Sleepy Weekend

Edit: Daily status: the DJI has dropped 1,476 points since the bailout passed on October 3rd. Your Federal tax dollars at work!

Well, I slept most of the day Friday and Saturday, and I'm still tired today.

In between all that sleeping, my massive energy led me to watch movies and TV on my computer.

The movie "Saints and Soldiers" is a waste of time, IMO. Despite starting out with the claim that it is "based on a true story" as near as I can tell the true story is that WWII happened. Our main characters include a crack rifle shot who spent the pre-war years as a missionary in Germany and a hunter in the American southwest. Despite this he is placed as a line trooper in the 101st Airborne rather than any sort of intel billet or even (based on shown equipment) being his platoon sniper. He also somehow winds up at the Malmedy Massacre (which occurred days before the 101st was in the area), which is portrayed from a very German-apologist viewpoint BTW, and winds up meeting up an old friend who is now a German soldier. Twice. Riiigghht. Other protagonists include an obnoxious Brit photo-recon pilot who... takes extensive notes in code while he's flying. No wonder this guy gets show down. The only redeeming feature of this movie is that at least SOME of the soldiers seem to use bolt-action and semi-auto rifles. This doesn't really make up for the internal GPS units all our protagonists appear to be equipped with (lip service is paid to a map and compass, but it doesn't really hold up), nor the shot of a pair of US soldiers shooting a bazooka at a tree.

Switching over to the positive, ABC's Life on Mars looks like it might be interesting. The show appears to be a police procedural with sci-fi/fantasy elements (the main character is a detective in New York City in 2008 until he gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973 - still as a police detective). I'm not sure how rooted in reality this show is either (I'm nowhere near an expert on police methods and roles in 1973 New York), but given the possibility that most of the show is a hallucination by the main character, any breaches with reality are easily explainable. I really like the conflict and slowly developing respect between the good cop main character and his bad cop boss. One nit, and it is entirely directed at ABC's on-line full episode viewer: I have no problem watching the show with limited commercial interruption, but can you for the love of all that is holy, clean, and sane in the world not show the exact same commercial in every slot?