I think I've finally gotten one of my sons into Babylon 5.
Many times over the years I've put one of the more action packed episodes on without comment. Sometimes they'd look up from what they were doing a bit. But not too much, and never for a full episode. That makes sense: it's a deep and serious show; it was a stretch for me at 13.
The last few times seemed to have elicited some interest from William.
A few weeks ago he sat playing a video game while sneaking peeks at
"All Alone in the Night."
Only after it finished did he get up.
Today, I put on
"A Distant Star," and about halfway through, he came down stairs,
stood watching a few minutes, then sat down. He stayed as I let it
roll into
"the one with Murdock," as they remember it.
I put on another. And another. And another! He'd started making comments and asking questions! He's laughing at the funny parts! And not just because I was; I'm too busy watching him to even realize something funny happened until he laughs! Four episodes in a row he watches intently, not just halfway while playing a game. (Although on the 5th episode he did allocate half an eye to a game of The Show with Owen)
We took a break where they shot hoops and I worked on the pool. While William was in the shower, I put on another, but—suspecting I had his interest—I paused it at the start and waited for him to come out.
He came out of the shower, plopped down on the couch, and stared at the paused screen. I was distracted by something else. After a few minutes, he got up and went upstairs. A few minutes later, I finally resume it, and here he comes down the stairs!
This one held his attention even through mature scenes where two adults just sit and talk about a dead wife.
This is the same son who plays Dragon Quest with me. And watches countless hours of Super Metroid randomizer races with me. And attempted The Lord of the Rings last year. (I was a few years older on my first attempt, and half way through high school when I made it through and fell in love on my second try.)
Some of William's comments today:
He laughed at the diet scenes.
Especially:
"I didn't authorize dessert."
"Well then you can't have any."
"Wait let's not be hasty!"
He laughed at Ivanova zingers.
And he laughed at Londo and G'Kar antics, particularly the argument
while waiting for the elevator.
I've always stuck to the first two seasons as they offer plenty of exciting standalone material without spoiling things too much (mainly "why is the commander different?" and "why is the lady bald?"). Remember: I was always hoping to make a couple of fans here!
Years ago, after they'd been watching The A-Team for a while (one of this family's favorite shows), I showed them "the one with Murdock."
Other episodes I remember putting on when they were around:
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Sting is back! He's always been all over the map, up and down: whether solo or with The Police, sometimes I can't stand what he's doing, sometimes I love it. This album is pretty good!
DRM-free FLAC
stream
with Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) and ads on YouTube
Neal Morse and friends make their first appearance...
#12 is... Neal Morse and friends! some of the same friends as #13. Some different friends. and they recorded TWO VERSIONS of this one! So that's actually... > 3 hours of Neal Morse and friends :)
This is also #3 from "Top 3 Live or Collections of 2021" is Gamma Ray's amazing new live album.
The triumphant return of both Hansen and Kiske!
\m/
How does this man put out so many albums?! And why are they all great?!?!
In any other year this would surely be #1. We had to wait 22 years for LTE3 but it was WORTH IT. >This is also Mike Portnoy's third appearance in the list!
Dream Theater actually produced a good album for the first time since Portnoy's long-ago departure.
Iron Maiden in 2000: Hell, we're Iron Maiden! We can have three guitarists from now on!
Iron Maiden in 2021: Hell, we're Iron Maiden! We can release double albums from now on!
Never heard of these guys before 2021 but this was ALBUM OF THE YEAR. (I had to make my own playlist for this one because youtube corrupted the official one)
[A C hook] has been swinging back and forth for a very, very long time. How long was it rubbing against the hangar bracket? The answer is that we don't know. we think it is about 97 (!) years old, but we're not sure because PG&E (the electric company that owns the lines) didn't keep records about it. [PG&E] kept no records.]]>
GNU Mes is a Scheme interpreter and C compiler for bootstrapping the GNU System. Since version 0.22 it has again helped to halve the size of opaque, uninspectable binary seeds that are currently being used in the Reduced Binary Seed bootstrap of GNU Guix. The final goal is to help create a full source bootstrap as part of the bootstrappable builds effort for UNIX-like operating systems.
Amazing! Some have even had OCR work.
Owen and William were so excited we had a new set. They're exicted about any Lego set, though; this one has no special significance to them.
We build it tomorrow!
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