Okay, first impressions of Falling Skies...REALLY GOOD!!!! TNT premiered it's new series, Falling Skies last night and it's treading on territory seen many times before. Despite no shortage of shows that take place in a post-apocalypse world, Falling Skies seems to benefit from a few key things.

Camera work and pacing: A quick pacing that only lets up to focus on character development. Which turns out to be interesting surprisingly. The band of survivors is led by Noah Wyle who drew me to watch this show in the first place due to his work on ER and I found myself pulling for them in no time at all. A few times I noticed odd camera angles and thought they were creative and well timed.

Aliens/Alien Invasion: Despite invasions being done to death in television and film, Falling Skies brings Mechs and Skitters. Aliens and their robot cohorts have decimated earth's population and has survivors on the run. What I found especially interesting was the alien enslavement of children via a device attached to the neck/back. It seems that this plot line plays a huge part in the development of future episodes. I noticed this via comments made by the characters and previews of upcoming episodes.

A co-worker of mine said he watched the premiere and his reception was lukewarm. I really liked the first two hours although I would have to say it picked up in the second hour with the introduction of villian(?) John Pope. To those on the fence, I say give it a chance. I have high hopes that it will continue to improve all the way to it's tenth episode season finale on August 7, 2011.

This is a great year for new movies in the Theater. I want to know everyone's opinion on recent box office, as well as what they're looking forward to seeing. Recently I saw "Star Trek", "Wolverine" and "The Soloist." In the next few weeks I'm anticipating "Terminator:Salvation", "Angels & Demons", "Night at The Museum 2", "Land of the Lost", and yes, even the Pixar movie "Up." Looking further out, this summer will see the release of remakes of "Hellraiser" and "The Taking of Pelham 123." Also, comedies like "Year One" with Jack Black and "Whatever Works" with Larry David. And big time blockbusters like "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", and "Public Enemy" with Johnny Depp will certainly not disappoint. Is everyone racking up their movie points like I am???

With Barack Obama's stimulus plan about to become law, I'm curious as to what everyone thinks. The concensus I'm hearing is that there is way too much spending and I think I can agree with that. Money going to things like dog parks, ACORN, nationalized health care, those are the things that concern me. I do like that money is going to the states and some infastracture. I think it's too early to determine if Obama's policies can be considered a success or failure yet, but I don't think more debt is anything your average American wants to hear. Please add your thoughts, opinions, etc.

Black Friday this morning was crazy. I was actually able to convince Earl to come along and we set out early at 5 and headed to Target. My hot item was the Garmin GPS and I grabbed it first thing. Not many left after I got mine either. Got out of Target pretty quickly and headed to Kmart. That store took MUCH longer to get out of. Kmart was a 30 minute shopping experience, followed by a 1 hr wait in line, followed by a 15 minute get out of the parking lot fiasco. Finally after all that, Earl and I met Joe at IHOP and had breakfast. The cool thing about that experience is that our waitress was from Russia and her name was Anastasia. She was cute too. I got everything I needed so I would call it a success. Now my car is in the shop and I'm looking at having to spend possibly more than a thousand dollars to fix it. That sux :(

Anyways, anyone have a black friday experience worth mentioning?

What does everyone think of the new look of TV.com? For the most part I like it, but I noticed a few changes I didn't like. For instance, the rating feature has changed. Ratings can only go in increments of .5 and the top contributor lists have been shortened. What new features do you like/dislike?

Well, here I am coming off of the 4 day weekend I just had. I had a good time. On Sunday, went with Earl to the Renaissance Festival in Crownsville, MD. It was a good time, as always. I ate a lot of food and drank a lot of beer. Saw three shows although "A Fool named O" wasn't as good as it used to be. Johnny Fox, the swordswallower, had the same show as always but it was still funny even after all these years. Earl and I were hoping to hook up with some girls, but unfortunately, this was not to be. :( :( Yesterday, saw the new movie "Righteous Kill" with Pacino and DeNiro. I was slightly disappointed. I mean the acting was great but with two screen legends together in a film again, I expected a better plot. It's good to see at least one time though. Got some new clothes today and had lunch at Quiznos. Quiznos is awesome :! The rest of the day I'm going to relax, after getting back from Frederick that is. Tonight I'll watch the Premiere of House and Fringe. I'm glad House is back on again, that is such a cool show. I'm still undecided about Fringe. I'll give it a few more episodes and decide if I still want to watch it. Anyways, tomorrow it's back to the daily grind. :cry:

Damn, I know I'm a movie fan and all but as of tonight I have reached 2700 Ratings on my account. Have I really watched 2700 movies? I've been a member of Netflix for for 62 months. I don't even want to know how much money I've given them over the years. Well, let's tally it up. My rate has fluctuated over the years but let's say $20 a mth over 62 mths, that's $1,240.00 Holy S***!!! Well, I like Netflix and can definitely recommend them. They've won a ton of customer service awards and I can agree. They actually just gave a me a free upgrade. Pretty sweet...

Caught the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival last night in Bristow, VA. I saw about seven of the thirteen bands there. The best bands were Machine Head and Slipknot. Machine Head's guitar player, Phil Demmel, passed out close to the end of the set, right in the middle of 'Halo'. The band announced that he was okay but wouldn't be able to continue the set. At least we got to see most of it. Slipknot is back! I'm excited about them again. The new song is great and they played an awesome set. They covered all the songs that I was really hoping to hear. Overall a good concert, but not one of the better ones considering there weren't that many good bands. Especially Black Tide, man were they awful. I wanna thank my brother for driving us down there and not making us highway fatality statistics. I know how he can drive. And Earl Peach is a crazy guy. Nobody enjoys a concert more than him, drinking a 5th of Seagram's 7 before the show! Slipknot's new album comes out 8/26/08. Check it out!!!

Well, it seems Frederick is in the news again. National headlines were made as the Anthrax suspect, Bruce Ivins, committed suicide. This story hits real close to home. The Ft. Detrick Bio Defense Lab is where this guy worked. I know someone who works there! Not to mention I'm at Ft. Detrick three times a week. Even stranger yet, his house is right in front of Detrick. I've seen it hundreds of times. You don't really want your town to make news this way and it's unfortunate he died. I still think facing the music would be better than killing yourself, but I guess he didn't think so. Has anyone else's hometown made news lately? Anything to add about this story?

I've spent a long time NOT being a fan of going to the movies. I think at one point it had almost been two years since I had gone to the theaters to see a movie. Over the past six weeks I have gone to see a TON of movies. I have gone to see, Wall-E, Indiana Jones, Hancock, Prince Caspian, Wanted, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Get Smart and The Happening. I've really been enjoying going and I don't see me slowing down. This weekend Journey To The Center of the Earth and Hellboy II come out. I'm going to go see those as well. I've heard that ticket sales for movies have jumped because gas prices are contributing to people wanting to do things closer to home. Is there weight to this argument? I know in my case that I like to go because an awesome theater is just down the road from my place. Anyone else gone to the movies lately? If so, what have you seen? I'm really looking forward to the X-Files movie and The Dark Knight. Anyone going to see either of those?