And another...
OMG. So third year of med school took me COMPLETELY out of the loop because apparently James Spader had been in a series filmed last year that I had NOT heard about until earlier this week. I looked it up and it looked...meh. But it had James Spader in it, so I gave it a shot and HOMG. The Blacklist was EXCELLENT. Fantastic characters/cast all around. Very engaging plot. So on and so forth. And Spader, as always, was phenomenal. He's another one of those actors who doesn't need a lot of makeup or costume to become almost completely unrecognizable between roles. In fact, I think he took it a step further: Alan Shore and Raymond Reddington are extremely similar in personalities/speech patterns, etc, but Spader still makes Reddington so fundamentally different from Shore. It's witchcraft.
I actually cried in the episode where Keen's father dies. I have a few weaknesses that arise when fiction hits too close to home, and I always get so affected by father/daughter or father/family relationships. Another weakness I have is for characters who sacrifice a huge amount (and, most importantly, their own happiness) for those they love without the latter EVER knowing about it. Reddington keeping Keen unaware that he's her father and yet you can tell (because, again, Spader is an acting genius) how much he adores her and how much he cares for her and yet he's unable to actually be a father to her (though, there were quite a few touching scenes between the two, which makes this even more painful because in the instances he provides comfort to her, she doesn't realize the significance of it). Another well-done example of this trope was the Arthur/Gwen/Lancelot love triangle in The Once and Future King in which Arthur knows his wife is sleeping with his best friend and he knows this wife loves Lancelot, but he keeps it to himself because the two people he loves most are happy together and rather than become bitter, jealous, or seek retribution, he keeps silent on the matter and is actually happy for them.
I just...ugh.
One of the good things about loosing track of reality during med school is that, as luck would have it, the new season of The Black List airs Monday, I believe. It's nice not to have to wait months for a new season.
On the rugby front, I left practice on Monday extremely disillusioned and frustrated with myself. Then, on Wednesday, something clicked. I think I suddenly became accepted by a lot of team members? All at once? All I know is that suddenly, I developed a pretty good rapport with quite a few players. There was some confusion about my name and I eventually had three names, so that was amusing to sort out. I feel kinda embarrassed because my actual name is rather common and the reason I got my nickname back in undergrad was because there was already a person with my name on the team. So I join this new team and there's, of course, a person with my name, so I say, you can just call me x. The coach asked me (and I couldn't tell if he was mocking me seriously or not or if I broke some kind of rugby code or whatever), "Did you just come up with your own nickname?" or something like that. I know that nicknames have more significance when they're given to you, but...I mean, what was I supposed to do?
We practiced the scrum for the first time and I was super nervous because I remember always struggling with that in undergrad, especially when first starting out. However, I did extremely well somehow! I was so shocked! I paired with all the other locks in turn, and I was able to do well with each of them. I have no idea how locking is the one skill that stuck with me after 3 years of inactivity. Craziness.
However, I'm beat. I didn't work out yesterday and I tried to today, but I was just...exhausted. I think part of it is the fact that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are all pretty intense workouts (and I had to play all 50 minutes against the club team on Tuesday) and I don't think I was eating well enough. I've noticed that after I eat, I feel a bit better, so...Also, my apartment is so messy it was verging on gross and I hadn't vacuumed in ages nor washed my sheets (I know, gross). So I just fininshed cleaning and laundry, so hopefully if it's dust-related, that'll get better (I had a bit of a sore-throat as well). I'm also playing around with the idea of getting some icecream...
I also got my first interview for residency! Life is awesome.
I actually cried in the episode where Keen's father dies. I have a few weaknesses that arise when fiction hits too close to home, and I always get so affected by father/daughter or father/family relationships. Another weakness I have is for characters who sacrifice a huge amount (and, most importantly, their own happiness) for those they love without the latter EVER knowing about it. Reddington keeping Keen unaware that he's her father and yet you can tell (because, again, Spader is an acting genius) how much he adores her and how much he cares for her and yet he's unable to actually be a father to her (though, there were quite a few touching scenes between the two, which makes this even more painful because in the instances he provides comfort to her, she doesn't realize the significance of it). Another well-done example of this trope was the Arthur/Gwen/Lancelot love triangle in The Once and Future King in which Arthur knows his wife is sleeping with his best friend and he knows this wife loves Lancelot, but he keeps it to himself because the two people he loves most are happy together and rather than become bitter, jealous, or seek retribution, he keeps silent on the matter and is actually happy for them.
I just...ugh.
One of the good things about loosing track of reality during med school is that, as luck would have it, the new season of The Black List airs Monday, I believe. It's nice not to have to wait months for a new season.
On the rugby front, I left practice on Monday extremely disillusioned and frustrated with myself. Then, on Wednesday, something clicked. I think I suddenly became accepted by a lot of team members? All at once? All I know is that suddenly, I developed a pretty good rapport with quite a few players. There was some confusion about my name and I eventually had three names, so that was amusing to sort out. I feel kinda embarrassed because my actual name is rather common and the reason I got my nickname back in undergrad was because there was already a person with my name on the team. So I join this new team and there's, of course, a person with my name, so I say, you can just call me x. The coach asked me (and I couldn't tell if he was mocking me seriously or not or if I broke some kind of rugby code or whatever), "Did you just come up with your own nickname?" or something like that. I know that nicknames have more significance when they're given to you, but...I mean, what was I supposed to do?
We practiced the scrum for the first time and I was super nervous because I remember always struggling with that in undergrad, especially when first starting out. However, I did extremely well somehow! I was so shocked! I paired with all the other locks in turn, and I was able to do well with each of them. I have no idea how locking is the one skill that stuck with me after 3 years of inactivity. Craziness.
However, I'm beat. I didn't work out yesterday and I tried to today, but I was just...exhausted. I think part of it is the fact that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are all pretty intense workouts (and I had to play all 50 minutes against the club team on Tuesday) and I don't think I was eating well enough. I've noticed that after I eat, I feel a bit better, so...Also, my apartment is so messy it was verging on gross and I hadn't vacuumed in ages nor washed my sheets (I know, gross). So I just fininshed cleaning and laundry, so hopefully if it's dust-related, that'll get better (I had a bit of a sore-throat as well). I'm also playing around with the idea of getting some icecream...
I also got my first interview for residency! Life is awesome.