Top Gear

Lately, I've been quite obsessed with the BBC show Top Gear. Tony has been a fan for years, but for whatever reason it just caught on with me. I never saw it as any more than a "hey look at that car" show, but it's quite hilarious.

If you're not familiar, the show features Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May in their automotive adventures. They test out various cars and have various challenges which test not only the cars, but the hosts themselves. I've heard from various sources that Top Gear is one of the most accurate and fair shows in terms of their car reviews, and in watching quite a few episodes over the past couple weeks, it certainly seems to be true.

Each of the hosts seems to have their own preferences when it comes to cars. Hammond seems to be the only one that truly loves motorbikes, May seems to prefer taking his time and is the one of the three most likely to prioritize handling and comfort over speed, and Clarkson who likes things fast.

Aside from reviews of both regular and super cars, many of the challenges the three are faced with involve purchasing a car for less than a set amount and going on a road trip. For example, one challenge involved the trio buying cars for less than $1,000 in southern Florida and heading over to New Orleans. Breakdowns abound, but they made it in a reasonable amount of time, giving their cars away in post-Katrina New Orleans. At the end of the road trip, the thirty second summary made you realize exactly how much the cars had been through and how close a person can get to a motor vehicle in just a few days.

Anyway, the comedy is why I came, but the sheer power of some of the cars the hosts drive is mind-bogglingly. Some people, undoubtedly, are attracted to the show by the cars and stay for the comedy; I've undoubtedly been the other way around.

You Know, I Never Saw it That Way

So I've been reading in the latter part of my shift, and stumbled upon something interesting. I've never really been all that into Spongebob Squarepants, though I'll admit it's a pretty entertaining show in general. It's one of the newer crop of children's cartoons that offers something to older audiences, with nuance and subtle reference to things that children couldn't possibly understand. Now, since I haven't watch the show much, there's no sense in my buying the DVD, but now I truly want to listen to parts of the commentary featured therein.

Apparently, according to the creators and Tom Kenny (the eponymous character's voice), each main character in the show is modeled after a mortal sin. Yeah, that's right, those mortal sins. I go through the movie Se7en to count them all up, but here they are, in no particular order: greed, sloth, gluttony, lust, envy, pride, and wrath.

So, some of these are pretty obvious, such as Mr. Krabs, the capitalistic entrepeneur and owner of a business that's often portrayed as exploitative of its workers and customers alike. Definitely greed, as often he's shown valuing money and wealth above all else. Squidward, one of the main antagonists of the series, finds his inspiration in pride. He feels above the others' escapades quite often, and condescends to the other characters on the show in a high-and-mighty way. Sandy is quick to anger, so she probably represents wrath. Patrick is fairly interesting, as he could be a number of things - gluttony for his propensity to eat a lot, sloth for his laziness, and envy in his jealousy of Spongebob.

The most interesting of them all, though, is probably Spongebob's seemingly major character flaw, lust. Connotatively, it seems like this wouldn't fit very easily into a cartoon meant for children, but Spongebob lusts after something other than carnal pleasures, preferring to chase excitement and fame in often unhealthy ways.

Anyway, there might not be much to it, but it's interesting in its own way. I wonder how the constructions of these characters were affected by this early decision in their development, and how far it really did go. In the end, though, it seems to have worked out - character flaws shape personalities and make predicting and writing behavior pretty easy.

And now I want to watch all the old Disney movies to figure out what sorts of gender stereotypes, subtle clues dropped about religion, and evidence of adult themes therein. Weird. I did happen to notice the ridiculously pro-monarchy stance in Anastasia from the beginning, though. Filthy reds!

EDIT: Thanks Duckbag for making me laugh at this.

[HERO is at the OUTDOOR RECREATIONAL FACILITY]

HERO: I AM THE GOOD GUY, YOU CAN TELL BECAUSE I HAVE FASHIONABLE 80'S HAIR AND DON'T HAVE SKULLS ON MY OUTFIT. I YELL ALL THE TIME BECAUSE I AM THE GOOD GUY AND I'M ALWAYS EXCITED ABOUT DOING GOOD, AND MY VOICE ACTOR CAN'T ACT. TIME TO ENGAGE IN A HEALTHY OUTDOOR ACTIVITY BECAUSE I AM A GOOD ROLE MODEL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.

[VILLAIN is scheming in his SECRET LAIR]

VILLAIN: I AM THE BAD GUY, YOU CAN TELL I AM BAD BECAUSE MY OUTFIT HAS SKULLS ON IT. I SPEAK IN AN ANNOYING UNNATURAL SCREECH AND USE REALLY BAD PUNS BECAUSE I AM EVIL. NOW I WILL ENACT MY EVIL PLAN TO DO SOMETHING STUPID THAT'S NOT ACTUALLY IN MY BEST INTEREST BECAUSE ALL EVIL PEOPLE ARE ALSO INSANE.

[Back at the OUTDOOR RECREATIONAL FACILITY.]

HERO: THIS IS GREAT. I LOVE OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES.

VILLAIN: BWAHAHAHA I AM GOING TO DO SOMETHING EVIL IN THIS OUTDOOR AREA.

HERO: NOT SO FAST, VILLAIN!

VILLAIN: HERO?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!

HERO: I AM GOING TO DEFEAT YOU BECAUSE CHILDREN NEED TO LEARN TO OVERCOME ADVERSITY. NOW WATCH AS I SOLVE PROBLEMS WITH VIOLENCE.

[HERO picks up HEAVY OBJECT from a stack of slightly darker colored heavy objects and defeats VILLAIN with it.]

VILLAIN: OH NO I HAVE I BEEN DEFEATED BECAUSE I AM A BAD GUY AND GOOD GUYS ALWAYS BEAT BAD GUYS.

HERO: NUTS! LOOKS LIKE HE GOT AWAY, BUT AT LEAST THE OUTDOOR RECREATIONAL FACILITY IS SAFE, FOR NOW. ALSO HERE'S A TACKED ON MESSAGE ABOUT LITTERING.

Hypnodog

He knows.

So... Does This Count as Incest?

Yahoo is reporting that two of Showtime's Dexter's stars have apparently eloped in the past couple weeks and are now hitched. The creepy thing is that these two stars, Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall are sister and brother on the show, respectively.

Weird.

Sunshine in Space

I was poking around a little bit on Wikipedia today when I stumbled upon a television project I haven't heard of in awhile, a sci-fi/comedy called Boldly Going Nowhere. The pilot was filmed in October, and the Fox network ordered the pilot and five more episodes.

So it looks like this thing might stick around for a season or more. And the best part? Its creators and writers are the three geniuses behind It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I'm curious to see how they can set up a show that's very different from It's Always Sunny and still be successful, though I'm certain they'll be able to. Sadly, they won't be starring in their new creation, but it will feature the likes of Tony Hale as "Robot" - Buster Bluth from Arrested Development - and possibly Kurtwood Smith - Red on That 70's Show. Sounds pretty enticing so far, but I guess I'll have to dig up the pilot somewhere to see what I really think.

The plot of Boldly Going Nowhere is a takeoff of the old Star Trek formula, though it concentrates on what the crew does in the long stretches of time where they're not solving mysteries or seducing green and blue women. I'm not sure if they'll be as asinine and stupid as Charlie or Mac, but it is a pretty creative idea for a premise. These days it seems like most new shows are just "INSERT ARCHETYPAL CHARACTERS INTO SITUATION, COMEDY ENSUES" rather than originality as It's Always Sunny and other shows like My Name is Earl and Pushing Daisies.

While I'm on the topic of new television series, Dollhouse looks kind of promising, I suppose. I never watched a moment of Buffy or Angel myself, but I was a big fan of Firefly, so hopefully I'm not just hoping for the latter only to be disappointed if it's the former. Whedon does good stuff in general, so as long as it's fresh and new I'm sure I'll at least like it for the novelty.

Superjail is over and it's still the weirdest thing I've ever really seen. I need to catch up on Dexter's third season sooner or later, since apparently the season finale is coming up next Sunday. Heroes continues tonight. I have to go back in time and grab all those Pushing Daisies and House episodes that I missed. I've got a lot to catch up on, though nothing but time to do it, I guess.

Apparently every episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force costs $75,000 to $200,000 apiece to create. Where is the money going? It's an eleven minute stretch of time with animation that's already been created and used a thousand times. I guess they're just being wasteful with it, since the limited animation techniques they use could probably end up costing a few grand.

Refreshin'

So it was time again today to put in my objectives for work. What that basically entails is to write down a few paragraphs on what I want to accomplish and how I want to challenge myself. Essentially it's just a promise to myself that I will continue to soak up information in any fashion I can, to be inquisitive; not too tough, since being curious is essentially what it is to be human.

I don't think I'm peaking yet at this job, but it seems I'm getting sort of close. I know most of the things I have to know for what I do, and though I learn something new every day, I'm starting to plateau off a little. I know this is pretty normal, but it's kind of disappointing. As my old manager Sam used to put it, I really like "drinking from the firehose". Though you can't absorb all the information, it's wonderful to have all the information there for the taking.

And it's all about information. I feel like Johnny Five screeching that he needs input for some reason. I want to know as much as all the guys who went through Naval tours and shifted back to the white collar world with the knowledge they gleaned. I want to cram three decades of learning into a year. I won't succeed at this, but I think this is exactly the position I want to be in.

Introspection aside, I've settled into the strange schedule pretty well. Late nights are great because there's really nobody around; I can get a lot of work done, and if there's no work to do, I can always entertain myself with reading and whatnot, though I'm still always eager to go home. Probably now moreso than a week ago, just because of all the shiny toys I bought myself.

Speaking of that, I've become a bona fide HD elitist. Yep, it only took three days, but now it's almost painful to watch anything that's not in HD, at least on my big TV. Though it's really a blessing to finally have a reason to get out of my dusty room, and if anyone visits (hey, some guys actually came into my apartment to deliver the TV, so it reset the counter of "nobody has seen this place but me in X days"), I'll be well equipped again. It would probably seem like I was hitting on someone if I was trying to explain that the only TV I own is in my bedroom.

Well, random stream of consciousness post done. Later.

Monies

TV - $1100
TV Protection Plan - $170
TV Stand - $150
Delivery - $100
Tax - $100

For a grand total of $1620.

Yeah. I drained my bank account, but it'll hopefully be a good purchase. I got a pretty good deal on a TV that I'll have for years, so it's nice to treat myself. It doesn't come until Saturday, though, so I have to bate my breath a little longer. In the meantime, I'll build the stand , call Comcast to enable HDTV feeds, and maybe even drop more cash on a PS3. I need my Blu-Ray!

UPDATE: 8:47am
I dragged the extremely heavy TV stand up the stairs. Ugh. I put it all together and it actually looks really great:


Sorry for the blurry crap. It's three tiered with nice glass platforms for everything. Can't wait until I put the crown on top.

Better picture from Best Buy, TV and all:

Best Buy Blowout

I may have finally found it. After months of searching and waiting, I'm closer and closer to pouncing. What seems like eons of saving up has led to this point.

I think I may be buying my heralded television on Friday.

Yes, the wonderful Black Friday has once again duped me into getting excited about getting stuff for super cheap. The piece of machinery, nay artistry, is a 46" 1080p Samsung LCD model with three HDMI inputs. Half a foot smaller than I was thinking initially, but the price tag makes it the most tempting; on Friday, it'll be available for $1099.

I've been to Black Friday sales before, and haven't had a whole lot of success due to my very small commitment to it. The cold Minnesota winters don't do much for my ability to keep my eyes on the prize. Out here, though, I may have more success. I actually hope it's abnormally cold, because that may eliminate some of the competition. I may end up going out at one or two in the morning just to ensure that I'm able to get what I want.

I made up a big finance sheet today to ensure that I had enough money. I definitely do, but I did a lot of math with the numbers I came up with. Apparently when you take into account car payments, insurance of all sorts, food, rent, random purchases, cable, electric and heat, and everything else, it costs me about $85 per day to live. Awesome. That seems like a lot. Also, I spend an average of just under $3 a day on gasoline.

Chris Matthews Owns

Old, but still great.

Pushing Daisies

So with the new television season comes a lot of returning series, including my old favorites like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, 30 Rock, and Heroes. The only 2007 arrival that I've been keeping up with lately is an amazingly quirky show that comes from the depths of ABC. Don't read on if you mind the first episode being spoiled.

Filled with amusingly colorful imagery and a definite fairy tale atmosphere comes Pushing Daisies, a show about Ned, a lonely pie maker with the strange power to bring dead things back to life by touching them. He discovered that this power had a catch or two when his mother suffered a sudden death from aneurysm, and he touched her to bring her back to life, unwittingly causing the death of the neighbor girl's father. Oh, and his mother was again relegated to the land of the dead when Ned touched her again. Upon the second touch, the being was dead again, this time for good.

Fast forward to present day, and we find Ned running a lucrative pie business (fruit no longer has a shelf life for him) and helping run a detective agency on the side. It's much easier to solve murder cases when you can wake the dead and ask them who killed them. Eventually, the murder of a young woman who was pushed off a cruise ship. It was Charlotte "Chuck" Charles, Ned's closest childhood friend and first kiss. The first episode details Ned and his associate, Emerson, solving her murder by bringing her back to life. The catch, though, is that Ned can't bring himself to doom her back to death and nothingness, and thus leaves her alive.

The newly formed trio use Ned's gift, Emerson's gumshoe talents, and Chuck's creativity to continue the murder-solving business, all while navigating a relationship lacking the sense of touch between the two childhood friends.

The best part of the show is by far the beautifully clever writing. It's littered with puns and alliterations, interesting metaphors, and situations that make one smile. The result is a modern fairy tale with an amazingly quirky sense of humor. The imagery is surreal at times, which only enhances the uniqueness of the show. It's funny, thought provoking, and amazingly interesting.

Also, they creators are clearly fans of They Might Be Giants: