Check it out! Remember the Australian reality TV show I told you about, where the viewers control the fortunes of a minor league rugby team? (Sidenote: The Hammerheads just won their first game! Chicks still aren’t allowed to play, though, so Debbie Lee is working as assistant coach.) Well, anyway, it looks like HBO is developing something similar in the U.S., except with baseball! I got the impression that the team will be an existing minor league team, though, rather than a new one composed of all amateurs. Honestly, the best part of watching The Club is seeing the randoms that got picked to play. It’s a great show concept, though. If they get the right people/characters, it could be a big hit.

Mucho apologies for the lack of post. Turns out it wasn’t our ISP; it’s our server. Dialing out works fine from either Snook’s or my computer, but when we go through our server (and firewall), nada. Since we haven’t changed anything recently, we’re wondering if we got hacked. Snook’s busy scraping everything off it and reinstalling, so hopefully we’ll be back in business soon.

I’m suffering Internet withdrawal. Our ISP has been “throttling” us because we download too much. Whatever. It’s too slow to do anything. I wish the damn ADSL guy would come put us out of our misery!

Have any of you ever tried to learn a foreign language on your own, like from a book or tape? I’ve decided I’d like to learn Korean, but I can’t find a single language school in the city that offers it. Now I’m wondering if I could do it on my own. I found a helpful website, and I was thinking I could get a book or tape to go along with it. If you’ve done something similar, do you have any suggestions? Is it too difficult to learn without other people to converse with? What kind of materials should I look for?

Calling all old-school gaming nerds! You can now play the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Text Adventure online! It’s java-based, but I got it to run fine in Mac IE. It’s fun! I keep dying, though. I can’t figure out how to stop the bulldozer. 🙂

Michele pointed me to a great interview with Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Did you know The Mail on Sunday called Pullman the most dangerous man in Britain? And here I thought all the conservative book critics were too busy burning copies of Harry Potter to notice. My sister just finished the books, so she should appreciate getting a bit more insight into Pullman’s personal religious philosophy. I was amazed by his statements that C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books are “detestable”. He makes some good arguments against the view of Heaven that those books present. Good stuff.

“It’s a mysterious story of wealth, society, bridge – and maybe murder.” A wealthy older Melbourne couple vanished a few weeks ago and the police can’t seem to find them anywhere. Although I really don’t see where “bridge” comes into it, unless the article’s author is trying to make us think the bridge instructor had something to do with it.

It’s actually very early Sunday morning, and we just got back from the Ben Folds concert. It was fantastic. Just him and a piano and a couple hundred of us packed in a theater. Then the Snook and I headed to the local tapas place for some late night snackage and the best cheesecake I’ve ever tasted. Good times.

At long last, we have our babies!
Well, fish babies. Big Gay Al helped us pick them out Thursday. If you wanna see ’em up close, click here. The black one in the upper right has really bulgy eyes, so we named him Admiral Ackbar. Continuing clockwise we have Grand Moff Tarkin, Aurra Sing, and Porkins. (He’s the fat one facing backwards.) We also have a little snail that sticks to the aquarium walls. His name is Salacious Crumb, of course. (If you don’t get the names, just remember that we’re geeks.)

Friday Five:
They’re all TV-oriented this week, which sucks since I’m slightly out of the American TV loop.

1. What’s your favorite TV show and why?
I’d say Buffy, but we’re waiting for the Season 4 DVDs so I’m all out of sync. Currently then I’d have to say it’s a tie between Six Feet Under and Big Brother. SFU is easy to understand; it’s just a good show. (And Peter Krause is damn hot.) Big Bro is a more embarrassing pleasure. The Australian version is the best I’ve seen yet! They’ve only been in there for twelve days and we’ve already got two couples going (each of which involves boy/girlfriends on the outside). And every Thursday we get Big Brother Uncut, where they show all the curse words, drunkenness, and full-front nudity. I swear to God, on actual network television. The first Uncut featured all of the housemates showering nude (including the fitness instructor that I hate shaving her bikini area – *shudder!*) as well as a drunken lesbian kissing session during a game of Truth or Dare. Don’t you wish the American version was as good? 🙂

2. Who is your favorite television star?
Buffy. SMG rocks. (But Peter Krause runs a close second.)

3. What was your favorite TV show as a child?
I didn’t really have a favorite. I’d watch anything and everything. I especially liked The Hogan Family, Cheers, and ALF. (Yeah, laugh it up.)

4. What show do you think should have been cancelled by now?
Ally McBeal. Oh wait, my bad. 🙂

5. What new show do you hope escapes the axe this season?
Though I haven’t seen a single episode, I’ve been reading and loving TWOP‘s recaps of Undeclared. I want it to stay on the air just so I have a chance of seeing it someday.