Dispatches from the Abyss - Saturday, Sept. 29

Thank God for Saturdays. I accomplished almost nothing today and it was everything I thought it could be. I did my usual wake up around 8:00 AM when one of my credit card companies called and promptly went back to sleep. I dragged ass out of bed around 11:30 this morning and hopped in the shower, thinking I was already running late for watching rugby over at Scott and Lynn's place. After the shower I called Scott and found out I was not running late at all but he had messed up and not recorded any of the rugby we were meant to watch. Not a big deal as far as I was concerned since the point of getting together was to hang out, with rugby being the excuse. I spent the next couple of hours mocking Scott via email, cooking some lunch, and monkeying around on the internets. Headed over to Scott's around 2ish and managed to get there around 2:30 after some jackassery involving a mission to purchase some kitchen paper, aka. paper towels, for Scott and get a couple of Cokes for myself. Hanging out was good. Scott had made some Rice Krispy treats, which are sinfully good. Rob and D showed up and then Bird and Brian showed a little later. We hung out, BS'd, kind of watched a rugby game from last week, and generally had a good time. Now I am taking my hour to write before I head over to Downing to meet Matt, and possibly Scott, for a couple of drinks and to exchange some DVDs. Matt wants to borrow the first two seasons of MI-5, an excellent show from across the pond about a group of MI-5 agents. I have the first four seasons series on DVD and I have enjoyed each of them. In exchange Matt was supposed to bring the first episode of Torchwood since BBC America is now running the series and several people won't stop raving about the series. Apparently he forgot the episode of Torchwood however he is bringing some Sports Night for me to watch, so I guess all will be forgiven.

Speaking of television this past week has been premiere week for a gaggle of new shows which I am interested in watching. So far I caught the season premiere of Heroes, which did a not totally unexpected thing in picking up the action a couple of months after the events of the final episode of season one. I think the biggest problem I am going to have this season is remembering that the first season of Heroes took a while to take off and I suspect that this season is going to be the same. I also caught the season premiere of Smallville after finally getting caught up on the previous season after picking it up on DVD last week. The season premiere left me feeling a little blah. The reveal about Lana's fate sucked any suspense out of the plot there and the sudden appearance of who I can only assume is Power Girl left me a little cold as well. She acted as a deus ex machina in this episode for no really good reason other than to get the writing staff out of a jam. we'll see if they do anything interesting with her or not. I find I tend to like Smallville a bit more when I can watch several episodes back to back rather than spreading them out over a couple of weeks. I also managed to catch the series premier of Reaper. The only reason that show is really on my radar is because of Kevin Smith's involvement in directing the pilot episode, however I am pretty glad I watched it. Honestly I think Reaper is going to be an example of the sidekick being the reason to watch the show since the main character plays too straight of a straight man. Another reason to watch the show is Missy Peregrym, who was in Heroes last season as Candace Wilmer, the girl who could make people see illusions. In Reaper she is playing the not too hot to actually be the neighborhood hottie love interest of the main character, who will inevitably end up being just a friend. Oh well.

I also watched Big Shots, Life, and Journeyman. I enjoyed all three however I think Big Shots is going to end up getting cancelled. While the humor in that show is right up my alley, it comes off as Desperate Housewives for the penis set and I just don't think it has the legs. Too bad because I really like Joshua Malina and Michael Vartan. Life looks to be an interesting concept, having a detective that was put in the slammer for killing his wife only to be exonerated twelve years later and rejoin the force, however I think they may have overcomplicated things when they gave the police force an in with his new partner. I have to say that with dialogue like this:

Knucklehead Guard - "Are you making fun of us?"
Charlie Crews - "It is the universe that makes fun of us all."

Once Dani and Charlie are outside:

Dani Reese - "Why exactly would the universe make fun of us all."
Charlie Crews - "Maybe it's insecure."

I am in for the long haul on this one, plus it features Damian Lewis whose portrayal of Dick Winters in Band of Brothers made me a fan for life. (Or until he fucks up.) Finally there is Journeyman, another series featuring a lead from an HBO series. (In this case it is Kevin McKidd who played Lucius Vorenus in Rome.) The concept is interesting so far, however a lot of the previews ruined the main suspense of the first episode which was whether he was ever going to convince his wife that he is not crazy. Oh well, I am going to give this show a chance and see where things end up.

Chuck and Bionic Woman are the only shows I have left on the DVR to watch from this past week. I still need to figure out when the new season of Friday Night Lights is going to get rolling and figure out if Torchwood is something I am going to watch or not. After that I just have to wait for the new season of Battlestar Galactica to start and all of my current television needs will be fulfilled.

I spent part of the afternoon paying bills and taking a look at where I am financially this month. Ugh. I need to get all of these credit cards paid off and then cancel them so I can't spend money I don't have. I had the same problem at UCS but with lower credit limits. I have a plan to take care of all this by February of 2009, but that seems like such a long time from now. One of the bills that really pisses me off is my cable bill. I am going to have to take a long hard look at that and see if there is any way I can cut back. I can drop the HBO package I currently have, but I don't think I am going to make too many more cuts. We shall see.

Last night I watched Knocked Up and the first episode of Freaks and Geeks. Knocked Up was not quite as funny as I was expecting, however they sure as shit dropped the f-bomb a lot in that movie. Almost enough to classify it as a Kevin Smith movie, however there was not really any creativity to the characters cussing. (Saying that a band gargles nuts is pretty funny.) The first episode of Freaks and Geeks did not blow me away, but then I suspect that it could not meet the subconscious expectations I had due to the hype from UH Tim. I enjoyed it enough and will watch the rest of the series since I dropped the ducats on it, but I probably could have lived without buying it.

A funny side effect of watching Freaks and Geeks just before I went to bed last night is that I ended up having some weird dreams about a girl I knew in high school that I have not thought of in YEARS. It was Lindsay the character that tools around in her father's green army jacket that triggered these dreams about Amy. I think her last name was Horton. Amy, Christie, and I used to hang out quite a bit. Amy was the one responsible for getting us in to Odyssey of the Mind, something I had tried in junior high school but never really excelled at. If I remember correctly she and my friend Russel "The Love Muscle" Schnieder dated through his senior year. She was a hard core nerd like the rest of us, in to Dungeons and Dragons, Star Trek, and all that other stuff. After her sophomore year she and Christie picked up and transferred to the Texas Academy, or something like that, up at the University of North Texas.

(At this point I would like to take a moment out of our regularly scheduled writing to say that the fat chick I lost my virginity to was one of Sarah McLachlan's back up singers on Surfacing. That is as close to being a star-fucker as I have ever come.)

Anyway, the Texas Academy was this program where exceptional high school students could go and finish their last two years of high school and their first two years of college concurrently. It is the sort of program I should have been in, but even then it could be said that I had a bright future behind me. She, Christie, Matthea, and a couple of my other freinds went to this program and were never heard from again. That's a dirty lie. Most of them were never heard from again, however Christie discovered she was gay and I was to blame. No wonder I fucking hate Denton and pretty much find any excuse to not go visit my sister up there. I wonder what Amy and Matthea are up to these days? Maybe I will be creepy and Google/Lexis stalk them later this weekend.

Oh well, this brings another episode of what the hell is that boy thinking to a close. Peace out, y'all.

SOUNDTRACK
Spandau Ballet - True (skipped too slow)
Meat Loaf - I'm Gonna Love Her for Both of Us (skipped this song can't be about what I think its about)
Digital Underground - The Danger Zone
Carl Orff - Carmina Burana Part III The Court of Love (skipped)
Franz Schubert - Ave Maria (I LOVE this version)
Black Eyed Peas - The Apl Song
Death Cab for Cutie - Stable Song
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story Soundtrack - The First Date
Information Society - Running
Enya - La Sonadora
The Cheiftains - The Arrival of the Wren Boys
Dropkick Murphys - Take It and Run
Beat Crusaders - I Wanna Go to the Disco
Party Ben - Insane Medicated Hand 4.0
Combo Audio - Romanticide
Bowling for Soup - Really Might Be Gone
The Power Station - Get it On (Bang a Gong)
Rush - Double Agent
Sarah McLachlan - Black and White
The Killers - Bones
Ultravox - Vienna
Donald Fagen - True Companion
George Thorogood - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
Run-DMC - My Adidas
Monty Python - Parrot Sketch
ZZ Top - Pearl Necklace