( Buffy S5: No Place Like Home through Listening to Fear )

"Into the Woods" is going to have its own post because I tend to ramble and even cite feminist authors with that one.

I just made curried stir-fried potatoes and they were yummy. I'm proud of myself. But please tell me that cooking becomes faster with practice, because the recipe time was 20 minutes and it took me an hour just to chop and mince the potatoes/onion/cilantro.

Buffy vs. Dracula
Both BvD and “Restless” mention the Slayer’s power rooted in darkness and all that and I’m looking forward to seeing the Slayer mytharc develop. Anyway, this is not my favorite season premiere but still tons of fun, although I agree with Xander that we’re ALL sick of him being the buttmonkey. Remember when Xander used to make jokes and wasn’t *the* joke? Also, it’s funny to me how Gellar and Blucas had zero chemistry as “hot” lovers in S4, yet in S5, when Buffy and Riley have clearly lost the “zing” and have fallen into boring routine, they *do* have appropriate chemistry.

( Real Me, The Replacement, Out of My Mind: rants on Dawn, Xander, Riley )

Assorted thoughts on the second half of season 4 – I’m trying to make this post a little shorter and not go episode-by-episode. This is my summation of the quality of the second half:
Episodes I love: This Year’s Girl, Restless
Episodes I like: A New Man, Who Are You, The Yoko Factor
Episodes that are okay: New Moon Rising, Superstar
Episodes I will never watch again unless forced to: The I in Team, Goodbye Iowa, Where the Wild Things Are, Primeval

( Other comments and noticings )

I’ve been watching this string of episodes – second half of season three, first half of season four – while in Jersey watching my brothers while my parents are on vacation. My almost-fourteen-year-old brother Luke is watching with me. In some ways he’s a much better BtVS-viewing partner than either of my parents or my boyfriend were. He asks too many questions but genuinely seems to like the show a lot, while my dad and my boyfriend each liked maybe half of the episodes, and my mom liked “The Pack” and only “The Pack.” So far he says that Buffy’s his favorite character, and Spike and Willow are tied for second. Boy’s got good taste.

( First half of season 4, or should I say season Bore? Hey, it's no less clever than saying 'sux' for 'six.' )

Now I'm sad. "A New Man" is a delight, but The I in Goodbye Iowa is coming up and I don't waaana waaatch it.

( Wrapping up season 3 )

Real-life update coming soon, complete with details about brothers' graduations.

There's a ship meme going around and I feel like I need to explain myself before I put up my faves (and anti-faves). There are couples that I like, and there are ships that I like. I consider them two different things, though related. The difference between saying, "I *love* that couple," and "I totally ship them," has to do with competition. If the two characters ending up together is a foregone conclusion and there's never any uncertainty involved, I say I just love that couple - see Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, Benedick and Beatrice, Turk and Carla on Scrubs, Marshall and Lily on HIMYM, Homer and Marge Simpson. All couples that I love, but I don't root for them because they're already together and there's no competition - it's not like we really have to worry about Mr. Darcy and Caroline Bingley. If I ship a couple, though, it's because there's either a viable romantic rival, they've broken up and there's an *actual* chance they won't work it out, or there's a chance that something will happen to one of the members of the duo before they can get together.

With all that said, ( here are 10 ships I root for )

I NEED TITLES!

I need suggestions for books and movies about goal-setting; the main character should have a goal, should achieve his/her goal, but not without a lot of hard work and smart thinking. They can be non-fiction or fiction, though I would prefer fiction, and the characters should be teenagers, as I'm looking for texts to use for a unit at work.

Poll #1384174 "New" TV
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Which of these acclaimed dramas should I start watching first?

Poll #1378502 Alyson Hannigan
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

I prefer Aly Hannigan in...

The Blackberry is supposed to be awesome, right? Well, I'm already having problems with it. It won't let me access the Internet anymore. I was able to do it early last evening but not later at night, and I was in the same area the whole time. What gives? And if the Blackberry can't let you access your emails and Facebook from wherever, what's the point of having one?

Poll #1368679 Sick days
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

How many of your allotted sick days do you use?

GAHHH!

Thoughts on LOST as of late:

1) I had forgotten there was a time when I thought Sawyer was an interesting character and didn't think all of his storylines/Holloway's acting choices were 100% telegraphed. But I was watching some favorite clips on YouTube and came across this from season 1:



Obviously I'm more invested in Jack and Matthew Fox's awesome manly tears, but Holloway was almost subtle in that scene, and so was the writing. But now Sawyer's the woobie who cares so deeply for the feelings and safety of everyone but himself! *Yawn*

2) I want to avoid spoilers about most things about the show, but if anyone knows any details about the romance aspect of it, spoil me away. Particularly, let me know if they're going to make Juliet dumb enough to be attracted to Sawyer, or if Jack can get his head out of Kate's ass and awaken to the cool, collected blond hottie right in front of him.

3) More Miles, please.

4) ( Read more... )

5) I do hope we get more of crazy bearded Jack. Maybe it's just me, but I'm still not sure why *exactly* he decided they need to go back to the island. I feel like there's a piece missing and I hope they show it.

There's one week until the Oscars. I want to be excited for it, because by next Sunday, I will have seen all 5 nominees in the Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actress categories. All I'm missing right now are Frozen River, Changeling, and The Reader, which I'm saving for last because it's got my girl in it. I'll have plenty of time to catch up since this is the NYC mid-winter break (WOOO!)

Anyway, I'm quite proud of myself for catching up and going in as an informed viewer, because I'm a geek about the ceremony and it's more fun if I've seen everything. But as for the nominees themselves, I'm not very excited about them. I think last year's movies kicked this year's movies' ASSES. No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood were two of the best movies of the DECADE, as far as I'm concerned, and even though I had issues with all three of these, I still think Atonement, Juno, and Michael Clayton were more interesting than this year's crop.

Take in point, Slumdog Millionaire, the movie everyone but swsa ADORES. Me? I liked it. I didn't love it. I thought it was great as a coming-of-age story, but then it shifted gears into a pretty formulaic love story that I just didn't buy, and I was quite confused. I was disappointed. And the thing is, I *still* think it deserves Best Picture in comparison to the other movies nominated for Best Picture. I liked Milk, Benjamin Button, and Frost/Nixon just fine, and they were pretty good and accomplished movies, but I wouldn't call any of them *great* films by any means.

Now, *my* pics for the 5 best films (that I saw) are The Wrestler, The Visitor, Happy-Go-Lucky, Let the Right One In, and Wall-E. Four of those had just about *zero* chance of getting in, but I was so hoping that the last one would transcend the Animated Feature category.

For the other categories, these are my hopes & predictions:

Best Actor - This one is so hard. I kind of want a three-way tie between Rourke, Langella, and Jenkins, all SO so good. I think (and hope) this is Rourke's year, though.

Best Actress - Kate. Haven't seen it yet, but I don't care. I'm rooting for her because she's awesome.

Best Supporting Actress - You know, I was never impressed with Penelope Cruz before, but I thought she was pretty damn impressive in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. That said, I'd rather see it go to Marisa Tomei.

Best Supporting Actor - Please. There's no sense even predicting this one. It's Ledger's year. And while I do think he's deserving, I so deeply wish that he and Robert Downey Jr. could split it with a tie.

This is something I've been mulling over for awhile.

I've heard people say that we need to get rid of this sexist stereotype that women are catty bitches who are always mean to each other, that women do NOT hate other women.

I don't think we're catty bitches.

But look at comments made by *women* about the Chris Brown/Rihanna situation. Look at women coming up with reasons why she deserved to get beaten up.

Look at the fact that often, prosecuting attorneys try *not* to pick female jurors for rape cases, because female jurors often sympathize with the accused.

Hell, try teaching at my school for a DAY and tell me that women don't hate other women. One of my students begged me to change her seat so she wouldn't be sitting next to a boy; he has a crush on her, but the other girls in the class like him, and they're terrorizing her because they're jealous. A girl who graduated last year came back to the school yesterday and sliced another girl's face with a box cutter. It was about a boy.

I don't think all, or even most, women hate other women. But a lot of us have deep-seated competitive issues with other women, and others do truly seem to despite each other (see above). I get that the stereotype of being a catty bitch isn't a positive one and it doesn't do us any favors, but I also don't think it does any favors to perpetuate the myth of sisterhood. Sisterhood doesn't always exist.