Ohmigod! The world is coming to an end. Cover the children's eyes. Turn granny's wheelchair around so she doesn't have a heart attack. Janet Jackson flashed a nipple during the Superb Owl half-time. A bare breast! This is worse than 9-11. Laws have to be passed. We must save our kids, save ourselves, save the whales.

Big freaking deal people! So Ms. Jackson flashes a tit. How desperate, how sad for her. That's so Britney, so Madonna, so passe, and so stupid. A bare breast and everyone goes to pieces. Meanwhile you can see the latest corpses from Iraq on the evening news and not a complaint.

Until now. Hey, I'd rather see and have my children see nudity rather than corpses on TV. Instead of the FCC and various tight-assed rightwing Holier-than-thou groups seeking to further censor what we see either censor violence as well as sex or, even easier and more American, skip censoring and leave the responsibility to the citizens. By not making such a big deal out of a bare breast you -*gosh* - might not end up with people making a big deal out of bare breast.

For example, I was watching a Trick 2 episode with my rather young kids. They like the absurd acting and the mysteries. Gosh darn it, one of the characters said "Bullshit!". As a parent I could of (a) screamed that such language was present, told my kids never to say such a word under penalty of soap mouthwashing, ripped the DVD out of the drive, and written a nasty letter to the producers (b) interrupted the show and told my kids that that particular word was vulgar and not be used, or (c) ignored the incident and corrected my kids behavior if they used the word later. I opted for 'c' and my kids have yet to use the word. We watched more episodes and "that word" popped up again. No interest. I didn't make a big deal out of it so my kids didn't either.

It's when you make a big deal out of things that attention gets drawn to the deal. Janet Jackson's tit isn't a big deal but thanks to the rightwingers *AND* the Liberal Media she has gained a lot of attention, which I'm sure she never wanted, right? And to make sure this sort of thing never happens again why not cancel the Superb Owl or limit the half-time show to a mud battle between the teams' cheerleaders.

Battle Royale

I finished a most interesting and intense book Battle Royale - Koushon Takami that I think would make a great computer game. The plot focuses Japan in the near future. Japan and other nations are apparently one united coalition and while the economy is great and things are well there is a price - obedience to the government. And one method other than the Police to maintain obedience is through the Battle Royale. Each year or so a random class of Junior High School students are sent to a deserted area, in this case, an island for the Battle. They *have* to kill each other. If no one dies after 24 hours then they all die. The locale they "play" in is divided into grids. Three times a day a different square is declared off limits. Enter an off limits square and you die. Enter the starting square and you die.

Did I mention that each kid wears an unremovable explosive collar?

Escape is impossible. Try to swim away and you die. Each kid is given a backpack with a random weapon in it. Could be something good - an uzi - could be terrible - a fork.

As I read the book I kept flashing on what a great multiplayer game this could be. Like the book, the various uninhabited buildings could contain the makings of an uprising (that is, you can't directly attack the starting building but maybe indirectly *IF* you can get the teamwork together). Like the book would multiplayer quickly descend into chaos or would teams evolve. Whom do you trust? Even a single player game could be decent with the proper A.I..

Xena - Season One DVDs Review

Much to my wifes delight I've been veggieing out watching the Xena - Season 2 DVDs. This right after I finished Buffy - Season 5 and Xena - Season 1. I happen to like shows that have strong woman leads. That and I'm a piggy, geeky sort of guy with kids and little life. Not surprisingly, Alias is what I watch now.

Anyway, the Xena DVDs are fun to watch but the quality is fairly horrible. Supposedly this is due to the series originally being shot on 16 mm film up to mid-season 2 when they switched to 35 mm. Or it could be due to incompetence or laziness in the transfer. Either way, the colors are pretty muddied.

My set included a bonus DVD filled with interviews of the personnel. One of the Directors commented that Xena succeeded because of timing and that there had never been an action show featuring a female lead. Hmmm, what about Charlie's Angels?

I think Xena (and Buffy) succeeded because of the female leads and strong backgrounds supporting them. Xena could and did draw upon darn near any aspect of mythology and religion. Buffy could draw upon near any aspect of the dark underworld of demons and ghoulies. Between the two, that's a lot of background to mine. And there's the problem. Something like a Sheena didn't have this rich diverse universe of mythos to tap upon and died a quick death. Worse, future shows have to be careful when using these backgrounds because they don't want to come off as clones. And, of course, Hollywood is famous for originality. "Next season, Candy the Werewolf Whomper!"