Tag Archives: TV Show

Television, Transformers

Transformers Animated: Along Came a Spider

I am really diggin’ the new Transformers Animated TV show. Many people do not like it because they don’t like the Teen Titans design of the Transformers characters. I think it works. And the reason I like this show is that the stories are so much better than the more recent shows where every other thing there was a major battle and nothing was resolved and everyone ‘powered up’ and again it was ridiculous.

This show is much more complex as there are actual plot lines. We also see some great appearances by other famous Transformers characters. There was an episode where Ratchet had a flashback to being captured by a Decepticon and Arcee was also captured along with him. In this episode we see a flashback of Optimus Prime’s where he is with Sentinel Prime and Elita One. I knew Sentinel Prime was going to be on the show but I didn’t know about Elita One being on it.

I like how the show isn’t as corny as the others were a character runs off somewhere but stays in place like they are running on a treadmill. That shtick gets a little old after a while. Nope, characters here seem to have much more realistic reactions to things.

This episode dealt with a specter from Optimus’ past. In the past Optimus, Elita One and Sentinel Prime were exploring and organic world. We find out that organic worlds are off limits to Transformers. But the three go looking for a Decepticon warship that had crashed on the planet. They find the ship but there are some huge spiders on the world that attack the three explorers.

In the fighting Optimus runs away and finds the warship. Then Elita one finds him. They are attacked again by a large group of spiders and Optimus and Elita attempt to escape. Optimus gets away but Elita One is trapped and presumably dead.

Cut to years later and it is Earth and it is Halloween. Optimus is afraid of spiders and along comes a spider by the name of Black Arachnia. She attacks Bumblebee, Sari and Bulkhead as they go trick-or-treating. Black Arachnia captures Sari and there is a showdown with Optimus. Black Arachnia wants Sari’s Allspark key. She wants it so she can purge herself of the organics. She wants to do this because she is really Elita One and was transformed into a techno-organic transformer. It was a good episode overall.

Grab Bag

Can I be a spy or would I get Burned….

2 Comments

I have seen many posts about USA Network’s new original series called Burn Notice. The show is about Michael Westen who was working int he CIA but got fired. Now when they fire you from the CIA you don’t get a box with your personal items and are walked tot he door by security, nope you are stripped of all things that were you. You are dropped somewhere and unable to leave, you are then on every watch list possible. You can then constantly watched.

So how is a spy going to be able to make a living in the civilian world and try not to run afoul of those who are watching. He has to be smart. I think I am smart and could probably get myself in and out of situations, keeping a low profile and keeping one step ahead of my watchers.

I think I learned some of these skills while I was a residence hall director. I saw many examples of stupid behavior and that reinforced what I would have done in a particular situation. One thing that I was accused of was spying on my students because I ended up catching them doing these stupid behaviors. For one thing, if your windows are wide open the sound of a quarter bouncing off a hardwood table echoes off a set of brick buildings like a shotgun. Hmm, that would be going on up there. Another thing that people would do would be try and sneak into buildings. Since we had inter visitation rules members of the opposite sex needed to be out of the building by 1:00am each weekend night. Around 12:30 there would be tons of people coming in to the building, they were trying to sneak in, right in front of us. I always found this amusing and would usually catch many a guy bringing his girlfriend in through a window. There had to be a better way to get by me.

I used to deliver pizza on campus and pizza delivery guys and girls could come and go as they pleased in many buildings. So all I would have needed to do was appropriate a pizza bag, give it to a girlfriend and boom she would be in my room without any hassle. And if I wanted to sneak in beer I could have certainly filled a pizza box and pizza bag with beer and would have never had a problem. What I saw were perfectly square backpacks from my brain dead students. It was laughable.

so if I was a spy I would try and figure out what was mundane and overlooked in daily life, use that as my disguise and go to it. Delivery people can be easy to ape so I would probably study the delivery routines of certain routes and if I had to get into some place I would have to get a disguise that replicated the delivery person, then I would use a tiny video camera to record any surveillance. And of course I would pop a piece of electrical tape over the little blinking red light, never overlook the smallest details.

Maybe I could be a spy, maybe not. However I know that Michael Westen was trained to do these things and you can learn more about him and his exploits on USA Network’s Burn Notice. Maybe you will pick up some spy tips and tricks that you could use.

Also I want to say that I can’t wait for this show because there doesn’t seem to be anything very good on TV this summer and I do not want to watch reality shows. Burn Notice looks new and original and it also looks fun. Plus Bruce Campbell is in it. Anything that returns Bruce back to TV is great in my book.

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