Phonetic Alphabet

Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta (or David at the airport), Echo, Foxtrot...

Lately I found myself trying to remember the word substitutions for the letters of the alphabet.  Maybe it's the influence of Dollhouse (I still want to meet dolls Kilo, Uniform, and Whiskey). Or maybe it's because I'm tired of coming up with my own substitutions when I'm on the phone. But it's something I never needed to learn before and gave very little thought to.

So off I went to Wikipedia for a quick check.

That's always a mistake. There's no such thing as a quick check on Wikipedia.  It turns out the development of the NATO phonetic alphabet has a pretty interesting history.  There were debates and changes.  And it's impressive the system had survived largely intact over the years.

Except in CA, where the LAPD developed their own, and with other cities adopting the LAPD codes, it turns out to be a viable alternative.

When you're done with that, there's a fascinating article about Radio 10- codes.

If you find this at all interesting, spend some time in the Wikipedia articles.  There's all sorts of useless trivia to learn.

Shatner-Palooza: Nimoy on TJ Hooker

This is a 6 minute version of an episode of William Shatner's TJ Hooker.  Leonard Nimoy guest stars as Hooker's old partner.  About half way though, he gets to punch Shatner.  It's awesome to see the two of them together.

And you still get the whole story of the episode in just a few minutes.  Which demonstrates how little content is in many shows.

You can also see the video here.

Five things I don't like about the Wii Fit Plus

Wii Fit Plus is a great game/exercise program.  I've stuck with it for a month, and look forward to using it.  But it's not perfect.  Yesterday, I talked about Five things I like about the Wii Fit Plus.  Now it's time for the things I don't like.

1) Routine limits

It's great that the Plus let's you build your own routine from various strength training and yoga exercises, but that's all it let's you choose.  You can't add aerobic activities or balance games to your custom routines.  The system has some predefined routines with those features, so it doesn't make sense that you can't add your own.  I'd like to build my own one hour routine that starts with some balance games, adds yoga poses, moves on to strength training, goes into aerobics and then let's me close out with more balance games.

2) No routine scoring

When you run a routine that you build it moves from completion of one exercise to the start of the next.  The great thing is that it skips all the menu choosing.  That bad thing is that it also skips the scoring step.  It doesn't tell you how well you did or give you points at the end of the activity.  Seems silly, I know, but I want that feedback. 

3) No new slalom game. 

The slalom is my favorite balance game, but it's getting old.  I would have like it if the Plus included a new, longer version of that game.

4) The Balance Board is a little too small.

While it still works fine, it appears to be designed for those that do not wear a size 12 shoe (not that I'm wearing shoes on the board).  My feet extend beyond the preferred placement rectangles and sometimes my toes or heals are hanging off the edge.  It's needs to be about and inch or two bigger.

5) The dodge in the boxing game is too vague.

I can't seem to get this move right.  The graphic describing how to move the Wiimote and Nunchuck is confusing, and after a month of trial and error, I can't quite get this move right.  And I don't really know what I'm doing wrong.

So there are definitely some areas for improvement.  Despite that, I can easily recommend it.  It's a lot of fun, and it gets me moving.  And those are two very good things.

Five things I like about the Wii Fit Plus

Wii Fit Plus is Nintendo's latest exercise based computer program.  It works with the Wii Fit Balance Board so not only do you watch stuff on the screen, the system gives you feedback and, most importantly, a score.

Wii Fit Plus is sold as a sequel to Wii Fit.  It's actually more of a Service Pack.  Both of them sell for about $100.  The Plus however, is also available for $20 without the Balance Board, for users who already own one.

Here are five of the things I like about the Wii Fit Plus

1) It gives me a score.

I occasionally consider doing a push up or two in a hotel.  But the idea never lasts more than one day, or even 10 minutes.  The Wii Fit Plus, though, will score my performance on all the various Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobic, and Balance Game exercises.  Now, it's not about doing the exercises, it's about getting a higher score.  It's not about refining technique to improve workout efficiency, it's about doing all that to get a higher score.  Why does this matter to me?  I don't know.  But I need that metric.  And I need that competition against myself to do things a little better each day.  Losing weight isn't an incentive to do this.  Scoring better is.

2) It imports Wii Fit data flawlessly.

When I started it up the new version the first time, it easily imported my old data with absolutely no problems.


3) The end of day can be 3:00 AM.

Most games seem to define the end of day at midnight, just because that's when a day technically ends.  But I prefer to use it late at night.  The old version ended the day at midnight, so if I started playing with it at 11:30 PM and wrapped up at 12:30 it would think that was two separate days (because technically, it is) which was frustrating.  The new version let's me redefine the end of day to 3:00 AM.  It's much more accommodating of night owls like me.

4) Custom Routines

The Wii Fit Plus let's me pick from a bunch of different activities and the bundle them all together.  The nice thing about this is that when I do this, I don't have to go back to the menu after each exercise and choose the next one.  The game will just move from one to the next.


5) All the old games are in the new version

The Wii Fit Plus includes all the original exercises, games, and more from the original Wii Fit. The nice things about this is that I never have to choose which disc to put in. Everything is part of the new package. I can play the older games just as easily as the new one.

And with all these advantages, and using it 1-1.5 hours a day when I'm in Seattle, I should hit record scores in no time.  And maybe -- just maybe -- lose a pound or two.

 

Comcast and TiVo adventures

Last month, Comcast sent the latest notice that they were going to discontinue analog service for many cable channels.  Users who did not already have a digital conversion box would need to get a free one.

Last week they actually turned off some of the channels.  And that’s how The GF and I found ourselves at a Comcast service center in north Seattle.

We knew we were in for trouble when the signs pointed us to the overflow parking lot.  There were lines of customers stretching out the door.  It probably took about 25-30 minutes before we spoke to the rep.  She was pleasant, despite the teaming hordes of frustrated cable customers.

We left with a new cable box – the Motorola DCT-700.  It’s a nice, small box, but it was one glaring flaw – it has no serial connection. 

The GF has a TiVo.  Under the analog system, I could plug the cable input into the TiVo box, and use the TiVo as a Tuner.  TiVo could easily change the channel as needed.

That doesn’t work under digital cable.  With digital cable the cable box needs to change channels and then just send the video signal to TiVo.  That means TiVo needs to be able to tell the cable box what channel to tune to.

The cable box in my apartment has a port on the back so I can wire the TiVo directly to the cable box for changing the channel.  The GF’s new cable box does not have that port.  In order to change the channel, you have to use IR emitters. 

This device is a cable that runs from the TiVo box to two tiny light bulbs that simulates the remote control that came with the cable box.

And that’s where the problems began.  I setup the emitters, taped them to cable box, and went through the TiVo set up process.

The set up process is important because that’s where I have to teach TiVo how to talk to the DCT-700 (the cable box) because different cable boxes speak a slightly different language.

And for the next hour TiVo and I went through every conceivable remote code multiple times, trying to get the channel to change.  I Googled the configurations.  I read forums.  And had not luck.

In frustration, I dug through my collection of AV cables and tried a different emitter. And magically, it worked. So despite my internal swearing and thinking all sorts of nasty thoughts about Comcast, General Instruments, and Motorola, eventually it came down to a damaged 5 year old cable.

I’m just glad I didn’t call tech support.

Late Night Visitor

When it comes to ghosts and other supernatural critters, I'm skeptically open-minded.  By that I mean, I acknowledge the possibility that the souls of the departed sometimes wander yet on this side of the veil, but it's unlikely I'll believe any particular ghost story.  Except my Grandmother's. And, more importantly, my own.

When I was a sophomore in college, 19 years ago, I took the job of yearbook editor.  I learned a lot on that job.  Namely that I wasn't cut out to be a yearbook editor.  But I took the job, had deadlines to meet, and no matter how much I didn't want to do it, I had made the commitment and was going to live up to it.

The yearbook office was in St. Albert's Hall, a small building that was maybe 100' away from my dorm.  St Al's was the campus student activity center.  Level 1 had lounge space with a full kitchen, and level two was long, narrow coffin like offices.  It wasn't a lot of room, but it was enough.

Decades earlier, St. Al's was home to the nuns who used to work at the college.  Stories passed from student to student had it that one of them had hung herself in her room.  Did it actually happen?  I don't know.

What I do know is that if it did, I nearly met her.

Late one night, at about 3:00 AM, I was working on a bunch of layouts.  I was alone in the building; the front door was locked.  I sat in the upstairs office along the long hallway with my door open and the radio playing.

Step

Step

Step

Step

I heard someone walking down the hallway from the far end,  got up from my chair, and peeked my head out.  I was sure it was the night security guard just checking on things.  But no one was there.

I was shrugged my shoulders, figured it was nothing, and returned to my work.  I turned off the radio in case that's what I heard.  I pulled out a fresh sheet of layout paper.

Step

Step

Step

Step

This time the steps were closer.  They came from the middle of the hall.  "Hello?" I called out, but no one responded.  I got up, looked up and down the hall, and saw no one.  I stepped out of the office, and took a quick look around downstairs.

No one.

By now, I was getting a little nervous.  I could sense the goose bumps just below the surface of my skin.  But I was still alone, and there was work to be done.  I sat down at the desk and tried to focus.

Step

STEP

Definitely closer now.  Definitely not some animal or rodent in the building. And when I looked out, there was still no one in the hall. 

I sat at the desk and began collecting my things.  I figured I should probably go to bed soon since I was having trouble focusing, what with the phantom walker in the hall.

STEP

STEP

STEP

STEP

STEP

STEP

The mystery walker slowly walked right past my open door! 

I had no doubt these were footsteps, but still they came from nothing.  Now officially scared and making the sign of the cross, I grabbed my stuff, and got the heck out of there. 

I barely remember shutting off the lights.  I don't remember walking to my dorm; I have just flashes of the lobby in my memory.  The next thing I knew I was back in my dorm room, my heart rate starting to fall back below 500 beats per minute. 

And I never encountered that dead nun again.  But for whatever reason, that one night, she decided to check up on me. It would be a few weeks before I spent another really late night in that building.

There may be a rational explanation.  And I know few people will believe this story.  They/you are right to be skeptical.  But if I close my eyes, I can still here those steps coming down the hall.

If you've made it this far, I hope I haven't caused you any nightmares.  If you want more scary stuff, here's Jonathan Coulton's Creepy doll.  Listen and enjoy. If you dare.

Changes for Heroes?

It's been a long day, and I'm a little slow on my TiVo fast forward button.  I had to actually watch a commercial.  It would have been appalling under most circumstances, but this, well.  This was different.

Sure, it was still appalling, but for a different reason.  This commercial featured a shockingly exuberant Greg Grundberg, better known to many as Matt Parkman, the powerful telepath from Heroes. Grundberg was bouncing around the stage of a game show promoting the McDonald's Monopoly game.

So does this "in your face" ad mean that Grundberg is leaving Heroes?  Or does it mean he looked at the ratings and realized he was not going to retire on this show?

Or did he look at upcoming scripts and think being a fake game show host for McDonalds was his only chance to preserve some dignity or acting integrity.

Or is this just the latest indignity Sylar is inflicting on poor Matt Parkman?

One of the annoying things about Heroes is that they take the characters with the most potent powers -- the greatest potential to have a major change for the better (Matt Parkman and Hiro Nakamura) and just strip them down, humiliate them, or play them for comic relief. They are squandering some great opportunities with these characters.

Maybe switching to McDonalds isn't such a bad idea.

A comment from a NW Connection Flight Attendant

I boarded the a small plane for my connection out of MSP yesterday and clambered to my seat in the far back corner.  It was a regional jet so it's not like all the way back is that far back.  But  I got there and scrunched myself into the corner, lauding silently the comfort of using a scrunched up sweatshirt as a makeshift pillow against the plastic wall.  That's the real reason to travel with a sweatshirt on a plane.  The impromptu pillow uses.  That and by wearing it, it makes is less likely people will talk to you then when you dress business casual, but that's another matter.

As I waited to drift off to a fitful sleep for the next 45 minutes, the Flight Attendant gave her safety speech, which I could probably recite from memory at this point.  And then, just as we were getting ready to take off, gave us the other important piece of information:

"Ladies and gentlemen, you'll be happy to know that neither of our pilots are asleep, arguing, or using their laptop computers."

Thanks for the update, NW!

HWY 99 potential collapse

Seattle has an elevated roadway that runs along the downtown water front.  It was contructed with state of the art budgets decades ago.  That means it's loud, ugly, and dangerous.  It sustained serious damage in the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake and, while it's still open to traffic, it needs to be replaced.

Seattle's pathetic track record on civil engineering continues to rear it's head.  After the quake, everyone agreed something needed to me done. It's not just the Viaduct at stake, but also the seawall that prevents downtown from flooding.

So the people of Seattle and the state of Washington talked about it.

And talked about it.

And talked about it.

And reached a decision.

And talked about it some more.

Finally, it looks like the decisions are in place, but what to do about those decisions is once again popping up in the Mayor's race.

What it comes down to is you can't get real, quality infrastructure in place with the excessive democracy we have in this city.  Somebody needs to stop listening to the people and just build something.

I favor the expensive tunnel option of a few years ago, and even the new, smaller tunnel option that is the likely replacement.  It's not worth it to cheap out.  And by building now, in a recession, labor and material are cheaper.  Financing for the city  cheaper.  Now is exactly the time to spend on infrastructure.

But if that doens't happen, I'll be satisfied if we just take some action already.

Our Light Rail system is years behind schedule, not because of the bureaucrats can't run it effectively, but because we have to keep stopping and revisiting already made decisions.  Our Monorail project won in three elections in the space of 7 years, and was cancelled in a fourth election because I guess we weren't Really Really Really sure.

What the coolest thing to come out of this civic paralysis?  The DOT makes awesome disaster simulations. They did this for the SR520 floating bridge (pretty much the same rant).Here is their demonstration of what will happen to the Viaduct in the next earthquake.

Shatner-Palooza: Lust and Licentiousness

Shatner, continuing his quest to depose Howard Stern as King of All Media is now doing comic books.  Here, he talks about his new project. When he talks about frames and text, he almost makes sense. And the back of his toupee starts to come up. Plus the video has an awesome random tribble section.




Of course someone else is rewriting it for him.

"It's not your grandfather's comic book."

My future with Entrecard

I last wrote about Entrecard here.

Within the past couple weeks, however, I accidentally changed my Entrecard habits.

I had been able to hit my 300 drops in about 1.5 hours if all worked well. Often it would take longer, but that didn't mean I was just doing card drops for hours on end.  I would open about 50-80 tabs at a time, and let them load while I went and did something else.  After 10 minutes or so, I would come back and skim some sites, read others, and just drop and run on others that did not have fresh content.  But for several days I didn't quite have the energy to do that, and once I stopped for a few days, I no longer felt compelled to get back into that rhythm.

I'm not leaving Entrecard.  I'm not angry with them.  Their new approach to paid ads makes more sense than their older one; I don't like it, but I understand it.  I still see value in the service.  I'll continue to drop cards on the blogs I regularly read anyway, and will need to update my bookmarks so I can visit other favorites that I usually just get to by finding them in my Inbox.

My Entrecard use could turn into one of those old flame relationships.  You break up with someone, but still promise to be friends.  You both make the effort, and have a few awkward coffee shop visits.  Eventually  you start to miss phone calls and forget to return one another's voice mail and before you know it, a decade has passed and you find yourself wondering, "What ever happened to her?" You Google or Facebook them and find they have a new family and smile broadly in their pictures, and think, "That's nice." And your genuinely happy for them, if at times a little wistful.

From time to time, I'll still drop a lot of cards, visit new blogs, and hit my 300 a day.  On occasion.  I think. Or is that just awkward coffee shop banter?

What brings this on?

Basically, I  got tired of visiting 300 blogs a day.

It had been a habit for over a year.  And by visiting 300 blogs nearly every day, and placing ads on Entrecard every day, I was able to secure that top 3 spot.

I didn't decide to change my habits -- it just happened.  The triggering event was likely my rant on CSI: Miami where I commented about how I tend to ride things into the ground.  By writing that post, I lost my desire to ride Entrecard to the bitter end. That, combined with increase work schedules, and some spotty broadband performance made opening 50 tabs at once an unpleasant experience at best.

Once I stopped dropping regularly, my rank fell pretty quickly. Over the past couple weeks I dropped from the top 5 most popular EntreCard blogs down to the 60-75th place range.

My daily blog traffic dropped from 350 visitor per day to about 225.

And you know something? Some how the world didn't end.

Wicked in San Francisco at the Orpheum

Look familiar?  About a month and a half ago The GF and I saw Wicked in Seattle.  I wrote about it here.  It was a great show, and The GF liked it so much, she wanted to see it again.  So when w00tstock was announced for San Francsicso, we decided two shows made the trip worthwhile.

The show was essentially the same, as you would expect, but there were some subtle differences.  The stage didn't seem quite as wide. Some of the scene transitions seemed to overlap a bit too much.

The big difference was in the portrayal of Glinda.  I don't know if it was an acting decision or a directing decision. But it's interesting how a subtle change in actions and intonation can really change the way a character is perceived, even with the same script.

The Glinda in the Seattle version was more chipper, shallow, and ditzy.  She started the show as utterly clueless and unaware of the impact she had on others.  She was spoiled and self-centered, but didn't seem malevolent. The character was definitely a bully, but it was more because she didn't really know any better.

The Glinda in the San Francisco show was still chipper and ditzy, but she had a bit of a mean streak.  At the beginning, the character was played for exagerated comic releif, in addition to moving the story forward.  Despite that, it was a darker portrayal.  And she seemed to have more questionable motives.

The Seattle Glinda tried to get what she wanted and didn't really give any thought to the people she hurt along the way.  The San Francisco Glinda tried to get what she wanted and seemed to delight in other people's pain along the way.

Sure the San Francisco Glinda grew through the story, and became a better person, but the transition seemed less genuine than the one in Seattle.

I'm not complaining. The show was fantastic with powerful music, transformative songs, and excellent live effects.  Regardless of where you are when it comes to town, go see the show.

w00tstock!

I just have some brief comments.  w00tstock was an awesome show tonight.

Paul and Storm were hysterical (even if no one threw panties).

Molly Lewis did a great musical piece about the death of Abraham Lincoln.


Adam Savage showed us 100 things he wants.  He is more of a geek than is evident even on Mythbusters.

Kid Beyond did some amazing stuff with just his voice and a synthesizer.

And Wil Wheaton  was as funny as ever, and despite being the biggest star there, also seemed the most like the audience and is a great embodiment of the geek culture.

If you are in the LA area on 2009-10-21, there is one more w00tstock show, and I think tickets are still available.  Flex your inner geek and go.

Musicians hear better due to better internal CoDecs

Monday afternoon, All Things Considered featured an interesting story about how musicians hear better than non-musicians, not because of their ears (hardware) but because of the way the brain processes the audio (software CoDec (well, kind of -- it's my analogy, not NPR's)).

Musical training can improve your hearing, according to several studies presented in Chicago at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

The studies found that serious musicians are better than other people at perceiving and remembering sounds. But it's not because they have better ears.

Sounds come in through the ears. But they travel through the nervous system and get interpreted by the brain.
That means your hearing can change even if your ears don't, says Nina Kraus, who directs the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University.

"Your hearing system becomes tuned by the experiences that you have had with sound throughout your life," Kraus says.

...More

You can read the entire transcript here or listen to the report here.

I like to think of hearing as a processing issue in many cases.  Here's why.

I began noticing some years back, that sometimes I had trouble understanding what someone said.  I would ask them to repeat themselve, and while I was asking that, I suddenly understood what they said.

Or I'll hear something and not understand it a first.  If I think about the sound for a moment, I'll be able to understand it.

Have you noticed similar experiences?

What that tells me, is that my ears are delivering the appropriate data to my brain, but sometimes my brain simply requires more time to decode those sound waves into something that actually has meaning.  It just takes a few more CPU cycles.

To extend the metaphor a little further, it's like those grainy videos they show on CSI.  You'll see just pixealated blobs.  That's what my ears deliver to my brain. Then they press the "enhance" option on their keyboard, and suddenly the video is perfectly clear.That's what my brain does to the data my ears deliver.  Except that with hearing, this actually happens.

Musicians have better trained their brains than I have.  Their brains do a more efficient job of processing audio than mine because they live it.

And that's a fascinating process.

Alton Brown Book Signing at Third Place Books

I have made many futile effort to win a "What's that Wednesday" over at Kathy's The Junk Drawer.  While my refirgerator is still Junk Drawer magnet-free, it does inspire this opening.

Can you identify this? Don't worry if you can't; just scroll down and I'll tell you.

On Friday night, the GF and I headed up to Third Place Books to see Alton Brown and ask him to sign our copies of Good Eats: The Early Years.  Later in the evening, we met up with the GF's coworker Gus, his wife Lulu and their seriously large infant while they waited at the signing, too.

We got there at about 4:15 and there were already dozens of people in line.  The GF picked up our tickets and her book;  I went in to purchase mine (I also walked out with a copy of Marjorie Liu's "Darkness Calls"). They planned to shut down the store 5 hours early because of the anticipated crowd.

The line kept growing and growing, like the fireworks snake from an early South Park episode.  By the time they let the line inside, there were hundreds of people.  By the time Alton took the stage at 6:30, there were 900+ people there -- all for an evening of culinary geekery.

In case you had any doubts, the new, trim, Alton Brown is awesome.  Rather than read from the book, he just took questions from the crowd for about 50 minutes. He was funny, quick, informative, and thoroughly entertaining.

He mocked the Food Network website.

He praised his wife.

He mocked mini-vans.

He advocated chaining children in the kitchen so you can get some ROI from them.

He mocked vegans and said the only vegan dish he would make would be a vegan pie, and only if he could use actual vegans as the main ingredient.

He advocated eating pandas

He mocked molecular gastronomy.

He offered to by a woman's artificial chicken for $1,000.

He praised his two favorite foods: eggs and beer.

He was snarky, sarcastic, and smart.  If you get the chance to see him, do it.

He spoke for about 50 minutes (some of my favorite lines are here) and then began the signing marathon.

He started signing books at 7:30.  We finally got to see him at 10:10.

He looked tired.  No, he looked utterly exhausted.  He was desperately in need of a nap and a shave.  He had just flown in that afternoon and had to fly out to San Diego at about 6:AM the following morning.

Despite that, and despite already having spoken with hundreds of people, he was still nice and friendly.  He took a few moments to chat with us while he signed our books, and the object at the beginning of this post -- the GF's Kitchen Aide Mixer:

We got the idea of getting non-book objects signed some years ago when we saw him for the second time.  We brought wooden spoons to a presentation and he happily autographed those.

We then envisioned getting spoons signed by a number of Food TV personalities and famous chefs.

Of course, we never met any others.  So this time, I hauled the mixer around on my back until it was our turn to chat with him.

Apparently lots of people ask him to sign kitchen items -- mixers, blenders, and more.

When we left, he probably had another hour or more to go. 

Alton Brown may be snarkier on stage than he is on TV, at the heart of it all, he is a class act who genuinely appreciates his fans.

If you like his stuff, his recipes, or his show, go seem him if he comes to your area.

If you are still reading at this point, I'd also like to point out that despite the late hour and crush of people, the staff at Third Place was also great.  Especially they cheery, purple-haired woman who took the pictures for us.

You can see a few more pictures of the event here.

John and Molly Get Along

This is a bizarre and well done short about a brother who interviews his sister for a job.  It stars John and Molly Knefel.  You may recognize John from his performance  in The Negotiation.

FlashForward seems like a winner

I was skeptical at first, but FlashForward is winning me over. This ABC serial drama has an interesting premise, reasonably compelling plot, and a story line that's not too convoluted.  My enthusiasm is mildly dampened by the twist at the end of tonight's episode (don't worry, no spoilers) which seemed a bit too contrived but the show is good enough that I'll let it go.

The premise of FlashForward is that one day, everyone, everywhere in the world suddenly past out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds.  While the were passed out millions died as suddenly out of control cars wrecked, 800+ airplanes crashed, and similar problems popped up when people who operate machinery were as unconscious as everyone else.

But people weren't quite unconscious.  They actually saw 2 minutes and 17 seconds of a date 6 months in the future.  People saw where they were and what they were doing.  They ended up with a memory of the future. When they woke up, they corroborated there stories with one another.

So now the show is about how people deal with this glimpse of the future and the investigators who try to figure out what happened.

I've seen a lot of Star Trek in my time (I know -- shocking, isn't it) and time travel is often badly done with temporal loops and figure 8s that just leave me scratching my head.  Heroes has just gotten awful in its time travel stuff (I'm pulling for Hiro Nakamuara to succeed at what he wants but he's got to stop with the lousy year jumping -- it was a cructch for the show that has atrophied the leg.)

But FlashForward is getting it right so far.

You can debate whether this is a time travel show or not.I find is most interesting as a meditation on predestination.

Now that you know what your future holds, what do you do?  If you don't like it, can you do things now to make sure that future doen't come to pass or are you stuck with it regardless of what you do?  If it is a future you want, can you consciously do things to bring it about?  Or since you know the future, can you not worry about doing things to bring it about because it will happen regardless?

If it's not the future that you want, you may try to change things.  But is it possible to change things and alter the future at all? Or will all attempts to avoid an outcome?

When people know the future, are they compelled to do things they might not otherwise do just to ensure that future comes about?

In that sense, it calls to mind some of the ideas from Bad Monkees -- Omne Mundum Facimus  or "We all make the World."

These are the questions science fiction often tries to answer regarding time travel.  FlashForward is asking them the right way.

So did April 29, 2010 happen the way it did, or did it happen differently than it did?  I imagine we'll get some answers before then.

I can see them coming.


Oh, and be sure to visit The FlashForward Experience and connect with Facebook.  It's pretty trippy.