You heard it here first, people!

Well, in the wake of Veronica Mars's stunning revelation as to who murdered the Dean, I'd just like to direct your attention to this post, in which I correctly predicted the killer. Oh snap! I'm smarter than Veronica! *does a happy dance*

Seriously, Becky and I were on IM that whole episode going "I want us to be right!" and trying to rationalize every twist and turn that made us think it was either the wife or the professor. And man, there were a LOT of twists in that episode. Kelly was a doubter. When the wife bought the boat? And when Landry went to Mexico? Oh yeah, there was doubtage. But - in your face, Kelly! We were soooooooo right.

And in other news... Logan and Parker? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Oh, and here's another interview with Michael Muhney... I'm really gonna miss that guy. Guess it's true, you don't know what you've got till it's gone.

Monday's episode of 24 was a little lackluster. Add a little pressure and Chad Lowe becomes a twitchy little fellow, doesn't he? I don't think he's cut out for the assassination business. I pretty much figure they're not going to actually kill the President, because they've done that a few times already... they'll probably kill Assad, and that will cause all sorts of ruckus in the Muslim world, and even more of them will hate us. So good job, Chad Lowe, on making the country even LESS safe!

Next week looks interesting... "You're gonna tell me what I wanna know, or you're gonna start losing your fingers one by one." And what was that nifty little finger snipping device Jack had, eh? You'd think Jack would've learned his lesson about breaking into foreign consulates and kidnapping, killing, or torturing foreign emissaries. That's kind of what got him dead and then locked up in a Chinese prison (yes, in that order...).

Okay, this is the funniest thing ever. Go to this guy's myspace page and listen to the song "Joss Whedon is My Master Now." Just do it.

And now, for our super-exciting news!!!!! James Marsters is doing two concerts in Long Island on June 30th. Kelly and I are soooo going. Tickets go on sale Friday, so let us know if you're in (you know you wanna...).

And super-exciting news number two - my parents officially have a kitten! They caught little Patches last night and took her to the vet today. She is now all spayed and got her shots and all healthy. She will be an outdoor kitty, but she's already figured out how to use a litter box (she's so smart!)... assuming she ever comes out from behind the couch. (She's afraid of either Dad or the big TV or both.)

"You know how to use this? Point and shoot."

Okay, I'm a little grumpy because this is the third time I've tried to write this post, and Mozilla keeps deciding to quit before I can finish it, so let's see if we can get through it, shall we?

So I spent much of yesterday watching the tape of all my shows from last week, which my mother so kindly mailed to me. It seems there was a "how to fire a gun" theme - including the quote in the title from 24, in which Jack learned exactly how dysfunctional his family really is. How about his father calling him a "civil servant" with such disgust? If Jack Bauer isn't a good enough son, what could that man possibly want? Jack's only saved the city of LA, the President, and the country like five or six dozen times.

And of course, I must add the obligatory, "Logan?? What the hell?" comment. I'm actually kind of glad to see him, since he's the President we love to hate - as opposed to Palmer II, the President we just hate. For more 24 news, here's 24 hours on the set of 24.

This week was the last episode of Studio 60, possibly for good. Starting tomorrow, it's being replaced by The Black Donnellys, and there's no word on it returning. Even though I tuned in faithfully every week, I can't say I'll really miss it. It was kind of just background noise for writing my 24 comments... Although I do feel compelled to point out that in this week's episode, the lawyer said she was from Gage Whitney. Would that be the same Gage Whitney that Sam used to work at before he joined the Bartlet campaign? Oh, Aaron Sorkin...

And now we return to our theme with Veronica Mars, in which this exchange took place:

"I don't even know how to use a gun."
"You pull the trigger."

Yes, thank you, Keith, but Jack Bauer took care of that already. Anyway, I was excited to see lots of Cliff - and Wallace! But sadly, Wallace had to be used for that bizarre "Lamb is a friend of Dorothy's" thing. What? Okay, is there a reason we needed to reference a bad joke from the pilot there? I did think it was hilarious when Lamb shot his own reflection, but then I felt bad about it because of him getting all dead later on.

Speaking of which - holy whoa! Totally didn't see that coming. Although apparently, I'm not the only one. I really don't understand why they killed him, except so that Keith could be the sheriff again. I mean, it wasn't even a cool death like he blew up trying to diffuse a bomb or in a major shoot-out or something (okay, I've been watching too much 24). He just got conked on the head. It just seemed like they could've done so much more with it, and they kind of threw it away. Wondering what "I smell bread" was all about? Yeah, me too.

What is Logan doing with Parker? This cannot lead to good. Don't stand in the way of the LoVe, Parker! Speaking of LoVe obstacles, I missed Piz this week, but you can get your Piz fix from this interview as well as this hilarious video in which he and Kristen Bell interview each other. Seriously, they are too cute.

Jericho is back - finally. I really can't decide if it's better or worse. This episode was mostly flashbacks to before the bombs, and while it explains a lot of things, it also made some things much more confusing. It was about average for the number of "ridiculous things that would never happen or would only be done by idiots" per episode.

Here's the one thing I don't understand (okay, there are a lot more things I don't understand, but this is just the one I'm gonna talk about right now) - what the hell are Roger and Emily doing together? I mean, Roger is obviously a big-city business man, and Emily's like, never left small-town Kansas. So how the hell did they even MEET? Even disregarding that - because I suppose it's possible that Emily ran into him on a random trip to Chicago or Roger had a sudden urge to take a vacation in the middle of a cornfield - I still don't understand how they live together. Roger cannot possibly have a job in Jericho. They're like, 30 miles from friggin Wichita, let alone an actual city. Where the hell does he work, and how the hell does he commute?

Okay, that's the end of my rant, even though there are many many plot points for which I could give rants just like that one. Now, onto tonight's episode of The Dresden Files, which I think was its funniest one yet - maybe on par with one of the lesser Buffy episodes (which is still pretty good). I had several laugh-out-loud moments - especially with Bob. When he was crying at the French film... and the silent exchange between Bob and Harry! OMG. Frankly, I loved Bob this whole episode.

This ep was also rife with book references - the scorpion and the frog story that Bob mentions came up in the fourth book (except it was a faerie queen who said it to Harry), and the Third Eye drug is from Storm Front. I wonder if they're still going to use it in the Storm Front episode, or if they'll drop that plotline to simplify the mystery (they had to cut it down from an 8 hour audio book to a one hour episode somehow, I suppose).

Bianca is another thing that comes from Storm Front - and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I liked the episode well enough, but I think I liked Bianca better when she and Harry were enemies rather than... whatever the hell they were on the show. It also makes me wonder if Bianca will still turn Harry's girlfriend into a vampire... since she's not trying to kill him and all.

Ancient Mai was pretty awesome, too. She comes in much later in the books, and I don't actually remember much about her character, but she kicked ass and was funny, so it works for me. When she slaps Harry and he's all "What was that for?" and she's like "I didn't know I needed a reason." - HA!

Did anyone watch Nicholas Brendon's movie Fire Serpent last night? It was better than that horrible Gryphon that poor Amber Benson was in (in that I managed to get through the whole thing without changing the channel) but Nicky was miles ahead of anyone else in that movie in terms of acting skills. Please! Can't these people get GOOD roles? What's wrong with Hollywood?

Speaking of our favorite vampire-fighters, if you can describe how Buffy has changed your life in 250 words or less, you can be in the Buffy comic! I am so winning this contest. The New York Times has an article about the Once More With Feeling singalongs. Who wants to go when the national tour comes to our area? And if anyone's looking to buy me a birthday present, I recommend this book. (Just don't ALL of you do it, or I'll be forced to sell the extras on eBay.)

Oh, Comcast cable guy, how I love thee...

Well, first post from the new apartment, guys! The cable guy just left, so I now have internet and TV! Whee! I know you all missed me, and are dying to know everything about the move and the new apartment, so here goes.

My father, apparently intent on injuring himself so as to be able to call out sick on Tuesday, insisted on moving everything without help. Seriously, I had friends from F&M lined up, I had cousins and uncles willing to help, we were even gonna pay a guy from my dad's work to come over and help load up the truck. Oh no, my friends, we must do it ourselves, because Daddy is a strong manly man, and I... well... my arms and legs have never been so sore.

So we loaded everything into the truck on Friday night (except for the stuff that would get damaged if frozen) and then the Brigandi wagon train left for Harrisburg Saturday morning. We carpooled, my dad driving the truck, me in my car, and my mom driving her car (so my parents would have some way to get home again, since we did a one-way rental). Aside from my mother doing a Jeff Gordon impersonation somewhere between Reading and Lancaster, that was uneventful.

The moving-in was actually pretty good... everything looks nice in the new apartment, and everything fits, so my parents didn't have to take any furniture home with them in the back of the Kia. (That was the great fear... we kept saying things like, "Well, we'll take it and if there's no place to put it, we'll just take it home again in the Kia." And then we realized that if we kept doing that, Mom would have to take the train home because there'd be no room for her in the Kia.) I took pretty much my whole bedroom set from home, and the kitchen table set I got from Aunt Linda. I currently have no living room furniture except a coffeetable and an entertainment center... and two fold-up director's chairs which are decidedly temporary.

After I was all moved in, we went sofa-shopping... and did that pretty much all day Sunday and Monday, too - you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a sofa bed in a neutral color that's in stock and can be delivered within a week within our price range. Okay, maybe we were being too specific. But we saw a lot of sofas that sort of almost matched our critera (I think my mother was rooting for the $500 blue sofa... but - blue!). We actually drove all the way to Lebanon because we ran out of stores in the Harrisburg area... we didn't get a sofa in Lebanon, but I did get an adorable wicker table for my bedroom (to put my TV on) and an awesome little cart thing for the kitchen, so it wasn't a totally wasted trip. (That cart thing, btw, was one of those build-it-yourself things... my dad said he felt like he was building a house!)

So then we ended up ordering a sofa from a place in Mechanicsburg that will take 30 days to be delivered. But I got the sofa of my dreams, so I don't mind sitting on the floor for a month. Just... if you come to visit, bring a sleeping bag.

My new sofa, when it arrives, will be camel-colored, in that microfiber fabric that's really smooth and soft and makes you wanna rub it b/c it changes colors when it goes in a different direction.... yeah. Anyway, and the pillows are "jelly bean" - which caused Kelly some concern, but are really quite cute. They're mulberry and teal and sea green and beige, all in these oval-shaped patterns (hence the jelly bean) - it's kind of busy, which is why I picked it for the pillows and not the whole sofa. But it will give me lots of colors to match for curtains and chairs and things. Over all, very exciting.

My mother took lovely pictures of the apartment, which I will post as soon as she emails me (and as soon as I figure out how to post pictures). Or, if you can't wait, you can come visit me and see it for yourself!

So I've just been biding my time until my job starts... which was supposed to be Monday, but may get pushed back because the bureaucratic state workers can't get my paperwork processed in time. But I'm sure it will be much more entertaining now that I have cable and internet. I haven't gotten a wireless router yet, so I'm somewhat chained to my bedroom with the computer (but the room's not that big, so I can sit at my desk or on my bed)... but of course, there's always "vroommmmmmm" and his wireless signal that I've been filching intermittently since I got here. *shhhhhh!*

Shoveling snow = cookies

My arms hurt. It's odd how shoveling snow (or, in this case sheets of friggin ice) uses muscles not commonly used for, like, anything else.

Quite a productive day I had, my penultimate day in Cinnaminson. My mom took the day off, and we went shopping. Oh boy, did we go shopping. I bought dinnerware, a curtain rod and valance, a tea kettle and tea strainer, a silverware drawer organizer, plastic cereal bowls, a party tray, and random spices and salad dressing for when I decide to learn how to cook.

Then we came home and shoveled our walkway and our neighbor's walkway, for which we received cookies. Oatmeal raisin chocolate chip - yum! And they're Dad-proof, since he doesn't like raisins, so he won't eat them. :-D

Tomorrow will be lots of packing, and then Saturday will be lots of moving. And sadly, I won't be able to update until Thursday, when my new (superfast) cable internet is hooked up. (I also won't be able to watch my shows without cable, which is causing a bit of a panic, and if my parents don't tape them, there will be hell to pay...)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, as is traditional, I plan to celebrate this Valentine's Day by posting about death, torture, and werewolves. What do you mean, that's not traditional? Okay, then I'm just going to talk about this week's TV.

I thought Sunday's episode of The Dresden Files was the best one so far. That's possibly because it was loosely based on the second book in the series, Fool Moon... or possibly because there was a guest star that we (the audience, for which I use myself and Becky as representative of) and Harry connected with, and villains that were sincere about their evildoing. Anyway, I think I was right that, given the chance to develop, this will be a good show. Each episode has gotten progressively better, and hey - even Buffy kind of sucked in season 1. It did kind of squick me out though, that the werewolf girl (Heather? was that her name?) reminded me of the girl who played Paul Blackthorne's daughter on 24... and here she is kissing him on this show. But I liked her character, and I wonder if they drew on Harry's girlfriend from the books for her (his girlfriend, Susan, gets turned into a vampire and has to leave in order to get her bloodlust under control). I thought they'd cast an actual Susan character, but who knows, maybe Wolf Girl will be back.

I also watched my tape of 24 - yay for two-hour specials. Here's my notes, jotted down while I was watching:

• Hey, who knew Blondie had a little psycho chick in her?
• I think Mr. Ally McBeal is having a little nutty. Why can’t he write his own letter of resignation, like a real man? And Chad Lowe is evil, apparently. It troubles me how much he looks like his brother, because I keep seeing shades of Sam Seaborn and Sam is not evil. And, um, immediate removal of the President so the Veep can take office? Either they’re going to kill him or they’re going to invoke the 25th Amendment… both of which have been attempted on President (David) Palmer – President Buffy’s BROTHER! Don’t you think he's gonna catch on when they do the same thing to him?
• It seems like Assad got to DC awfully quickly. How long was that cross-country flight? Two hours? I want that jet.
• “People are leaving the building. If there really is a fire, what do we do?” Dumbest. Terrorist. Ever.
• I was really kind of disappointed that Morris caved… I mean, not that I’d be able to withstand someone drilling into my shoulder, but he’s a CTU agent, and he knew they were coming for him, so why didn’t he just fiddle with it and stall a little longer? But then in the second hour, he kinda won me back with the guilt… when Chloe went to kiss him and he turned away? Aww.
• “CTU, this is Bauer, we got a problem.” Well, that was mighty calm of you, Jack. I liked that the bomb had those little plates instead of the traditional ticking clock… I imagine that it would have been too complicated to synch the bomb clock with the show clock, but it was nice to have the sense of tension without the cheesy “Jack stops the bomb with two seconds left” thing.
• Aww… that was a nice moment when Jack paused, the first time he went back to CTU. And another aww moment when Jack accepted responsibility for killing his brother, and wouldn’t let Bill cover it up. Made even sadder by the fact that he didn’t actually kill him, of course, but how heart-breaking when he was all “I wanted to”?
• Why would they let Farmer Bauer rifle through Bluetooth Bauer’s stuff? Isn’t that considered evidence? That, you know, shouldn’t get tampered with?
• Niiiiice driving, Milo. But kinda clever with blowing up the CTU truck. I think he learned that from Jack in season 1.

Also, VM last night? Awesome. One of my favorites in a long time. Dick was hilarious - when he locked Logan on the balcony so the room service people could have their trays back! And "I hate to use this card but... shuffle shuffle." And that little girl was TOO cute. Logan really needs to get off his ass - becoming a slovenly couch potato is NOT going to win Veronica back, young man! I'm still on the fence about him - last week I was saying I didn't think I could forgive him for sleeping with Madison, and he went a little way towards thawing my heart, but I'm still not sure.

I was just talking to Kelly about how I missed Wallace and Cliff and Lamb - and lo and behold, there they all were! Although the whole five seconds of Wallace was disappointing. But a teehee to Keith's "Don't worry, the sheriff has a long and proud history of being wrong." I'm curious what was up with the Dean's murder case - the car leaving the hotel puts a bit of a wrench in my Evil TA Tim theory. But based on the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang litmus test, Mrs. O'Dell is the more likely suspect. Maybe she left the hotel to talk to him (because they had that fight) but either chickened out and came back without talking to him, or talked to him and left before he died. I still cling to TA Tim, if only because the show's made him seem NOT like a suspect.

And, um, Veronica getting arrested at the end there? Whoa... followed by a "huh?"

TV news

Well, the tape's still running... so here's a million and one links that I found that may be of interest to the TV-minded among you:

Here's a looooong article about Joel Surnow (creator of the show I'm not watching right now) and the issues of torture and terrorism as depicted on 24 versus real life. I'm mostly disappointed he's good friends with Rush Limbaugh. And guess what! Dave Barry blogs about 24!

I found some more information about the Nathan Fillion/Amy Acker series Drive in this interview with Tim Minear (part one of I don't know how many). He mostly talks about the filming, which sounds pretty cool. I like the opening sequence that he described. But I do wonder about the sustainability issue that was mentioned in the comments. How long can the race go on? If they finish the race in the season finale, what is the next season about? A new race, with different people? Of course, who knows if it'll even get that far. Here's the promo, to pique your interest.

More Buffy-related stuff: As promised, the final installment of the Joss Whedon interview. And topic for discussion: Is Buffy a comics superhero? You decide. (Another realllllly loooooong article.) In this interview, Laurel Holloman of The L-Word talks about, among other things, her experience on Angel (she played Justine... remember, the chick who slit Wesley's throat?). And just because Megan mentioned it in the comments, I wanted to note that Nicholas Brendon's show, Kitchen Confidential, is coming out on DVD.

I need a personal shopper...

Okay, I was out shopping, so I missed the first hour of the 2-hour 24 tonight, which means I can't watch the tape until it's over. So in the meantime, I'll talk about all the new stuff I bought for my apartment. I actually went shopping TWICE today - I went out this morning, and then again after dinner with my mom. And I've learned a valuable lesson... I don't like shopping.

I mean, I like stuff, and I like when the stuff appears in my closet or my room or whatever. But the actual going out and getting of the stuff? Meh. I could do without it. (I also could do without the spending of money to acquire said stuff, but that's a whole other story.) I really just want someone to go out and do all the shopping for me, so that I don't have to deal with the hassle of going to ten different stores just to find shower curtain hooks or whatever, and then buying a set of hooks, and then finding them cheaper in another store, and having to go back to the first store to return the first set of more expensive hooks. And dealing with all the mangy sales people, and the annoying other shoppers, and having to drive everywhere, and of course none of the stores I want to go to are ever next to each other or anything. (I thought malls were supposed to fix that problem? But no... I still end up driving all over south Jersey.)

Anyway, in the morning I went to Linens 'n' Things, because I found a dinnerware set online that I liked, but I was hoping to find it in the store so I could see it before I bought it. Well, LNT is in a sad state. I really hate messy stores. They just make me want to not shop in them on principle. Like, is it so hard to keep your shelves organized and NOT have shit all over the floor and in the wrong places? And talk about out of stock! I searched high and low for a rubber ducky shower curtain that I saw on display, but heaven forbid they should have it on a shelf anywhere. Same with the dinnerware set I wanted. Not a trace of it could I find. I was so disgusted when I left the store that I might not shop there anymore, except I have this $40 gift card which I kind of feel compelled to spend.

I had slightly more success at Boscov's, where I found a better-than-LNT shower curtain for $3.31. I so rock. It was $12.99, on sale for $9.99, but it rang up 3 bucks. How awesome is that? So now my bathroom will be totally ducked out. I got the shower curtain, and I also have a rubber ducky toothbrush holder from my current bathroom. Then, when we went shopping tonight, I bought ducky shower curtain hooks and a ducky toilet bowl brush, and little ducky hand towels.

I also got the bedding set I've had my eye on at Bed Bath & Beyond. No dice on the matching curtains (they were too expensive, and didn't look that good) so I'm still looking for those.

So for those keeping a tally, I am still on a quest for curtains, a sofa, plates, a CD rack, and whatever little odds and ends I need for decoration. But we made very good progress today. I also packed 2 and a half boxes of all my books, CDs, and DVDs. Now I just need to do about eleventy billion more boxes for the rest of my crap.

I'm the coolest girl in school

Good news, people! I officially have a job again! I got a call today from the PA Department of Education - I'm going to be a legislative assistant. Whee!! So now I'm moving into my apartment Presidents Day weekend and starting work Feb. 26th. Isn't that exciting?

So, as promised, here's part 3 of the Joss Whedon interview. Seeing that picture of Buffy and Xander again, I realized that Xander looks like Milo Ventimiglia (with an eyepatch). Anyone else see that? It definitely doesn't look like Nicholas Brendon, that's for sure.

In case you're curious what the Buffy cast is up to now, here's an update. I didn't know Nicky Brendon was an alcoholic, nor did I realize that Tom Lenk was an 8-year-old girl. (Seriously, that video? Frightening. But the big group number at the end was kind of hilarious.)

Has anyone else seen the previews for the Bridge to Terebithia movie and thought, "What the hell? That's not the book I read as a kid!"? Well, I know I'm not the only one, because it's apparently "deliberately misleading" to attract a younger audience. I hate misleading movie ad campaigns. Seriously, I saw those previews and thought, "I don't want to see that movie. They've changed the ENTIRE POINT of the story." But now I realize they didn't, they're just advertising it like they did. That kind of makes me still not want to see it.

Richard Schiff (Toby Ziegler from The West Wing) is doing a play in London. I really wish I'd known about it when he was in New Brunswick.

And finally, your daily dose of random... do you sing in the shower?

Giant Dawn cracks me up

A few follow-ups to previous posts:

If you're like me, you're curious how Prince didn't get electrocuted during his Super Bowl halftime show. Here's why.

Some 24 talk from The Watcher. My favorite comments:

• One thing I know for sure: I am never attending a Bauer family reunion.
• I would love to be at the Bauer's for Thanksgiving.....pass the turkey, WHAM!, pass the stuffing, WHAM! you haven't felt pain until you've finished eating mom's food!
• Then again, how could Philip be Graem and Jack's papa unless his wife was a circus midget with rounder face features. Kiefer and Rocket Romano couldn't possibly look less like Cromwell's kids.
• I'd have given all the money in my wallet for Dad Bauer to have come in during the toturer scene and say "that'll do, Jack, that'll do"

And one hilarious Studio 60 comment from TVSquad:

Timothy Busfield deserves his own sitcom. When Studio 60 ends (hopefully in 2015, but probably in April), someone should give him his own show. Here's my premise: Cal and the animal handler have to move into an apartment together. The landlord won't allow animals, so every week they get into wacky adventures trying to hide all the animals. Here's the twist, it's an all-woman apartment building and Cal and the animal handler have to dress as women to fit in!

You'd watch it.

Here's parts one and two of a big Joss Whedon interview on (what else?) the Buffy season 8 comic. Look for parts three and four later this week. I'm still giggling over Giant Dawn, by the way. Apparently, Joss is, too.

It looks like Nobody's Watching won't be making it to real TV after all. That's a shame. At least we'll always have YouTube.

I really wish I could go to this play reading - it's by Ken Levine, whose blog I read regularly, and starring the Baker and the Baker's Wife from Into the Woods! (Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason, for those who may not have purchased multiple copies of the video of their Broadway performance. Don't look at me like that. The first tape wore out, so I got extras, just in case.)

And finally, Stephen Colbert is getting his own ice cream flavor. How awesome is that?

Cool stuff

Okay, 24 first. These comments are going to sound a lot like the IM conversation I had with Becky, since that's where I was taking my "notes" while I watched. I loved this exchange (I may be paraphrasing a bit):
Jack: My brother is evil.
Bill: Based on what?
Jack: Um... he just tried to kill me.

When the call came in about Morris's brother, I was like, "Oh, no... not more family crap." Like the crap with Edgar's mother, etc. This season has enough family troubles, so I was really glad the Morris thing turned out to be a set-up. Well, except for the part where Morris got kidnapped. That was a shame. At first, I thought Morris was actually evil, and I was like, "Oh, no... not another mole in CTU." So, on the whole, this little twist was a pleasant surprise all around.

Definite "awww" moment when Jack was hugging his brother while torturing him. Only on 24 does this count as "quality family time." But I'm serious about the "aww" thing - it really shows how Jack hates doing what he does (to his family, no less) but he can't back down when the country is at stake. I don't get what Graem's "I love my country" thing was about... I don't see how what he did was for his country. But man, did it set Jack off. And then when he found out about the Palmer thing... hoo boy.

Can I just say, I have no faith in Wayne Palmer as President? Maybe we're not supposed to, but I can't help but think he did a crappy job as principal of Sunnydale High, and the death count on this show is even higher with him as President. Just sayin'...

Jack's dad: "You deserved a better family, Jack." Well... yeah. Ones that weren't dead or evil would be a nice touch. Speaking of evil, DAD. Ahem. I totally called that one. As soon as he did the whole "I need a few minutes" I knew he was either going to be evil or he was going to kill Graem. Turned out he did both. So go me.

Now I'm watching Studio 60, and I think the best part of this whole two-parter has been Timothy Busfield and his Animal Planet in the ventilation shaft. My only question - do ferrets really eat snakes? Because that seems... off. Like it should be the other way around or something. Maybe I don't know enough about ferrets.

Oh, and Nate Corddrey is ADORABLE. I'm sorry Matthew Perry, but the whole Matt/Harriet thing bugs me more than Danny/Jordan tonight, and that's saying something.

And now, a few links: Here's a review of the first issue of the Buffy season 8 comic, as well as a sneak peek at the third issue. Check out Willow's skank outfit... kind reminds me of Vamp Willow, which can only mean fun times.

David Fury (of Buffy, Angel, Lost, 24, and... okay, every good show on TV) talks about why he hates Valencia, and other 24-related topics. Also, Chloe's a hottie, in case you hadn't noticed.

And, thanks to Becky, the coolest thing this week: iConcertCal. Do it. You'll thank me.

Purple Rain

Getting ready for a new hour of 24, thought I'd post a little bit about last night's Super Bowl. Anyone else watch? I went to a party with most of my parents crazy friends. The only other kids my age were Brian and Shawn, but that's okay. It was fun, and also hilarious to watch as the Bears crushed Uncle Oz's dreams of winning the quarters when they fumbled, recovered a fumble, and then fumbled again within thirty seconds in the second quarter. I find it mildly unfair that Uncle Bob bet $7 and managed to win $90 - even though he left at halftime! Brian was the money man, and he was willing to split the winnings with me, as long as no one told Uncle Bob, but there were too many witnesses we'd have had to pay off in order to get away with it. So no money for me. :-(

I thought the pre-game show was, well, bizarre. First of all, I object to Cirque du Soleil on principle (no one should be that flexible), and they really don't seem like the entertainment of choice for football fans. I mean, those butterflies? Not exactly screaming masculinity there... But didn't those colors look nice in HD?

As opposed to the rest of the game, where the torrential downpour obscured most of the cameras to the point that it reminded us of those commercials where the one football player is blurry, and the other guy says, "You know we're supposed to be in HD now, right?" Uncle Mort was all, "I want my money back!" But the rain did make the first half very interesting, with all the fumbles and recoveries (unless, of course, you were Uncle Oz, in which case the game was a real emotional rollercoaster).

And then we're back to the screaming masculinity (or lack thereof) with the halftime show. Again, I question whether the people who plan the pre-game and halftime shows actually consider entertainment football fans would watch. I have to admit, it was kinda fun when Prince sang Purple Rain in the rain. When he started, my mom was like, "Do you think he'll sing Purple Rain?" Ha.

So, the second half wasn't as exciting as the first - I mean, kickoff return for a touchdown on the first play of the game by the team no one picked to win? That was kind of cool. But then the Colts sort of ran away with it and the fourth quarter was a bit of a snooze.

The commercials also were kind of a snooze. I miss the old days, with the OMG hilarious commercials, that everyone was talking about the next day. There just aren't any that awesome anymore. I did like the CareerBuilder.com office survivor ones, and the Blockbuster mouse and the FedEx moon office were good... but the Chevy commercials were sucky, bordering on eww (I mean, if you're gonna have shirtless guys, can they at least be hot shirtless guys?) and what the hell was that Sheryl Crow thing about? CBS has all of the commercials posted here, if you want to see what you missed.

Brrrrr!

I am FREEZING cold right now. I keep periodically sitting on my hands or putting them on my computer battery (which probably shouldn't get this hot...) just to stay warm. Oh, I'm also wearing layers and layers of clothes and am currently buried under the covers in my bed. Why is it so cold? Don't we have heat?

Anyway, I had a job interview yesterday in Harrisburg. It was for a legislative assistant position at the Department of Education. It sounds like a pretty good job and I think I'd be happy with it, even though my first choice is with the Office of Health Care Reform (so I can do everything Christi says, even though she's too cool to hobble down to the auditorium on her crutches to see the Gov talk about his reform plans). Hopefully I'll hear something soon, since I'm really getting antsy to move (although I kind of like the vacation, minus the not getting paid part).

Speaking of not getting paid, today was my goodbye lunch with Michelle and Anne (even though I stopped working last week, Michelle was away so our lunch got postponed). Sadness. I will miss that office.

Okay, I'm going to post some links and then go back to sitting on my hands.

• This is what happens when you don't watch 24. But now you can buy Jack Bauer's gear. I'm so ordering the gun.
• Tommy Schlamme (West Wing, Studio 60) talks about the walk and talk.
• Kristen Bell wants Sarah Michelle Gellar to guest star, and talks about VM in this interview.
• More on Joss Whedon's Buffy season 8 comic, a blog post about a Once More With Feeling sing-along, and a reminder of why we loved Buffy to begin with.
• For those who missed the first two episodes of The Dresden Files, you can catch them on Sunday (as long as you're not Super Bowling it) starting at 9pm on the SciFi channel.