Weekend the 23rd-25th

Friday Commute:

• Listened to a slew of Story of the Day podcasts and NOT ONE was about health care! They were great.

Weekend Viewing:

• 30 Rock. This feels like it should've been the premiere - much better than last week. I love the GE tie-ins. Maybe I just have a soft spot for microwave ovens.


• The State - Season 2. From Netflix, and it is about damn time this became available. Terrific sketch comedy, and their exuberance is so much fun to watch.


• Fringe. Caught up on everything else from this season. Still a pretty satisfying series.


• The Simpsons. Also caught up on this season's episodes. The Halloween was a definite middle-of-the-packer, but I did enjoy the kick-punch-choke ultimate fighting league episode.
  
• It's Always Sunny. "The World Series Defense". I laughed out loud when Charlie pushed Dennis in front of the car. Typing that, it really sounds like something I shouldn't have laughed it. But trust me. Hilarious.


• The Amazing Race. I admit, I didn't think the Globetrotters would be able to do the math challenge after the watch debacle. But I don't really blame them for razzing the girl who freaked out at the water slide. One word. RACE.
  
• Mad Men. What a fantastic episode. It was fascinating to watch so many characters lash out at the people who had broken their hearts in such controlled ways.
  
• World Freerun Championships. I turned this on just to see what the hell that meant. And it meant awesome. Parkour! Parkour!

Monday the 19th

Morning Commute:

• Planet Money, something about economics that I tuned out but would probably be able to follow if there was a quiz. Maybe they should add quiz segments!

At work:

• I realize that "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" by Dropkick Murphys has been featured in many things, but for some reason I had to download it after hearing it on "The Debarted" episode of The Simpsons. I kinda felt like leaving it on repeat all day. And signing along in my cubicle. That wouldn't alarm anyone.

Evening:

• HIMYM. Aw, a Canada episode. This one actually felt a lot better to me than the last few. I could sympathize with Ted's feelings of loss -it's hard when your best friend is in a couple and doesn't realize that while you genuinely like their partner you still want to have your friend to yourself sometimes. I thought that storyline came off true but not overly sappy.


• The Simpsons. Catching up on the new season, starting with "Bart Gets a Z" - poor ol' Ms. Crabapple.


• The Big Bang Theory. Silly, but not noxious.


• Fringe. The one where the cop crystallizes and EXPLODES. Wait, that could actually be any episode, huh?

Weekend 16-18th

• RW/RR Challenge. Ugh, I wanted Suzy to go home. I think I find her particularly vile because she was so cute on her season of Road Rules in Australia, and now she's a self-satisfied patronizing sanctimonious little creep.


• Fringe. A whole bunch of these from the new season are languishing in the DVR. I still think the show is entertaining, but it isn't a "popcorn" show where I enjoy watching one episode right after the other.


• 30 Rock. I loved Tracy Morgan's man-on-the-street moment.


• The Office. Still not enjoying this season much.


• The Big Bang Theory. I haven't watched this show often, but Kaela told me it's worth watching for Sheldon alone. And he is pretty awesome. I may have to start watching, and can just fast-forward through all the other geeks.


• Man vs. Food Who knew Boise was a home for such ridiculously large quantities of food? It seemed crazy that the first stop offered DOUBLE one-pound patties with multiple cheese slices, and people seem to order it as just a regular meal and not a competitive eating challenge. One could easily feed a family of 4. A FAT family of 4.
  
• The Soup One of my sources of "news". I loved Greg Kinnear on this show, grew to enjoy John Henson, loved Aisha Tyler, and it took me a while but I now love Joel McHale, too. But they could have cut that Miley Cyrus rap waaayyy shorter. Knowing it existed was awful enough, actually viewing it was unnecessary. Actually, all the clips seem to be running way too long today. But I am very glad they mocked the brainiacs on TAR who couldn't recognize Jackie O.
  
• The Simpsons - a whole mess of saved episodes, from the early days (Lisa enters Little Miss Springfield) to the latest Sideshow Bob foiled murder attempt to The Debarted where Bart's group is infiltrated by a spy.
  
• TAR - I'm surprised that Boston couple went out as gracefully as they did, but it was nice to see them both accept blame for the bad leg and to end with reasonable cheer. BTW, I would NOT have gone for that snowman in s snowmound challenge. That had loser written all over it.
  
• It's Always Sunny - "The Waitress Gets Married" and "Intervention! Intervention!"
  
• Mad Men. I'm enjoying reading the critical analysis of this how on Slate and - believe it or not - the Project Rungay website.

Sunday the 11th

Morning Coffee Walk:

• NPR:Books Podcast. I loved the interview with Madeline Albright about her pins, and think she used them well as a diplomatic tool. There is a lot of wisdom in putting a point of view in a very obvious place where it can be noted and used to set a tone.

Between Things:

• Started catching up on Season 2 of Fringe. Who else was annoyed when they didn't check Charlie's palate from the get-go?


• HIMYM, "The Possimpible". I'm going to start channeling my visio-tivity right now.

Evening:

• Went to see Whip It, and was pleasantly entertained. Fun, cute, and rewatchable. Drew did a good job, and it was fun to see her give herself such a ridiculous rough and tumble character.

Late Night:

• TAR - and how was it possible only 2 of those teams recognized Jackie O?? Pathetic. I was very disappointed with the outcome this week, and don't really care who wins now. The dad & son, I guess. Or the Globetrotters. The rest of them are all grating.

Nightstand:

• Rereading Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut. It was my second nomination for book club - originally, I had said we would read Woman on the Edge of Time because I remember reading it for a fem. stud. class back in college and that it provoked interesting discussions. What I had forgotten is that it is stilted and unreadable, so I retracted it and suggested Cat's Cradle instead, because given the option? I would probably be a Bokononist myself.

Saturday the 10th

Morning Commute:

• Read the Spellman book. Polished it off at a coffee shop after work this afternoon. It was a satisfying read. Characters were true to form, and it was nice to see Isabel's developing self-awareness. I remain interested and excited about more in the series.

Afternoon:

• Thought I might actually watch a football game, and Stanford was already getting beat up by Oregon State. Yikes. Switched to...
  
• Fringe. It's time to polish off the last DVD of Season 1.
  
• Man vs. Food. Mmm... corn dogs... NOW I have a reason to go to Springfield, Illinois.

Evening:

• REALLY finished off Fringe. It was good, and the season wrapped up nicely without closing the mystery down entirely.
  
• Somehow I got sucked into watching an episode of Made on MTV, where they taught 3 random suburbanites to dance and put them in a hip hop contest. One of the judges was Twitch, so I stuck around, because TWITCH! He was very enthusiastic and supportive. You go, Twitch. I'm always thrilled to see dancers getting work after SYTYCD.
  
• Community. Terrific credits. Heehee - nice Seacrest dig. I love pop culture tie-ins.
  
• Glee. I am starting to love it. Sue Sylvester was in fine form, and it had TWO musical numbers - yay!
  
• SNL, and my finger is on the fast-forward button. Drew Barrymore usually proves to be an entertaining host so she got the show a 1-week reprieve (and Regina Spektor! I absoLUTEly love her), but after tonight - it's off the DVR record list.

Monday the 5th

Commuting:

• Polished off Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me and then watched the "Charlie Goes America All Over Everybody's Ass" episode of It's Always Sunny on my iPod.

Nighttime viewing:

• Watched the baseball park episode of Man vs. Food. Adam Richman is totally one of my TV boyfriends - I love his good-natured enthusiasm and appreciation for the ridiculous. The concept of the shore is, of course, appalling - food challenges no one should attempt - and yet it is done with such unabashed glee.
  
• HIMYM, something about Robin school. Total meh-pisode. Keeping the Robin/Barney relationship as a focus is dangerous, shark-jumping territory.
  
• Trauma. Episode 1 - First thought, is that first guy is a "That Guy". Turns out to be Herc from Friday Night Lights. (Thanks, IMDB!) And so far... not looking like this is gonna stay in the DVR recording list. Watching car accidents occur in places where you drive is creepy. Also, the set-ups and the characters just seem so artificial. I think the idea of first response medical teams is dramatic enough without starting the characters off with a flashback to give them a "Troubled Past!" and "Complicated Relationships!" or characters with nicknames who holler catchphrases. Fast-forwarding to see where they filmed... and... HEY! It's Buddy from Friday Night Lights! I love when that happens, when you see multiple actors from one show on another. Anyway... fast forward... and... we're done. That was dumb.
  
• Starting on episode 2... and... realize I do not care at all. I don't need to watch this to see where they film because I live here, and can also just GO OUTSIDE to see San Francisco. But I do find it funny that people are just walking by in the location shots and ignoring the paramedics. I kinda think that's more likely to happen with film crews than with actual paramedics. City dwellers are jaded, but still full of schadenfreude.

Nightstand:

• Might push through to finish off Alive in Necropolis tonight.

Saturday the 3rd

Morning Commute:

• Yeah, that's right. Morning commute. On Saturday. Sigh. And I left my iPod at work last night, so no podcasts.
  
• Read Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz, the third in the Spellman Files series. I was turned on to this by my friend Mary, who works for the former P.I. that advised the author. I'm not a big reader of mystery series, but this one is funny, and light, and paints a very lovable, realistic picture of San Francisco.

Evening Commute:

• More of the Spellmans. I have been trying to stall starting this book bc I have a few others I need to get to or finish up, and I knew once I picked this up I wouldn't want to put it down. Light reading is my only speed at the moment.

Miscellaneous Reading:

• This month's Lucky arrived in the mail Thursday or Friday. First thought: Are retinoids all they say they are? Second thought: Did they need to waste their "under $100" section on workout clothes, since most workout clothes ARE less than $100? And then feature expensive stuff, like the $80 lycra tops and $65 workout leggings? The bargain stuff is at Target, my friends.

Nighttime Viewing:

• Disc 6 of Fringe: Season 1. Olivia's hair totally bugs me. It looks like it's always about to get caught in something.

Still Languishing:

• SYTYCD. How is that possible? How have I not caught up with this already? Sure, it's still just auditions, but this is unusual un-viewing behavior.

Monday the 28th

Morning Commute:

• Walking to bus stop, listen to NPR: Story of the Day podcast from last Friday, about Chicago sending Oprah and Michelle Obama to bat to try to get the Olympics there. Feel a bit unpatriotic for thinking I'd rather see Rio de Janeiro win the bid, since America gets to host pretty frequently.
  
• On the bus: NPR: Wait Wait Don't Tell Me podcast. Both Paula Poundstone and Roy Blount Jr. are on the panel this week, so I'm pleased. Wonder if I will ever get the trifecta of Paula, Roy, and Mo Rocca. If I do, I should probably just retire the podcast afterwards.

At work:

• KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic podcast, featuring The Decemberists. One of their female vocalists on the new album grates on my nerves. Her voice is overly dramatic and reminds me of watching a goth fairy tale. And being bored. I'm not enough of a hipster to claim I have been listening forever and wish they'd return to their roots - but enough of a listener to say when I do like The Decemberists it's because of the lead vocals, which are nasal and yet still charming. Remember that episode of Mad Men that featured "The Infanta"? That was awesome.
  
• Current random mix playlist, titled "Feelin' It". Freebies mixed with a bunch of Shawn Colvin, who I'll be going to see at Yoshi's in October.

Evening

• "Ability" episode, last on disc 5 of the Fringe: Season 1 DVD series. I don't love the show, but I enjoy it. I just wish some of the episodes weren't so nauseating. There are some episodes where I shout "Oh come on! We already saw the brain goo and it was gross! We get it! Stop showing it!!" Like most programs, my shouting has little effect. If it were really cutting-edge sci-fi it would respond to me and say "So sorry, we'll just go to a humorous shot of the cow next time."
  
• The Amazing Race premiere. I do not like the twist of leaving a team at the starting gate. It is mean and unnecessary. And did not immediately eliminate the "we-fight-a-lot-and-this-will-determine-our-future-as-a-couple" couple. Sometimes I find it hard to watch TAR because I WANT TO DO IT. I don't wanna watch people start whining in the first leg, or yelling at the locals. And watching people not read clues or figure out puzzles is excruciating. Now if only I could find a clever hook... with someone who can travel well... Anyway, to close: What I Have Learned About Relationships from The Amazing Race: If you are constantly complaining about all the problems your partner has... you. Are the problem.
  
• How I Met Your Mother. First off, Neil Patrick Harris was STILL robbed. Stupid Emmy voters. Probably with no room left on their DVRs to even record HIMYM because they're full of Frasier reruns and still sad it isn't on the air and they can't just keep voting for that show ad infinitum. In fact, I bet it's the most popular write-in vote. This one was a decent episode - I like Ted best when everyone is telling him what a jackass he is, because Ted is kind of a whiny jackass. Although I don't actually fault him for picking on spelling errors in menus. Spell check is not that hard, folks. (She says clicking the spell check button.)

What's Still Languishing in the DVR

• Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. One day I will watch it and it will be awesome.

From the Nightstand

• Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst. It's the SF Reads book of the month, but I didn't know that when I picked it up at the library. I actually checked it out because the main character's name is Michael Mercer, which is weird, because I work with Michael Mercer. Who apparently is unable to see dead people.