First Monday Back.

Work

Rolled out of bed a little after 6:00 and had a long discussion with myself about my chosen profession. I loathe getting up early. Like, I hate it more than taxes. Made it to school sorta kinda almost on time. Of course I only had five kids show up to my first block class. 

Found out something upsetting. I hadn't put it together but someone pointed it out to me. Midterms are next Thursday and Friday. Festival is next Thursday and Friday. Guess who won't be going to festival this year. At least that means I won't have to take another year of low scores. We were not even close to ready. 

Life

Rushed to the Orthopaedic Clinic after school. Hannah is still having some back pain and we're trying to sort that out. Got some answers finally though. But by the time we were done I missed community band. Which is fine. I was wiped out and just flat starving.  

Writing

Managed a little over 700 words if new fiction today. Whoo! Gotta get back in the swing of things. Wrote down some notes on One Man War and then worked on Thorn in the Side. I'm going to try to finish this chapter tomorrow and then revise Thy Judgment Come. Once that's done issue two of By the Fire will go up. As will the revised version of issue one. It'll be a little slim without Thorn in it but it's better than nothing. 

Fitness

Overslept and then far too busy with life to work out today. I'll have to make it up tomorrow. Guess that alarm will be going off early tomorrow. 

B7 Re-Watch: Project Avalon

Where can I watch it?

http://youtu.be/ZQ2t6Uyt-jA

Synopsis:

The episode starts on an ice planet. No, not Hoth. Another one. Travis and a Mutoid are meeting a resistance fighter looking to make a deal. The Mutoid is played by Glynnis Barber who, in true BBC fashion, goes on to play a series regular later. 

Just biding my time till these other tramps buy it. 

Travis is planning to capture a resistance leader named Avalon. In and of herself she'd be a prize target but in this case she's a stepping stone to get to Blake. Blake who is on his way to meet with her. Federation forces capture Avalon and butcher her resistance cell. 

Travis takes her back to their base and prepares to torture her for information. Amidst their conversation we get an idea both of the size of the Feferation and the scope of the rebellion. Avalon claims that thirty planets have broken off from the Federation. 

"Interrogation". Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

Servelan arrives in all of her grandeur bragging about the assassination attempts in her life. It's revealed that not only is this an elaborate ruse to take out Blake but also capture the Liberator. A special disease has been cooked up that kills everything, including itself, in less than a minute. 

Meanwhile Blake and Jenna teleport down to the meeting site to find the recent massacre. One lone little resistance fighter survived and almost shoots them by mistake. Imagine the bitter irony if Blake had been killed by someone on his side. They realize that Abalon has been captured and decide to rescue her. Unfortunately they have to do it without help from above. 

The Liberator is driven out of orbit by approaching pursuit ships leaving them stranded. All still part of Travis' plan. While the Liberator bravely runs away Blake, Jenna and the surviving fighter break into the base. During the rescue we get to see Jenna play bad ass very convincingly. 

Barbarella can eat her heart out!

Yes, that's really what their guns look like. I won't lie though, I love em. They're at least unique. Our little rebel oddly enough has a Vietnam Era M1. No wonder they want to ban them. They're so effective people will be using them to rebel with on distant planets. Or they just needed a cheap prop that wouldn't be readily recognizable to a 1970s British public. 

They make good their escape just as the Liberator returns to scoop them up. Unfortunately this is still all to plan. On board Blake realizes that a captured blaster has been rigged to be non lethal. The surviving rebel is found dead and Avalon is discovered to be an android double. 

An android or what British men thought women's brains looked like. 

The crew stops her before she can release the disease and return to save Avalon. The real one this time. Travis is left in disgrace and the rebels escape. Again. And Avalon, the most effective rebel leader we've met, is never seen again. That's what she gets for making Blake look bad!

Final Thoughts:

I enjoyed this episode. We get to see several things that I feel are important. One, Avalon states that at least thirty worlds have rebelled against the Federation. That's a large chunk of planets which implies that rebellion is fairly widespread. The fact that the Federation still has overwhelming force means they still have a vast number of planets still under their control. 

We learn that Avalon has personally started resistance movements on a dozen worlds. Honestly I vote that we ditch Blake and give her the Liberator. Her track record is far and away better. 

So, a few rough patches here and there but as a whole pretty good. I hadn't actually seen this one and I enjoyed it. They're playing up the whole Robin Hood in space fairly well. If Blake is Robin then that makes Servelan the sherrif and Travis Guy of Gisbourne and they play those roles well. I like seeing Travis as a cunning, remorseless enemy. Only four more episodes left in this season. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Memorable Quote:

Blake: Does it support any intelligent life?

Avon: Does The Liberator? [pause] There are creatures called "Subterrons". they live in caves, quite what that says for their intelligence I really wouldn't know.

Coffee of the Day:

Green Mountain Half Caf. I wrote this one at night and needed to be able to sleep. Normally I like my coffee extra strong with lots o caffeine. But this was pretty good stuff. Definitely worth having in the cabinet. 

Crossfit Open Sunday, here we go again.

Rolled out of bed at 7:30 to get ready for church. Which was really 6:30 what with the time change. Oh man was I groggy. Church was good though. Made it there more or less on time. Special went well and I got to worship with some great people. 

Came home and got changed to go do the thing. Grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to the box. I was scheduled to go at 2:00 but we got there around 1:00. Started warming up around 1:30 and felt fairly confident that I could make it through the first round. Wow was I wrong! I had three minutes to do 10 Overhead Squats at 95lbs and 10 Chest to Bar Pull-ups twice. I knocked the first set of OHS in about 20 seconds. I spent the next 2:40 staring at the bar wondering why I couldn't get that last half inch between my chest and the bar. I got exactly ONE C2B. Ah well. It'll get there. If we ever get something other than a gymnastic style endurance WOD I'll try to make up some lost ground. 

Quick grocery store trip and then home. Hannah took the girls for a play date with Rosey while I worked on the new buffet. Got about an hour and a halfs worth of work in before calling it a night. It's starting to look like something. Well, sorta. 

Hopefully I'll be able to finish it in the next few weeks. If I do my job right it should be pretty sharp. 

As my mind is always running, no really I wake up thinking about something every night, I think I've got next years half time show picked out. No I'm not telling you what it is. I know what kind of thieves the band directors who read my blog are. I'm pretty geeked about it. 

During church something clicked. A piece, or two, for One Man War clicked into place. Yes, I know I should have been paying attention but sometimes my mind wanders. Which is a whole new twist on the whole "not all who wander are lost". See what I did there?

Anyway, it's time to go soak and then watch True Detective. Back to school tomorrow. In the words of number Ten "I don't want to go".

Saturday, in the Park.

This'll be a brief one. Got up about 6:15 to get ready for work. Worked from about 8:15-1:30. Things got a little hectic for awhile. Made it home about 2:15 to head to Landry's. We went and saw a zydeco band with friends. I highly recommend the Redneck Red Muscadine wine. 

Afterwards we went to River and Rail for supper. This was out second time there. The first time was the worst experience I've ever had. Apparently between this time and the last the staff has been completely replaced. Tremendously better experience. 

Got zero writing done but plenty of scheming and planning in my head. Monday I'll get back to putting words on the page. Issue two will be up next week. That's the plan at least. Afterwards a mad rush to finish Thorn in the Side since my dad is starting to ask when it'll be finished. After that will be One Man War. I think anyway. Ok, that's all I got. Good night everyone. Don't forget your clocks. 

B7 Re-Watch: Duel

Where can I watch it?

http://youtu.be/Xx2wonpLgrc

Synopsis:

Let's start off by calling a spade a spade. This is a good episode but it's a ripoff of Star Trek's Arena. Blake and his merry band of rebels are exploring an abandoned planet complete ruined statues. Their play time gets cut short when they are attacked by Travis and his squadron of pursuit ships. 

What was the BBCs obsession with needles?

We see Travis on his own flight deck speaking with his crew of Mutoids. Mutoids are humans who have been modified. The extent of their modifications is a little ambiguous but we do learn they they've been adapted to live on a plasma serum. In layman's terms they drink blood. Yep. The Federation created Vampires. 

Travis comments that the constant patrols have forced the Liberator into this galaxy. Yeah. Space Command Training must be real lax. Not this sector, this solar system or even this quadrant. This galaxy. This begs the question, if they were being pursued so closely and constantly then why did they stop for some sightseeing? Nonetheless he's trapped the Liberator. Outnumbered and running low on energy they decide to ram Travis' ship. 

Ramming Speed!

Suddenly everything freezes. Blake and Travis are transported back down to the surface of the planet by a witch and a chick who never learned about bras. They have been watching the battle and decided to intervene. 

In my head there is a Celine Dion song playing over this scene. 

The duo are implied to be the last survivors of a race that wiped itself out. Somehow they have tremendous powers that are never explained as being psionic, technological, or supernatural in origins. 

Star Trek gave us the Metrons and the Organians. Blakes 7 gives a sitcom in the making. 

Travis and Blake are given the worst prop machetes ever and told to go fight it out. Giroc, the old witch, proves to be the trickster of the two and sets Blake up so Travis can finish him off. 

Great Scott!

Sinofar, the younger one, wipes their memories and resets the contest. This time they decide to up the stakes. Jenna is brought down to help Blake and a Mutoid is brought to help Travis. 

You? Me? Fight to the death? What do you say?

After much maneuvering, trap setting, witty comments and some truly dreadful fight scene choreography Blake overcomes Travis and refuses to kill him. Of course somewhere in all that Jenna gets captured by the Vampire. 

I'm surprised there hasn't been more fan fiction about this scene. I'm just saying. 

Blake requests that his ship be given a head start. He mentions that he didn't kill Travis because he would have enjoyed it too much. I think that's a little out of character for this show but hey, they had to keep Travis around as a nemises. The rebels escape while we listen to Travis posture and blame everyone but himself for losing. 

Final Thoughts:

The show was enjoyable. It's not the strongest episode but it was fun. As usual the fight scenes were just awful. But they seem to be learning how to work within their special effects budget. As a ripoff it wasn't the most original story but maybe we should just call it an homage. 

Jenna finally gets some action scenes but they could have played her strengths up a little more instead of being captured. Everyone else takes a back seat, even Avon. Cally shows some of her skill as a guerrilla fighter through her comments as they watch the events unfold. 

Overall it was definitely worth a rewatch. Next up we have Project Avalon. Servelan returns and we get to see how widespread the rebellion is. 

Rating: 3.5 out 5

Memorable Quote:

Avon: I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care, or, indeed, why it should be necessary to prove it at all.

Coffee of the Day:

The beauty of the Keurig system is the ability to sample different brews easily. Today I went with Starbucks French Roast. Talk about bold! Almost had to drink it with a spoon. It. Was. Awesome!

It's Friday, Friday

We got to bed late last night so this morning was a struggle. Managed to stagger out of bed around 5:20. I got to the box about 6:10 and left out right at 7:00 to get ready for work. God bless my wife for picking up some Daily Press for breakfast. 

Work:

Headed out about 8:15 to get to work by 8:30. I really miss these hours when I'm at school. Not to mention the location. Working 40 minutes from home can be inconvenient at times. Hard to make Dr.s appointments. Get oil changes. Etc. especially with a 30 minute lunch. This whole hour lunch just seems like a luxury. 

I even got to eat with my wife today. 

Headed over to West Monroe after lunch. Uneventful day just the way I like it. Gotta be back in the morning a little after 8:00. After work I raced home to pick up Hannah and meet my parents at Cotton for dinner. Great meal. Great times. Now home and getting ready to do it again tomorrow. 

  

Writing:

No real writing again today other than blogging. I've got 7 reviews done. 45 more to go to finish out B7. Was super excited to find out that I've been included in an online newsletter about Classic British Sci Fi at http://paper.li/St_Clinton/1366688741. An hour or so later I got a nice message on Tumblr from someone saying how much they've enjoyed my reviews. 

I did get a few things up on Barnes and Noble and Smashwords last night. Should be up on iTunes soon. 

I forgot to say yesterday that I took a quick minute to change the covers of most of the shorts from my anthology Encounters. I changed them all to a similar style as part of a rebranding experiment. I'm not crazy about two or three of them but the rest look sharp I think. I'm going to update the descriptions to promote them as bite size works that are part of a series. We'll see if that helps any. 

Fitness:

Got a new 3 rep max in my back squat. Hit 290lbs then felt like I might pass out. Practiced chest to bar pull-ups and overhead squats to get ready for 14.2 on Sunday. I'm not looking forward to this ladder. 

B7 Re-Watch: Mission to Destiny

Mission to Destiny

Where can I watch it?

http://youtu.be/r6yhmej5cBI

Synopsis:

Mission to Destiny is a mystery episode. It's a departure from the Alien of the week episodes and the overarching rebellion. Be prepared for a few spoilers. 

The episode opens on the bridge of the Ortega. The pilot, who has a truly impressive collar, turns to speak to someone over his shoulder only to be bludgeoned to death. It's a hard knocked life in space. 

We cut to the Liberator flying through space looking all sexy. Our merry little band of outlaws have detected the Ortega flying in circles. Zen determines that it's an old Galaxy Class ship. So, chew on that TNG. Blake, Avon and Cally teleport onboard to find everyone asleep at the wheel. Blake figures out that a sleeping agent is being pumped into the ventilation system and we're treated to a scene of the trio staggering around like drunks. 

It says wheat free/gluten free so at least it's Paleo sleeping gas. 

On the bridge they find the dead pilot who has written a message in his own blood. 

Uhm, Bingo?

They wake up the crew and try to determine who could have killed the pilot and why. Suspicion falls on the one crew member who is missing and presumably abandoned ship on a life rocket. 

Who could betray a crew with such magnificent collars?

The ship is from the planet Destiny where things just aren't working out. A fungus is busy wiping out their crops and they've been sent to bargain for the only substance that can save them. Something called Nutratope. It sounds like a breakfast bar. It just happens to be the rarest most expensive compound in the galaxy. 

With the ship repaired except for their FTL they can get under way. The only problem is that it'll take at least five months to get home and a years worth of crops will be lost. Taking a desperate gamble they give the material to Blake to take and keep Avon and Cally as hostages, er guests I mean. 

Keep it secret, keep it safe. 

The Liberator races away to Destint. Through an asteroid storm. Of course. 

They're eventually forced to decide, due to power constraints, whether they must sacrifice speed or the force wall. Blake opts to sacrifice safety for speed to reach Destiny ASAP. Except once they've exited the asteroid belt he opens the container to find the vial of super expensive, super rare Nutratope is missing. 

Back aboard the Ortega another murder takes place. Avon reasons out that the pilot wrote the killers name in blood. Initially everyone thought it was random numbers. Instead it was just sloppy handwriting. Something about dying in agony wrecks a mans penmanship. The killer is revealed to be Sara. She had arranged for a buyer for the Nutratope. The ship was sabotaged to keep it in one place long enough for the buyer to catch up. 

She barricades herself on the bridge but is fooled into coming out. The Liberator arrives just in time to save the day. Everyone, save for Sara, teleports off the Ortega as the approaching ship docks. And BOOM!! Blake has rigged a charge on the access hatch that goes off destroying both ships. Because screw those guys. The episode ends with Vila requesting they take the easy way around this time. 

Final Thoughts:

Overall a good episode. It's starting to find it's space legs. A little techno babble but not too much. A decent enough mystery. We see Blake showing a little compassion of his own. Avon and Cally get their first chance to work alone together and their banter is great. The characters that suffer are Jenna and Gan. They wind up stuck on the Liberator as usual. Something that eventually leads to Sally Knyvette and David Jackson leaving the show. I thoroughly enjoyed this rewatch. Next up is Duel. 

Rating: 4 out of 5

Memorable Quote:

Cally: My people have a saying: A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.

Avon: Life expectancy must be fairly short among your people.

Coffee of the Day:

More Community Coffee French Roast. I love dark roasts and I really enjoy Community Coffee especially since it's a Louisiana brand. It also mixes very well with almond milk and coconut sugar for my paleo friends.