Friday, March 27, 2009

Filler Post

I haven't been so great with the posting, but things should get started up again next week when I'll hopefully have some fun things to share about TLA (I got two stipends to attend! Yay!). After that, it'll just be another month until school is over and I'm free to spend more time on the internets. Another yay! Meanwhile, here's a filler post of flowers that Pat got for me a couple of weeks ago.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Save the Date

Well, Emily Post is probably rolling over in her grave right now...but, yes, I'm going to use this blog post as a save-the-date of sorts. Pat and I opted not to do save-the-dates because I felt lazy and broke and figured everyone knew the date. What I didn't really think about was how save-the-dates also give people the 411 on travel and lodging, which tons of people have been asking me about. D'oh!

So, anyway, here's the scoop.

First, our wedding Web site, which has the venue addresses and ceremony and reception times.

Travel by Plane/Renting a Car

You can fly into Portland, ME, Manchester, NH (1.75 hrs), or Boston, MA (2 hrs). (Technically, you could also fly into Bangor, ME, but you probably won't want to.) Obviously, flying into Portland will get you closest to the wedding, but it is also probably the priciest option. You'll probably want to rent a car (and carpool), regardless, because the ceremony is in a small town that's about a 20-30 minute drive from Portland. If you opt not to rent a car, just let me know and we'll make sure you get where you need to be! I can definitely help coordinate carpooling.

Hotels

First, a helpful link: our Wedding Mapper. This map shows hotels, attractions, and restaurants in the area (and the airport), as well as the ceremony and reception locations. We only included the five hotels closest to the reception venue in the map: the Regency, Eastland Park, Portland Harbor, Hilton, and Holiday Inn. All are in walking distance of the reception venue (though in fancy shoes, it might be a trek), so here are some details about each:

Regency: Pretty pricey, but it is literally across the street from the reception venue. Across the very narrow, cobblestone street. It's also where Pat and I will be staying. We have rooms blocked there until April 13, so get 'em while they're hot.

Hilton: We also have rooms blocked there, mostly due to proximity, but it's kind of pricey.

Holiday Inn: Actually really nice and definitely the most affordable! I've stayed there before and I endorse it. They wouldn't let us block rooms, but I recommend them anyway.

Portland Harbor Hotel: I was at an event for work there once. Definitely very nice. Probably expensive.

Parking

Parking on the street in the Old Port, as in all cities, is a challenge. You'll probably want to go to the ceremony, park your car at your hotel, and then walk or get a cab to the reception. Or, if you choose to stay further out of town, here's a list of parking garages. I've also included 8 of the closest lots/garages on the map. Basically, though, if you just circle around the venue there are multiple garages within a couple of blocks. The closest is the garage at the Regency, which you can park at even if you aren't staying there.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

First Dance Lesson Tonight!

ETA: I originally wrote and attempted to post this entry this morning but that clearly didn't work out, so now I have to add that we've had our first dance lesson! It was wicked fun! Our first dance is going to be a foxtrot. :)

I'll blog more generally about what I've been up to these days later, but for now I'm going to do an entirely wedding-centric post. A few things have happened in the last couple of weeks that have sent me into wedding overdrive and I'm just getting really excited. Still, I'm going to try to contain as much of my wedding gushing to this blog as possible so that I don't drive everyone nuts.

The things that have sent me into this wedding-obsessed state are: hitting the three-months-'til-wedding mark on March 13; being a bridesmaid in my friends Ian and Michelle's wedding (it was beautiful and I had so much fun!); and...picking up my wedding dress! I did that on March 8 and here's what Pat and I have been up to in terms of wedding planning since then:
  • I selected and have started acquiring bridesmaid gifts. Details, of course, will have to remain a secret here.
  • My tiara arrived in the mail--it's even prettier in person!
  • I bought my foundation garments. A huge shout-out here to Kate, who was extremely patient during this process, and the Nordstrom's salesperson, who was super helpful.
  • Pat and I signed up for dance lessons--our first one is tonight! We also just decided on our first dance song in the last month or so.
  • Pat sent my engagement ring to the jeweler to be recoated. White gold is really an alloy of yellow gold and some other metals so it tends to yellow over time and has to occasionally be recoated. I really miss having it so I hope they send it back soon.
  • We've also done some really unexciting things like following up with our baker (who has not returned my e-mail, much to my frustration); booking a hotel in Boston for the night after our wedding night; and making some decisions about favors and programs. Thrilling, I know, but it's just amazing to me that even when it's a boring or mundane little thing, we're now at the point where we are doing something wedding-related nearly everyday.
At this point, now that I've got my dress, tiara, and foundation garments, I've pretty much got everything for my "look:" dress, underthings, shoes, jewelry, tiara. I do still need to sort out the whole "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" thing, but I'll get there. I also need to decide what I'm going to do with my hair and makeup.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Psych Season Finale

I do not even know what to do with myself with that ending. What?

Also, the Lassiter Psych-Outs are always so funny I nearly wet myself.

And finally, I do not like the serious Psych episodes so much.

Friday, February 27, 2009

I can't wait to hear Melissa Marr speak at TLA.

Wicked Lovely Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

rating: 5 of 5 stars

While I have read several good books recently, this was the first page-turner I've read in a while. Every time I had to stop reading Wicked Lovely and return to the real world, I was frustrated by the interruption.

Whenever I like a book this much, I kind of just have a visceral reaction to it and it's hard for me to put my finger on what it was that I liked in order to write about it.

First of all, and somewhat surprisingly to me, I really enjoyed the setting. I had always been a little hesitant about urban fantasy, but there's something kind of great about reading about magic happening in a world you can actually relate to, not some distant world of princesses and knights and corsets and bows and arrows. It just makes the world seem like a place of possibilities.

I also enjoyed the characters, especially, I admit, the sexy, tattoed and pierced love interest. Marr takes a very pragmatic approach in describing relationships and sexuality, which I enjoy. The realism, set against the fantastical elements in the story, contributes even further to the whole "world of possibilities" effect. Marr's basically saying, "yep, this is the same world you live in, where people get tattoos, have sex, sometimes with people they don't care about, go to clubs, maybe drink or do more, etc. And it's magical."

I most enjoyed that there were a couple of times that this book could really have been trite, but instead Marr took the road less traveled. There could have been a love triangle complete with lots o' drama, but there wasn't. Seth could have doubted Ash's ability to see fairies, leading to a major falling out between them and a redemptive story arc in which his failure to believe her leads to near tragedy averted just in the nick of time when he finds evidence and swoops in to save her. But, he didn't. He believed her and they moved on with the plot.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Monday, February 16, 2009

China Beach

I can never get enough of pop culture countdowns, but this one was pretty mundane: best tv shows of the '90s, Seinfeld, Friends, yada yada yada. Then, it surprised me by including China Beach, a show I thought nobody but me even remembered! I loved that show and am really looking forward to the day it comes out on DVD.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

American Wife: A Novel American Wife: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld


My review


rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book was a really interesting read. It was a challenge, knowing that the book is Sittenfeld's imagining of the life of Laura Bush, to separate fact from fiction. I had to remind myself often that the words were Sittenfeld's, the thoughts were Alice and Charlie's, and that neither the words nor the thoughts were Laura's or George's. This was especially challenging in light of the fact that so much of it was clearly thinly-veiled fact. Charlie buys the Milwaukee Brewers, George bought the Texas Rangers; Charlie went to Princeton, George went to Yale; Charlie has a drug and alcohol problem, George had a drug and alcohol problem.

American Wife has two ingredients I really enjoy in a novel: exploration of familial relationships and long-term storytelling. I love when a novel follows a character throughout his or her lifetime (or even one that follows several generations of a family). I enjoy watching the character grow and seeing how all of the episodes of a person's life shape them and effect each successive episode. I liked that when Alice mentions she has her Giving Tree sculpture on her desk in the White House I felt invested in that, as a reader, because I'd also read about how Alice had made that sculpture.

This novel also grapples with the idea of identity and celebrity, which is fascinating to me. I really liked when Alice was describing her celebrity and how occasionally people would say to her, "wow, it must be weird to be famous," not realizing that just by making that statement, they too are contributing to the weirdness.

The greatest strength of this novel, however, is in its portrayal of Alice Blackwell as neither sympathetic nor hateful. She just is. Sometimes you sympathize with her and think "losing a loved one is so awful; having the public act as if they know you must again be awful," other times you think "ugh, how can she stay married to him?? What is wrong with her?" But you never fully swing one way or the other, you just accept that Alice has made her decisions for better or for worse and that she feels the same way about them. She's not asking for your sympathy or your condemnation when she shares the details of her life; she's just sharing.


View all my reviews.

Siftables

We interrupt our regularly-scheduled pop culture programming to bring you this video. I don't know when I became so drooly over technology, but I'm really getting into it and I find this idea extremely exciting.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

He's Just Not That Into You

Saw it yesterday at Alamo. Sorry, haters, it was awe-some. Sometimes, I really wished I was wearing my awkward pants, but it made me laugh, it made me tear up, and it had lots of people in it that I rather enjoy: Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly ("Sarah friend?"), Mac ("Hello, I'm a Mac."), and Ben Affleck. Mac and I were on the outs there for a little while after he downgraded from Drew Barrymore to Kirsten Dunst, but we are so back on after this. He was hot. He and Jennifer Aniston/Ben Affleck had the best storylines, although Drew's was really cute at the end. I kind of wish Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck would get together in real life, now. I digress. Yes, it's a schmaltzy rom-com. No, I don't care. I really really enjoyed it and I highly recommend it. The Ben/Jen ending alone totally did it for me, but the rest is well worth it, too.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Scrubs is funny again! and other TV musings

I'd been kind of unsure about Scrubs since it's premiere on ABC a few weeks ago, but with this week's episodes, I think I can safely say, "it's back!" I actually lol'd twice, both thanks to Kelso. I'm so glad they've kept him on the show even though he retired from the hospital. Scrubs has also earned points with me by reuniting JD and Elliot and by paying homage to Boston Legal the other night with a scene between Perry and Bob. Now, I stopped watching Boston Legal a long time ago, but even after I stopped enjoying the rest of the show I still enjoyed the relationship between Spader and Shatner. That's so much scenery-chewing in one place you'd think only bad things could come from it. Instead, Brilliant! (Imagine the Guinness mascots saying that, folks.) They've also been using Jordan and they gave Ted a cute storyline in which he got to sing a capella (love it) and get it on with a ukulele player. Thank you, Scrubs. I was nervous for a while there.

I'm making my way through the first season of Buffy. I don't have much to say about it analytically, yet (don't worry, if you're just dying to see me wax philosophical about tv, I'm about to write about the third season of BSG), but I am really enjoying it. I knew I would like this show if I could just get over the mental block that "I'm not really into vampire, monster, demon-y stuff." It didn't help that everyone kept telling me the first season wasn't that great! Having the ladies over to watch a few introductory episodes from other seasons was definitely the way to go. I'm enjoying the first season, but I do agree that it's not as good as the episodes I've seen from later seasons. I have to say, even the episode named for him didn't bring me over to the Angel side. I'm also sticking to my guns about the attractiveness of Giles. And seriously, how much do I love Alyson Hannigan? I'm looking forward to watching the show, the characters, the relationships, and the mythology evolve. Thinking about Buffy and thinking ahead to how I want to blog about BSG has me thinking about Joss and Helo and holy cow I can't wait for Dollhouse this weekend. Although, I am no-longer-secretly-as-of-this-moment a little worried I'll be disappointed. I always worry when there's a lot of build-up, y'know?

Whoa, we interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post to discuss the recently-announced cast of Dancing with the Stars. They've only announced 2/3 of the cast so far, but so far L'il Kim, Steve-O, and Denise Richards are all in the lineup. Is it even safe to have that much crazy in one place? And, on the subject of Denise Richards, I have to point out how creative the producers are in declaring each star's claim to fame when what they are really famous for can't be said in the intros. For example, Heather Mills was announced as a philanthropist and formal model...um, right, she's famous for being married to a Beatle, people. And Denise Richards? Former Bond Girl. Oo-Kay.

I guess more on BSG later; it's getting time for me to get to bed!

Help me friends, you're my only hope!

Does anyone know how to do the Blogger version of an LJ cut who can tell me in a way I understand? Because I definitely do not understand the Blogger help page. I used to have several posts cut with the "read more" link and when I went back to see how they'd been done (Pat did them, that's why I didn't already know how they'd been done; he did them because, as I said, I definitely do not understand the Blogger help page.), I saw that those posts were all now expanded with a useless "read more" link at the bottom. Ugh. Help me! Please!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

BSG Season 2 Finale

Another day, another bulleted Battlestar Galactica list. Spoilers for the season 2 finale ahead!
  • I'll just get this one out of the way now: Anders is my boyfriend.
  • Al!
  • Al is a cylon?! No, say it ain't so!
  • Wait, so how many cylons do we know so far? Six, Sharon, Short Guy, Vest Guy, Dr-from-the-Farm Guy, Xena, Al...I think that's it? 5 to go!
  • I hate Sharon 2.
  • I actually got a little choked up when Raptor 612 jumped into the mountain.
  • I also got choked up when Cally forgave Tyrol, although I didn't love his storyline overall. It was clearly just meant to open the door for the Al-as-cylon reveal.
  • Sorry, Roslin, but in the case of democracy, the end does not justify the means for me.
  • Oh wow, POW Six knew what she was doing when she set off that nuke. I just thought she was suicidal...
  • After I just expressed so much sympathy for Sharon 1, she appears to have gone completely bad. Of course, things are not always what they seem, but a cylon-occupied New Caprica certainly seems bad.
  • Does anyone else watch Eureka? Jo as Maya is just a little weird for me (not distractingly weird as in the case of Xander "Could I be any more Chandler Bing?" Harris); Jo's not exactly the maternal teacher-y type.
Overall, I loved it, of course, but I'm still undecided as to how I feel about the time warp (oh, man, yesterday "motley crew," today "time warp;" I honestly cannot help the cheese). On the one hand, it was a great plot advancement. The "I told you so" of how hard the living is on New Caprica, of Gaius' seemingly hedonistic lifestyle (seemingly, because one assumes he isn't actually feeling that much pleasure having lost POW Six, sentenced them all to life on this horrid planet, and basically just sucking at leading the people), of the return of the cylons, was really poignant. But, it was difficult to adjust to other things, the relationships in particular: Cally is pregnant? Starbuck and Anders are married (sweet! But, I wish I knew more!)? Lee and Dee appear to be married (she was playing with a wedding band, he wasn't wearing one)? Lee and Starbuck aren't speaking? Haven't spoken in a year? Tell me more!

Ooh, I'm excited for season 3!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan

Runaways, Vol. 1 (Hardcover) Runaways, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan


My review


rating: 5 of 5 stars
I always knew I'd like comic books (I really enjoy serialized entertainment; it's why I prefer TV to movies: the long story arcs, the fully developed characters, etc), but I have been hesitant to try them because comic book communities seem so daunting and insular. X-Men has always been a comic series that intrigued me, but at this point there are like six million issues. How do I know where to start? But, with this comic book being so recent and so handily packaged in bound volumes and being available to me without necessitating a visit to a comic book store (also daunting and insular) and so well-loved by and then written by Joss Whedon, I had to try it. And I loved it.

Runaways is the story of six kids who find out that their parents are super-villains (although, as is always the case with truly interesting villains, you might decide they aren't so evil after all; my opinion? Oh, yeah, they're definitely villains.). After witnessing their parents committing a pretty heinous act, Alex, Nico, Gertrude, Molly, Chase, and Karolina decide to run away from their parents and then take them down. Along the way, they discover various super powers of their own and action, adventure, comedy, and romance ensue.

Runaways, however, is more than a superhero story and it's more than a good versus evil story. It's a story about being a teenager, about family, about loyalty, about friendship. It just happens to be set against a fantastical backdrop. Karolina, for example, on discovering a secret about her own identity has a very normal reaction: let's not tell anyone I'm a freak, okay? Molly, the youngest of the group, struggles with the idea that the people who love and care for her can at the same time be hateful and uncaring toward so many others. And her parents do sincerely love her. All of the parents love their children and like all parents they are just "trying to do what's best for them." Only the Pride (as the evildoing parents call themselves) aren't trying to get their kids to eat their vegetables. And this motley crew of teens (oh, come on, motley crew? I couldn't resist it!) has to defy authority in a way most teens don't even have to contemplate. This isn't staying out after curfew; this is ruining or maybe even ending your own parents' lives.

As you will probably see time and time again in my reviews, I'm a sucker for a good examination of parent-child relationships and this is a good one.


View all my reviews.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The Evolution of Language

I've always been interested by uses of words, like Band-Aid, Kleenex, and Xerox, where the brand name has come to represent the thing, regardless of the actual brand being used. If this kind of thing interests you, then it's especially fascinating to live in our times, where Googling not only exists, but the world "Googling" also exists. So, imagine my delight in coming across this Web site on the wiki for my social software class. When I was born, blogs didn't exist (nor did wikis or online grad school programs, either) and now, here we are 27 years later with an entire language used to discuss them. Crazy.

Welcome to the 21st Century (or 2.0th Century)

I've finally signed up for Delicious and Goodreads. I've added a Delicious linkroll and a Goodreads shelf to my blog, so that's fun. I'm still exploring the functionalities of both, but in the meantime, what's 2.0 technology without networking? So, you can find me on Delicious at becca130. Goodreads is a little trickier since they didn't give me the option of choosing an account name and you can't search for me by name without getting a thousand hits, so just let me know in the comments if you use it and I'll friend you!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Poor Showing

As in, I've made a poor showing when it comes to reading this month. It's the 29th of January (best day e-ver) and I've read a whopping two books. Yep, just two. I'm well into two others and I've read nearly the equivalent of a full book for school, but still...I've only finished two books. (ETA: It's now actually February 1st an I did manage to finish a third book last month. w00t.)

I pretty much agreed with a bunch of friends who read Hero by Perry Moore: the superheroes are all painfully exact ripoffs of the most well-known comic book heroes (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, you get the idea); the superhero storyline (the central plot, I suppose) is predictable and not terribly interesting; the romantic storyline seems forced; and, yet, despite all that, this is a great father-son story. And I'm a sucker for a great father-son story. Their relationship is so authentic (and relatable) to me, a depiction of familial love that really captures how complicated it can be. Hal loves Thom, so he makes a lot of sacrifices; Thom loves Hal, so he feels incredibly guilty about those sacrifices; Hal and Thom love each other so much and recognize that, at the time the book starts, they really only have each other, so they both fear rejection from the other if their deepest secrets are revealed; etc. The fact that they love each other is not forced on you, but is evident in such real ways, most especially in how that very positive emotion can actually be the source of strife between them. Hal Creed is a really gut-wrenching character and his own son recognizes it and reacts with myriad feelings you might expect: gratitude, embarrassment, guilt, sadness, anger, confusion.

By the way, if you're looking for more great fathers in fiction (and by great, I mean the characters are multi-dimensional and interesting, not necessarily that the men themselves are people you'll admire and enjoy), try Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee (one of my favorite books of all time, it explores concepts of language, family, and identity and the interplay between the three) and You Must Remember This by Joyce Carol Oates.

The second book I read this year was Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. I'll start with the concession that the plot was just a little weak, in a way that I attribute to the fact that Graceling is Cashore's first novel. There are occasional holes, jumps, and tenuous links, but I think that style will be ironed out and strengthened in her next novel. My other objection to the plot was the late entrance of the villain; it was as though the climax of the book happened at the wrong time. Like most fantasy novels I've read, Graceling has an action-adventure plot and it definitely plays second-fiddle to the characters. Who I love. I tend to prefer character-driven novels to plot-driven ones (as you might imagine if you are familiar with my love of romance novels, since the plots of those are often pretty darn similar).

There are many things I enjoyed about Graceling, but I'll just go ahead and tell you a little about Katsa, the main character, and I think you'll see why I enjoyed this book so much. Katsa does not want to get married or have children. Cashore makes this pretty clear early on, so I of course thought, "oh, well she must hate children." Nope, she likes them well enough. "Oh, well, then she must be troubled. Women in novels only ever don't want to have children because they were abused or because they have low self-esteem and don't want their kids to be like them. Considering Katsa's a killer, I guess that's mildly understandable." Nope, her childhood wasn't perfect, but nobody's is. "Oh, oh no...Cashore didn't use any of the other conventions to make Katsa change her mind and start popping them out, so she's going to go...there...to the place where Katsa falls in love and then, oh my gosh, just can't wait to start reproducing because that's what women do when they fall in love. No. No. No!" Nope, Katsa falls in love. They don't get married. They don't have kids. They're cool. Can there please be more female leads like this? Please?

Friday, January 30, 2009

Fail!

One of my many resolutions meant to increase my well-being this semester o' craziness is to be in bed by 11 every night (reading, etc. is okay, but I want to be physically in the bed by 11; also, I've already failed at this many times) and to set my alarm for 8am any day that I don't actually have to be up at a specific time. So, imagine my surprise when, after being up for about half an hour this morning, I saw that my computer clock read "7:29am." Apparently, while setting my alarm last night, I also reset the clock. This is why I should not go to bed too late.

This isn't the first time recently I've gotten lost in time, either. The first time was a bit more mysterious, but it also caused me to lose sleep. Why don't these gaps in the space-time continuum allow me to lose an hour of work or class or something? I really like sleep.

The day we left Boston, we set the alarm for 6am and planned to be out the door by 6:30. The alarm on Pat's phone went off, I went upstairs, brushed my teeth, got dressed, finished packing and then looked at my phone. Which said 3:59am. What? Pat's phone, though, said 6:30am. His Blackberry was our tie-breaker, confirming that it was, indeed, 4am. Pat's phone, like mine, gets its time directly from AT&T towers, it's not set manually. So, I have no idea how it ended up 2.5 hours off, but I never really got back to sleep that day. It was awful.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

OMG, Downloaded

Spoilers for BSG Season 2 ahead!

We watched a few more episodes of season 2 Friday night (just two more to go, then on to season 3! I wish I'd caught on to this show earlier so that I'd be caught up to the episodes that are currently airing. I'd probably go a little crazy waiting a week between episodes, but at least I wouldn't have to be so diligent in avoiding any news about BSG. But, clearly, I digress.).

Anyway, the show had been kinda lackluster for me since Black Market, which was horrible. I actually like that BSG addresses the fact that the fact there are only 50,000 humans left doesn't mean that suddenly we can all just get along. When faced with sudden, unexpected genocide, you don't get to hand-pick 50,000 saints to bring with you on a mission for the survival of the species. I just thought this episode addressed the issue in a heavy-handed, awkward way that didn't fit with the flow of the show at all. It was a totally stand-alone episode that did nothing to advance the overall story arcs and mythology of the show. Unless you count the fact that suddenly Lee has a troubled past and a relationship with a prostitute. Because the end of the human race, a dead brother, feelings for the dead brother's fiancée, a difficult relationship with his father, and being used as the rope in tug o' war between the Admiral and the President isn't angsty enough.

The episodes between Black Market and Downloaded were certainly up to par with BSG's usual writing and acting standards, but I just didn't love where the plot was going. Scar was a good episode, but I hate Kat; I hate Lee and Dee (the fact that their names rhyme makes me hate them more!); and I hate that they killed Billy. Mind you, I don't hate Lee and Dee because I loved Dee and Billy (and definitely not because I want Starbuck and Lee to get together, more on that later). I just think that a) it totally came out of nowhere and b) they have no chemistry.

But, with Downloaded, they reeled me back in, hook, line, and sinker. This episode was made of awesomeness. Here are the highlights:
  • The return of The Hotness. Uh, I mean Anders. The return of Anders. While I must admit that after the one episode (or was it two?) they had together, I had a hard time buying the mind-frakking lurve Starbuck has for Anders, there is no denying that they do have boatloads of chemistry. Yum! I'm looking forward to their reunion and I'm guessing that eventually I will buy into the deeper layers of their relationship. (So you see I am not a Lee/Starbuck shipper. In fact, I think a Lee/Starbuck pairing is icky. She was engaged to his brother and his dad clearly thinks of her as a daughter. Furthermore, I like the depiction of their friendship and I appreciate when men and women have non-sexual relationships on television. Because in real life we actually are capable of that, folks.)

  • The return of Caprica as a setting. The return of Anders also means a return to some of the storylines I found most fascinating in the first season regarding life on Caprica after the attacks. I think the human resistance and the Cylon colonization are great stories to tell and add more dimensions to the "Colonial Fleet versus the Cylons" narrative.

  • The revelation that, just as the "good guys" aren't all good, the "bad guys" aren't all bad.

  • The return of Sharon 1. I find Sharon 1 to be a really sympathetic character. Imagine living your whole life as one of the good guys only to find out you don't really have "a whole life" (most of your memories are fake) and you are one of the bad guys. One of the bad guys you actually hate. Talk about inner conflict and self-loathing. I had wondered what happened to her after she got shot, whether she was close enough to download and if the process of downloading triggered a part of her programming that made her go, "sweet, I'm a cylon and I totally shot Adama" or if she woke up like "frak, I'm surrounded by cylons. I frakking hate cylons! Dammit, I am a cylon. This sucks." Thank you BSG showrunners for addressing my concerns!

  • The demonstration that Tricia Helfer can act. Head Six just totally sucks.

  • Head Gaius!!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Bulleted List

Quick recap of a good week:
  • Received many wonderful things in the mail (and one textbook, not wonderful): necklace for wedding, rehearsal dinner shoes, GAP cardigan (in wild rose), beautiful birthday gift from Pat's mom, and an invitation to Michelle and Ian's wedding!
  • Conducted official Sesame Street business, which made me feel really important.
  • Got exciting loot at Half-Price Books, both in really good condition: a hardcover edition of Avalon High by Meg Cabot, so now I'm ready to stalk her at TLA, and the second book in Van Reid's Moosepath League series. The Van Reid books are hard to track down, so that was especially exciting.
  • Had many good phone conversations with friends.
  • Got lots of wedding stuff done.
  • Had a successful program at work (A New Year, A New You: Get Organized, 16 attendees).
  • Actually made plans for next week's trip to Boston and those plans include seeing a BU/BC hockey game!
  • And best of all, spent lots of QT with friends: Fiesta Bowl victory and frozen custard with Al and O on Monday; Labyrinth and pizza with blue cheese on it that I actually ate at the Mitschkes' on Tuesday; spicy peanut noodles and lots of conversation with Kate on Friday; and then today a very lucrative trip to San Antonio with Al and O (who were exceptionally gracious about me being the third wheel multiple times this week) followed by veggie chili and three episodes of Buffy with the ladies. I'm pleased to announced that I did enjoy Buffy and am now going to try to make it through the series. After I get caught up on BSG, that is.

Friday, January 9, 2009

I am a terrible geek.

Not only did I enjoy the first Star Wars prequel, I'm also really freakin' excited for this: http://movies.yahoo.com/photos/movie-stills/gallery/1360/transformers-revenge-of-the-fallen-stills.

OMG Cool cars that turn into robots and beat the crap out of each other. People who do not like this movie are a mystery to me. And please spare me the whole "weak plot, bad actors whatever whatever" thing. Cool cars that turn into robots and beat the crap out of each other. Focus, people.

Hopefully my newfound love of BSG will help me out in the eyes of those who think my geek cred has seriously slipped today.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Psych returns!

And to celebrate, EW lists their ten favorite things about Psych. I'd switch out The Adventures of Little Gus & Shawn for the tender, loving bromance between Gus and Shawn. The cartoon just isn't that funny. The bromance is.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Movie Mania

As promised, a few sentences about some of the other movies I watched over the "break." Again, in no particular order.

The King of Kong made me feel incredibly awkward. But, I was also totally caught up in the drama, complete with hating on Billy Whatisface. Tool.

Kit Kittredge was a pretty typical kids movie in that it had about five happy endings. Almost everything that they could wrap up in a pretty little bow, they did. It was atypical in that it did stay true to the one story line that seemed like it would be too false, too forced with a happy ending. It was also atypical in that some of the drama leading up to the happy endings was kinda heavy. The moment where Kit sees her dad in the soup kitchen...crushing. I also thought it was a well-done, age-appropriate depiction of the Depression. Y'know, a good intro to that period in history for an age group that's a bit too young for The Grapes of Wrath. Timely, that. Also, I kind of love Abigail Breslin. I hope she makes it through the whole child actor thing relatively unscathed.

Slumdog Millionaire
was fantastic and I don't feel like I can do it justice in this blog. I keep starting to type something and then furiously clicking backspace. I start to write about how uplifting it is, but then I think that makes it sound cheesy. Or I start to write about all the aspects of this movie that make it wonderful, how you'd never know Dev Patel is new to the big screen or how even the music is great, but effusive praise always sounds kind of hollow. Let's just sum it up this way: director Danny Boyle is truly an amazing storyteller.

Diner didn't really do it for me, but it was fascinating to see Mickey Rourke in his glory days. So much is being made of him right now, his fall from grace and his comeback, but none of the hype over The Wrestler meant anything to me because I was too young to notice him the first time around.

The Mistress of Spices and Marigold were both just fluffy brain candy. Mistress of Spices is based on a book that I may pick up at some point. It has that whole magical realism thing I tend to enjoy in novels, but which felt kind of awkward and weird on film. Marigold has kind of a "meta" thing going on; it's about an American actress being cast in a Bollywood film. A love story and some interesting dance scenes ensue.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

New Year's Resolutions

One of the reasons I started this blog was to keep track of the movies and TV I watch and the books I read. Someone I used to work with told me he wrote down all of the movies he saw and the books he read along with a short review because it helped him to remember them, his initial reactions, and what he liked or disliked. That stuck with me because I've read so many books that years later I can barely recall the plot of. Anyway, going back to tracking that stuff is one of my resolutions for this year, along with posting in this blog more regularly. No time like the present to get started!

Now, technically, I watched most of the movies I'll mention in this post last year, but Pat and I have watched a lot of movies in the last two weeks as part of our holiday vacation and they seem like a good starting point. Now that we're past our BU days, we did have to work between Christmas and NYE, so it wasn't technically a "vacation," but we did more relaxing than we've done since I started grad school. I didn't even realize how much we both needed it, but it's been really nice. On to our holiday viewing! (In no particular order.)

WALL-E I wasn't even interested in seeing WALL-E. I'd heard that it was unsubtle in its message and that it had long, dialog-free stretches. I usually read a magazine or play around online while watching a movie, so I doubted my ability to pay attention well enough to follow something with little dialog. After hearing from several co-workers that it is really cute, though, I decided to bring it home from the Pflug and give it a try. It is so frickin' enjoyable, I can't stand it. I'm sure you've read a zillion positive reviews (96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, an addiction I formed in 2008), so I'm just going to mention a couple of things I liked about it that I haven't seen mentioned in a million other places.

I loved the relationship between WALL-E and EVE. Okay, sure, that part you've read everywhere, but maybe not for my reasons. I liked that WALL-E and EVE were equals, partners. They rescued each other. Often, when you have a super tough-girl heroine (and EVE is super tough; at first, in fact, I thought she was a little scary and off-putting and said to Pat, "wait, he's going to fall in love with her? But she's scary, with the shooting-first, asking-never), either she ends up being a huge mess on the inside that really just needs a man to fix her or the guy is a super-dolt who has to be rescued from himself every five minutes. EVE's a tough girl, but WALL-E can stand on his own two feet, too. I also liked that in the end, mankind participated in its own salvation. A lot is made of this movie's indictment of mankind, our laziness, our wastefulness, etc. But, in the end, the captain of the Axiom stands on his own two jello-y legs, and decides its time for humans to go back to Earth and clean up their mess. It's hopeful. We're not a totally lost cause. I like that.

Daredevil I picked this up from Sam and Julia's when they giving away DVDs. I'd heard it was bad, but thought it might be nice for one of those nights when I just want to watch a totally mindless movie. Besides, I though, how bad could it be? It's a movie based on comic books, it's not as if those are ever Oscar-fodder (of course, that's changing in recent years, but you get the gist of my train of thought). As long as I'm not expecting Schindler's List, I'll be fine. But, no, this movie really is pretty bad. I know I'm about to make some enemies, but honestly, Jennifer Garner just doesn't do it for me at all. I don't think she's a very good actress. I almost want to say I'm annoyed every time she's on the screen, but she's got that "All-American, nice-to-people-who-cut-her-off-in-traffic" thing going on that makes her seem so likable so I don't really feel annoyed. Just...I don't know. I wish she wouldn't be in things I'm watching. Not to single her out. She was better than Colin Farrell, whose Bullseye is possibly the cheesiest villian of all time. Even Jon Favreau couldn't save this one. I made it all the way through and I didn't actively hate anything about it...it just isn't a particularly well-constructed or well-acted movie and it didn't have that pure-entertainment factor that can sometimes make up for those things.

Oh, and if you're wondering to yourself why Jennifer Garner and Colin Farrell both get skewered but Ben Affleck gets off scott-free, I'll tell you: Ben's got a lifetime pass from me for starring in my favorite Kevin Smith movie, Chasing Amy. He was also in Armageddon, which I've recently rediscovered my totally irrational love for.

Okay, gotta go play Wii with Paddy, but still to come: Slumdog Millionaire, Marigold, Mistress of Spices, King of Kong, and Kit Kittredge and Diner.