February 2007

Battlestar Renewed!
Submitted Tuesday, February 27, 2007 - 2:52:45 PM by Klaitu

Its official, BSG comin back for another season. There was some question of this since Sci-Fi decided to break up its powerhouse night and put BSG on Sundays. The ratings have continued to drop ever since.

Gateworld says:

The SCI FI Channel will renew Battlestar Galactica for its fourth year, the Los Angelese Times is reporting. The network is expected to formally announce the pick-up on Tuesday.

At least 13 new episodes will be produced this summer for a premiere next January, the paper said.

Fans of the critically-acclaimed series were given pause after the cable network's move of Galactica to Sunday nights failed to boost its ratings, which have dropped since Season Three premiered in October. (In its first two years, the show aired in the summer and winter alongside Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis).

Since changing nights in January, the show has averaged 1.7 million viewers overall, and 1.1 viewers in the coveted 18 to 49 age bracket.

"Battlestar is a cachet show," SCI FI head of programming Mark Stern said. "It gives us a lot of credibility with the creative community. It's the kind of series we want to continue producing in the future."

"I don't think we ever doubted doing another season," executive producer Ronald D. Moore said. "I design my season-ending cliffhangers with the hubris that we'll be back."

Read the full story now at LATimes.com. All-new episodes of Battlestar Galactica air Sundays at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on SCI FI, leading up to the March 25 season finale.

Leggo my Toilet Paper!
Submitted Sunday, February 25, 2007 - 5:22:26 PM by Klaitu

Rant mode: on!

Why the crap do they make enormous toilet paper rolls? You know, the jumbo size.. The kind that is a foot from side to side. What kind of monstrous Toilet paper holder do they think I have, anyway? I've only got so much clearance between the rod and the wall here, people. I can't stuff yards of material in between!

At any rate, I digress. My toilet paper is sitting on top of the toilet paper holder, because there's just no other way to go. Maybe in a couple days I will have whittled it down to where it will fit.

Shame on you, toilet paper manufacturers!

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles
Submitted Saturday, February 24, 2007 - 3:44:18 PM by Klaitu

I understand Robotech. I really do! Back in the 80s, they wanted to sell the toys in the US and needed an advertisement in the form of a cartoon series. Unfortunately, the cartoon that Robotech is based on, Macross, was short by about 60 episodes to run in syndication. What to do?

They ended up combining Macross with 2 other anime series that had similar artwork. The result is that the best characters, the one you start with get neglected about 1/3 of the way through the series, simply because the original characters never interact with characters who are in reality from an entirely different cartoon series.

For the last 20 years or so, people have been wondering "Whatever happened to Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes, and Max Sterling?" I mean, they explain it in the cartoon, they all went on a desperate mission in deep space, but we never actually SEE them do it.

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles is a continuation of that series. It introduces a plethora of new characters, about 10 in fact. How mahy returning characters are there? One. Rick Hunter appears on screen for about 2 minutes and is never seen again.

Now, that's not to say that Shadow Chronicles is a bad little film, it isn't. It's about what you'd expect from the cartoon series.. same kind of plot, fast-paced action, ridiculous love stories. It's all new characters doing the same things.

What I really want to see is the old characters, how they evolved. How are they different now than they were originally? What were they doing out in space for so long?

Shadow Chronicles introduces yet another alien race bent on conquering Earth. For those of you keeping count, that's the fourth alien race to attempt to do so in the series. Can we not come up with a new hook?

For the first time in Robotech, the spaceships are rendered in 3d. They move poorly, and are badly animated. I would tather have seen hand drawn ships, or at least 3d models made to look hand drawn. The style of the CG versus the style of the animation is very jarring.

As I said before, Shadow Chronicles isn't bad, it's worth a watch, but it could have been so much more. It certainly doesn't live up to the potential of the franchise.

Overall Score: 7 of 10.

I guess that's one way to do it..
Submitted Friday, February 23, 2007 - 4:35:41 AM by Klaitu

Recently you may have read a story about a Catholic church where someone went and taped CD players under the pews.

The CD players then proceeded to play burned CDs which, of course, blared their profanity and otherwise unacceptable-to-church content to the audience in attendance.

Until now it seems like a prank right?

Then the bomb squad shows up and BLOWS UP THE CD PLAYERS.

Why did they blow them up? Couldn't they just.. turn them off? Remove the batteries? Hit them with a rock?

Do profanity-laden CD players really require explosive ordinance? I wonder.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/22/church.foul.language.ap/index.html

Something for the Ladies
Submitted Wednesday, February 21, 2007 - 11:46:29 PM by Klaitu

YEEEAHHHHHH!!!

YEEEAHHHHHHHHHH!!!

YEEEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

http://www.thetoddtime.com

The Great Peanut Butter Plan
Submitted Friday, February 16, 2007 - 5:04:40 AM by Klaitu

You may have heard of the recent Peter Pan Peanut Butter recall scare. I didn't, until I was told at work about it.

Apparently, the CDC thinks that some peanut butter got contaminated by bacteria, specifically salmonella!

The recall affects Peanut butter with a lid marked "2111".

Well, guess what? I just got 3 jars of peanut butter with a lid marked 2111. Guess what? I ate one of em! Nothing happened!

To get money out of the recall, all you gotta do is send the lids in.

So, here's the Great Peanut Butter Plan:

Buy tons of peanut butter.
Eat tons of peanut butter.
Send in lids for refunds.
Buy more peanut butter with refund money!

Oh, and that whole salmonella thing? 300 cases in 39 different states related to the peanut butter scare. Your odds of contracting the bacteria? About 1 in 750 thousand.

I dont think I want THAT much peanut butter...

Giant Monitors
Submitted Monday, February 12, 2007 - 9:23:59 PM by Klaitu

Got myself a new monitor.. its WIDE, like super widescreen.

It's like fat albert wide!

and its pretty.

I just thought everyone should know! everything is much tinier now!

Commander Cody?
Submitted Saturday, February 10, 2007 - 4:56:01 AM by Klaitu

Yeah, you thought he was a Star Wars character.

Here's the REAL CommandO Cody!

http://video.scifi.com/player/?id=56608

Another One Bites the Dust
Submitted Friday, February 9, 2007 - 4:02:16 PM by Klaitu

Well, yours truly is now 0 for 4. Yet another girlfriend has counted me among her victims and left me by the wayside. I'm beginning to think this whole love thing is not for me. Maybe I should take up gardening or something.

I'm glad it works out for other people, but this process of investing lots of time, energy, and emotion into something, and then have the other person just gobble it all up and take off.. its not particularly fun.

So future ladies, if you wonder why I'm totally not dating you right now, there you go. If I am dating you right now, It means I was stupid and didn't listen to my own advice. It's alright, though, I know you're going to dump me too, I'm just hoping you won't. So, make sure you bilk me out of some extra cash or something before you pull the plug. That makes us guys feel extra special.

Then again, it's not about any of that at all, is it?