Useless Link Post Spam

Man, I usually hate it when people do a whole new blog post just to put in a single link to something they think is cool.

Especially now, since I do all my blog following through feeds, so those little posts can combine to take up so much space. There is nothing so disappointing as seeing your favorite blog has updated, only to click over and instead of content, it's a hyperlink.

But screw it, I love this link enough to give it my full attention.

http://labs.ideeinc.com/multicolr

I have spent approximately 8 hours over 2 days playing with this thing and I'm not even remotely bored with it yet. there are so many color combinations available, and they're all so pretty. It's fascinating.

Or maybe I'm just a huge dork for colors and pictures.

Whatever, it's awesome, and anyone who doesn't like it is a Communist, there I said it.

Wherein I Fall Back into Television

So I really thought that I was finally over TV.

I mean, yeah I still watch some things, but after a summer where I didn't need to turn on the set unless it was to watch Project Runway, I had been actively considering dropping my cable, and just relying on Hulu and streaming video to get me through the fall season.

And then said fall season started, and I became the ultra couch potato that is my birthright and my destiny.

So, I now present a rundown of all my television thoughts, as fast as I can get them down.

• How I Met Your Mother: My most anticipated anything, as per usual, but this was a decidedly low key start. I'm a little over Sarah Chalke at this point - not that it's her fault, but the shortened season last year has left her character completely devoid of any real personality. That said, she made huge inroads into my heart with her dissection of Star Wars there at the end. "Good idea, Bear," indeed.
  
  And I almost don't want to talk about the Barney subplot, because then I might let it slip that I've watched this scene (where he explains that he doesn't want to be Robin's boyfriend) approximately 95 times in the past 7 days. Seriously, the crush is out of control. But whatever. It's a good start to the season.
  
  
• Chuck: I didn't watch this show for much of last season after that terrifyingly bad second episode. But then I came back for a bit because of my unrelenting girl-crush on Rachel Bilson, and it was markedly better. And then I watched the preview of the second season premiere on Hulu last week, and I was incredibly entertained. I'm picking this one up for the whole season, I think.
  
  
• Heroes: Aaaaaand I'm out. I suffered through the last season of dreck in the hopes that we could right all that went wrong, that the strike really was that affecting to the quality of the show. And then I watched the season premiere and every single person on the show developed super powers, while no one developed any better acting powers. I'm so over this show, it's not even funny. Although I'll probably still retain some of it by osmosis, since Frank is still a watcher.
  
  
• Fringe: I was unabashedly onboard for the terrible pilot, but every week that goes by, I'm less and less enthused. Everyone knows I've been wishing for an X-Files spiritual successor, but so far this is just not doing it for me. Which is weird. You know I love me some Pacey, and Denethor is pretty hilariously awesome, but on the whole, I kinda wish that I was doing something else while I'm watching this show. Maybe it'll get better.
  
  
• America's Next Top Model: Most shocking development of this entire Fall Season? I made it through only 15 minutes of one episode of what used to be a staple show for me, before I turned it off, and haven't looked back since. I don't know what happened there, but it's dead to me. Sorry Tyra.
  
  
• Project Runway: As terrible as this whole season has been, I still really love this show. I think it helps that my two favorite designers have made it all the way to the end for once (unless you count the super unfortunate early exit of my boy Wesley. *sigh*). It's been pretty uneven all season long, and the quality of designs have been horribly lacking on occasion, but I love all the drama, and I have an actual interest in the outcome (as opposed to last year when I all I cared about was whether or not Jillian would reveal her true robot form at the final elimination, Terminator style).
  
  Also: Team Leanne all the way.
  
  
• Ugly Betty: 1) I am disappointed by the reboot of the season, basically tossing out most of the last year and turning Alexis into the dumbest thing this side of a palm tree. 2) But as much as I hate to admit it, I sorta love the shakeups. The new magazine, the new apartment, bringing in the "only gay for Jamie" guy from 30 Rock (Which, by the way, was the best thing that came out of television last season, hands down. Unless you count that other scene from 30 Rock where Tina Fey eats an entire sub sandwich onscreen in 20 seconds. Or Alec Baldwin's therapy role playing session. Okay, I really need to write up a separate post about how much I love 30 Rock. We're supposed to be talking Ugly Betty). I'm cautiously optimistic about the future. 3)More Mark and Amanda, dammit! Give the people what they want.
  
  
• The Office: There are no words for how much I loved the first episode this season. I was dreading another hour long episode (as last year they just dragged on and on) but this was perfectly paced, hilarious, and actually felt almost a little tight, like it was cut for length. That's some great writing there. (And I'm not even going to talk about the Jim and Pam thing. You think my little Barney disclosure up there was embarrassing? You have no idea.) Easily my front runner for best start of the season.
  
  
• Survivor: It always takes a while for the season to set itself, so I'll give it a pass for now, except to say that I'm really starting to hate Jeff Probst. I mean, how wildly unprofessional was that council where he forced a leadership vote? Quit directly involving yourself in the coolest part of each year (the natural shakeout of the initial alliances). I do love the location, though, so maybe there is some promise here.
  
  
• It's Always Funny In Philadelphia: Y'all, this show is so good. I don't know really how to explain it. I'm consistently shocked that it doesn't just collapse in on itself, week after week. I mean, Danny DeVito has a starring role! It defies all logic. But sweet damn, we're two episodes into the season, and I've already got three new favorite moments for the series. (In case you were wondering what they are: Charlie, Mac, and Dennis shirtless for the loan officer in the bank lobby, Dee attacking her sandwich like a bird, and "Wildcard, Bitches!")
  
  
• Simpsons: About as lackluster as you can get, but they got three solid laughs out of me, which is about 2 more than the entirety of last season, so color me potentially hopeful for this year.
  
  
• Amazing Race: How long have I been looking forward to this? Apparently so long that I completely forgot that it started yesterday. Man, I'm falling apart. Also, why in God's name does CBS only have like 15 2-minute snippets of the show on their website? And why do they each take individually 5 minutes to load? Oh well, my impressions will have to wait until next week when I can properly remember to watch things. I do like the looks of this cast, though.

Recap

Best Episode of the Week:
The Office - Weight Loss

Best Line of the Week:
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - "Wildcard, Bitches!"

Best Line of the Week That's Apparently Funny Only to Jason and No One Else, Because He's a Sucker For Continuity:
The Office: "Cryogenics! Beer Me Five."

Best Moment of the Week:
The Office - Jim & Pam's Rest stop Moment in the Rain
Runners Up:
How I Met Your Mother - Barney on Boyfriends
Project Runway - Leanne's Hip-Hop Walk Down the Runway
Survivor - Gay Charlie's Super Unhealthy and Hilarious Man Crush on Pretty Haired (and Straight) Doctor Marcus

Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Unexpected Laughs:
Chuck - Morgan's Beyond Thunderdome Method of Determining Promotions

Most Disappointing:
Heroes - Mohinder steals the plot of The Fly and destroys my love forever.

Most Anticipated:
Dirty Sexy Money & Pushing Daisies both start this week

Most In Need of a Life:
Yeah, I know.

Your Consumer Whore Report for September

Have a huge pile of disposable income that you need to get rid of really fast?

If so, today's your lucky day because I just happen to have a huge pile of things that you should really want to buy. I know that I do.

1. Who Killed Amanda Palmer - Absolutely awesome new album from Amanda Palmer, i.e. the voice of The Dresden Dolls. When you buy the preorder right now, you get a free electronic download of the whole CD and a couple of bonus tracks, so there's instant gratification for your purchase that will come later in the month. It's like two purchases in one! It also helps that I love the entire album with reckless abandon, now that I've had a couple of days to listen to it a few times. It's weird that I picked up The Dresden Dolls because of Amanda's association with Regina Spektor, since I can't think of two more opposite types of piano girl singers. There's no polish with Palmer, but the emotion she packs into her songs overcomes any limitation you might expect.
   
   
2. Zoe's Tale, John Scalzi - I'm pretty sure I've gone over (at length) my love for the Old Man's War series, and for that matter my general love of Scalzi's writing (see Elsewhere links for his blog). This latest installment is more of the same, following a parallel storyline to the last book in the series (Last Colony) that fills in a lot of the blanks from that book, while telling a compelling story on its own. I have my list of quibbles with the book, almost all centering around Scalzi's skirting of some serious action scenes towards the end of the novel, but on the whole it's a great companion to the series, with an entirely unique voice. I dug it a lot. Now I just wish I had hard cover copies of the original trilogy, because now my collection looks a little lopsided on the bookshelf.
   
   
3. Dallas is about to receive an embarrassment of riches in terms of live music this fall. Just off the top of my head in the next two months: The Swell Season (AKA:the girl and the guy from that awesome movie Once), The Fratellis (my absolute favorite new band I heard this year), Ben Folds (on his new album tour), A new Hotel Cafe Tour (with Ingrid Michaelson again AND Meiko), Sara Bareilles (doing her own show this time), and Kings of Leon (with We Are Scientists(!!), the real reason I want to go to that show).
   
   I can't even fathom how much money it would take to see even half the shows I want to. And this is after Steel Train cancelled their Dallas stop.
   
   
4. In the video game world, Spore came out this week, and it's taking every willpower molecule in my body to not run to the store right now. I have spent far, far, far too much of my freetime just playing with their creature creator (which you can download for free. Because the first hit is always a giveaway. Then when you're hooked, that's where they get you. It's like cocaine, in a way). I'm dreadfully afraid that owning the full game would ensure I didn't see the light of day for until November.

And you know what? I'm just gonna stop right there because I'm practically drooling over all of these purchases that I want to make, and listing anymore is going to drive me right over the edge into poor consumer choices that you make when the industry you're employed in is folding like a bad hand in poker.

But don't let that stop you. Shop, my peoples, shop!

A Week and a Half in Review

Short form posting is the style of the season. Mostly because I'm basically drowning in work, and have less than zero interest in typing on a computer when I'm not being paid to these days.

Last Sunday Night: While out at a bar, was accosted by a drag queen, who attempted to make out with me twice. After derailing said attempts, had to spend close to 30 minutes additionally derailing the boyfriend from defending my honor by attacking the drag queen with a broken and/or rusty beer bottle. Why is my life so complicated? (Also: marks the 4th time in 2 years that a drag queen has propositioned me. Does this just happen to people all the time and I'm just not aware of it? Because I'm never around queens, and yet that's a shockingly high number to me.)

Last Wednesday: While indulging in my one hour of TV a week during the summer (Project Runway), I decided that I should also indulge myself food-wise, since I've brought my lunch to work every day for 2 weeks. I got one of these, and then proceeded to eat the entire thing. I've worked out 3 different times since then, and I can still feel the weight around my waist. Never again, I say. I'm practically sweating out the grease to this day.

Saturday: A successful running of Frank's birthday extravaganza. Which included me making an awesome display of birthday punch, which was full of ingredients, and was delicious. (I also then OD'ed on the stuff the next day, since primarily the ingredients I mentioned were variations on concentrated sugar, and subsequently felt the extraordinary pain that is an epic sugar crash). We also learned that: Jason only needs one margarita and 5 shots of rum to become completely drunk, which is a sad, sad thing, but still very fun. Oh, and I'll say it again: there is no game that is more fun with a group of people than Apples to Apples.

Sunday and also Monday: Refer above to the sugar crash item, which occupied most of my day. But additionally, our hot water disappeared entirely. Apparently I've traded out the Truck of Malfunction (TOM) for the Condo of Malfunction (COM), which is a much less cool acronym. So yeah, two days without a shower, I don't think I've ever been as happy as I am right now about the fact that I work alone in my office. Because seriously, if I can smell myself, you know that it's trouble.