Expectations…lowered…

I was pondering the state of my existence last evening as I watched the premiere episode of the new Bionic Woman series. Although I’m glad to see the show on the air, I am not sure if I will be able to warm up to it. You see, there was something about the impossibility of bionics that made the show intriguing back in it’s original days. Now that we have made such strides in technology, the concept of someone actually having bionic parts doesn’t seem so far-fetched. For this reason, I’m just not sure that the show will make it past its first season.

The character of Jaime Sommers was played so well by Lindsay Wagner that the new star, Michelle Ryan had some big shoes to fill. The storyline was altered from the original so that you barely recognize the main character from before. It was so strange to see Jaime tending bar and trying to take care of her sister. In the original, she was in the Air Force and she was a professional tennis player or something like that. In addition to the steamier scenes which only served to make me uncomfortable as I tried to watch the show with my daughter, another thing that was probably not necessary was the addition of another bionic character who was meant to be some sort of nemesis to Jaime’s character.

While the show was well put together as dramas go, it was certainly not worthy of riding on the coattails of the viewership formed from the original series. I have a suspicion that fans of the older series would not have wanted to see the show made into something so truly typical of television today.

Oh, and another thing that bothered me…where were the cheesy sound effects? You know, the ones that made her bionic…Well, of course, I know that the sound wasn’t what made her bionic, but I also know that the sound was a huge part of the ambiance for the show.

Maybe I’m old-fashioned. Maybe I’m just feeling my age. Maybe, it’s just as I had originally thought. The show was an easy concept for someone to pick up and run with rather than coming up with an original idea. Ouch…I just wish that if they are going remake something that they would at least try to maintain the integrity of the original. Simply naming the character with the same name doesn’t make it okay. This is why I don’t watch Smallville, why I didn’t really enjoy the Charlie’s Angels movies and why I really hope that no one has decided to redo the old Wonder Woman series. What’s that? They’re already working on Wonder Woman…? Well, crap. I apologize in advance for the impending disappointment.

This post was originally posted at the Booksden Blog.

Waiting for a towel to dry...

It's amazing how many things go through your mind when you are waiting for your laundry to be done. I'm sitting here at the computer while the dryer is finally finishing a load of towels. Over the course of the last fifteen minutes or so, I've thought of at least fifteen different things I need to get done today. Aside from doing laundry, I need to take some library books back, clean up my house, go to the grocery store, get clothes ready for tomorrow morning, pay some bills, balance my checkbook, write the rest of a short story I'm working on, work on my website, pay attention to my daughter, exercise, visit my mother, and God knows what else... One of the things on my list was to write something here, so I guess I can cross that one off the list. The point is, no matter what I get done in a day, the heads keep growing back. Granted, I create some things for myself to do so that I can continue to feel like my life has a purpose. But there are other forces at work that create the rest.

How much of what we do is generated solely from our need to stay busy? How much of that need to stay busy or productive comes from simply being a female? I think women fall into this cycle much of the time because we are expected to keep things going. To make things "comfortable" for the people in our lives. Even if we have a really great husband or boyfriend who actually cooks or cleans, there is a degree of guilt attached whenever we don't do the little things. I am by no means domestically inclined, yet I still feel the nagging sense that I need to prove my worth in this area. Look how good I am at keeping house, folding clothes, washing dishes, etc. Even though I hate housework and feel that it isn't extremely important in the grand scheme of things, I still feel inadequate when I don't do enough of it. This is some bullshit that is hardwired from years of listening to a grandmother who felt that "a woman's place was in the home."

I guess it was this kind of coaching that ultimately led me to become a feminist. I wasn't sure that I was one before, but over the last several years, it has become clear that I believe in the power of women to achieve nearly anything. I believe that women should work together to make this world a better place and that we should use our strengths to help make other women stronger. So, as I sit here, waiting for my laundry to dry, I think about all of the things that I can do to make a positive impact on the world today. What can I do while waiting for my towels to dry? It's hard to say for sure, but I hope that blogs such as this one are a step in the right direction. I found this quote over at www.feminist.com and thought it would work nicely here:

"In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she's a feminist or a masochist."
—Gloria Steinem

Now we just have to ask ourselves, which one will I be today?

Until next time...