Daily Archives: August 13, 2008

Photo-A-Day, Travel

Give me an “M”

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Give me an "M"
Photo-A-Day #1223

After the demonstration today I walked up The “M” trail at the University of Montana. I discovered a few things that were made painfully obvious on the way up and down this climb. I am out of shape and should not be going on impromptu hikes up the sides of mountains. I have not done much hiking in a while and so I forgot until the way down that I regularly wear a knee brace when I participate in sports like Hiking, Skiing and Snowshoeing. I obviously didn’t have one with me and I made it up and down the “M” trail in one piece. But I was sucking wind like a fiend.

I was concerned about how badly I was sucking wind and then I looked up the elevation of Missuola Montana. It is 3232 feet about sea level. I spent much of my time in places like Falmouth Cape Cod where the elevation is 10 feet about sea level. In my attempt up to The “M” I was walking those last 620 feet up a 3000 footer to a 4000 footer. No wonder I was sucking wind so badly. I mean, I do that when I get to the top of 4000 footers. But yeah, I am mostly out of shape. No amount of elevation justification is going to cover that up.

I was however glad that I went up to The “M”. For one thing I got my Photo-A-Day and included my climbing buddies Anthony and Alexis. They were faster than me both up and down and Anthony continued on even higher, running. Sheesh… running. He didn’t go all the way to the top, the elevation was getting to him as well but he did power up to The “M” pretty easily.

When we got back to the hotel a woman behind the front desk heard us talking about the “M”. She had never gone up but her boyfriend did and he is a photographer who made an amazing photo of Missoula at night from the vantage point of The “M”. She secretly submitted the photo to a tourist guide and it was selected to be published. The photo is amazing. I gave the woman my card, I’d love to see more of her boyfriend’s photos, the ones I saw were amazing.

Television

Eureka: Best in Faux

Spoilers ahead in my Review/Recap.

Exploding Mucus, Exploding fake dogs and a steamy night in Eureka. That is what we find in the season 3’s 3rd episode. It is time for the annual Best in Show dog show in Eureka and all the mutts are out and about. However this is not an ordinary dog show. The dogs in the show are actually robots, very lifelike robots and the top dog (most lifelike) can win the prestige of Best in Show. That honor has gone to Fifi for two years running. However Fifi explodes early on in the show. Her owner suspects foul play. Carter just blows this off. He thinks that playing with robot dogs is frivolous.

Carter has a real case to look into, a possible burglary at a scientist’s home. This scientist is creating synthetic mucus to help fight disease. But this just basically sets up a humorous situation where Carter ends up covered in bright green foamy mucus. He gets covered in the stuff because of a localized earthquake that shook the lab and only Carter felt it. That is the part I don’t believe because if something is shaking the lab and Jo and the Dr. went upstairs then they should have felt it too. But this just sets things up for the group not to believe Carter. I wish they would learn.

Some sub plots of the show. The wedding plans are moving along with Allison and Stark. Jo likes weddings and wants to help Allison pick out a dress. Looks like tailors and seamstresses are out of jobs in Eureka. Zoe is taking an advanced Physics course. Each of these pieces of information come into play throughout the episode.

The episode should have been titled pressure because I think the word pressure and the word stress was used more times than should have been allowed in one episode. Of course when you are talking about diamonds, and magma you are going to talk pressure but then it mirrors the pressures that everyone in town is feeling. Zoe’s feeling the pressure of doing well in her new class and impressing her dad. Allison is feeling the pressure of the wedding and maybe feeling a little trapped (she as trapped in that wedding dress). Fargo felt the pressure to win and he cheated by using a real dog in the fake dog contest.

The one person that should be under the most stress should be Carter. He lived the entire parallel life with Allison but had that knowledge wiped away by Henry however I’m pretty sure he will slowly remember that whole other life. Carter loves Allison and it has to be killing him that she is with Stark and is getting married to him again.

Carter is pretty much the one guy in the town who acts without pretense. He can handle the pressure and that is probably why he is the sheriff.

I’ve noticed something with Eureka that you probably have too but whatever problem is going on that needs to be fixed usually gets fixed by Carter who sees everything that is going on around him and pulls together the big picture idea. In this episode we have a crazy geologist who is looking for a magma pocket but that is impossible because there are no fault lines in Eureka. However there is someone who is creating “logic” diamonds using sound waves. Henry helps Zoe with her homework by using a sound wave device that melts a penny. Apparently the build up of the pressure from the sound waves, intensified by the diamonds ends up melting rock and creating magma under Eureka.

Yes it is convenient that all these things are happening that just so happen to be the perfect combination to save the entire town. I know that but it is what makes Eureka so fun as a show. You know that Carter is going to solve the problem with the help of everyone else who only sees a small part of that big picture.

I really liked the guest star role that Alan Ruck played. It is great to see him on TV again. I loved him on Spin City and of course as Cameron in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

I’m still not convinced that there is something more sinister we will be seeing from Henry this season. I think that Horn is going to sink her teeth into him and he will end up doing something wrong again. The scenes between he and Carter always feel full of tension from Henry. Henry still knows that whole parallel life and still blamed Carter for the death of his wife. That is something he just won’t be letting go of anytime soon.

All in all a decent episode.