My own self

It has been pointed out to me - quite needlessly, but also flatteringly, and accordingly I don't mind at all - that there's been a sad amount of updates in this weblog of mine these last few weeks. Months. And what there has been, I'll usually reply with mindful self-deprecation, has been little amusing quotes. No posts of substance.

My posts of attempted substance have usually centred, with some few exceptions, on TV-reviews. I have no capacity this autumn to do many of those. Nor do I have the time to do book-reviews (heck, I don't even have the time to read non-curricular books), comic-reviews, movie-reviews... or, for that matter, the odd nonsense and musings on fanciful topics. I'm in the middle of putting an (unwanted) end to this university education of mine with an attempt to do twice the amount of courses you're intended to. I'm simultaneously digging through the bureaucracies of two countries, trying to figure out the whys and hows of next year without getting anything fatefully wrong. And, people, I still watch all that TV I don't take the time to review.

But tonight, I found myself with the urge to post, as it were, and so I'll do a composite post of what I am, have been, and will be watching this autumn. Some of it's started, some of it's already over, and some of it won't come around for quite a number of weeks yet. So please, come with me down the rabbit hole of much too much American television.


The story so far
As the summer was ending, and my Kings-abstinences were finally starting to subside, a lovely show named Easy Money was also waving its last goodbye. Having only ever gotten to finish eight episodes, this excellent little drama about a family of loan-sharks only managed to get four of them on the air last autumn. When the network finally started dumping the remaining four at the end of the summer nearly a year later, I was delirious to revisit the Buffkins and their morally ambiguous lives. Four weeks later, I was once again left hanging, all the more bitter this time for the certain knowledge there will never be more.

Then the beginning of the autumn proper was marked by the exit of True Blood's second season, which impressed me by being a good step above its predecessor. While I'm still not crazy about the show, it has solidified itself as a show in the upper end of the middle-tier of shows I deem good enough to bother with. Back when I first saw the pilot, I'd honestly not expected it to ever creep up to the midle-tier at all. So congratulations to Alan Ball and company. May your days be many and conveniently clouded.

Finally, Mad Men started back up. And while at first, I was still feeling like before about the show (everything is exquisite beyond belief except the dramatical confrontations and pay-offs), I have by now, especially in light of the most recent episode, started thinking that woah, the show might even be starting to do the big pay-offs right. While I can't claim to watch them all, I have to say, Mad Men is very likely to be the best made show in current American TV. If it is actually starting to improve in the one area I felt it was lacking, the sky's the limit.

Apocalypse, nowish
Boom. Mid-september hit, and so did premieres. Dexter, starting next week, and How I Met Your Mother, already on into its autumn roll, are both stockpile-shows that I'll catch up with come late December, but they're far from alone. New shows and returning shows, September's been a rich month for TV. Almost too rich - they're raining down on me so fast I ended up quoting an Angel-episode just to find a title for this section of the post.

In chronological order, as it were, this month of fresh TV started with Glee. I saw and liked the pilot this spring, and despite its dreary high-school premise, my fondness for musicals combined with the show's great humour is quickly bringing it up among my favourites this fall.

Another newcomer was Community, a half hour sitcom about a lawyer whose college diploma has been discovered as a fake and who ends up having to attend a crappy community college or face disbarment. So far, the two episodes have entertained and shown promise, but the great jokes, while there, are still too far between for a show that tries to be an outright comedy. For a drama, this show'd be hilarious, but for a sitcom, I feel it is a bit lacking. Still, when it's good, it's good, and I'll likely end up following it all fall in the hopes it will get better yet.

On the same day as Community leaped into the fray, Fringe came back with its second season. Crime procedurals don't really enthuse me much, no matter how much the try to disguise themselves as science fiction. But with a couple of really charming characters in a really distinct and unique father-son-relationship combined with an admittedly flawless execution of the plots-of-the-week, the show remains good enough to be worth the bother. With a little luck, the show will trap itself in its own mythos like Lost did, only quicker and with less obvious fillers on the road there. Not among my favourites this autumn, but given my standing investment of an entire season, I'm more willing to follow it further than I otherwise would be. Odds are that by Christmas, I'll have committed to this one for good, even if its basic structure is rather underwhelming.

Then followed another new sitcom, Bored to Death. With only one episode under its belt as of yet, this laid-back HBO comedy centres on a young author stuck with a writer's block on his work with his second novel. He turns to weed and white wine for inspiration, and his addiction eventually makes his girlfriend leave him. In desperation, he starts an impromptu career as an unlicensed private investigator. Yet another show I'm not sold on, but again one that seems to hold some promise. In particular the main character's best friend, a kid comic book artist trapped in a man's body, was hilarious. The show can also boast Ted Danson as a regular, which helps with the draw. Depending on how overwhelmed my TV-plate gets, this one might get the boot, but for now, I'm sticking with it out of curiosity.

Third and last of the new sitcoms I've tried this month is Accidentally on Purpose, where Jenna Elfman stars as a movie critic in her late thirties who gets pregnant on a one-night stand with a much, much younger man. The show was consistently funny - more so than Bored to Death or Community - but had less charm and identity. The pilot felt like it could have been an episode from any given sitcom of the last ten years, albeit a well-written one. However, one should not ever judge a show by its pilot, and once again, I'll be back for at least one more.

House M.D. is also back this month, and true to form, Hugh Laurie's magnificent as the title character. With the exception of a small Robert Sean Leonard-cameo, the remaining regular cast is absent in the double-episode season premiere. While I don't mind the regular cast at all, this is extremely good - because it also means that the premiere doesn't follow the show's regular episode formula. By the sixth season, the medical procedural with the House-twist has gotten incredibly old, and the only reason I'm still watching is because House himself is so compelling. The show, then, is by far at its best when it breaks this formula, and for two blessed hours including commercial breaks, it did so here. Stellar job, people. I can only hope and pray it'll retain a fragment of the awesome when it returns to predictable form next week.

On the very same day, Heroes returned, joining Fringe as the bottom of my barrel of expectations. Interestingly, my low expectations combined with a quite decent episode and Robert bloody Knepper made me quite happy with the premiere. If they keep going in this direction, the season could at least measure up to "volume 4" (the second half of season 3), which was rather decent too. In all honestly - anything that avoids the utter miserable crap that was "volume 3" will be appreciated. I'd even take the aimless-feeling season 2 again if we could avoid that. The trick to enjoying this show seems to be low expectations and accepting that Hiro simply will never die no matter how many stupid things he does, and I'm getting there. At least on the former half of that sentence. And as I said, the premiere was very decent indeed. Downright good in some aspects. I'm finding myself strangely up for more.

The third component to my barrel-bottom is traditionally Smallville which, despite its gradual improvement over the last four seasons (it has started season NINE now, if you can believe that), can never really shake my old, first-four-seasons' worth of "good LORD, this show's bad"-impressions. Admittedly, those first four seasons also had some really awesome nuggets of pure gold sprinkled in, usually involving Lex and Lionel Luthor. With both those characters gone by season 9, it is odd to see how the show can have improved so much on its average episode, and at the same time also never really reach the heights of those stellar masterpieces here and there that originally committed me to the show. Even so, all my prejudices aside, there is nothing to do but admit hands down that by now, for the most part, Smallville is a downright good show. And with the addition of the charming Callum Blue to the cast this season, I might almost forget how much I miss Lex and Lionel. Almost.

Final among the September Arrivals is also the one I've been looking forward to the most. In fact, I just watched it in the middle of writing this post. Dollhouse. An unabashed Joss Whedon-fan I might be, but the first five episodes of season 1 were really nothing special at all. Luckily, the show improved vastly starting with episode 6, and the thirteenth episode was nothing short of epic. This season premiere had a lot to live up to, and in my book, it did. Keeping everything that was good about episodes 6-12 alive and building it to new heights was exactly what I expected and wanted from this premiere, and it was exactly what I got. That, and razor sharp dialogue, great emotional moments, and wonderful characters. I even got an episode plot that wasn't standalone so much as it was a season plot cleverly disguised as a standalone. And Jamie Bamber being awesome and British and mean. And Amy Acker and Fran Kranz blowing my emotional equilibrium with every single scene. And Alexis Denishof as a Republican politician on a righteous rampage. And a hundred other, awesome little things. And beyond it all, looming in the horizon, chillingly conspicuous in its absence of overt reference, was episode thirteen and the both sad and scary taint it puts on every single little plot-development. As last season ended, I was hopeful about the show. As the thirteenth episode got out with the DVD, I got quite enthusiastic. Now, I'm sold for good. This show will be my favourite this autumn, I'm almost sure of it. Now let's just hope that episode 2 won't let down my soaring expectations.

Tomorrow, tomorrow
So is that all? Oh no. Oh no no no, is it ever not. Next month comes Star Wars: The Clone Wars back with its second season, a digitally animated show that in the latter half of season 1 quite surprised me with its (for Star Wars) rather complex stories and ethical dilemmas. I find myself almost embarrassingly excited to see if season 2 will make it even better. Also new in science fiction franchises next month will be Stargate: Universe, the Stargate-series' try at doing a Trek'y show with a darker frame than the predecessors in the vast SG-continuity. While I'm not a big fan of the old two, I've seen every single episode, which amounts to an ungodly amount of hours. There is no way I'm not following that continuity to its end now. Also? Robert Carlyle! So yeah. But still, my expectations are rather low, and checking this out is almost more of a duty I have to my standing previously mentioned ungodly commitment of time to this universe than it is any real interest.

Also in October is the final piece in the Battlestar Galactica-puzzle, as The Plan is released on DVD a good many months before it'll apparently air on Syfy. Seeing as I'm obviously a huge fan, and also wasn't as disappointed by the show's ending as many others were, I'm quite besides myself with anticipation for this promised answer to (hopefully all) remaining little nagging questions.

Finally, Legend of the Seeker will start back up towards the end of the autumn. Can't say I'm at all excited. I love the books, for all their flaws, but season 1 was as big a departure from those books as Quack Pack is from The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck. Entertaining in its own, cheesy, blatantly Xena-esque style and way, but not at all what I was wanting. Nor really a show quite suited for my tastes. Still, there is very little by the way of fantasy shows on air, and I sort of feel I should take what I can get. There's also the undeniable fact that season 1's very best episodes were in many ways rather good, even if the season as a whole was an insufferable cheesefest. So I might end up caving to my completism and deciding to follow this show yet another few steps further. We shall see.


-------

There. My autumn in TV-shows. I'm sure some additional surprises will turn up along the way in one form or another. Of shows airing this autumn, I should probably also check out Entourage, but with the six season head-start it has, that's severely unlikely to happen. Of other old shows, I'm coupling the new stuff with my first ever rewatch of Ally McBeal, where I'm currently mid-way in the penultimate season, and my first structured watch-through of the eminent Batman: the Animated Series. I've recently finished its spin-off Justice League: Unlimited as well as the British The Office, the miniseries State of Play, and a rewatch of the brilliant West Wing, so if you're interested in hearing what I think of any of these things, you should give a shout-out in the comments as I like mentioned probably won't find the time and energy to write proper reviews. (There should be some of West Wing already, though, if you're up to doing a little search).


Hopefully, there's one person out there who actually bothered to read all this. If not, well, that's another hour of my life wasted, I suppose. Cheers! And thanks for reading.

Reading
- books I'm currently started on and on-going comic books I keep up with -
The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolf
The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Lees of Laughter's End, Steven Erikson
The Reptile Room, Lemony Snicket
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 8, Joss Whedon et al.
Angel: After the Fall, Brian Lynch et al.
The Secret Six: Unhinged, Gail Simone/Nicola Scott
Batman Cacophony, Kevin Smith/Walt Flanagan
Batman R.I.P., Grand Morrison/Tony Daniel
Batman Confidential: Do you understand these rights?, Andrew Kaeisberg/Scott McDaniel
Trinity, Kurt Busiek/Mark Bagley
Superman & Batman Vs. Vampires & Werewolves, Kevin VanHook/Tom Mandrake


Watching
- TV-shows I'm either currently re-watching, catching up on or following -
Easy Money, season 1
Boston Legal, season 5
Prison Break, season 4
True Blood, season 1
House M.D., season 5
The Practice, season 3
Legend of the Seeker, season 1
The Clone Wars, season 1
Chuck, season 2
Smallville, season 8
Heroes, season 3
Stargate Atlantis, season 5
Fringe, season 1
Monty Python's Flying Circus, season 1
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles


Waiting for
- prioritised books, volumes or TV-seasons in stories I've already started on that I'm planning to get to relatively quickly when I have time and/or they're published/released -
Dance of Dragons, George R. R. Martin
Reaper's Gale and Toll of the Hounds, Steven Erikson
Flight of the Nighthawks, Into a Dark Realm, Wrath of a Mad God and Rides a Dread Legion, Raymond E. Feist
Phantom and Confessor, Terry Goodkind
Volume 6-> of Fables Bill Willingham
Volume 16-> of Ultimate Spider-man, B.M. Bendis
The Ultimates 3, Jeph Loeb
Ultimate Avengers, Mark Millar
Volume 16-> of Ultimate X-Men
Season 4.5 of Battlestar Galactica
Season 3 of Dexter
Season 4 of How I Met Your Mother
Season 3 of The Tudors
Season 8 of Scrubs
Season 7 of 24
Season 5 of Lost


Should be
Reading anything by Robin Hobb to make good on a promise before my guilt consumes my very soul.
Re-watching all seven seasons of West Wing since I've bought the DVDs recently.
Re-watching all twelve seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel since I've never watched them both in sync and proper order and this is a disgrace.
Finding time to figure out with just how many books a bunch of people including Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, Katherine Kerr, Terry Pratchett, J.K. Rowling and Eoin Colfer have snuck out that I haven't managed or wanted to get to yet.

Oh, Obdormio, what have you gotten me into?




It's a mere handful of my books for now, but suddenly I'll have something better to do one day and it'll grow like nobody's business.

Don't ask. Somehow, I'm filling out another meme.

Read more...

The Most Badass US Presidents of All Time

Especially numbers 5 and 1 contain more awesome than you can shake a stick at.

I checked this list out due to it having a *well-deserved) mention of Nathan Fillion in Waitress, but it warmed my heart to see Jack Coleman getting his due in almost every single one of these lists. That character is to me the alpha and omega of why Heroes stands out of the crowd of vanilla sci-fi-shows.

Now THIS is simple, people. The blind spawn of an impotent maggot could (almost) do this.


And yes, this is a reaction of outrage after learning the 4400 after their best season to date got, unsurprisingly, cancelled. I'm coping by moving on hurriedly.

I'm gonna list TV-shows I'm currently considering watching from beginning to end when I finish Dead Like Me, and whichever one gets the most votes from people commenting here will be The One I Next Watch - though I reserve the right to break ties as well as the right to give up on a show after the first four or five episodes if I don't like it. Feel free to add shows as suggestions and I'll add them to the list of possibles if I want to. I'd also appreciate it if you described what about a show is good and why you think I should watch it, but I'm not gonna require it.



3rd Rock from the Sun
Alias
Arrested Development
Dark Angel
Dexter
Drive
Farscape
How I Met Your Mother
Journeyman
Justice League
The Pretender
Red Dwarf
The Shield
The Sopranos
Tru Calling
Young Indiana Jones
The Wire




And no. I don't really expect any big surge of people commenting. But hope springs eternal.

So... this Christmas, I'll try very hard to dig through some of my list of purchased-yet-unread-books. So I thought I'd get some recommendations from whomever bothers to give me their input.


For logistical reasons, "Religions of Rome volume B: A Sourcebook" (North, Beard and Price), "Bonehunters" (Erikson) and "The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection" (Conan Doyle) are disqualified from the list as they're too big and heavy to bring with me for the vacation, and I'm hoping I'll be done with "Jimmy the Hand" (Feist) and "A Very Short Introduction to Machiavelli" (Skinner) by then, but I'll bring four or five other books. The following list is all the remaining books I currently own yet haven't read (most) of, yet still wish to:

Fantasy
"The Darkwar, book 1: Flight of the Nighthawks" (Feist)
"The Darkwar, book 2: Into a Dark Realm" (Feist)
"The Lies of Locke Lamora" (Lynch)
"Phantom" (Goodkind)
"Anansi Boys" (Gaiman)
"The Artemis Fowl-files" (Colfer)
Myth
"Keltiske myter" ["Celtic myths", a 420-page compilation of celtic myths] (Rekdal)
"I begynnelsen" ["In the Beginning", a 380-page compilation genesis-myths from all over the world] (Bringsværd, Braarvig)
"Jorden vår mor" ["The Earth our mother", a 450-page compilation of myths from Native North-America] (Bringsværd)
"Shinto" [a compilation of Japan's oldest myths] (Teeuwen)
Literature on religion
"Approaches to Greek Myth" (Essay-collection, Edmunds w/others)
"Roman Religion" (Essay-collection, Ando w/others)
"Parallell Myths" (Bierlein)
"Comparative Mythology" (Puhvel)
"Bissie - Studier i samisk religionshistoria" ["Studies in Sami religious history"] (Mebius)
"Fornskandinavisk religion" ["Ancient Scandinavian (Norse) religion"] (Näsström)
"Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars" (Mikalson)
Historical works
"Makers of Rome" [Nine of Plutarch's "Lives"]
"The Twelve Caesars" (Suetonius)
"The Rise of the Roman Empire" (Polybius)
Literature on history
"A History of Ancient Egypt" (Grimal)


You can write any form of recommendations you'd like, of course, but a list of, say, five or six of these titles, and prioritized from most to least important, would be very helpful. If, like, three or four of you gave me something like that, I'd have so much less of a drag figuring this out.

(By the way, it is my very, very firm hope that I'll manage not to buy a single book 'til all of this is read)

Seeing as I seem to forget removing obsolete polls, I put one up which doesn't matter if stands for a week or two years. Not that I actually expect any of you freeloaders to care enough to vote.

(Those who against all expectations would like to not only vote but comment on their choice, or are unable to vote yet would like to share what they'd have voted if they could, feel encouraged to comment to this post)

Making my own take on it, I figured I'd list some Moments Of Tears of my own. Halfway randomly chosen categories. And nothing I've seen for the first time after last October counts. I'm waaaay too easily put in both positive and negative emotional imbalance these days. XD


Right, so, on with the categories.


First scene in a TV-show that made me cry
I can't know for certain, of course, but I'm pretty sure this was "M*A*S*H", and I'm pretty sure it was in the episode where Colonel Blake leaves (and dies). The emotion in the ending of that episode is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

But M*A*S*H in general, actually, quality-sadness wise? Good show indeed.

Longest continous crying from any piece of story-based entertainment ever
Buffy's "The Body", of course. If you don't get distraught by this one, you're either a psychopath or you're a, no, wait, actually, you pretty much would just be a psychopath if you don't. Such a beautiful, horrible, gruesomely convincing portrayal of death and dealing with it, it's scary.

Biggest comic-book-crying-memory
I'm not sure if I've cried from several comic-books, or just this one. I probably have, though, I just can't remember them now. I'm a sap, it's true.

But I do remember this one. I was taking the boat back home from Bergen, which is an approximately three hour thirty minutes trip, and before leaving I picked up a graphic novel of the JLA (with whom I'd never read anything before) from Outland on the sole reason Joss Whedon's name was on the cover as having written the introduction to it.

I honestly did not, and will never need, more of a quality-stamp than that.

I read it hoping to get lots of Batman. 'Cause, you know, when reading any DC comic at all, that's basically what you do. You hope for the Bat. You hope for the Clown, and you hope for the Bat, and if you're going for the full hat trick, you're also hoping for Lex, but mostly, you're hoping for the Clown and the Bat. And while Batman's in it, and being his pretty cool self too, it started out with a chapter with second-stringers. Or even third-stringers. Characters I'd pretty much never seen before, some of them never even heard of. The first chapter was of these people. New characters, to me, completely.

The first chapter, by the time it had ended, had made me, sitting on the boat home, in public, reading a fracking comic book I'd bought on a whim, cry.

I'll never forget that.

(You know, unless I get hit in the head with something heavy or I grow senile, which could happen.)

Most powerful sad-moment on a comedy show
I'm actually not giving this award to a M*A*S*H-scene, though I do admit, I could be overlooking it 'cause it's simply such a long time since I watched M*A*S*H. Still, I'm giving this to "My Screw Up", the most heart-breakingly beautifully sad Scrubs-episode ever. The ending scene was even used on its recent CLIP SHOW-ep in season 6, and even there, completely devoid of context, it made me fracking sob. Huuuuge props to John C. McGinley and Brendan Frasier for their performances in this episode. It's fracking incredible.

The time Friends made me weep
Could probably call this most powerful happy-moment on a comedy-show, but it honestly deserves its own category just as a Friends-moment. 'Cause I totally cried when Chandler and Monica tries proposing to each other and they both start sobbing. I totally did. And if I rewatched it this very moment, I probably still would.

First movie to ever make me cry
"Homeward Bound". When Shadow appears in the ending. Gets me every single time. And I used to be so very embarrased and scared my younger siblings or parents would see me cry whenever the scene rolled up.

Fred
I mean, come on, people.

Most Evil Thing To Make Me Cry
The wheelchair-reveal in "Walkabout", which is evil 'cause it convinced me to keep watching Lost, and three seasons later I'm still not sure if that was the right call. The show's not exactly made me cry again after that, I guess is one way to put it.

Top Five Crying-episodes of the Slayerverse that aren't "A Hole in the World" or "The Body"
'Cause I'm just THAT much of a whedonite.
In no particular order:
- The Gift
- Lineage
- Not Fade Away
- Fool for Love
- Grave

Wow, Tara didn't even make it on my list. Nor did "Innocence", or "Lullaby", the ending of "Billy" or a certain Pryce being a "dead man". Or a ton of others. I should totally make a top fifteen instead some day.


In closure, let me add that I very rarely cry from books, for some reason*, and I can't with certainity remember one that has made me cry right now. However, I think I might have cried during several Malazan-scenes. The big character-death in the end of "Memories of Ice", and Coltaine getting to the verge of ascendancy simply by being awesome in "Deadhouse Gates", maybe. But I honestly don't remember if I did or not.

*I think this might have the same reason as why books very rarely manage scaring me properly. I think mind maybe censors the experience when I need to conjure up my own images of it.

And for those of you missing the VM, BSG, Firefly and no-doubt-tons-of-other-stuff-mentions in this list, well, if I were to list EVERYTHING that's made me cry, the post could go on almost for ever. But maybe some other day, in another post, on another occasion.

So, that was that. And yes, I'm a total crybaby. A weak, weak, weak man.

I've pretty much given up keeping up with the Daily Show and Colbert Report for the time being - meaning I've given up watching them altogether, 'cause I'm NOT one to skip shows, either I watch it all or I watch nothing - so these are all rather old, hope the links are still valid:


http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=83323 He's riiich!

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=84114 His proposal is.. in fact... his proposal!

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=84111 Poor Bolton. ^^

http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html? ^^

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=84192 XD Jon's face as the guy hits the water! XD

http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/070401.html "What if it was just Luke?" "PETER JACKSON!"

On the first test, which was only rated as passed or failed, I passed. This should count for whether or not you were tipped up or down when calculating the final grade, which is found by finding the average on the three other tests.

On the second test, I got a B. And wow, did I ever not expect THAT.

On the third test - which was a hand-in - I got a C. And I'm miffed about that. Having worked on it for a while, at home, with a friend, I was kind of assuming I'd do as well as I did on a test with no books or help available and little time. But, oh, well.

On the fourth and last test, I don't know what I got yet. I hope I'll get to know on Friday. I think it went to hell, though.

Anyway, I felt pretty certain I at least passed on it, though, which makes for rather simple math - I had to get a C in the course. One B, one C, and one test where I knew I did badly... I could get an E or a D or maybe (I had a faint hope) a C on the last one, but it would all give me a C in total.

And that's what I got. 'Cause the grades of the course were just released.


I'm not sure if I'm to be happy of malcontent. After all, I don't need the subject for anything, it doesn't go into my degree, and I'm taking it on top of studying history full-time. My aim when I signed up for the course was just getting a passing grade. Of course, getting that B early on readjusted my aims a little, but still, I've had modest aims.

On the other hand, I now have a C in a course I'm not going to re-take, and that's a dent in a rather long line of exam-results I've been shocked (but very happy and proud) to get.

Then again, I'll probably not do too well in my history courses this term, either, so then it doesn't matter at all.



So, basically... YAAAAY, I GOT A C IN LATIN!

This is from Caroline's LJ, and I post it here as when I filled it out, I found it ended with a question on whether or not I'd re-post it so she could fill it out, too, but anyone else who feels like bothering with it can fill it out too.

---

1. Can you cook?

2. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator?

3. What talent do you wish you had?

4. Favorite place?

5. Favorite vegetable?

6. What was the last book you read?

7. Are you Dirty or Clean?

8. Any tattoos and/or piercings?

9. Worst habit?


HERE COMES THE FUN ...

1. How did we meet?

2. What's your philosophy on life?

3. Negative or Optimistic?

4. What was your dream growing up?

5. Worst thing to ever happen to you?

6. What was your first impression of me?

7. Tell me one weird fact about you:

8. What’s your favorite memory of us?

9. Is missing. Make up something if you want.

10. Have you ever kept anything from me?

11. What do you think of me as a person?

12. Do you think I'm sane or insane?

13. Would you cry for me if I died?

14. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?

15. If you could change anything about me, would you?

16. How do you fall asleep?

17. Ever gotten angry with me?

18. Would you go on a blind date if I set you up?

19. If you had one day to live, what would you do?

20. A million bucks… what would you do with it?

21. What is your worst fear?

22. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

23. Can you sing or dance?

24. In one word, how would you describe me? Be honest....

25. Will you repost this so I can fill it out?

Please vote by Wednesday morning, I implore you. ;P

(And please comment and tell me what you voted for and why, 'cause comments are fun.)

http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=3424 A good article on what defines a superhero-story and -character, and one that makes a rather lengthy discussion of Buffy. I particularily liked the statement on "24" being by far a more typical superhero-show than "Heroes", and I agree. The article lacked a sense of conclusion to me, though, but it was well worth the read.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j36vmAnqm_0 Aw, this made Smallville look far better than it is!

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=81291 O'Reilly Vs. Colbert - the aftermath

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=81465 He's SCHOOLED. This is HUGE.

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=81647 Colbert and Stewart losing it! XD

http://www.lfgcomic.com/page/15 I really love this Richard-guy.


http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=81635 Stephen Colbert offs racism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evTwrpnfzDE Veronica Mars goes Canadian

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20070205 hee!

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20070207 hee again!

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=81918 If just ONE journalist involved on ONE of those headlines sees this clip and feels a sting of shame, the world's not quite as bad as one could assume. Damn.

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=81959 ...and then those planes were dipped in gooold!

http://www.terrorisland.net/strips/104.html Best TI-strip in a very long time, though you kind of have to read the three strips or so leading up to it to get it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UGf9Hc-KpAA He's seen everything. He's seen it all.

http://shortpacked.com/d/20070205.html Why Batman rocks.

In no particular order:

Scrubs!
Just had its musical-episode, and while nowhere near Buffy's, of course, it was very well done and great fun. Loved the Janitor's solo in particular.

Lost!
Finally up-to-date on season 3, which is looking good. Not sure how I feel about that, I had almost managed to decide stopping watching this show and now I'm all sucked in again... but yay them for making good episodes.

Smallville!
I'll be watching the much-awaited episode "Justice" later tonight, I hope it will turn out to have been worth the wait. Good season so far, Green Arrow is an excellent addition and the traditionally annoying parts of the show have really improved lately.

Battlestar Galactica!
Approaching mid second season, and it's really, really good. I've been told it'll decline somewhat in quality now and then improve vastly again with the season finale and season 3, but so far, it's been very, very, very good. Best show I'm currently watching, I'd almost dare say.

Carnivale!
Just started on the second season, and finally having started to understand some of the plot in the later episodes of season one, this show is getting pretty interesting. Miss Professor Lodz, though. Sniffle.

House MD!
A little over half-way in season 1, this is a show that's good and improving. Hugh Laurie rocks.

Shark!
Started airing in Norway recently, so just seen three episodes, but it's entertaining and well-made, so I'll keep watching it, I think. Like House, the attraction is a very charismatic and arrogant main character put in for others unsolvable cases, only he's a lawyer and not a doctor. Not on House's level of cool yet, but... still good.

Stargate: Atlantis!
Soon finished with the second season, SG:A has managed to keep the level of quality of its impressive first season throughout its second, but somehow, I'm feeling less committed to it than I used to. Maybe it's just that I'm watching so much else that's better these days.

Stargate: SG-1!
Almost through with season 9, which, as I've mentioned here before, is without a doubt the best season the show's ever had. For the first time ever watching this show, I'm anxious about every new episode.

Rome!
Just aired it's first episode of the second season, and it's looking great! Looking very much forward to the next episode.

24!
Just began its sixth season, which seems like more of the same old - which works, so why complain? - with the addition of giving Jack Bauer the burden of human limitations, which is interesting and nice.

Veronica Mars! Studio 60 at the Sunset Strip! Heroes! Prison Break!
Being on their Christmas-breaks and my having followed them every week before, haven't seen these in a while, but I guess I'm technically watching them, too. With the exception of Prison Break, which is very good but not exactly brilliant, these are among the very best shows I watch, so looking very much forward to the continuation on all of them.


Phew, I think that was all of them... I'm watching an astonishing amount of telly, aint I? ;P

And no, they're not particularly Christmas'y.


http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20061220 ETHAN! XD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM XDXDXD What a rant! I love rants, when they're funny. Like this one. Funny.

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=79947 If only God would release a Top Ten-list... you know... things that are important to Him...

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=79786 Balls!

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20061227 OMGWTFPOLARBEARDEADSANTA!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6222153.stm I WANT TO JOIN IN!

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/lyrics/re-your-brains XD LISTEN!