February 12, 2008: Damn $*!#%^ garage ^$##@!* door $@&%& opener! *&!@$#%^!!!!! - Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

A rather inauspicious start to the day found me playing Mr. Fixit with my garage door remote at 8:00 a.m. this morning. For some reason, the door has a nasty habit of lowering until it’s about half a foot off the ground and then suddenly stopping and reversing, rising until I hit the remote a second time, causing it to descend and close. If I’m lucky. If I’m unlucky, I’ll hit the remote and the door will come down, stop and reverse again, necessitating a second click to reverse direction once again and get it to close. If I’m especially unlucky, as was the case today, the garage door will descend, stop, reverse, I’ll hit the remote, reverse direction, only to have it stop, reverse, causing me to hit the remote again, getting it to reverse direction, only to have it stop, reverse, necessitating another jab at the remote, causing it to switch direction, and stop, reverse… Adding to the fun is the fact that I’ve already set the house alarm, meaning I have exactly one minute to get the damn thing shut before the sirens start blaring and the crazed ferrets are released. Eventually, frustration set in and I headed back inside where I disabled the alarm and tried to use the wall unit remote to close the garage door. It hummed down, got about a half a foot off the ground, then rose up again. I swept the area for leaves and invisible detritus, made sure the sensors were clear, then tried again. Hum. Stop. And back up it went. Again. And again. And again! I tried holding down the remote. Tapping the remote. Even putting my fist through its plastic casing. Nothing worked. In the end, I closed the door manually, dug up Fondy’s remote, went through her side of the garage (which she has been using as a storage space, requiring her to park out front), and called up a “trained technician” who will be swinging by tomorrow to fix the problem. Oh, and replace the wall unit I punched to pieces.

Despite the delay, I got in about five minutes before the prosthetics meeting. We discussed upcoming episodes Whispers, The Daedalus Variations, The Seed, and Broken Ties. Among the subjects covered: visual versus practical effects, stunt people vs. acrobats, fog, elements of the visual we saw in Spoils of War, yogurt, and, of course, methacil.

Captain Alicia Vega, a.k.a. Leela Savasta, was in for her costume fitting this morning and swung by the production offices. She’s a very sweet young lady who was genuinely surprised to learn she’d already become the talk of many a fan forum – without even having shot a scene yet.

And – hey, look who’s back! Yep, Carl Binder turned up for work today! And he brought us a present: his first draft of Ghost in the Machine. To show our appreciation, we got him a cake and sang Happy Birthday (this despite the fact that he won’t be celebrating his birthday until August). Check out the pics, especially the last one. Have you ever seen a happier-looking birthday boy?

Not bad. Not bad at all. Since I started blogging here on wordpress, this blog has consistently hit the Top 25 out of some 3 million wordpress blogs (#15 as I write this) and each individual entry the daily Top 10 of the 100 000 or so daily posts (#3 as I write this). Impressive, sure, but it’s apparently still no match for CNN’s political ticker, FOX news online, or adorable cat pictures.

Oh, and for those of you wondering about the footage of the scene I posted in last night’s entry – yes, it will be available as a dvd special feature.

A gentle reminder to finish/start reading Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge and prepare your questions for editor Lou Anders who will be swinging by the blog next week.

And to all those of you thinking of attending either of the Fuel fan dinners (April 1^st, 7:00 p.m. or April 3rd, 7:00 p.m.) – if you haven’t made a reservation yet, book now to avoid disappointment! Marty G. will be joining us for both nights.