GREEDY LITTLE PIGGY: THE STIMULUS REBATE; BATTLESTAR GALACTICA; I Want MY DTV: Part 2

GREEDY LITTLE PIGGY: THE STIMULUS REBATE

I thought we were getting $1200 dollars as MFJ tax filers, but it turns out we’re getting $600 due to our low tax liability in 2007 (thank you, tuition tax benefits and underemployment).

Wow! Six hundred semolians! What to spend it on? Here’s my wish list:

1. HD Radio

2. Big screen TV

3. Giant turtle tank

4. New bed

5. Travel

6. Retire some credit card debt.

Six it is.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

The hilarious appearance of the cast of BSG in costume earlier this year, doing the usually tiresome Top Ten List on Letterman: "Top Ten Reasons to Watch the New Season of 'Battlestar Galactica,'" made me realize I was missing something. I then started watching the last few episodes of season 3 and the beginning of the fourth and final season. Simultaneously I have been catching up via Netflix and Blockbuster from the beginning of the series, creating my own mega-flashback. One sign that it’s a great show--I know what’s going to happen in most cases but it doesn’t ruin anything, just like seeing Romeo and Juliet.

What makes BSG different from other SF shows is that good characters do terrible things, not because they are under the sway of an alien life form, but because humans and human-aspiring cybernetic beings (Cylons) who look just like us sometimes do terrible things. Some of the plots look like they were ripped from the headlines Law and Order style per the mid-years of this decade, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some self-examination of torture, rigged elections, abortion, the use of military force, religion, and the wisdom of listening to voices in your head without physical evidence is a good thing. “All will be revealed” the commercials tell us and I can’t wait. The idea of doing a prequel series after this one ends sounds like the worst idea since AfterMASH, but so did a reimagining of the original Battlestar Galactica.

I Want MY DTV: Part 2

I took my digital-to-analog converter box to my mother in Gravesend and my sister in Sheepshead Bay and while the report is better that the results in my building (see http://1onthetown.blogspot.com/2008/04/free-ebook-beautiful-children-by.html)

the reception was not perfect, even with roof antennas in Gravesend and Sheepshead. For example, while were able to get channels 11.1 and 11.2 in Gravesend, we could not receive either in Sheepshead. Gravesend received a blocky channel 2.1 but Sheepshead received 2.1 without incident.

They can make announcements and advertise and send notices in the mail but one thing is for sure: there will be a lot of people in February 2009 who will think their TVs are broken.