Prescient about Dollhouse

Two hours ago, I said this about Dollhouse and FlashForward:

Both shows will be canceled before January.

Then, SciFiWire posted the overnights for Dollhouse.

9-9:30 p.m.: 1.0, 1.0, 2.698 million
9:30-10 p.m.: 1.0, 1.0 2.427 million

I feel for Joss and the shows that he makes for people like me.

Identity Television

After watching the series premiere of FlashForward and the season premiere of Dollhouse, I have been thinking about how very intelligent these two shows could be.  Not that they are not brilliant for television, but...they could both be better.

Which may be a problem for the media...

Now, FlashForward has (at the center) an issues that is straight quantum physics, and if they introduce a character named Schrodinger, I will be very very happy.  The act of observing changes the observed, and observing something six months into out future does change how we percieve both ourselves and our future.  In the novel that FlashForward is based on, the future that is seen is the future that may come however it is mutable.  I do not know if the conceit used in the novel will be used in the series (plus, blaming the LHC at Cern seems too much like a plot from a Dan Brown novel)  but I am interested to see where they are going to go with this.

As to Dollhouse, the entire series is based on the idea that identity, much like our future, it mutable, therefore, we are whom we are until we are not.  Ballard goes through as many changes to his core persona as any of the Actives do.  With Echo becoming increasingly self aware and the various graft personas being remembered, where does Echo (the shell) end and the polyglot of grafts begin (the self)?

I do look forward to see how these programs are going to play out, with notions of self and identity being brought to the forefront, because maybe, just maybe, if these popular programs can get people thinking about what it means to be a person, an individual, and the nature of the shifting canvas that is the human psyche, we just may be able to have an intelligent conversation about metaphysics as a society...

Or, and I find this to be much more likely...

Both shows will be canceled before January.

Song for a Saturday Morning

Southwood Plantation Road

I've got you
You've got whatever's left of me to get
Our conversations are like minefields
No one's found a safe way through one yet
I spend a lot of money
I buy you white gold
We raise up a little roof
Against the cold
On Southwood Plantation Road
Where at night the stars blow like milk across the sky
Where the high wires drop
Where the fat crows fly

All night long you giggle and scream
Your brown eyes deeper than a dream
I am not going to lose you
We are going to stay married
In this house like a Louisiana graveyard
Where nothing stays buried
On Southwood Plantation Road
Where the dead will walk again
Put on their Sunday best
And go with unsuspecting Christian men
La la la la la

The iPhone now offers MMS

How to Upgrade Your iPhone

I am excited that I can now send and receive MMS on my iPhone but I am concerned that it took this long to get this "feature" from AT&T.

Two Great Geeks That Geek Great Together

Ira Glass Interviews Joss Whedon

Ira interviews Joss Whedon onstage. Among the questions: What old episodes of Buffy do you go back and rewatch? How come in the Buffy comic book, Buffy's and Willow's boobs keep growing? What would've happened on Firefly if it woul...d've continued? (Okay Joss only gives a few morsels on that one.) Why do all the strong women at the center of your shows (Buffy, Echo, even River) have older dudes watching over them protecting them? What's so great about Battlestar Galactica that you've said "I love that show the way other people love 'Buffy.' I love it unreasonable. It feels wrong"? And ... most important of all ... Six reavers vs six vampires: who wins?

Oh, you silly Congress-critters

The Unintended Consequence of Defunding ACORN

Yep, That Was Me

This is sort of a full disclosure post for those who are searching in earnest.

Fighting the battle, Cajun Style ;-)

Taking the Concept of Psycho-Linguistics Too Far

You can now be analyzed by how you use Twitter.

No, stop laughing!  I am being serious.

If you go to TweetPsych, they will search through anyone's feed and let you know how screwed up you really are based on your Twitter persona.

Here is my TweetPsych Profile.

Via Urban Daddy National

My Contribution to the Mackenzie Phillips Story

(Permalink)

Yes, I am completely crass and unfeeling.

(If I believed in the eternal fires of Hell, I would be concerned about going there.)

And I sent this to a friend yesterday, but...I have to ask this:

Mackenzie Phillips had an incestuous affair with her father and has a history of substance abuse.

Chynna Phillips is married to a Baldwin and is a Born Again Christian.

Bijou Phillips is engaged to Danny Masterson and is very serious about Scientology...

Is it really f***** up that I think that Mackenzie may be the normal one?

Now settle down, children

Now GMail may be having issues...Choire thinks that is may be the end of the world...

But I am here to help:

1) Download the "Long Live Hot Girls" Mix from Pretty Much Amazing.

2) Watch the most recent episode of Glee.

3) Send me a card from someecards.com.

4) Create a framework for unified health care in the United States (take no more than 20 minutes, it will still be better than the bill put forth by Sen. Baucus)

5) Have a press conference to announce who YOU think should take Teddy's seat.

See?

All is not lost just because GMail is down.

Yes, that is Atari's Missle Command

Yes, ECS and I turn into thirteen year olds when we are together
especially after a couple of beers.

Games from the past

ECS and I used to play a game called "Marathon" obsessively.  (ECS points out for Infinity that I watched him play, listening to the Chemical Brothers and the Foo Fighters, and drinking beer, and adversely affecting our GPAs).

ECS is here now, and...the good people at Bungie have made Marathon available as a free download.

http://source.bungie.org/

I see bad things coming from this.

This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality

Obviously, I have switched from Fugazi to Tool.

We barely remember who or what came before this precious moment,
We are choosing to be here right now. hold on, stay inside...
This holy reality, this holy experience. choosing to be here in...

This body. this body holding me. be my reminder here that I am not alone in
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal all this pain is an illusion.

Alive

This holy reality, in this holy experience. choosing to be here in...

This body. this body holding me. be my reminder here that I am not alone in
This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal all this pain is an illusion...
Of what it means to be alive

Swirling round with this familiar parable.
Spinning, weaving round each new experience.
Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this
Chance to be alive and breathing
Chance to be alive and breathing.

This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality.
Embrace this moment. remember. we are eternal.
All this pain is an illusion.

Starbucks' iPhone App

I think I may have to add money to this card, don't you?

Waiting Room

I am a patient boy
I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait
My time is water down a drain

Everybody's moving
Everybody's moving
Everything is moving,
Moving, moving, moving

Please don't leave me to remain
In the waiting room

I don't want the news
(I cannot use it)
I don't want the news
(I won't live by it)

Sitting outside of town
Everybody's always down
(Tell me why)

Because they can't get up
(Ahhh... Come on and get up)
(Come on and get up)

But I won't sit idly by
(Ahhh...)
I'm planning a big surprise
I'm gonna fight
For what I want to be

And I won't make the same mistakes
(Because I know)
Because I know how much time that wastes
(And function)
Function is the key
Inside the waiting room

I don't want the news
(I cannot use it)
I don't want the news
(I won't live by it)

Sitting outside of town
Everybody's always down
(Tell me why)

Because they can't get up
(Ahhh... Come on and get up)
Up from the waiting room

Sitting in the waiting room
(Ahhh...)
Sitting in the waiting room
(Ahhh...)
Sitting in the waiting room
(Ahhh...)
Sitting in the waiting room
(Ahhh...)

(Tell me why)
Because they can't get up

Dan Brown Snark

Who Is Dan Brown?

By now, we all know his writing, but do we really know Dan Brown? If there’s one thing I’ve learned from him, it’s that an ancient, super-secret, quasi-religious cabal that takes on many shifting identities—much like Brett Favre—is really controlling the world. We must be suspicious of anything that has too much power. Therefore, it’s time to get suspicious about Dan Brown.

Via The New Yorker

I will admit...

that I have an odd relationship with my parents, and an odd relationship with my own child...however...

at no point...

did I ever consider the concept of an affair with my mother, father, son, sister or brother...

But then again, I wasn't the trouble maker on One Day at a Time, nor was my claim to fame sleeping with Michelle and singing California Dreamin' ...

Phillips, the daughter of The Mamas and the Papas singer John Phillips, confesses in her book, High on Arrival, that she and her father had a long-term, consensual incestuous relationship which began the night before her wedding. Um, ew! (Gawker)

Crypto Explained By Stick Figures

via Moserware by way of Boing Boing

If interested, let me suggest Crypto by Steven Levy, which is the history of RSA and modern cryptology.

Bad Will Hunting

via The Perry Bible Fellowship

Marine Says He Was Sexually Assaulted At VA Hospital

"In order for the skin to be tight, he said it's easier if you're erect," Michael said. "He would make it so that you are.""It was two hands, and it was some weird method that made it seem more medical," Michael said.

(via WISN)

Ummm...aren't the VA Hospitals the proof that people are using on both sides of the health care debate?

Could this story have been leaked to...embarrass the people behind a public system?

Coffee and Technology

Today we launched two iPhone / iPod touch applications, myStarbucks and Starbucks Card Mobile.   These are great (and free!) and will let you have a fun and useful Starbucks Experience wherever you are.   You can design your own beverage, view your balance and load your Starbucks Card, look up nutritional information on our beverages and food, and learn about our different whole bean coffees.  No, you can't place an order using the app (not yet anyway), but we're just starting out.

Starbucks offers iPhone Apps.

Sometimes, Starbucks can make me very happy.

My Meeting with ACORN

In the Fall of 1997, I met with a young community organizer in ACORN's Chicago Office.

This is the video of that meeting.

Oh, ACORN!

From TDS with Jon Stewart



I am looking for video of my interview with ACORN from a couple of years ago.

HIMYM

But...I like brunch...

Stephen Douglas was a Birther?

Two Appearances

Can you imagine that one politician referring to another would be more awkward than being on Letterman?



(Via the Daily News)


(Via the Awl)

For those of you who didn't see it...

Dr. Horrible at the Emmy's



via TV Squad

BTW, I had an idea for a show called TV Squad, but it was about something entirely different and could only be shown on late night premium cable.

My geekery has no end...

My plan for this evening.

Is anyone else having real problems with Facebook for the iPhone?

Questionable Content

Wow!

This has never happened before.

Good luck with the writer's block.

http://questionablecontent.net/

What is the weirdest thing you have ever had to mail overseas?

Don't ask. Though I do believe that it stopped a domestic incident
in the UK as well as earning me sushi and beer.

What is the weirdest thing you have ever had to mail?

Do you think that it is possible that President Obama's request to Gov. Paterson is actually forcing the Governor to run for re-election to prove that Paterson is his own man?

No TEA today

...and the Giants are not playing until this evening.

I believe I have found a way to spend my afternoon.