Food, Flood, Flash, Multicolored Things, Zodiac, Twin Peaks, and the Future of the Internet

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Well, it seems like the FCC has decided it’s just going to go ahead and ignore what more knowledgeable people seem to be crying out for. Their decision today seems to lean in favor of letting companies like Comcast charge whatever they want to whoever they want on both sides of the bandwidth transaction.

Net Neutrality, at least in any meaningful way, seems to be on its last legs, if not already dead.

If the Commission had decided to at least postpone their ruling, there would’ve been more hope.

This makes me think that there’s no way they’ll bother to stand in the way of the proposed Comcast/Time Warner merger (which will give Comcast near full, unfettered control of far more than 1/3 of U.S. Internet users).

I expect there will be much analysis of this in tomorrow’s feed. So, more then.

Giger Passes, Giant Critters, Batman, Daredevil, Furry Walls, Cool History, Science, and a few really funny things

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Sometime, my mind does really awesome things at night. Like craft amazing worlds and situations that put any movie to shame with their expanse and visual wonders.

Last night was not one of those night.

Last night the dream that my mind generated was, at best, a B-grade rode trip rock ‘n’ roll farce. Likely brought on by going to bed really wanting to watch Get Him to the Greek.

Mine involved some wild huge group trip to a big deal concert by some big name band. A total experience thing that involved staying up all night before in an airport before getting on board the secret plane to the concert location.

Well, hilarity ensued and there were baggage problems, missed connections, and a lot of running from point A to point B only to find out we actually needed to be at point C. Two of my friends made an appearance in the dream, on definitely as themselves, the other cast by whatever third rate casting director my brain employed for nothing more than their enthusiasm (because the character they played most certainly didn’t have the brains my actual friend does).

And just when all seemed lost, the hero arrived to save the day.

Billy Joel!

As played my Michael Keaton.

Seriously.

WTF mind? You couldn’t use the actual celebrity? It’s not like dream him is busy somewhere else. Right?

So, yeah, I woke up right before the (inevitable) big turn around in the brain film, so I was even cheated out of what would surely have been an epic (or epicly bad) grand finale… likely on the level of Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.

~sigh~ Here’s hoping there’s more of a budget for tonight’s slumbering entertainment.

Some History, Some Politics, Some Fun, and a Few Other Things

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I (semi-unexpectedly) spent a lot of time over the weekend catching up on TV shows and playing video games. There was also some reading involved. Yeah, I’d had other plans, but was far too wiped out from the week to actually follow through on any of them. So, a couch weekend it was.

During that time, I was happy to notice a distinct lack of consistent formula in a lot of shows I’m currently watching. Sure, they draw on all the typical tropes of their respective genres, but they also play with them a bit at times. Every episode, though, is different enough that I don’t get bored watching more than two or three episodes in a row (which is something I can’t say about shows like House or, sometimes, NCIS… both shows I love, but can’t do marathons of). It was also a pleasant surprise to see some mediocre shows take a step up in quality (The 100 and Star Crossed are notable here)… and some really good shows (like Arrow and Hannibal) just take things to entirely new levels of awesome.

In a not unrelated vein, I also finished re-reading Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show. It’s the first time I’ve read the whole thing since I first tore through it around 1990. I’d forgotten how truly poetic Barker’s work can be and that, even among the horror, violence, and gore of a world in upheaval, there’s still a solid note of hope and clear examples of love and faith throughout. I was also reminded just how influential his work is to my worldview.