31 December 2010

 

This and That

I've been hearing about a Tintin movie forever. While I love the books, the idea of a movie makes me very nervous. These pictures helped a little, but not a lot.


Polar bears! (With narration by David "The Tenth Doctor" Tennant!)




From Cracked.com, stupid Amazon products with impressively sarcastic reviews.


Well, it was three, actually!


I go there almost every day. I've never seen it look that clean! The pictures are cool, though.


An interview with Matt Nix, the creator of Burn Notice. I liked his answer about humor in his shows:

"I tend to like comedy that’s not setup, setup, punchline, and joke comedy, so I’m always on the lookout for that. I tend to like humor that is inserted into otherwise dramatic situations. It’s not something I’ll sit down and analyze much. A line will just pop into my head while writing some more intense scene."

This is why I love shows like Burn Notice, Farscape, and Supernatural. They're all very good at that.


I think this is magic.

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Quote of the Day: John Walters

From The Same River Twice (which follows UConn's 2000-2001 season), an excerpt that is probably a good predictor of the 2010-2011 team's next game:


What is it like to play UConn after they lose? "I think one of my assistants put it best," says Old Dominion coach Wendy Larry after tonight's 80-51 pasting by the Huskies at Gampel Pavilion. "It's kind of like kicking a hornet's nest naked."

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The Streak Ends at 90

Maya Moore was awful. Or Stanford's defense was very, very good.

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Quote of the Day: iCarly

From "iTwins":



Freddie: Is that a new necklace?

Carly: Yeah! You like it?

Freddie:
Can you return it?

Carly:
No...

Freddie:
It's nice.

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29 December 2010

 

Quote of the Day: John Walters/Geno Auriemma

From The Same River Twice, Walters is describing Geno's 12-year-old son, Michael:


Michael's "uniform" is a power-blue pair of University of North Carolina gym shorts and a Jason Williams #55 jersey. He adores the flashy Sacramento Kings point guard, which drives his father to distraction. "Hey, Mike, if you really want to learn how to play point guard, watch Sue Bird."

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28 December 2010

 

Quote of the Day: The O.C.

From "The End of Innocence" (episode 3.03):


Seth: Okay, how about this: you and Marissa run away together.

Ryan: Uh, last time I tried to run away--

Seth:
We were ambushed by the cops. Got it. So I guess you're not up for the model home idea, either.

Ryan: I thought we might be able start off with something that wouldn't involve me getting arrested.

Seth:
Is it my fault that most of our half-baked adolescent schemes go hopelessly awry and my dad has to bail us out?

Ryan: Usually, yeah.

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27 December 2010

 

Quote of the Day: John Walters

For Christmas I got (among other things) the book The Same River Twice, about UConn's 2000-2001 season. I'm up to page 63, and I've already found a lot of quotes from it. Here's one:


Near the end of practice [Coach] Geno's patience is tried on consecutive plays by Sveta and Diana, respectively. Unintentionally, they snare him in a coaching Catch-22. With the ball on the left wing, Sveta looks inside to feed Tamika Williams. However, she looks a moment too long. Morgan Valley reads Sveta's eyes, steps between Sveta and Tamika, and steals her pass.

"Put the ball in there like you wanna be a player, Svet," he says. "Nice bounce pass. Jesus! What do you think they're looking at? They're looking at what you're looking at."

On the next play Diana has the ball at the top of the key. She looks right then, spiritual daughter of Magic Johnson that she is, fires a one-handed, no-look bullet pass to Tamika, who is open under the basket. Tamika never sees it. The pass whizzes by her and hits Geno, who is standing next to the basket stanchion, in the side. Now whose fault is that?

Geno raises his eyes. Diana suppresses a laugh, then says, "Sorry". The team waits for a reaction. Will Geno go Vesuvius on Diana? Svet's pass failed because she fooled no one; Diana's because she fooled everyone. How do you tether Diana's virtuosity without clipping her wings?

He waits a beat. Then, with little conviction, he says, "I don't want to see any one-hand passes."

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Aren't Their Toes Cold?

I saw several women today wearing heavy coats, scarves, long pants, and open-toed sandals. Huh?

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26 December 2010

 

Quote of the Day: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

From "Amends" (episode 3.10):


Xander:
So, you doing anything special?

Buffy:
Tree, nog, roast beast. Just me and Mom, and hopefully an excess of gifts. [to Willow] What are you doing for Christmas?

Willow: Being Jewish. Remember, people? Not everyone worships Santa.

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25 December 2010

 

Quote of the Day: Black Adder

From "Blackadder's Christmas Carol":



Lord Blackadder: Ah, Melchett! Greetings! I trust Christmas brings you its traditional mix of good food and violent stomach cramp.

Lord Melchett:
And compliments of the season to you, Blackadder. May the Yuletide log slip from your fire and burn your house down.

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24 December 2010

 

Ack!

I almost forgot to set my DVR to record the Doctor Who Christmas Special!

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Quote of the Day: Leverage

From "The Ho Ho Ho Job" (episode 3.14):


Parker: Okay, bad enough it's Christmas and there's no snow on the ground, but this is Santa we're talking about, okay? We can't turn away Santa!

Nate: You know that's not really Santa, right?

Parker: Obviously. Santa lives at the North Pole.

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23 December 2010

 

Just a Little More

...about UConn:

Bleacher Report,

Kara Lawson
,

former UConn (men's) players,

and

Providence Journal.

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Quote of the Day: Doctor Who

From "Voyage of the Damned" (the 2007 Christmas special):


Mr. Copper: "I shall be taking you to Old London town in the country of UK, ruled over by Good King Wenceslas. Now human beings worship the great god Santa, a creature with fearsome claws and his wife Mary. And every Christmas Eve, the people of UK go to war with the country of Turkey. They then eat the Turkey people for Christmas dinner, like savages."

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22 December 2010

 

...and Maya Moore

The WNBA released their 2011 schedule, and I'm amused. Why? Because Minnesota (a team that didn't make the playoffs last year) has the honor of playing in the first game of the year (against L.A.) and is one of several teams playing on the last day of the regular season. In addition, their August 2nd game against Phoenix is listed as one of the "key television match-ups". What's funny is the way the WNBA website writes about these games:

"The WNBA will tip off its 15th season on Friday, June 3, with the Minnesota Lynx visiting the Los Angeles Sparks, highlighted by the return of All-Star Candace Parker."

"In a battle of All-Star duos, the Minnesota Lynx, led by Lindsay Whalen and Seimone Augustus, host the Mercury with Diana Taurasi and Candice Dupree on Tuesday, Aug. 2."

Maya Moore -- the star of UConn, the best college player in the country right now, and the only college student on Team USA -- will graduate this spring, and immediately be drafted into the WNBA. Minnesota has first pick and -- barring some strange insanity -- will pick her.

So, what the WNBA press release is really saying is this:

The WNBA will tip off its 15th season on Friday, June 3, with the Minnesota Lynx visiting the Los Angeles Sparks, highlighted by the return of All-Star Candace Parker and the WNBA debut of three-time Wade Trophy Winner* Maya Moore.

In a battle of All-Star duos, the Minnesota Lynx, led by Lindsay Whalen and Seimone Augustus and Maya Moore, host the Mercury with Diana Taurasi and Candice Dupree on Tuesday, Aug. 2.




*She's only won it twice, but pundits seem to think she'll win it again. No one has won three times, by the way.

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Quote of the Day: Supernatural

From "A Very Supernatural Christmas" (episode 3.8):


Dean: So what the hell do you think we're dealing with?

Sam: Actually, I have an idea.

Dean:
Yeah?

Sam:
It's ... it's gonna sound crazy.

Dean: What could you possibly say that's gonna sound crazy to me?

Sam: Um, Evil Santa.

Dean:
Yeah, that's crazy.

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21 December 2010

 

So, Yeah, They Got #89

I've been doing some thinking about the whole UCLA men vs. UConn women streak thing, and I realized something:

Most records are held by men (or men's teams). Like, say, you hear a report about the Boston marathon. They'll tell you who the winner is, and then they'll tell you who the top female runner was. It's "this is the record" and "this is the women's record". And I think that's why some people are freaking out about the UConn streak: Because now the record will be held by a women's team, and the UCLA men's team will get relegated to the afterthought, "And the men's record is held by..."

Women's Hoops Blog posted something similar:


"From Steve Litel at SlamOnline: UConn’s Winning Streak: Another Perspective – It’s not a men’s record. It’s not a women’s record. It’s a NCAA Division I record.

From my perspective: Of COURSE it’s a Division I record. But, when they talk about the men’s records, they never seem to say, “He holds the record for most points scored in Division I basketball, both men AND women’s.” While, they *almost* always say, “Pat Summitt is the winningest coach in both men’s and women’s basketball.”

Heck, remember when … Pitino? took his third team to the Final Four? So many reporters called him the first to do so, when we all know it was CViv.

If we can get reporters and fans to stop presuming, I’ll be happy. Hell, if we can get reporters to use MEN’S basketball as often as they use WOMEN’S basketball, I’ll be happy. Ish."

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Quote of the Day: Get Fuzzy

From Scrum Bums by Darby Conley:


Bucky: I'm borrowing your video camera, ok? I'm starting my own TV network.

Rob: And what, may I ask, will your network be about?

Bucky: I'm thinking it will be a wildlife network ... I already have some shocking footage of Satchel scratching his butt.

Rob: I don't want you filming that.

Bucky:
Well.... I have some trash I could paint ... That's a home decorating network right there.

Rob: No painting in the house.

Bucky:
OK, well, the other option is to start my own religion and sucker people into sending me money.

Rob:
[pause] I think I hear Satchel in the living room scratching.

Bucky:
Good choice.

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20 December 2010

 

Quote of the Day: Geno Auriemma

From the press conference after last night's game. (I found the quote on Swish Appeal.):


"I know there would not be this many people in this room if we were chasing a women’s record. The reason why everyone is having a heart attack the last four or five days is a bunch of women are threatening to break a men’s record and everyone is up in arms about it. All the women are happy as hell and can’t wait to come in and ask questions. All the men who love women’s basketball are excited, and all the miserable bastards who follow men’s basketball and don’t want us to break the record are all here because they are pissed. So that’s the way it is.

"If we were breaking a women’s record, everybody would go: 'Aren’t those girls nice. Just give them two paragraphs in USA Today or give them one line on the bottom of ESPN and let’s send them back where they belong in the kitchen.' But because we are breaking a men’s record, we have a lot of people paying attention."

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19 December 2010

 

Win #88!!

UConn got win #88. They blew out Ohio State. Next up is Florida State on Tuesday. That game will air on ESPN2.

Before the game ESPNU is going to air some special "streak" stuff. The most important is the "Legends Roundtable" featuring important former-UConn players including ... Sue Bird! That airs from 5 - 5:30 ET. (So, 3:00 PST.)

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Quote of the Day: Farscape

From "Eat Me" (episode 3.06):


D'Argo: Stay back... Stay back or I swear I will kill you.

Kaarvoc: I don't think that's very polite.

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18 December 2010

 

Time to Wrap!

The presents are bought; the cookies are baked.

Just one thing left to do!

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Quote of the Day: Supernatural

From "Weekend at Bobby's" (episode 6.04):


[Crowley has recently become the king of hell...]

Crowley: I thought when I got the corner office, it was all going to be rainbows and two-headed puppies. But if I'm being honest, it's been hell.

Bobby: I thought that was the point.

Crowley: You know what the problem with demons is?

Bobby: They're demons?

Crowley: Exactly. Evil, lying prats, the whole lot of them. They're stupid. You try to show them a new way, a better way, and what do you get? Bugger all! You know, there's days that I think Lucifer's whole "spike anything with black eyes" plan wasn't half bad. Hpph. Feels good to get it off my chest. We should make this a thing.

Bobby:
Do I look like Dr. Phil to you?

Crowley: A little.

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17 December 2010

 

Quote of the Day: Burn Notice

From "Out of the Fire" (4.18, the season four finale):


Brennan: $122,654.37 [Michael and Sam exchange puzzled glances.] That's how much I've spent in the last year keeping tabs on [you].

[pause]

Michael: Thank you?



In other news, Burn Notice won't be back until next summer. Which is normal, in that they always start in the summer. But! Usually they finish the previous season in February. Now we have to wait six months for new eps! SIX MONTHS!!! How will we survive? Thank goodness for DVDs!

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16 December 2010

 

Quote of the Day: Laurell K. Hamilton

From Burnt Offerings:


Anita: [about her steak] A petite cut.

the waiter: How would you like that prepared?

Anita: Half well-done, half rare.

the waiter: Excuse me, madam?

Anita: It’s an eight-ounce cut, right? Cut it in half, and cook four-ounces of it well-done, and four-ounces of it rare.

the waiter:
I don’t think we can do that.

Anita:
At these prices you should bring the cow out and have a ritual sacrifice at the table. Just do it.

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15 December 2010

 

Quote of the Day: Brian Agler

From his recent live chat:


question: UConn women's streak good or bad for WBB?

Brian Agler:
I think it's great for women's basketball because the prominent sports talk shows, radio stations, TV stations are following what's going on right now. We like that publicity for the game. More people are watching. There are a lot of sports fans around the country who want to compare what they're doing now to what UCLA did back in the '60s. I will honestly tell you my evaluation is that what they're trying to do now against their competition is harder than what UCLA had to do against their competition because in that era, there were just a handful of programs that were putting the resources into recruiting that UCLA was putting into it. They were one of the first teams to really recruit nationally. Now, there are probably 30-50 universities around the country that are really investing in women's basketball at Connecticut's level. Their competition is stiff. It's amazing and my hat's off to them on how they've been able to maintain it. We had this last year three former UConn players. They are extremely loyal and hold Coach Auriemma in high regard. They have established a culture there of excellence.





p.s. He got a lot of questions about what the 2011 Storm team is going to look like. Here's the rundown:

"There are lots of questions about the status of our current roster. Here's a quick rundown. Sue, LJ, Tanisha, Le'coe and Alison are under contract. We have exclusive rights to Abby and Jana. Camille is a restricted free agent, which means we can match any offer made to her. Then Svetlana, Swin and Ashley are unrestricted free agents."

He also talked a bit about whether he thought certain players would want to come back and how Jana Vesela and Svetlana Abrosimova have national team obligations next summer. (Not sure what that's about, btw. Maybe there's a European championship? Like there is in figure skating?)

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14 December 2010

 

Power-less

A fun power outage last night. Just a few hours; just enough for me to dig out my supplies.

It gave me the opportunity to try out my new lantern. It's awesome. (It also cost me way less than Amazon's price.)

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Quote of the Day: Robin McKinley

From the novel Sunshine:


"So I did buy another car. The Wreck. It ran. I bought it from a friend of Mel's who like tinkering with cars the way Mel liked tinkering with motorcycles, and the friend guaranteed that it would run, just so long as I didn't want anything fancy like a third gear that was there all the time, or a top speed of over forty. It suited me fine. I didn't feel like getting attached to another car, and the sporadic absence of third gear was an interesting diversion."

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13 December 2010

 

It Really Is a Small World...

I recently discovered a cool cover of "Hallelujah" by a singer named Brandi Carlile. I was curious to know more about her, so I looked her up on Wikipedia. It turns out she's from Ravensdale!

(That's the Ravensdale I'm thinking of, right?)

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Quote of the Day: Battlestar Galactica

From "Litmus: (episode 1.06):


Shelly Godfrey: Dr. Amarak gave the disk to me before he died.

Baltar: What, as opposed to after he died?

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12 December 2010

 

Sue Bird at UConn

You know how Sue Bird hits those big, game-winning shots? Like in the second video here. And in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. And Game 1 of the Finals.

Well, it turns out that this isn't a new thing with her. She's been doing since she was a college student: Here she is, making the game-winning basket at the 2001 Big East Title game. And if that wasn't enough, she also made a crazy half-court shot at the end of the first half in the same game.

Her game-winning shot against Notre Dame gives a new book its title: "Bird at the Buzzer: UConn, Notre Dame, and a Women's Basketball Classic". (It won't come out until next spring -- boo, hiss!)


P.S. In the half-court shot video, you can see Diana Taurasi (#3) and Swin Cash (#32) as they head for the locker room.

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Quote of the Day: Swish Appeal

From this article about UConn winning game #87:


"UConn was led in scoring by [Maya] Moore's 31 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks, 3 assists, 4 steals, and I am pretty sure I saw her save a kitten from a burning building."


In related news, their next game (potential NCAA streak-tying game #88) is Sunday, December 19th, at 2pm EST (which is what, 11am here, right?). It will be televised on ESPNU (Channel 400 on Comcast).

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11 December 2010

 

Some Geek for the Weekend

Cake Wrecks did a fun mixed-up scifi post.

Doctor Who monsters out on the town. (I like #2 best. It looks like a Cyberman on holiday!)

Seattle Daleks....


And finally, this is just fun:

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Quote of the Day: Black Adder

From "Chains" (episode 2.6):


Queen:
Did you miss me, Edmund?

Blackadder:
Madame, life without you was like a broken pencil.

Queen: [confused] Explain...?

Blackadder:
Pointless.

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10 December 2010

 

Quote of the Day: Sherlock

From "The Blind Banker" (episode 2):


[Watson comes home from the grocery store.]

Sherlock Holmes: You took your time.

John Watson: Yeah, I didn't get the shopping.

Sherlock Holmes: What? Why not?

John Watson:
Because I had a row... in the shop... with a chip and pin machine. [the self-checkout machine]

Sherlock Holmes: You had a row with a machine?

John Watson:
Sort of. It sat there and I shouted abuse.

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09 December 2010

 

Everything's So Sparkly!

I went to the eye doctor today and they dilated my eyes. When I've had it done in the past, I drove home in the daylight and they gave me sunglasses. Today I had a later appointment (and it's December in Seattle), so it was dark when I left. I didn't need the sunglasses, but all the lights I saw (headlights, tail-lights, street lights, Christmas lights...) were very sparkly!

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Quote of the Day: Get Fuzzy

From Blueprint for Disaster by Darby Conley:


Bucky: What are you watching?

Satchel: English premier league football, me mate!

Bucky: How exciting.

Satchel: And of course, by "football", I mean soccer!

Bucky:
Absolutely. And of course by "exciting", I mean fall-in-a-well-and-wait-for-Lassie boring.

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08 December 2010

 

A Dirk Gently TV Show?

I'm not sure how I feel about this. The book(s) is(are) good, but a TV show? It could work, or it could be very, very bad.

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Quote of the Day: iCarly

From "iWon't Cancel the Show":



[Spencer fills in as a last minute replacement on Carly's show.]

Spencer:
I'm here! When do we start?

Freddie: Forty-five seconds.

Spencer: [to Carly] Tell me what I do.

Carly: [talking very quickly] OK. Freddie says "In five-four-three-two" and then points at us and then we introduce the show. And then after that we go to that wheel over there and do a bit called "Put that in your man-purse" which you don't know about but just play along and you'll figure it out as we go.

Spencer: All right.. Why doesn't Freddie say "In five-four-three-two-one"?

Carly: No one knows.

Freddie: I know.

Carly: No one cares!

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07 December 2010

 

ABBA Quiz

It can be found here.

I'm a little disappointed in myself: I only got 270!

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Quote of the Day: ani difranco

From "Bliss Like This":


I said Venice
And you heard Vegas
Now I say: either way,
Baby, let's go

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06 December 2010

 

Organ Donation

A nice story about the mom of an NFL player, Chris Henry, who died last year. She donated his organs when he died, and the video is about her meeting the recipients and their families.

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Quote of the Day: Leverage

From "The Beantown Bailout Job" (episode 2.01):


[Parker walks out of Nate's kitchen dressed as a nun.]

Eliot: She's dressed that way because she's doing a con.

Nate: What, you thought she was dressed like a nun for no reason?

Eliot: It's Parker.

Nate: Ah. Fair enough.

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05 December 2010

 

Quote of the Day: Stephen Fry

From "Stephen Fry in America":



[With the Aspen ski patrol...]

The next thing to do is find some children to bury. This is easily done. A bunch of pert, intelligent and fabulously self-confident children bump into us and enquire about the cameras and sound equipment and, hey, wasn't I in that film V for Vendetta?

"I was, as it happens, yes," I tell them. "Perhaps you would like to be in this film?"

"Sure. What's the fee?" Their father is show-business agent in New York City.

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04 December 2010

 

Pandas! Sneezing! Cute!

Cute baby panda sneezing.


Cute little girls watching cute baby panda sneezing.

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Quote of the Day: Farscape

From "Taking the Stone" (episode 2.03):


Crichton:
Be nice.

Aeryn: I'm not good at "nice".

Crichton: Just don't shoot her.

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03 December 2010

 

Success!

My new mixer made a triple batch of chocolate crescent cookies.

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Quote of the Day: Supernatural

From "Clap Your Hands If You Believe" (episode 6.09):


Sparrow: Your brother was abducted [by aliens]?

Sam: Yeah.

Sparrow: Oh my God!

Sam: It's fine. I mean, I've had time to adjust.

Sparrow: Did it happen when you were kids?

Sam: No, like half an hour ago.

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Waiting....

I received a birthday present in the mail; I decided to wait until my birthday to open it.

This is proving to be difficult.

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02 December 2010

 

C.S. Lewis

Not just the writer of the "Narnia" books, but the husband of an awesome wife.

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Quote of the Day: Veronica Mars

From "Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle" (episode 2.12):



Logan:
Look, Veronica, can you just once save my ass without comment?

Veronica:
No. Because saving your ass with comment, it just... it works better for me.

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01 December 2010

 

Quote of the Day: Red Dwarf

From "Better Than Life" (episode 2.2):


Cat: I'm so hungry; I just have to eat!

Lister: Shhh... Rimmer's dad's died.

Cat:
I'd prefer chicken.

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