Terminator 2: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Posted on January 5, 2008 by Brian under Reviews.
Recently, I was honored with a screening of the new “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” TV series that will air on Fox with a special two night premier on January 13 and 14. This small screen adaptation of the widely popular “Terminator” franchise fills in the gap between the 2nd and 3rd Terminator movies. It tells the story of Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and her quest to stop Skynet and the destruction of humanity. While giving us a glimpse of the steps she takes to train John (Thomas Dekkerin) to be the leader of the resistance in the event that she fails. In this pilot episode, she is still running. Not content with the destruction of the man and the labs responsible for creating the machines. She is still haunted by a strong feeling that she will never be safe. Her fears are realized when a Terminator unit tries to kill John in his class room but is saved by a second Terminator unit named Cameron (Summer Glau) (a girl in his new school that he thought was interested in him for other reasons) who was sent to protect him. To top it all off, she is being perused by an FBI agent named James Ellison (Richard T. Jones). He is determined that Sarah is crazy, a threat to everyone and should be locked away for eternity. In the pilot you can see that Agent Ellison is beginning to realize that there are some things going on that he can not quite understand and is beginning to question weather Sarah is really crazy or in over her head. Originally, when I saw the previews for this series I was a little frightened that it might be cheesy and that the special effects would not translate well to the small screen. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of technical precision that was put into the make up and special effects. In one scene the Terminator unit that tries to kill John cuts his leg open to retrieve a gun hidden inside. The exposed endoskeleton that was shown was impressively detailed and didn’t look cheap at all. Other recent TV adaptations of films like “Flash Gordon” have been seriously lacking in not only the special effects department but in the writing as well, coming off very campy and almost child like in its approach. “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” is a good example of what movie adaptations should be like, allowing the writing and special effects to draw the viewers into the story instead of just simply relying on the popularity of the films to bring the viewers in. I think that if Fox keeps up this level of quality with the other episodes then they will be contenders with other Sci-Fi based series like “Heroes”, “The Bionic Woman” and “Stargate Atlantis”.
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Things To Do Before You Die
Posted on January 5, 2008 by Ching under Life, Sponsored Post.
I have a 43 things account in which I catalog the things I’ve done, am doing, and want to do someday. I recently found out that Cannady Girl has her own list on 43 things. I’m pretty sure everyone has a list. Whether they post it online and share it with the world or whether on paper in a top secret diary or whether just in their mind, everyone has a list of things to do before they die.
My list hasn’t been updated in a long time and consists of 32 things completed and 32 more things to do. My “maybe someday” list includes:
- Playing poker in Las Vegas
- Getting an MBA (I’m almost done with this one)
- Retiring young (working diligently on this one)
- Paying off my student loans (dreadful)
- Go hot air ballooning
- Publish my memoir
- Experience the Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Go parasailing (preferably someplace tropical)
- Travel to Europe
- Go skydiving
- And so on..
You get the picture. Well there’s one more thing I want to experience. I wanted to share it with you before adding it to my list. It is the National Finals Rodeo (NFR), also known as World Series of Rodeo or the Super Bowl of Rodeo. I’ve only seen this stuff on TV and from the comfort of my couch, it looks pretty exciting. Just imagine what it would be like to actually be there, in the stands!
For those of you who are not familiar with NFR, it is sponsored and organized by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). There are seven major events: bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, bull riding, barrel racing (an event exclusive to women). Now, there are many rodeos held throughout the nation but why settle for one of the smaller events. If I’m going to put something on my “maybe someday” list, it’s going to be the grand daddy of them all. I’m going to go check out the NFR.
National Final Rodeo tickets are not cheap by any means. This is the World Series of Rodeo after all. You’ll also need gambling money. Who doesn’t gamble when they’re in Vegas? And lodging money, and food money, and souvenir money, yadda yadda yadda… The trip can be pretty expensive, specially if there’s more than one of you going such as in our case (Brian and I go everywhere together). However, if you start saving today you’ll have more than enough for the event which will be held later this year, during the month of December. That’s our plan anyway.
So, what about you? What’s on your to do list?
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Stargate Atlantis Premier
Posted on January 4, 2008 by Brian under Reviews.
Tonight was the premier of the new season of Stargate Atlantis. I have to say that this was one of their better openings. The alliance between the Wraith and the Atlantis team proved to be a worth while venture and the added support of the drift folks that Shepard ran into a few episodes back turned out to be a pleasant surprise. However, I have a feeling that Shepard’s little crush is going to pose a serious threat in the future. She has proved to be a very devious and cunning adversary and now that she knows the location of Atlantis I foresee her trying to exert her new found power over the team. As will be the Wraith that fled the battle in the end, you have a Wraith high guard out their that controls his own fleet of hive ships that knows the location of Atlantis, can we say security threat. And lets not forget the surprise ending that i am sure left some jaws dropping. The presence of Dr. Elizabeth Weir on an Ancient battle cruiser with her own crew and this announcement of a plan proved to be very interesting. The question now is, which Weir is this, the one that volunteered to be decoys or the Weir that is supposed to be dead. Hopefully the next few episodes will shed some light on that and help to unfold the mysterious plot that she is going to set in motion. All-in all, the series premier was very excellent and the visual effects were stunning as always, it gave be goose bumps to see that fleet of ships jumping into hyperspace. As I had stated before, I hope the creative team of Stargate Atlantis will continue with this momentum and provide even more exciting and complex story arc’s. I look forward to the future episodes and I am sure I will have more to say about the series later.
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Ching’s New Bag
Posted on January 4, 2008 by Ching under Toys, Wishlist.
I finally got my Sausalito Tote from Franklin Covey. It went on sale! Woo hoo! I love this time of year!
It took two gift cards Jenni (she gave me one for my birthday and then another for Christmas) and the gift card I got from my CSRs, and then fifteen dollars and change from Brian. After all that I got my bag. It is absolutely perfect. It is just like my black one on the inside. It’s got lots of compartments inside to help keep you organized.
Anyway, I thought I would share. Have a great weekend, everyone!
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Day One of Cleaning the Office
Posted on January 2, 2008 by Ching under Life.
That office is a bottomless abyss of junk. I seriously thought it would be completely empty by now. We only got as far as moving the bookshelf out. Why? Well, we had to decide which books were to keep, to give away, and to throw away. It wasn’t quite so simple, though. The books to keep had to be sorted between two categories: to keep out right now because it is useful and to keep in the box to take with us to the new place. Then the books to give away had to be sorted into even more categories; the categories being the people we want to give the books to and Goodwill. The simplest pile was the throw away pile.
Then we came across some old pictures. Brian ooh’d and aah’d and oogled at how thin he was (and you all thought it would be me doing this). He was so thin way back when he actually had a picture where he looked like a meth addict. I reassured him that he looks much healthier and much better now. Anyway, we observed that he was really thin back then but he didn’t appear to be so because I was somewhat thin also. We were both thinnish together so we matched. If I were as big as I am now back then, we would be mismatched. In a way I’m kind of glad that we grew fatter together. LOL.
We also came across Brian’s year book from middle school. He made sure he pointed out all of his nerdy friends and old girlfriends. He was so nerdy back then. His friends were even nerdier, though! LOL. So something as simple as clearing a bookshelf that would take normal people ten minutes at most took us an hour.
I didn’t help matters any, though. I came across an old journal and started reading. Brian had to get me to stop. I like reading old journal entries. It reminds me of how I was; how we were. Here’s the journal entry that I started reading. This never made it online. This was top secret stuff back then (if it’s on paper, it’s top secret and not to be shared with anyone), something that Brian hasn’t even read I’m sure. So he’ll be reading it for the first time here with you guys.
August 29, 1999
I sit here at work, tummy satiated (full of Brian’s mother’s roast beef) and heart content, pondering the nature of my gratifying relationship with the most wonderful man I’ve ever known. For the first time in my life I’m truly happy. I’ve never felt this way before about anything, anyone. I couldn’t be any happier…
But deep down I harbor this fear; a fear of the unknown. I keep it from Brian because I don’t want to worry him. I want to preserve his joy. My world is whirling… events in my life are happening faster than I can sort them out in the filing system within my mind.
Our relationship is progressing much faster than either of us both anticipated; faster than I ever imagined possible. We talk about living together, having children, and eventually getting married someday as though we’ve been a couple for months, years even. And yet we’ve been dating for only two months. We share this bond, this connection… an uncommon affinity for one another… something that we both feel happens only once in each lifetime.
However, he feels a certainty about the future of our relationship that I do not yet share; not quite, anyhow. He’s sure that this is it, that I’m “the one.” I feel inadequate and unworthy. I long to be the “the one” for him and for him to be “the one” for me. Reciprocity.
He is confident that we can make it through. I wish I had more confidence and faith. I wish I would overflow with virtue… but the only thing I possess too much of is my love for him. He has single-handedly restore some of my self-confidence, self-esteem, and some of my faith in love.
…
August 30, 1999
If I love him so much, why do I doubt? Why do I continue to waiver? Is it because I am more or less annoyed about something he said or did and I want to get even by causing him to worry for absolutely no reason at all?
That’s just evil. And yet I thought I would never be capable of such a thing. Do I feel any remorse? Somewhat. I really need to learn to control my temper and minimize the occurrences of these tantrums and fits of anger.
And yet, when you think about it, I really have no reason to be angry. I make mountains out of mole hills (out of habit). It’s a hard habit to break… But Brian was able to quit smoking. If he can do that, surely I can cease to act like a brat.
Again, I’ve managed to evade the issue.
About three years after these musings, on the 10th of August 2002, we were married. Perhaps the most astonishing realization of all is that almost ten years later, we both agreed we didn’t want to have any children after all. I think that’s a sign of true compatibility. Gaining weight together, learning together, playing together… evolving together.
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