Monday, September 27, 2010

It's late but I've got time...

It really is late and I should be sleeping because I have class in the morning and I could use some alertness. Damn me for drinking caffeinated beverage tonight! I'm talking about books again because I think the dominating part of my life revolves around them.

I've taken a chance and started reading the Gossip Girl book series. I have never had an interest in reading rich kids living in the Upper East Side or given sympathy to those that blow 3,000 dollars at Barney's in a day. But, there is something about these books I like and that what makes it a guilty pleasure for me. I had previously read a spin-off series Von Ziegesar has written based on the Jenny Humpfrey character from the GG series. That spin-off is titled The It Girl series and I still don't know why it is called that. I enjoyed that series the same way I'm enjoying the GG one. It all has to do with the relationships between friends and between significant others. Having money to spare is one thing but there is no self-gratification from it. Sure, if I had money I would splurge on those days of despair and PMS.

It really is all about knowing what's real and what people want, Von Ziegesar is good at this, but sometimes the plot starts to become obvious so I'm hoping for curveballs. Oh, and reading the series puts me off loser habits which consist of smoking some kind of drug and drinking alcohol. The kids in here drinking twenty times more than me (but then again I am diabetic so drinking isn't smiled upon by my endocrinologist) and showing up to events stoned. Is that really a proper message for young teens to learn? I know the books became controversial about these habits being displayed for an impressionable age group and I have to wonder myself. The book does not focus heavily on this so I think it's safe to look beyond that to the character dynamics because that's what's important in this series.

The real reason I am bothering at all was my friend, Sarah lent me all the books because she had them sitting, collecting dust, and I needed to get my feet wet in new fiction. It is good to read something out of my comfort zone occasionally and this series is really something I would never pick out on my own to read. Sarah has about 12 of the books in the series so I just borrowed and started in. I want to judge the books quite severely but right now I'm willing to overlook my pettiness.

Next - Both The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural have begun their seasons and am enjoying them so far. Supernatural's premiere last Friday had me raising eyebrows because I wasn't sure what to expect this season. Kripke isn't at the helm anymore and it makes me wonder if the show will go off the deep end. BUT, it didn't. I loved this new idea of the Winchester boys working separately and how there are other hunters in the family. Samuel's return from the dead is unexplainable to me and totally fishy. Something else has to be going on there. Felling sorry for Dean AGAIN. Will he become his kick-ass self again? I hope, man, do I hope. After the episode I was so FRICKIN EXCITED that new promos had been filmed and now I don't have to look at the same season two shots! Just look at this video here:



Did they finally put money into something new? YIPPEE! My dad made a comment how it looks like they pasted Jared's head on a smaller person, but I actually think he bulked down a little. But thank goodness, maybe somebody over there finally heard my complaining. Other fans might complain too, but I have yet to really notice any.

Now over on The Vampire Diaries, it's like a soap opera. And all I really have to comment on is Damon is getting shitted on so badly. Really. It's almost painful to watch. I keep drawing parallels to Buffy the Vampire Slayer because how could I not? Every time I'm watching TVD I see Elena as Buffy Summers, the middle woman without the slayage ability, and her two vampire lovers that know each other very well but hate each other. Stefan who remind me of Angel (and kind of looks like him!). I was watching Buffy season 3 episodes and I can't help but find it almost creepy how he comes off the same as Angel. And Damon reminds me of Spike, who was funny and sexy but with a geeky and heartbroken mushy inside. I have a feeling TVD will turn out very different from Buffy, but both shows rock!

Now it's really late and no sleep will render me useless so off to bed. Kind of dreading the dentist tomorrow. No matter how old I get, the frickin' dentist scares the crap out of me.

:(

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Bass's Bio & The Vampire Diaries' books & obsession

It's been some time since I last blogged anything and I suppose I have a few things I can talk about.

First - I read Lance Bass's autobiography and it was terrible. I only read it because I am/was a fan of *NSYNC when I was little girl. It was too short and frankly, didn't talk much about Lance's life. It felt like a biographer wrote the book to me because it didn't feel very personalized. Bass just complains about things that went wrong for him. He complains about the lawsuits against his former manager, Lou Pearlman. He complains about how the Russians wasted his time and money by promising his dreams of going into space to become a reality when they backed out last minute. He complains about how Justin Timberlake ended *NSYNC for good by going solo and becoming a triple -threat in the entertainment business. That last part is completely true in my opinion and I never would have thought that bleached curly-haired dude would do it. Props for JT for proving everyone wrong (or me at least).

Second - I'm fully obsessed with the CW show, The Vampire Diaries. It's become so strong that I can't wait for the second season and the first on DVD at the end of August. I'm looking forward to this much more than Supernatural which is/was my favorite show. It's been waning on me the last two seasons with the ongoing (aka outstretched) angels story lines. I guess I'm interested in something fresh at this point. I don't watch much TV these days but I do cut time out of my days for these two network shows. The move to Friday was another problem I had with Supernatural, but I think they are trying to spread out the line-up so they can add new shows in. I just hope I don't get sucked into watching Nikita...

I've sucked myself far enough into Vampire Diaries that I read my way through the first four novels which come in a magical duel set so readers get four for the price of two. I'm a little wary about reading the returning novels considering I've seen some reviews that insist it's not as good as the originals. I have to say I was far more impressed with these books opposed to Twilight which is the dominating opponent to everything vampire related these days. Really, do people have to compare every literary piece that involves vampires to Twilight? Twilight is not like most vampire novels, it's YA romance and that's about it. I'm getting off the Twi-hard train before some Twi-nazi starts tromping me for talking bad about their favorite book series.

Some things I found different about the books that I enjoyed are as follows:

- The main character dies, comes back, and dies again. Then which a supporting character takes over. This happens with Elena and Bonnie takes narrating in the last book. I didn't really like Bonnie very much up until that point, she was weak to me. She has witch powers and such but she never really takes advantage of them the way I wish she would. Her being a big part of the last book made me finally enjoy and appreciate her character the way I wish I could have for the other three books.

- Damon. I love Damon's character on the show but it's a very different representation of him from the books. As a reader, we don't know much of anything about Damon except in flashbacks from Stefan's POV and some small moments with Elena. He isn't domineering part of the story and he's like background noise; you know it's there and it's slightly annoying. There is no wounded side of him in the book and he eventually walks away from them all at the end saying he's not like the rest of them. I want to feel absolutely pissed about this but I love that. It's very different from the show, very different.

- Stefan. I think one can tell I have a "crush" on Damon, but I have respect for Stefan in the books. He was sappy at the beginning and that just makes me wanna say "Cheer up, guy" but when you're a vampire you can't really tell them to be happy. They are eternally damned so... Later in the books, Stefan takes a stronger stance and is actually linked to all the friends in Elena circle. The whole story opens up and isn't just one-sided with just Elena and him.

- Meredith & Matt. These are wonderful supporting characters. Meredith isn't in the show and I wish like hell she was. She's the strongest of all the girls in the books. She comes off as quiet and shy but turns out to be a very resourceful and sharp-minded. She reminds me of myself and I can relate to her character the best. Matt is my favorite character in the books and I've established that half-way through the first book. He's the guy I wish existed in my life, he's there when you need him and he's stronger and smarter than you might get from a quick glance at him. He's suppose to be the jock of the story but hardly fits the stereotype (Tyler Lockwood is a better fit especially personality wise) and surprised me several times throughout my reading. I enjoy the on-screen Matt on the TV show too and I hope he gets a little more involved like he is in the books. I'm really looking forward to that.

This is a little off-topic but I noticed that DAMON spelled backward is NOMAD and he comes off like that in the book. He's constantly coming and going and no one knows what he is up to. I like the supernatural bit where he can turn into a crow and I wish they kept that in the show. I understand that it is corny and on-screen it did look that way. It bugged me that they never explained what all the crow and fog stuff was about. If you didn't read the books you'd find it strange how it goes from Dracula-spooky to none of it next episode. It's a cool character trait and if they could bring it back that would be neat. Also, Damon controlling the weather was cool and wouldn't mind that either.

I guess I should read the newer books for the heck of it. I'll probably enjoy those too.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Nothing Hairy about "Wolf Lake"


I did not hear of 'Wolf Lake" through a friend or a website but directly from my television. I watched parts of it when SciFi would play a marathon block during their morning program between 2007-2008. This was before the stupid name change and I'm not aware if they play the episodes in morning blocks still. I have not seen of it this year but I could just be missing it. I never caught full episodes and was never sure what was going on because I never saw the first episode.

For some reason, I became interested in watching the 9 episodes that aired originally in 2001 on CBS and re-aired on networks such as UPN, SciFi, and Chiller. There was also an unaired pilot I read about but have not watched considering people have said it's completely different from the other 9 episodes. I found the episodes in a torrent and downloaded them to pique my interest and from what I can tell I really enjoyed "Wolf Lake".


The basic plot of the show was centered around a Seattle police officer named John Kanin (played by Lou Diamond Phillips) in search for his missing girlfriend, Ruby Cates(played by Mia Kirshner) which leads him to a small Washington town called "Wolf Lake". When Kanin arrives he's quick to notice something is not right about the town and is determined to uncover its secret. The secret is simple, Wolf Lake is home to none other than wolves.

It surprised me that this show didn't last, but I think supernatural ones don't do well unless involved with recent trends. Hence, the million vampire and werewolf related shows popping up on networks because of the Twilight phenomena. I find the story lines to be simple enough to follow while complicated enough to keep you interested.


By far the best character on "Wolf Lake" had to be Sherman Blackstone (played wonderfully by Graham Greene) who is the voice of reason among the residents of the town. I'm not completely clear if he's human or not because I swear he said he was 7, 000 years old in an episode. His character has the funny one liners and is hard to not like. He hung around the background of the story lines almost like a piece of wallpaper but if the show had continued probably would have ended up a big piece of the plot involving Kanin's investigation of Wolf Lake and Ruby.


Another aspect I enjoyed was the young adult plot line following the Sheriff's daughter, Sophia (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Luke Cates (played by Paul Wesley). Sophia was dealing with her transition from human to wolf or called "flipping" on the show. Luke is one of the kids in town that is a wolf and his father is the alpha male of the wolf pack. Sophia is afraid to embrace the wolf side of her along with her father Matt Donner (played by Tim Matheson) who was a wolf himself. Even in her hesitation, she turns to Luke for help and understanding on what it's like to embrace the wolf.


There are other story lines that are introduced but unfortunately do not get a resolve. I won't discuss the rest because I rather you (readers) check it out for yourself because it's worth a look. The cast is fairly well known and wonderfully played. The story is strong and it really made me interested in what could of happened. The 9 episodes ended in a pivotal point where many of the story lines were being branched out and possibly resolved. That's what fanfiction is for though, folks!

For those of you who haven't seen it, I recommend searching Google for a torrent because it should be simple enough to find. I was flummoxed that none of the episodes in the torrent were high quality, in fact they all looked VHS ripped for the most part. Since they aired in recent years there should be higher quality available somewhere. I wouldn't know a really good place to look but some of you might know better than myself.

I might (for the heck of it) do an episode break down if I feel like applying myself to it. It would be with pictures and all but I could leave LiveJournal for that.

Please let me know what you think about "Wolf Lake" and send comments my way!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Rain still lives! & Supernatural on a new night?




I found out that these online television shows are actually called virtual series. RAIN, the one virtual series I spoke of before on my blog, is actually still around. I found it while browsing on the Buffy forums. I'm not an actual member, and I don't see why I'm not, but I enjoy reading virtual series on there. Many interesting Buffy spin-offs and loads of talented writers on it. I'm happy Beth is still making episodes, now I can read some new ones! YAHHHHHHHHHHH!

Episode 7 | Episode 8 | Episode 9

ONCE AGAIN, I AM NOT AT ALL INVOLVED WITH THIS PROJECT. I'M JUST A FAN!


The other bit of information I have is Supernatural is moved to Friday nights at 8 p.m. now! I cannot believe this but I saw a promotional on CW for it when I was re-watching The Vampire Diaries and Moonlight is on after it. Then Friday, I was flipping channels and there it was on after Smallville. I'm a little annoyed and I'm not sure if it's just a summer deal, but I suppose I'm in need of a change. I just have to watch both Thursday and Friday nights!

(Yeah, I checked it and it's officially on Friday for fall's schedule...sigh...I will survive...)

Oh, and can I complain about the networking doing some new promotional material for the show? I'm sick of looking at material from Season 2, do they think they can shell some money for the current season? I know it's a veteran show but Smallville and even One Tree Hill gets new material.






Wednesday, June 2, 2010

As far as I've been aware lately...I've had more power than I thought I had with what I choose to say or not say. I've always been the quiet, shy girl that never speaks her mind and I still am now. But from a recent row with a brother to being unexpectedly pissed off by a friend's comment, I'm getting tired of keeping my mouth shut. I'm a pacifist, by all means, and I don't encourage fighting. I grew up with fighting all around me and I grew tired of it years ago. I'm not really talking about fighting here, it more or less is just letting people know how you truly feel about an issue.

I've decided that if I don't like someone's opinion I will let them know otherwise how I feel. It's no more keeping my trap shut even though I'd like to. It's said it does one good to do something that scares them everyday so I think this will be my "thing". I know I've been very on/off about blogging but I'm hoping to post some insightful, simple life things. I'll always talk about pop culture...in fact, I need to get into some new fads. Many of my old/recent ones are dying.

And can anyone tell me what a buffalo stance is?

Monday, May 24, 2010

Just Read

I was browsing Youtube and came across this really funny comment with an even more funny response.

Commentor: "If I had a spidey costume, I don't think I'd ever take it off."

Responder: "Then you wouldn't need spider powers...the smell alone would keep villians away."

Saturday, May 22, 2010

It's been a long spring...

It's been a while since I last left a post, but that's okay because no one reads my blog except me. It is a little disappointing that comments remain at zero and so does my self-esteem.

What brings the changes? Coffee. That simple. I should not drink caffeine when I rarely do because I can't sleep all day from one 8 oz. cup of it. I decided to remodel my blog again to look crisper, more summer sheen than winter blues. The weather hasn't been too nice yet, but the humidity sneaks in the air when it can. I hate that sticky feeling, it's suffocating and hot.

My summer break is here and I have nothing to do. It prompts me to go out and get a job like everyone else. But it doesn't help that I have my anxieties to work about and my diabetes. My diabetes has been in better check lately. It hasn't been high and I figure it has to do with cutting out white starches from my diet. My nutritionist says it's the worst for blood sugars and I've noticed, but trying to stay away from them is hard. I like a piece of toast for breakfast or sandwich, and my family loves their white starches. Especially my father who has Type 2 and still eats as many carbs as he wants. And he wonders why he is fat! He needs to stop eating junk food and pop. Eliminating those two things from your diet can be a vast improvement to your health.

I don't eat pizza anymore unless it's offered at someone's home and then I'll politely eat a piece. I try to eat salad more, in fact, I ate one everyday for a while. I got sick a while back and threw up one of them so I haven't been eating them as much. I'm slowly trying to work it back into a daily meal.

I haven't seen D too much lately but she's been working on some nice improvements to her life. I'm proud that she's making big steps even if she's afraid to make them. I'm afraid of everything, dear, try leaving the house without having something to fear. Her car is very nice and if I had one like that I would get my license too, but then there's plenty of other problems within that. I'm a fan of Queer as Folk because of her now. Which reminds me of how much I miss Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I think they show reruns on TLN...but I haven't watched the channel recently.

Another thing about being rudely kept up by caffeine is enduring my drunk brother pawing on me for hugs and telling me how much he loves me. This happens pretty often and I'm a little blessed that it does, it makes me feel needed somewhere for a little bit. I have to take him up to his room, make sure he doesn't hurl in the process, and make sure he's awake for work in the morning.

I think I can do homemaker. I can cook, but I wouldn't put anyone up for eating whatever I make. I love chicken and potatoes. Well, meat and potatoes really. I'll take a home-cooked meal over fast food any day. Is it corny to want to have theme parties too? I wish my friends and I could do those. Make food and dress up and have fun. Gosh, I sound like I should be on "The Golden Girls".

- Kate