Media Notes

Movies

• I Love You Man - saw this while I had freetime at drill (shocking). Pretty entertaining.

TV

• Dollhouse - Still loving it, all the way to the end. Me and CG gasped when we saw the reveal (I called it a little before it was stated). Next week looks... fantastic!!
• Chuck - OMG. I know Kung-fu!!! God, I love this show and really hope that all this bubble talk is just that. I really want to see how this plays out.
• Amazing Race - Really, the editors of this show are great. While there are no teams that I really love, there are a few I don't like (yes, I am looking at you deaf boy.... your mom sooo carried your whining ass)
• 24 - really, I think this may have been the most twisty season yet... Go Jack! Go Chloe (kick Janeane Garafalo's characters ass.. that woman pisses me off so much)
• Big Bang/How I Met Your Mother - This must be just about the best comedy block on TV right now. The season enders/near enders have just been entertaining..
  

I think my external drive for my Tivo is about to die. Already moving some shows off and have a replacement ordered....

Video Games

• I got nothing... a few games of Halo 3 and that is about it..... Rare for me..
  

Watchmen and other Recent Pop Culture stuff.

The GF (who now bears the name of CG, Cupcake Girl) and I went to see Watchmen on Friday.
All I can say is whoah! That is a whole lot of blue penis.... (there may have been blue balls (hehe...) but in the standard hetero manner all I saw is penis and I then had to reframe what I saw of the scene). They may as well call it the blue penis movie....

After that it was off to drill (oh yeah, I am in a good mood this week... nothing like 2 workweeks sandwiching a weekend where I am under even more stress than while at work.). I didn't even get back until around 10 PM since for some reason we decided that it was a good idea to run a land navigation course from 1300-1700 on a Sunday afternoon, so of course it ran long.

Some of the shows on my hot watch (shows that do not sit on my Tivo for any period of time)

• 24 - The wait was long but OMG.... this season has been awesome! Is it wrong that I want to see bad things happen to the Senator (Red from That 70's Show) and Janeane Garofalo(who joined the show because she hated Jack Bauer!)? Nope, not really..
• Lost - It really has picked up this season. I watch it every week with CG and the twists and turns are a lot of fun!
• Life on Mars - Poor show. I liked it. At least it gets a chance for a graceful exit.
• Chuck - Please do not cancel it. This show is great TV!
• Gossip Girl - Another fun series. I am so not in the target demo, but it is still entertaining to watch.
• Dollhouse - Love it! Like all Whedon shows, it takes a bit to "burn in" and establish itself.

2008

What is a year without a recap? The theme of 2008 is Army.... Given that I spent 5 months on active duty for my Army training this Summer, combined with the trepidation before and recovery from it been the prime factor for this year.

Obviously I feel great relief that I finally went to and completed BOLC II/III (though of course it now leaves me open to being grabbed for a deployment, though that is pretty low priority right now given my states current plans). I got to meet some great people, have some fun times (and lots of VERY boring times (I played a lot of video games, watched a lot of TV, saw a hell of a lot of movies and drank a crapload of alcohol)). Interesting note? My BOLC II/III post

Relationship-wise I have a lot of ups and downs. Lots of first and second dates, lots of emails written and lots of anxiety and talking about myself (well, I do have a blog so obviously I like talking about myself and sharing my opinions). I got the "friend zone" speech twice and, as the icing on the cake, basically got "dear john'd" (or Jodie'd as we would say in the Army) this Summer. I am on an "up" right now, with my Match profile happily deactivated and no concerns about the midnight kiss tonight.
I can't have a blog with a title like mine and not go into my favorite subject, Movies, TV, Video Games...

• Movies - Quite a year. I think I saw more movies in the theater this year (thanks Army) than I have since 2000. My choice for movie of the year is simple, my brothers would not be surprised given that he has always been one of my favorites, Iron Man. Really, of all the movies this year this is the one that stood out.
• TV - Sigh... The damage that the writers’ strike wrought on this industry is still not easily calculated. So many freshman shows from last year took irreparable damage, including my much beloved Pushing Daisies. I think the damage will still reverberate for a while (Chuck and Terminator).
• Video Games -
  Big news was that I bought a Wii and wrought destruction on my parents house. Best game? Shocker I know... Left 4 Dead I mean, c'mon!! Zombies, teamwork and fun? Really no question. Most novel? Endwar. Fascinating user control (controlling the units with voice? sooo coool.....) and of course gives me a good Army fix.

Well, I am going to keep it somewhat short. I think I touched on the high and the lows and I am ready to move on to the next year....

Happy New Years everyone! I will be partying it up with my GF at the Gaylord at some big party this evening. I hope you have a great night and an even better New Year!

Savoring...

I look forward to and also dread the Wednesday nights. Because on those nights I get to experience 2 emotions at the same time, happiness and enjoyment from one of the best shows to grace the TV in a while, "Pushing Daisies." However that pleasure is bittersweet when it is combined with the grim knowledge that soon this experience will end, and not even in a satisfying manner.... just abruptly killed because the 13 episodes were already shot when the notice came that there would be no more episodes.

RIP Pushing Daisies... Unfortunately very soon there will be no Piemaker to come by and give you a reprieve, even for 30 seconds.

Casualties..

First they killed Lipstick Jungle, and I said nothing.
Then they killed the Ex-List, and I was unhappy.

Now they have killed some shows near and dear to my heart, some of the best shows to come out from last years debacle of a TV season have not been told to make any more episodes than the ones already in their original 13 episode order:

• Pushing Daisies - Really? Big mistake! This may have been one of the better TV shows on the air! This is a tragic loss for television viewers (or at least those craving more then the next top-whatever or something more than your regular murder of the week).
• Dirty Sexy Money - Another tragic loss. This show was all that was good about drama shows. The over the top characters and acting, the crazy plots... this had it all. Very sad.
• Eli Stone - Fun and creative. You never knew where this show would head and it has such a clever premise.

And yet, such fine shows such as Private Practice and CSI:Miami remain on the air.... It's embarassing...

So much for giving new shows a chance

One of my favorites of the new shows, the Ex-List, got pulled effective today.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117994775.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&nid=2630

Maybe we will be able to see the other 7 episodes in burn off time sometime in the future.

Guess the main character will be doomed to a life of singledom.

I have a sickness...

Above is the Squished in version of my TV schedule.... I normally keep it on seperate worksheets but this shows up better.....

I know the first stage of dealing with addiction is to admit a problem.... but.... I really have no urge to correct my problem....

BTW, anyone want to take odds on who will win the cancellation lottery? My money is on Cavemen.....

Catching up

So me and the roommate, M, finished another epidosode of Jericho (and Veronica Mars the night before).... Its kind of sad to watch shows that were pretty good and are ending after being cancelled. I know that even though I have one episode of Jericho left that I will not get my satisfaction for the show. And from what I hear the last episode of Veronica Mars doesn't give that sense of closure either... You have to be frustrated with the way American TV generally doesn't leave their shows in a closure state at the end of the season (like you find on the British shows). Way too many shows have bowed out on cliffhangers..... CBS definately owes us some closure for Jericho, given how many threads were just laying around.

And as further proof of my TV obsession, I finished NCIS (a well put together procedural drama with the requisite dose of comedy) and Brothers & Sisters (LOVE this show.... was definately howling at a few parts of it). Now my big push is to finish Lost, I just finished last weeks and now I need to find the time to watch last nights before the girl I am dating, R, drops too many hints on what happened...

Oh, and poison ivy sucks.... actually camping period sucks...... I sooooo am going to hate my AT this year down in Alabama... probably 10 of the 14 days will be out in the woods doing the lanes training.