152 insights into my soul

So, the ex-roomie had mentioned the Ben Affleck movie Paycheck and how he doesn't think he saw it in the theaters. Which is weird because I definitely saw it in the theaters, and back then it would be very likely he would be there for that. But I scoured the LJ archives around the time it came out (Christmas 2003, apparently), and the movie was possibly so boring I didn't post about it.

Which is doubly weird, because I mention seeing Torque mid January with K. So I would've thunk Paycheck would've gotten some mention. Anyways, looking through that time period, that was the same year Scotto came up to visit NYC and we saw Mamma Mia and Rent. So I prolly would not have had time for a movie (and if I did see a movie with the fam, it would most likely be RotK, not Paycheck)

But yeah, I didn't realize the day long LotR trilogy marathon, Scotto in NY, me developing cataracts and the trip to the Philippines with the parents and Tita J were within a few months of each other. I guess that's one thing bad about having not posted here in a long time, there's whole swaths of my life unrecorded. Not that I do anything exciting, particularly as of late. Its just go to work, play games/photograph transformers/surf the web/watch TV, repeat. But that also means there's whole seasons of shows uncommented on!

Heh, like apparently that time period was 1st season of the OC. And one of the posts that month was commenting on how Hailey was hot. Which, I know I definitely found her hot as Van Pelt on the Mentalist, but I don't recall feeling that strongly about her on the OC. I guess it might be since she was Kirsten's sister, she was more involved in the parents storyline. That and she was on the show for such a short time, comparatively. So I suppose she wouldn't have been memorable to me as Summer, Taylor, Lindsay, or Kaitlyn.

TV commentary:

Hannibal- ( spoiler cut )

Oh weird! So back in the day, I remember hearing about this hot chick from this series of body spray commercials being in an upcoming (at the time) show on comedy central called "Not Another High School Show". It was a parody of all the teen shows at the time, with her character playing "Spring", a version of Rachel Bilson's character from "the OC." I hadn't heard anything about it since, so I figured it wasn't picked up.

Cut to today, where someone posts a clip from the pilot: (and hey, there's the aforementioned chick at the :50 second mark)



Why did they post it, because apparently Alison Brie was on it playing a buffy type character? Also, Jennifer Lawrence shows up as a random passerby at the 1:42 mark. So the site is all, look at this pilot from years ago where beloved by the internet geekdom actresses Alison Brie and Jennifer Lawrence were on.

That is so weird to see those two in something like this! But I guess plenty of famous actors and actresses do lame projects before they hit it big.

TV commentary:

Glee- As I mentioned in my last post, they didn't mention how Finn died, and I'm fine with that. Some were complaining that they squandered an opportunity to teach the danger of addiction. Which, had they done that, I bet people would then complain about Glee always turning things into a PSA. Its not like randomly having Quinn get t-boned as an anti-texting PSA, or the school shooting ep that was really just Becky accidentally dropping a gun flew over so well.

To me, it was damned if they do, damned if they don't- and since people would complain either way, why go the drug route? It would be totally out of character for Finn, especially since that's how his dad died. What, he was gonna be all, "Oh, I thought my dad died a soldier most of my life, but I found out he was actually an addict and died from an overdose! I sure would like to start trying drugs to see what that was like!" Seriously, how pissed would people be if he just developed a drug problem and died off screen?!

And along the same line, it seems to ring false if they made up some other reason. Because if people were upset that they didn't do the drug thing, I think those same people would be even more mad if they white washed Cory's death (even though Cory and Finn are not the same person, one's a real person and the other is a character he plays) and had him die in some more favorable way. I think just not saying how he died and being all, "it doesn't matter how he died, only how he lived" was what would be the least controversial.

Tomorrow People- Finally caught this. It actually wasn't half bad. (Also, I'm amused that the male leads of the CW's lineup are related) And its nice to see Peyton List (the older one, not the one on Jessie. Which, I figured SAG rules would require one of them to change their stage name by now, like maybe include a middle name or something) in stuff, because she's cute. Also, I'm surprised homo superior isn't copyrighted by Marvel. ( spoiler cut )

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland- Also caught this. Not too bad- its a little more fantastical than OUAT since it doesn't straddle the real and fantasy world and contain a main character like Emma who refuses to believe. Which is good and bad- on the one hand it lets them go all out with the magic stuff, but on the other, the CGI can be pretty bad. It is interesting though, that they threw Jafar into the mix, because, why not?

Its also interesting because the Knave of Hearts was apparently in Storybrooke, so the White Rabbit's portals must cross time-space since they rescue her from Victorian-era England.

Filthy Sexy Teen$- I thought it was amusing, but it may be funnier if you're familiar with the shows they're mocking. Like when clevemire mentioned the show, he described it as a parody of Gossip Girl, but there's definite allusions to the OC and Pretty Little Liars in there. And hey, the evil girl is played by Amanda Leighton, aka two-faced Wendy from MIOBI, or the chick Naomi thought was into Max on 90210, or the chick Hanna was trying to hook Lucas up with on PLL. Nice to see her in stuff.

The other players include Tommy Mickens/LJ Burrows as the Ryan Atwood analog, Sam from True Blood and Penny from Happy Endings as the Cohen analogs, and Glenn from Walking Dead as the Chuck Bass type.

Heh, wait, so there's a teaser out for the upcoming Iron Man 3 trailer that's being released Tuesday:



Isn't this basically a trailer for a trailer?!

In other Marvel movie news, my sources tell me Original Mini-Coop (i.e. Shailene Woodley of SLotAT and The Descendants fame, before Willa Holland took over the role in 3rd season) is indeed going to be MJ in the next Spiderman films.

You know, I just realized "asdfghjkl;" was the middle row of keys? I am an idiot. I thought people were being all random and stuff!

Dear Sublime Donuts, where do you get off? Reese's peanut butter cup and Oreo donuts?! By now you realize I'm speaking ironically and have nothing but good things to say. Sublime Donuts, don't change a thing!

(BTW, that's two different donut types, one filled with oreo creme with oreo cookie crumbles on top, and one with the center filled with peanut butter and glazed with chocolate. A Reese's/Oreo donut would be insane!)

And woah, that red head in that one Stride gum commercial is totes cute!

TV commentary:

The Closer- So I saw a commercial for the upcoming Major Crimes spin-off. So in addition to Prez Roslin, it will have Flynn, Provenza, Tao, Sanchez, and Buzz. Is that like a glaring clue that Gabriel is the mole?

Perception- You know, if there's one thing I like about this show, it puts RLC on my TV screen every week. I was starting to forget how wicked mad cute she was. She is seriously like the most adorable FBI agent ever.

Heh, weird, I totally did not recognize Jamie Bamber in the first scene with RLC. Was it the hair? It wasn't until the scene with Levar Burton that I was all, "Oh wait, that's Apollo!" Also, is Dr Pierce supposed to have a thing for Kate? In his talks with Kiki (have they revealed her name in this, for now I'll just refer to her by her OC name), it sounds like she's encouraging them to go out. And given she's a figment of his imagination, he secretly desires her. Although, who wouldn't?

Pretty Little Liars- Heh, given Rosewood is a small town, wouldn't the one blond extra in the waiting room who totally saw Hanna and Spencer run out of Garrett's mom's room be all, "Hey, I totally saw that Hanna Marrin and Spencer Hastings running out of Mrs Reynold's room when she started coding!" Also, I find it hilarious that Aria texted them "OMG! Did she die?" I get she's supposed to be a teenager, but still!

And day-um Hanna's jeans may be a ridiculous swirl of colors, but her ass looks phenomenal in them. As does her rack in dat tank. But what the frick, her on the fly plan was to say Toby was taking her to the dance? Way to complicate things! Spencer is hilarious all, "why couldn't you come up with a better lie?" Also hilarious, that Spencer told Toby it was to scare off some creeper for Hanna, and when he asks who it is, she points to some random dudes and he tries to look all scary and intimidating at them. Of course, I guess he was also the town's Boo Radley for the longest time, until Garrett was arrested for Ali and Maya's murders.

Heh, I'm reminded of Norman Buckley's tweets a few months ago, where he was tweeting pics of Emily and Ezra (from when he was tutoring her), and Hanna and Toby (from this dance, apparently), looking all intimate and out of context, so people were all, what's with the switcheroo?! And what the frick, Holden showed up out of friggin nowhere, that's random and creepy! This is the first time we're seeing him since last season, I thought they forgot about him! Also, I get the show wants to cast suspicion on everyone, but do they have to make everyone except the moms seems all creepy?

Also, why the hell would Spencer think finding that one anklet and turning it in prove Garrett is the killer? Its like a random piece of jewelry! Yeah, it belonged to Alison, but I can't see how she thought it would prove Garrett's guilt. On the other hand, just because it has blood on it that isn't Garrett's shouldn't be enough to exonerate him either. Though I guess the paper at the end makes it sound like while he's being cleared of Ali's murder, he's still on the hook for Maya's?

TV commentary:

Gossip Girl- After the depressing turn of events on last week's Glee before the hiatus, I'm really glad Gossip Girl is going in to the break on a happy note (well, at least for Dair, who cares about anyone else?).

But before we get into that, I totally had a feeling CeCe knew the truth and was going to leave something big to Ivy (I didn't realize she was going to leave everything though). Is it me, or was Ivy kicking Lily out of the apartment a bluff? It seemed like she was telling them to leave in the hopes that Lily would be all, "but we have nowhere to go", and then Ivy would be able to reluctantly yet magnanimously offer to let her stay. And then with them stuck under the same roof with her, she would be able to mend fences, because it seems like she really does care for them. But then Rufus has to be all, "Eh, we have an apartment in Brooklyn!" Which I'm sure Dan and Blair will be thrilled with (but more on that later!)

Also, as soon as William showed up, that he was going to be Lola's dad. Ha, so Serena and real Charlie aren't just cousins, they're half-sisters!

And Georgina, feeling she went out on a high note, is ceding the Gossip Girl title to Serena? I guess we'll have to wait until the break to see if she accepts it.

Finally, onto the good stuff, the Dair. So while Georgina is busy at the wake, she leaves the GG stuff to Phillip. Who proceeds to accidentally upload an email from Chuck outing Dan as the sender of the video. So even though Chuck ends up looking like an a-hole, he thinks this will get him back in to Blair's heart. While I am annoyed that Dan did actually end up sending the video (ostensibly to stop the wedding because she seemed miserable and he figured she didn't really want to get married, he had no idea it would cause the whole prenup mess), its pretty hilarious that Blair forgave Dan easily and quickly. And then when Georgina steal's Dan's phone to frame him for uploading the picture of them kissing, destroying Blair's marriage, Chuck admits his complicity and deflects by claiming Dan isolated Blair. Instead of furthering the chaos, Dan just bows out, since Blair has enough to worry about.

Honestly, I can't see how anyone seeing Chuck's behavior and Dan's behavior in this episode think Blair should be with Chuck. I mean, I'm dumbfounded people are feeling sorry for Chuck. Oh, poor guy, he didn't get the girl after not backing off and doing the exact thing she told him not to last week or else she would lose him, and ruining her family!

But aw, how sweet was the end, when Blair showed up, and Dan thought she was mad at first. And his face as he slowly got all hopeful, almost not wanting to believe she's choosing him, finally lighting up when she said her heart was with him now. (I know I keep comparing these two to Pacey and Joey, but I was getting flashbacks to the dock scene at the end of "True Love" on DC) And then his remarks about her referring to him as Dan instead of Humphrey or Brooklyn or Cabbage Patch? As I said at the start of this post, after all the depressing Faberry stuff going into the Glee hiatus last week, I'm glad at least Dair are entering the break on a good place.

Talk about another pretty big Lily/Rufus/Blair/Dan parallel though, with Blair and Lily both losing their wealth at the same time, and Dan and Rufus taking them in.

Heh, even though the promo seems to indicate they're rehashing that one Seth/Summer sex plot from s1 OC, I'm amused by the haters jumping on this as an indication that Dan and Blair aren't right for each other. Obviously they haven't seen that ep of the OC, since S/S worked through that mess rather quickly. I'm guessing the same will happen with Dan and Blair.

And I just saw a comment on the Dair community bringing up the Seth/Summer parallels, I totally didn't see the similarities between Atomic County and the Inside until now. And Dan and Blair both having Cabbage Patches, that's almost like Captain Oats and Princess Sparkle!

Hmm, so in addition to releasing the songs the Friday before, now the show has started releasing some of the performances from the next ep on youtube? Its odd that Fox does the stupid 8 day delay for non-Dish/non Hulu-plus subscribers on all their shows, but they're fine with releasing the actual musical numbers beforehand? I guess they're trying to generate buzz. In any case, here's Brit doing Beyonce's "Run the World":



For one thing, just like when Rachel did Rihanna's "Take a Bow" way back in season one, this is one of those songs where I prefer Glee's version to the original. Though that seems to be the case with a lot of the more Urban music they do. Also, as I've said countless times before, HeMo looks infinitely hotter with her hair down. And finally, how the hell does Kurt have a chance in hell of winning the election after this? The chyx feel all empowered, and the dudes are mesmerized by the hotness.

Speaking of hotness. decided to try my hand at a "Hottest list". I've always found it very difficult to narrow things down to a certain number. But decided to just sit down and look at a list of all the TV shows I watch regularly, the music I listen to, the movies I've seen, other "hottest lists" and first grab all the ladies I liked on those, then take that list and whittle it down to 50 by choosing the ones I felt more strongly towards.

I don't want to say its a "50 hottest chyx list", perhaps it would be more accurate to call it my top 50 favorite hottest chyx: (in no particular order, because its hard enough shortening the list to just 50. Having to order them to would be un-possible!) ( under the cut )

I was too lazy to actually link to pics. If you're reading this, you have access to the net. If you're curious what one of them looks like, google it yourself! In any case, I put their ages next to them just to help me with seeing trends.

And what trends did I find? Well, I have a definite preference for brunettes- of the 50, 33 are dark haired, with only 10 blonds and 7 redheads. And it should be no surprise I favor the snowflakes- 44/50 are white, with the last 6 being equally split between Latina and Asian. Of course, I didn't count Alexis Bledel as Hispanic, even though she actually is, despite her fair skin and blue eyes. Odette Yustman might actually count as Hispanic also. But chyx like Selena Gomez and Kristin Kreuk are practically snowflakes so the numbers are nebulous.

Age-wise, only 2 are under 20 (but still over 18), with 27 in their 20s, 20 in their 30s, and 1 in her 40s. (Hmm, I wonder if I plotted it out, would it look like a bell curve?) It should be no surprise that 43 of them are younger than me, but hey 7 older, that's not too bad. Though I guess 29 of them were playing high school age characters when they first came to my attention. (Although I shouldn't really count Evangeline Lily, because I first had the hots for her on Lost, and it was only later that I found out she was an extra in Freddy vs Jason. But technically, the first thing I saw her in, she was playing a HS-er)

So got back from my LA trip. While I did post some stuff on twitter/facebook/google+, didn't get a chance to make any LJ entries. Anyways, flew to LAX on Wednesday, arriving the same time as isabel79, 7500centfish, sparkyboy, and moodysweetie, and various other relatives. The rest of the fam wanted to eat at some Flip restaurant, which we did. Got to the hotel, and tried to organize the jillion people there to some sort of plan, but were unsuccessful. (A trend that repeated itself over the next few days) Some of us were gonna go see 7500centfish's bartender friend at the bar he worked at, but we were hungry and tired, so me and sparkyboy and moodysweetie and her friend A went to look for food, and ended up going to In and Out burger. Which was okay, but certainly not as great as people made it out to be. 7500centfish and Uncle C eventually made it to see her friend, and I missed out, because apparently a lot of the hotties at Exxxotica (which was going on in LA these past few days) were staying there.

Thursday, we hit Disneyland with Uncle C and his girls. On the way there, we saw Brit from Glee in the car next to us. Or at the very least, someone who looked a lot like her. It was a fun time, but also exhausting.

Friday, hit the Santa Monica pier, while some of the others hit the beach for surf lessons. Ate lunch at some sketchy joint full of mosquitoes and had pigeons walking around the inside. (Although I was bad and fed them some fries). Had the rehearsal dinner that night. Apparently Kurt from Glee was at the restaurant, but I missed out (the first of a few celebs on this trip I was oblivious of) After, we hit a karaoke bar near the place. I put my name in to sing a couple of songs, but there were so many people ahead of me and the place was full of drunken idiots that I never got the chance to sing before everyone wanted to leave. Eh, I would've felt like an a-hole anyways singing properly when everyone else was drunkenly butchering the songs they were doing. Well, mostly. I didn't get to sing on stage, but that didn't stop me from singing along.

Saturday was the wedding, which was on top of some Malibu mountaintop that we had to take a shuttle bus up a scary narrow road to. It was a beautiful place though. The reception was also up there, which was outdoors, and I managed not to freak out about eating outside or at all the bugs flying around the lush gardens.

Sunday, apparently Carson Daly was at church, then we had a celebratory lunch at the Fairmont, where 7500centfish and moodysweetie saw the Governator while I was getting us a table. Afterward hit Venice beach for a few hours. Had dinner at El Pollo Loco, which was more fast foody than we were expecting. (Wasn't that the restaurant Ryan worked at on the OC? It seemed fancier in there) After we got back, I took a break to watch the latest ep of True Blood, then hung out with sparkyboy, 7500centfish, and isabel79, A, Z, J, S, and Uncle C at the hotel bar (since I quit drinking, I did not partake of any alcohol), wherein they made plans to fix me up with S's cousin (since J, Z, and S live just north of me). Heh, I'm sure the hotel was pleased that we basically just parked there until almost 2am in the morning when the bar usually closes at 10. But they were nice to let us have run of the place after they closed up.

Flew back this morning. I was pretty lax about it, and ended up getting to the gate right at boarding time, which is a first for me. I'm usually getting there at least an hour before. Of course, we ended up getting delayed because the plane needed a part replaced. But yeah, now I'm back in the ATL. It was a fun vacay all in all.

Ooh, if Amazon is to be believed, Dynasty Warriors 7: XL is indeed coming to the states in November. Ah can't wait! Also, I don't know what the hell I was talking about in my last post about the timing problems of Xu Huang's great axe. After using it further, my initial issue must have been a fluke. Because that weapon is just monstrous. I mean, as I said before, its a 5 slot death element, and a much better choice for a secondary than the best rapier (also a 5 slot death element), particularly for those who are proficient in it. Seriously, the weapon is ungodly! Particularly if you spam c6. I mean, the combo knocks them into the air, but as they come down, your last hit "catches" them, wherein you can just do the c6 again. Of course, if it doesn't kill them, they can air-break out of the second c6. But, if it kills them, since the last hit catches them before they fall, just keep on doing it over and over for an easy infinite combo.

Today, saw Cowboys and Aliens with the usual suspects. It was an okay, if not really memorable action flick. All I really have to say about it is that holy cow, Olivia Wilde is totally hot. Speaking of, both Olivia Wilde and Emma Stone seem to be Hollywood "It Girls" of the moment. And I'll have to admit, I didn't really feel them initially. When Olivia Wilde was first on the OC, she didn't really register for me. (Shannon Lucio with her strawberry blond hair and glasses was far more interesting to me) Maybe it was the blond hair, because she looks infinitely better as a brunette. And on Drive, I think they just put too much make up on Emma Stone. But nowadays both girls are HOTT!

After, had lunch at Monterrey's then headed to the Phatcave for some games. Played the updated version of Clue, wherein they have these new intrigue cards, and instead of being "Captain" or "Miss" or "Professor", the characters have first names- Jacob Green (the man with connections?), Jack Mustard (now an ex-football star instead of a Colonel), Kasandra Scarlet (now a Hollywood Socialite), Diane White (now a former child actress), Eleanor Peacock (from a rich and powerful political family) and Victor Plum (a self-made internet millionaire). Not sure why they needed to change the game up, if it ain't broke don't fix it!

Also played Mega Monopoly. And hey, I think that's the first time I ever won a game of monopoly. In the end, the ex-roomie busted out to me after I had just built skyscrapers on my only monopoly (florida ave-park place-boardwalk), and clevemire conceded, since I now had all of K's monopolies, and he just had the one. I mean, we could've played it out, but I think we were both just ready for the game to be over. I was thinking cool, I'll be back in time for the latest ep of a certain television show, but then I was disappointed to learn the new ep is next week.

So watching the commercials for Scream 4 during Archer, how many chyx are friggin' in this? I mean, you have the cute and niced racked Alison Brie and Aimee Teegarden, 90210/Degrassi's Shenae Grimes, the teacher-dating and JB looking Lucy Hale and Britt Robertson, Hayden Panty-Airs, Julia Roberts' niece, Suckeh Stackhouse, Ronnie Mars, Marley Shelton, and of course Courteney Cox (wait, was it always spelled "Courteney"?! Who spells it like that?!) and Neve Campbell.

I'm also amused Anthony Anderson is in this given he was in the Scary Movies. Also, Seth Cohen. Heh, what has he done after the OC? The last thing I remember seeing him in was Jennifer's Body.

So, Hit Girl tweeted a pic of herself and Juliette Lewis, all gussied up which is all well and fine until you remember she just only turned 14 a couple of months ago.

I thought this was well done:



A Disney vid set to Glee's "Thriller/Heads Will Roll" mashup. I think the creator did a pretty good job of synching up the lyrics with appropriate scenes.