Firefly

Why did no one tell me it was a Western? As I said in my last post, I bought the entire series of Firefly thinking it was a really good sci-fi. And it is.

Except that it's a Western set in space. When I told people they said, "oh but so was star wars".

No, Star Ways is a swashbuckling adventure set in space. Light Sabres, Laser Crossbows, Space Barges. The whole thing is a pirate-type genre.

Firely, on the other hand, is a Western. As depicted by the horses and wagons seen in the pilot, by the fact that even though it is set hundreds of years in the future, people still use revolvers and talk in an American accent (although they do sometimes lapse into Chinese when swearing).

I can still remember ElshaUK whooping with delight at my face when the title music started and it slowly dawned on me that it was basically cowboys in space - not my favourite genre especially :P

On the other hand...

It's a damn good series. No, really. Really, really good. I can see why people say the Movie version, Serenity, is better than Star Wars. That's because it is. It doesn't concentrate so much on the story but on the characters. And let's face it, that's why the last 3 Star Wars movies have sucked so much - because they don't have characters or a storyline, just lots of wonderfully colourful special effects.

We've watched about 6 episodes now and are hooked. The episodes tend to revolve around the whole western genre as do the characters, so you have Mal, the ex-soldier captain of the Firely-class vessel Serenity. You have Zoe, his comrade in arms, and Wash, Zoe's husband and wise-cracking pilot. And that's another thing. A sci-fi series that openly talks about sex. As in Zoe telling Wash "Hey husband, let's go have some sex."

The other characters make up the usual sort of people you'd find in a Western town - a chaplain (Book), a prostitute (Inara), a doctor (Simon Rivers) and a mechanic/blacksmith (Kaylee).

And it all works wonderfully well. Go and buy it and for heavens sake, give it a chance to get going (by episode 3 I guarantee you will want to carry on watching).

Now we're looking forward to watching the feature-length movie at the cinema. If I convince ElshaUK to go with me...

Other news - I'm ill again. :( A re-occurrence of the original infection from 2 months ago. Why oh why does this happen to me.

I hate 'phoning in sick. Your employers always ask you the same questions:

"Have you seen a doctor?"
Err. Yes. I've seen a doctor and he believed me when I told him I was ill. Why can't you believe me?

"Will you be in today/tomorrow?"
Err. Shouldn't I get better first?

"It's really a bother, we're so busy here."
Great. I love being a slave as well.

Companies should just wake up to the fact that their employees are actually human beings and stop treating them with carrot/stick motivation. It would probably make everyone happier. The Star Trek era should just arrive and make monetary concerns redundant.

...And finally, I can't finish without mentioning that I'm now level 58 and soon to be 59 in World of Warcraft. Hopefully in the next week or so I should be - finally - 60.

And then I can begin all over again. :)

Same Old

Just an update really. No new news to tell - or at least any interesting news.

My 5 year anniversary came and went at work with nothing said at work. I doubt if anyone even noticed. Meanwhile, I have been told that I am now the Hardware Engineer. I'm sorry, I thought I was the 2nd Line Support Engineer. Now it seems I've been relagated to make sure the infrastructure doesn't crumble. Great.

Scythe's replacement has finally been found. Another South African, by sheer coincidence apparently. I don't believe in coincidences and I told Management that to their faces - they laughed it off but I still wonder.

I'm starting to grind away in World of Warcraft so I can get to level 60. I'm at level 56 at the moment, soon to hit level 57. They say the game opens up at 60 but I'm sure what they mean is, if you have the time... For the first time in a while, Horse, Scythe and Kitten were all on at the same time - which is frankly astounding, given that we now all play at different times. They're all level 53, which gives me a slight advantage to hitting 60 before them.

I am still reading Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrell. It's a good book and the adventure hasn't lessened up in the slightest, although I have, if you know what I mean. I'm not keen on reading huge books so even though I will be disappointed when the story ends, I will be happy to start reading something else.

I'm not too sure what else to read - Engines of Destiny sounds about right. A "What if" story, it asks:

"What would happen if Captain Montgommery Scott (now in the 24th Century [ST:TNG - Relics]) zipped back in time to just before Captain Kirk disappeared into the Nexus [ST:Generations] and beamed him aboard a cloaked ship, thereby saving his life?"

The answer is, of course, a complete disaster. Kirk never disappeared into the Nexus which means he wasn't there to help Picard stop Soran from exploding the Viridian Sun. It also means that Kirk never died in that stupid way.

As you can see I am a Science Fiction fan. The other day, interested by the film Serenity, I went out and bought the entire series (14 episodes) of the original tv series, called Firefly.

Tonight I get to watch the first episode with ElshaUk to see if it was a good choice.