The creator of Veronica Mars was sitting down with his beloved, lamented series' star, Kristen Bell, to discuss bringing the cult hit to the big screen. "Kristen and I ran into each other, and we did discuss a Veronica movie," confirms Thomas, who says he has also had "a few conversations" with Mars executive producer Joel Silver.

Whedon was able to accomplish a rare feat by completing the movie version of his short-lived show Firefly. Serenity may not have produced Harry Potter-like numbers, but it was successful. Veronica Mars has a similar cult fan base which continues to place fan videos on YouTube at an alarming rate years after it has been canceled. If Thomas does manage to get everyone on board and release this film, it would be the most anticipated film release for me in a decade.

After our false start, Buster did get to the vet today and was given a bath and a pedicure. We also made the acquaintance of a feisty, small dog named Lewis.

Summer is sorta over. The original plan was not to spend the entire summer in Kansas, only a few weeks. This plan was quickly voided after being told the wait for a new Prius is 3-5 months.

Adjusting to small town life again was not easy, especially when I didn't have a car. There are some perks. Non-perishable goods generally cost less. A 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke is over a dollar cheaper. Gas never exceeded the $4 dollar mark here. However, the humidity in Kansas and the onslaught of mosquitoes has not been a pleasurable experience. Fresh produce of the "exotic" variety is scare or overpriced. (I miss avocados.)

It was not a lazy summer. We did manage to finish refurbishing the kitchen at my folks' house, and I finally managed to clean up my corner of the basement this summer. Now, I'm getting ready to load up Daisy and head back to Jackson, Wyoming, next month. I'm already excited about the upcoming winter of snowboarding in the Tetons, and I'll be there early enough to get in some hiking before it starts to snow in October.

Upcoming will be a post on the new Uh Huh Her release. Study up. There will be a test.

After nearly five years of not having a car, I purchased a Toyota Prius which I've christened Daisy. Typically, I'm not big on naming inanimate objects, but I found myself typing Daily when adding my car to the garage on Fuelly. However, I can't help but say "Daisy. Daisy Adair." every time I greet my car.

The car comes with big responsibility, but with any toy, it's an opportunity to purchase new gadgets. The Prius includes an Aux jack which works with my eighteenth-century iPod. To get the car to charge the iPod battery, however, I had to purchase an extra jack. The Kensington LiquidAUX is working out great, and the sound is good.

Fuelly is an online application which was released earlier this month and already has some buzz. Helping Fuelly along is the user friendly interface that is simple and intuitive.

Fuelly calculates your miles per gallon after each fuel up, and you can compare your driving statistics to others with the same car type and the EPA Estimates. Almost makes me wish I had to fuel up more in order to get stats. Now, I can track mileage on trips, see quickly how much I've spent on gas, and anyone can follow Daisy's stats on Fuelly here.

Things are happening...
stay tuned

It has been two years since their last release, so I'm not sure what that means.

I've started listening to ILYBICD again. Or maybe for the first time. While I always liked Fear Is On Our Side, I listened to it once maybe twice, and it quickly got lost in the shuffle of my digital library. That's the good and bad of having a lot of music in various formats. I may forget about a band or an album, but I also get the fulfillment of rediscovering the sound all over again.

Finding the right album at the right time while performing some mundane task is really important for me since I work from the nearest wi-fi spot and not an office. The music helps to drown out my surroundings, draw in my focus. Music also has a way of making me feel less alone. The right music can keep the motivation going. I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness' moody tones sprinkled with '80s keyboards have been perfect sounds to fill the void lately. The long instrumental sessions hinting of Explosions in the Sky without becoming repetitive. ILYBICD is definitely not a replacement for Explosions in the Sky in my library, but Fear Is On Our Side lies somewhere between The Killers and Explosions in the Sky and was created by kids who listened to the same cds and tapes I did in the 80s.

Whatever is happening in Austin with I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, I'm looking forward to a second album.

Now, ABC Family has a slate of original shows that are a sound alternative to the lazy programming on the major networks. Previously, I wrote about Kyle XY which also airs on ABC Family. The writing is witty (fitting in well with Gilmore Girls reruns). The cute casts are mostly unknowns who hold their own among the older recognizable face or two filling the "adult" roles. The original made for tv movies are less than stellar, but I recognize that I'm not the target audience. (Cutting Edge 2 and Cutting Edge 3? Way to tarnish one of my favorite movies.)

The show I most looked forward to watching this spring was Greek. The premise of the show is a coming of age comedy set within the confines of three Greek houses at a small state school. I was reluctant to watch at first. Irresponsible frat boys? Keg parties? Ridiculous pass the candle rituals? None of this sounded like something for me. (I had roommates in college who were in sororities. That was as close as I wanted to be to the Greek system.)

Flying to somewhere (Kansas City?) I sat beside a girl who's laptop was playing the pilot episode. I couldn't hear a thing, but I was intrigued from the moment Spitter got his nickname. It only took one episode to get me hooked.

The setting may be the Greek system at CRU, but the story of the two siblings becoming reacquainted as adults is the source of much humour and the most heartfelt moments. Rusty is coming of age and figuring out who he wants to be. His older sister, Casey, is the "it" sorority girl, to Rusty's engineering major. (The running joke through the pilot is that Casey never told anyone she had a brother.)

Two love triangles fight for the affections of both Casey and Rusty. Rusty trying to decide between the party fraternity Kappa Tau led by the charming Cappie, or the polo shirts of Omega Chi. Omega Chi's Evan and Cappie just happen to be the current and former loves of Casey respectively, and both boys want to be a part of her life.

One of the minor plots revolves around Calvin, who is gay, and his acceptance as a member of Omega Chi. Deputy Leo plays Calvin's love interest, and it's nice to see Max Greenfield again. The spoiled daughter of a Senator, Rebecca, is Casey's nemesis who fights for the attention of everyone in Casey's circle. Rusty clashes with his roommate, Dale, who fronts a Christian rock band and starts a group (USAG) whose sole purpose is to eliminate the Greek system. Dale is the source of many laughs in every episode he's in.

There are two episodes left this season, but you can catch up at abcfamily.com.

The Chromewaves post on Kate Nash today spurned a recollection of my recent interest in her record Made of Bricks.

While in Paris and visiting the infamous haunt of Hemingway, Shakespeare & Co., the young girl behind the counter was trying to drown out the live pianist in the back with a track on the computer which instantly caught my ear. (I'm a sucker for a girl playing the piano.) After spending a few minutes looking at books I couldn't carry, I coughed up the nerve to ask the cashier who she was listening to. "Kate Nash" was the reply in an English accent.

I was a little surprised to learn it was Kate Nash. While I had heard of her, I had never been compelled to download the album. After downloading Made of Bricks, though, I wasn't necessarily jumping up and down at my new find, but as I had in the book store, I was enjoying some of the tracks. The piano melodies are good, but the lyrics result in an eye-roll or two when it feels like Nash is trying to hard.

If you too have yet to discover Kate Nash, give the tracks Frank uploaded at Chromewaves a listen and state your own opinion.

In preparation for our trip to New York City, I've been reading the New Yorker. Today, I finished an excellent article about the MPs who found their morality tested unexpectedly at Abu Ghraib. Exposure by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris focuses on Sabrina Harman and her photos and letters detailing the treatment of prisoners. The article was written from interviews done for Morris' documentary, "Standard Operating Procedure".

One of the most interesting aspects of the article were the real stories from the MPs behind some of the pictures we have associated with Abu Ghraib. While the stories don't make the images any less shocking, it was easier to sympathize with the captors who were ordered to degrade the prisoners.

Posted at 9PM Central time.

Fortunately, The Reason have maintained their friendship with a Canadian band that is on the rise, Tegan & Sara. Sara Quin lends her songwriting talent to a single track on The Reason's 2007 release Things Couldn't Be Better.

Unfortunately, the song featuring Sara is the only standout track on the album.

Listen to "We're So Beyond This" here, and you can check out the other tracks from the album on The Reason's website and MySpace page.

The area has been blanketed in a thick fog for a couple of weeks but this is typical weather here at 8:30 in the morning. No other ships in recent history have rammed into the bridge and investigations into the incident are ongoing. The Coast Guard is blaming the ship's pilot; the pilot is saying that the Guard gave him the okay. We'll probably be hearing about the case for months while it will take volunteers even longer to clean up the area.

The oil spill has already impacted the Bay Area. A triathlon on Treasure Island today became a biathlon as the swimming portion was canceled. The start of the crab season has been delayed and sport fishing has been closed.

Volunteers can call the Fish Game volunteer line at 800 228-4544 for information on opportunities to help today.

During my sojourn home, I read an interesting article in the New Yorker on Paul Watson who is the man behind the Sea Shepherd Conversation Society.

Raffi Khatchadourian paints Watson as a controversial environmentalist whose extreme tactics are not supported by other major environmental agencies. (Watson was kicked out of Greenpeace.) He and his crew of mostly unpaid volunteers seek out fishing ships in the world's oceans and impair the ships to prevent them from continuing to hunt and fish. This tactic also puts his crews in danger. In seeking out a Japanese whaling fleet, Watson's ailing ship the Farley Mowat set out "to end its days at sea as a battering ram in the service of marine life."

Depending on the interpretation of laws applied to the oceans, specifically the U.N. World Charter for Nature, Watson's activities are illegal.

No country regards ramming, disabling, or scuttling ships to be legal activities, and, except on rare occasions, even naval ships cannot lawfully interfere with foreign vessels on the high seas.

This has caused Watson's ships to be stripped of their flags by countries who did not support his actions. When the Farley lost its flag in Australia, Watson ran a Sea Shepard flag up the line and told his crew that they were "on a pirate ship."

While Watson is fighting the good fight and his concerns about illegal fishing of endangered oceanic animals is admiral, the actions he takes are questionable. Read Khatchadourian's full article online at newyorker.com.