Prototype of a Person

Right now I’m loving/hating…

Loving everything that encompasses the giant ego of William Shatner. Despite having always claimed a love for him, it only ever went as far as an affection for his role in Star Trek and the collaborative album with Ben Folds, Has Been. More recently however, the GF bought me his autobiography Up Till Now, (which I can’t recommend highly enough) and my eyes were opened up to the greatness that is William Shatner and his current alter ego Denny Crane. Hating that it took reading his autobiography to realise that Boston Legal is actually a spin-off of The Practice and that the last few episodes of this show introduced the likes of Denny Crane. I originally was of the opinion that the first season of Boston Legal started far too abruptly and I hadn’t continued watching it, until now that is.

Loving taking a trip down retro science fiction lane. I recently came across the blog of Adam “Mojo” Lebowitz  who works as the visual effects supervisor on Battlestar Galactica, having previously worked on Star Trek Voyager and Babylon 5. Not only does he have interesting insights into his current work, he has also been posting some great behind the scenes stories and images about the visual effects from Babylon 5 and Voyager, making me want to go watch them all over again. Hating that I don’t have either of them on DVD.

Loving how easy Spiceidipity has made baking mouthwatering treats, without even having to worry about evil additives, because everything is 100% natural. Over the weekend the GF, Katie and I went to work on the Brownie Mix and the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix. By literally just adding some eggs, butter and a little icing we ended up with all of these amazing treats. Hating how completely addicted I am to the cookies, though I do now have a whole new appreciate for oats!

Right now I’m loving/hating…

Loving learning Yoga poses on the Wii Fit (video). I’ve always had an interest in yoga but was wary of it’s pseudo-spiritual side. Yoga on the Wii Fit removes the unnecessary parts and concentrates on deep breathing and stretching. The balance board that comes with the game tells you if you are in the right position, to make it as effective on your muscles as is possible. The Wii is teaching me well, because I’ve even started doing some of the poses without it, just to relax. I’ve also been enjoying the really fun balance games and exhausting aerobics. Hating how I managed to pull a muscle in my leg by overdoing it in the muscle exercises section, clearly I haven’t gotten to that stage yet.

Loving taking artsy Polaroid photos with the packs of film my GF got me. I’ve been trying to turn each and every picture into a mini work of art for my bedroom wall. There’s something very pure about Polaroid photos, it’s almost as if they are the antithesis of digital. With my digital camera I can take 1000+ photos and it’s fine if a high percentage of them are a waste. But with a Polaroid camera you must compose the picture so carefully, because the film has become so rare and expensive, so taking great photos is far more difficult, yet much more satisfying. Next, I’m going to start scratching to create even more art. Hating that Polaroid is no longer producing the film and that I might have to give up this new hobby sooner than I’d like.

Loving writing stories and notes into moleskin notebooks. Ever since I bought a Filofax last year I’ve been enjoying the freedom of jotting down random useless thoughts (and some useful ones) onto paper, rather than typing them out. I’ve gone a step further and further into geekdom by picking up some moleskin notebooks, they remind me of school copies, but cool. I wrote a small draft of this post in one. Just like taking a Polaroid there is something so wholesome about the act of putting pen/pencil to paper. I also love the slightly cut off corners, it makes the paper feel unworldly. Hating how expensive they are, astronmically expesnive in comparison to standard notebooks.

Right now I’m loving/hating…

Loving movie-tastic Dublin this week. Heading down to the preview screening of Vexille this evening, all courtesy of the Cinemagic International Film Festival (via Darragh and JazzBiscuit). They’re showing some truly classic movies (like Jaws!) in both Movies @ Dundrum and Cineworld on Parnell Street. Hating that I can’t make it to Toy Story on Wednesday morning. Now that will be a special screening - what a classic! Also heading to the preview screening of Iron Man in Cineworld on Wednesday night courtesy of the newly launched website Movies.ie – it really does pay off to be connected… to the internets of course!

Loving everything that Jason Segal and Tina Fey are in, have been in, and are going to be in. Examples being - Forgetting Sarah Marshall, How I Met Your Mother and Freaks and Geeks from Jason Segal, and then there is Baby Momma, 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live from Tina Fey. I highly recommend 30 Rock if you’re looking for a new comedy to start watching. I’ve become a total video junkie. Hating that neither of those two current TV shows (30 Rock and How I met your…) are ever on terrestrial or digital in Ireland and must be downloaded. Who ever it is that decides what American TV shows to buy in (rubbish like Desperate Housewives for instance) to show on RTE and TV3 should be fired.

Right now I’m loving/hating…

Loving the B3TA Star Trek image challenge. These are the ones that have made me laugh my ass off - USB Data, Cyberspace the final frontier, Star Trek the Blome Generation and 2 Girls 1 Cup. Hating that the site’s questionable content (the “occasional” badly drawn cock) means that I can’t access it from work.

Loving the work of Maria Schneider (staff writer at the Onion), her web-comic strips over at Pathetic Geek Stories are inspired by user submitted geeky childhood/teen confessionals that she illustrates, quite brilliantly. Setting up a dialogue with the individuals who submit their stories enables her to bring extra realism to each comic, thus making them hard not to identify with. Hating that I’m terrified to submit my own, as I do have some terribly embarrassing (thus humorous!) stories locked deep inside.

Loving Play.com, especially their fast delivery. Admittedly this site could use some work, especially in regards to the structure of it’s categorisation system, I actually use Amazon to browse but Play to purchase. The reason for this is because Play offer such good value for money and complete transparency, meaning that you known exactly how much you’re going to pay for an item before you’ve even added it to your shopping basket (as postage is included in each item price, rather than added on at the end). Being able to view the site in Euro is also a huge benefit, I hate trying to shop online and converting currency as I go along, it’s too messy. Hating Playtrade, half of the items I have tried to purchase from these “Playtraders” have turned out as being out of stock because they don’t update their inventories often enough.

Loving that the IFI is finally showing Grindhouse - the Planet Terror and Death Proof double-feature, including all the fake and fantastic movie trailers in the middle. Hating that it’s a Saturday and Sunday matinée showing only. Walking out into the light of day after these will not be pleasant.

Right now I’m loving/hating…

Loving that Dublin has gone all lesbian-music-scene this week with Tegan and Sara playing in my new favourite venue the Button Factory (though it was my favourite as the TBMC too - go figure!) tomorrow night and Uh Huh Her playing the Village on Sunday. Hating that I’m 100% sure that I’ll have a hangover for the later, and that’s mostly because of this.

Loving Anton Yelchin’s portrayal of a modern day Ferris Bueller in the new movie Charlie Bartlett (can’t wait to see him in the new Star Trek movie). Hating that the trailer gives away the entire storyline.

Loving how Google Reader puts less strain on my eyes, by allowing me to read all my blogs in a lovely gmail formatting style (which this video is definitely paying homage to). Hating that it took me so long to figure out that rss readers were a good thing.

Loving debut irish albums “Carry the Meek” by the one and only Ham Sambo and “Forget Romance, Let’s Dance” by my new favourites (old favourites of Jens!) We Should Be Dead. Hating that I’ve yet to see WSBD live, this will hopefully be rectified at Ladyflash a.s.a.p!

Right now I’m loving/hating…

Loving that Leisha Hailey (Alice from the L Word) and band Uh Huh Her are set to play the Village on the 2nd of March (via UnaRocks). Hating that Ticketmaster can’t tell me when the tickets go on sale.

Loving reading 100’s of old Sinfest webcomics - adorable, American-manga that deals with religion and other dirty (contemporary) stuff. Look out for my favourite characters Pooch and Percival and this strip made me LOL (no really! it’s not a Loi). Hating how addictive it is.

Loving learning new things from the WikiHow, for instance I learned a valuable lesson - don’t put your headphones together, as this pushes the internal magnets together, overflowing the power and making them useless. Cool. Hating today’s spotlight article - How to Use a Bidet. Gross.

Loving Songza.com - it’s a music search engine. Type in ANY artist and/or song and it’ll give you a list of streaming tunes to play. Hating that you can’t download the tracks, but it does allow you to setup a playlist and also links to the music video and legal methods in which to download the them.