Everything is Unfinished

It’s been a while since I’ve been truly excited for a TV show. I really don’t watch a whole lot of TV, I don’t care for reality shows, and network programming has been less than brilliant lately. So I was really glad when Lost didn’t suck last week. I’d been looking forward to it for months, since I’d actually seen promos for it (it’s on ABC, and ABC owns ESPN which is on at our house a lot). I have to admit that the inclusion of Dom Monaghan helped pique my interest a lot, because he’s just so damn cute. But the subject of the show really interested me too. Not that I’m a fan of plane crashes - in fact, the more I fly, the more nervous I get about it - but I like stories that deal with how people have to survive with what they’ve got. When I saw Castaway, I was disappointed that they cut out a bunch of the Robinson Crusoe stuff. But more than that, Lost also appears to involve unexplained events and some sort of conspiracy. Aww, yeah. Peter David likes the show too - read his review of it here. The more I read his blog, the more I like him. I really must start reading some of his stuff.

So anyway, tonight the second half of the pilot is on, and some strange discoveries will be made. I’m not happy at ABC for splitting up the 2-hour pilot so they could show The Bachelor (Now With Double The Bachelorosity!) but at least they haven’t cancelled the show yet. Oh wait, this isn’t Fox. A show like this does kind of limit itself to how long it can run though. After 5 seasons you’d think they’d have found everything there is on the island and we’d see them building coconut radios or something. But I hope it at least makes it through the season, because there sure isn’t anything else on to watch.*

Currently Stuck In Head: Wham!, Careless Whisper

*except Scrubs, Arrested Development (when it starts back up again), and BBC America.

I haven’t become hopelessly addicted to The Sims 2 like I was with the original, but through no fault of the game. I just haven’t been allowing myself to play much because I have too much to do, and when I load up the game I will inevitably play for 2-3 hours without realizing it. So I’ve gotten a taste of all the new features, but have yet to delve into the depths of Charlene, Darla and Melanie Groll. They’re the three sisters I created. I’ll try to remember to post some screenshots of them later, but don’t get too excited - they’re not all mutated and gross like Johnny’s characters are. Although one of them is a goth.

The only problem I have is actually not a problem with the game, but rather with my PC which is old and busted, not the new hotness like Johnny’s. So the game takes about 5 minutes to load, the graphics are good but scrolling is a little choppy, but the worst thing of all is that I can only play the game in 800×600 resolution! So I guess I just need to crack the screen of my laptop so I can get a new one like he did.

To illustrate my point about getting sucked into the game, here is yesterday’s Penny Arcade:

In the interest of space and not having to shrink the comic down to unreadable proportions, I cut off the last panel which also inadvertantly cut off the copyright. Click on the image to see the whole thing. Also, Gabe and Tycho are gearing up for Child’s Play 2004, a toy drive to benefit sick children at Christmas. They debuted this event last year, and were able to raise over $27,000 in money and toys for kids at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Hopefully this year they’ll get the recognition they deserve, unlike what happened in 2003 when some news outlet credited the event to someone else. Fortunately the Seattle Times got it right.

Currently Stuck In Head: The Sims 2 loading music

All of a sudden it’s Tuesday, and there’s another Obscure Movie Club review due tomorrow. This time it’s KB’s pick, Raising Victor Vargas. Considering I’ve flaked on the last two reviews (Judy’s But I’m A Cheerleader and Zandra’s Shag) I feel very compelled to watch RVV tonight and actually review it on time. We’re also going to watch Shag so we can play catch-up there, and I’m going to review Cheerleader from memory today. So I’ll be all ready for the next round to start, even though I continue to get busier and I’ll be taking a quilt class on Tuesday evenings in October. Being a well-rounded person takes a lot of time! Now I just need to decide on my movie for the next round. I have a pretty good choice in mind. I’ve also got until the end of the year to decide. That makes it sound so far away, but it’ll sneak right up on me!

Speaking of the end of the year, it’s my parents’ turn to have us for Christmas so Johnny and I will be out in the PNW for New Year’s Eve. We’ll be leaving here the morning of December 27 and going to the Tri for a few days (till the 30th I believe?). After that we head over to Seattle for the big party, some sightseeing and of course Johnny will be catching the big Seahawks vs. Falcons game on the 2nd. I may actually opt to go to that one - hopefully the Hawks will be finishing up their regular season hot streak at that point and I really like Michael Vick. I can’t stand wimpy, wussy crybaby quarterbacks so I love watching him play. I can’t wait until he throws a pass to himself, a la Nelson Muntz on The Simpsons. Of course, Johnny hopes he’ll have hurt himself by that point and won’t be playing. It’s possible - that’s the major drawback of being an Action!QB.

Whoa, that was a little too much football talk for this blog. The point I wanted to make up there was that when we come to Seattle, we will probably get a hotel room. We’ll likely only be in town for 3 nights, plus that would give us a place to have a New Year’s Eve party without someone having to host it. Also, if KB comes up and gets a room too, we could try to find a place with conjoined rooms so we could have a big ol’ bash. I’m sure Johnny will be doing his usual round of Calling Everyone He Knows ™ soon to gauge interest in such a thing, but feel free to sound off here or on his blog about it. If all else fails, maybe Joey can get us cheap plane tickets to someplace nice!

Last Song iPod Brought Me: Ben Folds Five, Don’t Change Your Plans

I need a few days off after my recent few days off. Friday night, after dinner with Johnny, Mark and Natalie at Hound Dog’s Pizza (motto: Consistently Awesome Food, Consistently Horrible Service) I drove up to my parents’ house in Toledo. I was determined to go to bed at a decent time, but like every night I got sidetracked talking to my mom until 1am, then staying up until 3am talking to my brother Myke. So of course I didn’t get up early enough to do everything I wanted to before going to a baby shower for my friend Tonya. It was like a reunion - the mothers of no less than 5 of my high school friends were there. I was amazed at all the cool gadgets and innovative products you can get for your baby now. A medicine-dispensing pacifier? Or a pacifier that is also a thermometer? A pack-n-play (portable playpen) with a bassinette and changing table built in? Now I want to have kids just to get all the cool stuff!

As soon as the shower was over we went to a wedding for a family friend. Actually, I used to babysit for her and her sister when I was in middle school. I’m beginning to feel very old, hearing about all the people I used to babysit who are now getting married. The wedding was loooooooong - extremely Catholic, including communion - and the church was very warm. The priest was an odd duck, too. He mentioned funerals, losing a child, mental illness, and told a story from The Beverly Hillbillies that was supposed to explain faith, but ended up reinforcing my belief that blind faith doesn’t make sense. Oh well. The wedding party was huge - 7 attendants, plus 3 junior bridesmaids - and they all looked really nice in black dresses with pink trim. I thought it was odd when black became trendy for weddings, but this combination was very cool.

At the reception the best man gave a longer toast than Gary did at our wedding, a feat which I didn’t think possible. I managed to bolt down some free food and vodka before heading back to Columbus. I got home by 11:30 and again didn’t go to bed at a decent hour. You’d think after 29 years I’d realize that I’m just not cut out for falling asleep before 12:30am. So instead I stayed up late and slept in before going to a wedding shower for Bryan and Gretchen. We gave them a photo album that I had stocked with pictures of Bryan from high school. It was a big hit with everyone except Bryan.

So finally last night I was able to veg out on the couch for a bit and install The Sims 2 on my computer. It takes a long time to install! As I’m letting it do its thing, I figured I’d just install it then go to bed. Then I thought maybe I’d just create a character real quick. Then after making 3 characters, I figured I’d better play them a little, just to get used to all the new stuff. Finally at 2:15am I wandered up to bed. I’m telling ya, I’m just not cut out for an early bedtime.

Last Song iPod Brought Me: Queens of the Stone Age, No One Knows

Warning: Stream of consciousness ahead.

I’d be doing pretty well on Weight Watchers if I was at my target weight, the way I keep hovering right around the same mark. Oh well, I’ve tweaked my program a bit and I’m moving in the right direction.

Loss this Week: 5.2 lbs.
Total Loss: 1.6 lbs.
Distance to Target: 70.8 lbs.

So the past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic. Johnny always makes time to blog but it always seems like it’s going to be a huge time commitment for me, so I don’t. It’s really not, but whatever.

I’m feeling very “meh” about things right now, can you tell? It’s cold and gloomy and rainy out, so I’m sure that’s most of my problem. Hopefully this will get fall rolling and all of the trees will change color soon. There is nothing better than spending a bright, sunny, 65 degree day looking at fall leaves.

So New Orleans didn’t get destroyed by Ivan after all. That’s a good thing, because I’d like to go down and experience Mardi Gras. Who wants to come with us? It’s Feb 8 in 2005, and Feb 28 in 2006. Gary will be there until at least then, and he’s got lots of floor space and two futons. He also lives 3 blocks from the parade routes, and there are no open container laws in Louisiana. Yee haw!

I have two baby showers, a wedding shower and a wedding to go to this weekend. I had way too much fun looking at cute little baby clothes this week. I can’t wait till my friend Jen has her baby, so I can buy him all sorts of fun stuff. I’m sure she can’t wait either - she’s had a TOUGH pregnancy so far, and she’s not due till January.

That’s all for now.

Last Song iPod Brought Me: Death Cab For Cutie, Lack of Color

I don’t want to steal Johnny’s thunder, but I thought it would be best to post this distinguished picture of him here. You’ll know why after he posts about it.

The makers of M&M candies has teamed up with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to once again raise funds through the sale of their pink & white M&M candies. For each 8-ounce bag of the special candies sold, the makers of M&M (Masterfoods) will donate 50 cents to the foundation. The next time you want a treat, please pick up a bag — you will be donating to a great cause and satisfying your sweet tooth.

This promotion will be going on throughout September, October and November, or until $650,000 is raised. Read more about it here: http://www.m-ms.com/us/news/promotions/komen/index.jsp

You may have received this as a forwarded email - that’s how I heard about it - but it’s one of the rare passed-around messages that is actually true. I checked it out with Snopes and everything. And as you’re buying candy to help fund breast cancer research, try not to think about the fact that one of the contributing factors of developing cancer is a high-fat diet. This is chocolate, so it doesn’t count.

I suppose by now I should know better. When it comes to matters of TV and comics, I should bow to Woody’s judgement. That doesn’t make it any easier to admit that he was right, though. So that should tell you how good Firefly is, that I humbly acknowledge that I should have listened to him when it was on the air and watched it then. But at least I was able to catch 9 episodes on DVD this weekend, and I’m hooked. I’m interested to see the rest of the episodes, then watch them all again with commentary. And I’m hoping that the movie will spark enough interest and sales that someone will pick the show back up. For some reason I think it would do best on Showtime - they have the money to keep it going, and it could push some of the boundaries that network TV was forcing on it. Of course, then I’d have to subscribe to Showtime in addition to HBO, so maybe it should go on HBO.

Ok, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I would like to send a big thank you to Tanya and John for putting us up this past weekend. It was actually my fifth visit to Chicago, not my fourth like I thought before, and I got to do almost everything I set out to do. Johnny’s got a daily play-by-play on his blog if you want to know more in depth, but we did get to go to the beach, Millenium Park, Lincoln Park Zoo, American Girl Place (we didn’t have tea, but got to look around) and we even saw the Leaning Tower of Niles. We also watch the aforementioned 9 episodes of Firefly, and did a lot of eating and sitting around. It was pretty nice, actually, although it really hit home that we’re getting old. I think I only had one beer the entire weekend! I’m sure that will change this weekend though - Friday night we head down to New Orleans for a weekend of drunken debauchery with Gary. I need to get researching tourist destinations.

Currently Stuck In Head: Firefly Theme Song

…when you cross Teen Girl Squad with Lord of the Rings?

By the way, that image is a LiveJournal icon that I found somewhere, and made by someone named suzanami. I hope s/he doesn’t mind me sharing it here.

Also by the way:

If I were a character in The Lord of the Rings, I would be Galadriel, Elf, Queen of Lothlorien, wife of Celeborn and grandmother of Arwen. In the movie, I am played by Cate Blanchett. Who would you be? Zovakware Lord of the Rings Test with Perseus Web Survey Software

Ok, time to fess up - about a month ago, I got a speeding ticket. That’s not the point of this entry, but it was important to the government scam I’ve uncovered, so I figured it would be best to come clean. So I got the ticket, paid it the next day, and all was well. Or so I thought - last week I got a letter from the state saying that I had not provided proof of insurance when I was pulled over, and if I didn’t provide it now my license would be suspended. Now, I know for a fact that I provided proof of insurance, because I accidentally grabbed an expired card out of my glove box and had to get the right card. Anyway, not a big deal, I just had to make a copy of my card and mail it to the state agency, which I did. And probably 9 out of 10 people do. But that 10th person, who forgets about the letter or worse yet doesn’t read it correctly, is giving the government money for no reason. $125 per person to get their license reinstated! I suppose I shouldn’t worry about it, because if the government wants to prey on stupid people that’s their prerogative. But it didn’t sit right with me. So beware! If you get a speeding ticket in Ohio, don’t let the government take even more advantage of you.