After a couple of duds, I’ve discovered my new favorite show: Boardwalk Empire.  I was told the first season was slow but I thought it terrific and am now halfway through the second season.  By the time I finish up season 3, I’ll be able to transition right into the third season of Game of thrones after which it’ll be the final season of Breaking Bad.  

Anybody else find the Spartacus series finale an incredible downer on several levels: Gannicus, Crassus, Caesar, and, of course, Spartacus? There was talk of perhaps doing a spinoff based on the Caesar character – but given how reprehensible his portrayal, gloating over the torture and deaths of men and women, I find it hard to imagine him in the role of hero.

Big conference call tomorrow to discuss potential Plan B.  I’ve got the sunscreen on standby!

Akemi’s birthday festivities are underway!  A complete rundown on all the Special Day Fun in tomorrow’s blog entry.  But for today, let’s focus on some News of Note…

Pursuant to yesterday’s blog entry…http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-the-Difference-Between-Nerds-and-Geeks.  Yep, definitely more geek than nerd.  

When your ant colony packs up and leaves your bedroom, it’s time to panic: Ants can sense earthquakes a day in advance – The Times of India

Also, apparently it’s bad manners to pour bottled water on your waiter in Italy: 10 surprising ways to offend people in other countries | Watch the video – Yahoo! Finance Canada

Oh, I noticed: 36 Plot Holes You Never Noticed in Famous Movie Scenes

Another pet food recall: http://www.montrealdogblog.com/16917/dry-dog-food-recall-canada/

Help find these individuals: THE FBI WANTS THESE MEN

Help out some animals in need..

1

Save Dutch

1

Help Save Kannon, Thunder and Sarge

Ten Ways to Help Animals in Labs : The Humane Society of the United States

Advocate for Saving Dogs

42 thoughts on “April 18, 2013: Happy Birthday, Akemi! News of Note!”

  1. Happy Birthday Akemi, hope it’s a good one 🙂

    Anyway, haven’t spoken about anime here in a while, was watching Tales of the Abyss the Animation recently, great series based off a videogame. Easily something anime fans should look out for anyway, the company that released this series on DVD went out of business late last year so what stock is instores is what’s available. If anyone finds cheaply it’s easily a really enjoyable fantasy type series that’s worth a watch. It was released in 4 parts.

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  2. Happy Birthday Akemi, my brother’s birthday is this week too, all the fun peeps are born in April!

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  5. Re: 36 Plot Holes

    Another one (more recent) was in Men In Black 3. Tommy Lee Jones’ character K “disappears” from the present and when Will Smith’s character J goes back to the MIB HQ the next day, nobody understands why he’s asking for K since K died decades ago.

    But K recruited J in the first movie, so if K had died years ago, J never would’ve been recruited and he would never have known to go to MIB because none of that would’ve ever happened. Even if, somehow, J was exempt from losing his memory of K, nobody else at MIB would’ve had any idea who J was because, again, K died years ago and never recruited him.

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  10. happy birthday Akemi! As for spartacus, well, I was actually impressed that they ended on a semi-historical note. Spartacus killed attacking Crassus’ bodyguards, his body disappearing…I preferred the downer ending to distorting history even more than the series already had.
    As for a series about Caesar, I am dubious. It would give us the chance to see Crassus meet his fate, and by emphasizing Caesar’s virtues, his sadistic streak can be mitigated. Still, I think I would rather see an entirely new series arise. Anyone remember a certain British queen named Bouedacia? There’s another story that could do well, I think.

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  11. to Deborah Rose;
    Anyone remember a certain British queen named Bouedacia? There’s another story that could do well, I think.

    i do. i read a four part novel series about her not long ago by manda scott (dreaming the eagle, dreaming the bull, dreaming the hound & dreaming the serpent-spear) that could be adapted into a series in the same way game of thrones was. and you’re right, it would be a good story.

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  16. Any finale where the heroes lose (and mostly end up dead) is going to be bittersweet. I wouldn’t call the portrayal of Caesar’s “reprehensible” though. That was Tiberius. The show, I think anyway, did a good job of making Crassus and Caesar into good characters. You didn’t necessarily root for them, but they weren’t moustache twirling villains who staple babies to their foreheads either.

    A series that deals with the Triumvirate and establishment of the Roman Empire would be a nice place to go after this, leading to Caesar’s eventual assassination. And then a spin-off for Mark Atony! 😀

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  20. Happy B-Day, Akemi!

    As for Spartacus, I can’t say I was surprised that he died in the end, since I knew the real one had, which meant his “celluloid” counterpart would. But at least he died free. Ditto for Crixus a couple of episodes earlier (FYI, Manu Bennett is currently showing up on Arrow as Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke, although he’s not Deathstroke yet).

    Psycho Navia wasn’t a surprise. She had definitely gone off the deep end a long time ago. Crixus was the only one that held her together.

    Gannicus was a downer. I really liked the character, but getting crucified? Not a nice way to go. Figures the only one of the three main leaders that was actually free at the start of the rebellion is the one that survives to face the worst punishment.

    Crassus was a jerk for having Kore crucified, despite having stated he forgave her for leaving given her reason. She did, after all, return prior to his giving the order that the rebel slaves were to be given no mercy, so, technically, she wasn’t one of them at the time, and he could have used that to spare her. However, he did display honor in his dealings with Spartacus prior to the final battle. I actually expected him to be pissed off and go after the men that threw the spears at Spartacus because he wanted to defeat him himself and they effectively robbed him of the victory, followed by Agron and company spiriting him away. Tiberius was a spoiled little brat who got what he deserved.

    A spin-off with Caesar? That Caesar? Doesn’t really sound too appealing given his character. Didn’t much like him. Besides, Caesar’s already sort of been dealt with in Rome.

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  24. Hope you had a wonderful and Happy Birthday Akemi and that you are still celebrating!! 😀

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  27. How was the “first week” of Akemi’s/b> birthday? It’s a month long holiday, right? 😉

    There are different subsets of Geek. There are many sub classifications in geeks like the following: Science geeks, Math geeks, Computer geeks, History geeks, Engineering geeks, Language geeks, Sci-Fi geeks, Fantasy geeks, Comic Book geeks, Video Game geeks, Board Game geeks, Trading Card geeks, Music geeks, and even Sports geeks.
    Wikipedia’s definition: The definition of geek has changed considerably over time, and there is no longer a definitive meaning. The term nerd has a similar, practically synonymous meaning as geek, but many choose to identify different connotations among these two terms, although the differences are disputed.

    There are a lot of news developments this morning. Everyone is watching Texas and Boston but in this area, we are also watching the Holly Bobo developments. http://www.nbc12.com/story/22015271/holly-bobos-backpack-found-one-mile-from-her-home
    I can’t imagine waiting two years to bring my child home!

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  29. A very happy birthday to you, Akemi! I hope that “someone” has a great day planned for you…

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  30. Happy belated birthday Akemi!

    Does she know/understand what “belated” means? It’s hard to assess her command of the English language when all we regulars get are her “Akemi-isms”. Don’t get me wrong, extremely enjoyable, but hard to know what level of fluency she has.

    Well, my brother and dad and I went out for sushi last night. We typically go on Thursdays because that’s when they get their fresh shipments in, meaning fresh Uni(well, as fresh as it’s gonna get this far from where they catch it), and their’s is pretty good. As soon as we walk in, we’re greeted with the news that there was no Uni this week. Plenty of quail egg, no Uni. He said it had something to do with the weather, or something like that. Does that sound right? Are sea urchin seasonal? I wonder where they’re getting them from….

    Disappointing about the Uni, but everything else was great as usual, so they get a pass.

    -Mike A.

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  31. Bonne Fete Akemi – ask Joe to translate. 😉

    @Gforce – just saw your zipline photo. That looks hysterical. You know how to have fun. I think Joe on a Zipline would be classic. Akemi could take pictures of him screaming in terror. Now, if that isn’t worth a reward from Carl Binder, I don’t know what is.

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  33. I hope Akemi’s birthday was the best ever!

    @Patricia SB: I don’t think Joe’s getting anywhere NEAR that zipline! And yes, it was a blast. Ziptrek as a company is highly recommended (if you’re into that sort of thing.)

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  34. Happy Birthday, Akemi! Can’t wait to hear how Joe spoiled you. Hope you get to stretch this birthday out for at least a week!

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  36. *Hugs Akemi*

    Also, news of note: Both suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing are done – one dead, one in custody. The Boston police did an excellent job (says the VERY tired lady who’s been listening to the Boston police scanner channels for the past 24 hours 😛 ). Very exciting to hear everything as it went down, and even though there was some radio silence stuff still got through. I had a bit of a laugh when this afternoon someone called for a weed wacker – I was all like, ‘when yer done, come to my yard!’.

    A note to any cops out there – watch those open mics!! 😉

    das

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  38. Happy Birthday Akemi…..According to history Spartacus was supposed to have been caught and Crucified. The network gave him a hero’s way out and crucified Gannicus ……The End…..

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  41. Joe, I wanted to thank you for posting the link about the dog food recall. Now I know why my chihuahua got sick last month.

    Buddy had been showing signs of a sore tummy and was vomiting so off to the vet we went.

    An x-ray showed he had an inflamed esophagus and stomach and an ulcer. Caused, the vet said, by something he had eaten. He was treated with antibiotics and is on Pepcid until the end of April to heal the ulcer.

    Because he is a small dog, it takes rather a long time to go through a 5ib. bag of kibble. I asked the vet if the food may have gone bad and he said he didn’t think so as that would have showed in the blood work.

    However, I called the vet today and he said he didn’t run a test for salmonella. But the food I was feeding at that time was on the recall list!

    I had switched him to a different food but from the same company, California Natural, and that one, thankfully, is not on the list.

    I had been going crazy trying to figure out what he could have eaten as I watch him like a hawk when outside. At least now I know what happened.

    So thank you for posting that link.

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