You know what I wish? I wish that someone narrated my life. How cool would that be?! It would probably be annoying at time, so you should be able to hit the mute button but seriously. Wouldn’t that be cool. “Today was the day Emily’s life changed for the better.” “It was this moment that Emily knew she’d met the one.” “Here it was, the moment of pure inspiration that led to her bestseller.” I guess it would kind of ruin the surprise of things, but wouldn’t it be fun? Even to try for a day. I often wonder about the soundtrack to my life and what it would include, and I guess that would include a narrator.

At this point I’ll say that I’m watching 500 Days of Summer and that is what has gotten me wondering about narrators. Cause Tom’s narrator is pretty awesome. Would my narrator have to be a girl? Would it be weird if it was a guy? I guess it would be. I just like the seriousness that comes with a guy narrator, specifically the one from this movie. There’s something about this narrator… Anyway, if it had to be a girl, I’d want it to be someone like Audrey Hepburn, but that’s not possible so then it would have to be someone like Zooey Deschanel or Meg Ryan. Probably Meg Ryan over Zooey. I love Zooey as an actress, but she’s got a softer voice. Meg Ryan could be more serious. Could be. Hmm, who else. I can’t think of someone at the moment. There’s a bunch of actresses I like, but no one I can think of to specifically narrate my life. It might have to be someone unknown. Like a professional narrator. Is there such a thing? There has to be. In my world there is such a thing as professional narrators.

This movie has also made me want a life that is solely taken from movies. Like situations. That’s weird right? For me to want something like that. But really, if you think about it, there is a lot of cool situations in movies, situations that you secretly envy because now that you’ve seen them in a movie you know that it would be cheesy to want them in real life. For instance, in this movie Tom and Summer go to IKEA and play house. Its adorable because they go into the kitchen and try to use the sink and they’re like ‘the sink isn’t working!” so they go to the next kitchen and go “good thing we moved into a house with more than one kitchen”. It’s really cute. Now that I’ve seen it I would enjoy it happening in my life, but because it was from a movie, it’s lame of me to want to copy it in my own life. WHY IS THAT?! It’s so lame. It’s lame that movies get a monopoly on all the really adorable dates and then it’s lame that it’s cheesy to copy them later in real life. All I have to say is the second a movie comes out with a nerf gun war in a park I will struggle to find a reason to go on living because that will mean that I can’t have a massive nerf gun war with my friends in a park without someone thinking “Its so lame that Emily decided to have us do this just cause it was in a movie”.

I apologize for the overuse of “lame” in this blog. It isn’t until I’m reading these back that I notice I tend to repeat myself constantly, not limited to singular words.

It is the 23^rd. It is also 1:29 AM and I’m still awake, waiting for the rest of this movie to load on Megavideo. I can’t express in words how much time and energy I’ve put into trying to find a way to cheat the megavideo time limit. So I’ve given up and am using the only trick I know how to use and it still doesn’t manage to do very much. About an hour ago I had to wait for the video to load and during that period of time I pretty much tried on every article of clothing I own and judged whether or not I’d be willing to wear it in the coming days. It was a pre-packing ritual. I ended up with a giant pile of clothes in the hall in front of Heather’s door which I have since moved back into my room. There will need to be a major clean when I get back from this weekend…or tomorrow when I’m wasting away the hours before my mom picks me up. But if I’m being honest, it will probably be when I get back. I managed to pack everything I wanted to bring with me into a shoulder backpack and then realized that the last two times I’ve gone home I didn’t bring my dvds and was asked later if we could watch one of my dvds. So I repacked everything into my duffle bag which is broken thanks to my brother. I’m officially ready to go. My mom could call me right now and be like “I am outside. Lets go” and I would be ready to go. Which gives me nothing to do all day tomorrow but sit around. Lucky for me I found this awesome blog that gives thinks to a TON of really awesome movies, so I’ve been saving up movies to watch. Tomorrow will probably be spent on the couch with my wild print snuggie (HEATHER I MISS BEING IN THE WILD WITH YOU!) watching random movies like Sorority Row with Rumer Willis and Audrina from The Hills. Though I do have one loading right now called The Private Lives of Pippa Lee that looks mildly interesting. I haven’t gotten through all the pages of the blog so there might be something a lot more interesting to come. Avatar is up, but I’m keeping myself from watching it. Pretty sure I’m seeing it on Saturday with my uncle and I wouldn’t’ want to ruin the big screen 3D experience with watching it piece by piece on megavideo.

You know what’s annoying. When your upstairs neighbors are either constantly a) dropping what sounds like metal pipes on the floor, b) playing really loud rap music or c) marching around like 300 pound men wearing combat boots. SHUT UP! Also, something weird I’ve noticed is that there is about a ¼ of the people that are here normally, yet there is more yelling/laughing/fighting/music/drunkedness than I’ve ever heard. And of course because I am on the ground floor, next to the doors, I get the pleasure of hearing every time a girl screams at her boyfriend for flirting with another girl, or whenever someone drinks too much because those people like to stand in front of my window and tell someone about it. Seriously. I do not go to bed early. I will probably be up for another hour or so, but these people wake me at 4 in the morning. I woke up yesterday around 3:30 to a guy screaming at someone who lives on the 4^th floor because he couldn’t get in and his roommate had to come down and let him in. To that person I would like to say a) you are a college student in 2009. You have a cellphone. USE IT. b) the main doors work. USE THEM. c) If you want to yell at your roommate, do it at a better time…like during the daylight…or even at midnight. When it isn’t incredibly annoying to everyone living here, it’s just mildly annoying.

That’s my rant. Now if only every person on campus read my blog. Spread the word people. There have been countless times where I’ve wanted to open my window and scream SHUT UP or go upstairs and sliding a mildly terrifying note under whoever lives above me’s door. “I know what you’re doing and you’d better stop or things are going to become very painful for you”. That kind of thing only more threatening. I have enough thrillers. I could figure it out.

In these late … or early depending on how you look at it, I’ve realized that I become hyper, but also easily annoyed. And more creative I think. I don’t really know why though. Most people would be exhausted by this point. Such as almost all of my roommates, Heather especially. But really, if I could get away with it, I’d have the weirdest sleeping schedule in the world. In a perfect world where I didn’t get made fun of by my dad and many others for sleeping until 1, I would go to bed around 3 or 4 and sleep until noon. That would be ideal. There are a few things that I can only do when its daylight, such as clean my room, but that only requires an hour. Otherwise I get a lot done at night. I just went to google to type in ‘why do writers stay up really late’ and I got to ‘why do’ and the first suggestion it gave me was ‘why do men have nipples’ lol I just spent a good 5 minutes trying to find something medical that talked about it but then I gave up and just as I was giving up I realized why I’m more creative in these hours. Its because this late/early, there isn’t much else to do but write. I can’t be noisy because people are sleeping, I can’t go out and do things. Huh. I wonder why that just clicked now. That makes a lot of sense. The daytime is filled with school, studying, cleaning, eating, being with people. At 3 in morning there isn’t much to do besides write. Interesting. That’s probably why the blog entries I write at night are so much better than the daytime ones.

Alright well I’m going to give up on megavideo and go to bed. Sleep late. And such. This was fun to write though. Especially since I’m so incredibly hyper right now. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep. If not I guess I’ll just lay around and think about stuff. Last night I finally came up with what I’m going to make out of all the letters that I cut out magazines and saved. It’s going to be pretty awesome. Ok, well I’m going to post this and go to bed. Seriously this time.

Love, Emily

(As i was posting this I realized that I might have talked about narrators already… if so, OH WELL!)

Let me explain before posting this picture.

My mom and I have just found this AWESOME AMAZING British show called “Doctor Who” on BBC America. I don’t live in Jolly Ole England so we have to watch it on BBCA. Yeah. Anyways, if you don’t watch it, let me explain. There’s this guy called “The Doctor” who’s the last of a race of aliens called Time Lords who can go back in time and into alternate realities and such. AND HE’S AWESOME. And like 900 years old. Anyways, the Time Lord’s can ‘cheat death’ by regenerating when a human would normally die; The thing about regenerating is that they get a completely new appearance, costume, personality, etc. And the current Doctor is really cool. His name is David Tennant. He has possibly the coolest Sci-Fi hair EVER. EVER. Seriously. Google him. Or I’ll put a picture or something.

That's David Tennant. And his amazing hair. Oh, and the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space)

Ok. So I’m geeking out about it. CAUSE ITS AWESOME!!! So, I am in total geek mode and was also trying to come up with an idea for a raccoon character I was playing around within my head; and I wanted him to wear dress pants and a vest and a nice dress shirt and a tie. So…

VOILA!! And, MUAHAHAHHAHA!!! It’s, like, Anthro Doctor Who. My mom calls him Doctor Raccoon. I  wasn’t planning on this, I promise, but it may just be really really awesome…Doctor Who is owned by BBC I don’t own it. This is fan art. Because I love the show.

I must say, there is a resemblence…seriously…Look at them…compare…It’s AWESOME! Heh. Doctor Raccoon. HEH. HEH. And no, I am not the first person to draw a Doctor Who furry…I found another one of Art Spots. I am an insane Sci-Fi geek, sorry. But he has really cool hair. Bottom line. Period. End of story. I mean, it totally beats Star Trek, Stargate: Atlantis, all their hair.

Doctor Who is the longest running Sci Fi show, EVER, by the way. It’s been on since any two of you reading this have been alive, put together. Try, 1963. Yeah. Pretty awesome.

Once there was a manakin, staring out the window, watching the SMMLLLAAAARRRRRG, living for today. (“Under A White Star”- Rusty Anderson)

–Agent M

“The time has come for horseplay!” the manikin exclaimed. “Show me how to, SMMLLLAAAARRRRG, how to play your game!” The geeky girl was speechless, then she did reply. “Star watching Doctor Who. It’s a very nice show.”

(Parodying sorta the same song.)

(But, hey, it just might give you some ideas for weekend viewing.)

The Departed: Frank Costello and Mr. French

Disclosure:  I hate going to movie theaters.  Can’t stand phones ringing, babies crying, people talking, chewing, etc.  It is rare that I go.  So, it has to hit HBO, Showtime, etc. for me to see it.  As a result, I have no picks for ought-eight and ought-nine.

2001 – Hannibal, Training Day

2002 – Red Dragon

2003 – No pick, not a good year for movies

2004 – Meet the Fockers, Million Dollar Baby, Napoleon Dynamite

The one, the only, The Tone Rangers (The Break Up)

2005 – Wedding Crashers

2006 – Casino Royale, The Departed, The Break Up

2007 – 300, Knocked Up, Juno, Superbad, American Gangster (“my man!”)

Earn 10 Frequent Fun points by reading this post.

Dune v. Avatar. Submitted without comment:

In Dune, by contrast, the willingness of the Fremen to accept Paul Atreides as a leader is explicitly portrayed as in part a consequence of colonialist manipulation by the Bene Gesserit missionaria protectiva. Thus, Frank Herbert is more exploring the colonialist logic of this narrative than performing it. And perhaps more important, the Fremen maintain their agency despite accepting Atreides’ leadership. They’ve taken the story of the messiah from the outside and made it their own. Paul becomes much more the vehicle for their concept of planetary transformation and galactic jihad than the leader of the movement. Ultimately, what Paul does and does not want has only a limited relevance to what the Fremen he “leads” decide to do.

(via)

It’s a few days from Christmas and I haven’t started not even mention finished ANY of my planned Christmas gifts.

I didn’t expect my December to be totally busy, I’ve never been busy at this time of the year before. But I was wrong, Engineering Week 2009 took all my time and strength. We had a blast, we managed to win a lot of events (some totally unexpected), and we were able to retain our yearly ranking. It was stressful. It was tiring. It was fun. It was worth it. And I’m happy to say that for once in my life, I’ve worked hard to accomplish a goal while enjoying every minute of it. I could finally say, that for once, I haven’t been selfish but all the more selfless. Maybe too selfless, I don’t care.

All the drama and stuff ends here. LOL.

After a day of sleeping off all the Eng’g Week 09 tiredness, I went back to crafting… finally!

I have no plans of doing any Christmas gifts anymore because my mom bought me stuff that I could give as gifts to my friends! Yey! XD So all of the things that I’m doing now are for me, myself, and I. I’m thinking of it as a reward to myself, because I’ve been very active both in my academic and extra-curricular life. XD

I’ve finished working on a Beaded Beret and a shrug that I call as ‘Wisp-to-Shrug’ or something like that (I’m turning the wisp into a shrug, finished the wisp part but the to-Shrug part is still in the works). I’m now working on a scarf then will later on work dishcloths (maybe) for our kitchen and a lot more. I plan on dequeue-ing my queue. As for photos, I can’t share them yet, since my projects are not yet finished. Ahaha.

And with crafting marathon comes movie/tv show marathon galore:

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Edition (a staple!)

The Princess Bride

You’re Beautiful / Minami Shineyo

(I absolutely fangirl-ed over this last month, this is the 4th time I’m watching it again.)

and last but not the least, some Austen love.

Pride and Prejudice

Sense and Sensibility

Emma

Mansfield Park

Persuasion

and

Clueless ( RIP Brittany Murphy)

]]> http://lichuan.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/stuff-i-bought-or-got-and-havent-read-or-watched/ Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:18:39 +0000 lichone http://lichuan.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/stuff-i-bought-or-got-and-havent-read-or-watched/

It’s the season of gifts and excess, so I thought I’d count my blessings a little bit, just to see if it helps me ease off spending money on and otherwise collecting stuff I don’t use.  So I bought/got and haven’t read/watched

• Lost in Translation – from what I heard, starring a brilliant Bill Murray.
• Norwegian Wood – translated from Haruki Murakami’s Japanese original.  I’d read a Chinese translation halfway through, and I found it occasionally evocative but generally bland.  A colleague mentioned that a lousy Chinese translation was floating around, and another passed me the English one to try.
• The Fifth Discipline (Peter Senge) – always wanted to read it.  Now it looks intimidating.  See this interesting review.
• The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas Taleb) – I read “Fooled by Randomness” and I found Nassim Taleb full of himself, too much so for me.  And then I came across his home page.  And my opinion of him remained, but at least now he seems a genuinely full-of-himself person.  And somehow that makes me more eager – just slightly so, but still – to read “The Black Swan”.
• Think! (Edward de Bono) – also, according to my long-legged friend, who lent me the book, full of himself, is Mr de Bono.
• Flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) – First heard of the man with his first name in his last name while I was studying communication in university, some of the best times of my life.  I suspect my getting the book was at least partly an attempt to retrieve those times.
• Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman) – I guess if I liked poetry I’d like Walt Whitman.  Or Pablo Neruda.  Or Ted Hughes.  *Sigh*
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (David Wroblewski) – I do want to read this book.  But I got the hard-cover version.  And it’s thicker than my thigh.  Ok I lie.  I’ll read it soon.
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Dave Eggers) – I like McSweeney’s, which Dave Eggers founded.  I think his talk on winning the TED prize was amazing.  I think his “What is the What” would be a good read too.  But I shall try to finish that heartbreaking work of staggering genius first.

Yes, I have too much stuff.  Time to get down to some reading.

I’ve watched a lot of movies in the last few days. Its break and before I start my massive amounts of reading for capstone I’m giving myself a few days of sleeping until I wake up on my own and watching tv/movies in my snuggie until I’m tired of being a bum. Watching these movies has given me a thought. I wonder how many people have moved/gone on vacation to a specific location because of a movie. I watch a movie and there is always something about that location that makes me want to move there. Movies that take place in warmer climates especially. Like Louisiana. To wear shorts year around sounds fantastic right now. But it isn’t just warmer locations. Its really any movie that takes place in a really pretty place. I love the Twin Cities and all. I love the history. I love that movies make me want to live where they take place. I love the sudden intense urge to move away. Its a good thing I don’t have the means to travel to these places or I would be going away for long periods of time depending on the movie/tv show. What I wouldn’t give to go on a long vacation to Louisiana. Oh man.

But it ins’t just the urge to travel. There are days when I’m sitting around and go “i need to watch a movie that is sunny and warm” and I know exactly which movie to watch just because of the location the movie takes place in. Its incredible the effect that setting has on the entire movie. I know you know that, but really its incredible. I think it has a huge effect on who people are also, which sounds weird but it must be true. A person is a person, but putting them in a different location can change someone I think. Movies show that. Witness protection movies are really good at showing that. I think I’d be really different in Louisiana and I think that’s what the draw is for me. Its not that I don’t like who I am, its that I think I could be different…maybe better if I moved somewhere new. This summer I was someone different. I got to walk every day out in the world, write whenever I wanted. I was pretty happy this summer. I think if I moved somewhere new, where I could be out in the world every day I would be happier over all. I’d have to move somewhere it was warm enough to walk every day, have enough history to keep me interested and inspired and not be incredibly far away from here (unless someone figures out how to beam people from place to place, in which case it can be anywhere). I think I could be a better writer, in better shape, and maybe I could learn to worry a little less about things.

I worry a lot. Probably far too much. I feel like I have reason to though. Lots of reasons. I won’t talk about the future because I do all the time, but there are a lot of things in the future that terrify me. Its always interesting to me how these blogs change subject so rapidly and how I can start a blog about something completely different and it leads into what is really bothering me or on my mind. I know a few people who have these same worries and I talked to one of them today and its just set the whole day in a kind of somber tone. I’ve been thinking about the holidays and family and change. I’m watching The Family Stone and the mom is sick and the whole family is worried about her. Its kind of striking a chord with me. This last weekend my uncle tim and aunt sandy came over with their kids and I was sitting upstairs with my dad and aunt sandy. Her dad has been having some hard times recently and we were talking about him and how he’s been getting along and how he’s getting better, and I found myself feeling jealous of her. I had no reason to be jealous of her because it was nothing she was doing, but I was jealous that her dad is getting better when my dad’s mom is getting worse. We talked about her for a little while and it was kind of odd for me. I’ve never really talked about her with my dad before and to hear him talk about her was kind of hard. It just seemed more…real. Not that it hasn’t been real, but it was a lot more difficult to hear. Maybe its that its Christmas time and any other year we’d be calling his parents to plan a time where we can all get together and this year that is almost out of the question. It just feels lonely which is completely absurd because I have an entire family and another set of grandparents and friends and its not like my grandma is gone. Maybe its that the holidays are making me more emotional but I can’t stop thinking about the this time next year is going to be like, and what I’ll be feeling this time next year and I’m a little scared. The holidays have always been a really cheerful and fun time and I’m afraid that next year will be a little sadder. I’m afraid of what will change in my family. I don’t think a lot will change, but being as close as we are, I can’t imagine that something won’t change a little. I think it might be difficult for a while. I mean, I know that I’m going to miss her every moment of every day and I can’t imagine what life will be like without her. I know she’s changed a lot in the recent months, but she’s still herself. She’s still herself, even if its only in little bits and we only get it once in a while. She’s still my grandma. It will be really hard next year. Even this year is hard because I keep thinking about next year. I know my dad reads these now so I just want to add that even though we don’t really talk about it, I hope you know that I love you and I’m so sorry this is happening dad. When you were telling aunt sandy about grandma it was all I could do not to jump up and hug you. I know I’m really struggling with this whole thing, so I can’t imagine how you feel about it. I’m just glad that our family is so close because without you guys this would be incredibly hard.

Alright, I’d better go. I’m dwelling and I need to stop thinking about this all the time. Next blog will be cheery, I promise.

Love Emily

I just finished watching the newest standup for one of my favorite comedians, Russell Peters. It was soo good!! My cheeks are still hurting. You need to watch it if you haven’t already. In addition to the typical Itlaian, Indian, and Chinese jokes, he went to town on deaf and Jewish people this time… I know how fucked up that sounds but it’s hilarious!! GO. WATCH. NOW!!

SOOOO GOOD!!!

Wow…I had heard some seriously mixed reviews about this movie and to be completely honest, I was more interested in the movie when I had no idea what it was about than when I found out it was about a crippled Marine that goes out into the world of Pandora in an “avatar” body. I just saw the movie tonight, though, and wow! I stand corrected. I thought the movie was amazing! I’m really into fantasy genre movies to begin with but nobody could deny how great the animation and graphic work is. I didn’t know until today that this movie is playing in IMAX theaters… I’m pretty sure this means that I’ll be seeing the movie again in the near future.

I’m sick…AGAIN!!!!! Geez. This time its just a stupid little inferior cold though. I’m not brain-dead, at least. I just ate a Dum Dum somebody gave me, too, so yeah, I’m better for the moment.

Well, I have an editorial and some sad news. Sad news first:

I am doing a Secret Santa via the internet, and I finished that, right? I save it. Everything is fine. Then, I go and spend like 30-45 min finishing a very hard pic (Yes, your’s, Silverfalcon, you know who you are.) and I was COMPLETE!!!! HAHA!! I go to save it and it keeps telling me the Start-Up Disk is full. I am not a techy-wiz-kid, so I started deleting unneccasary stuff on my flash drive and on my computer. Close, but no cigar. We have 100 gigs of back up on our computer, so I am going to BEG my momma to delete it. But, so sad is me, I think I may have lost the complete project. I don’t know, but I’m going to check on it in a minute after I finish writing this. PRAY FOR ME!!!

Second on the agenda, I watched the Star Trek movie last night. PURE AWESOME ON A STICK!!! I LOVE that movie. It’s. Just. Plain. Awesome. !!! If you like Star Trek, or not, watch it. It’s PG-13 for sci-Fi Violence and ONE scene, nothing super icky, and its about 7 seconds long so you can skip past it (Like I did). Nothing hard-core, but a very well done movie. Synopsis follows:

The movie is about a Romulan named Nero basically messing up everything. He comes through a tear in the space-time continum and creates an alternate dimension where Captain Kirk’s daddy dies right as he’s born. Thusly, EVERYTHING GOES POOP. Spock and Kirk aren’t friends (AT ALL) in the first part of the movie. So, this Nero guy takes this thing called “Red Matter” which basically is a big red blob of Black-Hole waiting to happen. He sends it into the core of Vulcan and destorys it, committing genicide and killing almost the entire 6 billion vulcans. BUT NOT SPOCK. Or Spock’s daddy. Anyways, Kirk ends up on this highly dangerous, icey class M planet and finds Original Spock (Who’s old and played by none other than LEONARD NIMOY!!!! ) and Jim finds out that Nero is getting back for Spock; Spock promised to save Romulus from a Super-Nova-going star by creating a black hole using Red Matter in the middle of it. He comes too late, Romulus is destroyed and Nero’s wife bearing his child is killed. I’m not going to tell you the ending, though. :B

So…pray for me to get better and get more memory for my family’s computer. And that my picture isn’t gone. Dx

I saw your face in a pretty SMLLAAAARRRRRGGG. (“Shiny Magazine” by Jet)

-Agent M

Uh oh… I was talked into watching this show today by one of my student assistants. Most of the other shows I’ve recently been addicted to are on hiatus and truth be told, I’ve gotten addicted to having a show to watch. I had been avoiding watching Glee because I thought it looked dumb but… Here I sit with a full blown addiction. I watched the pilot and got hooked. I went to work, came home, and started looking for the episodes that weren’t on Hulu that were also hosted on another site other than Megavideo (because they have a limit on time that you can watch per day). This show is not only full of really great music and talent but it’s also got just enough drama to keep me hooked and it’s HILARIOUS!! Oh man… Ok I’m going back to watching now. P

Lead single for the “Avatar” soundtrack.

I love Christmas – I do.  I love the parties, the food, the shopping, the decorations, the hussle-and-bussle, the baking, the red cups at Starbucks, the twinkling lights and the traditions.   I love to go to out to dinner on Christmas Eve and then snuggle up on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate and watch It’s a Wonderful Life.  I love to leave the TV on all day when TBS runs A Christmas Story continually.  For all these reasons and a thousand more, I absolutely love Christmas.  But what if this was it – what if all the things I just listed were Christmas wrapped in a nutshell?  Christmas would have to be renamed Giftmas and our hearts would be caught up with nothing more than perhaps a pat on the back for purchasing “the best gift ever” and December 25th would be just another day to indulge ourselves in all our favorite things.

I am pondering this morning what Christmas would be like without the birth of Christ, and let me tell you – this picture is bleak.  Without the birth of Christ, we have no crucifixion and no empty tomb.  Without the birth of Christ, we have no means of redemption from our sins (even the Old Testament believers offered sacrifices in faith of the Redeemer who was to come). Without this necessary redemption, we are left to our own desires and sins, which (if you haven’t noticed) doesn’t usually bring out our best qualities.  Our fleshly desires are not for Christ, but for ourselves, so without Christmas we get what we deserve and choose – death and destruction for all eternity.

But there’s more – so much more, to Christmas.

Christ in a manger is more than a sweet story or famous legend for us to share when the weather gets cozy.  He is more than a moral lesson in selflessness and giving, and He is certainly more than just a “good man.” Christ  in the manger is the very reason we have hope to get out of bed on Christmas morning, Easter morning, or any other morning that we take in the breath that He grants us.  Christ is the very reason we exist, and if we do not remind ourselves of this, Christmas becomes nothing more than shiny paper and meaningless stars.  If we do not ponder the miracle of Christ’s humility in being born as a helpless infant, then we will find ourselves arrogant and empty.  We will take down our trees and unstring our lights year after year, with a longing for something more.  I am guilty of it at times.  I get caught up in buying creative gifts, finding good bargains and getting stressed about shirt sizes and stocking stuffers.

I am thankful that today, the Lord has reminded me of why we have Christmas – and why I exist:  for His glory.  It is all for His glory.  So as you unwrap gifts, fellowship over food and take down your tree this year, take a minute to truly ponder what a gift Christ in a manger is to us . . . and thank God for the most undeserved gift one could ever possibly imagine.

So wrap our injured flesh around You

Breathe our air and walk our sod

Rob our sin and make us holy

Perfect Son of God

Perfect Son of God

Welcome to Our world

[Chris Rice]

We are half-way through the TV season – most shows just went on their winter break. Come, join me on a ramble about the state 2009-2010 TV season.

Well, at least for the shows I watch.

The Office
This has been a wildly uneven season – perhaps  more uneven than season five (though I would argue, after watching the season on DVD that season five holds up better in one go). There have been some very good,  perhaps even great, – episodes like “Gossip” and “Murder” – and the writers handled the wedding of Jim and Pam as well as can be expected but much of this season has fell flat. “Scott’s Tots” was one of the worst episodes they have come up with – the show has always walked a fine line between cruelty and comedy and in that episode they really, really crossed the line. The “Dunder Mifflin going out of business” arc seemed to go nowhere and lacked tension, remarkably enough. It also seems that the writer’s are backpedaling on some of the character growth in previous seasons – namely with Dwight. Dwight had grown some soft edges over the course of the fourth and fifth seasons and really started to grow as a character – he basically became less of a dick. That is all gone now and very disappointing and annoying. It is clear that the writers didn’t know where to take the character anymore so they went backwards. This is not saw that the season has been bad – there a lot of great things about The Office. The writers have been using Ed Helms to great effect this season and thus the Andy/Erin romance plot is easily the thing to look forward to in each episode. The story of Jim and Pam remains as compelling as ever. But it sometimes seems that The Office is coasting on the strength of its great characters and not pushing itself enough.

30 Rock
My love for this show has been noted before. Alyssa Rosenberg believes that this season of 30 Rock has been weak. I have to disagree – not that there haven’t been problems. The plotting has been really weak this season and much of the supporting cast has been shunted aside – there are streaks of episodes where we barely see any of Jenna or Pete. This is a trend continuing from season three. And, yes, jokes about how “ugly” Tina Fey are laughable – not in the good way. Yet despite that this has been a strong season. First and foremost Alec Baldwin has brought his A game. He has delievered the sides and one liners – “Weird…in a good way. Like going to the gym drunk”- Fey and her writers have fed him each episode with great aplomb. Baldwin’s characterization of Jack has perfectly walks the line between ironic, wry detachment and honest emotion – as episodes like “Dealbreakers Talk Show No. 0001″ and “Secret Santa” show. Tracy Morgan has also been great this season. How Morgan is able to deliever lines like “Why don’t Catholics eat meat on Fridays? I’ll tell you why: it’s because the Pope owns Long John Silver’s” in a way that makes you both laugh and take him serious is beyond me. But he does and really makes Tracey Jordan work as a character and a source of humor. 30 Rock is easily the best comedy on TV at the moment and that’s a crown I don’t think it’ll lose.

House
Season six had tough shoes to fill since season five was (mostly) brilliant – the final arc of episodes was truly heartrending. To to be honest this season hasn’t lived up to that legacy and has shown both the strengths and weaknesses of House. The season premier was truly ridiculous and sappy – when you are too sappy for me you know there’s trouble – and would have been unwatchable but for Hugh Laurie’s fantastic performance (as always). But what the ridiculous premier gave us was “healthy” House. House 2.0 is even more interesting, conflicted, and fucked up than “sick” House – as episodes like “Teamwork” show. Hugh Laurie, Robert Sean Leonard, and Lisa Edelstein have been outstanding this season – no surprise there. But what season six of House has really brought out is how I could not give two shits and a fuck about the younger generation of doctors on this show. I constantly want to punch Foreman in the face, 13 is one of the more annoying and exploitative characters on TV (hot bisexual makeouts anybody?), and they had to screw up Chase’s character to make me even (very) remotely care about him. The only younger doctor I even sort of cared about was Cameron and part of me was very glad to see her go. Thus episodes that focus on the drama between Sexteen and Foreman or Chase murdering Darth Vader just fall flat. But really who watches House for its ER aspects? No, what caused me to download the first five season of this show on iTunes in a matter of weeks was Hugh Laurie. And in that department House is as excellent as ever.

How I Met Your Mother
My enjoyment How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) was always been contingent. There was so much for me to dislike about this show – its sexism, the weakness of the female characters, the laugh track, the jock-humor, the catch phrases, the contempt for veganism, the sexism, the fact that Ted is the most boring main character since the dude on Scrubs, etc. – I could go on. But HIMYM has some things going for it – namely Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel. I could seriously watch those two in pretty much anything.  My love for NPH and Segal along with the writers’ willingness to shake things up carried me through the show’s first four seasons. But season five has pretty much broke my what affection I had for this show. The fact that the writers’ aborted the Robin and Barney storyline – after three seasons of build up! – was truly stupid. But the worst is their treatment of Marshal and Lilly. What I always liked about this show is the fact that they were able to treat characters is a serious, committed relationship as neither a joke or fodder for drama. Oh sure HIMYM, being a comedy, made plenty of jokes at their expense – but you were always laugh with them and not at them. That changed in this season. Every arc in which they are featured this season has pretty much been at their expense – “Duel Citizenship” I’m looking at you. With Marshall and Lily’s treatment this season, the Barney/Robin clusterfuck, and Ted’s constant statements about how great the single life is (wasn’t this show supposed to be about him meeting his wife?) I am convinced that someone on the writing staff went through a bad divorce. And it has broke my (limited) affection for the show.

Castle
I will be the first to admit that this show is bad. Awful, really. It is also the poor man’s Bones. Plus it is a crime show and my days of obsessively watching Law & Order are long past. But I am, it must be said, a Nathan Fillion fanboy. I will watch him in pretty much anything no matter how stupid it is – and after watching “Vampire Weekend” you must admit that Castle is a stupid, stupid show. Here’s how Castle works: when Fillion is talking or doing something the show is interesting but whenever another character is doing anything the show gets bogged down in its own stupidity. At the end of every episode I wish that the two supporting detectives would just go away. But sadly, they don’t. The fact that the plotting on this show is god awful should go without saying. Really, I shouldn’t admit to watching this show but I have to disclose it – for honesty’s sake.

Venture Brothers
The fact that this season is superior to season three should go without saying. Really, it is difficult to quantify just how wonderful this season has been. It is almost impossible to pin down what’s been best. Was it the fact that they actually decided to do something with the boys? Was it that we got just the right amount of the Monarch? Or the introduction Sphinx? Or the kinder, gentler Dr. Venture? Is it Sgt. Hatred as Dr. Venture’s bodyguard? Is it the evolution of 24? In fact that the only thing to complain about was that we did not get enough of certain things. There wasn’t enough Brock, Pete White or Dr. O. And you know I was disappointed by a few things on the margins – I despise that they wrote off Trianna. But the worst thing about season four of the Venture Brothers was that the half-season finale made we want the second half now – the sanity of the creators be damned. There is no other show on TV quite like Venture Brothers and that’s what makes it easily the best show on TV.

Alright, that pretty much does it for what I watched this season, so far. In the New Year we get more Office, 30 Rock, and (maybe) Venture Brothers along with the return of Chuck and, most excitedly of all, Lost.

Feel free to disagree with my thoughts in the comments. What have you guys been watching while Blurred Productions has been gone?

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

I just watched the season 4 finale of Dexter and HOLY SHIT!!! I guess it wouldn’t be in Showtime’s nature to end a season on a happy-go-lucky note but I have to admit that I really wasn’t expecting for Dexter to get home and find Rita lying dead in the bath tub with Harrison sitting in a giant pool of her blood. My breath actually caught when he called her phone and it rang in the same room he was sitting in. Oh man… and how long do I have to wait for the next season???

Hurricane season is now out on DVD,the movie with rapper Bow Wow & Lil Wayne. I will be picking this up to see lil wayne acting skills