Tuesday in Paradise

Work:

Got re routed to the Monroe store and wound up staying there all day. Which was very exciting. A, it's closer to home and B, coffee is more readily available. 

I'd love to tell you interesting stories about my job but there's nothing much to tell. Which is the beauty of the job. It's low stress. Customer comes in with prescription. I help them pick the right pair. They go home able to see. Obviously lots of little things go in to making a pair of glasses work but they just aren't interesting things at all. But it is nice to see people smiling when they leave. Like I said, low stress. 

Working in West Monroe tomorrow. Unless something changes, again, I'm working in Ruston Thursday. Already got a lunch date planned with my wife Friday. Whoo!

Got home in time to work on the buffet. I made a very small start but a start nonetheless. Holy cow the new Craftsman Bolt that Hannah got me for Christmas is awesome. It came with a small circular saw. It cuts like it's going through butter. I'll keep you updated on how it goes along. 

Writing:

The only writing that's gotten done at all this week had been these blog posts and my Blakes 7 reviews. No headway on any of my stories but it has been nice to take a few days off. Hopefully I can get back to it feeling refreshed in a few days. Gotta do some rewrites on Thy Judgment Come and issue 2 of By the Fire will be ready to go. Then some more work on Thorn in the Side as well as my sequel to Carrier. It's tentatively title One Man War. 

On an aside, I'm thinking about spinning my reviews off into a seperate blog. Thinking about the different gimmicks I could run with. Something like Beer and Spaceships where I do a simultaneous beer and tv review. Or something more family friendly like coffee. I dunno. What do y'all think?

Fitness:

Alarm went off at 5:15 and I staggered out of bed. Made it to the box at 6:00 to get my lifts in. Today was a Max Effort, ME for short, Upper Body day. Max Effort means one of a few things. It can mean the most weight you can lift one time or it can mean the most times you can lift a certain weight. Today was the latter. I opted to go my own way on the assistance exercises. 

Push Press 2 sets at 75%. 

For me that was 130lbs. I got 10 reps each round. 

Assistance:

Pulls ups 5/5/5/3/2

Dips 5x5

Ten minutes double under work. 

Why dips and pull-ups? Because I suck at pull-ups so I've decided to make them a priority. I went with dips because nothing builds a big overhead press like a strong dip. Basically I'm just keeping it simple. 

I did all my DU work in the yoga room in front if a mirror. Whenever someone asks me how to get better at jumping rope I tell them to practice in front of a mirror. I've been forgetting that lesson lately though. A few sessions in front of a mirror is already showing results. I've run into two problems however. One, my calves are still dead from Sunday. Two, my rope is on it's last leg. It's got a permanent crease near the handles and doesn't want to spin at the pace I need it to for doubles. I think it cost me $5 and I've had it almost ten years. I'd say I got my money's worth. I guess I'm now in the market for a new rope. I just can't stand the fancy ones with the pivot systems though. The response just feels funny. Everybody thinks I'm crazy for not liking the Rogue or RX ropes though. 

B7 Re-Watch: Seek-Locate-Destroy

           Seek-Locate-Destroy

Where can I watch it?

http://youtu.be/GNZgdADvtRA

Synopsis:

The episode opens with our band of rebels preparing a raid on a Federation communication station. A station that looks like an old chemical plant. 

We specialize in petroleum and morse code. 

The rebels slip past the automated guards and Vila works his magic to get them through the gate. We see one of the first highlights of Vila's talents. He plays the fool, very well, but he is actually very intelligent. Cowardly, but intelligent. 

Blake and Vila successfully breach the compound and reinforcements teleport down. Cally is tasked with guarding several captured technicians. During the raid a guard escapes and we get to see Vila take action. He manages to incapacitate the guard but not before he sounds the alarm. 

The technicians take the opportunity to overpower Cally causing her to lose her teleport bracelet. The rest of the rebels manage to plant their explosives and escape. Cally, who had escaped, however is left behind. We're treated to a scene of her frantically searching for her bracelet with the explosive timer superimposed over her face. She missies her ride and is left behind. 

Back on ship we learn that the sabatoge was a ruse to capture a Federation Cypher unit. Blake and his team can now intercept and decode every message that Space Command sends. 

At last we get our first look at Space Command and a new character Servelan. 

White Dress/Black Heart

She is giving an update to a duo of political couriers concerning the search for Blake. A new commander has been tasked with his termination. We get to see some of the inner workings of the government and hints that not everyone involved is truly evil. The politicians are determined to maintain control but with at least the image of benevolence. On Earth they use drugs. On the outer worlds they are forced to use violence. One of their commanders, Travis, has a reputation for unmatched ruthlessness. 

Space Captain Jack Sparrow?

At his appointment we see that at least some of the Federation Officers still hold themselves to some sense of honor. Servelan is shown to be cold, manipulative and ruthless in her own way. When a junior officer protests Travis being reinstated we see her use her womanly charms to disarm him. 

Back on the Liberator we see Blake agonizing over the loss of Cally. Jenna, as she often does, serves as the voice of reason and helps him learn to live with it. In many ways Jenna is the most compassionate character. Even Blake, despite his morals, is too driven to really care about those around him. 

While using the cypher unit they learn of Travis' involvement. Blake is stunned stating that he had believed that he had killed Travis. It's revealed that Blake's "civil disobedience" was actually a little more violent than he let on. To me this answers how he has such extensive knowledge of military targets. 

Travis and Servelan realize that Blake has a cypher unit and decide to set a trap. Surviving the explosion Cally was taken prisoner and is now bait for the rebels. Luckily Blake has learned a few tricks and springs his own trap. 

It's only gay if you make eye contact. 

They make good their escape with Travis vowing to chase Blake forever. Too bad that cypher is now useless. But alls well that ends well. 

You left me for dead. I'll kill you in your sleep. 

Final Thoughts:

This episode epitomizes everything that was great about Blakes 7. Strong characters. Excellent dialogue. Tight script. Ambiguous morals. The special effects are still cheap but they're as good as we can get with our budget. The action scenes could be a little tighter but I expect that's due to the production schedule and not just lack of effort. 

All of the characters get at least minor moments in this episode to show their strengths. Vila gets to be clever, Blake gets to moralize, Jenna plays her role as voice of reason, Avon gets to be tech savvy. Gan's strength is, well, his strength and he gets to move difficult gears around. Ok, maybe he could have had a bigger role. Cally gets an understated role but we see her enduring massive torture while refusing to sell out her comrades. 

We also introduced two recurring villains in the form of Servelan and Travis. In their own ways they mirror Blake and Avon. Travis is driven and ruthless in the pursuit of his objectives much like Blake. Servelan is calculating and self serving much like Avon. 

Far and away one of the top episodes. Next up we'll have Mission to Destiny. 

Rating: 

5 out of 5. 

Memorable Quote:

Vila: Hello there. How are you? Excuse me wandering about your premises but I wonder if you can help me. I'm an escaped prisoner. I was a thief but recently I've become interested in sabotage, in a small way you understand, nothing too ambitious, I hate vulgarity, don't you? Anyway, I've come to blow something up. What do you think will be most suitable?

Coffee of the Day:

Today's episode was written with the help of Community Coffee's French Roast. Dark and delicious the way coffee should be. 

B7 Re-Watch: The Web

Where Can I Watch It:

http://youtu.be/mnDAssUPQNc

Synopsis:

The episode starts well enough. The opening scene is a creepy shot is a floating point of view flying through a forest covered in spider webs. A low chanting of "they must come" is heard building in intensity. Two shadowy figures are shown awakening as the crescendo reaches it's peak. That's when we ruin the effect by showing a weird dude in a jar. 

We cut to the Liberator where Cally has been possessed telepathically. She brains Vila and sabotages the ship sending it racing through space. Smacking Vila is nothing surprising. Sabotaging the ship might be a little over the top though. The whole thing kinda proves Jenna's point about bringing home random telepathic aliens that you met at a bar. 

Zen refuses to help which honestly isn't surprising. Blake and his crew did comandeer the ship after all. Jenna takes Blake and Avon prisoner but when they reach the flight deck Jenna realizes that it isn't Cally. This prompts a cat fight but Gan comes out of left field to take Cally out. Seriously, where has he been the whole episode?

Not to be outdone Jenna gets her own turn at being possessed. Cally recognizes their psychic attacker as "the lost" an Auronar legend. Why she's already back on duty they never address. 

They reach their destination and get caught in a giant spider web in space. That right there was almost enough to make me turn it off but I powered through. For you dear readers. 

Behold, Terry Nation phoning it in. 

Blake teleports down and encounters a bunch of midgets who look like anthromorpized sperm. Seriously. 

There's a phallic joke in here somewhere. I just can't out my finger on it. 

Blake learns, from our creepy David Bowie look alikes, that the midgets are called the Decimas.  and we're genetically engineered by the lost. The duo were also created as part of experiments in immortality. The Lost have decided that the Decimas need to be wiped out but they don't have the power. Bartering with Blake for power cells in exchange for helping the Liberator escape their web. Blake of course is opposed to genocide. 

What's a little genocide amongst washed up pop stars? Huh?

Of course, inevitably, sensors pick up pursuit ships closing in. Blake and Avon are captured, again, but the Decimas burst into the complex and murder, death, kill their creators. Blake uses the power cells to send a fungicide beam into space to clear the web. Yes, you read that right. They make good their escape bantering the whole time. 

Final Thoughts:

I'm not going to beat around the bush. This episode was weak. Poor script. Poor execution. I feel like more time should have been spent fighting the federation in the earlier episodes with the occasional stand alone. Having Cally possessed in her second episode also made it harder to establish her character as a vital member of the crew. 

As usual though there were great moments of dialogue. We get the usual "I need to reprogram that computer" from Avon. And the ever present nihilism vs idealism is still present. Blake wants to save the Decimas. Avon is all for sacrificing them to save himself. 

We do get a little shift in Blakes attitude towards Avon. When he thinks Avon is in danger he doesn't hesitate to rush to save him while screaming that he had a friend in danger. 

Still, philosophical debates and sharp dialogue can only make up for so much. I would have liked to have seen a tighter script, better use of all the characters and maybe more realistic effects. If you can't make the Decimas look like realistic non humans then I say pull a Trek. Paint them blue and just use plain ole people. Not the worst episode ever, but dang close. 

Rating: 2 out of 5

Memorable Quote:

After Blake is saved by Avon from an explosion. 

Blake: Thank you... why?

Avon: Automatic reaction, I'm as surprised as you are.

Another Day, Another Dollar

Work:

Back home at the optical this week. This has been my longest running job albeit in an off and on fashion. It's been at least 12 years. I've honestly lost count. Since school is out for Spring Break, which feels much more like Winter Break, I agreed to fill in for a week. It gives everyone else an extra hand to handle the volume, me a little extra money and it lets me see friends that I see very rarely.

Spent the morning in the Monroe store before being relocated to the West Monroe branch. Par for the course. Being fill in help I usually wind up working as a floater. Headed to Ruston tomorrow. Yay! Possibility of freezing rain tonight and travel on interstate tomorrow.  

Another nice thing about working in town is that I get to eat lunch with my wife. Whoo! Monjunis for lunch for Hannah. Geez, I WISH I had this many options in Farmerville. 

Got off work at 5:30 and headed back to Lowes for some supplies for the new buffet I'm building. Got to West Monroe High School early for community band practice and waited. And waited. And waited. Apparently practice was canceled and I missed the memo. Ah well. Home for supper and True Detective. Gonna turn in early tonight. I intend to get in some quality exercise this week. 

Writing:

I've made a decision. I like the concept of doing a bimonthly publication. I also want to invest more time in novellas. At first I was going to include serialized versions of novellas in By the Fire but I made the mistake of serializing the wrong thing. Since maybe 60 people world wide have picked up a free copy it's not proving popular. I'm going to revise the first issue and take out the novella portion. I'll leave the shorts and chapters from my other stories. It'll lose about thirty pages but .99 an issue that's still not a bad bargain. 

That will make issue 2 much easier to finish. The plan is to get that novella, Thorn in the Side, churned out this month. It's almost halfway done at this point anyway. Maybe that will help boost sales of Blackthorn Knights. 

In other news my 90 day enrollment with KDP is up this week. I can finally get all my little shorts up on Barnes and Noble, iTunes and a myriad other places. I'm anxious to see how Carrier in particular does in other venues. Next on my work in progress list is a sequel for poor Tim. 

Fitness:

Made it to the box a little after 6:00am. I got my three main lifts done but ran out of time to do anything else. At the risk of sounding like a Prima Donna, I think I'm going to start programming my own assistance exercises. Not that there was time for that today. I also want to spend a little time every day working on double unders. I've put that off long enough as evidenced by yesterday. I also didn't realize that there was such a thing as competetive jump roping and that seems awesome. 

Today's lifts. 

Box Squat 12x2@195 65% of 1 rep max

Deadlift 10x2@225 65% of 1 rep max

Overhead Squat 3x5@45

Yes, I did it empty bar. I have very little experience with the OHS. In situations like that I prefer to start empty bar and just learn the movement. It's worked so far. 

B7 Re-Watch: Time Squad

                  Time Squad

Where can I watch it:

http://youtu.be/qft9z6Et8sM

Synopsis:

This episode starts on the flight deck where Jenna is putting the crew through their paces showing them how to operate the ship. Midst their discussions of what to do next Blake orders Zen to set course for Saurian Major. Naturally this pisses Avon off because he insists on having some input into his own fate. Imagine that. Blake doesn't care because Viva la Revolution! 

Blake explains that Saurian Major has a large federation communication complex that he'd like to blow up. No one asks the obvious questions. How does Blake know this and how does Zen know Federation star charts well enough to identify Saurian Major? He's an alien computer for crying out loud!

En route they detect a small pod drifting in space. Beaming, er, I mean teleporting over Blake and Jenna find themselves in tight quarters and no air. Yeah. Shoulda thought that one out. They try to teleport back but Zen is having none of it and the controls are fried. They bring the pod into the cargo bay manually and all is well. 

Some poking and prodding reveals that the ship has no FTL and three occupants frozen in suspended animation. Of course we just have to hit the defrost. Just to see what happens. While they wait on their guests to thaw they get back down to exploding stuff. 

Blake, Avon and Villa teleport down to the planet which in true BBC fashion is a rock quarry. Budget constraints. What can I say? Despite their searching they can't find the resistance force which is supposed to be operating on the planet. They do eventually meet up with Cally. Cally is the lone surviving rebel and an alien telepath from the planet Auron. 

Blondes may have more telepathic contact, but brunettes do it better. 

Cally tells them that the Federation rained poison on the planet killing everyone but her. Of course Blake takes her at her word cuz hey, why would she lie? They decide to team up to make the comm center go boom. 

Things aren't so great back upstairs though. The three Popsicles are thawed and lo and behold they're homicidal maniacs. Zen eventually deciphers their computer to find out that they are the "Guardians" of a pallet load of genetic stock that can be grown to fully sized in less than half an hour. He finds this out AFTER Jenna gets slapped around a little and Gan gets KTFO. 

There there, want me to kiss it and make it better?

We learn that Gan has a mental limiter that prevents him from killing. Even though he did just that in the last episode. All this because a federation guard killed "his woman". Naturally he didn't take kindly to this and beat the man to death with his bare hands. To which I say good on ya. Luckily they overcome the terrible stunt actors and retrieve the landing party just before the explosion. Cally chooses to stay onboard completing the crew despite Jenna's misgivings. The capsule is dropped back in space because this ain't Star Trek so screw them. Blake sets another course without asking anyone and we get a close up of Avon's face as he realizes just what he's trapped into. 

Closing Thoughts:

While this is an important episode in the sense that it introduces Cally and Gan's limiter it's just poorly done. In a lot of respects it's a filler episode. After the nice arc over the first three it's a letdown to have a standalone, adventure of the week story. Especially since it feels like it was cobbled together and filmed in one take. It needs to be watched for continuity's sake but I just didn't enjoy it. The stunts are bad and the special effects are weak but that's to be expected with their limited budget. There is some nice dialogue though which is where B7 shines. I also, being a music nerd, enjoyed the incidental music. I suspect that a lot of it was stock BBC music because I'm sure I've heard it on Dr. Who. 

Rating: 

2.5 out of 5.

Memorable Line:

"I'm going to live forever, or die trying."

Vila Restal

Sunday Funday

Not much to report today. Church in the AM to lead music. It went...... well it went. I should have pushed this particular special back another week. It looked easy in paper but those are the ones that will bite you. 

Made it to the box around 1:30 to do 14.1 at 2:00. Very frustrated with my performance and my attitude. I lost my temper several times. Some swearing might have been involved and/or chunking of my rope across the gym. Sigh. Yeah, my inner child came out and not in a good way. So, to all my fellow gym goers I apologize for being, well a jerk. 

Home to start on my new project. Trying to build my wife a new buffet. I'll keep you apprised of how that goes. Wish me luck on the project and on 14.2. I'm dreading what could be involved in it. 

B7 Re-Watch: Cygnus Alpha

Where can I watch it?

http://youtu.be/IWsErfomZcE

Synopsis:

Cygnus Alpha is the third in a three part arc that served to kick off the show. The show opens on the titular planet where two people in priestly robes are watching the London enter orbit. 

Maybe this whole banished to a penal planet won't be so bad. 

We switch to the London where the Captain is recounting to his log the events of Space Fall. We don't tarry long however before we move back to Blake and company onboard their new hotrod. 

No joking. This is the coolest bridge ever. 

The trio quickly find an armory that will only let you take one gun. Stingy jerks! They then set about figuring out how to fly the ship by way of pushing random buttons. Hey, that's how I work blu ray players so why not. The ship takes a chance to make telepathic contact with Jenna. 

It's true. Blondes do have more telepathic contact. 

Unwittingly Jenna names the ship liberator. The group meets Zen the ships main computer who looks like a hexagon shaped 1980s Macintosh complete with blinking cursors. 70s Sci Fi reasoned that the future would be filled with blinking lights. That's how you knew it was the future. 

He was a sassy computer. They were lovable scamps. Together they'd have wacky adventures and be home in time for tea. 

Zen gives them information about the ship but will not answer questions about its makers prompting a running joke of Avon saying how he needs to reprogram it. At the same time the London drops the remaining prisoners on Cygnus Alpha. They conveniently ignore the fact that they had at least four more months of travel time. The prisoners encounter more priestly figures who tell them that God has poisoned them and they must take daily treatments to live. 

Yeah, he looks like he'd be down with Captain Tripps. 

Meanwhile liberator arrives in orbit to "rescue" the prisoners. I say rescue it the truth is despite being the hero of the story Blake really only wants to save them to be part of his crew not for their own sakes. Avon is opposed to their rescue because he's only concerned with his own interests. In his way he's the most honest of the two. 

While exploring the ship the group discovers what they believe to be a teleport system. This serves two purposes. One, it gives them a technological edge over their enemies. Two, it saves a fortune on special effects. It's essentially the same reason Star Trek used transporters. 

Blake makes an initial trip down and is attacked by the priests. When he is brought back up he just happens to forget to tell the others. Again, Blake is not above manipulating the others. On returning he meets the head priest. And of course is captured. 

Back on the Liberator Avon is busy trying to convince Jenna to abandon Blake. Hey, if you can't trust your friends who can you trust? Blake and several prisoners stage a breakout where several men who were supposed to be regulars are killed. As I previously said the script called for a full seven. Except the budget wasn't there. Since Terry Nation was the 70s BBC version of George R.R. Martin he just brutally murdered said characters rather than let them go to waste. 

Despite Avon's protests Jenna teleports Blake, Vila and Gan back aboard. Except the head priest tags along to try to take the ship. Before he is teleported into space and exploded he tells them that the sickness is really a mild poison. His forefathers tricked the convicts into believing in the disease to create a religion that would control the population. 

But he had such a trustworthy face. 

Blake now has his crew. He also has his polar opposite in Avon. They're scanned at the last minute by Federation Hunter/Killer ships before running off. Because the best way to start a revolution is to run away. 

Closing Thoughts:

While not as immediately dark as the pilot I think Cygnus Alpha is almost it's equal. If a little more subtle about it. We have Blake who is singlemindedly fixated on his goal. He's willing to use and manipulate others to further his plans. We have Avon who is willing and wanting to leave Blake and take the Liberator as his own. He even admits to Jenna that she would be next. We have a subtle dig at the abuse of religious power. The only moral character in this episode is Jenna and she wavers noticeably between supporting Blake and following Avon. I think this episode gets 4 out of 5. It's a nice close to the first three stories even if there are a few plot holes and weak points.