The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Once More... Monday!

Obviously this past weekend wasn't one where I felt a great desire to communicate. Nothing especially ominous in the silence, just a less than creative stretch.

Though I'm showing no signs of the benefit of it this morning, I did at least seem to get a great deal of rest this weekend, though to say that I laid and sat around watching too much television would be closer to the truth.
While the first episode of NBC's Heroes didn't hold my attention, I caught the second episode during the Sci Fi Channel's Friday lineup and found it more interesting. I suspect that the secret conspiracy against the emerging superpower elite will be the thing to most erode my interest in the series. I had no patience for it on X-Files, which was why I never became a fan of the show, and I won't have much more for it here if it becomes a long, drawn-out mystery.

I'll likely continue with it for a little while on Fridays, though, as it's a lead-in to Dr. Who, the second new season of which moves along entertainingly. David Tennant is working out nicely as a the new face and personality of The Doctor. It's been fun, too, seeing the current run of the show having relatively good effects.

Later in the weekend (Sunday morning) I watched what was originally run after the Doctor: Battlestar Galactica. I'd seen the miniseries that relaunched it a couple years ago and then an episode or two of the series before it dropped off my radar, so them putting together an hour-long summary of what had happened so far before launching into the 90 minute third season opener worked for me. I might make this a regular show for a while, though I have to say that having watched the summary of earlier episodes and then moved through the newest episode at normal speed there's some appeal to the idea of just waiting until next fall and watching another hour-long summary. I'm finding some of the relationships largely uninteresting, and the sex scenes (like all sex scenes in shows and movies) are tedious time-wasters for me. Do I really need to catch up with a Dean Stockwell character just after an interlude to hear him discussing fine points of the latest sexual maneuver a female co-star's performed on him? No, sir, I do not.

The show's interesting, though, largely because the now mostly humanoid Cylons (though they do have some shiny chrome footsoldiers) are on a religious mission, and the current scenario has them as an occupying force on a planet that most of the remnants of humanity have tried to make a new home. A technologically superior society trying to bring a more technically backwards one around to their message while trying to set up a sort of puppet government and getting humans to carry out their will while pitching it as human self-policing, well... it's intentionally reminiscent of the real world.

Somewhere in the mix -- early Saturday morning? Sunday? I happened to catch a Johnny Depp movie from 1999 I'd hitherto missed -- The Ninth Gate.

In it, Depp plays a rare book dealer who is employed to seek out the last two copies of a satanic text, and is drawn into a supernatural conspiracy. Not really a believer, more someone with an attention to detail and something of a con artist's turn of mind, he's cautiously open to the possibilities. Possessing a core ethic and a curiosity that keeps him on track, he relentlessly pursues the mystery even when the instinct for self preservation would suggest he back off and let the loonies take each other out.

No genuine surprises, it nonetheless pulls the viewer through the film with its atmosphere and many of the performances. It was fun seeing Frank Langella re-emerge (he'd been off my screens for a while) as a physically imposing villain, reminiscent of Jack Palance. Elements of the supernatural are present, but for most of the film it's not clear how much of the danger really comes from that source and how much, instead, is merely a case of fanatics being dangerous.

Some small attentions were paid to football scores Sunday. I knew that some people would be following the Tampa Bay/ New Orleans game, and though the quarterly breakdown suggests they had a rousing game their Buccaneers didn't pull out a win, losing by three points to the Saints, 21 to 24. Disappointment aside, I have little doubt they had a great time -- on vacation, visiting family down in the Tampa area, where they could make a pool & football party of it.

Closer to home I actually watched the last 9 minutes 13 seconds of the Eagles/Cowboys game, knowing that this was the big game for the Philadelphia area. I watched as the Eagles managed to take their 7 point lead (24 to 31) and with an interception in their own end zone increase it to a 14 point lead with seconds remaining on the clock. Since this was T.O.'s big return to Philly -- this time as a Cowboy whereas when he was here last he was an Eagle who was constantly on the injured and/or temperamental list. Had he returned as part of a conquering team it would have gone down hard with the locals, so there are many doubly happy Eagles fans today.

I did some cooking, including making some pizzas from scratch on Saturday, soft tacos and burritos Sunday and making a pot of TexMex chili Sunday night for tonight's dinner (simmering on low in a crock pot as I type), so there was that, too.

Oh, Ari and I made a push to reclaim proper use of the walk-in closet in our bedroom; a great deal of the clutter (a tv sitcom pile of magazines, books, clothes, boxes, items without a place, etc.) had not only gotten into the closet but was blocking the door so much that no one had been able to get into the closet in months. I also reclaimed a cabinet in our room that had been stuffed with clutter for the past three to four years.

I also went through my extra Heroclix uniques and LEs, did recent price searches and decided what I wanted to sell and what was better held onto as trade fodder. That led to 24 auctions being posted after 10 pm Sunday. This is the first wave of auctions where I went with the Buy It Now option. If everything sells it'll be most of the price of my upcoming case of Supernova. I'm trying to make sure that while I'm buying it via a card that I'll be able to pay it off immediately.

The auctions haven't garnered much attention as yet, but it's very early in the process. I'm hoping that one or two buyers in the market for several of them will decide to just do some one-stop shopping.