Netflix & The End

As this site barrels toward it’s inevitable fiery death, I wanted to thank all of my readers who have stuck with me so far.

I’m not going to stop writing, I’m just sort of moving around.  You can still see my blogs on MySpace:  www.myspace.com/adamczar (you’ll need to add me as a friend first, but feel free), and any entertainment related blogs will probably be seen cropping up on PopCritics.com, whose co-owner, Mike, graciously invited me to post articles.

Sooner or later this web address will redirect to my Tumblr.

Anyway, I got an email today from Netflix saying that I can pass on one month free to a friend.  And if they sign up for a month, I get five free bonus rentals.  I’d really recommend Netflix (the only time I left them was when Blockbuster was offering free movie rentals upon return, but once they stopped that I went back).  So if you want one month free (that’s two weeks more than you’d get on your own), let me know and I can make dat a-happon.  First come, first serve.  I will edit this if/when somebody takes me up on it, so if you’re reading this you can still have one month free.  Seriously, I don’t even have to know you.

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

I have not blogged about Battlestar Galactica this season yet because I’m waiting for something to happen.  The last few episodes, while pretty good, are just kind of meh.  They feel less like “episodes” and more like “a day in the life of…”  There is rarely an independent story that gets wrapped up in the hour, instead there’s just the constant story-arc of the entire show.  Which is nice, but even then… nothing has really happened.

This is the first time I’ve watched Battlestar Galactica as it’s aired on TV, though.  So maybe I’ve been spoiled by getting to watch a few episodes at a time, in one sitting.  Having to only watch one episode once a week might be the reason it feels so slow at the moment.

More later.

Continue Reading...

This year, I’ve decided to try to grow a garden. This is hard in an apartment, because I do not have a spot of land I can till and sow (I think those are the terms). Anyway, I’m still going to try. Kaint none of the worlds problem be forgotten when yer gittin yer hands in the dirt.

I went to Pinter’s Flowerland and Lowes this weekend and spent part of the $600 government check I haven’t gotten yet. I realize most people won’t really care about any of this, but it’s more or less a way for me to keep track of the progress throughout the summer. Or, there will be a comedic payoff a few weeks from now when all the photos will show massive plant death.

As you can see, I bought a bunch of “window hangers,” those thin long tubs that hang over balconies. I intend to do just that, but for this week they are staying inside. It’s supposed to get in the low 40s this week and I don’t want to risk it. Next weekend I will put them out on the balcony.

Clockwise, from top-left to bottom-left, I have:

Romaine lettuce and green peppers (shown on the right in this photo). No idea if that’s enough room for them to grow. I guess I’ll find out. Same goes for the ones on the left side… those are strawberries. They are a little droopy ever since I planted them yesterday, but I think it’s just because they have to get used to the new dirt. I also slightly watered them a bit today so maybe that’ll help.

Then:

On the right is more romaine lettuce, and then on the left are four green pepper plants, then above them in the same window box is three cherry tomato plants. Again, not sure about the room once they (hopefully) start to grow. I might have to move things around.

Katy wanted to grow some sunflowers, so right now I have six seeds I’m trying to sprout:

Nothing yet. It’s only been a day, though, so give ‘em some credit.

Next to it in the same style pot is:

Four broccoli plants.

Then, I have another window box with some other seeds:

On the left, the area with no toothpicks, are a bunch of green onion seeds. Four rows of the toothpicks are green bean seeds, and the rest are pea pods. No idea about the size requirements once they sprout, so I’m planning on transplanting them later. The goal right now is to just get them to sprout. The labels say I should see something within 10-15 days.

Then we have a tomato plant. I bought one over the weekend but in the process of putting it into a bigger pot, I broke the stem at the root. No idea if another one would have grown, so I had to throw it out. I went and got another one:

And repotted it:

So there it is… Adam’s Garden: Day #1. Technically, Day #2. Hopefully there’s enough growth by next week, I really want to keep track of this.

Anybody out there know any gardening tips? Usually I’m pretty good with plants so I am optimistic at the moment, but if you have any suggestions I’m all ears. Just please don’t tell me “uh, you can’t grow fruit and vegetables on a balcony in pot’s from Lowes,” because that’s really discouraging.

Continue Reading...

I’d be remiss in my… personality?… if I did not say something about the lights seen over Phoenix yesterday evening.

I did not know about them until this afternoon, while quickly grabbing a bite to eat at my work’s food court.  I caught a glimpse of a news report on the TV, with the text on the bottom of the screen:  “Mysterious Lights Appear Over Phoenix, Arizona.”  It was on CNN, under the banner “BREAKING NEWS!” so for an instant I thought it was actually legitimate breaking news and it was on all the channels just like in Signs.

I made in my pants.

Of course, it ended up not being on all the channels and the news reporters were laughing and making jokes, but for an instant I found out what my reaction would be if something like this really did happen.  The strange thing was that I felt no fear, which is ironic because I’m terrified of alien imagery.  But my inital reaction was just “yes, finally.”  It was telling, because even if they came to destroy us all, I knew the world would change and we’d finally have an answer to whether or not we’re alone in the universe.

The thing is, if aliens really did visit us, what are the chances it would happen EXACTLY like it does in the movies?  Or EXACTLY like it does in the urban legends?  That is to say, what are the chances that four mysterious lights would appear in the sky, followed by a bunch more strange lights appearing over other major cities?  It’s too sci-fi to actually happen that way.  Then again, maybe it’s part of sci-fi in our culture because it has happened that way, or we know in some deep down level of our psyche that it will someday happen that way.  We can’t be sure.

I’ll sound all conspiracy theorist-like by saying that maybe this was real, and the reason it’s not getting more coverage is because our government is covering it up.  I don’t believe that, but then again would not be surprised.  But why cover it up?  I have to believe if they came out and said, “yes, those are definitely aliens,” there would be mass panic, suicide, and then lawsuits.  More importantly, the American public would be unpredictable, and the economy might tank as people shut themselves away in their homes.

I’m sure the lights were really just prank flares or even weather related, and the rational part of me says there is about 0.04% chance of, even if they were real, it having anything to do with aliens.  The first logical conclusion would be that it’s some kind of new technology from right here on Earth.

But even if that’s the case, and the lights were made right here on Earth, who’s to say when they were made on Earth?  Maybe all these UFO sightings and mysterious lights are not confirmation of the existance of aliens, but rather confirmation of time travelers.

A common argument against time travel is that, if it were some day possible, we’d be seeing people from the future right now, all around us.  There are two counter-arguments:  1) we, as a species, don’t make it that far and die off before we figure out how to do it, or 2) we are being visited, but they stay out of the way to avoid all the time paradoxes that can crop up (altering history, etc.)

Really, why else would they look so similar to us?  Given the complexity of life and how it evolves, and every single minute detail that effects how we grow to adapt to our environment, the chances of beings on another planet evolving with two legs, two arms, two eyes, a nose, and a mouth is slim.  You could obviously bring God into the equation, but I don’t have enough knowledge to speak about that.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that if true aliens visited us, they’d look nothing like us, because they did not evolve on Earth.  So if one day they do show up and look kind of like us, it means either we are their distant ancestors and they have something to do with us being here on this planet, or that’s what we’ll look like in 10,000 years and our ancestors are coming back to pay us a visit.

Oh, that’s just my great-great-great-great-great-to-the-345th-power grandson.

So anyway, Signs is totally going to be my first Blu-ray purchase, and I’ve decided with my bonus tax rebate I’m going to do exactly what the government intended for people to do and go out and “stimulate” the economy with the purchase of a Playstation 3.  Not for playing games, mind you, but for playing Blu-ray discs.  Two reasons, really, but number one, it is the best investment.  DVD players purchased 6 or 7 years ago were hundreds of dollars, and are now selling for $20.  PS2’s, however, were purchased years ago for $300 dollars and are still going for over a hundred in most places.  And 2) hey, maybe some day I’ll play games on it.

Anyway, when I get Signs on Blu-ray everyone can come over and we can have a big alien extravaganza and eat alien shaped cake and watch the Brazilian party scene over and over.  (Scariest part about that scene:  when the camera is showing the garage, the alien is right there, in the trees, and you can see him if you look closely enough.  In hi-def, that’s gonna be just stellar.)

Steller, I say.

Continue Reading...

1.) Childhood’s End

I’m on a roll with books this year. I’ve been going through an average of 1 a week for the past, erm, week. So that’s a roll. Anyway, Childhood’s End was recommended to me (and the entire internet community, I’m not special) by one of my favorite writers, Peter David, after Arthur C. Clark died a few weeks ago. He said it was the book that influenced him the most as a child, so I picked it up. The basic premise is kick-ass: humans are not alone in the universe, and are, in fact, a lesser species. Aliens arrive one day in big ships and basically say “we own you.” They’re not evil, just bigger and better. They actually set us on the right track: no war, no famine, world peace, etc. Then, you’re left to wonder if the so-called Overlord’s interests will always mean the best for humanity.

It interested me because the concept was actually an idea I had for a story once (sigh). My premise was that God was a member of this cosmic race of higher beings, and he was the owner of this region of space, and his mythology has been passed down in our society as the creator. And for the past thousand years or so he’s been relatively quiet. Then, a new alien shows up and says that God sold us to him and he’s not like the quiet and gentle God, but something else and he’s going to use the planet for something other than human life, and, well, it’s a story about humanity’s survival at the hands of the aliens, which is nothing new, which is why it’s not written. That, and I’m lazy.

Anyway, Childhood’s End is not really like that, but it’s still a decent story. It’s divided into three shorter “stories” and I thought it would have been great if it had been just the first and third stories. It’s a short book as is, but still seemed to drag. It’s that classic 50’s style sci-fi, which is retro-cool but still hard to read sometimes, with a multitude of interchangeable characters and dated dialog.

So, the story ends up being about (spoiler warning!) the Overlords, who look exactly like the Devil, and are here to guide us in our evolution into higher beings. The story briefly touches on the “Golden Age,” after their arrival and before the evolution, during the time when because of their presense, there was world peace. It implies that because of world peace and Utopia, humanity gets bored and things like art aren’t really around any more.

2.) Confederate States of America

TiVo’d this bad boy from earlier in the week.  It’s a faux-documentary made in 2004 that centers around the idea, “what would have happened if the south won the Civil War?”

Basically, slavery would have not been abolished and therefore still legal and accepted all over the country, and the entire country would have taken on a… well, cowboy attitude.

Some parts were genuinely disturbing, such as the fake commercials throughout the show for places like “Coon Chicken Inn!” and “NiggerHair Cigarettes.” Then there was the electronic shackle that tracked your slave via wireless signals, and the fact that America allied with Hitler and Nazi Germany during WWII, because we liked the idea of establishing a superior race once and for all. Left me with a sour feeling in my stomach, because that kind of stuff could very well have happened.

The rest, I’m unsure about, mainly because I don’t know enough about actual history to comment.  I am a shame.

3.) Alien vs. Predator: Requiem

I wonder if the creators of movies like this every really think they are creating something worthwhile. The only reason I wanted to see this is because I never get enough of the Alien imagry, but even that was kind of dull in this movie. Some scenes, in fact, reminded me exactly of previous Alien movies, specifically Aliens (2) when the marines take on a swarm of them, and Alien 3 when Ripley is pressed against the cabinet, her head turned away as the alien is right there in her face, staring her down.

The movie was bad, and even played with what’s been established about the Alien’s biology. Specifically, it takes at least hours for the egg to hatch after it’s implanted in someone’s chest, if not a few days. This time around, about 30 second after the “face-hugger” lays one in you, it pops right out of you. “Hey ya’ll. I’mma eat’cha.” And then, 30 minutes later, it’s full size. I’m okay with taking liberties, but this felt like exploitation.

Then again, I’m a nerd.

But! One aspect they didn’t play with was the alien’s method of evolving, which I always found really cool. Basically, the alien needs a host to grow in because it analyzes the DNA of the host, taking on certain survival attributes to be better equipped to handle it’s environment. For example: those who hatch from humans have two legs and two arms. Those that hatch from dogs run on four legs, etc. So when it hatched from a Predator, it took on certain attributes of the Predator.  Neat-o.

Also, the entire movie was too dark, and even with the TV’s brightness all the way up, I barely saw half the movie. I wonder if they did this because it was scary. I was not scared.

The only cool scene was at the end (spoiler warning!). This movie took place in an American city, and because of how contagious the alien infestation is, the government decided to just nuke the whole city. So they drop the bomb, and that’s it.

The ironic thing is that seeing the alien and predator get nuked was kind of sad.

But it also explained why “The Company” in the alien films wanted to get their hands on an alien. They had footage of what they’re capable of, and wanted one for their bio-weapons division. And, like in the last film how we met Weyland, we meet Yutani at the end of this one. Weyland-Yutani: “The Fucking Company.”

Continue Reading...

Bitches ain’t shit, but hoes and tricks.

Continue Reading...