They say children inherit their parents’ characteristics. It’s easy to guess where I got my creative side: from my Mom. She’s a professional quilter who wrote a book on applique, teaches at the Smithsonian, and tried unsuccessfully to pass on her quilting genes to me. Instead, I build giant castles with Lego bricks, sketched all over any school notebook I ever had, and write. (more…)

UPDATE: TVShowsonDVD.com has updated with some early pricing information — it’s going to be steep: list price $530, although DVDEmpire has it discounted to $418.70. You can buy the individual box sets for far less than that, and I’d recommend that you do.

Paramount Pictures has become the latest studio to offer a “Complete Series” box-set, in this case, for “Star Trek: The Next Generation“, originally released on the format in 2002.

Although they’ve announced the set, they haven’t released information on packaging, price, or extra features. It streets October 2nd. What can be expected? This is all guesswork:

Beautiful packaging, some sort of nice “guide-to” booklet, and a $300-ish pricetag, that’ll probably be discounted to $250 on Amazon.

If I were you, I’d hold off on buying this set and try to scoop the individual season sets off eBay. Once this set hits, I bet you those prices plummet as die-hard fans try to sell them so they can replace them, while the previous eBay demand drops.

While in 2007, October 2nd falls on a Tuesday, in 1987, it fell on a Friday, on a week referenced as “The Week of September 28th.” Want to guess what television show premiered “The Week of September 28th” in 1987?

“Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Gary called me a “worthless shit fucker” today. I’d actually just pulled into the parking lot of the Gucci Giant in Hunt Valley, there to buy two jugs of milk because I’m out and I love me my milk. As soon as I pulled in, my phone rang and I took a call. I then called Gary. He then called me a “worthless shit fucker”, but the story needs some background.

Silent Bob, once a full time driver at the Indy, as well a burned-out marijuana-and-other-hard-core drug smoking music-festival follower, moved to the Carolinas a few weeks ago. Since he was going to be back in town for a couple of weeks, he requested that Gary put him back on the schedule. Yesterday was supposed to be his first day back, but judging by the “Fuck You” written across his shift last night on the schedule, it didn’t take much to gather he didn’t show.

The first thing I did after seeing that note was to apologize to Gary — I’d called him very sleepily this morning, having slept through my alarm clock and waking at a quarter after ten. Was I scheduled at 10 or 11? My sleep adled brain didn’t know, and neither did he when I called: “Well, if you’re scheduled at ten, you’re already late, so take your fucking time.”

I was scheduled at 11, thank goodness, but apologized anyway to Gary. “At least you’re concientious about it,” he said, explaining that he’d had to stay and cover Don’s shift.

It wasn’t particularly busy today, and I spent a good amount of time calling up people trying to switch shifts. I’d rather not work Father’s Day, after all. When I was checking out, I mentioned that I’d tried to switch with Silent Bob or I-Chopped-My-Finger-Off-And-Don’t-Know-Why.
Gary, seizing the opportunity, asked if I’d be available to come in if Silent Bob didn’t show. I said “Sure” (I can use the $$), then left, drove up to the Giant, and got a call on my cell phone from ICMFOADKW, who was about to leave Ocean City with his girlfriend in order to be back in time tonight to work. Obviously, my call came right in the nick of time and he was overjoyed for the opportunity.

Then, of course, I had to call Gary, and explain that if Silent Bob didn’t show up, he’d still have to find someone to cover that shift, since I’d be covering ICMFOADKW’s.

“You worthless shit fucker…”

I wasn’t always the best opponent. I could be sloppy in setting up my defenses, and sometimes my offensive forces were easily shattered, routed, hunted down and destroyed. But, y’know, if I couldn’t win a decisive military victory, I could sure be a total pain in the ass for my opponent to find and eliminate.

The image is courtesy of Daniel Butler. Thanks for letting me post it, Dan!