A listing of my flaws

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore! It seems that all around me are people who are trying to correct all my faults for my own good. What are these horrible faults that I possess?

• Well, for one thing, I don't have nearly enough possessions. My lifestyle is a horrible affront to the American way of life, and I need to go out and start buying lava lamps and food processors at the earliest convenience. This is only for my own good, you realize, because she who dies with the most stuff wins.
• Also, at times I prefer my own company rather than spending my time with a lot of people. This is a serious flaw! Being alone is dangerous, because it might lead to serious reflection, and we can't have that. It would be better to spend my time surrounded by a posse of people who continually chat about all their stuff. (See above.)
• Speaking of serious reflection, I have also been accused of not filling my time properly. Taking time to think before doing something is passe. Much better to just start working quickly and mindlessly so that everyone can see you doing it and be amazed. If it doesn't turn out, you can always fix your mistakes later, just as fast.
• Most seriously, rather than making a lot of plans for the future, I trust in the Lord to provide for me. But why should I trust in somebody I've never even seen? Much better to just start making plans and take the bull by the horns!

Here are my answers to these arguments, taken from the Sermon on the Mount:

• "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
• "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."
• "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
• "Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

So I guess I should thank all these critics! They have made me much more sure that what I'm doing is just fine and pleasing to the Lord.

November TV Roundup

A whole bunch of things have been cancelled in the last few days, and so I thought it was a good time to let you know my thoughts on how the season is stacking up so far.

• Chuck: This was picked up for a full season a long time ago, and I'm glad. It really is wonderful this year, and I get happy every time I see the opening credits!
• Heroes: It still doesn't make any sense, and I wish it would at least a little, but I keep watching. I don't know why, but I want Sylar to be redeemed. He's the most charismatic character on the show. I wished he had been killed after season one, but maybe I was wrong.
• Fringe: I'm pretty sure this was picked up for a full season. I like it perfectly well, but I don't worry about it all week long. And I want more cow!
• Privileged: This just got an order for more scripts, so that's a positive sign. I wish Megan hadn't told Laurel that she knew her secret. Everything got all weird when she did that, and not in a good way. And Megan's romantic life is a little confusing to me. Still, I love the girls, and that's why I keep watching.
• Pushing Daisies: They say that after it's finished its run, it's done. I know I'm supposed to be really sad, but I'm not. To be perfectly honest, I think it's the kind of thing that's best in small doses. When people say it's literary, maybe they mean that it would be better if it came out on a schedule like a mystery series, with us eagerly waiting for each new installment. But every week, it's just kind of numbing with its too-much-ness.
• Life: This got renewed for the full season, and all I can say is "Yes!" I didn't love this show so much at first, but it's really grown on me, and I think it really has gotten better this season. I've been going back and catching up with the first season episodes on Hulu, and they're still pretty good, but they aren't at the level of this season. I know some people are sad that we aren't spending so much time on the ongoing mystery this season, but I don't really care. The cases are the thing!
• Dirty Sexy Money: They say it's cancelled, and to be honest, I'm glad they're putting it out of its misery. Nothing that has happened this season has been either significant or interesting, and I feel that they're just going through the motions.
• Ugly Betty: It went through a rough patch earlier this year, but it seems like it's finally hit its stride again: less soapy and convoluted and more heartwarming and real.
• Life on Mars: They say this will be moving into Dirty Sexy Money's slot in the new year, and I hope this is true. I really am liking this show, and I hope it continues for a while. Once again, though, the ongoing mystery isn't that interesting to me. It's just the cases I want to see.
• Crusoe: I missed this last week and didn't really care. It's nice mindless television on Friday night when my brain is fried, but that's about all.
• Lipstick Jungle: I'm so conflicted about this show. There are things I like (Nico and Kirby) and things I don't like (Victory and Joe wasting my time). So I guess whether it's cancelled or stays around, a part of me will be satisfied either way!
• Brothers and Sisters: This is by far the highest rated show that I watch, so I don't have to worry about it going anywhere for a long, long time. I like that there's a good balance between ongoing storylines and things that wrap up in one episode. The dinner party scenes are always good for some kind of a laugh, but it can also be serious at the same time. This one is really a keeper, and I guess my fellow TV fans agree.

Snowie can find anything!

I didn't think Radigan Neuhalfen could really be anybody's real name, even if they are from North Dakota, and I was right.

Mongolia calling

So I've found someone who, on paper, is my perfect man. He's from North Dakota, now lives in Mongolia, and is a novelist and adventurer. I came across his website while looking for something else entirely, as I always do. I'm half-tempted to write to him and say, "I'm from North Dakota! I'm obsessed with Mongolia! I'm a writer!" But that seems just awfully dumb and naive. Besides, how do you start up a relationship with someone who lives in Ulaanbataar? And how do I know he's not really a geek sitting at a computer in Mahwah, New Jersey? But Radigan Neuhalfen, if you're real, drop me a line!

Huh?

So if Lipstick Jungle is going to treat me this way, I don't particularly care if it's cancelled! After all that lead-up, I can't believe Victory and Joe just broke up. Feh!

A dream of dreams come true

I had a dream last night that was so good, it was scary. First I was with XDPE having lunch, and we told each other how much we loved each other and held hands across the table. Then I was on the school bus, and all the high school boys were flirting with me! I asked people questions about the bus route, which made them think I was crazy, because hadn't I been with them all along? But they said that we had already gone through Manfred, and that I got on the bus every morning at 8:10 and got off every afternoon at 4:10. In other words, this was my classic elementary school bus route.

After I got off, I saw that my father was baling straw. Somehow the sight of that yellow baler going down the road is more "him" to me than anything else. I played for a while in the ditch, which was perfectly shaded even though there are no trees there! Then I went home and to my room, and Spicey was lying on my bed, and we played together. I was carrying her around like a baby, and her ears fanned out like they always did, and then I thought, "Isn't she supposed to be dead?" And then I thought, "Well, she isn't right now, anyway, and that's all that matters." Then I went to the kitchen and my mother was there, and I thought, "Is this real or a dream?" And she started talking about how her new pants accentuated her tummy bulge, and I noticed she was walking around on her own two feet, so I knew it was a dream. She was wearing that yellow sweater vest she always used to wear. I knew what I was supposed to do, and I went over and hugged her, and she was a little bit taller than I am, like she's supposed to be, and she felt solid under my arms, not frail. And I looked out the screen door, and Jillie was lying on the steps with her head in her dish, which was always her favorite position, and there were some cats there, too.

And then my mother went to the living room to talk to my daddy, and I saw that my grandma was cooking something in the kitchen. She was wearing her standard uniform, too, including those blue shoes with all the little holes in them that she used to wear. So I went over to her, but I had to kneel down so I was the same height I used to be when I was 5, and I hugged her too, and I asked her to make me a brown sugar sandwich, and she said she would. And then I went into the living room and they were talking about land bank papers and my sister was there, too, and then I woke up.

So this dream concerns me a little bit, because it was completely wish fulfillment from one end to the other, and it makes me worry that I'm going to die, or something really, really bad is going to happen to me. Why else would God allow me to have so much comfort all on one night? On the other hand, I've always loved that part of Our Town where Emily goes back in time to her 12th birthday, and I've always kind of wondered if I could do that. Maybe this was just proof that I could. (Although I didn't really go back to one particular time, as Grandma was dead long before we got Spicey and Jillie, for instance.) It also proves that XDPE was right. He always said that if I could learn to lucid dream it would be a tremendous comfort, but I didn't believe him. Well, boy, you were right.

Moment of Truth

People on various entertainment sites I read keep saying that this year's TV season is a dud, but I haven't wanted to believe them. I still find at least one thing to watch every night, and you can't call that a dud, right? However, I realized yesterday that it was time to update my Facebook profile with the names of my new favorite shows. I do that around this time every year to keep things fresh. So I got out my list of all the shows I watch (yes, I really am that nerdy!) and thought about whether each of them is special enough to go on my profile. To qualify for that, a show has to be not just something I watch, but something I think about all during the week. Using that criterion, the only show I was able to add was Life, and that's not even a new show, just something I'm more into than I was last year. In fact, I even wanted to remove some shows from my profile, because I don't feel so strongly about them anymore. (I'm looking at you, Ugly Betty!) However, I refrained from doing this because I didn't want to empty out the section entirely, and because breaking up is hard to do. But yes, maybe this TV season really is a dud after all. Sigh.

Edge of the Universe

Here's a nice Bee Gees rarity for you, and it nicely describes how I'm feeling right now: all alone and surveying a vast uncharted territory, exhilarated and terrified at the same time.

Everything old is new again

I forgot to mention that because Fringe wasn't on this week, I tried watching The Mentalist instead. Everybody has been raving about how good this show is, but I was wondering how a standard procedural could really be so interesting. Well, it is just because it's so well-made. The episode I saw was like an uber-procedural, with everything perfectly in place. We tend to think that new forms are the most noteworthy, but sometimes to create a masterpiece, all you have to do is perfectly craft the ultimate example of an already well-known genre. (Which, come to think of it, is what the Bee Gees have done time and again over the course of their careers.)

Still here

So I hope my not appearing here yesterday didn't make any of you think I wasn't still alive. That would be a not-very-nice Halloween prank to play. No, I'm still alive and kicking, and I actually had a pretty good day yesterday. I bought a lot of groceries at two different stores, I worked on the take-home test I have in Linguistics, I made a really excellent hotdish*, and I watched The Shining. I'm not sure how I felt about that movie. It was another one of those cases where I felt like it didn't quite make sense and wanted to go out and read the book. It seems like the only books I actually read these days are the ones that movies are based on! (I'm halfway through Midnight Cowboy at the moment, and if you think the movie is disturbing.....)


*I have to disagree with Wikipedia on this one. There's absolutely nothing that says a hotdish has to include canned soup as a binder. Tomato sauce is also a very popular binding agent and should not be discounted. In fact, the one I made yesterday used almost a whole pint jar of Pace picante sauce. But then again, I am a NextGen hotdish maker!