• Once Upon a Time: Started watching this. My inner Disney fangirl is squeeing.
• Pan Am: I care less and less for the storylines, but I really enjoy the characters. I don’t know if I want to keep watching or not.
• Good Wife: This used to compete with Big Bang Theory as my favorite show (currently running), but not so much this season.
• 2 Broke Girls: Surprisingly one of the shows I really look forward to every week. I love watching Kat Dennings. Does anyone else get the feeling she’s ad libbing some lines and amusing herself along the way? Or maybe she and Beth Behrs just enjoy the jokes that much; it often looks like they’re trying not to laugh out loud.
• Two and a Half Men: I didn’t watch past the second episode, but I heard my fears are realized: Ashton’s character is just awful.
• The Lying Game: The season ended but here’s my commentary: Darn, the season ended! I need to know more!!
• Glee: I am this close to not watching the show anymore. Kurt has me hanging on by the thinnest of threads. The prospect of seeing Damian’s guest role will keep me coming back for a while though.
• New Girl: Still the same as before. Every episode seems the same. She’s wacky and weird and the guys abandon her, but then everyone joins in a big ol’ happy group hug.
• Raising Hope: Haven’t seen an episode since the second of the season, but I think I haven’t been missing much. Hilarious show, but not a must-see on a weekly basis.
• Spy MyeongWol: I only remember to watch this show when I’m watching tv, so I haven’t watched since the World Series ran. But I plan to catch up on Youtube eventually.
• Mythbusters: Awesome. That is all.
• Psych: Yay! This was the show that I hoped would replace Monk in my tv line-up, but it never quite reached that level. Still really fun to watch.
• American Horror Story: Psychosexual thriller? Yeah, not so much into that part of the show. What I really enjoy is the history behind each of the ghosts. That’s what I’ve always loved about ghost stories.
• Revenge: This is probably my new favorite show. (Competing with Big Bang Theory, of course.) I can’t say any more than this, I’m not objective enough.
• Big Bang Theory: Ditto. I love watching geekery.
• Person of Interest: I missed an episode in the past month but I didn’t bother to watch it online, yet I still watch it every week. (Jim Caviezel.) I don’t know what more I can say. Every episode follows the same formula.
• The Mentalist: Same as Person of Interest. But I really like the characters. Also this is the one show where (half the time, anyway) I try to follow along and figure out what Patrick is thinking or seeing. And Patrick’s aversion to the violent action scenes is refreshing.
• Grimm: This looks like fun. I never watched Buffy or Angel, so to me this sort of show is new.

It’s the last day of the month. I need to write something or go down in my archives as having not updated for three entire months. My job is still taking over most of my mind, and the rest of my mind is occupied with keeping up with social media. And yes, I will complain about that as long and loud as I can, anywhere I can.

Sadly, the one thing in my life that I can update with is tv. The boob tube is all I “think” about outside of work.

My tv premiere schedule last week consisted of:

Mon
CBS 9:00 Two and a Half Men
CBS 9:30 2 Broke Girls

Tue
FOX 8:00 Glee
FOX 9:00 New Girl
FOX 9:30 Raising Hope

Wed
ABC 10:00 Revenge

Thu
CBS 8:00 Big Bang Theory
CBS 8:30 Big Bang Theory
CBS 9:00 Person of Interest
CBS 10:00 The Mentalist

Fri
CBS 8:00 A Gifted Man

Sun
CBS 9:00 The Good Wife
ABC 10:00 Pan Am

I also watched The Lying Game on ABC Family, but it wasn’t a premiere episode.

A lot of these shows are new. I think I’ll continue watching most of them.

My thoughts of the shows:

• Two and a Half Men: I just watched the first two episodes to see how Charlie’s death and Ashton Kutcher’s introduction were handled. I’m probably done for the rest of the season.
• 2 Broke Girls: It’s a fairly standard sitcom, standard jokes, standard characters. Although it’s pretty risqué for an 8:30 show. I watch it for Kat Dennings. Don’t know if it’ll last.
• The Lying Game: I skipped the first few episodes of this show, but the commercials kept getting me interested, so I started watching since my brother DVRs it anyway. It’s a different storyline.
• Glee: Yes, I kept up watching last season for the most part. The season premiere was bland, I thought. Mostly just reintroducing the characters and their new storylines. More annoying bickering between the Glee teacher and Sue. But yay, Lindsay from the Glee Project showed up in that episode! (No, she wasn’t my favorite.) The second episode was better. And had more Kurt. So I’ll keep watching.
• New Girl: It’s silly and cute. I don’t know how long it’ll keep my interest, but so far I’m watching just for Zooey Deschanel.
• Raising Hope: I caught a few episodes of this over the summer and thought it was hilarious. (Cloris Leachman on rollerblades?) The humor reminds me of Malcolm in the Middle with its outlandish situations. With Glee and New Girl, it’s easy enough to remember to catch this show.
• Spy MyeongWol: I found this show while flipping channels during Raising Hope’s commercial breaks. This show is the reason I keep watching less and less of Raising Hope as the half hour goes by. I’m not into Asian dramas, but I like watching the main actress, and I find the show hilarious (as I do most Asian dramas… I suck, I know) so I’m catching up on the beginning of the series through Youtube.
• Revenge: Oooh, this is probably the show I find most promising. Firstly, Emily VanCamp from Everwood? I wanted to see what she’s doing now. Secondly, pretty good ad campaign during the summer. Thirdly, and most importantly, this show makes me think of Count of Monte Cristo, one of my favorite books. I have to keep watching!
• Big Bang Theory: Yay! Along with The Good Wife, this is probably my favorite show currently running. And double yay for Jim Parsons winning an Emmy this year!
• Person of Interest: I had no idea what this show was about, although I got that it’s an action show. All I knew was Count of Monte Cristo I mean, Jim Caviezel was in it. I watch it for his face. :) But I have to say, this show makes me paranoid.
• The Mentalist: Gobsmacked, man. Found not guilty??? I need to learn more about this mentalist thing.
• A Gifted Man: I didn’t think the show would be interesting, I just found myself free on a Friday night so I decided to watch it. I was hoping it would ease the pain of losing Medium, but no. There was more to Medium than just her ability to talk to dead people; I loved the characters and the family interaction too. A Gifted Man just seemed so blah. Like every episode will be Patient of the Week.
• The Good Wife: Well. Can’t say I like the storyline as much as last season. I liked seeing her relationships with Kalinda and her husband. Not that I think she should stick with her husband no matter what, I just liked seeing how she was dealing with the situation with him.
• Pan Am: The bus stop ad and mall ad campaign got me interested. A friend of mine is into planes and he watches the show. I like the history of it. But I’ve read that it’s broadcast’s answer to AMC’s Mad Men (along with The Playboy Club), so that turns me off. I don’t want to watch a show that will get me upset over how women were treated in the 60s. Also the first episode hinted there’ll be a lot of relationship storylines, which bores me because I can see that in almost any other show. I want to see more about Pan Am! Like Pan Am going to the Bay of Pigs to transport released prisoners? I didn’t know airlines did stuff like that…

All in all, this year looks to be more promising than last year.

I’ve watched Dancing with the Stars since the season that Marie Osmond was on (researching on Wikipedia, it was season 5, fall 2007) although I’ve never actually watched an entire season. I just watch the occasional episde because I don’t like the anticipation and drama of reality shows. (“Just get it over with,” I always scream in my head.)

I saw Marie Osmond (by the time she had her hyperventilating/feinting episode I’d already tuned out) and I saw Sabrina Bryan absolutely robbed (I still think she should have won ;P). I skipped watching Kristi Yamaguchi’s season, opting to focus on schoolwork and figuring she was already the winner before the show started anyway.

I didn’t tune in again until after I graduated college and was back home where my brother regularly watched the show. His watching made it easier for me to remember to watch, and it made my viewing in general much easier, because I could walk in and out of his room when I was interested or not.

Fall of 2009 I rooted for Kelly Osbourne, the next season it was Niecy Nash. Fall of 2010 I really tried to see the whole season, but after Margarte Cho left I got bored, and Brandy wasn’t enough of a draw for me. Although I do think Jennifer Grey won the season after the first episode, I also think it was completely unfair for Brandy to get kicked off over Bristol Palin?! I still regret not watching and supporting Brandy more.

When the list of stars for the current season was released, and everyone was calling it Dancing with the Lesser Known Stars, I have to say I wasn’t really interested. But after listening to Kevin & Bean on KROQ in the morning while lying in bed, and I realized this Mike Catherwood was the host Psycho Mike, I suddenly became much more amused (and interested).

I sat down and watched the few dancers I was interested in for the first two weeks, even going so far as to register on abc.com in order to vote for Mike (and Kirstie, and Ralph). After all the hassle of registering (tried 3 or 4 times before it worked -_-) I was really disappointed Mike was voted off.

I didn’t vote for him as a joke. I honestly wanted to see if he could improve his dancing. “He had two weeks,” my brother told me. But still! I wanted to see more of him!

As Kevin and/or Bean said, though, “At least now we don’t have to watch the show.” I looked forward to hearing their remarks about it the day after the results show, but they really are too negative for my tastes. Now I can go back to rooting for the standards. Go Ralph!! (I really should log on and vote for him. I’ve had two weeks to get over my disappointment. ;P)

In conclusion, I find it hilarious that KROQ, a rock radio station, was my impetus to finally register to vote on Dancing with the Stars after all these years.

When Glee first premiered, I tuned in every week to watch the show on Wednesdays. But after five episodes in I still didn’t care enough about the characters to keep watching, and I chose to watch new episodes of Mythbusters instead.

Well, it’s not completely true that I don’t care about the characters. I love Kurt (and Chris Colfer) to pieces, I always enjoy watching Jayma Mays, and Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester is absolutely detestable. *grin* But Kurt and Emma weren’t in the show nearly enough to keep me watching. The teacher’s wife also annoyed the patience out of me.

After all that time, I’m watching the show again because people at work watch it and it’s nice to join in the conversation, and because my brother remembers to tune in.

It seems like Glee has developed its groove, or however you’d like to express it, and got over the blahs when it first premiered. The episodes seem more engaging than before, although I still find myself drifting away in thought at times. (Distracted by my own thoughts while watching tv? Inconceivable! The reason I watch the boob tube is to get away from my own mind!)

I do like to see what songs they cover, always hoping they’ll do something that I love. (Unlikely, considering my music tastes… definitely not the Top 40. Although they kind of did a Yeah Yeah Yeahs song after the Super Bowl.) Surprisingly, some of the songs they’ve done I end up liking much more than the original recording. I’m mostly thinking of Rachel singing Katy Perry’s “Firework” here. Katy Perry’s version I find blah, but Rachel’s is a nice, listenable song.

I don’t know though, dedicating 45 minutes a week to a show where the only thing I get out of it is a few minutes (if at all) of one character I adore, and the anticipation of what song is coming up next? (I never did see the Rocky Horror episode…) Rachel’s party was funny though… drunk people are funny. (Especially when recounting history!) I think I’ll still stick to watching “just a couple more episodes,” just to make sure.

My Star Trek backstory: I was a Star Wars kid. My brothers and I watched my dad’s VHS tapes of the original trilogy many, many times. My parents watched both Star Wars and Star Trek, although Mum favored the latter. She thought it was more creative than Star Wars, it could do so much more, explore different ideas. I think she saw the original run on television. Both parents watched The Next Generation and Voyager, and Daddy watched Enterprise. I watched TNG as a kid, saw some episodes of Voyager, and I’ve seen a couple episodes of the original series. Haven’t seen any of the movies. Except for the newest one, of course. Yes, this was my first Star Trek movie. *grin*

So back to the movie. Figuring out who the characters were was fun; since I’ve only seen an episode here and there I only really knew Kirk, Spock, and the doctor. But from popular culture I’ve picked up Scotty, Uhura, and Sulu, and I learned about Chekov from Futurama. *grins* I didn’t figure out who the other guy driving the Enterprise was until I heard him pronounce Vs as Ws. XD

I’m not sure that I like knowing who some of the actors are though. While seeing Zoe Saldana was a delightful surprise, I see her more as Zoe Saldana, not Uhura, which kind of ruins things… It doesn’t help that I haven’t really seen Uhura in the tv show, so it’s more Zoe playing a part for me, not Zoe playing this character that I should know.

Another big surprise was Simon Pegg! I didn’t recognize him until his second camera shot, and even then I wasn’t sure until Mum whispered to me, “Hot Fuzz,” and that she was sure it was him. I’ve never seen Scotty in the show … or at least I’ve seen him portrayed in Simpsons and Futurama more often than in Star Trek which probably isn’t a good thing, heh. But I really liked the character. I really liked Simon Pegg. XD I never did see that movie where he was playing that running character.

Watching John Cho was fun, but I kept remembering him in his Harold (& Kumar) role, and yeeeah that sort of really ruined the role for me. murrr. But again, I haven’t seen much of Sulu in the show so I was watching him playing a character, not playing someone I should know.

During the course of the movie I realized, hey, Star Trek was really cool, it had an Asian character in it! Sort of like Whoopi Goldberg’s story about loving Star Trek and seeing a black woman on tv. Because I remember early in the movie there was another Asian character, who I think got blown up, but regardless he was there, being Asian.

Normally I hate being so ethnocentric, I mean why should it matter what ethnicity or color someone is, right? We should all be colorblind. But I’ve been thinking about Asians in the media more and more, starting from the time when I heard about Avatar characters in the live-action movie being cast as white people. (Or at least all the good guys.) Um, nice way to whitewash a story which is so very influenced by Asian cultures.

I’d read Derek Kirk Kim’s blog entry about Avatar and his story about how he and his brother loved acting, but never tried to make it in Hollywood because they didn’t want to get stuck with stereotypical roles. Then when I linked it online, someone told me her husband quit acting for the same reason.

While I didn’t care at the time about the lack of representation of Asians in the media (I don’t need to see “myself” on the screen because … well I just don’t, I’m secure enough to not need it), I realized oh, it’s not just about me, there are Asians out there who would like acting jobs but can’t get them because … they’ve got Asian faces. Hollywood (rightly?) thinks that most of America can’t connect to an Asian face, they need to see a white (or sometimes black) face to really empathize with the character.

(Mum is of the opinion that Hollywood isn’t really as liberal as it seems, because everyone is white. There are some black actors, a handful of Asians, very few of any other ethnicity. No one is willing to use non-white actors, lest they put off everyone else in the industry. But I digress.)

This week I saw a new episode of Without a Trace that had Chinese people in it! When I saw the previews I was intrigued, it’s not often there are Asians on tv. (I still remember that episode of Cold Case that was about the Japanese internment camps, which I will not comment about here.) I stepped in about 20 minutes into the episode, and I was really happy to see Asians speaking English with American accents, like most Asians that I know! But the more I watched the episode, the more it was about a Chinatown scandal and about being ethnically Chinese.

So … wow. Chinese people only go missing when it has to do with being from China, huh? Or in the case of the other episode, Japanese people only go missing when it involves the internment camps.

I asked Mum, why are Asians in the media always portrayed as being ethnically Asian, not as Americans with Asian faces? She said it’s because Hollywood just doesn’t get it, they don’t know what Asian Americans are really like, they can only think in terms of country of origin.

I guess not only do Asians not make it as actors, they don’t make it as writers either?

I put forth all of that in order to, in a roundabout way, explain why I really love Star Trek and how it’s so cool because it had an Asian character in it! Now I feel like watching the original Star Trek series just so I can know those characters. I will just have to grit my teeth and bear it whenever Shatner’s on screen…

edit@10pm, August 9, 2009: I found an entry someone wrote on Livejournal about the character Uhura on Star Trek that I really enjoyed reading and thought I’d link it here.

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This decision has been forced on me by the fact that I almost seriously injured my wrists (carpal tunnel) yesterday at school and subsequent use of my computer and various other tasks that involve using my wrists (that is, all tasks) have aggravated it.

Why am I on the computer right now, writing this entry? I guess I’m a sucker for punishment. Or I really am addicted to the computer. Either way, I’m done now.

Oh well. Notes to self: gas, facial regime, reviews.

Just to make this more of an entry, and less of … something junky that I’ll want to delete in a few months …

After about half a year (more?) of regularly watching Clean House on weekdays, I’ve decided to “take a big girl pill” and am getting rid of two childhood dolls! The reason I was keeping them was because … they were from my childhood.

Well, the pink doll I kept because I found while viewing a home video that I got it for my first Christmas. (Still having reservations about getting rid of it, but I have to look at it when I get home.) The purple doll I kept because I thought Mum told me one of my aunts bought it specially for me, and it was handmade. I had to rethink that when I saw a JCPenney tag printed on it. (JCPenney didn’t print tags on socks, right? This doll was made from sock-ish material.)

Now that summer’s here (or at least a week or two for me, then it’s work for the rest of the summer), I’ve got free time for my annual cleaning out and reorganizing of my closet, and I will more mercilessly look at the things I’m keeping and try to free up some dearly needed space.

Then my room can show off how I am now becoming an adult! (Another line from the show, excuse me, I have Clean House fever…)

Nothing on the page really showed me anything interesting (except that Tress MacNeille was in it, hahaha!), but I hit play on the video, just to really be able to get a visual of these two-in-one animals. The Wuzzles “logo” came onscreen and I thought, hey, that looks sort of familiar, but I must be thinking of something else. But then, the characters showed up, and I realized, hey! I’d seen those things before! I remember the bear-butterfly and the moose-seal and the crocodile!

I probably didn’t watch the show though. I remember some of the characters’ designs, but I don’t remember one whit of plot or location or anything really.

It’s just weird, remembering something that you didn’t know you knew. I read the description of two animals in one, I saw the little picture of the characters, and nothing clicked, so when the video tickled my brain, it was weird.

Just thought I’d share this trippy show, and how old I really am, to somewhat remember it. *grin*

Not much interesting happened really. Last night I was off the computer by 10ish, got in bed around 10:30, 11 (don’t really remember), and then spent three hours reading. XD First a little bit of Sylvia Browne’s Soul’s Perfection (taking it in bit by bit), then Jodi Picoult’s The Tenth Circle.

I like the book all right. I must, if I kept reading it and didn’t stop for hours. (Well, one drawback is that the chapters are so long … it’s a better incentive for me to stop reading if I see that I’ve read x number of chapters already … and it’s easier to stop at a new chapter … or maybe the last full paragraph on the first page of a new chapter … well how about the next paragraph going to the next page … *g*)

I don’t know. The main plotline doesn’t attract me much. It’s interesting, but is it rereadable? I bought the book because Borders had the first chapter online for preview, and the comic aspect of it interested me (Neil Gaiman was mentioned in the book XD; ). I don’t really like the daughter or the wife. I don’t dislike them, I just don’t really care about them much. I like Daniel though. I don’t know why. I will just have to continue reading it. :)

So I woke up today at 12:30, same time as C :O and a little before Mum came home from the market. Augh. And even now it’s almost one. Must improve sleep cycle …

After lunch I helped Mum cut the neighbor’s morning glory off our fence. But I had to quit after … some time. My arms were itching like heck. (I think I’m allergic to plants with little hairs on them…) I took pictures. XD It looks like I got bit all over. Really weird.

Then since Cattre was wandering around I decided to watch my Veronica Mars DVDs that I bought (used) at Amoeba on Sunday. Woo! Fun. I got through two episodes before dinner was ready. Yay Veronica. XD

I was gonna say more about the show but uh, don’t feel like it anymore. So good night!

I know I saw this episode of I Love Lucy recently. Mum asked me if the guy who was Lucy’s dance partner also played Ricky’s manager in another episode. (“My 10% goes on!”) I guess that was two weeks ago. It played today again. Is that the problem of having I Love Lucy on two channels? I can’t really consider it a problem though …

The problem I have is watching I Love Lucy only during the summer months, when all the vacation episodes are played over and over again. (“Didn’t they just come back from Europe? Why’re they going again?”) Argh. Play the normal episodes!!

But anyway. Just wanted to save that headline up there. XD; It’s the first time I’ve caught the whole thing.

Also, Lucy’s skirt. I noticed it for some reason. I like the cut of it. Normally I don’t like stripes, especially when they’re emphasized that much. But I guess now I’m so intrigued by clothes with atypical cuts that I ignore the stripes.

I don’t know any fashion or clothing construction terminology, so I couldn’t even begin to explain the skirt. Sorry for those vision impaired visitors. (Drew the image in Paint Shop Pro 6, with a touchpad, so there isn’t much to miss there.)