Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween to all my flist! I hope that you all were blessed with numerous beings of the science fictional, supernatural, and fantastical varieties at your doors this night.
Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday on Wednesday. A special thanks goes to mahaliem, who gifted me a lovely vgift. *hugs* My first ever vgift! Yay!
Life has been... interesting during the month of October. Where to begin? Well, my roommate S works at the same place. Or, at least she did. She and another teacher were laid off the Thursday before Fall Break, which is the middle week of October. I knew there were budget problems, but to actually lay off teachers in the middle of the school year?! I am a counselor of sorts for the high school level. There are numerous staff people at the district level who could have been laid off, but no, they chose to lay off two teachers.
Luckily, a principal at another school had been trying to recruit my roommate. S did not want to leave our school, but she decided to apply to this other job just to see what they would offer. Her job interview was scheduled for the very day she was laid off. She was unemployed for all of 30 hours. The other teacher was not so lucky, but she has also found work now.
Last Sunday, my family who live in the area gathered to celebrate my birthday as well as those of a niece and nephew. We have so many birthdays in my family nowadays that we have to group them together. If we celebrated them separately, it would quickly get very cumbersome. So, last Sunday was the October/November birthday celebration. Since I am turning *cough* and my nephew is turning ten and my niece two, our gifts were very divergent. I have to admit, though, the Indiana Jones Lego set he received looks pretty cool. And I wouldn't mind the bath doll set my niece received. *g*
I have been watching television this season, so here are my thoughts on the returning and new shows:
The Amazing Race: My favorite team was eliminated three weeks ago. Also, Phil's dad! Hello, Phil's dad! Your son should have been nominated for and won the best reality show host Emmy. He was robbed, I tell you. Robbed. Ahem. Anyway. I do not watch television on Sundays, so this one is hard to keep up with, especially since CBS does not put the episodes online. *kicks CBS* I lack a DVR, so I have to tape the shows, which I forget to do all too often. So, I am drifting away, sad to say.
The Eleventh Hour: Kind of boring. I like Rufus Sewell, don't get me wrong. I also like that his character has respect for religious beliefs. It is cliché now for scientist characters to be atheist or agnostic, and to be openly hostile to religion. Thus, this was a refreshing change. Still, it needs to pick up the pace a bit. Too slow.
Heroes: At the beginning of the season, I feared that the writers had too many plot balls in the air and they would never be able to bring about a satisfying conclusion at the end of the season. Also, I did not like seeing Claire and Peter as adversaries and possible villains. Things are starting to coalesce a little better now, and the season is settling in nicely.
Chuck: There is nothing bad about Chuck. I am totally enjoying this season. The premiere was perfect, and each episode thereafter has been great.
My Own Worst Enemy: Eh. It has an interesting premise, but I think I am too impatient with the plot holes. Did Henry just think he was asleep for days on end when Edward was off doing missions? Does he have actual memories of doing his job, even though it is only a cover? I keep thinking that they ought to just merge the two personalities. Then Edward gets Henry's memories and feelings for his family, and Henry gets Edward's skills and merciless drive to do what must be done. I suppose Edward is a sociopath. He ought to have some tender feelings towards Henry's children, for they are his biological children as well. I don't know. I'll watch for another week.
Pushing Daisies: The premiere was a little weak, but the season has been steadily improving since then. I was afraid that sending Olive to the nunnery was a way to get rid of the character, but I should have trusted more. The theme for the season seems to be family. Every major character except Olive has had family show up. I keep expecting Olive's long-lost nephew to show up, or something.
Life: Odd show. Mysteries within mysteries. And it keeps surprising me, which is good. It seems Reese's dad is not as bad as we thought. Or is he? It's keeping my attention, so that's good.
Bones: Has fallen off my schedule because of Pushing Daisies, but I need to catch up with the online episodes.
Numb3rs: Ditto, except it's because of Life.
The Clone Wars: Keeps getting better and better. The aforementioned ten-year-old nephew is very envious that I have cable and he does not. I promised to tape the episodes, but it's not nearly the same quality.
The Mentalist: Jane is too smug. He is too confident in his abilities. I want to take him down a peg or two. Sure, his family was horribly murdered by a deranged serial killer, but I would think that would make him humble, not smug. He's insufferable, and I think I will drop the show from my schedule.
NCIS: I missed the most recent episode, but I am continuing to enjoy this show. There is no bad there. (Except, I want them to catch Lee. I want the first episode to all be a setup to catch her.)
Crusoe: Is this just supposed to be 13 episodes, or is it open-ended? Interesting, but could rapidly get tiresome if it goes on too long.
Wow, that's a lot of television. I think I need to start pruning things off the schedule.
I think that's it. Off to bed with me now!
Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday on Wednesday. A special thanks goes to mahaliem, who gifted me a lovely vgift. *hugs* My first ever vgift! Yay!
Life has been... interesting during the month of October. Where to begin? Well, my roommate S works at the same place. Or, at least she did. She and another teacher were laid off the Thursday before Fall Break, which is the middle week of October. I knew there were budget problems, but to actually lay off teachers in the middle of the school year?! I am a counselor of sorts for the high school level. There are numerous staff people at the district level who could have been laid off, but no, they chose to lay off two teachers.
Luckily, a principal at another school had been trying to recruit my roommate. S did not want to leave our school, but she decided to apply to this other job just to see what they would offer. Her job interview was scheduled for the very day she was laid off. She was unemployed for all of 30 hours. The other teacher was not so lucky, but she has also found work now.
Last Sunday, my family who live in the area gathered to celebrate my birthday as well as those of a niece and nephew. We have so many birthdays in my family nowadays that we have to group them together. If we celebrated them separately, it would quickly get very cumbersome. So, last Sunday was the October/November birthday celebration. Since I am turning *cough* and my nephew is turning ten and my niece two, our gifts were very divergent. I have to admit, though, the Indiana Jones Lego set he received looks pretty cool. And I wouldn't mind the bath doll set my niece received. *g*
I have been watching television this season, so here are my thoughts on the returning and new shows:
The Amazing Race: My favorite team was eliminated three weeks ago. Also, Phil's dad! Hello, Phil's dad! Your son should have been nominated for and won the best reality show host Emmy. He was robbed, I tell you. Robbed. Ahem. Anyway. I do not watch television on Sundays, so this one is hard to keep up with, especially since CBS does not put the episodes online. *kicks CBS* I lack a DVR, so I have to tape the shows, which I forget to do all too often. So, I am drifting away, sad to say.
The Eleventh Hour: Kind of boring. I like Rufus Sewell, don't get me wrong. I also like that his character has respect for religious beliefs. It is cliché now for scientist characters to be atheist or agnostic, and to be openly hostile to religion. Thus, this was a refreshing change. Still, it needs to pick up the pace a bit. Too slow.
Heroes: At the beginning of the season, I feared that the writers had too many plot balls in the air and they would never be able to bring about a satisfying conclusion at the end of the season. Also, I did not like seeing Claire and Peter as adversaries and possible villains. Things are starting to coalesce a little better now, and the season is settling in nicely.
Chuck: There is nothing bad about Chuck. I am totally enjoying this season. The premiere was perfect, and each episode thereafter has been great.
My Own Worst Enemy: Eh. It has an interesting premise, but I think I am too impatient with the plot holes. Did Henry just think he was asleep for days on end when Edward was off doing missions? Does he have actual memories of doing his job, even though it is only a cover? I keep thinking that they ought to just merge the two personalities. Then Edward gets Henry's memories and feelings for his family, and Henry gets Edward's skills and merciless drive to do what must be done. I suppose Edward is a sociopath. He ought to have some tender feelings towards Henry's children, for they are his biological children as well. I don't know. I'll watch for another week.
Pushing Daisies: The premiere was a little weak, but the season has been steadily improving since then. I was afraid that sending Olive to the nunnery was a way to get rid of the character, but I should have trusted more. The theme for the season seems to be family. Every major character except Olive has had family show up. I keep expecting Olive's long-lost nephew to show up, or something.
Life: Odd show. Mysteries within mysteries. And it keeps surprising me, which is good. It seems Reese's dad is not as bad as we thought. Or is he? It's keeping my attention, so that's good.
Bones: Has fallen off my schedule because of Pushing Daisies, but I need to catch up with the online episodes.
Numb3rs: Ditto, except it's because of Life.
The Clone Wars: Keeps getting better and better. The aforementioned ten-year-old nephew is very envious that I have cable and he does not. I promised to tape the episodes, but it's not nearly the same quality.
The Mentalist: Jane is too smug. He is too confident in his abilities. I want to take him down a peg or two. Sure, his family was horribly murdered by a deranged serial killer, but I would think that would make him humble, not smug. He's insufferable, and I think I will drop the show from my schedule.
NCIS: I missed the most recent episode, but I am continuing to enjoy this show. There is no bad there. (Except, I want them to catch Lee. I want the first episode to all be a setup to catch her.)
Crusoe: Is this just supposed to be 13 episodes, or is it open-ended? Interesting, but could rapidly get tiresome if it goes on too long.
Wow, that's a lot of television. I think I need to start pruning things off the schedule.
I think that's it. Off to bed with me now!