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Today’s the day. A classic sci-fi series, The X-Files, makes its return to television, with a small set of episodes. Not a full season, but I’m sure the bigwigs want to gauge fan interest.

I’m sure they’ll find out the fans are still out there. 🙂

I have been a fan of the show since it first aired, although I do have some gaps, some episodes I didn’t see during the initial run. The X-Files was one of the first shows I can remember where I knew fans that would gather, weekly to watch it together, have small parties. They explained to me that fans of the show are X-Philes.

I got a kick out of that. It wasn’t until the new interest in Doctor Who that I realized there were other fans of other shows doing nearly the same thing. I’m still not quite sure if I’ll do that yet, but I have seen a few episodes of Doctor Who with other fans. It’s a fun experience, to be sure, so if I get an invite, I’m leaning towards going.

While I certainly wouldn’t claim it as the best episode, my favorite was José Chung’s From Outer Space. It’s nearly a parody, while also still fitting in with the show’s plot. There’s even the traditional men in black and menacing aliens in it. It was one of the more “stylized” episodes, and features Jesse Ventura and Alex Trebek. The episodes that were produced in a different style were some really fun ones.

Here’s to hoping the NFC Championship game goes relatively quickly tonight!

I want to believe.

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(Note: I have misplaced the source of this prompt. I did not create the prompt, but I did feel like responding to it enough to save it.)

Imagine that since the first day of college, you’ve had a serious crush on someone who has just begun to reciprocate your romantic interest. After class last week, she invited you to a party and you finally felt confident enough to ask her out on a date. You decided to go to the party and had a blast…at least at first. After spending the entire night casually brushing up against one another and exchanging flirty glances, you snuck outside with her to talk. Just as you were about to ask her to join you for dinner next weekend, another man whispered something in her ear. When you asked her what he said, she disclosed that he said you were a player. Soon after, she started giving you the cold shoulder so you decided to leave. On your way to your car, you walked past the guy who called you a player. What would your response have been if this actually happened to you? Would you have taken revenge? If so, how?

My first reaction would be “wow, after all that, after my long crush or her, she believed this guy, despite the evidence to the contrary.” After that shock, I’d remind myself that since I’m not a player, that he probably is, and that if he’s got to resort to this tactic, and it worked, he’s worse off than I am. I’d also be sad that my crush got the very type of guy she thinks she’s avoiding.

I believe that if it was meant to be, it was meant to be. My crush would have ignored that guy because I would have already, by this point, demonstrated, through clear action and attitude, that my feelings were sincere, and more that the calculated approach of a “player”, which is not something I know how to be. Either she’s got the confidence to believe in me and give me a chance, or not.

If I also believed this other guy was a player himself, then the best revenge, if any, would be to move on, eventually get over the sting of that sudden setback, and find another person that will not be so easily manipulated and ultimately to be happy when that works out. There’s not a good reason to directly work to get revenge on the guy and that would only reflect badly on my part, so I just could not stoop to such a level.

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My voice, it sounds so unnatural when I hear a recording of it. It sounds like it came from a completely different person that the one I hear when saying things out loud. I can totally sympathize with anyone that, lacking training, feels like they don’t like the sound of their own voice being played back.

I don’t feel so bad about seeing a video recording of myself, however.

What do you find more unbearable: watching a video of yourself, or listening to a recording of your voice? Why?

Can’t Stand Me | The Daily Post

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I wanted to take a moment to say that The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is great. It’s hit that dungeon-exploring, puzzle-solving itch that I get sometimes.
I suppose that waiting to have a small gaming backlog shortening was the real reason for the wait to get a 3DS. 🙂

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Today, I stepped a little bit out of my comfort zone. For the past few years, I’d grown pretty used to attending comic conventions, with the occasional focused fandom convention scattered in there. Today was the first time I’d been to one centered around anime, Anime Impulse.

Honestly, it felt pretty ordinary. I mean that in a good way. The only thing slightly jarring had little to do with the con itself directly. I basically was partnered with, and occupied a hall along with a number of halls adjacent to it, with an Asian American expo. This meant there was a very solid presence of people of Asian descent. Also, it was the first convention I’ve been too that was more like an ordinary marketplace you find in nearly any major city. More like a cultural festival.

The anime area was more like what I’m used to, with artist areas, cosplayers doing meet-and-greets and signings, and even a stage for some panels. There was some pretty good art as well as fan art for sale from the vendors. I got quite a few stickers, mostly anime-related, with a few video game characters, as well as a print.

I think I’ll pick up a few more tomorrow as well as stick around for the the costume masquerade. Somehow, I missed some really good ones today, which I later spotted online.

I must say that this small taste of the anime con scene was pretty chill. I may go ahead and add a couple more anime cons into my rotation. This one being local to me was also a bonus. It’s going to be an interesting year with more cultural fun thrown into the mix.

Note: Post title was derived from this prompt:

Take the third line of the last song you heard, make it your post title, and write for a maximum of 15 minutes. GO!

There wasn’t music playing at the time so I launched iTunes and played the first track of the first “For You” playlist, Alternative Hits: 2002, which happened to be Toxicity, by System Of A Down. I love that tune, so I didn’t skip.

prompt source: Can’t Drive 55 | The Daily Post

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The Magician King, by Lev Grossman

I’ve been briskly cruising through this adventure for the past week.

I had a copy of The Magicians for a while, but stalled out a bit until I was reminded that SyFy will soon have a live-action adaptation of it. I’m a bit hopeful since their adaptation of The Exspanse seems good so far.

Anyways, on to this book. If you’ve not read The Magicians yet, I recommend it. My take on it, so far, is that it’s a bit of Harry Potter, a bit of Narnia, and lots more angst and cynicism.

The main character is not an orphan, nor a legend, but he, Quentin, did dream of a world more extraordinary than our own. He wanted to visit the land he’s read about since he was a kid, the fantastical kingdom of Fillory. He sort of got his wish in The Magicians, attending, and graduating from the magician school, hidden in the state of New York, Brakebills, and The Magician King is the continuing adventures of Quentin, but he’s not alone.

I feel like I relate more to Quentin than Harry, or even the Pevensie siblings. He had the misfortune of angsty teenage years, unrequited love, a fantastic turn of events, and a coming of age in the magical world. Turns out that his initial love interest didn’t share the same journey, but he’s been reunited, and this story see’s Quentin trying to learn more about her, while still trying to find himself, even as the adult he is.

Inspired by: Friday Reads | L Jones Edition