Law & Order hits home.

Sort of.

This week I had to report to the Los Angeles Superior Court to serve jury duty. I was hoping I'd come in on Monday, either not have my name called, or if I did go through the selection process, that I'd be denied.

I'm good at getting denied. Just look at the string of "no's" I've gotten from the last cadre of women I have asked out.

At any rate, I showed up on Monday, and before 9:30 AM, I had been called to a jury "panel." A group of some forty of us were herded into a courtroom where we were introduced to a judge and an attorney team for the plaintiff, and attorney teams for multiple defendants. There was a pretty major civil case about to get underway, and we were all candidates for the jury that would deliberate this case. I can say no more, as I am sworn to secrecy from this moment on until the case reaches a verdict. Until I and 11 others reach a verdict.

What is not secret is the selection process. We went though two days of juror interviews. After being briefed on the very broad strokes of the case, we had to fill out a questionnaire. Then, with the results of the questionnaire as ammunition, the attorneys probed and prodded at us to see who had biases and who could stand impartial. I was a little disappointed that I was asked no -- zero -- questions. Probably my fault that I always did well on school tests. I was probably too efficient with my questionnaire or something.

Well, by the end of the second day, I was chosen. We now have a full jury and we start trial tomorrow, April 1st. It would be nice if somebody came out from the back of the court and yelled, "April Fools!" and we all got to go home. But, no such luck. This case is for real, and expected to go about two-and-a-half weeks. When it's over, I hope I have an interesting story to tell here.

In the meantime, as I can, I'll dabble in my usual musings.

This week's episode of "The Pacific" was disappointing. In trying to show the human side of the Marines as they were away from the war, it only succeeded in marking time until the next battle. The characters still haven't caught my attention the way the characters in "Band of Brothers" did. And I'm sure comparing the two mini-series is probably unfair, but it can't be helped, especially when it was promoted pretty much as the next "Band of Brothers..."

Spring football practice has started at USC, and while in the past I've been excited, because Pete Carroll is no longer there, and there's a coach with (in my opinion) questionable character now running the team, it's just not the same. I just can't get that excited.

On the other hand, baseball season is about to start. My team, the Texas Rangers, won 87 games last season and came second in their division. I'm hoping this is the year they get over the top, but their pitchers are still very young and they've lost some sock in their bats over the last couple of years. But I can't wait to see their first game. I'm hoping Josh Hamilton makes a big comeback, Michael Young plays like Michael Young, and their new starting pitcher, Rich Harden, does what he hasn't done in the last two years -- get thru a whole season without getting hurt! Then, they'll have a shot!

Easter is this weekend. I'm not sure what I'm doing yet. I'm flirting with the idea of getting out of town for the weekend. We'll see.

RP

Saturday night, March 27th.

Tonight I gave in to "temptation" and joined a Fantasy Baseball League (yeah, well, perhaps not the most exciting of all temptation options out there for a Saturday night, but...)

This particular league's rules included naming your team after a TV show. In thinking about all the TV series I could have named my team after, I found myself not taking too long to arrive at a decision.

"China Beach."

Now for those who would have guessed "Star Trek," you would have been right if that guess had come before 1990. No question I grew up a "Trekkie," even attending a Star Trek convention (gasp!) when I was in high school. But after stumbling onto "China Beach" one night in 1990 -- I had actually avoided it thinking that (from the network promos) the series was just a re-dux of "M*A*S*H," but with a cheesy take on the nurses as opposed to the point of view of the doctors -- I realized my cynicism was misplaced.

"China Beach" became my favorite television series of all time. Some would argue that it was mostly because Dana Delany looked good in olive green (which she did!). But those who think me that shallow, be wrong. There was a richness to how "China Beach" approached its subject matter, delving into the psychology of a war gone mad. It's protagonists were far from perfect; in fact, they were all wounded souls who - ironically - were assigned to cure those wounded by the war. It's style and pace was cinematic; not giving in to the regular by-the-numbers beat of most episodic TV series. Our eyes into this world of Vietnam and the surrealism in which it was depicted were provided by a tremendously performing cast. And while Dana's "McMurphy" character stood at the center of the 'Nam hurricane, it was Robert Picardo's "Dr. Richard" that struck a chord with me, giving me a surrogate from whom I could experience their stories with a sense of -- "I know that guy; I can relate..."

So then I started thinking, what ARE my favorite TV shows of all time? And in listing them in my head, do they follow a pattern? Do they thematically stick together. What does it say about my tastes?

For fun, then, here are my Top 10 favorite TV shows of all time. You tell me if they say something about me:

1. China Beach

2. Star Trek (the original series)

3. Once & Again

4. 12 O'clock High

5. ER (the first 4 seasons)

6. Moonlighting

7. Coupling (the original BBC series)

8. The Mary Tyler Moore Show

9. Battlestar Galactica (the Sci-Fi Channel remake)

10. Jericho

Now, there are some current series that could crack that Top 10 and perhaps displace one or two up there. Those include Friday Night Lights, The Big Bang Theory and Law & Order. We'll see...

Ok, enough frivolity for a Saturday night (oops, wait -- I see by the clock it's Sunday already). Somebody stop me!

:)

RP

Who has seen "The Pacific" on HBO? It's produced by the same producing team (Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg) that brought us the now-classic and beloved "Band of Brothers."

"The Pacific" is no "Band of Brothers." Yet.

I'm not saying that new series is creatively or entertainingly sub-par. It's actually very, very good. It's just that by this time (by the start of Episode 3) in "Band of Brothers," we had started to saddle up with affinity to characters like Winters, and Malarky, and Luz. Those guys were common kids thrown together to rise to an elite level (the parachute infantry) in order to go on a great crusade: leap into the darkest night over Nazi-occupied Europe to liberate the continent.

The Marines in the "Pacific" are different. Like the real theater of operations they served in, this was not so much a great crusade as it was a struggle for survival. Their crusade was to battle not only the enemy, but the jungle, and diseases like malaria and colera. It was a grittier, dirtier, sweatier war. The show reflects that, and for some reason, this makes our point of connecting with the characters very different than with those of "Band of Brothers."

The acting is first rate, and I think it's just going to take a while to warm up to these guys. We'll see what the next episodes bring, as at some point, these marines will comb the entire Pacific, landing in now-legenadry places like Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Those names are familiar to me because I had to study them during my own brief stint in the United States Marine Corps.

Yup. That's right. I joined in 1979, and that's a whole different topic for a whole different blog. Let's just say when it gets really hot in the sumer, I still instinctively regress back to the memories of what we used to call "black flag" days in Quantico, Va. My days at OCS (Officer Candidate School). There was such opressing heat on the shores of the Potomac, that the sweat became an actual WEIGHT on your body. Someday I'll tell you about my time at Charlie Five...

On a different topic, my NCAA bracket picks were money until last night, when Syracuse lost! That's one of my Fianl Four picks going down the tubes. Argh.

Semper Fi!

RP

Okay --

What does everybody think about Chris Evans being named the new Captain America?

Frankly, I thought he turned in the best work of all his fellow actors in the two "Fantastic Four" moves. Granted, that's not saying a lot as the first movie had moments and the second was just bad.

The interesting thing here is that down the road, as Marvel prepares to have all these movies feed into the big "Avengers" film, Chris Evans will have to play a lot off of Robert Downey, Jr, as Captain America and Ironman are very much intertwined in the canon of the Avengers. The plus side for me on this -- these actors seem to approach this material without taking themselves too seriously. There's a bit of lightness and toungue in cheek in some of their performances, becoming only intense when the moment in the story calls for it.

So, my first response is I sort of like this pick...

Thoughts?

Ok, so the name "rogue pilot" comes from many influences...

My fascination since early childhood with planes.

I watched "12 O'clock High" with my Dad when I was like 5 and was mesmerized by the tales of bomber pilots flying thru dangerous skies over Europe in World War II. It was a fascination that has weirdly stayed with me all my life. I once flew to England (in 1992) with a tour of bomber crew veterans just so I could be part of their memories and experience the places they used to fly to war from. Maybe somewhere inside my head I have this romantic notion that there is such a thing as reincarnation, and than in a previous life, I was a bomber pilot.

Hmmm...

Also, there was "Star Wars." The pilots who flew against those big elephant-like walkers in "The Empire Strikes Back" were part of "Rogue Squadron." This character, Wedge Antilles, who had flown against the Death Star in the first "Star Wars" movie, was back in this movie, and I always thought if I were a character in "Star Wars," I would be Wedge Antilles. To that end, my Gamertag on XBox Live is "Rogue Pilot 2," which was sort of Wedge's call sign ("Rogue Two").

So now you have the entomolgy of why I like to use the moniker, "rogue pilot."

I feel that this is not what a normal 52-year-old man with almost 30 years of a professional career behind him and two college degrees, ususally talks like. Star Wars, XBox Live gamertag handles, etc. I feel like I'm decades younger. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's a bad thing when I like to play maybe more than I should. ;)

Classic example: Today. The day started as I joined a Monday morning staff meeting at work with the senior executives of my company. We discussed strategy and important company goals. A short time after that, I was immersed in figuring out a budget puzzle that included reconciling costs for production that would be influenced not only by resources here in the United States, but also by international partners. Toward the end of the day, I went to the gym to keep my health-consciousness on-going. And yet, after that, I joined several twenty-somethings at my work conference room, after-hours, to play a spirited game of "Magic the Gathering." The card game.

That's sort of me. I play not only that game (and have sort of helped energize a group of players at work to play in these game tournaments on a bi-weekly basis), but also XBox, now PS3 after my recent purchase, Star Wars miniatures, D&D and the occasional Monopoly.

Now, that doesn't mean that I have interests exclusively in what the mainsteram would call "nerds-ville." Yes, I can relate to "The Big Bang Theory." But, I also am addicted to footbabll, mostly college. After all, if you g to a school like USC (University of Southern California), you can't help but pay attention to football! I also play sports when I get a chance. I follow baseball as well. I'm a Texas Rangers fan. Why? Don't know. I like them; they're not a team of giant, ego-driven superstars. Michael Young is the example of the baeball player I like.

Maybe now you are starting to get a quick snapshot of me.

Next time, I'll start talking about what I'm thinking about. What's curious to me. Comments on what's happening in the world. Health care. Volcanoes going off. "The Pacific" on HBO.

Women.

'till then...

RP

This may be more for me than for you, because maybe - really -- who cares what I think? Right? Isn't there a certain vanity to believing that what you post is something that will be of value to others? That you've been gifted with delivering sudden gems of enlightment? But then again, if we are learning anything from this information and now the social-networking age, is that shared experiences do help create a sense of community.

Given that small piece of justification, I'll embark on this journey to muse about things that matter to me, and hopefully in turn, may for various diffferent reasons also matter to you.

Why "rogue pilot?" A long story, which I will tell when it's not 1:40 AM and I have to be up in less than six hours for work. Coming up next, the actual first post. This is just a miniscule introduction; think of it as a "nano-blog." I will leave you with a few little teasers --

If you like --

Movies
Video games
Football
Baseball
Traveling overseas
The curiosity of politics
Star Wars
History
Television
Sex
Love
Money

Then stick around...