toastykitten

My body doesn't like me. My health insurance doesn't like me, either, seeing as how my routine Ob-Gyn appointment got denied a month after it happened, and I just got charged $303.00 for it. I hate being female right now.

In other news, once I got home I got caught up on a lot of TiVo. Mark needs to quit sucking me into his shows, because it's cutting into my reading time.

Battlestar Galactica - Yay! I liked this last episode much better than the week before, although if they're going to make all the major female characters have baby lust for the rest of the season I will be seriously annoyed. Also, I love Gaeta. Who is the black Cylon dude? What does he do? Where did he go? (Obviously I didn't really watch the first two seasons. I thought they were kind of boring.) I am kind of bored with Lee and his fat suit is terrible. Loved Tigh and Ellen's scenes.

Project Runway - Uli was robbed. Ok, I am biased because I cannot stand that twat Jeffrey. I don't care if he loves his son; he was a dickhead to everyone else and he looks like a Cardassian. I really wanted Michael to win, but his collection was by far the weakest of the four.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - I totally can't follow the dialogue. I'm starting to like Jordan/Amanda Peet more now, since she actually seems to be acting in her scenes now instead of just saying her lines. The sketches are so unfunny it completely distracts me from the rest of the show. And really, who the fuck makes sketch comedy from 16th century literature? The parts of the show that are not the sketches are pretty good, especially Matthew Perry. Nate Corddry is cute, too.

The Daily Show - Ohmygod Samantha Bee made a couple of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret jokes! "We must, we must, increase our busts!" Hee. I read that book over and over again in the third grade and I prayed that my period would never come. Obviously, God wasn't there.

Heroes - Interesting. It's moving too slowly for me, and I wish the dialogue were better. But I love Claire the cheerleader and Hiro the enthusiastic Japanese otaku. His pal Ando is quickly turning into a favorite, too.

So I just finished re-reading this book. I used to say that I really liked Philip K. Dick's ideas, but I didn't think he could write. I take that back - some parts of the novel are rambling, but overall I liked it and I liked the way it was written.

A bunch of it reminded me of BSG, actually. Androids are beginning to escape from their human creators, and Rick Deckard is the bounty hunter who hunts them down and "retires" them, aka murder. I found the "empathy" test used to determine whether the person was android or human fascinating, especially since today I read this story about how U.S. soldiers played golf and drank whiskey right before raping and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. They would have scored as androids who ought to be "retired".

I always have trouble with the androids/cyborgs/intelligent machines have feelings plotlines - I think it's a mental block for me, because I always think of machines as being programmed - someone has to put those orders in, so if they have feelings, they're not "real".

Ok, so here's my theory - I know it makes no sense - but the androids that Rick Deckard hunts down are the beginning of the Cylon rebellion against humanity. There are more Nexus-6 rebellions waiting to happen, and at first, the ones who look like machines have more power, because they're harder to kill. Eventually, though, they become subservient to the androids who look like humans, because there's an intense desire to mimic humanity, and it's the closest they'll come to being human, and also, that's why they refer to themselves as "humanity's children".

I watched the finale of Project Runway last night. Yay Chloe! You know what? I actually liked her stuff better once I saw it on the runway. Except for the huge pink couch dress.

I'm still ambivalent about Chloe as a designer, because I don't think there's much originality there. On the other hand, that's perfect for a Banana Republic mentorship, since there's not much originality in Banana Republic anyway. I really like Chloe as a person, and loved her professionalism. I also totally relate to her having a huge family of sisters. I liked that for once, a reality show rewards 1. a minority, 2. a genuinely nice person. On the other hand, I wouldn't call Chloe the "next great designer".

I think the judges were on crack, though, during their questioning. First of all, Debra Messing as judge? What the hell has she got to do with fashion, other than being constantly insulted for not having any boobs on Will and Grace? I hated how their priorities seemed to change and contradict with each designer. They dinged Santino for being too "out there" all season, and then he finally tones it down, and then they bitch about him being "too safe". I don't think the batwing-leather corset dress was exactly playing it safe, but whatever. And I can't believe I just defended Santino, but I liked some of his stuff.

Season 1's clothes were much better.

I really liked Daniel V.'s 13th dress, even though I think that was mostly Nick's work.

Did the fashion industry just realize that dresses could have pockets? That was a trend at the Oscars, too - many of the evening gowns had pockets. If so, WHY DIDN'T THEY THINK OF THIS EARLIER?

Good news for Mark: I think I finally got sucked into Battlestar Galactica with the finale. And now we'll have to wait until October to find out what happens next.

This post from Hanzi Smatter is really funny. Apparently, according to the World Bible School, "the Chinese believed in God and knew about all the stories in the bible. Matters of fact, many Chinese characters, if not all, were derived from actual events and stories in the Holy Bible", which is obviously utter bullshit if you had even the most basic knowledge of Chinese history. But the kicker is the one of the examples they used to highlight this "theory".

I liked this post by Yan of Glutter, about how "Chinese Writers Don't Write For a Western Audience in Mind".

Oh, and it's snowing in San Francisco.