Week in Review, Dec 17 to Dec 23

Seeing as this post is going live early morning on Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas to everyone! Yeah, that's right, I'm an atheist and I'm wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. What "War on Christmas?" Most atheists are happy to celebrate Christmas, but we obviously take the Christ out of it. It's a pretty damn good holiday with the Christ taken out of it.

So, what did I do for fun in the week before Christmas? Spoiler warning! Not a whole lot.

The Week in Video Games

I spent a fair bit of time this week playing the Wii Virtual Console version of the SNES's Super Mario Kart. It is still a sweet game! In this first iteration of the series, winning is all about skill, and not item usage. Best of all, no rubber-band AI and no fucking blue shells!

In New Super Mario Bros. Wii news, I finally worked my way through all 8 worlds and took on Bowser in a surprisingly epic end boss battle. Now that I've finished the main game, I can safely say that NSMBW is significantly better than the DS version, which somewhat disappointed me actually, and is unquestionably a worthy addition to one of the best video game series of all time. Although I have rescued Peach once again, my time with the game is nowhere near complete. The collection of star coins opens up levels in secret world 9, offering an extra challenge and many extra hours. If levels 9-1 and 9-2 are a sign of things to come, these are easily the toughest Mario Bros. levels since Tubular.

One of the highlights of this week, probably the highlight actually, was playing NSMBW with my two brothers who were in town for Christmas. No previous Mario side-scroller has offered simultaneous cooperative (or combative) multiplayer, so I was skeptical that it would work--but goddamn, it does! It's often confusing and chaotic, and frequently frustrating, but it's also a fucking blast. And so very, very funny sometimes. Well done, Nintendo!

The Week in Television

Having caught up with Mad Men, it was time to start a new series this week. My choice was about as far from Mad Men as you can get: the goofy but enjoyable Warehouse 13. I'm not marathoning Warehouse 13, but using it to take a break from video gaming every once in a while.

Friday, December 18th
Loved: Dollhouse (2x9/2x10)

The third and final two-hour Dollhouse event featured the weakest and strongest of the six episodes. The first hour, Victor-centric "Stop-Loss," was pretty good, featuring interesting developments with Echo and especially Adelle, but a little awkward in the execution of the Borg-like soldiers plotline. Fortunately, the second hour, "The Attic," was awesome--arguably the best episode of the season and maybe series. Cancellation of the series has forced Joss Whedon to show his hand early and I am loving every minute of it. Best of all, the unexpected ending brought back fond memories of Angel season five.

Sunday, December 20th
Liked: Top Gear (14x5)

Tuesday, December 22nd
Loved: Better Off Ted (2x3)

"Battle of the Bulbs" was another great episode of Better Off Ted. Introducing a rivalry between Ted and Linda was a smart idea, leading to many good scenes. The return of Dr. Bomba was fun, and Lem had some great moments dealing with his mother. However, drunk Phil was unquestionably the hightlight of the episode.

Week in Review, Dec 10 to Dec 16

I spoke too soon last week when I thought that post would be the last television-heavy Week in Review post of 2009. Nope, this one is.

The Week in Television

After watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's season finale on Thursday night, I decided it was time to watch A Very Sunny Christmas. Released on DVD nearly a month ago, I saved it for closer to Christmas, to really appreciate the gang's anti-social behaviour at the right time of the year. And, boy, did they deliver on the promise of seeing the gang ruin Christmas for everyone. This special was effectively a two part episode of the show, and it was easily as strong as any of the fifth season's episodes.

Thursday, December 10th
Loved: Fringe (2x10)
Liked: 30 Rock (4x8), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x12), Parks and Recreation (2x12), The Office (6x13)

All four Thursday comedies ended 2009 with above average episodes, three of the four celebrating the Christmas season. The exception was Always Sunny, but if you've been paying attention you already know that Always Sunny's Christmas episode for the year was released on DVD and reviewed one paragraph up from here. In "The Gang Reignites the Rivalry," an old flip cup rivalry leads to embarrassing hi-jinks in a fancy restaurant and a frat house where the gang meets their match in more ways than just flip cup.

The Office has a history of strong Christmas episodes, but the first half of "Secret Santa" was a little worrisome with an overly assholish turn by Michael. Thankfully, Michael soon learned the error of his ways, and the episode picked up in a big way in the second half. The Andy and Erin relationship continues to be the highlight of the season, with the ending especially delivering in a big way on that front.

30 Rock's Christmas episode was (coincidentally?) also titled "Secret Santa." It was a more consistently funny episode than The Office, but in that ridiculously goofy 30 Rock way. Liz's search for the perfect gift for Jack had the best payoff of the episode's many storylines.

In Parks and Recreation's "Christmas Scandal," Leslie's encounter with a sleazy politician led to scandal (obviously--it's in the title) and some brilliantly satirical media coverage. As funny as that story was, the best moments of the episode involved the relationships of Leslie and Dave and especially Andy and April. It looks like Louis C. K. has made his last appearance in the series, which is pretty sad considering how great he was.

"Grey Matters" took Fringe back to welcome mythology territory, and was easily the most dramatic and interesting episode of the season so far. The revelations about the cause of Walter's mental condition were shocking, and the confrontation between Olivia and the new baddie was tense. The second half of Fringe's first season was significantly better than the first half, so I'm excited to see what the second half of season two has in store.

Friday, December 11th
Loved: Dollhouse (2x7/2x8)

The second two-hour Dollhouse event, consisting of episodes "Meet Jane Doe" and "A Love Supreme," was again amazing. It's too bad that no one is watching this show now that it has really hit its stride in classic Joss Whedon season two style. Like last week, both episodes were very good but the best material came in the second hour, with the return of the awesome Alan Tudyk as Alpha.

Saturday, December 12th
Loved: Legend of the Seeker (2x6)

Legend of the Seeker's "Fury" started out slow and non-promising, but slowly developed into one of the best episodes of the series. The sequence where Zedd saves Richard from his rage was unquestionably the most impressively acted scene in the series' history. Bruce Spence rocks! The storyline was strong, well-developed, and faithful to the spirit of the books. This episode was particularly good coming after the big misstep that was "Wizard."

Sunday, December 13th
Loved: Dexter (4x12)

What can I say about Dexter's fourth season finale, "The Getaway," other than "HOLY SHIT!?!" And, "When does season five start?" This season was undoubtedly the best season since the first, consisting of twelve excellent, exciting, intense episodes with very few missteps. Sure, some characters are simply not nearly as interesting as Dexter and Deb, but the amount of time spent on those characters was minimal and didn't take away from the strength of the Trinity storyline. Dexter has reclaimed its title as the best drama on television.

Monday, December 14th
Loved: The Big Bang Theory (3x11)

The Big Bang Theory's Christmas-lite episode, "The Maternal Congruence," was one of the better episodes of the year for me. Sheldon's relationship with Leonard's mom, Beverly, is absolutely priceless. Penny and Beverly bonding over booze was a touch over the top, but it brought the laughs in a big way. Best of all was Beverly's hilarious observations about Raj and Howard's latent homosexuality.

Tuesday, December 15th
Loved: Better Off Ted (2x2)
Liked: So You Think You Can Dance (6x23)

"The Lawyer, the Lemur and the Little Listener" was another pretty good episode of Better Off Ted. The title of this episode reflects the three parallel storylines, with Lem and the lawyer getting the biggest laughs, and Ted and the little listener (his daughter Rose) having the best payoff. The awesome Veridian Dynamics commercial near the end was a very welcome addition.

Wednesday, December 16th
Meh: So You Think You Can Dance (6x24)

So You Think You Can Dance finales are an incredible example of two hours of filler, filler, filler, and more filler. Seeing some of the season's best dances again is okay, although there weren't that many great dance routines in this below average season, but then... Jennifer Lopez, really? I'm also not impressed with America's choice for the winner, but ultimately it doesn't matter who wins SYTYCD, because I'll probably never see or hear from any of these people ever again.

Week in Review, Dec 3 to Dec 9

As the fall TV season is finally drawing to a close (although, strangely, two of my favourite series started back up this week when most series were winding down), this will hopefully be the last Week in Review post of 2009 that is focused almost entirely on TV. My biggest spare time consumer continues to be Mad Men, but I'm well into the third and most recent season now, so will soon be done with that time suck and ready to find something to replace it. (Note that I am not using "time suck" with a negative connotation. Mad Men is very good and surprisingly addictive and I need to watch it all now; therefore everything else that I could be doing is pushed to the back-burner.)

I've only read the introduction to Vonnegut's Mother Night so far. Ever since buying my Eee PC, which I love, I have replaced going to bed and reading a book with going to bed and reading feeds and online dating profiles.

In video game news, the fifth and final episodic Tales of Monkey Island game was released this week, but I still haven't played through episode two. The whole series is on my "games to tackle during Christmas vacation" list with Dragon Age and possibly Shadow Complex. I recently dug out my old Logitech mouse that has a scroll wheel that should work with Dragon Age, so now all I need to do is to find the time to dive into that monster of a game.

The Week in Video Games

Over the past week, I have for the first time in over a year been playing a new Guitar Hero branded music video game instead of a Rock Band branded game. On Black Friday, Walmart put Guitar Hero Smash Hits on sale for $18, and I found that I couldn't resist the price. Smash Hits' setlist is made up of some of the best songs from the first five Guitar Hero games (1, 2, 3, 80's, and Aerosmith), and there are more than enough songs that I love to make the $18 well worth it. I would have gladly paid more than $18 for these tracks as DLC in Rock Band, but most are not available, so this works as a substitute. After playing through the guitar career mode on hard difficulty, I was inspired to write about my feelings on the Rock Band vs Guitar Hero rivalry. Watch for an upcoming blog entry on that topic.

The Week in Television

Thursday, December 3rd
Liked: Fringe (2x9), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x11), Parks and Recreation (2x11)
Meh: 30 Rock (4x7), The Office (6x12)

After a week off, most of the Thursday comedies came back this week with a whimper. In a surprise, Parks and Recreation had the best 30 minutes of the night with "The Fourth Floor," creating some good laughs out of Tom's divorce from his Canadian Green Card wife. The Office's "Scott's Tots" had a wrong-headed, awkward Michael A-plot and Jim reacting with uncharacteristic stupidity to Dwight's "diabolical plan" in the B-plot. In 30 Rock's "Dealbreakers Talk Show No. 0001," Liz transformed into Jenna in a nonsensical and not really all that funny turn of events, but in a somewhat funnier subplot Frank turned into Liz. In Always Sunny, "Mac and Charlie [Wrote] a Movie," which certainly yielded some hilarious brainstorming sessions, but the sequences on the movie set were uncomfortable and far too unrealistic in the way that the entire gang wasn't ejected from the set within their first couple of minutes.

Fringe's "Snakehead" was a good standalone X-Files-ish episode. The monster of the week storyline was decent, but the highlights were all character moments involving Walter and his increasing desire for independence, especially the development in the friendship between Walter and Astrid.

Friday, December 4th
Loved: Dollhouse (2x5/2x6)
Liked: Stargate Universe (1x10)

Dollhouse returned from its November hiatus with two stellar episodes, "The Public Eye" and "The Left Hand." The latter was the strongest of the two, bringing two Tophers to the screen in a few inspired sequences with some very impressive acting from Enver Gjokaj. Summer Glau also made her awesome debut as the DC Dollhouse's Topher, the slightly psychotic Bennett. The two episodes worked well in a two hour block, finishing the story of Senator Perrin's attempt to out Rossum Corporation and the Dollhouse with some fun surprises.

Stargate Universe's fall season finale, "Justice," was a strong episode, focusing on the tension amongst the crew on Destiny and thankfully avoiding the crutch of the communication stones. The ongoing hostility between Rush and Young came to a head, and the ending delivered an interesting cliffhanger.

Saturday, December 5th
Meh: Legend of the Seeker (2x5)

Legend of the Seeker had an iffy week with "Wizard." Memory loss storylines are often hit or miss, and combining memory loss with anything-goes-magic led to some questionable sequences. I appreciate that Zedd was given the starring role in an episode for the first time since the first season's terrific "Puppeteer," but unfortunately it wasn't Bruce Spence in the role this time.

Sunday, December 6th
Loved: Dexter (4x11)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x11), Top Gear (14x4)

Dexter's solid penultimate episode, "Hello, Dexter Morgan," spoiled its ending in its title, but I guess the ending was inevitable. This episode resolved a few of the less interesting storylines from this season, but was more about putting the pieces in play for the hopefully exciting finale.

Monday, December 7th
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x10)

In The Big Bang Theory's "The Gorilla Experiment," Sheldon attempted to teach physics to Penny while Howard dealt with jealousy issues over his girlfriend's interest in Leonard's experiments. Both plotlines had good material and plenty of laughs, but as has been typical this season, it was still not nearly as funny as this show is capable of.

Tuesday, December 8th
Loved: Better Off Ted (2x1)

2009's best new comedy, Better Off Ted, returned this week for its second season. "Love Blurts" was not one of my favourite episodes of the series, but even a lesser Ted is better than most sitcoms' best. It was quite funny throughout with some great comedic payoffs, and the characters were as terrific as ever, especially the awesome Phil and Lem. But no Veridian Dynamics commercial?--boo!

Wednesday, December 9th
Loved: Glee (1x13)
Bah! Humbug!: Modern Family (1x10)

Glee's fall season finale, "Sectionals," has to be the most fan service episode of any show I've ever seen. I was surprised when the fake pregnancy storyline was resolved last week, but that was just a hint of what was to come in this one: the resolution to every storyline from the entire season. I was actually a little underwhelmed by the music this week, but that hardly matters when everything else about the episode was of such high quality. If Glee had not caught on with the masses and had ended here, it would have been a satisfying series finale.

Modern Family's "Undeck the Halls" was my first Christmas episode of this season so far. It had its moments, but this was definitely the weakest episode of the series to date for me. None of the three storylines really worked for me in their entirety, although they all had good endings. (Maybe my Christmas spirit is lacking this year.)

Week in Review, Nov 26 to Dec 2

The Week in Movies

This was the week that Wes Anderson brought his unique charm to the world of stop-motion animation with Fantastic Mr. Fox, a rare animated movie made for adults, giving me my first reason to visit a movie theatre since the release of District 9. I have no familiarity with Roald Dahl's source material, but the script by Anderson and frequent writing partner Noah Baumbach is brilliant, completely retaining the flavour, wit, and pathos of the dialogue in Anderson's live action films, except here voiced by animals, and with all swear words amusingly replaced with "cuss." The animation style is terrific; jerky and traditional while also detailed and beautiful. If you are a Wes Anderson fan, it's a must see; if you are not, you probably won't enjoy Fantastic Mr. Fox much either.

The Week in Television

No Thursday or Friday TV this week, due to Thanksgiving. It was both a relief and an annoyance; annoying because I do really enjoy the Thursday and Friday shows, especially the comedies, but a relief because I had a lot more free time. Unfortunately, I didn't actually do anything productive with that free time, choosing instead to mostly do nothing. Or at least I don't remember doing anything...

Over the past week, I have continued trying to catch up with Mad Men, moving into season two. I also watched my first three episodes of the UK's Top Gear, a show that has long been recommended by friends, but I didn't see what appeal there would be for someone that couldn't care less about cars. Top Gear is in its 14th season, and I don't plan to revisit past seasons anytime soon, but I have to admit that it is abnormally entertaining for a "car show."

Saturday, November 28th
Liked: Legend of the Seeker (2x4)

"Touched" was a busy episode of Legend of the Seeker; not great, but still quite good. Amidst a mildly successful Confessor-heavy episode plot (the love story didn't work, but the rest was well done), the Stone of Tears storyline was advanced, tag-along Flynn was disposed of, and Richard and Kahlan had a long awaited encounter in the woods. I'm really enjoying this season so far--better stories and more momentum than the first season at this point.

Sunday, November 29th
Loved: Dexter (4x10)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x10)

Dexter's "Lost Boys" was another awesome episode in an awesome season. Almost everything worked brilliantly, including the development of the previous episode's crazy twist, and the momentum and intensity that is being maintained (pretty much since episode five) is incredible. I really wish I could watch the last two episodes right fucking now.

I haven't written much about The Amazing Race this season, but this is a show that is what it is, so what do I write? I have enjoyed every episode, I like most of the teams, and I'm sure next week's finale will be exciting. The Amazing Race continues to be my favourite reality show because it is about traveling to interesting places and completing crazy tasks while dealing with foreign cultures. Teams mostly only have themselves (or shitty cab drivers) to blame when things go wrong, which is a nice change from the Survivor-style competition reality show. (I used to watch Survivor as well, but eventually found myself bored with it because of the predictable format and the non-deserving winners. The only other reality show that I watch currently, So You Think You Can Dance, hasn't even received a single mention in these Week in Review posts, but that's mostly because I am watching the episodes on someone else's schedule, and we are usually a week or two behind. If I was to review SYTYCD episodes, the performance shows would almost always earn a Liked and the results shows would always get a Meh.)

Monday, November 30th
Meh: Heroes (4x12), House (6x9)

Heroes entered winter hiatus with "The Fifth Stage," an episode that offered a whole lot of "WTF?" and not much enticement to come back in January. The best storyline had Peter and Nathan/Sylar battling it out, but Peter's new Haitian powers were used inconsistently, and Nathan's (presumably final) death scene was just silly. There was no explanation this week for where Hiro ended up last week, but instead we were treated to plenty of scenes with Claire being retarded, and Noah was again completely wasted. I have to admit that I am fascinated by the fact that showrunner Tim Kring is continually penning the weakest episodes of this series. Of all of the series I have watched over the years, Kring is unquestionably the worst showrunner of all time.

If anyone is actually reading these Week in Review posts through in detail each week, you may have noticed that I stopped talking about House. That's because it has become background noise for me. I'm still interested enough in the character of Gregory House to want to keep half-assed tabs on what's going on in the show, but I don't care about any of the other characters--except maybe for Wilson, who got a very special episode of his own this week. Conceptually, the idea of a Wilson-centric medical mystery of the week was great, but the execution was only okay. If the show delivers another episode worthy of specific comments, I may offer some, but this season has been a big Meh-fest so far.

Wednesday, December 2nd
Loved: Glee (1x12)

"Mattress" was the first substantial episode of Glee since before the World Series hiatus. Other than the musical routines, my favourite scenes in Glee generally involve the relationships between the adults (Will, Terri, Emma, Ken, and, of course, Sue) or the character of Rachel, and these elements were the focus in this episode. Last week's drama with Terri seems even more pointless after this episode, but I'm pleasantly surprised by the plot development--I certainly expected that plotline to drag out all season (although, technically, since Glee was originally only picked up for 13 episodes and later extended to a full 22, episode 12 is pretty close to the end of the originally planned season).

Week in Review, Nov 19 to 25

Back to all TV this week. I haven't started a new book yet. I am aware of no new music releases that interest me. And I'm still playing and enjoying New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but I'm going to hold any further comments until I complete it.

The Week in Television

Before I tackle the latest week, there was one item leftover from last week. Doctor Who's "The Waters of Mars" was both terrific and terrible, sometimes jumping from one extreme to the other within a couple of minutes. David Tennant was as great as ever, serious then silly then serious again, brilliantly depicting all sides of the Doctor's personality. The monsters were satisfyingly creepy, an area that Doctor Who excels in time and time again. And the story was reasonable, if a little too reminiscent of many past episodes, with a strong ending that sets up the next special nicely. On the terrible side, there was the ridiculous sonic screwdriver usage, the rocket-powered robot, and the majority of the characters. Ultimately, "The Waters of Mars" was pretty typical Russell T Davies era Doctor Who. Bring on the era of Steven Moffat!

Thursday, November 19th
Liked: 30 Rock (4x6), Fringe (2x8), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x10), The Office (6x11), Parks and Recreation (2x10)

I wasn't thrilled with any of the Thursday comedies this week; they were all good, but not great. 30 Rock was the funniest of the bunch with "Sun Tea," making the most of NBC Universal's annual insistence on an environmentally themed episode. The Office's contribution to the theme was Dwight as the ridiculous Recyclops--fortunately that only ruined the cold opening. The rest of "Shareholder Meeting" was okay, intermittently funny, with Jim's smackdown of Ryan as the highlight. The Parks and Recreation crew went on a "Hunting Trip" this week, with Jerry getting a rare chance to shine, and Ron getting shot by Tom, but the best laughs came from April and Andy back at the office. Always Sunny started slow with "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System," as Dennis's presentation of his seduction system wasn't all that funny, but the laughs came fast and furious when each member of the gang attempted to implement the system in their own fucked up ways.

I expected to like Fringe's "August" more than I did. It was very good, but the hype promised more. This was an important episode, establishing some back-story for the Observer(s), and had some great character moments with Walter and Peter, but the kidnapping plotline was simply not that interesting.

Friday, November 20th
Liked: Stargate Universe (1x9)

"Life" was another communication-stones-heavy episode of Stargate Universe like "Earth," but this time the focus was on characters that are less interesting, and the major conflicts were all character-based and seemingly unimportant when compared to being trapped on a spaceship at the far end of the universe. It wasn't a bad episode; there were a number of good character moments in the scenes on Destiny. But this series needed an excellent episode to keep the momentum from "Earth" and "Time."

Saturday, November 21st
Liked: Legend of the Seeker (2x3)

Legend of the Seeker's "Broken" was a good character development episode for new character Cara, but the plotting was a little heavy-handed. Cara's back-story was suitably dark and interesting, but the courtroom scenes that the episode was built around weren't as strong. The B-story with Zedd and annoying drag-along Flynn was goofy but fun, a nice light diversion from the meat of the episode.

Sunday, November 22nd
Loved: Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x10), Dexter (4x9)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x9)

In "Hungry Man," Dexter attended two Thanksgiving celebrations, including an incredibly twisted afternoon with the Mitchell family. This episode featured one of the single most intense moments in Dexter history; that alone would make it a winner. But the ending also featured a crazy revelation that I did not see coming at all. Awesome!

Curb Your Enthusiasm ended its "Seinfeld" reunion season with a terrific finale. This wasn't the best or funniest episode of the season by any means, but it satisfyingly resolved the season's stories that needed resolving. I was expecting more time spent with the Seinfeld cast, more scenes from the episode within the episode--which seemed pretty, pretty good!--and less time spent on Larry's problems with Mocha Joe, but "having said that," in classic Curb/Seinfeld fashion, everything paid off in the end.

Monday, November 23rd
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x9), Heroes (4x11)
Meh: House (6x8)

I enjoyed The Big Bang Theory's "The Vengeance Formulation" more than recent episodes this season. All the characters had good stuff to work with, especially Sheldon with his prank and hilarious followup video, and I quite enjoyed the continued absurdity of Howard and Bernadette.

Heroes featured TV's second most memorable "Thanksgiving" meal of the week, after Dexter's awesome Mitchell family meltdown, with an entertaining Bennett family get-together. There was also a twisted Petrelli family gathering and a much less interesting carnival crew celebration. In other news, Hiro took some welcome strides towards the darker future Hiro, Nathan and Sylar are still fighting over a body in the storyline that just won't end, and the reveal of who killed Samuel's brother shocked no one.

Wednesday, November 25th
Loved: Modern Family (1x9)
Liked: Glee (1x11)

Modern Family knocked it out of the park with the hilarious "Fizbo," a cleverly constructed episode that made good use of the entire cast. The elaborate setup of the birthday party stretched credibility, but that's nitpicking. There was no shortage of highlights in this episode, but the best moments generally involved Phil (of course), the zip line, comb sheaths, and/or Cameron the clown.

"Hairography" was not one of my favourite episodes of Glee. There were some solid musical performances, including an interesting and somewhat inspirational version of "Imagine," but there was a lot of unnecessary politically incorrect humour early on, still no Ken Tanaka, not nearly enough Emma, and although it seemed like a lot of storylines progressed throughout the episode, the ending employed a reset button.

Blogging while not curling

Lately this blog has been all Week in Review posts, which is not at all what I intended to happen. November has been a busy month, at home and at work, so my blogging time has been greatly reduced from September and October.

For the last five weeks, Monday nights have been one of the busiest nights of the week, thanks to curling. Technically, I'm supposed to play only every second game, because I am splitting the cost with one other guy, but I got another couple games out of sparing for other missing players. Tonight is my first Monday off.

So here I was, sitting at home on a Monday evening for the first time in over a month, and I thought a new blog post would be a good idea. I am caught up on all of this week's TV, and I have been watching Mad Men's first season for something to do; it's definitely a good show, but not really the type of show I can marathon.

I'm going to start with a silly story that came to an unexpected end this week, and then write about whatever I want. Despite the title, this is not going to be one of those posts...

What the fuck, Scotiabank?

I have a lot of credit cards. Many of them are holdouts from my days of balance transfer shuffling, and the others are rewards cards. I am constantly seeking the best rewards program, and as better ones come along, I will shift all my spending to the best card. (Currently, Best Buy's Reward Zone Visa is the best deal out there, with rewards worth 1.25%. That sounds pretty poor, but for comparison's sake, my American Express Air Miles card earns approximately 0.65%.)

One night a couple months ago, while I was trying to watch TV, a telemarketer offered me a credit card over the phone. This was a new experience for me, as I didn't even have to apply. I've received and returned numerous pre-authorized credit card forms in the past through mail or on the internet, but never had someone call me out of the blue and give me a credit card. This was a SCENE rewards card from Scotiabank.

I should have turned the guy down, because I didn't need the card, and I doubt the rewards program is worth it to me, but it seemed the easiest way to get off the phone was to say yes. And, I thought, what the hey?--I don't have to put any effort into getting this card... (Why SCENE rewards is not a big deal to me: I don't go to movies all that much, and it's not the cost that keeps me away; it's the people and the crowds and the fact that it's just not a good experience in general.)

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I get a phone call from the closest Scotiabank branch. They had my credit card and I needed to come in to pick it up with two pieces of ID. What the fuck, Scotiabank? I started this story by saying this, but it bears repeating: I have lots of credit cards. I have never, ever had to pick up a credit card at a bank branch. Has Scotiabank not heard of the fucking mail?

So, anyway, I made the decision that I wasn't going to pick up the card. It was a stupid situation, I certainly didn't need the card, and I didn't want to deal with actually going into the bank branch. I was curious what would happen. I expected that they would eventually mail it to me.

Over the next month, Scotiabank sent me various letters reminding me to pick up my card--oh, so you do know about the mail system, Scotiabank!?--as well as the first two statements on the account. There were also a few calls from telemarketers asking how I liked the card so far, to which I responded that I didn't have it yet. When they asked why I hadn't picked it up yet, I told them that that was a hassle I didn't need.

This week I got my last letter from Scotiabank. Without any fanfare or explanation, it read that my account had been canceled. I guess you win this round, Scotiabank!

Oh, so I'm curling after all!

Well, shit, I have to cut this post short, because I just got the call. We are playing a late game this week (8:45--it's normally 6:45), and someone couldn't make it. Six weeks in a row for the cost of three! Good deal!

Week in Review, Nov 12 to 18

This is a packed Week in Review from an uncharacteristically busy week in my life. It was a challenge to fit all of the following content into a week that also included one restaurant meal with family, one night out at a friend's place, one brew day, one restaurant meal with friends, one restaurant meal as a first date, and one curling game followed by wings and drinks. Not that I'm complaining--I wish all weeks were as excellent as this one was!

The Week in Books

One of the first things I did when I learned that I was soon to be a single guy again was to place an Amazon order for the first seven novels written by Kurt Vonnegut. This was inspired by a couple of friends who strongly recommended that I start reading some of his work. I made the decision to read them in order of publication, so I started with his 1952 debut novel, Player Piano in August. Player Piano was an entertaining and effective warning against the dangers of automation, told with a smart satirical voice. Plot and character-wise, it reminded me a little of my favourite movie, Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

I started on Kurt Vonnegut's second novel, The Sirens of Titan (1959), in early September. Unfortunately, I stalled on it early on, not because I wasn't enjoying it--because I was--but because I wasn't in the mood to read, and then shortly thereafter Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth became my reading priority. So, after finally completing Dawkins' book last weekend, I leaped back into The Sirens of Titan. Vonnegut's second novel is impressively different from his first, told in a much different voice--frequently reminding me of Douglas Adams and his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, actually--and featuring much less endearing, much more flawed, yet still equally interesting characters learning how little free will human beings actually have. The novel is seemingly disjointed at first, but it all comes together brilliantly in the end. I'm having a very hard time deciding which of the first two Vonnegut novels is my favourite so far; I'm definitely looking forward to diving into Mother Night (1961) next.

The Week in Music

Dashboard Confessional's Alter the Ending was released on November 10, but as is usual with new music, I learned this a week late. This is certainly no The Shade of Poison Trees, which was the best Dashboard album since The Swiss Army Romance for me, but it's still pretty good. I appreciate the Deluxe Edition's inclusion of a second CD with acoustic versions of all twelve songs, as I've never liked Dashboard's full band stuff nearly as much as the acoustic stuff. Highlights for me after the first many listens are "Get Me Right," "Belle of the Boulevard," "The Motions," and the title track.

The Week in Video Games

In this day and age of almost life-like 3D graphics, am I interested in a new 2D side-scrolling Mario game? Fuck, yeah, I am! The last few days of this week have been all about "New Super Mario Bros. Wii," easily the best game to grace my Wii since the awesome "Super Mario Galaxy." I am still early in the game (completed 4-1), but I have faith in Nintendo's magic touch with Mario games to keep it interesting throughout. The first few worlds do a great job of introducing many of the new twists to the 2D Mario formula, and I am already encountering challenges in the collection of all of the star coins and finding the secret level exits. Daisy is pretty confused about why I keep swearing at the television. Ultimately, this game is a beautiful refinement of what made Super Mario Bros. 3 the greatest NES game ever made, with a fair bit of Super Mario World thrown in for good measure. And then there's multiplayer!--which I haven't had a chance to try yet.

My only other recent video game purchase, Bioware's "Dragon Age: Origins," has been sitting more or less unplayed on my computer for two weeks. I took an hour or two to create and fully customize my first character, an Elvish mage named Tosc, and then started playing and was immediately turned off by the fact that my mouse's scroll wheel is not functional in the game, and that is a pretty critical element for controlling the viewpoint of the action. This is a known compatibility problem with Microsoft IntelliPoint products. I'm now in wait mode for it to be fixed. Or one of these days I'll "borrow" a non-Microsoft mouse from work...

The Week in Television

Last week's show purge gave me some breathing room this week to fit all these remaining shows into my busy schedule. The only TV content from this week that I didn't have time for was the new Doctor Who special, "The Waters of Mars." I should have time to watch that this coming weekend.

Thursday, November 12th
Loved: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x9)
Liked: 30 Rock (4x5), Fringe (2x7), The Office (6x10), Parks and Recreation (2x9)

This was another funny Thursday night. I wasn't a huge fan of The Office's "Murder," because it was one of those too far out there to be believable episodes, but it certainly had lots of laughs, and the movement on the Andy and Erin front was excellent. Parks and Recreation had an above average night with "The Camel," getting good laughs out of Andy and Ron, and especially Tom with his shapes. "The Problem Solvers" episode of 30 Rock was solid, featuring some great scenes with Liz and Jack, and making unusually good use of the terrible twosome Tracy & Jenna as the new polite Canadian castmember forced them to reconsider the ways they use Kenneth, much to Kenneth's chagrin as a guy that wants to be used. "Mac and Dennis Break Up" was my favourite episode of Always Sunny this season, hilariously focusing on the terribly unhealthy, but somehow functional relationships within the gang.

The best part of Fringe's "Of Human Action" was the ending, where we finally received confirmation that Nina Sharp and Massive Dynamic are big fat lying liars. The rest of the episode was solid, albeit unremarkable.

Friday, November 13th
Loved: Stargate Universe (1x8)

"Time" was the best episode of Stargate Universe to date. Initially, I was a little turned off by the dramatic device of showing so much of the action through the "eyes" of a Kino, but after the first big reveal of what the fuck was going on, it all made sense and worked perfectly. I also appreciated that the ending displayed a stunning amount of faith in the intelligence of the audience.

Saturday, November 14th
Loved: Legend of the Seeker (2x2)

Legend of the Seeker's "Baneling" was an excellent follow-up to the season premiere, developing the ongoing Stone of Tears storyline while also maintaining a much stronger episodic focus. This episode also featured some of the best action sequences of the series to date. Thankfully, the addition of Cara to the team is working out very well so far. There was nothing on TV this week that I enjoyed more than Legend of the Seeker, but I'm a fantasy geek of the highest order. It is also the show that I look forward to the most each week (Dexter is very close, though), at least until Lost returns.

Sunday, November 15th
Loved: Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x9), Dexter (4x8)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x8)

Dexter and Trinity took a road trip in "Road Kill," another strong episode. It's pretty tough to discuss this episode without spoiling it, so I'll leave it at that. I say this every week, but I still don't know how there can be four episodes left in the Trinity storyline; but I'm pretty excited to find out. In the most important subplots, Deb learned something surprising from her wounds and Quinn is still digging for dirt on Dexter while being played by the reporter. There's plenty of material in the subplots for four more episodes.

"The Table Read" brought the entire cast of Seinfeld back to Curb Your Enthusiasm again, including hilarious guest appearances from Bania and Newman. Jason Alexander got some big laughs again with his undisguised hatred of Larry, but the highlight was Michael Richards meeting Leon. In a very amusing subplot, Larry is tormented by the text messages of a nine year old fan. I'm really looking forward to next week's big Seinfeld reunion finale.

Monday, November 16th
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x8), Heroes (4x10)
Meh: House (6x7)

The Big Bang Theory's "The Adhesive Duck Deficiency" was again good but not great. I didn't need to see Leonard, Wolowitz, and Raj get stoned and get the munchies; although pot humour hasn't previously been used on this show, it is overly tread ground in comedy in general and is tiresome to me. Fortunately, the Sheldon and Penny half of the episode was much stronger, with Sheldon having to play reluctant hero after Penny hurt herself in the shower.

Heroes' "Brother's Keeper" proved that it is possible to include all of the main cast in a single episode, although some characters may get little screen time (Noah) or a terrible subplot (Claire and Tracy). The meat of this episode was about finding out what happened to Mohinder nine months ago, getting some background on Samuel, and finally reuniting Sylon with Sylar while also letting Nathan know that he has been dead all season. The important stuff was reasonably well handled.

Wednesday, November 18th
Liked: Glee (1x10), Modern Family (1x8), South Park (13x14)

"Ballads" was a much better episode of Glee than last week's "Wheels," with a number of strong musical moments, and some major plot developments in the Quinn and Finn storyline. And Rachel's crush on Will brought the funny; the "Don't Stand So Close to Me" / "Young Girl" mashup was easily the highlight of the episode. But where's Ken Tanaka?--he's been MIA for two episodes in a row and that is a damn shame!

Modern Family's "Great Expectations" was frequently funny, but still probably my least favourite episode to date. Ed Norton's guest appearance as a washed up 80s musician was too ridiculous for this show. The funniest stuff came from Phil's talking head moments, especially his rattling off a list of gifts that Claire could have bought him, and Mitchel and Cameron meeting their friend Sal.

In season finale "Pee," South Park provided a cautionary tale about the danger of too much pee in the water park. This was a completely ridiculous parody of 2012 and other disaster movies, perfectly executed once you accept the premise. Meanwhile, Cartman makes a mathematical discovery that the population growth of minorities will cause the Mayan apocalypse.

Week in Review, Nov 5 to 11

Yay! As mentioned in a post last week, I've finally cracked the mental barrier that was impeding my ability to sit and read a book, instead of sitting and only watching TV for hours on end. This is great because I have at least ten books on my bedroom dresser waiting to be read.

The Week in Books

First up: it was about damn time that I finished Richard Dawkins' excellent The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. This book is a beautiful summary of... well, it's all there in the title of the book. Dawkins' previous book, The God Delusion, is one of my favourite non-fiction books (along with Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy and Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma), but it's easy to accuse it of preaching to the choir; it may convince some fence sitters to cross into atheism, but believers aren't going to bother even reading the whole thing. Despite Dawkins' outspoken atheism, The Greatest Show on Earth only peripherally deals with religious objections to evolution (mostly in regards to the fucking morons--Dawkins more kindly refers to them as "history deniers"--out there that argue against geology, biology, history, and physics and try to claim that the earth and man were created less than 10,000 years ago because The Bible says so). This is a book about laying out the evidence for evolution--and there is a lot of it that I wasn't even aware of--in a clear, concise, entertaining way. Dawkins has a witty style, very conversational and accessible. I challenge anyone that thinks that evolution is "just a theory" to read this book.

The Week in Television

I finally had an opportunity this week to see the excellent last four episodes of Defying Gravity, albeit in shitty Space Channel low resolution quality. If a Blu-ray was on the way, I would have waited, but it sounds like the series is only getting a DVD release, which is bullshit. I now refuse to buy DVD releases of series filmed in high definition. I have the same problem with the recent DVD release of "Legend of the Seeker." I want to own the show and rewatch it all, but I won't pay for 480p when I originally watched it for free in 720p. Anyway, I digress. Since Defying Gravity was never meant to end after only 13 episodes, there are obviously a lot of issues left hanging with the season/series finale, but what little resolution is offered is quite satisfying. Defying Gravity was a slow paced show, relying on the relationships between the characters for drama, while also being heavily serialized and taking place in space, so it's not too surprising that it never caught on with the general population--especially since it was premiered during summer for some stupid fucking reason! I have added this show to my list of favourite one-season wonders: Firefly, Wonderfalls, Jake 2.0, and The Lone Gunmen.

Now that the World Series is done with, most of FOX's TV shows returned this week (no Dollhouse until December), and I found myself struggling to keep up with all of these series. If Wednesday hadn't been a holiday, it would have been a lost cause. As a consequence, it's time to start purging the shows that are consistently Meh or lower. In October, I was happy to have so many of hours of TV to watch each week, but now I want to have time for other pursuits, like reading and music and some gaming--and maybe even some dating. Fortunately, in the next few weeks, a good number of shows I am watching now will be over for the season, and for the others, December hiatus is on the way.

Thursday, November 5th
Loved: The Office (6x8)
Liked: 30 Rock (4x4), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x8), Parks and Recreation (2x8)
Meh: Fringe (2x6), The Mentalist (2x6)

It was another strong Thursday for comedies. The Office's "Double Date" had the perfect balance of heart, uncomfortableness, and hilarity; I enjoyed the first half more than the second, finding Michael's realization that Pam's mom wasn't right for him, and his terribly awkward way of handling that, a lot more enjoyable than Pam's revenge. Parks and Recreation's "Ron and Tammy" was goofy and silly and way over-the-top, but I couldn't help but laugh at every mention of the evil "Library." I think "Audition Day" was my favourite 30 Rock episode so far this season, although I'm at a loss to say why. The highlight of Always Sunny's "Paddy's Pub: Home of the Original Kitten Mittens" was Charlie's Kitten Mittens commercial; the rest of the episode was my least favourite of the season, although it was still pretty damn funny.

The dramas didn't fare as well. Fringe had a mostly mediocre outing with "Earthling"--too standalone and X-Files rip-offy--although the focus on Broyles was an interesting change of pace. The Mentalist's "Black Gold and Red Blood" again had an interesting premise (Jane in jail), but the ridiculous ease with which Jane can influence everyone and plan everything perfectly is becoming tiresome. I'm officially calling it quits with The Mentalist as of this week; if the Red John storyline is ever resolved, I'll tune in for that one last episode.

Friday, November 6th
Liked: Stargate Universe (1x7), Legend of the Seeker (2x1)

Stargate Universe had a much better week than last with "Earth," an episode that made excellent use of the series' body-swapping communication stones conceit. There was some very good material with Eli, who is easily the best character on the show. I was excited to see Martin Gero's name in the writing credits, as he was a big reason why I enjoyed Stargate Atlantis as much as I did, but unfortunately he's not a producer on SGU.

Legend of the Seeker's second season got off to a reasonably strong start with "Marked," an episode that effectively introduced the season's big bad (the Keeper of the Underworld) and quest (the search for the Stone of Tears), and also had time to establish Richard as the new Rahl and bring Cara into the fold. It was almost too much, making the episode feel quite unfocused. Despite this, I'm very excited to see what happens next. Good or bad, there are no other shows like Legend of the Seeker on TV right now.

Sunday, November 8th
Loved: Dexter (4x7)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x7), Bored to Death (1x8), Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x8)
Meh: American Dad (5x5), Family Guy (8x4, 8x5)

Dexter's "Slack Tide" seemed to be the calm before the storm, although it wasn't by any means a filler episode. There were important developments for Deb, Dexter made a big mistake, and Quinn looks to be picking up where Doakes left off two seasons ago. And Dexter and Trinity cut down a tree and killed a deer together--it sounds weird, but it worked. I still can't figure out how there can be five episodes left this season...

Bored to Death's season finale, "Take a Dive," was a strange episode. There was some hilarious stuff, especially with Ray and his boxing opponent, and there were a few important developments for all of the characters, but the second half of the episode (ie. the boxing matches) was quite flat. I'll most likely tune in for the second season, but I'm not at all concerned about the wait.

I enjoyed Curb Your Enthusiasm's "Officer Krupke," but it's in the lower tier of episodes this season. It was pretty amusing to see Larry walking around for a couple days with a security tag on his pants, and his talk with the store clerk about his lost pants was hilarious, but Larry's altercation with the kids at the lemonade stand was too much. However, the way everything tied together in the end was classic Curb.

I am really getting bored with Fox's Sunday animated comedies. This week's double dose of Family Guy was okay, and American Dad was better than most this season, but I'm thinking that if I'm not enjoying these shows anymore, why do I keep watching? I find that I barely pay attention while watching them, instead surfing the internet or writing emails or blogging. It's a healthy choice to stop bothering with these shows. There was no The Simpsons this week, but since new episodes of The Simpsons are generally even worse than Family Guy and American Dad, it's also included in this decision.

Monday, November 9th
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x7), Heroes (4x9)
Meh: House (6x6)

"The Guitarist Amplification" was an average The Big Bang Theory episode. Leonard and Penny's conflict was realistic, although I think Penny came off as pretty insensitive because she didn't relent earlier. The best scenes involved the comic book store, and I'm loving the owner's crush on Penny. Sheldon is always an over-the-top character, but there were some moments this week that took it a little too far for me.

Heroes had a stronger week than usual with "Shadowboxing," with all three threads offering something interesting. For the first time this season, I enjoyed the Matt/Sylon scenes. The Peter and Emma storyline continued walking its fine line between endearing and completely pointless. And I didn't hate Claire this week. Plus, Nathan finally returned, and it's always nice to see the Haitian.

House's "Known Unknowns" did not do much for me. It was just there. There were some good scenes with House and Wilson, but the rest was unremarkable. I'm approaching Mentalist-like levels of apathy for House, and don't know how long I'll continue watching.

Tuesday, November 10th
Meh: V (1x2)

Unless people start raving about V as this season proceeds, "There is No Normal Anymore" will be my last episode. I adore Alan Tudyk, and he's almost enough to keep me watching... but this show is thoroughly mediocre. Joel Gretsch and Elizabeth Mitchell are doing about as much as they can do with their thinly written roles, and Morena Baccarin is killing it as Anna, but the rest of the cast is a waste of screen time.

Wednesday, November 11th
Liked: Glee (1x9), South Park (13x13)

With "Wheels," Glee finally spread more of the musical load amongst the secondary characters, giving Artie and Kurt their first solos, with Artie's rendition of "Dancing With Myself" a particular highlight. This was a filler episode with no major plot developments, but it was still enjoyable and had plenty of good character moments.

In South Park's "Dances with Smurfs," Cartman takes over the morning announcements (after the hilariously intense on-air death of Gordon) and, of course, runs with it in the most inappropriate way possible, turning morning announcements into a platform for his politics. This is a pretty good satire of many FOX News talking heads and their completely absurd conspiracy theories. It culminates in a hilarious film where Cartman infiltrates the lives of the Smurfs, because school president Wendy is planning to kill the Smurfs for their Smurf berries... You have to watch it to believe it.

Week in Review, Oct 29 to Nov 4

The Week in Music

This week's notable new music release is Weezer's "Raditude." Unfortunately, there's very little that's notable about the album itself. There are a few catchy songs, sure, but the lyrics are pretty awful throughout, and I really don't need Lil Wayne with my Weezer, thank you very much. Even 2008's inconsistent "Red Album" is better than this. The best tracks are probably "Put Me Back Together" and "I Don't Want to Let You Go." I've been listening to the Deluxe Edition which includes five bonus songs, with "Underdogs" standing out as something special.

The Week in Television

This week featured the DVD/Blu-ray release of Battlestar Galactica's final content (boo!): "The Plan." With impressive skill, the storyline weaves between footage from the mini-series and the first two seasons of the show, giving some background on what Cavill and the Cylons were up to during this time. It doesn't always work perfectly, but I definitely admired the attempt. I question the addition of a new character at this stage, but almost everything else worked brilliantly.

Thursday, October 29th
Liked: 30 Rock (4x3), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x7), The Office (6x7), Parks and Recreation (2x7)
Meh: The Mentalist (2x5)

The Thursday comedies were all solid this week. The Office's "Koi Pond" had plenty of good laughs; I especially enjoyed the Pam and Andy (and Erin) B-story. Parks and Recreation had a strong week with Leslie's hilarious battle vs "Greg Pikitis." Jack and Liz traveled to Kenneth's hometown in 30 Rock's "Stone Mountain," but the best laughs came from the celebrity death rule of 3s and a gay Halloween party back at the studio. In Always Sunny, "The Gang [Wrestled] for the Troops" vs poor Rickety Criket with expectedly hilarious results.

The Mentalist's Halloween ghost story episode "Red Scare" started interesting and quickly devolved into typical predictability. The characters in this show are just barely good enough to keep me watching despite the weakness of the weekly mysteries.

Friday, October 30th
Liked: Stargate Universe (1x6)

Stargate Universe's "Water" was a good but not great episode of this young series. The sequences on the ice planet played out like every "crew member in jeopardy" episode of Star Treks and Stargates past. However, it was nice to see further exploration of the alien lifeform introduced in the third part of "Air."

Sunday, November 1st
Loved: Dexter (4x6)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x6), Bored to Death (1x7), Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x7)

Dexter's "If I Had a Hammer" was another very strong episode, albeit much slower paced than the past couple of weeks. It's still hard to believe that the plot is at this stage only halfway through the season, and I really wonder how the writers can get six more episodes out of the Dexter and Trinity relationship when Dexter is so eager to finish off Trinity. There was also some very good stuff with Deb in this episode.

Curb Your Enthusiasm's "The Black Swan" was another excellent episode, full of terrific moments and with the welcome return of Larry's father. Bored to Death won me back with "The Case of the Stolen Sperm," possibly the best episode to date thanks to the unexpected resolution to Ray's season-long sperm donation storyline and the hilarious cliffhanger.

Monday, November 2nd
Liked: The Big Bang Theory (3x6), Heroes (4x8)

Heroes' "Once Upon a Time in Texas" was a desperate yet somewhat successful attempt to recapture some glory, revisiting one of the best storylines from season one: Hiro and Charlie. One of the things that annoyed me about "Acceptance" earlier this season was the complete disregard for the time travel rules the series has established: Hiro was somehow reliving the same moments of his day over and over, when he really should have been running into his original timeline self over and over. Fortunately, the time travel rules were respected in this episode--mostly. It's pretty tough to buy in to the idea that Hiro's encounters here with season one Sylar wouldn't have drastically changed the events that followed; however, I'll grant a little dramatic license when an episode is this entertaining. It is nice to actually enjoy a Hiro storyline for a change. The writers did their best to try to ruin the episode with a completely unnecessary B-story involving Noah, but the Hiro and Charlie and Sylar material worked well enough to earn a Liked.

The Big Bang Theory's "The Cornhusker Vortex" was a good but not great episode. Sheldon schooling Leonard on football was fun, but Leonard's awkward use of those lessons with Penny's friends was too cringeworthy. I preferred the B-story with Raj and Howard's "marital" problems.

Tuesday, November 3rd
Meh: V (1x1)

I wanted to like V's "Pilot" more than I did. The series definitely has potential, now that most of the awkwardly staged setup is (hopefully) done with. The terrorist cell storyline didn't work for me at all; and I really hated to see Alan Tudyk so wasted here. But the scenes on the alien space ship were better. And I like most of the cast so far.

Wednesday, November 4th
Loved: Modern Family (1x7)
Liked: South Park (13x12)

Modern Family's "En Garde" was one of the best episodes to date, with non-stop laughs and some of the best moments in the series since Phil stole the wrong bike. The figure skating in the parking lot was hilarious, as was the scene with the slippery stairs.

Big Gay Al--awesome! With "The F Word," an episode that wasn't so much comedy as it was social commentary on the power we give words, South Park cleverly redefined the meaning and usage of "fag." Sure, there was funny stuff, but this was an episode that delivered more with its message than its laughs. So, from now on, everyone remember: fags are Harley riders!

Blogging before bed

Yep, this is another one of those posts.

Acceptance

I realized something this Sunday, as I marathoned five episodes of the completely crazy True Blood, wrote a new song on my guitar, and read a couple more chapters of Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth: I was finally actually enjoying my alone time. I've mentioned it before on this blog, but I used to love my alone time; however, having nothing but alone time after my ex-wife moved out took all the joy out of it. It wasn't the TV watching that clued me in--that's pretty much all I've been doing for two months--it was the reading and the writing music. I haven't been able to sit quietly and read more than a couple pages at a time for over a month. And I hadn't even touched my guitar since writing the About Me - Singer-songwriter post.

Everyone is familiar with the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. One of my favourite scenes in The Simpsons history has Homer burning through all of them in record time. In the past four months, I've seemingly gone through two separate cycles of grief. The first cycle, coming to grips with the fact that the separation was going to happen, consumed the last week of July and the first two weeks of August. The second cycle, which is the cycle relevant to this post, started in September and has haunted my alone time for nearly two months; this cycle was about me coming to terms with being alone.

You could argue that the second cycle was just an extension of the first, but I feel it was a separate experience consisting of all five stages. This blog post from October 6 (and the comment that follows) is a beautiful example of denial, anger, and bargaining all in one day; my brother was definitely on to something here. Any reasonable person knows that the stages aren't cut and dry (it's also easy to argue that the whole concept is bullshit, but that's not helpful to this post). You don't necessarily drop the anger as you step into bargaining. There is overlap, there is regression, and the stages don't always develop in the same order.

The second cycle's depression really hit me hard late in October, right around this somewhat deceptively upbeat blog post from October 20. I kept myself sane with fun distractions: TV, homebrewing, and curling. On Sunday the 25th, I managed to distract myself by watching nearly 12 hours of entertaining TV in a row, but as soon as I had no TV left to distract, I found myself sinking back into despair unlike anything I have ever known. Going to bed alone with nothing but depressing thoughts was completely awful and very distressing. Much of the last two weeks in October was nearly unbearable at home and at work. I couldn't even bring myself to blog about it, because I was struggling to put into words what exactly was going on.

With time comes acceptance. And with acceptance comes understanding. I'm not sure exactly when the change happened, and there is certainly no specific reason, but what is important is that it has happened. One of the early clues came mid-week last week when I was able to just sit and listen to music, rather than needing a more active distraction for my mind. For the last few days, I haven't felt any of the distress and despair that dominated my mind throughout October. I still have worries about the future and frustrations about the here and now, but it doesn't matter nearly as much anymore.

I have come to accept my alone time as a good thing. It's a big fucking relief!

What do you mean there's a completely free online dating site that nearly everyone uses?!?

I just learned yesterday about PlentyOfFish. This is a completely free online dating site created and maintained by one guy in Vancouver. No bullshit subscriptions are required for anything. And unlike other free classifieds options, the look and feel and features are nearly as good as the paid sites. And nearly every single person I've communicated with on the other paid sites is listed there for free. Fuck me! Well, at least I know about it now and can save my money in the future...

Week in Review, Oct 22 to 28

Just TV again this week. I am hopeful that next week's Week in Review will include the first The Week in Books entry (or, at worst, the week after next). My reading time has been disappointingly sporadic of late, but I think that'll turn around soon.

The Week in Television

Since this was a lighter week of scheduled TV (because of Fox's baseball coverage) and I have absolutely no life, I had an opportunity on Sunday to marathon a couple shows that I had fallen behind in. First up was Stargate Universe. And then it was time for Glee. Both will now be added to my weekly viewing--not that I needed more shows to watch, but this shit is too good to skip.

Now that I am caught up, Stargate Universe will be the first Stargate series I watch on a weekly basis. Since the original Stargate movie was so awful, I didn't really have any interest when the original Stargate SG1 series was launched. Even after hearing from multiple sources that it was pretty good, it took until the show was in its seventh season on the air for me to sample the first season on DVD. And it was pretty good--I'd describe it as Star-Trek-lite. It took a while, but I eventually worked my way through all ten seasons on DVD, and I did enjoy the show, most of the time. I'm not a huge fan of the Stargate SG1 universe (the Goa'uld always came off as cheesy villains, never intimidating), but the show never took itself too seriously and was generally fun and entertaining. SG1's first spin-off was Stargate Atlantis, the Deep Space Nine of the Stargate saga, in more ways than one. This past summer I watched the entire SGA series on DVD, and I really enjoyed it. I was surprised how good it was. Better mythology, better writing, better characters (Rodney McKay FTW!). Stargate Universe is the second spin-off of SG1, and it will hopefully not end up being the Voyager of the Stargate saga, despite borrowing the "trapped at the far end of the universe" premise. So far, so good! I watched the first five episodes on Sunday and I was sad when I realized I had to wait a week for episode six. SGU has a lot of similarities to SGA, but has borrowed most of its look and style from Battlestar Galactica--definitely a smart move!--and is developing some very promising storylines. I'm unsure at this point if SGU has the quality characters of SGA or BSG, but there is definitely a lot of potential.

People have been raving about Glee since its pilot was sneak previewed earlier this year. I remember seeing a short snippet of the show back then and wondering who would want to watch that shit. Now that I've seen the pilot in its entirety, I have to admit that I was an idiot to judge the show by one scene seen out of context. This is unquestionably the most entertaining new show of the season. I watched seven out of the eight episodes of this show in a row on Sunday, and I only stopped because I had to go to bed at a reasonable time. The musical numbers are always the highlight, especially episode six's two mash-ups and every appearance of "Don't Stop Believing." The characters are terrific, the storylines are ridiculous, and the relationships are completely fucked up, especially amongst the adults. The only problem I foresee with this show is that the concept has a very limited shelf life.

Thursday, October 22nd
Liked: 30 Rock (4x2), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x6), The Office (6x6)
Meh: Parks and Recreation (2x6)

The Thursday comedies were stronger this week than last, but nothing was particularly excellent. Although "Kaboom" was a big episode for moving the show forward (because the hole was finally filled), Parks and Recreation is squandering all of its early season potential lately with dumb plotlines and a lack of laughs. The Office's "The Lover" was pretty funny, but it was even more awkward and uncomfortable. It made sense for Pam to be initially upset about Michael and her mom, but her unwavering anger was taken too far. "Into the Crevasse" was a typical 30 Rock episode: completely absurd but pretty damn funny. Always Sunny's "The World Series Defense" had a good setup and even better execution--loved the grain alcohol jugs and the return of Greenman!

Friday, October 23rd
Loved: Dollhouse (2x4), Stargate Universe (1x5)

It's now pretty much a done deal that Dollhouse will be done before Christmas. It remains to be seen whether the show will get all 13 episodes of its second season on the air. Dollhouse is not airing during November sweeps, which means a long four week hiatus after this week's "Belonging," one of the best episodes of the series to date. Although I personally have no problems with the typical Echo imprint-of-the-week episodes, Dollhouse is always at its best when it breaks formula. Even better, this episode wasn't about Echo at all, focusing on Sierra's past and present and answering some lingering questions from the first season. It is also interesting how much I've come to like the character Topher, considering he was probably my least favourite character at the beginning of the series.

I've already written a lot about Stargate Universe in this Week in Review, but I did want to mention that episode five, "Light," was probably the best episode to date of the series, despite the inevitability of the ending. I appreciate that the series is taking time out to let the characters experience the wonders of the universe around them with the observation deck concept, and that the special effects in these sequences are pretty astounding at times. I'm a little concerned that the ending here has killed the "How will they survive?" suspense that was central to the drama up to this point, but I trust Brad Wright to keep this series interesting.

Sunday, October 25th
Loved: Dexter (4x5)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x5),
Meh: Bored to Death (1x6), Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x6)

Dexter's "Dirty Harry" was another winner. This season seems to be moving at a ridiculously quick pace. I would have expected the events of this episode to play out much later in the season, but I will trust that the writers know what they are doing. Can't wait for next week!

Neither Curb Your Enthusiasm nor Bored to Death brought their A-game this week. There was some good stuff with poor Richard Lewis to slightly enliven Curb's strangely dull "The Bare Midriff," but the absurdity of Larry getting arrested for stealing napkins was really pushing it. The pot humour in Bored's "The Case of the Beautiful Blackmailer" was tiresome, but I did appreciate the episode's ending. Curb Your Enthusiasm has had such a strong season that I don't mind one weaker outing, but Bored To Death is starting to lose me and is definitely no longer my favourite new show this year.

Monday, October 26th
Disliked: Heroes (4x7)

"Strange Attractors" was a pretty terrible episode of Heroes. The trend this season is to alternate characters from week to week, because there are apparently too many to include in each episode. So, no Hiro, and by extension, no Charlie this week. Fuck that shit! I even missed Peter, and I don't really like Peter. Instead, we get more nonsense with Parkman and Sylon, Noah and Tracy unable to save healer boy from redneck justice, and Claire saving Gretchen from invisible girl in the most wrong-headed storyline of the episode. At least the episode ended with a pretty cool example of Samuel's powers.

Wednesday, October 28th
Liked: Modern Family (1x6), South Park (13x11)

This week's Modern Family was probably the weakest episode to date, but it still had plenty of good laughs thanks to Phil and Cameron. I don't have much else to say about it.

I am not familiar with the reality show that South Park was mocking with "Whale Whores," but the absurdity of the opening moments of this episode was pretty awesome. When it shifted into reality show parody, it was pretty funny, but I imagine it would be even funnier with more familiarity of "Whale Wars," or whatever the real show is called. I did laugh pretty hard at the Larry King interview, though. And the ending was goofy, but it worked.

Week in Review, Oct 15 to 21

The Week in Television

Thursday, October 15th
Liked: 30 Rock (4x1), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (5x5)
Meh: Fringe (2x5), The Mentalist (2x4), The Office (6x5)
Disliked: Parks and Recreation (2x5)

Hoo boy, this was a weak Thursday. The normally reliable The Office had an off week with "Mafia," with too much sitcom-like silliness and not nearly enough Jim and Pam to balance it out. Fringe was back in mediocre X-Files rip-off mode with "Dream Logic." The Mentalist was predictable and boring. And Parks and Recreation's "Sister City" was almost completely awful. 30 Rock's season premiere was easily the best thing on NBC this Thursday, but it wasn't a particularly strong episode either. Fortunately, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia featured the return of the waitress and was very funny.

Sunday, October 18th
Loved: Curb Your Enthusiasm (7x5), Dexter (4x4)
Liked: The Amazing Race (15x4), Bored to Death (1x5)
Meh: American Dad (5x5), The Simpsons (21x4)

The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror XX" was not the worst Halloween episode ever, but it was still well below average. I barely even remember watching this week's American Dad; it was just there. The results of this week's Amazing Race leg went a long way towards making up for last week's. And Bored to Death continued its streak of good but not great episodes with "The Case of the Lonely White Dove."

Curb Your Enthusiasm's "Denise Handicapped" was the funniest show of the week, largely because Larry actually had to face some consequences for pulling his typical bullshit. His conflict with Rosie O'Donnell was hilarious, and the meeting of his two handicapped dates was handled brilliantly.

Dexter was thankfully back to his murderer murdering ways with "Dex Takes a Holiday." And it was a top notch episode all around. Plus the ending was a complete surprise. I am definitely excited to see what happens next in this very strong fourth season.

Monday, October 19th
Loved: The Big Bang Theory (3x5)
Liked: House (6x5)
Meh: Heroes (4x6)

House's "Brave Heart" was an interesting episode that would have played even better if the promos hadn't spoiled all of the surprises. The most interesting thing about Heroes' "Tabula Rasa" was the promise of the return of Charlie; otherwise, it was bland and boring.

The Big Bang Theory's "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" guest starred the awesome Wil Wheaton playing evil Wil Wheaton, Sheldon's nemesis. Disappointingly, because it was hilarious, this was the B story of the episode and didn't get a lot of screen time. Fortunately, the A story was nearly as funny, with Penny setting Wolowitz up on a initially disastrous date with one of her friends.

Wednesday, October 21st
Loved: South Park (13x10)
Liked: Modern Family (1x5)

South Park's "W.T.F." was a terrific episode--genius, even. It's hard to believe that Trey and Matt haven't tackled the subject of wrestling yet in all the seasons of South Park. But I'm glad they finally did, with hilarious results. And they even killed Kenny for the first time in forever.

Modern Family had another strong episode this week. This cast is pretty damn amazing, and they really bring the funny. I'm finding that I really look forward to Wednesday nights because of this show. (Since I have to download South Park to watch it, I look forward to Thursday after work for South Park.)

About Me - Geek and Nerd

I have some more specific geeky topics coming soon in the About Me Blog Series, but first I have this general post to introduce how much of a fucking geek I really am. The fact that I am writing this post has clearly established that fact already, but sit back while the full extent of my geekiness is unleashed.

Before I start, it is important to try to define the terms "Geek" and "Nerd." Some people that are probably not geeks nor nerds might try to argue that there is no difference between these two terms; those people are wrong. However, not every geek and/or nerd will agree what that difference is. Google "geek vs nerd" and be prepared to read a hundred different takes on this dichotomy. However, every geek and/or nerd I know is a fan of the following Venn diagram, so I am going to present it as gospel:



I'm going to assume that my audience, consisting almost entirely of geeks and/or nerds, knows how to read a Venn diagram; in fact, the vast majority have probably already seen this. If this is new to you, don't get distracted by the addition of "Dweeb" and "Dork" to the diagram. Although I have definitely been called a dork numerous times throughout my life, those people were just misusing the term. I don't recall ever been called a dweeb, but that wouldn't have been too inaccurate. Anyway, that Venn diagram pretty much perfectly defines "Geek" and "Nerd," so now I can move on.

I personally consider myself to be more of a geek now, but I was definitely more of a nerd in school. The "more of a" qualifier is important, because I do consider myself to be both a geek and a nerd. Depending on the situation, I may drift in and out of the "Social Ineptitude" circle.

But, wait, how can that be? Someone is either socially inept or they aren't, right? I'd argue that the degree of social ineptitude can change significantly depending on circumstance. Even the nerdiest nerd probably has nerdy friends, and when with those friends, any social awkwardness will seem less significant. Compared to many of my friends in high school, I was borderline cool, but there was no question amongst the greater population of the school that I was a fucking nerd. There's some macrocosm vs microcosm shit involved here.

In high school and much of university, I was definitely socially inept--I was a nerd of the highest order. In high school, I dressed terribly, wore huge glasses, was a teacher's pet, and spent most of my Friday and Saturday nights at home. In university, I still dressed terribly, wore the same huge glasses, was fat, treated most people as beneath me, and spent most of my Friday and Saturday nights in the Engineering computer lab to get away from the noise of partying. Good times.

At some point, I became more socially aware. Without saying too much, it definitely had something to do with a certain person coming into my life. Suddenly I was aware of how terribly I was dressing, how out of fashion my glasses were, how fat I had become, and how much I had been wasting my life by avoiding social encounters. I broke out of my nerd shell and crossed into geekdom.

I am an introvert; this will never change. When hanging out with large groups of people, I tend to blend into the background, because I am not the type of person to interject into a conversation. If I am asked a question, I will respond. In the rare event that someone says something offensive about Star Trek or The Lord of the Rings, I may jump in to tell that person that he or she is a fucking idiot. But generally I will quietly observe and listen, and only speak when spoken to. I probably come off as socially awkward in these situations. When with smaller groups of people, preferably one or two, I believe that I come off better. I hope so at least.

But, anyway, enough said about social ineptitude. There is obviously much more to being a geek and/or nerd than that. Just look at that Venn diagram: you need intelligence and obsession as well.

I won't spend much time discussing intelligence. I am typically an intelligent person, although like everyone, I have done numerous stupid things over the course of my life. Having a good memory (not nearly eidetic, though) has often helped me seem smarter than I probably am, and is certainly responsible for much of my success in school. Memory is also an important component of my geekiness, especially when it comes to remembering useless trivia or facts about my favourite TV series, movies, and books. I don't know what my IQ is--and I don't particularly care--but I am generally strong in the areas of reason, logic, and problem solving, important components of intelligence. I don't think I will get many arguments that I belong in the "Intelligence" circle.

Nor should anyone argue that I belong in the "Obsession" circle. This is the fun area. Each geek and/or nerd is obsessed about something that the majority of the population considers to be lame, often including other geeks and/or nerds. Every geek and/or nerd is intelligent and probably socially awkward, but we all have very different obsessions.

On the mildly geeky side, I have interest in the sciences and engineering. Science shouldn't be considered a geeky interest, but society doesn't always make sense. On the getting geekier side, I have hobbies like homebrewing and computers and video games. But these interests and hobbies, albeit geeky, are not really obsessions.

I am obsessed with numerous sci-fi and fantasy television shows, movies, and books. Much of my spare time is spent indulging this obsession. This is the biggest thing that makes me a huge fucking geek. I have three posts coming up soon in the About Me series that will elaborate on some of my biggest sci-fi/fantasy obsessions of all time: Browncoat and Whedonite, Trekkie/Trekker, and Xenite. All three will be fun and interesting to write, especially the last, which was arguably my biggest obsession of all time.

Except possibly for The Lord of the Rings. This topic is also deserving of its own post, but I am aware of no label for a fan of The Lord of the Rings except geek and/or nerd. So, I guess I will end this post with some LOTR geekiness.

My obsession with The Lord of the Rings started in the summer of 2001. There was a lot of excitement in geek communities about the upcoming movie adaptation from Peter Jackson, and I decided I need to re-read the books before December rolled around and The Fellowship of the Ring hit movie theaters. I had read The Lord of the Rings many years earlier, grade 7 or 8 probably, and I had liked it enough to finish it, but it was a little boring, and it was certainly no Forgotten Realms. In 2001, I found my tastes had changed, and The Lord of the Rings novels blew me away.

But not as much as the movie adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring did. I don't think I will ever have another movie experience so completely satisfying and exhilarating. It was surprisingly faithful to the source material, easily the best fantasy movie ever made, and quite possibly the best movie ever made period. Not only did I see Fellowship numerous times in the theater--nine times, I believe--but I became obsessed with the merchandising of the LOTR movies. I signed up for the fan club magazine, purchased many toy sets, bought any magazine with a LOTR cover story, bought every book about the movies that was released, bought every DVD set released, and began what would play a huge role in my financial undoing: my United Cutlery swords and Sideshow / Weta polystone statues collections.

Collections go hand in hand with geek obsessions. I did not have any intention of starting a collection when I bought my first sword (Sting replica), but it worked so well as wall decor that I decided I needed another sword for another wall. And then another sword for another wall. And you can guess the rest.

My first polystone statue was the Gollum figurine included with the Two Towers Extended Edition DVD gift set. Unlike my sword collection, where I started early on and was able to buy each one as they were released, I now had a two-year back catalog of statues to catch up on. So I got hooked on Ebay. I didn't buy every statue, only the ones that I really liked that weren't super rare and therefore super expensive. But all the statues were pretty expensive for what they are, so I quickly found myself spending way more money than I was earning... and well, that was a different blog post.

I think I saw The Two Towers seven times in the theater. It wasn't as faithful to the source material as Fellowship, nor was it quite as good; but it was still the second best fantasy movie ever made, and featured a battle sequence to die for. And the Extended Edition on DVD rectified many of my problems with it. I can't even begin to count the number of times I have watched Fellowship and Towers on DVD.

I think I have seen The Return of the King only six times, total--four times theatrically and twice on DVD. Not because it wasn't an unbelievably satisfying ending to the trilogy, because it was (although, again, the Extended Edition is way better than what played theatrically), but because it was the ending. One of the major reasons I re-watched Fellowship and Towers multiple times was the anticipation of what was left to come. If I couldn't yet watch the rest of the story, I would re-watch what was available to watch. Finally seeing the ending was a huge release. And I didn't feel like I needed to experience that release as many times as I experienced the build-up.

Due to increasingly poor finances, I was unable to continue collecting swords and statues anyway, but with the anticipation for The Return of the King finally out of the way, my desire to collect everything LOTR was also waning. I had a huge collection already, with almost all of the important swords, and a statue of each major character.

But I have saved the best part of my The Lord of the Rings obsession for last. It is not only the geekiest thing I have ever done, it was also a swan song of sorts for this obsession. I had a LOTR-themed wedding! I didn't even have to work very hard to convince my ex-wife, as she was also a LOTR geek. I'm not going to go into every detail of what we did to make this wedding work--and it (mostly) worked wonderfully!--but we had it all: LOTR-themed costumes, music, decorations, cakes, rings, signs. One of my highlights was cutting the cake with a replica of Aragorn's Elvish hunting knife. (Another highlight was my grandpa being the first to pull said knife out of its scabbard and hold it up triumphantly for pictures. And then my brother knighting me with it. Basically, the fact that I got married with a small sword hanging from my belt was awesome!) The wedding and the three parties that followed were such a geek triumph that it's pretty hard to imagine ever having another wedding.

And that is why I feel secure calling myself a geek. And a nerd. Just more geek.

Blogging because I can

As much fun as the About Me series has been, and as much as I enjoy writing posts like the Soundtrack to My Movie and each Week in Review, the meat of this blog, its reason for being, has so far been found in the first two "Blogging..." posts. These are the posts where I discuss and/or rant about current events in my personal life, rather than reminisce about the past or review the 12 hours of TV I watch each week.

As an aside, it is worth noting that that is all the TV I watch. I don't channel surf; nor do I use the TV as background noise. However, I do spend a significant amount of time watching older TV series on DVD or on my computer. I don't consider this activity to be "watching TV," because I am enjoying these shows on my own time and my own schedule. I may or may not have mentioned this before, but I generally prefer watching serialized TV series over watching movies. I've spent a lot of time lately catching up on the hilarious Flight of the Conchords, but will soon switch focus to Mad Men and Breaking Bad, and maybe try to get back into the bizarre True Blood.

So, anyway, yes, this is going to be another of those "Blogging..." posts.

Your honesty is better than your silence

So far, online dating has gone about as well as I expected it to: not very well at all. I have emailed a few women, less than half of them responded, and only one of them showed any potential of being what I am looking for.

In the first email, she quickly established a desire to meet in person, as she felt that online chatting was a waste of time due to the ease of lying. I was okay with that, but we agreed to wait until after the Thanksgiving weekend to make plans. In the meantime, we added each other as friends on Facebook, which was a pretty big risk on my part--have you seen some of the pictures in my profile? And then she vanished.

I've mentioned it before, but rejection in online dating typically comes in the form of silence. Silence is also often the tool of choice for online dating "break-ups." I personally never use that tool. If someone emails me and I am not interested, I will politely email them back and tell them that. I've only ever had to do that twice. (The most memorable time was when I actually knew the girl emailing me because she had dated my brother.)

One of the perks of membership on online dating sites is being able to see who views your profile and when. Thanks to this god-like power, I knew that the girl in question had viewed my profile again one day after my last email. I suspected a change of heart due to a more careful reading.

With over a week of email silence, I decided I needed to know what had happened. The "what happened?" email can be tough to write, so I took a different approach: pretend nothing suspicious was going on. My email just picked up where we left off, and I threw out some ideas for ways we could meet in person.

She replied quickly, confirming the change of heart; she now felt that meeting would be a waste of time. She apologized for not saying something earlier, which was nice, and then laid out the reasons for her change of heart. Some of the things she wrote were a little shocking, but ultimately pretty fair assessments from reading my profile. Most memorably, she wrote that she initially found my geekiness to be cute, but she later decided that she is looking for a "man's man." Some people might be insulted by that, but frankly, my ex-wife had the same complaint. I've had some pretty entertaining discussions with people about what exactly "man's man" means, but I know exactly what she meant by it.

Appreciative of her honesty, I wrote a short email thanking her and telling her that her honesty was better than her silence. As much as it sucked to read it, I am much happier actually knowing what went wrong.

Parallel to this nonsense, I was also in the middle of over a week of silence from my first online dating contact (ie. the first wink), which certainly made the situation even more frustrating. That silence recently ended and seems to have been a false alarm. However, no good explanation was offered, so the permanent silence may still be coming. I am definitely less confident now that we will meet anytime soon.

A divided/shared home no more

I meant to write something about this topic much earlier on the blog, but I kept forgetting. I still have lingering feelings in this area each day, so it's still a valid topic for a "Blogging..." post.

I'll start off by saying that I have a hard time sharing. This has always been the case, as long as I can remember. So, it was hard when my ex-wife first moved in with me into my apartment condominium. Suddenly there was this person constantly in my personal space and using all of my stuff. Ha, I make it sound awful!--it wasn't at all. I adjusted pretty quickly, because I wanted her there with me. Importantly, it was equally hard for her, because she also has a hard time sharing. I'd say it was even more of an adjustment for her, because she had to deal with my decorative and design choices.

So, it made twisted sense when we bought a new house that we would divide it up. We divided up the floors; I had free reign in the basement, but she would handle the decor for the main and second floors. We divided up the pantry. We divided up some of the shelves in the fridge. Not so atypically, we divided up the walk-in closet. Most notably, we also divided up the bathrooms; she would use the en suite, and I would use the second floor guest bathroom. Sharing the one bathroom in the condo had apparently been a challenge.

Before my ex-wife had even fully moved out of the house, I started taking over some of these formerly "shared" areas. The walk-in closet was first, the pantry was second, the fridge was third. This was a good exercise for coming to grips with what was happening; I was at least getting something good out of it. No more sharing!

In terms of the house's decor, I have more or less left everything the same, because ultimately I liked what she did with the place. And I wasn't completely without say on the main floor and upstairs decor; I certainly helped select the furniture. There are numerous decorative ledges where plants used to flourish (or not) which are now hastily decorated with books; that's pretty much the only change I've made. The house is cleaner and more open, partly because some furniture is gone, partly because there are less pets running around, but mostly because my ex-wife was a far messier person than I--I might even go so far as to call her a slob. She might also slug me the next time I see her.

The biggest adjustment I had to make was with the bathrooms. For two years, I was completely fine using the upstairs guest bathroom as my own, and staying the hell away from the en suite, as per strict standing orders. To make sure I wouldn't go anywhere near the en suite, my ex-wife kept it the messiest room in the house.

I spent the first two days of my first week in the house alone doing a thorough cleaning of every room. The last room I dared enter was the en suite. My ex-wife had expressed a desire to clean it herself when she came back in October, but I wasn't going to let it sit dirty and unused for a whole month. The en suite was/is my bathroom now.

And I love it. It's a far bigger and brighter bathroom than the guest bathroom, with much more shelf space; it might actually be big enough to share with someone, if you are into that kind of thing. The shower stall is surprisingly excellent; my ex-wife stopped using it a long time ago, so I assumed it sucked, but I have no problems with it, and it is way easier to keep clean than the guest bathroom's bathtub. I can also keep the guest bathroom pristine and clean for guests, because it isn't used daily.

But yet I still feel weird using it. Throughout the first week, every time I went upstairs to get ready for bed, I would walk into the guest bathroom, quickly realize my toothbrush wasn't there anymore, and then move to the en suite. I'm well past that; I only use the guest bathroom to wash out beer making equipment. But I still feel a bit like an intruder every time I walk into the en suite. This room was off-limits for two years. Now it is entirely mine to do with as I please. That takes some time to get used to.

There could be a problem here for the future. The longer I have the house to myself, the harder it is going to be to consider having someone move in with me--the harder it will be to share the house again. It is entirely possible of course that my house will never again be shared. I may live alone until I die. I may move into a smaller place at some point. If I meet someone rich (please!), I may move in with them (yikes!). We may decide to start fresh in a new shared place together. Who knows? All I know is that I suck at sharing.