It's What's Next

That Sound You Hear? » World On Fire by Sarah McLachlan & Robbie Robertson (Promotional Theme for TNT's "Into The West")
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Big News » Missouri cops are looking into the possibility that they may have carried out the death penalty on an innocent dude. Ten years ago. Gee, seems a little late now.

Now, today's story...

As long as everything goes as planned tomorrow, there's no good reason why the first space shuttle liftoff in almost two-and-a-half years shouldn't take place tomorrow around 4 P.M.

This is good news because for a while it has seemed like the universe has been mocking me. Not literally, of course. But consider that not mere months after my team, my Tampa Bay Lightning, actually won the Stanley Cup, hockey went into extended hiatus.

"We'll be back, but we don't know quite when. And, yes, we know we don't have a whole lot of fans south of the border of the Great White North, but go ahead and hang in there anyway, guys."

By the way, still no word on the return of the hockey season.

Then there's Alias. Finally a good television show comes along in 2001, right? Only, no, wait. After two years, it starts circling the drain. Two good years followed by two bad years (I'd say so-so if I weren't exaggerating) followed by the final year. That's right. According to anonymous sources inside ABC and, well, common sense, 2006 will spell the end of Alias.

I guess the point of my whining about all of that there you just read has to deal with the space program in the United States — NASA to be more specific.

There was a time, back when I was about three feet tall, when I wanted to become an astronaut. I'd seen the video on the news of those guys floating around in their tin can. And pictures of Earth from about a million miles away.

I'm not even ashamed to say that (during my LEGO phase) I had a kit with which I could actually built a space shuttle. (I still have the LEGO man with the astronaut helmet.)

Anyhow, suffice to say that when I learned what goes into becoming an astronaut, the fascination dissolved pretty quickly. It's not that I'm lazy (which I am), but that I found things that were of more interest to me.

That said, I still read up on every space shuttle mission because it's such an unusual thing. Leaving the planet. Come on. I love those movies too. Apollo 13. Red Planet. Mission To Mars was my favorite because of the storyline.

I've always figured that one day, if I ever get to be a big television producer, I'll write a show about astronauts and aliens. Aliens who actually created humans and put them on Earth. Would you watch that?

I got excited a few years ago when ABC announced a show called Astronauts during pilot season. It never made it past the pilot though. However, since they did film the two-hour show there's still a chance ABC might one day air it as a movie. Problem is, in the past few years, Americans haven't been to crazy about space travel.

Okay, so now I'll tie all of the aforementioned nonsense together by saying how glad I am to see we're finally going back into space. It's part of human evolution. We've conquered the planet. Now it's time to move on to what's next.

Keep Rolling: You know my new web site, Roll Credits, has only been up a few days, but I'm shocked to discover that I have had no visitors. (And by "shocked," I of course mean not surprised even a little bit.) What's with you people? Just go look at it. It won't waste that much of your time. I swear. Okay, do what you want. Clearly, you're going to anyway.

P.S.: Comment here to let me know what you think of it. Okay?