Beth's Contradictory Brain

Oscars

I thought Ellen - the straightest lesbian in America - did a pretty good job last night. Yes, the show went on way too long, but I'm not sure how you could make it shorter without taking out the semi-entertaining bits. I liked the dancers.

I think the commercials were better than the ones during the Super Bowl. Loved the iPhone commercials and the American Express ones. Finally got to see the sad little robot commercial - thought it was cool.

My idea for winning best documentary - figure out "the formula" - like making a documentary about children with AIDS trying to stop global warming while ending the tragedy that is Darfur. But then, at the same time, make a documentary about making the documentary just to win the Oscar - and that one would win the Spirit Awards.

And, if the Oscars were "green" this year - did all the people involved get their by hybrid car or bicycle instead of limo? Probably not.

Better Reading

I got nothin for ya this weekend - but Nerdstar has two good new posts. One about her trip to Houston (and her cheating on Ramen) - and one about her being four degrees from Oprah (her, Chief Ackeret, Chief Ackeret sister, Oprah).

Coin Flip

There's just not much going on these days. Nerdstar made it back from her trip to Houston late Tuesday night. Eventually, she'll write about it on her site.

The weather has been interesting. One day it's all sunshine and the snow is all melting - the next day we're getting another four inches of new snow. I've decided that shoveling snow really is my favorite new workout. The snow I shoveled today looked just like powdered sugar. I love the quiet of a snow covered world. Of course, I'm sure I'll love listening to all the sounds of spring as well.

Nerdstar's looking at a couple of different job opportunities in different cities. One is with her current company, but in the DC area. The other is with the military in Salt Lake City. I think for us it's a coin toss as to which would be better. They're so different and each have pros and cons.

Mostly we're just waiting, waiting, waiting.

Hence all the tv watching I do.

Oh, Nerdstar did find out about one of her fellow soldiers in Iraq committing suicide back in November. That's just so sad!

Friday Night Lights

I haven't read other blog reviews yet, but I loved last night's episode. I don't think I've ever seen a better hour of television dealing with teens having s e x. I don't think there's any doubt that Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton play the best married couple of tv. Their conversations last night were so great. Yes, I'm sure Julie and Matt will have sex eventually, but it was good to see a teen couple not racing into it.

And the sceens shot in Austin made me almost cry with homesickness. I love that view of the state capital from Congress. There's a link on this site to interviews about filming in Austin.

Oh yeah... They showed True Blue - the tattoo shop where Nerdstar got her tattoo.

AI

I got sucked into AI a couple of seasons ago. Like everyone else I was totally underwhelmed watching the 12 men. I kept thinking - out of the hundreds of thousands of auditions this is the best they could come up with? Bleh!!

Yes, It's a Circus

The joy of being home during the day lately has to be getting to tune in to The Circus aka The Anna Nicole Trial.

Wow. I can only watch in short spans - kinda like looking at the sun.

I'm not sure who it makes look the worst - the lawyers, the judge, Howard K, Anna's Mom...

It feels like watching a reality show - but I can't quite put my finger on what kind of reality show it would be. But - they are playing for a LOT of money.

Anyone else out there watching this stuff?

The Original

I'd been thinking about going back and watching all 7 seasons of Buffy again, and this weekend I got started, you know, since I've got all this time on my hands. Season 1 was way back in 1996 and I was worried it wouldn't hold up, but wow, it really does.

It was fun watching those first 12 episodes and remembering all the things to come.

Shonda is always going on about how Meredith on Grey's is all "dark and twisty" - re-watching Buffy I really just have to laugh at that. Has there ever been a lead female character more dark and twisty than Buffy? I think not.

Fun

Pic of More Snow!!

Two hours ago there was sunshine and I had my car totally clear of snow.

Thankfully, tomorrow things start to warm up. No snow tomorrow, then we actually get above freezing for the highs the rest of the week.

I can't wait to see some of this start to melt!

Alone Again

Today I'm taking Nerdstar to the airport. She's going to Houston to visit her family for the Chinese New Year. I hope she has a good time, but I'm also sad and frustrated at being left here in no-where-ville.

We'll see if I do any house cleaning, or just veg out to an even higher degree while she's gone. My days seem to consist of blog reading, watching way too much tv, and some free online poker.

I'd thought about going to Atlantic City for a couple of days to play some real poker, but I'm not sure the weather would be the best for driving this weekend. Besides, it wouldn't really be much fun without Nerdstar, and I'd have to find a place to stay that would take Ramen dog.

At least the weather is going to warm up soon. This weekend, although it's supposed to snow another 3 - 5 inches, it will at least be in the 20s. Then next week we're actually going to be above freezing! Woohoo. We'll be tempted to run around naked!

Happy Valentine's Day

To My Cutie Pie Snuggle Bunny Nerdstar!!

I love you! We'll get our dream life eventually!

Snow Shoveling

Such a great winter workout.

We're getting at least 8 inches starting from about midnight last night - till midnight tonight. Then we'll see what the next couple of days bring.

Fun.

Grammy's

We weren't really too impressed last night. You know it's bad when you're looking at the clock then at what time they're supposed to end.

I was never a huge Police fan, but they had some really good stuff way back when. Although, I think the number of their songs I want to listen to isn't nearly as many of their songs I don't want to listen to. So I wasn't very impressed with their opening of the show. Sting looks amazing, though.

I think the Grammy's just have too many categories. Here's the complete list. (Wouldn't it be great if you could click each song and actually hear it?!) And they're not as clear cut as other awards like the Oscar's and such. Do we still need a Best Polka category? Did you even know Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys were up for Grammy's in a Best Dance Recording category? And that's not to be confused with the Best Electronic/Dance Album category.

I guess the Grammy's are more about performances and getting an audience than the awards themselves. I'm not sure I like it that way.

All that said, Mary J is amazing!

What did you think?

Bleh Weekend

Nerdstar's status within the Army Reserves is kinda weird. She got a promotion, but she doesn't have a unit to belong to, and on top of that, can't really do anything "real" with the AR until she goes to Officer Basic Camp - which neither of us is in any hurry for her to do. (We have some other things we'd like to see happen before that.)

In spite of all of that, she found out she still has to do her monthly weekend drills.

So yep, that's where she's at this weekend. It's only 7:30 to 4:00 Saturday and Sunday. But it means she can't sleep in this weekend, and we can't run errands during the day when it's marginally warmer.

Speaking of warmer. Ugh. I think I'm really tired of being cold. We had two weeks of snow every day - but it was warmer. Now we've had two weeks of high temps not being above 13. This week isn't looking too much better.

Being from Texas, I'm used to the Sun being all powerful. Here I find it's a total wimp compared to cold. You know it's cold out when the sun shines almost all day and nothing outside is melting!!

iPod ??

Nerdstar and I both have iPods. Mine is her old one that is current with the iTunes on our laptop that runs windows. She upgraded to a new one while she was in Japan last summer and downloaded tons of music on it from someone's computer over there.

Our laptop and iTunes won't recognize her new iPod or let us even hear the music on it through iTunes.

How do we share music between these two?

I saw there's a $100 device for sale online somewhere that will let this happen. I don't want to spend that much. I also tried following the info in iTunes help had zero luck.

Help!

Update: Ok, I created a second user on the computer. And I got it to recognize the new iPod and I can put the old library on it. But, I still can't find a way to get the songs off the new iPod onto anything else.

I Love Anthony Bourdain

A few years ago, Nerdstar had Anthony Bourdain's book, Kitchen Confidential, and I really enjoyed the behind the sceens look at being a real chef in a real restaurant. But silly me didn't realize it was the same guy doing the travel show on the Discovery channel. And if you're not watching that show - you really, really should be!

Here he has a guest entry on someone's blog that is a great read. Who else could make a reference to John Water's movie Pink Flamingoes in a blurb about Paula Deen??

Night Out

A while back, Nerdstar bought us tickets to see Kathy Griffin in Pitts last night. We started watching her on Bravo about a year or so ago. I wouldn't say Kathy was my favorite show, but she was definitely entertaining.

We've both been sinking into depression lately, so it was really good to go out and hear someone funny and have a decent dinner.

Thankfully, while it was under 10 degrees outside, at least it wasn't snowing and the roads were clear.

Hopefully Nerdstar will write a better review later!

Dems and DADT

Interesting point... from a comment to a post by Althouse.

IN THE COMMENTS: Simon writes:

Congressman Gary Ackerman is full of it. I never tire of pointing out that the Defense Department doesn't have a "'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' [policy] when it comes to homosexuals," Congress imposes that policy on the Department of Defense by statutory law, 10 U.S.C. § 654. Since they have a nice, shiny new majority, and since they clearly have such disdain for Don't Ask Don't Tell, why doesn't the new Democratic majority repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell? Has Congressman Ackerman introduced a bill so to do? Why not?

Now that they're back in the majority, Democrats have no standing whatsoever to criticize Don't Ask Don't Tell until they at least move a bill repealing it through Congress (even if it ultimately gets vetoed). This isn't a military policy. It's Congress' policy. And guess what, Democrats? That means it's now your policy. Take that back to 'Frisco on your private jet, Nancy.

Shoes

By the front door, there are 13 pairs of human shoes - and one set for Ramen dog. Of those 13, there are two pairs of snowboots, two pairs of army boots (black and desert), two pair of cold/rain boots, one pair of houseshoes, four pair of tennis shoes, and one pair of slip on casual shoes. For two people. Four for me, eleven for Nerdstar.

Heroes

I'm going on record before tonight's episode starts that Nathan is NOT the cheerleader's dad. I saw several people on other websites last week were thinking he is. But, I don't know who is.

Update: Damn!! I was so wrong! I'm not usually wrong about where a tv show is headed - which is why I love Heroes!!

Update: Here's an interview with Tim Kring on Ain't It Cool News.

At Rest

I am inertia's bitch.

And it's not even just a product of the current temp outside being 1, and the temp inside not feeling much warmer.

I'm not sleeping until noon every day. Not that it matters because I'm not achieving much when awake.

Nerdstar and I discussed that with the weather prohibiting leaving the house more than necessary, maybe it was a small comfort knowing there was nothing going on around here worth getting out for anyway. I said I'd rather know I was missing out on cool events that know it's just a wasteland out there in our small town.

Friday night we did go to dinner with one of Nerdstar's co-workers and his family. They moved here from Dallas about a month after we moved here from KC - and they feel exactly the same way we do about being here. It was nice to have people to commiserate with.

Prince

Best Halftime Show Ever!!

Shouldn't Be This Hard

We really did have high hopes when we moved here back in October. Nerdstar was looking forward to a good job in the civilian world and a little more money. I didn't think I would have any trouble finding another phlebotomy job in one of the hospitals here. We thought it might be nice to buy a cute little house in a small town and then with the money we were making, and saving by living in a small town, we could do some traveling to all the cool cities in the east.

None of that has turned out the way we hoped. Not even the more money part. As I've mentioned, although Nerdstar's salary is more, civilian jobs take out a LOT more in taxes than the army does. Then there's the lack of jobs for me. I did get an email notice saying that the job I was doing that was too far was filled by the guy who already worked for them - so at least I know that wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway. And the weather turned much worse for driving around then as well. (I've felt bad ever since an annonomous commenter left me a critical comment.)

Nerdstar's had a hard time working for her boss, and while that situation is better for now (she's working on other projects for other managers) who knows how long the better will last.

We spend a little time every evening talking about what to do and where to go from here. I know Nerdstar's looking pretty seriously at a couple of other opportunities that are similiar in job duties, but back with the military.

One problem is that if she doesn't stay at the current job for a year, she's supposed to pay back the $4400 they paid for her moving expenses. That's a lot to pay back.

We also debate how wise it is to follow the money again. So far our two attempts at moving up in the world by following her career to KC and now to PA haven't resulted in the quality of life we'd like and were used to in Austin.

We talk a lot about just moving back to Austin and being poor. I don't think it'd be that hard for me to find a phleb. job down there, it's a big city with lots of hospitals and such. But my salary won't cover all of our bills - and there just aren't the kinds of jobs she's doing now down there and she doesn't really know what other kind of job to pursue.

Most of the time I think it just shouldn't be this hard to find jobs we like in a city we enjoy living in.