My copy of Personal Effects: Dark Art just arrived. J.C. told me a lot of supporting material and clues came with it…WOW.

This will keep me busy for a while…cannot wait to get started.

SPOILERS AHEAD

If you wanted answers, prepare to get them, but they will be wholly unsatisfying.  The fact that the writers used “God did it.” as the wrap-up pissed me off so much that it colored the rest for the series. I was going to buy the series because it was so strong, but at the end, the writing staff TOTALLY blew it. Completely. Angels? Really?

And WTF was Head Baltar alluding to when he said of God, “He doesn’t like to be called that.” Was this supposed to be clever? And WHAT WAS STARBUCK??? It just pissed me off.

For a while, I was truly hoping they were going to make Anders, somehow, the architect of everything. I would have been perfectly satisfied with a geeky Time Loop, something that at least, in the terms of Science Fiction, made some sort of sense.

Instead, we have platitudes, moralizing, and no satisfying climax.

If one of my author friends had done this, I’d have completely jumped on them for it.  Maybe the Battlestar Galactica  writers were trying to make some sort of statement. If so, well…I feel totally let down.  It was disappointing, pointless, and gave NOTHING that was promised. It was a total cop out.

Update: I completely agree with this post. Totally and utterly.

Update #2: And Mur nails it as well. My god. This ending breaks every rule of good fiction.  AARGGGHH!

If there’s any one songwriter able to transfix me with his work, it’s Richard Shindell. I’ve got most of the albums he’s put out, and I never tire of them,. He’s got that most rare of talents, a poetic bent and a sense for the supporting melody that can hold you still and command you to listen.

He’s a folk singer in the best sense of the word, sticking to common themes that draw forth emotion and spur contemplation. And just when contemplation is turning a bit maudlin, he’ll draw you back out with something upbeat and lighthearted.

If you enjoy guitar-driven folk with a strong lyrical component, I strongly recommend any of his albums, though I think Somewhere Near Patterson is probably my favorite. Additionally, the collaboration between him, Dar Williams and Lucy Kaplanski on Cry Cry Cry is one of the favorite CDs in the Miller household.

I’ll leave you with a Seeqpod playlist of a few songs…hope you like what you hear.

SeeqPod – Playable Search

photo credit: dalelane

About a month ago, I got a G1 from my local T-Mobile dealer. I’d like to bore you with the details.

• I like the style of the phone. At it’s most basic, the G1 is a Sidekick with a better OS and rounded corners. Since my last phone was also a Sidekick, I’m right at home.  I do wish the G1 had the translucent trackball, which you could program to light up in different colors in different situations¹.
• I also love having a physical keyboard. The iPhone keyboard sucked when I used it. This one is perfect for me.
• I like the size of the screen and the apps that come with the phone.  Linking things in to my Google accounts has made my life one hell of a lot easier.
• Everything you’ve heard about the battery life is true…if you’re an idiot.  Yes, if you leave every service on all the time², the battery will be dead in two hours.  It just so happens that there is a great app called Locale which fixes this little problem. Developed by a group of MIT students, this app tracks where you are using both Wifi and GPS and will switch off services when you are in a certain location automatically. With will also change your ringer volume and make decisions based on system status, such as low battery life. It completely rocks.
• The App market is still underdeveloped, but it’s a new platform, and that’s to be expected. There are some great apps in the Android Market, such as Park Mark, Wikitude, Shop Savvy.
• The only downside I’ve found is that sometimes the memory gets pegged and the whole phone slows or pauses  When apps stop responding, the system handles it gracefully, asking if you want to force the app to close, or wait for it to finish.  I’ve never had a full-out crash or needed to reset the phone.

Would I recommended it?  I already have, several times. The most common criticism of the G1 is that it’s not an iPhone. That’s just fin with me. I love the openness of the Android system, and I cannot wait to see what people find to do with it.

1. for instance, blue if you have voice mail, red if your boss called and you missed it, etc[back]
2. GPS, Wifi, and Bluetooth[back]

This was a lot of fun to watch, and I’m not just saying that because I work for Mahalo. I’ve been wanting to learn things like this for some time. I think I’ll be checking out Gary’s show.