Saturday, May 9, 2009

My week in nerdiness.

So there was a bit going on this week in the realm of things I could blog about.  I thought I'd just give you a little bit of a day by day.

Monday

The week started off with what was actually a pretty slow day.  DVD-wise I watched a disc of Friends (I am working my way through the whole series and remembering all over again why I love this show).  TV-wise there was no new Chuck or Heroes (and NBC, despite announcing most of their fall schedule that day still refused to tell us if we're going to get more Chuck or not next season).  Did watch The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, of course, as well as Castle.  I am so in love with Nathan Fillion.  He is just so good at playing the guy that you know you really shouldn't like but you can't help it.  Think about it:  Mal was a serious hardass but inspired loyalty from his crew and the audience alike; his character on Drive (no idea what the name was) had some serious issues and a very shady past, but you wanted him to beat the system he got pulled into; Captain Hammer was just a jerk, but still, we kind of wanted to hug him (even if we were rooting for Billy to kick his butt and win the girl); and Castle, well, Castle is an egomaniac and he keeps getting in the way of Detective Beckett, but not an episode goes by that we don't get shown that he truly is a decent human being despite all of that--mostly through the relationship with his daughter and mother.

Anyhoo, other than that, on Monday I made a big dent in my video game (Lego Indiana Jones), and that was about it.  I may have read a bit (Winter's Heart, book nine in the Wheel of Time series).

Tuesday

Went to see Wolverine.  I've got to say, I actually rather enjoyed it.  I'm with the Flick Filosopher on this one--it is just a movie that is pure popcorn.  There's no real substance to it, and it doesn't in any way enrich your life, but while you're experiencing it you can't help but enjoy.  Yeah, I thought that they did cram as many other mutants as they could in there, making it less of an origin movie for Wolverine alone.  But lacking the knowledge of pretty much anyone's actual backstory, I felt like for the most part it made sense to the evil bad guy's plot to have so many mutants running around.  I get the impression more people are mad because of the specific mutants that got "shoehorned" in, and the deviances from who should have actually been there and such, so I guess in this case ignorance is bliss.  I know that a lot of people have panned this for just being an inexcusably bad movie--but I think those are people who were expecting it to be on a level with the first two X-Men movies, and clearly this wasn't going to be that.  I just expected it to be fun and silly with pretty explosions, and you know what, that's exactly what I got.  That's all I was asking for, too.

Before I went in to the movie I had lunch and wandered around the mall with the friend I went to see it with, and in Hot Topic found this awesome Star Wars jacket on clearance.  It is a black zip up athletics type jacket that says "Star Wars" in white print on the front and has a stormtrooper helmet over crossbones on the back.  Pure awesome.  I tried to walk away but after the movie I still hadn't forgotten about it so I went back to buy it.  I am weak.  But dude, coolest jacket ever.

Got home, started playing my game a little bit before Fringe came on and meant to stop in time to watch but got caught up and played until bed time.  There's nothing like finding all of the artifact pieces to make a girl feel good about herself.  Also, once I figured out the trick to getting all of the artifact pieces in the mine cart level, it was nowhere near as annoying as I thought it would be.  I generally tend to dislike the levels that are basically "race" levels in these games, but LIJ actually was much better than Lego Star Wars on this front, overall.

Wednesday

After spending an ungodly amount of time at the car dealership getting my baby all tuned up and respectable again, I came home decided to watch Fringe while I ate lunch (this is actually never a good idea--don't eat while this show is on, you never know when there's going to be an eyeball in an omelet or something, and yet, I can never remember this when I make such decisions).  Of course, American Idol ran long so the last two minutes of the episode got cut off of my DVR recording.  Thank God for Hulu though.  Wow, I am pumped for the season finale!  The whole dimension-shifting thing that Olivia has got going on was a really nice little addition to things.  Also, bye bye Harris, at last!  Then, we get a little suspicion thrown on Peter for disassembling random lab equipment--we all know there's something shady about Peter and are still trying to figure out what--only to find out he was making a nice little toy for his dad to help him concentrate in the lab.  Aww.  I may be completely crazy (well, on this front at least--we know I am in general), but I kind of wonder if maybe that video Walter has of kid Olivia in the corner of a burned room is the result of the Firestarter twins and not actually her doing...since it doesn't seem like explosions are her thing at the moment.  Just a thought.  Also, I was super glad that Walter left the complete ZFT manuscript in plain sight when he hared off with the Observer.  Here's hoping Olivia finds it in the next episode and can start to forgive him a little bit.

After Fringe I watched another disc of Friends ("We were on a break!") and then the Scrubs season finale.  I adored the Scrubs season finale.  I blame it on my pregnancy hormones, but I was totally crying during the montage at the end where J.D. was imagining his future (I also must download the Peter Gabriel song they played over the whole thing).  I know it isn't, but I really wish this was the series finale.  Yeah, they can continue the show without J.D. but who is going to be the voice of the show now?  Will we connect with them on the same level?  Will it just be a rehash of old plots with the new characters?  Is Elliot going to be around, as she was sneak moving in with J.D. during this whole episode?  I get the feeling that the new season, unless there is some last minute decision to call the whole thing off, is going to give us a completely different show, if only because of the shift in perspective.  And honestly, I think that they finished it well.  Of course, if there's still money to be made off of it, what does that matter?  Good story over profit?  Never!  Bleah.

Played my game some more, got all of the free play levels of last movie completed, yay!  Stayed up a little bit longer to finish my book.  Dude, the cleansing of saidin!  Such awesomeness.  That's probably my favorite thing that happens in the whole series so far.  Watched Ben Harper on Letterman (the drummer is a good friend of my husband's), then bed.

Wednesday was kind of a big day.

Thursday

Did I mention it's College Tournament week on Jeopardy! yet?  Well it is.  Missed Wednesday's episode due to car maintenance, but have been enjoying it the rest of the week, nonetheless.

I tried to start my next book (Crossroads of Twilight) in the series while running errands--getting my car washed and such--but didn't get very far.  Matter of fact, I still have about ten or twelve pages of prologue left on that thing.  Gah.  Robert Jordan, may he rest in peace, completely abused prologues.  The man can spin a yarn, but when the standard chapter in your books is 25-35 pages, a 94 page prologue is TOO LONG.  Okay, end rant, sorry.  

So.  Came home from errands, watched another disc of Friends (starting season four, woohoo!) and painted my nails.  Yes, I am a girl.  Sometimes I do girly things, nerd or not.  

After my nails were relatively dry I turned on my game to finish off the three bonus levels and reach 100% completion.  As awesome as it feels to have absolutely finished the game, playing the bonus levels last was definitely a letdown.  What I like about this game is that there are objectives, and payoff for these objectives.  You make it through the level in story mode, you unlock new characters.  You find all of the artifacts in a level, you unlock extras you can use to get more money and find more artifacts (or do silly things like make your characters all wear fake mustaches).  But the bonus levels didn't really have any of that.  There was nothing to find in the one level that was actually structured like the others, you just have to go from point A to point B, and in the other two you just have to get a certain number of studs to complete.  Though at least the Ancient City level had puzzles to solve to get all of the studs.  In the Warehouse level you are distracted by all these things to set up a race course (with no payoff for doing so)--and have I mentioned how I feel about race levels?--when all you have to do is get a bazooka and blow up everything that can be blown up and then just aim it at a target for long enough to get all of the required money.  Bleah.  Sigh.  Oh well.  It was a lesson, I guess.  And, I did accomplish something, game wise.  I am not usually someone who does all of the little side quests and buys all of the extras and such.  Usually just doing the quests that interest me and finishing the playthrough, beating the big bad, those are enough.  But the Lego games are nice because there aren't a zillion little side quests.  There's like three or four different goals to aim at aside from just playing through.  First you play through in story mode, then you go back and play through in free play (where you can switch between characters and access things unavailable in story mode) to finish everything off.  Plus you get that little meter that tells you your completion percentage.  It's a challenge not to try to hit 100%.  

Anyway, so I finished my game and then it was time for dinner and Thursday night television.  Bones was awesome.  I have been worried since it was announced on Ausiello that there would be a guest appearance by Stewie Griffin (yes, that's right, the cartoon baby from The Family Guy), but I actually feel like they handled the whole thing really well.  Plus, it led us to find out something was wrong with Booth that they had actually been building up to all season.  Though from the previews from next week it doesn't seem that there are any consequences from his brain surgery.  Of course, it's just a preview.  Those rarely give you all the info you need for a show as rich in character and story as Bones.  Hopefully they don't just brush his brain tumor aside.  It seems silly otherwise to have spent a season leading up to it and then just say, oh, yeah, brain tumor.  Well let's operate in this episode and then by next week everything is back to status quo.  Plus, Bones with baby fever, and just assuming Booth would hand over his swimmers was pretty priceless.  And have they picked an intern?  It's clear they're down to three, and I enjoy all three choices, so I look forward to seeing who wins the season long competition.  Of course, next week Zack is back, so who knows?

Then there was the Grey's Anatomy season finale.  I absolutely love how that show can take such a horrible accident like a semi crashing into an SUV full of college kids on their graduation day and, even though it's just the thing going on in the background of all of these crazy doctors' drama, they don't diminish that it is a horrible event and it needs to be dealt with.  Also, I totally was not surprised that it was Alex and Izzie who ended up at the altar rather than Mer-Der.  I mean come on, who really didn't see that coming?  But it was well done.  Now they can kill her off and make Alex a much deeper character.  I mean...um...yeah.  Though I thought the George going off to join the army was supposed to happen this season, I guess they are wrangling him into at least a few more episodes.  Sigh.  I hate that he has to go, but I totally understand the actor's motivation--they completely under utilize him.  

After Grey's I watched My Name is Earl (I will hold off on The Office until I can watch it with my hubby this weekend, as per usual).  I have enjoyed this show, but I think it may be time for it to take its final bow.  This whole two-parter mystery about the disappearance of a character we have never met until now was really just not all that entertaining.  It certainly wasn't enough to warrant a two-episode story arc.  And while when they do the "COPS" episodes they can be a nice little showcase of how things used to be in Camden pre-list, this "Inside Probe" thing was just lame.  Bleah.  No more.  They seem less and less to be focusing on Earl's list, and to me that means that maybe it is time for the show to be done.

After Earl I needed to do something fun and silly, so I started up a new video game.  The first Lego Star Wars game (episodes 1-3).  I finished this one in story mode way back in the day but never went back in free play, so now that I have completed Indiana Jones, I wanted to give this one another go.  So I played through the first two levels in story mode, trying to get used to the controller (went from Wii to Playstation 2), and learning just the basic differences in game play between the first Lego game and the most recent (there are quite a few, it turns out--each game seems to have its own little unique pieces, not counting that they take place in different universes).  

Friday

I kept forgetting yesterday was Friday for some reason.  After doing my usual Friday errands though I sat down with some lunch and another disc of Friends.  Then I popped in my video game and finished playing through Episode 1 in story mode.  I was quite rudely reminded of how much I frickin' hate pod racing.  Remember when I said I don't like the race levels?  Yeah, this level I played yesterday is the underlying reason for that.  There's one other level in the game (I want to say in Episode 2) that is just as bad.  But at least I found all of the mini-kits in that level the first time through.  I may wait to do that one in story mode until I can buy a stud multiplyer so I can hit the full stud amount for that level right away and not have to stress over it.  Just saying.  

After that I was feeling kind of aimless.  I had about two hours until Dollhouse but didn't really have anything I felt like doing until then.  So I ended up popping in yet another disc of Friends (and now we've met Emily and set the state for the Chandler/Monica hook up, huzzah!) and then since that overlapped Dollhouse, I waited to watch that until after it was done.

So, Dollhouse season finale.  Wow.  Holy awesome show, batman!  I seriously hope that we get a second season of this.  I want to know what happens next!  Does Ballard become Echo's new handler?  Or maybe replace Victor?  What are they going to do with Victor now that he's a "broken" doll like Whiskey was?  I hope they keep that actor around, he's kind of awesome.  Also, plus, dude, Dr. Saunders was a doll?!?  That's pretty sweet in the evil and awesome kind of way.  And why did Topher program her to hate him?  What's up there?  She may not want to know who she is, but now I really do.  Alpha can still be the big bad, only this time he doesn't want Echo to rule by his side, he's going to want revenge on her.  I like that her composite event made her go a completely different direction than his did.  I think maybe it confirms Ballard's belief that you really can't completely overwrite someone's soul.  But yeah, so, totally dug it.  Please Fox, please, just this once, don't be evil, kay?  Give us a season two.  We promise we'll watch!

After that, I read for a bit and then went to bed.  Still in the prologue that never ends, sigh.

And that was my week.  Right about now my husband is reading this and thinking maybe I need to go back to work after all...

It's not like I don't do other stuff, like clean the house, in between all of this.  But really, no one here wants to hear me bitch about cleaning the floors.  So...yeah.

My hubby and I are tentatively planning to go see Star Trek tonight--I am kind of excited for that.  May is seriously the month of a zillion movies.  

 Anyhoo, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a super week.  Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there!  Take care.

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