Songs in My Head Today

For some reason, I woke up with the song Star Trekkin' in my head this morning, a song I remember listening to on Q94 every day way back when. So it's probably fitting that this evening I'm listening to songs from Weird Al's new album, Straight Outta Lynwood like White and Nerdy.

"I'll ace any trivia quiz you bring on.
I'm fluent in Javascript as well as Klingon."

Just to be geeky, the questions on the trivia card that flashes on the screen are:

G) In what city is the largest ball of twine built by one man?
E) What's with Lindsay Lohan? I mean, seriously?
H) FDR - was he faking it?
AL) On what page does Harry Potter die in the next book?
SN) What is the melting point of a gorilla's head?
SL) How many Wicket Men are there on a 43-man Squamish team?

(Wait, no, the Wikipedians are geekier. Dang.)

"I memorized Holy Grail really well.
I can recite it right now and have you ROTFLOL."

I am absolutely not guilty of this. You're a looney for even suggesting it!

And whatever you do, Don't Download This Song.

Quote of the Day - October 24, 2006

Write a wise saying, and your name will live forever.

- Anonymous

There are certain life lessons...

...that I refuse to learn. I must keep hope alive. Without it, the dark energy will prevail. I will fight the darkness with caffeine!

Pyxis - epsilon

I spent yesterday gutting my closets, which were in dire need of reorganization. Never mind that I can’t remember the last time I mopped the kitchen floor or cleaned the bathroom. The closets must be organized! I was hoping that by organizing my closets, all of the stuff that had been piling up in other parts of my apartment might find a more permanent home.

Of course, when you do this kind of thorough cleaning, you run into things you haven’t seen in a long time. I had forgotten how many stuffed critters I have, though they now have a new home in a pop-up hamper (as opposed to being scattered over the floor of my bedroom closet). I have a stack of Discover magazines and IEEE Spectrums that I really should read so I can stuff them in Amazon boxes that I’ve reserved for them. I have now organized all of my board and card games so that they fit in just two cubes of the storage cubes I have in my closet. I’ve moved all of my exercise equipment out of the closet and into the main room where it will be harder to ignore. My Legos are sitting near the door to my patio, tempting me to play with them (as well as buy more). I think I’ll put them away last.

Then there’s the part of the excavation where I go through the loads and LOADS of papers I have stuffed in every corner of my apartment. I tend to make notes on papers of all shapes and sizes. The notes on a single sheet may not be related. The notes may be entire paragraphs or just a number or a phrase. I’ve found notes for what eventually became blog posts. I’ve found notes for what were going to be blog posts, but I never got around to typing them up or organizing the ideas enough to post. But the hardest notes to figure out are usually on small pieces of paper on my computer desk. I find phone numbers with no names beside them. First names without last names. Partial addresses. Random numbers with no obvious meaning. And, strangest of all, the note "Pyxis – epsilon". As far as I can tell, that’s a binary star in the constellation Pyxis. I have absolutely no idea why I was making notes on it. Maybe Kitalia was trying to get her bearings. The workings of my mind are a mystery even to me.

How Can This Show Get Darker?

That's the question I asked myself when I heard that this season of Battlestar Galactica would somehow be darker than the previous two seasons.

WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW!

Season one involved the near destruction of humanity by the Cyclons. Season two involved the near self-destruction of humanity as humans did various horrible things to human-like Cyclons and fellow humans. So how on New Caprica could this show get any darker? From the recap of last night's episode:

"Saul Tigh poisons the hell out of Ellen Tigh, but as per usual with them, it's actually the sweetest -- not to say most romantic -- part of the season. They're so sad and weird."

And that, of course, is just a small sampling of all of the twisted and disturbing things that have happened this season, from suicide bombings by human insurgents to Starbuck's brainwashing by the Cyclons. All of this is very thought provoking material. But it's also driving home the biggest problem I have with this show - it takes itself far, far too seriously.

"Well, of course it's serious!" you may say. "Genocide, torture, end-of-the-world-NO-REALLY stuff is pretty serious." And it is. But every once and a while, everyone needs to come up for air. Babylon 5 dealt with some pretty dark stuff, including genocide (though not of humanity), war, and doing what it takes to survive in a sometimes cruel universe. But even that show managed to have a sense of humor, twisted and dark though it sometimes was. After a while, all of the darkness starts to weigh on the audience and characters alike. Those lighter moments that make you love the characters, not just feel sorry for them, make the pain bearable. I'm not asking Adama to do a stand-up routine or anything. Just something to releave a bit of the knot in my shoulders and stomach from watching the rest of it.

I don't know. Maybe BSG has to be this serious, given the issues that it addresses in often graphic (but not HBO graphic) ways. But isn't the real world depressing enough without the worlds we escape to being depressing too?