brokenrecord

So, the semester is almost done, and I need suggestions for TV shows I should watch this summer! I have a list of some in my mind that I'm interested in seeing, but the list is rather long and there's nothing that's really standing out for me at the moment, so are there any shows you think are super awesome that I should check out? They can be still airing or have ended. Genre doesn't really matter to me, either (I like sitcoms/comedies, dramas, sci-fi, procedurals, period stuff, and so on). An awesome ship to latch on to definitely helps me get interested and invested in a show, but there are definitely shows I love where I ship no one, so yeah, feel free to recommend whatever, basically. Most of the stuff I've seen are listed in my profile under "TV," but there are shows I've watched that I ended up not liking that aren't listed there. In any case, if trying to determine what I've already seen is too much effort, you can just recommend whatever and I'll let you know if I've already seen it.

My two exams today are done with, thankfully. The social psych one did not go that great, but I probably only need about a C on it, so I'm trying to not let it bother me too much. The Origins one went better, although maybe not as good as the last one. But probably about as good as the first one, and I got a 93.5 on that, and I only need a B on it, so I should be fine there, too. Anyways, now I just need to edit my paper for Mood and Anxiety (which isn't due until Wednesday at 11:59 PM, so I'm kind of considering just putting it off until tomorrow, since I will have almost all day tomorrow to devote to it) and study for the German final (which is Thursday). Oh, and I have to give like a... 3-4 minute informal presentation about what I did my Mood and Anxiety paper on in class tomorrow, but it's not graded, so I'm not really worried. I should probably just go through it to make sure what I have to say fits into 3-4 minutes and is organized and such so I don't make a fool out of myself.

I haven't talked about my Doctor Who rewatch much recently since I kind of took a break, but I'm actually only 3 episodes from the end of season 4. Considering I just watched these episodes a few weeks ago, I'm not sure if I'm going to end up watching them. Maybe if I run out of stuff to watch when I'm studying for my German final and get bored. I don't have any inclination to watch Children of Earth anymore, though, or the DW specials from the last year, so after I get through those 3 episodes (assuming I do), then I'll be done (and I do have a bunch of thoughts on season 4 that I've typed up, so I'll get to posting those either when I finish or when I decide that I'm not going to finish and want to close the window of TextEdit I've had open with those thoughts for 3 weeks now).

I was watching classic Doctor Who episodes actually yesterday when studying for my tests today, and one of the serials I watched was Spearhead from Space. I totally didn't realize that the Autons in Rose had already been introduced in the classic series. I feel like the Autons in that serial are much creepier than in Rose, since they look like humans who have melted and had their eyes plucked out compared to in Rose, where they just look like mannequins. Also, I've seen serials from the first four Doctors, and out of them, originally I thought Four was my favorite, but Three is giving him a run for his money. I don't know, I just really enjoy him. He has a cape! He's kind of awesome! I should watch more of his seasons.

Ok, so I was way more worried and nervous about MUPC than I had to be (but then, I tend to worry unreasonable amounts about absolutely everything, so that's not surprising). It was totally fine. I actually didn't end up being very nervous when I was there in front of my poster answering questions. The people who came by were all very nice and interested in my topic, and they said it was an interesting question and all that, so it made me feel more... validated, I guess, because sometimes when I think about that project I just think it was kind of pointless or not as developed or interesting as a lot of other people's.

Also, one girl stopped by who was on my floor freshman year and became like best friends with my roommate and she was friendly to me for a few weeks and then she just kind of ignored me for the rest of the year and I kind of thought she hated me or at least didn't like me. But she was super friendly and asking questions and stuff, not just about my project but about what I was doing and stuff, and it was really weird. Like, good, but... I'm so self-conscious and critical that I couldn't help thinking "Why are you talking to me? What do you want? Is this some elaborate scheme to make fun of me? Are you pitying me? What is going on?" even though the worst thing she ever did to me was ignore me, and that's probably more to blame on my lack of social skills than on her. And I found out she's taking Understand/Confront Racism next semester like me, which should be interesting. I had another class with her sophomore year and she continued to ignore my existence, so I'm curious to see if that happens again or if she talks to me this time.

This morning, on the other hand, was kind of awful. Ok, it wasn't that bad. But, well, normally I volunteer with a couple of people at a homeless shelter with children on Saturday mornings, but we didn't do it Saturday this week because I had MUPC going on. And this is our last chance to volunteer this semester all together so we went today instead and then went out to lunch afterwards. Except I'm not used to waking up this early on a Sunday, and I stupidly stayed up really late Saturday night, so even though my alarm woke me up at 8 AM, I decided to lie in bed for just a few more minutes, and then of course I fell asleep again and didn't wake up until 8:40. Which meant I had to rush to get dressed and ready and all, and I basically had like 5 minutes to each breakfast, but everything I had would have taken too much time to make and eat. However, one of my roommates made cupcakes yesterday, so I remembered that and was like "ugh I need something to eat" so for breakfast I had a cupcake. Which might sound awesome, except it's really not enough to get you energized or moving or coherent or anything. So I pretty much just felt awful the entire time I was volunteering. I have coffee now, though, and it's awesome.

There have been some recent reports about a 4th season of Chuck not being totally hopeless and the writers/producers/creators/whoever feeling good about coming back, and I kind of wish there weren't this news only because I feel like it's making me too optimistic about it coming back. I had started accepting that this would be end and coming to terms with that and all, but now my hopes are starting to go up again, and I'm afraid there'll be this build-up and then NBC will cancel it (because NBC fails at life. They're probably freaking renew Heroes over Chuck even though Chuck does better critically and in the ratings and Heroes sucks) and it'll suck so much worse than if I had just accepted it being canceled now. blah. (Although maybe NBC will surprise me? No no, still trying not to get my hopes up.) Anyways, on a more positive Chuck-related note, Chuck comes back for the final 6 episodes on Monday! I'm so excited. We finally get to see Chuck and Sarah try to be spies while being in a relationship! Chuck's dad is coming back! Anna is coming back!!! It's going to be awesome.

( Doctor Who 5.04 )

Anyways, yesterday I had plans for doing a bunch or research for my final Mood and Anxiety paper and having it outlined and a thesis and everything so I'd be ready to write as much of it as possible today. And then I did nothing. Well done, self. So instead I'm going to do a bunch of research today and hopefully get... idk, 4 pages done? That might be feasible. If I actually start working and don't just procrastinate all day, which is much more likely.

( Doctor Who - 5.03 )

Finished season 3 of Doctor Who in my rewatch!
( Doctor Who Season 3 )

Anyways, now onto Torchwood Season 2! At some point I'll actually get some work done. Well, maybe not. As I said, I only have the research proposal due Wednesday, and I just don't care about it at all. I mean, as long as I turn something in, I'll get some points, and I really don't need all the points anyways. And it only has to be 5 pages minimum, which includes references. And I have an idea of what I'm going to do, I just haven't written it down yet. And the professor said that he would look at the assignment again more closely because a lot of people were bitching about it in class on Friday because it does seem like a pretty ridiculous assignment for only 10 points, so I don't know that it makes sense to do a bunch of work on it and then have him potentially change things for the assignment tomorrow. At least that's what I'm telling myself. I've also done some very minimal research for my final Mood and Anxiety paper and have an idea of what I want to do, although I want to run it by the professor at some point. But that's not due for a little over 2 weeks, so I can outline the paper and do some research this week, write a draft over the weekend/early next week, as my professor to look it over midway through the week, and then edit it and be done with it several days before it's even due. I don't know, I should probably be doing much more work than I am, but I just can't motivate myself at all, and watching Doctor Who and Torchwood is much more fun. Besides, I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm just going to let myself have this lazy (but enjoyable) weekend and I'll work harder this week and next.

All right, I'm through season 2 on my Doctor Who rewatch! ( Doctor Who Season 2 Thoughts )

For some reason I had this idea that I would be able to get through 4 seasons of Doctor Who and 2 seasons of Torchwood in one week while also attending school and doing adequate amounts of school work and having a life and such. This was a very, very silly thought. I hope to get it done by the end of next week, though, as after next week there's only 1 full week of school, 2 days, and then finals, and I maybe don't want to leave things like my 10-page final Mood and Anxiety paper to the weekend before I have 2 exams and 1 final. Just a thought. Anyways, I'm jumping to Torchwood now, and then back to Doctor Who season 3 after I'm done with Torchwood season 1, and so on. I'm excited; it's been ages since I've watched these episodes of Torchwood, longer than most DW episodes.

Some TV reactions from this week:

( Glee )

( Ugly Betty Series Finale )

So I was stuck between having the urge to rewatch all of Doctor Who and Torchwood and the fact that I really really wanted to watch a couple season 4 episodes immediately and not have to wait to get through the rest of the show to see them (and plus, I was aware that I really should not be starting giant rewatches when I have schoolwork and crap to attend to). So to compromise, I decided to watch a few season 4 episodes and then do a rewatch of the entire series, including interspersing Torchwood's seasons (like, watching season 1 of Torchwood after season 2 of Doctor Who rather than all of Doctor Who and then all of Torchwood). Yes, I am totally crazy for doing this when there are only a few weeks left in the school year and I know I really should be working on other things. I also haven't decided whether or not to watch Children of Earth. On the one hand, most of it is really, really awesome (i.e. the first 3 parts) and it makes me actually like Gwen (which will help after watching 2 seasons of her annoying the crap out of me). On the other hand, well, there's the obvious. I'd rather keep the relative happiness of the season 2 finale in mind than what happens in COE. But back on the first hand, I am kind of in the mood to just get emotionally wrecked (as evidenced by the decision to rewatch Doomsday out of all the episodes in season 2 I could have chosen. Seriously, as much as I love it, the only times I've watched it were when I first aired, and then when it aired on SciFi network and I was watching all of season 2 with my mom. But for months after it first aired, I couldn't think about it or even like... make icons of it or anything without starting to cry. It definitely destroyed me. Much as COE did!). But we'll see. I know for sure that I'm going to skip the Christmas special of Doctor Who preceding season 4 because for one thing, it's not on Netflix Instant Watch (as the rest of Doctor Who, including The Christmas Invasion, so I'm not exactly sure why this other special isn't up, but whatever, and as Torchwood is also up on Instant Watch, including COE), and for another, I just really don't like it and have zero urge to rewatch it. The same goes for all the specials from last year except for The Waters of Mars and possibly Ten's final episode, as I only watched it once (the first part I watched twice) and because I want to see Ten saying goodbye to everyone again. So anyways, that's the plan for this week! As I said, I am crazy. But first, random thoughts on the 4 seasons 4 episodes I watched yesterday:

( Random Doctor Who Season 4 Thoughts )

Anyways, after I watched those episodes, I started the whole rewatch, and I got through The Doctor Dances and have random thoughts on all the episodes I watched, but I think I'll wait to post them when I'm done with season 1.

On a different note, has anyone ever watched Wire in the Blood? I remember seeing it mentioned once or twice by someone or a few people and I think the reviews were positive? idk, I found it on Netflix Instant Watch and the plot summary seems interesting, but I don't usually just jump into shows blindly; I typically have a good idea of at least some of the things that will happen. I don't know if anyone's watched it or not. Also, Spooks (or MI-5? Whatever it's called wherever you are)? I remember hearing more about it being good, and it has freaking Matthew McFaddyen, so I'll probably get to it much sooner, but any info on that? I have this urge to check out shows I haven't seen before, and once the school year is over (which is only 3 1/2 weeks away!) I'm going to be pretty bored and will need entertainment. Any other show recommendations would also be appreciated (you can see pretty much everything I've ever watched in my profile).

Time for class, and then more Doctor Who this afternoon/evening! And I have to work on a group project for an hour or so, but whatever, I'm focusing on the positive.

This is a somewhat massive post.

( Bones - 5.16 )

( Lost - 6.11 )

btw, I was watching Lost on Hulu and during one of the breaks there was an ad for the new Doctor Who season on BBC America. I was so not expecting that to be advertised, but it was awesome (and made me even more excited for the next episode!).

I don't think my social psych professor understands the "mini" part of "mini-assignment," because we were just assigned a 5-10 page research proposal as a "mini"-assignment. At least it's only worth like 10 points (out of a total 250 or so for the entire semester). Still, wtf? The mini-assignments have been getting increasingly harder, which is annoying. The first one was deceptively easy (it was like... find any sort of study published within the last year having to do with social psychology and explain their hypothesis, methods, and what they found), and the second one wasn't bad either (it had to do with comparing a friend's ratings on a scale to what you perceive their personality to be and some other stuff I forget, but it wasn't difficult).

Last but not least, I'm finally posting pictures of my apartment that I'm living in right now, and I figured since I'm finally posting them, I might as well also finally post the pictures of my ridiculously small dorm room I was in from 2008-2009 (my sophomore year). There are also 2 bonus pictures of my pet birds from home just because I haven't posted any pictures of them in years.

( Pictures of Apartment and Dorm Room! )

( Chuck 3.13 )

I'm still kind of basking in happiness over the Doctor Who premiere. Is that weird? idk, it was just so good and so much fun! I'm super looking forward to the next episode, and I kind of have an urge to rewatch the premiere (which is ridiculous because I so do not have time for that, but still). And I'm really enjoying that nearly every single reaction to it I've seen has been positive. I'm almost always positive about Doctor Who, but I definitely saw loads of reactions last season that weren't as happy with the show and were sick of Ten and David Tennant, and it was kind of sad when watching the show then that most people didn't seem to be enjoying it as much as me. But it's fun now that I don't feel like I'm crazy for whole-heartedly enjoying the show and that everyone's sharing in the joy.

My Origins exam yesterday went pretty well, I think. I mean, I feel like I had less trouble with it than the last one, and I got a 93 on that one, and there was even an extra credit question on this one, so I think I should do fine. Anyways, at this point I'm done with 3/5 of the major things causing me stress for this week. I still have my social psych exam (but I got 100 on the first one, so I'm not too concerned, as long as I study some) and my class facilitation for Mood and Anxiety. I was feeling more comfortable with that, and then I totally slacked off yesterday afternoon, so now I'm worried about getting enough research and stuff done in time. blah. I'll be so happy when this week is over. Also, I totally meant to get up at 8:30 AM so I could get a bunch of work done before class (which isn't until 1:20) and go grocery shopping and stuff, but then it took forever for me to fall asleep and I also accidentally set my alarm for 8:30 PM instead of AM, so that resulted in me not getting up until a little past 10:00. oops.

Um, so... I have an apartment for sure next year? (That shouldn't really be a question, I suppose. I just wasn't expecting to actually sign a contract when I went to see the apartment yesterday) It's really nice, as close to campus as the one I'm in now is (although in the opposite direction from campus). It has hardwood floors! (My apartment now has all carpet except in the kitchen, and the carpets are in desperate need of cleaning. Also, I just think hardwood floors look a lot nicer.) It's $425 a month each, which actually isn't much more expensive than where I am now, despite having 4 people living here. idk, it was just a really nice place, and the landlord seemed nice, and we just both really liked it and didn't want to lose it. I e-mailed my parents the other day about what to do about the whole starting in June thing, and it does seem kind of complicated, but my mom did mention that I wouldn't want to lose a place I really like because of that, and we wouldn't want to wait until late August to look for places, either. I was afraid my parents might be a little annoyed that I signed a contract without consulting them (considering they're paying my rent) for the very first apartment I saw, but both of them said they were glad I found an apartment and that they thought it sounded like a good decision, so that's good.

I forgot in my last post, but now that it's April, in March I watched 144 episodes of TV, 24 movies, and read 5 books. I'm kind of surprised I managed all that. I haven't read anything for fun in like 2 weeks, though, and I'm afraid I'm going to get back into the habit of not reading anything, so I should probably focus more on that than watching movies or TV.

I finally finally finally did some cleaning/organizing of my closet and desk that I've been meaning to do for ages. The drawers in my desk are still ridiculously messy, but at least the top of it and little open space in the middle (if I'd ever actually post pictures of my apartment, I could show what I mean by that. I totally will post pictures at some point! But not today, or even this weekend probably) are nice and organized. And it helped me procrastinate doing work for an hour! Now let's see how long this lasts (spoiler alert: no more than a week). At least for now it's making me happy that everything's all neat and organized.

DOCTOR WHO TODAY! I found this out earlier this week but forgot, but anyways, I'm very excited! I'm still a little sad about Ten being gone, but I also was upset when Nine left and wasn't sure that I'd ever be able to like Ten as much, and I definitely fell in love with him, so... I think I'll get used to it. I also think I'm thinking of it kind of as a different show than the previous seasons, and that helps. I'm also really interested in the new companion and what sort of relationship will exist between Eleven and her, and Moffat has written some excellent episodes, so I'm intrigued to see what sort of season he puts together. I don't know, I guess I'm just very excited in any case. I've been a little bored with most of the other TV I've been watching, anyways, so maybe I'm just excited by having something totally new and shiny to watch.

Ok, so I've started sucking at updating again. But here's what's been going on with me in the past week:

I saw Avatar with some friends last Tuesday. Visually and technically it was stunning and innovative and helped make me see the point of 3D for the first time ever (although as a person who has a phobia of needles and cannot look needles on TV without cringing, I did not appreciate seeing someone get a shot in 3D IMAX. But that probably is not true of most people). Plotwise... very predictable and slightly offensive for reasons that plenty of people have mentioned before and I don't really want to get into. It's definitely worth seeing (especially in 3D IMAX), but maybe not worth spending $20 on.

I saw Annie for the first time in like over 2 years last Thursday. I was kind of nervous because it's been so long since we talked that I was kind of afraid she'd be like "...why was I friends with this person before?" But it ended up being a lot of fun. She's super into Doctor Who now! Yay! I finally have someone in the real world who loves and watches the show! Well, my mom does, but I feel like I can't be fannish in the same way with her as I can be with a friend, you know? But that was cool, anyways. (Btw, I watched the newest Doctor Who, and all I have to say is HOLY CRAP I NEED PART 2 RIGHT NOW. Luckily it's only a couple days away!)

Christmas was good. I got some new noise-canceling headphones which is awesome since my last pair has literally fallen apart. I also got Psych Season 1 on DVD which I'm looking forward to rewatching at some point. I have so many things I want to watch or rewatch this break; there's no chance I'm getting to them all.

Yesterday I went and saw The Hurt Locker with my mom. I highly recommend that movie. It's just amazing. The people next to me were so freaking annoying though. god. Do people not know how to behave in movie theaters anymore? They kept making incredibly stupid comments really loudly. Like at the point in the movie where he finds like 5 bombs connected to each other by wire, they were like "Why doesn't he just cut the wire?" Um, are you bomb-diffusing experts? Also, the movie made it really clear that he had to get this thing in the middle of the bomb out and cut those smaller wires. And there was a point where there were different Iraqi people watching them while he was trying to diffuse a bomb and one of the guys said something about how there was a guy video taping them and one of the people next to me was like "SHOOT HIM! WHY WON'T HE SHOOT HIM?!" And I was like "...uh, because he hasn't done anything to indicate that he's about to harm them in any way? And maybe they don't want to shoot first and ask questions later and potentially harm an innocent person?" And there were plenty of other moments like that, but those were the ones I remembered best. It's weird that in the past few years the people that have been most annoying in movie theaters are like adults or elderly people and not teenagers and kids like you might expect. If you want to talk through a movie, fine, but either go to a completely crowded showing so people can't hear you as well or wait until it comes out on DVD. ugh.

Anyways, I've started my first End of the Decade picspam, and I'm not even a quarter of the way through. ugh. I'm thinking I'm going to have to cut down the number of movies I was planning on picspamming if I want to finish this anytime in the next week. I'm pretty much just hoping to get this done and then that'll be it, because I really don't see me having time to also do best episodes and TV shows of the decade and best movies/tv shows of the year, like I was planning. There's just no time, unless I decide to not sleep and never go out with friends for the next few days.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Mine was decent. The major awesome present I wanted that I got was an iPod touch, so I'm happy about that. ( The rest of the stuff, mostly so I remember )

I watched the Doctor Who Christmas special, and it was good (definitely better than last year's), but nothing special, I guess. Something occurred to me, though, about the fact that this season is just going to be specials rather than a normal season: is there going to be a companion who lasts through the specials? Because I'm really not going to be happy if all the specials are just like the Christmas special. =/ Unless it's something like Donna comes back for a special, Martha comes back for a different special, etc. I'd be more okay with that. I'm not spoiled at all for anything that's going to happen, though, so I have no idea what the plans are in regards to that. blah.