Stunning

World Builder

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Why I liked the BSG Finale

I get that a lot of people didn't like it.

I didn't like it a whole lot right away either.

(Don't read any further if you are trying to avoid spoilers)

I have altered my perception somewhat over the weekend, however. I absolutely loved the entire first hour of the finale. I was literally gripping the arm of the couch and holding my breath. When they jumped the Galactica out of there, and you see it torquing around... I can truly say that I had feelings for that damn ship.

Then things started going awry. The first huge clue was when Lee started spouting off about ditching the ships in space. A huge suspension of disbelief was needed there to accept that the remnants of the human race would be willing to give up all of their technology.

From there, it got more and more heavy-handed. "God" started showing his hand everywhere, Starbuck disappears, we find out that the natives are essentially a genetic match to the humans in the fleet, and we are shown that Hera is in fact the common genetic ancestor of all of us modern humans.

Yeah, pretty weak.

HOWEVER, I have had something of an epiphany as far as this story is concerned. In the same way as 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou?' was a retelling of 'The Odyssey', 'Battlestar Galactica' has been a retelling of the biblical myth surrounding Noah and his ark. The flood in this new version just happens to be a few hundred nuclear weapons.

When I look at it from this perspective, I find that I can get a lot more enjoyment out of the series. The overt religious and anti-technology sentiment that reared its head in the finale seems less egregious when one is aware that the narrative is a cover for a more religious message, and I can file it away in the folder marked 'myth' and the preachy aspects of the show. It makes it much easier to keep thinking of it as a great show, in the same way that the bible is a great example of ancient literature.

Essentially, it is very easy to like the show as a retelling of the popular myth of Noah's Ark. In my perception, the angels are characters, they are not meant to mirror anything real, the same with this God dude that they bring up all throughout the series. They are all fiction, and it makes for a pretty good (if heavy-handed) ending to an absolutely amazing show.

My favorite character? Saul Tigh.

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The Beard Song

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Andy Richter wins.

HAAAAAhAHAhahahahahaaaaa

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Hack! Hack!

My PayPal account got broken into.

Technically, it did not get 'hacked', because there was no problem on PayPal's servers, and no-one broke any of their user databases. I have gotten over being angry at PayPal, they have actually been the paradigm of excellence through the whole ordeal. I will relate why in a bit.

Alan dredged up a news item that Monster.com got hacked. They had a major security breach and a ton of usernames and passwords were shown the light of day. Normally this would not be a big deal, but two things conspired to make this a bigger problem. The first was my own damn fault, in that I had used the same username and password for so many of my site registrations. The second was Monster's fault, in that they did not send me a notice saying that their servers had been hacked, only notifying me after the fact when I went to login after hearing of the problem from Alan.

In essence, the first sign that I had that something was wrong was when I got a 'Fraud Alert' email from PayPal. Here is where PayPal starts saving my ass. I got four emails from paypal last Thursday, which initially I thought were phishing scams. Reading closer, however, I noticed that there were no links therein, and that they looked surprisingly real. Just in case, I figured that I should probably check out my PayPal account.

$885 was withdrawn from my bank account.

I should clarify, they attempted to take $885, PayPal actually caught the biggest one, so they only actually got $385. PayPal stopped the final $500 transaction before it was taken out of my account, so it is in there waiting for me presently. The remaining three I put claims in on immediately, and had Wells Fargo do the same. As of yesterday, I received emails saying that the money would be returned to me within 5 days, and as of right now, the $885 is back in my PayPal account, waiting for me to unlock the account and transfer it back to Wells Fargo.

Thanks, PayPal. You truly were a massive help on this one. Initially, I had thought about closing my account with them, I was kind of scared and angry. After talking to some folks and thinking about it, I have realized that PayPal did a masterful job handling the issue, and that it was my own fault for doing three things stupidly:

1. I used the same username and password for multiple accounts
2. I attached PayPal to my PRIMARY bank account, the one that has all the money in it, instead of a secondary acount.
3. I assumed that this type of crap only happens to non-computer-savvy folks.

So, take this as a massive endorsement of the PayPal system. I could have lost a lot more, and they could have made this process MUCH harder than it was. I don't use PayPal often, but I know that I will not kill my account, only change it to be more responsible.

Also, Monster.com can suck it. They were the LEAST useful job search engine that I used when I was looking, and they clearly have security and customer service issues.

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