The Woman who would be Chief

Yes, you guessed it, it's time for me to once again do what I do best; talk about movies and TV. I'm sure you all loved my shameless plug for the CBS sci-fi thriller "Threshold" and now it's time for more. Alas, this review will hardly be as approving. In fact, I'll put it this way; if you're the kind of person who generally favors mind-dulling and potentially time-wasting forms of entertainment, you might just enjoy the television program I'm going to talk about.

Figured it out yet? I thought the title would be a dead giveaway, but for those of you still falling behind the curve (and the ironic thing is that if you haven't figured it out by now, you're probably a fan of the show) I'm talking about ABC's new drama "Commander In Chief." The show opens with the Vice President, Mackenzie Allen (played by Academy Award winning actress Geena Davis), learning that the President has suffered an anurism and may not be able to continue in his duties. Long story short, the President's entire staff (including the President himself, on his death bed) ask Allen to resign. But wait! If she does, the evil Speaker of the House (played by Donald Sutherland), who is blatently portrayed as a creationist-teaching, warmongering conservative, will become the President. Well, after he makes a few sexist comments to Allen and tells her that her being picked as VP was just for show, she defiantly decides to take the oath and become President. Some other stuff happens and the episode finally ends with Allen making an empassioned speech to Congress (oh, and her prompters malfuction, so she has to make up the whole speech on the fly).

Ok, so here's the bottom line. When compared to a show like The West Wing, Commander In Chief seems creatively bankrupt from the outset. Much of the dialogue was poorly written and the characters are all very two-dimensional. No doubt the creators of the show were hoping that it's premise would be enough to keep it alive, however even the premise ends up being dull and predictable. The writers attempt to portray Allen as a strong-willed woman who sticks to her convictions and is "tough" enough to lead the country, while at the same time showing her motherly, feminine side. Unfortunately this is all very forced. In fact the entire episode lacked the subtlety that makes the writing in The West Wing so interesting, and ultimately degenerated into a very black-and-white portrait of a very unrealistic fantasy world (and I don't just mean because a woman is Predident).

Check out http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/wittig200509270809.asp for a more detailed and funnier review of the episode.

I don't imagine this show will go very far unless the liberal media continues to heap undeserved praise upon it. The commercials are already praising it for having held 16 million viewrs, making it the #1 show on Tuesday nights. However, one should soon realize that there isn't anything else worth watching on Tuesday nights. And consider this: the premiere of "Lost" pulled in 31 million viewrs and the premiere of the new sci-fi thriller "Invasion" pulled in 23 million (both are also ABC shows). The numbers for Lost aren't surprising, since it was the #1 show on television last season. However Invasion is just as new as Commander In Chief and hasn't had anywhere near as much hype (they started showing previews for Commander In Chief after The West Wing back in May). So when you consider all that, 16 million viewers isn't actually all that impressive. Besides which, I garuntee that number will drop quite a bit come next week.

This all just goes to show how cruel the world can sometimes be. There's nothing worth watching on any channel on Tuesday night, but they have to go and put "Smallville" and "Alias" on at the same time slot on Thursdays. I guess I'll just have to tape them both, and be very thankful that I work Tuesday nights. :)

An important announcement

I just wanted to make a record of the fact that I will be going to be bed before midnight tonight. This is a most uncommon occurrence for a school/work night and I felt it important enough to be the sole subject of a blog entry. Of course there is homework I could be working on tonight, but when isn't there? Considering the complete lack of sleep I got last night, I think I'm justified in turning in early tonight.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, it is now exactly 283 days until Superman Returns hits theatres. ;)

Insane thunderstorm tonight

It's 1:45 in the morning, I'm just about finished with my philosophy homework, and it's raining RIDICULOUSLY hard right now. It doesn't help that there's a metal overhang over my pourch, which only serves to amplify the sound. And I just heard a thunder clap so loud I thought it was 50 shotguns going off right outside my door. I seriously jumped a little. I love thunderstorms, haha. Still, as it's going on 2am and I have class at 8, I was hoping to go to bed now, so I hope it doesn't last much longer. Some light rain would be pleasent, but the thunder isn't going to work.

I'm also getting quite sick of going to school all day, working until 10 and then having to do homework this late at night. I'm going to burn out soon.

(...seriously, this thunder is insanely loud).

On the bright side I got 100% on my Bio test. Now I have set a high standard for this class that I'll have to keep up.

(Ok, dude, my house literally just shook. And my lights have flickered a few times. I hope there isn't a power outage).

Alright well I'm off to bed, or at least I'm going to try. If you don't hear from me for several days, you'll know why.

At last, step one is complete

I finally found the firewire port on my Uncle's camera today, so I was able to load the wedding footage onto my computer. Of course that was only step one. Now I have to begin the semi-long process of editing the movie, the long process of putting together a picture slideshow, and the very long process of figuring out how to create the menus and burn the DVD. Between school and work the whole process should only take me forever.

I also got the Toy Story 10th Anniversary edition DVD. That's still my favorite Disney movie ever.

We're going through the book of Luke in adult sunday school. I always enjoy hearing Dr. Godfrey speak. I was also thinking that it's vrey refreshing to be reading through and discussing a whole book of the Bible for the simple sake of understanding it better. No catchy sermon title, no self-help message, just reading the Word of God and trying to gain a better understanding of it. Granted this was sunday school and not a worship service, but even the forum itself seems to be abcent in many churches today.

I get my first biology test of the semester back tomorrow. I kind of freaked out about it the night before, which is weird beacuse usually I barely study at all. I mean, I wasn't panicing and crying or anything like that, I was more worried that I might not get an A, which would have been sad on a Bio 100 test (especially since I go to Palomar, which is even worse to you 4-year college snobs, haha). Anyway, it ended up being really easy, so I know I got an A, I just want to see it. I'm really getting interested in biology, but lately I've been having difficulty sorting between interests with career potential and interests that will simply remain hobbies.

I also sent gmail invitations to a bunch of people today. I'm working on converting everyone I know.

Threshold

There's a new sci-fi/thriller/drama show on CBS now called "Threshold" and it's pretty sweet. I know there's a host of seemingly lame invasion-themed shows hitting this Fall's primetime lineup (such as NBC's "Surface" and ABC's cleverly titled "Invasion"), but this one seems genuinly pretty cool. The two-hour premiere was tonight and I really liked it. Of course, there are a few reasons for that which have nothing to do with the actual content of the show itself.

First, it stars Brent Spiner (for those unlucky few who have no idea who Mr. Spiner is, he played Data on one of the greatest sapce epics in TV history, "Star Trek: The Next Generation"). Also, Branon Braga is the show's executive producer (he was a writer on TNG and most recently the executive producer of the tragicly failed Star Trek spinoff, "Enterprise"). I also noticed at least four other names in the credits of people who have been involed in one or more of the Star Trek shows.

All that aside though, the premiere was really good and I think this show could actually last. It always happens this way in television, at least two shows come out at the same time that have almost the exact same premise, but only one lasts longer than a season or two. It happened with "ER" and "Chicago Hope" and then with "Dark Angel" and "Alias", as well as many others, and now it's "Threshold" and "Invasion". To be fair I suppose I'll have to watch Invasion as well and see if it's any good, but I hope it sucks. Haha.

Wow, this is my 3rd post in 2 days. I guess not having a life outside of school and work will be advantageous to my blogging (either that or the novelty of my new blog simply hasn't worn off yet). All things considered I think I like Myspace better than Blogger, if only because it's much easier to post pictures and really customize your page. Still, this blog will serve a different purpose, being slightly more formal and acting as a forum for me to rant on my favorite academic subjects (namely science and philosophy) and, of course, politics. Who doesn't like ranting about politics after all? And now, a parting quote from Threshold,

"A cynic is just an idealist who's had his heart broken."

It's official, I hate liberal theology :P

I took the "which theologian are you?" quiz. Here's my results:

..

You scored as John Calvin. Much of what is now called Calvinism had more to do with his followers than Calvin himself, and so you may or may not be committed to TULIP, though God's sovereignty is all important. Karl Barth 67% John Calvin 67% Martin Luther 53% Anselm 53% Jonathan Edwards 40% Augustine 33% Friedrich Schleiermacher 27% J?Moltmann 20% Paul Tillich 7% Charles Finney 7% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Although I officially scored as John Calvin, you'll notice that it was a dead tie between him and Karl Barth. This is what it says regarding Mr. Barth:

"The daddy of 20th Century theology. You perceive liberal theology to be a disaster and so you insist that the revelation of Christ, not human experience, should be the starting point for all theology."

Haha, thus the title of this entry.

Now I have to go back to Frys to get that firewire cable. I already went earlier today and discovered that I didn't know what size cable I needed (I thought there was only one size, like USB). Ugh! I had to drive all the way home just to look at the camera and the computer. Apparently I need a 4pt-6pt firewire cable, which of course Frys was out of. I guess I'll have to go check Comp USA. I think this one incident is enough to convice me not to do this ever again. Haha.

Pondering the infinate future

I've been thinking about my educational future a lot lately, perhaps to the point of being detremental to my health. Not that I've been losing sleep over it or anything (I lose sleep just fine on my own, I don't need any outside help), I simply think that I shouldn't worry about it so much. I've come to the conclusion that I still have time to come to a conclusion. :)

Still, I don't have a specific career goal in mind, now in my third year of college, and the thought can be a little scary at times. Steph was talking today about how her Child Development class is really making her want to have and raise a baby (not anytime soon of course), and that got me thinking about what kind of job I'll have and whether or not I would be able to support a family on a single income. Obviously these are cares that I need not fret over at this point in my life, but I still can't help but lend a considerable amount of thought to the matter. When I was young I wanted to be a scientist, an astronaut and a cartoonist, all at the same time of course. By the beginning of my senior year of high school, still very much interested in science, I was convinced I was going to be a Physics major in college. It didn't take long to realize that I didn't want to do that (and that there were no real careers in Physics that appealed to me), and by the end of my senior year I had switched to videography, but now that too seems to be more of a passing interest, perhaps a hobby, than a career.

I've recently discovered two things. First, I have a great interest in philosophy. It has been my best subject in college thus far and both my Logic class and the Ethics class I'm currently in are the classes that I look forward to most. The Second is that I still have a great interest in science, specifically astronomy and now perhaps biology as well. Through the years I've never lost my love for science (even after the disaster that was Physics 201 my freshman year at Dordt) and I'm convinced that God is calling me to do something with that unwavering interest (incidentally, this unwavering interest in science that I seem to posess leads to the other great conundrum of my life: am I a Trekkie because I love science, or do I love science because I'm a Trekkie?).

I also know this; God doesn't arbitrarily choose His children. I'm a Christian for a reason. Whatever I do it should be for God, and there is certainly a huge need for Christians in the scientific community today. How exactly philosophy will fit into all that is still an open question, but one that I'm sure a lot of thought and prayer will soon answer.

Just as a quick change of topic before I go, I got my camera the other day. It's sweet. Even if I don't end up doing anything with video in the long run, I think I would still keep up photography as a hobby. It's really a good way for me to get in touch with my inner artist (but then again he's kind of weird). :P

And now that I have once again stayed up until 2am for no other reason than to enjoy staying up until 2am, I must go to bed. I have to get up in the morning to go to Frys and pick up a firewire cable to I can actually load the video from the wedding onto my computer. It's been two weeks since I got back and I haven't even done that yet, I really need to get to work now.

I definately see the advantage now to not working while you go to school. I've been exhausted all week and I asked to go home early two nights this week becasuse I had a lot of homework and needed to study for a Bio test. If I didn't need so much money I'd definately take the rest of the semester off. At least I get to sleep in tomorrow. Ok, enough complaining, goodnight!

*stays up for 3 more hours* haha!

A new face for a new year

Welcome to the new face of random yet insightful blogging. I don't really use my blog for any specific purpose, in fact I doubt I'll update it very frequently. Nonetheless I felt it was time for a change (at least in the look of things). And should I decide to use this blog for something a little more constructive in the future (during the 2008 elections for example) I just wanted to start fresh. So, to all three people that I know who actually read and respond to my blog, welcome to the site of knowledge...version 2.0!

vires et honos