Random Raider Thoughts

Out of all the professional team sports, my favorite to watch is football. I love the game. It's not as boring as baseball (sorry, baseball fans), and not as fast-paced as basketball. I feel like with football, the plays chosen actually make a difference between winning and losing. But even if I do love the game, I hardly ever watch anymore. Why? I am a sore loser. If my team loses, my whole day is ruined. I get all upset. Why go through that every week? But hey hey hey...Oakland won today! Wheee!

Oh, and Lane Kiffin - the head coach, is only 31. God, he's like...my age! Good for him, I guess. I hope he's the one to turn this team around. We need to start winning again. Maybe then, I'll watch more football.

Office Love

I love the Office. I just love it so much. So, being such a huge fan, it's been a great office-filled week for me.

To get all caught up for today's premiere, we've marathon-ed Seasons 2 & 3 the past week. Lina & I were even on the same wavelength as she was marathon-ing the same disc as I am - so in the morning when I get in the office, we talk about the past episodes. She hated Creed, by the way. With a passion. But we both kind of cried at the season 3 finale. I thought Jenna's acting was superb and that final scene, she sold it.

Even though I'm a Jam shipper, I love the office for more than just the office romance. It's funny! Watching the episodes, I would laugh out loud at just the most random things. Michael having a crush on Ryan. Funny! Michael doing the Chris Rock bit. Uncomfortble and funny at the same time! Michael wearing a woman's power suit. Hee!

Now, The Office is on the cover of this week's Entertainment Weekly! I'm so happy their finally getting this recognition. Weee!!! The one I have is with Dwight & Angela.

And speaking of Dwight. Here's my good friend Lee with his "good friend" Rainn. Does this mean I'm like one degree away from being good friends with Rainn? I'm soo giddy! Lee, make it happen!

Hot House

I don't really know why...but I'm so attracted to House. He is so on my list. Count one more for the bad guys, I guess. Wilson is the "good" guy. He is nice. He's a good doctor. He cares about his patients. He cares about House. He does "what is fair". He is kind. He is very handsome. He does nothing for me. Heh. I like him - as a friend. Haha...(sorry, I'm laughing at my own joke). What is so attractive about a guy who is rude, uncaring, malicious? I don't know, but I give props to Hugh Laurie.

It was a good season opener. I love scenes with House & Wilson, especially when Wilson does not take crap from House. The kidnapping of the guitar was fun, as well as the kidnapping of his patient. I'm also looking forward to the next few episodes as House finds his team. Should be a good season.

Heroes

Premiere Week continues! Today, I saw Chuck (new show) and Heroes. I enjoyed Chuck a lot so I guess I'll tune in again last week.

I was ambivalent about getting hooked again this season, but I like it! Maybe there being no Ally Larter screen time helped. She was my least favorite character. I'm especially happy with two new castmates: Kristen Bell. I'm very curious to see if she'll do well in a non-Veronica-Mars type role. The other is David Anders. I loved him as Sark in Alias. I remember Joanna cringing when I told her I thought he was attractive. Haha. So far, I'm enjoying him as Kensei. The new mystery is intriguing as well. Should be a good season.

Legendary

It's premiere week! for me it starts with the How I Met Your Mother. I really enjoyed Season 2 - and i hope season 3 will be much better. Aside from the Office this is the only real comedy that I really liked. Plus, the hero is an architect! The last architect seen in a comedy (or TV in general) was Two Guys, A Girl & A Pizza Place...am I right? Or is David Duchovny playing one in Californiacation? Hmm...either way, we don't get a good representation in the industry. We don't say words like "anaphylactic seizure". We don't get our missions from faux garbage cans. We don't analyze weird stains from crime scenes, pour some liquid on it and find out it's blood. In short, we are boring. The most exciting news I found out today is that we are having a catered lunch next staff meeting because it's someone's ten year anniversary. Haha, I challenge someone to write an episode around that!

Anyway, the season opener was actually not legendary, but I was happy to see everyone back. Boy, they all look great in this photo. And lastly, it looks like we'll see the continuation of the slap bet.

Shu Uemura Lipstick

I'm not much of a make-up expert, but I do want to say that I recently discovered the shu uemura lipstick and I love it. It feels like a moisturizing lipstick - if that's even a term. If you tend to put a lip balm after you apply your lipstick because your lips are chappy, then this is the lipstick for you! Goody!

The Emmys

I finally finished watching the Emmy's. Sad to say, a lot of my favorites did not win. Boo! Of course, I wanted Steve, Rainn & Jenna to win in their respective categories, and none of them won (but it was cute when Steven & Jon "gave" the award to their friend Steve Cah-rell). I also wanted Hugh Laurie to win but was prepared for James Gandolfini to take it...but James Spader? Ugh.

But even if my favorites did not win, it was still a fairly enjoyable show. My favorite was the "Don't Forget The Lyrics" bit where Rainn & Kanye did a rap-off. Watch it here. Hee, cute!

Bag Love #2: Manhattan Portage

This bag will forever be to me my first ever cool bag. I've lugged this all around Berkeley. It has weathered through countless Bart & Bus rides. It has seen many nights at Wurster Hall studios. It has gone through lots of coffee stains and muffin crumbs from Strada. It has been tossed, It has been thrown. It has been loved.

I love this bag. I've loved it the minute I saw it at the Urban Outfitters on Brancroft. I purchased it full price. Yikes! Yes, a whopping $40, which to a college student, was a lot.

Now, I honor you, Manhattan Portage Cornell messenger bag - in grey. I hope you enjoyed being with me as much as I have lugging you around, because honestly, after a couple of hours, you fucking hurt my shoulder. Just Kidding. I love you.

Bon Voyage Helen!

Helen leaves for Hong Kong today, and we are all sad.

Helen, I want you to know how awesome you are. You are one of the most beautiful people I know. You are! Not only are your beautiful on the outside (smile so infectious) but you have the kindest heart. As you start this next chapter of your life, remember that we are all here missing you but also happy that you are now doing something for yourself. You are following your heart, your dreams, your gut, your future.

May all your dreams come true, whether big or small, because you deserve it all.

It's Not Porn, It's HBO

First reaction? Hmm, okay. I kind of liked it and I think I will continue to watch, but it did not wow me like other HBO shows have. I think I will give this one a chance though because the topic intrigues me.

The show revolves mainly around three couple. An older couple with three kids and their relationship is at the point where even though they love each other very much, they are not having sex. The second is a couple dealing with infertility, having had a year of trying to get pregnant with no good results. The third is a young engaged couple. All three are interesting in their own way and some scenes are very relatable, if that's a word. Anyway, I'll give it a few more episodes.

The arguments that I've seen for and against the show is that although there is a lot of sex, it's the un-sexy sex. I think that is the point of the show. Not all sex is supposed to arouse you or titilate you. Not all sex happens with really attractive people. Sometimes, it's just that.

A little warning though - even though the sex is not all that sexy, it is very graphic, so I don't suggest watching it with your dad (or mom, or pastor). Trust me on this.

Sexy Justin

I just caught the tail end of Justin's HBO Special Futuresex / Loveshow. I must say that even though I've never really been attracted to him, never had him on my List, objectively, he is very very nice to look at. Mmmmm.

Bag Love #1: Girl Messenger

I love bags! I especially like weird funky bags. And in honor of my love for bags, I'm starting a series of Bag-Love posts, showing of my favorites.

This messenger bag was given to me by Jiki and I love the girl on the flap. This is obviously a women's bag since I can't think of any reason why a guy would have a bag with a girl on it.

It's big enough to fit a letter pad so I tend to use it on days when I know I need to carry a lot of stuff.

On Pop Culture and the Internet (a rant)

Lately, I've been complaining to people that I'm feeling old. I've thought about this a lot and pondered if it's because I have a baby now? Is that why I'm feeling old? But what I've realized is that it is not the baby, and I'm not feeling "old" necessarily. I am just feeling the generation gap between me and the younger people.

The crazy thing is, the age difference is not a lot. The youngest person in my team right now is 22...so, not even a 10 year difference. The difference is not the age, it's about the internet. In the past 12 years, we've gone through quite a bit of change with the way we use the internet. When I was in college, the Chat Rooms were huge. I admit, I got sucked in - ended up "friends" from all over world. All lies though, coz who tells the truth in those things?

After that came the message boards (Forums, if you will). I am part of this generation. I read a lot of message boards - my faves are on the sidebare here --> (For anything Rent-related, go to Compulsive Bowlers, For anything TV-related, Television Without Pity is the best.)

Then I started getting invites for LiveJournal, early version of the blog. Friendster came right after that, unfortunately this was the loser version of MySpace. Now, MySpace is so big, it's a generation! I may very well be the last person not to have a MySpace page.

Ok, now my point. With everyone now spending more time on the internet, it's totally a different culture. Losers like myself who are Pop-culture freaks (mostly TV-lovin' geeks) are now kind of a rare breed. I felt this emptiness the most after Lina left. We used to schedule time to talk about Lost. Yes, block out a half an hour to discuss the last episode. Now apparently, I am the last of my kind. Now, if I say "puffy shirt", all I get are a bunch on blank stares. Is it really too much to ask to have someone at work I can fucking talk to about things I care about?

Really, is it too much to ask for someone:
-Who knows the right way to say "How you doin'"?
-Who can spend countless work hours with me plotting the demise of Lost's Michael, because he was the only one we were willing to give up?
-Who knows what I mean when I say "there's a deer just outside eating fruit from the orchard"
-Who would appreciate the fact that I got chummy with TAR's hot hot Oswald?
-Who would spend all day laughing at how awful Clive Owen's King Arthur was but appreciate the fact the he's still hot.
-Who I can compare my "List" with?
-Who can recite by heart the bit that ends with "I told you that bitch crazy!"
-Who would call me at work while in a diner in LA to tell me that Scott Speedman is a few tables down and proceed to plot on how she would work the nerve to take a picture?
-Who thinks the Office is the funniest thing on TV right now
-Who know Aiden is the perfect boyfiend - and Carrie is a fool!!!
-Who rooted for American Idol's Constantine Maroulis only (and only) because he used to play Rent's Roger in a touring company
-Who loves Rome & Six Feet Under as much as I did?
-Who would plan with me our next NYC trip in time for TARcon?

Really...Is that too much to ask?

Kiehl's Olive Fruit Oil Shampy & Condy

I just started using Kiehl's Olive Fruit Oil Shampoo and conditioner and I must say I'm very pleased with it. I've been trying on different shampoos for a while, inlcuding Sebastian, Infusium, Pantene...I've had stints where I thought all shampoos are the same, why buy the expensive one?, and I usually pick whatever brand was on sale at Target. Then, I would have stints (usually after a haircut) where the stylist would pressure me into buying whatever expensive product they have and I usually give in and regret it later when I don't feel the shampoo working.

This time I was debating between going with everyone's favorite brand Fakkai and Kiehls, but the outrageous prices at BBW & Sephora made try this. I'm very happy with it, which means I'll stick it out for a while. I have yet to try Dave's brand of choice: Biosilk. Maybe next time, Dave. Maybe next time.

Moca Simpson

Taking a cue from Smokedog, I decided to Simpsonize myself. Pretty fun! I'm cool as a Simpson - haha!!! Come on, do it...and email me your photo. Here's the link: Simpsonize Me

Recycling, It's not for Everyone.

I'm a postin' machine! Let's see how long I can keep this going.

So apparently, in Florida they do not recycle. That was Lina's bit of info for me yesterday. Can you believe that? If they want to recycle, they have to drive 40 minutes out of town to the nearest recycling center! What? Recycling is so much a part of life here in California that I think we do not even think about it. When I have a can, I automatically dump it on our recycle bin. Next time I fill my blue bin, I will think of you, Florida peeps.

Catch and Release

I've procrastinated watching this for the longest time. I don't even know why I netflixed it. Maybe it was because I like Kevin Smith and thought it was a romantic comedy so why not? Well, you know when you use netflix, if you are hanging on to a movie, no other movies are coming in your mailbox....so it was time.

ok, it sucked. It sucked so so bad, where do I start? Let's start with Jennifer Garner...so over acting in this movie. The scene where she was in the bathtub while this other guy was having sex with the waitress, her facial expressions were too exaggerated. Girl, you are not in theater - we can zoom in to see you face. Secondly, she changes from smiling to crying at the drop of a hat. What the fuck?

Now, Mr. Handsome here (Timothy Olyphant?) disgusts me. Why do I hate handsome guys? I don't get it, but either way...not buying him. Lizette, he reminds me of Michael (our handsome librarian) in Rebuilding Together as he stands / poses coz he know the chicks are watching him, not really doing any painting or working whatsoever. The whole movie for me he was just trying to look cute.

Chemistry? There was none. Tim was too busy trying to look handsome for the camera and Jen was too busy interspersing between her winning smile and her dramatic pout.

Plot B: Kevin trying to commit suicide and "the other friend" secretly in love with Jen both did not have any good resolutions. You can cut that whole side story and we would not miss a thing.

Thumbs way down.