So I’ve discovered a new guilty pleasure. CBC premiered a new show about 3 weeks ago called The Border. The basic premise of the show is following around a group of “Immigration and Customs Security” employees. The show is focused on all of the decisions and consequences of national/border security.

So, this show is very fun for me to watch, based on working at CBSA. It’s really entertaining to watch a show that is based on your workplace, because you have an insider’s point of view. You know what they get right, what they get wrong, and when – like many times in The Border – things are clearly exaggerated to make them more exciting for TV.

I’ve got to admit that I’m not sure I’d be watching if I didn’t work for CBSA. That’s not a slight against the show, the fact is that TV has completely slipped off my radar in light of the Writer’s Strike. There were fabulous shows that I loved, that I honestly thought I’d be waiting on the edge of my seat for them to return. But it appears I have barely noticed. Heroes and House could be back on the air now and I would have *no* idea. So I doubt I’d be watching The Border if it wasn’t so patently aimed at me. I hope other people are watching though, because it really deserves to keep going. It’s an intelligent show, with good production values (rare for a Canadian show), and it just hits all the right notes.

Obsidian Wings: Andy Olmsted Major Andrew Olmsted was a soldier serving in Iraq. I did not know him, nor did I ever have the privilege of reading any of his blog posts. Until this last one, unfortunately. Major Olmsted died in Iraq on January 3rd 2008. He had the foresight of writing his own “final post”, to be posted in the event of his death. It is a sad state that it had to be used, and I feel for his friend who had the dubious honour of doing so. It’s funny, because there have been many comments across the internet about the fact that he uses many Babylon 5 quotes in his letter. People think this makes him uncultured or geeky or that it takes away from the solemnity of the letter. I heartily and thoroughly disagree. If anything, quoting from a television show he (clearly) loved shows exactly who Andrew was when he died. If I died tomorrow, and if I had a letter, it would probably be rife with Harry Potter, Buffy and Richard Bach quotes. Because that’s what I loved, and that’s what impacted *me*. Maybe it wouldn’t be brilliant, but it would be mine. Good for him for using the words that were important to him, even if others deem them lowly.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

YouTube – The Original Human TETRIS Performance by Guillaume Reymond

Testing one, two, three…..