Electronic Cerebrectomy

Unfortunate Place to Cut Off That Photo...

2009-11-25T18:12:00.000-06:00

Twitter Math

2009-11-25T16:46:00.002-06:00

Pics of Kim Kardashian in a bikini > hearing about the sandwich you just ate

Pics of Adrianne Curry in a metal bikini > hearing about your breakfast omelet

Pics of teenagers showing their abs off > hearing about waiting in line for New Moon

Just thought I'd mention.

Film Week

2009-11-25T16:37:00.002-06:00

A review of the films I watched this week.

SUPERHERO MOVIE (2008)
I have no one but myself to blame. No stars.

WAR, INC. (2008)
Shitty, shitty, totally shitty movie with John Cusack as a government hitman who goes to the Middle East to kill some oil minister and falls in love with Marisa Tomei and ends up having to deal with "the Eastern European Britney Spears," Yonica Babyyeah, played by Hilary Duff. I liked Duff, but not enough to ever tell anyone to see this piece of shit. It's not as cool, hip, clever, or funny as it thinks. And frankly, I'm sick of filmmakers trying to convince me how lovable and hilarious John Cusack supposedly is. * star for Duffster, but even that's begrudging, since she's not really very good here, I just like her in general.

SPACE CHIMPS (2008)
Unwatchable crap trying too hard to be a DreamWorks movie. No stars.

LAMBADA (1990)
One of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen in my life, with J. Eddie Peck as a math teacher who moonlights dancing the lambada in a club and teaching high school dropouts about trigonometry. Earnest to the point of absolute silliness. I remember hearing about how sexy and controversial this PG-rated potboiler was when I was 13, but this thing is tamer (and dumber) than High School Musical. And the leader of the bad kids, Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones, plays his role like he's auditioning for the 1965 Batman TV series. Seriously, Victor Buono's looking at this guy and thinking "Jeez, dial it down a notch." * star. It also has some rubberneck factor because the high school chick who falls for the teacher is Melora Hardin. That's just weird.

THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX (2008)
Imbecilic in the extreme. This movie has no idea what it wants to do or who the audience is, and is totally unwatchable. No stars.

Doctor Who: The End of Time Preview

2009-11-25T16:07:00.001-06:00

This year's Children in Need special aired the first three minutes (pre-credits) of the Doctor Who Christmas episode, "The End of Time," which is also the first of David Tennant's last two episodes as the Doctor. I so can't wait to see this.

Obviously, you might not want to watch this if you haven't seen "The Waters of Mars" yet.

The Doctor, Romana, and Prime Computers

2009-11-25T16:04:00.001-06:00

I know, I know, I've been posting a ton of videos, but I just keep finding so much awesome stuff.

For example: here are some Prime Computer ads featuring Tom Baker and Lalla Ward in character as the Doctor and Romana. Cheesy, silly stuff, sure, but a great reminder of just how good these two were.

The Muppets' Bohemian Rhapsody

2009-11-24T12:48:00.002-06:00

This is by far my favorite of the Muppet viral videos. Please never stop making these.

Imperious Links

2009-11-24T12:33:00.003-06:00

It seems like it's close to impossible to raise a normal child these days, what with the violent video games and the 4chan and the childhood obesity. But if the latest research is to be believed, even the good stuff we thought we were doing for our kids is ruining them. Yes, as it turns out the most innocent things we do to our kids every day can fuck them up worse than having the Joker shoot their parents in front of them.

:: This so-called legacy dilemma just happens to be the one conveniently plaguing the lead parent in Stan Dragoti's She's Out of Control, a mystifyingly straightforward yarn about a single father who not only wants to restrain her teenage daughter's unstoppable journey into womanhood, but also desires the opportunity to suffocate her immaculate vagina with the inconsistent hardness of his erect penis. (Thank you! I remember seeing this movie when I was 13 and feeling very creepy the whole time.)

:: Scenes from an Alternate Universe Where the Beatles Accepted Lorne Michaels' Generous Offer

:: Very cool van murals. (The Silver Surfer is always the best van mural you can have. Always.)

:: When you’re doing a biography of Stephenie Meyer, you’re going to run into a problem right off the bat, namely the fact that Stephanie Meyer is really f–king boring.

:: 7 Popular Chick Flicks That Secretly Hate Women

:: Sarah Palin is on an endless crusade against assholes. It’s all she thinks about. She doesn’t really have any political ideas, in the classic sense of the word — in fact the only thing resembling real political convictions in Going Rogue revolve around the Trans-Alaska pipeline and how awesome she thinks it is.

Most of the rest of the book just catalogs her Gump-esque rise to national stardom (not having enough self-awareness to detect the monstrous narcissistic ambition that in reality was impelling her forward all along, she labors in the book to describe her various career leaps as lucky accidents or mystical acts of Providence) and the seemingly endless parade of meanies bent on tripping her up along the way. The book is really about her battles with these people, how much they did and do suck, and how difficult and inherently unfair life is for a decent hardworking American gal who just wants to live life, serve God, and try to be president without being bothered all the time.

Random Thoughts

2009-11-23T14:24:00.002-06:00

Why do fans of True Blood hate Evan Rachel Wood so much? I don’t get it. I think she was perfectly cast and very funny and interesting, but all I hear about her is how terrible she’s supposed to be. Please don’t tell me it’s because “she’s not like the character in the book,” because that non-critical whine carries no weight with me.

:: What the hell was the point of D.B. Sweeney, anyway?

:: Just saw the trailer for Amy Adams’ upcoming romantic comedy Leap Year, which looks like every other romantic comedy made in the last 70 years. In it, we find out that in Ireland it’s okay for a woman to propose to a man on Leap Day. Funny; I thought it was okay for a woman to propose to a man on any day of the year. Thank goodness romantic comedies keep coming out to show me how wrong I am about how far women have progressed.

:: What’s with this little cult that’s grown up over the last few years devoted to the apparent awesomeness and infallibility of Frances Bean Cobain? Those people were shocked last week when their precious Bean threw a “don’t you know who I am?” celebrity shit-fit on a plane. You guys want to know how she could feel entitled because she’s Kurt Cobain’s daughter? Because you assholes have spent her entire life telling her she’s entitled because she’s Kurt Cobain’s daughter!

:: No, I can see why you’d want to put a watermark on the image you posted on Tumblr. After all, you took that picture, so you own it, right?

:: A linguist in Minnesota spoke nothing but Klingon to his son for the first three years of his life, just to see if he could “pick it up” like a natural language. Still not licensing to be parents yet, huh?

:: I hate that Ringling Bros. feels it has to compete with Cirque du Soleil.

:: So, the economy is recovering but foreclosures are up? How does that work, exactly? Sorry, down here on the bottom, we’re still recovering from the massive fraud perpetrated by the companies we must protect or else the economy might collapse. Or something. This country is such a waste.

It does do my heart good, though, to see that the attorney general of Ohio is suing the three largest credit rating agencies in the country (Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch) alleging that they cost state retirement and funds over $450 million by approving high-risk Wall Street securities that went bust. The lawsuit accuses them of being in league with banks to create the conditions that led to the financial collapse. In other words, for fraud.

Sue them all.

:: According to the New York Times, American workers are overpaid by as much as 20% and should take a pay cut. I’m waiting for this to happen, honestly. Wages go down, health care costs go up, savings are destroyed, Americans get screwed. And the financial elites who caused the disaster are still insulated from it, still losing nothing, and Congress continues to be on their side. Things are going to get worse. They really are.

:: I really, really, really don’t want to hear anymore right wing “alternatives” to the public option that simply amount to “let’s not have a public option.”

:: Wait, if you work for the RNC, your abortion is covered by your insurance. Wait… what? Also, why are Republicans attacking the cost involved in HR 3962? It’s actually pretty cost-effective: it would increase coverage by 10% while only raising the costs 0.8%, which isn’t bad. The real problem with it is that the public option, such as it exists now, has been watered down to the point where it will only have the power to stop the insurance companies from screwing over their policy holders. Which, in and of itself, is much more than I was even expecting it to do. Provided it gets passed.

It was announced last week that uninsured emergency room patients are twice as likely to die as people with insurance. I think it’s time for the right to explain why they’re fighting so more people will die rather than less.

:: According to the Harvard Medical School, 2,266 veterans under the age of 65 died in 2008 because they couldn’t afford health insurance. In comparison, 155 US soldiers died in Afghanistan last year. But I’m sure all of those veterans didn’t have insurance because they didn’t want to pay for it and wanted cable television instead, right? Keep doing that bang-up job of supporting the troops, America.

:: I don’t have anything to say about Carrie Prejean right now other than she is a manipulative liar, a willing pawn (for money and publicity) in the right wing quest to oppress homosexuality, and a bigger sore loser than Sarah Palin. She is an idiot. Who the fuck walks off of Larry King? No, honey, he wasn’t being inappropriate, it’s just that you were completely unprepared for fame, because no matter how much you love attention, you have nothing to say.

(That said, I loved Mark Evanier’s contention that she’s been “getting a lot more airtime than any state-level beauty queen in history to complain that everyone's trying to silence her.” Right on.)

Why are we still talking about Sarah Palin? What is the point of that? Still, hearing her fans boo her for leaving a book signing early… yeah, if she can’t handle being governor for a full term and can’t handle a small market book tour, there’s an indication of what she would’ve been like for the country.

Kristen Bell Mondays

2009-11-23T11:33:00.001-06:00

Happy 17th Birthday, Miley Cyrus

2009-11-23T11:15:00.002-06:00

You are now legal in 37 states, including my home state of Illinois. Worth mentioning. Or something.

(BTW, does anyone else find it interesting and kind of hilarious that for a country so all-out terrified that teenagers might be fucking, the age of consent is 16 in 28 states?)

Song of the Week: "Bad Reputation"

2009-11-22T13:37:00.002-06:00

Joan Jett, 1980. Not much to say other than I fucking love this song.

Twilight Summarized by a Smartass, Chapter 20

2009-11-22T11:04:00.003-06:00

Belle wakes up in a hotel room in Phoenix. Edward and Carlisle have lost James. Alice has a vision that makes it pretty obvious that James is coming to Phoenix himself to hunt her. Belle pouts and feels sorry for herself.

That's... really, that's it.

Sunday Hottie 251

2009-11-22T10:12:00.000-06:00

BRENDA SONG

Happy 25th Birthday, Scarlett Johansson

2009-11-22T10:06:00.000-06:00

Even though you left me for Ryan Reynolds, I'm still a fan.

Kelly Brook as Indiana Jones

2009-11-21T13:46:00.000-06:00

Yo, Joe! Episode 40

2009-11-21T13:35:00.003-06:00

An Eye for an Eye

Here's all you need to know about this episode: this guy, right up there, is smarter than G.I. Joe and Cobra put together. It's kind of sad, really. But it's true.

See, he's got a house in the woods up on the side of a mountain, in the middle of nowhere, and when Cobra (led by the Commander himself) attacks a G.I. Joe convoy, the Commander fires a missile that destroys his surprisingly nice home. He's not home at the time, but his wife and kid are, and they end up in the hospital.

Here's how depressing American security is in this cartoon (besides, once again, Cobra simply sneaking into American airspace): this guy disguises himself as a high-ranking officer, walks into Joe HQ, and starts rifling through the files. When Lady Jaye discovers him, he's able to hold his own and forces her to take him to a Cobra base so he can get revenge. When Lady Jaye takes him to a base she thinks is deserted and gets shot down, she gets captured, but this dude manages to escape! And disguise himself as a Cobra soldier. And rescue Lady Jaye. And get the drop on Cobra Commander. And, even though the Commander tricks him out of his revenge, he still saves the day.

Dude, when some businessman is more powerful, more intelligent, and more capable than G.I. Joe and Cobra put together, your anti-terrorist task force has got a problem on its hands.

JoeToonArchive

The Nanny Diaries

2009-11-21T12:29:00.004-06:00

I finally managed to watch The Nanny Diaries all the way through, and brother, is it a terrible film. Not only is it bad, but it's another one of those films--like The Devil Wears Prada--that secretly hates women and diminishes them in favor of yet another variation on the old saw that women can only be fulfilled through motherhood or pointless careerism.

If there's one thing I hate, it's antifeminist movies that hide behind a thin veneer of the most shallow aspects of feminism.

I also hate to compare a film (which should stand on its own as an entity) with the original source material as a criticism, but I want to highlight some of the differences here in order to talk about why this movie pissed me off so much.

The novel, which is actually pretty decent, follows a girl only referred to as Nanny (or Nan), a college student who becomes a nanny to a family only referred to as Mr. and Mrs. X and their son Grayer. She's working her way through college, and her parents are very supportive of her hard work.

In the film, "Annie" is a college graduate who just doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, and becomes a nanny to study the upper class as though she's presenting a paper on anthropological research. She has to hide the fact that she's doing such "menial" work from her widowed mother, who is one of those annoying movie versions of an ultra-feminist who thinks a woman answering a phone is a slap in the face of Gloria Steinem. When her mother does discover Annie is providing child care services in order to "find" herself, she flips out and gives Annie this whole speech about all of the work she had to do to put Annie through school for a "purpose" and a "career" and basically tells the entire audience that being a nanny is not being a human being. For reasons I don't understand, the movie is just as judgmental and shallow about nannies as it is about rich people (who are all the stereotypes you would imagine, anyway).

So, again for reasons I don't understand, the movie takes Annie's self-respect away from her instead of doing what the novel did, which is focusing on the ways she tries to keep her humanity in a dehumanizing position.

The other difference that really bugged the crap out of me is the way the movie ends, so I'm going to discuss that if you're really saving up for this experience.

Here's how the novel ends:

Nanny goes to the Hamptons or something with the X family, and their marriage is obviously falling apart. Mr. X has a mistress he's planning to rush back to see, so Mrs. X retaliates by inviting his mother along. At a party, Grayer is running around with friends when he falls and skins his knee. Mrs. X rushes over to him, but the boy pushes her away; he doesn't want his mommy, he wants Nanny, which he says loudly enough to horribly embarrass Mrs. X in front of her fellow rich mothers. So, the next morning, Mrs. X promptly (and very suddenly) fires Nanny and shuffles her out the door with a very small amount of money. In retaliation, Nanny goes back to the X apartment, finds the nanny-cam, and delivers a drunken, insulting speech about how terrible Mrs. X is and how she's missing her own motherhood. Then, thinking better of it, she erases the message and simply walks away.

Now, I like that ending. First, I thought Mrs. X being embarrassed and firing Grayer's mommy surrogate (and knowing she'll just hire another temp mom in the near future) was very realistic. I've known women like this in the past, and the character is obviously very true to life (the book is written by two former nannies). Second, I liked that, even after being treated so inhumanly and shortchanged by Mrs. X, Nanny decided to erase the message. She got it all out, knew it wouldn't do any good, and decided to walk away and be the bigger person. Like I said: she keeps her humanity.

Here's how the movie ends:

They still go to the Hamptons or whatever. Mr. X is upset about not being able to rush back and see his mistress, so instead he makes a pass at Annie. Annie, shocked, pulls away, and Mrs. X walks in before Mr. X can do anything about it. Of course, Mrs. X knows about the mistress and won't stand up to her husband about it, so she takes it out on Annie. Seeing her as a threat to her sexuality and her marriage (instead of to her motherhood), Mrs. X fires Annie and shuffles her out with a very small amount of money. Annie goes back to the apartment, finds the nanny-cam, and gives her speech. And she leaves it. And Mrs. X sees it and, presto, she and her husband fix their marital problems and become good parents and a happy family. Annie has found herself, and everyone gets their happy ending.

Bullshit.

It's such mega-bullshit. It's a Hollywood ending.

First, it's insulting that a movie like this, which is supposed to be about how maternal feelings are expressed, went with such a lame twist. That Mrs. X would be sexually threatened by Annie instead of embarrassed about being replaced as a mother is Lifetime movie stuff. It's silly.

Second, the sudden, magical change that the family goes through because Annie yells at the nanny-cam is ridiculously unconvincing. Again, it's like a Lifetime movie. It's so manufactured. Especially with Annie moving on to be a career woman. Because, once again, having a career or having a family are the only ways a woman can be fulfilled. It's just vaguely insulting and dehumanizing.

I really hate this movie. And that it comes from the makers of American Splendor, which is so excellent and not at all like a Lifetime movie, just compounds the insult.

Hayden Panettiere Pouring Champagne All Over Herself

2009-11-20T13:14:00.002-06:00

Backwards.

I've watched this 17 times already today. So... there's that.

UPDATE 11/21: Video removed by user. But I found another one, so there.

EW's 20 Best Animated Movies Ever

2009-11-20T09:01:00.003-06:00

Entertainment Weekly put out their list of the 20 Best Animated Movies Ever, and I'm just going to pointlessly comment on it.

20. Ghost in the Shell
I always felt it was overrated. Granted, I'm not much of an anime guy, but I thought this was as dull and ponderous as The Matrix. If you know me, comparisons to The Matrix are not good.

19. Waltz with Bashir
Still haven't seen this one, but I hope to see it very soon. I'm very curious.

18. Pinocchio
On my own list, it would be much higher. I think it's one of the great achievements of animation, although I know the story leaves many people cold. This is high art. (Bonus: EW's list wrongly lists 1939 as the year Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released. That's a movie that should be on this list, but isn't.)

17. Kiki's Delivery Service
Miyazaki should be on every list of great animation. That said, this has never been one of my favorites. I honestly think it was the first film of his a lot of Americans were exposed to, and that that's why it rates so highly on a lot of these. Not to say the movie is bad in any way--it isn't--I just think there are better movies (Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Porco Rosso) that should be above it and don't appear here at all.

For that matter, there are other great films from other Studio Ghibli directors--like My Neighbors the Yamadas, Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday--that aren't on here at all. Frankly, I'd be surprised if EW had ever heard of them.

16. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Ah, back when Trey & Matt were really firing and South Park was wonderful satire. The brilliance of this film is that it managed to anticipate the shit-storm it would stir up with parents and became its own commentary and critique on the entire situation (as well as being a great critique on religion, nationalism, parents, television, and how children are empowered by swear words).

15. The Iron Giant
It's insane to me that this isn't in the top 5.

14. Akira
I still haven't seen this movie. This seems to be the go-to anime movie for lists like this. In fact, other than Miyazaki (who totally deserves it), it's pretty much a guarantee the only other Japanese movies you're going to see on a list of great animated films are Ghost in the Shell and Akira. (Especially for a magazine like EW, which only skims the surface of pop culture, anyway.) They're trying to sell this movie as the one that finally made adults in America realize that animation could be more than just Saturday morning cartoons. Bullshit. As if Heavy Traffic and Fritz the Cat ever happened. But, frankly, there's never going to be an overwhelming, prevailing sensibility in this country that animation is a medium that can accomplish anything. It'll always be seen as a niche.

13. Chicken Run
I would've chosen Cures of the Were-Rabbit over this one, but this is an incredibly funny movie. I love Nick Park.

12. The Triplets of Belleville
Wonderful, beautiful movie, and one of the best films--of any kind--of the decade.

11. Dumbo
It's kind of high for Dumbo. That's just my opinion. But this is EW, and it's a crowd-pleasing movie for a crowd-pleasing publication. Not to deride Dumbo, which is perfect at being what it is, and has become something of an underrated movie among Disney scholars for not being as ambitious as Disney's other films from this period. I love it, but I would put other Disney films higher than this one.

10. Coraline
This is way too high for Coraline. I liked this movie--and I think I liked it a great deal better than a lot of people did--but in the top 10? That's overvaluing it. Even though it's easy to dismiss now for being so popular, The Nightmare Before Christmas should be here instead. It's iconic, and a much better picture.

9. Bambi
Personally, I think this is Disney's best film. I know a lot of people don't feel that way, but I think it's an incredible artistic experience. This would be in my top 5, possibly my number one. I think this is one of only a handful of times in his life when Walt Disney let go of his artistic pretensions and his over-reliance on gags just enough to make something truly expressive and emotional.

8. Toy Story 2
This might be in my top 20. I always forget just how much this movie and these characters resonate with me, and then I actually see it... I love it. It's easy to dismiss this entry as symptomatic of how much my generation is fascinated with its own childhood, but this movie does have a lot to say about it.

7. The Incredibles
Still my favorite Pixar movie. There's something about Mr. Incredible's struggle, his fears of not being strong enough, that I very much empathize with. It's also everything Fantastic Four should have been, god damn it. The best Marvel Comics movie ever, even if it's not based on a Marvel comic.

6. Beauty and the Beast
For a little while, Disney found it's stride once again and started making movies that proved they could still tell emotionally resonant, entertaining stories without trying too hard to make them "hip" or "relevant" (which is DreamWorks' problem--and thank you for not putting any DreamWorks movies on this list except for Chicken Run, which is an Aardman movie). I'll leave off the discussion of feminism and just say this is a truly great picture.

5. Persepolis
I'm not sure if this belongs in the top 5, but it is a great film. The abstract design is marvelous, and it pulls one right in to a stark (but full) commentary on human relations.

4. The Lion King
Sigh. It's always going to crop up on these lists, all the way up above every other Disney film. I really do like this movie, and I have to admit it left a huge mark on the pop culture terrain, but it's so very overrated. It's a likable movie pretending to be a great one, and people have since turned it into something Important.

3. Up
For the first 10 minutes alone, this deserves a place on this list. I'm not sure if this is number 3 or not (I need to experience it a second time), but it certainly was the most emotional experience I've had at the movies so far this year.

2. Spirited Away
I also think this is Miyazaki's best film. An absolute masterpiece.

1. WALL-E
It does do my heart good to see a science fiction flick at the top of any list of movies. And I have to admit, this would definitely be in my top 5. There's something about this movie that is as comforting and inviting as it is stark and scary, and it has theories about the future that I've been harboring for a very long time. When the most human and empathetic character in a movie is a robot, you know you're in the hands of special filmmakers.

TV Report: The Sarah Jane Adventures, Series 2

2009-11-20T07:28:00.004-06:00

When I saw the first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, I said it was everything a Doctor Who spin-off should be: light and fun, emotionally believable, accepting of its inherent silliness without trying too hard to be funny, and made for kids without being patronizing. I finally caught the second series on DVD, and the show is still all of those things but somehow even better.

I'm not sure where the changes occurred, but I think it has to do with a number of the episodes being much more character-driven than in the first series. At least, it felt that way to me. Part of the charm of the first series is that it had just as much to say about the nature of family and friendship as it did about the universe and about bravery and compassion. This series built on those themes and took them to a new level, especially in episodes where Clyde meets up with his estranged father or where Sarah Jane goes back in time to prevent the death of her parents or where Mrs. Wormwood comes back looking for Luke, the boy she created but who is nothing like the mother he needs, wants, or knows.

I have no idea why Maria Jackson is out this series; she appears in the first two-parter ("The Last Sontaran," which continues to make the Sontarans an actual credible threat), then promptly moves to America with her dad and only has a cameo appearance in a later episode. They've replaced her with a new girl.

Rani Chandra. And I have to say, this girl is gold. I liked Maria, but I love Rani. She's clever and quick-witted in any situation, which I really appreciated. I'm glad we're past the stereotype in good science fiction of having the girl standing around gawping at everything like a moron. She gets into a situation, figures it out, and it's right into the adventure. Nice. After the first series replaced the girl-whose-name-I-can't-remember with Clyde, and this series replaced Maria with Rani, I hope there are no more replacements coming. I think Luke, Clyde and Rani make the perfect trio for this show. I know the third series is just finishing up in the UK, and I've yet to see it, but I hope everyone's in place for a while.

And I'm glad there's a third series to look forward to. The Sarah Jane Adventures is just so good, so much fun. With the sparsity of Doctor Who this year and me just not liking Torchwood (and how terrible does this new K-9 series look?), this is such a treat to have.

I'm glad you're here, my Sarah Jane.

Happy 50th Birthday, Sean Young

2009-11-20T07:16:00.000-06:00

Extreme Dagobah!

2009-11-19T16:36:00.000-06:00

Frigging awesome tourism video.

Meme Renewed

2009-11-19T16:07:00.004-06:00

I always enjoy these silly iPod memes, and since the internet has been so damn quiet this week, I thought I'd just do this one.

RULES:
1. Put Your iTunes/iPod, Windows Media Player (etc…) on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button, and the title of that song is your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS
4. Put any comments in [brackets] after the song name

Are you male or female?
I Am What I Am

Describe yourself!
I Don't Miss You At All

What do people feel when they’re around you?
Play My Music

Describe your current relationship.
Be My Wife

Where would you like to be now?
Shelf

How do you feel about love?
This Is Me

What’s your life like?
Wuthering Heights

What would you wish for if you had only one wish?
Ten Million Slaves

Say something wise.
Sorry

If someone says “Is this okay?” You say,
Paranoid

How would you describe yourself?
Magic

What do you look for in a guy/girl?
Sound and Vision

How do you feel today?
Goodnight & Goodbye

What is your life’s purpose?
Tonight

What is your motto?
I Love to Sing-A

What do your friends think of you?
Solitary Man

What do you think of your parents?
Pushin' Me Away

What do you think about very often?
Good Girls Go Bad

What is 2 + 2?
Let's Take a Rocketship to Mars

What do you think of your best friend?
Chuckmates

What do you think of the person you like?
One in a Million

What is your life story?
That's How You Know

What do you want to be when you grow up?
I Wanna Know You

What do you think of when you see the person you like?
Still in Love with You

What will you dance to at your wedding?
Live to Party

What will they play at your funeral?
Box of Rain

What is your hobby/interest?
3

What is your biggest fear?
I Left My Heart in Scandinavia

What is your biggest secret?
You Snuck Your Way Right Into My Heart

What do you think of your friends?
Wake Up

Romance of the Muppets

2009-11-19T16:05:00.000-06:00

Therapy

2009-11-18T15:41:00.002-06:00

I had my first therapy session today. I'm not going to go over everything we talked about, but I'm very glad that I went. We talked a lot about my anxiety, depression, and self-esteem issues, as well as my phobia of driving. I've been having some other problems for a while now, like problems with focus, concentration, and remembering things. A lot of this, it turns out, could be related to my sleep issues.

The doctor and I are still holding off on the CPAC for my sleep apnea, but now that everything's been explained to me, I can really feel where I need one. I was reluctant about it, but now I'm pretty convinced that I need one. Not only can I feel now where my heart and lungs are working too hard and I can't relax because of it, but I can also see now where a lot of my emotional and mental issues are related to not being able to really get enough deep sleep.

I feel a lot better just having approached this. Hopefully, as my therapy journey continues, I'll start to get a better handle on my life. I've overcome a lot of my misgivings, which mainly had to do with being embarrassed to even need someone's help. I've never looked down on anyone for going to therapy, but I did always feel like I had too much control over myself to need something like that. Pride, I guess. Or fear. But I'm over that now. Now I just want to do whatever I can to gain control over me.