Wednesday, November 18, 2009

if this show was crack, I'd be a crackhead

Stargate Universe
I came across Stargate Universe this past weekend on Hulu when I was looking for something to watch. And so far I'm hooked. I watched the first 4 episodes on Sunday. Then I watched 2 more last night. It reminds me of Lost, mainly because it is really good and I can't wait to watch the next episode. Also, not since Lost first came on has there been a show that have been hooked on. I was hooked on Heroes for the first 2 seasons or so, but then it started sucking, but oh well.

SG-U (as its abbreviated) is a SyFy original series based on the Stargate franchise. So far I'm not having any problems following it even though I've never watch any of the other Stargate shows before. There are only a couple of actors that I know on the show (Lou Diamond Phillips and Robert Carlyle), which makes it more enjoyable to watch since I'm not always imagining actors in their former roles. ABC's new show "V" has Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays Juliet on Lost, as one of the stars. I'm always thinking of her as Juliet. And I keep expecting Sawyer to show up. Whatever...

Visit the official site or watch it on Hulu!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

file under M for 'miscellaneous'

First a music video (I love Taking Back Sunday)
Set Phasers to Stun



Recommended viewing
V - the new TV series on ABC. I watched the original series as a kid and loved it, so of course I was interested in this show. The pilot was great. I haven't seen the latest episode yet but think this is one show I will follow.
Primer - a shoestring budget film, but budgets don't mean anything as far as quality is concerned. This one is good. I mean real good. Time travel is the premise. Worth watching over and over.

Recommended Reading
Dune -
This is one of those books that I've seen for years on library shelves, but have never read. I finally decided to read it because it's listed by many as the best sci-fi novel ever written. Others who rate sci-fi books will have in in the top 10 best. I've heard it called a masterpiece, and I agree. Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001 and its sequels) said that Dune is “Unique...I know nothing comparable to it except Lord of the Rings.” I can't believe it took me all these years to get around to reading it.
Robert Frost - I'm reading a book of his poems and am blown away. I feel like I am there with the characters in his poems. I've never been much into poetry but was curious about Frost after one of his poems, The Road Not Taken was quoted in another book I'm reading. Frost is a master of words, verse, rhyme, and rhythm.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Adelle's greatest hits

Adelle was singing yesterday morning so I asked her to sing some more. This is what I got:

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

a year later...

If you had asked us last November how we thought the following year would go, whatever we said would have been dead wrong.

One year ago we were still in Philly waiting for our house to sell so we could move to Chapel Hill. Until it sold, we had to keep our house as clean as possible, not an easy task with 2 little ones, because at any moment a realtor could have wanted to show it. To the everyone's amazement, it sold in early mid-November after only 6 weeks on the market. We moved out on December 2. Then we moved in with Jo's parents, for what we thought would be a month or 2. Little did we know what all would happen in the months after that move.

In the last year we sold our house in a plunging housing market, spent months looking for jobs, spent months living with Jo's parents (because we couldn't find jobs), made many trips between Roanoke and Chapel Hill, got a job (me), lost a job (me again), had lots of good days as well as bad days, got discouraged and depressed, got encouraged and happy again, moved to Chapel Hill, and finally started settling in.

I think we've had almost all the major stressors except death and safety concerns. Thankfully none of us died (and we also didn't kill each other). And thankfully throughout this past year we were all safe. And most of the time we were together. But Jo and I have both said that we are here in Chapel Hill to stay. We want to put down roots here. We want to see our kids finish school here. We want to make Chapel Hill home.