The Trouble With Regeneration: A Countdown

So I haven't written in awhile, almost a year but alot has gone on, long story will be explained later and too many restarts that I got bored with midstream when it came to writing for this blog, lots of changes coming. Anywho found something worth discussing. So David Tennant's era of Doctor Who ended on New Year's Day with the broadcast of the End of Time Part Two. I have a long analysis planned at some point of Tennant's final story but for now I wanted to analyze and rank all the Doctor regeneration stories to date, so let's quit it with the long diatrobs and begin the countdown...



Quick Note: Obviously no one has any knowledge of how the Eighth Doctor regenerates into the Ninth Doctor so this countdown is minus one so I figured I would just acknowledge that now.


9. Seventh to Eighth Doctor (Doctor Who TV Movie, 1996)- From watching the recent regeneration documentary on the War Games DVD, this one gets a lot of flack but I don't see the trouble in this one. I know showing one Doctor regenerate into a new one that will encompass the most of your viewing of the tv movie may seem a bit out of place especially when you are targeting a new audience that knows nothing of the original series and seeing the protagonist fail upon introduction is not a great idea but it's the only way to establish continuity. Just how this new Doctor got to this point needed to be explained. It's also key to note that is the most violent circumstance of the Doctor needing to regenerate as he is brutally gunned down while exiting the TARDIS and for 1996 when American television was heavy on sex and violence it fit firmly into the psyche of Doctor Who heading into a new century or at least what was attempted sadly.

8. Sixth to Seventh Doctor (Time and the Rani 1987) Here is a tricky one. Here you have the circumstances of having your leader actor fired from the role and needing to fastly replace him with no regeneration story and an actor not willing to return to record a quick regeneration sequence. The whole of "Time and the Rani" let alone the whole of Season 24 of Doctor Who focuses on setting in place finally the introduction of a new Doctor that is needed to be brought out of nowhere. Indeed this story has you sitting there wondering 'what has happened to Colin Baker?' With all do respect to Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor which tries so hardly to keep the show above water, especially towards the end, the troubled history of this regeneration spared from anything regarding continuity within the show lies in the behind the scenes trouble of keeping the show in place towards the end of the eighties. Nobody wanted it, and within one decade we had scene almost four doctors on screen. The actual regeneration while dubious of its actual circumstances within the show's canocity actually looks believable onscreen eventhough years later we would find out that McCoy himself donned a blonde wig to play the sixth Doctor in his own introduction scene. It also doesn't help that the idea that the Doctor simply bumped his head on the console and regenerates makes him seem so vulnerable and not the strong minded character views have grown to love over the show's lifespan. One strong point to the controversy of the reason behind the Sixth Doctor's regeneration is in fiction, especially during the Virgin New Adventure's novelization it allowed for some interesting storylines involving the Seventh Doctor believing he intentionally killed off his sixth persona to be born. There was even a BBC book novelization years later called "Spiral Scratch" which gave a justifiable reason to the Sixth Doctor's regeneration, so not all is lost in this troubled episode.

7. First to Second Doctor (Tenth Planet, 1966) It may seem shameful to put the very first instance of regeneration within Doctor Who this far down but due to a lack of build up within in the story to the actual event (probably for good reasons) and a lack of real footage from the final episode of the "Tenth planet," the first regeneration is lost on a real impact. After fighting off the Cybermen in the North Pole he returns to the TARDIS with his companions Ben and Polly to rest except he knows more than them and more than the viewers will ever fully understand. Surrounded by strange sounds and a spooky aura he collapses to the floor and changes in front of his friends' eyes. It does however come off very convincing simply based on the use of a lense flare to create the strange effect as well as the Bill Hartnell Doctor's muffled dialogue of refusing to die, something the Doctor would bring up on several other occassions when his life was ending.

6. Ninth to Tenth Doctor (Parting of Ways, 2005) Ah! the first regeneration of the new millenium and the new series. The inital build up to Christopher Eccleston's Doctor into David Tennant's Tenth Doctor was muffled on its anticipation before the first series of the revived show was off the ground completely. Having said that and the fact that you never feel like you got fully use to the cockny northern smile of Eccleston, his exit after bringing the show back on high marks after a 16 year absence is well choreographed. For once, the Doctor is accepting fully his regeneration's imminent arrival. After knowingly sacrificing his body to save his companion's life, he knows right away what breathing in the powers of the time vortex means. There is almost that point right after he releases the energy back into the TARDIS that he looks and realizes his time is up. But the crowning achievement is how he not keeps the viewers and Rose calm about what is about to happen to him. He knows what will happen may surprise his companion but he reassures her its normal for him and that eventhough he is changing his appearance he is still the same Doctor. The hallmark is acknowledging how great he was and that he had one hell of ride in this incarnation, almost a shakespearan like bow metaphorically speaking, curtains fall on the Ninth Doctor honorably.

5. Second to Third Doctor (The War Games, 1969) While we never actually see Pat Troughton's Second Doctor regenerate, the circumstances none the less are rather harsh. Having summoned his own people to help restore the War World that he has been thrown into with his companions, the Doctor is returned to his homeplanet by the god like Time Lords where he is put on trial for interfering in time and space. The signifiance is tremendous, here is a man so hell bent on his renegade life style must finally come to terms with the laws he has broken. He is sent into a terrible fate: exiled to earth in the 20th century with access to his ship wiped from his memory, his companions sent home with their memory wiped and worst of all his appearance changed once again as part of the sentencing. There is something awe inspiring and dark about watching the Second Doctor spiral into oblivion as he sentenced to earth and forced to regenerate. Legend tells that the BBC almost contimplated cancelling the show after this story was broadcast. It would have made for quite a series finale had the show ended after six seasons with our hero spiralling towards expulsion after running for so long and in an unidentifiable form. Thank god for Jon Pertwee though.




4. Third to Fourth Doctor (Planet of the Spiders, 1974) I won't delve too much into this one, not because I think it's a bad story or regeneration but Planet of the Spiders has always been lost one me as a really good story mainly because there seems to be a lot of filler in it. None the less, what matters is the ending. Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor had built up so greatly over five years this macho, heroic demeanor and to have his final story focus on the Doctor's flaw of fear is even more fascinating. His death is almost shakespearan as he lies lifeless on the floor of UNIT HQ having been devistated by radiation from the Metebelis 3 spider crystals. Weakened, his heroic exterior is restored for one final instant as he lays satisfied that he conquered his fear and that life is only a remnant of existence. Given a push by a fellow Timelord, he regenerates once more given the chance to live life again.



3. Tenth to Eleventh Doctor (End of Time, 2010) So this is relatively fresh but there was so much satisfying about the Tenth Doctor's exit. While the integrity of the story itself is questionable and the fact that the Doctor's exit comes off egotistical, the regeneration comes off the heal of both a personal triumph in the re-energizing of the classic show but also a tumultous run for a man now considered the best Doctor ever, surpassing Fourth Doctor Tom Baker. The fact that we are given such a prolonged scenario leading up to his regenration not only acts as the closing of one chapter in the new series but also gives us as viewers time for personal goodbyes to everyone on the show. The Tenth Doctor's line of "I don't want to go" can be seen as a personal dissapointment for both viewer and character as if to say "shucks, we were getting so use to him." With a rather over the top regeneration, the Doctor revels in his regeneration as we give rise to the newest incarnation, with giddy anticipation. I think the one thing that makes this year long build up to David Tennant's exit interesting is that we have seen the Doctor change so greatly in five years. Now with his omen of death hovering over him he suddenly fears death more than anything, not that we would expect him to invite it but he is so gung ho on living he comes off cowardly initially for avoiding the inevitable. Nevertheless his last act of kindness which leads to his demise shows the true heart of the Time Lord, one of good nature and a desire to see life expressed even if it means at the cost of his own.

2. Fifth to Sixth Doctor (Caves of Androzoni, 1984) This one normally gets ranked the highest but for me its one notch below, not for any particular reason. One of the great aspects of the character of the Doctor is his spurts of heroic tendancy depending on the incarnation. Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor isn't necessarily regarded for being the most daring of the Doctor's but a very popular one indeed. Timid, kind hearted and very reluctant against risk and violence, the Fifth Doctor in "Caves of Andrazoni" is a rather different breed than what most viewers had seen of him over three years. He is a bit calculating but still retains the timid persona in dangerous scenarios. His final act of sacrifice for the sake of Peri's life is so daring it can only be described as epic. He even goes as far as to prolong his own death long enough to save Peri a demonstrated towards the end of Part Three as he visually sees himself slipping into the regenerative cycle only to wave it off a little longer. Poisioned by the spectrox toxemia, he crashes a ship onto the planet of Andrazoni Minor to retrieve Peri and takes her back to the TARDIS where he gives her the antidote, sacrificing himself and regenerating on the floor of the TARDIS. Its stories like these that makes me wish Davison had stayed on for a fourth season.

1. Fourth to Fifth Doctor (Logopolis, 1981) There is a main reason why I chose Tom Baker's swang song as the best regeneration; it was the first one I ever watched. When I first discovered Doctor Who back in the third grade, I was shown upon initial introduction both an introduction story and a regeneration story so that I could grasp the unique nature of why this show was on for so long. My friend showed me Tom Baker, believing best to start on the high mark of the Doctor's incarnations. Tom Baker was, THE doctor for many who were introduced to the show here in the United States as well as Great Britain. Holding the record of seven years on the show he was the most identifiable of the Doctors with his chesire cat grin, witty humor and long multi colored scarf. His exit in 1981 from the show was highly anticipated and dreaded for many who seemingly had grown up with his Doctor. Just as I had found myself dreading David Tennant's exit from the series this year, Baker's was the same but his send off is tremendous. The build up to the Fourth Doctor's regeneration in "Logopolis" is epic. As he is in pursuit of his arch nemesis the Master, the Doctor is greeted on Earth by a mysterious white figure known as the Watcher, who we later find out is the future incarnation of the Doctor. As if things were so bad in the universe that the Doctor was some how overlapping himself and his death is imminent. Baker's Doctor throughout the story is left with a gaze of fear and inevitable consequences as he knows his death is coming but how he has no clue. As he sabotages the Master's plans on the dish of the Pharos Project on Earth, he clings to life as he dangles from the tower. He sees his friends and enemies flash before his eyes before plummeting to his anticipated death. On the ground his accepting grin and utter of "it's the end, but the moment has been prepared for," just shows the endearing alien quality of the character and just what science fiction is capable of if done right. As he slowly fades into the Watcher's body to ease the regeneration, a new young face comes into play, introducing us to another Doctor fresh with new hopes and new adventures. I will never forget the impact this story had on me and to this day it is ranked as one of my top ten favorite stories of Doctor Who.


Well that's it for now, I hopefully should be back in the next week with some other entries I so desparately need to get posted on here. Peace

JMS

Critics Schmitics, what Matters in a movie?

Okay so here is one of two posts today, something I haven't done on here before but have thought about numerous times: a movie review.

I find it funny how fickle critics can be as both movie goers and critics. The line between just sitting with a bag of pop corn and enjoying a film is very fine for them. Because of expertise and for some like myself, partial degrees in cinema study, we are taught to pay attention to how a film is made more than just what it is. While the plot and story are essentials, lighting, cinematography, sound, and overall presentation matter as much. That's why I haven't been surprised at the amount of flack being delivered to the new Transformers film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. To many critics, Michael Bay is cinematic poison, an incubus of God like proportions sent to screw the art of film making by cramming 360 camera shots, slow motion, and explosions out the ass into 2 hour action fests. Bay is the reason the term summer blockbuster was coined, having pumped out at least one film a summer or so for the past fifteen years. Critics alike hate him for his predictable directing jobs and continuity lacking storylines. But as Michael's bank account has shown, his simple minded film making pays off for the audience who just enjoy watching things go boom which is not a bad thing at all. Coupled with his long standing partnership with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and they rarely go wrong, except for maybe the Island. So with all the flack being put on this sequel what is the final verdict for someone who doesn't always need to stick his nose up at loud bangs and jiggling female body parts?

Despite my worries of the film being something I was going to hate based on feedback from friends who weren't too thrilled, I would be a fool to say I didn't enjoy the movie regardless of it being about an hour too long. Bay and Bruckheimer once again bring to the table what they do best, making the audience glare at the screen with "OOO" and "AHH" reactions and leaving them breathless at what today's technology can do. If these two were screenwriters, they would be great with beats in a script, not the plot.

The plot is relatively simple to figure out. Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBouf) is rushed back into the world of the war between the autobots and decepticons after a chunk of the Allspark cube that he destroyed in the first one summons to life the Fallen, an ancient decepticon who was banished from his race and has been in hiding waiting to bring about the power of ancient weapon buried on Earth. As expected alot of the old baddies are back: Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave and even the absent minded (fictional) United States government, this time the bully being a very unthreatening national security advisor named Galloway, very scary. The plot has alot of the point A to point B structures and the good versus evil arch that the first one had. The storyline has a bit of a better set up with the concepts of Earth's past and its relation with the decepticons being a unique plot point but nothing real spectacular.

Character wise, development is never in favor in the Bay world. Shia LeBouf and Megan Fox, returning to her role of Mikaela, really have no character development. The most progress that Sam gets through while trying to avoid being blown to bits by robots is his struggle to tell Mikaela he loves her. I will give a brief moment to conduct a universal aw and then get back to the heart of the matter.

In a way character development is left suspended in a film like this to focus on the action and visual aids that come with a Transformers movie. Monuments being blown to bits, robot on robot carnage and slow motion captions lifted directly from Bay's previous work. There is even a reference to Bad Boys II if Bay's ego wasn't big enough.

The most noticable flaw and it's an offensive one at best is the racial stereotypes that are expressed in the film. To point to an obvious reference, look no further than the Amos and Andy like autobot team of Skid and Mudflap, ghetto talking bots with gasket gold teeth and the inability to read symbols from their own language. Have both these guys run through a drive through at KFC and I'm pretty sure we would have the first blackface team of robots. The dialogue is also a sticking point with alot of uneccesary cursing that was absent from the first film. Sight gags like Sam's mother accidentally buying a bag of pot brownies on the Princeton University campus. Finally the big offender as if black like robots weren't enough is the wise cracking robot factor. Compared to the first one, there is alot more dialogue between the autbots and decepticons with alot of the main bots getting a personality thrown into them. Starscream is now an Egor like persona, while we are introduced to Wheelie, a autobot who transforms into a tiny toy truck and mimics the likeness of someone like actor Joe Pesci. We also have Jetfire, an elder decepticon who carries around a mechanical cane and weezes and spits and is likely in need of a care center.

In many ways what we have been delivered is the pop corn action fest that we as movie goers look forward to each summer. Summers are lined up for big budget films, not the academy award winners that get nominated at the Oscars, although the Dark Knight proved otherwise. Final verdict:

4 out of 5 stars

Disecting the Importance of Sweetheart of the Rodeo

I wonder greatly if people ever step back to wonder why albums long since past their charting prime suddenly have a hush hush dialogue amongst the music community as being real gems and masterpieces long overlooked. Albums that Rolling Stone magazine shunned so quickly upon release are now brown nosed back into music greatness because they always knew all along that these things were right. The late sixties no doubt coined a lot of albums like this and it’s amazing to see how the landscape was then and why these albums fell so heavily under the radar by their peers but now have become adored by music lovers who are now grandfathers or fathers themselves. Dylan’s late sixties work was met with many questions and outrages from people who looked to him so heavily to be the spokesman against everything that was wrong in the country at the time. Many blamed the motorcycle accident in 66’ for these resulting albums but how can you explain that to acts like the Byrds who released an album like Sweetheart of the Rodeo with some breeze that it went unnoticed and uncared for upon its release in July of 1968, what of them? I don’t believe the band had suffered simultaneous motor cycle accidents but many would be quick to point the finger to the firing of David Crosby from the band as a source. Regardless this doesn’t answer why suddenly these albums are now looked at as classics.

In many ways both Sweetheart of the Rodeo and Dylan's Nashville Skyline signaled a transgression back to simpler messages in music. For the Byrds, the spread-the-message mentality of their hero Robert Zimmerman was now a pasties of it’s former self as Dylan post motorcycle accident even tried to find his footing back into the society of great folk singers that he had unabashedly alienated a few years before and the Byrds were doing exactly the same. The folk rock explosion the Byrds had ushered in some three years earlier with the electrified Mr. Tambourine Man had lost insurmountable steam after the jettison and firings of three original members and a lack of stellar material spanning over three classic albums. So why is it now that an album like Sweetheart of the Rodeo is viewed as a monumental classic after being revered and bashed by critics and fans alike back in the late sixties?

In retrospect it’s a thing of time for the Byrds. Just as people had wondered why Dylan chose to strip back on albums like John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline, McGuinn and company were looking to find their footing again. Original members Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, and session drummer Kevin Kelley were looking for the right outfit that didn’t necessarily place them amongst the ranks of the David Crosby’s and Neil Young’s of the world. Enter Gram Parsons and his soulful and painful voice of the country world that ushered in tales of heartache and lost love to the unaware commercial world thanks to the contribution of a 12 string richenbacher from McGuinn when Parsons was brought into the Byrds in the spring of 1968. Strange changes were a foot on both sides of the line for both the direction of the Byrds and the ideals of mixing genres of music so closely mirrored that their followings seemed poised to meet at the battle lines. The first engagement of this union would occur when the Byrds traveled to Nashville to record what would become “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” and to become the first “long haired” act to perform at the world renowned Grand Ole Opry.

The band may have been welcomed with a chorus of boos and charlatan chants but it was the country not the people that would fuel the material on the album. To show an obvious reference to their desire to be like Bob and go back a few twenty years they opened the album with a cover of one of his Basement Tape Demos, “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” which symbolically was the band putting their foot down on the beliefs that they were done and through with the exit of David Crosby during the sessions for the Notorious Byrd Brothers album. Other tracks played as homage’s to their ancestors that they so trustfully rooted their material when they crossed folk with rock music as seen on tracks like “I Am A Pilgrim” and the Guthrie track “Pretty Boy Floyd.” But what this album was really about was not it being a Byrds album but a showcase to the at this time hidden talent of Parsons who had in his arsenal some of real true grit songs of the prairie fastened to mask as music of the California folk rock scene. As pretentious as it sounds it would be hard fast to argue that Parson’s two penned tracks on the album “Hickory Wind” and “One Hundred Years From Now” ushered in the first wave of country rock that would engulf Southern California in the early seventies thanks to acts like The Eagles, Poco, and the later Parsons-Hillman outfit The Flying Burrito Brothers. Even so minus writing contributions the master recordings of Parson’s vocals on “The Christian Life” were an early showing of the talent Parsons had to offer to a new line of singer songwriters waiting in the wings.

The album was garnered with a universal cry of outrage from Rolling Stones editors and the hippie generation who tugged so hard on the coattails the band had dragged with them when they recorded “Eight Miles High” and who had watched them act as a page to the story book of the Monterey Pop Festival one year earlier. The album was a commercial flop and would only be shadowed by the acts last two studio releases as being their worst selling albums. However that was forty years ago, the album is now a beacon of back to basics songwriting long missed after Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley put their stamp on what would be dubbed rock n’ roll in the fifties. The album may not be the best vehicle to showcase what the late sixties were all about but it undoubtedly was a showcase for artists trying something different from the overexposed norms of the psychedelic music movement that had been wrestling the countryside between 1967 and the end of the decade.

Regardless I still cry false pretenses by the nay sayers over at Rolling Stone who met this album with confusion and disgust when it was released and now retreat back on their words greatly. Just another example of the old codgers making up for lost time while they still can. Times like this I miss Ben Fong Torres' contributions to that fabled magazine, anyone willing to answer my confusion?

Just A Little Lovin' in the Morning

A friend of mine once wrote in her journal that she would love to be awoken by a kiss at 6 AM then an alarm at 7, boy how I feel that belief. Regardless I have been on this rotating spindle of happy feel good music that has really made me want to say fuck it and be spontaneous on trips, decisions, and things like that but I also feel that is completely impossible without screwing something up. Anywho, I do love the idea of just exploring the parts of this country and world that have always fascinated me, anything but New Jersey which I feel like you have seen if you've been to at least one town in north jersey and one in south jersey. I have been thinking alot about southern California and yes the whole fucking state is bankrupt and i have been told it's not as glamorous as it is cracked up to be but whatever I really want see it for myself.

Just a thought there I don't know I'm getting cabin fever being couped up in my apartment studying for exams. I go home Friday so I can't wait for that. Also I started a Twitter account this week. I know I know I hate them and I mock people who start them but there is something enjoyable about watching random people finding interest in random shit that you post in small blurbs. Also its good self promotion if you have shit to share, I'm hypnotizing the masses in a way and all I ask is for just a little lovin' in the morning. EH EH EH HE SAID IT CAUSE THATS THE TITLE OF THIS BLOG EH EH! Off again to the races folks!

Closure

I never thought a television show would actually make me a bit teary eyed but House seemed finally do just that in the weirdest ways. It's weird how without even trying you end up caring for a characters on a television show but somehow this did without me even thinking about it. So as many people know actor Kal Penn announced that he has been offered the position of associate director of the White House public liason. Now whether that will make much of a difference down the road I highly doubt but the position meant that Penn had to give up acting for a bit so they killed off his character of Lawrence Kutner on "House." I must say it shocked the hell out of me because I really liked his character but outside of it being a television show it was an interesting story about dealing with grief when a tragedy happens, something I have had to deal with for the past month and a half. 

I think it's time for me to come clear about how I am in the aftermath of losing my father. Well for one thing I will never be the same, for good or for worse but I have learned to trudge on in life but I have now noticed the discrepancies that have come without his presence. I am very confused in life all options I look forward to but loath because I'm worried about screwing up and the future. This was normally where my dad was good at helping me out but now it just feels all weird. On top of that not being able to do things the same anymore sucks. I have no one to talk to about music and movies with them being able to convey back similar ideas and interest and well it looks like I won't be going to many concerts anymore. Probably a financial miracle in a way, so thanks. 

I had a vision about him today while just sitting in class. It was pretty positive thought about years down the line when we might meet again. I walk into this crowded hallway that leads into a pond like area with a fountain, all stone walls, marble, like walking into the swan and dolphin at disney world. I see all my friends and family members, then my grandparents together again after years, my mom and carmen just smiling and then at the end of the hall way I see my dad and I just run up to him and hug him just hug him for minutes all end with both of us sobbing with happiness. He looks a little older and greyer but its still as I saw him last. I thought I was gonna lose it in class thinking about but it was very theraputic response. I actually for the first time since the service listened to the mix I had made for that day and I was just happy again. I'm still very stressed out with worrying about the rest of the semester and what will come next year but I'm okay for once. 

Everything Has A Time

When we last left our fearless leader he was in the grasp of coping with being an adult. You've seen his adventures before, they are neither new or old but a repeat of past endeavors that were never fully solved because of his incapabilities to mature, grow, or even understand why things happen for a reason. This week our hero finally breaks his silence and the typical mold after cataclismic events in his young and endearing life.

They life is all a stage, or something like that. Well I sometimes wonder act my life is in as far as the clear sequence of events that unfold and this past month has never been a more prominent example of that. I won't go into details or the full blown experience but suffice to say the phrase "losing a best friend," is an understatement. When life couldn't get more confusing I lose my source of sanity to an extent. It's been very hard to process everything I have been feeling but needless to say I have an empty void that is never going to be filled and I have basically stayed quiet about what I normally talk about because well I don't have my listener in the room anymore. I'm not a different person in that I'm still happy go lucky me but I am missing the outer shell I had for the first 21 years of my life and it's hard to glue everything back together.

Right now I'm just trying to get back on track, finishing this semester up right and doing well in my classes and then moving onto my senior year. When I have the time I will update on other things but for now I wanted to let everyone know that it's okay not to be fine but I'm fine for the most part.

Carolina Hardcore Ecstacy in Jersey

Wow! six! six blog entries! I don't think I have ever achieved doing that many without getting completely bored with writing in one of these. However it's also been about five weeks since the last entry so I will give an update on things.

School has been ridiculous to say the least. Classes have been good, had a housing situation that just was too confusing to say the least, and well life is just normal and dull as it tends to be. Friends have become open and shut cases because they have been stressed by school work but for some reason I'm perfectly fine right now. Eventhough it doesn't greatly effect, the economic crunch is finally getting the best of me. I need to think ahead and save up for things in the coming months namely books for my potential summer classes as well as numerous other expenses. I'm looking at getting a second job on campus if I can and pick up some hours during the week and weekends. That would give me a good reason to not go home weeks since I am always striving to do so this semester.

My 21st is next week and it already feels awkward. I don't know why but eventhough I am looking forward to my birthday weekend, I know that 21 isn't as exciting as the prospects seem and since I am starting to feel old it doesn't help either but I will make the best of it when it arrives.

Well I will report back soon with a good entry on my comic con experience this past Saturday so stay tuned.