I'm Gonna Miss Team Bartowski

Well I just finished watching the Chuck series finale and I can't stop crying!

I can't explain how much this show has influenced my life. I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true. A lot of the music I listen to today came straight from Chuck. I even have a playlist called Chuck. I always have to refrain myself from asking someone if they flashed when I see someone that looks like they're about to sneeze. I will always think of Chuck when I hear Cake. I learned all of my spy skills from the show, and learned girls can kick serious ass, and usually better than a guy.

But most of all Chuck taught me how to embrace my nerdiness and to not be ashamed of it. Because even though you may have nerdy qualities you can still run with the big guys and be the hero.

Thanks to the entire team that brought Chuck to our TV's every week for five wonderful years. Chuck will always be one of my all time favorite shows.

Excuse me I need more tissues.

Must Have Gadgets

I thought I might share a few gadgets that bring the geek out of me and make me say "I must have now!"

To open doors. duh!

Light Saber Laser Pointer

Stress Toy

My soon to be alarm clock. I will wake up for sure.

It's actually a remote control for your TV!

The best part is I would absolutely use every single one of these.

All items can be found at thinkgeek.com

We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Program to Present....

In lieu of a Because of Doctor Who edition today, I am showcasing a video found on YouTube and featured in BBC America's Anglophenia blog giving a run down of every episode of Doctor Who to have ever aired in only 10 minutes, which is a feat in and of it's own:

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Don't worry kids, Because of Doctor Who will return next Friday as scheduled. I know you're all so excited! Well at least I am.....

Update: The video creator has unfortunately made it unavailable to view anywhere other than YouTube, so below is the link to the video. 

https://youtu.be/iN5jPQdJXYE 

Subscribe Like A Stalker

So I again think I'm behind the curve on this, but I have a new passion for subscribing to celebs on Facebook. I think it's actually fun and it makes me feel like I'm friends with them. I realize this is a delusional thought, and probably one that could border onto stalk-like behavior if I don't reprimand my thoughts, but I really do enjoy following celebs. I'm not that much into twitter, I kind of feel it's messy in it's structure, but I know a lot of people that prefer Twitter over Facebook. And I know that following celebs on Twitter is an old concept, but now that you can subscribe to these same celebs on Facebook, and that they tie their Twitter into it as well, I have formed my new passion.

TV Reviews: Downton Abbey & Eureka

I thought I would take a few minutes and discuss a couple of the shows I have been watching or recently watched. As you all know I'm a TV addict, and what would my blog be without a post on shows that I'm enjoying?

Downton Abbey - I recently just watched both seasons that have aired thus far, and I have to say for a period show, this one is mighty fine. I love watching a family of money interact with the "help" in a way that shows that not only do they appreciate their assistance, but that this family really does care about their employees. A virtue that not very many employers have now days. For those who are unfamiliar with the show, here's a brief synopsis:

The show follows the Crawley family and their servants.

There I hope that helped. Ok, ok....it's a British TV show that is set in the early 1900's and we follow them through some of the poignant historical moments of this world. There is laughter, crying, romance, war and so much more. You will fall in love with this beautifully made show from the gorgeous setting to the characters themselves. It's a must see, because it's worth all of the raving.

Thanks Amber for turning me onto this show!

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Eureka - I just started watching this show on Sunday, and I'm still trying to figure out how I've managed to go 5 years without ever watching this show. I remember when it first started airing and I was intrigued, but for some reason I never watched. And honestly I started watching it now because of my 2012 goal to watch more sci-fi TV shows. And I'm glad that I did. It's quirky, funny, and down right weird. I love it! Brief synopsis:

The show is about Jack a U.S. Marshal who is taking his runaway daughter back to LA to his ex-wife, when he runs into a bit of trouble and crashes his car in the town of Eureka (where a government facility is secretly held that houses a bunch of scientists inventing much of the technology that we use today and will use in the future). The car's damage ends up requiring them to stay for a few days, to where Jack encounters some very odd happenings. Well needless to say the town Sheriff ends up getting injured and Jack gets "promoted" by the U.S. government to be the new Sheriff in town. The show follows his daily encounters with the small town's quirky people and crazy inventions.

This show is really fun to watch, and I want Jack's house (you'll need to watch to see what I mean).

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Downton Abbey Season 1 and Eureka Seasons 1-3.5 are available on Netflix. Downton Abbey Season 2 is available on PBS' website (although they are airing Season 2 late and only one episode per week. In order to see all of Season 2, you will need to find another source). Season 4 is not yet on Netflix, so you'll need to find another source as well, and Season 5 is due to air this year some time.

Because of Doctor Who #3

The third edition is here! I found this cool website where I could make my own meme's (and then I go to my friend Jordan's blog and see she's found the website too. And here I was thinking I had done good, oh well). I think this is how this will look from now on  We will see though, I change my mind a lot. 

Geek-Out Moment

Gah! This excites me so much!!  Whoever put this together gets major kudos from me. It's very well done. Bring on the 50th anniversary extravaganza! I'm ready to celebrate till the very day itself. Yes I realize I'm geeking out, and I love it!

Random Ramblings #2

My friend Amber told me I should watch this show called Downton Abbey, and I think I might become addicted. I'm trying to abstain from the addiction as there aren't very many episodes, and I just don't want to put myself through that.

Going along with the TV subject, White Collar started up again this week. I love this show, and you should too.

I recently learned that my dvd player streams Netflix and several other websites when it's plugged into the internet. This made me happy because now I can watch Netflix and YouTube shows in bed, and not on my laptop or in the living room through the Wii.

I've been playing a new game called Scramble With Friends. It's actually more fun than Words With Friends in my opinion.

I need to read more if I'm going to accomplish my goal....

I've been working on another of my 2012 goals, which would be to date more. Can I just say I hate dating websites??? But where else do I find a guy? I'm not a bar or club scene girl, I don't go to church, and I really don't get out as much as I should.

I just realized I shared more than I would like to.....meh.

Terrifying Food

So I read this article which disturbed me to the core. I then proceeded to go to snopes.com to verify its validity. I was a little more relieved to see that some parts of it aren't entirely true, but the majority is! This traumatized me, and I felt that it was my duty to share with you what I found.

Everyone is going to have their own opinion on this, and they can also make their own decision, but for me, this has made me rethink everything I eat. I want to try and eat better, and eat more fresh foods. I know this will be a challenge since fast food is so convenient, but I also know that if I do accomplish this task, I will not only feel better in my mind, but also in my body.

And now for the feature presentation:

http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/msm.asp

P.S. Thank you Heidi and Jody for sharing this originally. And terrifying the crap out of me!

Because of Doctor Who #2

I have decided that Friday's would be a good day to post the Because of Doctor Who placards. I find this fun, and I'm sorry for those who don't, but I did warn you I'm a huge Doctor Who fan.

Random Ramblings

I feel I'm a bit behind the curve, as I have recently bought myself my first real iPod (I don't feel that the shuffle really counts). I have been a Zune girl for many years, and I still am, but I must admit it is dying, and my choice to move onto an iPod was a difficult, but necessary decision. In having said this I have discovered the joys of podcasts! I'm addicted to the Nerdist podcast and have been listening religiously while working. I feel that this could be a new thing that I could thoroughly enjoy. And I plan to download several other podcasts by many others and broaden my horizons. This is an exciting thing! What's not so exciting is that I finished Firefly in its entirety. This means that last night I watched the movie Serenity, and I must say I was very nervous toward the end of the movie. I wasn't sure who was or wasn't going to survive. All in all in turned out ok, albeit with a few sad losses, but I feel that it was wrapped up the best it could be. And I'm ok with this. What I'm not ok with is that junk food isn't healthy for you. Why does it have to taste so good??  I was thinking about this the other day, and I really like junk food (this is obvious from my not so slender figure), but oh how I wish it was good for you. I hate craving it, and denying myself the pleasure because this makes me cranky. Oh well, I will get past this right? And speaking of cranky, I do have to say that the iTunes software is not very user friendly. It's either that I'm used to the Zune software which I think is not only more user friendly, but also more aesthetically pleasing, or iTunes just isn't as great as the iPod itself. I have struggled with the iTunes software all week, trying to figure out how to do the simplest of things. Some I have to admit may have been operator error, but others are not very explanatory and this frustrated me. I have been able to get it all figured out to the extent that I can at least transfer music to and remove music from my iPod, but I'm not sure about all of the other features that the software offers. This will take time and I will have to be patient. And speaking of patience, I'm all about used up this week, so thank God the weekend is nearly here, because Lord knows I need it!

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!!

Yesterday's Fun

I thought I would share my yesterday I spent with my baby sister Melissa. We have a lot in common and I love this. I love that we can call it a "girls day" and not do anything girly and be completely ok with it. Our day consisted of first driving around trying to figure out where we wanted to grab a bite to eat. This becomes a tad limited when it comes to Sundays in Centerville. So we opted for IHOP, a sure-to-be-open-on-Sunday option. There I finally had some waffles, to which I have been craving forever. Not that they are the greatest, but it satisfied my craving. Melissa opted for a breakfast sandwich with onion rings. Not exactly the most common combination, but who's to judge?

Melissa showing off her giant onion ring

After we ate our satisfying meal, we ventured over to the new Centerville movie theater. This place is fancy. The whole lobby is a giant circle with a cafeteria-like eating area in the center. And a super fancy soda dispenser that is all computerized and let's you choose from 100+ drinks from this one machine (or so it says). Anyway we went to this futuristic theater to see Sherlock Holmes. The movie was pretty good (a little too much slow motion for me), but otherwise a fun movie.

Once the movie was over we then proceeded to go back to my house and play video games. We played a very little bit of Call of Duty, Melissa taught me how to better kill zombies, so I'm excited to try now. I was really sucking it up before. We then proceeded to play a little Super Mario Sunshine (I love how the Wii also works as a Gamecube), and then we moved on to some Super Mario Galaxy. We're Mario fans in this family.

Once we were all video-gamed-out, I took her home and then went back home to watch more Firefly. All in all it was a pretty good Sunday, and I again have to say how I love that I can spend time with my sister and it doesn't have to be girly, not that we don't love to do that from time to time as well.

Cheers!

TV Review: Firefly

In a past post I mentioned my tendency to get obsessed with shows and then have issues when they end. This is why I never watched Firefly. I knew that there were only roughly a dozen episodes, and that was all. And knowing this information I made the proper decision to not watch the show. I knew I would love it, and would become obsessed, and then would go through my temporary depression as I do. Well that decision was changed recently. I started watching Firefly. Now I'm getting anxiety after each episode because I know I'm getting closer and closer to the end, and I don't want to! I really don't know why I let myself do this.

On the bright side, I now see why everyone raves about this show. It really is awesome, and I keep telling myself I am only working on one of my New Year's goals, which was to familiarize myself with more sci-fi tv shows. I'm really doing myself a favor here. At least that's what I keep telling myself. When I'm done with the series and sitting at home obsessing while in my depression, I'll be thinking otherwise. For now though I need to just enjoy the episodes I have left to watch and prepare myself for the end.

And all things aside, this show is really great, and I highly recommend it. Although I could do without the kinda cheesy opening credits theme song....but that's just me.

Because of Doctor Who

So I came across a blog recently that is dedicated to Doctor Who. And on this blog there is a section called "Because of Doctor Who". I liked this section so much I thought I would create a few of my own placards. Enjoy!

I'll do this from time to time as I come up with more. 

Spelling and Grammatical Pet Peeves

I was watching The Middle last night and within the episode there was a discussion about using the proper spelling of a word. During this same episode some of the things that were said were grammatically incorrect. This got me thinking about the spelling and grammatical error pet peeves I have. I'm not going to say I'm perfect and don't make any mistakes, but I definitely make a lot fewer mistakes than the majority of my generation, and the current generation. It's quite sad actually. I fear for our future, as texting has created a large spelling impediment upon our young.

Well due to this episode I watched last night, I thought I would list a few of my pet peeves. You are welcome to add to this list in the comments.

1. There, Their and They're  (This was the word that was mentioned in the tv show I watched last night)
2. To, Too and Two
3. A, An (If you don't know which is the correct use in a sentence, I've found that if it rolls off the tongue it's probably the correct use. Say out loud "I'll see you in a hour" and then try "I'll see you in an hour". You'll hopefully see what I mean).
4.Got versus Gotten (gotten isn't a word people)
5. Ate versus Eaten (Watch how you're using this. Although I am guilty of using this incorrectly a few times, I do try to catch myself).
6. Whether and Weather
7. Which and Witch
8. Picture and Pitcher
9. Your and You're (This is probably the worst one! Really people is it that hard to know which is which in your sentence?!)
10. Then and Than
11. It's and Its
12. Are and Our
13. A lot (not Alot)
14. Do and due

I'm sure I will think of more, but this is what I've come up with at the moment. Feel free to add to the list.

TV Review: The Guild

I've been watching the show The Guild recently. And I have to say even though I'm not an RPG player, I found this show really funny. For those not familiar with the premise of the show I will provide a brief synopsis:

The Guild is about a group of RPG players that play a game similar to World of Warcraft called The Game. The show is based on this group (The Guild) and their online conversations while they play The Game. They do venture away from their computer and get together, but I found the computer conversations superior to any other part of the show.

The Guild has just recently wrapped up its 5th season, and I was able to watch the entire series in a matter of  a couple days due to the simplicity and length of the episode. The beauty of it was that I was able to watch a few episodes whilst filing at work because the episodes are only on average 8 minutes long. Aside from this perk I found that there were a couple other perks:

- It was a geek haven with the numerous cameos throughout the show. To name a few; Wil Wheaton, Brent Spiner, Zachary Levi and oh so many more.
- No matter what you say about Zune, I was able to download every episode from every season as well as all extra material for free. Yup take that iTunes! (I hear it's not available to them yet, this might not be true....) You can watch all of the episodes online for free no matter what, but I still like that I could download them legally and have them available to watch whenever I choose.
- Even though I'm not an RPG player, I found I could relate to their nerdiness, and this made me happy. I love that geek is a good thing! For so long I had to hide for fear of ridicule, now it's cool to be uncool more than ever. I love it.

I recommend this show for fun quick-witted entertainment.

The End.

Book Review: Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire

Well I finished reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last night. And I must say I really enjoyed it. Being that the movie version is my favorite, the book not only expanded on it, but blew it out of the water. I had no idea how much was left out! And because of this I would like to discuss a few key points and my thoughts:

I kinda like this artwork better than the artwork on my copy

S.P.E.W. - My memory sucks royally, so I don't remember what it stands for, but this was Hermionie's creation to help aid in better treatment of the house-elves. She hated that they were treated as servants, regardless of the fact that the elves quite enjoyed it. I saw myself being torn on how I felt about this, because I knew this was a direct correlation to slavery in reality of which I would never agree with. And at the same time as I'm reading I understood the stand point of everyone else in that the elves liked helping and being paid nothing for it. So who's to argue with that? Such a dilemma!

Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch - Nowhere in the movie do they bother to go into length on who these men are and how important they are to the story! This disappointed me a bit finding all this useful information left out of the movie. I understand that they can't put everything in there, but a little more depth would have been nice. It made so much more sense why Barty Crouch was such an integral part to Voldemort's attempt on Harry's demise yet again. Ludo Bagman I don't really remember being featured all that much in the movie, but his character was pretty important too, being that he was leading the tournament. Whatev's, the movies will never live up to the books.

Neville's parents - I have to admit when I was reading about what happened to his parents I teared up a bit. I actually did quite a few times during the last 200 pages of the book, but this one in particular got to me. Knowing that Neville's family story is just as tragic as Harry's and yet no one recognized this is a little heartbreaking.

All in all the book is definitely better than the movie which is not a surprise, but I do still love the movies and will continue to watch them.

Now I'm taking a break from the Harry Potter series to read the Steve Jobs Biography that I got for Christmas. I will then continue on my New Year's quest to finish reading the entire series this year. I hope I can accomplish this. Wish me luck!

2012 Goals

This time of the year is when it's popular to make resolutions. I've found from several years of failure, that resolutions are not my thing. But being that this is apparently the final year of life, I feel I should make some goals (not resolutions) that I feel comfortable accomplishing. Most are inclined to make their resolutions/goals to lose weight, eat better and work out more. I've made these same choices myself and failed every time. So below is the list I have compiled of goals I see myself completing this year:

1. Finish reading the Harry Potter books
2. Familiarize myself with more sci-fi tv shows
3. Eat healthy from time to time
4. Work out here and there
5. Take a vacation or two
6. Blog/write more
7. Go on more dates

This list could increase or decrease over time, but I feel I have a good start.