Andy Cocker

Where does the week go. Only a moment ago, it was Saturday night and I was enjoying talking to a cute fellow performer about being nervous before your act. (I wasn’t nervous but I was willing to pretend that I was for the sake of conversing with the aforesaid cute chick.)

So things turned out pretty good, although we could have done with actual costumes rather than just whatever we were wearing. There were about 250 people there, so hopefully sufficient funds were raised to keep the circus school going. Just between you and me, there’s a rumor going around that someone’s setting a little aside from the school’s funds for their own use.

So then it quickly became Tuesday, and I had to pretend to have done more work to impress my supervisers. I’ve figured out how to keep them talking with a minimal amount of work.

Tuesday soon became Today and I had to do a 20 minute presentation on the Poincare Conjecture. My l33t debating skills came in handy and as I came prepared with pretty pictures and long words, things went as well as could be expected. The lecturers present tried to stump me by asking what all the long words meant and that took up the rest of the time. The rest of the day was filled up with NWN and being snipered to death.

Soon it will be next week so I guess I’d better start thinking about doing some more work for next week, which is a week off, so maybe only a little work.

TAOKJ is being difficult. Last week, a few moments ago, I decided to make a movie file instead of the regular gif, I had trouble getting the video clip that I wanted so things got delayed. Now my movie program won’t display video and in a desperate attempt to get it done I remembered that Windows has it’s own movie editting software. Then I remembered why I forgot about it. So everything is peachy. Especially since I removed that new worm that’s going around. You apple fans don’t know what you’re missing.

I don’t really know what to say about this episode. Everyone’s just mucking about until the end of season. The First has no big plan. Buffy and pals have no big plan. Buffy spends the entire episode moping about, until Spike gives her a rousing speech which inspires her to go find a magical axe. I’m sure that it was a very moving scene for those who are interested in the Buffy/Spike arc, but I couldn’t give a damn. It had better have a very important influence on the final episode. The rest of the gang are a bit fearful of Spike and are happy to see him leave. The only one who really gets along with him is Buffy, thus keeping her isolated from the rest. The apocalypse is moving closer, but there’s still time for some more getting it on. The biggest surprise was that Buffy and Spike didn’t join in.

Kennedy is still getting Willow on the rebound. As much as I hate the whole Buffy/Spike thing, I have to say that Willow’s plotlines have been worse in the past two seasons. Willow keeps whinging about turning evil. The whole magic addiction has got out of hand. Kennedy’s quite able to seduce Willow despite her past and doesn’t give a damn about Willow’s dark side. Kennedy’s just after a bit of nookie. She’s been annoying the entire season and intends to end on a high. Hopefully she’s one of the ones who’ll die. Having been intramental in kicking Buffy out, she seems to want to be able to give orders on the basis that she’s the oldest potential. Is it too much to hope that Kennedy’ll betray Buffy to become a slayer?

I can understand the potentials” frustration. Having removed the autocratic Buffy, there was obviously some hope of a better system. Would you look at that. An oppresive regime was kicked out, only to be replaced by an equally undemocratic system. Anyway, so the gang spends the entire time arguing until eventually all the potentials (except Kennedy) retire to the basement and the Scoobies make the First envious.

No one has any idea about how to defeat the bad guy. I was hoping Giles might take control, being older than the rest of them. The younger kids are all worked up but Giles isn’t doing anything. His character’s been all over the place this season.

One final thing about Kennedy. I really thought that she was stupid enough to be walking alone in a dark street.

• Buffy’s making long speeches: no — she’s been kicked out.
• Buffy has trouble fighting: no — she can run rings around Caleb when she wants to.
• Someone questions Buffy’s ability to make difficult decisions: no.
• Flashbacks: no.
• Modern Weaponry: tick — a big bomb.
• Poke test to check for corporeality: no.
• Anya’s sole line: Complaining about lack of sex involving her.
• Andrew provides comic relief: Constant irrelevent babbling.
• The First does something: no.
• Strange behaviour by the gang: Still walking into traps.
• Getting it on: lots — Faith, Wood, Anya, Xander, Willow and Kennedy.
• Best quote: “Casualties, makes it sound so casual.”
• Biggest gripe: Kennedy.

The most notable thing in this episode is about Buffy’s leadership of the group. During the earlier seasons, the Watchers’ Council and Giles were in charge. Then the Council started giving out wacky orders that Buffy didn’t like the look of and there was a bit of a split. I imagine Giles and the other watchers have lots of experience and knowledge and can make the best decision and avoid mistakes but Buffy’s not too keen on these tests to check her mettle and increase her power so she stopped trusting the Council. It was about this time that the Watchers became a little greyer, and more selfish; willing to use the slayer for the own ends. So about season five or so, I presume Giles had decided that as Buffy wasn’t going to die anytime soon, it’s about time she became a bit more independent and make some hard decisions; acting more like an adult. She was looking lazy and not getting a job.

Something that was lost along the way is the distinction that Giles seemed to emphasise Buffy making normal decisions by herself, not ‘end of the world’, ‘let’s sacrifice my sister’ decisions. Now Buffy thinks she has to do everything by herself and can’t rely on anyone. The strain of the ultimate evil is getting to her and she’s loosing touch with the group. She’s ‘focussed on the mission’, a similar theme touched upon of Fred and Angel a couple of weeks ago. She should be paying attention to more normal things, like the potentials’ frustration from lack of action. When the time comes she’ll trust her friends, but this waiting for the end of season is getting to them all. Especially with such dull episodes.

It would help if the rest of them could do some research, they’d fall into their familiar roles but the lack of information means most of the gang has nothing to do. That’s the trouble with secret cults. Added to these troubles, the guilt from last week is being suppressed and Buffy’s trying to deny it. She resorts to lashing out and distances herself from Xander when he needs sympathy. It’s far too painful for her to face it right now and she won’t admit her mistake, because it was so costly. Everyone keeps hounding her to follow the mission and make tough decisions and then when she does, they all whinge. Bloody losers. So she takes some time out.

This episode seemed a bit muddled and the characters unsure of themselves, but after writing this out, most of it makes sense to me now.

The downside to this focus on Buffy is that there’s lots of themes they could explore but don’t seem to have the time. The other characters receive little finesse in their development. Far too much of the time, they seem to be in stand-alone episodes. Willow’s trouble with magic is handled badly and the way she deals with Tara’s (may she stay dead forever) death is worse. Xander and Anya have some good moments but Dawn’s had one episode and a vague concern about Buffy that sort of trailed off. Unfortunately, it’s hard to see the show going out on a bang at this late stage.

• Buffy’s making long speeches: tick.
• Buffy has trouble fighting: tick — Beaten by Caleb again.
• Someone questions Buffy’s ability to make difficult decisions: no but Buffy keeps telling everyone that she can.
• Flashbacks: no.
• Modern Weaponry: no.
• Poke test to check for corporeality: no.
• Anya’s sole line: Long spiel about where she went last week and breakup sex.
• Andrew provides comic relief: tick — Brings out the geek in Spike.
• The First does something: no.
• Strange behaviour by the gang: Everyone gets a bit caught up in kicking Buffy out.
• Getting it on: no.
• Best quote: “Oh really, because sometimes our missions end up with you trying to kill me.”
• Biggest gripe: Unexplored themes.

Once again, I feel a surge of relief as any potential contact with my supervisors is a long way away. At least 4 days. On a more serious note, it’s nearly time to start working for this year. If I wait too much longer, there’ll be too much work to do. But I can’t start yet because the amount of work to be done has not yet reached the critical mass.

I was rather off put by this week’s meeting on a Wednesday, rather than a Thursday. I keep thinking I’m a day ahead. It’s completely thrown my week out of kilter.

Some exciting news: (and shameless promoting) This Saturday, I and many other people associated with Bizircus are performing in a fund raiser at the Fly By Night club in Freo so if anyone from my wide and varied readership is in Freo, come along.

If you looked at a graph displaying the time of day at which I did work, you’d find that it was highly skewed towards 3 am. It’s not that I do a lot of work at this time, it’s more like I don’t do a lot of work at any other time.

Keep your eye on St C’s for a new weekly series of articles called ‘Honours’
or
‘There and back again’

I’m not sure which yet.

This part of the season is much like being halfway through a boring movie. I’m checking my watch to see how much more I have to put up with. Here we are intorduced to a new villan but it feels much like the ubervamp all over again. It would seem that the First has about 3 minions: Caleb, an ubervamp and bringers. Any unexplained evil acts this season were apparently committed by Caleb so I’m left to assume that there’s no one else working for the First. It’s plan to kill all the potentials is going very slowly. I can only assume that it is planning something big for the end of season but that might be hoping too much. A bit of dynamite or a machine gun might help speed things up. If I was Xander, I’d have a gun. It’s all very well to have faith in your leader, but there’s nothing wrong with a gun. There’s more guns in the US than people but no one in the Buffy household owns one. Tell me they wouldn’t be useful in killing Bringers. Wesley killed Skip with one. It frustrates me that Xander is daft enough to be fighting beside Buffy but has not in seven seasons made an effort to become a better fighter. He keeps throwing himself into the fight risking serious injury. And now he’s lost an eye.

I’m not an expert on the Buffyverse magic system, but some sort of healing spell would come in handy. Healing broken bones is a useful skill. Regenerating eyes would be good. It’s a shame there’s nothing of that sort. The potential shoulda worn a seat belt. Willow has a nice car.

I’m impressed that there’s a bit of a council for once to discuss the problems, even if it does end in Buffy giving more orders. She needs to find a better way to run things. Those potentials don’t look too happy being cooped up like that. With that many people, you should have some sort of system to run the place or you’ll have someone’s eye out. It’d be nicer if Buffy listened to other people for once. Just because she has to make the hard decisions doesn’t mean she has to make all the decisions. She’s a fighter not a thinker. She’s not been given an extra big brain to match her speed. She’s way too confident in her crap fighting skills and she falls for the trap every time.

Anya mysteriously doesn’t appear in this episode. Must be off on a holiday.

Much to my surprise, Buffy holds no grudge against Wood. I’d like to know who’s buying all the food now that Buffy has no job. I don’t think the rest of them are rich enough to support fifty people.

I’m hoping the last couple of episodes are something more exciting than: ‘After being beaten up a couple of times, I imagine Buffy will beat Caleb just in time for the end of the season and sacrifice herself to preserve the slayer line.’

• Buffy’s making long speeches: tick — Her and Xander both.
• Buffy has trouble fighting: tick — Thoroughly beaten by Caleb.
• Someone questions Buffy’s ability to make difficult decisions: no but Wood tells her to focus on the mission.
• Flashbacks: tick — Andrew tells of Faith’s history.
• Modern Weaponry: no.
• Poke test to check for corporeality: no.
• Anya’s sole line: N/A
• Andrew provides comic relief: tick — Some confusion about Faith and Vulcans.
• The First does something: tick — Brought Caleb to Sunnydale.
• Strange behaviour by the gang: Willow’s driving an expensive car.
• Getting it on: nearly — Xander dreams of nubile potentials and Faith flirts with a shirtless Spike.
• Best quote: “No one was immune to her trail of destruction. Not friends, not family, not even the most logical of races…”
• Biggest gripe: Buffy falls for another trap.

Despite the neglect and abuse of two weblogs, I’ve been given a third. I hope the RSPCW doesn’t hear of this. I was just out watching a local band called Burgers of Beef. They’re pretty good and I’m not just saying that because I know the people in it. On the down side, I’ve done diddly-squat work oday and I have a splinter in my hand that I can’t get out. Don’t believe anyone who says that PRE tags don’t work.

This season continues to narrowly avoid the crap rating. At times it comes close, with several lame episodes strung together. But then they show a great episode and one thinks that this could be a good season after all. Unfortunately it’s had to tell if these episodes are actually very good or only average, as even fools gold looks real when all you’ve got to compare it to is sludge.

That being said, I believe that this one comes up with the goods, thanks mainly to Andrew. While Buffy, Slayer of the Vampyre, has been playing things fairly straight recently, Andrew’s been the main comedic source for most of this season. He’s been very amusing but has had a small role in previous episodes. The main plot of this episode focuses on Andrew and helps explain some of his recent questionable decisions. His outsider view (and imagination) leads some pretty funny scenes with the others.

Despite the majority of jokes being early in the episode and ending with some very serious moments, there never feels any problem with the transistion between the two. Problems with transistions have been irritating in previous episodes where characters switch from being concerned about personal issues (when the plot is about them) to the same old character with no hint that they remember the trouble they had last week. I feel a few little hints of how their character is coping each week would bring more life to the series. It would also help spread Willow’s plot out. Anya’s been fairly lucky in this regard getting material to work with most weeks. Seeing her struggle from week to week makes her more likeable. But generally the characters hang around in the background during the group scenes doing nothing until it’s their turn to say a line, which are doled out fairly evenly amongst the group. I guess this can’t be helped though when there is 50 people in the house. It’s fairly unlikely to find a room with less than a dozen people in it, but sometimes the lines are distributed in an arbitrary manner which seems unnatural.

Then there’s the usual muck: Buffy’s fighting skills have improved. There’s the unusually clever decision to kill a vampire with a crossbow, instead of the regular hassle of beating it up and she also takes down several cultists but these rarely cause trouble. Willow and Thingy continue their odd relationship. Anya used her one quote very early in the show but gets a scene to resolve her feelings with Xander, with both of them managing to make Xander look the least gutless he’s been since before the wedding. The principal is still looking to dust Spike, but only if it’s convenient.

And a couple of problems: It’s odd that Andrew can now read a language that previously he thought were only were squiggles. It never occured to him that the squiggles might have some sort of meaning, yet he’s (maybe unconsciously) able to manipulate the vanity of those around him for his video. They seem to be very different levels of perceptiveness. The Seal is constantly refered to as bad, without making the distinction that the seal is actually holding the evil at bay (although leaking). Obviously it’d be better with no seal and everything patched up properly, but I feel that the seal is copping a lot of unecessary flack.

Does anyone know where I can buy fireproof pants?

Daily TAOKJ will resume now as I’m just about to finish this one. Except when I have to go to work, which is usually Sundays and Fridays. I apologise for the delay. I was trying out this new ‘study’ thingy.