Television: Week of 5 Oct

SPOILER ALERT. Lol.

House - Season 6, Episode 3: "The Tyrant". This episode was amazing. First of all, let me just say that James Earl Jones guest starred. Did you read that right the first time? YES. James Earl Jones guest starred. That's right, Darth Vader, and a great actor to boot. He portrayed this evil dictator, basically, who was on the verge of squashing a rebellion, but he was in the US because he was invited to speak at the UN, until he started coughing up blood. Naturally, they took him to the best: Princeton Plainsboro. When I first saw the teaser for this episode, I thought, hm, this reminds me of that episode from way back when with the Death Row inmate. They actually mentioned that in the first few minutes, and it proved to be drastically different. And the old team was back together. They spent so long trying to figure out what was wrong with him. At first, Cameron was against helping him, but Chase was for it, but by the end of the episode.... That final scene with Chase and Foreman was so intense... some of the best TV acting I've seen or paid attention to in a long, long time. The relationship between 13 and Foreman is still rocky, and when she left him alone at dinner after telling him off, well the whole common room was cheering her on [and calling Foreman a tool and a little bitch]. Finally, House. He 'magically' cured this Vietnam vet after provoking him to death, and now he doesn't have to move out! Lots of funny, lots of serious. Watch it.

Castle - Season 2, Episode 3: "Inventing the Girl". This episode was pretty good. "It's Fashion Week in New York City," says Castle, "and the clothes are to die for!" His quote pretty much sums up the plot... A model was murdered and it's up to Beckett and Castle to find out what happened [obviously]. I really like the relationship between Beckett and Castle [have I said this a thousand times before?]. In this episode, there isn't much change, except the ice has softened from the beginning of the season, and she's a little mad at him for not letting her read his manuscript. We also learn that she used to model. Hah. But any way... I felt like this case was a lot easier to solve [that's okay! the characters need a break once in a while! lol], but then again, it's very hard to follow last week's Strangers on a Train -esque episode. That was pretty awesome. But it was still good.

Heroes - Season 4, Episode 3: "Acceptance". This was great. The focus was mostly on Nathan and Hiro, with a little Tracy and the carnies splashed in. Claire comes to check up on Noah and suggests he gets a job, giving him some good advice for his future. Tracy has been set back up in her old job, and it's everything she thought she wanted, but there's something missing. She doesn't want a secretarial job where she sleeps with her boss and whoever else needs persuading - she wants a job where she can really help people, so Noah passes on his newfound wisdom. Hiro tried forty-something times to save a man from committing suicide, until he realises it's time for a new approach. He convinces the man to come down from the roof, and has an epiphany: it's time to tell his sister that he's dying. NOOO HIRO NOOO I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE, YOU'RE TOO CUTE ♥
Nathan, who is really Sylar, and will henceforth be known as Nathlar, was having trouble remembering Nathan's life, but he's been discovering Sylar's abilities as they begin to manifest themselves. "It's a new superpower every day," he complains worriedly to his brother. As he picks up objects from his past, he sees their histories, though he can't remember these things ever happening, and this leads him to unlock a dangerous secret about a high school girlfriend - she died, and it's all his fault. He tells this to the girl's mother, and she arranges for Nathlar to be assassinated and for the job to look like a robbery gone bad [they drug him, steal his stuff, shoot him, and bury him in the forest], while she eats with Angela, pretending to be concerned about Nathan's mental health. Of course, this leads to the crazy final shot, in which we see Nathlar's arm stretching out of the dirt [Zombie Nathlar!! BRAINNSSSSS!!!], and when the body pulls itself up, it's clearly Sylar's face that we see.
All in all, a great episode. They focused on only a few characters, and even though they've done it before, it was very successful this time and better executed. Keep it up. The fans are pleased.

Glee - Season 1, Episode 6: "Vitamin D". I liked it. I actually watched this one with Mum, so there was a little chatter, pointing out actors ["Is that Orlando Bloom!?" "No -.-"], explaining plot details... but I liked it. I want to know how, exactly, Terry plans on faking labour when she gets Quinn's baby. That's the only thing that's been on my mind for a while, really. The performances... there wasn't so much singing this time, which bummed me out, but the guys' performance was GREAT. Speed or no speed. I'm not sure why I don't go into plot outlining here like I did for the other shows, but... Any way, it was great. Sorry, I'm sleepy.

Because of my trip home, I did get to watch my Thursday shows, but I never got a chance to write about them. Let me just tell you that Fringe was SO amazing, and Infomania and The Rotten Tomatoes Show weren't bad either.

Fantastic.

This is fantastic. Check it out.

Let's Talk About TV!

I've been watching A LOT of TV lately. This is turning into something of a problem, but I have so much free time and so I've been doing a lot of catching up on reruns and watching new shows. I think that, starting next week, I should write about all the new episodes I've watched on Fridays, because it makes it look like I'm doing something [even though it means the exact opposite!]. But before that, I should make that initial list and should write about what I've seen so far. Oh. There will be spoilers. I've provided links to where you can watch them online [if available] and times and channels if you want to check them out, lol.

Jeopardy! - Wednesday, 30 Sept, a guy name Stan was on Jeopardy! He gave a rather shameless shout-out to a Youtube video he and his friends - The Purple Teddy Bears - did in high school to I Want It That Way. Good play, sir. Even though you did not win, your video is currently being watched by thousands all across the country. Watch this every night on ABC - it changes locally, but home and here it's at 7.

Chuck - I watched the entire second half of the previous season of Chuck [including re-watching the Dom Monaghan ep]. Because of House's new time, Heroes, and my sister's obsession with Gossip Girl, I didn't get to see any of these. Seriously, though, I watched so many episodes that I wouldn't even know what to write. They were great, and I can't wait for the new season to start in March. [I will definitely let you know dates and times when I find out lol].

How I Met Your Mother - I watched the Pilot episode. It's really funny, and I love Neil Patrick Harris, but mostly, it's really funny. It's been a long time since I've watched a [not Jeopardy!] half hour show. I'm looking forward to watching more and more. I'll finish the first season, for sure, and see where that takes me.

Glee - I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so I watched the Pilot. I loved it. And now I'm all caught up! There are a lot of Heroes alumni in it, and the one guy from My Own Worst Enemy. I loved the teens, I loved the teachers, I loved Jayma Mays, and I loved the music.
I'm a little annoyed that the gay kid and the black kid play the stereotypical gay and black kids in the way they talk, dress, and act [though the Asian kid doesn't, which is strange, and nice]. I also don't like that the gay kid called their song gay. I get that it's irony and all, but I don't think it's appropriate, from any character. Mr. Shu's wife bothers me so much. She seems to represent the American Dream gone wrong... or... exactly the kind of people I ran into working in that toy store back home. So, WHOA, when I saw the wife with the lighter she reminded me of Claire's bio-mom in Heroes. And I'd be right.
But I always pick on the things I don't like. I like the way the kids' storylines mirror the adults', and the way that the characters handle it. I liked the anti-abstinence-only and feminist plug in the Celibacy Club. And most importantly, I couldn't stop laughing. I like this show a lot and will definitely keep watching! I think this is Wednesdays at 9 on Fox.

House - Oh my gosh. Did you miss the two-hour season premier? Because you should totally go watch that right now. So many people from our dorm and outside of it gather in our common room to watch House every Monday night at 8 on Fox. Of course, this means I have to skip Heroes, but that goes online the day after it airs, so I catch up fast enough [House doesn't go online until eight days after it airs! STUPID.] I'm so glad for House, taking control of his life and trying to find things that hold his interest to keep his mind clean. Is it weird to be proud of a TV character? Haha... On the other hand, though, I'm royally pissed off with Foreman - when am I not, though? I hate him -.- - and I'm really sad about Taub [hope it's not permanent :( ]. Third episode is tomorrow, 8, Fox, and I'm super excited.


Heroes -THIS SEASON ACTUALLY DOESN'T SUCK SO FAR. This is the season we fans have been waiting for since the first one ended! The third was decent, but the second... well we just don't talk about it... This is the good stuff that we've been waiting for. The Sylar/Parkman storyline is so thrilling [starting to remind me of last season's House lol], and the Hiro/Ando story makes me so sad *sob*. Here's another one that I'm super excited to watch [on Tuesday, though] because its third episode comes out tomorrow lol, 8, NBC.

Castle - Still loving it. Last week's episode had a lot of grammar nerding going on, which was fantastic. :D As always, the relationship between Castle and Beckett is very well portrayed, I love Castle's slighty-crazy mother, and I think the girl who plays his daughter is pretty excellent, too. Third episode tomorrow, lol, 10, ABC. [If it's a good show, it must air on Mondays, obviously.]

Fringe - Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh. I love this show. Since the first or second episode of its first season last year, it has easily become my favourite show [tied with House, I guess]. And this season... well I was very, very scared that it would be like Heroes: amazing first season and then crap for two years after. I've read some reviews of the first season, where people were saying they needed to 'warm up' to the show - that the end of the season was much better than the beginning. I always thought the other way around: I really loved the beginning, and started to get a little nervous when an actual, um, plot began to develop. Maybe it was just my 'bad' experience with Heroes? Who knows. But for a while, I didn't like where the show was going, and even though the second season just picks it up and follows that line, I love it. Charlie, omg. That was so predictable, but it makes me so saddddd. And John Noble... I love him. Denethor, ftw. He's a great actor ♥ and has a lot of awesome crazy roles lol. The fourth episode will air this Thursday at 9 on Fox, so tune in!

Infomania - Infomania is a satirical news show that airs Thursdays at 10 on Current. That's channel 17 here or 192 back home on Fios. It's got a lot of great segments like "We've got you covered," which tells you the headlines of magazines from the week, and "That's Gay," which is about issues related to the queer community, and "Sergio's White Hot Top 5," in which Sergio makes fun of [usually crappy] music. It's a great show for news headlines and lots of laughs. Please tune in.

Rotten Tomatoes - I'm sure you're all familiar with the fantastic RottenTomatoes.com. In the show, they review the latest movies, show you the newest trailers, tell you what's coming out this weekend, give you chances to win $100!, and they make awesome montages, all with the same tongue-in-cheek, satirical style as Infomania. So if you want to know what's up in movieland, definitely check this out, Thursday nights at 10:30 [right after Infomania!].

Moon Festival!

Would you laugh if I told you my very first college party was also my very first club meeting, which was also a Moon Festival party? Well, I had to go with Bo, because I didn't know where I was going. Bo told us why we celebrate Moon Festival, and then we watched a documentary about Philadelphia's Chinatown [which I've been to...], and then we ate Moon Cake! Enjoy.

Camelympics

I don't think I ever wrote about the wonder that is Camelympics. First of all, check out the ever-amusing compilation of photos here.



There was a team for almost every dorm [and then there was team X lol], and every team had to have a cheer, a shirt, and a banner. We all signed up for events, and I signed up for Dodgeball, Scrabble, and a Spelling Bee. Dodgeball was SO EPIC. We came in third place - we were owning so hard for the longest time, um, until we lost. But the team we lost to ended up being first place, lol. Scrabble was equally as epic - we came in third overall, and on our first move of our first game, we put down a 76 point word. WIN. Or something. That was pretty amazing. Spelling, however, was the opposite of epic. It was epic fail. Lol. At one am, my brain doesn't care how to spell aqueduct any more.



Kelsey did what was called "The Longest Event". She held on to a tree for over eight hours. She, and nine others, made it all the way until 3, when it was over. Yay.



When Dan and Bo and I had nothing left to do, we kept Kelsey company. We fed her a little bit, we read to her from Winnie The Pooh, and we listened as Alex played a lot of Switchfoot songs. At one point, some girl gave us a blanket, and Dan and Bo and I curled up inside of it for the last hour to keep warm [it got so cold!!]. So that was that.

Scrambles!

So there's a thing in our school called Queer on the Can. An LGBTQ group on campus puts out one-page publications and tapes them to the inside of the bathroom stalls so we get some Queer news when we're... you know... So the SGA decided to hack this idea and we got the not-so-alliterative SGA on the Can. Yeah. Well they put a word scramble up there and said "If you find more than 24 words, I'll give you candy." Just sitting there... I found twenty-five, and then when I copied down the words and worked it out back at my desk, I easily found forty. So I emailed all forty words to the SGA and said I wanted my candy. After a long time, they emailed me back and said "Just tell us what dorm and room," and so I might just get my candy. The letters, if you're wondering, spelled out USURP [I don't remember the scramble, sorry]. How many can you find? Well this week, in a new publication, they gave us a new scramble and asked for forty or more, and so I decided to work that one out. I found ninety-eight. How many words can you find from the letters of RESDUCOP? [RESDUCOP is not a word lol.]

Weekend at Home

For anyone who doesn't know, I had the pleasure of spending last weekend back home. It was fantastic.

I finished packing on Friday morning and went to German; after German, Mum and I took off, around 11:45. I hadn't eaten lunch, but we didn't want to waste time driving, so we stopped at Friendly's and got take-out Sundaes! ♥ Mine was Cookies & Cream [we don't have Cookies and Cream ice cream in the dining halls here, so it's been a while :( ] with Hot Fudge and Butterfingers, with Whipped Cream! So good :3 Any way, that would have to be the highlight of the three hour drive.

I got to Livingston a little after 2:30, and it was probably quarter to three by the time I got to LHS. The first person I saw was Phoebe, and then I saw Jimmy and Blair, and then I headed inside because there was a bakesale [and people]. I saw Paula, which was awesome. I miss her a lot. She gave me part of a brownie ^^. I went to visit Madame and Monsieur, and we chatted for a while. I also visited with Dr. T. and Mrs. Lee. I was very happy to see everyone, because I'm very homesick here and miss all these familiar faces terribly. After school, Mum and I bought bubble tea! More ♥. Another first-since-August.

Then I had to go shoe shopping, and I bought these really fun shoes and some boots because it gets wet up here. We got home just about the same time as Andrew got to our house, hehe. I was so happy to see him :D We tried to have dinner at Mistuba in Chatham, but it ran into my dance lesson, so I had to leave him and Mum there while I ran to dance. I had a great lesson, and then Andrew and Mum started to watch, so Victor went into show-off mode [which I do not like very much *cry*].

Once home, I taught Andrew how to play the violin [just a little tiny bit] and then we went to sleep. A very wonderful day. Saturday!

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Let me just say, it was Andrew's idea to wake up at six, but that loser was still in his sleeping bag by the time I came back from washing up and getting dressed O: I had to wake him up, but in his defence, he is A LOT easier to wake up than Greg. Yep. So when I asked Andrew what he'd like for breakfast, he said PANCAKES. So we ended up at the Original Pancake House :D I had crêpes, as usual, and they were delicious. We got to Jesson's house at 8:10, just like he'd asked us to, and we had to wait for Mrs. Hartmann to pick us up. Oli was going to cosplay, but we weren't.

We got to NYAF super early. The registration lines were... well, non-existent. We had to wait in this massive line until it opened.

Overall, I was not so impressed. I think AnimeNEXT was a lot more fun, and I did not like how the emphasis was on the vendors.

I actually bought less, too. But I got this really cute Bubble Tea / Kitten bag and a lunchbox and a necklace with a cloud on it :3

I also got some of those speech bubbles [ellipses] for Ying and Liam, because they both wanted to go but couldn't. Watching Uncle Yo was fantastic, and I taped the whole thing [now I just have to figure out how to put it on YouTube or FaceBook... heh... it's too long. Oh dear.


Because Andrew and I were not-so-impressed with NYAF, we left around five-ish and took a 6:11 train back to Livingston. It was sad because that meant I'd have a little less time with him, but I knew he had to get home any way. We said our sad goodbyes, but I'm sure we'll see each other again before the loser decides to move to Hawaii or something -.-

After that, I went to see the Marching Band perform in their first competition! I'd love to post the video; I'll see if I can get that working some time soon. I thought they were fantastic and they held their own decently, but they got last place [despite an award for Best Music]. I still think they were great.

I had to remove the video from Youtube, though, because of general stupidity -.-



I got a call from Greg that night. Turns out, we all met up at Applebee's for old times' sake. It was great :D It was Kenny, Greg, Wendy, Arianna, Josh [who was asleep], Dan, and Kevin. I hope that's it.... It was a lot of fun [but we were all very sleepie].


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On Sunday, Mum and I went to see Hamlet at the NJ Shakespeare Theatre. It was fantastic!! I loved it ♥.

That night, Mum and I also saw Inglourious Basterds, and despite the bad reviews, I thought it was great. I mean, it's not amazing and all that, but it was so good as an entertaining movie. If you haven't, go see it.

I took the train back to school on Monday afternoon. That was fun.

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If you missed me, I'll be back next weekend, so make sure I see you!! [This means you, Vigg.]
Check out all the photos from the weekend here: on Facebook!