Stupid ER. We’re watching the episode from Thursday. This stupid show just took another jab at the war in Iraq.

One of the doctors married another doctor, who just left for a second tour in Iraq (Galant). She went to a gathering for spouses whose significant other is off at war. They were all talking about how hard it is being a military spouse, when the ER doctor decided to speak up against the war, and how she doesn’t support it. ER has taken a number of shots at the war in past episodes, but it always drives me crazy how stupid their arguments are.

ER Doctor: "I haven’t seen any weapons of mass destruction, have you?"
Everyone else: "Uhh, err, but we have to support them…uhhh."

Instead of being mindless idiots like the writers wanted them to be, why didn’t they talk about this, or this?

Stupid freaking ER. I want them to know that I record their show, and always skip through the commercials.

Tonight we went to see the movie "V for Vendetta" with Natalie Portman. We wanted to go out for dinner and a movie, and with a lack of decent movies to see, this junk sounded the best. Now let me clarify why I call it "junk."

The premise of the movie is that 20 or so years in the future London is ruled by a dictator and freedom is almost non-existent. Dictators, oppression, that’s fine by me, it’s happened in the past, and it could happen again. What’s so freakin’ annoying is how he came to power though. America’s "war" is the only real cause given. By war they mean the war on terror, and that this has eventually led to a society with nightly curfews, heavy surveillance, and few freedoms. The "former United States" is now in civil war, for no obvious reason.

Now I understood that much going into the movie from what I read in reviews, so maybe I’m an idiot for seeing it anyways. There were several things I hadn’t read though that just cemented in my mind that Hollywood hates Christians and Conservatives. In case you want to see this trash, stop reading now.

Early on in the movie there is a Bishop that Natalie Portman and the Terrorist, V, setup to kill. The reason? None given, just that he was at some facility that held V. The setup? Apparently the Bishop has a thing for young girls, so Natalie Portman in a skimpy dress will do the trick. Of course he’s violent and repulsive like most Christians. Strike one.

Then there is a minor sub-plot given through a letter Natalie Portman finds. It’s about a woman who was arrested and imprisoned because she was a homosexual. She recounts "And then they came for us" as two men lying in bed are rushed and arrested. Makes perfect sense that America’s "war" would lead to homosexuals being arrested and killed. Strike two.

One of the "revolutionary" characters has a forbidden copy of the Koran in his basement. It was found during a raid and he was executed we find out later on. There is clear sympathy towards the now forbidden Koran. So the Christian is a disgusting pedophile, but the poor Muslims had their book outlawed. Strike three.

Why does Hollywood treat us like we’re idiots? Liberals want to complain about our civil liberties being taken away, but I challenge any of them to give an actual example of how that has happened.  Name one aspect of your life where you have lost a freedom? They won’t be able to, because they have not lost anything. The movie assumes that if our current course continues the eventual result will be a police state with zero freedom. When people fly planes into our buildings, refuse UN mandates, and pursue nuclear weapons while shouting death to Israel, I believe we are fighting for our freedom, not leading to its destruction.

Save your money.

Back in October I made a post about the current shows I was watching and reviewed them. Now that we’re about half-way through the season, I thought an update on those shows was in order. In order of airing from Monday-Sunday.

Mondays

Prison Break – Off the air since December I believe, the show returns this coming Monday before 24. This is by far my favorite new show of the year. Every episode leaves you wanting more, and I can’t wait to watch it again. The last episode that aired left the entire escape in jeopardy, so it should be interesting to see what happens.

Super Nanny (new) – I try and tape this show whenever it’s on. It’s really interesting to see Jo come into an out of control house and lay down some discipline! It sort of makes you afraid to have children, but I think this show should be mandated to all crappy parents.

Two and a Half-Men (new) – While adult oriented, this show is hilarious. Very witty and funny. The show is interesting because none of the characters are very redeeming, but they’re all fun to watch.

Tuesdays

Gilmore Girls – My review in October was very negative. Beginning of the season we had Lorelai and Rory not talking, and it was all very annoying. Thankfully they are talking again, and that has helped a lot. There are still some annoying plot twists that seem forced. Luke has a kid that magically showed up after 12 years or whatever, and that has thrown a wrench in the wedding plans. Rory and Logan don’t know what they’re doing, and that’s getting old. I still enjoy the show, but things are a little tiresome. Improved, but not up to par.

The Unit (new) – I’ve only watched one episode of this show, so I almost didn’t put it on the list. I really enjoyed the action parts of the show, but the military wives back at the base were annoying. I guess I’m supposed to care more about the soldiers knowing they have a wife and kids at home, but I don’t, they’re just bad actors. I’ll watch another episode before I decide to watch this regularly or not.

Wednesdays

One Tree Hill (new, sort of) – This wasn’t on my last list, but I’ve watched it since day one. I tend to tape this show and watch several at once instead of watching it every week. All the kids on the show are seniors in High School, and I still really like the story lines. Lots of good music, and it lets me relive that teen-angst of being in High School.

Lost – Still a very good show, but there are too many characters. My advice? Kill a few. Charlie is annoying, and the writers have basically given him zero credibility. Then there is Sawyer who basically threatens everyone at gunpoint, and he’s hardly been on the last couple episodes. Jack is no longer the fearless leader, but more like a pain in the butt. Nobody really looks up to him, they just have to look for ways to evade him. Even with all that complaining, it’s still a great show and I’ll tune in every week. Due the viewers a favor though and kill some characters. It’s always exciting, and you’ve got too many.

CSI: NY (new) – I tape this show every week, and then I watch two or three in a row while I lesson plan. The characters on this version are all really cool, and much better than Miami.

Thursdays

Survivor – New season is on, and Exile Island has added a very cool twist. Lots of the contestants are annoying (Shane, Courtney) but hopefully a good person wins. I think I’m rooting for Terry.

Smallville – Good show that, like One Tree Hill, I tape every week and watch when I get a chance. Clark still can’t fly, but there have been some cool episodes. Oh, and his Dad died…and I think he is really dead. I figured it was a trick, and he’d somehow come back to life…but it’s been several episodes since he was last on. I got money saying he’s brought back to life in the season finale/next season opener.

My Name is Earl (new) – I started watching this show after my last post along with the Office. At first it was just so-so, but it’s really grown on me. At first it was just Randy repeating the same thing 5 different ways, and it got old. But it’s gotten more witty as the season has gone on. It’s only a half-hour, so a good filler show when needed.

The Office (new) – The single funniest show on television. Random and off the wall, I love this show. Whether it’s Michael trying to talk to his boss about their "relationship" or Dwight giving a speech like a dictator, this show rules.

ER – Yawn. We’ve watched a couple episodes of House (it’s been on break) and I like it better than ER.

Fridays

Reba (new) – We usually tape Reba and watch it when we need a short show. It’s a good sitcom that sometimes mixes in good values. Funny characters, and it reminds me of good old TGIF days.

Sundays

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (new) – We don’t catch this one every week, but very often. It’s usally good lesson planning company. How cool is that the producers have found a way to make money helping people?

There is my midseason review. Anyone agree or disagree with me on any show? I did a little Lost bashing, anyone willing to echo that?

Update: I totally forgot about My Name is Earl and The Office on Thursdays. Two very funny shows.

I was bored here in my student teaching seminar, and I was very curious looking at the gmail storage calculator. It increases at an unbelievably slow rate, out to the 6th or 7th decimal place. I wanted to figure out just how much it is really increasing.

I did a simple experiment. I measured how long it took for the counter to increase .0001 megabytes, which was 26 seconds. I then found the number of seconds required for 1 megabyte: 260,000. Translated into hours, that is 72.2 hours. Into days that is almost 3 exactly. That’s right, storage is increasing at the startling rate of 1 mb per 3 days. That seems super wimpy. I then found the percent increase over an entire year and it came out to a 5% increase, which is a little more respectable sounding.

I’m a nerdy math teacher now, so I do dorky math problems for fun! Any problems with my experiment Denise? I’m making the assumption that the rate of increase is perfectly constant, which it may not be. The number of subscribers also must factor into Google’s equation at some point. I do think it’s interesting that it comes out to a 5% per year increase…sounds like a company policy. Maybe that boils down to Joe Blow installing a new terabyte blah blah blah server every month. I’ll let Angelo tackle that one.

The USA beat Japan, woot. I am going to cheer on my good friend Hee-Seop Choi in a couple hours.

I should be lesson planning so I have something to teach tomorrow.

My sister and Paul came by and brought Boo a dog treat, and she really likes it.

I read the first 4-5 chapters of the book of Acts this morning. I had a really funny idea for a comedy sketch. When they are replacing Judas, they actually consider two guys for his place, Barsabas and Matthias. They cast lots and end up choosing Matthias. I was thinking, wouldn’t it make a great Monty Python sketch to follow the life of the "almost replacement 12th disciple," Barsabas?

Baseball season is starting, and I will only be able to watch about 1 game a week on television because we don’t have sattelite or cable. I could get Dish Network’s $20 family pack, and add Fox Sports for $6, which is pretty cheap. It would be really cool to have ESPN HD and Discovery HD too though, but then we’re talking closer to $60, which I’m not sure I can justify. Or should I only be watching 1 game of Dodger baseball a week anyways?

Ok, gotta leave for the game in an hour, better plan some lessons.

I am officially going to see Korea VS Mexico in round 2 of the World Baseball Classic at Angel Stadium. Even though the USA totally ripped on South Africa today 17-0, Mexico still had a better runs allowed than the USA. I’ll probably be cheering for Korea, because they have Chan Ho Park of course. As I look at the rosters for Mexico, they’ve got a bunch of old washed up players. Benji Gil? He last played major league ball in 2003.

The other reason I’ll be cheering for Korea: they don’t actively encourage their citizens to illegally cross our border to ruin our emergency medical and public education systems. Look at that, baseball and right wing politics in one statement!

I bet you thought this post would be about the great industrial complex and oil and how it runs our lives and how we can’t live without oil and President Bush is evil. But you’re wrong, it’s not.

A buddy at work and myself bought tickets to Sunday night’s World Baseball Classic game at Angel Stadium. This was at about noon today when we thought the USA team would win their pool and play Korea in the 2nd round. Unfortunately about 4 hours later the USA team lost to Canada. Now our chances of seeing the USA team beat on Hee-Seop Choi seem much less likely. Canada has to lose to Mexico, the USA has to beat South Africa, and then it comes down to runs allowed or something. Luckily Canada let South Africa score a bunch of runs, so if they do end up with the same record as the USA, we should have the edge. On Thursday I will be rooting for Mexico.

That was the Canada part…but you’re still thinking "what about the oil?" When I got home from work there was a small amount of steam emanating from beneath the hood. While I thought "crap, not good" I opened the hood to take a look. The radiator took a lot of water, and the dipstick read "zilch." I then went and bought a big 12 case of 10w-30, of which my car drank 5 quarts. Is that normal? 5 quarts? I bet I could put another one in, but I was starting to wonder…can you put in too much oil? All you oil experts, please lend me your advice.

Hopefully my car doesn’t blow up tomorrow.

I don’t have anything of note to post about, and I don’t feel like posting about anything political. The recent rain has put me in relax mode, so I think it’s a good time to reflect.

I looked back at my posts from March of last year. I had just taken my first CSET test, was planning the honeymoon, and we went into escrow on our place. It’s amazing how much your life can change in the course of a year. Events that seem so far away sneak up on you when you aren’t looking. Living in the present is something I think a lot of people, including myself, struggle with. While looking forward to the future is not bad, I do think it’s easy to let the future overshadow the present. To see our lives in terms of major events can often reduce the value of the present. Whether it’s finishing school, passing a test, getting married, moving out, or getting a job, I think it’s important to stop and enjoy your time leading up to those events. When we focus completely on a future event, sometimes the present becomes taxing, and just another "task" to survive.

I rarely get philosophical here on the blarg, but maybe it will inspire you enough to enjoy a Tuesday. I know I’m enjoying mine.