Tag Archives: Futurama

September 8, 2026

TV Tuesday 9/8/26

The recent Sci-Fi Saturday post listed the SF books I’ve been reading (so far) this year, and the even more recent Mystery Monday post listed the murder mystery books likewise. Haven’t read any science books lately (I’ve been getting science news from New Scientist magazine), but I have been watching TV. Maybe too much, but at least it’s evenings only.

Baseball has occupied a lot of my viewing time this summer (the MN Twins are a whole other post). I can only stand to watch three to five hours of TV in an evening, so a three-hour baseball game doesn’t leave much room for my stories.

Nevertheless, there is more than enough for a TV Tuesday post.

12 Comments | tags: Futurama, Invincible, Jack Reacher, King of the Hill, Night Court, Rick and Morty, Scrubs, The Tick (TV series) | posted in TV Tuesday

October 14, 2025

TV Tuesday 10/14/25

By Wyrd Smythe

This is a continuation of last week’s post. The list of shows I have is too long for one post, so this picks up where it left off (even so, that one ran long, and so may this one). As mentioned last time, I hadn’t written a TV Tuesday post in a while, so there’s a bit of a backlog.

Watching baseball takes up a lot of the TV viewing time during the summer, and I can only watch a few hours of TV in any given day (and not too many days in a row). Many of the shows in my watch lists are old shows that I nibble on for the memories.

The nostalgia is strong but often so is the cringe factor.

5 Comments | tags: Bewitched, Elizabeth Montgomery, Futurama, Keanu Reeves, Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites, time travel, Upload (TV series) | posted in Movies, TV Tuesday

May 24, 2022

TV Tuesday 5/24/22

By Wyrd Smythe

I’ve been awaiting the sophomore season of Netflix’s Russian Doll with both anticipation and dread. Anticipation because I thought season one was outstanding, one of the best shows of 2019. I only mentioned it briefly in a post back then (and gave it a solid Wow! rating). I meant to write a whole post about it but never did.

The dread came largely from how complete the story arc of season one was. It was hard to see more story there. Dread also came from how good it was — a very hard act to follow. Maybe best not to try?

Season two finally came out last month. My best reaction is something along the lines of “Huh?” but the phrase “muddled mess” keeps running through my mind.

10 Comments | tags: animation, anime, Futurama, Hulu, Japanese anime, Netflix, Russian Doll (TV series) | posted in TV Tuesday

March 7, 2018

Fresh Off the Boat

By Wyrd Smythe

Last post I mentioned the ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, a show I’m currently mini-binging^[1] on Hulu. When I wrote that, I was still very much on the fence as to whether I even liked the show. In fact I was puzzled about why I liked it at all, since it’s a fairly standard sitcom in many regards.

Ever since I’ve been paying more attention to my reactions while watching, and I’ve come to realize that it’s not a matter of being undecided — it’s a matter of having developed a strong like/dislike for the show. As I wrote with Halt and Catch Fire, my feelings are mixed, not vague.

And it turns out to really tap into what attracts or repels me to sitcoms.

7 Comments | tags: 30 Rock, Assassination Classroom, Community (TV series), Dan Harmon, Fresh Off the Boat, Futurama, Matt Groening, Rick and Morty, Scrubs, South Park, The Good Place, The Office, The Simpsons | posted in Opinion, TV

October 24, 2015

Secret Code

By Wyrd Smythe

kid code When I was a high school kid, my dad and I sometimes played a game where one of us would make up a secret code, write a message in that code, and the other would try to decipher the message. We generally used simple substitution ciphers, so it was an exercise in letter frequency analysis and word guessing.

There’s a cute secret code I found in a book back then that really stuck with me because of the neat way it looks. It also stuck with me because it’s so simple that once you learn it, you really can’t forget it.

So, for some Saturday fun, I thought I’d share it with you.

7 Comments | tags: Alan Turing, Alienese, cipher, code, decipher, decoder ring, Freemasons Cipher, Futurama, one-time pad, Pigpen Cipher, secret codes, substitution cipher | posted in Basics, Math