words

Just a page break in the monotony of SciFi posting:
I love words. I have devoured entire dictionaries to explore the nuance of the english language by looking at root words and their etymology. Throw in a little Latin, a whole lotta knowledge about a whole lotta nuthin' and you get my favorite list of made up words.
And here are the nominees in no particular order:

Geekdom: n. the realm of things related to being a geek and the geek lifestyle. I made this word up for my blog and then last week found a link to a site that freely admitted to "poaching". Of course I went a little nuts feeling like an egg in hot water... but hey, the word is now in the blogosphere so why do I care if I get the cred?

Descension: n. If a group pf whales is a pod then the swarm of diners who descend on a breakfast bar or other buffet/cafe setting like locusts on triticale is a descension.

Ignoratti: n. pl. plural of "ignoratus", a Latin derivative describing an individual displaying blatant disregard or ognorance of socially accepted behavior.
This word was developed after walking into a particularly disgusting room in which a guest had: cut their callouses and left the peelings on the floor, managed to fail all attempts to get toe nail clippings into the trash can, left snotty and bloody kleenexes scattered across the floor and allowed a candy bar to melt all over the bedspread. These things, one would hope, are things a person would be embarrassed to have friends see upon entering a home, yet... they do not mind grossing out the housekeepping staff with it. UGH!
see also sapiens giganticus ignoratus nonpatris, subspecies of human with the common classification huge ignorant bastard.

Wikipediot: n. an individual who depends soely on the internet site wikipedia for their research materials. This is a site that allows its readers to amend, augment and "edit" entries in its on line encyclopedia. Frequent and avid users of this site neglect to fact check with reputable sources in print or sites administrated by authors and experts on a given subject.

and my new favorite word that I found in my head during the creation of my last post:
Dreamscaping: v. This should be self explanatory. But just in case it is not; dreamscaping is a verb meaning to create with dreams. A dreamscape is a fabrication of the imagination which can be manifested in the physical world or left in the mind.

Enjoy these words. Use them often. Help our living language to evolve. And for more visit Professor Mike Sheehan at http://www.verbmall.blogspot.com for my favorite made up word of all time, and I quote
Hesthographomania: which is the touristy compulsion to buy and wear clothing emblazoned with place names.

and just to make you all nuts:

... All I can hear are those

Words that never were true

spoken to help nobody but you..."

the monkees

broken record

It is painfully obvious to me that I will be on this topic for a while. First because I realize that 16 years of SciFi channel has made me complacent, thinking that there will always be a SciFi channel. Second because the one reader I have may get really sick of the subject. And thirdly, it will be painfull because I will be reattaching a limb that has been dangling by a stringy tendon. Science fiction is the ultimate guidebook for understanding an Aquarius. It's major themes of hope, common good, responsibility and technicolor dreamscapes of the imagination are keys to the Aquarian archetype. Those themes apply equally across the board, government and governed. We are dreamers building realities where there was only empty space. And some people don't get it.
I've been surrounded by people who don't get it. People who think imagination is a collossal waste of time and energy, that art is for people who write grants, and store bought schlock is good enough for everybody keep telling me I have to buckle down, fly right, be logical and keep my feet on the ground [head out of the clouds]. And I have let them dictate how I interpret the view in my mirror. In an effort to not assault my brother and sister with ideas, novelty and invention, I have suppressed my outer SciFi geek. Well, based on what Michael Weiss said about his last art installment, its more like repressed the geek. All that time shut up in a dark closet waiting for an empty house so that she could sneak out and play has atrophed a goodly portion of who she was. And it shows.
I used to know who I was. More importantly, I used to know who my people were, where they were and why we were united. If you put this mini battle into a Mutant vs. Human context, I'm on Proffessor Xavier's side. But, I am hiding in the woodwork. That is to say, the me that found more than slick entertainment value in the SciFi genre.
There are ramifications that I had not fully considered until this de-geeking of SciFi started. Sidebar, de-geeking sounds very benign, like extricating your computer from a nasty worm or spider's malignant designs. But, since we are dealing with people, it really amounts to the kind of culling preceding a genocide of any magnitude. We were brought out into the light with the flashy programming and neato gizmos, thinking that someone finally got us. Oh they got us. In their sites. Just enough freedom and tolerance to allow the miscreants to reveal their true nature and you get Salem all over again... okay, I exaggerated. Still... it would make for a good plot in the vein of Perretti. Christians vs. Humanists. And that folks is the best idea I've had for a plotline in nearly a decade. Sadly it comes out of my paranoia. Anyone want to run with that go ahead. Back on point: one of those things that has atrophied is my vision.
I can't see things like I used to. Sure, I still have mad dot conecting skills. But it is superficial. I used to have these great OMG that is a GF Plot! or a GF Character moment that made my body feel like someone poured warm honey over my head. Good feeling until you realize that you have to clean up the mess... i.e. write the stupid story with proper punctuation, spelling, grammatical usages et all. Now when I am connecting dots I see dark things in corners that no one should be talking about for a while yet or I'm just laughing with the kind of banal glee a geek can get from absolutely nothing. I used to see plotlines and characters. I used to see heroes defy greed, violence and apathy. Now? Now I'm thinking a claymore, stick of C-4 or a zat is the only solution to every problem. I see corporate raiders taking over and there being nothing done to stop them. I used to see that I had power.
That is really the probem with Science fiction. The archetypes endure hardships that would break a "regular" human spirit. The characters have a consciousness that recognizes value in each individual because the individual makes the whole. Everyone has power to effect changes in their world, and science fiction, even with its capacity to shred your nerves with special effects and fantastic adventure at warp speed, puts the character in a place where he/she/it can develop personal power that does not contradict the establishment. At least that is the problem that I have with people who hate SciFi. They feel like in claiming personal power for yourself that there is an intrinsic reciprocity that denies them theirs. THAT is so far from true it would be laughable were it not for the fact that belief dictates reality. When two beliefs clash the one with the greater faith in their belief wins. I am handicapped by the very thing that gives me power. The whole of the genre's protagonists' core value sums as "First do no harm." As we put the rest of the world ahead of us for the greater good we assume that it means we have to bear the harm. Stupid, I know. But its not a perfect system. And in the end....
I have lost my train of thought because people are talking in the library like its a frakking coffee house!!!
In the end I put myself into a little box and allow myself to be set on a shelf in Fibber MacGee's closet til somebody decides I've sufficiently aged [read been forgotten long enough] for a yard sale. This disconnect from the world that first taught me a code of honor... What? No, I was lerning this long before I got to catholic school... what teamwork was about and that the individual cannot be sacrificed for the collective anymore than the collective can be decimated for the wants/needs of the individual. This is the world that taught me how to be greatly responsible with my great powers. This is the world that built me. I don't know what kind of Aquarius I would be without scifi. I don't know what kind of human I would be without it. I don't know that the circumstances of my home life wouldn't have devolved me into someone kin to the living dead. I don't know that I would be planet bound now. I only had limited contact with my grandparents during my formative years where I should have been learning about society and my role in it. As the oldest I had to help Dad with siblings and fend for myself outside of the demands of basic necessity. This is where my teachers came from; from Vulcan, Starfleet initially. Ray Bradbury showed me worlds I did not want to live in, how to avoid them [by embracing Roddenberry]. From books to movies, these were my friends and teachers, masters and guides... a life line.
How can you trash a whole classification of work that has the capacity to teach you that you are more than a tax id number? More than a voter? More than the list of acronyms at the end of your name? Mine is a biased view to be certain. But the thing is science fiction isn't the empty calorie choice that it is often labled. SciFi geeks aren't antisocial... we're just part of a different society; a society that exists next to this one. One on the verge of supplanting a weakened network with a stronger, more vibrant viable alternative where no one is a waste.
I still say Jesus was misquoted in the Beatitudes: the Geek shall inherit the Earth.
And maybe that is what the Ptb's are afraid of.

old scifi

Realizing that I neglected to expound on the topic of digging up old shows... I guess I should actually tallk about that. I got into Science fiction, as long time readers know, through Star Trek. There isn't one thing that drew me in, it was the whole package. Since I was 5 and not really certain of much, Roddenberry's world was a comfort. Each part behaved as it was supposed to. The Enterprise came to the rescue. McCoy badgered Spock. Spock kept a calm head. The Klingons weren't soft and flabby. The Romulans always kept you guessing. The guys in the redshirts died. Scotty could fix anything and in less time than he told you he could do it. The admiralty behaved like the execs at SciFi [couldn't resisst. It is futile afterall] and people did the jobs they were given to do. The real world is much less predictable. And consequently much more disturbing to a 5 year old introvert.
Roddenberry was not the only purveyor of Science Fiction to draw my attention. Buck Rogers, Dr. Who [Tom Baker], My Favorite Martian, to some extent Lost In Space, the Original Battlestar Gallactica, Thundarr the Barbarian, Super Friends, Superman [either Reeves], Batman in any incarnation were the foundations of my trek through the impossible. For that matter, since I didn't know about technology, Mission Impossible looked a lot like science fiction to me. At the very least it was magic.
The 80s were a little light on hardcore scifi until the dawn of a new Trek era. Horror/suspense enjoyed a revival with Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside and a new OuterLimits and the Ray Bradbury theater. But we had Wizards and Warriors, Beauty and the Beast, Knight Rider, and ALF for a bit of network fantasy until scifi recovered from its 70s hangover.
The 90s really turned the tide with shows like Time Trax, the bulk of Quantum Leaps seasons, The Invisible Man, Seaquest, Andromeda, Forever Knight, to some extent the Pretender, Stargate SG-1 on Showtime before its big move to SciFi, the little known Adventures of Briscoe County Jr., Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Xena, Hercules, Sliders, Alien Nation, X-Files, Babylon 5, Highlander, Millenium, MANTIS, The Flash, Lexx, Firefly, Lois and Clark, Earth Final Conflict, Early Edition, and all the animated stuff that cramps the internal hard drive.
The ot years have been slim. While we had 5 seasons of Atlantis, SG-1 is no longer in production. But we do get the reinvention of Dr. Who, Sanctuary, Jeremiah's post apocolyptic hip hope [yes, I meant hip hope] with an unlikely Malcom Jamal Warner sharing the lead with just as unlikely Luke Perry as SciFi heroes. Invasion, the 4400, LOST, and a new era of fantasy were ushered into the living room with Charmed and Angel.
My point, and yes I had one, is that SciFi channel has 1000's of hours of opportunity to give us what we love about science fiction: science fiction. Of course they don't want to be the ossuary of the obscure, running tons of things that weren't good to start with. But they have lots of options that eliminate the need to fill prime time slots with wrestling, poorly crafted reality tv shows and knock offs of fairly decent big screen movies.
One of the most underviewed and under appreciated films I have ever seen is Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. This is especially sad when you consider the making of this movie. The current buzz worthy scifi hit Sanctuary uses the same technology that makes Sky Captain an absolute marvel. SciFi channel is the perfect place to showcase a movie like this. Do they? How often? Obviously, it isn't enough.
SciFi has the name recognition, even if it is a generic spelling, the advertisers and the fan base to make compelling and visually appealing drama/comedy/action the norm rather than the abnorm. So what do they do with this great power?
Whatever it is it isn't done with great responsibility. And it isn't done for the sake of the genre. What is being done at scifi is being done to make the major networks feel better about the poor programming choices, the lack lustre plots/characters and scripts it produces on a regular basis. Scifi is taking the lowest common denominator in the most popular network formula shows and trying to dress it up for those of us with cleaner and more sophisticated palates. Yeah right. Give Calvin some ranch dressing for his green goo and he still won't eat it. Odds are not in mom's favor. The suits at SciFi are going to be left with a lot of green goo to schlep when we decide to get our fill somewhere else.
And what a waste. I watched most of those shows I mentioned on a regular basis. Most of the scifi geeks I know watched most of those shows. And most of us are buying what we can on DVD or doing the download thing because we have been abandoned by our parent, SciFi. I couldn't get into this version of Battlestar. But I do have to agree with the majority posting on the topic across the internets, with the end of BSG, I am at the end of my scifi alegiance. True, I am loyal as always to Sanctuary. Sadly the new season is going to pull a Sopranos on us. But there is always Fancast/Hulu. SciFi could have been something really great. It may have even eclipsed the major netwroks or even HBO, Showtime and UPN as the next best place to make your advertising pay offs. But that is the problem isn't it?

celebrate your heroes

So I waded through all of the posts for the last 12 month. And I found tons of things that need addressing. I guess I must have hit a wall with the dark days of the year because my frequency dropped dramatically. One of those things that needs addressing is the subject of Heroes. I only managed to wax fangyrl about Richard Dean Anderson. If you watch the Simpsons then you know that every chick in the free world loves MacGyver, and my humble voice gets drowned out in the chorus of praise singers. So heres a partial list of persons who you can look forward to meeting if you've not met them yet. On the heels of Scifi's stupidity, I think it is important to reiterate the good in the genre.
Dr. Helen Magnus
Dr. Major Samantha Carter, SGC
General Jack O'Niell, SGC
Dr. Daniel Jackson, SGC
Andrea Thomas/Isis
Sherlock Holmes, Jeremy Brett
Professor Charlie Epps
Captain Jean-Luc Picard, USS Enterprise
Captain Kathryn Janeway, USS Voyager
Spenser
Professor Charles Xavier

Yes, the realm of geekdom is vast. Yet it is not its size that insures its future glories and continued successes. The realm is under attack by an enemy from within. If we do not celebrate our Hereos we lose them to the mists of time. If we fail to recognise the heroic in others we then lose the ability to see it in ourselves, becoming victims of circumstance.

we are legion

I am not the only one who thinks that this Scifi thing is lame, morally reprehensible, intellectually bankrupt, spiritually corrupt and in poor taste. I found pages of comments in a twitter search this morning. My mind is still boggled.
Isn't it morally wrong to falsely advertise a product? Scifi is for science fiction. Not wrestling. Not reality TV. Yet, as stated yesterday, the channel wants to get away from its science fiction image. Scifi had, by its own accounts, the best year to date in its 16 year history. It is just more corporate bankruptcy. There are no funds in the brain trusts' account.
If this is the best year, then obviously they have to keep in this vein. And what was that? More stronger female lead characters [they want female viewers], more hunky geeks/nerds [they want the female viewer], better [read more plausibility] plots in their homegrown products [they want female viewers].
I know that this is just a TV channel [involuntary shudder] but the spirit behind scifi channel is the science fiction, geek dedicated programming... in other words, the search for new life, new civilizations. Scifi started out boldly going where no other channel had gone before. It was a courageous leap of faith in us, the convention going/toy collecting/fanboi-gyrl geek squad. Scifi was a safe haven of geekdom in an otherwise geek hostile world of antidragon, antidroid, anti cool space vehicle establishment. Scifi fed our souls. Isn't it spiritual corruption to starve the soul?
And what about it just being in poor taste? Etiquette demands that you reward loyalty and faithfulness with good stewardship and the occasional endowment of lordly praise for the legions who depend on your guidance. Isn't this just a big "I fart in your general direction" to the people who made their channel a success? If you are going to lead then lead... but lead us somewhere, pinnacle of success, over the enemies defenses, over the rainbow, somewhere but the gallows. If you are going to lead then lead. Don't pull a Nero and burn Rome to the ground for your enemies. Sheesh... c'mon Scifi.
We are the legion that built your house. We are the legion that will blow your house down.

Disturbing

In the realm of things that I do not understand, this news from Sci-Fi Channel: name and format change. format change? Really? How do you reformat a science fiction channel? Why would you change the name of a science fiction channel to something completely... well stupid.
Sci Fi says that it wants to get away from the image of immature boys in basements with video games. HELLO! We are geeks. We are the socially inept. We are a legion of people who prefer the imaginary world to the real one.
Haven't these suits been to a convention? Do they have any idea what the Fuck is going on with the whole genre? Do they have any concept of what a brand really is? they are about science fiction. It was a channel about science fiction, for science fiction fans, made by science fiction fans. Gene Roddenberry is spitting on these people. Asimov is rolling over Hubbards grave trying to get at their throats. What is wrong with these people? Does everything have to be homogenous?OH the HUMANITY!