I really dislike using sick leave when I'm actually sick, but at least it lets me catch up on watching television (well, DVD, since there's not much on TV of interest these days) while curled up on the couch without feeling guilty about wasting my time. Anyway, the last DVD was "Battlestar Galactica" (I'm a little behind the times), and I can see what all the talk is about. Season one will be on my Christmas list this year! Not that I'm dropping hints, mind you, but there it is.

I absolutely loved the original version, so I was a little apprehensive about watching the update, but they did a great job. The original Cylon centurions still define Cylon for me, and Lucifer looked pretty cool, what with the glowing head and all, but the new model is a BIG improvement. And if those pictures in the third and fourth row show a fight between her and the new and improved Boomer, I may have to go to Amazon right now.

Not that the original version was without attractions of its own. Athena doesn't seem to be in the new version, and I guess since Starbuck is a woman now, the character doesn't get a girlfriend. But thanks to the wonders of the Internet, we find that Cassie lives on! She's got links to other members of the original cast. Strange how she didn't link to Wilma Deering. Maybe it had something to do with her being on a different TV show, but still...

But maybe that's just the Nyquil talking.  ¶ 22:35

  Well, at least it would keep him out of movies.

Seriously, though, this whole cult of celebrity is getting completely out of hand. What is it that makes the Democrats think that guy would be a good candidate? A pretty face (so I'm told, although I don't see it myself - he always seems to have that smirk) and name recognition? If that's what they think of Virginia voters, why not just bring in Warren Beatty? He's actually local, and much better qualified: he's pretended to be a politician before.  ¶ 21:13

  Things have been none too adventurous in the bureaucracy lately, at least in my section of it. This has meant more TV-watching than usual, and one of the commercials that comes on over and over is for the new Jodie Foster movie. Part of it has Jodie telling her soon-to-disappear daughter: "When you wake up, we'll be in Newark."

I wonder if those were the last words Jimmy Hoffa ever heard.  ¶ 20:26

  Mick Jagger is worried about London. He fears that "We'll get too far away from our original values and this over-reaching imperialism will take us to a place where we eventually collapse."

That struck me as kind of strange, being that overreaching imperialism is what made London what it is today. When Mick was born in 1943, Britain still held a big chunk of the world. Looking at the country now, I'd say the collapse has already happened.  ¶ 18:46