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sarea
Omggggg you guys, yesterday was SO HOT. It was in the 90s, which for Seattle is blistering, especially because 99% of homes here have NO AIR CONDITIONING (mine included). Getting up to walk from the couch to the kitchen made me break out in a sweat during the afternoon. I took a cold shower and the water dried instantly from my skin. I gave Talis a bath and didn't blow dry him afterward, hoping he'd enjoy the coolness, but his fur dried fast and he was panting like crazy the entire day. I filled a freezer bag with ice, wrapped it in a towel, and put it under my neck, which made things more bearable, while watching Psych pretty much the entire day, because I didn't have the energy to HOLD UP A BOOK (or even my Nook). I tried to put the cold towel near Talis, feeling really sorry for him, but he wouldn't have any of it. (He's so dumb.) Jaime seemed to be able to bear the heat much better than us. I thought about escaping to the mall or something, but felt super bad abandoning my pets in their fur coats to the heat, so I stuck it out with them.
It didn't help that Sunday was the only day of the week I had available to do some cooking that I'd been planning for days, so it had to get done. I smoked a whole chicken (juicy and delicious) using my stovetop smoker, and also baked some dried strawberry cookies (they were supposed to be rolled out, but the heat made the dough soften so quickly that I just ended up mushing it all together and baking haphazard shapes. They're not attractive, but they are yummy). The one good thing about the heat is that I had some Seastack, which is best eaten at room temperature, so I didn't have to wait long for it to reach the perfect consistency.
On Saturday, I met up withadelagia and we did our usual thing. It's so usual, in fact, that I got an email from my mom asking me what I was doing over the weekend and she guessed that T. and I were going to have hotpot and play games. >.> I LIKE ROUTINE OK.
In the morning, I took Talis and Jaime to the vet. Jaime had some sort of cat vaccine due, while I needed to get Talis his 6-month bordetella vaccine. That one is actually recommended on an annual frequency, but the kennel I take him to requires it to be updated every 6 months, and sinceadelagia, slitherhither and I are going to Vancouver in another couple of weeks, he needed to have it.
Anyway, it was the day before the Hottest Day This Year, so after I did that, I met T. at Boiling Point, because that's what we do. It's just so delicious. It was warm that day, but not horribly so (or at least, not when we were eating). If we'd tried to eat there on Sunday we probably both would have perished from heat exhaustion (I mean, eating hot soup on a super hot day?? But what a delicious way to go). Afterward, I went to get my hair cut ... much shorter than usual. It's like around my shoulders now. There was a time in my life when I would cry whenever I cut my hair any significant length, even if I had planned it and didn't hate the cut or anything. I don't know, weird of me, I know. This time though, nothing. Or maybe I did cry, and the tears dried instantly on my cheeks due to the heat. :P Anyway, it's just as well that it's so short (for me) now, given how hot it's been, and now it won't keep getting (painfully) caught between my purse straps and my shoulder. (That happens to me with all shoulder purses, but I'm using a new Coach bag right now, and for some reason, getting my hair caught under those straps is especially painful.)
After that I met back up with T. at Crossroads, where we played Pandemic for hours (and bumped intolyndsiefenele and her fiancé). Here's the thing. T. and I always meet at Crossroads because it's a convenient midway point between us, plus it's very close to Boiling Point. Best of all, they have a reserved area where people can play games, and there's a food court and a QFC, so if we get thirsty or hungry it's really easy to quench any need. (Usually Starbucks gets our patronage. But a Peaks recently opened up, so that may start becoming a regular thing, too. >.>) So it's super awesome and perfect.
Except for the fact that whenever we play there, strangers feel like they can talk to us. (People we actually know are, of course, fine.) Some of them just hover over us to see what game we're playing -- that's usually OK, because they don't stick around that long. But a lot of people ask us about the game, forcing us to interrupt our game and hold a short conversation with them. Mostly this is fine, because we don't mind spreading our love of Pandemic around, to maybe encourage other people to play (just not with us). The reallllllllly irritating people are the ones who recognize us because they see us there a lot, and feel like they can approach us to ask about our current game/make small talk, when we're like, WE DON'T KNOW YOU GO AWAY OMG. And the WORST are the guys who use it as an opportunity to strike a conversation, then start asking personal info like names, etc. It's like, yes, we are in public, for the various reasons I stated above, but that does not mean we are doing it to get picked up or otherwise harassed. We just want to be left alone. I'm not even trying to flatter us. Most of the men (and it's almost always men -- older men, not hot young things) who approach us are probably just interested in the game. However, that's not the point. We just don't like interacting with strangers, regardless of their intentions. And especially, we don't have any desire to play games with them. In general we're not comfortable with it, but particularly with Pandemic, it's much more fun to play with someone who knows what they're doing, with whom we have an established comfort level and rhythm to the game.
Is that terrible? Oh well. That's us. We're pretty hermit-like. We have no desire to make friends with strangers at Crossroads. We just want to play our game in peace. I guess it's partly that it just happens so often. I think on Saturday we were interrupted no less than half a dozen times, if not more. The most irritating interactions: 1) Two older guys who kept enthusiastically talking about what a fun game it looked to be. "We might have to come back and watch you guys play, if that would be all right." T.'s reply: "Sure. It is a fun game. In fact, Uncle's Games (the game store right in front of the playing area) has a demo of the game so you can try it out yourself."; 2) When I went to the restroom, some guy who was eating near us who had made some kind of comment earlier to T., took it as an opportunity to hit on her. Ugh. She gave a fake name.; 3) This man who has approached us several times at Crossroads. He had mentioned once, awhile ago, that he was a game designer, and asked if we'd be willing to try out his game. We said sure, to be nice, but he never had us try it (to my relief, honestly). Then on Saturday he approached to invite us to some championship for his game, ZoxSo, which was taking place next weekend in Seattle. As if that interruption weren't enough, he did it AGAIN later to ask if we were going to go. What this dude doesn't get is that we like ONE game. He always sees us playing THE SAME GAME. So it's not like we're super interested in others -- if we were, we'd play them once in awhile! One of the key reasons we like Pandemic so much is that it's a cooperative game. Yes, we like competitive games too (board games in general are yay), but when there's just two players, I just find cooperative gaming much more fun. And there are very, very few cooperative games out there. Anyway, the point is that by being pushy and trying to force his game on us, it made me less interested than ever in playing his game. We said we'd try to make to his tournament, but pretty much there's no way. I mean, we haven't even played his game ONCE, much less would want to enter a championship for it. Also, it's in SEATTLE, which is such a pain to get to, and inconvenient for us. Besides, we are not interested in that game or in maintaining any kind of relationship with that guy. Bottom line: WE JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE.
(Pandemic is also awesome because the game designers actually answer questions about the rules and such here. Tom Lehmann answered a couple of recent questions T. and I had about the Archivist role and playing on Legendary difficulty. I don't know if it's just that we were really lucky or if we just know how to play now, but we totally won a number of games, with 6 epidemics several times, to the point where we actually attempted a couple of Legendary games. We lost those, but not horribly!)
We had dinner at the Korean place in Paldo market, which was OK (I didn't like the cold noodles I got, but the kalbi and T.'s kimchi fried rice were good). However for the prices they charge I'd rather go to Stone, which has better food and a better atmosphere. I'm glad we tried it though, because we've been saying we would for ages. Afterward we had some Peaks and played a few more games (that's when the ZoxSo guy approached us).
I've gotten caught up in the Olympics. Every time the Olympics happen I have zero interest in it, but then the headlines and highlights and what not get me into it. I basically like swimming, gymnastics, and anything that creates a controversy. :)) I was/am so sick of hearing about Michael Phelps (I really hope he sticks to his word about retiring), but at least he seems like a decent human being. Unlike that douchebag Ryan Lochte. When the Phelps/Lochte 'rivalry' started at the beginning of the London games, at first I was glad about it. It was about time that someone else got to have the spotlight, since it was otherwise All Phelps, All the Time. Plus Ryan was cute. Now I gag to think that I ever thought he was attractive. He's so gross. If I see ONE MORE HEADLINE about his one-night stands and how he's too busy for a relationship and how part of the thrill of the Olympics is the hookups and how it was this giant mistake on his part that at the last Olympics he had a girlfriend, I will seriously puke. Could he be more of an asshole? Like, if you're all about meaningless sex, that's cool, but KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. You don't have to keep bragging to the world about it. Just ew. T. viaelle_blessing shared this article about the top 10 reasons Ryan Lochte is a douchebag. I didn't even know 8 of them and I had ALREADY thought he was a douchebag. Where the article writer (and commenters) and I differ is that they still find him sexy, whereas now I don't find him the LEAST BIT attractive. I would SO not hit that... EVER. Ugh. When his last race happened and he seemed kind of bummed that it was over/that he hadn't gotten more golds, I was like, "That OK, Ryan, you can comfort yourself in the arms of some random woman tonight and possibly still win an STD!"
I do, however, find myself with a massive crush on one of his teammates, Nathan Adrian. I'd never heard of him before this Olympics, even though he's from Washington and went to Cal (he graduated with honors and wants to be a doctor -- wtf! Asakscully says, how can he be so perfect), probably because he's one of those swimmers who just gets completely overshadowed by Michael Phelps, and also because he seems to have been more of a relay specialist up until recently. Not only is he super hot (it's a slideshow about Olympic swimmers' abs, though you have to scroll through to the end to get to Nathan -- thank you, A.), but in all the interviews I've seen with him (not many, see above re: overshadowed) and everything I've read, he seems like the BIGGEST SWEETHEART EVER. Seriously, this guy is 6'7", ripped like crazy, half Chinese, and looks bashful during interviews. Ohmygod. The total opposite of Ryan Lochte.
I loved this Twitter post from his teammate (and apparent roommate) Matt Grevers after Nathan won the 100-meter freestyle. Zomg RL bromance between two hot guys! :)) (Sadly, it was hard to even find news of Nathan's gold because it was All About the Phelps/Lochte rivalry for the 200 individual medley final. -.-)
My favorite races were the relays, because while I like individual events, I always like it best when people have to work together as a team. It was really super fucking annoying though, that in the final men's 4x100 medley relay, all the announcers could comment on was how it was Michael Phelps's last race and how every other member of the team was part of "his" legend. Ummmmmm they're their own people with their own accomplishments, you know. Not to take away from Phelps's amazing run, but seriously, the more I hear about it the more I get sick of it and the more I get sick of him. His teammates are not just his gold medal appendages, for god's sake. The REASON he has so many is partly BECAUSE of them. But to hear some commentator, on another leg of the race, talk about Phelps's victory, when SOMEONE ELSE IS SWIMMING, is seriously aggravating. And the U.S. media is the WORST. All those guys are Americans, so we should be proud of ALL of them, but they just talk about Phelps nonfuckingstop. I actually watched a Canadian broadcast (after watching the American one) of that last relay race and it was much more pleasant because they talked about each of the individual swimmers, giving more credit where it was due. They still talked about Phelps, but not to the exclusion of the other swimmers, as if they have no individual value and are only there to give Phelps a gold medal. In fact, I wish Phelps hadn't given the U.S. back the lead after his butterfly leg, because fucking Nathan Adrian was a total baller as the anchor and won by A BODY LENGTH AND A HALF. He didn't need the 0.25-second lead that Phelps gave him, he would've won it at that point ANYWAY. Ughghghghghgh I could rant about this for forever, but I'll just stop there.
Gymnastics... I'm glad for the U.S. women's team and all, but they weren't very fun to watch this year. Gymnastics just isn't as pretty or as graceful as it used to be (or at least, as I had perceived it to be, in my younger years -- but no, that's not true, Nastia Liukin was beautiful to watch in 2008). The best part was McKayla Maroney's Amanar vault during team finals. I was super bummed that she fell and got silver for the apparatus final. :/
Okay, as if this post weren't long enough -- seriously, if you actually clicked into the cuts and read all that, I commend you -- I'm going to talk about TV now.
Psych S2
It's grown on me. Dule Hill, in particular, has grown on me, and so has the Shawn/Gus bromance. It's a good show to have on in the background when I'm doing other things, because the 'cases' are usually pretty silly, as are the Scooby Doo endings. But the Shawn/Gus stuff can make me laugh out loud. Unfortunately, I don't much care for the other characters. Initially I really despised Lassiter, because they made him this two-dimensional villain. They've improved on that, but I still don't have any great regard for him. Same thing re: Jules. I don't hate her or anything, but she's so generic. She's just the pretty/nice girl/rookie. I don't know if it's the actress or the writing, but she has no distinct personality that's all her own. They also make the fatal mistake with her of TELLING us how great she is (scoring highly on the detective's exam), without actually SHOWING it. We're just supposed to believe she's good at her job because they say so. She's just boring, and her partnership with Lassiter is pretty boring, too. They can't seem to make up their minds whether they want to pair her with Lassie or with Shawn, and a triangle doesn't really work in a lighthearted show like this. I also find the "interim chief" Karen Vick really boring -- she's either in mom!mode (BORING) or strict!chief!mode (also boring). I like Shawn's dad and their relationship, and even Gus/Shawn's Dad. I think part of the problem is that Lassie, Jules, and Vick just seem extremely silly much of the time, because they rarely (if ever) are the ones to solve the cases -- Shawn and Gus do that. So they just seem generally incompetent and lame, even though the show tries to show the opposite. But the fact of the matter is that I don't think they've solved one single case if it involved Shawn. And of course, Shawn can't fail, because he's the protagonist and it would totally defeat the point of the show. Basically, the premise of how they all work together does not actually work all that well. Shawn 'gives' them pretty much everything, which necessarily makes the police department, and thus those characters, just seem really useless. And I don't know what it is -- maybe it's because the actors are involved in real life, which I only just found out -- but there is like, NO chemistry between James Roday and Maggie Lawson. I couldn't care less about the ship, which is odd considering I like Shawn and don't dislike Jules. Oh, you know who I randomly do like from the police department, though? McNab, the poor guy Lassiter is always abusing.
Breaking Bad 5x04 'Fifty-One'
THIS SHOW. AHHHHHHHHHHHH.
It's not even all exciting like it was at the end of S3. It's pretty slow and dark right now, but it feels right for the progression of the show. Walter White is one of those unusual protagonists who I have hated more often than I've liked, yet still love the show he's on. Maybe because he's like the protagonist and antagonist at the same time, and how often does that happen?
There's also Jesse, of course, who started out as an asshole but whose arc is the opposite of Walt's. Jesse's core morals have not changed -- in fact, crazily enough, they might've even improved -- during the course of this series. Nowadays, at times he's so good that he seems unbelievably naive. Like last night, when he was preventing Mike from going to kill Lydia. (God I hate Lydia, btw.) Mike was right -- she needed to go; he never should have let her live in the first place, after what she pulled. Her paranoia and Walt's greed will cost them dearly, I totally believe that.
Back to Walt -- what. an. asshole. Sometimes I find myself tense with dislike. The absolute worst thing about him right now is that Skyler has made it obvious how much she can't stand him, and he knows it, but he keeps her trapped anyway. It's so creepy and disgusting, because now it's less about his loving her/his family than it is about controlling them, holding power over them. I also don't like this new Walt because, given how he's treating his family, I can't fool myself into believing that he cares about Jesse. And I've always really liked the Walt/Jesse relationship, wherein Walt was like a surrogate father -- a really crappy one, to be sure -- but there have been signs of tenderness and true affection. That seems to be gone now. Jesse is just someone else that Walt wants to control, who he needs to control, because Jesse is one of the keys to Mike, who Walt needs.
I can't stand Skyler either, who's so ridiculously USELESS right now, but I kind of fault the writers for that. They've made Skyler totally inconsistent. She doesn't have a steady arc that makes any sense. She waffles between being all Carmela Soprano, who's ready to take on being the wife of a drug lord, to being the "I'm trapped and helpless" sack of uselessness that we see now. Skyler has been portrayed as a strong, savvy woman (even at times annoyingly so) up until this season, and to make her the way she is now, probably just to make Walt look even more despicable, is kind of like, wtf? Where is the Skyler from before? Who is this Skyler, who enjoys the melodrama of wading into a pool, knowing that nothing is going to come of it? Especially considering that supposedly, the only thing she cares about is her children? The pool thing was more a cry for attention than any kind of 'gesture' illustrating her state of mind, imho, given that. Though I did like that she was unafraid to tell Walt how much she despises him now (though he's totally unperturbed by it), and how she's just waiting for the cancer to come back so they can be rid of him.
I have no clue how they're going to end this show. Like, I don't have the slightest real inkling. It sort of seems like Walt has to die, that that's the logical place where all this evil will culminate. I don't really care what happens with him, because he's a dickhead. I don't even know that I care if he ever comes to the realizatoin of how wrong he's been, how much danger he's put his family in, etc. Or if I think it would make more sense for him to go out believing himself invincible, as he's currently thinking. All I really want from the end of the show, but don't have high hopes that I'm going to get, is for there to be a satisfying Walt/Jesse ending, for that relationship to end in a way that doesn't hurt Jesse further, but actually gives him strength. Call me a sap, but I don't want them to end on bad terms (and it seems that I'm assuming there WILL be an end to that relationship, however it goes). That doesn't mean I want them to end all happy tra la la, either. Basically, I guess what I'd love to see is for Walt to realize, too late, what he's done and all the danger he's put those he cares about, in. I want him to make a CONSCIOUS EFFORT to save Jesse in some way, to show that he cares (as Jesse has done for him, so many times) -- probably with the sacrifice of his life. It may or may not even be a choice he has to make between Jesse and his family, though I don't think they'd do that (or rather, in that case, I can't fool myself into believing that Walt would choose Jesse over his family at this point -- once, I might've argued it). But after everything Jesse's done for him, and how good Jesse is, and how much Walt ruined Jesse's life in various ways, I want Walt's last act to be something FOR Jesse. That's all I want. But probably won't get.
In writing news... there is very little writing news. I'm working on two promptathon stories, but there's no way on earth either of them will be done by whenever the promptathon is supposed to end (though I just checked and it looks like the deadline's been extended, so we'll see if I can make the new cutoff date or not).
I think I'll try to catch The Bourne Legacy (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee) this weekend, and pair it with Total Recall, which isn't doing well at the box office or in reviews, but which is GP enough that I'll see it.
It didn't help that Sunday was the only day of the week I had available to do some cooking that I'd been planning for days, so it had to get done. I smoked a whole chicken (juicy and delicious) using my stovetop smoker, and also baked some dried strawberry cookies (they were supposed to be rolled out, but the heat made the dough soften so quickly that I just ended up mushing it all together and baking haphazard shapes. They're not attractive, but they are yummy). The one good thing about the heat is that I had some Seastack, which is best eaten at room temperature, so I didn't have to wait long for it to reach the perfect consistency.
On Saturday, I met up with
adelagia and we did our usual thing. It's so usual, in fact, that I got an email from my mom asking me what I was doing over the weekend and she guessed that T. and I were going to have hotpot and play games. >.> I LIKE ROUTINE OK. In the morning, I took Talis and Jaime to the vet. Jaime had some sort of cat vaccine due, while I needed to get Talis his 6-month bordetella vaccine. That one is actually recommended on an annual frequency, but the kennel I take him to requires it to be updated every 6 months, and since
adelagia, slitherhither and I are going to Vancouver in another couple of weeks, he needed to have it.Anyway, it was the day before the Hottest Day This Year, so after I did that, I met T. at Boiling Point, because that's what we do. It's just so delicious. It was warm that day, but not horribly so (or at least, not when we were eating). If we'd tried to eat there on Sunday we probably both would have perished from heat exhaustion (I mean, eating hot soup on a super hot day?? But what a delicious way to go). Afterward, I went to get my hair cut ... much shorter than usual. It's like around my shoulders now. There was a time in my life when I would cry whenever I cut my hair any significant length, even if I had planned it and didn't hate the cut or anything. I don't know, weird of me, I know. This time though, nothing. Or maybe I did cry, and the tears dried instantly on my cheeks due to the heat. :P Anyway, it's just as well that it's so short (for me) now, given how hot it's been, and now it won't keep getting (painfully) caught between my purse straps and my shoulder. (That happens to me with all shoulder purses, but I'm using a new Coach bag right now, and for some reason, getting my hair caught under those straps is especially painful.)
After that I met back up with T. at Crossroads, where we played Pandemic for hours (and bumped into
lyndsiefenele and her fiancé). Here's the thing. T. and I always meet at Crossroads because it's a convenient midway point between us, plus it's very close to Boiling Point. Best of all, they have a reserved area where people can play games, and there's a food court and a QFC, so if we get thirsty or hungry it's really easy to quench any need. (Usually Starbucks gets our patronage. But a Peaks recently opened up, so that may start becoming a regular thing, too. >.>) So it's super awesome and perfect.Except for the fact that whenever we play there, strangers feel like they can talk to us. (People we actually know are, of course, fine.) Some of them just hover over us to see what game we're playing -- that's usually OK, because they don't stick around that long. But a lot of people ask us about the game, forcing us to interrupt our game and hold a short conversation with them. Mostly this is fine, because we don't mind spreading our love of Pandemic around, to maybe encourage other people to play (just not with us). The reallllllllly irritating people are the ones who recognize us because they see us there a lot, and feel like they can approach us to ask about our current game/make small talk, when we're like, WE DON'T KNOW YOU GO AWAY OMG. And the WORST are the guys who use it as an opportunity to strike a conversation, then start asking personal info like names, etc. It's like, yes, we are in public, for the various reasons I stated above, but that does not mean we are doing it to get picked up or otherwise harassed. We just want to be left alone. I'm not even trying to flatter us. Most of the men (and it's almost always men -- older men, not hot young things) who approach us are probably just interested in the game. However, that's not the point. We just don't like interacting with strangers, regardless of their intentions. And especially, we don't have any desire to play games with them. In general we're not comfortable with it, but particularly with Pandemic, it's much more fun to play with someone who knows what they're doing, with whom we have an established comfort level and rhythm to the game.
Is that terrible? Oh well. That's us. We're pretty hermit-like. We have no desire to make friends with strangers at Crossroads. We just want to play our game in peace. I guess it's partly that it just happens so often. I think on Saturday we were interrupted no less than half a dozen times, if not more. The most irritating interactions: 1) Two older guys who kept enthusiastically talking about what a fun game it looked to be. "We might have to come back and watch you guys play, if that would be all right." T.'s reply: "Sure. It is a fun game. In fact, Uncle's Games (the game store right in front of the playing area) has a demo of the game so you can try it out yourself."; 2) When I went to the restroom, some guy who was eating near us who had made some kind of comment earlier to T., took it as an opportunity to hit on her. Ugh. She gave a fake name.; 3) This man who has approached us several times at Crossroads. He had mentioned once, awhile ago, that he was a game designer, and asked if we'd be willing to try out his game. We said sure, to be nice, but he never had us try it (to my relief, honestly). Then on Saturday he approached to invite us to some championship for his game, ZoxSo, which was taking place next weekend in Seattle. As if that interruption weren't enough, he did it AGAIN later to ask if we were going to go. What this dude doesn't get is that we like ONE game. He always sees us playing THE SAME GAME. So it's not like we're super interested in others -- if we were, we'd play them once in awhile! One of the key reasons we like Pandemic so much is that it's a cooperative game. Yes, we like competitive games too (board games in general are yay), but when there's just two players, I just find cooperative gaming much more fun. And there are very, very few cooperative games out there. Anyway, the point is that by being pushy and trying to force his game on us, it made me less interested than ever in playing his game. We said we'd try to make to his tournament, but pretty much there's no way. I mean, we haven't even played his game ONCE, much less would want to enter a championship for it. Also, it's in SEATTLE, which is such a pain to get to, and inconvenient for us. Besides, we are not interested in that game or in maintaining any kind of relationship with that guy. Bottom line: WE JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE.
(Pandemic is also awesome because the game designers actually answer questions about the rules and such here. Tom Lehmann answered a couple of recent questions T. and I had about the Archivist role and playing on Legendary difficulty. I don't know if it's just that we were really lucky or if we just know how to play now, but we totally won a number of games, with 6 epidemics several times, to the point where we actually attempted a couple of Legendary games. We lost those, but not horribly!)
We had dinner at the Korean place in Paldo market, which was OK (I didn't like the cold noodles I got, but the kalbi and T.'s kimchi fried rice were good). However for the prices they charge I'd rather go to Stone, which has better food and a better atmosphere. I'm glad we tried it though, because we've been saying we would for ages. Afterward we had some Peaks and played a few more games (that's when the ZoxSo guy approached us).
I've gotten caught up in the Olympics. Every time the Olympics happen I have zero interest in it, but then the headlines and highlights and what not get me into it. I basically like swimming, gymnastics, and anything that creates a controversy. :)) I was/am so sick of hearing about Michael Phelps (I really hope he sticks to his word about retiring), but at least he seems like a decent human being. Unlike that douchebag Ryan Lochte. When the Phelps/Lochte 'rivalry' started at the beginning of the London games, at first I was glad about it. It was about time that someone else got to have the spotlight, since it was otherwise All Phelps, All the Time. Plus Ryan was cute. Now I gag to think that I ever thought he was attractive. He's so gross. If I see ONE MORE HEADLINE about his one-night stands and how he's too busy for a relationship and how part of the thrill of the Olympics is the hookups and how it was this giant mistake on his part that at the last Olympics he had a girlfriend, I will seriously puke. Could he be more of an asshole? Like, if you're all about meaningless sex, that's cool, but KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. You don't have to keep bragging to the world about it. Just ew. T. via
elle_blessing shared this article about the top 10 reasons Ryan Lochte is a douchebag. I didn't even know 8 of them and I had ALREADY thought he was a douchebag. Where the article writer (and commenters) and I differ is that they still find him sexy, whereas now I don't find him the LEAST BIT attractive. I would SO not hit that... EVER. Ugh. When his last race happened and he seemed kind of bummed that it was over/that he hadn't gotten more golds, I was like, "That OK, Ryan, you can comfort yourself in the arms of some random woman tonight and possibly still win an STD!"I do, however, find myself with a massive crush on one of his teammates, Nathan Adrian. I'd never heard of him before this Olympics, even though he's from Washington and went to Cal (he graduated with honors and wants to be a doctor -- wtf! As
akscully says, how can he be so perfect), probably because he's one of those swimmers who just gets completely overshadowed by Michael Phelps, and also because he seems to have been more of a relay specialist up until recently. Not only is he super hot (it's a slideshow about Olympic swimmers' abs, though you have to scroll through to the end to get to Nathan -- thank you, A.), but in all the interviews I've seen with him (not many, see above re: overshadowed) and everything I've read, he seems like the BIGGEST SWEETHEART EVER. Seriously, this guy is 6'7", ripped like crazy, half Chinese, and looks bashful during interviews. Ohmygod. The total opposite of Ryan Lochte.I loved this Twitter post from his teammate (and apparent roommate) Matt Grevers after Nathan won the 100-meter freestyle. Zomg RL bromance between two hot guys! :)) (Sadly, it was hard to even find news of Nathan's gold because it was All About the Phelps/Lochte rivalry for the 200 individual medley final. -.-)
My favorite races were the relays, because while I like individual events, I always like it best when people have to work together as a team. It was really super fucking annoying though, that in the final men's 4x100 medley relay, all the announcers could comment on was how it was Michael Phelps's last race and how every other member of the team was part of "his" legend. Ummmmmm they're their own people with their own accomplishments, you know. Not to take away from Phelps's amazing run, but seriously, the more I hear about it the more I get sick of it and the more I get sick of him. His teammates are not just his gold medal appendages, for god's sake. The REASON he has so many is partly BECAUSE of them. But to hear some commentator, on another leg of the race, talk about Phelps's victory, when SOMEONE ELSE IS SWIMMING, is seriously aggravating. And the U.S. media is the WORST. All those guys are Americans, so we should be proud of ALL of them, but they just talk about Phelps nonfuckingstop. I actually watched a Canadian broadcast (after watching the American one) of that last relay race and it was much more pleasant because they talked about each of the individual swimmers, giving more credit where it was due. They still talked about Phelps, but not to the exclusion of the other swimmers, as if they have no individual value and are only there to give Phelps a gold medal. In fact, I wish Phelps hadn't given the U.S. back the lead after his butterfly leg, because fucking Nathan Adrian was a total baller as the anchor and won by A BODY LENGTH AND A HALF. He didn't need the 0.25-second lead that Phelps gave him, he would've won it at that point ANYWAY. Ughghghghghgh I could rant about this for forever, but I'll just stop there.
Gymnastics... I'm glad for the U.S. women's team and all, but they weren't very fun to watch this year. Gymnastics just isn't as pretty or as graceful as it used to be (or at least, as I had perceived it to be, in my younger years -- but no, that's not true, Nastia Liukin was beautiful to watch in 2008). The best part was McKayla Maroney's Amanar vault during team finals. I was super bummed that she fell and got silver for the apparatus final. :/
Okay, as if this post weren't long enough -- seriously, if you actually clicked into the cuts and read all that, I commend you -- I'm going to talk about TV now.
Psych S2
It's grown on me. Dule Hill, in particular, has grown on me, and so has the Shawn/Gus bromance. It's a good show to have on in the background when I'm doing other things, because the 'cases' are usually pretty silly, as are the Scooby Doo endings. But the Shawn/Gus stuff can make me laugh out loud. Unfortunately, I don't much care for the other characters. Initially I really despised Lassiter, because they made him this two-dimensional villain. They've improved on that, but I still don't have any great regard for him. Same thing re: Jules. I don't hate her or anything, but she's so generic. She's just the pretty/nice girl/rookie. I don't know if it's the actress or the writing, but she has no distinct personality that's all her own. They also make the fatal mistake with her of TELLING us how great she is (scoring highly on the detective's exam), without actually SHOWING it. We're just supposed to believe she's good at her job because they say so. She's just boring, and her partnership with Lassiter is pretty boring, too. They can't seem to make up their minds whether they want to pair her with Lassie or with Shawn, and a triangle doesn't really work in a lighthearted show like this. I also find the "interim chief" Karen Vick really boring -- she's either in mom!mode (BORING) or strict!chief!mode (also boring). I like Shawn's dad and their relationship, and even Gus/Shawn's Dad. I think part of the problem is that Lassie, Jules, and Vick just seem extremely silly much of the time, because they rarely (if ever) are the ones to solve the cases -- Shawn and Gus do that. So they just seem generally incompetent and lame, even though the show tries to show the opposite. But the fact of the matter is that I don't think they've solved one single case if it involved Shawn. And of course, Shawn can't fail, because he's the protagonist and it would totally defeat the point of the show. Basically, the premise of how they all work together does not actually work all that well. Shawn 'gives' them pretty much everything, which necessarily makes the police department, and thus those characters, just seem really useless. And I don't know what it is -- maybe it's because the actors are involved in real life, which I only just found out -- but there is like, NO chemistry between James Roday and Maggie Lawson. I couldn't care less about the ship, which is odd considering I like Shawn and don't dislike Jules. Oh, you know who I randomly do like from the police department, though? McNab, the poor guy Lassiter is always abusing.
Breaking Bad 5x04 'Fifty-One'
THIS SHOW. AHHHHHHHHHHHH.
It's not even all exciting like it was at the end of S3. It's pretty slow and dark right now, but it feels right for the progression of the show. Walter White is one of those unusual protagonists who I have hated more often than I've liked, yet still love the show he's on. Maybe because he's like the protagonist and antagonist at the same time, and how often does that happen?
There's also Jesse, of course, who started out as an asshole but whose arc is the opposite of Walt's. Jesse's core morals have not changed -- in fact, crazily enough, they might've even improved -- during the course of this series. Nowadays, at times he's so good that he seems unbelievably naive. Like last night, when he was preventing Mike from going to kill Lydia. (God I hate Lydia, btw.) Mike was right -- she needed to go; he never should have let her live in the first place, after what she pulled. Her paranoia and Walt's greed will cost them dearly, I totally believe that.
Back to Walt -- what. an. asshole. Sometimes I find myself tense with dislike. The absolute worst thing about him right now is that Skyler has made it obvious how much she can't stand him, and he knows it, but he keeps her trapped anyway. It's so creepy and disgusting, because now it's less about his loving her/his family than it is about controlling them, holding power over them. I also don't like this new Walt because, given how he's treating his family, I can't fool myself into believing that he cares about Jesse. And I've always really liked the Walt/Jesse relationship, wherein Walt was like a surrogate father -- a really crappy one, to be sure -- but there have been signs of tenderness and true affection. That seems to be gone now. Jesse is just someone else that Walt wants to control, who he needs to control, because Jesse is one of the keys to Mike, who Walt needs.
I can't stand Skyler either, who's so ridiculously USELESS right now, but I kind of fault the writers for that. They've made Skyler totally inconsistent. She doesn't have a steady arc that makes any sense. She waffles between being all Carmela Soprano, who's ready to take on being the wife of a drug lord, to being the "I'm trapped and helpless" sack of uselessness that we see now. Skyler has been portrayed as a strong, savvy woman (even at times annoyingly so) up until this season, and to make her the way she is now, probably just to make Walt look even more despicable, is kind of like, wtf? Where is the Skyler from before? Who is this Skyler, who enjoys the melodrama of wading into a pool, knowing that nothing is going to come of it? Especially considering that supposedly, the only thing she cares about is her children? The pool thing was more a cry for attention than any kind of 'gesture' illustrating her state of mind, imho, given that. Though I did like that she was unafraid to tell Walt how much she despises him now (though he's totally unperturbed by it), and how she's just waiting for the cancer to come back so they can be rid of him.
I have no clue how they're going to end this show. Like, I don't have the slightest real inkling. It sort of seems like Walt has to die, that that's the logical place where all this evil will culminate. I don't really care what happens with him, because he's a dickhead. I don't even know that I care if he ever comes to the realizatoin of how wrong he's been, how much danger he's put his family in, etc. Or if I think it would make more sense for him to go out believing himself invincible, as he's currently thinking. All I really want from the end of the show, but don't have high hopes that I'm going to get, is for there to be a satisfying Walt/Jesse ending, for that relationship to end in a way that doesn't hurt Jesse further, but actually gives him strength. Call me a sap, but I don't want them to end on bad terms (and it seems that I'm assuming there WILL be an end to that relationship, however it goes). That doesn't mean I want them to end all happy tra la la, either. Basically, I guess what I'd love to see is for Walt to realize, too late, what he's done and all the danger he's put those he cares about, in. I want him to make a CONSCIOUS EFFORT to save Jesse in some way, to show that he cares (as Jesse has done for him, so many times) -- probably with the sacrifice of his life. It may or may not even be a choice he has to make between Jesse and his family, though I don't think they'd do that (or rather, in that case, I can't fool myself into believing that Walt would choose Jesse over his family at this point -- once, I might've argued it). But after everything Jesse's done for him, and how good Jesse is, and how much Walt ruined Jesse's life in various ways, I want Walt's last act to be something FOR Jesse. That's all I want. But probably won't get.
In writing news... there is very little writing news. I'm working on two promptathon stories, but there's no way on earth either of them will be done by whenever the promptathon is supposed to end (though I just checked and it looks like the deadline's been extended, so we'll see if I can make the new cutoff date or not).
I think I'll try to catch The Bourne Legacy (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee) this weekend, and pair it with Total Recall, which isn't doing well at the box office or in reviews, but which is GP enough that I'll see it.
