prison for jerks

( TONIGHT'S NCIS MADE ME AND KELLY FLAIL )

In other news HIMYM is awesome.

Things that I appreciate today:

+ I spent an hour or two using the UO library to find articles for my sociolinguistics class -- we have to turn in a reference list tomorrow, with a list of five articles on a topic we'll write a review paper about next month -- and OH MAN. Sometimes I love school! LEARNING IS AWESOME. Seriously, what is awesomer than researching native language instruction and its role in language revitalization of indigenous American languages? (The answer is: very few things.)

+ This post of geeklite's wins Post of the Day on my friends list.

+ I have been watching Ugly Betty since this weekend (through 1x11 "Swag" so far), thanks to an anonymous benefactor (not anonymous to *me*, but anonymous in the sense that I'm not telling you all. Um. Yes). I am not totally on board with the show yet, but I am enjoying it quite a bit -- it's funny and charming and such. The balance of the reality of Betty's home life and the over-the-top melodrama and satire of most of the Mode plots is kind of hard to get used to. Also, I want Betty to dump her gross boyfriend and hook up with Jake 2.0 and have adorable bespectacled babies who just know useless facts. *cough*

+ speshope is a ridiculously nice, generous, giving person, and I am really lucky to have her as a friend.

+ New Jen Garner movie out this weekend.

+ Now it is time to watch NCIS!

Things that are annoying me:

+ I went to go cook lunch today and our 9x13 pan is nowhere to be found. I was looking forward to trying out a new yummy-sounding baked pasta recipe! :(

+ Still nowhere close to having a job.

+ I'm still annoyed with myself over my school attendance these first few weeks, and need to start over and do BETTER.

All in all, though, I think that is a pretty good ratio! I approve of today. *thumbs up*

Last night: I had a fannish dream, for the first time in a really long time. It was strangely ordinary, actually. All I remember is Abby and McGee from NCIS were standing around talking about the guy Abby was dating, and how she didn't think it was going to work out with him, because he was way more serious and into monogamy than she was, or something? And McGee was all "ah, yes," and apparently that was part of the reason they stopped being together too? I don't know. It was very quotidian.

Last Friday: speshope and I went out to see One Night With the King at the $1.50 movie theater in Springfield. This was the random biblical movie about Esther. People who acted in this movie include two famous movie stars from the 60s and 70s (Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif); two guys I know best for their recent roles in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (John Noble and John Rhys-Davies); and Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica. Peter O'Toole was in the movie from perhaps three minutes and one line of dialogue, and got his name listed first, well above the title.

Spes's and my verdict: That was a terrible, terrible movie. IT WAS SO BAD, YOU GUYS. It was amazing, actually, watching it and trying to figure out all the ways it could have been slightly less crappy. Like if the main actors were just a little bit better -- or the dialogue wasn't completely cliched -- or if there was any sort of explanation for the random fantasy hallucination elements -- or even if the editor had worked a little bit harder at making the scenes make any kind of sense or follow each other in any way.

Gaius Baltar was pretty awesome, though, simply because he was so incredibly over the top. That's the secret to getting through this: hamming it up as much as you can. You can't out cheese the direction, so why not go for it?

I was trying very, very hard not to burst into laughter at inappropriate times during the film. I did not succeed. There were plenty of other people in the audience with us -- families and stuff! -- so I felt like I should try to keep my scorn and amusement to myself, but sometimes one can only fight so much.

Next week: I start classes again on Monday. I am not sure how I feel about this yet!

NCIS!

1) "Forced Entry" (2x9) has won the official title of crappiest episode I've seen so far! When my sister and I were watching it, it was just confusing, but the more I think about it the worse it is.

2) "Call of Silence" (2x7) -- the one with the Iwo Jima Medal of Honor recipient -- almost made me cry. *SNIFF*

3) Gibbs telling Kate that when Ducky was younger, he looked like Illya Kuryakin: clever use of injokiness, or horribly cheesy use?

4) Non-NCIS content: I really enjoyed "McKay and Mrs. Miller", which I was worried about even though you guys all loved it, because, well, often I have the exact opposite reaction as my friends list (see the difference in the John and Elizabeth episodes). But this was cute, yay! And, honestly? I saw more McKay/Sheppard here than I ever have before, simply because I think this is one of the first episodes where it seemed like they (and also the team as a whole) were being portrayed as actual friends.

Back to watching "The Meat Puzzle" (2x13) now. I love Ducky centric episodes! Although it has meant a regrettable lack of Abby so far.

(Icon choice now has me imagining Babs and Abby in the same place. Heh.)