Mostly Good Stuff (with a little rant on the end...ok a big rant about a little thing)

I have many, many things I want to blather about today, but I have to say this one first: I'm a finalist in the Blogging For Books contest!!! WooHoooo!!! Seriously, I'm excited! This morning prelim-judge Mir posted the finalists' list on Joshilyn's blog and my entry was on there. Yay!! At some point, finalist-judge Melanie Hauser will read the final 7 entries and pick a winner, but even if that isn't me, I still think it's pretty cool to make it to the finals. I hope you'll check out the list on Joshilyn's blog and read some of the other entries. There's some good stuff posted. Oh, and also...Mir's pretty. Postcards And in other good news, I finished my postcards for the AQ web ring swap yesterday afternoon. They're all addressed and stamped (well, the US-bound ones are stamped...wasn't quite sure what the non-US-bound ones needed) and they are sitting in a lovely, neat, colorful pile by my car keys, waiting for my next trip to the post office, which will probably be tomorrow. So be on the lookout for more fabricards headed your way soon, swappers. Puzzles Also, this morning, as I did my daily Jigzone puzzle, I came within 33 seconds of having the fastest time. Check out the screen shot: Every morning I do their puzzle of the day as quickly as I can, and every day someone beats me, usually by a minute or two. But today, hello! 33 seconds, people!! That's both exciting and frustrating. So close, so close but yet so far... Rock Star:INXS Because it's Wednesday I must at least mention Rock Star: INXS. Good show last night, IMO. Not the best ever, but quite good. Even JD performed well, dammit. I liked it a lot better when he was giving lackluster performances and I could dislike him without reservation. I have NO CLUE who to expect to be in the bottom three tonight. None. And no clue who I think will go home. I think each performer left has fans among the band. Should be an interesting elimination show. I thought the performances were very even and it's all going to depend on the fickle voting public. I voted for Suzie. Five times. :-) I actually didn't think she gave the strongest performance last night, but I like HER, I love her voice and she's the only woman left in the competition, so I don't want to see her go home. And you just never know when a vote or five can make a difference. And More TV Talk Speaking of TV, did anyone else watch the debut of "Bones" last night? It's a new series on FOX, based on Kathy Reich's Temperance Brennan book series. I really like those books, and I tend to like forensic dramas, so I was excited to see this character come to the screen, even if it's the small screen, not the large one. Um...yeah...I should have remembered that producers and screenwriters and others involved in translating books to movies have managed to royally screw up one of my all-time-favorite books not once, not twice, but THREE times. Sigh. So it may not surprise you to hear that I was unimpressed. Bear with me, please, while I rant. In the books, Tempe is a blond, reasonably attractive, middle-aged divorced mother of a college-age daughter. The Tempe we saw last night is a late 20's or early 30's single brunette with great cleavage. I know about the cleavage because it was spilling over her tank top. Oh yeah, and she's a novelist who writes books about a character named Kathy Reichs. Cute, no? No, I didn't really think so either. In the books, Tempe divides her time between North Carolina and Montreal. In the tv show, she lives and works somewhere around Washington DC, but she does MENTION Montreal, and then says (badly) "Parlez vous Francais?". I guess this is supposed to show us...um...something. I'm a little fuzzy on what, exactly. Hell, I don't speak French at all, and even I know that much French. Tres lame, oiu? Since part of the appeal of the books is the contrast between her North Carolina life and her Montreal life, I'm not sure why they moved her to a whole new place, but maybe maintaining two sets was too expensive. And with JAG recently canceled, they may have been able to get a bargain on some DC sets. Speaking of JAG, the guy who used to play Admiral Chegwidden is in this. It looks to me like he has pretty much the same office with the same desk, except he's in civvies instead of a uniform and he spends a lot of time looking very seriously at papers. Or something. Tempe's been surrounded by the requisite cast of diverse co-workers. I haven't quite gotten their names down yet, so for now I'm just calling them Walking Cliche #1, Walking Cliche #2, etc. And she's alternately sparring with and attracted to FBI agent Seeley Booth, played by David Boreanaz, formerly of "Angel". I know they're attracted to each other because at one point Walking Cliche #1 mentions their attraction to Tempe, and tells her she shouldn't be fighting it. Seeley is a former Army sniper (yes, seriously). Hey, it's a job, and after Angel was canceled I guess he took what he could get. He calls Tempe "Bones", cuz, you know, she's a doctor (PhD, I assume) and people sometimes call doctors "Bones", and also she works with bones, so it's all just so terribly, terribly fitting and cute and stuff. All together now - "aaawwww". She, of course, hates it, and repeatedly tells him to stop, just stop it. It gives her an opportunity to pout. Every pretty genius forensic pathologist with great cleavage should have an opportunity to pout. Every time there's a pop culture reference of any kind - EVERY time - Tempe says "I don't understand that". This is supposed to show us how smart and serious she is, I guess? I mean, come on...she's such a genius and so involved in her work that she'd never EVER watch tv, or listen to popular music, or read a best selling novel. Perish the thought. Never mind the fact that she's supposed to have WRITTEN a best-selling novel and I find it difficult to swallow that someone could write fiction that appeals to the masses if they don't actually READ, listen to, or watch anything that appeals to the masses. Ok, enough. Well, yeah, of this post too. But I meant of the show. Heh.