AvantBlog

I’ve just finished watching all of the episodes of Firefly (IMDB) and can safely say it’s some of the best TV I’ve ever seen. The events and characters are immediately accessible thanks to a believable script and actors who appear extremely comfortable in their roles. You can tell that everyone involved with the show really loved working on it.

Yes, it’s Sci-Fi. No, there aren’t any aliens. Yes, space ships are involved, but in Firefly, futuristic technology takes a back seat while character development mans the helm. The show has this perfect blend of action, humor, and emotion that leaves you satisfied at the end of each episode and yet craving for more.

Sadly, they only made 14 episodes of Firefly before the show was cancelled in 2002. Personally, I can’t understand why it was cancelled, but Wikipedia’s entry for Firefly has this to say:

Fans attributed the low ratings in part to actions of the FOX Network. Firefly was promoted as an action-comedy rather than the more serious character study it was intended to be. Episodes were occasionally preempted for sporting events, and episodes were not aired in storyline-chronological order as the creators had intended.

Nevertheless, there was enough interest in Firefly to fund a full-length feature, Serenity. In fact, the whole reason why I started watching Firefly was that I heard all this hype about how Serenity was such a great movie. I wanted to watch Firefly first so I’d be more familiar with the characters before seeing the story continue in Serenity. Well, this Friday, I’ll be counting the hours until I can leave work and run to the movie theater to see Serenity.

Seriously, if you haven’t seen Firefly yet, what are you waiting for? You can buy the Firefly 4-Disc DVD set at Amazon or rent it at Netflix. Trust me, you’ll love it.

When I need to ship three 1,000 ton cranes from Korea to the Bahamas, I use Dockwise’s Dock Express 12.

R Todd King has some great pictures and commentary on his website. Particularly cool are his pics of the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival.

The temperature in Harbin reaches forty below zero, both farenheit and centigrade, and stays below freezing nearly half the year. The city is actually further north than notoriously cold Vladivostok, Russia, just 300 miles away. So what does one do here every winter? Hold an outdoor festival, of course! Rather than suffer the cold, the residents of Harbin celebrate it, with an annual festival of snow and ice sculptures and competitions. Image and text taken from RToddKing.com without permission.

From the IRS site explaining exemptions:

You may be eligible to claim the exemption for a child even if the child has been kidnapped. Both of the following statements must be true.

1. The child must be presumed by law enforcement authorities to have been kidnapped by someone who is not a member of your family or the child’s family. 2. The child must have qualified as your dependent for the part of the year before the kidnapping.

If both statements are true, the child is treated as your dependent and you qualify to claim the exemption. This treatment applies for all years until the child is returned. However, the last year this treatment can apply is the earlier of:

1. The year there is a determination that the child is dead, or 2. The year the child would have reached age 18.

Also worth noting:

You cannot claim an exemption for a stillborn child.

Here’s three pics I took during a walk around Radnor Lake, in Nashville:

Click on each for the full resolution version.