FlashForward is a show that I've been enjoying more and more. It's got a lot of plot points going at the same time, but so far most of them are fairly easy to follow as they unfold. There are payoffs in pretty much every episode, unlike in LOST, where you can watch half a season and only have more questions pile up. (Don't get me wrong - I like LOST, but it can be confusing and difficult to follow, and I can't help but wonder if they're going to be able to wrap up all the questions floating around when season 6 airs next year.)
FF's performances are convincing and realistic. The characters are being fleshed out nicely as the season develops. I liked this week's episode, in which a regular character commits suicide rather than fulfill his flashforward, which saw him discovering that he was responsible for the death of a single mother of two boys. I was disappointed that the character died, because I liked him quite a bit. But while the suicide was a bummer, it showed (I think) that one isn't stuck in a destiny with no choice of changing the outcome. That was the first time we'd seen something not happening as revealed in a flashforward, and it brings interesting new possibilities to some of the other characters' lives.
Two other shows I've been watching for some time that I'm not enjoying as much this season are The Office and Ugly Betty. The Office has, in the past, struck a nice balance between situations and behaviors that make you cringe, and touches of humanity and humor and, now and then, awesomeness on the part of certain characters. Michael Scott is a prime example of a character who can make me cringe, but who also makes me laugh and sometimes really kicks butt with something he says or does to save the day or take a person down a peg. But this season, it seems like there is very little about him that's redeeming. When he tried to help Jim during the wedding reception dinner, I thought "Cool! Michael's about to turn things around!" and instead, he just made it worse. When he went to lunch with Pam, Jim and Pam's mother, Helene, whom he'd been dating, and Helene revealed her age while Michael blanched, I said to James, "Oh, please let him not break up with Helene at her birthday lunch." And that's exactly what he did. He's just become a big turd this year, and I'd like to see him do something good again, but the writers are not balancing his character at all. Dwight is also becoming too much for me to stomach at times. Thank goodness for Andy, who I just love and who they've done a wonderful job of turning around from a totally obnoxious person to one that I like and with whom I can empathize. I'm still enjoying The Office, but I'd like the writers to stop making me cringe so much. I don't like to feel that uncomfortable when watching TV.
In a similar vein, Ugly Betty is a show that I used to really like. It has, over time, become more and more of an overwrought soap opera with a little humor thrown in, rather than a dramedy showing an ugly duckling learning to become a swan. Betty is getting so beaten down this season, struggling to earn respect in her new position as assistant editor, finding out she won out over Marc by a simple coin toss between their bosses, being replaced as Daniel's assistant by someone who seems to be turning Daniel against her, in love with her new boss, an ex-boyfriend, who is taking a friend of Betty's as his date to a work event...and it seems to go on and on. There has always been drama on the show, but there's also been lightness and humor, and that seems in short supply this season. I may end up dropping the show if I don't start to enjoy it more again.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
An 80s Flashback
Today, I bring you a video post.
Really, how can you not like this song? I posted a lyric from this on Facebook yesterday and quite a few people responded. Why? Because this song just plain rules. The 80s may have been full of cheese, but it was high-quality cheese, and without all the skankiness that abounds today. Madonna was probably the most scandalous pop culture figure, and even her actions now seem quaint when you compare them to some of the people making headlines these days.
Ah, the good old days.
(Also? Get off my lawn!)
Really, how can you not like this song? I posted a lyric from this on Facebook yesterday and quite a few people responded. Why? Because this song just plain rules. The 80s may have been full of cheese, but it was high-quality cheese, and without all the skankiness that abounds today. Madonna was probably the most scandalous pop culture figure, and even her actions now seem quaint when you compare them to some of the people making headlines these days.
Ah, the good old days.
(Also? Get off my lawn!)
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Finding Time to Get Organized
I've decided to try out Remember the Milk, an online to-do list manager, to see if it can help me be more organized and focused. James has been using it for some time now and really likes it. I set up my own account because his has quite a few task lists already, so I figured it would be better for my purposes to keep it simple and easy to find my own stuff.
I'm trying to figure out if I should start setting up my lists right now, or if I should go do some of the things I know need to be done and create my lists later. I think I'm going for the "do stuff now" option because Ben is napping, so it's a good time to exercise and do the things that are hard to do when he's awake, like cleaning bathrooms.
I'm feeling optimistic about being able to tackle more things once I can see them all in one place. It also will give me a specific place to put items like projects to do around the house, one-time tasks that I don't have to keep transferring from one sheet of paper to the next when I get through a few days or a week and need to make a new list, reminders for things I need to do in the future, etc. Some of the things are things for which I'm currently using my Google Calendar, but I can clean that up a little by moving things to RTM.
Hopefully it will be a big help to me and and it won't start to feel like a hassle to keep it updated. I think it will give me satisfaction in being able to check things off and see them disappear from my list. Plus I can always print out my to-do list if I want to be able to take a hard copy around the house with me, or have the sensory experience of actually crossing something off.
It's just hard to make the time to get organized, but I think if I spend a few minutes here and a few minutes there building my lists, it won't take me long before I have things recorded there and can stop saying "Where is my notebook?" when it's gone AWOL.
I'm trying to figure out if I should start setting up my lists right now, or if I should go do some of the things I know need to be done and create my lists later. I think I'm going for the "do stuff now" option because Ben is napping, so it's a good time to exercise and do the things that are hard to do when he's awake, like cleaning bathrooms.
I'm feeling optimistic about being able to tackle more things once I can see them all in one place. It also will give me a specific place to put items like projects to do around the house, one-time tasks that I don't have to keep transferring from one sheet of paper to the next when I get through a few days or a week and need to make a new list, reminders for things I need to do in the future, etc. Some of the things are things for which I'm currently using my Google Calendar, but I can clean that up a little by moving things to RTM.
Hopefully it will be a big help to me and and it won't start to feel like a hassle to keep it updated. I think it will give me satisfaction in being able to check things off and see them disappear from my list. Plus I can always print out my to-do list if I want to be able to take a hard copy around the house with me, or have the sensory experience of actually crossing something off.
It's just hard to make the time to get organized, but I think if I spend a few minutes here and a few minutes there building my lists, it won't take me long before I have things recorded there and can stop saying "Where is my notebook?" when it's gone AWOL.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A Little Overwhelmed
Lately, I've been feeling a little depressed. I think it's because my regular to-do list is long, and it seems like I can't get to half of it on a regular basis. Then there's the "when there's time" list, and I hardly ever get to that stuff.
I need to figure out a way to manage my time better so that I can get more done. I'm not sure how to do that, although setting a timer when I'm on the Internet might help. Now that we have an iPod Touch (Thanks, Corey & Gilda!), I can use that to do some web surfing while doing free step and maybe reclaim a little time there.
When we lived in California and both worked, we had a cleaning lady who came every other week. She stayed for a few hours and got an incredible amount of work done. I need to figure out how she could accomplish so much in so short a time and try to adopt some of her methods.
I think I also need to come up with a better way of keeping my to-do list. James uses Remember the Milk. I may start my own list there or look for another website where I can track tasks. If I can keep my list updated more easily and be able to access it without having to search for a notebook or index card or sheet of paper where my current list is, it may be easier for me to stay focused and keep on track with things. I can get an awful lot done on Fridays, when we're expecting our small group in the evenings, because I have powerful motivation to have my house clean. So I need to dig up more of that motivation so that I can get to other things, too.
It's tough because it feels like we're so busy that James and I struggle to find quality time with each other. Our evenings usually consist of watching TV while we get in some exercise after the kids have gone to bed. At least we're exercising and, hopefully, working our way toward being healthier, but we need to also figure out how to have some good time together just hanging out and talking.
We were busy before we had kids, and now even more so. And as they get older, some of their needs will fall away and we won't have as much to do in certain areas. But their time commitments will probably grow, and some of our time will be spent ferrying them to more activities and helping with homework. So it's not like we can expect a bunch of leisure time to return to us for quite a while.
I need to get my lists down in one place, prioritize them, and look to them for motivation instead of allowing myself to be lazy.
The other side of the coin is that I don't want to spend most of my time working on tasks at the expense of time with James, Rachel and Ben. It's a delicate balancing act. But I'm blessed to have my family and my home to take care of, and I want to do the best job possible.
I need to figure out a way to manage my time better so that I can get more done. I'm not sure how to do that, although setting a timer when I'm on the Internet might help. Now that we have an iPod Touch (Thanks, Corey & Gilda!), I can use that to do some web surfing while doing free step and maybe reclaim a little time there.
When we lived in California and both worked, we had a cleaning lady who came every other week. She stayed for a few hours and got an incredible amount of work done. I need to figure out how she could accomplish so much in so short a time and try to adopt some of her methods.
I think I also need to come up with a better way of keeping my to-do list. James uses Remember the Milk. I may start my own list there or look for another website where I can track tasks. If I can keep my list updated more easily and be able to access it without having to search for a notebook or index card or sheet of paper where my current list is, it may be easier for me to stay focused and keep on track with things. I can get an awful lot done on Fridays, when we're expecting our small group in the evenings, because I have powerful motivation to have my house clean. So I need to dig up more of that motivation so that I can get to other things, too.
It's tough because it feels like we're so busy that James and I struggle to find quality time with each other. Our evenings usually consist of watching TV while we get in some exercise after the kids have gone to bed. At least we're exercising and, hopefully, working our way toward being healthier, but we need to also figure out how to have some good time together just hanging out and talking.
We were busy before we had kids, and now even more so. And as they get older, some of their needs will fall away and we won't have as much to do in certain areas. But their time commitments will probably grow, and some of our time will be spent ferrying them to more activities and helping with homework. So it's not like we can expect a bunch of leisure time to return to us for quite a while.
I need to get my lists down in one place, prioritize them, and look to them for motivation instead of allowing myself to be lazy.
The other side of the coin is that I don't want to spend most of my time working on tasks at the expense of time with James, Rachel and Ben. It's a delicate balancing act. But I'm blessed to have my family and my home to take care of, and I want to do the best job possible.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Writer's Block
Why is it that now that I'm taking the time to try to post each day, I'm drawing a complete blank? Frustrating.
Although I suspect that the Yankees and Phillies are conspiring to make the World Series go on as long as possible simply to screw with my TV watching. So You Think You Can Dance has had to air shows last week and this week that don't allow for viewers to vote. Ordinarily in this phase of the show, viewer votes determine the bottom three couples, and the judges decide on the man and woman going home out of those six people. But because the World Series aired on Wednesday last week (and looks like it will be on tomorrow, too), the judges are just picking *their* bottom two men and women and then sending 1 of each home. They actually put Russell in the bottom two last week. RUSSELL, who is the first krumper to ever make it to the top 20, who is an incredible krumper, and who I thought did a fine job of the foxtrot last week despite the fact that his partner, Noelle, had gotten injured and couldn't dance with him. He instead danced with one of the two choreographers who had taught the pair their dance. Noelle? She got a free ride through to this week, even though she couldn't compete. I didn't think that was fair at all. Tough break, but if you can't compete in a week, I don't think you should advance past someone who danced.
Glee is the other Fox show I watch. It was off last week and is showing two repeats this week, but that doesn't chap me as much as the format of SYTYCD totally being changed because they can't air results shows for the first two weeks of competition. That's just lame.
Although I suspect that the Yankees and Phillies are conspiring to make the World Series go on as long as possible simply to screw with my TV watching. So You Think You Can Dance has had to air shows last week and this week that don't allow for viewers to vote. Ordinarily in this phase of the show, viewer votes determine the bottom three couples, and the judges decide on the man and woman going home out of those six people. But because the World Series aired on Wednesday last week (and looks like it will be on tomorrow, too), the judges are just picking *their* bottom two men and women and then sending 1 of each home. They actually put Russell in the bottom two last week. RUSSELL, who is the first krumper to ever make it to the top 20, who is an incredible krumper, and who I thought did a fine job of the foxtrot last week despite the fact that his partner, Noelle, had gotten injured and couldn't dance with him. He instead danced with one of the two choreographers who had taught the pair their dance. Noelle? She got a free ride through to this week, even though she couldn't compete. I didn't think that was fair at all. Tough break, but if you can't compete in a week, I don't think you should advance past someone who danced.
Glee is the other Fox show I watch. It was off last week and is showing two repeats this week, but that doesn't chap me as much as the format of SYTYCD totally being changed because they can't air results shows for the first two weeks of competition. That's just lame.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Day 2
I did not have an easy time getting up this morning. I slept poorly on Saturday night, waking up several times (including once from a nightmare), and then didn't get to bed until a little later than I would have liked last night. I snoozed my alarm an extra time today, but it still went well.
Rachel had gone to bed early last night, so she was awake before me, which meant no having to spend 10 minutes trying to get her out of bed. She was pretty cheerful and mostly did well this morning. She dawdled while finishing up breakfast and had to be asked several times to brush her teeth because she was taking forever to finish chewing up her vitamin, but overall she did a good job. No battles today, yay!
Today will be a busy day. It's my mom's birthday, so after Ben and I pick up Rachel at 11:35, we're driving to Lakewood to take my mom out to lunch. I'm guessing we won't be back here until 4:00 or so, which means I need to be extra-productive this morning. I'm going to go play with Ben until it's his naptime, and then start cranking on my to-do list.
Exciting stuff, my life.
Rachel had gone to bed early last night, so she was awake before me, which meant no having to spend 10 minutes trying to get her out of bed. She was pretty cheerful and mostly did well this morning. She dawdled while finishing up breakfast and had to be asked several times to brush her teeth because she was taking forever to finish chewing up her vitamin, but overall she did a good job. No battles today, yay!
Today will be a busy day. It's my mom's birthday, so after Ben and I pick up Rachel at 11:35, we're driving to Lakewood to take my mom out to lunch. I'm guessing we won't be back here until 4:00 or so, which means I need to be extra-productive this morning. I'm going to go play with Ben until it's his naptime, and then start cranking on my to-do list.
Exciting stuff, my life.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
NaBloPoMo
Today is the beginning of National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo. The goal is to post at least one entry every day during the month of November. Nothing specific came to my mind to post just now, but I thought "How sad would it be if I couldn't even make it one day before failing?"
How can it already be November? This year has actually gone by really quickly. It seems just like yesterday that we were working on putting the tile floor in our kitchen and half bathroom, but that was July, and now we're gearing up for Thanksgiving. And just over 4 weeks after that, Christmas. I started working on my Christmas shopping in July during that tile project week, which is what made me think of that (I'm spiderwebbing, people). While I've done some additional shopping since then, I'm not as far along my list as I'd hoped to be by now. Some of the people in my life really need to make it easier to shop for them. Might I suggest Amazon.com wishlists, family-members-who-are-so-hard-to-peg? Of course, I don't think those people read my blog, so that's probably not going to happen.
I am so excited for Christmas this year. I don't know what family members' plans are this year as they seem to be somewhat up in the air for a while longer, but I plan on enjoying a great family time with whoever is around. I think Ben will really be into the opening of gifts and stockings this year, although I do suspect we'll have a time keeping him out of other people's stockings, or unpacking them again after they've been discovered, unloaded and repacked. He may also just start ripping and tearing at packages willy-nilly. But if that happens, I'm sure it will just add to the fun!
I wonder how many more years Rachel will believe in Santa. I don't remember how old I was when I stopped believing, although I'm guessing it was older than Rachel will be. Kids these days know too much, so I think we may have one or two more years, tops. Then we'll have to get her in on the act of pretending for Ben's sake.
It's kind of an odd thing when you think about it. We create this myth of Santa and tell our kids about it and encourage them to believe, only to have to explain that he isn't real when they start seriously asking questions. I wonder if that's upsetting to kids, or if most are ready for that knowledge by the time they have it. I truly don't remember how or when I knew, so I don't think it was anything that scarred me psychologically. And if that was a common problem, I'm sure we'd hear about it.
Anyway, those are my rambling thoughts this evening. I don't know if I'll be posting every day this month, but I'm going to try to post as many days as I can. Hopefully at least some of the posts are interesting!
How can it already be November? This year has actually gone by really quickly. It seems just like yesterday that we were working on putting the tile floor in our kitchen and half bathroom, but that was July, and now we're gearing up for Thanksgiving. And just over 4 weeks after that, Christmas. I started working on my Christmas shopping in July during that tile project week, which is what made me think of that (I'm spiderwebbing, people). While I've done some additional shopping since then, I'm not as far along my list as I'd hoped to be by now. Some of the people in my life really need to make it easier to shop for them. Might I suggest Amazon.com wishlists, family-members-who-are-so-hard-to-peg? Of course, I don't think those people read my blog, so that's probably not going to happen.
I am so excited for Christmas this year. I don't know what family members' plans are this year as they seem to be somewhat up in the air for a while longer, but I plan on enjoying a great family time with whoever is around. I think Ben will really be into the opening of gifts and stockings this year, although I do suspect we'll have a time keeping him out of other people's stockings, or unpacking them again after they've been discovered, unloaded and repacked. He may also just start ripping and tearing at packages willy-nilly. But if that happens, I'm sure it will just add to the fun!
I wonder how many more years Rachel will believe in Santa. I don't remember how old I was when I stopped believing, although I'm guessing it was older than Rachel will be. Kids these days know too much, so I think we may have one or two more years, tops. Then we'll have to get her in on the act of pretending for Ben's sake.
It's kind of an odd thing when you think about it. We create this myth of Santa and tell our kids about it and encourage them to believe, only to have to explain that he isn't real when they start seriously asking questions. I wonder if that's upsetting to kids, or if most are ready for that knowledge by the time they have it. I truly don't remember how or when I knew, so I don't think it was anything that scarred me psychologically. And if that was a common problem, I'm sure we'd hear about it.
Anyway, those are my rambling thoughts this evening. I don't know if I'll be posting every day this month, but I'm going to try to post as many days as I can. Hopefully at least some of the posts are interesting!
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