089 Imminent Departure

Countdown is almost up. One more day and that's it. We're gone.

Here is one of the latest picks from the facade.

It's looking better but I am still freaking out about possible mistakes and "not-so-good-looking" areas. We'll see, I may get to go back soon and see it again when it's done.


Here is a funny little meeting between Steven Merchand, Ricky Gervais and Johnny Depp. Mildly funny and yet, I enjoyed it.

See you soon in LA.

088 Consciousness

Went to the south of France this weekend. And saw this really cute pig who was using the goat for warmth and reassurance.

Poor kid. He really looked scared.

HypnoDubiousness

I just don't know anymore. I want to believe that the hypno guy is helping but I am starting to think that we are just playing games and indulging each other. Great conversation and very, very fun intellectual games of cat and mouse. Talk of philosophy and religion, life and even some very informative discussion about the neurological map of our "consciousness."

The game is definitely on. I am trying to read into everything he does. Where is the lie? Where is the strategy? Is everything he says true or just a way to manipulate me?
It's driving me nuts and he knows it.
The hypnosis in itself is not always apparent and I am sure that I don't recognize all the moments he is actually trying to influence me. It's pretty sick because it means that the guy is a "master" manipulator. I wonder if all the people who get into that kind of profession spend their time playing with their patients minds ... That is such a dangerous and terrifying thing to even think about.

In the meantime I keep going hoping that each time will be better and more entertaining than the last. Although at this point we should just become friends and hang out, that's going to be much cheaper for me even if I pick up the tab every time.
Sad really.

2 ...

... more days until I go back to LA. That feels good. Really good. I get to leave this very, very heavy and annoying working environment.

Thank you ...
Sam, Jack, Daniel and Tiel'c for being there with me, every day.
I owe you one.

087 Move on kid

 
Opening News ... Apollo14

Kind of interesting. The astronaut Edgar Mitchell who was on Apollo14 mission just go in trouble when NASA discovered he came back with a camera that was supposed to stay there. That's such bullshit. We've littered the moon and mars already, let's not add to it. And now, we get to rediscover a piece of history. The guy is old, leave him alone.


So long Memphis Beat

I knew this was going to happen ... I am talking about the cancellation. Even I didn't like the second season of this show and I was very enthusiastic about the whole thing. But if they can't even be bother to continue with the side story or even give their characters some depth, then it's not worth it. I am not saying that there should be high drama all around, but two guys going around and investigating without some underlying story just gets pretty boring after a while. They had such a good opportunity to do more, especially when they all knew that the second season was such a close call.
What are we supposed to do now? Watch Rizzoli and Isle? Franklin and Bash? SHOOT ME NOW.

Get out of here ... Really?  Terra Nova

I've watched 3 episodes so far and I can't express how... disappointed I was. This was such a good opportunity to do something unique and entertaining, all this money, production power [They even got Brannon Braga], studio backing [100% I hear]. And yet, they're giving us story lines that are so predictable, it's not even worth waiting till the end, we already know what's going to happen. The characters are also soooooooo freaking boring and predictable. I just don't get it. It looks like they're trying to please everyone from pre teens to seniors and all in between by giving us such cliche, I mean, is there an inside joke I don't get?
At some point, you just have to make some decision otherwise everything gets completely washed down to nothing and people are going to walk away ...

Welcome back ... Walking Dead Season 2

Feels good to watch some quality "something" from time to time. Hopefully all the behind the scene disputes are resolved and we can go back to watching the show.


Book End News
Here is one of the latest images of the facade. It looks good from here. Still making me nervous but I promise, I will get over it at some point. And I will write a blog about it for sure.

086 Global Mind Control

Here we go. I am now here [again] in the french metro underground cave-like endless tunnels.

Air French
I have been traveling so much lately that I must be on some kind of "Special" list with Air France. On the last few flights I've gotten a personalized greeting from the crew thanking me for being such a great customer.
"You're welcome."
 I am also a Platinum Member ....... That's a really big deal.

Bad Analogies
Whitney from The Hills was on my plane this week. It was funny. For sure, people don't need to wear Prada and Louis Vuitton in order to ooooze superiority and a sense of entitlement but somehow she manages.
The cameras were not following her and she was not traveling in first class. But the attitude ...
I thought it was funny so for me, no problem. No one acted like they knew who she was and no one approached her to ask either.
The thing that really cracked me up though was that she was wearing what I would call the"Sinbad" pants [very 80s if you know what I mean.]

Respite
I am definitely going to count the days until I get to go back home and out of that a...hole's reach. That would be so fantastic. So on I've included a couple of counters on the side here [to the right]
and then, below is the paper counter I will carry with me until the end of December.
Here is my secret day counter -



















SciFi Bubble

Stargate DVDs running in the background all day long, that's my outlet for now. Except that with 12 hour days adding up to almost 200hrs of work until I come back to LA ... I just don't have enough CDs with me here to fill all that time up.
What am I going to do?

Mind Control

I got hypnotized yesterday. I gave the guy a specific list of things. I told him he needed to do "the thing that doesn't work" and basically perform a miracle. Here is the list:

1. Please remove the anger and the hate [especially the hate.]
2. Please remove the anxiety caused by 1.
4. Please give me some sleep caused by 1 and 2 and jetlag.
5. Please, oh please, give me this super power: An invisible shield that repels and destroy everything around me.

So, that's the big list.

It was interesting because for the second time, I felt some weirdness going on. My body felt heavy and there was a faint buzzing in my ears. Other weirdness:
I felt completely in control and awake. There was absolutely NO WAY I was not aware. So then I asked him what he was doing and how did he or anyone for that matter know exactly if this thing works or not. He explained to me that there are a variety of "levels" of hypnosis and that it could happen on a very deep level as well as in a completely subtle way. So, I decided to look into it on my own and here is what I discovered: there is a wide range of hypnosis going from awakened
suggestive conversation to deep, sleep transe-like state.The guy might use hypnotic suggestions during a conversation ... A certain voice tone and cadence for example. He can also make comments and observations which lead me [the patient] towards something specific.

There is a subtlety here that permeates the conversation and ultimately affects/creates a certain relationship. It's very interesting. For those who speak French, here is the website for the hypno guy -http://www.orgadia.com/. He bases is work on the Erikson's method [The guy was an American, which in itself is also a very interesting story.]

I can only imagine the kind of manipulation potential there could be if I could only learn how to do this. 
Cancel the invisible shield power. The super power I really want is the mind control one. Yes, that would be better. World domination super secret plan. Beautiful.

085 Zen it out

TV  -  Person of Interest

Oh yes, that one is definitely something to watch out for. I don’t know how that’s going to evolve but I have faith that this show can go far. Here are my two favorite things in the show:
-- The body language of Finch [Michael Emerson]. I mean, that small touch of him being physically handicapped in such a subtle and yet creepy way, is such a great move. It makes him even more mysterious and interesting.
-- The quick and violent ways Reese [James Caviezel] uses to kill, hit, injure and batter all sorts of villains. There is something pretty raw about that.

TV  -  Fringe

This show is really good. It just keep changing and evolving in a way that is unsettling and yet I want to see more. So refreshing to get some kind of intelligent plot with complex characters. I also enjoy the real use of the SciFi aspects of the stories. I mean all that crap about parallel worlds is just so great. Oh, and those bald guys who are supposed to observe and not interfere in the timeline. How cool is that?

And then, last week's episode with the serial killer who discovers his other self in the other world. One is a professor studying serial killers and the other one is a serial killer. Nice touch Olivia2 ... It’s not everyday that one show manages to explore so many different aspects of what makes a show really SciFi. And then with the color schemes on the credit sequence and then those people who are not really who we think they are. I just like it.

TV  -  Joe Flanigan

On a side note, once again, we saw a Stargate “star” appearing as a secondary character again. In this case it was Joe Flanigan on Fringe [Airing September 23, 2011]. That is really so sad. And it must be so hard to have been such a big name in one show [in this case Stargate: Atlantis] and now have to revert back to a much, much smaller role. He also made appearances in Warehouse 13 [much bigger but still small part] and also had his own SYFY original movie [we saw him in quantity but not in quality]. I have to say that in Fringe, he dies so quickly and has only a few lines, I don’t even know how that could have happened. I mean for such a small role [again, he dies very, very quickly] there’s not much money involved. Is he struggling that bad?
Mentally I don’t know if I could handle that. It must be really hard to know that you were on the top for 5 years and now, with so many years left, you got to find your way again. Here are some typical examples:

Cast of Star Trek Enterprise: Of all of these guys, some appeared in Stargate:SG1, Law and Order, Pilots for shows that never took off, original SyFy movies, CSI, … But other than Scott Bakula, I can’t say that anyone has matched the level of stardom achieved on Enterprise. Maybe Dr Phlox but he's such a discreet actor that people don't always realize that he's on the screen.

















Same goes for the guys on Stargate: Atlantis. Amanda Tapping got out of it in very good shape, but then again, no one ever doubted it. Also, we could argue that Jason Momoa has managed to get a top billing in a multi-million dollar production. However, if we had to gauge our “stardom grade” on the subsequent success of said production [Conan], maybe it wasn’t so great … I don’t know, I haven’t seen it.

TV  -  Haven

It feels good to find a show that is easy to watch, keeps me interested and is just a good show. Really! I know that there are not many people watching and that every season they are struggling to get renewed. It’s stressful. I just hope that they continue so that we can get to the resolution of that really complicated and mysterious story arc.
I wonder if Stephen King actually watches that show?

TV  -  Terra Nova

Of course, the moment any network comes out with something described as SciFi, we must absolutely check it out. And because it’s not everyday that we get to experience something new in that genre, we are already ready and willing to accept this new show in our lives.
Terra Nova looks and sounds like one of those gigantic production with a lot of effects and yet quite traditional in plot, stories and characters. Call me crazy but I much rather watch [significantly lower budget] shows like Eureka, Haven, Firefly and Fringe. I will however give it a serious try. 4 to 5 shows should suffice to supply me with the appropriate material to make my own judgment. So far, great first impression. But then again, discovering a new world, is always going to be exciting. The trick for them is going to be to retain the masses, keep us watching.

Follow up commentary on POST 084
Things have been going great since I got back to Los Angeles. There’s nothing here but happy and beautiful people. And I can’t help but get swept in the groove. In a few hours I get back on the plane that is going to take me back to Paris. The anxiety is increasing ten fold as I get closer to the departure time. I thought everything would be ok, I could handle it. However, a video conference meeting this morning quickly crushed my optimistic mood as I found myself getting angrier and angrier. I have 3 months left of this sentence and I have yet to figure out how to get to the end. There are no easy answers although I was hoping there was one all the same.
I’ve asked around and other than drugs and alcohol there didn’t seem to be a lot of options left.

I guess tonight I am just going to have to bury my sorrows at the LAX premium Air France lounge and then choke on my tears while eating caviar and watching movies in the business class section of the Airbus 777...

Alright everybody, let's all ZEN IT OUT with this very beautiful image of the exact galactic center [Provided by Drew Medlin]