My top 3 Doctor Who episodes

Let me start by saying that it was really hard to rank these 3 episodes.

3) Vincent and the Doctor
Episode 10, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gillam)
Plot: While visiting the Musee D'Orsay to see the painting of Vincent Van Gogh, the Doctor notices a weird creature in the window of a church in one of Van Gogh's paintings. Amy and the Doctor then travel to Arles in Van Gogh's time to determine the origins of the possible alien creature and interact with Van Gogh.
Why I Love this episode: I don't think that the could have picked an artist that appeals to me more than Vincent Van Gogh. I think he is probably the first artist I learned to identify, his style is pretty obvious even to a young child. So for me, the episode is doubly great because if features not only a lot of Van Gogh paintings, but the vistas that inspired the paintings. There is this amazing scene with Amy, the Doctor, and Van Gogh in a field staring up at the sky and as Van Gogh describes his view of the world, the sky becomes "Starry Night". Amy and Van Gogh has some great interactions including a scene were Amy (a redhead) says that if she and Van Gogh every had a child, it would be the ultimate ging. But I think hands down, my favorite scene is an art historian (played by Bill Nighy) says that Van Gogh was not only one of the greatest painters of all time but one the greatest men who every lived because he could turn his inner turmoil into beautiful paintings. I have never enjoyed a Bill Nighy scene so much (and I'm crying a little bit just thinking about it). This episode was written by Benjamen Curtis (who I love), who also wrote Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and The Vicar of Dibley.

2) The Unicorn and the Wasp
Episode 7, Season 4
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Donna Noble
Plot: The Doctor and Donna land in 1926 England to attend a party in a country house, which kind of sounds like a set up to a Agatha Cristie mystery. And it should because Agatha Cristie is a guest of the party, as the hostess is a fan of her work. Soon people are murdered by some alien force and the Doctor, Agatha, and Donna must unravel the mystery. A further mystery is that this house party occurs a few days before Agatha Cristie's real-life 10 days disappearance.
Why I love this Episode: Agatha Cristie and Doctor Who prove to be two great tastes that taste great together. If I wasn't sure a huge Agatha Cristie fan, I probably won't have enjoyed this episode so much, or at least appreciate the excellent way it pays homage to Agatha Cristie. The set-up and unraveling of the mystery is classic Cristie. And then, the script is chalk full of references to the titles of Cristie novels like Nemesis, N or M, Endless Night, They Do It With Mirror, Cards on the Table, A Cat Among Pigeons, Crooked House, The Moving Finger, and Murder on the Orient Express. And again, Donna proves to be the prefect foil for the Doctor (she might be my favorite companion although Amy is really good too). I think this might have been the first episode of the reboot that I made my mom watch as a way to entice her to watch the rest of the series. If you like Agatha Cristie, you should watch this episode, even if you don't watch any other episode of Doctor Who. And this episode was written by Gareth Roberts, who wrote "The Lodger". Gareth Roberts is a self-admitted fan of Agatha Cristie and it is really obvious in this episode.

1) Blink
Episode 10, Season 3
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman)
Plot: In modern-day London (2007), a woman named Sally Sparrow (a pre-An Education Carey Mulligan) enter a rundown house looking for photography subjects but instead find angel statues, one holding a Yale key (that she takes) and a message from "the Doctor" behind peeling wall paper warning her to avoid the Weeping Angels. She returns with her friend Kathy to explore the house further. Kathy disappears and at the same time a man claiming to be Kathy's grandson arrives at the house with a letter for Sally from Kathy. Kathy writes that moments after entering the house, Kathy suddenly found herself in the 1920s Hull. She married and had a peaceful life but want Sally to take a letter from her (Kathy) to Larry, her brother, telling him about Kathy's disappearance. When Sally visits Larry at a DVD store, he shows her a hidden message from a man named the Doctor on 17 seemingly unrelated DVDs. Sally then goes to a police station and meets DI Billy Shipton, who tells her that there are have been several disappearances near the rundown house and shows her a police box that was near the house. However, the police box seems to be a fake because it is not the right and it is locked. Sally leaves but then remembers the key she found and return to the police box but Billy has disappeared. She then receives a call from a much older Billy asking her to visit him in the hospital. Billy explains that saw the Weeping Angels trying to get into the police box and then suddenly found himself in 1969 and met the Doctor. He was convinced to start a DVD business that allowed the Doctor to record the hidden message in the 17 DVD. Billy urges Sally to watch the message and then dies. Sally then realizes the connection of the 17 DVDs, she owns a copy of each of them. Sally rejoins Larry at the DVD store to watch the message from the Doctor. In the message, the Doctor tells them that the Weeping Angels sent the Doctor and Martha into the past and now have the TARDIS in hopes of feeding off the huge energy that the TARDIS contains. The Weeping Angels with only move when no one is looking at them, but they move to quickly, that even in the blink of an eye, they can take you. Sally and Larry are the only ones that can help the Doctor recover the TARDIS, as long as they don't blink.
Why I love this episode: This might be the most tense and excellently paced 45 minutes that I have every seen. The fact that you can't close your eyes for any amount of time is so scary and so that aspect is so effectively terrifying (the BBC ran a warning before the episode saying that this was a very scary episode and that if children watch it, they should watch it with the lights on). So much of the episode depends on the acting skill of Carey Mulligan and she does a really fantastic job. And I love the last names of Sally and Larry, Sparrow and Nightingale. This episode was written by Stephen Moffat who really understands how to pace an episode and ratchet up the tension with out going overboard.

So those are my top 3 favorite episodes. All three are actually a good episode to get introduced to Doctor Who because for most part they are stand alone episodes (with maybe the exception of Vincent and Doctor, where there is any scene with Amy that is the fallout of an incident from the previous episode, but it isn't too confusing). All these episodes are more a fusion of science fiction and a mystery/thriller and or dramatic genre. I hope if you haven't seen an episode of Doctor Who yet, these posts have whetted your appetite and encourage you to explore the world of Doctor Who.

A Musical Sorbet

Just to cleanse you palette from all the Doctor Who talk, I'm going to write a little bit about band that I love: Vampire Weekend. I listened to their first album a lot when I was living in Ohio, often when I was driving up to see Rachel et al in Ann Arbor. Once I hit the exit for Ypsilanti, I could start the album and be at the house before the album was over. They got a lot a flack for sounding like they ripped off Paul Simon's Graceland (mostly based on the fact that they incorporated the African drum rhythms). Now since I'm a huge Paul Simon fan, one might think that I wouldn't want to listen to the album. But my take was, Graceland was such a great album, even an album that a diluted version of Graceland would still be great, and it is.

Doctor Who - Part 3

4) Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
Episodes 8 and 9, Season 4
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) and River Song (Alex Kingston)
Plot: Donna and the Doctor arrive at planet in the future that is one giant library due to an anonymous request for help that comes to the Doctor through his psychic paper. There is not one in the library despite the computer noting that there are millions of life-forms in the library. All that is in the library at robots called Nodes that has a donated face of a human being. It warns the Doctor and Donna to count the shadows. Suddenly, the overhead lights go out one by one and the Doctor and Donna are told by a security camera others are coming. It is Dr. River Song with a team of archaeologists to find out what happened in the library. The last communication for the library was "4022 saved, no survivors". Dr. Song has knowledge of the Doctor's future and recognizes Donna's name but doesn't know Donna. The library seems to be tied to the imagination of a little girl. The little girl is under the supervision of a child psychologist, Dr. Moon. Dr. Moon tells her that the library is real and there are people in the library that need to be saved. The Doctor determines that they all are people stalked by the Vashta Nerada with are microscopic creatures that hide the shadows before completely devouring their prey. The Vashta Nerada then take control off the body of one on the team members and begins stalking the remaining group members. The Doctor attempts to send Donna to the TARDIS to be safe however something happens and she doesn't materialize properly. As the Doctor and the rest of group tries to outrun the Vashta Nerada in the space suit, the Doctor discovers a Node with Donna's face on it with the node saying "Donna Noble has been saved." Things get worse for the group when not only the possessed space suit is chasing them, but the shadows of Vashta Nerada is closing in on them.
Why I love this episode: The Vashta Narada is the most awesome name ever. Try saying to yourself, don't you just feel cooler? The fact that they hide in the shadow, to the point where a human has a second shadow, is really effective way to scare the crap out of you. This episode introduces River Song, who is a really great character. She has this whole history/future with the Doctor that is a lot of fun to try to figure out. The endings for both River and Donna are really fantastic, both sad and happy at the same time. The second episode of the story has some really got moments with Donna, that really soften her and show her as a sympathetic person that you didn't really see before this two-part episode. And it was written by Stephen Moffat (are you noticing a trend?)

5) The Lodger
Episode 11, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gilliam)
Plot: The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS is modern day Colchester and the TARDIS immediately takes off with Amy still inside and is unable to land again. Amy and the Doctor suspect that it may have to do with a disturbance on the second floor of the apartment house that that TARDIS landed in front of before taking off. The Doctor then rents the room on the ground floor of the apartment house from a man named Craig (who is in love with his best friend). The Doctor attempts to blend in with modern day England while at the same time try to figure out what sinister happens are taking place upstairs.
Why I love this episode: Firstly, this episode is probably one of the funnier episodes in the history of the reboot. The Doctor and Amy still have really good interactions despite sharing very little screen time (they are separated throughout most of the episode and can only talk to each other). Secondly, this episode does a great job dropping little hint for the two-part season finale without being too heavy-handed as well as do a call back to previous episodes (really that last 4 episodes of season 5 are really good). The resolution of Craig's story line is fulfilling (and I read that Craig is going to be back in Season 6). And I enjoy episodes that feature the Doctor interacting with human beings because I think it really humanizes him (because from time to time, there can be a little too much hero-worship). The writer of this episode, Gareth Roberts, wrote another episode that will appear on tomorrow's entry. And the fact that the writers get such high billing in the credits (the writer usually appears right after any guest star that may be on, before the director) makes it obvious that writing is really prized by the show runner (and the BBC and subsequently the fans).

6) The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Episodes 9 and 10, Season 1
Ninth Doctor (Christopher Ecceleston)
Companion: Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman)
Plot: Rose and the Doctor are following a metal ship through a time vortex and end up in Britain during the Blitz. As the Doctor goes to nightclub to ask for information about the metal ship, Rose spot a little boy with a gas mask up on a roof. She climbs a rope to get closer to the little boy and finds the rope is attached to a barrage balloon. At that moment, the air raid sirens go off. The Doctor go outside to look for Rose and finds that the non-functional telephone on the TARDIS is ringing. A young girl, Nancy, warns the Doctor not to answer the phone. He does anyway and hears a young boy asking "Are you my mummy?" The Doctor then follows Nancy and she and several other homeless children enter a house to eat while the family has gone to the air-raid shelter. As the children (and the Doctor) are sitting down to eat, a young boy in a gas mask starts knocking on the door and trying to get in. Nancy warns the Doctor not to touch the boy, or he will become "empty". All the children leave the house and the Doctor tells Nancy that he thinks there is a connection between the fallen metal ship and the "Empty Child". Nancy mentions a bomb that fell from the sky that wasn't a bomb and tell the Doctor to go see Dr. Constantine. The Doctor and Nancy talk about her taking care of the children due to her guilt over losing her brother Jamie in a air-raid. Meanwhile, Rose is rescued from the barrage balloon by Captain Jack who immediately determines that Rose is a time-traveler like him. He claims that he is free-lance Time Agent who has something that might interest her but she says she must first find and consult her companion. The Doctor has found the hospital and Dr. Constantine. The hospital is filled with corpses of people with gas mask on their face and identical physical marks (like a scratch on the hand). Dr. Constantine says that the first victim was discovered shortly after the bomb fell and then anyone who has been in contact with that victim has developed the same external physical symptoms including a gas mask fused to the skin. The first victim was Jamie, Nancy's brother. However, before Dr. Constantine can explain much more, he turning into a gas-masked zombie before the Doctor's eyes and asks "Are you my mummy?". Rose and Captain Jack find the Doctor and Jack explains that the metal ship was a Chula ambulance and there are only two hours before another bomb will fall and destroy the metal ship. The corpses then get up and walk towards the Doctor asking "Are you my mummy?" while the original empty child asks Nancy the same thing at an abandoned house. The Doctor, Rose, and Jack, then have to figure out what happened to the empty child before the plague spreads or a bomb drops and destroys the ship and the hospital.
Why I love this episode: I am sucker for movie/TV shows set during World War II and this episode really show what London was like during the Blitz. There is a great exchange between Rose and Nancy about how difficult it is to live during the Blitz and how Nancy can't imagine the world ever getting better and Rose assuring her that Britain wins. The Doctor and Captain Jack really play off each other well especially since they have different views about using weapons (and there is a long exchange in which Jack disparages the sonic screwdriver). I would also like to note that Stephen Moffat also wrote this set of episodes so there is a great mix of both funny moments and really emotional scenes. And the resolution of the story is surprisingly uplifting. Plus, adding Captain Jack is a really great addition as he adds a bit of much needed light-heartedness.

Doctor Who - Part 2

7) Time of Angels and Flesh & Stone
Episodes 4 and 5, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gilliam) and River Song (Alex Kingston)
Plot: After traveling to a museum in the future, the Doctor and Amy discover a message from River Song written on a flight recorder for a ship that crashed 12,000 years earlier. Amy and the Doctor travel back to save River before the ship crashes. The cargo of the ship is a Weeping Angel, a being that lives on energy (like electrical or human) that looks like a statue. As long as someone is looking at the statue, they can't move but anytime you look away, that Angel can move. If two Angels look at each other, they are trapped immobile forever; as a result the Angels will cover their eyes when stationary and so look like they are weeping. River Song and a team of clerics (which is more like a military unit) want to recover the weakened Angel before its proximity to the radiation of the ship will make is powerful enough to threaten the population of the planet. The is a four-second recording of the Angel that River, Amy, and the Doctor view while discussing a book written about the Angels (by an insane man) that states "That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself and angel". Amy looks away from the recording and the Angel start emerging from the recording and see is trapped in the viewing room (and she looks the Angel in the eyes). Amy is able to freeze the recording at a certain part of the loop and causes the Angel to disappear. To get to the Angel statue and the ship, the team must travel through a stone labyrinth filled with stone statues called the Maze of Death. Doctor and River discover that the stone statues are slowly turning in Weeping Angel due to massive amount of radiation coming from the crashed ship. As the Doctor, River, Amy, and the clerics race toward the ship followed by the Weeping Angel, the image of the Angel is embedded in Amy's brain so she is slowing becoming a Weeping Angel and so must keep her eyes closed to slow the transformation.
Why I love these episodes: The Weeping Angels are probably the most terrifying creature/beings that has ever been on Doctor Who. The addition of River Song is great, because she knows the Doctor in various points of her/his life and they have some sort of relationship. Being able to piece their relationship together is really fun. And this episode was written by my favorite Doctor Who writer (and current show runner) Steven Moffat. I like the special effects for the Weeping Angels because instead of using CGI (which would probably be less scary), the Weeping Angels are played by women in costumes and painted to look like stone.

8) Partners in Crime
Episode 1, Season 4
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Donna Noble (Catherine Tate)
Plot: Donna and the Doctor costarred together in a previous Christmas special (after season 2, before season 3), and she declined the Doctor's offer to travel with him, a decision she later regrets. As a result, Donna becomes a little bit of a conspiracy theorist in an attempt/hope to met the Doctor again. Donna and the Doctor are separately investigating Adipose Industries that markets a diet pill with the slogan "The Fat Just Walks Away". Turns out the slogan is correct, the pills use body fat to create an alien named Adipose. The pill can be altered to use the entire body to create Adipose. Donna and the Doctor work together to make sure that doesn't happen.
Why I love this episode: Donna Noble is my favorite companion (and Amy Pond is a really close second). Unlike the two previous companions, Donna has no romantic interest in the Doctor. So this episode is just hilarious and really light-hearted which is a nice change from the dark tone of the last two episodes of season 3. And the Adipose aliens are actually really cute. Plus, the guest star was the actress who was Mrs. Hurst in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Doctor Who - Part 1

9) Amy's Choice
Episode 7, Season 5
Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith)
Companion: Amy Pond (Karen Gilliam) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill)
Plot: The Doctor, Amy, and Rory keeping moving between 2 realities. In one, it is five years into the future with Amy and Rory married and Amy is pregnant. Rory is the village doctor in their hometown of Leavenworth that has a very large elderly population. The elderly people of the village are actually aliens that can vaporize anyone with their poisoned breath. In the other reality, all three are trapped in a powerless TARDIS that is slowly traveling toward a cold star (so they are slowly freezing to death). They must choose between with world is real because if they die in the false world, they will return to the real world but they will die if the chose the wrong world.

What I Love about this Episode: I love unraveling a mystery so I was fun trying to decide which world was the real one. You get to see more interactions between Amy and Rory which is really nice. And how the whole situation gets resolved is interesting and emotional. Seeing Rory using garden tools to fend off the aliens is pretty hilarious. Plus Toby Jones!

10) School Reunion
Episode 3, Season 2
Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Companion: Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke)
Plot: the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey are investigating strange happening at a local school. And while checking out the school, the Doctor runs into an old companion, Sarah Jane Smith who is played by Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane was a companion of the Third and Fifth Doctors). Turns out the the school administrators are aliens in disguise who are increasing the intelligence of the students and then using them to solve the Skasis Paradigm (the theory of everything).
What I love about this episode: This episodes ties the reboot Doctor Who with the original Doctor Who is a really good way without being too over the top. And it is interesting to see what happens to a Doctor's companion after he or she stops traveling with the Doctor. There are some really funny moments, and Mickey starts becoming less of a complete idiot and more competent.

Honorable Mention: Love & Monsters (a Doctor-lite episode that focuses more on a group of people who come together because of the Doctor but all members of the group blossom in each others company, plus ELO!), Eleventh Hour (a fantastic introduction to the new Doctor as well as Amy and Rory), and all Season finales (the build up during the 2 part episodes are so good, a great mixture of adventure and emotion. And in the finale of season 4, all the of Doctor's companions/allies come back which makes it like a reunion with old friends).

Delving into my nerdiness

This time last year, I was a month into my six month stay in Vermont. One by-product of my time in Vermont, is that Rachel re-introduced me to the BBC show Doctor Who. Now, I had seen all of the first season right when it came out (back in 2005, I watched it while I was quilting Rachel's giant king size quilt) and I really like it. And then I forgot about it, mostly because I think there was quite a gap between the release of the first series and the second series. But by the time I got to Vermont, Rachel had watched all the four seasons and kept encouraging me to watch the show again. So over the course of about 2 months (maybe less), I watched all the four seasons, plus all the related Christmas specials and the send-offs for David Tenant. And then Rachel and I watched the fantastic 5th season starting in April. And now, the new season (season 6) will be starting in less than a month. So I thought in honor of the new season, over the new few days, I am going to write about my 10 favorite episodes of the first 5 seasons of Doctor Who.

Sunday morning/afternoon adventure

As I am getting more confident in using the Metro system, I am trying to make trips into DC during the weekend. Last weekend I went to Pentagon City, where there is huge mall but more importantly, there is a World Market nearby (I was craving some Curly Wurlys). Based on a good suggestion from a co-worker, I decided to go to visit the National Gallery this morning (she said Sunday mornings are less crowded). And the Gallery is amazing. The Gallery has such a vast and varied collection from 15th century Dutch artists to Jasper Johns. I went through the Main floor of the West Gallery first and then stopped for lunch at the cafe that is in the concourse between the East and West Galleries and then went to the East Gallery to the see the 2 special exhibits (Gaugin and paintings of Venice) and the Modern Art (the west Gallery has most of the older paintings, through the Impressionist and immediate Post-impressionists, I think that most recent piece I saw was painted in 1939). The Gaugin exhibit was interesting but really crowded so I didn't get to be that close to the paintings. It was not very crowded in the main floor of the West Gallery, mostly because I was there right when it opened. After going through the East Gallery, my last stop was the Chester Dale Collection on the ground floor of the West Gallery. And the Chester Dale collection is great, it has lots of works/sculptures by Impressionists including Degas, Renior, Rodin, Monet, and probably my favorite Van Gogh. It's hard to pick which part was my favorite, I really liked the British/Irish/American rooms (lots of lovely landscapes, before that lots of religious paintings), the really beautiful still-life paintings ( spread out throughout a lot of the rooms), or the Chester Dale Collection. I took lots of pictures of the paintings and you can check them out here (some might be a little fuzzy, sorry about the quality).

There are about 500 ways this video is great

The excellent Darcy hair, the fact that the conga is involved, the outburst at Caroline Bingley and the freestyle dance at the end. Love it!

Doctor Who Starts April 23rd

I'm not sure I can wait that long!

Banjo and Violin

I first heard this band while watching the Australian show, Rain Shadow. The music really stuck with me, and it's not really hard to see why.

The cure for any bad day

Rules Governing What May Become An Outdated Object

If you have read more that a few entries of this blog, you may have noticed that I enjoy reading a great deal and hold books in general in high regard. I am one of those people who will tolerate less well written novels, for instance the Twilight books, in the hope that those books will inspire readers to turn to better novels (in the case of the Twilight books, Stephanie Meyers mentions Jane Austen novels and novels by the Brontes so I can hope those tween girls are turned on the better authors who are out there). A by-product of my admiration and love for books, is that I am borderline anal about the books I own or lend out. I hate cracking the spines of my books so I am really careful when I read a book for the first time. I do own several books with cracked spines (like most of the Austen and Bronte books) but those are a result of intense re-reading and searching for references for college papers. There a several books on my bookshelf that I have read that look brand new. And I make sure anyone that I lend books to know that I do not appreciate cracking the spines on my books (and don't even get me started on people that fold the cover all the way around the book, I get hives just thinking about it). Since I own so many books (we are talking multiple bookshelves that are 2 books deep), space is at a premium. So this have lead me to purchase fewer hardcover books and more paperback books and I am part of a online book-rental service that only uses paperback books. As a result, when I hear about a new book (or see it in the bookstore) I usually write down the book title (one reason to always carry something to write on and with) and look it up on Amazon later and add to my wishlist (which means that are hundreds of books in my Amazon wishlist). Then periodically I will see if certain books are in paperback yet. This of course leads to very delayed gratification/reading of a book and then I am excited about a book about 9 months after it is first published. And today was one of those days, because a books I've been dying to read but due to unwillingness to pay for a hardcover and being transient (and therefore library-less) for the better part of last year, I haven't read. This books is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. In a nutshell (a very small nutshell), it is story of one of first cell lines discovered and the effects on this cell line on science as a whole as well as the family of the woman who produced the (cancerous) cells that gave rise to this cell line (HeLa cells). I heard about this book on NPR, a part of the book was presented on my beloved podcast RadioLab (in a episode about famous tumors), and the tri-fecta(for me anyway) was that it inspired an episodes in the last season of Law & Order. I am so excited to finally read this book; I just have to decide if I should buy it (and then lend it out to people who will not wrap the cover around the book) or rent it (and I am open to input).

The Wonder of Hearing the Written Word

Earlier this month, the author Brian Jacques passed away. You might not know who he was, but I assure you that there is a subset of youngish adults whose parents probably watched a lot of PBS and received a Chinaberry catalog that contained the first three of Jacques series of Redwall books. I, my sisters, and a few cousins are some of those adults. I remember my mother reading Redwall to Bridget, Lucy, and I one chapter a night and having special voices for all the characters (and I seem to recall that on most nights, we begged and pleaded for an additional chapter). And Redwall is a great series, and I encourage parents with kids that are about 8 or 9 (there are some emotional parts of the book) to get the first book and read it to their children.
There is something so comforting and slightly hypnotic about hearing a story. And I think that are a lot of people who enjoy being read to beyond their childhood years. During our last few days in Europe, Lucy and I would read to each other (again a chapter at a time) from the first Artemis Fowl book. I often enjoy listening to books on CD, especially books read by the author (shout out to David Sedaris, whose books are best experienced in an audio format).

Eavesdropping pays off

This is a conversation that I overheard on the Metro (on my way to visit Abby and Deirdre on Saturday):

Son: Mom, guess something that I need everyday at school. It's not a backpack, it's something inside me.
Mom: Your brain?
Son: Yes! What else?
Mom: Your heart?
Son: Yes! It's like you're reading my mind!

Modern Mamas and Papas

Awesome art meet Law and Order

I love these works of art based on one sentence description of episodes of Law and Order! There is this one:
It's Needlepoint!

And this one is pretty good: (with the title of Sugar Daddy Suspected of Murder)

You can check out the rest of them here.

Reflections on Musicals

It is very obvious that I love NPR and I learn a lot from the podcasts that I listen to (just ask me about the tricks/car information I learned from Click and Clack) but one of my favorite things is being introduced to new (to me anyway) music and as I've been listening to a backlog of NPR podcasts, I've been introduced (and then obsessively humming) a few songs. The first one is music from the Broadway show "Promises, Promises". Terry Gross (of Fresh Air) interviewed Sean Hayes about his role in the revival of Promises, Promises and then she interviewed Burt Bacharach and Hal David (who wrote the music and lyrics) and played clips from the original recording. And the songs are really great, there are catchy and very obviously written by Burt Bacharach. But what made me fall in love with the songs is that there were sung by Lenny Briscoe in his previous life as Broadway regular, Jerry Orbach. So I invested about $4 in a CD of the original Broadway recording and besides containing a picture of a very young Jerry Orbach, just listening to him sing (as well as the rest of the cast) is making me very happy. The other musical discovery I have made in the past week (another one from Fresh Air) from a movie called Evening Primrose that was aired once (once!) on ABC Stage 67 in November 1966 with the music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It starred Anthony Perkins and the plot is that a poet named Charles (Perkins) decides to live in a department store after hours and discovers other people living in the store as well including a woman named Ella who has lived in the store since she was six. There is a beautiful duet called "Take me to the world" in which Ella tries to convince Charles to take her out of the store and live in the real world together. The song is so beautiful and memorable; Anthony Perkins had a really nice singing voice and the harmony in excellent. The movie has just been released on DVD (after a black a white 16mm was discovered) and the movie is at the top of my Netflix queue thanks to an introduction from Fresh Air (and I purchased a version of the song on iTunes).

Look for the Liono cameo

His name is Alan

I can't decide

which one of these NPR Valentine's I like more. This one:



Or this one:



But one thing is clear, I love NPR.

The Superbowl brought to you by the letters N, P, and R

If only Law and Order: LA was like this

I bemoaned the death of my beloved Law and Order and hoped that Law and Order: Los Angelos would be just as good as the original. It is not. But Law and Order:UK is pretty damn good.

He's too strong for my tiny magic

Most people who read this blog know that I love Netflix. I am one of those people who watches the movie the same day I receive it and mail it back immediately (although while I was at Casa Schek, I was a bit more relaxed about it). And this is especially true while I'm in Maryland since my entertainment choices are more limited (but I do have access to the internet now so my choices have increased). Of all the movies that I have seen in the past 5 years, about 98% of them have been through Netflix. Netflix is great for seeing smaller films with limited releases and foreign films that were not released in America. But the greatest thing for Netflix is watching TV shows on DVD. Netflix is the perfect system for watching TV shows on DVD. You get 1 to 2 discs at a time, and you can burn through a disc in a night (or over a weekend) and then you have a day or two so you have a little bit of time away from the show. So basically you have the best timing for watching a TV show. You can watch all the episodes in a short enough time to remember the story lines (especially important for a show like Lost and those of its ilk) but there is a enough time so you don't get sick of the show (you can have an overload). And Netflix is pretty much the only way (except for BBCAmerica or possibly a good PBS show) to watch shows from the BBC or CBC.

I'll be back tomorrow-week

Hello Internet, I'm back. That's right, now I have 24 hour access to the internet.

I think the students apperciate it when I get down verbally

And I'm back to getting down verbally. Work is going well, I'm really enjoying working in the lab again. And I'm getting around the area pretty well. I had a good (but very short) visit back to the farm for Christmas. I flew home early on the 24th and was picked by my mom at the airport and got the chance to visit my aunt and cousins in Indy for about an hour (which was my only chance to see them) before helping mom with last minute wrapping before Rachel and family drove down from Ann Arbor. And I got to make the traditional Maddox egg casserole for Christmas morning. We opened most of the presents (and stocking) on Christmas day and Lucy got me an awesome quilting book (for jelly rolls) and a jelly roll, as well as a nice weekly calendar, and most importantly donated a flock of chicken to Heifer international in my name. And my mom got me a great laptop lunch box, which was my only request for my mom. I'm packing my lunch for work everyday, and the lunchbox is about 1000 times nicer than the Target plastic bag I was using. It is a nice laptop lunchbox which I got used to packing during my six months living with Rachel and family in Vermont (after the first 2 months, I think that I was the exclusive lunch packer). Bridget and family arrived on the 26th so I was able to spend some time with them all including getting to read Emmet "The Adventures of Lowly Worm" which was one of the 3 books that I got for him for Christmas. Although my visit was short, I really enjoying it. I had time to play with all my nephews (individually for a little bit at least) and enjoy delicious meal of chicken cordon bleu (made by Lucy and Josh, with a tiny bit of help from me) as well as the key component of any Christmas/New Year's celebration in the Maddox household, doing a jigsaw puzzle (however, I was only there for piecing together the outside of the puzzle, so I missed out on Rachel's sound effect for placing a piece in the right place). And mom drove me back to airport (after one delay) only to find out there was another delay, but I was able to get back to Regan a little after 9pm and got back to my apartment before 10pm. The rest of my holiday time was pretty low-key and I did spend New Year's Eve watching Jane Austen movies, in order of publication of the books except I saved Pride and Prejudice for the end so I could actually watch all the of the rest and there isn't an adaptation of Mansfield Park that I really like. I guess that I will just have to wait for Andrew Davies to get on the stick and adapt that one (see awesome adaptations done by him of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Wives and Daughters). I have Martin Luther King Day off and I will be attempting to visit Carol in PA, but the trip will depend on the weather in PA, but I hope it won't be too bad and I can see her (for her birthday!).

Dispatches from the East

For those of you who didn't know, I have started a new (temporary) job in Beltsville, Maryland. I am a government contractor (but not a black-ops one) working for a USGS lab that is researching hormone disruptors (more specifically deciding the best way to determine if a compound is a hormone disruptor). My first three weeks mostly involved collecting samples from the test animals but I think that is over for near future so I will be doing more lab work (with a smattering of data entry from said sample collecting). I'll be prepare samples for a hormone assay this week (until the Christmas holiday for sure) and then I think that I will be doing a lot of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) work after the holidays. My contract is for six months so I will be in Maryland until May (and looking for a job again, woo-hoo). But I've enjoyed getting back into the lab after no doing any significant labwork for about 2 years. I'm hoping to pick-up a lot of new techniques while at the job (I've talked to one of co-workers who does work with proteins and she is willing to teach me some protein techniques, which is cool to me and therefore makes me a total nerd). I live about 10 mins from work in government housing near the research center. The house is nice with a suprising wide array of furniture provided including a roommate (and a part-time roommate) who is very nice and always able to answer the question "where is location x and how do I get there?". The only drawback of the housing is that there is more internet which is a pain but actually not that bad. There is a Starbucks not too far away that I go to once or twice during the week and I've made a habit of going to a Panera for a bagel and email-checking/job-hunting/podcast-downloading on Sunday morning (I wait until Sunday so I can get the podcast for CarTalk and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me). And my super awesome phone means I can check my email during the week, which usually decides when I go to Starbucks during the week. I've been exploring the nearby area in that past few weeks with plans to get familiar with the metro system in the near future so I can visit DC in the spring (I haven't been to DC since I was in the 8th grade on a school trip). This weekend, a co-worker invited me a fine arts gala at her children's school which was amazing. The high school has a long commitment to the arts and the gala was to celebrate the new fine arts wing which includes large band rooms (for the band and orchestra) as well as rooms for the several guitar classes, television/film courses, and a dance studio (and after seeing the high school, it totally makes sense that she and her husband moved to that county for the schools).

One Drawback of a Kindle

You won't have beautiful covers like these:




And while I already have a copy of the Women in White (that I purchased in France), I would totally spend $20 for this:

I really like the new covers that Penguin is producing for the covers of classic hardbacks.

I Think I've Watched too Much Hitchcock

I was watching On Dangerous Ground Thursday night and due to a score by Bernard Herrmann, I kept having flashbacks to Psycho and North by Northwest (even through the score for On Dangerous Ground was done 8-9 years before either of those movies).

First Star

Judy Holliday (1921-1965) was foremost a Broadway star and made only a handful of movies (about 10 in all with many of her earlier roles being uncredited extras). She was investigated in 1952 for ties to communism that resulted in her being blacklisted from radio and television for about three years. She died of breast cancer in 1965, but while her career in film was relatively short, she made some really great films and here are my favorites.

Adam's Rib (1949), Directed by George Cukor - The main stars of this movie is of course Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn but Judy Holliday definitely lights up the screen in all her scene (she was nominated for a Golden Globe). In the movie, Tracy is responsible for prosecuting Judy Holliday for shooting (in the shoulder) her cheating husband and is defend by Hepburn. Without being in the movie, Judy Holliday would not have be cast in her signature role of Billie in Born Yesterday. When the rights to the play were purchased, the study was hesitant to cast a Hollywood unknown in a major role. Tracy and Hepburn were instrumental in getting her cast in Adam's Rib and based on her performance in this film, she was cast in Born Yesterday.

Born Yesterday (1950) Directed by George Cukor- This is truly Judy Holliday's masterpiece. She was an understudy to Jean Arthur (another actress that I will being writing about later) while it was on Broadway until an illness forced Jean Arther to leave the play. Born Yesterday is the story of the girlfriend of a less-than-honest businessman (Broderick Crawford) and her transformation from a "dumb blonde" to confident and independent woman under the tutelage of an honest journalist (William Holden). Holliday is able to be vulnerable, strong, funny, sympathetic, and intelligent throughout the film and shifts between these attributes so seamlessly and effortlessly. How fantastic was Judy Holliday's performance? She won the Oscar over Gloria Swanson for Sunset Boulevard, Anne Baxter for All About Eve, and Bette Davis for All about Eve. In Born Yesterday, Judy Holliday single-handily show that it can take a lot of intelligence to play and not everyone can do it. For more proof of this, see the 1993 remake with Melanie Griffith. It is worth watching this movie for the scene that Broderick Crawford and Judy Holliday play gin alone. And the rest of the movie is pretty good too.

The Bells Are Ringing (1960) directed by Vincent Minnelli - This is Judy Holliday's last film and although it is not her best, it is the only movie in which she sings. Like Born Yesterday, Judy Holliday played the lead (Ella Peterson) in the Broadway play and translated her role to the screen version. The plot of the movie is Judy Holliday's character works at an answerphone service and gets involved in her clients' lives. Mistaken identities and misunderstandings can make the movie feel a little cliched at time, but Holliday is able to rise above the rough patches in the plot and making the movie enjoyable. I'm not the biggest Dean Martin fan, but Judy Holliday is so charming, warm, and funny, that I had no problems watching the Dean Martin parts. And since Judy Holliday was a singer throughout her career, The Bells are Ringing is one of the few chances modern audiences have to see Judy Holliday sing and dance.

There are a few more Judy Holliday films (including It Should Happen to you with Jack Lemmon), but I think these 3 films are good jumping off point. In a majority of her roles, Judy Holliday played a dumb blonde but she played it with such warmth, humor, and intelligence, it's hard not to love her.




While writing this post, I realized that I really enjoy films directed by George Cukor, so I will have to add him to the list of potential directors (any one who can direct both The Women and Gaslight (1944) deserves to be celebrated). And he also directed to most men in Academy Award winning performances despite being known as a "woman's director".

An new motivation

I've been inspired by a recent Facebook conversation with my cousin to talk about classic movies that I love. Instead of just blabing on and on about a single movie at a time, I've decided to add a little bit of structure by picking a favorite star and then discuss what movies of that actor that I enjoy the most. I'm hoping to do this on a weekly basis or at the very least a bi-weekly status. Most likely, I will include some directors in the mix but directors may show up much later than actors (I think the director's catalog that I have seen in its entirety is Alfred Hitchcock). I'll be working on it this weekend, so check back on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully, any one who reads this blog will enjoy it.

Watching Sandra Lee

has made me appreciate/understand this YouTube Video so much better!

Song time

I've been listening to this song (Cosmic Love) from Florence and the Machine at least twice a day since I heard an interview with the lead singer on NPR (she was discovered singing on the bathroom in a pub). Here is the video:

Papercrafts

I'm often blown away by people creativity and the time they put into their craft. Example below

And I just like this video:

Portland, Part III: Revenge of the Laser

I'm finally getting around to finish my 3 part series about my fab birthday trip to Portland. On Sunday morning, Lindy and I walked to Mother's Bar and Bistro for breakfast. It was really busy but we we lucky to get two seas at the bar within 10 minutes of getting there. Lindy was convinced that one of the waitresses was the sister of Gretchen from this season of Project Runway. In addition to our (semi-conceived) brush with someone who is a little famous we both had a delicious breakfast (I had the pork apple sausage and cheddar cheese scramble). We walked off some of our breakfast/brunch on our way to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Lindy and I decided to splurge and get tickets to both a IMAX show and a laser show. We went to the IMAX show first which was about dinosaurs and Lindy loved it (I enjoyed it but not as much as Lindy). Before the laser show, we walked through the exhibit about Einstein. There was a really nice display exhibiting Einstein's theory of relativity. Then we headed to the Michael Jackson laser show which was super awesome. Thriller was the best by far but I enjoyed fact that the 15 other people were also singing along with the music. After the museum, we headed back to Lindy's apartment before I was able to convince Lindy that we should go back to Powell's so she could get a copy of the Joy of Cooking. We decided to have sushi for diner that night but on our way Lindy was nice enough to let me stop at the Spice and Tea Exchange. I got my souvenirs for my sisters and parents there as well as 3 really nice teas for me (earl gray, vanilla bean, and mountain blackberry). We got to the sushi place that had sushi delivered via train (like the conveyor belt places except with a train) except both Lindy and I ordered specialty sushi (mmm... spicy tuna roll) and split tempura and a noddle dish with chicken. We walked back to Lindy's apartment and then watched a the latest episode of Project Runway and a romantic comedy on Netflix (obvs. we were being very girly at this point). On Monday, Lindy and I headed towards the airport and had breakfast at FlavourSpot which is a food truck that serves freshly made waffles. I had the Black Forest which was Nutella and raspberry jam and Earl Grey tea. After a time-killing short trip to Target, Lindy dropped me off at the airport. The lines through security was a it long but the flight to Dallas was fine. I had time to get something to eat (a relatively fresh piece of pizza) before the flight to Indy and meeting mom at the airport late that night. I had a really good time and I want to thank my mom and dad and all my sisters for sending me!

Portland in Review, Part II

On Saturday, Lindy and I went to the huge Portland Farmer's Market on the campus of Portland State University. The farmer's market is huge and we were able to sample some delicious bread, sausage, and fresh peaches as well as try some organic milk from a co-op of dairy farmers. And Lindy and I took an awesome picture together:

After getting back to Lindy's apartment, we got ready to head to Edgefield, which is were the concert was held. We got there super early (like about 7 hours before the concert started), so after lunch (and a ruby ale), we went to an outlet mall to walk around and kill some time. This mostly consisted of us trying on dresses and looking at jewelery but we did have a good time. We went back to Edgefield and tried a few more of the beers from the brewery and split an order of their delicious tater tots while in line to get to our seats in the concert venue. Our seats were excellent, we were in the center and about 8 rows back. The opening act was Tift Merritt who is a interesting singer-songwriter who sounds like a cross between Emmylou Harris and Judy Collins. Her set was pretty short but was really good. And then Ray LaMontagne's set started and I thought Lindy was going to hyperventilate and then pass out. I didn't know his catalog as well as David Gray's but I liked his set. And then a little before 8, David Gray took the stage and was incredible (I thought I would be the one to hyperventilate and pass out). He was great and he played my favorite song (Say Hello, Wave Goodbye) as his encore. After the concert was over, we stopped at Jack in the Box for Oreo Shakes before heading back to Portland. And, I'll post the last part in the next few days.

The Portland Review, Part 1

The most exciting thing that has happened to me since moving back to Indiana is my birthday trip to Portland to visit Lindy and attend a Ray LaMontagne and David Gray concert. I flew into Portland last Thursday night and Lindy picked me up in Voldermort (her super cute silver Fit). After splitting fries with rosemary and truffle ketchup from a foodcart, we each got a crepe (mine was ligonberry jam and lemon curd with chevere) and headed to her apartment. I'm not sure the proper name for a Murphy bed that stores horizontally is, but that is what Lindy has in her apartment (essentially you pull the bed out instead of down). We talked for a couple hours and Lindy got a few maps for me to look at since she had to work on Friday. The next morning, Lindy treated to a delicious breakfast at Pine Street Biscuits and dropped me off at the her apartment and headed to work. I (like the giant nerd I am) planned out a little route to the shops that Lindy suggested. After walking to the first store, I realized that none of the stores opened until 10 so I stopped at Starbucks have drank some tea and read for about an hour before heading to Kathleen's Of Dublin. My final destination was this huge bookstore/used bookstore that is legendary in Portland called Powell's. It was a little overwhelming at first but then I decided to just browse in the mystery section and I limited myself to just 3 books (a collection of 3 Agatha Christie novels she wrote under the name Mary Westmacott, the debut mystery novel of Hugh Laurie, and a collection of short stories that are mashups of Charles Dickens and mystery). I stopped at food truck and had really good Korean tacos before heading to a ribbon store and then back to Lindy's apartment for a little rest. That night, Lindy and I went to Beauty Bar for Margaritas and Manicure before going to an Irish pub to enjoy a Guinness (on tap of course) and Shepard's Pie (Lindy) or curried chicken (me). And the last stop of the night was at another Portland landmark, Voodoo Doughnuts. Lindy got a Triple chocolate donut (complete with cocoa puffs) and I got a Raspberry Romeo. And I'll write all about the concert on Saturday (complete with a reenactment of a light saber fight using milk cartons) tomorrow.

On the road

So just like Strawberry Shortcake, I'm packing up and moving out back to Indiana after staying with Rachel (and family) in Vermont for almost 6 months. I'll miss being with Rachel, Trey, Ellis, and Maddox but Rachel is convinced that she can entice me back to VT after the trip to the farm. As for future plans, I will mostly likely be heading back to school next year or looking for a job. Any takers?

2 tastes that taste great together

Somehow Mark wasn't there but this clip is still awesome. And today Rachel and I rediscovered the hilarity that is Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Same Day

Here are some famous people with the same birth date as me:

Myrna Loy (she is so good as Nora in the Thin Man movies)
Carroll O'Conner
Peter O'Toole
Jack Leonard Warner (One of the Warner Brothers)
Isabelle Allende
Kevin Smith
and a surprising large number of composers (and a few members of royalty in various European countries)

Fun with Mitchell and Webb

Here is a British duo that Rachel introduced me to (although I did see another show with these two actors called Peep Show, so really Rachel just introduced me to That Mitchell and Webb Look):

This needs no explanation

An infinite jest or maybe not

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I've only read a little bit of David Foster Wallace, but maybe I should be adding more footnotes, and footnotes for those footnotes. But apparently

I write like
J. K. Rowling

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Needless to say, I've read all the Harry Potter books, some twice. But also

I write like
Chuck Palahniuk

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

But most awesomely:

I write like
Jane Austen

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Although I may have skewed the results a little bit, because I used a super long blog post about Persuasion

On the Flipside

I know I complained about the BBC version of The 39 steps yesterday, but I am not repeating that today. New BBC episodes of Miss Marple have been airing on PBS, and I've really liked the two new episodes "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side" and the "Secret of Chimneys". And I get to play my favorite game of spot the British Actor; there was a good one in The Secret of Chimneys, which feature Jonas Armstrong (who was Robin Hood in the recent BBC series). He was almost unrecognizable from Robin Hood because he was clean, shaved, and gained about 15 pounds. So unlike the 39 steps, the casting in the new Miss Marple is fantastic (I won't talk about the Miss Marple with Geraldine McEwan because I'm totally conflicted about those; I enjoy watching them but I know they could have been so much better). I am enjoying the last new one called The Blue Geranium (right now) because one of the characters is a super bitch (and she gets killed). Here are two of my favorite lines of hers:

"No not those, the truffles you useless girl"
"But not you, you are being annoying. It's alright if bad things happen to you"

Sorry Rupert, you are just too young

I finally watched the PBS/BBC version of The 39 Steps. I've seen the Hitchcock version and I love version very much (which is pretty much a given, because I love about 85% of all Hitchcock movies). But I was kind of disappointed in this version. This version was closer to the book but the plot was a little bit of mess and the end is kind of a downer. The cast wasn't too great either ( I did get to say "Hey, it's Rick from Bleak House" and "Oh, that guy from Little Dorrit" which was pretty special). I'm sorry Rupert Penry-Jones, you are just too good looking (and young looking) to be convincing in an action role. The first thing that I saw him was Cold Comfort Farm where he has basically eye candy. I have no problem watching thriller/action movies that do not have typically action stars in them (like probably every Hitchcock movie, except maybe Foreign Correspondent because Joel McRea does look like he could beat some people up), but Rupert-Penry Jones just looks too boyish. And as my mom can attest, I was really mad when I saw the more recent BBC version of Jane Austen's Persuasion because there is no way this man:

spent anytime (let alone eight years) on a navel ship in the West Indies.

Lotion Attempt No. 1

Over the long holiday weekend, Rachel and I finally made our first attempt at making lotion. We settled on making a diaper cream for Maddox and after looking a a few recipes, we ended using the recipe from the class we attended but made a few changes. We used beeswax, cocoa butter, and calendula infused olive-oil for the oil part. I have to say that it is quite an adjust from soap making where changing the type of oil can wreck the whole batch if you don't adjust for it with the lye and water. For the water part, we used lavender water and a bit of aloe vera juice. We also added a little bit of liquid lecithin to make the cream thick (the lecithin is the consistency of honey, but about 30 times for sticky and 1000 times harder to wash off). The lotion didn't quite come together all the way (we think the batch size was too small for effective mixing), but just like in my soap making experience, a little bit of blending with the stick blender made the lotion come together better. We added some zinc oxide to the lotion and now it in a container on the changing table with the name "Diaper Creme". And it smells like chocolate and looks like pale yellow butter cream icing.

Now Summer is here

In the midst of this heat wave that the whole East coast is having (it feels like I'm living in Indiana for the summer, I thought it was supposed cooler in place of higher latitude), Trey and Rachel put in an air-conditioner in the office but Rachel declared that to be not enough and so she and I put a second one in the kitchen (and then put up blankets to keep the cool in and the heat out). Despite the increased area in coolness, Rachel, Ellis, Maddox, and I went to Sand Bar Park yesterday to cool off. The park is on the shores of Lake Champlain by a sandbar (hence the name) which means the water is pretty shallow until about 50 feet out (I didn't go that far out because Ellis was with me in the water). The park was really nice with lots of trees and picnic tables and not overly crowded. We all waded out in the water when we got there, but Maddox didn't like to water to much (he liked it when it was just his toes dipped in, but he didn't like his upper thigh and butt in the water) so Rachel and Maddox headed back in while Ellis and I floated about. We had packed a little picnic lunch of egg salad sandwiches, sweet cherries, yogurt, cheese, granola bars, and yogurt covered raisins. After finishing lunch, Rachel hung out on the blanket with Maddox to do some editing work while Ellis and I went back out to the water. My attempts to teach Ellis how to float on his back did not go well but he did seem to enjoy being in the water. Or at least he enjoy hanging onto my neck while it swam around a little bit (I now understand why my mother hated us doing that to her. Rachel and Ellis did spend a little more time in the water while I packed up everything. I think everyone had a really good time, except I got a sunburn on my shoulders and back. But it wouldn't really be summer if I didn't get a sunburn.

Silly or Scary

The past two weeks have been full of changes around here. Ellis's last day of school was the 18th so now, I take care of both boys during the day. Fortunately, Rachel changed to going to the lab part time, so I have Ellis and Maddox alone for only 2.5 days a week. The first week was a little rocky, but this past week was a lot better. Wisely, Rachel stocked up one some crafty activities for Ellis and I to do together. So far, I have tattooed Ellis (with tattoos from Toy Story 3), done a paint by number, and Ellis has painted 6 plaster masterpieces. But, his favorite activity by far has been the monster puppets. For 3 days straight, the morning began with making monster puppets (the pieces have Velcro on the back, so they are reusable). Here are 2 of Ellis's masterpieces:

Just sing random vegetables

I find this song hilarious for one reason only, the guy who just sings/names random vegetables.

The Defender

So one of the first things that I did with my career counselor was to figure out my personality type on the Meyers-Briggs scale. I had taken the Meyers-Briggs in high school and I sort of remembered what I was so we were able to get through it in one session. Turns out I'm an ISFJ which means that I'm Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Judging. A couple websites have giving little names for each Meyers-Briggs personality type, and an ISFJ is known as a defender. Here is a good website for more information about personality types (and it has a list of famous fictional and nonfictional ISFJ including David Copperfield and Melanie from Gone with the Wind which now makes sense why I like both of those characters). On that same page (towards the bottom) is a list of good careers for ISFJ and the 3 careers that I am looking into are on that list. Any guesses?

I'm in the depths of despair

Last week I read the news that NBC canceled Law and Order after 20 seasons. And this totally bums me out because (at it has been documented on this blog more that once) I love Law and Order. For at least 4 years now (since grad school), watching an episode in the evening, usually while making dinner, was the way that I would unwind after a day at the lab or work (and I watched L&O pretty regularly before that). I first discovered the show back when it was in syndication on A&E (so probably the mid-90s) and followed it when it moved to TNT. Let's just say that I have seen enough to be able to rank my favorite pairings of the detectives (Briscoe and Green), my favorite lieutenant (Van Buren), Executive ADA (Jack McCoy), ADA (a tie between Jamie Ross and Connie Rubirosa), and DA (Adam Schiff). As I explained to my mom, one reason I like L&O is because the story line is always neatly tied up at the end and you can watch the shows out of order and not be totally confused. I know that the show will still air on TNT until probably the end of time, but there won't be new episodes. Although I did read that Dick Wolf is trying to find another network that may be interested so let's hope that Ted Turner will be willing to make more Law and Order. Until then, enjoy some short clips from Law and Order.

One of my other favorite pairings:


And the most awesome thing Law and Order ever produced:


By the way, I've watched a couple episode of Law and Order:UK, and it is really good. But I shouldn't be surprised as it a pairing of my 2 favorite things: Law and Order and British Television.

Too much

Coldplay, a village fete, a power slide, puppets, and Punch and Judy and in 1 video.

Like making Mayonnaise

If there are some readers of this blog that I don't talk to on a regular basis (which there are probably none), then you most likely don't know that I am currently living in Vermont with my sister Rachel and taking care of her new(ish) baby. I left my job in January and within a month I was out in Vermont. During this transitional phase, I've been thinking about the kind of career I want (since I was only really every lukewarm about my last job). And to that end, I've been seeing a career counselor to help figure all that out (hopefully I will write a post about in the next couple of days). In addition, Rachel (using her usual subtle ways) has encouraged me to start taking classes or doing other things that I didn't really have time for before (I am considering learning how to sail and I was not living in cities near a huge water source). There is a really nice herb shop near Burlington so Rachel and I took a lotion making class there a few weeks ago. Lucy and I, in addition to experimenting with making our own soap, have had some interest in branching out and making other cosmetics ourselves. The lotion class was really informative especially since I was familiar with some of the oils used (like coconut, sweet almond, jojoba, etc) but only in the context/use in soaps. In the end, making lotion is like making mayonnaise in that you are trying to get oils and water to mix. Rachel and I hope to start making some lotion ourselves soon, so stay tuned and maybe I will post some pictures of our progress.

"Apparently this door has some kind of anti-opening device." - Dale Gribble

I might take up this idea

you got chocolate in my peanut butter

The NBC show Parks and Recreation has been so hilarious this season, it is probably my favorite show right after the Office (and sad to admit, more consistently funny). Anyway, here is an awesome mash-up of two things that I love: the opening credits (and fun theme song) to Parks and Recreation and Star Wars.

Suprisingly sweet commercials from the Olympics

Reflections from 31 days of Oscar

When you've only really seen Robert Vaughn like this:



It's a little weird to see him like this:


(in Bullit which I saw last Friday). Looking at that scene, please notice the size of that fax machine (and the fact that the phone has to be placed on top of the fax machine). Secondly, Bullit is such a cool last name, and you pretty much have to be in law enforcement with a name like that.

Laughs in less that 140

I understand that some people are really into Twitter and I am one of those people. I don't tweet at all but I have a twitter account that I check from time to time for one reason, some people on Twitter are really hilarious. I only follow about 15 people including Rain Wilson and Jim Gaffigan. But the most consistently funny person I follow on Twitter has got to be Tim Siedell, who is a creative director living in Nebraska. Here are a few choice tweets from him:

My bad back just got me out of a meeting. I'm never fixing this thing.

Full disclosure, America. I entered us into a pact with the devil 18 years ago. But something had to be done about those California Raisins.

A panic room seems overindulgent. I can panic in any room.

The only way my sinuses could get more painful is if they suddenly started speaking dialogue written by George Lucas.

My Top Ten Lists of 2009: 1) Grocery, 2) Wine, 3) Bucket, 4) Email, 5) Bullet Point, 6) To-Do, 7) Craigs, 8) Nice, 9) Top Ten, 10) Guest.


More Funny Tweets

There and back again

Now that the holidays are over, I can recount my lovely trip to Vermont to see Rachel (and the rest) for Christmas. I flew out of Cleveland on a direct flight to Burlington (I was surprised to find a direct flight, I was afraid that I would have to have a 13-hour layoff!). I got to the airport a little earlier that just in case it was really crowed but fortunately check in was super fast (Cleveland is a Contential Hub, so there were tons of check-in terminals, including one between the actually terminal and the parking garage, which I used). And even better, going through security took about 5 minutes (seriously, there were 2 people in front of me). The flight left a little late (people on a connecting flight were a little late so we left about 15 minutes late) but we made up plenty of time in the air and I got to the Burlington airport before Trey was there. But it wasn't quite so cold on Christmas eve, so the wait wasn't bad at all. We had a lovely Christmas breakfast of egg casserole and orange rolls and slowly opened presents (with only a few children-related incidents of temper). And then everyone pitched in to make a delicious Christmas dinner (mom made an excellent crusted tenderloin). Dad, Trey, and Orrin worked on updating the laundry room (including installing a sink) while Mom, Rachel, Bridget and I traded off supervising the kids and painting Ellis's room (hopefully Rachel with post some pictures). The girls went out to King Arthur's store (and left all the kids with the boys). And despite sitting in traffic for an hour due to an accident (and some snowy weather) we had a wonderful trip (and a good conversations!). One the morning of my flight back to Cleveland, most of us went to the Ben and Jerry's factory for free ice cream (and then an additional scoop later) before Rachel and mom dropped me off the Burlington airport. And it seems that I brought the cooler weather from Vermont because it has been really cold here for the last couple days. So there is lots of tea to be drunk!

"I've dealt with this before in Montana. Nobody lick any poles!" - Peggy HIll

Looking ahead

Well, at least I will have one post for the month of December! I know I have been bad about posting, but since I don't have anecdotes about children, it is a little harder! Work is going well, it will be a little busy towards the end of the year as there is a push to get some reports out. So there will a lot of overtime available which is always good. Especially since I will be flying out to Vermont for Christmas. I am really excited about it (and I'm looking forward to lots of Holiday Inn/White Christmas reenactments). The weather is starting to get cold which means I get to scrap my car every morning but it does mean that I have a better reason so drink lots of tea (which is good because I think that I am getting sick).

Oh! Spoons! Can I assume the potatoes will be mashed tonight? - Bobby Hill

Bad Dubbing

A few months ago, I got this movie from Netflix called "Memories of Murder". It's this really interesting South Korean movie about one the first modern serial killers in South Korea. The movie is very dark (both visually and content-wise) and very atmospheric. And the atmosphere is totally destroyed by really horrible dubbing. Really generic Americanized voices were used which was really distracting (as I told my mother, it was very weird to hear a voice like Harrison Ford's coming out of the mouth of a South Korean). Now I am watching another foriegn movie (from Sweden) called "Let the Right One In". Like "Memories of Murder", it is very dark and atmospheric. And ruined by dubbing. The voices that were used for dubbing aren't too bad, but the dialog doesn't match up with the movement of the actor's mouth. I would much rather read subtitles that be distracted by poor dubbing.

Warning this post might be boring

I know that the title is not the best one, but it may be accurate. I am in process of re-watching the excellent BBC adaptation of Bleak House. And when I mentioned this to my mother, she asked if I like being depressed. Now, to be honest, much of Dickens is depressing. But, I do enjoy watching/reading Dickens. I do enjoy Jane Austen a great deal but much of her books take place in a bubble of the middle class. Very little is written about the struggle to survive (with the possible exception of parts of Mansfield Park). And no one dies in a Jane Austen novel (except for the very beginning of Sense and Sensibility when Mr. Dashwood dies). Dickens, on the other hand, pulls no punches. He writes of the brutality of survival in London during the Industrial Revolution. And more often than not, once some ones falls ill, they aren't long for this world (which is kind of true for Elizabeth Gaskill as well). But despite that, I do think that there is a side of Dickens that is optimistic. There is great evil in his world (and in the hearts of Dickens characters) but at the same time there is goodness and kindness and possibility of redemption. And as the reader, we should recognize this and strive to posses those characteristics.

Bad blogger

I know that I have been really bad about blogging for the past couple months. But in the defense, for the month of November, I have been really busy at work which does not make a conducive environment for interesting blog posts. But I will try to do better. One good things from the past couple week is that Law and Order is now airing at a time when I can watch at least episode every night. This may sound silly and unimportant, but I do like to unwind after a day at work by watching an episode of L and O. And there is something so clean and balanced about an episode of L and O. The story gets wrapped up (and lets be honest, usually the DA gets a conviction which make you want to believe the that justice system works).

I've noticed that I also fell behind on adding King of the Hill quotes, so I am going to try to keep that up as well.

"20 years. If your marriage was a murderer it would be out by now." - Dale Gribble

Creepy house = Creepy Owner

On Friday night, I watched a movie called Dragonwyck, which starred Gene Tierny and Vincent Price as well as a super young Jessica Tandy, Anne Revere, and Spring Byington (I recognized Anne Revere and Spring Byington immediately). The movie is about a young woman (Gene Tierny) that leaves her family in Connecticut to stay with her married distant cousin (Vincent Price). The two eventually fall in love. The plot is kind of similar to Jane Eyre (there is a daughter and so Gene Tierny becomes her governess) complete with a huge old Gothic house called Dragonwyck. And Rebecca was aired right after, which also features an old Gothic house called Manderly. This got me thinking to all sorts of movies or books that feature a homeowner and house and how often the house reflects the traits of the homeowner. Dragonwyck? Creepy house that is haunted by ancestor. Owner? Creepy with a crazy emphasis on familial responsibility (and he is basically driven crazy by the desire for a son). Thornfield? Dark house with a secret wing that no one is allowed to enter. Owner? Dark and gruff man keeping secrets. Manderly? Beautiful old house that is strangled by the memory of the first Mrs. De Winter. Owner? Handsome (in the movie at least, Laurence Oliver is handsome) man that is still affected by his dead wife. Which is why Pemberly and Mr. Darcy are both awesome!

It's a macguffin!

About 2 years ago, I decided to watch a lot of Hitchcock movies to celebrate the month of October (I think that I saw almost all of them). And there were some that I enjoyed and there were some that I preferred to think never happened (like Frenzy and Marnie). So, I am going to watch and then write about some of my favorite Hitchcock movies for the month of October. I haven't decided what I am going to watch first, but it will probably be either Shadow of a Doubt or Saboteur.

Really...

Does anyone else miss Amy Poehler on SNL? Although she is pretty funny on Parks and Recreation.

Final Countdown

Only 3 more hours until a new season of The Office starts!!!!

Just for Fun

This clip makes me laugh so much:



I love that he has a little rolly suitcase. And the way he says "I am leaving" is pretty hilarious.

Am I overly excited about this?

Today when I got home from work, there was a package at my door containing this:

I had this book as a textbook for a class in high school and I really liked the class since it was the first class I remember taking that was about more "recent" history. And the teacher of the class was really excellent. We used this book a lot in the class and I really enjoyed everything that we read out of it. And I have been meaning to get a copy of this book and read the whole thing so I am hoping to be able to work my way through the book (I looked through the book briefly and recognized a few of the people and remember quite a few names!).