Firefly - How Could Fox Screw it Up So Badly?

I've dropped back to the 1 disk plan on Netflix, so I have a movie deficit now on the weekends. To overcome this, I've dipped into my personal stash of movies...

watching "Live Free or Die Hard" last weekend, and last night I watched "Serenity".

For those of you that don't know, "Serenity" was the follow on to the Fox TV Series "Firefly", which ran for 14 episodes in 2002. The series starred Nathan Fillion as Captain Malcolm Reynolds. "Firefly" was set 500 years or so in the future. By this time, mankind has colonized much of space, and is ruled by the Alliance. Reynolds and his crew operate a small cargo ship, taking all varieties of jobs, both legal and illegal, to survive. Along the way, they do all kinds of good to help all kinds of people. This unique story produces sort of a Sci Fi, Western style.

The series "Firefly" was so loved by those that actually watched it, that Universal picked up the rights and produced the movie "Serenity" in 2005, starring all of the original cast. "Serenity" is written and executed such that it can stand on its own, and I think it does. However, having seen the series and then the movie, I had developed a much stronger tie to the characters, making "Serenity" an even better as a movie.

Fox really missed the boat with "Firefly". They could have had a hit. I've never seen a series that is so universally loved by everyone who has actually watched it. But Fox gave up on it after only 11 episodes. How did they fail? They put the show on the wrong night, then moved it, then played some episodes out of order. In general, they completely screwed up promotion and execution. Kinda makes you wonder how many other great shows we miss out on because the network screw them up.

I suggest everybody give the movie "Serenity" a shot. If you can, borrow "Firefly" from someone who owns it, watch it first, then "Serenity". I can't guarantee you'll love it, but I'm pretty sure you'll love it.

It's Only Fair

Today, the news and the right wing talk shows were all abuzz about Chicago losing the Olympics to Rio De Janeiro. The drive-by media was spinning like crazy trying to do damage control for President Obama, who failed in his attempt to convince the IOC to bring the games to Chicago. The right wing talk shows were rejoicing at Obama's failure and using this as a foreshadowing of things to come.

While it is difficult for me to avoid piling on in Obama's moment of embarassment, I'm going to pass on that. He's getting enough of that. Instead, I'm going to admonish the liberals who run Chicago and those who support the President for even trying to bring these games to Chicago.

Did these Chicago liberals know that the Olympic Games have never been held in South America? Don't these liberals who run Chicago understand that Chicago is a wealthy city, while Rio is in a developing nation...these games will benefit Rio far more than they will Chicago. So, to be consistent with what they preach, the liberals in Chicago should be happy that the games went to a less fortunate city. After all, they tell us that it's unfair that there are rich and poor people in this country, and they want to take from the rich and use it to benefit the poor. Should this be any different for a rich American city?

It's only fair that the games be taken from the rich American city and be given to the poor Brazilian city. As we all know, the liberal cause is to make the world more fair. I'm just appalled that they didn't realize this earlier and pull Chicago out of the running. Shame on you liberals! Thankfully, fairness won out.

Let's Try Quality Over Quantity

I wonder if President Obama can go one entire day without announcing a new, unnecessary initiative? His track record thus far indicates he can't...kind of hard to believe he's only been President for 9 months!

Today, President Obama decided that our kids need longer school days, and shorter summer vacations. The President says that we need to do this because "...the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom." First off, I didn't think there would be any challenges once Obama was elected. But that's not important now.

This is the type of solution we've come to expect from this President. There doesn't seem to be any real in-depth thinking behind any of Obama's ideas. Everything is either more government spending, more taxes on people making over $250,000, more regulation, and now, longer school days. He's not taking on the institutional problems. I think of it as, America is bleeding profusely, and Obama is attempting to stop the bleeding with a Kleenex.

Now, I'm not a teacher, and I don't even play one on TV, but about 10 minutes of critical thinking poked a ton of holes in this plan.

1. Education is not a federal government responsibility. It's a state responsibility. The federal government shouldn't be involved. The Dept. of Education is, technically speaking, unconstitutional. In fact, every time the Feds meddle in education, it seems to get worse...see No Child Left Behind.
2. A constant complaint I hear from the left is that our schools are failing our children...especially inner city schools. So, spending more time in an institution that is failing our children would help? Perhaps we should look at improving our schools before we make our kids spend more time there.
3. Our teachers are overworked and underpaid, even the liberal ones. A teacher works from 7-4, then maybe coaches or helps with an activity, then goes home and grades papers. Where are they going to find time to teach another hour or 2 each day? Did Obama even ask the Teachers Union about this?
4. Longer days doesn't fix the problem of parent involvement. I think the statistics bear out that kids with involved parents do far better in school than kids who's parents don't take an active role in their schooling. Unfortunately, our welfare society has made it way too easy for one parent to be absent, leading to way too many kids who don't get the help they need from their parents.
5. We need more teachers. Putting 30 kids with 1 teacher is not a recipe for success. We need more teachers with fewer students per teacher. Is putting that same teacher with 30 students for longer going to help? Maybe a little, but if the longer days burn out the teacher and the kids, that's not helping anyone.
6. Our schools are "one size fits all". We need to figure out a way to better tailor our educational programs to a students needs. Perhaps we need to have schools with a more diverse set of programs for our kids that can be tailored to their individual needs and interests.

I'll admit, I'm an outsider. I haven't been in the public schools in a long time, and we homeschool, so we're not there now. But, it seems to me there are many institutional problems with our public school system that need to be solved before we can even begin to think about whether a longer day or less vacation will help.

Jalapeno Cheese Popcorn

Both my boys are selling cub scout popcorn this year, so we have to sell twice as much as past years. To get going on this, we went out to sell Saturday morning, and were out for close to 3 hours. To reward the boys we bought a tin of Mud Puddles (chocolate covered popcorn...very good) and a tin of Jalapeno Cheese Popcorn. David really wanted to try the Jalapeno Cheese...the rest of us were skeptical.

But, we let him try it...and he liked it. Then, my wife and I both decided to try it...and it is unbelievably good. It is probably the most delicious popcorn I have ever eaten. The Jalapeno is not overwhelming, but there is a bite, and it is very cheesy. So cheesy in fact, that if you eat enough of it, your fingers start to turn a little yellow. You can guess how I found this out.

So, if a cub scout stops by your house to sell popcorn, I recommend the Jalapeno Cheese.

TV Series Review: Warehouse 13, Season 1

The SyFy channel has hit on a winner with "Warehouse 13", at least through 1 season. I thought NBC's "Heroes" was a winner after one season too, so future seasons will tell.

"Warehouse 13" follows Secret Service Agents Pete Lattimer (played by Eddie McClintock) and Myka Bering (played by Joane Kelly) as they begin their new job working for a government storage facility called Warehouse 13. But, Warehouse 13 isn't just any old warehouse...it's where the government stores objects with inherent magical powers, such as Edgar Allen Poe's pen, which grants the user the ability to make anything they write come to life. The job of Agents Lattimer and Bering is to collect these artifacts, and store them safely away from the general public. The job allows them to use some of the more interesting artifacts, such as the Tesla, which is a gun that renders its victim immobile and wipes their memory...for about 3 minutes. They are lead in this effort by Artie (played by Saul Rubinek), the agent in charge of Warehouse 13. As the season moves on, the agents encounter more dangerous artifacts, and more dangerous villains.

I think people who typically like SyFy originals will like this show. McClintock and Kelly play off each other very well, and end up making a good team. The supporting characters are all unique and add to the show rather than detract from it. The effects are low budget, but that's what we expect from a SyFy original. Also, it's not a huge time committment, as the season is very short...maybe 13 episodes. I know I really enjoyed the season and look forward to season 2. I'm trying to be more stingy with my 5 star ratings, but this show was close. In the end I gave it 4 stars, though it may be 4.49ish.

He's a Lemon

Today I was pondering the state of our country and our President. President Obama's approval rating is still 53%, according to Real Clear Politics. This is despite the fact, that again according to Real Clear Politics, 53% of Americans think our country is on the wrong track. How can the President maintain a 53% approval rating when so many people think our country is going down the wrong path? I'm not even going to get into the debacle that is his health care reform "plan."

Then it hit me...President Obama is a Lemon. Stick with me here. In the election, Obama got 53% of the vote, or real close to it. His approval rating is 53%. Coincidence? I think not!

What I think we have here is the same thing that happened to me when we bought a Kia Sedona minivan in 2002. We have to make some long drives to visit family, so we decided to purchase a minivan, but we went with a Kia Sedona, because it was inexpensive. When I say we, I mean I...the smartest person in my house was never too crazy about the idea.

We owned that van for 3 years. In that time, we had it in the shop several times, we found that it didn't get the advertised gas mileage, it wasn't that comfortable on long drives, and the seats were hard to remove. However, it took me 2 and a half years before I would admit that buying the vehicle was a mistake. It took 2 and a half years before I no longer "approved" of the minivan.

This is exactly what is going on with Obama. The 53% of this country who voted for him hasn't given up on him yet, despite mounting evidence that he isn't the man they voted for. He claimed to be a moderate who would work across party lines, yet he never meets with Republicans. He said unemployment wouldn't go above 8%, but, sadly, we're closing in on 10%. He claimed that the real war was in Afghanistan, and when he was President that's where he'd fight the war on terror. But now that his handpicked General for Afghanistan wants 40,000 additional troops, Obama is waffling...playing politics rather than being the Commander-in-Chief. And again, I won't go into the debacle that is his health care "plan."

What we're learning is that Barack Obama is no more qualified to be President than your average State Senator (which he was until 4 years ago),...or Sarah Palin. He didn't have enough experience or substance for the job, but too many were fooled by his eloquent speeches and carefully crafted persona. As a nation, we bought a Kia Sedona...and now we all have to face the fact that he's a lemon.

Movie Review: Inkheart

"Inkheart" is a Brendan Fraser movie that does a great job of minimizing Brendan Fraser to the point where he doesn't suck all the life out of it. Though, everybody in the movie, but Fraser, has a British accent. But, the minimalization (is that word?) of Fraser worked...I ended up really liking this movie, rating it 4 stars.

"Inkheart" is loosely based on a children's book of the same title. I say loosely, not because I've read the book, but because I've been told that the movie and the book are quite different. Also, because it seems like all movies based on books are loosely based. "Inkheart" centers around Mo Folchart (Fraser) and his daughter Meggie. Mo is a bookbinder who always searches the bookstores he visits for a certain book. Unbeknownst to his daughter, when Mo reads aloud, he brings characters in the book he is reading to life. The adventure begins when the evil Capricorn (played by Andy Serkis, who was Gollum in Lord of the Rings) tracks down Mo and his daughter. Capricorn was brought to life out of a book, and wants Mo to bring more characters to life, in order to carry out his evil plans.

Overall, "Inkheart" kept me interested. I think it started out slowly, but picked up pace about 30-40 minutes in. Paul Bettany is really good as Dustfinger, and like I said, Fraser didn't annoy me. The young girl in the movie, Eliza Bennet, is very good for a child actor. Of course, it's hard to look bad next to Brendan Fraser.

I think I'm going to let my kids watch this one. It's definitely PG for a reason, but I think any kid who can handle a good adventure movie and a little suspense would like "Inkheart".