Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The good, the bad and the awesome!

First, the awesome:

Wil Wheaton speaking about why it's great to be a nerd!

And since I am a nerd I can say:  Right on!

Now the good... and the bad...

The good:  I'm working out 6 days a week
The bad:  Have you seen my motivation?  Because I havne't.

I make it a point to do at least 10 minute.  I shoot for 20... but it's been hard.  I try to vary what I do.  But I try to have plenty of Leslie Sansone on my HuluPlus queue.  if all else fails, I can force myself to do that.  Mainly because it requires less thinking.

This week my goal is to NOT do her work outs.  I need to sit down with my Hulu queue and find some interesting work outs and do them!

My other goal is to not have another panic attack today.

Because it just sucks

Friday, April 26, 2013

Of course, Jon Stewart tells it like it is



It bothers me how many people really don't know the constitution.  Or will interpretate it for their own gains.

Now, I'm not going anywhere NEAR the 2nd amendment.

But the 1st amendment.  It's so simple. (Notice I'm just going to talk about the Religion aspect of this... for now)

  • The government will not subscribe to one religion over another.  That means that you are free to be whatever religion you want.  Even Muslim.  (Muslim =/= terrorist)
  • England, and many of the colonies, required people to belong to the Church of England.  That's why the 1st amendment is there!
  • Saying this nation was founded on Christian values is crap.  Many of the colonies were founded so people that weren't Anglican could practice their religion.  Other colonies were founded purely for money.
Between this, and the head-deskingly bad phone calls I've had.... 

GleeCap: Lights Out

I'm not going to recap the entire episode.. just a few parts.

First, Becky told Figgins the truth.  Good on her!

And now what's really got me unsettled.  Ryder.

The character disclosed that he was abused by a babysitter.  A teenage female babysitter.

What do the other boys say?  That's not abuse!  It's you getting lucky!

(Cue so much facepalming)

Ryder finally stopped arguing  and mocking proclaimed that he was a stud, and the thing was dropped.  The girls tried to come to his defense, but no one would hear them.  Shue only said that he has to report it.

I don't know where they are going with this.

  • Is the jackass reaction to highlight victim blaming?
  • Will Shue and Emma step in and set those boys straight?
  • Will Bieste slap some sense into them?
I have a feeling that this isn't the last we're seeing of this.  The reactions were a bit too ridiculousness   They were over blown.  Meant for the audience to see how stupid it all sounded.

I pray he comes back to this.  it's too big an issue not to.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

I need a vacation. Seriously!



Dammit, I'm tired.

I'm sleeping.  I'm not overdoing the physical activity.  (trust me on that)

I suspect it's mental.

I suspect it's stress.

Which is funny.  Because I've been scrambling like this since January!

I think it's the wear and tear.  The constant worry that I'm messing something up, or missing something.  That things will be too late, or incomplete because it's a new task.  The constant juggling with the varied jobs and tasks I'm assigned, many that I'm unused to.

I'm contemplating crawling under my desk and crying.

1 more day, and I can make it to the weekend.


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Sherlock vs. Elementary

I've heard it again and again.

American remakes of British shows suck.
It's a travesty that they even remake them!!

And other indignant protests.





Well, I love the American version of Being Human WAY much more than the British version.

The shows have moved to a point where they are completely different.  You really can't compare them anymore.


And now it's Sherlock Holmes's time for such controversy.

And again, other than the original source material, these shows couldn't be more different.

Sherlock is the BBC's offering.  The show is more of a series of mini-series, only three our four episodes at a time.  Each set of episodes focus on a single case.  It's set in London, with Holmes living at 224 B Baker's Street.  Mrs. Hudson is his landlady.  In this version Watson is a former military doctor.  Sherlock is addicted to nicotine, and his brother Mycroft is in the government


Elementary is CBS's offering.  It's a regular 22 episode weekly series.  Each episode is a case.  And mostly, the cases are solved in a hour.  This Holmes is a former drug addict.  His drug?  Heroin.  Joan Watson (yes, a woman) is a former surgeon and now a sober companion.  This show is set in New York City, and Holmes consults with the NYPD.  Just this last week we met Mrs. Hudson.  She's a wonderfully sweet lady, that now cleans Sherlock's house.  She also has an Adam's Apple.


Now, you can compare the two series all you want.  But pains were obviously taken to make the CBS version very different from the BBC.  Copyright violations and all of that.

But the characters of Sherlock Holmes are rather different.

The BBC Holmes is singularly focused, and has little normal reactions with other people.  The only way I have found to describe it was... Aspergers-esque.

CBS's Holmes has a more intense addiction (rather akin to the original Holmes's addiction to cocaine).  He's obsessive, but is adept at interacting with humanity, and doesn't suffer the social... uncaring... that the BBC Holmes does.

Now, boycott one or the other.  Or watch them both.

But please don't say that the CBS version copied the other.

Because aren't they all copies of the original stories... or the dozens of movies and shows that have come before?

Including House.

Monday, April 22, 2013

I'm seriously beginning to hate Mondays.

This weekend was... odd..  to say the least.

Friday was spent watching TV.  The manhunt was happening, and I wanted to see the outcome.  It's weird, watching these things in real time.  But it's been our live since 9/11.

Eventually, I decided that my time would be better served watching Bunheads.

Saturday was spent cleaning.  Dishes were washed.  Clean laundry was put away. The sheets were changed.  A great headway was made!

That night, we went to the Roller Derby.  It was the Dominion Derby Girls All Star team vs. the Mason-Dixon Vixens.  DDG CRUSHED the Vixens.  368 to 70.

And man, it was fun!!



Sunday was church, and singing.  Which I was in no shape to do.  Shopping happened.  Watching Whip It happened.  The Blu Ray player proved that it's busted and we need to buy a new one.  (The money for that has already been set aside).

And now it's Monday.  And I haven't had near;y enough coffee.  And all I want is cupcakes.

*sigh*  Happy Monday everyone.

Friday, April 19, 2013

A grim morning

I woke up to one of the Boston bombers dead, and one fleeing the authorities.

And I know what's next.  Blaming people.  After Sandy Hook we blamed guns.  After West, Texas we blamed fertilizer.  After Oklahoma City we blamed the home grown militia.  After 9/11 we blamed Islam.

It's what we do.  When life doesn't make sense, we start to assign blame.  

It seems the two Boston bombers are foreign nationals, that are now permanent citizens.  I give it five minutes before immigrants are blamed.

And, for the record:  Immigrants aren't to blame for Boston.  Islam isn't to blame for 9/11, guns aren't to blame for Sandy Hook.  Though the fertilizer in West, Texas.... yeah... that was totally to blame.

I have two thoughts about this:

  1. If these two die before revealing WHY they did it, their point is lost.  Seriously... they should have offed themselves, and saved everyone the trouble.  (I KNOW they were bombing for a reason.... but we may never know the reason)
  2. Can we stop assigning blame for these things?
For all of the devastating things that have happened in this country, there is no one thing that we can blame.  There's a multitude of reasons that these acts happen.

But I think a huge contributing factor is hate.

Hate of others, hate of religion, hate of politics.

Just hate.

Honestly, if this country could learn to meet in the middle, instead of pulling apart to the polar opposites we might have less of this.

I guess if we were just a little more optimistic, and more Pollyanna-like maybe these things would happen less.

Monday, April 15, 2013

I guess I'm just Pollyanna... but being Pollyanna is getting harder.

You know Pollyanna.  She's optimistic.  She sees the best in people.

And honestly, I was like that.

I try to see the best in people.

But lately the optimism isn't there.

I see it in the news every day.  Occupy Wall Street (and the crap that brought it about), the Westboro Baptist Church, Newtown, And now Boston.

People ruled by the need to hate and destroy.

Gun control and gun laws are in the news.  I don't see the need for guns.  But then again, I am Pollyanna, the Chief Executive of Fantasy land.

These days news of man made destruction makes my heart hurt.

I'm going to go home, make dinner... and wait for Defiance.  Where the destruction is alien made.. and people are trying to work together...


Where did my weekend go?

I know where my weekend went:

I actually finished season 1.

And I liked it!  I'm going to borrow season 2 next weekend!








On Saturday we ended up at Cinema Cafe for lunch and a movie.  It was.... ok.

I don't think it's a movie that I want in my collection.



Sunday was laundry.

Holy crap, laundry.

I did 4 loads... and only managed to dry 3.  Our dryer takes triple the time to dry as a load takes to wash.

I also made chicken.   Seriously  make this recipe now.  Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.

In the middle of laundry, I remembered that we were invited to a cook out.

Thant meant that there was NO way the laundry was going to finished that night.

We went, we had fun, and we ended up driving someone home.  I had the SE drop me off first.  While he was running her home I:  changed loads in the dryer, walked the dog, fed the pets, unloaded the re-loaded the dishwasher and put away the crock put and the leftovers.

Friday, April 12, 2013

GleeCap: Shooting Star

I never thought they'd go there.  But there was a school shooting on Glee.

The show started off crazily enough.... Brittany is crazy.  Beiste is in love with Mr. Shue.

Then a gun went off.

Now, for the uninformed,  the teachers did what they should have done:  lights off, door locked, and everyone hiding in corners and out of sight staying silent.   

Sue took the blame.  She was cleaning her gun and it went off.  I could tell she was lying.

Becky actually brought the gun. She was scared.

I must admit, I'm rather shocked that they went there.  But I'm not all up in arms about it.

And in other news, there's no word on season 5.  Apparently the show runners aren't committing to it yet.  And Fox is unlikely to renew if they aren't committed.  I'm not overly broken up about this either.  If this is the last season... it's not a bad place to stop.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

It's Spring! When people's thoughts turn to... never mind...

I'm not a fan of spring.  The trees rain down pollen.  Seriously.  It drifts like snow.  Weddings are planned.  Mother's Day is planned for.  Graduations happen.  Vacations are planned.

You know.. that fun stuff that marks transitions and makes you feel special.

Some people get depressed around the holidays.  I get depressed in the spring.

I think it's my utter lack of any of these life transitions.  I had them, and never will again, or I won't ever have them.  (I'm not holding out hope for a real vacation any time soon)

I know I'm not the only one.

But life has to march on.  So I'll take some antihistamines  and start planning for may Commencement (which happens on Mother's Day).

(I know, it makes it that much extra depressing)

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Some words of wisdom... for when you're feeling blue

I truly don't believe that we talk about mental health enough in this country.  And when we talk about it, it's usually so darn negative.  Many, many, many people have issues with depression and anxiety and the like.  I know it's severely under reported (where as ADHD is severely over-reported... but that's another post)

The Bloggess has always been an advocate for mental health.  And she's right, depression lies.

But the reason for this post is something that I came across.  A response to 21 Habits of Happy people.

21 Tips to Keep your Shit Together when You're Depressed.

I agree with every one of them.

And now... I'm off to the dentist.  Which also supremely sucks.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Uuggg. Monday...

Well, what a weekend it was....

We shopped.  I dyed my hair.  Laundry was sorted (I was lazy and haven't put it away.. I'll remedy this tonight)

The one thing that I'm not proud of was how hungry I was all weekend, and how I ate junk.

I gained some weight, and admittedly, it's that time of the month... but I know better.

So that means that I need to portion out my snacks, make sure to get up early to do a longer workout, and to shoot for 8000 steps a day.

But of course I'm here, buried under paperwork.

I'm off to take a bit of a brain break, before I go back to processing travel reinbursements!

Monday, April 1, 2013

Throne of Games!

Or was it the other way around.....?

So yesterday I decided to watch an episode of this show.  I decided that Episode 1 of season 1 would be an appropriate way to start....

And I just had to laugh...

Here's what the advertising for this show has looked like since the beginning:

Shot one of episode one.... it's snowing.

My thought:  Well.... winter came... now what?

The show was pretty good.  I think I'll give the first season a shot.

Though, I'm pretty sure sure Sean Bean's character dies.  He dies in every movie....