John Zeitler

It’s been a little unusual to see so many free episodes of TV series I actually care about being offered on iTunes lately. The two big ones have been Top Gear and Mythbusters; a relatively recent episode of the former and a positively ancient one of the latter. While I can understand on some level wanting to promote shows that are coming up on their new seasons in the next couple months (unless the BBC runs on a different season schedule than North America, and they’ve already started), it just feels kind of weird to think that there’s some huge rush to get these old and dusty ones and zeroes off of virtual store shelves in order to make room for the proverbial new hotness.

Everyone knows that ones and zeroes attract dust no matter where they are. That’s why the insides of computer cases are always so horribly filthy.

The White House has come up an awful lot in the media I’ve been consuming of late. For something like The West Wing, this is understandable. It’s also excusable in a couple of the games I’ve been playing, specifically Splinter Cell. It’s not really that I don’t want to see “the Residence”, but more of “wait, wasn’t I just here a minute ago?”.

Part of the reason why I try to avoid watching certain shows until long after they’re culturally relevant is because, innately and quite unhealthily at times, I have an in-built and deep-seated suspicion of anything that becomes too popular too quickly or too universally. In general I’ve noticed that, averaged out over my lifetime, I’m usually either six to eighteen months ahead of the curve on some things, or three to six years behind it. In short, and put into tropes, I’m susceptible to early-onset memetic mutation, and in cases where the meme doesn’t take hold I instead suffer from acute, prolonged, and chronic hype aversion. Neither of these things are in and of themselves bad. In point of fact it turns out that nine times out of ten this allows me to keep a dispassionate, critical eye while examining media.

But for the love of God, why didn’t people at least try to pressure me into watching The West Wing before this?! I haven’t TV-crushed on a series this hard since Babylon 5 (another one I got into nearly a decade late). Just… yeah. If this means I have to re-subscribe to more than just basic cable so I don’t miss something really good coming out this fall, then so be it.

This weekend was a flurry of activity, but most of it being involved in the home meant that even though it was very, very busy, it was still a welcome change from the torrent of draining errands I’ve had to spend my weekends on in the recent past. Now, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me at work, but it’s also a huge amount of stress off of my shoulders.

And yet now I find that I need to spend plenty of time watching The West Wing. Awesome.

I have a big long spiel percolating about the Lost finale and how it’s effected an era of television sci-fi that’s unprecedented since the 70s.

It’s going to have to wait until after I get through spending 50% of my waking hours at work.

(Oh, and yes, I damn well did use the right “affect/effect” word there. To “effect” something as a verb means to spawn or to provide impetus for. If you effect a change on something, you have also affected it, and the net effect is not an affectation, but an effective act.)

There were a couple more games today, but out in Vancouver there are a few more important games going on. A lot of people are somewhat disillusioned by the concept of the games, and I can certainly understand why; the world climate right now isn’t like it was in 1980, when tensions ran high and the world held its breath for miracles on and off the ice. I, of course, never saw that particular event. Still, I think there’s something fascinating about the Olympics. While the world isn’t going on hold like it used to, and while there’s no longer the same feeling that the games are sacrosanct (Munich and Atlanta showed that adequately, so we need no further demonstrations), I’m willing to believe that the people competing truly believe that the games foster a sense of international community. I’d like to believe that the games still serve their intended purpose.

Plus it’s the only time I ever get to see curling on American television. So there’s that.

NCIS was good (though Netflix needs to get off its ass and enable the season for streaming). CSI is shaping up to be just as good.

This is gonna be a great year for TV.

In lieu of showing you the really gory meme related to Bionic Commando ReArmed, I have elected to show you something else exploding. Head down there to find out what.

You know, sometimes I remember bits and pieces of the past. Sometimes I have clear memories of something that was, at the time, completely mundane, to the point where its details could be fudged to anything. Usually, when that happens, it infuriates me when I can’t remember everything exactly… or, worse still, when the only way to get the memory off my mind is to replicate it– say, watching a television show that’s quite possibly as old as I am, disregarding that the odds are stupid excessively against me having seen it in the first place.

So if anyone does happen to know if a complete series box for The Raccoons exists, I would be mighty grateful.

I finished up watching Moon Phase last night and this morning. Overall I liked the series, but overall it had some serious problems with pacing and staying even-toned. The constant whiplash between comedy and terrifying situations– for example, pans dropping on peoples’ heads during one of the major fights near the end– made it difficult to pay too much attention to it. However, taken as a whole, the series has some great moments, and it’s acted very well by everyone involved. If you can take the back-and-forthing, it’s worth a look. As I’d mentioned before I unfortunately trailed off, Full Metal Panic is next on the list. There’s certainly some whiplash involved there, but overall it sounds pretty darn good.

I’m also considering, once I’m through more of the anime list, going through Babylon 5 again– I’ve been watching bits of it here and there since last summer, only getting me near the end of Season 2, but it’s been a good use of time regardless.

The Collection page needs a serious update… however, I’m probably going to hold off on that until I’ve got everything documented in Delicious Library. What worries me most is that I may need to, eventually, add a third shelf– which requires not just putting it together, but likely a complete re-layout of my living room. I’ve honestly been meaning to do that for a while anyway, but I’d expected that I’d be in a different apartment when laying it out again… Ah well.

Catch you folks tomorrow.