What am I watching?

I'm sitting here on a Monday morning a little loopy on Valium and Darvocet (chronic massive headaches...long story). Anyway - I thought I might change the focus of this blog a little. I would like to keep a log of what I am watching and reading. Maybe give anyone peeking in a taste of a few different movies, TV shows, and books. This list is completely dependent on my likes and dislikes. There won't be any stupid humor movies (sorry Dumb and Dumber fans) and there probably won't be any books from Oprah's Book Club...(small sorry gestures to her many fans.) For the most part, I don't like entertainment that is depressing or takes itself too seriously. I do like movies and books that tell a story, especially if there are characters that I can get to know and come to care about. (The exception to this rule is any movie with really good explosions or car chases...I love a movie where a big wall of water destroys New York City.) :-) Big disaster movies pull me in for their special effects alone. Who cares about the men slowly trudging across frozen Maryland?? Give me a tidal wave! :-)

So - this weekend was a little interrupted. My parent's house flooded. Not the typical "river rises and we have to evacuate" kind of flood or even "a pipe burst and we have to dry out the hallway carpet" fiasco...No, no. This was "my parents are on vacation and no one noticed the burst pipe for days" kind of flood! By the grace of God, a friend went over there on Saturday night and found it. We (15 friends and I) worked until about 3:00 AM and sucked about 400-600 gallons of water out of my parent's house with shop vacs. We ripped out almost all the carpet and carpet pads and moved all the furniture into the garage. (The carpet is now draped over the fence in the backyard...very white trash looking. I am so surprised that the neighbors haven't left a note!) :-) Anyway - it's been an ordeal and I just ache for my mom who is coming home today to a house that is no longer livable. They just finished a huge remodel on the downstairs and it is all destroyed.

Anyway - all that to say, this weekend's entertainment has consisted of very little. I watched a few episodes of Stargate SG-1 Season 2. Stargate is an interesting sci-fi show. Certainly not as involved or written as well as Babylon 5 or Farscape, but there is something so appealing about the humor and character interactions. Amanda Tapping is terrific as she plays one of the few women in this world of testosterone driven he-men. The exception of course is Michael Shanks' Daniel Jackson (BTW - originally played by the brilliant James Spader in the movie. Check it out.) Daniel is by far my favorite character - a brilliant, slightly nervous, good looking anthropologist and archeologist...yummy. The interaction between Daniel and Jack (Richard Dean Anderson) is what keeps me coming back to the show. I am not watching it on the Sci-Fi channel, I'm just watching the DVDs as I get a chance. We'll see how the show progresses. It looks like it might be getting a bit more complex. I'm all in favor...

I picked up the first volume of Battle Angel Alita last night. I have just started reading comic books and Manga. I wanted to understand a bit more about this form of literature. Some of my high school students read manga all the time, so I figured I should check it out. I decided to look into Alita because I heard that James Cameron is developing it as his next project. Terminator is one of my all time favorite movies and so I thought it would hurt to take a peek. I'm not completely sold on it yet, the losing and replacing of body parts is getting a little redundant, but I will stick it through 'til the end of this volume. We'll see.

I'll post this for now and pick it up again later on today. TTFN.