THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE?

Posted on March 5, 2006 by thathobbitlady

Russ and I are midway through the finale of Buffy’s Season 3, Graduation Day. Much afoot! And I am sure I will be able to discuss this issue much more intelligently once I have gotten all the way through Graduation Day, and even more intelligently when I have gotten through the series, but from this unique perspective, I want to address a question Russ brought up last night. Can there…or should there….be only one Slayer?

Russ is wondering what might happen when/if Faith is eliminated as the “second Slayer.” (I say “wondering” facetiously, because of course he knows exactly what happens and how it impacts the rest of the storyline.) From my point of view, tho, not knowing what happens, a lot of questions and possiblities are open.

Russ seems to be assuming that if Faith dies and a new Slayer is sent to replace her, this will be a bad thing. That we want to get back to the point where there is only one Slayer, so that Buffy will be “special.” I’m not sure I agree. First, Buffy already is special, no matter how many other Slayers there might be. And I enjoy the interaction between the Slayers, and seeing how different they can be and still get the job done.

Look at Kendra. Very different than Buffy, but I liked her, she was so dedicated. And Faith has a strength that Buffy doesn’t have. Granted, she’s kind of got that power turned in the wrong direction at the moment, but you can’t deny there is strength and power in her personality. And the fight scene between Faith and Buffy (black leather pants vs. red leather pants) was so intense, so hot! (not in a sexual way, in a storytelling kind of way). The reason why this scene works so well is exactly because they are from the same stock, both Slayers, both equally trained, equally focused.

I like when there are two Slayers. I don’t necessarily want to see only one Slayer. Now, as for whether or not there will be one Slayer or two Slayers and how this might be accomplished, I have no idea. And I don’t think I’m even going to hazard a guess. I have complete faith in Mr. Whedon to take this story to the best place possible. I’m just along for the ride. One Slayer, two Slayers, whatever. This show rocks!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

A SIMPLE REQUEST

Posted on February 22, 2006 by thathobbitlady

I don’t ask much of life. I am a simple person, with simple desires. And my lunch order, I think, is relatively simple. Well, maybe in this day and age of “Give me a #4 and super size it” mine is a little more complicated, but I don’t think it is so complicated that it’s *impossible* to get right.

Every time I go into Wendy’s or McDonalds, this is pretty much what I order, and I use these same words every time:

Side Salad
with Ranch Dressing
and a Bag of Croutons.
Medium Iced Tea
with a slice of lemon.

That’s it. That’s all. Five things to remember, but I have begun to notice that I have about a one in ten chance of getting everything I ask for on a first shot. At least that is the way it seems, so today I decided to turn this into an official socialogical study. From this point on, whenever I go into a fast food restaurant and order this meal, I am going to document the response.

To begin. Today I went into the McDonald’s around the corner from my work and put in my order, exactly as stated above. This was the response:

***No croutons. I had to ask again.

**No slice of lemon. I had to ask again.

***Also, why is it that some people do not understand that a major component of iced tea is….ICE!!! Why is it that they people will try to make you an iced tea with less ice in it than they would put in your average cup of soda? I had to ask for more ice.

***Not only all this, but as I was standing there, waiting for all the items which I could clearly see behind the counter to be put on to my tray, I saw no fewer than two people who had ordered after me get their food first—and that being cooked food! I guess the fact that I was eating lite also made me a lite customer, not as important as the big meat eaters.

Either that, or they were somehow aware that I was going to document the ineptitude of their eating establishment, and were getting back at me before I even got started.

I will collect data from at least ten McDonald’s visits and ten Wendy’s visits, then report back on the results. What do you think? Am I over-reacting? Or am I going to find that customer service is not what it should be?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 3 Comments

THE BUFFY BOY QUIZ

Posted on February 17, 2006 by thathobbitlady

Here’s a little quiz I created, strictly for amusement. This is for the girls. If any boy wants to take this quiz, just callit the Buffy Girl Quiz and change the choices to Buffy, Willow, Cordelia, Faith and Jenny.

The Buffy Boy Quiz

1. LOOKS. The business directly across from yours is up for sale and about to get a new owner. When he comes in, you will have a clear, all day visual of him through the front window on an almost constant basis. You will never interact with him, you will only have the chance to look at him repeatedly every day for the next ten or twenty years. The following characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer are all applying for the job. Who do you hope gets it, and why?

a. Xander
b. Giles
c. Angel
d. Oz
e. Spike

2. PERSONALITY. You may choose to have any of the following characters from Buffy as a guest in your house for an entire week. You will get to hang out with him, show him the sights, have fun….but having sex does not enter into this at all. Which guy would you like as your non-sexual companion for a week, and why?

a. Xander
b. Giles
c. Angel
d. Oz
e. Spike

3. SEX. Okay, now you get to have sex with one of them. You are a contestant on a Japanese TV game show and you win the grand prize of one night of unbridled passion with your favorite TV character. You get to pick from the Buffy boys. Who do you choose, and why?

a. Xander
b. Giles
c. Angel
d. Oz
e. Spike

4. THE LONG HAUL. Arranged marriages come back into style. You must marry one of the Buffy boys and live with him as your husband for at least the next thirty years. Who do you choose, and why?

a. Xander
b. Giles
c. Angel
d. Oz
e. Spike

Have fun!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 3 Comments

BAND CANDY

Posted on February 15, 2006 by thathobbitlady

Russ and I have been watching Buffy together from Season 1 Episode 1, and at the moment we are barely at the beginning of Season 3. So lots and lots of goog stuff yet to come! First I have to mention what a great guy Russ is for turning me on to Buffy in the first place, and for making all this possible at all. This is totally all his doing. Thank you, sweetie!

So last night we watch Band Candy, and today I have watched it again. In fact, I’m watching it now, yet again. And why not? It is probably the funniest episodes yet! Except for Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered. Having said that, I realize that what these two episodes have in common is that they both play off the unique characterizations. Both episodes take what we already know about the characters and mess around with that, in a way that is truly, truly insightful and amusing.

Okay, so in Band Candy, we have all the grown ups reverting back to teenagers. As a grown up who too often feels like a teenager, I found this absolutely too wild for words! Here are my impressions…from the other side of 16.

Buffy’s mom, Joyce—never really liked her much. Way too serious, too much the disciplinarian. Her role as “mom” forces the fun out of her. But now she is totally fun, hanging with her new boyfriend Giles, drinking, listening to music, carrying handcuffs (!) and telling Buffy, “Screw you!” For the first time we really see her being more than just what is demanded by her role as “Buffy’s mom.” I like that. She’s…”very Juice Newton.”

Giles. What a riot. What does Buffy say about him as a teen? “Bad magic hates the world ticking time bomb guy.” He’s irreverant, irresponsible, so un-Giles. He smokes, with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeve of his undershirt. Even his accent descends. “Coppers go’ a gun!” He’s so cool. He’s like Burt Reynolds. hehe

But probably the most fun of all is Principal Snyder. What a riot! I can’t explain why I get such a kick out of him as a teen. Probably because he is even more of a weasel as a teen than he is as an adult. As an adult, he is mean spirited, but as a teen, he’s just so…so… mischevious. And there’s something about the way the actor portrays him, how he puts that glint in his eye. Despite the bald head, you almost believe he’s 16. Too funny! (“Whoa! There are some foxy laides here tonight!”)

Okay, I’m gushing enough. The idea that the teenager we once were is always still somewhere inside us is so intriguing, so appealing. I mean, hopefully, indulging that teenager now and then does not lead to quite as much trouble as it does in the Buffy universe—but then when is anything in the real universe anywhere near as intense and dramatic as anything in the Buffy universe?

Final thought. An episode like this, besides offering deeper insight into our favorite characters, also gives a greater respect for the talents of the actors. Sometimes, I think, we get so used to seeing them play their parts so well, that it seems second nature, we lose our sense of marveling over what a good job they are doing. Now we are reminded that they are in fact acting, they are not really these particular characters, but actors portraying these characters, and indeed portraying all the different levels of their characters so very well.

And now Russ tells me we are getting ready to delve into several very angsty episodes. Well, then, I guess it was good to have this little side trip to Laughland before we go there.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

TOTALLY RANDOM BUFFYNESS

Posted on February 14, 2006 by thathobbitlady

As I’ve been watching Buffy lately, I’ve been taking “Notes” in Outlook as things occur to me. Below please find my random notes. They may amuse. And if you can shed any light on any of my questions, please feel free!

RANDOM BUFFY NOTES

why a cage in the library?
when do these people sleep?

he marches to the beat of a different drummer. actually, i think he makes his own drums

great, now im gonna be stuck w serious thoughts all day

Becoming

decision to add oz as regular character was made after second season? did they not know at the beginning that he would be a regular? or was it planned for him to come in later?

in what unverse do high school students teach high school classes?

wackiness ensues

you’ll see what i mean

the whole earth may be sucked into hell and you want my help cos your girlfriends a big ho?

have you tried not being a slayer?

why did she kill him at the end, when he had been turned back? my best guess, the vortex was coming to swallow up the world, but somehow would be satisfied w only angel but why? how does that work?

well we know the world didn’t end cos….check it out

mary notes that everytime she kills someone she wears overalls afterwards

pimple on her forehead in final scene on bus

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

SUSPEND YOUR DISBELIEF

Posted on February 14, 2006 by thathobbitlady

Well, everything is now more settled down, after putting Mary safely on a plane to Ireland, and preparing and sending my Valentine’s package to my sweetheart….and making my first heroic steps towards going back to the gym. So now it is time for a little reflection.

My mind has been spinning quite a bit lately with everything going on, but I did take a moment last Friday to see the movie The Producers, and I’d like to offer a few words of critique. The title of this entry, as you see above, is “Suspend Your Disbelief” which is what you have to do any time you approach a musical, especially of a Broadway persuasion, and this movie is no exception.

Did I like the movie? Hard to say. Not a resounding yes or no. It felt uneven. It took a long time to get started, a long time for that comfortable suspension of disbelief to set in. At first, it was just goofy, even uncomfortable.

The Leo Bloom character was a little more “over the top” than expected. Was that Matthew Broderick’s interpretation, or is he always portrayed that way? (BTW, speaking of Matthew Broderick, now I know the world is indeed still spinning, because at last he is beginning to look older. I never thought it would happen, but yeah, it happens, even to cuties like Matthew Broderick).

After a while, you begin to settle in a little more comfortably into this ridiculous world, to lose yourself in it to some extent. But I don’t think ever completely. All in all, I was somewhat disappointed. I expected it to be better. It was still good, but I expected better. But I think to see better, you would really have to see it live on the stage, where the suspension of disbelief is already assumed to a much greater extent before the first curtain even goes up.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

THE DEFINITION OF FAITH

Posted on October 23, 2005 by thathobbitlady

This morning I had an experience that made me realize the definition of faith.

A few weeks ago, my mom and dad offered me a living room chair. Even though it was a comfortable chair, better than the chair we currently had, at first I said no because it was a recliner. Having two cats in the house, I refuse to have a recliner. If you know the nature of cats, they like to get into whatever little private place they can and sit silently. As far as I’m concerned, cats and recliners are a recipe for disaster.

But my dad said no problem, he could fix the chair so that it would no longer recline. I said well, if it doesn’t recline, then sure! So a few days later, he brought over the chair and it is now a nice, comfortable addition to our living room.

(By the way, is anyone interested in the old chair, a pink leather swiveling barrel chair? It’s kind of odd looking, maybe art deco/retro. Free to a good home.)

So this chair has been in the house two or three weeks now, and this morning I sat down in it while eating my bowl of cereal, and it suddenly occured to me that in all this time, I have not once tested out the chair to see whether or not it actually no longer reclines.

My dad said he would fix it, and that was good enough for me. If he said he would fix it, then I knew it was done. In all this time, I have had no trepidation whatsoever about this chair being in my house, and it has only been two or three weeks later that the issue even randomly came into my mind.

And as soon as I thought of it, I thought, “This is the definition of faith.” Your dad says he’s going to do something, and you believe him, and you don’t doubt, and you don’t have to test it out, you just beleive it has been done as he said it was going to be done.

Well, we have a Heavenly Father, don’t we? Who also says He is going to do certain things for us. And when we have faith like we should, we do not doubt, we do not have to test it out, we just believe and live our lives without trepidation.

Wow… The spirituality of chairs.

God is in everything.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 3 Comments

OUT OF TOUCH

Posted on October 16, 2005 by thathobbitlady

The subtitle on my journal has always been “In the world, but not of it.” I have always felt that way, just slightly out of the mainstream. And something happened the other day that really brought that home to me.

As you may know, I do not have broadcast TV coming into the house. I do not get the newspaper. I don’t listen to the radio. The only way I really know what is going on in the world is when I open up my internet service and see the headlines on the homepage, or when I walk into the breakroom at work, and catch a minute or two of a news broadcast.

As for what’s going on in the world of entertainment, I’m even worse. And this is what happened. I was on-line somewhere, and one of those annoying little quiz ads popped up, urging me to “Guess the Celebrity!” in order to win a free laptop or some such thing. (Yeah, right!)

Well, the thing is, I looked at the picture of the celebrity, and I looked at the three or four choices of names they gave you…and I was completely clueless! I didn’t recognize the pic or any of the names!

Now the point of these little quiz ads is supposed to be that they ask you something that is so damn obvious there’s NO WAY you can get it wrong, and then they get to say “Congratualtions, you won!” and then you feel so warm and fuzzy inside that you are easily drawn into their sales pitch. (I would imagine, anyway—since I have never actually participated in one of these things. I’m really big on the upper right hand X).

But I could NOT for the life of me answer the question that was supposed to be so damn obvious. Not a clue. hehe

And you know what. That’s just fine by me. Because I don’t feel my life is any less fulfilling by not knowing whether or not that was P Diddy or Hot Diggety Dog, or whoever else they said it might be.

Happily Oblivious.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

MY FRED ASTAIRE FANTASY

Posted on October 9, 2005 by thathobbitlady

I am having so much fun casting my NaNo!! Mary gave me the idea to do this, so my thanks go out to her for her ingenuity. Here’s who I have.

My main character, Cindy, is a college girl, kind of plain, even maybe a little dorky.

Before

Mary came up with Anne Hathaway, and this is a picture of her from The Princess Diaries. And like the character in the Princess Diaries, Cindy will have a makeover, and afterwards, she will look somewhat like this:

Yeah, I know, I’m kind of borrowing the actress and the makeover concept from The Princess Diaries. Actually, not really, because I had the idea for this story long before The Princess Diaries ever came out as a movie, but it was just kind of convenient that there’s such a parallel, because I now have great Before and After images.

Anyway, Cindy is a real film buff, and especially loves the old Hollywood Studio films of the 30’s and 40’s, which leads to her having a fantasy/supernatural encounter with Fred Astaire…

But of course he’s dead, so if we had to get someone to play him in the movie, how about Ewan McGregor, who is about the same build, oozing with the same kind of debonair charm, AND can sing and dance to boot…

Now to complicate matters, Cindy is infatuated with Jason a “BMOC.” probably a football player or some such thing.


This is Shawn Ashmore, who played Bobby, the Ice Man, in the X-Men movies. Isn’t he hunky?

But he’s not interested in Cindy (at least not BEFORE her makeover.) But Cindy has a loyal and adoring guy friend, Alan, who is totally interested in her, even when she wore glasses and her hair looked like a rat’s nest.


Here, if you know me, you will easily recognize Adam Lamberg, who of course does the “loyal and adoring guy friend” so well. Cindy is not romatically interested in her friend Alan (subtitle of my novel: “What the Hell is Wrong with Cindy???”) But perhaps that will change before I reach 50,000 words.

Anyway, that’s the main look of my novel. This is tremendous fun, and I recommend it to anyone who is doing a NaNo!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 4 Comments

UPDATE

Posted on October 8, 2005 by thathobbitlady

Closer has arrived, and is fast becoming one of my favorite BTE CD’s—tho they are ALL my favorite in some way. Sort of like your kids, you don’t have one favorite, you love them all, but for different reasons. It’s time to order Artifakt.

Went to the new job assignment. People and environment very nice, but they don’t have anything for me to DO!!! I’m just an extra body hanging around. In the future, I’m bringing work from my “real job” that I can do on the computer, and I’ll also do my own stuff, if it comes to that. But I’m not going to sit around and do NOTHING all day. That’s torturous! I also think I’ll be taking a lot of vacation time on Friday, which I wanted to do anyway, but now I don’t have to feel guilty about it, because it’s not like I’ll be missing any actual WORK!!!

More rain. When will it ever stop?

Also, I inderstand that the last birthday present I am waiting for in the mail is the DVD of the Disney movie The Kid. What a great movie! I love Bruce Willis, especially when he had hair. hehe! The whole idea of reconnecting with your “inner child” is so intriguing. Actually, to tell the truth, I’m not so interested in connecting with my inner CHILD at the moment. I don’t feel the need to go that far back. I am, however, reconnecting with my inner TEENAGER and that feels great. Maybe once I get comfortable with the teenager and work out all of those issues, I’ll feel the need to go back and visit the inner child, but at the moment I’m fine where I am.

By the way, this is the pic I have on my new keychain, which I went on and on about a few entries back.

Nobody has called me on it yet, but if someone should say something, I have my answer prepared: There is a teenage girl still very much alive inside me, and this is what she likes!

I have this scientific theory I’m out to prove. You know how some women can have “hysterical pregnancies”? They so much want to be pregnant that their bodies actually mimic the signs of pregnancy. Years ago I watched All My Children and there was a storyline like that. Well, I’m wondering if I can “hysterically” delay the onset of menopause by convincing myself that I am still a teenager. I know, I’m weird, but I think if the mind can have that much power over the body in regards to pregnancy, why not also in regards to menopause? You’re only as old as you feel, right? Isn’t that what they always say? Well, I feel like I’m somewhere between 17-25 years old—way, way too young for menopause!

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment