Category: TV

Who's ready to speak ill of the dead? :D

Dan Dickinson5 Comments

I don’t understand how one human head can produce so much snot. Incroyable.

.:.

Link dump:

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We watched a documentary called The Bridge (imdb | rotten tomatoes) a few days ago. I’ve wanted to see it since I first saw the trailer last fall, and it was very good. Unsettling subject matter, obviously — the Golden Gate Bridge is the world’s #1 suicide site — but it was very well done and not sensational.

[tags]snot, bill maher, jerry falwell, maple sap, veronica mars, the bridge[/tags]

Touch me, I'm sick

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I feel like hell. I really hope this goes away soon; my choices right now are drug myself up on cold meds, or stay undrugged and constantly fight the urge to drill holes in my own skull.

.:.

The fireworks last night were pretty cool. From our vantage point we could see them going off all over the place, at least two dozen little spots of light popping off at any given time. There seemed to be a bunch coming from Riverdale Park or Withrow Park, but the main attraction was over Ashbridges Bay. We could see (and occasionally hear) them very clearly. Canada Day should be pretty fun to watch from up here.

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Farewell, 24. You were good once, in your first season. Now you suck. I will never watch you again, unless I hear that a) Jack dies and fights Nina in hell; b) Mandy returns.

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I find it freaky that every 17 years a gigantic swarm of insects emerges in the mideast US. Extremely freaky.

[tags]cold, flu, victoria day fireworks, ashbridges bay, 24, cicadas[/tags]

Lather. Snort. Repeat.

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My shampoo is tingly. Really, really tingly, almost to the point of burning or poison ivy or something. Anyway, I’m sure it’s meant to be good for my scalp or my hair or both, so I don’t mind the tingliness. However, today, I somehow took breath in just as a big blob of it was running down my face and happened to be just in front of my left nostril, so a bunch of this tingly-ass shampoo shot up my nose.

This, I don’t mind telling you, was not how I planned to spend my nice hot relaxing shower. Now I had to do something, but I also had a bunch more frothing shampoo about to run in to my eyes, so even as my sinuses were disintegrating in the face of this new terror I had to calmly rinse the rest of it from my hair, all while blowing all the air out my nose that I could manage. I wasn’t really thinking about how stupid I must have sounded; instead, all I could think was that maybe I should give baths another try.

Anyway, I didn’t care what the bottle said, I was not going to repeat.

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Last night was the first chance we’ve had in ages to just sit and watch some TV. Actually, to be clear, we didn’t watch TV, but rather watched a few episodes of The Sopranos on the laptop. We’re trying to catch up for the final episode; there’s no way we’ll be able to avoid hearing about the series finale.

.:.

So, we knew it was inevitable that we’d eventually lose some of our view, but we didn’t think it would happen so soon. I suppose those buildings — at the foot of Yonge Street, just west of the Redpath sugar factory — won’t be built for a while, and it’s only a small chunk of our view, but it’s one of the best views we have of the islands. Perhaps, both for the sake of our view and the good of the waterfront, city council will find a way to stop the development and put a park there.

[tags]shampoo, sopranos, toronto condos, yonge street[/tags]

"Like Bynes, or Hope."

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The Office is the ballsiest show on American network TV right now. If you watched tonight’s episode you’ll know what I mean when I say Pam’s speech was a great example of that. They could’ve done the easy, obvious thing, which is precisely what most other shows would do. But they didn’t, and it was one of the best single minutes of TV I’ve seen this year.

[tags]the office[/tags]

25.574%

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My blackberry just forced me to change my password. I don’t like mandatory password changes, so I chose to make “fuckyou” my new password. I am raging against the machine. Security restrictions suxorz.

.:.

Day 2 is now done. I have a little work to do before Heroes comes on, and then I’ll meet with my group to figure out what needs to be done for our Thursday presentation.

[tags]blackberry password, heroes[/tags]

"This day is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s"

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If you watched The Office last night that title will make a lot more sense. And if you watched 30 Rock, you might’ve heard Tina Fey yell “I will slice you open like a taun-taun!” And then you might’ve heard me yowl with laughter.

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Another day, another bunch of boxes unpacked. The books are now taken care of, and the kitchen is close to done. Next thing is to set up the TV and stereo before I leave Sunday morning, and get the empty boxes collapsed and taken out. Also have to get to Dove Cleaners; I’ve got a stain on a suit jacket that looks as if I’ve been lactating. Nobody wants that visual.

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Choosing between #1 and #1a is hard. And when you love them both, having to choose at all sucks. Sorry that’s cryptic, but it concerns stuff I don’t usually talk about here. It was gut-wrenching, but I guess there are worse problems than having to choose between the two best options I’ve ever had.

[tags]moving, spire condominium[/tags]

Is April over yet?

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The tiredness isn’t going away. Had a pretty hectic day, and tomorrow looks to be about the same as I get ready to leave for a week. Took a break tonight to eat some dinner (pizza…I skipped lunch and we got home late, so it was the best…pizza…ever!), watch The Office and 30 Rock, and unpack the DVDs. Tomorrow’ll be another late one but I hope to get lots more unpacking done while I watch the Raptors game.

That cat better shut up tonight or he’ll be getting a shoe in the head.

[tags]office, 30 rock, pizza[/tags]

Hey, I know: how about a show called Video Game Killer Investigations?

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Now that the carnage at Virginia Tech is past and the identities are known, I have another fear: that useful reactions to what happened will be ignored in favour of the irrational. My wager is that politicians will be scared to raise gun control as an issue, but that some bright light will call for the FBI/police to monitor creative writing assignments to screen for violent content, just as calls went out to restrict video games after the shootings at Columbine.

Interesting note from Wired: 8 hours after the VT shootings Reuters had raised the spectre of video games once again.

.:.

Still in a betting mood, I’ve got $20 that says the Globe’s Andrew Ryan is right about the inevitable creation of a CSI channel. I think maybe it’ll start out as a Law & Order/CSI channel; twice as many episodes that way. And hey, maybe they could add on Cold Case and Without A Trace and Crossing Jordan and just call it the Vanilla Predictable Investigation Channel. Their tagline: don’t think too hard.
[tags]virginia tech, gun control, creative writing, video games, csi, law & order, cold case, without a trace, crossing jordan[/tags]

Cry havoc and let slip the clichés of sports

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It’s do or die. For all the marbles. A game for the ages. It’s crunch time, gut-check time, win-or-go-home.

It’s come down to this: the Leafs vs. the Canadiens, in the final game of the season, to see who gets to go to the playoffs…unless, of course, the Islanders squeak past them both. Anyway, considering it’s the first meaningful game between these two teams since 1979, the CBC must be thanking their lucky stars.

It should be noted that if the Leafs beat the Canadiens and knock them out of the playoffs, I will be hurling myself off the nearest parapet.

.:.

Meanwhile, the Toronto Raptors are officially no longer the Craptors. Long after clinching a playoff spot, they clinched their first division title last night by beating the 76ers. Granted, they’re in an atrocious division, but a 43-33 record is a heck of a lot better than how they’ve fared the last few years. Bryan Colangelo deserves a ton of credit.

.:.

The Onion AV Club pleads for the survival of Friday Night Lights. Seconded; it’s definitely one of the best shows on network TV these days. Salon made the same case a month ago, and Matt Roush from TV Guide seems to agree.

Bring it back, NBC.

[tags]leafs, canadiens, cbc, hockey night in canada, raptors, bryan colangelo, friday night lights, nbc[/tags]

Coinstar, Battlestar and my latest star

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Today wasn’t quite as nice a day as was forecast, so we stuck to doing some errands, cleaning and (in my case) watching more basketball. We traded in a bunch of loose change ($120 worth, in fact), picked up our tickets for the two documentaries we’ll see at this year’s Hot Docs (Let’s All Hate Toronto and Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib) just before we move, got some excellent snacks at Cobs Bread, picked up a few groceries and got home just in time for the opening tip of the Florida/Oregon game. Since I finished my case study yesterday I can now relax until the season finale of Battlestar Galactica tonight.

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Speaking of basketball, I’m doing quite well in my March Madness pool. I’m currently in 3rd, but I can take the $600 prize if Florida beats Georgetown in the final. If my calculations are correct there are also two other scenarios where I’d finish 2nd (for which I’d get $200) or tied for 2nd ($100).

I’m also doing well in my other (non-money) pools. I’m leading my NHL pool; some other guys got within half a point of me, but I’ve gotten some breathing room back, mainly by adding Jordan Staal to my lineup the other night. I’m starting to love that kid as much as Don Cherry does. In my NBA pool I’m only four points back from the leader, but I don’t think I can catch him. I probably could’ve if any of Pau Gasol, Paul Pierce or Dwayne Wade had been able to play a full season, mais c’est la vie. I’m just hoping to hang on to 2nd place.

[tags]hot docs, let’s all hate toronto, ghosts of abu ghraib, cobs bread, battlestar galactica, march madness, hockey pool, jordan staal, don cherry[/tags]