I finally saw Looper today. I thought it was pretty good! But I wasn't really sure it needed the psi element to it, since time travel itself was already a major premise. It had its problems and plot holes, but I guess those are inevitable in time bending stories.

Arbitrage was good too! I think Richard Gere did a decent job in that role, and his interactions with Susan Serandan (who played his wife) were particularly excellent.

I also belatedly watched The Dark Knight Rises. I have to admit, I was entertained while I watching it, but afterward I felt almost insulted by the whackness of the long, plot-hole ridden ordeal. I don't think I'm a very picky movie watcher, but I think the lengths to which Nolan expected his audience to suspend their disbelief was completely ridic. I'm not even sure if this is an unpopular opinion or not...

I haven't seen too many of the Oscar contenders, but I will attest that Lincoln and Life of Pi were both very good. I'm not sure what the standards of Oscar are though, and I usually disagree with their decisions, anyway. xD

I finally caught up to the most recent episode of this today! And oooh my god I cried and cried and cried, it was not to be believed. I have never cried this much watching any anime, ever. I was not expecting that. I was reluctant to watch more after the first few episodes, because it starts out pretty slowly. The pace picks up later, but even then, it interjects with lots of flashbacks and backstories. I thought I'd be annoyed by all the zipping back and forth and changes in POVs, but they execute it so wonderfully that I was completely drawn in. I absolutely love this show. ♥

Right now, it's at quite the cliffhanger, and I'm so nervous about the outcome!! O__o;;;;

Started reading The Liar Game recently. It reminds me a lot of old school Yugioh, except much more involved. I admittedly skim through it when they get into detail about the various strategies and explanations. But I like all the characters and I love the concept of it very much. It's very cerebral.

I'm told that I should read Hetalia. I have to say I've avoided this series, mainly because I was skeptical about the concept, and I think the art is kind of ugly (I'm sorry!) I went ahead and ordered vol 1 though, just to take a peek. Maybe I'll like it afterall?? I guess we'll have to see.

After a lot of hemming and hawing, I finally bought myself a Nintendo DS Lite. It hasn't shipped yet, so I'm still waiting eagerly for it. I mostly got it because I wanted to play Professor Layton, which sounded like a pretty awesome game. A mix between storyline and puzzles? I felt odd buying a console just to play one game, but... xD;;

Hopefully it'll be worth it??

I was so incredibly excited when this actually happened! I think MK is incredibly talented at coming up with unique characters in droves. I'm amazed that she did it not just in Ibun but here as well, with a huge cast in both cases. I think she's created enough base material to produce volumes worth of stories! I just worry about her health though, and I hope she doesn't stretch herself out too thin...

Meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing some Ants fanfic. x)

But I still managed to get myself out there to catch Skyfall last weekend. I thought it was pretty good, if somewhat depressing. I was a bit surprised that they shifted gears so quickly. Casino Royale was more near the beginning of Bond's career, and by Skyfall he was already an aging spy past his prime. It was weird to see Bond not at the top of his game, and it actually saddened me when Q made fun of exploding pens and whatnot, like as though the past Bond movies were irrelevant/worthy of disdain. While I enjoy the more "serious" Bond flicks, I actually love the campy side of it as well, and we've come to expect a little outrageousness from the series. And I was also majorly disappointed by the "femme fetale" Bond girl character, who was flimsy and useless. Eve was amazing though, and I'm rather fond of Ralph Fiennes' role as well. ♥

I found myself reacquiring a Netflix membership (DVD only), much to my chagrin. I thought I was done with that company, but they still seem to have the best selection of DVDs. Tried a couple Redbox movies, but their choices are very limited, and having to go back to return them after one day is annoying. The first thing on my queue was The Amazing Spider-Man, which turned out to be utterly disappointing. I'm not sure what it was about this movie, but everything seemed so contrived and soulless. None of the characters felt real to me, and I was so bored throughout the story. At least with the Raimi movies, I could care about what happened to the characters.

Finally saw Avengers as well, which was slightly better but somewhat shallow on characterization again. I'll see the sequels to these, but not expecting very much. Slowly making my way through the rest of the Marvel series that came out this year (Captain America, Hulk...)

By the way, does anyone have a Letterboxd account? (Mine is here). It's kind of like Goodreads for movies. I like it!

So I watched Kuroko no Basketball. Think tenipuri with basketball. Ensemble cast of good looking dudes with heavy yaoi undertones. How can I resist, right? xD It's only 25 episodes, which breezed by very quickly. I'm trying to resist getting into it further (ie: the manga), since I really have no room in my house for yet another long series of sports manga. We'll see how far that goes. ;) I was quite thrilled to see Suwabe Junichi doing the role that he does best - arrogant asshole with well deserved superiority complex. I'm equally amused that his main teammate is a shifty megane with a Kansai accent! And yes, they're a rival school. I do love how they feature the rival schools - and the anime even ends with a long match between two rival schools, which I thought was unusual.


And if you know me at all, you wouldn't be surprised that Midorima (in the glasses) is my favorite character so far. Cool, calm and collected, he's also kind of quirky and dorky. (Like he carries around his "lucky items" and sneaks into matches to watch them while pretending to not care).

Sort of started watching Space Brothers (semi-future story about two brothers wanting to be astronauts) but haven't gotten too far yet. Mainly going to stick around for Hirata Hiroaki, who can do no wrong, apparently. ♥

Posting a pic of my Chihuahua Kogoro because I haven't, in a while. xD He does this adorable thing where he sits on his back legs when he wants something, and I was able to capture it on my camera phone. I recently took him to his annual cardiologist check-up, where he got his second echocardiogram. Good news! His heart isn't getting bigger, which means his murmur is under control. It was such a relief! Now he can go back to his usual business, barking at squirrels and gutting his plush squeaky toys of their stuffing. (He also recently discovered the deliciousness of flavored lip balm... I have to be careful not to leave those in his reach!)

I'm so behind on reading, but have finally picked up Heresy by S.J. Parris, "An Elizabethan Thriller." It's part of a series of mystery novels set in the middle ages. This is the first of the series, though I actually read the second one (Prophesy), first. It's still too soon to tell if it's good or not, but I had enjoyed the second book well enough, so I'm hoping this will be just as fun. x)

I've been listening to the "books" podcast for NPR, and added a bunch of books that sounded interesting, including a mystery set in Honolulu (Murder Casts a Shadow by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl), a book about animal diseases and what it tells us about human conditions (Zoobiquity by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz), and a book by former NY Times "Ethicist" (Be Good: How to Navigate the Ethics of Everything by Randy Cohen).

What's on your to-read shelf, dear flisters? ♥

I recently breezed through a shojo manga called Reimei no Arcana, a pretty-ish fantasy. I like it! There's politics and intrigue, and of course, a little romance. I started out reading shojo as a child, so it's a pretty comfortable place for me to return to. xD And I realize that most of the fandoms in which I've been active are of a different flavor. You can read it here if you're interested. =)

Still reading Hi no Matoi, the Edo-period manga about samurais and fire fighters. The story is progressing a little slowly, but it's a bi-monthly serialization, so it just feels like it takes a long time..

And speaking of long time, Glass Mask is releasing volume 49 this month. This series has been going on since before I was born. Can she please end it already?? ...that being said, I'd like her to really write a nice and satisfying ending. I feel like the fans deserve one, after all these years of loyalty. xD;;

Still buying Are You Alice? but haven't read any volumes since like...vol 3. I understood the drama CDs, but the manga is so whack and confusing, I don't have the concentration to get through it. (o__o)

Poking my way slowly through Kami no Shizuku. I had 15 volumes a few years ago when I first started reading it. I blinked, a couple years passed, and now we're on VOLUME 34. Yeesh. I like this series, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's gonna drag on forever. I haven't purchased the last 14 books or so yet, but I hesitate to do so, if only because I don't have much space anymore on my bookshelves. I wish manga wasn't such a space-killing hobby!

As I've been mentioning on my Dreamwidth journal, I've taken up yoga! It's been about a month now since I signed up at the studio down the street from my office, and I've been trying to go to class twice a week. The studio is really nice, with several rooms, all wooden floors, brick walls, fireplaces, and skylights. It's such a cozy space, and none of the classes are more than 12 people, so it feels very intimate and spacy. I like feeling zenned out, though I also work up quite a sweat as well. Especially in the ballet inspired "barre" yoga classes!

Bought up a couple Rodney Yee DVDs and a Shiva Rea one to practice with at home. I don't think I'll ever be doing those crazy handstands and body twisting arm balances, but hopefully I'll be more flexible, fit and calm because of it. XD

Fandom wise, I've been kind of frazzled trying to mod an RP. It's pretty much sucked up every spare hour that I have during the week, which isn't a lot, since I work all the time (and then some). This is the reason why I've been pretty scarce around LJ as well, though my fandoms in general seem to be on the quiet side lately. The Hanged Man up there really is kind of what I need right now...a change of perspective. Something needs to give. I feel too pressed for time and stressed out lately.

I have managed to get through a few new fandom things in spite of the above though, and I don't think I've written about them here yet. These are new-for-me, and not exactly new, new. xD

I finally bought Death Note and read it all the way through. I tried reading it a long time ago but never got past the first book. This is most likely because I was reading it on the computer, and I hate reading manga this way. That's especially the case for works that are heavy in text and content. For some reason, I find it hard to keep up my attention span in such cases, for online reading.

I liked it! I can understand why it gets the acclaim that it does, and how it's got such a wide following. I think the characters were quirky and interesting, and the plot was always engaging and moving in some way, which I appreciated. So many mangas fall into a rut from time to time, but in this case, it always felt like the author knew exactly where to take the story. My favorite characters were the minor ones, which isn't surprising. xD I liked Namikawa, the pretty and clever VP of Yotsuba, and Matsuda, the young cop guy who's always jumping in head-first. I watched some of the anime too, amusing myself with the fact that Near is voiced by Kikyo from Inuyasha, while L was voiced by...Inuyasha. Lol.

Also saw the anime No. 6 recently. It wasn't a very long series, and somehow I managed to just marathon it over the course of a few days. The themes and mood really reminded me of Toward the Terra: the backdrop of a false utopic society, and similarities in the themes, like environmentalism, authoritarianism, genocide, and rebellion. I found Terra was more epic in scale and had characters I loved better, but No. 6 was not too bad. I'd like to read the novels sometime, when I get a spare moment. ;)

I still have a whole stack of mangas that I bought but never read. (Do any of you do that? I have tons of them. Why do I do it?) These include: Ooku (the gender swapped period manga), Aruosumente (new manga by Aki, who wrote Olimpos. I inadvertently bought TWO copies for vol 1), Are You Alice? (which I stopped reading because it keeps getting more and more confusing with every chapter), Loveless (also stopped reading midway), Vampire Knight (ditto), and Karneval (read half of book 1 and then stopped, but have like 6 volumes sitting on my shelf right now).

At the end of the day, I think it just comes down to the fact that I don't have the patience anymore. I wish I could read something that was effortlessly enjoyable, but those are probably rare, huh? Tenipuri was always just silly fun. You never had to think too hard about it, and there was plenty of room for imagination when it came to the characters. Somehow, even in the ridiculousness of it all, they still managed to pop off the page and inspire something for me.

These manga probably have cool characters too, but I need to make a more concerted effort to like them, which is...tiring.

One on-going manga that I actually AM excited about is Hi no Matoi, which I've posted about before. That's the story about the firefighters in Edo Japan. x) It's still pretty, and the characters are charming and fun to read. Plus, the plots involve treachery, assassins, ninjas, and most of all: estranged brothers. I am such a sucker for brother stories. ♥

Of course, there's also Saiyuki, which is much love. I'm enjoying this arc with Sharak very much, and I can't wait to see what else MK's got in store for us!

I'm still slogging my way through Prospero Regained by Jagi Lamplighter. (Apparently, her husband is an LJ user? I looked up her book and came upon his blog here).  This is the last in the Prospero's Daughter trilogy, and I've been having the hardest time finishing it. I've had it for over 6 weeks now and I'm still on page 300.  I think it's mostly to do with the fact that they're trudging through hell - literally - and it's a bit exhausting to read.  I'm hoping to finish it up so I can move on to other things. 
 
I was going to read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy next, but after seeing the movie, I think I'll read something else instead.  I liked the movie, but it was so slowly dramatic and ploddingly paced that I feel like I've had my fill of Tinker Tailor for the time being. (By the way, for Sherlock fans - Benedict Cumberbatch's character was great!)  My next book will probably be Anno Dracula, a novel about...well, Dracula.  It looks like a more interesting and thoughtful take on the vampire genre, so I guess we'll see how that goes.

Haven't watched the latest Sherlock yet, but my friends who did see it said it was quite good.  Can't wait to finally catch up with it!
 
Project Runway: All Stars will start airing on the 5th, which I'm very excited about!
 
I saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol the other week, and I actually kind of loved it.  I have to admit, I do like Tom Cruise sometimes, even if he is kind of whack.  He didn't take himself too seriously in this movie, which is what made it so enjoyable. There was a bit of slap stick thrown into the action (which was amazing, by the way). And his teammates were probably the best I've seen so far in the MI series.  Guy-who-played-Scottie on Star Trek (the new movie) was so funny! Loved him.  Of course, I will never understand the villains who are all "I'm gonna set off nuclear weapons for no reason at all," but I suppose the crazy is part of the scariness of it?
 
In comparison, Tinker Tailor was a much more cerebral and thoughtful movie, one where you had to pay attention and get intellectually invested.  The slow camera work was actually quite well done, and when it panned deliberately over the four dudes, they ALL began to look guilty to you, lol.  I kind of dozed off in the middle somewhere though.  It's not a movie for everyone. After it ended, my brother remarked, "That two hours of my life I'm never getting back."  I didn't think it was that bad!
 
And okay, I'll admit it...I watched this year's Kouhaku music show, even though it sucks year after year and I always declare that I'm not wasting anymore of my time.  My whole family sat down and watched it, though we spent most of the time fast forwarding through each number.  Lady Gaga made an appearance via satellite, which was kind of amusing.  There were actually some high points, which included Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi (after he finally shut the hell up and started singing) and the cracktastic Hikawa Kiyoshi, who came out in this dazzling Mariachi outfit and jiggled his hips like I dunno what (You can check out his video here - it's not from the Kouhaku, but you get the idea!).  And actually, I kinda loved Ashida Mana and her co-star, who sang Maru Maru Mori Mori.  It was so adorable!   

And finally, in fandom news...you must check out this fabulous Gojun/Tenpou/Kenren fic that 7veilsphaedra wrote for me for the theme "Year of the Dragon": King Goujun Wishes to Express His Gratitude and Appreciation... It's fabulous.  Rated NC-17.

I've actually kind of struggled a bit with cases for my iPhone 4. I initially got a clear one, which was one of those free ones that Apple offered to placate their customers after the antenna placement fiasco. That one cracked. Then I got an adorable "Alice in a Funny World" case with art by Shinzi Katoh...but then the picture on it faded. =( I did a long and tedious search for a new case, and finally decided to do the "design your own" thing with Case-mate. So here it is!

There's something just incredibly sexy about Tenpou splayed out all over his books. This case is pretty slim compared to my old ones, but I'm quite pleased with it. The ink looks like it's really etched in there, so hopefully it won't be fading any time soon!

Thank you to rroselavy, kispexi2, maeran, helliongoddess, despina_moon, theskywasblue, jedishampoo and sharpeslass for your lovely Christmas cards! My room looks so festive now. X)

I finally got all my cards done yesterday, and put them in the post this afternoon. Hopefully they'll reach everyone soon! (^__^)/

This weekend I finally caught up with Next Iron Chef, just in time for the season finale on Sunday.

( Spoilers!Collapse )

As for things going on personally...not a whole lot of new developments.  Just the usual work and play.  Last week I went to see Tori Amos with twentystitches, which was pretty darn awesome.  She had a string quartet with her, which was kinda cool.  But I have to say, I wasn't a huge fan of the first violin.  He was just SO loud!  And there was a lot of dissonance, though I guess that's the way it is with contemporary string music?  Anyway, it was really cool to see her live again.  It was great to see Tans too, but we were both so exhausted.  Who holds concerts on a Monday night, anyway?
 
Though speaking of Monday night concerts, I'm going to one tonight as well.  It's for a band called Pink Martini, which I'd only vaguely heard about.  Some friends wanted to go, and it's supposed to be a holiday concert, so I thought it might be fun.  They're apparently touring with a Japanese singer named Yuki Saori.  My parents are fans, but I don't know her music either. XD;;
 
I guess the biggest event in the last few weeks is, I went to my friend's wedding in Baltimore. It was a two day affair, a lavish Indian wedding complete with garba (a dancing celebration), the groom's procession on a horse, several hours long Hindu ceremony, followed by an all day gap before cocktails and reception dinner.  Needless to say, it was an exhausting weekend, but full of fun and lots of great food.  My friend the bride got me a beautiful sari from India, pictured here.  It's a gorgeous shade of green with fabulous gold and green sequins ALL OVER.  I was blinged out like a Bollywood star.  Loved it.

First of all, THANK YOU to kedi_kedi, rachel_reicheru and velvetina_wonka for your lovely Christmas cards!!  Aah, I envy you for being so on top of it!  I meant to get some of them out this weekend, but I ended up writing...zero.  However, I did print out all the addresses and return labels, so I'm pretty much good to go. I'm hoping to at least get all the international ones out this week. 
 
Holiday time is actually one I rather enjoy, and it's always kind of fun to go to holiday events and concerts.    The shopping part can be fun sometimes too, but ever since my disasterous gift giving of last year (everybody returned everything. Actually no, I had to return it all FOR them, which seems kind of messed up, but I did get it all online...), I've been kind of bitter about the whole process and just wanna get it over with as soon as possible.  It doesn't help that my brother keeps sending me links for gift ideas for himself for ridiculous items like a $10,000 watch, a $4,000 chair and a $5,000 set of speakers.  NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
 
Anyway, aside from the holiday cards and shopping...last weekend, I went to my friend's Christmas concert (he plays second violin in a local orchestra), which was a lot of fun.  Later this week, I have two holiday parties, a Christmas tea and a (actually non-holiday related) birthday happy hour.  Somehow, everything happens all at once.

I've been watching Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, season 2, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly.  I had my suspicions last year, wondering if they could really judge art in this manner, but I think it's just a fun show to watch. I was actually sorry to see The Sucklord go, even though his art was kind of amateur.  He was just a ridic and utterly amusing character to watch.  I thought last week's "Sell Out" episode wasn't very good though, if only because it did what last season's Project Runway kept doing, to fatal effect: combining challenges that don't go together.
 
I'm really behind on Top Chef: Texas.  I guess it's not as super impressive so far as I expected, but I will catch up eventually. The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs has been pretty cool though, even if I was kind of skeptical that Spike equalifies as a Super Chef...  I'm a few eps behind there as well, but I'm looking forward to catching up.
 
Meanwhile... New Game of Thrones trailer is out!  See it here at EW.  I'm so excited!
 
Downton Abbey Christmas special is coming up soon too, but to be honest, I was sorely disappointed by the last season.  There was just too much darkness and melodrama and even though I know Downton has always been a little wacky, some of the storylines were just so absurdly soap operatic that I was rolling my eyes.  Honestly, I WANT Mary to end up with Carlisle at this point, if only because he's so much more interesting than mopey doe eyed Matthew.
 
Merlin is finally getting a little interesting, and maybe it's almost breaking out of its cyclic same story thing it's been suffering through for the past few seasons.  Queen Anis's episode was pretty awesome, and she was such a kickass character!  It's a shame it was only an episodic appearance.

First off, Happy Birthday to girl_dissolving! And Happy Belated Birthdays to red_squared, ssjbento and _sabriel. I've probably missed a few others...I keep seeing birthday posts around my flist, but I've failed to note them all! (;___;) Anyway, hurrah for birthdays! I feel like this is a very busy time of year for birthdays...lots of my friends have August and September birthdays..

Speaking of birthdays, I was amused to see that on my official "Song of Ice and Fire" wall calendar, they have "George R. R. Martin's Birthday" noted - it's September 20. I like this calendar, but I'm not very impressed by September's artwork - Casterly Rock. I always imagined the place a little grander than this, since it's the home of House Lannister, who are supposed to be pretty filthy rich. The art makes it look like...well, a giant rock. With a rather phallic looking tower sticking up at the top. Haha. I think there should be more Castlely and less Rock.

Second season is coming! I'm so SO very excited. Part of me is kind of worried that it'll be depressing, what with the war and everything. But I'm hoping that the characters will pull through and keep it lively and fun nevertheless. I'm sad that Matthew will be bringing in a new love interest, because I really did think he'd end up with Mary. Maybe he still might?? I was surprised to discover that this is a minority opinion, amongst my friends. They all *hate* Mary!

I dunno, she's done a lot of things she shouldn't have, but I don't understand why they find her so unsympathetic. I think the actress does a fabulous job showing all Mary's vulnerabilities and complexities. She's definitely one of my favorite characters.

Season 2 preview is available here, and first episodoe trailer is here. ♥

Ridiculous "Avant Garde" episode produced so much fug, none of it remotely avant garde, except for Bert's, surprisingly enough.

I am so utterly unimpressed by this season so far. Too much drama and not enough beauty. I feel like cranky Nina Garcia, demanding to see something fabulous!! Gorgeous fashion...where is it??

⇒ Pyramid Car! - Artwork by Scott C. I kinda love the quirky little style he has with his art. This link goes to his pop art, and my favorites are further down the page, featuring various cartoon, movie, and comic book characters engaged in funny activities like Slip and Slides and ping pong.

⇒ Tiny World in a Bottle - These are so cute! He sells them on etsy..

⇒ Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty Exhibit - My colleague went to see this exhibit when it was at the Met in New York (so jealous!) It's apparently headed to London next. ♥

⇒ Sherlock fanart - Saw this on Tumblr. Also saw this titillating interesting photo of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. XD

⇒ [video] Awesome cell phone commercial plays Bach tune with a wooden ball - Nice! That must've taken a lot of work to set up.

⇒ [video] I am Maru - Absolutely adorable home videos of a cat name Maru. Watch near the end - he loves to head-dive into empty boxes. XDD

⇒ Tiger Leopard & Bunny Golden Retriever - Too cute!

Ack! I forgot to write about my friend Drew's trip to Japan! He writes for National Geographic Traveler, and he's called the "Digital Nomad" ... he tweets his traveling adventures from the road. I love how you get a very "live" feeling as you follow his tweets and blog posts. (He's the same guy who bussed to Antarctica a while ago).

Anyway, he just started his first trip to Japan, and has been tweeting at Where's Andrew. He started in Tokyo, where he visited the Tsukiji fish market and the Meiji shrine in Harajuku. He traveled up to Sendai for a baseball game, and then lived it up at a hot spring and ryokan in Hokkaido. He's just taken an undersea tunnel back into Honshu and checked in for the night in Aomori. His blog postings are here.

I'm spending the calm before the storm in front of my computer getting as much done online as I can before the inevitable blackout. (I know the electric company around here too well, unfortunately).

So, on Tuesday after the earthquake, I went to see Julius Caesar at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's annual Free for All production. I went to last year's Free for All, but that was on my friend's spare season pass ticket. This was the first year that I put in for the lottery system and actually won my ticket! Was quite excited about the play, since I feel like it's been a while since I've seen one of his tragedies.

Sometime during Act I, there is a scene where it's storming like crazy outside, and Casca remarks, "Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth / Shakes like a thing unfirm?" There was chuckling in the audience. Laughter abounded when the famous line, "It was Greek to me!" came up. But the real fun times occurred in the middle of Act III, at the dramatic moment when Octavian's servant comes in and sees the body of Caesar. "O Caesar!" he said. Followed by a strange wailing noise, then flashes of light. It was quite an odd moment for sound effects and shenanigans, and just as I was wondering if this was really part of the play, an announcement came on saying there was fire emergency in the building, and we all had to evacuate!

As I was leaving the auditorium, I glanced back and saw that Caesar was miraculously resurrected, being helped off the stage. The audience milled around on the street outside for a few minutes, unsure of what to expect. I didn't catch sight of them myself, but I heard later that there were men in bloody togas standing around as well. I'm not sure what the cause of the alarm was, or whether it was earthquake-related, but they eventually let us back in, and continued on without further delay.

Overall, the production was wonderful, with the war scenes being especially enjoyable. I also loved all the flourish, pomp and circumstance. The actors for Caesar and Marc Anthony were particularly good. (*__*)

From political intrigue to fashion bitchfest...what did you guys think of this week's episode?? Has there ever been THIS much contention and fuckwittage in PR history? Bert could be the biggest asshole ever, right up there with that tattooed guy whose name I don't remember (but he was despicable). And that Josh of the freaky painted-on-eyebrows is Bitch #2. Honestly, I do like some drama with PR, but this is just too much. Especially when the drama overshadows the fashion, and the designers are so distracted they end up producing shit work. Let's face it, there was a whole bunch of crap up there this week...even though the challenge WAS rather incomprehensible. (Make an outfit that goes with sneakers! But not work out clothes! Dresses are okay! But wait, can you work out in that dress? WTF Heidi).

I really hope that the challenges and the designers step up from hereon, because it's getting kind of ridic.

Also...chick who dropped out of PR because she didn't want to be there: Loser.

Went to the gas station to fill up my tank and had to get Supreme. Looks like they're running low already. One gas station I passed was completely sold out of everything.

Meanwhile, the grocery store was jam packed with last minute shoppers that included myself. The hot ticket items that were almost cleaned out included potatoes, canned tuna, instant coffee, bread, bottled water, evaporated milk, instant ramen and peanut butter.

I grabbed a bunch of packets of ramen, a few apples, potatoes, leeks, canned soup, instant coffee and Washingtonian magazine's "Cheap Eats" issue. I ended up getting only one pint of ice cream instead of two, since it'll just end up melting if we lose power.

And speaking of power, I got an infuriating automated message from our electric company Pepco, telling us in essence, "We're gonna fuck this up yet again. Sorry in advance!" Thanks for nothing, Pepco.

At least I'm ready for the inevitable...I have a stack of books at the ready and my iPhone charged up for precious internet connection when needed.

To all of you on the east coast...stay safe. ♥