Everyone enjoys a good deal.  So I pass these on to you:

Amazon has “99 Essential Beethoven Masterpieces” for $1.99.  That’s a gig and a half worth of music for two dollars.  Do it, just to feel smart.  I did.  They also have the same thing for Mozart for $7.99

Also, if you need DVD-Rs, use this link to print yourself a coupon to Office Max for $10 off any purchase.  They have a 100-pack on sale for $25, so when you use your coupon it’s only $15 which is just tops.

Also, happy new years.

This is an excerpt from a much longer story I’m working on that takes place in the Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles universe.  It centers around the relationship between John and Cameron, and fuck you if that’s creepy.

I realize now that “If I Had My Way” sounds a bit childish, like I’m pissed off at the show and so am writing a story about how it would be if only I had my way.  That’s not the case.  Perhaps I need to think of a better title for the story, but “If I Had My Way…” will be part one of a two or three part story, the end of which will be titled “…I’d Burn This Building Down.”  These titles are taken from the song that played in the opening clip of season two, “Samson and Delilah,” sung by Shirley Manson.

Read the rest of this entry »

*Crazy Insane-o!*  This was a comment left on the post I linked to earlier.  Still very cool.  (‘Charlie Jane’ is a contributor on the site where this was posted.)

I’m not sure if this will put an end to this but I will assure you that the incorporation of drone-like imagery into TSCC should not in any way suggest there was/is a relationship between the original drone images and our show. The drone images are as much a puzzle to me as to anybody else…Maybe more so, as my obsession with their mysterious origins led me to go on and on about them in the writers’ room…So much so that we ultimately used the mystery as a platform for “Earthlings Welcome Here.”

It never occurred to me that anyone would use their inclusion in our show to cast any doubt onto the drones authenticity. They may be a hoax—it’s ultimately a matter of faith for many—but the fact that the drones are discussed on TSCC is only a testament to their hold on my imagination.

You may also doubt that I am who I say I am. I’m not exactly sure how to prove my own authenticity. Charlie Jane and I sat together upstairs at the WB booth at comic-con and I showed him the i09 button on my iPhone if that’ll help.

Se ya’ll back on the air Feb 13th.

No Fate,
Josh Friedman
Executive Producer, Creator, TSCC

BBC reports:

American fast food chain Burger King is marketing a men’s fragrance with the scent of meat.

Called Flame, the company says the spray is “the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat”.

The scent is on sale in New York for $3.99

If I ever smell this on anyone, I’m flipping the fuck out.

So, in my last Terminator recap/review over at PopCritics, I posted two images of UFOs that were seen over California.

In the last episode, the final shot was of a UFO hovering over Sarah Connor that looked, to me, strikingly similar to the UFOs over California.

Turns out, the whole thing might have been planned all along.

More here.

Either way, I am pumped about this because it means, without a doubt, my nerd credibility just skyrocketed — not just because I caught the connection but because to the best of my knowledge I was the first to draw the connection.

[/end shameless “tooting of own horn”]

El Finito is a true believer, but he is finished with the life.
Cameron

It’s a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake.
Lazy Town

Ever since I was a kid I had a thing for soundtracks.  I’m not talking about show tunes, though I have been known to blast Little Shop of Horrors from time to time, but the actual instrumental music that accompanies movies and tv shows.  I never really knew this until I asked my mom to buy me the CD for “Independence Day.”  She said, “you know that’s just the instrumental music, right?”  And I said, “yeah, I know,” and even today I can see how much I knew that in the form of a tattered CD case and scratched disc.

I never really advertised this interest to friends except for a few close ones.  They’d be talking about bands like Pearl Jam, Jane’s Addiction, Garbage or Soundgarden, and I’d try to chime in about the score to Contact and make it sound interesting.  Eventually one of my friends tried to protect me and gave me an album to listen to so I’d have something to talk about that was “normal.”

The CD he gave me was by Garbage, and I don’t know the CD I gave to him, but I remember liking Garbage and being anxious to hear what he thought about mine.

The next day at school he said it sucked and gave it back.

There’s no moral to that story except to say that the track above is a culmination of those two worlds.  Because it represents the soundtrack to one of my favorite TV shows—Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles—with a vocal track coincidentally sung by Garbage’s lead singer, Shirley Manson.

FECAL smear!

Yesterday I bought Sophia some really good booties because her little feet get cold and she limps when it’s cold out.  Anyway, she’s spoiled so she gets them.

It’s a good thing I got them because this morning I woke up to almost knee-high snow.  Of course, Sophia only comes up to mid-calf so her booties didn’t really do much since the rest of her body was covered.  She was a trooper, though, and plowed through it, but her furr is so long the snow gets balled up under it and takes 30 minutes to get out.

PAIN IN THE ASS.

It could have been worse, though, because before I went out with her this morning I put on her sweater.  Yes, she has a sweater.  It is pink with a frilly neck line.  I tried to look as manly as possible as a gruff looking maintenance man passed me on my walk, but it was impossible.

And because it was so snowy and unusual and she was wearing clothing, she was distracted and didn’t pee or poop so ultimately I spent an hour this morning with my dog and got nothing accomplished.

It’s snowy than a muhfucka outside.

The University of Michigan has taken a critical step in advancing our work in health, biomedical sciences and other disciplines with today’s decision by the Board of Regents to purchase the former campus of Pfizer Inc. in northeastern Ann Arbor.

This acquisition of the 174-acre site, adjacent to North Campus, includes 30 laboratory and administrative buildings, with nearly 2 million square feet of space, as well as amenities and open land. More importantly, this is a bold commitment by the University to invest in research that will benefit our community, our state and beyond.

We anticipate this acquisition will create 2,000 jobs over the next decade, and we are excited about the possibilities before us. We are increasing our capacity to contribute as one of the great research universities, while creating jobs that ensure our region’s intellectual and economic vitality.

Ever since Pfizer pulled out of Ann Arbor I wondered what would happen to the HUGE complex they had.

Woot, proud to be a U of M employee.

I realize nobody besides maybe Jeff and a few lurkers know who this is, but I’m saddened by this news:

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the most ubiquitous actor in Star Trek, died today at age 76. The wife of Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, she also provided the computer voices on every version of Trek. And she played three pivotal characters: Number One in the pilot, Nurse Chapel in the original series, and Lwaxana Troi in TNG and DS9.

She also will provide the computer voices for the new Star Trek movie.

I don’t create institutions; that’s an occupation for those who want to play God. So no, I’m not too big on religion, and not very fond of politics or economics either. And why should I be? They are the man-created trinity of terrors that ravages the earth and deceives those I care about.
Jesus, “The Shack”

I was at PetCo today after work buying some shoes for Sophia (her little footies get cold in the snow), and I was walking by the birds.  One of them caught my eye, and I walked up to it and was looking at it, and it fell asleep.  Meanwhile, another one had wandered over to me and was dancing in front of me.  I leaned down and he started pressing his face against the window and dancing.

I instantly made a new friend.

I looked at the pricetag:  $600.  Broke my little heart, it did.

What got me was not the way he looked, though he is very pretty, it was his personality.  I’ve since learned the breed is called “Sun Conure,” so I’m not sure if every one of them is that personable but if they are I’m saving my money. 

Here’s a video I took of him dancing.