Hal Mason can suck it

This post is dedicated to Shepard Book and all good Sci/Fi characters that have been betrayed by people with bad taste.

Sometimes you just gotta hate. And I don’t mean to contradict other times where I have said I don’t like to throw out the “H” word but in the case of a fictional character on a Sci/Fi show I think we are o.k. to spew a little hate and discontent.

The character I am talking about is Hal Mason portrayed by Drew Roy, either the absolute worst talented no acting POS or a thespian of such great quality he can act totally board-like with no personality thus stripping all his own humanity away to play this shell of a whiffle ball. I also refer to this character as “Helmet Head” for the obvious reason, once you get a good look all you can fixate on is his hair that seems to not move and for good measure a second reason becomes apparent with the first utterance of dialog by this overpaid hemorrhoid commercial.

So here is what set me off.  Last night I did the rare thing and watched T.V. live instead of off the DVR.  I saw a new show called the “Last Ship,” I won’t bother anyone of my loyal two readers with the details but the show was fine for mindless Sunday night mind release into the world of T.V. porn.  (Note:  Like that – two rambles in a row where I managed to inject the word “porn”)  The Last Ship was supposed to lead into the season premier of “Falling Skies” a show which I kind of liked the first season started to realize it was not satisfying the itch it was trying to scratch by the second, totally did not even know the third season aired and now starts the fourth go around.  As the Last Ship ended and Falling Skies started up I grabbed the remote – well first I had to shove the dog over as she was sleeping on top of it.  When you have food she is all bushy eyed and bright tailed but when it comes time to turn the channel she weighs 500 lbs. and turns into something like a singularity in space where she draws all the loose objects toward her and her gravity well just gets heavier and heavier the closer you get.

Sooooo, I grab the remote and switch some channels and hit the end of an episode of Barney Miller.  Efff Yeah!!!! I did not know quality T.V. still existed. I missed the entire episode but the outro music got my mind racing and I remember that RonGlass was in that show.  Then connecting the dots I realized that Ron Glass was also in “Firefly”, then I realized Firefly was over 10 years ago and lasted ONE season….see where I am going? How in the holy hemorrhoid (Wait – I used that word already…lets see…hmmmm (SNAP) Got it!) …How in the merciful menstruating marsupial did Firefly get one season but helmet head gets four years of the batcrap crazy Falling Skies?

Look. Lets get it straight. I like Science Fiction.  I read a few books between other genres I get into.  I live out my inner 14 year old and stop by the comic store every two or three weeks and grab a number of issues of Sci/Fi, superhero, and TA Freakin DAAA the ongoing limited series of Firefly.  Obviously there is still a fan following but the butt cheeses that own those Nielsen boxes don’t watch good TV instead the salivate over another season of bad off key singing with American idolaters and the hot chick that “seemingly can’t find a man on her own” needs a show to screen 18 eligible bachelors over the course of four months, but these same “producers” – I use the term VERY loosely, get to choose to kill off good TV and keep crap like Helmut head harry on for – need I say it again? FOUR seasons.  Why o why. 

It is not just the character Hal I despise, but the plot sucks, the acting is worse, and I am rooting for the aliens that invaded Earth to get it over with.  Having said that, the special effects are great and set design is pretty awesome too, so why are they not working on a Firefly or move over to Defiance to make sure that show stays on the air. 

I am going to make a promise here.  If I ever win it REAL big on the lotto, I will have to start up my own channel. I would collaborate with Netflix and release the shows through them and a paid internet channel and I would finance a few of these shows that loyal fans want back. Start there and work my way to a full schedule.  It is already being done there is some great stuff out there just not big enough budgets (the Guild?  Or Space Janitors anyone?)

So for those that worship at the alter of sucky Sci/Fi check out TNT on Sunday evenings for Falling Skies, for everyone else send me $5 in the mail and I will let you be one of my shareholders in this new adventure I am conjuring up.

Rant over – Gallologic Out

My Facebook Guidlines

I don’t do throwback Thursday, may have done it once or twice for fun but its just not my thing, so don’t feel offended I am not participating.

I have “been there – done that”. A few times actually. I have shared memories of friends that did not come home to get the T-shirt and every once in a while I take time to remember an anniversary of a bad day, but I cannot share every story of every “Hero” or change my picture to whatever patriotic pic de jour, or I would never see my own profile picture. Just like I don’’t have a yellow ribbon magnet on my car, so please don’t judge because I don’t share every time.

Yes, I hate cancer. Yes my eyes get welled up when I hear about whatever sad story is circulating though the interwebs of some six year old that got his last wish to see Mickey Mouse or Dr. Who and yes, I often share those.  But this internet thing cannot be all about misery and sad stories, there has to be some balance, so if I skipped sharing your story you posted don’t feel like I ignored it, I probably saw it three months ago and it will probably recycle back around in another three.

If you post one of those posts looking for me to comment so I can remain your friend, then go ahead and “unfriend” me now. I pass on those as a matter of principle and if it is your principle to play the game then I guess our “friendship” consisting of pixels and electrons is at an end.

I have liberal family and friends, conservative family and friends, friends that are outright off their meds – I mean real wakadoodles, some that were (or still are) in the military, at least two dozen who do not live in this country and more than half of those are not American. So please do not get offended if I do not share your exact views. I often see something in my FB feed that is funny because it digs at President Obama and his communist agenda and then another post right after taking a swing at the over the top statements made daily by the Tea Party and some how I still can laugh at the humor of both one after the other.  I do not accept personal attacks against any FB (or real) friends even if I don’t agree with them.  I don’t mind initiating spirited debate but the conversation is over the first time someone hits below the belt, and even if they agree with me I want no part of your hate on my FB page.

If I post something and you comment some asinine question that is obviously addressed in the original post then I will ignore your question. I got no time for someone who cannot read the entire post.

Yes I have seen that George Takei post, EVERYONE has, he has more subscribers to his page than there are Facebook accounts.  Go ahead and share just in case but realize you are not original by doing so.

Go ahead and post every hour on the hour how sucky your life is, and how the kids don’t obey, and how traffic sucks, and how you can’t wait for the weekend so you can sit at home and post on FB how your kids don’t obey and life sucks… for the three of you on my FB friends list who do that  I have learned how to ignore your posts so that when you do post something really important like you need help moving I wont see it.  The thing is, its ok once in a while. I get it life is frustrating, but when it consumes you and spills over into this electronic world you are just poison to those of us on here trying to find new porn or Star Wars rumors.

Go ahead and spoil Game of Thrones, you are totally cool because you read the books and watch the show every Sunday with your phone in your hand waiting to hit send on that FB post spoiling what happened as soon as the first credit rolls. However warning, if you spoil Star Wars and I see it, I will not only cut you out of my life yours wont last much longer…just sayin

A Fool and His Money Are Soon Parted, however a Stubborn SOB ends up paying more for alternate choices.

You have all seen it…well all THREE of you who read this have seen it.  The guy on your favorite TV show or in a good story or movie who has “The List.”  Be it a list of people to kill or get revenge on, or just an ol good enemies list.  I have one too…I will wait for the collective gasp to subside.

My list does not adhere to one category, like people or companies or countries and I admit the list is all over the place but it is a list of people or things that have wronged me either directly or verrrrrrry indirectly and so far I have been pretty faithful with maybe one exception.  What got me thinking of this “List” is I think I might have to add another one, although I seem to be wavering and wondering if I am just getting soft in my old age.

THE LIST

1.    The first one I can remember.  MasterCard.  Oh yeah they have those cute freakin commercials and it is everywhere you want to be, or wait…is that Visa?  Yeah I think MasterCard is priceless – yep that is right they are so damned priceless I have refused a MasterCard since day one.  To be completely honest I had a non-subscriber AT&T card back in the day before cell phones (the dark ages) and it was the most convenient way to use that card to call from overseas or even in the states without having a home phone. To make what should be a short story longer that it needs to be, AT&T ended up changing the non-subscriber card to a MasterCard, I went with it for a few months but really should have added AT&T to number 2 on this list.  Instead I cancelled the card and moved on.  Now to the backstory.  The reason I will not ever have a MasterCard has nothing to do with me.  Back even further than the time before cell phones, like the early 80s, our family packed up the jalopy and moved to Germany.  (ok if you pictured us driving across the ocean to Europe I need you to move along and please don’t breed – because of course we had to fly over…) so back to the story.  We moved but I remember the parents being all up in a tizzy because MasterCard had cancelled their cards since we were moving overseas and the rest is kind of like when the teacher talks during the Peanuts cartoons WAKAKAK AKWWAAKAA.  So for no other reason then lack of having balls and letting people living overseas keep their damn credit cards MasterCard for that you made the LIST.

2.     Number two is also as indirectly not about me as the previous.  Toshiba.  I will NOT buy a Toshiba product ever.  For those of you who know what a submarine is, well they live because they are hard to detect and back in the mid 80s. the Toshiba company sold or gave or gifted or something some plans for machine tools that would make their subs quieter.  That along with the traitorous Walker spy clan and well the U.S. Navy would have been keeping the Titanic company if there had been a direct war between the U.S. and the Ruskies.  So for being opportunistic dicks and even though it is a generation later I hope their company rots, Toshiba for that you made the LIST.

3.     Number three. Burger King.  Ok again, full disclosure. I have eaten at Burger King over the years, usually out of curiosity ever 12-18 months, I want to see if it is still as bad as I remembered.  However, there have been times that BK was all there was to eat late at night at a highway rest stop on a long road trip and I have passed. Back when I was a younger whippersnapper I lived on a military base in Germany and kids of my age at the time (highschool) could get a job working at various places.  Most kids up to that point could bag groceries for tips and that was about it.  So the base store (called the PX) let kids work there but then Burger King opened up on base and since no one wanted to work there they required any kids working for the Exchange System (the PX)  had to start at BK.  I – being me – the sceemer somehow found the loophole and ended up doing one of the few non BK entry jobs around and that was to deliver the morning newspaper.  Later I ended up working as a waiter at the base golf course.  So if there was a case of superiority complex for NOT working at BK I had it.  Of course most of my friends cycled through that BK and most of them either quit or endured long enough to get a better gig.  I remember the stories on what really happened in the back of that store… so fast forward a few years and I am in Panama, no kitchen no mess hall at the remote site I worked at so all we had was beer at the base club, a BK mobile trailer and a pizza place.  Other that that you could buy some microwave dinners at the gas station.  So for nearly a year and a half I survived on BK.  I vowed after that to never again.  So Burger King for that you made the LIST.

4.     This one is a little specific.   Like most red blooded Mericans I find it necessary to go buy cheap Chinese products at Walmart.  Seriously, go into Walmart pick up 10 items in various departments and then look where they were all made. With the exception of the food 90% of that crap is made my some dude named Chin Lee while his son or daughter is hacking into our defense computers and causing havoc.  Back in the 90s I think it was, ol Wal decided his Mart was not goin got sell CDs with explicit lyrics. Around this same time I lived in upstate Maine.  The only store that was close was a Walmart, otherwise to get CDs I had to go about an hour away to the only mall in Maine.  I am dead serious, at that time Portland Maine had the only mall in the area, even Canadians came down to shop there.  I didn’t mind, it made for a reason to go to Portland and was a good trip, however since it did inconvience me even a little and simply because I think the policy is B.S. and discriminatory I will not buy any electronic media from Walmart, no CDs, no DVDs, no Games, no electronic entertainment devices.  The only thing I have bought in that department of Walmart in almost 20 years was a USB cable and I think I bought some memory cards for my first digital camera.  So Walmart for that you made the LIST.

5.     Geico.  Oh yes you suck.  This is one of the loosest boycotts I have going, since it is really a petty reason and well I don’t need them anyway I have had the insurance I want and see no alternate reality where I would want to change.   Back in the mid 90s a somewhat younger, leaner and poorer me bought his first car.  It was an used one but even then I still needed insurance to register and drive it off the lot.  So my dad and my grandfather who was in town, took me over to Geico to see about getting some of that good ol insurance.  Now the situation was – see with me there is always another layer to the story – I had basically just enough to buy the car, fill the tank with some gas, register, tax, tags and have about $300-400 for insurance.  I walk into Geico give the lady at the desk my info, age, the car I needed insurance, drivers license, all that mumbo jumbo, and she quotes me something like $700 for six months or something. My face must have registered the shock since I knew that there was no way I could get the car if I had to pay that much.  Seeing my fact the chick just laughed out loud in my face. Not a “Tee Hee” or a nervous chuckle, but an out loud “HA”. So Eff her and Eff Geico.  Geico for that you made the LIST.

6.     Compaq.  My first laptop much like many of yours I imagine, was about 50 pounds and had a screen the size of a Galaxy S3 does today.  Ok  I exaggerate but it was a clunky thing.  To this day I don’t play any games on my laptop. Maybe a few Facebook games or a free chess game, solitare that type of thing.  But once I got used to that new fangled internet and exhausted all the Star Wars information that was out there (because that is the real reason I bought the laptop in the first place) oh and Porn was not as available as today…ok just kidding calm down don’t get your knickers in a wad…so I went out an bought a game. Decieded to get the Risk game, it was always one of my fav board games so why not.  Well, still being a novice at anything computerish, I found I could not get the video of the game to play, I could hear it and could see that is started to load, but the screen would go black and I could hear the background music. I figured it had to be what I now know is the video driver. I called Compaq to see if there was something I could order or download (which back then would have tied up the phone line for about 12 hours) and the lady who was on the other end of the phone basically told me I shouldn’t be playing games on the computer anyway. At that point I vowed to never buy a Compaq product again, I did make one attempt at redemption and tried a Compaq Presario and that was a piece of junk, it “broke” and my Best Buy insurance helped me get another laptop. Compaq went out of business in 2012 – so SCORE one for the list. Compaq for that you made the LIST.

7.     Norm Dicks.  With a name like that… He was my representiative in the U.S. House of representitives for years.  I was stationed near D.C. when I had to re-enlist in the military.  So figuring he was close by and I was a voting constituent I wrote a letter to ask if he would do the honors.  I asked plenty of time ahead of the event and he never responded, not even a quick email by a staffer saying VOTE DICKS.  Usually I am usually a little apologetic for politicians, they get blamed for a lot and can’t know or manage everything, often they are failed by their own staff or members of their own caucuses.  For being a penis Norm Dicks for that you made the LIST.

8.     So far I have not gone completely chronological but pretty close.  This one however, should be one of the first ones since I have had this one on the list for about as long as I have had it. The Oakland uhhh I mean L.A. Uhh I mean Oakland criminals. Lyle Alzado, Howie Long, and the legacy of Al Davis not withstanding, the Oakland Raiders are a bunch of punks.   Like the funk in a unventilated public bathroom where a lot of sweaty older dudes have just finished working out, having a steam, showering and butt flossing dry the Raiders criminal nature just lingers. Other teams have tried to outdo them but the Raiders have a legacy for being thugs. As former division rivals against my life long team the Seahawks, and as near neighbors as west coast teams can be I have always rooted for two teams each Sunday, the Hawks and whoever is playing the Raiders.  So the only entry on this list that actually has my respect as one would respect a capable advisory, Oakland Raiders for that you made the LIST.

9.     As of today that is all I got. There is a spot kind of generically reserved for a few anonymous  people on here like the mover that stole my Hotwheels when we moved from Erlangen to Colorado Springs. He (or them) thought they were stealing my mom’s crystal based on the inventory of the boxes but mislabeled the boxes and took my crap. The sucky thing is I never got any more Hotwheels. The entire collection gone and no one bought me new ones. So,that prick whoever he is hopefully died from internal injuries after getting hit by a bus.  And then there is a slot for entire groups such as the entire production of the only two movies I have ever said I hated.  Moonstruck and Battle Field Earth. Just horrible works and everyone that was part of either of those movies should be repeatedly punched in the gut until I get tired of watching.

So what you though there would be 10???  Actually even number nine does not really count.  There are a few I am simmering on, such as the more recent issues I have with LG.  Also I never officially put them on the list but I will never use Travelociy again.  They messed up one of my trips and tried to blame me. I may have been partly to blame (crap I might be TOTALLY to blame) but they had me on hold for an hour when I was trying to fix an error in a ticket I had reserved through them and then instead of fixing it spent another 30 minutes blaming me for the mix up.  Not only do they have an issue understanding English but the customer service sucks.  So now that I think of it, they are number 10….

10. Travelocity.  Your customer service sucks.  For that you made the LIST.

So the list is rounded up for now but I may have to rethink some of the criteria and there could be some more added. Like that eff’er at Norfolk Airport the TSA agent that got smart ass with me about what I do for a living and who I work for, when all I said was retired Navy, then played the well I have generals and more important people than you come through and they answer me, so you can too.  If could figure out his name he would be on here. For that matter the entire TSA.  It is one of the only organizations created that is reactive instead of proactive to threats.  What a waste of money but I guess some people need a place to work when they get too old to work at Burger King.