When I was 26, I attempted to write about something I liked everyday. That didn't exactly work out. I am going to try something a bit different this time.
Tonight was the season finale of "So You Think You Can Dance". To honour the occasion, I thought I would post my favourite dances from this past season (mostly because this is the only season I actually watched). So today's favourite things are the following dances from SYTYCD Season 5:
Kayla and Kupono - Addiction: She is an addict, he is the addiction. Choreographed by Mia Michaels.
Brandon and Jeanette - Ruby Blue. Choreographed by Wade Robson.
Jeanine and Jason - If It Kills Me. Choreographed by Travis Wahl.
Randy and Evan - The Butt Dance. Choreographed by Mia Michaels.
Jason and Kayla - The Zombie dance. I have posted about it on my blog before you can find it here.
There are probably a bunch more but those are the routines that really stick out in my mind as being my absolute favourites.
I have mentioned this many a time before but I really like Monday night television. It has 4 of the shows I like the most ("Big Bang Theory", "How I Met Your Mother", "Castle", and "Chuck" - all of which contain at least one person that has worked on something with Mr Joss Whedon). Tonight was the season finale for Big Bang Theory and Castle. They were both quite enjoyable. I only really started watching "Castle" because of Mr. Nathan Fillion who I loved in so many things ("Firefly"/"Serenity", "Waitress", "SLiTHER" and "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" to name a few) and I really started enjoying it. Nathan Fillion plays arrogantly charming quite well. He also plays charmingly loathsome quite well, as shown by his character, Captain Hammer, in "Dr. Horrible". In addition to the fact that it was "Castle" night, it was also "How I Met Your Mother" night which contains another of my favourites - Mr. Neil Patrick Harris, who is hysterically shameless as Barney Stinson. So the combination of Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris both having TV shows on the same night, plus the fact that I decided to re-watch "Dr. Horrible",which stars them both (and also co- stars Simon Helberg (aka Wolowitz) from "Big Bang Theory"), made it quite the awesome night for TV. I continue to urge people to check out "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog"; the trailer for which is available below:
So today's favourite thing is a night of TV that contains a whole lot of both Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion. Adam Baldwin would be in there too if a) "Chuck"'s season hadn't ended two weeks ago and b) he had also been in "Dr. Horrible."
PS. There are rumours going around about a sequel to "Dr. Horrible" so look out for it on a computer near you. I will no doubt post something on my blog when it is known for sure.
I apologize but this is going to be yet another "Chuck"-related post. That leads me to believe that "Chuck" has been pretty much my most favourite thing of the past 5 months. Honestly, that seems pretty likely. It's been pretty awesome and tonight's season finale was no exception. That being said, the show is not guaranteed a third season yet and so many fans are trying to save the show. The main campaign has had to do with getting a footlong sub at Subway and letting Subway know that you are doing this in support of Chuck. Today on my break from work, I walked over to the Subway and got myself a sandwich. I also did in fact leave a comment. It was good. It was good being part of something bigger, even if the something bigger is an attempt to get a TV show renewed. As far as causes go, it won't change the world, but "Chuck" does make me extraordinarily happy and that should count for something.
Before Christmas, I wrote a post about the TV show "Chuck." It is one of my favourite shows and it is rising in the ranks I will probably soon be my absolute favourite show (provided it gets a third season, which is not done deal quite yet). Since I've already had a post naming "Chuck" as my favourite thing, I feel like I would be somewhat cheating to do it again. Instead, tonight's post is going to focus on why I like it and why I think more people should watch it. Here are some of the reasons why I love Chuck:
It's funny
It's suspenseful
It's an action show
It's romantic
It's goofy
It has Adam Baldwin (better known as Jayne from Firefly) and he's pretty awesome
It has a character whose nickname actually is "Captain Awesome"
It blends humour and emotion very well
It has creepy yet hilarious characters
It pays homage to so many different shows that it's a matter of trying to pick them out.
This clip
Here's a crash course in all things "Chuck".
All in all, I will be very disappointed if Chuck doesn't get another season. It's a pretty awesome show with awesome characters and a character named "Awesome" which is pretty....cool. My lecture about Chuck is now done, but please check it out.
This past weekend, I got the urge to have both Puffed Wheat squares and Rice Krispie squares. Unfortunately, my craving kicked in after my sister went grocery shopping for the week. So, no go. But today, my sister needed me to get some cookie crumbs so that she could make a Cheesecake during her lunch break, so I picked up some Rice Krispies and marshmallows while I was at the store. Unfortunately, I couldn't find Puffed Wheat. I got home and put everything on the counter and went downstairs. I had planned to make some Rice Krispie squares in the not too distant future; my procrastination skills at work once more. When I came upstairs the next time, my sister had made them. It was awesome!
Pretty much everyday, when I first go on the internet, I flip through all of my homepage tabs and see what's happening. When I got to my blog and looked at my blogroll (the place on the left hand side of my blog entitled "Blogs I Enjoy"), I got very excited. One of the blogs I follow called The Park Bench had chosen January's Nerd Man of the Month. Not only that, but this month's awesome Nerdy man was Jim Parsons. For those that don't know, Jim Parsons plays the neurotic, humorously socially bewildered theoretical physicist, Sheldon Cooper, on the Big Bang Theory (a show that routinely cracks me up). Sheldon pretty much exemplifies the definition of "nerd" so it was only a matter of time before he (or the actor that plays him)became the Nerd Man of the Month. Past Nerdy men include John Krasinski (Jim Halpert, Awesome!), Neil Patrick Harris (Do I need to explain who he is?), Adam Baldwin (Firefly, Angel, Chuck), Nathan Fillion (Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Firefly, Waitress), James Gunn (SLiTHER), and Joss Whedon, among others.
In July, the web series Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog was released. It was and continues to be awesome. It was made by Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and the upcoming Dollhouse) and several members of his family as well as some of his friends. It stars Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible who wants to get into the Evil League of Evil and win the heart of Penny (Felicia Day) who he knows from the laundromat. His main obstacle for both of those goals is the oafish Captain Hammer played by Nathan Fillion. Today, the DVD arrived. I want to call it mine but it is actually my sister's so that wouldn't entirely be accurate. One of my favourite things about the DVD is that one of the commentaries is Commentary: The Musical. It was rather amusing. I think to accurately detail why I like Dr. Horrible, I will have to rely on another list:
Neil Patrick Harris (I have mentioned that I think he is awesome before, haven't I? If not, I am rectifying the omission now.)
Nathan Fillion is brilliant as the oafish Captain Hammer (Corporate Tool).
The songs are darned catchy (I will be surprised if I ever get the Bad Horse songs out of my head)
It has lines that I wish there were more cause to use in normal life such as "Look at my wrist, I gotta go," "What a crazy random happenstance," and "You give my regards to St. Peter. Or whoever has his job, but in Hell."
Spoiler alert: Bad Horse is actually a horse
The ending has a vastly different tone from the rest in that it's kinda depressing, but in a totally expected, Joss Whedon sort of way
Some the lines are not all that funny in writing, but the way the actors say them, they are hilarious. ("Captain Hammer threw a car at my head" (Actually that one is still amusing in writing) and "That's not a good sound")
Two more of my favourite quotes:
"It's not about making money, it's about taking money. Destroying the status quo. Because the status is not quo. The world is a mess and I just...need to rule it."
" Alright. The wait is over. This, my friends, is my Freeze Ray, which, with the addition of the wonderflonium I obtained at my famously successful heist last week... I say successful in that I achieved my objective. It was less successful in that I inadvertently introduced my arch-nemesis to the girl of my dreams, and now he's taking her out on dates, and they're probably going to...French kiss or something...! She called him sweet? How is he sweet? [long pause] Right, Freeze Ray"
The fact that Captain Hammer possesses and dry cleans sweater vests
I believe you can still get Dr. Horrible on iTunes and you can get the DVD through Amazon. This blog definitely does not do justice to the show but it is definitely today's favourite thing. I was very excited when I saw that it had arrived. Sad statement about my life, but there you go.
I like to bake. Cookies, cakes, bread, etc. It's all good. I am not however a huge fan of cooking. When I lived on my own last year, meals consisted of either pasta or something from Subway, Pita Pit, Panera or any number of different places. So yeah, not into cooking. Since I moved in with my sister, I have been doing more cooking than I have done in a long time. Usually about one big meal a week. Usually, it's something that I put in the slow cooker. I love using the slow cooker. You put the stuff in it. Turn it on. Go away. Come back 5-10 hours later et Voila!!!! Dinner is served. Or ready, because you actually have to physically put it on your plate on your own. Thing about slow cookers is that you have to leave the requisite amount of time because as the name implies, it cooks stuff slowly. I have a bad habit of not leaving quite enough time so the fast setting on it works awesomely. It basically cooks stuff twice as fast as it does on slow (which for a 10 hour stew, is still 5 hours. "Fast" is relative). So for today, my favourite thing is the slow cooker. Woohoo!
This past fall, the gym I go to was having a promotion where every time you went to a group exercise class, you would get an initial on a card. After you filled up two cards (50 initials), you could hand the cards in and be entered for a draw for a water bottle (After one card, you received a key tag. More excited about the water bottle). Today, I found out that I won a water bottle. So yay me! I haven't gone to retrieve the water bottle yet but it is pretty awesome anyway. Hopefully, I will make it there at some point this week. The bus strike is really a drag. Although when it's over, I can no longer use it as an excuse to not go to the gym. Sigh.
I hope everyone had a good 2008. I should totally be asleep right now as I am leaving for the airport at 4:30AM but I decided to do this before I actually go to sleep. For today's post, I am going to write about some of my favourite things of 2008. Some of them have or will have their own posts but for now it's just a list. In no particular order,...
Panera Bread (American restaurant, really good sandwiches and soup. One of the things I miss most about Boston)
Joss Whedon TV shows (I discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly this year. Also, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog was awesome)
The Sims 2 (for PC)
Television Without Pity (Snarky recaps of your favourite shows, what more could you want?)
Tina Fey as Sarah Palin
Neil Patrick Harris
I discovered some new and amusing websites this year. See my blog roll. I also enjoy www.tvtropes.org
Twitter (I don't use it often but I like reading what other people are saying)
Hulu (although I can't use it in Canada)
Flamenco (That's not a new favourite, but I saw some amazing flamenco performances in '08)
Living with my sister (It's been an adventure, especially with her doing a new thing everyday. It kept me on my toes)
Using acronyms for phrases even if it's shorter to say the actual phrase (ex. btw for "by the way")
Quoting random TV quotes in casual conversation (It's a sickness)
Having an actual TV and using a DVR to record certain shows. (Awesomeness)
TV Shows that are online (How I caught up on TV when I didn't have one)
TV on DVD
I probably have a few more favourites but I am getting tired. I hope everyone has a great 2009!
There is an Applebees Restaurant opening up in my hometown, and one of my sisters received an invitation to have complimentary lunch there today as part of the staff training. She was able to invite three people, so I went with her and two of my other sisters. It was very good. I especially enjoyed the fact that we did not have to pay for the food. It was nice because I ordered a margarita which normally would have cost me $8 but was free today. So, free foodandfree drinks. Double yay!
As I mentioned in a previous post, I really enjoy the show How I Met Your Mother. For Christmas this year, I received the DVDs for season 2 (see also my post on TV DVDs). As I was watching them over the last couple days, I realized how much I enjoyed the character of Marshall (played by Jason Segel). I then realized that I never mentioned Marshall as one of the reasons I like that show and only really mentioned him in relationship to his haircut. So I decided to use a whole post to rectify that situation. Marshall (and Jason Segel) crack me up. Marshall is a pretty lovable guy. He gets excited over odd things, loves to do the robot, has some of the best facial expressions (maybe not the absolute best. I am looking at you, Jim Halpert), has a sort of innocence about him, and loves Lily very much. As for Jason Segel, I first saw him in Freaks and Geeks about ten years ago, and I have definitely found a few of his recent projects very enjoyable. Much like I very much enjoy any movie where Hugh Grant dances, I think that things can be very much improved in so many ways by having Jason Segel sing: (Freaks and Geeks)
(Forgetting Sarah Marshall) I posted the following video in the post about How I Met Your Mother, but it applies here too.
(How I Met Your Mother) His dancing also is a bit of a high point....
Last week, I mentioned that I made potato rolls. My favourite thing today is along the same lines. I made just regular buns. I love homemade buns fresh out of the oven. Very enjoyable. I should clarify that when I said I made them, I mean that put them into bun form. My sister made the dough in the breadmaker. I think I did okay. It took me til the 36th bun before I figured out a system that worked and my sister claimed that the first ones looked like they were made by five year olds (or perhaps three year olds, I don't remember) but the point is that they taste good.....Which probably has more to do with my sister's part in the process than in mine. But oh well. I now know how to make buns like a person my age should make them, so woohoo!
As I mentioned last week, Mondays are the day when I pick a TV show (from Mondays) and write about it. This week, the winner is Chuck. No question. I watched the pilot last year but I never really got into it until this year. Probably because last year I had to watch it online and this year I have a TV and can watch it when it is actually on, and then again, and again,.....and again. And probably a couple more times. For those of you that don't know, Chuck is a about a guy named Chuck (go figure!) who received an email from his old college roommate that effectively filled his head with government secrets. He is now protected by a guy from the NSA (Casey, played by Adam Baldwin of Firefly and Angel and one episode of Bones - well that's where I know him from) who growls a lot, and a girl from the CIA (Sarah, played by Yvonne Strahovski) who is his cover girlfriend and the ex-girlfriend of the guy that sent the email. So basically he has his bumbling spy life with Casey and Sarah, and his actual life with his sister Ellie, Ellie's fiance Captain Awesome (or Devin, as is his actual name), his BFF Morgan and his Buy More coworkers. His family and friends have no idea about his spy life. Tonight's episode was pretty awesome and at one point my sister and I said "Wow!" simltaneously. It was a pretty awesome moment if by awesome you mean horrifying and sad. Sadly this is the last episode til February but it was a great episode to go out on. You can watch episodes online at citytv.com (in Canada) or on Hulu (US), or rent or borrow the Season 1 DVDs from a video store or library.
I am going to give you fair warning. This is going to be another TV related post and if you don't watch the show in question, this post may be completely irrelevant to you. But rather than it being about a specific show, it is going to be about a specific character. Namely, Jack Hodgins from BONES. This character has got to be one of my favourite characters on TV. Why? To answer that question, I will have to make another list. In no particular order:
He's rather cute.
He's snarky and sarcastic.
He gets oddly excited about things like insects and compost heaps
Even when he hates everyone, he's funny about it.
Even though he is extremely wealthy, he comes in everyday to work with insects, dirt, and unidentified particulates
Finding weirder and weirder things about Angela made him love her more and more
He is one of the more self-aware lab workers
He's not above using his boss to make his problems (or Dr. Sweets) go away
I mentioned that he is snarky right?
He unconsciously uses words like 'baby' and 'dude' when he gets excited.
There a lot more reasons why he amuses me, but the main one is his snarkyness. If anyone has other reasons, feel free to share.
...dary. Now that that is out of my system, I can discuss my favourite thing of the day. I decided that for Mondays, which is my favourite night of TV watching, I would choose my favourite show based on which one I enjoyed the most that night. Tonight, the winner is How I Met Your Mother, if only for the fact that Jason Segel (aka Marshall) cut his hair. There are in fact many reasons I like that show, but his hair was getting so bad it was distracting. I got very excited when I saw the new do. That probably says more about me than it does about him but I can live with that. I am going to attempt to list the reasons why I like the show. They are as follows, in no particular order: - Neil Patrick Harris - Slap bet
- the various rules, theorums, etc that they apply to life and dating (For example, the Hot Crazy Scale) - Neil Patrick Harris - Mary the Paralegal - Ted does a rain dance - Canadian popstar - various catchphrases including the garbled one from the title of this post (legendary, wait for it, awesome, lawyered, and more) - Barney (as played by Neil Patrick Harris) - Lets go to the mall - The fact that the websites they discuss are in fact real -1, 2 Those are just a few of the reasons I like this show. I will discuss my other favourite Monday shows (Big Bang Theory, Chuck) another time.
When I first started this blog (all of a week ago now), I knew that many of my posts would be TV related, because frankly that is one of my favourite things. I watch certain TV shows every week and they are what I like to call appointment television. Last year I was out on my own and did not own a TV. I felt deprived. Luckily, there is a handy invention known as TV on DVD. An entire season of television on a set of DVDs for your viewing pleasure. No commercials. It is a good way to revisit an episode of your favourite TV show or discover a new one. I especially like it when libraries lend out series on DVD. Makes it a lot cheaper. It may not be the best use of your time, especially if you have things to do that do not include watching moving pictures but it's a good way to relax after a hard days work. And it gives you some entertainment when the writers go on strike. (Wait, that was last year. I meant the actors. Man I hope they don't strike.) I also tend to enjoy all the little extras that come with... the bloopers, the commentaries, the documentaries, the interviews. This enjoyment of TV on DVD may have something to do with a personality quirk of mine where I must know everything there is to know about what I am currently into, but I think it is generally a pretty cool thing.
