And apparently it was two, at least according to NATIONAL TREASURE, which I watched again last night. Man The Girl loves that movie. Good thing her next husband, Nick Cage, is getting weirder looking in his old age, or I’d be worried.

(So how does everyone else format their titles? Online-wise, I’ve generally done the ALL CAPS THING, but maybe that’s garish and italic would be easier on the eyes, or bold perhaps, or maybe both?  Thoughts?  Maybe it depends on what kind of title I’m typing about.  Maybe I should look it up in that fancy formatting and grammer book I have floating around somewheres. )

Went to a “party” that turned out to be more of a get-together in Santa Cruz with in-laws for The 4th.  Swam, ate a ridiculous amount of food.  Like a TON.  And that was apparently just appetizer because after I couldn’t eat any more, they brought out the actual food. Gah.  But it was good and I didn’t have to eat again for 48 hours, so it worked out.  Went home while it was still daylight and crashed early.  Or tried to anyway, as I ended up tossing and turning on the couch until about 4am.  Didn’t see any fireworks, but that was fine, I’ve seen them before and still had the “joy” of hearing them all night.  Otherwise, uneventful weekend spent with The Girl and no kid, which was nice.  Not that The Kid isn’t nice too, but the mini-vacation felt good.

Listening to the Michael Jackson funeral in the background.  Someone’s talking nice things about him, not sure who.  Funny how the press and famous people have been about trashing the “child molesting freak” for the last decade or so, but now that he’s dead, it’s all about how awesome he is again.  I bet he faked his death and is living on Celebrity Island or something.  Good for him.  Man he was big when I was kid.  I forgot how big.  I used to break dance at lunch in grade school.  THAT’S how big he was.  I have a scar on my thumb from the time I really stupidly tried to cut the fingers off a pair of cotton gloves with a kitchen knife.  THAT’S how big he was.  It’s a trip to see all the old footage and videos and stuff, seeing back in the day.  My uncle was asking a car full of us a couple days after he died whether he was really that big or not (not out of sarcasm or pessemism or anything, he honestly didn’t know) and I got to thinking…um…YES!  I had forgetting how YES he was, but yeah he was everywhere.  He was the King. Oh well.  R.I.P. Michael.

Someone just sang his favorite song SMILE, (I’m betting the format of a song title should be different from a movie title?) which of course is a great song, but I had no clue it was written by Charlie Chaplin.  Please someone revoke my Useless Geek Trivia Knower license.

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

God, I almost skipped another month!  What is the point of this thing anymore?  Stupid Twitter and Facebook!  I need to challenge myself to write daily or weekly or something, or come up with something column-like to write about.  Or not care and do what I’ve been doing.  Hmm, that sounds easier!

I have been riding my bike to work lately because we have decided to be a single-car family, in addition to being a single-income family.   My car was sounding horrible and wasn’t worth the price it would probably have cost to fix it, so I donated it to Cars For Kids and got a tax write-off (theoretically).    I was only really using my car to get to work and back anyway, so using my brand new bike that I bought years ago and never used seems just as easier.  I can’t say it’s much exercise, since the distance from home to work isn’t that far, but it does feel nice to get the blood flowing a bit after sitting at a desk all day.  Maybe I should get a motorcycle or something.  Oh wait, those cost money, huh?

In-laws are in town, and the families went to watch The Kid perform at the San Jose Center for Performing Arts with her dance class.  Three hours of show for about three minutes of Kid time, but it was pretty cool, if not a bit long in the tooth.  Those kids are really talented though, and a lot of them could easily go on to dance professionally in theater…or as strippers or something.  (Man! they sexy those kids up young.  Gah.)  Over 100+ people watching the show, and no nervousness from The Kid, so that was impressive.  I’d have been hawking up a liver backstage.  She’s either too young to know better or she’s destined for stardom.  Time will tell.  Afterward, early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  Need I say more?

I don’t think I accomplished any of my to-do list I wrote about last entry, so that’s consistent of me.  Working on the garage again today though.  Good thing it’s hot outside!

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

Things I Worked On

The account for our wedding site through eWedding.com was going to expire, and rather than renew a site we do nothing with, The Girl asked if I could convert it to a family blog.  I have done so, and she has not used it.  Bug her.  (Have I already plugged this?  I feel déjà vu.)

Things I Am Working On

Running, running, running.  Not sure what the next event will be, but something next month probably, and it will be a 10K.  I can run that now, but I’m pretty slow.  I’m currently at three days a week, hitting a treadmill across the street and following a program I found at Runners World.   I was going more than three days a week, but my right heel kept hurting, and slowing me down even more, so the new schedule seems to be giving me the right amount of healing time for my aged carcass.

Worked on cleaning the garage last weekend.  Got the garbage and donation stuff out, minus funiture.  Have to borrow a truck for that.  Now I just need to sell or organize the remainder.  Almost there.  I can see the ground, at any rate, so that’s a good sign.  Hopefully The Girl will be able to park in there by the time the weather starts frosting up windows in the morning again.

Been updating the genealogy site more frequently.  Love that new Family Tree Maker!

Things I Want To Work On

Drawing, drawing, drawing.  God I’m lazy.

I want to make a Wordpress theme.  I feel ready.

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

Went to see Star Trek opening day last week (or course) with  my buddy.  I found, going in, that my enthusiasm wasn’t that high.  I think I mostly went because I didn’t want everyone asking me if I went, and also it just seemed obligatory.  But I was honestly feeling kind of burnt out on it already, what with all the news, trailers, footage leaks, etc.

But after watching it…WOW!  My Trek enthusiasm was revitatalized!  The movie was one awesome moment after another, and me and my buddy were all nerd-giddy as we went over the movie scene by scene in the parking lot.  Seemed like all the other theater goers loved it too, as all the right laughs and shouts of excitment were heard in all the right places.  (Unfortunately, I didn’t see any Klingons or Andorians walking around, but lots of Trek shirts and guys who looked like they don’t get laid much, so the experience still had that nice feeling of home.)

Then…as the days progressed, the flash and pop of the movie started to fade, and the actual plot became more prominant within my brain, and now I realize the movie sucked.  It’s one of those horribly lazy screenplays where nobody earns anything.  I hate those!  But what’s weird, I still kind of like it even though it really did suck.  Maybe that’s the secret of Abrams power.  He’s tricking me into liking it somehow.  Or at least trickED.  I don’t know if I would enjoy it again now that I’m onto him.

But yeah, it’s a really bad story directed really well.  I’ve recommended it to people, even after realizing I’ve been conned.  Not sure why.  Damn that Abrams.  I feel so Lost!

(Get it?  Ouch.)

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

WOW,  I think I skipped an entire month.  Perhaps Twitter is ruining my blogging enthusiasm.  So much easier to write a one sentence thought rather than construct entire paragraphs.  Da horror!

So what have I done?  A bunch of stuff.  In-Laws came and went again.  (They still think I hate their visits, but I really do like it because somehow I end up watching way more of the TV I want when they’re here.  Not sure why it works out that way, but I am not going to question it.)  Went to Seattle on business.  Been there once before, and like last trip, ate at the Space Needle and did not have time to hit the Experience Music Project nor the Sci-Fi Museum and Hall of Fame.  Must visit that city when not working someday.  (I managed to peak inside the Sci-Fi Museum when it was closed and saw a huge Gort in the lobby.  Coool!)

But inbetween all that I did something worth doing, for once.  As I may or may not have stated before, a buddy of mine and I agreed to run a 5K, 10K and 1/2 Marathon by September of this year.  We set this goal last September, giving us a year to do it, so of course we’re just getting started now, because lazy is our M.O.  We settled on the Mission City 5K Run for Fun held at Great America.  It was their first year doing this, and it was pretty cool.  You run through the park, which was nice, but then the last half of it involved circling around many a parking lot, which wasn’t as nice, but by then I was so tired I didn’t really care about the ambiance. The cool thing is they close the park down for the runners to enjoy after the event, and the price of admission is included in the race price, which was all of $20, so that’s about as cheap as Great America gets.  Of course, I didn’t have time to stick around and enjoy the park, but perhaps next year I can drag the family with me and make a day of it.

I can’t say I trained for this very hard.  I knew about for a month and started running at the gym a week prior.  (See M.O. above.)  It hurt, but I did better than I thought.  I only stopped once, about half way through it, for about a minute.  Legs hurting me didn’t stop me, a mild asthma attack didn’t stop me, feeling the contents of my stomach crawling up my neck stopped me pretty quick.  There were children present, I didn’t want to scar any of them for life.  After a brief catching of breath and a quick shot from my inhaler (I know ladies, could I be more sexy?) I finished fairly strong.  That is to say I finished #338 out of 560, so not strong strong, but winning wasn’t the goal at all, just completing.  Considering how little I trained, I’m fairly happy with my 12 minute mile average.

Time: 37.23.  Beat that losers!  (Sooo sad…)

Next stop is the 10K.  No plans yet on which one, but I don’ t think I can get away with no training this time, so I signed up at Snaps Fitness, which is a 24/7 gym literally right across the street from my house.  If I can’t make that work, well…that would be sad.

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

It smells like comics today. I say or think that often, especially around this time of year. I’m not sure what comes first, me thinking about comics and then the smell, or the other way around. It’s probably the weather. It’s comic convention weather. It’s “riding my bike to the local comic shop after school with my backpack straps digging into my arm pits and my no-longer-needed jacket tied around my waist” weather. Most days I’m cool with my decision to quit, but some days I feel the jones. Days that smell like this, in particular.

So just for fun, here are the first two comics I remember owning: Detective Comics #527 and The Flash #257. (I just realized right now that the numbers are virtually the same, only the first two inverted. Crazy.) I did not buy them. I believe they were given to me by an aunt or some other collateral relative. I also think there were more than just these two, but these are the only two I remember with any sort of clarity. They had a bumpy, water damaged feel to their covers. I remember really digging Batman art, but was confused by why Robin was a blond (didn’t understand there were more than one Robin and the Robin featured in this issue was an up and coming Jason Todd). I also remember thinking the super power of the Golden Glider was fairly weird and no match for the Flash. (But what is?)

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

Went to my father-in-law’s 50th birthday last weekend. It was in Lake Havasu, and normally we drive there (and by “normally” I mean the one time I’ve gone before) but this time we decided to fly cheap on Allegiant Air. Cheaper than driving? I think ultimately not. Faster than driving? Two hour delay spells not. Easier than driving? I’ll go with yes, though it’s a toss up whether being bottled up in a car or bottled up in a terminal is better, but at least you can stretch your legs in a terminal.

The party was fun. It was a James Bond theme, so everyone dressed up, and there were little gambling tables outside and I had printed a bunch of Connery movie posters that were taped up everywhere. I think Bond posters might be the coolest movie posters every made. Bond or anything painted by Drew Struzan, can’t decide which. Learned how to play craps, and won second place, which meant I came out with $20 more than I put in. I don’t know why I’m wasting so much time with the 9 to 5 when I could be out on the road making a fortune.

The next day we toured a bit of Lake Havasu and had brunch at a place called The Turtle Beach Bar. Great view of the lake and decent food. Spring Break was just getting started, so lots of kids running around in their bathing suits, but I won’t talk about that because my wife reads this journal.

On the way home we took a wrong turn and missed our flight, so ending up driving the rental all the way home. So now flying was definitely more expensive than driving, as of course our tickets were not refundable or transferable. Oh well.

The Kid was sick the last couple days. I think The Girl is going to get in trouble for missing Monday. I missed Tuesday, but the company survived, even though I hear it was touch and go for a while.

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

Swiped from Dan Meth via Veronica Belmont, I agree with this, give or take a few minor adjustments. Oh and I still haven’t seen any of the Godfather series. I know, I suck and don’t deserve to live!

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

I am. Or was. Or did. However it works. It was okay. I’d like to see it again, now that I know what it is and isn’t, to see if any of my objections are simply from divergences they took from the original material or if they actually have merit. All my comic loving brethren seem to love it, but then I didn’t love Dark Knight, and I thought Spider-Man I was better than II, so maybe my homes and I don’t see eye-to-eye on these things. I was going to go into my objections further, but eh, I don’t feel like it. If you love it you love it. No one needs me explaining why they shouldn’t. And like I said, I’m not sure what I think of it, so itemizing its “faults” might be premature.

One of the reasons I went was to catch the new Trek trailer on the big screen. (I would have seen it anyway, but yes that was a motivating factor - I am lame!) Of course, my theater was one of the many that did not show it, so thanks for that. I have and had seen it online of course, but I wanted to see it biiiig. Oh well. Again, like the last trailer, I’m torn between “oh god that looks awesome!” and “hmm…that plot point might be dumb…”

Lots of people are saying, “Finally Trek with a budget!” and I guess I agree, although I have to admit, not counting New Frontier, I never noticed Trek needing a budget before. I guess I’m old school. But comparing what has gone before to the shots in these new trailers, the differences in effects is staggering. IMAX here I come. But…is it just effects?

I’m intrigued by the Kirk story the trailer hints at, but will it be all that? I’ve read the movie adaptation is a whopping 197 pages. Hopefully the font is small! The line, “We have no Captain or first officer to take his place” appears dumb to me without context as ranking takes care of situations like that. It’s called a Second Officer, Bones… If they bump Kirk up from nothing to Captain I will probably hiss and boo a bit. But no no, let’s not judge until we see it. Stay the course. As you were.

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

It seems slightly more complicated than it needs to me. Or perhaps not so much complicated as user-unfriendly. It’s a status changer, I get it. But the reply function is just weird. Unlike Facebook, for instance, where you can click the little “comment” link underneath a status, and then it actually shows your comment (and everyone else’s) underneath the status, Twitter doesn’t really thread anything. You’re just supposed to follow who’s talking to who somehow.

You get used to it after a while, but I think it could look more intuitive on their site. It really helps to change the setting “@ Replies” to “@ Replies to the people I’m following”, so that you don’t see replies from the people you’re following to people you don’t care about on your main page. (You still see their replies on their main page, but that’s what you get for going there. Confused yet? I am!)

I was going to dismiss Twitter, but is seems like every site I go to has a twitter application option. And I can sync it to my Facebook status changes, so it’s not really going out of my way to use it. And John Cleese is on there, and if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me. So anyone reading this got a Twitter page? I do! Let’s follow each other!

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

Eh, not really, as I’m still the writer, but I did change the theme to something less geek-tastic. I guess I’d rather brand myself these days, rather than Paramount properties, especially when I’m not feeling said properties lately, anyway. Why plug something that hasn’t excited me for some time, eh? Besides, this way I don’t have to pay LiveJournal for the pleasure of customizing my theme and allowing me mucho userpics. Wastes of money in these trying economic times must go. Just ask the news, they’ll tell you!

Well it’s February already, and I almost didn’t post. Whoops! The in-laws were staying at our place for a while. They worked on our place while we were at work. Part of me feels guilty that they didn’t just relax, part of me is happy that there was less laundry and the crown molding got painted. Hey, I didn’t ask them to work, so I guess I’m guilt free!

My birthday came and went. I don’t feel different, except maybe more lethargic, but that’s lack of exercise more than lack of youth. My parents and uncle came over and The Girl cooked everyone a great dinner, then we showed off wedding pictures for the umpteen time. (We should have had a wedding pictures viewing party or something.) On Valentine’s Day, both sets of parents, myself, The Girl and my sister’s family went to a fancy grill across the street from my house. Good food, good booze, a nice time was had by all. Maybe next year The Girl and I will do the more romantic route with just the two of us, but the goal this year was to be thrifty and sociable.

Got money back on taxes this year, so w00t! But daddy needs a new car, so boo. Seems like this is going to be the year of money issues, but then we’re not alone on that front. Just ask the news, they’ll tell you! My goal this year is to be smarter and tighter with the wallet, but then I say that every year, so what do I know?

The Girl is thinking about going to wedding planning school, or whatever it’s called. Apparently planning one wedding created a junky and now she wants to do it all the time, only with other people’s money, so that’s good. I’m thinking about going back to school too, but per usual, am torn as to what I would like to accomplish.

I think I might be abusing the comma.

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

Is it just me or does it totally smell like 80s childhood today? I smell He-Man and Transformers and Star Wars and G.I. Joe and forts behind the levee and movie theaters by K-Mart. And bike rides! Lots and lots of bike rides.

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

Wedding By Cara

Christmas was a blur. The Kid made out like a bandit, otherwise I remember little. The usual get-togethers, the usual dinners. The in-laws stayed at our place, (I have in-laws now -weird!) so that made it more interesting, but in my head at least, it was all about the impending wedding, and Christmas was just a hurdle to get through, especially financially. Simple, fun, and then done.

Rehearsal was the next day. It went much quicker and more chaotically than I thought it would. For one, it was freezing, (for California anyway), which wasn’t a good sign, since the rehearsal was around the same time as the wedding was going to be the next day. So everyone was shaking and shivering while we did a quick walk through of the “here comes the bride” bit. It was fairly easy, though the flower girls pretty much ran around ignoring everyone. I was surprised we didn’t go over anything else like announcements, food, dancing, toasts, etc., but what did I know? After rehearsal we went home where take out had been ordered from a Mexican place in Morgan Hill, and we ate and drank and then I took off for a hotel, because I couldn’t see the bride on the morning of, and none of my family have allergy free houses I can stay at. (Cats! Lots of cats!)

Wedding By Cindy

The hotel was fairly ungood. I actually got my hotels confused when I booked the room online because I thought I was staying at a different place that probably would have been better, but oh well. It was for one night, and after a week of a full house and various family events, it was nice to have a quiet night to myself, where I could toss and turn all night. I don’t think if I was nervous in the “oh man I’m going to be committed for life tomorrow” sense, but more in a “I hope everything goes right and I don’t trip and fall on my face or something” kind of way. Whatever it was, my brain and stomach wouldn’t shut up, so I didn’t get much sleep. Somehow I doubt most people get much sleep before their wedding day.

Wedding By Cara

The next morning, I went and got The Girl’s car washed and then got ready to go in time for check out, at which point I had about three hours to kill before I had to “at the church” (aka the golf course), so I went to my parents house and chilled with them and my brother and his girlfriend, who had just flown in the night before. My nervousness had turned in to a surreal calm by that point, and it seemed odd to me that all this talking and planning for the last six months was finally going to pay off today.

Went to the golf course, so I could hurry up and wait. The Girl and her party were already their, prepping in their area, and it was really weird knowing she was in the same building as me but we couldn’t say howdy or anything. I hid in the boy’s lounge until it was my time to take Groom pictures, which were as tedious as the engagement shots, but I guess that’s what we’re paying for.

Wedding By Christy L

Lots more waiting and pacing and then all of a sudden “it’s time” and I’m on my way down the hallway passing familiar faces who all greeted me and threw words at me I don’t remember and then I was on my way to the alter locked arm in arm with my parents, and flower girls were walking down the aisle looking all cute and behaving themselves, and I got choked up when I saw The Kid come down the aisle for some reason, which wasn’t good since the ceremony hadn’t even started yet and I was already losing it, and then The Girl came around the corner with her father and she looked beautiful and my head started floating about four feet above my shoulders wondering how the heck I suckered her into all this and then I was shaking her dad’s hand and he passed her over to me and I couldn’t take my eyes off her as the minister started saying stuff, who knows what it was, and I caught a look from The Kid who gave me a wink and thumbs up and I found that funny and odd because I didn’t know she knew how to do either of those things, and then we repeated our vows to one another, who knows what they were, and The Girl got all choked up which made me choke up and then we were pouring sand in a vase thing with our mothers and her daughter and then we were man and wife and I was kissing her and she was telling me to slow down as he walked back down the aisle together.

Wedding By Lindsay

In other worlds, it all happened so fast! After that though, we had a brief moment to breath and talk to each other as everyone went to the bar while we hid in the hall, waiting for the photographer to take more pictures. It was cold outside so we limited the family shots to a few big group shots, and then The Girl and I spent a loooooong time outside taking photo after photo. Ultimately I’m sure we will not regret this, but at the time, I wanted to be in the bar drinking something to warm me up. At least I had a jacket, by the end of the shoot The Girl’s sleeveless arms were going to fall off, I think.

Finally it was over and we got to go inside and have a quiet moment at the bar, get a few drinks to warm up and wait to be announced. Got to watch the photos or our childhood we collected and scanned rotating on the tv screen, which was cool. Then we were announced and inside the reception area and sat down for all of two seconds before we were up going to table to table saying hi to everyone. It’s weird how, despite being the guests of honor, it seemed harder for us to socialize than anyone else. I guess that’s just how weddings work. I want to see the pictures of all the stuff we missed while we were away doing bride and groom stuff.

Wedding By Cara

Got a few bites of food, two great toasts from both dads, and then it was on to the first dance. I don’t dance, never have. We took lessons to get me through this. Five lessons, and we didn’t practice outside of these lessons, so I was pretty nervous about how we’d do. The dance floor seemed much tinier than I thought it was going to be, and the crowd much bigger. I don’t think we took a single step right, at least it didn’t feel like we did, but The Girl was happy with it, and everyone else seemed happy with it, so I’m happy with it. At least it was over quickly. Then off to more dancing with parents, and money dance, and then just general dancing. I think I made up for the “never dancing in my life” thing on that dance floor, and The Girl danced twice as much as I did. Of course, now that I’ve done it, she’ll expect it from me at future weddings and events, but oh well.

Wedding By Cara

After the first dance, it was pretty much all fun for me. It’s still a blur, but I got to see lots of people I haven’t seen in a while, and managed to talk to most of them. It was a much better time than I thought it was going to be honestly, since I usually don’t do these things well. I think neither of us could have asked for a more perfect day. It went off without a hitch…well except for the one.

After that we were off to Carmel for an all too brief honeymoon and then back to reality. Still don’t have the professional pictures yet, but other people brought cameras and my Facebook was flooded with tags when I got back.

Life is now pretty much the same, except I have an itchy ring finger, and we’ll get a nicer tax break this year. And I get to say “my wife” in sentences now, which is still taking some getting used to.

So I’m married now…to the love of my life…two and a half weeks strong…w00t!

BTW, this is the cake topper The Girl surprised me with! Cool eh?

And actually…shouldn’t I be upgrading “The Girl” to “The Wife?” Still weird!

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

This used to be called “Read and Watched 2008″ but I stopped keeping track of movies I’ve watched. It got too tedious and I was never sure if I should count movies I was only half paying attention to (aka watching movies on t.v.). Maybe I should start again and only log in movies I’ve seen in a theater, or something like that. That sounds good actually. But in any case, 2008 is a bust for movies. And not great for books either. Here we go:

So yeah, pretty much just read Harry Potter this year. It was good, but I got sick of it towards the end. Stardust turned out to be one of the few instances where a movie is better than a book, and Fool Moon’s main character cried once too many times, so I gave up on that series early.

As for this year, I don’t know what I feel like reading. I’m not in the mood for anything. I’m humming and hawing about reading the DS9 Relaunch books, but I’m often disappointed in “franchise books” and I don’t know if I want to start down another series road, or read some stand alone stuff for a while. Maybe I should read a book on how to read faster!

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

Last time I looked at the fan count of Batman vs Superman, with Batman the winner. Now let’s look at the two franchises that are closer to my heart, Star Wars vs Star Trek, and guess who’s going to win? (Der!)

Did you see that coming? I did! Trek did pretty good on the individual entries but it was the generic search at the beginning that done ‘em in.

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

92 words

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

I finally got through seasons 3 and 4 of Doctor Who, and like the other seasons (or “series” if you want some UK authenticity) it was pretty good. Season 3 seemed somewhat repetitive and I felt bad for old Martha Jones, as she had to replace Rose, which no fan is going to embrace. She was cool, and the prettiest companion I’ve watched so far (also the second companion, so her competition isn’t steep) but I didn’t like her pine for the Doctor, and they didn’t really play up the aspects of her I did like, namely that she was a doctor herself. As I’ve never watched Classic Who, I could be wrong, but I think the “love” stuff is a new idea, and I’m kind of bored of it. It was okay with Rose, The Doctor just came out of a war, he was alone, she was special, yadda yadda, but let’s move on now. He fell in love again in the Christmas Special. Geezums, he must have a thing for blonds!

Season 4 was very entertaining and I blame Donna Noble for most of it. Now that’s a companion. Someone who doesn’t take the Doctor’s $(@& (or anybody’s for that matter). But not only was she funny and strong willed, there was lots of heart in her character. One minute she’s cracking wise, the next she’s suffering immensely, and you could really feel it. As fun as it is the be The Doctor’s companion, it’s also tough, and Donna Noble really showed us that. And no love stuff! Heck, she didn’t even find him attractive! I dug that. Too bad it ended for her the way it did, but I guess it could have been worse. At least she seemed happy. Favorite line: “This isn’t the real me. This isn’t my body. But I’ve been dieting!”

I gotta say, as franchise characters go, it doesn’t get more brilliant than Doctor Who, a guy who travels space and time and who can turn into a completely different actor every time he “dies” is a great way to keep a series going forever. You can change anything and everything whenever you want, except that police box.

I also gotta say that this new series has a better and better cliffhanger every season. I never know how they’ll top themselves, but they always do! 1) Regeneration, 2) Daleks vs Cybermen, 3) Return of the Master, 4) Return of Davros and every supporting character/companion of the new show. What to do for season 5?

I started watching old school Who this morning. It’s kinda slow, but the segments are short so I can take it in small intervals. It’s not that bad considering its age. There are very few film cuts, it seems more like a stage play, which is kind of cool. Hartnell’s Doctor is much different than Tennant’s, but I expected that. He looks grouchy and he is grouchy, so it works out. It’s interesting to see how it all began. I think I’ll throw in an old Doctor Who DVD on my Netflix queue every so often, and maybe eventually catch up with the rest of the Whovians.

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

In which the author updates his blog with personal stuff for the last time as a single person.

The Kid had a birthday party at my parents house on the 6th.  It had a bounce house, face painting and a pony to ride.  Boy things are sure different then when I was a kid.  Whoops, that sentence made me officially old.  Oh well.  It’s like the standard now to have all that stuff at a birthday party.  Back in my day, we had cake and presents and um…yep that’s it.  We also walked to school uphill both ways, so I guess it’s better to live in the now rather than the then.  The party went off pretty well, though it was a bith chaotic and I had to run a few errands.  (My new job position, I guess.)  The Girl got stressed out for a little bit, but in the end, I think everyone had fun.  The kids did especially,  and that’s the important part.  I took advantage of the bounce house a few times, and I have to say, kids must be in amazing shape!  I bounced about three times and was ready to die.  Maybe rebound training isn’t a horrible idea!

The next weekend, we went to see The Nutcracker at the San Francisco Ballet. The Girl and I did this last year, when we first started dating and it was great, so we decided to try it again this year, but up the ante and bring The Kid too. (She could use some culture.) It kinda worked, kinda didn’t. We went on a work day, so the rushing to get read sucked. The drive bored The Kid to tears, so there were lots of “are-we-there-yets. We went to a kid specific show because it was supposed to be less formal and because the dancers were supposed to be in the lobby at the beginning of the show and we thought The Kid would enjoy seeing ballet dancers. But they weren’t there, and “less formal” actually meant “super obnoxious kids everywhere,” so it was hard to concentrate on the performance. The Kid liked the show at first, but after intermission was pretty much done, so we ended up leaving early. So, it ended up being okay, but I think next year we’ll go back to an adults only trip. Also driving up and back in the same day was dumb, so if we can’t afford a hotel next year, we just won’t go!

The Girl and I have been tight on cash because of the wedding, so we waited until the last minute to Christmas shop, and then busted it out in one day. That’s how I prefer to roll come Christmas time anyway, so that was fine with me. Despite being a bit frugal, I think everyone is still going to make out. I sold more geek stuff on eBay to help pay us back a bit, which has worked out pretty well. Course I’m running out of stuff to sell, so that trick won’t work much longer. Next year we’ll have to be tighter about finances if we want to recover from this year’s fun.

Grandma was checked into the hospital for lack of insulin. She’s since been checked out and moved in temporarily with my parents. They watched her take her medicine last night and she tried injecting herself with air because she couldn’t see that her syringe didn’t have medication in it, so that explains the lack of insulin! She really can’t live alone anymore, but is fighting the idea of moving, which I find odd since she’s been telling me her whole life how, when she gets old enough, she’s going to check herself into a home so her kids don’t have to worry. I guess it’s different when it’s theoretical.

The wedding is one week and one day away. I’ll steal a label from stage people and dub the next seven days “hell week,” not because it will be horrible, but definitely quick and busy. All the last minute details have to be remembered and ironed out, and we have to fit in family visiting, Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day somehow. Should be fun! Everyone keep asking me if I’m ready and if I have cold feet, (one person even asked me if I had wet feet, but I don’t think that’s right), like they’re dying to catch me scared out of my mind. I’m a bit nervous, but not about the commitment. Just about the ceremony itself going off without a hitch, (well except the one hitch but…never mind).

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

I should really be posting about real life stuff, but here’s something more interesting instead. On Facebook, they have “pages” for products, organizations, people, etc. I think the idea, at least for people, is for the page to be run by the actual person, or at least that person’s rep, but of course everything from Homer J. Simpson to Mr. Magoo has a page because anyone can start a page. And once you start a page, other people can be fans of that page. So I looked up Batman and Superman, and of course they are there, but in terms of fans, Batman is winning 143,999 to 104,831. That’s a pretty big margin. I always thought it was Superman and Jesus in terms of national recognition, but I guess Batman started wearing Kryptonite underwear. I generally like Batman characters and stories better than Superman, but for some reason I’m bummed Superman is not winning, all the same. Maybe because Supes was first, so should get props. Maybe because it means this world prefers cynical to optimistic. Whatever, here’s a funny picture:

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.

Originally published at kaiserthegreat.com. You can comment here or there.