Caddickisms

A few things that are now probably old news for some of you have come across my reader. Sorry I didn’t get to pass them on earlier. I done been busy.

So this’ll be just a quick list for the most part.

The next Family Guy: Blue Harvest special will parody Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. There will also be an upcoming Family Guy episode that features a Star Trek crew:

“In one episode, Stewie kidnaps the cast of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” They (the original cast members) all came back, reunited to do their voices for us,” McFarland teased.

NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy has been cancelled. The 8th episode may be the last to be seen, as the show was cancelled during production of it’s 9th episode. Personally I think they should let it run through the 13 shows originally ordered, but I can understand this show not catching on. It’s no Journeyman. Given more time, though, I could see the overarching plot twisting a bit in interesting directions. Still… there’s something not quite satisfying about it. Maybe it’s that the two main characters can never actually meet, so their arguments are always indirect. Christian Slater, though, does a great job of separating the two characters.

Doctor Who: Big news here is that David Tennant is leaving the show at the end of 2009’s specials. That hurts. He’s really great. He’ll be a tough act to follow, I think… but then I thought that after Christopher Eccleston, too, and that turned out great. Other old, but disappointing news is that the rumored multiple Doctors Children-in-need special didn’t happen, but instead featured the opening clip from this year’s Christmas special “The Next Doctor”. I don’t think this is the actor who will be taking over for Tennant, but it looks interesting:

Something on Battlestar Galactica has surfaced. The trailer for the last half of the final season for the show is out. Looks good.

And remember that Star Trek trailer that was released last week? A new version of it was released with a single small but significant change. Nimoy’s Spock stops in to drop a few familiar words:

Live long, and prosper

Well, that’s it for now. Maybe next time I’ll have news on things that haven’t been reported to death already.

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Cheap trick. No, not the band. Seems like Deanna has the same sense of humor as Brother Cavel.

But… we get another week of voting in, and everybody’s back in play! Pick your pony!

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The preview makes it look like Roslin is the last Cylon, but is that just trailer-trickery?

Get your vote in now, before all is revealed next week! (A few names on here are pretty much out of the running now… this is an old poll with Agathon newly added as a possibility.)

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Don’t forget to tune in to Battlestar Galactica on Friday night (as if I have to remind you).

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Catch Up to Season Four | Battlestar Galactica | SCIFI.COM

Looking for a quick reminder after the two decade wait between season 3 and the finally about to debut season 4 of Battlestar Galactica? The video at the link above is 8 minutes long, hits all the right stuff, and is kinda funny too. That’s a lot to fit into 8 minutes.

If you have not watched the finale of season 3 (I’m looking at you, Pam), don’t watch this video. Watch the finale first.

Don’t miss the April 4th premiere of Season 4.

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Two incredible shows are currently on the edge of cancellation, if reports are to be believed, and NBC seems to be saying that they won’t even air episodes that were already produced. In the face of a dearth of available programming due to the writer’s strike, this just seems to me to be one of the most boneheaded things I’ve ever heard. Even if you’re not particularly in favor of the show, if you’ve got nothing else to show, why not let it play out?! 

Neither of these shows have technically been canceled yet, but read on (and through the links) for more on each.

NBC gives Journeyman two weeks notice - From Inside the Box - Zap2it

Were hearing that the next two weeks are crucial for NBCs Journeyman. While nothing official has been decided, the rumor is that if the Nielsen numbers dont rise for the Nov. 19 and 26 episodes, the network will yank the show, without airing all the episodes produced.

Things could be looking bad for future of BSG

…there’s a real possiblility NBC Universal would just opt out of the final episodes of “Galactica.” With a declining ratings and higher production costs, to re-start a show for ten episodes to please what is percieved as a niche audience might not make sense to the network brass. The long hiatus for “Galactica” haven’t helped things since the show has gone off the general public’s radar screen.

For Journeyman, one of the best new shows this year, if not the best, it seems that if you know anyone who is a Nielsen family, you’ll need to break into their house at 10pm on Monday and force them to watch this show at gunpoint - because unless I misunderstand the ratings system, if you don’t have a box, you don’t count. Journeyman seems to have been hurt by the sagging ratings of Heroes this season. Given the promise to up the ante on that show, the apology from Tim Kring, and the way it played out the last two weeks, I gotta think that’s on the upswing, so it would, again, be a bonehead move to not give that established show the chance to bring bigger ratings in to help Journeyman.

For Battlestar Galactica…. their biggest mistake was imposing a year long hiatus to begin with. It’s just plain cruelty to put together such a quality show with a full, intelligent storyline, and then drop it in its advertised final season without coming to conclusion. BONEHEAD!

Technorati Tags: BSG, Battlestar Galactica, Journeyman, Heroes, NBC, tv cancelation

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Well, we finally got 10 votes on the first poll, and after a close race between “Good” and “For the sake of Humanity, make it stop!” it looks like the blog is going to stick around for a while.

So now I’m giving you Battlestar Galactica fans a chance to make your opinion part of public record. Four of the “final five” Cylons were revealed in the third season finale. Who do you think is the fifth? Starbuck appeared again after having died… Apollo was the only one who saw her… President Roslin is doing that telepathy thing with two known Cylons… Baltar is still seeing Six in his head… the Admiral is a tempting possibility… Dualla (Dee) fits the bill perfectly (I mean, come on! If nothing else, look at her name! “Dualla” “Dual” - dual personalities…).

Weigh in! If you think it’s someone else, want to argue your position, or just want to bash such a geeky poll, that’s what the comments under this post are for.

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A few things have bubbled to the top lately… here they are:

Personal Finance

Tom’s Inflation Calculator
I was looking for a calculator that would tell me how much my current salary would have been worth in 1990, and this fit the bill perfectly. You can also see whether the relative price of gas (for example) has really gone up in the past 40+ years. The calculations are based on US Dept. of Labor statistics going back to 1914.

Terribly Exciting
This is an excellent article by Ben Stein on “what’s new and hot and exciting (or terrible) in the world of money today.” So far everything I’ve read by Stein has been, at a minimum, well-written, intelligent, and thought-provoking, and this is no exception.

Free Online Tax Preparation and E-Filing From the IRS
Get Rich Slowly reminds us that qualifying individuals can e-file their federal taxes for free.

Sci-Fi

Feedback: A Hero’s Calling
Ever wonder what happened to Feedback, the winner from Who Wants to be a Superhero? I don’t know if this is part of the official follow-up to his victory (doesn’t seem like it is), but it was interesting to see that he hasn’t been forgotten.

Star Trek IX writers give clues
A few minor spoilers, but nothing that you won’t eventually hear in a trailer for this JJ Abrams led project.

Lucas Talks: Star Wars on Television
Finally! Some more info on the new CGI-animated series and some rumblings about the live-action show. The page links to a short audio segment from a longer interview with Lucas.

Kring has fate of Heroes mapped - SPOILER ALERT
I did NOT click through to the spoilers themselves, but here’s a confirmation that Tim Kring, the show’s creator, knows what happens to each of the Heroes, and has the show pretty well mapped out. Here’s the intro quote:

On a panel at the Museum of Television and Radio William S. Paley Festival this weekend, “Heroes” creator Tim Kring told the audience present that he knows the fate of every one of the Heroes and has their destiny for the end of Season One all mapped out.

Although he is putting the finishing touches to the script for the season one finale, Kring stated “I know everyone’s fate.”

Whoops… Battlestar Galactica is on soon… gotta go!

Technorati Tags: Heroes, Tim Kring, Star Wars, Star Trek, movies, sci-fi, personal finance, Ben Stein, inflation calculators, taxes

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I’ve been quiet on here for a couple weeks due to some time pressures. Lots to do during the lead-up to Christmas, as I’m sure you can all understand. I had it all planned out - a full week of vacation to get it all done - but then some problems at work forced me to give up most of my “free” time. The week after Christmas was spent running around to stores with gift exchange related activities and trying to catch up on my online reading.

Basically, I’ve been too tired to blog.

But as I said, I have been reading, and I’ve been thinking about a lot of stuff. I thought the last day of the year should be a good time to throw my thoughts at you once again. Here are some of the topics I’ve been thinking about lately:

• Materialism - most of us get more stuff than we need at Christmas, and spend more than we should getting things for others. And yet we usually still want more. That’s just stupid. (Related thoughts)
• Money - partly due to the above, and just as a condition of where I am in life right now, getting serious about personal finance is becoming a major topic for me. “It’s about time,” my father would probably say. He’s right, too. It’s not like I’ve been irresponsible, but the fact is I’ve made a couple big mistakes and then had a couple surprises foisted upon me in the last few years. I’m still doing okay, but definitely need to change my path. It’s starting to work, too. My net worth curve has recently started to curve in the right direction again.
• Children - I have two young children that (happily) occupy a lot of my time. I’m frequently amazed at what they learn, and at what they teach me.
• Influence - I recognized years ago that people have a larger influence on others than they realize, both directly and indirectly. The easiest example to give you would be the overplayed, but excellent, movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart. (If you’re one of the three people on the planet who haven’t seen it, basically, this guy wishes he’d never been born, and an angel lets him see what the world would have been like without him. Major changes happen.) Little things you say and do can have large influences on others, especially if you are seen by them as an authority figure. If you think no one cares what you do - you’re wrong. Someone sees you as either a positive or negative example in their life, and is influenced by your words and actions, whether you’re aware of it or not. If you’re a parent, for instance, your influence extends far beyond the obvious impact you have on your children. Here are a few examples: your children’s friends, other parents, young couples thinking about parenting who see you interacting with your children in a store, your children’s teachers, your co-workers, your relatives, the people your children will meet when they get older - and indirectly, the people all of the above meet. Your world isn’t as small as you think.
• Influence II - Mass Media - In many ways, mass media runs our lives. It’s scary.
• TV - Heroes (don’t forget to read the online comics!), Battlestar Galactica (new night and time!), 24 (2 night/4 hour premiere!), and Smallville (Jan 11th at 8pm!) are all returning in the next few weeks. I’m looking forward to all of them, among others. A lot of people laugh when I say I watch Smallville, but it really is a well made show. It has been great to watch the characters develop through the seasons into the icons we all know.
• Talents - How do we encourage the building of talents in ourselves and others? I started thinking about that with respect to my children, but then realized it applied to me as well. I know I have talents that haven’t really been developed, and I’d like to start. I want to help my kids identify their talents and encourage them appropriately.
• Technology - this is very close to the antithesis of my first point above, but I really want a computer upgrade and a few other gadgets for the house. The only reason I’m holding off is my second point. I can’t justify spending close to $1000 (on the low end) for stuff I don’t really need, however much I might want them. I am getting to the point, though, where I have to rebuild my current machine. Wacky stuff is happening periodically and it just needs a good “cleaning” to straighten it out. I’ve put it off for a long time because I hate going through the hassle of reinstalling Windows, then all the patches, then all the software. Plus I keep thinking I’m going to lose data because I forgot to back up a certain directory that looked unimportant at the time but actually holds all my “save games” or config files or plug-ins or something. (The technology problem that truly bugs me, though, is at work. My current laptop just isn’t doing the job for me anymore and my IT team refuses to believe me and order me a new system, even though my boss is willing to fork over the dough. I can’t even get them to replace my fuzzy monitor.)
• Learning technology - with the merger of NETg and SkillSoft earlier this year, the content provider space now has a huge new leader. I hope it works out for customers as well as it should. I also hope to be able to focus more on blending the formal and informal learning opportunities that are out there. I’d love to start using wikis for some documentation projects, discussion groups for distance training, and podcasts for on-demand information, for example.
• Vacation - I need a real one. One where I go somewhere else and don’t worry about work. Preferably for a month (yeah, right). But then… see the second point above. It’s hard to go anywhere without spending at least a couple hundred dollars. Eh… maybe in 2008.

So there you have it. Some of the topics I’ve been thinking about lately. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them become posts of their own next year. And I’ll still have movie and tv reviews up from time to time (though I seem to be the only person who reads those). For what it’s worth, I’m also thinking about making some new static pages on the site.

What thoughts have occupied your minds these last few weeks? What’s important to you? Drop a comment and let me know (comments are moderated and may not appear immediately).

I hope you all enjoy your New Years celebrations! Welcome, 2007!

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SCI FI Wire | The News Service of the SCI FI Channel

SCI FI Channel’s award-winning series Battlestar Galactica will move to a new timeslot starting Jan. 21, 2007: Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT, following the premiere of the new original series The Dresden Files at 9 p.m.

When I first heard this, I thought it was a bonehead move. Suits moving things around for no good reason, and dismantling a good thing. After all, Sci-Fi had me locked in for a minimum of 3 hours every Friday night (much to my wife’s dismay) with Stargates SG-1 and Atlantis, plus a BSG kicker. Then they cancelled SG-1 and now they’re moving BSG? What does that leave me with on Fridays?! Where’s my block programming?! Now I have to be content with Atlantis and maybe Doctor Who in prime-time Friday slots. Maybe they’ll throw a Heroes rerun in there. Actually, that’s not a bad line-up, but it’s nowhere near as hard of a hit as the original Sci-Fi Friday block.

But while I still feel that pain, I’ve taken some time to think about it and it’s not that boneheaded. On any given weeknight, Sci-Fi faces serious competition from the big 4 networks. Sunday night programming across the board, however, is notoriously slim. BSG has an audience now, and it’s fanatical enough to follow the show to the new slot, so they shouldn’t lose too many viewers. At the same time, they should pick up viewers who are casting about looking for something worth watching on a Sunday night. So viewership should increase — which is really what the network game is all about.

The biggest problem I have is that when The 4400 and The Dead Zone return to USA Network, they’ll be airing on Sunday nights too (if they hold their spots). That’s a conflict I can’t reconcile. I can’t tape two shows at once with only one reliable VCR. So of course you see what NBC Universal (Sci-Fi’s parent) is forcing me to do, don’t you? That’s right: bittorrent to the rescue!

Technorati Tags: Battlestar Galactica, BSG, Sci-Fi, TV, bittorrent, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Doctor Who, The 4400, Dead Zone

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Slice of Scifi - Science Fiction TV & Movie News, Interviews & more » Latest Doctor Who Rumor - It’s All Good!

Rumor has it that the second season of Doctor Who will air along with the third season of Battlestar Galactica in October on cable’s Sci-Fi Channel.

Sounds good to me! Maybe I can get my wife to watch with me.

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