Battlestar Galactica / Caprica Questions, Mysteries, and Frustrations

(Spoiler Alert! If you haven't watched Battlestar Galactica, go watch it right now. Then come back and answer my questions.)

I admire television writers. I really do. Most of them are brilliant most of the time.

The writers who wrote Battlestar Galatica are particularly amazing. And I'm very excited to see Blood and Chrome:





But before I add yet another drug to my impressive BSG franchise addiction, I worry it's only going to confuse me further.

I just finished watching Caprica, and I'm so very confused. I know, I should be using my brain to solve real life problems, but I just can't help it.

So here's what I thought I knew, based on BSG reimagined:

• Five cylons escape world war to head back to the 12 colonies.
• They leave clues on their way. Why? Who were they leaving clues for? Why on earth did they build a temple en route?
• When they get to the 12 colonies, they design/invent the 7 "skin jobs" and give them resurrection.
• Somehow, one of those 7 (#1) manages to brainwash the original five and make them forget who they are. How and why did that happen again?
• Didn't Ellen say that she gave the skin jobs their faith in a one true god? 

Were some of these questions answered? Did I miss something? Then, I watch Caprica hoping to get some answers.

But alas, now there are only more questions:

• So long before the Final 5 built the skin jobs, the Graystones built one first? Well then why did the Cylons need the Final 5?
• And, if one true god was Ellen's idea, then why did we need all that Sister Clarice drama?
• What on earth happened to Tamara?
• Why did they kill off the original William Adama? 

And while we're at it:

• What happened to #7?
• What happened to Starbuck? Why did she crash onto a nuked earth? Why did she come back as a ghost? And why did she vanish?
• Why did Admiral Adama (William Adama #2 that is) fly halfway across Earth (Earth #2 that is) to settle and die alone? Was this just to explain how the human population spread around our current planet? Because it would have made much more sense to have someone a bit more young and fertile do that part.
• What happened to Chief? How come we don't get to see him living happily ever after on Earth #2? That upsets me. If anybody did, he deserved a happily ever after. 
• How did Starbuck's father write the song that wakes up cylons and saves the human/cylon race?
• Who was the dude at the piano touching Starbuck's face?
• Okay, I'll stop now.

Will Blood and Chrome answer any of these questions for me? Or will it just leave me with more?

Please, skilled and gifted BSG writers, please, throw me a bone!

UPDATE! My friend pointed me toward a post that answered most of my questions: 

http://io9.com/5807530/caprica-season-2-would-have-seen-zoe-graystone-meeting-one-of-the-final-five

I'm now ready for Blood and Chrome. Bring it on SyFy!

New Year's Resolutions

It's that time again! 

I just had myself a gut laugh when I reviewed last year's resolutions.

Dude. I failed.

Here's my 2012 New Year's Resolutions report card:

I said I would:	What I really did:
I will limit myself to 5 episodes of Psych per week. (Okay, six.)	I became even more obsessed with Psych. I also became completely, ridiculously, irreparably obsessed with Battlestar Galactica.
I will download the new maps to my Garmin GPS, so that the little Australian man will stop trying to drive me into the ocean.	Success!
I will lose 10 pounds. (Okay, six.)	Success!
I will send out the 2010 Christmas cards.	Fail.
I'll get started on the 2011 Christmas cards.	Fail.
I will contribute to the MOPS newsletter.	Fail. And I quit MOPS. There were too many kids there.
On Tuesdays, I will get dressed.	Fail.
I will get the oil changed in the minivan.	Success!
I will find the freakin' remote control.	Success!
I will stop using the word "freakin."	Success! Now I use the word “frackin.”

I think we can all agree that I can do better, right?

So here, without further ado ... are my 2013 New Year's Resolutions:

1.  I will spend less time fantasizing about characters from Battlestar Galactica.

2.  I will learn to read clef notes without getting brain cramps.

3.  I will spend less time on Twitter. And Foursquare. And GetGlue. I will just waste less time in general.

4.  Instead of buying new socks, I will sort and match the socks in the sock box. Scratch that. I will make that a math project for the 3-year-old.

5.  I will have more dance parties with the children. And I will let them dance too.

6.  I will finish the 5-year-old's baby book.

7.  I will limit myself to one trip to Dunkin' Donuts per day. 

8.  I will figure out how to take my children into a store without having a frackin' nervous breakdown.

How do you think I will do? Happy New Year to you!

My Twitter Meltdown

Wow! I have been a baaad blogger. So sorry. But as usual, I have a good excuse! Thank you God, I have been completely drowning in work lately.

Why has this happened? I don't know, but I'll tell you that the feast came after the famine. For months there this fall, I was working for peanuts, and seriously struggling. So let that be an encouragement to you if you're currently enduring a peanut famine.

But now, let's talk about my twitter meltdown.

And yes, I should be working right now. I have plenty of stuff due by midnight. But I have plenty of time, right? It's only three.

Anyway, my twitter meltdown.

Here's the deal. I love twitter. I mean, I really love twitter. I love it more than I should love it. I love twitter the way the rest of the world loves facebook. (I fail to capitalize these proper nouns out of rebellion.)

Anyway, my twitter meltdown.

I think I've been going about twitter all wrong.
Here's what I've done. Somehow, I developed this philosophy that there were three reasons to follow people, three "twitter rules" if you will:
1. Follow people because they are interesting.
2. Follow people when you want them to follow you back.
3. Follow people because they followed you first, and you want to be nice and follow them back.
And of course, any combination of the above.

But this led to complete tweet-chaos. This led to a twitter stream clogged with people trying to sell me things and people trying to get me to vote their way. It was giving me a migraine (I am an introvert after all) and my twitter stream was moving so fast that I was having mini-seizures and my phone kept crashing.

To make it worse, the people whom I actually find interesting, ya, you remember them? Their tweets kept getting buried in the mayhem.

So, today, I did it. I had a twitter meltdown. I unfollowed everyone except for those whom I followed under rule #1. Then I added a new rule #2. Ready? Here it is: I have to really really want to follow these people, like as in @PhilWickham-and-@Tahmoh Penikett want to follow.

And instantly, I felt better. My twitter stream is neat and tidy and I care about all of it! No one is trying to get me to vote for their uncle in Oklahoma or trying to sell me a timeshare in Tahiti. Now it's full of people I really want to spend (virtual) time with. Ahhh...

But, you know what's going to happen. My twitter follower count is going to plummet. And the funny thing is, I was almost to the 1,000 followers mark, something that many tweeps sincerely celebrate. Here: I took a picture to prove it.

See there in the upper right? 936 followers! I should be proud of that. But alas, my pride will be short lived. Because everyone else is following the aforementioned rule #3. And part of rule #3 is that when someone unfollows you, you unfollow them right back!

Oh well, soon the fascinating tweets of Robin Merrill (most of which center on Hawaii Five-0 activity) won't appear in anyone's stream, because Phil and Tahmoh don't follow me.

But that's okay. For now I will just enjoy the simplicity of my new and improved twitter stream. If I have unfollowed you in the last few hours, please don't be offended. I still love you. And if I haven't unfollowed you, you know that I really really love you, as much as I love Phil and Tahmoh! (Okay, maybe not that much!)

Okay, back to work. Children's books to write. I'm not complaining. Happy tweeting!

Samson's Classroom Review

Thanks to Schoolhouse Review Crew, my family and I have been able to use and review Samson's Classroom, user/kid-friendly, web-based educational software.

My daughter (5) and I are working on learning to read, so we were excited by Samson's three categories: Spelling, Sight Words, and Reading.

"Spelling with Samson" offers a collection of spelling games. I can change the words to match what I want her to focus on right now. "Sight Words" uses games to help her to learn to recognize and read 224 commonly used words (e.g., and, the, it, big). I can also print out worksheets and flashcards for her.  The "Reading with Samson" section helps with comprehension. We'll get there eventually. 

Samson's is kid-friendly and fun. My daughter can work on her own and I can log into the parent's section at any time and check on her progress. Samson's works for us and it might well work for you too. It's definitely worth checking out.

There are several pricing options. It is only $30 a year for home use, which I think is a real steal for all that you get. And if you are homeschooling more than one child, it is only $50 for a year of family use (up to 4 users). The classroom (up to 30 users) fee is only $80 per year. You can try it out here. 


Read what other Schoolhouse Reviewers are saying:

Disclaimer:  As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are mine.