The Great Communicator

I just finished a desktop wallpaper in memory of my favorite President, who unfortunately passed away not too long ago. He will be missed!

http://www.deviantart.com/view/11566165/

SPACE MADNESS!!!

I just purchased the original & uncut first 2 seasons of Ren & Stimpy.

On one hand, it's great to finally see the original episodes again. I have them on tape, but the quality was very poor to begin with and they've been degrading with time. So bad that the audio fluctuates between inaudible to staggeringly loud.

Maybe it's me, but there's nothing funnier than this type of lowest-common-denominator humor. Stimpy is funny, but then again he's basically the big retarded character. Ren on the other hand is my kind of character, he flies into huge fits of rage and seems to go insane every other episode. And there's just something about these characters screaming at the top of their lungs I can't help but laugh at.

On the other hand, after the first season the shows get progressively worse. I'm not sure if this was an effect of Nickelodeon's increasing censorship and control over story content, but the manic genius fades into boring monotony. The episodes get so bad that after the first few episodes of the last disk, they become almost unwatchable.

Still, that's a small price to pay for getting to watch these two sick little monkeys in all their glory.

Unbeliever

Original Post:
I just noticed The Runes of the Earth on the bookshelves - this is the first book in 4 of The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

Addendum:
I realize that was unusually short, so let me add a little bit of filler here at the end.

Basically this picks up a few years after the last book, Dr. Avery now has a child...who is arranging her toys to represent The Land - GASP! Where things go from there, the book's jacket does not say.

Now that I'm thinking about the original books, I remember embarrassingly little about them...except that they were damn good. One fact that does stand out in my memory is that time works differently in The Land, so when Thomas Covenant would return there an Earth week later, centuries had passed in the fantasy world.

I also recall there was some initial disappointment with the second series, as the introduction of Dr. Avery confirmed for Thomas Covenant that The Land was indeed real and not his personal halucination.

Other than his Thomas Covenant books, I've also read both collections of Stephen R. Donaldson's short stories, as well as the two book series Mordant's Need (The Mirror Of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through) - all were excellent.

Star Trek New Voyages

Star Trek has a huge following, but since the original series there's been something missing. The movies were mostly good, except for the last two NextGen outings and, most notably, Star Trek V. The Next Generation was excellent, especially after the first and second seasons. Deep Space Nine certainly had a good following. Voyager and Enterprise both fall flat. But any Trek fan worth their salt can't help but harken back to the original series. Sure, some of the scripts were corny and the many of the effects cheesy, but that series captured something that all its followers lack.

Well get ready, because the original series is making a comeback! Star Trek New Voyages continues the original five year mission of the starship Enterprise, beginning with year 4. They're using modern special effects with the original ship design. Just check out the trailers (especially the second one), it looks unbelievable.

The production has recreated several sets and countless props. Actually, they can probably buy better props today than were available on the original show's limited budget.

Now the obvious question that comes to mind is, how do you do Kirk, Spock, and other original characters? The site's FAQ puts it this way: "What we don’t want is a parody – an actor imitating William Shatner doing Kirk for example." Citing the example of Hamlet and other famous characters, "many actors have and can play the roles, each offering a different interpretation of said character."

They've gained some high level support, including Gene Roddenberry's son Eugene, who is on the production team.

The new episode will be released on October 8th...coincidentally, the same day as the season premier of Enterprise. I'm willing to bet good money that New Voyages is a better show, hands down! Seeing this preview brings back so many memories of Trek, it excites me like no other preview has for any of the spinoffs. As a matter of fact, I'll be joining my friends John and Randy Friday night and we'll watch both back to back.

(I'll be posting a comment this weekend about the New Voyages episode)