Random musings of Jeromey Balderrama
Although we have no idea what year 24 takes place in (some people surmise that it’s 2012 by this point), I’m just glad that it doesn’t take place in 1994, like this “Pilot” video shows. (My apologies because I know the width of this video is going to hate my blog design):
Geez, did technology really suck that much back then? I was in 8th grade back then, and while I never had a Prodigy or AOL, I was on the BBS’s. Man those were the good old days!
I got a newsletter that came in my email this afternoon, highlighting that a US city creates a “Holiday Display Taskforce”. That headline gave me a sour feeling, and sure enough as I kept reading, I saw that this newsletter from a National radio program was talking about my hometown, Fort Collins, CO.
From the Coloradoan:
“What the task force tried to accomplish was to craft holiday displays to celebrate our commonality and also to recognize the diversity of winter holidays celebrated by members of the community and to create a festive atmosphere during the winter season,” said Seth Anthony, one of the spokesmen for the task force.
Wow, what a nice PC statement to ring you into the Christm-eerrrr-winter season. Oh and Seth Anthony is from the ACLU, glad to see them hard at work here in Fort Collins.
The article reads a little confusing, but here is the gist I got from the proposed guidelines:
Give me a break! Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about tolerance but this “all inclusion” effort is pretty much the opposite of that. To make it a point to make sure no one is offended, you’ve watered everything down so that these displays signify nothing. The thing that confuses me most is the “white lights only” thing. Heaven forbid that we have colored lights on our trees! This is political correctness at it’s worst, and it’s a shame that this is the reason Fort Collins is making headlines.
Matt pointed me to a crazy story today, from Entertainment Weekly:
[Creator Tom] Kring himself is keenly aware that Heroes is broken. Here’s his candid critique:
THE PACE IS TOO SLOW We assumed the audience wanted season 1 – a buildup of intrigue about these characters and the discovery of their powers. We taught [them] to expect a certain kind of storytelling. They wanted adrenaline. We made a mistake.
THE WORLD-SAVING STAKES SHOULD HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED SOONER The premonition of nuclear apocalypse created a larger context that unified every story line last season. Kring now sees that Volume 2 would have been better served if Peter’s vision of viral Armageddon had appeared in the season premiere rather than episode 7. “We took too long to get to the big-picture story,” he says.
THE ROOKIES DIDN’T GREET THEMSELVES PROPERLY New Heroes … shouldn’t have been introduced in separate story lines that felt unattached to the show. The way we introduced Elle … by weaving her in via Peter’s story line – is a more logical way to bring new characters into the show…
HIRO WAS IN JAPAN WAY TOO LONG Hiro’s … time-bending adventure in 17th-century Japan – where he mentored samurai hero Takezo Kensei — – finally came to an end on Nov. 5. But Kring says it should have [lasted] three episodes. We didn’t give the audience enough story to justify the time we allotted it.
YOUNG LOVE STINKS Kring regrets sticking Claire … with a super-dud boyfriend and forcing Hiro to moon over a cutesy princess. I’ve seen more convincing romances on TV, he admits. In retrospect, I don’t think romance is a natural fit for us.
Wow, that’s candor! I’ll admit that while Heroes hasn’t seemed as good as it was last year, I didn’t expect the creator to apologize to fans.60; That said, I’m glad he did – talk about “stand up”! I think Heroes has been a bit of a victim of it’s own success. Last year, there were no expectations for this show. I was just excited that comic geeks had something to watch on network TV. The quality story-telling of Heroes blew everyone away, and single handedly converted our Monday 24 Nights to Heroes Night (with 24 afterwards).
November 5th’s episode was a dramatic improvement, and it was really cool to watch that show come together the way it did. It’s a bummer that everything may be back on hiatus with the WGA strike.
With Tom Kring doing what he did, a part of me wishes we’d see a similar statement from the 24 creators about last season…
I realize I’ve pretty much turned my blog into a sports rants blog over the last few weeks, so I’ll try to diversify topics a bit.
Today big news came from Microsoft that they released their “Live” services out of beta, releasing some great new tools, including the ability to get a @live.com email address. There’s nothing like the opportunity to jump on board a new major email bandwagon, and have the ability to have your name – without any numbers of weird spellings – as your email address.
I grabbed the address I wanted and logged into the new Hotmail. The interface is clean, definitely a step above Gmail and arguably within reach of the new Y! Mail interface. I goof around a little bit, import my contact list with no problem and send myself the inaugural test message to myself. Much to my dismay, I receive the following:
You’re kidding me. An ad at the bottom of my messages?
I realize that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but when you see the exciting things Gmail is doing with free IMAP access, not to mention that they’ve never had tagline ads at the bottom of their messages – there’s really no compelling reason to use Live mail in a serious capacity. Granted, Yahoo does still use tagline ads in their messages as well – and it should be known that I pay the $20 per year for the Yahoo Mail plus which removes the tags (and offers other features). However I’ve personally locked into using my Yahoo mail account through years of usage. There’s no way I would start using a Live.com account with these annoying taglines here in 2007. Even if I wanted to upgrade my Live account, there’s no indication on Hotmail that it’s even an option. I looked all over the “settings” area and couldn’t find anything that referenced upgrading your account. In Yahoo Mail it’s right there in the “Options” tab.
I can appreciate that Microsoft wants to remove some of the perceived stigma that has been historically attached to the “Hotmail” branding, but if you’re going to put a new face/branding on a limited product, you’re still going to have to live with the limitations. I don’t know how they can expect people to live with “Live” with crap like this going on.
Well the bad news keeps piling up for the Broncos. Two players placed on IR, one of them being the legendary Bronco Rod Smith.
Denver Broncos wide receiver Rod Smith, the franchise leader in every major receiving category, will not return to the field in 2007, the team decided on Thursday, and his future in the game is now uncertain.
The team also lost first-round defensive end Jarvis Moss, the 17th player selected overall in this year’s draft, to a season-ending leg injury sustained in practice. Moss broke his right fibula and suffered torn ligaments in his right ankle when his foot caught in the turf during a nine-on-seven drill.
…Smith was bothered by persistent soreness in the hip, however, and that prompted a recent visit to a specialist. Based on the specialist’s findings, the Broncos and Smith decided that it was fruitless to continue the comeback attempt. It is not known if Smith, 37, will attempt to play in 2008.
Bummer. While we weren’t hurting at WR, Smith would have been a welcome addition to the roster, especially with Javon Walker hurt. We definitely can’t stand to lose more defensive linemen.