I by no means endorse any Symantec products… But hey!

Check out the alternate ending here. Oh, and there’s also Dolph Lundgren!

And yes, I’m basically just doing science.

Of course I’m aware of the fact that Twitter has grown to be much more than a micro-blogging platform. It’s a social network, in many ways probably not unlike Facebook or MySpace (I can only assume since I’m not active on either of them). People stay in contact, get to know new people, joke around, send links, start memes. And while this of course is a vital part of what makes Twitter so appealing to many as well as something I did profit from in some ways, it also poses a problem for me occasionally.

I’ve seen people using Twitter in a lot of ways. Some walk down the same path I do, some are just plain silly (which can be fun!), some are shameless show-offs and others are basically information-leeches who don’t tweet themselves. All these are people I can perfectly deal with by thinking before following or occasionally even unfollowing, if things get unbearable. The problems arise when the social-network-part of Twitter kicks in.

Since Twitter is so easy and quick to use, some people I follow, and who follow each other, use it more along the lines of an instant messenger, using @repiles. And I can see the appeal. You don’t have to be on the same network and you can use it basically everywhere, on any computer,on your phone or wherever. There has been quite some fuss in the twitterverse lately when Twitter decided that you as a user can only see @replies from people you follow when they are directed to someone you follow as well (there is also the possibility of using direct messages that only the two conversing parties can see). People strongly opposed that change, seeing that being able to see all those replies might spark your interest in the other party and thus introduce you to another person to follow.

You probably already see where this is headed: While I see the point of the people opposing the @replies change, they probably don’t follow many IM-over-Twitter users.

I’m not following that many people. Some celebrities to satisfy my stalker needs, some news services (and I apply this tag generously) and some people whose opinions on certain topics I cherish a lot. And of course, due to my focus on specific interests, quite some of those people follow each other as well. And some of those, you guessed it, do ‘chat’ a lot among each other. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a reason why I followed these people in the first place and that reason didn’t disappear all of a sudden. They are people I hold dear, people I have never met, yes, but like very much. I love my tweeps. But what I also love is all I stated in the first paragraph of this post. And the sound you’re hearing right now is two worlds colliding.

You see, Twitter isn’t like an e-mail inbox where I can decide which mails to read directly and which to save for later or even discard. Tweets are there, unfiltered, unmarked. and waiting to be read one after the other (Yes, I know there are many applications that deal with this issue, but I can’t use them every place I use Twitter, so that doesn’t really solve my problem). And while I occasionally like to witness conversations about whatever topic between my tweeps, most of the time I really just want to get my quick fix on news, updates and sillies, without having to actually search for them among dozens of tweets that don’t really concern me.

So, to bring this rant to an end, some of my tweeps will notice a -1 on the number of their followers in the near future and that will be me unfollowing you. It’s not personal, and I already prepared a different means to stay in touch for those that care to do so. But I just like my Twitter like my women, easily manageable and not too chatty.

Incidentally, I just recently, after reading nothing but classic SciFi for months, picked up Pawn of Prophecy again, for I really wanted to get back in the Fantasy mood and knew The Belgariad would do that for me. It is in many ways easy-reading, without ever to drift off into boring. It combines all the elements you love, the farmboy with a destiny, the immortal wizard, evil sorcerers, a pantheon of Gods and a band of companions so classic it defies description. But unlike other epics of the genre, you won’t get your ten storylines that perhaps will converge in the last 100 pages, 20-page setting-the-mood descriptions of a meadow, or any detailed depiction of a long journey during which basically nothing happens (not that such things are neccessarily a bad thing). Here you follow the protagonist on every step of his way, learn about his destiny as he does, and on every page something happens that brings you, and him, closer to this understanding. You learn about the beautifully drawn characters by watching them through his eyes, and for me that is a wonderful way to get sucked in a new world.

Many people told me how Eddings’ work, especially The Belgariad introduced them to Fantasy in the first place when they were kids, but as for most of really great genre literature, this isn’t just a kids-story. Yes it’s really accessible and probably not ‘high literature’, but even after 20 years it got me hooked all over again, right from the first chapter on.  And while I might not be prototype of a grown-up, should you be into Fantasy at all or just curious what the fuss is all about nut too scared to pick up The Lord Of The Rings, give the works of David and Leigh Eddings a try.

And if you like what you read, make sure you also check out David and Leigh Eddings’ (she hasn’t been credited on most of the works but contributed a lot as David stated) other work, not only the follow-up saga The Malloreon, but also the next, somewhat darker epics The Elenium and The Tamuli.

David Eddings passed away on June 2nd, preceded in death by his wife Leigh in February 2007.

Firstly though, here’s a fanvid by Mayanvideos that was shown right before the Battlestar Galactica panel with Olmos, Hogan and Hatch on Sunday. It’s set to a German song by Herbert Grönemeyer, but there’s subtitles, so don’t worry too much about it. But you probably want to have some tissues ready, for it still brings tears to my eyes triggers my allergies.

Make sure you also check out the HD version here.

Tru Calling stars Whedon-veteran Eliza Dushku as Tru, a girl working in a morgue and having quite an odd connection to the recently deceased. No, not such a connection! Every once in a while (aka every episode), a corpse asks her for help and when that happens, she gets to re-live the day in order to stop whatever caused the death of said person. Add a little family drama and it’s a bit Groundhog Day meets Six Feet Under, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. And Tru Calling definitely isn’t.

Apart from the (so far) not-overly-compelling-but-nice story you get Eliza Dushku, which is always a plus, and her rather cute brother, played by Shawn Reaves, who is basically a, well, cute version of Matthew McConaughey.

And another thing for you BSG-deprived people out there: The pilot stars – as the semi-baddie of course – Callum Keith Rennie! And not enough with that, next the cylon comes up in the second episode, Michael Trucco aka. Mr. September (watch the episode, you’ll probably like what you see). And the guest spots are filled with quite some interesting people in general, so far I’ve spotted Heroes‘ Leonard Roberts (D.L. Hawkins, back in the days when the series was actually good) and Chuck‘s Matthew Bomer (Bryce Larkin).

So, even though Whedonites ought to have mixed emotions concerning Tru Calling, seeing that Eliza Dushku turned down the Buffy spin-off Faith for this, go check it out. It’s definitely worth it.

And the latter actually got me thinking, about why I’m watching it, why I’m following the fansites and what this all means to me. And all this thinking resulted in some thoughts I’d like to share with you, the five things I learned from Dollhouse (so far), right here, after the cut…

1 – Whedon-fandom is special. I might only just rather recently found my way in there, but yes. And I’m not talking about Spuffy/Bangel shipping-wars. Seeing that I’m coming from a BSG background, believe me, I’ve seen worse. No it’s the deep, brooding once bitten, twice shy pessimism, ever since the Firefly cancellation. Every new project Joss might be planning or being on is doomed from the start. Period. There is no way they gonna air the whole season, let alone renew it for a second one. I’ve never noticed such angst in any other fandom I’ve come across (never cared much for Jericho back in the day). While I can see where the people are coming from and quite frankly have to admit, I’m occasionally somewhat concerned myself, don’t lose hope! Enjoy it as long as it lasts, discuss the storylines and characters and don’t waste precious forum-space with dark prophecies and self-pity. And if you’re really so sure about Dollhouse being canceled, better start packing your little sister’s Barbies to send them to FOX!

2 – I am way more of a Whedonite than I thought. And I’m not just referring to the Dollhouse-cancellation nightmares I started having recently. I will delve in the origin story of this Whedonite in some other post, but obviously I was in deeply enough when Dollhouse started that I already took the next point in this list for granted. I had to love Dollhouse. There was no other way. Yes, I tried to be objective and critic about those first few engagement-of-the-week episodes, and frankly, would it have been any other show,I’d probably have stopped watching about three episodes into the season (well, I do have sort of a soft spot for Eliza Dushku, so probably I’d have half-assedly continued watching). But it’s Joss Whedon! It has to be(come) great, right? Everything this man touches turns to awesome, right? Well, luckily, Joss proved me right once again, leaving me with only one possible conclusion…

3 – Joss Whedon can do no wrong. Yes, there is Buffy season 7, but let’s forget about that for a second, shall we? I won’t discuss the awesome that was Buffy, Angel, Firefly or Dr. Horrible at this juncture, even though these laid the groundworks for this conclusion. But it was Dollhouse that finally got me convinced. I nearly had lost hope after Stage Fright, I have to admit, but while Gray Hour sparked my hopes again somewhat and True Believer did nothing to douse that spark, The Man On The Street showed me the true Whedon again, pure gold in storytelling, characters and drama. And it didn’t lose momentum ever since. The english he put on Adelle, Topher and others, the TLC with which the actives’ characters are treated, the dynamics that evolve… To me it was Buffy season three all over again. This show is again pure awesome, despite some attempts to run it to the ground from the beginning on. Attempts by whom you ask? Well that brings us to…

4 – FOX can do no right. OK, originally I wanted to abstain from FOX-bashing and critically address those parts of the fandom that do, but what can I say? After reading a lot of interviews and articles, last but not least this coverage of Joss’ Q&A at Harvard’s Lifetime Achievement’s Award for Cultural Humanism gig, all I can say, WTF, FOX? This is not about the airing/not airing debate of episode 13, Epitaph One. This is about choices made way before that. FOX should be well aware of the fan base Joss Whedon has behind him, a fan base, that should guarantee for somewhat decent basic ratings. A basis they could build upon, by giving the creator of a new series some creative freedom, a decent timeslot and a little trust in him knowing what he is doing. In that case, I guess we would have gotten a decent pilot episode and an unfolding of a compelling storyarc early on, not some – sorry – rather boring engagement-of-the-week fillers to “ease people into the series”. What that actually did, and there’s countless forums or article comments to show it, was to drive people away, heck, it nearly worked with me. And don’t get me started on the ‘let’s make the actives all attractive, young people, and not someone a new audience might find some points of connection with’ issue also addressed in the above mentioned Harvard ceremony. Seriously, if this show gets canceled, I’m expecting FOX to air a one hour broadcast of the Twitter Fail Whale in it’s spot.

I tried to hold myself back a little in what I’ve written in this part (although I’ve felt myself getting angry while typing) and first and foremost stick to information I actually got from interviews with people involved in the series, because another thing I’ve learned very recently is…

5 – Don’t trust anyone. And here I am referring to the the airing/not airing debate of episode 13, Epitaph One. Thanks to Twitter I actually saw this piece of news evolving from one of the first tweets to frontpage articles on TV blogs, fansites and related newspaper columns. And since I didn’t really have (m)any better things to do at the time, I followed the coverage closely. The surprising thing for me was (and actually I’m somewhat puzzled by the fact that this actually surprised me) that everywhere you looked, a different story has been told. ‘Yes, Dollhouse is canceled’, ‘Not airing Epitaph One means Dollhouse gets it’s second season’, ‘It’s gonna be on DVD’, ‘It’s not gonna be on DVD, neither will Echo‘ and so on. Yes, it’s the internet, I know. I’ve been around long enough to know… well. I thought I had figured out some sources I can trust on their information. Problem is, even those sources published contradicting information and some haven’t put updates in their posts up to this very hour. So, yeah, while there was a sort of sub-web of sites I basically trusted completely, now I’m at the point that I don’t trust them any more than the tabloid press. They are great to let you know what’s going on in general, but if you’re interested in a specific topic, go and do your research yourself.

This concludes this year’s Easter post. Now go, paint some eggs, eat candy or do as I do: Get half-drunk and watch TV from the days when you wished Whedon series would have ended a season earlier instead of fearing for them even copleting their first season. Buffy season three, here I come!

The lovely @feliciaday tweeted the following a couple of hours ago:

Man, day getting worse and worse. Found out my Dollhouse ep, #13 isn’t gonna air. Only on DVD. Such a great part too. Thx Fox.

(actually I got the news from @drhorrible, but whatever). She is referring to episode 13, Epitaph One, which was thought to be concluding the series’ first season. Her tweet confirms a rising suspicion not only I was getting when putting 1 and 1 together reading a) the specs for the July 28th DVD release of season 1 and b) FOX’s upcoming schedule [SPOILERS], which lists the May 8th episode 12, Omega, as season finale (links via whedonesque).

However, there might not be all too much reason to be alarmed, seeing that the whole story behind the 13th episode is kinda explained for instance here or here. Bottom line (as far as I understand it): FOX ordered 13 episodes, and this batch included the series’ unaired pilot (Every Joss Whedon series needs one, right?) Echo – also on the DVD. So that would have made Omega episode 13, thus the season finale. FOX got delivered yet another episode, former 14, now 13, Epitaph One, which, according to above linked-to sources, unlike Omega, doesn’t really qualify as a finale. So just see it as a DVD bonus feature or something. Of course, everyone and their dog (myself included) would like to see all available episodes aired, especially because Felicia definitely deserves more on-the-air time. On the other hand, if Omega indeed makes for the better finale, giving some kind of closure and/or cliffhanger to this season, well, stopping after that might actually a not-so-bad idea.

So there’s that, and probably, as you might have guessed by the dedicated avatar and category, this is only the first of many whedonverse-related posts on this humble blog. Because, you know, with BSG ended and all, I was on the look-out for another fandom, and with my love for all things Whedon, well, this was a no-brainer. This is no good-bye concerning BSG, more a mere addition to the mix. I still have stuff I want to get out about the old girl, plus I’m rooted way too deeply in that fandom to just pick up my stuff and leave.

UPDATE: Mo Ryan has a way better roundup concerning the Dollhouse situation than I could ever do. Beware of casting spoilers though!

And don’t get used to the frequency of my updates!

I just got word over Twitter, by @moryan, that singer and actor Andy Hallett passed away last Sunday at the age of 33. After a five-year struggle, his heart gave in.

If you can’t place the name but the picture to the left looks vaguely familiar to you, you probably know him as the green-skinned demon Lorne from Joss Whedon’s popular Buffy-spin-off series Angel.

I won’t go on about his role on Angel or other parts of his career, for you can read up on this over at Mo’s column The Watcher, EOnline! or his wikipedia entry.

I usually don’t react so strongly to celebrity deaths, but for Andy, things seem so weird. I just lately finished watching Angel, and actually just recently saw Chance by Amber Benson, also featuring him. I loved his scenes, mostly his part in the park with James Marsters. And I deeply adored the character Lorne. Plus, the circumstances under which I watched both are of a kind that means quite a lot to me.

That and the fact that we were practically the same age just makes me feel… well, not good.

Lacking cranberry and grapefruit juice for a sea breeze, I just can raise a glass of red wine to toast to you Andy.

And seeing that his greatest moments as Lorne will probably be buzzin’ all over the webs anyway, here’s that part from Chance I mentioned, thanks to MissLunacy: