Guilty pleasures in the mail and the appropriate amount of boobage

Sorry to have not posted anything substantive in a while, but depression and hermitisim happens, so just deal with it. I thought I had broken out of it a week or so ago, even amongst the "bad news" I can't/won't share with you here. And my dark mood has lessened and I can make my co-workers snort in laughter. so things are better.

But that is not why I'm posting today. Today, I am posting because THIS arrived in the mailbox!

Also super excited (as excited as someone like me can get) that the Season 2 premier is this Monday, and I have the day off of work so I can actually be super geeky and be on twitter and tumblr all day and be all "OMG super duper excited I can hardly keep myself from squeeing". Because I totally say things like that in the company of actual human beings.

This show struggled, poor ratings (it's on the CW for christ's sake), retooled halfway through it's first season, late pickup of the second half of the season, and late renewal. So apparently it has been "retooled/revamped" some more for it's sophomore debut. Let's face it, the second season of a struggling show is always the make it or break it season. Case in point, Human Target that aired on FOX a few years back. It's first season struggled with ratings but got renewed, got "retooled to gain more viewers" and totally lost it's original viewers and got canned. Another example is Body of Proof from ABC... i think. I never really watched it. But it got cancelled after it's first season then got a reboot and got uncancelled and aired it's second season and got cancelled again. Those are some examples of second season downfalls, which has nothing to do with Mark Valley, I swear. However, some shows got even better in their sophomore years. Nikita was awesome in it's second season. So was Haven. Haven is in it's fourth season now on SyFy and Nikita will air it's final short season 5 on CW this fall/winter. So we shall see how my little guilty pleasure holds up on Monday.

Also I wanted to share THIS with you. Please watch it. It is awesome!

I've decided that I have become quite the Feminist in my mid 30's (when it comes to women's rights especially in the right to make our own choices about our own bodies, rape culture, and female role models). I like superhero movies. I like Batman and Superman and Ionman and yada yada yada. Hollywood has not made a female superhero movie. Or TV show... that has worked. When they tried to make a Wonder Woman tv show the character of Diana came off as weak. You can't have a Super Powered Amazon Warrior Princess weak!! Ugh, makes me want to barf. This little short proves that it can be done, and done right. Without Diana coming off as weak or as a sexpot with her boobs popping out of her itty bitty spandez bra. Also the actress who plays Diana in this short is Rileah Vanderbilt, of Team Unicorn.

The excuses given as to why a Wonder Woman movie hasn't been made are stupid. I like the one where "they" say that women don't go to see action/hero movies. Excuse me? Hello! I have breasts, and I like going to see action/hero movies! Or there isn't a big enough fan base. Ironman didn't even have a fanbase till the first movie came out. Duh!

Two of my favorite cartoons were Power Puff Girls and Sailor Moon. I liked those cartoons for the same reason I liked the movie G.I. Jane. The protagonist was a female(s) who were brave and strong and fought the battle and slayed the evil whatever, and at the end of the day still remained female and had girl talk and ate ice cream.

That is all for now. Off to go do some "manly" yard work.

It's Hump Day on Geek Week

We are halfway through Geek Week on Youtube. I know, you are just totally thrilled. I spend a lot of time on the interwebs, whether it's Geek Week or not. Here are a few things I tend to look at while I'm online. Some have to do with Geek Week, and others, not so much.

1.) From the Colbert Report: What happens when Daft Punk doesn't show up

2.) Actually part of Geek Week: Celebrating the Mars Curiosity Rover 1 year anniversary with "Mohawk Guy" Bobak Ferdowsi. (he really does work for JPL)

3.) More space stuff from a link a friend posted via Facebook. Video of Shuttle take off via cameras on the Booster Rockets!! (if you get nauseous, be warned)

4.) A link from my twitter feed today: 27 problems only introverts will understand. I am one, so now you know, it's not that I don't like you, I just don't want to be near you right now. hee hee, no really.

5.) Also on my Twitter feed today form TheOneRing.net (you are not a LOTR or Hobbit fan if you've never been here) (ok, not really, I didn't follow this site till about 2 years ago): Lego version of why Tom Bombadil was not in The Lord of the Rings movie.

There is plenty more, but I'll stop here. I don't think I want to show you my Tumblr feed. So I usually read through Facebook, and Twitter, and Tumblr. Then I usually get distracted by a link, which sends me to a video, then I get distracted by clicking on a different video. Then I get distracted by finding out more info about said video, which leads to searching something else. You get the idea. I go down the rabbit hole everyday! And it's fun, so leave me alone.

It's Geek Week!

It's Geek Week on Youtube. I don't necessarily frequent youtube all that much, but some noteworthy geeky things have happened already this week that are on youtube that I think are pretty cool. Even if they didn't actually plan it to be on Geek Week.

1. The 12th Doctor was named on Sunday. Link to his announcement on BBC clicky clicky

2. Today (Monday August 5th) marks the 1 year anniversary of the Curiosity Rover's landing on Mars. If you don't follow Curiosity on twitter, you are missing out. Here's a serious link about the anniversary here. click me Why does the landing always make me cry?

and here is a not so serious one. tee hee clicky clicky

3. A link to a video taken by a lady who just had a daughter and asked Will Wheaton to give her a message on why being a nerd is awesome. This didn't happen this week, but I thought it is worth the watch anyway and sends a great message to anyone who is passionate about pretty much anything. click me I dare you

4. There is a big discussion on tumblr and twitter and well everywhere online about who will be the new Batman in the next Superman movie. The rumored contenders are (in no particular order): Josh Brolin (perhaps too old? unless they are going for the older worn out Batman looking for someone to replace him thing), Ryan Gosling (a bit to... girly?), Joe Manganiello (pretty but perhaps a bit too muscley), Richard Armitage (my dreamboat, but I think would be much better cast as the villain), Max Martini (I don't even know who this is... off to google. Ok, I know who he is now), and Matthew Goode (I actually think he would be a good one. No one really knows who he is, but I like him. First saw him in a horrible Mandy Moore movie). click me, I'm not the Mandy Moore Movie

5. And finally, no actual link or anything. This is just something I've been thinking about and working on (in my head) is the lack of female comic/tv/movie/action heroes... that are actually believable and actually heroic and don't just prance around in skimpy outfits waiting to be rescued and having their bras magically unclasp. I can name only a few that I find awesome and worthy for girls to look up to and aspire too. I will give you my #1 right now, just in case I never get around to actually writing about this. Aryn Sun (played by the awesome Claudia Black) from the Farscape tv series.

So enjoy Geek Week and get your freaky geeky on!





Oh, and it's also Shark Week on Discovery Channel. Chomp chomp

Fangirling, nerd alert!! Set phasers to stun...ing

So way back in... November I wrote about the two new cheesy shows I liked which happened to be Arrow and Beauty and the Beast, both on the CW. Check what I said then here. Now I still like watching Arrow, it's fun. But I am obsessed with Beauty and the Beast (BATB for short). No really, obsessed.

I watch a lot of television... A LOT. For instance I watch besides what is mentioned above: Castle, Revolution, Lost Girl, Nikita, Grimm, Burn Notice, Warehouse 13, Haven, Defiance (just premiered, I'm intrigued), Dr. Who and sometimes watch but not religiously Bones, Royal Pains, The Middle, Modern Family, Raising Hope, and Supernatural. I won't even get into Animal Planet, Food Network, DIY, or HGTV, or shows that aren't on the air anymore (Fringe). Of the shows I watch religiously, almost all of them are considered "genre" shows. In that they have some sort of mythology or running story ark through the entire series. In other words, you can just watch an episode and be entertained, but there is so much more going on and unless you know the "story", you're only getting half of it. "Genre" shows usually don't do well on normal tv. They don't draw the numbers like shows like CSI or Law and Order. You can watch those shows completely out of order and it wouldn't matter. You'd be really confused if you watched Lost Girl or Revolution out of order.

Anyway, I'm getting side tracked. I was telling you about my obsession with Beauty and the Beast. And it is an obsession. I have all the episodes on my DVR and on itunes. In my DVR the commercials are edited out, and all episodes are labeled with titles and episode numbers. And I watch them over and over and over again. Sometimes I just watch the parts with the two main characters (Catherine and Vincent) and fast forward through the other stuff. And if any of you #beasties out there are reading this, you know which parts I'm talking about!

I follow the cast, crew, and writers on Twitter, I go snooping in peoples Tumblr's (I especially like this gals snark Jacki Venezia), and I read what people are saying in the fan forums. I haven't joined any of the fan forums or signed up with Tumblr. I've been part of fan forums before and am hesitant to get into them again. One time the fan forum blew up and imploded on itself and many got burned and well, shit was flying, lets say. The other, I kept getting "modded" for my language and not being "P.C." There are young people here and we can't be talking about someones ass (oh sorry, posterior) or say things like shit. Please people, this is the internet!!! If a 13 year old found your fan forum, then they certainly found "other" things on the internet as well. Get off your moral high horse and grow a pair.

OK, now we know how I feel about fan forums. Where was I? Oh, right, BATB. I've been trying to figure out why I'm so into this show. It has changed quite a bit from when the Pilot aired. It started out as a genre/procedural/mythology/romance show. Now it's romance/mythology/ oh my god what the hell is going on show. I like that the characters are strong, especially Catherine. She can kick ass. But I also like that they are flawed. They aren't perfect. ( how Vincent dealt with Alex anyone?) It helps that everyone on this show is freaking gorgeous! But that's the CW for you. Everyone on any show on that network is drop dead gorgeous. And the CW is known for shows geared toward teens and young 20 somethings. But this one, much like Nikita, isn't. Don't get me wrong, the teens and 20 somethings are into it. But it's about two people one almost 30, the other somewhere in his 30's (we don't know his exact age yet) and they are dealing with grown-up things. Not high school boy/girl issues or prom or oh my gawd look what she's wearing and she slept with who? Ew. Gross. Like O.M.G. It's two people who love each other, and figuring out their "grown-up" relationship along with everything else in the world that is chasing/ hunting/ sabotaging them and so much more.

Hm, not explaining this very well. The actress who plays Catherine (Kristin Kreuk) said this about it:
Kristin teases that she “knows the whole thing” about how Season 1 ends, and she thinks that we’ll know more about Season 2 closer to May upfronts. “Because the show is performing decently but not like, exceedingly well, I think we’ve just got to wait and see,” she says. If Beauty And The Beast does get a second season, a lot of that can probably be chalked up to the show’s very loyal fan base.
“They’re rabid,” Kristin says. “I don’t know what we tapped into. It feels stronger than Smallville fans in some ways. I know! But, the intensity. It’s a smaller group, but the intensity of it is so strong. It blows my mind. I think it’s really wonderful how passionate they are about a love story. I don’t know how we did that. I really don’t, and I’m kind of in awe of it. Like, ‘Wow, they really are committed to this’,” she says. One reason for fan passion lately is that the show has not wasted any time in getting Cat and Vincent together — something that Kristin does not think was part of the original plan to happen so soon.
“I think [the plan was] to hold off. I think it really was,” Kristin reveals. “I mean, it’s obvious, we changed the direction of the show so much. I’m surprised, but I like it. I like exploring the relationship as opposed to, ‘ Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes.’ That’s not as interesting to me. Maybe it’s because I’m 30 and I just want to know. Let’s get in the relationship, let’s see where it goes from there,” she laughs.  Source here

There was something else... oh right. So BATB will be airing the last 5 episodes of the season starting this Thursday, (been on a 3 week hiatus that has been driving all the beasties bonkers) and I wont be able to watch it till like, Monday! Aaaaccckkk! I'm driving down to LA with my mom on Thursday so she can see some old friends on Friday and so we can go to the LA Times Festival of Books on Saturday at USC, then off to the inland empire to visit some other friends on Sunday. We're either driving back up late Sunday or Monday. So my hiatus is even longer!!

But I'm good at waiting. I waited a whole month before I saw The Hobbit in the theaters, and it has been out on DVD for over a month now, and I don't own it yet. Besides, it just means I don't have to wait as long for the next episode. bwahahahaahahhhaa And I'll definitely be buying the DVD of BATB when it comes out! 

*was going to insert some pics, but couldn't decide how inappropriate I wanted to be. Just go to Tumblr and type in vincat.

Butt I...

So apparently admitting that I have shat myself was a big hit. That post got the most page views ever... well except for the one on space invaders. But that was most likely by accident by people searching for blogs about gaming. My nickname in college wasn't loggs for nothing. Not saying that I did that in college as well, only that I was willing to share, whether you wanted me to or not, about my bodily functions. It was college, give me a break. So in honor of my embarrassing moment, I’ve come to the realization that embarrassing myself is good for the blog. You all seem to like it. It is somewhat liberating in a way.

How do I top shit? With this little sweet cherry from my childhood of course.
It starts out great. It’s the summer of 1986. Twas a good year. And I’m 8 years old.
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Good form.
Nice 1980’s short shorts.
Cute little haircut.
A wide open teammate.
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to
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total girly girl bubble butt flail.

Cheesy TV

Many things and ideas have run through my head about what to write on the blog. This is just one of them.

The new cheesetastic tv shows I am watching this tv season or guilty pleasures (however you wish to see it). And yes, they are cheesy. But for some reason, I like them. What are they? Arrow and Beauty and the Beast, both on the CW. I know, I’m to old for their demographic now, but these two new shows plus Nikita, now in it’s 3rd season are what I watch from that network.

So why do I like these? They are predictable overall, meaning I know the overall story and know the major story arcs, however, within each episode there are surprises and how they deal with the overall story. The dialog can be over the top or bad (a la George Lucas... ok not that bad). But the actors are pretty to look at (petty, I know). And overall they are redemption stories and how these characters deal with what they have done in the past, how they atone for them, how they help people now, and their ultimate goals for their futures is interesting to me. Also they are all normal humans (i.e. not aliens from another planet with super powers)... well, except for the “beast” in Beauty and the Beast, he’s a genetic experiment gone wrong, but anyway.

So yeah, no deep thoughts here or anything, just admitting my guilty tv pleasures.

Bad Fangirl

Am I a bad fangirl if I haven't purchased this yet? I really do want it. But I don't even have a Blu Ray player. Oh my, does that make me an even worse fangirl? Oh dear. I'll go hang my head in shame over here in the corner... without my elf ears.

*I don't own elf ears or hobbit feet. Going back to my corner of shame.

Roadtrip 2012: Hot Hot Hot

After First-born, Longboarder, and I slept and ate and slept some more, we were once again functional human beings. We lounged about at Grandma’s. Lounged about at Aunt P’s. We drove around looking for thrift shops and bored poor Longboarder to death. And went down to Wellington Colorado for their July 4th festivities and saw the largest mule EVER!!

I picked up a rental car and headed out on the next installment of the road trip on Thursday. I drove 15 hours to Naperville Illinois to see my internet besties, Evil, Noir, and Trek (as in Trekie).

Why do you hate me, Nebraska? It seemed like the entire state of Nebraska is under road construction. Seriously, even 10 miles was yet another construction zone. Took forever to get out of that state!

Typical view of Nebraska: Corn!

Iowa was pretty, at least the first 90 miles. The other 200 miles, I have no idea. The sun set over Iowa. It was a blood moon (red), but then three hours later it was white. Iowa reminds me of Denmark. I can see why all the Dane expats came here! They are still here. If I remember my family history right, my Danish immigrant great grandfather first settled in Iowa before setting roots in Wyoming. I stopped for the night in Davenport Iowa. And at 11:30pm central time it was still 94 degrees with 88% humidity. Talk about UGH!

Iowa sunset

and Iowa windmills!

I listened to the audiobook Venetia by Georgette Heyer. And then I started singing loudly along with music the last 3 hours. It is nice to be alone in the car sometimes. I notice that I also talk to myself and say random comments when I see interesting road signs or for that matter, anything.

I see this, I just have to say "bi-gosh"!

Friday, I finished the journey to Illinois. I crossed the Mississippi. I took a moment, it is the farthest I have ever driven east. I made it to Naperville by 11:30am Friday.

Illinois has corn too

It was now time to be total dorks and catch up. I hadn’t seen Evil, Trek, and Noir for four years. We had met online in a fan forum back in 2007. Evil and I flew out to New York in 2008 to meet Noir face to face for the first time and go to NY Comic Con. We instantly recognised each other. This time we met a fellow fan forum friend FG for the first time. We all went out to dinner Friday night. Saturday we spent in downtown Chicago and did tourist stuff (double decker bus, water taxi, Navy Pier, Joffrey Ballet, Lake Michigan, the L). The architecture is amazing! Sunday we went to a Hindu temple. Gorgeous building! Understood nothing, but interesting. Had lunch and then it was time to take Noir to the airport. I leave for the next installment Monday morning to Minnesota.

The time spent with the internet besties was great! We laughed our asses off! We always do when we get together. We all decided that it is time for them to visit me next time! A weekend isn’t long enough for us either, need more time. It went by so fast and felt like we didn’t really get a chance to just hang out and chat. Still, won’t pass up an opportunity, however short to see these guys. I regret missing the trip they did to Rome, Italy back in 2010. I just couldn’t swing it. Love my internet hotards!

FG, me, Evil, and Trek

Noir and me

Stay tuned for next time where I visit the big ball of twine.... no really!

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Space Invaders

The video arcade game Space Invaders was released in 1978 and was one of the games I used to play on our attari when I was a kid. I do believe the world has been invaded, and people just don’t realize it. Enter the new and improved Space Invader.




heh heh heh

Things: they are a changing

Hello and welcome to the first post of 2010, from me anyway. I don't know if this year will be good or bad, but one thing I do know is that it will be different. For starters the work office has shrunk from 6 to 4 people (including me). The boss-man and our business admin have moved the "business" part of the office to what I assume to be the boss-man's place of retirement. Yet I don't believe he will retire in the next few years. So when I go back to work Monday morning, I am assuming that I will get to move my desk and all my stuff out of the dungeon (the lab) away from the dust, dirt, bones, and everything else you can think of to an actual office with... wait for it... a real window! It looks out to the lovely asphalt parking lot, but a real window with blinds and it *gasp* opens! Wow.

My sister, whom I live with, will be getting married in October... in Hawaii. So I will finally be able to visit Hawaii, Maui to be exact. And then we will be adding yet another boy to the household. heh heh. He's 40 something, but in reality he is an adolescent boy trapped in a man's body.

I will try to only work a 40 hour work week. While in the office anyway. When I'm in the field running a project it is near impossible. I'm lucky if I can keep it down to a 10-11 hour day while out and about. Perhaps this 40 hour a week thing will help in my lack of enthusiasm about the job. Don't get me wrong, I love archaeology and I like digging holes and walking around looking at stuff. I just don't like the, how should I say, the bureaucracy and how we are treated.

In other news: On my birthday while you all were either nursing a hangover or lounging on the couch stuffing your face with junk food watching college bowl games, I was lounging on the couch eating junk food watching a Dr. Who marathon on BBC America. Then went to Home Depot and bought some pine boards and cut them and fixed my bed so that the mattress will not fall down through the frame. Then I watched more Dr. Who. Ate more food, watched Dr. Who. You get the idea. So I guess this birthday was better than the last one. I didn't want a party or anything. And so I got to sit on my ass. Perfect.


My sis bought me a tree for my birthday. We went and picked him out today. We found him at Home Depot. The nursery was closed, sucks for them. We picked out a young magnolia. I think he will do great. His name is Brisco. We planted Brisco in our infamous tree killer spot. We first planted Bruce the spruce there last spring. We got Bruce in the mail with our Wall-E DVD. Bruce died soon after. We then planted Sam the walnut. Sam we found in our backyard. A squirrel left a nut and it sprouted. So we thought, why not? Sam died soon after. And so Brisco here is our third try. Brisco is young but not so little. I think he will survive. And if you get the link with the names, you are perhaps an even bigger dork than me, and I salute you!

By only working 40 hours a week, I hope to gain more actual home time. I want to explore and see my town and the surrounding parks, trails, and whatnot. I hate running and so to get in shape I want to hike. Sounds like a good idea to me.

I did a bit of research on NZ archaeology. The country and the environment/cultural laws are younger than any U.S. ones. Yet they seem to be much better off. And it looks like they pay better too. But it also is a very competitive market to get into. There just aren't very many jobs. One can hope, I suppose.

So here's to 2010. It will definitely be different than last year. And I'm hoping better.

I'm sure you're tired of hearing about it

I have been back home for... uh... I hate math... 6 days now. I was able to post my NZ pictures online (I'll send you the link if you want) and did my first of probably many slide shows for the family. And they didn't fall asleep, despite my try at the monotone drone made famous by Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

I paid off the credit card, so the only debt is the house mortgage again. Amazingly the trip didn't make me bankrupt. The Christmas bonus from work helped. I've been sleeping till noon... only because I can't fall asleep till after 2 am.

I have now dreamt about NZ for the last 4 nights, just before I wake up. And they have been anything but normal. Mostly about a few people I met there (but they aren't quite right either in the dreams) and places that I didn't visit. Very strange. I have no idea what it all means.

I've also (insert dork joke here) started re-watching the extended version of Lord of the Rings and noticing more places I went and saw. So cool.

I have 6 more days before I have to go back to work. Not looking forward to it, but gotta work for the money. I would love to be able to take my nephews (sister's) to NZ and do the REI trip with them. I think they would absolutely love it and I would love sharing that experience with them. Unfortunately that's a lot of money I don't have and doubt I could save for before they are out of high school. Plus sis is getting married next fall and I need to be able to get myself to Hawaii for that.

So I guess it will just be strange dreams for now. And figure out what the next stage of my life will be.