Stolen from gelphiebean...

In honor of Thanksgiving Day, here's a list of 50 things I'm REALLY thankful for (on top of family, friends, and the like):

1. Anna Torv
2. Peanut butter
3. Holidays
4. Autumn
5. Having a job
6. iPhone
7. Natalie Imbruglia songs
8. Snickers
9. New glasses
10. Las Vegas in one week!
11. Online shopping
12. Fringe
13. A pay raise
14. Andre Agassi's new memoir
15. Amazon's 4-for-3 book deal
16. Home-cooked meals
17. Modern Family
18. Cheryl Cole and her love for hats
19. Chim
20. Twitter
21. Jessica Leccia staying away from the crazies
22. Venice trailer
23. Otalia (before it got f*cked up)
24. Livejournal
25. The West Wing
26. Peanut butter chocolate ice cream
27. Concerts
28. Lost's last season
29. NYC
30. Nicole winning ANTM
31. The color green
32. Cheesy Venice ads (for the lulz)
33. Making someone smile/laugh
34. Lists
35. Television Without Pity
36. Top Chef (Jennifer FTW)
37. Van Gogh's paintings
38. Tina Fey
39. Football pools
40. Brooke White's adorkableness
41. The Cardigans
42. The Hurt Locker
43. My numerous crushes at work
44. Chocolate cake
45. Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals
46. Agent Olivia Dunham's swagger
47. Missy Higgins
48. Glee songs
49. The shuffle feature
50. And last but certainly not least, littleninja245

This entry is mostly for myself, just so I can remember the Rob Thomas concert I attended this past Friday, Nov. 13, 2009 at the legendary Beacon Theater. This was the second of three sold-out shows at the Beacon and if his management didn't add a third date, my show would have been the last show of the tour. Dammit. The setlist during my show and the last show were quite similar except for the addition of an acoustic performance of Downfall (!!!!). I would've loved to have heard that one live. I noticed that he didn't play a single matchbox twenty song during my show and I wish he'd have thrown in just one MBT song. I know I was waiting for it all night.

( More concert thoughts and the setlist )

A few TV thoughts for you to chew on.

( 30 Rock )

( Glee )

( V )

( Top Chef )

( Parks & Recreation )

( America's Next Top Model )

Well, hello there, Livejournal. Long time no post. (It's not like I have any reason to actually post these days.)

Anyway, I thought I'd change my Otalia moodtheme to a Fringe/Peter/Olivia one (you can download it here if you're interested). This leads me to talk about Fringe. It's practically the only show I watch live and I will be super pissed if FOX cancels it. No other show makes me look forward to each new episode as much as Fringe. Part of that is due to seeing Anna Torv's pretty, pretty face on TV and part of it has to do with the characters and the mythology of the show.

The two shows that come close to rivaling my love for Fringe are Top Chef and Modern Family. Let me start with Top Chef. This is probably the best season ever (and even more so if my girl Jennifer wins it all); the caliber of talent is so high with Kevin, Jen, and the brothers Voltaggio. I hope they all make the final four with Jen and Kevin duking it out in the finals. This has to happen or else. I will be crushed if Jen gets unceremoniously cut before the finale.

As for Modern Family, it's only the best new show/best comedy on TV right now. I can't say enough great things about this show. You just have to watch it in order to see what all the fuss is about. I promise that you will constantly laugh your ass off while watching this.

PS: I don't know why I'm listening to Carrie Underwood. I wasn't a big fan of hers when she was on Idol. I got hold of her three CDs and they're okay. Girl can sing but it's nothing really special. I think I'll stick to Sugarland, Dixie Chicks, and Keith Urban for my country music fix.

PPS: I'm seeing Rob Thomas (no, not the Veronica Mars creator) on Friday night, woohoo! It's going to be a fantastic show, I just know it. OneRepublic and Carolina Liar are the openers - not bad.

A meme stolen from littleninja245:

Current Books: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Yes, I'm still reading it and I'm only halfway done with it. It seems like I've been reading this book for most of this year.
Current Playlist: Cheryl Cole's 3 Words
Current Guilty Pleasure: Girls Aloud, the guiltiest pleasure around
Current Colour: Green
Current Drink: Mountain Dew (not usually a soda drinker but it was in the fridge and was only begging to be consumed)
Current Food: Pizza
Current Favourite Show: Fringe. Seriously, people, watch this show. I don't want it to get canceled.
Current Wishlist: An iPhone (I canceled my original online order because my card got declined. I get that they did it for security reasons but couldn't they have called me about it right away? Stupid.)
Current Needs: My own place and a girlfriend, preferably in that order.
Current Triumphs: Running three miles this morning (and now my body's paying for it).
Current Bane of My Existence: Having to pay the state of NY $195.29 for taxes I supposedly owe them. I'm going to kill the tax company who did my taxes. How the f*ck did they not catch this when they were doing my taxes? SH*T.
Current Celebrity Crush: It's still Anna Torv. This could change once Lost comes back in January and then Evangeline Lilly is back on my screen on a weekly basis.
Current Indulgence: Binge-ing on all things Girls Aloud-related
Current Blessing: Being alive and the fall weather (my favorite season)
Current Slang: Oh snap! (I miss Joy from My Name is Earl)
Current Outfit: My 30 Rock t-shirt and sweat pants
Current Excitement: Seeing Rob Thomas in concert in two weeks (Friday the 13th). WOOHOO!
Current Mood: Full and quite satisfied

Stolen from triggerhappy:

The rules are:
01. Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LiveJournal.
02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!

Reason I: Why am I using this as my wallpaper? Do you not have eyes? Tell me that picture's not wallpaper-worthy.
Reason II: All credit goes to atfm for taking that picture and modifying the colors.
Reason III: atfm explained the picture best: "A swing with a part of the [Berlin] Wall in the background. This was taken at the Mauerpark, one of my favourite places in Berlin. I didn't compose the picture consciously like that, but I like the juxtaposition of something associated with sorrow and something associated with joy."
Reason IV: I wanted to pimp one of atfm's brilliant photos. I would pimp her entire journal if it wasn't friends-only, lol. (Clearly, this entry was just an excuse to say how much I love atfm's pictures.)
Reason V: I like corn swings. And this picture makes me miss Berlin. Cannot wait to go back and visit it again.

Warning: the following video consists of too much adorableness/cuteness from everyone's favorite (non-) couple - Jessica and Crystal. Don't say I didn't warn you. (If the video doesn't work, you can watch it here.


I have no words. NO WORDS. These two are totally in love (be it platonic or whatever) with each other and seeing them interact like this kills me - in a good way. The chemistry is f*cking insane and it looks like Crystal wants to kiss Jessica on the lips right then and there especially when she's looking at Jessica's lips. Sheesh. Talk about being subtle. NOT. The crying breaks my heart. People have said that it's because she's going to miss Jessica but if they'll see each other again soon enough (filming Venice) then why the water works? Obviously two days is not enough. ;)

(Thanks to newhope203 over at Twitter for the video above.)

Fringe

So I felt the need to picspam the heck out of the second-to-last scene of this week's episode of Fringe because, to me, it was perfection. I can't even begin to describe it because I feel as if my words won't give it justice. Of course this whole thing would mean squat to you if you don't watch the show and if you don't, move along.

Aside from the WTC reveal in last season's finale and that scene of Olivia hurtling through her car's windshield (btw, someone more observant pointed out that if Walter didn't unbuckle the seatbelt, Olivia wouldn't have crashed through that windshield), this scene immediately qualified as one of my favorite Fringe scenes, perhaps even my favorite scene on the show.

It involved Olivia seeing Sam Weiss, the person who will supposedly help her in getting better. I loved how the episode was peppered with scenes of her getting impatient, little by little, with his method. Anna Torv sold Olivia's exasperation wonderfully especially during this scene. I got a laugh out of her utter bewilderment and complete WTF look when Sam Weiss dismissed her after only a few minutes of therapy.

The next scene is my favorite, with the music (The Hollies' The Air That I Breathe), the camera angles (the panning shots were amazing), and the confrontation all coinciding to create a thrilling climax. Wow, just wow. I keep repeating this scene over and over because I just cannot get enough. I actually cheered when Olivia pointed the gun at Sam and then cheered even louder when the camera panned to the cane with the two of them in the background. I got goosebumps.

Anyway, enough of my babbling, here are a few caps from the aforementioned scene. ( Pics, pics, pics. )

Brief thoughts on a million other shows...

( Desperate Housewives )

( Brothers & Sisters )

( Modern Family )

( Glee )

( FlashForward )

( Melrose Place )

( Mercy )

( Parks & Recreation )

( The Office )

( America's Next Top Model )

( Top Chef )

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
**Day four: a site**
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six : a quote
Day seven : whatever tickles your fancy

- The tech geek in me wants to pimp Lifehacker.
- The TV buff in me wants to pimp Television Without Pity.
- The cheapskate in me wants to pimp SlickDeals.

Lastly, oh, Crystal. That's all I have to say about that.

Continuation of the meme...

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six : a quote
Day seven : whatever tickles your fancy

This is what I'm currently reading: Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.



I'm not close to finishing it (still have a good 75% of the book left to read) but it's somewhat interesting. It tends to get boring at certain points depending on which character is being focused on. I think I might be in awe of Dagny Taggart already. The woman is pretty damn ballsy and is a true maverick.

I was told a while ago that they were turning this into a movie and after checking IMDB, I now wish they're not going through with it. Charlize Theron has been cast to play Dagny Taggart and since I do not like her at all, I've lost all interest on the movie now. I'm not going to let this bit of news ruin the book for me because in my mind, Kate Beckinsale is Dagny Taggart. I wasn't paying attention if Dagny's supposed to be a blond or a brunette but for some reason, I can't and don't picture her as a blond. I'm still a bit peeved that they went with Charlize Theron, urgh. Cannot stand her.

Moving on to TV: Is anyone else interested in this new NBC show about nurses called Mercy? It stars Taylor Schilling, Michelle Trachtenberg, James Tupper, and Guillermo from Weeds (playing a gay nurse!!!). I liked it but didn't love it. The acting is good enough and the two leads (Veronica and the doctor) have pretty good chemistry and are beautiful to look at. The fact that the hospital is supposed to be a hospital in Jersey City, my hometown, makes me a bit giddy. As far as I know, they do film in and around the city - Newark and Hoboken included. I haven't seen any recognizable landmarks or buildings though. I don't recognize where Mercy Hospital is supposed to be located. Was that a bridge in the back? I wasn't able to get a good look. I vaguely remember two instances last winter of trailers occupying a whole block around Lincoln Park and also they filmed inside one of the bars on West Side Ave. If I see Lincoln Park on the show, I am going to freak. Anyway, I'm going to keep watching it until it gets cancelled (which we know NBC's going to do any minute now).

ETA: This show could be a lot better. The cliches were flying all over the place and even though I find doctors to be terribly full of themselves (not all, just some of the ones I work with), their portrayal of doctors being apathetic towards their patients (and their relatives) and how they're not capable of making good decisions. I'm kinda bummed now that NBC cancelled Life and greenlit this show. Yeah, it's nice that they film where I live but it's not nice when the show doesn't come close to the brilliance of Life. Screw you, NBC. Just, screw you.

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six : a quote
Day seven : whatever tickles your fancy



Anna Torv, you were my personal highlight from last night's Emmys. I don't care that you weren't nominated. I don't care that your show wasn't nominated. All I cared about was that you were there and that you wore that gorgeous dress and that you showed a bit of cleavage and doing so with class. Lovely all around. You certainly were my best-dressed of the night. Seeing you once a week on my TV is not enough. I want moooooore.

Ahem.

Anyway, thoughts about last night's Emmys:

• Neil Patrick Harris as host was the best decision this show has done since they asked Conan O'Brien to host a few years back. I vote for him to host the Oscars next year. His obscure introductions for the presenters. I thought it was also a great idea that they separated the awards into genres. That gave me an idea of when to go to the bathroom, etc. That way I didn't miss any of the big awards.


• I don't have any real complaints regarding the winners because it was almost a carbon copy of the winners from last year. 30 Rock and Mad Men winning their respective categories? No surprises there. The biggest surprise had to be Toni Collette upsetting Tina Fey and the rest of the Best Actress in a Comedy nominees. I still think this was Mary-Louise Parker's award for her work on Weeds last year but apparently the Academy didn't see any of her work for that season. Whatever.


• The best win of the night had to be Kristin Chenoweth. What made it fantastic was the fact that Tina Fey and Jon Hamm presented the award. Cheno made it even more awesome when she gave her adorable speech. She's so cute as a button. My favorite part had to be her pimping herself out to The Office and Mad Men, hee. Glad to hear she's okay after last night's scare.


• I already said Anna Torv was my best-dressed pick last night but a very close second was January Jones from Mad Men. The dress is okay but what made her stand out was HER pretty, pretty face. Gawd, why the hell am I not watching this show? dianawnt8, if the offer still stands, yes, I would like to borrow your Mad Men DVDs. I need more January in my life.


• Bleighton brought the gay to the show as only they know how: by holding hands and being all touchy-feely backstage. Girls, seriously. Just make out already. You know you want to.

And that's all I got. My mind is completely shot so that's all I remember from last night. I'll add more (maybe) as the week goes on.

Off to read the new Crystal interview and hopefully not be as upset by it. :/

PS: Thanks to loganx2 for the heads up on David Gray's new CD coming out tomorrow. It's very reminiscent of his last CD which I adored. If anyone's interested, I can post it here.

Still need to catch up on a few shows (namely Glee, The Office, Parks & Recreation, Entourage). This is why there needs to be more hours in one day just so I can watch all my shows before the weekend is over. Either that or the weekend needs to be longer.

The Emmys are on tonight. I fully expect 30 Rock and Mad Men to sweep their respective categories. I also expect NPH to kick ass as host and to finally win that elusive Emmy.

( Fringe )

( Gossip Girl )

( America's Next Top Model )

( Top Chef )

( Melrose Place )

September 19, 2009: the day Otalia fans have been waiting for ever since Crystal said her and Jess have a surprise for the fans. Look, don't get me wrong, I was a bit disappointed by what we got because I expected more (and by more I don't mean a video of them making out). I fully expected a joint video interview of the two of them at least five minutes long just goofing off and making each other laugh. Can someone please make this happen in this lifetime? I'm even willing to donate some of my hard-earned money to see this come to fruition. Le sigh.

Anyway, here are the two surprises: first off, a 0.42-second video of the two of them at the Daytime Emmys. Every time Crystal looked at Jessica's lips, I couldn't help but be reduced to a fit of giggles because it looked like she wanted to kiss her. See for yourself:


The second surprise was this delicious picture of the two of them as Ani and Gina. Crystal's totally doing the eye!sex with the camera. Jessica looks damn good in blue.



So yeah, there goes our surprise(s). Now can I please get on with my life at least until Venice debuts in late November?

To distract myself, I did the following memes! The first one was stolen from awaltzforanight:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six : a quote
Day seven : whatever tickles your fancy

Day one: a song

Vanessa Carlton covering U2's Where the Streets Have No Name

I've been on a Vanessa kick recently (thanks to desdema) and now that it seems like she's using Twitter to reach out to the fans, I'm getting excited about the new CD. She just tweeted that she's going to produce the CD by herself. This is either going to turn out great or not so great. We'll all be hoping for the former.

And this second meme is stolen from niuxita21.

Using only EPISODE names from ONE TV SHOW, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat an episode title.

Pick your Show: The West Wing

Are you a male or female?: "The Crackpots and These Women"
Describe yourself: "Gone Quiet"
How do you feel: "Stirred"
Describe where you currently live: "20 Hours in America"
If you could go anywhere, where would you go?: "Ninety Miles Away"
Your favorite form of transportation: "100,000 Airplanes"
Your best friend is: "17 People"
What's the weather like: "Bad Moon Rising"
Favorite time of day: "The Wake Up Call"
If your life was a TV show, it would be called: "Evidence of Things Not Seen" (one of my favorite West Wing episodes and the title of my LJ)
What is life to you: "Duck and Cover"
Your fear: "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail"
What is the best advice you have to give: "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" (After This, Therefore Because of This)
Thought for the Day: "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics"
How I would like to die: "Guns Not Butter"
My soul's present condition: "Constituency of One"
My motto: "A Change is Gonna Come"

And like niuxita21, I'm going to do the meme for a second time but this time using another show.

Pick your Show: Veronica Mars

Are you a male or female?: "Betty and Veronica"
Describe yourself: "The Bitch is Back"
How do you feel: "Happy Go Lucky"
Describe where you currently live: "Welcome Wagon"
If you could go anywhere, where would you go?: "Mars vs. Mars"
Your favorite form of transportation: "A Trip to the Dentist"
Your best friend is: "Green-Eyed Monster"
What's the weather like: "Charlie Don't Surf"
Favorite time of day: "Drinking the Kool-Aid"
If your life was a TV show, it would be called: "Look Who's Stalking"
What is life to you: "Of Vice and Men"
Your fear: "Poughkeepsie, Tramps and Thieves"
What is the best advice you have to give: "Credit Where Credit's Due"
Thought for the Day: "Normal is the Watchword"
How I would like to die: "Donut Run"
My soul's present condition: "Show Me the Monkey"
My motto: "You Think You Know Somebody"

Doing those memes was more fun than the "surprise." Me, bitter? Nooooo. Just confused. See Natalia's picture in the mood theme.

So that's it, huh? That's how a 72-year old institution ended? I was going to write a positive entry about Guiding Light but after having read Ellen (Soap Killer) Wheeler's TV Guide interview and Jill Lorie Hurst's Detroit Free Press interview, I'm afraid this is going to be a bit more on the bitter and cynical side.

( GL/Otalia finale )

First, the bad news. Roger Federer lost. I don't begrudge Del Potro's win (okay, I kind of do) and I congratulate him but I wanted Roger to win. And haters, just shut it. I don't want to hear it, thank you very much.

Second, last night's VMA shenanigans. I haven't actually seen the video of Kanye hijacking Taylor Swift's moment yet (just the audio) but from all the descriptions I've read, it was an ass-holish thing to do. When is this guy going to learn? Such a f*cking jackass. Just because he's talented doesn't mean he should get a pass for bitching at awards shows. Such a tool. I really hope he loses a huge chunk of his fans after this latest display of tool-ish behavior. Kudos to Beyonce for being classy and giving Taylor her moment.

Third, Jessica Leccia's We Love Soaps interview. This came out late last night and while catching up on Twitter this morning, I let out a few choice curses because it felt like I missed out on all the squeeing that must have happened after this video came out. Sometimes it sucks being out of the loop, you know? You can watch the video here if you haven't done so already.

Just have to comment on how freaking adorable Jessica is in this video. I totally get why Crystal adores her; she IS the very definition of adorable. If you looked up that word in the dictionary, her picture is probably right next to it. I loved how playful she is with her answers...this makes me desperately want a joint video interview with her and Crystal (if the surprise doesn't involved the two of them making out, I would settle for an hour's worth of video of the two of them just talking to the camera and goofing off). One other thing, I find it highly amusing how Jessica uses her hands a lot and waves them around every time she talks. I do that too and I wonder if I look that funny when I'm talking, hee.

Fourth, Crystal tweeted again last night. Her moving to the west coast is not doing some of the east coast folks any favors. I'm just saying. I'm very excited about her interview with CNN-i tomorrow though. Holy crapola, Crystal! TWoP has it right. At this rate, she will be the ruler of us all. The woman is unstoppable.

Fifth, check out the DOOL promo for Carly's return here. So dramatic. Not quite digging the hairstyle there. She still looks hot (well, duh) but watching that only makes me miss Olivia even though she's not gone from my TV just yet. Le sigh.

( Sixth, today's Otalia scenes )

SPOILER ALERT FOR TOMORROW!

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Just read tomorrow's show description and Alan dies?? Talk about stealing someone's (in this case, both brides') thunder. This show is too much.

So the inspectors picked a great time to stop by the hospital next week. Fan-freaking-tastic. I hope I won't have to be forced to stay past 5pm next week. I want to be able to go home and have enough time to f*ck/squee over the last week of GL! They better not ruin next week for me. And they better not force me to cancel my day off next Friday or else I'll have a conniption. I put in my request two weeks in advance so I can enjoy the finale GL episode so I really hope this doesn't get screwed over. *sigh*

AND to top this all off, I have to come in tomorrow to prepare for next week. I don't mind doing that but I do not get paid for overtime. However I'm definitely going to use tomorrow to get another day off in the future and not have it come off my annual time. Why couldn't these inspectors have come earlier this summer? They're seriously going to put a damper on premiere week (because it's all about TV, don't you know?). Bleurgh.

This would be where I segue to my favorite topic: TV.

When I got home yesterday, I saw this in my mailbox:



I am beyond thrilled they made the EW cover! This one is definitely a keeper. I'm not too thrilled about Anna's shade of lipstick but other than that, no complaints. I haven't read the article yet but if you go here, you get an idea of what's inside. Among other things, Anna and Joshua are against their characters becoming a couple (YES!) because they feel as if they're more sister/brother than potential lovers. If the show does decide to go there, I hope they don't go there until the very last episode of the their last season. Otherwise, it would just muck up the working dynamic of the group. Scroll down to watch a behind-the-scenes interview of the two along with John Noble during the photo shoot. Anna's Australian accent is pretty much nonexistent. I can hear a slight hint of it but it's close to being gone. Boo.

And if you haven't come across it yet, here is the blooper reel for Fringe's first season (thanks to jetgirl78 for bringing this to my attention via Twitter).



Seems like I haven't done this in forever...short recaps of the following shows:

( Glee - SQUEEE )

( Top Chef: Las Vegas - This show makes me hungry )

( Melrose Place - Shows promise )

( The Vampire Diaries - Apparently love sucks )

How odd is it that my favorite moment from today's episode was not Otalia-related? Yes, it was the "hug" between Alexandra and Olivia. Seriously, how f*cking hilarious was that scene? The look on Olivia's face was priceless as was the look on Alex's face. LMAO. I wonder if that was sort of ad-libbed? Anyway, ad-libbed or not, it cracked my sh*t up and I'm STILL laughing just thinking about it. Someone needs to make a gif of that.

Moving on to Otalia. I could definitely get used to feisty Natalia. "Screw time and space!" "Say yes, say yes." "Since when do you move slowly?" Weeeeeeeeeeee. Bring it on, Dimples. You're probably scaring Olivia with your feistiness but it's so worth the price of admission. Olivia's reaction when Natalia said "Screw time and space!" (I think it was Jessica's delivery) was pretty funny. I wonder if that was a genuine reaction from Crystal, like she didn't expect that hence the shocked reaction. Heh.

So we had two handholding scenes, two belly touches, one head touch and one face caress for today. The scene at Company called for a kiss but of course we didn't get one because it's NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. This might have been my second favorite scene today; so much love and adoration between the two actresses. I really thought for a second Jessica was going to hug Crystal and it seemed to me that she was thisclose to doing it but had to back down at the last second. You could see Jessica sort of lean in towards Crystal. *sigh* Of course Crystal did that thing with her voice once again when she said "That's a real yes" complete with loving stare at Jessica's eyes and lips (yes, I didn't see Otalia in this scene, I saw Crystal and Jess). Holy mother....

I'm still pissed that Josh will probably end up alone. Stupid show. I'll say it again, if it wasn't for Otalia, I'd be shipping Jolivia to the high heavens. Their chemistry was in display again in that one brief scene. I loved it when Olivia touched his face after he admitted he's a grandpa. (I've noticed that Crystal really likes to touch Robert's face.) What the f*ck was up with her answer about her not knowing if her and Natalia are back together? Sometimes I don't understand this show. Wait, that's actually MOST of the time. Most of the time I don't understand this show.

"Last time I did that you broke my heart." Natalia should have taken that opportunity to contritely apologize to her beloved, yeah?

Ivy Olivia? Show, you might think that's cute but it's not. However, if they do end up naming the baby after Jessica's baby, I would see that as the writers' way of making up for the crap that Jessica had to go through after she came back from maternity leave. Small favors, I guess.

Lastly, I think I'm still on a high from seeing the "walking in the beach" picture I saw this morning. SWOON!

ETA: I forgot to rave about Crystal's hair. On point today. On point Mmhhmmm.

What's the point of a holiday if one can't even sleep in? F*ck.

Anyway, just wanted to share this dream I had last night/early this morning. The lovely Anna Torv was in it and for some reason she was a professor and I was one of the students. After class one day, she invited me over for dinner at her place. When I got there, she was still cooking so I helped out a bit. Then we sat down for dinner, consumed a bit of wine, and then mutual flirting ensued. Of course, just when it was getting to the good part, I woke up. Lame.

I think this dream means that Fringe is the one show I'm really looking forward to the most this fall season. I miss her pretty, pretty face on my screen every week. Sept. 17th cannot come soon enough for me.

In other news, my new favorite tennis player, Melanie Oudin, is playing today against Nadia Petrova. I hope she can keep up this high level of play. Petrova's going to be tough but I'm sure she has it in her to beat another Russian. Roger Federer takes the court after this match so this is how I'll spend my Labor Day.

Lastly, I finally got around to watching The Hurt Locker last night and it was definitely one of the best movies I've seen. It was intensely amazing (or amazingly intense) and completely deserving of all the hype and praise it has received so far. The cast was superb and so was the directing (Kathryn Bigelow). There were two scenes where I felt like losing it because both scenes were just so intense that I couldn't handle it anymore. If you have a chance to watch the movie, do so. You won't regret it. There are a few casting surprises in the movie, I won't spoil it for you, but if you check out the cast list over at IMDB, you'll know who I'm talking about. Watch the trailer below.

I love it, fall is in the air! NY has been having some really awesome weather for the past week and continuing into next week. Thank you, mother nature.

Anyway, the point of this entry is for me to post my TV schedule for the upcoming fall season. Lots of old favorites coming back and new (hopefully) favorites added to the lineup. Here's the breakdown:

Total number of shows: 22
Out of these 22 shows, 13 are definite must-sees for me; the rest are on probation. If I don't like what I see, I'm going to drop it from the schedule.

Here's how my week looks like.



Thursday is going to be a pain in the ass. I'm not sure yet which one I'm going to watch live: The Office/30 Rock or Fringe. I hate that FOX moved Fringe from Tuesday to Thursday at 9pm, an ultra-competitive hour (CSI, Grey's Anatomy, Supernatural) on the other channels). Either this is going to be a brilliant move on their part or a really stupid one. Here's hoping this move doesn't affect the show's not-so spectacular ratings.

A few comments:

- I had no intention of checking out this season's Dancing With the Stars until they announced Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin will be one of the contestants. She's half-Filipino (thanks to dianawnt8 for the heads up on that) so of course I have to root for her. Not thrilled about her being partnered with Alec though (he's hot but his choreography bores me to death).

- Not sure if I'll watch America's Next Top Model this season. I skipped it last season and I did kinda miss Tyra's antics and the TWoP snark.

- The only reason I'm going to even consider watching Melrose Place is because of Stephanie Jacobson (she was Jessie on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and she played the doomed pilot on BSG: Razor). As an added bonus, there's supposed to be a bisexual woman on the show so...yeah. If I don't like what I see, I'm going to drop this.

- I'm not sure yet if I'm going to watch Dollhouse because I haven't seen last season's episodes yet! I'm only up to episode four. If I don't finish those, I just might save the episodes until the holiday season.

- I really want to drop Ugly Betty but I've been catching up on last season and even though the show still bugs me somewhat, I can't say goodbye to Amanda and Marc just yet. It's a good thing they film in the city, that's definitely a plus.

- Eastwick and Mercy: two shows I'm going to watch for purely shallow reasons (guess you can include Melrose Place here too).

- V and Flash Forward: the cast on both shows could give Lost a run for its money in the Hottest/Prettiest Cast award. (V: Elizabeth Mitchell, Scott Wolf, Morena Baccarin; Flash Forward: Joseph Fiennes, Sonya Walger, John Cho, Dominic Monaghan, Gabrielle Union).

- I saw the previews for White Collar on the USA Network while watching Burn Notice and the reason why it piqued my interest is because Matthew Bomer (aka Bryce Larkin on Chuck) plays the lead. He plays a really good criminal, gets arrested by the FBI and then is offered a job by the same people who arrests him. Interesting premise.

- Lost and Chuck are not on the list because they come back in January. Also, 30 Rock comes back in October 15. Don't panic when you don't see it on the schedule this month.

- And just a reminder, Glee premieres this Wednesday at 9pm. Things get going starting next week. And on Sept. 20th, we have the Emmys which I'm very excited about. I'm sure 30 Rock will sweep again - not that I'm complaining.

Delayed gratification in the form of Otalia. This is a long entry, don't say I didn't warn you.

( Thursday's recap )

( Friday's recap )