort of...well...not really, but I do have an excuse. twitter. No, I didn't forget my English lessons, twitter does not get a capital T. How does one explain twitter? Imagine a chat room that never closes, and has dozens of people in it, but you can only post in 140 character increments. A few weeks ago one of the Simply Syndicated forum members, and I cannot for the life of me remember who, invited me to join twitter. This is the same way I joined MySpace and Facebook, and the several other now-forgotten social networking sites. I never seek these things out, someone invites me to something I've never heard of, and out of courtesy I sign up, and wait for it to fall out of fashion so I can delete it. But twitter is the spawn of Satan, or the breath of the angels, or digital crack, or something. At first I couldn't imagine what I'd do with a twitter account. What did I have to say all day in little bursts. Well, as the list of people following me grew, and the list of people I was following grew slightly less quickly, I discovered just what a time-suck twitter is. Some people 'tweet' rather pedestrian things, 'I just had pancakes for breakfast', while others share a little too much, 'sugar puffs make your wee smell', but mostly it's like an ongoing conversation that you may take part in, but there is no obligation to. And unlike a chat room, everything tweeted gets saved, so most twitter users have pages of tweets to read when they...ok, I get out of bed, or get home from work, or pretty much any activity that keeps me from the computer for any length of time. There are also a lot of celebrities on twitter, but I found pretty quickly that following someone who has thousands of followers doesn't give you any better access to them than mailing a fan letter does. Your attempt to contact them is as lost in the sea of tweets as if you were shouting at them from across a crowded mall. Now the only celeb on my list is George Takei, and he hasn't said anything in a couple of weeks.

The news is unrelentingly boring lately. This whole economic crisis is massively uninteresting, especially when you realize that none of the people in charge seem to have a clue what needs to be done. Everyone has a theory on how to pull us out of recession, and everyone seems to think that everyone else's idea is crap. On the up side, at least NPR has stopped doing stories on how much it sucks to live in China.

Battlstar Galactica and The Sarah Connor Chronicles are continuing to kick ass, in my opinion. I fear for the latter show, though. Fox has moved it to the Friday night Time-Slot-Of-Death. I just hope that in this age of the DVR and TiVo that time slots no longer have much meaning. At the very least I hope that if the show gets canceled they get enough warning to wrap things up, and not leave us hanging.

And in my celebrity news, Dr. Laurence Krauss, author of numerous books including this one:

has agreed to let me interview him for Starbase 66. We haven't arranged a time yet, as he is extremely busy, but I'll keep you all posted. I am both excited and terrified. This will be my first 'real' celebrity interview, and I am a bit...no, make that really nervous. :-)

And that's all from chilly Florida(there's ice on my neighbor's car this morning). I'll be back soon with more irrelevant blather.

Peace,
Marius

For My Techie Peeps

I've always said the Shure SM58 microphone is the toughest little mic around, and this video proves me to not be indulging in hyperbole.(with thanks to Weathereye for posting this on his blog)

Post VD Meme Thingy

Since creativity and originality are so last century, here's a little 'couple's quiz' I swiped from Mdme. Stinkypaw. Feel free to steal it from me, should you wish.


What are your middle names? Ozzy and Harriet(and I ain't telling who's who)

How long have you been together? 7 years or so.

How long did you know each other before you started dating? Before we started dating, a few weeks. That's why I asked her out, to get to know her.

Who asked who out? Please refer to the previous answer, already in progress.

Whose siblings do you see the most? It's pretty even, since they both live in other states, but I guess we see her brother just a bit more than mine.

Do you have any children together? Not yet, but her daughter keeps us plenty busy.

What about pets? Artemis and Starbuck, the two Kitties-O-The-Apocalypse(tm)

Did you go to the same school? Yes, actually. We met at FAU.

Who is the most sensitive? Her, I suppose. Neither of us are particularly emotional.

Where do you eat out most as a couple? Taco Bell(sad, yes I know).

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Savannah, GA.

Who has the craziest exes? Well, with the exception of those of you who grace me with your visits here, me. (Sometimes I think the term 'bat-shit crazy' was invented by someone who followed my love life a little too closely)

Who has the worst temper? Alas, that would be me.

Who does the cooking? Up until last week it was mostly me, but after an...um...intense debate she now handles dinner, while I handle breakfast and lunch.

Who is more social? We are both kinda hermitlike, but I'm more active online, so I guess me.

Who is the neat freak? Those of you who know me in person will find this statement terrifying...I'm the neat one.

Who is the most stubborn? While I don't put any stock in astrology, I can be quite the stereotypical Taurus.

Who hogs the bed? Oddly enough we both tend to stay on our sides of the bed.

Who wakes up earlier? For work...her. On days off...me.

Where was your first date? I took her to an Irish pub in Delray Beach, then we went to the beach and hung out(actually made out) until the wee small hours.

Who has the bigger family? She comes from a Southern Baptist family. There are at least a million of them.

Do you get flowers often? Once, I think.

How long did it take to get serious? I'm not sure, it was kind of a gradual thing.

Who eats more? Bo shuda!

Who sings better? I do, I think. She doesn't sing much so it's hard to tell.

Who does the laundry? Currently, since we only have the one car and she can't drive mine(it's a stick) me.

Who’s better with the computer? Definitely me. I've taught her how to turn it on, and how to change her wallpaper, but beyond that she gets lost.

Who drives when you are together? Mostly me.

Who picks where you go to dinner? It's a joint decision.

Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong? We're both pretty good about that kind of thing, once it's proven.

Who wears the pants in the relationship? Mostly me(though I'm told I look ok in a kilt).

Who has more tattoos? Me.

Who eats more sweets? She wins this one.

So yesterday was actually rather nice. I surprised Mrs. Marius with tickets to Spamalot! and she gave me season three of Stargate: SG1. We're hopeless romantics, what can I say. Then we went to dinner at a new Mexican restaurant in town. The food was adequate, if a bit pricey, and the busboy who brought us our entrees screwed up and swapped our order and the table's next to us. In his defense we had both ordered fajitas and enchiladas, but ours were supposed to be steak and chicken, not chicken and cheese. But our server, and the manager, were very apologetic and fixed it right away, and then comped us dessert. The flan was like a slice of Heaven, and even if I had been upset at the screw up, it would have made things all better. Then we went home and watched Battlestar Galactica(damn, this show is awesome) then went to bed at the same time...and that was the real special thing for the holiday. We almost never go to bed together.

What did you do for Valentine's day?

Marius

Episode 7

This week we are joined by Mindy from The Devil and Miss Mindy podcast to talk about The X-Files. Do you want to believe?

Starbase 66

I've Been Interviewed

The lovely and talented Ms. flurrious has sent me some interview questions that I am to answer. And here they be:

1. I recently confessed elsewhere that I used to have a crush on Peter DeLuise of 21 Jump Street, despite the fact that also appearing on 21 Jump Street was Johnny Depp, about whom my reaction has always been: meh. So my question is, who is your most embarrassing celebrity crush and why did you like him or her? Please be excruciatingly specific. When I was twelve or thirteen I had a dream that I was married to Marie Osmond. That was the spark that ignited an all-consuming passion for the lady that lasted for at least a year or two. I carried a picture of her in my wallet, and never missed an episode of The Donny and Marie Show. I was sure she was singing to me, and even though she did not know me I knew that we were perfect for each other. It's a good thing there was no internet at the time so the extent of my stalking was to send her a fan letter that garnered no reply. Even today, when I see her on the tabloid or selling dolls on HSN I feel the faintest of wistful pangs in my gut.

2. You have six weeks to do with what you will. All of your work and family responsibilities will be handled by someone else (not me), and you have an unlimited expense account for your six-week break. The catch is that whatever you do, you have to do it by yourself -- no friends or family can accompany you. What will you do?I would spend a week in England, Egypt, and Greece, then two weeks diving the Great Barrier Reef, and finish up with a week in Vegas.

3. If you could have dinner with one person, living or dead, who would it be, what would you talk about, and what would you have for dinner? That's a toughie. Dinner itself would be steak with grilled mushrooms and onions, baked potatoes, steamed Brussels sprouts, and cheesecake for desert. As for who...I think William Shakespeare. I'd love to find out just how full of shit most Shakespearean scholars are when it comes to what he 'really' meant.

4. If you had it to do over again, would you choose the same career path? And do you see yourself in the same career forever, or do you have secret aspirations which you have never told anyone because you don't want them to laugh at you or tell you that you can't, and if so, would you please divulge your secret career aspirations now to the internet at large? Okay, thanks. I probably wouldn't change my career, but I might like to change the way I went about doing it. Like maybe getting my BFA in less than 8 years. As for super-secret aspirations, I'm afraid I'm not that interesting. I've always wanted to be a Marine Biologist, but I haven't the math skills.

5. I would like to poke [name of person other than me] in the eye, for the following reason(s):
Bill O'Reiley, because he's such a sanctimonious, self-righteous, hypocritical, ignorant spewer of half-truths and outright lies all wrapped up in the bogusness of "No Spin". At least Republitards like Hannity and Limbaugh don't pretend to be non-partisan. There's at least a little bit of honesty in them. Hey, can I use Anne Coulter to poke him?

And there you have it. Not very interesting, I'm afraid, but I'm pretty tired right now. If you want to put what you'd rather I said in that's cool. In fact, that would probably be a hell of a lot more entertaining. ;-)

Marius the Boring

Don't Forget to Bring Your Soul

Make your own church sign here, then tell me where to find it. :-)

Errata

If you have listened to the latest Starbase 66 you will have heard our roughest show yet. We recorded on the Thursday night before the Superbowl, instead of our usual Sunday night, due to the aforementioned game. We were all tired, and Kennedy's connection kept going out so he often could not hear Karen and me. There were several factual gaffes made that I thought I caught in my editing, but Duke just pointed out to me that during one of my tirades I actually said Greedo shot first. Let me be perfectly clear on this point...



Thank you. We now return you to your regularly scheduled life, already in progress.

Episode 6

In which we discuss Gene Roddenberry and George Lucas.

Starbase 66

Varmintally Speaking

Hi, Folkses!
We haven't heard from the Kitties-O-The-Apocalypse lately...well, to be honest I hear from them daily(usually well before breakfast time)...but you haven't, so here are some of their latest antics.

One night, as all was quiet and I was happily surfing the interwebz, I heard a sound that could only be Fatass squeezing himself into the only basket in the house that he had yet to sit in.





And this is why it takes me so long to edit my podcast! Both Artemis and Starbuck have figured out that they can demand more attention by parking themselves next to, and sometimes on, the keyboards. And when that doesn't work, they just give me a face full of kitty butt! :-(




Here they try to get me to read a Shannara book. Sorry, you guys are cute, but not that cute.


Not much is going on news-wise around here. Unless you count the struggle against the latest Cold From Hell(tm) as news. Actually, now that the coffee is kicking in, and my RAM is beginning to function, the fam and I spent a lovely couple of hours with our dear friend, and former student, Z yesterday. Due to her being in the midst of her senior year in high school we have had trouble finding time to get together, but the planets aligned just right and we were able to go to the local Borders and sip lattes and chat. She even graciously granted me an interview for the podcast. :-) Otherwise all is quiet on the Southern front.

How about you?

Marius

You Have Got To Be Kidding

I was just sent a link, via Twitter, to this site. I didn't go beyond the front page, where you can find even more pictures like those above. I know that the dogs aren't being harmed, but this just seems so very, very wrong to me, but I can't really put my finger on why. I guess if you want to have a pet chicken, or camel, or peacock go buy one. DON'T PAINT YOUR PETS!!!


Jim Morrison was right. People are strange.

Marius the Weirded-Out

Back From The Dead

Ugh! I asked the doctor yesterday if I'm just getting older, or are the bugs getting meaner. She woefully confirmed the latter.(and tactfully avoided the former.) Friday evening the missus and I planned to go check out the new Chinese take-out that opened down the street. As I was getting dressed her mom called(rarely a short conversation)and I settled in before the 'puter to surf. As the minutes ticked by I felt crappier, and crappier, til finally I vetoed the journey, opting for frozen pizza instead. The weekend was spent in mortal combat with billions of little armored rhinoviruses, and my forces seemed vastly outnumbered. Alas, no enjoyment of the Superbowl could be found(not that I really cared who won)but no beer was consumed either! Then, on Monday, I went to work. I thought, maybe, I might be getting better, but these crafty little bastards in my sinuses were just lying in wait. Monday night was a sweaty, yet fever-less ordeal of wakefulness and misery. Tuesday we had a meeting, so I girded my loins, and risked popping a vessel or two by taking some cold medicine(not a good thing for the ole' blood pressure) and went to work. By noon, at the insistence of my coworkers, I was homeward bound. I went to bed somewhere around 1pm, got up for dinner, and returned thence and stayed there til morning. I called the daktari and was seen yesterday afternoon(I did not go to work). Alas, as most of you know, there is little modern medicine can do against viruses, but she did give me the best thing available...ambien. I went to bed at 8:30 last night, and though there is still a helium balloon in my head, and Play-Doh in my sinuses, I feel much better. Never underestimate the healing properties of sleep.

In amongst all that this device, whose brain dump I have forestalled many times, finally gave up and needed a full re-format. It is such a pain, but I popped in the Season One of the X-Files that my Puddy gave me for Christmas, and the time flew by. I am nowhere near done reloading all the programs I need, but at least the intertubes are working properly again, and I can open Firefox. For the last few days only Internet Explorer would open, and I had forgotten how much I hate IE. If you haven't made the switch, Firefox is awesome.

On the podcasting front, the Starbase is getting rave reviews, and I thank all of you who have given us feedback. This is proving to be one of the most rewarding endeavors of my life, and I'm thrilled you like it. Please keep the suggestions and comments coming. You may have noticed the poll above about the background sound effects on the podcast. Please vote. Also, if you would like to join us on the show let me know what you'd like to talk about. We love having guests on the show, or at the Admiral's Table.

Ok, time to get the COA out of bed and into the launch tube.

Later, y'all!
Marius the Reborn

Episode 5, Guilty Pleasures

This week we discuss the movies and TV shows that we hate ourselves for loving.

Starbase 66