Chuck

For some reason, I just can't get myself into an actual television watching schedule. Instead, I've been watching shows online. Luckily, Chuck is one of the shows that NBC streams on their website. Let's get the general synopsis out of the way: Chuck is a computer geek who works in the Nerd Herd at Buy Mart. (Yes, this is a parody of Best Buy and their Geek Squad. The Nerd Herd even has a company car that looks quite similar to the Geek Squad's cars.) One day Chuck get an email from an old college "friend," Bryce. Bryce, who was responsible for getting Chuck kicked out of college, is a CIA agent and the email contained a database of top secret government information. All of the government's secrets have now been downloaded into Chuck's brain. It is up to CIA agent Sarah Walker and NSA agent John Casey to protect Chuck (or at least his brain) while stopping the bad guys that roll through town.

When I saw the first commercials for the show, I knew it could go either way. It could be awesomely amazing or absolutely terrible. Now that I have sat through three episodes of the series, I am classifying it as "awesomely amazing." The show doesn't take itself too seriously, which is usually the downfall of spy series. Chuck spends his time trying to work his way up the management ladder at Buy Mart while being bounced back and forth between Sarah, who took an undercover job in the weiner hut across the street from Buy Mart, and Casey, who took an undercover job IN the Buy Mart. Poor Chuck doesn't know if he can really trust either of them yet he has to trust both of them to protect him.

I still have quite a few episodes to work through in order to catch up to the latest episode. I really hope that the writers are able to keep the humor in the show and don't turn this into some melodramatic spy series.

Music review: Barenaked Ladies - Shoe Box

Artist: Barenaked Ladies Members: Steven Page (vocals), Ed Robertson (guitar), Tyler Stewart (drums), Jim Creegan (bass) Album: Born on a Pirate Ship Release date: 3/19/96 Video link: on YouTube

Lyrics: A key in the door, a step on the floor A note on the table, and a meal in the micro Note says "I'm in bed, please make sure that you're fed if you're taking a shower, you can borrow my bathrobe When I'm asleep I dream you move in next week" I crumple the note and save it to put inside

Chorus:

My shoe box Shoe box of lies Shoe box Shoe box of lies

it's under my bed, it's never been read it's in with my school stuff and my mom never cleans there From my first little fib, when I still wore a bib To my latest attempt at pretending I'm someone Who's not seventeen, doesn't know what you mean When talk turns to single malts, or stilton, or

Chorus

Did somebody tell you This is how it's supposed to be? Or did you just find it And you don't want any more from me?

Chorus

Was it something I said, or was it something you read That's making me think that I should never have come here I can offer you lies, I can tell you good-bye. I can tell you I'm sorry, But I can't tell you the truth, dear And what if I could -- would it do any good? You'll still never get to see the contents of

Chorus

You're so nineteen-ninety And it's nineteen-ninety-four Leave this world behind me 'Cause you don't want me anymore. About the song: Shoe Box was a track on the first soundtrack for the tv series Friends. As such, it was added to BoaPS at the last minute. It's a rather cute song about the secrets and lies we all have.

Born on a Pirate Ship is an interesting album in the BNL library. When it was recorded, the band only had four members. Andy Creegan, who played a variety of instruments, left the band before the album was recorded. His replacement, Kevin Hearn, was invited to join them on the album's tour. This also makes the music video for Shoe Box a little weird. While Kevin isn't on the actual recording of the song, he is in the video for it.

America's Most Smartest Model - Episode 4

This was our first episode without Mandy Lynn. Her amazing stupidity has been replaced by the cattiness that is typical of models. Andre seems to have toned himself down this week so overall, this episode wasn't nearly as entertaining as the previous ones. Bill Nye the Science Guy made a guest appearance for the intelligence part of the competition. The models divided up into pairs to make presentations on sciency things. American!Rachel is pretty much the idiot of the bunch now but she doesn't say nearly as many funny things as Mandy Lynn did. The science presentations were a big bust overall.

For the model part, the pairs had to give a pasty white geek a fake tan then take a picture with him/her. This is really where the cattiness came up. VJ was accused of trying to sabotage Jesse by being the focus of the picture. At the judging, Andre stood up for Jesse, which is completely out of character for Andre!

As expected, Jesse got the boot this week. Mary Alice has been harping on him being a fatty since the beginning of the show so it really was just a matter of time for him. I feel bad for him because he's smarter than some of the girls that are still on the show. If Mary Alice was going to harp on his weight the whole time, then he shouldn't have been on the show in the first place. It's physically impossible to "lose 5 pounds" overnight without some sort of surgery or pills.

I was very bored by this episode. I really hope that it gets good again.

Jdorama review: Meitantei Conan: Kudo Shinichi he no Chosenjo

Title: Meitantei Conan: Kudo Shinichi he no Chosenjo Also known as: Detective Conan: Kudo Shinichi's Written Challenge Broadcast date: 10/2/06 Genre: Detective Drama Cast: Oguri Shun, Kurokawa Tomoka, Jinnai Takanori, Iwasa Mayuko Plot: Kudo Shinichi is a famous high school detective. Just before his class trip, he receives a challenge letter. A kidnapper will abduct one of his classmates unless Shinichi can stop him! What is good: The mysteries are actually pretty difficult. What is bad: Unless you are a Detective Conan fan, this will probably be rather boring for you. Overall rating: C+ Overall: I usually get a lot of enjoyment out of detective series. As long as the detectives aren't completely moronic and the cases aren't extremely easy, I'll be there every step of the way. However, I found this 10th anniversary of the Detective Conan series completely boring. The actors were good depictions of their anime counterparts. Even though I never watched the anime past a couple of episodes, I could easily identify each character. There was just nothing there to give it that extra 'oomph.' Shinichi seemed to be walking through the mysteries despite the fact that he was having trouble solving them. It would have been nice if there was a little more personality for each of the characters. Especially since, in the overall timeline, this special takes place before the anime series actually starts. There is another special coming out next year. Hopefully the characters will be a little more three-dimensional.

Christmas Lights

Even though Halloween isn't until next week, a lot of stores have already put up their Christmas decorations. I guess we should start thinking about how we're going to decorate our house this year. I think we got some LED Christmas lights last year but I'm not really sure. Generally, I leave that stuff up to my husband because he always wants the coolest stuff we can find. I know that LED lights use less electricity, which is always a good thing. And I seem to recall that they don't get at hot as regular bulbs do. I guess I should check the basement to see what is down there. Though I hate putting up lights and taking them down, they do make the house look pretty.

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Game review: Chocolatier

I played Chocolatier awhile ago and thought it was just OK. So I decided to give it another try. Maybe it's because I knew how the controls worked this time around but I enjoyed it a lot more. The basic gist of the game is that a large chocolate-making family has hit some hard times. They need you to help rebuild their chocolate empire. You travel around the world in search of their lost recipes while keeping track of your factories and their inventory. In your travels, you will come across people that will place special orders for candies. For the most part, these people will pay top dollar for your wares.

In some ways, the game gets very difficult. Every time you have to make a new type of chocolate, there is a mini-game for that factory. If you wish to make that type of chocolate in multiple factories, you'll need to replay that mini-game each time. While the recipe will transfer to all of your factories, how to actually make them will not. That part is a little tedious. Especially when you are trying to teach your factories how to make the new recipes as well.

Overall, the game was pretty fun. It takes awhile to get used to what you are supposed to do and I still have problems remembering what port sells which ingredients. I think that chocolate lovers might get a kick out of this but I don't think it's anything that people will be able to play for really long periods of time.

Things will get better

I know I'm been lacking in the posting department this week. I managed to catch a cold earlier this week and it is just now starting to go away. Since I've been sick, I haven't been doing a whole lot worth discussing. I've been putting off watching the final episode of HanaKimi. I'll be sure to watch it soon so the review can go up next week. There will probably be a few more music posts in the next couple of days. And I will probably have some sort of an announcement coming up soonish. Until then, please bear with me and my stuffy nose. I will resume posting as soon as I can breathe properly.

Bionic Woman

For the past couple of days, my husband and I have been catching up on the new Bionic Woman episodes on the official website. I wasn't expecting a whole lot from it. I actually thought that Katee Sackhoff's character would just be a throw-away for the first episode. On the contrary, her character is rather important. I can't say I was a huge fan of the original series. I caught a few episodes in reruns but it wasn't anything spectacular for me. Maybe it's because the main character was a hot blonde chick which, even as a kid, I knew was unattainable for me. (On the other hand, I totally believed that I could be the beautiful brunette Wonder Woman when I grew up.) So, on a personal level, I feel a bit more in touch with the new Jaime Sommers. She works as a bartender, she's taking care of her little sister, she's smart and beautiful and normal. She could easily be your next door neighbor and you would never know it.

The bionics are a bit more believable too. While in 1976, Jaime got her implants after a sky-diving accident, new~Jaime got her implants after a car accident. Not only are the circumstances based more in reality, the show has also gotten rid of the trademark "Jaime is using her bionics" sound. I did miss that a little at first but after awhile, you realize how ridiculous it would have sounded if they kept the sound effect.

About the storyline. It isn't too horribly bad. I've watched the first three episodes so I'm not terribly far through the series but it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. There are some things that I think the organization/Jonas would do differently but it's possible that there are things that will be revealed later on that will explain some of his decisions. I like how they are handling a lot of the female characters. Especially Sarah, Jaime and Becca. I kinda wish they would throw Ruth out a window and forget she ever existed but I suppose she has an overall purpose in the organization.

I really think people wrote this off before ever watching an episode. They figured it would be a terrible remake of a cheesy 70s show. I really hope that the show doesn't prove me wrong by turning awful for the rest of the series.

America's Most Smartest Model - Episode 3

It's Monday again! Does everyone know what that means? America's Most Smartest Model was on last night! Yay! Tempers are flaring this week. Andre is still screaming at...well, pretty much anyone who will stick around to listen to him scream. Personally? I wouldn't ever sit in the same room as the man. Walk away, people! It is a valid option! Daniel was the main combatant against Andre in this episode. It's really a wonder that these people don't lose their voices from screaming at each other and Andre.

Yes, Jesse is still "fat." I'm not sure why Mary Alice thinks that a person can lose five pounds overnight. She keeps harping on the fact that poor Jesse doesn't have washboard abs. There isn't a whole lot he can do about that at this point. He's working out every morning and watching what he eats. Well, he was until the first competition where the models had to eat Twinkies and chocolate cake if they answered a question wrong. Speaking of which....COME ON, you can't answer "Who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner?" Did you not finish junior high or something? You were supposed to be one of the smarter models, Jesse.

As I said, in the first competition of the night, the models had to answer some basic trivia questions such as "Who shot John F. Kennedy?" If they answered correctly, they got to eat a healthy food and a more difficult follow-up question. If they answered the follow-up correctly, they could give their junk food to another model to eat. If they answered their first question incorrectly, they had to eat their junk food. (If the follow-up was incorrectly answered, nothing happened.) Andre got some payback in this round. Three of the models gave him their chocolate cake after answering their questions correctly. Yes, he had to eat THREE pieces of chocolate cake in one standing. Poor stupid Mandy Lynn answered her question wrong then refused to finish her cake claiming she was full and it was too sweet. So she got herself disqualified for the second competition of the day.

The second competition revolved around exercising. Gilad, a fitness guru, used this to pick one of the models to host his next group of fitness videos. Some of the models didn't even try. It was pretty sad. In the end, it came down to Australian~Rachael and Brett. I thought Rachael kicked Brett's ass but Brett ended up getting picked by Gilad. That gave him immunity from being kicked from the show. I kinda think Gilad just wanted to pick the guy over the girl. Luckily Rachael was a good sport and didn't throw a fit or anything.

Since Mandy Lynn was disqualified for the second competition, she didn't have to be there. She even got a package from Mary Alice containing hair dye so she could dye her hair instead. Mandy Lynn decided to play the trooper and go exercise with everyone anyway. About ten minutes into the exercising, Mandy Lynn decided it was too difficult for her and she'd go inside to figure out how to dye her hair. Somehow, she managed to not screw the whole thing up. Her hair actually came out pretty nice. Though it sounds like Mandy Lynn hates it. I think she really does want to be a porn star but she doesn't want to SAY it on national television.

Here is where I usually tell you that I won't reveal who got kicked off but I'm changing things up a bit this week. The three on the chopping block this week were Jesse (because he's fat, duh), Mandy Lynn (because she's dumber than a brick) and American~Rachel (because she's weak since she's too thin? what?). Rachel was taken off the block so it was down to Jesse and Mandy Lynn. Jesse is given another chance to miraculously lose weight overnight and Mandy Lynn is given the big boot. I find it absolutely hysterical that the judges waited until AFTER she dyed her hair to kick her off. It was almost like "Yeah, you did what we said but you still suck." Absolutely amazing.

Now we will get down to the real competition. American~Rachel is still pretty stupid so I imagine that she'll be gone in the next couple of weeks. Knowing how Mary Alice is, Jesse will be the next to get kicked off since it's impossible to lose love handles overnight. If it was possible, I think there would be a lot less "fat" people walking around. (Please note that we are using the model's definition of "fat," where you are obese if you weigh over 110 pounds.) I will miss Mandy Lynn but not her fake boobs, porn star hair and annoying laugh. She was entertaining while she lasted.