Before this summer's onslaught of televised brain-drain started, I used to watch a few TV shows regularly: 24, Prison Break, and Battlestar Galactica. I just found out today that one of those shows is coming back...today!

That's right the season premiere of Prison Break returns to Fox tonight at 8pm. Woo hoo! For some reason, I thought it was starting in September. Oops. Too bad that, of the three shows that I watched, it was the one I was the least interested in. I think the show pissed me off more than 24 pissed me off. The reason that 24 angered me was because they killed off characters that I liked or I thought did not deserve to be whacked, namely Terri Bauer, David Palmer, Edgar Stiles, and Tony Almeida. What irked me about Prison Break is that they were such breakout teases. In almost every episode towards the end of the first part of the first season, the gang came oh so so close to breaking out but at the end of the episode, some stupid detail gets in the way. It got worse in the second season because after finding out the token roadblock in the path to freedom, you knew that the next episode would be all about two things: 1) how to resolve the problem presented in this episode and 2) how to toss a proverbial stick into the proverbial spokes of the Super Scofield Bros.'s breakout plan. I was so annoyed by their overly-unrealistic string of setbacks that I didn't watch the season finale. But I read the detailed synopsis the day after. Bah. And because I read that stupid synopsis, I really want to know what happens next. You can bet I'll be glued to my TV tonight ready to have my blood boiled by another season of Prison Break.

Speaking of blood, the only show I've followed during the summer was Blade: The Series. It's based on the Blade comic book and movie series and it follows Blade on his vampire-ashing adventures. The show has a delicious blend of hand-to-hand combat, acrobatic gun battles, overgrown incisors, and that lovely industrial trace music that all vampires like to listen to when they're fighting. I also think it has some interesting storylines as it delves into Blade's past and offers insight into how Blade came to be so Blade-rific. The series seems to be a bit different from the movies because Blade is more of a softie in the series. In the movies he ran around and dispatched blood-suckers by the handful. In the series, they show him in moments of weakness with visions of his past coming back to haunt him. It could also be the fact that Kirk Jones isn't quite as big as Wesley Snipes and doesn't have his martial arts prowess. That doesn't stop the TV Blade from being badass, but movie Blade could probably pwn his bald head.

The TV series portrays Blade as an outcast who has made the most of his situation. His mother was bitten by a vampire while she was pregnant with him. The bite killed her and gave Blade all the strengths of vampires (immortality, regeneration, rugged good looks) without their weaknesses (allergies to garlic, silver and tanning). Because he was some sort of vampire/human hybrid, the vampires wouldn't accept him as one of them and the humans, for the most part, were scared sheepless of him. So what does he do? He hunts and kills vampires. Blade has taken the misfortune that life dealt him and proceeds do the world a favor. I take this to mean that we should get to know our own strengths and find a way to use them to better the world we live in. Although I have no idea how my superb ability of injuring myself can help the world. I must find a way though.

Relating the two shows, Dominic Purcell, who plays Lincoln Burrows in Prison Break also plays Dracula, the main villain in the movie Blade Trinity.

It's half way through August and no posts. There is a group out there who is trying to make the first Sunday in August into an international Forgiveness Day. They have a ceremony or something that day to honor those who have forgiven the people who wronged them. On that Sunday morning, KGO radio has a program where they talk about forgiveness. (On every other Sunday, it's a religious and spiritual talk show.) That forgiveness program is always very touching and inspires me to write something about forgiveness every year and every year I give up. This year is no exception. I've been trying to write something about forgiveness for the past couple of weeks and now I've given up. Please forgive me.

Last weekend I went on Cheng's Kirkwood biking trip to go biking down the ski slopes. I told everyone I was going to Tahoe to go biking but Kirkwood is kind of far from Tahoe so I lied to everyone. Once again, I ask your forgiveness. It was really fun biking down those slopes. The bunny slopes were still pretty fun. There were a lot of sections with rocks and loose dirt which made it really challenging at times. Riding the chairlift up to the top of the slopes is really slow though. The bottom lift must have taken almost 10 minutes to get to the top. The lift on the backside seemed faster, but it was still slow. The way it worked is that some chairs have hooks on the back so a lift operator will put a bike on there at the bottom and another lift operator at the top will take it off for you. Sound like fun? Apparently not for the lift operators. They're up there for maybe 7 hours a day. One guy kept coming up with new complaints every time we went up his lift. Pretty funny.

Percy, Dave, and I also biked up a slope and I think it was quite a bit faster than taking a lift although I was horribly out of breath at the top. Some people at work kept telling me that only uphill biking is real mountain biking. Going uphill was much more rewarding but it can't beat the thrill of bombing down a rock-covered mountain, avoiding all the dips and bumps and carcasses of more unfortunate bikers. So because you can go bike up the hill, I think you can probably enjoy the park without buying a lift ticket and if you bring your own bike, you don't need to pay anything.

Of course, I decided to continue the fine tradition of injuring myself on this trip also. This was strange though because for the life of me, I cannot remember how it happened. All I know is that I went into a rocky patch and then I was rolling in the dirt. At first I stood up proudly because my arm guards were horribly scratched up. Then I stood up painfully because I cut up my right knee pretty badly. There are two small areas where the cut is really deep and a lot of smaller cuts all around. When I bought my arm guards, I figured that I wouldn't need any leg protection because I almost never hurt my legs. Usually there are a few cuts here and there but nothing as serious as what happens to my arms and elbows. Good figgrin' there cowboy. Well I had hoped to get a few more rides in this summer but this is pretty much the end of it. I'm going to be gimpy for the next few weeks.

Aside from the injury though, this trip was badass. Well, I think the injury was badass also, but not as badass as the one I got last year on my left arm. What was perhaps the greatest reward of the trip was the knowledge I gained on the mountains. Here's what I learned:

1. I'm a crappy biker
2. I suck at staying upright
3. Ben-Gay tastes horrible but it really warms you up
4. I'm allergic to Neosporin
5. I got my last tetanus shot four years ago from last Thursday...the result of another fall off of my bike
6. I'm a nerd...and I'm proud of it!

And I think that's all. I'm going to go back to gimping around now.