Rigging Interlude

There's a thing to taking a job in entertainment; it is that you never really stop working, that you never really just go to a show again. I am getting better at it, meaning I am more and more able to enjoy myself. Sometimes though there's really nothing you can do.

Case in point: The Newseum.

The other day while taking in the sites of the Newseum I saw this:

It's a replica communication satellite that they have hung in their atrium. Now really there's probably nothing here that's altogether dangerous in a life-threatening kind of way. There are however a few issues.

Let's begin with the hanging hardware at the bottom connection. The piece is hung with quicklinks. This piece of hardware is nearly never rated for overhead lifting, usually isn't drop forged, doesn't have any tracking capability, and can't be moused off in any way. Just the wrong piece of gear for the job. Along with the quicklinks you should notice that they've formed their eye using press sleeves - three of them. The manufacturer only requires one sleeve. Properly installed it retains over 90% of the strength of the cable. I've worked with a lot of people that want to do two for piece of mind. Three is overkill. Sometimes people use the extra press to clean up the running end of the cable so it doesn't stick out. That isn't what they've done here.

All things being equal though, if the thing really is scenery and therefore much lighter than it looks, the quicklinks and this press application are probably ok, just, you know, wrong.

Then there's the next item up for bids:

From the first photo you can probably see that the piece is hung from four points. Here's another angle...

What should be clearer here is that one of the four picks is slack and therefore really doing absolutely nothing. Again, if the weight is low, then three picks of .125" GAC ought to be enough, but once again just sorta wrong.

And then the capper...

We often discuss in my rigging class how to properly use turnbuckles in theatre installations. One point in my career while discussing the thought with an every day rigger I was told that really you just shouldn't use them. The argument is that turnbuckles are only good in direct tension and cannot handle any side load whatsoever, they also tend to get bent and munged up and are generally annoying. I tend to be a turnbuckle advocate, they're really good for what they are for, but I do concede you do have to pay attention. Pay attention more than this anyway...

It might be a little difficult to see what's going on, here's a closeup:

What you are looking at is a large diameter eye-bolt dropping out of the ceiling, transitioning to a piece of hanging/mating hardware I can't really identify, mated to a turnbuckle with a clevis on the top and a kind of terminal threaded stud on the bottom.

It's a curious combination of very clean (the terminal) and very odd (everything else).

So, usually these hex body turnbuckles are something you buy at the hardware store and are often aluminum - and not rated for overhead. Because of the kinds of ends, I am going to make the assumption that this is some kind of really sexy marine turnbuckle and is therefore probably stainless steel and rated, but I still wonder.

The thing that is distressing here, if you're the type of person that gets distressed over such things is the fleet angle of the cable coming off the stud. With all the joints in the assembly only really having one degree of freedom, this installation is pulling on the terminal stud in a way it shouldn't be, and more importantly it is bending the turnbuckle. If you look at the other photos you'll see that this is the case on all the picks (this was just the one I could get closest to).

Now, if the thing is light and the turnbuckle is something sexy, then this is probably ok, but, you know, just sloppy. If the turnbuckle isn't sexy or the thing isn't light, this is, well, unfortunate.

Probably the fleet issue could be solved by rotating the eyebolts to allow the hangar/turnbuckle assembly to pivot inline with the load. If it were my Newseum I would definitely do that (and replace the quicklinks with shackles and be sure the turnbuckles were rated).

So here's my question: If I had asked to see the manager to relate these things would I have been a dork? Should I send them an email? The way I read my ETCP certification I think I am sorta required to. What would you do?

Some DC Pics

Just a few pics to go with the last few posts. Melissa pics (yes - I have pics) will have to wait for... developing (how 1990?). I'll have more to say about all of this, but this should tide you over some.

On Thursday we went to the Newseum. They had a chunk of the Berlin Wall, the largest on display outside of Berlin (or so they say).

The top floor of the Newseum has an outdoor patio with a really nice view of the Capitol building.

One of the Newseum exhibits is a 9/11 tribute. Still a little hard for me.

Friday we started out with a short walk on the surface of the sun - I mean the National Mall.

Then we went to the air-conditioned but over-run by walking birth control Air & Space Museum.

After Air & Space we went to the National Portrait Gallery. They have a really cool atrium.

That's all for now.

Air & Space Museum

And the National Portrait Gallery. More later.

Who Said That?

OpenCongress - Congress Gossip Blog: "“Record oil prices are inflated by speculation and not justified by market fundamentals,” according to Gheit. “Based on supply and demand fundamentals, crude-oil prices should not be above $60 per barrel.”"

Newseum!

They have like 20' of the Berlin Wall - too cool - more later.

Until then, this:

MELISSA!!!

DAR Constitution Hall - Front Row!!! More later.

Well, She Said it Was Too Short...

Boevers Personal Statement 08 - Upload a Document to Scribd

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Bummer

So George Carlin passed away. If you follow stories on the web then you have probably already seen like nine tributes. I thought about just letting it go at that, but really this is someone I am personally going to miss, so I am going to say more.

First, one of the right wingish radio stations here in town is running a promo featuring George Carlin and out of respect for him I think they really ought to pull it. They run a snippet of his piece on plastic, you know the one that ends "the planet will be fine" and they tag it with "Not saving the planet for 50 years" or some such thing as if they are clever. Nice little dig at who they perceive to be lefty tree-huggers. The problem is that the whole line is "the PEOPLE are fucked, but the planet will be fine." Folks at WPGB, Carlin wasn't saying environmentalism is wrong, he was saying the rhetoric of environmentalism is pompous. You should pull that promo.

I first heard George Carlin in the basement on a battleship of an industrial cassette player my father had liberated from Niles West at some time (we were probably just storing it). Dad had "AM&FM" and I think "Occupation Foole" maybe "Class Clown" too. "Occupation Foole" has Filthy Words on it and really that's all it took, I was hooked.

I think the first TV spot I saw was on Johnny Carson. I would have been sitting on the floor in my parents' room avoiding going to bed. Carlin did Baseball and Football. "In football the objective is to penetrate enemy territory using short pinpoint strikes and long bombs..." His kind of analysis and language use probably has as much to do with who I am today as many of my early teachers.

First time I saw a full show was at my Aunt's house in New York, they had cable, we didn't. My mom and I watched "Carlin on Campus." Baseball and Football was back, and this time I also got to hear A Place for My Stuff. This one also finishes with the omnibus edition of Filthy Words where he opines how there are many more terms for male acts than for female ("making soup" and "yodelling in the gully"). I remember thinking maybe my mother wasn't the right person to watch this with. But maybe it was fine afterall.

I saw George Carlin live a bunch of times. I think the first was with a bunch of high school friends at a theatre on the Northwestern Campus. This was at the begining of the People I can Do Without period - if comics have periods. Buried in a closet someplace there is probably a t-shirt from that show that will not fit. The last time I saw him live was with my family at Bally's in Las Vegas, must have been 1999ish. I can remember thinking then how little he seemed to be enjoying performing. The life had gone out of it and he really just seemed mad, real bitter about everything. There must be a very fine line between ascerbic and angry that he'd walked his entire life. Recently I'd noticed that the act wasn't quite as pointy even thought the edge was still sharp. I guess he'd managed whatever was bugging him and had gotten back to the fun part.

So all day we've been hearing about the seven words you can't say on television, and I admit that's a swell routine but it isn't the one that usually lives closest to my mind. While I've been thinking about this piece one joke keeps coming back to me, it's about the perfect crime, something like "What if one guy picked up a guy and murdered another guy with him? To the police it would look like a tragic pedestrian accident." Recently the bit I find myself quoting the most is from the I Used to be an Irish Catholic thing where he talks about how none of the kids in his neighborhood got polio because "we swam in raw sewage - you know, to cool off." At the Bally's show he'd worked that into a rant about parents being child worshipers and germaphobes. There's probably a lot of good insight there.

Thankfully the latest generation of comics spent the last decade thanking George Carlin, so hopefully he left us knowing the impression he'd made. And more still thankfully we can all continue to enjoy his wit from recordings of his performances. I am sure I will ruin some kids language with one of those albums soon (Debi, maybe best not to leave your kids with me).

I wonder, just before he went, did he hear in his head: (ping) Two minute warning. Get your shit together!

Thoughts on a Salad

I don't so much partake of salad, but Mrs. TANBI has a request for those of you that might run restaurants out there. Today at Red Robin she got a salad which appeared to be a bowl of lettuce, cheese, and tortilla strips.

Upon further examination some of what looked like cheese was actually carrot shavings.

And yes, we know about the whole tomato thing - although in all fairness there are still plenty of tomatoes available.

Back in the day when she was a vegan we once went to Applebee's only to find that there wasn't a single thing on the whole menu she could order, including a salad.

So here's the request: If you run a restaurant, and you are going to have salad on the menu, and there is anything in the salad that isn't a fruit or a vegetable, then please indicate those items on the menu.

And Red Robin, why not send someone across the street for a cucumber and maybe some mandarin oranges. It's really embarrassing to have to pay $5 for a bowl of lettuce (and should be even more so to make someone else do it).

Opus Comics, by Bloom County's Berkeley Breathed

Salon

I Love 'Match Game'

Sarah Silverman in for 'Match Game': "The comedians have signed on to be on the panel for TBS' updated 'Match Game' pilot, shot this week in Los Angeles. Also taking seats are Super Dave Osborne (Bob Einstein), Kids in the Hall trouper Scott Thompson, Rashida Jones ('The Office') and Niecy Nash ('Reno 911!')."

Colbert, Jump ------> Shark

This is AWESOME!!!

Exclusives: Internal Comcast Powerpoint Reveals They Know Exactly How Much They Suck: "It's no secret to Consumerist readers that Comcast's outsourced techs are often late, rude and incompetent, and that calling customer service is more akin to improving dialogue in a Beckett play, but as this exclusively obtained internal Comcast powerpoint shows, it's no secret to the cable company either."


Great - now DO SOMETHING DAMMIT.

3

And Now, The Other Shoe

Quick, while Bush is still President...

BAGHDAD — Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.

The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations.

The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production.

New York Times

No no no, oh wait, mabe that does make sense - shit.

Ridley Scott compares “Blade Runner” to “little orphan annie” « Darth Mojo: "“The whole concept [of Deckard being a Replicant] evolved really through Gaff’s origami - Gaff wasn’t in the book, he’s an invention to thread through the story so, at the end of the film, he can leave his calling card which fundamentally says, ‘I know something about your inernal thinking that only you know - and there’s only one way I could possibly know that - and that is because I am part of the office that created you.’”

At this point, co-screenwriter Hampton Fancher, who has always staunchly denied that Deckard was anything other than human, shook his head and blurted out, “Ridley’s off, he’s totally wrong!” The audience burst out laughing, after which Fancher continued. “His idea is too complex. I think there is a metaphor in the film that works - for me anyway - and it’s about how we aspire to be something and we fall short of it; we always do. And we’re not sure if we’re being authentic. I don’t feel authentic - maybe Ridley does [Scott enthusiastically nods]."

Crapweasels

Energy prices | Air America Radio: "But our high gasoline costs are more than just a supply problem. It seems that it is also a speculation problem which ironically (or not) seems to have beeen bequeathed on us by Enron."

Zzzzzzzzz

Asleep At The Pump | Air America Radio: "CBS News has found that a large amount of all oil futures trading is done offshore right under the nose of the administration, with its full knowledge, all with no oversight at all from the federal government. And Big Oil, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs are quite happy with this arrangement, with the two Wall Street houses being responsible for setting up the all-electronic offshore exchange that now trades 50% of all global oil futures contracts. The Bush Administration went along with it, just as they went along with whatever the Wall Street investment houses did in the credit and mortgage markets."

Finals

40. Ouch. Be a long ride home to LA.

Be Careful What You Wish For

So I thought it was weird. A few weeks ago Mrs. TANBI and I went to the movies, we went to see Speed Racer. The thing that was weird was that when we got to the theatre it was all quiet and then when things started up they went right to previews. At the time I told myself that since the press for the movie was so lousy that people wouldn't pay for pre-show advertising since they figured nobody would be there to see it.

Fast forward a week or two and we're back at the movies to see Indiana Jones. This time when I pay for the tickets I notice that the rate had gone up. The cashier said the price changed because they were simplifying the pricing structure - all matinées are one price and all evenings are another, just two prices. So we go into the theatre and once again no screen gems, all quiet.

It's at this point I flash back to probably like the six dozen times I sat in that theatre watching that awful slide show or commercial after commercial thinking "Geez, I would pay more if only I didn't have to watch all this crap."

Poof, so now I am paying more.

Truth be told, I think I stand by my original statement. It really was nice to go to a show and you know see the show. That preshow shit was criminal and I am glad to be rid of it. I just hope it stays gone. The track record for such things is we get a little break, pay a little more, and then presto the crap comes back. I'll keep my fingers crossed. You cross yours too.

Anyone else notice the same thing?

Slag

Well, that was sad. For a minute I thought maybe the whole "rest of the season" thing was just a red herring and I was actually watching the series finale. But the found a way to write another chapter, even if it is a somewhat dark one.

The scene between Adama and Tigh was fantastic.

Now, now we wait until early 2009. No Lost, No BSG, No Top Chef, I think I may cancel the cable for a while.

Personal Statement Update

So I now have equal numbers of people saying "great job" and "I think you should rewrite it." I am not sure where one is supposed to go from there. I guess I have a week to figure it out.

So far the issue seems to be that it doesn't appear to be about me, or at least about me enough. I wonder a little bit if it sounds a little bit too "teachy." I'm tenure track and I wonder if maybe higher up someone will say "this sounds an awful lot more like something we would want to hear from a lecture track faculty member." The lecture track is the school's teaching track. Since I talk primarily about teaching there's the chance it might just be wrong for tenure track, maybe something talking more about research.

"Research" for someone in my world is about professional development, so I guess I'd wind up talking about becoming an ETCP Recognized Rigging Instructor, maybe about the USITT Commercial Outreach Project.

There's also some question about length. I'd been kicking around the net the other day and stumbled on something online suggesting the something called a "personal statement" ought to be one page. So, when I sat down to write I worked with a one page goal. The other two personal statements I wrote were both longer, two pages last time and three the time before that. Like this time I always kinda thought that the last two weren't what they were supposed to be.

So maybe there isn't anything wrong with what I've got but rather that there needs to be more. For the last pass I used the CV headings as topic headings: Teaching, Research & Creative Activity, and Professional Service. I wrote the thing as a sort of faculty semester review covering three years of work, answering the things I usually ask about at crits: "what went well, what went less well, what you conquered and what conquered you..." I guess maybe what I've got could be broken up and re-purposed under teaching and service, and then fill the middle with the ETCP and USITT items. That's a plan anyway.

I know they are just trying to leave people all the freedom they can, but sometimes the vague instructions really frustrate me.

Longer? Less "Teachy?" More Personal? Maybe.

Day Late, or Dollar Short?

U.S. backs $30 million to build plug-in hybrids | Green Tech - CNET News.com: "The Department of Energy announced a $30 million effort Thursday with Ford, General Motors, and General Electric to bring to market by 2014 plug-in hybrid electric cars that drive 40 miles on a single charge."

Ellipses...

I was reading back, and I don't seem to post as much as I used to. I blame the feeds... Boomer said the reason they didn't disconnect the hybrid and jump back was that she'd hardwired herself into the life support. Ok, I guess... The new Ice Road Truckers season has them driving over the Arctic Ocean, that must take nads... I can't decide if I want to go down to the Arts Festival this weekend... I have become completely nocturnal, so if you need something don't expect it before say like 3:00... For being out of work there sure is a whole lot I could be doing... Tonight is the finale of Top Chef. I think it will be the fauxhawk... Something tells me Freya isn't allowed in the basement anymore. Bean must have declared himself governor... Mrs. TANBI says she is ready whenever I am... Somehow I need to get my dad to stop smoking. I have zero in the idea department... I can't tell if I should rewrite my personal statement. Opinions vary... Friday will be the last BSG for quite a while. Seems like it only just started up again... If somehow we wind up with President McCain I say that ought to just about wrap it up for the Democratic Party... Anyone got a hotel in DC they really like? I am looking for ideas... Would be nice to see the impeachment thing actually come to a vote. I bet it won't. Why do they call it a "comfort bike"? Could it be just to get you to spend more on a mountain bike - even if you don't need one? Seems likely... One of my old posts has a list of things I want but don't need - I now have most of them, seems like a waste... I should enter some data in my ETCP journal, I think it comes up for renewal soon... Do you think it is worth having a rummage sale? Or would it be easier just to take the stuff to Goodwill? Might be nice to recover something... The new airport scanners can see through your clothes, but don't worry they won't be allowed to save or print - yeah, right...

August: Osage County

We were in NYC over the weekend. My cousin was Bat Mitzvahed (sp). I had an aliyah, and I didn't screw it up. It was a real whiz-bang trip, arriving Friday evening and then leaving Sunday lunchish. Saturday was the service and the luncheon and then that evening while all the kids partied down at what I am sure looked like something right out of My Super Sweet 16 the adults had the time to themselves.

Although retired from theatre my mom thought it might still be fun to go to a show. She selected the soon to be Tony winning August: Osage County - she had a friend in the cast. More specific would be to say the soon to be Tony winning, three and one half hour August: Osage County. No place on Broadway will you get more play for your money. That's something I guess.


I'd actually gone to school with the set designer: Todd Rosenthal. It was neat to walk into a Broadway house and see his name in the program. He'd also done a set at Apple Tree years ago, so there's another connection for my mom. The set Todd did for the show was a three story affair, sort of the open frame of a house going up to the attic. There was a living room/dining room downstage as well as a front door and a kitchen in the back for the first floor. The second floor wasn't much more than a stair landing and an exit, and then there was a bedroom on the third floor. Truth be told I wasn't sure they needed all that height, but then that's why I build them and don't design them. Hudson built this set and did their usual excellent job. I remain a little perplexed about how they achieved the lateral bracing they would have needed for a set that is so tall since the frame was so open. Maybe I'll make a call or two to find out.


The play sort of defies description. It's about a dysfunctional family in the wake of the death of their father. Everyone in the play is broken in one way or another and over the course of the story those issues all come to light. The audience experience is getting to see the unfolding, but really there is no predicting. Eventually the things that happen (or are revealed to have happened) are so unlikely you could never have guessed, but I guess that's part of what makes it interesting.

For me I think the coolest part was that often as someone watching you couldn't tell if something was supposed to be funny or sad or shocking or what. There was one moment where I heard something I thought was hysterical, but I was the only one that did in the entire theatre. So you're sitting there and something happens and you have a choice to laugh or cringe and really often it's a toss up.

After the show one of the people in the company came out the door and was talking to a friend who met him and saying "...see what I mean? you don't know if you are supposed to like them or pity them or hate them or empathize or what?"

That's how I felt, and I guess it was what they were going for. In the end it's a little wanting. Still, it's a great script and the performances are very good, and all the craft is excellent, and with two intermissions you hardly notice it's three and a half hours long. If you get a chance, you should check it out.

Is this stupid?

Tenure review time again. I had to do a personal statement. Got any tips?

Personal Statement 08 - Upload a Document to Scribd

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There You Go Again...

Go get 'em Dennis!

You there! « Pundit Kitchen: Funny Political Pictures and Commentary

Everything Old is New Again

So yesterday I bit the bullet and watched the entire A&E Andromeda Strain to get it off the DVR. It was in HD and all of a sudden we were up over 90% and the thing literally flashed up a message that said "Delete Something." So I did.

I had already read reviews of the thing that were slowing me down. The most telltale was one that said "It's a scifi movie of the week with an a-list cast." Never having watched any of those Scifi made for TV movies (except for Razor and Ark which I don't think count) but having seen the commercials with the Raptors eating the girls in bikinis this didn't inspire much confidence.

In the end I think I might have developed a need to read the book.

There's enough in the remake to let you know its the same story, but they've really widened the scope. I just don't remember it being a temporal paradox story. Now I grant you that the original, when you watch it on commercial TV, with commercials is very long, and its usually at night; so it is possible I've never actually seen the end of the original last reel. So I guess there could be a temporal paradox scene, or maybe it's something from the book that they scrapped the first time and used this time.

All the outside world stuff is fairly interesting as a choice too. The reporter and the politics and all the soldiers and the double dealing. Part of the strength of the original I think was a sense of claustrophobia they managed to convey. Once you were through in Piedmont you almost never saw the outside world again. Here you would never feel closed in because every other scene was outside. The production design of the original also seemed to be more geared toward the closed in feeling. Wildfire looked like a spaceship inside - or a 60's-70's version of a spaceship. It could have just as well been the Discovery from 2001, gleaming white, no corners, sterile. The new set just looks like a high tech lab. You have to remember they are buried underground, there's little in the visuals to remind you.

All in all the new version isn't a bad movie, but I think the original might just be better even after all this time. I think there was a sense of humor to the first that the new one missed - like during decontamination where the guy turns to the girl and explains she's got one place left to do - that they don't.

Also, and I don't know where this fits in, but the people in the original weren't all hot. Do you have to use actors who are hot to do a movie? Does even the pathology specialist have to be hot? The remake is a cast of models the original decidedly wasn't. I wonder which group actually made a design choice in their casting, the first group to go for people that weren't hot, or the second to use actors that were. Were it not for the contrast between the pieces I don't think I would have even given the appearances of this film's cast a second thought. But in comparison the difference is striking. Very strange.

So, not a complete waste of time. But when the original comes on again I will probably still watch it.

Optimism? That's New

Reason Magazine - Oil Prices and Economic Reality: "I'm not alone in my optimism. Michael Lynch, head of an energy consulting firm in Massachusetts, told the Associated Press the current price of gasoline 'is the peak or very close to it.' Analysts at the investment bank Lehman Brothers say we are just as likely to see oil at $80 a barrel as at $200."

Um, Ok I Guess

Cult - News - 'Torchwood' cut down for third season? - Digital Spy: "Torchwood is likely to be drastically reduced in length for its forthcoming third season.
Executive producer Julie Gardner told TV Guide: 'We've decided to do a five-part mini-series, one big story that will run during one week."

You Can't Afford myFICO.com!

Fresh Intelligence : Radar Online : Suze Orman Gets an "F" On Her Credit Report Card: "She even goes so far as to recommend an online site, myFICO.com, where you can go and find out what yours is!
Handy advice, to be sure, but what Orman neglects to disclose to the readers of O is that she actually has a business partnership with myFICO.com"

He Shoots He Scores

That's how you want to see it end.

Knew they wouldn't be able to kill a four minute major in sudden death.

Bedtime.

No Goals That Overtime

I am getting tired just watching.

No Goals That Overtime

Fleury must feel like he's in a shooting gallery.

Overtime

There's nothing quite like NHL Playoff overtime.

I wonder if the Pen's can stay alive.

"Jump!"

So you're watching a fairly middle of the road BSG episode and then, salvaging the entire episode in the last 10 seconds they plug in the hybrid and she says "jump!" and they're gone, poof - like when Boomer capped Adama, I bet you weren't expecting that.

Then a week later you're watching another middle of the road BSG and afterward you read a blog post where they talk about all of the mile wide plot holes there were and you're all like "hey this guy's got a point - how did Starbuck get back to being CAG?" And maybe "In what universe does Lee get appointed President of the Colonies?"

Then continuing that line of thought you say to yourself, gee, and why didn't they just pull the plug on the hybrid and make a reciprocal jump?

And then, like Ripley with Newt, you've made a clean spot and you have to do the whole thing. So you're remembering the excellent sequence the prior week when the Base Star jumped in and nearly collided with all these other ships, and quietly you start to wonder, hey, how is it that the Galactica fleet ships don't collide with each other every time they make a jump. It doesn't look very organized.

But now you've done it. Speculation like that will lead you to stat to question why all the planets on Stargate or Star Trek speak English. And then your head will start to hurt. There must be a sci-fi writer's rule about introducing a problem as a problem that usually they just ignore as a problem - can't make post jump collisions a problem without their always having been a problem.

Now I guess in this case you could argue something along the lines of that the jump calculations take into account the size of the vessel and the space it is jumping into and since they were using a Raptor computer to jump a Base Star that whatever the allowances are for volume of space there were would be off by an order of magnitude.

Geek... geek... geek...

All season on BSG it has felt to me like they are laboring through piles and piles of exposition in order to get us properly lined up for the end. This is the sort of maneuvering that lets Cara come back to CAG, makes Apollo the President, and makes Adama turn his ship over to his XO moments after their having a fistfight over Tigh's fracking a cylon. Maybe these guys should have taken a cue from the people over at Lost and given themselves two seasons to wrap things up so they could take their time (although even with the full extra season Lost feels a little bit the same, but you have to grant them that as they have a few more things to resolve).

Or maybe they did it just fine. Not like I am going to stop watching. Admiral Tigh, gods.