The Sci-Fi Channel?

What is up with the Sci-Fi Channel? I've got two issues with them...

First of all, their "Sci-Fi Original Movies" are real stinkers. This first came to my attention when they came out with the movie "Raptor Island". I was really set for this one. Boy, was I horribly disappointed. I won't even touch on the script or the acting. The dinosaurs, computer generated, were horrible. The design was amateurish, the movement all wrong, and when they were shot with a variety of weapons, you'd see a fuzzy splash of blood. But no wound, and the creatures never even reacted to being shot. That was the first "Sci-Fi Original Movie" that I ever saw. I've seen 4 or 5 since then, and they've all been that bad or worse. I won't even bother with 'em anymore.

The second problem I've got with the Sci-Fi Channel is this wrestling thing. Did I miss something? Well sure, I know that showboat wrestling is completely scripted and choreographed, but I didn't think it qualified as science fiction. I just gotta shake my head at this.

Old Movies I Remember

I grew up in the Los Angeles area. One of the things I remember in the early to mid 60's was a television show on Friday nights. It was called "Chiller", and it showed old sci-fi and horror B-Movies. There was no host that I remember, just the opening Chiller sequence (dripping letters) and then the movie of the week. I first saw "House on Haunted Hill", "The Crawling Eye", and other classic horror movies.

There are a couple of movies that I remember from that time that I've never seen since and I can't remember the titles of...

The first one is a sci-fi flick about a spaceflight to either the moon or Mercury. I'm not sure which. The astronauts were beset upon by these "rock men" that seemed to reside in niches on rock/cliff faces. I also seem to remember that the astronauts pointed out that because there was no atmosphere, shadows were completely black. One of them demonstrated it by walking into a rock shadow, thereby completely disappearing.

The other movie was in the horror genre. The monster of this one was a walking tree with a knife embedded in it's chest. It seems that some native criminal was entombed in a hollow tree, and somehow he/it came back to life and animated the tree. At the end of the flick, the hero fired a rifle at the knife, forcing it into the monster's heart and killed it.

Can anyone out there point me to the proper titles of these old movies?

Q-Ray is Bogus!

It always seemed to me that false-advertising was illegal here in the US. Along with CortiSlim and magnet therapy, the Q-Ray Bracelet ranks right up there with snake-oil and quack medicine.

According to their own claim, "The Q-Ray Ionized Bracelet is made with Bio-Metal that offers a natural and effective method to increase one's bio-energy, vitality, and feelings of well-being". Now, they're either ignorant of what ionization is, or they're banking that its the public that is ignorant. And what the diddly ding-dong crap is "Bio-Metal"? Its pseudo sci-gibberish, that's what it is.

It finally took a U.S. District Judge to rule on the Q-Ray Bracelet claim. Other preposterous claims abound around the Q-Ray.

The really sad thing about this is that the general public is so easy to bilk and bamboozle. Critical thinking is just not their strong point.
And THEY know it!

I'm A Guinea Pig

My wife has been taking a whole slew of massage therapy classes from an outfit called Somatherapy. She actually got started in this after she was doing horse massage.

Anyway, she comes home from her classes and wants to try all the things she's learned on me. You'd think this would be a win-win for me. But I've had things done to me that no non-quiche eating male would ever request.

The swedish massage was pretty nice. But the salt and sugar scrubs are pretty abrasive. Its an exfoliation thing. I've come to the conclusion that I like my foliation, thank you very much. Then there's the clay and seaweed wraps. They're both pretty much the same thing... You either get this watered down clay mixture, or a nasty goo made from some kind of seaweed painted on you. The seaweed goo smells like a tide pool at low tide on a hot day. Phew! Then you get wrapped up in a sheet and mylar. Its your own mini sweat room. I layed there for 20 minutes wondering what was going to stink more, me or the seaweed.

The herbal wrap is almost the same thing, only you're covered in sheets that have been soaked in an herbal tea concoction, then mummified in the mylar again. At least with this one I got a peppermint-aloe facial. Egads, I feel so pretty.

Last night was a real topper. She gave me some kind of hot wax treatment. She got this electric tub thing that melts the special lavendar wax. Next thing I know, she's dipping my hands and feet in it like I was some kind of scented candle. Did I mention that the wax was melted and bloody HOT? I don't know about my feet, but my hands are still smooth 'n silky.

Don't ask to shake my hand. I'm not doing that until I can build up some callouses again

I'm Lucky, Too

Wow, what a week it has been. First I win a contest held by Gizmodo, and I'll be getting a 2gb SanDisk Cruzer Titanium flash drive. Then a co-worker was trying to get rid of an old safe she had that no longer worked.

I'LL TAKE IT!

...says I. Turns out it is an old (1986) hotel room safe. It no longer locked, the "key" (on top) no longer worked, and she had long since forgotten the combination. Hey, it looked like something fun to play with. Yeah, and it has a standard 110volt power cord.

The first thing I did was crack open the works in the door. I fiddled with it, pulled cords, poked at stuff, just basically trying to figure out what makes it work. Maybe I could spot what was wrong and even fix it.

Long story short, it took me about 40 minutes to bring it up to complete working order. So now I've got a very boring looking safe. Don't you think it needs something? I think it needs something. But what? This is a boring box that is in serious need of a modding.

I am open to any of your suggestions. Drop a comment here and give me your ideas.

Just Another Night...

Well, I haven't got much to say, but I do want to keep this blog going. Therefore, I'm going to ramble on a bit about this 'n that.

I've been noticing these last few years, that I'm a bit bi-polar. But not in the normally accepted sense. What is now called bi-polar, used to be known as manic-depressive. I'm of a different flavor. My mood pendulum's between two opposite ends of a scale. On one end, I'm social and gregarious. The life of the party. I need to be the center of attention. At the other end, I'm a hermit. I neither want or need interactions with others. I don't quite know how to classify it. "Manic" definitely comes close to one end, but how do I define the other? Its not depressive. Anti-social may be the most accurate description.

I'm quite happy about the whole thing, really. At no time am I ever depressed about it. It does have a tendency to confound my friends, but once they have an understanding of what's going on in my head, they're pretty cool about it. I don't make a big deal about it usually.

I'm wondering if there are certain triggers that accelerate the swings. I was at a convention a couple of months ago. A very crowded convention. I don't have any doubt that the massive crowds pushed me into my anit-social phase. From that point I withdrew from all my friends and contacts. I think I may be coming out of it towards the social end. Maybe this blog is an indicator.

So much for now. More tomorrow.