a personal "project"

It's nothing substantial, just something I should've created a while ago given my borderline creepy passion for music and song. I have decided to create top 10 lists by genre, of the __'s, etc... Porque/Pourquoi? Why not?! Besides, I'm just beginning to get better from my flu-thingymabob and I need to get this break started. Traveling, psh. It's list-making time.

As for the good ol' tube, since the list of what I watch goes on for miles, I can tell you that I'm not watching:
-The Nora Roberts 2009 collection [but I'm all for any new gossip about LeAnn Rimes' supposed caught-on-tape affair with her steamy co-star. Poor hubby]
-Toddlers and Tiaras [and I will not be watching WE's new Little Miss Perfect either, for that matter]
-trash reality tv [temporarily during break, I think my parents would cry]
-LOST. I gave up on remembering or attempting to figure out every reference, symbol, clue, polar bear, dharma station, let alone trying to remember what happens over the course of a single episode and all its flash____s.
-In the infomercial department, I've finally grown sick of Sham Wow--once you bought it, the excitement of seeing and must-having it over the tv fades away. I would like the Egg Genie, though.

Had I not caught the plague, I'd be camping with good company in Malibu, but I did so I am not. I am trying to cut down on the bad/stupid decision making. Though they have immediate rewards, I tend to regret such decisions (like if I'd left for camping today when I am finally getting better) as the foolishness and suckiness of those choices eventually reveal themselves. In other words, I want less FMLs and more HMLs (hail my life?) or AMLs (applaud my life?), you get the picture.

I also watched episode 2 of KINGS last night. YES. Not quite as mind-blowingly suspenseful to me as DAMAGES, but it's getting gooood. To no point whatsoever, here is a completely gratuitous picture of Egan.
Your welcome and good day.

the good that comes from being sick

Television. As regularly as I live like an immobile blob, this time I really haven't seen sunlight in four days.

I have no idea what I caught but this is one of the worst cases of the "sickies" I've had for a while. Actually, I would willingly wear those attractive medical masks (unintentional alliteration, how fun!) because I don't want my parents to catch what I have. Never before have I consumed such a large quantity of "over-the-counters" in such a short time span. Pill count: 16 Motrin, 10 Tylenol Sinus, 4 Sudafed, Completed 5/5 days of Azithromycin. I promise I'm not a fiend...

Now, a brain vomit about all the tv I've been watching this whole time...

Item 1. PRIMETIME ON DEMAND.  Not only is there HBO, but also CBS, FX, USA and NBC: Chuck, Heroes, ER, FNL, 30 Rock, Office. Ahhhh

Item 2. Good genes. I believe I have figured out a most miraculous combination.
If Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, and Mark Valley magically had a baby...


You would get

Chris Egan! My new weekly dose of Aussie eye candy, compliments of
Item 2.5. NBC's new drama series, KINGS. Apparently, the premier received rather low ratings, but I assume it will quickly pick up a loyal cult fan base, myself included. The plot alone grabbed my attention because of it's premise as a Biblical allusion. I don't necessarily live my life by the book as a faith but I've always been intrigued by the Bible as a literary and historical text and am thus obsessed with the parallels they've already made. Egan's wholesome face and Ian McShane, whose face alone could tell a story,  have good chemistry. Almost forgot! Sebastian Stan (Gossip Girl's Carter Baizen) is also on the show. This is important because I love Gossip Girl, perhaps also because he looks to be a promising villain. One last thing, Macaulay Culkin is supposed to be in the series at some point. I know, right?

Item 3. Token chick flick, THE HOLIDAY. Think what you will, but I found it positively charming and refreshing as a chick-flick/rom-com. Everything just worked. All the protagonists were troubled and complex enough that it wasn't overly cheesy. I was pleasantly surprised to see the great, now 93-year-old Eli Wallach, a true method actor who's been around since classic Hollywood (BABY DOLL; MAGNIFICENT SEVEN; THE GOOD, THE BAD, and THE UGLY). I've never been a huge fan of Jude Law, but he is surprisingly likeable in this film as all the protagonists are.

Item 4. The usual. Watching everything else that's on at any given time.

so good that it's no good

Home sweet home. Far too indulgent a place where the kitchen, bed, HBO On Demand and veg-out couch are all within a 20 foot vicinity of each other, not to mention my parents roaming about asking if I'm hungry again. You can probably deduce that I don't get much work done here but I ain't complainin', a full and happy camper I am, I am!

[The cute 'n' fuzzy version of me!]

At some point in the day you'll find mother, father, and daughter sitting in the family room, each with a mac lappy watching youtube videos. Dad's subscribed to the itunes podcasts of "The Best of Youtube" so that's definitely been a major source of time suck since I came home.

This was an academically dismal quarter, but I realized that we, on the West coast, do have something to be grateful for--we will never really understand the phrase (and variations of) "a cold, lonely winter." Mom and I were discussing this since she'd attended Hamilton in upstate NY and much of my family, including dad, has experienced the East coast for extended periods of time. I really can't imagine going through a true winter, one that's painfully cold, dark and gloomy, lonely...the suicide rate in Seattle made more sense to me now. Over here in sunny Cali, the winter is never that bleak and the relaxed L.A. atmosphere makes it more difficult to just sink into a depression. Given all this, I still want to experience life on the other end. I've only visited a few times, but I think I need to live and breathe the dynamic, four seasons of NY at some point in my life to 1. have a change of scenery and 2. out of fear that I have/will become too complacent and cozy with myself here.

Anywho, I am one Wednesday 11:30-2:30pm final away from freedom. I have one full day left to be a responsible student and study for it, so I'm gonna. I did find some brain food to chew on after I am free:

"Kurt Vonnegut's 8 Basics of Creative Writing

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964). She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that."

I'd encountered and been taught most of these in some form at some point, but Vonnegut lays it out conveniently in eight simple tips. I don't know exactly what I'll do with these pearls of wisdom, but hopefully I'll do something.

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blogblogbloggityblogblahblogblahbleeblablog

This is true. I wake up knowing the day will unfold in an epic manner, either fail or win.
Another enlightening update soon after I sleep and eat away two days of intense dancing.

FML: the extended version

Sick. Woke up with a day plan and a massive migraine, but knew that the plan was so not gonna happen and went back to sleep. Woke up next at 4:15 P.M. Been holed up in apt. like hermit ever since. Made another in smart decisions series to visit a "kickback" down the hall (at least close?). Waded it out there til' 2 A.M., at which point I realized that D.S.T. kicked in. Made the mood-crashing announcement that it was now 3 A.M. Back in my room wiiide awake. Nothing on t.v. except infomercials because regular people don't have a death wish and are sleeping peacefully. At the point in the early morning where I ask myself how I'm not dead from insomnia + disgusting food intake (probably because I haven't completed this sublime college lifestyle with drink and smoke). "Romancing the 70s" infomercial is on with Tony Orlando who sports a molestache and reminds me of a film professor I once had. That's not even the saddest part: It's that I happen to know every cheesy love ballad that has come on and have been subconsciously mouthing the lyrics. (Don't shake your head, I will not buy 10-disc collection. With my parents' cds and mine combined, I probably have most of them anyway. Sure, I'd love to send them all to you to add to your itunes library!) New infomercial. I want
Have sudden urge to do what monster 1200 can do. Will watch the sun rise in a couple, then supposed to go hike at 10:30 A.M. and take a practice GRE in the afternoon (not). It's dead week, I am behind on everything as usual and still sick. Just took a ten minute moment to cook frozen grilled chicken strips and mixed vegetables along with some tomato soup. How great that I choose to consume a healthy, balanced meal at 4:45 A.M. Just remembered that I also have a ginormous tub of Nestle cookie dough in the fridge, thus, a 99.9% chance I will bake after finishing this post and eat cookies 'til sunrise. Finally, the usual: grandma still asks about non-existent bf, still poor, jobless, future?, homesick, yadda yadda yadda. FML

[ ] I agree your life is eff-ed. [ ] you deserved that one. [ ] You're cool! be my friend?



p.s. oh hey, grandma...BAM