Fear and Trembling: Entertainment

A quick Battlestar Galactica theory update

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 02:47:28 GMT

I am now watching the Republican CNN/YouTube debate and during the commercials I want to make an update to THIS THEORY about the end of Battlestar Galactica this season. I also think it is appropriate considering the last post and the fact that Battlestar is rife with Mormon theology. I am holding strong to the post that I wrote back in May and this latest made for TV movie (Razor) supports my theory.

In the final moments Razor, we see the Colonials attacking a Cylon Base that was protected by older style Cylon raiders and Cylon Centurions. In that base was a Cylon hybrid that spoke to one of the Colonial officers. This hybrid warned the officer not to trust Starbuck because she was going to lead the fleet into destruction. This is in direct reference to the last episode of last season when Starbuck showed up claiming to have been to Earth after her apparent destruction. So here is what it all means...

1. The older style Cylons have obviously been separated from the rest of the Cylons

2. This difference between the New and Old Cylons must come from dramatic event that sent the new Cylons on a different path of development and left behind this other group.

3. The dramatic event is the contact that was made between the "Earth Cylons" the Colonial Cylons (SEE PREVIOUS POST)

4. Starbuck is being used by the "Earth Cylons" (although she does not know it), the Final Five are tools of the "Earth Cylons"

Strangely, I get more Google hits on Fear and Trembling from my Battlestar Galactica post than any other single topic! This does not mean that I am going to make this ALL BSG ALL THE TIME, but maybe the Sci-Fi fans of the world will come to this site and find more than they expected!

I will be posting about the debates tomorrow after I have time to digest what has gone on this evening.

Dogfights on the History Channel: These guys are absolute studs!

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 16:50:51 GMT

On Saturday nights I have been watching Dogfights on the History Channel. Normally I bemoan the fact the History channel should rather be called the WWII channel since almost all of its programing seems to focus on WWII ( I am sure that it has to do with fact that there is a lot more film footage of Patton's campaign across Germany than Napoleans.) But this new show takes eyewitness accounts of U.S. Pilots and recreates the battles in computer animation and it is realy great to watch. What is better than the animation is the stories of men who do incredible feats of bravery. For example, last nights episode was on the Flying Tigers and how a guy in a P-40 with his wingman flies straight into a 19 Japanese Oscars! Or the 22 year old P-38 pilot who drops tanks and engages, with his wingman, 50 ME-109's over Germany.

It is also interesting to see how different countries have different philospohies about aircraft construction and stick with those methods despite the loses that they take in the air. For example, the Japanese planes were all built light, fast and manueveurable, but at the sake of being armor protected or having heavy guns. U.S. planes, however, were built like flying tanks, by comparsion, and could take a real pounding and keep flying. In the early 60's the United States decided that "dogfighting" was dead and that all fights were going to be fought with stand-off and close range air to air missles. When Vietnam broke out, the F4 phantoms did not even have guns and, from watching the show most of the air to air sparrows and sidewinders did not hit or even work. They did overcome this false assumption and added a gun to later models.

This show also reminds me of all the fighter planes that my father build when I was a kid. The models hung from my ceiling over my bed and by the time I was 9 I could identify practically every U.S. warplane from 1940 to present. The first thing that I wanted to do "when I grew up" was to be a fighter pilot. That fact that I am blind as bat put the nix on that.

The Summer of the Drive-in

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 23:15:53 GMT

About 40 minutes north of Champaign there is a 2 screen drive-in that the family has been to 3 times this year. Last week we saw Monster House (a good film), but the film is only part of the fun. The atmosphere is friendly, there are tons of kids for K and Kaiser to play with, Tracy can nurse in the back of Ford, and I can drink tons of coffee while I watch a movie (why don't they have coffee in movie theatres?) It cost us 20 dollars to get in, we bring a picnic dinner and I flip the kids a few bucks to buy some cotton candy during the intermission. All in all a pretty cheap night for a family our size. One of my first memories is watching "Convoy" from the back of our 1974 Ford Country Squire with imitation wood grain sides. Good times.