Splishin and a Splashin

Have a great day!

Summer Hope E-Bay Auction

One of the recappers over at tvgasm, Umnata, is the founder of the Summer Hope Foundation, a "...non-profit organization that supports the fight against cancer (alas none of our proceeds go to getting Paris exported) through fundraising events, such as "Drink for the Cure" ("We hate cancer... but we love to drink") and "Rock Out for the Cure" ("The Let's Kick Cancer In The Ass" Concert Series). With the money raised at these events we donate money to cancer research facilities as well as fund our own internal programs, like the HOPE package, which we send out to people diagnosed of cancer."

Well, the Summer Hope Foundation is holding an auction over at E-Bay to raise money for their organization and
the stuff they have up for grabs is pretty cool.

Are you a fan of Veronica Mars or Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly, Serenity) or perhaps the musical "Wicked" or maybe The Office or Without a Trace? Well then I suggest you beat feet over to EBay and support a worthy cause and maybe even, as Umnata puts it, help him get into heaven.

Kidnapped

So I watched the second episode of Kidnapped last night and, well, some of the bloom is off the rose, I think. The writing seemed better and the acting was good, but the story veered a little too far from where we were at the end of last week.

I got NO sense of urgency about Leopold last night while they pursued the sister-abduction instead. I mean, let the cops in Rhode Island deal with the possible disappearance of Leopold's bar-hopping, coke-sniffing co-ed sister - Christ, she could have been anywhere, hooked up with some guy - and concentrate on the kidnapping case at hand. Am I right? No?

I'm aware of the practical side of this, that they need to weave more stuff into this story in order to stretch it out over the entire season, but it just seemed wrong that at the end of the episode Knapp and the FBI guys were hanging out, having a drink at a bar, like they were chillin' at happy hour at the end of a workday. Hello!? Kid has been abducted? Remember? Shouldn't you be camped out at the parents' house?

I'll still watch next week - they haven't lost me yet - but they're on thin ice now.

This is how I spend my lunch hour.

, originally uploaded by gina64.

The Order of the Phoenix Stills

Check out this Photo gallery for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

I want picures of Sirius Black, please!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Little Superstar!

Red Rover, Red Rover, send T.O. over to the hospital.

Flamboyant Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens tried to kill himself by overdosing on pain medication, even putting two more pills into his mouth after a friend intervened, according to a police report obtained Wednesday.

Note: The police report at The Smoking Gun

Stranded.

Stranded., originally uploaded by gina64.

The leaves are really starting to turn around here and I wonder if we will have some decent color this year.

TV Talk

I caught NBC's re-airing of the Heroes pilot last night. The show wasn't on my list of "new shows to watch", mostly because of a bad review I read at teevee.org; however, a bunch of my friends did like it, and that's enough of a recommendation for me to check it out. And I'm glad I did. There are elements of the teevee.org review that I think ring true (the female roles, the hospice character), but I didn't think it was nearly as bad as he led me to believe it was. It's certainly worth another look.

Eureka, on the other hand, is nowhere near as good as I had hoped it would turn out to be. Last night's episode was particularly bad, lacking any suspense, logic, originality, or decent acting, for that matter. It's a shame because it really could have been a good show. In fact, if I look hard enough, I can almost see the show it wants to be, hidden under all that mediocrity.

Chocolate Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Chocolate Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting., originally uploaded by gina64.

Baked by Sheila and delicious!!

Little Drummer Boy ROCKS.

These are the times I wish I knew someone else who watched BSG.

What better way to celebrate the season premiere of television's best show than with a Frak Party? The organizers of the Frak Party Movement (who are also affiliated with MoveOn.org) say that everyone they've "ever met who's into Battlestar is pretty frak'n cool. So we thought, why not get all these people together and have one big cool nationwide party when the new season Premieres on October 6th." I know plenty of cool people - why don't they watch BSG? I wanna have a party, dammit!

Oh well. Just because I won't be participating, doesn't mean it's not a great idea. Anything to spread the frakkin' word!.

(thanks, boingboing.net)

Mmmmm.

Mmmmm., originally uploaded by gina64.

Life doesn't get much better than being 7 years old, sitting on a beach in Maine and eating a chocolate chip cookie.

Dinks Taxi

Dinks Taxi, originally uploaded by gina64.

This is a sign over the door of the Route 66 restaurant in Bar Harbor, Maine. The inside of the restaurant is filled with all sorts of 50s memorabilia and vintage toys. It's a great place to take little kids and they serve old-fashioned comfort food.

Wasn't there a movie, or a cartoon, with little characters that yelled "Dink! Dink! Dink dink dink dink dink !!"?? I know! Spaceballs!

Thank God I remembered or that would have driven me crazy all day.

TV Talk

So I watched Kidnapped last night. I'm not completely sold yet - I'm not likely to be sold on any show after only one viewing - but I definitely like it enough to watch it at least a few more times. It was no surprise that the acting was very good, but I found that I didn't really like any of the characters that much, except for Delroy Lindo's FBI agent, and that may be an issue for me. But it's really too early to make judgments about the characters so I'll give them all a chance to grow on me.

The pace was lightning-quick, which I liked, but the dialogue could really use some help. That may improve as we get deeper into the story.

So, yeah, I give Kidnapped my recommendation for anyone looking for a new show to watch, especially if you like shows like 24.

I also finished season 2 of Veronica Mars last night. I know that some of you are planning on watching it so I don't want to spoil anything for you. I'll just say I laughed, I cried, I scratched my head...and I'm really looking forward to the third season premiere on Oct 3!

White Hot

White Hot, originally uploaded by gina64.

This was a sunset on Second Beach, Vancouver. Check out my Flickr set of sunset pictures if you get a chance.

An eye for an eye, I say.

Man accused of dragging woman to her death: "Preliminary results of an autopsy indicated the woman died of asphyxiation and head injuries from being strangled by being dragged by a vehicle."

How one person can have so little disregard for another is beyond my capacity to understand. Jesus.

And her name is Veronica.

I've lately been spending most of my free time at home watching season 2 of
Veronica Mars on DVD. I get a DVD from Netflix, I watch all 4 episodes that night. I'm supposed to be receiving the last disc (6) today. I can't wait to find out who caused the bus to crash!

The second season started off a little slow for me. I'm a big fan of Veronica and Logan as a couple and when the season started with them broken up, I wasn't all that jazzed about it. But things picked up storywise and the writers really started to develop a lot of the secondary characters that I love - guys like Cliff the public defender and Vinnie Van Lowe the private investigator, and Kendall Casablancas and Mac Mackenzie. (What a kick it was so see Allyson Hannigan (Buffy's Willow) and Charisma Carpenter (Buffy's Cordelia) in the same scene together!) And the continuity and tightness of the writing is amazing. Loose ends are not a part of Veronica's world.

The show feels like it's about to hit its prime when the third season starts on October 3, and I can't wait. But first I get to find out who crashed the bus tonight!

Suspect Everything

I wasn't going to watch the new NBC show Kidnapped, but I saw an ad for it last night while watching Law & Order CI and SVU and you know what? It looks pretty good! The cast really appeals to me: Timothy Hutton, Dana Delaney, Jeremy Sisto and Delroy Lindo. And the actor who plays the kidnapped boy has a local connection for me - he's from my father's hometown.

Kidnapped premieres tonight on NBC at 10:00 PM. I'll let you know if I like it.

Arrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Arrrrrrrrrr!!!!, originally uploaded by gina64.

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Cap'n Marty says Ahoy, Mateys!