Hello all Geeks, Geekettes and Cousin Its!  It’s your pal Snowball here with something special for ya!  I know it’s been a while since I’ve showed up here on TWiG, but me showing up may be a hint of things to come.  So you never know. *wink* *wink*

I’m a big fan of Holiday tradition.  Growing up there were several things I loved about the Holidays and even though things have changed throughout the years, there are some traditions that stay the same.  One of them being, is on Christmas Eve my family and I would watch the movie “A Christmas Story.”  It’s hilarious, poignant, and because I honestly looked like Ralphie Parker growing up (almost).  There are so many great moments in this film:  The tongue to the flagpole, Frag-ee-lay, the Leg Lamp, Santa Claus, The Furnace, and of course the quest for the Red Ryder BB Gun.  However, one of my favourites was the Narrator, Jean Shepherd.  That voice carried such a tone that I gravitated to that kind of storytelling.

Well, here’s an interesting fact about that movie.  Our beloved narrator was the author of the short stories that the movie is based on!  Not only is the screenplay  written by him, but some of the lines themselves are taken directly from Jean’s written work.  The short stories were in a collection called “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash” or as it’s now being reprinted everywhere as “A Christmas Story”.  I was given the book by my mom for Christmas one year and I loved reading it every Christmas.

So this year inspiration struck me and I decided to take one of the stories from this book and narrate it myself to give to you as an audio Christmas present!  I took the longest story of the book called “Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder nails The Cleveland Street Kid” which focuses on Ralphie’s quest to get the Red Ryder BB Gun and record it for you to enjoy.  I will warn you though, it doesn’t have the Skut Farcus episode, the Bumpus dogs, or the Flagpole debacle, but it’s a great story for those who love the movie.

I release this under a:

A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd – Read by Steve Saylor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at stevesaylor.net.

If you want to download the short story, click here.

Share it, like it, tweet it, and enjoy it!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

If you want to see another video I made with the Flip Mino footage, here’s one I did about a month or so ago.

As always, I remain, obediently yours

Steve

I recently got a Flip Mino for review while I was in Hamilton, and I wanted to record some stuff. I was invited to join in a playing of Fantasy Flight Games’ Twilight Imperium. A board game that has a sci-fi galatic domination flair, but has a Battlestar Galactica kind of feel to it too. So I thought with the footage I recorded I would make a small video as a nod to my favorite modern sci-fi franchise.

Hope you find it entertaining.

As always I remain obediently yours.

Steve

Either way, here are some of my positive/negative thoughts on the Network Upfronts of 2009.

Positive:

Chuck (NBC) – One of my all-time favourite shows gets a third season.  This show had been consistent throughout the second season with it’s quirky, geeky, humour that I enjoy a lot.  This show was literally on the bubble right up until NBC announced Chuck got a third season.  With the season finale that Chuck had, you could tell the writers had a thought that the show wouldn’t be picked up so it cleaned up most of the loose ends that were introduced in seasons 1 and 2 quite nicely, and yet added new ones in the hope of a third season.  This was a hawesome game changer.  It keeps Chuck fresh and not bogged down by loose ends.  And with that hawesome ender with the Intersect 2.0 now knowing Kung-Fu and what I predict many other hidden features we have yet to see is going to make for a great third season!

Dollhouse (FOX) – The surprise move by FOX was picking up Dollhouse for a second season.  This is fantastic for us Whedon fans and honestly the first season had a great storyline.  I enjoyed most of it pretty much from episode 5 on.  Admittedly it had a slow start, but it really ramped up on episode 5 and for me it kept up that consistency for the rest of the season.  Why FOX picked up Dollhouse?  Well from what I have read, they believe in the story and the capabilities of Joss.  This is a different FOX than we’ve seen before when Firefly was on the air.  Granted, Dollhouse did poorly in the ratings, I think though the show has promise and just has a different audience than everyone expected.  It has an on-demand audience than just a live audience.

Glee(FOX) – This was a show I wasn’t expecting, but knew was inevitable.  With the huge success of Disney’s High School Musical franchise and American Idol.  The concept of Glee as a comedy set in a High School Glee Club on the surface seems like just a cop-out of an idea.  However, after seeing the pilot (which had a special viewing after the American Idol finale) I enjoyed it.  The show has potential.  It’s again quirky, fun, and entertaining.  It’s not a musical, it’s not a contest, it’s a teen dramedy that has some really rocking tunes in it!  I have listened to the Glee Club versions of “Rehab” and “Don’t Stop Believing” quite a few times now, and it hits that button of being entertaining and dare I say it, makes me GLEEfully happy.  It’s coming out in the Fall and I can’t wait to see if the show can keep it’s charm.

Negatives:

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX) – Of course one of the saddest news from the upfronts was Terminator: SCC was canceled.  I think it came down to both Dollhouse and Terminator, and Dollhouse won of course.  Honestly, I like the show.  It had it’s ups and downs, but the second season really ramped up near the end and with the season/series finale we were introduced to something hawesome that we will never see resolved.  Granted though this show definitely had budget issues.  There is a lot of special effects when making those Terminators and it showed, and that costs a lot of money.  So fiscally Terminator had to go.  Storywise, Terminator should have stayed.  The one thing I would’ve loved to see was a better tie in between the show and Terminator Salvation.  This was the perfect marketing opportunity for both show and movie and they didn’t for whatever reason.  I’m sad to see it go, but I understand FOX’s reasoning behind not picking it up.

Chuck (NBC) – The reason why I’m giving a negative stance on Chuck is due to the budget cuts that the producers had to make to allow NBC to pickup another season.  Chuck is only getting a 13 episode season and no idea if NBC will give it a back nine.  This also sucks because we may not see some of the cool effects that we’ve seen on Chuck, and will have to be scaled back now.  I think this could be good in that it can really force the creative team to come up with a great storyline that relies on characters and not on effects.  I think it can be done, but I am worried that with these budget cuts we may see a character go so the actor’s salary can give the producers money to keep the quality of the show up.  I hope it doesn’t come down to that, but you never know.

Reaper (CW) – Another one of those shows that I am sad to see go without getting real resolution.  The season finale was great, but it didn’t feel like a series finale which I’m really sad to see.  That’s one thing I’m not happy about with networks in that they make their decisions on shows so last minute that writers never get the chance to properly end a story and give it’s audience closure.  There was hope that Reaper would be picked up by another network, possibly SyFy, but according to a SyFy exec on Twitter, they are not picking up the show.  So long Reaper, we hardly knew ye.

So that’s it.  I don’t want to really mention any of the new shows being picked up(other than Glee of course), because I haven’t seen any of them yet.  I would expect more thoughts from me when the new shows air, so stay tuned in the fall for that.  For now though, I would like to hear your comments on the upfronts now that we’ve had time to digest them.  So give your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks for reading this far, and as always I remain obediently yours.

Steve

This week, Steve covers the latest TV Episodes for the week of May 11, 2009 covering How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory(Season Finale), The Unusuals, Reaper, Smallville(Season Finale), and Supernatural(Season Finale). As well as a season overview of Castle.

So download and enjoy!

Channelsurfers:
Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Download TWiG-JTS-Episode007.mp3

This week, Steve covers the TV Week in Review for the week of May 4, 2009 for the shows How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Reaper, Smallville, Supernatural, Southland, and Dollhouse (Season Finale).

So download and enjoy!

Channelsurfers:
Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Download TWiG-JTSEpisode006.mp3

This week Steve presents the TV Week in Review for the week of April 27, 2009 with shows like: Heroes(Season 3 Finale), Chuck (Season 2 Finale), How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, The Unusuals, Reaper, Smallville, Supernatural, Southland, and Dollhouse.

So download and enjoy!

Channelsurfers:
Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Download TWiG-JTSEpisode005.mp3

This week’s TV Week in Review for Jump The Shark covers the latest episodes of TV for the week of April 20, 2009. The shows covered in this episode are Heroes, Chuck, The Unusuals, Reaper, Smallville, Supernatural, Southland, Dollhouse, and a quick review of season 2 and season finale of Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles.

So download and enjoy!

Channelsurfers:
Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Download TWiG-JTSEpisode004.mp3

Today, Steve brings into TWiG a small bit of the “Music” portion that we talk about in our theme song. Steve sat down with the members of the Canadian Alternative Rock band Arcadia; Andrew Hanes, Matt Klassen, and Tim Saylor.

To hear their music check out http://myspace.com/arcadiacanada

As well as you can purchase the song Perilous Realm on iTunes by clicking here.

Songs played in the episode:
Daylight
The Alabaster Jar

So download and enjoy!

Interviewers:
Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Snowball is back after an Easter break with another TV Week in Review for the TV Weeks of April 6th and 13th 2009. This week Steve reviews the latest episodes of Heroes, Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Dollhouse, and adding 2 brand new series that premiered last week, The Unusuals and Southland.

So download, tune in, and enjoy!

Channelsurfers:
Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Download TWiG-JTSEpisode003.mp3

Snowball is back with another TV Week in Review for the TV Week of March 30, 2009. This week Steve reviews the latest episodes of Heroes, Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Smallville, Supernatural, Dollhouse, and adding a new show to the list Reaper.

So download, tune in, and enjoy!

Channelsurfers:
Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Download TWiG-JTSEpisode002.mp3

Debuting a brand new audio show for This Week in Geek, and that is the TV centric show called Jump The Shark.

The name “Jump The Shark” obviously is a Television staple in history, look it up on google to find out it’s meaning. Let’s just say it literally involves a shark, the Fonz, and Water-skiing. I wish I was kidding. LOL This blog will be hosted by Steve “Snowball” Saylor and possibly others of the TWiG Crew. We are planning some roundtable shows, some weekly updates on the newest episodes of TV, and some cool interviews, and so much more! So stay tuned!

This debut episode reviews the week of TV Shows for the week of Mar 23, 2009. The shows reviewed are Heroes, Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, Smallville, Supernatural, and Dollhouse

So download, tune in, and enjoy!

Channelsurfers:
Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Download TWiG-JTSEpisode001.mp3

Thanks to Melissa for putting on an amazing event which made my day that much better, and thanks to Matt and Nat for letting me be a part of the show!

So say we all!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

-Host/Producer/Web Master for thisweekingeek.net

So say we all folks, so say we all.

Tonight (Friday Mar 20th 2009 to be exact), marked an end of a “Five Year Journey” (four seasons over five years) for myself personally and in regards to one of my favorite shows on Television.  I’m talking about the series finale of Sci-Fi(now Syfy)’s Battlestar Galactica.

I have been a fan of this series since it began as a mini-series, however I only got into the show when it was first released as a miniseries/1st Season DVD set.  I remember getting it for Christmas/Birthday one year (can’t remember which, my birthday is so close to Christmas anyways), and I couldn’t stop watching it.  At first the miniseries didn’t impress me to say “OMG THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVAR” but it did prompt me to really want to watch more, and as soon as I watched the “pilot” episode “33″ I was hooked line and sinker.

Tonight marked the end of the series, in a two hour(three hours if you count “Daybreak Part 1″ last week) finale.  I have to say, without going into spoilers, the finale had everything I was looking for;  action, drama, character closure, and a great story to answer most of the remaining questions left to answer.  Of course there were a few surprises and a few “huh?’ moments, however overall, this was the best finale I could expect from the talents of Ronald D. Moore and crew.

As I sat and watched with friends in Toronto at a finale “Frak Party” I had fun just sitting there watching a show that we all loved and enjoyed as the mood of the whole place was fantastic.  We were all speechless at times, cheered at the great stuff, laughed at the funny stuff, and I think there might have been a tear shed or two(hey, I had salt in my eye! …  Shut up!).

At any rate, overall great finale.  I have a few nitpicks (Pigeons?!  Really?!), but nothing to cry to Caprica about.  I give the series finale an A-

Now for those who can’t get enough BSG, I have two surprises in store for you all soon.  One should be posted in a day or two, the other you will have to wait until April, but if this works out, you fans of BSG will definitely want to stay tuned.

Take care, and SO SAY WE ALL!

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

Host/Producer/Web Master for thisweekingeek.net

Seems we keep pushing new content like there is no tomorrow! Well this time Steve “Snowball” Saylor introduces his own Steve Saylor’s Writecast.

A Writecast is a podcast showcasing Short Audio Stories that are usually written and performed by the author.

Today’s Short Story:
The Godson Part 010 – Written and Performed by Steve Saylor

If you would like to provide feedback on this Writecast call our Voicemail line at (206)339-3234 or email us at feedback@thisweekingeek.net

Or you can discuss it on the TWiG Forums, by going to http://www.thisweekingeek.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25

Download and Enjoy!

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Download TWiG-SteveSaylor-Writecast-001.mp3

Bringing back the cool to the Classic Rock, here is According to Snowball – Rockin’ Remix Mix Tape Edition. In this episode Snowball updates you on TWiG and the Super Secret Writing Project as well as share some really hawesome, rockin’ remixes!

You can find more about Steve “Snowball” Saylor by going to http://stevesaylor.vox.com

This episode is in Enhanced AAC Format.

Want to comment on the episode? Discuss it on the TWiG Forums, by going to http://www.thisweekingeek.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27

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Download TWiG-AccordingtoSnowball-002.m4a

Shownotes after the break:

According to Snowball – 002

Intro
Wax Audio – Whole Lotta Sabbath (Led Zeppelin vs. Black Sabbath)
Hello World
- Another According to Snowball brought to you by This Week in Geek and http://stevesaylor.vox.com
- We have a voicemail line! Woot! Send us feedback/questions/ comments by calling (206)339-3234
- Double D voicemail
- What I’m talking about today
- It’s the Rockin Remix Mix Tape Episode
- Super Secret Writing Project
Phuegoo – Sympathy for the Warhols (The Rolling Stones vs. Dandy Warhols)
DJ Reno – Too Fat to Dance
Super Secret Writing Project
- Update
- Voice Overs + Word Count/Page/Chapters - Writecasts
- More updates coming soon!
Jammi Jammes – Sgt. Pepper’s Paradise (The Beatles vs. Guns ‘N Roses)
The End!

Introducing a brand new type of content for This Week in Geek is our very own personal audio blogs. Starting off first is Steve “Snowball” Saylor with “According to Snowball” which is part of his own personal blog at http://stevesaylor.vox.com

Want to comment on the episode? Discuss it on the TWiG Forums, by going to http://www.thisweekingeek.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=37

This Episode is in enhanced AAC format.

Subscribe to us using iTunes
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Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/thisweekingeek
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Download TWiG-AccordingtoSnowball-001.m4a

Shownotes after the break:

According to Snowball – 001

Intro
Brother Love – Summertime
Hello World
- Brand new content for TWiG – Personal Audio Blogs - Provided by Vox.com
- Using Garageband to record, which means m4a format only. Sorry mp3 lovers
- So New Mike doesn’t know about these yet. LOL
- What to expect?
- Not sure. Pretty much up to what we want to talk about
- Also this is your chance for feedback!
We have a voicemail line! Woot! Send us feedback/questions/ comments by calling (206)339-3234
- What I’m talking about today
- Our TWiG Relay For Life experience
- Super Secret Writing Project
The Cool Water’s Band – 2 Car Garage
TWiG Relay For Life Experience
- The trip up
- The actual event – Check out the video blogs at http://thisweekingeek.net
- Let’s make Cancer History
American Heartbreak – The Last of the Superheroes
Super Secret Writing Project
- A bit about the Project
- Where the Superhero meets the Supernatural
- Status
- More updates coming soon!
- Music sometimes gives you ideas. Today’s track
Aphrodite’s Child – The Four Horsemen
The End!