I'm sorry to hear about your voice Mark, but I'm so glad that you are putting your health first. Your videos for all the Tamora Pierce books helped me through a lot during the years I've been gone from here, and I'll treasure that a great deal.

I'm excited to come back here for Broken Earth because this time I too will be unprepared! I haven't really read ...anything in about 5 years, so it'll be nice to go through the experience with everyone.

I live in a blue district in a state that has some of the most restrictive gun control laws by national standards. I think state government is scheduled to further tighten restrictions and extend restrictions to guns purchased out-of-state that are brought in.

My main concern is that this level of student activism is not sustainable. All the NRA has to do is drag out the fight until these kids have more time-consuming concerns. We live in politically exhausting times.

Oh yes. Excellent. It fills in lots of gaps and hints at how Immortals ended up the way it did.

She's also does nice stuff with university life. I have LOTS of thoughts on that.

Overall, highly recommend, but why don't we have a release date for the next book so I have something to hold on to?

I have committed a key error. I have read Tamora Pierce's Tempests and Slaughter.

Why oh why didn't I wait until the second book is released (however long that may be)?

How the hell am I supposed to survive until then?

I think I view things rather differently. I don't think Nikita is against people who work for the government, ohg V guvax gur fubj vf n irel fgebat vaqvpgzrag ba gur rnfr jvgu juvpu tbireazrag vafgvghgvbaf pna or pb-bcgrq gb jbex ntnvafg gur choyvp.

Fb znal punenpgref jbexvat sbe gur tbireazrag ragre gur frevrf jnagvat gb qb tbbq, ohg gura raq hc qbvat onq guvatf va gur anzr bs tbireazrag (rvgure guebhtu pbrepvba be guebhtu gurve bja serr jvyy). Qvivfvba vgfrys rkcybvgf fbzr bs gur zbfg ihyarenoyr zrzoref bs gur choyvp: whiravyr bssraqref jub unir onggyrq nohfr naq rkcybvgngvba. Uvtu enaxvat tbireazrag bssvpvnyf va gur PVN naq Pbaterff gnpvgyl crezvg Qvivfvba'f rkvfgrapr rvgure gb fnir gurve bja fxvaf be gb ernc vgf cebsvgf. Tbireazrag vagehfvba va Avxvgn eneryl frrzf gb qb nalbar nal tbbq. Rira n Qvivfvba haqre Elna Syrgpure, n irel rguvpny vqrnyvfg, vf qbbzrq gb snvy sebz gur ortvaavat orpnhfr bs gur tbireazrag'f (nf ercerfragrq ol gur Cerfvqrag) jvyyvatarff gb guebj nyy bcrengvirf haqre gur ohf. Vs Avxvgn jrer n abiry, "Nofbyhgr cbjre pbeehcgf nofbyhgryl" jbhyq or vgf gurzr, naq Qvivfvba'f hfr bs znff fheirvyynapr ivn Funqbjarg vf n xrl pbzcbarag gb ubj gur betnavmngvba znvagnvaf vgf cbjre.

V zrna, gur frevrf raqf ba n unccl abgr jvgu gur xrl cynlref fnsr naq fbhaq jvgu gurve cneqbaf, ohg V guvax tvira jung n ehfu wbo gur svany frnfba jnf, jr'yy arire xabj vs gung'f ubj vg jnf ernyyl zrnag gb raq.

Stray thoughts:
Does anyone besides me feel like in Abrams-universe, Echelon is the precursor to The Machine and that Finch's surveillance feeds that he gets from the NSA could actually be Echelon?

The contrast between how government agencies and mass surveillance are viewed in Alias (produced at the start of the War on Terror) and for shows made during the post-Bush era political climate (ex. PoI and Nikita) is interesting to watch. Will, our anti-government surveillance stance, is basically shot down by Sydney who argues that the NSA is benign and the program is well-intentioned. By the time we get to 2010 with Nikita and PoI in 2011, government is shown as antagonistic to civilians and its use of surveillance in both shows is shown as inherently abusive.

SuitAndGlasses guy commits a bit of an O-Chem fail in his explanation of curing epoxy. Curing agents still require either time, heat (in excess of 150 C) or exposure to UV light to speed up epoxy's very slow curing time, which Marshall would know as the gadgets guy who doubtless uses epoxy in many of his creations. Of course, this is Alias land, so abuse of basic science abounds as soon as Rambaldi and mysterious science labs enter the picture.

I liked the introduction of Will to the CIA. It's nice for Sydney to have a non-work-related friend that she can talk to about her job. Will gets to be the straight man and point out the absurdity of so much of her work and both of the organizations she works for are. I also enjoy Will as being the "friend-zoned" friend who is not only not a douche about it but supportive of Sydney both in terms of helping her deal with the strain her job puts on Sydney's relationship with Francie and in terms of setting Vaughn straight. It's nice to know that this kind of friendship existed on TV even as far back as 2002.

There was a line in the opening of Echelon where Sydney talks about how Echelon can comprehend "any common language on Earth", and, for some reason, all I could think of was the Navajo, Hopi, Comanche and Meskwaki Code Talkers during WWII whose language skills the US exploited in both theaters because 1) There were so few speakers 2) Their language was impossible for Japanese and German analysts to decipher. Tangential, but interesting.

Finally, I love Ariana Kane here because it's nice to see a credible threat to Sydney and Jack's covers at SD-6. By the end of season 1, it was getting kind of hard to buy that the security section at SD-6 could be so dense.

Even in death, no one cares about Haladki.

This is a great point. I know we've had a lot of Nikita/ Alias comparisons, but this is one way in which I consider Nikita to be superior to Alias.

(General Nikita series spoilers)
V svaq Avxvgn gb or n zber pbzcryyvat punenpgre guna Flqarl va cneg orpnhfr juvyr Flqarl senzrf ure npgvbaf ntnvafg FQ-6 nf n eriratr dhrfg, Avxvgn'f qrfgehpgvba bs Qvivfvba vf rdhny cnegf eriratr naq erqrzcgvba. Fur ercrngrqyl fgehttyrf qhevat gur frevrf orgjrra ngbavat sbe ure cnfg fvaf nf n Qvivfvba ntrag, jnagvat gb unez Qvivfvba nf zhpu nf fur pna JUVYR orvat njner bs gur ercrephffvbaf bs ure npgvbaf ntnvafg cerfrag zrzoref bs Qvivfvba. Jung V guvax urvtugraf Avxvgn'f urebvfz vf gung Avxvgn jnf arire n jvyyvat cnegvpvcnag va Qvivfvba, ohg fur pubbfrf gb gel gb ngbar sbe ure npgvbaf naljnl.

On that note, even though I think Mark has already seen 3 episodes of Nikita, I'd love to see him do the whole series, especially since he'll have Alias to compare it against.

I'm glad that the first episode is as "edgy" as it gets. However, in my opinion, it's just such a poor way to frame the start of the series. The established introduction of Chise as a teenager willingly giving up her autonomy to a much older adult colored the rest of my viewing in a very unfortunate way.