jenepel

I've just caved and made another cup of tea to get me through my last hour and a half (or so) of work. Also, I have broken out the chocolate bisquits. Big guns! I am in an unaccountably bad mood that I just can't seem to shake. It's been going on (and off) for a week now, and it's getting ridiculous. Today in particular it might have something to do wtih the snow and having to be at work. Being the child of two teachers, snow equals snow day to me, when often even the adults don't have to go in. So working when we have all this snow outside does not sit well with me. (Of course when I lived in Japan and we got however many feet per day I just had to get used to it. But it just seems wrong somehow.)

Anyway, I went to my parents' in Norfolk this weekend, in an attempt to chill out (turned out more literal than I meant it) and remove the blues that didn't totally work. I mean it was nice, but now I'm back here and I feel about the same as I did. So that's frustrating. I did manage a day off work becuase of it though, since I got stuck there! The snow hit there before it hit London, so I missed the last train Sunday night due to poor planning and more snow in the forest than anticipated. I planned to come in Monday morning but then the REAL snowing began, and (as we are unused to such conditions) the transport networks shut down. The trains from the southeast of England to London were CANCELED in the AM. Like, wtf? Anyway, I finally braved it (after time on the phone and on the much abused national rail website) and got the adjusted train times sorted and left the house around 7. It took me over 4 hours to get back to my house in London. It's a journey that usually takes 2 at the most. Also I had Nimbus with me, as it was the weekend that I decided to try out his new duffel-bag-like carrier case (which is great btw). He's actually an awesome traveler, he mostly just sleeps and kind of mews at people inquisatively from time to time, but STILL. Either way, at least it got me a day off that I wouldn't have gotten if I was in London, since the Northern line was one of the few that was actually running. On the other hand, I wasted a day of holiday on it, so make of that what you will.

On the subject of holiday, I just found out today that the one trip we actually have sorta kinda planned (but which I didn't yet mention to my boss) which is Serbia for Exit in July, intersects with a planned holiday of his. So that's a problem yet to be solved. Erg.

In TV news I randomly dipped back into Friday Night Lights this weekend since the rest of season one was sitting on my ipod. For reasons unknown (considering how long it's been there unwatched) I flew through the last five episodes and now can't wait to watch more. I'm so fickle with catching up with shows. Perhaps I needed some gritty realism after all the Buffy and Angel we've been watching? COncerning the (considerably) less gritty, I'm excited to go home and get this week's Gossip Girl. At the moment I just can't get enough of it. Also, can I just take a minute to (once again) praise Jacob's fabulous Gossip Girl recaps on TWOP? They make me love the show on a higher level. I don't read very many TWOP recaps anymore (I used to be so addicted) unless I want an answer to a specific question or I miss a part. But really, those GoGi ones are not to be missed.

This is apropos of nothing, but what's with all the Aretha hat icons and graphics? I'm missing something here, humour-wise, because instead of making me laugh they are just really really starting to piss me off. They make no sense! It was just a hat! Why are people so strange?

I will leave you with this article about why we should give Heroes another (ANOTHER) chance. It's worth it just for this quote:
"Worst come to worst, Heroes' failure could affect NBC's parent company GE, and that could cause your toaster to rise up in rebellion against you. Yes, failing to support Heroes could directly lead to the Cylon civil war. It's happened before, after all."
HA!

So, here’s my official (LONG) pilot run-down for the new TV season.  I’ve finally (I think) gotten around to seeing all the pilots that I was even remotely interested in (except Private Practice – more on that later) so that I can decide what I’m going to watch this year.  (Hee, I’m a little late, I know – but who can tell from all the way over here?)  Since all I have left from last season are Heroes and HIMYM, I figured I needed some new shows.  Plus, now I have wireless broadband and a fast new computer, so I'm much more able to (ahem) acquire them quickly.  So here they are, in order of preference.  I’ve been writing this for like two weeks now, so it’s a bit long!  And if you’re thinking “doesn’t she watch any British TV?", of course I do!  It’s just that our TV seasons aren’t so regimented like the US ones are.  There isn’t this crazy pilot season where everything starts at once and you have an immediate choice between tons of shows.  It’s much more organic; I watch whatever is going at the time, and it’s not such a mad scramble.  Although it doesn’t help that my flatmates’ taste (other than GA) mostly run to stupid reality TV like Gordon’s Kitchen Nightmares (actually any cooking show), Fear Factor, Coronation Street and the E! Channel.  After a while, these drive me crazy, and send me running to my computer.  I mean we could at least be watching all the great documentaries they have on the BBC or dramas like Silent Witness.  The only reality show I’ll watch is ANTM, which I have a strange fascination for.  Oh, and Girls of the Playboy Mansion.  It’s true; I’m totally addicted to it.  I don’t know how it happened, but I love that show.  I don’t know when it’s on, but if I see it, I’ll watch it,  I feel like I need to go into a rehab programme or something to break me of the habit!


This TV season aside, there are some other shows that I do kind of want to catch up with if I ever get the time.  Mostly notably, I’ve decided to try Friday Night Lights, which I was adamant about not watching because, hello, American football.  But people keep saying it’s so good, so I’m gonna try a few.  Also, 30 Rock, which I saw the first ep and was totally annoyed by, I’m going to do another swing at.  Also (perhaps) Mad Men, which I think slipped under my radar, and the OC which I missed a whole bunch of.  And then there's American Dreams.  Also, I'm just over halfway through Everwood S3 so I need to think about getting S4 ready.


So I just have one final thing to say, on the subject of the most important show of my TV season, Heroes.  I still haven't seen this week's episode.  And hello!  Kristen Bell!  I'm dying to see it.  I actually got a fairly fast DL and it was there last night but I didn't have time as I way out way late and fell asleep.  So I come home today all excited, only to be greeted with this message: "this file can only be watched on dom player - please go do www to download it."  WTF????  I mean seriously.  Number one when I checked the website out they don't even have a Mac version, number two when I looked around a little more it seems the general consensus is that it's spyware anyway.  What a load of crap - I waste time DLing something only to be met with that?  This is the second time I have had to DL Heroes twice because people online are evil and post crappy versions that don't work.  And I'm doing it so soon that often there aren't comments up.  I'm gonna have to start DLing two (just of this show) at once just so I have a backup!  Basically, my DLing Heroes is cursed.  I had better get to see it tomorrow.  Oh to be in the US and also own a Tivo.

Lord, I think that’s enough TV talk for one day.  You would think it was all that was going on in my life.  In other news, we finally have heat.  It's freaking freezing here, and only getting colder by the day (ok, it's only about 10-12 degrees C, which is ?50's F I think; I tend to exaggerate).  Anyway, it feels particularly cold because our heat hasn't been working.  We finally called the landlord today and he told us how to work it - turns out we are morons who didn't know there was a thermostat separate from the main controls and timer.  (Come on!  It's in another room.)  But on the bright side, now I don't have to start out in a fleece when I go to bed.  Yay.

I tried to post this earlier in the day via email, but evidently it didn't work.  Good thing I sent myself a copy!

So I finally got to watch Heroes Wednesday night.  Here’s hoping next week I only have to wait a day instead of two!  (Talk about need for instant gratification – 10 years ago I would have had to suck it up and wait until next year when the BBC showed it.  Ah well.  Progress!)  I was actually quite pleased with the episode.  I was a little worried, because it’s always hard to watch that first episode after the summer break; you expect so much because you’ve been building it up in your mind.  I think the easiest way to review is by storylines, since they are pretty disjointed right now.  It usually takes until longer in the season before they intersect.  There probably isn’t much here that hasn’t already been said by everyone else, but oh well.  I felt like writing it out.


I’m so glad that TV is back so I can start writing recaps/reviews again.  Although now that I think about it, the only things I am watching are Heroes and HIMYM, and I hadn’t really planned to do the latter.  The others that I used to review (GG, VM) are done.  I suppose I could review the virtual season, but that might be weird.

I MET MILO!! Seriously, I met him on Friday! I'm still totally excited and squeeing - such a fangirl. I usually try to avoid being this giddy over someone, but I'm pretty ridiculous when it comes to Milo.

( Insane detail )

I stayed til 2:00 and then I had to rush back to go to work. It was quite a letdown after all that excitement! And then, to top it all off, after work I had to go to A&E (Accident and Emergency, or to you stateside people - the ER). Long story short, I've been having chest pains this week and refusing to go to the doctor. People at work have been worried - well, they are all older than me and they (I think) baby me a bit. So I finally agreed I would go Friday night. It took like three hours. They did an EKG and evidently there was something on there that was wrong, so they wanted to do more. They took blood (from both a vein and an artery), urine, and did a chest x-ray. Then they did another EKG, and that one was clean. The bottom line was that they couldn't find anything wrong. (THAT'S why I don't go to the doctor.) So he just gave me Codeine for the pain and told me to come back if it was still bothering me, got worse, etc. Also, now I have these huge bruises in the two places they took blood - I look like a druggie. The great thing is that all I had to pay for was the medicine. God bless the NHS. I bet that would have cost thousands in the US. Or at least I get that impression from TV shows.

They have just added Milo and Adrian to the ComicCon lineup. I was planning to go tomorrow anyway, but now I'm even more excited. Maybe I'll see them again - I guess it depends what the setup is.

As I'm starting to post this, I'm realising that because of my self-imposed moratorium on all things internet (until I saw the Heroes finale) I didn't post for Adreama's bday.  So: Happy Birthday adinarj - a day late!

I just finished watching the  finale, for which I (miraculously) wasn’t spoiled at all.  I thought I had better write out my thoughts now, since I have stayed offline (TWoP, lf, etc) so that I wouldn’t read anything about it.  If I go online before I write this, I’m sure I’ll be swayed opinion-wise, and I want to know what I really thought!

Overall, I enjoyed it, but....

This is actually the only show I’ll be waiting for next season.  That’s weird.  It’s going to be a long summer though!  

Ok, now I'm off to see what other people thought...

My sleeping habits recently have been worse than usual.  (And that's hard, because they are always bad.)  I actually pulled an all-nighter the night before last.  And it was for no apparent reason other than I just didn't feel like going to sleep.  I was working on the freelance wp stuff and I just kept working on it (checking Whimsy in between) and then suddenly it was 7AM and time to get ready to go to work.  Seriously, I am just really not a proper grown-up.  And yes, I know it's bad for my body, and that it's taking years off my life, etc etc every other thing anyone has ever told me about my crappy sleep habits.  But I really can't (don't want to?) help it.  I love to stay up late.

And so it is now 4AM, I have to work tomorrow, and I'm on the computer watching yesterday's Heroes, typing this, checking Whimsy, reading fanfic and doing anything else I possibly can to waste a little time.  Joy.

I actually have to work at school tomorrow, not the office.  They needed someone in the library, so I traded my office days to fit it.  I am going to miss this "flexible schedule" when I start the new job next month.  (3.5 weeks and counting...)  I also haven't got a move-in date for the new house.  I so hate to move.  Not looking forward to boxing up crap and figuring out how to drive it all there.  But I am excited about the move and life change.  All that is good.

A couple things about recent TV watching:



So it's 5AM now and I've had this entry open for ages.  Perhaps I should try and get my two hours of sleep before I have to get up?  At least I will have kids to deal with all day tomorrow, so that ought to keep me awake!  Here's hoping my four alarm clocks actually wake me up...