Michelle
03 January 2013 @ 09:24 pm
2013 Scrapbook - Films, TV, and BooksCollapse )
 
 
Current Mood: goodgood
 
 
Michelle
25 April 2013 @ 06:57 am
[-] So the past couple weeks have just been crazy. I feel like a lot of things have been going on with me, but then… really not much at all has been happening? But work especially has been crazy and I've been so exhausted (my normal hours are 8-5 with an hour lunch, and this week so far I've worked 7:30-6 with a half hour lunch every single day), so that combined with no new New Girl or Mindy Project eps (as apparently those are the only 2 shows I feel invested enough in right now to talk about in any depth) has resulted in me disappearing a bit, whoops.

Some brief TV stuff first:

Parks and Recreation 5.19-5.20Collapse )

Doctor Who 7.08-7.09Collapse )

The Good Wife 4.12Collapse )

Veep 2.02Collapse )

Also feel like I should mention at this point that (even though I haven't posted about it at all this season yet) I've been enjoying Mad Men this season a lot so far. I mean, the seasons tend to kind of build towards the end, so I'm usually not as into the earlier eps as the later ones, but I've actually enjoyed all these quite a bit, particularly everything always with Peggy, and anything involving Trudy putting Pete in his place.

[-] I've also gotten in a reading mood! It's the first time this year so far I've felt like doing nothing but reading. Several of you noticed on GoodReads that I was making my way through the Julia Quinn FBI/US Attorney series over the weekend, which was a just a huge delight. Some thoughts.Collapse ) I read some other things in addition to that series over the past week (Cinder and Scarlet by Marissa Meyer and Written in Red by Anne Bishop) which I don't have any specific thoughts on at the moment, other than I enjoyed them all quite a bit, but feel free to talk to me about them in the comments!!! At some point I also might start posting super brief reactions to stuff when I finish them on GoodReads because I have been wanting to use it more recently.

[-] In my last post, I mentioned about changing my mind about social work and thinking about accounting and teaching. Since then, that hasn't changed, but I've also added thinking about law school to my potential future plans. I mean, it's a weird thing, because my dad's a lawyer, and it's been a running joke in my family for years whenever I get really argumentative that one of them says I'd make a good lawyer, and I'm always like, "No way!!!" and I don't even know when it started, it must've been when I was a kid, but like… despite that, I've actually always been interested in the law. One of my greatest concerns with the idea of being a lawyer was not being interested in litigation, but I was reading into transactional law, and that seems like it would be more suited for me. I am concerned because I know that it can be pretty tough to get a job as a lawyer these days, but the top schools tend to still have good job placement rates, and getting into law school is primarily GPA + LSAT, and my GPA is excellent, and I took a practice LSAT and did well, and I figure with a couple months of studying and doing practice tests, I could bump it up about 5 points, and at that point I would be pretty confident I could get into a good school. I'm not 100% sure yet, I do want to research things a bit more just to make sure I think I would enjoy transactional law, and I'm still planning on taking that accounting class and do some tutoring over the summer. The most likely plan for me in the fall would be that I would apply to law school, accounting programs, and possibly whatever programs I'd need to apply to for teaching, and then give myself more time to think things through and find out where I'd even get accepted, and then go from there.

I did also finally talk to my parents last Friday about my change in plans for grad school, and while they did burst out laughing when I told them I was thinking about law school (mostly just because of what I mentioned above about it being a running joke. And I prefaced telling them with, "Ok, you're going to laugh at this, but…" and afterwards my mom was like, "You're right, that's the only thing you could've said that would have made us laugh at you."), they were totally understanding of the concerns I had with social work and said they had similar concerns, and they think accounting or law school would definitely fit me better. So I feel good having talked it over with them, and I really do feel so much less worried and anxious and nervous about thinking about my future plans (even though they're still up in the air) than I did just a month or two ago. So I do think I'm headed in the right direction right now.

[-] WORK HAS BEEN SO STUPID FOR SO MANY REASONS. Work StuffCollapse )

OH, I almost completely forgot to mention because it happened like a week and a half ago now, but like, MY BOSS HAS BEEN OVERLY NICE TO ME RECENTLY, AND I'M PARANOID ABOUT IT??? Like, a week ago Friday, I was leaving for the day and was saying bye to her, and she was like, "Oh, you like theater, would you be interested in going to see Billy Elliot?" which is going to be playing in Costa Mesa soon-ish, and at first I thought she meant like… all of us go as an office (there's only like 10 of us so that's not as many as it sounds) but then I realized she just meant me, her, and maybe my supervisor, and like… no, actually, I don't want to do that, SUPER AWKWARD, especially because either I'd be giving notice right before we'd go or right after, and either way, I'd feel awkward. But I didn't feel like I could say no, so I told her that sounded fun. I HAVEN'T HEARD ANYTHING SINCE THEN, SO I'M HOPING IT DOESN'T HAPPEN. And then the following Monday, my boss is like, "Can you come here for a second?" and I'm afraid that I'm in trouble for something, but then I go in and she gives me a brand new scarf for no reason at all?????? And it's a really nice scarf, I like it, but like. WHY????????? THERE HAS TO BE AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE. I DON'T KNOW WHAT ULTERIOR MOTIVE THERE CAN BE FOR GIVING ME A SCARF, BUT LIKE. THERE'S SOMETHING GOING ON. WHY WOULD SHE JUST GIVE ME A SCARF OUT OF THE BLUE??????? IT'S REALLY WEIRD, I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON.
 
 
Current Mood: exhaustedexhausted
 
 
Michelle
02 April 2013 @ 07:14 am
I need to stop going a week and a half plus between posts since I end up having way too much to post about!!!! Mostly TV this time:

New Girl 2.10Collapse )

The Mindy Project 1.18Collapse )

Game of Thrones 3.01Collapse )

Doctor Who 7.07Collapse )

The Lizzie Bennet DiariesCollapse )

I stopped watching Shameless last season around 2.09, mostly because I wasn't into the show as much as I had been during season 1, and because I just had too many shows to watch and a lot of stuff went by the wayside, even stuff I was mostly enjoying. But seeing gifs of Fiona and Evan Chambers made me want to catch up, so I finally did this past week. And now I have a bunch of random stuff to ramble about. ShamelessCollapse )

I finally caught up on The Americans last weekend after having only seen the pilot for, like, months, and I don't have anything specific to say, but ugh!!! So great!!! Spy marrieds!!!!!!! I'm loving so much of what they're doing with the show. And yay to the pick-ups for Cougar Town, Elementary (not that that was really in doubt, but it's always nice to have it confirmed) and The Good Wife (…mostly. Depending on where things go this season and next)!!!

I GOT MY NEW CAR LAST WEEK!!!!!! Picture under the cutCollapse ) It's the Hyundai Elantra and I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!! I mean, tbh, I was kind of freaking out a little like right in the middle of when I was signing the papers (WHICH TOOK OVER 3 HOURS, GOD), mostly because, I mean… this is a huge purchase!!! By far the biggest purchase I've ever made, and I'm going to be paying it off for the next 6 years, and I probably paid more than I should of (meaning that I got a lot of comfort features that I don't really NEED but still really wanted), and I kept doubting my choice, like maybe I really would enjoy the Ford Focus more or whatever. But after having it a week (actually, after just a day, really), I am completely in love with it and so happy!!!! And I was able to trade in my 12 year old car that has ignition problems and heating problems for $1700 which was way more than I was expecting to get, so that was also awesome. Although it was sad to say goodbye to it. It was my first car ever!!!

I FINALLY have moved my hours from 8-5 (nearly 7 months after I was first told I could!!!) and it's awesome!!!! It feels so early when I get to go home!!! I also… can't remember if I mentioned this in my last post, but I'm thinking of sticking around until the end of May now at my job just to get save up a little extra, especially after having to get the new car, and because I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I need to be doing between now and applying to grad schools. Which I'm starting to freak out a huge amount about. I have my next career counseling session on Wednesday, and I was researching a bunch of schools that he gave me to look into last time, and I was looking through applications and requirements and stuff, and I FEEL SO UNPREPARED. Hopefully Wednesday will help, and hopefully after that I'll be able to really figure out when I need to quit. But it will be soon!!! Especially since my supervisor was talking to me the other day about how they're going to give some more of my responsibilities over to someone else, which are also some of the only things I actually don't mind/enjoy, leaving me basically only with the stuff I hate. I would be paranoid about my job security, actually, if I didn't know how much they need me. But that shouldn't go into effect for another couple months, so staying until the end of May should be ok. And the new people are… ugh. The guy is really argumentative and thinks he knows better when he really doesn't, and he's condescending and has an opinion about EVERYTHING, even when no one freaking asked for an opinion an they're just making idle small talk. The girl is better, I mean, I like her as a person at least, but she's still making a lot of REALLY basic mistakes, which is causing more work for everyone. ugh. BUT IT WILL BE OVER SOON.
 
 
Current Mood: exhaustedexhausted
 
 
Michelle
06 March 2013 @ 08:00 am
ugh, so I'm sorry I pretty much disappeared the past week and a half. Nothing particularly special happened, I have just been so tired and emotionally drained and lacked all motivation to do anything for a multitude of reasons. And there are too many things I need to talk about, so whenever I go to make a post, I'm like, "No this is going to take so long!!!" so I just do other stuff instead because procrastination is my solution to all things because I am an adult. I will try to make this briefer (well, brief for me) than normal so I can finally get something posted already.

TV stuff first:

New Girl 2.18Collapse )

The Mindy Project 1.16Collapse )

The Lizzie Bennet DiariesCollapse )

Hart of DixieCollapse )

Most of what I have been doing for the past week instead of being around here or doing anything productive with my life has been watching movies. The Oscars always put me in a movie-watching mood, and I so rarely get into movie-watching moods these days that I've been capitalizing on it while it lasts. In the past week, I've watched: The Graduate, Ordinary People, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Midnight Cowboy, The Pianist, The Navigator, Stagecoach, Scarlet Street, Rashomon, and The Virgin Spring. Super, super brief reactions to them all.Collapse )

Work/real life stuff.Collapse )

Other stuff:

[-] FMM is a thing that's happening! I feel like I have finally gotten to the point where I realize that FMM is always going to be disappointing and it's best just to enjoy the ride while I can but not get even remotely invested. Plus, I just don't feel like I care as much who wins since I got Leslie winning last year. But I am super happy about the rule changes so none of the old shows are in anymore. I'm just hoping against all hope that no movie/book fandoms make it in even though I know it's futile. SORRY, I JUST CARE ABOUT TV CHARACTERS MORE THAN BOOK/MOVIE CHARACTERS LIKE 99.9% OF THE TIME. Actually that's not entirely true of books, but the book characters who have the potential to actually make it in are not the book characters I care about, so. But really the best part is the resulting fandom wank. Already entertained by people complaining about old shows not being eligible and HIMYM not already being on the bracket. Anyways, someone tell me what to vote for in the sci fi and teen categories. My only sci fi vote is for Lost Girl and I don't even watch that show, it's basically just an anti-Merlin/Avengers/BSG/The Hobbit/etc. vote. And for teen I have one spot open (already voting for FNL and Bunheads).

[-] A little obsessed with Jeremy Jordan and Jonathan Groff singing Let Me Be Your Star. WHY WON'T YOU BE IN MORE THINGS WHERE YOU CAN SING, JGROFF??? I'm excited for your HBO show and all whenever that starts, but still. THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME SINGING. Also don't know how I hadn't heard of Jeremy Jordan until he joined Smash, but I have been obsessed with his voice since the song he sang in the premiere. Also don't ask me why I'm still watching Smash because I honestly can't tell you other than my Christian Borle situation, my love for Ivy/Megan Hilty, and my inability to let go of any show involving musical numbers despite how much I dislike the rest of the actual show (see also: Glee). But yeah, Jeremy Jordan, where have I been??? He is excellent.

I AM THE MOST BEHIND ON COMMENTING, I AM SO SORRY. I will try to get caught up on the past like week of entries tonight, but I probably won't get to everything, so I'M VERY SORRY, but I do promise I will read through everything even if I can't comment.
 
 
Current Mood: draineddrained
 
 
Michelle
26 February 2013 @ 07:44 am
Oscars ReactionsCollapse )

New Girl 2.17Collapse )

Parks and Recreation 4.14 & 4.15Collapse )

Elementary 1.17Collapse )

I took a bit of a break from my TWW rewatch this past week because of there being so much new TV/work being busy and me working overtime, and then over the weekend I continued that break to try to get caught up on the BP noms in time for the Oscars, since I had only seen 4 of the 9 nominated. I didn't manage to get all of them in time for the awards, but I did get to 4/5 that I hadn't seen, so that's not too bad! And I have some brief thoughts on those films: Les Miserables, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, & AmourCollapse )

I saw a play on Friday night at South Coast Rep with my parents, Chinglish, which I probably shouldn't have gone to just because I was exhausted and could barely stay awake, and I had wanted to see it because I heard it had gotten good reviews, but after having seen it, I definitely could have lived without going It wasn't bad or anything, it just… idk, I've seen a lot of other things that addressed the same issues/topics it addressed but better and more in-depth, and it was entertaining enough, but not so entertaining that I would've rather seen it than gone home and crashed. But the main reason I'm even mentioning it is that one of the actresses in it was Michelle Krusiec, who played Exquisite Woo on Popular, and she was also on Community in season 2 in that wine tasting ep as Wu Mei, who was dating Pierce, so it was fun to recognize her there.

I found out that the woman I mentioned in my last post who was going to be starting at some point and taking over some of my responsibilities (the stuff I actually somewhat enjoy) so I can move my hours up to 8-5 is going to be starting today, officially, which. ugh. I mean, it turns out she'll be working from 4-7, which is at least a little better than 3-6, because that means she'll only be taking over for me from 4-5 once I do move the hours up (although I'm not going to be moving the hours up until she's trained enough that she can do the stuff on her own, so who knows when that will be), unless they just let me keep doing that stuff from 4-5 (which they should) and she can do it from 5-7. But even though that's a little better than expected, the whole thing still just makes me feel… weird? I mean, when my supervisor was telling me yesterday she'd be starting today for sure, I felt like she expected me to be grateful or happy that I will finally be moving my hours up (because this is something they asked me if I'd be interested in LAST SEPTEMBER), and I was having a hard time not telling her not to even bother with it because I'm not going to be here much longer, and it just doesn't seem at all worth it to mess with my schedule at this point. I also still have a lot of anxiety about quitting and am not really sure when that's going to happen. I think I want to stop working here sometime in April, but I'm just not sure if it makes more sense to have my last day be at the beginning of April or the end. Really I'd just like to fast forward a couple months. Or maybe a year.
 
 
Current Mood: exhaustedexhausted
 
 
Michelle
10 February 2013 @ 01:36 pm
In case you've forgotten or you're a new friend, when that 100 Things LJ meme thing was going around last summer, I decided to do 100 Female TV Characters, which I've been verrrrrry slowly making my way through. I definitely want to get through the rest of the 100 by the end of the year (which sounds like plenty of time, but considering I'm only through 40 and I've been working on it since last June, that might be difficult), and I finally have the next 10 to post! (Previous posts: 1-10, 11-20, 21-30.)

100 Female TV Characters: #31-40Collapse )

Anyways, I am a million days behind on comments, so I am going to spend the rest of my day catching up on them, and then catching up on TV. Hope everyone's having a nice weekend!
 
 
Current Mood: accomplishedaccomplished
 
 
Michelle
02 February 2013 @ 10:19 am
New Girl 2.15Collapse )

Hart of Dixie 2.13Collapse )

The Mindy Project 1.13Collapse )

The Lizzie Bennet DiariesCollapse )

I am still behind on most TV, but I did manage to catch up on Bunheads, which was a great choice because that is a super delightful show, and I forgot how much I enjoyed it! I think it might be even better so far since it's come back than it was over the summer. I also really enjoyed seeing Paris Gellar again on my screen, and the Breaking Bad reference ("So he's a Better Call Saul?") had me cracking up a ridiculous amount.

I finally read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, which I feel like everyone in the world has already read, and… I liked it, but not nearly as much as most people seem to? I should mention that I was spoiled for how everything turned out like months and months ago, which was part of why I put off reading it for so long, so that might've lessened the emotional impact some. But I was expecting to cry a lot, and… I almost teared up like once or twice, but that was it. I honestly just never got incredibly emotionally invested in the characters or the relationship or… anything. The characters never really felt like real people to me. idk. I did really enjoy quite a lot about it! I gave it like 4/5 stars on GoodReads, so it's not like I hated it or anything. It just didn't seem to affect me like it did most people, which is kind of disappointing.

Nothing particularly exceptional about my job to complain about this week. I mean, there were plenty of frustrating things, but nothing remarkable enough to get into. I was just so exhausted by Wednesday that I just felt like a truck had run over me, and I was kind of emotionally on edge all Wednesday and Thursday, not for any particular reason, but just like… a lot of small things catching up with me? And I think I was still a little exhausted from last week. BUT IT'S THE WEEKEND NOW, YAY!!!!! Going to catch up on commenting because I'm days behind (for the aforementioned reasons of being emotionally on edge and exhausted the past couple days), and then I will embark upon my New Girl rewatch!!!!!
 
 
Current Mood: draineddrained
 
 
Michelle
29 January 2013 @ 07:56 am
The Lizzie Bennet DiariesCollapse )

Miranda 3.06Collapse )

I'd been slacking pretty hard in the reading department for most of January, but I went from having read only 1 book for the month to 6 by the end of this weekend! And one of the books I read was HDU by India Lee, which I only heard about because it's literally based on ONTD. But, more importantly than that, it features pretend dating, which is legitimately one of my favorite tropes ever, so I had to read it for that reason alone. AND IT ACTUALLY WAS KIND OF DELIGHTFUL!!! HDU by India LeeCollapse )

Another one of the books I read was The Diviners by Libba Bray which I've been meaning to read since September, and I finally got to it, and I just… there's something about Libba Bray's writing that I just can't get into her books. I don't know what it is! I definitely liked this more than the first book of her Gemma Doyle trilogy, but I really couldn't get into that at all, so that's not saying much. I liked the ideas and plot a lot more in this book, but for whatever reason, I just never can get invested in her characters. I don't understand why! But I might end up reading the sequel regardless just because I did enjoy the plot/worldbuilding, and I can see a couple characters where there's the potential for me to get invested. Still, I was hoping to like it a lot more than I did, so that was disappointing.

I am so behind on all the TV, ugh! Every time I go to finally watch something, I'm like, "Well, I could catch up on Castle, ...or I could watch this 5 min video of Lizzie and Darcy flirting with each other for the 800th time." You can guess which option I've been choosing. I'M SORRY, BUT THIS WEBSERIES MAY HAVE TAKEN OVER MY LIFE A LITTLE BIT. At least there's new Hart of Dixie and New Girl (!!!!! THE PROMOS, I AM DYING ALREADY) tonight!!! I should be able to divert my attention from LBD long enough to watch those episodes, at least!
 
 
Current Mood: exhaustedexhausted
 
 
Michelle
27 January 2013 @ 03:21 pm
Parks and Recreation 5.11Collapse )

Hart of Dixie 2.12Collapse )

The Lizzie Bennet DiariesCollapse )

Super bummed about both Ben and Kate and Don't Trust the B being effectively cancelled. I mean, I've been expecting it for both shows for awhile now, so I had pretty much prepared myself for it, but it's still a disappointment. At least I'm several episodes behind on both shows, so I can drag out their seasons a bit longer.

Work this week was crappy as usual! Work StuffCollapse )

So yeah, anyways, needless to say that pissed me off, and I was also annoyed about having to stay until 8 PM on Thursday and Friday at all, although it had died down so much that they did realize there was no point in keeping us all the way until 8 PM on Friday, so I did get to leave at like 7:15 that night, thankfully. I had also totally planned on getting caught up on comments on Thursday evening, but that was before I knew I would have to stay until 8 PM, and even though I did have a little time after work that evening, I was so completely and utterly drained that I could barely keep my eyes open, so that didn't happen. So sorry about all the late comments on everyone's entries this weekend! Better late than never, right? I hope? I was just so exhausted both Thursday and Friday that I felt like crying, which is always how it gets at the end of the month with this job, and I hate it. But hopefully I will not have to deal with all this for much longer.

Anyways, SAG AWARDS TONIGHT!!!!!!! I should mention for new people that I have an unhealthy love for awards shows. It's not like I actually think the things that are awarded are always the best things or are worthy of awards, but... idk what it is, I just love awards shows, there's no rational explanation for it. (Except the Grammys; I never care about those.) I definitely need to start picking up with watching the nominated films, though, since normally this is the time of year I watch most of the major nominated things, but I've actually only seen 1 film in the past month, and I still have like half the things nominated for Best Picture to watch. Maybe that'll be my goal for next weekend (which will somehow be February, how did that happen????).
 
 
Current Mood: anxiousanxious
 
 
Michelle
18 January 2013 @ 07:55 am
Parks and Recreation 5.10Collapse )

New Girl 2.13Collapse )

The Lizzie Bennet DiariesCollapse )

So I ended up marathoning Girls over the past couple days and I have some thoughts: Girls Season 1 & 2.01Collapse )

So it feels like it was a million years ago now, but my birthday was Monday, and it was… fine? It was pretty low key, not that I wanted it to be a huge thing. I was supposed to go shopping with my mom on Saturday, but I woke up with a cold out of nowhere and didn't feel up to it. I did see Zero Dark Thirty on Sunday, though, which I really enjoyed. I don't have a lot to say about it, but I just wanted to say briefly that like… I don't entirely know how I feel about the torture stuff because, I mean, a large part of me feels like we can't really know how true that is because it's too close to the event now, so there are people who would have a vested interest in trying to downplay it. But out of context of all the controversy, it was just an amazingly well-made film that was perfectly paced, and just… gripping from start to end. And of course you can't remove the film entirely from context, which is what's preventing me from giving the film like 5 stars, 10/10, etc., but… yeah, idk, I thought it was very good overall, and it's ridiculous that Kathryn Bigelow wasn't nominated.

The Golden Globes also happened a million years ago, so I feel way too late to really discuss them in depth, but I do have to say that I love that I haven't seen a single negative review of Tina and Amy's hosting job. Which is good, because they really were just wonderful. I'm sure someone somewhere didn't like them because there's nothing that's actually universally loved, but I can't remember any award hosts in recent years who have been this widely praised. Hopefully this means they can host all the things in the future!!!

So I know I mentioned I was going to rewatch Friday Night Lights S3-5, but… that hasn't happened. This is why I shouldn't say I'm going to do things because I never actually do what I say I'm going to. First I watched Girls, and now I've moved on to Hart of Dixie based on Tumblr and a couple people on my flist convincing me that I would ship Zoe/Wade ridiculous amounts. I'm only like 4 episodes in, but I'm already so far gone for them. HE MADE THE GUMBO FOR HER THAT WON 2ND PLACE AND HE DIDN'T EVEN TAKE CREDIT FOR IT. Except more flailing and feelings when I finish marathoning the show!
 
 
Current Mood: tiredtired
 
 
Michelle
11 January 2013 @ 07:53 am
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Episodes 77-78Collapse )

New Girl 2.12Collapse )

Cougar Town 4.01Collapse )

Elementary 1.12Collapse )

Oscar noms!!!!!!!! One of my favorite days of the year, no lie. I… still haven't seen enough things to have real opinions, but a few various thoughts: Brief Oscar Nomination ReactionsCollapse )

I had my 3rd career counseling session on Wednesday, which was… fine? idk, it's hard to really describe them since I just took another assessment and we talked briefly about some stuff. Right now it looks like I'm kind of heading into getting a Master's in Social Work and becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, which… was exactly what I was planning back when I was a sophomore in college before I changed my mind because I decided I wasn't sure enough and wanted to explore other stuff first, and I'll feel a little silly if I end up going that route just because I'll feel like I wasted these past few years unnecessarily. But we'll see, I still have some doubts (but there's no career that I feel like 100% about, and idk, I'M JUST A REALLY INDECISIVE PERSON AND I HAVE WAY TOO MANY INTERESTS). My last career counseling session is mid-February, so hopefully at that point I can make some sort of decision and figure out a battle plan and go from there.

Work has been annoying, as usual. But it just gets worse, like, I feel myself getting irritated with people I used to get along with really well. I'm just so done with everything there. And I was also annoyed this week because it's been crazy slow and they've actually been letting people leave early, but I never am the one who gets to leave early. And my supervisor every single day will be like "Maybe we'll get to leave early today!" to me, and then SHE NEVER LETS ME GO EARLY, SHE ONLY LETS OTHER PEOPLE GO, OR NO ONE. I just feel like I'm being jerked around, like I wouldn't care as much if she didn't say anything, but then she gets my hopes up and I become anxious all day to get to go home, and then I have to stay the whole time!!!! And yesterday she had us all take half hour breaks in case we were slow so we could be let home early, and she told me, "At the very least, you could go half an hour early," so I took a half hour lunch which I hate doing because things are not close enough to my office to really have time to get something and eat lunch during that time, and I also wanted to watch the new LBD episode and flail over it, and that didn't really give proper time to do all that. But I really wanted to be let home half an hour early, so I took only a half hour and scarfed down some food quickly, and then we got busier in the afternoon and I worked until my normal time anyways, so I actually ended up working half an hour of overtime even though we're not actually busy enough to be doing OT right now!!!! UGH IT ANNOYED ME SO MUCH. sigh.

Anyways, in conclusion, I can't stop watching the last LBD video on a loop, SEND HELP.
 
 
Current Mood: excitedexcited
 
 
Michelle
07 January 2013 @ 07:51 am
Elementary 1.11Collapse )

The Lizzie Bennet DiariesCollapse )

I finally finished catching up with Parenthood, and now I have assorted feelings! ParenthoodCollapse )

So I was going to say my birthday's in 2 weeks and I'm not ready, and then I realized my birthday is actually exactly one week away, so… clearly I'm really, REALLY not ready, whoops. I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW I CAN BE TURNING 24. That has to be wrong, I'm pretty sure I'm only like 21. But anyways, I have no exciting plans, and it's annoying to me that it's on a Monday because Mondays are the worst, but oh well. On the plus side, it being a Monday means a new Lizzie Bennet Diaries episode, and it'll still be the Pemberley arc, so that almost makes it worth it. Anyways, my mom is going to take me shopping Saturday probably, which will be nice, and I'm going to try to see a movie on Sunday, and that's pretty much the extent of my birthday plans.

I just realized I haven't posted since before the New Year, so… happy 2013, I guess! I had a pretty decent New Year's Eve. I did have to work, but luckily got let home at 3:15 (which is almost 3 hours early), so that was nice. And then I ended up going to a friend's house and playing board games and stuff, so it was quiet but nice. (Although work had me so exhausted that I could barely stay awake, which was annoying.) Speaking of work, it still sucks, and they're adjusting like… idk, responsibilities and procedures and stuff in a way that I think is going to make everything worse. They've also chastised everyone for using IM for things other than work because apparently we're all using it too much to talk about non-work related stuff (although, if I'm complaining about how much work sucks, isn't that still technically work-related? I'm just saying), so I can't even complain to one of my coworkers who I normally complain with, but we have taken to occasionally getting lunch together and spending that time to complain, which helps marginally. I have my 3rd career counseling session this week, though, so hopefully that'll help me get closer to figuring out what I want to do next so I can quit already.

I wanted to mention that I made a bunch of icons from the end of the year picspams I did. They're all in my userpics, and if anyone wants to use any, feel free! I used to make big icon posts like a million years ago when I was first getting into using LJ, and I'm too lazy for that anymore, but whenever I make graphics for stuff like my end of the year picspam or the 100 ladies picspam (which I am totally still doing, btw!!! I got behind on it at the end of the year since I was focusing on getting to 100 books/50 movies and then obviously my end of the year picspam took precedence, but I definitely want to finish the rest of my 100 ladies list before the end of the year, so that will be happening), I make icons from the graphics I make from the picspams and upload my favorites for my own use, and I'm totally cool with other people taking them from there, you don't have to ask. And I tend to only make them from the shows I know I post about regularly and know I will actually use, but if there are graphics I've done that you'd like icons from that I haven't made any for, let me know and I can make some easily, it's zero trouble. I mean, I don't know that anyone's actually interested, but I figured I'd just put it out there in case anyone was.

Normally this time of year with all the awards season stuff, I'm in a major movie-watching mood, and I also expected to want to be reading a lot considering how much I was reading towards the end of the year, but for some reason at the moment all I want to do is watch TV??? I don't even know where to start because there are too many things I want to watch right now, so I've kind of just been staring at the wall instead so I don't have to make any decisions because this is how I handle things (I am totally an adult). I think I'm going to do a season 3-5 rewatch of Friday Night Lights first because Parenthood put me in the mood for that, and I'd do a full series rewatch except I rewatched season 1 on its own like… okay, it was 2 years ago, but it feels like yesterday (and also that rewatch highlighted for me how much more I enjoy the gen 2 kids on FNL more than the gen 1 kids overall, whoops), and I don't really have any inclination to rewatch season 2 (pretty much all I can remember from it is the awful Landry/Tyra storyline and Matt and Julie breaking up and Matt sleeping with his grandma's caretaker, and… yeah, none of that makes me want to rewatch that season). So I'm thinking I'll just do seasons 3-5, but we'll see.

And now I have to go to work, but I know I'm going to be unable to focus on anything except for the fact that in just a few hours, THERE WILL BE PEMBERLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I have no idea how this webseries has taken over my life like this.)
 
 
Current Mood: sleepysleepy
 
 
Michelle
31 December 2012 @ 07:58 am
End of the year picspam time!

Top Shows and Ships of 2012Collapse )

Top Books of 2012Collapse )

Top Movies of 2012Collapse )

I managed to get to 100 books, 50 movies, and a whole lot of TV for the year. My Scrapbook has full lists of everything I watched and read with ratings for the movies and the books.

And now I'm off to work (and hopefully will get to leave early)! Hope everyone has a nice New Year's Eve!!!
 
 
Current Mood: accomplishedaccomplished
 
 
Michelle
29 December 2012 @ 01:55 pm
So I definitely did not mean to go 3 weeks without posting, but apparently I have! Basically all I've been doing for the past few weeks in my spare time has been working on my end of the year post, which I'm almost done with finally!!!! I probably won't be posting it until Monday since I want to try to get to 50 movies for the year before I finish it (I'm at 45 right now, so I think I should be able to get through 5 this weekend?), but I'm excited that it's just about done, since I wasn't even sure if I'd have time to do one this year. Anyways, the stuff I have to talk about doesn't feel incredibly relevant anymore since it's been weeks since they happened, but oh well:

Doctor Who Christmas SpecialCollapse )

The Hour 2.05-2.06Collapse )

The Mindy Project 1.09Collapse )

I don't have anything specific to say about it, but SUPER EXCITED MIRANDA'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S BEEN SO LONG SINCE IT'S BEEN ON AND I'M SO HAPPY IT'S FINALLY HERE, AND THE PREMIERE WAS JUST WONDERFUL!!!!

The Lizzie Bennet DiariesCollapse )

I finally saw Silver Linings Playbook a couple weeks ago and really loved it! Silver Linings Playbook (2012)Collapse )

I stopped watching Parenthood around episode 3.02 just because when I started working last fall, I couldn't keep up with all the shows I was watching, and a lot of shows I dropped intentionally, but others I just got behind on and never caught up, but always planned on picking up again eventually. I finally decided to start catching up on Parenthood this past week, and it was a super great decision. I forgot how much I loved this show!!! Anyways, I'll hold off until after I finish getting caught up to make a post about all my feelings (I just finished season 3). Also it's making me want to do a Friday Night Lights rewatch, so that might happen after I finish (probably only seasons 3-5, though).

Work/Real Life StuffCollapse )

Anyways, I hope everyone has been having a nice holiday season! I know I've been the worst LJ friend, but I'm really going to resolve to do better in 2013 because I miss being active around here and talking to everyone about things. And once I finally quit my job (which will definitely be happening in 2013), I should hopefully have a little extra time to be around here, so that'll be good.
 
 
Current Mood: busybusy
 
 
Michelle
30 November 2012 @ 07:55 am
Parks and Recreation 5.08Collapse )

New Girl 2.08-2.09Collapse )

Lizzie Bennet Diaries Eps 65-68Collapse )

So I'm behind on basically all TV right now except for Parks and New Girl because I have been in a crazy reading mood. In the past 12 days, I've somehow read 16 books???? I don't know how this is possible what with work, and even with having Thanksgiving off, I spent most of that day with family and not reading. I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON, IT'S CRAZY. My original goal for the year was 50 books, and I got to that back in like August so I upped it to 75, but after getting there last week and still being in the mood to read all the time, I decided I might as well just try for 100. I mean, I'm at 82 for the year right now, so that's 18 books in a little less than 5 weeks, which sounds like a lot, but… at this rate I will be getting there by mid-December at the latest, with plenty of time to spare.

Anyways, I wanted to talk about some of the stuff I've been reading (mostly just the stuff I've enjoyed, I don't feel the need to talk about the mediocre to bad stuff, although luckily there hasn't been too much of that), but then I became completely consumed with this YA contemporary romance, The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay, so much so that I stayed up until 2 AM on Tuesday to finish it and I can't stop thinking about it and it's destroyed me and I need people to know about this book!!! I'll talk a little about some of the other stuff I'm reading next time I post, but I don't think I can get my brain to focus on anything else for long enough at the moment to form coherent thoughts on anything else right now. So please read my flailing under the cut about this book and then read it and talk to me about it!!!! The Sea of Tranquility by Katja MillayCollapse )

Work has been utterly exhausting and irritating, but I will give you a break from me complaining about it until my next post because I'm tired and have already babbled on enough here! Also my Nook spontaneously broke (like there's a strip on the right side of a screen that's just like… a blur? I can't even describe it, I'll turn it on and it'll be dark and then fade and be completely blurred and you can't read anything under it) and it's definitely not convenient since all I want to do at the moment is read. I was tempted to just buy a new one for myself but I guess I'm asking for a new one for Christmas. I suppose I can last a month without it and just read stuff on my computer. But ughhhh annoyed. And now for some reason both my parents keep trying to convince me that I want an iPad instead of a Nook, and I'm like "What? No! I just want an ereader! I won't use an iPad!!!" and they're like "Are you sure???" If I didn't know my parents I would think they had already gotten me one for Christmas as a surprise, but that's not what this is, they're just really big Apple fans. Which I am, too! But I don't need an iPad so it seems silly to pay more for something that suits my purposes less.
 
 
Current Mood: draineddrained
 
 
Michelle
13 November 2012 @ 08:02 am
Parks and Recreation 5.06Collapse )

Once Upon a TimeCollapse )

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Ep. 61-63Collapse )

I saw Argo on Sunday, and I also saw The Master like a month ago but never talked about it, so I guess I should discuss that a little as well: Argo & The MasterCollapse )

Real life stuff/work has felt especially busy this past week. Work/Real LifeCollapse )
 
 
Current Mood: draineddrained
 
 
Michelle
04 November 2012 @ 02:50 pm
New Girl 2.06Collapse )

So for the past week I've been kind of obsessed with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and unable to think about or focus on anything else. I mean, I mentioned back in August that I had started watching the series and that I really enjoyed it, and I've been keeping up with it since then, but this week the combination of… well, what happened this week in the 2 episodes (trying to keep it vague for people who haven't watched it yet, because if you haven't, you really should, it is the greatest!!!!!! I mean, obviously if you already like the source material I would suggest you check it out, but also if you're into awesome ladies and female friendships because this series has that in spades!!!! Obviously Lizzie is great, but they've also managed to develop Lydia, Jane, and Charlotte in such wonderful ways, and ughhh seriously you need to watch!!!!), but also because suddenly everyone on my dash and quite a few people here have started watching, and now I finally have people to flail with!!!! Yay!!!!! I ended up actually rewatching the entire series on Thursday because I was watching Thursday's episode on pretty much a continuous loop and I needed to break the cycle but had no interest in watching anything else. And now I have a bunch of random musings about the series to talk about since I never really went in depth about my feelings/thoughts on the show when I first started watching, and since I can't think about anything else right now, I might as well take the time to talk about them! The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (spoilers for whole series so far!)Collapse )

Anyways, even if you didn't make it through all that (I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS), please come flail with me about the series if you've been watching it, or if you haven't, go start watching it and then come back and flail with me please!!!!!!!

In terms of real life stuff, the past week was kind of both better and worse than the hell week the week before? Work StuffCollapse )
 
 
Current Mood: okayokay
 
 
Michelle
21 October 2012 @ 11:39 am
Parks and Recreation 5.04Collapse )

Elementary 1.03Collapse )

I haven't even watched last week's Downton Abbey, but I still feel the need to comment on something after finding out what happened: Downton Abbey 3.05Collapse )

I also watched two movies yesterday! Attack the Block (2011) & Anastasia (1997)Collapse )

Work/real life stuff has been a little crazy recently. Work/Real Life StuffCollapse )
 
 
Current Mood: busybusy
 
 
Michelle
15 October 2012 @ 07:58 am
New Girl 2.04Collapse )

Nashville 1.01Collapse )

Once Upon a Time Season 1Collapse )

After the past week or so of picking up Dexter again and now Once Upon a Time, my Sunday night TV is weirdly packed; I have Downton Abbey, Dexter, Once Upon a Time, Homeland, Revenge, and The Good Wife, which is more dramas than I think any other night of TV for me??? Although it doesn't quite rival the Tuesday night comedies, which is another story entirely.

I watched a couple movies over the weekend:

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) & The Muppets (2011)Collapse )

I had to work this past Saturday and I'm going to have to work this coming Saturday and it sucks. Plus, it's starting to get near the end of the month, which means things are going to get a lot busier at work, which means having to work at least an hour of overtime every day, which also sucks. But in less than 2 weeks now, I will be seeing The Book of Mormon in LA, so there's that at least!
 
 
Current Mood: tiredtired
 
 
Michelle
09 October 2012 @ 07:58 am
Parks and Recreation 5.03Collapse )

New Girl 2.03Collapse )

The Mindy Project 1.02Collapse )

I also don't have anything really specific to say about them, but I'm loving Elementary, Go On has really grown on me more than I ever expected (I'm in it mostly for Anne and Owen and John Cho, but the rest has been pretty enjoyable too!), and Ben and Kate is pretty cute and I'm also enjoying it more than expected.

So I ended up spending the past week catching up and watching season 6 of Dexter (and then the 2 eps from this season), and now I have thoughts! Dexter Season 6 & 7.01-7.02Collapse )

I decided to start watching Once Upon a Time. I had resisted watching it for awhile, but enough people whose taste I trust seem to be enjoying it overall and I do love fairytales and idk, I was bored and wanted something new to watch, and the first season is up on Netflix Instant Watch, and I'm like 80% more likely to watch something if it's up on Netflix. I expected just to be entertained by it while being irritated by some aspects, and there is some stuff I don't love, but overall I actually am enjoying it a lot more than I expected (I'm a little less than halfway through the first season), and it's given me feelings a couple times unexpectedly, so yeah! I think I'll be adding it to what I'm watching this season! I'll post more in depth thoughts once I've gotten all caught up, anyways.

I've been trying to post more than just once a week but this past week kind of got away from me! And I have some real life stuff to talk about, both work and otherwise, and for once I'm not going to be complaining about the new coworker because things have improved with her, yay! Work and Real Life StuffCollapse )
 
 
Current Mood: exhaustedexhausted
 
 
Michelle
02 October 2012 @ 07:58 am
Doctor Who 7.05Collapse )

Haven 3.02Collapse )

Downton Abbey 3.03Collapse )

The Good Wife 4.01Collapse )

I have nothing specific to say about the episode, but SO HAPPY HOMELAND IS BACK!!!!!!!!!! I was planning to do a season 1 rewatch which hasn't happened yet, but possibly this weekend because the premiere reminded me of how much I adore this show.

I saw Looper on Sunday, and I have thoughts! (Any spoilers for the movie will be under spoiler-cuts.) LooperCollapse )

I also ended up doing a rewatch of Miranda on Saturday because I was just kind of in the mood for the show like that, and season 3 is FINALLY going to be airing somewhat soon, and it was definitely an excellent choice. I don't really have much to say specifically about it, just that it always take me like 10-15 min through the pilot to get used to the style and then I just get sucked in and laugh out loud more than I do during almost any other comedy I've watched. AND MIRANDA/GARY, UGH. Anyways, it got me in the mood to do a Green Wing rewatch mostly just because it's also a quirky British comedy, and I haven't watched it since I first marathoned it the summer before my senior year of high school (so that was definitely awhile ago), and it's all on Netflix, so I might do that soon.

Although, if you hadn't noticed, I'm kind of in the mood to rewatch just about everything right now. It's weird because I spent all summer pretty disinterested in TV, and even back in like April/May when there was still new stuff, idk, I just wasn't really in the mood for TV overall? But now I'm definitely in a TV mood, and I'm not used to all the shows having new stuff right now, so it's still exciting to have new eps to watch every night!!! And, as I said, I just want to marathon show after show right now. Homeland and Green Wing are on my list, along with Parks and Rec S2-3 (I'm rewatching season 4 with my parents right now since I got the DVDs and my dad hasn't seen it, and it's made me remember how much I adore this show and it's been over a year since I last watched any eps from those seasons which is FAR too long), and Dexter season 6 (after being spoiled for the season, I was pretty disinterested in catching up, but from all accounts, season 7 is a vast improvement, and it did used to be one of my absolute favorite shows, and I adore Deb always, so I might have to catch up).

In terms of real life stuff quickly, the end of this week is going to be a bit busy for me. My parents and I have season tickets to the local theater, South Coast Rep (which is close enough to L.A. that it often has recognizable actors in its productions, like Michael Urie and Donna from Suits and Billy from last season of Scandal and the headmaster from Gilmore Girls and so on, which is really fun, and most of its productions are pretty good, if not great, although there is the occasional awful one), and we were supposed to go to one last Friday, but my dad had a really awful cough, so we ended up trading the tickets for this Thursday instead (which sucks because THERE'S SO MUCH TV THURSDAY, WHY DON'T MY PARENTS UNDERSTAND THIS???? I can probably squeeze in Parks, but I doubt I'll be able to get to Scandal or Elementary, and I do not approve), and we're actually seeing a different play at the second stage there on Friday night, and I have a dentist appointment Saturday morning, so I probably won't be able to catch up on TV and the internet until like Saturday afternoon. Oh, and Sunday I'm hopefully going to finally see The Master (I was supposed to see it 2 weekends ago, and then I was supposed to see it this past weekend but we ended up seeing Looper instead, but I was promised that this weekend I will finally actually see The Master), so that'll be nice.

Also, I promise to stop complaining about the new coworker, but I did have to mention a few things quickly (and then I won't talk about her for awhile, I swear!!!). Work StuffCollapse )

Also, work-related, but it deserves to go outside the cut: this one girl I work with yesterday was like, "Ohhh, I need to check if Gossip Girl is starting tonight!!!!" and then she checked and was like "Oh no, it's not starting until next week!" And now I'm terrified that she might be a Chuck/Blair shipper. I NORMALLY DON'T JUDGE PEOPLE BASED ON SHIPS, BUT I DO WITH CHUCK/BLAIR, OK. I mean, she didn't say anything specific, just that she was excited for it to come back, but… who is still excited for this show and doesn't ship Chuck/Blair??? Is there anyone else left actually still watching? Anyways, I didn't mention anything about having watched (slash being obsessed with) the show because I feared her removing any doubt and confirming she ships them. I like her, I get along with her really well, I don't want to get into shipping wars with her!!!! So for now I will live in my delusion that she might not ship anyone and just enjoy the ridiculousness of the show.
 
 
Current Mood: sleepysleepy
 
 
Michelle
28 September 2012 @ 08:00 am
Parks and Recreation 5.02Collapse )

New Girl 2.01-2.02Collapse )

Glee 4.03Collapse )

Scandal 2.01Collapse )

I haven't watched any of this season of Up All Night so far, but from what I've heard… I'm not really eager to? Maybe I'll wait a few weeks and then marathon some eps to see how I feel, but just… the idea of the Ava show being gone and Reagan being a stay-at-home mom and Chris working takes away so much of what I really enjoyed about the show when it first started and what I found really refreshing about it. Now it just feels a lot more… idk, standard or like other family comedies I've already seen a million times before? But I guess I haven't actually watched the episodes yet so I shouldn't judge it. I just have enough TV to watch that it's hard to get motivated to find the time to watch a show that I feel disappointed in.

I got really behind on 30 Rock last week and hadn't watched the last like 8 episodes of the season, but I finally caught up a few days ago, and ahhhhh so many feelings!!!!! 30 Rock is a show that I've always liked but never really gotten invested in in the past, and part of it is just because I feel like Liz has never been allowed to have a functional, good relationship or be really happy. BUT THEN LIZ/CRISS!!!!! AND IT IS HITTING ME WITH ALL THE FEELINGS!!!!!!!! LIFE IS HAPPENING!!!!!!! If they don't end the series together, I'm going to be devastated.

I don't understand how it's already almost October!!! IT BARELY FEELS LIKE IT SHOULD BE SEPTEMBER!!!!! And the new girl at work is still driving me crazy. Work StuffCollapse )
 
 
Current Mood: tiredtired
 
 
Michelle
24 September 2012 @ 07:58 am
First off, Emmys reactions! EmmysCollapse )

So yeah, overall… mixed bag, as always, but I guess it could've been worse! And now I'm in the mood to rewatch Homeland before it premieres on Sunday. I mean, I was already kind of in the mood to rewatch the show in preparation for its premiere, but the Emmys reminded me of how much I love the show, too, so I might do that later in the week or over the weekend.

And now for some TV reactions:

Parks and Recreation 5.01Collapse )

Doctor Who 7.04Collapse )

Haven 3.01Collapse )

Downton Abbey 3.02Collapse )

Glee 4.02Collapse )

I've been rewatching Mad Men with my parents and we just finished season 3 (that season 3 finale is my 2nd favorite ep of the series, second only to The Suitcase; it's just so great!!!!) and I'm regretting not putting Betty in my top 100 ladies list. She was right on the border, but now that I've gone through season 3, I've realized that I really do love her more than quite a few ladies who did make the list. But oh well, I decided not to make anymore changes because I don't want it to be all out of order and if I keep second-guessing myself, I'll never finish it. But just know that she is a special honorary member of the list!!! (Also, I found myself shipping Betty/Henry so much more than I ever remember shipping them before and I don't know how that happened, but they gave me a lot of feelings!!!)

I interrupted my Downton Abbey rewatch to do a rewatch of New Girl (well, starting from 1.03 because I don't think I could take the pilot again, and 1.02 was pretty painful as well as far as I can remember) because I had been in the mood to do a rewatch of the show since I first marathoned it last spring, and now that the show is finally going to be back on Tuesday (!!!!!!), it seemed like an apt time to do a rewatch! And ugh, it's ridiculous how much I love that show. If you had told me after I watched the pilot last fall that it would end up being my favorite new show of last season, I would've thought you were crazy, but idk, it is just such an utter delight, I love all the characters and every combination of characters interacting, and there are certain episodes that make me tear up (like the Christmas ep, and the one where Nick thinks he has cancer and they all pitch in for his scan). And Secrets is just the actual perfect episode, I can't even, I want to watch it on a loop forever, every single moment is just pitch perfect, I can't handle it. ugh I can't wait for season 2 to start!!!!!!!!

Anyways, I'm back to my Downton rewatch now, and I'm at the end of season 1, and ughhhh the angst, I didn't expect it to affect me as much this time just because I'm not as invested in the show as I once was, and at least now I know how everything turns out, but it still kills me when Matthew thinks there might be a chance for him and Mary but then she starts paying attention to the other guy, and then of course absolutely everything in 1.07, oh god!!! But it's been nice remember what I once loved about the show.

I've still just been in a TV-watching mood for the past week, it's a little ridiculous. I keep wanting to rewatch everything. As I mentioned, I will probably rewatch Homeland sometime this week. I'm also thinking I might need to do a Haven rewatch, but we'll see; it seems a little silly to embark on more rewatches of stuff when everything is finally coming back this week and next! I'm most excited for New Girl, as I already mentioned, and Scandal (it's crazy how addicted I got to that show after only 7 eps!!!), but also for Elementary (although I've seen the pilot already, so there's an extra week wait there), The Good Wife, and (of course) Homeland. And I've never been able to get really invested in Castle, but I am excited for what the show's going to do with Castle/Beckett, so that'll be fun to see tonight! Really, I'm just so excited all my shows are finally almost back!!!!!!
 
 
Current Mood: tiredtired
 
 
Michelle
23 September 2012 @ 11:38 am
100 Female TV Characters: #21-30Collapse )

I finally made more progress on this list, yay! Now I'm a little under a third of the way through! I do think this is going to end up taking me like a year to get through, although I am in a picspamming mood right now, so maybe it won't take 1-2 months for the next set. Anyways, I have lots of TV and stuff to talk about, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow to get to that stuff. Hope everyone's having a nice weekend!
 
 
Current Mood: rushedrushed
 
 
Michelle
14 September 2012 @ 07:59 am
Go On 1.01-1.02Collapse )

The New Normal 1.02Collapse )

I finally got to see Moonrise Kingdom on Sunday! And then spent the rest of the day watching 3 other films: Head-On/Gegen die Wand (2004), Castaway to the Moon (2009), and The Hunger Games (2012), all of which were at least good if not great: Movie ReactionsCollapse )

I've also been eagerly devouring all the reviews I can for everything that's been showing at Toronto (and Telluride and Venice before it) and ugh there are so many films I want to watch right now but it feels like forever before I'm going to be able to see them!!! I have a super long list of everything with their release dates for the rest of the year:


Movies I'm most excited for: Imogene (Darren Criss on the big screen!!!!!!! Also Kristen Wiig, and it's supposed to be pretty good, so there's that. But I read an interview that stated it wouldn't be out until 2013, which NOOOOOO, I was so hoping for a limited release at the very end of this year!!! ughhhh I feel like I've been waiting for this movie forever!!!), Silver Linings Playbook (I wasn't super excited for this before, but the reviews coming out of Toronto were so great, and I do love Jennifer Lawrence. I'm a little nervous about how the movie is going to treat mental illness because I am usually pretty picky about portrayals of mental illness in the media, but I'm pretty hopeful and optimistic!), The Master, Pitch Perfect (okay this has nothing to do with film festivals or Oscar potential, it just looks very entertaining and relevant to my interests), Amour, Rust and Bone.

Movies I'm moderately excited for: Smashed (Aaron Paul!!!!!!!!!!!!!), Looper, Seven Psychopaths (I loved In Bruges, but I've read more mixed reviews about this one), Cloud Atlas (this is either going to be awesome or a trainwreck), The Sessions, Lincoln (I don't care much for biopics or Spielberg tbh, but I do love DDL, and it has a good cast), Anna Karenina (I do like Joe Wright and Keira Knightley and period stuff, but this looks like it could be iffy? I've never read Anna Karenina, either, so I don't know how that'll affect my enjoyment of the film one way or the other), Life of Pi (this is also kind of like Cloud Atlas, in that I think I'm either going to love it or hate it), Les Miserables, Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained, This is 40, Promised Land, Barbara.

Movies I don't think I'll care for but will have to watch anyways: Argo (I mean, the reviews have been amazing, and I normally would be interested in this kind of film, but I can't get over my rage at the fact that Ben Affleck cast himself as the main character who happens to be Hispanic considering Ben Affleck cannot seriously be hurting for work, and how many leading man roles are there for Hispanic actors right now? ugh), The Impossible (same kind of issue here as with Argo: out of every possible family they could have chosen to focus on who was affected by the tsunami in Southeast Asia, they choose a white family. Of course. Also it looks possibly too melodramatic and emotionally manipulative for my tastes. Though I do like Ewan McGregor).

I am quite possibly missing stuff, and there's pretty much no chance that I will end up seeing every single film listed here, and I'm sure I'll add stuff and take stuff away after more reviews come in for various things.


I've also been reading quite a bit! (I'm usually awful at balancing watching movies, TV, and reading; I tend to get very focused on just one thing, like watching movies, and won't watch TV or read a book for like a month, and vice versa.) And there's one book in particular I just read that I wanted to talk about (non-spoilery reaction except for spoilery stuff under spoiler cuts): Unspoken by Sarah Rees BrennanCollapse )

Work has been… fine. idk, nothing terrible has happened, I'm just so tired of it and the idea of spending more than 1 more year working there is horribly depressing, but I also have made absolutely no progress in figuring out what the hell I want to do next and what grad schools I need to apply to, so that's not great, but I think I'll save that stuff for a later post because I don't feel like thinking about that right now. But there is some other work stuff I wanted to talk about: Work StuffCollapse )
 
 
Current Mood: sleepysleepy
 
 
Michelle
09 September 2012 @ 10:36 am
Fall TV is somehow starting up really soon, so I guess it's time to post my fall TV schedule! Fall TV ScheduleCollapse )

I wasn't able to watch the Doctor Who premiere when it aired because of WorldCon, but I did finally get to it last night, so here are some thoughts even though everyone's probably already discussed it at this point: Doctor Who 7.01Collapse )

I also watched the pilot of Elementary, which I really enjoyed! Elementary 1.01Collapse )

WorldCon definitely got me out of my movie-watching mood and into a book-reading mood, but I'm going to hopefully see Moonrise Kingdom today! And then probably spend the rest of the day just reading some more.
 
 
Current Mood: refreshedrefreshed
 
 
Michelle
05 September 2012 @ 07:59 am
So, I'm back from Chicago and Worldcon! Well, I've been back since Monday night, but I didn't get home until late, around 9 PM (and I hadn't eaten in like 10 hours due to various factors so I pretty much just came home, ate dinner, and crashed), and then yesterday was work, and I felt fine in the morning, but by the afternoon I had a horrible sore throat and was sneezing and sniffling, and it's only gotten worse, so forgive me if this post isn't terribly coherent.

But anyways, Worldcon was super great!!!! I sadly did not have internet access except on my phone, and I also didn't end up having a huge amount of free time, so I was unable to keep up with my flist. Some of the highlights (before I go into more detail) included getting books signed by 2 of my favorite authors of all time, Seanan McGuire and Connie Willis, attending an interview with George R. R. Martin and then a reading (sadly not of a chapter from Winds of Winter, but some really interesting backstory stuff that's going into some sort of… tie-in background compilation book thing (I am not describing this well)), the Hugo Awards, and… idk, there was just lots of awesome stuff. And I managed to avoid Doctor Who panels of any sort (well, there was only 1 this year compared to the 4 last year, but still), which was good considering all the horrible awful opinions at the ones I went to last year. WorldconCollapse )

So yeah, overall, super fun, and I'm really sad it's already over. I need it to be next summer already (and I need to be able to go next summer! I guess that's the most important thing). I didn't have time to do any sightseeing in Chicago, but we were right downtown in a really nice area, and we had an amazing view down the river, so that was nice at least.

Anyways, as I mentioned in my WorldCon report, Ashes of Honor, the 6th book in the Toby Daye series by Seanan McGuire, was released on 9/4, but I managed to get a copy at WorldCon and rush through it all on 8/31, and even though no one has read this series and won't understand what I'm talking about, I need to flail for a little.


Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire
I don't even know what to say about this book!!!!!! This isn't meant to be a review of any kind because really I just need a place to flail about Toby/Tybalt, because seriously, THIS BOOK IS EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED AND MORE FOR TOBY/TYBALT!!!!!!!! I mean, I knew they would get together someday and was mostly just enjoying the ride and their slow development, but oh god I was not prepared for how perfect they would be in this book!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T EVEN HANDLE IT. I HAVE READ THIS BOOK TWICE SINCE I BOUGHT IT AND IT'S ONLY BEEN LIKE 4 DAYS. AND ALL I WANT TO DO RIGHT NOW IS READ IT AGAIN. I JUST WANT TO SOAK IN THEIR PERFECTION UNTIL THE END OF TIME.

I mean, god, I was thrilled with the kiss in Late Eclipses and the one in One Salt Sea even though one was definitely just a ruse (well ok Tybalt definitely was into her by that point, but it was more clearly just a ruse to Toby and everyone) and the other was also pretty much a trick to get Toby into the Shadow Roads. BUT THEN THIS BOOK. ALL 5 KISSES!!!!! THE FIRST KISS INITIATED BY TOBY!!!!!!!!!!! (AND HE'S DAZED BY HER KISSING HIM UGHHH I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I mean he's the King of Cats, but it's like in One Salt Sea when Raj is teaching him to make coffee and he's nervous about Toby liking it and she has to reassure him it's good even though it's terrible and he looks relieved!!!! IT'S JUST ADORABLE WHEN THE KING OF CATS IS LIKE AN AWKWARD TEENAGER.) AND THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CANNOT HANDLE ALL OF THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But it wasn't just the physical progression!!! I loved that Tybalt had been giving her space to grieve Connor, but he (and not just him, but also May and Quentin and everyone) was concerned that she wasn't taking care of herself, but like… at the same time, I didn't feel like he was ever taking away her agency? He let her know he thought she was risking her life unnecessarily and should be asking for help and got frustrated, but he never like… tried to force her to stop??? He respects her and her choices. And she does come to realize she needs to be more careful and she has just been reckless and moves on from Connor. AND THEN KISSING!!!!!!! But also major Tybalt backstory!!!!!!!!! Which makes SO many things make sense and wasn't quite what I was predicting, but also wasn't shocking? Although on my reread, I did notice a line that Toby was the first from the Divided Courts to come to the real Court of Cats, the only other non-Cait Sidhe was a mortal woman, and it's just a throwaway line almost, but he also mentions that he's the only one who could bring someone else in, anyone else it would be treason, so of course it would've had to be him who brought in the mortal woman, but it never connected, and now that line just seems like glaring, of COURSE he fell in love with a mortal woman and then she died. But Seanan McGuire is so excellent at that, leaving a throwaway line that you don't fully understand until books later, and then it just seems so glaringly obvious. AND THEN TYBALT'S CONFESSION THAT WHAT MADE HIM STOP HATING HER AND ALL CHANGELINGS WAS THAT HE FELL IN LOVE. AND THAT SHE GAVE HIM A HOPE CHEST AND TOOK HIS HEART AS COLLATERAL!!!!!!!!!!!!! DEAD.

Also, one of my favorite things for no apparent reason it like… charting exactly where feelings develop and change and progress, so everytime I reread this series, I try to pinpoint exactly how and when both Toby and Tybalt's feelings change towards another, and I love that I was pretty much validated in my thoughts on that in this book? I mean, I did think he didn't fully hate her as much as it appeared at the beginning of Rosemary and Rue, and I guess he was supposed to still be antagonistic to her then, but I did see the Hope Chest thing as opening Tybalt's eyes to her being different and him kind of… seeing her in a different light. And I still love that line in that book that's about Julie and her boyfriend that the Cait Sidhe don't usually fall in love frequently, but when they do, it's hard and for life, and that makes everything with Tybalt/Anne make so much sense for how he'd treat Toby, but also that once he realizes he's fallen for her (I'm guessing around An Artificial Night is when he comes to terms with that), he's just gone all the way, and that that point he's just waiting for her to realize he's waiting for her (DIED SO HARD AT THAT LINE I CAN'T EVEN TELL YOU).

And there were a couple other super-validating lines as well. The first was when Tybalt mentioned waiting for Toby to realize that Connor had fallen in love with the girl she was rather than the woman she is, and OMG YES THANK YOU. I was afraid that the books were actually trying to say Connor was perfect for Toby and they would've been perfect and happy forever if he hadn't died, and like, ok, it's Tybalt, he is a bit biased when it comes to Toby, but still, I felt like that was a validation of what I had felt, that they were clinging on to these past feelings and romance but weren't really right for each other now, and if he hadn't died, they would've realized that and broken up. And I do think that would've happened, and there are some things in One Salt Sea that kind of point to that, with Toby not being 100% happy about Connor choosing her over his family or whatever and remembering the kiss with Tybalt again and stuff. And then the other awesome validating line was at the very end, when Toby was saying she had told herself he wasn't an option so she'd just chalk the stuff he did up to him being a cat or owing her, and I was like "OMG YES YOU ADMITTED IT!!!!!" because I would totally roll my eyes at Toby when she would be surprised at Tybalt hating basically anyone who was ever remotely awful to her and then she'd be like "Well, he's a cat, who knows what cat's think?" and I would just be like "COULD YOU BE ANY FURTHER IN DENIAL." But I was right!!!!!

ugh I can't even with this book, it was just the perfect resolution to all this build-up that had been happening for ages and there was so much time spent on them and the main plot was good as well (I liked that it was one where things just kept escalating in terms of the stakes rather than lots of twists and turns. It was a bit different from previous books in that way) and I just need the next book here already, and I'm super sad that I have to wait a full year for the next one. I NEED TO SEE HOW TOBY AND TYBALT NAVIGATE BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP!!!!! Although part of me is a little nervous that I won't like them quite as much once they're actually together??? I don't think I've ever been as crazy obsessed/invested in a couple after they've gotten together than in their build-up, so it's pretty much a guarantee I will squee over them less in the next book, but I'm hoping maybe this will be the first time I feel the same towards them after they get together? We'll see. Having to wait an entire YEAR for the next book will probably help in that, I guess. But still, ugh, I just love them and this series so much and I already want to read Ashes of Honor for a 3rd time which is ridiculous and I won't because I don't want to read it so much that the squee wears off, but I also am having trouble trying to start anything else because I just want to read more about Toby and Tybalt. It's a dilemma.


Basically, ALL OF YOU NEED TO READ THE TOBY DAYE SERIES. ONE OF THE GREATEST OTPS EVER CAN BE FOUND IN THIS SERIES. Seriously, if I were to make a list of my top 10 OTPs in any medium of all time, THIS OTP WOULD MAKE THIS LIST. I should mention that I read through the series twice last year, reread the entire series again right before the Olympics, and then reread the series just this past weekend in any bit of free time I could find after reading Ashes of Honor because I just wanted to read through all their development again EVEN THOUGH I JUST DID IT A MONTH AGO. You can read my feelings about the series when I first read the first 4 books here. Read the books and then come flail with me please!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, I am definitely more in a book-reading mood than anything else at the moment (the reasons for which should be pretty apparent), but I did watch the pilots of The New Normal, The Mindy Project, and Ben and Kate, and I have super brief thoughts:

The New NormalCollapse )

The Mindy ProjectCollapse )

Ben and KateCollapse )

I still have the pilot of Go On to watch, and I think the pilot of Elementary must be up somewhere too, right? I've seen gifsets and reactions to it, so I'll definitely be watching that soon if I can figure out where it is. And I think there's at least 1 or 2 other pilots that have been put up that I need to check out. I'll probably post about my tentative fall TV schedule in my next post, but this one is already way too long. Oh, and I haven't watched Breaking Bad or Doctor Who yet due to being in Chicago, so I'm doing my best to avoid spoilers until I can get caught up, which probably won't be until this weekend.

Anyways, hope everyone's had a nice week! I won't be able to catch up with everything from when I went to Chicago, so let me know if there's anything I missed! I'm going to try to start being a lot more active around here, so we'll see how that goes!
 
 
Current Mood: sicksick
 
 
Michelle
29 August 2012 @ 08:37 am
My life is still super boring, so despite it being a week since I last posted, all I have to talk about is work and how I've spent the past week basically only watching movies!

Work UpdateCollapse )

I hadn't seen a single movie since March, but on Friday I suddenly got in a movie-watching mood, and I've been watching movies practically non-stop since then. I'm at 30 for the year right now, which is great since it's more than I got last year, which was my main goal in movie-watching for the year (my secondary goal being to get to 50, which isn't impossible, but who knows since I could suddenly stop feeling like watching movies and then not see anything for months again). Anyways, in the past week, I've watched: Seven Chances; How to Steal a Million; 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days; In the Mood for Love; Beasts of the Southern Wild; Lady for a Day; Blue Valentine; and Forbidden Games. Super Short Movie Reactions!Collapse )

Also, everytime I get in a movie mood, I get tempted to make a top 100 films picspam, but I'm already doing the 100 female tv characters one and I'm not even a quarter of the way through that, so I don't see me starting anything else anytime soon. But still, super tempted. I JUST WANT TO TALK ABOUT MOVIES ALL THE TIME RIGHT NOW. At least I'm in a movie mood at the right time, when awards season movies are finally starting to come out, so hopefully I shouldn't have as much catch-up to do this year in terms of award season movies as I did last year.

Anyways, tomorrow is the first day of WorldCon, which means I'm flying to Chicago tomorrow morning!!!!!!!!! So excited, both for WorldCon and for getting 5 days in a row without having to go to work!!! I haven't had that many days of work since I started this job (the most I've had at a time is 3 days), so this is definitely much needed. As I mentioned last week, I will try to keep posting while I'm there about the stuff I see, but I'm not sure how often I'll be able to, and I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with my flist, and I definitely won't have time to comment. But I will be back on Monday, and hopefully I'll start being better about being around here then what with fall TV season starting soon and all that.
 
 
Current Mood: anxiousanxious
 
 
Michelle
22 July 2012 @ 11:05 am
100 Female TV Characters: #11-20Collapse )

I've been horrible at being active around here, and it's going to get worse before it gets better what with the Olympics starting at the end of the week because I am going to get completely wrapped up in that, but I am going to try to make a real post sometime this week and do at least some commenting so I can feel like less of an awful LJ friend than I am. Hope everyone is doing well!!!
 
 
Current Mood: busybusy
 
 
Michelle
10 July 2012 @ 08:13 am
So I ended up watching all of Teen Wolf last week, and now I have feelings. Teen WolfCollapse )

We finally made the move to the new office building! There are… good and bad things about it. Work StuffCollapse )

That is basically all that is going on in my life right now. I feel super boring. I'm still working on my 100 TV Ladies thing, and i'm actually further than I expected to be, so I should be able to post the next set sometime this weekend hopefully. Doing this is really making me want to rewatch all the shows, though, which is unfortunate since I definitely don't have time to do so, ugh. But Breaking Bad is returning Sunday!!!!!!!!!!! ugh so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
 
Current Mood: tiredtired
 
 
Michelle
05 July 2012 @ 07:55 am
100 Female TV Characters: #1-10Collapse )

I was going to try to have more in-depth thoughts on each lady, but ugh so tired and I'm recovering from feeling kind of sick earlier in the week and I know it'll end up taking me an extra week to post this if I try to do that, so quick thoughts are all I can give. Anyways, I'm happy to finally have this posted, and I'm going to try to keep working on this steadily so it won't take a year to get through all these, but I'll probably take a break for a couple days because this kind of project is a lot of work, especially when I only have a few hours of free time every day.
 
 
Current Mood: sleepysleepy
 
 
Michelle
28 June 2012 @ 08:28 am
Short(ish?) update that is mostly work stuff because that is all I've been doing this past week:

-Oh god I ended up working 11 hours of overtime alone last week and was nearly dead by the end of it. I mean, okay, 4 of those hours were on Saturday, but still!!!!! I've never worked that much in a week before and I was taking half hour lunches and not getting home until 8:30 PM and it sucked. And then the first 2 days this week were also crazy busy, but basically only for me? I have very specific responsibilities that absolutely no one else handles except my supervisor, but even she doesn't really handle them, she just helps me out when I am not sure how to proceed on an issue, but really I'm the only one touching them. And I normally have like… 8-12 separate files that have issues that need to be addressed going on at a time, but on Tuesday my count was up to 24, which was just insane, I've never had that many before, I was pretty much drowning. But somehow I cut that in half yesterday with some help from my supervisor so things are feeling slightly more manageable, and I actually got to leave at 6 PM like normal yesterday night!!!!!

-So I did end up finding more out about the girl who got let go last week, and there's more I don't know about, but it basically came down to her starting to slack off and be unproductive and cause this other person to be unproductive as well, so yeah. We got two new people on Monday, and only one has lasted so far. There was a guy but he was just really slow on the uptake? I mean, it obviously takes awhile to get used to things when you have no knowledge of the business beforehand, but like… he was asking the same questions over and over, and he couldn't really think on his feet and kept having to be told to do the same things repeatedly. The other girl I actually trained for the first half of Monday, and she's pretty good? I think she could last, but we'll see, they haven't had her do too much so far.

-Other good work news: I haven't mentioned it in months and months, but I'm going to Chicago at the end of August/beginning of September for Worldcon, and I've been putting off asking for time off from work forever because I procrastinate and got nervous and kept putting it off, but I finally asked for the 30th and 31st off, and my boss was totally understanding (…I mean, I may have said that I have a family vacation that's been planned and not that I'm going to Worldcon, but whatever, I'm going with my mom, it's technically a family vacation!!!!!) so that's finally taken care of and it's a load off my mind. And the other good news is that we are officially moving buildings on July 6th, so only a little over a week left at this place and then my commute gets cut in half!!!!!!

-Oh, and a final good thing is that there was this person who was basically my counterpart at our biggest client that I had to deal with a lot on the issues that only I handle, and she had been doing it since February and was completely incompetent, I would have to tell her things 5 times and she wouldn't understand them and we'd get this spreadsheet at the end of the day that would have the status of the issues that were still outstanding and they would always be like a day or two behind and her comments would be like "Emailed [Company Name] about issue, waiting for response" and my comments back would always be like "RESPONDED TO YOUR STUPID EMAIL 2 DAYS AGO CAN YOU PLEASE ACTUALLY READ THE EMAILS I SEND YOU AND PROCESS THEM AND UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M TELLING YOU????" except nicer and it was the worst but anyways the good part is that she quit this week!!!!!! She took another job somewhere else, so I no longer have to deal with her!!!!! And the person who's replacing her for those issues is someone who already works there who I get along with really well and is competent so that'll make my life so much easier.

-I started on my 100 ladies of TV thing!!! I think I'll be posting them in batches of 10, and I should have the first post ready at the beginning of next week. It's fun, I haven't had a project like this to work on in awhile, and I missed doing things like this. I can't promise that it won't take me like a year to finish, but still!

-Working on the 100 ladies of TV thing made me realize what a disappointing year this was for me with ships! My top 5 ships at the beginning of the season were Leslie/Ben (A+++++, Parks never lets me down, the one happiness of the season), Will/Alicia (I'm actually happy with what they chose to do with them for the most part, it made sense to me that they broke up when they did, and I do think they'll get together again in the long run, but, I mean… they still did end the season broken up, and the 2nd half of the season didn't focus on them as much as I might have preferred, so kind of a mixed season for them), Kurt/Blaine (ughhh, I mean I guess I should be happy they ended the season together and happy??? But they got only 1 episode where they kissed, and barely more than that where they actually had any sort of storyline with each other or even just had an actual conversation), Dan/Blair (UGHHH FML HOW THAT ENDED, STILL NOT OVER IT. WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and Lincoln/Olivia (ACTUALLY POSSIBLY WORSE THAN DAN/BLAIR, BECAUSE AT LEAST THERE I CAN PRETEND THE SHOW ENDED AROUND 5.17-19ish AND THEY'RE STILL TOGETHER AND HAPPY, BUT WE NEVER EVEN GOT ANYTHING REAL FOR LINCOLN/OLIVIA, AND ALT!LINCOLN WAS KILLED OFF SO I DIDN'T EVEN GET ALT!LINCOLN/ALT!LIV, AND I THOUGHT WE'D AT LEAST GET A SHORT ARC FOR THEM BUT IT'S LIKE THEY STARTED BUILDING UP AND JUST CHICKENED OUT, GOD I'M SO PISSED OFF ABOUT THIS STILL). …so yeah, not the best season for me for ships overall??? Here's to hoping next season is better for me for shipping because this is vital to my overall happiness!!!!!!!

-I'm tempted to watch The Newsroom against my better judgment and all reviews because I really like John Gallagher Jr., but ughhh idk. I've been slacking at watching new shows in general, though, so there's a good chance I won't end up deciding to watch it.

That is about all that is going on in my life at the moment, I'm hoping to be around more next week because 4th of July means a random day off in the middle of the week next week, yay!!!!!!! It will be very welcome.
 
 
Current Mood: tiredtired
 
 
Michelle
21 June 2012 @ 07:54 am
So I managed to finish all of The Wire, and now I have lots of thoughts and feelings! The WireCollapse )

So now that I've finished The Wire, I think I'm going to take a bit of a break from marathoning things for at least a week or two, since it feels like all I've been doing for at least a month or two has been jumping from show to show to marathon, and I end up neglecting basically everything else when I do that. I do still have a lot of stuff I'm going to try to get through this summer (right now my list includes first watches of The Sopranos, Deadwood, Six Feet Under S4-5, Fairly Legal, and maybe Awkward and Teen Wolf because Tumblr is trying to convince me to watch those, and rewatches of Veronica Mars S1-2, The West Wing, and Friday Night Lights S3-5. There's no way I'm going to get to all of those, I'm sure I'll lose interest in getting to some of those in like a month, and there'll be things I check out or rewatch that aren't on that list, but that's what I'm thinking at the moment at least). But for now I'm going to try to finally start my 100 ladies of TV thing.

I did finally watch the first 2 episodes of Bunheads, and I don't have any really in depth thoughts to go into yet, but I really am enjoying it so far!!! It definitely is reminiscent of Gilmore Girls in a lot of ways, but it's different in enough ways that it doesn't feel like it's just go over the same old ground with the same exact characters. Definitely looking forward to more episodes, in any case, and I'm a little in love with Sutton Foster.

My dentist appointment for my wisdom tooth on Saturday went… okay, I guess? She said I definitely don't have any room for either of the top wisdom teeth (only one is actually coming in right now, though), so I'll have to have them both taken out. The bottom ones are already in (I had adult teeth pulled when I was younger, so there was room for them), so at least I'll only have to have 2 out, and she said the top ones are a lot easier to get out than the bottom ones. The one that's coming in doesn't hurt at all and I don't feel any pressure or anything, so she said I can hold off until it starts becoming a problem, so I guess that's… good? I don't have to deal with it right now? But now I'm just going to stress out about it until I get them out. The greatest thing at the moment to me right now is that at least they can put me under and take them out and I don't have to deal with local anesthesia because I have a phobia of needles and the idea of having to get novacaine would really freak me out. idk, it's not the best news, but I guess it could be worse. And at least I can put it off for a little longer.

We've been back to mandatory overtime of an hour every day at work for like a week now, and we're going to 2 hours for the next few days because we're going to be crazy busy, ughhhh. That means I won't be getting home until around 8:30 PM, which is way too late. At least my main responsibilities which were super crazy and busy and stressful the couple weeks before have died down a bit. The end of the month is always the absolute craziest, so it's only going to get worse from here unfortunately (well, until July and things slow down again, of course). I also mentioned I think in my last post that we had had 2 new girls start in April who had stuck around and were good and seemed like they would last, and apparently I spoke too soon, because one of them got let go Tuesday. I don't even know why, but I'm dying of curiosity now. It's definitely something she did and not because we don't need the people. My supervisor just casually mentioned to me at the end of the day that we were down one person, and I was like "??????" and then she told me it was the girl's last day, she had left during lunch, and I was like "Oh, that's too bad," because I got along with her and liked her for the most part, and she was like, "Depends on who you ask," and I was like "Oh." And part of me really wanted to ask why, but I also feel weird about being too nosy about stuff like that? Like, she would've probably told me, and she probably will end up telling me at some point in the future, but… idk, it's different asking why someone got left go when they've only been around for a few days or weeks, but when someone's been there for months and feels like they're apart of the office, it just feels weird. I'm sure I'll find out eventually, but until then I'm going to just have to die of curiosity.
 
 
Current Mood: exhaustedexhausted
 
 
Michelle
12 June 2012 @ 07:58 am
So I'm still not great about being active here, but… 1 week between posts is better than 2 weeks, right? It's progress. Part of the problem is that I started watching The Wire last week (HBO Go will be my kryptonite) and when I marathon things, that's basically all I want to do in my free time until I'm done. Which was less of a problem when I was unemployed and out of school, or even when I was still in school but had more free time (and could multitask with watching stuff while I did homework), but when I only have a few hours every day to watch stuff, it takes weeks to get through a show, and it ends up being hard for me to find time to devote to anything else. Anyways, assorted things I've been meaning to post about:

▪ I officially have tickets to see The Book of Mormon in L.A. in October!!! I've been dying to see this musical since last year, but it's not as if I had any opportunity to visit New York and try to see it. But it's finally coming to L.A., yay!!!

▪ One of my wisdom teeth is coming in and it's freaking me out. I mean, my bottom two are already in, but I had adult teeth pulled there when I was fairly young, so there was room for them to grow in. But there's a tooth-shaped bump on the top right, and like… it doesn't hurt at all, but I'm concerned. I don't do well with medical-related stuff. I'm going in on Saturday to have it checked out, anyways, so I'll probably know more then.

▪ I got Breaking Bad S4 on DVD last week, and I'm slowly making my way through it with my parents (they had seen up to season 3 only). We're not very far, but ahhhh I forgot how much I missed this show!!!!!! The thing is, I was watching the show pretty consistently for the better part of a year? Like, I started watching it for the first time last June, then season 4 started in July, then I started watching the show from the beginning again with my mom in late August, we finished around November and then almost immediately afterwards started it over again to watch with my dad (his first time) and finished around March, so… basically for 9 months I was consistently in the middle of a season. But then we finished what was out on DVD, so for the past few months I've had no Breaking Bad in my life, and I didn't realize how much I missed the show. So excited for season 5 to start in July!!!!

▪ I forgot to mention like a month or two ago, but I did manage to make it through season 1 and 2 of Game of Thrones with my mom! There were definitely some awkward moments, but it wasn't too bad overall. And now she's really into the series, which is fun. She had only read the first book before starting the show, but she started Clash of Kings right before we started watching season 2, and now she's already on ADWD. And she doesn't have any opinions that make me want to rage, which is definitely good. The extent to which she hates Bran chapters is kind of hilarious.

▪ Everyone was making posts about the 100 Things …thing like a month or two ago, and I don't know if people are still doing that, but I'm really, really tempted to do 100 Favorite TV Ladies??? I've been meaning to do some sort of Awesome Ladies picspam for ages and ages but never really got around to it, but I think this might actually work for me. So I'm tentatively planning on that, but… considering how awful I've been about posting recently, I make no promises. I do have a list already, I just need to narrow it down a bit (I'm at like 150 at the moment).

▪ Work has continued to be tiring and stressful. I'm so emotionally drained at this point, it was almost impossible getting through the day yesterday. I go through phases with my job where I'm happy and feel confident and then phases where I feel more negatively towards it. At the moment I'm more in a negative phase due to how stressful and busy I've been recently, but there are some good things going on. Back around January to March we were going through ridiculous amounts of staffing changes and were having trouble finding competent people who would stick around, but we got 2 new girls in April who have been great for the most part and are still around, and we got another new person about a week and a half ago who's super nice and sweet, so that stuff is good. I also mentioned back in like February that we might be moving locations, and that's going to be finally happening sometime in July. And while normally I hate change and this would be something to cause me anxiety and stress, we're going to be moving somewhere much closer to where I live, cutting my commute in half (which isn't too bad as it is, I mean it only takes me around 25 min to get to work depending on traffic, but the new place is like 3 miles from my house and about a 10 minute drive), and, I mean… yeah, it's not a lot, but getting home even 10 min sooner would be really nice, and I'd be able to come home during lunch which is pretty much impossible now. So yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic about this.

That is pretty much all that is going on with me at the moment. Anyways, going to keep working on trying to be active around here more, plus (of course) trying to finish making my way through The Wire.
 
 
Current Mood: tiredtired
 
 
Michelle
05 June 2012 @ 07:52 am
ugh so I seriously mean to not keep disappearing for weeks at a time but somehow it's been over 2 weeks since I last posted. The past couple weeks have just been super crazy and stressful and tiring. Two weeks ago was the last full week of the month and since that's always when we're busiest, we had mandatory overtime of at least an hour every day that week, and then the past week was super busy for me in particular because like… well, I'm too lazy to go into the details to explain, but the week before being crazy busy resulted in a lot more for me to do this past week. And then I also had to work on Saturday. So when I finally would get home after work these past few weeks, all I really wanted to do was curl into bed and watch various TV shows, so… that's what I've done!

First off was my Greek series rewatch, which I'm not going to go super in depth into, but I did want to talk about a few things plus the finale, which I had actually never seen before. Greek Series RewatchCollapse )

So after drowning in feelings over Greek, I discovered HBO Go, which is a glorious thing. I mean, I had heard about it before, but I thought it was just for new episodes of shows currently airing on HBO? BUT IT HAS ALL THE EPISODES OF LIKE EVERY HBO SHOW EVER. So I ended up spending the past week watching Rome for the first time. Rome Series ThoughtsCollapse )

So next on my list after having discovered HBO Go is The Wire (okay, it was already on my list, but now I at least have an easy way to watch it!), Six Feet Under (I got through 4.09 two summers ago and then never finished it, but eventually I will!!!), The Sopranos, and Deadwood. Although I might not go straight through all 4 shows. But I'm 95% sure The Wire is next.

I meant to talk about Game of Thrones more this season, but as I've been failing at posting about pretty much anything recently, I've also definitely failed at discussing the show. But the season's now over, so I have some various thoughts about the season as a whole: Game of Thrones Season 2Collapse )

Speaking of HBO shows, have I mentioned I've been watching Veep and I love it so much? Because I do. As I mentioned at some other point in this post, I am sucker for anything having to do with politics, and it helps that this show is ridiculously hilarious. YOU'RE NOT EVEN YOUR MOM'S FAVORITE JONAH, JONAH!!! Also I might ship Dan and Amy more with every episode??? I don't think we're supposed to, and Dan is a douche, but somehow I'm shipping it anyways, oops. Amy and Sue are my favorites, in any case.

I had been planning on talking about Upfronts, but at this point those were now almost a month ago so they don't feel relevant anymore. I might as well wait until the fall anyways since most of the shows I think look decent now I probably won't even end up checking out. I'm definitely most excited for Mindy's show, though. It looks like the romantic comedy TV show of my dreams; don't let me down, show!!! And I didn't have that much interest in Elementary until some Sherlock fans started being ridiculous about it (nothing against Sherlock or fans of the show since I watch it and generally like it as well, but Sherlock is one of many adaptations itself, and even if Elementary does suck, it doesn't diminish Sherlock at all and really has nothing to do with it, so I just don't get why everyone cares so much??? Just don't watch it if you think it will pale in comparison to Sherlock, idgi), so now I'm kind of looking forward to it? Plus I actually love that Lucy Liu playing Watson, and there were parts in the trailers involving their faces that I enjoyed, so I'll probably check that out. And the rest of the determinations I'll make in the fall when reviews of the pilots have come out, since it's really hard to figure out what's going to be good based on a few clips out of context, and I don't actually have time to watch every single pilot to make those determinations of what's worth watching for myself, sadly.

Okay, this post is way too long at this point. Hopefully I will not go another 2 weeks without posting. And I am going to try to get back into commenting, because I've just been awful about it for awhile now and I feel so guilty about that.
 
 
Current Mood: tiredtired
 
 
Michelle
11 May 2012 @ 07:57 am
Parks and Recreation 4.22Collapse )

New Girl 1.24Collapse )

Scandal 1.06Collapse )

UPFRONTS ARE NEXT WEEK!!! It's a little ridiculous how excited I am. I always just love finding out about all the new shows (and then promptly checking out only like 1 or 2 out of the 20 or so I plan to check out when they finally air in the fall) and everything involved. And, of course, finding out what's been cancelled/picked up. Such as, COUGAR TOWN!!!!!!!!! It was the show I was most worried about, so I'm thrilled it's coming back, even if it does happen to be on a different network. I wouldn't be able to stand not having more of these wonderful characters on my screen. There have been other various pick-ups and cancellations this week, but I think I'll save all my thoughts and feelings until after Upfronts next week, and then I can just do a massive post about the 2012-2013 TV season.

Also, relatedly, have people stopped freaking out about that article or whatever (I want to say it was from NY Mag, or something similar?) about Parks and Rec being renewed for a final season of 13 eps? Because I was checking Tumblr on my phone at lunch yesterday and saw like 10 posts in a row with tags that were just like "NOOOOOO!!!!" and "DAMN YOU NBC!!!!" and then opened the article and was like, "…Seriously, you guys?" All the article said is that "multiple reports" were saying that it had been picked up for a final season, but… all the reports I had seen mentioned nothing about it being the final season. The article seemed to be confusing the fact that there were reports that 30 Rock would be picked up for a final shortened season and then Community and Parks would also be picked up for 13 eps, but not necessarily final seasons, and thought all of them would be final seasons, which… would make very little sense for a variety of reasons. It wasn't an official announcement or anything. Anyways, I've been expecting Parks would be picked up for only 13 due to how many new comedies NBC has already picked up, but keep in mind that 13 eps is likely not to be set in stone. The only way I see that happening is if all of NBC's new comedies are successes, which… this is NBC we're talking about here, that would pretty much be a miracle for them. And, for example, Chuck was picked up for a 13-episode season 3 and then NBC ended up ordering an additional 6 episodes for, and it was also picked up for 13 eps for season 4, and they ended up ordering an additional 11 for a total of 24 (and then got renewed for season 5 beyond that). So an initial pick up of 13 eps is by no means a death sentence for the show either (and the same goes for Community, btw, which I am definitely happy about being officially renewed, even if it's only for 13, for all the reasons I just mentioned). So can we please stop prematurely freaking out?

Work this week has been kind of stressful/irritating. Not even so much the whole week, but just the past day or so. There is just one or two people who work at one of our clients who I have to talk to a lot, and they're just… incompetent. It drives me absolutely insane. And like one of them has been dealing with this one area that I also deal with, so I have to talk to her a LOT, and like… she first started at it back in February, and I understood then that she wouldn't get everything at first, but it's been 3 months and she still doesn't get it. I have to tell her things 5 times and it just doesn't sink in and it drives me crazy. I got so irritated with her this morning and like… I am a seriously easy-going person, I get along with basically everyone, I am overly nice and polite because I hate people being mad at me and I hate the idea of people disliking me, but with her I was just ready to strangle her, and for me to have that kind of reaction is saying something. I've complained to my supervisor a lot, and she's talked to the person there who has like… basically the same job function (she's the incompetent girls' supervisor), and she trained her again last week (EVEN THOUGH SHE'S BEEN DOING THIS JOB FOR 3 MONTHS UGH) and she got a little better, but she still just doesn't get it. It's just so insanely frustrating. Thank god it's Friday at least.

This is a mess of a post and I still haven't talked about the last few episodes of The Good Wife which I've been meaning to do for like 2 weeks now, oops. But it will be the weekend soon enough and I don't have to work unlike last weekend, so maybe I'll be able to be functional and get stuff accomplished.
 
 
Current Mood: draineddrained
 
 
Michelle
08 May 2012 @ 08:02 am
Gossip Girl 5.22-5.23Collapse )

Game of Thrones 2.05-2.06Collapse )

I went to see a musical playing at South Coast Rep on Friday, and oh my god it was so awful I couldn't believe it. Cut for length.Collapse )

I keep meaning to talk about the last few eps of The Good Wife and how I felt about the season as a whole, but I never seem to have the time. Maybe I'll have time to post more than once a week this week? Hopefully?
 
 
Current Mood: tiredtired
 
 
Michelle
30 April 2012 @ 07:55 am
Parks and Recreation 4.20Collapse )

Gossip Girl 5.21Collapse )

The Legend of Korra 1.03-1.04Collapse )

I don't have anything specific to say about Scandal, but I wanted to mention it because this week was my favorite episode yet, and I'm just so invested in the show right now. I'm nervous about it not getting renewed for a second season, which would be a shame because 7 episodes is just not going to be enough. And I really want it to delve more into all the secondary characters' backstories, and I just don't see that happening with only 3 eps left of this season, but I do see that happening in a 2nd season, and… I want that. But in any case, I am really loving this show. It's not perfect, but it's just hitting all the right buttons for me right now.

I decided to start marathoning Life last weekend. It's been a show I have been planning on checking out pretty much forever but never got around to it, but last weekend I was in the mood to check out something new and I saw a picspam of the show on Tumblr and something just clicked to make me think it was a good time to check it out. I've finished both seasons now, and I have thoughts! Life Seasons 1-2Collapse )

I've been in a reading mood for most of April. I've somehow managed to get through 14 books this month so far??? And I didn't even read anything for like a week because I was watching Life in my spare time. I don't know how that happened. I'm suddenly in a TV mood, though, and I want to check out something I haven't seen before, but I'm not sure what. I'm tempted to finally watch The Wire (which has been on my to-watch list for years), but I also would kind of prefer to find something that's on instant watch on Netflix. Anyone have any suggestions for shows I should check out? I'm not really in the mood for anything in particular genre-wise or anything.

ugh I suck so much at being around here. I would say lately, but it's really been pretty much since I started my job. I still just haven't figured out how to juggle working full-time with being active here. I have no real solution, but every week is a new week, so I'm just going to keep trying to be more active and hopefully I will get better at this at some point! I'm pretty much counting the days until Memorial Day weekend, though. Not because I'm doing anything exciting, but just because it'll give me an extra day off, and I haven't had a day off in forever, and the past 2 weeks in particular have been super stressful.
 
 
Current Mood: exhaustedexhausted
 
 
Michelle
21 April 2012 @ 12:18 pm
Parks and Recreation 4.19Collapse )

Game of Thrones 2.03Collapse )

Gossip Girl 5.20Collapse )

New Girl 1.21Collapse )

I decided to check out Don't Trust the B in Apt 23 (or whatever the title is, I think I've just been referring to it as Apt 23 in my head because I like it better and also it's shorter), and… I kind of really enjoy it? It's not at feelings level yet, and I know, do we really need more shows that are basically about 20-something year olds being friends (…the answer is apparently yes in my book, oh well), but it was just kind of delightful? I liked that they didn't drag out the antagonism between June and Chloe past the first ep, and that Chloe was basically cool with June as soon as she sold all her furniture, and that Chloe is actually genuinely trying to help June in her own way in both eps even if her way isn't so conventional. And James van der Beek as himself is highly enjoyable for me, even if I do find it hard to believe there are so many people who want to hear Dawson's speech to Joey, because come on, everyone knows Pacey's where it's at, let's be real here. Also, I really enjoy… Mark? Is that his name? Am I making that up? Whoever the guy who works at the coffee place is. So yeah, I think I'll keep with this show for now.

I haven't watched this week's Glee. I did watch last week's because Matt Bomer and finally getting an ep with actual Blaine development, and I did enjoy those parts of that ep but I'm just… not invested in this show anymore. Which I guess is good because it really is awful, but then… idk, it's really weird not being invested in it anymore? Even though it did make me rage more often than not, it was actually also capable of making me really happy and giving me feelings, and I miss that. I'm finding it really hard to get any motivation to watch this ep (Disco? Really???), but then I found out that Jonathan Groff is in it for like a minute, and I can't resist JGroff, so I might have to suck it up and watch it.

Work this week was pretty… not great. It was just super busy and stressful, and around the middle of the week, like… a lot of the higher ups were really tense and unhappy because of stuff with some clients, and like… it's not like they were taking it out on the rest of us, but they were just on edge, and you could feel that they were on edge, so it was not the greatest environment. But on the plus side, I mentioned back in like February that we might be moving, and it's finally official. There's still no exact date, but I think the CEO said something about 6 weeks? The location is much closer to my house and it's just going to be a lot more convenient for a variety of reasons, and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Anyways, going to try to catch up on comments for the first time in forever (I'm sorry I suck so much :((( ) while I wait for a Korra download to pop up already (COME ON WHERE ARE YOU I NEED TO WATCH THIS NOWWWWWW)!
 
 
Current Mood: okayokay
 
 
Michelle
15 April 2012 @ 01:27 pm
Game of Thrones 2.02Collapse )

Gossip Girl 5.19Collapse )

New Girl 1.20Collapse )

Scandal 1.01-1.02Collapse )

The new cuts are the worst. Besides the scissors being stupid, I keep missing the fact that there are cuts in entries because they just look like normal links!!! There is a kind of fix for it here which helps, but it only works for your own journal; if you're looking at someone else's who hasn't fixed it, then you still see the stupid scissors. Still, it's definitely better than nothing.

…I don't really have much else to say. This week was just busy and tiring because we have some new people at work, and so far they're good, but they're still new so they still make mistakes and need to have things explained to them, and… I don't mind doing that, but it does get tiring after awhile and cause extra work for me, and then I ended up having to work Saturday, too, which I wasn't planning on, but they didn't have enough people coming in and I had no excuse to not come in, so I spent the rest of the Saturday with zero energy or motivation to do anything because that's what waking up at 6 AM on a Saturday does to me. Anyways, hope everyone else is doing well! I will hopefully get to catch up on at least some comments today, but I'm also still pretty exhausted from this past week, so we'll see. Also, PARKS IS BACK THIS WEEK, RIGHT???? UGH SO EXCITED IT HAS BEEN AWAY FOR WAY TOO LONG.
 
 
Current Mood: exhaustedexhausted