Keep Blockbuster in Business

I'm sad to say that this year I saw a paultry ONE movie that was nominated for an Oscar. ONE. That's just sad. I'm usually the person tyring to see as many as I can before the big night. Not that I had a lack of interest this year (excep for Sweeny Todd), I just didn't have the time I guess.

There was one movie I really wanted to see which was Once. Learning that it was filmed in such a short time and in Dublin and that the guy is the singer from The Frames, I was intrigued to say the least. So Wednesday night I get crazy and decide to go to iTunes and try renting Once from there. I thought it would be easy and I wanted to see how good the quality was. I purchase the movie and it downloads fine. I get in my bed so excited to watch a new movie and it won't play. I drag it out of iTunes onto my desktop and try opening it in Quicktime. Nothing. i start to panic. I just lost $4!! That's a huge amount of money to me right now! that can buy me a cup of coffee on my way to class! I shouldn't have given that up so effortlessly. I'm instantly ashamed and hate that I spent my money on such an impulse. But there's nothing left to do but file a complaint. So I go to my purchase history in iTunes and report a problem with the download. The next day I get an email saying they've put a fresh copy of the movie in my download queue and that everything should be fine this time. Long story short, I download the movie and about 6 hours later... it still won't work. It's the last straw for me and I respond to the email and tell them I want my money back in no uncertain terms.

it should be back in my account by next week!

the moral of this story: don't be lazy and think renting a movie from iTunes is a good idea.

winner winner chicken dinner

skillz.

Simon Says

I've been a long-time watcher of American Idol. I started about midway in season 1 and have missed few episodes since. I really love the show, I have to say. It's surprising that so many people really have made an actual career for themselves and it all started with a reality show. A FOX reality show, at that. But the last two or three seasons have left me puzzled. Each year they claim they've found the best top 24 in American Idol history, but each year I'm unimpressed with what I initially see. Sure the weakest of the top 24 get weeded out by America during the first three weeks after auditions, but I still wonder how some of the contestants make it to HOLLYWOOD let alone the top 24. Also, I know a lot of it is nerves. It's different singing in front of millions of people compared to a handful. But I feel that if these people really want to "make it" and have this as their career, they shouldn't show their nerves as much as some of them do.

Take for instance Amy Davis. I mean.. come on! I had to watch her performance a couple of times to make sure it actually happened and that that noise came out of her mouth. She clearly got on this show for her looks because she has a terrible voice. I'm glad she's gone-it was the right choice-but for some strange reason I wanted her to stay at least one more week just to hear how bad she'd be again. That's mean of me, I know.

We seem to possibly have a FEW Sanjaya's this year, but the front-runner got the boot early. Poor Garrett Haley. I had high hopes for him before I heard him sing. He was funny in his pre-performance interview with Ryan Seacrest. Witty, dry humor always gets me. But then they showed his audition.. his nasally, falsetto-filled audition.. and I knew it was over.

Colton Berry was one that may have been eliminated early. I thought this performance was pretty good.. definitely not the worst of the night. He's very theatrical, had a boring stage presence and didn't change up the arrangement AT ALL (okay maybe he did deserve to go home), but I would have had two others go home before Colton; namely Luke Menard and Jason Yeager. Yikes. No good, guys.

But then again, this is only my opinion.

The early front-runners on the guys side are clearly Michael Johns and David Archuleta. They both have very different styles, but are both really great (how much cuter could David be?!). But, Michael Johns was my favorite from the start. A) He's an Aussie B) He lives in the south and C) He's got some great taste in music.. and he's not bad looking either. Let's just say he's got a lot going for him at this point. I think he'd really have to screw up to get eliminated

However, no one-NO ONE-will ever take the place of one Chris Richardson.


He will always hold a special place in my heart.

Barack says we can

I'm not a political person by any means. I've tried so hard to be interested in the goings on of the world, but aside from listening to "My Life" on tape, I have little interest in politics. Finding the candidate who actually believes that Global Warming exists and that there is a way to stop it is the only reason I'm going to the polls this November.. if I get registered before then.

However, my goal is to become as informed and knowledgable about the candidates as I can in the coming months. If anyone has any tips for me on how to reach my goal, they would be greatly appreciated right about now.

And I do have to say that this video is pretty fantastic.



On a more humorous note, this is a pretty funny website to play with whenever you have downtime or just need a distraction from more important things (just keep clicking).

enjoy.

Fashion.. with a sense of humor.

Who doesn't love to wear jeans and a t-shirt? No one, that's who. Especially me. But I don't always feel super cute when I'm super comfortable. All that has changed now with the wonderful world of Threadless! You can find really funny and witty t-shirts on this site without having to look at shirts that say "I get frisky when I drink whiskey". I mean, really?

I've been a fan of Threadless for a couple of years now ever since one Mr. Zach Braff mentioned it on his very own blog. I'm actually wearing a shirt from Threadless now. It says:

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator

Who can't agree with that?

C-A-T-S... spells disaster

Or last night it did anyway. Why so sad, fellas? Maybe it was the 93-52 loss at Vanderbilt. Maybe...

Oh, Happy Day

It's official!

Amazing Discoveries

A few weeks ago in my Package Design class my teacher handed out articles about new and different ways of packaging certain items. My article happened to be about self-heating packaging for liquids like coffee and soup. It was written in '04 or '05 and was talking about how these self-heating containers would be everywhere and more prominent in '07. I had never heard of them before I read the article so I was a little skeptical about it even existing at all.

This past weekend I was at Kroger with my mom and sister and in the middle of an isle was one of those huge bins overflowing with containers of what I thought was cocoa mix. I walk over to it to look at it because I'm a sucker for cocoa/coffee/or any hot beverage and I wanted to see what these were all about. To my amazement, they were the self-heating containers!! I was so excited I bought 3. They were $2 each so I couldn't buy too many just yet. But I had to see if they worked like I hoped they did and OH DID THEY! It was quite a day for me and my nerdiness. I even emailed my Package Design teacher to tell her about my findings. Needless to say, she was excited as well.

Here is the website about the products. It's pretty great and everyone should try one at least once. Just to say you have and to enjoy the experience of a self-heating container.

WARNING: You must be patient. I went through the steps of heating one of the and thought I had a dud. It took a lot longer for it to heat than my first one did. I got discouraged and moved on to my last one. But of course the way the universe works against me, my first drink started getting warm after I had already started the second one. Be patient with the coffee drinks. They take just a little more time to heat up! I had to drink two coffee drinks Sunday afternoon and I was wired for the rest of the day. It was nice.

Since all my other blogs have been about televsion (and this one obviously hasn't) let me say that I am now going to watch an episode of Mad Men, which is possibly the best new show this season. Had self-heating containers been around in the 60's, I bet these characters would use them.

WGA + AMPTP= BFF??

Sadly, no. But the Writer's strike is thisclose to being over with. It's really too good to be true. I've forgotten what it's like to see new episodes of The Office and Scrubs. If all goes well, some shows will be back to writing mind-numbing goodness this week! I'm such a tv nerd that this is the best news I've heard in quite some time.

Here is a good place to get a list of what shows you can expect to see back on the airwaves before the tv season officially comes to an end.

Here's hoping it all goes as planned and that we can get a full season of LOST.

WHAT?!?!

This past year along with the rest of the country, I became ridiculously obsessed with The Hills. It amazes me that all these people have to talk about is media-arranged coupling of Spencer and Heidi and how much everyone hates this gruesome twosome.

There are no words to describe Heidi and her foolishness for putting up with Spencer the tool. It's just sad. I found this video on youtube a few months ago and was in shock at the thought of Heidi trying to pursue a music career and having Spencer backing her up and encouraging it. It's sad to see him so happy for her in the video.. honestly does he not see how bad she is at pretending to sing?

And now I've stumbled on to THIS. I don't know what to say to this. Her gestures are awkward and she looks like she doesn't know what to do. The only reason I'm posting this is because of it's awfulness. It's like a train wreck that I can't stop watching and I feel more people need to see this tragedy.

You're welcome.

What ever happened to predictability?

I've noticed a recurring trend over the past few years in television that's started to disturb me. It's the continual lack of an opening theme song on new television shows. Rarely do new shows have them anymore. Nowadays it's a quick flash of the show's title and a few nice graphics around it, then it's right back to the show. Now I'm not complaining about how quickly they're getting us back to our regularly scheduled program-in fact I really like how most shows don't cut to a commercial break after the opening title shot, but is it really necessary to completely cut out the theme song? Is there no compromise at all? Even shows that have been on for ages (that's you, ER) are getting rid of their opening sequences. I loved ER's theme-James Newton Howard really can't do any wrong. Why get rid of something so great? (Okay, so I might be the only person who watches ER anymore, but it's not the only show that's given in to the trend.) I know some shows like Ugly Betty still play a short musical quip that they try to pass off as a theme song, but it doesn't count. I want a song! Something I can sing to myself later even if there aren't any words. I want pictures! I want to see the people along with their real names so I can know who's who! Is that too much to ask? I guess so.

However, some newer shows haven't completely given up on me and still kick it old-school and show their credits in a time-span lasting longer than 10 seconds. Thank you, Flight of the Conchords, Mad Men and Journeyman. Sure the latter has since been canceled, but it was a great opening sequence and I doubt that was the reason for cancellation-nobody watched it (why?... WHY?!?).

I first noticed this happening back in 2004 when a little show called Lost debuted. The screen went black and four blurry letters slowly flew toward me and came into focus with a creepy sound that's actually kind of difficult to describe. But Lost doesn't need a theme song. Can anyone picture a bouncy song being played in the background while each character turns and smiles at the camera? No. That's why it works. But just because something works for one show, doesn't mean it has to be copied by everyone else.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the matter. Agree or disagree? What's your favorite theme song? Bonus points to anyone who can name which theme song my blog title came from.. and does anyone else out there watch ER with me?

***

In the spirit of great theme songs, here are a few shows with my favorites:
Weeds
Flight of the Conchords
My So-Called Life
Scrubs
Everwood (the season 1 version was the best)
House (Teardrop by Massive Attack-download this song now!)
Mad Men
30 Rock
Felicity (seasons 3 & 4 only)

There are more, I know, but this is a good start.