Jobs I Should Have: Politician

In these uncertain economic times, I like to think about what kind of careers I might have if I could actually find a steady career (no, nobody pays me for blogging, sadly). A recent comment on my Facebook status got me thinking that maybe I should have a career in politics.

Let's put my qualifications in the form of a list. In my favor, I:
-am fairly tall
-can tie my own necktie (long tie OR bow tie, bonus!)
-can't recall any especially embarrassing photos of me that might be hanging around the internet
-don't freeze up when I speak in public

See, I've got all the major qualifications down! However, I've got a few things working against me. In particular, there are two big things that I'm missing:

- a pretty wife
- money

Of course, the obvious solution to this is to find a photogenic heiress and get married, using her dad's money to finance my rise to power. With that in mind, I'm accepting applications for the position, send me a private email with head shot and estimated net worth at velochelonian-at-gmail-dot-com.

Organizing DeBlass

I've realized that all my blog posts tend to fall into one of seven or eight categories. In the interest of getting a bit more organized and working around my increasingly-crazy schedule, I've decided to take a few steps, including writing a few posts ahead of time and saving them as drafts, and establishing set categories to help myself figure out what to write.
The categories, until I find new ones or think of better, more amusing names are as follows:

Jobs I Should Have: A generally tongue-in-cheek look at what I could be doing with my life, and why I think I'm more qualified than the usual people who do these jobs for real.

What I'm Watching: TV shows or movies that I'm enjoying (or not enjoying) via Netflix or Hulu or some other means, as I don't own a television set.

What I'm Reading: Books I'm currently reading in either dead-tree or digital format, not necessarily new releases.

Family Movies: The latest and greatest in family entertainment, from one parent to another. At best, I'll have a good suggestion for the next rainy day, at worst, I'll try to warn you when you should be smuggling your flask in behind your popcorn bucket.

Trifles: Totally random thoughts inspired by some object or incident that caught my fancy, named so as homage to G.K. Chesterton's Tremendous Trifles columns.

News Commentary: Posts inspired by current events

Brilliant Ideas: Tips, tricks and ideas on just about anything that I have a tip, trick or idea in mind for. Some of these may even work.

Projects in Progress: Stuff I'm building or have recently built.

I'll include the category in the labels from here on out to try to make my blog more searchable as well (and if I find myself with some free time, I'll go back and add the tags to as many past blogs as possible)

What I'm Watching: Sherlock

I recently got a look at the first couple installments of the BBC's reboot of the Sherlock Holmes canon, simply titled Sherlock.
There have been many attempts to adapt the Victorian super-sleuth to the modern era (House, for example, being one of the better ones) but Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss hit on the brilliant idea of bringing Sherlock Holmes into the 21st Century by... setting Sherlock Holmes stories in the 21st Century.
Benedict Cumberbatch (continuing the tradition of Holmesian actors having awesome names) plays an arrogant, aspergersy, prickly Holmes who prefers to send text messages rather than talk to people in person, and consults with Scotland Yard for fun rather than money. He gets Holmes' mix of piercing intellect and social ineptitude down pretty well, and makes for a compelling figure.
Holmes' everyman sidekick John Watson was originally written as a British Army doctor recently returned from war in Afghanistan after having been wounded in action. The cyclical nature of history (particularly regarding war in Afghanistan) allows his character a nearly identical back story. Martin Freeman plays the role as somewhat grumpy loner, who gets involved with Holmes in part because he misses the excitement of being at war.
It seems like any halfway intelligent series featuring two male characters who become close friends is subject to rampant speculation that there are homoerotic undertones (because men can't be friends without wanting to sleep together), Moffat and Gattis make this a running gag as Watson keeps explaining that he is "just friends" with the androgynous Holmes.
The overall tone is of a clever pulp adventure, and has a similar feel to the updated Doctor Who (which is not surprising, first because Moffat and Gattis both worked on Doctor Who, and second because The Doctor has often taken on the role of the Holmesian detective), if you like that, you'll probably enjoy Sherlock. It also has some of the feel of the modern police procedural, which in turn drew a lot of influence from Conan-Doyle's original stories.
My verdict: worth the price of admission, if you're a mystery fan at all.