Happy Autumnal Equinox Everyone!!!!

Despite Porthos looking really sad in my icon, I am not depressed. I love fall with all its beautiful colors and cooler weather, however I could do without the allergy attacks and sinus headaches that come as a result of those allergy attacks, hence the depressed icon. I am looking forward to all the leaves falling of the trees in their bright earthy colors and the mountains blazing burnished orange and red with the profusion of vegetation readying itself for winter.

So adieu to the summer, welcome to the fall!

( In Other News... )

So what I thought was the season two finale for Burn Notice was on last night. I haven't had time to watch the episode yet, since it airs at 11 PM in my time zone and I had to work this morning, but I noticed a news article about it in the entertainment section of my newspaper this morning and was happy to learn that USA has decided to split season two in to two sections. Episodes 1 - 9 aired over the last two and a half months, the show will be on hiatus and then return to air episodes 10 - 16 in January/February. So not only do I have The Closer to look forward to during the winter, when most primetime shows are airing reruns in preparation for sweeps, but now Burn Notice as well.

So far, I am only planning on following Bones, NCIS, CSI:NY, and CSI (only until William Peterson leaves) this season. Bones and NCIS are my guilty pleasures, I only watch CSI:NY in the hopes that either Eddie Cahill or Carmine Giovinazzo will take off their shirts, and I have always love the original CSI, despite its missteps in the last couple of seasons. I can't miss Grissom's departure!

My affair with Dr. Gregory House is continuing at a slow pace. I absolutely adore him, but haven't had the time to devote him a lot of my attention lately. Updates to come as the relationship progresses.

When you see this put an SPN quote in your journal.

SPN: Another show I don't watch but that all my friends do watch. I guess this means I am going to Best Buy tonight!

(As a sidenote, it might be to pick up the first season of House and not SPN, I haven't made my mind up yet.)

Just got through my third run of Firefly (does anyone listen to The Signal, by the way?), was going to watch the first season of Burn Notice to break up the sci-fi love, but I think I need to read a book instead. Too much TV might turn my brain to mush. I've been meaning to pick up a copy of The Art of Innovation.

A meme, gacked fromhandyhunter , who gacked it from marcyjo .

- Choose a singer/band/group
- Answer using ONLY titles of songs by that singer/band/group
- Tag 7 more people.

1. Are you male or female? Lady with the Spinning Head (Extended Dance Mix)

2. Describe yourself. Original of the Species

3. What do people feel when they're around you? Running to Stand Still

4. How would you describe your previous relationship? Staring at the Sun

5. Describe your current relationship. Dancing Barefoot

6. Where would you want to be now? In God’s Country

7. How do you feel about love? Love is Blindness, but it also the Sweetest Thing

8. What's your life like? Ultraviolet (Light My Way)

9. What would you ask for if you had only one wish? The Unforgettable Fire

10. Say something wise. Walk On

For some unknown, naive reason, I thought that being done with school would mean all sorts of free time I didn't have before. Apparently, that isn't the case, as I have been busy for the last several weeks. Work seems determined to fill in any gaps left by classes and homework. Any free time I have had has been eaten up by chores and errands left undone because of school. Hopefully things will start to calm down within the next couple of weeks, but the outlook is dim. All sorts of projects are coming down the pike, including the new database that I created finally being implemented. Can I just say that SQL seems to be much better than Oracle at keeping track of records. Perhaps my opinion is slightly biased by the fact that our previous database was written in Oracle and was problematic at best, but still. Coding seems to be so much easier in SQL.

However, I shouldn't totally complain, I have had time to do some fun things, trips to the lake, getting to watch tv shows and movies I missed out on and being able to read whatever I want before I go to bed at night. I have also had time to go to Borders and shop at Amazon.com, spending way too much money on books I have been dying to read. I even got a really nice edition of Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels, which is always a good read. I see something new in it, or a new facet every time. Plus, I have been able to really get into Firefly, which I highly recommend to everyone.

The best news of today though...the Bones season premiere is tonight.

Although well aware that I am much more than fashionably late in getting into this series, I just finished watching all the DVDs and felt the need to blog about it. First and foremost, the show did indeed live up to all the hype, brilliantly written and well acted, it will now take a place within my collection instead of being sold back to the used DVD section of my local FYE. It was so good, that I chose to watch all the episodes in a 24 hour period, instead of taking them slowly. (It helped that I have been running heavy database maintenance at work and entering a lot of information into said databases,  because I got to watch Firefly on my auxiliary screen while I was working.) Now I am looking forward to watching the movie, which I am sure will be just as good.

Anyway, I thought I would list my five favorite things about the show and see if I can spark any interest in a discussion. If I am rehashing things you "browncoats" have already gone over with a fine tooth comb, I apologize.

(3 - 5 are actually intellectual reasons I like Firefly, feel free to skip to 1 and 2, which are totally fangirl squeeing.)

5. The juxtaposition between Sci-Fi futuristic technology, the Old West and its associated lawlessness/cowboy code of honor, and Asian (specifically Chinese) customs, culture, and philosophy, created both an interesting and fascinating dynamic for the show. The ideals all fit together astonishingly well, and created a vibrant backdrop as well as a secondary character for the series.

4. Someone finally realized that in the future, humans a not likely to speak the exact same version of English, or any other language for that matter, that we speak today. I loved the subtle nuances of phrasing, speech pattern, and dialect used by the characters. The language seemed to be such an amalgamation of different things. I picked up some Shakespearean English elements, cowboy and modern slang, Asian speech pattern, and Latin based language phrasing. It was both charming and striking at the same time.

3. While it is an old literary trick to put your characters in places and situations that they don't want to be in, unlike many of the popular shows today, this one didn't make it cliche. The characters of Firefly all represented some aspect of the human condition in one way or another, without trying to shove a moralistic or ethical point of view down the audience's throat. The way the characters interacted with their circumstances and one another was very compelling and easily drew me in Everyone had a story to tell, and each did an excellent job portraying that story without coming right out and bludgeoning the audience over the head to make their personalities, ideas, and desires know. It is the classic idea of showing instead of telling a story.

2. Malcolm - He has such beautiful, expressive eyes. The character was well defined without being pigeonholed, he had depth and dimension, enough cynicism to be convincing but, also enough faith in humanity, honor, and morals to be a true space cowboy. (Trash was my favorite episode, anyone care to guess why?)

1. Simon - I think I might be in love, I mean he is a wonderful brother, looks good without a shirt on, and is willing to learn and grow. (The phrase hot doctor comes to mind.) Who wouldn't love a guy who is very intelligent, but also totally clueless at the same time?

So, after being severely abused and berated for never having seen it by a alcyonev I finally watched Batman Begins. (I think I need a new icon, hint, hint.) I was pleasantly surprised by how good the movie was, for some reason I was fearing something like the one with George Clooney. Instead, it was well written and acted (with a few exceptions) and the story was fascinating. I now feel prepared to go and see Dark Knight this weekend and perhaps even Iron Man. I know everyone is going into shock, me actually going to see movies. I also took the advice that alphielj and pelirroja_ljc recently gave me and bought Firefly and Serenity. I think Dr. Who will be up next. So, you ask, why all the sudden interest in pop culture? Well, I am please to announce that I am done jumping through hoops, my thesis is totally complete, I have all the required signatures and I am taking it to the library today to be bound and published. This is the last official act that I need to complete in order to be totally finished with grad school. Henceforth and forever more I shall reside in Xanadu, where words like homework, thesis, classes, and of course research, no longer exist. Within Xanadu, I am allowed to watch as much TV and as many movies as I wish. I am allowed to read comic books, graphic novels, mysteries, and fantasy books. I will now have time to catch up on all the stuff I missed and work on my own projects, especially my writing, which frankly could use all the help it can get! Now, all I have to do is keep reality from encroaching to much and I am all set.

Last night I took my little sister to a lecture about the joys of reading to try and get her interested in books beyond the required school reading lists (don't get me started on how detrimental school reading requirements are to people). The lecturer was really fascinating and had such a passion for books that the audience was captivated. We went to Borders afterwards and each got several new books to read.

As much as I enjoyed the experience, I was a little disconcerted when illiteracy was discussed. I knew that it was a problem in the United States, but I was unaware of how much of a problem. So this morning I did a little research and found that a 2006 study conducted by the US government deems between 46% and 51% of the adult population functionally illiterate. What is even worse is that the number of functionally illiterate women are much higher than the men. Illiteracy of course limits the opportunities and creates a myriad of other problems, especially for women. I haven't gotten into the literature too much yet, but some researchers assert that their is a direct correlation between literacy and self-esteem and that many women who end up in abusive and self-destructive relationship suffer from illiteracy. I am not sure what disturbs me more, the subjection of a gender in what should be an advanced and enlightened society, or the fact that no one seems to be trying to do anything about it. I am not naive, I know that historically women have been given the short end of the stick, but I still think that we are not as powerless in this day and age as we have been in the past.

Anyway, I guess this post is really a question to see if anyone out there knows anything about this subject or of any programs that address this issue where people can volunteer to help out.

Summary: Jasper, Emmett, and a casino, what more could you ask for?
Genre: Humor, General
Characters: Jasper Hale, Emmett Cullen
Rating: PG

Summary: Jasper, Emmett, and a casino, what more could you ask for?
Genre: Humor, General
Characters: Jasper Hale, Emmett Cullen
Rating: PG