audrells: (Default)
On Harper's Island:

Madison is sooooo lying, or still playing "the game". I don't for a second believe that the sheriff is the killer, partly because I like the actor, but mainly because it seems too obvious. I'm guessing that his "don't touch me" from the previews for next week are because he's wired to a bomb, not because he's the bad guy.

My previous vote for Shane was wrong. He pretty clearly didn't know about "stepmom" being dead. I now vote for Jimmy - also obsessed with Abby, spent plenty of time with the sheriff who therefore would trust him, and apparently gets blown up next week. Handy way to "die" and not leave a body behind. He also looked a little shifty when they were talking about the journal and Abby maybe being Wakefield's kid.

Or what if it's Beth?!? Okay, that's pretty stupid, but I'm guessing whatshisface didn't check for sure that she was dead so it could have been a fakeout. It seems pretty obvious they were being led to find Beth and Madison so the sheriff could be set up.

I know! It's the lady who runs the hotel!! Why? Why not? lol Motive is so over-rated.
audrells: (incongruous)
I'm going to find it very funny if Cal ends up being the "good girl who lives" on Harper's Island. He's kinda wimpy but starting to come into his own, he's sexually shy with his girlfriend, he's got the moral fortitude to stand up to everyone who wanted to leave even if meant a little girl might die, and he was smart enough to be careful around the furnace and determine that the skull they found wasn't Madison, and didn't freak over finding the skull.

Currently I'm leaning towards Shane being one of the killers (cuz I can't believe one person is capable of doing all this). He's got a grudge against Abby, he knows the island, he's scornful of the Wellington's and people in general, was apparently ready to slaughter JD, and I really want to know how he didn't get killed in the jail cell.

Other questions... Did JD get shot when he escaped, or later? Why was Henry all bloody?

Of course, since I like Cal and like the idea that he's in what's traditionally a female role in slasher flicks, he's probably the killer. Motive shmotive.

SYTYCD

Jun. 5th, 2009 12:37 pm
audrells: (Default)
This season I actually watched all of the auditions part of So You Think You Can Dance. Usually I only have enough patience to get through one night of it, and I've rarely seen "Vegas Week". Having watched it all this time, I'm thinking I may skip it next time. It's really hard watching some of these dancers get cut, even though we barely know them. And some of the judges - I'm looking at you, Mia Michaels! - have been really harsh. Mia in particular has been downright cruel, I think.

I felt most for Alex Wong, the ballet dancer who wanted to do so much more than just ballet. He's under contract with a dance company who wouldn't release him to be on the show. I suspect this is why we didn't see as much of him in auditions as we normally would have, because what we saw was freakin' brilliant. I hope we see him next year, and I hope he continues to explore new styles since he seemed genuinely moved by what he'd seen from other dancers in Vegas.

The next most sad was the Kasprzak brothers, both of whom made it to Vegas week, but only one of whom made it to the Top Twenty. I think they made the right choice, I personally preferred Evan, but I really liked both of them. They talked so much about Ryan's choreography I was hoping they'd just hire him on the spot to be a show choreographer, but no such luck.

There are two main things I love about this show:

1) Everybody is good. Even the "worst" dancers are outstanding. Everyone is forced to dance outside their comfort zone and to learn new styles in a short amount of time, and so the ultimate winner is truly a step above the rest.

2) The contestants really seem to care about each other even though they're competing against each other. Maybe it's just edited that way, but the hugs for winners and losers seem sincere, and the dancers all seem to form strong bonds quickly. You don't see the backbiting and petty viciousness so common on other shows, and the majority of dancers listen when they're corrected by the judges and take it to heart instead of just blowing off someone else's opinions. Even the judges seem to want the best personally and professionally for the dancers. It's the only reality show that gives me warm fuzzies.

Grandmom

Jun. 1st, 2009 05:37 pm
audrells: (forgive)
My grandmother died in mid-May, at the ripe old age of 101 years old. Her health had been going steadily downhill, but her mind was still pretty sharp. At the century mark she was more alert and engaged than a lot of people I've seen in their mere 70s. We knew she probably wouldn't make it until Christmas, but I'd hoped for at least Fall. I would have loved for her to have made it through the next school year so she could see her great-grandson (whom she's helped raise) graduate high school. I grew up with her and my grandfather (who died in 1990) just three miles away, and they were a huge part of my child- and young adulthood. It's hard to imagine life without Grandmom.

Things went pretty well with the service and will-reading, etc., but I found myself yet again realizing why so many families just disintigrate when there's a death. People are upset, on edge, and any little thing can set them off. There was only one big blowout (well, two, but involving the same people), and it wasn't terribly surprising. I do wish it could have been avoided, though.

I found myself feeling somewhat guilty/shamed a few times over my reactions to things. For instance, when I got the call at 3 a.m. that she had passed, my first thought was "there goes the house". I love my grandmother, and yet my first thought was to my own financial situation now that she wouldn't be sending me any money to help pay my mortgage. That is just so wrong.

Certain items were bequeathed to various kids and grandkids and friends of the family. My mom and one of her sisters had started an inventory of jewelry and such with Grandmom, but hadn't been through a lot of it. One of the things we did before the rest of the family got in was go through the list and separate out the items Grandmom wanted people to have, and try to figure out what to do with items she hadn't decided on, particularly things she had listed for multiple people. While we're doing this, I found myself getting upset because I was getting, well, nothing. An old bronze doorstop, but that was it. Meanwhile, relatives I know she didn't particularly like were getting the really nice jewelry and stuff. I felt simultaneously angry and shamed for being so mercenary. I did get several pieces of nice costume jewelry, but there were a lot of things that went to people I didn't think they should (even if they were things I didn't want).

It was an odd position. I was helping out (with funeral arrangements, the lawyer, the florist, the will) because that's what you do, and because I'm the closest grandkid. In my family, if you're there, you get put to work, lol! I didn't really have a say in how anything was divvied up, tho, because A) that's really up to her children, not me, and B) since I'm getting financial support from various family it's not really my place to say "I want that" about her belongings. If I wasn't relying on them for my mortgage (I don't recommend unemployment, BTW) maybe I would have been more aggressive about some thing? Probably not, since I hate conflict, but at least I'd have been in a better position.

I don't know. The whole thing is driving me a little nuts because I shouldn't be feeling so grabby and mercenary about things. They're just things. Most of them had no personal meaning to me. And yet when Grandmom dies I go all greedy. No wonder people get into fights over wills, even if there's no money involved. If I was one of those people who speak now and think later there could have been huge fights. Instead, I just stepped back and reminded myself this wasn't a big deal. Fifteen years in the pastoral care department paid off, I guess, since I've seen so many people get so ugly over these kinds of things, and I don't want to be that kind of person.

Still, even though I didn't act on them or verbalize them, I wish I'd never thought those hateful greedy thoughts in the first place.
audrells: (Default)
So I'm reading my LJ page and [personal profile] cofax7  mentions a new historical fiction reading group she's co-modding: Reading the Past.  I sooo do not have the time for this, and I totally suck at discussion, but this sounds awesome! Plus, I need to spend more time reading book books and not internet fanfic, so bonus!
audrells: (mom)
My icon is in honor of Mother's Day

So yesterday I was all productive and got the lawn mowed. All four feet tall of it. Started with assembling the weedwhacker, using the weedwhacker, and then finished with the mower. Moved the dead tree limbs to the side of the house to be chainsawed later (because I'm not about to fire up a chainsaw without someone else present to call 911!). Put up the new mailbox, since the wooden post for the old one succumbed to entropy.

Today, the only thing I've accomplished is buying groceries and a newspaper. I've been a slug all the livelong day. I had a whole list of things to do today but I think I burned myself out with all the yardwork yesterday. Maybe I'll be ultraproductive this evening and throw in a load of laundry.

The job listings in the paper is depressingly small, way too small for a city of 400,000. This does not bode well for my job hunting.

Watched last night's Harper's Island and snickered at the list of people "missing" for the wedding rehearsal. Can you imagine what property values on the island are going to be like by the time this is all done? Their new tourism industry is going to be serial killer tours. Richard Burgi got chopped, but only after getting lightly mauled by a dog, and after showing he wasn't a completely horrible guy after all. I find myself not looking during key parts of each episode because I'm squeamish. They really do a pretty good job of not showing more than, as they said, an average episode of CSI shows you. What gets me is the lead up to things. I get overly anxious - Supernatural does the same thing to me - to the point where I want to tell them "just kill someone already!" I am such a wimp.
audrells: (Default)
Yay, I finally made it to Dreamwidth! Big big thanks to [personal profile] kellifer for getting me here!

I discovered this week that I am too efficient. I'll thank those of you who know me to stop snickering now. I am! I don't get to go to work tomorrow because I've run out of current projects. My boss has some projects for me, but he's going to be meeting himself coming and going tomorrow and these are projects I can't do on my own or without using his computer. This is the third time it's happened since last August, when I started the job and had work dating back to March to catch up on. I told J (my boss) that I'm going to start working slower and goofing off when he's not looking.

Theoretically this means I should use tomorrow to clean up the limbs in my front yard and mow the tall grassland preserve I call my back yard. Unfortunately, it's probably going to rain again and that means the grasslands will become a marsh and eat my electric mower and possibly myself. I already have to buy a weedeater because the back yard is too tall for my mower to handle. Anyone know where I can buy a sheep for cheap?

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