Rainy Days and Spooky Nights August 20, 2008

We’re finally having our first batch of rainy days since we got here.  No problems for me.  I’m working inside, watching 24 Season 5 and shaping my syllabi for the coming quarter.

I’m teaching classes at both Shoreline and Edmonds Community College.  I’m really excited about both.  The people that hired me are really great and are giving me tons of freedom.

Right now I’m working on a English 80 – Critical Thinking in College and Life, wherein I am using the autobiographies of both Ben Franklin and Fredrick Douglas as the reading groundwork.  It should be a fun class and hopefully my students will enjoy it.  Oh, and my name is on the class.  It doesn’t just say STAFF.  That is fun!

Shannon and I have started watching X-files from Season One.  A few episodes a night.  We are on the 3rd disc right now.  Wow, there were a lot of stinkers in the first season.  I must have been so enamored with the show the first time around that I saw no wrong.

My favorites so far:

Squeeze - Tooms is a scary bastard!

Ice - The best tv remake of John Carpenter’s The Thing I have ever seen.

Worst Episode:

The Jersey Devil - A dirt covered supermodel is actually a missing link that grunts and digs through trash.  We do get to see Mulder’s love for pie and his contempt for local authority.  Oh, and Dr. Diamond paves the way for the Lone Gunmen.

I’m ready for “Gender Bender” and “Tooms” and then to move onto the second season.  One of my favorites:  “The Host!“  and my favorite Satanic school board in “Die Hand Die Verletzt“

House of the Dead: Overkill (Grindhouse style trailer) August 19, 2008

I’ll be slinging my Wii pistols again in 09!  Hopefully on a new 50 in. tv.

Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse May 19, 2008

It looks awesome. Let’s hope FOX keeps it on more than 13.

A Week with Baby (8 Weeks/8 things to watch to induce labor) May 5, 2008

That last post got me thinking about the movies or tv shows that Shannon should be watching when she goes into labor with our child. Now, I am no expert on what you should be doing during the final days of your pregnancy, but I do know where my mother was and what she was doing when I decided it was time to head out.

She was on her couch watching the delectably cheesy horror movie Frogs staring Mr. Sam Elliot.

Any of you that know me well can see the connections between her watching that movie and my personality makeup (no matter how many fallacies are really in that argument). Since I want to shape my child in every way I can (and as subliminally as possible), here are the movies and tv shows that Shannon and I will watch in hopes that our baby will decide to make an appearance and catch the ending.

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Yes, it’s three movies, but if we start watching them from the beginning in late November there is a good chance that the baby will want to see the next one so bad that she will move on out. Of course, we will have to watch getting to the very end before she is born. Those last scenes might make her want to stay in till all the hobbits get out of the bed.

2. Frogs – why not? It was good enough for me and I have it on dvd!

3. The Bride of Frankenstein – The Creature is my favorite universal monster, but this movie is an awe inspiring masterpiece. If anything could actually manipulate our child (while still in the womb) into a creative genius it would be this.

4. Arrested Development - As I’ve said before, this is the hilarious series that got Shannon and I together. Oh, and being attracted to cousins runs in my family.

5. Deadliest Catch - What I love about this show is that it is reality tv at its most real. I know, they cut and paste scenes, blah, blah, blah-but overall it’s wonderfully scary stuff. Now, I am not saying that I want our child to become a crab fisherman, but there are tons of reasons that this show should influence her. The questioning of the lifestyle, the fear factor, the proximity to Washington (where she will be born and raised, and the ecological discussions we could have (I am expecting to become a huge hippie once I hit the West Coast and should have dreads by the time she is born.)

6. Ghost Hunters – Besides being Shannon’s favorite show (and therefore bringing the probability that she would be watching it way up) this show is great.

7. Raising Arizona - Among the millions of “baby movies” out there, this one is hard to beat. Plus, I have to prepare for my nights of diaper robbery!

8. Spirited Away - we should get our baby started on the right cartoons with this amazing Hayao Miyazaki film. This movie floored me when I first saw it. Plus, it will teach our baby what to do if we both get turned into pigs.

A Few of My Favorite Things: Battlestar + Barbarella = Awesome! April 27, 2008

GQ has the Ladies of Battlestar Galactica in Full Barbarella mode! Starbuck even looks good.

Fresh Blood and Fresh Prince April 22, 2008

Tuesdays and Thursdays I leave the house at 7:30 am to give plasma at my local biologicals center. It’s not that bad. You sit there for an hour and listen to a book or some podcasts while they drain you of your blood, take out the plasma and put the blood back in. Then, they hand you 15 to 30 bucks depending on how much you go and what day it is. You also get entered into contests, which this month I am eligible to be a part of, so stay tuned to see what (if anything) I win.

Now, usually they have the four tvs that are in the donor room on Sports Center or a movie, but today they were strangely off when I arrived. As Oliver Bourne (he has the coolest name in the world) hooked me up to the machine he lamented the fact that it was way too quiet and paused to click on the tvs.

On pops The Fresh Prince and Oliver goes about his business. I think nothing of it and start listening to the new Triple Feature podcast (wherein I thought they were going to come to blows over spoilers and penis shots).

Then, I start to notice that everyone else in the room is riveted to the tvs.

Soon, their laughing so hard that I can’t even hear my podcast. Oliver is walking around saying things like, “Oh no he didn’t!” and “Damn, he’s in a-lot-a trouble now!”

I literally knew what it felt like to be Miles Bennell from Body Snatchers there for a few minutes. Protected by my headphones I wouldn’t give in to the mind controlling power of the Fresh Prince.

As I got ready to leave I wondered if the epidemic would spread beyond the walls of the building. But then, John Lovitz’s hideous movie, High School High came on and absolutely no one was laughing!