2008 Moments

How I Met Your Mother is a bit of That 70s Show rehash for me. Basically, a somewhat mainstream sitcom comedy who's horrendous laugh track is overcome by a hilarious, talented cast with great chemistry. (Surprisingly, the fact that 75% of That 70s Show cast turned out to be fame-whoring douchebags still doesn't make me laugh less over old reruns). Anyway, nothing pleases me more to discover EW paying montage to their favorite 2008 moments by utilizing the HIMYM cast.

I'm gonna go home and put my head in the oven

Humorous Assholes and Clever Bitches
Jerk and insult humor can go a long way when it's done well. It's the perfect hybrid of the highest and lowest character denominators - reveling in the muck of nastiness but witnessing it delivered in a high-minded, intellectual manner. Pure entertainment gold. (And if said gold happens to be delivered in Logan Echolls-looking packaging, even the more better. Okay, last prepubescent VM shout out for the rest of the year, I swear.)

So the problem: too many people believe they can do it. The issue arises when people start acting like bitches for the sake of being bitchy because being nice just seems too dull. It no longer becomes about the issue at hand but more just letting everyone within your communication radius know exactly what trivial event of the hour absolutely deserves a verbal beat down because it irritates YOU and it must be known.

And more often than not - the delivery isn't even entertaining, clever, or humorous. Not just on a personal subjective taste level, but more in the smallness of what exactly is so bothersome and the sweeping, VERY non-intellectual assumptions made.

Sure, the line of humorous/offensive is very blurry, but I guess the whole point I'm aiming towards is that not every person is Gregory House and it's become increasingly more common to witness people believing they are, to very unpleasant results. What we get are hyper-critics who deliver mean-spirited, generic insults on unsuspecting individuals, all the while believing they're particularly unique, funny, and interesting for doing so. Basically, reveling in the lowest common-denominator but deluding themselves into thinking that they're in the highest.

Disclaimer time: I've SO done this. Several, several times. Hell, the case can be made that I'm doing it now. I still cringe remembering when I use to think I was so hilar-lar in taking such a strong stance against overweight people because no one else had the guts to be outrageous enough to say the mean comments out loud. My biggest regrets in life aren't about what choices I made or didn't make, but what behavior I allowed myself to not only exhibit, but think more highly of myself for doing so. I can only to look back in hindsight and realize what a huge insecure douchebag I was and hope I have enough foresight that I don't have another ego-trip relapse.

Summary: It's very easy to be mean. It's easy to garner attention and feel validated by being outrageously cruel. It's not easy delivering legitimately clever insults on a regular basis (especially without a team of writers mulling weeks over the perfect opening and rejoinder). And it's especially difficult to be okay enough with yourself to just be nice and expect nothing in return.

Rich 50 is the middle class 38

Fingers crossed for Iron Man II and Batman III

Add Quantum of Solace to my ever-growing list of films that breach the incoherency threshold. It appears that the ongoing trend with follow-ups to critically acclaimed blockbusters is to bloat them with as many astounding action sequences as possible, which typically comes hand-in-hand with a convoluted plot that weakly links all the scenes together, complete with thinly explained superfluous character introductions/removals. I'm all for a revamp of the 007 series, but I find myself longing for the good ol' days of the basic Bond story line: evil man with evil world domination plan --> watch Bond defeat him spectacularly. On an appended note: my strong distaste for rapid edits and shaky camera work still stands.

Thoughts of me? Hey, I get it. Sometimes I'm up all night, just thinkin' about myself.

The main reason why I have zero desire to read or watch Twilight:
(excerpt review on the main character, Bella Swan, from the Washington Post)
"Edward's habit of constantly pulling her onto his lap or having her ride on his back further emphasize her childlike qualities....the overall effect is a weird infantilization that has repellent overtones to an adult reader and hardly seems like an admirable model to foist upon our daughters (or sons)."

In general, I've never been a big fan of the whole Disney Princess prototype - super repressed damsels in distress pining and obsessing over their prince. I'm even less of a fan that the prince is inadvertently the ultimate symbol of freedom from an environment of pseudo-slavery (i.e. under the sea, life with an evil stepmother, etc.). There's this general pandering fantasy message for females that in order to find happiness, only a man will be the true key to it.

Granted, most Disney movies are based on stories written and taking place during times when women were thought to be the lesser sex, so the general subdued/placated nature of the female leads is technically an accurate representation of the social norms of the culture. Plus, it's not like they're completely lame personality wise - it's just that the romantic plot device is.

Which leads me back to the Twilight series. As a disclaimer, my protestations are extremely unjustified because I've never read the book. Instead, I've read the synopsis, the reviews, and the movie spoiler. That's it. So yes, there's the strong legitimate potential that if I were to actually read the book, I'll quickly become one of the squeeing fans (my older sister included) lined up for hours before the each premiere. Look at what breaking my "no more teen shows" clause did with Veronica Mars.

But I can't wrap my head around a modern heroine who's only goal in life seemingly is to just be with her man. Sure, there are the general subplots of vampire families and werewolves bugging her, but her drive for EVERYTHING is revolving around a man. My internal feminist screams in protest.

But since I didn't read it, that might not actually be the case. Maybe Bella does kick butt in Hermione-like fashion and helps solve problems as opposed to create them in her obsession with Edward. But then again, I come across plot points where Bella goes cliff-diving to hear Edward's voice, nearly drowns, then is rescued by another "beautiful" supernatural male...

I'm just more predisposed to story lines where a guy actually has to WORK for the female's affection and not the other way around. Or even better, when both of them have to overcome their own personality defects to be with each other. I like an even playing field - not one-sided smoopyness. Or even worse: continual maudlin declarations of love to each other as a means to overcome life's obstacles. I don't find that horribly romantic.

In summary: There's been a lot of evidence contrary to my personal taste as incentive to not read the book. If someone wants to present an argument as to why the book is so awesome aside from it's easy readbility and intense popularity, I'll be happy to take a look.

I'm currently in the process of testing a theory that bad days are contagious. Basically, starting from when I got back from work yesterday (after hearing about my co-worker's not-so-great day), things have been sucking - not at any emo-inducing levels, but still not super great. It's just been a bit of a domino effect where little things just don't go as planned, emotionally exacerbated by Thorne's devastatingly adorable flat-eared guilty look when I'm yelling at him for eating the pool table. But then, I also have the theory that a bad day is typically followed by an exceedingly great one because of lowered expectations and emotional countenance. So, there's the potential that I'm going to have an AWESOME weekend.

Happy thoughts (to counter any potential fatalistic ones)
1. I enjoy my smart friends who are secure enough to admit they love stupid things and don't even bother trying to act like they're above it.
2. I'm pleased that I have yet to set foot in the mall for any holiday shopping.
3. I don't have finals.

Take My Money - Waste of Paaaaper

After yesterday's attempt at verbosity, my brain decided it had enough wannabe mental stimulation, so we're back to the lists.

Inventory of Thorne Destruction Thus Far:
1. Four pairs of shoes.
2. The Pool Table cover.
3. Three lawn lights.
4. One remote.
5. Box of band-aids.
6. Two coasters.
7. A pot of soil (inside the house).

I say, all in all, it hasn't been that bad. Plus, how can you resist this face?(for the record, he's hugging the "That's What She Said" cushion)


Interests that people list that aren't very interesting
1. Soccer.
2. Food.
3. Shopping.
4. Their significant other.
5. Drinking.
6. Preference for another race outside their own.
7. Money.
(Feel free to blare the "Hypocrite Alert!" horn any time you want.)

Shows I need to check out
1. Hustle
2. Burn Notice

Serous Membranes Are Used for Lubrication

(headline is a shout out to easily the most ridiculous word thus far in Wordscraper play)

Happy Holidays to me. AT&T decided it'd be a great time to dump an extra $137.14 payment on top of my regular one for this month's bill. Time to go hunt a hapless customer service representative down.

Some post-election commentary. First, the light stuff:

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Now the serious(ly boring - beware):
Hypothetical situations seemed to be the argument of choice when it comes to matters of fuzzy accusations on subjective topics. For example, just recently, CNN's Campbell Brown made the argument that Governor Ed Rendell would not had made his off-mic "no life" comment if Governor Janet Napolitano had been a male. What is frustrating about this is that there no way to either justify or disprove this statement. Napolitano will never be a man (barring a sex-change, but that's an entirely different ball park - whoo, Oregon!), hence Rendell will never get to either prove or disprove Campbell Brown's conjecture. Instead, what we get is nation-wide outrage and public denials/apologies that continue until another event provides fodder for non-evidence based pondering.

Granted, making hypotheses is inherent in the world of politics. Focusing on particular issues and laws in preparation for the unknown future is a necessity. [Cue cheesy West Wing quote about non-written commandment of making a better place for our children]. So of course, every responsible politician and political analyst has to think outside the box, come up with an array of issues that could potentially come up, and adjust accordingly. But (I'm hoping) more often than not, these responsible discussions are based on previous knowledge, events, and laws that have set precedence. What my beef with hypothetical arguments is that, regularly, they are used as a means to justify irrational self-righteousness, unfounded attacks on character, and a means to feed fear and paranoia - all under the guise of coherent "intellectual/factual discussion." They're also ridiculously easy to use because research is not necessary and what better way to present an argument than to use evidence that can't be disproved because it doesn't exist?

In summary: Facts. Previous knowledge of events. Data. Pretty important stuff. Back up your argument. "What ifs?" - not so much.


And after my long-ass rant against "what-ifs" comes something completely contradictory: "What if your child turned out to be gay?" [Warning: more rambling ahead]

One (of MANY) things that have been brought to my attention through the whole Prop. 8 debacle is the inherent fear in parents that their kids will be gay. Something that Prop. 8 supporters gleefully utilized in their campaigns. One comment I heard from a supporter (paraphrasing, of course): "The gay community can live however they want, but when they're teaching their lifestyle to my kids, that's going too far."

I'm going to ignore the obvious discussion of the non-connection between gay marriage and schools since I'm pretty sure a Google search would return a much more eloquent analysis than any one I would have to present. My question is: "Why is it a big deal that your children are aware of LBGT relations or might turn out to be gay?" Obviously, if you have a problem with gays, period, your children are definitely off limits. But what about the people like the supporter above? Who are open-minded enough to acknowledge the LBGT community's existence without wishing damnation upon them but having their kids do the same? Huge NO. If you're "okay" with gay people, why not be okay with your child being gay? I really don't have an answer to this or, basically, it's just an exercise to not so subtly (and pretentiously) point out that despite the best attempts to present an image of tolerance, it seems to be human nature to react with a "HELL NO" when "different" hits too close to home.

In summary: After all the not-so-deep analysis above, I follow with my own non-PC, completely partisan take:

"Get. Over. It."



And to end the entry on an inane note, something cool from coolhunter:


Annnd. Happy Holidays to me, again. Courtesy of Jess, again:

The Office is No Longer Must See TV

This season (and a good portion of the last), the writers of The Office have made it clear that their task is to present newer alternatives to plot devices/character eccentricities that made Season 1 and 2 so great. Unfortunately, these upgraded versions aren't really that funny (or cute in some particular endeavors). Cases in point:

1. Dwight and Jim:
What had once been a comedic cornerstone of the show - Jim antagonizing Dwight - has now taken a backseat to the completely dull coupledom of Jim and Pam and the sporadically humorous love-triangle of Dwight-Andy-Angela. Nothing is more painful than watching the two male leads waste important minutes of screen time pining after their mutual mates. Where's the funny? Aside from the brilliant factually incorrect BSG monologue, Dwight and Jim's chemistry has been at an all time low. Bummer.

2. Pam 2.0:
Last week's episode clinched it. Pam is no longer likable. Gone is the plain-but-beautiful, shy, sensitive with a mean streak, humorous girl. In place is a borderline bitchy, clearly manipulative, overconfident, unfunny woman. Got to give the writer's some credit - they managed to illustrate rather accurately the real life occurrence among some women where upon snagging a man, the feeling of empowerment on finding a guy who likes them translates into an overall increase in confidence, which leads to outspoken behavior that isn't necessarily pleasant to witness. Some examples: a) the microwave incident; b) threatening Jim. Anyway, as realistic as it is, again, NOT FUNNY.

3. Michael's man-crush on Ryan: Bring it back!

4. Jim and Pam:
To quote Jess: "wah wahhh...zzzzzz." The romantic tension has officially left the building. While it's not necessary to break them up to keep things interesting, it would be nice if so much screen time wasn't focused on them playing-cute-that-isn't-very-cute-at-all. Yes, after two and a half season of "will they or won't they", it's happy times now that the two are together. But PLEASE stop cramming it down the viewers' throats. We get it - Jim is a nice guy and Pam is a lucky girl. What's next? (Maybe some Karen? Please?).

5. Kelly Kapoor: Not a huge complaint. But resorting to pregnancy and rape lies for humor - really?

Not that everything is all bad: a) Andy's character has come miles in terms of the obnoxious anger-management needing a-hole from season 3; b) The increase of Darryl from the warehouse is highly welcomed; and c) Holly and Michael geeky moments were awkwardly sweet. So while The Office hasn't necessarily jumped the shark to the extent that Heroes has (an entire rant post within itself), the moments of hilarity dispersed through this season have not been often or consistent enough to warrant a Thursday 9pm appointment with the couch.

Depressing Geeky Admission of the Day

This has actually happened:

Mainly, every day during the long trek to the bathroom, I find myself prone to fanciful thinking about how cool an epic choreographed battle would be involving all the cubicles getting demolished, falling down like dominoes. CG related hyper-kinetic moves and powers all play a part...and I'm probably going to delete this post in the future. In my defense, I've never been delusional enough to cast myself in so-called epic battles (as opposed to comic-guy above).

And my official default response to pompous elitists:


If it wasn't obvious, I've recently re-discovered the joy of nerd humor.

Goal of next entry: not reference myself once. Read an article about how it's a legitimate exercise for mental stimulation. Let's see how that goes.

Countdown to 24

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Season Finale. Watch it.


And more goodies from Japan. Do you think the male model had any idea what his image was going to be utilized for?


My reaction to being another year older:

Pictures

Happy Anniversary

It's getting close to the year mark since I've started this blog with the intention of pawning some early morning work (shh) ramblings onto my (admittedly, few) friends. Plus, the additional challenge of expressing my thoughts in a non-bullet note format. On that note, it's only been a very partial success.

Anyway, instead of using the whole New Year to look back at what I've done, I figured blog world anniversary is as a good excuse as any. So, onto the bullet list of things I have learned (or mostly verified more concretely).

1. Conversation: No matter how righteous a tone I take on, a great friend will see through it and always tell me I'm full of crap when I'm full of crap. Surrounding oneself with sycophants is highly overrated. Though, I'm probably just saying that because I've never been non-dorky enough to be on the receiving end of sycophantic adoration.

2. Animals: Always wait at least an hour after your dog takes a dump before cleaning up after him; Big dog pee kills grass like no other; and all animals like Nick better than me.

3. Heroes: Veronica Mars. Veronica Mars. Veronica Mars...and Gob.

4. Politics: Despite my declaration that I wasn't going to be a mindless party-follower and instead strive to be a vigorous fact-finding/informed voter, I find myself fixating on the negative information on who I'm predisposed to dislike and only concentrating on the positives of those I would had voted if I had believed in all the campaign lies in the first place. So end result? Keeping tabs on the election is entertaining, but I'd be ridiculously pretentious to think that I was being objective in terms of my views. At least I can promise I'll still never be an obnoxious online political article commentator who can't spell. Grr. Those drive me crazy.

5. Work: I can actually be decent at it. It'd be nice if I could be as vigorous with my EE industry knowledge as I was with my celebrity gossip. I guess we can put that as a new blog year resolution.

6. Laughs: Sam's blog. Jess. Ashley.

E-mail Post

I generally don't make it a policy to post whatever hilar-lar story I receive via e-mail. But today's entry courtesy of Juhi was just too ridiculous to pass up. Easily the best writing I've seen EVER.

Every year, English teachers from across the USA can submit their
collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays.


Here are last year's winners.

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. Instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. Traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. At a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her,
like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Mini-stories from my trip

On our layover in Tokyo, I decided to pass the time by buying a Japanese Elle and flipping through the pictures. Actually, that's a lie. I bought the Japanese Elle to cover the fact that Nick was purchasing porn. He didn't want to appear like a complete pervert/weirdo, taking me into the store JUST to get Japanese Schoolgirls Gone Wild. A spread-eagle Madonna was obviously a much more appropriate cover.

Anyway.

While flipping through the pages, my mom decided that moment was great for quality bonding time and started peering over my shoulders, all inquisitive like. When I came across a spread depicting red carpet pictures of Victoria Beckham, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie, etc., I received her patented, "Ewww...yucky!" Here's how the conversation (generally went):

Me: "Oh, you don't find them attractive?"
Mom: "Not at all!"
Me: "Too skinny?"
Mom: "TOO FAT!!!"
Me: "Uh...you do realize this woman [point to Posh] is known for being so skinny people think she has an eating disorder?"
Mom: "Fat."
Me: "Do you SEE her arms?" [now Angelina]
Mom: "Still fat. Look at her gigantic boobs."
Me: "You do realize if you were to stand next to any of these women, you'd be very short and very huge?"
Mom: "Well, I'm fat too."
Me: "That you are." [jiggles her belly]

Yeah, Nick says I'm an ass.


And just for more complete documentation, photos of my dad's reflexology session.

I <3 alittlef

Stolen from someone else's blog:
"We’re talking about the bar we’re going to and this girl sitting next to us, says “Are you with the ND group! I’m Ashley and I’m going, too!” She then turns back to the book she’s reading and doesn’t say a word for the rest of the trip, putting her earphones back on. Andrew and I were a bit lost and followed her out of the BART terminal, but she was waiting for somebody and we didn’t want to be creepers and decided to try to find our own way, to much success........

......I was in a really goofy mood and was humming “See you again.” Ashley pulled it up on her iPhone and I think we were freaking out everybody in the car with the sing along. It’s funny how things come full circle. We found out that she just puts on her earphones so nobody will try to talk to her on the train. What a fraud! If I had an iPhone, I’d listen to awesome music on the train all the time! She didn’t talk to Andrew and I after the introduction, in her words,”the real reason I didn’t talk to you was because you were the guys on the train that everybody was trying to figure out if you were gay or not.” For the final twist, she said she was sad that we went to the bar ahead of her since she didn’t know where it was! Sort of the blind leading the blind, I guess. Anyway, it was a pretty fun night. Good times… which happens to be the name of the next tavern we’re heading to!"

Movie Watching Weekend

Movie: Enchanted

Expectations: High from the 94% on RT. Ready to be charmed by Amy Adams.

Review: Watch Elf instead. It's basically the same plot, except Will Ferrel is infinitely more hilarious and less annoying than Amy Adams. Or you can do what I did and watch the two back-to-back and geekily pinpoint just how many matching scenes Enchanted had with Elf. Some examples of identical NY hijinks:
1. Getting stuck in a revolving door.
2. Discussion on what a date is.
3. Slight of hand trick.
4. Mistaking a dwarf for a mystical creature.
5. Musical number.
6. Storybook introduction.

It's a pretty extensive list. So, no points for originality. I also personally found Amy Adams to be really really annoying. Her high pitch shrieking and ditzy twirling did not translate into "charm" at all. Instead, her acting/character seemed (as Nick helpfully pointed out) more reminiscent of Charlize Theron's MR F from Arrested Development. The movie had it's moments, but overall, I'd rate it a thumbs down.


Movie: Juno

Expectations: Actually low based on Ashely's review.

Review: Officially add Michael Cera to my list. The movie was watchable and kept my interest. The idealistically intelligent approach everyone had to the teenage pregnancy definitely rang false more than a few times. And the voice-overs to convey Juno's commentary on life/showcase her snarky monotone personality were sparse, kind of random, and not conducive to the actual plot (did I really care that Juno felt the asshole actually had the hots for her?). It felt like Diablo was definitely trying too hard in the moments there. I found Jennifer Garner's performance amazing in her ability to not be as likable as Jason Bateman but definitely someone you feel for. As for Ellen Page, meh. Temper, monotone, snark - all from a tiny little girl. I get it. Veronica Mars is still way cooler.

Conclusion: One time viewing for me. Though a clip-show of Michael Cera scenes would garner obsessive repeat watching.


Movie: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Expectations: Exceedingly high. Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, and Veronica Mars all having some input into the movie - formula for AMAZING.

Review: REALLY REALLY hilarious. Though, Knocked Up still holds place of funniest Apatow movie for me. Go see it anyway.

Movie Review # 2

Movie: Death at a Funeral

Premise (stolen from RT): "A dignified send-off for a loved one erupts into chaos when romance, jealousy, in-laws, hallucinogens, dark secrets, life-long yearnings and a spot of bold blackmail all collide in this British comedy."

My expectations: None really. The above image of Walsh from Firefly naked on a rooftop peaked my curiosity. I was also interested in seeing a comedy that didn't involve one member of the Frat Pack.

What I got: I consistently chuckled throughout the entire movie, but I laugh easily. It's been a while since I've viewed a comedy where the laughs were derived from normal people getting into awkward situations as opposed to over-the-top characters ruining normal situations (i.e. most Will Ferrel movies). I've also always been a big fan of the multi-character storylines where individual situations all cleverly accumulate into one uproarious mess - this movie was a pretty prime example of it. Naked hallucinating Walsh with an English accent was pretty hilarious.

Conclusion: Not the greatest movie I've seen in a while, but solidly good. I recommend a mindless viewing at least once.

Score:3.75/5

Movie Reviews

I checked up Ashley's blog recently and felt inspired enough by her fabulous entries to follow her footsteps and take a stab at reviewing some films I recently saw. Of course, my aversion to dark subject matter and violence really cramps the number of movies I can actually review, but here's my stab at it anyway.

Movie: Be Kind Rewind

Premise: A magnetized Jack Black deletes all the contents of a VHS rental store and teams up with Mos Def to recreate the contents for the customers - aka "Swede" the movies.

My expectations: Genuine clever humor involving the swede-ing of the films. Laugh-outloud performance from Black, every-man likeability from Mos Def, and innovative filming/story-telling style from Michel Gondry (being of Eternal Sunshine fame).

What I got: Innovative went too far into random and weird. The quirky characters with underdeveloped motivation, random conversations, and editing consistently felt at odds with the mainstream humor of watching Jack Black and Mos Def re-enact classics (and not so classic) movies. The delving into smaltz for the latter half of the movie (with the intention of feeling for characters I didn't GET) made the distinction more palpable. So while Michel Gondry's really scored some genuine laughs and "wow, that's really clever!" moments during the swede-ing processes, the rest of the film...not so much. In addition, Jack Black (popping up to wreak havoc and yell) and Mos Def (quiet, mumbling around) were defintiely under-utilized.

Conclusion: If I could just youtube the 15 minutes of the low-budget takes on the movies, I'd be perfectly content.

Score: 2.5/5

Bay Area Dining

I just got back from another trip to LA, where as usual, Jessica treated us to plenty of delicious SoCal goodies. As an homage to her hospitality (and as a buffer blog to potential Veronica Mars spoilers listed bellow), I figured I'd compile a list of the various tasty restaurant up north.


1. A&J's in Cupertino Village. Hand made, high quality Taiwanese food at its best. Personal favorites: Beef Noodle soup (with the thick noodles), Fried Chicken over Rice with picked vegetables, potstickers...okay, the list goes on. The food is great stuff.


2. HC Dumpling (also in Cupertino Village). NorCal's version of Din Tai Fung. Fresh, steaming Shanghai dumplings galore.


3. Zachary's Pizza in Berkeley, Oakland, and San Ramon. Chicago style pizza with hands-down the best tomato sauce around. Yum.


4. Faultline Brewery in Sunnyvale. Delicious variety of (American?) foods with the chef's personal twist and regularly rotating menu. Personal favorites: Walnut ravioli, Black Pepper Calamari pasta, and the pale ale.


5. Uncle Yu's in Livermore. I'm not generally a big fan of fusion because it usually results in a half-assed attempt to Americanize Chinese food, but Uncle Yu's really got it down right with the vineyard influences. Personal favorites: honey calamari, Lettuce wraps.


6. Mahalo in Pleasanton. High-end Haiwaiian food. Personal favorites: Kobe Beef sandwhich on a sweet roll, the sampler platter.

Watching Too Much TV Again

Yesterday, I completed the first season of Veronica Mars in 4 days with Ashley. It's been a while since I gave the good old swoon a work out. Therefore, today's entry will focus on an analysis of my favorite guilty-pleasure plot device: The meant-for-each-other-but-we-have-to-wait-several-episodes-(sometimes seasons)-to-get-together-couple.

So basically there's two ways to start off:
1. Girl dates (or dated) jerk, meant for nice guy. Examples: Jam, and Chuck and Sarah. Tried to get it going with Simone and Peter, but that just SUUUUuuuucked.
2. Girl dates nice guy, but meant for jerk who's actually a nice guy. Example: Buffy and Spike, Rory and Jess, most recently LoVe Boat (term coined courtesy of TWoP), and pretty much any Asian pop drama out there.

My personal favorite is choice number 2 (if done well - I dislike Asian Dramas). Unfortunately reality really sucks and most often the jerk always remains a jerk. No amazing transformation from asshole to whipped puppy just because he finds a girl he likes. Choice number 1 is more representative of true reality where all the single guys whine about why all the girls go for the assholes. Personal aside: as obnoxious as jerk behavior is, a fullgrown man PMSing is inifinitely worse.


Next phase in the all-encompassing lurve are the obstacles, usually consisting of (but not exclusive to):
1. Secondary love interest.
2. The ex.
3. Pregnancy.
4. Car accident/killer on the loose.

Which amazingly, the writers maintain for an extensive period of time before any resolution arrives. The long wait unfortunately means either: (1)by the time the two end up together, we're stuck with a lingering sense they actually might not last due to all the trauma they had to endure, (2) the actor portraying one of the characters leaves the show because there's only so much mooning one can take; or (3) the show gets cancelled without any resolution or a cheap tacked-on make out scene at the last second. Anyway, these things end up not being too great for my emotional well-being or my issues dealing with frustration, but I just can't help but get sucked in nonetheless.

Oh supercouples, what you do to me. Personal thanks to Ashley for getting me started again. Logan did think you were hot:

Blog Log = Redundant Term

It's been less than 24 hours since Nick left for Tahoe. Log of uncool behavior thus far:

Unnecessary facebook picture comments on Jess's profile: 2
Episodes of Veronica Mars watched: 4
Hours of harping over why Veronica isn't with Logan yet and that Duncan sucks: 3+
Episodes of Samurai Jack watched: 1.5
Minutes of Celeb Gossip with Ashley: approx. 50
Bowls of Pho ingested: 1
Cross-stitches stitched: 20
Minutes of GMAT Studying: 0

Amy got engaged

And I'm now a bridesmaid. Since I'm generally a pain in the ass, chances are she'll force me to wear something horrendous and I'll end up looking like this:


I totally rock it.