A blog by James: Gamer, Father, Geek.

Farscape has to be in my top 10 tv shows ever. I was probably about 17 when it first aired and I stumbled across it on BBC2  part way through season 1 and easily fell in love. For some reason the DVD box sets have always been hellishly expensive, and still are. At £30 ish per season on iTunes I could just about justify the cost, even though it’s a rip off when you consider how old it is and you can buy the entire run of something like West Wing for £50.

Anyway, I managed to quickly plough through the first season in about 2 weeks and I’m pleased to say on the whole it has aged well. Production values still look good, the actors nailed the characters early on and the stories are a lot of fun. The downside to watching any tv show back to back is that the character and relationship developments at times feel like they are rushed, but that’s a trick of the mind. You have to remember that usually a 22 episode series will span nearly half a year!

The basic premise is astronaut John Chrichton gets slung through a wormhole to another part of the universe and lands on a prison ship in the middle of a breakout. This prison ship is a living ship and the prisoners on board are a priest called Zhaan, a warrior D’Argo and a dethroned monarch called Rygel. In addition to this is Pilot, an alien that’s plugged into the ship (Moya) and who as his name dictates is the pilot of the ship. They of course escape and spend the rest of the show on the run from the Peacekeepers who are not as nice as their name might suggest.

One of my favourite aspects of the show is the thing that put a lot of people off it, the wonderful creations of the Jim Henson Creature Company. I used to hate it when people said it was “Muppets in space”. To call these creations muppets is a bit of an insult, the design of the characters is brilliant and as the seasons go on they get even better. The Scarrens are a particular favourite of mine.

The highlight of season 1 for me is the introduction of Scorpius who to this day is my favourite SF villain. What I like about him is that he is so intelligent. Whilst a whole base of Peacekeepers are fooled by John, Scorpius calls him on it instantly. Sure he has certain special abilities, but I like how Scorp cuts out the BS and gets things done. He’s not a stereotypical villain who will go at great lengths to explain his plans to the enemy, he just gets in there and does things.

So then, any bad sides? Very little for me. There’s the occasional boring or low budget episode (“Jeremiah Chrichton”) and I found the rock music a bit intrusive early on in the season. Ben Browder’s acting is a bit OTT/hammy at times but Farscape doesn’t take itself too seriously so it’s all part of the fun.

Overall Farscape has aged well and is just as much fun watching a second time. I think it will be a while before I move onto Season 2 (mainly due to cost!) but I really look forward to it as I have fond memories especially once Chrichton has a Scorpius inside his head (way before BSG did it!).

It’s what makes the world go round. It’s also what I’ve never, ever been good at managing. So I’ve decided to give it a go. I spent a couple of days playing with the Numbers app for iPad (a scaled down version of the OSX equivalent of Excel) to keep a closer track on my expenses and hopefully save some money. I have OU course fees that need paying next year and for a change I don’t want to slap it on my credit card!

Speaking of credit cards, I really need to stop using them. They really are the devil. I’ve done a little debt tracker for them and it’s scary to look at. The good news is my main bank loan will be paid off in about 2 years which frees up a large chunk of money a month that should go towards paying off the cards, and I think a year after that it’s possible we’ll be getting a decent amount of money that could either go towards a new house or pay off any other debt.

Of course this is all in theory. I know what I’m like, and when unexpected things crop up the credit cards tend to come out. However it is worth trying for and so I’ve set up a second current account that I will transfer some monthly ‘me money’ to be used for luxuries for me, I will make sure some money goes into my savings account and the rest is for the bills!

My next post will be related to money saving, and it is an idea borrowed from ‘devious2k’, I’m starting a ‘Pile of Shame’, a list of games I own that I have not completed or in some cases never even installed. The idea is I’m not allowed to buy any new games until then old ones are completed.

I have been debating whether or not to use my iPad for work purposes. I can take registers on it, I could take notes on it in briefing, use it to show pictures to kids or do some translating without having to haul back to my desk, loads of uses. The thing stopping me? Not wanting people to think or say “Ooh look at him with his iPad, doesn’t he think he’s good!”. Basically that I’m a show off. Although there is a small truth in that, I do like to show it off, it is actually a useful tool! It’s just everyone else uses paper and I would stick out.

Well today I thought dammit, I spent a fortune on this thing and this is 2010, if I want to use new technology I bloody well will! I haven’t had too many comments from staff or students which is good. I actually felt a little uncomfortable when people asked me to ‘justify’ the device.

Bering the geek that I am, I’ve used the database app Bento to create forms for briefing and a checklist for form time. I am forgetful and having a list like that will help me. The fact that it’s not on paper means I won’t lose it either!

So I shall not care what others think, this thing is making me more efficient so all you luddites can think what you want!

I’ve written my thoughts on the final episode of Lost on my Lost website, but I want to repost it here because it’s personal to me. I want to make a separate post on the fallout of the show, but not here, I don’t want to sully my utter love for it

I was awake at 4am on Monday 24th May 2010. Any other date and this would be a depressing time to be awake. But today was special. The end of Lost. Was it worth getting up for? Yes. A million times yes.
It goes without saying that I am of course a huge Lost fan. You can call me a fanboy or apologist or whatever you like, I love this show flaws and all and what you are about to read comes from the heart. The reason I’ve not said this is a review is because it probably wont be all that critical.  Of course the rest of this article contains major spoilers, read ahead at your own risk. Read more

Is it sad that I’m counting down the days until Apple announces the price and release date for the iPad? Just 6 days to go until I know how much money (that I don’t have) I’ll be spending.

The answer of course is yes. Yes it is sad.