The Dresden Files, etc

OK Let me make this Crystal Clear: The BOOKS written by Jim Butcher totally Kick ass. They're fun well put together,etc. They are a pleasure and a privilege to read, take it from a guy
who's read a LOT of Sci-fi/fantasy over the years......
That being said, I'm really not happy with a number of things from the TV series.
Granted, this is partly because I'm such a huge fan of the books and I suppose my expectation levels are rather high, but COME ON PEOPLE! Some things about it totally Cheese me off...
-Someone breaks into his home/office. Every Week....EVERY FRIGGEN WEEK!?
-They show you the nifty shield bracelet. They spend time talking about it, give it some background,etc in the first episode. You never see/hear of it again?
-He's ALWAYS getting his ass kicked. Always.
-Episodic stuff. HELLO haven't we learned yet that although episodic is 'easy' a lot of viewers are looking for story arcs?
I won't go into the ways the stories have gone away from the novels,etc it would take me forever and it would be unfair to the TV series. A TV/Movie script gets one page per minute of air time so figure they've got maybe 46 pages to do everything...Yes I know it goes back to the whole 'story arc' thing...
Ah well.
In other news, If you'd like to tell Jim what a wonderful author he is (And yeah he kinda kicks ass in the authoring stuff) and see tons of other authors and do sci-fi stuff and role play and watch movies and anime and meet me for lunch, I will be at I-con again this year(www.iconsf.org) on the weekend of 3/23. I can't wait. Not only does Icon Rock, but there's also a lovely steak house up there that I'm planning on enjoying at least once :). After Icon I will be driving to Florida to have my first real vacation in quite awhile. If any of you are along the way or in Fla, please let me know I'd love to meetya for lunch or something. I will be taking my time driving up and back (I've got 2 weeks...) so if any of you have any suggestions or ideas for side trips I'm interested in hearing them.

Something to Think about.....

OK.
They say.... If it weren't a bit challenging it wouldn't be worth doing. Right?

So

If life is easy (and lets face it folks, compared to life 200 years or even 100 years ago life is a friggen walk in the park....) Is life becoming less valued? It seems to me that these days more and more people are acting to intentionally shorten their lives. I don't necessarily mean by shooting themselves in the head, but more by living lifestyles we KNOW are bad for us, yet we continue to do them. I am a fine example of this, as was my friend Jeff who died last night...
Jeff made ME look small....
A Lot of us eat and drink to horrid excess, smoke,etc knowing just KNOWING the consequences yet we still do it......
Did this sort of thing happen 200 years ago?
....Well I"m sure it DID...but not in the vast numbers like folks do today, so I ask: Since life is far easier now then it ever was, Do we care about it less?

Sometimes I think too much.......

Niters.