People Underestimate the Value of a Good Ramble

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Facebook/Twitter

Listen, I don't hate Facebook. I just happen to like Twitter more. I mean, like way, way, way more.

There are a variety of reasons why. For one thing, and this is a biggy, Facebook is more about pictures and Twitter is more about talking. I much prefer to talk than to have my picture taken.

Plus, Twitter is immediate and Facebook is more long term. I'm always in a hurry. I want things now. Hence, I prefer to have the immediate gratification of talking with people and having real-time interaction, rather than posting pictures (or rants) and waiting for a response. Especially cause then I have to go back and check for a responses.  As anyone who has ever posted a comment on this blog knows, I'm terrible about remembering to go back and check for comments. Terrible.

But I noticed something.

My Twitter friends - my mostly online not in actual real life friends - have, as a majority, basically the same political opinions. And when I say political, I mean as in relating specifically to governmental political issues, not social political issues. I think that makes sense. However, my Facebook friends (a combination of real life friends, old friends from days gone by, and online imaginary friends), seem to hold almost the exact opposite political opinions.

Weird.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Life and Stuff



Wow.

Remember me?

I used to blog here on a semi-regular basis about silly random stuff. Like TV shows and life.









Then I was busy being sick for a while and then summer came and I accidentally went outside and got a life. I didn't mean to.

All lit up at night







We've also been working on our back yard. It's looking amazing now, I think. We put in the stamped concrete patio, built up the ground all around it, enclosed that with stones, put in bushes (two fire bushes, two forsythia, two rose of sharon, three blueberries and a lilac), iron fencing with pretty white lights, and then put in a sliding glass door and steps out our back bedroom, which we painted a lovely golden color.

It's so beautiful in there, I'm ready to move my office over and move the bedroom into the other room. Like immediately, as in right this very minute.

Only I'm too lazy to do it myself.



Thursday, May 30, 2013

Blog Avoidance

I've been avoiding this blog.

Ever since I got sick back in mid-March, I just haven't felt good, then my feet started swelling...that was 4 weeks ago yesterday and they are still pretty bad...and then I cracked a tooth. I need to go back to have it removed entirely at some point.

Before I was even feeling better from being sick that time, I was sick again to the point where it sounded like pneumonia. I'm still wheezing a bit.

All of that made me pretty miserable and depressed and I just didn't feel like you'd want me to share.

Although I am sharing now, so whatever.

I've had many things I wanted to talk about, some good, some bad, some terrible. Many of them I don't even remember anymore.

Perhaps some day.

Monday, March 11, 2013

And That's Why I Killed Him

So this really happened.

ME: Today is Douglas Adams' 61st birthday and...

HIM: Oh no! Did we send him a card?

ME: No, cause he's dead. But anyway...

HIM: I didn't even know he was sick.

ME: It's Douglas Adams' 61st birthday and Google has a doodle.

HIM: Who is Doug Adams?

ME: Seriously? You know, Douglas Adams??!!

HIM: Grizzly Adams?

ME: No.

HIM: The Addams Family?

ME: *sigh* No. Just think about it a minute. Douglas Adams....Towel Day....get it?

HIM: No. Who is Doug Adams?

ME: Douglas Adams...Hitchhiker's Guide the Galaxy. Towel Day. Now you get it right?

HIM: No.

ME: Well, when you're cool, you always know where your towel is. Douglas Adams is a big deal.

HIM: Yeah, for geeky people like you.

ME: But didn't you read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

HIM: I tried once, but it sucked.

ME: And that's why I killed him, Officer.

Monday, March 4, 2013

And Now I'm A Cateter

Well. I did it.

I catered a party for 60 people.

At first, I was all like of course I can do that. No problem. But then I started to panic, cause I've never had to cook for so many before.

What if there wasn't enough?  Running out of food would be the worst. Or wait. What if I didn't season it all properly?? You know, just cause you can make something for dinner and it tastes good, how do you know you can stretch that out to feed 60???

But in the end it all worked out and I think the food was pretty good. I got a lot of compliments. But honestly I was so exhausted by Saturday that I could barely taste what I was eating.
This is NOT a picture of the chicken cacciatore
I made for Saturday, but it is a picture of a
cacciatore sauce I made a while ago. 

I wish I had thought to take pictures, but it was only chicken cacciatore and stuffed shells so there wasn't much to see. Except maybe for all the containers.
There were six 9x12 pans of each, plus two of penne  in sauce. Plus the crock pot of sauce. And I also made some shells with soy cheese and one pan of cacciatore without mushrooms. You know, for people with food issues.

I have food issues. Mostly just that I eat too much of it.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Remaking Star Wars

We've been watching, or I guess I should say re-watching, all the Star Wars films in order.  It all started when we inexplicably sat one Saturday and watched all four Die Hard films, back to back. I don't remember why or what the reasoning was, but we did it. So then we started to think about what other series we could stand to watch that way. 

With all the Star Wars talk, it seemed like a good place to start. But since we didn't have another day to do it in, we've just been watching about one a week.  It's been harder than I thought. Mostly cause we had to start with Episode I, which is, unarguably (so don't even try to argue with me), the worst of the six movies. So since we started there, it was almost difficult to make ourselves watch the second one. But we did it. Fortunately, we eventually got to Episode IV and it got better. Mostly because we've also been watching the corresponding Family Guy ep (we only have Episode VI and It's a Trap left to watch). 

Anyway, I've been thinking about the new Star Wars films. I'm still slightly bummed that it's JJ Abrams and not Joss Whedon at the helm, but really mostly cause I'm still sore about Lost (and will be forever more). But the good news is that I heard Mark Hamill is in talks to return as Luke Skywalker and he basically said he didn't want to do it unless everyone else came back, too. That would be awesome. One assumes that they will be older versions of themselves, with their children or whatever in main roles. But honestly I'd like it just as well if it was just Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher in the leads. I don't subscribe to the theory that you have inordinately pretty twenty-somethings in the lead roles to sell tickets. 

In any case, all this talk made me think about who could play their children or maybe even them in flashbacks and I remembered a picture I put together once of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones matched up to Matt Davis ("The Vampire Diaries," "Cult") and I went out and found another one of Han Solo and Matt.  

I think he's a pretty good match. I mean, they're even dressed alike! (Which seriously makes me wonder if Matt actually realizes he looks like Harrison Ford and has been trying to make it even more obvious, but...no, that's probably not what's happening. I'm sure it's just a coincidence.)

What do you think?  

Friday, February 22, 2013

Buffy Innocence Podcast



So here it is, the link to the start of my podcasting career:  Rogue Demon Hunters, #28 Innocence. Which is also quite possibly a link to the end of my podcasting career.

Please go listen...it's only an hour long. And I promise if you hate it, you will get that hour back. Next Fall.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Still Being Human

So while I was recording that podcast with Nicole and Selina...I told you about my new career as a podcast star, right??...we got to talking about another one of my little obsessions, Being Human. Not the US SyFy version, cause that's rubbish, but the original UK version, which is the best thing ever.

As a matter of fact, I hated the SyFy version so much, I wrote an entire post about it, a long one, with pictures, explaining exactly why it was so absolutely terrible, cause I felt the need to tell everyone I'd ever met that they should not watch that one, but see the UK version instead.

I'm highly recommending that you do what you have to do to see this show. The UK version. Not the US version. Got it?

I'm going to seriously consider (once I've actually heard myself speaking on said podcast and determine whether or not I sound scary or acceptable) finding a Being Human podcast I can crash. Cause I have way more than a lot to say about it. Especially now that it's ending after this series.

I still want to cry a little when I think about that. I know people say, wouldn't you rather it went out on top, when it still has the best ratings on it's network and it's good, rather than have it hang around long after it should be off the air. And to that I say, NO.

Well, OK, maybe there is something in that argument, but couldn't we at least have waited until it wasn't getting even more awesome than it has been?

The first season was really, really good. The second season was mostly good. The third season was in a very dark place and at the time seemed not as good, but when you watch them all together, you can see the way it all fits together and kind of spirals down, but in a good way, like it was supposed to happen like that.  Then the third season ended with a huge bang and people were in shock, didn't want to watch any more, and cried themselves to sleep every night for months. (Not that I would know anything about that.)

That wasn't over, cause then the fourth season started and it was terrible. I mean that in the best way possible. Talk about Joss Whedon ripping your heart out and stomping on it, Toby Whithouse is cornering that market now. He literally tried to kill us all with the start of series four. I know people stopped watching, I know they did. But then an amazing thing happened. Turns out old Toby wasn't just ripping things apart for fun, he had an actual plan. And it worked. The fourth series went on to be really awesome.

Now we are up the series five and it's good, almost better than I had hoped for. But it's all over. Over.

Toby really is trying to kill us.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

TV Lazy

I think I figured out my problem.

I'm lazy.

Not in a I-don't-ever-do-anything way, cause somehow I'm always busy. But more in a I-wish-I-didn't-have-to-do-anything-ever, way. And also in a that's-too-much-trouble-and-I-just-don't-care-enough-to-be-bothered way.

As a result, I watch way too much TV.

TV is like my plan. It's seriously how I decide what I'm going to do and when I'm going to do it. I even have an Excel spreadsheet so I can keep track of everything. I may have mentioned that before.

So we had just upgraded to this awesome whole house DVR thing with Time Warner, so I could watch and re-watch all my shows from everywhere.

It helped, cause it allowed me to watch stuff while cooking in the kitchen, something I couldn't do before. I'd be so frustrated, cause I wanted to finish watching whatever that was on the DVR upstairs cause I had more shows coming on that night and it all started to pile up and since there were more new shows every night, I constantly felt behind the eight ball. Like watching TV was my job. Honestly, I gave it even more value than my job.

And then we moved.

We moved to a place where they have their own cable network. Seriously. As a result of that, they don't even have DVRs. If you want something like that you have to buy it. So I bought one. But it's like an old VCR in that you can only record one thing at a time and you have to be watching that channel to record on it. Which basically negates the point of recording a show at all.  Cause, you know, I need to record the shows on the other channels. The channels I'm not watching right now.

We've been living like this for more than a year now and I learned something. I don't have to watch that much TV. I really had to make some choices, I had to eliminate shows. It was hard, but less hard than I thought it would be.

All of which brings me to the point here, and that  is why I stopped watching American Idol this year. I just can't fit it in.

And also Steven Tyler is gone.

Oh, and also, they've ripped my heart out just one too many times.



Saturday, February 16, 2013

I'm a Podcaster...Who Knew?

So I just had the most fun ever.

Seriously.

Through a weird series of circumstances, I was able to guest host (co-host?) on a podcast. I tried to tell my family about it, but they were all like, um, sure, whatever, have fun casting pods.  *sigh*  I don't even know them.

Anyway, it all started on Twitter. Which, when you think about it, is where most things seem to happen these days. I don't remember exactly, but it was when Laura and I were starting our re-watch of Buffy (well, my annual re-watch, her first watch), and either I happened to notice that Rogue Demon Hunters (@RDHPodcast) had just done their review of the same ep we were watching or she noticed me talking about it or something.

We spoke. It was just a thing, but it happened. So then I started listening to the podcast. I liked it. Big surprise.

I mean, it's people talking about episodes of Buffy. In what universe wouldn't I like that?

So then a few weeks ago, another one of my invisible internet friends and I were chatting on Twitter. Jo (@Pussinabox) and I were lamenting those people who call themselves Whedon fans and yet aren't really "in the know," if you will. If you really want to be a Whedonite, people, you have to know a little bit more than just the names of the shows he's written. In this particular instance, it was someone who was, unbelievably, unfamiliar with Jane Espenson.

See? Unbelievable.

Anyway, Nicole (playing the part of RDHPodcast) happened to overhear us chatting, as we went on to comment that maybe the most scary part was how much about Whedon stuff we did know. She then proceeded to invite us both to guest on their podcast and lots of other people jumped in expressing a wish to host and it got a little crazy for a bit.

I was mostly wondering how all of us would fit in one pod.

Unfortunately, Jo couldn't make it, but I could, so the show went on without her. This time.

I plan to tell her what a blast I had so that she can come join me the next time. And I really hope there will be a next time. Mostly cause I have lots and lots and lots to say about Buffy, but I can rarely find an interested audience.

We reviewed what is probably one of the most pivotal episodes in the entire Buffy the Slayer series, Innocence (S02E14). This is the ep that changes everything. And I mean that.

It will probably be up in a couple of weeks, so you should totally, definitely and absolutely look out for it and listen to me ramble on and on and on. I'll bet I sound awesome!  

But either way, remember, it was my first time, so be gentle with me.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Wasting Time and Taking Names

Sometimes it feels like I should apologize, or at least feel guilty, for not posting more often. But since I just keep this blog for myself and since most of what I share here is pointless anyway, you should be be thanking me for not wasting your time.

Seriously, I read a lot of blogs where people just feel like they have to blog every day or whatever, and then just post lots of nothingness, which I read, expecting that it will mean something at some point.  But it never does and then my time has been wasted. I hate wasting time. So I'm really doing you a favor by only posting my own bits of nothingness once or twice a month.

Of course, if I had chosen to watch American Idol this year, I'd be driving (all ten of) you insane with my twice weekly absurd recaps that you almost have to be watching the show at the same time to understand.

So, you're welcome.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Spoilers and Star Trek

I was reading an article about why JJ Abrams is so secretive. And I get it, I really do. He wants people to have the whole experience and not be spoiled ahead of time. He personally probably doesn't like to be spoiled; lots of people don't like it.

But that's not really natural. Hear me out. Anyone who's ever had, or even been around a two-year old, knows that  little kids love to re-watch the same thing. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and, for instance, over again. In no way does knowing that happens next ruin the experience for them. It's just as much fun to watch Woody and Buzz fly down the street towards the moving van if they are seeing it for the first time or for the 100th time. That week. The Oompa Loopa song never gets old. They will sing along with it every time. The Wicked Witch of the West is still scary; when she threatens "I'll get you my pretty and your little dog, too" they still think she may be victorious.

As kids, the experience isn't ruined for us, even when we know what's happening. So it feels to me like Mr. Abrams is throwing his own issues on to everyone else. Cause, seriously, what difference could it make for everyone to know what part Benedict Cumberbatch plays in Star Trek Into Darkness?  Of course, maybe I'm involved in a  little transference here myself, cause I haven't yet forgiven anyone for Lost. I'm not sure I ever will.

But I've got no problem with spoilers. (And every time I hear that word, River Song is saying it in my head, "Spoilers, sweetie.") They don't ruin anything for me. I kinda hate surprises, actually. (As my husband will be too happy to tell you, when he threw me a surprise birthday party once. We'd only been married a couple of years and he really didn't know me too well yet. It was a bad, bad idea. Poor guy. I think I made him cry.)

Anyway, as everyone in the world knows, Buffy The Vampire Slayer is my favorite show, of all time. I still watch every single episode (all 144 eps from 7 seasons, plus the original pilot) every year.  It does not ruin the experience, even though I know exactly what is going to happen and I can basically quote all of the dialogue.

Even back in the day, when the eps were new, there was this thing called the Wild Feed run by a guy who's name - due to any existing statutes that may not have run out yet - that I can't remember, who somehow managed to get a hold of the episode feed before the show aired. He'd watch each ep, re-cap them down to every detail, including commercial breaks (even though there were no commercials in the feed he saw - expect once there was one for  Windex, which was totally weird and unexplained) and I'd read that silly thing every week. Even if it went up just hours before the show aired. Seriously. I couldn't help myself. I had to know what happened. Then I would watch the show and, in some ways, knowing what was going to happen made the experience better for me.

I guess I just like being prepared.