sundry on a Thursday
1. I was just on the elliptical machine, iPod working fine, and the phone rang. I stopped the iPod, answered the phone, attempted to return to exercising and found the iPod completely dead. Blerg! Battery was low-ish, but not so low that it should have suddenly died so thoroughly that the computer has failed to recognize it yet. But that's theory 1--seeing if it needs to be plugged in a little while to charge until the computer remembers it's there. From there I'll move on to resetting and then (if that doesn't work) to whatever else the troubleshooting website recommends.
Technology is grand until it stops working.
I will also be in a bit of a conundrum if it really is dead because I'm increasingly dissatisfied with this, my only Apple product, and I've been toying with the idea of breaking away completely whenever it was time to replace it. But I figured that wouldn't be for a while yet. As it is, I'm not sure how well my aging computer could handle dealing with new software and the re-uploading of various music files that I have unwisely purchased from iTunes, etc. Yet this is how they rope you in: "it's just so much easier to stick with our overpriced product!" says Steve Jobs. I might be a little more inclined toward brand loyalty if said overpriced product didn't just randomly die at less than three years of age.
Fingers crossed that the troubleshooting works!
2. A PSA in case people haven't heard: Claudia Black was on this week's NCIS, playing the tattooed owner of a biker bar. Yes, that's exactly as hot as it sounds. :) Her hair, in particular, was even more to die for than usual. The jury's still out on the American accent, though. I think her American accent is getting better--she's had her cringeworthy moments with it in the past--but I still find it really distracting. Is it just because I'm used to her own accent? Or is it because I feel like she's distracted by concentrating on the accent and doesn't act as well as a result?
Anyway, I don't watch NCIS but wasn't sorry I caught it this week for Claudia. If you prefer, however, kuwdora has screencaps here.
3. TV meme for yesterday and today:
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
There are not nearly as many of these as you might think. I'm actually not a big rewatcher, and when I do, I tend to want to rewatch an entire series in order (or at least an arc) rather than re-watching individual episodes. And there is no entire series I've watched five times!
I have probably seen the Farscape ep "Family Ties" as many times as I've seen anything--and probably five times or nearly so. For most of Farscape I can't watch individual eps: one ep turns into two, etc.--from the second season on, really, there's almost no point I feel like I could jump in without wanting to rewatch the entire series. But "Family Ties," the season 1 finale, manages to encompass so much of what I love about the show without triggering my desire to have a marathon. It hits all the right character notes, it's representative of the show at its best (it's not my favorite ep, but it's probably in my top ten), it's angsty without being soul-crushing, and it's a moment in the lives of these characters that I can take out of time and enjoy them at that moment. In many ways it's the moment of transition between the relative innocence of season 1 and everything darker that comes afterwards (even though it's not the first breach of that innocence), and there's something about it that makes it more rewatchable than most other episodes (of any show) that I can think of.
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
I could tell you about my Sesame Street days, or my Saved by the Bell days, or the way that Mike and Sully on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman were really the first pairing I shipped (though I didn't know that's what I was doing at the time).
But the show from my childhood that really stands out to me is Murder, She Wrote, not so much because of the show itself (though I enjoyed that) but because of the sense of ritual and community surrounding it. On Sunday afternoons, my family typically ate a big lunch. Then Sunday evenings were kind of a treat because we always had a light, non-traditional dinner: I specifically remember cereal and popcorn, though I imagine these were augmented with more nutritious foods that I don't remember as well. And instead of eating at the table, we'd have a "picnic" in the living room (blanket spread on the floor and everything) and watch Murder, She Wrote. I have no idea how this tradition started, but it's one of my favorite childhood memories, and it's also one of my first associations of television with community, which of course continues to be important to me.
Technology is grand until it stops working.
I will also be in a bit of a conundrum if it really is dead because I'm increasingly dissatisfied with this, my only Apple product, and I've been toying with the idea of breaking away completely whenever it was time to replace it. But I figured that wouldn't be for a while yet. As it is, I'm not sure how well my aging computer could handle dealing with new software and the re-uploading of various music files that I have unwisely purchased from iTunes, etc. Yet this is how they rope you in: "it's just so much easier to stick with our overpriced product!" says Steve Jobs. I might be a little more inclined toward brand loyalty if said overpriced product didn't just randomly die at less than three years of age.
Fingers crossed that the troubleshooting works!
2. A PSA in case people haven't heard: Claudia Black was on this week's NCIS, playing the tattooed owner of a biker bar. Yes, that's exactly as hot as it sounds. :) Her hair, in particular, was even more to die for than usual. The jury's still out on the American accent, though. I think her American accent is getting better--she's had her cringeworthy moments with it in the past--but I still find it really distracting. Is it just because I'm used to her own accent? Or is it because I feel like she's distracted by concentrating on the accent and doesn't act as well as a result?
Anyway, I don't watch NCIS but wasn't sorry I caught it this week for Claudia. If you prefer, however, kuwdora has screencaps here.
3. TV meme for yesterday and today:
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
There are not nearly as many of these as you might think. I'm actually not a big rewatcher, and when I do, I tend to want to rewatch an entire series in order (or at least an arc) rather than re-watching individual episodes. And there is no entire series I've watched five times!
I have probably seen the Farscape ep "Family Ties" as many times as I've seen anything--and probably five times or nearly so. For most of Farscape I can't watch individual eps: one ep turns into two, etc.--from the second season on, really, there's almost no point I feel like I could jump in without wanting to rewatch the entire series. But "Family Ties," the season 1 finale, manages to encompass so much of what I love about the show without triggering my desire to have a marathon. It hits all the right character notes, it's representative of the show at its best (it's not my favorite ep, but it's probably in my top ten), it's angsty without being soul-crushing, and it's a moment in the lives of these characters that I can take out of time and enjoy them at that moment. In many ways it's the moment of transition between the relative innocence of season 1 and everything darker that comes afterwards (even though it's not the first breach of that innocence), and there's something about it that makes it more rewatchable than most other episodes (of any show) that I can think of.
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
I could tell you about my Sesame Street days, or my Saved by the Bell days, or the way that Mike and Sully on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman were really the first pairing I shipped (though I didn't know that's what I was doing at the time).
But the show from my childhood that really stands out to me is Murder, She Wrote, not so much because of the show itself (though I enjoyed that) but because of the sense of ritual and community surrounding it. On Sunday afternoons, my family typically ate a big lunch. Then Sunday evenings were kind of a treat because we always had a light, non-traditional dinner: I specifically remember cereal and popcorn, though I imagine these were augmented with more nutritious foods that I don't remember as well. And instead of eating at the table, we'd have a "picnic" in the living room (blanket spread on the floor and everything) and watch Murder, She Wrote. I have no idea how this tradition started, but it's one of my favorite childhood memories, and it's also one of my first associations of television with community, which of course continues to be important to me.