First episode of Firefly

I chose to watch the first episode of the Firefly series by Joss Whedon. Although not incredibly unique (space westerns having been done several times before,) I find the delivery fascinating and am intrigued to watch more.

My favorite aspect of the show was how they attempted to integrate the chivalry of the cowboys into the captain by making him a former soldier. Having been a soldier means that he has a dark past, and gives him some violent, rough flaws. Those characteristics prevent him from being a perfect character, which is typically harder to sympathize with. The captain's loyalty to his crew and willingness to murder men in cold blood over it is nothing short of fascinating.

I am also a fan of the shows dark, dry sense of humor. While much of the humor revolves around the sarcasm found in bad situations, it is not done in an overbearing manner, much to the credit of the actors. I do believe my favorite line has to be the simple “Well maybe I'm not a fancy gentleman like you, with your... very fine hat.” While obviously a sarcastic statement, the captain says it with a completely straight face, and has almost no sarcastic tone in his voice. Another fine example of their humor is the *spoiler* anti-climactic gunshot that kills the federation officer in the middle of his speech. It was done so abruptly and callously in a very tense situation, and resolved a plot-line so easily that I couldn't help but chuckle. Whereas most shows would've had the officer at least finish his speech, Firefly simply killed him off, and left it at that. All in all, I'm rather excited to watch the second episode.

Self-Introduction

My name is Cody Valentine. I am a computer science and engineering pre-major, although I plan to try double-majoring in biomedical engineering as well. Most of my difficulties in doing so stem from a very busy schedule, as I live ninety minutes away and work night shifts at a fast food place. This mostly comes from my natural tendency to stay up at night, as I described with my quote comparing me to a lamp being turned off during the day.

My major passion in life is reading. A typical free day for me consists of picking up a good high fantasy novel and reading through as much of it as I possibly can. My favorite authors are Terry Brooks and Robert Jordan. I specifically enjoy authors that try to deconstruct the typical cliches found in the high fantasy genre that have been prevalent since Tolkien, since such cliches have become overwhelming and repetitive.

Despite my love of reading, I have never had a major penchant for writing. My writing tends to be too formulaic, and comes out in a rather bland style. This comes as a disappointment for me, since I think it would be fascinating to try writing a fantasy novel of my own. Crafting a world of magic and dragons has always been an exciting idea, but which I could do more realistically by creating a video game than writing. I am looking forward to trying to improve my writing skills in this English course, particularly through this interesting blogging project.