So, the fall TV season has begun and I had a number of shows that I was looking forward too. Here's my assessment of 4 shows, FWIW. Spoilers!

Chuck
Loser guy, Chuck, works at Nerd Herd with equally losery friend. While opening an email from his college friend (who apparently was not an accountant but a spy) has entire shared CIA/NSA hard drive downloaded into his brain. Pie features prominently (Want Pie). Loser guy becomes a little less of a loser when he saves the world, and big time General, from imminent death at fancy dinner. Chuck is sworn to secrecy and the NSA (Adam Baldwin) and CIA (impossibly beautiful girl) are bound to protect him, presumably so he can help save the world (aka the USA) again and again - because living in the USA is a very dangerous thing.

Rating: B- Worth a few more viewings

Reaper
Loser guy with loser friend work at home improvement store. Loser guy has been allowed to continue on his loser path by his parents because they sold his soul to the devil before he was born. His younger brother gets more pressure to be a success. On his 21st birthday, Loser guy, aka Sam, discovers he has acquired some superpowers like telekinesis. Soon he is visited by the devil who tells Sam that he is being allowed to stay on earth so he can round up escapees from hell (Brimstone much?) using various "vessels". In the first episode, it's a dirt devil hand vac.

All this silliness is actually handled quite impressively and I enjoyed the show. I've set my DVR to tape the series.

Rating: A-

Moonlight
Vampire detective has spend part of his life protecting a young girl/woman who he saved from his vampire sire Coraline many years ago. Vampires have been living quiet lives in LA, under the thrall of old vampire Logan..errr..Josef. That's all I got.

This show took itself way to seriously and the acting was pretty horrid, especially that of the "professor" who had the goth vampire club. Glah!

Rating: F Just horrible. Could hardly bear to watch it. Watch Angel on DVD instead.

Gossip Girl
I told myself I wasn't going to watch this but I saw that it was on at an early time on Sunday night so I got sucked in. Girl who held "most popular status" and who ran away after sexing up her best friend's beau, returns to the big city and has an awkward time fitting back in. She hooks up with "outsider" guy (who is still really hot) and they end up saving his sister from slimy Chuck (what's with this name this year) who is doing his best "Steff from Pretty in Pink" impression. The whole show is held together by running references to the Gossip Girl's website. Shhhh! Her identity is a secret.

Rating: B I'll keep watching because of the clothes and the attitude (c-attitude). Reminds me of the OC in the first season.

Shows I haven't yet watched are Journeyman, Life, and Pushing Daisies. Stay tuned.

I am currently on page 11 of the new Harry Potter book. I'm very impressed with the blogosphere and the total lack of spoilers being posted. Most people are posting behind cut-lines or not posting specifics at all, which is muchly appreciated by moi.

The reason I'm only on page 11? I only bought the book yesterday (at the Drugstore of all places) and I had to read summaries of books 5 and 6 to refresh my memory of what is happening. I think I'm back in the know now. Oooo, that Snape!

This morning I was laying (lying?) in bed, covered in cats, willing myself to get up. I was just snoozing again when I heard this loud POP noise. In my sleep stupor I thought it sounded like an air gun being shot.

The crows and bluejays immediately started a chorus of squawks and caws. I got out of bed, cats scattering, and looked out the window to see if one of the neighbours was outside with an air gun. I couldn't see anyone and there was a dead crow on the sidewalk. About 15 crows were in the vicinity (in trees), on the power lines, on the building across the street, mourning the dead crow.

What I think happened was that the crow landed on the power transformer on the pole, which is "live", and electrocuted itself and making a popping noise.

My neighbour moved it off the sidewalk when she came outside, so it's gone now, but I can't help but think that this is an omen of some sort.

I've been absent here for many weeks. Anyone feel fonder towards me? I've been focusing most of my attention on my knitting blog and getting my knit on and have found that I don't really have much else to talk about. Sad isn't it.

A while ago I started writing a long post comparing Canadian campaign finance laws with those in the United States, but I found that it was a little boring and technical. Suffice it to say, in Canada, no politicians are collecting $30 million dollars to support their campaigns because they are only allowed to accept $1000 from any one corporation. I found the amounts being collectedin the US for the candidates running for their party's nominations, over a year before the election, obscene. It's a very strange system.

See, I told you it was boring.

My reading this spring has flip-flopped from reading light mystery novels by Richard Booth and reading heavier books like The God Delusion, The End of Faith and A Letter to a Christian Nation. Christopher Hitchens, who I generally don't like much because of his view on the Iraqi war, recently published a book called "God is Not Great" and though I had determined that I would not buy it, I read some of it at the bookstore and found it coming home with me. I just pretend he didn't write it.

All these books present interesting arguments for why the need for religion has run its course. As reason and evolutionary science continues to prove that the earth was not a product of design but a product of evolution, the religious arguments based solely on faith are less powerful.

And then there's the whole "religion causes war, unrest, terrorism" angle which I won't get into. Anyway, the books are interesting.

So that's what I have gotten up to in the last little while - not much, eh?

Yes, I know how lame it is to not post for ages and then just answer a meme. Shud'dup. However, one of my favourite things to do is fill out forms. This is like a form .. right?

( here be answers )

So, Norbit was the #1 movie this weekend. Huh.

Any remaining faith I had in humanity has been shattered. We're doomed.

Last night after I got home from work, I settled onto the couch to finish reading The Glass Cell by Patricia Highsmith. Her books are so dark and twisty-turny that it's hard to put them down. I had hoped to finish it at lunch but I was interupted with 15 pages to go by a request to find some information for my boss.

Anyway, I finished it and was left...slightly displeased. I'm not the kind of reader who needs all the plot points to be tied up nicely at the end, but I had hoped for a stronger resolution. It was still a good read despite the weak ending (IMHO).

Then I picked up Shakespeare's Harlot by Charlaine Harris which I finished three hours later. Not a hard thing to do since it's a quick to read mystery of about 225 pages, but I felt accomplished. It's a library book so I'm glad that I'll be avoiding the late fees.

By this time it was 9pm so I went to bed. Twas tired.

You Are Big Black Boots!

You can be best described as: attitude You've got lots of it - and you love to give it A guy has to be pretty gusty to hit on you But if he's your type, you'll warm up... a little

Not bad - though I have to admit that I did this quiz yesterday and got "High Heels". That's not too accurate.

Can someone explain to me why Donald Trump deserves a star on the Walk of Fame? For being on a reality TV show and coining the phrase "You're fired"? WTF.

I thought a person needed to have a long and storied career before being considered for this "honour". I guess that's no longer the case.

I now declare the Walk of Fame to be redundant!

I noticed on my previous mosaic that I had one picture twice, so I did it again!



Make your own here:
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php

So, 2006 is coming to a close - not quickly enough in my mind. A lot of bad/sad/traumatic things happened in 2006.

- My MIL got lung cancer and passed away in July.
- My mother had a heart attack in June (thankfully she is doing well)
- My mother's best friend's husband died around Easter
- And Jimmy the Cat passed away on December 21st.

In order to start 2007 off right, yesterday B and I adopted two kitties.



Merlin

and



Dougal

YAY for kitties.

I've been home sick for a few days with a lung infection so I've been watching Season 1 of M*A*S*H. I've noticed a few strange inconsistencies between this season and later years. Here are a few of them:

- Lt. Col Blake's wife's name is Mildred. As M*A*S*H watchers know, Blake's wife is Lorraine and Col. Potter's wife is Mildred in other seasons.
- Hawkeye says he is from Vermont, not Maine.
- Hawkeye writes a letter home to his father and says in it "Say hi to Mom and Sis" who later on are inexplicably dead for many many years.
- In the pilot, the camp raises money to send a Korean boy to the states to college but in later episodes he's still around.

And what happens to Spearchucker and the Aussie gas passer?

by Meegiemoo

A story, told in timelines.

Our hero is a young, married woman, partial to knitting, who works in a nicely decorated office building in a metropolitan downtown. Yesterday afternoon, despite predictions of rain and light flurries, a freak storm breaks out on our hero's city. Here's what transpired next:

2:30 Husband calls wife from the road. Says roads are getting bad, can I leave work early. Wife says "Sorry, no. I'll see you later."

4:10 Boss offers ride to employee and her co-worker. "Yes!", she crys as she has heard that it takes a hour to drive from her office place to the shopping mall near her house - a drive that normally takes 15 minutes.

5:15 After an hour, and getting about 2km away from the office, Boss decides to take alternate route, heading to Quinpool Rd. Our hero has neglected to pack any knitting projects, not even a dishcloth, to keep her entertained. Talk about work becomes inevitable.

6:15 Arrive at Quinpool. Car is parked and the intrepid travellers go to Acme greasy spoon for dinner and to wait out the traffic. Are entertained by 3 drunk ladies who have been waiting for a tow truck for a while and much wine has been consumed.

7:40 Travellers head back out on the road. What looks promising turns out to be no so wonderful. Stupid drivers keep blocking intersections in their anxiety to get home.

8:15 Car abandoned in the middle of the road mucks up traffic even worse as people slip around it.

8:45 Accident on Joe Howe has traffic moving in 1 lane. Luckily, we're going the other direction.

8:50 Our hero arrives home to her husband (who says "I told you so"), her cat (who says "where the hell have you been? feed me, damnit!", and her awaiting kettle (who says "you want me to boil water now?")

My office cubicle window faces out at a hotel. For the last 4 days, a bicycle has been propped up against the hotel wall, unlocked. It has been moved around but as of yet, no one as stolen it.

Every morning this week I have anxiously approached my office building, wondering if the bike will still be there, and so far, people in the city have not let me down. Market Street remains unsullied by the "crime spree" in the city.

That little bike has restored my faith in humanity. Pretty deep, eh?

*song lyric from now defunct band Black Cabbage

here's a question: Who at Kellogg thought it was a good idea to resurrect that mouldy oldy commercial with the logger who loves raisins? You know the one...

Sturdy Danny McGee was up his fifty-ninth tree, he said 'I work as fast as I can,' when he suddenly saw Two scoops of raisins inapackageof Kellogg's Raisin Bran! Well he rushed to the ground, 'cause ol' Danny had found What's important to a raisin fan, 'cause Kellogg's puts TWO SCOOPS OF RAISINS inapackageof Kellogg's Raisin Bran!

WHY?

Good morning:

Yesterday at work, I was flipping through a copy of Atlantic Business magazine. Their cover story this edition is called "She's the Boss" - which features the rise-to-the-top stories of 9 women executives in Atlantic Canada.

Here's the story, but my comments focus on the photograph of the 9 women. Sure, these ladies look nice enough, but why are all these successful women dressed so blah? And with such sensible hairstyles. Three of the women are wearing pink and two are wearing red, but in all cases its an accent rather than a focus (well, maybe the pink jacket is radical!). Even the younger women have chosen the Corporate Look.

The message this sends to me is "in order to be successful in the workplace you must dress like a man" - wear a suit, wear dark or neutral colours, heaven forbid you add any colour to your hair that would appear at all unnatural.

It also says to me that dressing outside of the accepted norm is a CLM - Career Limiting Move. Never a fan of wearing a suit, I do own one, however, I never wear the matching skirt and jacket together. It feels - ooogie. In sharp contrast, today I'm wearing a silky brown dress and my witchy boots (pointy toe, kitten heel) and I feel pretty and confident.

Maybe if I wore the same dress everyday I would gain the respect of my colleagues?

Also in the same edition of the magazine, there is an article called "She's Got the Look: Tips on how to transform hum-drum business attire into a unique fashion statement". Their tips? Wear a suit with GAUCHOS, wear a fun NECKLACE with your humdrum suit. I guess the stylist at the photo shoots with the Blasé 9 didn't have these tips at her access.

A few weeks ago, B. modified our DVD player to watch region 2 discs. Since then we have made our way through watching Season 1 of Life on Mars and Seasons 1 and 2 of Spooks.

What I like about Spooks is the way they show how the secret service can "get to" ordinary citizens.

Has anyone watched Spooks (MI-5) after season 3?

In other news, I had lost my senses of smell and taste again through a combination of 1) having a cold 2) stopping using my nasal saline regularly because it was giving me ear troubles and 3) I had run out of nasal steroids. After a couple of days of nasal rinse and doubling up on the steroids, I am again enjoying the smells and tastes of the world. Even water tastes good again.