I finally went to see Serenity. Being a not-very-rabid-yet-somewhat-enthusiastic fan of Firefly, I had pretty good expectations of this movie. I was not disappointed - the movie indeed was pretty good. My gripes can be best presented in the following bullet points (if I had the time, I would have created a powerpoint deck for you):

• No blue-handed men ("Two By Two, Hands of Blue") or any explanation as to why their hands were blue. And mighty Google brings back hilarious, but most unsatisfying results
• "The operative" is not bounty hunter Jubal Early, but instead what seems like a one-dimensional character based on the early notes for Jubal Early.
• I don't like the explanation of the nature of Reavers.
• The soundtrack was worse than in the TV Series

Meanwhile, it seemed to me that I've seen Morena Baccarin, the actress who plays Inara, somewhere else. I was not mistaken - she had a bit role in a movie that I like very much, Roger Dodger. There she is, Cosmo in hand, next to the boss she has a crush on, right after talking to Roger:

I got to give her credit - so 2 out of 4 movies Morena took a part in are really good. I have half the mind to pick up the other two, to see maybe if they are good too.

By the way, I never really understood what's so great about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It always seemed like a cheesy show with wooden acting, but then again, I never watched an entire episode or learned the backstory. I guess I'll have to rent the first season DVDs and see if it's any good.

Serenity comic book prequel - a bit of filler between the TV series and the movie:

Original TV series soundtrack. It's on pre-order still, but at least it's happening.

"Finding Serenity : Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly" contains rants about "Firefly" from various pundits, including an inflammatory (and labeled by some as "male-chauvinistic") article about the role of women in sci-fi by John C. Wright (as much as I like his science fiction and hate his fantasy, I have to say that he's full of it).

I rarely have any recollection of my dreams, but when I do, I usually record them in my blog. Last night's dream can be solidly categorized in slapstick humor / sitcom. It had pretty good camera work, but I am not sure if it had the laugh-track. I did wake up laughing though.

From what I gather, it was a Seinfeld spin-off or an unaired Seinfeld episode. The dream starts in Kramer's apartment. Kramer is growing increasingly annoyed with his noisy upstairs neighbor. When the camera cuts to the upstairs apartment, it shows a young man simultaneously tap-dancing and dribbling a basketball. The noise finally stops just as Kramer goes upstairs to confront the noisemaker. A really nice spiraling camera work on the staircase follows. Then the camera cuts to Kramer inside the apartment seeing his antagonist sleeping on the floor, hugging the basketball. Zoom in to Cramer's face and hands: he is grimacing and gesturing as if he is about to make a loud scream and spook the sleeper. But then Kramer's face changes -- he gets a better idea. He proceeds to the bathroom, takes a tremendous dump and leaves without flushing.

Lucid dreaming is the art of recognizing that you are dreaming, and shaping your own dreams.(so far I am failing miserably in this department). Apparently it's something you might train yourself to do (there are even devices you might buy to aid yourself).

Neverlate alarm clock has a separate alarm for 7 days of the week, and something no other alram clock that I know has - customizable znooze duration.

As you might know, a PageRank reshuffle is happening, or already happened. The good news is that thanks to all the links from you, deadprogrammer.com ganed an increase of a point, from 5 to 6! Even my linkblog, which had no PageRank at all got a 5.

According to Feedburner statistics, my readership hovers at just under a thousand.

Bloglines seems to be the aggregator of choice for my readers.

Once again, thank you for reading and for all the links.