152 insights into my soul

After seeing Furious 7 Saturday, went over to he ex-roomies to do some board gaming with him, phatjoe and clevemire. Waiting for PJ to come over though, we played the DC game. And I have been having a ridiculous bunch of luck the past few times we played it, to the point the K doesn't want to play it anymore because "I'll prolly win with some ridiculous BS". And I did end up winning again, despite B defeating more supervillains than me, since I had a sciencell (which is worth the number of villains in my deck, which was a lot since I had black canary and her special is +1 power for every differently named villain I play, so obviously I was picking up a bunch of those) plus a bunch of power rings, which were each worth a number of vp equal to the number of power rings I had.

When PJ came over, we did play firefly with the new pirates and bounty hunters expansion. I'd only played once before, but I did like playing with the new expansion because I felt I could actually do things. The first time I played I just basically sputtered around, not being able to accomplish anything or getting even close to completing one of the overall goals. But the addition of bounties, that was something I could actually do and make a lot of bank from. I mean, it helped I had the interceptor, which used no fuel for full burn, and my captain was Jubal Early (i.e. the bounty hunter played by L&O lawyer guy), who got an extra two combat in showdown, and could hold 2 gear, so I could equip 2 weapons. So, to capture a bounty, you do a showdown, and I rolled my 6+d6 combat against their best skill+d6, which was often just a 1. So as long as they didn't roll a 6, capture was inevitable. And not needing to worry about fuel, I didn't have to consider that transporting the bounties where they needed to go.

Actually, it was doubly useful to bounty hunt since the fugitives were from the people you could hire as crew. So in order to get them in the pile to try and capture them, I could just hang out in one of the merchant places and continually shop in the hopes of getting one of the bounties out there. So even if I didn't see them, I might see something useful I wanted to buy. Like PJ hit me early, stealing all my parts and fuel (which didn't matter since I didn't use fuel normally, though I would need some for the text of something of the traveling cards) as well as some money. And I got hit by the reavers, which wiped out the original crew I hired. But I just picked up a whole bunch of bounties and that put me back in the game. I mean, I didn't win, but I was second to reaching it after PJ, I just wasn't fast enough to reach Three Hills before him.

Sunday, C-note came over to watch the Walking Dead season finale off the dvr since he didn't get to last week, then we had dinner at Jim and Nick's BBQ and then played the Marvel game and Smash Up. Hey, we finally won the Marvel game, I think its been a long while since we did.

Had this weird dream last night where I dreamt I was on a crazy sitcom. Well, I don't know what made it a sitcom- like everything felt real and I didn't think I was in a dream, but at the same time there was a voice in the back of my mind saying I was in a sitcom. Anyways, I was working on a military base, doing... something? I have no idea what my job was, the relevant part was that I was in love with the base commander's daughter, who was played either by Raven from the 100 or Regan from Faking It. And she knew I was interested in her, so I guess maybe that's where the sitcom part comes in, the whole will they or won't they thing?

I had a couple of sidekicks, a guy and a girl, but I don't recall what they looked like now, or what they did. The girl may have been an Angela from the Office type, who worked with me doing whatever it the hell it is we do, and the guy was possibly a bartender in the local bar. Anyways, in my dream, there were 2 eps. The first ep, I blundered into something, and I ended up having to capture an alien and an ex-nazi scientist, and there was a biplane and aerial acrobatics were involved. And the CIA. Like in the end, after I captured them, the CIA picked them up, but since it was all top secret, I couldn't tell the base commander what happened. Also, I think I accidentally broke the fancy flight stick the base commander has on his computer, but he gets an upgrade every week anyways and doesn't even know what half the features do, so it ended up not being a big deal/

In the 2nd ep, bartender guy and sorta Angela help me go out and spend time with the base commander's daughter, but we get attacked by terrorists trying to kidnap her, but we manage to bluff our way out of that. Then we're at the bar and I'm showing the girl some juggling tricks, and Chunk from the Goonies gives me frozen jello cubes to juggle. And me and Raven/Regan hit it off. But then I woke up.

Had this weird dream where I was trying to find the cure to some disease. I didn't know if I had it, or a loved one had it. But there were rumors that this one biotech company knew how to fix it. But they refused to help me. So, I heard of some other random poor people who had recovered from the disease. And they had all either worked or frequented the same IHOP and Hess station across the street from it.

So I start looking into these people, trying to figure out how they got cured, to see if I could get any info to use to get the one company to help me. Along the way, I find out I have like a 10 year old daughter in NY that I never knew I had. For some reason, I end up taking her on the trip with me to investigate all these people, along with some other lady. It wasn't her mother, some other female relative of hers perhaps?

Anyways, as I look into things, the girl figures out I'm her real dad and turns out she's proud of me for some reason. I would later find out she comes from a line of super power villains- her mother, grandfather and great-grandmother were all villains known for being super strong.

I end up having to go undercover with some criminal group her mom works her, balancing trying to help and get her mom out and not getting figured out by them or found out by the agency I work for that I'm trying to help my daughter's mother. I end up making a friend in the organization, who's familiar with my girl and her mom. Like we get sent on a run to get something from the Target on Cobb Parkway. And I'm kinda annoyed because the parking lot is not even full, but there are people parked on the road, by the sidewalk. I'm all, "who the hell parks there?" But it turns out it was national school supply day or something so Target was having a sale on school supplies, and the parking lot was fuller earlier, so they had given permission for people to park there.

While we were there getting supplies, I ask the guy if my daughter needs anything like that, if she's doing well in school. I see this electronic Little Mermaid toy that I think she might like, but the guy tells me she prolly wouldn't like it. I put in my cart anyways, and when checking out, I noticed the guy took the present out of the cart.

Anyways, the group goes on some mission to infiltrate some hidden secret lab, where some vampiric allies were being held and experimented on, one of them being secretly and miraculously preggers. I'm acting as lookout, having infiltrated the place first, and I let the group in. As they come in, my daughter's mother shows me some cute drawing my daughter made for me. But then that's when I woke up.

I still don't know if the fact that like the majority of my dreams involve TV and movie characters is a sign I watch too much of that stuff, since its apparently pre-occupying my mind enough to figure prominently quite often. So I had this dream last night which starts out with Elisha Cuthbert talking to some family on the phone, saying she'll arrive there soon. And the camera pans out, and she's sitting in the cargo hold of a plane, eating a giant chicken leg. Which makes me think she's Alex from Happy Endings. I mean, Dave is there too. But then when the plane lands, she sneaks off, and Dave gets killed by airport security.

Cut to CTU and Jack Bauer (so I guess she's actually supposed to be Kim Bauer?) where I assume he's going to get news about an incident at the airport involving his daughter. But nope, she shows up, just fine as if nothing's weird or wrong. And what's more, it looks like she has backdoor access into CTU accounts, I guess because she used to work there, and since she's like Jack's daughter, they trust her. Which turns out to be a mistake, because in my dream, apparently she's a traitor?

I mean, I'm not sure at first, but the way the scene is being framed, and a couple of characters talking on what it takes a person to turn, it seems like they were hinting she was a secret bad guy. And indeed, cut to later, where she's working at some terminal in a less occupied part of the building that I guess is serving as CTU in my dream and she ends up crashing CTU's computers. Some guards come to check it out, and she's acting like everything is all normal, but then one of the guards draws a gun, thinking she's under duress, and there's a bad guy hiding in the room, who made her crash the computers. But then she shoots the guard and some randoms. Oh, and there's also these other people, 2 guys and another girl, who are her accomplices and they escape.

Anyways, as is typical in my dreams, it often fluctuates between me watching it as if its a TV show, and me being an active character, so the dream goes back on forth between me viewing it and me as one of her male partners. So after we make our escape, cut to Jack Bauer, all distraught that his daughter is a traitor. His boss is played by Amanda Tapping, who looks like her Naomi self on Supernatural, but obviously is not an angel. Jack apparently wonders why he is being allowed to be the one to lead the investigation into his daughter. And Naomi gives some weird reasoning about how he let Luther (the Idris Elba character) go for something, and he can't cover for the both of them, so if he was going to cover up stuff about his daughter, that's too many things he's trying to hide, so if he's helping her, he'll make a mistake eventually, either leading them to her, or to Luther. Like I said, it doesn't really make sense.

So cut back to me and Kim in DC escaping from the Feds. There's a chase, and a fight in an elevator, and eventually we meet back up with our other accomplices and drive off in an Audi. Oddly enough, they are generic and not represented by a TV or movie character. Well, the other chick was hispanic, she might've been played by some hot young hispanic actress who I didn't recognize at the time. But definitely not someone totally recognizable like Zoe Saldana.

Discovered a new dream power last night- I was at some sort of store or market, and I was helping provide security for some sort of money pick-up. But a bunch of hick types showed up to rob the place and I realized I didn't have any weapons on me. Anyways, one of the robbers was this older hick chick, and she saw the injection site on my arm from when I had blood drawn last week, and she freaked out on me because she thought I was a sinful drug user, and she came after me with her knife. It being the dream world, and me being a bad-ass there of course, I wrestled the knife away and stabbed her.

But her compatriots had guns, and my gun was in a locker in the back, and I knew there was no way I could get to it in time without getting shot. I then realized, this was a dream. But instead of using my time-rewinding powers, I thought, I can wake up temporarily and then go back to sleep and make myself reappear by the locker. So I did, and I did. I got a submachine gun out of the locker and took out the bad guys. Its a little Inception-y, I think. Moving up to a higher level of consciousness and then going back into the dream world to place myself in a more advantageous position.

TV commentary:

Criminal Minds- Things I ended up learning from last night's ep. I was surprised the ep started with someone being executed by firing squad, because I didn't think that was something we still did. But after some research, apparently, in Utah or Oklahoma, you can choose to be put to death by firing squad. Wait, do death row inmates really get to choose how they'll be killed?

So my dream power is time rewinding. Though I only remember having it in the dream world when something truly terrible happens there. Heh, which apparently includes going to Hankook and them being out of tacos because I got there late because I was having some stupid nerd discussion with some randoms about Star Wars. So, I rewound time so I could get there in time for tacos. I did use my time rewind power for something good later- I was walking through a parking lot, and there was something familiar seeming about a van I passed.

Sure enough, I opened the door and there was a unconscious kidnapped girl inside and I remembered this being the MO of a kidnapping ring my dream self had heard of. Since I had no weapons, I left her there to get help for some reason, trying my best to look like the van was undisturbed, so if the kidnappers came back while I was grabbing help, they wouldn't be suspicious.

But, as I was sneaking through the parking lot, I was noticed, which apparently screwed up the drop that was going on and possibly getting the girl (who was the daughter of a cop) killed. I wouldn't know though, because I rewound time and went to the cop lady first, told her the situation, borrowed her gun, and having an inkling of where the kidnappers were before I screwed things up the first time, snuck up on them and popped them both. Apparently they were a couple of Travellers. And I think the Russian mob was involved too. But that was none of my concern, I was preoccupied with rescuing the girl.

TV commentary:

Degrassi- You know, I had totally forgotten about the Eli and Imogen thing, with her encouraging his nuttiness and dressing like Claire and how ultra creepy it was. I think the show was hoping you'd forget about the creepy/crazy stuff but recall they were some sort of thing. So Fiona's crushing on Imogen, but she can't go another year of pining for yet another straight girl again, so to get Imogen out of her mind, she decides to hook her two only friends up.

In plot #2, Claire's miserable at home. Especially when she finds out about Jake and Jenna. Ha, I'm glad the show acknowledged this is the second time in a row Jenna's been involved with one of Claire's bfs/ex-bfs. Apparently this drives her to run away to the house of some random chick whom she met at a bookstore. She and her husband take in strays, and it seems like they're just really nice people first, but then it takes a turn for the ultra-creepy the next morning with them encouraging her to get rid of her phone under the guise that it just tethers her to all her stress. I wonder what they're going to end up being? A cult? Slavers? Drug dealers?

In the C-plot, Connor tries out and gets on the football team, because apparently he's grown a bunch since we last saw him. But obviously, his Asperger's makes things incredibly awkward.

So I was looking up the track listing for Just Dance 3. Its not a game I'd ever play, but I was curious what songs they had the kids dancing today. (Heh, and how amusing is it that Robin Sparkles' "Let's Go to the Mall" is in this) Anyways, while listening to the various tracks, got into Scissor Sisters (who to me seem like Pink Floyd meets the Bee Gees) . Their particular song in JD3 is I Don't Feel Like Dancing, the video of which I found totally amusing. (for some reason, the intro makes me think of Alabama's "Mountain Music") But speaking of their videos, what's up with their vid for "Invisible Light": (link goes to uncensored version, censored version embedded below):



Its pretty strange, but with the period looks, is it referencing something in particular? (also, how hot is the actress in this vid's arse in those riding pants? Which speaking of, Old Navy commercials are cheesy as hell, but day-um those workout pants look awesome on those chicks. Of course, its nowhere near as hot as Eric Prydz' "Call On Me":



Anyways, given how much TV I watch, its no surprise that TV characters figure more into them than people I know in real life. I don't find it weird when its characters from DC, or the OC, or GG, or even NCIS (because I've watched a lot of NCIS on USA reruns). But last night's was Criminal Minds. I didn't think I watched that show enough for that to happen. (actually, it was like a Wednesday night TV crossover, because in addition to the BAU team, so was Fin from SVU) Even odder was that it didn't involve solving some grisly case or anything. But it did involve having to make out with JJ for some reason, to make some former classmate of her's jealous.

So on the way in to work this morning, I was thinking, if someone found my ipod, would they think it was a dude's or a chick's? Also, I know who I'd say my favorite artists are, but if someone tried to guess by going by frequency of the artist's appearance in my music library, would they mesh up? So, decided to examine my music library, and list the top 10 in order of the number of songs I have of them: (with links to their wikipedia entries in case you like live under a rock or something and are like "who?!" at these names, but I don't think you would be)

1) Glee, 141 songs
2) The Beatles, 42 songs
3) Taylor Swift, 41 songs
4) Madonna, 38 songs
5) Colbie Caillat, 31 songs
6) Paramore, 28 songs
7) Avril Lavigne, 26 songs
8) Sarah Mclachlan, 25 songs
9) Sara Bareilles, 24 songs
10) Lady Gaga, 20 songs

I'll throw in one more in case you don't think Glee counts:

11) The Bird and the Bee, 18 songs

Hmm, I guess my tastes are kinda girly. Interesting though, I like the Beatles, I wouldn't say they're my favorite band, but I was surprised they were number 2 after Glee. Well, they have a lot of really great songs, so it shouldn't actually be that much of a surprise. The rest of the list more or less does gel with who I'd list my favorite artists as, I guess.

I also decided to check how many musical soundtracks or soundtracks of what I'd consider a musical type movie I have (though I am counting a few where I only have one or two of the songs):

1) Across the Universe
2) Avenue Q
3) Bandslam
4) Camp Rock
5) Camp Rock 2
6) Enchanted
7) Godspell
8) Grease
9) Hairspray
10) High School Musical
11) Jesus Christ Superstar
12) Les Miserables
13) Mamma Mia!
14) Phantom of the Opera
15) Rent
16) Rock of Ages
17) Spring Awakehing
18) Wicked

I don't think 18 is too many. Though I'm a little surprised I don't have any Annie (I'll have to remedy that). I'm gonna be so pissed if they don't come out with an American cast recording of the upcoming Priscilla Queen of the Desert musical. (Although I would end up having two versions of "Its Raining Men" on my ipod then, which I'm told is pretty ghey?)

I do tend towards the more modern musicals though, Avenue Q, Rent (although I call it more modern but its like 15 years old now, though I suppose that's still more modern than something like Les Mis or Cats), Wicked, Spring Awakening, and the jukebox ones, like Across the Universe, Mamma Mia, and Rock of Ages.

Oh well, I had an interesting dream last night where I managed to do something I'm not normally able to do in dreams. And just like the last time I managed to accomplish something I always seemed to be unable to previously, it ends up happening in the weirdest way possible. Well, not actually the weirdest way possible, but still odd. Or maybe slightly opposite. Because in the previous example, it was something I wouldn't want to work, and its like, that's the situation where I finally manage to do that? (my bullets don't usually work in dreams, which is pretty annoying since I never miss, and I end up having to engage opponents in melee to defeat them) Then last night, I try to accomplish something in the worst way possible and that's the time I end up successful?! Although maybe its because I was trying too hard in previous dreams. This time, its not something I was even planning to do and just ran with it.

Oh, forgot to mention, when I got home from work yesterday, checked my fb feed and saw someone post that Vampire Diaries was filming in Tech Square! Argh!! I couldn't have learned this while I was still on campus! Ooh, I wonder if they're still filming today? Owel, if they were indeed filming there, I'll have to keep an eye out in the upcoming eps to see if I recognize Tech Square.

So the other day, the news dropped that rock band 3 would have the 3 part harmonies from Beatles and Green Day Rock Band, plus a new instrument- the keyboard! Ah can't wait, I think the addition of a keyboard opens a up a whole slew of songs I've been wanting them to have (tho I can't think of any of the top of my head right now). But even without that, I'm at least glad they added the three mike thing. That was a great addition they came up with for Beatles RB, I think it made the vocal part a little more exciting. I mean, obviously I favor the vocals over anything else, but I think they're a tad boring compared to what the people on the instruments get to do.

Had a weird dream last night that I heard all sorts of juicy gossip, but for some reason I couldn't tell anyone. Well, not that I was incapable of it, but against my nature, in the dream, I felt babbling it would cause problems and unnecessary drama so I didn't. So it was all very strange and foreign to me.

So clevemire pointed me to this article this morning about a bunch of HS-ers getting preggers after doing stars. So, are kids nowadays just more slutty, or was I not cool enough in high school to know it was going on? But I was a gossip monger back then, if stuff like that was going on, I would've liked to think I would have known about it. I mean, I heard things, but the most risque thing that was going around wasn't even true- as I've said before there was a rumor going around that some of the guys were doing the point ranger thing. And again, I am still quite flattered though that a certain girl thought I was one of the participants and one of the more nefarious ones at that because I wasn't trying to get in her pants like the other guys and she thought that me not trying to get with her was some devious ploy to get with her. I would say she was being conceited if not for the fact that I did like her, but she already had a bunch of pathetic morons fawning all over her (and she wasn't even high on the popularity ladder!), why would I want to be just another one of those and getting nothing out of it?

TV Commentary:

Criminal Minds- since everything I normally watch on network TV is done (except Glee!) Decided to check out the Criminal Minds season finale. Tim Curry as the CotW is quite scary. Actually, he reminds me a lot of Abdul. ( spoiler cut )

Getting out of the cut- yet another reason I wouldn't want to live in California. Rolling blackouts! Not because it's gonna be all dark, but without electricity, how can I watch TV or get on the internet?!!

Okay, I officially spend too much time on the internet. I've mentioned dreams where I have a dream, fake wake up and think, "that was an interesting dream, let me post about it on LJ", but then that turns out I'm still dreaming. (I think my record is "waking" up 5 times in a row only to find I was still asleep) So last night, I dreamt I was dating this cute Latina. Well, I couldn't tell if we were actually dating, or if she just wanted me as her bf to appease her parents. In any case, we were facebook friends, so in the dream I was all, should we change our facebook relationship status to indicate we're dating? WTF?! Seriously, dreaming about using social networking sites is just ridiculous. I guess I should really start worrying when I have dreams where I'm doing things, and I start tweeting in the dream about doing those things.

TV Commentary:

Doctor Who- I think Amy is the cutest of the new series' companions so far. I can't tell if she's crazier than the others, because the Doctor did totally screw her up when she was a kid. ( spoiler cut )

Ugh, being back on day shift, I'm starting to feel the fatigue. Its not the fall TV season yet, so I've been at least getting to sleep by 11 and getting at least six to seven hours of sleep. Of course, even without staying up to watch my shows or play some video game or read some book, I am incapable of sleeping early. Even though sleeping before 10 would prolly get me the recommended 8 hours of daily sleep, I just can't. I just feel like I'd be missing out on something, even though I lead quite the boring life. Like they say, plenty of time to sleep when you're dead, and it just feels like a waste of time to sleep.

Actually, its kinda ironic, because given how vivid my dreams are, venturing into the dream world would be way more egg-citing than anything I'd be doing in real life. But its not real. I mean, if the dream experience was our consciousness traveling into some strange, mystical world where anything is possible, then I wouldn't mind so much. But as it is, its just the insane byproduct of the subconscious mind. So if something cool does happen, not only does it make it all the more disappointing when you wake up, its like how can what's happening not be cool and interesting?! Your mind is making it up, it had better be something fun and cool!

Okay, that's not always the case, because its kinda free form so your brain might come up with something that's not enjoyable at all, but with enough practice, you can fool yourself into thinking its not a dream while still being able to manipulate what's happening to your liking. Of course, its like the old version of the Matrix they talk about, and you can only go so far before your mind rejects the changes you're trying to make. So as much as I'd like to be dreaming about fighting undead, robotic, and/or demon hordes or having threesomes with hottie nymphets of similar heights but different hair colors, it just won't let me do that.

TV Commentary:

Secret Life- Okay, I get that it sucks for Ricky that no matter how helpful and responsible he tries to be, people still see him as some promiscuous a-hole who knocked up poor, little innocent Amy. Hey, unlike a lot of teenage dads, he's trying to be there for his kid. But at the same time, its ridiculous for him to be incensed that people are pissed that he's hanging out alone with Ashley. Its like, if you knock up some teenage girl, even if you are trying to be all responsible about it, of course a lot of people are going to freak out if they see you with her even younger sister! ( spoiler cut )