Category Archives: Geek

Fear The Walking Dead Season 2 Mid-Season Finale

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So the mid-season finale of Fear The Walking Dead Season Two was last night.

And I don’t care.

I mean, I watched it. There wasn’t much anticipation on my part, I totally admit. I completely forgot that it was mid-season finale night until about 7:45 so I missed any FTWD  marathon fun that AMC may have run yesterday. Again, I didn’t much care.

But why not? Well, maybe it’s because the Spanish language dialog has continued to increase over the episodes, resulting in more caption text on the television screen for the English speaking crowd. Now, on Sunday nights I get all comfy on the couch, cuddled up with blankies and the cat sometimes, and see, the TV is way over there against the far wall. Normaly I can see everything just fine, but those itsy bitsy teeny weeny captions on the screen are beyond the power of my glasses. If I sit up and shift over to the right side of the couch, I can read them. Laying down in my happy zombie night position, I cannot. And honestly, I have not cared enough to shift my viewing position in order to read the Spanish dialog translated to English in minuscule lettering on my television screen.

I get it. Daniel is from South America, they are now in Mexico, there is a major Latin influence going on in the story arch. But there is atmosphere to flavor a story and then there is overkill. Fear The Walking Dead isn’t a telenovela so in my opinion all this Spanish/English subtitles stuff is overkill. Yes, I knew what a telenovela was ages ago thanks to Jeff Lewis’s housekeeper aka second mom Zoila on Bravo’s Flipping Out. Even Zoila spoke mostly English so I never had to shift my position on the couch to understand the gist of the story. With Fear The Walking Dead, lately I have taken to just laying there, not understanding what the characters are saying for huge chunks of an episode, not really giving a damn.

But I think the real reason why I didn’t care that much about FTWD’s mid-season finale last night is why I haven’t had much enthusiasm for season two as a whole – and I shared this with a friend the other day – I am still just plum pissed off about the Season Six Finale of The Walking Dead. Still haven’t got over the “who did Negan kill” pushing me off the cliff and having to hang there suspended for six months thing. Every Sunday night since then I have cuddled up with the cat to watch Fear The Walking Dead but I have felt cold and dead inside, seething a little in a it’s just a tv show but I’m still angry sort of way.

So between subtitles and lingering TWD fan anger, FTWD has not been enjoyable this time around. And that sucks. Cause normally I love, I treasure, my Sunday night zombies.

 

Who Did Negan Kill? TWD Season 6 Finale

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I had a strong reaction to the season six finale of The Walking Dead. I felt the terror, the uncertainty of what was going to happen, then the absolute certainty that someone was going to die. I felt it all day, watching the Walking Dead marathon. Someone was going to die and for the first time since AMC originally aired this zombie apocalypse series in 2010, I felt dread instead of excitement as the hours counted down to the final episode of season 6. Of course people die but this time, I knew it was coming and it was going to be really, really bad. I kinda didn’t want to see it happen. But of course I watched. Duh.

And as I watched Negan smash someone’s brains out, fading into black with only faint, gruesome sounds in the background and then the credits rolled, I shook a little then both middle fingers flew up at the tv screen and I yelled “F you F you F you F you! EFFF YOU. F you F you… oh F you!” until The Talking Dead come on.

There was no one watching with me except the cat so it wasn’t for any audience of my own. It was a gut reaction, raw emotion bubbling up from my core. F YOU. F you for leaving me like that, still not knowing. F you.

I get that the writers and producers of the show wanted to leave us not knowing who Negan beat to a bloody pulp so we would have the same horror in our heads as the characters who had to shut up and watch it. The audience is supposed to be feeling the same terrible emotion knowing that everything we knew just changed. I get it. But I don’t like it one bit. Not one tiny bit.

I woke up Monday morning, kissed the cat and then said out loud “F you” a couple of times then made coffee. I thought back to the previous five seasons and the final scene. Sometimes we’ve had cliff hangers, pretty big ones, but nothing so awful as knowing someone just died a horrific death but nobody knows who it was.

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The X-Files 2016 Episode 1 Review

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Thank you on demand cable – today I caught up on the two part premiere of the brand new X-Files Season 10. And may I say I was pleasantly surprised that The X-Files reboot delivered everything I wanted.

Let me backtrack a bit. Back when the X-Files premiered in 1993, it quickly became my favorite TV show ever. I have always been a sci-fi paranormal weird stuff geek. My mom took me to see Chariots Of The Gods when it was first released in theaters, although I was so very young at the time that I do not recall if I asked to see it or if she just took me cause SHE wanted to watch it. I know I had a copy of the book purchased at a rummage sale at school that I treasured. Later, In Search Of with Leonard Nimoy was my favorite thing on television. Yep, I was I was a nerd.

Thanks to a million channels on cable these days, I have my fill of geektacular shows like Ancient Aliens, Hanger One brought to you by MUFON, Finding Bigfoot, Monster Quest, UFO Files and various other programs featuring cryptic creatures, little green men and enough paranormal fodder to please and delight my inner child several times a week. But I digress.

Back to the original X-Files. Every episode was an event, every new season a celebration. When it aired on Friday nights, my geek friends and I planned our nights around Mulder and Scully; watch the new episode then out to the club to drink, dance and discuss in great detail just how awesome tonight’s episode was. The monsters and freaks are as fresh in my mind as if it was yesterday… Fluke Boy, Dark Matter, Eve 6, that old man with the dog, the circus episode… and The Lone Gunmen! Gawd, they were the best geek trio in all history of history. We had no on demand or dvr back then. We taped the shows on VCRs so we could watch the latest ep again and hit the rewind button. And we liked it.

But then, in the last couple of seasons, the shippers won. Fox and Dana, kissing and being all romantic; the mythology part of the series weaved it’s way into romance and for me, the X-Files lost it’s luster. It was quite distressing, feeling that distance growing between my favorite show and me. I felt an actual loss when I decided to stop watching. No more VCR, no more discussions with my friends. I was genuinely sad.

But wait. Fast forward that old VCR to today. As Season Ten Episode One began, Chris Carter made a brilliant decision… the music was the same, and the opening credits were identical, right down to the fonts on the screen. A part of me was transported back to the 1990’s and I smiled. It’s true, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully have aged a bit – haven’t we all – but they looked good. As the episode progressed, I felt like I was catching up with old friends, the kind of friends that you drifted apart from not because of anything bad but just because your interests changed. But it didn’t matter anymore, you were hanging out again and it was just fun.

The references to Mulder and Scully’s romantic past and child together were a bit of a broken eye roll for me, being that the Shipper stuff is why I drifted away back then. Oh well, whatever. It was fun seeing Walter Skinner (who hasn’t aged a bit) and The Smoking Man, and I enjoyed the up to the minute social references like Mulder showing up in an Uber car and that You-tube guy and his conspiracy theories about the government. When they touched on how different today’s world was now because of 9/11 I got a bit of a lump in my throat. That day affected me deeply. I threw away all of my VCR tapes, including the X-File copies, long ago, but somewhere upstairs I still have a tape of the short lived spin off Lone Gunmen show episode in March 2001 where they thwart a plot to fly a plane into the World Trade Center. Six months later 9/11 happened and I used that Lone Gunmen tape to record some of that day. I don’t even have a VCR anymore but still I keep that tape, with that episode and what happened after.

Anyway, so far I find The X-Files 2016 to be a refreshing and successful reunion with a television show that brought me such pleasure back in the day. I’m hoping the numbers are good enough that we might get more than just the initial six episodes. While clicking around to get to it today, the on demand channel was broadcasting sneak peeks of the upcoming season and for people like me, apparently there will be stand alone episodes with “monsters” and a funny episode, sprinkled in with the mythology. I’m good with that. No, The X-Files Season 10 is not a shiny new toy like Season 1 was. This is a comfortable old sweater, a favorite book you’ve read a million times, that familiar meal you order in the restaurant. Not everything needs to be shiny and new all the time, and if handled well, that old sweater can be just as nice as a new version. This new X-Files feels like coming home.

Happy Shark Week

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I can’t believe Shark Week is almost over! It all started on Sunday, July 5th and Discovery Chanel’s 2015 Findependence has been a wild ride. My favorite new offerings so far have been Super Predator (poor little Alpha One getting chased and eaten like that), Bride Of Jaws – Joan Of Shark is the best shark name EVER – and Alien Sharks: Close Encounters. Paul Clerkin loves his spooky fish!

Still to come is Sharksantity 2 tonite at 9 pm, the continued marathon all day tomorrow, and the last new shark adventure Shark Island premiering at 8pm Sunday night, July 12th.

I still remember watching the very first Shark Week back in 1988. My boyfriend at the time called and said “I’m coming over, Shark Week starts tonight”. I sounded just like that dude in Jaws when Richard Dreyfuss says “it’s a tiger shark” and the guy says “It’s a what???” And I’ve been watching it every year ever since.

#sharkweek truly is The Most Wonderful Week Of The Year!

Orion Test Flight Successful – We Are Going To Mars!

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If you are a space geek like me, you were glued to the NASA channel this morning and witnessed the successful maiden test flight of Orion after yesterday’s scrub. She splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 11:29 am Eastern Time today, December 5, 2014 and as I watched the live video feed showing the capsule bobbing passively atop the waves, it hit me – we really are going to send people to Mars!

Orion Lift Off December 5, 2014

Photograph of Orion Lift Off Courtesy Of NASA

As an avid reader of sci-fi since I was knee high to the proverbial grasshopper, I have never had a doubt that one day mankind would really venture into space, past the Moon, one day to Mars, then perhaps to Jupiter’s moon Europa and eventually beyond, traveling to new solar systems and galaxies. I feel blessed this morning that this space adventure is happening during my lifetime. Have you ever had shivers of joy at the mere thought of something so grand and promising? I have, and today I am smiling because I am in the front row to watch something I always knew would happen someday. This test flight of Orion, America’s new spacecraft, has opened the door to wondrous things.

Vikki

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Do Indian Cave Paintings Show Ancient Aliens?

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Do Indian Cave Paintings Show Prehistoric Alien Abductions?
July 18, 2014 mysteriousuniverse.org

It’s a story made for a Bollywood sci-fi musical starring Will Smith as an dancing alien fighter. An archeologist in India claims that 10,000-year-old cave paintings are depictions of UFO landings, alien visits and possible prehistoric alien abductions and has asked NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) for research assistance.

The paintings are in caves near the town of Charama in Chhattisgarh, a state in central India known for its cave artworks. Most of them are the usual drawings of humans, animals and everyday life in 8,000 BCE. Some of the animals are odd – kangaroos and giraffes not native to India and fish that are part human, or vice versa.

According to the Times of India, archaeologist JR Bhagat recently found new paintings of even stranger creatures. Here’s his description:

The paintings are done in natural colors that have hardly faded despite the years. The strangely carved figures are seen holding weapon-like objects and do not have clear features. Specially, the nose and mouth are missing. In few pictures, they are even shown wearing space suits.

Read the full story at http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/07/do-indian-cave-paintings-show-prehistoric-alien-abductions/
Courtesy Mysterious Universe

Bigfoot Parade August 30, 2014

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Bigfoot Days
August 30, 2014
Humboldt County, California

Humboldt’s hairy hominid returns for a festive homecoming to the town where his legend began in the town where the famous Bigfoot footage was filmed in 1967

Parade on Saturday – Main Street – begins 10am

This event includes food & craft booths, oyster feed, deep pit BBQ, logging contests, a petting zoo, kids bike race, lawn mower race, disc golf tourney and big ice cream social with homemade pies, cakes and cobblers at the town museum, which houses the world’s largest collection of Bigfoot curios.

The hominid happening will offer plenty of live music

Bigfoot often escapes to the nearby mountains, especially around Willow Creek, which is where the first so-called Bigfoot was encountered in 1958, and where the famous Patterson-Gimlin footage of a walking Bigfoot was filmed in 1967. Today Willow Creek is home to the largest Bigfoot museum and the largest annual celebration honoring the big fellow, Bigoot Days over Labor Day weekend.

© 2014 Official website of the Humboldt County Convention & Visitors Bureau

Buckle Street Crop Circle May 26, 2014 United Kingdom

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Buckle Street, nr Pedworth, Worcestershire, United Kingdom. Reported 26th May.

During our walk yesterday we spotted what looked like a crop circle, a few miles south of Bidford on Avon in Worcestershire. It was in a field of barley south of Bidford Gliding Club on Buckle Street. Four gliders were circling above it at the time. I have not been into it but it looked like more than wind damage. I have sent you two pictures.

Alice Welsby

Report and photographs courtesy www.cropcircleconnector.com

The Europa Clipper

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Europa Clipper: Water Geysers On Jupiter Moon May Boost Support For Life-Hunting Mission
Space.com | By Mike Wall
Posted: 12/16/2013 9:09 am EST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
SAN FRANCISCO — The apparent discovery of water geysers on Jupiter’s moon Europa makes the icy body an even more attractive target for a life-hunting mission, researchers say.

Scientists announced Thursday (Dec. 12) that they had detected transient plumes of water vapor erupting from Europa’s south pole and extending about 125 miles (200 kilometers) into space. The ice-covered moon is thought to contain a subsurface ocean of liquid water, and the geysers represent a way to sample this potentially life-supporting environment, NASA officials said.

“Indeed, the plumes are incredibly exciting, if they are there,” Jim Green, head of NASA’s planetary science division, said here Thursday at the at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. “They’re bringing up material from within the ocean; perhaps there’s organic material that will be laying on the surface of the south pole.” [Photos: Europa, Mysterious Icy Moon of Jupiter]

The new find, made using observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, could build some momentum for a mission concept the space agency is developing called the Europa Clipper.

The Europa Clipper probe would orbit Jupiter but make multiple flybys of the 1,900-mile-wide (3,000 kilometers) moon, using a number of different science instruments to study Europa’s ice shell and subsurface ocean. The strategy would be similar to that employed by NASA’s Cassini mission, which has made flybys of many Saturn moons since entering into orbit around the ringed planet in 2004.

“What we have been doing is studying several approaches to really understand Europa from a spacecraft in that environment, and it looks like the Clipper concept is our best one,” Green said. Continue reading →

2013: A Big Year For Bigfoot

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2013: A Big Year For Bigfoot
By Lee Speigel | The Huffingtonpost
Posted: 12/27/2013 8:17 am EST

It’s known by many names: Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti, Abominable Snowman, to name a few. And it reportedly lives in extremely remote areas of North America and other countries. But just because a countless numbers of people say they’ve seen the great hairy beast doesn’t mean it’s real.

The Bigfoot controversy reared its head (or feet) many times in 2013. The debate surrounding alleged Bigfoot DNA continued from 2012; numerous videos and still images emerged of reported Bigfoots (or is that Bigfeet? We’ve never really figured that out.); a Texas press conference presented a group of Bigfoot researchers who claimed to show real, never-before-seen high quality videos of the legendary tall, hairy creature; there was also a series of “clear” photos showing two Bigfoot in Pennsylvania.

HuffPost even sent intrepid reporter Andy Campbell overnight into a remote area of New Jersey where he joined members of Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot” TV series, hunting their quarry in The Garden State.

And as 2014 begins, Bigfoot gets off with a running start. On Jan. 10, “10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty” premieres on Spike TV. Over the course of eight weeks, nine teams of two people each will be unleashed into the Pacific Northwest to attempt to find irrefutable evidence of the existence of Bigfoot — as they all compete for a $10 million prize. Hosting the new series and keeping track of the Bigfoot trackers is former television Superman Dean Cain. The woods will never be the same again.

Here’s our look back at the year in Bigfoot…
To see the photos and stories of Bigfoot 2013 in review go to www.huffingtonpost.com

Bigfoot In A Bigfoot