It is often said that the only constant in the universe is change. Resistance to change is futile and change is inevitable. What I've been trying to do for the last few years is to maintain a mental blueprint for my future. Some people keep a written list of goals to remind them of what they want to accomplish. I keep that list in my head because it isn't very long. I spent 20 years in the military and personal goals don't mix well with military orders. It has only been since I retired that I've been able to set my sights on anything concrete.

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While my wife was here on her Philippines vacation, she had cable TV installed in our house. She didn't just get an installation done; she had the installation done in three rooms: The living room, the master bedroom, and my son's bedroom.

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I've seen the first few episodes of the new SciFi channel series, "Flash Gordon". It's not the greatest thing since, er… um… whatever, but it's different and I like it. I just finished reading a whole bunch of reviews on IMDB. I really think they were written by 12-year olds with nothing better to do. Who else would spend that much time writing in-depth reviews of the pilot episode?

This is a complete rewrite using the same character names of the original from the 1930s and that's about it. Flash (Stephen) Gordon is an ordinary guy becoming something of an unsung hero. It's an interesting story and I hope it continues longer than one season. Who needs superheroes anyway?

"Flash Gordon" stars Eric Johnson, Gina Holden, Karen Cliche, Jonathan Walker and more. Here's the opening title sequence:

Although we'll be buying two TVs when my wife returns to the Philippines, I don't have even one in my house right now. I don't miss watching television, though there's a bit of history behind that.

As I was growing up in Coolidge, Arizona, there were almost always two televisions in the house; one in the living room and one in the den. Both were black and white TVs until my parents bought their first color one in 1972. After that, the color one resided in the living room. It didn't matter to me because I never had the chance to choose what I wanted to watch. I had eight siblings and the older ones controlled the sets.

For most of my adult years, I had a television blaring at me. First, while single and living in the single barracks wherever I was stationed and second, from the time I got married and onwards because the wife and children were TV addicts. I never really had much time to watch because I spent at least 80 percent of my waking hours involved in my career, the US Marine Corps.

In 1996, I was transferred to the base in Barstow, California, and I didn't take my family with me. We had a nice house in Phoenix that we didn't want to sell or rent out. My wife didn't want to give up her job either (Barstow jobs were scarce). I ended up commuting back and forth on odd weekends and 12 of those hours were spent driving to and from home. Television reception was horrible there. I didn't bother putting a TV in my room for that reason. We did have a community TV room with cable, but it was almost always tuned in to sports channels. I'm not into watching sports and I stopped watching TV completely for those two years.

After I retired in 1998 and lived at home again, I never felt the desire to sit and watch more than a couple of hours of TV with my family during the week. I had too much going on with work and other activities. Sure, I would glance at it every now and then because my boys were always watching TV when they weren't playing video games.

We haven't put a TV in our current house since moving in, in September of 2006. My wife, when she was here, always went over to her mother's house to watch TV in the evening. They watched the Tagalog dramas together and it's just not my cup of tea, even though I understand 90 percent of the language. I just don't get into soap operas, whether they're cleverly disguised as movies or not.

I do miss the cacophony coming from a TV in the same room as I. It makes the room sound "lived in". I don't miss the garbage that modern television has to offer.

Sliders started out as a great show on America's FOX network but after two or three seasons, it "jumped the shark" by introducing the stupid Kromag creatures. I recently received the DVDs for season one — I never saw the complete episodes from any of the seasons because I was in the military for the first three seasons and didn't have the SciFi channel when I got out. Yes, FOX gave it over to the SciFi channel for the last few of years of its existence.

I really couldn't see how the writers could completely screw up an original concept by introducing crap into the series, but they did it. Anyway, I hope to enjoy the first two or three seasons.

Sliders stars Jerry O'Connell, John Rhys-Davies, Sabrina Lloyd, Cleavant Derricks, Kari Wuhrer, Charlie O'Connell, and Robert Floyd. Here's the season two opening sequence:

This television series is something that I've been watching without fail. Since I left the US, the only way I've been able to keep up with it is by videos sent to me. It's a slow process, but still much faster that bittorrent. Thank God for Tivo. I don't mind watching the commercials. It's not like I can buy that stuff here in the Philippines anyway.

I have to say I'm impressed with the 6th season finale. After keeping us guessing all season, the writers finally put a lot of it together and showed us what the intentions behind some of the characters were. Now I have to wait months to see the beginning of the new season to find out how Clark defeats "Bizarro". Not once since I posted my initial article on Smallville did I enjoy an episode this much.

There are some people who channel surf through 250+ cable channels and complain that there's still nothing worth watching on television. I beg to differ. This is one series, if you bothered to follow it, that's definitely worth watching in my oh so humble personal opinion.

You want to know something else? I was hammered when I watched this last episode. Yes! I was completely snookered and so was my wife. She passed out during a major action sequence. I can't help it. She leaves on Sunday. We're going to have as much fun together as we can before then.

I hope others enjoyed this episode like I did. I hope "CW" keeps it going for as long as some other, quite inferior, shows have lasted.

It had to happen. It has to happen. It's the law of averages (whatever the heck that means). As I've gone through my short 46 years of life (short considering I plan to make it to 130), I've managed to meet or stumble into celebrities of all kinds — most of them I can't remember. These are the ones I remember:

While I was at the Kauai Surf Hotel (Hawaii) in the mid 70s, I literally bumped into Brian Keith. He's been dead a few years.

In the late 90s, I met Dan Akroyd, Marie Osmond and Tim Allen when I accompanied some Marines to the studios to be part of the studio audience. I remember them but I doubt they remember me. Dan Akroyd and Tim Allen were filming the pilot to "Soul Man", a TV show that didn't take off like "Home Improvement". I don't remember what Marie Osmond was doing.

Sometime in the last 10 years, I found out that a lady that used to come over to my house all the time in Phoenix was the aunt of Lou Diamond Philips. She used to tell us when she was headed to Oxnard, California. Apparently, that's where he lived. Anyway, he's played Mexicans and Native Americans and such in movies and on TV, but he's Filipino. In fact, he was born at the former Subic Bay Naval Station, not far from where I live now. She kept asking if I and the wife would like to go visit with her, but I was always too busy to take a trip. I'm not busy now but I don't think hobnobbing with the big dogs is worth the cost of a couple of plane tickets round-trip to the US. I have pictures of him, her and his mother somewhere around here (packed in a box I'm sure).

Back in August, I and my wife had pictures taken with Redford White, a Filipino actor, while we were at LAX. They came out really bad, or I'd post them here.

I have no doubt that I'll bump into more in the future. What have I learned? They're just like me. They get paid a hell of a lot more than me, but they're still just like me.