When I was young, I preferred Nancy Drew to the Hardy Boys. I guess I’ve always had a thing for smart girl detectives. . .

On September 22, 2007, Veronica Mars aired for the first time on the now defunct UPN network. It was brilliant. Over the course of its three seasons, the few people actually watching it got to see television at its best. When it wasn’t picked up for a fourth season, I actually took the time to write to the network and tell them what I thought of their decision. Suffice it to say that TV doesn’t usually stir such passion in me.

I have to start with our firecracker title character. Kristen Bell was perfectly cast in the role, giving her a depth of character I rarely see in any entertainment medium. Veronica was complex. Sure she was witty and intelligent. Of course she was good looking and funny. Yes she was the girl I always wished existed when I was in high school but would have to wait much, much longer to actually meet. She was also overconfident, occasionally petty and insensitive, and very prone to trusting her gut when she shouldn’t, often to disastrous consequence. In short, she was very nearly a goddess. When her heart broke, mine did too.

The rest of the casting was also very good. While virtually all of the characters were standard archetypes (the steadfast best friend, the bad boy with a heart of gold, the sleazy PI, etc…), the actors brought something to make them special and memorable. Enrico Colantoni as Veronica’s dad and Tina Majorino as Mac are particular favourites of mine. Michael Muhney as Sherriff Lamb also deserves a special mention.

This show was densely plotted. There was a single overarching mystery that ran the length of the season, there were also smaller mysteries that would get solved over a three or four episode arc, and each individual episode would have a mystery that would be solved during the episode. The third season broke from this in that there was no season long mega-mystery. Instead, the writers decided that it would be easier to get new viewers into the show if they broke the season in half and had two smaller mysteries rather than the larger one. I’m sure that opinions differ, but season three, while being very good, was definitely my least favourite for that very reason.

I don’t know why Veronica Mars failed. Maybe playing in the same time-slot as Lost was its undoing. Perhaps the network didn’t promote it effectively. Maybe the continuity heavy serial nature of the show was its undoing, although programs such as the aforementioned Lost or Heroes are just as continuity heavy and seem to be thriving. I’m sure the reasons for its demise are just as complex as Veronica was.

I do know that I can see Kristen Bell in Heroes now, and though I like the character she plays (Elle) it isn’t the same. So raise those glasses again and toast Veronica Mars. Two amazing seasons and one really good one, at least she never got the chance to age gracelessly.

]]> http://dorkandbeans.com/eulogy-for-a-friend-no-2-veronica-mars/feed/ 6 http://dorkandbeans.com/half-assed/ http://dorkandbeans.com/half-assed/#comments Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:33:40 +0000 The Duck http://dorkandbeans.com/?p=58 So here I am sitting at the computer, using Microsoft Turd to edit the guitar chord progressions of a Dave Matthew song. I decided to learn to play Grace is Gone. Plus a couple others that I have had to do some editing on as well. But not nearly as much as this one. I go to Ultimate Guitar for 90% of my tabs, and stuff. As I sit here and get more aggitated, I decided it would be something to rant a little about.

I have a really hard time understanding why, or even how someone can bungle the chords to a song SO badly. Its not like playing another artist music leaves a whole lot of room for change. You can play the same song in another key or something the like, or add in a few supplementary chords to spicethings up a bit. But YOU CANNOT JUST FKN MAKE SHIT UP. If someone is going to go to all the trouble of posting a song they figured out online, then they should make sure its correct. The purpose in putting it online is to provide an ACCURATE representation of the song for someone else to learn.

If I wanted to do a puzzle, the last place I would look to do it is on a guitar tablature site.

Figuring out a song, and writing it down can be good practice, and quite rewarding. But before you present it to the general public, play it a few times. Take a good look at it. Make sure it looks right, and is playable the way you wrote it. Someone once sait to me, “If a man cant be bothered to polish his shoes, imagine the other things he cant be bothered to do”. Like tune his guitar, or wipe his ass after taking a shit.

Point is ….. if you cant be bothered to make ‘educational’ material correct, then stop wiping your ass. Or someone else is going to have to do it for you. Only babies, and geriatrics should get that kind of special treatement.

The Duck

B===D —  –  -  ______      Spurt

Anyhow, to get to the meat and potato part. It said this out of nowhere :

“What the Fv<K does Al Gore Know about anything anyhow“   *scratch* *grunt*   “Global warming is a joke. It doesnt exist. What happends when you put an ice cube into water and let it melt ? The water stays the same fv<king level”.

I tried to reason with the ape for a short period of time, but it would apear it could only speak english, not understand it. Because I had more important things to do than argue the valid points of climate change with an ape, I went back to work. But the whole incident got me thinking…….

What do I actually KNOW about climate change, and global warming ? Very little. I hear about it all the time on the news, in newspapers, and in conversations with friends, and family. 99% of what I thought I knew, is pure speculation. I havent seen any proof of the ocean level rising. I have never been to either of the Poles to see for myself how the ice-caps are melting, and breaking away. Nor will I, most likely. I dont get more sun burnt now than I did as a child. Big cities, and industrial towns have always had a yellow stinky haze around them.

The one thing that I DO KNOW has changed, is the weather patterns. It seems to be going bizonkers all across the earth. Floods, snow storms, heat waves, tornadoes, tsunamis, hurricaines, and all other extremes are actually becoming a pretty serious problem. Im not so sure the ocean level will rise significantly, or that the climate in general is going to get a lot warmer. As we get more heat, and the ice caps actually do start evaporating, it will just create more precipitation, more air currents for insane ‘tropical’ storms, and tidal currents for tsunamis and such. All of these things together will make summers hotter, spring wetter, winter colder, and snowy’r, and …. well, nobody likes fall anyways. Gotta go back to school. But the weather systems will get crazy. From one extreme to the other.

Thats just my oppinion.

Now for the lamen science fair :

I am going to check into this ocean level rising thing for myself. I have devised a grade 5 experiment involving miniature icebergs, that I will create myself, and a sealed tub. Im going to make the goofy cardboard backboard thing, with the hypothesis……. and all the other stuff. I’ll figure out what those are later. I will be making some little vids, and taking some pics of the entire thing. Its going to be fun.

Feel free to make your own science fair project, and document it for us all to see. Also any input you guys have would be good to know. Thanks.

More later.

The Duck     B===o  –  –    -   -

When Chris put this site together we were all expected to assist. Fraser was going to do video games, Scott was going to do music, Robin was going to do movies etc. etc. and we were all going to do anything dork. The thing that I was supposed to cover was comic books and I’m not really sure why cause I haven’t really collected in years. In fact both Adam and Robin have probably forgotten more about comics than I’ll ever know. But I guess I had to have something to do. So here is my comic rant.

And it’s about Archie.

Yes Archie. I mean what the fuck! According to Wikipedia Archie has been around since 1941. That’s 67 years! And the guys still looks 18. Either he’s found the fountain of youth or we’re talking some serious undead shit here. If he had found the fountain of youth, I doubt he’d have kept the whole town of Riverdale around with him. So that settles it. You heard it here first, Archie is undead. But let’s look a little closer. At first I was thinking pure vampire. What with the way he’s always chasing the ladies and it only makes sense that eventually the whole town would be converted just by Jugheads appetite alone. But then I was thinking that they are always at the beach soaking up the rays so that theory doesn’t work either. Then it hits me……. zombies. They’re all freaking zombies. It makes perfect sense. Immortality in the bag and they still do the same things over and over again. Veronica is ALWAYS spending money. Betty is ALWAYS doing something sweet. Moose is ALWAYS clubbing people over the head. Josie and the Pussycats are ALWAYS waiting for their big break (although, I hear musicians are just like that). Pops is ALWAYS working the soda shop. That’s one of the defining characteristics of zombies; they’re always going after one thing. I blame Hollywood for making us all believe that the only thing they want is brains. And that’s the other thing, brains! Never, ever has any zombie ever exhibited an I.Q. higher than that of a love child between Beavis and Anna-Nicole Smith. Zombies are just plain stupid. Now let’s look at Archie. The guy has been chasing after the same two girls for over sixty years. What’s worse is that they both like him and he still can’t seal the deal. That takes stupid to a whole new level. None of his friends are any better. Did any of them become lawyers, doctors, carpenters or any sort of respectable trade? No. In fact they are all still in high school. Statistics state that at least one of them should have gone emo and off’d themselves by now. But they all just keep going. And going. And going. Which makes me wonder….? Do you think they’d ever consider an Archie/Shaun of the Dead crossover?

I debated for a while of what i was going to write about and how to make it interesting… I could talk about some gory stuff i have seem at work/school, like skin grafts that did not work so there is this open flap of tissue an inch thick hangin off somones body and being able to then stick your entire finger into the wound because it has tunneled. But i thought i would save some of that stuff for another time.

I think i will do some installments of how the group started and had chnaged over the years or maybe i’ll start it and people can pick up where i left off. We started playing at my grandma house that was for sale so i was staying in it while it was on the market. It was so long ago i can’t remember if we started of playing D&D or Rifts. Either way the first night we were playing we ordered pizza from panago, and one of those pizzas was BBQ Chicken and the White spent half the night witht the procelen god. Again my spelling is shitty. It Was good times and Garth is an amazing DM.

Its been so long i can’t remember the orginal core group: Garth, Me, The White, Ken, Gueab, Garret???? OK help with this?

LOOK AT ME DADDY !! Im a clown.

Sorry about my first post. Its a little weak. But I like it anyhow.

Expect to see more of these. MS Paint rules. 8B4L yo.

With love,

The Duck.

So here it goes, this will be your blogging etiquette and general discussion of blogging from people who know more than you….just kidding….POST.

This from a man who is learning what the difference between a fracking post and a comment is by being ridiculed and made fun of by his friends, this could b a run on sentence but i don’t give two hoots.

Its funny really we all go through English class and learn about verbs and conjectures and shit like that, but when we get online and talk to our friend its like LMAO and ROFLing basically the least possible words to get your point across. Then there is blogging, and from what I’ve found –in the two or so blogs I’ve done– is its like some sort of chat room with an English teacher sitting in corner making funny noises when you use bad grammar.

Or maybe its like going to a wine tasting event and talking about football or scratching your nuts.

People are just too sensitive. Yah yah its your inner most thoughts and your really care and shit. but really does it hurt your feeling when someone disagrees with you.  Do you have to insult there spelling or sentence structure because they hit a nerve.

Well i guess have all your thoughts on this later I suppose, that being nature of a blog and all. Though sometimes your thought are best kept to ones-self. Robin, the answer is yes, I have now missed playing some wicked video games where i shoot as many people as possible, to make this blog so there better be some wicked comments later.