Excellent weekend

02.27.06

Song of the Day: Robbie Williams - No Regrets

This past weekend, I went to Connecticut for the n3rd's birthday and to meet his family. Amazingly, they did not poison me and/or stab me in my sleep, so I think that's a good sign. I discovered that my n3rd makes an excellent male nurse, and that I'm an entirely naive drunk who believes the n3rd when he says he's going to leave the room so I can puke without him watching.

We hit up New York City on Saturday to go to the Met and out to dinner, where we had a rather novel and fudgasmic shrimp cocktail in a bloody mary with avocado smushed at the bottom of the glass. With my plans to go to LA and Las Vegas over spring break, I'm being quite the traveller this spring.

Now I'm back to the cruel reality of a n3rdless existence - at least for the next two and a half weeks. Maybe I can go into hibernation mode until then?

01:20 PM [link]

Grey's backlash

02.22.06

Song of the Day: INXS - Elegantly Wasted

It seems there has been some outrage over Meredith sleeping with George on Grey's Anatomy this past Sunday night. A column on TVGuide.com posted the address for a website where the show's writers blog about their episodes, and the woman who wrote the Meredith/George episode wrote a particularly poignant entry about the hook-up. I started scanning the comments that readers had left, and one thing stuck out in my mind: people who were opposed either found George gross (which just baffles me, I'd take him over McDreamy and McSteamy anyday), or else they insisted that the writer had crossed the line as far as what viewers wanted to see and what they didn't want to see. Television show writers, these people claimed, have a duty and obligation to give viewers what they want.

This stance made me realize (or maybe just confirmed what I already knew) why people of ordinary Television IQ could never appreciate Buffy, or Angel, or any of Joss Whedon's other creations. Because Joss Whedon is the expert of stabbing his viewers in the back and making them want to thank him for it. He's always acutely aware of what viewers want, the relationships viewers want to see, the characters viewers want to live, and he goes out of his way to make sure no one gets it. It's frustrating and heartbreaking, but at the same time, leads to a more satisfying viewing experience. What's the point of watching a television show if you're constantly handed everything you want and expect, and there's no element of surprise or conflict? Playing it safe is boring.

Because really, how long could George play puppy-dog eyes at Meredith before it became old? Now they'll have to deal with the consequences of the hook-up, and from the previews for next week, it looks like Meredith instantly regrets it. Now the breaking of that trust, and the subsequent rebuilding of it, along with George coming to terms with finally knowing where he stands with Meredith and trying to move on, will make for an infinitely more interesting and emotional experience than endless episodes of George telling everyone how much he loves Meredith but how he'll never be able to tell her. Because as adorable as it was when he kept telling Meredith things like "You smell nice today" when the interns were all eating lunch, it would become stale if it stayed that way forever.

According to the aforementioned TVGuide.com column, this season of Grey's has a total of 27 episodes, 19 of which have aired, with 8 left. That more than makes up for the first season only being 9 episodes long.

12:03 PM [link]

Am I counting right?

02.20.06

Song of the Day: Madonna - Sorry

Today I saw an advertisement on a bus stand that made me wonder if I'm missing something, or if the person who designed it was mathematically challenged.

It was a large poster featuring a basketball player along with the phrase, "Fall down 7 times, stand up 8."

I started thinking. If you fall down seven times, why are you standing up eight times? The first time you fall down is "one" and the first time you stand up after falling is "one" as well. Fall down a second time, you'll stand back up a second time. Fall down a third, stand up a third...just where is this 8th time standing up coming from if you don't fall down an 8th time as well?

Am I overthinking this, or is the person who tried so hard to come up with a Motivational Athletic Power Message a moron?

07:46 PM [link]

Eww, gross

02.15.06

Song of the Day: Anastacia - Paid My Dues

In the last few months, I have noticed a phenomenon that totally grosses me out: people who apply their makeup on public transportation.

I'm not talking about a quick lipstick touch-up; I'm talking about the whole gig. Foundation. Blush. Eyeshadow. Eyeliner. Mascara.

And it is gross. Thousands of people shuffle through the trains and buses everyday, which means thousands of hands touching all the surfaces and leaving thousands of germs behind. Not a place I want to be using things that I'm touching against my face and eyes.

Not only are these people putting on makeup in the worst place I could imagine, but they are piling on layer after layer after layer of the stuff. The number of people I have witnessed using what must have been an entire tube of mascara on their eyelashes in one sitting leaves me asking the question, "Am I doing it wrong?"

The other day, I inconspicuously (hopefully) watched a woman apply brow gel and mascara on the bus ride to school. She must have used 25 to 30 strokes of each product on each eyebrow and set of eyelashes, no hyperbole. I wanted to march over and grab the makeup from her hands and yell, "Good God, woman, what the hell are you doing?"

Another time I witnessed a woman deposit what must have been an entire tube of lipgloss onto her lips. She would dip the wand into the tube, swipe it back and forth across her lips ten times, dip it back in, swipe again, dip, swipe, dip swipe...it took everything in me to not yell at her, "It stays on longer when you use less!"

I guess it goes without saying that the exorbitant amount of makeup caked on did not make any of these woman look very appealing. Top it off with all the germs they probably just rubbed all over their face, and...well...ew.

05:07 PM [link]

Stupid music

02.10.06

Song of the Day: The Police - Every Breath You Take

The #1 video on Yahoo's music video site, Launch.com, is I'm 'N Luv Wit A Stripper by T-Pain.

I say this with an entirely straight face.

And people wonder why I think my fellow Americans are asinine idiots when it comes to their musical tastes.

01:19 PM [link]

Post-Grammy thoughts

02.09.06

Song of the Day: BT - Flaming June

Three thoughts today:

First, since J and Tara aren't around to do it, I'd like to give a hearty "IEIEIEIEIEIEIEIE BONO" following U2's sweep at the Grammys last night.

Second, even though the caffeine was not responsible for my professor's voice echoing yesterday, it was responsible for a severe caffeine buzz that lasted seven hours and left me wondering what in the world happened to my caffeine tolerance. I actually called my dad and apologized for all those years that I thought he was a weirdo for not being able to drink caffeine without sacrificing that night's sleep.

Third, I'm so ready for winter to be over, although not because of the cold weather. I'm sick of A) having scarf fuzz all over my dark colored clothing every day, and B) getting what feels like 10,000 volts of electricity running through my body every time I touch a metal elevator button. I swear that my hair stands on end and my eyes bug out every time it happens.

11:46 AM [link]

Caffeine hallucinations

02.08.06

Song of the Day: David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust

This morning, on a whim (I've been very whim-y lately), I grabbed a large coffee at Starbucks before class started. The caffeine went to my head rather quickly, and as I sat in class listening to the professor, I started noticing that his voice was echoing in a very strange way. I immediately stared at my coffee cup and thought, "Woah, that f-ed me up." Then I realized the prof was testing out a microphone that was clipped onto his shirt since some people had been complaining they couldn't hear him (amazingly, I, the deaf girl, have not had such problems). That was one of those moments when I was sheepishly glad that the rest of the classroom couldn't hear my thoughts (which, somehow, doesn't translate into me keeping such thoughts off the internet).

Today, my application to take my personal income tax pass/fail was approved. I've never taken a class pass/fail in my life. I've also never had trouble clearing a 3.0 GPA in my life either. Ah, the joys of law school and its forced curve and its "WE MUST HAVE A RANKED LIST TO GIVE TO LAW FIRMS" mentality. All I know is that I'm no longer puking over my tax homework now that I know that all I have to do is pass the damn class. There is one positive "I've never" statement here, which is "I've never failed a class before."

11:50 AM [link]