From: Thomas Bender
Date: Feb 24, 2007 10:17 AM
Subject: I’m Going Home…
To: [a bunch of people]

Well everyone, my time here in Baghdad is about over. In fact, I leave here on Tuesday some time to fly back to Qatar with a return to the states somewhere around the 1st.

I must say that I am very happy to have experienced everything out here. It gives you a different perspective on things to be here where things are happening that you don’t get back at home. I am proud of the job we’ve done, and I’m proud of the jobs the men and women have done even more forward than I. It’s certainly difficult, and at times you wonder if it is even worth it. But then there is the one event that makes it all good. If you ever get a chance, ask someone who has returned from out here what they felt and how it has changed their life. One thing will always be the same…no one leaves here the same as when they came here.

More after the cut.

More than the job, though, I have really enjoyed the people I have been working with. I’m made friends here that I hope last a while. We have our up times and our down times, but in the end, you have to come to rely on them. They are your family while out here. When their day is going bad, you drag them out for coffee. When they seem to be working themself to death, you send them home early or force them to join you at the chow hall for dinner. You look out for each other.

But even still, it is time for me to return. I have spent my time, I’ve had my fun, but I am anxious to return to my family that is waiting for me. When I return, I will still be working similar targets as I am now. In fact, I will likely be calling back here to CSG on a regular basis. I’m looking forward to it.

Thank you all for your support to not only me, but to all of our service members and civilians who risk thier lives and leave their families (like the guy I know out here who’s wife just had a baby last night) to support freedom for all people. I’ll send a message around when I make it back to the states. Until then, I’m signing off.

Tom

From: Bender Morris T LTJG
Date: Dec 11, 2006 10:32 AM
Subject: [U] Where Does the Time Go?
To: [a bunch of people]
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

So I was catching up on Kevin’s blogs the other day and I realized that I hadn’t sent out an email in about a month. Time has certainly started to go by. Christmas is just around the corner, followed closely by New Years. At that point, I am half way home. For those I’ve promised names and addresses of in-need service members, I have my NCOIC actively working on that with the Command Sergeant Major. I should be getting a list in a day or two. I asked him for a list of about 15 names of varying branches.

In all, the routine has smoothed out. I get into work around 0800 local time (midnight on the east coast) and work for 12 hours. Now that we have a second Watch Officer that takes over during nights, I have less need to stay late. I usually wrap up any loose ends between 2000-2100 (8:00 – 9:00 pm) before heading home. I spend 2 hours winding down by reading, watching a movie, playing a computer game, or whatever before settling down to sleep.

Let me now stress that I am fine, and everyone I work with is fine. However, I must mention something that might make some of you a little worried. Again, I will stress that there is nothing really to worry about. A few days ago, there was some indirect fire against Camp Liberty, Camp Victory, and Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). Several rockets were fired and there were three impacts on the bases. Camp Liberty/Victory is next door to Slayer and is where the PX is located. We occasionally make trips there to shop or to eat at the fast food located there. One of the impacts was in the parking lot of the Dining Facility. I have included pictures that were taken on the scene just after impact. While there were injuries (some serious), no coalition forces (military or civilian) were killed.

These incidents are NOT a frequent occurrence. The most we usually get are in-town explosions or small arms fire on the other side of the outer wall. For those that have seen the pictures of the Perfume Palace, the wall on the other side of the lake is the INNER wall. The outer wall is quite a distance away.

Thank you all for keeping us over here in your prayers. It may seem like a small thing, but knowing we have the support of family and friends back home does help keep us going. Happy Holidays.

Tom

From: Bender Morris T LTJG
Date: Nov 23, 2006 8:38 AM
Subject: [U] Happy Thanksgiving
To: [a bunch of people]
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

All,

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We had a traditional Thanksgiving lunch (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams) as well as some not-as-traditional items (lobster tail, shrimp cocktail). I’ve been told that dinner is a repeat of lunch. If it weren’t for the fact that I skipped both dinner last night and breakfast this morning, I’d just pass. One meal a day is probably not good. I want to thank everyone praying for the troops out here and in other forward units around the world. We may not have our friends and family with us here, but they are always in our hearts. Not to mention we have all the friends we’ve made here to celebrate with. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday. I expect most won’t see this email/blog until at least tomorrow once the tryptophan wears off. Hope you enjoyed the sleep.

Out here…

From: Bender Morris T LTJG
Date: Nov 14, 2006 10:51 AM
Subject: [U] Where I Spend My Day
To: [a bunch of people]
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

I thought it might be a good idea to tell everyone a little about where I spend a large portion of my day. In actuality it is about half of my day, but since 8 hours (once I get adjusted to an 8-hour time change) is spent sleeping, it constitutes about three-quarters of my time. [If I lost you, trust me. If you don't trust me, I'll send you a PowerPoint presentation (we use the words "death by PowerPoint" often in the military) stepping you through the formulas and equations. After that, you'll learn to never doubt me again].

The rest, including an explanation behind the name of the “Perfume Palace” (pictured above) plus a really nice shout-out to my blog, after the cut.

Tom’s email continues:

My time is spent in what has come to be known as the “Perfume Palace.” I was quite interested in what exactly the Perfume Palace was before coming here. On the outside, the Palace is a three-story domed marble building. The floors are each about 30 feet in height making it roughly an 8-story building by normal figures. It is roughly round in shape, but looking at it from the top, it takes more the shape of a budding flower. Imagine a circle in the center with an oval nearly surrounding it. The entrance being a keystone shape protruding from the end of the oval. Now you may say, “Hey, I’ve looked at the links at the bottom and in some of the pictures it looks like there are four floors.” In a way, you’d be correct. However, the main building (the circle) has three floors. Between the second and third floor, wrapping around the building is a half-floor. There is a set of stairs in the back of the second floor that takes you here. Personally, I’ve never been up them as I believe they are offices. And random offices around here can potentially have more brass than I do. Better safe than sorry.

Anyway, to see it is to be amazed. I was amazed that people put that much time and work into building such an awesome structure. I was amazed a structure this size and of this magnitude was built for a single family. I was amazed that so much money that could have been used to help so many people in the country and the world was spent on such an unnecessary thing.

The question always comes up as to why it’s called the “Perfume Palace.” A quick search on the internet explains it all. The Palace was used as the brothel of the Hussein family. Specifically, it is said to be the brothel for Saddam’s sons Uday and Husay. I doubt daddy would have let his son’s have ALL the fun though. Some even say it was used by high ranking Generals and Baath Party members. As it’s told, when the Coalition Forces liberated the country, while other places smelled of battle, this place smelled of the perfume from al the concubines housed over the years.

Now anyone who’s worked computers knows, most wires are run through the floor. So, most office spaces are built on a supper-floor above the real floor. Here is no different. I have been told, however, that somewhere underneath everything, on the main floor, is a huge indoor pool on which the men would sit while all the naked women walked/bathed/swam around. The second floor is a massive round room with a huge marble column in the center. Frankly, this room makes me think Vegas. It looks like the sort of room where you’d have dollar slots. Eight crystal chandeliers provide way too much light (so we only run four of them) and are each 6-8 feet tall each. I’m unsure as to what, exactly, this room was used for, but then again, why they needed a building this large as a brothel for three guys also eludes me. The third floor is a large domed ballroom. What sense a ballroom in a brothel makes is also a bit beyond me, but when I say large, I mean large. I’d estimate 90 feet circular with a dome that reaches about 80 feet from the floor. The square footage alone is about five times the size of Sarah and my first house in Georgia (only we didn’t have a vaulted ceiling). There are bronze-colored scallops that run around the dome (sort of like sci-fi doors the “whoosh” open in a spiral motion) giving the feeling of a large fan attached to the ceiling. In the center hangs, by far, the largest crystal chandelier I have ever seen. It is at least 30 feet in height and about half the width of the dome.

Overall, the building is an awesome sight. But when you really look at it, you see the construction isn’t the best. The lights are hung questionably, the walls don’t quite meet well, and the stairs are slightly crooked. But then, if you spend enough time in any place, eventually you’ll see to flaws. I try to separate the construction flaws from the blemishes imposed by time spent as an occupied establishment. We moved in and set up offices where none existed. We set up temporary walls, made toilet facilities, mounted lighting, and ran cable. I find myself sometimes wondering what the Palace looked in its pristine state. Unfortunately, even once all Coalition Forces are gone, it will never look the way it once did.

For more pics and info on the building, you can take a look at these links:

gallery.completecomputing.com/userpublic/christian/boolean/album07/aaa.jpg.html (external photo)

www.beans-around-the-world.com/baghdad.html (first 2 pics are the palace. other pic is another shelled out building here at Slayer)

midnight.hushedcasket.com/2006/05/17/the-perfume-palace-baghdad/ (marine’s blog about his time here)

findthegood.blogspot.com/2006/10/perfume-palace.html (external photo and discussion by an English teacher in Iraq)

www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/radwaniyah-cc.htm (not really a Perfume Palace link, but talks about it…good Camp Slayer link, though)

As an aside to this, I’d like to thank Kevin for reposting these emails on his blog site. It certainly helps spread my audience to include people I’ve lost contact with (Noelle) and even more people I’ve never even known. For those who aren’t reading this through his blog, you can find it at www.soulcookie.com. If you are reading it through there, I wasn’t excluding you…you already know the address. Please take a moment to check out his site.

With that, I am going to turn in. It is time for bed. The days are long, the nights are short, but the support we give is priceless.

Tom

Thanks, Tom!

Oh, and I’m not sure if I knew and forgot, or if I never knew (thanks to the outdated contact info he had), but Tom has apparently earned a promotion to lieutenant junior grade in the last few years. Woo hoo!

Tom’s message from Camp Slayer is after the cut.

Here’s Tom’s email:

From: Bender Morris T LTJG
Date: Nov 10, 2006 4:39 AM
Subject: [U] I made it…
To: [a bunch of people]
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

Everyone,

I wanted to drop a line while I had a chance to let you know that I made it safely here. In all, the trip here was long. From Baltimore to Doha, Qatar, I was traveling for 24 hours straight (straight time…no time changes). There I was able to get a little sleep, a shower, and some food. Then, it was on a C-130 for the flight here. We finally landed late evening on the 8th. If it weren’t for the fact that I caught a cold enroute, it might have been a more enjoyable flight…but I’m taking medication and trying to get as much sleep as possible in hopes I get over it soon.

It turns out I had some bad information. There is no wireless internet available in my room. Also, I think the site I got most of my information about the living quarters had Camp Slayer and Camp Victory confused. My room is one-half of a long trailer. I share that with someone else, so we each have one-fourth of a trailer (I hope I didn’t lose too many with the fact there’s math in this email). There is indoor plumbing…just not in the same place as the room. But at least it is a short walk to the latrine trailer (and the shower trailer is right next door to it). Fast food is a short drive to Camp Victory/Liberty away but I don’t think I’m going to tackle driving around here until I’m sure I can get places and get back without getting lost.

All in all, it’s not too bad here. The people are nice, the food is decent, and I have a bed to go to at night that is not under a tent. The lack of internet in the room means that getting to emails won’t be as easy (there is an internet café next to my trailer, but I haven’t looked into it yet), but you can always email me here at this address (redacted). [Kevin's note: I'm not going to repost the address here, lest a spambot harvest it. If you want it, just ask.] My hours will be 11:00 p.m.-11:00 a.m. Eastern, so if I don’t reply right away, wait until the next morning…

Take care,
Tom

Tom Bender is getting deployed to Iraq for four months.

From: Tom Bender
Date: Nov 6, 2006 9:43 AM
Subject: Off I Go…
To: [a bunch of people]

Everyone,

Some of you already know, but for those of you who don’t know, I am leaving this afternoon to head over to Baghdad, Iraq. I will be there for 4 months. I greatly appreciate the well wishes people have expressed to me and to Sarah regarding my trip. I am not going over there to be on the front line, and I will be within a secure compound the entire time. I expect Sarah will call on several people for assistance over the next few months, but if anyone is concerned, please don’t hesitate to give her a ring.

I will have internet access in my room, and will have a bed and indoor plumbing. In fact, I will be at Camp Slayer. Camp Slayer is the coalition name for Saddam’s former primary personal residence. Located right next to Saddam International Airport, our living facility is the former guest houses located along one of three man-made lakes. I will have full use of a Post Exchange, workout center, a Burger King, Pizza Hut, and, like I said, wireless internet from my room. It’s practically club med only in camoflauge.

I barely escaped being over there on my birthday, but will be there on Mom’s birthday, Thanksgiving, Dad’s birthday, Christmas, New Years, Valentine’s Day, and Rhys’ 4th birthday. If anyone wants to send me care packages (or care packages for any other deployed soldier, sailor, airman, or marine…I can get lists of names of those most in need) my address will be:

Morris Bender (do not put rank)
MNFI C2, CSG
APO AE 09342

Take care,
Tom

You may recall that Tom received his commission from the Navy three years ago next week.

So, if y’all find yourselves in possession of an empty slot on your Christmas card list this year, you might consider sending something Tom’s way. Heck, like he says, there will be many servicemen and servicewomen who would, I’m sure, love to get something over the holidays.

My best wishes to Tom and Sarah and their families.

Microsoft – Stop Making Fun of Us
[from Flickr user mikeabundo]

D&D on DVD

I guess I should mention that it’s official: The Dungeons and Dragons cartoon show, which I worked on back in my misspent youth, is coming to DVD shortly. On or about November 7, it’s coming out from the Ink and Paint company — a “complete” set which will include all 27 episodes plus a “making of” documentary and a number of special features. I’ll put up an Amazon link as soon as that’s possible.

W00t!

Ah… good times…

• Hey, look – a Dungeons and Dragons ride!
• Wow, neat!
• Give me a break.
• I don’t like this!
• What’s happening?
• Where are we?
• Look out!
• Fear not, ranger; barbarian; magician; thief; cavalier; and acrobat!
• Who was that?
• That was Venger, the force of evil. I am Dungeon Master, your guide in the realm of Dungeons & Dragons!

Since I’m entirely the wrong gender to present (Curse you, Y chromosome; you win again!), I asked if I could repost this far and wide. Lindsey checked with the contact she’d named in the email, who gave us a thumbs up.

Here then, in its entirety, is Lindsey’s email.

Sorry to send out such a blast email, but this is a really good cause. I’m working with the Sally Ride Science Fair through my job at Carnegie Mellon. Basically, there is going to be a science fair held here on the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field on May 21 (it’s a Sunday), for 5th-8th grade girls, trying to get them more interested in the fields of Science, Technology (all forms, inc. Computing), Engineering and Math, since they are so underrepresented in those fields at a professional level. Even though I am utterly incapable in those fields myself, I think its a good thing to get more girls interested!

The festival consists of a street fair, a keynote speech by Astronaut Janice Voss, and workshops.

This is where hopefully some of you can come in:

They still need presenters. They have quite a few, but more are always needed. They are expecting about 1,700 people, including parents — who do not go to the same workshops as the girls.

The workshops for the girls are 20-25 participants max, as they are very hands-on, so you can see how they need a lot of workshops! I was thinking that some of you might know of someone who would be willing to present.

• Hands on presentation that the girls (5-8 graders) can get involved in.
• 45 minutes, twice during the day (2:15-3:00pm, then again at 3:15-4:00)
• It’s voluntary, but it’s a great cause, and good exposure for a company name – companies like NASA, Glaxo, Sun Microsystems, IBM, etc., are sponsoring it and will be present (networking possibilities…?). Plus, of course, we here at Carnegie Mellon West are giving them free use of our building and utilities.
• Presenters must be female, and prominent in their field, so fairly high level within their company, or working on/completed a Master’s. If they want to have a male helper, that’s cool, but they need women to lead as good role models.
• Present on topics related to Science, Technology, Engineering or Math

If you know of anyone, the contact I have there is Jennifer Kremer, 650.604.4052, jkremer@mail.arc.nasa.gov.

It’s also possible to have a stall outside at the street fair, and I’m pretty sure thats free, so if your company is working on something cool, like robotics or sound engineering or whatever you guys are all involved in, you could exhibit like that, and there are no gender restrictions on who mans the stall either, though of course, at least a few women would be best. So if you think this is something your company might like to support, please let your PR/Marketing teams know about it.

Thanks for reading. If you know of any girls who may be interested in attending, its $18, including lunch, street fair, workshops and keynote speech. Their website is at www.sallyridefestivals.com, or you can get information for the NASA location specifically.

Feel free to repost this information as you see fit, and let’s see if we can’t make a difference in some girls’ lives.

Update: Thanks to Jan Kabili for reposting the call to arms in her blog!

Marriage Proposal in a Box

MADISON, Wisconsin – People say romance can be a game, but nowhere was this truer than when Bill Becker got engaged to girlfriend Ashleigh…with the help of their favorite party game: Apples to Apples.

He actually got the Out of the Box guys to make a special “Ashleigh, Will You Marry Me?” red card that he could play when she was the Judge of the “Unforgettable” green card.

More in John Kovalic’s blog, including pics of the happy couple and their cards.

From: jmsatb5@aol.com
Subject: from jms: too damned much stuff
To: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Date: 4/9/2005 9:11:29 AM

Okay. That’s it. I give up.

Over the last few days, I’ve been trying to sort through the tons of boxes that have for the most part been sitting in storage for the last several years to try and find space for all this stuff, and there just isn’t any. The floors are wall-to-wall with boxes, crates, palletes, you name it, the detritus of decades of making shows and writing comics and being a pack-rack. It has literally grown to overflow two rental storage facilities.

[...]

So starting sometime probably next week, the week of the 11th, and from time to time over the next month or so, keep an eye on Ebay.

[...]

The Ebay user ID is babylon5auctions.

JMS says in a subsequent post thay he’s going to ship everything FedEx, for like five bucks an item, so worldwide delivery won’t be a problem.

See the full post for an idea of the scope of this Straczynski bonanza.

Update: The first batch of auctions has gone up.

Predictably and depressingly, the prices, a day in, are already well outside my reach. I’d still recommend looking at the auction items, though. Joe has added a “director’s commentary”-style background blurb to each item. Neat reading.

From: jmsatb5@aol.com
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 08:35:46 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 20

Buddy seems to have leveled out (for now, they apparently grow for the first three-four years of their lives) at 15 pounds and 28 inches from nose to butt, not counting his tail, which is almost as long as he is…so fully stretched out he’s almost five feet from tip of nose to tip of tail.

His latest trick — he comes up with a new one every few days — is to go up the stairwell to the bonus room a few steps, so he’s already a bit high, stretch as far as he can, reach for the hand-rail, balancing like a ballerina on point, and peer around the corner when I come down the hall so that I’m looking at a cat head peeking around the corner at nearly eye-level. Completely wigged me out the first time he did it.

He thinks it’s great fun.

I’m having him committed.

jms

Relevant posts:

• 24 August 2004: Yo! It’s MC Toaster Paw
• 15 January 2004: “I have let a furred Godzilla into my home.”

It’s not bad enough that the glimmer of hope that JMS could run a new Trek show of his own dashed soon thereafter by circumstance (as Noelle documented in her blog), but now I find out that the plans for a Babylon 5 movie have fallen through.

From: jmsatb5@aol.com
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 01:52:00 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 69

The rule of thumb in Hollywood is that for every thousand scripts that get written, only a few dozen get into development, and out of those, only one will ever get made…if that.

A little over a year ago, I was approached by a company that wanted to make a Babylon 5 movie. They optioned the rights, and commissioned a script. (It’s worth mentioning that I, not WB, own the rights to a B5 movie. When we were negotiating the original B5 deal — by whose terms I will never see a dime in profit — the one thing they did let me have were the movie rights, figuring they’d never be worth anything in the long run.)

Anyway…on December 27th of 2003, the script for “The Memory of Shadows” was turned in, and the process began of trying to make the deal work with all the various forces involved. It is, to say the least, a very difficult process on any movie where the studio does not directly take the financial reins. In terms of B5, Warner’s position was esssentially, “We only do big-budget movies with big names, so you’re on your own.” If there were big-name movie actors in the film, they’d get behind it; without that, things become very problematic, especially as far as the financing was concerned. You much have to put together a consortium of international interests and business plans rivaled in complexity only by the Allied invasion of Normandy Beach.

Nonetheless, every attempt was made by the people involved to get this deal in place. This was not being done by Doug or myself, but rather by the company/individuals who approached us and optioned the rights. At times, it seemed we were inches away from a deal…stages were reserved at Elstree, actors were contacted, a director was in place, the script went through many revisions, a few key staff were hired, again not by me…it was really a year-long roller coaster ride. During that time, the people involved, with every good intention, tried very hard to pull the necessary pieces together on the deal. The option expired in late December 2004, but I renewed it without cost, to give those involved more time to try and make things work.

In the end, however, the deal could be put together, and it did not look as if that was going to change at any point in the foreseeable future. So the option has reverted, and to all intents and purposes, the project has dead ended. Nor do I think this particular incarnation will arise again at any point in the future, though prognostication has always been a tricky art, especially if you have to do it without the benefit of hindsight.

This was not the first time someone’s taken a run at a B5 feature film, and it will not be the last. Eventually it will happen, because such things are simply inevitable. If they can do a Brady Bunch movie, you can be sure that sooner or later, somebody’s going to do a B5 movie. The only thing I can say without equivocation is that when that day comes, as the rights-holder, I will make darned sure that it’s done right, because I’d rather have no B5 movie than one that doesn’t live up to what fans and I myself would want to see.

To that end…I can wait.

Anyway, just thought you should know the story.

jms

(message content (c) 2005 by Synthetic Worlds, Ltd.
Rights to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine)

This would be so cool….

From: jmsatb5@aol.com
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 08:25:46 +0000 (UTC)

I’m trying this via google to see if I can access the groups, since I’ve been offline since AOL stopped carrying newsgroups.

I don’t normally do this…in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever done this in any group before, because I’ve always kind of waited to make sure it was worth doing, and that it would make a difference.

I’m sending this to both the B5 folks reading this and any Trek fans looking on.

Bryce Zabel (recently the head of the Television Academy and creator/executive producer of Dark Skies) and I share one thing in common. We are both long-time Trek fans, from the earliest days, who felt that the later iterations were not up to the standards set by the original series. (I’m exempting TNG because that one worked nicely, and was in many ways the truest to the original series because Gene was still around to shepherd its creation and execution.)

Over time, Trek was treated like a porsche that’s kept in the garage all the time, for fear of scratching the finish. The stories were, for the most part, safe, more about technology than what William Faulkner described as “the human heart in conflict with itself.” Yes, there were always exceptions, but in general that trend became more and more apparent with the passage of years. Which was why so often I came down on the later stories, which I did openly, because I didn’t feel they lined up with what Trek was created to be. I don’t apologize for it, because that was what I felt as a fan of Trek. That’s why I had Majel appear on B5, to send a message: that I believe in what Gene created.

Because left to its own devices, allowed to go as far as it could, telling the same kind of challenging stories Trek was always known for, it could blow the doors off science fiction television. Think of it for a moment, a series with a forty year solid name, guaranteed markets…can you think of a better time when you take chances and can tell daring, imaginative, challenging stories? Why play it safe?

When Enterprise went down, those involved shrugged and wrote it off to “franchise fatigue,” their phrase, not mine.

I don’t believe that for a second. Neither does Bryce. There’s a tremendous hunger for Trek out there. It just has to be Trek done *right*.

Last year, Bryce and I sat down and, on our own, out of a sheer love of Trek as it was and should be, wrote a series bible/treatment for a return to the roots of Trek. To re-boot the Trek universe. Understand: writer/producers in TV just don’t do that sort of thing on their own, everybody always insists on doing it for vast sums of money. We did it entirely on our own, setting aside other, paying deadlines out of our passion for the series. We set out a full five-year arc.

But when it came time to bring it to Paramount, despite my track record and Bryce’s enormous and skillful record as a writer/producer, the effort stalled out because of “political considerations,” which was explained to us as not wishing to offend the powers that be.

So on behalf of myself and Bryce, I’m taking the unusual step of going right to the source…right to you guys, fueled in part by a number of recent articles and polls, including one at www.scifi.com/scifiwire in which nearly 18,000 fans voted their preference for a new Trek series, and 48% of that figure called for a jms take on Trek. (The other choices polled at about 18% or thereabouts.)

See, if somebody doesn’t like a story, doesn’t want to buy it, that’s all well and good, that’s terrific, that’s the way it’s supposed to be. But when “political considerations” are the basis…that just doesn’t parse.

So here’s the deal, folks. If you want to see a new Trek series that’s true to Gene’s original creation, helmed by myself and Bryce, with challenging stories, contemporary themes, solid extrapolation, and the infusion of some of our best and brightest SF prose writers, then you need to let the folks at Paramount know that. If the 48% of the 18,000 folks who voted at scifi.com sent those sentiments to Paramount…there’d be a new series in the works tomorrow.

I don’t need the work, I have plenty of stuff on my plate through 2007 in TV, film and comics, so that’s not an issue. But I’d set it all aside for one shot at doing Trek right, and I know Bryce feels the same.

If you want this to happen…it’s up to the Trek and B5 fans to make it so.

The rest I leave to the quiet turning of your considered conscience.

J. Michael Straczynski

Posted by: anon-56471618@craigslist.org
Posted on: 2005-01-20, 9:51PM

I like driving around with my two cats, especially on the freeway. I make them wear little hats so that I can use the carpool lane.

See what my boredom’s done to me?? Entertain me. It’s too cold out on the freeway tonight.

(I scaled the pics down to 50% size so they’d display nicer; the thumbnails link to the as-posted versions.)

[tip o' the hat to Ames for the link]

picture links to normal-size (readable) version

Bwahahahahaha—ooooh.

This should make Kevin happy
Bewitched teaser (with his soon to be wife, Nicole)
– posted by Noelle at 5:51 PM

Hello all -

Just wanted to drop a line letting everyone know that the newest Bender has arrived! As many know, Sarah was scheduled for a repeat C-Section on 13 Aug. Well, the Army hospital here at Fort Gordon, Eisenhower Army Medical Center, doesn’t have birthing facilities, so we were told that we would be delivering at Medical College of Georgia (MCG). Both Eisenhower and MCG suffer from a lack of organization, and so, as a result, our tour of the hospital was scheduled for Thursday, August 5th.

Well, a bit before that, Sarah had begun to have precursor contractions. Those are the ones that the uterus does as a warm-up for the actual delivery (it wouldn’t listen when we told it that it wouldn’t need the practice…there no talking to some uteri). Anyway, at one appointment, they noticed that the contractions were 7 minutes apart. Well, the doctor said she is in labor, and to be aware in the event that they get within 5 minutes apart. Occasionally, they would get closer, but would only stay close together for maybe 15 minutes and then would taper off to 30 minutes or more apart. This went on for about a week.

Then we had the tour. The tour, for those of you who have never experienced one, is where they get about 15 pregnant women together and walk them around the hospital…sometimes stopping for 10 minutes at a time. I hear tell that many a woman has gone straight from the tour into a delivery room. Well, that night, at about 12:30 in the morning, Sarah woke me up saying that she THOUGHT her water broke, but was unsure. So, after much thought and a call into MCG, we decided that it was not an extreme emergency since he wasn’t having serious contractions. We decided that we would get up at 6:00 when my alarm goes off and re-evaluate. Well, slightly before 6:00 we woke up, Sarah said we were taking the trip, and we were off. We did take the time to get ready, but we were out quite quickly.

I got on the phone and called the Command Duty Officer to let them know that I would not be in to work that day, and Sarah contacted one of the Navy wives to see if someone could watch Rhys for us while we were taking care of everything. Were got to the hospital, got a room, scheduled the first C-Section of the day, and had it all done before lunch.

At 11:02 EDT, Dmitri Jonathan Bender was born. He was 8lbs. 4 oz. and 20 inches long. He was healthy (and big for 2 weeks early) and happy (as happy as one just pulled from a nice warm environment where everything was given to you into a cold vicious world where you have to ask for things yourself).

Mom and baby are doing well, and came home form the hospital last Monday. Photos will be sent when we get the film developed.

We will be in Ohio around Thanksgiving and in California for Christmas, so we hope to see everyone then.

Tom

This is the end of the Friday Five. I know most of you have seen this coming and I appreciate you humoring me. I haven’t enjoyed it for some time now and because of that I can no longer justify the bandwidth. I’m not going to give it away or sell it or bring anyone on to help; Two-and-a-half years is a good run. Let’s let it go.

Thank you to everyone who has participated over the past 2+ years, for taking this silly little idea and running with it. Thanks again to the donators for their generosity and thoughtfulness, and those of you who have emailed me notes of support and encouragement over the last few months.

The notify list will remain as-is, just in case. The archives will remain down since that’s where most of the bandwidth suck has been. Globe of Blogs is not going anywhere, so get your blog listed if you haven’t already.

I, for one, am sorry to see it go.

Heather, should you ever read this, thank you for all that you’ve done over the last two and half years.