yoga, books, movies, tv and WAY too many crime procedurals – not necesarily in that order
And no, I do NOT mean the Winter Olympics.
Got a notice from Verizon last week that I was due for a phone upgrade. I LOVE my LG ENV2. Love it. This is the phone that, not even two weeks ago, survived three hours in the freezing slush of the work parking lot and possibly being run over by a coworker. LOVE that phone. So I wasn’t really inclined to change when I had a perfectly acceptable and functional phone, right up until a friend mentioned that she kept her really good phone as a backup and upgraded to a new gadgetier phone. That planted the seed. Then I made the trip to the local Verizon dealer to scope out the offerings. The only thing really catching my eye was Droid.
The store didn’t have either droid model in stock (Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris) so I went home and checked out gizmodo and cnet and the usual suspects about the two models. I know people love the iPhone and, no lie, it’s a sweet device, but AT&T provides absolute shit service up here – so much that the tourists CONSTANTLY bitch about it. Not only that but it’s not exactly CHEAP.
I got to mess with the display models at the store and while the Droid has some really nice bennies, the slide out keyboard frankly feels cheap. Like plasticky might-break-if-you-drop-the-phone cheap. The Eris doesn’t have the same battery life but it comes with an 8 gig micro card and is upgradeable. It’s also got Google with voice search and sweet market apps and frankly, the keyboard didn’t mean that much to me – especially because it felt like a crap feature. So. Droid Eris.
Dudes, I LOVE THIS PHONE. I spent a ridiculous amount of time finding and discarding apps, customizing the look, and setting up all my contacts with Google so that I can access my rss feed, my twitter account, my gmail, and pretty much everything I love on this phone. I’ve got Pandora, a great calendar (which is shareable) and this AMAZING app called Ringdroid. Ringdroid lets you take any audio file and customize a ringtone from it. It is THE BALLS. I now have a ringtone that says “I swear to god I’m going to PISTOLWHIP the next asshole who says SHENANIGANS!”
LOVE.
So pretty much all my free time has been sucked up with searching for neat shit on my phone and tweaking my apps. It’s sad. I know.
I’m also a good chunk of the way through Middlemarch, thanks to audible.com. I bought the audiobook because I couldn’t bear reading it and it’s turned out to be surprisingly good. I’m leaning toward the test of a good book being it’s ability to show interesting parallels between its time and now ( whenever “its time and now” happen to be). Also (unsurprisingly) it’s full of great social commentary. So there you are. Go classics!
Last night we had a homemade mini-pizza party with post-apocalyptic virus film chaser. It was kind of fantastic.
In TV news:
Mercy knocked it out of THE PARK this week. I’m always surprised by how much I enjoy this show and that they’re willing to be (sometimes) shockingly honest while at the same time (sometimes) screamingly funny. I laugh out loud during every episode and I also see something that makes me think. I love that. One of our friends who was a career nurse ALSO has great things to say about it and that seems to be a rare thing in med-drama circles.
I’ve been working early shifts which generally means going to bed early, but our DVR was otherwise occupied on Thursday and wouldn’t record The Mentalist. I wanted to go to sleep but it was all Cho, all the time and I just couldn’t pass it up. The writers do such a great job on that show – I knew whodunnit as soon as the culprit was introduced but I DIDN’T CARE because they did such awesome character stuff.
Chuck continues to be awesome. Kristin Kreuk is 1000% less annoying than when she was on Smallville and I’m digging the new team dynamic. Having Superman aboard isn’t hurting things one bit.
Castle is consistent and engaging. I found out during the Superbowl that it’s a local-friend fave as well.
I haven’t caught up on all my Thursday and Friday shows yet.
Work is good! It looks like I’ll continue on mornings/days full time. I’ve been enjoying my tasks and team work so I’ve got zero complaints. Life in general is pretty kick ass.
I’ve been a legal Colorado resident for one year. My trip to the Driver’s License office was on New Year’s Eve 2008. What a year!
We’ve enjoyed the town and love living here. That bodes well as we never felt that way about Saginaw. I’ve also nailed down some full-time work, which kicks the year off famously.
I also finally finished East of Eden today. Despite my earlier Farrah-induced prejudice, I really loved this novel. I wouldn’t have read it at all but for my GoodReads group, so I’m thankful for that. I’m looking forward to rereading it just as soon as I get through some of my TBR list. It was incredibly timely and does a fantastic job of looking at nature vs. nurture and the complexity of family interaction. Loved it.
During my shift tonight I also read the latest Sookie Stackhouse book. I continue to admire how Charlaine Harris pulls off the books in the series without becoming repetitive or dull, and I enjoyed it as much as I’ve enjoyed every other book in the series. While I loved season 1 of True Blood, it really doesn’t hold a candle to the charm, humor, and intensity of the novels.
Next up from Chicks on Lit: Middlemarch. Given my own personal dislike for George Eliot, I’m hoping this turns out as well as East of Eden.
I’m not much for resolutions, but mine for this year is to live each day like it’s my last. Enjoy every minute. More reading, more yoga, more great conversation.
Why?
1. Closing shift – virtually no traffic on the way there or on the way home. My only complication in life is people who don’t know how to drive in the snow and/or mountains. Takeaway: if you can’t, DON’T.
2. Glee! I love Glee.
3. Criminal Minds! I love Criminal Minds. The last couple of episodes have been crazy intense. Such a good show.
4. Mercy! It was back tonight after a hiatus and I am surprised by how much I MISSED it. I have a hard time describing for people why I like it so much but all of the characters are messed up in their own way and no matter what happens on the show, I feel GOOD when I’m watching it.
5. I don’t work until 1pm tomorrow which means AMBIEN.
Aside from the parts that were horrifying (Fergie + Mick Jagger, Paul Simon singing YOU CAN CALL ME AL out of ALL the songs he made, Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground sans Peppers) my overwhelming reaction has been, “OH. They’re not dead yet. Huh.”
I feel okay admitting this because Husband just said (while watching Paul Simon, David Crosby and Nash) “More guys who should be dead already.”
What’s terrible is the number of singers who don’t have the pipes they used to. Just because you USED to sing a song doesn’t mean you should keep trying to do it. Clearly.
My laptop died. I can’t complain overmuch, as it served me well, but the timing is damned inconvenient. I’m keeping an eye on the internet (from Husband’s laptop) for deals this week and hopefully it’ll be replaced soon. Until then, updating may be patchy.
This got posted today and it pretty much explains why I love The Wire. It’s one of the few shows that, once I started watching, I was able to get Husband to start and he got just as hooked. It continues to be great, even after it’s over, because the issues are just as relevant now as they were in the 80s and 90s, and will be ad infinitum. Be warned, there’s A LOT of cussing in this clip.
