Archive for the ‘All’ Category

This podcast is produced on an Apple MacBook Pro. (15″ 2.2ghz Core 2 Duo, model A1226, manufactured mid 2007 with the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics chip to be exact) This father’s day morning I lifted the lid of the MacBook Pro … and saw nothing. The screen was black but the keys were lit and when I tried to raise the volume or brightness I heard the familiar ‘Dwak Dwak’ sounds. But nothing. Plugging in an external monitor also offered no look at what was actually happening on the computer. I know it is running, I even plugged in my backup drive and could see that Time Machine started running it’s backup (So all the data is safe).

Trying not to panic I used my iPod touch to Google around and found this on the Apple site: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377 It looked like Apple was going to make good and this wasn’t going to be a disaster. Everything about my MacBook Pro meets all of the requirements listed on the Apple site. We have an Apple Store over at Easton so I made an appointment and took it in to get fixed.

Now the guy at the Genius Bar had an external drive, plugged it into my MacBook Pro and booted it into target disk mode. Still nothing came up on the screen. He takes the drive off of mine and plugs it into his Mac and brings up a report that simply stated “No eligible graphics chip found”. So even though The Watchercast MacBook Pro matches everything on the site and it’s doing exactly what is described on the site, that it isn’t covered by the no cost repair and since it is no longer covered by a warranty it will cost $310 to have the logic board replaced.

So here is the sad part. With Shannan only weeks away from giving birth to our second son, we just don’t have the money to get the laptop fixed right now. So for now The Watchercast is on hold and the laptop will sit until we have the extra money to get it fixed.

We’re trying to figure out some options to raise the money to have it replaced. Until then we’ll keep you all posted on any progress we make. We appreciate each and every one of you that listen to us and are so engaged in this show with us. Thanks for sticking with us as we try to fix this.

So a new exploit was out for WordPress and we got hit like many other sites. We’ve yanked out the offending code and have taken steps to avoid getting hit and making it easier for us to remove the nasty code when it does get in. So if you got a warning that this site might hurt your computer that was why and we’ve fixed it.

The first time I saw it was as a headline.  “Buffy the Vampire Slayer Remake”.

The first thing that runs through my head is, “Oh my God, they’re going to let him do season 8 on TV!!!”  Yeah.  No such luck (and honestly, how COULD they?  That comic is fairly epic in scope, and would be a bitch to translate to the TV…)  OK, but still, another Buffy movie!?  Hope SMG has stayed in fighting shape!  And then I continue to read…

Now, I’m not going to dismiss the movie yet, just because they aren’t going to do exactly what I want them to do.  That would be silly.  However, isn’t it also silly to make a Buffy movie without Joss Whedon?!  C’MON, people?!  He’s Joss!  She’s Buffy!  They go together like peanut butter and jelly!!!  How can you do one without the other?

Apparently, Fran Rubel Kuzui and her husband, Kaz Kuzui, the directors of the first Buffy movie, are planning on making number two.  However, they “have yet to reach out to Joss”.  OK, well what are you waiting for?!  Don’t they realize that the only reason anyone watches their movie at all is because they became rabid fans due to the Buffy TV series?!

On top of no Joss, neither will we have Xander, Willow, Giles and it sounds like we may not even have a Buffy…from what I’ve been able to put together so far, the producers want to continue in the “every generation has their own slayer” theme and move onto an entirely different cast.  I suppose that would actually be for the best, considering the amount of baggage that people have for Buffy herself, but the last thing we need is another lame “Twilight” wannabe.

Joss’ response is, of course, classy and awesome.  “I hope it’s cool.” he is quoted as saying.

Me too, Joss.  (But, I kinda doubt it will be…)

Return To The Scene Of The Crime

The episode is fantastic and I highly recommend all our listeners listen to the whole thing. I got a special kick out of watching Ira Glass running the board during the live show and seeing parallels to my fiddling with our soundboard while we’re recording The Watchercast.

So for those who want to just jump into it skip to 27:48 into the episode when the start act two and Ira runs a short clip from Dr. Horrible and introduces Joss. At 33:02 Joss Whedon takes the stage and sings one of the songs from the musical director’s commentary of Dr. Horrible’s DVD.

As Joss continued his song I sunk down a little deeper in seat and thought to myself “I’m glad we didn’t make Watchercast T-shirts….”

Thanks Alice!