November 8, 2011: Today's Blog Entry? (What else?)

Alexander writes: "Hi Joe! In an earlier post I posted the question to you about your involvement with SGULIVESON and the SGU season 3 that has now been given airing dates on Justin.Tv. The claims have been made that yourself, MGM, and the SyFy channel are involved in this endeavor. Can you please tell me if you are involved in this and if there is any truth to this individual's fantastical claims?"

Answer: "Hi Joe! In an earlier post I posted the question to you about your involvement with SGULIVESON and the SGU season 3 that has now been given airing dates on Justin.Tv. The claims have been made that yourself, MGM, and the SyFy channel are involved in this endeavor. Can you please tell me if you are involved in this and if there is any truth to this individual's fantastical claims?"

Answer: Never heard of them and I'm quite certain that nobody who was involved in the actual Stargate franchise (producers, MGM, or SyFY) has heard of them either.  File this one under "bullshit".  Interestingly, their website not only claims that I'm a consultant and co-writer on their little playhouse production, but Paul Mullie as well.  Heh.  Right.  The day my writing partner takes time off from his family to write fan fiction is the day I trade in my suits for tie-dye t-shirts and the vegan lifestyle.  Hopefully, these guys are more convincing writers than they are liars.

Anyway, thought I'd kick off today's entry by answering that question and putting the matter to rest.

So, Akemi was in the mood to watch a movie last night and, among the DVD's we rustled out of the library was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, one of my favorite movies!  At first she was a little leery watching a forty year old movie, but that initial skepticism quickly faded and, in no time, she was singing along in her broken English, enjoying it immensely.  Enjoying it so much, in fact, that she also ended up watching the 2005 version starring Johnny Depp as Michael Jackson Willy Wonka.  "Why can't I remember any of the songs from the new movie?"she wondered aloud. "Probably because the songs from the first movie were good,"was, I thought, the obvious answer.  She's had her laptop cued up, replaying the Pure Imagination sequence all day.  I ended up buying her the album on iTunes.

Emboldened by my success, I'm considering introducing her to some of my other all-time old favorites: A Christmas Story, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and, of course, Reservoir Dogs.

In the news…

Middle school football coach relives his glory days by proving even the most committed 13 year old player can't take him down: http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Coach-breaks-13-year-old-8217-s-collarbone-with?urn=highschool-wp8230. Kind of reminds me of one of my old high school gym teachers who would always assume the quarterback position whenever the class played football.  I remember one game, breaking free of the kid covering me and running up the middle of the field – only to have the pass clang off my stone hands, incomplete.  My teacher's response: "Nice catch, Ramesh!"  A double zinger, not only zinging me but my buddy Ramesh who'd had nothing to do with the play.

Ah, high school.  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of Dungeons and Dragons, it was the age of between 13 to 17, it was the epoch of disco, it was the epoch of Adam and the Ants, it was the season of (You) Light (Up My Life), it was the season of Dark (Side of the Moon)ness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had home computers and The Simpsons before us, we had mood rings and Tony Orlando and Dawn behind us, we were all going direct to the Book Market for deals on X-Men comics, we were all going direct the other way (home to watch Gilligan's Island) - in short, the period was so far unlike the present period, that some of its nosiest authorities insist on its being reviled, for good and for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

So, what was high school like for you guys?  Inspiring highlights?  Crushing lowlights?  Do tell!

Today's entry is dedicated to blog reader Sparrow_hawk!