The End of An Era

• October 28, 1994: Stargate is released by MGM and Carolco
• July 27, 1997: Stargate SG-1, a television series based off the 1994 movie is produced, airing on Showtime
• 2002: After five seasons of Stargate SG-1, Showtime drops the show and the Sci-Fi channel buys the rights and continues to produce more seasons
• September 14, 2002: The ill-conceived and ill-fated Stargate Infinity, a cartoon spin-off of SG-1 is launched
• March 24, 2003: After one season (26 episodes), Stargate Infinity is cancelled
• July 16, 2004: Sci-Fi launches Stargate Atlantis, a spin-off of SG-1, that takes place in the Pegasus Galaxy
• March 13, 2007: After 10 seasons and 214 episodes, Stargate SG-1 airs it's final episode
• March 11, 2008: Stargate: The Ark of Truth, a direct-to-DVD movie based on the SG-1 series is released
• July 29, 2008: Stargate: Continuum, the second direct-to-DVD movie based on SG-1, is released
• January 9, 2009: 100 episodes in 5 seasons sees the end of Stargate Atlantis
• October 2, 2009: The 9th chevron is dialed and the third live-action series of the Stargate franchise, Stargate Universe, is launched
• May 9, 2011: The 40th episode of Stargate Universe airs, bringing an end to the second season and the series itself
• 2011: With the cancellation of Stargate Universe, Syfy cancels other Stargate works in progress, bringing an end to the franchise

I cried. I didn't mean too, but later, as I was sitting around playing on the internet, I found tears in my eyes as I thought about Stargate. After 14 years of Stargate (17 if you count the original movie), it was over...the end. But it didn't mark just the end of Stargate. It marks the end of an era of great space-based sci-fi television shows. We lost Star Trek in 2005 with the passing of Enterprise. Battlestar Galactica (even though I wasn't a fan) and it's successor, Caprica (not space-based, but I was a fan), have both ended. We have Star War: The Clone Wars still, but it is a cartoon, and while I love cartoons, no animated series can stand up to a live-action one.

Sci-fi in general is almost dead, and for this I blame none other than the traitor network Syfy. The one station nerds had to their name has changed their name and done a brand reimagining, killing everything science-fiction and replacing it with wrestling and cooking shows. WRESTLING and COOKING SHOWS.

While it's true that we still have movies (Star Trek living on in it's horrible alternate universe, again in hopes of bringing in a different audience à la the Syfy channel), sci-fi TV is slowly spiraling down the proverbial drain. We still have many shows, the strongest being the seminal British hit, Doctor Who. Syfy also has four returning contenders to name, Eureka, Warehouse 13 (both of which are "comedic" light sci-fi), Amanda Tapping's post-Stargate series Sanctuary, and the Stephen King-based Haven, and one new series, Alphas. Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off, is said to be coming back. Fox is coming out with Terra Nova, but if Fox has proven anything, it is that it can't hold onto anything that isn't a cartoon (Firefly RIP 2002) or American Idol. And as I said before, there is the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. There are also the non-sci-fi side shows that nerds can appreciate, like the fantasy series Game of Thrones and the nerd sitcom The Big Bang Theory (and in my opinion, the fantasy-ish cartoon series Adventure Time). But I do not expect many of these to last.

Sanctuary, being mainly CGI, has high production cost, and despite it having it's best season to date, I expect the ever-increasingly-non-sci-fi-Syfy Channel to cancel it either mid-4th season or at the end of the 4th season. Alphas has something of a weak premise, sounding almost like a light superhero show, and if anything is true, superhero shows only score about 1-in-5 (Smallville, which is mainly a drama, and Hereos being two out of innumerable attempts). And as I said before, I don't think Terra Nova will last, just because it's on Fox.

But, all-in-all, none of these are space adventures. And if there is one constant of sci-fi that has been around since the Golden Age of Science Fiction (other than the robot), it has been space, and the exploration of, the adventures in, the tales about. It is a staple of science fiction that still has limitless potential. But, as of Monday, May 9th, 2011, no television programming.

Space. The final frontier. One frontier we seem to have abandoned. Farewell, old friend. I will remember you fondly through your reruns and stand vigil at the window, candle lit, waiting for you to return home.

All Sorts of Things

I can't sleep. Go figure. And I need to stop watching romantic comedies.

Conspiracy theory time. The CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, whoever and all of them, had info on terrorist movements in the US. Sure, sometimes something gets through without us knowing. I think the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 might have been one such thing. But they KNEW about the 9/11 attacks. And what did they do? Didn't prevent it, that is for sure. And you know why? They wanted it to happen. The government needed something to distract the people of the US from the debacle that is the election process. I mean, the 2000 elections? I couldn't write comedy like that. So, even though I don't think we had a direct hand in the 9/11 attacks, I don't think we prevented it when we could have. Maybe they thought it wasn't going to be as bad as it was? Maybe they thought it was going to be worse? Who knows, but what I do think is that we needed a villain, we needed a distraction, and we needed an excuse to get oil. The end.

I think I'm going to become a drunkard. It's the only course left to me, I'm afraid. My life is a meaningless shell of an existence. I have no ambition to change it, really. It's easier to not try. And all my contemporaries are pairing off... Cousin Joshua got married. Cousin Shane might as well be. Cousin John Patrick got married. Misti is dating Will. Raymond has a wonderful girlfriend in Krystal and a baby. Steven's married, Irish and Priscilla are together and about to have babies. All my internet friends, new and old, are with someone in some way. So I'm gonna find me a wife in Lady Liquor. Somehow. I'm poor, is the problem. I could just start eating nothing but sandwiches and use the rest of the money for booze, but then you would take my debit card away, right mom?

I miss being 18/19. I was living in Missouri, malnourished, under 200 pounds, drunk, stoned, partying all night and hanging out at the Cheshire Cat, the gaming store, all day. Then Sallisaw sucked me back in, and I've lost the last 7 or so years of my life. Down the drain. Meaningless, productiveless. All I have to show for that time is debt, a PS3, a failed relationship with a schizophrenic, and 300+ pounds. I don't want to go to my high school reunions (going to Central's and Sallisaw's). I'm going to go, but I don't want to.

This summer is going to rock in the movie department. The festivities kick off this week with Thor! The god of thunder, as envisioned by Marvel Comics, has finally come to the big screen. Also this summer will be Captain America, all leading up to an Avengers movie. Other awesomeness: Priest, The Hangover 2, Winnie-the-Pooh (back off, Pooh Bear's my man), Cowboys & Aliens, a remake of Fright Night, another version of The Three Musketeers, Conan the Barbarian, The Thing (a prequel), A Muppets movie, The Rum Diary (Johnny Depp in another Hunter S. Thompson movie), and A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas. That's just to name about half. Very exciting, can't wait!

I need a new computer. I wanna play all these new games, and my system can't run anything newer than '05! What a jip. I'm supposed to be a computer tech, and I'm stuck with something I wouldn't give a 5-year-old to play with. Oh well...

I'm off to try and beat this damn level of StarCraft that I've been stuck on forever now. Fingers crossed I don't get pissed and toss my PC to the storm.

Why the Death of Osama bin Laden is (Essentially) Meaningless

(Just a note before I start. NO ONE loves America more than me. I may be critical of nearly every process and institution put forth by this great country, but that is all the more reason I love it. No other nation in the world would allow us such freedoms that border on outright rebellion. Not only allow it, but pretty much encourage it. America is made for those of free minds and open hearts. I LOVE America, even if I disagree with it all the same.)

Let us start with a history lesson, if you will. September 11th, 2001 (Gregorian calender). Four flights are hijacked by members of a terrorist organisation. Two of these were flown into the World Trade towers in New York City, one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and one, possibly in route to D.C. as well, was brought down in Pennsylvania when passengers and crew fought back against the terrorists attempting to hijack the plane. In total, nearly 3,000 people, mostly Americans, were killed during the attacks and the subsequent rescue attempts. This was the largest and most successful terrorist attack on American soil to date. Al-Qaeda, led by one Osama bin Laden, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Due to these terrorist attacks, then President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, declared a "War on Terror", which spear-headed a movement within the American government which lead to such things as the 'USA PATRIOT Act' (which allowed the government to, among other things, track private communique in search for terrorists), the illegal arrest and detention of over 1,000 people at the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities, and the invasions of Afghanistan and (illegal and undeclared war on) Iraq. (There are many conspiracy theories to do with these terrorist attacks and the following invasions of foreign countries and American rights, but I will leave that alone for now and possibly make a post on it later.)

And now, to the actual point of this particular post. Why the death of Osama bin Laden is (essentially) meaningless. Al-Qaeda was formed in 1988 by bin Laden and other Islamic leaders to bring about a change in the Islamic world, to reinstate Islamic states and sharia law, which many felt had started to fade away. In order to do this, they believed they needed to remove non-Muslim influences from the Muslim people. Bin Laden's group took this a step further, calling for a global Jihad, to remove all non-Muslim influences from all lands bin Laden considered Islamic territory. The biggest target, of course, was the United States. (Needless to say, this wasn't just a random pick from a hat, as America has a need to stick its nose in everywhere and everyone's business...). Many attacks on America by al-Qaeda have taken place, the biggest being the 9/11 attacks. Bin Laden became the FBI's No. 1 Most Wanted. Millions of dollars were put on his head. And then, on May 1st, 2011, a special task force approved by President Barack Obama infiltrated a compound in Pakistan, and there killed and secured the body of Osama bin Laden. Millions in the USA, and around the world, applauded and wept in joy that this mad man was now dead. But for what reason?

The death of bin Laden is not only a small and insignificant occurrence, but it may actually be a bad thing. First off, the death of bin Laden does not mean the death of terrorism. We, as Americans, fight not only al-Qaedean terrorism, but terrorism from many other sources, including many bred upon American soil by American citizens.

Second, the death of bin Laden does not mean the death of al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda proper has, in the last several years, has been lead more openly and publicly by bin Laden's lackeys than bin Laden himself (who has been in hiding because, surprise, we were hunting him), many becoming just as powerful or more-so than bin Laden himself. And al-Qaeda isn't even the major problem that al-Qaeda presents anymore. (Wait, what? Just read on...) Al-Qaeda, those actually pledged to bin Laden, is a rather small group compared to those that are linked to al-Qaeda, terrorist groups that have no official ties to al-Qaeda, but still follow the idea of global Jihad and perform acts of terrorism in al-Qaeda's name.

Third, the death of bin Laden may actually be a bad thing. How can the death of the leader of a global terrorist organisation be a bad thing? Well, we probably just made a martyr of him. Imagine if some foreign nation invaded the White House and killed the President. (Wait, bad example, as many people, Republicans and bigots especially, would probably cheer...) Think back to when JFK was shot? Did the US crumble and fall apart? Did we just shrug our shoulders and move on? No, we hunted down and arrested the man responsible. Now, imagine if JFK were some radical religious leader who hated Lee Harvey Oswald with a fervor and passion? They would have most likely started hunting down and executing everyone Oswald was related too and every loved. Starting to see what I mean here? We may have just inadvertently fueled their religious hatred and Jihad against us, which could mean a rise in anti-American terrorism, home and abroad.

So, in the end, the point I am making is this. We just killed an ant. An ant wearing a religious crown, but what concern are ant politics to humans? None. We may have killed some figurehead, but we ended up doing nothing significant (save giving a sense of justice to people who mistakenly blame one man for all their ills), except possibly making things worse.

Go Team America.

Nights Like These...

Today was a good day. It started out alittle down, as Steven and I couldn't do our customary lunch of burritoes at Blue Ribbon Diner. But that was fine. We ate party pizzas instead, covered in gooey cheese. Then Cody came over and we spent the afternoon watching movies and just hanging out.

Around 4 or 5, Steve-O and Cody went to eat dinner at the Fullbright's. I went about preparing my own dinner. My mom had bought me some tenderised chuck steaks and a pineapple (which Steven had earlier cut up), and I still had some red onion and green bell pepper from my salad makings. The pineapple was really juicey and sweet, so I squeezed a few pieces of juice onto the steak and let them set about 15 minutes while I chopped up onion and bell pepper and sauteed them and the juiced pieces of pineapple in the frying pan. Then I cooked the steaks in the pan with the veggies (squeezing alittle more pineapple juice on the plated steaks topped with the veggies), warmed up the rest of my mashed taters from the night before, and had a nice steak dinner.

As I was finishing up, Steven and Cody came back over, and we watched the end of a documentary about SNL in the first 10 years of the 21st century. Then...because HBO had a free weekend...we killed all the lights, sat back with some drinks (Steven and I finished off some sour apple pucker, Cody had some Wild Turkey), and watched the premiere episode of HBO's Game of Thrones. All these weeks of anticipation payed off. This series is by far the most excellent program on TV at the moment. And we have 9 more weeks of it in the first season! So it's going to be a good summer for us three, watching this program.

As I envision it, it's going to be a nice summer, with long days and nights cooking out and hanging with Steven. My mom's going to be living here, and most likely my brother, Krystal, and my niece. A ton of good super-hero movies in theatres. A very good summer, I should think.

Next week, Easter! I will be going with my mom and possibly my sister up to see Ray Ray and them. I can't wait. I love my niece so much, I hate having to wait a month each time to see her!

A Long Wait Is Better Than An Eternal One

Yeah, yeah, I haven't posted in awhile, despite what I said. I'm not good with blogging. Plus, I do nothing, so there really isn't much to blog about. Anyways...

So, two nights ago, and the night before that, I had the most wonderful sleeps. Like, sleep like a normal person would have. After Steven and Cody left, I was extremely tired (I've been getting up around 4 or 6 in the morning, so come 8 or 10 at night, I'm tired), so I went to bed, lay down, and woke up 8-10 hours later.

Let me repeat that for you. 8 to 10 hours. Now, for a normal person, I'm sure this is nothing. But I suffer from both insomnia and severe sleep apnea. On top of that, I usually wake up every 2 hours to take a pee. 8 or 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep is unheard of for me. I was so well rested...

Last night I got four hours in, so I'm wondering if my blissful nights are over now. But it could of also been the way I fell asleep last night, sprawled sideways, on the bed on top of the covers, with the ceiling fan on full. Four hours like that and I had one arm numb from hanging over the bed and both my feet freezing cold.

Let's see, what other news? Oh, I had my first gaming session of my new campaign Monday night. I'm running a Pathfinder (Dungeons & Dragons, pretty much) online Monday nights. Unfortunately, only 2 of my players made it, so we didn't actually do any gaming. We just discussed my campaign world and Pathfinder rules they were unfamiliar with. Fingers crossed the other players show up next session. I put too much work into this friggin' thing to have it go bum up on me.

Friday, Steven, Cody and I are going to go see Your Highness. It is sure to be hilarious. Danny McBride, James Franco, Zooey Deschanel, and Natalie Portman. If only all movies had such a line-up. I'll see y'all after the movie and tell you how it was.

My Niece

I got about three hours sleep. Now I am up. Have been about 2 hours. I'm trying to organise stuff on my hard drives and clear up some space because I am dangerously low. I'm just not into it though. *sigh* I just need more external drives...

Ray Johnny and Krystal and Ben and Hendrix and Cailyn are coming down this week. It's been almost a month since my niece was born and I've got to see her. They'll be in Tulsa most of the time. Krystal just said it might not be until Tuesday they come down here to Sallisaw. I don't know if I can wait!

It doesn't feel like a Sunday. And it's cold. Stupid late winter weather. Maybe I'll try and go get some more sleep so I can stay awake when Stephen comes over. Who knows...

Weeds

I really don't have anything to write about. Mainly I'm just procrastinating because I don't want to do other stuff, like work on my D&D campaign or wash laundry. Maybe I should just go lay down and try to get some sleep. I didn't really sleep last night. I lay down and couldn't sleep. So I stayed up watching NCIS on the DVR and then season 6 of Weeds, which I recently downloaded. Season 6 really brought the series back around and made it enjoyable again. I'm looking forward to what happens next. Anyways, so I got about an hour sleep before Steven came over, then I was up again after he left. Though, I did start to watch more recorded TV and got about 3 hours snoozing on the couch. I'm still tired though. I don't know. I really need to make some maps and notes for the game...laundry I'll do when I wake up. *shrug*

Damn You, Galactus!

Today I watched 2 new movies (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Switch), and didn't see the end of either. I must have been really tired, since I kept passing out watching them. I'll just spend some time later at my computer and skip ahead to what I saw and finish them.

Right now, my hands are cramping, especially my right hand. I've been playing videogames for the last, oh, 4 or so hours. First was Homefront, an FPS in which Koreans have conquered the US in the 2020's, and you join the resistance and get to shoot Commies. Shooting Commies is always a good thing. And then I was playing Marvel vs. Capcom 3, the main reason for my hand cramps. Fighting games always do that to me.

So I'm gonna go have some dinner, watch Sunday night cartoons, and soak my hand in hot water.

All My Favourite Things

I have determined to try and write at least one post a day. I forgot yesterday, but since I double-posted on Day 1 of The Blog, I'll use it as an excuse to miss. Anyways, I was thinking about great services and inventions the other day, so I have compiled a list of some of my favourite services/inventions/programs invented/improved since I was born...so 28 year span. And I'm not going to be talking about things like personal computing and cell technology, I'm going to talk about things that I love that makes my life personally more awesome. I don't know how many things are going into this list, so I have no idea how long it will be. I'll try not to prattle on as I have wont to do. Also, these aren't in any order, such as awesomest to least awesomest or anything. They are just listed as I think of them.

* GameFly! Ho-ly shit. I love GameFly. If GameFly were a woman, I would make it my bride. Renting games has always been a hassle. It costs to much, all the new games are never in, you have to drive to town, stupid due dates... With GameFly, all these things are no longer a problem. Sure, I still have to pay, but $25.00 a month for 2 games out with unlimited rental time is way cheaper than $8/game/5-day rental. And they come to my mailbox. And if I am smart and paying attention, I can have new games on or even sometimes before their official street date release. I love GameFly!

* BitTorrent! For those that don't know, I'm a pirate. I believe in the freedom to own information...for free. Because I'm generally poor, since I don't work and all that. So I download what I want off the internet. Movies, music, books, etc. All of it. And then along came torrent files, and my downloading activities became a thing of simplistic beauty. Now I can pause or stop big downloads if I wish to do something else, then continue them again later. If there is a large file with a bunch of other files in it, I can generally pick and choose which ones I want, leading to optimised disk space and download times.

* .cbr/.cbz and C-Display! I am a huge comic nerd. I love comics. I hate being poor and not being to pay for comics. But now, I don't have too! I can just find scanned in comics and download them. And with C-Display and it's formats, I don't have to flip through several images in some standard viewer. It has options that allows me to view multiple pages, multiple buttons to flip pages, I can zoom in and out... Yeah. I may hate reading books on my computer, but until I find an eReader that allows C-Display, I don't mind reading comics on my computer. At least I'm getting to read them.

* eReaders! OMG, I love my eReader. Best. Gift. Ever. Again, money, poor, can't buy, so now I can just download books, put them on my eReader (I have a Big Lot's slicK.) and just take them with me where ever I go. It's alot more handy than trying to take my computer to bed with me.

* DVR! I hate commercials, plus, I'm bad with schedules. Throw in the fact that TV usually zonks me out, and watching nightly shows is just a bad idea for me. Now, I just set up my programs to record, and come back later to watch them. Oh, and I can fast forward through commercials!

That is all I can think of right now, plus I have a new game in from GameFly and its siren call is luring me away.

They Say It's Control Issues...

So, as it turns out, I was diagnosed with an eating disorder. I have non-purging type bulimia nervosa. Pretty much what happens is I starve myself for periods at a time, then binge eat to deal with the hunger pains. Then the cycle starts over again. For awhile now, I have had this under control. I just make sure I eat 3 meals a day whether I am hungry or not. Lately though, I find myself lapsing into my old ways. It's an unconscious thing. My therapist said it had to do with control issues, that the only thing I felt I had control over was when I ate. All I know is that it is annoying that I can't remember to friggin' eat when I wake up, that I get so distracted doing other things that my mind wanders away from food until my stomach is aching from not eating. I have been controlling part of it. I have been avoiding binge eating, even if I still feel hungry after eating my breakfast meal, and then eating 2 more meals throughout my waking day. I just worry that if I can't get my lack of attention under control I may go back to my old ways of not eating for a day or two, then gorging myself unto sickness. I guess they don't call it a disorder for nothing though...

Nebulous Meanderings

Sometimes thoughts come to me unbidden. Rare are these that are of the mundane and everyday. Most often than not, they are weird, fantastical, even grotesque in nature. They just find their way into my brain, as though on wisps of ethereal air blown through my mental netting.

"Would a reverse mermaid be able to breathe air?" "What does horse/dog/cat/human/turtle taste like?" "Are carrots sentient and does it hurt them to be pulled from the ground?"

Sometimes I tune into thoughts or conversations in the middle, like waking into a dream. I don't know how I got there, but I am there now, the beginning being the middle and seeming natural. Of course, I cannot leave these thoughts unthought, so I track down the rest of the story, listening to ending or making it up myself. Occasionally I backtrack, trying to imagine what the first was like, what led to the strange mid-thought thought.

The question then comes to me, "Am I hearing thoughts that surface from the black abysmal depths of my unknown subconscious, or are these things I am thinking about at the back of my waking mind, and only just now paying attention to what I am thinking?"

Occasionally a thought is so wonderful or hilarious or even curious enough that I forget myself for awhile and follow it down the yellow brick road of my imagination, forming for it a prize story. But I've already talked about that, and repeating oneself is either for crazy people or parents, which are usually crazy anyways, at least with children like me around.

Forgetting Oneself

For moments in my life, I forget who I am. I have never had a strong grasp on reality, on the here and now. Time and distance elude me. But in those moments when I am not me, at least not the real me, all of space and time are within my grasp.

Within my mind, I find I am many things. I child full of wonderment, excited to see the world for the first time. A father, grandfather, husband, provider, caretaker. A man of influence and renown. I forget who I am and live who I want to be. I find myself doing this many times a day. Imagining what could have been, what would be, mayhap even what should be. And then reality invades again, and I forget these other things, only to dream them back into existence later.

Many times I lose the world of reality to that of fantasy. I have always been a fan of the fantastic, a great lover of fantasy and science-fiction prose. And in mine mind, I have an infinite number of worlds, each teeming with life and swirling to life out of the general haze of consciousness. These are not my worlds, my lives, my would-be realities. These are the stories of others, men, women, beings, begging to be told, whispering unto me the secrets they hold in their hearts and minds. And I see it all, as though some mythological god, omniscient to their realities.

Despite my penchant for making up such wonderments, I am unable to put them to paper. Call it short attention span, call it inability to write prolonged works effectively, the truth is, I am unable. Were I able, I like to think I could be published, eventually having my works displayed alongside such idols as Stephen King, George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, etc., etc. But there I go again, forgetting who I am and thinking on what I could be.

But then again, who doesn't dream of such things now and then?