Geek Talk

So recently I started something called the Shangri-La Diet a co-worker turned me on to it about two weeks ago and I’m down atleast 10 pounds. I say atleast because it took me a week to get a scale, didn’t have one before. So from the store to now I lost 10 pounds. I’ve recently been telling people about it poorly so I won’t bother to explain it here, but it’s adding something to your day instead of subtracting food groups like most diets. And it’s worked for quite a few people.

Back to the point of this post, I went out for my birthday last friday and it seemed like I had some kind of intervention about the diet. Everyone at the table was saying I should just stop it. But what happened was they misunderstood me. I wasn’t feeling so good that Friday so from than and a combo of the diet (”diet” makes you feel full quicker) I only ate an apple and the sugar water thats a requirement of the diet. Now the people I went out with thought thats all I ate everyday. It’s not, I just had some bug (a birthday gift from my father).

So as much as I would love to go into how the diet works and what to do for it, I can’t seem to explain it correctly to people. So go slap down 20 bucks on it and read it (I just finished it last night, it’s a fun read really and short like 140 pages with only 3 paragraphs on each page). I’ll update my progress randomly, more for me but incase others are wondering how with works for yet another blogger.

I’m so witty… ok maybe not. Anyway, everyone and their brother (including Jenn’s brother… that would be me.) has some kind of opinion or article about the new Batwoman being a lesbian. I don’t see the big deal. If you think about the DC universe being real then yes some characters would be gay (Like Batman… I’m kidding) or even non-white, amazing I know. And not just one hero but a few, just like the US (since thats where most of the heroes seem to be).

I’d like to believe that this argument of “DC made batwoman a lesbian to excite males into buying” is wrong, but I have no idea. I’d like to believe that they’re looking to mature a bit. Like when one of their heroes got HIV (I forget who, or maybe he just delt with someone having it). It’s (HIV) a real issue that I think shouldn’t be ignored.

So I watch the clip from nbc’s new show called Heroes. Looks interesting, has that “what if normal people got powers” theme to it, kinda like the 4400. I think there’s an asian guy who can teleport and a cheerleader who is “unbreakable”, I’m guessing like Superman. Looks interesting, now I just hope I don’t forget about it because it’s on NBC. I never watch NBC, not sure why. But it’s on Mondays at 9. Thats also when 24 is on. So they have til January to win me over (thats when 24 starts up again). Or I could just get a Tivo, I think I’m the only one who doesn’t have one.

I do like this acceptance of super heroes as entertainment. It’s not the first superhero related TV show, but this recent push for somewhat orginal shows with what seems to be a comic book background is fun for me. Even shows like Smallville, it’s a different twist on Superman. Something we haven’t seen before. It’s refreshing. I hope it continues.

I also hope this spills over into movies. When was the last orginal movie? They’ve all been based off books or remakes of something, or based on comic books that have been around for 60 years. Let’s get creative hollywood.

I watch the 4400 on usa, it’s a TV show I like. I like it because it reminds me of this comic called Rising Stars. That’s never really bothered me before, but last nights season premier was just a blatant ripoff.

I suppose I should give a little background on this so here goes.

• Rising Stars basic story: A “flash” hits a small town in middle America that grants all fetuses in utero with amazing powers when they start to grow.
• 4400 basic story: 4400 people were taken at different times over the last 50 years. And they were all returned in a ball of light at once. All of them are the same age as they were when they disappeared. And all came back changed somewhat. Most were granted abilities that the average person couldn’t do (like heal or move things with their mind or see the future).

Now I’ve always called it “Rising Stars the tv show”, it just reminded me so much of the comic. Thats not a bad thing, I was excited to hear about the movie deal way back when. Both deal with a “real world” view of people with powers in my opinion. We’re a racist people, anything different we just don’t like. I’m talking a majority, not everyone. Now imagine if there was a possibility that the bad guys (who ever they are) had someone who was strong like the hulk. How would people react? With fear and wanting some assurance that we (powerless people) could control it.

In the comic there was a side story that didn’t really do much to move the story along except show the world what the Specials were able to do. Basically there was one woman (blanking on the name) who could move things with her mind, but only tiny things. Seems somewhat worthless, but the US government snached her up to be an assassin. Why? Because there is a small vein our head that if pinched could instantly kill us. She was trained to do that. So after years of killing she felt bad and wanted to do something to help the world. She had conversations with Poet (the main character) and he sort of convinced her to stop killing and help out the Specials to police the world. So then she goes to the middle east (or maybe they were already there). And she knows that there is furtile soil beneath the sand and slowly starts to move that soil up top. And gives that region, plantable soil for the first time in a long time. In the process however she ends up killing herself, much to the regret of Poet who was trying to stop her.

Then the 4400 basically does the same thing. Everyone is in fear of this date October 19th because this terrorist 4400 group says they’re planning on doing something. Lots of panic and looking for ways to stop them. They eneded up just making wheat grow in the middle east. Seem familiar?

That being said I’ll still watch the show, it just bothers me they seem to be taking it DIRECTLY from the comic with no mention of JMS (the comic writer) at all. Now maybe I missed his name in the credits and if I did… then never mind. Move along, nothing to see.