Dr. Who Fans...Sad news...

The Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) has Died. At age 81. After nearly 40 years of protecting Earth from aliens with--and giving aid to--The Doctor. At least six (6) different incarnations of The Doctor.



There's more at the link above but also here and here.

Courtney knew he was part of something special, and never stopped enthusiastically cheerleading for Who, attending conventions and taking part in numerous Big Finish audio plays. He was rightly proud to be defined by his defining role. The time-space continuum feels a little bit smaller without him in it.

Huh?What did you say?

So I get done listening to the insufferable Brent Musberger and his partner "Herbie" doing the Rose Bowl on ABC, a displeasure only matched by having to watch Ohio State beat the Oregon Ducks 26-17, when I switch to Fox to watch the Cincinnati Bearcats against the Florida Gators. And there is no sound...as in NOT ONE FARUKIN' PEEP! Why could that not have happened on ABC? I tried using the mute button to get the closed captioning but even that is not getting through.

At least I can still watch the action on the screen. *sigh*

Doing my part for the economy

I mentioned that Terry, the M-i-L and I went to Wally World the other day to pick up a few odds and ends. Besides foodstuffs, I wanted to look at the flat screen TVs. Terry had a 13" (diagonal) set that must have been over 10 years old. It was dying. Turn it on and it would be fifteen minutes before the picture was clear enough to see what they were making noise about. You would hear the sound the entire time but the picture was horrible. Even when it cleared up, you would get eyestrain trying to read any subtitles or information that might crawl across the screen.

As luck would have it (actually I did some online homework) our WalMart had several 19" models in stock. After looking over the details, I settled on this one from Phillips because of its price and resolution.


It took Terry and I just five minutes to hook up and most of that was untangling wires from behind the old set. The color is great and the sound is marvelous. It's just the right size to fit on her shelf. An early Xmas present being enjoyed by everyone...but me.

Flip-Flop

Fox News is reporting that NBC has changed its mind about airing the Freedom’s Watch ads. I don’t suppose it had anything to do with the many, many blogs that pointed the finger at their decision or the tons of emails and phone calls they probably received. Perhaps, next time, they might think before they jump the shark.
NBC REVERSES COURSE, AGREES TO AIR TROOP 'THANK YOU' AD

Can we question their (MSM) partisanship now?

This might go a long way to explaining the idiocy at NBC. Red State reports , you decide.

NBC Lawyer who nixed troop ad gives generously to Congressional Democrats...at least $45,000 to a host of Congressional Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, New York Senator Hillary Clinton and the campaign committees of House and Senate Democrats.

According to a Fox News report, Richard Cotton, the general counsel for NBC/Universal, was one of two network officials who decided not to sell ad time to Freedom’s Watch, which describes itself as “a nonpartisan movement dedicated to preserving, protecting, and defending conservative principles and promoting a conservative agenda.”

At least Freedom's Watch is willing to announce its conservative agenda (although the ads don’t display it or flaunt it in any way and are strictly thank you notes to the troops and their families). Richard Cotton and NBC...perfect together. Jerks!

Shame on NBC

NBC has refused to play this simple ad from FreedomsWatch.org extending thanks to the troops who are in harms way this holiday season.



We've come a long way from the days of Bob Hope's USO tours, nearly all of which NBC aired. The 1970 and '71 Vietnam shows are reported to have been viewed by 60% of American households. But now NBC won't air a 30 second commercial saying, "thanks."

Now, this looks like it might be fun to watch.

`Tin Man' re-imagines `Wizard of Oz'

No dancing down the yellow brick road for Zooey Deschanel, star of Sci Fi Channel's new Emerald City adaptation, "Tin Man." And no warbling "Over the Rainbow" a la Judy Garland, either.

"It's postmodern, more like Indiana Jones than a fairy tale," said Deschanel, whose Dorothy — the role immortalized by Garland in "The Wizard of Oz" — is a disaffected, motorcycle-riding waitress called DG.

Based on L. Frank Baum's novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," which inspired the 1939 film classic, Sci Fi's six-hour "Tin Man" is not a musical but a brooding, special effects-driven fantasy.

As a kid, the flying monkeys scared the bejesus out of me more than the Wicked Witch ever did.

The miniseries will be airing Dec. 2 through Dec. 4 on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Journeyman = Quantum Leap?

I don't watch much television anymore. The networks' lineups of shows just haven't produced anything in the last few years that floats my boat. Reality shows leave be cold--or angry. The "comedies" aren't. And the dramas are awful. Only CSI (the original) really grabbed me until a year or so ago when it just got to damn freaky.

The only reason I tune in lately is to view sports. And I've noticed a decline in the quality of the announcers in many of the college games. Perhaps it's due to ESPN and ABC spreading themselves too thin. (On a side note, I never liked Brent Musberger. He comes across as just too full of himself. Watching him it appears he believes HE is the maker of the story and not the reporter.)

Tonight I'm watching the Sunday Night Football game (with two of the best announcers on the tube: John Madden and Al Michaels) and I've seen ads for NBC's new show Journeyman and all I can think of when hearing what they're saying about it is why didn't they just bring back Quantum Leap? I mean, that is exactly what it sounds like.

We're getting TV tomorrow!

Well, we’ve been in the new home since mid December and since mid October, we’ve been waiting for the telephone company to get their act together and upgrade their system to deliver TV as well as telephone and DSL service. This enterprise is as new to them as it will be to us. We knew when we started building the Aerie that the phone company would be our source of TV entertainment. There is no cable available along our road and I wanted no satellite dish on the house or a phone pole nearby even if I could get a signal from over the trees and mountain.

In the middle of January, when I hadn’t heard from them and we were looking at the start of 24, I called and was told they would be setting up appointments for installation within two weeks—just as soon as they got a few bugs worked out. The same message was repeated every two weeks after that. First it was at the substations, then the modems were delayed, then it was something else.

Finally, on Thursday, I called to ask if there was a problem with the DSL server on their end because I couldn’t get online. There was and it took nearly all day to get it straightened out. But before I hung up, I again asked about the television service and almost fell over when the phone rep on the other end asked, “Will Monday be okay?” Hell, yeah!

Friday morning an installer came by to see how much had to be done. Well, we’ve already got the wires run. We’ve got it set up for four wires with just three in use at a time. (The fourth is in case we redecorate.) All it’s going to take is a few caps on the end of the CAT-5 wire so it can be plugged into the modem and the TV top channel selector: about 30 minutes work and we’ll be in business. He left smiling so I think he was pleased with how little work this job will take. Said he would get the modem programmed in their office (so it could be tested easily) and he’d be back on Monday morning.

I’ve missed the RU bowl game. I’ve now missed March Madness as the RU women (# 19 nationally going into the tournament) move into the title game. And I’ve missed opening night of the baseball season with the Mets (after a very lackluster spring season) taking down the Cardinals. (Final score is 6-1 with Tommy Glavine the winner.) I didn’t miss much of 24 because every Monday night we’ve been going to our friends’ house for dinner and some TV. Got to see Prison Break too. But Don and Deb went on a cruise that set sail on Saturday and won’t be home for a week. I have a key, but I hope I won’t need it, cause at 10 AM Monday, after nearly three and a half months of waiting, we’re gonna have TV!

(Thank God for the internet and DSL!)

Idol is coming! Idol is coming!

One of the shows I was forced to watch introduced to this summer while living with Don and Deb was American Idol. It’s not that I cringed at the talent, most of that was pretty good and got better each week. No, I found Simon to be unbearable. If it were my TV, I would have surely thrown something at the b@st@rd some time during the season—if not more than once.

Perhaps that’s why I find this little ditty penned by LittleOrangeFox at Outlaw Republican so amusing as the 2007 season opener approaches.

(to the tune of The Sound of Silence

The Sound of Simon
by LittleOrangeFox

Hello Seacrest, my old friend,
I've come to watch with you again,
The television quietly broadcasting,
Woke us while we were still weeping,
And our mourning you would soon put to an end
But with him.
Within the sound of Simon.

….There’s much more so go on over to read the rest.

Television

One of the problems with our new home is the lack of TV reception. We're tucked into the north side of the hill so any satellite dish would find it difficult to pick up a signal. There is no cable this far out on the rural line. And the telephone company that was supposed to have TV service via CAT-5 cable, just like it has high speed Internet, has yet to receive the routers necessary to make that happen.

As a result of this delay in service, we sit and listen to the radio or surf the Internet. We've missed all the hoopla of the NCAA football bowls and New Year's Day parades but little else. Until last night.

Last night was, of course, the two hour premiere of Day 6 on 24 and marked the return of Jack Bauer from his long, slow ride to China. We were scheduled to have dinner and watch the show at Don and Debs but a combination of Don's getting a cold/flu and some serious icing conditions on the roads caused a cancellation. (They taped the show for us anyway.) If Don is feeling better and if the weather improves, we will go over tonight to see hours 3 and 4.

Later this week American Idol makes it's debut. Hopefully the routers won't be here yet.