New Article and Bertie's Check Up

Hell, I thought I was going to write something, but now I'm done.  Just finished an article and I'm done being in front of the computer for now.

Fringe-Nearing the Season's End

I have been enjoying this season of Fringe, possibly more than any other season thus far, and have not taken issue with some of the diversions that have spurred complaints from others.  That said, I made a comment at the end of the episode that led into the two-part finale about how I'm afraid I may not be able to watch season 4.  This would be a hard threat on which to follow through, but the similarities that are mounting between Fringe and the other, most recent, sci-fi show to earn my love and betray it so callously at the end are becoming more difficult to ignore. 

I made another comment at the conclusion of part one of the season finale, after learning that entering the machine catapulted Peter 15 years into the future, that I hope the only good thing about next week is not the introduction of another credit sequence.  As it stands, Walter having a crisis of faith was understandable, though I would have no problem abandoning the show if they made such a brilliant scientist discard all of his experience and knowledge for a favor from God regarding the fate of his son.  That did not happen this week, thankfully, but instead I get a strong fear, not that these characters that I have grown to care for are actually in danger, but that the narrative arc is about to diverge so far from what has been established thus far and try to incorporate time-travel into the mix, almost as if to cover that last sci-fi stone they have yet to turn.

I'm not against time-travel as a narrative tool.  I think Lost did a great job with the concept up until the last three or four episodes of the series.  Part of what made Lost feel like such a let-down was that many people guessed that the island was some sort of purgatory by the end of season 1, and the writers insisted that was not the case.  The finale was then a tremendous failure when that turned out to be the case.  The ride was fun getting there, but it was easy to feel cheated by a show that encouraged fan participation and theorizing to have a card that was folded show up on the river, so to speak. 

Fringe did not lend itself to theories as readily as Lost, partially because Fringe took much longer to establish the rules of the universe.  All the talk of "the pattern" in the first season is now a distant memory, but the strength of character development and the introduction of Earth-2 prevent me from caring about that.   Maybe I'm just a cynic, but I don't want some happy ending nonsense from a show that has no business trafficking in happy endings.  It would be artificial for this show to go out with a "love conquers all" message, ,and would sully the rest of the show the way that the finale of Lost did for that show.  This may be why books will always be a superior medium for storytelling, because as far as I can tell, TV (in general, specifically networks) are too afraid to conclude any story without a happy resolution. 

Head Injury and New Article

I was picking Bertie up on Monday to put an end to his complaining that "Mom" was cooking dinner.  In an attempt to coax a laugh or two out of him, I went for his chubby little belly with a raspberry in mind and was met with resistance, which made me whip my head back, right into the corner of the wall in our living room.

The pain was more jarring than severe, and after a few minutes I had all but forgotten that it had happened. A few hours later I started to get a headache, but having forgotten the incident, did not connect the dots.  After another hour or two I decided that I should take a pain reliever for the escalating headache, but after another hour without results and encroaching nausea, figured I should just try to sleep it off.  The brain started working as I lay in bed and a creeping feeling of numbness in my extremities started to worry me.  I checked the internet and convinced myself that I had sufficient cause to worry about any sort of freak internal bleeding, mostly because I had hit my head on the corner, creating a focused blow.  Being at the ER for 4 hours and a CT scan later, I was told that I was clear, but that I should beware and symptoms that seem like drunkeness as those would be an indication that I had taken a turn for the worse.  Well, the headache lingered for most of the next day, but I feel much better today.

Which is Bertie's first birthday!

And I also posted the another entry in my summer games preview here.

Game of Thrones

Right up front; I have not read the books on which the series is based.  That said, I love the show and I am slightly bummed by the fact that I am watching in unfold on HBO instead of DVD.  Waiting between episodes sucks, but I think I'll have the books soon and have them all read before the second season drops.  I am also going to force myself to wait until the first season concludes before I dive in.  I have some Vonnegut to finish off in the meantime.

A plan

I'm writing again, which feels good, except the madness of trying to write in the corner of a room that usually has two children under 4 years old in it. That is why I am looking for a way to justify the expense of a laptop so I can take my thoughts elsewhere and get away from the kind of yelling that is only heard from a one year old and a antagonistic older brother.

My intention is to put the work up on a blog (maybe here) as I write it as an incentive to finish it, and also as a kind of experiment to see if I can make it viral. At any rate, I will certainly post more here about it whenever I figure out exactly what I'm doing.

And, while you are here on the internet, why not check out the other stuff I'm writing here.

Reading old posts.

Wow! I planted my seed shortly after my last post (prior to my post just moment ago) and that seed will be a year old in five days. I guess a lot has happened since I was last here. I won't re-cap all of it, because that would take a ridiculous amount of time, but needless to say, I'll be better about posting my rants here from now on.

Been a long while!

After forgetting about this for some time, I was reminded that I could use something like this as a way to keep the wheels churning. I don't know what else I should say at this time, except that I think I'll be back here regularly. Cheers!