24 (Spoiler Warning)

I used to watch 24, the tv show, all the time with my parents. We would always get together for an hour of popcorn and excessive violence. In the latest season I didn't watch many episodes because the show was getting old and there were only so many ways that Jake could torture a person. That was season 7 but I'm pretty sure I've been watching it since the middle of season 2, so it has been a good run. Recently I've been watching the first season of 24. I think I now understand why it is still on tv.

Season one was amazing. It was slower to pick up than other seasons but that makes sense because you have to introduce a full cast of new characters. And still, that statement isn't totally true. Kim, Jack's daughter, gets kidnapped in the second episode and by the time they know she is gone, people are already dead. The major difference between this season and the other ones still in my memory, is that it isn't just about Jack shooting and then torturing person after person. This season started and left me with questions about morality in situations that could actually be real. I'm still trying to figure out what I would do if it was me.

I love how the motivation of the terrorists is revenge for killing loved ones, yet when Jack believes the same has been done to him, he kills 7 men and the last one in cold blood. I love the realistic evil nature of Victor Drazen as he kills his friends daughter and then tries to justify in on Jack. If anyone knows that pain that he just caused, it is him and yet he does it without hesitation. Victor Drazen has no remorse left.

The last thing I really enjoyed was the polictics. I'm not usually huge into polictics (Wednesday night I would be upstairs as my parents watched the West Wing) but I've thought about it more now that I realize I should be voting soon. I enjoyed how this season shows how cut-throat politics cnd be and how it is really a competition. A competition between two parties, even two people, more than people choosing what is best for the country. Let David Palmer sort of goes against that, maybe there is hope?

My favourite part was the character of Shery Palmer. In other episodes she is weak and I'm gald I got to see her best season before I wrote her off. I absolutly love how she gets consumed by her ambition. She starts as a loving mother but slowly gets reduced to a selfish, untrusting, hollow person who justifies every action she does as for "the greater good". She is even willing to let another women sleep with her husband so that she can have power over him. Her whole existence is reduced to one thing, the White House, and every time she thinks she is losing that, she does anything she can to get it back. But the justification was amazing. You would almost want to believe her if David Palmer wasn't a more likeable chacter.

To wrap it all up, this season still had all the classic 24 moments. Maybe Edgar didn't die in an airlocked room and there was no nuclear bomb but you could still follow the blood drops like breadcrumbs. They didn't need to have Jack kill someone with his teeth or test to see if the voltage in a lamp will not kill a person because they had better writing. The gun fights were still ridiculous and at least a dozen times you can spot some wannabe tech guy accidentally caught in the shot but that lead to the fun of the whole thing and kept you from killing your family during the night. Funny thing, it is better that I saw the first season now because if I watched it back then I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much as I did over the last month. I'm gald I went back and saw the first season, it really saved the whole francise for me.

I Think I've Decided

I drove Stormshadow today. It was a lot of fun. I had not driven standard for almost the entire summer and it felt really good to push that clutch down again. It was only for a short while, I was going into Vancouver for some shopping, but it brought back some good feelings. It also brought some new ones as I have never had to start on a hill before (good ol' prairies) but it was only Knight Street so it was all good. So much so that I only almost hit two people (at the same time) and I only got lost once on the way home.

The sad part is that might be the last time I drive that beloved truck. I am obviously not using it this year and I probably will not bring it back to Manitoba, if I continue there. I will remember this day fondly but the process had already started the day we had to return to BC plates and were unable to get the "MNM" back.

With the end of one era starts another. I've decided to name my new transportation: Put-put. It might not be as flashy as its mentor but I think it suits the little guy and Raun-na-na-na would have been too much of a mouthful. To me, this one just isn't majestic enough to have the name of a philosopher or a greek god and though I really did like Hugo and Hubert, I for one will call it Put-put.

But maybe that's just a nickname until it names itself.

The Year

I'm not going to school next year and I'm not working either. I'm doing a program called Outtatown, which is done through CMU. The program looks good. Everyone I talked to who has done it before said it was "the greatest experience of my life". The only downside I've heard is that most people think that the credit hours you earn, you don't really deserve because the learning and work is fairly slack. Sounds good to me. The highlights are a first semester of traveling from Manitoba to BC and a second semester of South Africa (Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Garden Route, Kwazulu-Natal and Kruger National Park). Both of those are done with a group of 27 other students and four leaders. As I hinted before I also get 18 credit hours of University classes (15 is a full semester). The whole year will cost about $15,000.

During the year, I believe I will have limited communication. I am not taking my computer (my sister is borrowing it) and I don't know how often I will be able to update people. If you are interested in getting updates, stay tuned to this blog because I will try and post them here, but you can also send me an email that I will hopefully get to. To get a taste of what my first semester is going to be like I put the basic outline of it onto my Google calendar. If you want to view it, all you have to do is have Google calendars and let me know you want to view it. Right now I'll I have is the first semester and the flights for the second semester, but if you check it the calendar will say when I am in BC, and specifically the Vancouver Urban plunge. I would love it if some people came and visited me on the streets. But alas, I only have minimal information for now.

If you want more information on the program as a whole you can check out http://www.outtatown.com/.