Fall TV, Tuesday Edition

Tuesday will, starting next week, be the home of girlie cult night: Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars. I watched the Season 6 finale of GG again. That last scene with Lorelai breaks my heart. Yowza.

Tuesday is also the home of House, which I love, but last night- EW. She's 17, House. You are so gross. Glad the cane is back. More Cuddy!

I've also accidentally started watching Standoff with Ron Livingston. I'm sure it won't last, but it started a couple of weeks before everything else so I've been watching. It's formulaic, hostage negotiators. Enjoyable, but nothing crazy-special. Oh, except the female character (played by Jimmy Braddock's granddaughter)'s name is Emily Lehmann, and I grew up with a girl by that name. Weird!

Eureka: still love it. Pretty sure there's only 2 eps left in this season though, thank goodness. I don't have time for cable shows right now. (Until Oct. 6, of course.)

Smith. I got approximately 33 minutes into and found myself staring into space. It's out. Sorry, CBS, I'm just not in your demographic yet.

I also caught up on the first two episodes of Men in Trees with Anne Heche. It's blatantly Sex in the Northern Exposure, but I'm incredibly pleased with it. Of course it will never last; it's on Friday nights so it's doomed to join Miss Match in that great cancelled television channel in the sky. The premise is that Anne Heche's character was a successful New York relationship coach and author, and her fiancee cheats on her so she moves to Alaska to write a book about men. There's townies galore! Plus, the male lead looks pretty much exactly like a 38-year old Heath Ledger, so, bonus, and it also has Francie from Gilmore Girls and Admiral Percy Fitzwallace as Buzz, the pilot, who says awesome things like, when he finds out her ex-fiancee's name is Graham, "Isn't that the name of a cracker? Yeah, that's a girlie cracker, too." Thanks Amy, for recommending it.

Tonight, Jericho and Kidnapped!

New Fall TV -- Just the Beginning

Is it the saddest thing in the world that the new fall schedule excites me to no end? I took my first Unit Exam today and don't have to think about work or school for about a day and a half, so I've had my pajama pants on since about 4pm. I'll be updating you guys on my thoughts of the new television season in the next couple of weeks.

Sunday - The Amazing Race 10. Of the twelve couples, there are some that I already seriously hate. We have the cheerleaders from South Carolina, the Muslim dads from Ohio, the Asian-American brothers from San Francisco, the beauty queens (Miss California and Miss New York), the one-legged girl and her fake-leg-making boyfriend triathletes, the father/lesbian daughter from Rhode Island, the obligatory flaming gay couple, the African-American single moms from Alabama, the Indian couple, the ex-drug using/male models, the Kentucky coal-miner and his housewife, and that grating we-don't-know-if-we-should-break-up- or-get-married-so-let's-just-be-on-television couple. I hate them the most. They all started in Seattle, flew to Bejing, ate some eyeballs, the Muslims got eliminated, the laid some bricks, did some dancing, scaled the Great Wall of China, and the Indians got canned. They were really nice; bummer. First episode prediction: the winners will be the male models.

Monday- The Class. Really, really bad. Abysmal. I have no more words. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip- awesome. I predict it will be my favorite new show of the season. I thought Matt Perry was great and very un-Chandler, and I though Bradley Whitford was great and very un-Josh. The dialogue was mostly great, the casting was great, the acting was great, and as usual, Sorkin and Schlamme hit a home run with a beautiful pilot. I also think they got rid of their crazy not-so-steady-cam guy that they picked up the last couple of seasons of TWW, so I'm grateful for that.

Doh- my new lab assignment was just posted. So much for not thinking about school for a while, eh? Oh well, at least I had one evening to myself.

science on the brain

I am in full-on study mode this weekend as I prepare for my first A&P test. I ordered Chinese and everything. There might even be a pot of coffee and an all-nighter tonight. The test is over homeostasis and the chemical level of organization, and I gotta say, I can't wait to get to actual bones and muscles. There is a whole lot of crap inside a cell for something 1/100,000th the size of the period at the end of this sentence. I finished my Chapter 3 Exam last night and then watched the three shows on my TiFaux from the week: House, Bones, and Eureka~ and it hit me. I am not only science fiction nerd, I am a science nerd. When did that happen? Have the rest of you known this all along?

Now, last time I went to college, the internet was just a baby. I don't think I even had an e-mail address until I was a junior. So one might think that I might be a little old school (no pun intended) about books and highlighters and flashcards. But no. I'm embracing the melding of technology and classroom with great fervor. Apparently most textbooks have companion websites with them now. In addition to just reading the chapter in my book, I can get online and take practice quizzes, play interactive games, look at histology slides, and all kinds of other things. I can even take a learning style survey in order to pick the activities that will help me the most. It also has links to essays and other website involving the material. It's frakkin' awesome.

Speaking of "frakkin'"- Apparently the season 3 premiere of Veronica Mars introduces the lead character to the Battlestar Galactica-derived expletive and it will become one of her most oft-used exclamations. Lorelai Gilmore used it last season on Gilmore Girls, which is no surprise as the Palladinos (and their fictional Gilmores) are know for being pop culture mavens. Trey Parker and Matt Stone expressed their undying love for BSG at the Peabody Awards last month. I think the world is finally discovering the best show on television!

Aaand, speaking of television, I'm starting to wish my birthday was in September. The lastest seasons of Gilmore Girls, Battlestar Galactica, Grey's Anatomy, and LOST have all just come out and I am dying for them!

Back to the books~ I have a date with the last day of the WB in a few hours.

the first step is admitting you have a problem.

OK, I started Battlestar Galactica again last night, from the beginning. I want to have it all fresh in my mind when the third season starts next month. Holy crap, watching the miniseries again, knowing what I know now is just... crazy. I barely got an hour into it last night, but Six and the baby, Apollo's fight with Adama, Starbuck punching out Tigh, Boomer and the Chief, even Roslin and Adama's first meeting... knowing how far each of their characters arc in the short time we've know them makes watching the beginning just insane. It made me remember how much I disliked, nay, loathed Kara at first. I would have never in a million years thought I would ever be able to tolerate her, much less that she would turn into one of my favorite television characters of all time. Knowing her history and the woman she will become puts a completely different spin on her attitude.

I had forgotten that at the very beginning of the show, no one had seen or heard from the Cylons in over 40 years. That means that practically every main character on the show (save Adama, Tigh, and Roslin, and they couldn't have been more than 10 or 15 at last Cylon encounter) had never known their country at war. They had never seen a Cylon. They had probably never honestly entertained the notion that they would. Little Callie joined the military to pay for dental school, for Pete's sake. They had only ever known their worlds to be comfortable, advanced societies. The mere fact that they're all aboard the Galactica to decommission it just reiterates how little they were expecting any sort of contact from their enemy, much less an invasion and probable complete demolition of humanity.

Also, they said that there were originally 12 Battlestars, one for each of the colonies. Galactica was Caprica's and I think if I remember correctly that The Pegasus belonged to Scorpia. What happened to the other 10? Did they ever say that they were all destroyed in the attack or is it a possibility that we might find another one?

Also, how many of the 12 Cylon models have we met now, 7? There's Number 6 (Gina), Number 8 (Boomer), Number 3 (Xena, er, Biers), Doral, the priest, who I think was Number 7 (and Dean Stockwell from Quantum Leap, which was frakkin' awesome), Leoben, and Simon (the doctor that supposedly took Kara's ova on Caprica). I'm thinking that maybe one of the remaining models will be a child (not the cybrid, but a school-age child) and I definitely think there's another in our midst, so to speak.

It's coming on right before Dr. Who this season. I think I might never go out on a Friday night ever again.

those friendly skies

I've had a lot of time off this summer, and now as I head into our fall season, I was reminded this morning about how much I love airports. (Technically, I love train stations more but that's another post for another time and anyway, I live in Dallas now, so don't get as much train station face time as when I lived in NY.) There was a wreck on the highway this morning where Woodall Rogers feeds onto 35, and I was so late I had to park at the gate and I got my bag checked with about 3 minutes to spare. That gave me exactly 10 minutes to get through security and still have time to stare at the arrivals/departures board, which is my favorite thing to do. (Again, not quite as awesome as the flip-down letters at Grand Central or Penn Station, but, hey, it's the Texan's next best thing.)

Just looking at those hundreds of choices, thinking about how in just a few hours I could be in anywhere, watching people prepare for vacations or homecomings, all the buzz and the hurrying... I think airports are one of the most exciting places to be.

The trip to the airport was hardly the greatest of my travel woes on this trip, but I am finally here and can finally unclench. I don't have to work until tomorrow morning, so I'm planning on spending the afternoon studying, and drinking about 3 liters of water. I love the desert, but geez Louise.

my new tv boyfriend

This week I'm completely obsessed with Bones. I didn't watch it last year (being a gypsy left my television watching to the bare minimum) but there was a great article about Season 2 in the EW fall tv preview issue, and it had always sounded like something I would like, so I downloaded the first season (and am TiFauxing the 2nd until I catch up). It's sort of X-Files and sort of CSI and sort of ... Moonlighting. I guess. Anyway, it's about a forensic anthropologist whose team analyzes human remains to help the FBI solve crimes. The main criticism I've heard about it is that it's formulaic, and it is, but I like the formula, so it works for me. Not every show has to continually reinvent itself to make me happy. The Monster-of-the-Week episodes were always my favorite X-Files. Since I'm in A&P now, I actually know what she means when she says "distal philanges." Ha! However, on the show they lay the bones out with palms posterior (hands straight down if the skeleton was standing) and I assumed that they should lay it in official anatomical position (palms facing up) because then "distal philanges" means something different. But I digress.

The leads are Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz. I think Deschanel is adorable and her highly intellectual yet socially naive Dr. Temperance Brennan is simultaneously admirable and loveable. I never watched Buffy or Angel so I didn't have any predetermined notions about Boreanaz but I think he plays the part of Special Agent Seely Booth very well: soldier-come-agent with a strong sense of civic duty and a playful nature. The best friend/co-worker is played by Michaela Conlin, who I remember from the shortlived MDs, and a few other things, and I like her a lot. The assistant Zack is brilliant, awkward, and cute as a button. And my new tv boyfriend is TJ Tynes, who plays Dr. Jack Hodgins, the prickly, curly haired, scientist/conspiracy theorist. He's smart and dry and sarcastic and has this awesome beard... wow, on paper he sounds incredibly relative to my past tv boyfriend Toby Ziegler... but that's a whole 'nother therapy session. He's a well-known "hey, it's that guy," been on a hundred things, and I read once that he went to high school in Plano, so I always recognize him, but now that I've seen him sink into a character I have entered full-time crush. I mentioned it to Tom who's all "oh yeah, I know him; we grew up together; he's on myspace." WHA? I bribed him with homemade ziti to get him to promise to come up with some scenario to introduce me to him, so I can charm him into falling in love with me. Seems easy enough, since I live in Texas and Tom lives in NYC and Tynes, I'm assuming, lives in LA... 'cause you know, that's why we'll never be together: geography.

In other news, Ree-Ann turned 30, I went to church this morning for the first time in months, my first A&P test is next week, and I leave for Vegas tomorrow. Happy Monday!

Farewell Pluto...

Yeah, I know I'm a little late to the game with my Pluto post. But earlier I was looking for the Newsweek back-page narrative from last week, or maybe the week before, because I read it at the hair salon, and it was hysterical - the guy was saying how Pluto never should have been named a planet in the first place, and then launched into other accepted theories like "Europe? You're SO not a continent. Just look at a map. And while I'm at it, 'Y'? Don't get enough play as a consonant? Have to take over that coveted sometimes-a-vowel spot, too?" Bah!! Anyway, I couldn't find the article, but I did find an apparently widespread concern over the astrological effects of downgrading Pluto's status as a planet. Apparently Scorpio's sign is closely associated with Pluto, and Scorpios are being warned by some astrologists that they might have a hard time trying to control their plutonion tempers. No, I'm not kidding.

So, I'm not sure if I know any Scorpios, since I have no idea what birthdays that sign covers, but I'll be sure and treat them with a little extra patience for a while. But you know, I'm a Leo, so you pretty much always have to watch out for my temper.

Rawr!

the zone

So, this morning I was talking to Tom, and there was NO ONE logged into my IM list, and NO ONE logged into my online classroom, so I had to double-check with him that it was, indeed, 9:30am on a Thursday. Because that's weird, right? I told him I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone and he answered: "One girl think she's heading into an online classroom... a place of learning... of higher education... She will soon receive a different kind of education... in a classroom... called The Twilight Zone." Bah!! Oh Tom, you should work in television! *wink*

So, night before last, I had this dream that I was in this hotel ballroom with my co-workers Keri & Claudine and there was a piano and Keri sat down to play it, and the only song she knew was the theme to Hill Street Blues, and she played it over and over and then I got kidnapped and my kidnapper ripped my nose ring out, I thought, but then I realized that he had actually pushed it all the way through my nose. Wha? Anyway, when I woke up, I couldn't get the HSB theme out of my head, and I had the WORST crick in my neck. I thought it would loosen up throughout the day as I got out and about, but it didn't, and I spent the entire day not turning left. I ended up having to go buy a heating pad last night.

So now I still can't turn my neck left. Oh, and I also can't find my phone.

Tuesday, bloody Tuesday....

You may think I haven't posted in a while because I've been so busy, and I have been... but not really doing anything really all that newsworthy. (But Jamie, you may argue, nothing about your life is newsworthy, and yet you have this whole blog that indicates you believe otherwise! To which I would respond: Word.)

The holiday weekend was nice and relaxing - Saturday I bailed on a date (long story) and instead had a fun night out with my usual double-date gang (Bill, Nathan, Erin~ you decide who's paired up with whom *wink*). Sunday I caught up on some TV, went to the bookstore, and met Amy, Madison, and Dave in Addison for Kaboomtown. It was a pretty normal event but it was fun to get out with them. Yesterday I went to Madge & Dave's for slow-cooked chili and a Robert Downey Jr. two-fer: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (A+ from Jamie) and Restoration (B+). We didn't exactly plan that, but KKBB was one of my favorite movies in a long time. Oh, that reminds me: I've added recently watched films to my link bar at left.

Other than that, I've been organizing/cleaning around the house, going to yoga, cooking, catching up on some TV series (4 seasons of Felicity and the 1st season of Doctor Who - LOVE it), and studying studying studying. It's been quiet, but I confess I'm rather fond of my little life these days. I'm leaving for Vegas, baby, Vegas next Monday, and then home for about a week before I leave for Seattle. In Seattle I have a day and a half of fun before I start work - I'm looking into hiking Mt. Ranier. I'm also going to catch up with a friend from college, Loretta, and I finally get to lay eyes on Shelly, so I'm really looking forward to the trip, despite the unfortunate fact that I have to work a 600-booth show with someone I'm wary, nay, petrified of.

I'm making filet mignon and sauteed onions - House premiere and Eureka tonight!

feet, trains, & automobiles - a tour of Dallas

I didn't have any plans last night until about 3:30. At the last minute I asked Bill, Nathan, & Erin to come over for dinner and a movie. Erin had a work function so it was just me and the boys. I made dinner for them and we sat around and chatted for a while, but Nathan wasn't digging the sitting, so we talked about walking around the video store (which I didn't dig) and going out to get a drink (which Bill didn't dig). We decided just to do all three.

We went down Lower Greenville to a new bar they had seen but hadn't been to yet. It was called Libertine and we loved it. Turns out they are owned by the same people as own The Meridian Room, so it makes complete sense. We decided to go back for dinner one night this week. Then it was too late to go to the video store, so we went to Mockingbird Station and had gelato. Then we got on the train and took it down to West End.

It was a really fun evening and we hit 3 major neighborhoods in The Big D. I guess 4 if you count the fact that we started in Highland Park at the Chalet J. And best of all, it was a completely unplanned evening, which always is a little more delightful than if you had expected it all along.

In other news, I bought the 3rd season of Arrested Development and I made an A on my first A&P exam.