JonahWeiland.com

Well, I’ve got a cold. My regular post convention cold. This year I avoided getting one after Comic-Con International in San Diego, but not so much luck following Wizard World Chicago. It’s the airplane air, I’m certain. Plus I forgot to bring along vitamin C with me. Ever since I started taking it regularly about 4 months ago I haven’t gotten sick (almost a record for me - my average has been once every two months for over a year now). Sure, it may be a placebo type effect, but regardless I’m sick and I didn’t take my VC.

Good news is I have plenty of Olympics to catch up on while I’m nursing this cold. When I’m not dozing off to sleep, though.

Personally, I like the Winter Olympics better, despite the fact someone called me a pussy for liking them better the other day. This weekend I’ll tell you exactly why the Winter Olympics are more manly than the Summer Olympics. I’ve got the evidence and I’m going to share it with the world.

First, where the fuck is my NyQuil?

I’m not a trekkie. Or a trekker. Or a trekkette or whatever the fuck they call people who give their lives over to world of Gene Roddenberry’s creation. I’ve seen maybe ten of the original series. All of the “Next Generation” series. Half or so of the “Deep Space Nine” series. Very little of the shit box “Voyager”and only one episode of the shit bucket “Enterprise.”

But I have seen all the films and enjoyed most of them, so I guess that makes me a complete dork then.

At any rate, about three or four months ago Spike TV started to air “Deep Space Nine.” I watched it sporadically when it first aired, never following it diligently. I think I had something better to do, like go to the car wash or something. When Spike TV announced they’d begin airing the series beginning with episode one I figured I’d give it a try.

See, I’m a science fiction fan. The problem is, any true sci-fi fan with taste knows that most modern science fiction, especially on television or film, sucks the ass (that’s really an unfortunate saying). Most sci-fi is a cliché of its own genre, falling into the same trap repeatedly and running to the time travel story plotline way too quickly to solve a ridiculous problem. With that in mind, I decided that trying something sci-fi related to occupy my time wouldn’t’ be the worst idea.

You know what? I was right.

I know I’m years behind on this, as “Deep Space Nine” ceased production years ago, but this is a very decent little science fiction program. Even better than the series that spawned it, “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” I’ve been watching “DS9″ for a couple of months now and am surprised by how decent the program is. Sure, it falls into very a-typical Star Trek traps more often than I’d like (poor directing, series cliché, other various and sundry issues), but overall the stories are pretty solid and the characters are engaging and interesting. And the series gets better as it gets older, or as some like to say, the series gets better as the star of the show, Avery Brooks who plays Captain Sisko, looses his hair.

Yeah, I’ve been told by fans of “Babylon 5″ that “DS9″ stole ideas from their show, but what do I know. I haven’t seen much of “B5,” because I couldn’t stand the intensely bad acting, but I don’t really care. “DS9″ is good.

And “DS9″ is good in ways that “Next Generation” failed. Most every character on “DS9″ is compelling, something that couldn’t be said about “TNG.” Captain Sisko gets better with age and what you first think of as bad or weird acting, becomes something very familiar and almost comforting. Quark often steals the show. Dax is, well, SO HOT! (WOW, I just totally acted like a Star Trek Geek. Fuck me.). The complicated Odo is a very sympathetic character. Even the kids, Jake and Nog, are really interesting characters. Of course the best character on the show had to be the Cardassian Garrak. Incredibly interesting character with a style all his own. You’re pretty much guaranteed a good episode of Garrak is in it.

Probably the least interesting character on the show has to be Major Kira. While I haven’t seen every episode yet, she’s just so regularly annoying that if the episode focuses on her, well, you’ve got a 50/50 chance of actually being entertained.

One of the keys to the success of this series are some very interesting and well developed villains. The Cardassians turned out to be one of the best adversaries in Star Trek history. Gul Dukat is the man you absolutely love to hate. With the inclusion of the Dominion and the fascinating Jem Hadar, well, the overaching storyline was finally intact.

My favorite episode so far has to be when Sisko’s son Jake looses his father, who keeps showing up at irregular intervals, following Jake as he ages. Some of the acting and makeup effects are lacking, but the main plotline is very, very touching.

So there you have it. I’ve admitted I like “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” Now fuck off.

I have a weakness for ramen noodles. I really do. Yeah, those $.10 cents a pack soup deals you can buy at the local grocery store. I’ve always had a weak spot for them. The other night I discovered a different way of preparing them and I thought I’d share with you.

It’s simple. Boil one cup of water in a skillet. Not a pot, but a skillet. Once the water has boiled (which won’t be very long), put your noodles in the skillet. If you’ve got a lid for your skillet, go ahead and throw it on there for 20 seconds or so. It’s not necessary, but it speeds things up a bit. After about 20 seconds flip your ramen noodles so the other side is laying in the water. Put the lid back on for another 20 seconds. Remove the lid and now begin separating the noodles. Keep working at them, moving them around, until the majority of the water has been soaked up. Remove from heat and sprinkle the soup mix package on top of the noodles. Now, begin mixing the noodles until the soup mix is evenly distributed over the noodles. Apply some garnish and voila, top ramen style chow mein noodles.

If you like the ramen, as do I, I’d suggest hitting your local asian food market. Generally the store bought stuff at your local market is trash compared to what you can get at an asian food market. I prefer the fresh ramen myself, but most of the asian brands are far superior than the american brands. Better tasting noodles with a more interesting tasting soup mix.

Check this out.

So I’m flying to Chicago this Thursday for the Chicago Geek Fest going on this weekend. I’m a geek, I can say these things. I arrive at Midway airport around 5:30, will take the train out to Rosemont and hope to be in my hotel room by 6:30. Fine. That same night the Chicago White Sox play the visiting Detroit Tigers. The same Detroit Tigers that my ex’s brother pitches for. Fantastic! Except for the game will begin at 7:05 and I probably won’t be able to get there until well after 8:00, which is no good. I called the airline this morning to see if I could take an earlier flight. My choice was to leave three hours earlier, 6:00 in the morning, and pay $200 more. Can’t do that.

Of course, while I’m in Chicago this weekend the Tigers make their way to Anaheim to play the Angels for three games. Their last game is this Sunday at 7:35, my flight arrives back in Los Angeles at 7:30.

Crazy. Two opportunities, none to be realized.

Congratulations are in order for John Ennis. He’s the brother of my ex-girlfriend, who I’m still friends with. When she and I were first going out, John was pitching for Monroe High School and was drafted by the Atlanta Braves out of high school. He kicked around in their farm system for a while, ultimately leading to a move to the Detroit Tigers organization, which meant good things for John. This week he got the call and will be pitching for the Tigers. He did pitch a couple of games for the Braves, one of which was shown on ESPN.

Congratulations! You’re living the dream!

Interesting article about the Republican’s courting the Amish vote. Smart move on their part. If you can get them to vote, especially in Ohio where there are some 55,000 of them, that could make the difference for the state. But the best part about this article was this jab from the Democrats.

“If I know Republicans and their grass-roots operations, they’ll spend most of their time trying to phone bank the Amish,” said Kerry spokesman Mark Nevins.

It’s not often I laugh out loud to a political news story, but that did it.

The FCC approved new technology for the TiVo folk that will allow uses of TiVo2 machines to send files to friends over the Internet. Read it here. This of course is technology that was already available to some other DVR services like ReplayTV or home built systems like SageTV. This may force me to upgrade to a TiVo2 finally.