Sucker Punch

Yea, so the critics hate it. So what? I LOVED it!

First off, the biggest down fall is that just like the use of words, the use of awesome action can loose a little bit of its power if it is overused. So yea, the action scenes slowly got less awesome but STILL awesome, nonetheless.

I loved how there were actually three different realities going on and how they coincided with each other. Yes, sure that made for a scapegoat to put all that awesome action into the film but I don't care! I loved it for the creativity and how even though it was dramatic and sometimes odd, the imagination can help with difficult things life throws at you. As a writer I loved this aspect.

If you go see it, forget what the critics and even what I had to say (except for this one part :P) and see it with an open mind. Let it take you over and feel the story as it goes along.

Top 10 favorite literature romances

I actually stole this idea from a blog that I follow: Anna Reads. It's cute and a good site but her list was just awful so I had to make one of my own. :P

#1

Ron and Hermione (Harry Potter)




Because it's SO much harder to tell your stubborn red-headed best friend that you like him more than Harry Potter than it is to tell Mr. Darcy with his HUGE tracks of land!

#2

Jez and Morgead (The Nightworld Series)



Because they are just SO good at what they do.

#3

Arwen and Aragorn (The Lord of the Rings)




Who do you know that would give up immortality for a sweaty woodsman?


#4

Elend and Vin (The Mistborn Trilogy)



Because love is difficult when the fate of the world depends on you.

#5

Mercy and Adam (Mercy Thompson Series)



Loving a werewolf can get "ruff" (hehehee... yes, I made up the corny!)

#6

Vivian and Aiden (Blood and Chocolate)




Because in-laws can be "ruff"! (Yea, I know...but it fit so well!)

#7

Bella and Edward (The Twilight Saga)



Yea... They're on here but even though their love is unnaturally obsessive, it's also very powerful.


#8

Rose and Dimitri (The Vampire Academy)



Could you stake your soul mate?

#9

Gus and Clara (Lonesome Dove)



The wild west was scary and Clara was amazing.

#10

Julian and Kelly (Nightmares and Butterflies)






Yes, I stole the pictures because as of yet, this couple doesn't exist in the media world.

And they are here because it's quite difficult to be in love with someone you're supposed to kill.

Whoo! That took longer than I thought it would. XD

Pocket Frogs

One of the managers at work showed me this game and I commandeered the hubs's ipod since I don't have an iphone and started playing. It's called Pocket Frogs and it's free and it's so cute and awesome!!

Basically you have a BILLION different types of frogs and colors and you get to breed them into how you want or into requests that the computer sends you or weekly sets or for gifts or cause you just wanna! The cool thing about this game is there is only so much you can do in one sitting and while some people might not like it, I do since it means I'm not spending HOURS just sitting there wasting away on a silly game. I do still probably spend too much time on it but it's just so cute.

I totally recommend this game to anyone with access to the apple apps. And here's to hoping they'll make it available on FB!

Barnyard BBQ

Today's special blog post brought to you after a nap much interrupted by my puppy who either wanted to sit on my head or chew on my husband's favorite tie (he succeeded in doing both). I posted a few pics of him with this blog. The second one was while he was trying to chew on me and I was trying to get a picture. The first is I finally got him to sit still for a second but he was leaning to try and sniff at me. And yes, my bedroom floor is a bit messy. :P

Last night my husband took our family to Barnyard BBQ. It's a local restaurant right by his new work place that offers lots of different food and yet some of the same good ol' stuff.

The building is small, almost as if it were a trailer transformed into a restaurant. The decor is all country stuff with wagon wheels and pictures of farm and country life.

I want to give it a great review because my hubs really liked it but I'm struggling to do so and to tell the truth. Amory got hot dogs with mac and cheese. The hot dogs were definitely over cooked and looked like red leather. The mac and cheese was good which is the side dish I also chose.

My main dish was the french dip sandwich. To be honest, it wasn't very good. I couldn't finish it off and I'm not known for being a big food waster. The au jus sauce was definitely bland and there was just something about the consistency of the meat that made me think of other things that may have actually come from a barnyard.

Michael, the hubs, got beef brisket with potato salad and onion rings. His was definitely the best of all the food. The potato salad was classic without being over-done and the onion rings were the basics. The brisket had BBQ sauce which flavored it up nicely and it pulled apart smoothly.

Another con to our experience was the portion versus cost of the meal. As Americans, we're used to big portions and I was honestly surprised with how small the entrees were for the price. We got two sodas, an appetizer (good old standby cheese sticks) and three dishes (one of which was a kid's meal). This cost us nearly $40. That's not a ton of money but I'm thinking we could have gone to another place and eaten more for less (and maybe even liked it).

So perhaps Barnyard BBQ is good when it comes to the brisket but for all else, just go somewhere else.

Two Cool New Writing Sites

I was browsing the interwebz looking for a group of writers that could somehow get me motivation and guidance with writing my books and came across writing.com. Haven't spent a ton of time on there yet but it looks really promising.

Then on FB today, someone posted this blog called Anna Reads and I got super excited about it. She LOVES YA Lit and takes review requests. I'm going to stalk her site a little more before I'll see if she'll read my book where the words resemble mashed potatoes more than actual plot lines and see what she thinks. We'll see where this goes. :)

Photo stolen off of a creative writing website. XD

DCUO

DC Universe Online is a VERY new MMORPG. I stopped playing WOW a bit to give it a whirl. Obviously, an MMORPG is a difficult thing to really critique in one post but I'm going to highlight what I think are important aspects of the game and hopefully not spend too long on this. >.<

Character creation: 4 out of 5 coins

Better than WoW but worse than City of Heroes. Of course, it could be said that COH has TOO many options and that it just gets chaotic trying to pick everything that you like for your character. DCUO has a careful balance where it doesn't take you forty-five minutes to pick out an outfit and yet it's kinda hard to get the same character as anyone else. There are two sets of power combinations- a physical and a "magical" (so to speak). You can mix and match them all instead of having one set "class" for your character. This really enhances the uniqueness of your char.

Graphics: 3 out of 5 coins

The graphics are good as far as the world is concerned but I gave it one less number because I personally believe they should have gone with just a touch more cartoony. It'd be awesome to play in a world that looked just a little bit more like comics than it does real life. This is compared especially when you get a cut-scene and it's done all in comic book artistry and it's all pretty and stuff and then you pop back into the game and it's all real life and junk.

Game play: 4 out of 5 coins

Game play is unlike any MMORPG that I've ever played before. You use your mouse a TON which is why I gave it 4 coins instead of 5. I was worried that I'd break my mouse or something by wearing it out. >.< This aspect of the game is also influenced by the fact that it is available for the console so they'd have to make it accessible for a controller- which I've actually heard is the preferred method of playing even for PC users.

The actual skills and spells that your character has aren't based on a "cool down" but more of a build up of certain elements like mana or rage. This leaves the actual fighting less turned-based and more active. It has a completely different feeling compared to WoW that does take some time to get used to.

Gear system: 4 out of 5 coins

The gear system is pretty cool. You can lock the "looks" of your character so it'll keep the same style you picked at the beginning or you can change it up with new gear you find as you go along on your missions that aren't available in the beginning selections so you can at least see visually how far others have progressed in the game (if they've unlocked their gear). This also means you're not stuck with a style you first picked out and then decide you hate two hours later. This category didn't get all 5 coins though because the system is not casual-player friendly. By level 23, I still wasn't sure what kind of stats I needed for my character and her certain power sets.

Storyline: 5 out of 5 coins

My background isn't necessarily the most comic book savvy but I do know the basics and this game really sticks to them. I LOVED running into all kinds of classic characters and interacting with them. You can pick Batman (and lots of awesome others) as your mentor and then run around doing missions for him. I was like "YEA! BATMAN said I did a good job! WOOT!"

It was also cool to play the mission plots and run into favorites. "Hi Robin!"

Main concerns about the game:

Chat system is AWFUL. Obviously console players don't chat a whole bunch textually but PC gamers, I like to think, chat it up a bit more. Basically, it's difficult to chat and play at the same time. You're so busy using the mouse while fighting that it's impossible to talk like you might be able to during a WoW battle. Essentially, it's one player game in a world that just happens to have other players in it. Luckily, you've got Batman to keep you company.

Level cap is 30 and is easily attained in a 10 day trial period. That is messed up.

You can use your main transportation ability from the very start. This is comparable to having an elite mount in WoW at level 1. Traveling is crazy easy and yet since you need to travel a lot to get to different missions, I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing.

The game does feel too easy and I wonder how long I would last playing it. On one hand, you can create TONS of characters and never get the feeling of repetition (except for the missions, of course) but on the other hand, you hit 30 in three weeks and there is just only so much raiding and pvping you can do. This last reason is why I haven't felt comfortable shelling out some cash yet because I'm not sure it would have the longevity that WoW certainly does. Players complain that you can't ever totally "beat" an MMORPG but if you can, it'd be SUPER boring and people just wouldn't stay with it.

As of right now, I'm in limbo and I guess that probably means I shouldn't buy it. It's an awesome game but I'm just not sure I'd stick with it long enough to warrant spending much money on it.

Update on BP and upcoming review for DCUO!

Writing is going SUPER slow. I'd like to say it's because I'm super busy selling my other books and being awesomely rich but it's not that at all. I'm just freezing in my house and my fingers don't want to type. Oh and also, I'm just super lazy.

BP: 12 pages.

On another note, I played a trial for 10 days of DCUO (DC Universe Online). Be ready to see a review on the game soon (maybe even today if I get too un-lazy) and see why I'm still not sure if I want to buy it or not.

P.S. Batman rocks!!

Writing

I'm going pretty slow so far on BP 3. With the first two I tried to write a set number of pages a day like 3 or 5. With this one, I'm just happy to get some writing done. BP 2 needs to be revisited and heavily edited but hopefully not as much as BP 1 did. And hopefully BP 1 doesn't need more but I'm afraid it does. Guess I'm just taking a break with all that.

Gotten at least 10 rejection emails so far but I'm going to keep trying. Considering self-publishing but not quite committed to it. I guess I feel like that'd be coping out and not really fulfilling a dream of having a book published. We'll just have to see how desperate I get.

BP 3: 10 pages.

By the way...

I blame Netflix for how long I've not posted. :P Oh and WoW, Facebook, and having to get a job.

Working on book three of BP now and hope to have a few pages in today. I've got 8 so far.

Netflix

Netflix.com is awesome. There is no arguments about that. While the site advertises that it costs about $9 per month it's really something more like $12. But do I care? No way.

First of all, you can get almost any movie or television show in the mail. You can get as many as you want per month for the same fee. They can come as fast as you can watch and mail them back. And for some reason, they seem to be super mailers because it's mere days that you send one in and get one back.

Personally, I prefer the instant streaming from Netflix. This allows you to instantly watch a show or movie from the Netflix.com website. There is no limit of how many you can watch per day or per month. You can pause them at any time and come back even months later to the same spot. You don't have to wait for the mail. You don't even have to leave your computer (unless you need some popcorn). There is only one major downfall to this method but is being addressed more and more each day. That being not everything is on instant download. Many television series are and many movies are as well and the list just keeps growing weekly.

But even if you can't see it instantly, just order it through the mail and you'll have it within days anyway.

This website has personally saved me tons of money. So much I can't even estimate. We like movies at my house and used to just buy all kinds in hopes that they were good or just fixing a craving to watch something new. Now I don't have to buy them at all unless I REALLY like them. Suffice it to say, I haven't bought many DVDs recently.

Not to mention the fact that you can watch your favorite TV shows (with the exception of perhaps a year of delay on the current seasons which isn't great for the ongoing shows but is great for catching up or expanding one's horizons) without those horrible commercials. That has saved me time and guess what? Time = money.

So everyone should own an account to netflix. You only need one for the whole family and can easily watch two things at once with multiple computers or an Xbox or Wii.

On the other hand... just be careful you don't waste ALL your time trying to watch everything... You just might explode.

Leaves and Examiner.com

My puppy has started eating leaves. It's not even autumn yet and he manages to find a whole bunch of dried ones every time he goes out. His fur is like a leaf magnet or something because he always comes back with new leaves stuck to his face or feet or butt. I have no idea where he's finding them all but they end up all around my house or being smacked on loudly by my puppy who finds the crunchy sounds delectable.

On another note, my examiner.com website is still down after they have updated the site so I haven't been able to post anything new. This and the fact that I have barely made a dollar so far, are very convincing circumstances for quitting the site. However, I have yet to officially do so.

Examiner.com

I found a cool website called examiner.com. They focus on finding local writers to write about specific local topics and categories. I applied for the job and was accepted. I'm not expecting too much money from it but I am happy just to get my name out there and try my hand at food critiquing.

Here is my site.

Not to worry, though. My topic is only Charleston Italian Restaurants and so I will continue to post other critiques on this here favorite blog. I may also take this blog a bit more personal and add some stories about my favorite puppy dog and the more personal verisions of my food articles that I am not allowed to post on examiner.com since they want everything to be in second or third person.

Thanks for reading and supporting me! :)

Olive Garden: Cookie-cutter Chain Restaurant or Fabulous Casual Eating Experience?

The chain restaurant gives the average person certain perks. One always knows what to expect when walking into a familiar chain restaurant even if he/she happens to be across country or perhaps even out of the country. The décor is the same. The atmosphere is the same. The food is the same. The uniforms are the same. It’s safe and cozy.

While this can seem monotonous to some, when traveling in a new and different place, it always feels reassuring to find somewhere familiar and comforting. However, some restaurant chains take this overboard and make them so familiar you don’t even have to open your eyes to find the bathroom.

Olive Garden handles the chain restaurant niche very well. Many of their locations have differing floor plans and buildings, although they do keep the same kinds of decorations so it feels like you are still in their domain but just simply in a different wing of the Olive Garden mansion. This effect is also enhanced by the employees who all wear the same uniform but look different and have different personalities.

The menu is one thing that doesn’t change across the different locations. This ensures that you will always have your favorite dish at any Olive Garden you may visit. And since the menu itself is so large, it will still offer a variety of tastes if you are looking for something different.

Olive Garden is the average-Joe's paradise. It offers just the right amount of high class (napkins you actually have to wash and servers with ties) with the right amount of middle class casual (you don’t have to dress up to get in and you can slurp on your pasta an no one will give you a dirty look). And, of course, their creamy sauces and chewy pastas always fill you up and keep you coming back.

The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender as an M. Night Shyamalan film

This new movie is inspired by the popular Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon seen on Nickelodeon. While the cartoon focuses more on the character development and their relationships, this movie couldn't do all of that and get the plot in at the same time, despite the fact that they only focused on one book (which I think is the equivalent of the first season from the cartoon). So while the movie was definitely not as funny as the cartoons, it does have many other perks.

The casting was awesome. The actors they got for Aang and Katara are spot on. Aang is a young boy who manages to look wise and experienced at the same time. It reminded me of the princess from The NeverEnding Story. And Katara is just super cute.

Sokka was played by none other than Jasper from the Twilight series. It was really interesting seeing him in a speaking role although he does go more in the background as the movie progresses. He actually looked similar to the cartoon character he was supposed to play but he was a little bit too old and it really showed when him and his sister were standing side by side. Prince Zuko's actor could have never been perfect for me no matter who they chose since his cartoon voice is done by Rufio from Hook. I loved that dude so much that there was no way they could replace him and they couldn't get him because he was too old. :/

All in all, the cast was great.

The special effects of this movie are AWESOME. I've always loved the idea of the four elements, despite the fact that many people feel they are overdone. I just love how they play together and this movie really captures the heart and soul of these elements while embodied by humans. The special effects of the movie take the front seat and it feels just a little bit like the filmmakers were just seeing what they could do with their computer toys- kind of like Avatar did. Yet they keep just enough humanity and dialogue and intrigue that it isn't as bad.

I felt like I was apart of this different world and I enjoyed getting to escape from my own for a little while. It was definitely a well-spent afternoon.

Eclipse

The strongest reason why there are movie giants and creations (because the words "series" or "films" are too inadequate) is their great ability to yank us out of our own real lives into a complete world where things happen, where characters connect and make choices in the face of danger which we can only dream of. We end up spending hours with these fictional people but they become our friends, our sole attention for the time we spend with them. They become our world and it is all we can do to not cry as we say goodbye and part ways. Luckily, the structures of our friendships are such that on a day we are feeling particularly lonely, all we have to do is crack open that book again.

Eclipse finally caught most of the essence from Stephenie Meyer's creation. Us as fans have been waiting for them to get it right and yet while the first two attempts were not short of failures, we still supported and loved them anyway. Now they are getting it. This film was phenomenal in so many indescribable ways. They finally put in more from the other vampires and some of their back stories. They finally gave us an Alice who loves to party and plan and yet who has a mysterious edge to her. They finally gave us action and power that we knew should have been there all along. And Kristen Stewart finally quit biting her lip and acting so unsure of her role, of what strength and love Bella really had.

While the very makeup of a movie dictates that it cannot be completely the same as a novel, and while this one did have its inconsistencies as all novel adoptions into movies do, it was so much closer to what we needed. What we as fans wanted.

In short: this is film was amazing. And I can't help but feel, as a potential creator, dwarfed by this epic story of real people who just happen to not exist.

The bar has been set and it is very high.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Joss Whedon

Alright, this show was hot when I was in middle school and high school. I never got into it and only had vague notions about what was in it. Then I got Netflix and ran out of other shows to watch so I jumped into this one. Little did I know, it was a seven seasons long series and took me a little over two and half months to completely watch. But by the time I was done with it, I felt completely satisfied with the length of the series.

That being said, it's really difficult to keep this post short with so much material to work from. Overall, I haven't watched much of Joss Whedon's other stuff but through this series, I've come to really appreciate his talent as a writer. In a series like this, you know money is a motivating factor and trying to keep the show and the actors interesting can be a hard job for the writer but Whedon pulled it off excellently. He often had moments where I was thinking what was going on was all for ratings and then he'd pull out this awesome plot move that tied it all together (ex: Dawn as Buffy's sister). It takes lots of skill to work around ratings and the actual integrity of the show at the same time.

The actors overall were decent, though I definitely had a love-hate relationship with Sarah Gellar as Buffy and David Boreanaz as Angel. Her nose bugged me a lot sometimes and other times I thought she was cute. And David's acting skills are very good but his forehead is just so reminiscent of a cave man I can't help but be reminded of Geico. :( Willow was great and so was Xander. But you know who was the best? Yea... Spike. He will always hold a soft place in my heart.

As a huge fan of the paranormal, I really loved the subject matter of this series and how it almost made these kinds of things mainstream. I'm certain that it helped Stephenie Meyer's expansion into popular culture as a vampire writer. And I loved how Whedon could make fun of himself as there seemed to be a never ending pile of impending apocalypse doom and the characters had jokes about it.

I do recommend this series to anyone. Although my friends of the Mormon variety may find some uncomfortable moments, I do challenge them to look beyond the issue and into the interesting facets of the characters.

I feel like this post is lamely too short for the goodness I partook of but let me just finish that I've spent so much time with these characters that I actually feel like they are my friends.

Oh, and Felicia Day shows up in the last season. She's not as hot as she is now but I can still appreciate just seeing her cute face. XD

WoW: Intro and Character Creation

World of Warcraft

This section is going to be all about my favorite game. Since I love it so much and it’s such a HUGE thing, I’m planning on reviewing quite a few different aspects of the game. For starters I’ll definitely go over character creation/design, layout, social aspects, some linguistics specific to the game, and some gear/stat elements. Be prepared because although I love to compare good and the bad, I’m going to be very biased.

I’ve played this game for five or so years, off and on, and have met some really awesome people and had some hilarious moments. However, I have also seen it and games like it, that hurt families and relationships. Like all things: take it in moderation!

Character Creation

I’ve been around the gaming block a little bit and being a writer, I absolutely love character creation. That’s my favorite part of starting a new game or a new story.

To be honest, WoW has a terrible character creation system. It’s not as bad as Diablo II where you only have five or so characters to choose from and they are gender specific. So if you want play a warrior, it has to be a boy or the wizard is always a girl and they always look the same. Compared to that, it’s nice. But compare it to City of Heroes or Soul Calibur 4. It is atrocious.

There are only a few different types of hair, a few different colors, and depending on the race, different markings, horns, earnings, or patches of missing skin. Since my primary character is a Night Elf, we’ll use this as an example.

There is only one hair style that I like from the original batch. In the last year, they have allowed characters to change their hair style and that has been awesome. Before that, what you picked in haste to play the game, was what you had for life. My first choice was a ponytail that I absolutely grew to detest. I celebrated the day I could take my toon to the barber and get something done about it.

With this ability, they also put out a few more hairstyles that can only be attained by going to the barber. Initially, I didn’t really like many of them, but it might have been because I already had a hairstyle in mind. I got the one I had been dreaming about for years, only to run around for a while and realize that every. single. night. elf. chick. had the stupid hair. For most of us women, that bugs when we have the same looks as someone else. In one instance, I had the same hair, facial markings, and hair color as another person and that just drove me off the edge to going to get (another) complete makeover.

Much to my dismay, the hairstyles all seemed to be ugly. They were cut weird, or too bushy, or too pulled back or too something. I probably spend an hour and at least 40 gold sitting there trying to figure out what I could spend my time staring at. Finally, I had to pick the hairstyle my sister already had. It isn’t very popular and made sure it was a different color from hers, but it was cute enough to stare at for hours.

WoW does have a lot of races (and more to come) to choose from and that freedom is nice. But that does not make up for the lack of choice when actually creating a character. Added to the hairstyle conundrum is the gear sets. As you are leveling, there are lots of different armor that makes you seem unique but once you hit 80 and start getting Tier armor, you start to be clones of each other. It’s no good.

For those persons who don’t care if they look the same as everyone else, then the character creation might suit them. For us other picky people, it’s annoying, especially after the awesome, seemingly limitless creations of City of Heroes and Soul Calibur 4.

For those of you who haven’t played these games, I’ll explain City of Heroes a bit. Also note, it’s been a few years since I’ve played so the exact details maybe a little off.

You get to pick the class and then a sub class. So just right there there are like 24 different combinations. Then the characters themselves: height on a scale from tiny to huge, weight from skinny to obese, tons of different hair styles available in any color of the rainbow. The armor has, as far as I can remember, I think like seven different categories and each category has 3 to probably 20 different types of belts or shoulders or shirts. I simply cannot do it justice in a short amount of time. Suffice it to say that the possibilities are limitless and the odds of someone looking even close to you are very slim.

The character creation of WoW is it’s biggest weakness, and although they have made some steps in the right direction, there is still a long ways to go.

House M.D.

Well, if you know me at all, you know I love House. I thought I’d just give voice to a few specific reasons why I love to watch this show.

I’m a strong believer in being able to say what you are thinking without being stoned for it or getting weird looks. Of course this is within reason as I don’t go around telling people rude opinions that aren’t important for them to know. However, people should be able to say what they think and feel about certain situations. If you think your friend isn’t dating someone good enough for them you should be able to tell them. Dancing around with words and trying to be all flattering and fake all the time is just retarded. That being said, I absolutely love how honest House can be. He is overly rude and I probably wouldn’t appreciate being around him in person but I love watching him in a safe setting far away on TV. His truths are very real and can therefore be brutal but sometimes they are essential and important for the patients/coworkers to hear. House helps define the other characters by being honest with them and not letting any secrets stay hidden.

Another aspect about this show I love is the hidden psychology behind everything everyone does. Peopledo have motives and schemes in their heads and it’s just naive to think otherwise. I’d love to be able to be as perceptive as House is but we all know that he reads a script and has an upper hand in that the writer tells him what to think and know about other people. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the awesomeness of his character and I still wish I could do that in real life.

One weakness I will admit is that the plot of every episode, as far as the patients are concerned, is the same. He always has this “aha!” moment that you can clearly see on his face as he is talking to someone else about something in the subplot that is going on. That being said, I still love it and joke around when he has that moment but we all know that the patients aren’t the real reason we love and watch this show. It’s about the characters and their interactions with each other.

In this last season there was an episode all about Cuddy. She had an absolutely horrible day starting with her child being sick in the morning and it just spiraled down hill from there. I loved this episode because it mixed up the general same plot type that we always see and also gave a whole new spin on the characters. We didn’t see much of Dr. House the whole time but when we did, he wasn’t that awesome character that we love. He was an awful annoyance that made you cringe when he walked into the office. It gave me a whole new perspective and appreciation for Cuddy. She is an amazing giving and caring woman who is smart and knows what’s right. That hospital is lucky to have her.

And you know it is true: everyone lies.

Bones

I had heard that this was a good show and that I know quite a few people who watch it on a regular basis so when I saw it on Netflix, I decided to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, all the hype hurt the experience for me. I expected to be laughing all the time and marveling and the genius and witty writing. It was a let down to find otherwise. The plots are interesting, although there are some very gruesome scenes and shots. Don’t watch this show if you are sqeamish, and even if you aren’t, I don’t recommend eating while watching.

However, despite this disappointment, I have still continued to watch it. The character interactions are the strongest part of this show, and not just the interactions of the main characters but of the supporting cast as well. The main character, Dr. Brennan, often reminds me of House because of how smart she is and how she always seems to solve the situation.

I can’t address this show without pointing out Agent Booth, who happens to be Angel from Buffy. I have never ever found this man attractive and his large, overbearing forehead has always channeled an ugly caveman look. So it comes as a surprise when I find something about him that I like or feel any sort of small attraction for him, which happens more than I expected.

All in all, I’ll probably end up watching the whole first season, testing the waters to see if I fall in love with it as some other people have, or maybe I’ll quit when I find another interesting show to take its place.

Robin Hood

I’m pretty picky about what I spend my free time doing since it seems that I have so little of it. That being said, I hardly watch TV so when I do, I try to make sure it’s something that I enjoy.

Since I got all caught up with Legend of the Seeker, I thought I’d branch out a little bit and try something new. I saw Robin Hood on Netflix and decided to watch a couple of episodes.

It took about three to get really into it but the more time I spent with it, the more I grew to love it. It’s one of my favorites now. Robin Hood’s story has always fascinated me and the actors really bring the characters to life. I absolutely love the man who plays Robin, despite the slightly annoying gap in his front teeth, because he plays such a good leader. He’s good looking and charming and mischievous. Perfect characteristics for Robin.

The villain here, the Sheriff of Nottingham, is AWESOME. He’s one of my most favorite villains I’ve ever encountered. He’s evil and yet hilarious at the same time. Because I love him so much, I can’t actually hate him as the villain but he still does a fantastic job of terrorizing his part of England.

The weakness of this show is the fight scenes. They are pretty low budget. Yes, they do a good job showing how awesome Robin is at shooting arrows but the hand-to-hand combat has something to be desired. It’s pretty fake and the camera jumps around a lot to try and cover it up.

The script is hilarious and the actors do such a good job that they could be flinging around feathers and riding cardboard horses and I would still recommend this as an excellent series.