Back on June 1.

This weekend I went to the Maker Faire. Pretty cool stuff, and lots of geeky people. Yay! Some stuff didn’t do it for me, but there was a life-size Mouse Trap which rocked my world. This is why I love Northern California. Do you think this stuff would happen in Connecticut? Fucking never.

The coolest thing? There’s a guy who has practically dedicated his life to recreating R2D2.

I’ve gone on record saying that horses scare the bejeezus out of me, but this is such a gross display of disregard for animals I’ve heard about in a long time. Maybe the euthenasia was what was best for the moment, but WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU USING HORSES for entertainment to begin with? Animals are not put here for the sole purpose of entertaining us and making money for us. And if I read anything lauding this horse as a hero for the game, I’m gonna go postal.

I feel like joining the ALF toute suite.

Wow, I read this one straight for two and a half days. I am now officially obsessed with the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints. Not as in, I want to be a part of it, but I am fascinated about how a religion that is less than 200 years old is such a strong influence on so many people. There are actually records of the actions and words of its founders, and dispite lots of discepencies and hypocrisy, people are still strong believers.

I’ve decided that I need to be more educated about organized religion. I have always taken the stance that I am completely put out by organized religion, but in order to bolster that opinion, I would like to understand more about what people get out of their religious faith. Something that struck me most about this depiction of those of the LDS faith is how happy with their lives they are. You know what? I believe that they are. Sometimes I wonder if I would be “happier” if I were so entrenched in a religion. Perhaps I would be. However, I am willing to give that up for more nonconformity and rational outlook. Hmmmm.

And before you ask, yes, I have been watching Big Love. It’s aight. For a tiny, tiny millisecond of a moment, I had the thought that it would be appealing to be a wife in a polygonous family. (Not the crazy Texas compound way, but in the Chloe Seveigny sense.)

I really, really, really want to visit Salt Lake City.

But seriously, Chris is the official PBS blogger. Put that in your rss feeds, bitches.

I said I was over it, but thanks to Hulu, I’ve caught up on all of season 4 of The Office. You all know I was against this show from the start, but then it won me over, and now I know there is a reason that the British version stopped after 2 seasons: to go out while it was still good. I think this version has gone past all the good it could do and is teetering on the edge of going downhill.

-Jim and Pam: I hate to use the cliche, but it’s Ross and Rachel syndrome; yes it was good to see the tension with the attraction, but now that they are together there’s something not quite there for me. Kudos to the writers for not making them all lovey dovey all the time and talking about their relationship in the office, but it really doesn’t do it for me. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Karen was the better choice! Now in this last season they had to introduce the idea that there is going to be an engagement. WHAT THE FUCK. That just turned it into Grey’s Ananatomy for me. Why does everything have to be wedding-as-happy-ending centered?

-At the beginning Dwight was the most cliched, annoying character, but Rainn Wilson has done a good job with the character and over the seasons I have found Dwight to be actually quite endearing (I need to support a fellow Battlestar Galactica fan). I actually liked him and Angela together and I actually do feel for him over the breakup. I would totally stay at his beet farm getaway.

-Andy has been surprisingly subdued this season. Maybe scaling him back had to do with viewer response? I do miss his bursting into song from his Here Comes Treble days.

-I always thought the Michael Scott character was way over the top, but it has become beyond ridiculous and really hard to watch. Yes, it’s a fictional show, but I can’t get over the fact that he has not been fired yet for all the bullshit that goes on. Sure, the staff hate him, but how have they not rioted against him yet? That business with the Utica branch? Yeesh. That was hard to watch. The dinner party episode was very unwatchable for me (trying to hard, writers). And when did Jan go from a respected business woman to a shrill crazy psycho bitch? Thanks for committing to strong female characters there.

-Ryan as the boss? Hmmmm, not sure where this is going, but we shall see.

Okay, Okay, I know I always gush over a new band or book or movie and say it changed my life, but for this time it is for realsies. I’ve heard about this one for a long time, but my book club chose this one so it gave me an excuse.

Ignatius J. Reilly is the person we always fear we will become- sloppy, unattractive, no way of interacting in a normal social way and on the fringes of society. But so awesome. His correspondence with Myrna Minkoff are the best things I have ever read. Since reading this, I have been thinking in Ignatius like sentiments. In the class I teach someone turned in a crappy assignment and I almost shrieked, “What sort of literary abortion have you subjected me to? Oh Fortuna, why do you but me in the presence of such fucking morons?”

More insomnia equals more VH1 Classic!

Ah, how good was Tesla’s “Love Song”? I want to go back in time and go to an arena rock show. This song, without fail, always makes me close my eyes, sing along, and wave my hands in the air. I just did it. Man, I was born 10 years two late. (The song doesn’t really reach anything until about 2:25).

And for fun, The Cult’s “She Sells Sanctuary”. Ian Astbury rocks the pirate look.

You all know how I feel about narrative videos. One of the best is Skid Row’s “18 and Life”. I think I may have reenacted this video with a friend in junior high. Maybe that happened. I remembered being obsessed (along with Sebastian Bach) the bassist Rachel Bolan. Because his name was Rachel, and he had a chain that connected his nose ring to his earring. HAWT.

Watched The Paper again tonight and think Amanda is fantastic and has great eyeware. The rest of the staff are ungrateful brats who sit around gossiping about her when she is trying to do a good job. Good, let them be miserable. I’ll bet Amanda will be an RA when she gets to college.

Pretty entertaining and it took place in San Francisco. I’d read more of his stuff, if I have the time. I have a hefty reading list to get through.

Wow. Just wow. Maybe this season is going for sensationalist storylines, but it has me hooked.

Yay for Callie for actually gaining some character development and maybe even a spine. Thank you for recognizing the fact you married Tyrol after he broke your jaw. Still can’t tell if Tyrol really did love her and why he even did marry her. Sad to see her go, especially by the hands of Tori….which brings me to…

Tori was kind of one of the only kickass female characters who actually used her brain. Since becoming a cylon, she’s become a seductress machine using sexual tactics to get what she wants. What the fuck? Is that a result of cylon programming or just bad writing?

I really want to see more of the Demetrius mission. I am surprised all those key players went with Starbuck- I thought she was going alone - what if there is an attack? Are there any vipor pilots left on Galactica? And enough with the I-love-you/I-hate-you drama with Anders and Starbuck. Their borderline rape scenarios are starting to bug me. The relationship drama on this show reall gets in the way of the good stuff.

I can’t figure out Lee’s character sometimes. One second he is in support of someone and then he is trying to shred their character. First it’s back and forth with defying his father’s orders and now it’s taking down the president? Make up your mind, daddy’s boy.

Besides this stuff I fucking love this show and I am going to have to take a day or mourning after the season finale.

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Everclear are still truckin’, and just released a new album, but their days are over and will always truly remain a band of the 90s.

The Paper is the best show MTV has put out in a long time. Oh the drama!

WHen I heard Chuck Palahnuik talk about his next book, Snuff, I thought he may actually be kidding, but I guess not. It looks frigging awesome.

Palahniuk’s audacious ninth novel tells the story of Cassie Wright, an aging porn queen who intends to put an exclamation point on her career by having sex with 600 men in one day on film. The story begins with Mr. 600—the pornosaur who introduced Cassie to the business—as he describes the other 599 actors awaiting their moment on screen. The perspective then shifts to Mr. 72, an adopted Midwestern 20-something who is one of the many young men claiming to be Cassie’s long-lost son. Mr. 137, a has-been television star hoping to revive his career, wants to ask Cassie’s hand in marriage so that the two can star in a reality TV show. But for a novel centered around a gargantuan gangbang, there’s surprisingly little action; the small amount of narrative movement takes place backstage, where the characters attempt to get a sense of one another while waiting for their number to be called. There are sharp moments when Palahniuk compassionately and candidly examines the flesh-on-film industry, but mostly this reads like a cross between the Spice Channel and Days of Our Lives.

And the movie section profiles how Hollywood is trying to make so-called chick flicks marketable to men. How about they stop making utter and complete shit?

Are these the meanest girls or the dumbest girls?

I also got the new Ladytron album. Suck on THAT!

I’ve been groovin’ to Paramore’s Riot!. No, I’m not a character on One Tree Hill, an alienated suburban teenager, or a salegirl at Torrid.

Paramore- Riot!

Homophobic remarks on late night talkshows really piss me off. Why just those? There are homophobic remarks made all the time on tv. Ugh. I think it is because David Letterman and Jay Leno are so desperate for laughs they’ll do anything despite who it offends. And they’re so fucking ignorant and out of touch. And they don’t even write their own shit! Dave prefers calling people “androgynous freak shows” and Jay asks guests to give their best gay face. At least Ryan P. took the high road and wouldn’t so it.

SBC Cohen is out and about filming the Bruno movie and I for one am extemely excited. One, I find Bruno to be the funniest among his three main characters. Two, anything to see SBC in tight pants.

Is anyone else totally over the Getting Over Sarah Marshall ad campaign? This movie seems way overrated and pretty sad. And also obnoxious. Behold, in the BART station:

I love Berkeley! Someone (not me) wrote this:

Finally finished Chuck’s (we’re on a first-name basis) fourth book, a collection of his past writings and ramblings. More proof that we are destined to be bffs: he wrote a whole a piece for Spin in which he viewed VH1 Classic for twenty-four hours and wrote about the nostalgia he felt, as well as the shame for once liking some of it. Um, CHELLO? I do that on this blog.

And also…CHUCK IS NOW MY FACEBOOK FRIEND!

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When Poison ruled the world…and my pants. It’s painful to watch Rock of Love now, knowing what once was.

Sorry to tease! There will be no week 3. I followed the program this week (I almost said “I was good this week” and then I had to correct myself. See how easy it is to get sucked into that?) but I didn’t have time to get over to a meeting. I wonder what will happen next week? Will we talk about the evils of the ciabatta bread?

I am really speechless after reading this. Fantastic. A superhero story that is aware of the implausability of superheroes. A comic within a comic. Campiness but seriousness. Alan Moore is a genius. A fucking crazy egomaniacal genius.

Of course, there’s a movie coming out and of course I already hate it. However, Zack Snyder is doing it, who directed the awesome Dawn of the Dead and 300. Despite not liking 300, he did stay true to the original graphic novel. Although pictures of the characters already have me doubtful- all of them look like they were redesigned to be “sexier”. And I am not sure if he is going to keep some of the campiness that is in the book. Some things that worked in the book (Dr. Manhattan exiled to Mars) can work in a comic form, but maybe not in a movie.

I thought the BSG premiere was on at ten, and apparently it was on at nine. So from nine to ten I was walking around my house vacuuming up cat hair when I could have been, oh, I don’t know, WATCHING THE DAMN PREMIER??? I think it will repeat sometime this week. Dammit!

EDIT: Sci fi had the whole show online.

Anders as a vipor pilot? Do me!

The president is back to being a pissypants.

Love how Baltar was just aquitted from being on trial for genocide and he is all judgemental about the Baltarcult’s living quarters. That’s so like Gaius!

Glad someone actually remembered Zack Adama.

Lee is just going to work for the government? Was there an interview process? Did he submit a resume? You would think that the government was kind of in shambles right now considering all that’s happened. But no, the beauracratic positions are still in tact. I am sure the ship has an IRS on board.

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Who doesn’t have love for Styx?

Seriously, what would I do without this channel?

“A Little Respect” has been one of my favorite songs forevs. I saw the video for the first time at 3:08 this morning. I didn’t know these chaps had such a sense of humor! Every lyric of the song is represented in literal interpretation. [going to dig out all my Erasure albums...]

Jezebel has been making LOLlosts, which have also made my day.

...is an electo-indie band from Finland. Need I say more? I’ve found them to be quite delightful. Maybe I need to take back what I said about not liking anything new that has come out.

I actually don’t know I post a pic of a band when I mention them. Really, all bands I like look exactly the same.

Get it here, but by sometime by the end of today.

“I am more interested in what my friends think of me than what I think of myself” is the powerful line delivered by Troy Bolton in the denouement of High School Musical 2, which I finally watched this morning. Is that really supposed to be inspiring?

HSM2, as it’s known to the true fans, could either be a film that lacks self-awareness or is so self-aware it’s all a joke on us. Watching it, I would think it’s a parody of all cheesy musicals. The extreme overacting (I’m looking at you, Corbin Bleu), the hackneyed plot, the horrible musical numbers, etc. I also feel like some of the staging was so bad, why didn’t they reshoot the scene? Sometimes I had to turn away, especially during Zac Efron’s tour-de-force “Bet On It” dance through the golf course.

I don’t like to go on things based on stereotypes, but this was also one of the gayest movies I’ve ever seen. How can Ryan Evans NOT be gay? The fashion sense, the momma’s boy complex, he does musical theater, always hangs out with his sister. Sharpay is practically a drag queen with her makeup, costumes and over the topness. And pretty boy Zac Efron is basically molded from plastic during the movie and is practically the archetype of a twink.

Maybe the creators had this in mind, and wanted to make a campy parody movie. Or maybe they thought they were making a really good musical. Yikes.

And it has to be said, this one pales in comparison to the original, where the songs were catchy and well done, for pop songs. I wasn’t feelin’ any of the songs in this one, except maybe “Gotta Go My Own Way” because it was a bit cheesy and sounded like your archetypal broadway show-stopper.

Unfortunately, a lot of the people that were there last time were here this time, but a whole bevvy of annoying people showed up for this meeting. The theme this week was traffic lights, or something. I got there late. We were talking about yellow and red light foods, which I guess means foods that people have to be careful about. So it became a free for all of people shouting out their “bad foods”. Soon people were calling out, “meat!” “pasta!” “girl scout cookies!” “saltines!” “salted nuts!” and salivating and moaning, practically. I’m not sure what this was to accomplish except that we were all thinking about these foods when we left the meeting.

There is a girl in high school there, and she always has to talk for fucking 15 minutes. Someone needs to take her to speech therapy meeting to stop her from saying like avery other word. Apparently, there was some sort of international food fair at her school and she like really really wanted the indian food cuz like it smelled soooooo good, but she was all, I don’t want to eat this but like what should I eat? so she had a fruit salad. The rest of the meeting clapped for her like she cured cancer.

There was girl there who looked about ten years old. I am not going to pass judgement on this girl’s family. Oh but wait, I am. Maybe this was a last resort for them? She seemed to be there with a sister, not a parent. For younger children, I feel like putting them on a point system at that age is fucked up. If she is not eating right, then the family needs to make a change and they all should eat healthier in general and get her involved in physical activities before making her an obsessive point-counter. To make it worse, our leader singled her out and have her a whole bunch of star stickers (which are reserved for when you lose a certain number of lbs- see what I have to look forward to? A fucking star sticker) and told her to giver herself one “everytime she did something good”. She looked mor.ti.fied.

There also seems to be a father and his teenage daughter that attend together, which is not something you expect. They were in front of me at the weigh-in, and after she went, he asked her “how did it go?” (in front of everyone else, mind you) and she looked really upset and said “not so great” and he replied “well, I guess you’ll have to be good this week”. I am getting really irritated by all this “good” and “bad” talk.

I really really wanted to bring breakfast with me to the meeting because it’s pretty early and I was heading right into the city after that, but I was reluctant to because I didn’t want people to judge what I was eating, or worse, ask me how many points it was. Then again, I would like to come in with an egg McMuffin or donuts at the next meeting just to see what people say.

Apparently next week we are going to talk about “trigger feelings”, which I guess means the emotions we feel that make us want to eat. Do you think I should offer up “the fear of dying alone?” as one of them?

I’ve been continuing my foray into graphic novels by reading some Daniel Clowes. He is most known for writing Ghost World, which the movie was based on. And you all should know by now that I WORSHIP THE CHARACTER OF ENID. Please tell me I remind you of her even if you don’t believe that.

The movie is pretty awesome and one of the best adapatations of a previously written work that I’ve seen. The novel is fantastic and is really original, and quite touching I might add (the movie also makes me cry).

Then I read David Boring, but the storyline is way out there, whereas Ghost World is a pretty staightforward narrative. It goes from the character being obsessed with his cousin, to an end of the world scenario, to a murder mystery on an abandoned island, to a lesbian kidnapping a lover, to stalking, but all in such a naturalistic tone that the story seems natural. I hear this one is also being turned into a movie, but good luck. I’d be interested in reading more stuff. I love the drawing style.