Archive for the ‘Television’ Category

Oscar Alternatives


28 Feb

I used to love award shows, especially the music award shows, but I watched them all. Now, I pretty much avoid award shows. I just do not find them that interesting. I can always look on the internet the next morning to find out who won what. And with youtube, I can generally go find any performance that I might have really wanted to see.

Luckily, other networks tend to show marathons during awards shows, so I get to watch Mike Holmes fix people’s houses, which I find a lot more interesting that finding out which movie Hollywood liked best.

 

Geek Girl Con


27 Feb

Geek Girls Unite! Or at least come together for a great party. Boy geeks are invited, too.

I have sent in my volunteer application for the Geek Girl Con this October in Seattle. Besides being a geek girl myself (and no, I don’t care how old I am, I will never think of myself as a “woman”), I think it’s always nice to remind actual girls (you know, the young ones) that they are not alone, and that it is fun to be a geek.

If you’re looking for something to do in October, keep the Geek Girls in mind.

The SuperBowl @ Home


07 Feb

Stayed home to watch the SuperBowl because I’m sick. I do miss the communal feeling of watching with a group, but I still enjoyed the game. I’d been saying for a while I thought it was Aaron Rodgers’s year, so I’m happy with the Green Bay win.

There weren’t any commercials that I loved, but I liked the “meta-ness” of the Motorola tablet commercial, and thought the VW new generation Beetle commercial was cute. I was amused that we started with an Eminem commercial where he told us he didn’t do commercials, and later we had a second Eminem commercial.

My Favorite Soundtracks: Once More with Feeling (Buffy TV Show)


06 Feb

Recently I threw my Once More With Feeling CD in while I was out and about. This is not “great” music, and certainly the lyrics sometimes leave a bit to be desired. (My husband claims someone should have given Whedon a rhyming dictionary.) But it does what a musical soundtrack is supposed to do. It tells the story.

The Giles and Tara duet is probably my favorite piece (not just because they are the two best singers) because of the emotion involved and the traditional (as in musicals) way the audience is given to understand a difficult, character defining, decision.

Challenger: My First Memory of Tragedy


28 Jan

I remember seeing the Challenger explode on TV at home, the whole family watching it on the Today show as we ate breakfast, like we watched all shuttle launches. I was 10.

It happened too late in the day for that memory to be fact. But I remember the important parts, the shock and the sadness, the disbelief, and gratefulness that our teacher hadn’t been chosen, the bad jokes that came perhaps too soon.

My father recorded the news coverage. He still has VHS tapes of the Challenger exploding. 25 years later, I don’t think I could watch without crying.

MythBusters Demolition Derby part 2


13 Jan

I love the myths filmed at New Mexico TechSpeed, Collison welding is cool.  The world seems clearer through the shock wave and so much messier once it passes. (Well, that part is science.)

I was surprised they didn’t use a guide wire for car drop. Considering the distance, it wasn’t surprising the dropped car missed the X. But maybe there isn’t a wire strong enough, or they were concerned about it being in the way of the car on the ground.

Still, as a kid who loved RC vehicles, it would be so cool to control one going 105 mph.

 

MythBusters Demolition Derby Part 1


06 Jan

While my DVR claimed this was a new episode of MythBusters (and recorded it for me), I quickly realized that that was not exactly the case. It was a whole bunch of old “myths” repackaged for two themed episodes. Not that I can blame them, and I do like watching the crashes.

Of the complete myths we saw last night, my two favorites are the fruit stand- because driving through one in real life looks exactly like it does in the movies –and the instant convertible- because it’s plausible and the car went up the bern and jumped a fence.

MythBusters (ep 159)


23 Dec

Thank you, MythBusters Build Team. You have now given me the excuse I need to slap idiots when they are behaving idiotically. I love that the slap some sense into someone myth was confirmed. Though we did wonder during the first half what poor Grant had done to deserve being the guinea pig.

I know this myth was supposedly about Hitler, but for me, it was really about surviving bombs. Apparently, what type of building you’re in doesn’t matter as much as your position relative to the bomb. So my advice, run away from bombs if you have the chance.

 

MythBusters (ep 158)


16 Dec

I know, the MythBusters entry is late. Here’s the thing, last night was one of my least favorite episodes for a couple reasons. 1) I’m not a Seth Rogen fan. In fact, he’s the reason I’m not excited about the Green Hornet movie. 2) Superhero myths are always going to be busted.

Superheroes come from comic books, and even techie superheroes operate on comic book physics, which never really work in the real world.

I loved the MacGyver episodes for the exact opposite reason. So how about giving me a Jeffrey Donovan Burn Notice MythBusters episode. That I would love.

MythBusters (ep 157)


09 Dec

I love Archimedes Death Ray. It is the quintessential MythBusters myth. The intro mentioned that they’ve done it twice before, but that’s not really true. They did it. The MIT professor wrote in that they did it wrong, AND they had a small scale competition to see if someone else could get it right. One girl even got in internship with Jaime out of it. By my count, this was death ray #4.

 The B team shouldn’t have been worried about running over what hit the jeep. Hellboy served as a bit of a fulcrum himself, kept the weight stationary.

100 Words On

topics explored in exactly 100 words