The Latest Hollywood Squares

From time to time I do like TV game shows. I like the current incarnation of Hollywood Squares with Drew Barrymore as the center square (as well as being one of the producers). For those who don't know Hollywood Squares is basically Tic-Tac-Toe fitted into a game show format. Two contestants compete against each other for a small sum of cash by playing tic-tac-toe with 9  Hollywood celebrities who are sitting at desks on a three level set. There is a host, in this incarnation Nate Burleson (most notably an ex NFL player?) who asks the celebrities questions. The celebrities usually give a joke answer to lighten the mood and then give their real answer to the question, the contestant then either agrees or disagrees with the celeb's answer if they are correct then their shape (X or O) gets the square. They usually have two rounds (games) and the contestant with the most accumulated cash wins and goes to a bonus round. In the bonus round the host makes a statement about each celeb to which the contestant either agrees that the statement is true or false, they have 60 seconds to answer this round robin of "fact" questions. Each celeb has an envelope with a card inside it, 8 of the celebs have a blank card and just 1 had a card that has $25,000 written on it. For each celeb the contestant matches with (gets the fact question correct) the celeb opens the envelope to reveal their card. If the celeb has the card with $25,000 on it the contestant wins the $25,000.

As a kid I enjoyed the original version that had Paul Lynde as the center square. I don't think any other version over the years has really compared to the charm of the original. A few years back (1990s? early 2000s?) there was an incarnation with Whoopi Goldberg as the center square that wasn't as good or as witty. At least this new incarnation has some of the old wit of the original somewhat.

As to Drew I have always liked her since she appeared in ET. As a child actor she was a cutie, then she became a troubled teen, a bit precocious and almost ruined her life with the alcohol and drugs. Still she has been a celebrity crush of mine for ages and still is.

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

 ...And I am back to the Blogiverse from my mostly medical absence. Few if any may have noticed but they don't care, I don't care either I just blog for the fun of it now days, if others see it they see it. Long story short I had some health issues, a toe/foot operation that was diabetes related with back issues that had me in the hospital for 2 weeks then 2 months in rehab with PT (Physical Therapy) and OT (Occupational Therapy) until my insurance quit and I had to relocate for 4 more months of rehab at an assisted living complex out-of-pocket. The back pain was what kept me down for so long. 6 months away from your home is a very long time. Being single, living alone and not in a relationship sucks in this situation, that is why I was in rehab for so damn long. No live-in caregiver. Your life gets disoriented and super off track. It is difficult to keep track of finances and lots of other everyday life things that you don't notice until you don't have access to them anymore. There was a period of almost a week when I was in the first rehab center (a regular retirement home) where my old cell phone gave out (it was very old and I kept dropping the damn thing) and even though I had my work computer, another story but I won't tell that one too long and complicated, with recent updates to the network and my lack of being on the network resulted in me being off the grid for 4 or 5 days? No internet and no phone, another long story I don't want to tell the details of (I sort of blogged about it here). Fortunately my sister (who is normally in CA but had come east to help me out some and see if I was getting good care) was able to get my Chromebook from my apartment so I could get back online and was able to get me a new Android cellphone that upgraded me in that department. So I was able to manage most of my finances OK. Work was another story and I did get back eventually.

Without going into detail there are a few permanent life changes. I'd rather not discuss the medical stuff.

I slowly got caught up with some of the TV that I had missed. I had access to TV but in the 2nd rehab the TVs were in common areas so I didn't always have control of what was being shown. A few of my shows I had watched and missed some episodes of I will have to get the DVDs of their last season(s) to checkout what my Xfinity Cable is now charging for On-Demand. Yeah I was away from some of those shows for that long.

I also now have access to my CDs so I can listen to stuff the way I prefer to listen to them and on my own schedule and not just watch some obscure fan made video on YouTube for the song.

November Update.

November, November, November let me count the ways. UM NO. So looking back on this month from the end of the month point of view was there anything majorly significant this month? No, not in the grand scheme of things whatever that is. I did sell a DVD - Season 5 of the Television Show "Castle" on Ebay.  Unfortunately I lost out on shipping the package was over 1 pound. I charged $5.00 shipping and real shipping was $8.55. It was my 3rd sold item on Ebay for this year. Right now there are 68 items listed. "And there was Much Rejoicing"

Not sure if I'll add anything to this or not. Got some things on my plate.

Subject Unknown and some Reflections?

 So yeah I don't know what this post is going to be yet. It is that time of month again. I don't have any Ebay updates, I don't have any reviews ready yet. I haven't been reading much. In fact I haven't been doing much of anything exciting. Just going through the same old boring routine. Oh sure I read some interesting things on my Facebook feed which is about the extent of my social media. I also checked out pictures and posts on Instagram but that is just mindless internet surfing. I guess the most exciting stuff this month has been some of the odd YoutTube videos and the ancient alien conspiracy videos rabbit hole.

My lack of excitement lately had me briefly thinking about blogging in general and if it is time to hang it up or not. I go through this from time to time. The perfectionist in me refuses to allow me to NOT Blog my minimal 1 post per month. I can't stand seeing those gaps in my posting archives calendar. It has been I don't know how many months or years since I had one of those no posting gaps. I don't intend to start that, and don't want it to become my go-to habit.

Then that leads me to think about some of the things I think or do that I never mention here, either because they are way to private or are family related and I don't want to have too much of my dirty laundry spread over the Cyberverse that isn't already there. Of course there already is a ton of it out there. As soon as you log onto the internet for the very first time personal data gets sent to thousands of data storage lockers.

A good thing is several of my go-to television shows have started their new fall seasons and the reboot continuation of "Quantum Leap" started. I am hooked just as I was with the original. Season 2 of CSI: Las Vegas might take a nosedive as Grissim & Sarah maybe leaving again. OH well whatever.

Theories of Death

Death Tarot Card from The Rider-Waite Tarot deck

I was going to attempt to write something for this post some months back, but I kept procrastinating and then when I needed to have something ready to post I didn't have enough time to work on it. I also try to avoid controversy here on my own blog. The subject of death often leads to deep philosophical or religious discussions.

I was planning on using the images below from the Family Guy trading cards for the heading of the post but decided not to. They are too funny cartoony not serious philosophy.

 2006 Inkworks Family Guy: Season 2: Autographs: A8 Adam Carolla Voice of Death

Still I wanted something that wasn't too morbid. Ha good luck with that. Oooh yeah Tarot cards.

So the subject of death scares many people. In fact most people are scared of it even though it is a natural part of the cycle of life. There are those Negative Nellies that say death is the end and that is that. The old "fade to black" theory embraced by many an atheist. It is the most negative and most scary of the theories of what happens to us after we die, or what we experience at the moment of death and beyond.

I was born into a Christian family, United Methodist to be exact. I'm not sure if the church I grew up with was typical Methodist or not. Methodists tend to be sort of Baptist Lite. At an early age I was indoctrinated into the Heaven and Hell belief so it is sort of hard to shake off. As a kid at first it was you went to Heaven, unless you killed someone. To me it was never about sitting on clouds and playing a golden harp, maybe at the very first until around age 7 or 8 then it was more just about being with God and Jesus but in spirit form. Similar to our current bodies, but not physical. That is until The Rapture and Jesus' Return new bodies etc. Then in my pre-teens, teens and early 20s I backslid a bit, but still the basic Christian beliefs were there.  I looked into New Age during my 20s but didn't embrace it or take it too seriously. It seemed to be sort of a modern variant of Christianity for the versions that believed in a Christ figure anyway with a bunch of ETs added for good measure.

Over the years arguments from atheists that were not the silly "Who created God?" type questions made me question some religious things and think harder in some areas. Especially when it comes to the whole eternal Hell thing. I have never been what I consider "religious" and often just more spiritual than religious. Organized religion always bored me.

In recent years due to reading up on Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and other afterlife books I tend to lean toward some kind of reincarnation or eternal spiritual existence in peaceful settings. With God being more a spiritual force rather than an actual "person". I also read a book that studied spiritual encounters people have had that are similar to NDEs but the person having the encounter was NOT dead. Sometimes they were even wide awake. They called them After Death Communication (ADC). They usually take place anytime from when a loved one dies to a few weeks or even sometimes months or years later. That book leaned more toward Christian religion and the survival of the soul after death. After a while all the encounters started sounding alike and the Christianity forced into them.

Onward, in my opinion here, in no particular order, are the main theories of what happens to us after the moment of death:

1. Fade To Black: Cease To Exist:
2. Reincarnation:
3. Heaven Or Hell:
4. Other:

These next sections I will go into further detail about a specific theory.

Fade To Black: Cease To Exist:

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that perhaps the scariest theory of death is the one held by many atheists. It is the fade to black and cease to exist. OK so clinically and biologically when the human body shuts down; the heart stops pumping blood, the lungs stop circulating air and the electrical synapses stop transmitting signals to the brain, the human consciousness stops and shuts down as well.

When we sleep we go into a sort of shut-down mode. Our consciousness rests and we shut out the outside world. We relax, close our eyes and eventually "fall asleep". During our sleep we are unaware of the outside, our thoughts are not focused on one tiny thing like when we are awake and conscious. During this time since we are ignoring (for lack of a better word) the outside we don't see anything, our eyes are closed. We might hear things until our focused consciousness totally relaxes. It is only when we awake the next day, or a few minutes to hours later that we are aware that we had even been asleep and often only remember blackness or an emptiness. Apparently people who are blind from birth have no true concept of colors so their "blackness" is just more non-images. Some describe blindness by asking you to imagine trying to see out of your elbow, or the back of your head. Well you can't see out your elbow of even imagine how that works. It isn't "blackness" it is just no image what-so-ever. Occasionally upon awakening we remember our dreams (aka visions) from our sleep. It is said that we always "dream" but we don't always remember having them.

The fade to black death belief often says that death is like sleeping except we don't have dreams. Our vision shuts down, our hearing (which is said to be the last sense that goes) stops, and eventually brain function (thoughts) stop as well. So the idea of total shutdown equals non-existence.

For this theory the scary thing is the non-existence. After having existed, the thought of no longer existing is extremely creepy. For me much like falling from a great height. I discovered it isn't the falling that scares me it is the sudden hard impact of stopping and splattering the scares me. So I am no longer afraid of falling just the sudden stop at the end. I am also no longer totally scared of death, it is the actual transitioning from life to death that scares me, and the pain that is felt during that transition.

Reincarnation:

Many of the older Eastern religions have some kind of reincarnation belief. That is that we are spiritual beings that travel from life time to life time. The concept that we have an eternal spirit or soul that is separate from our physical body, but is also a major part of who and what we are. The Judeo-Christian religions also have an eternal spirit/soul belief, but not the reincarnation bit. Most religions or belief systems that do believe in the soul-spirit believe that the ultimate goal is to reunite with the main source or god and that during our lifetime we are trying to raise our awareness to a higher level or frequency to reach that highest frequency the creator source. Each lifetime is expected to get us that much closer to our eternal goal.

Some reincarnation beliefs state that our spirit can inhabit any physical body be it plant, animal, or human. What we do during our physical lifetime determines what type of body we will inhabit in our next life. You live a nice decent life you return as a human, you do some bad things you return as some kind of animal for a few lives. Conversely there are reincarnation beliefs that state we only inhabit (I prefer the word embody) human bodies, not animals or plants, or rocks even.

Reincarnation beliefs often include some kind of Karma system. Again it is what you do in your life time determines your future life or lives. If you tend to do good decent things you will have good karma and your next life will be fruitful and rewarding. On the other hand if you are a heartless scum of the Earth you will have hard dark black bad karma and you will suffer greatly in your next life.

Many modern NDEs indicate there is a reincarnation system of some kind in place. One that includes a sort of paradise or a world, or rather existence where whatever we desire or wish for will appear or come to us. Again there is the idea of some kind of desire to connect with the creation source and though our various lives we get closer and closer to that source.

Heaven Or Hell:

Several of the religions that believe in an afterlife or continued existence after physical death believe that based on what one does in one's life determines one's eternal destination. It is a one or the other belief. Either you live in eternal peace with the creator, or you suffer eternal torment in Hell. There is no in-between and once you arrive at your destination there is no going back no switching to the other place.

So the concept of Heaven is eternal Peace. Often in the company of the eternal father the creator god.  This destination is for those who lived the perfect good life according to the tenets of faith and what the holy god says. Hollywood has incorrectly implanted a vision of sitting on clouds in long white robes and sandals with wings on our backs and playing handheld harps. Oh and a golden ringed halo magically held above our heads. About the only thing of that vision that many of the religions do believe is wearing the comfy white robes with the sandals.

Depending on the religion what paradise is will be whatever one desires.  You "think" it and it is or appears. Everyone you have ever cared about or for is with you or can be with you. Provided they had the same faith and also lived a super perfect life according to what the creator god demands of his followers.

Hell on the other hand is very dark very hot and smells of burning and rotting flesh. This is reserved for evil people and those who did nothing but bad things in their life (some even believe those who only thought about sex will be there as well). Some even believe if you didn't believe in god or the right god Hell is your eternal home. Mean Ugly monsters and demons poke, skewer, cut, burn, eat, smash, crush and do all other sorts of mean and nasty things to the people in eternal damnation.

Once a tortured soul has been burned, mutilated, pulverized or whatever they magically "heal" only to be burned, mutilated and pulverized all over again, and again, and again, and again.

The concept of an "eternal" hell to me doesn't make much sense if there is a truly "loving" god. Being punished for all eternity for a very finite thought or action. That is like being sentenced to prison for 1 Million years for stealing a candy bar as a nine year old. Punishment overkill.

Other:

I don't know how many other theories there actually are. There might be several that don't fit into what I have mentioned above. Some people separate Heaven and Hell into two separate theories since they are two different destinations and there are some that believe one way or the other not both. Plus some divide the various Reincarnation theories into 2 or 3 separate ones but I kept them together since the basic core belief was the same. In this "Other" category I have heard about this Simulation theory I give below.

Computer Simulation AKA: The Matrix: 

One of the more bizarre and fairly recent death theories is that we are actually living in a computer simulation and that what we think of and call "reality" is actually a computerized matrix. I just think this one is really hokey and tend to dismiss it as a pure fantasy. I have only heard about it being a theory I can't imagine what sort of details have been thought up about it. OK so where exactly is this computer that is creating the matrix and has our code data? Who made the computer and programmed it? Are they still monitoring their program? Why even bother making it in the first place? So are we just memory data in the computer and when we "die" our data is lost or used up? Do we "wake up" in whatever is outside this computer that runs this matrix? I still don't fully understand this particular theory.

The Masked Binging ER Singer

The Masked Singer Logo

Some weekends ago (mid February) I binge watched a show about 2 weeks before their season finale. Then for the final two weeks since the show aired on a night I wasn't able to watch I on demanded those episodes, but had to wait a few days (like 5 days) for Crumcrust to list the episode. The show was on Fox. One of those music competition shows, that I normally don't watch or like, but this one I did. I was pleasantly surprised. The show was The Masked Singer hosted by Nick Cannon. It is a singing competition with a twist. The "contestants" are celebrities of every kind except their identities are hidden behind fancy costumes with full head masks. On The Voice the contestants identities are hidden because the judges have their chairs facing away from them while they are singing and they turn their chair around if they are interested in who is behind the voice. This one the judges are face forward but the contestants are hiding behind full head masks. When they speak in their "normal" voice their voice is electronically altered so it is only when they are singing that the judges hear their real voices.

A Celeb contestant being escorted by security.

Interesting I noticed that this show seems to be based on a Korean show called "King of Mask Singer" looks to be from 2017. UGH. Oh of course if I had bothered to do more research before getting hooked on the show I would have known it was based on a popular South Korean TV show.

Celeb Contestants: Rabbit, Alien, Lion, Bee, Peacock and Monster

The competition started with 12 Cosplaying Celebrities who were only identified by their costumes: Peacock, Bee, Monster, Poodle, Alien, Deer, Hippo, Raven, Pineapple (yeah a sort of SpongeBob SquarePants vibe), Lion, Unicorn and Rabbit. Some of them took on the persona of their costume. The panel of Judges: Robin Thicke, Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy and Nicole Scherzinger (with guest judges for 1 or 2 episodes each: Joel McHale, J.B. Smoove and Keenan Thompson) had to try to guess who was behind the mask.

The Regular Judges: Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger

 Each week the celeb who got the least amount of votes from the panel of judges and from the audience were unmasked. When the characters were introduced before each performance some clues were given about the identity of the celeb. For most of the celebs the panel was way off but there were a few one or two of the judges got right. I only got one completely right (I had an alternate idea, but I was right and the judges were also on that one), and a couple were among the celebs that I had thought were that character but either didn't know or was going for someone else. For the most part I think I had at least heard of each celeb (a couple just barely), many I already was aware of. I was disappointed with who actually won. The way celebs are now days I almost thought there would be a few times when I had no idea who the hell they were, a couple were close. It would be pretty funny yet also sad if a celeb was unmasked and then they had to explain to everyone who they really were. I thought there were one or two that almost needed that.

Celeb Contestants: Poodle, Deer and Pineapple

I won't match up which character was which celeb you can find that out for yourself if you are interested. I will list the competing celebs below somewhere. Before I decided to watch the show I had heard about who one of the characters was and wanted to hear what they sounded like singing since they were not known for their singing. Then after I had watched a few episodes I went to IMDb to check off that I had seen the show for my watch list and I accidentally saw the identities of two of the characters that I hadn't seen unmasked yet. One of them was unmasked the next episode I watched. The cast list there also lists the security guards, who escorted the masked celebs around during the filming process, and the non-celeb supporting performers: the backup singers and dancers during each performance.

Celeb Contestant Raven

As with any singing competition, there were the two extremes of voices, the pleasant sounding angelic type voices and the blackboard screeching "stop that damn noise" type. I was surprised by a few of the non-singer/musician celebs who had nice voices.

Celeb Contestant Hippo

Here in no particular order are the competing  celebs: Ricki Lake, Margaret Cho, Rumer Willis, Gladys Knight, Terry Bradshaw, T-Pain, Tori Spelling, Donny Osmond, Joey Fatone, Antonio Brown, La Toya Jackson and Tommy Chong.

Celeb Contestant Unicorn

All in all I'd give The Masked Singer 3 or 4 stars out of 5. It was enjoyable but I am not a huge fan of voice contest shows. Oh I just recalled a show from a few years back (early 2000s maybe? Possibly Pre-American Idol) that I had liked where contestants dressed up like their music idol and performed their song. I forget what it was called. Some of the contestants nailed the look, but sounded nothing like who they were performing as, and of course there were a few the other way around sounded like them but even with heavy makeup looked nothing like the idol. I think I found it Your Big Break (1999-2001) Hmm it was syndicated.

My favorite performers based solely on their performances were Peacock, Bee and Alien. Rabbit was an overall good performer and was one of the characters that really got into his masked persona. He had a crazy head twitch thing going on.

End The Month

It is the end of the month again. This month of February went by very quickly. Well "Duh" it is the shortest month of the year and this year is not a leap year so it only had 28 days. As usual I have procrastinated in my blogging and making a post for the month. I have had a bit of writer's block or rather blogger's block I guess.

I was originally going to try to finish out a draft that I started who knows when about some childhood writing of mine. That project is still on the back burners for now. As the month grew closer to the end I determined I didn't have enough time left for some of the prep work for that post. That draft will grow some more dust. A day or two ago I thought that since it was the end of a month that maybe I would tackle the topic of the end of life aka: Death. I was going to discuss the most common theories of what it is and what we will experience on the other side (if we do experience things in that state of being). Sadly though I think that will take more time to prepare than I have given myself in these last few hours of the month of February.

Another topic I could discuss could be some of the Television shows I enjoy or have watched. I am a bit surprised that I have not mentioned The Blacklist or The Orville on this blog. Shame on me I love both those shows. James Spader as Raymond "Red" Reddington the lead role of Blacklist is fantastic. The writing is superb and his delivery is exquisite. The ensemble for the most part is excellent. I am a bit disappointed with Megan Boone who plays Elizabeth Keen. I should devote some blog posts to that show. Ditto with The Orville which many say is more Star Trek like than the recent Star Trek Series Discovery. It definitely has a Next Generation vibe to it. The main thing keeping me from "discovering" Discovery is it being only available from the CBS All Access pay-per-stream or pay yearly service or whatever the heck it is. I did see the pilot episode that was on regular broadcast CBS. It is the only Star Trek show I couldn't get much into. Maybe it was they only showed the first hour of the series and it takes time to get into.

There are some shows that I occasionally watch or will binge watch some. Those have included: TNT's Wrecked, Fox's The Masked Singer, as well as bizarre type comedies BrainDead and Ghosted.

I also have some book reviews in my drafts queue. Most need either a cover scan or I need to come up with a quote from them or both.

NCIS: So Long Abby

Bye Bye Abby Bye Bye Bye

Note: This post began drafting a few weeks ago so by the time it posts the season will have been completed. It was started after NCIS episode 15.21 aired on Tuesday 01 May 2018 was almost finished before the airing of the next episode on 08 May. However, I still wanted to add some specific Abby pics if I could find them or something similar. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for but I found some I liked. I could have gone nuts and put up dozens of pics, but I didn't want to do that.

One of my fave television shows NCIS is nearing the end of it's 15th Season, and seems to be killing off a fan fave character of many fans and personally of me Abby Sciuto brilliantly played by Pauley Perrette. A month or two ago it was announced first by the actor via Twitter and then later confirmed by the production company that she would be leaving the show at the end of this Fifteenth Season. Her last episode is number 22 of a 24 episode season. The news made me sad. I am saddened further  that it appears her character is being killed off. After the shocking conclusion to her next to last episode 15.21 One Step Forward and seeing the scenes for her upcoming final episode  15.22 Two Steps Back a realization hit me with the show.

With the exception of the character Alex Quinn played by Jennifer Esposito when a main female cast member has left the series her character is killed off. While main male characters usually survive. There have been some reoccurring supporting male characters that have died, but to the best of my knowledge not main characters.

From a blogging point of view NCIS seems to be a popular subject here on my Knook blog. I'm wondering if this post will join them some day. Five of the ten most popular posts of this blog feature NCIS of those five two of them feature Cote de Pablo who played Ziva David.

Cote left the series at the beginning of season 10 she was in the first two episodes. Then at the end of season 13 when Tony DiNozzo (Micheal Weatherly) was leaving Ziva was killed off screen.

Many fans (not me) had a character shipping fantasy of Tony and Ziva they called it "Tiva". I don't subscribe to the shipping part of fandom. For me that type of fantasizing ruins series. The series confirmed the Tiva relation"ship" with the introduction of Ziva and Tony's daughter whom Tony didn't know about because Ziva was concerned for her safety. Tony was awarded custody of her because of Ziva's death in his last episode.

UPDATE; OH Good she doesn't die. The promos only made it look that way sneaky network and production execs. Abby was too much of a fan fave for them to senselessly kill her. The backlash would have been horrible. She wasn't killed off but the producers shocked fans further by killing of Clayton Reeves (Duane Henry) the MI-6 agent who joined the main team about 2 seasons ago. I didn't see that one coming. I don't recall hearing about Duane's contract ending. I didn't hear any updates from entertainment sources about other departures for the show. To the best of my knowledge the show has been renewed for a 16th season. I think that was done a year or two ago. The last renewal I think was for two years.

I am so glad they handled things the way they did. Except for killing off another character that is. In the story line Abby makes a promise to carry out Clayton's wish to start a charity in his mother's name for homeless female vets who are single mothers and their children. It is just the sweet kind type of thing Abby would do. Abby was a bit of a conundrum a sweet peace loving all caring individual who is a forensic scientist for a government military crime investigative service. A soft personality who would have difficulty being a field agent.

Of course the episode has some television magic healing. Abby was shot in the chest, near death, in a coma for at least 2 days and by the next day she is running around with just a scarf acting as a sling. What should one expect from a series where traveling from DC to Norfolk, VA takes just a few minutes not the reality 3 hours it actually takes.

Spaced Out Badges

I don't normally like to mention work things on-line. I definitely don't like to get into specifics since I work for a company that contracts to the US Government with the Department of Defense and US Navy.

Part of my job is boring receptionist work which in part means being at one of the reception desks to greet visitors and to get them to sign in the visitor's log and get a visitor's badge. Also from time to time I have to sit out in front of a meeting room checking visitor badges and having the meeting attendees sign in for the meeting. I call it meeting babysitting. If it is a classified meeting then they have to check all their electronic devices and leave them outside the meeting room and someone MUST be monitoring the area at all times during the meeting. To insure that only those people who are supposed to be in the meeting are in the meeting, no walk-ins. During the classified meetings the table or desk outside the meeting room or hall looks like some sort of flea market with boxes of cell phones and a bunch of backpacks, purses, laptop bags and other stuff strewn about or lined up against a nearby wall.

In general the generic badges for the meetings are the same as the general visitor badges. Sometimes they have a specific badge number sometimes not. Sometimes the specific group or department that is holding the meeting has their own special badges that are meeting specific.

The badge numbers usually are in some kind of logical sequence. At one time each floor had a specific series of badge numbers. The First floor would have numbers 100 - 199, Second Floor the 200-299 series etc.

Microsoft Word has a general badge template to match up with the card stock from Avery labels. Our badges are usually just simple card stock with the company logo on top or bottom. Marked "VISITOR: Escort Required" and maybe a badge number.  Possibly with the building address. Regular visitor badges are usually a little more permanent, plastic, laminated and more specially made than generic meeting badges.

After one meeting about a month ago, maybe longer, whoever had supplied the meeting badges left them on the regular reception desk. One day I was sorting through some badges separating specifically numbered ones from ones with no badge number. It was at this time I ran across a badge with the following number "THX 1138". I thought "Wow that's from the Lucas film" I double checked the film title because I often forget if it is 1138, 1139 or some other similar number. Digging a little further I noticed the entire batch of badges were numbers or letter sequences were mostly from the World of Popular Science Fiction. There were a few real navy ship numbers mixed in either to appear normal or they were from a different batch of badges. I'm thinking the latter.

Obviously someone was having fun when they made up the badges. They also are widely knowledgeable with the science fiction genre. Actually I'm a little surprised there wasn't a "TARDIS"  badge. I guess that one got time-locked.

Any way here are the fun numbers I found on these badges.

Battlestar Galactica:
BSG 75

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
42

History:
War of 1812 or 1812 Overture

James Bond Franchise:
007

Marvel Comics:
X23

Misc:
2001
A47 could be for AK-47 gun or AC-47 plane
P2501-  Not sure what they were referencing here

R237 - Not sure what they were referencing here

Pop Culture or Alternate SubCulture:
Leet 1337

Robocop Franchise:
ED-209

Robotech Franchise:
VF-1S

Sherlock Holmes:
221B

Star Trek Franchise:
NCC-1701
7 of 9

Star Wars Franchise:
BB-8
C-3PO
K-2SO
R2-D2
T-65

Technology:
ACR-1 or ACR-1 More likely the latter since it is Navy related.
Ti-81
TR-808

Terminator Franchise:
T-1000
T-800

*Updated 05 Oct 2017. I noticed a new one the Battlestar Galactica one. Hmm it should be 78. Maybe I saw the number wrong.

Doctor Who: Who Is New?

ON Sunday 16 July 2017 the internet was all ablaze, at least the Sci-Fi part of it, with news of what actor would take on the mantle of the title role of The Doctor on the long lasting British Science Fiction Television show Doctor Who. The announcement was made after the Wimbledon Finals in the form of a video teaser trailer. One of the big questions was would they make the risky decision to cast a woman in the role? The announcement would answer that as well one way or the other.

In a risky casting move The BEEB Chose actress Jodie Whittaker to portray the 13th (well technically 14th, or 15th) incarnation of The Doctor. Not to be confused with American actor Johnny Whitaker who s famous for playing a character named Jody. Jodie is most known for the BBC Series Broadchurch which was produced by on-coming Who producer Chris Chibnall it also stars Doctor 10 David Tennant with another potential choice for first female Doctor Olivia Colman, as well as Who Alumni Arthur Darvill, and the sci-fi movie Attack the Block. I have wanted to see Broadchurch which has ended after 3 series (seasons) but haven't gotten around to it or the made for American TV Gracepoint which as far as I know is a complete remake using Tennant and maybe a few other of the original actors but not many. I've been meaning to pick up the DVDs. I am also a several series/seasons behind in picking up Doctor Who DVDs.

It would be best if they don't make any obvious comments about the sex/gender change in dialog. However during her "just after the regeneration" scene when she is checking out what has changed. At some point she will notice her breasts probably very casually and will have to make some kind of acknowledgement that she is now female- "face, smooth skin, delicate features, small ears, firm breasts, (checks hair and sighs) pity still not ginger..."

It might be interesting if they do visit it when she meets the Daleks for the first time. After a couple of skirmishes The Doctor and her companion(s) are captured by the Daleks. The Doctor is taken for interrogation.

DALEK: I-Dent-Ti-Fy! I-Dent-Ti-Fy Your-Self!
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor.
DALEK: The Doc-Tor? But you are a Female. The Doc-Tor is Male!
DOCTOR: Check your files I do change from time-to-time.
DALEK: Yes it is true The Doctor does change his appearance often.
DOCTOR;  His? Oh Well, there you have it. I've changed again. Silly me.
DALEK: But you are still...
DOCTOR: Yes, yes, yes I'm still a Female and I AM The Doctor. Imagine that. Now here's the part where you tell me all I need to know about your plans of domination of this planet, and don't forget the clever bit where my companion(s) and I make a daring escape and ruin all those maniacal plans of yours before you can say "Ex-Ter-Min-Nate".

Now a few years ago I was in the "Never A Woman" camp. Partly because of Tradition and probably more so thinking that if the producers made that change they would be caving into the PC crowd that wants to change sex, gender, orientation, race, ethnicity, everything and anything about a character just for the sake of changing it that way. Or that they were doing it as a gimmick.

I realized that it doesn't matter for the Doctor what his/her sex or gender is. It is their character, and good quality writing. Now for a character like James Bond switching to Jane Bond is a No-No. Having another 00Agent sure fine, but Jane Bond is a different character than James. Hmm I wonder has there ever been a case of an established female character switched to male? There have been a few where the original draft, or source material like the original novel, or maybe even a draft script was originally written as a female. For instance in the Original Star Trek series the original vision had the 2nd in command as a woman. Number One in the originally un-aired "The Cage" played by Majel Berrett (Roddenberry). Before the series started regular production the character was changed into Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy).

There have been some very successful male to female changes to characters. Starbuck and Boomer in Battlestar Galactica. In the James Bond films they changed Bond's boss M into a woman. I recall in Comics Marvel gender-swapped their Capt. Marvel after they had killed him and made her Ms. Marvel. Recently the entire Ghostbusters crew was swapped. Many fans of the original hate the all-female version, but I like it. Loved the cameos from the original actors Dan Aykroyd as a cabbie was great. I don't love it like I do the original but I enjoyed it, except for the hippity-hoppy music during the end credits with their silly dance moves an establishment of the situation is OK but a full blown full "music video" performance ah no. It is like when songs add an all music break, or a solo in the middle of a song, often it breaks it up too much.

There have been many nay-sayers who have said they will no longer watch the show because of this decision. Over the years there have been fair-weather "fans" like that before, even as recently as when Peter Capaldi took over the role 3-4 years ago because he was TOO OLD. bah. I will still watch the series for as long as it lasts, or for as long as I last which ever comes first.

Here is a fun video that is worth a few laughs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMSIe6WfXYE

Some more fun was done for one of the Comic Relief specials Doctor Who - The Curse of Fatal Death. Parodies the Doctor regenerating and of course a gender-swap. At the time Joanna Lumley had been mentioned as a possible female Doctor.

I am fine with the decision. It surprised me at first, but I am OK with it. If this had been 4 or 5 years ago I might not have been, but I don't think I would have abandoned the series. I hope Jodie has wonderful writers for her stories and that she blows everyone away with her performances.

Just remember the first producer for Doctor Who was a  woman Verity Lambert.

The Announcement Videos:
13th Doctor Announcement Teaser
13th Doctor Announcement Reveal

R.I.P. Zombie King

On Sunday 16 July 2017 Movie producer, director, writer George A. Romero passed away he was 77. He is best remembered for being the creator (writing and directing) of the cult horror classic Night of the Living Dead. He continued with zombie horror for several other films.

Hearing/reading about his passing reminds me of one of the first times I watched Night of the Living Dead all the way through. It was late on a Saturday night (maybe a Friday) late 1970s I was either in late elementary school or early junior high. My older brother was in High School. On one of the local independent television stations they were showing NotLD on their Creature Feature type show. I'm not sure if I had watched the movie before, I think this was my first time. I was really getting into the movie. It had my full attention. Now days I don't like Zombie movies much and get turned off of them very quickly. I think it was because of the Craze for Zombie movies in the 1980s through 1990s. Plus the gore still tends to gross me out.

Oh so I'm watching this film in all it's glorious Black and White glory, in the family room in the basement of my childhood home. For most of it I'm lying on the floor probably with one of the couch cushions or a pillow under me so my torso doesn't hurt from the pressure of lying on the cold early 1960s tiled floor. There is a large area rug there as well but it is old and doesn't add any comfort. I might even have a blanket wrapped around me. Actually it might be Summer time so it might not have been that cold.

Near the end of the movie as the Zombies have surrounded the house and are breaking in. I'm not sure if the token black guy has gotten killed at this point or is about to be killed. The Zombies are starting to break in and.... Commercial break... at that exact moment...

...there is a knocking on one of the front basement windows. I got super freaked out and must have jumped in shock about 10 feet, OK maybe not that high as I would have hit the ceiling I think it was a little over 10 feet high. I'm not sure if I screamed or yelled but I was super startled. Turns out it was one of my brother's friends who came over and knocked on the window to get my brother's attention. Since it was late night he didn't want to disturb our parents who I think were already in their bedroom sleeping.

At the time my brother used one of the basement rooms as his den/alternate bedroom, he had a bedroom upstairs but used the basement room most of the time and was his "den of inequity". He did all his socializing in there (and entertaining the ladies). In later years I used that room as a den but not as a bedroom. His friends when they would come over late night, they were teenagers after all, they would knock on one of the windows to my brother's den then he would let them in the front door. Actually our house was designed in such a way you could hear the front door opening most of the time, or people clomping down or up the wooden stairs so it wasn't a perfect system.

At the time of the window knocking my brother was in the family room with me. I think he was also watching the movie until his friends came over.

Man was I super freaked as I said. It was perfect timing and the perfect set up for the scare. It was totally unplanned on any one's part. I don't think I had originally been planning on watching the movie but decided to anyway.

There are very few moments of the film that I remember in detail. Sure there was a lot of scenes of zombies walking around the cemetery and them trying to get into the house. I even have memories of the people in the house sitting around wondering what to do and jumping at every little sound. But there is very little of the plot I remember. I don't even remember if they explain "HOW" the zombies start stirring. I don't even remember the ending exactly. The only thing that really sticks in my mind is getting such a damn big startle from knocking on the basement window.

DVD Update: Wizards & Warriors

Wizards & Warriors (1983)

WARNING: This is an ANCIENT Post! Only slightly updated.

This post has been sitting around for a few many many months almost years since the September 2014 release. I just was never motivated to continue with it, plus once again scanning photos or surfing the web for an appropriate image caused me to dilly dally and procrastinate. While trying to clear out my dusty drafts folder I decided it would be better to go ahead and post an out of date old post, and add some images, rather than delete it wasting any effort I put into it.

The long awaited television series Wizards and Warriors (1983) has finally come to DVD 30 years after it originally aired sort of. Unfortunately the series was very short lived having only 8 episodes total. I'm not even sure if all of them were aired. Again an unfortunate event is it is only available as an "On Demand" Title. Meaning it is made to order ONLY when ordered online and burned onto a DVD-R not a regular mass printing.

Marco (Walter Olkewicz) and Prince Erik Greystone (Jeff Conaway)

The series was a sword and sorcery fantasy series that starred Jeff Conaway, Clive Revill, Duncan Regehr, Ian Wolfe, Walter Olkewicz, Julia Duffy and Randi Brooks with an appearance (well two) by Christine De Lisle. It was very tongue planted securely in cheek slapstick campy humor. Sort of a Dungeons and Dragons version of the 1970s When Things Were Rotten. Which was a short lived Robin Hood series produced by Mel Brooks.

When I first heard this was coming to DVD I was super excited since I loved the show and hadn't seen it since the original airings. Sure some people have been selling pirated copies on all formats (even some VHS copies) on Ebay for years. However, they were typical pirate low-quality copies not even worth watching. Most copied from an ancient VHS copy.

The Wizard Vector (Clive Revill) and The Witch Bethal (Randi Brooks)

I'm not sure if I am going to take the plunge on this one. I'm not too thrilled about the ON Demand concept. There are some other titles of shows/movies that are in this same ON DEMAND DVD-R boat. I can't think of those titles at this moment and I don't want to do any more research for this ancient post. I would love to get this, but I'm just not sure.

The best photos of the show seem to be at a fan website called wizardsandwarriors.org of course. It is an old site and probably hasn't been updated. That is the site I got the screen shots from. It seems to be the only site people have gotten stuff from, they have the most variety of images, i.e. more than just what a quick Google image search gives you. The DVD cover shot is at several sites, most of them I think are from people who got the DVD and reviewed it on some online forum.

Show links on imdb.com
Wizards and Warriors (1983)
When Things Were Rotten (1975)

Doctor Who: Getting Psyched For Season 9

OK so this is just sort of an observation. I'm not doing any speculating. I'll leave the speculation up to the fanboys and fangirls who are already buzzing around the Internet with their crazy ideas. Most all of which will be disproved. Anyway the observation I am talking about is more just a look-a-like thing not a speculation. If it was a speculation it would be crazier than just crossing over two totally different fandoms from two totally different production companies from two totally different genres of television, and two totally different countries.

In recent weeks the teaser promo trailer for Doctor Who Season 9 (Series 9 as they say in it's original UK) at the very end shows a first glimpse of the highly anticipated appearance of Maisie Williams one of the actors in Game of Thrones a show I have not gotten into mostly because I don't have time for anymore epic television series to get into.

Whovian fanboys and fangirls are doing their best speculating about who her character is. From the trailer it is apparent that The Doctor knows her, has met her previously and is a bit surprised at her appearance. Is she Jenny? The Doctor's daughter from the episode of the same name. Jenny is the forerunner for the mystery character identity. Is she Susan? Very unlikely but possible. Is she Romana? Is she an earlier version of Missy? UM NO that one is crazier than Missy actually being The Master which actually became a reality, but I still say no to that one. I really hope she isn't any of the characters the fandom is speculating about, even if they have an excellent reason behind them.

My speculation is that she is Barbara (based on the sweater she was wearing in one of the first photos of her on the Doctor Who set), but I seem to be the only person in the universe who is thinking that. Could she be Ace? That would be wicked cool if Ace returned but not without Sophie Aldred. She is probably a character that the audience has not seen previously, but the Doctor knows extremely well like they did a while back with Tasha Lem.

*Sigh* I  didn't intend to spend this entire post talking about Doctor Who so I'll get to my original observation point.

Based on the images from the trailer she reminded me of Cote de Pablo who played Ziva David on NCIS.

Like I said I'm not speculating anything by that. That is the sort of thing that is only in fan fiction from fans who have a very wide spectrum of shows they are super obsessed fans of.

Quantum NCIS Enterprise

OH BOY!

The latest casting news for the potential new spinoff in the NCIS franchise NCIS: New Orleans has been announced. Scott Bakula has been cast as team leader Special Agent Pride. Pride is described as a man who “embodies New Orleans" and is driven by the "need to do what’s right and does it all with warmth, passion, strength and humor." He is also apparently an old associate of Gibbs (Marc Harmon) from the NIS (Naval Investigative Service) days.

Special Agent Pride and his team will debut this spring in a two-part story on the current flagship show NCIS as a backdoor spinoff pilot. NCIS itself is a spinoff from the mother flagship show JAG.

Speaking of JAG Zoe McLellan (P.O. Jennifer Coates) has been cast as Special Agent Brody on Pride's team. Also cast is CCH Pounder (Mrs. Irene Frederic from Warehouse 13) who will play medical examiner Dr. Wade. Another field agent named LaSalle has yet to be cast, or at least the casting has yet to be announced for that character.

I have mentioned in this blog and elsewhere that I really don't think there needs to be three NCIS shows right now. This show, however, seems more interesting and has a bigger named star to anchor the potential series than the previous spinoff attempt (from NCIS: Los Angeles) NCIS: Red. I'm a big NCIS fan and a big fan of Scott Bakula as well as a huge Warehouse 13 fan. Even though I don't agree with the plans for a new series I will end up watching, supporting and probably enjoying NCIS: New Orleans.

Related Links:
'NCIS: New Orleans' casts 'JAG' actress - Entertainment Weekly
'NCIS' scoop: Scott Bakula to star in new spinoff - Entertainment Weekly
'JAG' Alum Set as Female Lead in CBS' 'NCIS' New Orleans Spinoff - The Hollywood Reporter
NCIS: New Orleans? - Kirk's Knook (This blog right here)
Bakula cast in lead role of 'NCIS' New Orleans spinoff - New York Post
Bakula leads cast of 'NCIS' New Orleans episodes - USA Today

Cable Television Rant and On-Demand

I just want to put in my .2¢ worth about Cable TV and in particular the "On-Demand" feature. I'm not talking about using Tivo or recording/viewing with a DVR. Nor am I talking about any Pay-Per-View stuff. Just the basic cable services and the On-Demand. I'm tempted to make this rant just a list of my complaints about the whole thing. So:

•  First you are paying a heck of a lot of money, for the privilege of getting specialized programing from satellite TV stations/Networks. You even have to pay for the regular broadcast stations that were at one time FREE, but now with everything being broadcast digitally and mostly in High-Definition or from satellites anyway there is no such thing FREE broadcast TV anymore.
• Even though there are hundreds or thousands of movies and television shows available with the On-Demand feature, there isn't much in the way of "on demand". Sure you can view them anytime you want (but within a 24 hour period before you have to look for that program again if you didn't watch it within that small window of time), HOWEVER, the selection isn't always great, and many programs are only available for a couple of months before they are removed from the listings. Then you have to wait who knows how many months before they bring them back. Some programs never make it to the On-Demand lists sometimes even very popular shows. Sometimes shows that used to be available On-Demand are no longer available. I'm talking shows that are still currently running not shows that were cancelled by their network. There does seem to be a limited amount of movies available for selection.
• Many of the networks now are disabling some of the playback features in order to force you to watch the commercials, you are already paying for the programing and now they are forcing the commercials on you. More and more of these networks have the fast-forward feature disabled. It is very annoying and one of the things that annoys me the most about cable. Plus most of the time the programing is just a straight copy of whatever was originally broadcast commercials and all including those "coming up next" promos. I could get the same thing with my old VHS recorder, but at least with that I can fast forward through the promos and commercials. It used to be the On-Demand programing was just the program itself with no commercials in between. If that isn't bad enough sometimes the commercials they do have are from just one or two sponsors and every break they show the same two commercials (like Hulu and some of those TV online services do every FIVE minutes) which since they disabled the fast-forward you have to sit through again, at least the mute button usually works.
• Oh and sometimes the playback for movies on demand and some of the broadcast shows for some reason block the closed captioning. So you have to rewind sometimes to catch dialogue you might not have heard or heard weird.

OK I think that is all for now. Just wanted to get some of that out.

NCIS: New Orleans?

I recently saw an article that said CBS had green lighted a new JAG/NCIS spin-off series. This time instead of a roving team that the failed NCIS: Red was, this "series" will be centered around an NCIS team based in New Orleans. That immediately made me think of the Mel Odom "NCIS" book series which is UNRELATED to the shows. The books center around an NCIS team based in North Carolina (at Camp Lejeune) though, so my initial connection was way off. I was South but not the right South. The team in the books is mostly military people (Marines and Ex-Marines) so it is slightly different than a "typical" NCIS team which is usually all civilian or mostly civilian.

NCIS book series by Mel Odom

This new spin-off though is supposed to have it's "backdoor" pilot episode(s) on the Mother well oldest Sister series NCIS and if successful become the latest in the franchise. Filming will be in February with the episodes airing in the spring. I guess they are casting right now or will start soon. (Time to brush up dust off the Theatre Resume). The new series and team will be based in New Orleans that is about all that I know right now. Don't know what type of team. The DC team is mostly a regular response police type team. The LA team is an undercover detective team as was the roving Red team. Don't know what the new New Orleans team will be. The team in the unrelated books was an international response team similar to the DC team but also seemed to have some undercover aspects.

I don't know, I'm a huge NCIS fan, but with the main DC team show, and the Los Angeles show I don't think a third show is really needed. I thought that with the NCIS: Red series. It was a fun idea but I don't think it was the time. Is it time now? I don't know but I still don't really think so. NCIS is still strong as it goes into its 11th season that is one season more than the true Mother of the franchise JAG which went 10 seasons. Plus NCIS: Los Angeles is still going almost as strong with season 5.

Speaking of Mothers and NCIS - The super beautiful Daniela Ruah who plays Kensi Blye on NCIS: LA is expecting her first child, a baby boy, with her fiancé David Paul Olsen. Oh Boy the connection gets a bit creepier. David Olsen is the older brother of Daniela's co-star Eric Christian Olsen who plays Marty Deeks, plus David is the stunt double for lil' bro Eric. No wonder Kensi is a little freaked by Deeks. I didn't know all that connection, so um yeah creepy.

Related links:
NCIS Spinoff Set in New Orleans in the Works at CBS, Mark Harmon to Executive Produce- E Online
NCIS Planning New Orleans-Based Spinoff, Exec-Produced by Mark Harmon- TV Line
'NCIS' looks at potential spinoff set in New Orleans- USA Today
CBS Devloping New Orleans-Set 'NCIS' Spinoff- Variety
CBS Greenlights Backdoor Pilot for 'NCIS' New Orleans Spinoff- The Wrap